As President Obama prepared to welcome President Bush back to the White House for today’s unveiling of portraits of the former president and first lady, columnist Eleanor Clift was among those struck by how closely Obama has mirrored his predecessor on national security issues. “Bush, perhaps more than any recent president, must feel vindicated by the policies that Obama has chosen to pursue, many of them forged in the post-9/11 era under Bush’s leadership,” Clift wrote. She also said the reporting “by Newsweek and the New York Times on how Obama personally signs off on a ‘kill list’ of al-Qaida terrorists prepared by the CIA and the Pentagon is chillingly reminiscent of the deck of playing cards that Bush used to keep score of top terrorist targets when he was in the Oval Office.”
If Mitt Romney wants a running mate to counter the impression that his interests mirror those of a financial sector “that has run roughshod over the nation and practically brought the nation’s economy to its knees,” he should pick former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair (in photo), argued Huffington Post blogger Raymond J. Learsy. He wrote of the native Kansan: “Bair, a moderate Republican and holdover appointee from the Bush administration, fought unstintingly against the crony capitalism that had overtaken our government.” Most recently, Bair argued in a Fortune commentary that JPMorgan Chase is too big to manage, let alone regulate, and that CEO Jamie Dimon should take steps to downsize. “The best way for Dimon to provide a better return to his investors is to recognize that his bank is worth more in smaller, easier-to-manage pieces,” Bair wrote.
The Kansas City Star counted Gov. Sam Brownback, House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, and dentists among the winners of the 2012 legislative session – the last because they “quietly won a battle” over whether to allow a new category of dental provider to fill cavities and pull teeth. The session’s losers? They included Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who failed to move up the proof-of-citizenship deadline for voter registration or see Kansas pass an Alabama-style immigration crackdown; the Senate’s moderate leadership; and state Sen. Les Donovan (in photo), R-Wichita, who, the Star concluded, “twice tried hammering out a compromise for moderate tax cuts and twice . . . couldn’t get his chamber on board.”
As President Obama prepared to welcome President Bush back to the White House for today’s unveiling of portraits of the former president and first lady, columnist Eleanor Clift was among those struck by how closely Obama has mirrored his predecessor on national security issues. “Bush, perhaps more than any recent president, must feel vindicated by the policies that Obama has chosen to pursue, many of them forged in the post-9/11 era under Bush’s leadership,” Clift wrote. She also said the reporting “by Newsweek and the New York Times on how Obama personally signs off on a ‘kill list’ of al-Qaida terrorists prepared by the CIA and the Pentagon is chillingly reminiscent of the deck of playing cards that Bush used to keep score of top terrorist targets when he was in the Oval Office.”
