Religion's Essential Contribution to Public Life
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Friday, August 29, 2008
Should religion steer clear of politics? If media commentaries about last week's Pew Research Center poll on the subject are any indication, the answer from Americans is yes. The finding has delighted many secular pundits, who see it as proof that Americans agree with their aim of shooing religious values and voices from the public square.

Daschle's Health-Care Plan
He wants an uber-regulator, on the fast track.
By James C. Capretta
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Former Democratic senator Tom Daschle seems to understand there is a downside to government-run health care -- which is, well, the government calling the shots.  But his solution would be a nightmare:  creation of an all-powerful, unaccountable, and unelected Board of "wise men" to make the big health care decisions.

Back to Saddleback
By Peter Wehner
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The most lasting impact of the recent nationally televised interview Rick Warren did with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain may not have to do with the two presidential candidates. It may be its effect on, and the impression people have of, evangelical Christianity.

CAMPAIGN 2008: Would President Obama Be Good For Black America?
By George Weigel
Thursday, August 28, 2008
When I was a teenager, my formative, if largely vicarious, political experience was the civil rights movement. It was a time of great issues bravely contested, a moment replete with heroes and villains. Anyone who sang "We Shall Overcome" in those electric years will welcome a new fact of our public life: America -- a country whose original sin was slavery --  has become a place in which an African-American can be a major party's candidate for president. 

Obama's Untethered Values
By Rick Santorum
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tonight, Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination for president. With the benefit of the TelePrompTer and impeccable choreography, the Illinois senator will bare the soul that he and his advisers have prepared for public consumption.

The Democrats and the Abortion Wars
Are Obama and Pelosi dodging the life-and-death question?
By George Weigel
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Throughout this lengthy campaign, the Democratic Party has worked hard to present itself as the party of intellect, competence and moral seriousness. Yet it's off to a very rocky start in addressing the substance of the abortion issue--which remains, 35 years after Roe v. Wade, one of the most volatile in our public life.

McCain's Clarity Trumps Obama's Dexterity
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Hosted by bestselling author and evangelical pastor Rick Warren, the nationally televised Saddleback Civil Forum featured separate, hour-long interviews with the two presidential candidates. It was not a debate, but it gave voters a good idea of what to expect from this fall's general election debates.

Serious Catholicism For a Serious Election
By George Weigel
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Archbishop Chaput is a pastor, first and foremost; his new book, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, is a pastor's book. It's informed by scholarship, and by the archbishop's extensive experience in wrestling with issues at the intersection of morality and public policy. At the same time it's a book for ordinary Catholics who want to be faithful to the Church and faithful to the first principles of justice in their civic lives.

The Born-Alive Act and the Undoing of Obama
By Hadley Arkes
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
In the hands of Barack Obama the meaning of "moral" is recast: What does it mean to say that abortion is a "moral" question and yet it must depend on judgments that are wholly subjective and personal, and which cannot be judged as true or false? For Obama, a "moral" question is one for which reason can supply no judgment, and the judgment may turn finally turn on nothing more than self-interest.

Blinded by Science
Diana DeGette's memoir of confusion.
By Yuval Levin
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Congresswoman Diana DeGette, a leader in the fight for federal funding for embryo-destructive research, has written a memoir filled with factual errors, lacking in ethical arguments, and brimming with disgust at social and religious conservatives. But what it has to tell us about the confusion at the juncture of science and politics in America is even more troubling.

Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?
A cover-up in the making?
By Stanley Kurtz
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Extensive records with critical information about Barack Obama's political past, and his ties to former terrorist, Bill Ayers, are housed in a Chicago library.  After being told I could view them, I was mysteriously barred from access.  Is this a cover-up?

Politic Or Not, Burke Was a True Pastor
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Sunday, August 17, 2008
This Sunday, Archbishop Raymond Burke will celebrate a farewell Mass at the Cathedral Basilica. If past gatherings are any measure, Burke's admirers will swarm the church for a warm send-off. His detractors, dizzy with glee since Burke announced his impending departure in June, will watch the supporters and wonder: How can they be so sorry to see him go?