Columnists

First, an apology ...

Then more provocations in passing

It's a little early in the year for my annual "Where I Went Wrong" column, but (a) it's never too early to admit a misjudgment, and (b) confession is good for the soul. Or as Fiorello LaGuardia used to say, "When I make a mistake, it's a beaut!"

How was I wrong? Let me count the ways. Having advised the GOP's presidential field to ignore Donald Trump's bluster in the latest presidential debate and free-for-all--why, just rise above it!--along comes Carly Fiorina, who not only doesn't ignore this blowhard but engages him. And reduces him to her foil.

When the lady took on Russia's latest tsar, too, it became clear that she'd done her homework, as when she went down her short list of policy prescriptions for how to deal with Vladimir Putin's newly resurgent and ever growing empire:

"What I would do immediately is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet. I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland. I would conduct regular aggressive military exercises in the Baltic States. I'd probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message."

Brief, pointed, direct, Carly Fiorina's suggestions were not just forceful but thoughtful. In short, the opposite of Barack Obama's foreign policy. If he has one instead of a series of ad-hoc expedients.

I have no excuse for missing all that; I must have fallen asleep at that point in the debate.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Miss (and CEO) Carly's performance is that she has no need to mention that she'd be the country's first woman president; all she has to do is show up and appear. Poised, calm, incisive, the way a leader should be. In short, presidential.

Her emergence as the star of this last presidential debate also demonstrates the advantages of having so many of them, for they winnow the field and let an underdog like Carly Fiorina rise and shine.

The sheer number of these presidential debates also indicates the depth of the Republican bench. Which the Democrats can't match. It turns out there is method in all this debate madness after all. (Talk about pitiful--the Democrats' backup candidates at this point are Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.)

Her critics point out that Carly Fiorina has run for high office once before--and lost. That was in 2010, when she ran into Barbara Boxer and the Great Recession, both disasters, and lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in California.

But the history-conscious will remember that a presidential candidate named Abraham Lincoln lost a hotly contested Senate race in Illinois against a popular senator (Stephen A. Douglas, aka the Little Giant) before going on to become a great president, indeed one of the greatest, and proceeded to save the Union itself.

Here's hoping my apologies will be accepted by, first, the reader, who's the reason for this whole column-writing enterprise, and, second, by the lady herself. I may not be the first to underestimate Carly Fiorina, but I doubt if I'll be the last.


It's not just big government that can prove wasteful and corrupt but big business. General Motors has just agreed to pay $900 million to settle a criminal case against it--plus $575 million to settle various civil lawsuits connected with GM's trying to conceal a problem with its ignition switches that has been linked to at least 169 deaths. Once a vast corporation like GM or a government agency like the Veterans Administration grows gargantuan, it can be dangerous not just to your pocketbook but your life. The moral of this story: Small is beautiful.


Here in Arkansas and across the country Planned Parenthood continues to defend its dubious connections with abortion and the sale of fetal body parts. No wonder. Those connections can be profitable. A third of Planned Parenthood's annual budget of $1.3 billion comes through Medicaid.

For a different attitude toward life--and death--consider this brief obituary in the Virginian Review: "The remains of John Anthony Diehl were laid to rest at St. John's Catholic Church cemetery in Sweet Springs, W. Va., Sat., August 15. John died in his mother's womb at five months. He is survived by his parents, William and Mary; and seven siblings, Kevin, Jarod, Alaina, Sydney, Emily, Joseph and Vincent, all of Durham, N.C." R.I.P.


Outshone by all the attention paid to the Republican presidential debates, the best that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton could do was call those who watched them "gluttons for punishment." But not all Democrats agreed. On the contrary, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee was heckled when she showed up to speak at a gathering of the party faithful in New Hampshire.

Chants of "More debates!" rippled through the hall when Debbie Wasserman Schultz suggested the crowd go after the Republicans instead of her. But one of the party's minor presidential candidates--Martin O'Malley, a former governor of Maryland--has accused the party's establishment of "party malpractice" by not staging as many debates as the Republicans. The GOP's emerging stars--like Carly Fiorina--are making Hillary Clinton look less like a front-runner than a front-walker.

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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Editorial on 09/30/2015

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