After Paris, We Should Look to Chris Christie
George F. Will – The Washington Post
Paris was for all Americans, but especially for Republicans, a summons to seriousness that should have two immediate impacts on the Republican presidential contest. It should awaken the party’s nominating electorate from its reveries about treating the presidency as an entry-level job. And it should cause Republicans to take another look at Chris Christie, beginning with his speech in Florida the day after the Paris attacks….
The eruption of war in the capital of a NATO ally is a reminder that the nominating process will potentially send a commander in chief to Washington. This might, and should, hasten the eclipse of Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and especially Donald Trump….
French soldiers patrol the Christmas market on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Nov.19, 2015 after last Friday’s deadly terrorist attacks. (Reuters)
To the large extent that Trump’s appeal is his forceful persona, no candidate in the Republican field can match Christie’s combination of a prosecutor’s bearing and a governor’s executive temperament. In Florida, Christie sounded a new theme: “There are all too many people in academia and in global business that aren’t really interested in America as a nation-state anymore.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie campaign speech in Florida:
The Putrid Push to Politicize the Syria Refugee Debate
The Post Editorial Board – New York Post
The president is plainly eager to get past his woeful “we have the right strategy” remarks Monday, as well as his pre-Paris boast that ISIS has been “contained.”
But opting to mock Republicans as “scared of widows and orphans” is a weak escape. Top Democrats also want to go slow — even call a temporary halt — on the influx of Syrian refugees….
New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer was one of the first to suggest “a pause may be necessary.” When Schumer is on the same page as House Speaker Paul Ryan, that’s not Republican extremism — it’s bipartisan consensus.
Donald Trump Has Big Plans for ‘Radical Islamic’ Terrorists…
Hunter Walker – Yahoo News
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop om Nov. 16, 2015 in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP)
Trump’s take on the Paris attacks fits with the rest of his doctrine. He’s promised to “bomb the shit out of” the jihadist group ISIS, which is based in Syria and has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Trump has also vowed to take an aggressive approach with Muslims here in the United States and suggested there should be a national effort to monitor mosques….
…Trump said “security is going to rule” in the United States, in order to take on what he calls “radical Islamic terrorism.” … If he is elected, Trump said he would deport any Syrian refugees allowed to enter this country under President Obama.
“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before…” Trump said.
Paris Attacks Complicate Hillary Clinton’s Alignment With Obama
Amy Chozik – The New York Times
On Saturday, in the second Democratic debate, Mrs. Clinton declined to respond directly to a question about whether she thought Mr. Obama had underestimated the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which French officials have said was responsible for the attacks.
But she did, indirectly and deftly, contradict Mr. Obama’s comments, made in a television interview recorded a day before the attacks, that the Islamic State had been “contained” in Iraq and Syria.
“We have to look at ISIS as the leading threat of an international terror network,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It cannot be contained; it must be defeated.”