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The Real Problem with Outsourcing

by Jonathan Rees

A few weeks ago, Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic advisors, publicly praised the outsourcing of American jobs overseas. “I think outsourcing is a growing phenomenon,” he said, “but it's something that we should realize is probably a plus for the economy in the long run." A bipartisan uproar ensued. Even Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert challenged these remarks. Mankiw quickly dis

Karl Rove's Inspired by McKinley--But It's Benjamin Harrison's Script He's Following

by Gregory J. Dehler

In reading a recent edition of my favorite political opinion magazine, I was reminded several times of Karl Rove's admiration for former President William McKinley. It seems strange since Rove's strategy over the last three years is much closer to the path followed by Benjamin Harrison than it is to the one William McKinley trod. For those who might not know, McKinley is a role model for Rove because he was instrumental in building a Republican majority after a long period of party par

Column: Why Do We Have to Keep Dredging Up Old Stuff About Hiroshima?

by William Thompson

MY TRUTHS ABOUT THE BOMB1. What did they expect: IT'S CALLED WAR! It ain't beanbag!2. THEY started it.3. They deserved PAYBACK for their"sneaky" little attack onPearl Harbor.4. You better believe it. THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IT TO US if they had had the chance.5. What's their beef. MORE DIED IN the fire bombings of DRESDEN and TOKYO. Why do they think Hiroshima and Nagasaki are so special?6. The JAPANESE ATROC

Just Like in the Bad Old Days, the Government Is Cracking Down on Dissent

by Murray Polner

Are we returning to the bad old days of spying on peaceful Americans? In February, the most ominous challenge to political freedom from the administration of George W. Bush occurred in Des Moines, Iowa, when federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to Drake University, a private institution; the student chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; and four members of pacifist groups who had attended on university grounds a National Lawyers Guild meeting, "Stop the Occu

Why Americans May Grow Impatient with the War in Iraq

by H.W. Brands

The March issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly includes a series of articles placing presidential decisions for war in historical context. Following is the essay Mr. Brands wrote to introduce the series.How do presidents decide for war? In the March issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly, editor George Edwards and I adopted a historical approach, asking experts on various past wars to analyze the decision-m

Do War Presidents Do Better at the Polls?

by David Greenberg

Though major combat is over in Iraq and Afghanistan, George W. Bush likes to describe himself as a"war president." No doubt that's partly because he and his campaign team think that such an image will help him get re-elected. When we recall Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War or Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, we impart to them a heroic aura, imagining Americans muting political rivalries and rallying behind the president and the war at hand. Few citizens, we suppose, could have opp

Mr. Clarke Goes to Washington

by Anthony B. Toth

Only in Washington D.C. could you conceive of a former bureaucrat having groupies. But here I was, playing hooky from a looming journal article deadline, forsaking a gloriously sunny spring day, walking eagerly toward the Hart Senate Office Building just to see one of my heroes, Richard Clarke, testify before the 9/11 Commission on March 24. Even before his book, Against all Enemies, came out recently, creating a stir because of its

Column: Alas, the 9-11 Commission Has Lost Its Luster

by P. M. Carpenter

For nearly two days last week the eponymous 9/11 Commission did a credible bipartisan job of publicly exposing various jurisdictional screw-ups leading to the tragedy. Members of both parties asked telling questions and often received telling answers. Atypical of past political boards of inquiry, the political rhetoric of feigned indignation and argumentum ad hominem were off the table. The commission seemed to be getting somewhere. Republican chairman Thomas Kean showed nothing but ma

Bill Clinton for Vice President? Forget It.

by Joshua Spivak

Much of the political chatter in the air of late has focused on presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry tapping Bill Clinton as his vice presidential running mate in November. The discussion has largely centered on whether Clinton can legally hold the position in light of the 22nd Amendment's two-term limit for election to the presidency. This question focuses on how the Constitution and its amendments define the term “eligible.”Some law professors argue that the two-ter

Column: Bushies Can't Admit the Truth About Iraq

by P. M. Carpenter

As the violent anniversary of “Objective: Peace” approached, the Bush administration's smidgeon-of-truth squad fanned out on Sunday morning talk shows in a Goebbelsesque enterprise of on-demand revisionism and shock-and-awe chutzpah. For students of official disinformation and sundry other forms of propagandistic distortion, these interchangeable senior operatives were a marvel to watch. In my viewing area, pod-squad member Secretary of State Colin Powell kicked things off on "

