Columns

Like many Democrats over the past 40 years, Barack Obama has hoped that his association with unpopular liberal positions on cultural issues would be outweighed by pushing economic policies intended to benefit the ordinary person.

NEW YORK -- I confess to having a residual soft spot for Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who is retiring from radio for finally going too far.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a member association representing over 3 million businesses in the United States, both big and small, says the uncertainty in the tax code is killing business in the U.S.

JERUSALEM -- 'Twas a famous victory for diplomacy when, in 1991 in Madrid, Israelis and Palestinians, orchestrated by the United States, engaged in direct negotiations. Nineteen years later, U.S. policy is enabling Palestinians to avoid direct negotiations by engaging in "proximity" talks. The Palestinians talk to Americans, who toil to get them back to 1991 -- to direct negotiations. But negotiations about what?

NEW YORK -- It is hard to imagine that anything has gone unsaid about the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but we seem to be missing an important point. The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much. We don't need constitutional protections to be agreeable, after all.

JERUSALEM -- In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner.

It was deceptive. At a White House dinner with Muslims celebrating Ramadan, Barack Obama finally weighed in on the Ground Zero mosque controversy. Incredibly, he lectured Americans about the religious freedom of Muslims "that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan."

Have we ever had a president so disconnected from the heart of America?

The deaths this week of two political Old Bulls has inspired some harsh commentary.