Press Briefing

Jun 01, 2010

Madeleine Albright on the future of NATO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/03/12/VI2010031202502.html

Europe's GDP Envy - The effort to hide its poor economic performance with a new metric won't fool anyone
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559004575256794032784642.html

The Ongoing Administration-Wide Response to the Deepwater BP Oil Spill: May 30 and May 31, 2010
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/31/ongoing-administration-wide-response-deepwater-bp-oil-spill-may-30-and-may-31-2010

WaPo Editorial: The flotilla fiasco
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053103160.html

The West's Wrong Turn on Natural Resources - If democracies don't extract oil, dictatorships will
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704596504575272790583630252.html

It's time to end secret holds on Senate legislation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053103161.html

The New Cannery Row - Congress wants $18 million to offset the jobs it destroyed in Samoa
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704596504575272991349796452.html

Statement of the Press Secretary on the President's Briefing Call with National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen and

Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-press-secretary-presidents-briefing-call-today-with-national-incident-com

Peter Wehner on Federal President's thin skin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704596504575272894271786952.html

Peter Wehner writing last week at PoliticsDaily.com:

Obama is among the most thin-skinned presidents we have had, and we see evidence of it in every possible venue imaginable, from one-on-one interviews to press conferences, from extemporaneous remarks to set speeches.

The president is constantly complaining about what others are saying about him. He is upset at Fox News, and conservative talk radio, and Republicans, and people carrying unflattering posters of him. He gets upset when his avalanche of faulty facts are challenged, like on health care. He gets upset when he is called on his hypocrisy, on everything from breaking his promise not to hire lobbyists in the White House to broadcasting health care meetings on C-SPAN to not curtailing earmarks to failing in his promises of transparency and bipartisanship.

In Obama's eyes, he is always the aggrieved, always the violated, always the victim of some injustice. He is America's virtuous and valorous hero, a man of unusually pure motives and uncommon wisdom, under assault by the forces of darkness.

It is all so darn unfair.

Not surprisingly, Obama's thin skin leads to self pity. As Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard pointed out, in a fundraising event for Sen. Barbara Boxer, Obama said,

"Let's face it: this has been the toughest year and a half since any year and a half since the 1930s."

Really, now? Worse than the period surrounding December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001? Worse than what Gerald Ford faced after the resignation of Richard Nixon and Watergate, which constituted the wors[t] constitutional scandal in our history and tore the country apart? Worse than what Ronald Reagan faced after Jimmy Carter (when interest rates were 22 percent, inflation was more than 13 percent, and Reagan faced something entirely new under the sun, "stagflation")? Worse than 1968, when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated and there was rioting in our streets? Worse than what LBJ faced during Vietnam—a war which eventually claimed more than 58,000 lives? Worse than what John Kennedy faced in the Bay of Pigs and in the Cuban Missile Crisis, when we and the Soviet Union edged up to the brink of nuclear war? Worse than what Franklin Roosevelt faced on the eve of the Normandy invasion? Worse than what Bush faced in Iraq in 2006, when that nation was on the edge of civil war, or when the financial system collapsed in the last months of his presidency? Worse than what Truman faced in defeating imperial Japan, in reconstructing post-war Europe, and in responding to North Korea's invasion of South Korea?


Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference Final Document
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/05/142374.htm

The Yin and Yang of Yuan Appreciation - The negatives of a stronger Chinese currency—higher prices and lower exports for

the U.S.—offset the positives.
http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2010/05/negatives-of-stronger-chinese.html

Background Briefing on Nuclear Nonproliferation Efforts with Regard to Iran and the Brazil/Turkey Agreement
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/05/142375.htm

Israel's Gaza Flotilla Fiasco - Israel had no obligation to allow the ships to reach Gaza, but surely there was a smarter way to stop them.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704366504575278621338138694.html

Israel's Gaza Choices - How is the Jewish state supposed to stop Hamas from re-arming?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704490204575278931593199598.html

United States Closing Statement at the 2010 NPT Review Conference
http://www.state.gov/t/us/142370.htm

The Union Pension Bailout - A scheme for taxpayers to cover mismanaged multi-employer plans
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303491304575188263180553530.html

The Lessons of the GM Bankruptcy - Everybody knew it was ridiculous and unsustainable to pay UAW workers not to work.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704113504575264641145227612.html