Liberal: Kamala, Swallow Your Pride
The “entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus” marking Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff “were entirely predictable,” laments the San Francisco Examiner’s Gil Duran. “Harris’ 2020 campaign also unraveled in an ugly war between rival staffers, each side publicly blaming the other for her failure” as “she dropped out before voters got a chance to make the devastation official.” Joe Biden “revived her fortunes” by tapping her for VP — yet within months “her beleaguered aides were leaking to the press and dropping like flies as she struggled with the thorny immigration portfolio Biden assigned to her.” Harris’ deficiencies “cannot be fixed by new staff or pricey consultants. The change has to come from her.”
Security beat: Pearl Harbor’s Lessons Unlearned
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor 80 years ago aimed “to destroy America’s military presence in the Pacific Ocean,” notes Bradley J. Weikert at the Asia Times. “It was a daring plan that very nearly succeeded” because “the intelligence mosaic was never properly pieced together by policymakers in Washington.” And “a similar pattern of failure persists today,” despite “generous funding” of “the US intelligence community.” Notably, US intelligence this year was surprised by a Russian anti-satellite test, “a game-changing Chinese test of a hypersonic glide vehicle” and news that China is “expanding its nuclear-weapons arsenal.” Plus, “Washington’s policies toward its rivals in Beijing and Moscow have been both provocative and wholly ineffective,” while “both Moscow and Beijing overreact at every perceived American provocation or insult.” On all sides, “This is great-state arsonism.”
From the right: Tackle Climate Change Via Growth
“The lefty greens who dominate the Biden administration are thinking big,” warns James P. Pinkerton at Breitbart. “Deep eco-transformation is still central to progressive hearts.” As for jobs, “the Great Resetters reply, in effect, Jobs, schmobs — that was all just boob bait for Biden voters. What really matters is decarbonizing the planet.” Nor do they care much that their moves, like killing the Keystone Pipeline and banning offshore oil, raise the price of carbon-based energy, including gasoline. Or that China, which dominates the solar-panel market, is “the big winner.” Yet climate change isn’t really an “immediately deadly emergency.” Indeed, “with the right mix of human brains and economic resources — resources that can only come from continued growth — we can calmly solve whatever challenges loom ahead.”
Media watch: Why the Press Goes Unpunished
It’s been “a few weeks” since the Steele “dossier was discredited, and no one has paid a price,” fumes Eric Dezenhall at The Wall Street Journal. “News companies are even more reluctant than other businesses to come clean about their misbehavior” because it’s not “in their self-interest.” The “truth can tarnish the brand and jam them up in court. So they often deny, stonewall, close ranks and attack their critics.” And they have two things other companies don’t: “the ability to deliver news instantly and the mantle of moral authority.” When other businesses “make unforced errors, the fallout is punishing — lost sales, congressional hearings, lawsuits and management shakeups. When journalists fumble in the manner of the Steele dossier, however, the immediate reaction is rewarding — blockbuster stories, clicks, ratings and ad sales.”
From the left: Dems’ ‘Dark Money’ Dilemma
For all their horror over “dark money” political spending whose donors aren’t disclosed publicly, Democrats are “becoming increasingly dependent on it and the donors who demand it,” warns Rachel M. Cohen at The American Prospect. Of the $1 billion-plus donated in “the 2020 federal election cycle,” most, “around $514 million, went toward electing Democrats,” per the watchdog OpenSecrets, vs. “roughly $200 million that helped Republicans.” And “the grip of the rich grows tighter” on the party. Even “fringe candidates who stand little chance of winning are finding they can now raise massive amounts of money quickly, earning them national recognition and post-campaign opportunities.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board