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<channel><title><![CDATA[washingtonpost.com - Richard Cohen Archive]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/24/LI2005032401528.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><description><![CDATA[]]></description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com?nav=rss</link><url>http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif </url></image>
<item><title><![CDATA[ This Debate's Biggest Loser ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/06/AR2008100602634.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/06/AR2008100602634.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Reading William Kristol's column in yesterday's New York Times, I discover that Sarah Palin and I have something in common. Kristol, who was once Dan Quayle's chief of staff and therefore, shall we say, has a Mister Rogers approach to certain politicians, got Palin on the phone and reported that "she doesn't have a very high opinion of the mainstream media." This is where we are in agreement. On account of Palin, neither do I. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[This]]></category><category><![CDATA[Debate's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Biggest]]></category><category><![CDATA[Loser]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Kristol]]></category><category><![CDATA[Joseph Biden]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dan Quayle]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fred Rogers]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gwen Ifill]]></category><category><![CDATA[Katie Couric]]></category><category><![CDATA[William Safire]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cable News Network LP LLLP]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sudan]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Wall Street Journal]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wall Street]]></category><category><![CDATA[Alaska]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Topical Depression ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/29/AR2008092902660.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/29/AR2008092902660.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ It comforts me that Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and an architect of the financial bailout plan the House rejected yesterday, is a specialist in the Great Depression. This, of course, was the economic calamity that beset the United States from 1929 to about 1942 and ended only when America went to war. What stopped the Depression was a worldwide bloodbath. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Topical]]></category><category><![CDATA[Depression]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ben Bernanke]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Federal Reserve]]></category><category><![CDATA[Adolf Hitler]]></category><category><![CDATA[Benito Mussolini]]></category><category><![CDATA[Charles Coughlin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Don Quixote]]></category><category><![CDATA[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]></category><category><![CDATA[Huey Long]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rupert Murdoch]]></category><category><![CDATA[St. Louis]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cuba]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Republican National Convention]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Joseph Biden]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ A Lesson the Markets Ignored ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092201922.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092201922.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Of all the self-proclaimed experts I wanted to hear from about the financial crisis, the one I looked forward to the most was Nick Leeson, late of Britain's Barings Bank. In 1995, he bet hugely on Nikkei futures (whatever they are) and lost something like $1.4 billion. Leeson was 28 years old and often drunk, Barings was 233 years old and in fiduciary senility. Leeson went to prison, Barings went bust and Wall Street, without so much as a pause, went on its merry way. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lesson]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Markets]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ignored]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nick Leeson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wall Street]]></category><category><![CDATA[London]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jon Corzine]]></category><category><![CDATA[Baring Brothers & Co.]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[American International Group Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Michael Bloomberg]]></category><category><![CDATA[William Goldman]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Goldman Sachs Group Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lehman Brothers Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Meet the Press]]></category><category><![CDATA[Singapore]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Ugly New McCain ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502406.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502406.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. "I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691055922" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691055922" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ugly]]></category><category><![CDATA[New]]></category><category><![CDATA[McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Joy Behar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Carolina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barbara Walters]]></category><category><![CDATA[Karl Marx]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pat Tillman]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Columbia University]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[National Football League]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Armed Forces]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Too Cool to Fight? ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090801909.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090801909.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Thank God for Sarah Palin. Without her jibes, her sarcasm, her exaggerations, her smug provincialism, her hypocrisy about family and government, her exploitation of mommyhood, and her personal attacks on Barack Obama, the Democratic base might never be consolidated. This much is certain: Obama could never do it. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Too]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cool]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fight?]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category><category><![CDATA[George Stephanopoulos]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rudolph Giuliani]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category><category><![CDATA[Alaska National Guard]]></category><category><![CDATA[Columbia University]]></category><category><![CDATA[Harvard Law School]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Republicans Rush In ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090101715.