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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carolyn who wrote (65154)	5/19/2013 8:21:37 PM
From: greatplains_guy	2 Recommendations Respond to of 71588

The IRS is not very friendly. People are right to be very concerned about giving more power to the IRS.

To: Carolyn who wrote (65154)	5/27/2013 2:19:34 AM
From: greatplains_guy	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Obama’s split personality By MICHAEL GOODWIN Last Updated: 3:53 AM, May 26, 2013 If this is what he meant by “going Bulworth,” heaven help America. Beset by growing world disorder, a sluggish economy and big scandals at home, President Obama tried to reset his presidency last week with a long speech on national security and terrorism. At least that’s what he said the speech was about. In reality, it was — surprise — about him. Both sides of him. It turns out the president doesn’t like war, but believes it is sometimes necessary. He doesn’t like it when our military causes civilian casualties, but says bad things happen in war. He believes drones save lives with their precision, but he’s not sure he should have unilateral power to use them. He ponders “profound questions” about targeted killings of al Qaeda leaders, but concludes they are legal and moral. Does the name Hamlet ring a bell? White House insiders recently told a reporter that Obama fantasizes about “going Bulworth,” a reference to the 1998 film where Warren Beatty plays a politician who chucks caution to speak his mind. They implied that Obama is frustrated by “distractions” like Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservatives and the Justice Department snooping on journalists and wants to get back to building utopia. Yet the Obama on display Thursday was more a man tormented by self-doubts than frustrated by opponents and problems. He was navel-gazing out loud, describing his soul-searching adventures and using his favorite personal pronoun — I — nearly 50 times. He took both sides of issues so often that Politico headlined its story “Obama Debates Obama.” Liberals who view ambivalence as proof of superior morality and intellect probably swooned. Hairsplitting and hand-wringing makes them feel good about themselves, which, as George Will noted, seems to be the whole point of modern liberalism. By that standard, the Obama presidency is a raging success. Relentlessly self-aggrandizing about its “unprecedented” approach to everything under the sun, it is, as a result, blind to the problems of everyday Americans. With the scandals, especially the abuse of power by the taxman, further eroding trust in government, even supporters are wondering whether they represent evidence of incompetence or corruption. Neither option seems to worry Obama, with his speech full of semantic preening instead of persuasive policy ideas. In one passage, he insisted that America was not engaged in “a boundless ‘global war on terror,’ ” calling our efforts instead a “series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists” around the world. That was a distinction without a difference, given how we’re playing whack-a-mole with the al Qaeda offshoots popping up around the globe. And he didn’t mention Iran’s quest for nukes, which would combine terrorism with weapons of mass destruction. Similarly, he said the 2002 law authorizing the invasion of Iraq, which Obama has used repeatedly, is outdated and must be changed. “This war, like all wars, must end,” he declared. That’s a dangerous approach to a war we didn’t start. Has he told our enemies it’s over? While asserting his holier-than-thou claims, he rejected all other views as illegitimate. He said he wants to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, insisting that only “politics” prevent it. See, if you don’t agree with him, you’re corrupt or dumb. He wanted it both ways on prosecutor snooping, too. Last week, he said he had no problem with seizing phone records of journalists in leak investigations and expressed “full confidence” in Attorney General Eric Holder, but now says he is “troubled” by the possibility Holder’s probes might chill journalism and wants Holder to investigate himself. Obama’s in his fifth year, and it’s still amateur hour in the White House. The president reportedly worked on the speech for months, and probably expects the planet to heal as a result. But with his administration facing multiple crises, Americans would be better off if he spent more time giving them reasons to trust their government and less time with his head in the clouds. The nation needs a hands-on leader, not a dreamer-in-chief. And the next time he needs to share his personal torment, he should just call a shrink. nypost.com