Jim Messina, the campaign manager of President Obama's successful reelection bid, told Businessweek in an interview published Friday that he does not believe the next Republican nominee will support same-sex marriage."Given who their primary electorate is and given the fact that the ABC/Washington Post poll showed that 60 percent of older Republican primary voters still oppose it," Messina told the magazine, "I think you will see people talk less about it. But I don't think they're showing any signs of moderating."
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a pair of cases examining the constitutional implications of laws restricting same-sex marriages and benefits earlier this week. Gay rights activists are hoping that the court could issue a broad ruling that would legalize same-sex marriage across the country.A number of legislators, including Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), came out in support of same-sex marriage ahead of the Supreme Court arguments. But Portman, who has a gay son, remains the only Republican in the Senate who backs gay marriage. Other top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have recently voiced their opposition to allowing gays to wed. The Republican opposition comes despite an apparent shift in national attitudes on the subject. A CBS News poll released earlier this week showed that 53 percent of all Americans believe it should be legal for same-sex couples to wed, although 56 percent of Republicans do not support allowing gay couples to do so. Still, GOP support has risen 13 percentage points since May 2012, when President Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage.View Comments
Showing posts with label Chief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chief. Show all posts
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
At DOMA Hearing, Chief Justice Suggests Gays Are Too Powerful For Equal Protection
During oral arguments this morning, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to at least entertain the argument by House Republicans that gays and lesbians are too politically powerful for constitutional protection.
Roberts suggested that gays and lesbians must be “politically powerful” because politicians are “falling all over themselves” to endorse gay marriage, according to a tweet by Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer. The brief by Paul Clement, who represented the House of Representatives in defending DOMA, had reasoned that gays and lesbians are winning political battles and “have the attention of lawmakers,” an absurd claim since the “power” assertion is factually inaccurate, and because such an argument would also cancel out protections for racial minorities and women.
Roberts and his fellow conservatives also expressed concern over the White House’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, with Kennedy calling it “very troubling” and Justice Antonin Scalia criticizing the Justice Department’s “new regime.”
By contrast, several of the court’s liberal justices expressed alarm over the impact of DOMA’s actual deprivation of federal marriage benefits on gays and lesbians, with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg calling the rights left for married couples after DOMA “skim milk” and questioning, “What kind of marriage is this?” Justice Elena Kagan, meanwhile, pointed to evidence from a House of Representatives report that lawmakers passed DOMA with improper motives. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the likely swing vote, repeatedly expressed a different concern with DOMA — that it impinged on state definitions of marriage.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
VA chief Shinseki vows backlog in veterans’ claims will end by 2015
By Molly K. Hooper - 03/24/13 02:41 PM ET
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Sunday defended the administration’s efforts to aid former servicemembers, even as he was forced to acknowledge his agency would not clear a backlog of pending disability claims until the end of 2015.
Shinseki – who has known of the ballooning problem since his confirmation in 2009 – said it will take nearly three more years to process the hundreds of thousands of claims, in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We have put in place a robust plan to end the backlog in 2015. That's in our commitment,” Shinseki said.Shenski also said President Obama was determined to help speed up the process.
“The president's been very clear. Veterans are a top priority with him and ending the backlog is a foremost in his mind. He has made that very clear,” he said.
According to recent reports, at least 70 percent of the disability claims take 125 days to process. CNN host Candy Crowley noted the number of backlogged claims was 164,000 in October of 2009; today it is 630,000.
Crowley pressed Shinseki on the agency’s efforts to tackle the problem.
Shinseki said a lack of funding was not the issue, noting that his department has received 40 percent in budget increases over the past four years, while most other agencies have taken hits.
He instead pointed to the massive amount of paperwork that needed to be transferred to digital formats, the need to sync with Department of Defense (DOD) records and the addition of more veterans who qualify for disability claims as reasons for the backlog.
The longtime Army veteran emphasized the VA’s efforts to end the backlog by the end of 2015, however noting a “new tool” to help in the process.
“We have today an automation tool that we didn't have two years ago, and it is called the Veterans Benefits Management System, it has already been fielded to 20 of our regional offices. We will be in all 56 regional offices by the end of this year,” Shinseki said.
