Michael Goodwin believes President Obama is enabling a nuclear Iran.

Richard Cohen is disgusted with Obama generally, but especially about Iran, and he hits on the reason, which is that Obama continues to act like a candidate for President, rather than the Commander-in-Chief.

President Sarkozy of France is also having trouble hiding his disdain for Obama's weakness.

We are facing the consequences for choosing a man with so little actual experience running anything, a man who is an intellectual and a politician, but not a leader, as our President. Even the worst President of my lifetime, Jimmy Carter, had experience as an executive (governor of Georgia). Obama is the least experienced person to hold the office since Chester A. Arthur. Disagree? Obama served one term in the U.S. Senate and as a State Senator before becoming President. No executive experience at all. His predecessors since Arthur?

The following were all governors...George W. Bush (Texas), Bill Clinton (Arkansas), Ronald Reagan (California), Jimmy Carter (Georgia), FDR (New York), Calvin Coolidge (Massachusetts), Woodrow Wilson (New Jersey), Teddy Roosevelt (New York), William McKinley (Ohio), Grover Cleveland (New York).

The following were Vice-Presidents for long periods...Richard Nixon (1953-61), George H.W. Bush (1981-89). Nixon was also a congressman and Senator, and Bush was a congressman, party leader, ambassador, and head of the CIA (arguably, George H.W. Bush had the most comprehensive and well-rounded experience of anyone ever elected as President).

The following were military leaders...Benjamin Harrison (formed and commanded a regiment in the Civil War), Harry Truman (commanded an artillery battery in World War I), and Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in World War II). Others with military experience include McKinley, TR, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush. Of those, McKinley, TR, Ford and George H.W. Bush were all combat veterans.

The following were experienced Washington politicians when they were elected...William Howard Taft (Secretary of War), Herbert Hoover (Commerce Secretary), Lyndon B. Johnson (congressman, Senator and Vice-President), JFK (congressman and Senator), Gerald Ford (congressman and Vice-President).

Even the now forgotten Warren G. Harding had some executive experience as a newspaper publisher before he became President, however briefly, in 1921. No, you have to go all the way back to Chester A. Arthur, who became President when James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881 to find a man with less experience, and even he was Quartermaster General of New York during the Civil War, and was the Collector of the Port of New York from 1871 to 1878, so maybe I'm being a little unfair to him due to a reputation as a political hack, as those jobs required executive work concerning budgets, appointments and the like. I'll have to do a little more research, but it may be that Obama has the least amount of executive experience of any man ever to hold the office.

Dick Morris says polling data shows the elderly moving away from Obama's health reform plans.

Europe faces new problems as their population grows older and smaller.

For months I have been annoying my wife by declaring that it will be a tough winter (usually by saying we'll have snow in October). Now, some weather experts are confirming my opinion that we could have the toughest winter in a decade here in the Northeast.

Socialists in Europe are on the retreat politically, according to this story in The New York Times, but if you read past the first paragraph, it is clear that the reason the Socialists are losing is that their opponents have adopted their policies. So, while Socialist parties are on the decline, Socialism itself is going strong.

Intelligence experts from Israel, the U.S., France, Germany and Great Britain cannot agree on how far along the Iranians are in their nuclear research, or whether or not they are trying to design and build a working and deliverable nuclear weapon. These disagreements have an important impact on the structure of a unified policy to deal with the Iranian program. I suspect that the lack of unity will sink any sanctions, even if Russian and Chinese refusal to go along does not. Conversely, even if real sanctions are passed, and even if the allies all go along, and even if the Russians and Chinese cooperate, that might make the Iranians decide that a war with Israel is to their advantage.

Will abortion derail the health reform plan?

Will some states refuse to go along with a health insurance mandate for their citizens, leading to a true legal test on the separation of powers between the states and the Federal Government?

The Kennedys usually get what they want in Massachusetts, so it is no surprise that they got the state legislature to pass a law allowing the governor to make an interim appointment, and that the governor then chose the man they wanted to fill the seat.

If the Chinese and Japanese stop buying our bonds we will be in big trouble.

