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Barack Obama Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on July 28, 2015 19 Comments
This is probably...not...groundbreaking news, but just in case you haven't heard: comedian and talking head Jon Stewart serves at the pleasure of the Obama White House. Perhaps that's overstating it. Stewart may not jump at the behest of 1600 Penn, but the influential celebrity certainly enjoyed a level of access to the President not often experienced by even the most established members of friendly mainstream media outlets. It was Politico's scoop:
Jon Stewart slipped unnoticed into the White House in the midst of the October 2011 budget fight, summoned to an Oval Office coffee with President Barack Obama that he jokingly told his escort felt like being called into the principal’s office. In February 2014, Obama again requested Stewart make the trip from Manhattan to the White House, this time for a mid-morning visit hours before the president would go before television cameras to warn Russia that “there will be costs” if it made any further military intervention in Ukraine.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 22, 2015 12 Comments
The entire world is in flames, but never fear---President Barack Obama is busy doing the sort of work that keeps America safe. You know, by sitting down for a 20 minute interview with a comedian. Obama's last interview with The Daily Show's Jon Stewart went just as you'd expect: cheeky, wordy, and full of the sort of backhanded insults that keep the 24 hour news cycle spinning. You can watch the full interview here: (The interview is cut up into three segments---you'll be able to skip to the other segments at the end of the embedded video.) Climate change. Iran. Those damn Republicans.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 15, 2015 14 Comments
The Obama Administration is busy running a full court press on behalf of its terrible nuclear deal with Iran. Yesterday, the President sat down with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times for a softball interview, and today, he hosted a press conference to answer critics' concerns about the contents of the deal, and the Administration's posture toward Iran's overall behavior. https://youtu.be/SzBlcd4n73g?t=1h8m1s Via Fox news:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 12, 2015 3 Comments
Comedy Central's Key & Peele began Season 5 by having a little fun with the Obama Administration. Key and Peele describe their show as:
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are the stars of Key & Peele, a show that examines life in a distinctively provocative and irreverent way. Whether it's anger-translating the president, spoofing Nazis or ordering up some soul food, Key & Peele showcases the guys' camaraderie and unique point of view, born from their experiences growing up biracial in a not-quite-post-racial world.
In a fictitious meeting between President Obama and Mrs. Clinton, each brings an Anger Translator. Their function? To translate the diplomatic b.s. into what they're really saying. President Obama's Anger Translator is Luther and Mrs. Clinton's is Savannah: The profanity-laced (but bleeped out) meeting began nice enough:
Obama: “It’s always good to see you.” Luther (Translation): “I pretended to like you for seven years!” Clinton: “Good to see you too, Mr. President.” Savannah (Translation): “My hatred for you is a pure force of nature that is going to move me onward to my destiny.”

Posted by Amy Miller on July 01, 2015 13 Comments
Back in December, the Administration announced that they were engaged in secret talks with Cuban officials about shifting away from the "diplomatic mission" model and toward full diplomatic relations between our two countries; and today, President Obama announced that on July 20, the United States will open an embassy in Havana, Cuba, and take what he says are the first public steps toward normalizing relations that have been hostile since the 1960s. Via Fox News:
"This is a historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the Cuban government and people and begin a new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas,” Obama said. “As part of that effort, President Raul Castro and I directed our teams to negotiate the reestablishment of embassies,” Obama said. “Since then our State Department has worked hard with our Cuban counterparts to achieve that goal and later this summer Secretary (John) Kerry will travel to Havana formally to proudly raise the American flag over our embassy once more.”
Although the President does have the authority to open embassies and establish relations, it is the Senate that will eventually have to screen and confirm Obama's pick for the Ambassadorship. You can count on this being a divisive issue from now until the day a hypothetical ambassador is confirmed---a move that some Republicans say won't be made absent the resolution of major issues regarding diplomatic and overall human rights in Cuba. Florida Senator and presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has been an outspoken critic of Obama's soft handed policy, and lashed out against when he calls "unilateral concessions" to the Castro regime:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 22, 2015 48 Comments
Marc Maron knows how to run an interview. I've been listening to his podcast for a while now; I call it cultural anthropology, much in the same way that those who monitor MSNBC and other outlets justify their forays into the gutters of mainstream media. I may not agree with him politically, but listening to Maron draw out the celebrities and entertainment types whose voices populate the podcasts downloaded to my phone every week is an exercise in appreciation for the human element of a terrible and transparent industry. Rarely does he spend much time talking politics; the 'cast is not a hospitable environment for talking points, and more often than not, guests who go into it with an agenda end up derailing into the gorge of their own humanity. Sex, drugs, rock n' roll, frustrations, failures, emotions...that's Maron's goal. Unless, of course, you're the President of the United States. If you're the president, you get to use your mic time to stump about the obstructionist Congress and preach about gun violence.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 21, 2015 23 Comments
Gun control has never been a winning issue for Democrats but that hasn't stopped them from trying. In the wake of the Charleston shootings, Obama is pursuing the issue with renewed vigor. Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico reports:
Obama: I'm not giving up on guns SAN FRANCISCO—Wrapping together his frustrations with the country’s continuing problems with racism and his own inability to make progress on gun control in the wake of the South Carolina church shooting, President Barack Obama stood before a bipartisan gathering of mayors here Friday and declared, “It is not good enough simply to show sympathy.” “The apparent motivations of the shooter remind us that racism remains a blight that we have to combat together. We have made great progress but we have to be vigilant because it still lingers,” Obama said. There must be a popular outcry for gun control, Obama said, to change the minds of a Congress that he said he knows right now won’t touch the issue. “I refuse to act as if this is the new normal or to pretend that it’s simply sufficient to grieve and that any mention of us doing something to stop it is somehow politicizing the problem,” he said.
