By Mark Halperin, the political director of ABC News, is the co-author of “The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008.” (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/10/06):
BILL and Hillary Clinton have been known to cite a quip widely attributed to Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” George W. Bush and Karl Rove live by an alternative dictum: Why do things differently when you like the results you have been getting?
In the 2002 and 2004 national elections, the president and his top political adviser won by margins provided by conservative voters who shared the White House’s view that the country should continue to move right.… Seguir leyendo »
By John Reid, Home Secretary of United Kingdom (THE TIMES, 01/10/06):
The unanimous ratification by the US Senate of the extradition treaty between our two countries early this weekend is welcome news and gives us a new tool in the struggle against terrorism and international crime.
It demonstrates to our doubters that the transatlantic alliance is just that — not a one-way street as some would have you believe. And it pays testament to the negotiating powers of Patricia Scotland, the minister I dispatched to argue our case with the Senate. This is important to our nation, because countering global terrorism requires global alliances in a common endeavour against a common enemy.… Seguir leyendo »
Yesterday's Guardian poll shot an arrow through the heart of the Labour party. It says that Labour is on course to lose the next election. It says that Gordon Brown hasn't got what it takes to turn things around. It implies that no one else in the Labour party has, either. It crystallises everything anxious Labour activists have been saying to themselves on the eve of the party conference in Manchester - and then it adds some. It is hard to think of a more pivotal political opinion poll in recent times.
'In a sense I have always felt something of a kinship with the coloured race because its position is the same as mine," says Ignatius J Reilly, the hopeless protagonist of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. "We both exist outside the inner realm of American society. Of course, my exile is voluntary. However, it is apparent that many of the Negroes wish to become active members of the American middle class. I cannot imagine why. I must admit that this desire on their part leads me to question their value judgments. However if they wish to join the bourgeoisie, it is really none of my business.… Seguir leyendo »
By David S. Broder (THE WASHINGTON POST, 14/09/06):
The lesson from Tuesday's round of primaries in nine states and the District of Columbia was simple and reassuring. Credentials count. Experience counts. And so does the willingness to engage some serious issues.
For the most part, the candidates nominated for Congress and governor come from the mainstream establishments of their parties. Despite the widespread voter discontent with the political status quo, few mavericks, rebels or true outsiders won places on the November ballot.
In the day's headline event, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, the most liberal Republican in the Senate, turned back the challenge of Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, a conservative populist.… Seguir leyendo »
By Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at National Review, is the author of “The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life.” (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 13/09/06):
CONSERVATIVES are dreading the November elections. The Republican capture of the House of Representatives in 1994 was one of modern conservatism’s signal political accomplishments. Now the Democrats are poised to take back the House. If that happens, however, conservatives will find several silver linings in the outcome.
It would be worse for conservatives if Republicans actually gained seats. The Congressional wing of the party lost its reformist zeal years ago and has been trying to win elections based on pork and incumbency.… Seguir leyendo »
All eyes are on The Date. When will Tony Blair leave No 10? The media are fixated with it. Many in the Labour party appear equally addicted. They are focused on the wrong thing. It is not the date of Blair’s departure that will shape the future of British politics. It is The Debate about what happens when he does depart.
Of course, the obsessing about the prime minister’s longevity reflects a mood of uncertainty among Labour MPs. This period is Labour’s toughest in almost 10 years of office. Controversy over Iraq, Lebanon and aspects of domestic policy have combined to produce a clamour from some quarters for Blair to go — and go now.… Seguir leyendo »
By David S. Broder (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/09/06):
Congress returns for a final preelection push this week, with few of its members believing there is much hope of salvaging some real accomplishments from this dismal session.
In an interview last week, one of the Republican leaders of the House told me that in the 21 districts he visited during the August recess, including those in his own Midwestern state, immigration vies with Iraq as a matter of major concern to the voters. Does that mean, I asked, that you're likely to try to complete a final version of the immigration reform bill, endorsed by President Bush and passed in different forms by the House and Senate?… Seguir leyendo »
PLATO DID NOT much like democracy: he would have detested opinion polls. One of the best known passages in The Republic gives his view of democratic opinion: “Suppose a man was in charge of a large and powerful animal, and made a study of its moods and wants: he would learn when to approach and handle it, when and why it was especially savage or gentle, what the different noises it made meant, and what tone of voice to use to soothe or annoy it.”
Plato preferred the rule of “philosopher kings” to that of democracy.… Seguir leyendo »
By Peter Wilby, a former editor of the New Statesman (THE GUARDIAN, 28/08/06):
The game is up. After more than a decade of new Labour, David Cameron will enter Downing Street in 2009 or 2010. The majority will be slender enough to give Labour hopes of an early return. But Gordon Brown, assuming he has inherited Tony Blair's mantle, will go to run the World Bank or something of the sort, making way for a younger leader who can remake the Labour brand.That is roughly what I see happening over the next few years. There is no reason why you should pay any attention, though my views echo those held by some of New Labour's more thoughtful loyalists since well before the 2005 election.… Seguir leyendo »
NED LAMONT, the winner of the Democratic primary for the Senate in Connecticut, is a lucky man. He has both old and new money; his great-grandfather was a partner in J. P. Morgan’s bank when it was still the most powerful private bank in the world. He has made fortunes in asset management and communications. In his filing, he states modestly that his net worth is between $50 million (£28 million) and $300 million. He was able to outspend Joseph Lieberman, the incumbent senator.
