People & associates
Tom Switzer
Hagel Means a Realist America
When Chuck Hagel appears before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, he is likely to face tough questions about his past positions on...
Obama gets real with appointment of new defence secretary
Since the Iraq invasion nearly a decade ago, it has been evident that the two major US political parties have undergone a role reversal on national...
Barack to the future
Barack Obama and his supporters in America and abroad are understandably thrilled after winning a remarkable electoral victory. They are entitled...
Obama and Romney heeding McGovern's call to come home
'This hero of war,' declared President Obama, ''became a champion of peace.'' According to Bill and Hillary Clinton: ''We must continue to draw...
Romney finds momentum in moderation
A week is a long time in politics, Harold Wilson once observed at the end of a bad week, and the remark was considered so brilliantly penetrating...
It's not about 'cranks', it's about tax rises and high spending
You wouldn't know it from the media coverage, but Wayne Swan's foray into US politics showed a profound misreading of Washington's economic debate...
Foreign policy rates barely a mention as US turns inward
Only the spectacle of anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond has made foreign policy a live issue in the race to the White House....
Memories of Hewson v Keating as Romney picks policy maverick for VP
The 2012 US presidential race is beginning to look a lot like Australia's federal poll in 1993: an ''unloseable election'' for the opposition party...
No Love Lost Between Labor and Rudd
In yesterday's ballot for the Labor Party's 102-strong legislative caucus, freshly resigned Minister of Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd lost...
Not Only Nixon Could Go to China
President Richard Nixon's visit to China 40 years ago this week is rightly remembered as a historic breakthrough. Decades later, however, few...