Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Obama and the end of great expectations
Four years ago the American presidential race excited people as no election in recent memory had. Not only would the election of Barack Obama mark the symbolic achievement of the first black president. Obama the candidate ran on an uplifting campaign promising “hope” and “change”. He would be a “transformative” president. His message energized many. […]
The real losers in this election are the voters
Romney’s videotaped dismissal of swathes of the electorate will hurt him, but Obama remains a lame duck, too. Read my spiked article in full here.
Romney’s troubles
Mitt Romney’s statement to donors¸ in which he complains that almost half the country is “dependent on government” and thus won’t vote for him, was badly argued and just plain dumb. It has damaged him politically. But the situation as not as dire for him, nor as positive for President Obama, as many are arguing. Romney was […]
Giving the green light to grievance
The Obama administration seems to see free speech as a bigger problem than attacks on its overseas embassies. Read my spiked article in full here.
US response to Middle East protests: validating grievances, sacrificing free speech
Once again, we see images of demonstrations and rioting in the capitals across the Middle East. But unlike the “Arab spring”, these protests are explicitly anti-American: gathering at US embassies, with placards denouncing the US and American flags in flames. In Libya, four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed following an attack on the US […]
Shouting ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire!’ is not serious politics
The rise of a tyranny of fact-checkers in the US election, who constantly call out politicians on their ‘lies’, is a very unhealthy development. Read my spiked article in full here.
The tyranny of the fact checkers
The election season in America has seen two new and related developments: constant accusations of “lies” and the rise of “fact checkers” as the arbiters of political debate. For the past two months or more, both the Obama and Romney camps have engaged in tit-for-tat accusations of lying. At the outset, both sides claimed the […]
That Eastwood routine again
Like many, I referred to Clint Eastwood’s skit at the Republican National Convention as “bizarre”. In a tweet, I called it a “debacle”. I still hold to those descriptions, but as comedy, it “killed”, as Bill Maher put it. Watching it again (see video above), Eastwood’s routine really had its moments. The use of the […]
Romney’s empty suit vs. Obama’s empty chair
With the hope hoopla of the 2008 campaign a distant memory, now we have a contest between a letdown president and a vacuous challenger. Read my spiked article in full here.
Enlightened liberals vs chicken-chewing morons
The Chick-fil-A controversy in America reveals just how illiberal and intolerant supporters of same-sex marriage are becoming. Read my spiked article in full here.