Entries

The Marriage Buffet

A week ago, the writer Andrew Sullivan issued on this very page a challenge to political conservatives: Now that the Supreme Court has declared that homosexuality can no longer be considered a crime, what do you think it is? If homosexuality is not a crime, on what grounds can conservatives justify …

Written by David Frum on Saturday October 16, 2004

The Presidential Debates

Rule Number One of politics is that there are no rules. For years, political scientists have been writing books about Americans dwindling interest in politics and the declining importance of the two major parties. The election of 2004 has up-ended all those observations. Suddenly Americans …

Written by David Frum on Thursday October 14, 2004

Empire

In a famous passage from his great polemic "Economic Consequences of the Peace," John Maynard Keynes offered this vignette of affluent life in the summer of 1914: "The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such …

Written by David Frum on Friday October 1, 2004

No Fair!

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post Style section profiled a new book with the couldn't-be-clearer title He's Just Not That Into You. The book offered its female target market a revolutionary new insight: If a man does not pursue a woman, it's because . . . he doesn't like her very much. When the …

Written by David Frum on Monday September 27, 2004

Uncertain Trumpet

Imperial Hubris is an alarming book. Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror, by Anonymous (Brassey's, 352 pp., $27.50) This is an alarming book, but not in the way its author intended. It delivers an urgent danger signal - not about al-Qaeda, but about intelligence …

Written by David Frum on Monday September 27, 2004

In Search Of Escape - Not Victory

On Iraq, John Kerry is a one-man think tank, producing more ideas more rapidly than any of the experts at Brookings or the American Enterprise Institute. At various points over the past year, the Senator has called for sending more troops and withdrawing troops within six months. He has …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday September 21, 2004

Ohio: The Many Faces Of The Kingmaker State

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio is George Bush's make-or-break state. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio -- ever. Knowing that history, John F. Kerry has invested unprecedented time and money to win this crucial state. It was here that Senator Kerry came to deliver his midnight …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday September 14, 2004

Vietnam Won't Save John Kerry

George Bush has emerged from the New York convention with a 10 or 11 point lead over John Kerry, depending who is counting. Democrats can reassure themselves that there are still nearly two months to go in this election. But given how badly Kerry has used the nearly seven months since he locked up …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday September 7, 2004

Notes Of Thanks

Tonight, at the Republican National Convention in New York, George W. Bush will step onto the podium and accept his party's nomination for president. Though conventions themselves have receded in importance, the acceptance speech has remained potent, offering the candidate -- even one who has been …

Written by David Frum on Thursday September 2, 2004

Easy Rider

Review of Bill Clinton's "My Life" Reviewers have almost unanimously dismissed Bill ClintonÕs mammoth book of memoirs as boring. It is easy to see why: much of it is an undigested mass of diary entries, apparently re-dictated without thought or reflection. Old speeches seem to have been pasted in …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday September 1, 2004

For Gop, Glimmers Of Hope

NEW YORK - The Republicans arrive in New York in an anxious mood, and no wonder. It has been 20 years since a Republican president won re-election. Back in 1984, it was "morning in America": The economy was rocketing toward prosperity, new technologies like the personal computer were remaking …

Written by David Frum on Monday August 30, 2004

Pro-choice - But Still The Best Choice

While the Democrats enforced party-line conformity at their convention in Boston, Republicans will display an impressive show of party diversity in New York. A conservative president from Texas will share the stage with the liberal Republican governors of California and New York--and also with the …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday August 25, 2004

The Ad That Worked

The people who keep track of these things expect 2004 to be the first billion-dollar election in American history. Yet the single most effective ad campaign of the election cycle has thus far cost only about $500,000: the campaign launched at the beginning of this month by the new anti-Kerry group, …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday August 24, 2004

The Simple Goodness Of The Ontario 'terroir'

Fourteen years ago my in-laws bought a summer place outside of Toronto. Most Torontonians who make that decision head north, toward the primeval rocks and black water of Muskoka and Haliburton. But my mother-in-law craved sunshine and open views. Instead of the classic Canadian cottage on a hidden …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday August 17, 2004

The 'two Americas' Canard

Together, John Kerry and John Edwards possess family fortunes totaling probably in the vicinity of $1 billion. If elected, John Kerry would be the richest president in American history, richer even than his hero John F. Kennedy. And unlike other rich men to seek the presidency -- Ross Perot, …

Written by David Frum on Monday August 9, 2004

United In Rage Only

Written by David Frum on Wednesday July 28, 2004

Waking Up To The Iranian Threat

What's a Canadian's life worth? Eighteen thousand dollars says the government of Iran. That is the compensation that an Iranian court proposed to pay the family of murdered photographer Zahra Kazemi -- after that same court refused to hold any individual responsible for Kazemi's death. What …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday July 27, 2004

What Went Wrong For The Tories?

It's good to be back at the old fruit stand. A lot of history has passed since I last had a regular spot on these pages, and not all of it has been happy. I'd been rather looking forward to a plush patronage appointment from a Harper government, perhaps as equerry to Canada's new ambassador to the …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday July 20, 2004

The Indispensable Nation

Review of "Colossus" by Niall Ferguson What are we going to do with Niall Ferguson? Ferguson is a brilliant young Scot now emerging as one of the English-speaking world's leading popular historians. Educated at Oxford, now transplanted to Harvard, he is also--incredibly enough--a thinker of …

Written by David Frum on Monday June 14, 2004

Out With The New Iraq, In With The Old

In his speech Monday night, George W. Bush proved he's still a risk-taker. The U.S. President is betting on the hope that the United Nations can help stabilize Iraq. Specifically, he believes UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi can assemble a representative and effective government, and that - the …

Written by David Frum on Thursday May 27, 2004