An Irish-American History Lesson

by Thomas Fleming

One of the formative experiences of my life was an encounter with my Irish roots in 1946. I was hanging around my dormitory at Fordham University on a November Saturday afternoon when I saw a short burly man tacking up a poster. It advertised a meeting in a nearby parish hall to discuss the plight of Ireland. I decided to go. The speaker was a big blackhaired Irishman with a brogue. He ranted about Oliver Cromwell's terrible crimes, the famine of the 1840s

What Douglas Brinkley's Book Tells Us About John Kerry

by Gil Troy

In running for president, Sen. John Kerry is dancing on the head of a pin. While President George W. Bush can seem maddeningly simplistic in a complex world, candidate Kerry is awash in nuances and contradictions. An anti-war candidate who voted for the war in Iraq but opposed the latest appropriation for reconstruction, Kerry is also running as the populist foe of the wealthy and privileged, though he is himself a multimillionaire Boston Brahmin Yalie who never married a woman worth less tha

Column: When Bad Campaigns Go Good

by P. M. Carpenter

The surest sign that the 2004 presidential race will be the nastiest ever was the Bush camp's opening smiley-face campaign. The three-spot television blitz carpeting cable networks had all the soft-sell qualities of a Viagra ad, dangling promise and calculated geniality. The ads were supremely positive in tone, but omitted any references to actual problem solving. In short, they made paradoxically clear the Bush campaign has nothing of positive substance to offer. The longer of the spo

Why Valley Forge Is More Important than Ever This Year

by Thomas Fleming

This year, with tens of thousands of our young men and women serving overseas in the war on terrorism, the celebration of George Washington¹s birthday at Valley Forge had important things to say to the Americans of 2004. Some skeptics may wonder what we have in common with Washington and the half-naked soldiers who endured a winter of sporadic starvation in their log huts while the British army enjoyed the warmth and comforts of captured Philadelphia. We may be tempted to say patriotism

Mr. President, I Am Glad You Called

by Marc Stein

My good friend George W. gets up early in the morning, so I should not have been surprised when the telephone rang at six a.m. "I've been thinking about announcing a cabinet shakeup before my second term and want to get some advice from my favorite historian. Who could help me mobilize my base?" It just so happens that I had spent years clipping newspaper articles in anticipation of the day I would be asked this question. Now was my chance."Mr. President," I

The Wild and Strange World of DARPA

by Nick Turse

When, in October 1957, the USSR launched the first man-made earth satellite, the basketball-sized Sputnik, it caught the United States off guard and sent the government into fits. Not only had the Soviets exploded an atomic bomb years before the Americans predicted they would, but now they were leading the"space race." In response, the Defense Department approved funding for a new U.S. satellite project, headed by former Nazi SS officer Wernher von Braun, and created, in 1958, the Defense Adv

This Election Shouldn't Be About Vietnam

by Bob Batchelor

The 2004 election is proof that Vietnam is the war that won't go away. But it should as an issue in choosing the next president. The spotlight on Vietnam and the actions taken during the period by President George W. Bush and challenger John F. Kerry is distracting the electorate from the real problems facing the nation. Of course Vietnam does have a place in public discourse and this is likely the reason why we are mistakenly concentrating on it this election season. In the nea

Why the Amendment Banning Gay Marriages Is Bad Politics for Bush

by P. M. Carpenter

George W Bush had barely finished endorsing a constitutional ban on gay marriage before pundits, left and right, began hailing the gambit as brilliant. Not only would W's handiwork shore up his slipping base, it would attract socially conservative Democrats, woo likeminded independents, and regenerate a stumbling and besieged reelection campaign. At long last, Mr. Bush's Machiavellian machine was up, running, and firing on all cylinders. That's what the pundits said. But the pundits ar

Why Gays Should Be Allowed to Say "I Do"

by Kathleen Dalton

In The Music Man Robert Preston leads concerned citizens in singing the classic American moral reform ditty "YES, WE'VE GOT TROUBLE, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY," and we keep singing that song as a nation. The current debate over our moral trouble here in River City resonates with progressive moral anxieties that troubled Theodore Roosevelt and his reform allies--resonates very well, indeed! But the danger to the moral fiber of America a hundred years ago was not gay marriage. Marr

Column: High Noon with Dubya Fudd

by P. M. Carpenter

For most viewers, watching George W. Bush on "Meet the Press" was an hour-long descent into bewilderment and depression, a slack-jawed mental numbness brought on by wondering how such an inarticulate human being could occupy the world's most powerful office. And this time, no one could blame the bad reviews on nasty partisanship. Virtually everyone with a public voice confessed unease and regret over the president's soon-infamous performance. On the morning after, amidst