Archives for the 'Obama' Category
Governing By Poll In The Age Of Obama
Published on 14 Mar 2010 at 10:24 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Faced with a debacle, support eroding in Congress and out, Obama’s chief pollster engages in a dramatic new kind of governance by poll. It’s the desperately interpreted poll of hopeful persuasion as a substitute for governance. Yeah, I know, it’s complicated. Sort of a double-reverse poll governance, incorporating a great deal of hope that something will change, [...]
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Stupid Season
Published on 9 Mar 2010 at 8:19 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Bumper crop this year. NYT on how it hit Rahm Emanual during the Nightmare in Massachusetts … you know, the race for the “Kennedy seat” … that he was growing stupid:
Hopeful Change
Published on 5 Mar 2010 at 11:51 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, dummkopf!, terrorists.
Obama advisors set to recommend military tribunals for 9/11 plotters. Washington Post:
Bottoms Up!
Published on 2 Mar 2010 at 12:01 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama, booze, pols.
He may be continuing his “moderation of drinking” or “moderation in drinking” or whatever, but if he thinks this is going to fly he needs to switch whatever he is moderately drinking. Either that, or drink more! And pour me one.
Fox: Obama to Unveil New Health Care Bill Wednesday: “Much Smaller” Than House Bill, Says [...]
“It’s Over”
Published on 26 Feb 2010 at 10:30 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Greg Sargent at Plum Line couldn’t have put it better in his headline. Except when you read the copy, I don’t think he gets exactly what is “over.” Health care dog-and-pony show roundup runs a fascinating gamut. Clueless lefties first:
Next, Please
Published on 26 Feb 2010 at 10:14 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Boston, Obama, pols.
Lining up Dems in the sights in carnival shooting gallery that is Massachusetts … and like I’ve been telling you, as goes Blue Mass, so goes the nation. Boston Herald, Deval’s Toast:
News?
Published on 24 Feb 2010 at 10:31 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Politico: Team Obama’s already laying the groundwork for 2012.
Operation New Anger
Published on 19 Feb 2010 at 9:16 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Iraq, Obama.
On the heels of the news that the Obama administration is giving the Iraq War a new name, ditching the Bush-era ”Operation Iraqi Freedom” for “Operation New Dawn,” Forward Movement Network News has learned the Obama administration is rebranding itself. Iraq war news first, via ABC:
“I Won”
Published on 12 Feb 2010 at 8:30 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Bush, Iraq, Obama, vietnam.
I’m a little behind the curve on this, having been out a day dealing with my own lameness issues, but don’t begrudge me the pleasure of straining my aching back again with a good laugh about Joe Biden’s lame claim of success in Iraq.
It’s Politics About Nothing!
Published on 9 Feb 2010 at 10:49 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Yesterday, it looked like the president’s pitch was for a Tribal Council on health care. Now we have the House GOP leadership holding out, counterpitching, like they think they’ll get a better offer. But it’s a George Costanza move … this is a show about nothing. Washington Post:
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Small World
Published on 30 Jan 2010 at 11:08 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under America, Britain, Obama, ancient mysteries, pols.
After all. Boston Herald:
It probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise that both President Obama and U.S. Sen.-elect Scott Brown can count a politician among their ancestors.
But the same one?
About Last Night
Published on 28 Jan 2010 at 9:22 am.
9 Comments.
Filed under Obama.
No need to point out the irony of this president mercilessly dogged by the specter of all his failings, personified by an upstart, unknown state senator who was the elephant in the room, even though he didn’t show up last night. He was still the dreamy guy everyone was thinking about. Boston Herald, whose graphic [...]
Oratorical Impression Rapidly Regurgitated (Quick Take)
Published on 28 Jan 2010 at 12:01 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama.
These are extraordinary and trying times, when things that must be done are hard, and too often tragically inherited. I know, I know, you’ve heard that one before. Ha ha ha! (Standing ovation, raucous cheers and laughter.) But seriously, we have just witnessed an extraordinary exercise in presidential oratorical animation that may be without peer or [...]
