6-24-2009

Ed Morrissey: The Washington Times reports exclusively today that Barack Obama secretly sent a letter to Ali Khamenei and the Guardian Council in early May…As Khamenei’s response shows, it comes from an almost-blinding naiveté and a belief that the problem in US-Iranian relations is and has been the US, and not the radical Islamist extremists running Iran.

Dana Milbank: The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world — Iran included — that the American press isn’t as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn’t so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, “The Obama Show.”

Jonah Goldberg: Before June 12, Obama’s eagerness to negotiate with Ahmadinejad — ridiculed by his conservative critics — was hailed by the establishment and the left as proof of his high-minded faith in diplomacy, a healthy antidote to George W. Bush’s allegedly close-minded approach. But now, if the clerical junta prevails, anyone who shakes hands with Ahmadinejad will have a hard time washing the blood off his own hands.

Don Surber: The same network that ordered its reporters not to wear the flag on their lapels after 9/11 for fear that someone would see the American Broadcasting Company as favoring one side — our side — in the war on terrorism now has the nerve to ridicule and degrade the loyal opposition to the president’s health care plan.

Bruce Kessler: The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll appears more honest in demographics and political leanings of respondents than the one with slanted political-affiliation respondents that the New York Times-CBS tried to slip past us over the weekend.  Simply, there’s justified concern over the costs of healthcare but more concern over losing the healthcare we now have or the government dictating it.  President Obama remains popular, but his policy is bad medicine.

Rick Moran: Have you read the Climate Change Bill? Don’t feel bad if you haven’t because virtually no one else has read it either. It is a 1200 page monstrosity of a bill that Stacy McCain points out is about as transparent as cotton candy.

Filed under: Chip by Chip