Rich Galen

Rich Galen

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Primaries and Caucuses

By Rich Galen (Dec 30, 2011)

We know the Iowa Caucuses will be held next Tuesday. A week after that, New Hampshire will hold its primary. What's the difference? One week. Very funny. Not counting... more

Why Iowa?

By Rich Galen (Dec 28, 2011)

We are now inside of a week until the waiting-with-baited-breath Iowa Caucuses. Every four years everyone looks at who has won in Iowa and who ended up as the nominee and... more

Christmas 2011 - Six Words

By Rich Galen (Dec 23, 2011)

NOTE: This is an edited version of the column from Christmas 2003 which was written from Tikrit and Baghdad. At the time, according to the Congressional Research Service,... more

65

By Rich Galen (Dec 21, 2011)

Allow me a day of what, bragging? Whining? Maybe both. Today I turn 65. When I was a kid I don't think I knew anyone who was 65. I thought people who were 35 were... more

Tightening

By Rich Galen (Dec 19, 2011)

I understand that national polls traditionally haven't meant much, because voters in California and Missouri are not going to their local fire stations and high school... more

Negative Ads

By Rich Galen (Dec 14, 2011)

We are at the point in the presidential election cycle when the campaigns – and their allies – begin to run negative ads. Everyone hates negative ads. Candidate after... more

Des Moines Des Bate

By Rich Galen (Dec 12, 2011)

The thing about telling you that I watched the GOP debate that took place in Des Moines, Iowa Saturday night is I have to admit I had nothing else to do Saturday... more

Corzine. Democrat.

By Rich Galen (Dec 09, 2011)

There once was a Wall Street firm named MF Global. I'm not sure what they did to make money, but they hired a guy named Jon Corzine, a Democrat, to help them do it. Jon... more

Referendum

By Rich Galen (Dec 07, 2011)

The political geniuses around President Barack Obama have a problem: They do not - DO NOT - want this election to be a referendum on the President. And, for good... more

Cain Can't

By Rich Galen (Dec 05, 2011)

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Herman Cain suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for President. I personally believe that, from the beginning, the... more

Newt: I Will be the Nominee

By Rich Galen (Dec 02, 2011)

We can say this about our friend Newt Gingrich: He has never suffered from public self-doubt. On the strength of a string of polls showing the GOP conservative base has... more

Endorsements

By Rich Galen (Nov 28, 2011)

The New Hampshire Union-Leader (neé Manchester Union-Leader) endorsed Speaker Newt Gingrich for President in the Republican primary which will be held there on January 10,... more

Super Committee = Fail

By Rich Galen (Nov 21, 2011)

The conventional wisdom out of Washington is that the Super Committee will not reach an agreement to cut between $1.2 and $1.5 trillion dollars over the next ten... more

Charlie McCarthy

By Rich Galen (Nov 18, 2011)

Before we start, let me advise everyone whose time is valuable that today's MULLINGS is not going to be worth it. Go get a bagel and a cup of coffee, instead. Bye. I have... more

#OWS

By Rich Galen (Nov 16, 2011)

City officials from coast-to-coast have finally decided to live up to their responsibilities to enforce the law and have been evicting the Occupy (fill-in-the-blank)... more

Newt... Newt!

By Rich Galen (Nov 14, 2011)

I have mentioned to you before that when it comes to making political predictions I am exactly 50-50. I am wrong exactly as often as I am correct, thus you can't make any... more

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky

By Rich Galen (Nov 11, 2011)

  You've seen it a thousand times since Wednesday night. Gov. Rick Perry, primed with a talking point about the three Federal Departments he would shut down... more

Calling All Ghostbusters

By Rich Galen (Nov 09, 2011)

One of my Tweets (@richgalen) as I watched the Herman Cain presser yesterday afternoon: "I am now officially as over watching pressers re: #thehermancain as I am watching... more

A Capacity to Lead

By Rich Galen (Nov 07, 2011)

