Happy New Year?

Well, we’ve endured 2015, the next to last year of the Obama administration. It's not been without damage to the country—both to its constitutional fabric and its standing in the world. But endured we have. One more year to go. The point, though, per William Faulkner, is not just to endure but to prevail. America can prevail if today's conservatism prevails—by which we mean a conservatism that incorporates most that is good about yesteryear's liberalism and today's conservatism, and that is also willing to think and act anew, as our case is new. And conservatism can most easily prevail if the political party that is the home of...

12/31/15 12:15 AM

Awaken and Sing

There’s no upside for me in reviewing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If I say anything interesting about its plot, I'll be criticized for publishing spoilers. If I say anything critical, I'll be accused of raining on everybody's parade. If I praise it, I'll be attacked for excessive kindness and sentimentality. So let me just say that I thought it was pretty good, that I enjoyed watching it, and that it has all the strengths and weaknesses of every project with which its cowriter and director, J. J. Abrams, is involved. Which is to say: Its first 45 minutes are sensational; it plays on the viewer's emotions expertly; and it is cast...

12/31/15 12:15 AM

Growing Old Without Growing Up

Sanger, Calif. On this late October day, as I wheel into the Wonder Valley Ranch Resort nestled in the foothills of the spellbinding if drought-scorched Sierras, I'm struck by the notion that it's a bit late in the season to be going to a summer camp for adults. But then, it would seem a bit late to be going to summer camp at all. For at age 45, I am what noted gerontologist Cedric the Entertainer calls "a grown-ass man." But that hardly matters anymore. For I am also a citizen of Infantilized America, where getting old has gotten old, and youth is no longer just wasted on the young. Maybe it's due to narcissism or nostalgia, or all...

12/31/15 12:15 AM

The Party of Trump

Within weeks of announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in June, Donald Trump seized the lead in virtually every national poll of GOP voters and has held that lead ever since. The Real Clear Politics average has Trump polling at 35.6 percent, with a 17-point spread between Trump and his nearest competitor. Although there is no poll of GOP officials, it is pretty clear from news accounts and political reporting that elected Republicans and party officials do not favor a Trump nomination. Far from it. To judge by attributed and unattributed quotes from those stories, it would be surprising if more than 5...

12/31/15 12:15 AM

Five Words? Next Year Will Be Worse

It was a great year for the Obama administration’s foreign policy .  .  . says the Obama administration. The State Department even created a new hashtag to celebrate the White House's annus mirabilis—#2015in5Words. "Protecting Arctic Climate and Communities" and "Protecting Health of Our Ocean" are among two of the administration's big wins. A few of the claims are of course questionable, like "Winning Fight Against Violent Extremists." Okay, congratulations to the White House for hosting a conference on countering violent extremism in February.

12/31/15 12:15 AM

Today's Standard


Bill Casts Shadow Over Hillary Event in Iowa

2:45 PM, Jan 04, 2016
Hillary Clinton kicked off her Hawkeye State bus tour in the shadow of her husband, Bill, who made his 2016 campaign-trail debut in New Hampshire to stump for his wife. Bill Clinton’s appearances have already earned a ton of media attention from major outlets. Back here in Iowa, though, Hillary was left recycling one-liners from the former president. Read more

Bill Plays, Hillary Pays

'Sexism' Is A Losing Card For Team Hillary
2:45 PM, Jan 04, 2016
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Jonathan V. Last on why sexism is not a good issue for Team Hillary. Read more

Christie, Rubio Focus on National Security in New Hampshire

1:44 PM, Jan 04, 2016
Christie attacks Trump and Rubio; Rubio attacks Obama. Read more

Bill Clinton Flustered When Asked Whether Past Is Fair Game

1:11 PM, Jan 04, 2016

An ABC News reporter asked Bill Clinton whether his past is fair game in the 2016 presidential election. Clinton appeared flustered and unsure what to say:

.@ABC Exclusive: Bill Clinton responds to Trump's claim that his past is fair game in interview with @CeciliaVegaABC https://t.co/4ARzemKcRY— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 4, 2016

Finally, Clinton said, "The Republicans have to decide who they want to nominate.

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Of Invalid Historical Analogies

Gleanings and observations.
11:07 AM, Jan 04, 2016
In the face of those facts, proponents of accepting Muslim immigrants liken pleas to close our borders to them to, first, the decision to turn away Jewish immigrants fleeing the death camps of Europe, and second, to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Neither of those is even by the wildest stretch of imagination analogous to the problem created by Muslim immigrants seeking entry here. Read more

A Conversation With Ayaan Hirsi Ali

9:16 AM, Jan 04, 2016

The latest epside of Conversations With Bill Kristol features Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

"A best-selling author and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and the American Enterprise Institute, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a brave, impassioned, and provocative analyst of the problems in Islam today, including the dangers of what she calls 'Islamic totalitarianism.' In this conversation, Hirsi Ali narrates her own experiences as a young woman in Kenya attracted by radical Islam and explains the dangerous allure of Islamism to youth all over the world.

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Video: Donald Trump's First Ad

8:03 AM, Jan 04, 2016

Here's video of Donald Trump's first TV ad of the 2016 election:

"The politicians can pretend it's something else, but Donald Trump calls it radical Islamic terrorism. That’s why he's calling for a temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, until we can figure out what's going on. He'll quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil. And he'll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for," the narrator in the ad states.

The 30-second spot ends with Trump saying, "We will make America great again.

 Read more

Chuck Todd to Rand Paul: Are You Still a Presidential Candidate?

7:11 AM, Jan 04, 2016
NBC's Chuck Todd had to ask Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul whether he's actually still running. Read more

Trump: Hillary 'Caused Tremendous Death'

10:58 AM, Jan 03, 2016

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, of causing "tremendous death." Trump made the claim this morning in an interview with CBS:

"She's done horrible job," Trump told CBS's John Dickerson. "She's caused so many of the problems. And let me tell you something: she's caused death. She's caused tremendous death with incompetent decisions. I was against the war in Iraq--I wasn't a politician--but I was against the war ... she voted for the war in Iraq.

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French Ambassador Rationalizes Iranian Belligerency

10:28 AM, Jan 03, 2016

Saturday the French ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud downplayed the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic facilities in Iran. Following the execution of controversial Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Iranian mobs surely backed by the clerical regime set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the kingdom's consulate in Iran's second-largest city, Mashad. In response to the destruction of diplomatic missions, the chief of France's diplomatic mission in Washington wrote that "Iran was obliged to react. Burning an embassy is spectacular but not war."

Araud articulated his bizarrely obtuse thesis during a Twitter exchange with Omri Ceren, the managing director for press at the Israel Project.

 Read more