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Category Archives: Political Commentary: General
Clark Judge Comments on President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union | BBC GMT w/ Lucy Hockings | 2.8.19
Click the following link to view the video of Clark’s comments: Clark Judge Comments on President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union, BBC GMT w/ Lucy Hockings
Interview: State of the Nation | MetroFocus | 2.7.19
We’re reviewing the state of the nation after the State of the Union. President Trump brought the chamber to its feet, calling for bipartisanship, praising women, and renewing his pledge to build a border wall. But, will he follow through? We’ll discuss. Click the following link to view a video of Clark’s comments in MetroFocus. State of the Nation
Summer Scandal: Trump Tower Russia Meeting Revisited | Ricochet | 7.20.2017
September 5, 2017, Washington: Looking back at this summer’s scandal around Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in his Trump Tower office, revelations have come so quickly that the editors are providing this recap for readers struggling to keep up. Mid-July: When news of the meeting first broke, we reported that it […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Comments closed
Liberal Critics Should Take a Closer Look | New York Times | 1.20.2017
This article originally appeared in the New York Times. President Trump’s extraordinary Inaugural Address was at once familiar and surprising, combining echoes from a forgotten past with notes that are entirely new. The echoes were to a president who was viewed with as much alarm by the official Washington of his day as Mr. Trump […]
Trump Should Remind Us to Acknowledge What’s Wrong Before Making Things Right | New York Times | 1.18.2017
This article originally appeared in the New York Times. In his first Inaugural Address, President Andrew Jackson said that the election that brought him to office “inscribes on the list of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of ‘reform.’” With this election, the American people told those of us they […]
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Organizing the White House: Trump Getting it Right | Ricochet | 1.2.2017
In all the stories about Republicans and conservatives lauding President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks – even as Democrats go scalp hunting – one surprising fact has escaped partisan and media attention: This may be the most shrewdly organized entering White House since Ronald Reagan’s. To see why, look at the history of the top inside […]
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Friday Night Fight: George Will KOs Bill O’Reilly| Hugh Hewitt |11.9 2015
On Friday night Bill O’Reilly had George Will on his program. The purpose was to “discuss” O’Reilly’s new book, Killing Reagan, and a column Will wrote criticizing it. In the column, Will took apart O’Reilly’s thesis that, as a result of the 1981 assassination attempt on him, Ronald Reagan suffered from developing dementia during the […]
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What is John Roberts Up To? | Ricochet.com | 06.23.14
Yesterday, a Washington Post review of Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution, by Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe and his former student Joshua Matz, ended with this observation: [T]here is one place where Tribe and Matz find real clarity [in the current Court]: the shrinking availability of judicial relief. “One of the defining features of the […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Comments closed
Jeb Bush Surprises – Not with the Announcement but with the Substance| Hugh Hewitt |6.16. 2015
So Jeb Bush is in – the third Bush to run for president in three decades. Other than showing his ability to raise money (substantial, but not surprising, given the family history), Jeb’s pre-announcement performance had been clunky. Awkward speeches. Maladroit interviews. Then there was the choice to lead in policy positioning with Common Core […]
Terrorism on our Doorstep: Senator Graham may be more right than he knows| Hugh Hewitt |6.9. 2015
In an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Friday, Senator Lindsey Graham spoke of the threat of “lone wolf” terrorists in the United States. He cited the recent incident of a young Boston man of Middle Eastern origin, reportedly radicalized via a website, who was shot dead when he attacked police with a hunting knife. We […]
Knocking Out New York’s Bullyboy Leftist| Hugh Hewitt |5.8. 2015
It is not often that black tie awards dinners serve as a round in a prizefight. Last Monday New York City’s Manhattan Institute held is annual Alexander Hamilton Dinner and used the occasion to deliver intellectual knockout blows against the city’s radical leftist mayor William de Blasio and his circle. To do so, the Institute […]
Rubio and Walker (or Walker and Rubio). Dream Ticket?| Hugh Hewitt |4.15.2015
Marco Rubio announced his candidacy for president yesterday. He may be half of the makings of the 2016 GOP dream ticket. The Republicans have two big problems to solve if they hope to win the White House next time around. No, I am not talking about cracking the Latin American ancestry vote. It would be […]
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The NFL, America’s Heroes in Uniform, and Traumatic Brain Injury | Ricochet |3.26.2015
I usually write about politics, economics, foreign relations and national security, law and the Constitution, and, occasionally, American history and culture. Today I am going to write about our armed services, professional sports and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). For the past month I have been immersed in understanding how TBI can be treated. Last week, […]
Treating Traumatic Brain Injury — Telling a Mistold Tale | Ricochet |3.19.2015
In the last few weeks, I have been immersed not in an untold story but a mistold one. So far as I can see, the mistelling has nothing to do with politics, but here is what it is. War is hell. It is also a powerful catalyst for medical advances: penicillin in World War II; […]
“Can Hillary Clinton Get Her Mojo Back? Does She Need To?”| Hugh Hewitt |12.5.2014
Is Hillary Clinton the inevitable next presidential nominee of the Democratic Party? To hear the former secretary of State’s acolytes in the media, it is all but a done deal. But in their sudden sense of vulnerability following last month’s elections, Democrats and commentators are having second thoughts. Washington is abuzz about an apparently tedious […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Clinton, Hillary Clinton, HughHewit, HughHewitt.com Comments closed