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Chug-Blogging The SOTU
Published on 27 Jan 2010 at 9:04 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Treacher had the right idea, to make a drinking game out of this. I don’t have a room full of people to do that with, but I do have a bunch of Rolling Rock … good, cheap Depression-era suds … in the fridge down in the basement. So here’s how it’ll be. He takes responsibility for something, [...]
Not Just A Status Quo-Overturning Political Insurgent
Published on 27 Jan 2010 at 9:45 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Boston, Obama, pols.
He’s also a pretty face. Lefties don’t have to hate Scott Brown just because he’s undermining Pres. Barack Obama’s agenda. They can hate him because he’s beautiful! Boston Herald re Brown’s modelling career:
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Aim High!
Published on 26 Jan 2010 at 10:49 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Obama, via ABC: “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.”
Road To Damascus
Published on 26 Jan 2010 at 9:48 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Keep an eye out for blinding flashes of light as Saul tries to convince you he’s Paul in tomorrow night’s SOTU. Latest sign of miraculous roadside conversion: NYT, Obama to propose domestic spending freeze. I liked this bit:
The Browning Of America
Published on 25 Jan 2010 at 8:52 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Everything’s Brown now. Independents and not a few Dems. The GOP in 2010. President Barack Obama. Maybe even Brown will get to be.
Everyone wants a piece of Brown, has ideas for Brown. Here’s Carthage poli sci Prof Arthur Cyr on the Boston Herald’s op-ed page, advising Brown on his agenda, rather optimistically assuming Brown is going to [...]
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Back To The Future All Over Again
Published on 24 Jan 2010 at 10:23 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Obama’s headed there, wants a do-over, with the people who brought you 2008 at the helm in 2010. But first, Howie Carr looks back at 2009, wonders where the hope and change went. Boston Herald:
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Bitter Ironies
Published on 21 Jan 2010 at 11:32 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Bush, Obama.
Gateway notes that, one year ago yesterday, the world’s greatest liberator since World War II left office. And he’s looking better all the time. It doesn’t hurt that the follow-on act’s greatest shot at any success to date comes from carrying George Bush initiatives forward. Surge strategy in Afghanistan. Hunt down and kill al Qaeda where [...]
Republican Party Time
Published on 20 Jan 2010 at 12:28 am.
14 Comments.
Filed under Boston, Obama, pols.
Brown roars to win! Boston Herald.
As the chatter in the early evening began to lean toward a double-digit win, the 5 percent margin that emerged almost began to look paltry, like less than it was … a total, massive landslide for a Republican in bluest Massachusetts. Well-deserved celebration on the right, much rending of garments and [...]
45-45
Published on 13 Jan 2010 at 9:24 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Split on whether Obama’s first year was a success or failure. Quinnipiac, which offers the following issue-specific approval-disapproval numbers:
41 – 54 percent for his handling of the economy;
34 – 59 percent for creating jobs;
35 – 58 percent for health care;
48 – 44 percent for handling terrorism.
He squeaks by … 35-37 … on whether the country [...]
It Must Be Really Bad …
Published on 12 Jan 2010 at 10:01 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
If Obama feels like he needs to address House Republicans in a show of bipartisanship. Almost sounds like he wants something. GOP, less than fully appreciative. Politico:
On rare occasions when Republicans were invited to the White House, (House Minority Whip Eric) Cantor said, Republicans were paid “lip service while the cameras were on, only to completely rebuff [...]
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America Stronger!
Published on 12 Jan 2010 at 8:07 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under GWOT, Obama.
Readers are asked to please withhold laughter until the end of the blogpost. Ben Rhodes, deputy National Secruity Advisor for strategic communications … hmm, sounds like a good place to start the budget cutting … at the White House blog on President Obama’s first-year acomplishments:
We Shall CYA On The Beaches!
Published on 10 Jan 2010 at 10:13 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under GWOT, Obama.
Richard F. Miller, a Harvard-trained historian previously combat-embedded with Marine and Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan and author of “In Words and Deeds: Battles Speeches in History,” executes this takedown on President Barack Obama’s “At War” speech in the following guest post. You might say Miller is getting more “We shall cover our asses on the [...]
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Game Change?
Published on 9 Jan 2010 at 8:31 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, books, racism.
I’d say. Always wondered what a post-racial America would look like. Apparently, it’s like this.
