After Wednesday’s remarkable congressional testimony by State Department officials with inside knowledge of the Benghazi attack, it is settled that the explanations for the attack and the American non-response advanced by the Administration and its defenders are false.
The White House announced Monday that Tsarnaev will be tried in civilian court on two counts: use of a weapon of mass destruction, and malicious destruction of property resulting in death. A few observations are in order.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 54-46 to defeat an amendment that would have required broader background checks on gun purchases. The amendment, sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey and West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin and pushed by the White House and its supporters, was the last hope for any kind of gun control bill in this Congress, and probably for President Obama’s presidency.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 54-46 to defeat an amendment that would have required broader background checks on gun purchases. The amendment, sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey and West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin and pushed by the White House and its supporters, was the last hope for any kind of gun control bill in this Congress, and probably for President Obama’s presidency.
With the passing of Margaret Thatcher, and the commemoration of Winston Churchill day, world attention this week was rightly focused on the greatest Prime Ministers of the 20th century.
This week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in two gay marriage cases: Hollingsworth v. Perry, which will decide the fate of California’s Proposition 8; and United States v. Windsor, which will decide the fate of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed in 1996 by President Clinton.
Ten years, $1.7 trillion dollars and 4,800 casualties. This was the cost of America’s effort to remove Saddam Hussein and enable the growth of the Middle East’s first Muslim democracy. Ten years later, the debates about the merits, rationale, and underlying intelligence of the war rage on.
War is uncertain, complicated and political. President Obama claims to be none of those. Thus, his military escapades share none of the characteristics of successful wars of past presidents.
The 2012 presidential campaign is over, but not for President Obama. The community organizer turned Senator turned president, who ran on hope and change in 2008 and its antipode character assassination in 2012, has no intention of putting politics behind him.
Accomplished legislator. Effective, insightful administrator. Respected, bipartisan leader. Policy visionary. Nothing of the sort has been said of Chuck Hagel – or of President Obama’s other Cabinet nominees John Kerry (State) and Jack Lew (Treasury).
Whatever the president believes was the basis for his reelection, surely he cannot think he was given another term to simply be, as he has been, a mere observer of national crises.
The Republican road to electoral ruin is paved with compromise and centrism.
Yet unaddressed in the campaign (in a meaningful way) and lost in the election news stories is this fact: a weak White House presiding over a weak economy makes for a weak America, which makes for a happy China.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological phenomenon where hostages develop and express empathy and positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them.
Fellow citizens, As voters, you are the jury of this election. You must render a verdict on the president’s stewardship of this nation for the past four years.
The final presidential debate on foreign policy muddled the differences between Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama on foreign policy, but foreign policy is second or third on most voters’ list of priorities. Therefore, the debate will likely not impede the Romney surge that preceded the debate.
As a result of Mitt Romney’s hands-down, no contest victory in the first presidential debate, the race for president now, more so than before, is an actual contest. Democrats are on defense, and Vice President Biden is surely sweating during his debate preparation this week.
President Obama’s whereabouts reveal what he values, and doesn’t.
In the film “The Truman Show,” actor Jim Carrey played lovable simpleton Truman Burbank who, unbeknownst to him, lived his entire life trapped in a television show. His wife, co-workers and friends were all actors, his entire world a finely constructed stage.
Often in politics, what is not said is as or more important than what is. Silence can serve as an endorsement, an admission, an evasion, or all of the above. As the Democrats gather in Charlotte for their convention, it is useful to consider what you will not hear or see from the party vowing to move the nation “forward.”
