Obama, Democrats, and the Surge
They were against it before it worked.
Posted: Thursday, July 24, 2008
This is the week that the Democratic party ran up the white flag when it comes to the surge in Iraq. Leading the surrender was none other than Barack Obama, the Democratic party's presumptive nominee for president and among the most vocal critics of the counterinsurgency plan that has transformed the Iraq war from a potentially catastrophic loss to what may turn out to be a historically significant victory.  [Full Story]

Tony Snow, Happy Warrior
R.I.P.
Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The best contribution I made to the Bush White House was my (inadvertent) role in bringing Tony Snow on board. Tony became a key member of the team and brought to this job, as he did to all his jobs, energy, enthusiasm, a set of core beliefs, and a radiating joy.  [Full Story]

Keeping Them Out, Letting Them In

Posted: Thursday, July 3, 2008
Most of today's political debates in America fall into a familiar pattern. On issues ranging from taxes, health care, energy, education, and abortion to the Iraq war and government surveillance of suspected terrorists, liberals and conservatives assume distinct and often diametrically opposed positions. But in the last few years, one issue--immigration--has roiled American politics in unconventional ways.  [Full Story]

Dobson vs. Obama

Posted: Monday, June 30, 2008
There are certainly reasons for evangelicals to have concerns about Barack Obama -- based on his extreme views on abortion, judicial nominees, Iraq and other issues. But critics of Obama have an obligation to provide a fair and honest critique, and the attacks leveled by James Dobson fall terribly short of that standard. If Christian conservatives want to be taken seriously, they need to make serious arguments and speak with intellectual integrity.  [Full Story]

Supreme Disgrace
Thursday's Guantanamo Bay decision was a power grab.
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2008
The Supreme Court's decision conferring constitutional habeas rights on aliens detained at Guantanamo as enemy combatants was an intellectual, jurisprudential, and moral disgrace, and if John McCain is wise he'll make this decision a focal point of the presidential race.  [Full Story]

From Hope and Change to Doubts and Fears
Another Obama associate gets thrown under the bus.
Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2008
If voters begin to believe that the Obama Phenomenon is really an Obama Myth -- that he is just another conventional politician, but in this instance one who emerged out of the largely polluted waters of Chicago politics -- then Obama is reduced to being a one-term senator with very few achievements in his life that commend him to be president.  [Full Story]

Barack Clinton Obama
What's "change" is old again.
Posted: Monday, May 26, 2008
Barack Obama has presented himself as a man who will bring "change" to Washington, cast aside the "old politics," and heal deep divisions. We are led to believe that he is a transcendent figure, more high-minded and unstained than, well, just about anyone in American politics. But reality is now shattering the myth.  [Full Story]

Newsweek Gushes

Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Few people are fortunate enough to receive the kind of love and tenderness we find in the Newsweek story. It is especially notable for two things. The first is that Obama is portrayed as a near-mythic figure. The second thing we learn is that St. Barack must prepare himself for "the coming mud war" led by those oh-so-mean Republicans.  [Full Story]

The View from the Continent

Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The widespread view in Europe, as well as among some Americans, is that the U.S. has suffered a huge, almost incalculable, loss of "moral authority." The evidence cited is always the same: Guantanamo Bay, rendition and secret prisons, and waterboarding. They are invoked like an incantation. The effect of this is that you would think that the United States is among the leading violators of human rights in the world.  [Full Story]

Cliffhanger
Wright and political wrongs.
Posted: Thursday, May 1, 2008
The extraordinary public feud between Senator Barack Obama and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. would be an enormous threat to any candidate running for president, but it is particularly dangerous to Obama. Because Sen. Obama is such a new figure on the American political scene, people's judgment about him can be easily molded and reshaped.  [Full Story]