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Ralph Z. Hallow

Ralph Z. Hallow

rhallow@gmail.com

Ralph Z. Hallow was the chief political correspondent of commentary, served on the Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Washington Times editorial boards, was Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Journalism at Northwestern University, resident at Columbia University Editorial-Page Editors Seminar and has filed from Berlin, Bonn, London, Paris, Geneva, Vienna, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Belgrade, Bucharest, Panama and Guatemala.

Articles by Ralph Z. Hallow

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks June 14, 2012, during a campaign event at Seilkop Industries in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Associated Press)

Conservatives worry about state strategy for Romney

Some state Republican Party leaders and influential conservatives say they are worried that the early stages of Mitt Romney's campaign have been marked by missteps and missed opportunities in the bid to unseat President Obama in November.

July 16, 2012
The Capitol was a backdrop for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as he responded to the Supreme Court's health care ruling on Thursday. Analysts say the ruling could fire up support for Mr. Romney's campaign. He has said he will abolish the Obama health care law if he is elected president. (Associated Press)

Ruling offers opening to Romney

President Obama's Supreme Court win on health care Thursday could prove short-lived if Mitt Romney plays it right, analysts said, since the ruling could open the way for the Republican challenger to muster a new level of enthusiasm for his candidacy that he hasn't been able to achieve so far.

June 28, 2012
Gonzalo Hernandez stands outside a Scottsdale, Ariz., resort Monday protesting GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who was speaking inside, and Arizona's immigration law, a key part of which was upheld by the Supreme Court. (Associated Press)

Arizona ruling seen giving Romney opening

The fallout from the Supreme Court's split decision this week on Arizona's tough immigration law could give GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his party a fresh opportunity to reframe the immigration debate and cut into President Obama's huge lead among Hispanic voters, experts say.

June 26, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (right), campaigning with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, talks to reporters in Aston, Pa., in April 2012. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

HALLOW: Romney-Rubio tango displays early missteps

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the Spanish-speaking son of Cuban immigrants and a rising star in the Republican ranks, is generating more excitement and controversy — and potentially some hard feelings — inside the party than likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been able to create this year.

June 21, 2012
On a bus tour of Wisconsin that included a stop Monday at Montery Mills in Janesville, Mitt Romney had a carefully modulated response to President Obama's surprise decision on illegal immigrants. (Associated Press)

Immigrant debate shifting under GOP’s feet

The muted public reaction to President Obama's immigration decision of last week — and Mitt Romney's carefully modulated response to the surprise order — could signal an unexpected shift in what has been one of the country's thorniest political issues.

June 18, 2012
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (seated) gets a standing ovation from his Cabinet and staff at the state Capitol in Madison on Wednesday, a day after he beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a recall election. The outcome cheered Republicans nationwide and caused some optimism for Mitt Romney's prospects in Wisconsin in an expected general election match with President Obama. (Associated Press)

Democrats say GOP money bought Walker’s win in Wisconsin

In what might be seen as a sign that he felt stung hard enough to hurt, President Obama on Wednesday blamed Republicans' outspending Democrats as the reason Gov. Scott Walker survived a union-driven recall election in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

June 6, 2012
Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin waves at his victory party on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Waukesha, Wis. Mr. Walker defeated Democratic challenger Tom Barrett in a special recall election. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

ANALYSIS: Win vaults Wisconsin’s Walker into vice presidential discussion

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's ability to fight off a concentrated Democratic recall challenge on Tuesday has instantly thrust him into the picture as a possible vice presidential pick for Mitt Romney, giving the low-key Mr. Walker the edge over rivals such as the more voluble New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

June 5, 2012
"Art's grass-roots campaign challenges the Washington, D.C., cabal of insider politics and is gaining momentum for a very good reason." - Allen Alley, chairman of the Oregon Republican Party. (Associated Press)

In Oregon, chemist offers GOP a unifying formula

Republicans looking to ease the friction among party stalwarts, tea party activists and Ron Paul supporters headed into this year's election say they may have found a model of unity in Art Robinson, a scientist who is the GOP candidate for a congressional seat representing an Oregon district.

