Editorial: Latest Reports from the Washington Posts ‘Right Turn’

Here are the latest reports from The Washington Posts ‘Jennifer Rubin’.

Sunday wrap

Who said it? 1. “You can’t turn negatives around overnight.” 2. “I’m not going to tell you that it’s easy. . . . I do think we have a path to victory.” 3. “What unites [Democrats] is that Trump would be a disastrous president.” 4. “He’s the only one of the candidates that ever had […]

Cruz’s challenge

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has his work cut out for him. His polling numbers are ominous. The RealClearPolitics averages show him in third place and  losing Maryland by more than 16 points, Connecticut by 30 and Delaware by 40. He is in second place in Pennsylvania, trailing by 19, and by 7 in Indiana and […]

Distinguished person of the week

The crude, small-minded debate and the candidates’ attachment to falsehoods (e.g. we are “losing” at trade) and inflaming the public (on everything from immigration to bathrooms) in the GOP presidential race leave one wondering whether any of them are up for the job of leading a superpower facing domestic and foreign challenges. The candidates seem, […]

Will no one take on the trade cowards?

Among the many discouraging aspects of the 2016 presidential race is the remaining candidates’ unanimous support for trade protectionism. There are those who know better but choose to pander to the crowd. There are those who are ignorant and insist on long-discredited arguments. It’s worse than climate-change denial, and it is bipartisan. Alan S. Blinder, […]

Stay out of the transgender bathroom controversy, Sen. Cruz

You can understand why Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) took the bait. He is looking to grab the media spotlight, put Donald Trump on defense and re-engage his base. So when Trump opined on North Carolina’s transgender-bathroom legislation, Cruz jumped. Trump said: “North Carolina did something that was very strong. And they’re paying a big price. There’s […]

Trump shouldn’t hide from the delegates

You have to hand it to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.): There is no convention, party gathering or caucus he will not attend to sell his campaign. This week he went to the Republican National Committee’s gathering in Hollywood, Fla. Alexis Levinson reported: Cruz himself was not originally scheduled to attend. His campaign announced only this […]

Republicans fret: Is Cruz crumbling?

Sen. Ted Cruz’s wipeout in the New York primary, while expected, nevertheless rattled many Republican insiders and activists who did not foresee the magnitude of the defeat. Is Cruz crumbling? Was Wisconsin an anomaly? The Cruz campaign set itself up, sending the candidate to campaign for days in New York and suggesting that Cruz could pick […]

Morning Bits

Republicans are tired of Donald Trump’s whining. “There’s nothing nefarious about the Republican wing of the Republican Party asserting itself. The simple fact is 63 percent of Republican voters so far have supported someone other than Trump. An open convention that allows this bloc to prevail is the most democratic and fair option available.” Trump said […]

Iran will continue provoking us

The Iranians clearly see the JCPOA as a first step in their effort to recalibrate its relationship with the West, that is to force the United States to recede and enable it to dominate the region. With President Obama, Iran is pushing on an open door. He plainly wants to disengage from the region, to […]

Fist bumps in the pro-Israel community

As we noted yesterday, Hillary Clinton’s big win in New York after emphasizing her pro-Israel credentials came as a blow to Israel’s critics, who heavily backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The extent to which the anti-Israel left went in for Sanders and the magnitude of its defeat is only now coming to light. And it […]

Obama owes Israel an apology

USA Today reported this week: “The Pentagon has approved airstrikes that risk more civilian casualties in order to destroy Islamic State targets as part of its increasingly aggressive fight against the militant group in Iraq and Syria, according to interviews with military officials and data.” Considering the enemy we face, the level of control and restraint that will continue […]

Kasich’s woes build up

It is easy to see how the accomplished, practical Ohio Gov. John Kasich could have been a real contender. That he is not evidences his lack of self-discipline and graciousness. Kasich’s problem is not that he is moderate or that he is a political insider; it is his personality and the campaign he has run. In […]

Answers to these 6 questions may tell us who will be the GOP nominee

Either Donald Trump has recaptured the momentum in the presidential primary, or there is no such thing as momentum. Either Ohio Gov. John Kasich is enabling Trump to reach 1,237 delegates or, as Kasich’s campaign chief John Weaver spun in a memo, “a serious effort” from him can keep Trump’s numbers down in races next […]