Selma Misses the Historical Mark — Dr. King, LBJ and America Deserved Better | Ricochet |1.19.15
On Friday evening I saw Selma, the Academy Award nominated film about the 1965 civil rights march that Dr. Martin Luther King led from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery, fifty miles away. The film depicts the enormous courage of the marchers and the inspirational leadership of Dr. King. But it misses the historical […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Civil Rights, History, Johnson, LBJ, movies, Ricochet, Ricochet.com Comments closed
The New Congress: A Three Dimensional Chess Game Begins| Hugh Hewitt |1.5.15
The new Republican Senate and the more-Republican House take office this week. Around this town, asked in one way or another, the universal question is, what difference will it make? Yes, long bottled up legislation will start coming to the Senate floor. After the Democrats lost the House in 2010, President Obama and Senate Majority […]
Bush, Romney, Who: Picking the GOP 2016 Nominee| Hugh Hewitt |1.28.15
Is 2015 the new 2016? You tell me. This past week the New York Times ran two front-page stories about Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. This past Sunday (yesterday) panel after panel of TV interview show commentators focused the GOP field in the 2016, which by now seems to include everyone except my mother – […]
Rioting in Ferguson – A Disheartening Rejection of the Civil Rights Movement | Hugh Hewitt |11.26.14
The most disheartening fact about the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, is that the rioters reject due process of law. Yet these same rioters are among the Americans who should be most invested in protecting the law’s protections. They are, after all, some of the chief beneficiaries of the nearly two-century struggle to achieve the very rights […]
The GOP Establishment, the Tea Party and 2016| Hugh Hewitt |11.10.14
Sunday’s New York Times ran this top of the fold, front-page headline (left column, meaning the number two story of the day), “Before Battling Democrats, GOP is Fighting Itself.” To some extent The Times was trying to stoke the flames of Republican division. Even so, the Tea Party v. the Establishment is all the buzz in Washington just now. […]
Washington Braces for Democrat Defeat| Hugh Hewitt |11.1.14
Though Real Clear Politics’ race-by-race report on the average of polls is only just now beginning to reflect it, for several days the Washington tom toms have been beating out predictions of a big GOP sweep next Tuesday. I’m not just talking about the pundits, such as Roll Call’s Stu Rothenberg. His Rothenblog report on […]
For the Mid-Terms, Does the GOP Have What it Takes?| Hugh Hewitt |09.29.14
By all rights, the GOP should be walking away with the mid-term elections, a shoo-in to capture the Senate and even make gains in the House, which they already hold by a comfortable margin. After all, the job environment remains dismal. According to the union-backed Economic Policy Institute, if you are a recent college grad, […]
Advice to GOP Candidates: No Coasting to Victory This Year | Hugh Hewitt |09.08.14
In today’s Wall Street Journal (http://bit.ly/WSJToday), I offer advice to this year’s Republican candidates, particularly candidates for the U.S. Senate. I urge them to remember that, though voters might be alarmed at the president’s performance, they aren’t that wild about the GOP either. Republicans can’t coast. Like the money of that brokerage house in the […]
Countering the Democratic Midterm Push | The Wall Street Journal | 09.07.14
With an unpopular president in office and many congressional seats up for grabs, the Democratic high command is fundraising with a vengeance, hoping to swamp the 2014 midterms with dollars and attack ads to retain control of the Senate. So what should Republicans do? Here are some suggestions. • Remember why the GOP lost Congress in […]
Rick Perry’s Indictment: The Price of Integrity | Hugh Hewitt |08.27.14
As the Manhattan Institute’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth wrote at Real Clear Markets not long ago (http://bit.ly/1oQyWBT), the indictment of Rick Perry looks straight out of the Saul Alinsky playbook: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.” It is America’s current misfortune to have a major party in the hands of a faction that embraces […]
Democrats’ Strategy: Divert Media from Big Donors’ Big Gifts| HughHewitt.com | 07.11.14
I’m sure you’ve seen all of the analysis about why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leading a war on the Koch brothers. Energize the Democrats big donors and, as part of the party’s continuing class warfare strategy, make two billionaires the face of the GOP – those are the principal reasons pundits flag. I […]
Matt Ridley Takes on the Global Warming World| HughHewitt.com | 06.30.14
The average global temperature has not risen for 15 years. Extreme weather events are at or below historical norms. In the Southern Hemisphere sea ice has hit record highs (http://bit.ly/1vlDqP6). So of course the Obama Administration has once more declared that the debate is over and that global warming is a fact, and the Supreme […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged climate change, Global Warming, HughHewitt.com, Matt Ridley Comments closed
America’s Security Today v. When George H.W. Bush Left Office: How Much We Have Lost| HughHewitt.com | 06.19.14
Last week marked the 90th birthday of President George H.W. Bush and the 89th of his wife Barbara. A splendid film honoring the former president aired on CNN – 41 on 41 (for the 41 people who spoke on camera about the 41st president) — and another on Fox News Channel. But it got me […]
Also posted in Global Issues Tagged communism, George H.W. Bush, Soviet Union, Ukraine Comments closed
What Happened to Eric Cantor? | HughHewitt.com | 06.12.14
Behind every political upheaval is a mix of the momentous and the mundane. The fall of Eric Cantor is no exception. On the mundane side is a congressman who lost touch with his district. It turns out that listening to constituents was low on Congressman Cantor’s list of priorities. Many Virginia 7th voters have been […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged crony capitalism, Democrats, Eric Cantor, George Bush, HughHewitt.com, Immigration, New York Times, Republicans Comments closed