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090101715.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ One of the great sights of American political life -- a YouTube moment if ever there was one -- was to see the doughboy face of Newt Gingrich as he extolled the virtues of Sarah Palin, a sitcom of a vice presidential choice and a disaster movie if she moves up to the presidency: "She's the first journalist ever to be nominated, I think, for the president or vice president, and she was a sportscaster on local television," Gingrich said on the "Today" show. "So she has a lot of interesting background. And she has a lot of experience. Remember that, when people worry about how inexperienced she is, for two years she's been in charge of the Alaska National Guard." ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Republicans]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rush]]></category><category><![CDATA[In]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Newt Gingrich]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cindy McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Alaska National Guard]]></category><category><![CDATA[Grover Norquist]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Alaska]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Kristol]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chris Wallace]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dan Quayle]]></category><category><![CDATA[Emperor Caligula]]></category><category><![CDATA[Julius Caesar]]></category><category><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Terry Southern]]></category><category><![CDATA[YouTube LLC]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bering Strait]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Obama's Reassuring Choice ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401857.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401857.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ I saw another man dance with Joe Biden's wife, Jill. It was almost three years ago, on the terrace of the sublime Villa d'Este on the shore of Italy's stunning Lake Como, and Biden watched, smiling broadly and sometimes laughing, as the man gracefully moved Jill around the dance floor. It was late, and the guests still there looked on keenly because Jill Biden's dancing partner was very good-looking and very famous. He was John McCain. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Obama's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Reassuring]]></category><category><![CDATA[Choice]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Joseph Biden]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category><category><![CDATA[Samuel Alito]]></category><category><![CDATA[Harvard Law Review]]></category><category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lake Como]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Navy]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Yugoslavia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Delaware]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jill Biden]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Is Ossetia Essential? ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/18/AR2008081801851.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/18/AR2008081801851.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Last year, Brent Scowcroft described to the Council on Foreign Relations his "most difficult judgment call" as George H.W. Bush's national security adviser. It entailed preparing Bush for an early morning news conference regarding an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Later on, Scowcroft was asked about the first Bush administration's decision to look the other way as Saddam Hussein's attack helicopters slaughtered Shiites in the south of Iraq. He seemed unmoved. It is not for nothing that he is called a "realist."<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691056246" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691056246" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Is]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ossetia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Essential?]]></category><category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[George H.W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Republic of Georgia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brent Scowcroft]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category><category><![CDATA[Abkhazia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dean Acheson]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mikhail Gorbachev]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]></category><category><![CDATA[St. Petersburg]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S Council on Foreign Relations]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vladimir Putin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Czech Republic]]></category><category><![CDATA[Czechoslovakia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Denmark]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hungary]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[National Press Club]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.S.R.]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Ossetia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Clinton Clouds on the Horizon ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081401336.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081401336.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:40:31 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "It sure is nice to be back here in Hawaii, sitting on the beach with Michelle and the girls, just staring out at the ocean and up at the sky. Just look at those magnificent clouds. They look like what's on my mind. That one's shaped like Ohio. And that one looks like Virginia. Whoa! What's with that one? It looks like a woman in a pantsuit. God, it's getting so I see Hillary everywhere. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[washingtonpost.com]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Clouds]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Horizon]]></category><category><![CDATA[]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Brutality to Make a Point ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102014.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102014.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ It would have been an easy thing for the Russians to throw the Georgians out of the two disputed enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia is mighty; Georgia is not. Russia is huge; Georgia is tiny. The whole thing is a mismatch from the word go, and the Georgians -- when it is appropriate to do so -- have to be reminded that you do not poke a sleeping bear with a stick. Little nations ought to know their place. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Brutality]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Make]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Point]]></category><category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Republic of Georgia]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moscow]]></category><category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category><category><![CDATA[Caucasus]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Balkans]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mikhail Saakashvili]]></category><category><![CDATA[Peter the Great]]></category><category><![CDATA[St. Petersburg]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tbilisi]]></category><category><![CDATA[BMW AG]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Book on the Shelf ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401823.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401823.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ BOULDER, Colo. -- On an average day when I am here, I amble over to the Boulder Book Store. Often, I simply browse -- it's a very good bookstore -- and sometimes I buy something, but mostly I just like the feel of the place. It has a cafe and lots of specialized sections, and recently I watched my granddaughter as she observed a yoga lesson for children. I bet they don't do that over at Amazon. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Book]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Shelf]]></category><category><![CDATA[Joseph Roth]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeff Bezos]]></category><category><![CDATA[Steven Kessel]]></category><category><![CDATA[Thomas Bernhard]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ernest Hemingway]]></category><category><![CDATA[Frederic Manning]]></category><category><![CDATA[Paris]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rush Limbaugh]]></category><category><![CDATA[Google Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[New York]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Obama the Unknown ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR2008072802464.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR2008072802464.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ "Just tell me one thing Barack Obama has done that you admire," I asked a prominent Democrat. He paused and then said that he admired Obama's speech to the Democratic convention in 2004. I agreed. It was a hell of a speech, but it was just a speech.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691056606" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691056606" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Unknown]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Eleanor Roosevelt]]></category><category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Walter Lippmann]]></category><category><![CDATA[Medicare]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category><category><![CDATA[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jerusalem]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hyde Park]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pulitzer Prize Committee]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category><category><![CDATA[Illinois]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Ink-Stained Wretchedness ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072102358.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072102358.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Tattoos are the emblems of our age. They bristle from the biceps of men in summer shirts, from the lower backs of women as they ascend stairs, from the shoulders of basketball players as they drive toward the basket, and from every inch of certain celebrities. The tattoo is the battle flag of today in its war with tomorrow. It is carried by sure losers. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Ink-Stained]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wretchedness]]></category><category><![CDATA[George Shultz]]></category><category><![CDATA[Amy Winehouse]]></category><category><![CDATA[Angelina Jolie]]></category><category><![CDATA[Billy Bob Thornton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Brad Pitt]]></category><category><![CDATA[David Beckham]]></category><category><![CDATA[Johnny Depp]]></category><category><![CDATA[Princeton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Simon Mills]]></category><category><![CDATA[Victoria Beckham]]></category><category><![CDATA[Winona Ryder]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Wish Upon A Pump ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/07/AR2008070702215.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/07/AR2008070702215.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Perusing the Sunday newspapers with plagiaristic intent, I come across an article about who's responsible for the current energy debacle. Politicians are mentioned along with the amazingly shortsighted auto executives and the oil industry itself. Names, lots of names, are dropped, everyone from the current President Bush to the previous Bush to Clinton, but not a mention of the culprit in chief, Ronald Wilson Reagan -- still, after all these years, the Teflon president. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Wish]]></category><category><![CDATA[Upon]]></category><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pump]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jimmy Carter]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ronald Reagan]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[New Orleans]]></category><category><![CDATA[Princeton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sean Wilentz]]></category><category><![CDATA[Teflon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mount Rushmore National Memorial]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Put Them Out to Pastor ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063001904.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063001904.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ The pilgrim is making little progress. In a futile effort to convince faith-voters that he is one of them, John McCain paid a visit to the Grahams of North Carolina -- father Billy and son Franklin. After the meeting, not a word was said about the Grahams' past indiscretions concerning Muslims or Jews, and neither, for that matter, was an endorsement proffered. The next guest was country singer Ricky Skaggs. He did better. He got lunch. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Put]]></category><category><![CDATA[Them]]></category><category><![CDATA[Out]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pastor]]></category><category><![CDATA[Franklin Graham]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Billy Graham]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rod Parsley]]></category><category><![CDATA[Franklin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category><category><![CDATA[Erich Segal]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hyman Roth]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Hagee]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pat Robertson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Richard Nixon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ricky Skaggs]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category><category><![CDATA[Walt Disney World Resort]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ McCain's Core Advantage ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301829.