Tubman and Hamilton get top billing: A teachable moment

The Post reports: The U.S. Treasury will put African American abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 bill, replacing former president Andrew Jackson, who will be moved to the back of the bill, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced Wednesday. Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton will remain on the front of the new $10 bill, […]

Morning Bits

And just when he managed to rekindle interest in his future. “Walker: I’ll support Trump if he’s the GOP nominee.” Really, not a wise thing to say. President Obama was going to restore our standing in the world, remember. “President Barack Obama received a chilly reception from Saudi Arabia’s leaders as he landed in Riyadh Wednesday, […]

No, John Kasich won’t be the party’s savior

Given his third-place showing last night in New York, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is in a poor position to tell Ohio Gov. John Kasich to get out of the race. It nevertheless is remarkable that Kasich remains in the race. Kasich may never pass Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who left the race on March 15, in […]

Clinton can breathe a sigh of relief

Hillary Clinton’s win in New York, following her opponent’s most aggressive attacks of the campaign and near-hysteria among her supporters about the tone of the race, should put to bed any worries about securing the nomination. She was fully justified in declaring Tuesday night that “the race for the Democratic nomination is in the homestretch […]

It’s nearly time for that white knight to show up

A depressed #NeverTrump Republican wryly remarked this morning, “If you’re depressed by last night, we still have New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia looming — all presumptive [Donald] Trump wins.” Indeed, Republicans of good conscience awoke this morning looking at a stark, unpleasant reality: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is not going to spare them from a […]

Clinton scores victory over anti-Israel left

There was no single issue in recent weeks on which Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) differed more sharply than on Israel. With Clinton trouncing Sanders in a city with the largest Jewish population per capita (overwhelmingly Democratic) in the country, it is worth looking at the political ramifications for Clinton’s overt pro-Israel stance. The […]

Backlash grows over Obama’s Iran concession

The Obama administration’s hint that it was considering allowing Iran to access directly or indirectly U.S. dollars drew furious, negative reaction from both sides of the aisle. On Monday, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) denounced the effort and called for the administration to reaffirm definitively its explicit promise that barriers to Iran’s accessing dollars would remain in […]

Cruz can win, but only on a second ballot; Trump can’t win beyond the first

Donald Trump got his expected, mammoth win in New York’s primary and his haul of 90 delegates. Meanwhile, his new campaign chief has turned out to be as ineffectual as the last when it comes to delegate strategy. We therefore have reached the extraordinary situation where Trump is the only candidate who mathematically can get […]

Morning Bits

If any institution deserved to be disrupted this is it. “There exists an alternative to four bankrupting years on campus. There’s almost no learning, be it liberal arts or STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), that can’t be had free — or close to it — online. MOOCs (massive open online courses) are perfectly suited […]

Obama’s Iraq folly

The Associated Press reported: “The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday.” While the […]

Obamacare in its present form won’t survive

The Post reports, “UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, said Tuesday that in 2017 it will exit most of the 34 states where it offers plans on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges.” The concept of an exchange — a marketplace with some consumer choice (albeit one highly regulated by the government in required benefits) — […]

The candidate most likely to increase the threat of domestic terrorism

Hillary Clinton last December accused Donald Trump — presciently, as it turned out — of becoming a recruiting tool for Islamist terrorists. She argued, “They are going to people, showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.” In fact, Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and extreme “solutions” pose two greater dangers. First, […]

Why the Clinton camp freak out?

With Hillary Clinton’s virtually insurmountable lead and a big victory expected in New York tonight, it is hard to understand why the campaign and her supporters elsewhere are so freaked out about attacks coming from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In a fundraising email, her campaign chief Robbie Mook complains: Over the weekend, they had protesters outside […]

New York cannot save Donald Trump

Unless there has been a polling debacle or a turnout flop, Donald Trump will win the GOP New York presidential primary handily on Tuesday. He’s likely to win more than 50 percent and get the lion’s share of delegates. Worse for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), he could very well come in third, giving Ohio Gov. […]

Trump’s vanity project becomes a train wreck

Self-promotion is different from business expertise, as Donald Trump has amply demonstrated. The former involves manipulating the media, creating a “brand” and displaying an arrogant indifference to social norms. The latter requires discipline, judgment, self-reflection and leadership. So long as Trump could get by as a self-promoter in the presidential campaign, he was successful; when, […]

Morning Bits

A victory for separation of powers? “A 4-4 tie could kill the [executive] immigration programs for good. The lower court’s temporary injunction would stand while the states seek to permanently block the president’s actions. The litigation could then span into the next administration, which may or may not fight to uphold Obama’s actions, depending on […]

The 2016 race: Who’s the least unpopular?

