Overview for News

The Romney We Need

Mitt Romney arrived loaded for bear this evening, pointing out, for example, that Rick Perry's Texas created jobs at barely 1/3 the rate of Anne Richards' Texas. On Social Security, Romney battered Rick Perry's call to have a debate about Social Security ... some time in the far, far future, in …

Written by David Frum on Monday September 12, 2011

Perry Gets Targeted at GOP Debate

It's difficult to see how Governor Perry walks away from this debate without any chinks in his armor. Ron Paul's dig as a Texas resident in particular drew some blood, and even what sounded like gasps from the Tea Party crowd. However, his later ramblings about Saudi military bases may have …

Written by Corey Chambliss on Monday September 12, 2011

Free Minds, Free Markets, Free Booze?

A colleague sends over this video of a man in Montana being stopped for a DUI. He responds by proclaiming his fealty to the Constitution and Ron Paul: The video is amusing, and to be sure, one intoxicated man doesn’t necessarily represent an entire movement. However, there still …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Monday September 12, 2011

Calorie Counts are a Dud

September is National Childhood Obesity Month, and the President marked the occasion with a proclamation calling on all Americans to “take action by learning about and engaging in activities that promote healthy eating and greater physical activity by all our Nation’s children.” Obesity is a …

Written by David Gratzer on Monday September 12, 2011

No Gratitude for Disasters Prevented

In my column for CNN, I discuss heroes who have prevented disasters yet go unremembered: Imagine that some member of Congress back in the 1990s had devoted himself or herself to toughening America against terrorism. He or she had introduced legislation to require airlines to harden their …

Written by David Frum on Monday September 12, 2011

New York Nine: Don't Get Too Excited

It looks like Bob Turner, a Republican, is going to walk away with the special election in New York's Ninth Congressional District. (This is the seat vacated by Anothony Weiner.) Certainly, a Republican House pickup is a cause for celebration. It's true also that a result will, at least in …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday September 12, 2011

Romney's Task: Show Perry isn't Electable

Republicans watched Rick Perry's stumbling, unprepared performance in last week's debate - and decided they were watching a president in action. The latest CNN/Opinion Research poll has Perry at 32% among Republicans nationwide, Romney tumbled deep into second place at 21%. (If Palin entered …

Written by David Frum on Monday September 12, 2011

Despite Threats, We're Winning the War on Terror

The reports of a terror threat tied to the 9/11 anniversary were, of course, cause for vigilance. But the particulars of the threat mentioned in media reports, a car bomb, does provide a modicum of evidence that the expensive, costly, oft-mismanaged War on Terror has not been fought for nothing. …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday September 12, 2011

Res Judicata: Romney's Plan Won't Acknowledge Federalism

“I believe in the Constitution, by the way when the founders said we will have certain powers at the federal level but we’re going to preserve all those powers at the state level, th[e] 10th amendment. That’s one that I don’t think Barack Obama has read. I know he went to law school: go read the …

Written by Howard Foster on Monday September 12, 2011

Ten Years Later

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Written by Fred Bauer on Sunday September 11, 2011

How it Felt on 9/11

On the morning of 9/11, I was living in Washington, D.C. with my husband, David Frum, then a speechwriter for President George W. Bush. I was six months pregnant with our third child, Beatrice (now nine), and at home with my son, Nathaniel, then seven, who had feigned a stomach ache. The blog …

Written by Danielle Crittenden on Sunday September 11, 2011

Growing Up With a 9/11 Birthday

For the last 10 years, I've never missed a 9/11 documentary on National Geographic or The History Channel or TLC. I rewatch MSNBC's replay of the September 11, 2001 Today Show each year. Because September 11th is my birthday. The year that 9/11 concluded, my 2000-2001 year, is still a strong …

Written by Telly Davidson on Sunday September 11, 2011

Why Bush Didn't Mention Canada After 9/11

After the horror and grief of the 9/11 attacks came a distinctively Canadian after-shock: The jolt of a seeming direct insult to Canada by the president of the United States. Nine days after the attacks, president George W. Bush addressed both houses of Congress. The president opened with …

Written by David Frum on Saturday September 10, 2011

An Easy Change for Faster Baseball Games

Recent four hour affairs between the Yankees and Red Sox triggered another round of complaining about the ever-increasing length of baseball games. It isn’t just the fans who grouse. Newspapers quoted Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira sounding dyspeptic: “It’s brutal. I can’t stand playing a …

Written by Alan Hirsch on Friday September 9, 2011

The Fat Diaries: Taking a Stand Against Immobility

Believe it or not, occasionally I talk about exercise as well as diet in this column. I know it’s kind of the elephant in the room as far as American health goes, and it’d be nice to say that a good diet alone can solve any problem, but that’s simply not the case. I abhor exercise in all forms and …

Written by Monica Marier on Friday September 9, 2011

Perry Trusts Scientists, if They Help Him Win

Rick Perry may think his opinions on climate change makes him a modern day Galileo, but there is one field where he is willing to concede ground to the experts: the political science of how to run a campaign. Political scientists who study elections are interested to measuring the effectiveness …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Friday September 9, 2011

Wanted: Elites Who Care

In the next New York Times Book Review, I review Tom Friedman's and Michael Mandelbaum's That Used To Be Us . Friedman and Mandelbaum at one point praise the beauty of solutions that rise from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. This praise is not consciously insincere, but pretty …

Written by David Frum on Friday September 9, 2011

Back in (What Was) the USSR

The last time I was in Russia was 1982, communism was a fading but malignant power ... Leonid Brezhnev was near death, and KGB boss Yuri Andropov was about to take over (and would die within a year). At the time there was widespread, orchestrated paranoia over President Ronald Reagan’s supposed …

Written by Peter Worthington on Friday September 9, 2011

Will Fed Contractors Say "Thank You" for Faster Pay?

How big a deal is the President's promise to expedite federal payments? Just listen to this (small scale) federal contractor: How extraordinary that this subject should come up at this very time; payment was just made today via electronic deposit for a contract I bid on and was issued on 07/14; …

Written by David Frum on Friday September 9, 2011

Perry's Immigration Problem: Even Bigger than it Looks

Byron York has some astute things to say this morning about the immigration issue and its potentially negative impact on Gov. Rick Perry's presidential candidacy: Start with the border fence. Perry opposes it. "Building a wall on the entire border is a preposterous idea," he said recently …

Written by David Frum on Friday September 9, 2011