Tag Archives: President Obama

Among Globe’s Greatest Failures

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | DEC 20, 2016

“My belief is that when the military is used as the sole instrument of power, that never has a good outcome. If there’s no one to take ownership and develop that failed state, human suffering can be even worse than that created by the conflict itself. “
— Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Army General Martin Dempsey

For decades the sole instrument of power in Syria has been the military, an instrument of death and destruction wielded by the dictatorial family of Assad, a father and son who have carried out unimaginable atrocities against their own people illustrating the unlimited potential of man’s inhumanity to man. Continue reading →

For What Its Worth on Immigration

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

“Compromise,” as others have said before, “is not a four-letter word.” In a January 2014 column in The New York Times, Tom Friedman quoted former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson as having said: “If you can’t learn to compromise on issues without compromising yourself, you should not be in Congress, be in business or get married.”

Note: Sen. Simpson did not warn against being a columnist, being a radio host, or being a panelist on a cable TV program.
Continue reading →

Hand Me That Poll

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama is now officially a boat anchor hanging around the necks of Democrats running for public office from east to west; from north to south and, if there is another dimension – like The Cloud – he’s a hindrance there, too.

A bunch of polls have been released this week, all of which show that, as of now, a basic distrust of the President’s abilities are baked into the American consciousness. Continue reading →

“The Prince” Lives On

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Originally published in The Hill

It was in 1513 that Niccolò Machiavelli first wrote The Prince, although it didn’t hit the printing presses until 1532, five years after the most infamous of political philosophers had died.

That was by design, because the Catholic Church didn’t much care for the tone of Machiavelli’s most famous work and put it on its list of banned books.

Despite the early controversy, The Prince still lives in the heart of the modern politician. Here are some examples:  Continue reading →

You Can’t Fake Credibility

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

“Authenticity is vitally important in politics. If you can fake that, you have it made.”

That’s an old Washington joke. Ha Ha. You might be able to fake authenticity, but you can’t fake credibility.

And that’s a problem for President Obama.

His credibility is now shot, thanks to the provable lie that helped him pass his signature legislative achievement.

When the President promised that the American people could keep their health care insurance under Obamacare, he knew he was lying. But the voters bought the lie, hook, line and sinker.  Continue reading →

Skilled White House, Aggressively On Message

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama, fresh from having his lunch money taken from him by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, is flailing about trying to find someone he can shift the public’s attention to.

He has chosen House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh) as the person and the upcoming end of the U.S. government’s fiscal year on September 30 as his verbal weapon.

I think that is the wrong fight against the wrong guy.

The last time we were headed down the road to actually shutting down the federal government was in late 1995 and early1996 . Two main players – and this is important – were President Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich. Continue reading →

TL2

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The White House chief of staff during the reign of President Richard Nixon was a guy named H.R. Haldeman who was not known for being a terribly patient man. The story goes that he would put the letters “TL2” atop memo that he thought were weak.

TL2 stood for “Too little, too late.”

That pretty much sums up the Administration’s frenzied attempt to gain support for an attack on Syria.

Americans are opposed to it, according to Gallup, by 36 percent to 51 percent. That is not only the lowest approval for military action in 20 years, but it is the only time that “opposed” has been a majority. Continue reading →

Asking for Permission

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

In matters of foreign policy, tis far better for Presidents to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

If a President takes bold and decisive action, the Congress will usually follow along.

If a President dithers and negotiates and asks the opinions of scores of lawmakers, all of whom have different constituencies and vested interests, the result is usually a mess.

Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, amid murky Constitutional concerns. Congress didn’t blink, because it was such a damn good deal.

President Reagan sent a few missiles into Libya to send a message to Muammar Khadafy. While a few members of Congress may have complained, most saw it as a justified strike. Continue reading →

Leading From Behind

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama has cancelled joint military exercises with Egypt in the wake of a government crackdown on demonstrators demanding the return of deposed president Mohammad Morsi.

That crackdown (through yesterday afternoon) had led to the deaths of 525 people and the injury to more than 3,700 others. Friday in the Muslim world is the equivalent of Sunday in the West (or Saturday in Israel) and it is likely those numbers will rise dramatically. Continue reading →

Who’s on the Run?

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

A couple of weeks before the Presidential election in November 2012, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney had their foreign policy debate which was moderated by CBS’ Bob Schieffer.

This was about a month after the deadly September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. State Department post in Benghazi, Libya and about 15 months after the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.

The President was scrambling to show that he was maintaining the forward momentum against Al Qaeda gained when Osama bin Laden was killed. Continue reading →

The Middle Class

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

“U.S. President Barack Obama is using his weekly address to promote a better bargain for the middle class.”

If that were the lead of an Associated Press report we might think it deserves a closer look, but it was the lead of a press release from the Voice of America, an arm of the U.S. State Department.

