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Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and political analyst living in the Washington, D.C., area.
Mona Charen received her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, Columbia University, with honors. Mona Charen also holds a degree in law from George Washington University.
Mona Charen began her career at National Review magazine, where Mona Charen served as editorial assistant. On her first tax return at the age of 22, Mona Charen listed her occupation as "pundit," explaining later, "You have to think big."
In 1984, Mona Charen joined the White House staff, serving first as Nancy Reagan's speechwriter and later as associate director of the Office of Public Liaison. In the latter post, Mona Charen lectured widely on the administration's Central America policy. Later in Mona Charen's White House career, Mona Charen worked in the Public Affairs office helping to craft the president's overall communications strategy.
In 1986, Mona Charen left the White House to join the presidential quest of then-Congressman Jack Kemp as a speechwriter.
Mona Charen launched her syndicated column in 1987, and it has become one of the fastest-growing columns in the industry. It is featured in more than 200 papers, including the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Washington Times. Mona Charen spent six years as a regular commentator on CNN's "Capital Gang" and "Capital Gang Sunday," and has served as a judge of the Pulitzer Prizes. Mona Charen is the author of two best sellers: "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First" (2003), and "Do-Gooders: How Liberals Harm Those They Claim to Help -- and the Rest of Us" (2005).
Mona Charen is a frequent guest on television and radio public affairs programs and is married with three children.
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Mona Charen (Dec 30, 2011)
The Washington Post proclaimed in a recent headline another historic "first" for the United States -- the first female usher-in-chief at the White House. Stop the presses!... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 23, 2011)
This is the time of year to turn our thoughts to noble sentiments and inspiring stories. William Bennett, who has established something of a cottage industry in uplift,... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 19, 2011)
President Obama spoke at the annual meeting of the Union for Reform Judaism last week, and he gave the attendees that ol' time religion -- liberalism. Not surprisingly, since... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 16, 2011)
A few months ago, tooling along in my brand new Honda (aka "cute car"), I came to a stop at a red light. On my right, a police cruiser with lights flashing was investigating... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 13, 2011)
The headline reads like a piece from the Onion: "U.S. Navy Paying $15/Gallon for Green Fuel." But it's real enough.
It seems that, fresh from its success... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 09, 2011)
After a two-hour meeting in Cairo, Khaled Mashaal, unelected leader of Hamas, and Mahmoud Abbas, unelected leader of the Palestinian Authority, were all smiles. "We want to... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 06, 2011)
Writing for the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, William Galston surveys the demographic and political landscape. He expresses alarm about President Obama's re-election... more
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Mona Charen (Dec 02, 2011)
Five years ago last month, Milton Friedman died at age 94. To the very end, the Nobel Prize winning economist was astute, tireless and wonderfully avuncular. Thanks to the... more
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Mona Charen (Nov 29, 2011)
While the nation was digesting its turkey dinner, Rep. Michele Bachmann was seizing an opportunity to score points at Newt Gingrich's expense. Suggesting that his... more
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Mona Charen (Nov 22, 2011)
The initial shock of the child abuse scandal at Penn State was disturbing enough, but what came later may have been even more so.That Joe Paterno, other coaches and members... more
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Mona Charen (Nov 15, 2011)
"The Little Cellist" is a brightly colored, chipper website aimed at children. There, you can find clips of Julian Lloyd Webber playing "The Swan" from... more
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Mona Charen (Nov 11, 2011)
I think I understand why the audience at Wednesday's CNBC debate booed Maria Bartiromo's question to Herman Cain about sexual harassment allegations. They... more
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Mona Charen (Nov 04, 2011)
My high school sophomore son was grumbling as he read his world history textbook. He pointed me to this paragraph about the encounter between European and Mesoamerican... more
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Mona Charen (Nov 01, 2011)
It has the feel of an ambush -- this sexual harassment story involving Herman Cain. Some conservatives are responding in familiar ways. "They are terrified of strong,... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 28, 2011)
Kate Bolick stares out at the world from the cover of The Atlantic magazine. She's wearing a black lace evening dress. "What, Me Marry?" asks the headline.... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 25, 2011)
Two successful assassinations -- those of al-Awlaki and bin Laden -- have persuaded some that President Obama, whatever his domestic failures, has presided over a... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 21, 2011)
Do the Republican presidential candidates understand the gravity of the moment? In 2012, the nation must choose between inevitable (and possibly abrupt) economic collapse... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 18, 2011)
It doesn't come as a huge surprise that President Obama has decided to embrace the Occupy Wall Street movement. There has always been a certain drum circle flavor to... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 14, 2011)
