THE IMPORTANT NEWS from the summit was as follows: first, no one screwed up, and second, U.S.-Russian relations did not get worse -- and might actually have improved.
Continue reading "JULY 9 / Stratfor on the U.S.-Russia summit" »
IT'S HARD to know whether President Obama's health-care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three.
Continue reading "JULY 8 / Samuelson on health care, welfare" »
WHILE the Obama administration was working out details of how to bulldoze urban neighborhoods to save them, Unca D helpfully listed a couple of other leaders who fundamentally transformed their counties with similar programs -- Nicholae Ceaucescu in Romania and and Julius Nyerere in Tanzania.
"Good entry," wrote one reader, "but . . . .
Continue reading "JULY 1 / Uncreative destruction in Cambodia" »
PHIL BRONSTEIN, "Bronstein at Large: Love or lust, Obama and the fawning press need to get a room," sfgate.com, June 8, 2009:
This guy [meaning President Obama] is good. Really good. And, frankly, so far, we [meaning the press] are not.
Continue reading "JUNE 25 / One-by-one, some journalists will admit the obvious. Here's one." »
STANLEY FISH, "Yes I Can," New York Times, June 9, 2009:
By the time of the address to the Congress on Feb. 24, the royal we has flowered into the naked "I": "As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress." "I called for action." "I pushed for quick action." "I have told each of my cabinet." "I've appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general." "I refuse to let that happen. "I will not spend a single penny." "I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves." "I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term." The last is particularly telling: it says, there's going to be a second term . . . .
Continue reading "JUNE 19 / When even your friends start talking about your love affair with the first-person singular pronoun" »
DICK CHENEY's national-security speech yesterday had 5,885 words. "I," "me," and "my" accounted for 47 of them. That's an average of one first-person singular pronoun ever 125th word.
President Obama's prebuttal . . .
Continue reading "MAY 22 / But enough about national security" »
STUART TAYLOR, Jr., is "cautiously betting that Obama will choose a moderate liberal who believes in judicial restraint."
Continue reading "MAY 21 / Stuart Taylor on Supreme Court nominee" »
Editorial, "Plea for dialogue," Houston Chronicle, May 20, 2009:
[President Obama] recounted a letter he had received after winning the Democratic presidential nomination from a doctor who described himself as a pro-life Christian.
Continue reading "MAY 20 / Next time, read the transcript" »
ONE OF THE BEST critiques of President Obama's massive deficit spending came this week from . . . President Obama.
Continue reading "MAY 15 / So why's he doing it?" »