The VA Secretary acknowledged that the wait would still be too long, but said the agency has “put three million claims out the door,” noting that “there are going to be a few that are complex enough to run longer than we would like.”
“We can go and take those numbers and drill down into them, but again our commitment is we're going to end the backlog in 2015. This has been decades in the making, 10 years of war. We're in paper, we need to get out of paper, we still get paper from DOD and other agencies. We have commitments that in 2014 we will be electronically processing our data and sharing it,” Shinseki added.
Asked if Shinseki was “satisfied” with his performance over the past five years at the helm of the VA, the secretary responded: “No veteran should have to wait for claims as they are today. We have a fix for this, we're open for business, and we will end the backlog in 2015.”
View CommentsNRA chief LaPierre: Bloomberg ‘can’t buy America’ with ad blitz
The head of the National Rifle Association (NRA) slammed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) on Sunday, accusing him of trying to “buy America” by spending $12 million on a massive advertising campaign advocating for stricter gun laws.
“He's going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people,” said NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And he can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public.
“They don't want him telling them what food to eat; they sure don't want him telling them what self-defense firearms to own. And he can't buy America. He's so reckless in terms of his comments on this whole gun issue.”Bloomberg this weekend announced a massive advertising campaign aimed at drumming up support during the congressional recess for tighter gun restrictions in the states of 13 key senators, who will face a vote on several gun control measures when they return next month.
Bloomberg, a billionaire and co-chairman of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group, said on Sunday that it’s his responsibility to provide advocates for stricter gun control with a national voice that counteracts the NRA’s messaging and influential lobbying efforts.
“I think I have a responsibility, and I think you and all of your viewers have responsibilities, to try to make this country safer for our families and for each other,” said Bloomberg on “Meet the Press.”
“And if I can do that by spending some money and taking the NRA from being the only voice to being one of the voices, so the public can really understand the issues, then I think my money would be well spent, and I think I have an obligation to do that.”
The ad campaign, much of which Bloomberg has personally funded, will encourage people to call their senators and pressure them to vote in favor of tougher gun laws, according to the mayor.
The ads will target Republican Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Susan Collins (Maine), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Rob Portman (Ohio), and Pat Toomey (Pa.). It will also target Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.).
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged to hold a vote on gun legislation when the Senate returns from its Easter recess.
Reid said the bill would include three provisions that have been reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee: a measure requiring background checks of nearly every gun sale, including most private purchases; a measure that would provide $40 million in grants to schools for security upgrades; and a measure increasing penalties for people who purchase guns on behalf of people barred from buying them.
The background check bill that is currently scheduled for the Senate to vote on is sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and was reported by Democrats along party lines. The measure would require background checks for all private gun sales, except those between immediate family members.
Republicans say that gun sales between friends should also be exempt. They also object to a requirement for the seller to keep a record of the purchase.
On Sunday, LaPierre argued that a move towards requiring background checks for most private sales would be useless because the federal government does not prosecute many of the people who fail to pass their background checks and some states do not submit complete mental health and criminal history records into the national database.
“The whole thing, universal checks, is a dishonest premise,” said LaPierre. “There's not a bill on the Hill that provides a universal check. Criminals aren't going to be checked.”
“It's not accurate, it's not instant,” said LaPierre of the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS). “The mental health records are not in the system, and they don't prosecute any of the criminals that they catch. It's a speed bump for the law abiding. It slows down the law abiding and does nothing to anybody else.”
Reid said he hoped that ongoing talks between Republicans and Democrats attempting to agree on a bipartisan version of a background check bill would progress over the break. The Democratic leader said he would be open to replacing the Schumer bill with a new bipartisan measure if they reached a consensus.
A vote on amendments banning assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and new mental health provisions is also expected, according to Reid.
The House has not moved on any major gun legislation this year and has put the onus on the upper chamber to act first. The assault weapons ban is not expected to pass Congress because of Republican opposition to the measure.
