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Barack Obama
August 8, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Inside Obama’s bash
The New York Post seems skeptical that Barack Obama’s 60th birthday bash at his $12 million Martha’s Vineyard mansion was actually “scaled back” — the Post employs scare quotes in its headline over the story on the big event — as advertised in light of the panic over the Delta variant. The Post cover holds that they “partied like its 2019” while the story drily adds: “This while President Biden, »
August 6, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
How much difference is there between “leftist” Dems and the “establishment”?
James Hohmann of the Washington Post argues that the defeat of Nina Turner in that Ohio congressional race shows that Joe Biden “doesn’t need to keep caving to the left.” Hohmann assumes that when Biden adopts leftist positions he’s caving, rather than doing what he wants. I questioned that assumption in my report on the Ohio race. I wondered how much difference really exists between the Democratic left and the »
June 7, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Obama declines to answer
I subscribe to Jewish Insider’s emailed Daily Kickoff roundup. Most of the time it strikes me as an arm of the Democrats’ press relations team. Occasionally, however, I find an item of interest. One such is Matthew Kassel’s interview with Barack Obama posted this morning in connection with the publication of Obama’s memoir A Promised Land. Saying I found the interview of interest is a slight overstatement. Jewish Insider is »
April 1, 2021 — Steven Hayward
The Week in Cancellation: Bonus Obama Edition?
I’ve had a theory for a while now, for which there is some suggestive empirical survey data, that the left began to go nuts a couple years before Trump rode down the escalator in 2015 and caused full-blown leftist insanity. The theory, first suggested to me by Charles Murray actually, is that the activist left was frustrated and angry by around 2014 that President Obama was such a huge disappointment. »
February 16, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Democrats rely on myth to defend their unwillingness to compromise
Joe Biden and the Democrats plan to go it alone on stimulus legislation in response to the Wuhan coronavirus. Apparently, they will not compromise in order to pick up Republican support. There’s nothing wrong with that. The Dems have a majority in the House and the functional equivalent of one in the Senate. They can do whatever they want on stimulus, thanks to the miracle of “budget reconciliation.” What Biden »
February 15, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Open judgeships
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell did a fine job of filling federal court of appeals judgeships. They left very little on the table for Joe Biden. However, if one looks at federal district courts, a different picture emerges. Trump and Senate Republicans left more than 50 district court judgeships unfilled at the end of Trump’s term. Some of these slots have been vacant for four years or more. These were »
January 26, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Who is running the Biden administration?
Is it Joe Biden? Maybe, but many question whether he has the mental capacity and the energy to run the show. In this post about the Biden administration’s early hard-left initiatives, I speculated that Susan Rice, Ron Klain, or some combination of the two are determining Biden’s domestic policy agenda under pressure from the left. On the foreign policy side, no known policy has yet emerged about which to speculate. »
December 24, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Blue Hawaii
When I saw the photo of President and Mrs. Obama on Twitter (below), I wondered if it was the real deal. It seems to cry out for a thought bubble (or two). Have the Obamas defied the public health guidance handed down by Saint Fauci to head off for vacation in Hawaii? And is the Missus as unhappy as she appears with the contribution of her husband in propelling the »
November 16, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Obama projects
Barack Obama must be sleeping better at night secure in the belief that Joe Biden will soon be in position to kill further disclosure of their wrongdoing in connection with the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and — what’s the word? — transition. Obama has a new doorstop of a memoir out this week and took advantage of his old supporters at 60 Minutes to defame and disparage President Trump in »
August 20, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Obama misses the mark in critique of Trump
I have watched every Democratic National Convention since 1960. I have written extensively about every convention of both parties since 2004. This year, I haven’t watched a minute of the Democratic Convention. This isn’t something I’m proud of. As a citizen and writer about politics, I should be watching at least some of the proceedings. I just can’t bring myself to do it. In lieu of coverage by me, I »
June 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Obama to the rescue
I have waited until today to declare this the quote of the week: We are just now beginning to see what it means when the people who run large parts of America fundamentally lose their minds. To refer to this class as an elite is shorthand for describing the people who occupy the commanding heights above the intersection of mass culture, communications, education, and Democratic Party politics. We are not »
May 15, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Powell vs. Obama
We are a day or two late with this, but it is still worth your attention. Barack Obama said on a phone call that the Department of Justice’s dropping of charges against General Flynn was unprecedented and, somehow, a threat to the rule of law. News organizations naturally repeated Obama’s assertions uncritically. But Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, casts a more critical eye in her Open Memorandum to Barack Obama. She »
May 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Speaking of unprecedented
Barack Obama has a conflict of interest — a personal stake — in commenting on the ordeal of Michael Flynn and the Russia hoax in which it was embedded. One would never know it, however, from the ecstatic dissemination of the leak of his halting comments on the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case. Jonathan Turley takes a headfirst dive into Obama’s comments in “President Obama Declares »
March 1, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Obama’s airbrushed dreams
I placed David Garrow’s biography of the young Barack Obama (now available in paperback) in my top 10 books of 2017. Forgive me for quoting myself. This is what I wrote: Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, by David J. Garrow. This staggeringly researched book covers 1078 pages of text supported by 300 pages of footnotes — even though Garrow relegates his comments on Obama’s presidency to a 50-page »
February 25, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Mayor Pete: Plain Vanilla Obama?
A lot of people have suggested that Mayor Peter Buttigieg is trying to be the white (gay) Obama, and it makes a certain amount of sense. But maybe he is taking this too far? Check out this 24-second video: Yeah, I think we had enough of this the first time. »
February 24, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Is there a Democrat who can stop Bernie Sanders?
I think there might be, but he probably will choose not to. Suppose Barack Obama endorsed his former VP for president. The endorsement would probably carry Joe Biden to victory in South Carolina and position him for a solid showing on Super Tuesday. Suppose Obama endorsed Pete Buttigieg, the gay Obama. Biden, who is campaigning on the fact that he was Obama’s number two, would be finished. Buttigieg would suddenly »
January 8, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Trump pins some blame on Obama for missile attack. Should he have?
During his address to the nation this morning about the situation with Iran, President Trump said the ballistic missiles that targeted two U.S. air bases in Iraq were paid for using “funds made available by the last administration.” This assertion enraged Democrats and their media allies such as the Washington Post. Is their outrage justified? I see two issues here. The first is whether President Trump should be calling out »