As Georgia Congressman Paul Broun learned last week, politicians and pundits of all stripes should resist the temptation to compare their opponents to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Apparently, the staunch conservatives at the National Review didn't get the memo. Facing both conservative calamity at the polls and defections in its own ranks, the Review's […]

Nothing focuses the mind, the expression goes, like the sight of the gallows. And so it is for beaten and battered Senate Republicans when it comes to the use of the filibuster to block the judicial nominees of President Barack Obama. After years of insisting President Bush's picks for the bench deserved an "up or […]

If nothing else, Sarah Palin has a short memory. Literally days after branding Barack Obama a "socialist" who "pals around with terrorists," Palin responded to her ticket's crushing defeat by announcing, "God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family." And as she returned to Alaska to complain about the media's accurate reflection of her jaw-dropping […]

Unsurprisingly, it took less than 24 hours for the conservative chattering classes to blame the Bush recession on President-elect Barack Obama. The usual suspects, including Rush Limbaugh, Fred Barnes and Dick Morris, pinned two days of steep stock market declines on Obama's election. Of course, the recent bloodbath on Wall Street has nothing to do […]

No doubt, Senator Elizabeth Dole's attack on Democrat and Sunday school teacher Kay Hagan as "godless" was one of the low points of the 2008 campaign. Dole's subsequent smiting by the voters of North Carolina was fitting electoral, if not divine, retribution. But as it turned out, Dole's slander against atheist Americans was hardly an […]

No doubt, the sweeping victory of Barack Obama was a historic milestone for the American people. But while Obama defied the odds and shattered stereotypes, the exit polls suggest his election confirmed as much conventional wisdom as it upended. Here, then, are five lessons learned from the 2008 election: Taxation with Representation. During the campaign, […]

On this Election Day, the fates of John McCain and Barack Obama are now - finally - in the hands of Americans voters. But their respective destinies may have been determined by speeches each gave years ago. At the 2004 Democratic convention, Barack Obama introduced himself to the American people with a message of national […]

With each passing day, Sarah Palin resembles more and more "George Bush in lipstick." Two days ago, she like George W. Bush in 2000 was duped by Canadian pranksters posing as foreign leaders. And today, Palin like President Bush in 2006 essentially accused her Democratic opponents of being terrorist sympathizers. Palin's slander came during a […]

Back in May, I argued that with the American electorate's across-the-board preference for Democratic policies and a historically unpopular Republican president, John McCain's campaign would turn the November election into a "character war." In September, campaign chairman Rick Davis confirmed the GOP would follow its tried and true strategy from 2000 and 2004 when he […]

As he launched his first presidential run in 2000, John McCain said of the Keating Five scandal that nearly ended his career, "it was the wrong thing to do, and it will be on my tombstone and deservedly so." But on the eve of his final bid for the White House, McCain is still being […]