View CommentsSaturday, June 1, 2013
Top Anti-Gay Attorney Insults Chief Justice Roberts And Justice Thomas’ Decisions To Adopt Children
The "second-best option" for the Roberts childrenWhen President Bush announced his decision to nominate future-Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court, his wife Jane stood nearby holding the hands of two beautiful children — Jack and Josie Roberts. Both of these children were born in Ireland, and later adopted by the future Chief Justice and his wife. Justice Clarence Thomas also has an adopted son, his grandnephew Mark Martin, Jr., who Thomas adopted when Martin was six.
So it is a bit hard to understand why a top anti-gay advocate decided to insult adoptive parents in general — and Chief Justice Roberts in particular — as the justices are preparing to hear two cases that will decide whether same-sex couples will enjoy the same right to marry as all other Americans. According to John Eastman, a law professor and chair of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, Roberts and Thomas’ adopted children are only growing up in the “second-best” environment:
The justices also are not immune to considering how they might be affected by the course one side or the other is advocating in a dispute before them. . . . [Johns Hopkins Sociology Professor Andrew] Cherlin, who does not follow the high court especially closely, wondered whether the gay marriage cases might take on a similar dynamic. “If justices consider their own family lives in these cases, it may change the way they rule,” he said.
Gay marriage opponents said they are not worried about the votes of Roberts and Thomas.
“You’re looking at what is the best course society wide to get you the optimal result in the widest variety of cases. That often is not open to people in individual cases. Certainly adoption in families headed, like Chief Roberts’ family is, by a heterosexual couple, is by far the second-best option,” said John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. Eastman also teaches law at Chapman University law school in Orange, Calif.
There is nothing “second-best” about the family environment Roberts and Thomas have provided to their adopted children. While many critical things can be said about Justice Thomas — and we have said a lot of them — his decision to adopt his grandnephew is admirable and speaks well of Thomas’ capacity for personal sacrifice:
Neither Thomas nor his wife nor several Savannah sources contacted for this story would discuss the circumstances behind Thomas’ taking custody of Mark. But others say that the situation, while not dire, called for a responsible person to step in quickly. Mark Sr., Thomas’ nephew, had been in prison on cocaine trafficking charges. And Mark Jr.’s mother, Susan, was struggling with her own problems, raising four children, including young Mark Jr., on her own. Thomas believed that the boy would face lifelong trouble if he were not removed from his environment soon, and the parents agreed. “He was paying back his own grandfather by taking care of Mark,” says one friend.
The Roberts’ adoption story is rooted less in family tragedy and more in their devout faith. John and Jane Roberts married late in life — Jane was 42. The Chief Justice and his wife chose not to seek medical treatment that would have enhanced Jane’s ability to conceive because “Catholic doctrine prohibits most forms of fertility treatment,” and instead chose to adopt two children. As with Thomas, there are many critical things that can be said about the Chief Justice, but he is by all accounts very kind in his personal interactions and he and his wife provided their adopted son and daughter with a household where they could thrive. Roberts deserves praise for adopting children, and he certainly does not deserve the aspersions cast upon adopted parents by Professor Eastman.
Eastman is also not the first attorney involved in the marriage cases to suggest adoptive parents are somehow a second-best opinion for children. In his brief on behalf of the House Republicans defending the Defense of Marriage Act, conservative superlawyer Paul Clement claimed that “[b]iological parents have a genetic stake in the success of their children that no one else does.”
Friday, May 17, 2013
UPDATE 1-Merck veteran named R&D chief, after drug setbacks
(Adds analyst comment, details on Merck, Amgen drugs)
By Ransdell Pierson
March 7 (Reuters) - Merck & Co will bring back one of its veterans to head research and development, replacing retiring Peter Kim, who leaves behind a mixed record over the past decade at the drugmaker's highly respected laboratories.
Merck, after recent setbacks for some of its most important experimental drugs, said former Amgen Inc research chief Roger Perlmutter will take over from Kim on April 15, although Kim, 55, will stay on as a company advisor until August.
"This is an acknowledgement by Merck that the status quo wasn't getting desired results," said analyst Barbara Ryan of Barbara Ryan Advisors.
The appointment represents a homecoming for Perlmutter, 60, who joined Amgen in February 2001 after four years with Merck, where he oversaw global basic research and preclinical development. While at Amgen sales of its Epogen and Aranesp anemia drugs plunged due to safety concerns.
