NewsTrust - Presidential Election 2008 - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Free speech for me, but not for thee

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 11 (Editorial) - HILLARY: THE MOVIE” is unwatchable. From the first frame, it presents a dreary caricature of Hillary Clinton as a power-crazed harpy with no redeeming qualities. She is cynical, manipulative, dishonest and ruthless—and so on for 90 excruciating minutes. Wasn’t there at least a dog she once omitted to kick, or a child whose lollipop she didn’t steal?

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The insanity and enduring racism of the American right

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

The Independent - By Matthew Norman - Jul. 30 (Opinion) - As we gloomily maintain the deathbed vigil for a Government whose end cannot come soon enough, it is the opposite end of the life-cycle that fixates US politics. Fittingly enough, on the eve of the nine-month anniversary of Barack Obama's election,

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Why Palin Quit

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Jul. 08 (Opinion) - People close to Sarah Palin say national political reporters and pundits have missed the real reasons for her surprising decision to resign as Alaska governor. The national media have dismissed or downplayed her real motives, which had little to do with any plans to run for president in 2012.

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Stonewall Plus Forty

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By Hendrik Hertzberg - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - The President has said all the right things. But there have been signs, before the election and after, that where gays are concerned his fine-tuned ear for the emotional resonance of his actions has an alloy of tin.

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How the Republicans can reverse their decline.

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Jacob Weisberg - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - There has been little open acknowledgement on the right of the depth of the problem, let alone any sign of the wholesale rethinking that the GOP needs to return to viability.

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Pragmatism Obama Style

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Weekly Standard - By Peter Berkowitz - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - As candidate and as president, Barack Obama has presented himself as a postpartisan pragmatist. He has generally refrained from speaking in explicitly ideological terms, and earned a reputation as a silver-tongued orator. Yet on important issues he has seemed anything but pragmatic, adopting rigidly left-liberal or progressive views, suppressing salient consequences, and putting forward misleading or incomplete arguments disrespectful of the case on the other side. In fact, Obama is a pragmatist, but of a kind that is anything but postpartisan.

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Tough talk for Republicans

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Times - By Terry Nelson - Jan. 30 (Opinion) - The Republican Party is afflicted by two principal ailments, a hangover from the presidency of George W. Bush and a longing for Ronald Reagan. Complicating matters is our own misdiagnosis. It is time for us to recognize that the electorate has changed. We cannot continue to think that the United States is a center-right nation. The 2008 election demonstrated that this is no longer true, at least in an electoral sense. Republicans held some form of power from 1995 to 2009. We can confidently say that the legacy of this era will be great policy achievements: lower taxes, a reformed welfare system, a more secure world and a more accountable educational system.

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Obama: A breathtaking beginning

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Rupert Cornwell - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - The Bush administration's scorn for internationally stipulated rights of prisoners, its disregard for science, its high-handed foreign policy, and its blind veneration of the market – Obama disowned them all. So much so, indeed, that some Bush staffers went public with their fury when they learnt of the speech's contents.

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Charles Krauthammer - The Obama Inaugural: Hail Washington -- Not Lincoln

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Charles Krauthammer - Jan. 22 (Editorial) - But now that Obama was president, the redeemer was withholding, the tone newly sober, even dour. The world was still in Bushian ruin, marked by "fear . . . conflict . . . discord . . . petty grievances and false promises . . . recriminations and worn-out dogmas." But no more the prospect of magical restoration. In a stunning exercise in lowered expectations, Obama offered not quite blood, sweat and tears, but responsibility, work, sacrifice and service.

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The case for hope: A reflection on the 2008 White House race and America's future - UPI.com

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

United Press International - By Isaac Pacheco - Jan. 15 (Opinion) - The balloons have dropped from the rafters; the tinsel has been swept from the ballroom floors. Americans have made their voices heard at the polls, and today, during one of our nation's most tumultuous times, we prepare for an inauguration that signals the fruition of a historic presidential election.

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Appointments

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New Yorker - By Hendrik Hertzberg - Dec. 22 (Opinion) - What if Governor Paterson, prompted by the squalor of his Illinois colleague’s maneuverings, were to put aside mundane calculations and take full advantage of his theoretically unfettered freedom of choice?

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Obama's Inaugural Mistake

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Joe Solmonese - Dec. 18 (Opinion) - It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation. And the Obama campaign's response to the anger about this decision? Hey, we're also bringing a gay marching band. You know how the gays love a parade.

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Postmortem: Dicin’ And Slicin’

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New Yorker - By Lauren Collins - Nov. 30 (Opinion) - The former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who won eight states and more than four million votes in the Republican Presidential primaries, spent Election Night at home in Little Rock. Eating takeout in the den with his family and a few staffers, Huckabee wasn’t surprised to see Barack Obama win, although he couldn’t help but think that things might not have turned out the way they did had he been the nominee. “It would’ve been very different,” he said the other day. “Because I would’ve campaigned that the economy was headed toward meltdown. And I was saying this back when I was getting laughed at by the Wall Street Journal and pilloried by the National Review. They were just dicin’ and slicin’ me for not following the company line.”

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Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Charles M. Blow - Nov. 29 (Opinion) - A strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why?

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Voter Registration Should Be Automatic

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Hartford Courant - By Robyn Blumner - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - The problems arose because our old system of state-by-state registration rules — some of which appear designed for a mail system via pony express — is outmoded and frankly retains vestiges of our racist past. We need to follow the lead of at least 24 other countries and adopt a system of automatic and permanent voter registration.

