Ed's Blog

"Some people know everything, but that's all they know."

INTELLIGENCE LEAKS AND A DOJ COVER-UP: WILL THEY TOPPLE THE PRESIDENT?

Did top national-security officials, with or without President Obama’s approval, leak sensitive and highly classified national security information to make President Obama look like a strong, decisive leader? Is Attorney General Eric Holder withholding information from Congress that might implicate him and other high Justice Department officials in a “gunwalking” cover-up? If one or both are true it could mean defeat for President Obama in November.  (Read the full column at EWRoss.com)

Filed under: National Security, Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SUCCESSFUL PRESIDENTS AND EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIRS

There is an interesting correlation between the most successful presidents over the past 80 years and those that have had extramarital affairs. Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton all had extramarital affairs before or during their terms of office. Only Ronald Reagan appears to be the exception to the rule. Is it any wonder that voters may be willing to overlook Newt Gingrich’s affair?  (More)

Filed under: Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WHAT THE 2012 ELECTION WILL TELL US ABOUT OURSELVES

Following the 2008 election Americans learned a great deal more about the man they elected president than they knew about him when they voted for him. The 2012 election will tell us more about ourselves than the man we elect as our president, no matter who he is.  (More)

Filed under: Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

THEY’RE RIOTING IN GREECE, THEY’RE OCCUPYING AMERICA

To paraphrase an old Kingston Trio song:

They’re rioting in Greece, they’re occupying America.

There’s unrest in China, and Middle East hysteria.

The whole world is festering with unhappy contrarians

The Islamists hate everyone, everyone hates Americans

Palestinians hate Israelis, someone hates the Dutch.

And no one likes anybody very much.

Amidst all this chaos, Americans want a president and legislators that will restore order, prosperity, and national security. It’s difficult to imagine how we can elect the right people, however, when we spend more time focusing on form than substance. (More)

Filed under: Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A TALE OF TWO SPEECHES: OBAMA ORATORY VS. THE PALIN PARADIGM

Consider the speech given by President Barack Obama before a joint session of Congress Thursday evening along with the one Sarah Palin gave at a Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa, the Saturday before. President Obama, a gifted orator, delivered his “jobs plan” with eloquence, passion and determination. Still, even with sweeteners intended to attract Republican support, it set forth the same failed ideas he’s pursued for the previous 961 days. Sarah Palin, with her high-pitched voice and quirky Alaskan pronunciation of certain words, “delivered a devastating indictment of the entire U.S. political establishment—left, right and center—and pointed toward a way of transcending the presently unbridgeable political divide.”  (More)

Filed under: Palin, Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FROM THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE HUB OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION

I begin my radio show every Sunday evening, “. . . coming to you live from the outskirts of the hub of Western Civilization.” The hub of Western Civilization, of course, is Washington, D.C., on the outskirts of which I have lived for the past 32 years. Indeed, it is the most powerful city, not only in the West, but in the entire world. I fear, however, I will live to see the day when it is no longer.  (More)

Filed under: Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE 2012 ELECTION

The state of the U.S. economy and jobs are the overwhelming issues that will determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. Still, in a close race, national security issues could play the decisive role.

Given the inherent advantages President Barack Obama has on national security as an incumbent president and the likelihood that Republicans will nominate a candidate better suited to challenge Obama on domestic issues, Mr. Obama will have an advantage. Insufficient attention by the Republican nominee to national security issues could be a politically fatal mistake.  (More)

Filed under: National Security, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SORTING OUT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT

With his family by his side, Barack Obama is s...

Image via Wikipedia

Listen to Ed’s Audio Blog:


President Barack Obama will kick off his reelection campaign this week with an announcement followed by a series of fundraisers in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles with a growing gaggle of GOP candidates forming up to run against him. Sorting them out by their ranking in the polls is the traditional approach. I prefer, however, to look at them another way.

Currently there are 18 people in the monthly Townhall.com straw poll, and it doesn’t include Donald Trump or others people have talked about as potential candidates. Not all of them, of course, will decide to run. Gov. Chris Christie, for example, has stated emphatically that he won’t run. Many question if Mike Huckabee will; and who knows what Sarah Palin will decide to do?

For those contemplating a serious bid, there are numerous daunting obstacles besides the incumbency of a sitting president they must contend with. Few are wealthy enough or can raise the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to run a successful presidential campaign; and, judging from the polls, most have insufficient popular support and quickly will fall by the wayside after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Ranking them by their poll numbers is the conventional way of sorting the candidates. There’s another methodology, however. It requires us to read their minds and is completely subjective. It sorts them into three categories.  (More)

Filed under: The Presidency, Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

RONALD REAGAN: What You Saw is What You Got

President Ronald Reagan speaking at a Rally fo...

Image via Wikipedia

Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday Sunday provides an opportunity for people who respected and admired him to talk and write the President and his legacy. Some recall his great achievements—his role in ending the Cold War, Reganomics, and the revival of conservatism. Others reminisce about his acting and political careers before he became president. Others remember his storytelling, his boundless sense of optimism, and his deep and enduring love of America.

As someone who arrived in Washington, D.C., the year before President Reagan and who worked in the Department of Defense during his eight years in office, I remember a president who inspired and empowered the people that worked for him, didn’t require or create a bloated national-security bureaucracy, and who you didn’t have to analyze to understand. What you saw is what you got. (More)

Filed under: The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

DESERVING THE COMEBACK-KID TITLE: It’s Got to be a Surprise

Comeback kids in politics, as in sports or any other competitive endeavor, are those that truly surprise us. The more the media labels someone a comeback kid before the comeback, or a politician claims to be one, the more likely the characterization, win or lose, will turn out to be untrue. (More)

Filed under: Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FOREIGN POLICY: The Last Refuge of a Diminished President?

