The Stakes in Tonight’s Foreign Policy Debate

by Bruce Thornton

FrontPage Magazine

Foreign policy, the topic of tonight’s debate, was suddenly thrust into the voters’ consciousness by the murder of 4 Americans, including our ambassador, in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11. Intensifying the fallout of this event has been the Obama administration’s incoherent, clumsy, duplicitous, and rapidly unraveling attempt to blame the terrorist murders on a YouTube movie trailer lampooning Mohammed, in order to downplay the strength of the heavily armed jihadist outfits, some connected to al Qaeda, now swarming in Libya as a result of our overthrow of Muammar Gadhafi. Continue reading “The Stakes in Tonight’s Foreign Policy Debate”

The Nobel Committee and Its Orwellian Peace Prize

by Bruce Thornton

FrontPage Magazine

Norway’s Nobel Committee added yet another absurd pick to its long list of politicized and shameful Peace Prize awards. Giving the prize to the disintegrating European Union is not as despicable as giving it to the bloodstained terrorist Yasser Arafat, or as laughably naive as bestowing it on the communist fraud Rigoberta Menchú. Continue reading “The Nobel Committee and Its Orwellian Peace Prize”

The Game Changes

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Usually after a presidential debate, both sides spin the results. But after the first face-off between President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney, Obama’s exasperated handlers made no such effort. How could they when most opinion polls revealed that two-thirds of viewers thought Obama lost? Continue reading “The Game Changes”

A Presidency Squandered

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The Obama narrative is that he inherited the worst mess in memory and has been stymied ever since by a partisan Congress — while everything from new ATM technology to the Japanese tsunami conspired against him. But how true are those claims? Continue reading “A Presidency Squandered”

The Obama Breaking Point

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Was it the blame-gaming — “Bush did it!,” ATMs are at fault, tsunamis are the culprit, no other administration has had such challenges, the euro meltdown is to blame, earthquakes shook our confidence — that finally turned the country off of Obama? Continue reading “The Obama Breaking Point”

The Ever-Stranger Case of a Murdered US Ambassador

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

In the past — in Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, etc. — the murder of an American ambassador sparked immediate debates over security lapses, but in the Libyan case the media seems to be doing its best not to investigate the circumstances around the murders. Continue reading “The Ever-Stranger Case of a Murdered US Ambassador”

The First Amendment vs. Multiculturalism

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The American Left used to champion free expression. We were lectured — correctly — that the price of being repulsed by occasional crude talk and art was worth paying. Only that way could Americans ensure our daily right to criticize those with greater power and influence whom we found wrong and objectionable. Continue reading “The First Amendment vs. Multiculturalism”

Anatomy of a Disastrous Debate Performance

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The Romney-Obama debate was bizarre for so many reasons. Usually spin masters needle the media immediately to “prove” that their so-so candidate won. But after this debate, almost no one made the argument that Obama was close to winning — so great was the risk for even a toadying media to look ridiculous and so clear-cut the ineptness of the president. Continue reading “Anatomy of a Disastrous Debate Performance”

The Clear Alternatives in the Presidential Debate

by Bruce Thornton

FrontPage Magazine

Forget all the pre-debate handicapping and advice about what Mitt Romney needed to do or what Barack Obama had to avoid. Last night’s debate clarified the stark choice facing American voters on November 6. On the one hand, we heard a candidate who endorses limited government, individual rights and freedom, free market economic policies, and personal self-reliance and autonomy that the Constitution was created to protect. Continue reading “The Clear Alternatives in the Presidential Debate”

The Problem Last Night Was Not Just Obama

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

The problem for Obama is not that his performance was disastrous, but rather that it was his normal workmanlike coasting. But this time, and for the first time, he was pitted against a skilled debater who had both the better argument and the better intellectual artillery to deliver it. Disengaged cool could not cut it. “My/I/me/mine” first-person overload was of no value. Continue reading “The Problem Last Night Was Not Just Obama”