Even the most jaded political observer can take one thing from Obama’s term thus far: he knows harmony. This shouldn’t be a shock, since his campaign platform was as much about “hope” and idealism as it was about bipartisanship and finding mutual interests. But, then again, idealists are often closet ideologues, and bipartisanship can be [...]
Entries Tagged as 'obama'
Ain’t No Party Like a Tea Party
April 8th, 2010 1 Comment
While the tea party rally in Milwaukee was much milder than those making headlines, it did offer an interesting perspective of this social movement that is, according to Chairman Mark Williams, “sweeping” the nation.
Prior to 2010, the tea party protests had a narrow focus. In 2009 they protested the TARP Bailout Bill and mainly focused [...]
Tags: obama · sarah palin · tea party
Cooking the Sausage
March 31st, 2010 No Comments
Research has shown that there is a strong correlation between the health of the economy and “trust” in government. Unemployment, GDP growth, foreclosures rates and economic boons may lead people to believe in their government more than lack of corruption scandals or unsavory politicians. This makes perfect sense. As James Carville used to remind Governor [...]
Tags: approval numbers · healthcare · obama
ObamaCare Part II: Push, Pull or Drag it to the Finish Line.
February 25th, 2010 No Comments
A certain someone asked me a few months ago whether I thought Obama was really a liberal president. Of course I answered yes. He then asked what Obama had done so far in office to make me think that. After my usual sch-peel of, “well, what has he done period?” I listed a few minor [...]
Tags: bipartisanship · democrats · health care · obama · republicans
(Un)Clear Messages: How Obama is Losing Control of his Narrative
February 17th, 2010 No Comments
When Reverend Wright saturated the airwaves and Youtubeways in early 2008, many thought the Obama campaign was about to derail just as it gained its momentum. It ended up being one of the defining moments of his campaign for the presidency. The quiet, potentially unwieldy, elephant in the room was about to take center stage: [...]
Is Obama a One Hit Wonder?
February 4th, 2010 1 Comment
Obama was voted into office because he was different than the average candidate. He had the ability to enthuse the American people with his charming rhetoric and inspirational message of change. In a time when the economy was sinking, job loss was skyrocketing and the country was at war Obama was able to offer hope [...]
Tags: gop · obama · scott brown · State of the union
Question Time Comes to America
January 30th, 2010 1 Comment
If you have, oh, 60 or so minutes to spare, I give you one of the most engrossing, and compelling piece of political theater I have seen in quite some time.
After delivering his State of the Union Address on Wednesday, President Obama visited GOP leaders to talk about the issues on Friday. What was meant [...]
Tags: gop · obama · question time
Old Posts, Renewed
January 29th, 2010 No Comments
Here are some most posts, taken from the Archives, that are worth reading for the first time or revisiting for all the good times you had the first time. Enjoy.
Obama kills at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
LGBT group call out Obama on Defense of Marriage Act brief
Vanity Fair’s Palin profile
500 words on: Caring about Michael Jackson’s [...]
Tags: gay marriage · lgbt · michael jackson · obama · sarah palin
Rethinking Illegal Immigration
January 5th, 2010 1 Comment
In the first half of the 19th century, Horace Mann dedicated himself to the Common School movement. Providing free, open, and accessible schools across the country was the great equalizer, the “the balance wheel of the social machinery.” Thomas Jefferson was an early, but unsuccessful (twice in his home state of Virginia), advocate of what [...]
Tags: education · horace mann · immigration · inflation · obama
Old Posts, Renewed
December 18th, 2009 No Comments
Here are some most posts, taken from the Archives, that are worth reading for the first time or revisiting for all the good times you had the first time. Enjoy.
Deconstructing Obama’s Speechwriting
Do we need another Ferdinand Pecora to put the rich on trial?
Bittman on our diets, our world, and out future
Dating during a recession
Tags: bittman · dating · ferdinand pecora · food politics · obama · recession · rich · speech
Obama’s Nobel Prize speech and the necessity of Just War
December 14th, 2009 No Comments
There was hardly any single way President Obama could accept the Nobel Peace prize successfully. His harshest critics are his compatriots, people who should be proud that their president is being honored on the world stage, but instead are ridiculing the prize and process. So when Obama accepted his prize on Wednesday in Oslo there [...]
Tags: afghanistan · just war · michael walzer · nobel peace prize · obama · reinhold niebuhr
Obama in 2008 Op-Ed: “More” In Afghanistan
December 1st, 2009 No Comments
He’s never painted himself as a pacifist. You’d know that if you read your print media.
From a NYTimes Op-Ed from July 14th, 2008:
As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and [...]
Tags: afghanistan · nytimes · obama
The liberal agenda needs unity
December 1st, 2009 3 Comments
Back in 2003, on the eve of the Iraq War, protests blanketed the world. San Francisco, DC, Paris, London, Sydney, Berlin. On that particular day, anti-war protesters united to send a clear message to George W. Bush: No Iraq War!
Actually, it was hardly clear or united. Interspersed amongst the Iraq war protesters were those chanting [...]
Tags: bush · conservative · democrats · liberal · obama
Sexy Pretty Political Things
November 17th, 2009 No Comments
Sarah Palin and I agree on one thing: the need to promote healthy eating (eating what you kill) and exercising (killing what you eat). On everything else, I feel her politics are all shine, no substance. What will make me note-worthy? What will get me headlines? Drilling into a national reserve? OK!
But there is something [...]
Tags: kennedy · obama · political culture · sarah palin · sex appeal
Biggest Tuesday since the last Biggest Tuesday
November 4th, 2009 2 Comments
People shouldn’t care about voting in off-years, right? Tell that to Maine voters who gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed; or upper New York Republicans voting with a Democrat that was more in line with their values; or recently blue Virginia wondering how blue they wanted to be. Yesterday’s results may not have wide ramifications for [...]
Tags: corzine · democrats · gay marriage · hoffman · new jersey · new york · obama · republicans · virginia
Where’s the Cabinet?
October 28th, 2009 No Comments
If you’ve ever read a White House memoir, or a book on what goes on inside this or that administration (typically by Bob Woodward), you know president’s often have a peculiar view of their cabinets.
These people, who were handpicked, either happily or not so much, by the president, were originally marginal figures, with as much [...]
Tags: bush · cabinet · hillary clinton · nixon · obama · timothy geithner
Why Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize
October 9th, 2009 No Comments
Essentially, it’s not about past achievements, but future implications:
As Francis Sejersted, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the 1990s, once proudly admitted, “The prize … is not only for past achievement. … The committee also takes the possible positive effects of its choices into account [because] … Nobel wanted the prize to have political [...]
Tags: nobel peace prize · obama
Obama’s Style of Political Leadership
September 22nd, 2009 No Comments
photocredit: sburke2478
Go to a newsstand, a TV, a blog, or even your local laundromat, and you will find Obama’s face. He just came off doing five Sunday morning show interviews (what is called “The Full Ginsburg”–google it), dropping by The Late Show with David Letterman, and stopping time a bit by delivering a heckle-worthy speech, [...]
Tags: leadership · obama
Obama’s helmetless ways draw fire
August 28th, 2009 No Comments
Just when you thought the level of political discourse was elevated, someone has to knock it back down.
Obama’s helmetless ride around Martha’s Vineyard has drawn ire from those with too much time on their laptops. Instead of dissecting every shred of behavior the president shows, how about seeing this for what it is: a dude [...]
Tags: obama
