November 9 is the anniversary of both joyous and regrettable events in German history.
To the outside world, the president still represents transformation, but at home his record is disappointingly thin.
In previous generations we had to devise solutions to deal with the dangers of tobacco and cars, and today we must learn how to combat the causes of obesity.
What do you do when the party affiliation of a president affects your favorite sports team?
The market stampeded into stocks in 1998, houses in 2005, and now gold in 2009.
In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the accomplishment-free Mr. Obama, the Norwegian parliamentarians who voted were not so much recognizing the young president so much as they were honoring themselves and their own timid foreign-policy creed.
David Frum counters the Obama administration's positive outlook for the American private economy in the third quarter.
As we age, nostalgia can be triggered by the strangest things--including a rebroadcast of the television show we used to hate most in the entire world.
The insurance industry is hobbled by regulations in each state. Let us clear those so that market forces can take hold.
CTV sees an insult as the prime pinister of Canada visits the White House.
There is one country that is always a target of protest, and it is the target at this year's Toronto International Film Festival: the state of Israel.
Obama's health reform plans are sinking, and Wednesday evening he will try to rescue them with a big speech, a televised address to a joint session of Congress.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are trapped in a futile cycle.
Senator Ted Kennedy knew and expressed the sorrow of human life.
I smell a rat in the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.
It is possible to express opposition to a president's policies without preposterous name-calling.
Protesters against Obama's reforms are defending their excellent medical service. It's all about cost-cutting, not liberty.
It used to be tough and unrewarding to be a crank, but new media technologies may be contributing to the lunacy of the "birthers" and other recent conspiracy theorists.
Now it is time for Canada to honor itself as a people--as such honoring occurs too seldom in Canada--and there will never be a better opportunity than in the days beginning five summers from now.
Under the contrasting Harper and Obama plans, Canada looks likely to become in the 2010s what the United States has been since 1980: the English-speaking world's beacon of enterprise and limited government.
The activities of the American Conservative Union have damaged the good name of every American conservative organization.
The grim economic and political outlook has prompted some Democrats and some liberal economists to whisper about the need for a "second stimulus", despite Administration economists saying that the first stimulus has only just begun to take effect.
Peter Wallison and co-author Joel Gora have taken on the vexed subject of campaign finance--a topic in which every past reform has made things worse.
The United States under Barack Obama and the Democrats is planning to spend astounding amounts of money--colossal amounts--and to pile up debt on a scale never previously contemplated in peacetime.
A great and ancient culture and civilization with an increasingly urbanized and sophisticated population, Iran has so much more to offer the world than terrorism and pistachio nuts.
Netanyahu is likely to receive little sympathy on the issue of Jerusalem, as President Obama has already signalled his intent to press for some kind of international status for the ancient holy city.
Obama is always willing to make a rhetorical concession to buy goodwill, but these concessions carry two serious risks.
In his June 4 speech given in Cairo, President Obama exhibited the amazing spectacle of an American president taking an equidistant position between the country he leads and its detractors and enemies.
Genetic manipulation of the human species is coming. In fact, it has arrived.
Colleges are producing worse and worse returns on investment, and parents are beginning to take notice.
Conflict seems likely between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, but there is reason to hope that things will not deteriorate too far, too fast.
The very fact that an American president talks about extremist Muslims validates them as the most important and significant of Muslim individuals.
Power that the Obama administration claimed in order to arrest the financial crisis is being used and abused in ways that undermine the legal and financial stability of the United States.
Jack Kemp was the great hope of a generation of conservative activists, the president who should have been.
The Obama administration is using a debate over interrogation methods to shift the United States to a radical new concept of international law.
Do not imagine you can push Israel into dangerous concessions by driving a wedge between Israel's right and left.
Since his inauguration, President Obama has proposed new spending programs that will add $6.5 trillion to the American national debt over the next 10 years.
Sometimes in Washington, what is most scandalous is the attempt to create a scandal where none exists.
In pursuing Bush administration prosecutions, Barack Obama is sliding toward one of the most dangerous decisions of his administration.