Let’s look at Politico.com’s lead: “President Barack Obama sharpened his focus on the economy Wednesday, looking to breathe new life into his second-term agenda with a fresh pivot back to the issue a majority of Americans feel most acutely in their daily lives.”

Ok. We can work with that. Continue reading →

Redistributionist Speaks in Illinois

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

That the President gave an economic speech in Galesburg, Illinois is significant, although not in the way that he might intend.

Illinois is an economic basket case. Because of the political leadership in the state, which has been dominated by the Democrats for the last decade, the land of Lincoln is the most likely big state to go belly up. Chicago, my home town, was voted most likely to follow Detroit into bankruptcy by the chattering classes.

My home state largely followed the economic philosophy of President Obama and that philosophy has largely sealed its doom. Continue reading →

President Obama and the People of Galesburg

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

In the early 19th Century, as the country was expanding into its midsection, Chicago played second fiddle to a town 175 miles to the West. There, the Rev. George Washington Gale had founded an institution dedicated to his missionary zeal and political enlightenment called Knox College.

Galesburg, located halfway between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers on some of the richest farmland in the world, became an early social and economic center in Illinois.

Galesburg served as the crossroads of two giant railroads, the Santa Fe and the Burlington Northern.

The railroads brought wealth and prestige to the burg, with stately homes with rich architecture and richer occupants, along wide streets paved with bricks from the local ovens. Galesburg became a hub for another railroad, the Underground Railroad that served as an escape route for slaves from the South.   Continue reading →

On the President’s Remarks Last Week

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

In the same week that Detroit declared bankruptcy, the President opined on George Zimmerman and the state of race relations in this country.

The President should have spoken up on the Zimmerman verdict, which has become a festering national wound, although I thought his remarks were incomplete at best, needlessly adversarial at worst.

The fact that Barack Obama can stride up to the podium in the Brady Room, tell Jay Carney to take a seat, and start opining on race relations in front of the whole world tells you all you really need to know about the state of race relations in this country. Continue reading →

Politics Is Easy, Governing Is Hard

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

This has to have been the longest, yet least relaxing Independence Day ever.

As you know, the 4th was on a Thursday so here, in Our Nation’s Capital, almost everyone I know pretended they had been sequestered out of having to work on Friday and made it a four day weekend.

While wondering why we choose to end 4th of July fireworks displays with the playing of The 1812 Overture by a Russian composer celebrating a victory over France this happened:

— The U.S. Government announced that the Employer Mandate part of ObamaCare could just wait until January 1, 2015 instead of its scheduled launch on January 1, 2014. It would have taken less time (3 years, 7 months) to defeat Japan in World War II than to implement ObamaCare (3 years, 9 months). And Obama will still miss it. Continue reading →

The Incredible Shrinking Presidency

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Rare Opening SIDEBAR:

After it was reported that President Obama said in Africa, “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” I Tweeted: “Hell, he didn’t even scramble jets to save a U.S. Ambassador.”

That was re-Tweeted 204 times as of 9 o’clock last night which counts as “Trending” at Mullings Central. If you’re not already, you should follow me on Twitter at @richgalen.

End Rare Opening SIDEBAR

The President is in Africa on a perfectly meaningless goodwill trip to somewhere and somewhere else while back here in our nation’s capital it was one of the most important weeks in the history of the Republic. Continue reading →

Obama in Ireland

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It’s good that the President and the First Family traveled to Ireland, and all of these news reports that make a federal case out of the cost are missing the point.

It is safe to say that Mr. Obama would have never made it to the White House if it weren’t for two prominent Irish Americans.

Ted Kennedy gave the Illinois Senator the critical boost he needed when he endorsed him for President. And Richie Daley, the iconic Mayor of Chicago, gave the former community organizer the backing of his machine and its critical resources to help first get to the Senate and then make the leap to bigger things. Continue reading →

Republicans Victims of Mass Hypnosis?

BY WILLIAM F. GAVIN

Recently, after days of fasting and contemplation (well, to be truthful, just as I was finishing  my second glass of chardonnay last evening), I had a revelation: contrary to firmly-held beliefs among Republicans, President Obama is not a socialist or a Kenyan or a Chicago pol with a bogus college degree, or even much of a doctrinaire left-winger.

He is, instead, a skilled hypnotist.

We all know what effect he has  had on his many cultists in the news media: glazed eyes, instant obedience to his suggestions, loss of inhibitions leading to a total abandonment of professional standards and ethics, and a kind of goofy grin like the one we find on the face of Alfred E. Neuman of Mad magazine fame.

Continue reading →

Obama, Benghazi, and Mark Sanford

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

There’s an axiom in Washington that goes like this: ‘The more words it takes to explain something, the more likely it is that you are lying’.

Think about it. It is always easier just to tell the truth and take your lumps and get over it somehow.

Lying takes a lot of work. Here’s some aphorisms about telling the truth versus lying that somehow seems to get forgotten by people when elected to higher public office:

‘It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place’.  ~H. L.Mencken Continue reading →