As The State of the Union Speech Shows: The Problem with Obama Isn’t Just Political or Ideological, It’s Ignorance, Inexperience, Character, and Incompetence, Too,
Having a president — the most powerful single man in the world — who isn’t engaged with reality is very scary.
It’s not just about politics and ideology. There are three other factors.
First, Obama doesn’t have the experience, character, or personality to be president. To put it flatly: he’s in over his head. And that might mean we are the ones who may drown. So it isn’t just having a left-wing president but a very inept one. A normal left-wing president with a hidden agenda would want to make himself and his agenda succeed as much as possible.
Second, Obama doesn’t have a very good understanding of America, its history, its system, or its institutions. We see this constantly in his attitude toward the basic governmental structures. He simply doesn’t seem, for example, to comprehend the role of Congress. Obama really thinks that Congress has no right to thwart him, and he isn’t quite sure that the Supreme Court, not him, determines what is constitutional. He has no real idea how the economic system works, including the function of the bankruptcy laws or of the private enterprise system generally. What could be more ironic than the fact that the man who is supposed to be the smartest guy around is, in functional terms, the dumbest guy around?
He was never a governor so he doesn’t know how states work or how to administer. He was never a really effective or experienced member of Congress so he doesn’t understand the legislative process. He was never a real working lawyer so he doesn’t comprehend the court system.
Third, Obama is fundamentally alien to the United States. His ostensible race is a red herring. If Obama were an “African-American” who was intimately involved in growing up in such a community there would be no such problem. In real material terms, though, he doesn’t even care for that community, from which he is also fundamentally detached, ignoring the economic suffering there. He is a Martha’s Vineyard man, not a “ghetto” man.
If not for having become entangled in the race issue, Obama’s profound incompetence — his inarticulateness, lack of knowledge about issues and processes — would be obvious to all.
Worse, who in his administration would we ever want to see holding the reins of power again? They’re all not dealing with reality. That may be why Daley had to go, he wouldn’t drink the kool-aid.
Daley left for the same reason Rahm did: he sees the coming crack up.
I often wondered why more people have not noticed that our great celestial leader is nuts.
Nuts, to other nuts, don’t look out of place.
What you see and what you get are not the same with anti- Semite Obama. Ever seen him coming of a plane? One day he will fall flat on his face doing his stunt. Hear him speak to a Black audience or a White audience? In one he speak as if he was raised in the Ghetto in the other the way he was raised in Hawaii in a White family. He speaks of caring for Israel when in fact he cheered Wright’s every anti Israel rant for 20 years. Obama’s infatuation with Islam lead him to get rid of Mubarek a stanch ally of the USA. Today the Arab winter crippling the Arab world instead of the Obama rosy glasses seeing an Arab spring.
I did not vote last time not able to get myself to vote Palin. This time I will vote for anyone running to replace anti- Semite Obama. No one can be as bad for Israel or even for the USA.
I appreciate the focus on antisemitism, though I would call it populist antisemitism, which is one form of mental confusion. I wrote about protofascism in the State of the Union speech here: http://clarespark.com/2012/01/25/the-state-of-the-union-stinks/. And I can understand the anxiety that Rubin and his readers are feeling. I have to wonder why “liberals” are not panicking too.
Or, as a follow-up to my last posting, this new one: http://clarespark.com/2012/01/28/popular-sovereignty-on-the-ropes/. Thanks to Pajamas readers who have visited my blogs, and always to Barry Rubin, embattled and virtuous scholar.
Your hate for Palin caused you and those who think like you not to vote for McCain in 2008. The result of that is the mess that the US and the free world has been thrown into today. Never you throw away the child with the bath water. The consequence can be disastrous.It is however refreshing that you now have a rethink.
At the most charitable, Dear Liar is a college freshman. When you sat around the dorm room, everyone with a beer, passing the joint and discussing how screwed up the world was and how you would make it all better if only you were in charge.
The thing is, most of us grew up and learned life lessons.
Nice synopsis, Barry.
A number of us have noticed the same disturbing trend: he’s trapped in the past on his way to the future. “Present” isn’t even on the control pad. (Unless, of course, we’re discussing his Senate voting record.)
Wrong!
‘Present’ is the teleprompter.
Well, he’s too young to be a draft card burning yippie, and too old to be an acid dropping free love former Harvard hippie, but I swear there was some Timothy–tune in turn on drop out– Leary demeanor in his presentation. I wonder if he did a dooby before the state of the be in? I always find it fascinating, and scary, watching tail end baby boomers advocate the values of the military and the militaristic model for getting things done in a free democratic society–the Mao model– while having studiously avoided any service in the military themselves. Ah, its Davos Man in Martha’s Vineyard.
breaks down into _incoherence_.
Happens to great orators who get lots of power, like that author of “Mein Kampf”. Couldn’t say a public speach past 1943.
I gotta watch the speech through Paul Ekman analysis.
Barry; I believe that you and most pundits miss the cogent point. BHO is not incompitent. He was elected as the George Soros candidate from the Alasky school of marxism. The believe that the USA is intrinsicly evil and needs to be surpressed. By breaking the economy that must fall into place. Our history is replete with incompetant leaders. The “Nation”, our nation, not his, has always overcome them. However we now face the second Buchanon administration. You remember, the 15th president who did everything and nothing to bring about sessesion. BHO is of that same stamp. And his master, George Soros eagerly awaits the end of America and the pax Sorosica. I did hear him say in an interview that he was G-d.
agree but think this little part needs a slight tweak:
“The(y) believe that the USA is intrinsicly evil and needs to be suppressed.”
into:
they believe the usa is momentarily weak and needs to be exploited for monumental financial/political gain
Agreed. BHO is a political nihilist who envisions an ideal utopian US rising out of the ashes of an oppressive 1%. Power is what counts, not performance.
Spooky. *shiver*
Barack is the “golden boy”. He was steeped and marinated in communism/marxism from his mother, grandparents, step-father, Frank Marshall Davis, college professors, and ACORN. And he was always told how wonderful he was. In fact, he was marketed as a moderate, but he is a radical. As the path was paved for him by everyone. He never had to do much work, just orate.
He isn’t meant to solve any problems, just to create them. That’s why the big spendapalooza. It locks in the spending with the base line budgeting process. And it will kill the U.S. (as founded). He knows that his “solutions” will not work, but he doesn’t care. The goal is make the U.S. poor and destitute. After all, he said we were too powerful and too rich.
“he was marketed as a moderate, but he is a radical”
He is a Democrat, they are all small “c” communists.
The media marketeers who pushed Obama are liars and whores, in addition to being small “c” communists
Not grasping that basic carved in stone reality is greatest problem our Republic faces.
All else can be solved when we finally wake up this reality, and vote accordingly.
We’ve been duped.
“The media marketeers who pushed Obama are liars and whores, in addition to being small “c” communists.”
A detailed study should be made of our electoral/political filtering process to accurately determine how such an empty charlatan was actually elected under our democratic processes.
The voters’ uneducated carelessness in putting such a specimen into our Oval Office is not to allowed to be repeated.
You can easily conduct that study by watching NPR, CNN, ABC, CBS NBC, MSNBC, reading the NY Times, Wssh Post, LA Times, TIME, Newsweek, Huffington Post, or attending most classes at our colleges and universities, things that unfortunately too many of our fellow citizens are doing. The small c communists dominate these information sources and need to be cleaned out. If we can take back the government this fall, we can then start combating these other evils, if not, its probably “ball game”.
Unfortunately, Charlie, empty vassals make the most sound.
