Charles Krauthammer gave a wonderful talk last night, the Manhattan Institute’s “Wriston Lecture.” It was a sophisticated and devastating critique of what he called “the new liberalism.” His argument is that Obama’s left-liberal policy rejects American hegemonic power abroad (in contrast with Clinton’s more moderate liberalism that wanted to restrain American power but basically was comfortable with it) and advances domestic policies that will undermine our power. If we go down this path, we will be choosing decline. In the question-and-answer period, he said Obama is not a Communist or socialist, but a social democrat, which makes him “a radical in the American context.” In Krauthammer’s view, there’s “something alien about the new liberalism.” But he stipulated that he’s a believer in the almost miraculous good sense of the American people, who will ultimately reject the Obama agenda. “In the end,” he said, “I think I am optimistic because America will say ‘no.’”