National Politics

President Obama’s Press Conference

By Engaged Citizen | March 24, 2009 |

Listen live on WPRO. Comment here. (In case anyone else has been ranting at a radio or television for the last 27 minutes …)

Geitner and the Administration’s Fiscal Philosophy: the Perfect Match

By Monique Chartier | March 22, 2009 |

President Obama has no intention of dumping Treasury Secretary Geitner. Embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s job is safe and the subject of resignation has not come up in his conversations with President Obama despite calls from some in Congress for Geithner to step down, the president said in an interview to be broadcast tonight…

The Substance in the Style on Stem Cells

By Justin Katz | March 11, 2009 |

I remember when President Bush made his announcement about the ban on federal financing of embryonic stem-cell research. He held an evening address, at his desk, and took the time to explain some of the science, present the opposing arguments as he saw them, and explain his decision. You can think what you like about…

UPDATED: Is Obama clueless or are his actions intentional?

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 7, 2009 |

UPDATED: Roger Kimball: I was having lunch yesterday with a prominent critic of the Spender in Chief, and he raised a possibility that many of us have entertained over the past several weeks: that Obama is simply out of his depth: that he hasn’t a clue about what makes the economy tick and his talk…

Riding the buyers’ remorse train on day 44 of Obama’s presidency

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 4, 2009 |

Christopher Buckley. David Brooks. Even David Gergen. Jim Cramer. Now Silicon Valley entrepreneurs see their incentives are being altered for the worse: Like the college students who stayed up late to be inspired by his campaign rallies only to find Obama’s first significant action to be a stimulus program that will transfer about a trillion…

Liberty & the proper role of government in a free society

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 2, 2009 |

Obama’s budget proposal presents plans which run radically counter to the proper role of government if America is to remain a free society: …The widespread use of the market reduces the strain on the social fabric by rendering conformity unnecessary with respect to any activities it encompasses. The wider the range of activities covered by…

The radical implications of Obama’s budget proposal

By Donald B. Hawthorne | March 1, 2009 |

Commentators on the evolving Obama presidency: Charles Krauthammer: Obama proposes a European U.S. Not a great speech, but extremely consequential. If Barack Obama succeeds, his joint address to Congress will be seen as historic — indeed as the foundational document of Obamaism. As it stands, it constitutes the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by…

Frank Just as You’d Expect

By Justin Katz | February 28, 2009 |

One could have expected that Barney Frank would know that he was playing to his own crowd at last night’s Ocean State Follies, and it also wasn’t surprising that his humor has a meanish, hyperpartisan tinge: stream, download. The clearest indication of his attitude came toward the end when somebody on the restaurant staff dropped…

Dispelling Myths About Bipartisanship

By Justin Katz | February 25, 2009 |

Can we now be clear about what it fundamentally means to strive for “bipartisan” action? Reed said economists “on both sides of the political divide” concluded “this stimulus was necessary, that we had to stop the job losses, we had to get people back into the marketplace, that there was a very real fear of…

Just a Stimulus Bill

By Justin Katz | February 22, 2009 |

Most Anchor Rising readers are old enough to recall the School House Rocks cartoons that offered young TV viewers a bit of civic education back in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The one that I remember most clearly was the “I’m Just a Bill” song about how a bill becomes federal law. Well, Jim…