Monday's third and final debate between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger saw Romney's transformation from a more hawkish to a more moderate position. The GOP nominee, who had advocated a muscular foreign policy throughout the campaign and during the primaries, rebranded himself Monday night as an advocate of peace. "We can't kill ourselves out of this mess," he said early during the Monday night debate in Boca Raton, Florida. Those who have followed Romney's foreign policy … [Read more...]
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Frank blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and writes occasional columns and articles for publications such as the International Business Times and The Economic Times of India.
Frank writes on a wide variety of topics that are critical to shaping the future of America and the American dream and to making the United States and the world a better place. These include: Business; education; poverty and inequality; politics and public policy; immigration; manufacturing; innovation; leadership; citizenship; and social commentary.
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Obama is on Home Turf on Foreign Policy
If a week is a long time in politics as British Prime Minister Harold Wilson said nearly half-a-century ago two weeks are an eternity in an American presidential election. That’s what the first two debates between President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney proved. Thanks to a decent bounce from the Democratic National Convention, Obama was coasting with a near lock on the electoral votes when the two men squared off for the first debate in Denver on October 3.But Romney, who had to put … [Read more...]
Hope Dies Last: Why Hope Matters for Strategy
Hope may not be a strategy. Nonetheless, hope is a necessary but not sufficient condition for surviving tough times and achieving great things. Hope may not make something so. But, a lack of hope makes accomplishing anything virtually impossible. Hope is the fuel of strivers and doers. If hope disappears, progress ends. Hope is essential. It is what keeps us going against what appear to be overwhelming odds and adversity. The late Studs Terkel, America's greatest oral historian, … [Read more...]
US Presidential Debate: Mitt Romney like to pick up from where he left; Barack Obama certain to go on the offensive
The second debate has now assumed far more significance after a strong performance by the Republican challenger in Round 1 appears to have altered the dynamics of the race. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will faceoff for the second time in 13 days in a crucial presidential debate on Tuesday night at the Hofstra University campus, just 25 miles to the east of New York City. The second debate has now assumed far more significance after a strong performance by the Republican challenger … [Read more...]
The Importance of Beating Earnest: Lessons From the Vice Presidential Debate
From the Democratic perspective, the vice presidential debate was completely different in tone and style from the first presidential debate. Where the president was passive in his debate, the vice president was aggressive in his -- some people thought too much so. We think not because he got the job done. He accomplished his mission. In the debate, Congressman Ryan was sincere and earnest. Vice President Biden was bemused, bothered but not bewildered. He knew he had to win the fight in the … [Read more...]
US Presidential poll: A wink & a nod, all for the Oval office
Even before the current presidential election cycle began, the conventional wisdom was that the 2012 race to the White House would boil down to one issue and one issue only: the economy. The consensus among the political class all along has been that President Obama's reelection would depend on convincing enough voters that the American economy, in the midst of one of the slowest recoveries in history, has finally turned the corner. And on that all-important issue, the US president may have, at … [Read more...]
Play Mystified for Me
By the vote of the twitter universe, the most memorable moment of the first Presidential debate was Governor Romney's Big Bird comment. The same group and almost everyone declared the most memorable moment of the Republican convention as Clint Eastwood's appearance. We're not certain what the full impact of Big Bird will be - although it's generated some great tweets and you tubes. We have had sufficient time and distance from the event, however, to reflect on Mr. Eastwood's stage time in … [Read more...]
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and Military Force
The death of Ambassador Chris Stevens at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the breaching of our embassy walls in Cairo, Egypt, might have unified our politicians in a common cause similar to the way they came together for the short time right after 9/11. Unfortunately, because this is a presidential election year, this was not the case. Instead, these tragic and terrible incidents have been made into the basis for political fodder and sloganeering by the Republican opposition to … [Read more...]
US presidential polls: On primetime TV, Barack Obama has edge over Romney
President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will square off on Wednesday night in the first of their three presidential debates at the University of Denver in Colorado. Many see the first debate as the last chance for Romney's floundering campaign to convince the American voters that the former Massachusetts governor with a stellar business background is the best person to lead the country in the next four years, as it slowly pulls itself out of a prolonged economic … [Read more...]
The Not-So-Great Redistribution Debate: Makers, Takers, Shakers and Fakers
Redistribution is a bad thing because it moves wealth from the makers to the takers, right? Conservatives and libertarians would probably think that way. Progressives and liberals would probably not. This needs to move beyond an ideological or linguistic argument, however. Every now and then, facts should intervene. A standard definition of redistribution is that it is reallocating wealth to reduce inequalities in income. The current political argument has centered on the conception that it … [Read more...]