Monthly Archives: July 2009

July 26, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Hillary Clinton’s weak case

Hillary Clinton appeared on “Meet the Press” today. With respect to Iran, she attempted to make the case that (1) Israel should rely on the Obama administration’s attempts to pursuade Iran not to go nuclear, rather than taking matters into its own hands by attacking Iran and (2) U.S. negotiations with Iran would not betray those in Iran who are pressing for democratic reform. On the first point, Clinton offered »
July 26, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Making it in the U.S.A.

It’s pre-season for European and Mexican soccer clubs and some of the biggest clubs are criss-crossing the U.S. playing exhibition matches. Everton, which is one of the bigger European clubs anyway, is here and will play the Major League Soccer all-stars Wednesday night. Four clubs — Chelsea, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Club America (Mexico) — participated in the so-called World Challenge tournament. They played six matches with attendance, on average, »
July 26, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Would that it were true

Juan Williams declares that affirmative action is dead, put to rest by the Supreme Court in the Ricci case. This “news” will come as a surprise to college admissions offices which, in the coming school year, will admit Africian-Americans with grades and SAT scores so relatively low that sensible white applicants with the same credentials will not even apply. It will come as a surprise at law firms where similar »
July 26, 2009 — John Hinderaker

A Strategy, Not A Gaffe

On Fox News Sunday this morning, Robert Gibbs was asked whether President Obama had prepared to be asked about the Henry Gates controversy at his press conference last week. The colloquy is interesting: BAIER: Presidents, before prime time news conferences, usually have detailed preparation sessions. And President Obama has already had four time prime time news conferences. Before Wednesday’s news conference, did you prepare him for a question about Henry »
July 26, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Keep Your Friends Close…

Paul’s column in today’s Examiner applies the Godfather’s adage–keep your friends close and your enemies closer–to President Obama’s foreign policy. Getting close to our enemies has been no problem for Obama, but he seems to have forgotten the first part of the injunction, as his administration has systematically distanced itself from, and placed itself in opposition to, our friends–Great Britain, Israel and India. Paul offers possible explanations for the seeming »
July 26, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Obama’s Decline Continues

Today’s Rasmussen survey is the first one in which all polling was done after President Obama’s prime-time press conference on health care. That press conference, and Obama’s blundering into the Gates arrest controversy, have driven the President’s “approval index”–the difference between those who strongly approve of his performance and those who strongly disapprove–to an all-time low of -11: Since Wednesday, the percentage who strongly disapprove has jumped from 35 to »
July 26, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Pawlenty on Obamacare and more

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty seems to be sticking his toe in the water of 2012 presidential politics. His second term as governor expires in January 2011. He has announced that he will not be running again on the ground that it is time to step aside for someone else to take a turn. In his second term Pawlenty has had to contend with a heavily Democratic legislature. The legislative session »
July 26, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Something in common

University of Tennessee Professor Wilfred McClay points us to this interesting passage in Sean Wilentz’s New Republic review/essay on recent Lincoln books: One hears that the rhetoric that carried Obama to the White House is Lincolnesque, which it most certainly is not, either in its imagery or its prosody. One hears even that Obama is not just an extremely talented and promising new president but, as Henry Louis Gates Jr. »
July 25, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Bad News All Around

Compare and contrast: The Associated Press reports that a “Parade of [U.S.] officials [is] to caution Israel”: The Obama administration is dispatching four of its most senior foreign policy and security figures to Israel this coming week with the same message on two open questions causing friction between the close allies: Don’t do it. Taking a firmer line with Israel than the Bush administration, President Barack Obama is urging Israel »
July 25, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Participatory Democracy In Action

King Baniain pointed out this video to Ed Morrissey and me at the radio station this morning. It’s a young woman addressing a City Council meeting in Santa Cruz, California. The video is an argument for teaching economics in the public schools. Or something: See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. »
July 25, 2009 — Scott Johnson

I wanna talk about him

When he visited Alaska to write his Vanity Fair hit piece on Sarah Palin, former New York Times reporter Todd Purdum found, so he claimed, “several” Alaskans who had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration and lack of empathy.” Purdum reported that these baked Alaskans thought the »
July 25, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Because he’s a jerk in America?

A Minneapolis attorney writes to add a note in the matter of Harvard Professor Henry Gates. When asked to come out of his house to talk to the police in connection with the report of a possible break-in, Gates exclaimed: “Why, because I’m a black man in America?” Our correspondent suggests otherwise. He writes: I know that this Gates incident is getting plenty of play in all quarters right now, »
July 25, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Paul Rahe: Sobriety and hope

With this post, Professor Paul Rahe continues his series on the the present discontents. The posts in this series have discussed the tyrannical ambitions of the Obama administration (posted here), the danger a consolidation of government poses for the people of the United States (posted here), the psychological disposition that makes democratic peoples vulnerable to servile temptation (posted here), the institutions that once in some measure shielded Americans from these »
July 24, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

The meaning of 49%

As John noted earlier today, Rasmussen reports that only 49 percent of the public now approves of the job President Obama is doing. From this, John concludes that “the honeymoon is over.” I think that’s a fair statement, but would add that some residue of the honeymoon remains. If Obama were a year into his presidency in this economy, I’m pretty sure his approval rating would be significantly lower. What »
July 24, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Don’t Look Now, But…

On Monday, Scott Rasmussen reported that in a telephone survey of likely voters (I assume it’s a likely voter poll, although the report doesn’t say that specifically), Mitt Romney is running even with Barack Obama, 45-45, in a preview of their possible 2012 matchup. This was, of course, before the very bad week that Obama has just experienced. It is striking that, after a mere six months in office, the »
July 24, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Obama’s assault on seniors

Betsy McCaughey, who helped lead the charge against the Clintons’ health care legislation, has a must-read column about “Obamacare” in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Her piece is called “GovernmentCare’s Assault on Seniors” and the title is apt. McCaughey argues persuasively that the legislation currently being pushed in Congress would “reduce access to care, pressure the elderly to end their lives prematurely, and doom baby boomers to painful later years.” McCaughey »
July 24, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Obama Regrets

The poll data on President Obama’s intervention in the Henry Gates matter must be very bad. Earlier today, Obama made a surprise appearance at Robert Gibbs’s press briefing for the sole purpose of addressing the controversy. Just before the briefing he called Officer James Crowley to talk about the incident–but not, apparently, to apologize for telling a national television audience that Crowley “acted stupidly” when he arrested Gates. Here are »