Price Of Entry

Ebb and Flow
But Mr. Obama and his team would benefit, as they begin the second term, by acknowledging that many of the biggest problems facing the administration flow directly from the man at the top. Mr. Obama is a lousy manager. 
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Successful modern presidents share an experience that Barack Obama does not have: before becoming president, each played an executive or leadership role that provided insight as to how to run an effective government.
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Mr. Obama’s top advisers say they often feel alienated from the president. There is a sense in the White House that “Barack Obama’s theory of government is he is the government.”
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Chief executives who have visited the White House for much publicized consultations with the president and senior staff report that Mr. Obama appears to be more interested in delivering his message than in listening to others.  (David Rothkopf, chief executive of The FP Group, publisher of Foreign Policy magazine and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, NYT, 1/19/2013)

We're not  sure if the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace leans left or right, but we found this analysis to be interesting. It confirms - given the depictions by those who have dealt with the president - the concerns that were voiced before Obama was first elected. First, senators might not make good presidents. They have no executive authority and they have not run anything. Obama's political experience was even more threadbare, with no substantive legislative accomplishments and no voting record. ("Present" doesn't count.) Second, Obama had absolutely no experience running anything either in politics or in private industry. Of course, in the past election we had a candidate that had both executive experience in governing and in the private sector. Alas, we did not elect him.


Inheritance
Obama and Biden sworn in for 2nd term; now officially inheriting problems from themselves
(Doug Powers, Michellemalkin.com, 1/20/2013)

Headline of the year!


Block and Tackle
Republicans should simply block what they can. Further tax hikes, for example. The general rule is: From a single house of Congress you can resist but you cannot impose.

Aren’t you failing the country, say the insurgents? Answer: The country chose Obama. He gets four years.

Want to save the Republic? Win the next election. Don’t immolate yourself trying to save liberalism from itself. If your conservative philosophy is indeed right, winning will come. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 1/17/2013)

Very very sound advice from Krauthammer on Republican strategy echoing our belief that Republicans need to take the long view.


Le Nerve!
The French officials say they understand that the U.S. may be reluctant to engage in another war, just as it is winding down the 11-year-old war in Afghanistan. Still, they said France expects the U.S. to do more to fight militants who have vowed to hit at Western interests and conducted an attack in Algeria that left at least 23 hostages dead, including at least one American citizen. (NYT, 1/20/2013)

Particularly when France has been such a stalwart ally as the U.S. fought "militants who have vowed to hit at Western interests" for oh, the past dozen years or so....


Clueless
When Joe Biden took the oath Sunday marking the start of his second term as vice president, around the room were a few clues that he may be thinking of a promotion four years down the road. (WSJ, 1/20/2013)

Which got us thinking that the Liberal media is going to have its work cut out for itself to repackage Biden as a statesman rather than a goofball. Not to worry, they have plenty of time and they are a committed bunch.


Freely
But that hasn't stopped insurance companies from charging higher premiums this year to cover the hike, as well as the cost of ObamaCare benefits such as free birth control and preventive care. (Foxnews.com, 1/21/2013)

The point that we make over and over again. There is no free lunch. Feckless Liberals demand that insurance companies provide an ever-increasing list of free services. Insurance companies - beaten to a pulp by Liberals and regulators - agree. And then raise premiums to cover the cost of the free services. This is not rocket science people. If you want to socialize the insurance companies then do so, but don't blame them for trying not to operate at a loss. Oh, wait. Liberals want to socialize the insurance companies. That's what single payer is.


Admitted
Left-wing ’60s radical and onetime domestic terrorist Bill Ayers will be a keynote speaker at the Association of Teacher Educators annual conference in Atlanta next month.

Ayers gained notoriety alongside his wife Bernardine Dohrn as a member of the Weather Underground during the Vietnam War. He was involved in Chicago’s “Days of Rage” riot in 1969 and went underground as a fugitive from justice after an accidental Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970 killed three Weather Underground members who were preparing a bomb that prematurely detonated.

Ayers admitted in a 2001 book that he participated in bombings of the New York City Police Department headquarters, the U.S. Capitol Building and the Pentagon in the early 1970s. (Dailycaller.com, 1/21/2013)

But Fordham University will not let Ann Coulter speak....