Barack Obama
June 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
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
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May 15, 2020 — John Hinderaker
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
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May 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
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
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March 1, 2020 — Scott Johnson
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
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February 25, 2020 — Steven Hayward
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.
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February 24, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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January 8, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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December 10, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, I noted with dismay that, in a survey, a majority of Republicans deemed Donald Trump a better president than Abraham Lincoln. It’s only fair for me to note, with even more dismay, that most Democrats who participated in a new survey deemed Barack Obama a better president than George Washington. The survey comparing Obama and Washington is from Monmouth University. It found that among Democratic voters, the “Father
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October 21, 2019 — Scott Johnson
What really happened when the president met behind closed doors with congressional leaders in the White House last week and Nancy Pelosi wagged her finger at President Trump? In his remarks to the press immediately following the meeting, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not go into detail. McCarthy subsequently gave an account that contrasted with the one touted by the Democrats and faithfully disseminated by their media adjunct. In
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September 5, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Former Defense Secretary James Mattis has a book coming out in which he is harshly critical of President Obama. Among other things, he recalls his dissent from Obama’s decision to pull troops out of Iraq prematurely, which had nearly-disastrous consequences. But this less well-known story about Iran is also noteworthy: Mattis says Washington didn’t even inform him when Iran committed an “act of war” on American soil. Mattis was CENTCOM
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August 22, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Three stories in today’s news–none of them the type of story I would normally write about–illustrate a common theme. The first is from Britain, where eco-crusaders Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are being accused of hypocrisy for repeatedly zipping back and forth to Nice on a private jet. Meanwhile, Prince William booked his family on a £73 commercial flight to Scotland, in what is viewed as a rebuke of his
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August 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Joe Biden has two huge assets in his run for the Democratic nomination. First, he’s perceived as, and polls show him to be, the Democrat most likely to defeat President Trump. Second, he has strong support from African-American voters. The second asset is related to the first, but not that closely. The main reasons why Biden has such strong support from African-Americans are (1) the fact that he was Barack
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July 29, 2019 — John Hinderaker
For the first two years of President Trump’s administration, Democratic Party press outlets would recite, ritualistically, that he was a historically unpopular president. We haven’t seen much of that lately. In fact, for most of his first term Trump has been as popular as Barack Obama was during his first term. You can see that graphically in this Rasmussen Reports chart: During Obama’s first term, his approval rating was usually
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June 17, 2019 — John Hinderaker
In his now-famous interview with George Stephanopoulos, President Trump was asked whether he thought Barack Obama was in on Russiagate: In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump was asked, “You clearly believe there was a group of people working against you. Do you think President Obama was behind it?” “I would say that he certainly must have known about it because it went very high up on the chain,
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May 7, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We continue our preview of the new (Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books hot off the press. It went into the mail on Monday and is accessible online to subscribers now. Buy an annual subscription including immediate online access here for the modest price of $19.95. If you love trustworthy essays on, and reviews of books about, politics, history, literature and culture, the CRB may be for you.
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February 3, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
“For Harris, identity is simply ‘American.'” That’s the title (print edition) of a gushing article about Kamala Harris in today’s Washington Post. The Post’s Kevin Sullivan then rambles on for paragraphs discussing Harris’ multi-racial, multi-ethnic background. “Simply American” or not, Harris isn’t above discussing it, either. When she decided to run for president, she wrote a book about her heritage. Here’s what I’d like to know. When Harris applied to
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December 6, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Watching Barack Obama try to take credit for the achievements of others has a certain twisted entertainment value. This time it is the fracking revolution that has made America the world’s number one producer of oil and gas. Almost unbelievably–it would be unbelievable, if we were talking about anyone but Obama–Barack is now attempting to take credit for it! You can’t make this stuff up. Mark Mathis of Clear Energy
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