Today’s Kentucky Primary | HughHewitt.com | 05.20.14
Today, Tuesday, May 20th, Kentucky Republicans go to the polls to decide whether to nominate Senator Mitch McConnell for another term. Why is this even a question? The simple, essential fact is that the GOP would be no place — no place – today if it were not for McConnell’s leadership in the Senate. Does […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged campaign, GOP, HughHewitt.com, primary, Republicans Comments closed
Charles Krauthammer and Frederick Hayek in Newport Beach | HughHewitt.com | 03.14.14
The Pacific Research Institute held its annual Baroness Margaret Thatcher Orange County (California) Dinner last week. The site was the Island Hotel in the coastal town of Newport Beach. The honoree was former California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon. The main speaker was syndicated columnist and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer. A dour man on camera, […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Democrats, GOP, HughHewitt.com, Obama, Obamacare Comments closed
Border Security – and Insecurity | HughHewitt.com | 02.14.14
Sometimes Washington is beyond clueless. Immigration reform is a case in point. Central to the immigration reform is border security, stopping people from illegally slipping across the Mexican border into the United States. Millions have done so in recent years, though far fewer since the recession began. Many were seeking jobs. Some may have been […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Democrats, HughHewitt.com, Immigration, Immigration Reform, National Security, Republicans, Terrorism Comments closed
More on Walt Disney | HughHewitt.com | 01.27.14
Usually my columns stand by themselves. This one is an exception. It is a follow-on to last week’s, which concerned Meryl Streep’s charge that Walt Disney was anti-Semitic, as well as discriminating against women in hiring and promotion. Among other things, I said that, “Disney had numerous Jewish friends, business associates and employees, supported a […]
Defending Mr. Disney | HughHewitt.com | 01.24.14
As a child, I was fascinated by Walt Disney. Not by his cartoons. Not by the Mouseketeers. Not by Davy Crocket. But by Disney himself, the creator of the company that produced all those films and TV shows. So I was dismayed two weeks ago when, as you have no doubt heard, actress Meryl Streep […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged communism, Disney, HughHewitt.com, Reagan Comments closed
Help Wanted: Leaders Who Can Follow | HughHewitt.com | 12.27.13
Perhaps like me you have had a busy holiday season. You have focused on family and friends and forgotten, for a moment, the larger world – including, like me, deadlines. Now, I am trying to catch up. The polls tell what most of us see all around and in ourselves – that this divided nation […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Democracy, Gridlock, History, HughHewitt.com, Obama, Obamacare, World War II Comments closed
Republican Civil War – Dealing with the GOP’s Dilemma | HughHewitt.com | 12.16.13
Over the weekend, Rasmussen posted the results of a poll showing GOP senator Ted Cruz trailing only Pope Francis and President Obama as “the most influential person in 2013.” It has been a good year for Mr. Cruz, who was sworn in fewer than twelve months ago. Some would say that it has a less […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged GOP, HughHewitt.com, Republicans, Tea Party Comments closed
Prognosis for Obamacare: Terminally Ill, All Too Likely to Survive | HughHewitt.com | 11.10.13
Well, there is one thing you can say about Obamacare. Yes, it reflects the kind of “sweep away everything to impose our vision of the ultimate good on everyone” mentality that we all loved so much about the Soviet Union. But it took the Soviet Union 75 years to fall of its own weight. It […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Election, HughHewitt.com, Obama, Obamacare Comments closed
The March on Washington – Today and 50 Years Ago | HughHewitt.com | 08.28.13
Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1963 civil rights March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a Dream” address. A commemorative march will climax with speeches on the same site as Dr. King’s storied remarks. President Obama will take the role of star speaker, clearly a marker for how much the […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Civil Rights, Democrats, HughHewitt.com, MLK, Obama, Republicans Comments closed
The AP, the IRS and President Obama’s Leadership | HughHewitt.com | 05.21.13
It will come as no surprise to anyone when I say that Washington is in full scandal mode these days. I attended a Washington dinner this past week — one of those fancy affairs in a fancy room with fancy speakers, fancy food, and funds raised. There may be a dozen such events a night […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged AP, Benghazi, Department of Justice, IRS, Obama, Scandal, Tea Party Comments closed
Watergate, Monicagate, and Benghazi | HughHewitt.com | 5.13.13
During Watergate, President Richard Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, became infamous for such remarks as, “This is the operative statement; the others are inoperative” in the face of the developing scandal. Say what you want about Mr. Ziegler, who passed away a decade ago, that phrase was at least an admission that something the presidential […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Benghazi, Clinton, HughHewitt.com, Lewinsky, Obama, Watergate Comments closed
As he opens his library, George W. Bush “Grows in America’s Esteem” – and deserves to | HughHewitt.com | 4.25.13
The George W. Bush Presidential Library will be dedicated today as the 43rd president, in the words of this morning’s FoxNew.com headline, “grows in Americans’ esteem.” (http://tinyurl.com/anmhjxk) The assessment was to characterize Fox’s own poll results, released yesterday, showing about half the nation approving of Mr. Bush’s stewardship. This was up from 23 percent in […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Bush, Financial Crisis, HughHewitt.com, war Comments closed
Bill Bennett at the Claremont Institute: We must teach our children our nation’s story; our civilization’s survival depends on it | HughHewitt.com | 03.18.13
