Eugene Robinson's Blog, page 107

U.S.-China pact is an accord the planet needed

The minute we glimpse a flicker of hope in the fight against climate change, Republicans in Congress announce their intention to snuff it out. Fortunately for the planet, it seems they can’t.

This week’s stunning announcement of a long-range agreement between the Obama administration and the Chinese government over carbon emissions is the best environmental news in years. Not to sound grandiose, it means the world still has a chance to save itself from unmitigated disaster.

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Where the Democrats went wrong

All right, all right, I didn’t see the wave coming. All those margin-of-error polls seemed to suggest that Democrats would likely hold their own — probably not keep the Senate but make a respectable showing overall. Wrong.

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Eugene Robinson: Our politicians are flunking the vision test

The crisis in our political system is less about party than about horizon. To understand why, consider the issue of climate change.

There is clear evidence — presented yet again in a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report — that human activity is altering the climate. Global temperatures are rising. Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are rising. Concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere are rising. Oceanic temperatures and levels of acidity are rising. Sea levels are rising.

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Do Republicans have a plan for the country? The answer is ‘no’.

No matter how well Republicans do at the polls Tuesday — and my hunch is they won’t do as well as they hope — the GOP won’t be able to claim any kind of mandate. That’s because they have refused to articulate any vision for governing.

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Eugene Robinson: The whole story about Ben Bradlee

It was the fall of 1979. The Post, which I considered the greatest newspaper in the world, was considering me for a job covering the District’s new mayor, an interesting character named Marion Barry. I knew that a couple of Post editors were going to take me to lunch. What I didn’t know was that the great Ben Bradlee was coming along.

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The whole story about Ben Bradlee

It was the fall of 1979. The Post, which I considered the greatest newspaper in the world, was considering me for a job covering the District’s new mayor, an interesting character named Marion Barry. I knew that a couple of Post editors were going to take me to lunch. What I didn’t know was that the great Ben Bradlee was coming along.

Read full article >>

Eugene Robinson: The Islamic State fight is turning into a ‘dumb’ war

“I don’t oppose all wars,” said Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, in 2002. “What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.”

Few would describe Obama’s use of military force against the Islamic State as rash, given the time he took in deciding to act. But the more we learn about this intervention, the more it appears to violate the “dumb” half of the president’s dictum. The purposes, parameters and prospects of the war are increasingly uncertain. Americans have a right to be concerned about the whole enterprise.

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Elizabeth Warren makes a powerful case

Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she isn’t running for president. At this rate, however, she may have to.

The Massachusetts Democrat has become the brightest ideological and rhetorical light in a party whose prospects are dimmed by — to use a word Jimmy Carter never uttered — malaise. Her weekend swing through Colorado, Minnesota and Iowa to rally the faithful displayed something no other potential contender for the 2016 presidential nomination, including Hillary Clinton, seems able to present: a message.

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On Ebola, we need a dose of candor

Let’s make a deal: We’ll all promise not to panic about Ebola if the experts — especially those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — agree to get their stories straight.

They should begin by giving a better explanation of why they have concluded it would be wrong to “stop the flights” arriving from the Ebola “hot zone,” beginning with the fact that there are no such flights: There is no direct commercial air service between the countries at the epicenter of the outbreak — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — and the United States.

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Our failing war against the Islamic State

It’s not too soon to state the obvious: At this point, the war against the Islamic State can be seen only as failing.

U.S.-led air power has barely been able to keep the jihadist militants from capturing the Syrian town of Kobane, near the Turkish border — and the besieged city may yet fall. Far to the southeast, Islamic State fighters have come within a few miles of Baghdad and threaten to consolidate their control of the vast Anbar Province, the Sunni heartland of Iraq. The self-proclaimed “caliphate” remains intact, and its forces are advancing.

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