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Michael Medved
Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and bestselling author. His daily three hour show reaches 200 stations across the country and an audience of 4.7 million placing him, for ten years in a row, on the Talkers Magazine list of the top ten political talks shows in the United States. Michael’s columns on politics and media appear regularly in the Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast and USA Today, where he is a member of the Board of Contributors.
Writer's WebsiteThe Perils of Tax Rate Nostalgia
Americans have always reveled in nostalgia about the music, fashion or favorite foods of bygone eras, but a sudden yearning for the high tax rates of yesteryear represents a startling new development. While some opinion leaders pine openly for the tax system that once claimed a big majority of income from top earners, their cozy, communitarian vision offers a...
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“The Unanswered Question”—On Taxes and Spending
In the debate on our fiscal crisis, one crucial question is never answered or even asked: if we’re supposed to go back to Clinton-era tax rates because they were good for America, why don’t we simultaneously return to that era’s spending rates?
In other words, what is government doing so much better today than it was then to justify vastly increased...
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Tribalism, Not Religious Faith
A recent story from Pakistan highlights the utter depravity of Muslim extremists who threaten all civilized societies. India recently executed Mohammed Kasab, the lone surviving gunmen in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that slaughtered 160 civilians.
This was India’s first execution in 15 years, and the condemned killer admitted his role in the killings....
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Killing in Self Defense Is Not “Assassination”
When Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, no one described it as an “assassination.” Why not? Because Osama wasn’t a civilian political leader; he was a terrorist combatant who had declared war on America, and tried to continue his attacks in any way possible.
Why, then, have the New York Times and other media outlets referred to...
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The End of “Land for Peace”
The current conflict in Gaza should put an end, once and for all, to western pressure for “land for peace” negotiations in the Middle East. In 2005, the Israeli government withdrew all security forces, as well as forcibly removing 9,000 Jewish residents, to give Palestinians exclusive control of Gaza.
The world hoped that in ruling this enclave,...
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Secession and Other Fantasies
Some fringe conservatives seem perversely determined to turn a stinging electoral defeat into an epic, sweeping disaster. That’s the deeper meaning of current talk about impeachment, secession, third parties, civil disobedience, and onrushing apocalypse.
The Conservative Majority Fund has announced a new robocall campaign to build support for impeaching...
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Gay Marriage Issue Actually Helps GOP
Conventional wisdom argues that opposition to gay marriage hurt Republicans in the recent election cycle, but nothing in the numbers suggests that this is true.
In the four liberal states where advocates for same-sex marriage won their victories, the redefinition of marriage proved much less popular than Barack Obama. In Maryland, for instance, Obama cruised...
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Divided Government: An Opportunity, Note a Fluke
Do Americans have any right to complain about paralysis in the nation’s capital when they keep voting for divided government?
With most results already in, it appears that Democrats will hold onto their control of the Senate while Republicans will maintain their majority in the House. President Obama will confront a Congress that remains split, without...
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The Choice: Worthy or Worthless?
Perhaps the most significant if unspoken argument for voters to settle on November sixth involves the bitter dispute over which candidate has lived the more virtuous, worthwhile, constructive life: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
Democrats raise this question implicitly in their avalanche of attacks on the GOP nominee, portraying him as a greedy, callow, uncaring...
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Obama Awakes—But Can’t Stop Mitt
Forget about Barack Obama’s eagerly awaited emergence from his first debate coma: the biggest question about the second candidate confrontation centered on whether Mitt managed to maintain his undeniable momentum.
After all, a flurry of pre-debate polls showed Romney as the newly minted frontrunner—especially a Gallup survey that gave him a commanding...
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How Low Will Joe Go?
In his feeble, distracted debate performance against Mitt Romney, President Obama all but ignored the major Democratic lines of attack against the Republican nominee, forcing Joe Biden to consider an effort to renew those forgotten narratives when the vice-presidential candidates face one another Thursday night.
Team Obama has spent hundreds of millions of...
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Can’t Make a Choice Based on Lies
Both presidential candidates describe this election as the most important choice in a generation and insist that the outcome will fatefully shape the direction of government and society.
But voters can’t make a meaningful decision when the discussion during the last month of the campaign (and, undoubtedly, much of the televised debate on Wednesday night)...
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The Kryptonite Questions
With the conventions concluded (inconclusively) and the presidential race still breathlessly close, the next big chance for a game-changing development comes with the debates, scheduled for Oct. 3, 16, and 22, with the single vice-presidential debate on Oct. 11.
The possibility for a decisive turning point increases due to the obvious vulnerability of both...
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Should U.S. Back the Party of Lawyers?
Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared in THE DAILY BEAST.
The Democrats who gathered in Charlotte tried to cast themselves as the party of working people, or of struggling middle-class families, or of aggrieved and downtrodden Americans in every corner of the economy. In presidential politics, however, a more accurate designation would identify...
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Illusions Exposed: Islamic Turmoil Shows Nice Words Won’t Heal Old Conflicts
A version of this column appeared originally in THE DAILY BEAST.
The explosion of anti-American unrest in the Islamic world will damage the Obama campaign in its drive for reelection for two reasons.
First, the turmoil undermines the administration’s claims for transformative success in producing a more peaceful and stable world.
And second, the lurid...
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Why Obama Won’t Make a Tax Deal
Despite all the posing and polarization of recent weeks, everyone in Washington knows that Republicans and Democrats will reach some big agreement on tax rates within the next four or five months. So if compromise is ultimately inevitable, why wouldn’t President Obama take the lead in brokering that deal before the election, grabbing credit for averting...
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