On February 15, the Venezuelan electorate in a referendum gave President Hugo Chavez a green light to become what he longs to become: president for life. By mobilizing the weapons in his arsenal that includes influence over state employees and recipients of his largesse, with increased media control, and a stranglehold on the police, courts, and electoral tribunals, Chavez successfully mustered 54% of the popular vote. He reversed the “no” vote of 2007 and can run for the presidency in 2012. That the Chavez’s victory constitutes a setback to real …
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Japan this week, one of the main topics of conversation will be developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Japan has played an important role in contributing to efforts to stabilize and secure South Asia over the last seven years. Washington should welcome a more robust Japanese role in the region and strongly support Tokyo’s plan to hold an international donor’s meeting on Pakistan (possibly in March) to help raise funds for the cash-strapped economy. Japan has already played a helpful role in Afghanistan, despite …
There is a growing debate on the web and in the media regarding Senator Hillary Clinton’s eligibility to be appointed to the office of Secretary of State by President-Elect Barack Obama. The controversy centers on the “Emoluments Clause” of Article I, section 6 of the United States Constitution, which states that “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time….” …
Yesterday the nation’s largest health insurance trade group, the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), unveiled its proposal for major reform of the U.S. health care sector. AHIP President Karen Ignagni told the Los Angeles Times, “The nation is on the eve of a national discussion about healthcare. This comes around once every generation.” Indeed, health care reform was a major theme in President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. During the campaign, Obama pledged to build a health care system in which Americans can be assured of access to affordable health insurance; to …
Time magazine ran a story back in 2007 on “The Case for National Service.” The story described the positions of the candidates for president on expanding “public service” programs. Two of the Democrat candidates favored mandatory community service by all high school students. And two others — Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden — favored creation of a U.S. Public Service Academy for training civil servants. Barack Obama has centered speeches around this idea of public service. He waxes sentimental about what we can each do for our country. All in …
Many liberals who are smart enough to support free trade are slowly beginning to realize just how protectionist the Democratic Party has become. Fareed Zakaria reports that one argument he often hears from supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is “that they don’t really mean what they say, that their actual proposals on trade agreements involve only minor tinkering.” Similarly the Washington Post editorializes: “In other words, we have to hope that they were only pandering.” The problem is that the Democrats already have control of Congress and, despite …
Possibly the scariest outcome from Super Tuesday is that the top three candidates to become president all support a cap-and-trade approach to global warming. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are all smart and capable leaders, but they also have been completely engrossed in White House politics for more than a year. Hopefully when they have the time to examine recent evidence they will reject their current proposals, which include costly carbon limits that will harm our economy without positively affecting the climate at all. …
When the National Intelligence Estimate announced that, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program,” it was the lead story in the nation’s biggest newspapers. But following congressional testimony from Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell that only the “least significant” parts of Iran’s nuclear program had been halted, the nation’s paper’s either did not mention Iran’s nuclear threat, or buried it deep in the story. McConnell’s retreat on the NIE’s conclusions validates many of the exact criticisms leveled against the report. Specifically …
