Anne Applebaum
9/21/2010

The pope’s visit to the United Kingdom stirred up religious and atheistic fervor. While Applebaum points out that a noted Jewish or Muslim leader would not receive the same angry protests as a Christian one, she also notes that the furor was ultimately good for the cause of religious freedom. Due to the protests, the pope received a tremendous amount of media attention. And because of the left-leaning nature of the more vicious protests, the conservative right came to the pope’s defense and ended up learning more about some important aspects of Catholicism. All in all, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit was beneficial politically and socially.

Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.

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Marco Annunziata
9/20/2010

Annunziata says policy makers’ mixed signals are fueling volatility in sovereign-debt markets. EU leaders have two choices. They can accept that whenever a member country is in trouble it will be rescued without a debt restructuring, in which case they should impose tight and enforceable fiscal rules to keep members in line and avoid moral hazard. Or they can adopt a sovereign-debt restructuring mechanism and let markets play their disciplining role by pricing sovereign-credit risk in an environment of greater transparency and predictability. Postponing this choice will keep the pressure high on countries like Greece, requiring ever stronger efforts to improve fiscal balances and bolster potential growth. It will also delay the repricing of sovereign risk that is an essential component of the sought-after stabilization in financial markets.

Annunziata is chief economist at UniCredit.

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Randy E. Barnett and William J. Howell
9/16/2010

The authors note that Virginia is considering a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow two thirds of the states to repeal a federal law. They argue that the Repeal Amendment would help restore the ability of states to protect the powers “reserved to the states” noted in the 10th Amendment. And it would provide citizens another political avenue to protect the “rights… retained by the people” to which the Ninth Amendment refers. In short, the amendment provides a new political check on the threat to American liberties posed by a runaway federal government. And checking abuses of power, they conclude, is what the written Constitution is all about.

Barnett is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Howell is the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

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David Ignatius
9/16/2010

Ignatius recounts an interview with retired Congressman Lee Hamilton. At 79 the Indiana Democrat remembers a time in American politics when making the country work took precedence over partisan interests and political loyalties. The problem, Hamilton says, is not partisan politics; it’s the bitter, angry spirit that accompanies them today. To rise above America’s political turmoil, Hamilton advises putting the interests of the country first and focusing on what works to make America successful.

Ignatius is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing on global politics, economics and international affairs.

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Maureen Dowd
9/15/2010

Newt Gingrich has embraced his party’s lunacy, Dowd says. She shares some of his comments with the media that smear the president, saying he is a socialist and likening his behavior to Kenyan anti-colonialism. She also notes Gingrich’s un-Christian behavior despite his conversion to Catholicism. Finally, she looks at the writings and rantings of Dinesh D’Souz, which she says is fear-mongering akin to what the Bush administration used to get us into Iraq. Both D’Souz and Gingrich are using insinuation, half-truths, and dishonest reasoning to discredit the president, which would be funny if it weren’t so scary.

Dowd is a New York Times columnist.

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Harold Meyerson
9/15/2010

American business has become dependent on China even though China continually violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules by heavily subsidizing certain industries and manipulating its currency. Consequently, Chinese exports are underpriced and China controls the global market for strategic industries such as green energy. The Obama administration has not taken any measures (such as placing tariffs on underpriced Chinese imports) to deal with this problem. Last Thursday the United Steel Workers filed a lengthy complaint with US trade officials detailing China’s WTO violations. Lawmakers would do well to heed the Steel Workers’ complaint. Conservatives who fear government control at home ought to see that government control in the form of a Chinese manufacturing monopoly is just as great a threat to the American economy.

Meyerson is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing mainly about politics.

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Katrina vanden Heuvel
9/15/2010

Special interests and powerful corporate lobbies should be set aside in order to hold real debates on important issues. Political leaders along with the media engage in “gotcha politics” to the detriment of the country’s direction. Republican campaigns point accusingly to President Obama’s economic policies while Democrats point to past Republican policies as the cause of America’s woes. Republicans have remained in an “idea vacuum” for years, vanden Heuvel points out, which may actually help them in the upcoming elections. But for Democrat campaigns to be productive, Democrats need to be honest about the lack of jobs and the still-dismal state of the economy and clear about what needs to be done now.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation magazine.

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Anne Applebaum
9/14/2010

The British government, nostalgic for the hardy survivalism of World War II and eager for a secure future, is cutting government spending with vigor. The solution to that country’s economic woes seems to be austerity, and many British citizens and leaders are embracing this approach so that they can, in the words of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, “look our children and grandchildren in the eye and say we did the best for them.” In contrast, austerity holds little appeal for Americans, who long for the post-war era prosperity and are still accustomed to instant gratification.

Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.

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Roger Cohen
9/14/2010

Cohen reports from Israel, where he says little attention is focused on the peace talks with Palestine. People prefer to watch the Israeli version of American Idol on television. People do not trust politics, they don’t trust peace, and the recent arrivals from the former Soviet Union don’t have democratic values, which has weakened democracy there, according to Israeli historian Tom Segev, whom Cohen interviews. He says people are “busy privatizing themselves in online worlds where national politics matter little” and have become cynical and blasé, which has eradicated idealism.

Cohen is a New York Times columnist.

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