Home › Opinion › Op-Ed

Latest Opinions

Israeli attack on Iran may be imminent

 February 4, 2012

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran militarily over...

Raucous convention awaits GOP

 February 3, 2012

For political junkies, this is the midwinter of our discontent. With the Florida Republican primary over with, there is more than a month to go before Super Tuesday, and the next debate is three weeks away. That means I have even less...

Mustering two cheers for Euro's Super Mario

 February 2, 2012

Two years into the European debt crisis, there was something faintly comical about the headline in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal: "Leaders of Euro Zone Agree on Closer Union." That phrase must be on a program key on computers in...

Defending Paula Deen's Southern-fried decisions

 February 1, 2012

Celebrity chef Paula Deen lustily massages salt into "a mighty fat hog," as the dogs circle the cooking island. For the yams, "I'm only using half a stick of butter," she drawls before breaking into high laughter. Deen's popular Food...

Bonfire of the billionaires: Burning through the budget

 January 31, 2012

Republicans, Democrats, the tea party and the Occupy Movement - it seems every American from 1 to 99 seems to have their own favorite plan on how to tackle taxes and federal spending. Assuming there's room for one more plan, I've borrowed bits...

The seeds of change in snowy, showy Davos

 January 30, 2012

The organizers of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland were self-critical enough to organize panels this year on such dark topics as "Is Capitalism Failing?" and "Global Risks 2012: The Seeds of Dystopia." And these were just the latest...

President Obama's blustery State of the Union flop

 January 28, 2012

Once upon a time, small ball was not Barack Obama's game. Tuesday, it was the essence of his State of the Union address. The visionary of 2008 - purveyor of hope and change, healer of the Earth, tamer of the rising seas - offered an hour of...

Is the U.S. heading for a Soviet-style fall?

 January 26, 2012

The foreign-policy theme that should dominate this year's presidential campaign is "American renewal." Each candidate claims to have a strategy for halting the nation's decline, but their versions often amount to "more of the same" -...

The problem is your tax rate, Mitt

 January 25, 2012

It's no secret that Mitt Romney is rich. He was born rich and got mega-millions richer as a financier. Nor is it a secret that his income is mostly taxed at 15 percent, a far lower rate than middle-class grunts pay. Nor does he have any...

Tehran may finally be getting the message

 January 23, 2012

The Iran nuclear crisis is far from over, but Tehran appears to have made a subtle blink - backing away from its threat a few weeks ago to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to escalating U.S. sanctions.

The softening of Iran's position...

GOP marches toward presidential defeat

 January 21, 2012

It's the campaign line of the year: "Are you better off today than you were $4 trillion ago?"

And while the author, former presidential candidate Rick Perry, won't be carrying it into the general election, the eventual nominee...

China tightens hand on Iranian oil spigot

 January 19, 2012

The squeeze is already beginning on Iran's oil exports - and guess which nation quietly reduced its purchases from Tehran this month. Why, that would be China, Iran's supposed protector.

The Chinese cut their imports from Iran roughly in...

Huntsman's departure hurts GOP many ways

 January 18, 2012

Politically astute Republicans, including many social conservatives, see Mitt Romney as the strongest candidate to beat President Obama in November. The former Massachusetts governor may not be their kind of Republican, but any Republican would...

Bain seemed to skip the 'Humanity Clause'

 January 16, 2012

During the Great Depression, my father toiled in a box factory. The workers were all flat broke, he recalled, and desperate for every nickel. But when overtime hours appeared, the men made sure they went to a guy with kids. The laborers...

Ron Paul's achievement is gaining legitimacy

 January 14, 2012

There are two stories coming out of New Hampshire. The big story is Mitt Romney. The bigger one is Ron Paul.

Romney won a major victory with nearly 40 percent of the vote, 16 points ahead of No. 2. The split among his challengers made the...

Taliban quietly arrive to negotiate at the table

 January 12, 2012

For some real-life intrigue at the start of this new year, take a look at the secret diplomacy that's under way between the United States and the Taliban. Most observers are skeptical the process will produce any breakthroughs, but it's...

Candidate's religion shouldn't guide votes

 January 11, 2012

In the midst of lively public debates over taxes, jobs, the national debt and similarly important questions related to the future vitality of our nation and the best presidential candidate to represent the Republican Party, a different kind of...

Tough U.S. policy is pushing Iran toward war

 January 8, 2012

The latest warning by Iran, that a United States aircraft carrier that recently transited through the Strait of Hormuz should not do so again, is a sign to the West that should be well-observed. It tells us the regime in Tehran is ready for a...

Ahab stalks the Great White Mitt in Granite State

 January 7, 2012

After every other conservative alternative to Mitt Romney crashed and burned (libertarian Ron Paul is in a category of his own), from the rubble emerges Rick Santorum. But he isn't just the last man standing. He is the first challenger to be...

Either only one term or another tough term for Obama

 January 4, 2012

Campaign 2012 is upon us. Time to size up President Obama's re-election chances. What do the data suggest?

In 2011, an average of 17 percent of the public was "satisfied with the way things are going," according to the Gallup Poll. That is...

Perry likely heading back to Texas a diminished figure

 January 3, 2012

You can't say Texas Gov. Rick Perry didn't go all in to try to win Iowa. He's spent far and away the most of any candidate. Mike Allen reports, "Rick Perry is the king of the airwaves, spending $2.86 million in December alone, according to ad...

Since Solyndra downfall, $80B program looking like a political liability

 January 1, 2012

Linda Sterio remembers the excitement when President Obama arrived at Solyndra last year and described how his administration's financial support for the plant was helping create hundreds of jobs. The company's prospects appeared...

Gingrich's frightening fiscal fantasies

 January 1, 2012

The idea of Newt Gingrich becoming president is no longer so far-feteched. So now that he has obtaiend front-runner status in some Republican presidential primaries, his positions on important public policies such as Social Security and income...

Separating Thatcher myths from reality

 December 28, 2011

Britain in the early 1970s was decayed, ungovernable and globally irrelevant, done in by the cumulative effect of postwar socialist reforms. Margaret Thatcher, who came to power as the nation's first female prime minister in 1979, returned...

Sometimes fact checking doesn't tell the whole political story

 December 28, 2011

Last year, PolitiFact, a widely cited "fact-checking" project of the Tampa Bay Times, awarded its "Lie of the Year" to Republicans who said that the health care law President Barack Obama had signed amounted to a "government takeover" of the...

Opinion Bloggers

Popular on theday.com

Interact