Richard Cohen:
"For all of Mitt Romney’s talk of what he would do on day one in the White House — bomb Iran or was it Planned Parenthood? — there’s just as good a chance he would be tacking up two pictures on the wall. One would be of George H.W. Bush and the other of Jimmy Carter. They both became one-term presidents after they were challenged in the primaries. This is a lesson for Romney.
It is also a lesson for everyone who thinks that if Romney becomes president, he would govern from the center. This is a widely held belief, encouraged by the Romney camp itself and the supposed gaffe of Eric Fehrnstrom that the world would see a different Romney in the general election: “Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.” This is not a gaffe, but a feint. Romney would be able to restart nothing.
In the first place, Romney would likely have a Republican House, and maybe a Senate, too. This means he has to work with a party that has just recently punished Richard Lugar for excessive moderation and is willing, at this very moment, to bring down the country’s credit rating another notch rather than budge on the debt ceiling. To Romney, who made a fortune with the clever prestidigitation of debt, this has to make no sense, but he would go along because (1) he’d have to and (2) he always does.
Congress, though, would be the least of President Romney’s troubles. The real threat to him will come from the very core of a Republican Party, which likes him little and trusts him less. The moment he shows the slightest moderate or rational tick, someone such as Rick Santorum will come barreling out of the GOP’s piney woods, screaming oaths (in Latin) and enter the 2016 Iowa caucuses that, you might remember, he won in 2012. Santorum must be itching for such a fight, having already called Romney “the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.” That, folks, is not a fudge....."
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"Unapologetic pursuit and tracking of patterns within the news others make since 2010."
Showing posts with label Richard Cohen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Cohen. Show all posts
May 1, 2012
SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "How long must Syrians wait? "
Richard Cohen:
"The United States seems to have two plans to deal with what is fast becoming a civil war in Syria. Plan A calls for the full implementation of the U.N. cease-fire and the complete cooperation of Bashar al-Assad, a dictator who would, at the risk of his very life, give up some power to the opposition. Plan B, on the other hand, envisions a military response through air power. For that to be implemented, Plan A must fail and more Syrians must die.
Just how many more Syrians must die no one can say. But it seems pretty clear that the toll — now in excess of 9,000 — must mount before the U.S., NATO and maybe the Turks and the Saudis will move to bring the slaughter to a halt. Bloomberg News reports that “more than 500 people” have been killed since the start of the cease-fire on April 12. This cease-fire is more fire than cease.
Few people in Washington have much faith in the U.N. plan, advanced by former Secretary-general Kofi Annan. He has been doing what he has been trained to do — go through the motions of peacemaking. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but there is a protocol to these things that has to be honored. Yet as each ticket is punched, more people die. ...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
"The United States seems to have two plans to deal with what is fast becoming a civil war in Syria. Plan A calls for the full implementation of the U.N. cease-fire and the complete cooperation of Bashar al-Assad, a dictator who would, at the risk of his very life, give up some power to the opposition. Plan B, on the other hand, envisions a military response through air power. For that to be implemented, Plan A must fail and more Syrians must die.
Just how many more Syrians must die no one can say. But it seems pretty clear that the toll — now in excess of 9,000 — must mount before the U.S., NATO and maybe the Turks and the Saudis will move to bring the slaughter to a halt. Bloomberg News reports that “more than 500 people” have been killed since the start of the cease-fire on April 12. This cease-fire is more fire than cease.
Few people in Washington have much faith in the U.N. plan, advanced by former Secretary-general Kofi Annan. He has been doing what he has been trained to do — go through the motions of peacemaking. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but there is a protocol to these things that has to be honored. Yet as each ticket is punched, more people die. ...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
March 20, 2012
SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Israel’s need to buy time"
Richard Cohen:
"Nations have doctrines. The Soviet Union had the Brezhnev Doctrine and the United States had the Monroe Doctrine, among others. Even little Israel has one. I call it the Maybe the Dog Will Talk Doctrine and it is based on a folk tale of the rabbi who makes a preposterous deal with a tyrant: If the tyrant spares the lives of local Jews, the rabbi will teach the tyrant’s dog to talk. When the rabbi tells his wife what he has done, she calls him a fool. But, he says, “A year is a long time. In a year, the tyrant could die or I could die” — and here he gives her a sly wise rabbi smile — “or maybe the dog will talk.”
All sorts of people — defense intellectuals, military officers and even the president of the United States — either have not heard of the Maybe the Dog Will Talk Doctrine or do not recognize its importance. (It was cited to me by an Israeli official.) Both Barack Obama and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have characterized any Israeli attempt to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program as a short-term affair. An Israeli raid “wouldn’t achieve their long-term objectives,” Dempsey said on CNN — and he is surely right.
But Israel also has a short-term objective — and that is to play for time. Israel notes that its 1981 bombing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq set back Saddam Hussein’s program — and did not result in some sort of massive retaliation. Something similar happened with the 2007 bombing of a Syrian installation. Neither operation was conceived as a long-term solution, but both accomplished short-term goals. In a year or two, much could change in the Middle East. The region’s in turmoil. Dogs are talking all over the place.....
