Obama, Biden, and the Threat to American Greatness.  Nearly all great nations come to an end, noted the famed historian, Arnold Toynbee.  America is no different.  Whether we care to acknowledge it or not, American greatness is threatened.  Our possible demise was accelerated by Barack Obama, a man who had neither the experience, intelligence, nor ideological commitment to America to lead it.  Obama did not comprehend the simple fact that great nations do not bluff.  The colossal red line fiasco in Syria spoke volumes to our adversaries.  When the green revolution emerged on the streets of Tehran, Obama did nothing.  When the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt showed that its conception of democracy was one person, one vote, one time, and was overthrown by a spontaneous outpouring of millions into the streets of Cairo, Obama's reaction was to attempt to bring back the Muslim Brotherhood.  With the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran agreement, Obama sought to let Iran develop a nuclear weapon at the expense of America's traditional allies, the Sunni Arabs and Israel.  The JCPOA was never about Iran not getting the bomb, but only about delaying it. [...] If there were a foreign policy decision to be made that would be injurious to both America's security and its standing in the world, Obama made it.  America had found its Manchurian Candidate.

Democracy Dies In Trivia.  Gratifying our feelings rather than our reason was most obvious in the rise of Barack Obama.  "The One" succeeded in becoming the most powerful leader on the planet despite being a political tyro with a poorly attended single term in the Senate, a negligently vetted candidate with a Swiss-cheese personal biography and a stable of unsavory associates like "free as a bird" terrorist Bill Ayers and [...] racist Jeremiah Wright, and a zombie leftist of the sort produced for decades by our decaying universities.  And Obama did so not just because of the duplicitous rhetoric of "unity" and "moderation" typical of all candidates, but because of the racial melodrama of white guilt and redemption promised by his light skin, lack of a "negro accent," as Joe Biden put it, and photogenic smile and family the media made as ubiquitous as McDonalds.  That's all it took for the worst president since World War II to get elected twice.

Left comes to grips with Obama's failure.  [Scroll down]  His ties to terrorists were airbrushed, as were his drug use, his college transcripts, and even his birth certificate.  He was, as they say in Texas, a post turtle, which is a creature that is on top of the fence post but has no idea how he got there.  While Obama filled out his NCAA brackets, Valerie Jarrett ran the government, turning law enforcement and the intelligence services into spies and plants in political campaigns.  Really, you think that Obama did this only to Trump?

Who Has More Privilege Than Barack Obama?  Obama was not born into substantial wealth, but his family on both sides was well connected, providing a traditional advantage that allowed him entry into elite society.  This old-style leg up then combined with modern leftist ethnic-racial privileges, overwhelmingly present in academia and the media, to advance Obama at every turn.  This created a powerful cocktail of built-in benefits that gave Obama almost every conceivable benefit of the doubt while at the same time allowing him to claim victim status.  More than anything else, it is this dynamic that explains his rise and his selfishness.  It also clarifies Obama's heavy narcissism, bullying behavior, and utter lack of graciousness.  Without these privileges, Obama gets nowhere.

I'm sick of the media puppets.  I continually ask leftists to list Obama's domestic and foreign policy achievements, and I have yet to see a list.  They would probably list the Iran deal, the pretend Paris agreement, and Obamacare.  I believe that those are all unmitigated disasters.  When Hillary was running, we repeatedly heard from reporters that she was the most qualified person ever to run, and yet I never saw a list of foreign policy accomplishments of hers, either.

Time to admit, Obama failed.  President Trump has this ability to show people for who they are.  He outed much of the conservative commentariat as the insincere opportunists they are.  The Never Trump movement succeeded only in self-purging conservatism of its flakes and fakes.  But the real moment of clarity in the first Year of the Trump comes as America realizes just how incompetent and phony Barack Obama was.

Obama's Incompetence And Chaos Far Eclipsed What's Coming From Team Trump.  Many in the media are warning that President Donald Trump is incompetent and doesn't know what he's doing. [...] This isn't the first president to face claims of incompetence.  Sometimes they're right and sometimes not.  Such charges were made against Barack Obama, and most were warranted, coming not only from Republicans but Democrats.  In November 2010, Joe Scarborough reported that several Democratic senators had told him they thought Obama was out of his league.  "Democrats in Washington have been horrified by this president's handling of things for a year and a half now," Scarborough said.  "The top Democrats in the United States Senate have all told me individually, 'This guy has no idea what he's doing.'"

Trump and Science.  [President Obama] politicized science to advance his agenda.  His scientific appointees in the White House, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration were distinguished by their progressive ideology, not the quality of their research.  They used junk science — or no science — to justify misbegotten crusades against dietary salt, trans fats, and electronic cigarettes.  They cited phony statistics to spread myths about a gender pay gap and a rape crisis on college campuses.  Ignoring mainstream climate scientists, they blamed droughts and storms on global warming and then tried to silence critics who pointed out their mistakes.

Poll: Obama worst prez since WWII.  A plurality of voters think Barack Obama is the worst president since World War II, a new poll says.  According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday [11/9/2016], 33 percent of voters think the current president is the worst since 1945.

The Wholesale Failure of American Foreign Policy.  One has to wonder just how much longer the American people will silently permit the categorical failure of American foreign policy, both in theory and in practice.  The evidence confirming the totality of our failure is breathtaking in scope and severity.  Changes are needed to preserve U.S. national security and economic prosperity.  Recent headlines have captured the character of this failure.

The Federal Failure to Counter Jihad.  With the incidents of the past two months, ranging from San Bernardino to Merced to Rochester, we now know that we are essentially unprotected from terrorist attacks.  What San Bernardino amounted to is that government fumbled the ball and then refused to pick it up.  Every single error made on the federal level concerning terror since the first inauguration of Barack Obama came to a head, from encouraging Muslim immigration to enabling terrorists to enter the country to crippling security investigations in the name of PC.  The federal government has unilaterally broken a basic element of the social contract — that the citizen will give up private use of violence and support the government in exchange for protection.  That protection is no longer forthcoming.  Both the military and police have given up any pretense of attempting to control Islamic terrorism.  Homeland Defense was founded to create a new basis for a public employee's union.  It fulfills that role admirably.  It does nothing else.

In an increasingly dangerous world, Obama has checked out as commander in chief.  [O]n several recent big issues, President Obama has not taken the challenging, but necessary step up to the plate to demonstrate why America needs to lead in the world.  His actions instead seem to suggest that we can lead from behind, which goes against everything that our country has stood for in the past.  The best example of this is President Obama's utter failure to address the danger that ISIS presents to the United States.  Their sickening attacks in Paris are still fresh in our mind, but it is important to note that just hours before the terrorists attacked the city, President Obama said that ISIS was "contained" and "on the run."  Following the attacks, instead of stepping forward and adopting an aggressive strategy to take the fight to ISIS, the president deferred and continued to give off the impression that our current strategy to combat radical Islamic terrorism is working.  His response showed that he is either delusional to the real threat ISIS presents our nation or he is simply incapable of providing authentic leadership for the sake of the country and the globe.

The Death of a Bad Idea.  Under the duress of mounting evidence, the president was forced to abandon his euphemisms and denials, to admit that we were under attack from terrorists, and that the ideas and motivations of those terrorists arose from Islam.  To be sure, there were the usual hemmings and hawings, but the very fact that he was forced to drop these few little crumbs of truth to a populace hungry for moral leadership is proof that his underlying philosophy — the underlying philosophy of his administration and of his political party — is in ruins.  This doesn't mean Obama will abandon that philosophy.  He can't.  It has given him everything he has.  It's the reason he was promoted so far above his competence, the reason he was elevated to a power he does not have the first idea how to use effectively.

If not overnight, when?  President Obama has done great damage to to the rule of law, to American national security, to race relations, and to our health care system.  We are mired in an era of pitiful economic growth that feels like stagnation.  He has vastly expanded government dependency, but he counts this an accomplishment.  Obamacare is a Rube Goldberg contraption of untold destruction.  It's hard to assess where Obama has done the most damage.  The damage may not be irreparable, but it won't be repaired any time soon.

Guest Writer Says Obama 'Should Be Forced to Resign'.  [Scroll down]  If we were to judge our 44 presidents by their failures and their accomplishments, several would receive very low grades.  Barack Obama would be the only one to receive a grade of less than zero.  He has been, by far, the worst president in American history.  And if we stop to consider the damage that has been done, globally, by radical Islam in just a matter of months, imagine the damage that an embittered Obama can be expected to do in the remaining 14 months of his presidency.  For the good of the people, he should be forced to resign.

It's Barack Obama's Cloud Cuckoo-Land and We Just Live In It.  It's easy to despise Barack Hussein Obama, perhaps the least qualified man ever to accede to the Oval Office.  The empty resume, the imaginary biographies, the laziness, the arrogance, the profligacy with the public treasury, the weakness, the cowardice and the cringing servility when dealing with America's enemies abroad:  his six years as president of the United States — a presidency we will all look back upon someday with wonder, shame and national embarrassment — have been as disastrous and harmful as some of us predicted at the time.  The man is a disgrace.

Could It Possibly Get Any Worse?  The U.S. has its lowest labor participation rate since women went to work.  The middle class is consistently losing ground.  Race relations in the U.S. seem to have gone backwards fifty years in the last six, African Americans overwhelmed with victimology and picking on cops before there is any evidence.  Critics of the president are constantly accused of racism.  Seventy percent of black children are born out of wedlock.  No one trusts the word of the president because he has lied so frequently about everything from health care to Benghazi. [...] The U.S. Army is falling apart with only 12 of 37 brigades combat ready.  Our Navy is disappearing.  Al Qaeda is NOT on the run.  Just the opposite — it's everywhere.

The Obama Bomb.  Some regard the president as a typical academic, with neither military nor business experience; in fact, only 8% of his cabinet, senior staff and advisers have hands-on experience in commerce and industry, strangers to job-creating and productive labor.  This figure represents the lowest percentage among the last nineteen presidents, whose administrations averaged slightly over 46%.  (Reagan's clocked in at 56%.) Trained in critical race theory, animated by a collegial leftist bent, and proficient mainly at emitting high-sounding phrases and pseudo-scholarly platitudes without any purchase on reality, Obama may well be the least qualified person ever elected to the presidency in modern times.

No More Affirmative Action Presidents.  Human beings of every background are imperfect creatures.  When they are in a position high enough for their imperfections to bring disasters to more than 300 million Americans, the last thing we need is to stifle criticism of what they do.  It is by no means guaranteed that this country will survive the long-run consequences of the disastrous decisions already made by Barack Obama, especially his pretense of stopping Iran's becoming a nuclear power.  Obama may no longer be in office when those chickens come home to roost.  If we wake up some morning and find some American city in radioactive ruins, will we connect the dots and see this as a consequence of voting to elect an unknown and untried man, for the sake of racial symbolism?

How the Left Treats Obama Like a Child.  The Tea Party — stockholders in America — have a right to ask questions of the Chief Executive of America without being called racists. [...] If Obama were the CEO of a private-sector company, his actions would at the very least get him drug-tested.  As a former management consultant to some of the world's largest corporations, I don't know a single former client who wouldn't have fired Obama in the second year of his tenure.

The End of Barry Obama.  The president of the United States, a fraud from the beginning, with a diffuse, unfocused, crippled mind, has implemented the greatest confusion and most dangerous political circumstances in our modern history.  It is all completely unnecessary.  When we sincerely assesses his influence, when we are left to choose between incompetence, immaturity, inexperience or just stupidity on the one hand, and studied denigration of all things American — including the people, on the other, we know we have an enemy in the White House — as well as a very ignorant, uninformed, racist populace.  In the case of the present White House occupier, we have a clownish, foolish pretender with lethal power to destroy.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2018 by Andrew K. Dart

Obama digs up dead tax hikes.  Once again, Barack Obama proposes to raise job-killing taxes on a weakening economy, one that has all but stopped growing under his 1930s-style policies.  In a confused presidency whose policies have zigged and zagged more times than the stock market, Mr. Obama can't seem to decide what his policy should be, changing its direction and its prescriptions from one year to the next or, more aptly, from one political strategy to another as his job-approval polls have continued to plunge.

Obama team's twitter trap.  The purportedly internet-savvy Obama team has fallen into a Twitter trap, and it can't get out.  The AttackWatch.com snitch website, already the butt of jokes, is the subject of endless mockery on Twitter, thanks to the site's creation of a so-called hashtag on Twitter (#attackwatch), enabling anyone interested in following the subject to receive tweets which carry the hashtag.  Best of all, the hashtag cannot be revoked, or controlled by Team Barry.  It is out there, and they can do nothing about it.

Update:
Is @AttackWatch all watched up?  The Twitter feed has been silent now for nearly three weeks, and the website hasn't been updated for the same amount of time.

Barack's Presidential Protocol Bloopers.  [Scroll down]  Not only did the President break with protocol, but as the other 29 leaders in the photo all stood with their hands at their sides or clasped in front of them, Obama looked like he was doing a dry run of the oath of office he thinks he'll be taking when he's sworn in as President of the Planet.  The completely self-absorbed Barack waved to his fans, and in so doing completely blocked the face of Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, the president of Mongolia, from the picture.

A Frivolously Destructive Presidency.  Obama's presidency lurches from fad to fad — from gays in the military to "green jobs" to the "Buffett rule."  Hyped as a profound presidency, it has turned out to be an embarrassingly frivolous one.  Sober historians of the future, not cowed by political correctness, will no doubt look back and say that Obama fiddled while America burned, indulging his sophomoric socialism, environmentalism, and social engineering at a time of terrorism and economic crisis.

Fox News Poll: Majority Says as a CEO, Obama Would Have Been Fired.  If Barack Obama were president of a major U.S. company, he'd be fired by now.  That's what American voters think — by a 52-38 percent margin.  Fifty-six percent of independents think a corporation's board of directors would have already handed Obama his pink slip.  Nearly a quarter of Democrats also believe Obama would be out (23 percent).

A Quick Question.  Even if he wins a second term in the White House, [Obama will] be only 55 years old when he leaves office.  Will he found and run a health-insurance company?  How about a 'green' energy firm?  Or will he, perhaps, found and run a firm specializing in offering middle- and low-income Americans better and more fully disclosed access to consumer credit?  Will he create a successful automobile firm?  I'll bet (seriously) a good deal of money that he'll do none of these things.  He'll not even try.  And for good reason: ... He knows no more about the economic matters upon which he pronounces than does a soap-opera actor portraying a physician know about cardiology or obstetrics.

Energy Department Official in Charge of Solyndra Loan Program to Step Down.  The director of the controversial loan program that cleared the way for a $535 million taxpayer guarantee to bankrupt solar firm Solyndra is stepping down, the Energy Department confirmed Thursday.  Jonathan Silver, head of the Loan Programs Office, plans to join the organization Third Way as a "distinguished visiting fellow."  The career change comes in the middle of heavy scrutiny from Congress over the department's handling of the Solyndra agreement.

The Editor says...
One minor scapegoat is not enough.  Somebody higher up needs to step down, too.

The Obama Problem.  Obama was all hype and no substance.  That realization has dawned on voters, resulting in horrendous polling.  Richard Nixon was never liked, but he was at least thought competent.  Obama was liked but never competent.  Now Obama is living proof of the old adage that familiarity breeds contempt.  He is neither liked nor competent.  Even the hapless Jimmy Carter did not attain that status.

One Obamacare Disaster Averted, Lots More To Go.  Just about every conservative critic of Obamacare pointed to the irrational design of the CLASS Act before the legislation's enactment.  In fact, the administration's own CMS actuary said it would never work.  He was ignored by his employers not because they disagreed with him, but because they needed to pretend their legislation would reduce the deficit. ... Of course, administration officials can't acknowledge that they always knew the program's finances could never work, so rather than admit to cynicism they are pleading incompetence.  And who knows, maybe they really are that incompetent.

Birth Certificate Makes Slim Pickings for Obama Presidential Library.  The most memorable and historic quote from John F. Kennedy is, "Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country."  Barack Obama doesn't own a quote.  He simply does not own one.  There are two legs under the stool of President Obama's domestic and foreign policies:  blame George W. Bush for all the ills of the Universe, and spend an unfathomable amount of money.

Obama's Unbroken String of Failures.  The final thing to say about the CLASS Act collapse is that it is the latest monument to the remarkable ineptitude of the Obama administration.  We have seen examples of its incompetence time and time again, including (a) the administration's promise unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if the stimulus package was passed; (b) the president's admission that "shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected"; (c) Vice President Biden's claim that we would see 500,000 new jobs created during last year's "recovery summer"; (d) insisting that the bankrupt company Solyndra was a model for the Obama "green jobs" agenda; (e) the lethal missteps surrounding Operation Fast and Furious; (f) the president's commitment to close Guantanamo Bay within a year after taking office; (g) the ...

The Worst President Since Before the Civil War.  Three years ago, the people of the United States elected someone who has turned out to be the worst president since the pre-Civil War era.  Barack Obama, whether in economic matters, domestic affairs or international relations, has been an abject failure and has severely jeopardized the future of the American people.

Where in the world is Obama?  Throughout his term, President Obama has avoided leading on the issue of fiscal responsibility.  He walked away from his own commission, the one led by former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, when he found its report filled with inconvenient choices.  Now in a week when leadership is needed to push this critical committee to do something big and bring the nation's fiscal house back into order, the president once again disappears.

No Gold Medals for Obama.  President Obama does not seem to have a credible plan, and even if he did, he seems incapable of working patiently toward a goal.  Half the time, it seems, the President is on the golf course, shooting hoops with his buddies on the White House court, or vacationing on Martha's Vineyard with billionaires.  When he is not horsing around, Obama is out campaigning.  That doesn't leave much time for shepherding the country through one of the worst economic periods in history.  Even when he is not golfing or making speeches, the president does not seem to be making much of an effort.

Tina Brown: Obama Doesn't Know How To Do His Job.  Obama cheerleaders are finally realizing that they elected the most under-accomplished man to ever hold the office.  A former community organizer with no school transcripts, a man who abandoned his senate seat and constituents barely halfway through his term so he could run for the presidency, a man with absolutely zero executive or private sector experience.

New docs show Fast and Furious was going to be used to justify gun control measures.  Fast and Furious appears to be a bottomless pit of breathtaking stupidity and inexplicable incompetence.  To use a program that the ATF knew was killing people to gain crass political advantage in a debate over gun control is just mind boggling — until you remember who is running the country.

Did someone mention the Fast and Furious scandal again?

Time's up for Obama.  President Obama is horrible at governing.  He's not bad, though, at moving goalposts.  The stimulus was supposed to "save or create" a bazillion jobs.  When the jobs on the "create" side of the ledger were smaller than predicted, the administration did away with the term and started using jobs "funded."  That, of course, includes numerous pre-existing jobs (including part-time ones) at every company or government entity that received stimulus money.  In the debt ceiling debate this past summer, the White House initially agreed to a target of $800 billion in new revenue.  When House Republicans put out a plan to reach that figure, the White House raised the bar to $1.2 trillion.  Now the President who gave himself one term to fix the economy is asking for another four years to complete the job.

Welcome to Texas!  Campaigning in Kansas today, President Obama momentarily forgot which of the 57 states he was in.  But that was just a slip of the tongue.  The really dumb thing he said is that the internet is causing unemployment. ... This is one more reminder — as if we needed it — that President Obama has no understanding of the economy.

Obama's Not Changing His Spots.  Here is a man who was swept into the presidency with the thinnest résumé of any in the nation's history — one who many believe is in reality a "front" for shadowy special interests like George Soros and who knows whom else, public service labor unions, and crony capitalist backers (think, for instance, Jeff Immelt of General Electric).  When "The One" mesmerized voters with oratory and slogans, he hadn't much of a record on which to be judged — and much of that was murky and hidden from public view. ... But now there is a record — and it's a very bad one.  From the January in which Obama took office until right now, his has been a totally failed presidency.

Obama's Chance at a Two-Term Presidency.  I believe that Obama is an incompetent, overly self-confident, narcissistic, hardcore leftist ideologue who is dragging America toward a cliff similar to the one off which most of the countries of Western Europe are plunging.  I hope, but am not confident, that most of America recognizes this.

Man publishes book of 200 blank pages: 'Everything Obama Knows About The Economy'.  It didn't take very long for Jimmy Moncrief to put together his new 200-page book, "Everything Obama Knows About The Economy."  Every page of the book is blank.

Obama's Top Boners of 2011.  Calculate the man-hours that went into presenting to Congress a budget that didn't muster even one vote in the Senate.  If that didn't cry out that Obama is a one-term president, certainly the rest of the year's events did.  The question that I have for the political geniuses at the White House is:  "After getting elected primarily on the strength of the financial crisis, how could you be so ignorant of fiscal issues?"

Obama's Poverty Politics.  Barack Obama's manifold failures over the last three years have left him in a political tough spot as we enter 2012.  He will have a challenging time running on a record that has resulted in massive unemployment, stagnant income growth, a record number of people on food stamps, and a gargantuan level of debt that Americans will be paying off for decades after Obama has retired to the golf courses of Hawaii.

Obama's Record Has A Deep Scratch In It.  Supposedly a forward looking progressive, Obama proved to be America's first backward looking regressive.  His first act was to increase federal borrowing, the national debt and the deficit by nearly a trillion dollars to finance a supposed "stimulus" package, based on the discredited Keynesian theory left for dead 30 years ago holding that increased government spending, deficits and debt are what promote economic growth and recovery.  That theory arose in the 1930s as the answer to the Great Depression, which, of course, never worked.

Brazil Stiffs Obama on Oil Deal, Exposing President's Incompetence.  Obama's policy in regard to oil and gas has been a study in incompetence driven by an ideological mania against hydrocarbon fuel in favor of more politically correct forms of energy production.  This has not only led to what amounts to a campaign against oil and gas production in the U.S., but embarrassing scandals such as Solyndra, brought on by unwise federal loan guarantees to dubious green energy companies.  This is occurring at a time when Iran is threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world's oil passes from Persian Gulf fields.

The truly dismal state of the union.  There is one person — one American among the 300 million of us — who is not to blame for the state of the union.  Everyone else, each of you, in some small or large way, bears some share of the blame, but not this guy.  Not one little bit.

Project Obama: A Puppetmaster or a Puppet?  [Scroll down]  His limp-wristed demeanor, more typical of a world-weary courtier than a king, bespeaks indolence rather than energy.  What we know about his schedule is certainly no evidence of a workaholic.  Endless hours spent on the links, a net of three months over the last three years, so that his caddy has far more face time with the president than any member of his cabinet.  Frequent, prolonged vacations in posh spots.  Regular, come-hell-or-high-water parties at the White House, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.  Sybaritic habits and expensive tastes in food (Wagyu beef, which sells for upwards of $150 per pound, is said to be a particular favorite) matching his spouse's exorbitant taste in clothes.

Obama, Democrats Own Syria Failure.  The fact that the United States has been forced to close its embassy in Syria today — for safety reasons, not in protest, let it be noted — is the most tangible proof yet of the failure of Barack Obama's foreign policy.

Religion burns Obama again.  It's a problem that previously has popped up in controversies over Israel, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and even Obama's 2008 comments about people holding on to "guns and religion."  "It almost appears that every time he tries to steer clear of [the intersection of politics and religion], he steps right into it," said Susan MacManus, a professor of political science at the University of South Florida.  "He's trying not to call attention to it and then he finds himself in the middle of it."

How Obama Makes Decisions.  [Scroll down]  This refusal to do the homework necessary to make good decisions is worrisome on several levels.  It led to not only legislation being outsourced to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, but also to foreign policy decisions that seem to come from either the Arab League or the United Nations, or from some sudden inspiration of his disconnect from reality.

Gasoline Prices and Dollar Prices.  Surging gasoline prices are back in the news, and President Obama shows his concern for Americans by doing what he does best.  He gave a speech.  Happy now?

Another Obama fundraiser turns out to be a bad ambassador.  Candidate Barack Obama promised to end the time-honored American practice of appointing ambassadors who have no experience in foreign policy, but President Obama has completely ignored that promise, appointing fundraisers to dozens of ambassadorships all over the world.  Today, the State Department revealed that another fundraiser turned ambassador ran her embassy into the ground ... only to return to fundraising and leave the State Department to pick up the pieces.

Here Comes Obama's 3 AM Phone Call.  On or about April 1 of 2012, that 3 AM phone call will reach the White House.  We know what it will be — which is itself a sign of stunning incompetence in this White House.  None of this information should ever be public.  Ever.  But this administration has chosen its Secretary of Defense to publicly leak the most closely guarded secret of Israel's back-against-the-wall defense against Iranian nuclear weapons.  Such public leaks amount to near treason in time of war.  Imagine if someone leaked General Eisenhower's plans for the D-Day invasion in June of 1944.

Ten Indications That Obama Is Scared.  [#8]  Obama's foreign policy strategy is in shambles.  Generally when a president has such a weak domestic agenda, he may be able to recover based on decent foreign policy.  This is not the case with Obama.  Obama's foreign policy has made America weak and the laughingstock of the world.  It was said when Obama was elected that the world would love us, which has proven simply not the case.  Obama has revealed himself to be much worse than Bush in foreign policy, and he has created havoc all over North Africa and the Middle East.

President Blameless.  This must be the most blame-deflecting White House in our nation's history. ... As late as last July, the White House sought to prove that Dallas resident George W. Bush was still responsible for all the nation's budget troubles.  Atlantic magazine blogger Megan McArdle deliciously characterized this lame attempt at evading responsibility as "The duck starts here."

Obama's failed energy policies.  No one's talking about it yet, but Obama also appears to be fulfilling his campaign promise to drive up home power bills by aggressively regulating America's industries that produce electricity.  It will be difficult for Obama to escape his positions, which are heavily rooted in ideology.  In today's speech in New Hampshire, he made clear that he knows he has a problem and he doesn't know what to do.

Obama: Michelle is 'top dog' in our house.  He used to be commander in chief, but former President Obama says the "top dog" in his household is definitely his wife.  "I'm generally the brunt of every joke in my household," Obama said of life with wife Michelle and the couple's two adult daughters, in a Thursday interview on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman's Spotify podcast, "Armchair Expert."  "Michelle, she's the top dog because they're scared of her," he quipped of the former first lady and his daughters, Malia, 22, and Sasha, 20.

Barry can't eat what he wants while the old ball-and-chain is nearby.
Away from Michelle in Boston, Barack gobbles burger, fries.  [Scroll down]  The pool report noted:  "Before leaving the restaurant, the president purchased a cheeseburger and fries for lunch.  He emerged holding lunch in a white paper bag."  Obama has a history of breaking from his healthy White House diet when he campaigns.

Obama interrupting vacation to campaign for Clinton.  He says his wife, Michelle, granted him "special dispensation" to do so.

Was it a joke, or a desperate cry for help?
Obama on hot mike: I quit smoking 'because I'm scared of my wife'.  President Obama said on an open microphone at the U.N. General Assembly Monday [9/23/2013] that he quit smoking six years ago "because I'm afraid of my wife."

Valerie Jarrett reportedly dating a Muslim.  President Obama has time for his 150+ rounds of golf, his extensive television watching, and his expertise on March Madness bracketology because ValJar, by most accounts, is a tireless and fiercely loyal sycophantic gatekeeper, policy adviser, and in essence acting president. [...] In other words, in many respects she is running the country while Obama handles the public face.

Obama spends shutdown day making sandwiches with processed meat, white bread and peanut butter and jelly.  Somebody might be in a little trouble on the home-front.  President Barack Obama took a break from sorting out the shutdown of the federal government on Monday to make sandwiches for low-income and homeless families.  Nobody would argue that feeding the homeless is a noble cause.  However, the president's wife might not be too thrilled with what was on the menu.

Obama: 'Michelle Would Kill Me' If I Ran For A Third Term.  President Obama traveled to Nebraska after his State of the Union speech, where he spoke to an enthusiastic group of supporters — some even wanted him to serve as president for a third term.  "Four more years!" shouted a person in the audience.  Another person in the audience shouted that "Keeping you as President!" would help keep America safe and strong.  "Oh, well, I can't do that," Obama said.  "I can't do that because of the Constitution.  And I can't do that because Michelle would kill me."

The Editor says...
I don't think this is the first time Obama's poorly-educated minions have suggested that he run for a third term, and I don't think this is the first time he's had that same response.

Michelle Claims to 'Live in Fear,' Barack Actually Does.  On Friday's [5/7/2021] broadcast of "CBS This Morning," Michelle Obama made the delusional claim, one among several, that "many of us still live in fear as we go to the grocery store, or walking our dogs, or allowing our children to get a license."  Had Michelle attributed that fear to a wariness of black drive-by gang bangers or street muggers, it might have made some sense.  But her fear, she implied, was of racist police.  Barack Obama knows better, but he has lived in fear as well. [...] Not surprisingly, as I learned in researching my forthcoming book, Barack Obama's Promised Land:  Deplorables Need Not Apply, there is no one Barack fears more than wife Michelle, his personal emissary from the world of authentic African-Americans.

Shadow Government:  Wikileaks Exposes George Soros Controlling Clinton.  This begs the question that both myself and countless others have been asking forever... who is a vote for Hillary Clinton REALLY for?  Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have long been George Soros puppets, and George Soros doesn't care about the United States.  He cares about a one world governments.  There will be a series of links at the bottom with dozens of stories most Hillary voters have never heard, largely because it's Soros and his globalist buddies who own our media, and see to it that people get as little information as possible.

Democrats Better Start Soul Searching.  It is in the nature of personality cults to fail at most things beyond generating and disseminating propaganda.  This inability is the result of two things.  First, the personality's popularity is not results-driven.  Since adoration hasn't been earned by achievement but by the advent of charisma, why kill yourself trying to get results.  Second, few people are willing to candidly critique the personality at the center of the cult, so there is little chance of course correction.  None of this bodes well for Barack Obama.

Obama: The Affirmative Action President.  [How] did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? [...] In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.

Yes, Obama is still an amateur president.  Obama has a political sense, but he lacks an executive sense.  He is a happy warrior on the campaign trail, doing and saying whatever it takes to get elected, including lying shamelessly about his opponent.  But when he leaves the hustings for the Oval Office, he becomes a different person, one who derives no joy from the cut and thrust of day-to-day politics and is inept in the arts of management and governance.

Off the Cliff.  Obama, as far as I can tell, has never once in his life taken responsibility for a problem, let alone solved one.  So he doesn't care about our impending financial collapse, except insofar as he can demagogue it for political advantage.

Obama's Asia trip: No bows this time, but he did grab an awkward kiss.  For someone alleged to have grown up in Asia, Barack Obama is repeatedly clueless about customs there.  It's one thing if you're a tourist.  But as the president of the United States?

Obama proposes tax credits for businesses who hire workers they don't need.  Typical Obama, and indicative of a guy with zero experience in the real world who has no idea how or why businesses expand payroll.

Susan Rice Is Unqualified To Be Secretary Of State.  "Her meeting with GOP senators begs the question that if all she can do is read talking points handed to her by the White House then perhaps she should be the next White House press secretary."

Campaigning is the only thing Obama knows how to do.
Obama's Perpetual Campaign.  Campaigning is comfortable territory for politicians and it is an especially cozy place for President Obama to occupy — he is an extraordinary campaigner and has spent the majority of his political career on the trail seeking one or the other public office.  But is this an effective tool for governing?  One need only look at Obama's accomplishments in his first term to determine that it is not.

Obama to America: Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares.  Obama does not believe and does not say that hiking taxes on the rich will fix anything.  Other Democrats claim that raising taxes back to the Clinton-era rates will help, but Obama himself is campaigning to keep the Bush-era tax cuts in place.  Obama has no experience solving any problem of any scale, ever.  He was a shakedown artist who decided that politics would allow him to perpetrate his shakedowns on a grander scale (and he was right!).

Anna Wintour is a ludicrous pick for US Ambassador to London.  Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, is reportedly in the running to become the next US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, to succeed the outgoing Louis Susman.  According to Bloomberg, Wintour was among "Obama's biggest bundlers of donations in the campaign", raising over $500,000 to re-elect the president.  As Bloomberg notes, the Obama administration (like many previous US administrations) has a penchant for rewarding top donors with plum diplomatic posts.

Obama's Ruinous Course.  The main reason there isn't, and may never be, a solution on the fiscal cliff is that Barack Obama doesn't know how to do a political compromise.  Where in his career did Barack Obama ever learn the art of the political deal?  Nowhere. [...] What deal of Clintonesque majesty has Barack Obama ever pulled off?

The US president looks arrogant as well as clueless.  Barack Obama's extraordinarily arrogant and clueless direct intervention in the internal affairs of Great Britain echoes the remarks of his Ambassador to London, Louis Susman, who told a private meeting of British MPs back in January 2011 that "the UK needs to remain in the EU," and "all key issues must run through Europe."

Benghazi Report Disqualifies Hillary For White House.  A less-than-adequate independent review cites "grossly" inadequate leadership, "systemic failures" and "management deficiencies" that mean our secretary of state isn't ready for that 3 a.m. call either.

Obama's Middle East Mess.  He has seriously damaged U.S. credibility and influence.

King Obama the Irrelevant.  It is almost impossible to imagine Obama doing anything else except making speeches.  The iconic image of the White House Situation Room during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound says it all:  the President is in the corner, not at the head of the table.  It was not a gesture of humility, but rather the preferred posture of a man who relies on those to whom he delegates responsibility, and cannot succeed at anything except getting elected.

'He made a promise to help us and he broke it'.  Obama visited the destroyed marina Ms [Donna] Vanzant owns in Brigantine, New Jersey on October 31 and promised her 'immediate' aid.  Soon after, Ms Vanzant wrote him an email.  'Many days later, I got a response back,' she told the Philadelphia Magazine.  'It was disturbing.  'It had nothing to do with what I was asking him.  It was a form letter.  It thanked me for supporting the troops. [...]'

As he was saying...  "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.  It is a sign that the U.S. government cannot pay its own bills.[" ...] What an incriminating and indicting statement uttered by the president, who has rung up more debt than the first 43 put together.  By his own words he is a colossal failure as a leader as he continues to have trillion-dollar deficits with no sign of addressing the issue in a realistic way.

Despair Inside the Beltway.  [Obama] is a master politician of the Chicago school and yet a disaster as a manager and practical leader.  His political skills helped him get selected as the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.  Yet he proved a failure as the leader of that publication.  There is no evidence that he authored one written comment or publication during his entire tenure.  His political skills also led to his election in 1996 to the Illinois State Senate where his work there was without any sign of major distinction.  Often, he voted "present" rather than show the guts to fight for significant new laws.

Ivory-tower Obama can't abide views he doesn't share.  Obama supporters like to portray Republican attempts to negotiate as hostage-taking or extortion.  But those are violent crimes.  Negotiations — discussions attempting to reach agreement among those who differ — are peaceful acts.  What we do know, from Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics," is that Obama is not very good at negotiating.  He apparently can't stomach listening to views he does not share.  Perhaps that is to be expected of one who has chosen all his adult life to live in university communities and who made his way upward in the one-party politics of Chicago.

Obama's Greatest Legacy Might Be Destroying the Media.  On Thursday [1/17/2013], while looking wistfully back at Obama's first four years, NBC News accidentally did some actual reporting. [...] But there it finally was:  The Truth — and from NBC News, no less.  Poverty's up (from 43.6 million to 46.2 million), middle class incomes are down ($50k compared to $52k), the deficit's exploded (from $10 trillion to $16 trillion), food stamp recipients have skyrocketed (33.5 million to 46.6 million), unemployment hasn't budged, and the same number of people are without health insurance today as there were in 2009.

Obama's Perfect Second Inauguration.  The real oath of office was administered yesterday, as per the Constitution of course, so the polite term for today's TV event is "ceremonial," a pleasant euphemism for "let's pretend."  Today's fake taking of the oath of office by President Obama is the perfect metaphor for the Potemkin nature of his political movement.  His impressive resume in 2008 was comprised of positions in which nobody could remember any particular work or accomplishments of anything useful.

Mount Rushmore on hold.  General Motors is (barely) alive but not getting better.  Osama bin Laden is dead, but al Qaeda isn't.  His triumphs thus far don't seem that triumphant.

Obama Doctrine Leading America Toward Another 9/11.  According to national security expert Dr. James Carafano, the terrorist attack in Algeria shows that America is on the path to another 9/11, thanks to the Obama Administration's foreign and military policy.  Carafano is Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.  He told me, "The warning lights are blinking red," even while President Barack Obama pretends that things are under control.

Hagel's Disastrous Hearing Ought to Make 'No' Vote a No-Brainer.  Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has vindicated his critics thus far today in his confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Service Committee for the post of Secretary of Defense.  He has stumbled in attempting to explain his positions on Iran, nuclear disarmament, Israel, the Iraq "surge," and the "Jewish lobby."  He has failed to explain contradictions between his voting record and his past statements on the one hand, and the positions he professes today on the other.

Barack Obama: The Affirmative Action President.  Upon taking office, something happened that is an insult to everybody who believes in affirmative action but also values merit.  The standards were lowered for Obama regarding actual job performance.  It's impossible to deny that his defenders make excuses for him.  The worse things get, the more he is propped up.  He is too liberal to fail and, for those people who focus on race, too black to fail.  Thus criticism of Obama is de facto racism, regardless of any objective merits to the criticsm.

The Real Barack Obama.  The country may be catching on:  Barack Obama is our first knee-jerk liberal president.  And now that he will never face the voters again, he doesn't mind showing it.

Obama punted to Panetta for U.S. response to Benghazi attack.  Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday [2/7/2013] revealed he personally broke the news to President Obama that the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was under attack last year — but he and the president didn't speak the rest of the night as the assault on the compound unfolded.

Big Job: Wrong Man.  [Chuck Hagel] did so badly in the confirmation hearings that, as Stephen Hayes writes, "any senator who takes the advise-and-consent role seriously had to have real concerns about [Hagel's] basic competence."  Still, presidents are entitled to appoint the people they want, you think, even when they are, manifestly, not the best possible choice or even up to the job.

Benghazi Bungle: Obama's Pass-the-Buck Presidency.  From Hillary Clinton's artful dodging to Leon Panetta's clueless hindsight, the Obama administration's bungling on Benghazi proves they can't keep us safe.

The Democratic Disgrace.  Every job has a minimum requirement.  The absolute very least that anyone can do without being considered a complete and utter failure.  The minimum requirement for a Commander-in-Chief is to stick around when an American diplomatic mission is under fire.  Obama flunked even this minimal requirement by going to sleep and then flying off for a fundraiser in Vegas.

Obama's Economic Growth Record Is The Worst In 60 Years.  President Obama's defense of his economic stewardship has effectively amounted to this:  At least we no longer have the Bush-era economy.  With an entire 4-year term in the books, it's now possible to confirm, and to lament, the essential truth of those words.  Prior to Obama, the second term of President Bush featured the weakest gains in the gross domestic product in some time, with average annual real (inflation-adjusted) GDP growth of just 1.9%.  That's according to figures from the federal government's own Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

Obama's Nominees Exhibit Extremism And Incompetence.  Imagine a defense secretary decimating the Pentagon, a CIA chief favoring killing U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and a treasury secretary ignorant of where his own money resides?  Say hi to President Obama's new team.

President Obama has set in motion forces that he can't handle.  Barack Obama is a terrible president.  That's obvious to everyone who isn't chronically ignorant or incurably liberal.  By "liberal" I don't mean the classic definition of the word which has to do with being open-minded and objective.  I mean the modern version of liberal:  self-centered, emotional, illogical, and void of reason.  Unfortunately, in 2012 ignoramuses and liberals represented the majority of those who voted.

Forrest Gump at Treasury.  Senate Democrats are in a hurry to confirm Jack Lew as Secretary of the Treasury before anyone notices his biography.  Otherwise, liberal lawmakers might be embarrassed voting for a man who represents everything they've been campaigning against.  Investor in Cayman Islands tax haven?  Check.  Recipient of a bonus and corporate jet rides underwritten by taxpayers at a bailed-out bank?  Check.  Executive at a university that accepted student-loan "kickbacks" for steering kids toward a favored bank?  Check.  Excessive compensation with minimal disclosure?  Check.

Caligula's Horse.  Chuck Hagel easily proved himself unfit to be secretary of defense during his nomination hearing.  Not only was he ignorant of fundamental aspects of the job, but his positions on some of the critical defense issues of the day are preposterous if not dangerous.  No one disputes that his performance at the hearing was the worst and most embarrassing of any nominee for any prominent position in memory.  Yet by all reports he will be our next secretary of defense.  Why?

The Tyrant in Your Television.  When conservatives point to the obvious contradiction between Barack Obama's words and actions on spending, taxes, healthcare, the free market, Benghazi, and almost everything else, they merely reveal their naïvité.  Obama, like [Bill] Clinton, is not a president, or even a human, in the old sense of those terms.  He is a TV-president and a TV-human; his words need not match any reality beyond the media apparatus in which he "exists."  He is to be judged according to whether his TV-presidency is interesting and entertaining.  When the greater public gets bored of the show, they will switch channels and watch a different show.

You Can't Community-Organize Your Way Out of a Sequester.  How did Obama try to pass his stimulus?  Campaign-style events.  How did Obama try to pass Obamacare?  Campaign-style events.  How is Obama pushing for amnesty legislation?  Campaign-style events.  How is Obama pushing for gun control?  Campaign-style events.  Fiscal cliff?  Campaign-style events.  This is all separate from his actual presidential campaign.  But mind you, his campaign-style rallies didn't move the poll numbers on Obamacare, and Democrats to this day never use the word "stimulus" when discussing new spending.

Low Information Voters? How about a Low Information President?  [Obama] declares that he has cut over a trillion dollars, somewhere.  He has been told this and it seems he believes it.  He will not engage a critic and nor defend his positions in detail.  He can not apparently even engage a questioning reporter nor engage his congressional opposition.  In my opinion, he couldn't last 5 minutes in a fact-driven analysis of that which he promotes.  The President doesn't meet with the political opposition to initiate compromise because he simply couldn't keep up his end of the argument.

The Obamaian Universe.  The sense is growing around Washington, and this increasingly includes Democrats, of living in an alternative universe.  Barack Obama gives his State of the Union speech, the sequester looms, and the president flies around the country giving speeches.  He's had virtually no contact on the sequester with the legislative branch.  Now he's going to meet with them after the sequester happens.

The 3 Stooges are running the country.  Obama is currently in his fifth year of campaigning and speechmaking, which is considerably easier than being president.  All it takes is a good writer, a teleprompter, a few lies and the ability to cry "wolf" every month or so.  The sequester was Obama's idea.  Some would have us believe it is not important whose plan it was, but that is simply untrue.  Sequester was supposed to be an opportunity for the president to play Chicken Little as he so often does by announcing that the sky is falling when it isn't.

What Secretary of State Kerry Doesn't Know About Democracy or Islam... Would Fill a Book.  In contrast to a proper approach, Kerry makes the American system sound like letting the deranged walk the streets as homeless people, babbling incoherently but doing little harm.  Sure, let them cling to their guns and religion while we smart people make all the decisions.  He's merely turning around a traditional left-wing critique of democracy that comes from Herbert Marcuse or Noam Chomsky, of "repressive tolerance."  And that seems to be what Kerry and Obama really believe.

The Mutt and Jeff of the Obama administration.  Is the United States about to become a laughing-stock to the rest of the world?  It seems to have accrued a Defence Secretary who is the toast of Iran, and a Secretary of State who is a blithering idiot.  It was hard to imagine that the new guy at State, John Kerry, could make himself look even more stupid than he has done by his science-denying belief that the planet is about to fry through man-made climate change.  Well, he has indeed now exceeded such expectations.

President Obama's actions show he isn't serious about governing.  After four years in office, is Obama completely unaware that the presidency involves responsibilities and hard choices?

A President Who Wants Power but No Responsibility.  [Rush] Limbaugh has hypothesized that many Americans, perhaps the "low-information voters," are not connecting Obama's policies to what is actually happening in the country, because the president never actually governs.  Obama's is a non-governing presidency, one that is built on an eternal campaign, a never-ending community organization effort. [...] The reality is that we have a president who wants power but no responsibility.  The reality is that we have a president, an eternal "campaigner," who hasn't a clue about governing.

Personal Income Drop Is Bottom-Up Economics Failure.  The economy racked up another dubious achievement in January, when personal income suffered the biggest drop in 20 years and disposable income suffered its biggest decline in more than 50.  Is this what "bottom-up" prosperity looks like?

Robin From the Hood.  Obama's skill set is that of the community organizer.  Confronted with the issues facing the nation, from whatever realm, from economic to educational and even military (the military needs more gays and women), Obama will always construe those problems as at root social justice problems.

Obama is AWOL on the Budget, Again.  Civil War officers used to say that you can't lead from the rear.  Thousands of them gave their lives, leading their men the only way they knew how.  No one asks Barack Obama to give up more than an occasional game of golf, but he still can't bring himself to lead.  In one of his administration's many low moments, a White House aide explained Obama's style as "leading from behind," as though he were proud of it.

The Chicago Roots of President Obama's Leadership Style.  President Obama did not become president with the intention of ruling as an autocrat.  It is more accurate to say that autocracy is the only style of political leadership he knows.

Respect the office, not necessarily the man.  Barack Hussein Obama does not deserve the respect due the office of the President.  He is an empty suit man who can't speak without a tele-prompter.  His Presidency is marked by constant drama, distortions, and exaggerations, which is just now waking up the mainstream media and the low information voters.  He has embarked on his promised transformation from capitalism to socialism on the path to communism, just as he was taught by his leftist mentors.  He has made the economy worse; people's jobs and wealth have been destroyed; and our nation's global reputation has been destroyed.

Obama Submits NCAA Bracket, but Not Federal Budget.  As he left for the Middle East, President Barack Obama completed his 2013 NCAA tournament brackets for both men's and women's basketball.  He has not, however, submitted a budget to Congress, and will do so only on April 8, two months after the deadline and on the day of the NCAA men's basketball championship itself.

Barack Obama's Excellent Israeli Adventure.  In Israel, the trouble started when someone filled the engine of the president's $1.5-million armored limo with gasoline instead of diesel fuel.  Then the vehicle biblically dubbed "The Beast" had to be towed like a busted parade float through the streets of Tel Aviv on a flatbed truck.  It's unlikely that Obama recognized the parallel, but filling up a diesel-powered car with gasoline is a perfect analogy for what he has done to America.

Reagan SDI Anniversary Exposes Obama's Weaknesses.  [W]ith the possible exception of Jimmy Carter, no president has ever misjudged the effects of his naive foreign policy more disastrously than Obama.  In his first year as president, Obama went to Cairo University and told Muslim Brotherhood members and others of the "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world" he sought.  He apologized for the U.S. "role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government" in 1953 — an act that saved Iranians from Soviet domination.

The culture war is all Obama has left.  The U.S. economy is still suffering through the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression.  Unemployment is stubbornly high, especially for Americans age 25 to 54, who make up the core of the nation's workforce.  And the American public does not approve of Obama's bumbling and ineffectual attempts to handle the economy.

Obama Leads From Behind On The Budget.  By law, the president is obligated to produce a budget plan on the first Monday of February, establishing his priorities for federal spending and taxes for the next year and the decade ahead.  It's the first step that gets this all-important annual process under way, one that's more critical than ever as the U.S. careens toward a massive debt crisis.  But Obama apparently can't be bothered with this mundane responsibility.  He's now 50 days late with this budget, and is giving no indication of when, or even if, he'll bother to offer one up.

The Lost Era of Economic Growth.  President Obama highlighted the need for strong economic growth in his State of the Union address in February, citing it 11 times.  He mentioned it 5 times in a speech in Illinois in mid-March. [...] Obama hasn't a clue about actually generating economic growth — his policies thwart it — but he's awfully good at messaging.

Obama is a joke, and the joke isn't funny.  Barack Obama allowed four Americans to be murdered in Benghazi, Libya.  His administration is still covering up the truth.  Seven Benghazi survivors are being kept from the public, while an innocent film-maker sits in jail.  Obama is his administration; their mistakes are his.  Nobody has been held accountable.  While Ambassador Stevens and a pair of Navy SEALs were being murdered by Islamists, Obama was going to bed early and partying in Las Vegas the next day.  Barack Obama allowed an American border guard to be murdered due to a "Fast and Furious" gunrunning operation that was created and botched by his administration. His Attorney General Eric Holder was asked who authorized the operation and still refuses to answer the question.

Obama to announce $100 million for brain research.  President Barack Obama on Tuesday [4/2/2013] unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders.

The Editor says...
Scientists are already studying the human brain, and have been for at least a century.  Basic scientific research is not the proper role of government.  Spending $100 million on such a thing, at a time when the national debt is already increasing rapidly, is irresponsible.  President Obama is spending money on problems nobody has asked him to address, simply because spending other people's money is the only thing he knows how to do.

Oh-oh! The dreaded i-word starts attaching itself to Obama.  Joe Klein, the celebrated author "Anonymous," who wrote the best selling, truth-telling book Primary Colors about the 1992 primary campaign that brought us President Bill Clinton, has made it ok for liberals to apply the word "incompetence" to the Obama administration.  This represents something of a breakthrough.  Until now, it has been taboo to suggest that the first black president could be anything other than fully qualified and capable of his job.  Obama has met his image Waterloo with Obamacare.

The Tailor Who Sewed the Obama Empty Suit Has Sewn Others.  Barack Hussein Obama is an empty suit, but he grew up idolizing the other empty suits which the left has placed in the White House.  In fairness, the RINO presidents from Nixon and Ford to Bush and Bush have been little better than empty suits.  Why, in 2004, after he had been out of office for 15 years and out of public sight almost as long, did millions of Americans wait long hours for a last chance to pass by the body of Ronald Reagan for a few brief moments?  Because these Americans knew what the media flacks who fawn over Obama today do not know:  empty suits cannot lead.

Congressman: 'Five Jihadists Have Reached Their Targets in the United States Under Barack Obama'.  Congressman Tom Cotton took to the House floor "to express grave doubts about the Obama Administration's counterterrorism policies and programs".  [Video clip]

The Price of Obama's Islamophilia.  It is almost as if the Obama administration considers security vigilance itself a species of Islamophobia.  The casual security on the anniversary of 9/11 at the Benghazi consulate — when others had shut their consulates down — seems to fit with that mindset.  An administration that prides itself on better relations with Muslims tends to hesitate before taking any action that would imply the opposite.  ACLU-style Muslim groups have exploited the Obama administration's Islamophilia to the hilt, demanding and frequently getting changes to security programs out of sensitivity to Islam.  According to the mom of the Boston bombers, her oldest son even tried to convert visiting FBI officials to his jihadist Islam, which completes the picture of politically correct haplessness under Obama.

Recurring tragedy from a broken immigration system.  After Sept. 11, there was comprehensive reform of our intelligence-gathering system, but our current system still did not adequately detect these latest extremists.  We know they immigrated to the United States as children, but their background, combined with suspicious activities, did catch the attention of a foreign government two years ago.  According to media reports, the FBI had interviewed the deceased Boston attack suspect at the request of that foreign government.  As far as we know, there was no follow-up to the interview.

This is why Obama won't intervene in Syria.  Obviously, western governments are not announcing this turn of events because it represents the most spectacular policy failure since the Iranian revolution.

Misplaced Priorities.  President Barack Obama has spent more time on vacations and golf outings during his presidency than he has spent in meetings on the economy, according to a report released Sunday [4/28/2013].  The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) combed official records to produce a report on how the president has allocated his time.  It found Obama has spent only six hours in meetings on the economy so far this year.

