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Michael Gerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Post on issues that include politics, global health, development, religion and foreign policy.
Michael Gerson is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Michael Gerson served as a policy adviser and chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush from 2000 to 2006. Before he joined Bush's presidential campaign in 1999, Michael Gerson was a senior editor covering politics at U.S. News & World Report. Michael Gerson is the author of the forthcoming book "Heroic Conservatism" and a contributor to Newsweek magazine.
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Michael Gerson (Dec 20, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- As the heroes of the Cold War walk off into the mist -- Ronald Reagan, then John Paul II, now Vaclav Havel -- each departure makes their world more... more
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Michael Gerson (Dec 16, 2011)
The God particle -- really the Higgs boson -- still resists confirmation, though scientists at the Large Hadron Collider recently reported "tantalizing hints" of its... more
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Michael Gerson (Dec 13, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The epochs of Newt Gingrich's public life are defined by the books that have revolutionized him -- generally of the type that sell well at airports.... more
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Michael Gerson (Nov 15, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In 2009, Notre Dame University set off months of intra-Catholic controversy by inviting a champion of abortion rights to deliver its commencement address. When... more
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Michael Gerson (Oct 18, 2011)
When President Obama announced the deployment of 100 U.S. military advisers to aid in the pursuit of Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), reaction was... more
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Michael Gerson (Oct 13, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- It is an irony, but not a coincidence, that Barack Obama's post-partisan era has seen the rise of the tea party movement and Occupy Wall Street.... more
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Michael Gerson (Sep 01, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- It is an ideological milestone that the emerging Republican front-runner is as skeptical of the New Deal as anyone in his position since the New Deal. During... more
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Michael Gerson (Aug 25, 2011)
GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo -- Gen. Bosco Ntaganda is a familiar figure around town, dining at the Le Chalet restaurant, playing tennis on Sunday at the Hotel... more
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Michael Gerson (Aug 22, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Evangelicals, warned liberal theologian Albert Outler, "want a society ruled by those who know what the word of God is. The technical name for that is... more
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Michael Gerson (Aug 18, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- As the presidential election of 2012 grinds into gear, President Obama is already behind.
To be safe, a president needs a Gallup job approval of 50... more
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Michael Gerson (Aug 04, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- With varied motivations, human beings tend to invoke the name of God in foxholes, in the throes of passion and in budget debates.
During the recent... more
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Michael Gerson (Aug 01, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Over lunch with columnists a month ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid precisely predicted the future course of the debt-limit debate. Democrats, he said,... more
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Michael Gerson (Jul 28, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- This week the fiscal crisis was momentarily interrupted for a public service announcement.
The Pew Research Center issued a report showing that the... more
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Michael Gerson (Jul 21, 2011)
LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron's largest public test began with a hasty return from an African trade mission. His staff had debated canceling the trip entirely, but... more
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Michael Gerson (Jul 18, 2011)
LONDON -- Arguably the most famous living Englishman is, technically, not alive. But Harry Potter now determines the American conception of Britishness as... more
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Michael Gerson (Jul 11, 2011)
JUBA, South Sudan -- Following the hot, happy chaos of its flag-raising ceremony and the departure of 70 planes worth of VIPs from its capital, a newly independent South... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 27, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- If there is a single moment that symbolizes President Obama's dramatically altered re-election prospects, it was his visit to a Jeep plant in Toledo on June 3.... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 23, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Since the beginning of his swift political rise, Barack Obama has fashioned himself a unique historical figure. With his latest speech on Afghanistan, he has... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- On the issue of Muslims serving in public office, every explanation by presidential candidate Herman Cain becomes a complication. In three... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 13, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- It was probably not the intention of liberal investigative journalists to expose Sarah Palin as a figure far more sympathetic than her public image. Twenty-four... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 09, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The outcome of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD hung on the matter of a diphthong. The orthodox camp defended the doctrine of homoousios; Arians preferred... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 06, 2011)
LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE, New Hampshire -- A few hundred New Hampshire Republicans mingle loudly on a sunset dinner cruise, oblivious to the scheduled speakers and to... more
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Michael Gerson (Jun 02, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- British Prime Minister David Cameron has emerged as the most admirable of anomalies: the budget-cutter as leader of conscience.
