Newsweek's new anti-Obama cover.

It's getting rewarded with big links from Instapundit and Drudge, incentivizing (perhaps) a little less biased coverage of the campaign. We'll see. I doubt it. It could happen.

Stirring up rumors that Obama may replace Biden with Hillary Clinton.

It's the Weekly Standard... conspicuously promoted by Drudge.

It would be a great "game change" — to use the term applied 4 years ago to Sarah Palin.

And — amusingly — it would be Obama taking advice from Sarah Palin, who just a couple days ago said:

[T]he strategists there in the Obama campaign have got to look at a diplomatic way of replacing Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary. And I don't want to throw out that suggestion and have them actually accept the suggestion because then an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket would have a darn good chance of winning.

Don't you love the role of Sarah Palin in American politics? On the sidelines... looming...

Hands and heads, positioned by Drudge.

Let's analyze this. (Click to enlarge.)



In the first column, we see Barack Obama holding his head, as if he's got a headache.

The middle column shows 2 politicians, both governors, gesturing outward, not holding anything.

The third column shows a bear holding a slice of watermelon and George Bush holding a little African orphan, grasping his/her head.

That is to say, the outer columns feature hands (or paws) holding something, and in 2 of the 3 pictures, what is held is a black person's head, and in the other what is held is watermelon.

Analyze the Drudgetaposition.
	Drudge was intentionally joking about race, though of course it's deniable.
	Drudge should have noticed this accidental allusion and avoided it.
	Althouse is seeing something that isn't there and should have refrained from talking about race.
pollcode.com free polls

ADDED:

.@annalthouse You forgot to mention that the governors are pointing up, which is code for "uppity." althouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/hands-…
— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) July 7, 2012

It's "truly stunning" that the result in the Obamacare case hasn't leaked.

Says Ethan Leib (at PrawfsBlag):

Is it possible that no clerk mentioned what s/he is working on to a spouse?  That no spouse with the information mentioned it to a parent or friend, even accidentally?  That no parent or friend let it leak to a sniffing journalist or day trader in the community?  With an aggressive press corps dying for a scoop, well-connected within the community of people that work in and around the Court, doesn't it seem surprising that a secret could be so well kept? 

Perhaps it seems so amazing in contrast to the way other things have leaked — notably the many national security leaks from the Obama White House. Another way of looking at this picture is with the template that everyone is probably doing what they really want to do. Nothing is actually an impressive feat of maintaining secrecy. People can keep secrets. We're surprised when they do only because of the rarity of wanting to keep secrets.

Just an alternate theory.

"Why do the president's appointees think the picture of him with a kill list in his hand makes him look good?"

Asks Peggy Noonan.

He sits and personally decides who to kill? Americans don't think of their presidents like that. And they don't want to....

After the killing of bin Laden, members of the administration, in a spirit of triumphalism, began giving briefings and interviews in which they said too much. One of the adults in the administration, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reportedly went to Mr. Donilon's office. "I have a new strategic communications approach to recommend," he said. What? asked Mr. Donilon.

"Shut the [blank] up," Mr. Gates said.

Someday I'm probably going to have to write a post titled "How Obama lost me."

It will be in the tradition of "How Kerry lost me" and "How McCain lost me."

But the first thing that springs to mind, that will definitely be on the long list of links to old posts of mine will be "Do you understand the massive destruction the government is paying for? The destruction of perfectly operable cars?" The video embedded at that link made a crushing impact on me.

Donald Trump on Obama "He's a terrible president. I think he's gonna go down as the worst president ever, frankly."

"I used to say that about Jimmy Carter but I think he's gonna be surpassed. But I think that the one thing he is, he's a good campaigner. He just campaigns well. If you ask me about Obama, the only thing he does well is campaign."

That was on the Rush Limbaugh show today. Trump also said:

I'm a Republican, but if I had my choice of running or having Obama... be a great president, the greatest president ever, I'd be so happy for the country.  But he's not a great president.  He won't be a great president.  He doesn't have the capability to be a great president, and the world is laughing. We're like a joke.  As a country, we're becoming like a joke.  Everybody is ripping us off....

There's one theory that he wants to destroy the country and create a socialistic country. There is that theory, and I've read a lot.  This isn't necessarily my theory.  I personally think they're incompetent....

