The Origins of Obama’s Foreign Policy
Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker
Barack Obama came to Washington just six years ago, having spent his professional life as a part-time lawyer, part-time law professor, and part-time state legislator in Illinois. As an undergraduate, he took courses in history and international relations, but neither his academic life nor his work in Springfield gave him an especially profound grasp of foreign affairs. As he coasted toward winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, in 2004, he began to reach out to a broad range of foreign-policy experts––politicians, diplomats, academics, and journalists.As a student during the…
In Debate Against Cicero, Put Money on Hitchens
Martin Amis, Guardian
Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle,” confessed Vladimir Nabokov in 1962. He took up the point more personally in his foreword to Strong Opinions (1973): “I have never delivered to my audience one scrap of information not prepared in typescript beforehand “¦ My hemmings and hawings over the telephone cause long-distance callers to switch from their native English to pathetic French.”At parties, if I attempt to entertain people with a good story, I have to go back to every other sentence for oral erasures and inserts “¦ nobody should ask…
Corporate Taxes Enter Debt Debate
John Harwood, New York Times
The Obama administration is preparing to inject an unpredictable new variable into its economic policy clash with Republicans: a plan to overhaul corporate taxes.Economic advisers have nearly completed the process initiated in January by the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, at President Obama’s behest. That process, intended to make the United States more competitive internationally, has explored the willingness of business leaders to sacrifice loopholes in return for lowering the top corporate tax rate, currently 35 percent.
Why Isn’t the Government Selling Its AIG & GM Stock?
Politicians, Not Public, to Blame for Debt Crisis
David Paul Kuhn, RCP
Americans are reportedly childish about the debt crisis. The public says the budget deficit is a serious issue. So serious that Americans will let other people sacrifice. Rich people. We know the enemy of U.S. debt, and it's us. You, dear reader, are framed as a hypocrite. But is that true?Last week's Washington Post carried a familiar headline: “Poll Shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem.” Bloomberg News led a December article: “Americans want Congress to bring down a federal budget deficit that many believe is ‘dangerously out…
