Roundup: Media's Take

Con Coughlin: Jimmy Carter pledged to reform US foreign policy... and look what happened

Over the course of the primary season, Barack Obama has demonstrated an unerring ability to reach out to all Americans, irrespective of ethnic background or social status. He is a black man who was born on the wrong side of the tracks, but his campaign has been refreshingly devoid of the divisive race agenda that characterised the bids of black politicians such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in the 1980s and 1990s. His simple promise to undertake a radical change in the way the co

David R. Stokes: Barack, Bobby, and Will

[Mr. Stokes is the senior pastor of Fair Oaks Church in Fairfax, VA.] Barack Obama’s choice to involve Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late president, as part of a three-person team leading his search for a running mate is another not-so-subtle example of his very real desire to be seen as the present-day embodiment of Camelot. It may turn out to be a very effective strategy in a day and age when style and image trump just about everything else. His repeated vow to change this country

Walter Shapiro: Who will Obama choose as veep? Nope, you're wrong

... So will it be Hillary Clinton at the Naval Observatory with a consolation prize? Virginia Sen. Jim Webb bathed in confetti in Denver with the macho vote? Sen. Claire McCaskill in Independence bragging about the last vice president (Harry Truman) to hail from Missouri? Or Gov. Ted Strickland proving that the swing state of Ohio is now the "mother of vice presidents"? There is a good chance that Barack Obama's ultimate pick for the heartbeat-away job will not be on this

Max Boot: McGinnis’s Medal of Honor

President Bush yesterday awarded a Medal of Honor to Army Specialist Ross McGinnis for awe-inspiring courage during the Iraq War. In 2006 a grenade was thrown into McGinnis’s Humvee and instead of escaping, he jumped on the explosive, thus saving his fellow crew members but sacrificing his own life. He is the fifth soldier to receive a Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. What do they all have in common other than their display of bravery far above and beyond the call of duty

Dick Morris & Eileen McGann: Obama's VP search mistake

On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting. As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency. Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess. If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc

James Carroll: Was Ted Sorensen JFK's conscience?

[James Carroll is an author, novelist, and columnist for the Boston Globe.] 'I MAY not be able to see you," the partially blind, stroke-impaired Ted Sorensen told a crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston last week, "but I have more vision than the president of the United States." Over 1,000 people gathered to hear JFK's speechwriter discuss his new book, "Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History." Those who expected a satisfying draught of the old Ke

John B. Judis: Is Obama Al Smith or John F. Kennedy?

Now that he has clinched the Democratic nomination, pundits will mostly gauge Barack Obama's prospects in the general election by looking at states he can win or constituencies he can carry. But there is another dimension to his candidacy: He represents a social group that was once on the margins of American politics, but now aspires to put one of its own in the highest office. This has happened once before in U.S. politics: when American Catholics saw one of their own nominated to be president.

WSJ Editorial: The Obama We Don't Know

With Barack Obama clinching the Democratic Party nomination, it is worth noting what an extraordinary moment this is. Democrats are nominating a freshman Senator barely three years out of the Illinois legislature whom most of America still hardly knows. The polls say he is the odds-on favorite to become our next President. Think about this in historical context. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were relatively unknown, but both had at least been prominent Governors. John Kerry, Walter

Jost Kaiser: Germans and Israel ... 60 Years of a Neurotic Obsession

[Jost Kaiser writes for the German edition of Vanity Fair magazine.] In 2003 the European Commission sponsored an opinion poll whose results imply that Israel must be some sort of superpower — at any rate, in the eyes of German television viewers. Germans are incessantly preoccupied by the small Mediterranean country. But the activities of a few ostentatious and kitschy “philosemites” like Lea Rosh, one of the principal promoters of Berlin’s gigantic Holocaust Memorial,

Lou Cannon: From 1976, a Question for Obama and Clinton

Gerald Ford went to his grave believing that Ronald Reagan's challenge for the Republican presidential nomination cost him the White House in 1976. In truth, Reagan sharpened Ford as a candidate, much as Hillary Clinton's campaign has sharpened Barack Obama in 2008. What damaged Ford in his effort to overtake Democrat Jimmy Carter was not what Reagan did to him in the spring of 1976 but what he failed to do in the fall. Similarly, the question now is what role Clinton will play after Obama has f

