Overview for David Frum in Print

Blame Yesterday's Reforms for Today's Gridlocked Congress

In the mid-1970s, Congress underwent a revolution. The power of the committee chairmen was broken. The number of subcommittees proliferated. The committees met in public. Amendments multiplied. Congress become more open, more egalitarian, more responsive. And stuff ceased to pass. Again and again, …

Written by David Frum on Monday March 1, 2010

Something's Seriously Wrong at York University

Next week, Canada’s York University will open its halls and classrooms to “Israel Apartheid Week” allowing militants and activists to use taxpayer-funded facilities to vilify the Jewish state. But for those who would defend Israel, the university sets very different rules. Next week, York …

Written by David Frum on Saturday February 27, 2010

Ron Paul's Money Plan is Far from Golden

Ron Paul-style themes have percolated through the conservative movement since Paul's beat-the-spread 2008 presidential campaign. Of all those themes, the one that has achieved the widest audience is Paul's call for a return to money based on precious metals such as gold and silver. The annual …

Written by David Frum on Monday February 22, 2010

Mt. Vernon's Conservative Dead Letter

Liberals are running amok and the nation is crying out for answers. What makes conservative activists think vapid slogans are the right response? On Wednesday Feb. 17, a group of conservative dignitaries, including former attorney general Edwin Meese and Family Research Council president Tony …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 18, 2010

Is Israel-Bashing Anti-Semitic?

It's possible to hate Israel without hating Jews. It's even possible to hate Jews without hating Israel. But these interesting theoretical potentialities exist mainly on the blackboard. In real life, it becomes very difficult to separate hatred of the Jewish state from hatred of the Jews who live …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday February 16, 2010

How Shelby's Hold Exposes Obama's Failure

The White House broke GOP Sen. Richard Shelby's hold on appointees in hours. Why can't it break a GOP filibuster of healthcare legislation? It took Democrats 48 hours to break Sen. Richard Shelby’s hold on President Obama’s appointees. In that same short interval, Democrats also broke their own …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 11, 2010

Obama Chickens Out on Energy

Obama promised to break our addiction to foreign oil. A carbon tax would do that. What Obama proposes in his budget doesn't come close. For a good example of how not to address America’s energy challenges, see President Obama’s new budget. The budget proposes to slam oil companies with new …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 4, 2010

Obama's Anti-Terror Policy is a Mess

The Obama administration says it will assign terrorists on a case by case basis, sending some to civilian courts, others to military tribunals. This seems to offer the worst of both worlds. It took the United States government 18 months to capture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- and seven years to …

Written by David Frum on Monday February 1, 2010

Still Waiting for the Obama Recovery

The most important statement of the week was not President Obama's State of the Union address, but rather the warning from Doug Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office that unemployment will hover around 10% through 2010, and only slowly decline thereafter. The most important …

Written by David Frum on Saturday January 30, 2010

An Alternate History of Obamacare

With a little less partisan zeal and a little more humility, the president could have earned the popular support he needed to pursue the liberal Holy Grail. The speech is over, but the outlook is the same today as it was yesterday. And as bad as things look for the country, just imagine how …

Written by David Frum on Thursday January 28, 2010

Nothing to Offer

Obama needs moderate Republicans in his political coalition, but he's losing them. The Republican base is divided into two main types: old-style and new-style. Old-style Republicans are your father's Republican: affluent, credentialed, secular. New-style Republicans are those who have …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 26, 2010

"Obama the Populist" Doesn't Ring True

If you are a unifier, you have to do unity -- and do it all the time. As President Obama acknowledges, his administration hit a buzz saw in Massachusetts last week. The president will respond as he always does to emergencies: with a speech. In this case, it's his State of the Union address. The …

Written by David Frum on Monday January 25, 2010

Has the GOP Learned its Lesson Too?

Scott Brown won in Massachusetts with a big-tent Republican campaign. Perhaps the GOP is coming to recognize that victory doesn't wear an ideological straitjacket. Congratulations Scott Brown! Yah-boo to the defeated Democrats. But now the challenge returns to the GOP: Can we learn the right …

Written by David Frum on Thursday January 21, 2010

Obama's Bank Tax Flunks on Every Count

When and if we recover from this recession, we are going to have to worry about government debt and deficits. Spending cuts and tax increases will become the priorities of politics. President Obama just gave us a good example of how not to do it. When and if we recover from this recession, we are …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday January 20, 2010

Twelve Months of Fizzle

Obama bet his Presidency on economic remedies, and 12 months into that Presidency, those remedies have not yielded perceptible positive results. Barack Obama's first year in office may well be marked by an epic political disaster: an upset Senate victory for Republicans. The Massachusetts seat …

Written by David Frum on Monday January 18, 2010

Playing the Odds on Airport Terrorism

A new book offers key insights on controlling crime. Can we apply its lessons to thwarting terrorists, too? Policy intellectuals are buzzing about a new book by UCLA public policy professor Mark Kleiman -- When Brute Force Fails . In it, Kleiman argues that the United States could reduce …

Written by David Frum on Thursday January 14, 2010

Playing the Odds on Airport Terrorism

A new book offers key insights on controlling crime. Can we apply its lessons to thwarting terrorists, too? Policy intellectuals are buzzing about a new book by UCLA public policy professor Mark Kleiman -- When Brute Force Fails . In it, Kleiman argues that the United States could reduce …

Written by David Frum on Thursday January 14, 2010

America's New Financial Capital is ... Washington

New York City is bleeding jobs, unemployment is over 10 percent. Washington is booming as government agencies like TARP and the General Services Administration expand. New York's crisis and Washington's growth is more than a business page story though. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 12, 2010

It's Time to Start Profiling

We can have sensible airport security without making "flying while Muslim" a federal offense. It’s inspiring really. As you stood in the long, long pre-Christmas lines at airport security, you might have thought that the transportation safety authorities had already achieved the very summit of …

Written by David Frum on Thursday January 7, 2010

Scary Lessons from Argentina

The Argentine experience is one of tragic falling away from a once glorious promise and offers lessons for both the political left and the right. I spent the Christmas holidays in two very similar nations, with two radically different histories. Country 1 is my native Canada: a resource-rich …

Written by David Frum on Monday January 4, 2010