All That Is Necessary

All That Is Necessary…

  • “Barack Obama Better Be All In” on Afghanistan

    At Contentions, the Commentary magazine blog, Peter Wehner assesses the prospects of success for David Petraeus, whom he calls one of the best generals “in our history”: What Petraeus also needs, apart from time, is the full support of the president and his team. Petraeus had that in Iraq with President Bush. There were no […]

  • Obama’s Announcement on McChrystal Makes the Best of a Very Bad Situation

    I share the gratitude Obama described for General McChrystal’s service. But what the hell was he thinking giving access to a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine? The threshold decision to participate in a story for an anti-establishment icon was an even bigger lapse of judgment than anything McChrystal or his aides said.

  • Zakaria Lays the Right Oily Blame at the Foot of the Wrong Target

    It’s up to Obama to keep the media tail from wagging the presidential dog.

  • Reaction to Obama’s Speech Reflects the Limits of Government Power

    The President and the Left wing of his party believe that government is the answer to every problem.  Obama now is being savaged from the Left over an environmental disaster that government is powerless to stop.  I didn’t know what the issue would be, but I’m on record from before the inauguration predicting eventual disillusionment. […]

  • Some Contrarian Thoughts on the Gulf Oil Disaster

    I think my credentials as a critic of President Obama are fairly well established, but it’s absurd to blame him for the oil spill, or for the failure (so far) to stop it.  And calls for Obama to show more anger have led only to the demeaning spectacles of Obama saying he wants to know […]

  • Brush With “Greatness”: Following in Helen Thomas’s Footsteps

    I have the (pick an adjective) distinction of being only the second journalist to interview Jimmy Carter after he left office in early 1981.  The first, Carter told me, was Helen Thomas, the long-time White House correspondent who resigned under pressure today after making astonishingly offensive comments to the effect that “the Jews” should get […]

  • Islam May Not Be the Enemy, But the Enemy Is Islamic

    Ayaan Hirsi Ali has earned the right to be critical of Islam. She was raised as a devout Muslim in Somalia and Kenya.  At the age of five, her genitals were cut in a barbaric Somali ritual at the insistence of her Islamic grandmother.  In her twenties, her Islamic father gave her in marriage to […]

  • Governor Christie Kicks Ass and Takes Names

    I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Chris Christie, because of his extreme anti-gay position, and I imagine I’ll have occasion again to oppose him on that topic.  In the meantime, I love listening to him talk about the budget and take on the teachers unions, as in the video above.  If you don’t have […]

  • ObamaCare, How Do We Hate Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

    Note to Congress: Avoid passing bizarrely complicated, economy-transforming legislation that you have not read, especially in the face of overwhelming public opposition. Americans now favor repeal by a margin of almost 2-to-1.

  • Will the Oil Disaster be “Obama’s Katrina”?

    In The Corner, Yuval Levin has a sensible take on the tendency to blame the government for anything that goes wrong. We who live in the 21st century West have the least messy, least dangerous, least uncertain lives of any human beings in history. We should be very grateful for that, but we should not […]

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