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301829.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ In politics, we're having a Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr kind of year. It was Karr, a French writer, who coined the phrase plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, which means, as Barack Obama has shown, that the more things change, the more they stay the same. N'est-ce pas?<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691057310" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691057310" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[McCain's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Core]]></category><category><![CDATA[Advantage]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category><category><![CDATA[Robert F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Illinois]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Carolina]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Guilty of Experience ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602038.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602038.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ In 1981, Prince Charles had a problem. He needed to marry, but not just anyone would do. He was expected to choose someone who had a spot of royal or noble blood, was a Protestant and also -- somewhat harder to find -- a virgin. It was thus that Charles settled on the Protestant, well-born and pure Diana. Britain fell in love. The prince did not. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Guilty]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Experience]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[James Johnson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Countrywide Financial Corporation]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jim Johnson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dick Cheney]]></category><category><![CDATA[Donald H. Rumsfeld]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jim Johnsons]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Walter Mondale]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fannie Mae]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Wall Street Journal]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[Illinois]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Haters Without a Cause ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902238.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902238.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ I have sometimes wondered what would happen if the good reverends of this Earth got their way and lust -- evil, sinful lust -- vanished overnight. I fear motels and hotels would close, florists and jewelers would seek Chapter XI, restaurants would shutter, celebrity magazines would fold, divorce lawyers would have to defend the innocent, and, in general, the economy would crash. Something like this is going to happen now that Hillary Clinton is out of the presidential race. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Haters]]></category><category><![CDATA[Without]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cause]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Dick Morris]]></category><category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Clinton Conspiracy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Eleanor Roosevelt]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vaughn Meader]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ A Campaign to Hate ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202590.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202590.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Wherever I go -- from glittering dinner party to glittering dinner party -- the famous and powerful people I meet (for such is my life) tell me how lucky I am to be a journalist in this the greatest of all presidential contests. I tell them, for I am wont to please, that this campaign is indeed great when, as history will record, it is not. I have come to loathe the campaign. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[A]]></category><category><![CDATA[Campaign]]></category><category><![CDATA[to]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hate]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Louis Farrakhan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lyndon Johnson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Martin Luther King Jr.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Robert F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bob Dylan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Panama Canal]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iowa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kentucky]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Worldviews in Need of Merger ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601739.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601739.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Chris Matthews, in a look of revelation not seen since the late DeMille did biblical epics, said the other day that he is beginning to think a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket makes sense. Maybe so. But I have an even better ticket in mind: Obama-McCain. That way we might get a sensible foreign policy.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691057562" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691057562" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Worldviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[Need]]></category><category><![CDATA[of]]></category><category><![CDATA[Merger]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[James P. Rubin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chris Matthews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Oprah Winfrey]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hezbollah]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gaza Strip]]></category><category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Why She Fights On ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902235.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902235.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ The New York Times recently ran down a list of women who might someday become the nation's first female president. Out of both courtesy and caution, it included Hillary Clinton, but the whole point of the exercise was that it is not going to be her. Her campaign is all but over, but that's no longer the point. She's ending it in a way to start all over. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Why]]></category><category><![CDATA[She]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fights]]></category><category><![CDATA[On]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Golda Meir]]></category><category><![CDATA[Indira Gandhi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Leo Durocher]]></category><category><![CDATA[Margaret Thatcher]]></category><category><![CDATA[Robert E. Lee]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tammy Wynette]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vince Lombardi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Democratic Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[YouTube Inc.]