My review of Scott McClellan's book
Has been published in the new issue of The American Conservative. It's pasted here. To read, click on the pics and print them.
Posts
Can Obama Win in November?
Business Times - 05 Jun 2008 He needs the support of critical voting groups that traditionally vote for the Democratic presidential candidate By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT SENATOR Hillary Clinton won the Puerto Rico Democratic primary on Sunday in a landslide, beating Senator Barrack Obama - her rival for the party's presidential nomination - by a huge margin of 68 per cent to 32 per cent. Unfortunately for the former first lady, her victory in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico - a semi-autonomous colony of the US and whose residents do not get to vote in presidential elections - is not going to make it more likely that she will be returning to 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue any time soon. In fact, after the last Democratic primaries of the season in South Dakota and Montana - which together send 31 delegates to the Democratic convention - Mr Obama was able to claim during an address before more than 20,000 supporters in St Paul, Minnesota, that he had amassed enough pledged ...
Republicans outraged by insider's book on Iraq war
Business Times - 03 Jun 2008 By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT WATCHING the pro-Bush administration television talking heads bashing Scott McClellan, the former Bush White House press secretary, who has just published a book bashing his ex-boss, you would think that Mr McClellan has been brainwashed by a bunch of left-wing anti-war activists, if not by Al-Qaeda experts on psychological conditioning techniques. To say that President George W Bush, his aides, the neocons and the many operators who belong to the media outlets and front organisations affiliated with the Republican Party are angry at their former colleague would be an understatement. And you can feel their rage, as they describe Mr McClellan as a 'turncoat' who had sold his Republican soul to the anti-Bush devil, in exchange for...what? Was it money (perhaps a huge advance on his book)? Publicity (after all, Mr McClellan has been interviewed by every major media organisation)? Revenge (disgruntled employee gett...
Sexism has nothing to do with Hillary's fate
Business Times - 30 May 2008 At the centre of her campaign's message is the notion that she is tough and aggressive HEY, guys, I think that the time has come for us to take collective action and to resist the onslaught on our gender, on our rights and identity as Men. There is no place for anti-man(ism) in public life. And I'm not talking here about such issues as child custody and domestic violence where men in most Western societies are finding themselves now on the losing side (like who is going to believe that a Big Guy was beaten-up by his wife? Is he 'girlie' or something?). No. My main concern has to do with 'sexism' that according to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has raised its 'ugly head' during the current presidential campaign. 'Hillary' (is it sexist to refer to her by her first name?) has been 'whining' (oops . . . again . . . does this sound sexist?) that the press (here she and her aides provide a long l...
Americans can now debate: 'Who Lost the Middle East?'
Business Times - 27 May 2008 By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT AFTER the Chinese communists led by Mao Zedong won the civil war in China in 1949 and forced Chiang Kai-shek and his pro-American Chinese Nationalists to flee to Taiwan, US Congress and the press started to debate the question: 'Who Lost China?' Conservatives blamed the 'China Hands' in the US State Department, who were accused of exhibiting pro-communist sympathies, while liberal critics argued that Washington's long-time support for the corrupt Nationalists ended up producing an anti-American blowback in China. Considering the continuing decline in US influence in the Middle East - from the Persian Gulf, through the Levant and to the Holy Land - is it possible that sometime during the first or second term of the next occupant of the White House, when Iran, perhaps armed with nuclear weapons and supported by its proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, emerges as a dominant regional power, lawmakers...
Bush Visits His "New" Middle East
As he was drowning politically and personally in scandals that would lead eventually to a humiliating resignation from office, in June 1974 President Richard Nixon took a triumphant seven-day trip to four Arab states and Israel, where, as Time put it, “the huzzas and the hosannas fell like sweet rain.” The magazine suggested that, “coming out of the parched Watergate wasteland of Washington, the praise and the cheers of multitudes were welcome indeed, particularly since each stop, each spectacle, was beamed in living color back to the living rooms of the U.S.” Following on the flight-route of another unpopular and disgraced Republican White House occupant, President George W. Bush decided that since it was raining in the Midwest, in the form of his falling approval ratings, it was time to seek the sunshine of the Middle East, hoping that the television images of his five-day excursion to the region would help salvage his personal and political legacy in the Midwest and the rest of the ...
On "appeasement" and other topics
The International Affairs Forum published several commentaries on the situation in the Middle East including yours truly. Also checkout my deep thoughts on appeasement and tea, cyclones and sympathy.
