Day: August 14, 2015

By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS “Conservatives Furious at Fox, Say Trump Wasn’t Treated Fairly,” read the Newsmax headline last week.Talk-radio show host Mark Levin told Breitbart News it was “outrageous” that moderator Megyn Kelly questioned Donald Trump about his coarse language—“fat pigs, dogs, slobs”—referring to women. Levin complained it was “a National Enquirer debate, not a Republican debate,” with too much “opposition research.” Political analyst Dick Morris detected a “disturbing” trend at Fox. The conservative blog Media Equalizer offered that many conservatives “thought they might have been watching MSNBC by mistake.” So this is what happens when Trump meets up with the “news” part of Fox News. Conservatives frequently complain about liberal media bias. Then they complain when conservative media practice journalism. The Trump-Kelly feud is like crack for cable TV news. CNN’s Jake Tapper started Monday’s “The Lead” by noting that conservatives wanted the media to cover such stories as Democratic politicians turning on President Barack Obama’s Iran deal, a trip made by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Qassem Soleimani to Russia in defiance of a U.N. Security Council ban or “black lives matter” activists shouting down Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. But after The Donald told CNN on Friday that he could see the blood coming out of Kelly’s eyes—and “wherever” —Tapper suggested he had no choice but to lead Monday’s show with Trump’s tirade. To keep the...

As things turned out, one could argue with fairness and accuracy that Barack Obama’s campaign promise to end U.S. warring in the Middle East was half-hearted. Many an American thinks he should have stood by his word while perhaps too many others want war now and, apparently, forever.  The debate over U.S. involvement in the Middle East is currently in debate in Washington, D.C. over negotiations with Iran to stop their making of the bomb. With implications for U.S. warring overseas, a dozen years ago author Micheal Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the story of how Billy Beane of Oakland A’s fame used his wits to build a winning franchise. Beane questioned old assumptions, every sacred cow, and all that was familiar to create a successful team. In foreign policy, the ideas cited in Moneyball relate to America’s role in the world in a new way that’s deigned to maximize the returns on taxpayer dollars. It recognizes that the U.S. has some global responsibilities that no other nation can handle well.  Then, too, with overseas ventures, the U.S. must now better husband our ever-dwindling financial resources to continue as world cop. The best path for the U.S. is to promote our value at keeping the world from imploding not our values as the “better way” when they’re imposed on others who are less and less receptive nowadays. George H. W. Bush did not initiate a war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.  Rather,...