This is a Republican people can believe in. This is a Republican who knows what he believes and why he believes it. This is a Republican who isn’t ashamed of his conservative principles. This is a Republican who isn’t confused about what is right or about what constitutes American values. This is a Republican who pushes hard for what is right, and aims high.

What do you do with evil like this? Palestinian children being taught not only to hate Jews, but to hunger to kill Jews and glorify death. Palestinian children being taught not to smoke…not because it is unhealthy, but so that they can remain fit and alive to kill Jews. Too many of us fail to understand the nature of evil, and how determined it is to destroy.

Jonah Goldberg simply and succinctly deals with the blather that’s become common lately among Democrats and RINOs that “Ronald Reagan couldn’t get nominated in today’s GOP. He points out that though Reagan made some mistakes and unfortunate compromises, he would have learned from them and not made them again. Unfortunately, though we have the benefit of hindsight that Reagan did not, some Republicans seem intent on making the same mistakes over and over again.

In short, North Carolina matters, certainly to the Democrats, who are holding their convention in Charlotte later this summer. North Carolina matters because it is a case study in contradictions. Once solid red, the “experts” only reluctantly paint it purple. The last Republican governor was elected in 1988, but Republicans controlled the legislature as of 2010. The state went for George W. Bush twice but for Obama — barely — in 2008. We are center-right but remain a Democratic stronghold.

In America, the Left and Right are ever-engaged in a fierce debate over whether we truly are a land of opportunity for all. What, exactly, does equal opportunity mean? What does it look like? Conventionally, liberals will argue that equality of so-called “opportunity” is a canard, since our opportunities in life are based so much on socio-economic factors like income level, family composition, race, class, etc. Most conservatives will concede that “equal opportunity” doesn’t directly translate to “level playing field.” Life, after all, isn’t fair, and there’s no way that government or anyone else can eliminate the inevitable trials and tribulations that befall us in this life.

Legendary management consultant, Peter Drucker, once said that “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”. So true. Unfortunately, in South Dakota the state leaders, headed up by Governor Daugaard, have done very little of either.

He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his WWII service in the Pacific. He studied at Yale, was a Congressman, Ambassador to the U.N., CIA director and Vice-President under Ronald Reagan before becoming the 41st U.S. President. His name was George H.W. Bush, born JUNE 12, 1924.