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"Finally I can know what it's like to have a President smarter than me." This was said by a very intelligent friend of mine after November 4, 2008, when Candidate Obama became President-Elect Obama. It was, for the college-educated cosmopolitan set, a triumph of rationality, of the reality-based community, over the flyover states, over the Red Americans, over the redneck cowboyism that ruled America from 2001 to 2008. This is what came to mind when reading this piece by Vox's Ezra Klein on "Obama Derangement Syndrome" - and specifically, when Klein says that "Bush Derangement Syndrome" was really a policy...

President George W. Bush was fond of saying that "9/11 changed everything." He used that one-liner often as a purported moral basis to justify the radical restructuring of federal law and the federal assault on personal liberties over which he presided. He cast aside his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution; he rejected his oath to enforce all federal laws faithfully; and he moved the government decidedly in the direction of secret laws, secret procedures and secret courts. During his presidency, Congress enacted the Patriot Act. This legislation permits federal agents to write their own search warrants when...

We think we’ve found the closest thing you will ever see to a scholarly defense of George W. Bush. “Let me begin by acknowledging that George W. Bush is unlikely to be remembered as a great president,” Stephen F. Knott of the Naval War College wrote in an article which appeared in Citizens and Statesmen last year. “Bush’s management of the war in Iraq and of the aftermath of Hurricane Kartrina, his share of responsibility for the collapse of the economy in 2008, his contribution to the national debt, his excessive loyalty to incompetent subordinates (George Tenet) or to disloyal...

LAST WEEK Deval Patrick shed the title he had worn for eight years. This week he donned the first of what will doubtless be a batch of new titles: The commonwealth's former governor announced plans to join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a "visiting innovation fellow" at the school's Innovation Initiative.As Patrick re-acclimates to life in the private sector, there will be plenty to keep him busy. He told Fortune magazine that he has been approached by venture firms, equity firms, and corporations. He will have his pick of speaking engagements and media appearances. And the political hive will...

"We Blame George W. Bush" is a recurring category in James Taranto's "Best of the Web Today" column at the Wall Street Journal. The meme mocks the penchant of progressives to blame the former president for everything under the sun. The phenomenon was illustrated in an ugly way on last night's Rachel Maddow Show. Dem Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut blamed the existence of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists on, yup, W. Oh, Murphy didn't call 43 out by name. He didn't have to. Instead, Murphy went out of his way to claim that the murderers weren't radicalized by ISIS [which...

October 30, 2001. Game 3 of the World Series. George Bush throws out the first pitch of World Series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxR1tZ08FcIIn the frenzy of the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, George Bush made his country proud. In the aftermath of what some call France's 9-11, Barack Obama hid. Twitchy noted Obama's absence: Barack Obama sent three representatives to the funeral of Michael Brown. He sent a pathetic fundraiser to France. In the aftermath of 9-11, French President Jacques Chirac was the first outside head of state to visit the US. Obama couldn't be bothered with France. He hid. (Excerpt) Read more...

RUSH: I got a note from a friend who had just watched the open to Greta Van Susteren last night on the Fox News Channel. Let me read you the note: "Dear Rush: Watching Greta's opener just now. She has Amy Kellogg, Fox reporterette on from Paris. And Amy Kellogg says that one of the two Kouachi brothers who killed the French magazine people said that he was moved by images of Abu Ghraib." And my friend sent me this in a state of -- two states. He was in a state of panic and also a state of exultation...

He's mad .. and rightfully so. Without any notice, his Sat. radio address was televised live. He's putting Congress and the press on notice that he's got the authority to do what he's done to protect US .. that Congress was notified at least a dozen times about these NSA oversights .. and that the press leaks and any such security leaks are illegal and are aiding and abetting the enemy. Whoo .. fireworks to come, and go get 'em W!

out ahead of release of CIA report Published December 09, 2014 FoxNews.com Facebook418 Twitter638 livefyre5142 Email Print Now Playing Jon Stewart apologizes for error in police shootings segment Never autoplay videos Top Republicans are lashing out ahead of the release of a long-anticipated report on the CIA's interrogation techniques, calling the decision to disclose the documents “unconscionable.” Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, spoke out in a statement late Monday after lawmakers and Obama administration officials warned that releasing the report could lead to a backlash against Americans around the world. The White House nevertheless is backing the...

