Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the programme on International Politics, Economics, and Security.
Joe Biden has become the Typhoid Mary of classified documents, spreading them as he goes. They keep turning up in batch after batch, everywhere but the floor at Starbucks. The President has said almost nothing about the mess, except to reassure us that ‘people know I take classified documents seriously’. That defence has since taken
As the fighting in Ukraine slows for the winter, three things stand out. The first is the most obvious: a small, highly motivated country, equipped with advanced weapons and intelligence, is slowly but inexorably defeating what used to be called the world’s second-most powerful military. We need to remind ourselves how stunning that is. The second
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The president could pay a political price for staying mum
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If he can convince Republicans he won’t drop out, he is likely to win
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night was a political triumph. It was easily the most impressive speech given to Congress and the American public in years. And it was persuasive, if the audience’s repeated ovations are any indication. Zelensky’s goal was obvious. In thanking the Congress and
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The four-count referral may be politically meaningful, but it is legally meaningless
There are two pieces of deeply disturbing news to emerge from the ‘Twitter Files’ released by Elon Musk. The first is that Twitter, under its old management, was not the open, politically neutral platform it pretended to be. Journalist Bari Weiss has shown that Twitter had secret ‘blacklists’ and related methods specifically designed to limit
The ‘Twitter files’ Elon Musk released to two journalists have produced a cloud of confusion. So far, we have not seen the files themselves, only what one journalist, Matt Taibbi, has reported about them. The main findings reinforce what we have known all along: Twitter’s former management strongly favoured Democrats and used its powerful platform
‘There is a lot of ruin in a nation.’ So said Adam Smith over two centuries ago. He reminds us that strong, stable countries such as my country, America, can survive the pounding we have suffered over the past few years. Our nation may be continually tested, but it has deep reserves of strength. In
Donald Trump has some well-proven abilities – the ability to cost Republicans winnable elections for the House and Senate, the ability to undermine citizens’ confidence in election outcomes (without providing solid proof the elections were stolen) and the ability to foment some of America’s worst, anti-democratic elements. Trump’s status as party leader contributed to Republicans’
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A Democrat was willing to blast them full-bore
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The atrocities and civilian casualties are only rallying Ukrainians against their enemy
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They’re a political stunt, but they’re also much more than that
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A wider collapse of Putin’s forces is now possible
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The defender goes on the offense
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His student loan forgiveness program is a political bribe
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The Mar-a-Lago raid has finished off public trust in federal law enforcement
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Andrew Warren doesn’t get to be a one-man legislature
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Yet his assailant was released as threats against elected government mount
The emperor is naked. The public knows it, and they’re finally beginning to speak the obvious truth. The emperor, in this case, is President Biden. He took office with high hopes from voters and a promise to bring the country together. Those aspirations are dead. The public has lost confidence in Joe Biden – lost
