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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
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Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
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Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
June 24, 2009
/ 2 Tamuz 5769
The presidency at 5 months
By
Tony Blankley
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last week, both David Broder, The Washington Post's venerable
and authoritative political voice, and Chuck Todd, NBC's new important
political voice, declared President Barack Obama's honeymoon over.
Although almost every new American presidency is launched with
renewed hope and optimism for both the president and the nation (Abraham
Lincoln's being a conspicuous exception in 1861), a time comes when the
public and the president's party begin to assess whether they made the right
choice.
Are the public's expectations of the new president being met?
Are the many promises that every candidate for president makes and his
apparent personal attributes hanging together and beginning to form a
potentially coherent and successful administration of government?
It is a commonplace of Washington politics that it is not news
when the other party attacks, but it is noteworthy when there is opposition
within a president's own party.
Last week, on two of his three major domestic legislative
initiatives health policy and financial re-regulation strong
Democratic Party congressional doubts (and, on some important details,
opposition) emerged.
Abroad, the extraordinary and heroic rising of the Iranian
people and the predictable but deeply disconcerting nuclear provocation of
the North Korean regime are beginning the process of coloring in the public
picture of the president's foreign-policy methods and effectiveness. Last
week, public expectations and early presidential performance began to
separate a little.
I don't think the Obama team would contradict me if I suggested
that at the heart of Mr. Obama's winning campaign was his image as a
progressive, idealistic, highly intelligent and masterfully competent man.
Hopes for a "post-racial" society also motivated votes for Obama from both
Democrats and Republicans. These images were projected by the campaign to
contrast (in the campaign's view) with the then-incumbent Republican
president.
In the weeks leading up to last week, the president disappointed
many of his most intense supporters on the left by backpedaling on war-,
civil liberties- and transparency-related issues, while Republican
opposition increased as he made his first Supreme Court nomination on an
identity-politics basis and advanced his intrusive industrial and regulatory
policies.
His early predictions of unemployment rates have sadly been
breached by events as the interest rates on Treasury notes needed to finance
the president's proposed deficits are going up steadily thus driving up
mortgage rates and driving down housing recovery.
Those same left-of-center supporters last week were very
disappointed with what they see as his excessive solicitude to big Wall
Street interests in his financial deregulation proposal, while the financial
institutions that contributed handsomely to his campaign see the proposed
regulations as too burdensome and bad for a growing economy.
Obama responded to the Iranian regime's murderous suppression of
its public with a defensible (although I strongly disagree with it) but
Kissingerian realpolitik calculation. The purported logic of that position
sits uneasily on the consciences of many of his liberal supporters who
previously had heard the president's high moral and idealistic tone and
many conservatives, as well.
It is an unnatural and probably un-useful political act when a
liberal Democratic White House cites the approval of its historic
foreign-policy bete noire in this case, Henry Kissinger as
justification for the president's foreign-policy plays in this case, on
Iran.
But at the crux of last week's political consternations was the
hard-to-avoid implication that the president's domestic agenda
particularly his signature health policy plans (which also have been the
Democratic Party's signature domestic issue) was running headlong into
both economically and politically intolerable deficits and national debt
accumulation.
The Congressional Budget Office's preliminary cost and deficit
calculations of the president's overall budget and specific health proposals
have sent tremors through the Democratic Party establishment, and the White
House is feeling the vibrations.
Not counting the estimated $1.6 trillion 10-year cost for part
of the president's proposed health policy changes, the CBO predicts that the
administration's budget proposal would increase the national debt by $9.3
trillion over 10 years almost twice the total national debt from George
Washington to George W. Bush. Even the president's own Office of Management
and Budget director, Peter Orszag, has stated that a continued deficit that
is more than 3.5 percent of gross domestic product is "unsustainable." The
president's budget is more than 4 percent of GDP.
Moreover, to advance the president's climate change legislation
(the third of his big three legislative initiatives), Rep. Henry Waxman,
chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has had to cut way back
on its early-years revenue-raising provisions in order to induce more
support among Democratic congressmen thus further increasing future
deficits beyond even the current budget proposal.
Though the president remains broadly admired, with his
personal-approval polling numbers at about 60 percent, his policy proposals
are becoming less popular with the public as they are emerging in more
detail. And as even those policies that are popular appear to be
unaffordable, the president's Democratic senatorial allies are focusing more
on their responsibilities as senators and less on their party loyalties to a
Democratic president.
Although the president is looking somewhat inconsistent and less
effective while his policies are looking less plausible, it's early, and
legislative success may yet be the president's this season. But it is not
too early for Democratic Party nerves and their ending of the presidential
honeymoon.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
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Tony Blankley is executive vice president of Edelman public relations in Washington. Comment by clicking here.
© 2009, Creators Syndicate
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