June 2012

On Friday evening, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, told a local television news host that she does not support a single-payer health care system, despite the fact that Warren publicly advocated for such a system in 2008. Watch the video below:

If you want to get some sense of where the economy is heading, don’t ignore what the courts are doing. No need to repeat much of what you have heard—some of it may be true—about the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a.…

In an email with the subject title "This is personal," Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz relays her own story to help raise funds for her party. "In 2007, I heard the words no woman wants to hear: 'You have breast cancer,'" the email begins.

Allen West unloads on Nancy Pelosi.

Missouri Democratic senator Claire McCaskill is "hiding" from reporters after the Supreme Court's Obamacare decision yesterday, according to a local news report: 

In response to the Supreme Court's decision yesterday to mostly uphold Obamacare, Americans for Prosperity announced plans to spend $9 million dollars to push back against the broad health care overhaul. The effort will include a large television ad buy, across more than a dozen states, including…

In a rousing speech in Tahrir Square on Friday, Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi, told the crowd that he will work to free Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, aka the “Blind Sheikh.” Rahman is currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a…

Roll Call reports the latest news in the Fast and Furious scandal: 

Scott Rasmussen writes: 

On a Friday morning conference call with reporters, two Republican surrogates for the Mitt Romney campaign revealed two different strategies for responding to the Supreme Court’s decision to largely uphold Obamacare: focus on Romney's ability to fix an ailing economy above all, and push a broader…

Just two years after President Obama touted a $400 million loan to the green energy firm Abound Solar, the company is declaring bankruptcy. The Department of Energy announced the news on Thursday, while the media were focused on the Obamacare Supreme Court decision, C.J. Ciaramella of…

Just a couple of days ago, one heard dark talk about the partisan, right wing Supreme Court and how, if it overturned Obamacare, it would be engaging in something like a "coup."  Today, no less an expert in the ways of partisanship than Robert Shrum is declaring that “the Roberts Court will be seen…

The Republican National Committee released this ad, blasting President Obama for breaking his promise not to increase taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year: 

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon: 

Last night, President Barack Obama tweeted this to his 17 million followers:

Many conservatives are feeling betrayed by the chief justice's vote to uphold Obamacare. But there's a counterintuitive case to be made that John Roberts's decision is largely a victory for conservatives.

Iowahawk: "The last time Democrats gloated this hard after a health care victory, they lost 60 House seats."

The House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress. The vote was 255 ayes, 67 nays, and 1 present vote.

The Becket Fund announces that lawsuits against Obamacare's abortifacient and contraception mandate are moving forward:

Evan Sparks, writing for Philanthropy magazine: 

Chief Justice John Roberts held in his majority opinion today that Obamacare's individual mandate may be considered a constitutional tax rather than an unconstitutional mandate.

In September 2009, President Obama disagreed vehemently with the notion that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate was a tax: "A responsibility to get health insurance is not a tax increase," he told George Stephanopolous. And even on the eve of oral argument, the president's Office of…

President Obama's former solicitor general Neal Katyal said on CNN that Obamacare "really functions like a tax":

In February the Obama administration's acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeff Zeints, told the House Budget Committee that the penalty for not purchasing health insurance under Obamacare is not a tax. Watch below:

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has released the following statement on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Obamacare:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney reacted to the Supreme Court's Obamacare decision by saying that, "if we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama."

South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court's ruling today on Obamacare:

Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, sent the following email to department employees on Thursday morning:

Was today's Supreme Court Obamacare decision a win for conservatives or a loss? It depends on what you were rooting for.

With the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare, the issue now shifts to the elected branches of government and raises this question: Will the intense opposition dissipate or will it lead to a fervent new effort to repeal the liberal health care law?

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of Obamacare, the principal choice now facing Americans on November 6 will be whether to keep Obamacare or to repeal it.  The question is a binary one, and the answer — expressed almost entirely through their presidential…

The Supreme Court has ruled that Obamacare’s individual mandate exceeds Congress’s power under the commerce clause, but (in a 5-4 vote) it has upheld the individual mandate as a tax.  Here is President Obama on national TV, ensuring the American people that the mandate — Obamacare’s cornerstone…

Obamacare survives on June 28, 2012. It falls on November 6, 2012.

The Supreme Court has reached a decision on the Obamacare law. "The individual mandate survives as a tax," SCOTUSblog reports. "So the mandate is constitutional. Chief Justice Roberts joins the left of the Court. The Medicaid provision is limited but not invalidated."

No matter which way the Supremes rule, smart money still has the sun coming up in the east tomorrow.  

Assuming the polls are correct, Mexico’s notorious Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will cruise to victory in Sunday’s presidential election and also win at least one chamber of the national legislature. Will this mean a return to the bad old days of authoritarian politics and corrupt deals…

Jonathan Last on when the left loses.

Jill Hanson, an impressive and successful behind-the-scenes Republican political operative, passed away earlier this month after suffering from throat cancer. A memorial service for Hanson is scheduled in Washington, D.C. for Friday, June 29, at at the Capitol Hill Club, 300 First Street SE,…

Berlin

The Massachusetts Republican party has a new ad criticizing Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren for her real estate speculation practices--purchasing homes, many of which were foreclosures, and selling them for a profit. The video claims Warren was "profitting off the misery of the middle…

Vice President Joe Biden had this to say today about whether there's a "depression" in America: 

In another sign that an endangered Georgia congressman is distancing himself from the Obama administration, Democrat John Barrow has released a statement saying he will vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt when the House votes on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon reports that the national security advisor to the president, Tom Donilon, is double dipping:

Colorado's wildfire has exploded into an "epic firestorm," in the words of Colorado Springs fire chief Richard Brown. Over 30,000 people have evacuated, and already hundreds of homes have been consumed. Ironically, the U.S. Air Force Academy has also been evacuated, at the very time that Colorado…

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. The Democratic party would hold its 2012 nation convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of those battleground states that had gone blue in 2008, a rerun of which would go a long way to making Barrack Obama a two-term president.

In 2009, speaking at an online town hall hosted by the White House, President Barack Obama said that returning outsourced jobs to America "probably wouldn't be good for our economy."

Rep. Steve Israel, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is urging Democratic candidates to skip his party's national convention in September.

This past weekend the Christian Science Monitor reported that Stuxnet, the original computer virus detected in the American-led cyber war against Iran’s nuclear program, was set to deactivate on June 24. That just so happens to be “seven years to the day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling on Obamacare--and, in particular, the individual mandate, which requires individuals to purchase health insurance whether they want it or not.

Six-term Republican senator Orrin Hatch of Utah is projected to win his primary against challenger Dan Liljenquist, the Associated Press reports. Hatch is likely to win in the general election in November for his seventh term in the Senate, which he has said will be his last. If reelected, Hatch…

Democrats in New York's Eighth Congressional District are projected to overwhelmingly choose Hakeem Jeffries over controversial city councilman Charles Barron in Tuesday's primary. So far, Jeffries has won 74 percent of the vote with 49 percent of precincts reporting, while Barron has received…

Wendy Long, a Manhattan lawyer, activist, and former Supreme Court clerk, is projected to win the Republican nomination for Senate in New York. With over half of all precincts reporting, Long has won 55 percent of the vote, while  Congressman Bob Turner has 34 percent and Nassau County comptroller…

Should Obama have been more aggressive defending the mandate?

John Barrow, the Georgia Democrat, looks to be following the lead of Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Joe Manchin and Earl Ray Tomblin of West Virginia and will not be attending the Democratic National Convention. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon reports:

Over the weekend, Condoleezza Rice wowed Republicans at a retreat for Romney donors in Utah, sparking some speculation that she might be on Romney's list of potential running mates. But Rice sought to tamp down that speculation in an interiew with CBS this morning.

Two months ago, Vice President Joe Biden said on the campaign trail that he is "tired of being called a 'Middle Class Joe.'" But since he's the owner of a home valued at about $2,856,950, and since he's the vice president of the United States, this didn't quite ring true. 

