Jake Tapper asks the WH mouthpiece if it’s time for this President to “man up” and make the tough decisions rather than making no decisions at all so he can win at the ballot box:

And Sarah Palin asks the President to man up and get rid of an adviser who called some liberal Democrats “retarded” Read the rest of this entry »

Hmmmmm……guess President Bush’s plan to try the scum at Gitmo wasn’t a bad idea after all eh? It’s amazing what ONE Senatorial election can do….wait till the next one comes around and watch Obama’s head explode:

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won’t be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.

Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Read the rest of this entry »

Congressman Mike Pence on Obama’s Q&A at the GOP Retreat:

Transcript below the updates….the MSM is already trying to spin it like Obama schooled the Republicans. Of course they are splicing in a lot of Obama footage and leaving much of the Republicans questions and statements on the cutting room floor.

Shocker: Read the rest of this entry »

White House talking heads are confused and disorganized:

“People are working harder,” White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to the economy. “If they have a job, they’re working harder for less. They’re falling behind. That’s been true for a decade. They look at a wave of irresponsibility from Wall Street to Washington that led to that. And those were the frustrations that got the president elected in the first place, and they were reflected again on Tuesday” in the Massachusetts election.

“Instead of fearing what may happen, let’s prove that we have more than just the brains to govern—that we have the guts to govern. Let’s fight like hell,” Mr. Plouffe wrote, striking the same chord Mr. Obama did at a town-hall meeting in Ohio Friday and likely will Wednesday in his first State of the Union address.

On “Meet the Press,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said, “What we learned from the Massachusetts victory is that people are sick and tired of Washington not delivering for them.”

Read the rest of this entry »

He already wanted to tax the banks for having the temerity to turn a profit with the bailout money (wasn’t that the point, to get the banks into the black again?), so the new plan to break up the banks is not different in kind. What IS different is the atmospherics.

The move, immediately after Obama’s election defeat in Massachusetts, seems to have been very sudden, catching even his closest allies by surprise. With no warning, the previously “indispensable” Timmy-boy Geithner was cast aside in favor of the Depression-era nostrums of Paul Volker. Obama didn’t even take the time to get the Congressmen who stood with him at the announcement on board:

Mr Obama’s more populist tack on Wall Street re-regulation failed to attract endorsement from Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, even though he was present when Mr Obama made the announcement.

The announcement was also described by insiders as “political”: Read the rest of this entry »

American taxpayers should not read anything into today’s stock market supposed reactions to the President’s verbal and policy attacks on banks. Markets have little to do with realities of the broader world and its economics. The Presidential attacks, however, should be very troubling to taxpayers for more profound reasons.

Obama is vociferously attacking “risk taking,” that very human characteristic at the heart of America’s success. Observing his address, it is evidently something he doesn’t have a good grasp of. It is also very, very obvious that the President does not understand business, or economics, even at their simplest denominations. The economy and its future progress is very dependent on risk taking.

This post has written repeatedly against the abuse by Wall Street, and has called for the re-instatement of “the Glass-Steagall Act (except as it pertains to the Fed) that was for the most part repealed in 1999 eliminating the restrictions of affiliations between banks and “investment banks,” … and don’t listen to any bankers who tell you different with stories about diversification reducing risk, or banks being completely capable of regulating themselves.” There is no need for knight-on-horse-saving-the-day-grandstanding. Congress should restore the act, but in the meantime, we can sit back and enjoy the theatre as the President shows us how to distinguish market making from proprietary trading within the banks. Read the rest of this entry »

Recall these words from Obama in the first weeks of his administration:

