I’d really recommend James Mann’s article in today’s Washington Post about Bush’s approach to dealing with America’s allies. It highlights a number of interesting points that observers of international affairs consider in evaluating the administration’s trouble with diplomacy, which Mann describes as “a major intellectual failure” of the White House. The crux of the piece […]
In June 1992, Bill Clinton was in the midst of a tough primary for the Democratic nomination for president as he prepared to give an important speech to the NAACP. In the week leading up to the event, a rapper named Sister Souljah made national headlines for saying, “If black people kill black people every […]
In case you missed it, Bob Graham faced his first political challenge of his young life as a presidential candidate this week. I think he passed the test just fine. The filibuster against Miguel Estrada’s nomination the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has been dividing the Senate for a few weeks now. […]
Foreign policy in the 1960s was marked by a doctrine known as the “Domino Theory.” In a nutshell, the idea was that allowing one country to fall to communism, particularly in East Asia, would embolden communists and lead other countries to fall as well. Among others, President Lyndon Johnson embraced this idea and used it […]
For nearly nine months, the White House has had the luxury of ignoring the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. Truth be told, the president has intentionally ignored events that pushed both sides further from peace since the day he took office. But it was nearly nine months ago when Bush announced that he would “support” Palestinian efforts just […]
There’s a real gem of a quote hidden deep in the New York Times’ coverage of the administration’s unsuccessful efforts at the U.N. “There’s a recognition this has not been our finest diplomatic hour,” one senior White House official told the newspaper. You can say that again. These guys are looking more and more like […]
War is coming, push has officially come to shove, and the commentariat is falling into definite categories. It’s fascinating to watch from a distance. As I’ve mentioned before, opponents and supporters of a U.S. invasion of Iraq do not fall along simple, predictable lines. While policy debates in DC usually break down into Dems vs. […]
When Trent Lott lamented about Strom Thurmond losing the 1948 presidential race, running on a segregationist platform, the Republican Party saw its outreach efforts to African American voters fall apart almost overnight. The GOP’s attempts didn’t appear to be working anyway, but having your Senate Majority Leader announce that the U.S. would have been better […]
There was an article in the Wash Post last week about the rising prominence of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and the respect she has earned from her colleagues. While I was glad to see the report — I’ve always greatly admired Sen. Clinton — my interests in the article were a little more parochial than […]
This morning I expressed some concern about why Congressmen Ney and Jones had time to be so concerned about french fries in the House cafeteria, and assumed they had better things to do. After checking some congressional records, I’m left to conclude they didn’t. I haven’t been checking in with C-SPAN lately, but part of […]