Overview for The Week Archive

Has Obama Turned His Back on Dissidents?

Soon after coming to office in 1981, President Reagan issued an order. At every meeting with Soviet officials, American officials were to begin by posing a question: "How is Natan Sharansky's health?" Soon after coming to office in 1981, President Reagan issued an order. At every meeting with …

Written by David Frum on Friday August 7, 2009

The GOP's Same Old Tax Cut Refrain

Mortimer Zuckerman published an alarming essay in The Wall Street Journal this week. Among the dismal economic numbers he highlighted was this one, which was especially painful and poignant to those of us who served in the Bush administration: The total number of jobs lost since the onset of …

Written by David Frum on Thursday July 16, 2009

France's Nuclear Solution

Nuclear energy carries one great big negative: the problem of nuclear waste, the radioactive residue from enriched uranium. Now, suppose there were a solution to this problem? America gets one-fifth of its power from nuclear power plants. Nuclear is far and away the cheapest and most reliable …

Written by David Frum on Thursday July 2, 2009

How to Kill an Economy

In an effort to make finance "boring" again, Obama's new regulations will prop up the biggest institutions and put roadblocks in the way of newcomers. They may also provide an opening for conservatives. There was a saying in Silicon Valley in the 1990s: "The thing that makes America the greatest …

Written by David Frum on Thursday June 25, 2009

The Urgent Case to Reform Conservatism

For the past four years, Republican reformers have been warning of political disaster ahead. Our party's ideas have fallen behind the times, we are losing key demographic groups, and we have suffered disappointment and defeat in four of the six national elections since 1998. You'd think that …

Written by David Frum on Thursday June 18, 2009

The Immigration Problem Gets Bigger

The Center for American Progress, headed by former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, has become the hottest Democratic think tank in a Democratic town. Consider it an early warning signal of liberal assaults to come: While President Obama is directing the current battle, CAP is …

Written by David Frum on Thursday June 11, 2009

The Real Jane Harman Scandal

Sometimes in Washington, what is most scandalous is the attempt to create a scandal where none exists. Sometimes in Washington, what is most scandalous is the attempt to create a scandal where none exists. Let me give you a current example. Maybe you’ve heard about an allegation of …

Written by David Frum on Thursday April 23, 2009

Obama Flunks His Education Test

Education Secretary Arne Duncan came to Washington with claims to be a reformer. The destruction of the voucher program by Congress was his first test. He flunked. My youngest child attends a District of Columbia public school. It is a magical place, led by an inspired principal and taught by …

Written by David Frum on Thursday April 16, 2009

Obama's Formula For Disaster

President Obama is building an economy for the 21st century of accreting waste and inefficiency, massive bureaucracy, slower productivity growth, and lagging prosperity. President Obama got a heaping serving of good news in Monday’s Washington Post poll. He remains strongly personally popular, …

Written by David Frum on Thursday April 2, 2009

Green Power's Hidden Agenda

Environmentalists invoke a “climate crisis,” yet they are often committed to using that crisis to advance other, undeclared priorities. You must know the TV game show, “Jeopardy.” In this game, the host provides an answer. Contestants compete to guess the question. Let’s play the public …

Written by David Frum on Thursday March 26, 2009

The Limbaugh Schism

As ardently as his fans adore him, Rush Limbaugh is one of the less popular figures in American public life. For conservatives, the news of the week was Rush Limbaugh’s speech to the annual CPAC conference in Washington DC. The speech achieved all and more that Rush could have hoped: It …

Written by David Frum on Thursday March 5, 2009

Obama's Selective Blindness

President Obama has promised America a transparent administration. But transparency only helps those who have their eyes open. In Chicago, they teach ‘em to keep well shut. “Chicago ain’t ready for reform!” gloated the saloonkeeper-alderman Paddy Bauler when Richard Daley was first elected mayor …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Obama At Gettysburg

Barack Obama’s speech contained not one memorable phrase. It stumbled again and again into cliché. Obama’s speech was like Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address ? Like Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address? Lincoln’s Second Inaugural has aptly been called the most terrifying state paper in American …

Written by David Frum on Friday January 30, 2009

The Conciliatory Radical

Obama's inaugural address made clear that Democrats have little reason to doubt the new president’s commitment to left-wing orthodoxies. The age of big government, re-regulation, multiculturalism, and process-oriented diplomacy has come roaring back. In the heady first days after a thumping …

Written by David Frum on Thursday January 22, 2009

Obama's Daley Standard Time

We are moving toward a closer entanglement of business, finance and government than anything the United States has known since the end of World War II. We are moving toward a closer entanglement of business, finance and government than anything the United States has known since the end of World War …

Written by David Frum on Thursday December 18, 2008

No Exit From Bailout Politics

The federal government is taking ownership stakes in big banks and financial companies. Those stakes are likely soon to be joined by partial ownership of the automobile companies—and who knows what else? Entry into this new commitment is easy, but exit will be hard. It’s amazing how candid we get …

Written by David Frum on Thursday December 11, 2008

The Obama Illusion

Barack Obama faces a heavy burden of expectations from the rest of the world. Barack Obama faces a heavy burden of expectations from the rest of the world, just as strong> Shrum has said

Written by David Frum on Thursday November 27, 2008

Obama's Power Play At State

Obama talked of change. But in politics, some things never change. One of those things is the hard reality of power. We must be getting close to Christmas—even strong> Shrum Stover at Yale

Written by David Frum on Thursday November 20, 2008

Republican Resilience, Democratic Dilemma

While Republicans lost in 2008, they did not lose nearly so badly as might have been expected. As Republicans rebuild, they need to take the measure of their strengths as well as their weaknesses. In the euphoria of Democratic victory, Shrum seems to have read my last column with something less …

Written by David Frum on Thursday November 13, 2008