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RealClearPolitics - Does He Lie?

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Charles Krauthammer - Sep. 18 (Opinion) - WASHINGTON -- You lie? No. Barack Obama doesn't lie. He's too subtle for that. He ... well, you judge. Herewith three examples within a single speech -- the now-famous Obama-Wilson "you lie" address to Congress on health care -- of Obama's relationship with truth. (1) "I will not sign (a plan)," he solemnly pledged, "if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future. Period." Wonderful. The president seems serious, veto-ready, determined to hold the line. Until, notes Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, you get to Obama's very next sentence:...

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Health Care Protesters Playing with Fire

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By David Broder - Aug. 13 (Opinion) - Watching the muscular tactics being used in congressional town meetings by some opponents of health care reform, I keep thinking somebody should remind the Republican leaders who are reveling in the scenes about Bruce Alger.

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A Reason Behind the Rage

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Eugene Robinson - Aug. 11 (Opinion) - The nut jobs and carpetbaggers are outnumbered by confused and concerned Americans who seem genuinely convinced they're not being told the whole truth about health care reform.

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NRA threats on Sotomayor met with shrugs

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Julie Hirschfeld Davis - Aug. 02 (News Analysis) - The National Rifle Association's threat to punish senators who vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been met with a shrug by Democrats from conservative-leaning states and some Republicans who are breaking with their party to support her. The gun rights group is used to getting its way by spooking lawmakers about the political consequences of defying its wishes. But it never before has weighed in on a Supreme Court confirmation battle. It was cautious about breaking that pattern, and it looks like a losing a fight to defeat President Barack Obama's first pick for the court. Sotomayor is expected to easily win confirmation in a vote this coming week that could deflate the long-accepted truism in Washington that you don't cross the NRA.

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Press Draws First Blood on Their Turf

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Salena Zito - Jun. 28 (News Analysis) - President Barack Obama made news at a press conference last week - by planting a question with a blogger, not by offering anything new in spite of taking his sharpest questions to date. The sharper edge of reporters' questions had much to do with the setting, one White House press corps member said afterward: "It was our turf, in our seats, no formality of the East Room or even (the) Rose Garden. So I think when we're comfortable, we're more likely to fire back at him for follow-ups." Obama coming unarmed with news led to more probing, analytical-style questions which can always tie up presidents.

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Why Cairo?

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

realclearworld.com - By Kevin Sullivan - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - There's been a fair amount of debate and discussion over the anticipated intent and effect of President Obama's address to the Muslim world, scheduled for Cairo, Egypt this Thursday. But while I've noticed some disagreement over the substance and purpose, I've heard very little about the choice of location.

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The New New Deal

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Charles Kesler - May. 21 (Opinion) - If you believe President Barack Obama, he's working overtime to save American capitalism.

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'Thought Crimes' Bill Advances

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Nat Hentoff - May. 13 (Opinion) - Why is the press remaining mostly silent about the so-called "hate crimes law" that passed in the House on April 29?

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100-Day Lurch to the Left

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Lawrence Kudlow - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - The president is seeking to change the whole relationship between the government and the free-enterprise private sector. He is steering the country away from democratic capitalism and toward his big-government command-and-control vision. We are witnessing a triumph of government bureaucrats over entrepreneurs, investors, and small businesses.

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Newest Democrats buck party leadership at times

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Ben Evans - Apr. 26 (News Analysis) - Freshman Rep. Bobby Bright won his seat in Congress by convincing conservative southeast Alabama voters that he wasn't a typical Democrat. Barely a week into his Washington career, he showed that he meant it. On a vote that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw as a slam dunk for kicking off the new Congress, Bright opposed a bill named after an Alabama tire-factory worker that would ease restrictions for women challenging pay discrimination. A few days later, Bright voted against another Democratic rallying point, expanding health insurance for children of the working poor.

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Republican Earmarks Taint Spending Criticism

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Kyle Trygstad - Mar. 15 (Opinion) - While Republicans criticize President Obama for not sticking to a campaign promise to rid government of wasteful spending, the GOP itself is finding trouble getting back to the kind of fiscal discipline its members say disappeared over the last several years they controlled Congress. Republicans in Congress vilified Democrats for both the overall size and the number of earmarks attached to the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. However, despite the rhetoric, Republicans requested 40 percent of the earmarks and ranked among the highest pork barrel spenders.

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Will Global Economic Downturn Hit China Too?

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Ian Bremmer - Feb. 21 (Opinion) - Not so long ago, conventional wisdom held that China would emerge unscathed from the global financial crisis, mainly because its banks had virtually no exposure to the toxic assets poisoning the Western financial system. Some still hope China will help fuel a broad recovery. But warning signs have begun to emerge, as the Chinese economy slows and thousands of its manufacturers close their doors. Might the financial crisis inflict enough damage to pose serious risks for China's stability? The threat is real, but it's not imminent.

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A Lost Decade Ahead?

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Robert Samuelson - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - The president says that Japan's history demonstrates the need for his "stimulus package." To the contrary, claim Hannity and other conservatives, Japan shows that stimulus plans don't work. Up to a point, they're both right. But the possible parallels between Japan's experience and our own are much broader and pose the question of whether we, too, might face a "lost decade."

