The Obama Privilege

In all of the back and forth, he said/he said of the Bob Woodward/White House brouhaha, two bigger points have been missed.

One, that President Obama and his team have little to no credibility on the sequester, and more broadly, on spending, the debt, and general governance. They lie constantly, and until Woodward blew the whistle on them, they have lied with impunity. Those lies are now exposed, making future lies more difficult to sell (although those media-types still blindly in love with Obama will continue to cover for him. The pile-on Woodward is interesting too, as it shows that the leftist media will throw over one of its own in favor of Obama. But at least in this one instance, the Emperor was shown to have no clothes. We all know that he's never had any clothes, but it's taken others longer to see it. Many still don't see it. The reality is that Obama is deliberately undermining American free-market economics and turning a once self-sufficient society built on individual liberty into a government dependency and welfare state. That's expensive to accomplish. Hence his total lack of interest in real, meaningful spending and entitlement reform. Obama INTENDS to bust the budget. After all, "fundamental transformation" doesn't come cheap.

The second point is that the Obama "fundamental transformation" also doesn't come without breaking some necks and twisting some arms, so to speak. Thankfully for Obama, this is what he and his Chicago crew do really well: manipulate and intimidate. Remember within days of his first swearing-in, Obama leaned across the table to top Republicans and reminded them in no uncertain terms, "I won." Remember that he pulled a Democrat Congressman, Pete DeFazio, aside after he voted against the stimulus and told him, "Don't think we're not keeping score, brother." Remember that when CBS News's great investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson began raising serious questions in 2011 about Fast and Furious, a top White House official called her and "yelled at" and "swore at" her. (I could go on, but the internet only has so much space. For a complete telling of all of Team Obama's intimidation tactics, please see my book, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened?"---out in paperback next week!). One top reporter, Ron Fournier (formerly of the Associated Press, now with National Journal) got so fed up with the White House intimidation campaign that he iced a major White House source who was driving him crazy with those tactics (read his incredible piece about it here: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/why-bob-woodward-s-fight-with-the-white-house-matters-to-you-20130228 ).

Obama makes Nixon look like a Boy Scout. Every day. I doubt Obama will ever be held accountable in the way Nixon was, because you've got to give the devil his due: Obama knows he's got the protection of the Obama Privilege (which Nixon never had) and he uses it to maximum advantage. Constitution and journalistic ethics and basic human decency be damned. After all, there's a "fundamental transformation" of a nation to finish.

An Inconvenient Truth

Democrats love to spend and tax to kingdom come. They just don't want to be reminded of the resulting debt they're piling up.

During a House Financial Services Committee meeting yesterday on the budget, Chairman Jeb Hensarling requested that two monitors be set up to display the national debt clock running in real-time. (By the way, the national debt just crossed $16.6 trillion.) Read the Daily Caller's piece here: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/26/democrats-complain-about-presence-of-debt-clock-on-capitol-hill/#ixzz2M3fq0vz3

Democrats Maxine Waters and Keith Ellison whined that the debt clock was inappropriate. “Clearly it is a political prop designed to message ideologically,” Ellison said. And Ellison knows something about "messaging ideologically." (Did you see his rude, obnoxious, and bullying performance on "Hannity" last night? Here it is: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/26/on-air-fireworks-erupt-between-fncs-sean-hannity-and-democratic-rep-keith-ellison-video/ )

When Waters requested that the debt clock be taken down when Democrats spoke, Hensarling agreed.

And that tells you everything you need to know about what the Democrats believe about growing government, out of control federal spending, and the resulting national debt that is quickly burying us and making us a crippled (and soon-to-be-irrelevant) power. Which is, of course, their objective. Just don't point it out.

I'm A MAKER! Tonight on PBS !

I am honored to appear in a fascinating and important new documentary airing tonight on PBS.

"MAKERS: WOMEN WHO MAKE AMERICA" will air TONIGHT (Tuesday, February 26) at 8:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). The film tells the story of how women have helped shape America over the last 50 years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in our country’s history, in pursuit of their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity and personal autonomy. A preview of the documentary is available at the following link: http://www.makers.com/documentary/ .

Visit MAKERS.com now to access more than 1,000 videos of remarkable stories of groundbreaking women. For more information, visit MAKERS.com/press and pbs.org/MAKERS, follow @MAKERSwomen on Twitter, join the conversation with #MAKERSchat, and visit Facebook.com/makerswomen on Facebook.

I appear toward the end of the film, and it was such a pleasure to take part. I hope you'll tune in.

No Escape

First, Bill Clinton showed up at the Golden Globe Awards, courtesy of Steven Spielberg, to introduce a film about a Republican president, "Lincoln." If Hollywood were really as subversive and rebellious as it thinks it is, it would have had a Republican president introduce the movie. George W. Bush was available. (The horror! The horror!)

Next, Barack Obama popped up for his annual pre-Super Bowl interview. Scott Pelley of CBS News did the interview this year and tossed the same kind of softballs at him as his colleague Steve Kroft tossed at him and Hillary.

Then, at the end of last night's Academy Awards, Michelle Obama showed up via satellite from the White House to present the biggest award of the night, Best Picture. This time, it wasn't Spielberg who had arranged the Democrat cameo but fellow mogul Harvey Weinstein. And Mrs. Obama's appearance took place after an array of lefties had crossed the stage, from Barbra Streisand to Meryl Streep to Jane Fonda.

