Can Senator DeMint’s Endorsement Alter GOP Race?
Erin McPike, RCP
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Even a cursory understanding of South Carolina Republican politics would lead most observers to believe that Rick Perry is poised to roll to victory in the first-in-the-South presidential primary here next year. He's Southern, he's a devout Christian, he's a farmer, he's conservative and he served in the Air Force.As Oran Smith, a conservative activist and the president of the Palmetto Family Council, put it: "At this point it would seem to me that Perry wins South Carolina pretty commandingly." For starters, he said, "Perry,…
Is the State of Israel Over?
Benny Morris, Newsweek
Israel is under assault. On Sept. 20 the Palestinian Authority plans to unilaterally declare statehood and go to the United Nations for recognition. This is a rejection of all efforts for a peaceful compromise. In its wake will come waves of Palestinian violence. And yet this is just the latest manifestation of an embattled Israel that is being threatened from the outside—by Muslim Arab states and societies, Egyptians storming the Israeli Embassy, a nuclear-arming Iran (with its local sidekicks, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hizbullah in Lebanon), and a besieged President Bashar al-Assad…
Obama Healthcare Strategy: Silence
Grace-Marie Turner, Am Spectator
The White House is quietly implementing a shrewd new strategy of silence on Obamacare. Its goal: making sure the revolt against the unpopular health care overhaul that swept Republicans into power across the country in November 2010 isn't repeated in 2012.After two years of nonstop focus on health care, the president has stopped talking about the law's far-reaching effects. Now he is concentrating on a few micro changes. Meanwhile the administration is working hard to dampen controversy by handing out buckets of waivers and attacking Republicans over Medicare.
3 Years In, a Bold Bid to Reset the Presidency
Clive Crook, Financial Times
Barack Obama’s economic policy address to a joint session of Congress last week lived up to the billing. It was an ambitious and impressive speech – an attempt to reset his presidency. Nothing less is required if Mr Obama is to recover his standing with US voters and move economic policy, insofar as he can, in the right direction.Insofar as he can. Any US president is limited in what he can accomplish if he has to work with a hostile Congress. The president’s liberal critics persist in talking as though Mr Obama only has to stop compromising with Republicans to…