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Reality Intrudes on the Drug War

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Steve Chapman - Feb. 15 (Opinion) - In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded -- a child -- to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers -- Latin Americans -- to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a failure.

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How Congress Trumps Darwin

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By George Will - Feb. 08 (Opinion) - "Descended from the apes!" exclaimed the wife of the bishop of Worcester. "Let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known." An American majority resists such an annoying notion, endorsing the proposition that "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years." Still, evolution is a fact and its mechanism is natural selection: Creatures with variations especially suited to their environmental situation have more descendants than do less well-adapted creatures.

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Election Review, Part 3: The West

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Jay Cost, Sean Trende - Jan. 18 (Opinion) - Today we continue our analysis of the 2008 election with a review of the Western Region. This Census Bureau region consists of two divisions: the Pacific West and the Mountain West. Pacific West The Pacific West is unique if for no other reason than two of its five states were the home states of Presidential candidates. Because of this, it is difficult to analyze these states' voting patterns. Given the state of McCain's Alaska polling before the Republican convention, it seems unlikely that he would have won the state by twenty points without Palin on the ticket. Similarly, Obama's ties to Hawaii probably added to his 40-point victory there. In other words, because of the personal nature of the vote in these small states, we just can't glean too much useful information from them.

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Obama Keeps His Centrist Course

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By David Ignatius - Jan. 11 (Opinion) - Barack Obama's aides like to tell the story about his reaction to the monotonous, self-important speeches at his first session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2005. After hearing his colleagues drone on, Obama passed to a staff member a note that read: "SHOOT. ME. NOW." The impatient freshman senator is now about to become president, but he hasn't lost his distaste for Washington politics-as-usual. And as the inauguration approaches, Obama is doing something quite remarkable: Rather than settling into the normal partisan governing stance, he is breaking with it -- moving toward the center in a way that upsets some of his liberal allies but offers the promise of broad national support.

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Myths & Facts About the Real Bush Record

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Ed Gillespie - Dec. 23 (Opinion) - As the year draws to an end and President Bush enters his final month in office, there is much commentary about the Administration's record over the past eight years. Unsurprisingly, many of these stories assail and distort the President's record and recycle myths and unfounded allegations that have been leveled for the better part of his two terms. Historical accuracy requires a response to the litany of attacks leveled against President Bush, and while there's not enough space to respond to all of them, here are five of the most egregious:

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Gay Pride, Black Prejudice

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Clarence Page - Dec. 07 (Opinion) - "Gay is the New Black," declares the Dec. 16 issue of The Advocate, a leading gay-oriented magazine. Well, not quite. How about, "Gay is the new gray"? The gray area for a lot of black Americans like me is not in the issue of gay rights but in the comparison some gay activist make between that issue and the movement for racial equality. I don't oppose same-sex marriage. After years of arguments from the other side about perceived threats to the sanctity of marriage, I have yet to see any impact by gay marriages on my marriage. Nor do I expect to see any.

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The Good, Bad & Ugly of Card-Check

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Salena Zito - Dec. 07 (Opinion) - Is it pay-back time or about time? When it comes to "card-check," slang for the Employee Free-Choice Act - one of the first pieces of legislation likely to go before Congress when it reconvenes in January - it depends on who you ask. Today, if a union organizer goes into a workplace and gets 30 percent of the employees to sign a "union interest" card, an election is ordered by the National Labor Relations Board. A secret-ballot vote is held six weeks later, giving both union and employer time to lobby the workers. Under card-check, not so much: If a majority of employees sign a union card, then the union becomes the bargaining unit. No more six-week campaigns, no more elections. It's a done deal; you're essentially a union shop.

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The Reverse Wealth Effect

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Robert Samuelson - Nov. 25 (Opinion) - The "wealth effect" refers to the tendency of people to adjust their spending as their wealth -- concentrated heavily in housing and stocks -- changes. When wealth rises, spending strengthens; when wealth falls, spending weakens.

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Detroit Automakers a Relic of the Past

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Michael Barone - Nov. 15 (Opinion) - The bankruptcy of one or more of them would deeply impact the personal lives and dash the seemingly reasonable expectations of those who, directly or indirectly, have depended on them. I can't help but think of these people when the issue is raised. And yet the implications of a bailout are frightening

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Fixing Afghanistan

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Marie Cocco - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - On the international front, things are no easier for President-elect Barack Obama than they are on the front lines of the economic crisis that he vows to ameliorate first.

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Republicans, This Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Lives

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Stuart Rothenberg - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - There will be plenty of hand-wringing, finger-pointing and even internecine warfare among party activists and their interest-group allies over the next few weeks as various constituencies within the party seek to assign blame for Tuesday's Democratic sweep, though it was not nearly as bad as it could have been considering the public mood and the Democrats' financial advantage.

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A New Kind of Pride

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Eugene Robinson - Nov. 04 (Opinion) - I know there's a possibility that the polls are wrong. I know there's a possibility that white Americans, when push comes to shove, won't be able to bring themselves to elect a black man as president of the United States. But the spread in the polls is so great that the Bradley effect wouldn't be enough to make Obama lose; it would take a kind of "Dr. Strangelove effect" in which voters' hands developed a will of their own.

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