Free Republic

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Democratic Party’s most prominent figures warned that abortion, Social Security and democracy itself are at risk as they labored to overcome fierce political headwinds — and an ill-timed misstep from President Joe Biden — over the final weekend of the 2022 midterm elections. “Sulking and moping is not an option,” former President Barack Obama told several hundred voters on a blustery day in Pittsburgh. “On Tuesday, let’s make sure our country doesn’t get set back 50 years,” Obama said. “The only way to save democracy is if we, together, fight for it.” Obama acknowledged that voters...

Democrats always had the White House — until last week. As their majorities in Congress slipped away and they ceded the lead in governorships over the past six years, President Obama and his top lieutenants comforted themselves with the changing demographics that they said would make it impossible for a Republican to win the top job. Donald Trump punctured that belief in stunning fashion last week, sending Democratic voters scrambling to make sense of their losses and igniting a new battle for the party’s soul that promises to last for months.

President Barack Obama is not happy with the way Fox News portrays him, arguing that he has become a caricature on the cable network. “There’s me, and then there’s this character named ‘Barack Obama’ who is slightly different on Fox News than he is on MSNBC,” Obama said in an interview with the New York Times style section. Obama met with actor Bryan Cranston at the White House and talked about his legacy and that of President Lyndon Johnson — the subject of Cranston’s latest movie.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, listening to that excerpt from Ed Henry, you would think that's the campaign speech of someone running against Barack Obama. Obama is indicting the four years, the five years he's been president. He said the rich have done well, everybody else has stalled, inequality has increased. Well, the four years, the five years are his years. Essentially, he's saying my job now is to undo what I have done in the five years of my presidency. It's hardly sort of a ringing call to arms. I'm sure they now tested all of these words, inequality, opportunity, all...

Do not be seduced by the disproportionate emphasis on recent events with regard to Barack Obama's pending landslide loss. I submit that a more sober analysis indicates that November 2012 has been inevitable for at least four years. In some ways, it's been inevitable for even longer than that. You see, Barack Obama and his statist agenda have failed because they could not possibly succeed. In a way, electing Obama was liberal America's dash off a cliff -- and the 2012 election is merely the day they officially make contact with the ground. There has been no other outcome possible....

The inability of President Obama to run this country has reached new levels of concern, including within the Democratic Party itself. The idea of challenging a sitting president for the presidential nomination is practically unheard of, but then we are not talking about normal times, nor an acceptable performance. (The only incumbent Democratic president to lose a second term was Jimmy Carter, who was unseated by Ronald Reagan.) Obama's lack of effective leadership is no longer a neutral factor; it's a loss. Many believe the country will not recover with him at the helm. A Washington Post poll said only...

...as it stands right now, Obama’s failing to connect and Garrett cited his so-called Twitter town hall meeting as an attempt almost in desperation to resurrect the messaging success the president in his prior election. “[I]f people aren’t listening to you on that core message, it doesn’t matter what you say anymore,” he said.

<p>WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama was proud and House Speaker John Boehner was exhilarated.</p> <p>No, this wasn't a celebration of some big White House-Congress deal on the national debt. Just a couple of weekend golfers hitting the links on a sunny Saturday.</p>

The Headline underneath says "The Final Drive" Odd that a private citizen who currently holds no office and isn't running for one would be placed on equal footing with the de facto president of the United States. Hmmmmmmmm....

Headline only.

This is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but it is, finally, the end of the beginning. And what a relief. Even though Hillary Clinton refused to let everyone exhale until she said we could, Obama won. Period. So why am I not utterly elated? ItÂ’s partly the weird slow-motion victory, a slog punctuated by a few thrilling nights (Iowa in January, the Potomac and Wisconsin primaries in February, North Carolina a month ago) but no knockout punch, no definitive high-five moment. Mainly, however, itÂ’s because now, without any imminent do-or-die threat to ObamaÂ’s candidacy, my...