How Does a Leftist Govern America?
As Karl Rove explained, Obama’s fetish for big government has led him to embrace a health care reform that in essence missed the public:
Mr. Obama’s problem is that nine out of 10 Americans would likely get worse health care if ObamaCare goes through. Of those who do not have insurance — and who therefore might be better off — approximately one-fifth are illegal aliens, nearly three-fifths make $50,000 or more a year and can afford insurance, and just under a third are probably eligible for Medicaid or other government programs already.
For the slice of the uninsured that is left — perhaps about 2% of all American citizens — Team Obama would dismantle the world’s greatest health care system. That’s a losing proposition, which is why Mr. Obama is increasingly resorting to fear and misleading claims. It’s all the candidate of hope has left.
And it has missed his own party as well — sending Blue Dogs to howl in protest.
First on the stimulus plan, then on cap and trade, and now on health care Obama has overreached and misread the public’s appetite for big government and big tax increases. The more he sells, the less comfortable the public feels with the cumulative effect of his very liberal agenda.
The easy solution, you might think, is to veer toward the center. But Obama has never embraced a centrist agenda or sensibility except on the campaign trail. He may have no interest in repeating the incrementalism that characterized the Clinton years.
And then there is the liberal Congress, which certainly doesn’t want, in their moment of greatest glory, to retreat from the agenda built up over many years in the political wilderness. Now is their moment to jam whatever they can through.
In sum, the gaps between candidate Obama and President Obama and between Obama and the American people are not likely to be narrowed anytime soon. Politicians are not given to introspection or concessions except under extreme duress. It may therefore take another election to deprive liberals of a governing majority in Congress and to deliver a wake-up call to the White House. Only then might a very liberal president govern effectively in a center-right country.
A leftist governs America with the same kind of respect and reverence for the Declaration of Independence and Constitution that a rightist does.
Swearing on the bible to protect, preserve and defend our way of life.
If the new President breaks the oath to the people, and insists on an anti-private enterprise system designed to do great damage or render moot the free enterprise system.
If the New President fails to enforce the laws that give Americans the right to vote without being exposed to acts of inimidation.
If the New President uses his nominations to the Supreme Court to put fair minded liberals or conservatives on the court and not racist, ethnocentric ideologues.
If the President takes the appropriate steps to defend the country, and does nothing to endanger the country; taking it down an alien or socialist path that goes against the traditions of the country.
In conclusion, if the President acts in the best interests of the people,then and only then is he allowed to continue in office. Naturally, if the President enters into illegal activities, he runs the risk of being tried for his wrongdoing to the fullest extent of the law. This isn’t a warning. These are the facts.
More J. Rubin junk.
I saw you on TV last week and you do have the look of a crazed woman. It explains a lot.
People elected President Obama because he was the better choice. The objectives of running a campaign are not the same as running a government. Remember what you say when you interview for a job. You want to get the job, not by lying but by impressing your better qualities. Then you find out the realities of the job. Usually it’s the employer who lies and distorts what the job is about. Look what happened to Bush, he couldn’t cope, ‘worked’ in secrecy and let Cheney and others do all the wrong things that we are paying for now.
rachel peepers
Should there be a (sarc) at the end of this?
Obama is NOT a liberal.
He’s a Marxist and an anti-white black supremist.
This fact should have been known to all if they would have taken 5 minutes of their time to research his ideology – Black Liberationism – and all his accociates throughout his entire life.
Simply because a leftist swears on a Bible does not mean s/he abides by the oath. As Jennifer noted, this administration and Congress are doing as much as they can to circumvent the Constitution and will continue to do so until reined in by a public realizing that what they want is antithetical to the public’s interests. And the leftists are counting on ACORN to blunt that effect at the polls, witness the amount set aside for ACORN in the stimulus.
The fact that the Constitution and American history (the non-PC version) aren’t taught in schools allows this to happen more easily than it would in earlier times. Thank Heaven Obambi’s “educational stimulus” was to be last on the agenda. Now, at least that may never see the light of day.
“The easy solution, you might think, is to veer toward the center.”
Not likely to happen. Barack Obama is existentially committed to Saul Alinsky and Martin Luther King, Jr. style radicalism. He has no real idea how to function otherwise. It truly is all he knows. The majority of American voters naively chose a man who has virtually no executive experience—and moreover seems utterly bored by the everyday responsibilities of the job. He thought that the presidency only required the investment of time and skills of a community organizer.
The Framers would be spinning in their graves if they knew the President of the United States (an erstwhile Constitutional scholar) believes that their is anything in Article I that even hints that the government should be in charge of Americans’ health care. The President and his minions (Pelosi and Reid) hate any successful private enterprise because it goes against their idea that the government is the source of our prosperity. The latest target is insurance companies, but they have demonized oil companies, “Wall Street,” car company executives, AIG employees who got bonuses, and just about anyone else that isn’t feeding at the government trough.
The American people have the innate knowledge that private enterprise is the engine of our economy and the source of our success, and that, as George Washington said: “”Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” It is even more dangerous with BHO and his liberal comrades in charge.
1.rachel peepers
“Naturally, if the President enters into illegal activities, he runs the risk of being tried for his wrongdoing to the fullest extent of the law.”
I wish I was more confident that this applied to obama. He’s got lawbreakers running the DOJ.
When, oh when, will Americans realize that elections have consequences? There was absolutely no secret during the election about Obama’s voting record, the corrupt and liberal Chicago base he sprang from, or the ultra-liberal leftists he associated with. Yet the American people decided to ignore all of this and elect him on the basis of “Hope and Change.” Remember that one? Well, after four years of Obama, you’ll be left with no hope and just a little loose change in your pockets. The country is broke and economic “recovery,” at best, will look like the stagflation of the Jimmy Carter years. At worst, we could be headed for another depression. So much for “Hope and Change.” If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are it is a duck. Obama may have lied about what he was going to do on the campaign trail, but his voting record and his associates were always proof positive of who he really was. Americans should have paid attention to that. But he can be stopped in 2012 and voted out of office after one term, just like Jimmy Carter. Elections do have consequences, America. Show Obama and the rest of his minions what that means when you vote them out of office in 2010 and 2012.
The polling data are welcomed news to those of us who spotted “Lefty Obama” a while ago. But what a salesman! Gun sales are up. Support for Republicans is up. Teleprompter sales are up. And who knew any President could make private health insurance look so good? I know I’ll take my cranky ol’ hard to deal with HMO requirements ANY DAY over BarryCare. (Tort reform? Don’t do that, makes too much sense.)
President Obama is out of step with the (economic) times. He is out of step with the mood of the country. He is in step with many in Congress and we’ll see where they are after summer recess and the 2010 elections. But please, BHO, please keep pushing your agenda, your ideas, your way. Because being a one-termer really fits you. Keeping a job for a while just isn’t really you. And I’d like to help you stay true to yourself. ABO in 2012! Until then, may the Blue Dogs keep barking and bite occasionally!
Shame on the voters for not knowing. It’s your duty as a citizen to inform yourself about the candidates. I bothered to find out and knew the truth about this scoundrel. What’s everybody else’s excuse?
“How Does a Leftist Govern America?”
As fast and loose as he can get away with…as long as he has the House and Senate in his pocket.
After that, it’s a matter of a VOTE in 2010 and 2012…and only, by then, if the word “vote” is not spelled *F*R*A*U*D* by ACORN.
How could people have ever thought that he would be anything other than a liberal? Apparently they were not paying any attention especially when “Joe the Plumber” asked him about taxes and Obama said that spreading the wealth around was good for everybody. All they had to do was look at the limited legislation he voted on in the US Senate and scan his record in Illinois to see he was not only left but Marxist.
Let’s all do our part and take the democratic majority away from him in the mid term 2010 elections.
The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.
Once again, I find myself in agreement with you, Jennifer. I believe that, had the voters known what they’d be getting with Obama, they’d have looked elsewhere.
It is understandable, in my view, the the general public was snookered by Obama’s snake-oil pitch. More troubling is the way he was able to pull the wool over the eyes of seasoned media veterans such as Brooks, Parker, Noonan, et al.
See: Suckered by Obama http://emmeffemm.com/id152.html
On another note, I have to say that I especially admire women, members of minority groups, etc. (folks who are EXPECTED to be leftists) who the have gumption and the guts to follow their own consciences — and who act accordingly.
See: The Courage of Their Conviction http://emmeffemm.com/id170.html
“..he has chosen to govern farther to the left than any president since LBJ..”
