Tag Archives: Obama

In Washington, All Is Well

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The faces of Congressional leaders are hardly etched with joy, but they did manage to avert a fiscal crisis, even if only for a few months. [Credit: Bloomberg]

The faces of Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers are hard­ly etched with joy, but they did man­age to avert a fis­cal cri­sis, even if only for a few months. [Cred­it: Bloomberg]

Octo­ber 16, 2013, 6:00 am

All is well in Wash­ing­ton. The gov­ern­ment is spend­ing and bor­row­ing again. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Jon Corzine: Poster Boy for Crony Capitalism?

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President Obama unsuccessfully campaigned for Jon Corzine. Since then, nearly $1 billion in client money disappeared into the ether in a firm Corzine steered into bankruptcy.

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma unsuc­cess­ful­ly cam­paigned for Jon Corzine in 2009. Since then, near­ly $1 bil­lion in client mon­ey dis­ap­peared into the ether from a firm Corzine steered into bank­rupt­cy, but the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion con­clud­ed that Corzine com­mit­ted no crime.

Jon Corzine is not a crook. No, really.

The Jus­tice Department’s inves­ti­ga­tion of the for­mer Wall Street titan, New Jer­sey Gov­er­nor and U.S. Sen­a­tor con­clud­ed last sum­mer that he’d done noth­ing wrong. Or at least noth­ing crim­i­nal. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Congress’s Special Obamacare Deal To Be Extended to All Americans

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Embattled slugger Alex Rodriguez could end up benefiting from a forthcoming Obamacare announcement. [Credit: The Nation]

Embat­tled slug­ger Alex Rodriguez is among the mil­lions who could end up ben­e­fit­ing from a forth­com­ing Oba­macare announce­ment. [Cred­it: The Nation]

The Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion, which recent­ly announced that it would pro­vide Sen­a­tors and Con­gress­men with gen­er­ous gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies for their health insur­ance despite the fact that the Oba­macare law denies those sub­si­dies, is expect­ed to announce lat­er this week that it is extend­ing this spe­cial deal for Con­gress to all Amer­i­cans. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Fed Up: Judge Strikes Down Federal Reserve on Swipe Fees

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The Fed holds all the cards when it sets a policy. Nobody bothered telling that to a federal judge, who last week struck down a Fed regulation on debit card swipe fees.

The Fed holds all the cards when it sets pol­i­cy. Nobody both­ered telling that to a fed­er­al judge, who last week struck down a Fed reg­u­la­tion on deb­it card swipe fees.

When it comes to bailouts, mon­e­tary pol­i­cy, and bank­ing reg­u­la­tion, the Fed­er­al Reserve has the last word. No one – not the Pres­i­dent, not Con­gress, not any­one – stops the Fed from doing what it has deter­mined to do. Until last week. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How Washington Changed Obama

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Washington has changed the President's hair color, as it has with his predecessors. But the changes run deeper. [Credit: Post Chronicle]

Wash­ing­ton has changed the Pres­i­den­t’s hair col­or, as it did his pre­de­ces­sors’. But the changes it has made in him run deep­er. [Cred­it: Post Chronicle]

“So eight years ago, I came here to deliv­er the com­mence­ment address for the class of 2005. Things were a lit­tle dif­fer­ent back then. For exam­ple, I had no gray hair. Or a motor­cade. Didn’t even have a prompter.”

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Knox Col­lege, Gales­burg (IL), July 24, 2013

Many things have changed in the eight years that elapsed between Pres­i­dent Obama’s two Gales­burg address­es. But per­haps none of those things has changed as pro­found­ly as he. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Economic Inequality Not Obama’s Fault

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The "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations are a distant memory, but the economic disparities they decried still persist. [Credit: ABC News]

The “Occu­py Wall Street” demon­stra­tions are a dis­tant mem­o­ry, but the eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties they decried still per­sist. [Cred­it: ABC News]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma has a new plan to revi­tal­ize the mid­dle class.  It almost cer­tain­ly won’t work, but that almost cer­tain­ly isn’t his fault.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Egypt: It’s Not About Democracy

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Protesters crowded Tahrir Square in Cairo earlier this month to call for their President's ouster. The military obliged them. [Credit: Washington Times]

Pro­test­ers crowd­ed Tahrir Square in Cairo ear­li­er this month to call for their Pres­i­den­t’s ouster. The mil­i­tary oblig­ed them.  Is that the tri­umph of democ­ra­cy or just a mil­i­tary coup?  [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Times]

The Oba­ma pres­i­den­cy, now well into its fifth year, seems as flum­moxed by glob­al devel­op­ments as it did in its first. Egypt pro­vides the most recent exam­ple. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

John Feehery Guest Post: Leaders and Followers

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Photo of John Feehery


John Fee­hery is pres­i­dent of Quinn Gille­spie Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and spent 15 years work­ing in the House Repub­li­can lead­er­ship. He blogs at www.thefeeherytheory.com

At my gym, they put lit­tle inspi­ra­tional quotes up on the wall to get you to work out hard­er (that’s the the­o­ry, at least).

“Lead, fol­low, or get out of the way,” was last Tuesday’s quote, attrib­uted to the Marine’s hand­book, which was a rev­e­la­tion to me. I always thought that Lee Iacoc­ca was the man who first said that mem­o­rable phrase when he was try­ing to fix Chrysler.

This quote must haunt Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans on both sides of the Capi­tol dome. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Can You Hear Me Now? The Limits of Government Power

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The President assures us that no one is listening to our calls, but does that settle the debate?

The Pres­i­dent assures us that no one is lis­ten­ing to our calls, but does that set­tle the debate?

“Progress does not com­pel us to set­tle cen­turies-long debates about the role of gov­ern­ment for all time, but it does require us to act in our time. For now deci­sions are upon us and we can­not afford delay. We can­not mis­take abso­lutism for prin­ci­ple, or sub­sti­tute spec­ta­cle for pol­i­tics, or treat name-call­ing as rea­soned debate. We must act, know­ing that our work will be imper­fect. We must act.”

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Sec­ond Inau­gur­al Address, Jan­u­ary 21, 2013. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why It’s a Bad Time to Hold on to Holder

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AG Eric Holder may have to help POTUS dig out from under mounting scandals. Credit: theatlantic.com

AG Eric Hold­er may have to go to help POTUS dig out from under mount­ing scan­dals.
Cred­it: theatlantic.com

May 10 was sup­posed to be about health care and moms.  The White House mes­sage of the day was that the health care law is pro-moth­er­hood. The law’s detrac­tors, with their “polit­i­cal bick­er­ing,” “tall tales,” and “polit­i­cal games,” are, by impli­ca­tion, against motherhood.

The Pres­i­dent deliv­ered this mes­sage two days before Moth­ers Day at a White House event. But his mes­sage nev­er did get out. Con­tin­ue read­ing →