Roundup: Media's Take

Larry Pressler: The Technicality Generation

[Larry Pressler, a former Republican senator from South Dakota, served in the Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968.] The problems faced by Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, over his depiction of his military service are indicative of a broader disease in our society. The issues of integrity in business and politics that plague us today — the way elites are no longer trusted — are rooted in the dishonesty that surrounded the Vietnam-era draft.... Many of t

Robert C. Koons: Liberal Bias Evident in Simplistic Narrative in Which Powerful Federal Government is Sole Engine of Progress and Equality

[Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas. The opinions expressed here are his and do not reflect the views of the university.] The State Board of Education's proposed revisions for K-12 social studies curricula have come under fire from a coalition of left-leaning politicians and their academic allies. Contrary to what an irresponsible media campaign would lead you to believe, the state board has taken a few, small steps in the direction of promoting objectivit

Fred Barnes: Obama's No Henry Clay

[Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.] "I go for honorable compromise whenever it can be made. Life itself is but a compromise between death and life, the struggle continuing throughout our whole existence. .  .  . All legislation, all government, all society, is formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these, everything is based.” Those are not the words of Preside

Jeff Bergner: Europe Is No Model

[Jeff Bergner has served as staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assistant secretary of state, and professor of government.] As Europe is rocked by the Greek financial crisis, which seems likely to spread to additional European states, it may be worth asking why anyone would see in European politics a model for the United States. Yet this is exactly the position of America’s political left, which looks approvingly at Europe’s health care systems offering univers

Arun Gupta: Republicans and the Tea Party of No

[Arun Gupta is a founding editor of The Indypendent newspaper. He is writing a book on the decline of American empire for Haymarket Books.] As much as they may grumble, there is a legitimate reason why the Republicans have been labeled the “Party of No.” For decades, the party’s kneejerk stance has been to oppose any legislation or policy involving social, economic or political progress. You name it, the right has opposed it: civil rights, school desegregation, women’s

David Michael Green: The Age of Political Ennui

[David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York.] Watching the British electorate in action (inaction?) during this campaign cycle I'm reminded of ... well, the American electorate. This is nothing new. There's been enormous parallels between the two countries for decades now, even if the timing of that link has gotten a bit skewed of late. Trading back and forth between two centrist parties in the first post-war d

Andrew Leonard: Elena Kagan's "Socialist" College Thesis

[Andrew Leonard writes for Salon.com] Elena Kagan, the nominee for Supreme Court justice who has so successfully managed not to leave a paper trail indicating what she really thinks about anything important, turns out to have written her senior thesis at Princeton on an interesting question: Why did socialism fail to become a major force in the United States? This has led, predictably, to an uproar on right-wing blogs, where it is being argued with great passion that &q

Robert Franks: That Bright, Dying Star, the American WASP

[Robert Franks writes for the Wall Street Journal.] On a recent morning at the Links Club, New York's wood-paneled preserve of the old banking elite, a small crowd of white-haired members gathered for breakfast. The talk around the tables, over poached eggs and toast, was of Europe and sovereign-debt markets. Some were quietly negotiating deals. The crowd was mostly older, though it included a smattering of 40-something and 50-something members. While unden

Richard Cohen: A Superpower -- and a President -- With Declining Clout

[Richard Cohen is a columnist for the Washington Post.] Early this month Barack Obama went down to Louisiana to eyeball the possible damage from BP's exploded oil rig, keep the cleanup crews on their toes -- no version of "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" from him -- and show the Gulf Coast states and the rest of the nation his concern. On May 3 , The Post's Web site played the story precisely where it belonged -- entombed in the middle of the page. In its placement,

Neil Reynolds: What Gladstone Can Teach David Cameron

[Neil Reynolds is an Ottawa writer whose columns on national economic issues appear Wednesday and Friday.] Thomas Huxley, the eminent self-taught scientist and one of the great intellects of 19th-century Britain, called William Ewart Gladstone, four times chancellor of the exchequer and four times prime minister, “the greatest intellect of Europe.” And Huxley was a critic. Beyond all argument, this great liberal champion of laissez-faire was a smart man. By the end of his more than

