Pruden on Politics
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The president Donald Trump could have been
The $64,000 question in Washington, still a lively speculation well into the second year of the Trump era, is whether Donald Trump with a little self-discipline could have accomplished more than he has, or whether a disciplined Donald could accomplish anything at all.
Dreamy dreams in the Democratic bubble
Some of the worthies on the left have counted the votes and the Democrats have their nominee for 2020. It's either Oprah or Kamala Harris, or maybe Michelle Obama. Everyone's too giddy to get it all straight, but whether Oprah or Michelle or Kamala, someone's got the fork to stick in the Donald, and he'll be done.
Billy Graham, preaching from the belly of the beast
Five of us from The Washington Times were invited to Pyongyang in April 1992 by Kim Il-Sung, the grandfather of Rocket Man. The man called "the Great Leader," regarded as the founder of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, wanted to open his hermit kingdom to the world, and we were the first Western newspapermen to test whether North Korea could withstand a regiment of editors and reporters in their midst for 11 days.
Everybody's playing the new game in town
Washington measures everything and everyone by politics, and dysfunction is the new game in town. Rant and rage has become the lingua franca of the nation's capital. Taking the measure of Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian cybernauts for interfering on Vladimir Putin's behalf in the 2016 presidential campaign is easy.
The snookered press at Pyeongchang
When Kim Jong-un dispatched his crack propaganda team to Pyeongchang (and not P.F. Chang, the Chinese restaurant chain, as reported by NBC News) to cover the Winter Olympics, he couldn't have imagined that the American media in town would have been so easy to con.
A new world order coming to a theater near you
The picture should start to come clear any day now. The London Express, which often reports things that nobody else has heard of, not even on the internet where there are no editors and anything goes, reports that the Illuminati is real and is secretly running the world from behind the scenes.
The surveillance state is here, and to stay
If great Washington scandals come in threes, as disasters are said to do, we're there. First there was Watergate, regarded as the granddaddy of them all. A third-rate burglary at the Watergate Hotel grew to a scandal big enough to cashier a president.
Free speech, beware the Judas goat
Beware the Judas goat, who leads unsuspecting cattle down a stockyards chute to the slaughter pen, stepping aside at the last minute to preserve his own survival.
The deadly ignorance on the road to Rome
If America follows Athens and Rome down the memory hole of history — and no nation is immune to the march of time — it won't be by conquest, famine, flood or earthquake, but by the inevitable consequences of ignorance. It's sometimes difficult to think we're not already on the way.
The growing friendship of evangelicals and Jews
The friendship between America's growing Christian evangelical movement and the state of Israel has been something to complain about for years, both in the United States and in Israel. The American Jewish community is more comfortable with more respectable Christians, without a lot of "Jesus stuff," and the "Jesus stuff" embarrasses some American Christians, too.
Donald Trump crashes the gasbag party at Davos
Donald Trump crashed the party in Davos late Thursday and the world's economic and cultural elite, and those worthies could only glumly concede that the biggest button, the biggest airplane and the biggest ego puts them and their airs in the shade.
Another day at work, another congressional tantrum
Throwing tantrums and shutting down the government is a bipartisan sport. Both Republicans and Democrats have now thrown this particular tantrum, like children fighting over a toy, and it's great fun only for the tantrum-throwers. The rest of us, and that includes both Democrats and Republicans, are not much amused.
An Olympian break in the war between the words
A few Ping-Pong balls broke the Cold War ice around China a generation ago, following Richard Nixon's stunning trip to Beijing (when it was still called Peiping), and soon the United States and China were on their way to normal diplomatic relations.
Democrats decree death in the swamp for the Dreamers
Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and their Democratic followers laid a careful trap for their Republican tormentors, and then fell in it. The Republican leadership can keep them from climbing out if they're smart and show a little courage.
Angry assertions that Donald Trump is crazy
President Trump goes in for his annual physical Friday, and the doctors will only look at things like his blood pressure, listen to his heart, bang on his knees with a little rubber mallet and turn him around for the ever-popular prostate exam.
Happy times and starry dreams in Tinsel Town
We've just completed the first presidential primary of the 2020 election year, and the decision is unanimous.
Angela Merkel gets a lesson in free speech
Free speech, the driving principle of the American experiment in how free men govern themselves, is a principle that does not always travel well. Free speech requires constant defense and the careful attention of loving hands. Mere lip service won't do it.
Kim Jong-un offers an opening, or a trap
Kim Jong-un is entitled to feel pretty good about his skill in playing Washington and the West. There's a history of North Korea getting what it wants and not paying anything for it. A succession of American presidents, Republican and Democrat, have been eager to play the mark.
Mueller watchers hunger for red meat indictments
The conspiracy theorists are hungry, and Robert Mueller owes them dinner. His pantry is apparently barren of groceries, and he has spent nearly $7 million of the grocery money.
The media ice begins to crack a little
"It ain't braggin,'" said Dizzy Dean, "if you can do it."
