<![CDATA[ - Articles - RealClearPolitics]]> http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/rss/archive/19628.xml Author <![CDATA[Washington Is Brain-Dead]]> Sun, 28 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0600 <![CDATA[Pushing Out Hagel Not Shake-Up Obama Needs]]> Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600  Few will long lament the departure of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. He was a weak choice for the job, seen as a comfortable one for President Barack Obama, a former senator he knew who was unlikely to ruffle feathers or be as challenging to work with as his stronger predecessors, Robert Gates or Leon Panetta. But if Obama thinks that pushing out Hagel will be seen as the housecleaning that many have recommended for his spluttering national security process, he is likely to be very disappointed.

]]> <![CDATA[Talking With Iran a Risk Well Worth Taking]]> Sat, 28 Sep 2013 00:00:00 -0500 There are 34 years of reasons to be skeptical about any negotiations that may emerge from Friday's historic phone call between President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. There are scores of broken promises and outright lies about Iran's nuclear program itself. There is Iran's state sponsorship of terror and its efforts to extend its influence across the Middle East at the expense of peace, human dignity and America's allies.

]]> <![CDATA[Why the U.S. Hasn't Cut Aid to Egypt]]> Sun, 18 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500 The slaughter of hundreds in Egypt this week was horrifying. The response of the United States to that slaughter seemed puny and impotent. The president and the secretary of state offered strongly worded condemnations, and the United States canceled its participation in a military exercise that probably wouldn't have happened anyway, given the unrest.

]]> <![CDATA[Republicans' Real Target: Clinton in 2016]]> Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500 Rep. Darrell Issa must be ruing his bad luck. The hearing he carefully orchestrated to pick at the scab of Benghazi was stepped on by the verdict in the Jodi Arias murder trial and by the story of three women held captive and brutalized for a decade in Cleveland. He was out-sensationalized and out-tawdried this week despite his own best efforts and those of his committee colleagues and staff members.

]]> <![CDATA[McConnell More Dangerous Than Kim Jong Un]]> Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 AMERICA is rightly on edge. When a man with the power to make life-or-death decisions affecting thousands of U.S. citizens recklessly shows contempt for decency and international norms of behavior, it is no wonder the American people would be both angry and fearful. When his threats are so clearly contrary to the interests of those he represents and even those who might otherwise support him, it is natural to wonder whether he has somehow become unhinged.

But we should react calmly. We should not let such disregard for the public good and such an imminent threat to the lives of so many of our neighbors and our children cloud our thinking. The madman must be stopped.

]]> <![CDATA[Paul Ryan's Budget Is a Firing Offense]]> Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500 (CNN) -- For most Americans, the budget debate in Washington is reaching dog-whistle pitch, a tone that only partisans can hear. Which, as far as I am concerned, is a mercy.

Paul Ryan offered his budget on Tuesday. Let's do give him props for making the effort and all. The vast majority of his colleagues are potted plants on this front, reading talking points, sometimes banging the table and doing precious little else. But what Ryan calls a budget is what any CEO would call a firing offense. It uses some numbers and some words that appear in real budgets. But it neglects some other key elements ... like arithmetic or the truth or a greater economic purpose.

]]> <![CDATA[President Hillary Clinton? If She Wants It]]> Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600 There are few certainties in American politics. But you can write it down: If Hillary Clinton wants to be the next nominee of the Democratic Party to be president, the job is hers.

Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Mark Warner, Martin O'Malley and the others in the long list of commander-in-chief wannabes will go about their day jobs for the next couple years, but at the back of their minds will be only one question: Will she or won't she?

]]> <![CDATA[GOP Holding U.S. Economy Hostage on Debt]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600 (CNN) -- President Obama threw down the gauntlet to congressional Republicans at his press conference on Monday. He will not, he asserted forcefully, allow the United States' credit rating be held hostage by hard-liners demanding budget cuts "or else..."

In short, the president's message was that he would not negotiate with fiscal terrorists.

He may have sounded adamant and unbending to some. But his position was hardly out of place. Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans in the House of Representatives are holding a gun to the head of the American economy and threatening to pull the trigger if the president doesn't bend to their will.

]]> <![CDATA[A Nation of Spoiled Brats]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 Financial Times columnist Edward Luce has written a new book called Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent that has received well-deserved acclaim and recognition not only for its superb reporting of the on-ground reality of America's current economic crisis but also because it is an unflinchlingly brave book. Luce does not shy away from conclusions that are hard for many Americans to hear, nor does he cop out and offer up the happy ending many in his audience may want to read. Rather, he offers what is most needed now: an objective, profoundly thoughtful look at the underpinnings of America's economic troubles, what makes the current crisis different from those of the...]]> <![CDATA[The Personnel Change Obama Needs Most]]> Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 TIGHTROPE

Obama's China-Taiwan Challenge

DECODER

Parsing the State of the Union

SUPREME COURT

Decision Widens U.S. Credibility Gap

It's starting to be that time of administration again. We'reinto the second year of the term. The campaign high has worn off. The honeymoonhas been over for months and months. The "blame it on my predecessor" free passhas expired. The "learning curve" excuses are wearing thin.

It's time to be president, to own your government and totake responsibility for whatever happens on your watch.

Which means it's...]]> <![CDATA[America's New Crisis of Confidence]]> Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Hope is the life's blood of American politics. This is a country built on the premise ofboundless promise. The president certainly understood this when he entitled hisautobiography The Audacity of Hopeand his handlers understood it as they openly sought to emulate Ronald Reagan,the modern American political figure who understood this truth best. 

It is ironic then that in just a matter of months, Obama ismore commonly associated with Jimmy Carter than Ronald Reagan. For Democrats,understanding why this is the case is the first step toward fixing a rapidlygrowing problem that may do what months ago seemed unthinkable: restoring theinfluence and competitiveness of the...]]> <![CDATA[President Drifts Toward Jimmy II]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500