Barack Obama doesn't look like a serious, well-informed president.  In 2013, President Obama has spent 6 total hours in economic meetings of any kind [...] Throughout his time in office, President Obama has played 115 total rounds of golf and spent 86 days on vacation, for an estimated combined total of 976 hours.

Obama on Obamacare: This is as Good as it Gets.  President Obama had some gnarly news for the Democratic campaign committees:  This is as good as it gets for his signature health law.  In a press conference on the 100th day of his second term, Obama found himself on the defensive and short on answers.  Syria genocide?  We're looking into it.  Benhgazi whistleblowers?  Never heard of them.  Intelligence gaps on the Boston Marathon bombing?  "This is hard stuff."

30 Reasons To Dislike Barack Obama.  [#15]  He's the single least competent man ever to sit in the White House; yet he's arrogant to the point of narcissism.  He's like a third string high school basketball player who thinks he should be playing in the NBA all-star game.

Obama, Syria, and the Errors of an Amateur.  Barack Obama is once again learning the hard way that governing is harder than campaigning.  And America is once again learning that Mr. Obama is much better at campaigning than he is at governing.  The most recent example is Syria.

Tsarnaev Was Too Dangerous For Mecca, But Not Boston.  Tamerlan Tsarnaev was apparently too dangerous to be allowed to go to Mecca, but not Boston.  Saudi Arabia unofficially says that if Janet Napolitano read her mail, the Boston bombing might have been prevented.

Out of His Hands.  Obama's call for an increase in the minimum wage is going nowhere.  Nor is his call for further measures to reduce carbon emissions.  Education, energy, and transportation initiatives have faded away.  The president was forced to explain at this week's press conference that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act is not, despite what members of his own party are saying, a "train wreck."  His approval rating is below 50 percent.  Six Democratic senators are retiring (so far).

Tell me if you've heard this one before: Obama to focus on jobs.  Obama's like the kid who constantly breaks windows playing ball too close to the house, does a crummy job mowing the grass, won't clean his room, whines about wanting cookies before dinner, and then demands a raise in his allowance every few months.  Heck, the USA Today writer can't even find it in himself to write a full size article, just a few paragraphs, having seen this again and again [...]

How Did America Become A Paper Tiger?  One of our ambassadors and three others State employees are brutally murdered and the White House stonewalls all inquiries and calls reasonable questions about the incident political posturing by Republicans.  We suffer a devastating homeland attack in Boston, the first since 9/11/2001 and later learn how preventable it was if we had a Homeland Security Agency and an FBI that actually did their jobs.  How did this great nation get to such a level of governmental incompetence and spinelessness?

The Texas Economic Lesson Obama Refuses To Learn.  President Obama went to Texas on Thursday [5/9/2013] to kick off a nationwide tour pushing his economic policies, apparently unaware that Texas has thrived the past four years by doing pretty much the opposite of what Obama has prescribed.

As Obama Dithers In The Mideast, His Choices For Action Have Dwindled.  You know you're in trouble when you can't even get your walk-back story straight.  Stung by the worldwide derision that met President Obama's fudging and fumbling of his chemical-weapons red line in Syria, the White House leaked to The New York Times that Obama's initial statement had been unprepared, unscripted and therefore unserious.  The next day Jay Carney said precisely the opposite:  "Red line" was intended and deliberate.  Which is it?

Does Obama Need [a] Staff Shakeup to Manage Scandals?  President Obama and his insular team are violating almost every principle of crisis management.  Shoot straight.  Ditch the spin.  Don't feed the fire.  Restore trust.  While the West Wing is run by smart and dedicated public servants, their crisis communications instincts are horrible.  They dissemble.  They make things worse.  They undermine the administration's credibility.

Is Anyone Home in the White House?  One striking feature of the multiple scandals in which the Obama administration is now enmeshed is how little responsibility President Obama takes for any of them.  None, actually.  Not only that, he professes to be entirely in the dark, to know only what he reads in the newspapers, and to have no control over his own cabinet officers and their departments.

The Editor says...
There are only two possible explanations:  Either Mr. Obama is incompetent, or he is a liar.  Or both.

Eric Holder's abdication.  As the nation's top law enforcement official, Eric Holder is privy to all kinds of sensitive information.  But he seems to be proud of how little he knows.

The Obama media blackout.  The latest invocations of the Incompetence Defense from President Obama, Eric Holder, and now the departing Acting IRS Commissioner (hilariously described by the Associated Press as "ousted," even though he's leaving exactly when he was originally scheduled to depart, in June) hold that all of these super-genius leaders found out about various outrages by watching the news, along with the rest of us.  They have no idea what their subordinates do every day, until it blows up into a huge scandal on the evening news, and that's why they should be left in charge of everything.

The Worst President Ever.  The very first example of the changes that would mark his administration was the announcement of Obama's "czars", a shadowy group of advisors whose power to set and influence government policy without any congressional oversight appears to have transcended that of his cabinet members, many of whom would contribute to lengthening the recession he "inherited" as the result of the 2008 financial crisis while increasing the national debt and deficit to heights never before seen in the history of the nation.

Obama's Defenders: He's Not Corrupt, Just Dishonest and Incompetent.  As Pete [Wehner] noted this morning, Obama's former chief strategist David Axelrod defended his former boss by saying that the government has become so vast and unwieldy that Obama couldn't possibly know what his own government was doing or why it was doing it. [...] And Jeffrey Rosen utilizes this explanation for the Obama administration's seizure of the Associated Press phone records.  Obama isn't Nixon, Rosen argues, nor George W. Bush.  According to Rosen he's more like the maniacally antidemocratic Woodrow Wilson (again, this is a defense of Obama).

Accepting Responsibility Would Blow Obama's Circuits.  Cleaning up Washington's various corruptions and insular, out-of-touch ways would make a powerful platform if he was preparing to run for president one day.  The problem for Obama is that he is president and has been for four years and four months.  In our modern-day system of government, he is first among equals when it comes to having responsibility for "Washington's priorities."  And he certainly has responsibility for an agency which is part of the executive branch, which he after all oversees.

5 Ways Obama Can Restore the Public's Trust and Rescue His Presidency.  Swamped in controversies, President Obama and his slow-footed team are essentially telling the American public, "We're not crooked.  We're just incompetent."

Barack Obama, the Great Bystander.  Obama didn't know the IRS was targeting conservatives until he read it in the papers.  He didn't know about "Fast and Furious" until he read it in the papers, too.  He has "complete confidence" in Holder, and didn't know about the decision to collect the phone records of reporters.  He didn't know about the investigation into CIA director David Petraeus's affair.  He told Letterman during the election he didn't know what the national debt was.  He didn't know about the AIG bonuses in the TARP legislation.  He said he didn't know how bad the economic crisis was when he took office.

For Obama, it's Like 9/11 Never Happened.  Perhaps the most shocking — and depressing — aspect of the president's speech on Thursday [5/23/2013] was his inability to grasp the nature and extent of the threat facing America and the west from Islamic extremism.  What possessed this president to declare an end to the war on terror?

Is that because Obama is a Muslim?

No Moore: Obama flubs name of Oklahoma city devastated by tornado, calls it 'Monroe'.  During his visit to the Jersey Shore with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday [5/28/2013], President Obama referred to the wrong city in Oklahoma devastated by a tornado last week.

The Editor says...
All he knows how to do is make speeches, and he can't even do that right.

Priebus: Obama lying or incompetent on scandals.  Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said President Obama's denial that he was involved directly with the IRS's targeting of conservative groups and other ongoing Washington scandals shows he is either lying or incompetent.  "One of two things are [sic] going on: ... If the president actually knew something, well then clearly he's not being truthful, and no one around him is," Mr. Priebus told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program Tuesday [5/28/2013].  "If he didn't know anything, then I think it suggests a level of aloofness or perhaps even incompetence that I think it pretty disturbing in its own right."

The Oval Office is no classroom.  No doubt:  Barack Obama has what it takes to be a terrific law student.  It's less clear those are the ingredients of a successful president.

Barack Obama is still an amateur president.  The other day, I received an email from a conservative friend who owns a summer home in the Hamptons on the East End of Long Island, the playground of the mainstream media and the leftwing Hollywood crowd.  It seems that when he went to his local bookstore in the Hamptons to buy a copy of the recently released paperback edition of my book "The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House," the salesman behind the counter turned up his nose and told him, "We don't stock that book!"  "How can you not stock a book that was No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list for six straight weeks?" my friend asked.

Obama Is Not Nixon.  For one thing, Nixon, whatever his flaws, was a great president.  No creditable witness is saying that about Barack Obama.

GOP Rep. Rails Against Obama's 'Vengefulness And Lack Of Moral Compass'.  On the House floor on Monday [6/3/2013], Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) spoke only for a minute but squeezed in some harsh criticism of both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden — whom he deemed "unfit" to lead.  Decrying Obama's incompetence and "lack of moral compass," Bridenstine lamented that Biden was even worse.

Benghazi, Mon Amour.  Susan Rice is no more qualified to opine on matters of national security than a character from The Wizard of Oz.  Like Obama himself, she is a highly politicized, over-credentialed Scarecrow, with certificates from Stanford, Oxford, and the Brookings Institution in place of a brain.

Attorney General Eric Holder is not up to the task.  People are looking for the wrong "scandal" about Attorney General Eric Holder.  The problem with Holder is the plain fact that, in the judgment of a wide range of legal colleagues, he has been a mediocre attorney general.

Obama Is Just Obama.  Obama's selection as editor of the Harvard Law Review broke new ground.  But to this day, no one cares much that his record was mediocre with no scholarly work to show for his tenure.  For that matter, ditto also his law career at the University of Chicago:  an impressive appointment, but no scholarly book as promised, not even an article, and no distinguished record of teaching.  Not much of anything.  The point of the Nobel Prize was winning it — not doing anything that might have earned it.  Just as there was no foreign policy achievement that preceded the prize, so there was naturally none following it.  Why expect anything different now?

It's The U.S. Constitution, Stupid!  The Obama administration has thrown out all the rules, insisting that when you are looking for a needle in a haystack, it's OK to seize the haystack, keep it permanently on record and to look for whatever needle they want at any time they want.  They say they're looking for terrorists but can't find or stop those they have in plain sight.  Such sweeping surveillance did not catch the "underwear" bomber who, thanks to sheer luck and alert passengers, failed to bring down an airliner over Detroit.  It did not catch the Tsarnaev brothers as they freely traveled to the terrorist haven they called home before bombing the Boston Marathon.  It did not stop Maj. Nidal Hasan before he slaughtered U.S. soldiers and civilians at Ft. Hood.  It has not found those responsible for the attack in Benghazi.

President Obama Continues to Fail as CEO.  President Obama is failing as CEO of the U.S government.  His appointment of Susan Rice to be his top national security advisor and other missteps, indicate he views the fallout from recent scandals as a political challenge, rather than a management failure.  Nothing could be less true or more damaging.

White House reconsiders pick of 'Founding Founders' over 'Founding Fathers'.  Throughout United States history, the group of men who assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the nation's Constitution had been known as the "Founding Fathers," a moniker used even on official government websites.  But the use of the "fathers" may have been a step too far for the Obama administration.  In a Thursday [6/13/2013] post on the White House's blog, Keith Donohue, the communications director for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives, announced that the papers of the "Founding Founders," otherwise known as the Founding Fathers, are available online.

The Editor says...
You would think that the well-paid "communications director" could come up with something less insipid and redundant than "Founding Founders."

Obama's Multiplying Foreign Policy Failures.  Just yesterday [6/13/2013] the Obama administration admitted what our allies have long said — that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against opposition forces.

Foreign Policy as Farce.  The Obama administration has reached the unenviable stage in which it's almost impossible to determine where one scandal ends and another begins.  The most recent case in point is President Obama's decision to kinda sorta intervene in the Syrian civil war that is now in its third year.

'Incompetent' and 'liar' among most frequently used words to describe the president: Pew Research Center.  The Pew Research Center has tracked the assorted description of President Obama over the years, and has this to say:  "The survey finds that the one-word impressions people have of Obama have changed a great deal throughout his presidency.  Terms like incompetent and liar now are among the most frequently used words to describe Obama.  In April 2009, when his job approval was at 63%, these words were rare," Pew says.

Government gone wild.  With each passing week comes more proof that President Obama's government is out of control.  The past couple of months alone have produced a long list of scandals. [...] As scandal after scandal unfolds, however, Mr. Obama acts as though nothing is his fault.  The buck never stops with him.  He insists it's not his fault — the government is too immense for him to know everything that's going on.  He always finds someone else to blame.

Nancy Pelosi agrees!
Pelosi: 'To Be an Amateur is to Cast Blame on Everyone Else'.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the definition of an "amateur" is to "cast blame on everyone else" and "to not take responsibility for what you are responsible for."

Obama administration bungles Snowden, leaves great power diplomacy in shambles.  As Sarah Palin might ask:  How's that "smart diplomacy" workin' out for ya'?  The former NSA contractor and his famous thumb drives apparently remain in Moscow as of this writing.

Nobody respects Obama.  I just hope that there is someone in this White House who can get past Valerie Jarrett and tell President Obama that he is not doing very well in these leadership tests.  In fact, he is doing very poorly.

Government gone wild.  With each passing week comes more proof that President Obama's government is out of control.  The past couple of months alone have produced a long list of scandals:  The Internal Revenue Service spent taxpayer dollars to target groups Mr. Obama considered his opponents. [...] As scandal after scandal unfolds, however, Mr. Obama acts as though nothing is his fault.  The buck never stops with him.  He insists it's not his fault — the government is too immense for him to know everything that's going on.  He always finds someone else to blame.

If Only Our Foreign Enemies Were Republicans.  If only the president would treat those who don't like the United States in the same manner that he does those who do, he might bring great clarity to his now listless foreign policy.  Indeed, why waste his rich vocabulary of teleprompted invective on fellow Americans, when there is an entire world out there that wishes the United States ill?

Barack Obama's enduring ineptitude.  It's not the president's ideology, his arrogance, his attention-deficit disorder, his endless deference to alien religious faith and his contempt for the faith of those close to home (or even his backswing) that's what's wrong with the man in charge of the government.  It's the sheer incompetence of the leader and his gang.  This is the gang that can't shoot straight, eager to stifle or soften the First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Amendments and ever ready to stumble abroad with timidity in the face of governments that mean us ill.  In the circumstances, maybe incompetence is not necessarily a bad thing.  They could be doing a lot more harm if they actually knew how to do what they're trying to do.

Ryan: Obama administration 'more incompetent by the day'.  Rep. Paul Ryan Tuesday [6/25/2013] joined the growing chorus of figures criticizing the Obama administration's handling of the NSA leaks and its so-far unsuccessful efforts to extradite data leaker Edward Snowden.  Both Snowden's ability to obtain and leak the classified information on massive NSA surveillance programs and the U.S.'s inability to take him into custody "just reveals an administration that seems more and more incompetent by the day," Ryan said on CBS's "This Morning."

Obama admin bungled Snowden extradition.  The Obama administration's "smart diplomacy" wasn't able to get the paperwork done properly in extraditing Edward Snowden from Hong Kong.  At least that's the story the Hong King government is telling. [...] This should be a deep embarrassment for anyone with the chutzpah to claim the label of smart diplomacy, but one has to go overseas to find it reported.  My guess is that only conservatives will be informed of the bungling, ghettoizing information that is is harmful to the Obama administration.

Drug-filled Mexican airplanes land nightly along southern border despite $100 million sensor technology.  In one California border town, at least four drug-laden, ultralight airplanes from Mexico land each night on U.S. soil, dropping off hundreds of pounds of narcotics then flying back to Mexico, all the while eluding a $100 million detection system funded by American taxpayers.

Under Obama, America Has Become France.  The Edward Snowden debacle is the latest in a string of embarrassments, miscalculations, examples of mis- non- and/or malfeasance of his keeping his Administration under control, and just plain incompetence.  Starting with the latest, as I type this:  Everyone in the Russian government — from Vladimir Putin to the guy that sweeps the lobby just inside immigration at the Moscow Airport — is openly mocking everyone in America from Barack Obama to the guy that sweeps the lobby just inside immigration at Dulles Airport.

Obama's Perversity.  Chicago is basically a one-party regime.  How can you tell if you're living under one-party rule?  Your media aren't going to tell you.  Your government isn't either.  Your schools are part of the mob monopoly.  But there are signs:  the biggest one is that open scandals and crimes have no consequences.  We all know Holder is a perverse attorney general, that the EPA is run by scientific know-nothings, that Wall Street has high-level lines running into this administration, that "green technology" contradicts the known facts of physics, and that "catastrophic climate change" is a self-serving farce.

What, Obama worry?  Can the United States survive the remaining 3½ years of the Obama presidency? [...] I have a growing fear we are on the verge of a catastrophe.  It didn't help that the Army announced it will trim our forces by 80,000 troops over five years and said more reductions might also be necessary to meet budget reductions.  Nor does it help that our president seems somewhere between indifferent and oblivious to growing global threats.

Obama's Pyatiletka.  Obama is a president whose ideas on the economy seem mainly stuck in the command-and-control conventional wisdom of four, five or more decades ago.

Is Obama a Victim of Self-Esteem Education?  Barack Obama is the ultimate "A for effort [D for performance] President."  Obama's ineptness is exceeded only by his giant ego.  Obama received a "to be determined" Nobel Peace Prize in the naked hope that he might do something later to promote peace.  This is self-esteem taken to a ridiculous extreme — but in real life.  But wait:  Isn't that exactly what the liberal educational approach teaches in our schools and even in our universities and law schools?

Obama's Reliable Weathervane.  President Obama can always be relied upon to come to wrong conclusion.

Let them eat lead!
John Kerry under fire as Secretary of State takes Nantucket vacation amid Egypt military coup.  As Egypt plunges into crisis John Kerry has been allegedly spotted relaxing at his holiday home in Nantucket for Independence Day.  The Secretary of State, who has just returned from a 12-day tour to the Middle East, was spotted near the July 4 festivities in the center of town, and on his yacht.  With the Egyptian military ousting President Morsi amid violent protests, many in Nantucket were surprised to see Mr Kerry at his holiday home rather than in Washington.

State Dept: Oops, We Lied, Kerry Was Yachting During Egypt Coup.  On Friday, the State Department admitted that Secretary of State John Kerry was on his yacht off of the coast of Nantucket as the Egyptian military took over the country from elected Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi.  Originally, the State Department denied the report from CBS reporter Mosheh Oinounou that Kerry was aboard the "Isabel" Wednesday afternoon.  The State Department said that Kerry was working "all day" on Egypt, and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki — the same Obama campaign worker who once claimed that the campaign knew nothing about Joe Soptic — said that the CBS report was "completely inaccurate."

Obamacare called 'The fiasco for the ages'.  The White House announced the one-year delay in enforcing the employer insurance mandate for Obamacare, which might not even be legal, just as everyone was hurrying out of Dodge for the Fourth of July holiday.  Minions were hastily assigned to explain the delay. [...] Valerie Jarrett, the president's most trusted (if not necessarily most competent) adviser, promised that the determined president is "staying the course."  This is not reassuring, either, since it's "the course" that's the source of the disaster.

Egypt Crisis Finds Washington Largely Ambivalent and Aloof.  In polo shirt, shorts and sandals, President Obama headed to the golf course Friday morning with a couple of old friends, then flew to Camp David for a long weekend.  Secretary of State John Kerry was relaxing at his vacation home in Nantucket.

Obama's Climate Change Plan Telegraphs Desperation, Disconnect.  His poll numbers are plummeting, and his grand speech at the Brandenburg Gate last week had a 95% drop off in attendance.  Russia and China are laughing at him over the NSA leaker.  He's under siege for abuse of power and McCarthy-style tactics to intimidate both the press and conservative groups.  The majority of Americans now oppose the forthcoming implementation of his signature legislative proposal, Obamacare.  He's fresh off a G8 conference where he insulted Catholics and all people of faith by calling parochial education divisive and an impediment to peace.  He's about to embark on a whirlwind Africa trip that will cost upwards of $100 million while agencies deal with Sequester cuts.  His Attorney General was just caught lying to Congress.  Perhaps most importantly, "hope and change" still hasn't come to the more than 21 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed.

Anti-terror campaigner: 'Boston was a reality check for this administration who sold us a lie'.  "We have a problem in our country when a faith-based group that accounts for less than two percent of the American population is responsible for almost 85 percent of terrorist attacks and plots against the United States," [Brigitte] Gabriel said.  "That's a problem that our nation has to address.  Our government was selling the lie that there is nothing to worry about, everything is fine."  "The brothers in Boston — we did not foil their attack because of great intelligence on the part of our Homeland Security with all the eavesdropping that they are doing," Gabriel continued.  "The FBI was taking their pictures and showing it to everybody: 'Hey, have you seen these guys before?'... You interviewed these guys.  You got intelligence from the Russians."

Another Fine Mess Obama's Gotten Us Into In Mideast.  Is it too late, Mr. President, to get a refund on the billions in aid you gave the Islamist thugs in Egypt?  How about the F-16s and Abrams tanks you sent?  It's now painfully obvious you invested in the wrong regime.

Obama's Serial Ineptness.  [W]asn't one of the key selling points of Mr. Obama in 2008 that he would improve America's relations in the world; that he would sit down with other leaders and reach agreements his predecessor did not; and that Afghanistan was the "good war" that America would prevail in under his inspired leadership?  Instead, America's image in the world is worse than ever, the leaders of many other nations have sheer contempt for the president, and the Afghanistan war is in the process of being lost.  Mr. Obama seems to think a retreat substitutes for a strategy and that a defeat is the same thing as a victory.  He's wrong on both counts.

Here's Obama's 'Smart' Government at Work.  The president brags about how he's bringing smart, 21st century technology to government.  But the news surrounding that talk provides a showcase for how inept his administration is when it comes to IT.  'We've made huge swaths of your government more efficient and more transparent, and more accountable than ever before," President Obama claimed Monday [7/8/2013].  But the very next day, AP reported that a "computer system problem" has caused his administration to delay yet another piece of ObamaCare for at least a year.

Politics Is Easy, Governing Is Hard.  The U.S. Government announced that the Employer Mandate part of ObamaCare could just wait until January 1, 2015 instead of its scheduled launch on January 1, 2014.  It would have taken less time (3 years, 7 months) to defeat Japan in World War II than to implement ObamaCare (3 years, 9 months).  And Obama will still miss it.

Why Hasn't Anyone Fired James Clapper Already?  As the director of national intelligence, James Clapper has told Congress that the regime of Moammar Gadhafi would likely prevail in Libya, that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood party was "largely secular" and that the National Security Agency doesn't collect data on millions of Americans.

Egypt's Dangerous Turmoil Is Ultimately Obama's Doing.  In demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak in 2011, President Obama insisted our imperfect ally had to go.  Now that Egyptians want his disastrous Islamist replacement removed, the U.S. stands by its man.

President Barack Obama's Six Months of Blunders.  This White House has already transcended that of Warren Gamaliel Harding and of Jimmy Carter.  It is the most incompetent in modern American history. [...] I can think of no previous president who has so blundered in his first six months in office — and this was his second term, after he had four years to learn on the job.

State Department agency deemed 'critical' to information security is a mess, report shows.  An obscure little State Department agency whose work is called "critical to the Department's information security posture" has been in a shambles for years, and is still in chaos, according to an audit report by the department's inspector general released yesterday [7/19/2013].  As one result of all the bumbling and inaction, the security checks that the agency is supposed to perform and subsequent approvals for use that it is supposed to bestow every three years on 36 of those State Department systems have lapsed entirely, meaning that they are operating, in effect, illegally.

Hope Isn't Enough: Without Conviction or Destination, Obama Flounders.  Perhaps it was inevitable, that any president branded and sold as "Hope" was destined to disappoint.  But in these scorching summer doldrums of 2013, you have to wonder:  did it have to be this disappointing?

Obama may be incompetent, but at least he's still black.  And to some people, that's all that matters.
For blacks, empathy with Obama trumps economic record.  For the vast bulk of the African-American political class, the sense of identification and empathy with the nation's first black president has almost always taken primacy over whatever disappointments they have with his record.  The disappointment is perhaps strongest on the economy, since black people are worse off now than they were when Obama first took office, according to virtually every major indicator.

Big Lie Egomania.  First and foremost, nothing pleases Obama more than the sound of his own voice.  Obama is most pleased with his voice's sound when it is lecturing the nation while talking about the virtues of his favorite subject — himself.  But these days President Obama is hardly in a position to be lecturing anyone and there are certain subjects he would just as soon avoid talking about at any length (i.e. the imminent bankruptcy of Detroit, the IRS scandal and infeasibility of Obamacare to name but several).

The Obama doctrine is a huge failure because it isn't based on US interests.  Simply put, the Obama doctrine has been disastrous because it fails to protect and advance US interests.  It is the antithesis of Ronald Reagan's approach, which was based on powerful American leadership on the world stage, including a willingness to firmly stand up to America's adversaries and support those fighting against tyranny.

Foreign Policy and the Vision Thing.  When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he promised that America would be more respected and liked in the world.  Foreign leaders would bow to his wishes.  Ancient conflicts would end.  In a speech before hundreds of thousands in Berlin, he vowed to do nothing less than "remake the world."  Instead, President Obama's foreign policy has been a failure tactically and strategically, almost from beginning to end, mostly because he lacks strategic vision.

Time for Obama to Admit He Was Wrong and Start Fixing the Economy.  One thing you can say about Barack Obama: the man can deliver a great speech.  So it's interesting, if not downright fascinating, that the White House has chosen to highlight his 2005 Commencement Speech at Knox College.  This is a mediocre speech filled with clichés of the moment lifted from airport bookshelves.

WSJ: Obama Worst President or Middle Class 'in Modern Times'.  The Wall Street Journal published a lead editorial on Thursday [7/25/2013] that responded harshly to President Barack Obama's new series of economic speeches.  "The President called his speech 'A Better Bargain for the Middle Class,' but no President has done worse by the middle class in modern times," the editorial noted.

A Homeland Security Chief In Bed With Islamists?  Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee reportedly is vying to replace Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security secretary.  It would be hard to find a choice worse than the gonzo Houston Democrat.  Jackson-Lee has the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus, which has been aggressively lobbying President Obama to diversify his Cabinet.

Congressional Black Caucus recommends Sheila Jackson Lee for Homeland Security Secretary.  Conservative bloggers went wild Monday [7/29/2013] when they got wind of the Congressional Black Caucus' suggestion that President Obama pick Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston for the post of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.  Rich Cooper, avid blogger for Security Debrief, responded to the news of the Jackson Lee recommendation in a post by saying, "Apparently, it is not a joke.  For reasons that baffle any sense of reality, it is a serious gesture on the part of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to encourage President Obama to nominate Rep. Jackson Lee as a replacement for outgoing-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano."

The Editor says...
Sheila Jackson Lee has my full support for the position of Secretary of Homeland Security.  The DHS can run itself, no matter who is at the top, and in the meantime she will get plenty of press exposure and inevitably enough mocking derision to drive her into retirement oblivion.  Most importantly, it will open up another seat in the House of Representatives.

On the Embassy Closures.  [#1]  The fact that this is reportedly an al-Qaeda plot shows once again that AQ is alive and well globally, contrary to President Obama's ludicrous and willfully misleading statements over the past two years that it is "on the run" and "nearing defeat." [...] [#2] What happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 — and the chaotic, shameful cover-up that has followed — provided an enticing blueprint for Islamic jihadists.

"Decimated" al-Qaeda causes U.S. to shut embassies and go on high alert.  It seems like only yesterday that President Obama declared al Qaeda "has been decimated," is "on the run," "on its heels," "on the path to defeat," and any other number of such claims.

Al-Qaeda's Reality Check.  During the 2012 presidential campaign, President Obama repeatedly claimed that al-Qaeda had been "decimated" and "on the path to defeat."  That makes it a little curious that the State Department is now forced to close temporarily its diplomatic missions across the Middle East and North Africa and to issue a global travel alert to U.S. citizens warning of a potential attack by al-Qaeda.

Jimmy Carter's ghost stalks Obama White House.  Vague terrorist threats shutting down nineteen of our embassies, Russian strongman Putin thumbing his nose at President Obama, Iran jerking our chain — the U.S. hasn't looked this cowardly on the world stage since the Jimmy Carter administration.

On Closed Embassies, the Worldwide Travel Alert, and Wimpitude.  Don't know about you, but I find this pre-emptive cringing unworthy of a great country, even humiliating.  Why do we allow a bunch of extremist thugs to close us down, rather than the reverse?  For what purpose to we pay for the world's best military and largest intelligence services if not to protect ourselves from this sort of threat?

The Editor says...
Why is the U.S. so soft on terrorists and such a cowardly pushover when terrorists huff and puff?  It makes no sense — unless Obama himself is a Muslim, and then it makes perfect sense.

Caustic Light on White House's Reaction to a Terrorist Threat.  The Obama administration's decision to evacuate so many diplomats on such short notice — however justified by the seriousness of the threat — has upset some of its foreign partners, who say the gesture contributes to a sense of panic and perceived weakness that plays into the hands of the United States' enemies, and impedes their efforts to engage with people in their countries.  Some American officials have also said they believe the administration overreacted, in large part because of the political fallout from the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi [...]

Barack Obama and the theater of the absurd.  For the last week, the Obama Administration has been in overdrive, suddenly engaged in the war on terror that it has denied for the last four and a half years.  Though al-Qaeda was supposedly on the run, diminished or dying out, they have managed to cause us to shut down our embassies throughout the Middle East and completely evacuate our staff in Yemen.

Feebleness in the Executive.  President Obama said, two years and a hundred thousand deaths ago, that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must go.  He hasn't gone.  President Obama said a year ago that if Assad crossed certain red lines there would be "enormous consequences."  There have been no consequences.

Three Jail Breaks.  After going through an election year in which the Obama campaign tried to downplay the terrorist threat to our nation and the world, in order to falsely portray the President as defeating terrorism, we are now finding a second-term administration having to respond to the results of their failed policy of appeasing radical Islam in the first four years.  And respond they have, last week ordering the temporary closing of embassies throughout the Middle East and northern and western Africa.  It is becoming more and more evident that the war being conducted against the U.S. — and against civilization in general — by radical Islam is not going to end by our government just saying it is over.

Obama Retreats From Behind In Global War On Terror.  Al-Qaida's destabilization of Iraq snowballs, the Taliban plots its return to power in Afghanistan, and U.S. diplomats now flee Pakistan and other outposts in the region.  Behold America in retreat.

Obama's not to be trusted on foreign policy.  The West can no longer rely on American leadership in the world.  For the remaining duration of the Obama administration, Washington's judgment and effectiveness in foreign policy cannot be trusted.  It is quite an achievement for the one remaining superpower to appear as ineffectual and wrong-footed as the United States has managed to do in the past week.  But there it is.

Obama's Sports: A Metaphor For His Presidency.  President Obama seems genuinely passionate about sports — and likewise uses that interest as a way to portray himself as a "regular guy."  But there's a pattern here: Lots of big talk, but then plenty of disappointment when it's time for him to match his words with action.

Don't depend on cowards for advice on self-defense.
'Run and hide' is Obama administration's clever plan for next school shooting.  In response to the Newtown, Conn. massacre and a host of school shootings in recent years, the Obama administration released a 67-page report on emergency planning this summer that includes several pages advising educators on how to manage "an active shooter situation."  The U.S. Department of Education's "live-shooter" section doesn't recommend that schools arm teachers or employ armed guards.  It doesn't even advise schools to add door locks for classrooms.

Love: Obama Played Cards During Osama Raid; 'I Can't Watch This Entire Thing,' Obama Said.  Reggie Love says he and President Obama played cards during the Osama bin Laden raid, and that the president told him, "I can't watch this entire thing."

President Obama played cards during the bin Laden raid says his longtime aide Reggie Love.  President Obama's longtime aide Reggie Love says he and the president played cards during part of the raid in Pakistan that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

A few days later...
Obama "body man" Reggie Love leaving White House.  Reggie Love, the former Duke basketball player who has been a constant presence by Obama's side since the 2008 presidential campaign, will depart the White House by the end of the year, a person familiar with his decision said.

Obama's Greatest Failure.  After last month's military coup in Egypt, sober foreign-policy types warned against cutting off U.S. aid.  After all, the coup seemed to enjoy substantial public support.  President Mohamed Morsi had become increasingly authoritarian.  Cutting off aid might destroy what little leverage America had over Egypt's new military regime.

Obama golfs, Kerry lectures, Egyptians die in droves.  Put it this way: President Obama's Egypt policy is about as effective as his Syria policy.  And for the first time Wednesday, with the number of dead and injured mounting, one could almost envision Egypt's descent into out-and-out civil war.  Obama was briefed, said nothing and went back to golf.

Obama's Phony Event: America's Economic Recovery.  President Obama has been trying especially hard lately to sell his economic prowess of the past 4.5 years.  Unfortunately for Obama, the facts demonstrate very little economic progress to date during his tenure.  Slow GDP growth, lagging job creation, constricted free markets, ballooning deficits and debt, growing and counterproductive regulation, crippling taxation, and the penalization of small business all make for compelling evidence that Obama's economic strategy is failing.

Thank Obama's Ego For The Carnage And Crisis In Egypt.  [After Anwar] Sadat's 1981 assassination his legacy of peace and close ties with the U.S. continued for three decades under his successor, Hosni Mubarak.  Why on earth did Barack Obama want to disturb this too-good-to-be-true state of affairs?  In 2009, his grandiose speech in Cairo apologized for America's historical role in the Middle East and snubbed Mubarak, setting the stage for the Egyptian president's overthrow by the mob.

Obama Bets Against Human Nature — and Usually Loses.  There are many ways to learn about the bleaker aspects of human nature.  One would be to run a pizza shop, or regularly to have to clean a public restroom.  Perhaps giving close attention to the text of Thucydides might give a more abstract lesson.  Also, the Old and New Testaments offer plenty of examples of the fallen state of man.  Obama apparently did not get the message. [...] In a nutshell, he does not seem to know much about human nature, whether in the concrete or abstract sense.  Obama never held a menial job or ran a business.  In lieu of education in the school of hard knocks, he read the wrong, if any, seminal texts.

White House spokesman 'not familiar with' Chris Lane murder.  Josh Earnest, principal deputy White House press secretary, said he was not familiar with the murder of Australian jogger Chris Lane during Wednesday's [8/21/2013] White House briefing.  When asked by Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry about the Chris Lane case, Earnest responded, "I'm not familiar with it, actually."

The Editor says...
A press secretary who claims he is "not familiar" with a front-page news story is either lying or incompetent.

America the Trivial.  Reggie Love, the erstwhile presidential assistant and "body man" to President Obama, recently reported on the critical moments of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.  The president apparently was not glued to live video feeds, as the photos from his reelection campaign suggested. [...] The commander-in-chief was playing cards while Navy SEALs risked their lives to kill America's No. 1 enemy — only later to use photos of himself watching live feeds for his reelection sloganeering:  "Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!"

'Dance with the Girl Ya Brung'.  News reports have indicated that multiple hundreds, if not thousands, have been killed on both sides of the Egyptian political divide.  And while this slaughter is happening, just what has the "leader of the free world", our president, Barack Hussein Obama, been doing to address this catastrophe? [...] He's been playing golf while on vacation.

Ambassador to U.N. Samantha Power Misses Emergency Syria Meeting.  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power did not attend an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday [8/21/2013], Fox News reported.  The meeting was scheduled to discuss an alleged chemical weapons attack on Wednesday.  Power's decision not to attend drew criticism due to her past statements on Syria.

Could Samantha Power have caught a flight to UN meeting?  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power was unable to make it back from a personal trip in Ireland to New York in time for an emergency Security Council meeting, according to sources who spoke with Fox News.  But a quick search of flight databases shows that on an average day, dozens of flights leave from the Emerald Isle to New York.

Found: Samantha Power in Ireland during urgent Syria meeting, sources say.  Mystery solved.  America's ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power was in Ireland on a personal trip when she missed an emergency meeting on the alleged chemical gas attack in Syria, U.N. sources tell Fox News.  A day earlier, State Department officials were mum when asked for information on Power's whereabouts.

The Editor says...
Maybe she doesn't know what "emergency" means.

[The] Mideast [is] On Fire Thanks To Obama['s] Arrogance [and] Ignorance.  A year after President Obama's "red line" chemical weapons warning, a defiant Syria reportedly kills more than 1,000 with nerve gas.  As in Egypt, the president's ego is no substitute for credible U.S. power.

White House spokesman jokes about Islamic attacks on Christian churches in Egypt.  The White House's deputy press secretary today downplayed Muslim attacks on Christians in Egypt, joking about the savagery that has left at least six Christians dead.  Press secretary Josh Earnest was asked by Fox News' correspondent, Ed Henry, if President Barack Obama has a "red line" beyond which he would act against Muslim attacks on Egyptian Christians.  "Well, I didn't bring my red pen out with me today," Earnest joked.

The Real Reason College Costs So Much.  [Richard] Vedder, age 72, has taught college economics since 1965 and published papers on the likes of Scandinavian migration, racial disparities in unemployment and tax reform.  Over the last decade he's made himself America's foremost expert on the economics of higher education, which he distilled in his 2004 book "Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much."  His analysis isn't the same as President Obama's.

Obama hits the golf links.  President Obama is spending his Sunday golfing, according to the White House.  The outing comes amid rising signs the U.S. is inching closer to launching a military strike against Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons by that country's government.

The Dog Ate My Homework.  [Scroll down]  Obama's responses to adversity have been typical.  It must be Rush Limbaugh's fault.  His handlers apply euphemisms like 'miscalculated', 'unexpected' or 'difficult' as synonyms for the unutterable word 'blunder'.  Or else the tame press argue that America's influence in the world was bound [to] decline anyway and Obama's made the best of a bad hand inherited from Bush.

Can Obama act on Syria without appearing to be a hypocrite or a fraud?  The Syrian problem threatens the very core of the Obama doctrine.  Bashing President Bush for doing an end run around the U.N. Security Council over Iraq was Obama's nom de guerre.  With Russia's leaders making it clear that they are not going to approve a Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Syria, how can the president act without appearing to be a hypocrite or a fraud?  The answer is:  he can't.

The Wrong Red Line.  Our coming intervention in Syria already looks like a no-win proposition.  If we go heavy, we're liable to empower al-Qaeda and assorted jihadists, or tie ourselves down excessively.  If we go light, we'll seem like paper tigers.  Obama's foolish decision to turn chemical weapons use into a red line is what got us into this mess.

Obama has painted himself into a corner.  Not only is there no outcome of an attack on Syria that would benefit the United States, President Obama has already denied he has the authority to take such action.  It takes ineptitude of historic dimension to fashion such a no-win situation in world politics.  President Obama has already said a president can't take military action without congressional approval, and Vice President Biden has stated that it would be grounds for impeachment.

Syria chemical weapons response poses major test for Obama.  One U.S. official who has been briefed on the options on Syria said he believed the White House would seek a level of intensity "just muscular enough not to get mocked" but not so devastating that it would prompt a response from Syrian allies Iran and Russia.  "They are looking at what is just enough to mean something, just enough to be more than symbolic," he said.

The Editor says...
This next article quotes and amplifies the article immediately above.

Is This 'Leading From Behind' on Syria?  There's nothing like acting out of an acute fear of mockery to get you mocked, I suppose.  Remember "leading from behind"?  This quote ranks up there in the did-someone-actually-say-that category.  (By the way, I don't doubt the accuracy of the reporting, I'm just incredulous that someone in a position of responsibility would be so brutally frank.)  "Muscular," by the way, is one of those words — like "robust" — that Washington policy makers use to describe foreign and defense policies that otherwise might not be mistaken for muscular or robust.

President Obama's indecisive reaction to Syria debacle emboldens our enemies abroad.  A headline the other day called President Obama a "reluctant warrior."  It was half-right.  He's reluctant, but not much of a warrior.  His feckless, indulgent dithering while Syria burns would be the low point of his foreign policy except for the fact that it is alarmingly typical.  The president from the faculty lounge is proving again that he is simply no match for determined adversaries, terrorists and genocidal maniacs.

U.S. needed Iraqi foothold that prez abandoned.  More than 70 years after the start of World War II, America has 100,000 troops stationed at bases in Germany and Japan.  More than 50 years after the cease-fire in Korea, we have nearly 30,000 American military stationed there.  But in Iraq, where we toppled Saddam just a decade ago and oversaw three national elections, there isn't a single American combat soldier left.  A fact President Obama has repeatedly celebrated.

John Bolton: Obama weakest president since Buchanan.  On Saturday [8/31/2013] on the Fox News Channel, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton harshly criticized President Barack Obama handling of the United States' involvement in Syria, calling him the weakest president since James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln's predecessor.

Leading From Behind Congress.  This will go down as one of the stranger gambles, if not abdications, in Commander in Chief history.  For days his aides had been saying the President has the Constitutional power to act alone in response to Syria's use of chemical weapons, and that he planned to do so.  On Friday [8/30/2013], he rolled out Secretary of State John Kerry to issue a moral and strategic call to arms and declare that a response was urgent.  But on Friday night, according to leaks from this leakiest of Administrations, the President changed his mind.

Mr. Obama Goes to Congress.  A year ago, obviously without his trusted teleprompter, the president said there was a "red line" that could not be crossed in Syria.  If the Assad regime even so much as moved chemical weapons or used them, the United States would take action.  Well, it seems almost certain that chemical weapons were not only in Syria but were used by the government.  Obama was then caught with his pants down when his red line comment came back to haunt him.  He had to do something or else look like an idiot, not just to those who know he's an idiot but to the ever dwindling members of the Hope and Change crowd.

Official: White House seeks Syria response 'just muscular enough not to get mocked'.  A U.S. official briefed on the military options being considered by President Obama told the Los Angeles Times that the White House is seeking a strike on Syria "just muscular enough not to get mocked."  "They are looking at what is just enough to mean something, just enough to be more than symbolic," the official told the paper, giving credence to similar reports describing a limited military strike in the aftermath of last week's alleged chemical weapons attack.

The Editor says...
President Obama is a waffling coward who can't decide what to do because he has no military training and only one skill — reading campaign speeches from a teleprompter.  His responses to the atrocities in Syria amount to the verbal equivalent of a chest-thumping male dominance ritual.  This is a man who should never have been admitted to the White House — even for a 30-minute tour.

Barack Obama's Staggering Incompetence.  Mr. Obama, in his Rose Garden statement on Saturday, still insisted he has the authority to strike Syria without congressional approval.  So what happens if Congress votes down a use-of-force resolution?  Does the president strike Syria anyway?  If so, will it be an evanescent bombing, intended to be limited in scope and duration, while doing nothing to change the war's balance of power?  Or does the president completely back down?  Does he even know?  Has he thought through in advance anything related to Syria?  Or is this a case of Obama simply making it up as he goes along?

How not to run a foreign policy.  In March 2011, President Obama committed the United States to action in Libya that involved roughly 100 cruise missile firings, 12 U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean, and 75 U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft including B-2 bombers.  And the Libyan case involved no use of chemical warfare by Muammar Qadhafi.  Still, the president saw no reason to seek a congressional vote.  This context makes his claim that he must seek a vote now, in the Syrian case, unintelligible.  It cannot be a matter of principle, or the principle would have applied to intervention in Libya as well.

Is Barack Obama the Worst and Most Incompetent President Ever?  A case can now be firmly made that Barack Obama is the most incompetent and dangerous chief executive our country has ever had. [...] Those who argued during the campaign before his first term that he had achieved virtually nothing in the Senate, and was both inexperienced and not ready to assume the job of chief executive, have been vindicated.  Barack Obama should never have been elected to his current job.  We are now living through the results of his victory at the polls.

President Hamlet.  He doesn't know what to do. Of all the issues raised by President Obama's conduct toward Syria, that is the most worrisome.  He's had a year — a year — to think this through, to consider the options, to consult his advisers, to make plans.  And when the moment came, he froze.

Community Organizer Goes to War.  Oh, how I long for the days when liberals wailed that "the rest of the world" hated America, rather than now, when the rest of the world laughs at us.

The Editor says...
Having America's credibility ruined might very well be one of Barack H. Obama's goals.

No to War in Syria.  A Senate panel has voted to authorize Barack Obama to use military force in Syria.  This is a disaster in the making.  Just as in Afghanistan, Obama has no goal, no plan for victory.  He said that the military strikes in Syria would not be directed toward removing Bashar Assad, but then he said that it would be a good thing to remove Assad from power.  This was just one of many indications of how ill-conceived and misbegotten Obama's Syria plan really is.

Obama Learns the Value of Allies.  Although President Obama's first-term habit of serially offending U.S. allies appeared to be a procession of gaffes and errors, there actually was a strategy behind it.  Picking fights with the Israeli prime minister; delaying and reconsidering free-trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia; shelving missile-defense plans in the Czech Republic and Poland to curry favor with Russia, and announcing it on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland; pointedly ignoring India; and of course the absurd series of insults so dignifiedly absorbed by Britain were all part of a plan.  It wasn't a good plan, but it was a plan nonetheless.

The Awful Truth about Obama.  The advocates of congressional backing for an Obama strike on Syria claim that America would be weakened if the president is rebuked.  Unfortunately, America already is weakened, and backing a dangerously incompetent president's pinprick won't do anything to help.  President Obama has no credibility with the tough guys.  Our deterrent power is already sapped of vigor.  With each day, it gets worse for Obama and for America.

Crown O Clown in Chief.  The Los Angeles Times quotes a U.S. official who says President Obama wants an attack "just muscular enough not to get mocked." [...] But how can we not mock a president who says he's "made the decision" that military action against Assad is a moral imperative and essential to U.S. security; and that he's "made a second decision" to not make a decision but to wait for Congress to decide.  A president making these two completely contradictory statements is bad.  But to make them in the same speech?

The Case of Obama's Missing Pants.  Even the experts have trouble explaining how and why the attacks will do any good.  The debate has congealed down to credibility.  The only real argument in favor of hitting Syria is that Obama laid down a red line and Congress is obligated to protect his credibility when making poorly thought out threats for the sake of national security.  But it's not Congress' job to protect Obama's credibility for the sake of the nation.  It was Obama's job to protect the nation's credibility by not setting a red line until he had Congressional approval.

What kind of president would throw in the world's lot with evil al-Qaeda?  What kind of a president could reportedly sleep when four courageous Americans were being slaughtered in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya — but within a week of the first anniversary of the tragedy send the U.S. military to fight side by side with al-Qaeda in Syria?  What kind of president could play 15 rounds of Spades while the Seal Team 6 sent by him was taking out Osama bin Laden?  What kind of president would allow his Secretary of State to announce to the world that Saudi Arabia would be willing to finance the U.S. attack on Syria?

Bam's policies leave longing for decisive W.  With President Obama's foreign policy in tatters across the Middle East, maybe we've finally arrived at a moment where we can look at what we threw out when we replaced the Bush Doctrine with the Obama Doctrine.  Even calling the 44th president's policy a doctrine is being generous.

Barack Obama is heading for a humiliating defeat over Syria.  Barack Obama simply doesn't come across as a war leader, one who instills confidence both at home and abroad.  He has a well-earned reputation for apologising for his country on foreign soil, and extending the hand of friendship to America's enemies, from Tehran to Khartoum.  His traditionally Jimmy Carter-esque approach simply doesn't square with his new found desire to start bombing a foreign land.  In the eyes of the American people, he's not exactly General Patton.

Who Are the 47 Percent?  The roof is pretty much falling down around President Obama's head. Obamacare, finally rolling out and crashing on takeoff, is more unpopular than ever.  The economy remains dismal, with labor force participation hitting near-record lows and young people's job prospects in the toilet.  Poverty rates are sky-high, with record numbers on food stamps.  The federal government is about to run out of money again, having incurred nearly $17 trillion in debt.  In foreign affairs, Obama has become a laughingstock.

Obama's Weakness Provokes An Aggressive Russia, Say Analysts.  As president, Obama has sought to reassure the Russians on many fronts.  Unilaterally, he has slashed the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons arsenal.  He has pulled the plug on anti-ballistic missile systems for Poland and the Czech Republic.  His defense budget has plummeted since the last year of the Bush administration.

Obama versus the world.  Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, states that what is at stake is universal values because "I didn't set a red line.  The world did" in his words.  Let us then examine the opinion polls and draw a conclusion as to whether Barack Obama is in syntony with the world, or whether he stands pitifully alone, advocating a criminal act once again tarnishing the image of his country.

The credibility crisis can't be solved with Tomahawk missiles.  The Obama administration has stumbled from one credibility crisis to the next on Syria, and now wants Congress to rescue Barack Obama from himself.  Obama declares that the stated policy of the United States toward Syria is regime change, then dithers on how to effect it.  Obama draws a red line, and then does nothing at all to prepare for the possibility that Bashar al-Assad might call his bluff.

Obama and Syria: Words versus Deeds.  Obama has been told for much of his life that he could and even should be president.  As best we can tell, he was accepted to Harvard Law School without an especially stellar record of prior academic achievement.  While there he became president of its august Law Review, through the mechanism of an election that was basically a popularity contest.  Because he was the first black person to hold that position, the event merited coverage in the New York Times and later led to Obama's being signed to a book contract, although he had never written a book before and done a minimal amount of academic writing in general — including virtually none for the Law Review even as its president, which is a highly unusual state of affairs.

Obama as Captain Queeg.  In President Barack Obama, the United States today has its Captian Queeg on the bridge.  He has not committed the "high crimes and misdemeanors" which the Constitution has established as the grounds for impeachment, or at any rate the necessary majority of Congress could not at this moment be convinced that he has.  Nonetheless, his administration has produced a record of bungling and bad judgment not even approached by any previous President of modern times and perhaps ever.

The Collapse of the Obama Presidency.  In the first year of his second term, the president has failed on virtually every front.  He put his prestige on the line to pass federal gun-control legislation — and lost.  He made climate change a central part of his inaugural address — and nothing has happened.  The president went head-to-head with Republicans on sequestration — and he failed.  He's been forced to delay implementation of the employer mandate, a key feature of the Affordable Care Act.  ObamaCare is more unpopular than ever, and it's turning out to be a "train wreck" (to quote Democratic Senator Max Baucus) in practice.  The most recent jobs report was the worst in a year, with the Obama recovery already qualifying as a historically weak one.  Immigration reform is going nowhere.

Our Never Ending Obama Nightmare.  In Syria, the actions of the President and his team have bordered on total incompetence.  Almost every wrong step has been made.  Today, we are left with a situation where the U.S. has limited influence, while the power of our adversary Russia has increased tremendously.  More and more Americans are realizing that this President is not qualified to lead the nation.

President Obama holds fire — but media doesn't.  President Barack Obama is damaging his presidency, weakening America's standing in the world, and displaying "inexplicable" incompetence.  The media figure making those accusations isn't Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh, Charles Krauthammer or Glenn Beck.  The critic doesn't host a right-wing talk show, anchor a Fox News program, or write for the pages of the Weekly Standard.  In fact, he's not even a conservative.  It's Joe Klein, the Time Magazine political columnist.

AP: For all of Obama's "recovery" blather, the poverty rate isn't budging.  After his bizarre and widely panned decision to go forward with it just hours after the Navy Yard shooting on Monday, President Obama gave yet another speech about how much the economy has ostensibly recovered since the financial crisis five years ago. [...] Yes, it's all very interesting and compelling, I'm sure, except that by far too many measures, the middle class has only been faring worse and worse during Obama's presidency.