If the Iranian government doesn't frighten you, you haven't been paying attention. The regime in Iran has been killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan for many... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 11, 2011)
Amid the expressions of grief at the passing of one of America's greatest innovators -- Steve Jobs -- one offhand comment by someone on CNN was jarring. Describing his... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 07, 2011)
Two new sets of Republicans are feeling deflated today -- the Chris Christie hopefuls and the Sarah Palin stalwarts. The Christie decision didn't surprise me, perhaps because... more
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Mona Charen (Oct 04, 2011)
President Obama is excessively fond of defining "who we are as a nation," which is interesting coming from someone whose campaign was based on bringing sweeping... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 30, 2011)
The Southern Poverty Law Center is appalled by the results of a new study finding that states are not teaching the history of the civil rights era. The SPLC, which... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 27, 2011)
Do not suppose for a minute that Herman Cain's victory in the Florida straw poll will alter the liberal narrative about the Tea Party and Republicans. No, we will continue to... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 23, 2011)
When New York's District 9 went Republican, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, explained that the district, which has been... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 20, 2011)
President Obama and the Democrats are finally happy. Liberated from thoughts of compromise with Republicans, they can fully indulge their most lascivious pleasure --... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 16, 2011)
The Columbia Spectator is the student newspaper at Columbia University, the school I was once proud to call my alma mater. A report in that newspaper raises the following... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 13, 2011)
You might suppose that a political book, appearing less than six months after Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels indicated that he would not run for president, must have been written... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 09, 2011)
There is a brand of Republican who looks at President Obama's vulnerability on the economy and says "go for it." They argue that the overriding issue of the campaign should... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 06, 2011)
When a deranged gunman shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 20 others in January, partisan Democrats leaped at the chance to blame Republican rhetoric for the crime. The New York... more
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Mona Charen (Sep 02, 2011)
They cannot help themselves, The New York Times that is. With absolute regularity, they continue to report certain issues in the most biased and fact-avoiding way possible.... more
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Mona Charen (Aug 30, 2011)
The Hurricane Irene story ought to, but won't, shed light on our prejudices regarding science. The favored liberal Democratic narrative -- we've seen it trotted out against... more
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Mona Charen (Aug 26, 2011)
This was not a gaffe. This was a disgrace. In a speech at Sichuan University, Vice President Joe Biden said "Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I'm not... more
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Mona Charen (Aug 23, 2011)
"The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity." -- W. B YeatsActually, contra Yeats, our best are full of passionate intensity -- except when... more
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Mona Charen (Aug 09, 2011)
Much of the interpretation of the Standard and Poor's downgrade of U.S. debt focused on the "dysfunction" of the U.S. political process. And certainly the S and P (which,... more
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Mona Charen (Aug 05, 2011)
Anticipating his entry into the presidential race, the Washington Post ran a long piece on Texas Governor Rick Perry's ideas about higher education. "A man of grand plans,"... more
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Mona Charen (Aug 02, 2011)
There are some on the right who believe that Barack Obama is intentionally steering the United States into disaster -- that he privately rejoices in the dismal economy... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 29, 2011)
It is true, so true, as Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, argues in the Washington Post, that the doyens of liberal media have been attempting to paint tea party... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 26, 2011)
As the fight continues over whether to raise taxes to ratify the additional $3.6 trillion President Obama and the Democrats have spent in just 27 months, you hear the same... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 22, 2011)
Free medicine! That's what Obamacare has brought you -- or should bring you, at least according to CNN. The story's opening sentence set the tone: "Contraceptives,... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 19, 2011)
To be a Democrat means to live in denial. Consider all of the things you must ignore or explain away.The PIGS. Not the chauvinist pigs whose transgressions preoccupied 1970s... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 15, 2011)
Count on it: In the coming days and weeks, Republicans will be accused -- not just by Democrats, but by the chattering class that includes some self-styled conservatives --... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 12, 2011)
It is becoming a verbal tic -- the tendency on the part of the president to tell wealthy Americans ("people like me" he's always careful to add) that they have made more than... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 08, 2011)
It's impossible to read Ying Ma's fascinating memoir, "Chinese Girl in the Ghetto," without wincing. She was born in Guangzhou, China's third largest city. Throughout her... more