Very well said. And he chose to be in Reverend Wright’s church because he liked his politics. The corollary of all of th influences in his life is that Obama grew up believing that capitalism and America are fundamentally bad. He rejects the Constitution as racist and capitalism as exploitive. “Radical-in-Chief” details some of the people he hung out with. Obama practices Alinsky’s rules well, including the one that says never let them know you’re a radical. He is a pretty slick orator and, like most socialists, he uses popular terms (shared, teamwork, fair) but redefines what they mean (without telling us). If you take away his clever deceit, you have someone like Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright. At the core, that is who we elected in 2008.
As Obama gathers power,his detractors chortle about his incompetence.
‘as obama gathers power’ – yes.
this is an important point.
He’s about to run over his own tow line. (Or he already has…)
Strongly disagree. He and the people backing him know exactly what they are doing. We was a community organizer for ACORN for two decades. He sat in that damnable church in Chicago for two decades. He drank deeply from the cup of class hatred, black liberation theology and Marxism. He practiced it. He is a red diaper baby and he is practicing his craft. His intention appears to be a desire to completely blow up the United States as we know it so that he and his fellow True Believers can replace it with their own version of utopia. Problem it, that utopias never work and will not go well for those of us not on the top of the newly installed food chain.
We underestimate him at our peril, for he is the real deal and a very real threat to everything we believe in and dream. Cheers -
I strongly agree with you.
Obama appears delusional only because we don’t know the communists.
The colossal lies that he seems to believe true are simply the mask of his true goal, destroying America as the champion of capitalism.
Of course he knows that what he says is ridiculous. But he is a communist, he needs to stay in power, to realize his goals. He needs the votes of the real idiots, who think that he cares about “people”. So he tells them what they expect him to tell them. They don’t understand that his policies fail because they are intended to fail, to damage the country.
Unluckily, he is very near to succeed. A second term would probably be the end of America as a free country, poverty and class warfare would explode.
Vote anybody but this enemy of America.
I am appalled at the Democratic Party. I am sure they understand what is going on. Not a single honest man or woman left there ? A shame.
True. We often ascribe insanity to those we don’t understand. Just like Muslim extremists; once you comprehend their mindset, they make perfect sense.
This is such a poorly-argued criticism that I actually find myself liking Obama more (or, more precisely, disliking Obama less) after having read it– quite a feat.
One cannot conclude that Obama is a lunatic from the fact that the issues he chooses to focus on are not the issues that you or I believe he should focus on. Obama’s not having been a governor of a state does not mean that he doesn’t understand how states are governed. Obama’s not having worked as a trial lawyer (or whatnot) does not imply that he doesn’t understand the court system. These are all facetious statements.
No less facetious is the suggestion that Obama’s willingness to use the “Presidential bully pulpit” somehow shows that Obama doesn’t understand the separation of powers. On the contrary, it shows that Obama understands the real power that the Presidency has acquired over the decades all too well.
There’s plenty more in the article that’s just completely wrong. For example, Obama is no more “fundamentally alien to the United States” than most 20th-century intellectuals have been. If Obama had been “intimately involved in growing up in [the African-American] community” he would never, ever, have become President. Which, on the other hand, does not at all imply that he “doesn’t care” for blacks: rather, there’s plenty of evidence that he sympathizes with the blacks a great deal.
There’s more of this but I believe I’ve stated the case. Anyway, I’m not defending Obama here, and I do tend to believe that he’s incompetent and not very articulate (though the differences between him and Bush and several other recent predecessors are only differences of degree). But you shouldn’t just say anything negative and hope some of it sticks. Such an approach will backfire with anyone who isn’t already convinced that Obama is the worst president in American history.
I believe you mean fallacious rather than “facetious”. There’s nothing funny about today’s politics.
ha! Nice work – I was going for “specious.”
Exactly why CAN’T you conclude such things??? Has Obama given you ANY EVIDENCE in word or in deed to assume that this is NOT the case with him? Fact is, I can site various instances that only prove the point…even in the SOTU speech he mentioned increased spending by states for colleges and education, when he knows fully well more than half the states are flat broke and waiting for the requirements and costs of Obamacare to kick in…
Face it…The man is OUT OF TOUCH and OUT OF IDEAS!
I’d be happy to see what you can come up with…I for one at am a huge loss!
What you talking about Willis?
This is the most important and insightful article written on Obama that I have ever read. Mr Rubin’s final point is a warning to all of us: that the American people and its political system selected Obama “at a moment of supreme crisis.” While being unfit for the position it shows that the conflicted character of the US that elected him has become fatal. All the flaws that we see in Obama reflect the flaws in the US general population. We criticize Obama, rightly so, but we need to not forget that most of the people around us carry the same flaws as Obama. This tells me that the serious and probably fatal drift of the US will most likely not change even if he is defeated in the next election. No matter who is elected the US is heading into economic, political, and social disaster.
The problem isn’t Obama – The problem is us. When this guy was freely elected, it sent a shiver down my spine. I think of a passage from Jeremiah’s Lamentations -”Woe to us for we have sinned, the crown has fallen from our heads.” The real damage is in the American people. Obama is merely a symptom. We’re in trouble regardless of the election. More than half the American public is so out of touch that they elected a rookie. We’re dumb and dangerous.
Having a president — the most powerful single man in the world — who isn’t engaged with reality is very scary.
Ya think?
Some of this is uniquely Obama, but the other Democrat leaders – Reid and Pelosi – are just as detached from reality. Pelosi probably more so than Obama. I’m afraid that it’s a generational thing as much as anything. The Scoop Jackson Democrats are gone. The Bill Clinton Democrats are gone. This isn’t your fathers donkey; this is the baby boomer donkey. They’re all like this from here on out. Every one of them.
Poor Barry – you seem upset that he will not be stupid or ignorant enough to attack Iran if it gets a nuclear bomb. Plus it seems you sound more alien and not understanding history than President Obama.
Just remember with the midgets running from the Republican party it’s four more years baby!
Maybe President Obama can ask Ron Paul to be his defense secretary to really make your day – lol
Not “Flaming Liberal”, more like “Typical Liberal”…
Changing the focus of the arguement and throwing up Iran as a red herring…as if Obama would know what to do if a war with Iran REALLY broke out!
But I do admit, Obama does know history…when it concerns himself!
Unfortunately he’s just as deluded as Jimmy Carter when it comes to his place in it!
Flaming, why do you come onto this conservative website? Are you scared about the future? I would be if I were you. BHO is going down in November and he’s taking a lot of dems with him. You know this is true. You just can’t face it…yet. As I’ve said before—and will be saying again throughout the year, until voters put an end to this long national nightmare: Obama is the worst single thing that has ever happened to your party and come early November you will not just be ruing the day he made it into the WH. So, goodnight, dear Flaming, may flights of Democratic angels sing thee to thy rest.
I see that someone from Obama’s Office of The Director of Progressive Media and Online Response has joined us.
I wish people like yourself would actually read what Barry writes rather than make assumptions, which make you look silly. You will not find even one sentence of his in any article recommending an attack.
Unfortunately for us, the intellectual background of The Magnificent One is wrapped up in the lies of 1968. Everything bad in the world is because of something the USA did or did not do. Government must be there to protect the hapless consumer/worker from the evil, voracious corporate system. A quasi-socialist welfare state is required to take care of everyone, because everyone is infirm in some fashion. Whatever happens in the third world is great because it is not the first world. Until all those baby boomer lefties die we are stuck with those lies. Luckily, thanks to the fact that most baby boomers grew up in households where the parents smoked like crazy, the catastrophic results from second hand smoke should be knocking them down like bowling pins any day now…
Second hand smoke is just another of those lefty lies by earthsavers so you’ll get no help there. The only study that actually showed an effect was of Japanese wives who lived with heavily smoking husbands in 400 square foot apartments in Tokyo. All the rest is the equivalent of global warming research. Lies to fit the story.
