After reviewing the ills that beset America, from a weak economy to a misguided energy policy, from failing schools to costly health care, Barack Obama focused on the nation’s mood. ‘Less measurable, but no less profound,’ the new President suggested in his inaugural address, ‘is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear …
Continue reading “Letter from Washington / Don’t Bet on America’s Decline”
‘What then is the American, this new man?’ J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur asked in his Letters to an American Farmer in 1782 before describing the distinctly American character that was emerging on the eastern seaboard of a new world. Fast forward 226 years, substitute ‘Barack Obama’ for ‘the American,’ and you have the …
Continue reading “Letter from Washington / Searching for Barack”
In mid-April, Rep. Sue Myrick, a soft-spoken Republican from Charlotte, North Carolina, sought to shake her nation from its slumbers, announcing a 10-point “Wake Up America” agenda “to alert, and educate, Americans to terrorist threats here at home posed by radical Islamic extremists.” Save a few conservative newspapers and blogs, barely anyone noticed. Welcome to …
It was August, 1993 and President Clinton was working the Democratic majority in Congress to gather the votes for his first budget plan. For a President trying to change the direction of federal policy, as he was after 12 years of Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the first budget is perhaps the most …
Continue reading “Letter from Washington: Obama’s Playing Field”