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Famously, a message from President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of State, John Hay, electrified the 1904 Republican convention: "This Government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American, had been kidnapped in Morocco by a bandit named Ahmed al-Raisuli. Hay's line served as a U.S. ultimatum to bring the affair, after the United deployment of the U.S. Navy to Morocco and drawn-out negotiations, to a conclusion.

We live in an age of anxiety, full of anger and depression. The presidential candidates are clearly playing on both emotional states. There's need for healing. But there is also an invitation for courage. That's what's maddening about politics these days — the lack of courage. The Republicans drive me the craziest because they supposedly believe abortion is a human-rights issue, but then they just dropped it in the hopes it would help them in November.

First, they oppose you and condescend to you. Then, they reluctantly conclude that you had more on the ball than they thought. After that, they concede your achievements. And finally, they make a glowing feature-length movie about you. This has been the trajectory of Ronald Reagan and his reputation, although the new film, "Reagan," wasn’t made by his erstwhile detractors. ...

Vice President Kamala Harris thinks U.S. Steel should not have the right to sell its business to Japan’s Nippon Steel. Previously, some Republican senators thought they too should have the ability to kill the deal between private companies. And it doesn’t stop there. During the pandemic, airlines had to get the government’s permission to hand out hand sanitizer to passengers. Energy projects are subjected to years of permitting processes. And, of course, in most places, Americans aren’t allowed to build what they want on their own property without subjecting themselves to government authorization. ...

In June 2022, The Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned Roe v. Wade, the decision that defined the law of the land regarding abortion since 1973. Now we are in active national discourse about which abortion regime will fill this vacuum. ...

“He was on our radar.” How many times have we heard that after a mass shooting at a high school or a shopping mall? We heard it for the umpteenth time again this week after a disturbed 14-year-old kid in Georgia took a rifle to school and killed two students, two teachers, and injured nine others.

There appears to be lingering confusion about the funding mechanism for the West Park Mall project. As a longtime member of the TIF committee with 30 years of experience as a commercial real estate lender, I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of how this works and will attempt to provide some clarification ...

"Have mercy on us — and ISIS." Shortly after the mass killing of Christians by that terrorist group in Iraq 10 years ago, a young woman born in a refugee camp led an arena of young people in prayer. She believed in God’s mercy enough that she even prayed for the Islamist militant group who had killed members of her family. ...

he indications are that a historically oppressed minority group in America is finally going to get discriminated against less. Cue the rejoicing? No, because the group is Asian-Americans and the discrimination has happened in the realm of college admissions. MIT has released its first post-affirmative action admissions numbers for the incoming class of 2028, and the percentage of Asian-American students increased markedly from 40% percent to 47%. Black students dropped from 15 to 5%, and Hispanic students from 16 to 11%, while the percentage of white students stayed roughly the same, dropping one percentage point.

How do accomplished radicals elect a mediocre far-left presidential candidate? The task might at first seem impossible. Kamala Harris is currently a radical incumbent vice president. For more than three years, she was second in command to an unprecedentedly unliked Democrat president, his failed policies, and his unpopular record.

Democrats are embracing freedom and love of country as their campaign message. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and announced that the difference between Republicans and Democrats is "freedom." Similarly, Vice President Kamala Harris insisted that Democrats "believe in freedom, opportunity, and the promise of America." She added that her greatest privilege is being an American. With the GOP's old mix of freedom and optimism no longer front and center, I am just glad that someone, anyone, in these elections is willing to loudly say that America is indeed the greatest country there is. Millions of immigrants like me have left everything behind precisely because they believe this to be so. And many millions more would love to come and experience the American dream.

My organization, CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, organized a delegation of 20 prominent pastors to travel to Israel to host a press conference on Oct. 7 as a show of support for and solidarity with Israelis on the one-year anniversary of the horrendous, savage terrorist attack that took place. A few days ago, we were notified by Delta Airlines that our flight was canceled. Airlines are canceling flights in light of the ongoing hostilities and instability in security in the region.

The single most abused, misused and misunderstood word in American politics is "unity." All presidential candidates vow to unite Americans. Nearly every pundit and public intellectual laments the lack of unity. "When America is united, America is totally unstoppable," Donald Trump declared in his inaugural address. "With unity, we can do great things. Important things," insisted Joe Biden in his. Kamala Harris proclaimed in her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention that "in unity, there is strength."