But Perlmutter helped Amgen, the world's biggest biotechnology company, branch out into new areas -- including successful development of Prolia for osteoporosis and Sensipar, used to treat dangerously high calcium levels in the blood. It is testing treatments for cancer, cholesterol, psoriasis and a promising new type of osteoporosis drug.
Most of the Amgen drugs are biologics, meaning they are injectable products made in living cells and involve a costly manufacturing process. But biotech drugs command far higher prices than conventional pills, making them an increasing focus for drugmakers.
"Merck may become more aggressive now in acquiring and developing more biotech drugs," with Perlmutter as research chief, Ryan predicted.
Perlmutter became Amgen's research chief only months after Kim, then a 42-year-old professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was selected to head research at Merck.
Merck has had several big successes under Kim's watch, including development of its blockbuster Januvia diabetes medicine, its Gardasil vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, its Zostavax shingles vaccine and its Isentress treatment for HIV. But more recently, it has been hurt by failed trials of cholesterol treatment Tredaptive and migraine drug telcagepant, and a regulatory delay for a new type of osteoporosis medicine called odanacatib.
Merck's Vioxx arthritis drug was recalled in 2004 after being linked to heart attacks and strokes, forcing Kim to defend controversial clinical trials of the pill that were conducted before his arrival.
New medicines are badly needed at Merck, where sales of its onetime $6 billion-a-year Singulair asthma drug are plunging due to generic competition and other medicines will soon face cheaper generics. Moreover, cost savings from Merck's 2009 purchase of rival Schering Plough have mostly dried up and are no longer able to boost company earnings.
"On balance, most investors we speak with have been disappointed by Peter Kim's tenure as head of Merck's R&D," Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez said in a research note on Thursday.
"We believe a transition makes sense at this time." Fernandez said he believed Perlmutter's 10-year tenure at Amgen were "constructive. Overall he strikes us as a thoughtful straight shooter and a decisive leader."
Merck praised Kim's tenure. "His contributions have positioned us well for future success."
Shares of Merck were down nearly 1 percent in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting By Ransdell Pierson; editing by Carol Bishopric)
((ransdell.pierson@thomsonreuters.com)(646 223 6030)(Reuters Messaging: ransdell.pierson.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MERCK PERLMUTTER/
Merck veteran named research chief, after drug setbacks
By Ransdell Pierson
March 7 (Reuters) - Merck & Co will bring back one of its veterans to head research and development, replacing retiring Peter Kim, who leaves behind a mixed record over the past decade at the drugmaker's highly respected laboratories.
Merck, after recent setbacks for some of its most important experimental drugs, said former Amgen Inc research chief Roger Perlmutter will take over from Kim on April 15, although Kim will stay on as a company advisor until August.
The appointment represents a homecoming for Perlmutter, who joined Amgen in February 2001 after four years with Merck, where he oversaw global basic research and preclinical development. While at Amgen sales of its Epogen and Aranesp anemia drugs plunged due to safety concerns.
Perlmutter left Amgen in February 2012 and has served since then as a board member of several smaller biotech companies.
But Perlmutter helped Amgen branch out into new areas, including successful development of Prolia for osteoporosis and Sensipar, used to treat dangerously high calcium levels in the blood.
Perlmutter became Amgen's research chief only months after Kim, then a 42-year-old professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was selected to head of research at Merck.
Merck has had several big successes under Kim's watch, including development of its blockbuster Januvia diabetes medicine and its Isentress treatment for HIV. But more recently, it has been hurt by failed trials of cholesterol treatment Tredaptive and migraine drug telcagepant, and a regulatory delay for a new type of osteoporosis medicine called odanacatib.
Merck's Vioxx arthritis drug was recalled in 2004 after being linked to heart attacks and strokes, forcing Kim to defend controversial clinical trials of the pill that were conducted before his arrival.
New medicines are badly needed at Merck, where sales of its onetime $6 billion-a-year Singulair asthma drug are plunging due to generic competition and other medicines will soon face cheaper generics. Moreover, cost savings from Merck's 2009 purchase of rival Schering Plough have mostly dried up and are no longer able to boost company earnings.
