Barack Obama

Remember when celebrities gathered en masse to convince us Barack Obama was our country's savior? They opened up their wallets, and their homes, to fundraise for him. They sang his praises in every format feasible. They took time out of their packed schedules to campaign for him. They starred in PSAs imploring us how he needed our vote.

There’s been a lot of talk in the past few days about “presidential temperament,” and where that quality is concerned, Brian Beutler firmly believes that President Obama has the right stuff. In a Friday piece, Beutler lauded Obama’s "unflappable" performance at CNN’s military-themed presidential town hall Wednesday at Fort Lee in Virginia. By contrast, Beutler opined, Donald Trump "lost his…

For two months prior to the first presidential debate, the networks’ evening news shows ignored news of "very weak" GDP growth in their broadcasts. The Washington Examiner reported on Sept. 29, that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a “relatively weak” 1.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016. CNBC noted on the same day that “The current expansion's pace is the weakest of any since…

The government reported today that the US economy grew at an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the second quarter. That's a slight increase from the 1.1 percent reported a month ago, but certainly nothing to get excited about, especially given that annualized growth during the past three quarters has been barely above 1 percent. To make the Obama economy look better than it really is, the Associated…

Unlike a lot of his fellow liberals, Jonathan Chait doesn’t believe presidential-debate moderators should be on-camera fact-checkers, but Chait’s reason for opposing the idea is unambiguously anti-conservative. In an item posted a few hours prior to Monday night’s Clinton-Trump clash, Chait argued that the way Republicans dealt with Candy Crowley’s intervention in a 2012 Romney-Obama debate “…

It's quite funny in retrospect to remember how the press ridiculed the preoccupation of many people who questioned Barack Obama's eligibility to become and then to be President over the "birther" issue from late 2008 until early 2011. Now look at who's obsessed. The press refuses to recognize that it has lost an issue it thought could use to bury the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. They…

Never let it be said that the folks at the Associated Press aren't on top of the news, making sure that readers as well as subscribers who use AP copy in their radio and TV broadcasts learn the most important developments of the day. That's sarcasm, folks. Friday evening, in a story primarily about the FBI's grant of immunity to longtime Hillary Clinton assistant Cheryl Mills, the AP's Michael…

At least Hollywood acknowledges the Armenian Genocide, even if President Obama won’t. The Promise — which recently premiered at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival — is the latest historical drama directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda). Starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, the film utilizes elegant cinematography, intense action sequences and love triangles to address the horrific events of the…

A current hot topic in campaign coverage is Hillary Clinton’s underperformance among millennials, an unusually large number of whom favor the second-tier candidates, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. Brian Beutler thinks those 18-to-29-year-olds who aren’t #WithHer don’t grasp what happened the last time a significant portion of the left was lukewarm about the Democratic nominee: 2000, when lefty…

On Friday’s Good Morning America, anchor Robin Roberts interviewed President Obama and the First Lady from the new addition to the Smithsonian, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Roberts used the museum’s theme as a starting point to ask the president what the thought about the rioters, looters and protesters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Except Roberts didn’t set it up…

WASHINGTON — Did you see the interview over the weekend of a listless and, apparently, exhausted Hillary Clinton? Supposedly she has recovered from last week's bout with pneumonia, but she could have fooled me. Call me a hypochondriac, but in my opinion her recovery is not going very well.  

Many consider Donald Trump an anomaly in the Republican party, but they really shouldn’t, suggested New York’s Chait in a Tuesday piece. Chait argued that the GOP which nominated Trump for president is pretty much the same GOP which has freaked out for several years over the Affordable Care Act. As Chait put it, “Republican hatred of Obamacare exemplifies the madness that left its elite unable to…

Investigative reporters at the Associated Press have occasionally come up with meaningful nuggets putting Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's conduct and record in a bad light. Examples include several scoops in the email/private-server scandal and its research finding that "More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of…

With the first 2016 presidential debate approaching on Monday, a portion of Tuesday’s Hardball on MSNBC was dedicated to looking back at some iconic moments from past debates and host Chris Matthews used the time to express his sheer anger that still permeates four years later at Mitt Romney for his “terrible performance” in the first 2012 debate where he “walked in like he’s a better man” than…