Never mind. If you thought cracking down on price gouging was a key element of the Kamala Harris economic program — because she said as much in her economic speech a couple of weeks ago — it turns out you were mistaken. Harris merely wanted people to know how seriously she takes escalating prices at the grocery store.

Hollywood can’t always be trusted to accurately portray reality or history, to say the least. But I fully enjoyed watching the facts go by in the premier of “Reagan,” which I saw this week at the famous Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. “Reagan,” which stars Dennis Quaid as my father and opened around the country Friday, covers my father’s career from Illinois lifeguard to the American president who set out to bankrupt the Soviet Union — and did it.

To listen to the speeches from the podium at the Democratic National Convention, you'd think Democrats were handing out Friedrich Hayek's libertarian classic "The Road to Serfdom" on the floor. In recent weeks, Democrats have made a hard pivot to adopt the rhetoric of freedom, and the tack was particularly pronounced in Chicago. The anthem of the convention was the Beyoncé song "Freedom," and the Kamala Harris campaign unveiled a new ad, "We believe in freedom."

"Do something." That was one of the refrains of the recent Democratic convention. It was a brilliant emotional play for votes — many of the speakers clearly got a memo about the need to alleviate the anxiety of the age and our lives. It likely has a resonance that no policy proposal would. Earlier this summer, Catholics filled Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis to talk about hunger; hunger for something more than certainly politics can ever provide. Hunger for something eternal. Monsignor James Shea said: "God has made us so that we are incomplete unless we are feeding on Him. Human beings are famished for God ... We have to feed on God or something else — and whatever that something else is, it will leave us hungry."

The 2023-2024 campaign season is not just the strangest on record, it's also arguably the most anti-democratic. Ostensibly, the Democratic Party has claimed over the last decade that former President Donald Trump posed a continued and existential threat to the republic. That allegation subsequently justified a variety of anti-democratic means to neuter his first two presidential candidacies, his presidency, and now his third and final run for the White House.

As a young kid, I always loved helping out on my grandparents’ farm. It was an opportunity to spend quality time with family and it helped me learn the value of hard work. It’s also what inspired me to join FFA, study agriculture in college, and do whatever it would take to one day purchase the farm, which I was able to do using the money I made from harvesting timber on the property while I was in law school. Running my farm, which has been in my family for four generations, isn’t easy. But there is nothing more rewarding.

Cape Girardeau is a city of hospitality. Our economy revolves around businesses that sell goods and services others want and need, hotels and restaurants that people enjoy, and events and spaces that bring joy and a wonderful quality of life. We see top-notch opportunities for education, health care and training here, all produced by folks who have dedicated their lives to improving the lives of others. As mayor, I have had the huge pleasure of greeting conventions and trade groups, giving out welcomes, shopping tips, and the local perspective on where to find the best pancakes. I’ve consistently heard from visitors that Cape is unique in its welcoming nature, in the natural warmth, and the helpful attitudes of our residents. The citizens of Cape, ultimately, are the reason why people love Cape.

Kamala Harris took a few brief minutes on the campaign trail to answer a couple of questions from reporters, and flash her policy chops. When asked how she is going to pay for her lavish spending plans, the vice president explained that it would be covered via those indispensable fiscal tools — pixie dust and magical thinking.

Over the years 1934-1961, British historian Arnold Toynbee published his 12-volume "A Study of History." Toynbee studied the rise and fall of 23 civilizations. His conclusion was that great civilizations die not from external causes but from internal causes. They commit suicide.

The best thing about Kamala Harris' policy debut last week was the backlash. I don't mean the political backlash; Harris' attack on " price-gouging" was probably smart politics. It amplified her campaign's message that she's " fighting for the people." That economists scoff at the tools she would use in that fight probably doesn't matter much.

The already-long 2024 presidential campaign has become the strangest in modern history. Here are 10 unanswered questions that illustrate how and why we've entered this bizarro world: 1. How can Kamala Harris merely promise us fixes to come in 2025 for inflation and an open border when she is still vice president for another six months? Why can't she enact her proposed solutions to these problems (which she helped create) right now?

Gratitude: It shouldn't be that hard. Everything we have is a gift. That's not the stuff of politics much anymore. We live in a time when anger is more of the trend. But that's not going to work. Gratitude is the only healthy way forward.