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Sing...

Image via Wikipedia

President Obama departed Washington, D.C. last week for a 10-day visit to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan following the Democratic Party’s historic defeat in the 2010 mid-term elections. It’s a routine foreign trip, like others the well-traveled president has made since he took office, unless it marks a new beginning of President Obama’s personal involvement in foreign policy.

It’s not uncommon for presidents, when opposition-party majorities in one or both houses of Congress stymie their domestic-policy agendas , to spend more time on foreign policy. It’s the domain of presidential power least fettered by Congress. President Obama can use the second half of his term to build a list of foreign-policy accomplishments he can run on in the 2012 election as Republicans seek to dismantle his domestic-policy agenda at home. There’s only one problem—there must be some extraordinary foreign-policy accomplishments. (More)

 

Filed under: National Security, Politics, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

THE MOSQUE, MUSLIMS, AND BUILDING BRIDGES: Time for a Better Approach

Looking south from Top of the Rock, New York City

The ongoing controversy over whether or not Muslims should build a Mosque near “Ground Zero” in Lower Manhattan fits conveniently into a false narrative perpetuated by biased reporting and misinformation that confrontation, not dialogue and cooperation, is the hallmark of America’s relationship with Muslim Americans and the Islamic world. It also exposes the fallacy that political correctness and pandering to Muslims is the best way to build bridges to them.  (More)

Filed under: Terrorism, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SAVING THE U.S.-U.K. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP – Is It Already Too Late?

Since President Barack Obama took office, the U.S.-U.K. “special relationship” has been in free fall. The first manifestation of this decline, shortly after the President’s inauguration, was Obama’s sudden return of the Winston Churchill bust from the Oval Office, loaned to the U.S. by the British people as a gesture of solidarity after 9/11. A series of incidents followed. Now, the British even see the Obama administration’s treatment of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill in this light. Rough periods in the relationship are nothing new, but this one is different and likely will prove very difficult to undo, if it isn’t already too late.  (More)

Filed under: National Security, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

THE OIL SPILL IN THE GULF – Obama’s Leadership Crisis

President Obama’s critics have called him many things. Now, criticizing him for his reaction to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, they’ve begun to call him “incompetent,” comparing him to Jimmy Carter. If that label sticks, the Obama presidency, like Jimmy Carter’s, is doomed. Even worse, if President Obama doesn’t act decisively and quickly to stem the tide of destruction, the oil spill will cause irreparable damage to millions of people’s lives and to the country. (More)

Filed under: Climate Change, The Presidency, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Share This Blog

Bookmark and Share

EWRoss on Twiter

RSS EWRoss.com RSS

  • IS BENGHAZI OBAMA''S ACHILLES' HEEL? May 5, 2013
    The testimony this week of three senior State Department officials before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee could provide information that will blow the Benghazi scandal wide open, or will it be a dud?
  • WHY MUSLIM TERRORISTS WANT TO KILL US AND YOUNG MUSLIM MEN WANT TO BECOME TERRORISTS April 29, 2013
    In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, media coverage has been full of people telling us we have to better understand why Muslim terrorists want to kill us and some young Muslim men living in America want to become terrorists, suggesting something about America is at the root of the problem.
  • WHO DO YOU TRUST ON GUN CONTROL? April 14, 2013
    The most often heard argument in the ongoing gun-control debate is whether or not gun control prevents gun crime. Gun-control advocates believe it does. Second Amendment advocates argue that it doesn't. A more cogent question when it comes to gun-control, however, is who do you trust?
  • TIME FOR REGIME CHANGE IN NORTH KOREA April 7, 2013
    The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the perfect example of what will happen when rogue regimes acquire nuclear weapons. They use them to intimidate their enemies, extort concessions from those that will negotiate with them, and sell the technology to the highest bidder. Regime change or war is the only way to stop them.
  • VIETNAM, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN: LESSONS AMERICA NEVER LEARNS March 24, 2013
    The United States has fought three counterinsurgency wars in the past half century, all of which have or are about to turn out less than resoundingly victorious, to say the least. You would think American would get the hang of counterinsurgency warfare, getting it right eventually; but there are lessons American political leaders never learn.
  • POPE FRANCIS AND THE POWER OF THE PAPACY March 17, 2013
    In October 1978, the visiting CIA analyst teaching my National Security Affairs course at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, began class by asking, "What's the significance of this new Polish Pope?" Without waiting for an answer he said, "He will hasten the fall of the Soviet Union." Recalling that experience, I a […]
  • USEFUL IDIOTS, PROGRESSIVES AND SOCIALIST DICTATORS March 10, 2013
    Why are so many progressives attracted to socialist dictators like the late Hugo Chávez? Are they just "useful idiots," or is it their longing for a powerful person to rule without all the constraints of democratic government so they can impose their vision of the greater good?
  • REPUBLICANS MUST LEAD NOT JUST OBSTRUCT March 3, 2013
    Democrats and the news media have made much of the "civil war" within the Republican Party. In the aftermath of their 2012 defeat by President Barack Obama, Republicans are bickering among themselves over what went wrong, who's at fault, and how to revitalize the Republican brand. A much more serious war is taking place, however, between Presi […]
  • WELCOME HOME VETERAN: AND BY THE WAY, YOU MAY NOT POSSESS A FIREARM February 24, 2013
    The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has sent out letters to an unknown number of veterans with mental and physical disabilities informing them that they may be prohibited from purchasing, possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm or ammunition.
  • WHY THE BENGHAZI STORY WON'T GO AWAY February 17, 2013
    President Barack Obama has been adept at deflecting Republicans' continuing questions about the 9/11/12 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Still, the story won't go away because the explanations he and his administration have provided don't add, up and a strong odor of cover up lingers in the air.
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 2,633 other followers