Tag Archives: White House

How Mitt Romney Blew It (Again)

Mitt Romney just blew his chances at the 2012 nomination by stubbornly insisting his disastrous Massachusetts health care plan was “the ultimate conservative plan.”

Did Rahm Emanuel Use Dana Milbank As An Amanuensis?

Well, that would be the question, now wouldn’t it?

Critics left and right are accusing Rahm Emanuel of disloyalty-by-proxy after a Dana Milbank column in Sunday’s Washington Post defended the White House chief of staff – while trashing reputed Emanuel rivals Valerie Jarrett and Robert Gibbs.

There’s not a shred of proof that Emanuel fed Milbank the Rahm-friendly intel included in the piece – or that he was the source of a tart comparison of President Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter. And in fact, Milbank said Monday in a live chat on the Post website that he didn’t speak to Emanuel for the piece.

“I didn’t talk to Rahm for this column, or for anything else recently. His people were also disinclined to help me with this column, out of fear of just the reaction that would occur: people would suggest he spoon fed it to me,” Milbank said.

Profits, Insurers, and Defunding Medicare Advantage

It seems clear enough that Democrats are trying to kill Medicare Advantage. But will they risk angering all of America’s Medicare-participating doctors with a huge pay cut? Not bloody likely. Look for Congress to postpone this year’s cuts in doctor payments soon, in the dead of night, but just too late to affect Medicare Advantage.

Dick Cheney’s Head Games

We all know that President Obama and his Administration are experts and playing things cool when lesser humans would be wracked with panic. After all, everyone in the press, along with his/her pet canary, tells us as much. But there is one person who is consistently able to take the Administration out of its comfort zone whenever he speaks up.

That person, of course, is former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Every time Cheney decides to speak out about current events–especially when it comes to the issue of foreign and national security policy–he is able to discombobulate the Obama Administration, which sends out an all-hands-on-deck message to its personnel to combat the former Vice President’s commentary. And yet, for whatever reason, it’s Cheney who usually comes out with the upper hand in any debate. Last year, when the Obama Administration was postponing the implementation of a troop surge policy on Afghanistan, Cheney very publicly accused the Administration of “dithering.” Team Obama was infuriated, but the message stuck. I suppose it should come as no surprise that the White House is obsessed with trying to push back against Cheney’s comments every time he makes a public statement. The former Vice…

What Will Make America Hire Again?

The President holds a jobs summit, but doesn’t invite the biggest actual producers of jobs — instead stacking the deck with people who believe there just hasn’t been enough government reallocation of taxpayer money. We’ll talk about the summit and the latest details of upheaval at General Motors in today’s edition of Coffee and Markets.

The White House Attacks Edmunds for Reaching Politically Uncomfortable Conclusion on Cash for Clunkers

Don’t you find it interesting the amount of effort this White House puts toward going out of its way to discredit its critics by name?

Creigh Deeds and the Revenge of the Son of Macaca

Attempting to follow the script of Jim Webb’s narrow win over George Allen in 2006, the Deeds campaign started floating around with visions of Macaca dancing in their heads. Three years in its wake, the lessons of the Macaca incident are about to take down another candidate. But this time, it’s the Democrat.

The Executive Pay Crackdown and Too Big to Fail Policy Explained

Today’s Coffee and Markets podcast focuses on the White House’s latest actions capping executive pay on Wall Street and an interesting take one blogger has on those troublesome Too Big to Fail policies.

The Significance Of Van Jones

My column is out.

Takeaway Lessons From The Van Jones Saga

Casting Van Jones out should have been an easy-as-pie call, but for some reason, his defenders decided to make the process harder than it should have been by trying to ignore his story, and then, trying to defend the indefensible.

Deficit Spending and the New American Economy

Today’s Coffee and Markets podcast focuses on the incredible nine trillion dollar deficit predictions of the OMB and the CBO released yesterday, and what they say about how the government has remade the American economy so significantly in the space of a year.

Michael Kinsley and Those Evil Lobbyists

Michael Kinsley took the occasion of the death of longtime Democratic Beltway lobbyist Anne Wexler to denounce that favorite scapegoat of political liberals: the influence of lobbyists in Washington. But Kinsley is not serious about the influence of lobbyists, because unaddressed in his diatribe is the actual source of their power in the first place.

- March 22, 2010 -

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