In the ongoing debate over America’s trade policy, politicians and pundits often claim that the public supports tariffs and other protectionist measures, such as those given to us by the Trump and Biden administrations. A new Cato Institute poll, however, reveals a more complex picture: Americans might like the idea of tariffs and "Buy American" policies, but their support shrinks when confronted with higher prices and other negative consequences. ...

Joe Biden made Donald Trump feel fresh and vital. No matter how commonplace Trump's tropes and mode of campaigning had become, they seemed compelling compared to the bleached-out president of the United of States who had become a shell of himself.

Never has the GOP been more unified, and Donald Trump deserves all the credit. The issue uniting pundits, editorial boards, virtually all Republican politicians, GOP consultants, MAGA warriors and rallygoers: the need for Trump to lay aside personal gripes and grievances and to stick to the issues and attack Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz on their records. The New York Times asked former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) what he made of Trump attacking Harris for inventing her Black identity only recently. He replied, "I would stick to the price of groceries.

The appearance of Sean O' Brien, president of the Teamsters Union, in a key speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, raised a lot of eyebrows across the political spectrum about what is going on both with unions and with the Republican Party. The union agenda and the traditional Republican agenda — free markets, free trade, free labor market competition — is not a cocktail that we usually think of as going together.

My taxicab driver declared the Democratic vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, a dud. "Is Minnesota even in play?" he protested. "This is about abortion, isn't it?" he asked a bit nervously. He was relieved when I agreed with him. Billy, my driver, told me he really doesn't have a right to have an opinion on a women's right to choose because he's a man. But when I encouraged him to follow the science and stand up for the innocent, he was playing a different tune: "I'm adopted ... I wouldn't be here if my birth mother chose abortion. Abortion is evil. But we're not supposed to say that." He even showed me photos of both his birth and adopted parents.

As someone who strongly believes that the best government is that which is closest to the people, I’m incredibly frustrated by how much the federal government has grown since our nation was founded nearly 250 years ago. Whenever the Left is in control of Washington, they do everything they can to force their values on the rest of America – and the biggest tool they have is the Washington bureaucracy. Whether they’re trying to ban gas powered vehicles, dictating what you can or can’t do on your land, or even deciding what kind of appliances you can purchase for your home, there is no limit to how far they will go to expand government command and control.

How did Kamala Harris become so good at this? How does a sub-par vice president get transformed nearly instantaneously into a joyful performer who can do no wrong? It’s easy. As the 20th century writer and strategist James Burnham put it, "Where there is no alternative, there is no problem." Since there was no alternative to pumping up Harris to star status — or the only alternative would be to sub out Joe Biden for a barely replacement-level politician — she’s now inspirational, hip and beguilingly moderate. ...

President Joe Biden won in 2020 on the premise that until the November election, he would pose as good ol’ Joe from Scranton and not scare voters. So Biden talked about "unity" and "competency". He erased his prior wild primary pandering to left-wing voters about shutting down fracking and opening the border. ...

Social Security is facing enormous shortfalls. It is insolvent. Within the next 10 years, no one will be able to avoid this reality — despite decades of politically expedient denial. Yet as of today, both presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, have announced they won’t touch the program. In fact, Mr. Trump wants to make it even more insolvent by lifting taxes seniors pay on benefits. ...

To the surprise of just about everyone, Kamala Harris has had a remarkably good two weeks (whether her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz marks the end of that honeymoon or an extension of it remains to be seen). Democrats, of course, have been pleasantly surprised. Prior to President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race, many Democrats were exceedingly skeptical that swapping Harris for Biden would improve their chances in November. So far, many of their concerns have proved unwarranted.

The basement campaign has been updated. Kamala Harris isn’t in the cellar of the Naval Observatory campaigning via Zoom calls à la Joe Biden in 2020. No, she’s speaking to adoring crowds fired up by pop stars. She’s identifying herself with the latest trends (she’s "brat’" now). She’s clapping back against Donald Trump with panache. ...

Ever since the pandemic began, St. Louis has been subjecting taxpayers who neither live nor work in the city to legally baseless earnings tax assessments. Forced by litigation and the threat of state preemption to make amends, the city is hoping that taxpayers will not notice or not bother to take advantage of the brief three-month refund filing window that went into effect in the beginning of the month. But eligible taxpayers should not reward this cheap trick — they should go get the money that they are owed. ...

The Supreme Court recently ruled to overturn the Chevron doctrine precedent that has stood since 1984. Recent precedent reversals, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, have gotten much more attention. But this change is of enormous importance, and everyone should know what it’s about. ...

