Barack Obama’s posture toward recalcitrant Congressional Republicans took a sharp turn toward the confrontational on Thursday—and just in time.
The new president spent the last few weeks playing the role of magnanimous bipartisan leader, making public shows of outreach to Republicans and shying away from direct attacks. It won him a grand total of zero Read More
Now that it’s clear that Sarah Palin, on the whole, has been more of a liability than an asset to John McCain, the following question becomes almost irresistible: What if McCain had picked someone else?
“I think the dynamics would be different in Pennsylvania,” that state’s former governor, Tom Ridge, acknowledged a few Read More
The McCain campaign just responded, with a conference call, to Barack Obama’s rearticulated plan for an end to the war in Iraq by arguing that Obama’s intention to withdraw troops, despite the security improvements, amounts to political posturing, and that he is more concerned with winning the presidential election than winning the war. Read More
Barack Obama the naïve sapling is out, replaced – for the time being at least – by a different caricature: the cunning opportunist, wrapping himself in the mantle of reform in ruthless and amoral pursuit of the White House.
The image began taking hold in the media last week, when Obama rationalized his way out Read More
URBANDALE, Iowa—Buoyed by a spate of favorable opinion polls and a palpable buzz around his candidacy, Senator John McCain returned to Iowa last night and brought three other senators along for the ride.
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sam Brownback of Kansas—who endorsed Mr. McCain after abandoning his own run for the presidency—and John Thune Read More
Senator Lindsey Graham, who has devoted himself to thwarting every push to alter the scale and scope of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, summed up the predicament.
“The Republicans own this war,” Mr. Graham told The New York Times on Wednesday after Senate Republicans killed the last piece of course-change legislation that had any Read More
I fell for Lindsey Graham during the Impeachment hearings back in ’98 when he was still a Congressman. I used to talk to him after the hearings. The things I love about him are: he’s independent-minded, incredibly gifted politically, and he has the common touch. He’s a populist with a soft way about him, till Read More
Among the most durable stereotypes of American political culture is that military officers secretly yearn for authoritarian rule and blind brutality, especially if they happen to be from the South, while civilian officials and intellectuals supposedly cherish our constitutional order.
Those old liberal clichés have been proven false in the struggle to curtail the lawless Read More
Among the most durable stereotypes of American political culture is that military officers secretly yearn for authoritarian rule and blind brutality, especially if they happen to be from the South, while civilian officials and intellectuals supposedly cherish our constitutional order.
Those old liberal clichés have been proven false in the struggle to curtail the lawless Read More
When Henry Hyde accuses his Republican colleagues in the Senate of cowardice, and complains that his impeachment team was allowed only three “pitiful” witnesses, it is hard not to sympathize with the old blowhard. He brought this farcical compromise upon himself, of course, by failing to call factual witnesses before he rammed articles of impeachment Read More