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Mona Charen (Jul 01, 2011)
How many times have we heard awestruck references to Barack Obama's history as a law professor? Many came from the man himself, as when he told a crowd at a 2007 fundraiser,... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 28, 2011)
If only lower income heterosexuals were as keen to marry as some homosexuals, the United States would be a much stronger country.Supporters of gay marriage (most prominently... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 24, 2011)
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. -- Winston ChurchillThere is history -- a chronicle of human events -- and then there is perceived history. So often, the... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 21, 2011)
It isn't quite panic yet, but the sounds emanating from Obamaland are certainly nervous. If you are David Axelrod, chief strategist for President Obama's re-election... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 15, 2011)
The Republicans candidates for president did a respectable job presenting themselves at the New Hampshire debate on Monday. But there was one person on stage most viewers... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 14, 2011)
Joblessness haunts the Obama administration. The stimulus was the most spectacular flop of recent history. Yet the president, as he demonstrated in North Carolina Monday,... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 10, 2011)
Rep. Anthony Weiner has achieved something by behaving so spectacularly shamefully. Unless I miss my guess, he has revived the concept of sexual morality. Even for a jaded... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 07, 2011)
The Washington Post has issued a post-mortem on the career of John Edwards ("American Dream is Irrevocably Undone") and finds tragedy and pathos. "The man born Johnny Reid... more
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Mona Charen (Jun 03, 2011)
I will not get sentimental, or so I keep telling myself. Well, maybe a little sentimental, but never maudlin at the approaching departure of my 17-year-old son for college in... more
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Mona Charen (May 31, 2011)
"The police are afraid," an Egyptian reported after witnessing 80 prisoners, some armed with machetes and guns, break out of a jail in Cairo. It was one of many such... more
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Mona Charen (May 27, 2011)
Though I warned two weeks ago about the possibility of a Republican loss in NY 26, I'm not sorry that Democrat Kathy Hochul's deceptive, demagogic resort to Mediscare... more
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Mona Charen (May 24, 2011)
President Obama has claimed many times to be a steadfast friend of the state of Israel. He certainly found bold words to convey that impression when he addressed the AIPAC... more
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Mona Charen (May 20, 2011)
Call it testosterone poisoning: A group of fraternity pledges at Yale, blindfolded and led in a line, each with his hands on the shoulders of the boy in front of him (the... more
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Mona Charen (May 17, 2011)
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plea that Congress would have to pass the 906-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in order to "find out what's in it" has... more
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Mona Charen (May 13, 2011)
One of William F. Buckley's later books was titled simply "Gratitude," which is, when you think about it, one of the cardinal conservative virtues. The spirit of gratitude... more
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Mona Charen (May 10, 2011)
The race to succeed chest-baring, Craigslist-dabbling Rep. Chris Lee in upstate New York has not received much national notice. Events in Abbottabad have crowded out other... more
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Mona Charen (May 06, 2011)
Images of Osama bin Laden's mangled face will not be beamed around the world. But it's worth considering, as we think about the death of bin Laden, how his face looked in... more
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Mona Charen (May 03, 2011)
In those harrowing first days and weeks after the 9/11 atrocity, Americans were traumatized -- but also bewildered. What vicious hatred was this? Who was this new and... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 29, 2011)
By the time you read this, Prince William and his bride, Catherine Middleton (who, depending upon the distribution of titles, may henceforth be known officially by the odd... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 26, 2011)
The Obama foreign policy is a mess. In the first 12 months of his term -- let's call it the contra-Bush era -- the president's chief aim seemed to be to undo, to the degree... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 22, 2011)
In 1994, in a close race for governor of Florida between Democrat Lawton Chiles and Republican Jeb Bush, a late blitz of robo calls may have put Chiles over the top. The... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 19, 2011)
Conservatives, particularly those of libertarian bent, have always bristled at government efforts to do good, believing that the state has no business performing any but... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 15, 2011)
I've never felt so simpatico with Joe Biden as I did after President Obama's Great Deficit Speech. Ol' lunch bucket Joe seemed to doze off during the president's oration.... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 12, 2011)
Dear Arab protesters, From Tripoli to Sanaa, and from Cairo to Damascus, you are taking to the streets to topple your governments. The fabled "Arab street" has, after many... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 08, 2011)
His face adorns the $10 bill, but as Richard Brookhiser, host of "Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton" (airing on PBS April 11), finds when conducting a quick street canvas --... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 05, 2011)