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ McCain in the Mud ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202327.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202327.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ In 2000, I boarded John McCain's campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, and, in a metaphorical sense, never got off. Here, truly, was something new under the political sun -- a politician who bristled with integrity and seemed to have nothing to hide. I continue to admire McCain for those and other reasons, but the bus I once rode has gone wobbly. Recently, it veered into the mud. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mud]]></category><category><![CDATA[Cindy McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category><category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hezbollah]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gaza Strip]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ahmed Youssef]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Grand Canyon National Park]]></category><category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lebanon]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Pins and Panders ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502065.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502065.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Sometimes I think the best thing about Barack Obama is that little empty space on his lapel. It is where other politicians wear the American flag pin, a kitschy piece of empty symbolism that tells you nothing about that particular person except that he or she thinks like everyone else. Obama's flag, invisible to the naked eye, is the Jolly Roger of a politician thinking for himself. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Pins]]></category><category><![CDATA[and]]></category><category><![CDATA[Panders]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeremiah Wright]]></category><category><![CDATA[Charles Gibson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Louis Farrakhan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Richard Nixon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Spiro Agnew]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tim Russert]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nation of Islam]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Words Heard Differently ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042802099.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042802099.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ George Bernard Shaw said England and America were two countries separated by a common language. Richard Cohen says that white and black Americans are in a similar fix. Statements that one side considers innocuous, the other can consider offensive. Things have gotten to the point where Bill Clinton, a president once adored by African Americans, is being accused of making racially insensitive statements. Shaw would understand. It's not necessarily what was said, it's the way it was heard.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691058782" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691058782" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Words]]></category><category><![CDATA[Heard]]></category><category><![CDATA[Differently]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[George Bernard Shaw]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[United Kingdom]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Annie Hall]]></category><category><![CDATA[Deborah Tannen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Detroit]]></category><category><![CDATA[James Clyburn]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeremiah Wright]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jesse Jackson]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lyndon Johnson]]></category><category><![CDATA[Martin Luther King Jr.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Woody Allen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Georgetown University]]></category><category><![CDATA[NAACP]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Democratic Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Carolina]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Clinton in the Wilderness ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042102553.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042102553.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ It was nice of Hillary Clinton to issue, as all the candidates did, a statement about Passover, the Jewish holiday of the season. Clinton said she was "deeply moved" by its message of freedom and human dignity, but she should have plowed on past Exodus and into Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is there that she can find a lesson for herself -- how Moses, after all he had done, was not allowed to step foot in "the good land that is beyond the Jordan." For Moses, that was Israel. For Clinton, it's the White House. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[in]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wilderness]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Yoo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Moses Moment]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sadr City]]></category><category><![CDATA[60 Minutes]]></category><category><![CDATA[ABC Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category><category><![CDATA[Financial Times Ltd.]]></category><category><![CDATA[NAFTA]]></category><category><![CDATA[Red Sea]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wal-Mart Stores Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ohio]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Guns, God and Gotchas ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402453.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402453.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Long ago I discovered that the word "frankly" often meant a lie was coming. I learned this from an insurance agent, who preceded every attempt to sell me useless coverage with a "frankly." This is why I distrust what Hillary Clinton said about Barack Obama and his admittedly klutzy statement about guns, church, immigrants and bitterness -- "elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing," she said. Frankly, I don't believe her. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Guns,]]></category><category><![CDATA[God]]></category><category><![CDATA[and]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gotchas]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[George H.W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Billy Shaheen]]></category><category><![CDATA[Geraldine Ferraro]]></category><category><![CDATA[James Cagney]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeremiah Wright]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mae Clarke]]></category><category><![CDATA[Merrill McPeak]]></category><category><![CDATA[Willie Horton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category><category><![CDATA[Public Enemy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Kansas]]></category><category><![CDATA[New Hampshire]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pennsylvania]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Race Issue, Still ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702193.