The botched attempt by one Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly somehow connected to al Qaeda, attempting to blow up a passenger jet as it made its descent into Detroit quite naturally has the blogosphere buzzing. Richard Fernandez and Josh Marshall have good roundups of the news as  it was developing throughout the evening, along with the [...]

As pretty much everyone knows by now, President Obama gave himself “a good, solid B-plus” grade for his first year in office. If that struck you as a tad high, you’re not alone. Jokes about grade inflation have been pretty common. I couldn’t help but crack a joke about the curve he’s grading himself on [...]

Progressives are increasingly frustrated that, despite having won the presidency by a comfortable margin and having solid majorities in the House and Senate — where they have a “filibuster-proof” 60 votes — they still can’t enact the policies they want.   Matt Yglesias says “smarter elements in Washington DC are starting to pick up on the [...]

Once again, President Obama has offended some Europeans by “snubbing” them.  This time, it’s the Norwegians, who are apparently “incensed” that he was “rude” in not attending all the festivities Nobel laureates usually participate in, notably lunch with the king.   It’s getting some play in the blogosphere. As I argue in my New Atlanticist essay [...]

A bill barring the NCAA from using the phrase “national championship game unless such game is the culmination of a fair and equitable playoff system” had passed the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection where, one presumes, it will die a deserved death.  And, thankfully, “There is no Senate version, although Sen. Orrin [...]

Big features on the decision-making process behind the newest new Afghanistan strategy in both NYT (“How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan “) and WaPo (“Obama pressed for faster surge“) paint a flattering picture of a commander-in-chief taking control of the process. Peter Baker sets the stage by noting the factors weighing on [...]

“National Democrats are considering changing the presidential nominating process, by establishing a new primary calendar and deemphasizing the influence lawmakers and political insiders have on choosing the party nominee,” CNN reports. The battle for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination was marred by controversy as the Democratic National Committee argued with some state parties over when [...]

There is a growing pocket of Republican skeptics of the war in Afghanistan, Reihan Salam contends, and they could cause serious problems for President Obama.  Alas, his argument is short on examples and long on speculation. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican known for his independent streak, has made a conservative case for withdrawal. And [...]

E.D. Kain interviewed me via email yesterday for True/Slant on President Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy. Two short excerpts: Kain: Can a surge in Afghanistan work? Joyner: [I]t really depends on what we mean by “work.” And that’s not clear. If it’s defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban and creating competent, non-corrupt government and security forces [...]

In yet another example of a change of administrations not leading to a change in behavior, the Obama White House is refusing to allow Congress to question the social secretary on the matter of the “party crashers.” The White House on Wednesday invoked the separation of powers to keep Desiree Rogers, President Obama’s social secretary, [...]

Along with serious discussions about President Obama’s newest new Afghanistan strategy, a minor brouhaha has errupted over Chris Matthews’ labeling West Point “the enemy camp” last night.  Jeff Porter has the scoop at Newsbusters: “It seems like in this case, there isn’t a lot of excitement,” Matthews said. “I watched the cadets, they were young [...]

My first take on President Obama’s Afghanistan speech,  “Obama Announces Afghan Surge and Exit Strategy” is up at New Atlanticist.  I plan at least two more essays later in the day dissecting international reaction and other aspects.  The lede: After months of careful consideration, President Obama announced his newest Afghanistan policy last night.  He will [...]

Dana Milbank starts an otherwise thoughtful piece with a rather sophomoric attempt at humor: First, the good news: President Obama will not be wearing a flight suit when he addresses the cadets at West Point on Tuesday night. Nor will he wear a bomber jacket with the presidential seal on the chest, nor even, the [...]

In a move that has been coming for nearly two years, Charles Johnson has issued a manifesto explaining “Why I Parted Ways With The Right.”  For those who don’t know, Johnson is the founder and principal author of Little Green Footballs, one of the oldest and most popular blogs.  He was an elder statesman in [...]

