Obama Just Doesn’t Know When to Fold ‘Em
Sadly, reality began rearing its ugly head as it usually does, and the challenges quickly began to outweigh the political benefits. Each attempt to put salve on the rapidly festering wound — asking other nations to take troublesome prisoners off our hands, moving toward civilian trials, or shipping captives to supermax facilities in the states — blew up in Obama’s face while draining valuable political capital. The White House could have gotten in front of the story during the summer, lowering expectations and extending the deadline, but they just couldn’t walk away from such a shiny bauble until the roof was already caving in.
The path the president seems to have chosen in Afghanistan is following a similar trajectory. I have not begrudged the time he is taking to make a decision on our future involvement there, providing it was a sound call. But there were two clear choices on the table which also follow our poker analogy quite well. He could either go “all in,” giving his generals all they requested and more in order to win the “good war” (as he described it on the campaign trail). Or he could fold and go home, making a large swath of his base happy. Unfortunately, it now appears that he’s going to pick a middle path of feeding in a lower number of troops and failing to adequately clarify the strategy goals. This is the equivalent of a no-limit player continuing to call the raises of the chip leader long after any prospects of winning the hand have evaporated.
Health care reform seems to be playing out like another great looking pair after the shuffle which began melting down as soon as the flop hit the felt. The president had been assured that massive government intervention with a “robust public option” was the popular, unstoppable choice. This, of course, flew in the face of history’s lessons regarding those who had attempted it before. On this particular deal, once the support began washing out from under him, Obama seemed to freeze up. He announced his support for virtually every Democratic option offered which might see the deed done, but in the end wound up passing the hand over to Nancy Pelosi to play it for him. A convincing argument can be made that the GOP offered him a graceful way out of this trap with H.R. 2520, Republican Representative Paul Ryan’s Patient’s Choice Act. But yet again, the tempting fruit had been placed in front of Barack Obama by his own party and he simply couldn’t walk away.
One has to wonder if this pattern will continue when it comes to the rest of the Democrats’ ambitious agenda. Each tidbit left on his plate seems to require even more spending in areas which will produce few (if any) jobs, as Main Street continues to stagger under double-digit unemployment numbers. They were tempting targets while he was on the campaign trail and somebody else had to mind the store, but these populist pies in the sky are quickly transforming into potential land mines.
A smart politician, like a crafty poker player, has to know when to lay down his cards and wait for a better hand. Think of it as an “exit strategy” that has nothing to do with warfare. Unfortunately, Obama can’t seem to find the exit even when it’s clearly the best option. Sooner or later he’s going to realize that pocket kings can and do blow up in your face.
The Politico story is a good one, agree that all seven stories are on target. Our current Prezzident seems to think he’s Harry Potter but his efforts to date are more like Ron Weasley’s first year, of the smoking, misfiring magic wand variety. I suspect years 2 – 4 will be more of the same or slightly worse.
“Sooner or later he’s going to realize that pocket kings can and do blow up in your face”
No, he won’t.
He’s incapable of believing he’s holding a losing hand.
Who is the devils’ advocate among Obama’s closest advisors? They all pander to the President. He also has assembled a “Chicago” politics style team. In Chicago, Daley does thing behind the scenes without scrutiny by brute force. Other people’s money make the gears turn, and if you don’t turn the gears your life is miserable.
Bush also lacked a devils advocate after Colin Powell left. It was a part of his undoing. Obama is very left wing. He ran as a center down the middle candidate. His appointees are left wing. Nothing about the administration or its goals is anywhere near the center-and the American people are waking up.
If this keeps up, and the Republicans run economic conservatives that can talk about the economy coherently (the real reason McCain lost) then they should be able to take back the House and put a dent in the Senate. If not, we will continue to skip down the road to statism.
The entire Democrat Party are the ones who don’t know when to fold’em.
They held a pair of one-eyed jacks and threw away an ace, king, queen, deuce combination figuring they were guaranteed an inside straight.
Now, even though they drew an empty suit they’re still convinced that they can win the jackpot by staring down the other players while bluffing the crowd watching the game.
Obama’s biggest problem is that he has what I think of as a “Yale Box” mindset.
In Tom Wolfe’s book “From Bauhaus To our House” he explained the travails of the “International Style” architecture movement, in which it became downright immoral to design or build anything but a glass-and-steel box. (The IS guys were hardcore socialists, and their favorite epithets for any building that didn’t look like theirs were “Immoral! Corrupt! AMERICAN!”)
The trouble was, they got to the point where due to their philosophies, they were utterly incapable of designing a building that didn’t look like a glass box, even if such a box was totally inappropriate for the building’s intended purpose. They had become prisoners of their own dogma, and were incapable of “thinking outside the box”, because the box itself had become a “holy object” to them, much as Muslims view the Kaaba at Mecca.
Obama is also incapable of “thinking outside the box”- of his dogma. Because he, too, has become a captive of the philosophy he has been schooled in, literally from birth.
I don’t look for him to stop spending money we don’t have. Or to stop trying to “end global warming”, even at the cost of destroying Western civilization. Or even to try to win in Afghanistan, or stop Pakistan from becoming the next Iran (except with nuclear weapons “in stock now”).