I have a Barbie for President doll in my office. EMILYs List — a group dedicated to electing pro-choice women to political office — sent it years ago. The doll could be mistaken for Condoleezza Rice, though I suspect they didn't have a Republican in mind. With Kamala Harris, the prospect of the first woman president of the United States is a plausibility again. But a critical question is what we want in the first woman president. It's a question that matters to EMILYs List. For that group, Harris fits the bill. She recently became the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic.

No matter how you look at it, the Biden-Harris administration has been an absolute disaster. We have a southern border that’s in pure chaos because of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s radical immigration policies. The cost of living has skyrocketed by more than 20% since Biden and Harris took office and began their out-of-control spending spree. There is no question America isn’t heading in the right direction. And when you look back at the policies of this administration, it’s clear as day why our nation is at a breaking point.

"L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace." So says George C. Scott’s Patton in the eponymous movie when his comrades want another day’s rest during the Sicilian campaign. No one is going to mistake Kamala Harris for Gen. Patton, or even George C. Scott, but her latest tack on immigration honors his call for "audacity, audacity, always audacity." ...

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance has been in the news for an old clip of him talking about how the tax code should punish adults without kids. While Vance’s proposal probably aims to address demographic concerns, it represents a misguided approach that contradicts fundamental principles of economic freedom and fairness. ...

The city’s water treatment facility has been the topic of much discussion in recent months and for good reason. This 91-year-old facility has had numerous upgrades and renovations over the years, but the time has come for the city to launch a major overhaul of various components of the whole system, beginning at the intake of well water all the way to the distribution water lines throughout the city.

The city’s water treatment facility has been the topic of much discussion in recent months and for good reason. This 91-year-old facility has had numerous upgrades and renovations over the years, but the time has come for the city to launch a major overhaul of various components of the whole system, beginning at the intake of well water all the way to the distribution water lines throughout the city...

One of my great peeves of the Trump era is the Greenland effect. I belong to a small group of people who think America should peacefully acquire Greenland. It’s an old idea. The State Department pitched buying the vast arctic island in 1946, but the Danes didn’t want to sell their colony, alas. But given its strategic and economic value, it’s worth revisiting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this past week, at the invitation of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a joint session of Congress. The prime minister’s job that night was to make clear to the Congress, to the nation and to the world the "what" and "why" of Israel’s operation in Gaza, following the murderous attack by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and why Americans should identify with and support Israel’s struggle.

For the last three and a half years, Republicans have been sounding the alarm over President Joe Biden’s fitness for office. His incoherent speeches, disastrous policies, physical struggles, and blank stares are just a few of the signs we’ve seen. There is nothing wrong with getting old – it’s part of life. But it’s a completely different scenario when we’re talking about the president of the United States – the most powerful person in the world.

When I was editor of National Review Online, I had a rule: Never post pictures of Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton looking bad. I’m not a fan of their politics, but most of us have our moments when we don’t look our best and wouldn’t want it captured on camera. Cheap shots aren’t winning moves. ...

In March 2020, all the major Democratic primary candidates abruptly, mysteriously, and in near unison withdrew from the presidential race, ceding the nomination to Joe Biden. Yet Biden had lost the first three races in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada — and only won his first victory in South Carolina. ...

Members of the new right wing of the Republican Party have proclaimed themselves the champions of the working class. I am sure they mean it, despite many of them being among the elite of the elite. And because so many are lawyers — including those such as VP nominee J.D. Vance who come from elite Ivy League schools — we can forgive them for failing to understand that their economic policies would hurt, not help, the working class. ...

All we need to know about the Deep State, we supposedly learned when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Sean Davis of the conservative website The Federalist wrote on X, "They did it to Kennedy, and his brother, and they just tried to do it to Trump." ...

Alas, the coronation of Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee is complete. Democrats are surprisingly ecstatic with the decision, and Republicans, or at least the Trump campaign is very cross about it, complaining that democracy has been subverted. This is something of a reversal, given that Republicans argued Biden was too infirm to be president, and Democrats prior to last month’s disastrous debate contended he was the only candidate to beat Trump. Democrats then, and Republicans now, claim ignoring the will of primary voters is an affront to democracy.

