Republicans

Running low on ‘juice’: Obama to look beyond Congress

May 1, 2013 12:02 am by Financial Times

By Richard McGregor in Washington

It is remarkable that Barack Obama, only months after a convincing re-election, seems to keep falling back on his self-professed powerlessness when pressed about his second-term agenda.

Be it on closing down Guantanamo Bay, ending the across-the-board budget cuts (known as sequestration), restricting firearms sales or bringing Obamacare into life, Mr Obama talks more about what he can’t get done than the other way round.

The president suffered the indignity at a Tuesday press conference of being asked if his second-term administration still had any “juice” left, joking in response that maybe he should “just pack up and go home”. Read more

Tags: Barack Obama, immigration, Republicans
Posted in US politics | Permalink

Smart Reads April 12, 2013

April 12, 2013 3:23 pm by Amie Tsang

♦ Kenya’s new leader Uhuru Kenyatta is proving deft at politics even with a charge for crimes against humanity hanging over his head.

♦ Jonathan Soble looks at the dilemma that Haruhiko Kuroda faces over the next two years – “How do you convince markets and consumers that you are serious about raising prices, without being so dogmatic that you risk the central bank’s credibility – and your job – if you fail?”

♦ Margaret Thatcher’s death has prompted a wave of nostalgia among US conservatives.

♦ Sarah Neville, the FT’s public policy editor, thinks welfare reforms in the UK are likely to test the resolve of the middle class. (You can find out more about the reforms in today’s additions to the FT Austerity Audit.)

♦ Nicolás Maduro summons the ghost of Hugo Chávez in the final days of his campaign, a move he is counting on to propel him to victory at Sunday’s presidential elections.

♦ Hugo Chávez may have made himself enormously popular by subsidising fuel, but his policy has damaged long-term prospects for Venezuela’s economy.

♦ Jon Lee Anderson recalls his earliest memories of living in Seoul when his father was working in the Korean demilitarised zone.

♦ Jack Goldstone at Foreign Policy thinks there “is a real risk that the Korean Peninsula will follow Syria’s descent into war”. (Although you might not have to worry. The military’s planned missile test has been “put on hold because of “problems with Windows 8”, according to the Borowitz Report.) Read more

Tags: austerity, Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda, Hugo Chavez, Kenya, Margaret Thatcher, Nicolas Maduro, North Korea, Republicans, South Korea, Uhuru Kenyatta, US politics, Venezuela, welfare
Posted in Foreign affairs, Smart Reads | Permalink

Smart Reads March 12, 2013

March 12, 2013 2:54 pm by Amie Tsang

Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s central bank governor, argues that Africa’s relationship with China carries with it a whiff of colonialism and that Africa must start treating China as a competitor. “Africa is now willingly opening itself up to a new form of imperialism,” writes Sanusi.
Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, and since it represents just 4 per cent of the emerging markets private equity asset class there is plenty of room to expand. But as the African growth story attracts more and more funds the going is getting tougher, reports Katrina Manson.
Barack Obama’s outreach efforts may do more to expose Republican resistance to his overtures than to build bipartisan bridges.
The CIA is boosting its support of elite Iraqi antiterrorism units amid alarm that the civil war in Syria may spill over the border.
Here are Amos Chapple’s photographs of his trip to Iran: “For ordinary Iranians … the government is a constant embarrassment. In the time I spent there I never received anything but goodwill and decency.”
Steven Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations ponders the need for reform within Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior and the likelihood of it: “As much as bulldozing the Ministry of Interior would likely reverse President Morsi’s declining fortunes, he – like Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi before him – will never do it because he both needs and fears the police.”
Peter Guest looks at whether oil and gas exploration in east Africa will be a boon or a curse in Turkana, northern Kenya. “This area is often a battlefield,” says one development worker.
While you’re on tenterhooks for white smoke to appear at the Vatican, see who would be your ideal Pope with the Pontifficator.

Tags: Barack Obama, China, CIA, east Africa, Egypt, GOP, Iran, Nigeria, Pope, Republicans, sub-Saharan Africa, Syria
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

Rand Paul and the soul of the Republican Party

March 11, 2013 1:13 pm by Gideon Rachman

Rand Paul during the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 28, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Getty)

Rand Paul (Getty Images)

Rand Paul’s marathon filibuster last week – aimed at holding up the confirmation of John Brennan as head of the CIA – was much more than a parliamentary stunt. It has opened up interesting new debates and divisions on the future direction of US foreign policy.

Senator Paul’s highlighting of the Obama administration’s use of drones for “targeted killings” of terrorist suspects, has established an unlikely alliance between the libertarian right and the liberal left. Until Paul took up the drones issue, it was mainly the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union, who were making the running in criticising the drone strikes. But, as Paul illustrated, there is a good libertarian case for suspicion of the over-mighty covert state. Even more interestingly, Paul’s stand placed him directly at odds with the neoconservative wing of his own Republican Party.

The Wall Street Journal has denounced Paul for appealing to “impressionable libertarian kids” – a condemnation quoted with approval by John McCain, one of the party’s leading foreign-policy hawks.

