Has SNL found a replacement for Fred Armisen’s Obama impression? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was pretty darn funny last night and came much closer to nailing Obama’s voice–even with Hulk-speak.
In this op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Jackson Diehl argues that there are strong similarities between Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and asserts that Obama’s decision to pursue health care reform can be compared to Bush’s to go to war in Iraq. Each, he suggests, is a “war of choice”: So Obama hasn’t strayed [...]
I’ve been loathe to join the argument about whether the veteran diplomat Chas Freeman should be hired to lead the National Intelligence Council. I don’t know the man, am only vaguely aware of his reputation–very smart but unothodox, a bit too close to the Saudis, a root canal ‘realist’ whose cold analysis of the Tiananmen [...]
Ron Brownstein lays out five big ones here. Also, I am belated in linking to a terrific story that our Austin stringer Hilary Hylton did on some folks who are doing heroic work for cancer patients and their families–the American Cancer Society’s National Cancer Information Center. As I noted in my cover story this week, [...]
There had been talk of waiting for Congress to act, but Obama is expected Monday to undue* undo Bush’s ban on federally funded research using embryonic stem cells. Congress is still expected to pass legilsation* legislation later this year to prevent future presidents from reinstating the ban. The lifting of the ban would be effective [...]
Earlier this week, I wondered if Sam Brownback’s public support of Kathleen Sebelius’ nomination to be HHS Secretary would quiet some of her anti-abortion critics. Apparently not, especially among the more fringe-y elements. It did, however, manage to re-focus some of their anger at Brownback himself. In the latest slap at Brownback, the Family Research [...]
My story on Thursday’s health reform summit at the White House is here.
There are two stories for what happened when British PM Gordon Brown visited with Obama. One comes from the White House. The other comes from the British press. In the White House version, Brown was greeted as, to put it in Obama’s own words, “one of our closest, strongest allies.” The two leaders met in [...]
On a morning when we get disastrous news about jobs, the Dow (at least at the moment) is up… The NYT explains, however, that this is because the news wasn’t even worse: On Wall Street, financial markets seemed to seize on the fact that monthly job losses had not increased in February, and stocks rose [...]