In President Joe Biden’s announcement on social media of his decision to not run for reelection, he ticked off the many wonderful achievements during his three and a half years in the nation’s highest office. But if things are so great, as Biden seems to think, why are Americans so dispirited? Biden’s personal polling is horrible. General polling shows an American public in a sour state of mind.

They didn’t soulfully consider President Joe Biden’s marked decline and decide, for the good of him, his party and the country, that he had to step down. They lied, and they got caught. The Democratic Party line on Biden was that he had turned in an exceptionally effective State of the Union address. He might mess up a name here or there, but he had gotten better with age. He should be judged on his achievements, which rivaled those of LBJ. Anything suggesting he was in decline was a paranoid lie, or — in a truly ridiculous neologism — "a cheap fake.

"God is among us. And that is enough." God-talk at a political convention can be a turn-off. And maybe especially coming from a former Fox News host (Tucker Carlson). And religious rhetoric was flowing fast and copiously in Milwaukee at the Republican convention following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I don’t know that God spared Trump’s life so that he could become president again. But God is real, and He is among us. Whatever your politics. ...

On July 13, the nation watched with horror when a crazed shooter attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. The fact that he survived this attack can only be described as a miracle. While I’m incredibly grateful the former president is safe, it’s tragic that a murderous nut job took the life of an innocent father and seriously injured two others. ...

When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the "right thing" of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton. ...

On July 13, the nation watched with horror when a crazed shooter attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. The fact that he survived this attack can only be described as a miracle. While I’m incredibly grateful the former president is safe, it’s tragic that a murderous nut job took the life of an innocent father and seriously injured two others. ...

When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the "right thing" of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton. What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then President, then ex-President, and then candidate again, Donald Trump...

“This isn’t my father’s Secret Service.” That’s what I immediately tweeted in response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Little did I know. ...

The situation is indeed dire. The national debt has reached staggering levels, and the next president will inherit a ticking time bomb of fiscal deadlines that could significantly worsen the burden. ...

One can hardly fault Donald Trump for believing divine providence is on his side. He’s had the most impressive lucky streak in living political memory. While his debate performance was exceptional only if graded on a curve, his opponent’s was a debacle by any objective standard. Then the Supreme Court handed down an exceedingly fortuitous ruling on presidential immunity, which at a minimum delayed the federal cases against him until after the election. And a lone concurrence by Justice Clarence Thomas in that decision apparently inspired Aileen Cannon, a federal judge in Florida, to throw out the classified documents case against him.

We now have, as we would expect, a tsunami of commentary regarding the horrible assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It is not trivial to observe that at least the good news is that just about everyone agrees what happened is very bad and not an encouraging sign about the state of our nation. After that point of agreement, we have many different and diverging opinions about who or what is to blame. Republicans, Democrats, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, etc., etc.

I write this letter for two reasons: to thank Rep. Barry Hovis, District 146, and Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers for speaking in support of our voting procedures and system. My second is to question the general and specific remarks of Dr. Douglas Frank on June 18 related to "massive amounts of voter fraud and how voters are ‘fighting a war’ to stop rigged elections."

The White House is now faced with a conundrum — how to make the case against Donald Trump as a quasi-Nazi while lowering the proverbial temperature after his near-assassination. Joe Biden’s Oval Office address calling for toning down the overheated rhetoric in our politics was fine as far as it went, except it included no mea culpa, no assurance that he’ll try to do better himself, no recognition that his political and media allies have been the worst offenders. ...

Pro-life people believe abortion to be the human rights issue of our lifetime, one with eternal stakes. With the Republican Party’s changes to its platform regarding abortion, it’s hard to believe the GOP is in the cause for the long haul — never mind the eternal. The platform no longer calls for an end to abortion, opting instead for the leave-it-to-the-states position. This platform and likely presidential nominee Donald Trump have abandoned any even nominal claim to the moral high ground. ...

Leonid Brezhnev led the former Soviet Union as general secretary of the Communist Party until 1982. But like most Russian apparatchiks who excessively smoked, drank, and gained weight, he aged prematurely. Also like them, his disabilities never led to his abdication. ...

Saturday’s rally for former President Donald Trump was supposed to be one final event before the Republican National Convention. Some thought he might announce his vice-presidential pick. Thousands of people attend these rallies. For some, it’s their first and maybe only opportunity to see a former president in person. It’s supposed to be a joyous, patriotic experience. ...

