Barack Obama
May 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Founders warned against the tyranny of the majority. They knew that unconstrained majorities were the bane of liberty. Up through their time, history had shown all known democracies to be “incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.” They formulated the Constitution to protect the rights of citizens against the tyranny of the majority. Publius put it this way in Federalist 10: The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced
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May 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
On Friday morning President Obama spoke to an audience of young Mexicans at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The White House has posted the text of the speech here. Obama is full of praise for Mexico. He “celebrates Mexico’s ancient civilizations and their achievements in arts and architecture, medicine and mathematics.” He praises Mexico’s modern art. He appreciates Mexico’s blend of cultures and traditions. At greater length
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May 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama is at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, where he spoke today to Future Democrats of America (i.e., young Mexicans) about American immigration reform, among other pressing subjects such as gun control. Speaking to the FDA, Obama didn’t directly address Operation Fast & Furious, but he did explain the rationale behind his refusal to enforce current immigration law (though he didn’t put it quite that way).
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May 2, 2013 — Scott Johnson
When I heard that Barack Obama had rededicated himself to closing Gitmo in his press conference on Tuesday (transcript here), the adage about insanity and repetition came to mind. James Taranto quotes Obama’s statement and notes how Obama agrees with the assumption regarding the Gitmo detainee hunger strike that was embedded in the question by CBS’s Bill Plante. Sounding like he’s speaking on behalf of the Gitmo detainees — is
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April 29, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Journalist J.D. Mullane appeared on FNC’s Huckabee show over the weekend for an excellent interview on the Gosnell trial. Mullane spoke in moving terms of his attendance at the trial as a transformative experience. The interview essentially updated and amplified on his column “What I saw at the Gosnell trial.” Someone should cut a video of the interview and get it online. In the meantime, I want to draw attention
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April 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama really poured it on in his speech to Planned Parenthood yesterday (video below). Taken together with the introduction by Planned Parenthood’s president, we get a full airing of the sacramental view of abortion that underlies the Democrats’ mania on behalf of the practice. Obama’s speech begins at about 6:30. In the gospel according to Barry, we now have the blessing for the abortionist: “As long as we’ve got
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
“Miss me yet?” the billboards asked, early in Obama’s first term. It took a while, but more voters than ever are missing George W. Bush. His approval rating is now up to 47%, right around where President Obama has been in recent weeks. Expect it to keep rising, as Obama makes him look good by comparison. When President Bush left office, I gave his two terms a B-. I won’t
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April 20, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama’s statement last night on events in Boston (with postscript on the Texas catastrophe) conveys at its heart the obligatory multicultural teaching: Obviously, tonight there are still many unanswered questions. Among them, why did young men who grew up and studied here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any help?
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April 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We noted Jacob Sullum’s column calling out Obama’s abuse of dead children in the service of petty partisan purposes. Sullum returns to explicate Obama’s commentary on the defeat of the gun-control bill in the Senate yesterday. President Obama pointed the finger at a gun lobby that “willfully lied” to the American people for today’s defeat of gun-control legislation. Thus spake the president of the United States: There were no coherent
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April 17, 2013 — John Hinderaker
After his gun control proposals were defeated today in the Senate, President Obama gave a speech in the Rose Garden, surrounded by Joe Biden, Gabrielle Giffords, and Newtown parents. He went on what can charitably be described as an angry rant. If only he had shown this much emotion about, say, Benghazi! As usual, Obama’s approach was to demonize those who disagree with him: “The gun lobby and its allies
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April 14, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Following up on Steve’s post on liberal hypocrisy, below is the 2003 video clip of then state senator Barack Obama stating his well rehearsed position in favor of abortion rights and against proposed Illinois legislation supporting infants born alive but requiring medical support. This past September Ramesh Ponnuru reviewed Obama’s record and concluded: During Obama’s [2008] presidential campaign, pro-lifers argued that so extreme was his devotion to abortion that he
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April 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Returning from a business trip to Washington, D.C., tonight I was delighted to find Senator John Thune waiting to board the 7:15 p.m. flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul at Reagan National Gate 21. As I said hello, Senator Thune could not have been warmer. I asked him about his trip home. If I understand correctly, he said he was going home for the induction of his father, age 93, to the
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April 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In one of his routines on the justice system dating back to the early 1970′s, comedian Richard Pryor commented sarcastically (in language rated XXX): “You go down there looking for justice, that’s what you find: Just us.” Pryor was referring to the racial composition of the players involved in the administration of justice. Times have changed substantially in that respect, but reading Ben Shapiro’s account of President Obama’s gun control
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April 5, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Speaking at a $32,400 a plate fundraiser at Gordon Getty’s house in San Francisco earlier this week, President Obama commented on how “I’ve got some nicks and bruises to prove that I’ve been to this rodeo before,” as preface to explaining that while it’s fine to “hope,” actual change takes time. Maybe this is standard boilerplate with the wealthy elite of San Francisco who are bitterly clinging to their progressive
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March 31, 2013 — Scott Johnson
John Podhoretz argues in the editor’s note of the new issue of Commentary that it’s time for conservatives to get serious about Obama, or begin taking him seriously on his own terms. John takes Obama to be a conventional liberal and chides conservatives for painting him as an extremist, an exaggeration which proves to be to Obama’s advantage. If Obama is a conventional liberal, however, liberalism has moved to the
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March 30, 2013 — Steven Hayward
In this third installment of our conversation with Charles C. Johnson, author of Why Coolidge Matters, we turn our conversation to his current work-in-progress, which is about Barack Obama. This four-and-a-half minute segment discusses the centrality of Obama’s education, which the mainstream media assiduously avoided (like everything else.) As I’ve said before, keep your eye on Johnson. You’re going to hear a lot from him for a very long time.
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March 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Recommendation Number 13 on the Republican Party’s recently released list of demographic outreach priorities is to “Expand our presence on more pop culture oriented outlets to ensure our message is reaching all voters.” A few years ago, I might have scoffed at this recommendation. The electorate, I thought, became serious enough during high presidential election season to make sure it reached the message of presidential candidate’s in traditional ways e.g.,
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