That Republicans would be outraged over President Obama's handshake with the buffoonish Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was predictable in much the same way one can forecast the daily setting of the sun. But while Obama brushed off the significance of the brief encounter at the Summit of the Americas, Nevada Senator John Ensign deemed "irresponsible" […]

When it comes to foreign policy, George W. Bush was right - once. During the 2000 campaign, then candidate Bush declared the world would welcome America's role if the United States was not arrogant, but a "humble nation." But now that Barack Obama in London, Paris, Prague and now Ankara is practicing to near universal […]

Just five months after George W. Bush asked, "What's the G-20?," President Obama is drawing rave reviews for his leadership at the group's crucial summit in London. But while Obama's nimble diplomacy and deft touch is helping America and the world forget what was, it's worth contemplating what could have been under a President John […]

On Friday, President Obama took the unusual step of sending video greetings to the people of Iran to mark the celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Unsurprisingly, many on the right were quick to scoff at Obama's call for "engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect" and paean to "the true greatness […]

The week in war crimes was a busy one. As the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing about creating a truth commission to probe the wrongdoing of the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department released the first set of secret Bush DOJ memos which effectively eradicated constitutional and other legal protections for American citizens and […]

In January, George W. Bush famously predicted he would broker a Middle East peace by the end of his presidency. Now with Israel and Hamas on the brink of another confrontation in Gaza, Bush's pledge of a two-state solution is just the latest failure of his disastrous tenure in the White House. Tensions between Israeli […]

In one of the more bizarre developments of campaign 2008, John McCain's campaign has announced that he won't be rolling out the White House welcome mat for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, prime minister of America's NATO ally Spain. But if McCain's posture seems like an adolescent temper tantrum aimed at a critical member of Washington's […]

No safe havens for terrorists. Preventive war. Democracy expansion. Those are the three central tenets of the Bush Doctrine, the guiding theory of unilateral American foreign and national security policy since 9/11. And today, on the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin revealed she […]

No doubt, history will not be kind to George W Bush. And to be sure, Bush is already returning the favor. Apparently stunned by the Russian assault on Georgia, President Bush forgot his invasion of "sovereign" Iraq and declared, "Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century". As it turns out, John McCain, Condoleezza […]

Back in July, an envious McCain campaign blasted Barack Obama for being "presumptuous" during his tour of European capitals. That charge was not only echoed in the right-wing media, but amplified by the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. But with conflict now raging between Russia and Georgia, it is the presumptuous John McCain who is pretending […]