I don’t think this clueless clown has chosen anything. He sashayed into the office of the presidency the same way he acquired all of his other offices: putting together a typical Chicago-style campaign of fluff, pandering, persiflage, and thuggery, and, goodness knows, how many resurrected-dead votes courtesy of ACORN.
Now that he has the job, he is flailing away at trying to implement his ill-informed, liberal promises and in the process is being found out to be the vapid, opportunistic, narcissistic, empty suit he has always been. He is too stupid to have any long vision for this country or his left-wing ideal. His only interest is in his personal glory.
He is a thoroughly repugnant and small man.
Excellent link, by the way, Ms Rubin, to the poll-of-polls site. It clearly shows an unarguable trend of “dis-infatuation” with this jerk.
This is the actual oath of office:
“”Each president recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”"
The phrase “…our way of life,” being too much subject to interpretation, is not included.
This is perhaps unfortunate for Obama, not for us. He has taken the oath, but does not fulfill it. The last thing he is doing is preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution. He is, according to the government-controlled media, a scholar of the Constitution so he should know what he is supposed to preserve, protect, and defend. Therefore, his actions must be considered willful. Further, his willful disobedience to his oath make him unqualified to be President.
This is the actual oath of office:
“”Each president recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”"
The phrase “…our way of life,” being too much subject to interpretation, is not included.
This is perhaps unfortunate for Obama, not for us. He has taken the oath, but does not fulfill it. The last thing he is doing is preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution. He is, according to the government-controlled media, a scholar of the Constitution so he should know what he is supposed to preserve, protect, and defend. Therefore, his actions must be considered willful. Further, in my opinion, his willful disobedience to his oath makes him unqualified to be President.
Why would anyone, at any time have thought Obama was anything less than the Leftist that he is? That’s what gets me, this “But I didn’t know!” type attitude!
Americans are such sad sacks. Having lived in the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, UK and now France I am appalled at the low standard of living and health of the majority of Americans. This is lower than any of the other aforementioned countries that I have lived in. It is caused by the money-grabbing manner you treat your so-called health service. A camel driver or his wife in Saudi Arabia is treated better than your average citizen, although as a country you spend more on health care than another of the other countries. As with other deeply conservative societies you take the right for the rich and powerful to screw everyone else into the ground as a sign of the true middle of the road.
HEALTHCARE-EUTHANASIA BILL
This is much more than a health bill, it is a massive attack on our freedom. It is the CONQUEST of Americans by the U.S. Government. A Coup Where Government Would Even Have Access to Americans’ Bank Accounts.
WORLDNETDAILY.COM
July 31, 2009
Obamacare called
‘euthanasia bill’
Critic: ‘Reflects regime worse
than China’s one-child policy’
July 31, 2009
By Bob Unruh
The Democrats’ proposed national health insurance plan would dictate medications, treatments and mental health services; determine coverages individuals are allowed to have.
In the Liberty Counsel analysis, Staver notes that under Section 163, the government would be allowed to have real-time access to individuals’ finances, including direct access to bank accounts for electronic funds transfers.
Under Section 1308, the analysis finds, the government will dictate marriage and family therapy as well as mental health services, including the definitions of those treatments.
It also, according to Staver, “covers abortions, transsexual surgeries, encourages counseling as to how many children you should have, whether you should increase the interval between children.”
And as people age or get sicker, it includes mandatory “consultations” offering suggestions on how to end life sooner, he said.
“In the name of population control, Holdren has advocated both forced abortion and compulsory sterilization through government-administered tainting of the water supply. In a book he co-authored, entitled ‘Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment,’ Holdren calls for a ‘Planetary Regime’ to enforce mandatory abortions and limit the use of natural resources,” he wrote.
“Those 65 and older will be required to undergo mandatory ‘end of life’ counseling to determine if they are worthy to continue to not only live, but take much needed resources from those who are younger and more worthy to receive them. Counselors will be trained to discuss how to end life sooner, how to decline nutrition and hydration, how to go into hospice, etc.,” she said.
“This will not be done without coercion. For those who have amassed assets enough to take care of themselves in their old age will have these assets confiscated in the name of fiscal responsibility, because by this time, every citizen will be entered into a national database under the guise of improved efficiency. This database will be run by a type of ‘star chamber,’ appointed by the president, that will determine whether or not you deserve the much needed operation your personal doctor thinks you need,” she said.
…regulate whether seniors can have wheelchairs, penalize hospitals or doctors whose patients require “readmission,” prevent the expansion of hospitals…
Under Section 440, Liberty Counsel said, the government “will design and implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids and families that expect children.” And Section 194 provides for a program that has the government “coming into your house and teaching/telling you how to parent,” LC said.
“One of the most shocking things is page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory absolutely that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session,” she said. “They will tell [them] how to end their life sooner.”
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=105525
Obama’s Civilian National Security Force
Obama promised change. The End of America as we know it:
Obama: “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwaAVJITx1Y
PRAVDA: America’s Descent into Marxism – Brief Video
http://www.solutionsfromscience.com/
Why should we surprised about this? Obama has dissembled all through his life, based on what I have read here and elsewhere. The MSM is partly to blame because it was and is in bed with him. But host of the blame is on the People themselves. Before voting for an individual for President, they must know more about him and it was clear the MSM was only giving us a partial story. The People themselves should have done more to investigate his background and the internet had plenty about it. There radar should have gone up on reason his past alliance with ACORN and his spotty legislative record. Elections have consequences, and we are now living with them.
Are we sure that Obama ever took the “Oath of Office”. As I recall it was all botched up publicly and supposedly retaken later in private. There might have been a method to this madness. You can’t say he broke the “Oath” if he never took it.
Peepers: I guess he’s failed all of the above. Everyone with half a brain should’ve known what was coming. Just look at who he associated with his entire life! Now look at who he appoints as his czars. He’s trying to move us to something most of us do not want. Shame on the msm for not vetting this man.
“if voters knew what they know now they might not have put him in the White House.”
And what galls me is that some of us DID know, and called it all along. Every single thing I said Obama would do and every wrong position he’d take has come to pass already and it’s only been a few months.
There were many of us who, like Cassandra in Troy, tried to warn everyone who would sit still long enough.
But no one believed us. Even acquaintances who didn’t self-identify as Democrats bought all the media lies and felt that a vote for Obama was a much-needed vote against Bush. Absolutely disgraceful!
The only way we’re going to have an America left is if a significant number of these “unofficial Democrats” stop perfunctorily voting for their precious “Team Blue™” and start looking at issues like adults and making objective decisions…
Just as ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating the law, ignorance of presidential candidates’ viewpoints and political perspectives is no excuse for voting for a Marxist. As I’ve said many times, the “book” on Obama was out there last year for anyone who cared enough to get their nose away from “America Idol” or “Survivor” and do a bit of research. Hope you got what you wanted, milquetoast moderates.
President Obama will change his words to try to soothe the growing skeptical public about his statist agenda; however, it will be on deaf ears. President Obama believes his speeches can change the world when, in truth, the words must be backed by actions. His words often contradict his actions. How does a Leftist govern? Or more specifically how does President Obama, a statist, govern? He does not. President Obama wants to rule over all in America.
Yet the spineless Blue Dog Democrats, for fear of losing their own power in 2010, has suddenly gained a spine of sorts. The Blue Dogs will remain a thorn in Obama’s statist side well beyond 2010. Furthermore, the liberals in Congress have the exact opposite means than the Blue Dog Democrats. More tension will rise within Congress as President Obama does not lead, but campaigns hopelessly devoted to the dreams of Saul Alinsky & desiring to be dictator of America.
President Obama does not lead. He follows.
Look carefully at #14, Anon’s simple statement: “the Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.” Don’t get caught up in thinking that Obama is the cause of all Our problems. When the whole thing collapses around their ears they will try to make Obama their scapegoat. It’s the whole Democrat Party that is responsible for this mess.
Jennifer, your columns are always insightful and well thought out. However on this one you have failed to answer a more poignant question, the title should be, “How Does a Third-Wayer Govern the United States.”
Obama is more of a mix of political philosophies ranging from Democratic Socialist, a smattering of Neo-conservative, American Liberal, typical lawyer, post-modernist, etc.
Trying to make observations on what he believes is like trying to nail jello to wall. All you are left with is a mess and more questions than you had before.
