OK, Let’s Decline

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

“Leading From Behind”

A recent report in The New Yorker suggested that the Obama’s administration’s weird sort of/sort of not foreign policy is now gleefully self-described as “leading from behind.” Continue reading “OK, Let’s Decline”

The American Soviet

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The security forces of Bashar Assad — a thug whom Hillary Clinton deemed a “reformer,” and with whom Barack Obama was determined to restore diplomatic relations — are slaughtering hundreds in the streets of Syria’s major cities. I know that the Turkish government will express no outrage. Continue reading “The American Soviet”

Patient Obama

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Last week the president gave a speech on the deficit [1], rightly trying to convince Americans that it is now beyond unsustainable. Yet his theme was that the Republicans’ attempts to reduce it were cold-hearted, endangering the most vulnerable among us, such as those with Down’s Syndrome, while protecting the proverbial “rich” from commensurate sacrifice. Continue reading “Patient Obama”

The Obama Doctrine

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The Obama Doctrine is simple: Proclaim a utopian policy, and then pray that most of the people who hear it are Neanderthals who will ignore it. Having said one thing, doing quite another is not only thereby okay, but also absolutely essential. Keep that paradox in mind, and almost everything the president does makes sense. Continue reading “The Obama Doctrine”

America Through the Looking Glass

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

President Obama yesterday praised Brazil for its new offshore oil industry and said he wants to buy as much oil as possible in this new win-win partnership — although we have piled up $5 trillion in new debt, curtailed new petroleum exploration off shore and in the West, as well as kept Alaska off-limits. Continue reading “America Through the Looking Glass”

President Hamlet

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

More than 400 years ago, William Shakespeare wrote a riveting tragedy about a young, charismatic Danish prince who vowed to do the right thing in avenging his murdered father. That soon proved easier said than done. As a result, Hamlet couldn’t quite ever act in time — given all the ambiguities that such a sensitive prince first had to sort out. Continue reading “President Hamlet”

Decline Is in the Mind

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

It’s Over? Really?

In the last two years, we have a heard a constant litany of “decline,” as in America is over as it once was. Fifth-century AD Rome is often evoked, as are the contemporary economic miracles in China and India to “prove” inevitable American waning. Continue reading “Decline Is in the Mind”

After Obama, the Deluge

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

President Obama established a bipartisan debt-reduction commission — and then ignored its findings, which called for unpopular reductions in entitlements and across-the-board spending cuts. Continue reading “After Obama, the Deluge”

Obama’s 1979

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Obama’s deer-in-the-headlights, finger-to-the-wind, “I can’t believe this is happening to me” initial reaction to the Mubarak implosion has eerie precedents. Continue reading “Obama’s 1979”

Proteus-in-Chief

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Barack Obama 1.0 had a solid record of hard-left governance as an Illinois state representative and US senator. He voted for partial-birth abortion, wanted all troops out of Iraq by March 2008, and proved himself the most partisan of the 100 members of the Senate, even to the left of the only Socialist senator, Bernie Sanders. Continue reading “Proteus-in-Chief”