Ronaldus Magnus
November 11, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Regarding the ongoing feud between George Will and Bill O’Reilly, it is evident that O’Reilly has never heard of Healey’s First Law of Holes (coined by the British politician Denis Healey), which runs: “If you’re in one—stop digging.” O’Reilly lost no time in responding to Will’s latest column dismantling Killing Reagan, released yesterday afternoon. It is interesting that, just as he did with his on-air response to the Washington Post
»
November 10, 2015 — Steven Hayward
George Will is just out this afternoon with a second column about Bill O’Reilly’s travesty of a novel, Killing Reagan. If anything it is even more savage in dismantling O’Reilly than the first one. I wonder if O’Reilly will have Will on again for a second round on TV? I’m betting not. O’Reilly is a typical playground bully who runs from anyone able to stand up to him. You should
»
November 8, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Peter Robinson writes: Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes have just published a marvelous book, Jack Kemp, the Bleeding Heart Conservative Who Changed America. Reviewing the book today, the New York Times slams it. Not only did the Kemp-Roth tax cut legislation of 1981 fail to do any good, Tim Noah, the reviewer, insists, but the legislation — the centerpiece, you will recall, of Reagan’s first-term economic reforms — proved “a
»
November 7, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Last night I touched on the demented highlights of Bill O’Reilly’s wild interview with George Will in “O’Reilly projects.” I’ve watched the video now a few more times. If you haven’t seen it, you may find it of interest. I’m not entirely sure I understand all his points, but I think each point O’Reilly makes is haywire. O’Reilly begins with Will’s failure to call O’Reilly before publishing his “provocative column.”
»
October 16, 2015 — Steven Hayward
A lot of people have been asking me for my opinion about Bill O’Reilly’s latest co-authored potboiler, Killing Reagan. To call it bovine excrement would be an insult to hoofed animals of all species. Today in the Washington Post, Craig Shirley, Kiron Skinner, Paul Kengor, and yours truly have written an article that details some of the massive defects with O’Reilly’s parallel universe. (The four of us have published a
»
September 7, 2015 — Steven Hayward
New York Times op-ed writer Timothy Egan today runs “Ronald Reagan, Heretic,” in which he attempts the same risible liberal revisionism that I dismantled in Commentary four years ago. See “The Liberal Misappropriation of a Conservative President,” October 2011, for the complete case. But let’s just review a few of Egan’s unoriginal revisions: As president, Reagan signed a bill that granted amnesty to nearly three million people who were in
»
August 31, 2015 — Scott Johnson
The new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books is in the mail today. Subscribe here for the heavily subsidized price of $19.95 and get online access thrown in for free. Weighing in at 102 pages, the new issue is full of good stuff including essays by William Voegeli and Peter Wood as well as scintillating reviews by Benjamin Balint, Christopher Caldwell, James Ceaser, Christopher DeMuth, Charles Murray and
»
August 4, 2015 — Steven Hayward
I neglected to note yesterday the passing of another significant figure, former Pennsylvania Senator and HHS Secretary Richard Schweiker. He became a person of special prominence in 1976 when Ronald Reagan announced he’d pick Schweiker—who had a reputation as a very liberal Republican—if he (Reagan) wrested the nomination away from Gerald Ford. Many conservatives were appalled, but when Schweiker became HHS Secretary in 1981, he turned out to be a
»
July 28, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Except when it comes to law enforcement, by doing less. The Obama administration has been a disaster for Africa-Americans, but most pretend not to notice out of a sense of ethnic loyalty. That is understandable, but if you are an African-American and are looking past the Obama administration, wondering what policies might produce better results, check out this graphic that was tweeted a couple of days ago by the Young
»
July 17, 2015 — Steven Hayward
One thing I love about liberals is how they can’t ever seem to make up their mind about whether Ronald Reagan was an ogre or a great man. This week he’s a great man, because lo and behold with regard to Iran Obama is doing exactly what the Gipper did with the Soviet Union! Take E.J. Dionne’s column yesterday, “Obama: Reaganite on Iran,” which begins thus: When President Ronald Reagan
»
June 14, 2015 — John Hinderaker
I have no idea whether this is true or not. The source is Brad Meltzer, a comic book author, novelist and occasional nonfiction writer, writing in the New York Daily News. Meltzer says that he was talking with Secret Service agents, getting information for his latest book, a political thriller: We were talking about Reagan and that day he was shot. Then one of the agents offered this secret: When
»
February 16, 2015 — Scott Johnson
In the latest of his Conversations, Bill Kristol draws out the eminent Bill Bennett on key moments in his distinguished career. Bill Bennett is a man who needs no introduction to Power Line readers. I will say only that this is great stuff. The interview is posted here, where it is broken into chapters. (It is also available in transcript or podcast form at the link.) My guess is you’ll
»
January 2, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Three-term former New York Governor Mario Cuomo died yesterday at the age of 82. The New York Times recalls him in the obituary by Adam Nagourney and the New York City sidebar by Sam Roberts. Cuomo was an eloquent preacher of the liberal gospel at a time when the gospel had been eclipsed by Ronald Reagan’s political and policy successes. At the Democratic Convention in July 1984, giving the keynote
»
December 9, 2014 — Steven Hayward
A handful of House Democrats, led by the egregious Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, have conducted a stunt of bringing a cardboard cutout of Ronald Reagan to the House floor to bolster their case for raising the federal gasoline tax, because falling gasoline prices are simply unbearable if you’re a liberal. “All it takes is a little leadership and courage, like Ronald Reagan and [House Speaker] Tip O’Neill did 32 years
»
December 6, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Ronald Reagan apparently detested Bobby Kennedy, another sign of Reagan’s good judgment since Kennedy was an awful human being. But this is something I hadn’t heard before: Michael Reagan says that Bobby leaned on General Electric to get Reagan off television: [A] few months after [subpoenaing Reagan before a grand jury], Kennedy tried to get him fired from General Electric Theater. Or, at least, that’s what Reagan believed. “Dad told
»
November 17, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Our friends at the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here for $19.95 and get immediate online access thrown in for free) have given us a look at an advance copy of the Fall 2014 issue, scheduled for release later this week. I read my favorite magazines — National Review, the Weekly Standard, Commentary and the New Criterion — front to back, because (next to the books themselves) I most enjoy
»
November 9, 2014 — Steven Hayward
FWIW, here are some excerpts of my account of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the larger currents around it from the Epilogue of The Age of Reagan, picking up right in the middle. One part of this at the end—that revolutionary politics are over—is clearly incorrect, though the “crisis on the Left” bit remains more true than ever: The material and structural factors [of the end of the
»
