Saturday, November 20, 2010

President Obama Absent at the EU-US Summit of 2010

I submit that most Americans are unaware that the EU has a Supreme Court, a Parliament and a Council/Senate.   Few Europeans are wont to admit that these institutions constitute a government, so perhaps we can’t be blamed here in America for not taking greater notice of the relatively new government across the pond.  So it is no surprise to read that President Obama decided to skip the 2010 EU-US summit in Europe.  The American president missed an opportunity to educate the American people not only on contemporary political Europe, but also on a potentially fecund new basis of comparison, from which both the U.S. and E.U. could benefit. 


The full essay is at "Essays on the E.U. Political Economy," available at Amazon.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Midterm Elections, 2010: Lessons Unlearned

The Republican surge that gave that party control of the US House of Representatives reflected a shift of some moderate independents, even as Republican leaders portrayed the election as “the American people” having repudiated the policies of the sitting U.S. President, Barak Obama. In other words, that 54% vote for a given Republican and 46% vote for the Democratic opponent does not mean that the 54% constitute “the American People.”


The full essay is at "U.S. Midterm Election."