President Obama is way too quick to relabel spending as investment.
It is almost a law of politics that a defeated political party recoils upon its political base.
Ridding the world of nuclear weapons is an impossible and probably dangerous goal.
The Iowa Supreme Court and the Vermont legislature have just plunged the country into another round of culture war.
Ottawa will not close down the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, no matter how many contributors to the National Post yearn to see the end of it.
The party of William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan is now bereft and dominated by the politics of Rush Limbaugh.
Forty-five thousand Mexican troops have been deployed against the narcotraffickers. But they need more than just military aid from their North American neighbors.
Washington, D.C., has become the financial capital of the world.
Was the Goldwater campaign of 1964 was a major loss for conservatism or an invaluable time of forging principles?
Dutch member of parliament Geert Wilders is pointing out a deeply unfashionable fact: that Europe is home to millions of unassimilated, unreconciled, extremist Muslim immigrants.
If the world is to sustain open trade, China will have to change its ways.
Hefty majorities approve of President Obama's economic performance, but approval numbers for congressional Republicans remain dismal.
Canadian conservatives have a great danger and a great opportunity.
The stimulus package just passed is more than double the size of the cost of the New Deal.
The Democrats' plan to spend to stimulate the economy will come too late. A payroll tax cut would be a more effective form of stimulus.
The Democrats' plan to spend to stimulate the economy will come too late. A payroll tax cut would be a more effective form of stimulus.
The Obama administration is standing by a brief filed by the Bush administration in a case in the war on terrorism, rebuffing its most left-wing supporters.
David Frum reviews The Future of Liberalism, by Alan Wolfe.
If the source of our economic problems is the housing glut, why not save money on the stimulus and buy up (and demolish) excess housing stock? Call it "exurban renewal."
In politics, it is not what the voters want that matters--it is what they get.
There is no need to abandon basic Republican principles.
Obama wasted an opportunity to highlight the swearing in of the first African-American president.
Negotiations with terrorist groups incentivize terrorism. Starting talks with a group like Hamas that has not first disavowed violence is an invitation to even more violence.
Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State by Andrew Gelman and The Big Sort by Bill Bishop are must-reads for understanding the inner workings of American politics.
The Green Energy Act will be costly and will strip local governments of their zoning powers.
Both candidates ran against him, but on a few issues they would do well to follow President George W. Bush.
The Conservative Party's Senate reforms have gone nowhere, but the Canadian Senate's members should compete for a popular mandate in order to govern.
Bush is campaigning--in the last days of his presidency--to preserve his future reputation.
The breakdown of the euro is an imminent and ominous threat to the global economy.
AEI Online
December 12, 2008
History will judge President George W. Bush more gently than have his contemporaries.
The position of the Conservative Party in Canadahas suddenly become much more precarious.
The Canadian left now wants Governor General Michaelle Jean to extend her powers far beyond what would be deemed admissable by her predecessors.
There will be catastrophic results for whichever party "wins" the parliamentary power play in Ottawa.
History will judge President George W. Bush more gently than have his contemporaries.
AEI Online
November 25, 2008
What can the GOP do to regain its electoral footing?
As the crisis spreads from the financial sector to the broader economy, government emergency measures look increasingly inadequate.
The Republicans will find a new voice and a new way forward, but how long will it take them?
The Republican Party faces an excruciating and divisive choice between two very different futures.
Ifthe electionlooks hopeless now, hours before voting day, it is McCain himself who has made it so.
Republicans need a message change that warns of the dangers of a one-party, left-wing government.
There is no miracle cure for the Western world's dependence on oil, but there could be gradual emancipation from it.
If any of the candidates were serious about energy independence, they would seize this moment of declining oil prices to announce a standby tax on oil.
Stephen Harper could soon be the only conservative head of government in the English-speaking world.
Stephen Harper's victory in the Canadian election is an astounding achievement.
It is best to talk to the Taliban when the West has the upper hand.
John McCain's campaign is a whirligig of devices and stratagems, few of which make any difference to most Americans.
The object of the governmentbailout is to prevent bad debts at one financial firm from destroying credit throughout the U.S. and global economy.
