When, in 1944, Winston Churchill suggested that the Allies consider the Vatican’s views when planning the future of a heavily Catholic Poland, Stalin famously replied, “The Pope? How many divisions has he got?” The Pope had no divisions, of course. But, as Stalin’s successors would learn, he had millions of supporters whom he could spur …
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All hail America’s middle class, the vast majority of families who apparently must never pay a penny more in federal taxes or receive a penny less in services. All hail them; all fear them; all bow before them. That’s the message behind Washington’s successful effort to strike a deal that averted the “fiscal cliff” but …
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President Obama’s likely appointment of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary has focused attention on Hagel’s controversial views on Israel, its terror-sponsoring neighbors, and the appropriate U.S. posture towards the world’s most volatile and dangerous region. Fine. There’s lots to review and lots to criticize. But, as with all presidential appointments, the issue …
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For decades, some of the Arab region’s leading figures have sent sharply different messages to the West than to their own people, hoping to secure the best of both worlds from their rhetorical duplicity. To U.S. and other Western leaders, they portrayed themselves as tolerant and peace-loving, interested in curbing violence and solving problems. To …
President Obama’s strong vocal support for Israel’s right to self-defense in the wake of its aerial bombardment of weapons sites in Gaza reflects an apparent, and welcome, evolution in Obama’s thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that contrasts sharply with his initial approach toward the Jewish State. To his credit, the President resisted the traditional temptation …
Dear President Obama, With your re-election in hand, you’ll now have some of that second-term “flexibility” on foreign policy that you had discussed earlier this year with outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. You’ll be glad to have it. Because you will need Congress for major domestic initiatives, and because you’re already a lame duck, you’ll …
Now that Gov. Mitt Romney has skillfully presented himself in three presidential debates as a reasonable alternative to President Obama, undercutting the latter’s months-long effort to paint him as a scary extremist, Obama is struggling to hold his lead in the few swing states that will decide the election. Will Obama hang on, re-energizing his …
Continue reading “Will Obama hang on? Three factors to watch”