The Cape Area Magnet organization was established in 1992 as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to foster a strong economic environment resulting in the retention, expansion, creation and attraction of jobs and new investment in the area. ...

The Republican National Committee just released its 2024 platform. While calling it a platform is a stretch, the list of bullet points gives an idea of what the potential next Trump administration’s goals are. Here’s one issue that should be front and center: End inflation and make America affordable again.

Homelessness, unfortunately, has become a persistent and growing problem in the United States. The Supreme Court, in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, just dealt with one big issue associated with this problem — the ability of cities to prohibit camping on public property.

The Democratic Party is divided. On the one side is the faction that wants to dump the presidential candidate chosen by more than 14 million Democratic primary voters. On the other side is the faction that wants to keep the presidential candidate who almost certainly will not serve out his four-year term, leading to the ascension of an unelected president and unelected vice president.

Donald Trump isn’t normally thought of as a consensus-builder, but in one sense that’s exactly what he is. Many of Trump’s most ardent fans and foes alike believe he is the leader of a political movement with a clear and defined set of principles and goals. They disagree only on whether that agenda is good or bad.

Republicans are already hard at work to once again deliver for working families and small businesses by building on the success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act next year. The 2017 tax law is a blueprint for prosperity that should be made permanent, and all options are on the table to ensure the biggest winners continue to be low- and middle-income people.

"The whole town. The whole town wants kids now!" The caseworker with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was giddy with a mixture of elation and disbelief. A pastor and his wife were in her office explaining that 22 families were ready to foster some of the most difficult children in the surrounding area. The pastor emphasized the point: There are more couples than babies available to adopt.

The United States is full steam ahead into uncharted fiscal waters, with rapidly growing federal debt promising a choppy economic future. Candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump have added trillions to the national debt during their recent presidential administrations, leaving America at a critical juncture that demands urgent, bipartisan action.

Even the Democratic deus ex machina is having a bad stretch. No matter how favorable the presidential race has looked for Donald Trump, there’s always been the possibility that special counsel Jack Smith would get to trial with his Jan. 6 case before the election and, at the very least, dominate the news cycle for weeks and, in all likelihood, convict Trump in a case involving more serious matters than hush money to a porn star. ...

The Spirit of America — what comes to mind? Do you immediately think of our nation’s founders? What was it that made them so successful? Determination, creativity, courage, grit? Most certainly.

The fallout from President Biden’s miserable debate last week is giving me deja vu. In the political right’s intramural arguments over Donald Trump, I got some things correct and some incorrect. But I believe I was indisputably right in one respect: From the outset, I argued that Trump’s presidency would end badly because, to echo Heraclitus, character is destiny.

In 1960, the New York Yankees fired their legendary manager Casey Stengel for being too old. "I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 again," Stengel quipped. If Democrats dump Joe Biden, the president might want to say the same thing about being 81. The biggest loser of the debate, besides the president himself, was First Lady Jill Biden.

"I did not have sex with a porn star." Donald Trump’s statement in response to an arguably ad hominem attack from Joe Biden during their June 27 debate must have given more than a few of us flashbacks to Bill Clinton -- specifically, his "It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is" dance as he tried to linguistically sidestep allegations about Monica Lewinsky.

Nearly 11 months ago, in August 2023, the New York Times reported that U.S. officials had estimated that some 500,000 Russians and Ukrainians had been killed, wounded or missing in the then 18-month Ukrainian War. Both Russia and Ukraine underreport their losses. Hundreds of thousands of additional casualties have followed in the 28 months of fighting.

When you consider how Missouri has failed to keep up with states like Florida and Texas in economic and population growth, the reasons may seem obvious. We didn’t get the sandy beaches and warm weather that Florida and Texas got, not to mention Texas’s fossil fuel reserves. But that explanation isn’t good enough. It doesn’t account for another state that is leaving Missouri in the dust: Tennessee, the state I grew up in.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott hosted an event in Washington, D.C., marking the Juneteenth holiday, which showcased why he has been included among the candidates Donald Trump is considering as his running mate. Juneteenth, now a national holiday, commemorates June 19, 1865, the date of the final implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation in the State of Texas. It’s considered the official end of slavery in the United States.

By the time the makers of the "The Blues Brothers" had finished filming the movie’s epic finale in Chicago’s Daley Plaza, they’d spent $3.5 million on that scene alone. According to Daniel de Vise in his enjoyable new book on the iconic 1980 comedy, it was reportedly the most that had then ever been spent filming a movie scene in a big city.