Are voters ready for the amount of change Obama is hoping to bring about?
If John McCain could run on Stephen Harper's record, he wouldbe cruising to an easy third term for the GOP.
By neglecting growing income inequality and the kitchen-table concerns of the working class, Republicans are turning themselves into a minority party.
The pro-life movement has been transformed from an unambiguously conservative force into something more complex.
Sarah Palin is a bold pick for John McCain, and probably a shrewd one. It's not nearly so clear that she is a responsible pick, or a wise one.
The Chinese overlooked the possibility that the Olympics would arrive at the same time as its economy braked to a stop.
While most men enjoy being left alone for a short while, it is best they do not live alone forever.
The imperatives of television have turned party conventions into scripted, meaningless events. With some reinvention, they could be a useful and important part of the political process.
The Berlin speech revealed more starkly than ever the most dangerous weaknesses in Barack Obama's thinking about the world.
It's the first rule of Canadian economics: when the U.S. catches cold, Canada gets pneumonia. What if the rule no longer applies?
The collapse of U.S. mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Macmay unfairlyaffect the presidential elections.
This November, the Democratic party may win a majority of the vote for president while also increasing its representation in both houses of Congress. Then what?
The Bush administration prized loyalty over competence. The next White House team will do the opposite.
Allan J. Lichtman's most recent book fails as a history of American Conservatism.
The Supreme Court held down an important ruling confirming that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own guns.
John McCain's choice of a running mate may prove to behis most important legacy to his party and his country.
Marriage is a work in progress.
Anti-Americanism predates President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
Hillary Clinton supporters pose a threat to Barack Obama's presidency.
The lesson from the Scott McClellanstory is not that presidents should seek staffers even more fanatically loyal than Bush's, but that weak personalities break under pressure.
Could today's policymakers tip the world into an unnecessarily harsh recession in order to avert an imaginary fear?
The U. S.-Indian relationship maybecome the most important bilateral strategic alliance on Earth in thetwenty-first century. Leaders on both sides need to do a better job managing it.
A remembrance of William F. Buckley Jr. and his impact on Yale University and wider society.
Ethanol was the wrong tool, so it is no surprise that it achieved the wrong result.
If Israel's enemies woulddisavow genocide, eschew religious extremism, halt terrorism, adopt democracy, andpractise tolerance andcompromise--then Americans would like them more.
The destruction of the nuclear facility in Syria by the Israelisshows that a military strike is an effective means of eliminating secret facilities.
Barack Obama's connection to radical thinkers mayhinder his chances of winning the election.
Two new books criticize George W. Bush's presidency, but history's verdict is still unknown.
Elections Canada is attempting to create a bright political distinction between activities that in fact are not distinct at all.
The Republicans have been losing the young vote since the early nineties due to their association with failure and embarrassments.
Prime Minister Maliki’s actions in Basra indicate that the Iraqi central government is gaining strength.
Economic pandering by office-seekers may force them to follow through with their dangerous policies.
The achievementsaccomplishedby the troop surge in Iraq remain in the shadows of the pre-surgefailures.
The case against Eliot Spitzer was released to the media by the prosecutor's office, which was a tactic used by Spitzer himself. However, this may be an unethical practice.
Canadian officials bear no blame in the disclosure that Barack Obama's campaign tried to play both sides of the free trade debate.
The passing of Bill Buckley reminded many people of his accomplishments and the great influence he had.
While Hillary Clinton loses support,she warns against having a less-experienced candidateas president.
Presidential candidate John McCain is receiving scrutiny and relentless attacks from his own party.
Conrad Black has written an impressive and profound book about the the most embattled and tenacious of American presidents: Richard Nixon.
The Republican Party must changeif it wishes to regain support from the public.
MittRomneywould have been the MBA president George W. Bush promised to be.
Unless American conservatism can rejuvenate itself, the odds favor the liberal left holding sway until the day that its own errors and delusions lay it low again.
The candidates in the 2008 election have created a public perception for themselves, but their appearance needs to be overlooked in order to understand their policy.
