President Barack Obama’s address to the opening of the United Nations relied heavily on a rhetorical device he has used often, but never to quite the same extent–namely, describing both sides of an argument and then suggesting that his own
President Barack Obama struck an apologetic tone at the United Nations on Tuesday, reassuring the General Assembly that the U.S. had “shifted away from a perpetual war footing,” and describing new limits on America’s use of soldiers, drones, and intelligence.
The Arab Spring, which peaked with the ouster of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, is all but over after the Muslim Brotherhood was banned once again by an Egyptian court earlier this week. The status quo ante
Remember this, from Obama’s first inaugural? To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you
President Barack Obama is mulling a meeting Tuesday at the United Nations with Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani. They will also both be present at a private luncheon held for heads of state by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Secretary of
Here’s a win-win. Ted Cruz proposes a delay in Obamacare’s individual mandate until 2015–the same delay that employers received. That delay takes the form of no funding to enforce the mandate. It also mirrors a condition Republicans have tied to
President Barack Obama’s possible meeting with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani at the opening of the United Nations on Tuesday is being hailed by the mainstream media as a diplomatic breakthrough. In fact, it is a U.S. surrender, one that lends
I enjoy and admire Michael Medved, so it is with some reluctance that I attack his op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, which is both cringing and cringeworthy, and represents much that is wrong with the mentality of today’s GOP
As he did in 2011, President Barack Obama is accusing Republicans of “holding the whole country hostage.” This time, the issue is not just the debt ceiling, which comes due in mid-October, but the federal budget, which expires on Sep.
The mainstream media have awoken to the fact that President Barack Obama’s partisan attack on Republicans during the Navy Yard attack on Monday may not have been the best idea, even if only for tactical reasons. The New York Times‘
Though some Arab states pressed for U.S.-led military action against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, that did not prevent them from exploiting Assad’s diplomatic success to pressure Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports that Arab states have carried out an earlier
Beltway conservatives have been warning for weeks that the movement to defund Obamacare through the upcoming budget debate is a political loser. Even columnist Charles Krauthammer, often sympathetic to the Tea Party movement, recently called the move to defund Obamacare
On Monday, while the death toll mounted at the Navy Yard, President Barack Obama delivered a strident partisan tirade against Republicans, using the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse to score political points ahead of the debt ceiling debate.
Tevi Troy, former Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services during the George W. Bush administration, will present his new book on presidents and pop culture today at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC (1015 15th Street NW, 12:00-2:00 ET).
In the midst of the Navy Yard attack, former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum took advantage of the chaos to attack gun rights advocates. Gun control is a repeated hobbyhorse for Frum, who blamed the “gun lobby” for the
President Barack Obama will use the the five-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers–and the ensuing financial crisis–today to attempt yet another “pivot” to economic issues for what is, conservatively, the dozenth time. Amid the boilerplate remembrances of jobs
In foreign policy as in much else, President Barack Obama has relied on words rather than actions. So it is difficult to take seriously his threat, expressed in an interview Friday with ABC News that aired Sunday on This Week,
Former Secretary of the Treasure Lawrence Summers has officially withdrawn his name from contention for the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reports. Summers called President Barack Obama on Sunday to inform him of his withdrawal, and
I’ve wrestled with Andrew C. McCarthy’s writings on foreign policy since the start of the Arab Spring. I am one of those conservatives who agreed with George W. Bush’s articulation of human rights and democracy as the core values of
On Sunday’s edition of This Week, ABC News aired an interview conducted with President Barack Obama on Friday. Among other familiar Obama tropes–such as the threat not to negotiate with congressional leaders over the debt ceiling, which is odd considering
The bond between the United States and Israel is both deep and broad. Yet the geopolitical alliance took shape in earnest after the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel’s military might convinced the U.S. of its value as an ally
A bill that would allow non-physicians to perform abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy is awaiting signature by Gov. Jerry Brown of California by Sep. 30. The bill, AB 154, passed both houses of the state legislature with strong
The attempt by Senate Democrats to define who is, and is not, a journalist is only the latest assault by the left on the First Amendment during the Obama era. From their attacks on free speech in opposition to the
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) distanced himself from his father Ron Paul’s controversial views on 9/11 yesterday, saying that some terrorists “are…motivated whether we’re there [in the Middle East] or not.” The elder Paul triggered outrage on Wednesday, the anniversary of
National Public Radio’s David Welna reported Thursday morning that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel groups had suffered defeat in efforts to lobby Congress to back a military attack against Syria. Though Welna cites some dubious sources,
Carl M. Cannon of RealClearPolitics devoted a column on the anniversary of 9/11 to the music that emerged to describe and deal with the terror attacks and their aftermath. At the time, I was living in South Africa and working
It is no surprise that former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul believes that the U.S. bears some responsibility, albeit indirect, for the terror attack of September 11, 2001. That belief, a staple of the far-left, animated his spoiler campaign
When the dust settles, the concrete result of the Syria debacle is that dictator Bashar al-Assad was able to use chemical weapons, both literally and diplomatically, to retain power. Assad succeeded because President Barack Obama was never really serious about
As Americans pause today to remember the trauma–and heroism–of September 11, 2001, we have a new reason to commemorate the day: the embassy attacks of September 11, 2012. A year later, there have been no arrests and no responses. Those
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), delivering a prepared rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s address to the nation on the Syria crisis Tuesday night, said that only opposition to war had made a diplomatic solution possible. It was the mirror image of
There was nothing more to say, and indeed President Barack Obama said nothing new to the nation on Syria on Tuesday night. What had once been billed as the closing argument for war on the eve of congressional votes to
Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to claim that his “goof” on Syria handing over its chemical weapons to international monitors was part of the plan all along, a claim that Fox News finds somewhat dubious. It’s the old
Yesterday, President Barack Obama was preparing to gird the nation for war against Syria. Today, he agreed to let the United Nations decide. Yesterday, UN Ambassador Samantha Power was dismissing the UN for its inaction. Today, the Obama administration is
The pro-Israel groups that agreed to lobby Congress on behalf of President Barack Obama’s plan for “limited” strikes against Syria over its chemical weapons use have been dealt a hard lesson after the president and his allies appeared to ditch
President Barack Obama switched gears Monday, embracing a Russian-backed proposal to have Syria transfer its chemical weapons stockpile to international control–an idea that emerged from a gaffe earlier in the day by Secretary of State John Kerry. The proposal may
There is only one possible good-faith reason that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are lobbying Congress to approve President Barack Obama’s proposed
One of the few effective arguments that the Obama administration has used in support of military action in Syria is that it is important to deter other rogue states determined to acquire, and threatening to use, weapons of mass destruction.
In a strident exhortation to the New America Foundation on Monday, National Security Advisor Susan Rice reiterated President Barack Obama’s case for a “limited” military strike against Syria in response to alleged chemical weapons use by Bashar al-Assad’s forces. She
In an interview on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition on Monday, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, declined to say whether a U.S. strike on Syria would be legal without the approval of the UN. She was asked
It’s odd how President Barack Obama appears to be enlisting (or at least enjoying) the help of pro-Israel organizations to push for congressional approval for an attack on Syria, but his own group, Organizing for Action, doesn’t seem to be