As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barack Obama’s rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since.
The Player and the President
Anyone watching Sunday’s women’s final at the U.S. Open tennis tournament was treated to an appalling display of temper on the part of Serena Williams. At the beginning of the second set, Williams was judged to have hindered her opponent by shouting “come on” in the course of play. The point, and, as it turned out, the game, was awarded to Williams’s opponent, Samantha Stosur, who went on to win the match quite convincingly.
The Wacky World of Liberal Fundamentalism
The candidacies of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, Bible-affirming Christians, predictably have ignited the liberal media’s zeal for exposing their allegedly odd if not wacko religious beliefs (see here). Support for some version of creationism, a faith in the efficacy of prayer, and actual belief in scriptural condemnation of homosexuality (among other religious views) are taken as prima facie evidence of presidential unsuitability. To be sure, millions of Americans (assumed to be ill-educated trailer-court denizens with rotting teeth and beer guts) may share these odd inclinations, but, at least according to liberal pundits, holding them betrays a lack of intellectual sophistication plus an aversion to modern science. Such antediluvian fundamentalism should, say the experts, have gone extinct with the Scopes Monkey Trials.
Obama’s worst nightmare
President Obama can see the writing on the wall: His days in the White House are numbered. This is the real meaning of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s entry into the Republican presidential race. The GOP now has a candidate who can not only defeat Mr. Obama, but crush him.
For months, the mainstream media anointed Mitt Romney as the presumptive front-runner. The former Massachusetts governor is their ideal GOP candidate – a moderate technocrat from the Northeast, who flip-flopped on abortion and gay rights and enacted universal health care in his state. He is a Rockefeller Republican wolf in Reaganite clothing. His strongest asset is his business background. In a moribund economy, Mr. Romney came across as the only competent, experienced nominee who could kick-start the private sector. No longer.
Raging At The Dying Of Their Light
Twice in recent years pleasant social events have been shattered by rage-filled outbursts when liberal men of a certain age learned that I disagreed with their views. In each case the rage with which perfectly polite disagreement was expressed suggested to me that more than political differences were involved. As time has passed, I have come to believe that the reactions I received represented a rage at the dying of all that which these men had embraced in the absolute certainty of the righteousness and soundness of their views, and their right to have them automatically accepted as the approved model for all right thinking people.
The President Who Wasn’t There
We have a president named “Obama.” If you believe your media — (hah!) — he is a kind of Űbermensch, a more-than-human giant intellect. Or, as one addled dork said two years ago, Obama must be A Light Bringer. That’s why the Norwegian Nobel Prize committee got the hots for him so bad that they had to give him the big prize before he did anything. Like Algore’s Peace Prize, it was awarded for postmodern (Po-Mo) — that is, completely fictional — good intentions. No actual achievements were wanted or needed.
Since Marxist college professors are not going to do this job for us, I will now perform a postmodern “deconstruction” of the so-called “president” of the “United States.” (Those sneer quotes are Po-Mo sniggers for things that are obviously fictional except that normal people think they are real. Like “money” and “freedom.”)
Why I’m Still Glad John McCain Lost In 2008
Our country is in crisis. Not the kind of crisis liberals invent out of mid air but the kind that results from the implementation of their policies and brings a country to its knees (and proves the president a rank amateur and many of the legislators unsuited for office). We are in debt, we have an energy crisis, we have high unemployment, and we’re more worried about whether our enemies think we’re nice that we are with crushing them with our military might.
In a word: times are crazy.
Shut up, Egypt is Muslim
Supporters of Egypt’s various new political parties gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday for what was supposed to be a unity rally. In a portent of things to come, however, the gathering was hijacked by masses of Islamists who intimidated the members of liberal and secular parties out of the square. America’s most important Arab ally is hurtling toward an Islamist takeover and the Obama administration is egging on the transition.
The Islamist factions in Egypt, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the more strident Salafists, have been cautiously and quietly building their political organizations ahead of November’s parliamentary elections. Earlier this year, they were circumspect about involvement in partisan politics, making statements that gave the impression they would serve more as spiritual guides than contenders for power. This was a ruse. The objective of the Islamist groups has always been to implement Sharia law in Egypt, and the downfall of the Hosni Mubarak government has presented them with their best and perhaps only opportunity to get it done. After all, it is a revolution; the time to impose radical change is now.
Tea Party, Fix Your Gaze On 2012
Debt Battle: The Tea Party has proved its power — and its principle. Now it’s time to declare an imperfect battlefield victory in 2011 and regroup for the more important struggle of defeating President Obama in 2012.
Champions of smaller government, low taxes and a freedom-driven economy shouldn’t expect whatever the end result of “Boehner 2.0” is to be worth very much cheering, especially after Harry Reid’s Senate gets through with it.