"On balance, most investors we speak with have been disappointed by Peter Kim's tenure as head of Merck's R&D," Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez said in a research note on Thursday.
"We believe a transition makes sense at this time." Fernandez said he believed Perlmutter's 10-year tenure at Amgen, the world's biggest biotechnology company, were "constructive. Overall he strikes us as a thoughtful straight shooter and a decisive leader."
Merck praised Kim's tenure. "His contributions have positioned us well for future success."
Shares of Merck were down nearly 1 percent in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting By Ransdell Pierson; editing by Carol Bishopric)
((ransdell.pierson@thomsonreuters.com)(646 223 6030)(Reuters Messaging: ransdell.pierson.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MERCK PERLMUTTER/
Friday, March 15, 2013
IMF Chief: ‘Unless We Take Action On Climate Change, Future Generations Will Be Roasted, Toasted, Fried And Grilled’
Another day, another icon of the global financial system becomes a climate hawk.
You may recall World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said of the climate crisis: “If there is no action soon, the future will become bleak.”
Turns out IMF managing director Christine Lagarde is also a climate hawk — and she’s the former conservative finance minister of France.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, she said, “the real wild card in the pack” of economic pivot points is “Increasing vulnerability from resource scarcity and climate change, with the potential for major social and economic disruption.” She called climate change “the greatest economic challenge of the 21st century.”
Ms. Lagarde concluded with a call for a new kind of economic growth. “So we need growth, but we also need green growth that respects environmental sustainability. Good ecology is good economics. This is one reason why getting carbon pricing right and removing fossil fuel subsidies are so important.”
In response to a question from the audience, she said: “Unless we take action on climate change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled.”
Perhaps the IMF can release an analysis as blunt as the stunning World Bank Climate Report from November that concluded: “A 4°C [7°F] world can, and must, be avoided” to avert “devastating” impacts. Its 2012 release, “Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers,” was kind of a yawner.
Then we need to see the IMF actually focus on environmentally sustainable growth, as opposed to say, our currently unsustainable trajectory, which will roast, toast, fry and grill countless future generations.
jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery('#comment_submit').click(function(){if(jQuery('#comment_check:checked').lengthThursday, January 3, 2013
U.S. FDA chief urges action on drug compounding safety
* Agency has met with many stakeholders to press its plan
* Meningitis outbreak infects 620, killing 39
* House Republican accuses FDA of withholding documents
WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The top U.S. drug regulator on Wednesday urged state officials to help close regulatory loopholes involving the safety of compounded drugs, such as the tainted steroid injections at the center of a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.
At a day-long meeting with officials from all 50 states, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg called for new regulations to head off future public health disasters.
Health officials should have clear authority to monitor drug compounding operations and act before problems that endanger public safety erupt, she said.
"We have all been stunned and horrified by the magnitude of the devastation," Hamburg told state delegates.
"Clearly, it's imperative that we close the gaps in oversight," she added. "The fungal meningitis outbreak is the most tragic but not the only example of why we must act now."
In one of the biggest U.S. public health crises, 620 people in 19 states since mid-September have contracted fungal meningitis traced to epidural injections for back and joint pain produced by Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center. Thirty-nine patients have died and as many as 14,000 other have been exposed to the tainted drugs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection.
The state health and pharmacy board officials made up the latest gathering of stakeholders FDA has approached with a plan the agency hopes Congress will turn into legislation.
In the weeks before Wednesday's meeting, the FDA held discussions about the regulatory landscape with over 50 groups representing pharmacies, consumers, hospitals, clinics and medical professionals.
But states could be most central to the questions about regulation because they currently serve as the main regulators of drug compounders.
Drug compounding is a traditional pharmacy practice that occurs when a licensed pharmacist alters or recombines drug products in response to a physicians' prescription for a specific patient, who may be unable to take the standard version of a treatment due to age, allergies and other conditions.
In recent decades some compounding pharmacies, including the now-shuttered NECC, have dramatically expanded into large-scale production that rivals those of full-fledged manufacturers but escapes the stringent safety and efficacy standards that FDA imposes on drug makers.
