Free Republic

Barack Obama has always been known for his silken words, soaring rhetoric and ability to use language to his advantage. Lately, however, the president seems to be losing command of the details. In a speech at a fundraiser in New York on Wednesday night, he took aim at Todd Akin, the political punch bag du jour on both sides of the political aisle. ‘Recently, some of you have been paying attention to the commentary of the Senator of Missouri, Mr Akin, who - the interesting thing here is that this is an individual who sits on the House Committee on...

We were half-joking yesterday when we asked if Barack Obama slept through his Harvard Law class on Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court first asserted its power to strike down unconstitutional laws. It turns out it's no joke: The president is stunningly ignorant about constitutional law. Obama, " A law like that has not been overturned [pause] at least since Lochner, right? " But in citing Lochner, the president showed himself to be in over his head.

HURT: Brutal week for Obama, the worst of his presidency By Charles Hurt Thursday, March 29, 2012 ANALYSIS/OPINION: The past seven brutal days will go down as one of the worst weeks in history for a sitting president. It certainly has been, without any doubt, the worst week yet for President Obama. Somehow, Mr. Obama managed to embarrass himself abroad, humiliate himself here at home, see his credentials for being elected so severely undermined that it raises startling questions about whether he should have been elected in the first place — let alone be re-elected later this year. Consider: •...

WASHINGTON -- From media reports, it is now clear that America's hold on Afghanistan is unraveling and our military faces defeat. The recent rampage of an American soldier was the last straw for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the people of his country and war-weary American citizens. The Obama administration has begun searching for the exits, no matter the consequences. Except that none of these things is true. In the two years since the Afghan surge was announced, American forces have systematically cleared out insurgent strongholds in the Taliban heartland. Afghan forces have grown in numbers and professionalism -- showing admirable...

The video that the late Andrew Breitbart released of Barack Obama during his Harvard days revealed one more link in the president's early chain of associations with radicals. But I watched a video a couple of weeks ago that I believe is far more incriminating for our president because it shows the present fallout from his radical agenda, including the redistribution of wealth. Obama has been called the "food stamp president" because more federal grocery subsidies have been given out under his presidency than were under most others combined. But far more than that, this president is the sultan of...

The president has scoffed at Gingrich’s promise to lower gasoline prices to $2.50, while likening those who challenge his own love affair with alternative fuels to “founding members of the flat earth society.” The president describes suggested measures that could bring down gas prices as akin to waving a “magic wand”; his press secretary Jay Carney accused anyone promising $2.50 gas of “lying”. How can Mr. Gingrich, who is nearly out of the GOP race, so rattle the White House? There are good reasons for Mr. Obama’s discomfort. First is the almost immediate hit to the president’s popularity when gasoline...

Our lesson for today comes from George and Ira Gershwin:       They all laughed at Christopher Columbus        When he said the world was round        They all laughed when Edison recorded sound        They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother        When they said that man could fly        They told Marconi wireless was a phony . . . Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sang it in the film Shall We Dance? (1937). Seventy-five years on, the president revived it to tap dance around his rising gas prices and falling approval numbers. Delivering his big speech on energy at...

That agenda is to lead us to European-style socialism. Despite the fact that socialism has caused the European economy to tank. Despite the fact its results have fomented rioting in the streets. Despite the fact that it has failed miserably. But Obama and his cohorts have an agenda, the agenda of the elites who feel they know better than the rest of us. In addition, they have the mistaken impression that any rights We the People may have, derive from government. They, as the ruling class will decide what rights we may or may not enjoy, a concept anathema to...

If you read through the Washington Monthly's list of Obama's top 50 accomplishments, you'll quickly understand why my brother, Rush, properly wanted him to fail. When Rush said he wanted Obama to fail, everyone knew he was talking about his policies, and for those few who pretended otherwise, he explained it a thousand times: He wanted his policies to fail because his policies are disastrous for America. Obama has certainly failed to exhibit leadership at very important points, such as his taking a pass during budget negotiations and his legendary vacillation at key foreign policy junctures. But in terms of...

Speaking to students at a Maryland community college, President Obama indulged one of the left's favorite vanities -- the claim to represent "the future." His topic was energy. The president warned against Republicans who want "an energy strategy for the last century that traps us in the past." He compared today's Republicans who are less enthusiastic than he about government subsidies for "wind, solar and biofuels," to the "flat earth society" and to President Rutherford B. Hayes, who supposedly disdained the telephone. The president had those students chuckling and grinning and feeling smugly superior to benighted Republicans who are so...

Rising inequality "is the defining issue of our time," said President Obama in his Osawatomie speech that echoed the "New Nationalism" address Theodore Roosevelt delivered in that same Kansas town a century ago. In the last two decades, the average income of the top 1 percent in the U.S. has grown by 250 percent, bemoaned our populist president, while the income of the average American has stagnated. "This kind of inequality -- a level we haven't seen since the Great Depression -- hurts us all," said Obama. "Inequality ... distorts our democracy. ... It gives an outsized voice to the...

Hey Blanche... I think the "Big O" told you to sit down and shut up. Once he got this job and the opportunity to dismantle 234 heroic years of bloodletting for liberty and freedom he refuses to relent. Obamanism, born from the Alinsky playbook "Rules for Radicals" is his divine creed... next to his Islamic faith of course. He will NOT be deterred... Barack Hussein Obama expects to facilitate, in four years a total economic destruction of America. This dismantling of our way of life is being coupled with massive social reorientation. We're witnessing complete redistribution of every working American's...

CIT Group Inc. is working with a premier bankruptcy firm as the troubled commercial lender awaits word on whether it will receive funds from a federal program designed to help banks, the company confirmed Saturday. The New York-based company has engaged Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, which has a prominent bankruptcy practice. ... However, acccording to the company CIT has worked with Skadden for "several years." "Skadden is one of the principal law firms representing CIT," company spokesman Curt Ritter said in an e-mail response to an AP query. "They represent the firm on a wide variety of...

I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama after the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident – a wholesome presidential package. It is so instinctive for most people to want to see blacks succeed. It is as if all humanity is carrying a collective guilt for what the ancestors of blacks endured. However, despite my initial interest in him, I was soon put off, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor...

If leadership is defined as recognizing a crisis, addressing its challenges, and setting new directions while remaining true to one's values, then Barack Obama is already demonstrating his strengths as a leader. He has inherited an economic crisis worse than any the nation has experienced since the Great Depression. Within fewer than 50 days in office he has signed a historic stimulus package to bolster demand and create 3.5 million jobs. Governors, business leaders and economists from both the left and the right have applauded the stimulus. Friday's distressing employment numbers indicate that much more may be needed.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police detained a motorist on Wednesday who crashed through barricades set up at monument where Barack Obama will hold a speech on Thursday and dumped red paint from his speeding car. ADVERTISEMENT Police said the 40-year-old man was overpowered by security officials who first tried in vain to used metal rods to bring his car to a halt at the spot where the U.S. Democratic candidate for president will speak on Thursday afternoon. The man was turned over to police and taken into custody for questioning. The car was searched for explosives. No one was injured....