In the United Kingdom, Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that his new coalition government will have to invoke austerity cuts that could affect Brits for years, even decades. New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie has turned into a conservative hero for telling an irate teacher who complained about her pay at a town hall meeting that she doesn't have to teach. Illinois Gov.
Gulf Coast residents are supposedly mad at President Obama for not keeping the oil from threatening their beaches and marshes. We hear this in stereo -- from political opposition on the right and liberal pundits bored by the president's cerebral approach to problem-solving.
Republicans are encountering some speed bumps on what they hope is the road to victory in the November elections. Their candidates for Republican open Senate seats in Ohio and Missouri are running no better than even in recent polls. The independent candidacy of Gov. Charlie Crist is threatening Marco Rubio's bid to hold the Republican Senate seat in Florida.
I want to start a series of occasional columns about how in modern America, everything is so complicated that we can't get simple things done.
There’s now no question that the gubernatorial turnover in November will be historic, with half or more of the states electing new governors (see our previous article on the subject here). With 37 of the 50 states electing governors, and 23 of those states having no incumbent running with additional incumbents in serious electoral trouble, the nation will see an epic turnover—the greatest in at least the last half-century.
On CNN earlier this week, American Edward Peck, an activist who sailed with the Free Gaza Movement flotilla, asserted, "The purpose of the movement was humanitarian."
Even prominent Republicans, such as former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, agree that you don't need a special prosecutor to investigate whether former President Bill Clinton can have a conversation with Congressman Joe Sestak about job possibilities other than running for Senate, or whether White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's deputy can call former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to find out whether he's interested in jobs other than challenging the state's incumbent Democratic senator.
The government of Israel is supposedly run by the Jewish state's toughest and most ardent defenders, but so far they have inflicted worse damage on its security and its future than its enemies ever could.
I'm done trying to hack through the tea party thicket of self-contradiction, self-delusion and self-serving positions. My last straw is Rand Paul, a tea party favorite and now Republican nominee for senator from Kentucky.
An interesting thing about Barack Obama is that he chose, on two occasions, to live in Chicago -- even though he didn't grow up there, had no family ties there, never went to school there.
Since Hamas took over in Gaza in 2007, Israel has attempted to enforce a blockade. No one doubts that hardships have resulted -- but not enough hardships for Hamas to renounce its commitment to terror or to the destruction of the state of Israel.
I am rarely accused of being overly sensitive to other cultures, and I've had my share of disagreement with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Yet even I was offended at the decision to center the plot of "Sex and the City 2" on an all-expenses-paid vacations to Abu Dhabi for New York's famed four best friends. The sequel's racy material was considered so objectionable that the Islamic emirate wouldn't let filmmakers work there, so the crew had to shoot in Morocco.
Obama Struggling to Show He's in Control," reads the headline on The Washington Post's story on Barack Obama's Thursday press conference, where most of the questions were about the Gulf oil spill. "Defensive, unauthoritative and equivocal," wrote Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford of Obama's performance. "He came across as a beleaguered bureaucrat in damage control."
If the eyes are the window to the soul, as the cliche goes, the political world has a corollary: Books written by candidates are the window into the soul the candidates would like you to believe they have.
Belgium has banned the burqa, the head-to-toe veil worn in parts of the Muslim world. French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants his country to follow suit. What's an open-minded person to think?
Rand Paul, tea party flavor of the month, is said to be avoiding "overexposure." Senior Republican Party operatives, worried by the Kentucky Senate nominee's all-too-revealing remarks after his primary victory, have urged him not to grant any interviews for a while. So he flip-flopped on his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, flaked out on a "Meet the Press" appearance and has scarcely been heard from since.
President Obama spoke in the unfinished hull of a new factory built by solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra in Fremont, Calif., Wednesday to highlight his administration's focus on creating jobs. The new facility, Obama explained to a crowd of hard hats and suits, created 3,000 temporary construction jobs and was expected to provide 1,000 production jobs.
Intraparty civil war. It's a story line journalists often employ, though usually about only one party, the Republicans.
Like many beleaguered sports fans, as the calendar turned to 2010, Republicans across the country were conjuring up the same thought: “This is the year!” After disastrous House elections in 2006 and 2008, Republicans dropped from their high-water mark of 232 House seats—their largest total since 1949—to just 178—their lowest total in a decade and a half. This precipitous decline brought considerable frustration to the new minority party. 2010 appeared to offer the chance for historic rebirth—and in many ways it still does.
One day Team Obama announces a plan for enhanced rescission authority to impound wasteful spending. The next day the House surfaces a $200 billion “stimulus” plan to spend on transfer payments for welfare, even more unemployment compensation, still more Medicaid, and a bunch of special-interest subsidies.