.......Sanctions may cause Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program, if indeed that’s where it is now heading. But critics of Israel’s approach have to understand that Iran’s program looks different from Tel Aviv than it does from Washington. In the long run, an Israeli attack on Iran will accomplish nothing. In the short run, it could accomplish quite a lot...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
"Nations have doctrines. The Soviet Union had the Brezhnev Doctrine and the United States had the Monroe Doctrine, among others. Even little Israel has one. I call it the Maybe the Dog Will Talk Doctrine and it is based on a folk tale of the rabbi who makes a preposterous deal with a tyrant: If the tyrant spares the lives of local Jews, the rabbi will teach the tyrant’s dog to talk. When the rabbi tells his wife what he has done, she calls him a fool. But, he says, “A year is a long time. In a year, the tyrant could die or I could die” — and here he gives her a sly wise rabbi smile — “or maybe the dog will talk.”
All sorts of people — defense intellectuals, military officers and even the president of the United States — either have not heard of the Maybe the Dog Will Talk Doctrine or do not recognize its importance. (It was cited to me by an Israeli official.) Both Barack Obama and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have characterized any Israeli attempt to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program as a short-term affair. An Israeli raid “wouldn’t achieve their long-term objectives,” Dempsey said on CNN — and he is surely right.
But Israel also has a short-term objective — and that is to play for time. Israel notes that its 1981 bombing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq set back Saddam Hussein’s program — and did not result in some sort of massive retaliation. Something similar happened with the 2007 bombing of a Syrian installation. Neither operation was conceived as a long-term solution, but both accomplished short-term goals. In a year or two, much could change in the Middle East. The region’s in turmoil. Dogs are talking all over the place.....
.......Sanctions may cause Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program, if indeed that’s where it is now heading. But critics of Israel’s approach have to understand that Iran’s program looks different from Tel Aviv than it does from Washington. In the long run, an Israeli attack on Iran will accomplish nothing. In the short run, it could accomplish quite a lot...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
February 21, 2012
SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News/Richard Cohen "The plight of Hamza Kashgari"
Richard Cohen:
"Keep your eye on Hamza Kashgari. He’s the 23-year-old former columnist for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Bilad newspaper who had the extremely bad judgment to tweet an imaginary conversation he was having with the Prophet Muhammad. In almost no time, he was running for his life, hopping a plane in Jeddah and hoping to reach New Zealand. In Malaysia, where he apparently had to change planes, he was held incommunicado until a private plane arrived from Saudi Arabia. He’s now back home, in jail and possibly facing a death sentence...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
"Keep your eye on Hamza Kashgari. He’s the 23-year-old former columnist for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Bilad newspaper who had the extremely bad judgment to tweet an imaginary conversation he was having with the Prophet Muhammad. In almost no time, he was running for his life, hopping a plane in Jeddah and hoping to reach New Zealand. In Malaysia, where he apparently had to change planes, he was held incommunicado until a private plane arrived from Saudi Arabia. He’s now back home, in jail and possibly facing a death sentence...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
February 14, 2012
SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News/Richard Cohen "Obama in denial about American influence"
Richard Cohen:
"To a man (almost), the Republican presidential candidates talk of an America and an American role that no longer exist. In apparent response, the president talks of a role cut and pasted from a magazine and claims a policy, outlook and demeanor that haven’t been his. America may or may not be in decline, but until recently, Obama has certainly been in denial...."
(Read the rest? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
"To a man (almost), the Republican presidential candidates talk of an America and an American role that no longer exist. In apparent response, the president talks of a role cut and pasted from a magazine and claims a policy, outlook and demeanor that haven’t been his. America may or may not be in decline, but until recently, Obama has certainly been in denial...."
(Read the rest? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
December 6, 2011
SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News/Richard Cohen "Mr. Lucky"
One of the things Perry supporters seem to be looking forward to with high anticipation.
Is the fall of all these op-ed columnists who have focused first on Herman Cain and now on Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
Of course Romney will fall again and Gingrich crash and burn. It's in the stars, it's destiny and the Fury of the Fates. Mazel Tov! Thank Buddha!
After all these months of saying nothing at all about the man, how in the world will they be able to recover their ink wells fast enough to get words out there?
They don't even know the guy.
Just imagine how much fun that's going to be to watch.
"...Things turn out for Barack Obama. They always have and it seems they always will.
Shall we start with the latest unemployment numbers? At 8.6 percent, the jobless rate is lower than it has been in two and a half years and is heading in the right direction. Lots of people are still out of work and they will continue to be because the problem is structural, but the economy is improving and there is nearly a year until the presidential election — time for a new reality to overcome the old perception. Amazingly, the United States is about to become a net exporter of petroleum products. The last time this happened was 1949, which was 12 years before Obama was born. Talk about luck!
