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I heard it five times this week, twice Tuesday in a Wall Street bar, two times during the day chatting with investors and then last night at dinner with a pal, an old pro trader from down the block. All said the same word, as if programmed, like pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The word? Malaise. All of the people who used this term were older, friends from the days of trading, wizened veterans of other terrible markets and of course, people who came of age during the Jimmy Carter years, where the unlamented president talked about...

I believe it was Jean Giraudoux who first said, "Only the mediocre are always at their best." Barack Obama was supposed to be the best, the very best, and yet he is always, reliably, consistently mediocre. His speech on oil was no better or worse than his speech on race. Yet the Obammyboppers who once squealed with delight are weary of last year's boy band. At the end of the big Oval Office address, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC gang jeered the president. For a bewildered President Obama, it must have felt like his Ceausescu...

The BP spill won't destroy Barack Obama's presi dency. It won't even signifi cantly dent his standing in polls, if current trends hold. But it should mark the end of a period of unbridled liberal presumption that began with his rise in 2007. In his new book, "The Icarus Syndrome," Peter Beinart writes of "hubris bubbles" that infect American foreign policy after successes. In the domestic arena, liberalism has been riding its most expansive hubris bubble since Lyndon Johnson modestly declared on the cusp of the Great Society, "These are the most hopeful times since Christ was born." Those millennial...

Obama’s speech on Tuesday night was widely disparaged, even by his fan base in the media, MSNBC , where thrills typically run down their legs when he speaks. But the speech is a vivid illustration of Obama’s personality. He’s cold, reptilian. The fact is that he doesn’t give damn about people. He’s in love with idea, concepts, and goals. The people who get hurt as he hurdles in the pursuit of his objectives are collateral damage. They’re expendable, in Lenin’s famous phrase, the eggs you break to make an omelet. The oil gushing into the Gulf from the broken BP...

http://townhall.com/video/gingrich-reacts-to-obamas-oval-office-address

Doing the Job Media Won't Do: Fact-checking Obama's Gulf Spill Address By Lachlan Markay Created 06/16/2010 - 17:12 Plenty of prominent media figures were upset with President Obama over his substandard address to the nation last night (full text [1]). While most are distraught, none seem to be doing what should be the essential journalistic task of the day: pointing out all of the factual misstatements the president made. So, in absence of a serious attempt at fact-checking from the legacy media, let us undertake some of our own. In all, the president misrepresented the federal government's--and especially his cabinet's--role...

There has been a lot of criticism hurled at President Obama over his handling of the BP oil spill. Some on the left are upset the president hasn't been more forceful with the oil giant. Those on the right generally argue Obama's leadership has been inadequate. Rarely has the president been criticized for specific actions on this issue. But on "Closing Bell" June 16, CNBC's Matt Nesto was asked whether BP acted appropriately by agreeing to the White House's terms by cutting its dividend payments and agreeing to a $20 billion escrow account. Nesto argued that the administration was circumventing...

Rasmussen Reports, which has been tracking President Obama’s job approval numbers ever since he became the President, released shocking numbers today. President Obama’s job approval has dropped to historic low of 42%. Yes, only 42% of American voters say they approve of President Obama’s performance. An overwhelming majority of Americans, 57% of them, disapprove of the job President Obama is doing. Yet another index that Rasmussen has been tracking is called the Approval Index. This is the difference between the percentage of voters who “Strongly Approve” of the job the President is doing, and the percentage of voters who “Strongly...

Is leftist network MSNBC falling out of love with President Obama? It certainly looks like it. Keith Olbermann, for instance, was less than impressed with Obama’s BP speech. “It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days,” the man who became (in)famous for doing everything in his power to discredit and disgrace conservatives said on his show yesterday. When guest Howard Fineman asked Olbermann whether he believed Obama had aimed too low, he responded: ”I don’t think he aimed low, I don’t think he aimed at all. It’s startling.” A little later he...

Washington (AP) - A climate and energy bill being pushed in the Senate faces bleak prospects, despite President Barack Obama's call for a "clean energy" future that lessens dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. A day after the president's Oval Office speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reiterated that his party remains unanimous in its opposition to what he called a national energy tax. Even one of the bill's likely supporters said the measure does not have enough votes to pass. "You know, it would take 60 votes in the Senate to do that," said Sen. Byron Dorgan,...

Around six months in, President Obama's supporters came to terms with the fact that he couldn't walk on water. Today, he's struggling to keep the crude oil off his nicely pressed suit. Given that challenge, Obama succeeded in his Oval Office speech last night, the first of his presidency. This was the President in his element: Framing a problem, rejecting partisan extremes, pushing forward with a clear vision and what sounded like common-sense solutions. He was focused, even a little feisty - and for the first time in weeks, didn't seem to be on the defensive. His update on the...

....That iconic moment for Obama may well be the image of him last night, hands folded behind that huge empty desk. He was revealed as an impostor, someone play-acting as president and an interloper in serious matters. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with what he said – it was that image. He and his presidency seemed shrunken, with the man once considered a political colossus now hiding behind and dwarfed by the props of the office. Part of the reaction is certainly the steely political calculation by the left that Obama may be a lost cause. But there was also,...

Obama's Remarks To Nation On Oil Spill June 15, 2010 Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens. On April 20th, an explosion ripped...

When I had heard last night President Barak Obama’s speech on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I thought, through my cynic laughter, WHO WROTE President Obama’s speech last night!?

The president still has given no impression that plugging the leak is his highest priority. Instead, we get weakness, ideology, and no identifiable plan.....

There are very few people, on either side of the aisle, who think President Obama did himself any good in his first Oval Office speech last night. Before we get into what we like to call the "optics" of the speech, let's stipulate that no one wants this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to continue one second longer than necessary; and that includes the President. Let's also stipulate, as T. Boone Pickens said on Larry King Live last night, if anyone knew how to stop this thing, they'd be in there doing it. Then, let's stipulate that no...

President Barack (“Barry”) Obama delivered his first televised address from the Oval Office, trying to reassure the nation that he was fully in control of the Gulf oil spill crisis and that it will be fixed. As usual, Obama gave a slick performance. However, his speech was short on credible details demonstrating how he intended to finally marshall the federal government’s full resources to tackle the clean-up. While continuing to claim, against all the evidence, that he has been in command of the crisis from Day 1, he failed to explain some serious mistakes and inaction.

There he was, in the glare of the spotlight, behind the great resolute desk (for a change, without his shoes propped up), delivering his first Oval Office speech, attempting to project a demeanor of calm and competence and leadership. Except I couldn't help but think he looked like a cockroach dressed as a used car salesman desperate for a sale, trying to con the American people into thinking that he was kicking my ***, so he could skitter safely back into his crack in the wall after the camera went dark.