As we approach the 250th day Barack Obama has been in the presidency, how do we summarize? The best way I can do it is via a catechism of questions and answers.
Is Obama (a) a weak president who just can’t get his program through and who is putty in the hands of David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel? Or (b) a strong president who will stop at nothing to achieve his left-wing ends?
Decidedly (b). Although as a pretty good amateur basketball player, he has learned to feint right and …

It’s 3 p.m. and the phone in the White House press secretary’s office is ringing. It rings and rings and rings. Eventually, a recorded voice asks callers to leave a message—followed by a second voice saying the voicemail box is full.
After a full week of such calls, a human being answers. But Ben LaBolt immediately bristles when asked to spell his name, refuses to give his job title, and says he is going “off the record” until I stop him to explain that the reporter grants that privilege, not the …

The Financial Times had a lead editorial Saturday claiming:
“Mr Obama has avoided partisan recrimination and sought the co-operation of Republicans. For the sake of the country, Republicans must co-operate more willingly and accept his invitation to help govern.”
The AP, with more of the same campaign rhetoric,
“Barack Obama opened his presidency by breaking sharply from George W. Bush’s unpopular administration, but he mostly avoided divisive partisan and ideological stands. He focused instead on fixing the economy, repairing a battered world image and cleaning up government.”
The Tribune (via the LA Times) continued …

This is for those of you who have had it up to here with the inauguration hype. The rest of you who regard Barack Obama’s presidential oath-taking today as the arrival of the Ultimate State of Being can go back to your rapture.
Others who have been alternately amused and appalled at the excesses of the precoronation preparations of the past few days should gather around for a little curmudgeonly reflection.
Oprah Winfrey unintentionally caught the unearthly spirit of it all the night Obama was elected when she told the TV show …