For the greater part of 2007 and 2008, George W. Bush served as then-candidate Barack Obama‘s punching bag. On the road to the White House, Obama predictably blamed the Bush administration for anything that was going wrong in America. But now it seems that by keeping many of the Bush policies in place, and even expanding some, President Obama is implicitly admitting that Bush was right all along.

Schumer was caught on tape explaining to his fellow Democrats why he favors characterizing spending cuts proposed by the GOP as “extreme” and “draconian.”

He proceeded to elaborate: “I always use the word ‘extreme’; that’s what the caucus instructed me to do the other week.”

His unknowing moment of honesty exposed how the left is still desperately trying to slander the Tea Party, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge its members’ concerns and respect their opinions, unwilling to stop mocking them (as, for example, with the tired “tea bagger” label).

Democrats like Schumer seem completely unaware that such condescension very likely cost them control of the U.S. House of Representatives – and nearly cost them the Senate, too.

I don’t know which is more perplexing: That the Empire State’s senior senator was dumb enough to admit party strategy on a conference call or that Democratic higherups remain deluded enough to think that bashing the Tea Party will win over anyone but MSNBC devotees.

It’s time for Obama pick a side. If he wants Khadafy out, like he claims he does, he should side with the rebels. He should stress that they are the greatest hope for overthrowing an enemy of the U.S. who has killed Americans through terrorism, most notoriously the Lockerbie bombing.

He could say something like, “The United States of America will not allow Col. Khadafy to prevail against his own people,” backing up his words by sending, with NATO‘s complete cooperation, aircraft carriers to the region. That should get the dictator packing his bags for, say, Venezuela.

Regardless of what you think of Sheen, it’s pretty clear that we’re feasting on the demise of a troubled man with the help of an enthusiastically complacent media.

Networks “have been relentless in recent days in aiding and abetting the epic meltdown of a celebrity who happens to be the biggest star on the biggest comedy,” James Rainey writes in the Los Angeles Times. “Are they all that different from the two live-in young ‘goddesses,’ whom the actor keeps around his Beverly Hills home?”

But then again, the media are only selling what they know we want to buy. Aren’t we the very voyeurs who want to get in on Sheen’s threesome?

[A]lternative energy sources should be a facet of our national energy policy. But ignoring or demonizing crude in a time when we are a long, long way from identifying a competing source that can contribute at true commercial scale is impractical. That’s why drilling here at home is yet another fight we cannot idealistically abandon.

The more we drill at home, the less we depend on the Middle East for our oil, and the more economically secure we become. And that’s not to mention the huge range of economic advantages to the U.S.: jobs in exploration and production, jobs in supply chain, jobs in service and support, a huge cash flow to the Treasury Department, a correction of the trade balance.

[I]t’s time for the right to knock off the hand-wringing and ponder this question instead: What’s so bad about The Donald helping to build a case against President Obama?

I am not endorsing Donald Trump for President. I am just endorsing the idea of letting him use his powerful platform to draw attention to the fact that our President hasn’t got a clue. Who better than the mastermind of “The Apprentice” to help the country tell Obama that, after four bungled years, he’s been fired?

Check out the rest in my weekly column.

In a speech this week to the pro-business Chamber of Commerce, that’s exactly what President Obama did, making the new narrative that Obama has found his inner Gordon Gekko more wishful Washington storytelling than reality. He may have brought on the likes of William Daley and Jeffrey Immelt, but the President himself is as averse to business as ever.