Free Republic

The arrogance of this president is staggering. He is so convinced he is immune from accountability that he thinks he can thumb his nose at Republicans and refuse even to come to the table and negotiate. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent a memo to his party membership providing an update on the government shutdown, lamenting that Obama wouldn't negotiate and quoting author Bob Woodward's describing Obama's refusal as "baffling" and "in stark contrast to" President Clinton's approach. But unfazed, Obama will not come to the table. This is always the attitude he cops with Republicans. "I don't want you...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. There’s a hoary old joke about the parson who is treed by a bear. The clergyman prays most earnestly to God, but in an even-handed way: “Lord, I know I’m a sinner, but I beg you: If you won’t help me, please do not help that bear!” Christian persecution around the world is no joke. It is mounting daily. And it is coming in many of those Muslim majority lands to which President Obama famously extended, not a clenched fist, but an open hand. Along with his open hand too often...

As Washington wrestles with the challenge of keeping the government's lights on and paying the bills, the Democrats have hunkered down in their familiar "no more spending cuts" position. The House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says, "We all want to reduce the deficit." However, "There's no more cuts to make," she says. "The cupboard is bare." Harry Reid accuses thrift-minded Republicans of extortion, and calls them anarchists, arsonists, and extremists. The President has no time for Congressional Republicans. "I will not negotiate," with elected representatives of the people, he says. Obama's chief adviser likened Republicans to terrorists with "a bomb...

President Obama made news with two phone calls this week. On one of the calls he pledged fervent cooperation--even though he foresees difficult negotiations ahead. On the other, Obama warned the person on the other end the line that he could expect nothing but the back of his hand. On the first call, he admitted that "while there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward... [he] believe[d] the two parties could reach a comprehensive solution." (Comprehensive, mind you. Not partial, not segmented, but over-arching, all encompassing, and addressing the most important items to both sides. Hence, comprehensive.) On...

On Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz began a filibuster of the worst law passed by the worst President in American history. He vowed to “speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand.” And after 21 hours on his feet, in the true fashion of an “anarchist,” as Harry Reid and the mainstream media smeared him, he politely followed parliamentary procedure, yielded the floor, and exited the Senate chamber. The Senator knew there would come a time when he could no longer stand, but Cruz is from Texas, where you can find the Alamo, the Alamo...

Iran-US: President Rouhani declined to meet with the US President because of Iranian domestic political considerations. Comment: The significance is that the Iranian snubbed the American before the American reportedly decided whether to meet the Iranian. This resonates little in the US, but in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, this is a bold action. The image of the soft-spoken, conciliatory Iranian president who had no time for the American president conveys the illusion of a shift in strategic polarity. The imagery is an illusion, but Iran won the propaganda advantage. It is typical of the Persians who consider themselves...

Ted Cruz is no Joe McCarthy, as so many liberals bizarrely claim. But he might be the conservative Barack Obama. The charge that he's the new McCarthy is something of a compliment from liberals. It means they don't like him, can't really explain why and need to demonize him instead. In other words, he must be doing something right. For conservatives, the comparison to Obama probably stings more than the McCarthyite smear. But think about it. Both men have impeccable educational credentials. Obama went to Occidental College, transferred to Columbia University and got his law degree from Harvard. Cruz went...

I have to admit that the Congressional GOP’s Obamacare defunding strategy has me a little nervous – mostly because it just might work. When the GOP does something clever, I start looking for the other three horsemen of the apocalypse. Designing a strategy starts with understanding the ends you seek. Sure, the memo has gone out about the GOP’s “civil war” and how the GOP is “crazy,” but it seems that the party has a realistic end state in mind. It’s not to stop Obamacare today, or even next year, but in 2017 when we can actually drive a stake...

President Obama contended that the United States would become reminiscent of a banana republic if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling and provide funding for Obamacare in upcoming budget negotiations. “This is the United States of America — we’re not some banana republic, this is not a deadbeat nation, we don’t run out on our tab,” the president said during a speech at a Ford plant in Liberty, Mo., on Friday afternoon. “We just can’t pay our bills.” Earlier today, the House voted and passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government except for Obamacare through the end of...

Serendipitous events do not a strategy make. Watching events surrounding Syria unfold the last few weeks, and the Obama administration and media's cheers of victory these last few days, is proof that our current leadership does not understand the difference between happenstance and strategy. A quick review of events: the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government on civilians; tough talk by President Barack Obama; an administration push for a congressional vote for use of force; Secretary of State John Kerry's off-the-cuff remark regarding Syria giving weapons up to an international group; Russian President Vladimir Putin leveraging the remark...