<p>Former President Bush has spoken at length about his close ties to former President Bill Clinton, at times calling him his "brother from another mother."</p> <p>CNN's Candy Crowley asked Bush during an interview published Friday where that leaves Hillary Clinton: "My sister-in-law!" the president responded light-heartedly.</p>

The “Smithsonian” magazine compiled a list of the “100 most significant Americans,” and to the dismay of his fan base President Obama failed to make the cut. Adding insult to injury, former President George W. Bush made the list. But it gets even better, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was also included. The liberal website Raw Story bemoaned the very idea that the Smithsonian Institution “decided that George W. Bush is a more ‘significant’ figure in U.S. history” than the exalted one. Curiously, the only redeeming qualification Raw Story named when mentioning Obama is that he was the country’s first...

Former President George W. Bush has a simple explanation for why he almost never criticizes his successor: He feels it undermines the office of the presidency. In an interview that aired Thursday night on Fox News' "Hannity," Bush insisted he would not attack President Barack Obama even though he continued to have strong opinions about national politics. "I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president undermine a current president; I think it's bad for the presidency for that matter," Bush said, according to video posted by Mediaite.

A US nurse who got infected with Ebola but has recovered got a special gift on Friday, November 7, when former President George W. Bush visited the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where the first case of the disease in the US was diagnosed. Bush gave Amber Vinson a kiss and a big hug during a visit to the hospital, where she works, to celebrate the end of the Ebola outbreak in Texas. Vinson, along with colleague Nina Pham, contracted the disease while treating index patient, Thomas Eric Duncan from Liberia.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 361(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264(b)), it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Based upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the "Secretary"), in consultation with the Surgeon General, and for the purpose of specifying certain communicable diseases for regulations providing for the apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of suspected communicable diseases, the following communicable diseases are hereby specified pursuant...

Contrary to the expectations of all 16 of our U.S. intelligence agencies, the "weapons hunters" sent to Iraq by President George W. Bush found no "stockpiles" of WMD. Never mind that there was a 15-month run-up to the war, during which time Saddam was not combing his moustache. A former Iraqi general, Georges Sada, who met with members of Congress, has long claimed Saddam Hussein moved tons of WMD by land and air into Syria during the run-up to the 2003 invasion. James Clapper, the current Director of National Intelligence, has also said publicly that he, too, believes the WMD...

As a nervous nation watches the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola crisis, many Americans have concluded that the country’s top health officials seem more concerned with stopping the spread of panic than stopping the spread of the virus. But Americans’ fear is only growing, and one reason is that too few people believe what the president of the United States says anymore. A recent poll asked Americans this question: “How often does Barack Obama lie to the country on important matters?” Not about sex. Not about whether he really likes baseball. Not whether he still cadges an occasional cigarette...

It shouldn’t be surprising that Republicans are just as angry as Michelle Obama is reported to have been about the Secret Service’s failure to keep an intruder out of the White House, and its four-day failure to realize that a sniper’s gunshots hit the first family’s residence. Not everybody evidently feels this way when a Republican is in the White House. The New York Times movie critic’s verdict on the 2006 movie: “‘The Death of a President’ is, in the end, neither terribly outrageous nor especially heroic; it’s a thought experiment that traffics in received ideas.” ... If Baker thinks...

Well, this sounds a bit like a strategy, does it not? John Kerry’s essay in the New York Times this weekend (in one of the more sleepy news cycles of the year) raises echoes from both Bush administrations in dealing with a clear threat to global security, and in fact explicitly cites the first Bush coalition to repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. That has its own irony, but we’ll get back to that in a moment. Kerry prefaces this call for a global coalition on the imminent and clear threat from ISIS, which Kerry argues exceeds that of any...

Former President George W. Bush said Thursday that thinks his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), wants to be president. "I think he wants to be president, I think he'd be a great president. He understands what it's like to be president," Bush said in a Fox News interview. "He's seen his dad, he's seen his brother. He's a very thoughtful man and he’s weighing his options." The Bush brothers met in Dallas on Wednesday, and the former president said he was "pushing" his brother to run. "He, of course, was saying 'I haven’t made up my mind,' and...