The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Perry Campaign Post Mortem:
Doomed From the Start

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. Several years ago I picked up a book called The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts Of In-flight Accidents, which is a major reason why, whenever I travel by air, I always pray before takeoff. Because what you will learn from studying air disasters is that takeoff is the most dangerous […]

Fear & Loathing: Breakfast of Champions UPDATE: Rick Santorum Wins Iowa; Perry Will Quit and Endorse Gingrich

The National Affairs Desk at McDonald’s in Greenville, S.C., 11:10 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2012 NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. My 13-year-old son Jefferson and I got back here at 2:30 a.m, and woke up Ali Akbar, in whose hotel room we’re crashing through Saturday. The topics of discussion were (a) the Republican primary and (b) why […]

Greetings From Myrtle Beach

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. We were somewhere between Nakina, N.C., and the South Carolina border, cruising south on Highway 905 at 70 mph when I hit the brakes. My 13-year-old son Jefferson, who had been trying to sleep in the passenger seat of the rented Toyota Corolla, sat up suddenly. “What? What is it?” “Deer,” I […]

Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Seventeen Days on the Campaign Trail

P.J. O’Rourke encounters Andrew Breitbart at the Manchester, N.H., Radisson Bar, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 PHILADELPHIA “Wheels up” from Boston’s Logan Airport was at 1:09 p.m., and as Flight 1727 ascended from the runway, I noticed the houses that dotted the little spits of land jutting out into the bay. There were docks and piers […]

Departing from Logan: Live Free or …

“There was never enough time. Every deadline was a crisis. All around me were experienced professional journalists meeting deadlines far more frequent than mine, but I was never able to learn from their example.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 BOSTON LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Pete Da Tech Guy woke […]

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY HQ UPDATE: Romney Wins; Ron Paul Second; Huntsman Third; Gingrich, Santorum Fight for Fourth Place

MANCHESTER, N.H. UPDATE 10:30 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum concluded his speech here by shouting, “On to South Carolina!” Indeed. But first, I’ve got a deadline for The American Spectator, and then there are friends awaiting my arrival at the bar at the Radisson Hotel. After that, I’ve got a 12:30 p.m. Wednesday flight out of Boston’s Logan […]

Maybe This Explains My Problem

“Anyone who follows psychiatry has noticed that the field is now in the midst of a debate that galvanizes its members every 10 to 20 years. At the center of the hubbub is psychiatry’s most sacred text: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. . . . “If you turn to page 898 of […]

Ron Paul and the ‘Not Romneys’

“There are many mysteries to the phenomenon that is Ron Paul. How is it, for example, that a 76-year-old with a reedy voice — his appearance and manner not remotely “presidential” by the usual standards of the TV age — is an idol to so many youth? Polls in Iowa showed that Paul got 48 […]

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