President Obama has signed a bill designed to give government more sweeping powers to regulate cigarettes, especially the way they’re marketed to attract teens, citing his own experience as a young smoker. But on the question of whether he’s still … Continue reading →
Despite growing opposition, President Obama hasn’t given up on his plans for sweeping reforms—including a public option—in health care and health insurance. But if Obama would slow down and work on Medicare first, and actually succeed in cutting costs there, … Continue reading →
There are two interesting developments in the Walpin case. The first is that a possible obstruction of justice charge is being investigated by the FBI—against Johnson, the Sacramento mayor whom IG Walpin implicated in misuse of AmeriCorps funds. There’s a … Continue reading →
The Walpin firing should be a big big story: heavy-handed executive overreach by the President in order to protect a political supporter from charges against him. Right now it’s not. The NY Times? So far it’s offering the sound of … Continue reading →
Despite Obama’s heroic efforts to remain uninvolved in the Iranian post-election protests, the Iranian government has accused him of doing so anyway. Fancy that. As I wrote yesterday [emphasis mine]: Obama has positioned himself as the un-Bush. This means that … Continue reading →
I like the concept of the second channel, which Richard Fernandez describes with his usual insight here [emphasis mine]: And in the particular case of Iran, my own emotional curiosity is drawn toward one question alone. Does the current President … Continue reading →
Here are some of the remarks President Obama made yesterday on Iran. I don’t need to analyze them too closely; many others have already done so. But I will say that they highlight Obama’s already-marked tendency towards narcissistic referencing that … Continue reading →
It’s not often such things come my way, but I’ve just gotten hold of an audio tape made surreptitiously by an Obama confederate, and I’ve made a transcript of the goings-on. The place: somewhere in the White House. The time: … Continue reading →
It sounded so tempting back in the fall—a government bailout. Maybe there was a free lunch (and free dinner, and free bedtime snack) after all for failing corporations, provided by the hand of government. It’s hard to remember, it seems … Continue reading →
Commenter Promethea writes: It’s so creepy that Obama is able to do so many things that we can see are horrible. A short list: messing with bondholders, favoring auto unions at the expense of other auto people, giving money to … Continue reading →
The NY Times offers this article by David Leonhardt that purports to prove that Obama isn’t responsible for much of our projected deficit problem—although it does admit that he hasn’t done much of anything to fix it. Is anyone the … Continue reading →
This editorial in today’s WSJ points out that Obamacare rests on a number of unproven assumptions: The main White House argument for health-care reform goes something like this: If we spend now on a hugely expensive new insurance program for … Continue reading →