Daniel Lubetzky

Convicted Of Charisma
By Michael Kinsley
Washington Post, 8/23/2008
Kinsley explains the Republican strategy for presidential elections. He says they don’t waste much time and energy probing the Democratic opponent’s weaknesses. Instead, they go after his biggest strength. So, in 2004 they attacked Kerry’s war service and in 1988 went after Dukakis’ populist appeal. Now the Republicans are attacking Obama’s charisma, as if popularity itself were a disqualifying factor. It comes close to being an attack on democracy itself.
Michael Kinsley is a columnist for Time magazine.
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72 hours that will change the world
By Nahid Hatr
Al Arab Al Yom (Jordan), 8/18/2008
Hatr comments on Raghida Durgham, a well-known writer for Al-Hayat, who expressed anxiety because of the "American retreat and confusion facing the Russian bullying in the Caucasian region." "What is important here is that Durgham is close to the pivots of the Arab-American alliance. Thus, her attitude shows that the circles of this pivot are extremely worried that Washington might be too weak to confront Moscow’s return to the international playground as a major player," he writes. "Washington’s allies must be feeling extremely edgy at the escalating international developments, which are leading to the emergence of a new multi-polar world order." How will the Americans respond? Will they accept the new balance of power and the new world order based on many players? "Or will the Americans follow Durgham’s advice and use their forces in Iraq in a new aggression on Iran as part of an effort, which we believe is doomed to fail, to regain global hegemony?"
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