Columnist.
It was inevitable that Bernie Sanders would be accused of sexism sooner or later. His day came over the weekend. At the signature Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa, Hillary Clinton hit the Vermont senator for saying in the first Democratic debate that "all the shouting in the world" wouldn't keep guns out of the wrong hands. According to Clinton, Sanders had directed a notoriously sexist insult at her - although not one of the 15 million people watching at the time had noticed it.
If we had been told at the beginning of the year that in October a Republican presidential candidate would be leading the polls nationally and in almost every state, drawing support from across all factions of the GOP and sucking up all the oxygen in the race, most people would have guessed Jeb Bush was going from strength to strength
Scandinavia is the American left's Shangri-La. It is the land of social democracy and of all good things. It is the answer to any objection that new welfare benefits can't be adopted here: But look how well they work in Sweden. Bernie Sanders reverted to this article of faith when challenged over his socialism at last week's Democratic debate. He invited America to sit at the knee of Scandinavia. "I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway," he said, "and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people."
Hillary Clinton's laugh is so often transparently forced and insincere that it is a staple of Kate McKinnon's impression of her on "Saturday Night Live." At the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, though, the former secretary of state let loose a long peal of amused delight and relief that had about it a strong hint of genuineness. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had just said we had heard enough about her "damn emails."
There are many things that real people do to become the subject of sympathetic movies. Make a flawless emergency landing in the Hudson River with a disabled passenger jet full of passengers. Survive a devastating storm atop Mount Everest. Become the most lethal sniper in the history of the U.S. military.
At least they aren't brawling the way they do in the South Korean parliament — at least not yet. House Republicans have over the past few weeks seen their speaker, John Boehner, announce his imminent resignation under pressure and his heir apparent, Kevin McCarthy, suddenly give up on trying to succeed him — all while the party enjoys a comfortable majority and faces no external threat from Democrats.
Hillary Clinton has a new gun agenda that is the same as the old gun agenda. We all are appalled and heartsick over the country's mass shootings, which aren't any less shocking for their routine occurrence. But that doesn't mean we know how to stop them. The Pavlovian Democratic reaction is to offer a raft of familiar gun-control proposals, whether or not they have any bearing on mass shootings.
Carly Fiorina is a no-nonsense former business executive who is showing she can play — and throw elbows — with the big boys in the Republican presidential nomination battle. Feminists have noticed, but their admiration is tinged with dread — and it should be. An eloquent, fearless critic of abortion, the latest outsider to climb into the Republican race is a clear and present danger to what feminists hold most dear. Even if she had said nothing else at the CNN debate, Fiorina would have stood out for her gut-punch of a statement about the horror of the guerrilla Planned Parenthood videos capturing the ghoulish organ harvesting that is an important side business of the organization (the main business, of course, is aborting babies).
Pope Francis has enjoyed a high-spirited welcome in the United States. The infectiously likable pope kissed babies along his parade route in Washington, D.C., and performed a soaringly beautiful mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine there. He is an endearingly charismatic figure, but judging by his highly anticipated speech before a joint session of Congress, not exactly an orator. His wording was stilted. The pope talked about entering "into dialogue" — with workers, with the elderly, with young people — and said he wanted "to do so through the historical memory of your people." The most memorable line of the entire address was the concluding "God bless America!" — an obligatory sentiment that gains much more heft coming from the bishop of Rome.
The U.S. has joined the global bidding on Syrian refugees. At first it said it would take 10,000 Syrians. Now it says it will increase the annual U.S. overall refugee intake from 70,000 to 100,000 during the next three years to help deal with the migrant wave deluging Europe. The Obama administration's attitude used to be that Syria is a faraway country of which we know nothing, and it stood by while Syria descended into mayhem and madness. It turns out that Syria is not so far away that some of its nearly biblical exodus — half of the country's population is displaced — won't touch our shores. You can only have pity for people who have seen their country destroyed. Yet Syrians are only part of the European migration crisis. It should be understood, at the highest level of abstraction, as people fleeing some of the poorest, worst-governed, most strife-torn places in the world for some of the richest, best-governed and peaceful ones.
CNN gathered together all of the Republican presidential candidates at the Reagan Library for a highly touted debate and could hardly think to ask them about anything except Donald Trump. By one count, 44 percent of the questions touched on Trump. Why even pretend it's going to be a debate? Just bill it as a seminar on the worldview and foibles of Donald Trump, with occasional diversions into matters of greater public import.
While Hillary Clinton's team of consultants is locked in a room somewhere trying to figure out how she can project authenticity, Joe Biden is out doing it. The vice president's interview on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" last week was compellingly human, as Biden talked of the tragic loss of his son Beau and his decision whether or not to make a late entry into the Democratic presidential race.
In an ABC News interview, Hillary Clinton apologized for using a private email while secretary of state, a notable departure after months of not letting the slightest crack show in her steadfast public defense of her arrangement. The interview was progress. But she has a lot to apologize for. A more fully and properly contrite Hillary might sound something like this: I've repeatedly said that my private system was permitted by the State Department. As anyone who has done a little Googling knows, the State Department's manual for employees has said since 2005 that day-to-day business should be conducted on the authorized system. When I said "permitted," I merely meant that no one physically stopped me. I take responsibility for this misunderstanding.
The European Union has been devoted to eliminating borders, and now finds itself functionally with none amidst its worst refugee crisis since World War II. To paraphrase Stalin, the migrant crisis stopped being a statistic — more than 2,000 migrants have drowned this year — and became a tragedy with the heart-rending images of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach. The scale of the crisis is mind-boggling. About a million people left Russia after the 1914 revolution. In Syria alone, about 4 million people have fled the country, and another 7 million have been internally displaced. Refugees and migrants also are coming from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other hopeless places, adding up to potentially tens of millions of migrants.
While Jeb Bush feuds with Donald Trump and others kowtow to him, only one candidate is seriously gaining on him. Ben Carson is now tied with Trump in one Iowa poll and is close in others. His rise suggests that it's possible to catch the populist wave roiling Republican politics and yet not be an obnoxious braggart. Ben Carson is a superior outsider to Donald Trump.
