Columnist.
After watching the third presidential debate, are you clear on America's foreign policy? I thought not. That's because there appears to be no singular foreign policy, rather a series of foreign policies, which must be tailored to fit each nation. I expected Mitt Romney to go after President Obama on his most recent foreign policy failure, the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed, including the U.S. ambassador. The president had no explanation as to why there was inadequate security in Benghazi, preferring instead to say only that we are "going after the killers." Romney refused to press him on it. Some may have viewed this as a missed opportunity, but I think it was designed to show Romney's restraint and to counter the "do you want to get us into another Middle East war?" charge.
Former South Dakota Democratic Senator George McGovern, who died Sunday, had all manner of evil said about him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was called unpatriotic, disloyal, an appeaser and an enabler of communism. Those were the printable slanders. Many conservatives at the time believed in the "domino theory," that if South Vietnam fell to the communists, all Asia would follow. That proved untrue. McGovern was eventually vindicated in many minds about America's involvement in Vietnam.
This interview with George McGovern was conducted by Cal Thomas for his 1999 book "Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Can't Save America."
In form, President Obama came back strongly in Tuesday's debate with Mitt Romney, but substantively he continues to lag behind the Republican candidate. That's because the president has a record to defend and it isn't a good one. Television being what it is, the president looked and sounded good, but the air seems to have gone out of his messianic balloon as voters focus more on facts and less on spin. If promises mean anything -- and they don't to most politicians -- Romney hit the president where it hurts: on his failure to live up to most of his promises.
Had Vice President Joe Biden behaved toward Sarah Palin in their 2008 debate the way he behaved toward Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan in their debate last Thursday, he might have been denounced as a patronizing misogynist. In his debate with Ryan, the vice president was merely a jerk. Interrupting while someone is trying to make a point is an old debate tactic intended to throw your opponent off-balance and distract observers from what is being said. By some counts, Biden interrupted Ryan more than 80 times and moderator Martha Raddatz broke in at least 50 times, mostly interrupting Ryan. At first I wanted Raddatz to tell Biden to stop behaving like a bully, but the longer the debate went on Biden revealed something about his character, which is, or ought to be, at the center of any campaign for high office.
The hottest ticket on Broadway continues to be "The Book of Mormon," a musical that pokes fun at the Mormon faith in particular and Christianity in general. It is also full of profanity and blasphemy. If there was a show called "The Book of Muhammad," the Eugene O'Neill Theatre probably would have been burned down by now. New Yorkers are selective when picking their targets. Now there's a new musical called "Scandalous," about a colorful, some would say corrupt, evangelist named Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Church. In the early part of the 20th century, Aimee was more famous than any TV evangelist today. She combined a considerable amount of show business with an equal amount of religiosity and packed them in at her Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, which remains in operation today, long after her death.
On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a foreign policy speech to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. He was correct in his indictment of the Obama administration for its numerous failures -- especially in the Middle East -- and his embrace of Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" philosophy. A strong and respected America is less likely to be attacked. The Obama administration's approach to foreign policy has been one of apology, genuflection to dictators and inconsistency. "...it is the responsibility of our president to use America's great power to shape history," Romney told the VMI cadets. "Not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events. Unfortunately, that's exactly where we find ourselves in the Middle East under President Obama."
To the millions of Americans unable to find work, to college graduates who can't get a job and are living with their parents, to the underemployed who are working at jobs far below their skill set and experience, and to those who have given up looking for work altogether, a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is meaningless. The economy stinks. And try as they might -- and they are trying mightily to rescue a man they sold to voters four years ago as a political messiah -- major media can't seem to transform a failing president into a success. "Fall in jobless rate strips Romney of an argument" was the gleeful headline in the Washington Post recently. No it doesn't.
"You can't run from your mistakes. You have to confront them." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger Believe it or not, there was a time when people didn't go on TV to confess their sins. That was back when most understood what sin is, before everything became excusable, especially for celebrities and the politically powerful. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on a media tour promoting his book, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story." It certainly is. On "60 Minutes," in USA Today and elsewhere, Schwarzenegger acknowledges affairs with women not his wife and the son he fathered with their housekeeper. He calls it all a "mistake."
Mitt Romney's main advantage in his first debate with President Obama on Wednesday may be that the president will be speaking without a teleprompter. His second advantage is the president's record and how he has failed to fulfill many of his promises. While the president will probably recycle his class warfare themes, Romney should focus on the president's domestic failures and on Republican initiatives that have worked in the past. We Americans didn't just crawl out of a cave. There is history. He might start with what has happened since the 2010 election, which elected 17 Republican governors. According to a survey by examiner.com, "...the job market in states with new Republican governors is improving a full 50 percent faster than the job market nationally." Impressive, right? This is what can be accomplished when you either cut spending, lower taxes, or both.
NEW YORK -- Prior to leaving Egypt for the United Nations General Assembly, Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi told The New York Times the United States needs to "fundamentally change" its approach to the Arab world. That includes, he said, showing greater respect for Arab values, as well as helping to build a Palestinian state. Is there an Arab equivalent for the Yiddish word "Chutzpah"? It isn't the policies and attitude of the United States toward the Arab world that need changing. It's the attitude and policies of the Arab world that need to change. For a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who still subscribes to the group's radical beliefs, to blame America for problems in the Arab world is like blaming the mirror for what it reflects.
