With all of the baggage Gingrich has, the one piece that has been the most difficult for him to set aside has been the question over his participation in the Washington influence industry. We, quite unusually, find ourselves in the middle of an election in which the most burning concern has been the cozy relationship between special interests and the government. “Crony capitalism” has been the rallying point for would-be reformers of all stripes who are determined to play a role in the election — from the Tea Party to the Occupy movement — and the issue is being kept alive in the news by stories of corruption. Not too long ago, the Securities and Exchanges commission made headlines by bringing fraud charges against former executives of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The public mood was summed up by a new Rasmussen poll which shows that only 17 percent of the country believe our government has the consent of the governed, a result that| MORE ›

There is a growing perception that this primary season is all but decided; that Mitt Romney is already the presumptive nominee. Indeed, our own Michael van der Galien is of this opinion. However, I must disagree with Michael. While things certainly look that way right now, there is a lot of time between now and August, when the convention will be held, and many primaries and caucuses left to go through.| MORE ›

Mitt Romney’s opponents in the Republican field have taken to the tactics of the Democrats. They’ve started attacking his image as a businessman, calling him a “predatory capitalist,” and issue damning proclamations about his time at Bain Capital, a private equity firm he co-founded.| MORE ›

As you may have noticed, we’ve changed back to our new design again. After extensive work, our technical admin Brian has managed to work the database such that it’ll only update every so often. This should prevent the huge server outages that were happening before.

We’ll see how it goes.

The downfall of Herman Cain is not an outcome that was not entirely unexpected, and the accusations of sexual harassment and affair are ultimately not to blame. All kinds of wild accusations get thrown around in a campaign season. If I recall, the last time around we learned that one of the candidates was a non-citizen atheist Muslim terrorist-supporting anti-Christ.| MORE ›

I read with some pleasure (no I will not grieve for him) that Moammar Gadhafi was killed today, more or less ending the War in Libya when coupled with the news of Sirte’s capture. With any uncertainty about his whereabouts finally gone, the National Transitional Council can finally begin the real work of rebuilding the country.

What shape that rebuilding takes remains to be seen.| MORE ›

Politico is reporting that Jon Huntsman will end his campaign tomorrow and throw his support behind Mitt Romney. Honestly, it’s not a big shock.

After a last place finish in Iowa, he rested his hopes on New Hampshire, but even there he couldn’t get second. And the next two states were not looking pretty at all, as the latest polls from South Carolina and Florida show:| MORE ›

I do not, for one second, believe that Rick Santorum can defeat Mitt Romney (and, let’s be honest, nobody does except, apparently, for his own staff).

As such, Romney’s victory in Iowa is very important indeed. It means that he’s now the true frontrunner, the guy to beat.

But who can defeat him?

Rick Perry will probably get out of the race after his abysmal showing yesterday.| MORE ›

Back in 2001 Americans were told that the Taliban represented a threat to the freedom of not just Americans, but the Afghans themselves. Their brutal regime turned that country into a thugocracy, stripping the rights of both women and men alike, but most definitely women. So we went in and toppled the Taliban.

Yet here we are 10 years later, and though things are undoubtedly better, women still face prison time for adultery, even though they were raped.| MORE ›

Texas Governor Rick Perry is toying with the idea of skipping some debates.  His spokesman says it’s because there are simply too many.  I agree with that.  Now that the New Hampshire primary will possibly be held on Christmas Day (I kid!), the candidates need all the time they can get in front of the voters.  However, I’m skeptical of the spokesman’s rationale.| MORE ›

I just read Kurt Schlichter’s column at the Washington Examiner with great interest (h/t @kesgardner), but a little bit of confusion. If I didn’t know better, I’d have come out it thinking that the Occupy Wall Street protesters were inherently different than our soldiers, as if all soldiers are conservative Republicans.

That’s not true of course, and apparently the number that identify as Republican is dropping.| MORE ›