Obama's Middle-Class 'Mission Accomplished'.  Obama's idea of a "durable industry" seems to be solar companies like Solyndra and electric car suppliers like A123 Systems.  Both of these "durable" companies filed for bankruptcy after obtaining generous loans from the Obama administration.  Taxpayer money that would otherwise have been invested to create good jobs in the private sector was squandered so the president could pretend he was a green energy pioneer.  In reality, he has never been a pioneer at anything.  He is an old-fashioned radical who still harbors the adolescent fantasy of a Marxist utopia.

The Theatre of Barack Obama: The Show Must Go On.  By running anyway, Obama revealed a complete lack of character.  Nevertheless, the elitists who form public opinion pretended that Obama was ready for the White House.  After, all, they were making history.  At the core was a man with no entrepreneurial, business, executive, or military experience.  Yet layer upon layer of made-up persona was wrapped around the empty center until fiction somehow became non-fiction.  With each layer of pretension came a new occasion to suspend disbelief.  At some point, the line between the unreal and real became blurred.  For many, what otherwise would have been normal and reasonable vetting of a candidate became unreasonable persecution of a black man.

Politico: Obama is a snake-oil salesman.  Politico is actually wondering why Dear Leader, despite his magnificence, has not been able to turn public opinion around on anything.  Nothing, nada, zippo, zilch.  Perhaps, just perhaps, they are awakening to the reality that Obama has led an entire life without accomplishing ANYTHING outside of his own personal life.  The only thing Barack Obama, as an individual, has accomplished from birth to today is exactly NOTHING.  That's really what was at the center of his "you didn't build that" remark.  It's the only sentiment he can relate to because he has never *created* anything himself.

Saved By the KGB.  And so the government of the United States has put its foreign policy in the steady hands of President Vladimir Putin and the KGB.  Americans from coast to coast are breathing a sigh of relief.  In Congress, the left and the right and those in between, are relieved.  In recent months it has become abundantly clear that the President of the United States is not up to the task.

Iran's Tyrants Roll Obama Around Just As They Did Jimmy Carter.  Has the U.S. ever fallen in global stature as far and as fast as it has under the Obama administration?  Not even Jimmy Carter drew so many snubs, insults and slights from world leaders in such a short period as Obama has in this past month.

Barack Obama is presiding over the end of America's superpower status.  There was a time not so long ago when the world looked to America for both political and economic leadership.  But now that can no longer be taken for granted thanks to Mr Obama's inability to provide decisive leadership on either front.

Can You Hear the ObamaCare Train Wreck Now?  The federal government had 1,288 days to build the ObamaCare exchanges, where millions are supposed to enroll.  Yet they were crashing across the U.S. on opening day.  Your health care is in the best of hands.

John McAfee on Obamacare: 'This is a hacker's [...] dream'.  On Fox Business Network's "Cavuto" on Wednesday, computer programmer and founder of McAfee, Inc. John McAfee said the online component of Obamacare "is a hacker's [...] dream" that will cause "the loss of income for the millions of Americans who are going to lose their identities."  For starters, McAfee said the way it is set up makes it possible for fake websites be set up to fool people to think they're signing up for Obamacare.

He's Just Not That Clever.  Obama's staggering incompetence on the international stage, careening from one unintended foreign policy consequence to another, is unmistakable because foreign affairs are almost exclusively the province of the president.  He has no congressional human shields overseas. [...] One potential caveat:  While Obama is not clever enough for his apparent imcompetence to be anything but real, some of his advisers/puppet-masters, like David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, are.  For those enemies of America, Obama is just their front man, their very own Billy Mays, hawking a radical leftist vision in a pleasant container.

The presidential leadership crisis.  President Obama is still an adept liberal organizer and aggressive tactician in confronting his domestic foes, but that should not be confused with purposeful leadership.  On Syria he ducked and weaved, repudiating his own red line and hiding behind Congress's skirts. [...] Indeed, it's one thing to be over your head and lack a coherent foreign policy; it's another to advertise as such on the world stage.

Exchange launch turns into inexcusable mess.  Over the first four days the new online health insurance exchanges were open last week, more than 8 million people visited them, according to the Obama administration. [...] Alas, the administration managed to turn the experience for most of those visitors into a nightmare.  Websites crashed, refused to load, or offered bizarre and incomprehensible choices.  Even though the system was shut down for repairs over the weekend, Monday's early reports continued to suggest an epic screw-up.

Why Does Sebelius Still Have a Job?  The government's website apparently cost more than $500 million to build — and counting.  This is more than LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Spotify, and yet it has been a disaster from the get-go, freezing, crashing, and locking people out.  The administration's line is that the website was overwhelmed by surprisingly strong demand, which they cast as a good thing.  Programmers who peeked under the hood of the website scoffed at that assertion, saying that the site was so poorly constructed, so full of glitches and buggy code that it could never have supported even the most modest traffic levels.  Some of that code was actually caused by spelling errors in Javascript.  Worse still, despite repeated warnings about the deficiency of the site, it apparently was not even taken out for a test drive before the administration launched the thing.

Obama's crisis of credibility.  President Barack Obama is like a novice flier thrust into the cockpit of a 747.  He's pushing buttons, flipping switches and radioing air traffic control, but nothing's happening.  The plane is just slowly descending on its own, and while it may or may not crash, it at least doesn't appear to be headed to any particularly useful destination.  Obama's ineffectiveness, always a hallmark of his presidency, has reached a new cruising altitude this year.

The man who could have saved us from Obama now regrets his punt.  His pettiness and lack of leadership helped produce and prolong a record duration of high unemployment, the worst economic 'recovery' in decades, record deficits, record national debt, a wasted trillion dollars in stimulus, record youth and black employment hardships, untold lies about the unfolding disaster called ObamaCare and Benghazi and so many other things.  The country's latest fiscal crisis continues this week as an arrogant incumbent president of the United States, who approached this crisis by playing more golf, leads his nation to the brink of an historic default, which he voted to have eight years ago, but now opposes.

HHS secretary faces calls to RESIGN over Obamacare web debacle.  Kansas Republican Pat Roberts has been a member of Congress since 1981 and a Senator since 1997, but he's never run this hard to the right before.  On Friday [10/11/2013] he demanded the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and his newly minted tea party challenger thinks he knows why.  Milton Wolf, a fire-breathing conservative radiologist who's also a second-cousin to Barack Obama, announced on Tuesday that he would run against Roberts in 2014 for the Republican nomination.

Obama: the Revolutionary as Halfwit.  [Scroll down]  I can see no contradiction between Obama's destructive goal and his stupendous incompetence.  That is to say, while clearly harboring evil designs, Obama is genuinely inept in implementing his plans.  His presidency looks like a new installment of the Keystone Kops.

ObamaCare Website Now Officially the Most Incompetent Thing Obama Has Ever Done.  The ObamaCare website, which estimates have placed at anywhere from under [$]100 million to [$]400 million to just under 300 million to 634 million dollars, not only tops even Solyndra, but couldn't have been designed any worse if Joe Biden had tried making it in his spare time.

The White House has put 'the best and the brightest' on Obamacare. So who was on it before?  The Obama administration should have figured out a way to tap the tech world's "best and brightest" from the beginning.  But at this point, there's really no way for Silicon Valley to come in and save HealthCare.gov.  The key coordinator — which not only oversaw CGI Federal but all the other contractors building the site — was the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and in particular, their IT department.  But CMS didn't have the technological expertise to carry out this role — and they still don't.

ObamaCare a Planned Disaster for Political Reasons.  Obama has not ever been pressured to compromise or change course, no matter how disastrous his policies.  He has a unique partisan pass, thanks to his idol status as our first black president among the compliant liberal media.  Obama will go down in history as America's most unaccountable president.  He has skated over one calamity after another, with none of the blame attached to his party — our economic stagnation, the suffering of our neediest citizens, the destabilization of the Middle East, a looming nuclear Iran, Benghazi, the IRS, the spying on ordinary citizens and the press.  None of these significant failures have mattered one whit to loyal Democrat voters.  Why would ObamaCare be different?

President excuses long list of scandals and blunders.  The list of scandals and blunders in the Obama administration is long, but the roster of people who have been fired by President Obama for screwing up is strikingly short.  From Benghazi to the Internal Revenue Service to the Fast and Furious gun-running furor in the Justice Department, the president has been loathe to hold high-level aides accountable for major bungling.

Obama Should Be Impeached... for Cluelessness.  When I read Sunday evening [10/27/2013] in the Wall Street Journal that Barack Obama was "unaware" until last summer that the U.S. spied on thirty-five world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, I was frankly stupefied. [...] No wonder Obamacare and practically everything else from foreign policy to energy policy is an unmitigated mess.  This president and his administration have taken hands-off leadership and leading from behind to unprecedented levels.  What exactly does our president do for a living?

Heretic: NBC Reporter Asks Jay Carney Why Obama was So Wrong on Obamacare.  [Scroll down]  The fact is, the President hasn't the slightest clue what the private sector is actually like.  To progressive liberals such as our campaigner in chief, the "private-sector" is a theoretical source of tax revenue.

Even Liberals are Gagging on the Bitter Taste of Obamacare.  The Obama administration's incompetent half-billion-dollar rollout of its incompetent multi-trillion-dollar signature achievement is but a tragic metaphor for this man's entire presidency.  (It's not hyperbole when it's true.)  Nearly three weeks in and the utopian promise of "affordable care" for all has yielded but a handful of folks who've even been able to sign up for this clinic in socialism.  That Obamacare — something billed as a health-care panacea for the collective — is something that the collective neither asked for, nor wanted, is now the back story.  That it has failed so fantastically in every respect, has taken center stage.

Liberal Hates Obamacare Now, But Still Won't Admit that Ted Cruz Was Right.  As a poor executive, Obama has proven himself incapable of spotting trouble as Healthcare.gov was being built, and on Monday appeared just as ineffective as the nation's IT manager.  Obama's team know how to campaign.  They do not know how to do much else.

Obama Chewed Gum, Played with Phone, During Syrian War Plans.  Obama slept while Americans died in Benghazi because he was prepping to go part in Vegas with Jay-Z.  And if Americans weapons fall into the hands of Al Qaeda and end up being used to kill Americans, then while that was being discussed we can take comfort in the fact that the man at the top was taking the time to chew gum, roll his eyes and scroll through his radical pals' latest Facebook updates.

He's no Truman: It seems the buck doesn't stop at Obama's Oval Office desk.  In the Obama White House these days, the buck stops somewhere — anywhere — below the president.  White House aides insisted Wednesday [10/23/2013] that President Obama wasn't told about major problems with the Obamacare website before its failed launch, adding to the growing list of blunders in which his advisers allegedly have kept him in the dark.  As the president summoned a dozen top health insurance executives to the White House for a meeting on salvaging his signature initiative, administration officials said nobody in Mr. Obama's inner circle had any inkling of how bad the federal website for HealthCare.gov would be until it went live Oct. 1.

The Editor says...
I don't know why "officials" — whoever they are — would ever make a statement like this, because it is either a public confession of incompetence, or it is an obvious lie.

Way to go, liberals.  You elected Sergeant Schultz!
The ObamaCare debacle marks the return of 'President Passerby'.  Last spring, President Barack Obama maintained plausible deniability throughout the Benghazi, IRS, and Department of Justice snooping scandals, letting most of the blame fall on the people below him.  He was dubbed "President Passerby" by members of the press, and accused by critics of either lying about his level of involvement in the scandals or being woefully uninformed about what was happening in his own administration.  Now, as more details emerge about the ObamaCare rollout fiasco, it looks like the hands-off president is back.

'Barry Bam Bam' never knows the gun is loaded.  Most Americans had never heard about Canadian company CGI that built the still floundering website until after it crashed.  But Obama knew the company and was praising it as a "wonderful" one way back during the 2008 presidential campaign.  Obama didn't know it might have been time to worry when CGI was fired by the Ontario Government for delays and cost overruns on the building of data bases for diabetic clients.

Lawmakers: Sebelius failed at government website projects prior to serving in Obama administration.  Obama administration Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' failure at designing websites to provide government services began during her term as governor of Kansas, long before the Obamacare website debacle, Kansas political insiders told The Daily Caller.

Heckuva job, Sebelius.  Little did they know it, but Republicans fighting to defund or delay Obamacare had an ally in spirit in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  Her explanation for why the Obamacare website doesn't work is that she couldn't possibly have been expected to make it work in the mere 3½ years since the law passed.

Dick Cheney swipes at Obama's, Hillary Clinton's 'incompetence'.  "I think the incompetence of this administration in the way they've handled these kinds of affairs, especially in the Middle East, is one of the worst aspects of this presidency," Mr. Cheney said, on Hugh Hewitt's radio show.  "If you're a friend and ally of the United States in that part of the world tonight, you'd have to say what's this guy all about?  Can we count on anything he's told us?"

ObamaCare Schaden-Fraud.  [Scroll down]  We did not grossly overpay cronies of yours to put the website together, and we did not forget the simple step of obtaining similar domain names to prevent cyber-squatting and identity theft.  You tech geniuses, you!  We did not hire ACORN and other known criminals as navigators to help get around the failing website, and we did not bring on sixteen thousand new IRS agents with the notion that they would help Americans stay healthier.  And we did not fire a polite operator who simply took a phone call from Sean Hannity.  Nope, this was all you.  And by "you," I mean the president and his economically ignorant cabinet and advisor team, the mainstream media, and the low-information bloggers and message board trolls who are going more silent by the second.  No, you guys did all this.

#ObamaDidntKnow.  [Scroll down]  So we've established that if he and his subordinates are telling the truth after problems arise, Barack Obama isn't working to improve the economy, he doesn't know what the agencies that answer to him are doing, he isn't managing the war, he isn't securing our borders, and he didn't even make sure that his signature policy, Obamacare, was ready to roll on its launch date.  We know that Barack Obama watches a lot of sports and has opinions on just about everything sport-related.  He plays lots of basketball and golf.  He delivers lots of speeches, but he doesn't write them.  Other than that and watching ESPN, just what does Barack Obama do all day?

Sergeant Schultz!
Obama's 'in-the-dark' defense.  President Barack Obama is briefed each day on a wide range of domestic and international issues, yet when it comes to major controversies, his administration's response is often the same:  the president didn't know.  The most recent appearance of the tendency came Sunday, as the Wall Street Journal reported that Obama was unaware of the National Security Agency's surveillance of foreign leaders until earlier this year.  The story came on the heels of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's claim that the president didn't learn of the problems with HealthCare.gov until after the site's Oct. 1 launch.

What did President Obama know and when did he know it?  For a smart man, President Obama professes to know very little about a great number of things going on in his administration. [...] It stretches credulity to think that the United States was spying on world leaders without the president's knowledge, or that he was blissfully unaware of huge technical problems that threatened to undermine his main legislative achievement.  But on issues including the IRS targeting flap and the Justice Department's use of subpoenas against reporters, White House officials have frequently given a variation on this theme.

Did Jarrett And Michelle Pick Incompetent Website Firm?  Healthcare.gov's implosion may be due to one of its major developers being selected less for its technical competence than for cronyism. [...] Why pick a Canadian firm with a French name to help develop the official ObamaCare website?  It certainly wasn't based on the track record in developing health care software of CGI Federal, the IT contractor that orchestrated most of the Healthcare.gov website.

Our Know-Nothing President.  In recent days, President Obama has claimed ignorance about spying on allies and the ObamaCare meltdown.  How can it be this president is always the last to know whenever anything goes wrong in his administration? [...] Ridiculous or not, pleading ignorance has become routine for Obama whenever a scandal arises.  Just last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Obama had no idea there were any problems with the ObamaCare exchange before it went live on Oct. 1.

Barack Obama: The Most Uninformed President in History.  This weekend, we learned that President Obama "didn't know about" NSA spying on world leaders, especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  He also "didn't know about" the posthumously obvious problems with the rollout of the ObamaCare website exchanges.  According to the New York Times, these problems were evident eight months ago.  Yet, it seems, they never made it to the President's desk.  President Obama was also completely unaware that the IRS was subjecting conservative organizations to undue scrutiny on their tax-exempt applications. [...] President Obama also, presumably, was unaware of the Justice Department's program to allow Mexican drug gangs to purchase military-grade arms from the US.

The Universal Obamaphone.  President Obama has shown an alarming tendency to be unaware of most everything.  To begin with, he was unaware that the NSA was spying on world leaders until he read about it in the papers.  Although he argued that Obamacare would let Americans keep their existing plans, his administration apparently knew all along that millions would lose — have already lost — their coverage.  How to explain this contradiction?  Well, Obama was probably unaware of what Obamacare would do also.  Why, he didn't even know there were problems with the Obamacare website until two days after it launched, despite the fact that nobody could seem to log on to it!

Competence Comes First.  Even the wisest, most carefully conceived policy will end in failure if the officials who execute it have no idea what they're doing.  To point out the obvious, President Obama and his team are utterly, completely incompetent when it comes to executing national policy.  The catastrophic launch of Obamacare is only the latest example.

Stick a Fork in Obama.  Barack Obama has become a leader who does not matter — the stimulus was all Pelosi and ObamaCare was Pelosi and Harry Reid, et al.  What idea was ever his?  Can he point to one thing where he was deeply involved?  He has been our golfing president.  He is so incompetent and uninvolved that it is believable that he did not know the problems with healthcare.gov, the integral component of ObamaCare, a program he proudly put his name to.

Obama leadership style raises question of 'who is in control?'.  Claims by the administration and other Democrats that Obama didn't know about sensitive matters in his own administration — such as problems with the health care website and revelations of National Security Agency surveillance on foreign leaders — have many in Washington scratching their heads. [...] Obama has been hammered for being unaware of potential glitches that disrupted the launch of the online marketplace for Americans to browse and purchase health plans.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNN last week that Obama wasn't aware of the we problems until "the first couple of days" after its launch.

Obama's learning afterward about sensitive issues raises question about approach, inner circle.  [R]eports over the past week weeks that President Obama was not aware of the National Security Agency monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone nor of the technical problems that plagued the ObamaCare website ahead of its Oct. 1 launch suggests he is taking too much of hands-off approach or perhaps not surrounding himself with people who can keep him informed, critics say.

An Expert's Opinion: Jimmy Carter Hammers Obama for Ineptness.  When asked by Parade magazine how he would evaluate the Obama presidency so far, [Jimmy] Carter said this:  ["]He's done the best he could under the circumstances.  His major accomplishment was Obamacare, and the implementation of it now is questionable at best.["]  This is, as Guy Benson points out, a withering indictment from Mr. Malaise.  And on first blush, I thought, an unfair one, at least given the source.  Who is Jimmy Carter to indict anyone on grounds of incompetence.  And yet the more I reflect on it, the more I think Mr. Carter may be on to something.  What exactly are the impressive achievements of President Obama?

A Phalanx of Lies.  We are assured by the headline writers that the president was "unaware" of Obamacare's website defects, and the NSA spying, and the IRS targeting of his political enemies, and the Justice Department bugging the Associated Press, and pretty much anything else you ask him about.

Barack Obama's Narrative Illusions.  It is now apparent to any honest observer that Obama is a rank incompetent too arrogant and foolish to alter his political philosophy even after reality has proven it false.  As his record at the time of his original candidacy should have warned us, he has no business in the Oval Office.  He simply isn't up for the job.

Will Insularity, Incompetence and Lies Doom Obamacare?  Early signs point to Obama compounding rather than correcting his team's errors.  Staying the course is a losing option for Obamacare and the more than 40 million Americans who need health insurance.  The trouble is far deeper than a "glitchy" website, according to numerous media reports, including an in-depth investigation by The Washington Post.  Among other things, The Post uncovered a 2010 memo from a trusted outside health adviser warning that no one in the administration was "up to the task" of constructing an insurance exchange and other complexities of the 2,000-page law.

Who Sabotaged ObamaCare?  [Scroll down]  Obama and his allies in Congress were unable to win a single Republican vote — and it doesn't seem to have occurred to them that a monstrously complicated law enacted by a slender partisan minority might prove especially difficult to implement.  As Obama himself admitted yesterday in a rare truthful statement:  "Now, let's face it, a lot of us didn't realize that passing the law was the easy part."  That's what America gets for electing a president with charisma but no known skills apart (arguably) from delivering speeches.

Our Cash For Obama's Clunkers.  [Scroll down]  Seventy years in advance, [Henry] Hazlitt gave us the job descriptions of Health & Human Services head Katherine Sebelius, Obama's former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and his master of deception Jay Carney.  If all that is not enough to upset your wallet, despite the dismal failures of their efforts, keep in mind that no matter how bad the results, no one gets dismissed from the Obama administration. [...] That's right, you can waste over $600 million on a website, spend more than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn combined, have it fail and keep your job.  That's good enough for government work.

Revealed: How a simple spelling error helped bring down $630 million Obamacare website.  A spelling mistake in the words 'not recommended' on the Obamacare website led to the site going down, it was revealed today in internal notes from 'war room' meetings of experts scrabbling to breathe life into the shambolic operation.  The error limited the choices Obamacare shoppers were offered in October and often presented them with overpriced options.  Ultimately, at least some of the website's many outages were brought about by this simple typo, as technicians struggled to give the public an experience that mirrored President Obama's promises.

New York Times' Obama cheerleading harms the nation.  Poor Barack Obama.  Ending his fifth year as the world's most powerful man, he is running out of scapegoats and fairy tales.  Blaming George W. Bush has lost its punch, and the ObamaCare debacle is shredding the myths he is competent and honest.

IRS Sent Hundreds of Checks to One Address in China.  The IRS, which is adept at targeting conservatives and which is the enforcement arm for Obamacare, sent 655 tax refunds to one address in Lithuania!  They sent 343 tax refunds to one address in China!  It apparently never occurred to them that this could be identity fraud.  There is no one minding the store.

ObamaCare Lies and Incompetence May Be Enough To Bring It Down.  By now, many Americans are all-too-familiar with Obama's 29 videotaped assertions to Americans that, "If you like your healthcare plan, you'll be able to keep your healthcare plan."  Obama's message was unmistakably clear:  When implemented, ObamaCare will leave the choice of which insurance to buy completely up to the consumer.  In other words, ObamaCare is being created to benefit other people, but it won't impact you.  Millions of voters took the President of the United States at his word, which is exactly what Obama wanted and needed.

Is Kerry the Worst Secretary of State Ever?  During his first term in office, President Obama was criticized by conservatives for conducting what they dubbed apology tours in which he always seemed to find something in American history for which he felt compelled to make amends.  To his surprise, neither apologies nor the magic of his personality and historic status were able to conceal the fact that he was far better at alienating America's traditional allies than winning new friends.

Maybe Barack Obama is just inferior.  Obama's story of failure is his ideology, not race.  He has terrible ideas, and he implements those terrible ideas terribly.  Inferior.  What other word describes a man not good at anything?  Those praising his campaigning abilities require clarification.  What other word describes a man not good at anything that matters?

Report: Mistake-ridden Obamacare regulations required 254 corrections.  If the Obamacare roll-out seems riddled with mistakes, that's because it has been — at least 254 of them, according to a report from the American Action Forum (AAF).  The think tank run by former Congressional Budget chief Doug Holtz-Eakin found that for 104 final rules the administration issued in order to implement Obamacare, federal officials then needed to go back and issue 254 corrections.

Obama Overwhelmed.  Whatever the cause, the president's blundering on the cherished, decades-old liberal dream of universal health care and his jaw-dropping news conference Thursday are a blow to those on the left who still cling to the notion that he is a man of immense talent. [...] It is fair to say what we saw yesterday was not merely a policy failure and indictment against liberal big government, but confirmation of his personal unfitness for the job.

"Barack the Incompetent" — It Has a Nice Ring, Doesn't it?  While Barack's endless pratfalls have left a warning about the dangers of neo-liberalism, there must still be a public atonement for all of his reckless, selfish and disastrous actions.  Obama must be removed from public office. [...] [T]here is simply no more glossing over Barack's spectacular incompetence.

Why Dems better hope Obama's lying.  One has to ask:  Is President Barack Obama making this up as he goes?  It's hard to imagine that the President and the team charged with implementing Obamacare couldn't have foreseen the problems that have continually popped up.  Yet, here we are, bringing in "tech surges" to examine the website problems, security experts to mitigate privacy concerns, insurance executives to "brainstorm" ways to actually insure people.  And all the while the President has implied he was the last to know that storm clouds were on the immediate horizon.

Obamacare Conference Call Spoiled by Website Failure.  President Barack Obama held a conference call Monday meant to whip up support for Obamacare, but many supporters who logged onto the Organizing for Action website to listen in experienced technical problems instead of the President's inspiring words.

Obama: The Affirmative Action President.  Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages.  How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? [...] And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor.  It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking:  how on Earth was such a man elected president?

Obama: The Affirmative Action President.  President Barack Obama is the perfect "Low Information President."  He is not really interested very much in doing his job.  He doesn't know anything going on in his own administration.  He is always the last to know.  He learns important developments only when he reads about it in the newspaper, apparently after first reading the sports section.  But Obama is keenly interested in basketball.  He has turned his NCAA championship "brackets" predictions chart into a presidential event.  He is into music, movies, culture.  Obama is the "Pop Culture President." [...] President Obama has played over 160 rounds of golf in office.  Obama's White House has pickup basketball games with NBA basketball stars.  Obama knows who is up for Academy Awards.  He gets his news from Entertainment Tonight.

War on What?  A left-liberal magazine's publication of an article titled "The Republican War on Competence" would have seemed unremarkable at just about any point in this columnist's adult lifetime.  But this article, by Jeff Shesol for The New Yorker, was published yesterday — with a Democrat in the White House presiding for the 51st day over the most stunning display of governmental incompetence since Prohibition, maybe since Nero.  In that context, it's like a dispatch from a different planet.

Unbelievable incompetence led to no-bid contract for healthcare.gov.  Suddenly realizing that you can't manage the finance and accounting aspects of the program is somewhat like a contractor erecting a skyscraper and suddenly realizing that it hadn't competently excavated the foundation.  In toher [sic] words, the whole edifice is at risk of collapse in both cases.  You can tell how embarrassing and revealing this is by the fact that nobody is willing to speak on the record.

Obamacare agency rushed in contractor without bids, documents show.  Caught flat-footed by the challenges of building the financial-management and accounting parts of the U.S. government's new online marketplace for health insurance, officials rushed to hire a familiar contractor without seeking competing bids, according to government procurement documents reviewed by Reuters.

A Better Obamacare Won't Save Obama.  A new CNN poll confirms what America's collective gut has been saying for weeks:  Obamacare is sinking its namesake.  The numbers are ugly:  Just one in four respondents say President Obama is a competent manager of the federal government.  For all the hand-wringing about comparing the HealthCare.gov site rollout to Hurricane Katrina, the bottom line is that this president, like his predecessor, has now suffered a signature event that has convinced a majority of Americans that he is unfit for the job.  Piling on, the president also scored his lowest marks on honesty and trustworthiness, with 53 percent of those surveyed responding that they don't feel Obama is being straight with them.

Obama is no longer so invincible.  President Obama is concerned these days with the "young invincibles," the 20-somethings he needs now to buy into his program, but who probably won't because they feel (you guessed it) invincible and think they will stay so for quite a long time.  But it takes one to know one, as the irony is Obama himself is, or once was, an ultra-invincible, unstoppable and doing what people said couldn't be done.  Could he become world famous on the strength of one speech?  Yes, he could.  Could he beat Hillary Clinton, a president's wife and a feminist icon?  Yes, he could.

It Turns Out Obama Was Nothing But a Community Organizer All Along.  Americans are tired of Mr. Obama; and they are tired of the pain and trauma, the ineptness and dishonesty, of his presidency.

Obama's Failed Approach Has Increased Income Inequality.  President Obama has declared his renewed commitment to fighting income inequality.  But we now have five years of evidence to draw upon, and it's clear that Obama's methods in this regard have failed miserably.  In fact, they've worked about as well as Obamacare.  Obama's approach to addressing income inequality, of course, is to funnel ever more money and power to Washington, while promoting a culture of cozy cronyism between Big Government and Big Business (especially Big "Green" Business).

The Liars Club.  It is now apparent that our President has lied to us.  He lied when he crooned soothingly about improving the healthcare of millions of Americans through vast changes in health policy that would actually lower their costs.  Those costs are now going up, and they are going up for almost everyone.  They will not come down.  He lied when he said we could keep our present healthcare policy.  Those policies are rapidly disappearing.  He lied again when he said we could keep our doctors.  He lied when he said his plan would not involve rationing.  I could go on, but in sum he is lying about most aspects of the most massive social policy in American history.  It is also the greatest disaster in social policy in the history of social policy.  President Barack Obama is a rank amateur.

Tech Experts: HealthCare.gov Should Cost Less Than $10 Million.  The price for building the Obamacare website HealthCare.gov should have topped out at less than $10 million, tech experts have claimed.  "I would say to build a site like this with the infrastructure, the architecture around it, you are looking at maybe $5 million to $10 million at a very maximum rate," David Kennedy, President and CEO of TrustedSec also known as the "White Hat Hacker" told Sean Hannity on Fox News Wednesday [12/4/2013].

Krauthammer: Obama Acts Like He Wandered Into White House on a Tour and Discovered He Was President.  Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer had some harsh words for Barack Obama Friday [12/6/2013].  Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer said, "It's as if this guy discovers everything late, as if he wandered into the White House on a White House tour and discovered himself in the Oval Office as president."

Dangerous Times: Inspector Clouseau Brings Peace.  This administration is coming to an end.  If you take away its corruption and thuggery, its constant scapegoating, its weird cast of characters, its astronomical spending, its drone killings of terrorists who were supposed to be dead last year, and its healthcare debacle — everything comes down to imperial overreach.  Obama is the biggest gambler with national security in our history.  He looks like Charlie Chaplin carrying stacks of teetering dinner plates, causing chaos on all sides, but never noticing anything wrong.

David Gergen: Report on Obamacare Prep Shows 'No One in Charge' of White House.  A veteran Washington adviser who has worked for four Presidents on both sides of the political aisle said that the stunning Government Accountability Report that found President Barack Obama has not had a one-on-one meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius since the passage of Obamacare over three years ago is an indictment of the entire White House operation and shows that the Obama administration has bordered on "malfeasance."

How the ATF Manufactures Crime.  The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is probably best known these days for the failure of its disastrous Fast and Furious scheme — a botched initiative that aimed to give American guns to Mexican cartels first and to ask questions later.  Under pressure, the administration was quick to imply that the mistake was an aberration.  But a watchdog report, published last week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggests that the caprice, carelessness, and downright incompetence that marked the disaster was no accident.  In fact, that it is endemic in the ATF.

Blacks and Obama.  There is every indication to suggest that Obama's presidency will be seen as a failure similar to that of Jimmy Carter's.  That's bad news for the nation but especially bad news for black Americans.  No white presidential candidate had to live down the disgraced presidency of Carter, but I'm all too fearful that a future black presidential candidate will find himself carrying the heavy baggage of a failed black president.

What Will It Take?  Let me begin with a categorical statement that, given current events and recent political history, can be easily defended:  Barack Hussein Obama is a willful, indoctrinated child of the Left with strong Islamic sympathies who is not fit to govern.  Indeed, he would not be fit to govern Lower Slobovia, let alone the United States of America.  Obama is a historic disaster of the first magnitude and, if not restrained, he will see to the irrevocable decline of the country which foolishly elected him, leaving the world on the brink of a conflict — or in the midst of one — whose repercussions cannot be underestimated.

Incompetence.  In the place of the energy and focus that would go into the running of things, the administering and managing of them, we have the preoccupation with spin, with how things look as opposed to how they are.

Woe Is Obama!  The least-engaged, most ideologically ambitious president in history messed up a lot of things and now doesn't know what to do about it.  Wasn't this the man who in his biography said that no one ever punished him or corrected him because his grandparents thought of him as a "poor fatherless boy"? [...] Ending up in time-out at 52 for the first time in your life is not just difficult.  It's unendurable.  He can't cope with it and he will find excuses, probably excuses that make him a martyr of undeserved failure/reproach.

Management experts knock Obama.  After the HealthCare.gov debacle first exploded three months ago, President Barack Obama pleaded for people to cut him a little slack:  "I wanted to go in and fix it myself, but I don't write code."  At his year-end news conference recently, he struck a different tone:  "Since I'm in charge, obviously, we screwed it up."  "We screwed it up" is not exactly the same thing as "I screwed it up."

5 Political Fallacies Too Many Americans Embrace:  [#4]  There's no need to worry because politicians know what they're doing.  The primary reason most Americans don't pay attention to politics is that they just assume that despite all of the feuding and fighting, politicians generally know what they're doing and won't let anything too horrible happen to the country.  This is no longer a safe assumption because the people running the government aren't competent, they're not making decisions based on what's best for the country, and most government employees are just following orders, not trying to improve the system.

Levin: Obama Is 'an Economic Illiterate... Who Takes Responsibility for Nothing'.  Discussing President Obama's remarks in the White House Tuesday [1/7/2014], Mark Levin called the president an "economic illiterate" during Tuesday evening's radio show.  The president encouraged Congress to extend unemployment insurance at the White House Tuesday in front of several Americans who lost their benefits last month.

How Bad Is Obama's Jobs Record? Let's Count The Ways.  The number of jobs created in December was the lowest in three years, and while the official unemployment number dropped to 6.7%, that was almost entirely due to more than half a million people giving up looking for work.  Of course, a month of data doesn't mean much.  So, for some badly needed perspective, we've created Obama's Jobs Index to show how Obama's policies have failed to create adequate job growth.

Obama and Clinton Are Cooked.  Three strikes and you're out.  Let me list them:
  1. Obama:  incompetent and disinterested in policy (president).
  2. Clinton:  interested in policy but a potential rival politician, so she could not be assigned to do anything too productive (secretary of state).
  3. John Kerry:  assigned to do productive work but totally incompetent (secretary of state).

Spanish-language Obamacare website is written in 'Spanglish'.  It launched two months late, but the rollout of the Spanish version of the federal Obamacare portal has been just as disastrous as its English counterpart's October debut, according to an Associated Press report. [...] The AP says the translations on so poor that many users feel they were computer-generated.  The name of the site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, can be litterally [sic] read as "for the caution of health."

Bombshell Documents: Obama, Hillary lied completely about Benghazi.  Obama knew he couldn't win the election if he told the American people the truth.  I bet Obama didn't think twice about lying.  The media helped him, debate moderators saved him, and now we're stuck with the most incompetent President of all time.

Our Clueless President.  The president clearly has learned nothing on the job.  And now our multi-clueless commander in chief is so frustrated that he's not getting his way with Congress, he's starting to issue decrees like some tin-pot socialist South American dictator.  That's what Obama did this week when he called on Congress to pass his latest list of tried-and-not-true ideas for resurrecting the economy.  If Congress didn't enact his pet policies — a federal minimum wage hike, another unemployment insurance extension, funding for universal preschool, etc. — the president decreed, he was going to wield his executive super-powers.

Foreign Policy Has Left Obama A Global Laughing Stock.  The latest U.S. ally to openly sneer at us is a senior British defense adviser who says President Obama has "devalued the deterrent effect of American military capability" in the world.

The Nonsolution.  As the IRS investigations of political enemies show, it is what you are allowed to do with what you know that constitutes the major peril.  When the intelligence and law enforcement functions are mixed they constrain each other, as may have happened in the case of the Boston Bombers.  The incentive of the FBI is to secure a conviction.  The incentive of intelligence is to anticipate a threat.  Mix these two functions together and you sometimes get neither or if you get something, you get something very dangerous.

Our Perpetually Surprised President.  He was surprised by the depth of the recession when he came into office.  He then became surprised at the duration of the bad economy.  He was surprised to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.  He was surprised there were no shovel-ready jobs.  He was surprised the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was running guns to Mexican drug cartels.  He was surprised S&P downgraded the United States' credit rating for the first time in history.  He was surprised the IRS was targeting conservatives.

The Root of Obama's Imperious Presidency.  He's like a high school football player who never comes to practice and then whines that he's warming the bench.  Unfortunately, Obama's temperament will now have serious consequences for the nation.  We'll be in a constant state of Constitutional subversion for the next three years as Obama issues edicts and bullies the private sector into doing his bidding.  At any point, with some particularly outlandish act, he can kick things up to a major Constitutional crisis.

See No Evil.  I just saw a tease on a news site that said Obama didn't know the extent of the NSA surveillance.  It seems that he also didn't know about our nation spying on the German Chancellor, didn't know the Obamacare website was nowhere close to being ready to roll out, didn't know about the IRS targeting conservative groups, didn't know about the Petraeus investigation, didn't know about the Department of Justice seizing the AP's phone records, had no knowledge of Fast and Furious and doesn't remember a thing about what he was doing the night four Americans were slaughtered in Benghazi Libya.

Fact-Free Liberals.  President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.  Economic equality?  That was tried in the 19th century, in communities set up by Robert Owen, the man who coined the term "socialism."  Those communities all collapsed.

Our Gravest Peril.  Our country too often looks weak.  Our foreign policy too often seems rudderless and unreliable. [...] The recent interim accord with Iran is yet another example of the administration's flawed thinking, as it agreed to reduce sanctions on Tehran to the tune of billions of dollars in return for not much of anything.

Poll: Majority Believe Obama's White House is Incompetent.  According to new polling from Quinnipiac, a majority of Americans view President Obama's White House as incompetent.  In addition, a majority of Americans are still questioning Obama's character and view him as dishonest and untrustworthy.

Majority Say Obama Administration Is Incompetent and Obama Is Not Even Paying Attention.  A clear majority of the American people say that the Obama administration is not competent to manage the affairs of the U.S. government, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday [1/22/2014].  Those who believe the Obama administration is incompetent weigh in at a clip of 53-42 — a margin of 11 points.

Shhh. The President Is Sleeping.  It's not the State of the Union, but Obama's recent golf excursion to Hawaii, that may serve as the template for the president's proclaimed 2014 "year of action."  Obama played nine times during his 15-day vacation.  What's more, in a not insignificant indication of where his mind is at, he golfed 46 times in 2013 — easily an annual record for him as president and more than twice the 19 times he went out in 2012, when there was the serious work of getting reelected to be done.  You will likely search in vain for a world leader who accomplished significant things in the same year he or she went golfing nearly four dozen times.

Obama bundler nominated as ambassador to Argentina has never been to the country.  Presidents often award diplomatic posts to campaign donors and fundraisers, but Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suspects that Obama's choice of ambassador to Argentina — a man who bundled more than $500,000 for President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, but who has never been to the country — is in over his head.  "Have you been to Argentina?" Rubio asked Noah Mamet during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday [2/6/2014].  "I haven't had the opportunity yet to be there," Mamet replied.

Why Does America Send So Many Stupid, Unqualified Hacks Overseas?  [Scroll down]  Another of the president's picks, Colleen Bell, who is headed to Budapest, could not answer questions about the United States' strategic interests in Hungary.  But could the president really expect that she'd be an expert on the region?  Her previous gig was as a producer for the TV soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.  She stumbled through responses to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) like, well, a soap opera star, expounding on world peace.

Was Obama stoned during Bob Costas interview?  Last night [2/7/2014], President Obama explained to Bob Costas of NBC Sports why he wasn't attending the Sochi Olympics, but the substance of what he had to say was lost in the controversy that erupted on Twitter over whether or not he was stoned.  Yahoo writer Mike Oz took the high road, as would nearly any journalist, and described the president as looking "sleepy."  But in the Twitterverse, many people outright speculated that he was stoned on marijuana, a drug that he is well known to have indulged in to excess in his younger years (at least so far as we know).

What Does It Cost To Be an Obama Ambassador?  Rewarding donors and political allies with ambassadorships is nothing new, but Obama vowed to buck the tradition, promising shortly after he was elected to "have civil servants, wherever possible, serve in these posts."  "My expectation is that high quality civil servants are going to be rewarded," he said in a January 2009 news conference.  In fact, Obama has rewarded political supporters plum ambassadorships more than his predecessors. [...] In his second term, Obama has named more political than career appointments, 39 versus 36.  Twenty of his political appointments raised more than $500,000 for his 2012 campaign.

President Obama's magic words and numbers.  Barack Obama, the first president shaped by the celebratory culture in which every child who plays soccer gets a trophy and the first whose campaign speeches were his qualification for the office, perhaps should not be blamed for thinking that saying things is tantamount to accomplishing things, and that good intentions are good deeds.  So, his presidency is useful after all, because it illustrates the perils of government run by believers in magic words and numbers.

Obama's 'Smart Diplomacy' Collapses Under Political Cronyism.  [T]he State Department under Obama is turning into a global laughingstock as he puts forward a series of incompetent political cronies for key diplomatic posts, showing disrespect for allies and contempt for our own nation's proud diplomatic traditions. [...] George Tsunis, who raised $988,550 for Obama in 2012, became ambassador to Norway, [...] Noah Mamet, Obama's just-named envoy to Argentina, a major Latin American nation on the verge of fiscal collapse, has never visited that country.  But, hey, he did bundle more than $500,000 for Obama in 2012.  Caroline Kennedy, who doesn't speak Japanese, has no real expertise in Japan and whose sole qualification appears to be her last name, is now U.S. representative to our No. 1 ally in Asia.  Tokyo officials took it as a grave insult.

Parallels to ObamaCare site woes seen as vets try to get benefits online.  The glitches and other problems with the ObamaCare website that sparked a national firestorm are similar to those military veterans using the federal government's online benefits system have routinely faced for about the past 18 months.  Eric Jenkins, a veteran and American Federation of Government Employees representative, recently told Congress that during January the Veterans Benefits Management System crashed about once a week with downtimes ranging from one hour to multiple days.

Obama ambassador nominees prompt an uproar with bungled answers, lack of ties.  The nominee for ambassador to Norway, for example, prompted outrage in Oslo by characterizing one of the nation's ruling parties as extremist.  A soap-opera producer slated for Hungary appeared to have little knowledge of the country she would be living in.  A prominent Obama bundler nominated to be ambassador to Argentina acknowledged that he had never set foot in the country and isn't fluent in Spanish.

Ambassadorships are President Obama's political plums.  Noah Bryson Mamet is a political consultant who raised at least $500,000 for President Obama and the Democratic Party in the 2012 election cycle.  As of last week, he had never visited Argentina — which helps explain the ambassador-designate's spotty performance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his confirmation hearing.

Acting ICE Director Sandweg resigns after five months on the job.  The acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose appointment to the post raised eyebrows because of his scant law enforcement experience, told agency employees he will resign Friday, FoxNews.com has learned.

State Department union may oppose Obama ambassador nominees.  In an unusual move, the American Foreign Service Association, which represents more than 16,000 career diplomats, is expected to weigh next week whether to publicly oppose some of President Obama's controversial recent ambassadorial nominations.

US diplomats tell Obama: Appoint ambassadors who know something.  As Olivier Knox reported yesterday, the American Foreign Service Association didn't put it quite so bluntly, but they're not terribly pleased with the ominously incompetent direction the White House is taking.  Their six-page report may be couched in diplo-speak, but it's not difficult to read between the lines [...]

Obama fires verbs at Russian tanks.  President Barack Obama fired a few verbs across the front armor of Russian President Vladimir Putin's tanks, in a rushed statement just after 5 p.m. on Friday.  The statement was made as Russian forces — including attack helicopters — appeared in peripheral parts of the Ukraine that are largely populated by ethnic Russians.  There's no evidence that Obama wants to get involved in what may become a war between the Ukraine and Russia.  He did not threaten any significant retaliation if Russian force attack nor did he offer military aid to the Ukraine.

Obama's Journey from Arrogance to Incompetence.  Having been president for more than five years, we can now render some reasonable and informed judgments about Mr. Obama, including this one:  he is an amateur on par with Jimmy Carter.

Putin Acts, Obama Affirms.  Here's President Obama on Friday:  "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."  Characteristically, Obama establishes a few degrees of separation between himself and actually acting.  He doesn't say, straightforwardly, that the United States will lead the international community in imposing costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.  No.  The United States will "stand with" others in "affirming" that "there will be costs."

Krauthammer on Ukraine: 'Everybody is shocked by the weakness of Obama's statement'.  On Friday [2/28/2014], armed men, allegedly Russian military forces, entered the Crimea region and took control of two airports.  President Obama then delivered a message from the White House briefing room, saying he was "deeply concerned" by the reports and that "there will be costs" for any military intervention in Ukraine, though he declined to specify what those costs might be.  Krauthammer, however, said the president's statement failed to make strong waves.  "The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama's statement," he said.  "What he's saying is, we're not really going to do anything."

Palin Mocked in 2008 for Warning Putin May Invade Ukraine if Obama Elected.  During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin warned that if Senator Barack Obama were elected president, his "indecision" and "moral equivalence" may encourage Russia's Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

Obama vs Putin: How soft is this U.S. leader?  Perhaps you've heard with echoes of Nazi Germany annexing its neighbors with no convincing Allied response, Russian troops have taken effective control of eastern Ukraine.  Here's how President Barack Obama responded:  He telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Obama expressed "deep concern" over Russia's moves, suggested Putin's troops leave and warned the occupation "would negatively impact Russia's standing in the international community."

Hurts so bad that Palin was right and Obama-Media Industrial Complex wrong.  I am still waiting for the comeuppance of the mainstream media.  While they are losing readers and viewers, they still seem to set the political agenda.  Their mindless shilling for Obama — in both foreign and domestic policy — should have damaged their credibility as unbiased observers beyond repair.  It still hasn't happened.  Though I expect that stories like this bring that day closer.

Jimmy Obama.  Vladimir Putin has taken the measure of Barack Obama.  He's found Jimmy Carter.  Like Jimmy Carter, who boasted he was free of any "inordinate fear of communism," Obama began his term as president vowing to "reset" relations with Russia.  Like Jimmy Carter, who conveyed weakness when Iran took our embassy staff hostage, Obama confirmed his own weakness when he drew a red line in Syria and then backed down from enforcing it.  Like Jimmy Carter, who was rewarded by Leonid Brezhnev with a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Putin has returned Obama's favor with a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sarah Palin Was Right On Ukraine And Obama.  Mocked by late-night comedians and "experts" alike, Sarah Palin could see from her front porch that candidate Obama's response to Moscow's invasion of Georgia would encourage it also to invade Ukraine. [...] What she could see and what President Obama to this day can't are the consequences of appeasement and that the Cold War and all contests between free men and tyrants are not misunderstandings that can be dealt with by hitting a "reset" button, but are necessary resistance by free men to tyrants who would snuff all freedom out.

Putin Doesn't Threaten Our National Security, Obama Does.  We fret about democracy in the Ukraine while Obama treats the Constitution as a series of suggestions.  For the president, the three branches of government are him, his pen and his telephone.  Putin is a strong man.  Obama is a weak man (except when it comes to bullying our allies).  Obama venerates multilateralism.  Putin is willing to go it alone.  Obama is committed to the entire LGBT agenda (including gay "marriage").  He's also the only sitting president to address Planned Parenthood, such is his commitment to abortion without borders.  Putin believes the foregoing is the road to national annihilation.

Obama's Latest Photo Op Shows Why The Global Community Doesn't Take Him Seriously.  We are embroiled in a global conflict, and the supposed "leader of the free world" is taking photo ops at a grade school, making statements about the invasion of Ukraine on a kids' rug.  Meanwhile, Putin incredibly denied that any Russian troops are in Ukraine, and somehow President Barack 'I-call-the-Russian-invasion-an-uncontested-arrival' Obama actually thought it was a good idea to set up a lectern on a grade school alphabet mat when the entire world is seeing the consequences of his weakness.

Under legal fire, State Dept. hands over docs on 'competence' of ambassadors.  Facing legal action, the State Department on Friday [3/7/2014] responded to a request for documents about the qualifications of President Obama's ambassadorial nominees.  The American Foreign Service Association, the labor union for career diplomats, has been dissatisfied with the backgrounds of several recent administration picks for ambassadorships and on Thursday threatened to file suit against State for withholding information about their qualifications.

Obama, Inc.  President Obama has no business experience.  For most people, that might incline one to modesty.  Not this president.  To the contrary, he believes he knows how an auto company should be run, what policies health-insurance companies should offer, the wages, say, a part-time worker in a family restaurant should receive and what banks should pay in bonuses.  Now the president has found a new area in which to intervene.

Obama White House Afraid of Putin.  Former Reagan and Bush administration official Elliott Abrams argued the United States should not fear any retaliation that results from sanctions against Russia Friday on Fox News. [...] "Look, our country is twice the population of Russia.  Our economy is many times greater.  [Putin] has got an economy that depends on one thing, which is the sale of oil and gas.  For us to be afraid of him economically is really quite bizarre," Abrams said.

Barack Obama, Political Wrecking Ball.  The American people, having lived with the Obama presidency for more than five years, have come to the conclusion — later, I think, than they should have — that he is incompetent, weak, and untrustworthy.  And that judgment is directed not just at Mr. Obama; it is implicating his entire party.

The Unbearable Lightness of Barack Obama: Desperation, Cunning, or Disengagement?  [Scroll down]  Indeed, to beat a twice-dead horse, it was his political celebrity status that got Barack Obama elected in the first place, a politician of the very thinnest of resumes, whose new-age blather caused vapors in a press that was itself as filled with celebrity worshipers as the viewers they seek.  There's no reason to re-litigate two elections, but the track record of this White House can only give credence to the judgments of so many who feared a popularity-driven candidate with no experience and who was so clearly hiding an ideological streak at odds with the majority of his fellow citizens.

Kasparov: 'Carter looks like Churchill in comparison' to Obama.  For running commentary on Russia and the vote in Crimea, you might want to follow chess champion turned democracy activist Garry Kasparov. [...] Tonight, amid his usual barrage of criticism leveled at Vladimir Putin, he's turning his fire on President Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.  Discussing President Carter's foreign policy, he compliments the former President's "Very tough stands on human rights."  President Obama, however, he gives lower marks.

The man who didn't need Kennan.  Obama has lots of confidence.  It's his stock in trade.  And now that we've all bought his patented elixir and coughed it right up, what is there to say?  That Barack Obama will be remembered by history as the man who threw away the victory in Iraq, who threw away Ronald Reagan's victory in the Cold War and — at the rate he's going — may eventually succeed in undoing Franklin's Roosevelt's victory in World War 2? [...] The enemies of America know they are faced with the ultimate incompetent:  the sort who keeps doubling down on a losing hand because he's too vain to admit error and unable to even see he's losing.

President Laughingstock.  This is a sad situation.  I think Obama is a terrible president who has unleashed what President Bush called "evil-doers" with consequences that cannot be known now but which are potentially disastrous for the world.  He is now a laughingstock.  And that is not good for America.

Too busy to be president.  Conservatives had this guy figured out early in the first campaign, and they were spot on.  No record, no experience, no consistency, no integrity, no background, no evidence of morals, no normal friends or associates, and no supporters who cared more about their country than about their silly self-congratulation over electing the first black man who seemed just like them: unserious.  If we assume that the president is even half as smart as we've been told he is, which would still make him the smartest person ever to live, you'd think he would have picked up some skills along the way, or gained some firsthand experience that might come in handy.

