Rick Santorum

Thursday

Ben Domenech

The rude awakening awaiting Trump

Welcome to Thunderdome, where last night’s debate in Tuscaloosa had some interesting aspects we’ll get to momentarily — but first, consider what this week looked like from the perspective of the front-runner for the nomination and, according to some, for the presidency. Donald Trump did a town hall with Sean Hannity — which got significantly less viewership than Ron DeSantis versus Gavin Newsom — where he managed to bolster Joe Biden’s central case against his candidacy. In Washington, Jack Smith dropped a new indication of the direction he plans to take with his case against Trump, including evidence of “encouragement of violence.

Monday

Cockburn

Families are in, free trade is out at the ISI conference

Cockburn last weekend headed over to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s American Economic Forum. The speakers were on fire with ISI's particular brand of pro-working-class zeal, and Cockburn was lit at the VIP reception bar. Since Johnny Burtka took the helm at ISI, the right-leaning think tank has acquired a more socially conservative, economically protectionist flair, in line with Pat Buchanan, the founder of the magazine where Burtka used to work, the American Conservative. After dodging the Vice News journalists begging for an interview, Cockburn made his way over to a speech by former Trump administration trade representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer.

rick santorum

Tuesday

Roger Kimball

The staggering stupidity of Don Lemón

What the stupidest thing you will hear today? Here’s one way to improve your odds at an accurate answer: who is the stupidest television commentator currently polluting the airwaves? If you said 'Don Lemón™’, you are hot on the trail. When I first encountered the CNN talking head, I thought he was just the latest embarrassing affirmative action hire. How could anyone take this unpleasant, unremittingly partisan hack seriously? But it soon became clear that Lemón (accent on the 'o’) was something special. It was partly the brittle touchiness, partly the steady emission of self-satisfied entitlement. Mostly, though, it was the stupidity, unwritten by ignorance and fired by adamantine self-certainty. The latest instance is one of the best.

don lemon

Wednesday

Rick Santorum

President Trump should bend — but not break — Big Tech

Americans’ increasing focus on this fall’s elections has awakened in me a tinge of nostalgia for the good old days of campaigning — before the internet changed everything. As a conservative running for the US Senate in 1994, I remember being able to connect with thousands of voters to respond to my opponents’ dishonest attacks, the press’s deceitful characterizations of my positions, local television refusing to cover my campaign events, and the character assassinations by the newspaper editorial boards. Actually, I don’t remember that, because I had no way to reach thousands of voters except by paying those same media outlets millions of dollars to buy ads.

trump

Tuesday

Madeleine Kearns

Keeping up with the Santorums

Great Falls, Virginia Former senator Rick Santorum is mopping the floor. Mrs Santorum is stamping wax thistles onto the backs of envelopes. Four of the six adult Santorum children (plus one spouse) are scattered about the house, ‘working from home’. Bridget, the live-in helper, is doting on the youngest, little Bella, who has the genetic condition Trisomy 18. I’m in the paradisal blue room, behind a stack of books, typing away with my usual four fingers. Before the plague, family members would introduce me to friends as ‘Elizabeth’s Scottish friend whom she met in Uganda, who writes for National Review’. But when my sister got engaged to one of Elizabeth’s brothers, I became ‘Daniel’s fiancée’s sister’.

rick santorum