Does Obama think a bad deal is worse than no deal?
If the administration wants to persuade the critics, it needs to be more candid about what a “bad deal” looks like and more open to the steps it would embrace if it ends up with “no deal.” If the president and his advisors do not start speaking more candidly about these matters, then they might as well stop claiming that they believe “a bad deal is worse than no deal” — nobody will believe them.
The collapsing Obama foreign policy legacy
Paul Bonicelli:
Obama has been in office over six years and it is undeniable that we have been retreating and our enemies have been advancing. There is a reason for that: his foreign policy is predicated on the notion that an assertive and ascendant United States is the cause of conflict. He has been proved wrong, and the fall of Yemen is the latest demonstration of his errors in judgment.
Barack Obama and Jeb Bush on illegal immigration
Conventional wisdom suggests that the Republicans have permanently lost Hispanics as a result of their stance on illegal immigration. Greg Mankiw argues that Jeb Bush, in concert with President Obama’s actions in office, may be able to change that.
Hence the basic irony inherent in the Obama presidency: He campaigned as a post-partisan, but his most lasting accomplishments will be those of a partisan.
Why 2012 (and almost every other election ever) wasn’t a mandate
So let’s get the facts straight. Elections are rarely mandates. Brendan said this in 2004. I said it in 2008. Nolan said it yesterday. I’ll say it again. Voters don’t make choices by first formulating views on all sorts of issues, then figuring out where the candidates stand on these issues, and then choosing the candidate whose views best represent their own. In fact, often that story runs in reverse: they choose a candidate based on party or whatever, and then line up their views on issues to match the candidates.
Last night, President Obama accused Mitt Romney of saying Russia is the “biggest geopolitical threat facing America”? According to Politifact, this charge was true. According to FactCheck.org it was false. So each campaign can cite a “neutral” fact-checking organization in defense of their candidate. Who’s right? Decide for yourself. Here’s the transcript of the CNN interview in which the initial comment was made.
Dinesh D’Souza, the Right’s Michael Moore
“It may seem incredible,” D’Souza wrote, “to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States.”
True enough: That theory wasn’t remotely credible when D’Souza advanced it in Forbes, and it’s even more ludicrous on the silver screen.
Doctor shortages and the Affordable Care Act
Here is the problem: The health-care system can’t possibly deliver on the huge increase in demand for primary-care services. The original ObamaCare bill actually had a line item for increased doctor training. But this provision was zeroed out before passage, probably to keep down the cost of health reform. The result will be gridlock.
Department of Justice admits judicial review is legitimate
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., bowing to an unusual demand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, made official the backpedaling of the past few days over remarks by President Obama about the Supreme Court’s coming ruling on the constitutionality of his health care overhaul. Mr. Obama said on Monday that it “would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step” for the court to overturn the law.