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702193.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ In 1988, I promulgated what I now call Cohen's Law of Racial Politics. It goes like this: In states where there are few African Americans, the liberal candidate can win the white vote. In states where there are many African Americans, the liberal candidate will lose the white vote. I forgot about my rule until Barack Obama came along. More and more, he seems haunted by the political ghost of Michael Dukakis. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Race]]></category><category><![CDATA[Issue,]]></category><category><![CDATA[Still]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Michael Dukakis]]></category><category><![CDATA[George H.W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Willie Horton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Massachusetts]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pennsylvania]]></category><category><![CDATA[West Virginia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Wisconsin]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Philadelphia]]></category><category><![CDATA[Maryland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mississippi]]></category><category><![CDATA[New Jersey]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ohio]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tennessee]]></category><category><![CDATA[Texas]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vermont]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeremiah Wright]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Martin Luther King Jr.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ronald Reagan]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[New York]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Yes, It Was a Good War ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102149.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102149.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Nicholson Baker, a supremely talented novelist, has written a surprising book of nonfiction titled "Human Smoke." It is composed primarily of snippets taken from contemporary newspapers in the run-up to World War II and makes the daring argument that the war -- our supposedly "good" war -- was not good at all. We shouldn't have fought it.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691059263" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691059263" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Yes,]]></category><category><![CDATA[It]]></category><category><![CDATA[Was]]></category><category><![CDATA[a]]></category><category><![CDATA[Good]]></category><category><![CDATA[War]]></category><category><![CDATA[Adolf Hitler]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category><category><![CDATA[Los Angeles Times]]></category><category><![CDATA[The New York Times Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[Benito Mussolini]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Stuart Mill]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mahatma Gandhi]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mark Kurlansky]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category><category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Ultimate Casualty ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402290.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402290.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ You know him well. His nickname was Gilligan, and he was a prisoner at Abu Ghraib, Saddam Hussein's vast prison transformed into a vast American one and then transformed again by the Bush administration into a vast national disgrace. Gilligan was deprived of sleep, forced to stand on a small box, hooded like some medieval apparition, wired like a makeshift lamp and told (falsely) that if he fell he would be electrocuted. He was later released. Wrong man. Sorry. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ultimate]]></category><category><![CDATA[Casualty]]></category><category><![CDATA[Abu Ghraib]]></category><category><![CDATA[Errol Morris]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Philip Gourevitch]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Christopher Browning]]></category><category><![CDATA[Javal Davis]]></category><category><![CDATA[Megan Ambuhl]]></category><category><![CDATA[Norman Bates]]></category><category><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein]]></category><category><![CDATA[Germany's Reserve Police]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nazi Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poland]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category><category><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Obama's Pastor Problem ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702153.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702153.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Some questions: Why did Barack Obama take so long to "reject outright" the harshly critical statements about America made by his minister, Jeremiah Wright, not to mention the praise the same minister lavished on Louis Farrakhan just last November? ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Obama's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pastor]]></category><category><![CDATA[Problem]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jeremiah Wright]]></category><category><![CDATA[Louis Farrakhan]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category><category><![CDATA[Keith Olbermann]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tony Rezko]]></category><category><![CDATA[California]]></category><category><![CDATA[MSNBC Interactive News LLC]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tribune Company]]></category><category><![CDATA[YouTube Inc.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category><category><![CDATA[David Duke]]></category><category><![CDATA[Geraldine Ferraro]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ku Klux Klan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Meir Kahane]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ronald Kessler]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ How the Democrats Could Lose ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031002246.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031002246.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ By official count, The Post's 10th most e-mailed column of 2007 was published last June under the headline "How the GOP Could Win." It said that the Republican Party would promote national security as the salient issue of the campaign, making a silk purse (victory in November) out of a sow's ear (the quagmire in Iraq), and keep the White House for four more years. Increasingly, I think I might have been right. