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Contradicting the faultless, albeit far-fetched image he has of himself, Barack Obama is a man harassed by truth. That's why, judging from his inability to accept personal responsibility, Barack Obama must be living in a constant state of agitated cognitive dissonance. The late Leon Festinger is the social psychologist who proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance. According to Festinger, until the person suffering with perceptual disharmony can find a way to justify wrong actions and decisions, it's impossible to achieve a calm mental state, especially when those wrong actions and decisions challenge the way the cognitively dissonant individual sees himself.That's...

President Obama said that gridlock on Capitol Hill stemmed from an inability to "penetrate the Republican base" and convince voters there that he's "not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh," rather than his oft-questioned willingness to socialize with lawmakers. In bonus excerpts from an interview with The New Yorker's David Remnick, Obama conceded that there was "no doubt that personal relationships matter at the margins and can tip something over the finish line," and admitted that he "wasn't in a position to work the social scene in Washington" as the father of two young girls....

WASHINGTON — A Christmas gift from the Obama family to a close friend in Chicago's south suburbs missed its mark by about 65 miles this week, but the unintended recipient said she turned it over to a U.S. postal official Thursday and it was delivered to the rightful owner. Eleanor “Kaye” Wilson of Olympia Fields, the godmother to Malia and Sasha Obama who is known to the family as “Mama Kaye,” told the Tribune that she was supposed to get the gift, a book of Obama family photos, but there was a “mix-up.” The gift was delivered instead to Alane...

ByStephanie Condon CBS News December 13, 2013, 6: 31 PM Sebelius dodges question about whether she offered resignation Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday refused to say whether she's offered to resign in the wake of botched rollout of the new Obamacare marketplaces. "I'm not going to discuss what I talk about with the president," Sebelius said from Miami, where she was promoting the new marketplaces. Earlier this week at a congressional hearing, Sebelius acknowledged to lawmakers that the launch of HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website, was "flawed and failed and frustrating." She hasaccepted responsibility for the failed...

As many of you know, I spent a good part of 2012 trying to get the Mitt Romney campaign to give me a shot at writing, co-writing or re-writing his speeches. Alas, I never managed to scale the castle wall. So it wasn’t my fault that the only things he said that anyone ever remembered were that 47% of the people would never vote for him and that 20 million illegal immigrants should self-deport. Over the past 12 or 13 years, I have written over 1,300 articles and six books from a conservative perspective, but every time I turn around,...

President Barack Obama told his enthusiastic supporters Monday night that he never promised what video recordings show him promising at least 29 times. The videos show Obama promising 300 million Americans that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period.” (snip)

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – Amid a government shutdown, looming U.S. default and partisan bickering in Congress, President Barack Obama was still able to focus on one of the more positive, “cool” things about his job. In a round of interviews with local television stations addressing the threat of a Thursday deadline for raising the U.S. debt limit, President Obama told WABC-TV’s Diana Williams that their respective daughters both share the view that celebrity friends are one of the “coolest” perks to the job. “My daughter asked me to ask you, what is the coolest thing about being president?” asked Williams. “She...

Mortimer Zuckerman is a Canadian-born American real estate/media tycoon and co-founder, chairman and CEO of Boston Properties, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States. He is also owner/publisher of the New York Daily News and of U.S. News & World Report, where he serves as editor-in-chief, used to own The Atlantic, and is worth about two-and-a-half billion bucks. In addition to all that, he's a regular and entertaining guest on the good ole McLaughlin Report, where I do enjoy Zuckerman's well-supported turn on Obama: seems he's deeply alarmed by where Dear Leader's taking us, particularly regarding...

Dear President Obama, You strike me as the sort of man who spends a lot of time staring at his own reflection. I wonder, what do you see when you gaze so admiringly at yourself? Let me guess: a graceful Greek god with a golden crown, draped in luxurious robes, perched on a giant, magnificent throne atop a mountain in the sky? You see a throng of angels singing your praises and masses of subservient peasants prostrated before you, trembling with fear and awe? My impression of you is quite different, and it has only been solidified by your performance...

