Sheldon Adelson and his Israeli-born wife are unabashedly Jewish and are unabashedly trying to buy with their riches Florida’s presidential primary for Newt Gingrich. That’s a potentially toxic combination in a country where some still harbor negative stereotypes about “Jewish influence.” Give the Adelsons credit for being up front about their faith and their pro-Israel [...]

There were hugs, kisses and praise galore for Representative Gabrielle Giffords as she left Congress. The only thing missing from the sendoff was any recognition that Congress owed it to her to act at least to prohibit the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines that enabled her attacker to spew bullets right and left in the [...]

By all accounts Newt Gingrich’s debating performance had a lot to do with his big win in South Carolina‘s presidential primary. That’s unfortunate because debating has nothing to do with governing. When was the last time an incumbent president engaged in an actual non-electoral debate with anyone? But now that debates have taken on added [...]

You have to hand it to Mitt Romney. He’s no time-waster. No sooner had he vanquished his Republican rivals in New Hampshire, than he put bigger game in his sights. Romney’s victory speech made it clear that he won’t be distracted by minor nuisances like Iraq when there’s more potent enemies to contend with: Europe!! [...]

The winner of the Republican presidential nominating battle is unknown at this writing. It’s not too soon, though, to declare the loser: the English language. When, in politician-speak “moderate” becomes an epithet or President Obama morphs into a “socialist,” language has lost its moorings and meaning. At one time “moderate” had entirely favorable connotations. It [...]

I got an email from my nephew Daniel Sussman the screenwriter. He has been living in Greece for a while and thus has a calm, detached perspective on what’s going on in American politics. He wrote: Okay, maybe this is naive, but… Just about every sane person is (or a significant number of people are) [...]