I guess I wasn’t paying attention, but why, exactly, is use of chemical weapons by Syria a “red line” with Obama? Why did he have to say that? I get the feeling that he said it because he felt he had to “say something,” that is to say, he had to threaten to go to…
Tag: Obama follies
The Electric Slide
Two recent stories in the New York Times should serve as a primer, or perhaps prophylactic, for whatever electric car jive President Obama has up his sleeve for tonight’s “State of the Union” address. The first, a tale of woe entitled “Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway,” by the immensely put-upon John M. Broder, explains…
The Coming Year
OK, it is a little early for New Year predictions, but nothing soothes an eggnog hangover like a little uninformed prognostication, so here goes: President Obama’s unexpectedly big win over hapless Mitt Romney continues to be a win/win/win/win. I have no idea of what’s going to happen regarding the “fiscal cliff,” and I really don’t…
Right-wing press discovers that Benghazi is a CIA fuck-up, not a Susan Rice fuck-up
Let me distribute a kudo or two to Siobham Gorman and Adam Entous, reporters for my least favorite publication, the Wall Street Journal, for bothering to do some actual reporting regarding Susan Rice’s infamous talking points on the assassination of four Americans in Benghazi. Since their story is behind the Journal’s pay wall, and since…
How many Jews are there at the Bureau of Labor Statistics?
Okay, that was Richard Nixon’s line, but if the modern-day right isn’t there yet, they’re on the way. How lucky can Obama get? His C-, do I really have to be here performance at the debate looked lame enough in comparison to Romney’s scintillating A, but in the week-long rehash, stand-ups and cable news hacks…
An Embarrassment of Democrats
Up until Wednesday night, just about everything went right for President Obama’s re-election campaign. Yet in just one night, the President managed to push the reset button, and he did it all on his own. The President must have believed that all he had to do was show up for the debate and it would…
Barack Obama, luckie duckie
Imagine if Muslim demonstrators in Egypt hadn’t gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo on September 11 to denounce a bizarre and obscure video speaking ill of Mohammed. Then the murderous attack on the American consulate in Benghazi would have been seen as a pre-meditated terrorist attack from the beginning, and the entire focus of…
Michael Lewis, not really one of America’s finest journalists, takes presidential porn to a new level
If you’re an important blogger on the web, a Felix Salmon, say, or a Conor Friedersdorf, it’s considered good form to compliment Michael Lewis before pointing out obliquely that he’s full of shit. Conor does so in this excellent takedown, more of Obama himself than Mike, “How Obama Ignored Congress, and Misled America, on War…
Cognitive disconnect: Who’s stupider, the Obama Administration or the New York Times?
The homepage of the May 31, 2012 New York Times is currently (12:06 PM EDT) running the following: Seeing gains, U.S. Widens Latin Drug WarAs Washington’s attention swings from Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States is expanding its antidrug efforts in places like Honduras, where the violence has skyrocketed. What’s the “good” news? The Times…
U.S. Commerce Department to China: Your solar panel subsidies are more illegal than our solar panel subsidies
You may have heard that the Obama Administration spent $500 million subsidizing a solar panel company named Solyndra, which went bankrupt largely due to competition from solar panels imported from China. Well, now the U.S. Commerce Department, supposedly at the behest of disinterested bureaucrats rather than pissed-off politicos, is going to slap a tariff on…