A new study shows that the Sun may be heading into a period of quiet, much like the Maunder Minimum of the late 17th Century. That period coincided with a very cool period for Europe in terms of climate conditions. If so, this new minimum could cause another cool period, perhaps offset by greenhouse effect emissions. As a political matter, I have long believed that the governments of the Earth would not be able to enforce cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in any substantive way, as democratic governments cannot take steps that will slow down economic growth, and totalitarian governments won't do it, either. Perhaps we will be saved, instead, by the Sun. If the minimum lasts for the 70 year period it did last time, that would give us time to transform our economies away from carbon-based fuels. That would be a happy coincidence, or evidence of something more, if you believe in such things.

The Iranian Government has revealed it has a second facility enriching Uranium. Barack Obama and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and others can talk and talk, but they will not, in my estimation, stop the Iranians from their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Con Coughlin agrees with that conclusion, as do many others, I am sure.

More bad political news for the Democrats, as they see their fundraising efforts decline in 2009. Just another sign that they may have a very bad time of it in November, 2010.

The oil industry keeps finding more of the black gold. People have been talking about the oil supply drying up for more than 30 years, and they just keep on finding more of the stuff.

Tony Blankley says the Democrats are playing with fire when they say racism is the cause of the protests and opposition that is being voiced across the land. I could not agree more. In fact, I hope the Democrats keep on with these types of accusations, as it will infuriate the mass of independent, middle-of-the-road voters who helped get them control of Congress in the first place, leading them to switch sides next year.

Eugene Robinson says John Edwards is a cad, and a very bad one, at that.

As I predicted, the Massachusetts legislature has now passed a bill giving the governor the power to appoint a temporary successor to fill Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat, which is what the late Senator asked for before his death. Since the Kennedy family wants the head of the Kennedy library to fill the position, I suspect they will get that, as well.

Jeff Jacoby reminds us that mandatory health insurance, which is a component of all the health reform bill currently being developed in Congress, is a tax on everyone, not just the rich.

One doctor believes his fellow physicians hate the health reform plans, which he believes would cause many doctors to quit.

In France, their universal health insurance program is facing many of the same problems we face here, which is the increasing cost of providing health care to an ageing population.

Obama the impotent. Which is why the members of the UN love him so much.

The President is contemplating a strategy change for Afghanistan. Leslie Gelb believes Obama's Afghanistan policy is befuddled.

Mr. President, job one is the economy, or you will be out of a job.

After yesterday's Washington Post story about a memo from the American General in charge in Afghanistan, essentially telling the President he needs more troops or the mission will fail, there was a great deal of reaction.

Ralph Peters says we need to abandon the 'nation building' mission, as there is no nation to build in Afghanistan. He advocates maintaining a small, lethal force of special operators to go after Al Qaeda targets if they try to set up shop again in Afghanistan, and any of their allies in the country.

H.D.S. Greenway talks of history, and how more men will probably not do any good.

I supported the mission back in 2001, but it now appears that nation building will not work, at least not combined with war fighting operations. Perhaps a retreat from Afghanistan's internal political affairs, along the lines that Peters proposes, would be the best bet.

Here is another story about the low level of sunspot activity, which might be the reason we have had a cool Summer.

Frank Luntz has a new poll and a new book out, and he knows the real reason the American people are "mad as hell" and aren't going to take it anymore, and it's not racism.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann have been watching the political trends resulting from the health care debate and President Obama's health reform proposals. They believe after losing the elderly, the Obama folks and the Democrats are poised to start losing young people as well.

Across the pond, one writer thinks President Obama may be out of his depth.

Robert J. Samuelson believes the President is right to try and against China's predatory trade practices, but that the tariff on tires might not be the right policy.

Charlie Cook hits the nail on the head with this piece about the political trends in the country today. He concludes that the Democrats are in trouble if the trends continue, especially in the upcoming 2010 mid-term elections, as so many House Democrats represent districts that voted for Bush in 2004 or McCain in 2008, and more than 40 represent districts that voted for Bush AND McCain. They went for the Democrats in the congressional races primarily because Independents swung their way, but disillusionment with Obama and, especially, the Democrats in Congress could swing them toward GOP candidates in November, 2010. But, Cook says, most Democratic leaders live in Blue States and are clueless about the political realities of the Purple and Red States.

