Obama Unwelcome at Notre Dame?

A quick trip around Hannity's America...

Fighting Irish

Alumni and supporters of Notre Dame University are sticking to their Fighting Irish namesake and uniting against a proposed plan to have President Barack Obama speak at their spring commencement.

The announcement that the president would speak at the university came just four days after Obama outraged Catholics by lifting the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic advocacy group, has launched an online petition in an attempt to get Notre Dame President Reverend John Jenkins to rescind his invitation to Obama. The petition at NotreDameScandal.com has already gathered more than 80,000 signatures and says, "Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, popularity over morality."

A spokesman for the university told the Associated Press Monday that he does not believe the invitation will be withdrawn and that the response so far is "nothing beyond what we anticipated." That statement was made before Tuesday's major announcement that the Notre Dame area bishop has decided not to attend the graduation.

I have a feeling the Notre Dame spokesman may need to revisit his comments in the coming days.

Tim's Blame Game

Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary who is redefining the word "embattled," was back up on Capitol Hill Tuesday, testifying before Barney Frank and all his pals. Geithner decided to stick up for the new AIG CEO, saying he's not to blame for this mess. But he forgot to tell us who is.

Welcome back to Liberal Translation, Mr. Geithner:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: I know that much of the public anger has fallen on Mr. Liddy, but this is not fair.

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: Because I'm probably the single person most responsible for failing to stop the AIG bonuses.

GEITHNER: Mr. Liddy did not create this mess. He did not seek this job. He agreed in response to requests by the government of the United States to work to restructure the company and help us get back the assistance provided by the taxpayer.

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: On the flipside, I did create this mess. I did seek this job. And the taxpayers may soon be assisting me on unemployment.

GEITHNER: And in taking on what I think is the most challenging job in the American financial system today...

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: My job's a cakewalk compared to his. He probably doesn't even get afternoon naptime.

GEITHNER: ... he inherited an enormous range of problems, including these retention contracts that are the understandable source of public outrage.

LIBERAL TRANSLATION: As for me, I get to attend all the White House parties I want. Guess he drew the short straw.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I would soak it all in while you still can, Mr. Geithner. Even your days on Liberal Translation may be numbered.

Lessons From France

Another unsettling sign of the changing times under President Obama: The French are lecturing us on the virtues of lower taxes. Did you ever think you'd see the day?

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced down street riots after refusing to raise taxes on the highest income earners. He said, "I was not elected to increase taxes. My goal is to convince people who have money to come to France and invest in our factories and companies, not to push them out."

According to The Wall Street Journal, the latest Frenchman to critique Obama-nomics is the head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, who said that governments must reassure people that they are "not putting in jeopardy the situation of the children, and reassure businesses that what is done today is not done to the detriment of their own taxation in the years to come."

We can only hope that President Obama will heed the words of these wise Frenchmen.

O-What-On?

Remember how the left and its media cheerleaders mocked President Bush every time he mispronounced a word?

Well, the messiah himself has been known to mangle a word or two, but for some mysterious reason, his mispronunciations don't make media headlines, and I'm not sure why. This is how the president thinks the constellation Orion is pronounced:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Oreon (sic) Energy Systems is a perfect example, which Neal Verfuerth — did I say that, Neal, properly? That you right there? OK. Neal just spoke to you about this. Oreon employs more than 250 people providing energy-saving lighting to Fortune 500 companies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

"Oreon"? Apparently they skipped that at Harvard Law School. The Obama staffers better start putting phonetic pronunciations in that teleprompter of his.

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