Real mean politicking in US is about to begin
Business Times - 13 May 2008 Primaries have highlighted many issues that Republicans will try to use against Obama By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT A NOTE to all you political junkies out there: You thought that the presidential primaries were a lot of fun and you seemed to be enjoying the many televised debates between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and having great time watching all the nasty campaign commercials on television and YouTube ('It's 3:00am . . .'). And now that we are reaching the finish of the Hillary-Obama race, you feel a certain let-down, a post-primaries depression. Well, not to worry, folks! The Main Event - Barack Obama vs John McCain is about to start, and it would make the primaries look like a campaign for the student government in first grade. Indeed, we still have to endure a few more Democratic primaries this month, but we can already get a sense of the shape of things to come. After a Hamas spokesman suggested that his group 'loves...
Democratic presidential endgame is in sight
Business Times - 08 May 2008 Democratic presidential endgame is in sight After a rock-solid victory in the North Carolina primary, Obama looks set to win By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT SENATOR Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the Democratic race for party's presidential nomination, is back in business, and after a rock-solid victory in the North Carolina primary and a narrow loss in Indiana, he could be on his way to winning the Big Prize. 'Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from winning the Democratic nomination for President of the United States,' Mr Obama told his supporters in North Carolina, promising to lead the Democrats towards victory against presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the general election on November. During several weeks of gruelling election campaigning, Mr Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother, had suffered major electoral set-backs and public relations fiascos, and seemed to be ...
Global economics hogs US election campaign
Business Times - 06 May 2008 Global economics hogs US election campaign Clinton, Obama now portray themselves as protectionists and China bashers By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT THE recognition that American businesses had cut fewer jobs (20,000) than expected (about 90,000) in April and the perception that the US central bank seemed to be containing the threat of a financial meltdown may have helped boost the sense of mild optimism among investors in recent days. Indeed, there seems to be a feeling in the financial community that things are starting to get better and that, perhaps, the financial crisis is coming to an end. That sentiment has been reflected in the somewhat bullish mood in the stock markets and in growing expectations on Wall Street that the value of the various financial products will start climbing up soon. At the same time, officials in the Bush Administration and Republican lawmakers are hoping, wishing and praying that the US$117 billion in federal tax rebat...
Need a Nuclear Umbrella?
May 1, 2008 Need a (Nuclear) Umbrella? Call Hillary by Leon Hadar One of the central tenets of the US containment strategy during the Cold War was the belief in Moscow as well as in the capitals of America's allies across the Atlantic and the Pacific that in a crisis with the Communist powers, Americans would risk New York, Chicago and Los Angeles for London and Bonn, Tokyo and Seoul. Indeed, US strategy of "extended deterrence" – encapsulated in the metaphor of a "nuclear umbrella" – worked since the Soviet Union was presented with a credible threat of two-front war if they decided to launch nuclear attacks against America's allies whose security was considered to be a core US national interest. The extension of America's nuclear umbrella into Western Europe and East Asia became an integral part of formal agreements with the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Japan and South Korea that had been approved by Congress following an e...
Balance of Power
I attended an interesting discussion on U.S. relationship with Russia and China that was held by the National Interest magazine on Thursday, during which Harry Harding raised an important point (and this is not a direct quote): American officials, lawmakers and pundits tend to portary U.S. policy moves towards China (and other powers) as responses to Chinese (and other powers’) policies. Hence, the focus of foreign policy debates in Washington is on why China is doing this or that, say, why are the Chinese saving too much and not spending enough, as opposed to why America is doing this or that, say, why are Americans spending too much and not saving enough. We supposedly react to their actions. Harding insisted that at the end of the day, U.S. foreign policy is determined by the way that we define it. That definition explains why we feel the need to respond (or not to respond) to what the Chinese (and other powers) are doing. (read the rest here and more here. )
Surprises on the way
The May-November Surprise(s) Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by Leon Hadar Some of my friends in the reality-based community who have been celebrating the alleged (read the rest)
When will the US presidential race really begin?
Business Times - 24 Apr 2008 When will the US presidential race really begin? By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT SENATOR Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania - a crucial 'swing' state in the general presidential election - on Tuesday. Apparently, the margin of victory over her rival, Senator Barack Obama, about 10 per cent, is a number that seemed to have played well in the media-driven game of expectations. Indeed, most pundits had argued on the eve of the primary that Mrs Clinton would need to win by more than 8 per cent in order to gain the momentum she needed in order to continue in her fight for her party's presidential nomination. And she did very well among important demographic groups: women, blue collar workers, Catholics, Jews and older voters. Mrs Clinton achieved her victory in Pennsylvania after facing a younger and more charismatic figure who had enough resources to outspend her during the month-long campaign in a sta...