New York Times Columnist Cheers Biden’s “Successful Foreign Policy”
Plus, more possible buyers for Washington Post
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, toward the end of a column complaining that President Biden has been too easy on Prime Minister Netanyahu, throws in this gem: “The paradox is that Biden has generally had a successful foreign policy.”
Which part of the non-Israel Biden foreign policy was “successful,” exactly? The part where Biden let Afghanistan fall to the Taliban amid a chaotic evacuation of Kabul that featured Afghans plunging from the outside of, and dying in the wheelwell of, an American C-17 aircraft? The 13 U.S. Service members killed at Abbey Gate? The part where the weakness in Afghanistan encouraged a Russian invasion of Ukraine that Biden failed to deter? The part where Biden couldn’t get Mexico or other Latin American countries to stem the flow of illegal immigrants? The part where American reporters Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva are being held hostage by Russia with impunity?
With successes like those, who needs failure?
Kristof explains with a brief mention that Biden has been “especially” successful in “knitting together an alliance in Asia to reduce the risk of war with China.”
The risk of war with China is difficult to measure with any precision. Some would say a Cold War of sorts has already begun. The risk it will escalate with a Chinese takeover of Taiwan may have been increased by Biden’s projection of American weakness.
A good opinion columnist will sometimes be provocative or make readers question their own assumptions. But a line like that one from Kristof, minimally explained, is the sort of thing that sometimes makes me wonder whether The New York Times editors are observing the same world that the rest of us are. If what we’ve seen over the past four years is the result of Biden running a generally successful foreign policy, just imagine how bad it could get in a second term if Biden is any less successful.
Post-script: Last week’s article “Who Will Be the Washington Post’s Next Owner” generated quite a bit of attention. After the article was published, I heard from several readers who were skeptical that Jeff Bezos would be able to sell the Post for more than the $250 million he paid in 2013. A few additional names also surfaced as potential buyers:
Nikkei, the Japanese media company, bought the Financial Times in 2015 for $1.3 billion and has done a respectable job of owning it since. Japan has a lot riding on what happens in Washington, from Trump’s proposed tariffs to making sure that the U.S. stays active in the Pacific and prevents Communist China from dominating the region. Nikkei may figure it already has an influential English-language voice in the FT and doesn’t also need the Washington Post, or that the Post’s politics-and-government focus doesn’t fit with the Nikkei-FT focus on business and economic news.
Jeff Yass, a cofounder of Susquehanna International Group, like Bezos, has libertarian leanings. He’s got an interest in education reform, where the Post has been, for a generally liberal newspaper, unusually supportive of vouchers and charter schools. Susquehanna reportedly has an investment in the parent company of TikTok, which is facing a forced sale after Congress passed legislation aimed at curbing the social media influence of Communist China. So Yass might be newly aware of the value of a voice in Washington. The Washington Post has 1.7 million TikTok followers (more than double what the New York Times has, and four times what the Wall Street Journal has) and was one of the first major U.S. newspapers to invest seriously in a presence on that social media platform.
Sheryl Sandberg served on the Facebook board with former Washington Post Company CEO Donald Graham. Her husband Thomas Bernthal grew up in the DC area. Sandberg lived in Washington while working as chief of staff for Larry Summers when he was Treasury secretary. The Katharine Graham-Meg Greenfield female executive history might appeal to the “Lean In” author. Sandberg left her job as chief operating officer of Meta in 2022 and left the Meta board earlier this year. She has been engaged in documenting how sexual assault was used as part of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel. If Bezos genuinely believes the Post’s salvation lies in a “third newsroom” (after traditional news and opinion) with a social media focus, maybe Sandberg is the owner who can make that work, while also curbing some of the more egregious anti-Israel content.
Mitch Daniels on one-party rule: One strength of the Washington Post in its current iteration is the presence of the former governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, as a columnist. (While Daniels was president of Purdue University, Purdue acquired Kaplan University from Kaplan Higher Education, a subsidiary of Graham Holdings.) Daniels has an intriguing recent column in the Post about how state governments have fallen under single-party dominance:
In the early 2000s, three-fifths of the states saw reasonable political balance between the two major parties. Today, “trifecta” government, meaning one-party control of the governorship and both legislative bodies, has become the norm across the 50 states. In 40 states, containing 83 percent of the American population, one party enjoys trifecta dominance, and often by overwhelming margins…In 2024, 30 states feature not only trifecta government but 2-to-1 majorities in at least one house. In that setting, both campaigns and governance look totally different than they do in genuine two-party polities.
That rings true for me, as two states in which I lived, New York and Massachusetts, once had Republican governors to balance the heavily Democratic state legislatures, but no longer do.
Daniels leaves out the somewhat hopeful news that the trifectas typically become so complacent and corrupt that eventually voters notice and toss them out. Sometimes that noticing and tossing can take a long time to happen, and in the meantime, there’s a lot of damage. Also, in some cases, a group of conservative or centrist Democrats or moderate Republicans emerges to block the most extreme ideas and functionally provide some checks and balances. That is, factions within parties serve at least part of the role that opposing parties once served in a two-party system.
Columnists will find a way to complain no matter what the configuration is in the state capitals. If it’s divided government, the problem is gridlock. If a single party dominates, the problem is one-party rule.
Recent work: “Harvard, in New Filing in Court, Suggests Its Jewish Students Were Too Fearful in the Wake of October 7,” is the headline over my latest piece for the New York Sun. “The most recent top internal lawyer at Harvard, Diane Lopez, announced on November 30, 2023, that she would retire at the end of February 2024. Six and a half months since then, Harvard still hasn’t announced a permanent replacement, leaving the university in the hands of an interim vice president and general counsel alongside its interim president and interim provost.” Please check out the full column over at the Sun if you are interested. The court filing was first reported here.
“New York Times Calls Israel ‘Aggressive,’ Explains Away Hamas Tunnels” is the headline over my latest piece for the Algemeiner. Please check the full column out over at the Algemeiner if you are interested.
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