Dems’ Coalition Showing Signs of Strain
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 15th, 2014 11:08 pm by HL
Dems’ Coalition Showing Signs of Strain
Salena Zito, RealClearPolitics
After winning the presidency, Andrew Jackson sent a message to Congress suggesting that the office be extended to six years but limited to one term. His message caused wild speculation that the first “people’s president” would not seek a second term. That led to a dramatic Jackson proclamation, in a letter to Pennsylvania Democrats, that the “call of the people” trumped his “personal inclination” and he could “not refuse to serve them.” The truth is, he was never not going to run. Jackson may have been the first Democrat to be elected as…
Obama’s Unnecessary, Unpromising War
Steve Chapman, RealClearPolitics
President Barack Obama said Wednesday night the United States is going to war “to degrade and ultimately destroy” the group known as the Islamic State. So right off you know one thing we will not do: destroy it. The only thing more reliable than the habit of American presidents of starting wars is the inability of wartime presidents to achieve their goals. President George W. Bush went into Afghanistan pledging to wipe out al-Qaida and the Taliban. He invaded Iraq to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, while promising that the creation of “free Iraq” would be “a watershed…
Leading From Behind the Curve
Michael Gerson, RealClearPolitics
WASHINGTON — The nation of Liberia — founded by liberated American slaves with support from Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and James Monroe — is not unacquainted with suffering. Two civil wars in the period from 1989 to 2003 and decades of economic mismanagement caused an 80 percent decline in per capita GDP — perhaps worse than any country since World War II. Warlords reduced Liberia’s infrastructure to rubble. In the 15 years following 1991, there was no electricity in the country except for private generators. When I last visited in 2012, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Africa’s first…
Health Care Law Is Obama’s Gift to Republicans for 2016
Scott Rasmussen, RealClearPolitics
President Obama’s health care law is the gift that keeps on giving to the GOP. In 2010, of course, passage of the law powered the Republican gains of 62 seats in the House of Representatives and pickups of more than 700 state legislative seats across the nation. The law didn’t go into effect in time to hurt the president’s re-election bid in 2012, but it is making life extremely difficult for the president’s party in 2014. Cautious beltway pundit Stuart Rothenberg recently announced that he is “expecting a sizable Republican Senate wave” this year. He…