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[How]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Democrats]]></category><category><![CDATA[Could]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lose]]></category><category><![CDATA[Richard Nixon]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Democratic Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Denver]]></category><category><![CDATA[George McGovern]]></category><category><![CDATA[George Mitchell]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category><category><![CDATA[Florida]]></category><category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category><category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category><category><![CDATA[Howard Dean]]></category><category><![CDATA[Jack D. Ripper]]></category><category><![CDATA[Stanley Kubrick]]></category><category><![CDATA[Harvard Business School]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category><category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category><category><![CDATA[Yugoslavia]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Taking the Call on Black Men ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030302629.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030302629.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ What if the White House phone rang in the middle of the night and the president was told that one in every nine black men ages 20 to 34 was behind bars? What if the red phone rang at 3 a.m. and the president was told that among black men 18 or older, the figure was one in 15? If the president was like any of his (or her) predecessors, he'd pull the blankets over his face and go right back to sleep.<br clear="all"/><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691102387" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/wpni.rss/opinion/columns;pos=ad9;tile=9;ad=rss;sz=479x40;ord=41691102387" border="0" vspace="5"></a> ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Taking]]></category><category><![CDATA[the]]></category><category><![CDATA[Call]]></category><category><![CDATA[on]]></category><category><![CDATA[Black]]></category><category><![CDATA[Men]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[The White House]]></category><category><![CDATA[Prince Harry of Wales]]></category><category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Pew Center on the States]]></category><category><![CDATA[The Westminster Kennel Club]]></category><category><![CDATA[United States]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Hillary's Diminishing Returns ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022502422.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022502422.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ There is dissension in the Hillary Clinton camp. Top aides have been in arguments, shouting back and forth about differences in strategy. Should Clinton come on strong? Should she go negative? Should she be upbeat and positive? Here's my answer: Stop campaigning. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Hillary's]]></category><category><![CDATA[Diminishing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Returns]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bill Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Nita Lowey]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rudolph Giuliani]]></category><category><![CDATA[Connecticut]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iowa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Al Sharpton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Andrew Cuomo]]></category><category><![CDATA[Bernard Malamud]]></category><category><![CDATA[Billie Holiday]]></category><category><![CDATA[Carolyn Maloney]]></category><category><![CDATA[Charles Schumer]]></category><category><![CDATA[Christopher Dodd]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fred Thompson (Politician)]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Edwards (Politician)]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[John Spencer]]></category><category><![CDATA[Marie Antoinette]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rick Lazio]]></category><category><![CDATA[Roy Hobbs]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fleetwood Mac]]></category><category><![CDATA[France]]></category><category><![CDATA[New York State Senate]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Democratic Party]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Secret Service]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ Rocketing Toward War ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021801539.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021801539.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ SDEROT, Israel -- Rockets launched from the nearby Gaza Strip fall here almost daily. These Qassams are crude devices that hardly ever kill people, although they have, and hardly ever wound anyone, although recently a boy lost part of a leg. They hit with unpredictable regularity, taking a roof here, a piece of a wall there and demolishing the peace of mind of every resident. Bit by bit, Sderot is going crazy. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[Rocketing]]></category><category><![CDATA[Toward]]></category><category><![CDATA[War]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gaza Strip]]></category><category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sderot]]></category><category><![CDATA[Haifa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hezbollah]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S.S.R.]]></category><category><![CDATA[Vermont]]></category><category><![CDATA[Anatoly Ahurov]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ashkelon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mahmoud Abbas]]></category><category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category><category><![CDATA[Fatah Organization]]></category><category><![CDATA[Morocco]]></category><category><![CDATA[Palestinian National Authority]]></category><category><![CDATA[Lebanon]]></category></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[ The Real McCain ]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021102268.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021102268.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns</guid><pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ If John McCain's life is, as it sometimes seems, one of those old-time movie serials, the audience would now know that with the GOP presidential nomination within reach, he is about to enter yet another period of maximum peril. The danger this time, as it sometimes is with McCain, is that he will forget who he is -- rebel, insurgent, etc. -- and try to prove that he is a boring, conventional Republican with all the wrong views. Beware, John. It's a trap. ]]></description><dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Cohen]]></dc:creator><category><![CDATA[The]]></category><category><![CDATA[Real]]></category><category><![CDATA[McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category><category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category><category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ambien]]></category><category><![CDATA[South Carolina]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ann Coulter]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category><category><![CDATA[Rush Limbaugh]]></category><category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category><category><![CDATA[U.S. Republican Party]]></category></item>
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