Dinesh D'Souza has a new movie out called America: Imagine A World Without Her - but we don't really have to "imagine", it's happening before our eyes. Nothing difficult and complicated about it: in this decline and fall, the Emperor simply went fundraising.
At any rate, Jamie Weinstein sat in for Hugh Hewitt this week, and took me on a brisk trot round current topics:
MARK STEYN: Well, what's going on in the world is of very little interest to President Fundraiser. He's got other priorities, and the rest of the planet, as I believe it's marked on the State Department maps, can go take a hike... There's a vacuum of American power. And John Kerry is the physical presence of American absence. Nobody wants to see him. Nobody wants to do the handshake. Nobody wants to pose for photographs.
And then there's Ukraine:
JAMIE WEINSTEIN: It looks like Putin far from being cowed after this tragedy of the taking down of the Malaysian Airliner... he is now giving more weaponry to these Russian-backed separatists, and maybe actually shelling some of the Ukrainian military from Russia. Does that surprise you that he's not backing down?
MS: No... What happened since the downing of the jet is intentional. Putin looked at Obama on TV... He is supposed to be the 'leader of the free world'. And he rejects that role. He doesn't believe in the concept of the free world, and he doesn't believe in America as leader of it. And that was what he was communicating. Putin got the message, even if the boobs at The New York Times didn't, and Putin has acted accordingly.
On the other hand, Obama is "pivoting" to the economy - by proposing to make America's corporate tax regime even more uncompetitive with the rest of the developed world:
MS: The United States has the highest rate of corporate tax in the developed world... He's referring to things like Pfizer, which anybody in New York knows for decades has their big corporate headquarters on 42nd Street. And Pfizer bought a British subsidiary in order that they could technically be relocated for tax purposes to the United Kingdom. And by the way, we're not talking about, you know, buying up subsidiaries in Chad or Somalia to take advantage of Somali or Chad tax rates. We're talking about taking advantage of other more favorable tax rates in the rest of the developed world. And if you weren't able to do that, you could imagine what the tax rates would be like in the United States. Borders give you choices. And you know, to modify the feminist line, I'm pro-choice, and I vote with my feet, which is what Pfizer and other people are doing. And the solution to that is ...to lower the over-regulated, over-taxed corporate tax regime in this country.
Amidst all this global doom, the good news is Bill Clinton's sex life is great:
JW: There's been a couple of books about Hillary Clinton that came out this week. One talks about Bill still having mistresses, one they call the Energizer, the Secret Service, allegedlly... Isn't this reckless if his wife is going to be running for president again?
MS: Yeah, he's got love nests all over the world... I was in Australia, and I happened to be around the corner from what they call Bill Clinton's pad on the Queensland coast. And then I flew to Ireland, and he's got some love nest on the west coast of Ireland, too. The first First Gentleman of the United States so far isn't being that gentlemanly.
I don't think this is going to be an issue. I think Hillary Clinton's support is nothing more than name recognition. It's very, very soft. And I would be surprised after this floppo book launch of hers if she actually goes ahead and runs. But if she does run, we're living with all the usual - 'distinguishing characteristics' and all the other stuff - for another four years. And I don't know whether Americans want that. That 90s revivalism only goes so far.
All that plus Gaza and Rick Perry. You can read the full transcript here.