ITB - Epitaphs for the Obama presidency -- American Thinker, Thomas Lifson

[bsteadman]

Epitaphs for the Obama presidency (1)

American Thinker
Thomas Lifson
3/18/2014

Excerpt:

Things are falling apart for Obama so fast (“freakout” is the current term showing up in even liberal outlets) that the measure of his presidency is already being taken. Bret Stephens, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has a particularly pungent and insightful column full of near-aphorisms on the president and the media forces which sustain him with decreasing effectiveness. A sample:

A cavalier foreign policy by an inattentive president that elicits the contempt of the people it intends to punish ultimately encourages their aggression as well.

…We need a fat president. Or at least one who rarely thinks and never speaks about how he looks in jeans. And one who doesn't spend his day testing his wits against a Hollywood stoner or bantering with Ryan Seacrest while a European ally is being pummeled by Russia. ............................

View the complete article, including link, at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...sidency_1.html

[bsteadman]

Epitaths for the Obama Presidency (2)

Another Obama nominee faces confirmation struggle

American Thinker
Thomas Lifson
3/18/2014

Excerpt:

Another stupid Democrat trick threatens to blow up in the face of Harry Reid like Wylie Coyote lighting an exploding cigar given to him by the Roadrunner.

In theory, Harry Reid’s “nuclear option” change to simple majority Senate confirmation ought to have ushered in easy confirmation for even the wackiest left wing nominees to high posts in the federal government. But those pesky voters are going to speak in November, and thanks to ObamaCare a growing list of Senate Democrats up for re-election fear accountability. So all of a sudden, confirmation is no sure thing:

Burgess Everett and Josh Gerstein report in Politico:

President Barack Obama is quickly discovering that getting his nominees confirmed is no simple matter, even with the Senate’s filibuster gutted and Republicans sidelined.

The White House is facing its second Democratic rebellion in less than two weeks over a nomination that’s drawn quick opposition from rural Democratic senators. Obama has enough trouble with the GOP, which is nearly united in opposing Vivek Murthy’s nomination to become surgeon general, but it’s his own party that is again in position to derail another presidential pick.

Democratic Senate aides estimated on Monday that from eight to 10 Democrats may oppose Murthy’s nomination if the vote were to be held soon, mostly because of his left-leaning views on gun policy, which have attracted opposition from the National Rifle Association. An aide closely following the nomination described a vote for Murthy as carrying “very little political or policy gain but plenty of downside.”

What has really got to worry Democrats is the prospect of a post-2016 Republican president employing the nuclear option to appoint reformers to high positions on the federal government.
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View the complete article, including link, at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/..._struggle.html