 | The Supreme Court's dog-day afternoon Oct 31st 2012, 23:50 The Supreme Court has a Lemon Test (for church-and-state separation), a Miller Test (obscenity) and a Smith Test (religious freedom), not to mention the late Justice Potter Stewart's pornography test: He knew it when he saw it. Read full article >>   | | Obama's campaign goes empty and strident Oct 31st 2012, 23:42 "It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man." — Calvin Coolidge Energetic in body but indolent in mind, Barack Obama in his frenetic campaigning for a second term is promising to replicate his first term, although simply apologizing would be appropriate. His long campaign's bilious tone — scurrilities about Mitt Romney as a monster of, at best, callous indifference; adolescent japes about "Romnesia" — is discordant coming from someone who has favorably compared his achievements to those of "any president" since Lincoln, with the "possible" exceptions of Lincoln, LBJ and FDR. Obama's oceanic self-esteem — no deficit there — may explain why he seems to smolder with resentment that he must actually ask for a second term. Read full article >>   | | How do you vote for compromise? Oct 31st 2012, 23:41 Here's where we have arrived as a country: We are so polarized that even compromise has become a partisan issue. As the 2012 campaign closes, bipartisanship and "working together" are more in vogue than ever because the few voters still up for grabs tend to be more moderate, less partisan and less ideological. Read full article >>   | | Oct 31st 2012, 23:40 Let's enjoy those drone aircraft that let us kill with impunity while we can, because, as military history tells us, advantages gained through new technology don't last long. There are plenty of examples. When the British Navy built Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun battleship, the ship was soon copied and a naval arms race ensued. The United States built and demonstrated the first atomic bomb; now numerous countries have them or want them. When the Philistines saw what David did to Goliath, they probably created a slingshot corps that fired even bigger rocks. Read full article >> | | Oct 31st 2012, 23:40 Ambassador Kurt Volker makes a cogent and balanced case, particularly from a moral standpoint, for more circumspection in ourthe United States' reliance on the use of drone strikes to degrade or eliminate terrorist capabilities. However, he neglects one critical argument. By killing terrorists instead of capturing them, admittedly a significantly more difficult task, the United States deprives itself of vital intelligence which could help disrupt future acts of terrorism. Former senior CIA official Jose Rodriguez and others have made this case very eloquently. The moral argument against over-reliance on the use of drones notwithstanding, our country would derive much greater benefit from capturing and interrogating these individuals instead of simply killing them. Read full article >> | | Oct 31st 2012, 23:40 Every day men with evil intent wake up and plan on ways to kill Americans. Thank goodness our government has the drone program designed to thwart them. I hope, and expect, that we have many additional capabilities that are not being reported on. Remember, our enemies read newspapers too. Read full article >> | | The rules for drone warfare Oct 31st 2012, 23:40 As someone who once monitored drone operations, I am troubled by Ambassador Kurt Volker's critique of them ["The risks of relying on drones," op-ed, Oct. 28]. Mr. Volker seemingly condemned them: "People go to the office, launch a few kill shots." But rather than calling for a ban, he essentially applied the Powell Doctrine — including such requirements as a strict cost-benefit analysis; the support of Congress, the public and allies; a clear endgame — to their use. Read full article >> | | Oct 31st 2012, 23:40 Although I have long been a strong supporter of Barack Obama, I have watched with growing concern his use of military might and, especially, his increasing dependence on drones. Those of us who believed Mr. Obama to be a person of peace are having to rethink our position. Read full article >> | | Editorial Board: In the wake of Hurricane Sandy Oct 31st 2012, 23:21 BY WEDNESDAY afternoon, much of the water that had flooded New York City during Hurricane Sandy had receded into the harbor. But recovery crews were still furiously pumping water out of the city's subterranean arteries. Four East River subway tunnels remained inundated. Electricity was still out south of 39th Street, along with many traffic lights, and the city's death toll stood at 22. With New Yorkers scrambling to get around, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) announced that only cars carrying three or more people would be allowed on bridges or into open tunnels. New York is just one portrait