The Super Majority

Millions Unemployed as Obama Lives It Up on Broadway

Even before the Obamas left Washington, the there-and-back trip drew criticism from Republicans who questioned the president’s decision to travel to New York for a night of entertainment during a recession and while automakers struggle to survive.

His public schedule listed no official events, so President Obama had plenty of time to devote to being a weekend dad and spouse.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama watched daughter Malia’s soccer game for an hour Saturday morning in the Palisades neighborhood, a short drive from the White House.

For the evening, the first couple jetted to New York City for date night.

They dined a little more than two hours at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant, then headed to the August Wilson Theater to make it in time for “Jersey Boys.”

Read the Full Article at Fox News

Obama’s European Energy Vacation

President Barack Obama hopscotched through Europe last month, partly to cement partnerships on energy cooperation and climate change. At nearly every stop on his Grand Tour, the president noted that the United States could learn a lot from Europe in terms of clean energy production and fighting global warming. He kept it up on his return, lamenting to an Earth Day crowd in Iowa that the United States gets less than 3 percent of our electricity from renewable energy, while Denmark generates almost 20 percent of its electricity from wind power.

Obama is absolutely right that we can learn a lot from the European approach to energy. But he is dead wrong on what those lessons are. We should study what the Europeans are doing with regard to energy and the environment, and then generally do the opposite. Sadly, indications are that the Obama administration will ignore the accumulated evidence of Europe’s energy failings and instead emulate some of the worst aspects of policies across the pond.

Read the Full Article at Real Clear Politics

Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Court is Where Policy is Made

Identity Politics on the Supreme Court

Responding to early 19th-century rumors that they drank excessively, the Supreme Court justices decided to drink nothing on conference days — unless it was raining. At the next conference, Chief Justice John Marshall asked Joseph Story to scan the sky for signs of rain. When Story said he saw none, Marshall said: “Our jurisdiction extends over so large a territory that the doctrine of chances makes it certain that it must be raining somewhere — let us refresh ourselves.”

Americans have argued about the court’s jurisdiction forever. They should not stop, especially now that the president has nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

The 1987 fight over President Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork interred the tradition that the Senate, in evaluating judicial nominees, would not delve deeply into the nominee’s jurisprudential thinking. Bork’s defeat was unjust, but the new approach to confirmations was overdue, given the court’s increasingly central role in American governance.

Read the Full Article at Townhall

Elections Have Concequences

Sen. John McCain reacted to President Obama’s pick of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court by reminding his audience that “elections have consequences.”
Sen. McCain said he most likely would not have nominated Judge Sotomayor had he won the presidential election last November.

“I committed to nominating people to the US Supreme Court and other courts if I had been elected, and they were what they call strict constitutionalists, who strictly adhere to the Constitution. Justice Sotomayor may be qualified and we will examine that, but I think I would not have nominated her,” McCain said during an interview this morning on KQTH FM in Tucson, Arizona.

And perhaps undermining a key Republican line of attack on Judge Sotomayor, Sen. McCain said it will be the examination of her legal opinions as a sitting judge — not her words before public audiences — to which he will give the most weight when considering her nomination.

Read the Full Article at ABC News

Obama Gets Schooled in Duel with Cheney

It was a tale of two speeches. One was clear, direct and powerful. Barack Obama gave the other speech.

It would have been heresy to write those words any other time, so commanding has President Obama been with the spoken word. But the real Mission Impossible was to imagine that wheezy old Dick Cheney would be the speaker to best Obama.

Yet that happened last week, and I predict it won’t be a fluke. From here on out, results will increasingly trump the sensation of Obama’s high-toned lectures every time.

Read the Full Article at NY Daily News

Liberals Outraged Over Gun Rights, Guantanamo Votes

Frustrated liberals are asking why a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House can’t manage to close the Guantanamo prison or keep new gun-rights laws from passing.

After all, President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the military detention center on Cuba for suspected terrorists. And Democratic control of the government would suggest that any gun legislation leads to tighter controls on weapons, not expanded use.

Even as they grouse, however, liberal lawmakers acknowledge that no one factor explains last week’s disappointing back-to-back votes in Congress.

Read the Full Article at BreitBart

Will Media Notice Powell Defended Bush and Agreed with Cheney?

It seems a metaphysical certitude that in the wake of Colin Powell’s appearance on “Face the Nation” Sunday, most media outlets will pay great attention to the former Secretary of State’s response to what Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh have said about his questionable Party allegiance.

Here are some of the early headlines:

* Powell Still a Republican, Despite Party Differences — New York Times
* Powell to Republicans: Listen to moderates, too — Associated Press
* Powell Takes on Cheney, Limbaugh in Battle for Republican Party — Bloomberg

Unfortunately, in their fascination with conflict, the press could miss the most interesting part of this interview when Powell defended what George W. Bush did after the 9/11 attacks (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, relevant section at 12:20):

Read the Full Article at NewsBusters

Obama Straw Man Watch

“The Straw Man fallacy involves the attribution or assumption of a position, which is then attacked or dismissed, The problem is that the position dismissed by the argument is not the real ‘man’ or ‘person’, but a caricature of the real position held.”—Christopher W. Tindale, Fallacies and Argument Appraisal, January 2007

Obama’s Straw Man Attacks

We can’t afford to let the same phony arguments and bad habits of Washington kill financial reform and leave American consumers and our economy vulnerable to another meltdown. Rquo

President Barack Obama, “Weekly Address: President Obama Applauds Important Step Forward on Financial Reform,” December 12, 2009

Read the Full Article on Karl Rove’s Website

Why Pelosi Must Go

It’s obvious that either Leon Panetta, Obama’s head of the CIA, or Nancy Pelosi, his party’s Speaker of the House, has to go. No administration can tolerate a permanent, public civil war between two such high-ranking officials.

Especially when their disagreement stems not from issues of policy but from matters of veracity and credibility, the battle must end in one of their resignations. You cannot have the head of the nation’s first line of defense against terrorism calling the Speaker of the House a liar and being attacked by her in turn.

Obviously, Obama cannot fire Panetta. First of all, he just appointed him. And second, to cave in to Pelosi (D-Calif.) would earn him the massive disrespect and disapproval of the very operatives on whom he must depend to keep the nation safe.

Read the Full Article at Real Clear Politics