Hahaha:
#20 wilkie:
“Americans are such sad sacks. Having lived in the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, UK and now France I am appalled at the low standard of living and health of the majority of Americans. This is lower than any of the other aforementioned countries that I have lived in.”
wilkie dokie. How did your life go in Saudi Arabia, there wilkie? Get enough scotch and wine did you? Had enough freedom of religion and speech over there, had you? Romance the ladies, or did you enjoy stoning them, eh? What a mokes!
Forty-eight percent (48%) say he is very liberal, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. This marks the highest finding
The other 52 percent are retarded, uninformed or in denial.
Forty-eight percent (48%) say he is very liberal, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. This marks the highest finding
The other 52 percent are uninformed, mentally-challenged or in denial.
Forty-eight percent (48%) say he is very liberal, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. This marks the highest finding
The other 52 percent are uninformed, mentally-challenged or in denial.
2. vivo:
More J. Rubin junk.
Vivo, it’s very disappointing to see you are still eschewing the sphere of rationality.
That kind of depends on how you define “extreme duress”. Clinton was quite nimble and sensitive to which way the wind blew.
The difference between Clinton and Obama (or Pelosi, for that matter), is that Clinton, at at least one point in his life, suffered a humiliating defeat. He had his ego, but he also had his eye in the rear view mirror. Obama, OTOH, was always wrapped in affirmative action bubble wrap, and never allowed to fail. Thus, he was never allowed to learn how to contend with adversity, or even opposition. Dealing with opposition was always the the problem of the handlers.
Now nothing’s going right. And like a one-trick pony, he keeps on doing the only thing he knows how to do. This is what affirmative action does. It makes sure that a person’s unprepared for reality, and never has to digest information in real time, think, and respond.
At this point, he’s a droid. The people, throughout his career, who “helped” him by packing him in bubble wrap and peanuts have made him unable to do anything but follow scripts. He’s at the pinnacle of his career, and exposed as someone with the managerial skill of a teenager.
That’s what happens when people aren’t allowed to fail.
I am appalled at the low standard of living and health of the majority of Americans
The vast majority of American who suffer from poor health have wretched diets and don’t exercise.
Americans have access to the best health care in the world. The uninsured in America receive healthcare similar to what Canadians receive.
Obama’s rapidly declining poll numbers are good news. The American public is finally starting to see the disastrous effects of naked liberalism; a failed stimulus bill, a cap-and-trade tax based on the myth of global warming, health-care reform that instead ruins the best health care system in the world, the cash for clunkers program that destroys perfectly good vehicles that could be donated to charity for others to use. The negative effects are impossible to deny.
There can be no question that liberalism is dangerous for our country and our way of life. The evidence is everywhere and only denied by those in denial.
Yes WE Can!!!!!
Most voters had no idea whom the WE was that he was speaking of.
Saudi Arabia having a high standard of living? If you’re a prince. Either this dolt has never been there, or is willfully ignorant. Behind every palace is a tent city where the slaves -er- hired help from outside the country live.
Stupid, or asshole? You decide.
Seventy-six percent (76%) of U.S. voters now think President Obama is at least somewhat liberal. SOMEWHAT LIBERAL?
Here’s his voting record, when he decided to vote. Which is less often than his ‘Present’ or ‘No vote.’
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Barack_Obama.htm
76% – are still aloof to the most powerful position, man in the world’s views. Wow..
Pardon me, Obama’s views of the COUNTRY.
Obama is governing like the “community organizer” he was…and we should be surprised?
Clearly, it’s the Peter Principle at work here.
EVERY SINGLE THING I can think of that has happened in the Obama administration from his foreign policy (mis)adventures to the Beer Garden Summit is a reflection of this “community
organizer” at work.
Face it, we have the world’s most powerful “community organizer” as a President.
Way, way, waaaaaaaay beyond his paygrade!
Libertyship46:
“Show Obama and the rest of his minions what that means when you vote them out of office in 2010 and 2012.”
That is, if only by that time Obamista and Obamistas will not try to force America with some kind of an “electoral reform,” further intimidation at the polling stations (Black-pantherism mushroomed all country-wide), all very much in style of Honduras. (That would at least partially explain Obamba support of Zaleya: his comrade in spirit.) That is if by that time Amerricans will still possess ANY “voting” rights or voting choice at all! Never happened so far in America? Never before. But watch out!
Re #2/vivo: [...] More J. Rubin junk. I saw you on TV last week and you do have the look of a crazed woman. [...]
Vivo, poor coagulation – so this all what’s left in your argumentation bag? There are no more talking points sheets to get inspiration from? Can’t ratiocinate anymore?
I take this as showing that the Obama meltdown has gone beyond critical – don’t look at Jeniffer, look at Eleonor Clift, I saw her yesterday on McLaughlin’s and it wasn’t a pretty show, I tell you.
RE #35/ Calvin Ball: [...] Obama [...] he was never allowed to learn how to contend with adversity, or even opposition. Dealing with opposition was always the the problem of the handlers. [...] It makes sure that a person’s unprepared for reality, and never has to digest information in real time, think, and respond. he’s a droid. The people, throughout his career, who “helped” him by packing him in bubble wrap and peanuts have made him unable to do anything but follow scripts. He’s at the pinnacle of his career, and exposed as someone with the managerial skill of a teenager. [...]
You nailed it, Calvin – below is an excerpt from yesterday’s Politico about an Axelrod memo discussing exactly what you say (but in 2008):
——-*——–
*July 31, 2009/Categories: Barack Obama/Ax’s memo
*An interesting bit from the early excerpt of Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson’s new book:
*In the days leading up to Obama’s decision to run, Axelrod prepared a private strategy memo — dated Nov. 28, 2006 — that has never been published before.
[...]
The second half of the Axelrod memo was more personal and pointed. [...] “This is more than an unpleasant inconvenience,” he wrote. “It goes to your willingness and ability to put up with something you have never experienced on a sustained basis: criticism. At the risk of triggering the very reaction that concerns me, I don’t know if you are Muhammad Ali or Floyd Patterson when it comes to taking a punch. You care far too much what is written and said about you. You don’t relish combat when it becomes personal and nasty. When the largely irrelevant Alan Keyes attacked you, you flinched,” he said of Obama’s 2004 Senate opponent.”
——–* ——-
Nice anticipation for what we have now offered as a daily treat, ain’t it so?
Relax Folks,
the Bolshevik Revolution is at its very beginning (evidence ? you can all still comment here).
The subversives are pulling down the pillars that made America great, and they have just started.
And don’t worry about those elections in 2010: an international conspiracy that has found the way to put Hussein Obama in the White House will have no problem to settle mid-term elections.
Everyone with any brain knew that this candidate was a marxist subversive.
The only question is: are ALL the Democrats ready to play the part of the USEFUL IDIOTS in a commie revolution ?
That’s the only political question.
And: do all the Democrats KNOW what is the destiny of ALL the useful idiots in ALL the commie revolutions ?
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
#43
This is what scares me the most. How can we get rid of ACORN before there are no more elections.
#44: I used to like the mac group, but since eleonor clift has been on I just can’t take it!
2. vivo writes:
re J. Rubin junk. I saw you on TV last week and you do have the look of a crazed woman. It explains a lot.”
I am surprised that the TV reception is good enough to receive a signal in your parents’ basement or is your mom fronting the tab for cable until you get your burger-flipper job at McDonald’s back again?
Love to hear your rationale for how Bush and Cheney couldn’t cope especially after we see your narcissistic Boy King discovers that the inner-city folks are turning on him a big way..
..wait, strike that. No I wouldn’t.
44. misanthopicus writes:
“..look at Eleonor Clift, I saw her yesterday on McLaughlin’s and it wasn’t a pretty show, I tell you.”
misanthro, Elaoner Clift is nevah a pretty show.
“The vast majority of American who suffer from poor health have wretched diets and don’t exercise.”
Which — so far — is their right. Free people are free to make the wrong choices.
And if he were to abandon the far left on this issue, what might the far left start to say about Obama’s Bush-like national security positions? Even Bush didn’t suggest the President has “post-acquittal detention powers.” Obama probably won’t be able to close Guantanamo anyway, even with Kumar helping him. The leftwingers might wake up and ask “what’s in it for us”? Then I hope they move on to marijuana legalization because then at least something good could come from our first black one-term President.
Amazing how well some of you know the rest of the world!!!
I am a woman, and I lived for 12 months in one of the most reactionary (strict) parts of Saudi Arabia about 250 miles north of Riyadh In the small town where we lived there were two hospitals – one of each sex. They were well staffed and free to everyone, those that lived in the town and those who lived in the desert outside. This is the comparison I have made with US health. not the Saudi’s way of life, and many of the other things that we and they find abhorrent.