On November 6 next year - 52 weeks from tomorrow - those of us who haven't availed ourselves of early voting, absentee voting, mail-in voting or some other form of not... more

In God We Trust

By Rich Galen (Nov 04, 2011)

  When official Washington wasn't trying to figure out who said what to whom about what Herman Cain might or might not have said or done while he was running... more

Cain-sian Politics

By Rich Galen (Nov 02, 2011)

I haven't got a clue what happened or didn't happen while Herman Cain was CEO of the National Restaurant Association. There appear to be fewer than a dozen people -- the two... more

Measuring Iowa

By Rich Galen (Oct 31, 2011)

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V-I Day

By Rich Galen (Oct 26, 2011)

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Rules of Engagement

By Rich Galen (Oct 24, 2011)

Muammar Gadhafi is dead. Good. Naturally, in this era of litigating everything, everywhere, all the time; the question of how he actually died has become an issue... more

Demonstrations, Riots & Wars

By Rich Galen (Oct 21, 2011)

As I have told you before, I watch CNBC in the morning because I know about as much about politics as most of the guests on the morning cable news programs who talk about... more

The Las Vegas Debate - Post-Game

By Rich Galen (Oct 18, 2011)

This debate was actually watchable. I'm not certain if it was because Anderson Cooper was such a good marshal, if the candidates have now done 274 debates, or both, but it... more

The Las Vegas Debate - Pre-Game

By Rich Galen (Oct 18, 2011)

Pre-Gaming the Las Vegas debate: Let me get this out of the way early. Will this debate have any national impact? No, because what happens in Vegas … That's off my... more

The Money Chase

By Rich Galen (Oct 17, 2011)

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Those Pesky Persians

By Rich Galen (Oct 14, 2011)

So, let me get this straight: The Iranian government decided it would be a good idea to launch a plot to kill the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S. To do this they... more

The Dartmouth Debate

By Rich Galen (Oct 12, 2011)

Pre-Debate The only candidates that matter at this point are Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain. I know this will draw 23,372 emails about Ron Paul but he is what... more

Perry, Paul & Romney

By Rich Galen (Oct 10, 2011)

I was in Las Vegas Friday night as the guest of the conservative Citizen Outreach organization. We got to talking about the importance which may be visited upon the Nevada... more

Where's the Outrage

By Rich Galen (Oct 07, 2011)

In one of the GOP Presidential debates the number of prisoners who had been put to death in Texas drew applause from the audience. In a subsequent debate, the issue of the... more

No Christie, No iPhone5… Woe to Me

By Rich Galen (Oct 05, 2011)

First. Chris Christie. As I predicted back in 1957, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced at a press conference yesterday that he would not be a Republican candidate... more

An Economic War Cabinet

By Rich Galen (Oct 03, 2011)

In 1939 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced the creation of his War Cabinet which was made up of five Conservative members and four Liberals. When Winston... more

Chris Christie and Nothing But

By Rich Galen (Sep 28, 2011)

This Gov. Chris Christie. Is he running? Yes, he’s running. No he is not running. Former N.J. Gov. Tom Kean says he's running. Christie's brother says he's not. ... more

Raising Cain

By Rich Galen (Sep 26, 2011)

  Just before 6 PM Saturday, the remarkably efficient information loop known as Twitter exploded with the news that Herman Cain had won the straw poll in Florida.... more

The Fox/Google Debate

By Rich Galen (Sep 23, 2011)

Debate night - UH-gain. This time co-sponsored by Fox News and Google - unlikely partners who make the case about strange bedfellows UH-gain. The stock market is in... more

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

By Rich Galen (Sep 21, 2011)

  The Popular Press is swooning over what they consider to be the new-found potency in President Barack Obama's demands that the Congress pass his Jobs... more

Bill Maher

By Rich Galen (Sep 19, 2011)

  Some of you may remember that I told you in Friday's MULLINGS that I was going to be on Bill Maher's HBO program, "Real Time." I said that I... more

Trouble Rhymes with Carville

By Rich Galen (Sep 16, 2011)