Ralph Peters says he never liked the missile defense shield proposal for Poland and the Czech Republic, but that by dropping the plan, President Obama gives Czar Vladimir of Russia a big foreign policy win for nothing in return.

President Obama has decided to shelve plans for a missile defense shield for our Eastern European allies. Nile Gardiner believes the decision is a big mistake. But the Secretary General of NATO believes it is a 'positive step'. I feel confident that this move will continue to build the belief among our enemies that Obama is weak.

Senator Max Baucus has introduced a health reform plan, and was immediately ripped by fellow Democrat Jay Rockefeller, who charged the bill would raise taxes on the Middle Class. Rockefeller was not alone, as the Baucus plan was greeted with attacks from all sides. I am growing more confident that my original prediction of no health bill was the correct one.

George Will writes about why no one believes President Obama anymore. I agree, and I think the President is losing credibility not only with those who did not vote for him, but also with Independents, as is pointed out in this article from a supporter expressing his frustration with Obama's mistakes. Here is the real danger for the Democrats in 2010 and 2012, the growing realization by the ardent supporters of Obama that they were conned, that Obama is not a transformational figure, that he is, instead, simply another standard 'go along to get along' politician, and not a very competent one, at that. If this impression hardens into a fixed opinion the GOP will win big in the next two elections.

Amir Taheri writes about the latest victory for President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Meanwhile, Bret Stephens believes the President is pushing Israel toward war with Iran. Here is another area where the President, through inaction, will be seen as responsible for allowing some very bad things to happen with dire consequences for the nation.

The argument is heating up on Capitol Hill about whether or not to send more troops in Afghanistan, while at least one observer of the local scene believes we won't get anywhere unless we deal with the endemic corruption in the government there. (Another reason I am skeptical about nation building is that, if we are unable to eliminate corruption in our government here, why do we think we can eliminate it in their government over there).

Jeremy Lott says President Obama is failing miserably. Politically, that would seem to be the case, as his poll numbers continue to fall, the GOP's numbers continue to rise, and he seems to be using up all of his political ammunition and credibility in an effort to get his health reform plan passed. Even if he gets something palatable, he may not have anything left.

An economist says U.S. credit is shrinking at a rate not seen since the Great Depression, and could lead to a double-dip recession. I'm not sure anyone really understands the dynamics of the global economy, but I can imagine a number of scenarios, most of them pretty bad.

The decision by President Obama to accept a recommendation to increase the tariff on Chinese-made tires has sparked fear that the Chinese might engage us in a trade war. This would lead to one of the bad scenarios I can imagine.

James Carroll makes a comparison between Obama and LBJ, whose domestic aspirations were blunted by the trauma of the Vietnam War.

Speaking of historical comparisons, here is one of the political situation today as it compares to the situation in 1994.

David Warren writes also of history, and how the wrong lessons are learned and mistakes repeated.

Robert J. Samuelson continues to write about the lack of candor in the health reform debate.

These are all just particular aspects of the fact that people, despite all evidence, logic and history, continue to believe what they want to believe. They generate a narrative, or have one written for them, and then cling to it with religious ferocity. All types of disasters often ensue.

Here is an analysis of the competitive House seats with more than a year to go before the 2010 elections. At the moment, it looks as if the GOP will pick up between 20 and 30 seats. Of course, a lot can happen in a year. Still, history shows us that the party out of the White House usually does well in the mid-term elections, and the political winds continue to blow the GOP's way. Actually, I think things will get worse for the President, rather than better, in the coming year.

A Massachusetts judge is unhappy with the leniency shown to blogger and pundit Andrew Sullivan on a marijuana charge.

The Obama Administration will open talks with the Iranian government, reversing the pattern of the Bush Administration. Meanwhile, the crackdown against dissenters in Iran continues, with the Supreme Leader issuing a warning. I suspect more arrests will follow.

The President decides to hit tires imported from China with a tariff.

REMEMBER

It was a brilliantly sunny day, remember?

The sky was blue and cloudless, and the promise of Fall was in the air.

The kids were back at school, and in New York and New Jersey it was the first day for many.

People went to work, as they always did, and got on trains, and into their cars...and some got on airplanes.