Mr Lamont lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, which is the end of the line for New York commuter wealth.… Seguir leyendo »
By Eli Pariser, executive director of the MoveOn Political Action Committee (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/08/06):
Ned Lamont's victory Tuesday night in Connecticut's U.S. Senate primary is great news for Democrats. And it's a watershed moment for the growing majority of Americans, in red states and blue, who want change.
For months, polls have warned that across the political spectrum people are fed up -- with the no-end-in-sight occupation of Iraq; with an energy policy that caters to oil giants while gasoline prices soar; with a health-care system that leaves more behind with every passing day. Lamont's victory is evidence that a long-awaited wave of voter sentiment on those issues has materialized.… Seguir leyendo »
Next week David Cameron completes six months as Tory leader. He has already given us the launch, the schmooze, the image shift and the nutty bit on ice. He has taken to the new politics with aplomb. Above all, he and his team have shown that they can learn. They have read Tony Blair as attentively as Blair read Margaret Thatcher. The leadership bloodline holds strong. What now?
The most irrelevant criticism of the Cameron campaign is that it lacks “substance” and is fixated with personality. That is what it should be. Throwbacks to the old politics have been the curse of Conservative strategists for a decade.… Seguir leyendo »
OH, FOR CLEARER times when men were men and Tories were vermin. Each child born alive was either a little Red or a little Blue, with a few Cornish vacillators wearing the awkward yellow favours of the in-betweenies. Oceans of blood separated us. The Blues loved the Americans, we Reds (sotto voce) thought that the Russians got a bad press. They were for no taxes and lots of poverty, we were for massive taxes and no wealth. They were turned on by soldiers and the Bomb, we were turned on by women with peace symbols painted on their bare breasts.… Seguir leyendo »
WHEREVER TWO or three politicos gather in the US these days, you can be sure the talk turns pretty quickly to the 2008 presidential contest. The next contest always seems to come around sooner than you think and with the view rapidly gaining currency that the Bush presidency is already in effect over, the succession talk can’t come soon enough.
But there’s something very odd about the conversations among Republicans and Democrats, a widening disconnect in the estimations of the prospects of the long-time Democratic favourite, Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, Hillary’s procession towards the Democratic nomination (and perhaps the presidency) is assured, woven into the national landscape, written in the stars.… Seguir leyendo »
By Tony Blair's standards, this can go down as a good reshuffle - though that hardly sets the bar very high. At least, unlike the shambolic reshuffles of 2003 and 2005, this one was properly planned weeks in advance and not improvised (then fumbled) on the day. Someone in No 10 deserves credit for that. They also accomplished an important bit of Whitehall business, by at last demolishing the dysfunctional Prescott empire. There were genuinely interesting political appointments there too, headed by Alan Johnson's move to education and David Miliband's to environment. And it was politically gutsy for Blair, never a good knife-wielder, to sacrifice Charles Clarke and demote Jack Straw, both of whom could be dangerous enemies.… Seguir leyendo »
ARRANGE these three in order of national preference:
(a)A governing party tarnished by a ludicrous sex scandal involving the Deputy Prime Minister; battered by the fallout from a massive blunder at the Home Office; smarting after the Health Secretary is booed by nurses; wearied after an unpopular war; and presided over by a shopsoiled Prime Minister loitering at the exit but refusing to go.
(b)A third party recently taken over by a sexagenarian stop-gap leader after a messy battle to remove a man with a drink problem, and unclear to the point of vapidity on its direction.… Seguir leyendo »
TEN DAYS ago, Conservatives canvassing in the London borough elections were still receiving mixed responses. There were some favourable signs; middle-class voters, who had almost abandoned the Conservatives in recent general elections, were beginning to come back; on the housing estates Labour was suffering from widespread apathy. But disillusioned Labour voters seemed far more likely to abstain than to swing to the Conservatives.
Then came Labour’s Black Wednesday. By the weekend Conservative canvassers were getting a much more positive response from voters. Disillusioned London Labour voters were beginning to switch to the Tories. This impression, which can be only an impression, has been confirmed by the weekend polls.… Seguir leyendo »
By Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/04/06):
AMERICANS have clearly had enough of the Bush administration's record: 7 in 10 say the nation is headed in the wrong direction. But with the 2006 Congressional elections fast approaching, Democrats must not get so irrationally exuberant that they lapse into old, bad habits.
In January, President Bush's adviser Karl Rove outlined the issues he believes will lead Republican candidates to victory in November: national security, the economy and taxes, and the courts. Democrats cannot allow Republicans to define the terms of the debate. Instead, they should take a page from history and from a different Karl.… Seguir leyendo »
By Craig Shirley, of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, is the author of "Reagan's Revolution," a book about the 1976 campaign, and is now writing "Rendezvous With Destiny" about the successful 1980 campaign. His firm has clients concerned with immigration issues (THE WASHINGTON POST, 22/04/06):
The immigration reform debate has highlighted a long-standing fissure in the GOP between the elitist Rockefeller business wing and the party's conservative populist base. Whether the two groups can continue to coexist and preserve the Republican majority is increasingly doubtful as conservatives begin to consider -- and in some cases cheer -- the possibility that the GOP may lose control of Congress this fall.… Seguir leyendo »
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