Free Republic

President Obama believes that the United States is less racially divided than when he took office in 2009. Asked in an NPR interview set to air starting Monday whether the nation is more racially divided than six years ago, Obama said "No." "I actually think that it's probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided," Obama told "Morning Edition" host Steve Inskeep. Excerpts of the interview were released before broadcast by NPR. A majority of Americans, 53 percent, believe that race relations have worsened under America's first black president, compared to 36 percent who say they have stayed the same...

“No,” the president answered. “I actually think that it’s probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided.” Inskeep also asked the president about working with a Congress where both houses are controlled by Republicans. Obama offered a familiar answer. “Now you’ve got Republicans in a position where it’s not enough for them simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt and then blame me,” he said.

Americans are inveterate tinkerers — a trait commented on by observers from de Tocqueville to Winston Churchill. That’s why it’s not surprising that the bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would want to keep tweaking Obamacare. Mind you, it’s not so much because they think they can perfect the law. Rather, they keep tweaking the law in order to keep the American people from brandishing pitchforks and coming to Washington to tar and feather them and ride them out of town on a rail. Self-preservation can be a marvelous motivating factor. The geniuses who brought us the...