  One of the most enduring songs from the 1957 Broadway musical, "The Music Man" is named "Trouble" Trouble, oh we got trouble, Right... more

The CNN/Tea Party Debate

By Rich Galen (Sep 13, 2011)

  Pre-Debate: Generally: The President finally got around to sending his Jobs Bill up to the Hill today. In spite of the early betting it is almost all paid... more

164 - Ten Years On

By Rich Galen (Sep 12, 2011)

Note: On September 14, 2001 President Bush went to Ground Zero. Standing atop a buried fire truck the President draped an arm over a firefighter wearing a helmet bearing the... more

The Jobs Speech

By Rich Galen (Sep 09, 2011)

  President Barack Obama's speech wasn't awful. It wasn't great. It had some excellent lines "Last thing [vets] should have to do is to fight for... more

The Reagan Library Debate

By Rich Galen (Sep 08, 2011)

  This worked pretty well in Ames, Iowa so let's do it again. Here are my pre- and post-debate impressions. Pre-debate: This is down to three people.... more

A Very Important Week

By Rich Galen (Sep 07, 2011)

This is a big week in American politics. The other day Michele Bachmann's campaign "Did a Gingrich" as she lost her manager, the sainted Ed Rollins and his deputy. Ed said... more

Back to School - 2011

By Rich Galen (Sep 02, 2011)

The children of America have gone back to school. And, in nearly every household, there is at least one person who is standing over the kitchen sink in tears, wondering where... more

Perry Leads on All Fronts

By Rich Galen (Aug 30, 2011)

National polls measuring support during the primary season are suspect because we don't have national primaries. We have state-by-state primaries and caucuses. A national... more

Goodnight Irene

By Rich Galen (Aug 26, 2011)

Just went through a 5.9 earthquake. We who live along the Potomac River are on flood watch. The Libyans can't find Moammar Gaddhafi and, more important, don't have any idea... more

An Unpredictable Region

By Rich Galen (Aug 23, 2011)

No one in the Obama Administration was hanging a "Mission Accomplished" sign in front of the White House yesterday as it became obvious that the Libyan rebels had all but... more

Perry in the Spotlight

By Rich Galen (Aug 18, 2011)

Rick Perry has been in this race for about 12 minutes and has been deemed the frontrunner; the man who has the best chance of knocking Mitt Romney out of his frontrunner... more

Iowa Straw Poll

By Rich Galen (Aug 15, 2011)

It's all about expectations. In the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on Saturday, the expectation was that the number of Iowans who got on a bus, or into their cars and drove to... more

Debate in Ames

By Rich Galen (Aug 12, 2011)

Fox News wanted to look for questions to ask and for ways to ask them which would make the candidates engage on the stage. As one Fox exec put it, "We know they want to throw... more

This is NOT a Good August Story

By Rich Galen (Aug 09, 2011)

I woke up early yesterday morning to follow the story of the continuing drop in the markets following the S&P downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt from AAA to AA+. It occurred... more

Down Jones Industrial Average

By Rich Galen (Aug 05, 2011)

The day after President Obama was reveling with rich donors in faux celebration of his 50th birthday, the Down Jones Industrial Average dropped 512.76 points on Thursday to... more

Who Won? Boehner.

By Rich Galen (Aug 02, 2011)

Last week it was all "Boehner Embarrassed," "Boehner Loses Control," "Boehner Speakership in Peril," and so on. That was last week. So … what was. Yesterday was a new... more

The Myth of Bi-Partisan

By Rich Galen (Jul 29, 2011)

While waiting for the debt limit vote … The entire near solar system is begging and pleading for Washington to exercise a concept known as "bipartisanship." By... more

Tweet: 2B or Not 2B

By Rich Galen (Jul 27, 2011)

To kick the can down the road or not to kick the can down the road. That is the cliché. Whether 'tis nobler for Wall Street to suffer The slings and... more

Wanted: A New Scorecard

By Rich Galen (Jul 25, 2011)