He didn’t put the health care bill on CSPAN, and now his AG is refusing to release documents regarding the decision to drop the complaint against the Black Panthers: (h/t Hollywood Gumshoe)
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.

~~~

He’s improved America’s image in the world. He absolutely did. But you have to translate that into something. Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. “We are convinced,” he said, “that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned,” he said “that he is not strong to support his friends.”

The political leadership of the world is very, very dismayed. He better turn it around. The Democrats are going to get killed in this election. Jesus, looks what’s happening in Massachusetts.

Ya know why this is big? ‘Cause it’s a 100% affirmation that everything Republicans predicted would happen, everything we all saw would happen if Barack Obama was elected…has happened. He is exactly the paper tiger, the accomplish-less man we all expected him to be as President. Read the rest of this entry »

No, for real. Some brainiac in the Obama Admin actually thought this would-not only be ok, but be a good thing; be the kinda thing that helps poll numbers. Brilliant people….brilliant!

the Delaware Democrat has adopted much the same sort of undetailed schedule as his Republican predecessor, Dick Cheney, who was not in the Senate when Obama was only 11 years old.

In fact, today’s Biden schedule highlight is a meeting with the chief of transparency for economic recovery. But, unfortunately, the transparency meeting is non-transparent, closed to the press. Which makes it — what? — secret openness? Open secrecy?

This man is one terrorist assassination attack away from the launch codes. Scary, but rest assured that if the bad guys ever got the Pres and VP…Speaker Pelosi and Hillary Clinton are just waiting for a 3am call.

Gosh, it seems I’ve seen reports of this-and even predictions of it somewhere else….OH YEAH! IT WAS HERE AT FLOPPING ACES! In fact we predicted and reported on it so much that we had to create a new category for those posts. At least more msm outlets are picking up on it now.

During his two-year campaign, Obama thrilled massive crowds with soaring speeches, often railing against an Iraq war that now is seldom mentioned. His presidential comments now are often sober updates on issues like terrorism and the economy, a top priority now that emerged as a major issue only in the campaign’s final weeks.

Obama’s campaign ambition has been diluted with a pragmatism that has been the hallmark of Year One – without much of the progress he had hoped.

A look at some of the promises:

Read the rest of this entry »

Can’t oppose Iraq anymore ’cause Obama and Dems are responsible for winning or losing it now.

Can’t blame Bush anymore.

Can’t boast about a single accomplishment other than bankrupting the nation for generations

Gosh…what will Dems do for the next 9.75 months?

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama’s declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they’d rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that’s somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country’s difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not be particularly effective for Democrats anymore, which is good news generally for Republicans and especially ones like Rob Portman who are running for office and have close ties to the former President.

I’m certainly no financial expert, and there’s plenty of opinions from such self-proclaimed, brilliant minds. But, I’m not sure they’re as important as what the average person is thinking about the economy. We are the people who matter the most when it comes to fueling the economy, and I wonder what other people are thinking 2010 is going to be like? Looking at the very clear charts in this post, it seems to me that unemployment is starting to level off at a bottom of about 11-12% in the next few months.

However, I don’t see how the economy as a whole can return to firing on all cylinders with consumer spending down. The wages to inflation ratio is all off, and people just aren’t spending like they did in the recovery phase of other recessions. I also don’t see what new boom is gonna be a driving factor: junk bonds, dot-com/internet, housing, these things came and went, but after each there was a recession, then a new boom to fuel the recovery. Does anyone see a new multi-trillion dollar boom or bubble on the horizon? I don’t. Lastly, I don’t see how the end of the Bush tax cuts, lots of tiny new Obama era taxes, and possibly more taxes on businesses ala cap-n-trade+healthcare will all make it MORE lucrative for businesses to hire and invest, and spend/buy? Put another way: why would a guy who runs a small machine shop buy new equipment and/or hire new machinists if he has less money because of new taxes?

Please, I am inviting/challenging all to post what they think 2010 will look like economically. Will things get better, stay static, or get worse? When? How? Why?

How can history be an accurate record when the elusive present is being recorded as wild distortions of reality? The mainstream media’s (MSM) record of the White House, which it reflects onto the American perspective, as well as it’s flaccid ruminations on the Obama Administration, commemorate Napoleon’s, “history is the invention of historians.” Obama is failing in his duty to country, and the MSM refuses to acknowledge the evidence.

The word history comes to us from the Greek word historia, which means knowledge acquired by investigation. The White House press corps is the supreme example of the current Fourth Estate’s inability to analyze, question or investigate as it panders to a President who was given a mandate to affect change in Washington. History is being distorted as it is being written.

The expectations of the taxpayers have not materialized, and anticipations have given way to disappointments, yet the MSM cannot bring itself to raise any serious questions. It’s not as if opportunities to question don’t exist. Obama has given a speech each and every working day of every week of his administration. Research should prove that no President in history will have made as many speeches, yet the Nation is stuck in anticipation of substance.

The latest sampling of this President’s systemic tepid engagement in his job as America’s CEO, came in the form of an unenthusiastic tropical response to the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253. Evidently the managerial capacities required to direct an administration were not part of the Obama tool-set when he moved into the White House. The blight from the dearth of experience, and the entrenched ideology in his Cabinet and czar brigade, has been unveiling endless failings from the outset, and yet, Obama can’t dismiss the likes of incompetents such as Napolitano. Admitting a mistake of posting would be a sign of confidence, rather than one of insecurity. Read the rest of this entry »

Brushing aside legitimate criticism, concerns, and harsh questioning of the Obama Administration in wake of the Christmas “dingaling” bomber (as talk radio host Michael Medved refers to Umar Farouk Abdulmullatab), President Obama concluded his weekly radio address (January 2, 2010) with the following call for national unity:

But as we go forward, let us remember this-our adversaries are those who would attack our country, not our fellow Americans, not each other. Let’s never forget what has always carried us through times of trial, including those attacks eight Septembers ago. [Did he just invoke 9/11 (not the first time, actually)? Something President Bush was criticized for doing repeatedly?- wordsmith]

Instead of giving in to fear and cynicism, let’s renew that timeless American spirit of resolve and confidence and optimism. Instead of succumbing to partisanship and division, let’s summon the unity that this moment demands. Let’s work together, with a seriousness of purpose, to do what must be done to keep our country safe.

As we begin this New Year, I cannot imagine a more fitting resolution to guide us-as a people and as a nation.

As Medved pointed out in his program Monday, if the president wishes for politics to “stop at the water’s edge”, why then did he feel it necessary to include the following, earlier in the same speech:

It’s why I refocused the fight-bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks [he's used this line in past speeches- wordsmith], and dramatically increasing our resources in the region where al Qaeda is actually based, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s why I’ve set a clear and achievable mission-to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies and prevent their return to either country.

Why does the “new kind of politician who rises above the petty Washington politics of old” never botheres to reach across the partisan divide himself and acknowledge that President Bush kept us safe since 9/11?

What is it with Mr. Unity, Barack Obama, who calls for the nation to come together at this particular moment, even as he sticks in politically partisan cheap shots within the same speech? As Michael Medved points out, how about leading by example, Mr. President?

Read the rest of this entry »