Conveniently for President Obama, this argument between the two wings of the Republican Party places the president somewhere in the middle. He will never be as hawkish as the Republican neocons, many of whom are pressing for intervention in Syria, an assault on Iran and denouncing cuts in the Pentagon budget. On the other hand, the president’s expansion of the drone war and his unwillingness to rein in the burgeoning national-security apparatus makes him very far from being a “libertarian kid”. Read more

Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Democrats, drones, filibuster, John Brennan, Rand Paul, Republicans, US foreign policy
Posted in Foreign affairs, US foreign policy, US politics, War | Permalink

Smart Reads March 8, 2013

March 8, 2013 1:23 pm by Amie Tsang

The daughter of Uzbekistan’s autocratic president, Gulnara Karimova, has for some time been the western-friendly face of the regime. She has released a duet with Gérard Depardieu, launched a fashion line and even has her own perfume. However, attention is turning to her other persona: “that of the ruthless businesswoman, ready to use her family position to crush business rivals.”
Bassem Youssef, Egypt’s equivalent of US chat show host Jon Stewart, has been the target of death threats and law suits, but he shrugs them off: “It is a guarantee that freedom of speech will not be oppressed if we continue to speak.”
Steven Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations argues that the Egyptian opposition’s feckless approach to politics underscores the need to replace wedge issues and anti-Muslim Brotherhood sentiment with real policies.
Why the White House shmooze-fest? The “president’s only route to a so-called grand bargain for deficit reduction is to go around the leaders to build a bipartisan consensus.”
As it is International Women’s Day, we thought we’d share with you this cheering article on the media’s double standards for women at the top.

Tags: Bassem Youssef, Democrats, Egypt, Gulnara Karimova, International Women's Day, Jon Stewart, Republicans, Uzbekistan, White House
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

Smart Reads January 29, 2013

January 29, 2013 3:05 pm by Amie Tsang

The suicide of Alexander Dolmatov, a Russian opposition activist, has prompted much soul-searching the Netherlands, a country that regards itself as a haven for exiles of conscience, but now finds its citizens are increasingly sceptical towards immigrants of all stripes.
Angry voters battling economic hardship mean Naples will be a tough city to take and the south could hold the key at the Italian election.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has started toning down his rhetoric on the Kurdish conflict.
Le Monde has examined François Hollande’s new approach in Africa. (FR)
David Brooks argues that the Republican party should create a second GOP in order to survive.
Justin Cronin’s “Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner” explains why he owns guns and why he still loathes the National Rifle Association.

Tags: Africa, Alexander Dolmatov, François Hollande, gun control, Italy, Netherlands, NRA, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Republicans
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

Obama’s second inauguration (Morning)

January 21, 2013 10:18 am by Financial Times

Welcome to our rolling coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration for another four years as US president, complete with agenda-setting speech. By Tom Burgis, Lina Saigol and Ben Fenton with contributions from FT correspondents. All times are EST.

11.00 For ease of reading, we’re going to switch into a new post. Like the transition between two presidential terms, this is meant to happen seamlessly. Just click here to go on reading the latest updates from our colleagues in DC.

Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, fiscal cliff, inauguration, Republicans, Washington
Posted in Foreign affairs, US foreign policy, US politics | Permalink

Smart Reads December 3, 2012

December 3, 2012 3:22 pm by Amie Tsang

Tags: fiscal cliff, France, Palestine, Republicans, Smart Reads, Tunisia, UN, youth unemployment
Posted in Smart Reads | Permalink

US Election Night: As it happened

November 7, 2012 4:01 am by Financial Times

Getty

Welcome back to the FT’s live coverage of the US Election 2012 as voters have re-elected Barack Obama over Mitt Romney. The Democrats will retain a majority in the Senate, while the Republicans will hold the house. Follow all the action with Shannon Bond, Arash Massoudi and Anjli Raval in New York (All times EST).

02.20: As the celebrations continue in Chicago, we leave you with these closing thoughts.

The President came into tonight’s election a damaged political figure with victory far from certain. He won with help of a unmatched grass-roots campaign and his direct appeal to a broad cross-section of America’s ever-changing demographics. He won’t enter his second-term in office with the same momentum in his sails but that’s not to say his challenges are any less daunting. Read more

Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, election day, Florida, Iowa, Mitt Romney, Nevada, new hampshire, November 6, Ohio, polls, Republicans, US, US election, US politics, Virginia, White House
Posted in Foreign affairs, US election, US politics | Permalink

US election night: As it happened (5-7pm)

November 6, 2012 10:28 pm by Arash Massoudi

Getty

Welcome back to the FT’s live coverage of the US Election 2012 in which US voters will choose between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. As millions of Americans continue to head to polling sites around the country, some results will begin to trickle in shortly.

By Arash Massoudi and Anjli Raval in New York (All times EST)

19.00: Continue to follow our election live blog here.

18.55: How will markets react tomorrow? Michael Mackenzie, FT’s US markets editor, says bond traders believe Treasury yields are likely to fall if President Obama is re-elected as attention will focus on gridlock and the “fiscal cliff”.

“Traders think a Romney win would push the benchmark yield higher as the risk of a fiscal accident is reduced. For equities, the consensus view is that a relief rally beckons once the election result is finalised, with a Romney win pushing stocks even higher.”

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Republicans

Running low on ‘juice’: Obama to look beyond Congress

Smart Reads April 12, 2013

Smart Reads March 12, 2013

Rand Paul and the soul of the Republican Party

Smart Reads March 8, 2013

Smart Reads January 29, 2013

Obama’s second inauguration (Morning)

Smart Reads December 3, 2012

US Election Night: As it happened

US election night: As it happened (5-7pm)

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