President Obama’s speech tomorrow night, in which he finally announces his Afghan strategy and responds to General McChrystal’s September request for more troops for Afghanistan, will be closely watched by the American public, our NATO Allies, foreign leaders, and the people of Afghanistan and the region. I sat down with my Atlantic Council colleagues Damon [...]

The two pranksters who crashed the White House party the other night managed to meet President Obama. The photographic proof is on the White House Flickr page: I love the legal disclaimer that comes with the release: This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal [...]

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 [...]

Josh Marshall argues that bad picks by Democratic governors in filling vacant seats make it harder than necessary to retain those seats. I was just looking at this run-down of recent polls by Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling. The upshot is that while it seems extremely unlikely Republicans could regain control of the senate [...]

Phil Carter, well known to longtime denizens of the blogosphere as the former proprietor of Intel Dump, has suddenly resigned as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy. The NYT buries this news on A20: The Defense Department official in charge of closing the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has resigned after only [...]

Dan Drezner and Megan McArdle are among those recommending Saturday Night Live‘s opening sketch parodying a joint press conference with President Obama and Chinese President Hu. Drezner quips that the sketch manages to convey the nature of the relationship much more succinctly than his own 40-page academic treatise. Note that, although it appears that President [...]

A CNN poll released today finds that “opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting.”  According to the survey, “38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country’s current economic problems. That’s down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 [...]

President Obama is refusing to allow serving police, military, or intelligence officials to testify before the Senate investigation into the Fort Hood massacre. The first public congressional hearing on the Fort Hood attack will not include testimony from any current federal law enforcement, military or intelligence officials because the Obama administration “declined to provide any” [...]

President Obama’s speech at yesterday’s memorial service for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre was touching and struck the right chords. Marc Ambinder and Taegan Goddard both say it was his best speech, ever, and Chuck Todd gushes that it will be “remembered and quoted from for quite some time.” Visit msnbc.com for Breaking [...]

The House passed a trillion dollar bill that will force Americans to buy health insurance, force even small businesses to provide health coverage, and require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.  (The last, as I have previously argued, makes it something other than “insurance.”) Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray for WaPo: Hours after President Obama [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

President Obama has declared that the swine flu, which is much less prevalent and deadly than the ordinary influenza virus, is an “epidemic” and a “national emergency.”  Silly as it sounds, it was the right call. President Obama has declared H1N1 swine flu a national emergency, clearing the way for his health chief to give [...]

Joseph Ashby argues that something fishy is being ignored in the matter of Rush Limbaugh’s failed bid to buy the Rams. NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith served as counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder and was a member of Barack Obama’s transition team. [...] Despite the fact that Smith’s opposition was based on [...]

Mickey Kaus noted the other day that the UAW, which owns large stakes in both GM and Chrysler without paying a cent thanks to their support for the election of President Obama, is cutting their own companies a break and sticking it to Ford. I knew they’d find a way to punish Ford: The new UAW [...]

Ariana Huffington has generated quite a bit of buzz for her unlikely-to-be-taken suggestion that Vice President Biden resign in protest if President Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan.   The cuteness of the suggestion has unfortunately overshadowed the opening paragraph in Holly Bailey and Evan Thomas’ Newsweek piece on “A Day in the Life of Joe [...]

NewsBusters‘ P.J. Gladnick has dug up a 2007 speech by former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich that purportedly “reveal[s] the brutal truth about what liberals ultimately have in store for the public with their health care plan.” I’ll actually give you a speech made up entirely, almost on the spur of the moment, of what [...]

Now here’s something you don’t see every day:  Mark Lippert, chief of staff of the National Security Council and a close friend of President Obama, has decided to leave the administration to return to active duty in the Navy.  George Stephanopoulos reports: When Barack Obama came to the Senate, Mark Lippert — a veteran Senate [...]

A NYT/CBS poll finds that President Obama’s approval remains strong but support for his handling of key policy issues is dipping. The Republicans are not, however, gaining much ground. At 56 percent, his approval rating is down from earlier in the year but still reasonably strong at this point compared with recent presidents. More Americans [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler will cost-host and we’ll be joined by Joshua Foust of Registan.net to talk about General McChrystal’s Afghanistan strategy review, rumors that President Obama is lowering his Afghanistan ambitions, whether we should be befuddled at this change, [...]

