Washington Post (November 28, 2013)
The government in Egypt is “steering toward autocracy rather than democracy…. The Obama administration has been eager to show support for Egypt’s leadership, but it is long past time to be honest about its behavior.”
Los Angeles Times (November 6)
“President Obama is slowly extricating the U.S. from its Bush-era fixation on the Middle East. But he is turning his attention in the wrong direction. Europe, not Asia, should be his main focus.”
Chicago Tribune (November 5)
“The U.S. drone program has come under enormous pressure from critics who say it claims innocent victims. President Barack Obama has vowed to provide more transparency in how targets are chosen and more accountability for strikes. But the death of Mehsud shows the enormous value of this high-tech warfare…. An international threat who was most likely beyond the reach of conventional troops has been felled. His predecessor met the same fate by the same means.”
Tags: Accountability, High-tech, Mehsud, Obama, Strikes, Targets, Threat, Transparency, Troops, U.S.. Drones, Victims, Warfare
Washington Post (October 8)
John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives “doesn’t know how to get out of the predicament. A shutdown is bad; a default on the debt, which looms 10 days from now, could be catastrophic…. At some point, Mr. Obama and the Democrats will have to throw the speaker a lifeline…. But throwing a lifeline is pointless until the victim realizes he may be drowning. It’s not clear the Republicans have reached that point. The danger is they will take the country down with them.”John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives “doesn’t know how to get out of the predicament. A shutdown is bad; a default on the debt, which looms 10 days from now, could be catastrophic…. At some point, Mr. Obama and the Democrats will have to throw the speaker a lifeline…. But throwing a lifeline is pointless until the victim realizes he may be drowning. It’s not clear the Republicans have reached that point. The danger is they will take the country down with them.”
Tags: Danger, Debt, Default, Democrats, House, John Boehner, Lifeline, Obama, Predicament, Republicans, Shutdown, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (October 8)
“President Barack Obama’s decision to skip a trip to Asia … was understandable given the circumstances, but it also has consequences. This is a crucial moment in America’s negotiations for free trade with Asia, and Obama is 10,000 miles away from the action.”
Tags: Asia, Circumstances, Consequences, Free trade, Negotiations, Obama, U.S.
New York Times (September 23)
The U.S. “has made commendable progress in reducing its emissions, and is halfway toward meeting Mr. Obama’s pledge at the Copenhagen climate summit meeting in 2009 to reduce its emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.” Globally, however, progress is not being made. “Steadily increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, rising sea levels, more violent weather events, persistent droughts…. The burden on the United States to set a positive example is as heavy as ever.”
Washington Post (September 12)
“Whatever the twisted path, whether by design or accident, the Obama administration has ended up in a better place on Syria than looked possible even days ago. The president was wise to take up and begin to test the Russian offer to remove and possibly destroy Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons.”“Whatever the twisted path, whether by design or accident, the Obama administration has ended up in a better place on Syria than looked possible even days ago. The president was wise to take up and begin to test the Russian offer to remove and possibly destroy Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons.”
Tags: Chemical weapons, Obama, Russia, Syria, U.S.
New York Times (July 30)
President Obama will need to appoint a replacement later this year to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term expires in January 2014. The incoming Chairman will be challenged to delicately wind down the Fed’s massive quantitative easing measures. Camps of support are already arising around the two front runners Lawrence Summers and Janet Yellen. The New York Times comes down firmly in the former’s support, writing “no one else can match Janet Yellen’s combination of academic credentials and policy-making experience. And no one ever confirmed to the job has come to it with as deep a grounding in both the theory and practice of monetary and regulatory policy as Ms. Yellen would bring.” Should she be confirmed, she would also become the first woman to head the Fed.President Obama will need to appoint a replacement later this year to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term expires in January 2014. The incoming Chairman will be challenged to delicately wind down the Fed’s massive quantitative easing measures. Camps of support are already arising around the two front runners Lawrence Summers and Janet Yellen. The New York Times comes down firmly in the former’s support, writing “no one else can match Janet Yellen’s combination of academic credentials and policy-making experience. And no one ever confirmed to the job has come to it with as deep a grounding in both the theory and practice of monetary and regulatory policy as Ms. Yellen would bring.” Should she be confirmed, she would also become the first woman to head the Fed.
Tags: Appointment, Ben Bernanke, Chairman, Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, Lawrence Summers, Obama, Quantitative easing, Replacement, U.S.
USA Today (June 7)
Hopefully the top leaders of the U.S. and China can move beyond the recent cyberattacks. “China is fast becoming a dominant world power. The U.S.-China relationship and rivalry will shape the rest of this century. If, as Obama and Xi hold their first summit, both understand this, perhaps they can work out ways to manage and reset the relationship. As with ordinary mortals, there is no better key to success than communication. The more frequent, the more open, the better.”
Tags: China, Cyberattacks, Obama, Summit, U.S., World power, Xi
Washington Post (March 28)
During his trip to Israel, President Obama “spoke more bluntly about Israel’s occupation and the case for a Palestinian state than any U.S. president has in the past…. Obama has recognized and employed the strongest — and perhaps only — path toward peace and a Palestinian state: an appeal to Israel’s conscience.”
Tags: Conscience, Israel, Obama, Palestine, Peace
