Tony Blankley from Creators Syndicate

Sarah Agonistes for 07/08/2009

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Professional politicians and political journalists don't waste energy on political corpses. They reserve their energy — positive or negative — for viable politicians.

Thus, an intriguing part of the Sarah Palin phenomenon is the intensity of response to her every word and move — from both Republican Party and Democratic Party professionals and from the conventional medi ...

Updated: Wed Jul 08, 2009

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'Freeing Tibet' for 07/15/2009

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

As I cruise around the Greek Isles for a few weeks, I want to recommend a truly remarkable book for your summer reading, "Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope," by my great friend John Roberts and his wife, Elizabeth Roberts. (While I am blessed to have many friends who write good books, my regular readers know that I am not in the habit of reviewing them. But thi ...

Updated: Wed Jul 15, 2009

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Beware of Comprehensive Health Care Reform for 07/22/2009

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I was listening to National Public Radio's morning "news" Monday on the way to work, during which the newsperson read the apparently "factual" statement that the United States is the only developed country that does not provide "comprehensive" health care coverage.

Perhaps only those of us who are highly trained ideological vigilantes would leap to attention ...

Updated: Wed Jul 22, 2009

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A Pocketful of Miracles for 07/29/2009

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whatever her other capacities, demonstrated last week that she is a master at the poetic art of haiku — the Japanese poem form that encapsulates in three or fewer lines of 17 or fewer syllables a larger thought or image.

Regarding the Democratic health care bill, she crafted the following haiku to assure the Blue Dog Democrats that they can tell their vo ...

Updated: Wed Jul 29, 2009

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Health Politics Quagmire for 08/05/2009

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The president's health care initiative is vulnerable to defeat (and the high esteem in which the public generally has held him is in jeopardy) because of unforced errors on his part deriving from the emerging legislation's failing to carry out his stated policy and because of his political and policy responses to that problem.

His policy has been that:

—We have an obligation ...

Updated: Wed Aug 05, 2009

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Empower the Local Afghan Tribal Chiefs for 08/12/2009

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I have talked with soldiers from Afghanistan — both American and British, both in the ranks and field-grade officers — in an effort at making sense of what we are doing there. The White House and Pentagon publicly say they are reassessing policy in Afghanistan. It is well that they should. So far, both means and goals are confused.

The initial phase of the war, which started ...

Updated: Wed Aug 12, 2009

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Finally, Change We Can Believe In for 08/19/2009

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Those of us who are self-appointed advocates — who expend our efforts trying to persuade a few more people to our political point of view — must sit back in slack-jawed wonder when the great American public makes one of its great roars, as we all have been hearing in town hall meetings across the country.

In the animal kingdom, it is the lion that has the loudest roar. Scient ...

Updated: Wed Aug 19, 2009

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Command Decision for 08/26/2009

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

On May 27, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson had telephone conversations about Vietnam with McGeorge Bundy, his national security adviser, and Sen. Richard Russell, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. First, to Bundy, he said: "It just worries the hell out of me. I don't see what we can ever hope to get out of there. ... I don't think that we can fight them 10,000 miles away from home a ...

Updated: Wed Aug 26, 2009

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Waterboarding Policy and Consequences for 09/02/2009

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"President George W. Bush kept us safe from further terrorist attacks." Few presidential claims have been less persuasive to the public than that. Yet after Sept. 11, most Americans thought, "It's not a question of whether, but when." We would have been grateful if we had known at the time that there would be no further attacks while Bush was president.

However, as ti ...

Updated: Wed Sep 02, 2009

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Impending Washington Deal on Health Care for 09/09/2009

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

As the politicians who support the president's health care plans escape back into Washington from America — and as the politicians who oppose the president's health care plans leave their safe redoubt in the heartland and go once more behind the lines into the hostile territory of the Federal Triangle — only one thing is certain: We don't know the end of this story.

If we had ...

