Lanny Davis

In the 1960s, the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (D) used conservative, market-based, competitive forces to create new jobs in the inner-city wasteland of the minority neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. A cynical New York City reporter (a redundant expression) was heard to mutter, as he heard Kennedy’s pro-market, pro-business ideas to help the poor, “You sound like Barry Goldwater.” Legend has it that Kennedy responded: “Maybe, but I know that I mean it.” (more)

If ever there is an example of hyper-partisanship, the recent personal attacks challenging the honesty and competence of Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the ATF’s errors in its “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking program should be Exhibit A. (more)

I like and respect Grover Norquist. Despite the many matters on which I disagree with him, I respect his consistent, deeply held belief in limited government, which leads him to oppose higher taxes as an enforcement mechanism. (more)

This coming weekend, I’ll be joining alumni from the two Bill Clinton presidential campaigns in Little Rock, Arkansas, to mark the 20th anniversary of Mr. Clinton’s declaration for the presidency. (more)

It is a mystery: Why do so many Jewish Americans wherever I go express grave concerns about President Obama’s commitment to the Jewish state of Israel? (more)

On September 6, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz published a letter to “Fellow Citizens” in The New York Times challenging the leadership of both parties in Washington, the president and the Congress, to “put an end to partisan gridlock and, in its place, to set in motion an upward spiral of confidence.” (more)

This appeared in USA Today on August 17, 2011. (more)

A famous 1950 Japanese movie, “Rashomon,” describes a murder from the perspectives of four main characters who were involved in it — including the medium speaking for the murdered man. All four versions differ as to who is the real murderer. The director was asked by the actors: Who was the real murderer? The director’s response: We don’t know, because each person was telling the truth as he or she perceived it. (more)

The headline in the left-hand lead of The New York Times on Tuesday read: “Obama grasping centrist banner in debt impasse.” (more)

Read the June 27 Newsweek cover story, with a smiling Bill Clinton filling the cover, and the headline "14 Ways to Save America's Jobs," and you will be reminded why and how Clinton began his first term as president with a $300 billion deficit and a stagnant economy emerging from a recession, and ended after two terms with a trillion-dollar-plus surplus and 23 million new jobs, not to mention a 65 percent job approval rating. (more)

For several years in the late 1990s, I worked for the government of Pakistan, mostly when the late Benazir Bhutto, an inspiring small “d” democrat and charismatic populist leader, was prime minister of Pakistan. I made lots of Pakistani friends, in Pakistan and among the large Pakistani-American community here. (more)

A remarkable purple moment has occurred regarding the president’s legal decision to define “hostilities” as not having taken place in the U.S. operations in Libya, and thus declaring that there was no need to seek Congressional authorization under the War Powers Act. (more)

It was the summer before the presidential year to come, more than seven months before the New Hampshire primary. All of the Republican presidential candidate’s top campaign staff had quit; he was virtually out of money. The pundit class declared him politically dead, mocking his campaign. (more)

At first blush, the decision to indict former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) for conspiracy to accept illegal campaign contributions, given the facts and circumstances, seems like a stretch, to say the least. (more)

As a liberal Democrat, I was happy with the results of the New York 26th Congressional District special election, in which Democrat Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Jane Corwin by emphasizing her opposition to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget proposal and her Republican opponent’s support of that plan. (more)

The New York Times’s headline on Monday, concerning President Obama’s speech on Israel the day before to the national pro-Israel organization, AIPAC, read: “Obama presses Israel to make hard choices.” (more)

I have written before about the dangers of our presumption-of-guilt culture, in which accusations and indictments are believed by people to be verdicts. I warned about this almost two years ago, when the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was indicted — and before his conviction was overturned due to corrupt and dishonest misconduct by federal prosecutors. (more)

Last month, certain elements of the gay-rights community reportedly succeeded in pressuring the nationally renowned law firm of King and Spaulding to withdraw from representing Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives to defend the constitutionality of the anti-gay marriage statute, the Defense of Marriage Act. (more)

The stunning news of the death of Osama bin Laden on Sunday night was quickly followed by spontaneous celebrations in front of the White House, Times Square and, most moving of all, at Ground Zero. (more)

So far, the one thing that President Barack Obama and Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan agree on in their contrasting budget proposals is the necessity of avoiding specific proposals on Social Security reform. (more)