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Category Archives: Obama

Thorny issue

Monday, March 9, 2009

Charlie Savage of the Times, who has earned his stripes on this issue, examines Obama’s instructions to the Justice Department that it consult with the Justice Department before relying on any signing statement issued by any of his predecessors. Apparently, Obama felt it was impolitic to pick on Bush alone, so he has required his […]

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Obama seems determined

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Laying down his markers.

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President’s Day

Monday, February 16, 2009

Somewhat coincidentally, I spent this weekend reading two books about presidents. The first was Gore Vidal’s Inventing a Nation, Washington, Adams and Jefferson, a quirky and witty book about our first three presidents. The second was George McGovern’s Abraham Lincoln, which I picked up at the book signing event we went to on Friday. I […]

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Reality based

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Just got finished watching Obama give a speech to the Illinois Lincoln Society. It probably won’t be noticed much, but he noted that today is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday as well as Lincoln’s. He made the remark in the context of urging a return to a respect for science, implying, if not saying that Darwin […]

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Obama Press Conference

Monday, February 9, 2009

How low our expectations have fallen. I thought Obama did great. Nonetheless, I was struck by the number of comments at Americablog about how refreshing it was to see a president speak in well formed sentences, strung together to form coherent thoughts. Don’t get me wrong. It was refreshing. But how sad is it for […]

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Random notes from Drinking Liberally

Thursday, February 5, 2009

It was cold out tonight, and it was cold at our Drinking Liberally haunt, but we few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters) had a great time. We got a first hand account from one of our brothers about the inauguration. Here he is, a proud bearer of a purple ticket. He […]

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Obama comes out swinging

Thursday, February 5, 2009

This post is written 90% because I like what Obama did today, and 10% to get back into the good graces of my spouse, who doesn’t like it when I criticize Obama. (See yesterday) I only do it because I want him to succeed, unlike his predecessor, who I freely admit I wanted to fail. […]

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A prediction

Monday, February 2, 2009

Once again Paul Krugman nails it in this morning’s Times. The Obama Administration, whether through timidity or ideological rigidity on the part of its economic team, seems poised to follow in the footprints of the Bushies. Well, not precisely. Bush spoke softly and carried no stick. Obama speaks harshly, but goes similarly unarmed. When I […]

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Grandmaster Obama

Friday, January 30, 2009

Greg Palast seems to think that Obama played the Republicans just right: Republicans are right. President Barack Obama treated them like dirt, didn’t give a damn what they thought about his stimulus package, loaded it with a bunch of programs that will last for years and will never leave the budget, is giving away money […]

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Bipartisanship

Monday, January 26, 2009

I just finished watching Keith Olbermann and the beginning of Rachel Maddow’s show. Both of them bemoaned Obama’s push for “bi-partisanship” on the stimulus package, and both they and their guests feel the Democrats are being played by the Republicans. That may all turn out to be true, but let me propose an alternative theory. […]

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