Did anyone think the release of Mitt Romney's tax returns would satisfy Democrats and make them focus on the real issues in this campaign, including President Obama's failed domestic and foreign policy record and approaching massive tax increases? If so, please call me for a great deal on Arizona swampland. The Obama campaign's deputy manager, Stephanie Cutter, accused Romney of taking advantage of lower tax rates for capital gains available only to "those at the top." Is Cutter saying Romney is wrong to obey tax law? The tax code is a mess. It, not Romney, should be the object of scorn. And by the way, Americans who make average incomes can benefit from lower capital gains taxes if they build sufficient wealth by making good investments.
There's another video, this one of Mitt Romney speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Boca Raton. The video was reportedly "leaked" by James Carter IV, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. How appropriate. It apparently was saved for the most politically opportune moment and then published by the liberal Mother Jones Magazine in hopes of causing maximum damage to the Romney campaign. It's all part of the Democrats' attempt to distract attention from the president's failed record. But the Obama campaign has had to deal with a "leak" of its own recently, namely the release of a 14-year-old audio recording of remarks supposedly made by then-Illinois State Sen. Obama at a conference in Chicago. "...I actually believe in redistribution," he said, "at least at a certain level, to make sure everybody's got a shot." Will this statement derail the president's re-election campaign?
"How could this happen?" asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others. The rioting by Muslims supposedly "inflamed" by a cheaply produced YouTube film about the Prophet Muhammad was cited as the reason, but we have learned the attacks may have been planned in advance, some to coincide with the anniversary of Sept. 11. What doesn't Secretary Clinton get? The actions and statements of Islamic extremists have been visible for some time.
"There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." -- Calvin Coolidge, responding to the 1919 Boston police strike This oft-quoted line from the then-governor of Massachusetts might be updated to include "the public interest," as well as public safety. There are few matters of public interest greater than educating the next generation. Chicago public school teachers who went on strike Monday have struck against the public interest, placing self-interest in difficult economic times ahead of children. At a time of high unemployment, the teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union want a pay increase and better medical coverage, as well as provisions that include a hire-back policy for laid-off teachers and one that makes it more difficult to dismiss underperforming teachers.
In a speech resembling a TV re-run (the liberal website The Daily Beast called it "dull"), President Obama accepted his party's nomination for a second term. In doing so, he made the most ludicrous claim of this campaign, indeed, of his presidency: "You didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth." With this president, truth telling remains an unfulfilled promise. Telling Democrats what they want to hear was what the Charlotte convention was all about. Perhaps the only truth-teller at the convention was Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. In his benediction, Dolan stood against the anti-life tide of the Democratic Party when he prayed: "Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected."
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Columnist Leonard Pitts wrote a story for the front page of last Sunday's Charlotte Observer indicting both parties for failing to speak up for the poor. He inspired this column. I could be writing the expected narrative from a conservative at the Democratic National Convention, but have chosen instead to acknowledge that Pitts, though a lefty, is right. If the Democrats and Republicans aren't talking about the greater goal of helping the poor become un-poor (rather than just sending them a check to sustain them in their poverty), is anyone doing something to help them? At least one person is -- and within sight of the Democratic National Convention
My first political convention was in 1964 when Democrats convened in Atlantic City to nominate Lyndon Johnson for a full term as president. I was a young copyboy at the NBC News network bureau in Washington. We arrived from Washington aboard a chartered DC-3 plane that also carried the late anchor/reporter Frank McGee and his wife. Emotions were still raw from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy only nine months before. A floor battle over the seating of the delegation from Mississippi added to the drama and public interest. The "Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party," which was integrated, demanded to replace the all-white elected delegates on the grounds that blacks had been excluded from voting in the Mississippi primaries. A compromise was reached and that convention marked the last time Democrats would accept segregated delegations.
TAMPA, Fla. -- The delayed opening of the Republican National Convention worked to the advantage of the GOP by both heightening anticipation and forcing the elimination of extraneous speakers, which there are always too many of at these things. Ann Romney kicked off her primetime address wearing a bright red dress, Ronald Reagan's favorite color and one occasionally worn by his wife, Nancy. Ann Romney immediately addressed one of the main criticisms Democrats have leveled against her husband: that he's an out-of-touch rich guy who doesn't understand the struggles of the middle class and the poor.
TAMPA, Fla. -- This week when Mitt Romney strides to center stage to deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he might draw inspiration from an unlikely source: the song "I Am What I Am" from the musical "La Cage Aux Folles." One of the chief complaints from voters about politicians is that they too often package themselves disingenuously to get elected, only to reveal their real agenda after they've won. That is what President Obama did in the 2008 campaign when he styled himself as a unifier who wanted to bridge the partisan divide by saying, "...we are not a collection of red states and blue states. We are the United States of America." He then governed more like he was in Soviet America with redistribution of income and more centralized power in Washington.
