Philip Klein
Ron Paul has pulled off a repeat, winning the CPAC presidential straw poll once again with 30 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney finished second with 23 percent; followed by Gary Johnson and Chris Christie at 6 percent; Newt Gingrich…
Last night, along with other bloggers at the Freedom Works’ CPAC party, I got to see several scenes from the upcoming adaptation of Ayn Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged. The showing was part of the producers’ effort to generate grassroots…
Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor and likely presidential candidate, acknowledged that he once supported ‘cap and trade’ but has since switched his position. “Almost everybody who’s running has a similar problem,” Pawlenty said, responding to a question I posed to…
Earlier today, I asked Tim Pawlenty to comment on likely 2012 rival Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan, but he declined to do so, citing Reagan’s 11th Commandment about not attacking fellow Republicans. Yet it raised my eyebrows when Pawlenty,…
Rep. Michelle Bachmann is currently delivering the opening speech at CPAC here at the Marriott in Washington. Her speech started by celebrating GOP gains in 2010 and rallying the crowd with a call to win back the Senate and the…
Earlier today, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held a lunch with a group of bloggers to discuss his new memoir, Known and Unknown. During the discussion, Rumsfeld talked about how the amount of GDP we dedicate toward defense had shrunk…
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, told me that he would have fought the Medicare prescription drug plan and other spending during the Bush administration if a Tea Party had existed to back him up. By now,…
As conservatives continue to debate democratization given the ongoing events in Egypt, Donald Rumsfeld has just released his new memoir in which he writes that he was a skeptic of the Bush administration’s attempt to bring democracy to Iraq. He…
Sen. Jim Webb will not seek reelection, several news outlets are now reporting. Webb won a tight race over George Allen in the Democrats’ steallar 2006 year. Sure, he benefitted from the “macaca” controversy and Allen’s disasterous campaign, but he…
Earlier this week, I explained why we couldn’t dismiss Haley Barbour’s chances in 2012, despite the big obstacles he faces as a potential candidate. Steven Ertelt of LifeNews noted that should he run, Barbour will have to explain statements he…