• We need a new way of keeping score when it comes to government spending. • The only test is: How much did we spend on a program last year and how much more... more

Lockouts

By Rich Galen (Jul 22, 2011)

Every time I turn around someone is locking out someone; someone is threatening to lockout someone; and there is a deadline looming. There is always a deadline looming.... more

Cut Someone Else

By Rich Galen (Jul 20, 2011)

Well, let's see . . . The Timothy Geithner-imposed deadline of August 2 to increase the debt limit is one day closer and the Republican-controlled House passed a debt... more

A Surprising President

By Rich Galen (Jul 18, 2011)

Barack Obama may be the most surprising President in the history of the Republic. In his two-and-a-half years in office, no matter what has happened, it seems to have come... more

We're Taking Advice from Whom?

By Rich Galen (Jul 15, 2011)

Let me start by saying American should pay its debts. If the debts are really, really large - that's too bad. We owe the money and we have to pay it. We're the richest, most... more

Mark Halperin was Right

By Rich Galen (Jul 13, 2011)

About a week ago Time Magazine writer (and long-term Mullpal) Mark Halperin got thrown off the air for calling President Barack Obama a bad name on the MSNBC program,... more

Step by Step

By Rich Galen (Jul 11, 2011)

It is important to remember that these sorts of things are a process. Just as most of us can't go up a flight of stairs in one step from the bottom to the top, a major... more

Final Trip to the Final Frontier

By Rich Galen (Jul 08, 2011)

If all goes according to the flight plan, the last launch of the last Space Shuttle will take place on Friday morning at 11:26 EDT. The Shuttle Atlantis will move... more

Minnesota Facts

By Rich Galen (Jul 06, 2011)

The State Minnesota is shut down. Sort of. The Republican-controlled State Legislature of Minnesota couldn't agree on a budget deal with the Democratic (officially the... more

Daddy-in-Chief

By Rich Galen (Jul 01, 2011)

President Barack Obama held a rare news conference on Wednesday to show that he was Daddy-In-Chief of the whole wide U.S. of A. He was complaining about the fact that the... more

Piling On

By Rich Galen (Jun 29, 2011)

You might remember that I am not Michele Bachmann's biggest supporter. I don't dislike her, but … well, there you are. Nevertheless there was an article in the... more

Is Iowa Predictive?

By Rich Galen (Jun 27, 2011)

Every four years every reporter covering politics becomes an avid reader of one newspaper: The Des Moines Register. That also leads to a quadrennial discussion as to whether... more

Afghanistan

By Rich Galen (Jun 24, 2011)

President Obama is balancing his Afghan policy on the edge of a razor between what the U.S. military thinks it needs and what Obama's political base (along with a growing... more

Helios is Angry

By Rich Galen (Jun 22, 2011)

• Yesterday was the Summer Solstice. The sun was as high in the sky as it gets in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus today’s topic. • Buried in paragraph 12... more

Wars of Choice

By Rich Galen (Jun 20, 2011)

Before we get to the things that are wrong in the world - and the list is growing ever longer - if you missed the U.S. Open Golf Championship over the weekend you missed... more

The Weiner Saga Ends

By Rich Galen (Jun 17, 2011)

To the disappointment of some, but the relief of many, Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday at a raucous press conference... more

Debts Unlimited

By Rich Galen (Jun 15, 2011)

One final note about the CNN Republican debate Monday night: Judging from the number of Leroy Jethro Gibbs slaps to the back of the head I've received, I am apparently the... more

Debts Unlimited

By Rich Galen (Jun 15, 2011)

 One final note about the CNN Republican debate Monday night: Judging from the number of Leroy Jethro Gibbs slaps to the back of the head I've received, I am... more

The CNN New Hampshire Debate

By Rich Galen (Jun 14, 2011)

First of all the candidates have to take back control of these debates. The sponsors' zeal to use the latest, greatest, hippest, most social media (I typed "socialist,"... more

Palin Mail

By Rich Galen (Jun 13, 2011)

