Gov. Rick Perry has never been a split-the-difference kind of guy, and being a conservative in Texas means that he’s never much had to. But with his presidential campaign foundering, he has offered the Republican primary electorate a tax plan — he calls it “Cut, Balance, and Grow” — that splits the difference between the idealistic, big-ideas approach of a Newt Gingrich or a Rep. Ron Paul and the less imaginative approach of Mitt Romney, a candidate whose mind has never once been troubled by an original thought and whose every word is focus-grouped to within an inch of its …
Perry’s Program
Cut? Yes. Balance? Maybe. Grow? Well . . .
In This Issue
Articles
Romneynomics by the Numbers
Mitt Romney released a 59-point economic plan in September. Very little attention has been paid to its details, which is perhaps surprising given that he is widely considered to be ...
Perry’s Program
Gov. Rick Perry has never been a split-the-difference kind of guy, and being a conservative in Texas means that he’s never much had to. But with his presidential campaign foundering, ...
The Coptic Winter
One of the powerful images that came to define the Arab Spring was that of Christians and Muslims praying together in Tahrir Square in Cairo. That image helped shape the ...
The Billionaire’s Passport
I have a friend who is a billionaire, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. But these days there seem to be a lot more billionaires around.
My ...
Features
Mobility Impaired
What’s the most important issue in American politics? In a narrow sense, the sputtering economy and ballooning deficits are likely to dominate the 2012 election season. But while every election ...
Closing the Achievement Gap
During the recent struggle over collective-bargaining rights in Wisconsin, a number of left-of-center observers, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, pointed out that students in unionized Wisconsin do better ...
Progressivism, Race, and the Training Wheels of Freedom
In 1865, amid the final throes of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass worried that the prospect of fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence, by finally securing to blacks ...
Up from Leftism
Atlanta, Ga. — ‘The first time my name appeared in the New York Times, I was described as ‘an obscure associate professor,’” says Eugene D. Genovese. “I’ve always thought of ...
Books, Arts & Manners
Bad News
Until I read this book, I fondly thought that I was a pessimist; but now, having read it, I realize that on the Cassandra scale of one to ten I ...
Unfriendly Skies
There were two events in the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency that justify the use of the overworked phrase “defining moment”: the assassination attempt after only the tenth week ...
Ancient and Modern
Three thousand years ago, King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Archaeologists are currently excavating what is thought to have been his palace. The scale is rather small, though some ...
Wrong Track
For all the glory of the transcontinental railroads, it’s not hard to find bad things to say about them. As the first truly national American big businesses, they made quite ...
A Real Camino
This has been an unusually good run for religion at the movies. Dramatizing spiritual experience is notoriously difficult, and filmmakers tend to look for easier paths — the anthropologist’s condescension, ...
Volume Discount
Books were like print-outs, with text on both sides of the paper, fastened together along one side with stitching (in older books) or glue. The pages, or papers, were numbered ...
Sections
Letters
The Brush-off
Kevin D. Williamson’s piece on presidential aspirant Ron Paul (“Ron Paul’s Last Crusade,” September 19), coupled with Jack Hunter’s subsequent retort (October 3), brought to mind my own encounter ...
The Week
‐ Invading Congo? He really is turning us into Belgium after all.
‐ The Cain mutiny against establishment politics rolls on. Cain is a charmer, and he is right to buck ...
C O N F I D E N T I A L
CLIENT: Senior Romney Campaign
TEAM: Bain & Company Campaign Consulting Practice
IN RE: Report from our initial consulting efforts
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Many thanks for allowing BAIN CONSULTING to serve your campaign, and for giving ...
Frigid Pink
Occupy Wall Street gets all the press, but the world-changing assemblies are happening all over, you know. Here in Minnesota the locals formed OccupyMN and took over Government Plaza. It’s ...
Poetry
KING DAVID LEAVES OFF MOURNING FOR HIS SON
I’m dressed. The sky is stone, my path a sea.
I’m going to him, he won’t return to me.
I eat. The shattered waves have ...
Saint Who?
When it’s not explicitly hostile, Western liberals’ attitude to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is deeply condescending. One thinks of Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, pondering the author’s estrangement from ...
Recommended
Biden Administration Backs Bill That Would Force Cops to Stop Women in the Street for No Reason
The only way to have a non-disparate impact on men is to drastically increase the number of stops of women.
Democrats Squander Their Impeachment-Trial Moment
Where were the details of Trump’s actions while the riot raged? Where was the evidence to support their specific charge of incitement?
It’s a Blacklist, Pure and Simple
Today’s cancel culture harkens back to the excesses of the McCarthy era.
Kamala Harris Disputes Dr. Fauci, Insists Biden Administration Is 'Starting from Scratch' on Coronavirus
Kamala Harris is the biggest liability of the Biden administration because she lies, obviously and clumsily, even when she doesn’t need to lie.
The Times Corrects the Record on Officer Sicknick’s Death, Sort Of
Though the question remains unanswered: What really happened to him?
The Mother of All Stock-Market Bubbles
One of Warren Buffet's preferred indicators is flashing warning signs.
The Latest
Manchin Defends COVID Relief Bill: Republicans Had ‘Tremendous Amount of Input’
The stimulus package passed in the Senate without a single GOP vote.
Two More Women Accuse Cuomo of Sexual Misconduct: Reports
There are now a total of five women on the record who claim the governor acted inappropriately with them.
The Civil War of Wishful Thinking
What does it say about America that the dominant political fantasy of our time is one of violent conflict between our two partisan tribes?
What China Really Wants: A New World Order
Translated speeches from a leading Beijing figure pull back the veil on their plans to ‘buy out the U.S.’
My Love-Hate Relationship with Oliver Stone
Surveying the career of a gonzo filmmaker, the fierce commitment stands out as much as the craziness.
How Biden's Keystone Kill Dashed Workers' Hopes to Catch a Badly Needed Break
‘Killing good union jobs on day one with nothing to replace them is not building back better.’