Obama's pathetic response to Putin's invasion of Crimea.  Early in the Ukraine crisis, when the Europeans were working on bringing Ukraine into the EU system and Vladimir Putin was countering with threats and bribes, one British analyst lamented that "we went to a knife fight with a baguette."  That was three months ago. Life overtakes parody.  During the Ukrainian prime minister's visit to Washington last week, his government urgently requested military assistance.  The Pentagon refused.  It offered instead military ration kits. [...] One thing we can say for sure in these uncertain times:  The invasion of Ukraine will be catered by the United States.

America in Decline.  Recently, Obama nominated several of his campaign donors to ambassadorships.  The problem was that they had never visited their nominated countries, Iceland, Norway, and Argentina.  The nominee for Norway, George Tsunis, didn't even know that country had a king, and not a president.  Such is the level of presidential incompetence in Obama's personal nominees to major positions of government.

Obama talks climate change in Showtime documentary.  President Obama will discuss climate change in an upcoming Showtime documentary series produced by James Cameron.  Mashable reports the segment with Obama will offer an exclusive understanding of the president's thoughts on climate science and policy.

The Editor says...
Is it a documentary or a propaganda film?  Mr. Obama will read a teleprompter and pronounce someone else's thoughts on climate science and policy.  If you were to separate Obama from his teleprompter and ask him what carbon dioxide is or what it does, or why he thinks carbon dioxide is harmful, he probably couldn't tell you.  That's because he is poorly educated and unfit for his job.

Obama's Real Job: Fundraiser in Chief.  After two separate recent events in Houston, President Obama will have attended 373 fundraisers during his five-plus years in office.  That's just about one every five days or so.  Assuming he speaks for close to 15 minutes at each event, that's well over 5,000 presidential minutes consumed by the dirty business of asking people for money.  And that doesn't include the prep, the glad-handing and hobnobbing, the photos, the private asides, the travel.

When a bored president just 'mails it in'.  President Obama is what the ranchers on the plains call "all hat and no cattle."  Mr. Putin continues to play him like a cheap guitar (or maybe a zither), and the president continues on his merry way, off nearly every day to raise money to elect Democrats who will applaud as he dismantles American arms, strangles the domestic economy with a growing tangle of red tape, and fritters away American influence.

Obama's Staggering Record of Failure.  It's not simply that Mr. Obama has fallen short of what he promised; it's that he has been, in so many respects, a failure.  Choose your metrics.  Better yet, choose Mr. Obama's metrics:  Job creation.  Economic growth.  Improving our health-care system.  Reducing the debt.  Reducing poverty.  Reducing income inequality.  Slowing the rise of the oceans.  Healing the planet.  Repairing the world.  The Russian "reset."  Peace in the Middle East.

Reality Is Crushing the Obama Presidency.  Mr. Obama's failures are piling up one after another, in foreign policy and on the domestic side, to the point that they are now well beyond dispute.  Blaming his predecessor became passé a couple of years ago.  Blaming Republicans for his foreign-policy failures, and the failures of the Affordable Care Act, is absurd.

The media is turning on President Obama.  With multiple crises spiraling out of control around the world, stories about the Obama presidency are taking on the air of postmortems.  What went wrong, who's to blame, what next — even The New York Times is starting to recognize that Dear Leader is a global flop.  "Obama Suffers Setbacks in Japan and the Mideast," the paper declared on Friday's [4/25/2014] front page.  The double whammy of failure pushed the growing Russian menace in Europe to inside pages, but even they were chock-full of reports about utopia gone wrong.

Sonia Quotamayor: Product of Affirmative Action.  Sonia the Quota, aka Sonia Quotamayor, proved what most people have known for years.  Affirmative action means hiring, appointing, or promoting people for the color of their skin rather than the content of their character.  Sotomayor is obviously not where she is because of her character or her qualifications.  Her own words prove that she is grossly unfit to serve in any responsible judicial capacity in an equal opportunity society. [...] Quotamayor's open endorsement of race discrimination comes as no surprise, because her basic competence as a jurist is open to serious question.  She thinks only the parts of the Bill of Rights she likes, as opposed to the entire Bill of Rights, applies to the states.

Foreign Policy: From Bad to None.  Barack Obama had a foreign policy for about five years, and now he has none.  The first-term foreign policy's assumptions went something like this.  Obama was to assure the world that he was not George W. Bush.  Whatever the latter was for, Obama was mostly against. [...] Note what was not so integral to the Obama foreign policy.  There was little sense of history and geography that might explain why crises transcend personalities.  There was scant awareness that sometimes states act selfishly and immaturely.

A Foreign Policy Flirting With Chaos.  American foreign policy is in troubling disarray.  The result is unwelcome news for the world, which largely depends upon the United States to promote order in the absence of any other country able and willing to do so.  And it is bad for the U.S., which cannot insulate itself from the world.

Liberals: Exempt from Scrutiny.  The qualifications of a Tommy "Dude" Vietor or Ben Rhodes that placed them in the Situation Room during Obama-administration crises were not years of distinguished public service, military service, prior elected office, a string of impressive publications, an academic career, previous diplomatic postings, or any of the usual criteria that have placed others at the nerve center of America in times of crisis.  Their trajectory was based on yeoman partisan PR work, and largely on being young, hip, and well connected politically.  I don't think either of these operatives has a particular worldview or competency that would promote the interests of the United States.  But they do talk well, know the right people, and are hip.  Again, they have no real expertise or even ideology other than that.

Rogers: U.S. needs tougher foreign policy than 'hashtags and selfies'.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers argued Sunday [5/11/2014] that the Obama administration needs to take a tougher approach to foreign policy than tracking online trends and hashtag diplomacy.  The Michigan Republican criticized the administration for not designating Boko Haram a terrorist organization years ago.  The Islamist militant group is responsible for abducting at least 276 schoolgirls from the northeastern Nigerian village of Chibok last month.

Foreign-Policy Incoherence.  In 2012, President Obama obfuscated over the health-care debacle; pretended that the murder of an American ambassador in Libya was not the result of a terrorist incident, because he was claiming to have virtually stamped out terrorism; attacked the Roman Catholic Church; accused the Republicans of conducting a war on women, on all categories of benefit recipients, and on working people of modest incomes; and basically dismissed the GOP as a party of warmongering billionaires, exploiters, and crooks.

These are the 'essential skills' needed to be an Obama ambassadonor.  Earlier this year, three of Obama's "ambassadonor" picks raised eyebrows in their confirmation hearing testimony.  Real estate investor George Tsunis, nominated to be envoy to Norway, did not seem to know what kind of government that country has and attempted to bluff his way through questions about anti-immigration sentiment there.  Soap opera producer Colleen Bell, tapped to go to Hungary, could not list any of America's strategic interests there.  Consultant Noah Bryson Mamet admitted he had never been to Argentina.

Obama shrinks away in the face of evil.  As Barack Obama enters the twilight of his tenure, the debate over his legacy is beginning, but one conclusion already seems certain.  It can best be described as "Honey, I shrunk the presidency."  Not since Jimmy Carter was held hostage by Iran has the Oval Office seemed so inconsequential against the forces of international darkness.  The mismatch is particularly striking because smallness has been Obama's choice.

A Selfie-Taking, Hashtagging Teenage Administration.  If the United States today looks weak, hesitant and in retreat, it is in part because its leaders and their staff do not carry themselves like adults.  They may be charming, bright and attractive; they may have the best of intentions; but they do not look serious.  They act as though Twitter and clenched teeth or a pout could stop invasions or rescue kidnapped children in Nigeria.  They do not sound as if, when saying that some outrage is "unacceptable" or that a dictator "must go," that they represent a government capable of doing something substantial — and, if necessary, violent — if its expectations are not met.

Hashtag Diplomacy Jumps the Shark.  A world leader holding up a sign asking someone to please do something is an unnecessary, if implicit, admission of the intent to do nothing.  This has been a running complaint of Western leaders, especially Barack Obama, of late.  He has taken to declaring he wouldn't use force without even being asked.  It just became second nature for the president to insist that there wasn't much to be done.

The "Teenage" Administration?  We live in a very dangerous world, one in which the predators are always looking for an opening (usually in the form of a power vacuum) of which they can take advantage.  This administration has provided no leadership whatsoever during its tenure and that power vacuum has developed during our unilateral withdrawal from our previously prominent position in the world.  And just like a bunch of teenagers, this administration is sure that it is the fault of everyone but themselves.

Inside the Obama Frat House.  Tommy "Dude" Vietor, former National Security Council spokesman, did America a favor when he dismissed a question from Fox News's Bret Baier about Benghazi with the Lebowskian "Dude, that was like two years ago."  Such juvenility is pervasive among denizens of Obama's White House, or, as it may be better described, Obama's Frat House.  And it is hurting America.

Coulter: Michelle Obama's Next Hashtag Should Read 'I'm Married to an Idiot'.  Joining Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, conservative columnist Ann Coulter where she tore into the White House's use of Twitter hashtags as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram.  She added that the campaign is "pathetic" and it is indicative of the decline in American power over which President Barack Obama has presided.  "It's utterly pathetic and embarrassing," Coulter said.  "I mean, this guy Obama has done to America in eight years what it took 100 years to do to the British empire."

Five Times Obama Officials Expressed Outrage at Their Own Incompetence.  President Obama and members of his administration constantly express rage and anger over events totally within their control.  It's an odd and unsettling fact of American life that so many Americans seem to think that such expressions of frustration should substitute for actual competence.

Krauthammer: Obama Acts as if He 'Stumbled Upon the Presidency'.  Time after time, President Obama has reportedly learned of a number of big administration scandals in the media, from the IRS to Fast & Furious and now the VA scandal over wait times and veterans dying before receiving proper treatment (Jay Carney said today the president learned about this scandal through media reports).  All this apparent unawareness before the fact led Charles Krauthammer to argue on Special Report today that Obama acts like he "stumbled upon the presidency" only to be shocked by how much wrong there really is.

For Obama, the buck stops elsewhere.  Plausible deniability is the order of the day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Everything the administration does is coldly calculated to foster the impression that President Obama is author of all that is good and entirely blameless when things go wrong (as they often do).  When 40 veterans died waiting to see a doctor at Veterans Affairs hospitals in Arizona, the White House insisted they were so disengaged from the scandal that they only knew what had happened after turning on the evening news.  "We learned about them through the reports," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.  "That's when we learned about them."  Then somebody remembered that a show of concern might be useful.

The New Obama Narrative: Epic Incompetence.  The last eight months have battered the Obama administration.  From the botched rollout of the health-care website to the VA scandal, events are now cementing certain impressions about Mr. Obama.  Among the most damaging is this:  He is unusually, even epically, incompetent.  That is not news to some of us, but it seems to be a conclusion more and more people are drawing.  The emerging narrative of Barack Obama, the one that actually comports to reality, is that he is a rare political talent but a disaster when it comes to actually governing.  The list of his failures is nothing short of staggering, from shovel-ready jobs that weren't so shovel ready to the failures of healthcare.gov to the VA debacle.  But it also includes the president's failure to tame the debt, lower poverty, decrease income inequality, and increase job creation.

Obama, the unaccountable president.  Has there ever been a president in the history of America who knew less than President Obama?  With each new crisis and scandal, Mr. Obama tells Americans that he just didn't know.  He didn't know the Veterans Administration was letting America's veterans languish and die unattended — he learned about it in the newspaper.  He didn't know the Justice Department was trolling phone records of members of the U.S. media.  He didn't know the ATF was running guns into Mexico; didn't know the NSA was spying on the German chancellor; didn't know the Obamacare website was a disaster; didn't know the IRS was targeting conservative groups.

How Obama Became the Superhero of Excuses.  You helped elect an untested presidential candidate, a man almost as liberal as you.  He promised to heal the oceans, make health care an inalienable right, and transform Washington's toxic culture.  You mocked Republicans, independents, and squishy Democrats who had the audacity to criticize your guy, much less doubt the inevitability of his victory.  President Obama won — twice — and then didn't live up to anybody's expectations, including his own.

O'Reilly: Obama 'At the Tipping Point,' 'Gives Power to Incompetent People'.  ["]President Obama is at the tipping point.  It is one thing after another with his administration.  The head of the VA, Gen. Eric Shinseki should be fired immediately it is lunacy to have Shinseki, who is overseeing the VA debacle investigate anything — lunacy.  He is not competent to run a federal agency.  He has got to go.  Just like the soon-to-depart Kathleen Sebelius was not competent to roll out ObamaCare.  Again, the truth, the truth is that the president gives power to incompetent people and keeps them in place when things fall apart.["]

A Performance Review.  Organizational capacity [...] isn't an Obama strength either.  He rarely seems to be on top of events.  The VA scandal caught him by surprise.  He had no idea the rollout of Obamacare might be disastrous.  Now he claims, absent convincing evidence, that Obamacare is a success and shouldn't be criticized.  We don't know the inner workings of the Obama White House, largely because of its lack of transparency.  But second terms are often populated by second-rate advisers, and Obama's is no exception.  The biggest problem is lack of competence.  And Obama has trouble firing the duds, perhaps out of fear that it would reflect badly on him.

Leading Democrats Now Leaking Reports That They Believe Obama is "Incompetent" and "Detached".  What:  did the 175 rounds of golf give it away?  Or the constant fundraising?  Or the detailed focus on NCAA brackets and other sporting events versus, say, chemical weapons in Syria, nukes in Iran, and the annexation of Crimea?

The Victim Presidency.  It's a remarkable talent he has.  When he was getting beat up politically for his association with that goofy racist clergyman, he lectured us on the evils of racism, as though we'd been the ones sitting in on those hateful sermons.  Every time he has some spectacular screw-up, which seems to be about once a quarter, he pronounces himself outraged, as though he had not failed us but had been failed himself.  So Barack Obama has sworn that he will not tolerate the incompetence of the Obama administration.  I'd like to think that that means he is going to resign, but I don't think that's what he meant.

Obama's Vapid Response to the VA Scandal.  It's been a month since we learned up to 40 of more than 1,400 veterans on a secret waiting list at the VA hospital in Phoenix may have died while waiting up to a year for treatment. [...] It wasn't until Wednesday that President Barack Obama spoke in public about the scandal.  He'd learned of it from news reports, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.  That's also how the president learned the Obamacare website was a mess, the IRS was targeting conservative groups and security at the Benghazi consulate was lax, aides said.  Evidently no one who works for Mr. Obama ever tells him anything.

Democrats Privately Calling Obama 'Detached,' 'Flat Footed,' 'Incompetent'.  "Forget for a moment that Republican outrage," said [CNN's John] King on his CNN show this morning [5/25/2014].  "More and more Democrats in key 2014 races are calling for the president to get a spine, they say, and fire his Veterans Affairs secretary.  And what more and more Democrats are saying privately is scathing, calling the president and his team detached, flat footed, even incompetent.

VA Fallout: Boston Globe, LA Times Declare Obama Incompetent.  The scandal at the Veteran's Administration is rocking the Obama regime and may yet be one of the worst scandals of the Obama era.  Already two major newspapers are starting to accuse the Obama administration of utter incompetence.  In fact, a lack of "competence" is exactly how columnist for the Boston Globe Jeff Jacoby put it May 25.

Democrats See Obama As Incompetent, Uninvolved.  An on air conversation between CNN's John King and Politico's Maggie Haberman relied primarily on feedback from his fellow Democrats to portray an image of an "incompetent" Obama, seemingly not all that involved with the mechanisms of big government central to so many of the Democrat's political arguments.

White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan.  The CIA's top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama's surprise visit with U.S. troops.  The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that did not include the individual, who had been identified on the initial release as the "Chief of Station" in Kabul, a designation used by the CIA for its highest-ranking spy in a country.

Valerie Plame and Obama's Double Standard on Outing CIA Personnel.  The Democrats did their best to turn Valerie Plame into a martyr even though the only danger that the leftist faced was fewer invitations to cocktail parties.  That didn't stop Hollywood liberals from churning out a movie about her complete with action scenes.  Will the same standard hold for whoever outdated the CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan?  Unlikely.  The official narrative is that it was an accident.  But if you believe that it's an accident, then you also have to believe in the complete and total incompetence of Obama Inc. when it comes to security issues.

White House's outing of top spy comes at difficult time for Obama.  Reporters who accompany the president on his travels routinely must serve "pool duty" — the process of chronicling the president's movements and details of his daily interactions and remarks to write up and pass along to thousands of journalists, including foreign media.  White House aides gave the journalist assigned to pool duty Sunday the list that inadvertently included the station chief's name.  It's common for the White House to provide such lists to reporters on pool duty but the names of intelligence officials usually are omitted.

The Incompetence of Barack Obama: Outed CIA covert officer edition.  This weekend Obama made a completely unnecessary trip to Afghanistan to "thank the troops."  Given that Afghan President Hamid Karzai refused to meet with him, one is left with the feeling that the trip was to divert attention from the burgeoning VA scandal that has killed dozens, if not hundreds, of veterans who were unwary enough to depend upon this administration for some semblance of competence.  But the administration was given an additional chance to demonstrated its utter incompetence.  The White House outed the CIA's chief of station in Kabul.

Critics: White House Blunder Puts Whole CIA Unit in Peril.  The accidental disclosure of the identity of the top CIA agent in Afghanistan by the Obama administration could affect operations in that country — even target the entire unit for assassination by the Taliban, political operatives said Monday.  "It looks like a rookie mistake, but it's in year six of the administration," retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who directed both the CIA and the National Security Agency, told Newsmax.  "It's a bit stunning.  You would never expect to see that in material that's been made public."

Where's the Outrage Over CIA Outing?  The White House had egg on its face today.  The news about the accidental outing of the name of the CIA station chief in Kabul, Afghanistan seemed to be just one more instance in a long list of incompetent episodes in a second term that is proving to be as problematic as even President Obama's sternest critics predicted.  But the story of how the name of the station chief — which is, obviously, classified material, and was sent out in an email to thousands of journalists as one of a number of people briefing the president during his Memorial Day weekend trip to Afghanistan — should not be dismissed as merely the latest episode of the real life situation comedy that is Obama's second-term West Wing staff.

Obama Calls For 'Responsible End' to Afghanistan War [Whatever] That Means.  President Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan today.  He was at the Bagram Air Force Base for just a couple of hours and said this:  ["]For many of you, this will be your last tour in Afghanistan.  America's war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.["]  What exactly does this mean?  The U.S. wields the most powerful military force in the history of the planet, utilizing the best-trained forces and fiercest weaponry ever designed, and the President chooses the word "responsible"?

Obama fails to show his vaunted 'competence'.  Running to succeed the deeply polarizing George W. Bush, Obama held himself out not just as a leader who would never "pit red America against blue America," but as a natural-born manager whose hallmark was smarts and competence.  Voters — encouraged by newspaper endorsements that saw in Obama's campaign "a marvel of sound management" (The Boston Globe) and backed him because he "offered more competence than drama" (Los Angeles Times) — ate it up.  An astonishing 76 percent of respondents in a CNN/ORC poll shortly after the 2008 election agreed that Obama could "manage the government effectively."  Five years of Obama's presidency have certainly shattered that delusion.

With new troubles, questions mount about Obama's competence.  Last fall's disastrous rollout of Obamacare did terrible damage to the public's trust in Obama's ability to run the government. [...] Now comes the Veterans Affairs hospital scandal, and the president again appears in over his head.  It seems inevitable that public opinion of Obama's competence will fall still more.  The president and Democrats can blame Republicans — has there ever been a moment when they didn't? — but the fact is, voters have less and less faith in Obama's ability to run the government.  That loss of faith could shape his last two years in the White House.

Why is Team Obama unable to bring home Marine held in Mexico?  This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day in honor of our American servicemen and women who have sacrificed their lives defending us both at home and abroad. [...] Unfortunately, despite President Obama's Memorial Day proclamation that we shall "never forget" the sacrifices of our soldiers, he and Secretary of State John Kerry have forgotten about a living American hero in dire need [of] rescue:  U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi.

Obama Berates Reporter at Science Fair.  President Obama berated Real Clear Politics reporter Alexis Simendinger after she asked him about reports of the U.S. sending trainers to help the rebels in Syria. [...] "I'm sorry, we're doing a science fair- c'mon, c'mon," Obama responded before rushing out of the room and avoiding comment on the breaking news.

The Editor says...
Mr. Obama is unable to speak extemporaneously, thus he is embarrassed when he is put on the spot with an unexpected question.  That's because he is incompetent.  His attendance at some trivial event does not absolve him of his responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is to be prepared to give an answer to difficult questions.  (See also:  teleprompter addiction.)

President Obama's Five-Step Scandal Manual.  The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel has uncovered the five-step Obama White House approach to scandals.  Spoiler alert:  None of it has anything to do with, "The buck stops here."

Dick Cheney blasts Obama: 'A very, very weak president — the weakest I have seen in my lifetime'.  President Barack Obama is the 'weakest' U.S. president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, according to former Vice President Dick Cheney.  Speaking Wednesday night [5/28/2014] on Fox News, the 73-year-old Republican said the rest of the world — especially in the Middle East — has lost respect for the United States under Obama's leadership.  'I think the perception around the world is increasingly negative, Sean' he told host Sean Hannity, 'but I think the main focus is on our president.'  'He's a very, very weak president, maybe the weakest — certainly in my lifetime.'

Former Vice President Cheney: Obama is a 'very, very weak president'.  Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News' Sean Hannity Wednesday that he believes President Obama is a "very, very weak president" who does not understand America's obligations around the world.  Cheney said on "Hannity" he has spoken with many people in the Middle East who believe Obama's leadership has reduced American's influence overseas.  "They all are absolutely convinced that the American capacity to lead and influence in that part of the world has been dramatically reduced by this president," he said.  "We've got a problem with weakness, and it's centered right in the White House."

Relentless Incompetence: Americans Are Giving Up on Obama.  Over the last several months, the American public has had a hard and clear look at the executive talent inside the White House, and has begun to despair for real leadership and competence.  When leadership fails, people stop following.  It appears in the sixth year of the Barack Obama presidency, that moment has arrived.

The man is an oaf.
Obama chews gum during D-Day ceremonies, sparks Twitter outrage.  President Obama was caught on camera chewing gum during the D-Day ceremonies in France as Queen Elizabeth II was welcomed, and Twitter feeds worldwide exploded with criticism.

How surprising Obama wasn't surprised by outrage over his Taliban deal.  President Obama was completely surprised by the IRS scandal.  Dumbfounded, in fact, that government workers would help his 2012 reelection campaign.  And the NSA scandal.  Who could possibly anticipate citizen outrage over government monitoring all their communications?  Obama was clueless about the ObamaCare debacle, even days after its botched roll-out dominated national news.  Months after staff warnings of fundamental tech troubles within his namesake legislation.  And Obama only learned of the recent VA corruption scandal, fraud and tardy treatment for vets from the media, which had chronicled his original outrage over unconscionable delays fully six years ago.

The Obama Doctrine.  President Obama thought trading a deserter for five top terrorists would be a PR coup.  What does this tell us about our president as a person?  At the most basic level, it shows that Obama does not share Americans' visceral reaction to Bergdahl's betrayal of his fellow soldiers and country. [...] Obama didn't have a normal visceral reaction to the 9/11 attack in Benghazi, either.  Any normal person would have rushed to his post in the Situation Room to oversee a rescue attempt.

World's Greatest Spin Doctor Commits Malpractice on Himself.  [B]etween the disastrous Obamacare rollout, the IRS scandal, the V.A. scandal, and Vladimir Putin simultaneously blowing raspberries at Obama and devouring Crimean real estate, the past several weeks have demonstrated that this is what happens when world events overtake a man wholly unsuited to be president.

Under Incompetence.  [Scroll down]  There is a period between the unmasking and the actual fall when everyone except the incompetent knows the end of the story.  The incompetent is always the last to know.  But the unmasking of incompetence in disciplined organizations is rarely accompanied by reform.  Reform is impossible where the King himself is incompetent.  Loyalty and competence are brought into fatal conflict and loyalty wins.  The solution is usually provided by the enemy, who by destroying the incompetent King, simultaneously dissolves the bonds of loyalty which make the pursuit of competence impossible.

Obama and Hillary: pioneers of post-achievement politics.  Some unpleasant manure is heading for the fan in the domestic economy and overseas, where all the power-mad tyrants and tyrannical regimes see that they have a but more than 2 years to let their ambitions run free secure in the knowledge that Obama's red lines mean nothing.

The Unbearable Smallness of Obama's Vision.  Obama is a president without vision, or with a vision so puny it's hardly worth the name.  All those big windy words — that hopey-changey stuff? Forget about it.  Vision-wise?  Look around you.  The guy's got nothing.

Barack Obama's Twitter Account Blows Date of First Moonwalk By 6 Years.  Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the Kennedy assassination, the first moonwalk, and September 11, 2001.  These are dates any American with even a rudimentary understanding of American history knows.  You can graduate from a public school and still know those dates.  Unfortunately, the Google-challenged geniuses President Obama put in charge of his Twitter account (and identity-politics' propaganda) do not know at least one of these dates.

Flashback — Obama: 'We're Leaving Behind a Sovereign, Stable and Self-Reliant Iraq'.  When President Barack Obama removed the last U.S. forces from Iraq in December 2011, he announced that — as he had planned — the U.S. was leaving behind a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government."  It was a "moment of success," he said.  On Feb. 27, 2009, a little more than a month after his first inauguration, Obama gave a speech at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that the White House entitled, "Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq."

McCain to Obama: Fire Your Entire National Security Staff.  Senator John McCain (R-AZ) took to the floor of his chamber Thursday morning and called upon President Barack Obama to replace his entire national security staff in the wake of Islamic militant victories in several large Iraqi cities.  "I say to the President of the United States, get a new national security team in place," McCain said.  "You have been ill-served by the national security team you have in place now, and the decisions you have made.  Have that new national security team come up with a strategy to do whatever we can to prevent this direct threat to the national security of this nation."

Flashback: Joe Biden Made a Bold Prediction About Iraq. How's It Working Out?  BIDEN:  I am very optimistic about Iraq.  I think it's gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration.  You're gonna see 90,000 troops come marching home by the end of the summer.  You're gonna see a stable Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government... I've been impressed by how they've been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences."  That was February 11, 2010.  A couple of years later, US troops are gone but Iraq is anything but stable.

White House: Release of CIA Official's Name 'Inadvertent,' No Punishments.  The White House said it determined that the release of the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan was unintentional and said they don't know of any disciplinary action that has been taken.  The station chief's name was fed to the White House press pool in a list of people meeting with President Obama on his recent trip to Afghanistan.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday that the protocol is for the lead press contact to clear names with National Security Council staff before releasing to the media.

No one fired in outing of CIA official; leak ruled inadvertent.  An investigation into the outing of the CIA's top intelligence official in Afghanistan last month determined the leak was inadvertent.  No one was disciplined or fired, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday [6/11/2014].  When pressed on who was responsible for revealing the name to some 6,000 journalists, Earnest said the White House was focused on changing procedures, rather than one specific misstep.

Blame Obama First.  On June 12, as al Qaeda forces marched toward Baghdad, John McCain spoke on the Senate floor.  Noting that the al Qaeda affiliate ISIS has conquered a third of Iraqi territory, has overrun the city of Mosul, has captured abandoned American equipment, and has stolen more than $400 million in cash reserves, McCain said that the enemies of the United States are on the verge of a strategic victory.  Only a major course correction, McCain went on, might prevent the emergence of an al Qaeda state that stretches from eastern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad.  "It's time that the president got a new national security team," he said.

Was The Iraq War A Complete Waste?  Let's just say that the Iraq army isn't exactly anchoring a democratic awakening in Middle East. [...] Not that we should be surprised.  Back in 2010, Army Gen. George Casey warned that the 130,000-strong Iraqi police and soldiers lacked leaders, were deserting by thousands, were hampered by corruption, displayed little will to fight and would probably never be able to fend off insurgents.  Obviously, not much has changed, despite President Obama's assertion in 2011 that that war had ended and "Iraqis have taken full responsibility for their country's security."

Obama in 2011: 'We're Leaving Behind A Stable And Self-Reliant Iraq'.  Iraq spirals out of control, it's become clear that, once again, the Obama administration has been caught off guard.  Worse?  Given Barack Obama's assessment in 2011, this should never have happened:  "Today, I can announce that our review is complete, and that the United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.  This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people:  an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.["]

Obama's Feckless Foreign Policy Threatens to Set the Entire Middle East on Fire.  From Syria to Iraq to Afghanistan to Pakistan, the jihadist dream of a caliphate stretching from the Atlantic to the Himalayas is taking shape.  It's aided by a feckless foreign policy not seen since Neville Chamberlain.

Beware a beneficent government.  Does Obama understand that progressive ideas have consequences and that governmental behavior often has unintended consequences?  It would appear not, as his long train of incompetence and indifference, grounded in progressive thought, keeps picking up speed.  It is crushing human freedom, destroying human wealth and even taking human lives.

5 Disastrous Obama Policy Decisions That Have Already Blown Up In His Face.  The only reason liberalism survives is because there's usually a good bit of lag between when a policy is being implemented and the time when the American people get to see the results.  If Americans could somehow magically see what would happen in a decade or two after a liberal policy has passed, there would be no liberals left.  Instead, back in the real world, liberals create or exacerbate disasters with their policies, blame everyone other than themselves, and then demand more government action to fix the problem they screwed up in the first place.

Will Obama Abandon Americans in Baghdad?  Will Commander in Chief Obama decide not to adequately protect and evacuate Americans from Iraq?  Will Obama abandon Americans in Baghdad just as he abandoned Americans in Benghazi?  There are apparently still thousands of Americans in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.  These Americans are apparently frightened, with many wanting to be evacuated out of Iraq.  This is not happening.  The Obama Administration fears that evacuating the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad might make Obama appear to be weak.  Fox News reported on the dire situation and Obama's decision to gamble with the lives of Americans for possible political gain, [...]

America, the Headless Horseman.  Forget the endless scandals that seem to come at us every other day — the latest being the Benghazi terrorists using State Department cell phones (!), a crusade of Hispanic children pouring over our Southern border in the company of cartel drug lords and, of course, the suddenly "missing" IRS emails of Lois Lerner — the Obama administration has reached levels of hitherto unknown incompetence.  It is a complete and utter debacle.

More about The convenient disappearance of Lois Lerner's emails.

DNC's Flag Day Tweets Shows One Big, Fat Patriotism Fail.  Cute kid, but that is NOT the American flag.  Rather, it is patriotic-themed fabric.  Maybe they just didn't have time to be bothered with it?  With such careless attention to detail, imagine how scary it would be if these guys were entrusted with something big, like cleaning up the V.A. or managing the roll out of Obamacare.

What Obama wrought.  Returned now to the White House from a long-weekend family vacation in California, the President must face the awful reality that he dodged last week:  ISIS is already firmly in charge of large swaths of both [Iraq and Syria], has ambitions to devour more and is showily slaughtering scores of captured and unarmed prisoners.  Al Qaeda Nation is being bloodily born before the world's eyes.

Going AWOL in the 'war on women'.  Barack Obama could use a little relief.  The world is crumbling around him, much of it the result of his presidential misfeasance at home and abroad.  The chickens coming to roost on Pennsylvania Avenue are neither ideological nor partisan.  Evil men are bold and quick to take advantage of timidity and weakness.  There's a growing consensus, and it includes Democrats — the president is in over his head.  He probably scares himself.

Barry, Harry, Barry and Harry.  Consider the increasingly strange case of Barack Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetero, a man apparently born and bred for a single purpose: to run for office and yet somehow singularly unsuited to the task.  Bereft of any discernible skills, intellectually mediocre, a flat and uninspiring speaker away from his omnipresent teleprompter, incapable of extemporaneous thought, indifferent to the actual discharge of his constitutional duties and possessed of low cunning attached to an overweening sense of self-importance, Obama is the first president in our history for whom the White House was the only logical career path.

The Collapsing Obama Doctrine.  Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.  Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is "ending" the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — as though wishing made it so.  His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality.  Watching the black-clad ISIS jihadists take territory once secured by American blood is final proof, if any were needed, that America's enemies are not "decimated."  They are emboldened and on the march.

Wondering Just How Much More Damage Obama Can Do.  Mr. Obama is doing much of what he set out to do.  The fact that there is such a high human cost in the wake of this extraordinarily incompetent and misguided man's presidency doesn't appear to bother him at all.  He is someone seemingly incapable of honest self-reflection, at times wholly unable to see the world as it is.  Yet he continues to wield power, making one massive error after another.

Al Qaeda Hits Baghdad  — — Obama Hits the Beach.  With Al Qaeda pressing in on Baghdad, Obama ruled out air strikes.  He did however order the Department of Defense to assign a senior official to the vital task of fighting mislabeled seafood.  While the Iraqi government was begging for air support, Obama instead issued an order in the name of the authority vested in him "by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America" to "ensure that seafood sold in the United States is legally and sustainably caught."  The United States Constitution does not have much to say about sustainable seafood.  The Founders liked their flounder and they disliked kings and emperors telling them where to fish.

9 times the Obama administration was blindsided.  The unfolding sectarian violence in Iraq is just the latest crisis where the Obama administration seemingly has been caught off guard.  From the Veterans Affairs scandal to Russia's swift annexation of Crimea, news of the world somehow keeps taking the commander-in-chief and his team by surprise.  The following is a refresher of major domestic and foreign policy developments that, apparently, were news to the White House. [...]

O'Reilly: Right-Wing Radio Hosts Were Right About Obama All Along.  [Bill] O'Reilly said Obama, "the most liberal president in history," has proved some of what right-wing radio hosts were saying about his administration's competency all along, including the criticism about his lack of any executive experience before becoming president.  O'Reilly cited the VA scandal in particular as an example of "an administration that's basically missing in action."  And he had to conclude, "It looks like the conservative radio talk show hosts were correct in their assessment of Barack Obama's ability to run the country."

Obama would have to change his entire worldview to save his presidency.  [President Obama] thought the reset' button would mollify Russian president Vladimir Putin, who mocked him, absorbed Crimea and began to move in on Ukraine.  He thought courting Iran would make it loosen its fist, but it tightened further.  He thought not pressuring Syria would lead to less war, and the atrocities multiplied.  He thought he could stop wars simply by leaving before the issues were settled, and the results are now obvious.  "For years, President Obama has been claiming credit for 'ending wars' when... he was pulling the United States out of wars that were far from over," said the Washington Post, correctly.  "Now the pretense is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain."

The Joker's running wild all over America.  "It appears someone on the White House press staff may have forgotten to use spellcheck".  Fox New's description of what must have happened when the White House Press office misspelled the name of President Ronald Reagan not once but three times in an email announcing President Obama's Wednesday schedule.  But why would someone on the White House press staff need spellcheck to spell Reagan's name correctly in the first place?

Tipsy Hillary dubs Obama 'incompetent and feckless,' a national 'joke,' book claims.  In the world of gossipy politics, Edward Klein's new "Blood Feud" book is the gift that keeps on giving, the latest released excerpt pointing to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's supposed boozy rantings about President Obama as a "feckless," inept leader.  Mr. Klein writes that Mrs. Clinton referred to Mr. Obama as "incompetent and feckless," and said he had "no hand on the tiller half the time," during a May 2013 dinner-and-drinks affair at a French cafe, Le Jardin Du Roi, located in the Westchester area of New York, the New York Post reported.

Don't Mess with Messiahs.  Apparently someone other than Obama is in charge when the IRS goes rogue, the VA implodes, the Justice Department goes after Associated Press reporters, the consulate in Benghazi is overrun, the NSA taps the phones of allied leaders, Iraq is torn apart, the Middle East melts down, or we trade five terrorist kingpins for an American deserter.  Obama's impromptu adolescent moaning was bizarre and reminds us again why he would be wiser to stay close to his teleprompter.

No Borders, No Rules = Dictatorship!  Tens of thousands of illegals trampled over our borders.  Where is the President?  Out campaigning.  The head of the IRS knew about the missing or lost emails at the last hearing, yet said nothing!  Where is the President?  Out campaigning!  Five very nasty terrorists are released for one U.S. soldier.  Where is the president?  Out campaigning.  What's he campaigning for?  He already won.  We are stuck with him 2½ more years, maybe!  (The smell of impeachment is in the air.)  Many of the Democrats running for office don't want him involved.  Some have even asked him to stay away!

An immigrant surge en route to a Third World USA.  The "humanitarian crisis" on the southern border is the most persuasive evidence of all that America is adrift in a sea of incompetence, blown about by every ill wind that blows.  The mighty ship of state is bereft of a rudder, traveling in endless circles with the captain stumbling on the bridge, trying to make sense of navigation charts he can't read.  However, this may be ascribing to incompetence what is better explained by conspiracy.  Mr. Obama promised in 2008 that he intended to transform America, and he is well on his way. [...] Making the United States over into a Third World country is exactly what this president is about.

Romney Was Right on Several Major Issues, Observers Say.  "Mitt Romney, in retrospect, was not omniscient," Bradley Blakeman, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, told Newsmax.  "He saw what was there to be seen.  He saw the world as it was — not the way he wished it would be.  "Obama believed that he could change the world with just his presence on the world stage and with his words.  His hope was naïve and impossible," Blakeman added.  "He was running for president, not messiah.  "He never has been able to match his words with deeds.  And, today, if it were not for bad news — Obama doesn't make news."

Obama's legacy of failure.  In his 2008 convention speech, Barack Obama declared that as president he would clean up the mess created by "the failed presidency of George W. Bush."  Now many Americans say he has done a worse job in office than the man he replaced.  A new Quinnipiac poll finds that a plurality rated Barack Obama the worst president in the past 70 years — worse even than Richard Nixon, who resigned in scandal.  That is quite an achievement.

Barack Obama doesn't know what @BarackObama says.  Children from Central America are crossing our southern border by the hundreds, Iraq is a smoldering mess, and it's hard to say how long it might be until Israel and Palestine declare all out war, but first, some important news on presidential Twitter protocol.  When asked about who composes or approves tweets sent from the President's @BarackObama account, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest pointed out that "The @BarackObama twitter handle is maintained by OFA," which is Organizing for Action, the political organization that is the "offshoot" of Obama's campaign machinery, Obama for America.  "That is a Twitter handle that is maintained independent of the White House," Earnest clarified in saying neither he or the president were aware of a specific tweet.

Joyride.  Habituated to demanding things — or starting things — in his previous life as a campaigner, activist and 'community organizer', he has no clue about how to deliver.  Someone else always did the delivering.  Obama had no experience finishing things; of staying on top of a developing situation and bending it to timelines.  He was always conjuring stuff and leaving others to clean up after him.  He's on a joyride through history, thinking he's going somewhere but really running in circles on a speed thrill.

Perry: Obama Doesn't Know Where the Border Patrol is Stationed.  Well, here's one good reason for President Obama to have visited the border, beyond his contemptuous claim that it would be no more than a "photo op," which of course is something The One never engages in.  Texas Gov. Rick Perry last night told Fox News' Sean Hannity that during his discussion with Obama Wednesday [7/9/2014], he concluded that the president doesn't even know where his own border patrol agents are situated, suggesting a gross lack of familiarity with the whole process.

Obama: Dancing Barefoot on the Embers.  Happy laughter now seems to be the official White House reaction to domestic and international chaos and human suffering.  You could call it leading with Obama's big strength — a great smile on TV — while avoiding the worst of his weaknesses — his inability to actually solve anything.

Global 'tranquility,' Obama-style.  If anyone needs further evidence the White House is out touch with reality, it came in an official statement this week that President Obama has made the world a more tranquil place.  This was the White House's exaggerated response to a well-documented, front-page Wall Street Journal story that concluded, "the breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn't been seen since the late 1970s."  The article also charged that under this administration, "U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous."  This should be obvious to anyone who's been following foreign events — make that crises — since Barack Obama, a freshman senator with little if any real-world experience, was sworn into office in 2009.

2014: Obama's America.  The economy shrank last quarter. Record numbers of adult Americans are still not working.  Zero-interest rates have destroyed the tradition of passbook savings and the very idea of thrift.  No-interest financial policies ignited a stampede to the stock market that has further enriched the one-percenters — an artificial boom that everyone believes will soon bust.  The borrowing of $7 trillion has proved no stimulus.  A natural American recovery was stymied by vast federal borrowing, by the addition of more incomprehensible regulations, and by an Obamacare package that proved to be the opposite of almost everything that was promised.  Inflation is said to be manageable, but only by not counting soaring food, gas, and electricity costs that do the most to erode family budgets.  U.S. immigration law simply no longer exists.  Incoming foreign nationals more likely welcome arrest than fear it. [...]

The Bear Is Loose.  "The bear is loose!" President Obama has been saying, whenever he leaves the White House to visit Starbucks, or sandwich shops, or burger joints, or BBQ shacks, or neighborhood diners, in his increasingly rote and pathetic attempts to "connect" with "real people."  Obama, we have been told, is frustrated, "restless," bored with the responsibilities and chores of office.  He thinks of himself as the bear — intimidating, wild, untamed, roving — escaping his den.  But he is flattering himself.  Obama is not the bear.  He is the cub:  aimless, naïve, self-interested, self-indulgent, irresponsible, irresolute.  The bear is in Moscow.

Malice, Incompetence, or Malcompetence?  Even some Democrat political leaders will reach a point where they will not sit idly by while their party leader destroys their nation through his incompetence... or malice.  Maybe we should call it malcompetence: incompetence magnified by malevolent intent.

Is Obama Aiding World Tranquility?  Here is a selection of this morning's news.  John Kerry brokers Afghan election deal but leaves behind confusion.  Afghan elections:  Audit of disputed run-off halted.  U.S. Evacuates Embassy in Libya Amid Clashes.  Only "temporary," says State.  Egyptians Search Kerry Before Allowing Him to Meet Sisi.  Kerry "completely capitulated" to Hamas in ceasefire proposal, say Israeli sources.  Hamas fires rockets toward Israel after terror group rejects truce proposal.  A bad deal with Iran.  Missed deadline on Iran nuclear talks sparks a blame game.  Jihadists in Iraq Erase Cultural Heritage.  "Raw footage shows the Shrine of Yunus (Tomb of Jonah) mosque in Mosul being blown up by Islamic State militants."  ISIS warns women to wear full veil or face punishment.  ISIS Kills 50 Syrian Soldiers, Beheads Many In Raqqa.  Official: Iraqi request for U.S. airstrikes "under active consideration."

President Obama's competence problem is worse than it looks.  Obama was elected in 2008 on a stated promise that he would restore competence to government.  He pitched himself as the antidote to "Heck of a job, Brownie" and the Bush years, the person who would always put the most qualified candidate in every job in his Administration.  That the basic functioning of government would never be in question.  Almost six years on from that election, however, Obama is faltering badly on the competence question and, in so doing, badly imperiling not only his ability to enact any sort of second term agenda but also Democrats' chances this fall.

An Ordinary Country Led By Someone From Chicago.  As John Kerry, who was physically searched before being allowed to see the Egyptian president discovered, being Secretary of State ain't what it used to be.  Maybe he can still persuade Central America not to invade the USA.

Seriously, What Is John Kerry Doing?  Let's concede for a moment that most of us don't believe the United States should be taking sides in conflicts abroad.  Even so, most Americans would probably agree that at a minimum our diplomatic efforts should not cause unnecessary harm.  Which brings me to Secretary of State John Kerry's recent misadventure in the Middle East.

Obama the Blamethrower.  Is Obama the most pathetic president in American history?  That was a rhetorical question. [...] The cascade of failures are too numerous to list but a good proxy for all of them is the judgment of Americans.  They consider him incompetent; think he is untrustworthy and lies about major issues, and that he cannot be trusted to make the right decisions.  People increasingly are blaming him for the border crisis, the civil war in Iraq, the IRS scandal, our poor standing in the world and much more (and there are still over two years to go).

As fighting in Gaza rages on, John Kerry battles perception he's a hapless bumbler.  Israel unleashed its heaviest bombardment in its three-week-old campaign against Hamas in Gaza on Tuesday as the Obama administration battled the growing perception among Israelis that Secretary of State John F. Kerry is a hapless bumbler in search of a cosmetic truce.  Diplomatic efforts remained stalled despite a death toll that Palestinian officials said rose above 1,200 on Tuesday [7/29/2014].  The shadowy leader of the Hamas military wing said his group will not cease fire until an economic embargo is ended and other demands are met.

Obama and the road not taken.  The Obama administration often denies any responsibility for the current global chaos or claims that it erupted spontaneously.  Yet most of the mess was caused by, or made worse by, growing U.S. indifference and paralysis.  Over the last five and a half years, America has had lots of clear choices, but the administration usually took the path of least short-term trouble, which has ensured long-term hardship.

Extraordinary Irresponsibility.  In yet another uninspiring performance by our unengaged and unengaging president, this time a press conference at the end of a three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama discussed, among other things, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which, according to The One, "we" have achieved.  It's not entirely clear just how "we," meaning the president, his feckless Secretary of State John Kerry, and his utterly incompetent foreign policy team (but at least they're loyal — the most important characteristic for employees of any petty dictator), helped achieve anything other than the emboldening of Hamas, which led to the death of many more of Hamas' human shields.  Obama further asked how "we build on this temporary cessation of violence."

Bolton: World Has Descended Into Chaos Under Obama.  Bolton appeared on Fox Business Wednesday [8/6/2014] and hammered the president for his failure to effectively lead.  "The world is descended into chaos," Bolton said.  He referenced a new WSJ/NBC poll that found Americans are panicking over the uncertain, dismal state of our country.  The poll found that only 36 percent of Americans surveyed approve of President Obama's foreign policy.

Is Obama even familiar with his own national security policy?  If Obama was actually following his own policy, the slaughter in Iraq would have been a front burner issue for at least six months.  We did not need to intervene militarily at first.  If we had shown interest in arming the Kurds and providing maximum support to the Iraqi government we could have prevented much of the slaughter.  But we didn't.  Now we have a full blown campaign of ethnic cleansing and extermination underway in ISIS controlled areas of Iraq.

Obama presides over unraveling of his predecessors' foreign policy accomplishments.  The American public would have long ago abandoned Iraq to its own murderous devices had the political will existed in Washington to invite that kind of calamity.  Sobriety and foresight guided Washington's approach to the situation in Iraq, but only just long enough to provide Obama with the space he needed to desert Iraq entirely.  Today, that country is a failed state.

The Collapse of the Liberal World Order.  President Obama has ended the Iraq War."  So says the White House blog, the headline preserved in the amber that is the Internet.  The date:  October 21, 2011 at 2:18 Eastern Daylight Time.

We are truly in the best of hands.  President Obama is vacationing again in Marta Vineyard — playground of the 1% of the 1%.  We have been assured that he is just as in charge there as he is in Washington, which is not very reassuring.  He purportedly brought his brain trust with him for advice. [...] No military, geopolitical, diplomatic, intelligence experience required.  Apparently a good driving record and the ability to spend hours with Obama in a car are what qualifies one for the great responsibility of running and defending our nation.

Vacation chief has traveled a long road with Obama.  President Barack Obama's top-ranking adviser on his vacation to Martha's Vineyard is a former Illinois political operative who drove him around the state during his Senate campaign a decade ago and then was his personal secretary outside the Oval Office.

John Boehner slams Obama as 'not prepared for job' of being president.  Speaker John Boehner slammed President Obama during a radio broadcast to a North Dakota audience, calling him completely unprepared for the job of running the nation's highest executive office.  "When you look at this White House, you see incompetence at many levels," Mr. Boehner said, during an interview with KTGO.  "Democrats, Republicans, nobody has a relationship with the White House."

President Obama blasted for golfing after tough speech on ISIS.  "Obama is more dedicated to golfing than he is to defending the nation," sniped Liz Cheney, daughter of the former GOP vice president, via Twitter.  French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also took a swing at Obama.  "I know in Western countries, this is vacation period," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.  "But when people are dying, you must return from vacation."

The Editor says...
Reading speeches from a teleprompter is Obama's only skill.  He is not a leader, he is not a strategist, and he is not a man with a history of sound and timely decisions.

Obama's golf outing after Foley beheading was a huge mistake.  Sometimes a round of golf is just a round of golf.  And sometimes it reveals the essence of a man.  President Obama's decision to hit the links and yuk it up with pals immediately after speaking about the beheading of James Foley was no ordinary mistake.  Nor was it a simple gaffe.  The decision continues to cause an uproar because, like an X-ray, there is no escaping the image. [...] With even his media praetorian guard appalled, the golf outing is sparking a wider understanding that Obama is hollow, empty of the routine qualities Americans expect from their president.

Obama Demonstrates Fear, not Courage.  In times of crises — whether in war or peace — true heroes are those who put on the block all that they have striven to possess:  their reputations, fortunes, futures — even their very lives.  By that definition, very few modern politicians qualify to wear the badge of courage, least among them Barack Obama.  There is nothing courageous in the absurd oxymoron of "leading from behind."  The opposite of courage is fear, its scent quickly picked up by friend and foe alike.  One of the most cowardly decisions Obama made was to ignore his own "line in the sand" with Syria and then to trust the dangerous matter to a dictator like Putin.  Both actions were taken because, unlike those of true courage, he put the cost to his own popularity and convenience ahead of everything else.

Nobody's Fault.  All of a sudden, people have noticed that we are in trouble, and many are saying it isn't the president's fault.  All the bad news, from Iraq to Ukraine, from Libya and Syria to the Mexican border, just seems to have happened:  Obama was standing there, golfing or shaking hands with donors, and, like a burst of bad weather, the winds blew, the skies opened, and things went to hell.  Mysterious forces conspired against him, terrible setbacks occurred for no reason, and we were left with effects without a cause.  His supporters commiserate with him and note his bad fortune at being in office at a time when events make his life difficult.  Or they worry about the effect of all these misfortunes on his legacy.

Don't worry, be happy.  The president's right:  it's not time to panic.  The time to panic was about six months ago.  It's essentially too late to halt the dynamic of events now.  Timing matters.  Once the batter misses the ball it doesn't matter how hard he subsequently swings.  Someone should tell the president the time to bat is over and the janitor can't keep the stadium lights on much longer.

Levin on ISIS: Obama to Blame for '1 of the Worst Military, National Screw-Ups in Modern U.S. History'.  "These cockroaches organized, funded themselves, built a forceful military, started conquering geographic areas all around the world, under [Obama's] nose.  He ignored it.  He did nothing about it. [...] This is one of the worst military, national security screw ups in modern American history," Levin said.

What If There's No There There?  In the sixth year of his presidency, it is clear that Obama does not have much of a vision at all.  Sure, he is a man of the left and possesses a commitment to its goals; he thinks government should grow larger and taxes should increase.  Beyond that, he does not seem to have a firm sense of the reforms he should implement, how to implement them, how he fits into the constitutional schema, what a sensible U.S. foreign policy should be or how to execute it.  This is not to say that the White House does not offer positions on the issues.  We are inundated with Obama positions.

With Islamic State, 9/11 anniversary, Obama's incompetence is truly dangerous.  There's no question Mr. Obama has all but checked out.  There's just no way to explain the president's decision to play golf minutes after making a statement on an American beheaded by terrorists, or his choice to wear a summer suit to a press conference like he was chilling at a garden party.  But those are insignificant compared with the president's true incompetencies now being exposed.

Source: Obama given detailed intelligence about rise of ISIS for a year.  President Obama was given detailed and specific intelligence about the rise of the Islamic State as part of his daily briefing for at least a year before the group seized large swaths of territory over the summer, a former Pentagon official told Fox News.  The official — who asked not to be identified because the President's Daily Brief is considered the most authoritative, classified intelligence community product analyzing sensitive international events for the president — said the data was strong and "granular" in detail.

