At the outset of his presidency, Barack Obama promised to restore America’s great diplomatic stature, weakened in the politically costly wake of its war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Healed by renewed international cooperation, those wounds would be a thing of America’s darker, Republican past, he promised. But Number 10 never envisioned that Mr. Obama’s overhaul of America’s international relations would come at the cost | Read More »
The same non-profit group who wasted no time in lobbying new members of Congress to slash federal spending — by blanketing Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport with print ads in time for this week’s freshman orientation session — unveiled today a quirky new web spot addressing the nation’s “uncertain” economic environment. The video, which features a bullish “boss lady” who opens beer bottles with her | Read More »
When a deeply polarizing egotist leads an already-unpopular party, the only place to go is down, as endangered Democrats will soon realize. Some, having already learned the lessons of the Pennsylvania and Colorado Senate primary contests, are politely rebuffing–while others still downright rejecting–Barack Obama’s offers to join them on the campaign trail. Instead, they’ve got another president in mind: Bill Clinton, whose presence on the | Read More »
What’s Halloween without a little politics? And with little more than a week until Election Day, you can’t blame me that I incorporated it into my jack-o’-lantern last night, when I joined my family to carve pumpkins. Inspired by a recent Gallup survey in which President Barack Obama and former President George Bush were virtually tied in a measure of approval, my get out the | Read More »
A California union stagehand was abruptly terminated Friday for wearing a “George H. W. Bush” sweat shirt and hat while constructing a stage to be used for a get out the vote rally featuring President Barack Obama. Duane Hammond says his clothes were not a political statement, rather a sign of support for his son, who is serving on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George H. | Read More »
The story of an irritated JetBlue flight attendant whose tantrum last week drew national attention is the subtext of a new web ad in which endangered Democrats frantically escape an airplane piloted by the president with a course set for their home states and districts. Parodies aside, the 50-second spot highlights a serious concern among Democrats: President Barack Obama’s unpopularity–stemming from his controversial overhaul of | Read More »
A Pennsylvania GOP confab would be a curious place for most out-of-state Congressmen. But not California Rep. Darrell Issa. Issa, whose rhetoric has been a clarion call of sorts for fellow Congressional Republicans over allegations the White House offered federal posts to two Democratic primary challengers, will address Friday the Pennsylvania Republican Party at the group’s summer meeting. Other speakers include Rick Santorum, Rob Gleason, | Read More »
A senior aide to President Barack Obama approached former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff with the possibility of three federal posts as an alternative to his primary challenge to Beltway-supported Senator Michael Bennet. Romanoff rebuffed the aide’s suggestions to join the administration. In a statement acknowledging the job talk, Romanoff appended an email from White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina proposing three jobs: | Read More »
Four journalists were ejected from a military commission pre-trial hearing for alleged terrorist and Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr after reporting the name of a protected witness and one-time interrogator, the Pentagon acknowledged Thursday. “We threw some people out there today because they disclosed the identity of a protected witness,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell. “He had been clearly identified as someone who needed | Read More »
Those vulnerable Democrats whose votes for health care reform were predicated on the conceit that it would not add to the nation’s bloated deficit have today found themselves in a precarious position, as a new report by federal regulators indicated the health care remake will add $311* billion to the national deficit over the next ten years. A report released Thursday by economic experts at | Read More »
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Saturday he’ll soon decide whether to step down from his post as the liberal dean of the nation’s highest court. In comments posted over the weekend on the website of the Washington Post, Stevens said he “will surely” retire while President Barack Obama is in the White House, calming fears of liberal groups that a future Republican president | Read More »
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be reticent to drain the swamp and admonish Representative Charley Rangel for recent ethics violations, President Barack Obama has, in typical Obama fashion, thrown the scandal-plagued New York Democrat under the bus, reports the New York Daily News. In recent days, a growing choir of Democrats have begun echoing GOP demands that Rangel surrender his chairmanship of the powerful | Read More »
Former Governor of Virginia Doug Wilder Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to remove Tim Kaine–a fellow member of the Virginia Governors club who once earned Wilder’s endorsement–from his post atop the Democratic National Committee. “[A] spate of recent losses in races that Democrats should have won underscores what has been obvious to me for a long time,” Wilder wrote in a column for Politico. “The | Read More »
President Barack Obama Friday tapped Democratic National Committee member Tim Purdon as North Dakota’s next United States Attorney, landing the president in the same political minefield once occupied by Democratic Senator Max Baucus after he nominated his girlfriend for a similar federal post. A veteran Democratic bundler, Purdon found a unique affinity with trial lawyer John Edwards, on whose campaign he was a state chairman. | Read More »
Aides to President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to leaders of the special needs community after a recent screed involving the mentally disabled. At a White House meeting, Emanuel reportedly scolded a group of liberal strategists for attacking wayward Democrats over health care, dismissing the suggestion the White House alienate moderate Blue Dogs as “f–ing retarded.” Sarah Palin, | Read More »
Pentagon officials acknowledged Friday their aerial refueling tanker program has stalled yet again, leaving uncertain the fate of the Air Force’s outdated fleet of more than 500 tankers. Vying for the $35 billion contract for 179 tanker planes are the Washington-based Boeing and the Toulouse, France-based European Aeronautic Defense Space Company (EADS), though the former has threatened to withdraw from consideration if the Pentagon did | Read More »
Seen as a prelude to the White House honoring President Barack Obama’s pledge to shutter the controversial detention facility by January 22, Administration officials last week quietly repatriated twelve Guantanamo Bay detainees. Among those released were six Yemenis, four Afghanis, and two Somalis, many of whom have been in American custody for the last eight years. The decision to close Guantanamo–by transferring and trying in | Read More »
President Barack Obama admitted Monday to a group of students in Shanghai, China that, while billed as the most tech savvy President in history, he doesn’t use Twitter. When asked by a student if he was aware of China’s firewall blocking the popular micro-blogging service, Obama forewent his tech friendly reputation, saying, “I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not | Read More »
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, whose decision not to seek a third term as governor sparked immense speculation among Republicans about a 2012 campaign, announced today he will launch the “Freedom First” PAC in early November, granting him the opportunity to curry favor among the party faithful by raising and transferring sums of money to state and federal Republican candidates. After launching a website last week describing Pawlenty | Read More »
In the wake of the public furor over President Barack Obama’s pending speech to school children next Tuesday, defensive Democratic surrogates and administration officials have maintained the President’s address will be a valuable education tool and aims to challenge students to “work hard in school” and “meet short-term goals like behaving in class.” But the original prepatory material for Obama’s school house stump speech raised | Read More »
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