This past weekend, as conservative eyes were fixed upon CPAC and its cavalcade of presidential hopefuls, an organization that in time may prove more consequential held its annual Churchill dinner at the Los Angeles’ historic Biltmore Hotel. Here is what I particularly like about the Claremont Institute: They approach political discourse past and present with […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged Claremont Institute, Conservatism, Education, William Bennett Comments closed
President’s Second Term Prescription: Poison Pill Politics | HughHewitt.com | 2.20.13
FoxNews.com posted a home page story this evening that began, “President Obama pinned the blame on Republicans Tuesday for looming spending cuts that may be triggered by what was originally a White House proposal….” Well, duh. Hasn’t staging one deadlock after another been the Obama White House’s transparent game plan since Day One of Term […]
Notes From The National Review Institute’s Conservative Summit | 1.29.13 | HughHewitt.com
Most readers of the conservative blogosphere know by now that the National Review Institute hosted a “conservative summit” in Washington this past weekend – three days of panels and speeches. Wonk heaven. The speeches came mainly from immediate – or in the cases of Tom Cotton, Mia Love and Arthur Davis longer term — prospects […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged conservative, cruz, jindal, National Review, nri, Ryan, summit Comments closed
Inaugural Address: Right for the President; Wrong for the Country | HughHewitt.com | 1.22.13
It is 1937 all over again. In his second inaugural address yesterday, Barack Obama channeled the style, structure and substance of Franklin Roosevelt’s second inaugural with all but unprecedented fidelity. Each president employed a comparable rhetorical device to identify himself with his audience and with the programs of his first term. For FDR it was […]
Honoring Robert H. Bork | Ricochet.com | 12.24.12
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, it was remarked that the system the delegates were designing – a government of checks and balances, sovereign states, limited government and enumerated powers — would likely last intact no more than 150 years, that is, to the 1930s. Today some would say the prediction was all too prescient. […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged buckley, legacy, robert bork, Supreme Court Comments closed
Leader of a Country or a Faction? | HughHewitt.com | 1.15.13
In his press conference yesterday, the last before the inauguration, President Obama spoke in a tone remarkable – actually unprecedented — in the post World War II era, perhaps in the history of the nation. He presented himself as the leader, not of the country, but of a faction. Again and again, the president wasn’t […]
Honoring Robert H. Bork | HughHewitt.com | 12.20.12
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, it was remarked that the system the delegates were designing – a government of checks and balances, sovereign states, limited government and enumerated powers — would likely last in tact no more than 150 years, that is, to the 1930s. Today, some would say the prediction was all too […]
Americans Are Not Stupid … But the Obama Administration Is | USNew.com | 07.28.12
There is a web video making the rounds. According to the YouTube counter it has been up for five years and received 31 million views. Its title is “Americans are not stupid—WITH SUBTITLES.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. An interviewer stumps people on the street with questions such as: “Name a country whose first name begins […]
Obama Rant Reflects Dangerous and Exactly Wrong View of Government | HughHewitt.com | 07.24.12
In last week’s incredible gaffe (“If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”) President Obama expressed an idea about the government and the people that most Americans do not accept. And it wasn’t his idea alone. Elizabeth Warren, the ultra-liberal Massachusetts Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, used […]
Verdict if Obama Loses Health Care Decision: He and staff did it to themselves – through aloofness, isolation | HughHewitt.com | 06.26.12
It doesn’t take a Washington insider to suspect that the White House has a back channel to the Supreme Court, knows how the justices have come down in the Obamacare case and has learned, from the Obama point of view, the news isn’t good. The president’s defiance and what appeared to be his campaign of […]
The Invisible Romney Vote Obama Should Fear | USNews.com | 06.15.12
Something strange is going on in the election campaign. Former president Bill Clinton seems to look for every opportunity to undermine the sitting president of his own party. His former political aides publish a memorandum saying the White House message strategy is failing. The morning reports have the press corps dismissing President Obama’s supposedly major […]
Obama Assault on Romney’s Bain Out of Touch with the World Today | HughHewitt.com | 05.30.12
The Obama campaign’s attack on Mitt Romney’s role starting up Bain Capital may go down as one of the worst political misjudgments of recent decades. It is based on an anachronism — a picture of an America that hasn’t existed in decades, if it ever did. The attack is a spruced up version of Franklin […]
Washington’s Biggest Question: Will 2012 Equal 2008 or 2010? | HughHewitt.com | 05.01.12
The biggest question in Washington these days is this: Will the American voter in 2012 look more like the voter of 2008 or 2010? Obama strategist David Axelrod recently tweeted criticism of a Gallup poll unfavorable to the president on exactly these grounds – that it incorrectly assumed an electorate like that of 2010 in […]
Who is Warring on Whom? What is the White House Strategy and Why | HughHewitt.com | 04.18.12
Yesterday, senior White House campaign strategist David Axelrod put his finger on the exact question of the 2012 campaign. He did it in a Twitter rebuttal of the Gallup Poll’s latest survey. The sampling was taken between Thursday and Sunday and shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama by five points. Gallup, Axelrod wrote, “has a […]
Intimidation in the Court: The President, the Supreme Court and the Constitution | HughHewitt.com | 04.03.12
NOT among the checks and balances that the Constitution incorporates into our system is intimidation by the president of the Supreme Court. But intimidation appears to be the course President Obama has selected, following his solicitor general’s stumbling defense of Obamacare before the justices last week. Conservative commentators have been gloating ever since that it […]