I sat in a radio studio in Manchester, New Hampshire with Marga Lynn, Mike Ball and Darrin Root. We were doing a morning show, and there was so little happening that day that we spent much of it talking about nothing.

When Mike and Darrin, who were in the control room which had a television mounted on the wall, started pointing and gesturing for me to look up at the television just before 9 AM, for a moment I did not process what I was seeing. That was the World Trade Center in New York wasn't it? On fire?

At that moment a bulletin passed across the A.P. wire on the computer screen in front of me about a plane hitting one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and I immediately reported it to the audience. Marga, who was seeing the same bulletin on her screen, immediately began working furiously to change her copy for the newscast she was about to give. As soon as we went to a commercial, I shot up and went into the newsroom, where I could watch the TV and hear the audio as well.

It was a brilliantly sunny day, remember?

The sky was blue and cloudless, with the promise of Fall in the air.

I began thinking out loud (a talk show host habit, I think). I talked about the cloudless sky, how a pilot could not fail to see those buildings on such a day, about how the city was socked in fog back in 1945 when the pilot of a medium Army bomber flew into the Empire State Building.

Is that video of the plane heading toward the towers?

No, one of the towers is already afire. A second plane?

When the flames shout out from the other side of the second tower, I knew what to say.

"We are under attack".

Remember?

I have often thought about that morning in the nine years since. I have often talked about the ramifications of what happened that day to audiences here in New Hampshire, in Rhode Island, and across the country when on WBZ at night. I still maintain one unshakable conviction. It was an act of war, perpetrated by a non-state actor, to be sure, but an act of war nonetheless. I wonder how many others still share that conviction with me. I suspect the President does not.

HEALTH CARE AND THE POLITICS OF FEAR

As you may have seen, the President addressed a joint session of Congress last night on the issue of health care reform.

There are lots of places to go to get reaction to the speech, including Instapundit, RealClearPolitics, the National Review or Weekly Standard, and many more. I suspect the folks on the Left are pleased, the folks on the Right are not. Of course, what really matters is how the folks in Middle America react, not just to the speech (which most probably did not watch), but more importantly to the actions taken or proposed by lawmakers. Just the possibility of action has helped propel many thousands of people into these town hall meetings and tea party demonstrations (although I think they are also motivated by other actions taken by the President, especially when it comes to the massive spending programs and government interventions into the economy).

In politics, emotion is the key, not reason. Most people are motivated to take time away from the business of living to address politics only when they are faced with an issue or issues that generate fear of loss...loss of life, loss of income, loss of respect. Want to generate political passion? Tell someone an illegal immigrant is going to take away his job, or an overseas competitor. Put a face on the issue, especially a strange, foreign looking face, and you can generate some heat. Want to get people out to a demonstration or a town hall? Tell them someone from the government is going to take away their health benefits or their Social Security benefits. Want to get people riled up? Tell them the man in the White House is doing things that will make it easier for terrorists to kill them, or their sons or daughters serving in the military.

This stuff works from both the Left and the Right. "Bush lied, people died", remember? Keep it simple by making your political opponent appear to be evil, because most people prefer to look at the world in black and white, rather than shades of gray. Thus, George W. Bush is not just a political opponent, but an evil mass murderer, responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to secure the oil fields for his buddies. He even arranged 9/11 to gin up the political support for his money grab. Barack Obama is not just a political opponent, but an evil acolyte of communists and Black radicals from Chicago, who arranged to get paperwork done to cover up the fact that he wasn't even born in the United States. George W. Bush is a Fascist, an enemy of goodness and freedom, making moves to feather the nests of his evil, capitalist robber baron friends. Barack Obama is a Socialist, using the techniques of the commie radicals from the Sixties to seduce Americans into ceding their political and economic freedoms.

This is the way to win elections and political power. I still believe they will fail to pass anything significant in the way of health insurance reform, or if they pass something, it will be more hot air than substance. But if they do pass something significant, like a mandate to buy insurance coverage, or a law against denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, or a government insurance option for all, then I expect the outrage to go into high gear, and this will make a GOP resurgence a near certainty.

