David Frum
The Most Important Election of Our Lives
The campaign is down to its last twenty-four hours. And if you’re reading this blog item, you’ve probably made up your mind about whether you support President Obama or Mitt Romney. But you might not feel good about that choice. And you might be wondering whether the hassle of voting is worth it. If so, I can give you one reason why you should. This could be the most important election of your lifetime. READ MORE >>
How the GOP Destroyed its Moderates
Mitt Romney has been running for president as the Republican nominee, de facto or de jure, for eight months now, and the grand historical joke of it has not yet worn off. A party that has set itself to frantically, fanatically expunge its moderates, quasi-moderates, suspected moderates, and fellow travelers of moderates chose as its standard bearer the lineal heir, biographically and genealogically, to its moderate tradition. It entrusted its holy crusade to repeal Barack Obama’s hated health-care law to the man who had inspired it and run, four years before, promising to do the same for the rest of America. The man and his historical moment could not be more incongruous. It was as if the Mongol tribes of the thirteenth century, setting out to pillage their way across the Asian steppe, had somehow chosen Mahatma Gandhi as their supreme khan.Romney’s capture of the nomination required an incredible confluence of good fortune. Any one of several Republicans—Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan—could have outflanked Romney in both grassroots enthusiasm and establishment support but chose not to run. The one candidate with the standing and financial reach to challenge him who did grasp for the prize, Rick Perry, performed his duties with such comic, stammering ineptitude that his final oops-de-grace by that point was not even startling. What remained to challenge Romney was a gaggle of third-raters lacking the money or the rudimentary organization even to get their name on the ballot everywhere. Still, running even against the likes of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum (which is to say, running essentially unopposed), Romney still trudged laboriously to victory after endless weeks.But there is another way to make at least some sense of the Romney nomination. READ MORE >>
Romney’s Closing, Obama’s Opening
Mitt Romney on Thursday evening presented a politically effective argument: President Obama raised your hopes, only to dash them. READ MORE >>
Sheldon Adelson and the Jew Card
Is it possible to write critically about Sheldon Adelson without being anti-Semitic? READ MORE >>
How Do You Say Brouhaha In Polish?
Romney’s Other Southern Problem, Hooah
Charles Murray, Maytag Man
Chicago's Choice: Flip-Flopper Or Plutocrat
There's been an interesting debate burbling under the surface the past few weeks over whether the Obama reelection team faces a condundrum in deciding to frame Mitt Romney primarily as a flip-flopper or as the standard-bearer for an extremist Republican Party. I'll walk through the debate before explaining why I think Chicago does face a messaging choice if Romney is the nominee, but of a different sort. READ MORE >>
Yesterday, David Frum posed a question to conservatives: My conservative friends argue that the policies of Barack Obama are responsible for the horrifying length and depth of the economic crisis. Question: Which policies? READ MORE >>