The last time I was ill in the States I went to a “state” hospital and waited for 5 hours before giving up. The private hospital insisted on doing and charging for an enormous number of unnecessary test . In the UK the waiting time is 2 hours, I dont know canada since they started their health service only before when I had to have private insurance. FRance, of course, is the quickest and the best.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out who either voted for Obama, or even if they didn’t, had a fairly positive view of him and weren’t too concerned about what would happen if he won, who felt compelled to ignore or downplay his leftist connections. Why did they do this? Because those who consider themselves to be moderates think that it’s unbecoming to rant and rave over what the conservative media makes a big deal over and the MSM chooses to ignore. These are people who poo-poo the notion of liberal media bias, while falling victim to it.
There’s a moderate Republican in my office who hasn’t heard anything on the news about Gerald Walpin, the shakedown of the Chrysler bondholders, the dismissal of the case against the New Black Panthers, etc, etc, etc. And if you get too excited about this stuff, people will roll their eyes at you. This attitude is exactly why Obama got elected.
On election night, I said to all my friends that Obama’s downfall will be his dishonesty. He’s gotten to where he is today by lying, lying and more lying. The best thing that could possibly come out of Obama’s presidency is that when he’s brought down by the likes of FoxNews, Drudge, talk radio, etc, maybe more people will become more receptive to these various voices.
When, oh when, will Americans realize that elections have consequences? There was absolutely no secret during the election about Obama’s voting record, the corrupt and liberal Chicago base he sprang from, or the ultra-liberal leftists he associated with.
By the standards of the MSM, those items were blanked out of the record during the 2008 election.
The media could have investigated and published facts of Obama’s hard-left past, all through his education and “community activist” and Annenberg Foundation and Joyce Foundation directorships and Trinity United Church of Christ membership. Had it done so with ten percent of the diligence and persistence it applied (and still does) to muckraking one Sarah Palin, Americans would have applied proper skepticism to this radical. But, the MSM loving lefties and lusting after installing one as President to cancel their hated Bush, pulled a deliberate curtain over Obama-the-leftist and put him forward as a saintly centrist instead.
It was deliberate.
35. Calvin Ball.
Excellent analysis. If I were a betting person, I’d put a wager on the notion that Rahm Emanuel is the one running things (in similar fashion that Cheney was the one pulling Bush’s strings during his administration). David Thomson’s assessment, IMHO, is spot on with BO as a lazy, poorly read, readily bored individual who is about the most poorly suited for the job as POTUS this country has ever seen over the entirety of its existence. I hope he (Thomson) is right in saying that BO will ultimately resign from office. Surely the job is already palling on him in a most painful fashion just this mere 7-plus months into it.
#4 AND #9 yOU SAID IT ALL. I ACTUALLY HAVE A LEFTIE FRIEND WHO THINKS CUBA HAS A BETTER HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM AND BETTER PATIENT OUTCOMES THAN THE USA. HOW DO THESE CRRAZY IDEAS GET IMBEDDED IN THE LAME LIBERAL MIND.SHE UTTERS THIS GARBAGE WITH THE UTMOST EARNESTNESS.I SWEAR IF I DID NOT KNOW MY LEFTIE FRIENDS AND JUST OVERHEARD THEM TALKING I WOULD THINK THEY WERE ALL IDIOTS. I SENT HER A COPY OF LIBERTY AND TYRANNY. I WON’T GIVE UP AND REFUSE TO ENTERTAIN THE FACT THAT SHE IS HOPELESS
56. Anon: “HOW DO THESE CRRAZY IDEAS GET IMBEDDED IN THE LAME LIBERAL MIND.SHE UTTERS THIS GARBAGE WITH THE UTMOST EARNESTNESS.”
Ignorance, like stupidity, is quite a powerful thing in the hands of the MSM. They count on this ignorance to enable them to mold these people like putty. It is thanks to this phenomenon that we are treated to the likes of BO as our POTUS.
20 and 52 Wilkie:
US health care has some problems to fix to be sure, many caused by the avalanche of uninsured people from some other country, but yes, it can always be improved.
But aside from that, how long does an artificially maintained and heavily subsidized program like state healthcare last in good order in the countries you mention?
I am not expert on France, but do you suppose that as France’s population ages, its productive citizens will continue to gladly hand over high taxes to support employees that they can’t fire, doctors who have a limited work week, oldsters on healthy pensions and free health care for all those productive fellows that burn cars every summer? (“youths” I believe they are euphemistically called). The doctors prohibited frm working overtime when France had that nasty heat wave and suffered–was it 6,000 deaths? Will it be the same as swine flu comes on? Not here. (and will France ever have a working aircraft carrier? I know that may not count for much in some circles but it does here).
The Brits, god love ‘em (and we do), cannot field a military without renting Soviet helicopters, have a hugely high debt relative to GDP and some wonder –while conceding that its great to be treated there at cost to other taxpayers–how long labor’s insistence on subsidizing everything can last. Britain’s experience with subsidized businesses nearly killed the country in the 60′s and 70′s and subsidized care is no different over the long term. I agree their basic care is good, but there are constant horror stories in the Telegraph or Mail about patients being treated highhandledly or not at all, booted out with soild clothes and broken glasses before treatment is done etc.
The US also spends enourmously on subsidizing things the Saudi’s don’t–justice and fairness (ask anyone the cost to litigate a sexual harassment suit to trial), and a defense capacity that benefits everyone else (we don’t want to have to call anyone else–historically its not a good idea).
So some things here may not be as gilded as elsewhere. But we’re pretty happy with the over all product.
When, oh when, will Americans realize that elections have consequences? There was absolutely no secret during the election about Obama’s voting record, the corrupt and liberal Chicago base he sprang from, or the ultra-liberal leftists he associated with.
By the standards of the MSM, it was kept a secret, deliberately. Had the public seen the details of Obama’s hard-left career presented in the same manner as the MSM has taken with Sarah Palin – that is, an intense and continuous attempt to slay the obviously favorable public opinion she enjoyed prior to her media attention during 2008, with no dumpster left unrummaged – Obama would not have succeeded in his impersonation of a centrist glowing Messiah, and would not have won the election by such a margin, if at all.
And he had much to answer for, through the whole course of his education (records sealed), his “community activism” and association with ACORN, his directorships of the Annenberg and Joyce Foundations (records sealed), his Illinois Representative career (records sealed), his membership in the Jeremiah Wright’s church (media attention removed).
But the moguls of the media absorbed their leftist mores and biases in the 60s, and yearned for ‘one of us’ to take the helm, and have been pumping up favorable news and suppressing unfavorable news on Obama’s behalf since his first speech in 2004.
It’s so easy to criticize one’s external charactertics (see Vivo) . . . particularly when there’s no argument, or one is not capable, to argue with facts. Coulter proves again, the only thing leftist can do is call his opponent names. How very pathetic and childish! Jennifer is absolutely correct. People are now realizing what a pig in a poke they’re put in the White House.
Nov. 4, 2008 was an act of national suicide. It remains to be seen if the act will ultimately be successful. I fear it will be, the “US experiment” will be declared a failure. Too much freedom; not enough character.
All of the comments dance around the word communist, why is that? Its been a valid political party for the last hundred years or so, we have communist professors who teach our children and we have communists in Congress, some of our next door neighbors are communists and we read about communist every day who kill and enslave their citizens and freeze them to death in Gulags or shoot them in the back of their heads. Ann Applebaun of the Washington Post says the Communist have murdered more than 100,000,000 of their own citizens but I know of a Professor of Genocide in Hawaii that says the number is more like 250,000,000 [million]. There are definitions of Communists and Fascist but there is not much difference except the Communists have murdered many more of their own citizens; the Nazi maybe 20 million, the communist 250 million. The communists make the Nazi look like piker’s, when it comes to murder, torture, double dealing, lying and cheating, suppression, concentration camps the Communist is king. People forget just what communist do besides murdering their own citizens and making Czars or political apparatchik, they nationalize banks, take over the means of production, starting to sound familiar? They have their own ‘army’ and political action groups and unions [storm troopers to control unruly voters]. People who like to incarcerate or let loose dangerous people for recruitment, just think of who that might be, who might fit that word that must not be spoken, who has the friends, the mentors that fit the mold, come on you know don’t you?