You can yammer on about “light-skinned” this and “Negro dialect” that, but you’re not a bigot as long as you support the president’s policies. Meanwhile, no matter how pure of heart, speech and mind you may be, if you oppose anything he proposes, you’re [...]
“Appalling”
Published on 9 Jan 2010 at 10:51 am.
No Comments.
Filed under GWOT, Obama, al qaeda.
It’s Krauthammer re Obama’s “at war” speech. An evisceration via NRO. I particularly liked … excuse me, make that shared Krauthammer’s mystification and disgust over this bit:
War War = Jaw Jaw*
Published on 8 Jan 2010 at 10:36 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under GWOT, Obama.
Obama uses the “W” word again, twice in quick succession, this time directly in relation what remains of those man-caused disaster prevention methodologies formerly known as the GWOT, with regard to the criminal conspiracy also known as al-Qaeda. NYT’s The Caucus.
It’s Pretty Bad …
Published on 6 Jan 2010 at 11:20 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
When Nancy Pelosi figures she can make points by bashing Obama. Politico:
Terror’s War On Us
Published on 5 Jan 2010 at 10:33 am.
9 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, GWOT, Obama.
It’s global, and apparently being managed more deftly by the other side, by their key metric of headlines grabbed, than we’re managing our war on them … to the extent our effort still is a war … by our key metric of deadly vulnerabilities and ineptitudes exposed. The suicide bomber who killed four CIA agents, three CIA [...]
Ping Pong
Published on 4 Jan 2010 at 1:53 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
It’s not just a Commie peace overture anymore. Exasperated and a little bit desperate … OK, maybe a lot desperate … the majority party signals it will cut the minority party out of health-care deliberations. The New Republic explains the move to avoid an annoying formal conference committee on the health care thing. by “ping-ponging” versions of the [...]
That 1937 Feeling
Published on 4 Jan 2010 at 10:05 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama, history.
Krugman, still miffed that the Democratic-led Congress didn’t spend three times as much on itself in the Porkulus, draws an economic Great Depression analogy, urging the hacks to splurge again. NYT.
Krugman doesn’t get into the massive debt burden or porkfest parts, though the mocking of the American consumer’s “buy-now-save-never” attitude is a little ironic in [...]
Revealing Photo
Published on 4 Jan 2010 at 9:12 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Big flap over the weekend over this photo and whether it shows Obama to be stuck up, as Reynolds invites people to analyze the body language and Andrew Sullivan charges that analysis is racism!
40 Best Quotes Of 2009
Published on 4 Jan 2010 at 8:34 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, celeb, hacks, pols.
John Hawkins at RightWingNews calls them the “40 Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2009,” but I think they’re great for the way they reveal how base, arrogant, hypocritical, bigoted and generally vile the opposition can be, especially once in power. Make that base, arrogant, hypocritical, bigoted, generally vile and gaga-eyed suckup. It’s a magnificent upchuck of lefty revelation … though not [...]
More Whinging
Published on 30 Dec 2009 at 1:49 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under Bush, GWOT, Obama.
From Politico: Obama takes the heat Bush did not. It’s that “George didn’t say anything about the shoebomber, why are they picking on O?” thing again.
Memo to Politico re Obama: Want your guy to look tough on terrorism? Tell him to kick terrorist ass. Like Bush did. Like Bush was actively doing when Richard Reid was [...]
Global War On Verbiage
Published on 30 Dec 2009 at 9:58 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Cheney, GWOT, Obama.
Cheney whacks Obama for being insufficiently at war. A “senior Democrat” whacks Cheney for being insufficiently condemnatory of al-Qaeda, which is kind of a weird angle. The oddly unnamed “senior Democrat” goes on to demonstrate, in criticizing the Bush admin of being at war with a “tactic,” that the Obama admin is at war with the very [...]
Man-Caused Disaster Czarina Miscontextualized
Published on 28 Dec 2009 at 1:13 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under GWOT, Obama.
Leading blogospherical weathervane Andrew Sullivan was wondering over the weekend whose head should roll over the failed Christmas attack.
Janet Napolitano, come on down!
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Kerry Hearts Mullah Facetime
Published on 24 Dec 2009 at 6:10 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Iran, Obama.
