HOW REPUBLICANS CAN WIN BACK HISPANICSBY JEB BUSHWASHINGTON POSTThe United States needs an economy that is vibrant and dynamic, open to the contributions of new entrants. ... We must be able to assure new Americans the opportunity to succeed and contribute their talents. And when they come, as surely they will, we must welcome them, no matter whether they speak Spanish or Creole or Portuguese. When we hear foreign languages in the streets of America, that is a validation of the Republican vision to create a place where people want to come and make their lives. Hispanics here speak or are learning English — not French, Chinese or Hindi. There is a lesson in that, and Republicans should be the ones to champion it.
WHY EVANGELICALS DON'T LIKE MORMONSBY DAVID REYNOLDSNEW YORK TIMESInterdenominational competition may also explain why the faith of Mr. Romney’s father, George Romney, went unchallenged when he ran for president in 1968. Back then Mormonism was a much smaller, and therefore less controversial, part of the religious landscape. Amid the passions of this election season, it’s time to revive the tolerant spirit of the founding fathers. Religious competition of any kind, they believed, can breed bigotry, repression and hatred. The founders made an earnest effort to keep religion out of politics. Let’s do the same as we carry out the important work of choosing our next president.NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDERBY E.J. DIONNEWASHINGTON POSTThis president has often been lucky in his political life, and so he was again on Tuesday. Hours before Obama spoke, Mitt Romney, the on-again, off-again Republican front-runner, released his 2010 tax return showing him paying a 13.9 percent rate on an income of $21.7 million. Thus did Romney make himself Exhibit A for Obama’s campaign on behalf of tax fairness. But the president’s speech showed that he is not counting on luck alone. He is pinning his reelection on a big argument and a big cause. It was Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign that promised voters “a choice, not an echo.” We now know that this is exactly what the 2012 election will deliver.THE GOP GOES MADBY DANIEL HENNINGERWALL STREET JOURNALNewt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are locked in a death struggle. They'll survive, but will their party? For nearly three decades, the American and Soviet nuclear arsenals cohabitated uneasily inside a policy of Mutual Assured Destruction without blowing each other up. MAD was insane, but the players were not. Campaigning politicians operate under no such rational constraint. ... A Republican nominee will face the large task of picking up these pieces and reuniting the party. Everyone says the desire to defeat the man called "Obama" will take care of that. You think so? A basic reality of MAD was that once you launched a nuclear missile, you couldn't call it back. Come the morning after Nov. 6, 2012, the Republicans may be asking, What happened?EGYPT'S REVOLT AND THE AMERICAN MODELBY ED HUSAINWALL STREET JOURNALIn the many meetings I have had with members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Middle Eastern Islamists over the past year, they show animosity toward the U.S. only with regard to Israel. It's clear that Israel won't enjoy the relations with Egypt that it did under Hosni Mubarak. There is no stamina for war with Israel, but this generation of Arabs won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Trying to force them to do so will not only fail but risks compromising American influence. It is wiser to allow for the passage of time, and help the Palestinians realize their dream of a dignified, free state.THE BUFFETT RUSEEDITORIALWALL STREET JOURNALNearly every study estimates that the revenue-maximizing tax rate from the capital gains tax is between 15% and 28%. Doug Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, says that a 30% tax rate "is almost surely above the rate that maximizes tax revenues." So it's likely the Buffett trick would lose revenue for the government. Yet in a time of the highest deficits since World War II, Mr. Obama wants to double the capital gains tax rate even as he raises the top income-tax rate to 42% or so. Mr. Obama really is taking us back to the worst habits of the 1970s. And not because he thinks higher rates will raise revenue, but merely so he can score points against Mitt Romney and stick it to the successful. This isn't tax fairness. It's tax folly.NEWT GINGRICH IS A SAUL ALINSKY REPUBLICANBY PHILLIP KLEINWASHINGTON EXAMINERAfter weak showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich's campaign was on life support. So he resorted to unleashing an aggressive attack against Mitt Romney's wealth and career. ... Gingrich has continued his class warfare strategy in Florida, referring to Romney on Wednesday as somebody who was "liv(ing) in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and making $20 million for no work... ." It may be odd for somebody claiming to be a conservative to employ the tactics of the left, but Alinsky wrote an entire chapter on the arbitrary ethics of when the ends justify the means, noting that, "generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics." GOP nomination fights are often described as battles between Rockefeller Republicans and Goldwater Republicans. In 2012, Gingrich has brought us the Alinsky Republican.