Published for www.time.com, February 2, 2012

Penn: Newt Gingrich has been a great candidate in the way that the Titanic was a great ship. It has been very attractive to board, but we know where it’s headed. Of course Gingrich believes he is unsinkable, and, for that, Democrats must be very grateful.

So thank you Gingrich for running a negative ad campaign in Florida so that the Democrats don’t have to. You have literally saved the Obama campaign, Democratic National Convention and Democrats around the country millions of dollars. Moreover, you have all but done the work for the Obama opposition research team. From painting Mitt Romney as someone having a “profound character problem” to acting “totally dishonest,” you have torn apart his record at Bain Capital, made him release his tax returns and forced him to deplete his bank account.

Thank you Gingrich for further fragmenting the Republican Party. You have self-declared this GOP nomination a two-person race between yourself, the conservative leader, and Romney, the Massachusetts moderate. In doing so, you are working to depress conservative voter turnout in the general election.

Thank you Gingrich for bringing prolonged drama and grandiose schemes to this primary season. With 46 states to go, you have ample opportunity to remind us of the reasons why moon colonies and farmers in space should be a priority going forward as well as why employing poor children to serve as janitors to earn money is a good Republican idea.

As he did during the ’95-’96 federal government shutdowns, Gingrich is once again bringing his unique brand of brinksmanship to hector Romney and the Republican Party.

Hughes: That which does not kill you makes you stronger. That old adage came to mind as I watched Romney overcome the most serious threat to his campaign thus far with a decisive victory over Gingrich in the important and diverse state of Florida.

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Published for www.time.com, January 11, 2012

Penn: Mitt Romney’s victory in New Hampshire means that South Carolina is his chance to seal the deal. If he fails, it will turn the Republican nominating process back into chaos. If he succeeds, then it will effectively be over.

Romney’s 49% showing with registered Republicans in New Hampshire suggests that he is likely to be successful and roll up the nomination, ending a path that began at the doorsteps of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump and that for a while looked like it would herald the unexpected return of Newt Gingrich. Herman Cain is already a distant memory.

The attacks in Iowa on Gingrich were so successful that forces supporting him are promising payback in South Carolina. But the attacks on Romney in New Hampshire appeared so desperate that they had little effect — the second and third place finishers had niches of support that stuck with them as Ron Paul is strong with young people and Jon Huntsman with independents.

Beyond Republicans, this primary will also give the nation a greater look at how the Super PACs are driving the debate and artificially boosting candidates who in any other election would have been long gone. Gingrich finished fourth place in both Iowa and New Hampshire, yet with a last second $5 million donation to his Super PAC, Gingrich is heading into South Carolina with his guns blazing. So is his Super PAC. Winning Our Future is planning to spend $3.4 million on advertising in South Carolina while also releasing a 28-min. film on Romney which vilifies him a job killer during his time leading Bain Capital.

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Published for FoxNews.com, September 9, 2011

Thinking back to that terrible morning, I remember feeling an enormous sense of responsibility, the need to project confidence and calm to a badly shaken nation. The media was reporting the White House and other government buildings had been evacuated, downtown Washington was shutting down and President Bush was being kept away from the nation’s capitol.

I realized that to the public, it must appear chaotic, yet I was witnessing calm, methodical decision-making as airplanes were grounded and Vice President Cheney consulted by telephone with President Bush.

I knew someone needed to do a briefing about the government’s response; the Vice President kept saying it should be me. I suggested perhaps National Security Advisor Condi Rice was the right person, but my White House colleagues, gathered in the emergency operations center, insisted, no, people were familiar with me, I was viewed as someone who could speak for the president.

I had tried to call President Bush earlier that day, on my way to the White House, but the operator had grimly reported, “Ma’am, I’m sorry we cannot reach Air Force One.” I had been told there had been a threat against the president’s plane; surely, I prayed, nothing had happened to him.

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Published for The Washington Post, January 13th, 2011:

When I traveled the world representing the United States during the George W. Bush administration, I was often confronted by people who wanted to blame the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on American foreign policy.

