Presidential Records

This is Federal Judge’s ruling when Archives filed complaint regarding Clinton: pic.twitter.com/0U4SYfV5vF

— Stu McClay (@McclayStu) August 19, 2022

We Over-Honor Our Presidents

I feel the same way as I told my wife.

Today the stock market will be closed, the federal government shut down, the mail will not be delivered and classes will be suspended. Why? George H.W. Bush died.

Irrespective of whether he was a great man or a poor one, George H. W. Bush was a public employee. He was not a king. He was not a pope. He did not found or save or design the republic. To shut down our civil society for a day in order to mark his peaceful passing is to invert the appropriate relationship between the citizen and the state, and to take yet another step toward the fetishization of an executive branch whose role is supposed to be more bureaucratic than spiritual, but that has come of late to resemble Caesar more than to resemble Coolidge.

In life they derided him and called him an elitist, clueless about real people and a Nazi (a title they give all Republicans).  Now that he's dead his political enemies on the Left call him a good guy. 

But he was a one term president and was elected to be Ronald Reagan's third term.  He had the good fortune to preside over the global successes of the Sainted Reagan. 

He did OK and lived a good, long life. 

RIP.

Obama's 'Scandal-Free' Administration Was Actually Riddled with Scandals

My very favorite contribution to the narrative came from Jonathan Alter, who gushed about Obama's "miraculous White House free of scandal" in a piece at Bloomberg News that read like something from The Onion:

President Barack Obama goes into the 2012 with a weak economy that may doom his reelection. But he has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest. (emphasis mine.)

Stop laughing – it gets better:

…the president’s Teflon is intriguing. How did we end up in such a scandal-less state? After investigating the question for a recent Washington Monthly article, I’ve been developing some theories. For starters, the tone is always set at the top. Obama puts a premium on personal integrity, and with a few exceptions…

This lie was already an insult to the American voter in 2011 with the Dealergate, DOJ Black Panther whitewash, Obamafication of NEA art, Sestak affair, politically expedient IG Gerald Walpin firing, misspent stimulus funds, DOJ’s secret astroturf propaganda unit, Shorebank, oilgate, Blagojevich/Rezko /Obama corruption, Obama's unaccountable czars, Fast and Furious, the Gibson Guitar Raid, Pigford, Solyndra and LightSquared scandals already on the books.

The false narrative was resurrected in February of 2016 when Obama sycophant David Brooks whole-heartedly pushed it in the New York Times.

The first and most important of these is basic integrity. The Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free. Think of the way Iran-contra or the Lewinsky scandals swallowed years from Reagan and Clinton. We’ve had very little of that from Obama. He and his staff have generally behaved with basic rectitude.

"'Remarkably scandal-free'? David Brooks works in the news business, right?" Jim Geraghty gasped in reaction at National Review.

Obama himself felt the need to boast about his alleged lack of scandals on two different occasions last fall.

"We have not had a major scandal in my administration,” Obama told Democrat donors on October 23. Again, on November 20, the president boasted during a press conference in Lima, Peru: "I'm extremely proud of the fact that over 8 years we have not had the kinds of scandals that have plagued other administrations."

Josh Earnest backed his boss up on November 28, saying:

Look, I think every president is going to have to decide for themselves what kind of person can best serve them in the country in the senior roles in the administration.

President Obama obviously took that responsibility very seriously and assembled a team that he's quite proud of, to serve him and the country. And the President has spoken at some length about how proud he is that there hasn't been a major personal scandal in his administration, that the kind of people that he has chosen to serve in high profile influential positions in his administration have done so with the focus on the country's best interests. The President is quite proud of that.

Do they really think the American people are this stupid? Even most Democrats realize there have been scandals.

Obama's second term began with an explosion of them: DOJ spying on the media, IRS, NSA, State Department war on whistleblowers, four EPA scandals, Obamaphones, and the "gag order" at the Department of Energy.

As time went on we saw the VA scandal, massive ObamaCare lies, skewing of ISIS intel, Iran deception and ransom payment, Bowe Bergdahl, the EPA's polluting of the Colorado River, the GSA scandal, the Secret Service sex scandal, "government shutdown theater," and of course EmailGate.

Feel free to add any scandals I neglected to mention in the comments, PJ Media readers. I know I'm missing a few.

There is really no other way to describe Obama's claim that his was a "scandal-free administration" other than to call it a colossal lie. And the only way he can get away with such a lie is for his loyal fans in the MSM to let him get away with it.

And they wonder why we call them the "fake news" media.

Read the whole thing.

Whose ideas can really affect you?

The President who believes that humanity has evolved so that the aggressive use of force no longer works because “this is the 21st Century” or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The President who believes that the color of his skin will transform his country’s enemies into friends or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The millions who believe that Barack Obama will improve race relations or those who believe that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The President who believes that his election would stop the rise of the oceans and heal the earth or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The President who welcomes millions of illegal immigrants into the country or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The President who thinks that shipping thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels is a good plan or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The President who thinks that one in five college co-eds are raped or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.

The President who begin a criminal investigation of Exxon Mobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain. (Whoops, that’s the New York attorney general)

The President who thinks that man is responsible for global warming or one who believes that the pyramids were used to store grain.