I cannot imagine Trump getting the nomination, but he is on track to do a lot of damage to Obama... and perhaps to the other Republican candidates. And Rush Limbaugh is into helping him. After the interview, Rush talked about the email that was coming in:

[B]oth of these people that sent me these e-mails said: "Are you aware of what you're doing here?  I mean, you have Trump on some time ago and he's doing okay in the polls and he shoots up and he shoots up. Every time you have Trump on, he goes higher and higher and higher in the polls!  Do you know what you're doing here?"  

Rush is into this Trump thing, enough that he is taking credit for it. A little subtly — reading email — but not that subtly.

"Obama Closes In on Big Wins in Lame-Duck Congress" — says the New York Times.

The home page looks like this:




At the link, the headline tones down the pro-Obama spin:

Could Lame Duck Be a Big Win for Obama Agenda?

Is President Obama on the verge of one of his most productive months in office?...

In the early hours of Friday morning, the president won passage of the $858 billion tax deal he reached with Republicans and he appears close to achieving approval of the landmark nuclear treaty he negotiated with the Russians. Both political parties have grudgingly agreed to do whatever is necessary to keep the federal government operating by approving an extension of the current budget authority into early next year.

And in something of a surprise, it appears there may be enough Republican support to provide Mr. Obama with a victory on a key promise: to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars gay people from serving opening in the armed forces.

AND: By contrast, Politico:

Democrats concede budget fight to Republicans.

Senate Democrats abruptly abandoned an omnibus budget bill for the coming year, pushing major spending decisions into the next Congress and giving Republicans immense new leverage to confront President Barack Obama priorities.

But see Krauthammer:

Remember the question after Election Day: Can Obama move to the center to win back the independents who had abandoned the party in November? And if so, how long would it take? Answer: Five weeks. An indoor record, although an asterisk should denote that he had help - Republicans clearing his path and sprinkling it with rose petals.

The conservative gloaters were simply fooled again by the flapping and squawking that liberals ritually engage in before folding at Obama's feet....

And Obama pulled this off at his lowest political ebb...

"Will Barack Obama depart as President of the United States?"

You can bet on it.

Muttering "Fuck the President" — "was just expressing frustration from a very frustrated Member.”

 According to the Democratic congresswoman who was interrupted by those words.

I  love when a "frustrated Member" calls out for fucking.

And isn't it interesting that when the call went out to "fuck the President," Bill Clinton popped right up as the apparent President?

And we know all about his frustrated member. What?! Not fair to dredge up the ancient history of the Clinton impeachment? The NYT just dragged Richard Nixon's rotting corpse across the stage.

Quick! Look! Over there! It's Nixon!!!!!

Well, now you know Obama's really in trouble. The corpse of Richard Nixon is being dragged across the stage one more time.

Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president.

Disparaging Remarks! Made in 1973!! America! Wake up!!! The GOP will destroy us!

“The Jews have certain traits,” [Nixon] said. “The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.”

...“The Italians, of course, those people course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but,” and his voice trailed off.

A moment later, Nixon returned to Jews: “The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.”

Apparently, these are newly released recordings — 265 more hours of Nixon talk — but it sounds like stuff we've heard a thousand times before.  But what a lovely distraction for us on this wintry weekend, when we might otherwise be wondering who, among the living, doesn't have his head screwed on tight.

"Approval By Numbers: How Obama Compares To Past Presidents."

A chart graphing the popularity of 11 Presidents over a 2-year time line.

Click forward to see individual comparisons, such as Bush 43 and Obama. The closest similarity is to Jimmy Carter.

Matt Bai identifies "the central theme of Mr. Obama’s presidency: America’s faltering confidence in the ability of government to make things work."

He begins with the example of the the new get-naked-or-groped TSA policy and goes on:

From stimulus spending and the health care law to the federal response to oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Obama has continually stumbled...

I add my longtime blog tag "Obama stumbles" to this post.

... blindly, it seems — into some version of the same debate, which is about whether we can trust federal bureaucracies to expand their reach without harming citizens or industry....

Bai notes that during the Reagan and Clinton years, America turned away from "the era of big government," but then:

[T]he unraveling of the second Bush administration and the 2008 election... persuaded a lot of long-dispirited liberals that their philosophy, and not simply their party, had been restored. 

What a delusion!

Obama's approval rating is now at 39%.

It's so low it's one point ahead of the puzzlingly popular Sarah Palin.

