Robert Reich thinks a Obama/Clinton in 2012 is what is needed to save the Obama presidency. My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State — a position he’s apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President. So the Democratic [...]
Barack Obama
We’ve seen this campaign before
Obama of 2012 will resemble Bush of 2004 The last time an incumbent president faced re-election , George W. Bush exploited social and national security issues to offset his economic vulnerabilities. Over the next year, President Obama will try the same thing. Circumstances have changed drastically since 2004. America’s economic woes stand to dominate the [...]
What happened the night Osama Bin Laden was killed
Nicholas Schmindle reports in the New Yorker on what happened leading up to and during the raid that killed Bin Laden. The Americans hurried toward the bedroom door. The first SEAL pushed it open. Two of bin Laden’s wives had placed themselves in front of him. Amal al-Fatah, bin Laden’s fifth wife, was screaming in [...]
Do the Liberals need a national primary?
John Ibbitson thinks they do. Mr. Rae is touring the country and consulting what political types like to call the grassroots, though Alykhan Velshi, a former aide to Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, astutely calls them the grasstops. The grasstops are the riding executives, policy wonks, activists and other need-to-get-a-life types who make up the infrastructure [...]
Cutting our own wrists
Back in 2005 I saw a link to a review of Jared Diamond’s book Collapse on the New Yorker website. Malcolm Gladwell was telling the story of Norse settlers coming to Greenland a millennium ago and I found the story fascinating. Even to the Norse, Greenland was not a place that one would want to [...]
Default: Bachmann vs Boehner
Joe Trippi & Paul Goldman writes in Politico The debt ceiling issue is the first defining GOP presidential event because Bachmann is the only serious candidate with a vote in Congress. Tea party backers want to see her self-proclaimed “titanium spine.” If she plays it right, she can win huge. If not, she can become [...]
Column: Oil prices will force changes
Today’s column in The StarPhoenix Former CIBC economist Jeff Rubin was one of the first to say that oil would hit $100 a barrel, back when it was around $20. Now he is suggesting it could go to $200 in the next short while unless there’s another global recession. While many call for more drilling [...]
The lost art of journalism
About a month ago, venture capitalist Chris Sacca wrote this on Twitter. Journalism: The art of ignoring all the facts that don’t support the article you’ve already written. I retweeted this and replied: The same could be said for my blogging…. Sacca’s quote generated some discussion on Twitter and some email as well. Some asked [...]
Who has the best resume?
Timothy Egan points out that the best looking resume doesn’t always make the best leader. Harry S. Truman was ridiculed as a haberdasher — a wonderful old word that fell out of use as men’s clothiers gave way to big-box retailers. He was also the only 20th-century American president without a college degree. Yet Truman [...]
Obama’s Foreign Policy
From Robert Kaplan in Foreign Policy Obama has substantially withdrawn from Iraq, positioned America for a 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan, killed bin Laden, avoided war with Iran (even as industrial espionage slows Tehran’s drive for nuclear weapons), and overseen a more vigorous and creative foreign policy towards East Asia than did President George W. Bush, [...]
The bumpy road to the future goes through Saskatoon
Barack Obama is said to be thinking about tapping the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve. For those of you who have have never heard of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, here is Wikipedia The US SPR is the largest emergency supply in the world with the current capacity to hold up to 727 million barrels (115,600,000 [...]