Facts Are Stubborn Things Jim Billimoria, Michelle Dimarob, or Sarah Swinehart America Then and Now – Obama Policies Have Put America at Risk Friday, January 27, 2012
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=276866
I disagree that the increased spending under Obama was without benefit. Most of it went to unions, blue and swing states, and his corporate supporters. There has also been some pandering to individuals – direct federal benefits to individuals have increased dramatically. Obama promised economic benefits while he was actually reaping political benefits. Anyone surprised?
After Pres Obama told companies that received TARP money that their CEOs (many of whom were big Obama contributors) would be limited to maximum salaries of $500,000, the Treasury Dept Inspector General has reported that 49 were actually approved for payments on the order of $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 (at the heavily criticized AIG). Obama really needed those campaign contributions, you understand. So we, the taxpayers, are funding his re-election campaign! What is wrong with this picture.
That Barry grew up ” on the periphery” raises an interesting historical question: why are such leaders often disasters to the countries they lead? Think of three famous “outsiders”: Napoleon, Stalin and Hitler. All grew up in the outbacks of their countries: Napoleon, in Corsica; Stalin, in Georgia, and Hitler, in Austria. All three saw themselves as outsiders and craved acceptance and power at “the center”. All three led their countries into disaster, almost as if by unconscious design. Let’s hope Barry isn’t part of the pattern.
I think you mean “Barack” not “Barry”.
And that you think Barack is comparable to Hitler, Stalin and Napoleon illustrates just how nuts the insane rhetoric on the right has driven the Republican base. This is like the lefties who were calling for GWB to be shot, calling him Chimpy the Bush Hitler and making up insane conspiracy theories. Or like Rush selling tapes saying that Bill Clinton was a mass murdering drug dealer who killed Vince Foster. Or I don’t know, probably Gore Vidal lecturing that Ronald Reagan was running drugs from Asia.
It’s time to give the political rhetoric a dose of anti-psychotic pills.
Josh; didn’t you just get hired on at Fox? Are you a lesbian who looks like a fresher faced MSNBC lesbian. You sound just like her it is uncanny!! Good luck at FoxNews!!
In your mind if someone is against over the top hysteria and conspiracy theories then one has to be a lesbian and I assume a liberal.
… There’s not really any response I can give to your ridiculous answer that doesn’t break PJ Media’s policy against ad hominem attacks, because you said nothing at all about any issue and only revealed your own, basically insane thought processes.
Is it an attack to say that I really pity you?
Actually, Barry is quite acceptable and is the name he went by for quite some time. A biographical comparison is not the same as inciting violence, nor is it the outright name-calling so prevalent on the left. I’m surprised you didn’t throw in a charge of racism – isn’t that the left’s fall back position?
A biographical comparison is not the same as inciting violence, nor is it the outright name-calling so prevalent on the left
Oh bullshit. Comparing the President to Stalin, Napoleon and Hitler isn’t subtle. It’s not a dog whistle, it’s a fucking cathedral organ.
I don’t think that subtlety was the issue. Noting that all of these misguided leaders were socially marginalized seems interesting, on the surface of it. Any thoughts on that issue, subtle or otherwise?
As long as you’re slandering the President using guilt by association I don’t see why you left Satan out of the list of outsider leaders that he’s similar to.
:3 you know there was a poll taken a few years ago that said that 1/4 of Republicans think that Obama is The Antichrist and another 1/3 polled think he MIGHT be the Antichrist.
41% of Republicans said that Obama wants to create a terrorist attack or economic collapse so that he can take dictatorial powers.
38% agreed with “he’s doing the things Hitler did” (thank you Glen Beck for spreading that lie)
22% said he wants the terrorists to win.
and (facepalm) 67% said he’s a socialist.
My God, is there nothing to the Republican party OTHER than the Big Lie?
Note, the numbers on all of these lies are 1/4 as large for Democratic voters.
I’ve often wondered that myself. To that list, you can also add Tito (Croatian), and Mussolini (although born Italian, he immigrated to Switzerland in his 20′s). Then again, a few outsiders have been great leaders for their adopted countries, like Russia’s Catherine the Great (Austrian). Hell, I’d vote for Catherine the Great over Obama the Ain’t any day….
And nobody, NOBODY, is talking about inflation these days. I find it funny that the government considers the cost of inlfation on everything EXCEPT food and fuel. Well, duh, I think most of us eat and drive a car. And if you’ve been doing either of those two things lately, it is pretty scary out there. Fuel prices are still way over $3 a gallon and if you shop at a supermarket you will see just how much food prices have soared. These two items are particularly deadly if you have a family and live in the suburbs. And yet do you hear anybody talking about it? Do you hear any of the Republican candidates mentioning it? PLEASE stop talking about income taxes. I could really care less what Romney or Gingrich made four years ago. I am REALLY concerned about what I’m paying for food and fuel righ now. And, unlike the depression, where you had deflation, now we have inflation PLUS a lousy economy. I think the Obamas should drive to a suburban grocery store and take a look at what it takes to feed a family of four these days for one week. And I dare them to do that in an African-American community. Perhaps they are buying cheap food in those communities because it’s all they can afford?
Ya’know what else is scary? His popularity is increasing.
I sort of hope he is re-elected. It is the best way of educating the public about the value of his ideology.
Yeah that is working so well in Russia.
Barry, I feel you pain, but understanding Obama is not the problem. As an arch-deceiver he becomes attactive in his dance of obfuscation, fabrications, and utopian visions. No one becomes president without a vast organization underneath him, and the president is just the tip of that iceberg. The massive problem is ‘how did he get that job’ and how to deprogram or reprogram the illiterati of voters from accepting 4 more years. Modern media presidents are elected not by logic, but, as perception is reality, emotional hypnosis. Fantastically, if he lost his voice or there was $5.00 gas, then the tides of influence may turn.
Excellent point. There appears to be a vast left-wing network behind the scenes; read “Radical-in-Chief” for details.
Brilliant piece. Spot on. We can thank the leftist media for essentially handling this small man the Presidency.
I think we need a new president, however as the republican party has not gotten behind Mitt Romney like I hoped they would, and Hillary cannot possibly run against Obama, she’s put of the picture, and then Newt just frightens me, and many women…. who can get elected to replace him ???/ That’s what scares me, President newt, please No !
President Barack Obama is the worst president the United States has ever had, worse even than Jimmy Carter. He is anti-American, apologizing to the enemies of the U.S. for alleged misdeed of the U.S. He casts aside allies of the U.S. and sides with the enemies – e.g., removing missile defenses from Poland to protect from Russian attack in order to make good with Russia, being anti-Israel and making good with Erdogan of Turkey, returning the bust of Winston Churchill to Great Britain (given to President Bush after 9/11) and bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia, etc. As racist, he dropped the case against the New Black Panthers for intimidating white voters at the polls in Philadelphia – see J. Christian Adams book, INJUSTICE. And so on.
Yup he is for sure…..
You say, “He casts aside allies of the U.S.” Right on.
How about the Keystone XL Pipeline? Zer0 has turned his back on ethical, stable, and cheaper oil from Canada. So we’re going to sell our oil elsewhere–as in China.
As Bugs would say about someone like Zer0, “What a maroon.”
