Tag archive for ‘Obama’
The Risks of Withdrawal
Entering a war is easy; getting out of it is the hard part. That axiom is particularly true for the United States today, as it muddles through three wars – two of which were forced upon it (Afghanistan and the “war on terror”), with the third (Iraq) started unnecessarily by a US administration blinded by [...]
New Transatlantic Relations with a “Pacific” President
By his own definition, Barak Obama is the US’ first „Pacific“ President. Indeed, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia there are few “Atlantic” ties to be found in his biography. Obama’s remarks, delivered during a visit to Asia, may be only intended as a polite gesture; nevertheless they indicate a shift of attention away from Europe [...]
The Economic Crisis, US Progressivism, and West European Socialism and Social Democracy
It occasionally is rewarding to think of ideal solutions to current crises rather than of outcomes dictated by evident and immediate constraints. It is rewarding because it invariably teaches us humility about our current political capacities – and because, even in that lesson, we may find new ways of looking at our situation. I designate [...]
McChrystal’s Replacement Marks the End of the ‘Big Macs’ in Afghanistan
In a spectacular move President Obama fired General Stanley McChrystal after the Rolling Stone magazine broke a story reporting his staff’s and his own disrespectful remarks about the president and his national security team. The incident is not only meat for the tireless hosts of cable news shows; it also represents another chapter in the [...]
Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico: US Needs a National Energy Policy like Europe’s
With the spectre of the Greek default crisis still hanging over Europe, it may seem like Europe can’t do anything right. But with hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic black oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the United States could learn plenty from Europe about energy policy. By forging ahead with widespread implementation [...]
What the Doomsayers Haven’t Been Telling You about Greece
The recent battle over healthcare reform in the United States, in which the Obama administration was barely able to pass weak reform, is just further proof of how far the US has fallen behind Europe. Yet all the media has been able to obsess over for the last couple of months is – the Greek [...]
Daniel Hannan MEP attacks the NHS on Fox News – Trash TV at its best!
I know a few of my fellow bloggers here on SEJ are preparing posts on the frankly ridiculous debate about health care in the US. Especially the attacks on the British NHS are just nuts. Even though it is certainly not a perfect system it is miles ahead of what is the current state of [...]
World Wide Webbed: The Obama Campaign’s masterful Use of the Internet
Just as President Barack Obama has shaken up the status quo in his first 100 days in office, his campaign overturned old formulas about how to win the presidency. The Obama campaign did not focus only on battleground states, but instead charged into states that previously had been solidly Republican turf. With a historic economic [...]
Strategy and Organising – Lessons from the Obama Campaign
Sun Tzu wrote that, ‘strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.’ Obama and his campaign internalised this maxim. They combined a political strategy that focussed on a singular narrative and open organisational structure with modern tools to maximise fundraising and voter mobilisation. The critical difference [...]
Where now for European Political Parties?
Political parties perform important roles in European societies. Parties are institutions in which citizens with similar political views organise, develop political programmes and actively participate in the political process. They are vital for democracy because parties offer the most clear-cut political choices that are put to the electorate. Parties are also recruitment organisations, through which [...]
