As the President hosts a new round of bilateral Israeli/Palestinian peace talks this week, it’s instructive to review the long history of American solidarity with Israel.  John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson of his desire for the Jews to have an independent nation in their traditional homeland.  Abraham Lincoln wrote a friend that a homeland for the Jews in the Holy Land was “a noble dream and one shared by many Americans.”  When the sovereign state of Israel was finally established in 1948, the U.S. was the first to recognize the new nation, eleven minutes later.

We share so much with our Israeli friends: moral and legal codes rooted deeply in Mosaic Law, national histories based on the quest for religious freedom, free-market economies, democratic political systems, and a shared commitment to equality, tolerance and generosity.  With all this in common, it’s no surprise that we share a deep friendship.

Our alliance is not only philosophical, but rooted in a common military, ... more

This month’s jump in jobless claims may have surprised some economists, but it’s no surprise to the American families who are struggling to adjust to the Obama economy.  With unemployment claims hitting a nine-month high and a struggling housing market, middle-class Americans are losing faith in the Democrat leaders at the helm of our country.  The Administration’s ‘Recovery Summer' has been an epic failure and it is way past time for the White House to be straight with the American people and admit that $862 billion stimulus did not do what was promised.  It is clear that the Democrats’ strategy of reckless spending, ballooning deficits, and higher taxes are not the answer and that we need to pursue Republican pro-growth solutions to get our economy back on track.

So how about that "Recovery Summer?" A day after reports emerged indicating second quarter GDP growth could be revised down to just 1%, new unemployment numbers have been released, and they are not looking good. Last week, 484,000 new unemployment claims were filed - the highest since February, and just 6,000 short of the high for the year.

The Associated Press says that analysts expected those numbers to decline, but I can't say I'm surprised by what's happened. For the last eighteen months, the Administration in power has been pushing policies that discourage job creation, while at the same time encouraging almost-indefinite unemployment. At the same time, President Obama and his economic team, including the soon-to-be-departed stimulus architect Christine Romer, have been inflating market expectations by promising that we were in the midst of a recovery. That makes numbers like this all the more devastating, because they undercut the confidence of investor and discourage trust ... more

The President's approval numbers hit a new low last week, with a mere 41% of those polled saying they viewed President Obama's job performance favorably. And while the Administration chides the press' "obsession" with day-to-day polls, we know they are paying attention: the President's team has spent $4.45 million to date on polling.

With all the rhetoric and "statistics" coming out of the White House these days to convince American voters how the Democrats are doing a bang up job running our government, I would imagine the President and his team might be a little perplexed. With all of the landmark legislation that has been passed by the President and his team in Congress, why are the American people still abandoning Democrats left and right?

I've got an idea or two. First, small businesses are scared to death about the Democrats' historic $3.8 trillion tax hike by letting the Bush cuts expire. With experts predicting these tax increases would completely kill the recovery, ... more

When I became Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2009, one of my first priorities was to make technology an important part of what we do and how we do it. Over the last year, RNC New Media Director Todd Herman and his team have made tremendous strides toward achieving our goals – first launching the beta version of GOP.com and then continuing to build new tools to help us win elections. Now, after months of analyzing data, conducting site testing, and listening to your feedback, I'm proud to announce that GOP.com is moving out of its beta period and officially launching as GOP.com Version 1.

GOP.com V1 is here for you, and was designed to reflect what you told us you wanted to see. It's a dedicated online action center designed to give you opportunities to get involved in this fall's elections on a local, state, and national level. Here you'll find the tools you need to make a difference, and to help elect Republican candidates across the country. There are only 100 ... more

The “Campaigner In Chief” hit the Peach State today - please read my guest post on Peach Pundit about his visit:

President Obama is visiting Georgia just in time to address the new reports that show the Atlanta metro area’s unemployment numbers rising to 10.3 percent. Clearly the President’s big government policies aren’t working. Instead of putting Georgians back to work, his failed $862 billion stimulus, ObamaCare and proposed national energy tax have only led to more jobs lost, a national debt over $13 trillion, and a vast increase in the size and scope of the federal government. ...

Read the full post

“If you could buy stock in the national debt, do it. It’s headed for the moon.” That’s what CBS’s Mark Knoller had to say about the Democrats’ inability to control their outrageous spending practices since they have taken power. And he is right on: The White House recently raised its deficit forecast for 2011 to $1.4 trillion, which would be equivalent to 9.2% of the national economy.

Many are rightfully questioning the judgment of Democrat leadership and asking, “if American families have to live within their means on a budget, shouldn’t our government?”  The debt is projected to top 100 percent of GDP. In short, the Democrats’ wish that we could spend our way out of the current economic crisis has only resulted in ballooning the deficit to historic highs while passing the buck on to our future children and grandchildren.

However, these failed practices are having more immediate effects on ordinary Americans today. The floundering economy is stagnating thanks to the President’s ... more

It should come as no surprise that Vice President Biden will be campaigning for Rep. John Spratt in the Palmetto State. Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked Budget Chairman has served as nothing but a ‘yes man’ to the liberal, big-government Obama-Pelosi agenda, and now the Vice President is trying to return the favor.

Vice President Biden’s visit will only serve as a reminder to South Carolina voters that despite the negative ramifications of the Obama Administration’s tax-spend-and-borrow agenda on their state, Rep. Spratt has voted in favor of every major piece of legislation that the Democrats in Washington have put forth.  Rep. Spratt supported the failed $862 billion stimulus, the job-killing national energy tax, and ObamaCare, just to name a few. What does this mean for South Carolinians? 15,100 jobs lost, an unemployment rate that still stands at an unacceptable 10.7%, and an extensive government takeover of health care that raises rates, raises taxes, and cuts Medicare.

Some South ... more

Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of visiting and launching several of our Victory Centers across the country.  I'm very excited to be a part of this important effort and to help get the drumbeat rolling towards November.

Our very first launch was in Colorado and just this week we announced partnerships with the Maine and Oklahoma state GOP parties as part of our “Delaware to Hawaii” Victory campaign (D2H).  These are efforts not just to rebuild, but to continue to build on our recent successes.

In 2009, for example, in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, we hit unprecedented levels of voter contact. 5.8 million contacts were made by our Party and voters were asked to get involved, help us with the work that needed to be done, and participate in this renaissance for the GOP.  With your support, we clocked in 165,000 volunteer hours – triple what we did in the presidential campaign just the year before.

That's the power and galvanizing force that ... more

Here we go again. We have heard countless statements and assertions from the White House over the past 17 months that the Stimulus Bill passed in February of last year is working. It’s time for the White House to stop this rhetorical fantasy and focus on the fact that its policies--Stimulus included--have failed to create jobs for out of work Americans.

Yesterday President Obama was in Michigan touting his Stimulus bill, but people across the state (and the rest of the country) don't need to look much further than the unemployment lines to see that the stimulus has failed miserably.  Whatever employment numbers Obama’s economic team may cook up or whatever photo-ops his staff sets up, the cold, hard facts remain: Obama Democrats want credit for “saving or creating” imaginary jobs because they don’t want to take responsibility for the real jobs they’ve lost.

So for the President and his job czars, here is a little dose of reality: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that since ... more