Opinion - Maggie Gallagher

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MANHATTAN?
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, May 23, 2012
Back in 2004, Thomas Frank wrote a famous book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?", in which he lamented working class white people's choices to vote their "values" rather than what -- in his not-so-humble opinion -- was in their "genuine" economic interests. Why didn't they identify as liberals and vote Democratic?Frank's book was the midwife of President Obama's infamous "clinging to guns and God" remark on April 11, 2008:"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. ... More »WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MANHATTAN?
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S GAY MARRIAGE GOOF
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, May 16, 2012
Just how bad a blunder was President Obama's forced gay marriage endorsement?Item: Manny Pacquiao, the world's greatest boxer, just came out against gay marriage. He now faces a nasty public campaign to vilify him, including false claims he advocated violence against gay people -- something both Pacquiao and the reporter who interviewed him deny.A shopping mall owner in Los Angeles has just banned Manny Pacquiao: "He is not welcome at The Grove. ... The Grove is a gathering place for all Angelinos and not a place for intolerance. ... More »PRESIDENT OBAMA'S GAY MARRIAGE GOOF
N.C. VOTE PROVES RUSH LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT ON MARRIAGE
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, May 9, 2012
President Obama is apparently tired of pretending he opposes gay marriage. Good.Good, because lying to the American people is always wrong, and because now the American people will have a clear choice: a president who supports gay marriage, or a president who sides with the majority of the American people, including 61 percent of North Carolinians. I'm tired of pretending, too.Conservative elites, including those at Fox News, have shamefully kowtowed to the politically correct opinion on gay marriage.Some do so reluctantly because they have been cowed into believing defeat is inevitable. ... More »N.C. VOTE PROVES RUSH LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT ON MARRIAGE
DAN SAVAGE AND CARRIE PREJEAN
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, May 2, 2012
A few years ago, beauty queen Carrie Prejean innocently answered a question about gay marriage with a polite "no." She was viciously personally attacked by Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton, who posted a video of himself cursing at her.Prejean was eventually stripped of her crown, and as for Perez Hilton? "I'd love to have him back," pageant owner Donald Trump once said. "I mean, I'd love to have him back" -- although he didn't actually do it.That was a seminal moment for American culture wars. ... More »DAN SAVAGE AND CARRIE PREJEAN
SARAH PALIN WAS A PROPHET ABOUT OBAMA'S EDUCATION TAKEOVER
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Apr 25, 2012
Sarah Palin was the first to recognize the problem: By participating in President Obama's signature education initiative, the Common Core Standards, Alaska would lose control over its own curriculum.On May 31, 2009, then-Gov. Palin announced Alaska would adopt a "watch and wait" attitude: "If this initiative produces useful results, Alaska will remain free to incorporate them," Gov. Palin said, adding that "high expectations are not always created by new, mandated federal standards written on paper. They are created in the home, the community and the classroom."Texas Gov. ... More »SARAH PALIN WAS A PROPHET ABOUT OBAMA'S EDUCATION TAKEOVER
THIS ELECTION IS DOG MEAT
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Apr 18, 2012
The Democrats' war on women meme is failing.If you read between the lines of the April 17 poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, you can see it's President Obama, not Gov. Romney, who has reasons to fear a growing gender gap. (This may be why Obama disavowed the meme and slapped back Hilary Rosen's mean-girl words to Ann Romney.)The Pew poll shows Obama with a narrowing lead, 49 percent to 44 percent, down from a 12-point lead last month. ... More »THIS ELECTION IS DOG MEAT
OBAMA'S HEAD-FAKE ON WOMEN
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Apr 11, 2012
Will chicks dig Mitt?Or did Republicans blow it by attacking President Obama's decision to impose intrusive new mandates on religious charities requiring the nuns of EWTN, a Catholic television network, to pay for insurance that provides abortion-inducing drugs and contraception to women?Team Obama would clearly like us to believe Republican attacks on Obamacare's mandates alienated women.Why let the facts get in the way of a narrative that steers Republicans clear of a winning message?That's the only thing this rational woman can conclude when I take a serious look at polling data. ... More »OBAMA'S HEAD-FAKE ON WOMEN
ARREST GEORGE ZIMMERMAN
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Apr 4, 2012
In the whole swirling political/media uproar over Trayvon Martin's shooting, only two things are indisputably clear: A 17-year-old boy is dead, and George Zimmerman shot him.Nothing we can do can bring Trayvon back. It's clear from all versions of this event that Trayvon did not deserve to die. It is not clear whether his death is a result of murder, manslaughter or what the law calls "justifiable homicide" -- a legal term for an intentional death that is not a criminal act. ... More »ARREST GEORGE ZIMMERMAN
THE LONG-AWAITED COMING OF A CONSERVATIVE COURT?
