Articles filed under Will, George

• Digesting the Twinkies’ lessons Nov 27, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: The market said that Hostess as configured made no sense. If, however, Twinkies and perhaps other Hostess brands retain value, the market will say so, and someone will produce them. Probably in a right-to-work state, which is how "entrepreneurial federalism" (another Boorstin phrase) should wor
  

   

• For this, we give thanks Nov 22, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Among the things for which Americans can, on this weekend of feasting, be thankful is Washington's resolve to temper severity with mercy: It will seriously — this time we really mean business, we are not going to be Greece, or worse, Illinois — restrain spending but will not balance the budget on the backs of popcorn eaters.
  

   

• Give consumer protection bureau a day in court Nov 19, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: The CFPB nullifies Congress' power to use the power of the purse to control bureaucracies because its funding — "determined by the director" — comes not from congressional appropriations but from the Federal Reserve. Untethered from all three branches of government, unlike anything created since 1789, the CFPB is uniquely sovereign
  

   

• Starting all over again Nov 13, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Conservatives are hardly starting from scratch in their continuing courtship of an electorate half of which embraced their message more warmly than it did this year's messenger.
  

   

• Status quo preserved Nov 9, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: This election was fought over two issues as old as the Republic, the proper scope and actual competence of government. The president persuaded — here the popular vote is the decisive datum — almost exactly half the voters. The argument continues. As Benjamin Disraeli said, "Finality is not the language of politics."
  

   

• America, finally home? Oct 25, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: The death of George McGovern on the eve of the presidential candidates' foreign policy debate underscored a momentous political reversal spanning four decades. McGovern's nomination for president in 1972 made the country uneasy about his party regarding national security. Four decades later, however, voters may be more ambivalent about America's world role than at any time since the 1930s.
  

   

• Seeds of our dysfunction Oct 22, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Democracy is representative government, which is the problem. Democracy represents the public's preferences, which are mutable, but also represents human nature, which is constant. People flinch from confronting difficult problems until driven to by necessity's lash.
  

   

• Too big to maintain? Oct 17, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: It is inexplicable politics and regrettable policy that Romney has, so far, flinched from a forthright endorsement of breaking up the biggest banks. This stance by him would be credible because of his background and would be intelligible to voters because of its clarity.
  

   

• Humpty Dumpty over recess Oct 13, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: The constitutional guarantee of congressional self-governance, combined with the Senate’s determination that it was in session Jan. 4, destroys Obama’s position, which is that he can declare the Senate in recess whenever he wishes to exercise what the Framers explicitly denied to presidents — a unilateral appointments power. Consider this episode when deciding whether on Jan. 20, 2013, he should again have a chance to swear to (only selectively) defend the Constitution.
  

   

• Romney’s trifecta Oct 7, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Before Denver, Obama's campaign was a protracted exercise in excuse abuse, and the promise that he will stay on the statist course he doggedly defends despite evidence of its futility. After Denver, Romney's campaign should advertise that promise.
  

   

• It’s debatable Oct 1, 2012 12:00 AM
  
  

   

• An attack on free speech Sep 28, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Did Ann Landers and Dear Abby conduct 50-year crime sprees by offering unlicensed psychological advice? Is personal advice as constitutionally unprotected as child pornography?
  

   

• From Utah, with Love Sep 23, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: In March 2008, in the speech ostensibly explaining the inexplicable — his 20 years in the pews of the raving Rev. Jeremiah Wright — candidate Barack Obama referred to "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years." Hardly.
  

   

• The tangled web of conflicting rights Sep 18, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: In the name of tolerance, government declares intolerable individuals such as the Huguenins, who disapprove of a certain behavior but ask only to be let alone in their quiet disapproval. Perhaps advocates of gay rights should begin to restrain the bullies in their ranks.
  

   

• Pigskin progressivism Sep 10, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Walter Camp, an early shaper of the rules and structure of intercollegiate football, saw football as basic training for the managerial elites demanded by corporations. Progressives saw football as training managers for the modern regulatory state.
  

   

• Voters, are you bluffing? Aug 30, 2012 12:00 AM
  
  

   

• A Big Ten strategy for GOP? Aug 28, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Mitt Romney's great political challenge is to wean Obama supporters away by making them faintly embarrassed about their former infatuation.
  

   

• Why government needs a diet Aug 24, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Research indicates that overweight individuals have "reasonably close" to accurate estimates of the increased health risks and decreased life expectancy associated with obesity. Hence the weakness of mandated information as a modifier of behavior.
  

   

• It’s a question of context Aug 13, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: President Obama's supporters suggest that among presidents, he ranks as the most learned since John Quincy Adams and the most rhetorically gifted politician since Pericles. Yet, remarkably, he is frequently misunderstood. How can this be?
  

   

• In the company of Madison Aug 5, 2012 12:00 AM
  Columnist George Will: Ted Cruz's victory in Tuesday's Texas Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate nomination is the most impressive triumph yet for the still-strengthening tea party impulse