President Bush was both loved and loathed for his resoluteness of purpose. But his successor has taken that trait to an entirely new level, to the point that he’s become obstinate in the face of a clear reality.

President Obama, his lieutenants and media allies claim that prevailing public anger is rooted in frustration over a Washington that’s “getting nothing done.” They are wrong. As I explain in my Human Events column today, most of the outrage is the result of a Washington that’s doing too much to push policies that have always failed.  Thank you.

Media elites and pointy-headed leftwing intellectuals are having spasms this morning over Sarah Palin. What set them off this time? A liberal blogger discovered that Gov. Palin had written some “cheat” notes on her hand to use during her speech at the Tea Party convention this weekend. Every commentator in the country is using the incident to denounce her as stupid, non-intellectual, un-presidential and unserious. By the way, the “reminders” on her palm were “Energy,” “Cut taxes” and “Lift America’s spirits.” Oh the horror!

Of course most of the media talking heads continue to think that Obama is just the smartest, coolest guy that has ever occupied the Oval Office. Most of them thought it was silly when we raised questions about why our Harvard-educated president couldn’t say “Good morning” without his co-president – the Teleprompter. And even with the teleprompter, Obama manages to display serious ignorance. In a speech last week, he told a story about a Navy corpsman apparently not realizing that the “p” and the “s” in “corpsman” are silent. Twice, with the teleprompter, Obama pronounced the word as “corpse man.” Now there’s a job I wouldn’t want.

The media and the Left desperately want America to think that only liberals are smart. I remember how Reagan was mocked unmercifully because he used note cards during his speeches. The media had nothing but contempt for Dan Quayle. And, of course, George W. Bush was constantly presented as a buffoon.

“Poor little stupid Sarah Palin,” they are all saying. She wrote “Energy” on her hand to remind herself to bring up the need for more drilling. She wrote “Cut taxes” because she believes that is how to get our economy moving. She wrote “Lift America’s spirit” because she knows America needs inspiration.

Our president doesn’t write notes on his palm. He “knows” that limiting drilling is a great idea while we grow more dependent on people who hate us. He “knows” that raising taxes on families and small businesses is just the thing to do when the economy is on the ropes. And he is too busy apologizing for America’s sins and bashing businesses to think about lifting our spirits.

So who is the stupid one?

Who would have thought that the candidate who promised to transcend partisanship, who promised to unite the nation under the banner of “hope and change” and who rode into Washington with a herd of new donkeys would bear such a striking resemblance to Richard Nixon?

In recent weeks, the White House has decided to fire back against its critics and opponents. To a degree, that’s normal and expected. Politics is a contact sport, after all. But this White House and its allies – with some personnel taking inspiration from communist dictators – have gone way beyond what is normal or expected.

Calling critics “un-American,” threatening businesses with regulatory retribution and punitive taxation, literally locking committee doors and locking out the press is way beyond normal. It is, as House Republican Leader John Boehner said, “flat-out despicable.”  I’m pleased to report that in the past few days, there have been some positive developments.

Earlier this week, Tennessee’s soft-spoken senator, Lamar Alexander, went to the Senate floor and blasted the White House for compiling, as Nixon did, an “enemies list.”

This week, the White House made “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg available to the Washington press pool for interviews regarding his plan for salary caps at bailed out banks and companies. But Fox News was locked out. The other network news chiefs were stunned. To their credit, they told the White House to let Fox in or none of them would show up. The White House backed down.

Politico reports today: “A White House effort to undermine conservative critics is generating backlash on Capitol Hill – and not just from Republicans.” Many moderate Democrats are increasingly concerned about the White House’s heavy-handed attacks on the Chamber of Commerce.

Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are essential to the survival of liberty. If every media outlet spouts the same “party line,” how is that any different than what the Soviets did with Pravda? But that seems to be exactly what this White House wants – to control the media as White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said.

We’re getting dangerously close to going down the slippery-slope toward a state-run media, the subject of my weekly Human Eventscolumn, which you can read here.

Here’s a news story that you probably didn’t hear about over the weekend. Some of Obama’s staunchest supporters are beginning to question his foreign policy. Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE), a Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War who endorsed Obama last year, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday. He congratulated Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize but criticized his foreign policy for being too “naïve.” Kerrey also criticized Obama for “apologizing for America too much.”

Kerrey wrote, “[Obama] has made too many apologies. And at this point, his strategy is too naïve and has too little coherence to be called a strategy.” Kerrey even went so far as to praise George W. Bush on Iraq. He wrote, “Then, against all reasonable predictions, President Bush chose to increase rather than decrease our military commitment. The ‘surge,’ as it became known, worked. Victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat… Great American leaders of our past had ignored popular sentiment and pressed on during the darkest hours, even when setbacks give rhetorical ammunition to skeptics.”

Kerrey is respected in and around Washington for his foreign policy opinions. In fact, he is respected so much that he was placed in charge of the 9/11 commission. Normally, when a top supporter begins to criticize a president’s foreign policy, it is a lead story on the nightly news. But then again, the mainstream media would never want to insult this Administration.

Every year, the federal government disperses hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars – your tax dollars – to various projects and programs. In order to ensure that your money is not wasted, each department has an office of independent auditors known as inspectors general or IGs. Last year, Congress passed a law designed to strengthen their independence from political pressure. Then Senator Obama was one of the co-sponsors of that legislation. But now it appears as though President Obama has run afoul of that very law and a scandal is brewing that has yet to be noticed by the “mainstream media.”

In a move denounced by both Republicans and Democrats as a violation of the new protections for IGs, President Obama recently fired Americorps IG Gerald Walpin. Walpin’s work was getting very close to some very big Obama supporters and he recently received a call from the White House telling him he had one hour to resign or be fired. Walpin refused to go and was sacked. The White House responded to the controversy with wild accusations suggesting Mr. Walpin suffered from dementia. Today there is breaking news that Walpin isn’t the only IG to be fired. But there’s another story here too.

When Bush fired eight political appointees it was front page news, and, believe it or not, Congress is still investigating that. But when Obama fires not one, but now three inspectors general, just as the administration is getting ready to spend billions of stimulus dollars even faster, liberal politicians and the media are silent. As one commentator observed, “WHERE ARE THE WATCHDOGS of the establishment media? Oh, that’s right: They are no longer watchdogs but lapdogs, and particularly slobbering ones at that….”

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
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