Free societies possess one great advantage over their enemies: they learn.
The Republican presidential race is returning to where it startedeighteen months ago: with John McCain as the front-runner despite his low standing among the party's conservative base.
The corruption of the human rights ideal has to be fought not only at the United Nations, but inside the domestic institutions of Western nations--and within our own minds and consciences.
The Republican coalition is falling apart, and the party needs a new domestic program if it is going to cobble together a majority.
As moral questions intensify, the answers offered by the case that struck down Canada's abortion laws will look more and more inadequate, shallow, short-sighted and obsolete.
The Middle East peace process is a failure machine, a puzzle without an answer, a maze without a centre. The only way to win is not to play.
Against Islamic reactionaries stand many other Muslims to whom free inquiry offers emancipation and progress.
After Iowa, no Republican has a better chance to succeed than Rudy Giuliani.
Conservatives must build on our environmental successes, practicing common-sense environmentalism.
The Republican Party's core principle has always been American democratic nationhood, trusted by the voters to protect American sovereignty and defend the nation's interests.
More than most presidents, George W. Bush has left behind a mixed record.
The killing of Benazir Bhutto has made foreign policy issues in the 2008 U.S. election starkly clear.
The Bible's stories are not literally true, but that does not mean we cannot learn valuable lessons from them.
The foreign policy community can learn some lessons from the blogosphere.
AEI Online
December 18, 2007
Four AEI scholars assess the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.
Populism in politics should not excuse bad policy ideas.
Even though Iran no longer poses an imminent nuclear threat, the regime in Tehran is still a major problem.
Though an exciting and heroic story, Michael Gerson's Heroic Conservatism lacks complete truth.
Obesity is a huge public policy issue. (Pardon the pun.)
Sports has a special way of bringing one back to their childhood.
If President Sarkozy succeeds in facing down the rail strike in France, he will enhance his own political strength and bring change to both Europe and the Middle East.
The upper reaches of French society are complicit in the al-Dura forgery that slanders Israel.
The approaching anniversary of the First World War should be a time of commemoration equal to the stupendous scale of the war itself.
U.S. under secretary of state for public diplomacy Karen Hughes lost sight of her original diplomatic goals in the Middle East.
Campaign work has beentransformed immensely over more than three decades.
Russia maybe reverting back to old, aggressivetactics to claim oil and gasreserves in the Arctic regions.
If free speech and open media are granted in Canada, other improvements will fall into place.
Giving Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize has subordinated science to hype.
Throughout the Western world there are, unfortunately, people who flinch from the responsibilities of freedom.
The proposed Islamic History Month in Canada must be based in a study of true Islamic history rather than myths and legends.
The American economy is witnessing a shift in market conditions similar to that of the 1970s.
Political spouses are playing more significant roles in candidates' campaigns.
Former prime minister BrianMulroney reinvigorated a U.S.-Canadian relationship badly frayed by Pierre Trudeau.
How will Canada secure energy sources needed to sustaingrowing industries?
A new book on the foreign policy of former president Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger lacks depth and thoughtfulness.
The United States may be on guard against Islamic extremism in the Middle East, but its Polish allies are worried about a closer threat: Russia.
A book newly available in English shows how, when overwhelmed by debt, the Nazis kept ruin at bay by confiscation and robbery.
The partisanship Karl Rove brought to theGOP helpedit to win the White House back from Democrats but led it down the path to poor governance.
Senator Barack Obama shows why he is an inadequate candidate for the U.S. presidency.
From the now-failing marriage of Larry and Laurie David come lessons about environmental hypocrisy.
A call for Canadians to support a new national holiday in honor of Canada's military accomplishments past and present.
We seem afraid to confront thepossibility that Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia is killing off its political opponents.
The French are hard-working but have not yet been given the opportunity to make the most of their work ethic.
The best European tourist sights are those where you can see the present layered upon the past.
The Bush administration's "realist" stance toward North Korea only makes Kim Jong-Il's regime more dangerous.
The tale of one scholar's evolving views on immigration.
Although Hillary Clinton is the leading Democratic presidential candidate, her success depends on her husband's willingness to help her.