A new poll of the Massachusetts Senate race confims the results of the last several polls: Incumbent Republican Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren are locked in a tie, at 46 percent apiece. From PPP:

Attorney General Eric Holder avoided commenting on the Fast and Furious scandal in Boston today. The Boston Herald reports:

The latest Democratic fundraising email offers donors who win a sweepstakes contest a chance to hear the "inside scoop" from Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

A German court has ruled that male circumcision is a crime. "Who cuts boys for religious reasons is liable to prosecution for assault," a report in the German-language Financial Times Deutschland reads, via Google translate. "Neither the parents nor the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in…

A new poll from We Ask America shows Mitt Romney leading Barack Obama in Virginia, a key swing state Obama won in 2008. Of the 1,106 likely voters in Virginia polled, 48 percent support Romney, with just over 43 percent supporting Obama and nearly 9 percent remaining undecided.

Yet another possible setback for the Democratic party. According to the Saint Louis Beacon, Missouri senator Claire McCaskill, who is in the middle of a tough reelection fight, might skip the Democratic convention in September.

News channel France 24 hosted a panel Monday night to discuss Egypt’s first civilian president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. One of the guests on the panel, via satellite from Cairo, was Nader Amram, a member of the Freedom & Justice Party’s foreign relations committee. (The Freedom &…

While most of Washington is waiting around, nervously chewing on its fingernails in anticipation of the Supreme Court's Obamacare decision (may I have the envelope, please), there are some who are still in the fight. As Melissa Healy writes in the Los Angeles Times:

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. " has been on medical leave from Congress for the past two weeks and is being treated for exhaustion," the Chicago Tribune reports. Jackson has been on medical leave for the last 16 days, since June 10. His last House vote was on June 8.

Is Bob Kerrey a sleeper agent for the Obama campaign?

Two new reports suggest that Florida congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz might be nearing the end of her run as chair of Democratic National Committee. The first comes from Shark Tank, a Florida blog: 

Either the Iranian regime is lying or Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi, gave an interview that will raise some eyebrows.

President Obama, at the University of New Hampshire campus today, treated staff and students to ice cream in the campus Dairy Barn. But don't worry about the president's health: "I only have these once in a while," Obama reportedly said at the ice cream shop. "It's not a regular practice to have a…

As the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s centerpiece legislation, it’s worth reviewing the American public’s response to it across the 27 months since Obama signed it into law.  Over that span, from March 2010 through a poll released this morning, Rasmussen has conducted…

Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano celebrated the Supreme Court's Arizona decision in a statement. But Napolitano expressed concern in a statement that a key component of the law, which allows law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of folks who are…

A new poll from Deseret News and KSL-TV shows Republican senator Orrin Hatch of Utah leading his primary challenger, Dan Liljenquist, by nearly 30 points. The Utah primary is tomorrow, June 26. The News reports:

President Obama praised the Supreme Court decision that struck down part of the Arizona illegal-immigration law, but expressed "concerned about the practical impact of the remaining provision of the Arizona law that requires local law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of anyone…

James Richardson reports:

Arizona senators Jon Kyl and John McCain released the following statement on the Supreme Court's ruling today on tht state's immigration law:

A local Manchester, N.H. newscast reports that Barack Obama's reelection campaign refused to pay $20,000 in public safety costs associated with the president's visit today: 

James Ceaser reviews Where They Stand by Robert W. Merry in the Wall Street Journal:

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds "that economic issues -- particularly unemployment and economic growth -- are more important to Hispanic voters nationwide than immigration." That finding is true for Hispanic voters "Born outside the U.S.," "Parent born outside the U.S.," and "Self and parents…

Max Boot reviews Little America by Rajiv Chandrasekaran in the Wall Street Journal:

North Dakota is a rich state, relatively speaking. Good Midwesterners of mostly Scandinavian descent, those Dakotans always tried to live within their means, with the result that the state never ran up much debt, even in the lean years. And recent times have been far from lean: The boom in oil…

The battle between originalism and living constitutionalism has been waged in law schools and the public at large since the 1970s, and many liberal constitutional scholars have since hoped to strike the death knell of originalism as a viable constitutional theory. 

Richmond, Va.

For once, the buzz got it right.

Two years ago, we wrote in these pages that we were entering with respect to Iran what Winston Churchill called in 1936 a “period of consequences,” in which “the era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close.”

The prominence of Russian-made helicopters in Bashar al-Assad’s brutal and desperate efforts to hang on to power puts the Syrian war in a new light. It’s getting difficult to categorize the conflict simply as a humanitarian crisis or a “teacup war” of secondary significance. Rather, Syria’s civil…

Barack Obama doesn’t have George W. Bush to kick around anymore. At least not credibly. Sure, he will continue to argue that he inherited such a mess that his own policies can only be regarded as a smashing success. But it’s been four years since the patient was turned over to the new president for…

A Washington tortured by Vietnam was flummoxed in 1972 when Australian voters made the Labor party’s antiwar Gough Whitlam prime minister after 23 years of conservative rule. Entering Henry Kissinger’s office at the White House on December 23 for a conversation about China relating to President…

When I interviewed President Reagan in the Oval Office in 1987, I took with me a photograph of him with two dozen women at the Presidio of Monterey in California 50 years earlier. My mother, the presidio commander’s daughter, was one of the women. I wanted Reagan to autograph the photograph, and he…

The nature of fact in nonfiction has been a hot topic of late in literary circles. Late February, for example, saw the arrival of The Lifespan of a Fact, a slim volume that claimed to chronicle a seven-year argument between author John D’Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal over just how much D’Agata…

Amalfi

Wise old hands know that almost no political victory is permanent. Unfortunately, reformers in Alabama are relearning that lesson. 

The other day, Mitt Romney released this statement on the 68th anniversary of the signing of the G.I. bill: 

White House spokesman Jay Carney issued the following statement in response to the Egyptian presidential election:

President Obama's reelection problems continue in North Carolina, the state that's hosting this year's Democratic National Committee convention later this year. Congressman Mike McIntyre, a Democratic representative of North Carolina's Seventh Congressional District, is now refusing to endorse…

Campbell Brown writes in the New York Times about Planned Parenthood:

President Obama, an avid basketball player and fan, called the head coach of the NBA championship team Miami Heat to say congratulations and to invite the squad to the White House. Obama called Heat coach Erik Spoelstra yesterday from Air Force One. 

Anna Schwartz, a distinguished economist and a fine writer, who is perhaps best known for her co-authored books and studies with Milton Friedman, died in New York City a couple days ago at the age of 96. Together, Schwartz and Friedman wrote A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, an…

Jay Cost, author of Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Mitt Romney has a well-deserved reputation as risk-averse and cautious. His campaign team has made no secret of its strategy to have their man tiptoe to the presidency by focusing almost exclusively on President Obama’s stewardship of the economy. The execution of this strategy depends on Romney…

Slow growth here and in China—as well as a recession in Europe—is reducing demand for oil. Inventories in the U.S. are at a 22-year high. The Federal Reserve Board’s QEs that pumped paper money into the economy and drove up the nominal price of oil have come to an end. And the twelve OPEC oil…

Why all the VP guessing is probably way off.

The Emergency Committee for Israel announced today that its "Time To Act" will be hitting airwaves in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Already, the spot has aired in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Watch here:

Speaking this afternoon to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Orlando, Florida, President Obama stated that "in this country, prosperity has never come from the top down."

A new report from the Treasury Department says that Obamacare “represents the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years and affects millions of taxpayers.” As the report notes, Obamacare’s “new taxes, fees, and penalties account for approximately $438 billion.” But, really, it’s even…

A new ad from the Montana GOP focuses on Republican Senate candidate Denny Rehberg's record of independence from Washington and his own party, and includes a criticism of Paul Ryan's proposed Medicare reforms, which Rehberg voted against in the House.

Writing at the Daily Beast, Eli Lake has the scoop on a ridiculous attempt at diplomacy with the new Egyptian parliament. One member of an Egyptian delegation visiting Washington this week was a man named Hani Nour Eldin. He is also a member of Gamaa Islamiya (Islamic Group, or “IG”), a designated…

Victor Fiorillo reports for Phillymag.com: 

The Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) has a new ad running on New York television documenting a series of radical, racist, and anti-Israel statements from Democratic congressional candidate Charles Barron of New York's Eighth District. Watch the ad below:

The New York Post has endorsed Wendy Long, a New York lawyer, for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate:

Matt Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:

C. Boyden Gray and Jim R. Purcell, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

The death last week of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Nayef Bin Abd Al-Aziz, aged 78 and heir to his half-brother, King Abdullah Bin Abd Al-Aziz, was not immediately foreseen by the Saudi public. The appointment of his successor was, by contrast, no surprise. Saudi’s new crown prince is Nayef’s…

Tinsel Town dissent over Obama fundraising.

