Columns ‹ Opinion
A Historic Debate Failure
By the time of Thursday night’s debate between Vice President Biden and Congressman Ryan, the polls will reflect the early consequences of President Obama’s disastrous debate performance from Wednesday night.
Mitt Romney had a superb night and the contrast between his calm and in-command performance and that of a flailing, rambling president could...
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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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Introducing The New Polling Firm of Madoff, Marist, Quinnipiac and Ponzi
After a few weeks spent tracking down and questioning pollsters and the reporters of polls, I can assure the reader that pollsters are the modern-day alchemists. They promise to turn numbers into predictive gold. We’d all like to believe these magical powers exist, but we shouldn’t. The pollsters of 2012 just don’t know who is going to win in...
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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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The Birds Returns: The Rerelease and The MSM Remake
The Remake of Alfred Hitchcocks’ 1963 classic The Birds is playing everywhere.
The original film was itself in select theaters across the country last night, part of TMC’s special release of old blockbusters, and sure enough it entertained big screen audiences even as it did 49 years ago with the sudden, furious and even deadly attacks of gulls and...
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Which Is Melting Faster: America’s Position in Middle East or MSM’s Position in America?
If an American consulate had been attacked and four Americans including the ambassador slaughtered on George W. Bush’s watch –on 9/11, no less– the outrage broadcast over the nation’s elite media would have been intense and round-the-clock.
Had George W. Bush then responded to those events by jetting to Vegas for a fundraiser and campaign...
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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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In The Opinion of the Chair: Obama’s Democrats Telegraph Obama’s Campaign
Just as America prepares to hear a plea from Barack Obama for four more years, The Daily Beast arrives with a big leak of Bob Woodward’s latest big book.
Not helpful to the president’s case. Not helpful at all. America does not need for more years of an in-over-his-head whiner; a petulant egomaniac who does not seem to understand the most basic of...
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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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Romney’s Big Night
His “whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.”
When Paul Ryan declared this last night he reiterated what Ann Romney had declared the night...
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More Welfare Bucks Show Obama’s Failure
A version of this column appeared originally in THE DAILY BEAST
What does President Obama plan to do to slow or stop the explosive growth in the number of Americans who count on regular welfare checks from the federal government?
Does he consider the expansion of dependent households a positive achievement for his administration or a threat to the long-term...
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The Shame of the Manhattan-Beltway Media Elites
When I asked Paul Ryan Wednesday night for his reaction to the news that the major television networks won’t carry a minute of the opening night of the GOP convention, he responded that he wasn’t surprised and that this is just the media terrain the GOP faces in the 2012 election cycle.
(The transcript of my interview is posted at HughHewitt.com)
Ryan is...
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The Confidence Game
New polls showing President Obama enlarging his lead over challenger Mitt Romney have brought some Republicans to the point of panic, but logic and history should reassure them that the race will inevitably tilt in their direction.
These expectations matter, since Democrats seem to understand that their most significant advantage stems from the increasingly...
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Memo for: Team Romney – Subject: The Candidates and Talk Radio
This is a long memo, born of two decades of frustration with the Beltway sharpies who run campaigns and are clueless about talk radio. There is no hostility here, just frustration with the invincible ignorance of the consulting class that wouldn’t know the difference between a Thursday afternoon drive show in Denver and a late night dollar-a-holler stick...
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Mitt’s Ryan Message: Get Serious
A version of this column appeared originally in THE DAILY BEAST.
In selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney signals his determination to conduct a campaign of ideas.
In part, this decision almost surely stems from recent polls suggesting Romney couldn’t win a campaign of personalities.
The latest surveys all suggest that President Obama enjoys a...
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