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Requiem for a Maverick

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Nov. 21 (Opinion) - They compounded a millionfold Bush's legacy of incompetence by soiling both possible Republican ideological strategies going forward: They killed off Bush-style neoconservatism as well as the more traditional fiscal conservatism McCain himself was once known for by trying to fuse both approaches into one gorgeously incoherent ticket.

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It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Thomas Frank - Nov. 18 (Opinion) - But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace, however misguided such ideas may seem to the nation's institutions of higher carping.

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Bailout to Nowhere

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David Brooks - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - Democrats from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi want to grant immortality to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. They have decided to follow an earlier $25 billion loan with a $50 billion bailout, which would inevitably be followed by more billions later, because if these companies are not permitted to go bankrupt now, they never will be. This is a different sort of endeavor than the $750 billion bailout of Wall Street. That money was used to save the financial system itself. It was used to save the capital markets on which the process of creative destruction depends. Granting immortality to Detroit’s Big Three does not enhance creative destruction. It retards it. It crosses a line, a bright line. It is not about saving a system; there will still be cars made and sold in America. It is about saving politically powerful corporations. A Detroit bailout would set a precedent for every single politically connected corporation in America. There already is a long line of lobbyists bidding for federal money. If Detroit gets money, then everyone would have a case. After all, are the employees of Circuit City or the newspaper industry inferior to the employees of Chrysler? But this, apparently, is about to change. Democrats from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi want to grant immortality to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. They have decided to follow an earlier $25 billion loan with a $50 billion bailout, which would inevitably be followed by more billions later, because if these companies are not permitted to go bankrupt now, they never will be. This is a different sort of endeavor than the $750 billion bailout of Wall Street. That money was used to save the financial system itself. It was used to save the capital markets on which the process of creative destruction depends.

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5 Myths About an Election of Mythic Proportions

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Chris Cillizza - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - The 2008 presidential election ended less than two weeks ago, but the mythmaking machine has already begun to churn. President-elect Barack Obama transformed the face of the electorate! The Republican Party will be a miserable minority in Congress for the next century! Cats and dogs are now living together! Below we explode the five biggest myths that have already sprung up around the election that was.

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Beyond Doom & Gloom

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

Weekly Standard - By William Kristol - Nov. 15 (Opinion) - GOP revivals depend on fresh and bold thinking at the national level. Figures like Jack Kemp redefined Republican economic policy between 1977 and 1980. By 1994, Newt Gingrich and Co. had brought into being a very different Republican party from that of the last days of the first Bush administration. Who are the Kemps and Gingriches today? The field is wide open for the ambitious and the daring.

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Where Obama Can Be Bold

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Michael Gerson - Nov. 12 (Opinion) - His broad victory shouldn’t dictate that all his policies have broad appeal. There is a broad consensus that President-elect Obama's broad victory should be accompanied by broadly appealing policies and broad-minded appointments. The new president should follow the broad outlines of this advice -- except where he should completely ignore it.

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In defence of dull politics

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

The Guardian - By Rachel Morris - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - New Zealand's politicians can't inspire millions like Barack Obama, but their low-key style gets the job done better than most

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The Fall

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New Yorker - By David Grann - Nov. 10 (Editorial) - In 2000, some prominent Republicans came to McCain’s defense, among them Frank Schaeffer, the son of Francis Schaeffer, an evangelist and anti-abortion crusader who is credited with helping to create the religious right. Schaeffer worked closely with his father, who died in 1984, but he felt that the movement had become extreme. In 2000, Schaeffer gave McCain his family’s imprimatur, vouching for him on Christian radio shows. Six years later, Schaeffer, who had a son in the Marines, co-wrote a book, “AWOL,” which spoke of the need for Americans to serve their country. McCain provided a blurb saying that the book illuminated “a more genuine and wiser patriotism.” But, in October, Schaeffer, a lifelong Republican, wrote an open letter to McCain that said, “If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as ‘not one of us,’ I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.” He went on, “You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.”

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We Blew It

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Weekly Standard - By P.J. O'Rourke - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - Let us bend over and kiss our ass goodbye. Our 28-year conservative opportunity to fix the moral and practical boundaries of government is gone--gone with the bear market and the Bear Stearns and the bear that's headed off to do you-know-what in the woods on our philosophy. An entire generation has been born, grown up, and had families of its own since Ronald Reagan was elected. And where is the world we promised these children of the Conservative Age? Where is this land of freedom and responsibility, knowledge, opportunity, accomplishment, honor, truth, trust, and one boring hour each week spent in itchy clothes at church, synagogue, or mosque? It lies in ruins at our feet, as well it might, since we ourselves kicked the shining city upon a hill into dust and rubble. The progeny of the Reagan Revolution will live instead in the universe that revolves around Hyde Park.

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After the victory, what next?

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Rupert Cornwell - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - History's turning points come in many guises. Some, like the implosion of the Soviet Union, unfold in slow motion. Some, like 11 September 2001, are split seconds of cataclysmic horror. Then there are those like last Tuesday evening, in the gizmo-laden TV studios where, the instant the polls closed on America's west coast, the networks announced that Barack Hussein Obama, half-Kenyan by birth and without even a full Senate term behind him, would be the next President of the United States. Oddly, the endgame itself was almost routine, compared with the two-year roller coaster of a campaign that preceded it. The eve-of-vote polls were correct; the much-bruited "Bradley Effect" did not materialise, and on the night itself, the result was crystal clear at least an hour before the anchors called it at 11pm eastern time.

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