of a disaster that largely spared the Washington region but pummeled areas north. Read full article >>   | | Not as big an election as we think Oct 31st 2012, 22:28 LONDON "Is this presidential election really the most important in our lifetime?" That was the question asked, in so many words, by a concerned Brit at a discussion here a few days ago. His words were directed at the political analyst Larry Sabato, whose countenance had been beamed onto a conference-room screen like some giant electronic guru. Sabato didn't blink. "This presidential election," he replied, "is definitely the most important since 2008." Read full article >>   | | Alexandra Petri: Letitia Baldrige, master of manners Oct 31st 2012, 22:00 Several books were the bane of my childhood. There was the psychology book that I whipped out to insist that we had fallen into a "dependent love cycle" every time my parents tried to change my bedtime. There was the Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations that made me the bane of any convivial gathering. "As Noel Coward articulated," I would say, "I can take any amount of criticism, so long as it is unadulterated praise." Read full article >>   | | Jennifer Rubin: Romney's turn to spin Oct 31st 2012, 21:45 In the battle of the campaign spin the Romney camp made political director Rich Beeson, pollster Neil Newhouse and senior adviser Russ Schriefer available for a media call this afternoon. As you might expect they think they are, in Schriefer's words, in a "very, very good place." He and the other Romney advisers point to Romney's lead in favorability, the intensity of Republican voters (reflected in part in early voting in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Ohio) and Romney's lead among independents. In Florida they predicted that they would triumph among Election Day voters by double digits and that combined with strength in the Panhandle, the Interstate 4 corridor and Jacksonville and among Jewish and Cuban voters Romney would win that state. Read full article >>   | | Romney caught red-handed Oct 31st 2012, 20:19 One of the causalities of political discourse is the language itself. George Orwell said political language often attempts "to make lies sound truthful . . . and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." I would submit that this description fits Mitt Romney as well as any politician I have ever observed. Read full article >>   | | Alexandra Petri: Nate Silver's weatherman problem Oct 31st 2012, 19:49 Of course the Commentating Class is railing at Nate Silver. With his popular FiveThirtyEight blog at the New York Times, using a statistical model and poll averages to predict the outcome of the election — and resulting in a fairly steady prediction of Obama victory — he has gotten an alarming number of backs up. Of course he has. He combines two of their greatest fears: losing their jobs and being required to do math. Read full article >>   | | Sandy's closing argument Oct 31st 2012, 19:25 There's something powerful yet perplexing in our response to the havoc wrought by Hurricane Sandy. The universal impulse is empathy for those who've been hurt through no fault of their own and a determination to mobilize collectively via government to ease the pain and fix the damage. Yes, of course, there are utility contractors, religious groups and nonprofits like the Red Cross doing essential work – every hand is needed on deck — but we rightly expect government to lead when it comes to coping with calamity. Read full article >> | | Jamelle Bouie: No, the electoral map isn't expanding Oct 31st 2012, 18:10 President Obama's achilles heel in this election is his performance with white voters. If he falls below 40 percent, his prospects for reelection are endangered. Given the tight race Iowa, and the seemingly tight race in Michigan, one theory is that Obama has slipped below the critical mark for white support. It's part of the reason the Romney campaign is loudly touting its efforts to "expand" the electoral map and put President Obama on the defensive in several key states. To wit, the Restore Our Future Super PAC has launched a $1.8 million ad buy in Minnesota and New Mexico — two relatively safe states for Obama — and the Romney campaign itself has made moves in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Read full article >>   | | Why Obama/Romney won Oct 31st 2012, 18:01 We don't yet know who will win next week's election, but we may know why. To answer, we don't need to explain most voting. Remember: The race has been tight for months. Most people decided long ago, probably on the basis of strong partisan and ideological views or deep personal likes and dislikes. All we need to explain is why the undecided swung victory one way or the other. Read full article >>   | |
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