I agree that Obama is truly bad, but I would put FDR ahead of him on the list of America’s worst. FDR was instrumental in starting the shift away from the principles of the founding fathers – LBJ and Obama are his disciples. Wilson was pretty bad as well, but he didn’t accomplish as much as FDR.
1. Obama as president is like having Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton as president in that Obama is a shakedown artist. The difference between them is Jesse and Al are CRINO’s and not MINO’s like Obama.
2. While not being a true or practicing Muslim, Obama’s world view is defiantly one of a third world Muslim in nature. To prove it he has catered to the brotherhood and we will see the radicalization of the Muslim world on his watch.
3. Like Jeremiah Wright his mentor Obama has a ghetto/conspiratorial view of America where corporations are the big meanies and the source of all evil, but for all of that, they have made themselves rich from the money of the corporatist free capitalist side of the economy. So there is a stupid hypocrisy at work here that is obvious to all but the fool with blinders on.
Which brings us full circle back to Jesse and Al, both very dumb but savvy in a way only street thugs can be and completely without conscience
There’s are certainly similarities between Obama and Captain Queeg, but there are also important differences. Queeg was a very limited man who was put in command of a ship only because of the lack of alternatives. He KNOWS he is in over his head, and for that reason is very afraid of making mistakes. His constant fear that he won’t measure up is the source of most of his problems.
Obama is very different. He never had any doubt that he could be a Captain or an Admiral, despite his utter lack of nautical experience. He is lazy and disconnected in a way that the obsessive Queeg was not.
Queeg was meant, at some level, to be a sympathetic character. The lawyer who defends the mutineers tells them that Queeg after all joined the military at a time when few people were willing to do so, and deserves respect at least for that. He also tells them that if they had been a little more supportive of Queeg, maybe he wouldn’t have gone totally around the bend—it’s not clear whether he is speaking for the author on this point, but surely Obama with his arrogance is far less deserving of sympathy, respect, and support than was Queeg with his insecurity.
Rubin, you have really cut thru the crap with this article, great job!
While it’s true that America has survived every bad president that was ever elected, we are in a real race to the bottom with this guy.
Come November, it’s him or us, I vote for US.
The Nation-wrecker-in-Chief theory of Obama has a lot going for it: apologies tours, wasteful spending, keystone nixed, etc. etc. etc. The In-over-his-head-Bumbler-in-Chief also has merit—add the above and a whole lot more. It’s hard to get a grasp on what Obama really is because he seems to sit right in the seam between both theories.
Then, there’s the theory of the Bamster as one-termer right from the get-go—campaigning like crazy now?—it’s all for show. He’s made things so much worse a radical fix will have to be put in to save the country. The dems count on gigantic tax increases to grow the size of government. They want to run the economy from Washington, picking winners and losers, like they’re doing now, on a permanent basis. In exchange for being a one-termer Obama’s fantasies of being a transformative president come true.
Thanks, Mr Rubin, for that excellent summation of our current President.
I disagree, though, with this pasted sentence:
‘He is a Martha’s Vineyard man, not a “ghetto” man.’
No, indeed Obama is a successful social climber, his being at Mawtha’s Vinyahd is merely a stretching-reach upwards to channel the Kennedy’s, the ultimate iconic social climbing family. So, he’s very definitely not a Mawtha’s Vinyahd man.
However, ol’ Joe Kennedy was indeed a successful business man starting with bootlegging, and managing to leverage himself into being Ambassador in London….after….gasp! being head of the Securities and Exchange Commission…FDR is said to have said that …”..it takes one to know one..”, later to be re-called by Franklin Roosevelt because of his perceived pro-Nazi sympathies….
So, ol’Joe Kennedy was at higher end of that striving spectrum, and Obama is the very nadir of that ambitious gaming.
Something’s very, very wrong with our political vetting procedures.
“Something’s very, very wrong with our political vetting procedures.”
Absolutely right. Most of the problem, if not the entirety, lies with the Mainstream Media who have no interest in vetting someone they consider their own. In many ways they are more powerful than a president and his administration. They blaze the trail and the vermin follow. Scandal evaporates, lies and the liars go unchallenged, corruption never gets exposed, innuendo becomes fact, and inconvenient facts are never reported. Meanwhile, jerks like Brian Williams report trivialities packaged as hard news and make millions for doing so while greasing the rails for the devious and the incompetent. But if you are not one of their own you’ll be thoroughly vetted. Ask Sarah. But there is hope in that the alternative media will one day drive a stake thru the MSM’s heart. Then we’ll get vetting that will be reported.
I don’t believe Obama’s race is a red-herring at all: although he does not see things through a racial lens by experience, he has in fact adopted all the usual urban myths about white America and America’s depraved history in a more academic sense by sharing and believing in the rhetoric of the black elite.
Obama knows he must keep his concerns about race under his hat and knows the more he speaks off the cuff the more exposed he is. That is why he doesn’t give many interviews and why his speeches are so carefully crafted to adhere to political correctness rather than a bold view; Obama’s speeches amount to little more than saying he’s firmly against killing kitty cats.
The few exceptions are the soft targets in America which are mostly stereotypes of rich, white people and this of course is the GOP as well. The implication is that such entities are not only immoral but women-hating racists. Obama’s America is like TV show dramas where the cast is meant to look like the United Nations instead of reality and that is Obama’s reality.
Sigh.
The problem wasn’t Obama’s speech, which was totally successful with enough Americans that Obama continues to be the favorite to win the election.
Look up everyone who makes odds on elections, Obama is the favorite to win by about 60/40 from Ladsbrokes to Intrade to well every other oddsmaker.
The fact that you can’t see that, shows that you don’t see the Democrats, the Republicans, the rhetoric the way the majority see it. There’s a deficit in your perception. The only scary thing is that you’re not aware of the deficit in your perception.
First of all there’s no iceberg in the path of the ship, the will to project one was a political trick that failed.
As I’ve linked here many times I can prove that the budget crisis is only a crisis of will not ability. For those who want to save our current programs, it’s easy to fix the debt – if one restores Clinton’s tax levels on the rich that erases 65% of the debt far into the future the rest has to made up with cuts, but that 35% is easy to make up without destroying the programs we’ve built up in the last 70 years.
And there’s the rub, the Republicans have so set their sites on destroying everything that’s been built in the last 50 years (Social Security, medicare, the EPA etc) that they can’t face the possibility of the government NOT being gutted, the system continuing, American continuing as before.
But you haven’t succeeded in selling the vision of returning to the 1950′s to the public. For one thing, intelligent people know that we CAN’T go back. In the 50′s we had no competition, Europe was in ruins and Asia hadn’t risen. The conditions no longer exist.
And attempting to destroy all our programs is vandalism not conservationism, at least not by adult standards.
And all the projecting that is so popular on the president, when you don’t understand the way he talks to a public that doesn’t think the way you do, you assume that he’s totally incompetent. That.. well I know what that is.
It’s similar to the way that liberals assumed that George W Bush was incompetent because he didn’t speak well. GWB wasn’t incompetent.
Hint, people assume BO is stupid because he’s black. It’s unconscious but it’s a prejudice as strong as the one that gripped lefties about George Walker Bush, and just as wrong. The president isn’t stupid, not in the slightest.
Obama is not stupid. He’s simply been put in charge of a hugely complex machine that works in an entirely different way than he was taught while isolated from reality in ivy league universities. Everything he learned there about how the economy works is wrong. Everything he learned about the way the world works is wrong. As a result, he’s pushed the wrong buttons and pulled the wrong levers and the machine is thrashing itself to death. And he’s standing there reciting the same things about the machine today that he said in 2009 because that’s all he knows. Just watch both SOTU speeches and see for yourself.