U.S. support for Israel, along with the suffering of the Palestinian people, they told me, had spawned the resentment and anger that resulted in the attacks on our country.

No, I always answered, you cannot blame the murder of innocent people on any grievance, no matter how legitimate. The only organization and people responsible for Sept. 11 are al-Qaeda and the 19 hijackers who carried out its murderous mission.

I’ve been reminded of that argument as I’ve listened to attempts to blame the alleged murderous acts of a twisted young man in Tucson on the tenor of America’s political debate. No, you cannot blame this violence on the shrill voices of politicians and pundits – from the right or the left.

And yet, as President Obama deftly reminded us in his speech on Wednesday night, times of tragedy can become times of national examination. And America needs some soul-searching.

Unlike the spirit of unity that emerged in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the reaction to the tragedy in Tucson seems to have only deepened the chasm in our sharply divided country. We haven’t come together to support the victims and condemn this assault on a bedrock of our political system: the right of citizens to assemble and question their public officials. Instead, our national conversation has devolved into accusations about whom, other than the murderer himself, might be responsible.

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Published for The Washington Post, August 22nd, 2010:

The national debate about building a mosque near Ground Zero in New York is less about our freedom of religion than about the common sense and uncommon courtesy sometimes required to come together as Americans. In our society, we are free to do many things that we nonetheless choose not to. During my lifetime, a number of racial and ethnic slurs have been effectively banned from our national vocabulary — not because our free speech has been limited, but because we recognize that these words are deeply offensive to our fellow citizens and we decide to avoid them.

The proposed site of Park51, an Islamic cultural center that will include a mosque, is especially contentious because it goes to the heart of who is to blame for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. I stood in the Oval Office just two days after those horrific attacks as President George W. Bush spoke by telephone with New York Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He highlighted the importance of distinguishing between those who committed the acts of terror and the broader Muslim community. “Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab Americans who live in New York City, who love their flag just as much as the three of us do, and we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve,” the president said.

Days later, I recommended to President Bush that he visit a mosque to set an example of respect for our fellow Americans who are Muslim. With anger still high and emotions raw, some argued against the visit to the Islamic Center of Washington, but the president felt it sent an important signal. “America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country,” he said that day. “In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”

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As published for The New York Daily News on April 18th, 2010:

Rage has become a cancer on our politics

The outpouring of grief after Poland’s national loss has reminded me of the unity our own country experienced in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Strangers hugged, neighbors gathered, members of Congress sang with one voice. It was, President George W. Bush said, “as if we looked into a mirror and saw our better selves.”

Today the view is so much darker, the only reflection an angry and ugly one. Police have arrested suspects for making death threats against the Democratic Speaker of the House and the Republican Minority Whip; they report the overall number of death threats against members of Congress tripled in the first three months of this year.

Invectives have been faxed, phoned in and shouted at representatives on both sides of the aisle. Two Democratic lawmakers said racial epithets were shouted at them by protesters at the U.S. Capitol; a Boston publication greeted Sarah Palin last week by featuring a collection of artwork featuring swastikas and worse submitted by its readers. Even decorum is sadly lacking: A member of Congress interrupts the State of the Union to shout “you lie,” at the President, and the President chastises the Supreme Court for “opening the floodgates for special interests” with several justices sitting right in front of him.

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As published on Politico.com on June 24, 2009:

President Obama owes a great deal of his political appeal and his position to his masterful use of words. That makes it all the more puzzling that he for too long failed to recognize their crucial importance to the courageous people struggling to make their own voices heard in Iran.

Finally, on Tuesday, President Obama pronounced the United States “appalled and outraged” by Iran’s violent efforts to crush peaceful protests. What took so long?

The President’s initial instinct of caution was appropriate, to a point. It was important for the world – and for Iran’s leaders – to see that events in Iran were being driven by the righteous outrage of the Iran’s people, and not fomented by outside forces.

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