June 3, 2012
In this photo released by the US Embassy Beijing Press Office, blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, center, holds hands with U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, right, as U.S. State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh applauds, before leaving the U.S. embassy for a hospital in Beijing Wednesday May 2, 2012. (AP Photo/US Embassy Beijing Press Office, HO)

Peculiar case of Chinese dissident tests U.S. mettle with its banker

The peculiar case of Chen Guangcheng presents a classic test for President Obama and for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney — whether the United States should put its founding principles of defending democracy and human rights ahead of international economic and political considerations.

May 3, 2012
Ron Paul (AP photo)

Paul supporters create delegate mischief

Mitt Romney may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is quietly racking up some organizational victories that could complicate Mr. Romney's anticipated coronation at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer.

May 1, 2012
Aides confirmed reports that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, here in Cramerton, N.C., on Wednesday, will drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the next few days. Mitt Romney scored another five primary victories on Tuesday. (Associated Press)

Gingrich signals it’s time to quit

Bowing to the inevitable, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he will shut down his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, a day after presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney swept five more Republican primaries and party leaders began to close ranks around the former Massachusetts governor.

April 25, 2012
Iowa Republican Party chairman A.J. Spiker.

RNC trio gets boot from Romney aides

Mitt Romney displayed a newfound ability to connect with fellow Republicans at the Republican National Committee three-day gathering here, although his campaign team still managed to find a way to annoy a few prominent party insiders.

April 23, 2012
** FILE ** Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to a crowd during a campaign event on April 11, 2012. (Associated Press)

Romney makes strong pitch to GOP gathering

Connecting with an audience crucial to his presidential hopes, a relaxed Mitt Romney spoke to GOP state chairmen here at a luncheon Friday that left many party officials more encouraged that he could credibly go up against President Obama in November.

April 20, 2012
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is winning the support of once-skeptical party leaders at a key gathering in Arizona. (Associated Press)

Romney winning over key GOP skeptics

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared to be making progress at a gathering of key party officials here, winning expressions of support from some formerly skeptical state party chairmen and elected members of the Republican National Committee.

April 19, 2012

Republicans fear exchange program put national security at risk

The Republican National Committee on Thursday took up a highly charged resolution Thursday calling for congressional hearings on whether former high-ranking U.S. military officers' financial relations with state-owned businesses in communist China compromised national security.

April 19, 2012
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks April 19, 2012, at the closed National Gypsum drywall factory in Lorain, Ohio. (Associated Press)

Romney makes headway at RNC gathering

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared to be making progress at a gathering of key party officials in Scottsdale, Ariz., winning public expressions of support from some formerly skeptical state party chairmen and elected members of the Republican National Committee.

April 19, 2012
The newly formed group Project Liberty believes Mitt Romney's struggle to spark GOP enthusiasm is the result of unrealistic expectations. (Associated Press)

Conservatives ally for a reset of election expectations

Some influential conservative thinkers have concluded that Mitt Romney's struggle to ignite voter enthusiasm reflects a more serious problem for Republicans in setting unrealistic expectations for their presidential nominee.

April 4, 2012
Republican presidential candidates former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich take part in The Republican Candidates Debate at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla., Monday, January 23, 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr/ The Washington Times)

Gingrich says no deal after a secret talk with Romney

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich recently met in secret with GOP rival Mitt Romney at the former Massachusetts governor's hotel in New Orleans, according to a Gingrich admirer close to the former Georgia congressman's campaign.

March 28, 2012
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann wave as they leave at an election night event in Schaumburg, Ill., Tuesday, March 20, 2012. Romney won the Illinois Primary. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Finally, Romney gets tea party support

The organization that ignited the tea party as a national mass movement gave Mitt Romney perhaps his biggest victory yet, deciding to drop its opposition to his candidacy, a top executive in the group told The Washington Times.

March 20, 2012
Newt Gingrich, with wife Callista, speaks at the airport of Lake in the Hills, Ill., Thursday. The former House speaker sounds less hawkish on foreign-policy matters. "Instability rather than aggression is the great threat," he recently said of North Korea. (Associated Press)

Gingrich edges away from hawkish past on campaign trail

Once considered a leading voice of the foreign interventionist wing of the Republican Party, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on the presidential campaign trail this year has been edging away from his trademark "Make my day" aggressiveness toward those hostile to the United States.

March 19, 2012