Despite the survival of Mahmoud Abbas and many of his supporters, the Palestinian situation still looks bleak.
The frail Republican Party should notseek another Ronald Reagan as its candidate for president in 2008.
Canadians should resist the urge to approve permanently higher government spending amid their current commodities boom.
Hugo Chavez is not long for governing, but he can dangerously retard democratic progress in Latin America.
Republicans embrace an immigration plan that only a Democrat could love . . . or get through Congress.
Hamas's misconduct means more foreign aid for the Palestinian Authority--why wouldn't it try to provoke a war with Israel?
The leading Republican presidential candidates need to run on their strength, not pander ondecades-old issues.
Will disagreements between the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progress Party open opportunities for China to meddle in Taiwan's problems?
What does it say about China's future direction if it cannot tolerate the existence of a democratically elected government on its borders?
Congressional Democrats are of two minds on the war.
Because stories like the Virginia Tech shootings are so terrifying,we attempt toput these crimes into our pre-existing categories and use them to advanceagendas.
How can a candidate for president raise $23 million in three months and still register barely above zero in polls of members of his own party?
The Internet can break presidential candidates as well as make them.
The latest Iran hostage crisis may strengthen European resolve to effectively sanction the Islamic Republic.
Fifty years ago,the signing ofthe Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community.How is progress going toward aunited Europe?
There is something profoundly wrong on American campuses that smile on the desecration of theU.S. flag but prohibit damage to our enemies' banners.
Vladimir Putin is extinguishing Russian democracy--with the support of the Russian people.
It's nice when a big Washington scandal works out pleasantly for somebody.
The man who envisioned a clash of civilizations looks more prescient than ever.
What trends exist regarding female voters?
Do liberals have a problem with male voters?
What are the biggest problems with the North Korea nuclear deal?
A substantial majority of Canadians broadly support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms--despite having absolutely no idea of what the Charter does.
One of the iron laws of U.S. news reporting is that the economy gets positive reviews under Democratic presidents and negative reviews under Republican presidents.
The Canadian government announced Friday that it will apologize and compensate suspected terrorist Maher Arar. While this agreement settles the case, it does not resolve it.
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum parses this year's State of the Union address.
Western liberalism and democracy have found few takers in the Middle East. Instead, the people of the region have chased totalitarian fantasies.
The Republican presidential field for 2008 is split between three very different men. Who will come out ahead?
A review of David Pryce-Jones's Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews.
Careful readers will never let a factual error go unnoticed.
Gerald Ford averted disaster when it seemed imminent. If he could not save his country, he could at least preserve it.
How has Christmas evolved from a Pagan holiday into a venerable Christian celebration?
Thosewho do best in politics often think like artists rather than like intellectuals: not in terms of categories and distinctions, but in terms of new patterns, arrangements, and possibilities.
Why would a savvy deal-maker like James Baker propose to sign up the United States for yet another doomed, futile round of Israel-Palestine negotiations?
To people far from home and under fire, a child's painting, a card, a letter, a small gift means everything--and at no time of the year does it mean more than at this Christmas season.
Our so-called ally in the War on Terror is led by a president who doesn't tolerate domestic criticism.
Are stereotypes about Republicans and Democrats really accurate?
If Gitmo's prisoners are innocent goatherds, as many claim, why are their alibis so lame?
Over the next two years, executive energy must be more than a doctrine. It may prove the key to Republican survival--and the coming conservative resurgence.
Tuesday's midterm result contains two great lessons, one for liberals and Democrats and one for conservatives and Republicans.
Last night's vote represents only the first great move in the great game for control of the White House in 2009.
Most observers agree that the Democratic party will win the midterm Congressional elections. But which Democratic party? For there are two.
The next step toward a more successful campaign in Iraq requires U.S. and Iraqi military action to seal the borders, especially the border with Iran.
Adeeper understanding of the issues plaguing the Republican party can point the way to future successes.
It's the oldest trick in PR: If you want to generate publicity, generate a statistic.
