Laura Ingraham Explains ‘Trump Effect’

 Via: Weasel Zippers

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[VIDEO] Krauthammer on Obama's Divisive Iran Rhetoric: 'Vintage Obama, New Low'

Krauthammer slammed Obama for his divisive rhetoric on Iran Wednesday on "The Kelly File."

"It's vintage Obama - the demonization of his opponents - lumping them together with people chanting 'death to America,' I must say is a new low for the president," Krauthammer said.

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] Krauthammer: Debate Is Going To Be All About Trump

MEGYN KELLY, KELLY FILE: An aide to Governor John Kasich (R-OH) came out and said [the upcoming FOX News Republican debate] is like a NASCAR driver mentally preparing for a race knowing one of the drivers will be drunk. You don't know what to expect. 

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, if you want to put it slightly more kindly, you could have just said erratic and unpredictable but everybody knows that in the lead-up to this debate it's going to be all about Trump. That will be the story, no matter what happens, otherwise in the debate that will be the story that's going to be carried out by the media. That's going to be the sound bite. 

And the two questions are: will Trump act like a statesman or will he continue the anger and bluster show? And the second is: will anybody take him on, and who will it be? On the first I know he's getting advice from the media that he should play the statesman and that would propel him. I'm not sure that he's capable of doing that but assuming he is, I'm not sure that would be successful. He's had such incredible success with the bluster and the anger that he has tapped into that I suspect he'll continue on that. 

The question is, will anybody challenge him? if you're a top-tier candidate, there's not that much advantage in doing that, particularly now early in the race. You get into a mud fight, the others will benefit rather than you. I suspect it could be somebody who is in the middle of the pack, say a number 9, 10, or 11 in any of the polls on the bubble of the debates, on the cusp, who might want to take him out in a way to be the dragon slayer and perhaps the candidate for that would be Rick Perry who took him on the most strongly after his remarks -- Trump's remarks about John McCain.

Via: Real Clear Videos

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[VIDEO] Krauthammer: It Will Snow in Hell Before DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation into Hillary

On Fox News today, Bret Baier brought the subject to Hillary Clinton‘s emails, which got renewed media focus following a report that the Department of Justice received requests to open a criminal investigation into the scandal. The DOJ later backtracked by saying that the referral they received was not actually criminal in nature.

After reading a statement from a Clinton spokesman, Baier said that it was a common maneuver of Hillary to place the blame on “reckless, inaccurate leaks” whenever she is being pressed on her emails.

Charles Krauthammer agreed, saying that whether the Times report was false or not, the substance of the charges against Clinton are still present, and she is trying to create distractions and shift blame onto others.

He said it’s be up to the DOJ to actually determine the criminality of any charges brought against Clinton, but was doubtful on that prospect, saying “I think it will snow in Hell before the DOJ is going to go after her.”

Krauthammer also blasted the DOJ as “an extremely politicized department,” saying they weren’t going after her for being untruthful like they were when former CIA director David Petraeus was discovered having an extramarital affair.

He concluded by saying that even though Clinton insisted otherwise at her speech today, the intelligence community made it clear that the emails she sent out had classified information, and she resisted handing them over.

Via: Mediaite

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Krauthammer On Obama: 'Who Cares What He Feels?'

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our diplomacy as it worked respect to Iran, where for the first time in a decade we've halted the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you square that with the IAEA announcing that they a 20 percent increase in their nuclear field?

EARNEST: The IAEA report that was published at the end of last week is merely a snapshot in time. And the joint plan of action requires Iran by the end of that joint plan of action period, in this case by June 30th, to be at the appropriate cap on their stockpile.

(WATCH VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Well, the snapshot in time is the time over the last 18 months as this nuclear deal has been being negotiated with Iran, the nuclear fuel increasing by 20 percent according to the IAEA. This as a former key aide to the commander in chief telling the Israeli press that the president was pretty frustrated by the perception that he wasn't a strong supporter of Israel. David Axelrod telling Israeli TV Channel Two the president said to him, he also recalled Obama venting in a moment of contemplation, telling, "You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office. For people to say that I am anti-Israel or even worse, anti- Semitic, it hurts."

So with all this, let's bring in our panel, Steve Hayes, senior writer for "The Weekly Standard," Mara Liasson, National Political Correspondent of National Public Radio, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. Mara?

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Well, in terms of Iran increasing its nuclear stockpile, I mean, Josh Earnest just stated a fact, which is according to the agreement it's supposed to get rid of it all by June 30th. What he didn't say is how they are going to, and why if they are trying to negotiate an end to the nuclear weapons program they were increasing their nuclear weapons program as the negotiations were going on.

