FF Symposium: Where’s the Vital Center?

The withdrawal of Scott Lee Cohen, candidate for Lieutenant Governor, is just the latest in a series of embarrassments for the Illinois Democratic party.  more

Rumors abound that New York Governor David Paterson may resign from office as early as tomorrow despite vigorous denials from the Governor’s office in Albany.  more

UPDATED: In her speech to the Tea Party Convention, Palin declared that “if government got out of the way, the economy would roar back to life.” In the context of 2010, what is that even supposed to mean?   more

Simply bringing the Republican party to the center is not enough. Centrists can be just as disingenuous and unprincipled as their far-right counterparts.   more

The deep recession, Obama’s mien, Pelosi’s arrogance and Reid’s cluelessness are keeping the GOP competitive. But Republicans still have a big problem with college graduates and the 200k+ crowd.  more

No description can do justice to the low-budget strangeness of the demon sheep ad, but the more urgent question for California Republicans is this: What should they make of the substance of Fiorina’s attack on Campbell?  more

In his latest post, E.D. Kain confuses “centrism” and “moderation” to mean a Republican that aims toward a bland middle of the road view. However, history shows us that moderate Republicans are a real faction with unique values and positions.  more

Senate Democrats are planning to abandon climate change legislation in favor of focusing on a smaller energy-only bill.  more

Its doubtful anything interesting will emerge out of David Frum’s call for a center-right counterweight to CPAC. The right has lost its center, no doubt, but it won’t necessarily find it by simply being more “moderate”.  more

In the first year of the Obama administration, honest debates over policy have been replaced by a politics of symbolic (and largely empty) gestures.  more

At a convention marked by extreme speeches and occasional conspiracy theories delivered from the podium, the question going into Saturday night’s keynote finale from Sarah Palin was: How extreme would she get in order to ingratiate herself with her audience?  more

The demon sheep attack ad unveiled last week by California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina is one of the most brilliant, witty and devastatingly effective political ads ever made.  more

In a post at HotAir.com, Ed Morrissey wisely points out the damage the birthers are causing to the conservative movement.  more

Looking forward, the Tea Party organizers have big plans. But my view is that the movement will soon start to fall apart, if it hasn’t already.  more

My latest column for the National Post asks if the GOP is losing an important opportunity to stem the growing cost of healthcare.  more

Hawaii’s first congressional district right in the President’s home state looks to be a seat where voter dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party could lead to another surprising Republican pick-up. FrumForum sat down with Charles Djou, the Republican candidate in this upcoming race.  more

What began as a serious investigation into mind boggling claims that Europe’s largest defense contractor, BAE systems, had paid a billion pounds in bribes concluded yesterday with the firm pleading guilty to, well, not a hell of a lot.  more

It looks like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed won’t be tried in New York after all. But there are still many unanswered questions: Where will he be tried and what kind of trial will he finally receive?  more

Last night, Stephen Colbert performed a short sketch (the last 60 seconds here) that ended by inviting viewers to invent obscene definitions in UrbanDictionary.com for the term “Canada’s history.”  more

For this particular conservative, the following words from Essays in Persuasion by J.M. Keynes carry immediate relevance.  more

The Tea Party Convention has managed to put a conservative face on a movement that, if not quite mainstream, is at least respectable. That changed with one long dumb speech from WorldNetDaily chief Joseph Farah, one of the leaders of the so-called Birther movement.  more

They just gave an ovation to a shout-out to James O’Keefe… Last seen getting arrested in a Senator’s office.  more

Having spent the day listening to speeches at the Tea Party National Convention and talking to delegates, the one thing that has really surprised me is the high level of explicitly Christian social conservatism on display.  more

If the young Tea Party movement is serious about gaining support and influence, having former congressman Tom Tancredo deliver the opening speech at their convention was a first step in the wrong direction.  more

New emails show that Todd Palin often voiced approval or disapproval of Alaskan state hiring and appointments to the relevant authorities. Conservatives were rightly irritated when Hillary Clinton tried to boot-strap her ceremonial position into a role in personnel and policy. But did even she go so far as this?  more

This week, in the race for Obama’s old Senate seat, the Republican Senatorial Committee released a devastating ad ripping Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias for his questionable ties to corruption.  more

Patrick J. Buchanan has finally given up on Quemoy and Matsu, not to mention the ghosts of Douglas MacArthur and General Chiang Kai-shek. In a Feb. 2 column, Buchanan calls for American retreat from bases in Japan and Korea.   more

The possibility of a right-wing primary challenge is motivating Utah Senator Bob Bennett’s new efforts to ban gay marriage in the District of Columbia.  more