On the ‘they are already eligbible for government programs’ point, everyone (including factcheck.org) keeps leaving out what number of these unisured are over 65 and thus eligible for medicare.
Maybe their numbers don’t include people over 65; but everytime I’m able to fact check these claims myself (re: they give me their source) it, it turns out plenty of people eligble for medicare are being included in the ‘uninsured’.
Want answers? I finally broke down and yielded to all the blokes who are touting the Cloward Piven Strategy as an all-purpose raison d’tre for Hope-a-Dope. I Googled Cloward Piven Strategy. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, nor more paranoid that most, but go ahead, just substitute the illegal immigrant population for the hordes of minority poor in the 60′s, and Cloward piven gets you a nearly congruent match for what is happening today. OMG.
What really disturbs me are the fully informed people who voted for Obama anyway.
For example, I know one very intelligent, freedom loving business owner who voted for Obama, knowing full well that he was a Marxist. He carefully read all of the editorials in the Investors Business Daily that exposed Obama as a Marxist, but his hatred for Bush overpowered all other considerations. He was opposed to everything Obama stood for, but somehow there was an emotional disconnect.
Apparently, this person fell victim to brainwashing by the mainstream media because in conversation he repeated the leftist spin on world events. Obama’s vacuous “Change” theme hit home with this type of voter.
This may be nothing new, but sometimes it helps to state the obvious: we’re living in a culture where emotional subversion can overpower and undercut thought. For how this is done, do a little research into Yuri Bezmenov and George Lakoff via Google.
“Transparency”
Translation: The Emperor is buck nekkid.
“Hope”
Translation: The administration hopes you remain docile, afraid and stupid while they ram through their power-grabbing agendas.
“Change”
Translation: $10,000.00 ‘0bama bux’ will be equivalent to third world chump change.
“Stimulus”
Translation: We [the zero admin] finally get to spend like drunken sailors on our Libtarded pet projects while Americans are still jobless and broke.
“Global Warming”
Translation: Why are you still breathing in and out?
“0bamacare”
Translation: Die already.
“Tax break”
Translation: Bwahahahahahahahaha!
“Czar”
Translation: Looky what I can do?! Neener, neener, neeeeeeener!
“Calibrated words”
Translation: I’m a pompous dick.
Now, let’s all visit our 47/48 states, learn to speak Austrian and Chinese, master some tele-promptering, bow to the Saudi King, apologize for being American infidels while being sure to mention our muslim upbringing, chug some
KOOL-AIDBudweiser, kiss some dictator ass, sneak a cig, show off our glistening moobs, make the talk-show circuit and get with the ‘punch drunk’ program!Define “leftist.”
Obama’s not likely to resign. His handlers won’t let him. So forget about that.
2010 congressional elections are a long way off yet. Watch out for a nationwide campaign of ACORN fraud and intimidation, probably in the works right now, and another sudden, well-timed national emergency just before election day, to prevent the country “changing horses in midstream.”
Meanwhile, momentum’s building on Obama’s eligibility question (go ahead, roll your eyes). Judges are still scared, it’s too hot to handle, but all the “no standing” rulings are about the plaintiffs, not the complaints, so that’s something. The United States Constitution is the law of the land. Every American citizen has standing. It’s only a matter of time.
There was no such thing as a birth certificate back then? So what, there’s such a thing now. It’s a penumbra! And if no one has standing to verify whether a Constitutional requirement has been met or not, then Constitutional requirements are, well, meaningless.
There would not be a Democrat party without the mainstream media propping it up.
58 Blackwell
How pleasant to hear from a Republican that is not just piss and wind
I am afraid that all health systems in the west are going to have problems with ageing populations. The U.S as much as anyone – if not more because of your high costs of care and drugs except possibly for the fact that your life expectancy is 74 to 78 and ours is over 84.
Also illegal immigration is a problem for everyone in the west you have your mexicans we have our africans and arabs.
Figures show that earlier in this decade the UK spent just over 2000 dollars per head; france just over 2500 and the US well over 5000. While our expenditure per head was for everyone equally, in the US at least 40 million of you were sold a pup.
Republicans love to quote the people not helped by the health services over here and canada, but they never talk of all the stories we hear of americans with either no cover often because of pre-existing conditions or insufficient cover who are allowed to die or suffer from easily treatable illnesses. I know that my brother-in-law went in to his GP in the UK for his annual check up, (we have those available for everyone both in the UK and here) and within 5 days had had a quadriple by-pass. A friend living here who was diagnosed with MS by American doctors went to her neurologist here and before the month was over was successfully operated on for a massive brain tumour.
Lastly although we have universal health care – which your president is not suggesting, we are still able – if we wish- to buy private health insurance, and go to the top of any list.
How does one reach the people, when the mainstream media will not air the truth?
There are a few major tools that many of us may not have thought about.
I would dare say, its the very thing that allowed are sitting Pres to gain office.
The internet!
Link PJM and other sources on social networking sites.
FaceBook, Linkdn,Myspace,Craigslist you get the idea.:)
Spread the word, let others see the real person.
I want to meet the 6% who think President Obama is a conservative.
The title of this article should be How Does a Marxist Rule America!
Le titre de cet article devrait être Comment règle-t-il un marxiste d’Amérique
Obama is in office because George Bush drove the Republican Party over the cliff with his big government “compassionate conservatism,” and from the wreckage emerged John McCain, the worst political candidate in modern history. Independents — who are by definition “low information voters” — swallowed the Obama bait whole but are now in the process of regurgitating it.
Joe Biden seems smarter all the time. America elected Obama because he was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” He was the storybook candidate, man. Throw in a non-threatening campaign, long on hope and change, short on details, full of razzle-dazzle, and media accomplices for whom his election would be the ne plus ultra of their careers and there you’ve got it. His, and his media’s, miscalculation was that they could distract a compliant public with the razzle-dazzle long enough for raring Congressional Democrats near bursting with hubris to shove every liberal wet dream they’ve ever had down our throats before anybody caught on. Maybe we’re not as dumb as we look after all. Or maybe, as Andrea Mitchell suggests, we just don’t know what’s good for us. Either way, we’re awake now.
34. Terry Gain, 44. misanthopicus, 48. Войска ПВО, 60. kiwikit:
Same old, tired, unimaginative comments. You dislike the truth and make yourselves looks foolish and ignorant. The Repugs have no hope with people like you. Get a life!
Fred Beloit (30):
Hey, don’t feed the trolls!
I would like to say very sincerely and kindly to “wilkie” in #20 – Please stay in France, you belong there!
67. Blarty Blarckleblart:
Define “leftist.”
….YOU…. you are a pretty good definition of a leftist.
…a none critical thinker. ..poor loser and even worse winner.
Same old, same old, same old. The left-wingers remain in line for their check from Obamma, food coupons and free health care. Hold on because free vacations are next. Gotta go. Time to haul my butt to work in a government auto. By the way, for those employed, how many Obama bumper stickers do you see when driving to work?
wilkie(52):
You might want to recall who’s paying for that generous Saudi health-care: we are. The funny thing is: when the Saudi King wants to have a heart transplant, where does he plan on going? I’ll give you a hint: it ain’t in Saudi Arabia, or Europe for that matter.
You might also want to look at the point of view of those who aren’t blessed enough to be born Saudi, say the Bengali workers that they bring in. Methinks that perhaps their health care is perhaps at a lower standard.
First of all, there are no “state” hospitals in the U.S.
Second, you shouldn’t have gone to a hospital – you should have found a private doctor. The way things work here, doctors treat all but dire emergencies in their practices; hospital emergency rooms are for just that: emergencies. There’s a practice called triage that filters patients. Those who need help right now, such as automobile crash victims or trauma cases are seen first, then little Johnny who broke his leg jumping off of a bookcase, then finally Saudi women who have the sniffles. Every time that I’ve gone to an ER I’ve been seen within an hour. (Fortunately, this hasn’t happened too often).
(A great deal of the trouble in hospitals could be resolved if we could just filter the non-emergency patients out of the emergency rooms. I’ve always wondered why the hospitals don’t just set up non-ER care clinics next door to send those patients to).
70. Wilkie …the fact that your life expectancy is 74 to 78 and ours is over 84.
You live in Macau?
How did we get here? How did we get a left-wing government ruling a right of center nation? How did the nation get a government so out of step with the actual desires of the electorate?
The Media did it.
Media malpractice is to blame for it all. If it weren’t for the propaganda pushed by the establishment news media we wouldn’t be in this position today.
