Tuesday's victories allow the Republican Party, at least at the Congressional level, to be an effective opposition party, not an effective governing party. The distinction is crucial. For the past two years the G.O.P. has been essentially powerless. All that has changed. Because they control the House, Republicans can force a series of votes that

After watching President Obama's press conference, Democrats who are still left standing must have been mortified. The depth of his self-delusion was stunning. To put things in perspective: the Democratic Party just suffered the worst repudiation any political party has since before the middle of the last century. The defeat was staggering in the House

In a recent interview with Philip Klein of the American Spectator, Representative Paul Ryan spoke about the limits of the strategy to defund ObamaCare: Obviously, I'm in favor of anything we can do to stop it, to halt it, but the problem we have is, he [Obama] has to sign those bills. I get this

In a speech to the Hudson Institute last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, in accepting the Herman Kahn Award, spoke admiringly of Kahn. Daniels quoted from Kahn's 1982 book, The Coming Boom (it can be found near the 27-minute mark): “It would be most useful to redesign the tax system to discourage consumption and encourage

Some Republicans (like Minority Leader John Boehner and Senator Lindsey Graham) argue that allowing children of illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens attracts larger numbers of illegal immigrants. They're wrong. For one thing, the evidence that “anchor babies” is a magnet for illegal immigration doesn't exist (the main motivators are searching for work and better

At Friday's iftar dinner at the White House, President Obama declared, “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan,

According to Reuters: President Barack Obama attacked the economic policies of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in Bush's home state … as evidence of the way Republicans would operate if given power in Nov. 2 U.S. congressional elections. At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former

During the 2008 campaign, it was clear that Barack Obama would govern as a liberal on several important issues. But it seemed possible that, at least in other areas, he might govern as what he insisted he was: something of a centrist, pragmatic and reasonable, nonideological and relatively bipartisan. It was not to be. And

The news that General David Petraeus will replace Stanley McChrystal as the commanding general in Afghanistan is a brilliant stroke by President Obama. He gets all of the benefit of relieving General McChrystal — a patriot and a hero who had a terrible lapse in judgment — and none of the drawbacks. Obama is replacing

Politico reports that Rep. Darrell Issa, the conservative firebrand whose specialty is lobbing corruption allegations at the Obama White House, is making plans to hire dozens of subpoena-wielding investigators if Republicans win the House this fall. … Issa has told Republican leadership that if he becomes chairman, he wants to roughly double his staff from