President Obama
Sequester: The Tragic Folly of President Obama’s Tried-and-Failed Negotiating Strategy, Pt. 1
March 25, 2013 | Eric ShapiroOn the heels of an inauguration speech widely celebrated by liberals and progressives, President Obama almost immediately fell back into some of the same patterns that hampered his first term agenda. Despite a more aggressive posture, a candidate who talked a good game about changing the country proved reluctant to alter his own governing style to meet the challenge.
Marco Rubio’s State of the Union Response: Mitt Romney with a Latino Twist
February 13, 2013 | Eric ShapiroYou needn’t bother watching Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) strikingly mediocre response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address. It boils down to this: in their cynical analysis, the G.O.P. is convinced that its dogmas will sound better coming from the mouth of a Hispanic-American with humble roots than a lily-white plutocrat born with a silver spoon in his Mormon mouth.
War on Women: Why the GOP is Obsessed With Your Uterus
February 4, 2013 | Eric ShapiroFor those who think the Catholic Church and social conservatives’ objection to Obama’s new offer on birth control coverage is based on “conscience,” I have God’s first iteration of the Ten Commandments to sell you.
With Second Inaugural, President Obama Lays Out Broad Vision for Progressive Change in Second Term
January 22, 2013 | Eric ShapiroObama’s second inaugural address was, in turns, more modest and bolder than his first. On the one hand, gone were the calls for bipartisanship and, by implication, the idea that an opposition party dedicated solely to thwarting his aims can be counted on as a viable negotiating partner. Changing the political culture in Washington, it seems, is not within the power of the President. John F. Harris and Jonathan Martin of Politico point out that “Obama made no mention of transforming the political and governing process in his speech.”
Furthering the Legacy: How President Obama Can Live up to MLK’s Dream in His Second Term
January 21, 2013 | Eric ShapiroDespite the re-election of an African American president, it is ludicrous to claim Martin Luther King’s social philosophy, a historically-rooted mix of political and theological precepts that combines the best of the liberal American tradition with Ghandhian non-violence and civil disobedience, has been fully realized.