Free Republic

It's obvious the camera loves President Barack Obama. But are American audiences growing tired of his seemingly ubiquitous TV appearances? This week alone, the president was on "60 Minutes," held a prime-time press conference (networks reluctantly bumped "American Idol" and "The Biggest Loser" to make room for it), and answered viewer questions at his first-ever online town hall meeting. And all this is in addition to ESPN’s sporadic updates on how his NCAA bracket is doing. The New York Times columnist Gail Collins put it this way: "…there appear to be only two constants in our ever-changing world. One is...

It's obvious the camera loves President Barack Obama. But are American audiences growing tired of his seemingly ubiquitous TV appearances? This week alone, the president has been on "60 Minutes," held a press conference during primetime (networks reluctantly bumped "American Idol" and "Biggest Loser" to make room for it) and answered viewer questions at his first-ever online town hall meeting. And all this is in addition to ESPN’s sporadic updates on how his NCAA bracket is doing. New York Times columnist Gail Collins put it this way: "…there appear to be only two constants in our ever-changing world. One is...

Earlier today, I was parked at the Highland Lakes (Vernon, NJ) post office, picking up my mail. My new bumper sticker (following) was prominently displayed: When I came out and headed to my car, a woman in a nearby car, seeing that I was the owner of the "offending" bumper sticker, said to me: "Yay, President Obama. I voted for him." Real mousy voice, and a mousy looking woman; she looked to me like someone who was smoking dope every night, 25 years ago. Knowing what a waste of time and effort it is to try to educate morons, I...

Just a little humor on what is starting out as bad day for the Dow Jones. As I am watching the little bit of money I have left in stocks that Obama has not taking from me yet, I see the Dow going down, down down. Diving is a better word for it. I would to know if he is talking some where, any where and if any one that may be near him could polity ask him to stop talking.

The TV ratings for February have been tabulated, and in the world of cable news there is weeping on the left. Fox News Channel, which is generally tougher on the president, hammered the two networks that most favor President Obama -- CNN and MSNBC. In fact, Fox News was the third-highest rated prime-time cable network in America, behind USA and TNT. CNN was 15th; MSNBC, a dismal 23rd. Also, unique visitors to the Obama-loving website Daily Kos have declined a whopping 73 percent since last fall -- a disaster. What's going on? It all has to do with fear. While...

As an old joke suggests, inviting socialism into our homes might help us better appreciate the blessings of freedom.Although the mainstream media won’t report it as such, Obama’s approval numbers are shrinking. Which means that elsewhere, certain numbers are growing — the unreported-by-the-MSM growing numbers of Americans who are kicking themselves for not having bothered to read the small print underneath the word “change.”The small print was kind of blurry, while “change” was spelled in huge, pleasing letters on the signs they held at the rallies. The fierce urgency of now was in the air. Everybody was in such...

Nearly one-third of the Fort Myers, Florida police department was assigned to "body removal patrol" - that is, clearing away those who had fainted. Fully one-half of all EMT personnel in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties were called in to resuscitate those for whom it was too much. From Southwest Regional Airport, all the way to the Harborside Events Center where HE spoke last evening, all along the route - and for three miles in each direction off his motorcade path - businesses were ordered closed, residents were ordered to leave, pets rounded up and kept out of sight, and...

Over Tatooine     DOD/Ondik  Most Americans in 2003 thought that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were complementary theaters in the wider war on radical Islamic terrorism and the authoritarian Middle East regimes that aided and abetted it. The anti-Iraq War left agreed that the two fronts were connected—but in an antithetical, rather than a symbiotic, way. For them, the illegitimate, unilateral war in Iraq came at the expense of the lawful multilateral struggle in Afghanistan. Yet a brief review of the two wars not only suggests that such a view is mistaken, but also that it is disingenuous—especially the...

The "Change" Is Definitely Here.  The jury's still out on the "Hope" part   Such a Strange MaladyA strange thing, this Obama worship (cf. the New York Times op-ed on Sunday where the columnist imagined having sexual relations with Obama) and Bush hatred (cf. the Will Farrell Broadway show trashing Bush, and showing images of his purported penis). They are flipside manifestations of the same sickness that has taken hold of a large subset of the population. Millions seems to think by demonizing A and worshipping B, then once intractable problems (that transcend both A’s faults and B’s merits) suddenly, magically...

Sometimes a President Is Just a President The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the president’s health or jealous because of the cigarette. The other day a friend of mine confided that in the weeks leading up to the election, the Obamas’ apparent joy as a couple had made her just miserable. Their marriage looked...

