Six days from now the voters of New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors. Voters in the 23rd district of New York and the 10th district of California will elect new members of the House of Representatives to replace incumbents, a Republican and a Democrat, who were appointed to positions in the Obama Defense and State departments.
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You can live in this town for years and still occasionally find yourself gobsmacked by what counts as “normal” by Washington standards. Take the ongoing debate over whether it’s fair for us to expect our elected representatives to read the laws they pass and expect us to follow.
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Turns out that the widely reported demise of the Grand Old Party in Virginia last November was a tad premature.
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Anyone who dives head-first into San Francisco politics is bound to get dirty, even if they’re plowing forth on a nice, clean, synthetic turf field.
And it’s certainly not going to help anyone if they try to plant their cleats on some slippery ideology — especially if it means stopping thousands of people from participating in their favorite sports based on some vague notion.
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He followed an unpopular president. He received a strong election mandate. He changed the tone in Washington, D.C.
He said human rights mattered, that America’s image in the world had to be remade.
He would receive a Nobel Peace Prize.
As the end of his presidency’s first year drew near, the future looked bright. He had brought change — change that mattered.
It was 1977. The next year was very bad.
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If you buy cereal for your children, or yourself, you should be aware that the Food and Drug Administration thinks you are falling down on the job.
Last week, the FDA issued “guidance” to the food manufacturers of America pronouncing the agency deeply troubled about efforts by various segments of the business to use “front of package” branding to delineate their products as a useful — say a “smart choice” — for the consumer.
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There is great excitement on the Left because the public option has been revived in the Democrats' health care plan.
But while it may be cause to raise a glass of carbon-neutral pinot noir in Berkeley and on the Upper West Side, the renewed talk of a government-run insurance program is a sign of weakness, not strength, for President Obama's health plan.
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Barack Obama, who found time to go on a 24-hour jaunt to Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to seek the 2016 Olympics games for Chicago, apparently cannot find the time for a 24-hour trip to Berlin on Nov. 9 for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Well, we all have our priorities, and the president can't be everywhere at once, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will surely represent the United States ably in Berlin.
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First of two parts. Tomorrow: Retreat abroad begins at home.
The weathervanes of conventional wisdom are engaged in another round of angst about America in decline. New theories, old slogans: imperial overstretch. The Asian awakening. The post-American world. Inexorable forces beyond our control bringing the inevitable humbling of the world hegemon.
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The Chinese are cross because the falling dollar means the stacks of U.S. IOUs they have in their vaults will be paid back in a devalued currency.
The Americans are cross because the Chinese refusal to allow their renminbi to appreciate means goods made in Chinese factories will continue to displace made-in-America products, and provide jobs for Chinese rather than American workers.
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