Pat Buchanan from Creators Syndicate

Day of Reckoning for 09/26/2008

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

How did the United States of America, the richest nation on earth, whose economy represents 30 percent of the Global Economy, arrive at the precipice of a financial panic and collapse?

The answer lies in the abject failure of both America's financial elite and the political elite of both parties — the same elites now working together to determine how much of our wealth will be need ...

Updated: Fri Sep 26, 2008

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An Amicus Brief for Neville for 09/30/2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On Sept. 30, 1938, 70 years ago, Neville Chamberlain visited Adolf Hitler's apartment in Munich, got his signature on a three-sentence declaration and flew home to Heston Aerodrome.

"I've got it," he shouted to Lord Halifax. "Here is a paper which bears his name." At the request of George VI, Chamberlain was driven to Buckingham Palace, where he joined the king on the ...

Updated: Tue Sep 30, 2008

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Can the MARs Save McCain? for 10/03/2008

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

John McCain may have just let slip his last best chance to be president of the United States.

When he flew back to Washington to address the banking crisis, McCain could have seized the hottest issue in America by taking the side of his countrymen who were enraged by the Paulson Plan to bail out a power elite whose greed and stupidity had caused a financial disaster unequaled since the C ...

Updated: Fri Oct 03, 2008

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Of Generals and Victories for 10/07/2008

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"(O)nce war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.

"War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.

"In war there is no substitute for victory."

Familiar to every graduate of West Point, the words are from the farewell address of Gen. MacArthur, to Congress on April 19, 195 ...

Updated: Tue Oct 07, 2008

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Can McCain Still Win? for 10/10/2008

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Two weeks after the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., John McCain and Sarah Palin were striding forward toward victory.

They had erased the eight-point lead Barack Obama had opened up in Denver and watched as one blue state after another moved into the toss-up category.

That is ancient history now.

Since mid-September, the stock market has cratered, losing half of t ...

Updated: Fri Oct 10, 2008

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Liquidating the Empire for 10/14/2008

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers."

So Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon advised Herbert Hoover in the Great Crash of '29.

Hoover did. And the nation liquidated him — and the Republicans.

In the Crash of 2008, 40 percent of stock value has vanished, almost $9 trillion. Some $5 trillion in real estate value has disappeared. A recession ...

Updated: Tue Oct 14, 2008

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The Coming Backlash for 10/17/2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As Americans render what Catholics call temporal judgment on George Bush, are they aware of the radical course correction they are about to make?

This center-right country is about to vastly strengthen a liberal Congress whose approval rating is 10 percent and implant in Washington a regime further to the left than any in U.S. history. Consider.

As of today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ...

Updated: Fri Oct 17, 2008

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Tribal Politics for 10/21/2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Was race a factor in the decision of Colin Powell to repudiate his party's nominee and friend of 25 years, Sen. John McCain, two weeks before Election Day, and to endorse Barack Obama?

Gen. Powell does not deny it, contending only that race was not the only or decisive factor. "If I had only that fact in mind," he told Tom Brokaw, "I could have done this six, eight, ten mo ...

Updated: Tue Oct 21, 2008

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Camp Followers for 10/24/2008

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Perhaps the only institution in America whose approval rating is beneath that of Congress is the media.

Both have won their reputations the hard way. They earned them.

Consider the fawning indulgence shown insider Joe Biden with the dripping contempt visited on outsider Sarah Palin.

Twice last weekend, Biden grimly warned at closed-door meetings that a great crisis is comin ...

Updated: Fri Oct 24, 2008

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Obama's First 100 Days for 10/28/2008

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Undeniably, a powerful tide is running for the Democratic Party, with one week left to Election Day.

Bush's approval rating is 27 percent, just above Richard Nixon's Watergate nadir and almost down to Carter-Truman lows. After each of those presidents reached their floors — in 1952, 1974, 1980 — the opposition party captured the White House.

Moreover, 80 percent to 90 ...

Updated: Tue Oct 28, 2008

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Comrade Obama? for 10/31/2008

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If Barack Obama is not a socialist, he does the best imitation of one I've ever seen.