So it's not a good sign. You know, if the administration does get something that it says is good, it's going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Via: Fox News

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Iraq’s Decline into Chaos Traces Back to 2011, Not 2003 by CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

State coalition so grandly proclaimed by the Obama administration is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it’s the defense minister of Iran who flies into Baghdad, an unsubtle demonstration of who’s in charge — while the U.S. air campaign proves futile and America’s alleged strategy for combating the Islamic State is in free fall. It gets worse. The Gulf States’ top leaders, betrayed and bitter, ostentatiously boycott President Obama’s failed Camp David summit. “We were America’s best friend in the Arab world for 50 years,” laments Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief.

Note: “were,” not “are.” We are scraping bottom. Following six years of President Obama’s steady and determined withdrawal from the Middle East, America’s standing in the region has collapsed. And yet the question incessantly asked of the various presidential candidates is not about that. It’s a retrospective hypothetical: Would you have invaded Iraq in 2003 if you had known then what we know now? RELATED: Obama’s Ludicrous Middle East Policy First, the question is not just a hypothetical, but an inherently impossible hypothetical. It contradicts itself. Had we known there were no weapons of mass destruction, the very question would not have arisen. The premise of the war — the basis for going to the U.N., to the Congress, and, indeed, to the nation — was Iraq’s possession of WMD in violation of the central condition for the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War. No WMD, no hypothetical to answer in the first place. Second, the “if you knew then” question implicitly locates the origin and cause of the current disasters in 2003. As if the fall of Ramadi was predetermined then, as if the author of the current regional collapse is George W. Bush.

Via: National Review

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[VIDEO] KRAUTHAMMER: HILLARY ‘HAS TO COME OUT OF HER BUNKER SOMETIME’

On Monday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer sounded off on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s absence from media scrutiny, particularly as Republican presidential candidates are getting quizzed about the Iraq war and Clinton has avoided having to take on those answers.

“[T]he question for Hillary is, when you were in the Senate, you opposed the surge. You said it wasn’t working, and you implied in your questioning of David Petraeus during the surge that he was lying. Do you think that was a mistake? How about asking that.”

“And the second question is, when we decided to withdraw entirely from Iraq in 2011, as you indicated Bill, against the advice of the military, it was obvious what would be the result,” he continued. “You Secretary Clinton were the secretary of state in charge of our diplomacy. Did you oppose that? Was it a mistake, and would you now say so? She’s got to answer those. The press has to ask those questions and not just hector Republicans with questions about Iraq as if it is owned by Republicans.”

Krauthammer noted the scrutiny of “Clinton Cash” author of Peter Schweizer, whereas Hillary Clinton the political candidate has avoided direct scrutiny.

“She needs to be embarrassed and the Stephanopouloses of the world ought to be embarrassed into asking those questions and not just of people like Peter Schweizer,” Krauthammer added. “She has to come out of her bunker some time.”

Via: Breitbart

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A Taxpayer Bailout for ObamaCare

An American public already reeling from the catastrophic rollout of ObamaCare will more than likely be hearing an unfamiliar term being bandied about in the new year. “Risk corridor” refers to a provision in the law that allows the government to “stabilize” premium costs for insurance companies during the first three years of the healthcare rollout.

If insurance companies’ “target” costs for providing healthcare has been miscalculated, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will intercede on their behalf. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer illuminates the nature of that intercession. “The insurers understand that they’re going to be completely ruined,” Krauthammer explains. “And what’s going to happen as a result of this? There’s only one way out, a huge government bailout of the insurers is waiting at the end of next year.” More accurately, it will be a taxpayer-funded bailout, similar to the ones given to the banks and the car companies.

Risk corridors were established to protect insurance companies that signed up too many sick people, relative to the number of healthy enrollees. They were part of asystem that also included two other concepts known as “reinsurance” and “risk adjustment.”

The reinsurance part of the equation initially compensated insurance companies for enrollees whose costs exceed $60,000 per year. For 2014, that compensation is funded by a $10 billion fund, fed by a $63 tax that has been levied on all healthcare plans. And while the program collects those taxes even from large employer-sponsored plans, payouts only help to underwrite the costs of individual and small-group plans.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Krauthammer: 'Huge Gov't Bailout' of Health Insurance Industry at End of 2014

(CNSNews.com) - President Obama, by issuing new rules that erode Obamacare's "financial structure," is putting the health insurance industry -- and taxpayers -- at risk, author and conservative political analyst Charles Krauthammer said on Sunday.