But it’s now clear that the Obama smoke and mirrors con game on the American public couldn’t be sustained forever, and now the whole rotten stinking mess is deflating and descending back to Earth. You can’t fool all the people all of the time.
How did we get here? How did we get a left-wing government ruling a right of center nation? How did the nation get a government so out of step with the actual desires of the electorate?
The Media did it.
Media malpractice is to blame for it all. If it weren’t for the propaganda pushed by the establishment news media we wouldn’t be in this position today.
But it’s now clear that the Obama smoke and mirrors con game on the American public couldn’t be sustained forever, and now the whole rotten stinking mess is deflating and descending back to Earth. You can’t fool all the people all of the time.
87 Paul
Saudi health care came into being in the 1970′s when the arabs took over their own production of oil and massively increased the price of it, but you are right, it is american consumerism that maintains that as well as much of the rest of the world. The national health scheme is also for the guest workers. The highly paid westerners are expected to pay for health insurance, but not the lower paid. I know this because my Filippina maid got all her medics free. Of course many of the Saudi royals go to the US for treatment. At the cost of your healthcare it should be the best money can buy, and they dont get it free anywhere else either. Having said that King Fahd spent a lot of time in European hospitals – the private ones.
Sorry I called your public hospitals state – I went because I was taken their by a kind policeman when I collapsed. How do you find a private doctor when you are travelling around a country?
Oh and wait in Saudi Arabia do the doctors there even speak English? Hey doctor I am having chest pain could it be a heart attack or indigestion and he says…”ولست متأكدا ، وسنتحقق من ذلك قريبا لك ما يرام!” to which you say what did you say. In English he says we are working on it, but what he said was “I am not sure, we will check it out soon for you alright!”
23. savage24:
“re we sure that Obama ever took the “Oath of Office”. ”
I’ve always maintained that all we know for sure is that he “SAID” the oath.
There’s a phrase that shows up in various types of oaths of office –”without mental reservation”. That’s not part of the presidential oath, but I can guarantee you that in his mind, in his intentions, in his convictions–there is no way he “took the oath of office”.
He has publicly stated his reservations and frustration about the contents of our Constitution, so it’s really a no-brainer to conclude that he never did intend to “defend and support” either the Constitution or the United States. This doesn’t get anywhere close to conspiracy thinking. This just requires observing, thinking and concluding.
Willkie:
You are aware, aren’t you, of the factors that skew that average life expectancy stat, aren’t you?
76. vivo writes:
“same old, tired, unimaginative comments.”
God, you are beyond tedious. You just wake up from your afternoon nap and are dismayed because you have to bike down to Rite Aide for more Clearasil or your mom made you take the trash out and wash the cars?
You get a ton of smack laid down on you from some witty folks here on PJM and that’s the best you can come back with? A juvenile, puerile “I you are, but what am I?”
Let me put it in terms you can understand, you juvenile, zit-encrusted butt-hole: You suck, your logical faculties suck, and your ripostes suck. So head back to the basement and amuse yourself with the lingerie section of the latest Sears catalog tonight.
..also, may I suggest an endless loop of Billy Joel’s “Captain Jack” as background music for your pathetic, adolescent, callow existence?
#76 vivo – you didn’t have to write as much as you had. You could have said, ‘Why is everybody always picking on me?’ Taken your ball and gone home..!
BTW vivo, speaking of Obama and ‘truth’, in the following article, the White House adviser and Treasury Secretary both spoke, actually sidestepped of not dismissing the possibility of middle class Americans paying the Piper for health care.
The best line from the article is, Obama repeatedly vowed “you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime.”
You and jharp, 2 peas in a pod..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090803/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_economy
The more I watch this idiot and listen to what he has to say, the more fear I have for where our country is going.
Give these people enough time and we will be the next USSR or worse. I just hope (there’s that word again) that enough of us, the American people wake the up in time to put a stop to all this.
Sorry I’ve been out of touch for a while.
Semper Fi
55. Bobcat
Before the election I did a comparison of experience of Presidents who had been US Senators, using the following metrics: US Vice President, US cabinet member, Governor or Military Governor, miltary experience (not miltary governor), US House of Representatives. There was only one President who had been a US Senator who had the following experience: none as US Vice President, none as US cabinet member, none as Governor nor Military Governor, no miltary experience (not miltary governor), none as member of the US House of Representatives. That would be Warren Harding. That also describes Obama’s experience. Not exactly illustrious company.
59. Insufficiently Sensitive:
Your point is well taken. However, there is enough information out there to show that in his executive experience chairing the Annenberg Challenge, Obama was a complete failure: he doled out ~ $100 million in funds, including matching funds which was a waste of $100 million
What that suggested to me is that Obama could be flim-flammed by some ed school prof with a goofy research plan, instead of telling that the prof that he didn’t think the plan was viable so no $, which doesn’t suggest that he has the managerial ability or strength of character or analytical abilities to not get rolled over by somewhat stronger personalities, such as DinnerJacket or Chavez or Putin.
We all know that we need some changes to our health system and I have a simple suggestion that even the dumbest congressmen can remember. I call it the five finger system. In case the congressmen forget, they can hold up EITHER hand and remember them.
1. Tort reform
2. Portability
3. Access for all,(Insurance pool of pre-existing illnesses shared by ALL insurance co.
4. No state border limits on companies.
5. Sliding scale for insurance subsidies to the neediest to purchase insurance from PRIVATE companies.
This is simple and if implemented would insure coverage for all at a fraction of the proposed programs cost. The pool would consist of people who have pre-existing problems and each company would have to take a proportional amount. The gov could offer subsidies to people who need help depending on their income, to buy from private insurance companies. Remember all insurance coverage is not the same when it comes to deductables or extent of coverage. This would allow poor people to buy coverage for catastrophic events but not buy coverage for everyday illnesses.
If we could at least start here and proceed as things improved it would keep us from going over the socialized health care cliff. IMHO
89. Войска ПВО:
76. vivo writes:
“same old, tired, unimaginative comments.”
You made my point. Again.
The country got played.
Plain and simple.
Are you still proud that you voted for Obama?
I see nobody can define “leftist.” The working definition seems to be “a person we hate.”
wilkie, you poor sickly old sod, I’m sorry your health is so bad that you judge other countries solely and strictly by their willingness to force some citizens to pay for the care of other citizens, or even anyone who wanders into their country with an STD. I do feel compelled to point out, however, that the Saudi hospitals are by your own description segregated by gender, a medieval and barbaric practice. By the way, Saudi Arabia is ruled by a King for Christ’s sake. What are you, some kind of nut?
wilkie asks the musical question ‘Ain’t She Sweet?’
“How do you find a private doctor when you are travelling[sic] around a country?”
My advice, don’t travel around; stay put.
95. vivo writes another scathing revuke:
“You made my point. Again.”
Gads! Cut to the quick; devestated; laid bare; humiliated and ridiculed; cast down!
..I shall just have to slink off to my briar patch and lick my wounds. That the best you got, acne-face?
Oh, and wilkie, get well soon and have a nice day.
Voters might not have put Obama in the White House had they known last year what they know now.
Two words: “Retrospective voting”. It goes like this: A large chunk of the electorate doesn’t pay much attention to politics, except for the last week or so before a general election. And then, they simply vote based upon their own assessment of the state of the economy, or in some cases, just their own little corner thereof. Times are good? Vote for the incumbent(s). Hard times? Throw the bum(s) out. Simple as that.
John McCain’s campaign was probably doomed the moment Lehman Bros. went down in mid-September, and the financial crisis began in earnest. At that same point, Barack Obama’s well-oiled and massively funded campaign became more or less superfluous. Obama would do well to remember though, that retrospective voters can taketh away as easily as they giveth.
Please Vivo at least say something clever. You are boring us.
Blarty, it is easy. Leftist believe the goverment is the answer to everything. People with money are bad and must have that money confiscated by the government and given to those who don’t pay taxes.
Oh, and lefists want Internet Czars to control speech on the internet along with a Fairness Doctine to control radio and TV.
The sad part is the that last paragraph is being pushed by this congress currently.
Jennifer Rubin writes: Indeed, in what can be seen as an act of political contrariness, the public is getting more conservative as the Obama presidency unfolds.”
If the public is getting “more conservative”, then how do you account for the grisly death of the Republican Party?
If conservatism is becoming more popular, then why is it that “during the past 12 months, the number of Republicans nationwide has stayed between 32.2% and 33.8% every month.”?
