Elected political leaders often confuse support with popularity. They think that espousing views that correspond to the least common denominator of public understanding and opinion is the key to political success. And, regrettably it often is, at least in the short term. Read more...

Based on their public comments and actions, it is clear that the business interests that support comprehensive immigration reform hold American workers in extremely low esteem and that they all too frequently take an anti-American approach when it comes to hiring and retaining workers. Read more...

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has just announced a unique agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in which boat people interdicted on the high seas headed for Australia to seek asylum will instead be shunted to processing camps in PNG. If determined to be legitimate refugees, they will be resettled there, instead of Australia. Read more...

Those who advise the GOP to "get right" with Hispanics by supporting the Senate's massive immigration bill never consider the downside of traducing principles in the hope of gaining votes. Perhaps it can be said of "death by pandering", as the Washington Post' Kathleen Parker suggests is the case with "principled martyrs," that, "[P]rincipled or not, you're still dead in the end."

But death by pandering strips you of both your integrity and your honor. Worse, it doesn't give you the opportunity to make your case and try to gain supporters for your perspective.

In essence, it is just giving up. Read more...