Was it all about power, after all—the furious Hollywood outbursts, novels, and films about killing Bush, and the Kerry-Kennedy-Reid-Pelosi-Durbin sermons on morality and ethics?Was Obamania not about oceans receding and the planet cooling, not about vero possumus, or the Victory Column and a faux-Parthenon ushering in a sort-of-Virgilian new age? Instead, though Bush-Hitler supposedly used to demonize his opponents as un-American, we get silence as Obama now dubs those who jump the Republican ship to vote for his trillion-dollar package as "patriotic" in the way that those who will be willing to pay Joe Biden's new higher taxes are—patriotic? And...

This cartoon is the perfect precursor to some anecdotal observations I thought I'd share regarding the blathering mania for President Obama that still seems to have this country in its clutches. It comes from Zack R. at Diversity Lane, via the great Vocal Minority blog.(Thanks Eric!)Over the course of a two week period, here in the liberal epicenter of the east coast, I decided to break out pen and notepad and do some informal Obama tallying - just for kicks and tickles. My goal was to record how much apparel, merchandise and reading material related to "The One" I would...

It was the love affair that could never be, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans. The two sides came together en masse Tuesday for the first time since Obama took the oath of office. Despite the niceties, both sides walked away spurned. In many ways, Obama told the assembled Republicans everything they would want to hear, according to people in the meetings. He promised to make tough spending choices in his first budget blueprint — “everyone will have to take a haircut,” he said. He told them he wouldn’t increase the size of government just to increase the size of...

While watching the Obama inauguration on television, I could not help but be struck by two very different emotions. On the one hand, I was happy for the African-American community. An African-American President in the White House is certainly a symbol of affirmation of the civil rights movement. However, on the other hand, I was also left with a feeling of disappointment when I contemplated just who is President. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched for civil rights, he was building upon a legacy set in motion by those before him. People like Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens opened...

In case Sasha and Malia Obama don't have enough social engagements, the First Daughters now have an open invitation to visit the set of the next Harry Potter film — from Daniel Radcliffe himself. "I'd like to take this opportunity to issue a public invitation to the Obamas that if their daughters would like a private tour of the Harry Potter set, I would be honored to be their personal tour guide," he said in an interview with The Daily Beast. But he may have to wait. The girls have already been invited to the set of Hannah Montana, and...

Folks, there aren’t enough words to express the abhorrence of the Bush Haters for their hate-filled treatment of President George W. Bush at Obama’s inauguration. Signs reading Impeach Bush (for what); Prosecute Bush (for what?); Jail Bush and Cheney, etc., were everywhere. People actually gave Bush the finger — while he was still President of the United States — before Obama was sworn in. They booed. They jeered. They mocked. They sang the 1969 rock hit “Na Na, Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye” (by the group Steam) as his helicopter carried him from the Capitol grounds for the final time....

Why can't governments operate more like businesses? In a twist of fate, the White House now is demonstrating how businesses should operate. Including online. This was evidenced, perhaps more than anywhere else, at 12:01 p.m. during the Presidential inauguration, at www.whitehouse.gov/blog. Yes, the White House now has a blog! I subscribed to in my Google reader. Did you? Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, explained: "Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just...

An empty bottle of HopieChangie: Someone call Diane Sawyer a cab While none of us can be faulting for overindulging this week, for one reputed journalist--one flask of HopieChangie just wasn't enough. Courtesy of Gawker.com, Diane Sawyer has been awarded the Oscar for "Drunkest Former Nixon Staffer." Check out the attached video...which brings new meaning to a "media hangover."

This morning, in DuPont Circle, eight blocks from the White House, Bush Derangement Syndrome raged among the old coots of VFP, VVAW, IVAW, Code Pink, World Can’t Wait and who knows who else was there. Their main attraction was throwing shoes at this thirty-foot blow up of George Bush in a flight suit to remind you of the “Mission Accomplished” chapter of his presidency.

Filmmaker Ron Howard was chatting in Maureen Dowd's living room, saying he didn't mind spending hours in the cold for the inauguration and that even his conservative brother had come to admire Barack Obama. Outside on the chilly Sunday night, Tom Hanks decided against venturing into the jam-packed row house, mock-announcing to a small crowd on the Georgetown street that the party was paralyzed: "No more hot dogs! The Chinese food never got here!" The country's big-name anchors, actors, commentators, news executives, producers, editors and scribes have been celebrating the quadrennial event -- and themselves -- at one glitzy gathering...