The former president drew criticism for the "fairy tale" comment he made while campaigning in New Hampshire for his wife Hillary Clinton, Obama's main rival for the Democratic Party nomination in the November presiden
Petards can be dangerous devices. For a couple who brag about their ties to the African-American community, these attacks on Obama seem uncharacteristically tone-deaf. Using terms like "fairy tale" to describe Obama's call for change and unity may say a lot more about the Clintons than it does about Obama.
Obama's October 2, 2002, speech at an anti-war rally in Chicago in which he laid out his case against the war provides a very strong refutation of the case that his opposition to the war did not necessitate leadership and courage. The speech was exceptionally prescient, and it was a serious wager in direct opposition to the claims of the Bush administration, most of which went unchallenged by a majority of House and Senate Democrats at the time.
Hillary Clinton on the trail.
Young women at Hillary Clinton's alma mater, Wellesley, are torn: Do you vote for a woman to shatter the glass ceiling and further the cause? Or do you make an empowered, individual decision that is not confined by gender?
An unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House? Ahem... Gloria? Can you say anything about the feminist issues entailed in a woman running for the presidency on her husband's accomplishments? If not, you're speaking as a Clinton partisan and not as someone who wants to seriously engage with feminism.
I don't have a feminist obligation to vote for Hillary Clinton, or donate money to her campaign, or show up at her rallies. My obligation is to support her right to compete on an equal playing field. To decry the disgusting amount of sexism she faces every day. And then to vote for another candidate if I feel he would make a better president. That, too, is a feminist act.
Ready or not, the world will be scrutinizing China.
Many human rights activists on the left and the right have come to refer to this summer's Beijing Olympics as the "Genocide Olympics," for China's support of regimes such as Sudan and Burma. Some U.S. and European legislators, movie stars and activists have even called for a boycott. But Chinese officials fired back this week, rejecting any attempts to connect humanitarian concerns about Sudan's embattled Darfur region to the summer games.
China was not ready to host the Games in 2001, when they were awarded, and it is not ready now. The Beijing Olympics organizing committee is already trying to lower foreign expectations. “We can’t please everybody,” said spokesman Sun Weide. Some activists argue the International Olympic Committee should take away the Olympics from China. I say keep the Games in Beijing to maintain the spotlight on the Communist Party — and a complicit IOC.
With the Olympic tenet of non-politicization as its shield, China cries foul at every turn when it comes to Darfur, pleading that it is neither appropriate nor fair to introduce politics into sport by linking the Games with the violence in Sudan. It is, however, China's own fault that it finds itself on the eve of its geopolitical prom detangling politics from its precious Games.
Jane Hambleton has dubbed herself the "meanest mom on the planet." After finding alcohol in her son's car, she decided to sell the car and share her 19-year-old's misdeed with everyone — by placing an ad in the local newspaper.
The family became instantly famous, appearing on "Good Morning America."
Did Hambleton do the right thing? And what's the best way to punish an errant child?
I'm afraid I would have wimped out and just taken the car away for awhile, with a scolding and a warning for good measure.
Because while I wear "the meanest mom" as a badge of honour -- and truth be told, I think my kids are secretly proud that I care enough to set limits --it does wear you down, especially when it seems you're the only mother around who ever says, "No." I may be great at setting strict rules, but a disaster when it comes to following through.
Discipline isn't only about punishment. It's about teaching your child to follow rules, which is necessary for navigating the world. Punishment has its place, of course, but what's most important is for you to be firm, consistent, and caring in how you expect your child to act. Kids may chafe at limits and discipline, but they secretly crave both.
Was the New Hampshire vote on the up-and-up?
New Hampshire isn't over. Not quite.
Dennis Kucinich is asking for a recount of votes in that state's primary election, which was held Tuesday, saying he wants ''100 percent of the voters had 100 percent of their votes counted.''
Kucinich is going to spend at least $2,000 out of his campaign funds to conduct a recount based on Internet rumors. The total could run much higher than that, depending on the cost of the recount, and Kucinich -- who finished dead last --would not benefit from any adjustment in the vote totals. The one campaign that might, and who actually has the cash to pay for a recount, hasn't asked for one. Why not? Because the Barack Obama team doesn't make decisions by listening to the fever swamps.
There's tremendous arrogance and/or ignorance at play when people assume that Hillary Clinton's victory in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary is or might be explained by election fraud. Has it not occurred to those people who know little or nothing about voting patterns in New Hampshire that the hundreds of staffers on the Obama and Edwards campaigns, who've immersed themselves in past voting data and models of expected vote turnouts for Tuesday, wouldn't these staffers have noticed discrepancies that might warrant a recount? If Tuesday's results really were the likely result of malfeasance, the Obama and Edwards campaigns would be raising holy hell.
Can this gap be bridged?
President Bush visited Ramallah yesterday and laid out new details of his plans for establishing a Palestinian state, saying he is "confident" a historic agreement can be brokered during the final year of his presidency despite the sharp differences between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
"Some day I hope that as a result of a formation of a Palestinian state there won't be walls and checkpoints, that people will be able to move freely in a democratic state," Bush said. "That's the vision, greatly inspired by my belief that there is an Almighty, and a gift of that Almighty to each man, woman and child on the face of the Earth is freedom. And I felt it strongly here today."
While Bush argues that the Palestinians have to be shown what they can achieve if they eschew terror and accept Israel, he never mentions what price they must pay for their continued, open support for Israel's destruction and support for and involvement in the global jihad. In his treatment, then, of the Palestinian war against Israel and its central role in the global jihad, Bush has done more to undermine the coherence of his recognition of the challenges of the 21st century and his own legacy in shaping the free world's war against the forces of terror and jihad than anyone else.
Optimism is more useful than skepticism and faint-heartedness in such difficult enterprises as the Middle East peace effort. Bush is also right -- if rather late -- in encouraging the Israelis and Palestinians to find a settlement by holding open and honest talks. And all previous attempts -- including numerous UN resolutions -- have failed. But Bush will not achieve his goal by adopting a friendly, but non-committal approach.
