A basic rule of thumb: Ignore foreign policy speeches by challengers in presidential elections. In most cases, they don’t know anything. They lack the detailed intelligence knowledge that a President has about a dicey situation like the civil war unfolding in Syria. Or they bend the truth in order to score points–Bill Clinton on China, …
What Middle East Alternative?
Charles Krauthammer’s precipitous descent into partisan silliness proceeds apace. In this week’s column, he excoriates President Obama’s Arab Spring policy and suggests that Mitt Romney “go large” in opposing it. Ok…but what’s the alternative? In the past, when he was still a rigorous and creative thinker, Krauthammer might have …
A Good Day
There have been so many dispiriting days during this campaign, but today was not one of them. In fact, it was a fine day of speech-making–two strong foreign policy speeches by President Obama and one by Mitt Romney. The speech …
A Nation of Moochers
As Alex Altman reports, Mitt Romney’s bad week just got worse. And the worst of the worse is Romney’s contention that the 47% of the country who support Obama are just looking for handouts. This from a man who pays 14% in taxes–a multi-million dollar handout that Romney receives because he makes his money via a financial scheme that …
Enter Bibi
Lessons of 9/11: A Response to Evil
It is a perfectly beautiful morning in New York, just as it was 11 years ago today. By the end of that day, the world, as I knew it, had changed. In the small suburb where I lived, nine fathers didn’t come home that night. Our …
Obama Argues for a Second Term Without Closing the Deal
The President gave a fine speech Thursday night. His vision of the country is much closer to the place where I live — and, I daresay, where most Americans live — than Mitt Romney’s. It is an America that includes truck …
Latest Column: The Press Depression
Well, everyone was feeling really bummed about the 2012 presidential campaign–BC. (Before Clinton.) And while a gust of great oratory always lifts my spirits, we still have a gridlocked political system and a fiscal cliff looming. In the two days since I wrote this column, I’ve done some reporting–the fiscal cliff seems to be Topic A …
The Jerusalem Controversy
Whoever took the usual language about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel out of the Democratic platform is an idiot. This is a long-time silliness that can’t really be resolved until a Middle East peace is achieved, but lip service must be paid. For what it’s worth, Jerusalem really is, most definitely, the capital of Israel. It is …
About Last Night: Wow
The streets and hotel corridors of Charlotte are still vibrating this morning after Michelle Obama‘s remarkable effort, the Democratic Party’s remarkable opening convention night. There was just a quantum leap of energy from the …
The Race Card
According to Mr. Drudge and Real Clear Politics, I’ve advised the President to play the race card on the Chris Matthews Sunday show. I didn’t, of course. The question to the panel was whether the President was going to have to address what appears to be a growing racial bitterness in the country. My response was that he should. That’s …
Latest Column: And Now The Democrats
In my print column this week, I argue that it’s time for the Democrats to abandon identity politics.
The Ryan Speech
After Wednesday night’s speech, I think it might be fair to say that Paul Ryan may have a future in politics. It was a very effective speech; he is a less-than-polished but very effective speaker (indeed, the lack of polish …