The Hero of Afghanistan wants to go work his magic in Tehran. Opposition says, stay home! Wall Street Journal:
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Pork Was Job One!
Published on 23 Dec 2009 at 9:23 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama.
And a job well done. Allowing a Democratic Congress to gorge on a multi-billion-$$$ Porkulus was Obama’s greatest first-year accomplishment. OK, that’s not exactly how Obama and the Washington Post put it, though WaPo did somewhat irreverently require the president of the United States to deny that he has “turned over too much authority to congressional [...]
Congratulations!
Published on 22 Dec 2009 at 10:46 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, pols.
White House and Dem Cong manage to almost accomplish something … that no one wants! I guess it beats accomplishing almost nothing.* Quinnipiac:
Young Krugmanstein
Published on 21 Dec 2009 at 11:19 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, pols.
Another retro science fiction comic classic from NYT’s own Nobel laureate economist, heralding the “seriously flawed” Senate health care deal, as a sign of progress in a “dangerously dysfunctional” Congress.
… we’ll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it’s nonetheless a huge step forward.
Super duper! Applause for a great performance by ”Abby Normal,” Damen und Herren! Krugman [...]
The Gift Of The ObaMagi
Published on 20 Dec 2009 at 12:17 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama, warmalism.
The weather outside is frightful. No Christmas shopping in the windswept malls for me. The only place I’m going is out to shovel.*
But it’s a touching sort of O Henry tale. The Gift of the ObaMagi. That deal O struck in Copenhagen got such fast results, the sub-freezing weather with horizontal snow threatens to croak Christmas sales in [...]
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Tough Act
Published on 18 Dec 2009 at 10:13 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under China, Obama.
Follows all that kowtowing, strategic reassurance, strategic retreat, ally-snubbing, dithering, apologizing and under-the-bus throwing. The president of the United States grows a set in foreign policy … gets angry, demands China stop the shakedown and get onboard. Politico, “The time for talk is over.”
Fight On!
Published on 17 Dec 2009 at 11:05 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
All is not lost! SEIU chief Andy Stern’s directive to the troops has a bit of a bunker echo to it. Problem is, they aren’t just trying to regain their right flank. They’re taking losses on their left. There’s gnashing of teeth. Axelrod tackles the friendly fire.
U.S. Out Of Congress Now!
Published on 16 Dec 2009 at 12:58 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
It’s a quagmire! The Lieberman piece is apparently lined up, but what about the dreaded Abortion Street? Then they’ll have to sit down with the House, which is gonna be like Sunnis vs. Shiites. Gotta admire the new fighting spirit of the Dems, though. It’s no longer the health care they were sold by the Obama [...]
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More New Openness!
Published on 16 Dec 2009 at 12:36 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama.
Turns out all you have to do to get into the White House is exclaim you’ve lost your invite, or show up a day early. AP on how Mr. and Mrs. Darden had breakfast with the president.
Unclear whether they’ll be hauled in by Congress. That happened a couple of weeks before the state dinner was [...]
Expectations Successfully Diminished
Published on 15 Dec 2009 at 9:53 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
It’s the one bright spot for the O admin as it nears the end of its first year. In one of the few things he has managed to accomplish, the development of a truncated Afghanistan strategy, expectations of actual success are down. Politico:
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Omnibus 2009 Petard Hoistment Reform Bill
Published on 15 Dec 2009 at 8:27 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
It needs to be far-reaching and epic. So here’s what he should do.
Read ‘Omnibus 2009 Petard Hoistment Reform Bill’
Raise Your Hand
Published on 12 Dec 2009 at 8:43 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under Obama, pols.
If you think they’ll have a health care deal before Christmas. Ha ha, just kidding. OK, before … say … Presidents Day. OK, before Memorial Day. Show of hands please? Yeah, that’s what I thought. OK, now forget for a minute how you feel about government health care and all that. Raise your hand if [...]
Palin For Obama
Published on 11 Dec 2009 at 9:00 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
USA Today’s On Politics crows that Palin liked Obama’s Nobel speech. So did I when all I had read was an NYT piece that highlighted his defense of American military might and its historic use in defense of freedom in the world. That was before I dove into the text and noticed all the Bush-bash, America-bash, [...]