GOP Crosscurrent on Display Last Night | HughHewitt.com | 03.21.12
As the Illinois returns came in last night, and Governor Romney racked up an impressive win, albeit in historically light voting, Washington supporters of the House GOP met at a massive – and massively successful (it raised $12 million) – fundraising dinner… and inadvertently demonstrated the crosscurrents in the party. The main speaker was South […]
Is there a 2012 Political X-Factor? | HughHewitt.com | 03.14.12
“Who can do anything about gas prices, anyway?”: So was the Democrats’ response to yesterday’s The New York Times poll finding a dive between February and today in President Obama’s approval rating. The fall was all the fault of the price at the pump, they and the Times said. But the Times is famous for […]
There’s No Sighing in Politics | HughHewitt.com | 03.06.12
As Super Tuesday dawns, national opinion polls are telling a clear story. Despite a residual ennui about the choices and anxiety about November, Republican voters are coalescing around Mitt Romney as their standard bearer for the fall. The book on Romney has been that a large part of the GOP electorate didn’t like him. He […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Comments closed
Lesson of the Week: For this administration, only faux compromise welcome | HughHewitt.com | 02.14.12
One fact has become sharply clear this past seven days: it is no ordinary administration that occupies Washington just now. In the face of a fiscal crisis of unprecedented magnitude, yesterday the president submitted a budget of fake spending cuts (“a mirage” the Wall Street Journal called them this morning) and gigantic tax increases guaranteed, […]
SOTU: Did I hear that right? | HughHewitt.com | 01.25.12
It sounded like such a soft, even conservative speech. But let me get this straight: 1) banks will be punished (do I understand this right, by a committee headed by Eric Holder?) if their lending is too risky, 2) and they will be required (by the same committee) to give more home loans (meaning, it […]
Gingrich’s Secret Weapon: Incredibly Innovative Campaign | HughHewitt.com | 01.23.12
As they stumble dazed into Florida, the Romney forces had better think hard about what happened in South Carolina. They will want to dismiss Saturday’s results as a fluke. But in the Palmetto State, Newt Gingrich put into harness a totally new strategy of presidential campaigning – some of it visible, some below the surface. […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged 2012 election, Gingrich, GOP primary, Romney, South Carolina Comments closed
The GOP Race Turns Upside Down Again | HughHewitt.com | 01.17.12
In this up and down year, last night’s South Carolina GOP debate turned the political world upside down again. Going into the debate, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had every reason to believe that he was within days of locking up the nomination. He had won (if just barely) the Iowa caucuses and more convincingly […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged 2012, Gingrich, GOP, primary, Romney, South Carolina Comments closed
New Hampshire GOP Debates: How Candidates are Like iPhones (good thing, too) | HughHewitt.com | 01.09.12
You’ve got to hand it to this year’s GOP candidates. Saturday night for nearly two hours starting at 9:00, they debated. Sunday morning at 9:00, there they were, different town, different channel, doing it all over again. Some have observed that certain candidates – Romney is most often cited – are becoming better as a […]
Challenge for Iowa, and the rest of us – Tapping the Right Candidate for “the Job” | HughHewitt.com | 01.03.12
Tonight, all over Iowa, Republicans will be debating with one another not just who can win (we’ve all read loads of stories about the “can he win” factors). Electability will be balanced with a second question, not necessarily one that produces a different answer, but a different question nonetheless. Who as president would do best […]
GOP New Year’s Blues | HughHewitt.com | December 27, 2011
With the Iowa caucuses a week away, uneasiness pervades GOP circles in Washington and around the country. Part of the reason – but only part – stems from continuing disquiet about the field of candidates. “Mitt or Newt,” I was asked at a holiday party of longtime conservatives and activists last night. No matter how […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged 2012, campaign, Gingrich, GOP, Republican nominee, Romney Comments closed
Can the Iowa Caucuses be Far Behind? | HughHewitt.com | 12.20.11
If Christmas is here, can the Iowa caucuses be far behind? What are the candidates’ prospects weeks before the voting begins? You have heard about ups and downs in the major polls. Following are data on Romney, Gingrich and Perry you have probably not heard about, as well as an item on Ron Paul. Romney-Gingrich-Perry […]
We’re not in Kansas Anymore: Why the 2012 White House Strategy is Wrong | HughHewitt.com | 12.13.11
Talk about tone deaf. A week ago, President Obama traveled to Kansas, to deliver his updating of Theodore Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” speech. His key word was “fairness,” and his message was that only the big government could deliver it. “Greed” was his term for anyone who has done well in the private economy. But, as […]
The New White House Reelection Strategy: Three Questions | HughHewitt.com | 12.05.11
With all the talk of Herman Cain’s fall and Newt Gingrich’s rise, it has been easy to miss reports of the White House’s emerging 2012 strategy this week. Though the president is down in the polls (he trails former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the latest Rasmussen matchup), only the deluded will count him out. […]
Weird Statements from President and Democrats and What They Mean | HughHewitt.com | 10.24.11
Today (Monday) President Obama will launch what The New York Times reports is “a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: ‘We can’t wait’ for lawmakers to act.” This apparently in your face bypassing of Congress and the constitutional system is […]
Democrats Ride With Occupy Wall Street: Fast Road to Nowhere | HughHewitt.com | 10.18.11
If you want a good measure of how completely the White House and Democrat leadership in Congress have lost their political minds, look at how they have become cheerleaders for the Occupy Wall Street mob and its copycats. From the president to former House speaker Nancy Pelosi to lesser party spokespeople, leading Democrats have lined […]