The Editor says...
If Mr. Obama took no action because he is a coward, or if he ignored the intelligence reports altogether, then he is an incompetent who is unfit to hold the office another day.  Personally, I suspect that Obama was given detailed intelligence reports and took no action because he is a Muslim.

Obama Settles On ISIS Strategy: Incoherence.  Barack Obama is the Commander in Chief.  He is currently sending men and women into war against ISIS.  And he has no idea what he wants to do.  He has no idea that he's even in a war.

He Has No Strategy.  The man does not have a strategy.  The man sitting in the White House, the man who is supposed to be the leader of the free world, the man to whom the West would like to look to for direction, has no clue, no strategy.  For over a year, practically on a daily basis, the man who occupies the Oval Office was briefed about the growing threat of a terrorist group which is so brutal that even Al Qaeda has disavowed any connection to it.  The man who laid claim to the highest office in the world was told, warned, informed, cautioned, alerted and briefed with precise details about the rise of IS (formerly ISIS or ISIL).  The man who has a definite strategy for employing thousands of agents to spy on innocent American citizens doesn't have a strategy vis-à-vis the butchers of ISIS.

Obama's IS Strategy, Decoded.  President Obama was being needlessly modest when he told reporters he had no strategy for dealing with the Islamic State.  Not true.  He does, in fact, have a strategy; it's just been buried under a pile of bloated, JV-league cliches.

Obama's bungling alters midterms at 11th hour.  While Barack Obama was playing his 190th round of golf as president, chilling out on Martha's Vineyard for a 15-day vacation at a $12 million mansion, the U.S. electorate began to change — fast. [...] The president's spectacular incompetence in fixing the U.S. economy had been on full view for more than five years, but Americans were only now getting a glimpse of his disastrous foreign policy skills.

10 Ways Obama Has Failed as President.  [Scroll down]  And I'm sure I left a lot of things off this list, not least of which is the targeting of Obama's political opponents by a corrupt IRS, which continues to announce the oh-so-mysterious loss of potentially incriminating data by its employees.  Combine all of this with his frequent vacations and golf outings and his fascination with the trappings of pop-culture celebrity, and you get the impression that Obama has checked out of the presidency and lost interest in the responsibility he is neither willing nor able to shoulder.

The Obama administration's nonstop incoherence on ISIS.  One would assume that it wouldn't be all that difficult to prepare a coherent approach to an international crisis, particularly as Cabinet members testify before Congress amidst deep skepticism of the White House's strategy to destroy the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or in the administration's preferred acronym, ISIL).  And yet, months into the genocidal campaign of the self-proclaimed caliphate, the Obama administration still cannot offer a coherent description of the American response, let alone a coherent strategy.

ISIS war rollout resembles launch of Obamacare site.  Someone in the Obama White House clearly has a good book to write one day:  "How Not to Do Rollouts."  With one hapless episode after another, the rollout of the President's plan to destroy ISIS is beginning to rival the less-than-splendid debut of the Obamacare website.

Democrats Unfazed.  Obama doesn't look very happy these days.  His face is drawn, his hair graying, his voice a monotone.  To keep going he needs a lot of luxury vacations, therapeutic golf with low-level lackeys, and non-stop fawning from billionaire Democrats at fundraisers.  He seems to have tuned out so completely that he hasn't a clue what's happening.  Despite a year of briefings, ISIS was a complete a surprise to him. [...] It's tough [to] be to a pathological narcissist when the applause stops.  The destruction of American prosperity and power that Obama has purposefully wrought isn't as fun as he thought it would be.

Would You Follow President Obama Into Battle?  There is good reason to believe that President Barack Obama will not conduct an effective battle against the Islamic State.  As Townhall's Katie Pavlich explains, several generals have stated that his current plan will not accomplish his stated goal, and he has consistently rejected sound military advice regarding Iraq and Afghanistan.  He and his subordinates obfuscate the nature of the enemy and the battle, and are not indicating that they are serious about defeating the Islamic State.  It is becoming clearer each day that Obama wants to micro-manage and restrict the battle.

Our Intelligence Director Dismissed ISIS: Why Does He Still Have a Job?  It is baffling how James Clapper still has a job.  In an interview with The Washington Post's David Ignatius on Wednesday [9/24/2014], the Director of National Intelligence admitted that he had completely underestimated ISIS.  He didn't anticipate how fast the Iraqi Army would fall apart, nor the "will to fight" among Islamic State troops.

Obama's 'Mission Accomplished' moment.  I'm talking about President Obama's speech at the White House on Oct. 21, 2011, in which he boasted about his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops and bring "the long war in Iraq" to an end.  It's still on the White House Web site under the (now ironic) headline "Remarks by the President on Ending the War in Iraq."

Jon Karl Grills Earnest: People Warned of ISIS for Months, Did Obama Not Hear?  ABC's Jonathan Karl put White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on the hot spot today about how President Obama could say the U.S. "underestimated" ISIS when several high-ranking officials warned of the threat months ago.  And what Karl asked is whether this was underestimation on the part of the intel community or on the part of the president.

The Obama Doctrine: Freedom for Whom?  As our nation considers what President Obama now admits as "the real and growing threat" of terrorism, the question must be asked:  What is the "Obama Doctrine?"  A close examination of the thinking behind the Obama Doctrine reveals that we are engaged in a very real and dangerous version of the conflict waged inside the minds of those who insist that Islam is compatible with freedom.  This doctrine dictates a war that is not only conceptually lost out the outset, but one that will produce actual loss, threatening lives even within our nation's borders.

Report: Obama Has Missed Over Half His Second-Term Daily Intel Briefings.  A new Government Accountability Institute (GAI) report reveals that President Barack Obama has attended only 42.1% of his daily intelligence briefings (known officially as the Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB) in the 2,079 days of his presidency through September 29, 2014.  The GAI report also included a breakdown of Obama's PDB attendance record between terms; he attended 42.4% of his PDBs in his first term and 41.3% in his second.

Why worry about 'no boots' when Obama's heart isn't in the battle against radical Islam?  Aside from the Arabs, who would back him 100 percent, Western leaders signing up for the ragtag coalition to take on ISIS, should be asked by their masses why they would send soldiers into a battle led by a pretend general who plays AWOL at 60 percent of his intelligence sessions.  For whatever his reasons, President Barack Obama has blundered into the mideast war with no intel in his strategy arsenal.

How Often Has Obama Missed His Daily Presidential Briefing?  In light of Obama throwing the intelligence community under the bus during his 60 Minutes interview in regards to the rise of ISIS/ISIL, one has to wonder just how often he receives a live briefing, rather than (supposedly) reading the briefing material[.]

Secret Service let armed felon ride in an elevator with Obama.  President Obama shared an elevator earlier this month with an armed security contractor who has three felony convictions relating to assault and battery, in the latest report of a serious violation of Secret Service security protocols.  Multiple sources confirmed to Fox News the incident, which took place in an elevator during Obama's Sept. 16 visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Secret Service follows the Obama scandal playbook.  Whatever else is going on at the Secret Service, they've got the Obama Administration scandal playbook down pat, which is really depressing.
1. Lie about what happened [...]
2. Dribble out the truth [...]
3. Congratulate themselves on a job well done [...]
4. Meaningless declarations about taking responsibility [...]
5. Blame failures on insufficient funding [...]

Reuters Reporter Dismantles Obama Administration Spin On ISIL.  Reuters correspondent Arshad Mohammed caught State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki in a trap with a pointed line of questioning regarding the Obama administration's knowledge of and response to the rise of ISIL.

American incompetence in a world spinning out of control.  In the past week, the question has arisen whether the president refused to acknowledge the rise of ISIS over the past year or whether the intelligence community underestimated the threat.  Either the president is right and the intelligence community has presided over its worst failure since the Iraq war, or he's wrong (or lying) and simply closed his eyes to a situation he did not wish to see.  No matter which is true, it's a disaster.

Heckuva Job, Mr. President.  If Mitt Romney had said in 2012 that a second Obama term would bring not just continued economic uncertainty, but also the re-emergence of international terrorist forces, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, an illegal immigration crisis, a knife-wielding madman in the White House, a beheading in Oklahoma, and the Ebola virus in Texas, even the president's most paranoid critics would have told him to calm down.  But here we are, with a president overcome by crises [...]

Surgeon General Still Silent On Ebola.  On Wednesday [10/1/2014], Breitbart News reported that the U.S. Surgeon General's office had not said anything about the ongoing Ebola crisis, as public confusion, fear and frustration continue to mount.  In fact, the lead story on the Surgeon General's website on the first day of October was a message that September was "Fruits & Veggies — More Matters Month!"  Since then, nothing has changed:  Acting Surgeon General Boris D. Lushniak is silent.

The TMI President.  Merely by declaring this or that so, the president believes his will be done.  Obama judged Ebola traveling to America as "unlikely."  He dismissively said of ISIS that "if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant."  He expressed Monday [9/29/2014] through his spokesman "full confidence" in Julia Pierson.  Just call him a confidence man.  Ebola's here.  ISIS is still there.  And the Secret Service director moved Wednesday from Obama's employ to his unemployment lines.

Secret Service woes show hiring should be based on qualifications.  Thanks to Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," oppressive white males — at least momentarily before we are shouted down — are allowed to touch upon the ultra-politically correct subject of hiring based on diversity as opposed to qualifications.  As the incompetence of Julia Pierson, who just resigned in disgrace as head of the U.S. Secret Service, became more evident, Brzezinski dared to wonder if political correctness instead of qualifications inserted Pierson into that position and then kept her there in the face of mounting controversies.  Brzezinski told her male panelists she was openly speculating on the subject because they might be "afraid to touch" it.

Obama: Born-Again Idiot.  The quintessential question of Watergate was "what did the President know and when did he know it?" Obamagate, the vast scandal that encompasses an entire presidency, offers a preemptive answer.  Obama didn't know anything and he never knew it.  At least not until, like smuggling weapons to druglords, bugging journalists, IRSing his political enemies and killing vets, his right hand found out about what his left hand was doing from the morning paper.  After skipping 58% of his daily intelligence briefings in Term 1 and 59% of them in Term 2, he went on 60 Minutes and blamed intelligence agencies for being caught by surprise by ISIS.  The intelligence had been there all along, but Obama wasn't just missing his 3 AM phone calls — he was also skipping the 3 PM phone calls while golfing with the CEO of Comcast, friendly hedge fund managers and assorted lobbyists.

When the Fulcrum Collapses.  We now witness the unfolding of the promised transformation of our country by Barack Hussein Obama.  Having promised action but not direction with platitudinal rhetoric of transformation, hope and change, the final product is now in sight.  The legs of the chair have systematically being sawn through.  The incompetence and negligence of this administration appear to be intentionally dispensed, complete with an animosity towards this nation on the part of those who have allegedly taken an oath to serve the country.

Obama hasn't come up with one original idea yet.  Just before Labor Day, controversy erupted over President Obama's garb at a presidential press conference — should he or should he not have worn a light tan summer suit when talking about ISIS? That was beside the point.  The issue isn't the weight or color of his suit.  The issue is that the suit is empty.  With almost six years of the Obama administration under our collective belts, the time has come to acknowledge a painful truth:  This is an astoundingly idea-free presidency.

Dishonest or discombobulated? With Obama, take your pick.  Either Mr. Obama repeatedly says things he knows are false, or he is completely unable to comprehend information to discern the truth.  There is no third option.

Obama's Rhetorical Box-Checking.  I've been saying for over a month that Obama's entire approach to the Islamic State has been of a piece with his foreign policy generally; anything that gets the press to stop asking him about foreign policy is his idea of a good foreign policy.

Close the borders to Ebola.  The Obama administration is certain that the president and all his men know more about everything than just about anyone else.  They see no point in listening to anyone outside the comfortable confines of the White House bunker.  If anything goes wrong, it's someone else's fault.  This attitude doesn't always work.  Warnings about the efficiency of Obamacare were ignored.  Red flags were raised early on about problems within the Veterans Administration and that the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL) might be more than junior varsity.

President Obama's remarkable dispassion.  The president's demeanor conveys a lack of involvement that is disconcerting and potentially dangerous.  For whatever reasons, he is resistant to decision-making (destroy, not manage, that JV team the Islamic State), slow on the uptake when conditions are dire (Ebola), dismissive of his own lack of follow-through (the "red line" for Bashar al-Assad), and quick to blame others for his failings (he knew nothing about fill-in-the-blank until he read it in the papers).  While he brandishes incompetence, America's friends and foes stroke their chins.  Is this guy for real?

Obama is Ebola for Finance.  This is an administration that told you they need a trillion dollars to create zero jobs.  This is an administration that thinks the only democratic government with a functioning economy in the Middle East, Israel, is a part of the problem.  This is an administration that calls looters in Ferguson, MO, "activists."  This is an administration that makes Kim Jung Next look like a model of modesty.  This is an administration that is so devoid of humility that it has no problem guaranteeing solar loans for big political donors while talking with a straight face about reform.

Obama's Juvenile Communications Team.  Can't the greatest communicator on earth educate and inform instead of distract and prevaricate?  Can't a team that takes many billions of dollars of taxpayer money come up with a better way to formulate and pitch policy than relying on tweets and silliness?  Instead we get comments such as "dude that was two years ago" to explain away the Benghazi disaster and divert blame from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton form a former van driver turned National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor.

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#12] Tommy Vietor went from press van driver to National Security Council spokesman and special assistant to the president.  In a 2014 interview, Vietor let slip that he considered the spin around the September 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi (you know, when the administration told us a terror attack was a protest about a video) "the most mundane thing," and admitted that he might have been the person who changed the word "attacks" to "demonstrations" in the official administration talking points.

Obama's airstrikes, lackluster leadership [is] an embarrassment.  Instead of striking fear in the heart of the enemy, we're showing ISIS and the rest of the world that the best we can do under this president's lackluster leadership is half-hearted.  ISIS is well aware as it continues its rampage of killing and beheading.  At some point, like it or not, we'll be forced to respond more decisively.

Obama's Synthesis.  There has been much head scratching over the years about the essence of Barack Obama's foreign policy.  Now with another member of Obama's cabinet, former defense secretary as well as CIA director Leon Panetta, offering up a memoir of disagreement and disenchantment, it's clear that the consternation is no longer limited to conservative skeptics.

NY Times Says: Obama Is Angry at Administration's Incompetence!  [Scroll down]  So the Times story is basically a plant by the Obama administration.  Multiple "senior officials" have bent reporters' ears, trying to put the administration in the best possible light with regard to the ebola fiasco.  No doubt they were confident the newspaper would act as their mouthpiece, reporting the administration's spin as news.

The Incompetence Virus.  The folks at Media Matters for America are angry at the press.  In a sublimely ironic post, Eric Boehlert fumes, "As Republicans seek to gain a partisan advantage by ginning up fear about the Ebola virus... they're getting a major assist from the news media." Boehlert believes that media coverage of Ebola has abetted the GOP's low designs by creating the "unfair" impression that the Obama administration is somehow incompetent.

Democratic Voting Bloc-Heads.  As this is being written, Rasmussen Reports says that 48% of likely voters approve of President Obama's performance in office while 50% disapproved.  Other polls indicate far more unhappiness with Obama, but in general one must conclude that half the voters are idiots.  He is an enormous failure domestically and with his foreign relations.

Senate Democratic Officials Start Lashing Out at White House.  The relationship between the White House and Senate Democrats hit a new low Tuesday evening after the administration's press office released a transcript of first lady Michelle Obama's appearance in Iowa on behalf of Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley.  The problem:  The subject line of the e-mail referred to Braley as the "Democratic candidate for governor."  The botch came after the first lady repeatedly referred to the Democratic Senate nominee as "Bruce Bailey" in a campaign appearance earlier this month — and it took an attendee in the crowd to correct her mistake.

Barack Obama, bewildered bystander.  Barack Obama reflexively insists on playing the shocked outsider when something goes wrong within his own administration. [...] He's not simply protecting his own political fortunes.  He's trying to protect faith in the entitlement state by portraying its repeated failures as shocking anomalies.  Unfortunately, the pretense has the opposite effect.  It produces not reassurance but anxiety.  Obama's determined detachment conveys the feeling that nobody's home.  No one leading.  Not even from behind.

Scales Finally Falling From America's Obama-Obscured Eyes.  Obama is not just a guy who plays a lot of golf because he has earned his recreation time; he appears to have difficulty working his job duties in between rounds.  He's a guy who is largely disengaged, but when he is engaged, he makes an even bigger mess of things.  Many of his shortcomings are no longer just a matter of partisan opinion.  They are objectively obvious.  On foreign policy, he flounders around indecisively like the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz."

Obama always pointing the finger of blame at someone else.  The extraordinary pile-up of crises has turned the usual White House blame game into something more lethal:  a shootout in a lifeboat.  The presidency is sinking, but we are expected to believe that only the president is blameless.  It won't wash.  The problems cannot be fixed by firing one or two members of the president's team, or all of them.  Something else, something more fundamental, is happening.  We are witnessing the total collapse of a bad idea.  Obamaism, a quasi-socialist commitment to a more powerful government at home and an abdication of American leadership around the world, is being exposed as a historic calamity.

Rohrabacher: Obama was 'AWOL' in efforts to free Tahmooressi.  A group of politicians' efforts to secure the release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican jail paid off Friday night.  California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says President Obama was "AWOL" throughout the process.  The Republican Congressman told The Washington Times on Saturday that he and California Republican Rep. Ed Royce, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Arizona Republican Rep. Matt Salmon took it upon themselves to fight for Mr. Tahmooressi when President Obama did not.

How Democrats broke the spirit of America.  These four words explain why Democrats have lost the confidence of the American people:  jobs, ISIS, Ebola and Obamacare.  While seemingly disparate, they all have one very important thing in common:  They exist or have been made worse because of liberal Democratic policies and general incompetence, and they're making Americans less sure of the future for themselves and their children.

Airstrikes Fail To Degrade And Destroy Islamic State.  U.S. officials report that more than 1,000 foreign fighters are streaming into Syria each month as a United Nations report says that the terrorist influx has reached an "unprecedented scale."  According to the new U.N. report, a lot more terrorist boots are on the ground these days as an "unbelievably small" — to use Secretary of State John Kerry's phrase — air campaign, which has taken months to do what should have been done in a day, has failed to achieve the administration's proclaimed goal:  to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State.

Obama was no political master, after all.  President Obama, it turns out, is good at basically one thing:  getting elected.  Nearly all of the other skills of politicians and statesmen, such as persuading the public, crafting compromise, helping his political allies, are absent in Obama.

Obama: Great at running for president, lousy at everything else.  We know Barack Obama is good at least one thing — getting Barack Obama elected president of the United States.  How good he is at being president of the United States is a subject of considerable debate.  A less debatable proposition:  He is just plain awful at running a political party.

Obama can't govern? Who knew?  The reason the public has lost its illusions about Obama is that he has proved to be as bumbling an executive as he was beguiling as a campaigner.  The president gave Congress a more or less free hand to design his flagship legislation — the stimulus, health care reform, financial regulation.  The results were three giant messes.

Ron Fournier: Obama 'Destroyed the Credibility of His Administration and Government Itself'.  National Journal writer Ron Fournier said the Obama administration had "undermined" Obamacare and lost the trust of the American people during Monday's [11/17/2014] Special Report with Bret Baier.  After calling Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell a "competent manager," Fournier said the Obama administration regrettably has not displayed a great deal of competence.

Obama's immigration executive order is a confession of democratic failure.  It must come as a relief to Obama that, on immigration at least, he didn't need to sell it — just provide an explanation after imposing his view.  But there is a cost.  He has taken an important national discussion and turned it into just another controversial Obama initiative.  He has resolved one portion of the immigration debate while poisoning the possibility of broader reform and politically discrediting Republicans who might be open to it.

Iran: Obama's Biggest Failure Fails Again.  Among the many lies and failures of Barack Obama, ultimately the most dangerous, the most lethal for humanity, is his meretricious and pathetic pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran.  In negotiation, Obama and his minions have been treating the mullahs as if they were the leaders of Denmark, even to the point of sending fawning multiple mailings to Ayatollah Khamenei, as absurd an approach as it is asinine.

How Do You Spell Scapegoat? H-A-G-E-L.  So Chuck Hagel has been fired as defense secretary.  We were critical of his appointment, and opposed his confirmation by the Senate.  But let's be clear:  Hagel has done what he was asked and what was expected of him at the Pentagon.  To the degree he has deviated from the Obama White House line, he's been more right than wrong (e.g., on the threat the Islamic State poses).  So why has he been fired?  Because the Obama White House needs a scapegoat.

Obama Forces Chuck Hagel Out: 'He Wasn't Up To The Job'.  President Obama is forcing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel out of his administration after less than a year on the job according to multiple reports.  The New York Times broke the news early Monday morning, reporting that Hagel was resigning "under pressure" and was quickly confirmed by administration sources.  According to NBC News, senior defense officials said that Hagel was forced to resign.  "He wasn't up to the job," one senior official said.

Barack Obama has emboldened America's enemies.  The resignation yesterday [11/24/2014] of Chuck Hagel, the US Defence Secretary, will inevitably raise questions about the effectiveness of President Obama's approach to dealing with a worrying array of national security concerns.  Coming on the same day as the collapse of talks in Vienna on Iran's nuclear programme, the departure of the Obama administration's only remaining Republican official — reportedly after arguments over how best to deal with Islamic State (Isil) — suggests the White House is struggling to come up with a credible strategy for confronting and containing America's enemies overseas.

How the Obama Administration Has Already Caved to Iran.  The deadline for the Joint Plan of Action ended it seems without a final agreement between the P5+1 and Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.  It's not yet clear what happens next. [...] According to Omri Ceren at the Israel Project, a pro-Israel public affairs organization that focuses on the Middle East, there are several issues on the table, many of which the Obama administration has already caved on.

"Activism" is the Only Thing the President Knows.  We conservatives have dined out endlessly on the Alinsky maxim for the past six years.  That's because there's a lot of truth in it.  The president believes in activist politics, the separation of the world into three parts:  oppressors, oppressed, and the champions of the oppressed.  If you are a champion of the oppressed the whole meaning of your life is bound up in "speaking truth to power."

Temperamentally yours.  What these brains helped to give us was the worst presidential temperament since Richard M. Nixon, an under-experienced brittle narcissist, lacking in all the political skills save those of campaigning, whose main legacies will be an unworkable healthcare "reform" and a wholly avoidable Middle Eastern crisis.  Obama's lack of political sense has gotten him into many disasters, which his lack of political temperament only makes worse.

White House unable to list qualifications of Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to Hungary.  The White House struggled on Tuesday to defend Colleen Bell, President Barack Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to Hungary.  Bell, a top Obama reelection campaign bundler and a producer of the soap opera The Bold And The Beautiful, was confirmed today without a single Republican vote in the last window of opportunity for Democrats to approve such 'patronage' appointments before the GOP takes over the Senate in January.

Senate Confirms Soap Opera Producer as Ambassador: Read Her Application Essay.  President Obama's nomination of Colleen Bell as ambassador to Hungary was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday [12/2/2014] on a 52-42 vote.  Here is the essay she submitted along with her application.

WH Can't Explain Why Soap Opera Producer Just Became Ambassador to Hungary.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest was unable to provide a cogent explanation for why Colleen Bell, a former soap opera producer, just became the U.S. ambassador to Hungary: [Video clip]

Two dangerously ignorant Obama ambassadors confirmed by lame duck Senate.  Yesterday, Barack Obama succeeded in pushing US foreign policy further down the crapper.  The Senate voted to confirm two monumentally unqualified party hacks and bag-people as ambassador.

Dems Pushing Through Nuclear Commission Nominee Who Recently Visited His First Nuke Energy Plant.  Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee remain annoyed that Democrats are pressing ahead with the appointment of Jeff Baran to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission without a confirmation hearing before the full panel.  The nomination made it through the committee on Dec. 2.  The 10 affirmative votes in Baran's favor came from Democrats.  Republicans did not attend the session — all voted no by proxy.

Obama Swaggers on Water.  The secret to Barack Obama's success is an apparently infinite capacity for feeling good about himself without any evidence to support the conclusion.  That's what propelled a one-term U.S. senator and former Illinois state legislator with an undistinguished record in either body to the presidency:  an implacable sense of self-confidence drawn from — well I don't know where it's drawn from.  If you watched the press conference today, you saw it on display.  He was relaxed, confident, completely dismissive of his opponents, and bragging shamelessly about his achievements.  The media are already calling it "swagger."

The Obama Economic Record is Even Worse than You Realize.  Six years ago this month, America cast its lot toward a young, first-term U.S. Senator from Illinois to lead the greatest nation in the world.  His mesmerizing words and bold promises drew folks in by the millions.  However, unless you're a bleeding heart liberal, you realize the social experiment of electing an unqualified, former professional antagonizer has been an economic disaster.  The quantitative evidence, and it abundant, is overwhelming and ever-growing.

Obamacare Expert Rips Obama Admin, Valerie Jarrett For 'Incompetence,' 'Protecting' POTUS.  In an interview with NPR, Steven Brill, author of "America's Bitter Pill," slammed the White House for its Obamacare launch, saying there has "never been a group of people who more incompetently launched something."  Brill's premiere Obamacare critique, as he tells host Terry Gross, is that the health care overhaul is "emblematic of what's eating away at our country," pointing directly to the politics and the "challenge of governance" it presents.  Brill also told NPR that President Obama was largely protected by the likes of Valerie Jarrett, and had no idea of the issues until they ultimately reared their head.

The (Real) Bank of America.  David Matsuda had never been a mariner or an administrator before he became the head of the U.S. Maritime Administration in 2009.  He had been a government lawyer and a congressional staffer, focusing on railroad issues; the ringtone on his phone was the choo-choo of a train.  Matsuda had never been a banker, either.  This was relevant because MarAd, in addition to its basic duties involving vessels and ports, ran a perennially troubled $2 billion credit program that had propped up U.S. shipbuilding since the Great Depression.

Tiptoeing around terror.  It should be painfully clear by now that no one of authority is in charge at the White House, least of all President Obama.  His government is running itself, without any serious, detailed direction from the West Wing in the day-to-day issues and troubles America faces at home and abroad.

Networks Ignore John Kerry's Embarrassing James Taylor Stunt in Paris.  On Friday [1/16/2015], while all three network morning shows covered Secretary of State John Kerry arriving in Paris to offer U.S. condolences following the recent terrorist attacks, none of the broadcasts mentioned one of the most embarrassing moments in American diplomatic history that occurred during the visit — Kerry bringing musician James Taylor to a press conference to sing "You've Got A Friend" to the French people.

Brigadier General James Taylor?  In our hour of need, the French gave us Lafayette. In theirs, we sent them the guy who drained all the sugar out of "How Sweet It Is" and substituted saccharin.

I Feel Sorry For James Taylor.  Secretary of State John Kerry's decision to bring out James Taylor to sing "You've Got a Friend" in Paris yesterday has been met with near universal derision including by our own Emily Zanotti.  I finally had a chance to watch the video.  It was far from Taylor's best rendition of the song and he knew it.  By the end of it, he couldn't wait to get [...] out of there.  But Kerry pulled him back to acknowledge the applause/humiliation.  I feel sorry for James Taylor.  I like his music and once saw him in concert.  But neither he nor this song was right for this occasion.

Tone-deaf in Paris.  Four days after world leaders gathered in a powerful demonstration of righteous defiance in the wake of the terrorist killings in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry finally touched down on French soil, reassuring Parisians that he had come to give them "a hug" and flying in reliable old James Taylor to perform "You've Got A Friend."  Now, we love James Taylor as much as the next New Englander, but — really?

CBS Interview With One of The Kids Running The White House.  While I think it is safe to say most people recognize President Obama is just merely a figurehead representation of an entire presidential office that is in way over their head, it is still appropriate to hold the Chief Executive accountable for all his staff's decisions. [...] Within almost every single foreign policy decision you can find these "kids" being outsmarted, outplayed, outwitted, and outmatched by almost every international opponent they faced.

The President as Pest.  With the SOTU behind us, what's left for Obama in his lame duck years?  Looking at his record, it's difficult to see any promise of accomplishment.  His entire tenure has been one vast Gobi of negative achievement unparalleled in the history of this Republic.  His domestic record — to mention only the highlights — consists of the Stimulus ("shovel-ready jobs"), ObamaCare, forcing tens of millions out of the workforce, decoupling the stock market from the economy as a whole, and a still stumbling recovery.  His "post-racial presidency" is a sad joke, with race relations in a state of tension unseen since the late 60s.  His party is in near-terminal disarray, with most of the states in the hands of the GOP and, apart from a pair of questionable female celebrity candidates, no one to take up the reins once he leaves. [...] So pathetic is Obama's record that his supporters have been driven to claim credit on his behalf for endeavors that he not only had nothing to do with (fracking, e.g.) but actively opposed, and still opposes.

Obama lives in ignorance of Islamic threat.  President Obama has a happy and untroubled life on Fantasy Island, where he lives in splendid isolation from the world where the rest of us live. [...] When an Islamic radical shoots up an Army base, dispensing wholesale death in the name of Allah, the president sees only "workplace violence."  Trouble in Syria?  He'll draw a red line around that.  Nuclear weapons in Iran?  He's on that, too.

Harf-Psaki is an insidious disease.  For news junkies, those of us addicted to the daily push and pull of national and international politics, our State Department's spokespersons, Marie Harf and Jen Psaki, provide the same brand of entertainment for conservatives that Saturday Night Live does for liberals.  Each of these women gives comically imbecilic non-answers to whoever is asking her questions, whether they are asked by the WH press corps or television news anchors.  Both seem to have been scooped up from some snooty private high school where they bullied all the girls not of their self-perceived superior status; they are both naturally rude and condescending.  Neither one of them speaks as if she has been to university, although both most certainly have.  Clearly neither of them has ever taken a public speaking course.  Neither is remotely articulate, savvy, or quick-witted.  They are both fools the press corps and news anchors must suffer in silence.  They are also typical of the caliber of people who populate the Obama administration:  incompetent.

What Makes Barack Obama Such a Bad President?  [Scroll down]  If you can't dislodge people from their attachment to so ostentatious a failure as the Great Society welfare project, how do you suppose you can dislodge them from their allegiance to a half-black international man of mystery with no visible qualifications to be president but who is the very incarnation of every leftist aspiration from the gospel of environmental economic suicide and hatred of the United States to an "evolving" metrosexual affirmation of polymorphous eroticism (has any other president dilated on "transsexuals" in his State of the Union speech?) to his embrace of an ideology — I mean Islam — diametrically opposed to America's traditional commitment to limited government and individual liberty?  That's a long-winded way of saying "good luck, it can't be done."

John Kerry rated worst secretary of state in 50 years.  A new survey of scholars ranks Secretary of State John Kerry dead last in terms of effectiveness in that job over the past 50 years.  Henry Kissinger was ranked the most effective secretary of state with 32.2% of the vote.  He was followed by James Baker, Madeleine Albright, and Hillary Clinton, as judged by a survey of 1,615 international relations scholars.  Kerry received only 0.3% of the votes cast.

Susan Rice defends Obama's foreign policy: U.S. not facing 'existential' threats.  National Security Advisor Susan Rice formally released President Barack Obama's new National Security Strategy at the Brookings Institution on Friday [2/6/2015], to mixed reviews.  The document repeated many of the president's controversial claims from recent days, such as that talks have "stopped the progress of Iran's nuclear program."  One element of the strategy is already obsolete:  it commits to "seek a stable Yemen" on the day Iranian-backed rebels have taken control of the country.

Rice: Climate Change, Gay Rights Part of National Security Strategy.  Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on Friday [2/6/2015], White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice described the terrorist threat from radical Islam as "violent extremism" and said part of President Barack Obama's national security strategy is fighting "the very real threat of climate change" and promoting gay rights.  Rice's remarks followed the release on Friday of Obama's 2015 National Security Strategy, which updates a similar document released by the White House in 2010.

Whether a Civilization Endures is Determined by How it Confronts Evil.  Are Americans becoming complacent to the violence in our midst?  Obama certainly appears to be.  In the fight of good versus evil, he is siding with evil.

Dear World, We're Sorry.  We Americans elected and re-elected a used car salesman to the most important office on the planet, and everyone got a lemon.  The first time was because so many of our citizens have been conditioned to feel guilty about wrongs done before we were born; the second was because so many of us are simply stupid.  We have it good here in the United States, and this breeds contentment.  It also breeds ignorance.

De Blasio and Obama's lack of experience.  A liberal friend pained over the rampant failures of liberal government makes an observation:  "Barack Obama and Bill de Blasio are both learning to shave on our whiskers."  The image is priceless, the insight wise.  Their lack of experience in how the world works, and their ignorance of such basic knowledge as meeting a payroll, are proving to be fatal flaws for our president and mayor.  It is no coincidence they share a message of transformational change.  Both are guided by ideological faith and are excellent campaigners, but show no operational ability to turn words into deeds.

Obama's Crusades.  No one said, "Wait, this is just stupid."  Or, "Isn't this irrelevant to today's threat?"  Or, "Man, we're going to offend about a billion people with this line."  Or at least, no one powerful enough said it.  It's not just the president, it's that all those arrogant, bright young things around him, from the nameless wordsmith to 46-year-old chief of staff Denis McDonough, thought it was fine to scold us with centuries-old history by equating 21st-century Islamist barbarians with 11th-century medieval Christians.  And when they let that speech go through, they showed the rest of us what, not just the president, but everyone working around him really thinks about Western civilization.

Snarker-in-Chief.  Snark is a popular word used for a particular sort of off-putting sarcasm. [...] Snarkery is a character flaw of thin-skinned insecurity and juvenile mean-spiritedness — and embarrassing in a president.

Obama's fabulist national security strategy.  To believe and accept any part of President Obama's new national security strategy requires the willing suspension of disbelief.  It's a statement of bold leadership, in almost Churchillian terms, but it bears no relationship to the president's actions or the current state of the world.  The "strategy" blueprint, released by the White House on Friday and outlined by national security adviser Susan Rice during a speech at the Brookings Institution, promises we will "lead with strength," "lead by example," and "lead with capable partners."  That sort of leadership is nowhere in evidence, and has not been in Mr. Obama's entire presidency.

The End of a Dream.  In Obama's world he is the center of the universe. Yet paradoxically the man who billed himself a messiah has become the talk show president, like a minor celebrity hound seeking the company of YouTube personalities to add luster to his own persona.  He still pretends he is in control.  The jaw still juts, and the chest still puffs out.  Recently he told Vox in an interview how tough he is.  Asked whether he can handle the world's bad guys he said, "I get a thick book full of death, destruction, strife, and chaos.  That's what I take with my morning tea."  With his morning tea.  No doubt he can impress tame journalists from Vox with this story but his ability to impress the bad guys of the world is manifestly less.

Obama Knew Location of U.S. Hostages; Waited 7 Weeks to Order Rescue that Failed.  Here is Fox News' Catherine Herridge reporting that President Barack Obama had actionable intelligence in May 2014 as to the whereabouts of hostages held by ISIS — down to the location, including the building and the floor plan of the building.  Yet, Obama waited seven weeks to order the rescue attempt!  As you remember, by the time Obama got around to giving the go-ahead for the Special Forces rescue attempt, the hostages had been moved.  [Video clip]

Obama's Childish Selfie Indulgence Diminishes Presidency.  As our narcissist in chief poses and preens with a selfie stick in a BuzzFeed video, the world comes apart at the seams and chaos reigns.  Have we ever had a less serious person in the White House?

We Need A Cowboy, Not A Community Organizer.  After the death of American ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller was confirmed, Pres. Obama followed standard procedure, released a statement and called the family of the terror victim.  Sure, the president lauded Mueller, who went to Syria as a humanitarian aid worker to help a largely Muslim population in need, as the "best of America," but where was the outrage?  Why didn't Obama address the nation and the world that very day with genuine anger and rage?  A rage that can't be expressed with a teleprompter.  Why didn't he assure the American people that this brutality will not stand on his watch?  What is it about the mentality of our president that allows him to play a round of golf literally minutes after making a statement about the brutal beheading of an American journalist?

Nearly 3 in 1 of nation's top presidential experts call Obama the worst, 'overrated'.  He's still viewed as a nice guy, but less than two years before he wraps up two terms in the Oval Office presidential scholars don't believe President Obama ranks anywhere near history's greats, making him a mediocre 18th in the line of best to worst.  According to a Brookings Institution survey of American Political Science Association scholars, they put Obama on the worst, not best, list by a margin of nearly three-to-one.  Here's how Brookings wrote it:  "Those who view Obama as one of the worst American presidents outnumber those who view him as one of the best by nearly a 3-1 margin."

What a Statesman would do Today.  Obama's basic triviality as a human being and politician comes from his failure to understand the difference between civilization and barbarism.  Time and time again, Obama can't understand the most basic needs of daily life:  Security rather than anarchy, liberty rather than oppression, basic morality rather than sadistic murders against innocent scapegoats.  Churchill would recognize ISIS in about five seconds.  Reagan would, too.  But Obama is still trying to pretend all those snuff videos aren't real.

Psaki and Harf: The Clueless, Defending the Hopeless.  The State Department spokesperson has the task of defending the president's foreign policy more often than any other government official.  During President Barack Obama's first term, that unenviable task fell to the opaque Victoria Nuland, whose redeeming feature was that there was a spine behind the smokescreen. [...] Not so with successors Jen Psaki and Marie Harf, the clueless defending the hopeless.

Lucy and Ethel Take Foggy Bottom.  Never in the history of public relations have an institution and its representatives been so mismatched as at the current U.S. Department of State, where, tasked with articulating America's position toward Middle East terror outfits, Russian aggression, and the world's other vicissitudes, are Jen Psaki and Marie Harf, currently in the midst of an interminable Lucy-and-Ethel routine as Foggy Bottom's spokesperson and deputy spokesperson, respectively.  In an administration that has always given the distinct impression of being directed by second-year poli-sci majors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Psaki and Harf are the only two under the impression that Legally Blonde was a documentary — one that they are apparently trying to re-create, with little success, at Foggy Bottom.

Marie Harf: I'm "too nuanced" for you.  Touting the rollout of Great Society liberalism worldwide as the answer to religious fanaticism betrays a mind-boggling stupidity.  Jobs programs don't quite cut it when you're in the 72 virgins business.  This is where the administration's comprehensive denial of the motive forces driving the terrorists is key.  They aren't looking for work.  They aren't looking to get rich.  They aren't looking for early childhood education.  They aren't looking for daycare programs.  They've got something else on their mind, something else that is taboo to speak of in the higher reaches of the Obama administration.

The Peter principle:
The promise of hashtag: Jen Psaki gets a big promotion.  Alongside her colleague Marie Harf, State Department Spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki has become the focus of a significant amount of scrutiny in the right-leaning press.  After serving as a press liaison for President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, Psaki moved on to the State Department. [...] On Thursday, Psaki failed up.  Way up.

State Dept Spokesperson Jen Psaki Promoted To White House Communications Director.  The one constant in an ever changing universe continues to be that anyone in governmental leadership, who is insufferably horrible at their job, will always get promoted.  Today the White House announces that top State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki, has been promoted to top communications job in the White House.

Harf will NOT be promoted, insider says.  Marie Harf, the embattled State Department deputy spokeswoman who insisted this week that helping ISIS jihadis find gainful employment was a better strategy than killing them, is not in line for a promotion when her boss moves to the White House on April 1, a State Department official said Thursday [2/19/2015].  Harf said Monday night on MSNBC that 'lack of opportunity for jobs' in the Middle East should be America's focus in the war against the ISIS terror army.  She refused to back down Tuesday night on CNN, insisting that the Obama administration should 'get at the root causes' of terrorism.  'It might be too nuanced an argument for some,' she sniped at her legions of critics.

The Deep Meaning of Marie Harf.  Deputy State Department spokesman Marie Harf gives the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of feel.  She is a walking self-parody.  As such, she presents a novel use of expressive form.  The attention Harf has earned this week with her explanation of the Obama administration's approach to ISIS gives us an occasion to meditate on her deep meaning.

Attention, Marie Harf: About that Jobs for ISIS thing....  Is there anything more embarrassing than to have on your resume that you were once a paid liar spokesperson for the Obama administration?  That's a rhetorical question.  Just when you think they can't top their latest laughable talking point, they break out someone like State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, who tells us that ISIS could be stopped with a full-fledged employment program.

Washington vs. Obama.  Unlike [George] Washington, who put forth that the president should set policy, the current president cannot figure out how to fight the terrorists.  At a news conference in August, President Obama stated, "I don't want to put the cart before the horse.  We don't have a strategy yet."  Congressman Tom Rooney does not disagree with President Obama, "The president still hasn't given us a winning strategy to defeat ISIS.  He withdrew from Iraq too quickly, without leaving behind any forces to maintain stability, and that's turned into a disaster.  I am very concerned about the general feeling of detachment we're seeing from the president."

Bobby Jindal: Obama 'incapable of being commander-in-chief'.  In a sharply-worded new critique, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says that President Obama's handling of the Islamic State terrorist group has shown the country he is "incapable of bring commander-in-chief of the United States of America."  "Mr. President, the American people are not as dimwitted as you seem to believe we are," Mr. Jindal wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News.

Obama's Rushing to Disaster in Iraq.  Now would be a very good time for U.S. President Barack Obama to think about what happens after Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is liberated from the Islamic State.

No Way to Run a War.  [Scroll down]  There's no concerted effort to actually accomplish anything, because other than ridiculous, idle chatter about "jobs," Obama still doesn't have a concept for how to wage this war.  He's tried decimation-by-drone, but that has hardly kept al Qaeda "on the run."  He's tried an air campaign, but never really committed to it.  He's sent troops into Iraq to train what's left of the Iraqi Army, but not to fight alongside it.  He's forged a coalition of some 60 countries, but won't lead them and sometimes actively works (as with Egypt and Jordan) against them.

Gov. Jindal: Obama Has 'Disqualified Himself to Be Our Commander-in-Chief'.  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in front of the White House Monday [2/23/2015] that he believes President Barack Obama loves America, but questioned if the president could be commander-in-chief if he is unwilling to identify the enemy.

Psychopathology of a Blonde Joke.  How many blondes does it take to "spokesmodel" Obama's and Kerry's psychopathic reverse victimology that provides cover for bloodthirsty fiends committing atrocities against innocent civilians?  How many flaxen chicks does the State Department need to regurgitate a horrifying indifference to human suffering while expostulating sympathy for Islamic monsters?  Just one — if she's Marie Harf.

This Man Is Dangerous.  He's been in office six years now.  He has traveled the world nonstop, as has his former Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  He does not have one single foreign policy success to show for it.  Neither does Mrs. Clinton.  His whole foreign policy effort has been a disaster.  He got us out of Iraq way too fast.  (To be sure, and to be fair, we should not have been there in the first place.)  He promised we would be out of Afghanistan way too fast.  As a result, the terrorists are resurgent in both places.

How Stupid Is the Obama Administration?  Or naive.  Or, let's face it, evil.  It appears that we have an entire administration of expensively credentialed plutocrats, without the slightest clue how the world really works.

Bill Whittle: The Leader of the Free World isn't Obama.  Scott Ott first described him thus... a brave, thoughtful, serious man doing a brave, thoughtful serious job.  In his latest Firewall, Bill Whittle provides the amazing and disturbing contrast between The President of the United States and The Leader of the Free World.  [Video clip]

What Happened to Obama's Moral Authority?  No recent president has so frittered away the presidency's moral authority — on race, on foreign affairs, on democracy, you name it — as has Barack Obama.  No recent president has rendered himself so unlistenable, so omittable from adult discussion aimed at the resolution of genuine problems.

Life Under the American Umbrella.  [US Under Secretary of State Wendy] Sherman negotiated the US's nuclear pact with North Korea in the 1990s.  The North Koreans used the deal as a smokescreen behind which they developed nuclear weapons while receiving financial assistance from the US which paid off the regime for signing the deal.  Once Pyongyang was ready to come out as a nuclear power, it threw out the nuclear inspectors, opened the sealed nuclear sites, vacated its signature on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and began testing nuclear bombs.  Sherman is now the US's chief negotiator in the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran.

Senate Was Warned About Obama's End Run on Iran.  Congress is struggling to thwart President Obama's attempt to strike a nuclear deal with Iran on his own, in violation of the Constitution.  Lawmakers are taking unprecedented measures — the invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Corker-Menendez bill and even a letter to Tehran to stop it.  None of this would be necessary if the U.S. Senate had done its job instead of rubber-stamping John Kerry's nomination as secretary of state.

Sen. Cotton: 'Rather Than Confront Our Adversaries, Our President Apologizes'.  The freshman GOP senator who catapulted into the headlines this month with a controversial letter to Iran's leaders delivered a stinging attack on the administration's foreign policy Monday evening [3/16/2015], charging that it was conducting an "experiment with retreat" that has emboldened America's foes and is deeply troubling its friends.  Delivering his maiden speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) appealed for a defense budget that reflects "the threats we face."

Dick Cheney Obliterates the Foreign Policy Disaster That is Barack Obama.  In an interview featured in Playboy Magazine (I only read it for the compelling stories), Dick Cheney unleashes a fusillade of nuclear truth-bombs on Barack Obama, who is — without question — the worst president in American history.

Cheney: Obama is 'worst president of my lifetime'.  In an interview published in Playboy, Cheney called Obama "the worst president in my lifetime," and that his damaging legacy will endure.  "I used to have significant criticism of Jimmy Carter," said the former Republican vice president.  "But compared to Barack Obama and the damage he is doing to the nation — it's a tragedy, a real tragedy, and we are going to pay a hell of a price just trying to dig out from under his presidency."  Cheney attacked Obama's foreign policy, including a "precipitous withdrawal" and the status of the U.S. military.

Climate Change or Debt? SecDef Reluctant to Name Biggest Threat to U.S. Security.  Whats' the biggest threat to national security — climate change, as President Obama said in his State of the Union Address — or the $18 trillion national debt, as Admiral Mike Mullen said several years ago?  Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was reluctant to pick one of the above, in responding to a question posed by Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) at a hearing of the House Armed Service Committee on Wednesday [3/18/2015].  But the secretary of defense, in trying to respond, did say that U.S. strength depends on "instruments of national power (other) than military power."

Marie Harf: You Didn't Like My Jobs for Jihadis Idea Because You're Sexist.  [T]he reaction to the Jobs for Jihadis idea isn't simply directed at Ms. Harf. The reactionary public made very clear that everyone who holds this belief is, to put it nicely, willfully ignorant.  They're not saying Marie Harf is an idiot.  They're saying the whole administration is.

Are there any political consequences to the Bergdahl debacle?  Well, we finally got a glimpse of what it takes to get fired at the White House these days.  If you dare to arrange flowers — presumably roses included — in a fashion that doesn't suit the powers that be, you get escorted from the building and kicked to the curb.  But if you use the Rose Garden to make the president look foolish, you're safe.  That's right:  We learned the White House florist was unceremoniously kicked out of her job in February by a White House that obviously felt she had done some disservice to the president.  However, the genius who approved and set up that Rose Garden news conference, in which President Obama stood by while Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's off-kilter father spoke Pashto in order to communicate unfiltered to the Taliban, seems to be secure in his or her job.

Teeing It Up To Serve Iranian Interests?  Despite our good faith negotiating with Iran (i.e. faithfully promising to serve Iranian interests while running interference for them with the other European delegates) the Ayatollah's team pulled a fast one at the last minute.  Now they want to keep all of the enriched uranium they have been manufacturing for the past 5 years instead of giving it to Russia for safe keeping (Ha ha!  That's a good one too:  "give it to Russia for 'safe keeping'.") [...] Unfortunately BO was too busy to take the call; he had bigger fish to fry.  He had been on the links since early Sunday, even as many other Christians were still attending Palm Sunday services.

Late Again.  Everything in the Obama White House starts late, including Obama.  The White House announced today [3/31/2015] that it is open to completing the deal with Iran at least a day late.  Because that's how we roll around here.  Tardiness actually has the unfortunate effect of revealing underlying unseriousness, inattentiveness, a lack of discipline, and a penchant for screwing things up.

Russia's Invasion of White House Computers.  [Scroll down]  Only on October 28, days before the election, did the Obama administration admit that White House computers had been down for weeks.  The administration said that it learned of the foreign intrusion, apparently by Russia, from "an ally."  So we didn't detect it, and there was no indication of how long one or more hostile powers had access to White House computers before the intrusion was discovered. [...] Isn't it reasonable to infer that major news outlets kept Russia's cyberattack a secret until after the election because it reflected badly on the Obama administration's competence as well as its complacent view of the world?  Some "reset"!  I think that is an inescapable conclusion.  Even today, it is astonishing that the story has gotten so little attention in the Democratic Party press.

Obama's Amateur-Hour Foreign Policy In The Americas.  Seeking applause at a summit in Panama, President Obama vowed to swiftly remove Cuba as a state sponsor of terror.  It just shows how his foreign policy runs — for political convenience, not national security.

How stupid is State Department spokesperson Marie Harf?  I suppose I will be accused of sexism for perpetrating the sterotype of the dumb woman, but really now, how can any rational, objective observer of the antics of State Department spokesperson Marie Harf come to any other conclusion than she's a dimwit?

Obama's Fixer.  Wherever Ben Rhodes goes, lies follow.  Obama's foreign policy is cooked up by a very small group of people, among them Ben Rhodes, his deputy national security adviser.  This should trouble Americans.  I have been writing about Rhodes for years.  He has a pattern of twisting the truth to serve his masters.  All of 37 years old and untrained in diplomacy, he pontificates omnisciently on Obama's mastery of world politics.  He was the drafter of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group.  This report was criticized for deviating from its main goal to analyze the Iraq War under George W. Bush.  Instead, it advised outreach to Iran and distancing from Israel.  Some of the witnesses called were suspect because of their lack of expertise as well as their biases.  Other witnesses were shocked by the report upon its publication because they said it did not reflect their testimony, and in fact distorted what they had conveyed.  In other words, their testimony was fictionalized.  Who was the principal drafter of that report?  Ben Rhodes.

The Fable of the Bees.  "'Bees are good,' Obama says as children scream," read the Politico headline. "Perhaps no president in history has made a stronger case for protecting pollinators than Barack Obama," wrote the Washington Post.  "Obama trying to reassure children about bees is a perfect metaphor for his foreign policy," pronounced a writer for Vox.com, who most recently confused New Hampshire with Vermont.  I say Vox.com is right.  "Bees won't sting you" is an apt slogan for Obama's attitude toward the world.

U.S. Gov't to Americans Trapped in Yemen: Call India.  The State Department is telling U.S. citizens fleeing the fighting in Yemen to contact the government of India or an international NGO dedicated to migrant rights for help, according to the website for the abandoned U.S. embassy in Sanaa and statements by Indian government officials.  The Chinese Navy last week evacuated hundreds of people from the war-torn country.  Russia, Canada, and France are also reported to have recently conducted evacuations of their own.  The website of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Yemen posted two messages on Monday [4/6/2015] laying out options for American citizens looking to flee the country.

Blacks Lose Ground Under Obama.  This economy has left blacks with little to show for their loyalty to Obama and the Democrats. [...] The eloquent, elegant figure who echoed Sidney Poitier has devolved into a latter-day Jimmy (J.J.) Walker.  From his West Wing waltz with a selfie stick, to his exclusive interview with neon-lime-lipstick-wearing GloZell Green, to his truancy during Paris's Charlie Hebdo march, to his 223 rounds of golf, to his screaming-infant-like reaction to the reelection of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama has soiled his office, turned himself into a punch line, and fundamentally transformed his country into a global laughingstock.

