Monthly Archives: January, 2010

Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal (The Obama Contradiction) that the central fact of the State of the Union speech was the claim that “Washington is the answer to everything” even though Washington is “a sick and broken place.” She writes:
“It was a speech that argued against [...]

The other day I observed one of the consequences of the self-esteem movement. A woman was in a car at the post office and about to get out to drop an envelope in the mail box. A young man walked by and said : “I can take that.” She [...]

The pundits today are debating whether Barack Obama “pivoted” to the center last night. Kirsten Powers writes in the New York Post (Finally Learning From Bill Clinton) that Obama was forced “to mimic the last Democratic president by pivoting away from his grand health care agenda toward a [...]

This year’s State of the Union address is receiving more attention from pundits than usual because of the possibility that Barack Obama may signal a course correction, following the health care debacle.
The New York Times editorial writers are worried that Obama will stop being bold and instead move [...]

Clive Crook writes in the Financial Times that Barack Obama needs to reset his presidency as a result of the Massachusetts election and the time to begin is with the state of the union address (How Obama Can Reset His Presidency). Much of what Crook writes makes sense, but [...]

Nearly everyone seems to agree that Barack Obama is intelligent, but the consensus on the left and right seems to be that he has not been a strong leader in his first year.
A leader’s first requirement is to have a goal. Next, he must find a way to get [...]

Even though the Financial Times’reporters in Washington are still firmly in Barack Obama’s camp the editorial writers are rapidly losing faith in the president. The reason is the new financial regulation proposal. The FT says the White House has been “seized by political panic. A return to radical [...]

Barack Obama’s supporters seem to agree that although he is intelligent he is not a good leader.
Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times (Do the Right Thing) that since Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts Democrats “have been waiting in vain for leadership from the White House, where Mr. Obama has conspicuously failed to rise to [...]

Philip Stephens writes in the Financial Times about how frustrating it is for Europeans to observe how little influence they have in global affairs (A Neuralgic Europe Trails Petulantly in America’s Wake).
Europe is so fragmented politically that it cannot use its considerable economic strength to affect the course of world affairs. Stephens writes that the [...]

Editorial writers at the New York Times and Financial Times agree that Barack Obama is mostly to blame for the loss of the Democratic Senate seat in Massachusetts. Obama has not been a strong leader. But, the FT says he failed to intervene when Congress tried to take America too far to the left, [...]