Under his tax plan, the top 5 percent of wage-earners have their income tax rates raised from 35 percent to 40 percent, while the bottom 40 percent of all wage-earners, who pay no income tax, are sent federal checks.

If this is not the socialist redistribution of wealth, what is it?

A stee ...

Updated: Fri Oct 31, 2008

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But Where Did Bush Go Wrong? for 11/04/2008

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

After losing control of the Senate and 30 House seats in 2006, the GOP is bracing for losses of six to nine in the Senate, and two dozen to three dozen additional seats in the House.

If the party "were a dog food," says Rep. Tom Davis, "they would take us off the shelf."

Bush's approval is 25 percent. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton left office with ratings more ...

Updated: Tue Nov 04, 2008

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An Unnecessary Defeat? for 11/07/2008

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Why did John McCain lose?

Let's start with those "headwinds" into which he was flying.

The president of the United States, the leader of his party, was at Nixon-Carter levels of approval, 25 percent, going into Election Day.

Sixty-two percent of the nation thought the economy was the No. 1 issue, and 93 percent thought the economy was bad. Two-thirds of the nation ...

Updated: Fri Nov 07, 2008

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China's Path to World Power for 11/11/2008

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

For decades, before a heedless congregation, some of us have preached the old Hamiltonian gospel.

Great nations do not have trade partners. They have trade competitors and rivals. Trade surpluses are superior to trade deficits. Tariffs on foreign goods are preferable to taxes on U.S. producers. Manufacturing, not finance, is the muscle of the nation.

Economic independence is vital ...

Updated: Tue Nov 11, 2008

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Bretton Woods II -- No Way for 11/14/2008

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

"Laissez-faire is finished, the all-powerful market that is always right, that's finished," said Nicholas Sarkozy, speaking ex cathedra, last month.

As a result, said the diminutive French president, it is "necessary to rebuild the entire global financial and monetary system from the bottom up, the way it was done at Bretton Woods after World War II."

Sarky's h ...

Updated: Fri Nov 14, 2008

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As GM Goes, So Goes the GOP for 11/18/2008

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Understandably, Republicans are seething.

When Hank Paulson demanded $700 billion to haul away the trash in the dumpsters of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs — assuring us we could hold a garage sale of the junk — they rebelled. They acted as the nation, by 100 to one, demanded. They killed the Wall Street bailout.

The Dow quickly sank another 1,000 points, and, charge ...

Updated: Tue Nov 18, 2008

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Who Killed Detroit? for 11/21/2008

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Who killed the U.S. auto industry?

To hear the media tell it, arrogant corporate chiefs failed to foresee the demand for small, fuel-efficient cars and made gas-guzzling road-hog SUVs no one wanted, while the clever, far-sighted Japanese, Germans and Koreans prepared and built for the future.

I dissent. What killed Detroit was Washington, the government of the United States, polit ...

Updated: Fri Nov 21, 2008

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Meeting Medvedev Halfway for 11/25/2008

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The morning after Barack Obama's election, the congratulatory message from Moscow was in the chilliest tradition of the Cold War.

"I hope for constructive dialogue with you," said Russia's president, "based on trust and considering each other's interests."

Dmitry Medvedev went on that day, in his first State of the Union, to charge America with fomenting the Ru ...

Updated: Tue Nov 25, 2008

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Socialist Republic for 11/28/2008

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Barack Obama and George W. Bush seem to have come away from their study of the Great Depression with similar conclusions:

To wit: After the Crash of 1929, the Federal Reserve did not move fast enough to save the banks and inject cash into the economy. Second, the New Deal, far from being wastrel deficit spending, was not bold enough. So it was that America wallowed in depression for a de ...

Updated: Fri Nov 28, 2008

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The Rationale of Terror for 12/02/2008

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Arguably the most successful act of revolutionary terror was the June 1914 assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

Believing his mission to murder the heir to the Austrian throne had failed, Gavrilo Princip suddenly found himself standing a few feet away from the royal car. He fired twice, mortally wounding the archduke and his wife.

Tactically, that act of te ...

Updated: Tue Dec 02, 2008

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