Disgusting effu to the Brits. What a POS.

President Obama's decision to cancel his planned trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin was the right thing to do in light of Russia's decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden. But it also illustrates problems of the president's own making. One of Obama's chief aims upon assuming office was to remake the image of the United States in the world's eyes. And he has -- but not in the way he imagined. Speaking in Cairo in 2009, Obama promised specifically a "new beginning" in American foreign policy. Many interpreted the speech to be merely a criticism...

We have listened to President Obama's comments about the verdict in the Zimmerman Case. People are focusing on this quote: "Trayvon Martin could've been me 35 years ago." To focus on this one line misses the nuances of the President's message, which includes comments about how African Americans view the Zimmerman Case in the context of the history of racial disparity in America. For more than a year, we have been listening to the conversation about this case – from voices on every side – and we have become very sensitive to the racial context that surrounds this case. We...

[The Occupant] The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of Iowa and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding during the period of May 19 to June 14, 2013. Federal funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storms, tornadoes, and floodng i

As a conservative, picking out things you don't like about Barack Obama is kind of like pointing to the wettest part of the ocean. It also goes beyond politics. Not only is Barack Obama wrong politically, he's not a good guy, "cool," or even moderately likable. To the contrary, he's one of the nastiest, least admirable people in politics and he gets by based on a phony persona he created when he ran for President in 2008 -- along with the help of press corps liberals that work to protect him like they're on his payroll. Based on his performance...

Well, well, well, so Obama has embarked on his third war in little more than two years. You've got to admit that "flexibility" is his middle name. Or at least one of his middle names: Barack Barry Hussein "Flexibility" Soetoro Obama, Jr. Those are the names we know so far, but The Donald thinks there might be more. Whodda thunk? Here we are barely into the first week of what started out as a "No-Fly Zone" and it is now turning out to be Air Al Qaida. Ten years ago, AQ had a mere four civilian airplanes to crash into...

In an apparent planning snafu, President Obama today will visit an early learning school in Decatur, Georgia that happens to be in recess this week. But no problem: According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, staff and bus drivers will be summoned back to work for the day to accomodate Obama’s appearance. College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center Principle Suzanne Kennedy alerted parents that the staff will interrupt their vacations for the “amazing opportunity” for students to “expand their worlds” by seeing the president: President Obama’s visit is an honor for College Heights and the City Schools of Decatur. Since the school...

Tonight (Feb. 8), Bruce Springsteen will receive the MusiCares’ 2013 Person of the Year award for his history of philanthropic and political works. In a new interview, Springsteen discuss his longtime commitment to activism, and how it has influenced his own work. Once unwilling to speak his mind on the issues of the day, Springsteen has now played an active role in the last three presidental elections. He finds performing at a political rally to be a different challenge than a sold-out arena, but possibly more rewarding. “I go to Ohio with Jay-Z,” he told Robert Santelli, the Executive Director...

Video at link. President Obama has a very serious ego problem, and when he goes off teleprompter, it sticks out like a sore thumb. His eulogy for Senator Inouye on Friday was grotesque in its focus on the speaker, not the dearly departed. Unsurprisingly, President George W. Bush delivered a graceful eulogy for Gerald R. Ford's funeral, a model from which his successor should, but will not, learn. As David Paulin points out: A great funeral eulogy and not a single mention of "I" or "me" by President Bush. He says "us" and "we" at two points, both only in...

Barack Obama flew to Hawaii this week after fiscal-cliff negotiations stalled, in part for a Christmas vacation, and in part to attend the memorial service for the late Senator Daniel Inouye. Obama offered a eulogy for Inouye, which usually means offering insights into the deceased’s life and character. Instead, as is Obama’s wont, he talked more about himself than the man whose life was supposed to be the center of attention.Even Slate noticed the problem, and blasted Obama for his narcissistic streak: Someone needs to tell Barack Obama—it must get particularly confusing this time of year—that his own birth is...