Blogs and Stories
100 Days Report Card
Obama as Muhammad Ali
by Kathleen Parker
After 100 days, I think I’ve figured it out. Obama is Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (Muhammad Ali to the more recently born.) Always above the fray, he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. MORE >>
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The Politics of Niceness
by Eric Alterman
Obama promised to end the partisan warfare in Washington. He has, in a very sneaky way. MORE >>
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Cheer Up, Liberals
by Matthew Yglesias
Obama is on track to accomplish major changes despite some grumbling from the left. MORE >>
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Thanks for Playing Nice
by Rep. Peter King
Obama's bipartisan overtures may not have paid off yet, but a Republican congressman says they'll benefit the president down the line. MORE >>
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Grade: Incomplete
by Sean Wilentz
President Obama leaves many questions unanswered after 100 days, but he's already doing better than JFK and Lincoln, who got off to disastrous starts en route to greatness. MORE >>
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A Clinton Convert Speaks
by Lanny Davis
Lanny Davis was one of Hillary Clinton's most vocal primary supporters—and one of Barack Obama's toughest critics. But the president has won him over in his first 100 days. MORE >>
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Substance Over Style
by John Avlon
Critics said Obama was a lightweight on the campaign trail. His first 100 days have proved them wrong. MORE >>
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The Power of Michelle
by Katty Kay
The First Lady's unimaginable comeback. MORE >>
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The Looming Backlash
by Patricia J. Williams
President Obama’s first 100 days may have been a success, but the forces gathering against him are only gaining steam. MORE >>
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Amateur Hour at the White House
Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
American Music Awards Rewind
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Airports From Hell
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Week in Political Cartoons
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Many will see this as affirmation of The Daily Beast as a decidedly liberal news source. I submit, however, that it's a balanced view of what people ACTUALLY feel about President Obama, and not just what party lines would suggest.
"We all know reality has a well-known liberal bias"
It is true that given a decade or two of perspective, the left side of most arguments looks better.
Let's recap:
Civil War-era secessionists?
McCarthy's witch hunts?
Anti-civil rights legislation?
Newt Gingrich's "Moral Majority"?
If you run some numbers on liberalism (I suggest General Social Survey or Gallup) with age, you'll see that even the most radical fringe of conservatives gets progressively more liberal as they age. I doubt they've just been "indoctrinated".
Of course the Daily Beast has a decidedly liberal bias. But so does the country right now.
What all of the Republicans here are saying is: Obama is doing something, I would do it different, but hey, he campaigned on these issues and won.
Yes he did. Now stop calling him socialist and threatening to secede. You morons.
What? No women have an opinion on the subject? And thanks for the token non-white guys (Crouch and Salam), How are you going to compensate for your narrow conception of the chattering class? Penance now!
Hmm. Maybe they updated it, but I saw three or four women here...
The banks are being nationalized with the car companies and single-payer health care is on the horizon along with greater federal control of the schools. No, you can't call him a socialist.
Go ask an economist what the leading theory of national-level economics is. Here's a hint: it's not free market capitalism, and it definitely isn't socialism. Most reality is not dealt out in absolutes, and these economic policies (Keynesian to the core, just like Reagan's) are one example.
Oh, and what a representative cross-section of opinion. Were Maher and Michael Moore tied up? Buckley,Tina's poodle, is also the RINO's RINO. I expect to see him follow Specter.
Banjo-
Aren't you
Late
For that
Party?
We'd be happy to have him. You and your ilk are down to what -- 20, 25% of the country? Yeah, kick out more people and lets see if you can get yourselves down into the single digits.
Buckley a RINO? I don't think you know what you're talking about. You definitely haven't read much of anything that he's written.
Suddenly, not being a massive critic of Obama means you're a RINO for some reason. This from the same party that gave its holy disapproval any time a Democrat opposed anything Bush did for years after 9/11.
Not just
Opposed him
You were UNPATRIOTIC
If you made a peep
Against Bush
Or his war
Agenda.
Remember?
Once again in the Daily Beast, women do not have a voice. I guess we have better things to do.
3 or 4 women I can see there. Did they update this?
I give Obama a D
because:
1. He increased the military budget, has not brought the troops home from Iraq, increased US military activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and hasn't closed Quantanamo or the other torture sites.
2. He increased the amount of our tax revenue going to churches which is a direct violation of the first amendment.
3. He supports FISA and the kidnapping of citizens around the world to be held indefinitely.
4. He is lobbying the Supreme Court to reverse the decision which requires a lawyer to be present when defendants are questioned.
5. He is against equal rights for gays/lesbians by being against gay marriage.
6. He gave corrupt Wall Street corporations over $700 billion in corporate welfare.
7. He continues building coal plants which are one of the main causes of the destruction of this planet.
8. His close associations with religious fanatics on both the left and the right.
Hey-- A Lunatic Leftie. I real breath of fresh air after all the loonie righties...
surfert; i agree. the loonie right needs a loonie left to bring its shit into stasis. let the S&^%T flow.
even though not a passing grade yet, i think a D is quite an improvement!