If This Is What Success Looks Like, Just Imagine Failure.  The Obama administration once pointed to Yemen as the proof that the application of what it calls "smart power" works.

The Unbearable Lightness of Obama's Anti-Terror Policies.  There is a pretend quality to Obama's stance on radical Islamic terrorism.  It starts with his refusal to utter that phrase, preferring the meaningless term "violent extremists."  Well, at least those words do not make America's enemies uncomfortable.  But it gets worse.

DEA chief Michele Leonhart expected to resign.  Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart is stepping down.  Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement, said that Leonhart had informed him Tuesday [4/21/2015] of her decision.  She will leave the agency in mid-May.  Holder praised Leonhart, writing that she "led this distinguished agency with honor" and added that he was "proud to call her my partner in the work of safeguarding our national security and protecting our citizens from crime, exploitation and abuse."

The Editor says...
If she led the DEA with honor, why is she quitting?

Congratulations, Marie Harf!  At the tender age of 33, Marie Harf has attained a special kind of immortality, joining a list of luminaries (for instance, Thomas Crapper) whose names have become verbs.

Obama Administration Hires Top Attorney For Immigration Enforcement With Zero Immigration Law Experience.  President Barack Obama's administration is bringing on a new "Principal Legal Advisor" for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  But she has no experience in immigration law.

Homeland Chief: Fourth Amendment 'Beyond My Competence'.  Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, a man with sweeping power to invade the property rights and privacy of every American using judge-less warrants to search and seize records, has a Fourth Amendment problem:  he doesn't really know it. [...] Apparently, ignorance of the law is an excuse if you run a massive federal bureaucracy with sweeping police state powers.

Credit Where None Is Due.  [Scroll down]  Sure, we can give Mr. Obama lots of credit for such nonessential exercises as successfully avoiding accountability for the too-many-to-count scandals that have festered under his watch, for stimulating the economy of the hospitality industry through his seemingly endless vacations, and for elevating the profile of the sport of golf (which, I suppose, serves as a job stimulus program for caddies and pro-shop employees).  But crediting him for presidential job performance... methinks not. [...] Before my relative could rebuke me for heresy, I continued, "Obama has increased the debt to over $18 trillion — doubling the figure under George Bush.  One third of the nation is on some sort of subsidized government program.  The southern border is a disaster.  And he believes that ISIS/ISIL is not Islamic."

Voters believe White House incompetent, US still in recession and ISIS has moved next door.  Majorities of voters feel the country is still in recession, think terrorists are living in their hometown and rate the Obama White House handling of the government as incompetent.  Those are some of the findings from the latest Fox News poll released Thursday [5/14/2015].  Six in 10 voters think it is likely terrorists are living in their hometown (60 percent).  That's up from 48 percent who felt that way in 2007, the last time the question was asked, and back to about what it was nine months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Obama Failed to Appoint Railroad Chief.  Government spending boosters using the Philadelphia train derailment tragedy to demand more money for Amtrak might want to ask the White House why President Obama has failed for 127 days to even nominate an administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration, instead leaving in charge as "acting" chief a 37-year-old Obama loyalist who reportedly has little substantial railroad experience.

Obama Gift-Wraps Hard-Won Ramadi To Islamic State Jihadists.  'The Cemetery of the Americans."  That's what graffiti said in the western Iraq city of Ramadi when I first embedded there in 2006.  Indeed, my two journalist predecessors in Camp Corregidor were both shot by snipers.  Within weeks, the first SEAL to die in Iraq would be killed, another mortally wounded.  My own public affairs officer was killed, and later the first SEAL to win the Medal of Honor in Iraq would die there.  It was the hardest-fought battle of the war, but we won.  That was then.  This is now.  Now President Obama has handed the city back to terrorists, gift-wrapped.

Obama's fecklessness on Islamic terror.  The stirring speeches of yesteryear inspired us then, and still do.  In times of grave danger, great leaders rallied their nations with appeals to duty and visions of victory. [...] "I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle.  We will accept nothing less than full victory!" Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said in his D-Day address to Allied troops.  Then there is Barack Obama.  After the Islamic State won major battles in Iraq and Syria last week, he said:  "I don't think we're losing."

Beware of the candidate without accomplishments.  Last week on MSNBC, Mark Halperin asked ten Iowa Democrats who are Hillary Clinton supporters to name one of her accomplishments while serving in the Obama administration.  They couldn't name any.  Seven years earlier on the same network, Chris Matthews asked a Texas state senator a similar question about Barack Obama — he was stumped too.

Mass Slaughter of Women, Children in Palmyra While Obama Golfs, Eats Ice Cream for Reporters.  Yesterday [5/24/2015], Barack Obama played golf, on the same day that 400 women and children and hundreds of troops were slaughtered in Palmyra.  Today he's yucking it up with reporters and eating ice cream while a British Lord is calling out for action, saying "we can no longer rule out boots on the ground."  He has not a care in the world.  Obama is a completely delusional, unserious man.

Harf: 'All of the Nuclear Experts' Told Me Iran Will Reduce Stockpile Levels to Right Amount.  State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf continued pushing back Wednesday [6/3/2015] against a New York Times report on Iran's increased nuclear fuel stockpile and its potential violations of a deal with the U.S., saying "all of the nuclear experts" had assured her Iran would be in compliance with the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) by the June 30 deadline.  One reporter asked if Iran keeps increasing that stockpile, would that not make it much more difficult to reduce it to the agreed-upon level by the end of the month?

Ten months later, still no strategy on ISIS.  Speaking Monday [6/8/2015] at a news conference in Germany, President Obama acknowledged that the United States does not yet have a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq.  If that admission sounds familiar it's because Obama said almost the same thing last August when he told White House reporters "We don't have a strategy yet" for defeating the Islamic State.  So, what exactly has the administration been doing for the last 10 months?

How America Squandered a Superpower.  Toward the end of the presidency of George H.W. Bush, America stood alone at the top of the world — the sole superpower. [...] Consider now the world our next president will inherit.  North Korea, now a nuclear power ruled by a 30-something megalomaniac, is fitting ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.  China has emerged as the great power in Asia, entered claims to all seas around her, and is building naval and air forces to bring an end to a U.S. dominance of the western Pacific dating to 1945.  Vladimir Putin is modernizing Russian missiles, sending ships and planes into NATO waters and air space, and supporting secessionists in Eastern Ukraine.

How Do Americans See Obama?  Obama may well have been an unapologetic progressive wolf in centrist clothing, but mostly he was a continuation of what he had been in the past:  an unimpressive state legislator, a one-term partisan senator without any accomplishments, a lackadaisical executive who in his own words had to worry most about not appearing lazy and distracted.  Obama as president simply pushed the right progressive buttons, all the more easily once his own party lost the Congress and he was freed to sign executive orders that enraged his enemies and moved the country leftward.  He cares little about the scandals involving the IRS, VA, AP, NSA, GSA, TSA, EPA, Benghazi, and the Secret Service, other than ensuring that they stay far away from his own godhead.

Allen West: Obama Made 'Greatest Military Blunder World Will Ever Know' in Iraq.  Last week, Obama admitted at a G-7 summit in Germany that the U.S. still lacks a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS.  But [Lt. Col. Allen] West, who served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, says that the commander-in-chief needs to admit he made a mistake before he can turn the volatile situation in Iraq around.  "And I think one of the most important things is the president needs to stand up and be forthright and say he got it wrong.  That's the start to having an effective strategy, is admit that he had it wrong in the first place... Getting it wrong is a president that probably made the greatest military blunder that the world will ever know," the former congressman said.

Does Obama Know There's a Cyberwar Going On?  Chinese hackers apparently stole far more data on more federal employees than first suspected, creating a huge national security problem.  Worse, the Obama administration knew this database was being targeted.

Obama Administration Incompetence Subjects Millions of Americans to Cyber Hackers.  Millions of American government employees, former employees, contractors and more have had their most personal and private information breached by hackers, because the government failed to take the necessary steps to protect those records. [...] It is an outrageous and unacceptable breach of trust.  The federal government, through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), interviews everyone who requires any sort of security clearance, and asks the most detailed and personal questions about past associations, indiscretions and behavior, to make sure nothing in their past could subject them to blackmail or subversion.  The interviews extend to friends and associates of those being vetted, and those people are also in the databases that have been breached.  But now it has come to light that OPM failed to hold up the Obama administration's end of the bargain by not doing everything they could to protect those records.

Obama still backs OPM chief despite massive data breach.  Despite massive cyber attacks at the Office of Personnel Management, President Obama still has confidence in OPM Director Katherine Archuleta, the White House said Wednesday [6/17/2015].  "The president does have confidence that she's the right person for that job," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.  Mr. Earnest said that when she took the job, Ms. Archuleta identified as "one of her first priorities" the upgrading of the office's computer networks.  It was during that upgrade in April that officials discovered a massive breach of sensitive personnel data, allegedly stolen by agents of China.

GOP lawmakers call on Obama to fire OPM chief after massive data breach.  Echoing statements he recently made at a House hearing, [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason] Chaffetz and the other lawmakers blamed Katherine Archuleta, director of the Office of Personnel Management, for the breach that's been described as one of the worst in U.S. history.  Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour should also be dismissed, a letter to Obama states.  "Simply put, the recent breach was entirely foreseeable, and Director Archuleta and CIO Donna Seymour failed to take steps to prevent it from happening despite repeated warnings," the two-page letter states.

The OPM Hack and Obama's Politicization of the Federal Bureacracy.  How does a government failure so consequential — a foreign power accessing 18 million confidential records, including the intimate personal details of federal workers' infidelity, drug abuse, and personal debts uncovered during the background-check process for security clearances — happen?  For many Obama critics on and off the Hill, the answer lies in a troubling pattern of incompetent management from Obama appointees selected more for their political loyalty than for their expertise, skill, or leadership abilities.

Obama's Cyber Security Failure Creates a Greater Threat than ISIS.  The most recent hacking of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) should concern us all.  First, the scale is staggering; important information about some 18 million government workers was stolen.  Second, the government was dishonest about the intrusions — revealing only the hacking of personnel files at first, and then admitting eight days later what they had known all along that the thieves had also made off with highly classified materials related to security clearances.  Third, it turns out that the system being used to protect government data has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and is hopelessly outdated.

Katherine Archuleta, Director of Office of Personnel Management, Resigns.  Katherine Archuleta, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, resigned under pressure on Friday [7/10/2015], one day after the government revealed that two sweeping cyberintrusions at the agency had resulted in the theft of the personal information of more than 22 million people, including those who had applied for sensitive security clearances.  Ms. Archuleta went to the White House on Friday morning to inform President Obama that she was stepping down immediately.  She said later in a statement that she felt new leadership was needed at the federal personnel agency to enable it to "move beyond the current challenges."

Archuleta OPM hack disaster crystallizes Obama administration incompetence.  Katherine Archuleta resigned as head of the Office of Personnel Management yesterday [7/10/2015], but the effects of her spectacular incompetence will harm the United States for many years to come.  Her rise and fall symbolically and substantively capture the essence of the Obama administration approach to its grave responsibilities, and its failure to meet them.  Archuleta's appointment to the position she occupied — in essence, human resources director for the largest employer in America — was a classic three-fer, in the cynical parlance of contemporary affirmative action.  She is a woman!  She is Hispanic!  She is (or was) politically connected and reliable!  You see, her prior work experience was on the Obama campaign.

The Myth of Muslim Radicalization.  The key element in Obama's strategy for fighting ISIS isn't the F-15E Strike Eagle, it's a Twitter account run by a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer which claims to "Counter Violent Extremism" by presenting moderate Islamists like Al Qaeda as positive role models for the Islamic State's social media supporters.  So far 75% of planes flown on combat missions against ISIS return without engaging the enemy, but the culturally sensitive State Department Twitter account has racked up over 5,000 tweets and zero kills.

Obama's Killing the Left: Let's Help Him.  From the outset of this administration it has been clear that "diversity" (which to Obama means advancing the careers of every one of his cronies at the expense of non-Hispanic whites and males) over competence has been a major goal.  And each week we see how much that harms national needs and shatters national unity.  This week's big domestic fail, amusingly spun as "data exfiltration" of the over 21 million personnel files at the OPM, reveals the utter incompetence of Obama's select OPM (Office of Personnel Management) head, Katherine Achuleta, who finally was axed.

Of Administration Lawyers and Disdain for the Law.  The Obama administration is not the first in which incompetence reigns large, although the botched roll-out of the Obamacare websites followed by the exposure of 21 million current and former employees' personal data pretty much takes the cake.  Still, there is a difference between incompetence driven by the perfect storm of bloated government on one hand, and the prioritization of political patronage over management ability on the other, and casual disdain for the law.  It is the latter, which not only increasingly defines Washington, but is actually being driven by elite lawyers.

Obama Writes Personal Letters to 46 Felons; No Contact with Kathryn Steinle's Family.  Nearly two weeks after 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was murdered on San Francisco's Pier 14 by an illegal alien and convicted felon who was released from prison earlier this year, President Barack Obama has failed to contact the victim's family or mention her in public.  Yet Obama took the time to write (and release) 46 personal letters this month to felons imprisoned for non-violent drug offenses whose sentences he has commuted.

Is Obama Stupid, Or Evil?  Is Obama just a moron, an incompetent, a fool, a nitwit as the country falls apart around him?  Or is he destroying the USA on purpose because he is evil?

Iran 'Negotiations' Involved a Lot of Iran Shouting at Hapless U.S. Team.  The New York Times published an embarrassing look at what went on behind the scenes during the long, long months of "nuclear negotiations" with Iran.  Apparently, it involved a good deal of Iran shouting at the hapless U.S. team and declaring its demands non-negotiable, while Team Obama threw in one towel after another.

Obama Butchers Name of American Hostage Held in Iran.  During President Obama's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Obama called for the release of the five American hostages.  While saying Rezaian's name, Obama mispronounced his name, rolled his eyes, and tried again.  He then ran through the rest of the hostages' names.

Obama's huge Iran hostage sellout:  The administration gives a pathetic performance at the UN.  Oops, we forgot the American hostages in Iran. After we handed Iran $150 billion dollars in sanctions relief.  That's the impression the Obama administration is now trying desperately to shake off while selling an Iran nuclear deal that left our fellow citizens behind.

EPA Chief Gina McCarthy Doesn't Know Percentage of CO2 in Atmosphere.  The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing [8/6/2015] titled "Examining EPA's Regulatory Overreach" which examined the scientific justifications for EPA's rules and how they impact the lives of the American people.  One of the rules in question was the Clean Power Plan, announced on June 2, 2014, which would require that states meet requirements for limiting carbon emissions.  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) asked McCarthy, "What percentage of the atmosphere is CO2?"  "What percentage of the atmosphere is CO2?  I don't have that calculation for you sir," said McCarthy.  "Maybe you could tell us what your personal guess is on what percentage CO2 is," said the congressman.  "I don't make those guesses sir," McCarthy said.

The Editor says...
Liberals often deride and castigate global warming skeptics for opposing science.  Here we see the head of the EPA doesn't even know one of the basic scientific facts about the environment — one of the fundamentals of atmospheric science — the composition of the atmosphere.  This inexcusable rank incompetence should bring her job to an immediate end.

EPA Chief Gina McCarthy's Record Shows She's Unfit For Command.  EPA clean-up crews breached a waste storage dam that produced a torrent of heavy metal-laden toxic waste, potentially fouling an entire western river system and impacting the drinking water of tens of millions of people.  While McCarthy didn't personally bulldoze the dam, it's no surprise to those who have followed her Peter Principle-driven career that this would occur on her watch.

The D.C. Idiocracy: Remember The Really Dumb Kids In School? They're Now In Charge Of Your Life.  Did you know that when the government catches illegal aliens, it frequently just releases them and asks them to show up for a deportation hearing?  Unsurprisingly, as many as 90% of illegals that are caught don't show up so they can be deported.  But don't worry, the Department of Homeland Security is on the case! [...] If it's top priority to find the illegal immigrants who didn't show up to be deported, maybe they shouldn't have released them in the first place?  Hey, aren't these the same people that are protecting the country from another 9/11?  Sleep well tonight!

It's no Camelot! Caroline Kennedy's oversight of Japanese embassy slammed.  The State Department's internal watchdog leveled biting criticism at the management style of U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy in a new audit on Tuesday [8/25/2015], citing "confusion among staff" and "major management challenges" in key offices at the Tokyo embassy.  And in an echo of the email woes plaguing former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, the inspection by the department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) specifically faulted Ms. Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and President Obama's personal pick for the job, and her aides for using "personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business."

On Race, Obama Gets An "F".  Barack Obama was elected to be our First Black President.  That was, really, his only claim to fame; he was unqualified for the office by experience, ability and work ethic.  Electing Obama was supposed to put a capstone on two generations of racial progress.  That was the main reason millions of people voted for him.  Somehow, though, it hasn't worked out that way.

Rude or ignorant? The White House offends the pope.  Was Team Obama being rude or incompetent when it invited a collection of Catholic dissenters and other opponents of church teaching to the White House welcome for Pope Francis?  Perhaps the president's staff just bought the media myth that this pope has turned his back on two millennia of Catholic doctrine.  In fact — despite his raising of issues like climate change and economic inequality — the pope still affirms traditional teaching on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

The Obama Administration Is Always 'Surprised' When Bad Things Happen.  After taking office, for example, Obama was surprised by the number of critical issues facing the country.  He was surprised by the magnitude of the opposition to Obamacare, as well as the political cost that Democrats paid in the 2010 midterms.  The disastrous rollout of Healthcare.gov in late 2013 also took the administration by surprise.  Earlier that year, the president learned about the IRS targeting scandal by reading about it in the news; same goes for the scandal at Veterans Affairs.  When former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak declined to step down in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, Obama officials were surprised.  Obama was shocked to learn in 2013 that the NSA had been spying on foreign leaders.  The Obama administration has been particularly confounded by events of the past couple of years.

Another day, another 'Obama administration caught off guard by...' story.  At the end of Obama's eight years in office, somebody should attempt to add up all the times his administration was "caught off guard," "shocked," "stunned," "unaware," "clearly not expecting that to happen," "flummoxed by" and "not prepared for..."  Here's another to add to the lengthy list: [...]

Phony Ambassador Running Obama's Anti-Islamic State Diplomacy.  The Obama administration official most likely in line to become the next U.S. envoy to the Coalition to Counter the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) has falsely presented himself as an official U.S. ambassador by the administration for the last five months, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.  Brett McGurk, a deputy special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition who serves under General John Allen, was temporarily appointed by the administration as an ambassador on Oct. 18, 2014.  He was conferred this rank through a little-known legal loophole that allows the administration to bypass congressional confirmation of an individual for a period of no longer than six months.  Ambassadors confirmed by the Senate have the title for life.

An Extraordinary Show of Weakness.  [Scroll down]  It has become perhaps the defining characteristic of the Obama administration's foreign and national security policy — a stubborn insistence on seeing the world not as it is but as the president wishes it to be.  Al Qaeda was said to be on the run, even as it strengthened.  ISIS was alleged to be junior varsity terrorists, even as it amassed territory.  Iran was treated as a diplomatic partner, even as its leaders shouted "Death to America."  China was feted at a state dinner, even as it escalated cyberattacks against the United States.  Russia was said to want peace, even as it made war.  And on it goes.

U.S. Refugee Chief Didn't Know Boston Bombers Were Refugees.  At a Thursday [10/1/2015] Congressional hearing regarding the Obama administration's plan to welcome tens of thousands of additional refugees into the United States, the administration's top refugees official revealed that she had no idea whether the Tsarnaev brothers who carried out the Boston bombing arrived in the U.S. as refugees.

Obama's dangerous caution in Syria: We just don't know what we're doing.  In the desperate fight against the Islamic State, the Pentagon has it all wrong.  It has been using color coding to designate the eligibility of various Syrian rebel groups to receive American aid.  According to The Wall Street Journal, some groups were assigned green dots while others were given red and some yellow.  This is where things went wrong.  The last color should have been saved for the White House.  I do not accuse, in case you're wondering, President Obama of personal cowardice.  I do, however, accuse him of an excess of caution and not knowing what he is doing.

The Editor says...
If you're the Commander-in-Chief, there isn't much difference between personal cowardice and an excess of caution.

Wanted: A President of Good Character.  [Scroll down]  Obama is undoubtedly the most dangerous, incompetent, and navel-gazing president in history.  He came in without executive or legislative experience.  But that wasn't a problem in 2008; nobody was even allowed to ask about his experience for fear of being witch-hunted by the Leftist mafia.

5 Obama Scandals The Mainstream Press Is Ignoring.  This list only scratches the surface.  There's Obama's inept handling of the BP oil spill.  His intimidation of reporters who didn't toe the party line.  The failed multi-billion-dollar ObamaCare launch.  The Solyndra collapse.  The Fast and Furious scandal.  Heck, even Obama's scandalous mishandling of the economy should be the talk of the nation.  All of these paint a picture of a president who is out of control, out of his depth, dangerously out of touch with reality, and incapable of effectively running the government or protecting taxpayer money.

Barack H. Obama is delusional.
A '60 Minutes' interview with an unserious President Obama.  The president said a policy he announced last September to "degrade and destroy" ISIS would work "over time," not in one year.  Mr. Obama also said he was confident the nations of the world would come together "over time" to defeat ISIS.  Mr. Kroft, clearly exasperated by this stream of statements with no basis in reality, insisted that Vladimir Putin is not, as Mr. Obama asserted, acting out of weakness but was challenging his leadership.  The president disputed Mr. Kroft by saying, "Well, Steve, I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership."

Obama: My Idea Of World Leadership Is Fighting Climate Change.  President Obama indicates that when it comes to world leadership, he has mostly disdain for people who compare him to Russian President Vladimir Putin.  When challenged by "60 Minutes" interviewer Steve Kroft about ceding leadership in the Middle East to Putin, Obama argued that leadership on climate change was more important than leadership to combat terrorism.

With a straight face, Obama asserts Putin is weak and no challenge.  In an interview broadcast Sunday night [10/11/2015], President Obama claimed Russian President Putin's recent major military moves in Syria are a sign of weakness and present no challenge to the American leader.  Well, that's a relief, isn't it?  Because after annexing Crimea, fomenting armed rebellion in eastern Ukraine, ignoring Obama's ineffective economic sanctions, selling arms to Iran, moving troops and naval assets into Syria, delivering a diplomatic note ordering U.S. planes from Syrian skies, then bombing Assad regime opponents, all in defiance of the American leader, it sure did strike some as a pretty clear challenge.

Press says Obama flopped on '60 Minutes'.  In response to questions about what it he thinks for the United States to be global leader, and how he intends to respond Putin's moves in the Middle East, the president said, "My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, an international accord that potentially we'll get in Paris.  My definition of leadership is mobilizing the entire world community to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. [...]"

The Editor says...
Obama is apparently doing everything he can to provide Iran with nuclear weapons, while claiming the opposite.  And when asked about Russia advancing in the Middle East, he started blithering about global warming.  The man is a simpleton.

Putin Bombs Syria, As Obama Saddles My Little Pony.  When told Russia's Vladimir Putin was challenging his leadership, President Obama's first response was to say that his "definition of leadership would be leading on climate change."  We're not making this up. [...] The nation should be quaking that it has a president who would say — and maybe even believe — something so shallow and trend-driven.  While the Islamic State continues to steal, kill and destroy, and Putin is seizing land and bombing his way to becoming the world's strong man, our president wants to saddle My Little Pony.

DHS Goes Alarmist... Brings Back Terrorism Alert System for Domestic Threats.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced earlier this month at the UN that she would be working in several American cities to form what she called the Strong Cities Network (SCN), a law enforcement initiative that would encompass the globe.  Now Jeh Johnson has decided what is really needed is an alert system to warn everyone of pending terrorist attacks on US soil.  I'm detecting a very unpleasant trend here.  The old one that these morons came up with was never used.  It went unused.  At least Bush's made sense — this one is only two levels.  'Elevated' and 'We're all about to die.'

The Fed Just "Discovered" Another $2.7 Trillion In Debt.  The people of the United States, misled by its politicians, and plundered by its financial institutions, are swimming in so much debt that no one will probably ever grasp the truly staggering amount — if indeed it can ever be fully calculated.  Forget paying it all back; the Federal Reserve isn't even apparently aware of how deep the crisis goes.  Officially, the U.S. was already $59 trillion in debt in 2015, but now the number is significantly higher.  When the Fed is changed its method of tracking and reporting debt numbers, and replaced a single Credit Market Instruments chart with two separate charts for "debt securities" and "loans," it suddenly reported an additional $2.7 trillion.

The One-Minute Guide to Obama's Foreign Policy.  We who follow U.S. foreign policy, and especially the Middle East, sometimes get asked whether Barack Obama is a community organizing naïf way out of his depth or a brilliant ideologue who knows exactly what he is doing?  Is he inept or purposeful?  Does he see his foreign policy as a failure or a success?  My reply:  Not one or the other but a bit of both.  He is a leftist who sees the imperialism, militarism, and corporate greed of the United States as a menace to the outside world.  He conceives of his role being to reach out to enemies, reduce America's cowboy ways, make it one of the pack, and render the world a safer place.

Beyond Clinton: Cybersecurity Failures Are Widespread Under Obama.  Under continued fire for her use of a private, unsecured email account to conduct official State Department business, Hillary Clinton now faces charges that cybersecurity suffered at the State Department during her time as secretary.  The Associated Press gathered various internal audits over the years, and found that the department's compliance with federal cybersecurity standards "grew worse each year of her tenure."

John Kerry has the intellect of a 12-year-old: Netanyahu aide.  The United States takes offense at comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new communications director accusing President Barack Obama of anti-Semitism and suggesting that Secretary of State John Kerry had the mental abilities of a 12-year-old, the State Department said on Thursday [11/5/2015].  It said Kerry had spoken to the Israeli leader on Thursday and understood that Netanyahu "will be reviewing" the appointment of Ran Baratz after a US-Israeli summit meeting at the White House next week.

World Waits for America To Pick New President Capable of Leadership.  Canada's new government has already declared that it will, as promised in the late election campaign, withdraw Canada's token participation in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, although it is continuing to train some local forces supported by the West. [...] The motive for this partial withdrawal must be and presumably is that there are serious credibility problems with the aptitude of the Obama administration to lead such an initiative effectively.

Obama promises to vet Syrian migrants, can't even run immigration database.  The disastrous ObamaCare website wasn't an extraordinary exception to the way this administration does things. [...] Did anyone really expect another outcome?  The VA records system is a disaster.  The ObamaCare database was a disaster.  The only database that works is the one used to track Democratic voters.

Obama has created perfect storm for terror attack on U.S. soil.  A broken immigration system, open borders, a president with no military strategy, sanctuary cities, 10,000 Syrian refugees headed our way and ISIS on the march — add it all up, and what do we get?  A perfect storm for another major terror attack on our soil.  Who knew our Appeaser in Chief would make peanut farmer President Jimmy Carter look strong?

Obama's 'patience' merely gave ISIS time to grow.  The Obama administration has tried to spin its timidity and ineptitude in the face of Islamist terrorism as a clever policy of "strategic patience."  With eyes closed and fingers crossed, the president hoped that, miraculously, the mortal threat from ISIS would wither away.  You might as well hope that malignant tumors will cure themselves.  President Obama's approach of delayed and diluted action — ever doing the minimum demanded by domestic politics — has allowed ISIS not only to survive but to expand its appeal, its numbers, its territory and its global impact.

Obama's Disastrous Press Conference.  [Barack H. Obama is] a remarkable man, in all the wrong ways.  He is the apotheosis of progressivism, the avatar and godling that is the living embodiment of all their cowardices, lies, hypocrisies, self-flatteries, and stupidities.  One self-flattery they're fond of is claiming they have "evidence-based" reasoning, not ideology-based reasoning, and that their minds are supple things that readily incorporate new information and plot new strategies accordingly.  Obama is the ultimate exemplar of this fiction.  He claims that he's always interested in "whatever works" and he's constantly engaging in high-level cognition about the world, and yet no matter what the news, no matter how badly his strategies and ideological priors have been shown to fail, he clings to them with the devotion of a child to his woobie.

Obama to continue Patty-Cake strategy on ISIS that guarantees an attack on American soil.  Obama had no answers on how to deal with ISIS today and he really looked like he was being inconvenienced with questions he didn't want to answer.  Bottom line is that he doesn't care!  He's more interested in Gay rights and Climate change as much bigger threats to the United States.

Obama's Pathological Blindness.  It's hard to believe we twice elected a president who refuses to defend the United States.  I think people who used to dismiss our criticism of President Obama as extreme are now realizing just how naive they were. [...] He obviously has no strategy, because he refuses to recognize we're at war.  The truth is that Obama is willfully blinded by his warped ideology, to which he has far more allegiance than the United States.

Kerry Goes to France, Fails to Bring James Taylor.  I understand that with getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, alongside heroes like Steven Spielberg, James Taylor might be a bit busy.  But it was less embarrassing when Kerry brought him to France.  First Ambassador Hartley introduced Kerry. Hartley got the gig because she's part of a well-connected Democratic donor couple who bundled over $500K for Obama.  That's what it takes to get an ambassadorship.  So one joke introduced another.  Hartley called Kerry, "A true friend of France and a person who has been fighting for freedom and liberty all his life."  That explains his friendship with Assad, his lobbying for the Sandinistas and his libeling of American soldiers in Vietnam.

John Kerry Is a Disgrace.  The top diplomat in the United States just publicly argued that because the victims at Charlie Hebdo had spoken risqué words but the victims at the Bataclan had not, the violence against the former was more comprehensible than the violence against the latter. Has he lost his mind?

Obama's inaction plants doubt he can keep America safe.  President Obama's appallingly tepid response to the Paris slaughter makes him an outlier in a world suddenly determined to crush the Islamic State barbarians.  In one of the worst appearances ever by an American president during a crisis, Obama, meeting in Turkey with other heads of state, called the atrocity a "setback" and urged patience.  Even after French President Franois Hollande gave a rousing speech to Parliament, declaring, "We are in a war against jihadist terrorism, which is threatening the whole world," and urged Obama to join a coordinated effort, the president said no.

John Kerry has lost 'legitimacy' as Secretary of State.  An American Secretary of State addressing American Embassy employees spoke of the "legitimacy" of the murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo, before realizing how outrageous that was and correcting himself to speak of a "rationale."  Too late and still awful.  By expressing his understanding of, if not agreement with, the right of Muslims to murder those who violate their Sharia code while freely expressing themselves in the tradition of the West, Kerry has forfeited his ability to act as defender of American interests on the world stage.  He should resign or be fired.

Our Bitter and Graceless President.  We all know people of towering arrogance and we all know people of staggering incompetence, but Barack Obama is quite possibly the perfect package.  No one on the scene today combines these two qualities in quite the same way as Mr. Obama. [...] Now most of us, with this almost unblemished record of ineptness, might feel some embarrassment.  We might show a touch of self-reflection.  And we would at least resist the temptation to lecture others.  But not Mr. Obama.  In his press conference in Turkey earlier this week, the president was prickly, petulant, condescending and small-minded.

John Kerry's mouth [is] a diplomatic incident.  Lately, like ISIS, Liveshot has grown exasperated with anyone who has the audacity to call him out ... on anything.  The Charlie Hebdo faux pas (to use his favorite language) wasn't the first time he's come down on the wrong side of the First Amendment.  This is Liveshot recently on global warming:  "When science tells us that our climate is changing and human beings are largely causing that change, by what right do people stand up and just say 'Well I dispute that or I deny that elementary truth.'"  By what right?  How about the Bill of Rights?  How about the fact that you don't have a clue what you're talking about?

The incredible shrinking president: Obama's words belittle the office.  Constitutionally, Barack Obama has 427 days left in his second term.  But actually, the Democrat has already abdicated his role in the highest office that his countrymen can ever bestow.  His petty, petulant remarks recently and especially abroad this week confirmed the sadness.  Obama's not even a lame duck anymore.  Ironic that he controls the most power on the planet.  But stands before us and the world now as a mere shell of an American leader, bereft of any real influence or earned stature.  He's ignored by Russia, defied by Iran.  Instead of respect, he gets heads shaking.

Historian: Obama lacks maturity of Reagan, acts like 'spoiled little man child'.  "President Reagan would have done everything Barack Obama is not doing.  He would have been rational, manly, intellectual and tough.  He would not have been a shameful, spoiled little man child, irrationally attacking Americans while on foreign soil," historian Craig Shirley tells Inside the Beltway.

Sharyl Attkisson: Sources Say Obama Won't Listen to Intel About Islamic Terrorist Groups.  President Barack Obama is not interested in hearing intelligence information about Islamist groups he does not consider to be terrorists — even if they're on the U.S. list of designated terrorists, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson revealed on the Steve Malzberg Show Thursday [11/19/2015]. [...] "I have talked to people who have worked in the Obama administration who firmly believe he has made up his mind, I would say closed his mind, they say, to the intelligence they try to bring him about various groups he does not consider terrorists even if they're on the U.S. list of designated terrorists," Attkisson said.

Attkisson Source: Obama Is Flat Out Refusing to Hear Intel on Islamic Terror Groups.  Host of Full Measure and investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson dropped a bombshell of information today [11/19/2015] during an interview with Steve Malzberg.  According to sources close to the White House who Attkisson has spoken to, President Obama is now flat out refusing to accept or hear about intelligence surrounding radical Islamic terror groups.

Silence From White House Reflects a Failure Of American Leadership.  If we want to destroy the Islamic State, we can destroy the Islamic State.  Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but I want to state it anyway.  Why?  Because I am not hearing it enough.  I'm certainly not hearing it from the White House, where the original goal of destruction is barely mentioned.  President Obama is listless.  He's also petulant, pointing political fingers at Republicans.  But he doesn't have a trace of a coherent policy to destroy the Islamic State.  Not a trace.

Unspeakable Kerry.  Speaking in Paris on November 17, Secretary of State John Kerry made what are already infamous comments about the fight against terrorists and terrorism.  He spoke to the staff and families of the U.S. embassy in Paris, and his remarks deserve quoting at some length — because they display a deep misunderstanding of what we are up against and how it must be fought.  In State Department lingo his remarks would be called "deeply troubling."  In normal English usage, they are astonishing and unforgivable.

Is Mass Murder Something Important?  [D]espite the evidence of a failed military strategy against ISIS that has allowed the group to both conduct terror operations in Europe such as last week's atrocity in Paris as well as to retain control of much of Iraq and Syria, the president has refused to reconsider his approach to the problem.  This past week he doubled down on his refusal to escalate America's half-hearted and ineffectual military response in the Middle East while lashing out angrily at the press for asking obvious questions about his seemingly inexplicable faith in a policy that hasn't worked.

A Totalitarian Marriage of Convenience.  Barack Hussein Obama is succeeding in his fundamental transformation; that is, dismantling the United States as a capitalist republic, based on Judeo-Christian democratic principles.  Obama is dangerous as a President because his ideologies, Marxism and sympathy for Islam, drive him to pursue policies that run counter to the national interest, the well-being of the American people and, quite frankly, the survival of the country.  His mendacity is compounded by his arrogance and narcissism that prevent him from accepting responsibility and learning from his mistakes.  He is not on our side.

The incompetence of our neo-monarchy.  So, if I follow correctly, the smartest president ever is not smart enough to ensure that his website works; he's not smart enough to inquire of others as to whether his website works; he's not smart enough to check that his website works before he goes out and tells people what a great website experience they're in for.  But he is smart enough to know that he's not stupid enough to go around bragging about how well it works if he'd already been informed that it doesn't work.  So he's smart enough to know that if he'd known what he didn't know he'd know enough not to let it be known that he knew nothing.  The country's in the very best of hands.

'We Killed Osama Bin Laden' Is No Strategy To Defeat ISIS.  John Kerry's plan to defeat ISIS is basically:  "We killed Osama bin Laden."  But al-Qaida is active worldwide post-bin Laden, and even Democrats aren't buying his ISIS nonstrategy.  'We began our fight against al-Qaida in 2001, and it took us quite a few years before we were able to eliminate Osama bin Laden and the top leadership, and neutralize them as an effective force," Secretary of State Kerry claimed last Thursday [11/19/2015], promising to defeat the Islamic State "much faster than that."  Where to begin sorting out the bunk?

Terrorism Deaths Quadruple Under Obama.  The worldwide number of annual terrorist deaths has more than quadrupled since President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009.  Deaths from terrorism increased 80 percent last year to an all-time-record of 32,658 people killed, compared to 18,111 in 2013.  The number is up about 426 percent from the 7,654 killed by terrorists in 2008 under President Bush, according to the latest report from 'Vision of Humanity.'

Axis of Sophomores: Obama-Hillary-Kerry.  Sophomore literally means "wise fool."  Though they're wise in their own eyes, the title's three leftists — even former Secretary of State Clinton — own America's diminishment and the predictable subsequent chaos around the world.

7 Reasons You Should Buy a Gun After San Bernardino.  [Scroll down]  The FBI didn't have Syed Farook on a watch list or a no-fly list, even though according to CNN, he was "in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism, law enforcement officials said Thursday."  The suspects were watching ISIS propaganda online.  Because the Obama administration doesn't take Islamic terrorism seriously — climate change is far more important — they have a long history of ignoring terror information.  As Joel Pollak points out, the Obama administration still has not exploited the intelligence value of information obtained during the bin Laden raid, and they left the Benghazi consulate completely open after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2012, risking intelligence assets in the process.

Obama's pathetic failure to transform anything.  The Middle East, North Africa and even crucial parts of Central Asia are in turmoil.  True, Obama might not have singlehandedly ignited the multi-continent dumpster fire that's raging.  But he certainly hasn't put it out, either.  That'll be someone else's job.  And if these hotspots do ever cool, it won't be because of Obama.  Oh, and where was our commander in chief this week as the fire raged?  In Paris, working to sign a climate-change deal that won't change the trajectory of the climate one bit.  He wants this to be his legacy, but anything the countries agree to won't be revolutionary — or even enforceable.

What better way to keep an eye on them?
72 employees at DHS on terror watch list.  Six dozen DHS employees are on the terror watch list, and the TSA has a 95% failure rate.  No further comment is needed.  The numbers speak for themselves.

Rebuking Obama's Folly.  We need a national leader [...] to lead us against the murderous forces of Islamic terrorism.  We don't have that man in the White House.  We are led instead by a cowardly, ill-informed, blockhead who has done everything in his power to destroy national unity and power, and his most recent conduct makes my claim irrefutable. [...] 14 Americans were slaughtered in a terrorist attack in San Bernardino[,] California.  This is the third such attack on his watch:  Ft. Hood, the Boston Marathon, and the San Bernardino slaughter.  In each instance, the fear of racial profiling along with government carelessness contributed to the slaughter.  At Ft. Hood the psychiatrists who had worked with Nidal Hassan knew he was a crackpot and a fanatical Islamist but kept quiet for fear of crossing the racial profiling line and harming their careers if they spoke up.

Bitter Jihadists Cling to Guns and Religion.  [Scroll down]  Detect a pattern here?  Indeed, we should, a pattern of denial and obfuscation by a president who is either delusional or incompetent or both.  This is not a problem with guns that will be solved by background checks or cross checking gun buyers with no-fly lists.  CBS has reported that Tashfeen Malik, who came here on a visa to marry American citizen Syed Farook, actually passed vetting by our vaunted Department of Homeland Security.  So what should we be looking for after San Bernardino?  Attorney General Loretta Lynch has an idea — look for those spouting hate speech against Muslims.

A Breathtaking Display of Weakness.  Keep in mind, a couple of weeks ago Barack Obama told the American people that there was no chance of there being a terrorist attack on our nation.  Thus, when the terrorist attack took place he refused to admit that he was wrong and took the coward's way out.  First, he indulged in some legalistic double talk and declared the ISIL was not an existential threat to America.  Second, he refused to say that the terrorist attack was terrorism.  His spokesman called it "a terrible act of violence."  Now, he has just barely been dragged kicking and screaming into saying that it was an act of terror — because his FBI said that it was — but he still cannot pronounce the word Islamist.  The Obama administration's craven response shows why people resort to terrorism.  After all, the purpose of terrorism is first to show that America's freedoms make it weak and ineffective, and second to garner respect for Islam.

San Bernardino terrorist Tashfeen Malik passed three background checks to gain entry into America.  San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, 29, underwent three background checks and had her K-1 fiancee visa approved even though she openly posted about committing violent jihad on social media.  Malik and husband Syed Farook killed 14 people earlier this month after passing through customs at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in July 2014 and getting married the following month.  If US officials had discovered the messages Malik posted before she applied for her visa from Pakistan last year, red flags would have gone up and she likely would not have been approved for entry.

Officials missed signs of San Bernardino shooters' jihadi intent.  The San Bernardino terrorists embraced radical Islamist ideology as early as 2013, a full year before the woman arrived in the U.S. on a fiancee visa, raising concerns that officials missed red flags that could have prevented her from being admitted.  FBI Director James B. Comey told Congress on Wednesday [12/9/2015] that Syed Rizwan Farook and his Pakistan-born wife, Tashfeen Malik, were radicalized before they met one another through an online dating website and that both had talked of jihad and martyrdom.

U.S. Visa Process Missed San Bernardino Wife's Zealotry on Social Media.  Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband carried out the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., passed three background checks by American immigration officials as she moved to the United States from Pakistan.  But none uncovered what Ms. Malik had made little effort to hide — that she talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad.  She said she supported it.  And she said she wanted to be a part of it.

Visa Application Asks: 'Do You Seek to Engage in Terrorist Activities While in the United States?'.  The application form that San Bernardino terrorist Tashfeen Malik would have used to apply for her visa to enter the United States asks such questions as, "Do you seek to engage in terrorist activities while in the United States or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities?"  "Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization," asks another question, to which the Pakistani citizen would have been required to check a "yes" or "no" box.  "Have you ever or do you intend to provide financial assistance or other support to terrorists or terrorist organizations?" asks a third, along with similar questions relating to espionage, human trafficking, money laundering, prostitution and other offenses.

The Editor says...
How amazingly stupid.  What terrorist would ever give truthful answers to these questions?  The feds might as well ask for the approximate date and location of the applicant's first intended terrorist attack, and provide a series of check-boxes for "dynamite vest," "pressure cooker," and "machine gun."

Vetting Obama's Witless Vetters at DHS.  Gaping holes in the K1 fiance visa interview process.  Reckless bans on scrutinizing visa applicants' social media posts.  Ignored alarms over marriage fraud.  New details keep seeping out about all the "red flags" Obama's immigration officials missed in the case of the San Bernardino jihadists.  Color me unshocked.  The American public and Capitol Hill politicians should have been more vigilant about vetting Obama's vetters in the first place.  What do you expect when you put crony know-nothings, political hacks and identity politics zealots in charge of our safety?

Security Dies Where Multiculturalism Thrives.  This week, we found out that President Obama's Department of Homeland Security prohibited agents from screening foreign citizens applying for visas to enter the country.  According to former acting undersecretary at DHS for intelligence and analysis John Cohen, "During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process. ... The primary concern was that it would be viewed negatively if it was disclosed publicly and there were concerns that it would be embarrassing."

The Editor says...
That's just great.  Americans are concerned about getting slaughtered, but Obama and Company are worried about embarrassing somebody.

Cruz: Obama Is Ignoring Jihadist Threat.  Recent polling shows terrorism and national security among the top concerns of Republican primary voters and several candidates have used the moment to offer proposals to change course from the Obama administration's passive approach.  Cruz points to Obama's address to the nation on ISIS last Sunday as an example of his fecklessness.  The president reported that he knows the enemy well because he sees the threat in his daily intelligence briefing.  But seeing it isn't good enough, Cruz will say, because Obama has "chosen to not to deal with the reality" and "has chosen not to confront the actual enemy."

Fire Jeh Johnson!  Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has proven himself incapable of handling the grave responsibilities of his office, and he should either resign in disgrace or be fired.  Of course, that will never happen, for Johnson is black and comes from the American black aristocracy (his grandfather was a president of Fisk University). [...] President Obama is reeling from the public's accurate perception of fecklessness in the face of an escalating terror threat.  He needs to send a message to the lethargic bureaucrats under him that things are different now, that America is serious.  Firing Jeh Johnson would be a great first step.  But it won't happen.

GOP Rep on Fox: ISIS Poses 'Existential Threat' to U.S., But So Might Obama.  In an interview with Fox News' On the Record, Republican Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry wondered whether or not the administration of President Barack Obama posed an "existential threat" to the United States.  Perry told Greta Van Susteran that the Obama administration's policy of deliberately not checking the social media posts of visa applicants "goes beyond incompetence.  When you find out they missed it, you think, 'Well, how did that happen?'"

Feds can't say whereabouts of those whose visas were revoked over terror threat.  The Obama administration cannot be sure of the whereabouts of thousands of foreigners in the U.S. who had their visas revoked over terror concerns and other reasons, a State Department official acknowledged Thursday [12/17/2015].  The admission, made at a House oversight hearing examining immigrant vetting in the wake of major terror attacks, drew a sharp rebuke from the committee chairman.  "You don't have a clue do you?" Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Michele Thoren Bond, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

NY Times Stealth-Edits Article to Remove Embarrassing Obama Admission.  If you read The New York Times' story on President Barack Obama's private meeting with news columnists Friday morning [12/18/2015], you may have caught one quote that made the President look particularly bad: [...] The President of the United States failed to understand that Americans were anxious after two major terrorist attacks in Western cities because he doesn't watch TV?  It's an admission that opponents are sure to use to make the president seem out-of-touch at best, and unconcerned about a serious threat at worst.

Why Is Obama making life easier for terrorists?  Imagine there's a horrible mass murder of 130 people and then another one a short time later in another town, with 14 people killed.  This innocent collection of moms, dads, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, and best friends murdered as they were eating at a café, enjoying a concert with friends and loved-ones or celebrating the holiday season.  Then imagine someone explaining that he didn't grasp the "anxiety" such an event would cause because he didn't watch enough cable television.  How is it, one might naturally ask, that someone wouldn't have the natural empathy or sympathy to understand the horrific nature of such of an event, and its impact, without watching television?  But that is exactly the position of the leader of the free world, Barack Obama, the President of the United States.

The Editor says...
The President is an incompetent doofus if he gets his information from cable TV.  The President is supposed to get daily briefings on current events, but Mr. Obama is too lazy to attend those briefings.  He's rather watch television.

U.S. lets in four times as many suspected terrorists as it keeps out.  The State Department admitted to Congress last week that it had revoked the visas of 9,500 individuals since 2001 who were believed to have either engaged in terrorist activities or were associated with a terrorist organization.  Think about what that means:  Nearly 10,000 people considered too dangerous to enter the United States because of suspected terrorist activity or association were mistakenly granted visas to lawfully enter the country.  They successfully penetrated our defenses, beat our screening system and got their hands on U.S. visas.  Worse still, after officials caught their mistake and revoked the visas after the fact, they lost track of the visa holders.  Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, pressed Michele Thoren Bond, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, to explain what had happened to the 9,500.  She replied:  "I don't know."

Where Obama won't be going on his global farewell tour.  As President Obama begins his final year in office, polls show that public confidence in his national security leadership has collapsed:  Only 18 percent of Americans say the United States is winning the war on terrorism, and even a 59 percent majority of Democrats are dissatisfied with how Obama is prosecuting the fight against Islamist radicalism.  Obama's response?  The Post reports the president has "scolded his aides about how poorly the administration was communicating" his strategy and ordered an "uptick in our communications tempo."  Not an uptick in our "operations tempo" against the terrorists, mind you — an uptick in our communications tempo.  You see, the problem isn't the military strategy; it's the communications strategy.  If Americans don't see how brilliant Obama's approach is, he must not be explaining it well enough.

Look for America's Enemies to Take Advantage of Obama's Last Year.  [Scroll down]  Prepare for stepped-up Islamic State offensives during a last-chance year of the Obama presidency.  Over the last seven years, the world has become acclimatized to the lead-from-behind role of the United States.  Under Obama, friends and enemies bet that America was conflicted about the wisdom and morality of the entire American-led postwar global enterprise and reacted accordingly.  But — who knows? — the next American president might identify radical Islam as the catalyst for terrorism directed at the West.

Former SecDef: Obama's National Security Advisers Are Totally Naive.  Former defense secretary Robert Gates, who served during the Obama administration, thinks that President Barack Obama's national security aides are totally and completely naïve, a naivety which has brought about disastrous foreign policy consequences.  Gates pointed to deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes and former special assistant Samantha Power, both in their 30s, as prime examples of youth and inexperience run amuck, Politico reports.

The President Who Fell From Grace.  As easily as he slid into office with no qualifications for the post, Obama is falling from grace with fate and the voters.  His dishonesty and incompetence are too patent.  This week, no sooner had his relatively sparsely viewed presser ended and his clearly manufactured tears about gun violence dried, than his central argument — that gun control, not fighting Islamic terrorism, should be our priority — was exposed as nonsense.

Countering the Contemporary Theory of Violent Jihad.  The key Jihadi theoretician and strategist is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (AKA Abu Musab al-Suri). [...] Nasar's proposal was soon integrated into online Jihadi manuals and broadcast through Islamist chatrooms and websites.  There it was picked up by people such as Nidal Hassan, the Tsarnaev brothers, Tashfeen Malik, and Syed Rizwan Farook, resulting in Detroit, Times Square, Boston, Little Rock, Fort Hood, and San Bernardino.  Our honest media, with negative knowledge of strategy (what they claim to "know" is not true), has dismissed these actions as meaningless "lone wolf" attacks.  Our "security" structure has also shrugged them off, unwilling to admit that they have no workable countermeasures.  The Obama administration has concurred in this, since dwelling on it may lead the misguided to question Obama's divinity.  Put bluntly, we in 2016 have a hostile force targeting American civilians while being ignored by the government and its security forces.  Never before has an American administration done this.

Keywords:  Abdication, incompetence, one world government, open borders
Should the UN be Picking the Next Americans?  The Obama administration has outsourced to the United Nations the selection of Central Americans who will be reclassified as refugees to this country.  How many more ways can we lose control of our border?

US hangs Russian flag upside down at Lavrov-Kerry talks.  The US State Department just seems to lack attentiveness when it comes to minor details in US-Russian relations:  the Russian flag was hung upside down in the conference room in Zurich ahead of a meeting between the top Russian and US diplomats.  Ahead of the key negotiations between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry on the fate of Syria, the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, US State Department officials were left red-faced when a cameraman pointed out the fact that the Russian flag in the conference room was hanging upside down.

Report: DHS Incapable of Accurately Reporting Visa Overstays.  The Department of Homeland Security remains unable to accurately report the number of aliens who illegally overstay their visas into the country more than 12 years after the agency was ordered to employ a tracking system to monitor these individuals, according to a new government oversight report that is highly critical of the department's efforts.  More than 12 years after DHS was ordered to implement a biometric system to track the number of aliens who leave the United States when their visas expire, the agency is still in the planning stages and has failed to meet its mandated requirement, according the Government Accountability Office, which has been tracking the department's progress since 2004.