FOX News pointed out Obama's political conundrum on Friday night:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 15, 2015 4 Comments
Contrary to what the headlines are telling you, there's more going on in Congress than the debate over "fast track" free trade agreements. At the end of last month, the Obama Administration worked via the EPA to drastically expand the power federal regulators have over private property owners. The new "Waters of the United States" ("WOTUS") rule (re-dubbed the "Clean Water Rule") was decried as a power grab by both industry moguls and conservative members of Congress, who believe the changes stand to kill jobs and raise the cost of doing business, especially for those working in the agricultural industries. Republican Congressman Bob Gibbs (OH-7) is leading the charge in the House to overturn the WOTUS rule. The Regulatory Integrity Protection Act passed out of the House in mid-May with bipartisan support (237 republicans and 24 democrats voted for the measure) and if enacted, would force the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to overhaul the new rules to specifically identify waters covered and not covered under EPA regulations. The Act would put an emphasis on local control and individual property rights, which Gibbs says should be a key concern for anyone who stands to be affected by and increased EPA presence.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 12, 2015 17 Comments
The debate surrounding congressional approval of "fast track" trade authority has officially taken a swan dive through the looking glass. Obama wants it. House republicans want it. Democrats, for the most part, are ready to vote "no"---their union backers are making them more nervous than the White House ever could---even if it prevents their president from advancing more legacy-building legislation. More from the AP (emphasis mine):
Obama himself, who's been unusually personally engaged on a bill that could amount to the biggest achievement of his second term, paid a surprise visit to the annual congressional baseball game Thursday night for some 11th hour persuading. Obama arrived as Democratic and Republican lawmakers faced off at Nationals Park and was greeted with chants of "TPA! TPA!" from the GOP side — the acronym for the Trade Promotion Authority fast track bill. He brought beer and visited with lawmakers on both sides. Earlier, in a closed meeting in the Capitol, top White House officials implored Democrats not to deny Obama the trade authority. Such a vote, they said, would block needed trade expansion for the nation and sink a major priority of the Democratic president.
It really happened---I was there to see it: obama flake annotated

Posted by New Neo on June 11, 2015 20 Comments
Atlantic writer Russell Berman wonders:
...[Obama's] decision to champion his signature achievement in such pointed terms just weeks before the high court’s ruling is due raised the question of whether Obama was trying to jawbone the justices at the 11th hour. ...“It seems so cynical,” he said, “to want to take coverage away from millions of people; to take care away from people who need it the most; to punish millions with higher costs of care and unravel what’s now been woven into the fabric of America.”... The speech came a day after the president, in response to a reporter’s question, commented directly on the case before the justices..."Under well-established precedent, there is no reason why the existing exchanges should be overturned through a court case," Obama said. "This should be an easy case. Frankly, it probably shouldn't even have been taken up," he added... [In 2012, Obama had] sharply warned the Court not to rule against his healthcare law the first time around. “I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said then.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 07, 2015 9 Comments
This weekend, President Obama traveled to Germany to talk trade, Russia, and the growing threat of Islamic extremists with the leaders of the other G-7 nations. Topping the list of topics up for discussion is the continuing threat of Russian aggression in Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe. The White House didn't put withdrawal from Crimea as a condition of restored relations between Russia and the west, but did push for the continuation of sanctions until Putin upholds his end of the so-called Minsk agreements, which were updated last year after Russia annexed the peninsula. According to reporters covering the meeting, Obama spent a great deal of time meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leading some to believe that the relationship once tarnished by covert surveillance has repaired itself:
Obama and Merkel met privately afterward at the nearby Schloss Elmau resort to coordinate their summit agenda before joining the leaders of Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. Russian President Vladimir Putin was ousted from the group last year over his annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, although the crisis remains as fighting with pro-Moscow separatists spiked in the past week despite a ceasefire agreement negotiated four months ago in Belarus.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 05, 2015 24 Comments
What is the line between political hyperbole and utter fantasy? Whatever it is, President Obama has completely crossed that particular Rubicon. I recently noted that his assertions that America has become more respected internationally under his watch were not quite based in reality. Now, it appears he has delusions regarding his faith:
Speaking to JPUpdates.com, top Obama confidant David Axelrod described a moment where the president expressed exasperation to him over being derided as anti-Israel by some. “You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office,” the president claimed, according to Axelrod. “For people to say that I am anti-Israel, or, even worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts.”