The State of Alaska dumped 13,000 emails - about 24,000 pages - generated during the brief period of Sarah Palin's gubernatorial career. Judging from the media scrum to get... more

Design Solution

By Rich Galen (Jun 10, 2011)

There is a reason that just about every airliner looks like every other airliner. Some are larger, some smaller; some have two engines, some four, but they generally look... more

Bad Week for Dems

By Rich Galen (Jun 08, 2011)

While the rest of America was watching Anthony Weiner sorta, kinda accept responsibility for the fact that he had lied to himself (among others), the Washington Post's... more

All About Bean Sprouts

By Rich Galen (Jun 06, 2011)

The E. Coli outbreak in Europe now appears to have been caused by bean sprouts. If the strain weren't so deadly (as of last night it has killed 22 people and sickened at... more

Don't Root for Failure

By Rich Galen (Jun 03, 2011)

The economic news this week has been dreadful: Housing prices: "Home prices have double dipped, dropping to new post-Recession lows." -- US News & World Report.... more

Bailin' on Palin

By Rich Galen (Jun 01, 2011)

First, the good news: Over the course of the past 13+ years, I may have mentioned - once or twice - that I attended a small, liberal arts college in Southeastern Ohio... more

Memorial Day 2011

By Rich Galen (May 27, 2011)

"Because of your selfless acts, we stand in the capitals of those who would do our citizens harm." Col. Michael Ceroli, Ft. Bragg, NC We... more

Apocalypse Now - or Never

By Rich Galen (May 25, 2011)

The prediction that the world would end last Saturday was the biggest bust since Geraldo opened Al Capone's vault or Lenin's Tomb (or whatever it was) and found it... more

Israel, Indianapolis & Austin

By Rich Galen (May 23, 2011)

Last week President Barack Obama gave his long-awaited speech on the Middle East at the State Department. No one remembers anything he said other than his call for Israel to... more

Newt! Newt! N--

By Rich Galen (May 20, 2011)

I think we've been through this before, but it's worth revisiting. I have known Newt Gingrich since 1982 when I first went to work at the National Republican Congressional... more

If Nominated I Will Not Run

By Rich Galen (May 18, 2011)

I am not a candidate for President of the United States. There. I hope that ends the widespread speculation about my intentions. Once in a while you will hear a... more

Drill, Baby - No, Don't - Yes, Drill

By Rich Galen (May 16, 2011)

According to the AAA, the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in the lower 48 this week was $3.93. That ranges from a high of $4.27 in Connecticut to a... more

Still Unsettled

By Rich Galen (May 13, 2011)

On December 17, 2010 a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, attempting to sell fruits and vegetables from a street stall in the city of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia was hassled by the local... more

Game On!

By Rich Galen (May 11, 2011)

Newt Gingrich is scheduled to officially announce today that he is a candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination. As most of you know I have worked with, for, and... more

Maybe it Wasn't a Mansion

By Rich Galen (May 09, 2011)

If the Obama Administration isn't - as they put it - "spiking the football," I'd love to know what they would be doing if they really wanted the President to strut across the... more

Bin Laden's Half-Life

By Rich Galen (May 06, 2011)

Before I get ugly, which I am afraid I may be, let me ask you to do me a favor. Sunday, as you know, is Mother's Day (or is it Mothers' Day?). In any event, in addition to... more

Meanwhile in Libya and Syria

By Rich Galen (May 04, 2011)

First of all, here's everything I know about SEALs (which is an acronym for SEa, Air, and Land) I once watched a series called BUDS on one of the 372 Discovery cable... more

The Shot that Killed bin Laden

By Rich Galen (May 02, 2011)

At 12:09 this morning, as I was watching the coverage of the events surrounding President Obama's announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden, I tweeted: "Wonder if we'll... more

Birth Certificate

By Rich Galen (Apr 29, 2011)

Dear Mr. Mullings: Why aren't you writing this from London? Don't tell us you weren't invited to the Royal Wedding! Signed, The... more

What's Going to Happen?

