Like almost everybody else, I’ve spent much of the past year criticizing Barack Obama, second-guessing many of his decisions, finding fault with the incompetence of some of his appointees. Perhaps it sounds peculiar, then, but when I look back on the year as a whole, I find that I am nevertheless still inclined to withhold […]

Phillip Roth and Ian McEwan on love, lust and loss.

How to grade President Obama’s first year in office? As Zhou Enlai replied when asked his opinion of the French Revolution, “It’s too soon to say.” Obama has set in motion a host of bold reforms that could break some of America’s deepest political impasses, or cause massive disillusionment if they fail. The big question […]

Two new books ostensibly about Israel really aren’t.

At the October 2009 New York gala dinner of the International Crisis Group, former President Bill Clinton paid a moving tribute to the presidency of the man he had beaten, George H.W. Bush. Clinton said that two brave decisions Bush 41 made vastly eased the challenges of Clinton’s presidency. Clinton cited, first, Bush’s decision to […]

Warren G. Harding may have been a bounder, but he was a talented one.

The success of Barack Obama’s presidency will depend on his domestic accomplishments: health care, financial reform and the overall state of the economy. His presidency could be wrecked by foreign policy developments; it cannot be redeemed by them. The five big foreign policy challenges that the Administration confronts—North Korea, Iran, Middle East peace, Af-Pak and […]

Pakistan has lots of problems, but jihadi violence isn’t the biggest one.

A conversation with Brent Scowcroft.

Dear Mr. President, It’s been nearly a year since Inauguration day, and it’s fair to say that things could be better. I think you know the lay of the land, but please permit me a brief summary.Just two months ago, on the first anniversary of your election, and the first time the voters had spoken […]