Tag: Barack Obama

J.D. Vance: Don’t Blame Trump (Alone)

 

J.D. Vance owes his election to the US Senate from the Buckeye State to Donald Trump. Yes, of course, it was a majority of voters in Ohio who elected him. But the former president’s late endorsement in a crowded and competitive primary field that included 2018 GOP Senate nominee and former State Treasurer Josh Mandel was The Factor.

Vance, meanwhile, underperformed the rest of the statewide GOP ticket in Ohio. As previously reported, incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine won by 25 points over his Democratic challenger. The weakest of the three Republicans running for State Supreme Court won by 11 points. Vance won over US Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) by seven points.

[Member Post]

 

The question was first raised in 2015, if not before. Could then-President Barack Obama, having been elected twice, run as then-Vice President and putative Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate? Betting sites focused on the 2020 election gave it 2 percent odds. And those same sites are taking bets for 2024. Preview Open

⚠️ This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet's community of conservatives and be part of the conversation.

Join Ricochet for free.

[Member Post]

 

It’s a cliche: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Attributed most frequently to George Santayana, it rests close to a biblical phrase, “And there is nothing new under the sun.” King Solomon is credited for that (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Both still ring true. So does a malapropism from legendary philosopher […]

⚠️ This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet's community of conservatives and be part of the conversation.

Join Ricochet for free.

The Biden Speech I Would Have Drafted

 

President Biden finally found his way back to the White House this afternoon to deliver a speech about his failure in Afghanistan. If he were a real president, in full control of his mental faculties and looking to earn respect from his constituents, here’s what he should have delivered. You can read his miserable, finger-pointing, “not my fault” remarks as delivered here.

Note: I’m a former speechwriter. I have written speeches for a Cabinet Secretary in the Bush 41 Administration, a leading United States Senator, and on occasion, a couple of Fortune 250 corporate CEOs.

Here’s the speech I would have written and he would never have given, considering his lack of integrity, failure of leadership, his diminished mental state, and his awful staff. And I would have resigned before being fired. These are incompetent and deluded people, from the top down. This is the first draft, so forgive the errors.

Join Jim and Greg as they see the resignation of top aide Melissa DeRosa as a major sign that Gov. Andrew Cuomo might not survive this scandal. They also note more polls showing Californians split on the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom and a majority giving him terrible marks on key issues. And they react to the big Obama birthday bash and wonder whether having a bunch of vaccinated people together without masks is fine or the CDC is serious about vaxxed people staying masked. Because it can’t be both.

‘Fault Lines’: A Book Review

 

One benefit of driving across the United States these past couple of weeks is the opportunity to catch up with terrific audiobooks. One was Dr. Wilfred McClay’s fabulous “Our Land of Hope,” the best survey of American history I’ve read to date, published in 2019. The second was “Fault Lines” by Voddie Baucham Jr., a prominent Southern Baptist African American pastor and divinity school dean.

Wow. And what makes Baucham’s book launch and tour earlier this summer all the more impressive was the time he spent at the Mayo Clinic, recovering from heart surgery.

Both books have attracted a lot of attention, but Baucham’s “Fault Lines” strikes a chord in tackling the cultural issue du jour – Critical Race Theory (CRT). A quick search for reviews of the book underscores that. While Baucham’s book focuses on the battle over social justice raging within evangelical churches, it is valuable for anyone seeking to understand CRT and its growing global march across many institutions.

More Senate Filibuster Silliness

 

Lefty Law Professors Want VP Harris to Declare the Filibuster “Unconstitutional”

Give the Left its due. They are relentless. Not just progressive election “reformers,” or “critical theory” proponents. But law professors and legislative strategists are on a never-ending quest to eliminate the single biggest barrier to their legislative utopia – the United States Senate’s filibuster rule.

Join Jim and Greg as they discuss even more revelations from the New York nursing home scandal and former Cuomo staffers admitting that working for the governor was like being in a cult. Jim fumes as Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan refuses to accept the Johnson & Johnson vaccines and also because many states and school districts are not keeping track of how many teachers are getting vaccinated. They react to revelations that Barack Obama tried to talk Joe Biden out of running for president in 2020 and they get a kick out of learning the candidate Obama seems to have preferred.

Quote of the Day: That Sense of Freedom

 

“There are aspects of my life that I can’t get back. But there are things that I can do now. When we were in Martha’s Vineyard this summer, Michelle and I would ride bikes. And now that we have masks on, we could ride through town and people wouldn’t know who we were. It felt pretty close to what I imagined — that sense of freedom, of being able to go wherever you wanted.” – Barack Obama, People Magazine Interview, Dec. 7, 2020

I confess that I subscribed to “People” magazine as part of a free offer from a bookstore and, despite having canceled the subscription, I keep receiving new issues. I usually don’t read beyond the cover, since the cover conveys pretty much all I need to know about who and what People thinks is interesting and important. The most recent issue features Barack Obama in “His Most Revealing Interview!” I actually read this article because of the cover’s claim that “the White House nearly wrecked his marriage.” I have been thinking a lot lately about the portrayal of marriage in literature and in culture, as well as its importance in my own life. But after reading the whole article, I wanted to focus on “that sense of freedom.”

The quote above closes out the article, which emphasizes the modern celebrity magazine’s motto of “Celebrities: They’re Just Like Us!” We’re left with the poignant reflection that what Barack Obama most wants is to reclaim the freedom that his previous anonymity permitted him and his family. Let’s pretend we don’t notice that Barack Obama has just released his third memoir and has encouraged a friendly and fawning cover story on the impact of politics on his personal life, and just appreciate that Obama has found some measure of elusive freedom via the hottest fashion trend of 2020: face masks.