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/partisan_trends
If conservatism is becoming more popular, why is it that a majority of Independent voters lean left?:
“In April 2009 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll reported 19 percent of Americans are “strictly independent,” while another 23 percent call themselves independent but “lean” either Republican or Democratic. That poll found an almost equal number of “leaners” toward each party, while the Pew survey found a significantly higher percentage lean Democrat than Republican.”
http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/independent-voters-are-generally-not-1361
And when you actually click to the link Rubin provides, it’s clear that the claim she made – that Americans are growing more conservative – is hogwash and not supported by the graphs. All that the evidence that she provides shows that a majority of Republicans have become more conservative, while a majority of Independents, Democrats and adults in general have not changed their political views. Additionally, the poll fails to qualify what “conservative” means. To assume that a Democrat, Independent and Republican all have a similar view of the meaning of “conservative” is a ridiculous assumption.
Additionally, the poll report goes on to say that:
“Not only was there a five-point drop between 2004 and 2008 (from 51% to 46%) in the popular vote for the Republican presidential candidate, but there has been a similar drop (from 45% in 2004 to 40% in 2008 and 39% in 2009) in the percentage affiliating themselves with the Republican Party.
Have Americans’ positions on major cultural, social, and policy issues shifted left accordingly? A broad review of the available trends suggests not. However, they have not shifted solidly right either, countering Americans’ claims in the new poll that they have grown more conservative.”
This is why I have serious problems with articles by Jennifer Rubin: A whole lot of conjecture, a whole lot of speculation, a whole lot of misrepresentation, and a stunning dearth of fact, reason, and supporting evidence.
The Republican party is dying, the Conservative movement is becoming relegated to the South, but instead of asking “Why is this happening?” and/or “What can we do to restore our party to credibility so that we can attract new voters”, the PJM contributors are putting on their political blinders and using vague and fuzzy polling data to try and convince themselves that the sinking ship is just some kind of optical illusion; that despite the fact that the GOP has the lowest numbers in recent memory, somehow it will miraculously recover just in time for the 2010 elections.
103. Anonymous:
Blarty, it is easy. Leftist believe the goverment is the answer to everything. People with money are bad and must have that money confiscated by the government and given to those who don’t pay taxes.
There’s nobody like that in reality. This “leftist” is a cartoon that lives in your head.
Oh, and lefists want Internet Czars to control speech on the internet along with a Fairness Doctine to control radio and TV.
The sad part is the that last paragraph is being pushed by this congress currently.
No it isn’t.
Graham, I believe that you should take notice of the tea parties and the townhall meetings going on right now. Maybe in the last election the moderates were left leaning because of GWB but BHO is driving the pendulum to right faster than any president in history. The last thing the GOP needs to do is something like you recommend and become more like the crooks running congress now! Good God, are you stupid? You want us to be like Pelosi/Hoyer/Rangel/Waters/Murtha/Dodd/Conrad/Reid etal? You have to be blind to even mention the demos in the same breath as honesty, transparency, integrity and represeative government. God, man don’t you stand for anything?
Wilkie at 70:
Most people with insurance feel the system here works just fine. My kids have been covered since before birth and have been regular users (I stay out of hospitals). Most of us are not inclined to upend the entire system to make it mirror the efficiency of our subsidized postal service or other government agencies. Government staff that cannot be fired or disciplined give progressively less service, for higher and higher costs and subsidies. Any small corner market works better than most govenment agencies. Maybe its just the US: Heathrow works really well (I understand its management is private) but US airports are all pretty much govt run; JFK and LAX are disorganized nightmares. I get thru customs in the UK in a flash: here its slower and less pleasant. God knows what its like for non-US arriving here. I cringe to think. So here, having “the govenment” involved in anything is synonymous for “high cost, low result, political correctness run amock, what a mess.”
As to the people that “don’t have insurance,” some thoughts about that. Its available, but many illegals don’t pay for it: mexicans in the US (great people by and large-I think we got luckier than you did), send over $26 billion back home each year as remittances to their families. Thats a lot of health insurance not purchased. And I can assure you, nearly every illegal has a wide screen tv, most have cars, etc. They are good people by and large and ought to be brought into our system, but we’re too absorbed in deciding whether to pull them all the way in or try to make them leave. Then there are the screen writers, work at home types and other people that never fancied a 9-5 job or the benefits of one much either. They adjust their life to maximize their time at home and away from work: they scuba dive, jog, sit in the parks, drink coffee as I go to work. Health insurance is last on their minds until they need it of course. Then I am supposed to pay for it. That’s hardly fair to me. Do I have to pay for their vacations too?
Remember too, that no hospital here can turn away anyone needing emergency care: all patients must be cared for and stabilized. If you have an emergency, you go to an emergency room and they treat you. They usually write off care to illegals since they know they cannot collect it.
The most significant hole we have is a lack of catastrophic health insurance: its been a recognized problem for decades and ought to be the one thing the government handles. No private company really does that well. And it would deal with most of the horror stories about people losing their houses etc after monstrous medical bills.
96 Brian:
We were played all right, but lets remember who played us up to 2008.
The “guardians of truth, justice and fiscal responsibility,” (formerly known as the republicans) jettisoned all they stood for. They left us with deficits, collapsing banks, a howl for billions of TARP funds and a stench of corruption so strong the GOP couldn’t hold up their heads. To restore our trust, the country club republicans offered us a tired old man with an honorable military career, and absolutely no record of courage or acomplishment in the Senate where he ahd served for decades (oh wait–McCain Feingold–great).
The GOP had controlled congress since 1994; the white house since 2000. They had done nothing to watch the banks, the mortgage markets or even the stupid brokers hyping up house values on historically low interest rates over a senseless period of time. Hedge fund managers were risking our money and insured deposits adding no value.
In the midst of the 2008 meltdown comes a smooth talking guy who promised much, was not tired and does not look like “more of the same.” The media swooned over him and guess what? For the voters that wnated a strong fiscal conservative, a real small government candidate, the GOP had none. It was practically helpless in opposing him: the GOP’s stench of corruption and incompetence was overpowering. There was no one of impressive acomplishment: no one to say “I opposed this stuff.” John McCain was reduced to “me too,” “my friends,” “look at me I’m a maverick” and not much more. McCain couldn’t talk over the media like Nixon or Reagan–he was a D.C. insider who talked to the media who treated him like rubbish on the floor.
You deserved a choice in 2008 and didn’t have one. You deserved someone to stand up for you in 2008 and no one was there.
The GOP played you and us for years. They betrayed millions of people that trusted the GOP to act like adults instead of banana republic ligislators. Its hard to blame the few million voters (politics is not their obsession) that voted the other way. Maybe next time the GOP stalwarts will be more protective of their party. Maybe next time back slapping “what corruption?” politicians like GOP speaker Dennis Hastert will be expelled as an affront to GOP values. Until then, be bitter if you must about 2008, but we were all being played long before that.
So the Republican Party is dying eh? Just like the Democratic Party died in 1984? The reports of our death are greatly exaggerated. There is nothing permanent about the last election. As a matter of fact the pendulum appears to be swinging back much faster.
blarty …cann’t you read ..YOU ARE THE DEFINITION OF A LEFTIST ….living and breathing and thinking …just not critical thinking.
nicely worded
89. Войска ПВО:
76. vivo writes:
“same old, tired, unimaginative comments.”
God, you are beyond tedious. You just wake up from your afternoon nap and are dismayed because you have to bike down to Rite Aide for more Clearasil or your mom made you take the trash out and wash the cars?
You get a ton of smack laid down on you from some witty folks here on PJM and that’s the best you can come back with? A juvenile, puerile “I you are, but what am I?”
Let me put it in terms you can understand, you juvenile, zit-encrusted butt-hole: You suck, your logical faculties suck, and your ripostes suck. So head back to the basement and amuse yourself with the lingerie section of the latest Sears catalog tonight.
..also, may I suggest an endless loop of Billy Joel’s “Captain Jack” as background music for your pathetic, adolescent, callow existence?
109: I didn’t say the GOP was dying, although its been badly hurt. Its death was predicted in 1932, 1964, 1974 etc.
But in 1994, it was given control of congress for the first time in 40 years and blew the opportunity. For the first time since 1968 it also has real dry rot at the top: no star (Reagan) or solid performer (Nixon). It didn’t cut the budget: on the contrary, it happily voted deficits that GWB never vetoed. It didn’t make the tax cuts permanent: they expire in 2010. It did nothing on immigration. It let the bankers and hedge fund boys run rampant.
