Ben, I usually enjoy your writing but on this one, you are totally clueless. You can purge everyone you want until you are left with the 15-20% hardcore conservatives. You may have fun patting each other on the back and engaging in group think but you will never win another election. Winning elections is about building coalitions among diverse groups of people. There is no -perfect candidate and no perfect political party. The only funny thing about the joke in your article is that you have assume dthe position of the dumb blond.

We hear a lot about the Republican establishment. Who are these guys? BTW, Newt is the ultimate insider who has spent his entire career in Wash DC. Even once he was removed as Speaker, he continued to live and work in the DC area. The "establishment" did not seek to destroy Newt, he was very effective in doing that himself. It reminds one of his last days as Speaker.

The only problem was that he was lying through is teeth when he claimed he was only raising questions during his attack on Romney and Bain Capital.

Ben, you usually write interesting articles but this is just a piece of whinning. We all know about Romneycare. The discussion of raising fees is pathetic in the scheme of things. In your claim that he was not advocating the issues of social conservatives, did you forget that he was governor of Massachusetts?

Greg, you really should read the book. To say Atlas Shrugged was about Rand's hatred of God is laughable.

The problem with the analysis is that Congress does not have the power to allow the execution of a US citizen without due process of law contrary to the Constitution. There is no doubt that Awlaki was an enemy of this country. However, once you get on that slippery slope, it is all down hill. Perhaps the next in line are the bankers and other wealthy people that Roseann Barr wants to behead.

Valerie: The biggest investors in the market are institutional investors mainly pension funds that hold the retirement monies of teachers, fire fighters, union members etc. So when you laugh at the losses suffered by people who are invested in the market, these are the main people being hurt.

Michael, you may want to re-read the book Atlas Shrugged or actually read it for the first time. You have completely missed the point of the book. The book is about freedom and the ability of each person to work in their own interest without guilt or artificial obligations being imposed upon them by others. It is a critique of those who leech off the efforts of others andthecancer they become on society. Religion has nothing to do with the book.

Obama's coalition does not include Germany. The Germans were very angry about the invasion of Libya. Bush's coalition included Britain, Italy, Spain (until it was attacked by terrorists) and a number of other NATO members. France was againt the Iraq War because Mitterand was happy to sell weapons and technology to Iraq in violation of the embargo. In fact France and the Russians were helping Sadaam improve his air defense on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.

It never ceases to amze me how many fans Sadaam Hussein has. Whether it was his violations of UN resolutions or the approximately 400,000 Iraqis found in mass graves, the removal of Sadaam was a service to mankind.