"The insurers understand that they're going to be completely ruined," Krauthammer said on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. "And what's going to happen as a result of this? There's only one way out, a huge government bailout of the insurers is waiting at the end of next year."

That's the issue Republicans should be focusing on right now, Krauthammer said.

On Thursday, the Obama administration unilaterally delayed another provision of the law, saying there will be no tax penalty for people who had their existing health insurance canceled because of the Affordable Care Act and who did not find new coverage as required by law.

"There still may be a small number of consumers who are not able to renew their existing plans and are having difficulty finding an acceptable replacement," Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote to Senate Democrats. "These consumers should qualify for this temporary hardship exemption," the Associated Press quoted her as saying.

Krauthammer on Sunday said insurers "are apoplectic" about all the rule changes because it exempts another important group from the exchanges.

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Krauthammer: It Took Barbara Walters 5 Years to Realize Obama’s Not the Messiah? It Took Us 1 1/2 Hours

Barbara Walter’s admission Tuesday evening that she used to believe President Obama was the next messiah is predictably the target of derision and satire in conservative circles.

Making a guest appearance on Fox News’s The Five Wednesday, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said, “Five years to realize the man isn't a messiah? I think it took some of us…an hour and a half” (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, I mean, it's remarkable that it would take half a decade for the veil to be lifted from her eyes. Five years to realize the man isn't a messiah? I think it took some of us – [Looking at co-host Bob Beckel] well, almost all of us – about, you know, an hour and a half to realize that he gives a good speech, but he's shown no aptitude at governing. So I'm glad that she's aboard, but she's a little late.

Via: Newsbusters

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Krauthammer: Every GOPer Can Beat 'Paper Tiger' Hillary

Charles Krauthammer says no matter which Republican gets the presidential nomination in 2016, all of them could beat the “paper tiger” candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Krauthammer on his show on Tuesday whether any of a several contenders for 2016 could beat the former secretary of state.

“Every single one can beat Hillary. Hillary’s a paper tiger,” the conservative columnist said, according to a transcript. “Hillary was inevitable in ’08 and what happened to inevitability? I don’t think she’s that, I think she can win, of course. And I think she’ll get the nomination by acclamation for religious reasons.”

Krauthammer said Clinton can’t run on her record, because she doesn’t have one.

“She’s worshipped by the Democrats. But I don’t think that translates necessarily. The idea that she’s a shoe-in for the presidency I think is just ridiculously wrong,” Krauthammer said. “I don’t think she’s a great campaigner. You know, she’s got her strengths, but let me ask you this. You know the hyperbole about her being Secretary of State? Name me one thing she achieved in the four years. One.”

Hewitt also engaged Krauthammer in a “lightning round” of word association for the likely Republicans in the race.

Krauthammer called New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a “frontrunner,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich was “interesting, possible,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was “young, ambitious, brash. I like him.” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has “one pratfall, but very strong, very deep, could be a contender,” Krauthammer said. Similarly, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is “attractive, articulate, young” in Krauthammer’s estimation, “ran into a bit of trouble with that immigration bill, but he’s a contender.”

Via: Fox News

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Krauthammer: The ‘Epic Collapse’ Of Obama’s New Kind Of Liberalism

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KELLY: Well, scores of Democrats voted for a bill today that critics say, would effectively undo ObamaCare. And Charles Krauthammer says that is because liberals are panicked about this law for good reason.
Charles is a FOX News contributor, a syndicated columnist and author of the book, "Things that Matter" which is now number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Charles, great to see you. And why? Why are they now in a panic?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Because I think there is so much at stake ideologically. Obama is an extremely ideologically ambitious president. And he represents kind of a third burst of liberalism. You had the new deal with FDR, the great society with LBJ. Obama sees himself as a revival of this idea of government as the central engine of progress, as the central engine of fairness, as the central engine of society itself. So he's the guy who is going to be the Robin Hood, government that takes from the rich -- taxes the rich and gives to the middle class. A government that will create from scratch by its own will. A green energy industry run on solar, in wind and algae and then of course, the center piece, the symbol, the embodiment of his new kind of liberalism.

Via: Fox News

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Krauthammer: Obama’s apology for cancelled insurance plans 'simply appalling'

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Thursday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that President Obama was “crystal clear” about individual health insurance under ObamaCare.

“He said, if you have your plan and you like your plan, you will keep your plan, period," Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor said. "The punctuation is the key here. No context, no caveats, no exceptions, that's what the word period means. He couldn't have been clearer, and for him to pretend he wasn't is simply appalling.”

