Hoover-Era Ghost Stories No Longer Apply
Jonah Goldberg (National Review)
A very old story is once again being retold, with a few of the characters’ names updated to besmirch the innocent. In this story, conservatives are to blame for an economic crisis because they allegedly believe there is no role for government in the economy, and all economic crises are due to lax regulation of markets.

Biden Secret Service Code Name: "Assassination Insurance"
Ann Coulter (WorldNetDaily)
While Gov. Sarah Palin is being grilled on her position on mark-to-market accounting rules, the press can't bother to ask Joe Biden if he could give us a ballpark estimate on when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president - or maybe take a stab at guessing the decade when televisions were first available to the public.

No One’s Clean
Jonah Goldberg (National Review)
Democratic Rep. Barney Frank has spent the last few years ridiculing Alan Greenspan, John McCain, and others who sought more regulation for Fannie Mae’s market-distorting schemes -- the fons et origo of this financial crisis. Now he says "the private sector got us into this mess." His partner in crime, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), a chief beneficiary of Fannie Mae lobbyists’ largesse, claims this mess is the result of poor oversight -- without even hinting at the fact he is in charge of oversight of banks.

Jewish Left Wins, Jews And Israel Lose
Dennis Prager (WorldNetDaily)
The organized Jewish left - i.e., left-wing Jewish organizations that claim to be committed to the welfare of Jews - made it clear that even in the fight against the greatest enemy of the Jewish people, the Jewish left prefers to fight what it considers an even greater enemy - conservatives and Republicans.

Accountability -- Why Is There None For Democrats?
Jonah Goldberg (National Review)
The House GOP has come under a lot of criticism for its failure to deliver on its end of the bipartisan bailout deal, including from yours truly. Meanwhile, the Democratic leadership has come in for some moderate pro forma criticism for failing to do what was necessary to see the legislation passed. text

The Lessons Of Munich
Robert Rozett (Jerusalem Post)
Seventy years ago on September 29, 1938, the leaders of Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain concluded an agreement in Munich that has gone down in history as one of the West's greatest political debacles. According to it, Hitler was allowed to take over a region of the Czechoslovak Republic, known as the Sudetenland, which contained a large ethnic German population.

Prudence or Punishment?
Charles Krauthammer (National Review)
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson went to Capitol Hill seeking $700 billion. He got an earful. Now, $700 billion is a serious sum, and Congress has the fiduciary responsibility to make sure the money it appropriates goes for a good cause. But from the indignant congressional demands for a laundry list of quid pro quos, you would have thought Paulson wanted it for his personal use.

The Ant and The Grasshopper, 2008 Edition
Michelle Malkin (JewishWorldReview.com)
With what looks like imminent passage of the Mother of All Bailouts (following on the heels of a year's worth of government-funded rescues of private homeowners, lenders, insurers and automakers), Washington has turned Aesop's famous fable about prudence and hard work on its head. The time is ripe for a revised 2008 edition of "The Ant and the Grasshopper."

Obama Hides The Ball -- And The Truth
David Limbaugh (WorldNetDaily)
Why does Barack Obama play hide the ball with his personal résumé, concealing his extreme leftist ideology and denying his damning associations? Question kind of answers itself, wouldn't you say? Be concerned, very concerned. Obama hides his liberalism for the same reason every other liberal presidential candidate has: The electorate tilts center-right.

Gray Lady Dons a Cheerleader Skirt
Jonah Goldberg (National Review)
Shortly before John McCain suspended his campaign to help with the Wall Street bailout, his generals declared war on The New York Times. In a conference call this week, McCain senior aide Steven Schmidt bellowed: "Whatever The New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day impugns the McCain campaign, attacks Sen. McCain, attacks Gov. Palin.... Everything that is read in The New York Times that attacks this campaign should be evaluated by the American people from that perspective."

The Warrior and the Priest
Fred Barnes (Weekly Standard)
John McCain, restless and emotional, couldn't resist the temptation to join the battle to rescue our financial markets and save the economy. It was the biggest and most important fight around, bigger and more important than his campaign scrap with Barack Obama. Being engaged in the action--in the arena--is where McCain always wants to be. So he cast his presidential campaign aside, temporarily, and headed back to Washington.

Dr. Frankenstein’s Wall Street
Victor Davis Hanson (National Review)
No one dares to ask what really drove the wheeler-dealer portfolio managers. Who re-elected these shady politicians of both parties? Who fostered the cash-in culture in which both Wall Street profit mongering and Washington lobbying are nourished and thrive? We citizens did -- red-state conservatives and blue-state liberals, Republicans and Democrats, alike.

They Gave Your Mortgage To A Less Qualified Minority
Ann Coulter (WorldNetDaily)
Before the Democrats' affirmative-action lending policies became an embarrassment, the Los Angeles Times reported that, starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains."

Beware Obama-Loss Outrage
Dennis Prager (National Review)
If Barack Obama loses the 2008 election, liberal hell will break loose. Seven weeks before the 2008 presidential election, liberals are warning America that if Barack Obama loses, it is because Americans are racist. Of course, that this means that Democrats (and independents) are racist, since Republicans will vote Republican regardless of the race of the Democrat, is an irony apparently lost on the Democrats making these charges.

Fossilized Foreign Policy
Victor Davis Hanson (National Review)
Much of what Barack Obama has said about the world beyond our shores is about five years out of date. Its pedigree is the stale campaign rhetoric of years past. But the world of 2009 will be far different from 2003. And if elected, a President Obama would probably not do much differently abroad than what we are doing right now.

George W. Truman
Charles Krauthammer (National Review)
For the last 150 years, most American war presidents -- most notably Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt -- have entered (or re-entered) office knowing war was looming. Not so George Bush. Not so the war on terror. The 9/11 attacks literally came out of the blue. Indeed, the three presidential campaigns between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11 were the most devoid of foreign-policy debate of any in the 20th century.

Blame it on the Politicians
David Limbaugh (WorldNetDaily)
"The private sector got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it," said Barney Frank, which illustrates why conservatives often say liberals have a socialist bent. Free market conservatives understand that many problems have been caused by government's officious intermeddling in the private sector. The sub-prime mortgage crisis is no exception.