Obama administration officials are now admitting what has been apparent for weeks: that they are giving serious consideration to radically downsizing the Afghanistan mission.  Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller break the story in this morning’s NYT, noting that a combination of factors have President Obama strongly reconsidering the Biden Plan, which he rejected as recently [...]

Leslie Gelb, distinguished diplomat, journalist, and scholar, professes befuddlement over President Obama’s strategy with respect to Afghanistan: I’m lost on President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan policy—along with most of Congress and the U.S. military. Not quite eight months ago, Mr. Obama pledged to “defeat” al Qaeda in Afghanistan by transforming that country’s political and economic infrastructure, [...]

President Obama has gone on virtually every network but Fox in a weekend tour de force that continues tonight: The president’s week-long media blitz has left no other network behind. The president has appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Bloomberg and CNBC and will appear on five public affairs talk shows on Sunday: ABC’s “This Week [...]

President Obama has reportedly asked New York Governor David Paterson to drop his bid to win election in his own right, fearing that he would hurt Democrats down ballot. The decision to ask Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by political advisers to Mr. Obama, but approved by the president himself, one of the [...]

General Brent Scowcroft issued a statement through the Atlantic Council at noon:  “I strongly approve of President Obama’s decision regarding missile defense deployments in Europe. I believe it advances U.S. national security interests, supports our allies, and better meets the threats we face.” Given that I work at the Atlantic Council and have blogged on [...]

A series of scandals uncovered by conservative outlets and ignored by the mainstream press are starting to raise some uncomfortable questions. The right-wing media’s single-minded focus on a handful of targets over the past months and its success in pushing those stories into the mainstream have underscored the sharp divide between traditional news organizations and [...]

The big buzz on the blogs this morning is that ABC’s Terry Moran — best known as the brother of RWNH’s Rick — Tweeted “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a “jackass” for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.” The Tweet in question was soon removed with ABC providing this [...]

Yesterday, somewhere between “tens of thousands” and “two million” people flooded the nation’s capital to protest somethingoranother. Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government (Jeff Zeleny, NYT) A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against President Obama since [...]

The big news surrounding President Obama’s latest heathcare speech is that South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” in response to the claim that illegal immigrants would not be covered under universal coverage: AP (“Obama heckled by GOP during speech to Congress“): The nastiness of August reached from the nation’s town halls into [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will talk about President Obama’s education speech and related topics. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high trolls to legit callers ratio, however, we’ll be using the BTR chat [...]

Matt Yglesias takes mock exception to President Obama’s assertion to our nation’s schoolchildren that “You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.” He notes that, “My father dropped out of tenth grade and has had a [...]

President Obama is losing support among white voters — including white Democrats — a new LAT poll finds. The voters losing faith in the president are the ones he had worked hardest to attract. New surveys show steep declines in Obama’s approval ratings among whites — including Democrats and independents — who were crucial elements [...]

President Obama is set to address the nation’s schoolchildren next week, presumably to propagandize them into his evil agenda of turning the country into Communist Russia (pronounced “roo-shuh”) and offing granny to save money on health care just as they do in his native Kenya. There are even instruction manuals to enlist the support of [...]

In the comments on my Obama’s New Health Strategy: Leadership post, Michael Reynolds makes a salient point about President Obama’s leadership style: “He operates like a community organizer: let people have their say, let them wear themselves out, then step in and define the consensus.” I think that’s fundamentally correct.  I’ve long marveled at Obama’s [...]

US News blogger Peter Roff speculates that Mitt Romney will run for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. Such an announcement would likely be embraced immediately by the Republicans, who would like almost nothing more than to deny Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada his new, hard-won, 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority. As a self-funding candidate [...]

Seven months into his administration, President Obama has only 43 percent of his top appointees in place. Which, while shocking, isn’t at all unusual  Peter Baker for NYT: Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled — a reflection of a White House that grew more cautious [...]