ST. PAUL, Minn.—The American Right has just died and gone to heaven. Wednesday night’s convention address by Sarah Palin here in St. Paul has confirmed the bold decision of John McCain to choose the Alaska governor as his co-pilot and united the Republican Party as it has not been since the second term of Ronald Reagan. A wild enthusiasm for Sarah … [Read More]

Okay, of late I’ve been a really lousy political commentator. Not much of a citizen, either. I would have cheered on our guys and gals in the Olympics, had I known they were going on. (I’m a big fan, in theory, of beach volleyball and synchronized swimming.) But the games just plain slipped my mind, so all I caught was a … [Read More]

Austin Bramwell tells us the tax code favors the rich at the expense of everyone else. As an argument he gives some examples that very likely loom large in his estate planning practice. Anecdote and instance are rhetorically effective, but their moral depends on how the story is told. More particularly, a common problem with righteous complaints about special tax benefits … [Read More]

Republicans, says Obama, “give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.” Demagoguery?  Yes. But just because a demagogue says it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. The tax code does in fact favor the rich—indeed, the idle rich—at the expense of everyone else.  What Obama won’t tell you is that Democrats … [Read More]

The risk John McCain took last Friday is comparable to the 72-year-old ex-fighter pilot knocking back two shots and flying his F-16 under the Golden Gate Bridge. McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his co-pilot was the biggest gamble in presidential history. As of now, it is paying off, big-time. The sensational selection in Dayton, Ohio, stepped all … [Read More]

That Bill Kristol, neocon bellwether and house intellectual of the McCain-led GOP, would have nice things to say about Sarah Palin, would even have floated her selection as VP two months ago (!), should furrow the collective brow of all of us in the alternative Right who can barely contain our excitement over the Alaskan governor. [Hat tip to Aaron Biterman … [Read More]

When John McCain announced Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running-mate on Friday, I had the same reaction as many conservatives--the more I learned about her, the more I liked her. Here was a woman who is more pro-life than most Republicans, who is pro-gun with the pictures to prove it, and seemed to represent a fresh mind and independent form … [Read More]

I just read about Charlie Reese’s retirement. His dignity and grace in his ultimate column is untypical of his profession today. Only two months ago the nation took time out to mourn the death of a courtier to the powerful, and what a time out it was. Three days of crocodile tears by smiling wallet lifters and bald-faced phonies whose absence … [Read More]

Missing from most of the commentary on the brief war in Georgia was any mention of the contorted use of language in Western news coverage and opinion writing.  While there have been some reasonable observers discussing the conflict in Georgia, most mainstream reporting and commentary have persistently described the conflict as the “rape" of Georgia in which its capital has been … [Read More]