The Administration

This coming weekend, I’ll be joining alumni from the two Bill Clinton presidential campaigns who will gather in Little Rock, Ark., on the 20th anniversary of Clinton’s declaration for the presidency on Oct. 3, 1991.
 
It was in that announcement speech that Clinton articulated that he intended to follow a different path than traditional Democratic Party liberal orthodoxy, appealing to the middle class, political moderates and independents. “The change we must make isn’t liberal or conservative,” he said. “It’s both, and it’s different … People don’t care about the idle rhetoric of ‘left’ and ‘right’ and ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative.’ ”

I never thought it would come to this. I never imagined a time post-2000 when I would actually lament a return to the past. But here we are, facing a recession as deep and even longer than the one in the early 1990s. A recession that ushered in none other than the Comeback Kid — President William Jefferson Clinton.

His was a presidency that brought us DNA samples; Don’t ask, don’t tell; school uniforms; and wagging fingers regarding a certain intern.

But set all that aside (if you can), and recall some of the fiscal successes of his presidency, and it’s easy to long for those days. Read more...

The stock market continues its nosedive this week — falling close to 400 points on Thursday. Market analysts are saying the probability of recession is at its highest point in a long while.

What’s going on? After failed stimulus attempts on the part of this president, we are still wandering around in the economic wilderness.

If President Obama’s economic team lacks the know-how to fix this mess, then please, just own up to it now and let’s get a new set of advisers in the White House. If there’s a better idea out there, the president doesn’t seem to be listening.

I was working out at the gym this morning (I know, miracles never cease), and I looked over briefly (I know, you don’t believe me) at the television and saw one of the hosts interviewing Rachel Maddow.

I am not the biggest Rachel Maddow fan in the world (OK, I am not really a fan at all) and I immediately assumed that the topic of conversation was on the president’s decision on “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” an issue that apparently is important to the MSNBC host.  

Recently I criticized Joe McGinness for his hatchet job against Sarah Palin. Today I criticize Ron Suskind and the media reporting about his book on one major issue: women. Ernest Hemingway advised writers to write one true sentence, and on this matter the true sentence is this: Once President Obama learned that many women felt they were not treated well in his administration he became personally involved, and personally fixed any problems that might have existed.

Does it get any worse than this for President Obama?

The first Gallup poll out since the president's make-or-break jobs speech show only 45 percent of Americans approve of his jobs bill and still there isn't much faith it will actually help the economy. How about the reaction of Democratic lawmakers like Sens. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who already complained about it on the record? And notice Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) isn't rushing to schedule it for a vote on the Senate floor, which he controls.

It was back to school night in the Feehery household, so I missed the president’s address to the Congress.

Bummer.

President Obama proposed many things that should have been done earlier — tax cuts for the middle class, tax cuts for businesses and money for infrastructure projects. In many ways I like his proposals, but then I can’t help but remember that he promised to rebuild our infrastructure and schools 3 years ago when he asked for, and received, roughly $800 billion for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. We still haven’t seen much good from that law, other than payoffs to failed businesses like Solyndra and a dead economy.

Are we really spending any time talking about manufactured outrage over Jimmy Hoffa — saying exactly what needed to be said — when he called on labor to use the power of the vote to get Tea Partyers out of Congress?
 
Seriously?

President Obama's much-anticipated speech on his jobs proposal this week will no doubt remind Americans why one out of every 10 of them is unemployed. He’ll wax, in his usual professorial manner, over the tug and pull of supply-and-demand economics.
 
Let’s not forget that he will also feature some of his 2012 campaign lines — phrases on how we can’t return to the “failed policies of the past” … which someone in the White House feels will continue to salve the wounds of Americans by blaming Bush.