In an interview Thursday with NBC News, President Obama told customers who have had their plans cancelled by insurers that he was sorry they “are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me” and that administration officials “weren't as clear as we needed to be.”

“Chris Christie had advice for the president,” Krauthammer said. “He said in an interview, I think it was last week, why don't you just say, 'we made a mistake, and we're sorry, we're going to try and fix it'? I think that would go a long way. But I don't think the president, this president is capable of ever saying that.”

Krauthammer also told viewers that problems with the ObamaCare website had taken a toll.

Via: Fox News

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O’Reilly, Krauthammer Blame CNN, MSNBC’s ‘Falling’ Ratings on Obamacare ‘Apologies’

During a segment about this week’s elections and the rest of President Obama’s term in office, Bill O’Reilly put forward a theory as to why Fox News’ cable competitors have struggled to keep up in the ratings, especially during this past month’s rocky rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Without naming names, O’Reilly said anyone who’s “apologizing for President Obama and Obamacare, their ratings are falling at an astounding rate.”

The segment began with O’Reilly’s guest Charles Krauthammer predicting that because the president doesn’t need to run again, he’s unlikely to change his approach to governing over the next few years. “He will stay there. He will hang in there. He will pretend it’s all going well,” Krauthammer said, warning against an “uprising” from Democrats who may decide to break away from a “lame duck” like Obama.

O’Reilly tied to idea of Democrats abandoning Obama to something “very fascinating” happening in the media. “Those media people on television who are apologizing for President Obama and Obamacare, their ratings are falling at an astounding rate,” O’Reilly said. “Nobody’s buying the apology and the BS and the spin anymore.”

Krauthammer pointed out that “it’s not only their ratings, it’s their reputation,” to which O’Reilly said some of them “never had a reputation and you know who I’m talking about.”

“Some of them started out with one,” Krauthammer replied, before adding a not-so-subtle reference to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “But then you know they got a lot of thrills up a lot of legs and it’s been a problem ever since.”

VIa; Mediaite.com

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Krauthammer: Moment of Truth ... A Disaster Exposed -- ObamaCare Laid Bare

Every disaster has its moment of clarity. Physicist Richard Feynman dunks an O-ring into ice water and everyone understands instantly why the shuttle Challenger exploded. This week, the Obamacare O-ring froze for all the world to see: Hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters went out to people who had been assured a dozen times by the president that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.”

The cancellations lay bare three pillars of Obamacare: (a) mendacity, (b) paternalism and (c) subterfuge.

(a) Those letters are irrefutable evidence that President Obama’s repeated you-keep-your-coverage claim was false. Why were they sent out? Because Obamacare renders illegal (with exceedingly narrow “grandfathered” exceptions) the continuation of any insurance plan deemed by Washington regulators not to meet their arbitrary standards for adequacy. Example: No maternity care? You are terminated.

So a law designed to cover the uninsured is now throwing far more people off their insurance than it can possibly be signing up on the nonfunctioning insurance exchanges. Indeed, most of the 19 million people with individual insurance will have to find new and likely more expensive coverage. And that doesn’t even include the additional millions who are sure to lose their employer-provided coverage. That’s a lot of people. That’s a pretty big lie.

But perhaps Obama didn’t know. Maybe the bystander president was as surprised by this as he claims to have been by the IRS scandal, the Associated Press and James Rosen phone logs, the failure of the Obamacare Web site, the premeditation of the Benghazi attacks, the tapping of Angela Merkel’s phone — i.e., the workings of the federal government of which he is the nominal head.

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] Krauthammer Reacts to Sebelius Testimony: ‘Pathetic, Horrible, Mortifying’

Charles Krauthammer reacted to Kathleen Sebelius‘ testimony before Congress today on Hugh Hewitt‘s radio show, calling it a “pathetic, horrible, mortifying performance” so colossally bad he almost felt sorry for her.

He did acknowledge Sebelius’ testimony was never going to be an easy ride. After all, as Krauthammer said, she “presided over the biggest debacle in liberal administrative history, and you’re into it for several weeks, you have no way out.”

He asked, “What in God’s name can you say?”

Hewitt agreed it was a “total disaster,” and Krauthammer admitted, “I almost felt sorry for her.”

Listen to the audio below, via The Hugh Hewitt Show:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Krauthammer: Obamacare Will Lead to Government 'Domination'

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer tells Newsmax that the successful implementation of Obamacare would lead to European-style government "intrusion and domination" — but adds that it is "quite possible" it will fail.

