January 12, 2010 – 6:38 pm
When faced with intellectual theft or subversion by the regime in Beijing, many Fortune 500 have spines of Jello. This is bad enough when a company quietly allows its hard-earned competitive products to be lifted. It is immoral when companies cooperate with Chinese authorities by helping them crack down on democratic dissidents. One company has […]
January 11, 2010 – 1:24 pm
Washington is getting a case of the vapors over Michael Steele’s new book, Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda. The Republican establishment heaped coals over Steele’s head in a front-page Washington Post article for getting the GOP off message in the face of what should be a historic midterm rebuke of […]
January 3, 2010 – 12:17 pm
As Ed’s piece (immediately below) on Nigel Lawson reflects, December saw the transformation of climate change discussion. By month’s end, dismissing so-called “deniers” was out. Honoring skepticism was in. Why? Two events, of course: the outcome (more aptly non-outcome) of the Copenhagen summit and the release of the University of East Anglia emails. Despite President […]
December 22, 2009 – 10:44 am
‘Tis the season for family, and what better way to celebrate family than to bear witness to the diverse expertise of one prominent British house? So today we have former UK Chancellor Nigel Lawson on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page. Lord Lawson (indeed!) writes on the folly of Copenhagen – and carbon-control initiatives in general […]
December 14, 2009 – 3:24 pm
At last, we have been recognized. For years, my wife and I have driven Volvos. We go to a liberal church, vacation in liberal places, once lived in San Francisco, and watch Showtime’s Californication. And yes, we shop at Whole Foods. Something about our consumer profile prompts liberal activist groups and Democratic precinct captains to […]
December 3, 2009 – 10:41 am
Tiger Woods screwed up and now, like flies on regurgitated honeydew, public relations experts are flocking to the media to explain how they would have helped him handle the situation much more effectively. (I’d link to some, but just Google “Tiger Woods PR fail” and you’ll get the gist.) Most of the Monday morning quarterbacking […]
December 2, 2009 – 2:51 am
Despite pronouncing the word “Taliban” as if he were a calypso singer, President Obama sounded and looked strong and confident in his Afghanistan-themed address last night. The optics were right, as the president was joined by row upon row of sharply dressed officers-in-waiting. The pace of the speech was good – the president not getting […]
November 26, 2009 – 1:43 am
In October 1863, with his country mired in civil war, President Lincoln directed Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day to give thanks for their “bounties.” Turkey was not mentioned, nor was one pardoned. Wal-Mart Black Friday sales, including Vizio HDTVs for as little as $349, still lay in America’s magnificent […]
November 15, 2009 – 12:10 pm
We don’t generally do up-to-the-minute news here, but I thought it worth following up on two points I raised yesterday regarding President Obama’s trip to Asia. First, it appears that even with George Bush out of the way, international leaders are still having trouble reaching agreement on a climate change accord with teeth. Consensus is […]
November 14, 2009 – 12:30 pm
Ten months into his own term as US president, Barack Obama continues to conjure the ghost of George W. Bush to help define himself in international circles. Of course, it’s not really the ghost of George W. Bush. It’s the ghost of the caricature of George W. Bush. Kicking off his Asian trip with remarks […]
November 11, 2009 – 12:28 pm
It was impossible not to wonder what was going through the mind of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he joined the throngs in Berlin this week to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Two Americans that have long been close to Gorbachev are Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies […]
November 11, 2009 – 11:39 am
The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has prompted a number of articles and reflections about President Reagan’s historic 1987 speech. Needless to say, Clark is the true expert on the issue — but I wanted to link Tony Dolan’s recent piece from the Wall Street Journal, reminiscing about the speechwriters’ full […]
November 6, 2009 – 11:15 am
John Mashek, who has died at age 77, set himself apart from the journalistic pack by taking a deep and deliberative approach to the White House beat at U.S. News & World Report. I first encountered him as a student at the University of Texas at Austin, where John gave talks that, with dry humor, […]
November 5, 2009 – 10:03 am
The latest in the General Motors saga appears to be a case of either embarrassingly bungled communications or wretched diplomacy by the Obama Administration. In brief: GM had announced plans to sell Opel, the German car manufacturer. The German government spent months brokering a deal with a Canadian-Russian venture to buy Opel and preserve jobs […]
November 4, 2009 – 5:51 pm
Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post argues that the New Jersey and Virginia elections predict nothing for President Obama and the Democratic Congress. Her case is superficially convincing. She does a good job of showing how these two races, historically, have not been good predictors of how the next election will turn out. Two things […]
