So much for the “bold and aggressive diplomacy” with Iran that presidential candidate Barack Obama promised. Eight months after Tehran unleashed a murderous repression of anti-regime protesters — to a mostly timid response from Washington — Team Obama now believes that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship. So says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, currently touring the... 

By Patrick Buchanan Republicans already counting the seats they will pick up this fall should keep in mind Obama has a big card yet to play. Should the president declare he has gone the last mile for a negotiated end to Iran’s nuclear program and impose the “crippling” sanctions he promised in 2008, America would be on an escalator to confrontation that could lead straight to war. And... 

By Stephen Hayes At the White House briefing Thursday afternoon, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs attacked Bond for politicizing intelligence and haughtily demanded an apology: “No briefing is done here or anywhere in this administration where classified information is used in a place where it shouldn’t be,” Gibbs said. “And I would suggest that somebody that alleges that, when they know it doesn’t... 

Washington Times Editorial The U.S. attorney general should read up on the history of terrorism. He might learn something. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sent a five-page letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, detailing his rationale for treating purported Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a criminal suspect rather than a terrorist detainee. The attorney... 

President Obama’s response to the catastrophic political failures of his freshman year in office is to fight harder for more of the same. Presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett made the point explicitly on Sunday, asserting that the White House is “not hitting a reset button at all.” That reflects the kind of political savvy that handed the safest Democratic Senate seat in America to... 

By Peter Roff // Now that the voters in Massachusetts have put him on the ropes, President Barack Obama is spoiling for a fight. Speaking last week in Elyria, Ohio, the president, the New York Times reported, used some version of the word “fight” more than 20 times as he railed against the big banks, Wall Street, joblessness, and the economic downturn that has hit the nation hard. As... 

By Karl Rove Which campaign promises has he kept? Americans learned last year that President Obama discards campaign promises like most people discard used Kleenex. Among the pledges he cast aside were reducing the deficit, reining in federal spending, not allowing lobbyists to work in his administration, increasing taxes only on those who make more than $250,000, and opposing “government-run... 

By John Stossel Today President Obama will propose a new tax on the nation’s biggest banks, reports today’s Washington Post. How will the tax work?  Firms would pay a “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee” at an annual rate of $1,500 for every $1 million borrowed to finance lending and other activities. In other words, the Obama Administration is going to punish those greedy banks... 

By Bruce Hoffman In the wake of the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing and the killing a few days later of seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan, Washington is, as it was after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, obsessed with “dots” — and our inability to connect them. “The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas... 

By Maureen Dowd Our president came down from the mountaintop. He had applied the freshness of his independent thought to the critical matters at hand. He had convened his seminar, reviewed the reviews, analyzed the intelligence every which way, thought anew about everything, and lo and behold, he finally emerged to tell us some stuff we already knew. (Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com … Share/Save Read More →

He says “the buck stops with me,” but nearly a year into office, President Barack Obama is still blaming a lot of the nation’s troubles — the economy, terrorism, health care — on George W. Bush. Over and over, Obama keeps reminding Americans of the mess he inherited and all he’s doing to fix it. A sharper, give-me-some-credit tone has emerged in his language as he bemoans...