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President Obama made his first address to the U.N. General Assembly today. He had them at hello. Even his opening -- "It is my honor to address you as the 44th president of the United States" -- got a round of applause. The reason? The latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey of 21 countries found global confidence in Obama’s leadership on foreign affairs at 71% -- far higher than approval ratings at home (in the low 50% range) and even more striking matched against world opinion of George W. Bush last year, which Pew tracked at 17%. To Nile Gardiner of...

President Obama made his first address to the U.N. General Assembly today. He had them at hello. Even his opening -- "It is my honor to address you as the 44th president of the United States" -- got a round of applause. The reason? The latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey of 21 countries found global confidence in Obama’s leadership on foreign affairs at 71% -- far higher than approval ratings at home (in the low 50% range) and even more striking matched against world opinion of George W. Bush last year, which Pew tracked at 17%.

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

When it comes to the end times, there isn't much that I agree with Hal Lindsey about. Hal Lindsey, author of the huge (and phenomenally misguided) "Late Great Planet Earth" and rapture promoter wrote a column last week comparing the reception received by Barack Obama on his world tour to the reception that the Antichrist will one day receive. After describing some of the detail of Obama's trip, Lindsey says this: And the Bible says that such a leader will soon make his appearance on the scene. It won't be Barack Obama, but Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of...

It made no sense when Barack Obama left the country on his nine-day overseas tour for some of my fellow columnists to describe it as a high-risk venture. Foreign leaders, who can read the polls as well as anyone, would go out of their way not to embarrass a man who may, six months from now, be president of the United States. Obama prepares thoroughly for the big occasions. He is almost always well-briefed, and he was traveling in sharp company — with Sens. Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel — so you knew he would be thoroughly ready for these...

The Obama campaign announced Monday that he will leave the hall of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and deliver a rock-star-style acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High, quadrupling his live audience. The speech will be on the fourth and final day of the convention, Aug. 28. Adding to the historic resonance of the first African-American to be nominated for president, that’s also the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech.” The move means additional expense for the television networks, where executives are having a conference call Monday to discuss the expense and...

Many left-wingers insist that Al Gore really won the 2000 election, and Gore's endorsement of Barack Obama shows that he also believes this. After eight years of incompetence, neglect and failure, we need change. Our country fortunately does not need change, because we avoided making this mistake in 2000, even if Al Gore and his supporters really do believe he is the President of the United States. In Obama's case, by the way, POTUS would mean Pothead Of The United States.

The New Yorker is hardly the optimal vehicle for reaching the conservative intelligentsia. But, last year, Barack Obama cooperated with a profile for that magazine where he seemed to be speaking directly to the right. Because he paid obeisance to the virtues of stability and continuity, his interlocutor, Larissa MacFarquhar, came away with the impression that the Illinois senator was an adherent of Edmund Burke: "In his view of history, in his respect for tradition, in his skepticism that the world can be changed any way but very, very slowly, Obama is deeply conservative." As The New Yorker's assessment shot...

Imagine, if you will, that former Arkansas Gov. Mike "majored in miracles" Huckabee had won the Republican nominating contest and in the rapture of exhuberance at the historic moment, a Republican congressman who is also the son of a famous religious right clergyman exulted that "the event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance." That would certainly get widespread attention in the MSM, being so over-the-top and messianic pronouncement about a Republican presidential figure. Not so much when the hallelujah chorus is coming from the son of famous left-wing preacher...

<p>Mark Morford: Is Obama an enlightened being?</p> <p>Spiritual wise ones say: This sure ain't no ordinary politician. You buying it?</p> <p>I find I'm having this discussion, this weird little debate, more and more, with colleagues, with readers, with liberals and moderates and miserable, deeply depressed Republicans and spiritually amped persons of all shapes and stripes and I'm having it in particular with those who seem confused, angry, unsure, thoroughly nonplussed, as they all ask me the same thing: What the hell's the big deal about Obama?</p>

Is Barack Obama the Messiah? Lots of people have pon dered the possibility. There are Web sites dedicated to the question; Google "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" and you'll get more than 35,000 hits. (Enter just the words "Messiah" and "Obama" and you'll get nearly 10 times that.) Since Obama declared his candidacy, there have been remarkably few biblical plagues. And lions and lambs seem open to bilateral negotiations. Obama's apostles are hard to dismiss. Oprah simply calls him "The One," because "we need politicians who know how to be the truth." (Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the...

The messianic Obama mag cover is becoming funny. How many more can you all add?

Barack Obama's appeal to his legions of enthusiasts rests in no small in their hearts. And where the heart is concerned, myths, images, and archetypes work their wonders on the nonrational faculties of the mind. The biggest Phony-Op of the election season so far was that giant riverfront photo in Portland, Oregon with "the masses" yelling their lungs out, as if for a messianic King. Or at least we may make that sort of association. Archetypal Phony-Ops make for powerful unconscious media manipulation, and there will be a lot of them coming up. So this is a head's up if...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Newsweek magazine, the new cover. The cover is of Obama, and they put another halo on his head! The original picture did not have a halo, but the wife of editor Jon Meacham walked in, saw it, didn't like it. So Newsweek changed the cover photo of Obama with a halo and a bright light behind him because the editor's wife didn't like the original. (playing of Obama Messiah spoof) END TRANSCRIPT