Service announcement

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 13:44:30 +0000

A BRIEF service announcement. With a view to bringing all of our American political blogging under one online roof, Lexington’s notebook is going to join forces with our group blog Democracy In America, though archived postings will still be available at this address. There has been overlap between our two American blogs for some time.

The grey-haired safety net

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 20:25:09 +0000

MY PRINT column this week ponders a striking social trend: a big rise in the number of children living in households headed by grandparents. Last week's was on the Supreme Court. To respond to reader comments, I should perhaps explain that these very brief posts are mostly intended to send print column links down the blog's RSS feed.

Why Superman matters

Fri, 21 Jun 2013 12:54:54 +0000

MY PRINT column this week is on the new Superman film, "Man of Steel": a fine movie for an anxious America.

Chris Christie's big plan

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:20:40 +0000

MY PRINT column this week suggests that Chris Christie—the rumpled, swaggering, boastful, crafty, disarming, charming, bullying governor of New Jersey—embodies a bet that the Republican Party must develop a bipartisan appeal or perish.

China bids for a pork company

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 21:34:44 +0000

MY PRINT column this week is on America's debate about China's rise, and how it often amounts to something rather different: an anguished, partisan discussion about perceived American weakness.

George Washington, politician

Thu, 30 May 2013 20:23:48 +0000

MY PRINT column this week is about the forgotten political virtues of George Washington.

The beginning of the end

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:43:33 +0000

SOMETIMES a heckler can be a politician’s best friend.

Rand Paul's presidential chances

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:44:16 +0000

MY PRINT column this week considers Rand Paul's viability as a presidential contender.

Lessons from three scandals

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:52:51 +0000

MY PRINT column this week considers the three scandals lapping at the doors of the White House this week. It suggests that Republican rage over Benghazi is overblown, and that this explains why President Barack Obama's opponents have switched tack, and started denouncing him as a bullying tyrant.

No American cavalry for now

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:37:27 +0000

FOR all the warm words about coordination and shared approaches, when David Cameron and Barack Obama talked Syria at the White House on May 13th, striking differences could be heard. The British prime minister’s tone was urgent, even impatient. History is being written in the blood of the Syrian people “on our watch”, he sorrowed.

Barack Obama's "Brigadoon" problem

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:18:34 +0000

MY PRINT column this week ponders why President Barack Obama finds it so hard to push through his agenda, even in policy areas where he speaks for a nationwide majority. It draws a parallel with the 1947 Broadway hit (and not terribly good 1954 film) "Brigadoon".

Barack Obama's best 2012 friends: enthusiastic black pensioners, and apathetic white youths

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:45:41 +0000

THE US Census Bureau published its definitive guide to turnout and voting trends in 2012 this afternoon, and the headline for many will be the fact that African-American turnout exceeded white turnout for the first time in 2012.

Dithering in Syria

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:42:11 +0000

MY PRINT column this week is on Syria and Barack Obama's foreign policy.

Time to save a transatlantic trade pact

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:21:35 +0000

MY PRINT column this week urges leaders in America and the European Union to save a transatlantic trade pact that makes great sense but is in serious trouble.

A week of violence, and responses to violence

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:19:04 +0000

MY PRINT column this week considers America's response to the Boston bombings, and the failed Senate vote on gun control.

The strains of staying non-partisan

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:49:35 +0000

IN HIS brief statement hours after the fatal bombings at the Boston marathon, President Barack Obama quite properly struck a bipartisan note. "I've updated leaders of Congress in both parties, and we reaffirmed that on days like this there are no Republicans or Democrats," he told press gathered at the White House.

The Democrats' Texas-sized dilemma

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:25:21 +0000

MY PRINT column this week comes from Texas, and ponders a question obsessing Republicans and Democrats alike: with Hispanics on course to become the largest single group in the state by 2020 (and a majority about a decade later), does that mean that Texas can be switched from deep-red Republican to purple, or even blue?

Running from Goldwater's ghost

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:30:10 +0000

RAND PAUL, the libertarian pin-up and Republican senator from Kentucky, today travelled the short distance from Capitol Hill in Washington to Howard University, a historically black college, to pose an important question.

Revealing tributes

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:04:16 +0000

AMERICAN politicians of right and left paid Margaret Thatcher a rare compliment today. They praised her for her record at home and abroad but also—unusually—hailed her as a spine-stiffening friend who had at vital moments nudged America to be true to its own self.

Being right is not enough

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:32:55 +0000

MY PRINT column this week looks at the rise of various centrist and bipartisan movements trying to temper the partisan ferocity of American politics, and argues that some are wiser than others.