Obama: Disloyal, Ruthless, Cold
Wednesday's column by Maureen Dowd, eviscerating President Obama for his shabby treatment of former White House Counsel Greg Craig and supporter Caroline Kennedy, is getting favorable responses from his supporters in the blogosphere. Only a year after he had helped Barack Obama get elected by eviscerating his close friend, Clinton White House colleague and Yale Law School classmate, Hillary Clinton, Craig ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 26, 2009 09:29
That’s What I Call A Loophole…
In discussing legal possibilities vs. tradition vis a vis the Senate filibuster rules, Matthew Yglesias pens an interesting legal scenario.After all, a lot of things are possible in our system. To the best of my understanding, nothing is stopping Rahm Emannuel from sauntering onto the floor of the Senate, murdering Republicans from states with Democratic governors in cold blood, having ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 25, 2009 13:42
Obama “Keeping An Eye” On Robots
Surely no matter whether we identify as Republicans, Democrats, or Independents, we can all agree with President Obama's statement regarding robotics.Now, the students from Oakton High School are going to be demonstrating the Cougar Cannon designed to scoop up and toss moon rocks. I am eager to so what they do, for two reasons. As president, I believe that robotics ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 25, 2009 12:49
National Debt Hits $12 Trillion, Will Double By 2019
Barack Obama has been president for just under 10 months but he's added two trillion to the national debt and will double it by the end of the decade. CBS' Mark Knoller: This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the first time. The latest high-point is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 10:07
Piling on China
Inspired no doubt by President Obama's visit to China, American editorial writers and columnists are seizing on the opportunity to pile on China. In his column today Paul Krugman takes China to task over its policy on its currency: Despite huge trade surpluses and the desire of many investors to buy into this fast-growing economy — forces that should have ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 16, 2009 11:37
Protocol
The picture at the right has created something of a kerfuffle in the blogosphere. It captures President Barack Obama being introducted to Japanese Emperor Akihito and bowing profoundly. Scott Johnson is overly exercised: Obama's breach of protocol is of a piece with the substance of his foreign policy. He means to teach Americans to bow before monarchs and tyrants. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 15, 2009 13:14
Searching for the Exit?
The scuttlebutt that's coming out now in Washington is that President Obama doesn't much like the plans for Afghanistan offered by his advisors: WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 12, 2009 13:37
Obama Hurt Deeds in Virginia
Pollster Glen Bolger (a founding partner at my wife's firm) looks at the data in the Virginia governor's race and concludes that Barack Obama hurt Democrat Creigh Deeds. At the end of tracking, we added some questions paid for by the Republican National Committee specifically to measure the Obama effect. [...] The dominant national issue at that time (and still) is health care. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 10, 2009 12:22
Republicans Win Big in Local Races
The loss of a Republican seat in NY-23 under highly unusual circumstances notwithstanding, yesterday was a good day for Republicans. After crushing defeats in successive elections, they won back the Virginia governor's office in a blowout and knocked off a billionaire incumbent governor in New Jersey despite having their vote split between two candidates. I would, however, resist the temptation ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 4, 2009 08:43
Obama Spoils System Champ
A USA Today report that "Nearly a year after he was elected on a pledge to change business-as-usual in Washington, Obama also has taken a cue from his predecessors and appointed fundraisers to coveted ambassadorships" and in fact has done so at "a rate higher than any president in more than four decades" combined with story in The Hill that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 30, 2009 08:52
Recession Over, Obama Takes Credit
As widely expected, the Powers That Be have declared the recession over, while cautioning that the economy still has a long way to go. And, of course, the Obama administration is crediting its stimulus packages for the good news. It might not feel like it to most voters, but the U.S. economy is growing again after a more than a year ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 29, 2009 13:01
Obama Ties Bush on Golf
Interesting-if-true fact from Patrick Gavin: President Obama has already played as many rounds of golf after nine months in office as President George W. Bush did in eight years. President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years. CBS' Mark Knoller — ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 26, 2009 14:54
Is Barack Obama Too Manly?
Mark Liebowitz had a piece for NYT over the weekend titled "Man’s World at White House? No Harm, No Foul, Aides Say." At first blush, it reads like some feminists are genuinely concerned about a male-dominated culture in the West Wing. After awhile, however, one begins to suspect it's a PR exercise to make President Obama seem more ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 26, 2009 07:54
Obama Leads 2012 Opponents
Taegan Goddard links a Public Policy Polling survey [PDF] showing that President Obama would have beaten the most commonly mentioned Republican hopefuls had the election been held from October 16th to 19th and opened to registered voters. (I hasten to add, it wasn't.) In fact, according to the survey, "Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43, Mitt Romney 48-40, Sarah Palin 52-40, and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 22, 2009 11:58
Obama’s Federalist Approach to Medical Marijuana
In new guidelines announced today, the Obama Administration has decided that it will deferring to the states on enforcing marijuana laws when those states have laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 19, 2009 13:36