Tomorrow Night’s Debate Could Shake Up the GOP Race | HughHewitt.com | 10.10.11
Tomorrow night’s GOP presidential candidates debate at Dartmouth College will be do or die for Rick Perry. What accounts for the Texas governor’s rapid rise and, to date, equally rapid fall? Where does the Republican race go from here? As noted in last week’s column, two clusters of voters have emerged in the 2011 phase […]
How Christie Could Change Everything | HughHewitt.com | 10.04.11
Odds are that New Jersey governor Chris Christie will jump into the presidential race today (Tuesday) or tomorrow – which says a lot about how the 2012 GOP presidential primary contest has shaped up, and where it will go. Christie’s entry could change everything. The 2012 dynamics are totally different from those of 2008. And […]
Failed Presidential Plan. Is it a Fatal Moment of Turning? | HughHewitt.com | 9.20.11
Yesterday’s “Buffett Plan” speech may be remembered as marking a fatal moment of turning in Barack Obama’s presidency. Yes, Mr. Obama will remain in the Oval Office for at least a year and a half more. Who knows, he may even win a second term. But there was something about Washington’s reaction to his remarks […]
Putting Odds on the 2012 Presidential Race | HughHewitt.com | 04.04.11
This past week, in Washington and around the country, Republican activists have been having a collective anxiety attack. Everywhere you go, you hear doubts that no likely candidate has what it takes to beat Mr. Obama. Following are two ways – polls and electoral votes — of assessing this worry. Polls Nearly as I can […]
Charlie Wilson’s War and Big Time Politicians | HughHewitt.com | 03.21.11
Here is a story about Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. It applies to the upcoming contest for the Republican presidential nomination. I heard it at a dinner party around the new year. A few other guests and I were gathered in a side room. A former senior U.S. national security official was telling Cold War […]
What is NOT at Stake in Wisconsin | HughHewitt.com | 02.22.11
Let’s look for a moment at what the standoff in Wisconsin is NOT about. The standoff is NOT about whether state employees may engage in collective bargaining: With some success, the unions have characterized the battle as an up or down vote on the right to bargain collectively. They have agreed, they tell us, to […]
Report from 2011 CPAC | HughHewitt.com | 02.14.11
The CPAC conference was held this weekend in Washington. Here are a few notes taken at the proceedings and in the hallways: Numbers: How much energy is in the conservative movement? Here is one small but telling detail. The conference has been held annually for decades. Under the leadership of David Keene, who retired at […]
What the State of the Union Address Will Tell Us | HughHewitt.com | 01.24.11
Tomorrow night Barack Obama will deliver this year’s State of the Union Address. But who is Barack Obama? Polls show that a sizable slice of the public has moved from seeing him as “liberal” to “moderate.” And with that change, his popularity has started rising for the first time in a year. He may have […]
The Constitution and Tuscon | HughHewitt.com | 01.10.11
Last week, the new Congress opened with House members, one by one, reading the Constitution into the Congressional Record. Who knew that within days we would be sidling up to a debate on the one part of the document about which Left and Right were supposedly in total agreement? It all started predictably enough. In […]
Searching for Mr. (or Ms.) Right | HughHewitt.com | 12.27.10
With the New Year arriving in only a few days, Washington has turned to its favorite game: handicapping the next presidential race. Like many voters at this stage, I don’t have a candidate. I have requirements. My guess is they are the same as those of more than a few voters. Here they are. Spending: […]
Wanted: Political Leaders They Respect | HughHewitt.com | 12.20.10
It’s about time. Last week saw a pair of pass-the-torch moments. The first was when Democrat majority leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed to jam through one last massive all-purpose spending bill. The second was when they couldn’t perform their planned exorcism of the Bush Administration’s growth-oriented tax policies and indeed got […]
Splitsville: American Politics Heading into 2012 | HughHewitt.com | 11.22.10
With the 2010 campaign over, Washington can start to do what it does best – obsess on the next campaign. And here is an early bulletin: Each party enters the cycle deeply split. Everyone knows about the divide between Tea Party Republicans and party moderates. Some of this division is over policy. The Tea Partiers […]
Splitsville: American Politics Heading into 2012 | HughHewitt.com | 11.22.10
With the 2010 campaign over, Washington can start to do what it does best – obsess on the next campaign. And here is an early bulletin: Each party enters the cycle deeply split. Everyone knows about the divide between Tea Party Republicans and party moderates. Some of this division is over policy. The Tea Partiers […]
Posted in Political Commentary: General Tagged 2012 election, Democrats, HughHewitt.com, party split, Republicans, Tea Party Comments closed
Time for Humility | HughHewitt.com | 11.07.10
On the night he was elected president in 1980, Ronald Reagan stood on a stage in Los Angeles with his wife Nancy beside him and said that winning the presidency was “the most humbling moment in my life.” Now there’s a contrast. Judging from his “our failure was we talked too fast for the people […]
What Happened? A pre-election post-election look at tomorrow’s voting | HughHewitt.com | 11.01.10
Where do we stand today, on election eve? Late yesterday, Gallup posted the following pre-election assessment: “Taking Gallup’s final survey’s margin of error into account, the historical model predicts that the Republicans could gain anywhere from 60 seats on up, with gains well beyond that possible.” That would mean 238 Republican votes in the House […]
A Political Transformation | HughHewitt.com | 10.25.10
It is the final week of the campaign, and as the two sides begin to make their closing arguments, CBS’ 60 Minutes dropped a bombshell last night. For a segment on the economy, the television news magazine added to the official unemployment rate of 9.5 percent the number who had quit looking for work or […]