And finally:
“people assume BO is stupid because he’s black.” That’s a pretty racist comment. Racist liberals always see everything through the prism of race. 200 years ago, southern plantation owners gave blacks food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for their labor. Today, Liberals give blacks food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for their votes. It’s still slavery.
“Liberals give blacks food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for their votes. It’s still slavery.”
It really is this impression, this obsessive fear that blacks are trying to steal your money through the government that drives ODS isn’t it?
No. It’s the white liberals who are stealing our money and using it to buy the black vote for Democrats. And yes, the black community is permitting itself to be enslaved once again.
It’s different from slavery because no work is expected — voting isn’t work. The concept you want is “exploitation”. Your point is that blacks are still being exploited, just like when they were slaves.
There are a lot more white people than black people in the US, so much so that poverty programs help far more whites than blacks.
If you want to oppose poverty programs on their own merits, go right ahead, but if you do so because you are mistakenm thinking that American society is separated into white and black camps, then that is just the tail end of a thought process started by racists long ago.
I rank 3 teachers in my life that had the most impact on my lifelong journey of learning…
They were all black.
And if they were alive today, I think they would be appalled at the current state of our education system.
Education bleeds into politics. The left owns education. To the leftist control freaks, everything is political. Everything.
Ok I stand corrected.
There is a strong prejudice against Obama but it isn’t exactly the same as the one against GWB.
GWB WAS assumed to be an idiot by the 1/3 of the country with BDS because he SOUNDED dumb. Those people never even bothered to find out what Bush’s policies really were, what they were for, why we were in Iraq, they just heard his voice and went crazy assuming that an idiot was leading us into disaster.
With Obama what happens is, people like you see a black liberal in charge and you just assume that he’s stealing your money to give to all the black people. It doesn’t matter to you that health care is needed by everyone, that social security is needed by everyone, that foodstamps mostly go to poor white people.
To use the internet meme, you see a black man and just scream “nigger stole my bike!”
It’s stupid, he’s a normal democrat, he’s not a socialist (also I’m beginning to suspect that no one here knows what a socialist is – hint, real socialists hate Democrats).
Dislike and prejudice aren’t the same thing. I dislike Obama’s policies. I agree he is a garden-variety liberal, albeit an extreme one (his views are more Marxist than socialist, since we’re splitting hairs). I also know socialists are frustrated with some Democrats because they aren’t extreme enough – hence the DSA. And I don’t know anyone who thinks Obama is taking money to give to African-Americans – they haven’t fared well at all during his administration. He is taking money to give to his supporters – Wall Street, unions, and corporate executives. Four of five dollars in the DOE green energy grant/loan fund went to companies politically connected to Obama. Buffett, Soros, and Immelt have profited nicely from TARP and ARRA. Now in terms of racism, the DOJ is another matter…
I agree he is a garden-variety liberal, albeit an extreme one (his views are more Marxist than socialist, since we’re splitting hairs).
Garden variety liberals are neither socialists nor Marxists.
Why is it impossible to get an argument on this website that does not involve lies, slander and misrepresentation of one’s opponents.
There are such people as actual socialists. There are such people as actual Marxists. They aren’t so uncommon that you can’t go out in the street and meet them. You can talk to political science professors about them, you can join their organizations, you can read their literature.
If you did those things you’d notice that the world over, people don’t define the Democrats as “socialist” or “Marxists” and that such people don’t approve of the Democrats very strongly.
The Democratic party is “economically centrist” not socialist not Marxist. By world standards they don’t qualify as left at all, though by American standards they’re “center left”. They advocate a “mixed economy” as do centrists the world over. They do not advocate a “command economy” nor a pure “market economy”.
According to the Pew research center, about 1/3 of Democrats are conservatives.
You see, these words, “socialist” “centrist” “conservative” mean something, they refer to understood ideologies that actual people hold. You can’t just make up new labels, new meanings for these words because it’s convenient for dishonest propaganda and argument.
I think of him as the captain of the Italian cruise ship that just sunk.
show off, screw up then run like hell and lie about it
President Obama is out and he and his team know it, they are banking on an indifferent electorate staying home on election day, but even this fanciful piece of wishful thinking is grasping at straws and they know it.
It’s all about the numbers, the numbers consistantly show a 67% “america is going down the wrong path” result, that’s what’s got them resigned to defeat, they know, as do most people who know how the “polled” react to “personal likability” questions, the results are skewed as most people generallydon’t answer such questions in the negative, the presidents personal likability number alone will not translate to a victory in November, he is out of options, his keynesian solutions didn’t work and hyper Keynesianism 2.0 will not be approved by politicians who are themselves not to popular with their electorate.
The only chance President Obama has re reelection is if Ron Paul is the republican nominee, anyone else will beat him, you see 67% of the people don’t like the track America is on and that my Americlan cousins always translates to a change of who’s in charge.
A billion dollars, indeed a trillion dollars won’t save the presidents job, he’s out, believe me, he will not be reelected.
Unfortunately, a mid-forties percentage see no problem he can’t solve, while a much higher percentage blame Congress.
Detailed polling numbers give Obama a lead in the electoral college and people who calculate odds give Obama about a 60% chance to win against Romney and a somewhat higher chance against Gingrich.
That’s what his “team” sees, you know, relevant polls. At first I assumed that you knew you were lying – I know you well enough (from HP) to know that you’ve never stopped saying that Obama has 0% chance of reelection, probably from the first month he was elected. So bare-facing it on does seem in character, but since you’re quoting approval ratings or something, I suppose it’s possible that you’re just fooling yourself.
Sorry to come late to the discussion.
Let me tell you the secret of Hyde Park.
From my youth as a physics major at the U of Chicago, circa 1973:
Physics 201, intermediate mechanics, taught by a man who would subsequently be given a Nobel Prize.
The course was dedicated to derivations from equations of the Austrian mathematician Euler. The professor (one of the best) was simply a boy with a toy, the universe, and a tool with which to understand it, mathematics.
He enjoyed two phenomema especially: gyroscopes (tops) and “periods of small oscillaions” (pedulums).
One day, after a very elegant derivation, someone in the back of the class asked the qusetion, “Professor, what about friction?”
Himself drew himself up to his full height (about 6-2), and with an arch twinkle in his eye said, “Friction is an unfortunate reaction with reality.”
Welcome to the U of C. Welcome to Hyde Park.
We don’t do reality here.
Neither does Obama.
I’m reminded of Thomas Sowell’s observation that many on the left end up in academia and politics because it’s there that ideas don’t have to work to survive.
A critically thinking electorate wouldn’t have decided in ’08 that it was an entry level position with no qualifications. How did Shakespeare put it, not in the stars but in ourselves?
What if the assumption that Obama wants America to succeed is flawed and Obama is really just a third world America hating Communist bent on damaging the US it’s institutions and corporations.
The other possibility is he wants to be Americas Hugo Chivas. Venezuela an oil exporting country that cant keep the power or water flowing with widespread food shortages. and yet Chivas continues in his ruinous policies,
Yes of course, he’s evil Chimpy the Hitler Bush.
Oh sorry I mean Chimpy the Hitler Obama.
I get confused about who we’re slandering.
Are you referencing Cloward-Piven strategy?
“That’s what his “team” sees, you know, relevant polls.”
What, like this one you mean?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152051/Obama-Faces-Challenging-Election-Climate.aspx
And that one josh my boy is the best of the lot, if you’re a democrat that is, unless of course you believe the “polls” that the likes of CNN or some such other Obama loving organization are producing and knowing you rather well I would conclude that’s exactly where you are getting your rather credulous optimism from.
