Free Republic

In the delirious-sheeple afterglow of Barack Obama's 'historic' election victory in 2008, a strange thing happened that December: he appointed his critical -openly hostile-and recently defeated primary opponent Hillary Clinton to the head the State Department... Was it based upon her qualifications?  Doubtful, considering that Shrillary had no foreign policy experience to speak of. Other presidents lacking diplomatic exposure have traditionally brought someone who themselves had such a background to the vital State Department position- alas, somehow Obama didn't feel the need.But perhaps the most unsettling concern for many observers was the fact that Clinton's judgement is warped by her blinding ambition...

As usual, Americans approve of a State of the Union speech. But this speech will be remembered not for anything that was said but for where people sat, and for the fact that a new man sat behind the president for the first time, House Speaker John Boehner, who, if he leads well in the next year, could be in that camera shot long after President Obama has retired. It would be puff talk to label the speech pedestrian. There was nothing new at all in the speech, and quite a lot recycled from old Team Obama rhetoric. In the...