Given President Obama's treatment of Bibi Netanyahu over the years, and the troubling deal with Iran that my colleague David Gerstman reviews, I must admit to being a bit perplexed.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 02, 2015 27 Comments
As I was joining a friend for lunch at a local craft beer establishment, I caught this bumper sticker that I can't help but share with you. Food and Friends June 2015 002 Today, this sentiment is even more true. You may recall last week that a Fox News pundit referred to President Obama as "delusional" over his claims that climate change was a national security issue. Obama's most recent statements clearly show he has left the junction of reason and sanity:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 02, 2015 12 Comments
Now that former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer is joining CNN, the number of Obama administration officials in the mainstream media has shot up to five. David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs are on the payroll at MSNBC, and CNN is also home to former "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones. Jay Carney also went to work for CNN but has since left. As John Nolte of Breitbart points out, two members of the George W. Bush administration (Dana Perino and Karl Rove) went to work for FOX News, but not while Bush was still president. CNN made the announcement yesterday:
Dan Pfeiffer joins CNN as contributor Dan Pfeiffer, a long-time top aide to President Barack Obama, is joining CNN as a contributor, network president Jeff Zucker announced Monday. The 39-year-old Pfeiffer is a Wilmington, Delaware, native and a graduate of Georgetown University. His first presidential campaign role came in a communications post for then-Vice President Al Gore's unsuccessful 2000 campaign. He then worked for the Democratic Governors Association and later Sens. Tim Johnson, Tom Daschle and then Evan Bayh's brief 2008 presidential campaign.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 29, 2015 21 Comments
If you were paying attention to American politics in 2008, you couldn't escape from the viral Obama "hope" poster created by Shepard Fairey. His simple image became a symbol of the junior senator's presidential campaign and was proudly displayed by Obama supporters on Facebook. Unfortunately for Fairey, his love of Obama was doomed to wither on the vine. Adam B. Lerner of Politico:
'Hope' poster artist Shepard Fairey says Obama let him down Shepard Fairey, the street artist behind the famous “Hope” poster that went viral during Barack Obama’s historic 2008 presidential run, said that the president has not lived up to his expectations. In an interview with Esquire, Fairey acknowledged that “Obama has had a really tough time” but said he’s “not even close” to having lived up to the “Hope” poster created for him. “I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought [he’d support],” Fairey added in the interview, posted Thursday. He tempered his response saying that he’s met the president a few times and that he thinks he is a “quality human being,” adding that his presidential record has been largely dictated by things out of his control. “I’m not giving him a pass for not being more courageous, but I do think the entire system needs an overhaul and taking money out of politics would be a really good first step,” Fairey said.
That's funny. I remember when Democrats touted Obama's fundraising prowess as proof of his ability to be president. Don't worry, Shepard. I'm sure Hillary Clinton will get big money out of politics. (Pun intended.)

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 28, 2015 20 Comments
America's foreign policy in the Middle East is falling apart and health insurance premiums are skyrocketing under Obamacare, but the liberal media feels your pain, America. As usual, it's all about Obama. Amber Phillips of the Washington Post:
President Obama’s legacy is increasingly in legal jeopardy President Obama's second-term agenda, it seems, is in the hands of the courts. Same-sex marriage. Obamacare. Climate change. And now immigration. And in many cases, there is significant doubt about whether his signature initiatives will stand legal scrutiny. The latest blow to Obama's second-term plans came Tuesday when a federal appeals court in New Orleans denied the administration's request to move forward with implementing his expanded executive action on immigration to defer deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.
That's funny. He didn't run on gay marriage. In fact, Obama said in a 2008 interview with pastor Rick Warren that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 23, 2015 3 Comments
The Obama administration's recent claim that their strategy against ISIS is working is being met with skepticism. On Special Report Thursday night, Charles Krauthammer pointed out the farce of their position. Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
The administration is sounding like Baghdad Bob during the invasion of Iraq. They're losing. Everybody understands that. ISIS, it wasn't only that they took over in Iraq, but it took over the town of -- the city of Amara in Syria which gives them control of half of Syria and later in the day today, they took over a crucial crossing point between Syria and Iraq, essentially erasing the frontier and making it easier to resupply Ramadi. These are huge strategic gains. They're not tactical defeats. And what Obama says, well, it's not because it's the guys trained by us who were in Ramadi, this is nuts. The idea is if you're going to have success, you have to have training and you have to have will. The idea that what the Iraqis are lacking is training is ridiculous. We've been training them for 15 years. If the troops haven't got their heart in the battle, it will not succeed. And that's what happened in Mosul when they ran away and that's what happened in Ramadi when they ran away.
Here's the video via Newsbusters: Krauthammer isn't alone in this view.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 18, 2015 25 Comments
Fresh hell alert! It's happening---the President has arrived on Twitter: Here's how the White House describes their vision for the new account:
The @POTUS Twitter account will serve as a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him. President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them.
So...more Barack Obama? I'm sure you're all extremely excited about this development.
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