He also asserts that the government shutdown has led to a "tremendous drop" on the GOP's standing, says he agrees with Sen. Ted Cruz's objectives but not his tactics, and predicts the 2016 Republican presidential candidate will come from the ranks of GOP governors.

Krauthammer is a Fox News contributor, physician, and author of the new book, "Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics."

In the book, Krauthammer issues a passionate defense of limited government. Considering the massive growth of the government during the Obama administration and the growing number of Americans dependent on the government for entitlements, he was asked if the concept of limited American government can endure.

"A lot of conservatives are worried that we passed the tipping point," he says in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Tuesday. "That's wrong. It's still very doable for Americans to reconsider the inexorable growth of the leviathan state.

"I'll give you one example: Obamacare would be the singular achievement of the Obama administration, the capstone of 100 years of American liberalism, and would bring us very close to the kind of government intrusion, regulation, domination that you find in the social democracies of Europe.

Via: Newsmax

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Krauthammer Responds to Limbaugh: ‘I’ve Had No Illusions About Obama’

Appearing by phone on Steve Malzberg‘s NewsMaxTV show Monday afternoon, Charles Krauthammer responded to Rush Limbaugh‘s criticism that the Washington Post columnist was “fooled” into believing President Obama was a “centrist” at the beginning of his first term in office.

On his radio show, Limbaugh ran clips of Krauthammer and fellow columnist George Will telling Fox News that they initially thought Obama painted himself as a compromising centrist. “I intellectually don’t know how you can not figure out Barack Obama,” the radio host said. “A liberal is a liberal. I know Obama, for the low-information crowd, could be whatever you wanted him to be –- a blank canvas — but, for crying out loud, we’re not talking about low-information people here.”

In response, Krauthammer said that certain “talk radio hosts” (read: Limbaugh) had misrepresented what he said in the Fox special. “They ought to listen to what I said,” he told Malzberg. “I said nothing of the sort. I said that when Obama was elected, it was not clear whether he was a centrist Democrat who would throw a bone to the left; or if he was a man of the left who would occasionally throw a bone to the center.”

“What I was trying to explain,” he continued, “is that after three hours of policy discussion [with the president], both myself and my colleagues had no better idea after, which is a way of saying how well he could disguise his beliefs.”

However, Krauthammer said, “it didn’t take long to figure out his political ideology,” during Obama’s “radical” address to a Joint Session of Congress.

“I’ve had no illusions about Barack Obama from the beginning,” the conservative writer added. “The point I was making is that he was trying to disguise his political ideology and how far left he was when he ran in ’08. But he let down the mask as soon as he got elected.”

Asked whether Limbaugh is “wrong” for his thoughts then, Krauthammer said, “I don’t listen to what they have said. I have no idea. I’ve actually been working today.”

“It’s not what I have said,” he concluded, “or what I have ever written.”

Watch below, via NewsMaxTV:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Obama's disregard for experience and humility

I'll admit, I was drawn into this article on President Obama by Norm Ornstein's odd assertion that Obama has enforced "stiff restrictions on lobbyists entering the administration." Nobody should write something like that without noting that the Obama administration has hired at least 100 ex-lobbyists, including a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist as chief of staff at Treasury.

But the rest Ornstein's article is very revealing (Ornstein is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where I serve as a fellow). As I read the piece, Obama didn't put much stake in experience when staffing his administration:

The initial White House staff structure did not include anyone in a prominent position who knew the executive branch intimately—knew which positions among the political appointees were important for the president's policy objectives and needed to be filled quickly by experts or managers ...

This struck a chord with me because it echoes my suspicions that Obama suffers from hubris. Charles Krauthammer put it well in my interview for our cover story: "He's the least-experienced, least-known president probably in the history of the United States. ... If you're coming in as a novice, you ought to have some humility in deciding where you want to go and take the country.”

Krauthammer argues that Obama's policy agenda is insufficiently humble. Ornstein points to a different problem: Obama's managerial approach was insufficiently humble. As I read Ornstein, Obama put too much stake in intelligence and good intentions (meaning, "being liberal") and too little stake in such stodgy ideas as experience and wisdom.

This Ornstein passage is also telling:

The first clues to this problem came during the transition in 2008. George W. Bush and his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, offered exemplary assistance to the incoming Obama team — but many of the ideas on the table to streamline the nomination process for executive posts, including the cumbersome vetting element, were ignored.

Who needs experience, humility or wisdom from predecessors when you've got the best and brightest, with the best intentions, willing to work really hard?

Via: Washington Examiner
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Charles Krauthammer squares off against Jon Stewart on the merits of conservatism

Via: Daily Caller