Anti-Israel advocate and professor Norman Finkelstein posted on his personal blog that there were "four reasons" to support Democratic congressional candidate Charles Barron in next Tuesday's primary for New York's Eighth Congressional District: "Ed Koch, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), City…

In the event the Supreme Court does not put Obamacare out of our misery next week, Mitt Romney ought be ready to roll with the punches and come out at once with Plan B. Plan A was to have the Court sever it neatly with one swing of the axe, but there was always the possibility the Court would not…

MItt Romney reportedly asked Florida governor Rick Scott to "downplay" the Sunshine State's improving job numbers, according to Bloomberg News:

At today's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney said invoking executive privilege is "entirely about principle." The assembled reporters laughed. Watch here:

A new poll from Quinnipiac shows incumbent Democratic senator Bill Nelson of Florida maintaining a slight lead over his likely Republican challenger, Congressman Connie Mack. The poll shows Nelson with 43 percent support from registered voters in Florida, with Mack receiving 39 percent. This margin…

Reason reports:

The White House today announced their "1 is 2 Many" campaign against dating violence. 

Democratic candidate for Congress Charles Barron of New York's Eighth District has picked up the endorsement of white supremacist David Duke. The Daily Caller reports:

Commerce secretary John Bryson has resigned, following a series of hit-and-run accidents in California that were due reportedly to a seizure. Bloomberg reports: 

Retiring congressman Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, reflects on his time in Congress. 

Israeli vice prime minister Shaul Mofaz, of the centrist party Kadima, told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C., that talks with the Iranians have failed and that the U.S. should escalate its activity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

If Governor Romney is embracing Congressman Ryan's budget, that would lead to huge scalebacks ... in access to Pell Grants. We can't cut off our nose to spite our face.  We need a lot more young people having a great start at life. We need a lot more young people having the opportunity to go to…

Bill Kristol, with A.B. Stoddard, Katie Pavlich, and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Egyptian state television is reporting that authorities are delaying announcement of the results of last week's presidential election.

Days before the election, Chuck Schumer courageously endorses an anti-Israel radical's opponent.

While many Catholic organizations are suing Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius over the Obama administration’s new contraception rules, unhappiness with the supposed HHS mandate “compromise” runs even deeper. Many Protestant institutions are also trying to overturn the…

Pakistani officials have reportedly captured Naamen Meziche, an al Qaeda operative with an extensive dossier. Meziche plays a significant role in an article (“Al Qaeda’s Network in Iran”) that I co-authored with my colleague Benjamin Weinthal earlier this year. Reading through the articles…

By a 23-17 vote, the House Oversight Committee, headed by Rep. Darrell Issa, has voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for not releasing documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal. "Oversight Committee vote was precisely along party lines: all Republicans vote for contempt…

For the last year, a restaurant in Washington, D.C.'s Penn Quarter has been keeping America's culinary history alive—a place where you can order Lobster Newburgh, Brunswick Stew, "Hamburg Style" steak, Blackened Croaker, and Oysters Rockefeller. The bartender happily makes rickeys, New York sours,…

On Wednesday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touched down in Brazil for his first state visit to the South American nation since 2009. The ostensible reason is to attend the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, a high-profile gathering of more than 100 heads of state taking place in…

A new chart, set to be released later today by the minority office of the Senate Budget Committee, finds that, in the next five years, "U.S. Per Person Debt To Increase 7 Times Faster Than Italian Debt."

Two members of a bipartisan congressional panel emphasized the need for Congress to reemphasize the America’s “credible military threat” to Iran to prevent that country’s development of a nuclear weapon.

President Obama's Department of Justice recently released new regulations to prevent prison rape. "Sexual violence, against any victim, is an assault on human dignity and an affront to American values," Obama said when announcing the new initiative. "The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA)…

The Washington Post reports that D.C. councilman (and four-time mayor) Marion Barry has “launched a last ditch effort to slow or derail the city’s planned streetcar line on H Street, arguing it’s not been well-thought out and is too expensive for the number of riders it will serve.”

Former Florida senator George LeMieux has dropped his bid for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic senator Bill Nelson. Congressman Connie Mack, who has lead in the GOP primary since entering the race last fall, remains the frontrunner, with former congressman Dave Weldon also running…

In 2009, President Obama said in a statement on the Freedom of Information Act that "The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract…

In light of today's announcement that President Obama is using executive privilege to cover Attorney General Eric Holder from releasing Fast and Furious documents, it's worth remembering what Obama said in 2007 about this practice: 

A surrogate for President Obama's reelection campaign, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a member of the president's cabinet, says that "we've turned the corner" on the economy:

Vice President Joe Biden called California governor Jerry Brown "the smartest guy in American politics" last night at a California fundraiser. Via the pool report:

The Republican National Committee has released this web ad, which hits President Obama--because, under his leadership, "Hispanics are left suffering disproportionately under his economic policies," according to an RNC press release.

Obama's Keystone pipeline policy could cost him the Keystone State.

Republican senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts has decided not to participate in a televised debate with his opponent, Democrat Elizabeth Warren, after the one of the debate's sponsors, Vicki Kennedy of the Kennedy Institute, refused to promise to stay neutral in the Senate race. The Boston Herald…

As the Los Angeles Times reports, for every $1 that President Obama’s campaign has spent in support of Obamacare, his administration has spent another $65 in taxpayers’ money.  The Times writes that the Obama administration has spent $46 million of taxpayers’ money in support of Obama’s centerpiece…

The House Financial Committee just concluded grilling banker Jamie Dimon on risky financial bets his firm, JPMorgan Chase, made that resulted in losses of at least $2 billion last month. Today’s hearing follows up on last week’s Senate Banking Committee grilling of Dimon on the same bad bets.

The recent congressional ire over the Obama administration's suspiciously convenient national security leaks reminded me of an unusual bit of political trivia: Defense Secretary -- and prior to that, CIA head -- Leon Panetta is the prime suspect in one of the most notorious political leaks of all…

PPP reports on its latest Colorado poll: 

Plenty of New York liberal and Democrats, from former mayor Ed Koch to Congressmen Steve Israel and Jerry Nadler to even the New York Times editorial staff, have condemned Democratic congressional candidate Charles Barron for his history of racist and anti-Israel statements.

Incumbent Republican senator Dean Heller is up on Nevada television with his first advertisement of the cycle. The 30-second ad focuses on Heller's "no budget, no pay" bill, which would withhold the salaries of House and Senate members if Congress fails to pass a budget. Watch the ad below:

Alex Pappas reports that West Virginia Democrats continue to distance themselves from President Barack Obama: 

CBS reports that when Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met with the press after their long private discussion, "The two men barely looked at each other. You could just feel, sort of, the tension between them. And the body language really represented how far apart the two leaders remain on the issue…

ABC's Jonathan Karl reports that Marco Rubio is not being vetted to be Mitt Romney's running mate:

Over the weekend, Mark Blumenthal of the Huffington Post published a lengthy review of the Gallup poll’s methodology. It is a technical read, but I encourage you to give it a careful look.

The running-mate tryouts.

