The New Republic

Wowy, zowy, Obama is doing his own thinking on the Middle East and here’s the even worse news: He’s taking advice from Tom Friedman and Fareed Zakaria. READ MORE >>

So says a headline in Wednesday’s New York Times. And the article by Mark Landler elaborates the cosmic kvetch brought on by the Obama administration’s courting of Damascus. I’ve written about this a few times myself. READ MORE >>

READ MORE >>

Sometimes a journalist grasps an intricate situation and explains it in just one simple sentence. Here is what the distinguished Timesman John Vinocur has to say in today’s International Herald Tribune about Obama’s policy of sanctions: READ MORE >>

Well, that’s the way I read the headline in The Washington Post. READ MORE >>

President Obama designated George Mitchell his special envoy to the Jews and the Arabs because he had experience with them. Of course, Mitchell's familiarity with the Middle East was the familiarity of utter failure. No matter. Obama couldn't have sent George Tenet again ... or, God forbid, Anthony Zinni. And he wouldn't dispatch Dennis Ross, who knows far too much that wouldn't have fit with the president's own delusions. READ MORE >>

The New York Times gave about six inches to Bibi Netanyahu's speech at the General Assembly, and this in an article he shared with Hugo Chavez who spoke for four times the duration allowed by the rules. This is a habit among tyrants, and Chavez is no exception. READ MORE >>

I've blogged twice in the last few days about Hillary and her fraught state. No, I don't mean her injured elbow, although I'm sure it gives her both pain and political cover. The fact is, though, that being sidelined a bit is not bad for her career. The foreign policy embarrassments of the Obama administration so far cannot possibly be attributed to her. READ MORE >>