Much puzzling behavior by Barack Obama falls into place when we go behind the image that he projects (“Obama 1”) to the factual reality of the man’s whole life and thrust (“Obama 2”). Obama himself is well aware of the nature and importance of his image. In his own words, “I serve as a blank […]

In 2008, voters under 30 preferred Barack Obama over John McCain by a 66 to 32 percent margin. Among older voters, Obama led McCain by 50 to 49 percent. How has Obama paid back the Millennial generation, which provided almost all his margin of victory? With what American Interest superblogger Walter Russell Mead calls “Obama’s […]

By the time the 21st Amendment ended national alcohol prohibition in December 1933, more than a dozen states had already opted out. Maryland never passed its own version of the Volstead Act, while New York repealed its alcohol prohibition law in 1923. Eleven other states eliminated their statutes by referendum in November 1932. We could […]

Today, as I was doing a: HuffPostLive segment that covered, in part, what will happen if Mitt Romney loses – some very odd comments were made. They were odd because they seemed so out of place. Is the Tea Party hurting Romney? Are Republicans being hurt by social issues? Let me tell you what this is […]

Life is a matter of having what you want and paying the price for it. The problem with politics is they leave off the last half of that… – John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) September 26, 2012   Isn’t that true? Don’t we, as a matter of course in this country, talk about things like education, medical […]

The former British Prime Minister: has this right. “If I were you, I would sort of give up on being loved,” Blair said today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “If that’s your ambition as still the world’s greatest power, give up on it, because it’s not going to happen.” America is not, never has been, and never […]

On Friday, March 30, 2012, Hisham Y. Altalib visited the White House. According to visitor logs, Altalib was received by Joshua DuBois, the director of President Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Four days later, White House officials welcomed a foreign delegation of the radical Sharia-enforcing Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt. The White House meeting […]

Here’s a question: If there’s a disaster, a war, a severe drought or some other calamity that restricts future supplies of a commodity — such as oil, coffee or corn — what is the intelligent thing for people to do right away? If you said “use less now and try to produce more,” you’d be […]

The published polling in this year’s presidential race is unusually inaccurate because this is the first election in which who votes determines how they vote. Obama’s massive leads among blacks, Latinos, young people and single women vie with Romney’s margin among the elderly, married white women and white men. Tell me your demographic, and I’ll […]

Here are two quotes from two world leaders. See if you can guess the speakers. Leader #1: “Any action that is provocative [and] offends the religious thoughts and feelings of any people, we condemn. Likewise, we condemn any type of extremism. Of course, what took place was ugly; offending the Holy Prophet is quite ugly.” […]

Nowhere is the contrast between Barack Obama, as defined by his rhetoric (“Obama 1”) and Barack Obama as defined by his actions (“Obama 2”) greater than in his foreign policy — and especially his policy toward Israel. What if we put aside Barack Obama’s rhetoric, and instead look exclusively at his documented record over a […]

The Oval Office isn’t the place to learn on the job. That was the line from both Hillary Clinton and John McCain in 2008. In fairness, that’s always the argument the more experienced candidate uses against the less experienced candidate (just ask Mitt Romney). But Barack Obama seemed a special case, easily among the least […]

The Chicago teachers strike is over, but the public didn’t win. Schools will still transfer bad teachers to other schools because it’s nearly impossible to fire them. When bad teachers go from school to school, principals call it “the dance of the lemons.” It would be funny if those teachers didn’t slowly wreck children’s lives. […]