Today marks the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi urban areas, the result of a deadline contained in the Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) that the Bush administration negotiated and the Obama administration embraced. It is a milestone on the road to Iraqi sovereignty and a useful moment, I think, to consider three widespread

In the course of only five months, President Obama has reached into his bag and pulled out a dazzling number of misleading rhetorical tricks. Let's begin with his much-touted claim that his Administration is responsible for having “saved or created” at least 150,000 American jobs, even though we have shed well over a million jobs

The best way to view President Obama's speech in Cairo is to understand the way Obama views himself and the rhetorical devices he employs. In this case, the key to unlocking Obama's speech may be Aristotle's golden mean, the search for a mid-point between extremes. Obama's rhetorical template is an increasingly familiar one: he gives

A lot of controversy has been generated by Judge Sonia Sotomayor's statement “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” In an effort to repair the damage, President Obama's press secretary,

There is much joy in liberal circles these days about the plight of the GOP and conservatism. Democrats now control the presidency, the House, and the Senate. President Obama's approval ratings are above 60 percent in most polls. The public is much more optimistic than it was at the end of last year. Meanwhile, the

The issue of the Bush Administration's enhanced interrogation techniques involve several inter-related questions. There is, first of all, the matter of morality. Critics of enhanced interrogation techniques have taken to saying that Americans don't torture, period — meaning in this instance that we do not engage in coercive interrogation techniques ranging from sleep deprivation to

President Obama, who over the weekend continued his overseas effort to, among other things, apologize for supposed American misdeeds from both the recent and distant past, held a press conference on Sunday. He made several statements that are, I think, worth examining. On explaining his apologies for America, President Obama said this: If we are

Upon his death in 1982, John Cheever was hailed as one of the preeminent American writers of his time. Obituary writers eulogized his sweet ardor for the gloriously ordinary. Time honored him as “A Celebrant of Sunlight.” The Boston Globe praised his ability to spread delight, and declared, “In a world of Calibans, John Cheever

By now almost everyone agrees the numbers are staggering. Since Barack Obama took his oath of office around 11 weeks ago, he has proposed a $3.6 trillion budget, which will create a deficit this year of almost $1.8 trillion. This amounts to 12.3 percent of the GDP, up from 3.2 percent in 2008 and 1.2

In the matter of just 50 days, a fissure has widened into a split; the split has become a gap; and the gap is becoming a gulf. I have in mind the extraordinary contradiction between what President Obama says and what he does. Consider a partial list, starting with earmarks. During the campaign, Obama said,