A word of caution Josh, don’t believe everything the leftist loons of the likes of media matters or the huffybuffoon post say, they could be fibbing.
I am sure I have suggested this to you before but no matter, here it is again, ‘don’t forget to stock up on Prozac’ josh as I suspect the selves will be quite empty the day after election day, Obama loving Leftists such as yourself are going to buy so much of it that I predict that the company stock is going to sky rocket, money to be made with a few timely investments me thinks.
“I suppose it’s possible that you’re just fooling yourself.”
Yeah yeah, whatever you say Joshie, after all you Leftists always get everything right don’t you, your insight is always bang on the money, even the leftist in chief himself got it right about the stimulus, didn’t he, that worked didn’t it, he got it right on Egypt too didn’t he, Solyndra, the gun running fiasco, the mid terms, the unemployment rate, all of it ended exactly how he and his team of “experts” said it would, didn’t it.
“you can fool all of the people some of the time and you can fool some of the people all of the time” but it’s now beyond dispute that you can fool every single leftist all of the time.
By the way Josh, Happy new year, hope you had a merry Christmas. best wishes for 2012.
I like how to you, EV (escape velocity) and Evan (you think it’s a coincidence they both have almost the same name?) everyone left of Genghis Khan (say, 90% of the population) is a “Leftist” or a “Marxist”.
You know if you have to mislabel most of the political spectrum in order to signal disapproval of the mass of humanity then you’re a radical and an idiot.
Obama haters say President Obama is the worst President in history but he is doing better than the Republican/Tea Party standard bearer Ronald Reagan in every category. Any time you compare Obama‘s record with other Presidents the Obama Haters get mad and say well Obama is the President now.
The worst president has been Bush followed by Nixon. Bush turned Clinton’s surplus into a growing deficit, and he gifted $350M of $700M bailout to failed banks/AIG…and yes Obama has not reversed it while the Republican Congress has done nothing but block his efforts. Reagan both lowered and raised taxes. 33 of Fortune 500 companies in CA paid close to $0 in taxes last year…Wells Fargo made billions but paid no tax (last week’s BusinessWeek).
Question, questionman…
Did you actually read your post before you hit the submit button? This is a pretty civil site, but dude…
You gotta at least make some sense. All the commentators here take a little license with grammer and context, but you gotta at least show enough respect for the rest of us here to formulate a cognent sentence. We all know you are a left winger, but please, think a thought thru before posting.
There is no spelling police here. We are generally very busy people who have life demands in a big way aside from our participation here. Welcome to the debate, but please pick up you game.
Here is a dose of reality:
The Reagan economic program, with Gringiches help in Congress created the longest economic boom in US history. The pelsoi/reid/obama economic policy has resulted in 8 million lost jobs. Even they admit under their current policies that virtually all of those jobs will never come back.
You see, they are just trying to be “fair.”
What’s the difference between “in over his head”, and incompetence?
“in over his head”, incompetence, or “according to plan-stay the course”
Back during the surge in Iraq, it was assumed that Iraq was the most dangerous place on Earth. That would have been incorrect. The murder rate in Chicago was almost twice as high per population. There was a map published on the police website showing what amounted to the murder density by location.
I got to thinking that with just a little research, I could find out just exactly where obama was a “community organizer.” Of course this was one of his proudest credentials he paraded about as one of his qualifications to be president.
I got that map of the good works obama was promoting and overlayed that community organizing map with the murder map. They were an exact match.
The fear of this administration is real. It is rational and founded in actual results. I have concluded the same as Mr. Rubin has concluded… it is down right scary.
When obama walks into a room, the collective IQ drops.
Barry your points are so banal that it suggests a man who is writing this on a laptop while hiding under a blanket. To suggest that income tax and capital gains tax are unrelated is ingenuous and makes me believe that you yourself are reliant on fixed income as opposed to working for a living. Do you not see the difference between Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs and Mitt? You see the first 3 – they BUILT things. Mitt is a vulture capitalizing on our poorly written laws, so he could lay waste to companys so that he can reap assets. So if that is how he earns his living – why pay only 15%? Or how about now that he is “retired” Why should he pay LESS than 15% on the money he has already stolen from the shareholders and employees? The reason I address this point is that ALL your other arguments are fueled by your RAGE that he dare to raise taxes on the chosen few. You can call him out of touch etc, I’m not sure I dont agree – but lets not kid ourselves, if he was for CUTTING Capital gains he would be your man. The only person that is out of touch is you. I suspect OWS, come the spring will be doing its best to educate you and your fellow 1 per-center’s to this fact. Keep writing your hilarious diatribes, your followers will continue to read them as they walk lock step off the cliff, hand in hand with Rush, Sean and Savage. Almost everyone on the left agrees that costs need to come down on Medicare, Military, etc – but no one on the right wants to meet them half way by raising tax’s – especially capital gains, which could be done so it only affects the hedge fund crowd – to pay for the wars the right so dearly wanted.
So what do say Barry – pull back the blanket and meet us half way – if you dare?
I’m sure Barry Rubin isn’t a 1 per-center.
How it became a fad for conservatives to switch from worshiping God to worshiping the wealthy I really don’t know, but that’s what’s going on.
Who said that Conservatives went from worshiping God to worshiping money? That’s a pretty asinine thing to say, if you would’ve thought about it before you hit the ‘submit’ button, you would’ve realized it too.
Uhuh. And calling, say wanting to preserve social security and medicare by restoring clinton’s tax rates on the rich “thievery” and “marxism” and calling everyone in the US who doesn’t want to see those ended “useful idiots” or marxists who are “trying to destroy civilization” is unbelievably asinine too but those are the usual responses I get on PJ Media.
The fact is that a lot of the people in this comment section worship the wealthy and are trying to sacrifice America to them.
I have brain-farts more intelligent than “Makavelly at Large” and “Josh Scholar”.
You “OCCUPY” fools even smell over the internet.
Why don’t you idiots write a book, with all your “facts” and publish it. Then you could just cut and paste your idiocy. With your free time after that, you could concentrate on more important things, like picking your nose and scratching your nuts.
“to pay for the wars the right so dearly wanted…”
Really?
Corporations have no obligation to stay in America. You would precipitate the flight.
It appears that some folks find it difficult to discuss issues without making personal attacks. I also see the typical left-wing canard that only people with certain life experiences can comment on issues – if you live on fixed income you are disqualified from commenting on fixed income issues; I didn’t know one had to qualify for free speech rights. I’ll leave that for your consideration while I address the substance of your post. Business requires three elements working together; labor, management, and capital. To promote one and vilify the others is illogical; liberals side with labor and criticize management and capital – see how that works out in real life. Second, There is the issue of capital gains taxes. Investment provides capital that is essential for growing the economy. Tax breaks are regularly used to promote desirable behavior; so we give people a break to promote investment and then turn around and criticize them when they use the tax break? That doesn’t make sense. Finally, there is the “two bite” issue. A corporation is owned by its shareholders. When the corporation makes a profit, it is taxed. When this profit is then transferred to a shareholder (owner), it is taxed again. Consider if you owned a store and were treated the same.
Kermudjin:
And too many don’t understand that the money used to invest has already been taxed.
Every time the money is “moved” from one source to another, it is taxed, and sometimes at a different rate.
Intelligent people know this and find methods to “move” money from one source to another with the least or no tax possible.
If you could implant a micro-chip in a one dollar bill, and follow its transfers, the final value would exceed the one dollar face value of the original bill. In the case of a large sum of money, multiply that by thousands or millions.