By Rich Galen (Apr 27, 2011)

Republicans, including occasionally lapsed Republicans like me, have been whipping President Obama’s latest approval-disapproval numbers around to each other leading to... more

Hot Air About Gas Prices

By Rich Galen (Apr 25, 2011)

Gasoline prices are continuing to rise and it's all Obama's fault. Ok, that was just to get your attention, but let's look at the numbers. The national average for... more

More Kinetic Military Action

By Rich Galen (Apr 22, 2011)

About the time President Obama was goofing it up at Google, he was also approving a fairly dramatic escalation in America's involvement in Libya by agreeing to utilize armed... more

Don't Bother, They're Here

By Rich Galen (Apr 20, 2011)

To succeed in America - to truly succeed in America - you have to be more than excellent at what you do; you have to be a carnival barker making certain that every single... more

Democracy? Democracy.

By Rich Galen (Apr 18, 2011)

From Weatherbug.com yesterday: "Feels-like temperature: 116." I am back in the capital city of Nigeria which is not Lagos, but Abuja. For two days, I had been in the... more

Enroute Abuja, Nigeria

By Rich Galen (Apr 13, 2011)

From "The Office": Toby (HR director): Didn't you lose a lot of money on that other investment? The email? Michael Scott (regional manager): You know what... more

Barry in the Middle

By Rich Galen (Apr 11, 2011)

The deal to head off a government shutdown Friday night got done because a guy named Barry Jackson said it was done. Not one second before. I have no - zero - inside info... more

Othodoxy

By Rich Galen (Apr 06, 2011)

Over the 12 years of writing MULLINGS, I have often strayed - sometimes pretty far - from Conservative Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is defined in Merriam Webster's Third... more

Terry Jones Is Not the Problem

By Rich Galen (Apr 04, 2011)

That preacher in Florida who burned a Koran is a ______ (Fill in the Blank). On that, I think we can all agree. The notion that a guy with a 30-person congregation can hold... more

Wrong Speech at the Wrong Time

By Rich Galen (Mar 30, 2011)

President Obama's speech on Monday night was, at best, OK. It got tongues wagging about the "Obama Doctrine" which appears to be: "If it won't drag Iran into the fight we'll... more

Kinetic Military Action

By Rich Galen (Mar 25, 2011)

There has been so much going on this week, it's almost impossible to make sense of it all in just one column. First of all the is the ongoing non-war in Libya. It is a... more

Radioactive Reporting

By Rich Galen (Mar 18, 2011)

In September 1964 I showed up at a place called Marietta, Ohio to go to college. Among the 1,400-or so students who enrolled that semester, four of us became fraternity... more

I Get a Kick From Bahrain

By Rich Galen (Mar 16, 2011)

Headline:Saudi Troops Enter Bahrain to Help Put Down Unrest Come with me into the Wayback Machine. Back in the day, I worked for a company called EDS which had been... more

Paging Dr. Chu

By Rich Galen (Mar 14, 2011)

There is an old saying which goes (approximately) "Every patient a surgeon sees, needs surgery." In putting together his Cabinet, President-elect Barack Obama chose a... more

France is Leading the Way?

By Rich Galen (Mar 11, 2011)

I walked into a colleague's office yesterday morning and apologized for being late to a meeting by saying: "Sorry, I was doing Russian TV and it ran over." I was informed... more

Hard Guys to Love

By Rich Galen (Mar 09, 2011)

I want to be in favor of Federal funding for public broadcasting. I really do. I believe that a function of society is support of the arts. I choose to include Sesame... more

Wisconsin

By Rich Galen (Mar 02, 2011)

The standoff between Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Democrats in the State Senate has been going on for two weeks and may last for weeks or even months longer.... more

Except February Which Stands Alone

By Rich Galen (Feb 28, 2011)

Why does February only have 28 days - not just one, but two or three fewer than all of its monthly cousins? I saw "The King's Speech" yesterday at the 12:30 showing... more

