"The Tea Party trumped the institution in Texas on Tuesday, propelling attorney Ted Cruz to an upset victory over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the nationally watched Republican primary for the Lone Star State's open U.S. Senate seat. 

"Cruz, a 41-year-old Cuban-American who is expected to win the general election in November (Texas hasn't elected a Democrat statewide since 1994), has pledged to bring his unbending conservatism to the upper chamber. The Tea Party’s upset win is significant given the widespread rumors of its demise. But Cruz’s victory signals that the grassroots movement has not just endured but is now woven into the fabric of the Republican Party, some observers say.

"In the race to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Cruz defeated Dewhurst by an impressive 14 points in the runoff election for the GOP nomination."

"Mitt Romney’s trip to Israel was spun by most commentators as an attempt to appeal to American Jewish voters. More importantly, though, it sent a message that under Mr. Romney’s leadership, the United States would no longer be ashamed to seek peace through strength.

"President Obama’s theory of Middle East peace is based on the standard leftist critique that U.S. favoritism toward Israel is the major impediment to reaching an agreement. His fawning outreach to Muslim states was intended to level the playing field, to allow America to act — in his view — as an honest broker. That effort has been a stunning failure."

"At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation appears.
 
"In 'Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,' Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the 'kill' mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time, according to the book.
 
"Miniter, a two-time New York Times best-selling author, cites an unnamed source with Joint Special Operations Command who had direct knowledge of the operation and its planning."

"Obama hasn't only attacked small businesses; his war against Americana is much more wide-sweeping. He has embarked on an unmistakable course to reward sloth, dependency and covetousness and punish hard work and achievement. He has stood on its head the old adage that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him fish. 

"Nor has he fostered a climate of voluntary Christian charity. He hasn't even encouraged fishermen to give their fish to others. He doesn't want them to do it on their own. He insists on government's taxing and regulating the fishermen and their fishing poles -- not to mention a surtax for crossing the roads and bridges leading to their fishing ponds -- and impounding their fish for redistribution to those he is discouraging from even visiting the pond, much less grabbing a pole."

"For a long time, the United States had one economy. Now we have two economies that compete for America's wealth: A private economy and a public economy. The 2012 election will decide which will be subordinate to the other. One economy will lead. The other will follow. ...

"Today the private and public economies are in head-to-head competition for the nation's wealth — with the private economy calling that wealth capital or income, and the public economy calling it tax revenue and making moral claims for spending tax revenue. ...

"President Obama is right: This is a choice between two paths into the American future, the clearest choice since the end of World War II. It is a mandate election.

"Barack Obama is explicitly seeking a mandate to make the public economy pre-eminent. That is the unmistakable meaning of 'You didn't build that.' His opponent so far is talking about, but not seeking a mandate for, the other economy. One expects that in time Mitt Romney will seek a mandate equal to Mr. Obama's."

"In the most recent Gallup data, from June, the two parties are at absolute parity, with 30 percent of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats, 30 percent as Republicans, and 39 percent as independents. This partisan parity remains largely in place even when Gallup adds 'leaners' (independents who lean toward one party or the other) to the GOP and Democratic numbers. ...   

"So, Mr. or Ms. Conservative, before you scratch your head at the next poll that has your liberal cousin doing handsprings, check first to see whether the ratio of Republicans to Democrats is close to what Gallup has found. If it isn’t, pay no mind. It’s just another exercise in 'Garbage in, garbage out.'"

"Since so many in the media cannot resist turning every tragedy into a political talking point, it was perhaps inevitable that (1) someone would try to link the shooting rampage at the Batman movie in Colorado to the tea party movement, and that (2) some would try to make it a reason to impose more gun control laws. 

Too many people in the media cannot seem to tell the difference between reporting the news and creating propaganda. ...  

"The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority that those beliefs give them. 

"Any discussion of facts is futile when directed at such people. All anyone can do is warn others about the propaganda."

"One reason our country is so divided is because the president keeps dividing us. If taxes need to be raised to fight a war or fund a cause, the president should ask everyone to pitch in. If the need is national, the solution should be national -- and that includes all of us. 

"But that's not how Mr. Obama governs. We learned during the 2008 campaign that he believes in spreading the wealth around. And recently we learned he doesn't believe that successful people made it on their own. Without the government, the president tells us, job creators and entrepreneurs would not be able to make it in America.  

"It's really the other way around. Without job creators and the successful, the government wouldn't have any money. So next time Mr. Obama meets someone in the top 1% or even the top 20%, instead of saying they're not paying their fair share, he should simply say thank you."

"The argument between left and right is about what you do beyond infrastructure. It’s about transfer payments and redistributionist taxation, about geometrically expanding entitlements, about tax breaks and subsidies to induce actions pleasing to central planners. It’s about free contraceptives for privileged students and welfare without work — the latest Obama entitlement-by-decree that would fatally undermine the great bipartisan welfare reform of 1996. It’s about endless government handouts that, ironically, are crowding out necessary spending on, yes, infrastructure. ... 

"Beyond infrastructure, the conservative sees the proper role of government as providing not European-style universal entitlements but a firm safety net ... 

"Limited government so conceived has two indispensable advantages. It avoids inexorable European-style national insolvency. And it avoids breeding debilitating individual dependency. It encourages and celebrates character, independence, energy, hard work as the foundations of a free society and a thriving economy — precisely the virtues Obama discounts and devalues in his accounting of the wealth of nations."

"Declining confidence in the nation’s economic prospects appears to be the most powerful force influencing voters as the presidential election gears up, undercutting key areas of support for President Obama and helping give his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, an advantage on the question of who would better handle the nation’s economic challenges, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.  

"Despite months of negative advertising from Mr. Obama and his Democratic allies seeking to further define Mr. Romney as out of touch with the middle class and representative of wealthy interests, the poll shows little evidence of any substantial nationwide shift in attitudes about Mr. Romney."