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports: 

If, for some reason, Angela Merkel were unable to carry out her duties as chancellor, the next in line to govern Europe's most powerful nation would be a 39-year-old Vietnamese named Philipp Rösler. It's doubtful many Americans know this. Rösler was an infant in a Vietnamese orphanage when a German…

New York Democratic senator Chuck Schumer has so far remained on the sidelines in the contentious Democratic primary in New York's Eighth Congressional District between Charles Barron and Hakeem Jeffries. Reid Pillifant of Capital reports:

At a bilateral meeting in Los Cabos, Mexican president Felipe Calderón thanked President Obama for his Friday announcement not to prosecute young illegal immigrants:

Speaking this morning to talk radio host Laura Ingraham, Florida congressman Allen West, a Republican, blasted President Obama's immigration plan to use prosecutorial discretion not to go after young immigrants who came to the United States illegally. Obama announced his new immigration plan on…

Controversial New York City councilman Charles Barron may be getting closer to winning the Democratic nomination to Congress in New York's Eighth District next Tuesday. The New York Times reports:

“Private conversations with a half-dozen of the smartest Democratic political thinkers -- all of whom have played at the highest levels of national campaigns, are genuine Obama backers, and almost never are consulted by the campaign -- reveal a consensus of advice for the president: Stop trying to…

Join Jay Cost, along with Gary Schmitt and Nicholas Eberstadt (and others!), Wednesday for an interesting event at the American Enterprise Institute:

China’s interest in South America is easily explained: The Asian giant has a voracious appetite for commodities and raw materials, including Argentine soybeans, Brazilian iron ore, Chilean and Peruvian metals, Ecuadorean and Venezuelan oil, and Uruguayan beef. Therefore, Beijing has expanded trade…

Christopher Caldwell, writing in the Financial Times: 

The Romney campaign releases this web ad, saying that President Obama has had his "moment" to fix the economic problems:

Parks and Recreation (NBC, Thursdays, 8:30 ET) offers every ingredient of a good television sitcom: It’s smart, laugh-out-loud funny, well acted, and nicely photographed. Despite good reviews, and a bevy of award nominations, the show, unlike its NBC Thursday night mates The Office and 30 Rock,…

What does Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s smashing victory in the recall election mean for November? Republicans, naturally, are triumphant, seeing proof that conservative enthusiasm is maintaining its 2010 levels as well as a successful trial run for their get-out-the-vote operations in the…

Will Smith was about to be surprised. 

Consider this dialogue exchange:

This is a tale of knishes, taxes, and conservatives’ hopes to replace income and capital gains taxes with a national sales tax on consumption. Like all those who preside over national treasuries, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, has a deficit that needs closing. Unlike other…

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into the White House’s handling of classified information. The spur seems to have been the June 1 New York Times article by David Sanger, sourced to current and former U.S. officials, revealing sensitive details about the Stuxnet and Flame…

In 2010, the New York Daily News printed a slightly scandalous scoop: George Washington had racked up over $300,000 in late fees on a copy of the Swiss philosopher Emer da Vattel’s The Law of Nations, borrowed from, but never returned to, the New York Society Library in 1789. When James Rees, Mount…

There’s a DVD that’s been sitting in its jewel box on my desk for a few years (I’ve been busy​—​no time to tidy up), and the other day, after reading through two brand-new books about Barack Obama, one admiring, the other ferociously disapproving, I snapped the cellophane at last and slid the disk…

President Obama has been touted by friends and family as the smartest man ever to sit in the White House. Perhaps. Yet he surely is the slowest learner to gain the presidency and probably the most intellectually inflexible. Obama is not only presiding over the most sluggish economic recovery in 80…

When I was 12, I read a book that changed my life. Full of adventure and wisdom, it had me enthralled from the start. It was not a volume to be devoured in one sitting, but one to be savored, even kept for a lifetime and returned to often for reference. 

Waukesha, Wisc.

Barack Obama has said on many occasions that he inherited a very bad economy from George W. Bush. He has blamed the Bush economy for every shortcoming and disappointment of the past four years. If inheritance is a fair standard, let’s ask the obvious question: What will Barack Obama leave to his…

Saudi Arabian crown prince Nayef Bin Abd Al-Aziz, designated heir to King Abdullah Bin Abd Al-Aziz, died Saturday in Geneva, where he was receiving medical treatment. Nayef, 78, headed the country’s ministry of interior and was deputy premier in the royal cabinet. He was named crown prince last…

As Josh Rogin reports, almost half the members of the United States Senate joined together to write a letter to Barack Obama, urging the president to give up on Iranian talks if they fail yet again. The letter comes as American diplomats are getting set to meet with the Iranians in Moscow.

The New York Times profiles the mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris, the Scott Walker of Greece:

Charles Krauthammer seeks a full-time research assistant for one or two year tenure. Send resume to job@charleskrauthammer.com.

Jim Pethokoukis on Obama's 1950's view of America.

The AP reports:

A couple of recent polls have given Republicans hope that Mitt Romney has a shot at taking Michigan this November. But the behavior of former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the frontrunner in the state's GOP Senate primary, hasn't been encouraging to Republicans hoping to take Michigan Democrat Debbie…

Yesterday, I noted that we have generally had our strongest periods of economic growth coming out of our deepest recessions, and I compared FDR and Obama in this vein.  Another good comparison is a more recent one — between Obama and President Reagan.

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon: 

If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, in whole or in part, how will Republicans respond? Many have talked about reinstating some of the law's most popular provisions, such the provision to allow people up to age 26 stay on their parents' health insurance. But even the parts of the law…

New York City

From Politico's website, June 15, 2012 (since revised):

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is helping to coordinate logistics for the Free Syrian Army, but not providing arms. “U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats have stepped up their contacts with Syrian rebels in part to help organize their burgeoning military operations…

A reporter heckled President Obama at today's White House immigration announcement:

Can Israelis be wistful? It is not the characteristic we usually associate with them; more typically they are said to be tough, sweet, angry, thoughtful, demanding—not wistful.

Vice President Joe Biden told American mayors today that the "great" cities are in China, not America: 

Barack Obama briefly attended a lunch with winners of a presidential sweepstakes earlier today, and confessed that he complained to his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, about getting a tie for Father's Day. Via the pool report: 

This morning the Obama administration announced a new executive branch policy that, according to the AP, "bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the…

This morning the Obama administration announced a new executive branch policy that, according to the AP, "bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the…

In March 2011, speaking at Univision town hall in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama firmly stated that, as president, he can't simply "suspend deportations" with only an executive order. "With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case,…

How convenient! How coincidental! Time magazine put its latest issue to bed on Wednesday evening—and 36 hours later the Obama administration announced that it would be using "prosecutorial discretion" not to deport young illegal immigrants who "do not present a risk to national security or public…

Sandra Fluke has endorsed President Obama for reelection. This is sure to be a game-changer as there are, doubtless, millions who have been holding back, waiting to see which way Ms. Fluke would be voting, before making up their own minds. 

A press release from the Department of Homeland Security: 

Here's a fun exercise in compare and contrast. Here's Michael Barone's latest column:

In his speech yesterday, President Obama said, “[M]y plan would reduce our yearly domestic spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy in nearly 60 years.”  Such an amazing claim is made possible only by excluding the two domestic programs that have contributed the most to our nearly $16…

On Thursday I posted the story of Lycerius, a man (at least I think it's a man) who has been playing the same board of Civilization for the last 10 years. His brutal stalemate (in the year 3991 A.D.) was finally resolved once he uploaded his scenario and another player achieved a rather cunning…

Barack Obama's campaign speech yesterday in Ohio was billed as a "reframing" and and a "reboot," but as a new video from the Republican National Committee shows, it was really a "replay" of an "old speech," one given April 3 to the Associated Press Luncheon.

First social science runs amok in New Zealand, as Harvey Mansfield explains in the current issue in his analysis of the social science classic by two N.Z. psychologists, "Why are Benevolent Sexists Happier?"

There is a persistent theme in liberal circles that President Obama tried to reason with the Republican party, but they are now so extreme and so politicized that it was all for naught. This is essentially the thesis of the recent book by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, which I reviewed here, and…

New York City

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has come out against fellow Democrat Charles Barron, a House candidate for the state's Eighth Congressional District. "Any candidate who is anti-Israel does not share Senator Gillibrand's values," says spokesman Glen Caplin in an email to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Today, President Obama said, “It has typically taken countries up to ten years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude.” In truth, however, the historical norm has been as follows: the deeper the recession, the stronger the recovery. 

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released the following statement in response to President Obama's reelection campaign speech in Ohio: “Now when [President Obama] was recently elected he went on ‘The Today Show’ and he was asked about what he’d do, how he’d measure his success, and he…

Immediately after Barack Obama concluded his nearly hour long campaign speech in Ohio, MSNBC cut to its analysts for feedback. "I thought this, honestly, was one of the least successful speeches I've seen Barack Obama give," said MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter.

