http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman RSS Feed for Inq Col Dick Polman en-us Sun, 27 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120527_Colin_Powell_rsquo_s_mea_culpa.html It’s sobering, on this Memorial Day weekend, to read the chapters on Iraq in Colin Powell’s new book, to ponder the waste of soldiers’ lives that resulted from the peremptory decision to wage war on the basis of specious intelligence. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120518_Dick_Lugar_rsquo_s_departure_a_sign_of_Washington_paralysis.html I doubt that the average American is pondering the political death of Dick Lugar. Heck, most might think “Dick Lugar” sounds like the name of the hero of a spy novel. But what happened to Lugar last week is a sign of the polarization that cripples Washington and is likely to impede rational governance no matter who wins the White House in November. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120513_On_gay_rights__a_historic_shift.html To borrow a phrase from the poet T.S. Eliot, it’s likely that the gay-marriage issue will impact the 2012 presidential race not with a bang, but a whimper. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120504_Politics_arent_for_the_humble.html When the usual suspects complain that President Obama is 'politicizing' the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, I can only marvel at their willful amnesia. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120429_The_running-mate_question.html I want to show you something I wrote 12 years ago. George W. Bush was the presumptive Republican nominee, and everyone was dying to know who his running mate would be. One hot prospect was due to give a speech in Washington, and so, on a hot July morning, I went to check him out. It was bedlam. Scores of gawkers seemed juiced by the notion that the man in their midst might wind up a heartbeat away. The winner of the veep contest, I wrote, “might well be the slim guy with the silver hair and sharp tongue who sauntered into a marble lobby and waved hello to 100 of his new best friends.” http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120419_The_American_Debate__What_Hilary_Rosen_got_right.html Hilary Rosen, the Democratic strategist who has been savaged recently for targeting Ann Romney and supposedly maligning motherhood, was merely guilty of saying precisely the right thing in precisely the wrong way. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120415_Obama_vs__Romney.html The Obama-Romney rumble will last roughly as long as the baseball season, and, just as in baseball, you can’t tell the players without a scorecard. So let’s score the opening week of the general election, with a thumbnail look at their strengths and weaknesses. I don’t presume to know who will win, but Rich Galen, the Republican commentator and strategist, probably got it right the other day when he said he’d “probably bet the president,” if only by a hair. These categories tell that potential tale. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120405_The_American_Debate__Think_Supreme_Court_will_be_dispassionate_on_Obamacare__Think_again.html Obamacare's defenders insist the U.S. Supreme Court wouldn't dare nuke the reform law in a 5-4 ideological ruling, lest it shatter the institution's aura of Olympian dispassion. In the words of University of California law professor Richard Hasen, "the court's legitimacy would suffer in ways which we have never seen." http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120401_Embracing_Obamacare.html An amazing moment occurred the other day on the two-year anniversary of the health-reform law that has long been burdened by the pejorative term Obamacare. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/dick_polman/20120322_The_American_Debate__Why_the_Seamus_story_matters.html Every dog has his day. And even though Seamus the dog has been dead for several decades, his day is now.