It's time to spread some good holiday cheer and offer thanks to five precious, leading public figures who've really made a difference.

First, God bless Sen. John McCain for picking Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008. Her continued visibility testifies to his good sense in selecting her....

Sarah Palin isn't back. She never left. But the publicity surrounding her new book, Going Rogue, suggests that Palin will be the most formidable Republican presidential candidate in 2012. Even Levi Johnston's appearance in Playgirl with a lone hockey stick couldn't be more helpful--the Palin clan has become a permanent...

One year after the election, President Obama has not: ended world hunger, brought about perpetual peace, banished unemployment, abolished crime, or even managed to prevent snowstorms and floods from occurring.

What he has merely done, however, is to: prevent a new Great Depression from occurring by rescuing the banking system...

It's a requirement that any candidate for the presidency vow to banish the wicked special interests in Washington, DC. Then, once a new president enters office, the media pounces to show that the good times are still rolling. The president, far from curbing excesses, is slipping into nefarious old Washington...

Former vice president Dick Cheney appeared at the Center for Security Policy last night, an organization headed by the neocon and former Reagan Defense official Frank Gaffney, to receive the Keeper of the Flame award. And keep the flame aloft he did. Cheney lashed into Obama for allegedly dithering when...

It would be hard to think of a more electrifying and deserved recipient of this year's Nobel Peace prize than President Obama. Obama is the fourth American president to win the Nobel prize. His predecessors are Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter.

Obviously, the award is based on...

The good news is that President Obama has a brilliant strategy for dealing with Iran. The bad news is that brilliance may not be enough. In a few months he could face the most severe foreign policy crisis a young president has faced since John F. Kennedy stumbled into the...

Sarah Palin is hitting the lecture circuit. On September 23 she's scheduled to address the CLSA investors' group in Hong Kong. The title of her talk, however, is a secret. According to CNN, CLSA flack Simone Wheeler says, "We are not disclosing the topic of Sarah Palin's presentation at this...

Will this do? For the past month, Democrats have been wringing their hands over President Obama's supposedly lackluster performance, while Republicans have become increasingly cocky about derailing his presidency. But Obama's speech Wednesday should put to rest any illusions that he or his presidency are on the ropes.

Obama...

The verdict on President Obama is already in and it's not a pretty one: he's bungled health care. The economy is going nowhere. The Republicans are making a comeback. And it's all Obama's fault. If he had only made the case for fundamental change, as Paul Krugman argues in...

It's becoming increasingly clear that Bill Clinton can't function without Hillary Clinton. Nor can Hillary Clinton function without Bill Clinton.

When Barack Obama signed up Hillary for Secretary of State, he knew that he was getting a twofer. Now that Bill has successfully completed his North Korea mission, he...

Both Henry Louis Gates and Sergeant Crowley should get some credit for demonstrating their tenacity at the White House this evening. While President Obama and Vice President Biden ditched their jackets, Gates and Crowley wore them despite the heat and humidity that afflict Washington in the summer. Relaxing in shirt...

Let's face it: President Obama acted stupidly at his press conference when he waded into the great debate surrounding Henry Louis Gates Jr. vs. Sgt. James Crowley. Until now, Obama has been careful to douse rather than inflame racial controversies. Now that he's reverted to his conciliator mode by inviting...

As President Obama prepares to visit Russia, the new neocon organization called the Foreign Policy Initiative (the successor to the defunct Project for the New American Century) has issued a letter, which was also signed by several liberal hawks, imploring him to raise the issue of human rights. It also...

Who knew that the Republican presidential primary candidates would already start getting winnowed in 2009?

It's beginning to look as though the question is no longer who's sinning in the GOP. It's who is not. Mark Sanford's disclosure that he's been having a long distance relationship with an Argentine flame...

Over the past few days, President Obama has been pummeled by the right for supposedly appeasing the regime in Iran. Robert Kagan has accused Obama of being "objectively" on the side of the mullahs, while Charles Krauthammer detects a president "afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of...

Seldom has a defeat been more richly deserved than Terry McAuliffe's failed bid to win the Democratic nomination to run for Governor of Virginia. State Senator Creigh Deeds pulled off an improbable comeback victory in the state primary on Tuesday, overcoming the millions that McAuliffe poured into his campaign. A...

Will it ever end? Probably not. Once again a Republican presidential hopeful is accusing a Democrat of being soft on (what else?) national security.

Today it was Mitt Romney's turn to sing from the old hymnal at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, where he announced that President Obama is...

It was almost like an episode from Bloggingheads.tv. On the one side was President Obama speaking on national security in a measured and statesmanlike way. On the other side was former vice-president Dick Cheney trying to speak on national security in a measured and statesmanlike way.

It wasn't even close....

This is a big week for the GOP. Two events suggest that it isn't detached from reality. It's oblivious to it.

The first event takes place on Wednesday, when the Republican National Committee, as today's Washington Times reports, will hold a special meeting at National Harbor in Maryland to...