Thomas Friedman of The New York Times thinks the enlightened despots who rule China are getting it right, while the people we elect to lead us are getting it wrong. Friedman is not the first intellectual to admire the ability of totalitarian regimes to get things done from his safe perch as a citizen of a messy democracy.

Dick Morris thinks that the real problem facing Democrats on the issue of health reform, which the President is trying to salvage with a speech to a joint session of Congress, is that the elderly understand that his reforms will inevitably be paid for by transferring resources from care for the elderly to covering younger, healthier, but currently uninsured people. This is why the poll numbers for the Democrats in the older demographics is deteriorating.

Michael Gerson believes Obama is taking a page from the Jimmy Carter playbook. That would be unwise, in my estimation.

Joe Kennedy says he won't run for his uncle's Senate seat, which means Massachusetts will not be represented by a Kennedy in Congress for the first time since 1946.

Martin Feldstein says Obama's health care plans will create ruinous deficits.

Political turmoil in Germany as a result of the decision by a German commander to order an airstrike by an American plane on a pair of fuel trucks stolen by the Taliban in Afghanistan, resulting in many deaths, including some civilians. There is considerable irony in this story, starting with the fact that the left-wing parties in Germany are praising the restraint of American commanders and the apologetic tone of the head American in Afghanistan following the incident.

Some more background on the issue of cheap Chinese tires, and the decision the President must make on whether or not to impose a tariff on those tires to save American jobs.

Barack Obama is accused by two economists of making the same mistakes that led to the Great Depression. The two men would prefer a return to good, old-fashioned market style capitalism.

Harold Meyerson, on the other hand, thinks a return to the policies of the New Deal would make a better America for our working class.

Robert J. Samuelson has some reflections on the state of American labor on Labor Day.

As for me, I have long believed that America cannot go on spending and borrowing and borrowing and spending, all the while outsourcing our manufacturing capability to China and other places. A day of reckoning will come.

Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts on World War II and the revisionist views of that conflict.

A new study says that human caused global warming may very well be preventing the start of another Ice Age.

George Will, who has already said he wants U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, now says we need to get our troops out of Iraq. His reasoning is clear and consistent. He does not believe in "nation building", and he does not believe that the culture in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is amenable to democracy as we know it.

Charles Krauthammer says President Obama has fallen to Earth, and is now a mere political mortal.

Cardinal O'Malley is taking some heat for his decision to participate in Senator Kennedy's funeral.

A historian reminds us that FDR was a divider, not a uniter.

This piece reminds us that Ike fought against the allure of fanaticism.

Why do football coaches vote Republican?

A new poll shows some very bad news for Prime Minister Brown and the Labour Party in Great Britain.

Howard Kurtz takes a look at the growing disillusionment amongst the media elite about their hero, Barack Obama.

Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland in 1939 that is seen as the start of World War II, and leaders of Germany, Poland and Russia, among others, joined together to commemorate the event at the place where the first shots were fired.

Victor Davis Hanson examines the spirit of appeasement that led to WWII and is sure to lead to more trouble for us in the near future.

In troubled economic times, more people are finding it difficult to miss work for jury duty.

Michael Gerson has some thoughts on how the President can get some kind of health reform passed.

Harold Meyerson is waiting to see if the President's rhetoric on protecting American workers against unfair foreign competition is just a lot of hot air.

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan calls the situation there 'serious', and is looking for more of everything.

George Will says it is time to get out of Afghanistan.

Anthony Cordesman, who served on the panel that is advising the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says we can avoid defeat, but only if we provide the men and money necessary. He hints that President Obama may not be willing to do what is necessary to win.

Fred Kagan gives us a history of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan as an argument against making comparisons between our involvement and the Soviet's failure.

The new ruling party in Japan sounds like a bunch of liberal Democrats.

Ralph Peters, himself a former Army intelligence officer, is upset at the AG's plan to investigate our CIA interrogators who wouldn't play nice with our enemies when trying to extract information from them. Peters points out that if our intelligence operatives worry about getting prosecuted by our own government for their actions after the fact they will be much less inclined to work hard and take risks. I wouldn't blame them for holding that attitude.

Of course, this is all part of the larger problem which, as Thomas Sowell points out, is more about the fact that our society at large is growing less willing and able to defend itself from the barbarians.