Favorite It was in Spain, Albert Camus wrote of a civil war war lost to fascists, that his generation learned “that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, and that there are times when courage is not rewarded.” In more or less functioning democracies, election nights like the one…
All posts tagged President Barack Obama
Bill O’Reilly and Barack Obama Agree That Donald Trump Should “Stop Whining”
Favorite Asked on Tuesday about Donald Trump’s claim that the election he seems on track to lose is being “rigged” against him, President Obama observed that there was no evidence of “significant voter fraud” and suggested that “it doesn’t really show the kind of leadership and toughness you’d want out of a president, if you…
What’s Behind Barack Obama’s Ongoing Accommodation of Vladimir Putin?
Favorite When a major party cynically espouses a set of beliefs as a tactic for winning an election, those beliefs get entrenched in popular discourse and often endure well past the election, with very significant consequences. The most significant such rhetorical template in the 2016 election — other than the new Democratic claim that big-money donations do not corrupt the…
In Rudy Giuliani’s Universe, 9/11 Is Everything and Nothing
Favorite Warming up the crowd for Donald Trump on Monday in Youngstown, Ohio, former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani offered a glimpse into the alternate reality he has now signed on to by describing the presidency of George W. Bush as a time of undisturbed peace and security for Americans. During “those eight years, before…
Donald Trump Makes It Very Hard to Figure Out What He Really Thinks
Favorite Moments after Donald Trump told supporters at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on Friday that he was “obviously being sarcastic” when he repeatedly called President Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS,” he seemed to backtrack on backtracking, by adding, “but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.” Video: Trump says he was being…
Would Turkey Be Justified in Kidnapping or Drone-Killing the Turkish Cleric in Pennsylvania?
Favorite Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan places the blame for this weekend’s failed coup attempt on an Islamic preacher and one-time ally, Fethullah Gulen (above), who now resides in Pennsylvania with a green card. Erdogan is demanding the U.S. extradite Gulen, citing prior extraditions by the Turkish government of terror suspects demanded by the U.S.: “Now we’re saying deliver this…
Nobody Knows the Identity of the 150 People Killed by U.S. in Somalia, but Most Are Certain They Deserved It
Favorite The U.S. used drones and manned aircraft yesterday to drop bombs and missiles on Somalia, ending the lives of at least 150 people. As it virtually always does, the Obama administration instantly claimed that the people killed were “terrorists” and militants — members of the Somali group al Shabaab — but provided no evidence to support that assertion. Nonetheless, most U.S.…
Interview with Charlie Savage on Obama’s War on Terror Legacy
Favorite IN FEBRUARY 2009 — just one month after Obama’s inauguration — a series of policy announcements from the new administration startled and angered civil liberties activists because they amounted to a continuation of some of the most controversial Bush/Cheney war on terror programs. That led New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charlie Savage to observe that…
U.S. Bombs Somehow Keep Falling in the Places Where Obama “Ended Two Wars”
Favorite “We’ve ended two wars.” — Barack Obama, July 21, 2015, at a DSCC fundraiser held at a “private residence” “Now that we have ended two wars responsibly, and brought home hundreds of American troops, we salute this new generation of veterans.” — National Security Adviser Susan Rice, May 20, 2015 “His presidency makes a…
Democrats Continue to Delude Themselves About Obama’s Failed Guantánamo Vow
Favorite As everyone knows, “closing Guantánamo” was a centerpiece of the 2008 Obama campaign. In the Senate and then in the presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly and eloquently railed against the core, defining evil of Guantánamo: indefinite detention. On the Senate floor, Obama passionately intoned in 2006: “As a parent, I can also imagine the terror I…