Whether we are talking about respect for a nation or for an individual, nothing undermines respect more than duplicity -- saying one thing and acting differently. I think it is a big reason why President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech to the nation, in which he attempted to explain why he has proposed military action in Syria, fell so flat. The president cast his rationale for taking action in moral terms; he said a targeted strike against Syria would warn against the future use of poison gas, which killed 1,429 people in an Aug. 21 attack. But the very dubious moral...

National Journal's Ron Fournier, a veteran DC journo who calls 'em like he sees 'em, hasn't been terribly impressed with President Obama's careening and incomprehensible handling of the crisis in Syria. In an unsparing review, Fournier concludes that Obama has demonstrated himself to be naive and isolated. Behold what 'smart power' hath wrought: Naive about the levers of power: Where to start? Obama reversed course on congressional authorization at the last minute, after a private chat with his chief of staff, and to the surprise of his national security team--all in violation of presidential best practices. He then left the...

In August 2012, President Obama inadvertently set America up for war: He said that if Syria crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapons, that would amount to a "game changer". In August 2013, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad apparently did just that, gassing some 1,429 people in Damascus. On Sept. 1, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry made a compelling case for American action in Syria. He did so by comparing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler. Labeling Assad a "thug and a murderer," he said, "Assad now joins the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein (who) have...

When we last checked in on Barack Obama discussing Benghazi on the network news, he was reassuring Brian Williams on the Oct. 25 "Rock Center" that "we're going to do a full investigation." It's a year later, and it's still "we are going to." Last fall, Williams and Obama posed as curious for answers on how this disaster happened. Neither of them has demonstrated any noticeable curiosity since. A new Media Research Center study of Benghazi coverage in 2013 on ABC, CBS and NBC shows there are two routine modes of operation: (a) praising Team Obama's public relations and (b)...

Does anyone believe the president had the foggiest idea what he'll say tonight as recently as mid-afternoon?  He's blown through three different Syria policies -- that we know of -- in the last 48 hours.  And because he promised America a speech, a speech we shall receive.  How will he frame his remarks?  Will they be tailored primarily for a domestic political audience, or for America's adversaries, who have been running rings around him while giggling?  My guess is that he'll issue a deadline and an ultimatum, while talking a lot about how US pressure created an opening for diplomacy...

Barack Obama accelerated his political ascent in 2002 by positioning himself firmly as the voice of anti-war Democrats. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Edwards and John Kerry, then-Illinois state Sen. Obama announced that he opposed the effort to topple Saddam Hussein, not because he opposed all wars, but because he resisted what he called "dumb wars." What was "dumb" about the Iraq War? Sen. Obama didn't say precisely, but he inveighed against "the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats ..."...

Hovering over the congressional debate on whether to authorize the use of military force in Syria is the specter of Iraq. It hung even more menacingly over the debate in the British House of Commons Aug. 29 when a 285-272 majority voted against granting the government such authority. The prevalent idea is that America and Britain were maneuvered into the Iraq War by false intelligence. "Bush lied. People died," Democrats liked to say. Brits denounced Tony Blair's "dodgy dossier." I disagree. Yes, both American and British intelligence estimated with high confidence that Saddam Hussein had active weapons of mass destruction....

Who would have guessed that liberal Democrat Barack Obama would end up being one of the biggest warmongering presidents in history. It is suspected by many that his decision to militarily intervene in Syria is being done to deflect the public’s attention away from Obamacare, the IRS targeting of conservatives and the NSA surveillance scandal. Intervening on behalf of the Syrian rebels is unpopular because it is not clear that the rebels, who have been infiltrated by al Qaeda affiliates and Iranian-backed militias, are any better than President Bashar al-Assad's Shiite-controlled government, and toppling the regime may lead to instability...

Obama wants you to know that he didn’t build that “red line” in Syria. You built it. The roads and bridges and firefighters and the soldiers, sailors and airmen that you pay with your taxes, they built that red line. The seas that have risen unabated thanks to global warming, the despair caused by the War on Women in the Arab world- you know the one where the Catholic Church in the United States objects to paying for abortions and birth control?- these are things the world community contributed to building that red line in Syria. Thus, the world, helped...

The nation will soon know whether or not President Obama will authorize a strike on Syrian military forces. What he will tell us on Tuesday evening, few can factually predict. But if the outcome of his deliberative process does not pose his favored verdict, no one would be surprised if he just did as he originally wished to begin with. But even that is truly a mystery. After all, chemical weapons attacks have been occurring in Syria since March, and it’s only now that we must make some sort of demonstrable stand so that future rogues don't think we're sissies...