Paul Krugman: That 70s show

Not long ago it seemed as if everyone watching the carnage in financial markets was drawing scary parallels with the 1930s. This time, however, Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve did what their predecessors failed to do during the banking crisis of 1930-31: they acted forcefully to avert a collapse of the financial system. And their efforts seem, provisionally, to have worked. While things are far from normal in the financial markets, over the last few months the

James Carroll: The war-hero president and the pacifist

[James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.] 'I MAY not be able to see you," the partially blind, stroke-impaired Ted Sorensen told a crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston last week, "but I have more vision than the president of the United States." Over 1,000 people gathered to hear JFK's speechwriter discuss his new book, "Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History." Those who expected a satisfying draught of the old Kennedy mystique were not disappoi

Gary Hart: The Perserverance of Idealism

As many people seem to be born either liberal or conservative, so many also seem naturally inclined toward either idealism or pragmatism. Overly simplified, the pragmatist says "tell me how the system works and I'll do my best within it," and the idealist says, "let's change the system." Though this dichotomy doesn't seem to work very well in Republican party politics (where those claiming idealism invade foreign countries), it plays a striking role in the Democr

Christopher Cerf and Victor S. Navasky: McCain (Mis)Speaks

[Christopher Cerf and Victor S. Navasky are the co-authors of the recently published Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak, which provided the basis for this essay. Their previous book, also a product of The Institute of Expertology, is The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation. They appeared recently on

Michael Tomasky: Who Is John McCain?

It is little remembered today that the political career of John Sidney McCain III, a career now thoroughly laundered in mythology, began with the help of several fortuities. In 1973 he returned from his five and a half years of captivity in North Vietnam to Washington, or technically Arlington, Virginia, which had been his childhood home for more years than any other single place as he followed his father, a celebrated four-star admiral, on the elder McCain's naval assignments. He was one of 591

Josh Patashnik: Veeps won't change the math of the election in November

[Josh Patashnik is a reporter-researcher at The New Republic.] There's a strain of logic in recent presidential campaign discourse that goes something like this: Though Barack Obama sports a modest lead over John McCain in national polling, his apparent weakness in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida could lead to a loss in the electoral college even if he wins the national popular vote by a wide margin. But his salvation could lie in picking someone from one of th

What's the Difference Between Dan Bartlett, Brian Williams and David Gregory? A Lot Less Than You Think

[For over 20 years, David has been a banker covering the energy industry for several global banks in New York. Currently, he is working on several journalism projects dealing with corporate and political corruption that, so far, have escaped serious scrutiny by mainstream media. He is trained as a lawyer.] There's a difference between lying and dissembling. Dan Bartlett lied on Wednesday. Brian Williams and David Gregory merely dissembled. Yet the statements of all three are discredit

Quin Hillyer: Meet the New Barry Goldwater

[Quin Hillyer is an associate editor at the Washington Examiner and a senior editor of The American Spectator.] Many conservatives realistic enough to know there will never be "another Reagan" nevertheless wish at least for another Barry Goldwater. They don't realize that we already have one. His name is John McCain. Granted, McCain is more like the Goldwater of 1981 than like the conservative standard bearer of 1964. At age 72, Goldwater was, like the 72-year

David Broder: What Jimmy Carter Could Teach Obama

A year after Jimmy Carter lost his re-election race to Ronald Reagan, Hamilton Jordan, his former White House chief of staff, sat down for a lengthy interview with scholars at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Last week, after hearing the news of Jordan's death, friends at the center sent me a transcript of that 27-year-old interview. As they predicted, it was of intense interest for current politics, and particularly on the challenge facing Barack

Ramesh Ponnuru: In Carter's Shadow

[Ramesh Ponnuru is a Washington, D.C. based Indian American columnist and a senior editor for National Review magazine.] The ghost of Jimmy Carter is haunting the 2008 campaign. Well, let me restate that: the ghost of his presidency haunts the 2008 campaign. As for Carter, he certainly has not passed on; he is an active freelance diplomat and campaign consultant. In recent days he has told Hillary Clinton to "give it up" in June and estimated the size of Israel's nuclear s