President Obama, speaking this afternoon in Cleveland, seemed to celebrate the unemployment rate of 8.1 percent, and said it "typically take[s] countries up to ten years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude." 

We’re a long way from November 6 (145 days for those who are keeping score at home), but Rasmussen’s latest polling of likely voters in states across the land shows Mitt Romney currently leading President Barack Obama in the quest for electoral votes.  In fact, if the 9 key swing states were each…

From USA Today:

Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire, took to the Senate floor—along with Senators John McCain and John Thune—to warn against looming Department of Defense cuts.

According to figures provided by the International Monetary Fund, and compiled into this easy to read chart by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee, America will "spend 60 percent more per person than Spain over [the] next 5 years."[img nocaption float="center" width="500"…

The Foreign Policy Initiative is hosting a Hill briefing for congressional staffers, titled "Iran's Nuclear Threat: The Military Option, Israel, and U.S. Policy." Here are the details: 

The eurozone might be cracking up, but as far as debt goes, America appears to be in worse shape than the entire eurozone in the long run. According to a new chart set to be released later today by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee, America is on track "to add three times more debt…

For those of us who think baseball is part of American greatness ("May the sun never set on American baseball"—Harry Truman), and who've worried about the declining status of baseball in American life (see Diana Schaub's "America at the Bat" in the Winter 2010 National Affairs), June has been a…

In advance of Monday's likely fruitless talks with Iran in Moscow, the Emergency Committee for Israel has released the following ad:

The latest Mitt Romney television ad asks, "How can President Obama fix our economy ... if he doesn't understand it's broken?" It's part of the Romney campaign's continued response to President Obama's assertion that "the private sector is doing fine." Watch here:

Is Mitt Romney scaling the blue wall?

A new video released by the State Department is trying to encourage tourists from around the world to visit America. 

The Romney camp sends out a list of today's headlines. It's just their way of saying good luck with that economic speech tomorrow -- it sure looks like the president is going to need it:

James C. Capretta runs through the likely outcome of the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare:

Texas senator John Cornyn called into question the intelligence of Attorney General Eric Holder earlier today in a radio interview. "Do you think Holder is smart?," radio host Laura Ingraham asked Cornyn. "I have not been impressed with his intelligence," Cornyn responded.

When a Reddit user named Lycerius revealed he's been playing the same game of Civilization for the last 10 years, little did he know his post would go viral, generating (at last count) more than 500 comments. "Man Plays Civilisation II For 10 Years, World Disintegrates into 'Nightmare of…

One week after Republican governor Scott Walker defeated a recall effort in Wisconsin, Rasmussen has a new poll showing Mitt Romney leading Barack Obama 47 to 44 percent in the Badger state: 

Democrat Ron Barber defeated Republican Jesse Kelly yesterday in Arizona’s special election for the House seat formerly held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Barber received 52 percent of the vote—to Kelly’s 45 percent—and will serve out the remainder of Giffords’s term, before coming up for reelection…

The latest campaign email to supporters of President Barack Obama's reelection effort tries to capitalize on the president's coolness. "From coaching basketball to knowing how many Jonas brothers there are, Barack is a pretty cool dad," writes First Lady Michelle Obama in an email to supporters.

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports: 

Charles Krauthammer seeks a full-time research assistant for one or two year tenure. Send resume to job@charleskrauthammer.com.

At the Washington Free Beacon, Bill Gertz has a piece about Jose Rodriguez, the former chief of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. Rodriguez warns that the CIA is “out of the business” of interrogating senior al Qaeda terrorists and this will eventually lead to a hole in America’s counterterrorism…

Frank Keating, the president and CEO of the American Bankers Association and former two-term governor of Oklahoma, writes this letter to the editor in response to James Pethokoukis's recent WEEKLY STANDARD article "Too Big for Comfort."

As the U.S. and its allies prepare to return to the negotiating table with Iranian representatives, hoping to reach a deal on their nuclear ambitions, the Islamic Republic has significantly ratcheted up its efforts to repress religious minorities in the country. 

"We will lose some of our shareholders’ money — and for that, we feel terrible — but no client, customer or taxpayer money was impacted by this incident.  We have let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it."  Mr. Jamie Dimon will utter these words to a panel of U.S. senators today. Nothing,…

Political winds are funny things. When they are blowing in from behind, leaders look poised, in control, and powerful. When they are blowing into their face, they look overwhelmed, out of their depth, and utterly impotent. We have seen this time and again over the years with presidents.

Richmond, Virginia

David Brooks on monuments and America's follower problem.

Democrats continue to come out against House candidate Charles Barron of New York's Eighth District for his long legacy of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and racist statements.

Today's the twenty-five year anniversary of Ronald Reagan's powerful Brandenburg Gate address in Berlin, Germany. Watch here:

President Obama's support among Jewish voters in the state of New York has dropped 22 percentage points in only a month, according to the results of a just released poll.

At a fundraiser in Maryland this afternoon, President Obama criticized Republicans, saying that "you can pretty much put their campaign on, on a tweet and have some characters to spare.”

The AP reports: 

Since President Obama decided not to support the rebels fighting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, a handful of Saudi religious figures have taken matters into their own hands.

Mitt Romney said Barack Obama is "out of touch" with small business owners and their struggles with the president's signature health care law, Obamacare.

Mitt Romney leads Barack Obama by two points in North Carolina, according to a new poll by the Democratic-leaning firm PPP. Forty-eight percent of respondents support Romney, compared with 46 percent for Obama in a state the president won in 2008 by just over 12,000 votes.

Texas senator John Cornyn told Attorney General Eric Holder to resign earlier today at a hearing on Capitol Hill: 

A sizable group of Republican senators have introduced a resolution in the Senate calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate high-level national security leaks to the media.

A new poll of likely voters finds Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a virtual tie in the presidential race, while underlying feelings about the future of the country and the economy appear negative and pessimistic.

James Piereson has an important article in the June New Criterion on the "forthcoming political revolution" in America. Here's the heart of the argument:

A group of Jewish elected officials in New York gathered Monday afternoon to denounce city councilman and Democratic candidate for Congress Charles Barron for his anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments over the past few years. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports:

During a trip to Afghanistan last week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta chastised Pakistan for its ongoing support for the Haqqani Network – an insurgency organization that is closely tied to al Qaeda. The Haqqani Network has long been a proxy of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate…

President Obama’s gaffe in Friday’s press conference caught the attention of the media, the blogosphere, and the public in general. I thought it was a telling example of how bad this president is at communicating when he is off script, but there is a bigger story to tell.

Ashburn, Va.

In an interview with a local news reporter from KTIV Sioux City, Iowa, President Obama seemed surprised to learn that a company might have been hurt by his signature legislation, Obamacare:

Obama's reelection rests on this guy.

A registered Native American and alumna of Harvard has co-authored a column denouncing Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and Harvard University for perpetrating "nothing less than ethnic fraud."

President Obama's campaign has released its latest radio ad, the first ad of the campaign specifically to target black voters. 

Jay Cost is interviewed by the Washington Post about his book, Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic:

White House press secretary Jay Carney used today's briefing to tell members of the press how to do their job. "You all ought to do your jobs and report on context," Carney said in response to a question on President Obama's Friday comment Friday that "the private sector is doing fine."

While the Obama administration and its allies at the New York Times are waiting for Russia to intervene and get Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down, the children of Kafranbel show a clearer sense of strategic reality:

New York City councilman Charles Barron may be on his way to winning the Democratic nomination for Congress in New York's Eighth District, despite a history of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel rhetoric. Barron, who has earned the support of retiring congressman Edolphus Towns, would be…

With the Supreme Court poised to rule on whether Obamacare was passed in defiance of the Constitution, there’s no question where the American public stands on President Obama’s centerpiece legislation. On Thursday, a New York Times/CBS News poll showed that more than two-thirds of all Americans,…

A friend who's a canny political veteran writes:

Senate candidates Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown have new TV ads running in Massachusetts. Brown, the Republican, features his wife Gail Huff in two new ads. Watch both ads below:

Michael Barone writes:

President Obama's closest political advisor, David Axelrod, called allegations against Commerce Secretary John Bryson "concerning."