What Obama Doesn't Know about Firearms in the U.S. Military.  What Obama doesn't seem to understand is that the U.S. military has been trying to make firearms less lethal for some time now.  The idea is that enemy troops who are merely wounded, not killed, slow down their comrades and greatly limit their maneuverability. [...] The bottom line is that the military has already taken a wide range of factors into account in deciding what firearms work best for them.  Obama's orders, in an area that he doesn't understand, represents the worst type of political judgment substituting for the judgment of military experts.

White House Misses Deadline to Deliver ISIS Strategy to Congress.  The House Armed Services Committee noted Tuesday [2/16/2016] that the Obama administration missed their February 15 deadline to deliver a strategy to counter violent extremist groups in the Middle East, such as ISIS and al Qaeda, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act.  Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, harshly criticized President Obama's failure to meet the deadline.  "I fear the President's failure to deliver this report says far more about the state of his strategy to defeat terrorists than any empty reassurance he may offer from the podium," Thornberry said in a statement.

Tech giant says government lost access to shooter's iPhone backup by changing passcode hours after the attack.  Apple is firing back at the government saying they could have accessed the phone of the San Bernadino shooter had his password not been changed after the FBI seized the device.  Apple executives pointed out that Syed Farook's iCloud account had been reset with a new passcode by his employer, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, who owned the phone just 24 hours after the shooting.  Had that not happened his cloud would have been accessible if the phone was taken to a location where it recognized the Wi-Fi network according to ABC News.

Common software would have allowed FBI to unlock San Bernardino shooter's phone.  The county government that owned the iPhone in a high-profile legal battle between Apple Inc. and the Justice Department paid for but never installed a feature that would have allowed the FBI to easily and immediately unlock the phone as part of the terrorism investigation into the shootings that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif.

Demagoguery as Unskilled Labor.  [Scroll down]  Overlooked in the whole debate over whether Apple should build a backdoor to encrypted Iphones is the fact that the FBI accidentally locked the terrorist's phone to which it is now seeking access.  Technology can't save us from human stupidity.  What technology does is make incompetence in high places more expensive to ignore.

These 8 federal agencies are the worst. Here's how to fix them.  From the historic breach of 22 million personnel records to the systemic failure to take care of veterans to outrageous shenanigans among Secret Service agents, federal agencies are acquitting themselves poorly these days.  What follows is a rundown of the eight worst agencies.  But this list is by no means comprehensive.  Others could join, but this is a magazine, not a phonebook.  The list also includes the number of employees deemed essential during the 2013 shutdown.

Homeland Security Is Spilling a Lot of Secrets.  The Department of Homeland Security suffered over 100 "spills" of classified information last year, 40 percent of which came from one office, according to a leaked internal document I obtained.  Officials and lawmakers told me that until the Department imposes stricter policies and sounder practices to better protect sensitive intelligence, the vulnerabilities there could be exploited.  Not only does this raise the threat that hostile actors could get their hands on classified information, but may lead to other U.S. agencies keeping DHS out of the loop on major security issues.

F.B.I. Error Locked San Bernardino Attacker's iPhone.  The head of the F.B.I. acknowledged on Tuesday [3/1/2016] that his agency lost a chance to capture data from the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers when it ordered that his password to the online storage service iCloud be reset shortly after the rampage.  "There was a mistake made in the 24 hours after the attack," James B. Comey Jr., the director of the F.B.I., told lawmakers at a hearing on the government's attempt to force Apple to help "unlock" the iPhone.  F.B.I. personnel apparently believed that by resetting the iCloud password, they could get access to information stored on the iPhone.  Instead, the change had the opposite effect — locking them out and eliminating other means of getting in.

DHS Secretary: 'There's Only So Much Border Security You Can Accomplish'.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday that more must be done to address the problems in Central America that have led to an uptick in unaccompanied children attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, because "there's only so much border security you can accomplish" to deal with people who are motivated to leave their homes to travel to the U.S.

Obama's CIA Director Is Opposed to Spying .  Unbelievable, but true:  President Obama's CIA Director, John Brennan, doesn't think the agency should engage in spying. He finds espionage unsavory, apparently. [...] Barack Obama has undermined our national security on so many fronts that it is hard to keep track of them all.  But appointing the rank incompetent John Brennan as an anti-spying CIA Director must rank high on the list.

Obama's Executive Order Against North Korea Won't Mean Much If It's Not Implemented.  On March 16, President Barack Obama issued a new executive order imposing additional sanctions on North Korea for its repeated violations of U.S. law and U.N. resolutions. [...] However, while the text is impressive and ominous-sounding in its powers, as was the case with all previous executive orders on North Korea, its effectiveness ultimately depends on how strongly it is actually implemented.  To date, unfortunately, the Obama administration has not fully enforced existing U.S. laws and regulations despite having an already impressive array of authorities to impose sanctions.

DHS chief sad over deportations: 'Is it pleasant? Absolutely not.'  The nation's top immigration officer said that the "11 million" undocumented aliens in the United States are "not going away," are "in effect" citizens, and added that deporting the few the administration wants out is unpleasant.  Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, told Harvard University students this week that the administration is focused on its plan to integrate illegals into America, despite the policy being tied up in court.

Politically Correct Counterterrorism.  Every time another mass murder occurs, the media's coverage focuses on the memorials — piles of flowers, rows of candles and hand-drawn signs — and the calls for "unity" and pledges of resolve by national leaders. But all the memorials are totally meaningless.  They are merely a stage for politicians to act on, professing emotion, proclaiming unity, and calling for everyone to just keep calm and carry on.  Nothing else results from them. [...] Obama's strategy and tactics were intended, as he said, to degrade and eventually destroy ISIS.  They have failed.  Obama said last Wednesday that defeating ISIS remained his number one priority.  But, he added, there will be no change in strategy.  Amazingly stupid.

Obama will leave his successor more Middle East disasters than he inherited.  Before he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama won the peacenik vote.  When he ran for president in 2008, he was the one aiming to "turn the page" on America's failed foreign policy.  He criticized the Iraq War as a distraction from the real business in Afghanistan.  And yet, Obama is going to hand his successor more foreign policy disasters than he inherited.

The Summit Of Allaying No Fears.  [Scroll down]  [Barack H. Obama] is wrong when he declares:  "The single most effective defense against nuclear terrorism is fully securing this material so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands in the first place."  The single most effective defense is to eliminate those terrorists — kill them or imprison them somewhere like Guantanamo Bay, where the U.S.  can (but under Obama often doesn't) keep them indefinitely, beyond the reach of leftist civil liberties lawyers seeking to turn them back out into the world.  It's the terrorists, and the governments like Iran and North Korea that support them, that must be stopped, through full commitment to a global war on terror.

The Men Who Would Be King.  The New York Times has an article describing how Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, sold fiction as truth in communicating the president's foreign policy.  Rhodes regarded the deception as a clever way to success.  Like an engineering student who has found a way to cheat on his final exam, or a man astonished to find himself with a medical license by mistake, Rhodes appears to think he's actually accomplished something positive.  He has no clue he's set up a disaster that is only waiting to happen.  Thomas Ricks, writing in Foreign Policy, calls the article "a stunning profile of Ben Rhodes, the [person] who is the president's foreign policy guru."  But it is also a profile of the president.

The Eight-Year Amateur Hour.  President Obama's foreign policy has always been an indecipherable concatenation of unrestrained urges.  He's shunned our closest allies, Britain and Israel, embraced our adversaries and enemies such as Russia, Iran, and China, and acted out of fits of pique when challenged at home or abroad.  When North Korea tests a missile or a nuclear weapon, when Russia begins reconquering former Soviet states, and when Russia and Iran combine to ensure the survival of Syria's terrorist regime, there's no effort to brace our allies to strengthen them.  It's only when we have no national security interest in acting will Obama join, as he did when he, with France and Britain, made an ad hoc NATO-like coalition to remove a dictator, using American air power to take out Libya's Muammar Qaddafi.

The Eight-Year Amateur Hour.  Consider Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for communications strategy. [...] Rhodes has been busy spinning Obama's foreign policy lies.  We must remember that he was at the center of the Benghazi talking points controversy.  What the CIA wrote was re-written by Rhodes, Clinton, and others before Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk shows five days later to spin the yarn about protests, an obscure anti-Muslim movie trailer, and to deny the attack had been carefully planned by terrorists.  It was Rhodes who wrote the talking points that Rice followed that Sunday.  Among them was one that insisted that there was no broader policy failure in Obama's Libya military action.  Remember, too, that then-defense secretary Robert Gates said repeatedly that we had no national security interest in toppling Qaddafi.

Obama Continues Partisan Push To Cement His Failed Presidency.  Earlier this week, President Obama conducted an interview with BuzzFeed News and continued his campaign to put in the place what The New York Times says would be the most liberal Supreme Court in 50 years.  The campaign up to this point can only be described as a colossal failure.  So far, conservative groups have dramatically outspent liberal counterparts, taking the case directly to the American people that the President cannot be allowed to fundamentally transform the nation's highest court in the waning months of his administration.

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  Throughout his eight years, President Obama has elevated to high office a long list of incompetent people, or people who revealed themselves to be utterly unsuited for the public office assigned to them.  Here is PJ Media's list of the 13 most egregious examples of failure in the Obama administration.  This is by no means an exclusive list, and who knows what our president will cook up in his last few months.

A Part-time Law Lecturer vs. the Constitution.  It's a lie often repeated that Obama was a Constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago law school.  In fact, he was just a lecturer there for a short time who never much impressed his colleagues.  Watching this administration in action one wonders what, if anything, he understands about the Constitution at all.  His is an administration based on flouting it.

How Clinton Donor Got on Sensitive Intelligence Board.  Newly released State Department emails help reveal how a major Clinton Foundation donor was placed on a sensitive government intelligence advisory board even though he had no obvious experience in the field, a decision that appeared to baffle the department's professional staff.  The emails further reveal how, after inquiries from ABC News, the Clinton staff sought to "protect the name" of the Secretary, "stall" the ABC News reporter and ultimately accept the resignation of the donor just two days later.

Clinton aide reportedly got top donor named to nuclear advisory board.  Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff at the State Department had a Democratic donor with virtually no relevant experience appointed to a nuclear intelligence advisory board, according to a new report that also claims the aide tried to stall journalists examining his background.  ABC News reported that copies of internal emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicate Rajiv K. Fernando had thin qualifications for a seat on the board, other than his close connection to Bill and Hillary Clinton.  Fernando, a Chicago securities trader, had been a fundraiser for Democratic candidates and a financial contributor to the Clinton Foundation and even traveled with Bill Clinton on a trip to Africa.  The board he was appointed to — the International Security Advisory Board — included nuclear scientists, members of Congress and former cabinet secretaries.

Sheriff Clarke:  Media Talk 'Gun Control' To Distract From Fact That 'Obama Cannot Keep Us Safe'.  Commenting on the push by the Obama administration, many Democrats, and the liberal media for more gun control in the wake of the radical Islamic terrorist attack in Orlando, Fla., Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. warned people to not take the bait because the "gun contol" talk is designed to distract attention away from the fact that President Barack Obama is "an abject failure" against terrorism in the United States, and he "cannot keep us safe."

CIA Chief:  Obama's ISIS Strategy Has Done Nothing To Reduce Terrorist Threat.  Less than 48 hours after President Obama reassured the nation that his strategy against ISIS is working, Obama's CIA director told the Senate the exact opposite.  ISIS is, he said, as formidable a threat as it ever was.

America has suffered a terror attack every year under Obama.  America has now averaged one serious Islamic terrorist attack a year on President Obama's watch, yet he still insists the threat from radical Islam is overblown and that he's successfully protecting the nation.  If only hubris could be weaponized!  In the wake of Omar Mateen's Orlando massacre, Obama whined about growing criticism of his terror-fighting strategy.  But boy, does he deserve it.  His record on terrorism is terrible, and Hillary Clinton should have a tough time defending it.  Here we are in the eighth year of his presidency, and the nation has now suffered eight significant attacks by Islamist terrorists on US soil or diplomatic property — an average of one attack a year since Obama's been in office, with each new attack seemingly worse than the last.

Kerry concedes:  Terrorism is a bigger threat than climate change.  Secretary of State John Kerry this week acknowledged twice that the Islamic State and the threat of terrorism around the world is bigger threat than climate change, even though he has insisted in past years that climate is the bigger threat.  Kerry revealed his subtle change of thinking during his trip to Europe, where he twice indicated that when it comes to global threats, terrorism is first, and climate change is a very close second.

FBI never even VISITED the gun store after owner reported suspicious Omar last month when he tried to buy ammo and surveillance has since been erased.  A gun store owner who reported Orlando shooter Omar Mateen to authorities weeks before the massacre has said the FBI did not investigate the store and that no copies of surveillance had been taken.  Robbie Abell, co-owner of Lotus Gunworks, told ABC news that while there was a follow-up conversation with agents, the FBI never visited the south Florida store after he alerted them and failed to investigate further.  Mateen came into the store in May and asked for heavy-duty body armor like the kind used by law enforcement, which they did not sell.

Flashback: Does The Government Still Think This Cub Scout Is A Terrorist?  Let's go back in time to The New York Times' 2010 article about then-eight-year-old Mikey Hicks.  Was he a cub scout or a terrorist?  His parents knew.  In fact, most people with cognitive function would know that he's not hell bent on attacking the country, but our government wasn't sure.  He could be the face of absolute evil, so thank goodness the U.S. Senate could bar him from buying a firearm since he's on one of the many terror watch lists maintained by the FBI.  He never had any due process of law concerning his designation as someone who might be the next bin Laden, but who cares — due process is killing us.

Liberal Blogger:  Senate Democrats Forced Me To Side With The NRA.  The criteria concerning how one catches the attention of the FBI who maintains the database isn't really known.  It doesn't seem to be specific, as a cub scout was considered to be suspicious of terrorist activities back in 2010.  The point is the kid, Mikey Hicks, is innocent.  I'm sure there are many more Americans wrongfully placed on these lists, but with no due process — it's difficult to get your name cleared.  Nevertheless, [forget] due process if it means restricting gun rights, am I right Democrats?  Now, Drum is in favor of other gun control initiatives, like a ban on high-capacity magazine, but he gives a forceful "no thanks" concerning stripping an American's gun rights if they happen to catch the eye of the FBI.

How Obama Officials Cried 'Terrorism' to Cover Up a Paperwork Error.  After seven years of litigation, two trips to a federal appeals court and $3.8 million worth of lawyer time, the public has finally learned why a wheelchair-bound Stanford University scholar was cuffed, detained and denied a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii:  FBI human error.  FBI agent Kevin Kelley was investigating Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 when he checked the wrong box on a terrorism form, erroneously placing Rahinah Ibrahim on the no-fly list.  What happened next was the real shame.  Instead of admitting to the error, high-ranking President Barack Obama administration officials spent years covering it up.

Obama's disintegrating strategy.  From the State Department came a petition of dissent, signed by dozens of employees, asking for military action against Syria's Bashar Assad.  If many in the State Department — the last bastion of diplomatic wimpery — are calling for military action, the president's policies must have disintegrated.  And they have, as CIA Director John Brennan said last week.  Mr. Brennan said that two years of President Obama's war against the Islamic State, or ISIS, haven't even disrupted its ability to conduct terrorist attacks globally.  This despite the president's insistence that ISIS is suffering low morale and loss of territory.

U.S. commanders now openly challenging ISIS strategy of outgoing Obama.  Rifts have emerged between U.S. military leaders and the Obama White House on Washington's future role in Libya, with the generals questioning the White House's argument that the recent success against Islamic State shows Libya can go it alone in the fight against terrorism, without direct U.S. assistance.  Marine Corps Gen.  Thomas Waldhauser, the White House's pick to lead U.S. Africa Command, called for increased American military action in Libya to ensure the Islamic State, or ISIS or ISIL, does not reconstitute itself in the country as pressure ramps up against its strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

Revolt by Security Personnel May Define Hillary as the Weak Candidate.  51 dissident State Department Foreign Service Officers (FSOs), the Dissent 51, signed a Dissent Channel cable savaging the Obama Administration's Syria policy and implicitly attacking the Obama Administration's inept diplomatic and military strategy for eliminating the anti-Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  Usually one FSO (or at most a handful) sign a dissent cable.  51 is an unprecedented number of government line officers signing a dissident document which — Obama Administration denials to the contrary — could put their careers at risk.

Security Personnel Revolt Against Hillary and Obama.  One solo signee per dissent cable seems to be the usual case, with a rare duo or trio.  51 shows that senior State Department officials and the White House have vehemently ignored their own staff experts.  Now the experts are exasperated.  The exasperation may have begun as personal exasperation but it is now institutional exasperation — which is why I describe the morale problem as embedded.  So far the comparatively scanty mainstream media coverage of the Dissent 51 has tended to frame their dissent cable as a response to conscience.  It is an act of conscience, certainly, but the "response to conscience" frame allows pro-Obama propagandists to dismiss the dissent cable as subjective and emotionally based.  It is not.  The Dissent 51 professional diplomats are attempting to correct serious policy errors which, if not corrected, will have disastrous long term consequences.

Loretta Lynch Should Resign.  What's the best way to fight terrorism?  If you're Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the correct answer is "love."  So it's official:  Americans should abandon any pretense that we're being protected by our government from the terrorists who would murder us.  No, we're not making this up.  Speaking recently about the June 12 attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., by a radical Islamist, Lynch said the motive "may never be known."  "May never be known"?  Omar Mateen, who cold-bloodedly and systematically slaughtered 50 people in the nightclub, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State as he gunned down gay men and lesbians, the 911 transcripts show.  Nor was that his first indication of terrorist leanings.

Benghazi Shocker:  Susan Rice Didn't Know CIA Annex Existed During TV Blitz.  When she went on five television talk shows to deliver the Obama administration's response to the Benghazi attacks, UN Ambassador Susan Rice says she did not even know about the existence of the CIA Annex in Benghazi.  The CIA Annex was one of two targets of the very attacks that she was discussing on September 16, 2012, when Rice infamously appeared on five morning talk shows — on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, and CNN — telling the story of protests that erupted "spontaneously" as a result of a "hateful video" offending Islam.  The other target was the U.S. Special Mission, which was attacked first and located about 1.2 miles from the CIA Annex.

U.S. immigration service tweets out wrong date of the Declaration of Independence.  A tweet from the Spanish division of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has caused a stir after it listed the incorrect year that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress.  On the social media site, the USCIS asked in Spanish what date the Declaration of Independence was and gave three choices:  June 29, 1779, July 4, 1779 or July 4, 1778.

Black against White.  Barack Obama's presidency promised to be an era of racial healing.  Many people voted for the manifestly unqualified senator because they wanted to make a gesture, to give a vote of confidence to the African-American comunity.  Americans on the left and the right patted themselves on the back for electing Obama, for electing someone based on race, not qualifications.  Even those who did not vote for Obama allowed themselves to rejoice about what they perceived to be America's racial maturity.  No one quite understood that ovecoming the sin of racism would not solve the financial crisis.  We now know that the American people miscalculated.  The era of racial healing looks more like an era of racial animosity.  The utterly composed and contained Harvard Law grad began more and more to look like a deer caught in the headlights, in way over his head.  It was not so much that the idol had feet of clay as that his mind had been captured by the black liberation theology of Jeremiah Wright.

Did someone mention Jeremiah Wright?

Obama Is Too Incompetent To Pull Off A Coup.  Turkey's failed coup, combined with the disastrous disunity and polarization in the United States thanks to Barack Obama, have gotten people talking about whether it could happen here.  For example, part-time law professor and full-time Instapundit Glenn Reynold has recently taken some serious looks at the issue of coups within the context of the American system of checks and balances.  So what if next January Obama and his barely post-puberty band of juice box screw-ups in the West Wing decide they don't want to leave?

Obama talks a lot without saying anything.
President Obama: 'I'm a better president than I've ever been'.  Just as his second term is winding down, President Obama says he really has hit his stride in office.  In an interview broadcast Sunday [7/24/2016], the president painted an optimistic picture about the state of the country, saying his team is "operating at peak level."  "I feel as if I'm a better president than I've ever been," Mr. Obama said on CBS's "Face the Nation."  "That the experience has made me sharper, clearer about how to get stuff done."

Obama speaks of what he knows, being 'unfit to be president'.  Donald Trump is "woefully unprepared," President Obama said Tuesday [8/2/2016.  "Unfit to be president."  Well, at least this is one area where the president is a bona fide, qualified expert.  If ever there was a man who entered the White House woefully unprepared and unfit to be president, it was Mr. Obama.

Longtime state senator [says] Obama [is] not qualified to be president.  Prior to being a US senator, Obama was a state senator for eight years — a part time job.  During that time Illinois unfunded pension debacle quietly festered.  Where was Obama?  From 2005 until 2007 Obama was the senator with the least seniority representing the minority party.  When the Dems gained control of the Senate in 2007, Obama began his presidential run and performed essentially no work as a senator.  Yet Dear Leader was still elected president.

From the idiot that brought you ISIS.  [Scroll down]  The worst president in the history of our nation who has done more to damage morale, race relations, social relations, our world standing, our military and us as a people has the audacity to claim that someone is unfit for the presidency?  This bumbling idiot would have been forcibly removed from his position as president years ago if being unfit was actually a criterion for not serving[.]

Shock report:  Feds vetting immigrants for terrorists ask if Communists, not ISIS.  A new analysis of how the United States "vets" immigrants reveals that written visa and citizenship surveys ask if applicants are World War II Nazi veterans or sympathizers, but not members of ISIS, al Qaeda or other Islamic terror groups at war with America.

Trey Gowdy Got The IRS To ADMIT That They Have NO IDEA What They're Doing.  A while back, the IRS, on order from the Obama Administration, was unfairly targeting and auditing conservative groups that didn't mesh with Obama's liberal narrative.  When pressed on the issue, the IRS commissioner, in a Congressional hearing, said that he denied any wrongdoing, because of course he did.  I'm willing to bet that he expected to walk out of that hearing with his head held high and everyone else with their tail between their legs.  And then he spoke to Trey Gowdy and got burned so badly that he's gonna need medicated ointment for the next month.  Gowdy get the IRS commissioner to admit, in front of the American people, that he had no idea what "wrongdoing" even meant, since he had no working knowledge of the law.  He also admitted that the claims made by the Obama Administration were untrue, and likely made up to save face politically.

Dangerous Plans Hatched By Obama And UN For Refugee Resettlement.  The Obama administration cannot even properly handle immigrants due for deportation who are already in the country.  How can we possibly believe that it can reliably vet individuals from Syria and other terrorist infested countries where comprehensive accurate data regarding such individuals are sorely lacking?  For example, according to a report released on September 19th by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, hundreds of immigrants were improperly granted citizenship despite missing fingerprint records.  They were from "special interest countries" — countries of particular concern for national security reasons.  Nevertheless, President Obama is making the admission of more refugees and migrants his going away gift to the American people.  He has announced that the United States will welcome even more refugees from around the world, increasing the number of people the U.S. receives by 40 percent over the next two years, to 100,000 in 2017.  He also wants to admit more Syrian refugees in particular, which Hillary Clinton has already announced she would do if elected president.

Rep. Pete Sessions:  Obama's DHS's Swearing in 858 Deportees as Citizens Part of a Bigger Story of Misconduct.  Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX), who chairs the House Rules Committee, told Breitbart News in terms of immigration policy, President Barack Obama and his administration has deliberately worked to circumvent the law, to frustrate law enforcement personnel trying to live up to their oath.  "Over the last eight years, this administration, within the bowels of Homeland Security, knew and understood that they were a part of an error that took some 800 people, who were in this country and were due for deportation, instead moved to them to the opportunity citizenship," said the Texas Congressman, who has led the House Rules Committee since January 2013.

Jeh Johnson Doesn't Know How Many People Mistakenly Granted Citizenship Were From Iran, Syria, Libya.  On Sept. 8, the Homeland Security Department's inspector-general reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 individuals who were under deportation or removal orders.  On Tuesday [9/27/2016], Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress the actual number is "somewhere around" 750.  But Johnson could not say how many of them were from countries known to be havens for terrorists.  "Were any of them from special interest countries?" Sen. Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, asked Johnson.

Of the 14 Attacks Under Obama, FBI Already Knew Attackers At Least 12 Times.  FBI Director James Comey was called out by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) this week on the growing problem of what I have termed "Known Wolf" terrorism — an act of terror committed by someone already known to law enforcement.  During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Comey said the FBI is reviewing the missed opportunities in both the recent NY/NJ bombing and the mass killing in Orlando in June.  However, as seen in the exchange below between Comey and Senator Paul, the FBI director seemed unconcerned about the problem.  But he really should be — because missed chances by the FBI might be America's ONLY terror problem.

Snafu delays deportation of more than 50,000 illegal aliens.  The Obama administration reportedly is delaying deportation proceedings on Central American illegal aliens who recently immigrated to the United States, allowing more than 50,000 to stay here for several more years.  The cases were delayed after an enforcement bungle that let immigrants slated to be electronically monitored via ankle bracelets simply go free when they did not report to government offices to be fitted for the monitors, according to the New York Times.  The Department of Homeland Security started using the ankle-bracelet monitoring system in 2015 because many immigrants were failing to show up for scheduled court dates.

Proof That "Scandal-Free" Barack Obama Never Gave Up Cocaine.  From the moment Barack Obama came on the scene, many Americans knew this "scandal-free" man posed a danger to the Republic.  His stealthy past and propensity for crooked dealings were well-documented.  The Left ignored it.  Even Obama's admitted use of cocaine and other drugs was presented as "cool," and somehow, the man squeezed through eight years of presidency claiming to be "scandal-free."  The Left bought that one hook, line, and sinker.  After Obama was elected, he quickly validated his incompetence.  He broke most of his good promises, and of course implemented the most demented of them.

Why Are Leftists Such Pansies?  I think President Barack Obama is the worst president of my lifetime:  an incompetent ideologue who made the world and the country worse.  The economy is not as bad as it was directly after the crash, but it is much, much worse than it would have been had it not been weighted down with Dodd-Frank regulation and the anvil of Obamacare.  Racial tension is worse, the national spirit is worse, the wars in the Middle East are worse, our nation's place in the world is worse, our federal institutions are more politicized and corrupt — all because Obama simply did not know how reality worked and would not change his mind.

Obama Was Briefed on Russian Hacking But Did Nothing.  In the New York Times's new extensive report on the massive Russian-backed operation to hack American political and government severs — including a successful hack of the Democratic National Committee's server — the paper reveals that President Barack Obama had been "briefed regularly" on Russia's effort to target servers at the State Department, the White House, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Democrats Have No Room to Claim People Are Unqualified.  Eight years ago the Democrats nominated a man who had not even served a full term in the United States and whose primary job had been as a failed community organizer in Chicago.  He got elected President of the United States then promptly surrounded himself with career bureaucrats and non-profit devotees who had never had real jobs in their lives in the private sector.  And he used those people to try to regulate the private sector they neither understood nor had worked in.  Now, eight years later, their party is in ruin, the majority of states are held by Republicans, the House and Senate are held by Republicans, and the man they allowed into their party to seek their nomination this time left it once he lost.

Perry, make Yucca Mountain great again.  The Obama White House made an unfortunate and ungracious choice in launching a preemptive attack on Rick Perry's nomination this week.  Spokesman Josh Earnest did his best deadpan as he disparaged the choice as one based on politics and not merit.  But what about President Obama's appointments of Ken Salazar, Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Vilsack and Janet Napolitano?  They were all lawyers without specific expertise in the issue areas of the departments they led.  But each, having experience as elected Democratic statewide officials, knew enough about their respective issue areas that their status as non-experts never really mattered.

The Obama mouse that roared.  Obama has been perceived for the better part of the past 8 years by many of the world's leadership as a spineless and weak leader, never feeling comfortable or really knowing how to implement the art of statesmanship.  Obama caved in to Putin, the leader of Russia, caved into Assad, the embattled leader of Syria.  China, Iran, North Korea, Libya, have all exhibited nothing but contempt for Obama who always backed down, stood down, and generally did nothing more than wag his Presidential tail.  And then there was Israel.  The objective of the recent Obama-concocted Security Council resolution against the State of Israel is nothing less than a betrayal of the US- Israel alliance and a message to Trump.

Whatever happened to that smooth transition Obama vowed?  "You better stop stealing money from your mother's purse, young man, or I will punish you late this year or perhaps sometime in 2018," said no parent who was serious about punishment.  Yet that's pretty much what President Obama did with his old-fashioned expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over alleged political hacking by Moscow interests going back 18 months.  A very strange retro-response from a president who mocked Mitt Romney for suggesting in 2012 that Russia was America's worst strategic threat.  Obama said:  "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War's been over for 20 years."  As has often happened when Obama shoots from the lip sans teleprompter (think his red line in Syria, ISIS is a JV squad), the aloof one is wrong.

Agents and Agencies.  The failures of the intelligence community leading up to 9/11 are well documented, and there is very little reason to believe that the reforms undertaken since then have radically improved things.  Coordination among relevant agencies, which include law-enforcement agencies, remains shockingly poor.  Orlando, San Bernardino, Boston, Fort Hood — when was the last time we had a domestic terrorist attack in which the perpetrators were not already on the authorities' radar or in a position in which they obviously should have been?

Legacy of Delusion.  Obama ended his administration as it began, with a participation trophy.  In 2009, he was given the Nobel Peace Prize for what he might do, and now, less than three weeks before he leaves office, Obama awarded himself the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service for what he didn't do.  Delusional is the only term that I can muster to describe the chasm that has existed between what the Obama administration perceived or wanted us to believe and the actual state of the nation.  Over the course of eight years, Obama's pronouncements steadily became, not motivational instruments or representations of a desired state of affairs, but feats of political transubstantiation, where, if he utters them, words become reality.  Reflecting upon his time in office, Obama recently noted the "extraordinary progress" the country has made over the last eight years.  Like beauty, progress is in the eye of the beholder.

Obama fails at home and abroad.  President Obama graduates from the White House with poor grades in three major areas:  fidelity to the Constitution, foreign policy and his representation of all Americans:  First, the countless executive orders President Obama has issued, and the unlimited scope of his federal agencies, make a mockery of the few and defined powers granted by the Constitution, while usurping legislative authority from the representatives of We the Peoples in Congress.  The most prominent example of this attitude is the president's signature "achievement," Obamacare, which has proved unworkable and costly for many American families.

Obama's extraordinary, aimless presidency.  Obama leaves the country far more deeply divided than it was eight years ago, with his party a "smoking pile of rubble," having suffered significant losses at every level of government, and the country having just elected a man singularly unqualified to serve as president, a man who ran for office on a wave of populist anger, stirring up ethnic and racial animosities, and whose administration will quite likely push the boundaries of corruption in high office beyond the limits of anything Americans have ever endured.

Obama's Legacy Will Be Failure At Home And War Abroad.  President Obama was not supposed to go out like this.  Since the improbable election of Donald Trump, he has been trying to salvage his legacy.  After all, what could be a greater repudiation of a progressive Democrat's presidency than Americans choosing Trump as your successor?  Obama didn't expect this.  He even admitted at one point during the campaign that if Hillary Clinton didn't win, he would "consider it a personal insult — an insult to my legacy."

Requiem for a Lightweight:  Obama Out.  Obama leaves the Oval Office as he entered, festooned with garlands from sycophants.  The president got the Nobel "Peace" Prize at the start of his run when he had done nothing.  Now he gets the "Defense" Distinguished Service Medal after accomplishing little.  Both awards are bookends for wishful thinking.  Eight years of Obama were neither distinguished nor a service.

It's time to face facts:  Obama's presidency was a failure.  The closing arguments for the Obama years are arriving, and they aren't helping the outgoing president.  A case in point is a new book published this week, one that acknowledges "Obama's supporters have experienced [his presidency] as a continuous disappointment."  Those supporters, and others, must have noticed that "for most of Obama's term, wage gains were largely confined to the rich."  Or that "The administration's planning in Libya clearly failed" or "It is certain that the actual outcome [of Obama's Syria policy] was disastrous."  Even many of President Obama's proudest achievements look about as enduring as April snow: [...]

Obama scores the worst legislative record in history.  President Obama oversaw the deepest legislative malaise in modern political history, according to the Washington Times Legislative Index, which captures his struggles to find ways to work with a Congress that ranged from lukewarm to openly hostile toward him.  Over the course of his eight years, he has signed just 1,227 bills into law — less, even, than one-term Presidents Carter and George H.W. Bush.  Digging deeper into the numbers, Congress spent less time in session, handled fewer business on the chamber floors and generally sputtered for much of Mr. Obama's tenure, according to The Times' index.

IRS Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens at One Atlanta Address.  The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to "unauthorized" alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).  That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically used by thousands of "unauthorized" alien workers receiving millions in federal tax refunds in 2011.  In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands of tax refunds to "unauthorized" aliens were in Atlanta.  The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a combined $2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386 worth $1,232,943 to a fourth.

Trump Won't Be Punked By Foreign Dirtbags Like Obama Was.  Donald Trump is in the process of doing what Barack Obama never did and what he and his coterie of pompous twits and political hacks masquerading as a foreign policy brain trust could never do.  Trump is establishing a successful foreign policy doctrine.  It's not precisely old school Republican doctrine. [...] Trump's policy is "America First."  Obama's policy was "Blame America First."  Obama employed force only after extensive agonizing and never in the amount required to actually win.  The Obama Doctrine was about staving off defeat just long enough so the next sucker would get stuck dealing with the resulting mess [...]

Obama's Chickens Coming Home To Roost.  If you believe your random mainstream media outlet of choice, North Korea and Syria were crises freshly spawned by this administration with no prior history.  But these ticking time bombs are the direct result of the two terrible terms of his predecessor.  The Nobel Peace Prize winner's years in the White House were the most dysfunctional, schizophrenic and senseless eight years of our national foreign policy.  His domestic policy was a disaster, but it was a radioactive toxic waste dump with clear and consistent goals.  ObamaCare, the abuses of the Justice Department, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency were the naturally terrible outcome of left-wing policies being implemented with inevitably terrible results.  But Obama's foreign policy was a wildly inconsistent mess.

Differences in Trump, Obama efforts speak for themselves.  President Obama left him there.  President Trump got him back.  No need to overthink it.  Yes, murderous North Korean thugs killed 22-year-old Otto Warmbier after holding him for 17 months, but the last administration was willfully impotent in dealing with the regime.

The Root Cause Of The Disasters In The Middle East.  During the eight years of the Obama administration, half a million Christians, Yazidis and Muslims were slaughtered in the Middle East by ISIS and other Islamic jihadists, in a genocidal campaign waged in the name of Islam and its God.  Twenty million others were driven into exile by these same jihadist forces.  Libya and Yemen became terrorist states.  America -- once the dominant foreign power and anti-jihadist presence in the region — was replaced by Russia, an ally of the monster regimes in Syria and Iran, and their terrorist proxies.  Under the patronage of the Obama administration, Iran -- the largest and most dangerous terrorist state, with the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands -- emerged from its isolation as a pariah state to re-enter the community of nations and become the region's dominant power, arming and directing its terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen.  These disasters are a direct consequence of the policies of appeasement and retreat of the Obama administration.

Donald Trump is more popular than Barack Obama, says Arab leader.  Donald Trump is more more popular with Middle Eastern leaders compared with former president Barack Obama because of the current leader's desire to attack first and ask questions later.  The stark admission comes from Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, who suggests that the rapturous welcome that Mr Trump received during his recent tour of the Middle East was genuine.  Mr Hariri blasted Mr Obama for his "naiveté" during his tenure as American president and the gap between his "inspirational rhetoric" and his actions.

Unapproved Thought Is Violence.  Throughout the eight years of Barack Obama, I was afraid to speak out against the man whom I thought was not who he purported to be.  I thought he was a horrible president without an ounce of honesty or humility, pushing policies that were detrimental to every man, woman, and child in America.  To say so aloud, however, was not permitted, and when I started writing about him, the windows in my house were broken, not once, but twice.  That was then; I wonder what's in store now.  Today you can say anything you want about the current president — talk about killing him in the vilest of ways and it's not a problem.

The Beginning Of The End Of Progressive Domination?  The two terms of Barack Obama seemed to be the crowning validation of the left's victory.  Despite Obama's "no blue state, no red state" campaign rhetoric, he governed as the most leftist — and ineffectual — president in history.  Deficits exploded, taxes were raised, new entitlements created, and government expanded far beyond the dreams of center-left Democrats.  Marriage and sex identities were redefined.  The narrative of permanent white racism was endorsed and promoted.  Tradition-minded Americans were scorned as "bitter clingers to guns and religion."  Hollywood and Silicon Valley became even more powerful cultural arbiters and left-wing publicists.  And cosmopolitan internationalism was privileged over patriotic nationalism, while American exceptionalism was reduced to an irrational parochial prejudice.

Report: Barack Obama Funded North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program.  $33.6 Billion.  That is the amount then-President Barack Obama had shipped under cover of darkness to the world's #1 state sponsor of terrorism.  It was literally pallets of cash and gold that was part of the shockingly one-sided nuclear agreement between Iran and the Obama administration.  That amount was nearly 10% of Iran's entire economy paid out between 2015 and 2016, an unprecedented cash windfall for what had been up to then an economically struggling Iranian regime.  Now consider this.  Prior to 2016 North Korea's missile testing capability was sporadic at best and prone to high failure rates.  This was due in great part to budget constraints.  The isolated military nation was cash poor and couldn't afford a more expansive nuclear testing program.  And yet just two years after Barack Obama's nearly 34 billion dollar cash and gold payment to Iran we see this headline:  ["]How did North Korea's Nuclear Tech Get So Good So Fast?["]

Most Presidential Experts Agree:  Obama is Worst President In History.  In the past I have been fond of saying that it is hard to assess a president's legacy until he has been out of office for at least ten years.  It usually takes about that long to see the effect wrought by all the things he did in office.  I have also seen this sentiment echoed by several historians and scholars in the past.  But apparently Obama has been particularly destructive for them to already be determining that his regime has been an abject failure.  Before you liberals out there start yelping about "conservative lairs" and all, this determination came from the far left think tank the Brookings Institute, not any conservative group.  That makes it all the more amazing.

OBAMA: "Those Jobs Aren't Coming Back." TRUMP: "Hold My Beer."  Toward the final months of his presidency Barack Obama infamously said the following regarding jobs that had left America — including millions during his eights years as President:  "...some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back."  And when commenting on then-candidate Donald Trump's promise to bring jobs back, Mr. Obama said this:  "...Well, how exactly are you going to negotiate that?  What magic wand do you have?"  No magic want was needed by POTUS Trump.  Just some common sense, a basic understanding of economics (remember, Barack Obama never created a private sector job in his life and is the son of a devoted communist) and the determination to believe America can be better and stronger than ever — all of which has led to THIS:  [...]

The Editor says...
I'm the last person in the world who will ever defend anything Barack H. Obama says about anything; however, when Mr. Obama made the assertion that "some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back," he probably thought Hillary Clinton was going to be the next President, in which case his prediction would have been plausible.  Additionally, if Mr. Obama had served another ten terms as President, those jobs would never have come back, because Mr. Obama is an incompetent dolt who hates America and has never created a job in his life, nor has he ever worked for a profit-making business.

21 Times That Barack Obama Blamed Other People For His Own Failures.  From the moment he first began to occupy the Oval Office, Barack Hussein Obama has had failure after failure as president.  Throughout it all, he has never once accepted the blame or taken responsibility for his failures, but instead sought to lay blame elsewhere.  For the past 8 years, Americans have been forced to endure his incessant whining and finger-pointing.

Obama tops 2017 biggest losers.  While his name has rarely been in the news in 2017, Obama's policies were nearly always in the headlines — or at least behind them.  The economy, for example.  It's hard not to notice the stock market's performance since Trump's win:  A 250-point jump the next day, and up more than 6,000 points (more than 30 percent!) since Election Day.  Not Inauguration Day — the day Trump policies would begin.  No, the markets merely needed to know that the Obama-era policies were ending for the rally to start.  And they were right, too.  The economy has grown twice as fast under Trump than it ever did during any year of the Obama administration.  Obama had eight years in power, pushed through major legislation like Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, doubled the national debt — and the economy grew at a pathetic 1.5 percent his last two years in office.  Every day of over-the-top economic news in 2017 was a reminder of just how badly Obama under-performed as president.

New film accidentally exposes Team Obama's foreign-policy naivety.  [Scroll down]  "The Final Year," though, is chiefly a study of Obama-administration foreign policy as overseen by Secretary of State John Kerry, [Samantha] Power and [Ben] Rhodes.  The foreign-policy masters see their three accomplishments as the Paris Climate Accord, the opening to Cuba and the Iran deal.  Given that the former was nonbinding and later dumped by President Trump, while the other two amounted to making concessions to American foes in exchange for virtually nothing, this is a bit like bragging that you suckered the Franklin Mint into giving up a souvenir Elvis plate for only $34.95.

Obama never understood that America needed a good economy.  To Obama, people didn't need money, they needed programs, with bureaucrats monitoring and administering the goodies, rewarding the 'good' and punishing the 'bad' (such as the tea parties). it's why he started so many of them.  It's why he hired so many bureaucrats and took over so much — from health care to government land.  All he refused to do was cut taxes.  But by leaving tax cuts on the table, it was an easy thing for Trump to snap up the opportunity, work with Congress on a tax cut plan, and just run with it.  In a nation pent-up with uncut taxes, the result has been absolutely stellar, just as it was in the 1980s, an era when Obama was out focused on one-way nuclear disarmament from the U.S. alone.  He didn't think there was anything to a good economy.

Was this because Mr. Obama was incompetent, or was he actively weakening the economy because he is a capitalism-hating communist?

Obama's Administration Miscalculated $500 Billion.  [Scroll down]  These mistakes amounted to $278.5 billion in misstatements in financial notes altogether.  This was basically a half billion dollar error in budgetary resources and $19.5 billion in discrepancies of line items of the report that was not the same as those when the audit was first submitted.  All reports together suffered a $516 billion in corrections and additional $3.4 billion to the financial statement.  The Inspector General was aware of the HUD's corrections, but the difference in cost was substantial.  As stated earlier, the media didn't care for this story a lot, because it didn't fit them to care.  Instead, they focused on what President Donald Trump was doing, especially in the intensified last week of the elections.

Fifty Former Failed Obama Administration Foreign Policy "Experts" Form Think-Tank To Unite Against President Trump.  From the insufferable Iran deal, to the appeasement "Russian Reset", to the Libya fiasco, to the rise of ISIS, to installing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, to the explosion of terrorism in Yemen, to civil war in Syria, to the crisis in Ukraine, to the 2010 State Department apology tour (WikiLeaks cables scandal), to their inability to stop North Korean nuclear ambitions and the rise of China as an influential power, there were/are zero foreign policy successes in eight years of the Obama administration.

The Obama Foreign Policy Record.  It's never a bad idea to look at the record.  It's certainly not a bad idea, at the current remove, to examine the Obama foreign policy record.  One reason the progressive left has its knickers in a twist over Donald Trump is that it must, no matter the price, defend the indefensible Obama record.  Where, pray tell, didn't Obama fail on foreign policy?

In Foreign Policy, Donald Trump is the Powerful Man Barack Obama Never Could Be.  There are two big reasons Obama's foreign policy had all the staying power of raw shrimp in a hot car.  His natural inclination to agree with foreign dictators that America is an evil place in need of "fundamental change," as he put it, hurt him when dealing with them.  But what hurt him the most was his rank amateur status at anything involving the real world.  He never stood in a room of powerful men used to getting what they want and trying to assert their dominance.  He moved seamlessly through a world of academia, liberal activism, then politics.  It's not even reasonable to expect a man to stroll off the cushy world of liberal academia into a room of wolves and expect him to perform.  He got eaten alive.

New poll ranks Obama as the worst president since World War II.  No wonder there is such a rush to build that ugly monument to Barack Obama in Chicago: the bloom is already off his rose.  I suppose it was inevitable that the tidal wave of media flattery would recede from memory and allow the hollowness of his two terms in office to be perceived by those who don't think critically about what they see in the media.  But now that President Trump is demonstrating the bankruptcy of the Obama administration economic and foreign policies with solid results that vividly contrast Obama's failures, a new poll has identified him as the worst president since World War II.

New stimulus analysis shows Obama never understood investment.  The free-spending left has always been known for its firm belief in free lunches and general economic illiteracy.  But taken in investment terms, the left-dominated Obama administration comes up looking even more colossally stupid, bringing back just 44 cents for America for every dollar spent.  What kind of investment is that?  A professional investor's analysis, spotted by ZeroHedge writer Tyler Durden, really makes President Obama, and the vaunted stimulus spending program he is still praising on behalf of himself, look like a rube, a boob, and a fool.  Seriously, you would not want Obama to be your fund-manager after reading this.  Simon Black, whose website says he lives in Chile, explained this as he analyzed what was almost exclusively the Obama administration's $11.6-trillion stimulus.  The size of the stimulus didn't bother him.  The problem, he said, was the return on investment.

77 Times Barack Obama Was Totally Wrong.  Obama wasn't only wrong in understanding where the electorate was in 2016 but was frequently wrong throughout his presidency.  The following Washington Free Beacon supercut displays 77 instances when Obama was wrong.  The episodes touch on all aspects of his presidency, from his signature legislative achievement of Obamacare to his naivety towards Russian President Vladamir Putin.  [Video clip]

Just How Far Will the Left Go?  Democrats privately acknowledge that Obama wrecked the Democratic Party — losing Congress, the presidency, state and local offices, and now the Supreme Court.  But they must praise the forces of that wreckage and seek to trump them by becoming the party of hyper-identity politics.  In other words, the Democrats know what sort of agenda might bring them back into power as it did in 1992.  But they feel that Clintonesque cure is worse than the disease of being in the purer political wilderness without power.

From One Psychodrama to Another.  Reggie Love was Obama's "bag-man" who one day was irreplaceable, the next abruptly gone.  Love later turned up to claim quite astounding things, including that a bored Obama played spades on the night of the Osama bin Laden raid.  Love further insisted that Obama had whined about the bother of having to go downstairs to monitor the mission in real time:  "Most people were like down in the Situation Room and [President Obama] was like, 'I'm not going to be down there, I can't watch this entire thing,' So he, myself, Pete Souza the White House photographer, Marvin, we must have played 15 hands, 15 games of spades."

Barack Obama Trashes Trump [and] Tries to Take Credit For Trump's Booming Economy.  Barack Obama crawled out of his hole Friday and trashed President Trump — calling him out by name, then took credit for the booming economy.  Obama gave a speech at the University of Illinois Friday and arrogantly took credit for Trump's booming economy.  Barack Obama couldn't even run a lemonade stand; he is the only president in history to never see a single year of 3.0% GDP growth yet here he is with a smug look on his face giving himself credit for Trump's accomplishments.

Walter Mitty at the Negotiating Table.  Every administration seeks a legacy, and as Obama Administration legacy items go, it's doesn't get much more legacy than the Iran deal.  It was supposed to be the great realignment, the beginning of the transformation of Iran from implacable adversary to strategic partner.  In return for what amounted to paper promises, the murderous mullahs would be welcomed back into international polite society, free to travel and do business. [...] And then, after it was concluded, the deal was presented a fait accompli, to be stopped only by an unobtainable two-thirds congressional majority, turning the treaty ratification process upside-down.  So it must have been agonizing for former administration officials to stand by and watch the Trump Administration dismantle the thing piece by piece, finally pulling out altogether and re-imposing both nuclear and non-nuclear sanctions on the regime.

25 Reasons I'm Not a Democrat.  [#21] Hillary turned out to be the worst presidential candidate of all time and Barack Obama was the worst American president of all time, although Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter were nearly as mediocre.

Under Obama, the CIA Suffered a 'Catastrophic' Disaster.  This story, which broke on Nov. 2, got mighty little attention from the national media. [...] This is simply stunning.  A rollup of networks across the world — an event that began in Iran, where the Obama administration would soon enough be negotiating its much sought-after "nuclear deal framework," and ended with numerous deaths is the kind of thing of which intelligence nightmares and national-security disasters are made.  One's first instinct is to look back and see who was CIA director during that period:  Leon Panetta (Feb. 2009-June 2011); Michael Morell (acting director, July-Sept. 2011); David Petraeus (Sept. 2011-Nov. 2012); Morell again (acting, Nov. 2012-March 2013); and finally John Brennan, who served out the remainder of the Obama administration.

Compare and Contrast:  Michelle Obama's Clumsy, Embarrassing Meeting with Japanese Emperor vs.  President Trump and First Lady Melania's Meeting.  In March 2015 a towering Michelle Obama met with Japanese Emperor Akihito.  It was a low moment in American diplomacy.  Earlier in the day Michelle had an awkward start by stumbling as "she tried to bow, shake his hand and curtsy" all at once.  Now compare that embarrassment to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump's historic meeting with the Japanese emperor this weekend.

Jim Sciutto's Quiet Indictment of the Obama Administration.  It's easy to forget just how stubbornly naïve the Obama administration could be in its dealings, particularly with Russia.  It began with Hillary Clinton's infamous "reset button" ceremony with Russian foreign minister Sergi Lavrov and continued with the president's 2012 debate comment that "the 1980s are now calling to get their foreign policy back, because the Cold War's been over for 20 years."  Obama declared at the G-7 summit in 2014 that Russia was a "regional power" and that its territorial ambitions "belonged in the 19th century."  But Obama's 21st-century worldview had no effective response to those ambitions.

Warren Helped Confirm Clueless Obama Bundlers as Ambassadors.  Warren says ambassador nominations should be based on qualification alone, but her votes as a U.S. senator show her belief that "rich buffoons" shouldn't be made ambassadors began only when a Republican moved in to the White House.  Warren was a senator, for example, when Obama nominated Noah Bryson Mamet to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina — Mamet was a political operative with no diplomatic experience who raised millions of dollars for Obama's presidential campaigns.  It was revealed during Mamet's confirmation hearing that he had never been to Argentina.

Obama on Incompetence.  In law school we learned about the great legal minds and their fields of unique genius:  Corbin on Contracts, Prosser on Torts, Collier on Bankruptcy, and (in California) Witkin on Everything Else.  In recent days, we are being treated to the ruminations of a new scholar:  Obama on Incompetence.

It Won't Matter What Obama Knew (or When He Knew It).  Even if we uncovered irrefutable evidence that Obama personally hatched the conspiracy to undermine either the Trump campaign or his presidency, Obama will not be held to account.  From the perspective of justice, what Obama knew and when he knew it is totally irrelevant because nothing will be done about it.  The reason nothing will be done is that the elites of our society have decided how Obama must be understood.  His presidency has unique importance due to his status as the first nonwhite person to attain the office.  Symbolically, then, Obama is supposed to represent the decency of the American people and the moral progress that we have made since the abolition of Jim Crow.

As Long As a Political Party Believes It Owns African-Americans, Blacks Will Not Be Free.  If the worst blight of our modern era is the Obama Wasted Decade, do not doubt for one moment that Obama was our country's self-induced punishment for past wrongs, both real and those imagined.  Had America not played host to slavery hundreds of years earlier, we would not have been blighted with Obama.  No way that a majority of Americans would have elected such a Zero, with no record of achievement, no single accomplishment to point to, a phony who would put on a "Black accent" when speaking to Black audiences even though he grew up in Hawaii, reared by a White grandmother and sometimes by a White mother, while his Kenyan father abandoned him.  Where did that occasional accent come from?  Do Kenyans like the father he never really knew speak that way?  Did he learn to "talk Black" — but only in front of carefully selected audiences — from his years on the mainland at Occidental College?  At Columbia?  (Uh, how did he get in?)  At Harvard Law?  (Uh, how did he get in?)

