Posts tagged obama

Well the reviews are already in on Obama’s big speech on “the importance of education”, and they aren’t pretty. The descriptions range from “brainwashing” and “indoctrination of your children” to accusations that Obama’s speech shows that he is actually Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, and of course, a terrorist. Right now you might be asking yourself, what speech on education? I didn’t see any speech. Did the media not cover it? Why didn’t I see any tweets?? Relax, relax, you didn’t miss anything, I’m talking about the speech Obama hasn’t even given yet, the one he is due to deliver on September 8th, a little less than a week from now. Now you might be asking yourself, but you just said there were damning reviews of the speech already, how is that possible?? Silly reader, didn’t you know that conservatives have time machines? They don’t need to wait for an event to actually happen to lambaste it with outlandish attacks of tinfoil hat lunacy. They have seen the future!

A few weeks ago, the Obama Administration officially abandoned the President’s “Sunlight before Signing” campaign pledge that the White House would post all legislation passed by Congress for at least five days before the President would sign it. In making this announcement, the Administration maintained that it would comply with the spirit, if not the letter, of the original commitment by posting legislation on the White House site once it became clear legislation would eventually pass and make it to the President’s desk. This new commitment, they suggested, would actually provide even greater sunlight, as some bills would be available for review earlier and for a longer time. Well, this promise is no longer operative either, as the Cato Institute’s Jim Harper details. Since the White House announced its new sunlight policy, nine additional pieces of legislation have been signed into law by the President and yet, as of yesterday, not one had been posted on the White House web site.

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions. Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present.

All is not well in Obamafanland. It’s not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from the US treasury’s latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from re-regulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama’s silence during Israel’s Gaza attack. Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard. This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programmes capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding.

Listen to Maxine Furlong, a Republican from Upstate New York who initially was not a fan: “Eventually, she will be a great first lady,” said Furlong, who’s 34 and white. “She definitely has this black woman’s attitude… . White girls have more insecurities, which is why they care more about being ingratiating. I’m not saying this is a bad thing — I like that about her — but she’s just a very strong woman and that can come off as condescending.