Regrettably, the GOP’s blunders are somehting we’re all paying for. And we’re going to pay for quite some time, even if the GOP recaptures a substantial part of congress. Because the bills will have been enacted: the deficits run thru the roof. The damage being done now–bills being rushed through with no one reading them–Pelosi in control of the House–is all because the GOP couldn’t stick to principles that any small town mayor understands.
It would be nice to see the GOP come back–as the GOP, not some watered down version of the democrats.
@52. wilkie
What, you are saying, is incoherent.
Comparing a government run health care system in a European country to a Federal system in the US makes absolutely no sense.
To have US Federal government run Health care would be equivalent to having the European Union run a universal health care system in all of Europe. Imagine what a nightmare that would be!
If you want to compare the French system or the British to something it should be to a state run system like in Massachussets.
Ask yourself: would it be a good idea to have EU run universal health care in Europe? If the answer is no, then you can’t possibly think it’s a good idea to have a Federal system in the US.
The idea is nuts and the consequences are going to be catastrophic.
110. Anonymous:
blarty …cann’t you read
Yep. Can spell, too.
..YOU ARE THE DEFINITION OF A LEFTIST
OHHHHHHhhhhh… well now that makes sense.
106. inspectorudy: “Graham, I believe that you should take notice of the tea parties and the townhall meetings going on right now. Maybe in the last election the moderates were left leaning because of GWB but BHO is driving the pendulum to right faster than any president in history.”
Do you really want to pin your party’s political future on a small group of ignorant, hateful people screaming at a townhall meeting? This is what you build your hopes on? Anarchic morons disrupting civil discourse between voters and their elected representatives with unintelligent, bat**** crazy screaming? If this is really what you see as progress, then you really ought to consider that the GOP is already dead on its feet.
And as for your baseless claim that “BHO is driving the pendulum to right faster than any president in history”, it certainly does not match up to the very recent Gallop poll that shows that country is becoming more Democrat, not less
http://www.gallup.com/poll/122003/Political-Party-Affiliation-States-Blue-Red-Far.aspx
“Political Party Affiliation: 30 States Blue, 4 Red in ’09 So FarPRINCETON, NJ — An analysis of Gallup Poll Daily tracking data from the first six months of 2009 finds Massachusetts to be the most Democratic state in the nation, along with the District of Columbia. Utah and Wyoming are the most Republican states, as they were in 2008. Only four states show a sizeable Republican advantage in party identification, the same number as in 2008. That compares to 29 states plus the District of Columbia with sizeable Democratic advantages, also unchanged from last year.”
“The last thing the GOP needs to do is something like you recommend and become more like the crooks running congress now! Good God, are you stupid? You want us to be like Pelosi/Hoyer/Rangel/Waters/Murtha/Dodd/Conrad/Reid etal? You have to be blind to even mention the demos in the same breath as honesty, transparency, integrity and represeative government. God, man don’t you stand for anything?”
Gee, I must be stupid, along with the other 77% of Americans who look at the GOP right now and see a bunch of illiterate, anti-science, anti-government concpiracy-theorist anarchist nutjobs being led around by a bunch of corrupt right-wing moral hypocrites who don’t have half a brain between them.
I’ll tell you what I stand for – working families who are desperately trying to stay afloat after the last 8 years of godawful Republican governing. The current administration is trying to patch a hole in the ship, and all the GOP can do is stand on the sidelines and call everyone they don’t like Nazis and socialists.
Pretty ironic that the GOP, which accuses everyone else of Nazism, uses brownshirt tactics like barging into peaceful political events in order to scream at, and intimidate everyone they disagree with.
I can’t fathom the idea why posters here are defending, though badly, a party that consists of:
Eric Holder
Barney Frank
Nancy Pelosi
Barbara Boxer
Diane Feinstein
Rahm Emanuel
Kathleen Sebelius
Adolfo Carrion
Chris Dodd
Kent Conrad
Arlen Specter
Ted Kennedy
Thomas Perrelli
Laura Richardson
the Grand Pubah, Mr. No Executive experience himself, Teleprompter Guy
There’s so many more..
Not to mention the clueless yenta-like’ folks of ‘The View’, ‘John Stewart Show’, Good Morning America, Today Show, et al.
The idiocy of it all is staggering. Even worse are the people who stick up for these people and its party. Even a falling lemming gets the clue eventually.
@116. paul_unalaska:
George W. Bush.
Dick Cheney.
Karl Rove.
Scooter Libby.
Condi Rice.
John Yoo.
Paul Wolfowitz.
Alberto Gonzales.
Donald Rusmfeld.
Mark Sanford.
John Ensign.
Chip Pickering.
Newt Gingrich.
Trent Lott.
David Vitter.
Larry Craig.
Richard Nixon.
See how easy that was?
116:
the posters are defending them because in America, even Idiots can buy a computer. It’s true, I work in the IT field and deal with Idiots all day long.
BTW you left out my favorite people to hate, Olberman, Maddow and Maher. I don’t know if I spelled that correctly, it doesn’t really matter.
118. toker53:
It’s true, I work in the IT field and deal with Idiots all day long.
Are you that one IT guy who’s a pompous ass? I think I know you.
Graham L. – Nixon passed. Craig is out. Gengrich is out. Rice is out. Bush is out (didn’t you get the memo?) Cheney’s out.
Libby, Wolfowitz, Yoo, Sanford, Ensign, Pickering and Vitter are dirtbags. Rumsfeld is in this lot as well, unfortunately. Rove is a vacuous windbag.
toker53: I was only including current politicos from the Dem party and the other folks as a side note whereas ~53% of the American people ‘Get their news.’ Oy!
52. wilkie:
When the oil runs out there will be no more free hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Oil socialism is not sustainable.
“The easy solution, you might think, is to veer toward the center. But Obama has never embraced a centrist agenda or sensibility except on the campaign trail. He may have no interest in repeating the incrementalism that characterized the Clinton years.”
Not only does he have no interest in Clintonian incrementalism, Obama has expressed contempt for Clinton’s timidity.
see: http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1579/article_detail.asp
It is Obama’s intention to not only be the unBush, but also the unClinton.
#95VIVO,u GRAHAM L: Poor little Libtard!As the Ohole’s poll numbers tank,and he’s revealed as an inept marxoid fool,intent on worsening the recession,killing off the elderly,and promoting reverse racism,more and more Americans revolt, and do the worst thing possible to this hyper-pompous,sanctimonious , Castro wannabee:they ridicule him as the joker!From here on, it’s downhill for this gotten up Al Sharpton;how about Obama in a clown suit? Or morphed into Alfred E. Newman’s face?Hoe easy is THAT? Graham (L)ouse?
#122 DEAN: It is Obama’s intention to BE either Chavez or Castro,whichever is worse!
Leftists govern by making the country dependent on increasing state intervention, and with it the removal of freedom of choice. Leftists see individual action as a dangerous condition, so in their view people need to be continually informed within a set spectrum, guided and if necessary, restricted – though purely for their own good of course. Approved thought is therefore is indispensable to the well-being of the country.
Once in this cycle a leftist led nation is increasingly dependent on socialist dogmas, and the need for stricter governance increases because the left cannot contemplate any argument in case it be shown they are wrong. Rather than involve debate, the need grows for closing down opposition. The implementation of thought control and social engineering emphasizes requires more and more intervention, which is designed to to ensure that only the left can have the answer. Citizens need not worry about seeking answers because there is the unflinching support of a docile state media and a slow erosion of independent voices.
So the left-leaning country can now only tolerate more left-leaning leaders, and the pattern of state intervention is cemented into the routines of everyday life.
Thus the future is guaranteed, and those who once eagerly signed away their independence may wonder briefly how on earth this travesty happened. It seemed like such a good idea at the time…
One thing voters knew for sure, was they weren’t getting another George Bush….a spend on credit Republican. Obama isn’t responsible for the 4 trillion Bush added to the debt, and he isn’t responsible for the 4 trillion that Reagan added before him. Always have to laugh when Republicans talk about fiscal conservatism, they don’t conserve anything, they spend with the best, they just don’t pay for it.
Call For Informants: If You Oppose Obamacare, Even in ‘Casual Conversation,’ the White House Wants to Know About It
http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2009/08/04/call-for-informants-if-you-oppose-obamacare-the-white-house-wants-to-know-about-it/
117. Graham L.:
—————
you forgot John Bolton, Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber and Ronald Reagan.