Power Line co-founder John Hinderaker joins Steve Hayward to offer up a recap on the just-concluded annual CPAC meeting, and to analyze the aftermath of the Florida school shooting, where media distortion and liberal virtue-signalling are reaching Olympic gold medal proportions. Source
Steve Hayward sits down with author Fred Siegel about a wide range of topics, from Trump and the Democrats, to how to think about leading intellectuals including H.L. Mencken, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Rorty, Michel Foucault, and Mark Lilla, and the problems of the coastal elites in California and New York. Source
Is it possible to be a liberal but not a “Progressive”? Steve Hayward sat down with Damon Linker, author and columnist for The Week, to discuss this and related questions, such as why Linker defected from the right to become a moderate liberal (hence “the missing Linker”), and his thoughts about religion and politics. Source
With news breaking of the possible involvement of President Obama in the FBI investigation of Carter Page along with Sidney Blumenthal slithering from the sewer yet again, Steve Hayward asked John Yoo some questions about how the FISA process actually works—especially the three renewals of the Page warrant that required new probable cause. What could that evidence have been? Possibly nothing. Source
Steve Hayward talks with Kelly Jane Torrance, deputy managing editor of the Weekly Standard, about the protests in Iran and the Iranian dissident movement in exile, which is being ignored by nearly all of the mainstream media. Torrance is one of the only journalists covering this story closely, while still making time to keep up her title as the Cocktail Queen of Washington. Source
Steve Hayward sits down with Henry Olsen, author and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, but also a premier practicioner of “psephology” (try pronouncing that fast three times—or just once!), which we define as reading the entrails of public opinion polls to figure out what the heck is going on. Henry was one of the very few to predict Trump’s 2016 victory in detail. Source
Steve Hayward is joined by the triumvirate behind American Greatness ( amgreatness.com)—Chris Buskirk, Ben Boychuk and Julie Ponzi—to talk more about what the MAGA agenda means in practice, the shape of the fast-moving debate over immigration reform, whether the decline of California is irreversible, what lessons should be learned from the dramatic fall of Steve Bannon. And Steve debuts Power Line’... Source
Steve Hayward reached all the way across the Atlantic to track down comedian/magician (and occasional Ricochet contributor) David Deeble to talk about comedy, why most comics (and actors and most other artists) are liberal, and the challenges of comedy in Germany, which isn’t exactly known for its appreciation of comedy. If you’ve never seen David in action, look him up at his website (... Source
Steve Hayward and John Hinderaker take note of the exit of Al Franken from the Senate, and how it has thrown Minnesota politics into a state of turmoil, making it ground zero for the mid-term election later this year. Unnoticed by the national media, Minnesota has been slowly turning into a red state—Trump nearly won it in 2016—and this year will see two Senate races as well as a governor’s race. Source
In this year-end episode, Steve Hayward checks in with Ben Boychuk, columnist for the Sacramento Bee and managing editor of the American Greatness website, about how to think about Trump—yes, we’re still trying to figure him out too—and looking ahead to next year. Conservatives are mostly pleased with Trump’s first year. What might go wrong for Trump in 2018? Source
“Darkest Hour,” the new Churchill biopic that comes out in general release this week, has generated some controversy about its accuracy and depiction of Churchill in the crucial weeks of May 1940. Steven Hayward, who liked the film, and Scott Johnson, who disliked it, argue it over and break it down for us, and end with a list of Churchill books everyone should read. Source
Steve Hayward sits down with Jonathan Rauch of the Atlantic Monthly and Brookings Institution to discuss Jon’s latest ebook, Political Realism, and also the parlous state of free speech on college campuses. Jon offers the counter-intuitive thesis that decades of political reform have made our government worse! Then since Jon was visiting Steve at Berkeley, the conversation pivots to the problem of... Source
In this episode of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward converses with John Yoo about the early days of the Trump Administration, the immigration order, the Gorsuch nomination, and especially how the time is ripe for the obvious Broadway sequel to “Hamilton,” namely, a hip-hop ode to that great advocate of limiting executive power—James Madison. In this episode of the Power Line Show... Source
With the election over, we can get back to important things. Like the Beach Boys. Except, like everything else, the left has politicized the Beach Boys too. In this episode of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward talks with writer and native Californian Michael Anton about the Beach Boys, the decline of California into a center-left state, and even Machiavelli. Source
Tonight, John, Scott and Steve got together to talk about the strangest political season of modern times. Questions abound: Does Trump still have a chance? Will tomorrow night’s debate matter? Will the Hillary Clinton scandals that have come out recently give Trump a shot in the campaign’s waning days? How about the Senate? Can the Republicans hold it? If Hillary wins and the Senate is 50/50... Source
This edition of the Power Line Show features Steve Hayward in conversation with Jeremy Carl of the Hoover Institution. Jeremy helps direct the Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy at Hoover, and write frequently on American politics for National Review Online and other publications. Jeremy explains his interest in the environment, as well as why and how we all missed the Trump wake up... Source
One of the surprises of the GOP primary campaign season was the strong support Donald Trump received from many—though not all—evangelical Christian voters. Maybe the so-called “religious right” isn’t as monolithic as the media supposes. In this edition of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward interviews one of the most insightful observers of the religious right, Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and... Source...
