Arrogance Charge Dogs Obama, Fueled by Misquote

Because Solyndra doesn't count ... yet

(NEWSER) - Yesterday Barack Obama officially broke George W. Bush’s record for the longest scandal-free streak by a president in the post-Watergate era—at least by one political scientist’s criteria. Dartmouth professor Brendan Nyhan ran a study earlier this year on presidential scandals, which he defines as "widespread elite perception of wrongdoing." Nyhan figured the Washington Post is a good indicator of elite opinion, so to qualify as a scandal, the S-word had to be used in the writer’s own voice on a front-page Post story. More»

For starters, Tricky Dick henchman Roger Ailes runs the network

(NEWSER) - Pundits have been decrying the Obama administration’s “Nixonian” attack on Fox News—and that’s ridiculous, writes Joe Conason of Salon. The president’s within his rights to avoid or criticize an organization that won’t treat him fairly, and that definitely describes Fox. The network is run by former Nixon aide Roger Ailes, “the living symbol of everything negative and nasty in American politics.” And Fox repeatedly implied Obama was a terrorist. More»

Post columnist the only coherent voice in a fractured opposition

(NEWSER) - In 2006, Charles Krauthammer urged Barack Obama to run for president, guaranteeing he’d lose. That didn’t exactly work out, but Obama’s rise has been good for the Washington Post columnist, who has become the central anti-Obama voice, writes Ben Smith in Politico. His writing drips with a clarity and confidence the fractured right craves. “He’s the most important conservative columnist right now,” says David Brooks of the New York Times. More»

But president endured tougher questioning than last conference

(NEWSER) - President Obama bypassed reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other major papers last night, instead taking questions from Spanish-language TV station Univision and military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Yet the president faced tougher questions than at his first press conference, often in the form of sharply worded follow-ups, Howard Kurtz of the Post writes. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama goes to bat for his stimulus package today in an editorial in the Washington Post, calling it “more than a prescription for short-term spending—it’s a strategy for America’s long-term growth.” He says the criticisms of it are “misguided,” advocating “half-steps and piecemeal measures,” and operating on the notion that tax cuts can solve any problem. More»