Needed: Unmistakable Signal | HughHewitt.com | 10.18.10
Why were the president and vice president campaigning last week for Christopher Coons, the Democrat’s Senate candidate in Delaware? Delaware is an eleven-point race in favor of Coons, who is facing Christine O’Donnell, the most reviled GOP insurgent in the nation. Normally campaigns don’t send their big guns into blow-aways that they are winning and […]
Bigger Than Anyone’s Expectations | HughHewitt.com | 10.11.10
Recently in this space, I suggested that a 54-vote GOP pickup in the House and as much as a 12-vote swing in the Senate could be coming in November. Reports last week suggest that Republican House gains may prove even larger. On Wednesday Politico ran a front-page story (see http://tiny.cc/teo7k ) headlined, “House chairmen in […]
Ice in Their Veins Pros | HughHewitt.com | 10.04.10
The House of Representatives adjourned last week with all the style we have come to expect from the Obama-Pelosi-Reid congress. The normally all but unanimous shout of acclaim to go home turned into a one-vote-margin, roll-call squeaker in which Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to descend from the podium to cast the deciding ballot. Messy? Yes. […]
Pledge to Fight | HughHewitt.com | 09.27.10
The House GOP Pledge to America was unveiled last week. The Pledge was intended as a reprise to the 1994 Contract with America. The response to it has been surreal. First have been the retorts from the Democrats. “Warmed over.” “Nothing new here.” You’ve heard it all. And you’ve seen the mainstream media following behind […]
Tea with Sympathy | HughHewitt.com | 09.20.10
It is good times for the Tea Party movement. I am not talking about winning Republican Senate nominations in Delaware, Alaska, Kentucky, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and without firing a shot in Florida. Nor am I talking about a Christian Science Monitor poll last week that found a near majority of Americans view Tea with sympathy […]
Election Outlook on Labor Day: A Veto-Proof Senate or Even a Congress? | HughHewitt.com | 09.06.10
It is Labor Day, beginning of the final phase of the 2010 midterm congressional campaign. A quick look at the polling tells a surprising story: Washington has utterly failed to grasp how much may change after November 2nd. We have all heard about the incredible deterioration of the Democratic Party’s approval numbers on all fronts […]
Unforced Errors | HughHewitt.com | 08.30.10
Here is a rule of thumb: When looking for the true emotions under a top-level politician’s necessarily controlled exterior, take note of the unforced errors. On Sunday, President Obama committed an unforced error. It came in his interview with NBC’s Brian Williams. Mr. Williams asked him about the strange polling phenomenon that nearly a fifth […]
Biden to the Rescue? | HughHewitt.com | 08.23.10
It is all too easy to become cynical about the mainstream media. Last week Vice President Joe Biden uttered the now famous, “I’m going to get into trouble for saying this. This ain’t your father’s Republican Party. This is the Republican Tea Party.” As it happened, this kindhearted warning to voters of the insidious transformation […]
Too Many Yeses for the Party of No? | HughHewitt.com | 08.09.10
The rhetorical trajectories of Washington can be bemusing to behold. In the past week, the White House had taken up the mantra, “Party of No,” and this weekend even conservative leaning Sunday talk show panels and interviewers adopted the chant. As in, when it comes to the president’s program for reviving the economy, all the […]
Why Has Trust In Our Institutions Fallen? | Forbes.com | 07.22.10
Reading a poll is not a simple thing. Nowhere is that so true as with the American people’s so-called collapse of faith in their institutions. When it comes to trust, all institutions are not created equal. Through the years faith in some has remained strong. The June Gallup survey found 82% of respondents reporting a […]
Bad Weekend for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue | HughHewitt.com | 07.12.10
White House insiders must be holding their heads. The National Governors Association met in Boston this weekend. Usually NGA meetings rank among the blandest of political events. The convening organization for American governors is bi-partisan. Out of courtesy if nothing else, the fifty state leaders hold their more colorful political pronouncements for other occasions. Good […]
Seizing the Moment – Or Not | HughHewitt.com | 05.23.10
The question around Washington this past week – in the air, even when it wasn’t on the lips – was, will the Republicans make the same mistake the British Conservative’s made? Will they fall short of the electoral triumph that appears to be waiting for them? In a recent Wall Street Journal article (see: http://tiny.cc/pvdi9), […]
Voter Disgust and the Washington Narrative | HughHewitt.com | 05.19.10
Last night another wave of voter disgust hit the Capitol Hill sands and swept more incumbents into the out-of-office ocean. Kentucky is part of this story. Outsider Rand Paul, son of libertarian sensation Ron Paul, took the GOP nomination from the party establishment’s nominee. The biggest news though came from Pennsylvania. While Democrats held onto […]
Senator Robert Bennett and the Story of 2010 | HughHewitt.com | 05.10.10
Over the weekend, Washington received the first of what are likely to be many wake up calls in advance of the November elections. The Utah Republican Party convention declined to re-nominate three-term U.S. senator Robert Bennett. It didn’t give him even enough votes to qualify for a place on the party’s primary ballot. The Mainstream […]
Glenn Beck, George Will, Amity Shlaes, CPAC and the American Swing Voter | HughHewitt.com | 02.22.10
It is a good gauge of the mainstream media’s cluelessness that so many of its commentators were surprised when Fox News star Glenn Beck slammed the Republican Party in his Saturday CPAC keynote address – and the CPAC audience cheered. The annual conservative meeting’s attendance numbered something like ten thousand, a record. But as of […]
A Prosecutor’s Take on a Civilian Trial for KSM | HughHewitt.com | 02.15.10
It wasn’t exactly “My Funny Valentine “ that Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney sang to each other on the Sunday talk shows. Among many areas of sharp disagreement was the proposed trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) in civilian court. So we now know what the former and current vice […]
