Barack Obama | AEIdeas

Monday, May 20, 2013

Politics and Public Opinion, The Presidency

President Obama’s White House counsel knew about the IRS targeting weeks before the president

Peter J. Wallison | May 20, 2013, 12:12 pm

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama’s White House counsel was told about the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups weeks before this policy was made public by the IRS. Purportedly, this information was not passed to President Obama. … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

A pivotal fight in Syria. US AWOL per usual

Danielle Pletka | May 20, 2013, 11:09 am

The fight now going on in the strategic city of Qusayr has already spilled over into neighboring Lebanon, where fighting between Alawites sympathetic to Bashar al Assad (himself an Alawite) are battling Sunnis who support the rebels in Syria. Three … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

Obama’s Syria fantasy

Paul Wolfowitz | May 16, 2013, 2:10 pm

If pigs had wings, perhaps they could fly. And if the US had some leverage, perhaps all the talk about a negotiated end to the Syrian crisis might amount to something. But even if the US could develop some negotiating … read more >

Pethokoukis

Obama has failed to restore faith in government

James Pethokoukis | May 15, 2013, 11:16 am

Politico: For five years, this president has been making the case that a growing and activist government has good intentions and can carry these intentions out with competence. Conservatives have warned that government is dangerous, and even good intentions get … read more >

Pethokoukis, Politics and Public Opinion, The Presidency

Scandals may shut the door on Obama’s progressive experiment

James Pethokoukis | May 14, 2013, 9:37 am

Democrats and left-wing pundits have long argued that Barack Obama would be their Ronald Reagan, a president who significantly shifted the nation’s political and economic landscape. With reelection and a second term, as Andrew Sullivan wrote last September, Obama would … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

Obama’s decision point on Turkey

Niklas Anzinger | May 14, 2013, 9:31 am

On May 16, 2013, President Obama will host Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the White House. In a January 2012 interview, Obama counted Erdoğan as one of his top five foreign friends. Erdoğan, who has made a half … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

The other red line

Maseh Zarif | May 2, 2013, 10:35 am

The lack of clear objectives and a corresponding strategy to deal with the larger Iran problem have, in part, driven the failure to roll back the Iranian nuclear threat. Iran is now approaching a point at which it will be … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

Obama on Syria: Something, something, chain of custody, nothing

Danielle Pletka | April 30, 2013, 12:16 pm

Barack Obama gave a quickie presser this morning that covered a wide range of issues including Syria, GTMO, Benghazi, and gun control. But the Syria story led the questioning, and the president did little to erase perceptions that he has … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Asia

Further jitters in Northeast Asia

Michael Auslin | April 29, 2013, 11:41 am

Last week, I stood at an observation post along the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea, overlooking the soon-to-be-abandoned Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea. The only tangible, if overrated, symbol of cooperation between the two Koreas, it has fallen victim … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East and North Africa

The red line: Chemical weapons in Syria

Danielle Pletka | April 25, 2013, 12:39 pm

The White House today admitted what has been known for some time: The Syrian regime used chemical weapons to attack its own people. The opposition first accused the Assad regime of using chemical agents some time ago, but the accusations … read more >

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