ILLEGAL MANUFACTURING
The FDA plan would leave states with responsibility for overseeing traditional compounding pharmacies but impose new federal standards on large-scale compounders that could be carried out by the agency, or in partnership with states, with clearer congressionally mandated authority.
Experts say some state governments could be ill-equipped to take on large-scale compounding oversight, especially at a time of tight budgets.
State officials at the FDA meeting appeared to be divided, with some saying they are adequately funded and staffed while others said a new federal role may be necessary to ensure regulatory consistency across state lines.
"Do the states have the ability right now to provide oversight if you consider what an entity like NECC was doing?" said Cody Wiberg, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy. "The answer to that question is that it depends on the states."
FDA officials say their current authority is limited by conflicting federal court rulings over the years that prohibit the agency from inspecting company records and facilities in some U.S. states but allow it in others.
But critics, including many Republican lawmakers, say FDA has enough authority and instead fell down on the job.
Last month Hamburg came under withering attack during a House of Representatives committee hearing from Republicans who accused FDA Of failing to exercise its authority to act against NECC, despite problems dating back a decade, including earlier instances of contaminated steroids.
On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee accused FDA of failing to provide requested internal documents dealing with meningitis outbreak.
"Without this information, we are unable to identify any possible weaknesses and as a result, the necessary corrections," committee chairman Fred Upton said in a statement.
Some critics also claim that Hamburg's plan could jeopardize drug safety, if new rules allow large-scale production to go forward under safeguards less strict than those now applied to drug manufacturing.
"The FDA's proposal for oversight of 'non-traditional' compounding, if implemented, would decriminalize what is now illegal drug manufacturing conducted under the guise of pharmacy compounding," Dr. Michael Carome of advocacy group Public Citizen's health research group said in a statement.
The window of opportunity for legislation is closing, but some experts remain optimistic about the prospect for action in 2013 given the scale of the meningitis outbreak and ongoing investigations in the House and Senate.
"They're working very hard on this," said Allan Coukell, medical programs director for the Pew Charitable Trusts. "All the signals are that this will be an issue for them to focus on in the next Congress."
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford)
Many have called President Obama’s election historic, and rightly so. His presidency however, is another matter entirely. It’s historic in a lot of senses be it his record breaking debt accumulation & spending or his being the first president to have a rainbow halo placed on his head. But compared to the historic achievements of other presidents that did things like ending slavery or saving the planet, he falls woefully short.
Unless you ask him.
Via Commentary Magazine:
The Heritage Foundation’s Rory Cooper tweeted that Obama had casually dropped his own name into Ronald Reagan’s official biography on www.whitehouse.gov, claiming credit for taking up the mantle of Reagan’s tax reform advocacy with his “Buffett Rule” gimmick. My first thought was, he must be joking. But he wasn’t—it turns out Obama has added bullet points bragging about his own accomplishments to the biographical sketches of every single U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge (except, for some reason, Gerald Ford). Here are a few examples:
On Feb. 22, 1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first president to make a public radio address to the American people. President Coolidge later helped create the Federal Radio Commission, which has now evolved to become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). President Obama became the first president to hold virtual gatherings and town halls using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.In a 1946 letter to the National Urban League, President Truman wrote that the government has “an obligation to see that the civil rights of every citizen are fully and equally protected.” He ended racial segregation in civil service and the armed forces in 1948. Today the Obama administration continues to strive toward upholding the civil rights of its citizens, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, allowing people of all sexual orientations to serve openly in our armed forces.President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare signed (sic) into law in 1965—providing millions of elderly healthcare stability. President Obama’s historic health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, strengthens Medicare, offers eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provides discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap known as the “donut hole.”On August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Today the Obama administration continues to protect seniors and ensure Social Security will be there for future generations.
In a June 28, 1985 speech Reagan called for a fairer tax code, one where a multi-millionaire did not have a lower tax rate than his secretary. Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule.
A hashtag game erupted on twitter using #ObamaInHistory as the launchpad to mock the incredible leaps in egotism that this administration has taken.
Some choice favorites cultivated by Twitchy:
Go to twitchy to see the rest.
It is hard to imagine a president more egomaniacal than Bill Clinton. Truly Barack Obama is an historic figure in that sense.
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