The Age of Obama: Anno Domini 2

Charles Krauthammer in Heritage (lecture): "It's good that we have a President who says publicly that Gandhi would not have done very well against Hitler, but is this really a great philosophical advance? For a President of the United States? It's the kind of issue that you dispose of in your first bull session in the freshman dorm. Pacifism is a serious subject for sweet adolescence, or a way of life for certain eccentric sects who, it must be noted, survive because they live among non-eccentric people who reject pacifism and fight to keep those little sects alive and free."...."Perhaps Obama will prove himself impervious to empirical evidence and to experience. In which case, all these accommodations, the weakening of alliances, the strengthening of centers of adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, and elsewhere will continue apace--until some cataclysm wakes us up."

Our Obama Saga. Part One—Chapters One to Four

Victor Davis Hanson "... The hypocrisy of left-wing redistribution politics and the enjoyment of the high-life, brought about by the fruits of capitalism, is a heavy anchor for Obama. Tim Geithner does not like to pay high taxes. Nancy Pelosi does like nice jets. Barack Obama likes junkets. So does Harry Reid. Charles Rangel likes hiding income on resort property. John “two nations” Edwards likes “John’s Room” in his mansion, and Green Al Gore enjoys his most ungreen estate. In other words, “progressivism” is easily identified as cynicism, as a condescending plaything of the well-off..."

The typicality of John Edwards’ pseudo-leftism

Roger L Simon, PJM "He is the poster boy for a faux-leftism that permeates our culture. Nothing could be more obvious than that Edwards, who took the furthest left stance of the three Democratic presidential candidates in the last election, cared next to nothing for “the people” but excessively for himself, building the McMansion of McMansions, etc. And “stance” is the operative word here, because his positions always seemed adopted, not felt."

And This Isn’t a Tribute to Our Legal System

Jennifer Rubin "The president’s chief spokesperson has said that no matter where KSM is tried, he “is going to meet his maker.” Check. It’s difficult to imagine anyplace in the United States that would not be prejudiced by these types of statements."

Budget Would Raise Tax Rates on Wealthy, Limit Deductions

WSJ "The bulk of that tax increase comes as a result of the expiration at the end of 2010 of tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush. Marginal income tax rates for people with incomes over $200,000, or $250,000 for married couples, will jump from 33% to 36%, or from 35% to 39.6%." These are the people who run small businesses and create jobs.

Obama's Summer of Discontent

FOUAD AJAMI, WSJ "Thus the moment of crisis would become an opportunity to push through a political economy of redistribution and a foreign policy of American penance. The independent voters were the first to break ranks. They hadn't underwritten this fundamental change in the American polity when they cast their votes for Mr. Obama."

Hollywood’s Leftist Standard on Biographies

Big Hollywood "There’s a movie about Howard Stern but no movie about Rush Limbaugh, a man whose story of overcoming addiction and deafness is the very stuff great biopics are made of. There’s a movie about the Marquis De Sade but no movie (other than a television film) about the life of Pope John Paul II — a man whose leadership was pivotal in the liberation of Eastern Europe from Communism. There’s a movie about John Wayne Gacy but no movie about John Wayne — whose as popular today as ever! Julia Child rates but not Margaret Thatcher?"

A few reminders for the constitutionally challenged

THOMAS MITCHELL "Ask a friend, a family member or a co-worker about the Constitution and what it does. You are likely to be told it grants Americans their rights and assures democratic elections and fair trials, or something along those lines. You'll also learn these things belong only to individual Americans. Foreigners and corporations are not covered." H/t to Neal Boortz.

ANSWER THE DAMNED QUESTION!

Neal Boortz "[Chris] Wallace pressed the issue, but Gibbs just flatly refused to answer the question. Sadly, Wallace didn't demand an answer. Perhaps Wallace was afraid that if he pushed the issue any further he would never get the President's spokesman on the show again."

Former Fetuses Unite: So What, Really, Is the Problem with the Tim Tebow Ad?

Kyle-Anne Shiver "Tim Tebow, with quite astounding football prowess, is one child who was allowed to live. And grow and prosper. And succeed. To the delight of his parents and his family, friends and football fans. Since 1973, 51 million Americans just like him were not given this privilege. They were killed by abortionists before they had the chance to show what they could be. And that is a message that the abortion lobby cannot dare let come to light. Therein lies the problem with the Tebow ad."

AHMADINEJAD: 'Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on Feb. 11'

Atlas Shrugs "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the "global arrogance" on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution."The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism," Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday."

The Shaming of John Edwards

PoliticalWire "...I am starting to believe that ABC News is playing a major role in something important: a public shaming of Edwards. And that is news, because it has seemed, at least since Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, that our culture has lost touch with the concept of public shame." H/t to Taegan Goddard.