uuid:a1cd0a29-2d90-4363-ab1d-2bd833436cbb;id=179Copyright © Townhall.com. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you 2012-05-16T16:50:20-04:00http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gifTownhall.comhttp://townhall.com/columnistsbea3e184-dbb5-469d-95ac-b6bc1e4a4f7f

Throughout history, Presidential elections have again and again come down to a single question. In 1994, Bill Clinton swept into the White House on the strength of one simple phrase: "it's the economy, stupid." In 1980, Ronald Reagan asked "are you better off than you were four years ago." Now, after a long and bloody nomination process, the Republicans seem no closer to crystallizing their pitch to the American people than when they started.

2012-05-16T16:18:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZJudson Phillips151f2028-132a-440a-9c46-b8aff605d51e

Sheep and chickens. That's what America's greatest corporations have become.

2012-05-16T13:02:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZMichael Reagan05471e8e-0351-41e6-835d-f8066b5d277c

PRICES WERE OUT OF CONTROL at the end of 3rd-century Rome, and the Emperor Diocletian was determined to rein them in.

2012-05-16T11:54:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZJeff Jacoby72348af6-d74d-4653-92e7-18b63f5810b4

The investing community is agog at the prospect of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Facebook on Friday.

2012-05-16T10:23:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZRich Galenba29890c-6a45-41d6-a656-fec228729c8f

The tape doesn’t lie; and the tape says that Obama is in trouble, hence the L.A. handshake Obama’s giving the gay community and guilty rich on Wall Street.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZJohn Ransom0025ae9a-1e58-4632-9cc9-fbf008bd0a91

The stunning repudiation of Sen. Richard Lugar's, R-Ind., bid for a seventh term has sent shock waves through Washington's internationalist lobby. A former Rhodes Scholar, Lugar has spent his career promoting a globalist agenda, since he succeeded the late Jesse Helms as the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZPhyllis Schlafly1b05d565-52f5-49c5-8bf0-fa621e1cbf71

Would you happily sign an IOU for $126,000 to allow Barack Obama to keep his Big Spender status going? In some ways, that’s the bottom line on how people are going to vote on November 6th. That’s what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates Obama’s proposed deficits, from 2011 through 2020, will add to a family of four’s share of America’s liabilities.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZRalph Benko0f4e6b19-4ec8-4638-9f7f-f28c61ee02d3

Last Thursday, the day after President Obama finally endorsed gay marriage, his campaign released a video that faults his presumptive Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, for not doing likewise.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZJacob Sullum4d542a47-8af1-4df6-90d0-e76499f2a355

President Obama is attacking Mitt Romney's job creation record when he headed a capital investment firm that turned failing companies and start-up businesses into success stories.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZDonald Lambro7c650fda-8541-4cd8-be4f-e52b792c2b14

No amount of satire can match the real-world stupidity of government.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZDaniel J. Mitchell5fec6680-18bb-4c17-a3ca-c6896668abf5

Let's think about whether all acts of Congress deserve our respect and obedience. Suppose Congress enacted a law -- and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional -- requiring American families to attend church services at least three times a month. Should we obey such a law?

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZWalter E. Williamsb5d19155-3825-4c98-a4f4-c28d8c65878f

Last year gold showed pretty solid support at these levels and there’s no reason to think support won’t materialize here once again.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZChris Poindexter4cfb6672-77ca-4ada-99a1-bc7f14b08fd1

Higher taxes, lower earnings, an expanding, intrusive government, low employment numbers and the derision of the world community will negatively impact everyone in the United States, no matter a persons’ race, origin or sexual orientation.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZLincoln Brown0140ede5-f897-4c98-9b7f-a4e3af9d783b

According to President Obama, he's a historic figure. That's no figure of speech.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZBen Shapiroe92649ed-d538-4327-8ab9-a36a917b6e5d

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote a story about a family that discovered a diamond as big as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel sitting beneath a mountain in a remote corner of Montana.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZTerry Jeffrey0c7a4160-69f8-4298-bb87-9c0d1c2f07df

Oh, the irony of it all. For the past two years, the Republican establishment has been insisting that the only effective way to beat President Obama in 2012 is to set contentious social issues aside and focus like a laser on the economy. Who woulda thought that it would be the President himself who would catapult these issues to the fore just as campaign season enters full swing?

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZKen Connor50a4f3bc-0ec4-49a6-be5d-8f6b0e5eb8af

The last two decades have demonstrated that NATO's post-Cold War death notices reprised a classic Mark Twain one-liner. When Twain learned that a New York newspaper had published his obituary, he wisecracked, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZAustin Bay318e3870-be6a-4610-84dd-8d1bd13fbe24

The franchise really likes this location and is pushing us to start building our territory, since we've had it for a year now. But we do not want to 'throw good money after bad,' building a location that won't ever be profitable.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZCliff Ennicob4f94a9a-7f35-4a1f-902f-85381e23947b

Prior to 2000, we enjoyed one of the greatest economic booms our country had ever seen. In fact, from 1982 to 2000, jobs were plentiful, manufacturing was homegrown, and a certain contentment and satisfaction enveloped us all.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZBill Tatro1261a06e-b653-4927-a8d2-80496fe5a9cc

When my wife was a liberal, she complained that libertarian reasoning is coldhearted. Since markets produce winners and losers -- and many losers did nothing wrong -- market competition is cruel. It must seem so.

2012-05-16T00:01:00-04:002012-05-16T20:50:20ZJohn Stossel