The latest Mitt Romney campaign web advertisement asks, "Has there ever been a president so out of touch with the middle class?"

Commerce Secretary John Bryson is suspected of being involved in a hit and run (or perhaps a couple hit and runs) over the weekend in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times reports:

In a beautiful poem called “The Capital,” W. H. Auden talks about rich people “waiting expensively for miracles to happen.” That is what is happening in all the capitals of Europe now, nowhere more so than in Madrid. Spain’s economy carries two impossible burdens. It has the most overregulated…

Are the media beginning to catch on to President Obama? The answer is a tentative yes. This doesn’t mean the press is softening its hostility to Mitt Romney. Heaven forbid! But at least for now Obama is getting razzed by the very people who used to uphold and defend him.

Last April, the Iranian Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company noticed a problem with some of their computers: A small number of machines were spontaneously erasing themselves. Spooked by the recent Stuxnet attack, which had wrecked centrifuges in their nuclear labs, the Iranians…

That the eurozone has been reduced to a financial and economic shambles was predictable. How little that has changed the continent’s politics was not. To be sure, there have been massive protests in Greece and elsewhere, but the widespread disorder feared by many (including me) in the wake of the…

Two million people live in the shadows of Mount Vesuvius, serenely confident that mainland Europe’s most active volcano will not choose any time soon to blow its lid. Their proximity is an astonishing act of faith. They must spend their evenings singing “On Top of Old Smokey” and “You’re the Top.”…

Hillary Clinton says that the Obama administration can’t do anything about Bashar al-Assad. They can’t make him step down, and they can’t stop him from massacring women and children, as he did last week in Houla. “The Syrians are not going to listen to us,” Clinton said last week. “They may listen,…

When he died on May 16, the New York Times miscaptioned the photograph it ran with his obituary. And then misspelled his name in the correction it ran three days later. 

The Republican presidential candidates have spent the past year saying little about education. When they have addressed the issue, it has often been in terse calls to “turn off the lights” at the U.S. Department of Education. After a decade of runaway spending and regulations on education by both…

Mayor Michael Bloomberg made headlines last week with his plan to prohibit the sale of sugary drinks in New York City in any size larger than 16 ounces. “Public health officials,” the mayor said, “are wringing their hands” over rising rates of obesity. But “New York City is not about wringing your…

Like many colleges and universities, Princeton professes its devotion to “institutional equity and diversity.” The university’s website claims that the school “actively seek[s] students, faculty, and staff of exceptional ability and promise who .  .  . will bring a diversity of viewpoints and…

Here’s where the presidential debate stands. Mitt Romney seems comfortable arguing for a Bain Capital-style turnaround of the economy, and the many opponents of the stimulus, Obamacare, and Dodd-Frank are happy to help him. They have a strong case: The nation would benefit from less federal…

Yerevan, Armenia

Put not your trust in judges​—​nor in other berobed or bejeweled personages. To the degree you trust anyone: Trust the people.

The special election to fill the last six months of Gabrielle Giffords’s term in the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona is rapidly approaching. Although the race looks close, no one can say that the candidates are neck and neck. At 6’8”, Republican Jesse Kelly stands head and shoulders above…

In the six months after its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy sailed from one victory to another, across the Pacific and into the Indian Ocean, until it seemed as though it was not merely unbeaten, but unbeatable. The Japanese conquered everything they attempted to…

Vienna

The Fox News Sunday Internet-only after show Panel Plus, with Bill Kristol, Charles Lane, Liz Cheney, and Mara Liasson, on the Wisconsin recall election:

A surrogate for President Obama's reelection campaign sheepishly admitted on CBS's Face the Nation that "We've had better weeks."

Via Powerline, titled "Hitler Learns that Walker Won the Recall Election."

While the recall election is over, Wisconsites won't get a break from politics and elections. In the U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Democrat Herb Kohl, there's a four-man battle for the Republican nomination and one candidate, businessman Eric Hovde, is on air with a new TV ad campaign. The…

Yesterday evening, it was announced that Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two prosecutors to investigate alleged national security leaks to the media from the White House. But now two leading Senate Republicans are urging President Obama to appoint independent "outside special counsel" to…

In trying to make the case that the Spanish national soccer team (“La Roja”) is having the greatest 5-year run of any team — in any sport — in history, the Wall Street Journal dismisses Casey Stengel’s 1949-53 Yankees because those squads, which won five straight World Series, “won only 71% of…

Just as America proved to be such a safe haven for immigrants in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, it is now seen as a safe haven for wealth attempting to escape Europe’s tax collectors and financial chaos and recession in Europe, and for foreign central banks newly enamored of the dollar.

Peggy Noonan: Obama's house of cards.

Remember this, from a few years back?

Earlier today, President Obama twice commented at a press conference in the White House that "the private sector is doing fine." He has since made further comments about the economy--but he has yet to say anything specific about the private sector.

Much has been made of Barack Obama’s comment Friday morning that the “private sector is doing fine.” The mockery is well-deserved.

President Obama at a press conference this morning insisted that high-level national security leaks are not coming from the White House. "The notion that my White House would purposefully release classified information is offensive," President Obama said. 

National Public Radio has a blog post about President Obama's statement this morning on the private sector--and how conservatives reacted to the president's assertion that"the private sector is doing fine." The title of the post? "GOP Dope Slaps Obama For Saying Private Sector's 'Doing Fine.'"

Earlier today, President Obama assured Americans that "the private sector is doing fine." Now, Republican Mitt Romney has responded by saying that the president is "out of touch."

New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie blasted President Obama in a speech earlier today at a conservative conference in Chicago

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that worker productivity fell by .9 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Some press and Obama sympathizers have blithely spun this as a good thing for the economy, making the rote observation that less productive workers mean that companies have…

The story of the Stuxnet and Flame cyber exploits is so compelling that you almost don't care where it came from or if it represents a serious breach of national security. Almost. You can read David Sanger in the Times and Jonathan Last, here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, and you crave more. Including…

President Obama said today in a White House press conference that "the private sector is doing fine."

Two of the top Senate Democrats are blasting Republicans for inaction in Congress. They blame the Republican House for not passing laws, even though Democrats control the Senate and the White House, and even though their own aides said months ago that nothing would get done this year, in an…

Democrat Heidi Heitkamp has a miniscule lead over Republican Rick Berg in the Senate race to replace retiring Democrat Kent Conrad. According to Mason-Dixon Polling Group, 47 percent of registered voters support former state attorney general Heitkamp and 46 percent support Berg, the state's lone…

Matt Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon: 

David Sanger’s piece in the New York Times earlier this month (“Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran”) has garnered widespread attention. The piece provides granular details about a top secret effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program using cyberweapons, including the Stuxnet…

This write-up from the Hill on a recent Pennsylvania poll is pretty similar to many others these days:

Obama is killing the Democratic party.

Senator John McCain’s floor statement on Syria today rightly focused on the Obama administration’s bizarre conviction that the Russians have the ability and perhaps even the desire to get Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Last year, the mega-law firm Dewey & LeBouef generated revenue totaling $782 million. It was the 20th largest firm according to the National Law Journal. Its clients included the Los Angeles Dodgers, the NFL Players Association, and eBay. But over the last five months, 206 of its partners defected.…

President Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, sent out a fundraising email today in an attempt to capitalize off losing the May money race to Republican Mitt Romney. In May, Romney and the Republicans raised $76.8 million, while Obama and the Democrats raised only $60 million. Here's Messina's…

Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse told Ed Schultz on MSNBC that the results of the Wisconsin recall election may indicate that Barack Obama has a problem with white working class voters. Watch the video below:

A male Greek politico attacked two female politicians on national television:

A Jerusalem Post reporter in Athens, Greece was reportedly beat up by thugs last night. 

Less than a month after his primary victory in Arkansas's Fourth Congressional District, Republican candidate Tom Cotton gets a laudatory profile in Roll Call:

The mayor of New York does not believe that a willing buyer in search of a 32-ounce soft drink and a willing seller of the same should be allowed to make the deal. This, in a city that is famous for deals that involve quite a bit more than a few pints of sugar water and do a whole lot more societal…

In the month of May, Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee raised $76.8 million. In that same time period, President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised $60 million.

