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President Obama Tag

In an Israeli TV interview conducted earlier this week at the White House, President Obama dismissed the criticism that he had betrayed Israel by opting not to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2334. The U.S. abstention allowed the Security Council to adopt the resolution on December 23. It branded Israel’s settlements in east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria/the West Bank as illegal and occupied Palestinian land. The interview for Israel’s Channel 2 aired on Tuesday night. In it, Obama insisted that the resolution was the “best move for peace” and that he had “an obligation to do what I think is right.”

U.S. President Barack Obama has been lavishing praise on German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of his visit to Germany next month. The visit, announced earlier this week, comes as a surprise in Berlin. Obama was quoted by German media saying, “[Working with Merkel] was the most important relationship, the most important friendship I had during my tenure.” These are no empty phases but heartfelt words of a true admirer. Earlier this year, President Obama declared Germany’s Chancellor to be on the “right side of the history” for opening up Europe to millions of migrants from Arab and Muslim countries -- an honour he generally reserves only for himself.

Richard Haass is the quintessential member of the foreign policy establishment. Long-time President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Haass has served in Republican and Democrat administrations and advised candidates from both parties. In this election, he has been very critical of Donald Trump. So no taint of partisanship can be applied to the normally mild-mannered Haass' scathing comments on today's Morning Joe about President Obama's UN speech of yesterday. After calling the speech a "major disappointment," Haass unleashed the unkindest cut, saying of Obama's detached attitude to the crises of the day "this is not the faculty lounge." Ouch.

Last week, I noticed the elite media actually looking under the hood at the real "new jobs" numbers for the first time in over 7 years. Now, Gallup has released a poll confirming the fears that many of us had in 2008: Obama was the second coming of Jimmy Carter.
According to Gallup, Americans' satisfaction levels with the way things are going in the U.S. are low and President Obama will be leaving office with a lower overall satisfaction average of any president since Jimmy Carter. Only 29% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. according to the Gallup poll conducted during the first week of June. The Gallup poll asked, “In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time?”

Late last night, I blogged about a NYT report that the Education and Justice Departments were issuing a bathroom edict to all government-funded schools. As the NYT pointed out, the letter is not legally binding and has, "no force of law," but is a threat no less. Without force of law, the only threat remaining is federal money (which should make for a fun 10th amendment fight). So the ED and DOJ trotted out Title IX to preach about discrimination. But it's not a threat. Public schools will lose federal funding for noncompliance, but it's not a threat though: Potty Decree highlights (or lowlights):

When his second term comes to its inevitable conclusion, the final list of President Obama's policy failures will be ponderous. And few items on this list will place higher than his "Green Energy Initiatives." One of his gandest schemes involved backing Solyndra LLC, a solar-panel maker. Presidential aides pressured White House budget officials to complete a review of a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee to the firm, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection. Now comes news of a failure 5-times larger. Late last year, another Obama-based green energy company was poised for bankruptcy:

Justice Scalia's untimely passing has the entire political arena stressed. Senate Republicans refuse to confirm another justice until the next president is elected, but President Obama insists he will move forward with a nominee. NBC News has the breakdown:
While the president said Saturday was "a time to remember Justice Scalia's legacy," he did announce his intention to nominate a successor. The Republican Senate majority leader and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for the decision to be delayed and left to the next president.

Is nothing sacred? Actually, don't answer that. This one comes to you from the White House's latest episode of YouTube Stars (yes, they exist) Interviewing President Obama. Ingrid Nilsen of YouTube fame poked the president's brain on the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time™ -- tampon taxes. Take a look:

What better way to start the new year than a little "audacious" executive action? White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, "we’ll do audacious executive action throughout the course of the rest of the year, I am confident of that." The Hill has the story:
The comments are a clear sign the president will continue his go-it-alone approach, which has angered Republicans in Congress.

Tonight President Obama will deliver his final State of the Union Address. No need for cable to watch the president's remarks. You can watch the livestream beneath. We've also included two live reaction feeds for your viewing pleasure. At the conclusion of President Obama's address, we invite you to join us on our separate live thread, where Aleister will be live blogging the Republican rebuttal given by Gov. Nikki Haley.

The speech:

Gearing up for the State of the Union lecture he is preparing to treat us to this year, President Obama wanted to put a positive spin on the results of his many years in the Oval Office. It is a chilling testament to his myriad of failures as Commander-in-Chief that one positive he reaches for, amid his many delusions, is that the Americans are not facing "existential threats".
In an interview with NBC’s Today on the morning of his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama told interviewer Matt Lauer that the United States didn’t face a single existential threat as his presidency approached its end. “It is sometimes important for people to step back and measure how far we’ve come,” Obama argued. “The economy right now is better than any other economy in the world by a significant margin. We remain the strongest nation on earth by far and there are no existential threats facing us.”

What better way to start off the new year than a reminder we get to elect a new president in mere months? For your enjoyment, a countdown. IMG_2023

Flanked by members of the national security team Wednesday, President Obama briefly addressed the current state of homeland security. The President assured the American people that, "no specific and credible," intelligence indicated a looming, "attack on the homeland” for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. For the first time in weeks, Republicans and their alleged terrorist abetting were not central to the President's public comments.

I suppose this is one way to look at things, but it's certainly not the slightest bit accurate. Sunday, President Obama accused Republicans of helping ISIS (though he always uses 'ISIL') by attacking Syrian refugees. Unsurprisingly, not one Republican has attacked any Syrian refugee. What Republicans have done is vocalize the same concerns articulated by U.S. intelligence agencies on the refugee vetting process. Namely, that because our intelligence ground game in Syria has been so weak, we have no data with which to vet an influx of refugee status seekers properly, at least not for the time being. However, that little factoid didn't stop President Obama from continuing his verbal assault on Republicans and a bevy of Democrats who've vowed to halt the president's refugee plan. Politico reported:
ISIL’s still not the varsity team, President Barack Obama said Sunday, but if Republicans running for president and in Congress continue to respond to attacks by playing off fears, they’re doing the terrorists’ work for them.