PostPartisan - Quick takes by The Post's opinion writers - February 22, 2009

The Deficit Is Obama's Now

Until today, President Obama could plausibly blame the country’s budget mess on former president Bush. No longer. Today Obama unveiled the details of his 10-year budget plan. The president and his lieutenants have long insisted that they would scrub...

Obama Cozies Up to Congress

Rereading the transcript of President Obama’s speech from Tuesday night, it struck me that, for a president whose approval ratings are far higher than those of his colleagues in the legislative branch, Obama went out of his way to...

Poor Gov. Jindal

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal didn't stand a chance. The rising Republican star delivered his party's response to President Obama's hour-long address and simply didn't rise to the occasion. Where Obama in tone and message was relentlessly positive, Jindal's relentless...

'We Are Not Quitters'

It was a moment that Franklin D. Roosevelt would have savored in 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression — the president gesturing to the gallery of the House of Representatives and quoting a high school student from...

Not a War President

What can we learn from the few sentences President Obama devoted to foreign policy in his speech to Congress tonight? The main lesson is how very few the sentences were. Yes, this was a speech focused on the economy....

Finally, an Inaugural Address

It came a bit late, but Barack Obama finally gave his inaugural address. It was sweeping, and it was grand. It was uplifting, and it was profound. It sang, as Walt Whitman did, of a glorious country. The president...

A Strong Economics Speech

Every first for Barack Obama as president is also a historical first for our country – a moment of genuine achievement and emotion. It is thrilling to see an African-American leader before a joint session of Congress, particularly when...

Words for Main Street

The banks won’t get it. But maybe more of the American people will. President Barack Obama’s young administration has barely muddled through the murky banking crisis this past month, sending a message of indecision to financial markets that detest...

Republicans Sucking on Lemons

Just how sour can House Republican leader John Boehner look? About as sour as someone forced to suck on a lemon -- as President Barack Obama forced Republicans to do at the very opening of his speech to a...

Obama Faces the Nation

When President Obama stands in the well of the House of Representatives, he will address a joint session of Congress -- and the American people -- at one of the most perilous times in its history. Despite today's triple...

The Obama Guest List

This just in: Dillon, S.C., eighth-grader Ty'Sheoma Bethea, who figured in my Sunday column about crumbling rural schools, has been tapped for special duty tonight. She'll be sitting with first lady Michelle Obama during President Obama's address to Congress....

Summit Diplomacy

During the Cold War, American and Soviet leaders would hold summit meetings every now and then, often to remind each other that, despite all the rivalry, both nations could agree on a few, basic things. Modest reductions in massive...

PostPartisan: February 22, 2009 - February 28, 2009