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Mar 28, 2012
The shocked look on CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin's face as he emerged from the Supreme Court's oral arguments over Obamacare was priceless:"This was a train wreck for the Obama administration," Toobin said Tuesday. "This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law, were wrong."By Wednesday, Toobin had upped the ante: "This still looks like a train wreck for the Obama administration, and it may also be a plane wreck. This entire law is now in serious trouble. ... More »THE LONG-AWAITED COMING OF A CONSERVATIVE COURT?
DUMP STARBUCKS
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Mar 21, 2012
The Opera House in Seattle was the setting for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and the annual board meeting of his church of Starbucks.That's what it felt like -- what with the heart-stirring videos, the soulful songs of Grammy award-winning Esperanza Spalding, and a real Baptist preacher (Rev. Calvin Butts), not to mention free coffee and doughnuts.Jonathan Baker, head of the National Organization for Marriage's Corporate Fairness Project was there to ask if the board really approved the statement that gay marriage is "core to the Starbucks brand."Yes, Schultz said. ... More »DUMP STARBUCKS
IS ROMNEY ELECTABLE?
Maggie Gallagher - Thu, Mar 15, 2012
All day this past Tuesday, I crisscrossed Mississippi on the Rick Bus, a Susan B. Anthony List-led independent effort to turn out Rick Santorum voters who care about life, marriage and religious liberty.On the long road from Jackson to Biloxi, I watched Fox News and CNN frame a victory for Mitt Romney in either Alabama or Mississippi, the end of Santorum and the coronation of Romney, proof-positive that he can win in the South and be embraced by the GOP core.Instead, Romney lost in both Alabama and Mississippi.Why?As predicted, Gingrich and Santorum divided the anti-Romney vote. ... More »IS ROMNEY ELECTABLE?
THE ANTI-ROMNEY VOTE
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Mar 7, 2012
It was a bad night for Mitt Romney.Don't kid yourself, Romney supporters. The mixed vote on Super Tuesday is a profound setback for the fragile front-runner.I spoke on Tuesday afternoon with a dear friend who is a key Romney supporter. The point of the call was to talk to me about consolidating the conservative support for Romney after Super Tuesday.The premise was that Rick Santorum would lose Tennessee, Ohio and North Dakota, and as a good man -- and a tired candidate -- would be about to drop out of the race Wednesday morning.Wow, did Team Romney get that wrong. ... More »THE ANTI-ROMNEY VOTE
THE HAPPIEST WIVES IN AMERICA
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Feb 1, 2012
Let's take a break from politics to ask the burning question: How did Karen Santorum and Ann Romney get so lucky?Just who are the happiest wives in America?According to a new report by the University of Virginia's National Marriage Project, "When Baby Makes Three," the surprising answer is: women who attend church at least weekly with their husband and have four or more children.Women like Mrs. Romney and Mrs. Santorum, in other words. ... More »THE HAPPIEST WIVES IN AMERICA
GRATITUDE: THE KEY TO HAPPINESS
Maggie Gallagher - Wed, Nov 23, 2011
According to a just released Fox News poll, 96 percent of American voters feel thankful this Thanksgiving -- 79 percent of us tell a pollster we feel "very thankful."That's good news. According to a raft of new empirical studies in the discipline of "positive psychology," gratitude is good for you.Take, for example, a study by Hofstra professor Jeffrey J. Froh and colleagues that appeared in the April issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies. ... More »GRATITUDE: THE KEY TO HAPPINESS