The North Korean nuclear test--if that indeed is what it was--signals the catastrophic collapse of a dozen years of American policy.
The British Conservative party is a deeply troubled organization.
The fact is that the most successful October surprise in any recent U.S. national election was carried off by Democrats, not Republicans.
AEI Online
September 28, 2006
For better or for worse, the 2006 election results will lay out the path of U.S. foreign policy and the War on Terror.
Three years of negotiations with Iran have definitively failed. The Iranians want a nuclear bomb more than they want anything the West can offer them.
Already, Democrats are looking forward eagerly to the perquisites of power. If only they showed signs of equally readiness to shoulder its responsibilities.
In "Hubris," a minutely detailed study of the Valerie Plame affair, David Corn and Michael Isikoff reveal the leaker: Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
AEI scholars respond in a National Review symposium on the war in Iraq.
Until citizens of the West can bring themselves to speak with equal candor about political Islam, we will not even have begun to fight back.
McCain has been performing variations on this same trick for a decade now: vibrating back and forth between Democrats and Republicans. Can a man really become president in this way?
Has a Washington scandal ever ended with a more anti-climactic splat than the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson affair?
The war on terrorism demands that we focus not only on terrorists abroad, but also those who--by making excuses for them--aid and abet terrorism at home.
Scenes were enacted and re-enacted; dead bodies were carried from point to point and then back again; Hezbollah spokesmen chatted on cellphones until it was time to turn on the tears for cameras.
Attention nervous flyers: don't think you can escape the terrorists by taking the train.
The success of British security services in stopping a terrorist plot has unleashed all the most perverse and unavailing instincts of transportation safety authorities.
Undaunted by his legal defeats, Lopez Obrador has launched a struggle for power in the streets of Mexico.
What Westerners think of as goodwill, Middle Easterners often interpret as weakness.
Intended or not, the war on Israel's northern border is Iran's showdown with the West.
Iran's actions may indicate what the Western world's counter-priorities have to be: destroying Hezbollah, securing Iraq, and halting the Iranian bomb program.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the rulers of Iran have just shaken the dice and rolled them in a fearful game where the stakes will be measured in human lives.
Mexico is a perennial disappointment to everyone, and to the people of Mexico above all.
Will America relive a past in which classes invoked ethnic solidarity in a struggle over wealth and power?
Western counter-terrorism success is now under attack.
The problems of the world's biggest country have a way of becoming problems for the whole planet; so it is with China's inflation.
Was it an Israeli shell that killed the Ghalia family? An Israeli military investigation quickly cast considerable doubt on the official Palestinian version of events.
The alleged Ontario plot ought, if nothing else, to alert Canadians that they sit in the same boat as all the other Western democracies.
The primary race between Connecticut's Lieberman and Lamont has sent a powerful message to Democrats nationwide.
The white working class has ended up in the Republican party; the highly educated and the wealthy, with the Democrats.
How do Canadian politicians and scholars feel about interventions in Afghanistan?
The question before the world now is: Can Iran be coerced by any means short of force? There's only one way to find out--and it is not by talking.
How can enlightened liberal internationalist condemn jihad in Sudan as the equivalent of genocide in our time--and pardon an even crueler jihad in Iraq as legitimate national resistance?
Is Donald Rumsfeld to blame for the U.S.'s troubles in Iraq, or is there another culprit?
Two media leaks to answer the same question: in the face of danger, do we choose freedom or security?
The settlement of the Harris lawsuit should be of special interest to Canadians, as David Harris is one of Canada's leading experts on terrorism.
If the Republicans want to win the next mid term elections, they have to cuddle up to new voters.
If there is to be any hope of avoiding a U.S.-Iranian war, the U.S. and its friends have to act now to stop the confrontation from working for the mullahs.
Those who still cherish the UN-as-we-wish-it-were need to stop making excuses for it--and start working to change it.
We are watching Iran move closer to nuclearization--and our restraint is making us no new friends.
A book review of Roy Rempel's Dreamland: How Canada's Pretend Foreign Policy Has Undermined Sovereignty.
Harriet Miers was strike one. Dubai was strike two. Will immigration prove strike three for the Bush administration?
