Informed Speculation

…one of my personal heroes, Bono, has an Op-Ed in the NY Times defending the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Obama.  The reasons he offers are the same  as others have offered (only he makes it more personal, tying the prize to Obama’s promises to assist with Bono’s pet cause of ending extreme poverty): that [...]

The Senate Finance Committee got a bill out of committee that was scored by the CBO as a net reducer of the deficit over ten years.  This took away a powerful argument that opponents like myself were using with considerable success – that, in this particular time of absolutely incredible deficits, we simply can’t afford [...]

My nephew had an idea that, once heard, proved inevitable and irresistible.  It’s time to bring back the Weekly Jackass for an encore presentation.
If you’ve seen the news today, you no doubt already know who the proud recipient is going to be.  Actually, there are five: the Norwegians who make the selection committee for the Nobel [...]

When staff at the United Nations, an organization known far more for appeasement than confrontation, are more hawkish than even the Bush Administration was on Iran, you know we are getting very near the point of no return:
Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has [...]

Jubilation in Brazil today as Rio de Janeiro beat out Chicago, Madrid, and Tokyo to win the rights to host the 2016 Olympics,  this despite a somewhat controversial decision by Barack Obama to lobby on behalf of his hometown.
In another update that brings closure to a previously blogged story, the Secret Service investigated the Facebook [...]

Got home a bit late, with no time really for a lengthy post, so a few quick hits:
1.  You absolutely cannot threaten the President, even obliquely, and get away with it.  The Secret Service is right to investigate…
2.  A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows support for health care reform at its lowest recorded level yet…
3. [...]

Apologists for Iran have long insisted that there is no proof that Iran has bad intentions for its nuclear program, that it is peaceful, that those who say otherwise are engaging in the sequel to the fruitless hunt for Iraq’s nonexistent WMD stockpiles.
Anyone who harbors that illusion any longer is the saddest of fools:
President Obama [...]

When President Obama promised in the 2008 presidential campaign to lower taxes on the middle class, and criticized John McCain for pushing a health plan that would amount to the largest middle class tax increase in history, can I be forgiven a little cynicism now that he is trying to paint his plans as a [...]

President Obama’s bid for a game-changing speech to Congress does not appear to have achieved its goals.  Rasmussen Reports now shows opposition at an all-time high, and considerably higher than support:

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide now oppose the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition [...]

It’s interesting that Barack Obama retains the almost universal support of Democrats despite his failure to produce any meaningful policy gains up to this point, as I’ve blogged about before (yes, I know, the stimulus was the miracle cure to the Great Depression II, despite the fact that no one can really point to any [...]

Some days, life is so tedious, you wonder how you get out of bed and face it all again…and other days, well, other days, the President of the United States calls Kanye West a jackass.  Now that’s the way to get my support, Mr. President! (Who cares if it was off the record?  He said [...]

A key line from Obama’s speech tonight:

[L]et me discuss an issue that is a great concern to me, to members of this chamber, and to the public, and that’s how we pay for this plan.
Now, Here’s what you need to know. First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, [...]

…and it might actually make it worse.  Why?  Because the public remains against it, that’s the number one reason.  Well, you say, that’s the whole point.  Obama will use his remarkable charisma and oratorical skills to turn the page.
Except that he won’t.  Not unless he fundamentally changes his message.  Why has support for health care [...]

In case you missed it, the Obama administration upped its long-term deficit projections by $2 trillion over the weekend.  Reuters has more:
President Barack Obama’s domestic policy proposals will face the reality of skyrocketing deficits on Tuesday when officials release two government reports projecting huge budget shortfalls over the next decade.
The White House budget office and [...]

Jay Cost, in an apropos followup to yesterday’s post:
After a rough week for health care reform, Democratic leaders appear to be pulling back on their demand for a public option. It remains to be seen whether liberal Democrats, especially in the House where they are more numerous, will go along with this. But this is [...]

It’s hard to see how any objective observer can view the initial nine months of the Obama presidency as anything but a failure.  Afghanistan is as big a mess as ever, Gitmo has not been closed (indeed, Obama has continued most Bush policies on the War on Terror), and North Korea and Iran have so [...]

From the new Quinnipiac poll on health care reform:
American voters, by a 55 – 35 percent margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit than it will not act to overhaul the health care system, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. By a similar [...]

…a story comes along that is right up Mickey Kaus’s alley, and he just destroys it.  So it has been with President Obama and his inept handling of the health care reform debate.  Case in point:
Obama at a town hall today:
“Here’s my promise. …[snip] We will not sign … I will not sign a health [...]

When a politician who has everything to lose attacks career professionals who are doing their job, it’s bad enough. When that politician is the President of the United States, it is inexcusable. The Congressional Budget Office is independent and nonpartisan, and it should stay that way. When a president attacks the agency [...]

…for President Obama.  The Senate acknowledged there will be no vote on health care before the August recess, and the president managed to get himself embroiled in a racial controversy by inadvisedly opining on the Gates matter before all the facts are in.  That led to a rare presidential apology, sort of:
President Obama tried Friday [...]