NBC News reports: Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders nationally by just two points in the Democratic presidential race, according to results from a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Clinton gets support from 50 percent of Democratic primary voters, while Sanders gets support from 48 percent. That’s down from Clinton’s nine-point advantage a month ago, […]

Obama is missing a fifth vote in the high court’s immigration fight

The Post reports on Monday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on President Obama’s executive order on immigration in U.S. v. Texas: There was little indication at the Supreme Court on Monday that President Obama has found needed conservative support to revive his stalled plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and give them the right to […]

Trump’s values are not America’s

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is learning the hard way not to stoop to right-wing cliches. “New York values” is a lazy man’s insult, a dog whistle to the right and a self-limiting expression suggesting that some parts of the United States are irretrievably lost, immune to the attractions of principled conservatism. To Cruz’s dismay, the […]

Republicans shouldn’t rerun the same losing campaign

The Wall Street Journal reports: With growing uncertainty about who will emerge as the GOP presidential nominee, Democrats are assembling opposition playbooks against Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz or a Republican-to-be-named-later. . . . “If Ted Cruz is the nominee, we’ll be ready. If Donald Trump is the nominee, we’ll be ready,” said Justin Barasky, […]

Ups and downs

UP: Sen. Ted Cruz’s delegate-gathering efforts. DOWN: Donald Trump whining about Cruz’s delegate-gathering efforts. UP: Animosity in the Democratic presidential debate DOWN: Trump refusing to debate anymore UP: A contested RNC convention DOWN: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for president UP: Israeli-Saudi relations DOWN: U.S.-Saudi relations UP: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) (not Clinton) in general […]

Ken Cuccinelli shows how to defend the GOP against Trump

On ABC’s “This Week,” former Virginia attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, and now delegate coordinator for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Ken Cuccinelli spoke up in defense of his party’s nominating system in this exchange: STEPHANOPOULOS: If you look at where this is going right now, it seems like even if Mr. Trump doesn’t get to 1,237, […]

Morning Bits

The credibility is almost nonexistent. “Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media. Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and […]

Sunday wrap

Who said it? 1. “He’s hurting us around the world. He can say whatever he want to say about me. I really could care less.” 2. “They’ve gone after us in every single area in a way that just misrepresents my views.” 3. “Having a plurality of the delegates means that the field has the […]

A Clinton Iran approach Republicans could support

Hillary Clinton, who is in the course of a fierce struggle for the affection of the Democratic base, is not about to disown the JCPOA, President Obama’s signature second-term accomplishment. The administration considers the Iran agreement the foreign policy equivalent of Obamacare. Whether Clinton, who opened up the back channel to Iran, thinks it is […]

Distinguished person of the week

There is a great deal of silliness and downright fabrication about foreign policy taking place in both parties’ presidential primaries. Neither side is being forthright about the extent of the commitments necessary to defeat Islamist terrorism. All the candidates would do well to listen to Gen. Raymond T. Odierno (Ret.), who spoke this past week […]

Ted Cruz’s TV time shows where he needs to improve

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is bracing for a big Donald Trump win in New York, which will inflate Trump’s ego and delegate total. The time spent in New York has not been wasted, however. Cruz has been using national media that he hopes will help him up and down the East Coast with primaries over […]

Kasich is exactly right on this one

The Democratic National Committee’s press shop is hyperventilating over a remark made by Ohio Gov. John Kasich. In answering a question about sexual assault on campus, the Republican presidential candidate gave a detailed answer,“You have a place to go where there is a confidential reporting, where there is an ability for you to access a […]

Morning Bits

The administration whines because it is not respected. “US complains to Russia over jet buzzing US warship.” Donald Trump has no grounds to bellyache. “The playing field is tilted, but it’s tilted in Trump’s favor; he’s been running downhill. . . . Trump has won a higher share of delegates than votes in 24 of the 35 […]

