On the eve of Barack Obama's address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, a media cottage industry has emerged examining why the President "failed to change the tone in Washington." Writing in the Washington Post, Dan Balz asked, "Was there a way around united Republican opposition?" and reported that "to the partisans on both sides, […]

The labor movement, as its supporters rightly say, is just the folks who brought you the weekend. Now as Americans mark this Labor Day, it seems that Mitt Romney wants to take it back. After all, the man who said that "corporations are people, my friend" routinely decries the "crony capitalism" of "union stooges." A […]

If for nothing else, you have to give Republican leaders and their conservative echo chamber credit for staying on message. After Paul Ryan famously declared the America was becoming a nation of "makers versus takers," Jeb Bush praised Ryan's defense of "the right to rise" supposedly now under assault. Last week, supply-side propagandist George Gilder, […]

In his meticulously choreographed entry into the convention hall last night, Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney greeted the assembled delegates to convey the feel of a State of the Union address. But any resemblance to a Commander-in-Chief last night ended there. With tens of thousands of U.S. troops still in harm's way, Governor Romney […]

By all appearances, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush hopes use his Republican National Convention address to rehabilitate his brother's shattered reputation. After claiming on Sunday that it was "unbecoming" for Barack Obama to continue to "blame others" for the economic calamity he inherited from George W. Bush, on Thursday Jeb suggested the President should be […]

The experience of the past three decades shows that for the GOP, there are only two certainties in life: debt and tax cuts. But you'd never know that watching the Republican National Convention, where a massive ticking debt clock and obvious falsehoods like "President Obama has doubled the national debt" nevertheless dominate the proceedings. Of […]

Among the things absent thus far from the 2012 Republican National Convention has been any mention of Bain Capital and any fidelity to the truth. After just the first day, the GOP's twin frauds about welfare and "we built that" were once again demolished, prompting Team Romney to protest that "we're not going to let […]

At the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, Mitt Romney will stand behind a human shield: his wife Ann Romney. And with good reason. While his campaign still frets about his massive "empathy gap," the Republican nominee will deploy his warm, engaging and sympathetic wife as a proxy for the compassion and emotional connection to voters […]

Back in June, Mitt Romney's right-hand man Eric Fehrnstrom declared, "This is not a social issue election." Romney, he pledged, will "govern as a pro-life president, but you're going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people's attention from the Obama performance on the economy." But as the Republicans themselves […]

One of the inevitable developments of any modern presidency is the "psycho-history" cottage industry. That is, academics, physicians, amateur psychologists and dishonest partisans predictably produce elaborate psychological theories tracing the conscious and subconscious roots of the President's personality and political worldview. But on the eve of this week's Republican National Convention that will officially nominate […]