Compared to Bush, yes an improvement but it would be difficult to find a worse president than Bush.
This has been
Everywhere
For almost a
Week.
I've heard
Everyone
Who can talk
Give a report card
To the new President.
All high marks.
On both sides of
The aisle.
He's smart
He has ideas
And he's willing
To try them.
Only the frightened
Can't see it.
Why do you make a column of one to four words? Your local community college can help (and I agree with you).
Ritarita is a genius. A few words are all that are needed.
You people at the Daily Beast have no idea how people feel out here in the hinterland. Remember how you and your leftist pals, the far left, the arch left, etc felt about Bush, well there are many people who feel that way about Obama. He is, at heart, a Marxist. This is what he believes and this is how he grew up, no matter what the leftist press does to lie and support him.
What about him or his policies is the least bit Marxist? I hear that moniker, along with "socialist" and "communist" being thrown about wildly with no real grasp on its meaning. He believes in social responsibility. That's part of what he campaigned on, just like every Democrat of the last five decades or more. You're surprised when he's moreeffective at achieving it than they?
I get
The feeling
Walter
That you'd have
Nothing to say
If you couldn't
Use labels.
Walter12.
"We people out here in the hinter land"?? WTF Over...
You "People" in the "Hinter Land" are the Rubes who voted for Palin, you listen to RUSH, Anne Coulter, FOX Noise and possibly think the world if flat. You cannot, will not hold your own worthless party to the same standard you hold Obama.
You call Obama, a.. Fascist, Marxist, Terrorist, Communists, Liberal...Did I get them all?. Ohh almost forgot, his birth certificate is also a fake...
Do you even know what a Marxist is?. I suggest you look up the definition. Also look up Fascist, you may find Bush and Cheney and the G.O.P. (Soon to be D.O.A.) fit more closely with that description.
As for the car companies and banks, they started failing BEFORE Obama came into office, the last thing he needed or wanted was to spend ANY TAXPAYER $$$ on corporations, he would much preferred to give the 40 MILLION Americans without health insurance some sort of coverage and start to pay down the debt YOUR party racked up...
As for what the left thought about Bush, well actually not just the FAR LEFT hated the guy, so did most Moderate Republicans and Independents as they voted for Obama in droves and thus got him elected and who continue to give him HIGH approval ratings.
Your party FAILED and it failed big ( as did the Dem's to a certain degree ) so step aside, we had 8 years of Conservative Governance now let Obama attempt to clean up the mess....
to be fair, and to quote the ever wise grr as he burned and destroyed his home planet, did the last party in office really make things "worse or better." jajajaja
Obama has created more than 1.7 trillion dollars in deficits in just his first 100 days.........it took George Bush 8 years to do that!
Yeah, bailing out 8 years of Bush policies....Apprently it's working as things seem to be a bit better, can you imgaine if Bush and Co were still in office??...
What part of the Obama plan would you eliminate and what woud you do instead?.
@ least Obama is spending $$$ to stave off further calamity, Bush spent $$ to go to war and give tax breaks to the rich....
Plantagenet; this might be a little taxing on your mind, but read stiglitz 3 trillion dollar war. you'll come away with a different opinion when you discover how and why they -- the bushes administration -- obfuscated the true cost of the war.
In 8 years Neocons wrecked the world! Fact! Question why do people still listen to Billy Cunningham, Rush, Sean Inhumanity?Is it because Pt. Barnum was correct in his timeless statement "THERE IS IS A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE"
Plantagenet-
I'm sure you
Must know that
A big chunk
Of that change
Comes from Obama's
Decision to run both
Wars on the books.
Something his
Predecessor
Did not have
The stones
To do.
Reality can be
Eyepopping.
But he's not a socialist.
I thought he was a Marxist? or was that Communist? or was that a Terrorist? or or or or or or........
A possibly interesting bit of perspective would be a similar set of short reviews regarding the Republican Party during what is, at least a leading contender as, their most trying times.
President Barrack Obama in my opinion- gets A Sure Im not as accomplished as Mr. Buckley, or the others on The Daily Beast, but I love reading the news on the internet and Tv.(which is in decline)President Barrack Obama is bringing back respect,and has already shown intelligence agan, and again. You know your a success when the oppostion(FOX NEWS) refuses to broadcast your press conference when your President. C"mon now this is an A .
you are all a bunch of idiots !! he has yet to do anything right yet but borrow and spend and any idiot can do that. i would have to give him a F for failure.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
If you honestly believe that's all he has done, then you're not qualified to state your opinion. The Republican party wouldn't even say that, and lately they'll say anything.
I will give him another grade in 200 more days. Right now, I guess maybe a B is about right. He hasn't kept his promise to roll back those tax cuts fot the most wealthy. We need them rolled back NOW.
Obama believes only way our country becomes successful is we all become socialist. Even, Socialist countries believe in practicing capitalism. I wonder, which industry he wants to control and which CEO, who did not contribute to his campaign gets fired. No wonder he is so friendly to Chavez.
Thank you.
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