During and after this week’s presidential debate, we must look beyond rhetoric and personality to the core issues shaping America’s future. The most pressing is the unsustainable growth of government spending and ballooning national debt, which promises to rob Americans of wealth and living standards in the coming decades. Make no mistake, it’s a genuine crisis demanding immediate attention. Dealing with it responsibly should be the litmus test for presidential leadership.

I’ve changed my mind: This week’s presidential debate matters. Before I continue, a quick recap: Last month, I expressed my long-standing view that presidential debates aren’t very meaningful and are very stupid. They are pseudo-events, the historian Daniel J. Boorstin’s term for manufactured media spectacles that feel significant because we imbue them with significance.

California has become a test case of the suicide of the West. Never before has such a state, so rich in natural resources and endowed with such a bountiful human inheritance, self-destructed so rapidly. How and why did California so utterly consume its unmatched natural and ancestral inheritance and end up as a warning to Western civilization of what might be in store for anyone who followed its nihilism?

During June and July, newspapers across Missouri are publishing tens of thousands of names of people for whom the State Treasurer’s Office is holding unclaimed property totaling more than $1 billion. This is not the state’s money – it is Missourians’ money, and I am committed to returning it to its rightful owner.

Now is the time of year that stores and companies move from displaying pride flags to draping everything in red, white and blue. Independence Day is about freedom. But what does that mean? A mature and educated understanding of freedom is not libertine. It is not about doing everything we want. It is not about hyper-individualism. We make choices about freedom every day, and we all need them to be rooted in civic duty and virtue.

Who do the liberal ladies of “The View” think they’re kidding? Last week, Joy Behar and her ragged troop of pretend political pundits were again acting terrified by the specter of Donald Trump — aka, Adolf Hitler 2.0 — returning to power this fall. ...

The United States Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress. Yet, over the past century, we’ve witnessed a disturbing trend of legislators increasingly delegating much of the authority to set the laws that govern the land to the executive branch, which includes unelected officials at administrative agencies. This undermines democratic accountability, contributes to government bloat and abuse of powers, and disrupts the balance of power crafted so carefully by the framers.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the Supreme Court, like the country, is deeply divided along partisan and ideological lines. But this overlooks the court’s historic recent run of unanimous decisions and the fact that the liberal and conservative justices often don’t vote as blocs. Court critics tend to respond to these inconvenient realities by saying something like, Sure, but on the big cases, the culturally divisive ones, the conservatives form the majority and the liberals the dissenting minority.

A lot of attention is being given to support being picked up by Donald Trump among non-white voters. But the change taking place among young voters is even more dramatic. In the elections in 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump was soundly defeated among voters 18-29.

Every day is a Charlottesville now, but hardly anyone notices. The small central Virginia city is a metonymy for the 2017 white nationalist "Unite the Right" rally that created national shock waves and rocked the presidency of Donald J. Trump. The antisemitic rhetoric and menacing nature of that event — in a different, left-wing form — are being replicated all over the country in openly hateful pro-Hamas protests.

On June 8, the Israeli military launched a daring mission to free four hostages who were held captive for months by evil Hamas terrorists in Gaza. I’m incredibly grateful that these innocent people are safe and back at home with their families, and I pray that the other hostages – including Americans – will also come home soon.

"Every Sunday for me it’s hard," says Nancy Pelosi in "Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans Talk About Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning," a 2008 collection edited by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Robert Kennedy. Pelosi’s sabbath difficulty has to do with the Eucharist, the Catholic belief that the bread and wine of Communion are transformed into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. "This is my body, this is my blood. They’re asking a lot. In my era, we didn’t question any of it," Pelosi says in "Being Catholic."

What are the mobs in Washington defiling iconic federal statues with impunity and pelting policemen really protesting? What are the throngs in London brazenly swarming parks and rampaging in the streets really angry about? Occupations? They could care less that the Islamist Turkish government still stations 40,000 troops in occupied Cyprus. No one is protesting against the Chinese takeover of a once-independent Tibet or the threatened absorption of an autonomous Taiwan...

Israel pulled off a hostage rescue that deserves to go down in the annals of extraordinarily daring, highly successful military operations, yet it is being condemned for it. The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council denounced the "heinous and terrorist crime that targeted defenseless innocents with brutality," while Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon have decried Israel's alleged criminal tactics. ...