Trump's Re-Election Edge Is Greatly Exaggerated We need to know the answers to five questions before we can say he's got the advantage for 2020. By  Albert R. Hunt 405 October 22, 2017, 4:00 PM GMT+2 On the road again.   Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images Few stories are more irresistible than those that take on the conventional wisdom and come from an unexpected source. Doug Sosnik, a smart operative in Bill Clinton's White House, provided both with  a column  this month suggesting that Donald Trump is well-positioned for re-election. The Trump base is solid, the Democratic strategist notes, as the president's appeal to populist anger transcends his leadership failures. There will likely be independent candidates in 2020, so, like last year, Trump can win without a majority of votes. Sosnik's column has led to panicked calls from some Democrats and to provocative chatter on politics sites like FiveThirtyEight, while Trumpites, ...

Iran’s Rouhani: ‘If Our Rival and Enemy Leaves an Agreement, This Is Not a Defeat for Us’ Rouhani blowing his cover of the so called Reformer by slipping under Khamenies turban By John Hayward Breitbart, Oct. 11, 2017  - Iranian President  Hassan Rouhani  told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that it should not bother Iran if the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal. “If any side fails to stand committed to the deal, it would be tarnishing its own reputation,” he said. Meanwhile, the Iranian resistance has accused Rouhani’s government of systematically cheating on the nuclear deal. “If the ill-wishing side, our rival and enemy, leaves an agreement, this is not a defeat for us, but rather a defeat for the opposite side,” said Rouhani, quoted by PressTV. That is quite different from what Rouhani said in August when Iran was threatening to back out of the nuclear deal over unrelated U.S. sanctions on its ballistic missile program. “If America...

Newt Gingrich: 'Death to America' -- Why Trump's Iran policy is right Newt Gingrich; Trump seeks a new strategy for dealing with Iran By Newt Gingrich,   Trump seeks a new strategy for dealing with Iran Fox News, Oct. 14, 2017  - When the Iranian parliament chanted “death to America' while unanimously voting 'to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard,' sophisticated diplomats may have pondered the symbolic meaning of 'death to America.' After all, our wisest and most sophisticated analysts have reassured us, it couldn't literally mean 'death to America.' The New York Times has been on a campaign to convince Americans the phrase has lost its original meaning. As a historian, I am always amazed at the sophistry of well-educated establishments that hide from reality through the use of convoluted thinking and clever language. In my experience, ...

Kim Jong Un praises nuclear program, promotes sister to center of power Kim Jong Un speaks during the Second Plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) SEOUL (Reuters) -Oct. 8, 2017 -  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his nuclear weapons are a “powerful deterrent” which guarantee North Korea’s sovereignty, state media reported on Sunday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said “only one thing will work” in dealing with the isolated country. Trump did not make clear to what he was referring, but his comments seemed to be a further suggestion that military action was on his mind. In a speech to a meeting of the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party on Saturday, a day before Trump’s most recent comments, state media said Kim had addressed the “complicated international situation”. North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a “powerful deterrent firmly safeguarding the peace and security in the Korean penin...

US to sell $15 bn THAAD missile defense to Saudi Arabia A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. WASHINGTON (AFP) - Oct. 6, 2017-  The US government has approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of the advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system for $15 billion, the State Department said Friday. 'This sale furthers US national security and foreign policy interests, and supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian and other regional threats,' a statement said. The THAAD -- which has already been supplied to Saudi Arabia's neighbors Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- is one of the most capable defensive missile batteries in the US arsenal and comes equipped with an advanced radar system. Its recent deployment by the US ...

US in contact with N. Korea, probing willingness to talk: Tillerson 10/1/2017 9:38:18 AM US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chinese President Xi Jinping before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on September 30, 2017 AFP, Sep. 30, 2017  - The United State has open channels of communication with North Korea and is investigating whether the regime is ready to enter talks on giving up its nuclear weapons programme, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday. Tillerson's disclosure follows an escalating war of words between US President Donald Trump and North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un. 'We are probing, so stay tuned,' he told reporters after talks with Chinese officials in Beijing. 'We ask. We have lines of communication with Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation, a blackout, we have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang.' 'We can talk to them, we do talk to them,' he said. Asked whether...