This is how “Intelligent” government works. There are mathematical formulas that are used to determine what a one dollar bill is ultimately worth in circulation. And there are “incentives” that are employed, such as “tax breaks” that encourage that money to stay in the circulation process, rather than being taken out of circulation and “saved”. The worst thing for a government is to have its money slow or stop circulating.
Until our government makes it rewarding to move large sums of money around, things will get worse.
Punish those that have the money, for moving it around, and cut off your own supply.
I think you meant “Machiavelli”, but then again you seem as if you know everything.
You and many others are part of the problem. You call him left-wing. He is a Marxist. Why don’t you call him a Marxist? Every article about him should refer to him as a Marxist. Why be so timid about the truth.
Please see http://www.obozosamerica.com featuring Obozo the Marxist Clown.
One more thing while we are on the subject of “out of touch” – I know you are a fiscal conservative and born an American citizen. Would you be so kind as to lobby Israel and maybe write a book about why Israel should not accept anymore US Aid? I mean as a friend of America and Conservative surely you see the threat to our survival if America continues to borrow money at interest only to dole it out to other nations. Hey thanks for your support, I knew I could count on you – as one US loving American to another!
If we’re doing movie references, I’ve got one – From “Fort Apache”, which I recently rewatched. Colonel Thursday (Henry Fonda), is brave, dedicated, highly educated, and intelligent. He is also disastrously wrong, because he simply refuses to see what’s really going on, and arrogantly refuses to listen to those who know. John Wayne’s Captain York is the hero, but Colonel Thursday is the real subject of the film. Ominously for our purposes, he ultimately dies heroically but drags most of his command down with him.
It’s as if he’s half in the past — populism against the big monopolistic corporations running roughshod over a feeble government and defenseless workers — and half in the future, pushing a green utopia.
It’s seemed fairly obvious to me that what Obama and his Fellow Travelers truly desire is to return to the 1960s. Only THIS time, with THEM in charge, everything is gonna be different.
This detachment from reality has been going on for a long time. His imaginary past is such an example. So is his accent as we in Hawaii well know. The need to hide his grades etc., ditto. All given cover by the MSM that would gladly allow the nation to wither rather than expose this nut case.
“Hint, people assume BO is stupid because he’s black.”
Hint: I know he’s stupid because he’s a Democrat, a socialist and an America-hating clown.
It don’t get much dumber than that.
Socialists don’t bail out wall street, they don’t lend to banks, they don’t encourage businesses.
I think your understanding of the word “Socialist” is delusional. Why don’t you go out and get to know some socialists so you stop talking absolute shit.
josh you are correct the proper term is fascist.
“Socialists don’t bail out wall street, they don’t lend to banks, they don’t encourage businesses.”
Sure they do. It’s one way to ensure state control of the means of production.
Stupid.
The rhetoric that calls everyone from David Frum on left “a socialist”, “a Marxist”, “a useful idiot”, “a fellow traveler” and accuses them all of being traitors, speeding some apocalyptic always-right-around-the-corner end to civilization (or Christian civilization) is evidently mad and nonsense.
It labels the vast majority of Americans as enemies of America. In fact it labels the majority of human beings as being guilty of conspiracy.
This nonsense seems to be the basis of most rhetoric on PJMedia. But it’s every bit as mad and stupid and almost as marginal as the trope of antisemites who pretend that “Antisemitism” means “hating Semites” instead of the standard English definition of “hating Jews”.
English words have standard meanings, and Socialist and Marxist refer to actual people, actual groups with actual ideologies. And pretending that every federal program since the 60′s is Marxist and that your neighbor’s dog and children are traitor Marxists makes you a crazy not a conservative.
I know it’s too late for you. You will never begin to speak English and use the word “socialists” to mean actual socialists, but at least I can point out that you’ve fallen into the bad company of men who speak as cultists, not as men who use the English language in the same way the sane and honest do.
Nice job of tilting at strawmen.
I never said anything about Marxism.
What I did was give three reasons why Obambi is an idiot…that have nothing to do with his genetic makeup.
There’s plenty of smart guys with dark skins…Obambi just doesn’t happen to be one of them. If he was, he wouldn’t be trying to advance socialism in America.
You didn’t understand any of what I said since it was all about the fact that Obama, Democrats, Americans in general are not socialists. And they’re not “advancing the cause of Socialism”
Facepalm.
I understood perfectly. Unfortunately, I never said a word about Marxism, so your tirade was just an exercise in strawman killing futility.
Although, the post does show what a clueless knucklehead you are, which I suppose does have some entertainment value.
Others in the thread have said things like “obama is more of a marxist than a socialist”
I attacked BOTH calling non-socialist socialist and calling non-marxists marxist, so don’t pretend my comments don’t apply to you.
Get this thtough your head, halfwit, I never said a word about Obambi being a Marxist. Get it? Your tirade about calling people Marxists in response to my remarks is a typical asinine strawman argument. Get it?
It’s not that hard to follow. Even you ought to be able to pick up on it.
As another poster noted, Obambi and friends are using the Fascist/National Socialist indirect approach to state control of the economy, rather than the standard Marxist-Leninist approach, where the government directly runs economic enterprises. So, that’s why I don’t call him a Marxist. He’s much more like a Nazi than a Communist. But, either way, the all mighty state ends up running everything it cares to run (aka socialism), and that’s a real, real, real bad idea.
Oh God.
No, Obama isn’t “like a national socialist”
Should I add that he’s not Satan either
and he doesn’t poison wells
and he doesn’t cook baby’s blood into matzoh
You really are desperate to hold on to some weak version of guilt by association.
josh scholar, the only one talking shit is you, you stupid shit, it’s apparent you voted for the ass clown and your too embarrassed to admit it. He’s a socialist through and through. YOU need the dictionary, if you can even read. One has to wonder if you can because you don’t seem to know what a socialist is.
josh scholar probably works for the Obozo White House or campaign and is paid to be an idiot.
Mr. Rubin, You tell us in one sentence; “I don’t mean that Obama is crazy.” In the very next you tell us; “What is so evident, however, is that he is so detached from reality.” Being detached from reality, is to be crazy! Other than that it is a fine post.
Don’t confuse Obama with Bogart’s Captain. The best part of the movie was at the end when the Harvard type Navy lawyers were congratulating themselves on taking down the crazy Captain. Fred McMurry, playing another lawyer, said something like: “don’t be too smug. While you boys were in Harvard or Wall Street the Captain was showing the flag almost alone and almost forgotten in all the backwaters of the world and in miserable conditions for only a few dollars a month”. Well, Obama has never shown the flag anywhere and has never done anything for America as far as I can see.
The blind man is not guilty but who handed him the stick
The Democrat/Socialist Party thought Barry Soetero would be their Manchurian Candidate. AAAAHAAA.
He can’t even put together a budget that is acceptable to his own Party, gives speeches to Congress that are on an 8th grade reading level, AND THEY ARE NOT EVEN EMBARRASSED BY THIS IMBECILE!
Looks to me that the Manchurian Candidate self destructed and is creating a sink hole large enough for the rest of the Party to get sucked into.
Don’t forget that at the end of the movie, after the trial, the lawyer who defended the mutinous officers (played by Jose Ferrer) gives a thundering speech denouncing the mutiny and saying that they should have supported Captain Queeg in his time of need:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKeISsYKROI
This point is driven home even more pointedly in the book, where after Queeg is relieved of command, the chief mutineer Keefer (played by Fred MacMurray) is made captain and turns out to be just as bad, deserting the ship when it comes under attack.
