By Christina Sun
Obama’s policy in the Middle East has been based more heavily upon the perseverance of his political image than on pragmatism.
On Aug. 2, 2010, Obama said that he is on the way to fulfilling his campaign promise of ending the war in Iraq. Under his plan, the United States will have removed all combat troops by Aug. 31, 2010 and 50,000 troops will remain to train Iraqi security forces, conduct counterterrorism operations and provide security for ongoing U.S. civilian efforts. Obama, however, seems more intent on being precisely …

By Trent Serwetz
This just in:
BJ Lawson has won the Republican Party’s nomination for NC’s fourth congressional district, earning  46 percent of the 23,000 votes cast (2010 North Carolina Primary Election Results, WRAL.com (link)).
Lawson, who also won the 2008 GOP nomination, won tonight’s primary election running on a platform of limited government and fiscal responsibility. The Lawson campaign especially highlighted the importance of constitutional government and opposed the Federal Reserve.
“I think the primary message of the campaign has been about getting our economic freedom back, the freedom to create our …

By The Gothic Guardian staff
The executive board of The Gothic Guardian met on April 22 to elect Trent Serwetz the publication’s new Editor-in-Chief. The 2009-2010 editor, Lingfeng Li, stepped down in accordance with the Guardian‘s new one-year term limit for editors-in-chief.
Serwetz served as the magazine’s Production Editor this year and was the editor of his high school newspaper. He has also worked at Duke’s Multimedia Project Studio as a media consultant specializing in InDesign and Photoshop for the past three years.
During his tenure as editor, Serwetz hopes to expand the …

By Joey Lauer
CPAC 2010 had around 10,000 registrants– more than ever before. Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker and he was greatly welcomed into an enormous, packed ballroom. Even I had to view from an overflow ballroom, but that didn’t detract from a phenomenal speech. We laughed. We we were touched. It called us to action. Glenn Beck said what needed to be said.
You can watch Glenn Beck’s speech here. It’s just under an hour (start at the 5:oo mark). I encourage you to skip one TV show and watch this speech.
Beck …

By Daniel Simpson
“If It Walks Like A Duck…”
On the afternoon of November 5th, mere hours after the Fort Hood shootings, major media outlets were already scrambling to downplay Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s Muslim faith. ABC’s Martha Raddatz declared: “As for the suspect, Nidal Hasan…I wish his name was Smith.” Newsweek’s Evan Thomas said: “I cringe that he ‘s a Muslim, I think he’s probably just a nut case.” The media immediately embraced the “politically correct” view that Hasan was not an Islamic terrorist, but rather a pitiable man who snapped …

By Justin Robinette
I get renewed amusement every year our campus erupts in reference to anything unpleasant which appears on the East Campus bridge.  Each time, participants always include a) the Honor Council, b) any given angry race or sex-oriented advocacy group, and c) any given administrator with the power of email blast, most recently Dr. Airall.  Unfortunately, the vandal himself is almost entirely ignored in favor of condemning, rather, the symbolic nature of the message itself.  The vandal is also somehow conflated each time not with a random criminal act …

By Ari Ruffer
Former Texas senator and United States ambassador Robert Krueger spoke to a crowd of nearly 40 students on September 23 for the Duke Political Union’s fourth installment of its Super Tuesday speaker series.  Krueger was also a Duke professor and as the dean of Trinity College.
Krueger spoke mostly about his experience as ambassador to Burundi, a position that President Clinton appointed him to after losing his 1994 Senate bid. He vividly described the situation in the nation. He explained that Burundi—one of the 10 poorest nations in the …