Religious Right Sets Phasers to 'Stun Obama'

It's one of the quieter aspects of the federal package

(NEWSER) - Conservatives slammed it as “anti-religious”—but in fact, some $140 million from President Obama’s stimulus package has gone to faith-based organizations. The money “kind of fell from the sky, and it was unbelievable,” says the head of a church-backed nonprofit. But the matter has gone under the radar, “perhaps because it cuts so sharply across the moment's intensely partisan narrative,” write Ben Smith and Byron Tau at Politico . More»

Claims he has an anti-US agenda go well beyond Bush-loathing

(NEWSER) - Liberals questioned George W Bush's legitimacy and wanted him to fail, writes Michael Tomasky, so what's the difference between those Bush haters and the birthers, teabaggers, and "paranoid" “committed conservatives” who Tomasky writes are way “off the continuum” of political debate over Barack Obama’s presidency? No one thought “he was secretly out to destroy the US.” More»

Opponents' ability to criticize with impunity hinders the president's effectiveness

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has been praised for bringing a more conciliatory tone to the presidency after the with-us-or-against-us swagger of George W. Bush. But Obama’s preference for gentle negotiation and compromise leaves him less able to use an effective presidential tool: fear, writes Ben Smith for Politico. Obama has failed to make the impression, among conservative Democrats and Republicans alike, that openly criticizing him will have any long-term consequences. More»

(NEWSER) - To listen to the Obama camp and the liberal media, the anti-Obamacare protesters at last month’s town halls are a grave threat to our way of life, Mary Katharine Harn writes in the Weekly Standard. But “the climate of paranoia and violence that enveloped our political system this August was largely a creation” of the people who railed against it (think Olbermann and Matthews). In more than 400 meetings, “there were fewer than ten documented incidents that could be described as violent.” More»

(NEWSER) - Opponents are saying a lot of things about President Obama that just aren’t true. Mark Halperin clears up the record in Time. Obama ...

• has Israeli security interests at heart.
• is not blind to the costs of a revamped health care system.
• "is not captive to his party's liberal interest groups."
• "is not captive to liberals in Congress."