Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
Hillary Clinton is married to America’s most popular living president, who from 1993 to 2001 oversaw an era of peace and prosperity. As first lady, Clinton proposed a sweeping reform of the US health-care system and spoke prominently to world leaders about improving the rights and status of women and children. Bill Clinton was famous for “triangulation” — determining the … >>
The next US presidential election isn’t until November 2016, but the campaigning is well under way. Because neither the sitting president nor the vice-president nor the previous opponent is a candidate, new ideas and new faces have a shot at success. The last time this happened was in 2008, and it enabled a little-known senator named Barack Obama to rise … >>
The party of Barack Obama had everything going for it: unemployment down to 2008 levels, GDP growing at 3.5 percent, the stock market doubled in value, and more Americans with health insurance than ever before. Jobs and the economy are the issues US voters care about most, with health care in second place, so mission accomplished. Why, then, on Tuesday, … >>
The situation in Ukraine is not going to be an easy one to solve. The consensus in American political circles is that it’s bad and something must be done. How bad is it? Interviewed on a CNN news program on Sunday, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski compared the situation on the Crimean … >>
This column was originally written for Spotlight Online. As some of you may know, I write the Replay section you hear on Spotlight Audio each month. We present the voices of people who have been in the news and explain the language they use. The language we use when giving background to recent events is just as important. A few … >>
It was two in the morning, and the shops and markets of Dubai, open late during Ramadan, had finally closed. Realizing how far away my hotel was, I stopped walking after half an hour and caught the only taxi that came past. I sat down next to the driver in what I can only describe as a religious shrine with … >>