CEOs push back against political nonsense

An extraordinary thing happened recently: The chief executives of three major U.S. companies, tired of being political punching bags and passive onlookers, spoke about — and against — ridiculous statements by politicians. CEOs generally shrink from controversy, wanting to keep their heads down and not draw the ire of this or that group, or, heaven forbid, regulators […]

Eight lessons for Republicans from the Democrats’ N.Y. debate

Last night’s Democratic debate in Brooklyn, which was more like a screaming match, should wake up Republicans. There are important lessons to be learned: 1. Hillary Clinton is a vulnerable candidate who is still playing defense on her Wall Street ties. Even a minimally competent, plain-wrap Republican could beat her. If Donald Trump is the […]

Trump’s ‘best’ people are seriously flawed

When you find out that the late senator Joseph McCarthy’s henchman, Roy Cohn, was Donald Trump’s mentor and fixer, Trump’s campaign missteps and current predicament begin to make sense. Politico recently reported: Over a 13-year-period, ending shortly before Cohn’s death in 1986, Cohn brought his say-anything, win-at-all-costs style to all of Trump’s most notable legal […]

Wall Street’s dilemma reflects Cruz’s challenge

Politico reports on the difficult time Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is having wooing Wall Street donors: Given the formidable stakes, many on Wall Street are paying attention to Cruz’s overtures. Some say they dislike both Cruz and [Donald] Trump, but will come to the aid of Cruz as the lesser evil. Others find Cruz’s anti-Wall […]

Five reasons Trump shouldn’t give policy speeches

Donald Trump, according to news reports, is intending to give a series of policy speeches. The idea is that this will make him seem presidential and lure conservatives. Bad idea. For one thing, no one thinks these are Trump’s ideas or that he has a command of policy. He’s flubbed up too many times in […]

Morning Bits

Working hard and organizing pay off. Donald Trump should try it. “A year of planning is paying off for [Sen. Ted] Cruz as his campaign racks up delegates from Virginia to Louisiana to Colorado, cutting into Trump’s once-formidable lead and threatening the businessman’s ability to secure a first-ballot win at the July convention in Cleveland.” Sen. Bernie Sanders […]

Mr. Priebus, this is not going to ‘blow over’

As we have noted before, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has walked on egg-shells so as not to annoy Donald Trump. He’s bent over backwards to declare him one of many “outstanding” candidates and to pledge the party’s “100 percent” support if Trump is the nominee. Predictably, Priebus’s efforts have been fruitless and Trump is […]

What sort of running mate does Cruz need?

At the town hall on CNN Wednesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) let on that he’s beginning the VP selection process. Of course he is; anyone with a well-organized campaign would start early, make his list, begin to vet and spend time with potential running mates. Failure to do so would be, well, as sloppy […]

The GOP delegates have leverage — and should use it

Focus on the expected contested convention has centered on what Donald Trump might do to pressure delegates. He and his flunkies have been crying foul and hinting at violence. Others have speculated that Trump might have a bag full of goodies (jobs, donations, etc.) to toss around. CNN observed: There are federal and state laws […]

Trump demonstrates the right’s electoral blindness

Since the 2012 election, the myth of the “missing” white voter found wide acceptance on the right. Although subsequently disproved again and again, those determined to advance anti-immigration and anti-internationalist foreign policies clung to the notion that the GOP could narrow-cast a populist message to working-class and middle-class whites, ignore the growing diversity of the electorate and double down […]

Israel is less isolated than the U.S.

One of the oddities of President Obama’s approach to the Middle East is that its hostility to Israel and its lack of support for Sunni allies have left the United States less influential and less respected with everyone in the region (including Iran) while Israel has become closer to its Arab neighbors. A recent event […]

Hillary Clinton goes on offense on foreign policy

Only with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as her primary opponent and Donald Trump waiting in the wings could Hillary Clinton, carrying the baggage of nearly eight years of President Obama’s foreign policy failures, go on offense successfully. That is exactly what she is doing in advance of tonight’s Democratic debate. Instead of ideology, Clinton’s foreign […]

Israel is less isolated than the U.S.

One of the oddities of President Obama’s approach to the Middle East is that its hostility to Israel and its lack of support for Sunni allies have left the United States less influential and less respected with everyone in the region (including Iran) while Israel has become closer to its Arab neighbors. A recent event […]