Ghostbusters

By Rich Galen (Feb 25, 2011)

Let's be honest about this. When people from Tripoli to Madison are shouting - if not shooting - at each other; when people are storming the state capitol buildings in Ohio... more

Oil Shock

By Rich Galen (Feb 23, 2011)

The price of oil on the international market at yesterday's close was $93.57 per barrel, an increase of $7.37 in one day. That increase was because of the unrest in Libya... more

Don't Like It? Riot

By Rich Galen (Feb 18, 2011)

Welcome to another new normal: If you don't like something your government is doing, or if your government is not doing something you think it should be doing - riot.... more

Being Smart on the Budget

By Rich Galen (Feb 14, 2011)

Here are the approximate numbers that you're going to be hearing about all day today: The President's 2012 budget will be a $3.5 trillion-plus plus earmark. Given the... more

A Secular Egypt

By Rich Galen (Feb 09, 2011)

Here's what's likely to happen in Egypt: It will evolve into a Turkish-like government with the civil side adopting a pro-Islamic stance, while the military makes certain the... more

A Secular Egypt

By Rich Galen (Feb 09, 2011)

Here's what's likely to happen in Egypt: It will evolve into a Turkish-like government with the civil side adopting a pro-Islamic stance, while the military makes certain the... more

New Age of News Coverage

By Rich Galen (Feb 07, 2011)

Katie Couric (D-CBS), Brian Williams (I-NBC), Anderson Cooper (?-CNN), and Christiane Amanpour (Christian Democrat-ABC) all bailed out of Egypt when their corporate masters... more

Hiding Behind Egypt

By Rich Galen (Feb 04, 2011)

It wasn't exactly under the cover of darkness, but it was under the cover of the ongoing drama in Egypt that the U.S. Senate attempted a vote on repealing Obamacare.... more

1.6 Billion Muslims

By Rich Galen (Feb 02, 2011)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has attempted to quell the unease in his country by announcing he will not run for a 217th term as President later this year. We’ll see if... more

Egypt

By Rich Galen (Jan 31, 2011)

On December 17, 2010 a 26 year-old fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest at his treatment by the local authorities in the Tunisian city of Sidi... more

State of the Union 2011

By Rich Galen (Jan 26, 2011)

It was a pretty good speech. In fact it was a very good speech. The President touched all the right notes, in the right order, with the kind of delivery which is second, in... more

Altered States... of the Union

By Rich Galen (Jan 24, 2011)

The President is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives at 9 o'clock tomorrow night. I thought that title... more

Every Dollar Has a Sponsor

By Rich Galen (Jan 21, 2011)

The chatter around Your Nation's Capital among the cognoscenti, the intelligentsia, and smarty-pantses over the past 24 hours was: Is there any real meaning to the House vote... more

Just Lunch

By Rich Galen (Jan 17, 2011)

I am on a trip sponsored by the ONE Campaign which is headed by U2's Bono. Bono was not along, to answer that question. I was one of eight political types - four Ds and four... more

A Soapbox Stand

By Rich Galen (Jan 12, 2011)

I have been in Kenya since Saturday night on a trip sponsored by the ONE Campaign. I am with seven other political pros - pollsters, advisors, message masters, and me. Later... more

The Good, the Bad, and...

By Rich Galen (Jan 10, 2011)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Three quick examples: The shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people leaves us speechless. It also reminds us that... more

Pelosi for Speaker!

By Rich Galen (Jan 07, 2011)

The other day, Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), the new head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) (the organization which is charged with electing Democrats to... more

How a Bill Really Becomes Law

By Rich Galen (Jan 05, 2011)

When our 11th grade social studies teacher, Mr. Vinnie Mirandi walked us through the lawmaking process it sounded so simple: -- A Representative or a Senator has a good... more

We the People

By Rich Galen (Jan 03, 2011)

When the House opens for business at noon on Wednesday, Republicans will hold a tag-team reading of the U.S. Constitution which is an excellent idea. Most of the incoming... more