By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
President Obama's partisan tone on the campaign trail these days is a far cry from his idealism of 2004, when the fresh-faced Illinois state senator introduced himself to the nation with his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.
At age 35, Daniel Kehlmann is already well-established as a successful novelist with an international following. When "Measuring the World," his first big book, appeared in 2007, British critic Daniel Johnson went happily out on a limb: "Daniel Kehlmann has it in him to be the great German novelist that the world had given up waiting for."
VILNIUS, Lithuania
"His speech in 2004 and campaign in 2008 were wildly unrealistic in promising a post-partisan future," Mr. Mann said. "Our parties are ideologically polarized and intensely tribal."
"Republicans have openly embraced a political strategy of complete opposition to all of Obama's initiatives, even those modeled on Republican ideas," he said. "They are waging all-out political war, and Obama would be foolish not to reciprocate in kind."