The Democrats are everywhere. They have controlled every aspect of our culture for decades: movies, television, music, academia, media, news, literature....

Given this deep and long-term and widespread cultural influence, it's simply not possible for the rest of us to enjoy a major national event without (at least) one of these leftist characters popping up to ruin our good time---not to mention our country.

That means that we need to recognize how serious the cultural problem is, to engage the culture, and to start making inroads wherever and whenever we can. This won't be easy: the Left has decades on us and have very powerful people and interests on their side. But we have to start somewhere, such as supporting conservative artists and projects and voting with our wallets. The leftists have near-total control now, and they will continue to do so unless we begin to make an effort to change the dynamic. Rome wasn't built in a day, but it WAS built.

This Weekend's Radio Show

We are going to rock the "Monica Crowley Show" this weekend! I'm going to cover the President's disingenuous hysteria over his own plan---the sequester, the media's "lightbulb" moment about Obama, and a Democrat makes stupid rape comments and the leftist media ignores them (but we won't!). Plus, we'll talk about the REAL message of the lush, great series "Downton Abbey" with Stuart Varney of Fox Business. A jam-packed show, so please be sure to tune in. Saturday 1pm ET on 77 WABC in NY, online at www.WABCRadio.com , and nationwide! Please join us.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Washington

Today we celebrate the birthday of the first among the Founding Fathers, a superb military general, and our first President, George Washington. He was a man of extraordinary courage, wisdom, and grace, who set this nation on its exceptional path with his steadiest of hands and deepest humility. "So help me God," he first added to the oath of office (a unwritten tradition followed by each one of his successors). "So help me God." Indeed.

As we think about him today, let's recall some of his most famous words about America, from his First Inaugural Address on April 30, 1789:

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

Washington: now more than ever.

Happy birthday, sir.

All By Design

In my book, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened?" (paperback edition out on March 5!), I argue that President Obama and the Far Left have been rapidly implementing their Grand Project---to "fundamentally transform" the nation, in Obama's own words from 2008. The leftist Grand Project consists of three major elements: 1) to expand government as fast and as widespread as possible; 2) the ultimate objective of THAT is to expand dependency on that ever-growing government as fast and as widespread as possible; 3) and the ultimate objective of THAT is to establish a permanent Democrat voting majority. In the book, I produce reams of evidence in exposing this true Obama agenda, and I show that he and his band of leftists are having enormous success in accomplishing it.

Here is more evidence, in this brilliant piece by AEI scholar Nicholas Eberstadt. Read it. It's horrifying, but it's vitally important that you understand it. We're facing a tsunami sweeping away the very exceptional nature of America. Read this piece NOW.

http://www.aei.org/article/society-and-culture/the-obama-recovery-less-unemployment-but-more-dependence/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=022013#.USV6x98ktGE.twitter

Defeat Hagel

Chuck Hagel should not be Defense Secretary. Prior to his disastrous confirmation hearing performance---during which he failed to display even the slightest clue about the world and America's national security policies, and what he did display was wrong----Hagel has been wrong about every major national security issue in recent history: Israel, Iran, sanctions, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, North Korea, the Iraq surge, and the Defense Department budget. He should not be allowed anywhere near the Pentagon.

To help defeat his nomination, please let your Senators know you'd like them to filibuster Hagel. RedState.com has provided an Action Center for you to find your Senators' numbers so you can call them today and tell them to filibuster him. The link is below:

http://rally.redstate.com/9281/filibuster-chuck-hagel

Media Lightbulb

Members of the mainstream media have finally had a "lightbulb" moment. After five years of getting the runaround or of being simply shut out from access to President Obama, it's finally dawned on them that Obama loathes them and doesn't give them much access at all---ever.

It was Obama's golf weekend in Florida that set off the press revolt. For two days, the media were blocked from any information about the president, his whereabouts, and the company he shared. It was only on the third day that they realized they were being played when a reporter for Golf Digest began tweeting that Obama was on the golf course with none other than Tiger Woods.

The president....on the links....with a major, controversial sports star? And they had to hear about on Twitter? Are you kidding me? They went ballistic. Here's the Politico story about it: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/obama-the-puppet-master-87764.html

I don't really care if Obama plays golf all day long, every day (although the press pounded President Bush every time he took any vacation time). The more time Obama is away from Washington, the better.

But I DO mind that the press finds itself outraged over this but not about its lack of access to far more important things. It would be nice if the media were as curious about Obama's true agenda, his background, his radical associations, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the true intentions of his foreign policy, the visits to the White House by top-level Muslim Brotherhood representatives, his lies about health care, spending, the sequester, etc. (I could go on, but the internet has limited space.)

The mainstream media declared itself outraged over a lack of access to Obama as he played golf with Tiger Woods. They should be more outraged over Obama's deliberate destruction of the very foundations of the nation. It would be nice if they discovered their outrage about that----and about all of the policies designed to accomplish it.

The O'Reilly Factor---TONIGHT!

I'll be a guest with Bill O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight at 8pm and 11pm ET. Please tune in!