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President Barack Obama on Friday blamed dysfunction in Congress on a Republican Party he said is captive to an ideologically rigid, unproductive and cynical faction, urging like-minded Democrats to show up for November's midterm elections. Addressing Democratic donors at a fundraiser in Rhode Island and another in New York, Obama said Republicans had realized that blocking all progress led Americans to become cynical about government. Republicans consider that "a pretty good thing" because they don't believe in government to begin with, Obama said. "It doesn't have to be that way," Obama said during a barbecue in Purchase, New York. "There...

Full Title: Obama: Too Many Leaders Claim Solidarity With Mandela, "But Do Not Tolerate Dissent From Their Own People" Obama: ".... There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard." (Watch video at link) Note: Title says it all

The current troubles of the Obama presidency can be read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies—and, more significantly, in the man himself. If Barack Obama seems like a man alone, with nervous Democrats up for re-election next year running for cover, and away from him, this was the world he made. No advisers of stature can question his policies; the price of access in the Obama court...

Here’s everything we know so far, and everything we’re likely to know for the foreseeable future as the State Department has announced a “no further questions” policy. Not that the MSM would ask any questions likely to embarrass Big Guy anyway. Lessons learned: 1. It’s wrong to politicize lethal attacks on our embassies if you’re running against Big Guy. 2. The best way not to politicize this is to keep calm and carry on as if nothing happened; i.e., continue to skip daily intelligence meetings and attend all previously scheduled fundraisers. 3. This “volatile situation” in the Mid-East is not...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Marc Thiessen, opinion writer, Washington Post: "Obama Alone: This President Does Not Need Intel Briefers." Wait 'til you hear this spin. We've already got Obama walking back a major gaffe, this statement that Egypt is not an ally. They have been since 1989. Regardless the Muslim Brotherhood situation now, they've always been an ally. Folks, they've had to walk that back now. This is a major gaffe, and even foreign policy media people know this, and that's why they're walking this back, because there are some people who are not in the media laying down...

The 2009 political year began on a high note of "change" and "hope" and ended in a thud of stalemate, despair and public fury over the economy, health care reform and the war in Afghanistan. No wonder it may go down as the year of the angry voter. Americans will remember 2009 as much for the grassroots protests - at "Tea Party" rallies and town hall meetings crashed by conservatives to demonstrations by public-option-favoring anti-war progressives - as the Beltway grudge matches that characterized President Obama's first year in office. In California, residents endured months of bitter, partisan battles in...

President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter. The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks. Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks. Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual...

Right out of the gate, President Barack Obama has reauthorized federal tax revenue to perform abortions around the globe and appointed a tax cheat to run the Treasury Department. His new attorney general was involved with Bill Clinton's dubious pardon of a billionaire financier who fled the U.S. to avoid federal tax evasion charges. I can hardly wait for Obama's Supreme Court picks. Americans deserve the government they get. And for the next four years we're going to get it good and hard. Alex Coalson

There will probably be some who don’t pick up on the reference to the classic Mel Brook’s movie Blazing Saddles, but today’s signing of the Executive Order by President Barack Obama calling for the close of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay was not unlike watching a scene from what is one of the funniest motion pictures ever made.The President reminded me of Governor William J. Lepetomane (Mel Brooks), the man in charge who is far more focused on the buoyant breasts of the lady in his office than the matters at hand. By his side is Hedley Lamarr (Harvey...