Barack Obama's Livestream MUTED as He Campaigns For Hiden Biden in Philadelphia.  Barack Obama hit the campaign trail on Wednesday on behalf of Hiden Biden.  Obama is in Philadelphia today for two separate events as Joe Biden hides in his basement with less than two weeks until Election Day.  Joe Biden's campaign actually muted Barack Obama during his Philadelphia roundtable discussion with black leaders in Philly.  People flooded the comments on the livestream:  "There ain't any audio!" — "No sound!" — "We can't hear anything!" — "Sound?"

Obama's reverse-Midas touch

Not only has Mr. Obama never run a business, he doesn't even recognize an unprofitable business when he sees one.  Several companies featured in Obama photo opportunities have gone out of business shortly thereafter.  It's the Obama kiss of death.

Obama is Over.  Obama took the campaign trail and most people just shrugged.  The media's shrugging too.  It's publishing criticism of Barry.  And anyone over 30 can remember a time when that was completely unthinkable.  Obama could not be parodied, mocked or questioned in any way.  The very idea that he was less than a national savior was blasphemy.  As I've been saying for a while, he has faded.  The old messiah served his purpose.  No one has been fainting at his rallies in a long time.  And even the media has been falling out of love.  To give Obama credit, he's been somewhat aware of this, and his response was to treat his public presence like a kryptonite superweapon.  His people make a big deal of him hanging back until his emerges at the last minute as a dealbreaker.

Musk may elect Trump; Obama may have done in Kamala.  America is divided between those who put America First and those who put Government First.  Call the latter socialists, fascists, communists or Satanists if you wish but they want the government to run everything because they are the government.  Facebook showed its true colors when it spiked the stories about Hunter's laptop four years ago.

Can conservatives still win?  When Obama was elected in 2009, Democrats controlled both chambers of twenty-seven state legislatures.  Yet when he exited office eight years later, they held power in both houses in a mere thirteen states.  Obama entered office in 2009 with a supermajority in the Senate of sixty seats (including two liberal independents) and a seventy-nine-seat Democratic advantage in the House of Representatives.  By 2015, there were only forty-four Democratic senators, coupled with a Republican House with a fifty-nine-seat advantage.  Obama may have been charismatic and a cult figure of the Left, but he proved disastrous for the Democratic Party precisely because Republicans in local and state races ran on conservative rebukes to his hard-left policies, in a manner that neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney ever fully embraced at the national level.

Biden has the Reverse Midas Touch — just like Barack H. Obama!
Everything Biden Has Touched Has Fallen Apart.  In one year, everything that President Biden has touched has fallen apart.  The United States today is less secure, less prosperous and less free than it was on January 19, 2021.  Look no further than the record number of border crossings or the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.  While he rolls out the welcome mat on the southern border, President Biden abandons the prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and lets thousands of Taliban terrorists go free.  Taken alone, either of these disasters is a huge threat to Americans' security.  Taken together, we're facing the probability that terrorists — who believe that they were released from prison to extract revenge on the U.S. — could be smuggled across our border and into our cities.  My friends gave their lives for American security, and now, the commander-in-chief has shown zero commitment to our cause.

GOP defeats Obama-endorsed candidate in deep blue city that Biden won handily in 2020.  Endorsements from former President Obama and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn in reliably blue Columbia, South Carolina, were not enough to push the city's Democratic mayoral candidate over the finish line.  Republican Daniel Rickenmann, a businessman and Columbia city council member, defeated Democrat Tameika Isaac Devine 52% to 48% on Tuesday night in Columbia, which sits in a county that President Biden carried by almost 40 points in 2020.  Obama, according to Washington Free Beacon, released an audio message in support of Devine.

After last night.  The Virginia gubernatorial race was close — according to the most recent New York Times update this morning, the margin is now is 67,000 votes or 2.1 percent out of nearly 3.3 million votes — Glenn Youngkin appears to have beaten Terry McAuliffe beyond the margin of fraud.  Has Fox News called the race yet?  Every media outlet that calls races preceded Fox News in calling the race for Youngkin. [...] Youngkin's victory is in part attributable to the catastrophes of the Biden regime.  Steve Hayward anticipated the contribution of larger forces to the outcome in his New York Post column "Virginia goes right every time DC goes too far left."  McAuliffe recruited the leading figures in the Democratic establishment to come out on his behalf.  He called on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, James Clyburn, Stacy Abrams, and teachers' union honcho Randi Weingarten to stir Democrats.  They succeeded in turning the race into a referendum on the Biden regime as well.

Obama Described In New Book As A 'Parasite' On Democratic Party.  A "parasite" on the Democratic Party is how journalist Edward Isaac Dovere describes former President Obama in his forthcoming tell-all book "Battle for the Soul:  Inside the Democrats' Campaign to Defeat Trump."  In a chapter entitled "Benign Neglect," Dovere writes that the section's namesake is how Obama aides privately described his abandonment of the Democratic Party once in the White House.  "'Negligence' might be more accurate," Dovere, writer for The Atlantic and former chief Washington correspondent for Politico, writes.  "The numbers are hard to ignore: during his eight years in office, Obama oversaw a net loss of 947 state legislative seats, 63 House seats, 11 senators, and 13 governors," he continues.

Barack Obama [...] was so arrogant he believed he would have beaten Trump if he could have run for a third term, new book claims.  Obama's aloof demeanor and professorial detachment masked the reality that he was full of 'self-assured self-regard.'  He oversaw the 'pilfering of talent, money, resources, and purpose' away from the Democratic National Committee to his own reelection team.  After eight years under Obama, the Democrats suffered a net loss of 947 state legislative seats, 63 House seats, 11 senators, and 13 governors — but Obama refused to take the blame.  In Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump, Edward-Isaac Dovere argues that Obama was guilty of 'negligence' with his own party.

Democrats too politically correct to see their problem.  The Democratic Party is in the worst shape of any political party in 40 years.  It controls 6 state governments (governor and legislature) while Republicans control 26.  This is a reversal of fortune from eight years ago when Democrats controlled 17 states, and Republicans but 9. [...] Those things did not just happen.  Democratic Party policies are responsible for the worst recovery ever.  And it comes down to one man.  The leader of the party.  Barack Obama.  He was a terrible president.

$8.5 Billion U.S. Counter Narcotics Effort in Afghanistan Boosts Opium Production.  The U.S. government's multi-billion-dollar effort to counter narcotics in Afghanistan is a humiliating failure that's resulted in a huge increase in poppy cultivation and opium production.  Despite the free-flow of American tax dollars to combat the crisis, opium production rose 43% in the Islamic nation, to an estimated 4,800 tons, and approximately 201,000 hectares of land are under poppy cultivation, representing a 10% increase in one year alone.  Uncle Sam's embarrassing counter narcotics effort is part of a broader and costly failure involving the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Thanks, Obama:  Hillary Found A New Reason For Her Loss To Trump.  Hillary Clinton's staff is still furious over her loss, and more than anything, they blame former President Barack Obama.  The camps are clashing over the heated blame game.  Clinton's side insists Obama was the biggest reason she lost, according to Clinton staffers that spoke with Axios.

The Obama Legacy.  Obama's enduring legacy, far from a collection of his signature achievements, will be the decline of his own party and a lackluster economy, as well as the appeasement of dictators, and a world in chaos and disarray. [...] Obama continues to claim that his presidency was a resounding success.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, Obama's economy is leaving millions of Americans behind.

Michigan man whose 19-year sentence for cocaine dealing was commuted by Obama is executed in halfway house.  A man whose drug-related prison sentence was commuted by Obama was fatally shot at a federal halfway house in Michigan, police said.  Demarlon C. Thomas, whose sentence was commuted in November, was killed by two men with assault-style rifles who sought him out.  Thomas, 31, was formerly a gang member of Sunny Side Gang in Saginaw, about 100 miles north of Detroit.

Obama leaves Democratic party a skeleton of its former self.  With Mr Obama's departure, the party is only just beginning its long journey in the political wilderness.  Democrats have lost Congress.  They've been decimated in state legislatures.  Their hoped-for liberal majority on the Supreme Court was blocked by intransigent Senate Republicans.  And now the presidency is gone, as well.

Obama's last press conference:  What a victory lap.  What a mess.  Obama leaves office as an unrepentant progressive, unapologetic for much of anything, from unprecedented domestic divisions and disrespect for law enforcement to a shattered foreign policy, adversaries and allies doubting us.  From his decision to reject Israel at the United Nations to glibly upending traditional family values, from politicizing the Justice Department to commuting a 35-year sentence for treason, the president sees not what he has wrought.  This is why his Party has sent packing, why they have shed more than 1000 combined legislative, gubernatorial and congressional seats since Obama took office.

Thank You, President Obama.  No man has done more to both discredit Democrats and elect Republicans than he has over the last eight years.  More than 1,000 elected Democrats are now experiencing first-hand the joys of looking for work in the Obama economy, with roughly 4,000 more political appointees set to join them tomorrow.  Were it not for Barack Obama, Democrats might still control the House and/or the Senate.  Were it not for Barack Obama, some other Democrat might have replaced late Justice Antonin Scalia.  Were it not for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton may well have been elected president in 2008.  Her email server wasn't yet an issue, nor was her horrible record as secretary of state.  And there's every reason to suspect John McCain, who refused to bring up Rev. Wright, would've run an equally weak campaign against her.

Barack Obama's legacy of failure.  Most Americans long ago got over their crush on Obama, as they repeatedly demonstrated at the polls.  In 2010, two years after electing him president, voters trounced Obama's party, handing Democrats the biggest midterm losses in 72 years.  Obama was reelected in 2012, but by nearly 4 million fewer votes than in his first election, making him the only president ever to win a second term with shrunken margins in both the popular and electoral vote.  Two years later, with Obama imploring voters, "[My] policies are on the ballot — every single one of them," Democrats were clobbered again.

Obama: Don't Blame Me For The Democrats Demise.  Since Obama took office, Democrats' fortunes have plummeted.  The party lost 900 seats in state legislatures, 12 governorships, 69 House seats and 13 Senate seats.  Clearly, whatever leadership Obama provided, it wasn't helping Democrats connect with voters across the country.  So what was Obama's response?  At first, he tried — and we're not making this up — to blame President Bush.

Obama ignores facts with boastful 'greatest hits' list.  Flip on your TV and the news is grim.  Wall Street soars while small towns shutter Main Street stores.  Our government's computer systems are regularly hacked, the IRS is targeting citizens instead of just (over)taxing them, and the VA is killing the veterans they're supposed to heal.  Racial tensions are through the roof, with another city going up in flames every few months.  Our leaders blame the heavy hand of police instead of mobs hurling Molotovs.  Syria, Iraq and Libya are in ruins as ISIS inspires terror around the globe.  The Russian bear is on the prowl, and China continues to expand its military influence in Asia and beyond.  As our enemies slap each other on the back, our allies weep at our incompetence.

A Legacy of Ashes.  Obama's continued popularity hasn't had much of a trickle-down effect.  In the eight years since he was first elected, Democrats have lost more than 1,000 seats at the state and national level.  Republicans now control 4,170 state legislative seats compared with 3,129 for the Democrats, an all-time low.  Republicans now hold 33 governorships and will have full control — governorship and both houses of the state legislature — in 25 states compared with five for the Democrats.  Democrats lost 12 governorships, 13 Senate seats and 69 seats in the House of Representatives during Obama's two terms, highlighting "a devastation up and down the party across the nation," according to The Hill.

HuffPo Editor:  With The Democrats In Ruins, You Have To Ask Whether Obama Was Good For The Party.  Even The Huffington Post cannot let the down-ballot gutting of the Democrats go unnoticed.  Senior politics editor Sam Stein was on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday, where he said that while Obama was re-elected twice proving himself to be an excellent candidate — his party has suffered catastrophic losses during his presidency.  In all, the Democrats have lost 1,030 seats at the state and federal level, a wipeout of at least a generation of Democratic talent.  Stein added that with such a political butcher's bill, you have to ask whether this man was good for Democrats.

Obama Can't Trash Talk Has Way Out of Blame for Dems' Decimation.  Donald Trump is an inveterate trash talker, and I'm old-fashioned enough to consider this a bad thing in a president-elect.  But even assuming that Trump keeps talking trash as president (a fair assumption, I think), he will not bear primary responsibility for this latest manifestation of civic decline.  Primary responsibility for "normalizing" trash talk from the White House falls instead on President Obama.  Obama's latest display consists of his claim that he could have defeated Donald Trump and won a third term.

The Obama Era Has Wiped Out An Entire Generation Of New Democratic Talent.  We have written about how President Obama has just devastated how own party.  Since 2009, the Democratic Party has undergone a gutting of epic proportions that went unnoticed due to the media's love affair with the president over the past eight years.  The Associated Press finally has the final butcher's bill:  1,030 seats.  That's the number of Democratic seats that have been lost to Republicans at the state and federal level.

Has Obama's Israel gambit already backfired by dividing the left and uniting the right?  It didn't occur to me yesterday in my own consideration of Kerry's speech, as we tend to be more sensitive to divisions on our own side.  But various liberals have made the point today that the UN resolution last week and Kerry's subsequent defense of it are arguably worse than useless.  It's not just that the resolution will no longer represent U.S. policy three weeks from now, and may very well end up poisoning American relations with the UN. It's that the subject of pressuring Israel to make peace is far more fraught for the left than it is for the right.  It's one thing for Obama and Kerry to apply that pressure if they think it'll produce tangible results — but what the hell is the point of doing it when they have one foot out the door, knowing that Netanyahu won't listen, and further knowing that this is destined to put pro- and anti-Israel liberals in the U.S. at each other's throats?

HuffPost's Sam Stein:  Barack Obama Oversaw 'The Destruction of the Democratic Party'.  Huffington Post senior politics editor Sam Stein argued on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday morning [12/28/2016] that President Barack Obama shoulders much of the blame for his party's historic losses during his eight years in the White House.  Stein suggested that Democrats may be overanalyzing the 2016 election loss.  "They ended up with 2.8 million more votes for their candidate.  It was 80,000 votes in three states that really cost her," he said.  "But then on the other hand, you look at the destruction of the Democratic Party under Barack Obama's leadership and you have to wonder; what was the political — what were the electoral benefits that he gave to the party?" he argued.

Under Obama, a Disaster for the Democrats.  As Obama concludes his reign of error, his party is smaller, weaker, and more rickety than it has been since at least the 1940s.  Behold the tremendous power that Democrats have frittered away — from January 2009 through the aftermath of Election Day — thanks to Obama and his ideas:
  •   Democrats surrendered the White House to political neophyte Donald J. Trump.
  •   U.S. Senate seats slipped from 55 to 46, down 16 percent.
  •   U.S. House seats fell from 256 to 194, down 24 percent.
  •   Democrats ran the U.S. Senate and House in 2009.
  •   Next year, they will control neither.
  •   Governorships slid from 28 to 16, down 43 percent.
  •   State legislatures (both chambers) plunged from 27 to 14, down 48 percent.
  •   Trifectas (states with Democratic governors and both legislative chambers) cratered from 17 to 6, down 65 percent.

The decimation of the Democratic Party, visualized.  Since 2008, by our estimates, the party has shed 870 legislators and leaders at the state and federal levels — and that estimate may be on the low side.  As Donald Trump might put it, that's decimation times 50.

President Obama's Biggest Failure:  Gun Control.  President Obama was recently quoted as saying to Fareed Zakaria that his biggest failure was his inability to impose gun control on the United States. [...] President Obama has been the greatest gun salesman on planet earth, ever.  No one is even close.  Hitler did not come close.  Neither did Stalin, or Mao.  President Johnson was a piker in comparison.  Under President Obama, Gun sales in in the United States broke record after record.  In this last year and a half along, each month has been the record month for 19 consecutive months.  On Black Friday alone, enough guns were sold to private parties in the United States to outfit the entire Marine Corps.  Under President Obama, the private stock of firearms in the United States will have increased from about 308 million to over 405 million firearms.  The ammunition industry has had to add new plants to keep up with the demand for ammunition.  Record numbers of women and minorities have become gun owners.  The number of carry permits for weapons has surpassed 15 million.

Obama's Effort to Force Women into Combat, Allow Transgender Troops Results in $135 Billion Cover-Up, Deaths.  Just as the newly-elected Trump administration is preparing to take office, America gets a surprise reveal from The Washington Post that President Obama's Pentagon deliberately suppressed a 2015 report revealing $125 billion in wasteful spending could be saved over five years.  Secretary of Defense (not for long, [fortunately]!) Ashton Carter, his deputy Robert Work and other underlings squashed the report and its findings, placing secrecy restrictions on it and removing it from public view.  They were busy with more important things like getting women into combat units and people with gender identity confusion to serve openly.  Exposed just three days after the $619 billion National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 was passed, it reeks of a cover-up.

Beware the Law of Unintended Consequences.  Take the election of 2008, which ushered Barack Obama and the Democrats into absolute control of the presidency, House, and Senate, also generating popular goodwill over Obama's landmark candidacy.  Instead of ensuring a heralded generation of Democratic rule, Obama alienated both friends and foes almost immediately.  He rammed through the unworkable Affordable Care Act without a single Republican vote.  He prevaricated about Obamacare's costs and savings.  Huge budget deficits followed.  Racial polarization ensued.  Apologies abroad on behalf of America proved a national turnoff.  By the final pushback of 2016, the Obama administration had proven to be a rare gift to the Republican party.  The GOP now controls the presidency, Congress, governorships, and state legislatures to a degree not seen since the 1920s.

Bare, Ruined Choirs.  There are some 8,000 elected officials in the United States at the state and federal levels.  Between 2009, when Barack Obama took office, and today, as he prepares to retire from it, more than 1,100 Democratic elected officials lost their jobs to Republicans.  That number is unprecedented.  Barack Obama entered the White House with his party in control of 62 of the nation's 99 legislative chambers.  By January 2015, Republicans were in control of 68.  He then made it a personal mission to help reverse the damage that had caused the ejection of nearly a thousand Democratic state legislators from their seats by voters.  He made 150 down-ballot endorsements in 2016 and even hit the trail for a few of them at a time when his personal approval rating was above 50 percent.  The result of the president's direct intercession?  The Democrats did worse.

Obama Just Made the Situation in Charlotte Worse.  Obama just spoke at the opening of the African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, DC. He would have done us all a huge favor if he had just shut it and not said a thing.  Instead, he chose to insult just about everyone in America that isn't black and insinuate that we are dumb and don't get the history or plight of black Americans.  If only we were more empathetic, we would understand why Black Lives Matter, the New Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam are terrorizing our nation.

CDC Study Ordered by Obama Contradicts White House Anti-gun Narrative.  In January, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, President Obama issued a "Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence," along with 22 other "initiatives."  That study, subcontracted out to the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, was completed in June and contained some surprises for the president.  Obama had announced at the beginning of the year his push for three major gun control initiatives — universal background checks, a ban on "assault weapons," and a ban on "high-capacity" magazines — to prevent future mass shootings, no doubt hoping that the CDC study would oblige him by providing evidence that additional gun control measures were justified to reduce gun violence.  On the contrary, that study refuted nearly all the standard anti-gun narrative and instead supported many of the positions taken by gun ownership supporters.  For example, the majority of gun-related deaths between 2000 and 2010 were due to suicide and not criminal violence.

The End of the Memory Hole.  [Charles] Krauthammer notes that Russian bombers are now based out of Iran, American troops are under serious threat of attack from an enemy air force (Syria!) Putin is threatening to annex the Crimea, which Obama promised never to allow and the administration has just admitted paying ransom to one of the chief terror nations on earth.  The more power Obama is given, the less he seems to be able to do with it.  This is true of domestic policy as well.  Margot Sanger Katz describes in the New York Times how the administration spent $1.2 trillion dollars spent on Obamacare only to collapse into Medicaid.  "Think your Obamacare plan will be like employer coverage?" she asks.  "Think again".  Yet this was his signature plan, his legacy, his glory.

Obama the Frightened Child.  We hired Barack Obama as our chief executive and with any amount of hope in our hearts went down his dreary road with him.  He insisted that his trillion-dollar stimulus would jumpstart the economy; we tried it, and the economy tanked.  He promised us we could keep our own doctor and every American family would save $2,500 a year on medical insurance premiums with Obamacare; we tried it, and the exact opposite happened.  He promised us that things would be okay if we ran from Iraq; we did, and our retreat produced one of the worst horrors in human history.  Now he insists we have never been stronger militarily, but when we look, we see that the Marine Corps has been hollowed out, the Air Force is flying half the number of planes it used to, the Navy keeps shrinking, the Army is approaching its lowest level since before World War II, and the Russians are laughing at us as the Chinese build better aircraft carriers.  Last but not least, there's the issue of racial animosity, something Obama was supposed to help the nation transcend.  Indeed, it was his biggest selling point — some would say (and I do) his only selling point.  Yet instead of improving with his time in office, the animus has increased.

Urine Trouble:  Obama's Vacation Is Off To A Poor Start.  Barack Obama may be vacationing in ritzy Martha's Vineyard but it's not all glamorous as he spent the day near a pool that was "fouled by too much human urination."  The White House pool report on Tuesday notes that Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are spending the day with family and friends on the beach between the Atlantic Ocean and Edgartown Great Pond.

The dream of Muslim outreach has become a nightmare.  When President Obama entered office, he dreamed that his hope-and-change messaging and his references to his familial Islamic roots would win over the Muslim world.  The soon-to-be Nobel Peace Prize laureate would make the U.S. liked in the Middle East.  Then, terrorism would decrease.  But, as with his approach to racial relations, Obama's remedies proved worse than the original illness.

Race relations reach all-time low under Obama: poll.  Sixty percent of respondents in a Rasmussen poll released Tuesday [7/19/2016] said race relations have deteriorated under Mr. Obama, the highest mark since he was elected eight years ago.  That number is up 18 points since 2014, when 42 percent said the relationship between the races had worsened.  Just 9 percent said race relations have gotten better under the first black president, and 28 percent said they have stayed about the same.

Hey, Here's a Cool Way That the Feds Could Stop Gun Violence!  [Scroll down]  Yes, that's right, funding the police and putting more on the streets in the areas with the highest violence.  President Bush boosted funding for prosecuting those who illegally used guns and the FBI to go after gun runners.  Now the current administration runs guns.  Violent crime dropped heavily under the Bill Clinton administration, and under the George W. Bush administration.  Under the Obama admin, which wants all sorts of new laws and has demonized law enforcement, it has spiked.

Obama Is The Last Person To Turn To For Healing And Peace.  Let's first review only Obama's timeliness in judging his accuracy and wisdom when making statements about events important to our lives:  First, he called ISIS a "JV" team just prior to its becoming a major international killing force threatening the world.  Second, he declared that he had "contained" ISIS the day before the November 13, 2015, attack on Paris, and just prior to the San Bernardino terrorist attack in California.  Third, he declared the police killings of black suspects in Louisiana and Minnesota as racist killings just prior to the mass attacks on police officers in Dallas, Texas, at a Black Lives Matter gathering.  And these examples are only proof of Obama's bad timing in shooting off his mouth about critical events; we haven't ever gotten to the subject of his accuracy and intent yet.  It's clear that when Obama announces a judgement on something, if all he is trying to do is put citizens' minds at peace about the threat, then he's a complete failure and a counter force to peace.

Nigel Farage Batters Obama:  "He Came To Britain And Behaved Disgracefully".  Back in April President Obama took a trip over to the UK in order to lecture another country on how to vote — Obama of course was staunchly in the Remain camp.  Obama even penned an op-ed titled:  "As your friend, let me say that the EU makes Britain even greater."  Of course, we all know the historic outcome of the Brexit vote, and we have even asked if it was Barack Obama who actually was the deciding factor.

Falsifying the Public Record Because It Offends Islam.  Your normal inclination to be taken in by conspiracy theorists is all the more heightened when you know you are not being told the truth.  That is what President Obama and Attorney General Lynch achieved in their clumsy and stupid attempt to redact the transcripts of Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen's phone calls to 911 as he shot up a gay nightclub in Orlando.  Their bungled attempt to manipulate reality now affirms the role of Islam in the shooting.  By attempting to change Mateen's invocation of "Allah" to "God" and redacting entirely his swearing of allegiance to ISIS, the Obama administration has created the opposite of what it intended.  Any doubts that this shooting was inspired by Islam have now been vitiated.

Michelle Obama's High-Achieving SOTU Guest Just Flunked Out Of College.  One of Michelle Obama's guests at the 2015 State of the Union address was invited because he overcame major obstacles to attend college, but he actually flunked out of school after just two semesters.  Anthony Mendez was a freshman at the University of Hartford when he received an invitation from Obama to attend the State of the Union.  Mendez was chosen for his inspiring personal story.

Forbes: Obama's Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship Now Worth Zero Dollars.  Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who in the past year was named one of President Obama's Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship and was placed atop the Forbes list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, has had her estimated net worth lowered from $4.5 billion to zero.  Forbes announced on Wednesday [6/1/2016] that it was removing Holmes from all of its wealth lists following news that Theranos' blood testing technology, once considered revolutionary, was actually a failure.  Theranos announced last month that it had to void blood test results for thousands of patients taken over the course of two years because its Edison device, touted for its ability to function with tiny blood samples, was producing inaccurate results.

Thanks to Obama, the terrorist cancer is growing.  Responding to criticism of President Obama's handling of terrorism, White House press secretary Josh Earnest boasted Thursday of all the setbacks the Islamic State has experienced in recent months, noting that in Iraq "45 percent of the populated area that ISIL previously controlled has been retaken from them.  In Syria, that figure is now 20 percent."  That's like a patient who ignored a cancer diagnosis bragging that he finally reduced the tumor in his lung — glossing over the fact that he let it spread and metastasize to his other organs.  If he had attacked the Islamic State cancer early, Obama could have stopped it from spreading in the first place.

You can be sure that if Obama and Kerry are negotiating, North Korea will win the war.
Is There a Secret Deal to End the Korean War?  South Korean and American officials are now denying reports that China and the United States have been engaged in "behind-the-scenes discussions" to freeze North Korea's nuclear weapon program in return for, among other things, a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War.  The rumors of peace talks, going back to February, were fueled recently by comments from John Kerry.  "We have made it clear that we are prepared to negotiate a peace treaty on the peninsula," the secretary of state said in April.

Report: Obama Admin's Effort to 'Eliminate Red Tape' Adds $16 Billion in Costs.  The Obama administration's effort to eliminate red tape added $16 billion in regulatory costs, according to a new report by the American Action Forum obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  "President Obama signed executive orders (13,563 and 13,610) as part of an effort to 'eliminate red tape.'  Federal agencies were told to 'modify, streamline expand, or repeal' existing regulations," according to the report released by AAF, a center-right nonprofit led by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office.  The American Action Forum has found the reviews consist mostly of recycled regulations by federal agencies that have actually increased regulatory costs.  "The recent 'retrospective reports' from the administration reveal that executive agencies have added more than $16 billion in regulatory costs, up from $14.7 billion in the previous update, and 6.5 million paperwork hours," the report said.

Administration's efforts to reduce red tape results in $16-billion increase in costs.  The American Action Forum has released a scathing report taking the Obama administration to task for its paperwork reduction efforts.  While the president directed the agencies to repeal, modify, or remove rules that contributed unnecessarily to the red tape burden of businesses, government bureaucrats responded by expanding some regs while failing to remove or modify other burdensome rules. [...] The paperwork burden on business is an astronomical $1.9 trillion.  Under Obama, we've seen six straight years of escalating red tape.

How President Obama Made Syria An Unfixable Quagmire.  The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday [3/27/2016] that Syrian opposition forces backed by the CIA and the Pentagon are now fighting each other.  (Buzzfeed's Mike Giglio actually wrote this story more than a month ago, with the simple but true headline:  "America Is In A Proxy War With Itself In Syria.")  The Syrian conflagration has entered the phase where pretty much everyone shoots at everyone else:  "Any faction that attacks us," an officer from the one of the CIA-supported groups told the LA Times, "regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it."  Well, of course they will.  Every group in Syria is now in a Hobbesian free-for-all.  The death toll is now climbing toward the half-million mark.  No one has any incentive to do anything but kill or be killed.

Beware Obama, the Benevolent.  When President Obama stages a photo op to publicize signing a measure he claims will "help" American workers, you can be almost certain that "unintended consequences" will outweigh any intended benefits.  Lacking even an elementary understanding of how a market economy works, he only makes things worse.

Obama's Legacy: A Shellacked Democratic Party.  Those watching President Obama's final State of the Union Address on Tuesday night [1/12/2016] may have noticed something.  The House chamber was much quieter than when he delivered State of the Union Addresses in years past.  That's because there are far fewer Democrats to cheer for him.  The man who began his presidency with a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate has wiped them out.  To borrow a phrase from the president, the Democratic Party got "shellacked" during the Obama administration.

Obama Has Killed Public's Trust In Government.  A new Gallup poll finds that the public ranks "government" as the top problem facing America today.  They put it above the economy, above unemployment, and way above immigration.  When Obama took office in 2009, government ranked fourth on the list of problems, but it has moved up steadily and has held the top spot for two years now.  Government wasn't even on the list of problems in George W. Bush's last year in office.  Gallup's data show that the share who rank government as their top concern climbed from 7% when Obama was sworn in to 16% in 2015.

Faithless.  [Scroll down]  People are willing to go along believing in Santa Claus or Hope and Change for as long as it's free.  Once it imposes disastrous costs, however, people start to become cynical.  In place of trust they start to believe the opposite of what their leaders say.  For example Gregor Aisch an Josh Keller of the New York Times wryly note that president Obama's gun control exhortations have resulted in the exact opposite effect.  The "fear of gun-buying restrictions has been the main driver of spikes in gun sales, far surpassing the effects of mass shootings and terrorist attacks alone."  That is a sad commentary on the president's credibility.

Obama, NRA's Next President?  Obama has done more to proliferate private civilian ownership of guns than any other president in history.  In fact, presidential historians should call him "The Gun President."  [Indeed], the National Rifle Association might even want to recruit him should Wayne LaPierre retire.  Obama has driven NRA membership to near-record highs.  More than 100 million guns have been sold in the U.S. since Obama was elected president.  Combined firearms and ammunition sales have more than doubled during his anti-gun administration.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel.  An administration which based its foreign policy strategy on simultaneouly [sic] befriending rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran finds that instead of dampening the competition the effect has been to heighten their conflict to a critical point.

America at Obama's End.  We are near the end of the seventh year of Barack Obama's presidency, and by any measure the United States is a fractured nation.  Its people are more divided politically than any time in recent memory.  Personally, many are anxious, angry or just down.  Whatever Mr. Obama promised in that famous first Inaugural Address, any sense of a nation united and raised up is gone.  This isn't normal second-term blues.  It's a sense of bust.  The formal measure of all this appeared last week with the release of the Pew Research poll, whose headline message is that trust in government is kaput.  Forget the old joke about the government coming to "help."  There's a darker version now:  We're the government, and we're here to screw you.

More than 1,000 racism complaints at US colleges. What happened?  Since Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration, a moment that optimists at the time suggested would herald a healing of race relations in the United States, more and more students and staff have filed complaints of racial harassment with the Department of Education:  1,073 in total, an average of 134 per year, compared to about 50 annually during the previous administration.  Yet, as Inside Higher Ed reports, fewer than 25 percent of those complaints have been closed, either through a letter of resolution or through being dropped for lack of evidence.

The Editor says...
The single most widely discussed selling point for electing Barack H. Obama as president (the first time) was that if we the voters could come together and elect a black man as president, then fifty years of racial strife in this country would come to an end.  Instead, exactly the opposite has occurred.  President Obama has proven to be completely incompetent (see above), demonstrating that he has only four skills:  agitation of left-wing mobs, reading somebody else's words from a teleprompter, lying, and spending other people's money.  Instead of patching up race relations once and for all, he has practically guaranteed that there won't be another black president elected in this century.

Obama Has Just Begun.  Insidiously and inadvertently, Barack Obama is alienating the people and moving the country to the right. [...] By sheer force of his personality, Obama has managed to lose the Democratic Senate and House.  State legislatures and governorships are now predominantly Republican.  Obama's own favorable ratings rarely top 45 percent.  In his mind, great men, whether Socrates or Jesus, were never appreciated in their time.  So it is not surprising that he is not, as he presses full speed ahead.

DNC looks to rebrand to stem losses during Obama administration.  During the Obama administration, the Democrats have lost 11 governorships, 13 U.S. Senate seats, 69 House seats and 910 state legislative seats.  A Gallup poll measuring trends in party affiliation since 2004 found 29 percent of Americans identified as Democrats in October, compared to 38 percent in March 2009 after Mr. Obama first took office.

Obama Has Decimated His Own Party Unlike Any Other Modern President.  Last week concluded the final election of President Obama's tenure that didn't involve replacing him.  After seven years in office and as many elections, the Democratic Party has taken a beating worse than the Republican Party took under George W. Bush.  On nearly every level of government, Democrats have lost more seats under Mr. Obama than under any other two-term modern president dating back to Dwight Eisenhower.

The immense gratitude Republicans owe Obama.  Since Barack Obama twice took the oath of office on Abraham Lincoln's Bible in 2009, Democrats have lost 69 House seats. Under Obama's party leadership and agenda, Democrats have lost 14 U.S. Senate seats.  Democrats have lost 920 state legislative seats.  Despite hundreds of Obama's political fundraisers, Democrats have lost 12 governor's offices.  They now control only 17.  Republicans hold 32 governorships, including nearly 20 that sit atop coinciding GOP control of the entire state legislatures.

Ex-Im Bank Dispute Threatens G.E. Factory That Obama Praised.  When President Obama visited General Electric's sprawling, red brick engine factory here in January 2014, he praised it as a sign that manufacturing in America could have a promising future.  "We're here because you're doing some really good stuff," Mr. Obama said.  Plants like this, he declared, "can be a model for the country."  On the morning of Sept. 28, however, the Waukesha plant manager gathered the workers on the floor and told them the factory would be shut down.  G.E., he said, had decided to shift production of the industrial engines — and the workers' jobs — to Canada.

How 7 years of Obama brought the world from Kumbaya to chaos.  [S]even years into Obama's presidency, the promised worldwide Kumbaya is instead global chaos — caused in large measure by his willful retreat from America's position of leadership.  Washington's traditional allies increasingly feel abandoned, its enemies emboldened.  The United States isn't even leading from behind — it's cowering in weakness.

The Dissing of America: Our enemies and rivals show no respect.  As President Obama was traversing Alaska last week sounding the alarm about the theoretical consequences of global warming, a more concrete threat loomed just off the coast, in the Bering Sea.  Five Chinese naval ships suddenly materialized and were cruising about, symbols of China's growing military might and its challenge to America's naval hegemony in the Pacific.  That Chinese warships had appeared on U.S. radar in the Bering for the first time ever during a rare Obama visit to Alaska could be no coincidence.  It was an obvious challenge to the president, and to be sure, an unmistakable sign of disrespect.

Barack Obama's Refugee Crisis.  The worst European refugee crisis since the end of World War II is taking place before our eyes.  [...] While many foreign leaders have spoken out, there is one who has said not a word.  That leader, as you most probably can guess, is Barack Obama.  And how could he?  His policies, after all, have ended in this tragedy.

Obama's Legacy: Middle East in Chaos, a Nuclear Iran, and Europe Flooded With Muslims.  President Obama's legacy to America:  a Middle East in chaos, radical Islam ascendant, a nuclear Iran with a $150 billion dollar terror fund, Israel demonized as a warmonger, Europe flooded with Muslims.  This Iran Deal is so bad, so dangerous, so traitorous, it is hard to believe.  That is one reason the Democrats can get away with it.  Their loyal voters assume their party leaders and beloved first black President would not do something this traitorous.

No Strategy. No Clue.  We were 589 days into the two terms Barack Hussein Obama has served in the office of President of the United States and he is as clueless now as he was when he arrived on January 20, 2009. [...] The Islamic State troops must be stopped at some point, but Obama is not the President who will do it.  Whatever U.S. backed combat occurs will be just enough to present enough television news images to convince the gullible that progress is being made.  Obama arrived in office without any strategy and has spent the last six and a half years "muddling through" as the British say.  He and the Democratic Party had only one goal; to win the elections.  After that, they wanted to "fundamentally transform" the greatest nation on planet Earth.  They have largely made a mess out of everything they touched from ObamaCare to Common Core.

Counting Up Obama's Cataclysmic Foreign Policy Failures.  With the Islamic State expanding its reach after two key victories in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar Province, and Palmyra, a strategically important city in Syria, it might a good time to ask:  What are the worst foreign policy failures of Barack Obama's presidency?  The list is long; here are several to choose from. [...] But in each of these instances Mr. Obama has made things worse, and in most cases he has made things markedly worse.  The cumulative and convulsive effects of his failures are extraordinarily damaging to America and the world.

Hawaii's ObamaCare Website Enrolls Zero People.  Never before in history has so much money been spent with nothing to show for it.  Not just Obama's 'signature achievement': health insurance reform, but the $800 billion stimulus that failed to stimulate, Obama's disastrous foreign policy, the stagnant economy, cash for clunkers, green energy, the list goes on and on.  Talk about the reverse Midas touch, everything Obama has turned his hand to has turned to [excrement].  That in itself would be bad enough, but he's bankrupted the nation to accomplish it.

Is Obama Arming Iran for a Secret Reason?  Nothing the president has done or continues to do seems to make much sense.  If anything, the only consistent success Barack Obama has had is managing to make worse everything he's attempted to fix.

The Real Student Loan Crisis Is The One Obama Created.  In 2010, Obama eliminated the federal guaranteed loan program, which let private lenders offer student loans at low interest rates.  Now, the Department of Education is the only place to go for such loans.  Obama sold this government takeover as a way to save money — why bear the costs of guaranteeing private loans, he said, when the government could cut out the middleman and lend the money itself?  The cost savings didn't happen.  In fact, the Congressional Budget Office just increased its 10-year forecast for the loan program's costs by $27 billion, or 30%.

Panic And Blood Curdling Screams From Children At Obama Event.  Panic ensued and the blood curling screams of small children rang out Monday [4/6/2015] as Barack Obama read "Where the Wild Things Are" during the Easter Egg Roll event.  Why?  Bees were attacking.

Netanyahu pollster: Obama role in election larger than reported.  President Obama's role during the Israeli elections was larger than reported, according to a pollster for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.  "What was not well reported in the American media is that President Obama and his allies were playing in the election to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu," John McLaughlin, a Republican strategist, said in an interview on John Catsimatidis's "The Cats Roundtable" radio show broadcast Sunday [3/22/2015] on AM 970 in New York.

How Obama handed Netanyahu victory.  You may have heard that Israeli politics is extremely complex.  But one of the most important forces at play there is actually rather straightforward:  When Israelis feel safe and strong they tend to support moderate parties.  When they feel vulnerable they move to the right.  Understand that, and you will understand Israel — and why President Barack Obama may have inadvertently given Benjamin Netanyahu a helping hand.

Barack Obama spins gold into straw in Israel elections. Again.  The New York Sun is pretty blunt about this:  "It may be too soon to say who won the election in Israel but it's not too soon to say who lost — President Obama." ...and, let's be honest, here.  It was a remarkably silly thing for the President to try to get involved in.  No, seriously, think about it for a moment.  What was the upside for any attempt by Barack Obama to influence the Israeli election?  What was his victory condition?

How Much Does Netanyahu's Big Win Really Matter?  If their memoirs are to be believed, Clinton-administration officials would get depressed when conservatives won elections in Israel, and there are probably a lot of long faces among Obama-administration officials right now.  But they should look at the bright side — at least they've proven that American presidents can influence Israeli elections.

Why Did Netanyahu Win?  Benjamin Netanyahu has declared victory in the Israeli Knesset elections.  The opposition claims the declaration is premature and, like Netanyahu, its candidate is talking about forming a government.  Assuming that Netanyahu and his Likud party have triumphed, the question is why.  I'll leave to Israeli analysts to provide a definitive answer if they can.  My suspicion is that Netanyahu owes his victory in no small part to President Obama.

India Officials: Tree Obama Planted Isn't Dead, Just Looks Dead.  Officials in India want to make one thing clear:  The tree that President Barack Obama planted in New Delhi three weeks ago is not dead.  It just looks dead.  The peepal tree was awash in leaves when Obama planted it at the New Delhi memorial to Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi.  By Thursday, though, it was just a single lonely stem.

While Obama talks cyber security, his hotel's computer system fails.  The president flew to San Francisco on Thursday [2/12/2015] to preach the benefits of better corporate cybersecurity practices.  The entire two days he was in town, the computer system at his upscale hotel, The Fairmont, was down.

eBay Lays Off Thousands After Obama Touts Company in State of the Union Address.  POLITICO reports that President Obama, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, gave shout outs to a number of American companies in an effort to highlight the strength of the U.S. economy.  Nearly all of those companies, it turns out, are big political spenders and have contributed heavily to Democrats.  One of those companies was eBay, which Obama cited as an example of how "millions of Americans [are working] in jobs that didn't even exist 10 or 20 years ago."  That now seems like an unfortunate choice, because less than 24 hours after Obama's speech, eBay announced it was cutting 2,400 jobs, or about 7 percent of its workforce.

Nemesis 1, Hubris 0.  Just as president Obama claimed in his state of the union that "the shadow of crisis has passed" and proclaimed that American firepower had stopped the advance of "militants" in the Middle East, the Washington Post is reporting a possible coup in Yemen.

Obama's Monomania.  There is a malice and vindictiveness in Obama that has no end.  Everything he touches he destroys.

Is President Obama a GOP Mole?  When President Obama took office in 2009, his party was in better shape than it had been since the era following Watergate. [...] Yet fewer than six years later, their congressional majorities have been annihilated and their prospects for retaining the presidency in 2016 are far less promising than they were just a month ago.  Virtually all this devastation has been caused by Obama himself.

Obama's reverse Midas touch:  President Obama saw the Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and his home-state Illinois lose after personally stumping for them in the waning moments before Election Day.

Obama Visits Maryland; Democrat Drops 9 Points?  How could this be possible?  I mean, what has happened in the last week?  For one thing, President Obama — not welcome on the trail in red states — campaigned for [Anthony] Brown in Maryland, where crowds began streaming out during his speech, leaving empty bleachers behind.  Could it be that President Obama is such a drag on Democrats that he even hurts them in ... Maryland?  That's one possibility.

Obama is Ebola for Finance.  So the volatility in the market finally finds a cause.  It was just revealed that Obama met with U.S. financial regulators at the White House.  Uh oh.

Perhaps Michelle has the same effect:
Michelle Obama Brags About Obama Economy As Stock Market Tumbles.  First Lady Michelle Obama was praising her husband's handling of the economy today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average began plunging.

Could It Possibly Get Any Worse?  The U.S. has its lowest labor participation rate since women went to work.  The middle class is consistently losing ground.  Race relations in the U.S. seem to have gone backwards fifty years in the last six, African Americans overwhelmed with victimology and picking on cops before there is any evidence.  Critics of the president are constantly accused of racism.  Seventy percent of black children are born out of wedlock.  No one trusts the word of the president because he has lied so frequently about everything from health care to Benghazi. [...] The U.S. Army is falling apart with only 12 of 37 brigades combat ready.  Our Navy is disappearing.  Al Qaeda is NOT on the run.  Just the opposite — it's everywhere.

Why is Obama disconnected, directionless?  There is a rationale to Obama's very low-key demeanor on Ferguson, as Vox's Ezra Klein lays out:  The president tends to make polarization even worse when he weighs in heavily on such highly charged racial issues.

The Un-Midas Touch.  Everything that Barack Obama touches seems to turn to dross.  Think of it for a minute.  He inherited a quiet Iraq (no American combat deaths at all in December 2009).  Joe Biden bragged of the calm that it would be the administration's "greatest achievement."  But by pulling out all U.S. peacekeepers — mostly for a 2012 reelection talking point — Obama ensured an ISIS wasteland.  He put his promised eye on Afghanistan at last, and we have lost more soldiers there than during the Bush administration and a Taliban victory seems likely after more than a decade of lost American blood and treasure.  The message seems to be that it is better for Obama to have his eye off something than on it.

Thugs Run L.A. Classrooms, Thanks To Obama Suspension Ban.  As we predicted, the Obama regime's anti-suspension policy is backfiring.  Los Angeles teachers complain unsuspended violent kids are intimidating them and effectively ruling their classrooms.

Obama and the Culture of Death.  Obama revels in his executive overreach so that everything he touches seems to be destroyed — jobs, the economy, American dreams, law and order.

Bergdahl swap may make closing Guantanamo harder.  President Barack Obama's goal of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison is facing re-energized opposition from Republicans and increased questioning from fellow Democrats amid widespread anger in Congress over the swap of five Taliban detainees for the last American prisoner of war in Afghanistan.

Another Obama-backed 'green' company leaves a trail of unpaid bills and broken promises.  "Come see what's going on at Smith Electric," the president said, inspecting a table full of bright green truck batteries in what was once a maintenance hangar for TWA.  "I think they're going to be hard-pressed to tell you that you're not better off than you would be if we hadn't made the investments in this plant."  The skeptics turned out to be right.  Despite $32 million in federal stimulus funds and status as one of Obama's favorite "green" companies, the firm has halted production, having built just 439 of the promised 510 vehicles.

Light rail train derails after Obama visit.  A Minneapolis light rail test train derailed shortly after President Obama lauded the expansion of the system, the Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minn., reports.  Obama touted the expansion of Minnesota's Metro light rail system to St. Paul, which is scheduled to open in June, as an example for the nation to follow.  Hours later, a train ran off the tracks.

The Obama effect: NRA's 'American Rifleman' surges to top 25 magazines in America.  President Obama's second-term effort to get Americans to hate guns has backfired.  Not only did firearm sales in 2013 blow out all records, interest in learning more about Second Amendment issues has risen dramatically.  This is evidenced by the news that circulation for the magazine "American Rifleman" has broken into the top 25 magazines in the country, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

Two Hours Before Obama Presser, ObamaCare Site Crashes.  Early Friday afternoon [12/20/2013], as millions of Americans who had their insurance plans scrambled to get coverage before the deadline — which is just a couple days away — the federal ObamaCare Website crashed.  This occurred 20 days after the Obama Administration reassured America the site was fully-functioning for a "vast majority" of users.  As of now, the site is not fully-functioning for anyone.

Barack Obama's reverse Midas touch.  Only U.S. President Barack Obama could manage to pull off such colossal American failures in foreign policy.

Barack Obama, Libertarian Manufacturing Machine.  Forget Ron Paul, or even his son Rand, by far the greatest booster of libertarianism in America today is unquestionably Barack Obama.  With the astonishing ineptitude of his all-pervasive statism, the president is manufacturing libertarians everywhere he goes.  And it's not just the massive Obamacare boondoggle, although that's the worst and most public example at the moment.  Every aspect of the administration from the extraordinary (and growing) deficits to the clueless foreign policy is an advertisement for the overweening incompetence of big government.

Maybe Barack Obama is just inferior.  Obama's foreign policy is in ashes as Iran moves toward nuclear bombs while Syria used chemical weapons on its own people with impunity.  Corruption scandals from Benghazi to IRS abuses hover.  Obama repeatedly claims no knowledge of serious events when they go awry.  Four Americans were murdered in Benghazi, yet Obama's very whereabouts during the crisis remain shrouded.  Obama is disrespected abroad, and he is losing Americans' trust and confidence at home.  Obama entered office under trying circumstances and improved nothing.

The Fall of Barack.  Everything Barry has touched in four years and three quarters has turned to dog excrement.  He has the reverse Midas touch, although there is always plenty of gold for friends, associates and cronies.  Take ObamaCare, for instance — the ACA is a metaphor for the entire Obama presidency.  Despite polls showing that 85% of Americans were happy with their health insurance, Barry insisted that there was a healthcare "crisis."

Obama Tells Americans to Enroll via Phone, Phone Number Crashes.  "Nobody is madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should, which means it's going to get fixed," Obama said.  He then recommended a toll-free phone number to call.  There was only one problem: the Obamcare toll-free phone number was overloaded and immediately crashed.

Obama's handshake a 'kiss of death'.  Maybe Iranian President Hassan Rouhani knew that shaking hands with President Obama can be the kiss of death.  Rouhani may have been thinking about his life expectancy when he refused to meet with Obama on Tuesday [9/24/2013], knowing that several other world leaders who opted to shake hands with Obama over the years have suffered decidedly less than happy endings.

Ohio clinic touted by Obama slashes budget due to ObamaCare.  An Ohio clinic that was touted by Obama while he was speaking on health care reform is now blaming ObamaCare after it was forced to cut $330 million from its budget.  Fox 8 reports the Cleveland Clinic, which is the largest employer in Northeast Ohio with about 39,000 workers in the region, announced the cuts to its 2014 budget at a meeting Wednesday [9/18/2013].

Ray's Hell Burger shutters locations after Obama's Kiss of Death.  Ray's Hell-Burger is closing its doors in Washington DC.  The burger joint rose to prominence after Obama visited the business twice.  Now they're closed.

Ohio Restaurant Closes One Week After Obama Mentions it in Speech.  An Ohio restaurant mentioned last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government's Chrysler bailout will go out of business Sunday after a more than 70-year history.

The Obama Effect: Businesses visited by obama feel the "reverse midas" touch.  Now, we all have heard about the Gore Effect.  The Goreacle, flitting around the world, hawking his GW snake oil, bringing cold, snow, blizzards with him.  In obama's case, businesses he visited to either tout his plans for his Failed Stimulus, or his "green" energy ideas, or any other business he used to tout one of his truly bad ideas have been shuttered, closed down, cut jobs, etc.

The Editor says...
Other examples include Cardinal Fastener and Caterpillar.

Popular D.C. Burger Joint Forced to Shut Down.  One of the D.C. area's iconic burger joints is no more.  Ray's Hell-Burger, where the likes of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and the Russian president have gone for a juicy burger, has been shut down after failing to pay its rent.

Another Business Visited by Obama Closes.  In August, Obama visited Star Brewery in Dubuque. And now a local publication reports that the business is closing its doors.

'This is big government': 500 furloughed at GE plant subsidized and lionized by White House.  In 2010, Appliance Park won a $2.5 [sic] stimulus grant.  In 2011, a Commerce Department official toured Appliance Park touting Obama's push to increase U.S. manufacturing.  Then in 2012, GE CEO and Obama Jobs Czar Jeff Immelt announced he was moving fridge-making jobs from Mexico to Appliance Park. [...] Today [2/19/2013], GE announced it was furloughing 500 refrigerator-manufacturing jobs at Appliance Park.

'He made a promise to help us and he broke it'.  Obama visited the destroyed marina Ms [Donna] Vanzant owns in Brigantine, New Jersey on October 31 and promised her 'immediate' aid.  Soon after, Ms Vanzant wrote him an email.  'Many days later, I got a response back,' she told the Philadelphia Magazine.  'It was disturbing.  'It had nothing to do with what I was asking him.  It was a form letter.  It thanked me for supporting the troops. [...]'

Restaurant Dined at By Obama Closed Due to Health Concerns.  A restaurant where President Obama took winners of his 2012 campaign's "Dinner with Barack" contest was forced to close this week because it was cited for failing to comply with Washington, D.C.'s health and sanitation regulations.