In the New Republic, William Galston compares Barack Obama’s “too-long wish list” with FDR’s way of doing things and comes up with a bleak conclusion:
The key analogy between today and 1933 is the centrality of the financial crisis, which makes it hard to understand why the administration has not yet moved as decisively to fix [...]
Archive for the ‘U.S.’ Category
Obama and FDR: Why ‘09 Isn’t ‘33
Posted in Election 08, U.S. on March 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Survey: Bush One of ‘Bottom Ten’ Presidents
Posted in U.S. on February 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It will be hard for George W. Bush — should he care about such things — to find anything positive in C-Span’s just released second Presidential Leadership Survey. In short, Bush ranks as number 36 among the 42 U.S. presidents surveyed, with just five even worse presidents behind him. In international relations, he’s second to [...]
‘There Was Blood All Over’: The True Face of Rendition
Posted in Election 08, Human rights, U.S. on February 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I realise these are early days, and we don’t yet have all the information, but this business of the Obama administration invoking the state-secrets privilege is not good.
A guy is kidnapped, tortured and detained for years without charge, and when he tries to take his case to court, he is promptly told to go fuck [...]
Lynn and Zinni: Two Sides of a Coin
Posted in Iraq, U.S. on February 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
First, there was the ruckus about a former Raytheon lobbyist being tapped for the number 2 post at the Pentagon. Now we’re all hot under the collar about an ex-Dyncorp executive NOT being named ambassador to — check this out — Baghdad.
Which is it, guys? We can’t lambast Obama both for not following his own [...]
Obama: Hope Wanes
Posted in Election 08, U.S. on February 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Like millions of others around the world, I was elated when Barack Obama beat John McCain in last November’s presidential election. I had been an early fan of McCain’s, but by election day I had come to regard him as a volatile and cantankerous old bastard. By contrast, Obama seemed a genuine centrist liberal who [...]
Bush-Cheney Records: Public or Not?
Posted in U.S. on January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m reading Obama’s Executive Order on presidential records and wondering whether this means that the previous administration’s records — including Cheney’s — can be made public even if Bush claims executive privilege:
Sec. 4. Claim of Executive Privilege by Former President.
(a) Upon receipt of a claim of executive privilege by a living former President, the Archivist [...]
