This has always been the way of presidential politics. The president rises above the fray while his surrogates go on the attack. They throw the spears and fling the mud; he sits upon the throne. – John Podhoretz
Is victory sweet because your side wins – or is it really because the other side loses? – John Podhoretz
The problem is that borrowing money to pay back more borrowed money that will oblige you in the future to borrow even more money doesn’t sound kosher. Because it isn’t. – John Podhoretz
Obama learned from Ronald Reagan that it helps to strike an optimistic tone. But genuine optimism deriving from American exceptionalism, it turns out, does not come naturally to him. – John Podhoretz
The real story of the Ground Zero mosque is that the project only became feasible because of the appalling and astonishing fecklessness of the officials who were charged with the reconstruction of the site and the neighborhood all the way back in 2001. – John Podhoretz
There is a new conservative establishment in America, made up of those who claim to be the anti-establishment. – John Podhoretz
Christopher Nolan’s astounding third Batman feature, ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ represents the true maturation of the superhero movie – and provides the key to understanding the bottomless craving moviegoers have for these films, 34 years after the Christopher Reeve Superman gave birth to the genre. – John Podhoretz
By the time Obama came into office, Washington had already agreed over a period of a few weeks to a $700 billion government infusion into the world banking system. Nothing of the sort had ever been done before, and it was done spit spot with very little national debate. – John Podhoretz
Romney is right that the Obama vision is too centered on government. But his is too centered on the promotion of business and wealth creation at the expense of everything else. – John Podhoretz
Insulting the electorate and accusing it of spiritual weakness and sinfulness are not the ways to get yourself the job of president. – John Podhoretz
The 2004 presidential election that saw George W. Bush win with 51 percent of the vote was the last one Republicans will ever win with the overwhelmingly white and male coalition they have now. – John Podhoretz
Memories of the last nine years have turned Ground Zero from a site of horror, to a reminder of grief, to an occasion for ludicrous artistic posturing – and now to something very close to parody. – John Podhoretz
The Middle East Media Research Institute has spent decades detailing the diseased messages emanating from Palestinian TV and textbooks, instructing children in the glories of suicide terrorism against innocent Israelis. – John Podhoretz
By keeping most tax rates at present levels, Obama and the Democrats will claim that they have championed tax cuts for the middle class. – John Podhoretz
Your race and gender don’t change, but you can choose to change your political affiliation at will. – John Podhoretz
Obama lost his ability to push his agenda through Congress when he received what he himself called a ‘shellacking’ in the November 2010 elections. That shellacking was primarily the result of massive policy overreach when he had a Democratic Congress in his pocket. – John Podhoretz
The United States established itself as a trustworthy new nation in its first two decades after the Revolutionary War by paying its debts, even when many in the country believed it had no obligation to do so. Alexander Hamilton, the founder of this newspaper, insisted on it. – John Podhoretz
Making recess appointments when the Senate isn’t in recess is neither rational nor moderate. It’s a raw misuse of executive power by a president whose love of government is his most vulnerable spot with the electorate. – John Podhoretz