In the wake of the GOP's triumph in last week's midterm election, conservative commentators are demanding President Obama and his Democratic allies abandon their agenda and submit to the will of the new Republican majority. "The chastened President," Peggy Noonan lectured, should "reach out, be humble," but instead is "doubling down on hostility, antagonism and […]

On Tuesday, Republicans may recapture control of the Senate. And to be sure, they've made no secret of their plans to derail the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency. Would-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who in 2005 declared that "Any president's judicial nominees, after full and fair debate, receive a simple up-or-down […]

The news that an unnamed Obama administration official called Benjamin Netanyahu "chickenshit" has put U.S.-Israeli relations on a hot boil. While the anonymous remark was neither helpful nor diplomatic, it was richly deserved. After all, from the moment Barack Obama entered the White House, Bib has treated Israel's last, best friend on earth and its […]

In the wake of September's strong jobs report, Megan Thee-Brenan and E.J. Dionne (among others) have concluded "Obama is unlikely to get credit for falling unemployment rate" and "Democrats aren't getting credit for the economy." The question is why. After all, when it comes to cutting unemployment, spurring investment and driving economic growth, Barack Obama […]

There was plenty not to like in President Obama address on ISIS Wednesday night. His claim to have authority to wage an open-ended military campaign without Congressional action doesn't pass the smell test. To the degree that "success" in restoring regional stability can even be defined, it is contingent on building and sustaining a staggeringly […]

The disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq wasn't just an American war of choice. As much as anything else, it was a war of talking points. Designed, as President Bush once explained, to "catapult the propaganda," the tried and untrue sound bites about "the smoking gun that could come in the form of mushroom cloud," about […]

The gruesome murder of American reporter James Foley was horrific enough, but now right-wing bloggers and conservative commentators seem determined to make it more grotesque still. With word from ABC News that the Obama White House was aware that ISIS was threatening to kill Foley and fellow journalist Steven Sotloff in retaliation for American air […]

Conservatives have a new sound bite. On behalf of all Americans, they are offended by the sound of President Obama's sound bites. (At times, I am too. After all, if "we tortured some folks," then we have a legal and moral responsibility to prosecute some folks.) Rich Lowry, taking a break from seeing starbursts from […]

Politico practices journalism in much the same way that bricks float.* For years, its mission to "win the morning" has often come at the expense of the truth. But with Katie Glueck's piece on Iraq titled "Neocons to Obama: No Half-Measures," the publication Charles Pierce rightly mocks as "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" has reached […]

With their 225 votes to sue President Obama, House Republicans provided one of the most ironic spectacles in recent U.S. political history. After waves of op-eds by Speaker John Boehner (here and here) and his legal puppet master David Rivkin (here and here) declared Obama guilty of almost every sin in the calendar, the House […]