CNN gathered together all of the Republican presidential candidates at the Reagan Library for a highly touted debate and could hardly think to ask them about anything except Donald Trump. By one count, 44 percent of the questions touched on Trump. Why even pretend it’s going to be a debate? Just bill it as a […]
Rich Lowry
Posted inOp-Eds
What Hillary should have said, but didn’t
In an ABC News interview, Hillary Clinton apologized for using a private email while secretary of state, a notable departure after months of not letting the slightest crack show in her steadfast public defense of her arrangement. The interview was progress. But she has a lot to apologize for. A more fully and properly contrite […]
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Carson — the ‘low energy’ alternative to Trump
While Jeb Bush feuds with Donald Trump and others kowtow to him, only one candidate is seriously gaining on him. Ben Carson is now tied with Trump in one Iowa poll and is close in others. His rise suggests that it’s possible to catch the populist wave roiling Republican politics and yet not be an […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Fiorina deserves to be in the GOP debate
In the unwieldy Republican presidential field, where attention is as important as money, there was supposed to be a formula for an underappreciated candidate to break out. It went like this: Excel in the second-tier, undercard Fox debate early in August, get a bump in the polls to break into the top 10 candidates, and […]
Posted inOp-Eds
GOP field flounders in Trump’s wake
The rise of Donald Trump is, in part, a function of a vacuum. He is thriving in a Republican field that is large, talented and, so far, underwhelming. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, there’s 17 candidates and nothing on. Except Donald Trump. Now, this has much to do with the media, and with Trump’s unique qualities […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Trump’s immigration plan has some merit
Donald Trump’s rise in the polls is inextricably linked to the issue of immigration. He probably wouldn’t have achieved liftoff without it, and now that his campaign has entered a new phase of semi-attempted seriousness, it is fitting that an immigration plan is the first policy proposal he has committed to paper. It has occasioned […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Participation should be its own reward
NFL quarterbacks fear Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison. So should participation trophies, the ubiquitous trinkets given to children for merely showing up and rounding out the rosters of local sports leagues. The other day, Harrison learned that his sons had brought a couple of them home and was none too pleased: “I came home to […]
Posted inOp-Eds
The phenomenal incoherence of Donald Trump
Donald Trump is a great communicator. He’s self-assured, entertaining, pungent. He could, as they say of talented actors, read the phone book and make it interesting (if, that is, hilariously boastful readings of the phone book are your kind of thing). There is only one area where his communication skills are lacking: The man that […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Trump brought bottle of whine to debate
Donald Trump is given to superlatives, so let’s do him the honor of pronouncing him the most fabulous whiner in all of American politics. By Trump’s own account, he’s the baddest, smartest thing going, except if you ask him a challenging question, in which case he kicks and screams and demands to know how anyone […]
Posted inOp-Eds
All about that 3 percent figure
The nation’s premier provider of abortions doesn’t want to be known for providing abortions. Planned Parenthood, embroiled in a scandal over secret videos capturing its cavalier dismemberment of unborn babies and sale of their body parts, insists that abortion is only 3 percent of what it does. Practically every defender of the organization, fighting to […]