By Joey Lauer
Social conservatism is ingrained in the GOP and is key to its existence and success. Take these three examples:
Abortion: Standing up for the right of unborn children is the only natural stance for the Republican platform. They are the ultimate defenders of life. Were Republicans not the party who gave life to slaves? Republicans defend citizens from the oppression of government and strive to make sure they can lead a life full of freedom. To deny support to babies in the womb would be to deny the very …

By Joey Lauer
After hearing Newt Gingrich speak at CPAC, it feels evident that the Republicans have the opportunity to take back the House and Senate, much like in 1994. But they need a plan, and a revamp of the original Contract for America would do just the trick.
Gingrich stressed common sense. “2 + 2 = 4″ was his motto. It’s simple, but it’s the truth. No more spending money that we don’t have. No more bills that increase the deficit. People from both parties are fed up with the runaway spending in …

By Joey Lauer
CPAC 2010 had around 10,000 registrants– more than ever before. Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker and he was greatly welcomed into an enormous, packed ballroom. Even I had to view from an overflow ballroom, but that didn’t detract from a phenomenal speech. We laughed. We we were touched. It called us to action. Glenn Beck said what needed to be said.
You can watch Glenn Beck’s speech here. It’s just under an hour (start at the 5:oo mark). I encourage you to skip one TV show and watch this speech.
Beck …

By Christina Sun
On Feb. 1, Obama presented his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for the next decade. The deficit will hit a post-WWII record high this fiscal year at $1.6 trillion. The budget is supposed to save $1.2 trillion over the next decade, but this savings becomes nearly meaningless when compared to the $6 trillion debt that is supposed to accrue in the next 10 years.
Obama’s big effort to to reduce spending is to freeze some domestic spending for three years. Sounds great on the surface until you read the fine …

By Joey Lauer
Once again the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has discriminated against a religious group. In Christian Law Society v. Martinez, the court upheld the actions of the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. The law school denied to officially recognize a student group because they did not follow the college’s non-discrimination policy. The group in question is the Christian Law Society (CLS) on the grounds that they refuse to allow non-Christians to become voting members or be involved in club leadership. The American Center …

By Joey Lauer
Will there ever be an end to the spending in Washington? Representative Paul Ryan has a plan. In an interesting article, Ryan defends his “Roadmap for America’s Future 2.0″ against the objections of Peter Orzag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Ryan explains the key provisions of his “Roadmap” while rufuting Orzag’s claims at the same time.
Congressman Ryan’s Roadmap  proposes some drastic changes to the government’s entitlement programs to help solve the financial crisis. He suggests changing tax codes to help reduce the number of low-income uninsured and dramatically …

By Lingfeng Li
New York Magazine just published an excerpt from the book Game Change about the rise and fall of John Edwards.  It also reveals a different side to Elizabeth Edwards, who is often portrayed in the media as the “sainted” wronged woman.
From NY Mag:
Many of his friends started noticing a change—the arrival of what one of his aides referred to as “the ego monster”—after he was nearly chosen by Al Gore to be his running mate in 2000: the sudden interest in superficial stuff to which Edwards had been …

By Aaron McGuire

Jay Cost is one of my favorite writers. He’s a professor of political science, and writes about politics in a manner more akin to V.O. Key than Jim Geraghty or Eleanor Clift (or any of that crowd, really). This week, he wrote an exquisite piece highlighting the popular conception that Obama has “let us down” and noted how that shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s a very good piece, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Hope you do too.

In case you weren’t following political news this first week of the new year, we’re starting a new weekly summary series to help you catch up.

Top Democrats drop out of 2010 election races
Dorgan (D-ND), Dodd out (D-CT) (Politico)
Democratic majority still looks safe (Politico)
CO Governor Bill Ritter (D) drops out (WSJ), CO Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will not run for Governor (Washington Post)
NJ State Senate rejects gay marriage proposal in a 20-14 vote.  The bill’s supporters had hoped it would be passed before Governor Corzine left office.  (NY Times)
Improvements in security policies ordered after …

By Vikram Srinivasan
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ken Blackwell of the Family Research Council, and Kenneth Klukowski of the American Civil Rights Union are out with a great editorial in the Wall Street Journal today on some of the major constitutional questions hanging over the health care legislation that just passed the Senate.  The key take-away is that the legislation breaches traditional balances between state power and individual liberty in ways never seen before:
America’s founders intended the federal government to have limited powers and that the states have an independent sovereign …