Biography
Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has reported on national and international issues from Washington for more ...
Doyle McManus
Legislating healthcare the old-fashioned way
November 22, 2009
This weekend, as the Senate tackles the healthcare bill that may be its most important domestic legislation in a generation, you might have expected thousands of citizens to descend on Capitol Hill to demonstrate, for or against. But the streets outside -- and even the Senate floor -- aren't where the action is. The important parts of this debate have moved into the Senate's backrooms.
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Obama must rethink rethinking Afghanistan
November 15, 2009
Barack Obama is in danger of giving deliberation a bad name.
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Obama by the numbers
November 8, 2009
President Obama didn't get much time last week to savor the gauzy one-year-after retrospectives of his 2008 election victory, with its 53% of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes. He had other numbers to think about.
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Talking with Iran -- and sending a message
November 1, 2009
Iran's rejection last week of the Obama administration's proposal for a deal over uranium wasn't the end of nuclear negotiations with Tehran. But it was a serious setback to diplomats who have been trying to solve the Iranian nuclear problem -- and it raises doubts about whether the regime is even capable of striking a compromise with the outside world.
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Troop level in Afghanistan is the easy part
October 28, 2009
President Obama's in-house debate on troop levels in Afghanistan isn't over yet, but it's a safe bet what he'll do: split the difference. Obama's military commander, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, requested between 10,000 and 40,000 additional troops. The president appears headed toward a number in the middle.
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Jack Nelson: A newsman's newsman
October 25, 2009
My colleague, Jack Nelson, believed in old-fashioned virtues: Get your facts straight. Check them, and check them again. Don't be afraid to cross swords with the powerful. Above all, break news whenever you can.
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Switzerland's example of universal healthcare
October 18, 2009
At least one country already has a healthcare plan roughly similar to the one President Obama and the Democrats have proposed, with universal coverage, a mandate that everyone buy insurance and a major role for private insurance companies: Switzerland.
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Healthcare has rationing in abundance
October 11, 2009
Late last month, as the Senate Finance Committee labored to produce its version of a healthcare bill, the Republican whip, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, renewed an old warning. If the federal government intervenes to hold healthcare costs down, Kyl said, the result would be something nobody wants: rationing.
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Eric Holder's military allies
October 4, 2009
Eric H. Holder Jr., attorney general of the United States, has been a lonely man for the last six weeks.
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Examining torture in the Bush era
April 26, 2009
Dick Cheney is right. President Obama should release any evidence the government has that shows whether torture -- sorry, "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- induced Al Qaeda detainees to give up information that saved American lives.
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State officials pan for gold in D.C.
April 12, 2009
Last month, a flock of Californians streamed through Washington's halls of power seeking federal money for the state's slumping economy, gridlocked transportation system and troubled schools. To their delight, they found a Democratic administration with a sympathetic ear for the state's problems -- plus a big bag of stimulus funding to spend.
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Obama's bipartisan moment on foreign policy
April 5, 2009
Don't look now, but the United States is experiencing something unusual in its recent history: a moment of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy.
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Obama's uphill climb at the G-20 summit
March 29, 2009
The last time Barack Obama went to Europe, he was cheered by 200,000 rapturous Germans. This week, he faces a tougher audience.
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Geithner can still pay off for Obama
March 22, 2009
Is Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner becoming a toxic asset for the Obama administration?
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A 'back channel' appeal to Iran
March 15, 2009
President Obama and his aides are preparing to send a secret message to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, inviting him to open a clandestine "back channel" for direct talks between the United States and Iran.
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Fear and loathing in Pakistan
March 8, 2009
Late last month, the chief of Pakistan's army, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, made an unpublicized visit to the White House to meet President Obama's new national security advisor, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones Jr.
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Obama's smart play on healthcare
March 1, 2009
Barack Obama makes no small plans.
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The power of Obama's oratory
February 25, 2009
Speechmaking has always been good for Barack Obama.
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Obama's Iran strategy
February 22, 2009
President Obama is working against time to untangle 30 years of enmity and prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but even his own advisors know the chance of success is slim.
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For Obama, governing isn't campaigning
February 15, 2009
Barack Obama made running for president look easy. As a candidate, he was famously steady and cool, and his campaign team was a marvel of internal harmony. "No drama Obama," they called him.
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Obama the pragmatic idealist
February 8, 2009
Until last week, the nation's late-night comedians were having a hard time coming up with jokes about the Obama administration. The young new president came across as both idealistic and competent, which was nice for the country but a potential disaster for the satire industry.
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New president, new battlefield
February 1, 2009
In his presidential campaign, Barack Obama sometimes made foreign policy sound like a simple matter of changing the tone, turning the page -- and moving 10,000 troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
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Obama's short-lived honeymoon
January 25, 2009
Is this how a honeymoon is supposed to feel?
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Great expectations -- by Americans and by Obama
January 21, 2009
Barack Obama has been criticized for being too cool, too aloof, even too serene. But the President Obama who delivered the inaugural address on Tuesday was anything but aloof. He was passionate and pleading, somber and demanding. And he did something his predecessor, George W. Bush, never quite did: He asked Americans to sacrifice for the common good.
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What Bush leaves behind
January 18, 2009
After eight unreflective years, George W. Bush has suddenly turned contemplative, arguing in a flurry of exit interviews that his record (as Mark Twain said of Wagner's music) is better than it sounds. He could turn out to be right -- but his standing in the eyes of history now depends, oddly enough, on the fortunes of his successor, Barack Obama.
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