Two of the great American auto companies have survived their close call with going belly-up and now are making money. Along with the financial system, they were saved by government programs that Republicans characterize as pretty close to neo-Stalinist. Call them what you may, they worked. Jobs were saved. You got a problem with that?
The war in Iraq, George W. Bush’s own stimulus program, is coming to an end, and the war in Afghanistan is winding down. Osama bin Laden is totally dead, his ranks vastly reduced by drones. And while the Middle East policy has been something of a mess, even the Israelis have come around on Obama: A majority now have a favorable view of him. Mazel tov!
Some of this is the vagaries of fortune and some the bounty of good policy. But Obama’s most astounding bit of good luck is the motley crew of opponents the Republican Party has coughed up. It is simply amazing that in a country of 313 million people, many of them literate, the political opposition consists of ignoramuses, dimwits, contrarians, Christian jihadists and, now, two men so thoroughly hollow that a moral principle would make a rattling sound inside them. I am talking of course of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. (I don’t know how to categorize Jon Huntsman and neither, it seems, does the Republican Party.)...."
(Richard Cohen)
(Read more? Click title. Comment to discuss)
Is the fall of all these op-ed columnists who have focused first on Herman Cain and now on Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
Of course Romney will fall again and Gingrich crash and burn. It's in the stars, it's destiny and the Fury of the Fates. Mazel Tov! Thank Buddha!
After all these months of saying nothing at all about the man, how in the world will they be able to recover their ink wells fast enough to get words out there?
They don't even know the guy.
Just imagine how much fun that's going to be to watch.
"...Things turn out for Barack Obama. They always have and it seems they always will.
Shall we start with the latest unemployment numbers? At 8.6 percent, the jobless rate is lower than it has been in two and a half years and is heading in the right direction. Lots of people are still out of work and they will continue to be because the problem is structural, but the economy is improving and there is nearly a year until the presidential election — time for a new reality to overcome the old perception. Amazingly, the United States is about to become a net exporter of petroleum products. The last time this happened was 1949, which was 12 years before Obama was born. Talk about luck!
Two of the great American auto companies have survived their close call with going belly-up and now are making money. Along with the financial system, they were saved by government programs that Republicans characterize as pretty close to neo-Stalinist. Call them what you may, they worked. Jobs were saved. You got a problem with that?
The war in Iraq, George W. Bush’s own stimulus program, is coming to an end, and the war in Afghanistan is winding down. Osama bin Laden is totally dead, his ranks vastly reduced by drones. And while the Middle East policy has been something of a mess, even the Israelis have come around on Obama: A majority now have a favorable view of him. Mazel tov!
Some of this is the vagaries of fortune and some the bounty of good policy. But Obama’s most astounding bit of good luck is the motley crew of opponents the Republican Party has coughed up. It is simply amazing that in a country of 313 million people, many of them literate, the political opposition consists of ignoramuses, dimwits, contrarians, Christian jihadists and, now, two men so thoroughly hollow that a moral principle would make a rattling sound inside them. I am talking of course of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. (I don’t know how to categorize Jon Huntsman and neither, it seems, does the Republican Party.)...."
(Richard Cohen)
(Read more? Click title. Comment to discuss)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."
October 19, 2011
SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News/Richard Cohen "The irrationality that is Iran"
"A mere moment or two after the Obama administration announced it had discovered and thwarted a plot by Iran to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States by bombing a Washington restaurant, the doubters started to air their doubts. Columnists and experts, even some columnists who were not experts, said the Iranians would never be so sloppy as to commit a virtual act of war by setting off a bomb in the nation’s capital. The plot was crazy, they said. I agree. But so is Iran...."
(Richard Cohen)
(Learn more? Click title and comment to start discussion)
(Richard Cohen)
(Learn more? Click title and comment to start discussion)
"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."
September 6, 2011
SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News: "The day that never ends"
Richard Cohen is one of SandBox Nanny's favorite reads.
It's pretty rare for him to put out anything that has little to no merit.
This piece today is one of those rare times that he has tossed up little to no substance.
There is only one mistake made in going to war with any country or organization after 9/11.
And that mistake, was to call the war everything but what it is.
We are at war with radical terrorism. A plague that unfortunately, permeates every country in the world.
SandBox Nanny will agree with Cohen on one point today.
That point is until the day comes when all peoples, but especially media and journalists, get off the spin, the merit less blame and apathy toward what we are really up against in a global war, it will be a war without end.
(Learn more? Click title or comment to start discussion)
It's pretty rare for him to put out anything that has little to no merit.
This piece today is one of those rare times that he has tossed up little to no substance.
There is only one mistake made in going to war with any country or organization after 9/11.
And that mistake, was to call the war everything but what it is.
We are at war with radical terrorism. A plague that unfortunately, permeates every country in the world.
SandBox Nanny will agree with Cohen on one point today.
That point is until the day comes when all peoples, but especially media and journalists, get off the spin, the merit less blame and apathy toward what we are really up against in a global war, it will be a war without end.
(Learn more? Click title or comment to start discussion)
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