John Bolton: The new British government and Afghanistan

[John Bolton is the former US Ambassador to the United Nations.] William Hague’s quick trip to Washington on Friday was timely indeed. Just after assuming office, the new Foreign Secretary had stressed that "it is our most urgent priority… to make sure we get a grip on what is going on in Afghanistan". Arriving right on the heels of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mr Hague came at a critical moment for planning both political and military aspects of the long war against

Henry Olsen: Britain's Compassionate Conservatives

[Henry Olsen is a vice president at the American Enterprise Institute.] The Conservatives had everything going for them heading into the May 6 election: a serious economic crisis, a deeply unpopular prime minister, and a young, vibrant Tory leader. Despite all this, the Tories have entered into government with support from a mere 36% of the electorate. Since its founding by Benjamin Disraeli in 1832, the Tory Party has, with one shining exception, rested on the notion o

Bret Stephens: The End of Nuclear Diplomacy

[Bret Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs.] There's a hoary cliché about how Western diplomats are always playing checkers while their (invariably) smarter adversaries play chess. In the matter of yesterday's nuclear agreement between Iran, Turkey and Brazil the line doesn't quite work. The game Tehran is playing isn't any more complicated than checkers. The trouble is, they're whipping us at it. As I write these lines, it isn

Fred Kaplan: The White House's New Afghanistan Plan? Be Nice to Hamid Karzai

[Fred Kaplan is a journalist and contributor to Slate magazine. His "War Stories" column covers international relations and US foreign policy.] Hamid Karzai is in Washington for a four-day love fest designed to show the world that, despite the occasional quarrel, the state of the Afghan-American partnership is sound. But not quite beneath the surface, discordant noises are all too evident. Take the May 10 White House press conference, featuring the commander o

Marjorie Cohn: Kagan's Troubling Record

[Marjorie Cohn is immediate past president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law.] After President Obama nominated Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, he made a statement that implied she would follow in the footsteps of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the civil rights giant and first black Supreme Court justice. Kagan served as a law clerk for Marshall shortly after she graduated from Harvard Law School. Specifically, Obama said that Marshall's &

Robert Scheer: Verify, Baby, Verify!

“Drill, baby, drill!” Those were the words that Sarah Palin used to electrify the 2008 Republican National Convention. But while she popularized that environment-be-damned slogan, it had already defined the eight years of oil-drilling policy that prevailed during the presidency of George W. Bush. [Robert Scheer has built a reputation for strong social and political writing over his 30 years as a journalist. His columns appear in newspapers across the country, and his in-depth inter

David S. Broder: How the 1960 West Virginia Election Made History

[David S. Broder is a columnist for the Washington Post.] Last Wednesday night, the John F. Kennedy Library marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant elections in American history -- the West Virginia Democratic primary of May 10, 1960, between Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. It was an evening for reminiscence -- and maybe for exaggeration. Ted Sorensen, who was at Kennedy's side throughout the campaign fight, argued that if Kennedy had lost to his Minneso

Brett Edkins: China's Undocumented Migrant Problem

[Brett Edkins is a J.D. candidate at Yale University.] This week, the United States and China will resume a dialogue on human rights after a two-year hiatus. The talks come at an especially sensitive time in U.S.-China relations, with both nations eager to press the reset button. Discussion is expected to center on Chinese censorship and the imprisonment of political dissidents and civic activists. But the usually one-sided discussion could be shaped by both nations' struggle with a

Robert Haddick: Obama's Nixonian Withdrawal Strategy

[Robert Haddick is managing editor of Small Wars Journal.] Obama hopes that good Afghan policy will mean good U.S. politics A month ago, the Obama administration's relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai were broken, with the insulted Afghan president threatening to join the Taliban. Today, early April seems like a lifetime ago. In a White House meeting this week that was almost canceled in April, U.S. President Barack Obama decisively allied himself with Karzai.

Julius Purcell: Baltasar Garzón ... General Franco's Latest Victim

[Julius Purcell has written on Spain for the Financial Times, the Boston Review, the New Statesman, and Commonweal. He has lived in Barcelona since 2003.] On Friday, May 14, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, known around the world for attempting to bring dictators to justice, was told he will now face trial for attempting to do the same in his own country. If found guilty, the 54-year-old examining magistrate could be removed from his job for up to 20 years. The blow has b