If relocated to America,... more
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Michael Gerson (May 24, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- With the end of his distinguished career in government set for late June, Defense Secretary Robert Gates would be justified in taking a slow,... more
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Michael Gerson (May 16, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The refusal of Mike Huckabee to enter the 2012 presidential race leaves a gap -- and not just a gap of social conservatism. Huckabee was also the Republican... more
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Michael Gerson (May 12, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Over the last five Sundays, more than 100 members of the Shouwang Church in Beijing have been detained to prevent them from meeting. It is a confrontation... more
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Michael Gerson (May 09, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Before last week's South Carolina Republican debate, Ron Paul supporters complained that their candidate was not getting the first-tier attention his polling... more
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Michael Gerson (May 06, 2011)
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The sudden end of Osama bin Laden's career of homicide does not assure President Obama's re-election. But it does remove an obstacle. On... more
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Michael Gerson (May 02, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, with President Bush visiting Florida, I was working from home in Alexandria, Va., on some forgotten domestic speech the... more
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Michael Gerson (Apr 25, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- An administration that lacks a consistent foreign policy philosophy has nevertheless established a predictable foreign policy pattern. A popular revolt takes... more
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Michael Gerson (Apr 22, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The movie "Atlas Shrugged," adapted from Ayn Rand's 1957 novel by the same name, is a triumph of cinematic irony. A work that lectures us endlessly... more
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Michael Gerson (Apr 11, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Intentional or not, it sizzled with symbolism that President Obama announced his re-election campaign the same day his administration threw in the towel on the... more
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Michael Gerson (Apr 04, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- If there were any doubts about the political skills of the new White House team under Chief of Staff William Daley, they have now been satisfied.
... more
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Michael Gerson (Apr 01, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The search for an Obama Doctrine that unites and motivates his foreign policy hasn't turned up much. The administration itself is dismissive of the idea of... more
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Michael Gerson (Mar 24, 2011)
KUDEMELA, Malawi -- Donata Kuchawo's cow pen is as clean as a well-tended garden. She has only one cow, but she owes it a great deal.
The animal divides her life... more
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Michael Gerson (Mar 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's decision to participate in the air campaign against Moammar Gaddafi's regime is a vast improvement over previous policy, a victory for human... more
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Michael Gerson (Mar 18, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- James O'Keefe's guerrilla video attack on NPR has led to the resignation of its chief executive and an ethical debate: When are lies justified in... more
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Michael Gerson (Mar 14, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- A rush of recent events has confirmed long-standing conservative suspicions about Secretary of Defense Robert Gates -- causing grumbling, and a call from... more
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Michael Gerson (Mar 11, 2011)
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Until five months ago, Forward Operating Base Jackson in Sangin was an island in a Taliban sea. Patrol bases were ringed by... more
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Michael Gerson (Mar 07, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Last week, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., was awakened by a 2:20 a.m. call. His first response was to fear bad news about his children or grandchildren. But when the... more
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Michael Gerson (Feb 28, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- It is the conservative critique of the freedom agenda that democratic transformations are hopeless or dangerous in societies lacking democratic cultures. The... more
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Michael Gerson (Feb 18, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's 2012 budget is the numerical embodiment of his State of the Union address -- both being systematic distractions from the main,... more
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Michael Gerson (Feb 15, 2011)
DAKAR, Senegal -- For time beyond remembering, the people of Senegal have lost a battle with malaria, surrendering a portion of their children to fever, organ failure and... more
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Michael Gerson (Feb 11, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- For those who are prone to be prone to such things, recent events in Egypt are further evidence of declining American global influence. President... more
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Michael Gerson (Feb 08, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- When Nancy Mitford asked novelist Evelyn Waugh how he could behave so atrociously while claiming to be a practicing Catholic, he responded, "You have no idea... more
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Michael Gerson (Feb 04, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Digging in the garden of a health official in Mali, investigators discover more than 30 counterfeit "stamps" used to validate fraudulent invoices to... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 31, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In June 2005, along with then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, I met nine Egyptian opposition figures, including presidential candidate Ayman Nour, in a... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 24, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The largest challenge President Obama faces is job-creation. But the largest issue over which the president and Congress have actual control is the deficit. So... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 21, 2011)
"We are not enemies, but friends."
-- Abraham Lincoln
WASHINGTON -- With Americans shocked into reflection on the desperate, divisive tone of their... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 17, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The editors of the British Medical Journal recently concluded that a 1998 study ringing alarm bells on a possible connection between vaccines and autism was... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 14, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Members of the White House staff are extensions of a president's will, and also shape that will over time. They can either amplify or repress his... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 12, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- When President John Kennedy visited Dallas in November 1963, he was greeted by a full-page newspaper ad accusing him of being a communist fellow... more
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Michael Gerson (Jan 03, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's unofficial pardon of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick was a fleeting story highlighting a durable problem.
According to... more