President Obama's latest campaign targets Congress for not raising taxes on the wealthies Americans:

Reports are circulating of another Syrian regime massacre yesterday in a small town near Hama, al-Qubayr. It appears that, as with the slaughter at Houla two weeks ago, more 100 were killed, including many women and children.

At this point in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for reelection, the Yankees’ 24-year-old Mickey Mantle was on his way to winning the Triple Crown, 37-year-old Jackie Robinson was playing in his final season in the big leagues (eventually helping Brooklyn edge the Milwaukee Braves…

Texas senator John Cornyn is targeting classified leaks being released by the Obama administration. "The leaks appear to have formed the basis of two New York Times reports about the White House’s role in classified national security efforts, one detailing the use of cyber warfare against Iran, and…

Terry Eastland reviews The Blood of Heroes for the Wall Street Journal:

I really don't know where the editors at Politico get off suggesting that the Washington Post and New York Times might be out to get Mitt Romney. I mean, who wouldn't knock on doors in La Jolla, California and write a politically loaded story where his neighbors sound off with quotes like this:

Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse said tonight on national television that his party needs to "expose the evildoers":

Less than twelve hours after he won the election to recall him from office, Scott Walker made a direct and forceful pitch to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney: go big, and go bold.

Mark Hemingway notes that, "While all eyes were on Wisconsin last night, few people noticed that...residents of both San Diego and San Jose voted to rein in exorbitant public employee retirement packages by huge margins. ... Also worth noting is that these measures had support from key Democrats at…

Robert Gates, the former defense secretary, reportedly blasted the national security team in the Obama White House for blabbing about the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. "Shut the f--- up," Gates told Tom Donilon, who is now Obama's national security adviser, according to a book by New York Times…

Vice President Joe Biden thanked a new citizen of America "for choosing us" in an odd exchange earlier today. From the pool report: 

Jay Cost discusses his new book, Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic, with Tevi Troy.

A new chart produced by the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee shows that, according to Congressional Budget Office data released yesterday, debt per American is "on track to triple in a generation":

Last night the first draft of the exit polls were wrong. Again. This is actually a pretty common occurrence -- they were off in 2010, 2004, and 2000. Each time leaning toward the Democrats. And don't forget the 2008 New Hampshire Democratic exit poll--those were also off.

Joe Biden, speaking earlier today in North Carolina:

While all eyes were on Wisconsin last night, few people noticed that public sector unions were also being targeted in California last night. Residents of both San Diego and San Jose voted to rein in exorbitant public employee retirement packages by huge margins:

President Obama is off to California for five fundraising events across two days. The events were, doubtless, scheduled before yesterday's recall election in Wisconsin, the results of which the punditry is analyzing in exceedingly close detail. Their preliminary conclusions that provide the most…

Here's an indication of just how impressive and broad-based Scott Walker's 7-point win was last night: If the Democratic strongholds of Dane County and Milwaukee County had 100 percent turnout of registered voters, and every other county remained the same, Walker still would have won the state by…

On May 20, Tomislav Nikolic was elected president of Serbia in a second-round runoff against incumbent Boris Tadic. Tadic, who sought a third term, and his Democratic party, have been described as victims of Serbian populist opposition to European Union financial austerity. Nikolic, candidate of…

Mitt Romney's statement last night was more interesting than the normal formulaic election night press releases of the genre. Here it is:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee released this web ad last night, placing Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin on the losing side of the Wisconsin recall effort:

In the historic Republican wave of 2010, Scott Walker won election as governor of Wisconsin with 52.3 percent of the vote. In the 2012 recall election (with 99 percent of precincts reporting), Walker won 53.3 percent of votes cast. In terms of actual votes, Walker improved his haul from 1,128,941…

Via Hot Air, here's Scott Walker's victory speech:

Scott Walker won for a simple reason: He did what he promised to do as a candidate and it worked.

Scott Walker's campaign sends out a press release:

The early draft of the exit polls this morning showed a 50-50 tie in the Wisconsin recall race. It's still early, but the best bet is that Scott Walker meets or exceeds his margins relative to 2010, which points to a 5-point win or better. This suggests that the early draft of the exit polls were…

Mitt Romney just issued this statement, congratulating Scott Walker for his victory in tonight's Wisconsin recall election:

NBC News projects Republican governor Scott Walker will hang on to win the Wisconsin recall election. The projection comes with only 21 percent of the vote in. Currently, Walker has 61 percent of the vote, while Democrat Tom Barrett has only 39 percent.

Michael O'Brien reports on Twitter:

Of course: Michelle Obama supports Bloomberg's soda ban.

According to former President Bill Clinton, "there's a recession," and we're still in the middle of it. Here's a clip from an interview Clinton did with CNBC earlier today:

The boss noted earlier that Bill Clinton knows what he's doing. And now, in a recent interview with CNBC, Clinton revealed his view that tax rates should remain the same: 

A new book reveals that President Obama deferred a major national security decision to his controversial attorney general, Eric Holder. Instead of deciding himself whether 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried by a military tribunal or in a federal court, Obama pushed the decision…

Waukesha, Wisc.

Mitt Romney maintains that "President Barack Obama is holding on to the government's stake in General Motors to avoid an embarrassing financial loss before the election, and says he'd sell the stock quickly if he wins the White House," according to the Detroit News, which recently interviewed the…

Roger Simon has an interesting and amusing piece at Politico about Bill Clinton's recent shenanigans undercutting Barack Obama. Its only problem is its premise, captured in its title: “Bill Clinton out of control on 2012.” But that's not the case. It's in fact perfectly evident that Bill Clinton is…

An encouraging email this morning, from Dan G. from Mequon, Wisconsin:

J.E. Dyer, writing on Iran's continued quest for nuclear weapons: 

Former President Bill Clinton had plenty of praise for President Barack Obama, as the two traversed New York City last night hauling in campaign cash. “I don't think it's important to reelect the president; I think it is essential to reelect the president—if we want this country to have the kind of…

The latest web ad from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney targets Hispanic voters, and argues that President Obama's policies are hurting these voters:

Eric Li’s op-ed in the New York Times, timed to coincide with the annual round-up of big wigs (with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey leading the U.S. delegation) in Singapore, the Shangri-La Dialogue, is a useful reminder of the many good things…

Today is the Wisconsin recall election. If Republican governor Scott Walker prevails, so will conservatives, since his reforms of collective bargaining will survive, and he shall have curbed some of the worst excesses of the American labor movement.

Steve Hayes reported Saturday on President Obama's refusal to get his hands dirty—or even to get Air Force One's wheels dirty—by landing on the soil of the great state of Wisconsin prior to Tuesday's recall election between Scott Walker and Tom Barrett.

Talk radio legend Neal Boortz announces his retirement.

Polls point to a win for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker in tomorrow's recall election, but internal Republican polling shows there's a very good chance that the Wisconsin GOP will lose control of the state senate on the same day.

Earlier this year, I wrote a detailed chronicle of Portland, Oregon's quest to make San Francisco look like a relative bastion of political sanity. Well, the hits keep on coming. The city is now proposing to protect the identities of citizens who rat out neighbors who fail to compost properly: 

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has been hammering her Republican opponent, incumbent Scott Brown of Massachusetts, for "undermining" the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill Brown helped pass, even though Warren expressed agreement with Brown's proposed changes to the bill during the…

Bloomberg reporter Julianna Goldman tweets: 

Senate majority leader Harry Reid used Twitter today to demagogue Republicans for not supporting the Democrats' latest initiative, the Paycheck Fairness Act: 

Mariela Castro, the daughter of Raul Castro, endorsed President Obama on CNN: 

President Obama earlier today held a conference call to promote the latest Democratic initiative--the so-called Paycheck Fairness Act. "If Congress passes the Paycheck Fairness Act, women are going to have access to more tools to claim equal pay for equal work," Obama promised. "If they don't, if…

I have been reading A Time for Choosing, the wonderful new e-book from RCP’s Carl Cannon and Tom Bevan about the 2012 campaign, and was really struck by this passage about the Democratic counter-punch to Team Romney. Cannon and Bevan note how Democrats decided to attack Romney as:

The Illinois-based pollster We Ask America reports that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has a 54-42 lead among likely voters in the recall election, despite a strong debate performance by Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett. This figure is identical to its poll taken in late May. Nevertheless, the pollster…

Over at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s website, Christian Schneider notices something funky about that new PPP poll:

Paul Mirengoff writes about a compelling candidate for Congress in Oklahoma's Second Congressional District: 

Last week, Marc Lasry defended private equity on national television. "Private equity, do they do God's work or are they vampires?" a CNBC host asked Lasry, who is a hedge fund manager. "I think they do very good work," he replied.