Democracy Deficit? | HughHewitt.com | 02.01.10
Despite a weekend Rasmussen report showing a post State of the Union uptick in Strong Approval for Mr. Obama, the president’s performance last Wednesday was a setback for the Administration. Yes, Democrats liked it. A large block of Democratic Party loyalists moving from neutral or weakly supportive to strong support was the reason for the […]
Answering the Call: Corporations and Campaigns, Part 3 | HughHewitt.com | 01.25.10
This posting appeared as one of a four part series on HughHewitt.com. Hugh Hewitt wrote 1 and 4, another columnist who goes by the handle “Bear in the Woods” wrote 2. According to Hugh, “Bear in the Woods” is a senior advertising executive. To see the other entries, please go to the www.HughHewitt.com: Bear in […]
Four Words | HughHewitt.com | 01.18.10
With the Democrats looking about to lose Ted Kennedy’s senate seat, a single line near the end of a front-page story in Sunday’s New York Times should send chills through the White House’s top echelons. The story’s headline announces “Election Tests Staying Power of Democrats.” Most of the focus is on why the Massachusetts race […]
How the GOP Lost Congress | HughHewitt.com | 01.10.10
In today’s Wall Street Journal (here: http://tiny.cc/T958J), I offer “10 Tips for the GOP in 2010”. Over the weekend I found an online interview that gives excellent context to criticism I offer of recent GOP congresses. First, background. In the article I argue that, if they are to win big in 2010, congressional Republicans must […]
10 Tips for the GOP in 2010 | Wall Street Journal | 01.10.10
It is an old rule of politics. When your opponent is in the process of destroying himself, don’t get in his way. Despite tanking poll numbers both for themselves and their president, congressional Democrats have persisted for months in a stunning act of political self-destruction. The evaporation of home-state support for Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson […]
Global Eyes on the President at West Point | HughHewitt.com | 11.30.09
As everyone knows, President Obama will address the nation on Tuesday night and reveal his decision on what to do in Afghanistan. Most weekend commentary focused on the announcement’s political implications at home and how various players in and around Afghanistan will see it. But there will be another and in the long run at […]
What Will Tuesday’s Voting Mean? | HughHewitt.com | 11.02.09
We have all heard the prognosticators by now. The fate of the Administration’s health care legislation could be sealed tomorrow, when voters in Virginia and New Jersey pick their new governors – or not. It has become something of a superstition in Washington that if the two Democratic candidates go down in defeat, next year […]
Danger for the White House: Collapse of Public Trust | HughHewitt.com | 08.24.09
Washington is abuzz over the latest pronouncement from Charlie Cook, celebrated editor of the Cook Political Report. Last week, Mr. Cook announced in his online newsletter that polling data “confirm anecdotal evidence, and our own view, that the [political] situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and Congressional Democrats.” Poll […]
Obama Misunderestimates Why He Won the Presidency | HughHewitt.com | 07.27.09
There are limits to what a great communicator can accomplish if he is communicating the wrong message. In the last few weeks, Barack Obama has been receiving a lesson in this truth and learning, perhaps, too, that he, in the words of his less audibly gifted predecessor, “misunderestimated” why he won the presidency. On Sunday […]
Bush’s Surprising Hand | HughHewitt.com | 01.28.08
Talk about surprises. Tonight George W. Bush delivers his final State of the Union address under astonishing circumstances. Last January, almost unanimously, the smart money prophesized that 2007 would mark the President’s effective demise. His party had just lost control of both houses of Congress. Iraq looked like an irretrievable disaster. Mr. Bush’s popularity was […]
How W Got His Mojo Back: Behind Bush’s Great Week | New York Post | 06.15.06
Who’d have thought it possible even a month ago? President Bush is getting his mojo back. The president just had the best week of his second term, perhaps of his entire presidency – and the end of the investigation of Karl Rove, which would have been the headline grabber not long ago, had little to […]
Dubya’s Drift | New York Post | 10.10.05
WHY, all of a sudden, are things going so wrong for the White House? Conservatives up in arms about Harriet Miers and about the president’s plans for the Gulf Coast; an anti-war mother camped outside the Crawford ranch dominating the news for a month; Bush’s approval ratings lower than they’ve ever been: This is the […]
Sen. Kerry, It’s French for Kiss Off | Los Angeles Times | 08.01.04
WASHINGTON — Throughout the last week and in his acceptance speech Thursday night, Sen. John Kerry charged that the Bush administration should have — and could have — won greater international support before it launched military operations in Iraq. Few presidential challengers have offered such a telling and disturbing critique of an incumbent’s foreign policy […]
Labor Lessons | New York Post | 06.10.04
This week’s Ronald Reagan retrospectives have given only passing notice to the fact that he was a labor leader. Yet his service as a union president is at least as important in understanding his unparalleled impact on our world as his years as an actor. Take this story that Reagan used to tell about his […]
‘My Fellow Americans’: What Mr. Clinton Can Say | Washington Times | 01.24.95
Tonight President Clinton becomes the first Democratic president since Harry Truman to deliver a State of the Union address to a Republican Congress. All over Washington liberal pundits (who can’t believe that those barbarous Republicans have seized the citadels of the Democratic patrimony) are offering the president advice on what to say. Mrs. Clinton has […]
Reagan Gives Republicans A Reality Check | Wall Street Journal | 08.17.92
Tonight Ronald Reagan will speak before the Republican convention in Houston. You’d think the media would consider it a momentous event: a distinguished elder statesman addressing his party and the nation for the first time since leaving office. Don’t count on it. Mr. Reagan’s long frustrated adversaries in oh-so-clever Washington have devoted much of the […]
Trump’s Nomination of ACB Honors Constitutional Norms; Dems Dishonor Them | American Greatness | 9.27.20