Jimmy Carter
Jane Fonda, Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu: They're All Back and They are All Malicious... and Dangerously Malicious at That
OK, the Bertrand Russell psychodrama is also malicious but maybe not dangerously so. About six months ago, I came across a web posting announcing the formation of a Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Palestine. Yes, it was one of those false kangaroo courts in which, from the Stalin era on, convenes not to evaluate evidence but to condemn. In loads of cases the verdicts brought quick impositions of the death sentence. One such process is now unfolding in Tehran, and its backers are Muslim millenarians and western leftists who are prone to support every revolution even if it is decidedly and obje READ MORE >>
Triumph And Tragedy
Obama, Micromanaging, and the WSJ Revisited
A reader e-mailed just before I went on vacation to quibble with my take on the Journal's "A President as Micromanager" story from two weeks ago. In my item, I argued that the piece's premise was off-base--the Journal was confusing micromanaging with craving detailed information on which to base incredibly consequential decisions. So far, so good. READ MORE >>
Unsettled
Unsettled
'Wall Street Journal' Finds The Perfect Democrat?
Today's Wall Street Journal contains an op-ed by someone named Ted Van Dyk, a disillusioned Democrat that has fallen out of love with Barack Obama. "The first warning signals for me came with your acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention," Van Dyk writes. "In it, you stressed domestic initiatives that clearly were nonstarters in the already shrinking economy. ... Cut back both your proposals and expectations." READ MORE >>
Carter's "kick Me" Sign
Over on his blog, Damon Linker has written a tough post about Jimmy Carter's 1979 "Malaise" speech, which turns 30 years old today. He argues that the address was a failure in both content and delivery. Here's a taste: READ MORE >>
Carter's "kick Me" Sign
Thirty years ago today, Jimmy Carter delivered the worst major speech of a modern president. The "Crisis of Confidence" speech (often described as the "Malaise" speech) was by turns mawkish, hectoring, self-pitying, maudlin, self-righteous, undisciplined (the address opened with a string of nineteen quotations from critics of his presidency). READ MORE >>
Malaise, 30 Years Later
It was 30 years ago today that Jimmy Carter delivered his famous (or maybe infamous) "malaise" speech--which, of course, did not contain the word "malaise." The full text of the speech can be found here. READ MORE >>
The Green Bubble
SOMETIME AFTER THE release of An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, environmentalism crossed from political movement to cultural moment. Fortune 500 companies pledged to go carbon neutral. Seemingly every magazine in the country, including Sports Illustrated, released a special green issue. Paris dimmed the lights on the Eiffel Tower. Solar investments became hot, even for oil companies. Evangelical ministers preached the gospel of “creation care.” Even archconservative Newt Gingrich published a book demanding action on global warming. READ MORE >>