It is perhaps obvious to everyone who follows politics, but the Obama campaign finally admitted it today: Yes, in their bid to reelect President Barack Obama, they are running negative advertisements.

The Republican National Committee has just released this web ad, suggesting that President Obama is out of touch for releasing an Anna Wintour campaign spot the same day the unemployment rate went up: 

BuzzFeed reports that President Obama isn't raising money the way he did in the 2008 election: 

Milwaukee, Wisc.

Strategist Edward Luttwak noted that the United States does not have a strategy, it has a procurement system. It takes so long to develop a new weapon, the strategic rationale has often vanished before it is fielded. Because so much time, money, and reputation are invested in the system, it cannot…

It is not so much a truism as a cliché that the Victorian era has been the target of popular denigration ever since Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians (1918) demolished a few of its icons of moral excellence: Florence Nightingale and General Gordon of Khartoum, among others. Strachey was a sort…

The Cold War is an increasingly distant memory in American military minds, except in the minds of the arms control community, and in particular those who seek the elimination of nuclear weapons. Alas, our president is a member in good standing of this community—indeed, an organizer.

When I learned recently that I’d be moving back to the East Coast for a job after several years out west, my girlfriend asked a question she knew would be on my mind: “How soon will you be able to make it to Providence for New York System?”

The Scrapbook likes to think of itself as sophisticated, although we realize that we’re probably not as sophisticated as we like to think. Having just read a book review by Howard Kurtz in the Daily Beast, however, we’re feeling especially urbane, all-knowing, well-schooled, and, well,…

Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford, confesses that when he began this book he was influenced by Easy Rider, which he had seen again for the first time in years, and was drawn to the aimless wandering of its three male characters. Sykes, too, wanders about a huge terrain: nothing…

Newton, Mass.

It used to be relatively rare to hear a real-life story that proved the adage “truth is stranger than fiction” because there were so many details in scandalous true stories that couldn’t be shared in polite society. Now, of course, all we hear are true stories filled with scandalous details—ones…

"This is what democracy looks like.” That was the boast of protesters occupying the Wisconsin state capitol 16 months ago as they blocked Republican lawmakers from entering the legislature and celebrated Democratic state senators who had fled the state to avoid a vote on Governor Scott Walker’s…

The centenary of Mary McCarthy’s birth falls on this year’s summer solstice, and August is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of her most famous novel, The Group, which sold more than five million copies by the time of McCarthy’s death in 1989, and continues to sell.

In his State of the Union speech in 2011, President Obama referred to “small business” five times and alluded to it seven more. Progress in America is measured, he said, “by the prospects of a small business owner who dreams of turning a good idea into a thriving enterprise.” In this year’s…

Few American cultural figures have suffered as steep a decline in reputation as Lillian Hellman. 

The George Washington Temperance Society was started in a Baltimore bar in 1840. Its six founders—William K. Mitchell, John F. Hoss, David Anderson, George Steers, Archibald Campbell, and James McCurley—were not raging evangelicals; nor were they dissolute gutter-loungers. They were middle-aged men…

The most visible dispute in U.S.-Russian relations now pits the American desire for protection from prospective Iranian and North Korean nuclear missile threats against the Russian desire for the United States to remain fully vulnerable to Russia’s offensive nuclear capabilities. Russian officials…

Cambridge, Mass.

America needs to break up its biggest banks, but not for reasons likely to give a tingle to Occupy Wall Street’s remnant rabble (or its Great Everywhere Spirit, Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts). This isn’t about some political exercise in election-year demonization. Bankers, as a…

Rio de Janeiro 

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm that conducts surveys for the SEIU and the left-wing website Daily Kos, reports that its final poll shows Wisconsin governor Scott Walker leading Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett 50 percent to 47 percent. PPP's poll is the only public poll conducted in the past…

Christian Schneider reports:

If you haven't already, go ahead and add Mark Steyn's latest column to your weekend reading assignments. This might be the ur-Steyn column in that the effervescent and witty prose makes the message that we are well and truly doomed palatable; it explains European politics in a concise and…

In case you missed it, in her column today Maureen Dowd is starting to wonder, is Obama necessary?:

To be precise, the union-backed Greater Wisconsin Political Fund is actually trying to pressure non-voters in liberal Dane County into voting in Tuesday's recall election. "We're sending this mailing to you and your neighbors to publicize who does and does not vote," reads the "incredibly creepy"…

Barack Obama seems determined to avoid Wisconsin.

"Understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself — I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America.” --Barack Obama, November 3,…

The Department of Homeland Security's latest concern is hurricanes. With the start of the hurricane season, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is encouraging a so-called "Whole Community Approach."

Milwaukee

Senators Dan Coats, Richard Burr, and Marco Rubio urge the Obama administration to stop leaking sensitive intelligence information to the press: 

To many observers the choice is simple: These are the worst of economic times, or almost—and we are on the brink of something worse. Incumbent politicians fear this is the case, and challengers, sotto voce, hope it is. They focus on what to them is the long run—the 22 weeks until Election Day,…

Remember folks, Mitt Romney is an out of touch rich guy who just can't relate to the struggles of ordinary Americans:

“Putin just feels more comfortable with leaders in authoritarian countries."

Mark Zandi says things will get better:

Matt Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:

Elliott Abrams is rightly and eloquently outraged about this morning's New York Times article, which features Obama administration officials discussing sensitive and classified national security matters, for the sake of making the president look tough. The leakers—none of whom "would allow their…

Perhaps I’m not in the best position to offer the White House and Democrats the best advice, but, c’mon gang, this just ain’t gonna cut it. From the White House:

In remarks today in Minnesota, President Obama said he hoped people would buy a "thingamajig":

The president is out of town tonight, spending the night alone at his home in Chicago after a day filled with six fundraisers. But his campaign in Washington, D.C. continues.

The British government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, recently introduced a new initiative offering first-time parents relationship counseling, childcare classes, and advice via email and text message – all subsidized by the National Health Service, Department of Health, and Department for…

Haaretz reported that in a private meeting with Jewish leaders earlier this week, President Obama said (in the Israeli paper's words) he "probably knows about Judaism more than any other president." Now, Ron Kampeas has more details of the meeting "based on detailed notes by a person in attendance…

From the Washington Post: "Asked Thursday whether he could envision a situation in which the United States would take military action in Syria without U.N. authorization, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said, 'No, I cannot envision that because, look, as secretary of defense, my greatest…

The May jobs report came out today and showed an economy barely adding any jobs: Just 69,000 were added last month, and the unemployment rate increased. This follows news yesterday that GDP was revised downward for the first quarter, and a report today that real incomes remain essentially unchanged.

The unemployment numbers have been released and they are dismal and, typically, unexpectedly so. Fewer than 70,000 new jobs and the least scary measure of unemployment rising from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent. According to NPR:

In a revealing column by Boston Globe writer Brian McGrory, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren continues to insist that she is descended from Native Americans. Warren called McGrory and spoke with him about the controversy, "sometimes expansively and without the slightest hint of…

CNBC reports: 

In an interview on CNN last night, former President Bill Clinton praised Donald Trump, a supporter and fundraiser of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. "Donald Trump has been uncommonly nice to Hillary and me," Clinton tells CNN. He later adds: "I like him. And I love playing golf with…

Amy Lutz, commenting on grade inflation

Milwaukee

Have pro-Israel liberals—at least some of the intelligent ones—finally had enough of President Obama's incompetence and dithering with respect to Israel and the Middle East?

In an interview on CNN this evening, former President Bill Clinton completely undermined President Obama's campaign strategy of attacking Mitt Romney and his record as a businessman. Clinton praised Romney's "sterling business career":