Updated: Wed Sep 09, 2009

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Administration Downsizes Our Diplomatic Muscle for 09/16/2009

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

With one-sixth of the Obama administration's term of office complete, last week it revealed its profound commitment to an unprecedented policy of eschewing the exercise of great-power diplomacy — and indeed of being willing to consciously accept humiliation — in the hope of gaining future advantage from talking with hostile but weaker nations.

Following up on his campaign com ...

Updated: Wed Sep 16, 2009

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End the Coarsening of Civic Discourse for 09/23/2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

As the town hall meetings on health care started in early August, the Democratic Party's talking points accused the attending citizens of being "demonstrators hired by K Street lobbyists." Then they started calling them a "mob." Getting into the spirit of his party, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called those who oppose Obamacare "evil." Then House De ...

Updated: Wed Sep 23, 2009

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Cut and Walk From Afghanistan? for 09/30/2009

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The gist of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's analysis that presumably will be presented to President Barack Obama is: If 1) you and Congress fully resource the effort (troops, materiel and civilian aid) and 2) if we get much better at coordinating all our assets — Defense and State departments, the U.S. Agency for International Development, intelligence, contractors, NATO and others — then ...

Updated: Wed Sep 30, 2009

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Cherry-picking Intelligence ... Again for 10/07/2009

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Al-Qaida is becoming the weapons of mass destruction of the Obama administration's war in Afghanistan. Or, to be more precise, it is a reverse WMD. For the George W. Bush administration, the likely presence of WMD in Iraq was a major justification for going to war. For Vice President Joe Biden and some senior Obama White House staff members (we do not know the position of the president yet), th ...

Updated: Wed Oct 07, 2009

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Washington Is Nuts for 10/14/2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Want to hear a real laugher? Despite the current disharmony in politics, there's one policy on which all of Washington agrees. Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, president and Congress all agree that after last fall's financial crisis, the federal government has to regulate the financial industry more closely to protect our economy from risk of systemic financial collapse.

Here ...

Updated: Wed Oct 14, 2009

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The World Won't Wait On Washington Indecision for 10/21/2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

On three fronts — South Korean trade, Ukrainian/Russian diplomacy and Afghan war fighting — the Obama administration is being increasingly pressured by unfolding events to shed ideology and rationalizations and come quickly to a realistic analysis of world events and their consequences. In each of these cases, in the absence of very prompt United States policy decisions and actions, ...

Updated: Wed Oct 21, 2009

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GOP Must Not Vote 'Present' on Our Future for 10/28/2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A growing percentage of those Americans who oppose President Barack Obama believe the president is testing the envelope of acceptable domestic, constitutional and foreign policies. Staggering deficits measured in the trillions, unemployment measured almost in double digits and a weakening dollar measured in ever fewer ounces of gold are creating an economic crisis that is testing America's hist ...

Updated: Wed Oct 28, 2009

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A Curious Lack of Curiosity Over Intelligence Outrage for 11/04/2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Not so long ago, there was a furious fight among different tribes in the White House, CIA and State and Defense departments over the correct war-fighting strategy. The coin of the realm back then was intelligence. Intelligence that pointed in the right policy direction was cherry-picked and shown to the public; covert players connected to undesirable conclusions were outed or disparaged. This f ...

Updated: Wed Nov 04, 2009

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Hillary in 2012? for 11/11/2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

I write this week from New Orleans, where I am participating in the Bipartisan Policy Center's Inaugural Political Summit, organized by Tom Daschle, Howard Baker and Bob Dole and hosted by Mary Matalin and James Carville.

The conference has assembled about 20 top Democratic and Republican political strategists and operatives and has asked us to assess how we might take the poison out of ...

Updated: Wed Nov 11, 2009

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An Exit Strategy To Die For for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In the past few days, the White House has made it clear that the president wants specific exit strategies for all his Afghan war options. That brought to mind the advice — from almost a century ago — of an American geopolitician describing the only exit strategy worth considering:

"Over there, over there,

Send the word, send the word over there,

That the Ya ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

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