Well, after having a “total freeze” dangled before their eyes, of course the PA is not satisfied, hollering about Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s “political maneuvering” and “deception” is announcing a halt to new West Bank settlements for 10 months (but no restrictions on ongoing projects or housing within Jerusalem). ”The PA is also furious with the US administration for hailing the decision as a step forward toward resuming the peace process in the Middle East.” Well, that’s what comes from the Obami’s incompetent gambit. How is it that George Mitchell still has a job?
Copenhagen round two: “Obama has come home from Copenhagen empty-handed once before — when he flew in to lobby for Chicago’s pitch for the 2016 Olympics, only to watch the International Olympic Committee reject his hometown’s bid in the first round of its voting.”
A very unpopular decision: “By 59% to 36%, more Americans believe accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried in a military court, rather than in a civilian criminal court.” Among independents, 63 percent favor a military tribunal.
Karl Rove reminds us that “since taking office Mr. Obama pushed through a $787 billion stimulus, a $33 billion expansion of the child health program known as S-chip, a $410 billion omnibus appropriations spending bill, and an $80 billion car company bailout. He also pushed a $821 billion cap-and-trade bill through the House and is now urging Congress to pass a nearly $1 trillion health-care bill.” But no worries — Obama would like a commission to address our fiscal mess.
Charles Krauthammer writes on ObamaCare: “The bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated, its ashes scattered over the Senate swimming pool. … The better choice is targeted measures that attack the inefficiencies of the current system one by one — tort reform, interstate purchasing and taxing employee benefits. It would take 20 pages to write such a bill, not 2,000 — and provide the funds to cover the uninsured without wrecking both U.S. health care and the U.S. Treasury.” And it might even be politically popular.
Iran has managed to do the impossible: draw the ire of the IAEA and make Mohamed ElBaradei sound realistically pessimistic: “We have effectively reached a dead end, unless Iran engages fully with us.” The White House pipes up with a perfectly meaningless comment: “If Iran refuses to meet its obligations, then it will be responsible for its own growing isolation and the consequences.” Which are what exactly?
Marc Ambinder spins it as “circumspect”: “The upshot from the administration: now is the time to get serious. The world is united in favor of tougher, non-diplomatic means to pressure Iran. But no word on when or how — just yet.” But let’s get real – it’s more of the same irresoluteness and stalling we’ve heard all year from the Obami.
If you might lose something, you begin to appreciate what you have: “Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters nationwide now rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent. That marks a steady increase from 44% at the beginning of October, 35% in May and 29% a year-and-a-half ago. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% now say the U.S. health care system is poor. It is interesting to note that confidence in the system has improved as the debate over health care reform has moved to center stage.”
Kim Strassel thinks the Copenhagen confab will be a bust in the wake of the scandal about the Climate Research Unit’s e-mails: ”Instead of producing legally binding agreements, it will be dogged by queries about the legitimacy of the scientists who wrote the reports that form its basis.” And meanwhile “Republicans are launching investigations, and the pressure is building on Democrats to hold hearings, since climate scientists were funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
McCain Follow-up
John McCain follows up on last night’s exceptional victory speech with a concerted focus on Barack Hussein Obama.
Have the Republican honchos decided that BHO is the inevitable pick here or that the disparity in contrast is so great and BHO so ext…
McCain is right to focus on issues like Obama hedging on whether to follow through on his commitment to public campaign financing. Last week I wish he had made more of the Dem’s disgraceful failure to get the FISA re-authorization through, but maybe that issue is just too obscure to explain in a quick soundbite. But everyone can quickly get that a candidate who said he was going to stick with public funding of his campaign and then goes back on his word is hardly any kind of new, transformational politician.
Obama’s lame hedging in his USA Today op-ed suggests that he has no intention of giving in, and that, even if he does, it will be a triple play by McCain – erasing fundraising advantages, hitting Obama on his supposed new political bona fides, and making Obama look like a weakling. It’s reached the point already where Obama might as well take the hit and bank his money, but the result will remain a wound that can keep bleeding until election day, and may remain susceptible to serious infection, even if it’s not fatal in itself.
Obama does not respond well to criticism and political attacks: Instead of shrugging off his wife’s anti-patriotic remarks, or apologizing, he’s hedged, coming up with a ludicrous, Billclintonian pseudo-explanation. To the charge of being eloquent but empty, he’s responded by larding his stump speech with unwieldy policy promises – ruining the music (as last night), and pinioning himself to his entirely un-centrist positions. The “plagiarism” charge and heightened focus on his and his wife’s rhetoric have forced him to speak more guardedly, more from written text, lest he go off script and get into trouble.
It looks too late for Hillary, and the election is too far away for these missteps to be declared ruinous, but it’s clear that he’s got vulnerabilities. It’s beginning to look like he can be pushed around. Let’s hope he doesn’t come back from, say the Olympics vacation, “re-born hard.”
You know, the Dems had another gasbag who was suppose to wow the countrywith his golden tongue — Mario Cuomo.
He went nowhere.
Maybe that is BO’s future, too.
I had the fortune of not watching any of the democratic debates, but from the recaps it appears as if BHO is not a very good debater. I think McCain came accross very well in the republican debates – both civil and spirited. For this former Rudy guy, I look forward to a debate between the messiah and the crumudgeon.
“naive on foreign policy”
from a guy who thinks that ” they will come here if we don’t fight them there”lol
so they can inherit the 11 trillion dollars worth of debt you and your cohorts have saddled us with?
that’s a great strategy for bankrupting al queda actually!
Unfortunately, Cuomo didn’t run for president, so we don’t know how he would have done against, say George HW Bush.
How many presidential debates are there? Are there enough? Even if McCain wins every one soundly, will it matter? What if the media calls it a “draw” or a “tactical Obama win”?
This campaign will be closer than people think, I’m afraid.
Lester: I’ll take you seriously for a minute to teach you something. The national debt is not $11 trillion; it’s about $9.2 trillion, of which about $5.5 trillion is publicly held (ie, our net federal debt). The overall level of the debt is not the critical figure; the debt ratio — the ratio of publicly-held debt to GDP — is the critical figure, and that number (37%) is lower than for any year in your hero Bill Clinton’s tenure. You have to take economic growth into account or your throwing around scary numbers is meaningless.
You might want to school Lester on the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP while you’re at it, or on the ratio of defense spending to federal budget or to GDP. Or, come to think of it, you might not want to bother.
The NYT’s breaking story on McCain can cut 2 ways.
Maybe, it will put to rest the idea that he is too old
you’re right. i can’t believe I said 11 trillion instead of 9.2 trillion. But then aren’t the entitlements supposed to go way way into the trillions with all the boomers retiring? Is Al queda going to be able to negotiate with the drug companies? They’ll still be bankrupt.
CK- I hadn’t thought of that. defense spending will probably go way up as al queda tries to defend their new territory from shia incursions. doesn’t iran want to take over the world too? for the mahdi?
Lester,
have you ever seen a fact you didn’t avoid?