Richard Goldstone, the formerly respected South African jurist who disgraced himself by lending his name to a sinister and libelous U.N. report condemning Israel for war... more
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Mona Charen (Apr 01, 2011)
Perhaps you've seen the commercials touting the life-saving benefits of Planned Parenthood. They're very professional, very persuasive, and clearly very expensive. Viewers... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 29, 2011)
April 18 looms like a specter at this time of year, casting a pall over the forsythia and daffodils that coax us to be cheerful. Like a sick child who longs to play outside... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 25, 2011)
The village of Berkeley, Ill., 15 miles west of Chicago, is small enough to proclaim its population (5,245) on its welcome sign. It is also small enough to escape mention in... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 22, 2011)
In the Democratic primary campaign of 2008, candidate Barack Obama scored points because he, unlike many Democrats, had opposed the Iraq War from the start. Though a state... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 18, 2011)
President Obama is known for his cool. He's been called "No drama Obama" by some of his associates. And certainly in the realm of foreign policy, his response to events has... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 15, 2011)
Who won the battle of Wisconsin? Republican Gov. Scott Walker got a legislative victory. On the other hand, Democrats, with a wary eye on 2012 and noting the worrying drop in... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 11, 2011)
James O'Keefe, who is now felling executives of National Public Radio as he previously trap-doored ACORN, must be a deeply cynical young man. How else could he have imagined... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 08, 2011)
My friend E.J. Dionne Jr., a liberal columnist for the Washington Post, is a fine man with, I feel safe in asserting, a warm heart. But he betrays in a recent column a... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 04, 2011)
Andy Ferguson, one of America's most engaging and perspicacious journalists, has not -- as Andre Malraux said of Whittaker Chambers -- returned from the hell of college... more
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Mona Charen (Mar 01, 2011)
Around Washington, D.C., if you mention Iowa, the first thing that will pop into most people's minds is "caucuses." But in Iowa, if you asked a local about the matchups, he'd... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 25, 2011)
It's hard to imagine the level of outrage that would be flowing in the direction of the Republican Party today if Republicans had behaved the way the Democrats have over the... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 22, 2011)
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 18, 2011)
Well, now we have the answer to the question posed Nov. 2: Will President Obama, faced with an electorate infuriated by big government overreach, pivot as Bill Clinton did in... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 15, 2011)
Conservatives have been chastised in some quarters over the past week for their lack of enthusiasm for the "revolution" in Egypt. "... Fear and loathing -- of Muslims... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 11, 2011)
Companies are quietly redesigning their products to accommodate the needs of (shh, don't say it aloud) aging baby boomers. So reports the Wall Street Journal: "The generation... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 08, 2011)
As Egypt staggers toward an uncertain future, a familiar complaint is making the opinion rounds in the United States -- namely that Egypt's current predicament is at least in... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 04, 2011)
In a suit filed in federal court in New York, former president Jimmy Carter, along with his publisher, Simon & Schuster, is being sued by five readers of his 2006 book,... more
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Mona Charen (Feb 01, 2011)
Do we sympathize with the tens of thousands of Egyptians marching to topple the regime of Hosni Mubarak? It would be churlish not to. Poverty, insecurity, lack of basic... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 28, 2011)
"This is our generation's Sputnik moment," declared President Obama in his State of the Union address. It was the first of several references -- some oblique, some direct --... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 25, 2011)
I began noticing the white coating, dull film, and simply unclean dishes a few weeks ago. Naturally, I suspected that other members of my clan were failing to place dishes on... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 21, 2011)
He seems to have achieved a kind of religious exultation by decapitating Daniel Pearl. That's what emerges from a new report from Georgetown University and the Center for... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 19, 2011)
Amy Chua may or may not be a superior mother, but she is a superb marketer -- and I say that with admiration. Who among the literate has not heard of her defiant declaration... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 14, 2011)
Some good has come of the tragedy in Tucson. President Obama has issued a de facto rebuke to those in his camp who attempted to use the murders to discredit and smear their... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 11, 2011)
It doesn't require actual violence for the left in America to malign the right as bloodthirsty. So fertile are their imaginations -- or so flexible their ethical constraints... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 07, 2011)
The late Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan once coined a pithy test for whether you have landed in a free country or not. Take a look at the newspapers, he suggested, "If all the news... more
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Mona Charen (Jan 04, 2011)
JERUSALEM -- "All of these correspondents," IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich notes, referring to the hundreds of reporters, photographers, and producers from world press... more