The Right Coast

Henninger: The Obamaian Universe - WSJ.com

The sense is growing around Washington, and this increasingly includes Democrats, of living in an alternative universe. Barack Obama gives his State of the Union speech, the sequester looms, and the president flies around the country giving speeches. He's had virtually no contact on the sequester with the legislative branch. Now he's going to meet with them after the sequester happens. This is unusual. We need to look outside normal politics for explanations.

via online.wsj.com

President Obama’s Losing Hand on the Sequester Fight - NationalJournal.com

To understand why the White House is aggressively contesting Bob Woodward’s account of who’s responsible for the sequester, you only have to take a look at how high the political stakes are for President Obama. Instead of tactically conceding on a short-term fix that would provide for smarter spending cuts -- as the Republicans did during the fiscal-cliff fight, when the White House held more leverage -- Obama has chosen to pick a fight over the fairness of deep spending cuts, at the expense of more significant items on his plate.

Now the White House’s entire agenda, from guns to immigration, is in jeopardy, and the president’s approval is taking a hit, with much more on the line in the coming month.

via www.nationaljournal.com

LWJ on Michelle Obama Tom Smith

"It's kind of hard to imagine Eleanor Roosevelt giving out an Oscar." Indeed. 

Also, "It's February. In Washington. And she's wearing a sleeveless dress. She probably had to turn the heat up in the White House. And we're paying for that."

Instapundit

JIM TREACHER: The Bob Woodward story isn’t important. That’s why liberals and the media (PTR) are losing their minds over it.

Related: Remember: They’re not attacking Bob Woodward because they think he’s lying. They’re attacking him because they think he’s telling the truth.

UPDATE: Pattern and practice: Lanny Davis: Obama White House Threatened Washington Times Over My Column.

Well, thuggishness is their style. Nice to see it getting reported, at least.

MORE: All The President’s Thugs.

Plus: David Freddoso: If you don’t want to be badmouthed, stop saying things unhelpful to our president.

MORE STILL: Politico has the emails.

John Podhoretz comments: “It would take a great semiologist to unpack the false professions of friendship and anger and source protection here.”

Stephen Green: “Already, day and night, the producers and crew at NBC News are deceptively editing old video to make it appear as though it were Woodward who ordered Alderaan to be destroyed, and right after Rachel Maddow had told him everything he wanted to know, too.”

STILL MORE: Deep Threats: “Who thinks this will end well? The White House’s escalating war with Bob Woodward has major ramifications for all involved — not least the president whom Woodward believes wouldn’t approve of his own aides’ tactics. President Obama has chosen to make two major points in the sequester stand-off: That the pain is going to be awful, and that it’s all Republicans’ fault. Woodward calls the latter into question, with the reporting he’s decided to aggressively and publicly defend. As for the former, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg giving a rhetorical eye-roll to the White House, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on record exaggerating about teacher pink slips that haven’t been issued, let’s just say credulity is being strained.”

USA Today: “All we can say is: We know more than a few reporters have received similar e-mails from White House officials. Yelling has also been known to happen.”

YET MORE: Ron Fournier: Yeah, I Got the Abusive Treatment From the WH and the Same ‘You Will Regret This’ Threat.

via pjmedia.com

Behind the Curtain: Bob Woodward at war - POLITICO.com

Woodward thinks there is still a grand bargain to be had between Obama and Boehner, with tax reform as a huge component. “Sit down and work through this,” he said. “I can see exactly how you come up with a deal that would dispose of lots of things.” Woodward, who helped bring down one presidency and has written instant history on every one since, added: “Color me a little baffled. I don’t understand this White House. Do you?”

via www.politico.com

Departing Pope Benedict’s daily activities shrouded in mystery - The Washington Post

VATICAN CITY — On an April 2009 visit to the Italian mountain town of Sulmona, Pope Benedict XVI solemnly placed his pallium, the vestment symbolizing his papal authority, on the tomb of Celestine V. The medieval pontiff’s abdication in 1294 had resulted in imprisonment by his successor and banishment to hell by Dante for “the great refusal.” Benedict is no doubt hoping for a better retirement plan.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Politicians declare sky falling; meanwhile, D.C. real estate market booms | WashingtonExaminer.com

What does the Washington Metro region’s real estate market have to say about the sequester? After all, the people who work and live here are supposedly going to be hit hardest when the automatic spending cuts begin. If all the hype is sincere, we should expect homebuyers to get cold feet, inventory to grow, houses to languish on the market for longer periods, and prices to plummet. Instead, we have this:

• Home prices in the metro are up 10.7 percent year-over-year.
• Inventory is down about 50 percent year-over-year.
• Average days on market are down 27 percent.

via washingtonexaminer.com

Are Assholes More Successful in Academia?

It’s a discussion that started over beer and chips and grew into a blog post now grabbing attention in higher education circles: Do asses do better in academe than their more tactful peers?

via taxprof.typepad.com

I have a feeling I'm in the minority here, but I really don't believe as*holes do better in academia. The relevant comparison is whether a person who is clever to degree X would do better were he marginally more (or less) an *sshole. It seems to me obvious that the latter is the case. What is true, is that we are willing to put up with somebody because he is clever, notwithstanding the fact that he is aggressive, snide, or whatever. In some fields, I sense that the premium on civilized behavior is greater -- perhaps an indication that politics or niceness is getting more weight than perhaps it should. --ts

The Fairy Tale on Spending Cuts | RealClearPolitics

I’m still worried about the impact on the economy. Some economists believe that the sequester will cost thousands of jobs and throw us into another recession. True or not?

The proposed spending reductions amount to less than 0.03% of our gross domestic product. If our economy can’t survive spending cuts of that size, we truly are Greece. Of course, in the short term, there will be some layoffs and furloughs. This will be hard on some communities that depend heavily on government spending, and even harder on those workers directly affected. However, most of the numbers cited about the numbers of jobs at risk come from industry groups with a vested interest in making the cuts look as bad as possible.

via www.realclearpolitics.com

Lew, Treasury Nominee, Got Exit Bonus From N.Y.U. - NYTimes.com

President Obama’s nominee to lead the Treasury Department, Jacob J. Lew, got a $685,000 severance payment when he left a top post at New York University in 2006 to take a job at Citigroup.

via www.nytimes.com