Join Jim and Greg as they discuss Attorney General Bill Barr stating there is not enough evidence of fraud to overturn the presidential election and the very different opinion many Trump supporters now have of Barr. They also cringe as Minneapolis reports a 537 percent rise in carjackings compared to this time last year following this year’s riots and anti-police attitudes from local politicians. And they get a kick out of Barack Obama telling progressives that “catchy slogans” are not the path to political progress.

President Trump versus Democrats on Hostage Rescue: They are who we thought they were: Part 3

 

Ballot boxVote for your life. Vote Trump and every Republican below him on your ballot if you care for safety and the lives of your fellow Americans. That message came through again the last weekend of this momentous election. The contrast is stark between the risk President Trump is willing to take on our behalf and the self-serving risk deferment of Biden and his party, going back to President Clinton or perhaps Carter.  They are who we thought they were; will we let them win anyway?

This weekend was very bad for Islamic terrorists in Africa and very good for an American hostage and all Americans. Our elite hostage rescue forces struck out of the darkness and snatched an American hostage, alive and well, from the dead hands of his captors in Nigeria:

Statement From the President On Last Night’s Hostage Rescue
NATIONAL SECURITY & DEFENSE |  Issued on: October 31, 2020

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome the news that Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris is having very little impact on the presidential race. They also roll their eyes as Hillary Clinton suggests to the convention yet again that she really won the election and Barack Obama, of all people, says we need a president who will faithfully defend the Constitution.  And they react to the news that former White House official and Trump 2016 campaign honcho Steve Bannon is under indictment for allegedly defrauding a charity supposedly funding a border wall.

Listen and Believe When Your Enemies Speak

 

Ballot boxWhen the enemies of our constitutional republic speak, we must listen and believe they intend what their words betray. Accordingly, everyone should read former President Barack Obama’s political speech at the funeral of Congressman John Lewis. Here is the speech in full, with the politically potent leftist agenda bolded. Understand that Barack Obama has no god but himself, but he quotes Scripture as well as Satan. At the height of his rhetorical power, Obama’s tongue is as smooth as the great Serpent’s. Remember that he devoted his entire presidency to dividing and stoking separation between ethnic groups, amplifying grievances at every turn. Make no mistake. This is a campaign speech, aimed at producing socialist rule after the 2020 election. I inject my opinion in square brackets. You read and you decide.

James wrote to the believers, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

It is a great honor to be back in Ebenezer Baptist Church, in the pulpit of its greatest pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple – an American whose faith was tested again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance – John Robert Lewis.

[Member Post]

 

This Tuesday, June 23, 2020, Joe Biden held a virtual fundraiser which featured former President Barack Obama. The event included a discussion or conversation between Biden and Obama and, in that conversation, Obama made an assertion that stunned me. Let me post a video which includes the assertion in question. The video is about 2 […]

⚠️ This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet's community of conservatives and be part of the conversation.

Join Ricochet for free.

As the country is rocked by the death of Mr. George Floyd and the resulting civil disorder, Dave hears from two people with crucial front row seats.  First, Ricochet Co-Founder Rob Long calls in from New York City to share what he’s seen downtown and what he sees in the country at large. Then, Ricochet Member Duke Powell calls in from Minneapolis to talk about what happened to George Floyd. Mr. Powell has 36 years of EMS experience, and he retired from the same agency that responded to Mr. Floyd on that awful day. Mr. Powell shares with Dave what protocols should have been followed and where he believes events took a fatal turn.

Finally, if you’re listening to Dave’s show, but you’re not a Ricochet member, there is a way you can get a 30 day free trial membership . Tune in to learn more!

[Member Post]

 

Our Chief Historian Sam Jacobs had the fortunate opportunity to speak with author and former ATF agent, Vincent Cefalu. For those of you that might not know — Vincent Cefalu is best known as the primary whistleblower who exposed Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner to the American public. Cefalu is a curious figure, […]

⚠️ This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet's community of conservatives and be part of the conversation.

Join Ricochet for free.

The Obamagate Reckoning Has Begun

 

Mollie Hemingway has a great piece up today encouraging journalists to do the right thing. We are still at the beginning of the Obamagate revelations. They have a chance to report it honestly. But the window won’t stay open forever. Soon the historical opportunity to be among the brave truth-tellers of our era will be lost, and anyone who didn’t take it will be left twisting in the wind, their professional reputation in tatters.

It’s not a question of “if” anymore, but “when.”

Roman Genn arrived in America in 1991, fresh after departing his native Soviet Union, where his caricatures resulted in what he refers to as, “many unpleasant encounters with police officials.” He sat down with our own Dave Carter for a freewheeling exchange about life in the US, where his immense talent and sense of mischief have flourished on the cover of National Review and many other publications. The conversation crosses continents and covers everything from the reaction of various public personalities and US presidents to Roman’s art, to his deployments with US Marines to the middle east, and much more. Dave reports that the only thing that caught him off guard was Roman’s irrepressible sense of humor, which caused face cramps on the part of our host from all the laughing.

Ricochet Member Lois Lane was kind enough to drop by and talk about her recent post, “Eating Out in a Restaurant in the Age of COVID-19,” and share her experience as college professor, teaching history and English. It’s a captivating discussion that you’re sure to enjoy.