Actually, Joe set himself up. From the moment he set foot on Israeli soil, our vice president was in full pander mode. First, he headed to Yad Vashem memorial, where he put on a yarmulke and declared Israel “a central bolt in our existence.” “For world Jewry,” Joe went on, presumably including 5 million Americans, “Israel is the heart. ... Israel … [Read More]

We inherited the worst situation since the Great Depression. That is the reflexive response of President Obama to the troubles from which he has been unable to extract his country. Even before the inauguration, he says, there were projections of a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009. That deficit is not my deficit. Presidents are usually blamed for deficits run while they … [Read More]

No, it is not 1860 again. But with all the talk of the 10th Amendment, nullification and interposition, states rights and secession—following Gov. Rick Perry’s misstatement that Texas, on entering the Union in 1845, reserved in its constitution a right to secede—one might think so. Chalk up another one for those Tea Party activists who exploded in cheers when Sister Sarah … [Read More]

They are called the PIGS—Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. What they have in common is that all are facing deficits and debts that could bring on national defaults and break up the European Union. What brought the PIGS to the edge of the abyss? All are neo-socialist states that provide welfare for poor people, generous unemployment, universal health care, early retirement and … [Read More]

Republicans already counting the seats they will pick up this fall should keep in mind Obama has a big card yet to play. Should the president declare he has gone the last mile for a negotiated end to Iran’s nuclear program and impose the “crippling” sanctions he promised in 2008, America would be on an escalator to confrontation that could lead … [Read More]

A month after Germany surrendered in May 1945, America’s eyes turned to the Far East, where the bloodiest battle of the Pacific war was joined on the island of Okinawa. Twelve thousand U.S. soldiers and Marines would die—twice as many dead in 82 days of fighting as have died in all the years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Within weeks … [Read More]

“Elections don’t matter!” conservatives have long groused. “No matter who you vote for, things never change.” Well, we may have an exception here. Scott Brown told Massachusetts’ voters if they elected him to what David Gergen calls “the Kennedy seat” in the Senate, he would go to Washington and run a sword through Obamacare. Thirty-six hours after Brown’s triumph, a disconsolate … [Read More]

If Republicans will study the returns from Massachusetts, then review the returns from Virginia and New Jersey, light will fall upon the path to victory over Barack Obama in 2012. Obama defeated John McCain by winning the black vote 24 to one, the Hispanic vote two to one and taking a larger share of the white vote, 44 percent, than did … [Read More]

“We are at war. We are at war against al-Qaida, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people and that is plotting to strike us again.” Thus did Barack Obama clear the air as to whether we are at war, and with whom and why. Following his remarks, during a … [Read More]

“America is Losing the Free World,” was the arresting headline over the Financial Times column by Gideon Rachman. His thesis: The largest democracies of South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia—Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, India—are all moving out of America’s orbit. “(T)he assumption that the democracies would stick together is proving unfounded.” President Lula of Brazil has cut a “lucrative … [Read More]