Iran’s huge mistake, Newsom’s contempt for the press and other commentary

War watch: Iran’s Huge Mistake

“For decades, Iran managed to bluff American presidents,” explains Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. (USMC, ret.) at The New York Times but US action starting Saturday show “that this long-term strategy of negotiating in bad faith is bankrupt.”

That is: “This time, they misjudged the president.”

That is: “For the first time in decades, American military power in the Middle East deployed against Iran is coupled with a commander in chief who isn’t afraid to use it.” 

Now “our forces will continue to hit regime targets inside Iran and simultaneously reduce its ability to respond” by “striking leadership nodes” and “destroying” military assets. “We have practiced these missions for years.”

Is a new regime likely? “One thing is certain: Without pressure, nothing will change. There is opportunity in the death of the supreme leader. We should not squander this moment, when Iran is uniquely weak and vulnerable and we hold all of the advantages — literally.”

Fraud desk: Vance, Oz’s Wise Crackdown

Vice President JD Vance and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services boss Mehmet Oz are deferring “$259 million in quarterly Medicaid payments” to Minnesota until it gets “fraud under control” and targeting other states, too, cheers The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley A. Strassel.

“This is a powerful approach, since it attacks the key structural flaw” in the system: “Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, but states make all the decisions and send the feds a bill. States have little interest in policing fraud.”

Oz estimates “$300 billion annually in healthcare fraud and abuse.”

Both “red and blue states have grown fat and lazy in the confidence that the feds would just keep loading the ATM. Now caught, they can’t deny responsibility.”

Media beat: Gavin’s Contempt for the Press

“Taxpayer-funded spokespeople shouldn’t tell journalists to ‘F’ off, nor should they be in the business of deciding who is and who isn’t a real reporter,” roars Matt Fleming at The Sacramento Bee.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokesperson Izzy Gardon, used that vulgar language towards RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree” when she requested “documentation about Newsom’s dyslexia diagnosis.”

It was a fair question: Asking “to verify a condition that Newsom is discussing publicly isn’t crossing some privacy boundary.”

But the gov “has had a historically combative relationship with reporters asking questions he didn’t like.”

As San Francisco mayor, his press secretary “was found to have been using online aliases to attack reporters.”

“Abusing hard-working journalists is wrong, no matter who is doing it.”

Eye on the economy: Trump’s Welcome Opening Argument

“Reconciling improving inflation stats” with US consumers’ “real-world buying experiences” has proven “a challenge for this White House, but Tuesday night marked a welcome change” — as President Trump “kicked off his 2026 midterm economic argument,” notes David Winston at Roll Call.

His State of the Union speech “was the first step in a long-term case he needs to prove.” After all, economists as well as layfolk are “confused.”

Wages and prices have improved, thanks a “drop in gas prices,” but “grocery and utility prices” remain “problematic.”

And though “this is a continuing aftereffect of Biden policies,” blaming Trump’s predecessor “is not what the electorate is looking for; solving [the problem] is.”

Libertarian: Small Gov’t Is Honest Gov’t

With “corruption worsening globally” and in the United States, “it shouldn’t be surprising that evidence suggests the solution lies in reducing the power and role of the state,” argues Reason’s J.D. Tuccille.

Excessive government regulations and bureaucratic delays “create a temptation to shorten delays and reduce costs by padding officials’ pockets.”

For corrupt officials, “selling exceptions becomes the real reason for red tape.” Studies show “a negative relationship between economic freedom and corruption.”

“We already know that limiting regulations promotes prosperity” and there’s “strong evidence that maximizing freedom and limiting the state also promote honesty and reduce corruption.”

Bottom line: “If we want less corruption, we need smaller, less intrusive government.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board