What a good summary of Obama’s personality, character, and shortcomings…… I turned off the SOTU right after he praised his maternal grandparents for their “patriotic” and typically American activities at the time of WWII. That was as much as I could endure.
Obama’s pie in trhe sky ideas might come from a freshman sitting around in a dorm room but we don’t know that he ever did that and we don’t know of anyone who might have been involved in any discussions. Apparedtly he never played any sports and didn’t experience failure when he missed the fly ball. We really know nothing about how he spent most of his years.
Unfortunately a lot of people voted for him without considering his total lack of experience.
I believe obama has mostly succeeded in his goal of moving us toward a socialist state by wrecking the current economy and the future economy with the massive debt. He recently claimed that capitalism has never worked and he is making sure that it does not get back to normal even if he loses the next election. He has plans to do more damage with his executive orders and crippling regulations and his “we can’t wait’ theme.Paying off the mountain of debt will hobble the economy for many years and enough stupid people will blame republicans for the slow growth and put another socialist in office to fatally push a weakened country over the edge.
‘The theory of “trickle down economics,” which holds that greater wealth at the top generates jobs and income for the masses below, drew some of Obama’s harshest criticism.’
‘“It’s a simple theory — one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work,” Obama said of supply-side economics, drawing extended applause. “It’s never worked.”’
The Great Black Dope speaks…and gets it totally wrong. It’s state directed economies that NEVER work. Raw, unbridled capitalism, with the government keeping the hell out of the way, works real well. Just compare the USA to some commie craphole like the PRC or the Soviet Union…and, you’ll see what actually works. And, it sure ain’t what Obambi is offering.
Is there anyone out there who is too stupid to see how we GOT to be the richest country on earth? It sure wasn’t because we had government rocket scientists (who couldn’t run a lemonade stand) controlling the economy.
You know “trickle down economics” and the related “supply side economics” are not standard the alternatives to socialist economics.
If you think those possibilities encompass the field then you know even less about economics than the average high school kid who spent 10 minutes on wikipedia. I suppose that’s the result of getting your “education” from Rush Limbaugh or some related huckster.
Beyond those polls you mentioned, which represent marginal crackpot economics there is a whole field of economics that are accepted by most economists. The majority are neither supply-siders nor socialists.
There is something really disgusting about how commenter after commenter proclaims their tribal affiliation by telling the same lies, all demonizing the hated, well, the hated 2/3 of the country, (which would include the 1/3 of Republicans who loath the tea party).
Now that you’ve lied about economics, about the president I suppose you feel very pure and pious.
On the contrary, Joshsimpleton. What I said is 100% correct. Free markets produce wealth…state directed economies self-destruct.
That’s the verdict of history, whether you and the idiot-in-chief like it or not.
If you think that opposing supply side economics means that you support socialism then you’re totally ignorant of economics.
Period.
Therefor your attack on the president’s speech is an attack on a straw man. He neither said nor implied what you attacked him for.
Is the state of conservatism in 2012 so weak that it’s members can only cope by repeating fallacies over and over and by misrepresenting its opponents? I see no attempt at honest argument.
Sorry, nitwit, but you have only two choices, state controlled economies (socialism) or non-state controlled economies (which is what supply sideand trickle down are all about).
One of those alternatives works real well, producing freedom and prosperity; the other works real not well producing misery, oppression and poverty. Naturally, the balloonhead-in-chief favors the approach that’s a proven failure. Hence his moronic comments, as well as his association with the Party o’ Slavery (the Democrat state enforced slave economy is a textbook example of just how well state controlled economies don’t work too well, btw).
I got it, you’re so ignorant that you didn’t know that “supply-side economics” and the argument over taxation it represents is a fringe thing, it’s not mainstream economics at all.
And of course Marxism isn’t mainstream economics either.
Calling me a nitwit doesn’t hide the fact that you’ve been misled and don’t know what you’re talking about.
Obviously, you don’t get it.
But, you ain’t exactly the sharpest pencil in the box, so that’s not too surprising.
Supply side/trickle down economics is simply laissez faire capitalism restated…and, that’s all it is.
And, it works really, really well, despite what the Idiot-in-Chief thinks. The United States is a super rich country exactly because we had almost entirely laissez faire capitalism a long time ago (after the Republicans wiped out the Democrat state enforced slave system and took control of the country), and we’re still cashing in on what that produced, though now we’re becoming more and more socialistic (with the Democrat scum basically regaining political control of the United States in the 1930s…unfortunately for the United States).
And that’s a pity, because nobody ever got rich (or free) via socialism.
Not that you’re smart enough or knowledgable enough to understand all that.
Yes, I know the speil but that doesn’t change the fact that the field of economics is NOT as you laid out, and that the president was talking about a specific and not very popular argument among economists.
He was not advocating socialism.
Arguing my mislabeling your opponents, by pretending that the experts in the field don’t exist and by lying about what your opponents stand for is a sign of flim-flam or ignorance. It’s what people do when they’re hiding a very weak position and want to mislead.
As I said, you’ve been misled.
‘No, Obama isn’t “like a national socialist”’–Josh the Cluelss
Yes, he is like a national socialist when it comes to economic matters. Many of the points of the NSDAP program are straight out of the liberal Democrat playbook, and in fact, our economic system closely resembles the economies of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, where government used a mixture of direct state control and indirect methods (threats, subsidies, whatever) to steer the economy in the direction they thought it ought to go…with disastrous long term results.
Marxists, OTOH want direct state control of ALL economic activities, also with disastrous results.
The “liberal” Dems (also liberal Republicans, though they usually aren’t as nasty as the Dems have been) are more like Nazis than Communists, both in what they usually advocate, and also in practice…whether ignorant fools like Joshy want to acknowledge it or not.
Yes of course, the lesson of the final solution, the blitz, sex slaves, forced labor, ethic cleansings, racial cleansings, slaughter of the disabled, slaughter of priests and invasion of Europe is that the mixed economy that most successful countries have is somehow evil.
Say hi to Glen Beck for me you nutcase.
Ever get weary of destroying strawmen, Joshy girl?
You seem to spend a whole lot of energy doing it.
However,since you bring up the issue (in order to deflect attention away from the subject I raised, namely the similarity between National Socialism and the “liberal” Democrats when it comes to economic matters, economic totalitarinism does seem to go hand in hand with various abuses of power, like those you describe.
Funny how that works. Governments that are all powerful tend to engage in a disproportionate amount of oppression and mass slaughter, as well as impoverishing those who are fortunate enough to survive.
The more power they have the nastier they tend to act.
Go figure.
Yet all of this was clear when he was just a candidate. What is really scary is that the electorate of the US voted him into the Presidency and are almost certainly going to return him for a second term
I always find it embarrassing when Obama is next to other ‘world leaders’ – even among those frauds and mediocrities he’s the smallest guy in the room.
I’ve read exactly the same comment about George W Bush by people with Bush Derangement Syndrome many times.
This is the first essay by Barry Rubin, who is brilliant, where he bats foul and strikes out.
The president has disappointed me too. I agree that he does not understand this country, but he is not ignorant of the legislative process or the political system, and he is not crazy. He is smart, he is determined, and he is anything but inarticulate.
President Obama doesn’t impress me as a particularly intelligent man. Many people, however, have described him as “brilliant”. How,and why,did this idea of Obama’s “brilliance” arise?
Let me try to explain B. Hussein.
He has the ethics of a used car salesman.
The political instincts of a Communist.
The honesty of a liar.
The courage of a coward.
The actions of a bully.
The ears of an elephant.
The patriotism of a traitor.
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