Something has gone missing from American politics. Since the beginning of the new administration in January, public debate focused on general ideas has largely disappeared.

Will Democrats be able to keep from criticizing Obama on Afghanistan? . . .

A Hoover/ Economist survey of political attitudes finds voters in no mood for postpartisan lovey-dovey. By James W. Ceaser.

The former FBI directors tend to investigate Republicans far more zealously than Democrats.

The Hoover Institution hosted its fiftieth retreat, beginning on Sunday, October 21, 2012, and ending on Tuesday, October 23, 2012. On Sunday, the Honorable Bob McDonnell, governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia since January 2010 who also currently chairs the Republican Governors’ Association, the Southern Growth Policies Board, and the Southern Regional Education Board, gave the before-dinner remarks. His topics included job creation, economic development, our current debt crisis, and deficit spending. He also touched on two competing visions in the world; the first, which he calls an “entitlement society” with more guarantees, more taxes, more spending, and more regulation as a way to promote success; the second, an “opportunity society” which individuals can work hard, dream big, and use all their talents to be successful with limited government interference.

James Sweeney explains the differences between crises present and past, and suggests ways California can better balance population and environmental concerns. 

James Piereson describes the liberalism that came out of the New Deal as being very optimistic about the future, the role of the U.S. in the world, and the function of the federal government in perfecting our democracy...

George Will talks about his new book, The Conservative Sensibility, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Will argues for a conservative vision that embraces the dynamic nature of life. Topics discussed include the current political landscape, the American founding, James Madison's vision of government vs. Woodrow Wilson's, Friedrich Hayek, and of course, a little baseball.

We’re both fans of Ramesh Ponnuru. But we think he’s wrong in a recent post here on the Corner. There he argues that we are advocating an un-originalist position for the Free Exercise Clause: requiring the government accommodate religious dissenters from laws, except under certain conditions. He contends that our position is the one ushered in by the Supreme Court in 1963 in Sherbert v. Verner, which was replaced by Justice Scalia’s views for the court in 1990’s Smith. And Ramesh muses that Scalia was probably right.