On this third anniversary of the war in Iraq, the mood in Washington is heavy with recrimination.
Why did the Dubai Ports deal fall through?
Should Canada continue giving aid to the Palestinian Authority?
Executing murderers is the best way to kill off all crime--it's worked for the United States.
The United States and India are both democracies. President Bush is attempting to lift the U.S.-Indian relationship to the next level.
In Iraq, the motion in favour of Hamas-like terrorism is carrying a whole nation toward the apocalypse.
The Pentagon defines success as completing a transition from a U.S.-led war to one in which the Iraqis assume responsibility for defending their own country.
IfWestern governments to try to woo Hamas, then the violence of the past two weeks will soon prove a very mild introduction to the horrors to come.
Too much of the commentary on energy seems to regard oil as a unique commodity, exempt from the laws of supply and demand that govern everything else.
The voters of the Palestinian Authority have just delivered Canada's incoming Harper government its first test.
Last week, French president Jacques Chirac delivered the Iranians a warning that their next steps may cost them far more dearly.
Washington, D.C. will be glad to see the back of Paul Martinfor much the same reason that Canadians voted against him.
Though itis unusual for a senior American politician to engage in direct personal criticism of another, that didn't stop Al Gore--or Hillary Clinton.
What issues do Canadian votersface in the upcoming election?
Seeking self-destruction should be the Democrats' motto.
According to last week's Liberal campaign ads, Stephen Harper wants to raise taxes to send your kids to Iraq.
America's crime problem has dramatically improved, while Canada's is becoming seriously worse.
When the Christian era ends in Europe, so too will end the era of European Jewry.
Paul Martin's problem is that sincerity is the one thing he cannot quite fake.
When in doubt, pander: That is Paul Martin's motto as prime minister, and it goes double during election campaigns.
The administration subcontracted the crucial work of detention and interrogation because it did not want to do that work itself under the jurisdiction of American courts. That was a mistake.
The oilsands--whatever they mean for the global energy market--will change precisely nothing for Canada. It's this January's election that holds the potential to change everything.
We know how the Liberals will campaign against Stephen Harper. The real question is: How will Harper fight back?
National Post
November 22, 2005
If Democrats want to be seen as tough on defense, they must actually be tough on defense. Toughness is tested and proven in times of adversity.
The great enduring mystery about the Bush administration has been the strange disparity between the strength of his goals and the weakness of his methods.
The French must really like urban riots--because they are responding to the violence in their suburbs with new policies that will almost certainly invite more and worse violence in the future.
A just society is not one that seeks to achieve fair results, but one that lives by fair rules, fairly enforced.
Prime Minister Paul Martin is now claiming to have been exonerated by the Gomery inquiry. But can we please introduce a little reality into this performance?
Can it really be that a Canadian prime minister remains unaware of the all-pervasiveness of genocidal anti-Semitism in today's world?
President George W. Bush's bad week may yet prove the administration's great turning point.
National Post
October 25, 2005
All of us though who advocatedthe Iraqwar need to reckon with and learn from our mistakes. George Packer's tough but idealistic book The Assasins' Gate is a good place to start.
The president's unwillingness to explain and defend conservative legal principles has impelled him to nominate to the Supreme Court a woman without a record.
National Post
October 18, 2005
If the constitution fails or ifterrorist violence does not abate, the new Iraqi state will have no choice but to viewthose communities that support the insurgency as enemies to be defeated.
Offending your supporters has real-world consequences. With one grave misjudgment, George W. Bush has shattered the coalition that brought and returned him to power in 2000 and 2004.
It is hard to overstate the shock that the nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court has dealt the president's supporters, both in Washington and through the country.
The challenge for Canadian conservatism is the challenge of the Canadian nation. And if in the end, there is no hope for one--then there won't be any hope for the other either.
A review of Gary Rosen's The Right War?: The Conservative Debate on Iraq.
Financial Times
September 27, 2005
The president's critics must agree, even in this season of trouble, that George W. Bush has at least dared to ask the right questions and accept the right challenges.
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