Online opinion outpost: Nov. 26

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The Online Opinion Outpost features opinions and commentary on the latest hot topics from national news sources. As much as you love hearing from The Universe, we thought you might like to hear from journalists around the nation.

Nuclear deal with Iran

Fox News

President Obama and Secretary Kerry were out to get a deal. It didn’t happen the first two times the Security Council met, but it was bound to happen, even if, as the cliché was sounded around the world, a bad deal would be favored over no deal at all.

An Iran deal for the White House, even one without genuine results, means a foreign policy legacy for both Obama and Kerry. It means a break from failed domestic policies back home and a chance to flex American diplomatic muscles in the Middle East.

CNN

The deal does not stop the Iranian nuclear program. It merely slows certain elements of that program for six months while others continue. After six months, Iran can resume where it left off. Iran made no concessions that cannot be reversed.

More telling, Iran has protected its top nuclear priority. The deal allows it to continue enriching uranium, a stark departure from previous U.S. policy and a clutch of U.N. Security Council Resolutions that declare enrichment by Iran illegal and unacceptable, period.

 

“Catching Fire”

Fox News

The violence in the story will be described via reviews but not seriously evaluated. The brutality will likely be acknowledged, but only to warn parents about purchasing tickets that give their younger children a front row seat to the horror.

But if the Hunger Games films and best-selling novels are worth their salt they deserve a more serious discussion.

While many have condemned the narrative of “children killing children”, the more fundamental theme is grownups killing children—ruthless grownups concerned about their own power, wealth, and mindless amusement. While a notable heroine, played by Jennifer Lawrence, emerges, the circumstances of the whole terrorizing fantasy are not good for our psyche.

 

An end to filibusters 

The Seattle Times

Those who lament the Senate Democrats’ vote to end filibusters for presidential nominations say the move will escalate partisan warfare and destroy what comity is left in Congress. Some charge hypocrisy, since Democrats once opposed the step they took last week.

In fact, seeing the world as it is rather than pining for a world that no longer exists is a precondition for reducing polarization down the road. With their dramatic decision, Senate Democrats have acknowledged that the power struggle over the judiciary has reached a crisis and that the nature of conservative opposition to President Obama is genuinely without precedent.

 

America isn’t Racist

USA Today

Oprah might want us to believe Obama faces extraordinary opposition that can largely be explained by his race, but she conveniently forgets that in the past 100 years, six presidents were shot at, one killed, another impeached and two driven from office. All were loathed by millions. Some more than others.

Our first black president is actually accorded more respect than some past presidents have received. At the height of his health care reform failure, Obama has the lowest popularity of his presidency, yet the past eight (white) presidents in a row were all less popular at their own low points.

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