Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Obamacare’s Two Americas

March 11, 2010 – 12:16 pm

Here’s the worst thing you probably haven’t heard about President Barack Obama’s health care plan: it makes everything onetime vice presidential nominee John Edwards once said about the class divide of “two Americas” come true.

By Ben Domenech | Posted in Blogs, Features, The Whip | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments

Trade Follies

March 11, 2010 – 7:06 am

More people should be outraged over the fact that the Obama Administration has settled into a default protectionist stance on the issue of trade. Restricting trade will do nothing whatsoever to improve our economy; if anything, protectionism only increases the chances that we will experience a double-dip recession. And yet, the Obama Administration does not seem to be willing to do anything in order to further the process of trade liberalization.

Building an economic Fortress America has never brought us prosperity in the past. It is impossible to see how it will bring us anything resembling prosperity in the future. And it is impossible to see how an administration that says it is committed to improving the economy could be taken seriously when it allows protectionism to run rampant in U.S. trade policy.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments

Good For John Roberts

March 9, 2010 – 11:35 pm

I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that if, hypothetically, George W. Bush criticized the Supreme Court Justices to their faces over a ruling that they made–and failed to explain that ruling properly in the process–he would have been excoriated by the pundit class. There is no reason, therefore, why Barack Obama should have been spared criticism by pundits, even though he played the role of George W. Bush in my hypothetical.

Fortunately, there has been pushback. Even if most pundits were unwilling to take on the White House over this issue, Chief Justice Roberts has decided to speak out. May his example encourage others, and discourage further White House bullying of the Supreme Court on this and other issues.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments

The Further Limits Of Rahmism

March 9, 2010 – 7:14 am

I see that a great many people are discussing this profile of Rahm Emanuel by Peter Baker. As profiles go, it is a good one. But a central point emerging from the profile needs to be emphasized.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , | Comments

President Obama’s Friendships With World Leaders

March 8, 2010 – 10:31 pm

I am not one of those who believes that we will see a much more persuasive U.S. foreign policy merely by having Barack Obama buddy up to other world leaders. Nation-states make their decisions primarily and overwhelmingly via a cold-eyed examination of their long term strategic interests, and irrespective of the President’s personal relationships with other world leaders, the countries those leaders lead will decide to ally–or not ally–with the United States on various issues by looking at factors that have nothing whatsoever to do with personal relationships with the President of the United States.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , | Comments

Who’s In? Who’s Out? Who Cares?

March 8, 2010 – 8:50 pm

At this point, it really doesn’t matter whether Rahm Emanuel will go, or David Axelrod, or Valerie Jarrett, or Robert Gibbs, or some combination of the four. What really matters is the fact that “No Drama Obama” is now anything but.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments

It’s Not Rain, It’s Not Snow, And It’s Not Sleet . . .

March 7, 2010 – 2:14 am

But finances may cause the U.S. Postal Service to end Saturday deliveries. Over at his blog, Eric Zorn facetiously argues that we ought to get all of our mail on Saturdays, with every other day being mail-free. Of course, that argument is ridiculous, but perhaps only just barely ridiculous; it is difficult to imagine a monopoly as useless and value-less as the one that the Postal Service currently “enjoys.”

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments

Government Estimates Ridiculously Wrong. Things Worse Than Originally Thought. Film At Eleven.

March 6, 2010 – 11:32 am

Remind me once again why I was supposed to think that government could effectively administer a public option for health care. As we can see, it can’t even competently manage its own finances:

A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.

The agency says its future-year predictions of tax revenues are more pessimistic than the administration’s. That’s because CBO projects slightly slower economic growth than the White House.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments

Of Epic Fails And The KSM Trial

March 5, 2010 – 12:01 am

The mother of all walk-backs:

President Obama’s advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president’s advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some alleged terrorists in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments

Yes, Yes, A Week’s A Long Time In Politics, Etc. . . .

March 4, 2010 – 7:16 pm

But that doesn’t mean we can’t take note of the developing trend lines:

Embattled incumbents with ethics problems. Allegations of sexual harassment leading to a competitive open seat. Dems have seen this movie before — only last time, it happened to the other guys.

Now, a beleaguered Dem majority has to hope their party can withstand a building wave that favors the GOP, and that effort isn’t made any easier by countless, and mounting, self-inflicted errors.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments

Obama’s Four GOP Ideas Myth

March 4, 2010 – 3:29 pm

A closer look at the actual details of these ideas, however, shows that the White House has done very little indeed – and while it would be nice to say otherwise, the reality is that what President Obama is offering to Republicans is not an olive branch, but a rather insulting joke.

By Ben Domenech | Posted in Blogs, Features, The Whip | Also tagged , , , | Comments

The Ultimate Insider

March 4, 2010 – 1:56 pm

It may indeed “make sense” for Barack Obama to pose as an outside-the-Beltway type of figure, as Ron Fournier indicates, but anyone who buys the idea of the President of the United States being some kind of a leader of the revolt against an establishment–especially an establishment that has his own party control both chambers of Congress–deserves to get swindled at the polls.

By Pejman Yousefzadeh | Posted in Chequer-Board | Also tagged , , , , | Comments
- March 20, 2010 -

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