Chicago Sun-Times

Why the president looks exhausted

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 02:23:50 -0500

Barack Obama looks exhausted these days. He looks about as tired, in other words, as the nation feels. He knows this. At a speech Saturday, he said that people are always telling him to “hang in there.” “Don’t worry about me!” Obama said. “I am still fired up ... because I still see the work that needs to be done!” The audience cheered and applauded his old slogan from 2008 — “Fired up! Ready to go!” — the old fire in the belly, the old Obama. But by Sunday, he seemed drained again. Speaking at a memorial to those slain …

Biden toys with White House bid

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 02:23:54 -0500

The Tom Harkin steak fry is no ordinary event. And when Biden was invited to headline the event this year, it set tongues wagging. Was this an invitation to open his 2016 campaign? He praised San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and even John Kerry. But not a word for Kerry’s predecessor.

Government hasn’t met Obama’s declarations about protecting children

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:40:00 -0500

Change has not happened since the last time the president spoke about being judged on how safe we keep our children. Nobody even talks about it today.

Just say no, Mr. President

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 02:23:49 -0500

I can still summon from memory the black-and-white film of the B-52s, soaring like enormous birds of prey, opening their belly doors and dropping their tons of bombs upon the people beneath. We did not own a color TV, but I could see the ripples as the explosions tore the air and earth, and I could imagine how the balls of flame must have looked. The B-52s, which soon may be used to fire Tomahawk missiles into Syria, were so powerful — their payloads so obliterating — that we had to avoid their use in certain areas of Vietnam because …

Syria: Good Roger vs. Bad Roger

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 02:22:22 -0500

‘ We will smite Syria swiftly, but prudently,” Good Roger said. “Ferociously, but cautiously. With abandon, but with restraint. And if our red line is crossed again, we have crimson, magenta and puce lines to back them up.” “Have you been sniffing the printer toner again?” Bad Roger asked. “You are beginning to sound like a foreign policy wonk.” “We must stop the needless, senseless, indefensible murder of children,” Good Roger said. “The United States must act to stop the slaughter of the innocent.” “You’re talking about that one-year-old boy shot to death in his stroller in Brooklyn on Sunday …

Not too far or too fast. Just right

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 06:42:42 -0500

To most black people, the March on Washington a half-century ago was about hope. To most white people, it was about fear. Whites feared massive violence. The government had mobilized 6,000 police officers, 2,000 National Guardsmen and 4,000 soldiers to await the marchers. But the fear went deeper than of mere broken windows and broken heads. The fear was that black people, by gathering in huge numbers and attracting huge attention, would become visible. Much of white America failed to see black people at all. Black people, for the most part, were, as Ralph Ellison had termed them, “invisible.” They …

Serial groping the California way

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 06:23:57 -0500

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who is accused of being a serial groper of women, has a problem that goes beyond his behavior. In a state where celebrities are often worshipped, Filner does not resemble a celebrity. He has a smile like a Halloween pumpkin and a forehead with enough wrinkles to resemble an electrocardiogram. He does not have the lean and hungry look of, say, Anthony Weiner, a fellow Democrat with whom he once served in the U.S. Congress. But it is unlikely that Filner, 70, has ever emailed pictures of his abs to anyone. Filner’s body bears an …

Republicans revving up the clown car over Hillary documentary, miniseries

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 06:22:40 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON. CNN is making a documentary on Hillary Clinton, and the entertainment division of NBC is doing a miniseries on Clinton’s life, with Diane Lane playing Hillary.

Obama campaign tracked TV viewing habits

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 06:09:35 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON.

New book: Political restraints gone

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 20:28:45 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON.

Stop talking race — problem solved

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 06:27:10 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON.

Zimmerman trial all about race

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:48:24 -0500

Anyone who thinks the stalking of Trayvon Martin and the trial of his killer, George Zimmerman, was not about race is kidding himself. We would wish it otherwise. Race is the most important undiscussed issue in America today. On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder called the shooting “unnecessary,” but did not delve any deeper into the political morass of race, fear, hatred and violence in America. We talk about race only after a tragedy or crisis — Martin’s shooting and Zimmerman’s acquittal — or after those rare moments when we pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves we don’t …

Recalling an assignment in Grenada with a Hemingway type

Sun, 11 Aug 2013 06:33:29 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON. After 30 years, I’m still looking for a Swedish reporter I met in Barbados at the time of the 1983 Grenada invasion.

Snowden’s fantasy now grim reality

Sat, 27 Jul 2013 06:25:53 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON.

Edward Snowden: The slacker who came in from the cold

Sat, 13 Jul 2013 06:33:02 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON.

Roger Simon: Dr. Politics says Holder is staying

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 06:22:56 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON.

Republicans drone on and on

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 06:26:58 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON. The Republican Party is in such a state of confusion that it is mystified over what it is supposed to be baffled about.

‘You will walk again’

Sun, 23 Jun 2013 06:21:49 -0500

BY ROGER SIMON. Stories on amputees have filled the media since the Boston Marathon bombing in which at least 17 people have had one or both of their legs blown off. They will want to be what they were: whole. That is not just a physical process, but a mental one.