And it's nowhere near George Bush's low point. If Obama feels bad about his current predicament, let him take some advice from George Bush:

LAUER:  When you left office, President Bush, your popularity numbers were around 30 percent, give or take, depending on the poll.  You say it... It didn't bother you?

BUSH: No, it didn't.

LAUER: You know, I try to personalize that.  I-- I've been doin' this job for 14 years.  And if after 14 years, only 30 percent of people who've watched this show think I did a good job--

BUSH: They'll fire ya.

LAUER: Well, it's gonna hurt like hell.

BUSH: I don't think it does.  No.  Because I-- I also was, as you just mentioned, at one time over 90 percent.  I didn't take it seriously then.  I don't take it-- didn't take it seriously when I left office.  Somebody walked up to me the other day and said, "Congratulations.  Your popularity is way up since you left office."  And my answer was, "So what?"  Seriously.  I mean if you chase popularity, you're chasing a moment.  You're chasing a poof of air.

If you chase popularity... you're chasing a poof of air.

On the other hand, this is a democracy. And, like the man said, They'll fire ya.

"While the president has been on a trip to Asia for the past 10 days, all but a few of his top aides stayed behind to figure out what went so wrong and what to do about it."

WaPo reports:

One adviser said they spent the past dozen days "soul-searching."

Another said that, around the White House, "people aren't just sitting around doing soul-searching. They're gaming out the short, medium and long term."

Gaming out.... Am I wrong to hear that as electoral politics?

Advisers also said it will probably take months, if not longer, to develop a strategy for restoring some of the early promise of the Obama presidency, particularly the notion that he was a different kind of Democrat.

In a nod to that ambition, his weekly address Saturday focused on earmark reform, one way, Obama said, of "restoring public trust." 

Am I wrong to hear this as a repulsive desire to re-engulf us in a mindless hopey-changey mood? I don't care about a feeling of "promise." I see America's grim sense of reality as a hard-won accomplishment. We're awake now. The dream is over.

Over the next few days, White House officials said they will begin to gauge whether they can forge an alliance with any top Republicans, many of whom are scheduled to attend a bipartisan meeting at the White House on Thursday. Although Obama could benefit from a high-profile compromise - perhaps on extending the Bush-era tax cuts or on other tax initiatives set to expire before the end of the year - officials are also prepared to point out any Republican intransigence.

The medium and long term game plan is the Republicans will screw up enough to take advantage of. The short-term plan is to look willing to so something bipartisan and beneficent.

"President Obama is coming home from his overseas trip pretty much empty-handed."

"After watching his party take a beating in the midterm elections, Obama wasn't able to secure even a symbolic victory on a trip that was expected to give him plenty of opportunities to claim a win.... Obama's inauspicious 10-day, four-nation trip included a failure to land an anticipated slam dunk free trade agreement with South Korea."

"I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary."

Said Valerie Jarrett:

He knows exactly how smart he is. ... He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability — the extraordinary, uncanny ability — to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make sense out of them...

So this "sense" you refer to.... it's the end result of a digestive process?

... and I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually. ... So, what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but somebody with such extraordinary talents that had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy. ... He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.

Oh, my lord. This is the way the people have buttered him up his whole life, I'm afraid. How will he deal with the rude affront he received last Tuesday? Is there an Obama that fits the changed circumstances or was his entire being formed through relationships with sycophants?

Maureen Dowd speaks of Obama's "righteous self-regard."

In context:

At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode.

But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour.

I've never watched "West Wing," and that reference doesn't make me regret my avoidance of it.

His arrogance led him to assume: If I build it, they will understand. He can’t get the gratitude he feels he deserves for his achievements if no one knows what he achieved and why those achievements are so vital.

People liked him. And we liked the idea of ourselves liking him. The mistake was for him ever to think that made us want the things on the Democrats' wish list.

We want the best people to govern us, but many voters are so turned off by Obama’s superior air that they’re rushing into the arms of disturbingly inferior pols.

No. We hate the policies, and we're voting for the people who will undo them. It doesn't matter if they aren't as sleek and pretty. We want out of the place where the glamorous hero led us.

"I don't think you like the man."

Something "really bothered" Glenn Loury about "all that adulation," but....

Obama emailed me: "That change happens only from the bottom up. That change happens only because of you."

I'm going to ignore the way he called me "the bottom" and just feel relived that "change happens only because of [me]." What power I have! I can stop all this.