This edition of the Power Line Show offers our quick reacts to the opening of the fractious Democratic National Convention, Scott’s bonding with Charlie Rangel at a Trump health spa in Florida (!!), and our interview with Yuval Levin, author of Our Fractured Republic. Source
We caught up with Henry Olsen on the eve of the GOP convention in Cleveland to discuss the shape of the race right now, and the prospects for a return of ticket-splitting in down-ballot races if Trump loses. Also, one more victory lap for the fabulous Brexit vote, with a look at the surprising fallout in the British government under new PM Theresa May... Source
In this special edition of the Power Line Show, Steve Hayward talks with author Robert Bryce about the new world of global oil prices which has ended, probably forever, OPEC’s 40-year dominance. They also talk about the perverse subsidies for and output from “renewable” energy, and why nuclear power may be poised for a comeback. Source
Tonight John, Paul, and Steve kicked around some of the major news stories of the day, including the terrorist attack in Orlando and the Democrats’ effort to change the subject to gun control. Also, Donald Trump’s train wreck of a campaign: can it get back on track? They were joined by Roger Simon, author of the just-released I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’... Source
This episode of the Power Line podcast features an interview with Michael Walsh about his recent book The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West. Walsh explains how most of the nihilistic radicalism of our time derives from the “Frankfurt School,” the group of mid-20th century emigre philosophers whose eclectic post-Marxist thought can be found at the... Source
John Hinderaker, Steve Hayward, and Scott Johnson got together in person for this episode, which features Steve’s interview with Robert Kaufman, author of Dangerous Doctrine: How Obama’s Grand Strategy Weakened America, and Scott’s reporting direct from the courtroom of the trial of the three “Minnesota Men.”... Source
The show has been on hiatus while John toured Australia and the Caribbean. But he’s back now, and this afternoon John, Scott, and Steve recorded Episode 34 of the Power Line Show. Their guest was Pete Hegseth, an old friend from his days in the military and with Vets For Freedom. Pete’s new book is called In the Arena. He talked about his experiences as a soldier in Guantanamo Bay... Source
John, Paul, and Steve got together for Episode 33 of the Power Line Show. They were joined by Jason Riley, author of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. It is a terrific book, and Riley was an excellent guest. Among other things, they talked about the fact that blacks made more economic and educational progress prior to the civil rights era and the dawn of... Source
This afternoon Paul, Steve, and John got together for a guest-free edition of the Power Line Show. Topic number one was, of course, last night’s GOP debate in Iowa and the state of the races in both parties. Steve and Paul ventured predictions on New Hampshire. They found time for a few more stories in the news, including the latest on Hillary’s home email server, possibly the worst IT decision in... Source
John, Scott, and Steve got together for a new edition of Power Line. Paul was unable to join due to a dentist appointment, which raises the question: would you rather get a root canal, or watch tonight’s State of the Union speech? Topics include the epidemic of mass sexual assault in Europe, and the podcast winds up with a terrific interview with Senator Jeff Sessions, which covers tonight’s... Source...
The whole Power Line crew assembled to discuss the issues of the day—specifically, the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, the crazed liberal responses thereto, and the attack’s public policy implications with respect to, most notably, immigration. And also, of course, the incident’s potential impact on the 2016 presidential race. The remainder of the show was devoted to campus craziness in its... Source...
As the terror attacks in Paris unfolded, John, Scott and Steve hosted Episode 29 of the Power Line Show. The attacks threw both halves of the show into sharp relief. We started by interviewing Dan Polisar, author of in important article in titled “ What Do Palestinians Want?” Polisar reviewed years’ worth of public opinion polling of Palestinians. He found several common themes... Source
The Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald joins John and Steve to discuss her poltically incorrect (and therefore quite thought provoking) new piece in City Journal titled, “The Decriminalization Delusion.” Heather describes the “phantom bias” that the press and academics are trying to root out, because, as she notes in her article, “At the state and city levels, hardly a single criminal... Source
