Featured Articles — February 25, 2009

February 25, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

Conservative words for a liberal agenda By John Harris and Jonathan Martin, The Politico
In his programs and promises, President Barack Obama Tuesday night offered the nation by far the most expansive agenda for the national government in decades. In his words and mood, however, Obama presented this breathtakingly ambitious vision in a way intended to convey caution, moderation, sobriety.

A brighter future, but who pays? By Editors, The Economist Magazine
AS A new president, Barack Obama’s first speech to Congress was not, officially, a state-of-the-union address. That was just as well: its current state is awfully precarious. On Tuesday February 24th, a few hours before he spoke to the Senate and House of Representatives, a survey reported that consumers’ confidence in the future was at its lowest in 40 years of polling.

Obama Needs a ‘Not To Do’ List By Holman Jenkins, The Wall Street Journal
Put away childish things, President Obama said during his inauguration. He couldn’t have found a theme more suited to the moment. The preoccupations that he and most politicians are used to running on, and that still characterize too many of his administration’s utterances, are being exposed in the global economic disaster as the soppy indulgences they always were.

The Burris problem By Ross K. Baker, USA Today
If you watched the recent debate on the stimulus bill, you might have been taken aback by the image of Roland Burris presiding over the U.S. Senate. Lest you think that some singular honor was being bestowed on the handpicked choice of Rod Blagojevich, the now impeached governor of Illinois, be reassured that the unenviable job of presiding is typically foisted on the most junior senators.

The problem with not having kids By Mark Steyn, Macleans
Anything happen while I was gone? Oh, yeah. The collapse of the global economy. Armageddon outta here. The ecopalypse is upon us. Down south, President Obama has abandoned the gaseous uplift of “the audacity of hope” and warns we’re on the brink of the abyss.

First to find the bottom, first out of it By Yuen Pau Yoo, Globe And Mail
The global financial crisis has forced Canada to rethink the received wisdom about fiscal management. It should also force a rethink of the international economic order and how we must position ourselves for a post-crisis world. Can we count on our traditional ties with the U.S. to sustain long-term development? If the crisis marks a shift in economic power toward emerging countries, especially China, what are the implications for international policy?

Surge In Afghanistan Can Work, With Right Resources, Enough Time By John Nagl, US News
There is an increasingly intense desire to transfer lessons learned from what appears to be a successful counterinsurgency effort in Iraq to America’s long-neglected war in Afghanistan. The shift in attention is both laudable and overdue.

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