I do expect him to stick with his dogmas. And sit, and watch, as the rest of us pay the price of his delusions.
clear ether
eon
He’s an ideologue and a narcissist and not a politician. He’s never really compromised. Ever. If he ever compromises it will be way too late. He will leave such a distaste that he’d have to go through a Michael Jackson cosmetic surgeon. Fat chance.
I’ll say it over and over:
Obama simply lacks the character (and doubtless also, the experience) to do this well or correct his mistakes.
It is already all over for Obama.
The only question is: is God still watching out for children, drunks, and the United States of America?
Not surprising, Politico limited themselves at describing only 7 ghosts haunting dba Obama’s current situation – the 8th one, Obama’s constitutional illegitimacy wasn’t mentioned there, yet my bet is that that is actually what makes for Obama’s obsessive pillow talk with Michelle (not that Bill Clinton used to discuss Monica with Hillary all day long, but Monica WAS a solid presence in their quarters for a couple of years – heheheh, the tenant from hell) -
But Washington Times corrected yesterday Politico’s Obama’s 7 stories with a pretty, 3 monkeys “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” (Courts, Congress, media), ad which has rightfully placed over Obama’s 7 haunting ghosts a head ghost, his presidential illegitimacy –
There isn’t such a thing like “kind of pregnant” – hehehe, more grief for Obamatons -
really discusses with Miche
President Obama has no ability to lead but campaign against most Americas with ObamaCare, Crap & Tax, etc al & put on stupid public relations disasters such as the upcoming jobs summit, although the reality is we are at 10.2% unemployment & Obama wants to stifle private companies with more taxes for his Socialist big government agenda. President Obama does not understand America, Americans, & he is way out of his depth. President Obama is too immature, arrogant, & narcissistic to know when to fold his hand. He will overplay his hand as he always does which exposes him as more the joker than the king or dictator he wishes to be.
At this point, less than a year into his sorry administration, it’s obvious to all but the most fervent kool-aid drinker than Obama is a fraud who is in way over his head. He has no idea what to do on any of these issues because he does not have the intelligence, executive experience or base principles to make a decision from options presented by his advisors. He couldn’t run a 7-11, much less a country.
Alas. What does the hopeless ideologue do when his ideas are all proven to be worthless. When red fails, go green, I guess.
Unfortunately, it now appears that he’s going to pick a middle path of feeding in a lower number of troops and failing to adequately clarify the strategy goals.
True to habit, voting “present” on the Afghan war. I hate to second guess, but all these months of meetings on what everyone has known about the situation in Afghanistan for a very long time, warlords, corruption etc. and then some big tee vee announcement doesn’t seem like the way to win a war.
Poker analogies work…as Kenny Rogers sang…ya gotta know when to hold, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, know when to run…you never count your money while you’re sittin’ at the table, there will be time enough for countin’ when the deal is done…
“No Cheap Thrill”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYY4itItDU4
It’s time to start considering the notion that the man may simply be an idiot. Think about it. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it might be an IDIOT. Are we so swayed by the pop culture representation of this man that he is some great philosopher-king that we cannot bring ourselves to use the word? Does that fact that he says patently idiotic, solipsistic, narcissistic drivel with speech class precision make him less of an IDIOT?
Try it out. See how it feels to say the word: IDIOT.
In keeping with the evenhanded treatment Obama gets from conservatives, Drudge’s top line headline shows just ONE MORE THING the POTUS can’t get right . . . his speech is bumping Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
Two things. First, this is clearly just another barrage of anti-Christmas programming. Second, I wouldn’t be so upset if Charlie Brown were a cartoon character, but he’s a real live living little life form – a boy who needs love and attention and understanding, and thats especially true at this time of year when . . . What’s that? . . . He’s not real?
Never mind.
eon #5
Obama is best understood as operating out of the assumptions of some box.
On any given topic or any given situation, a preferred style or “in group narrative” is more real and meaningful than facts on the ground.
His Constitutional box is that that old white guy document is antiquated and his own version of how the citizen should interact with and relate to his national government (aka his superiors) is far more enlightened.
His international box has a lot of assumptions in it…A’jad appears to be nothing but amused and encouraged by Obama’s obsession with talking him out of nukes.
There is, in fact, an entire set of assumptions antithetical to everything we’ve understood ourselves to be up to this point in our history.
(A good (1988) line from the Politico article cited above, “He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe”)
14. layer of baal:
“Try it out. See how it feels to say the word: IDIOT.”
By gum, I believe you are right.
Lawyer-politicians (Clinton, Olmert, Obama) seem constitutionally unable to comprehend the military principle of Decisive Force. They don’t seem able to comprehend that, in a non-saturated battlespace, *more* troops lead to *lower* casualties.
So now Obama puts the AfPak war on a methadone drip. Gens McChrystal and Petraeus gave him five options, ranging from ‘optimal’ (80,000 men) to ‘minimal’ (40,000). O-job rejected them all and is going with a sub-minimal 34,000.
#14 baal
I don’t think The One is truly an idiot. He actually reminds me more of the characters played by John Dall and Farley Granger in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope” (1948). Like them, he believes himself to be innately superior in intellect to everyone else. Also like them, he is basically a callow youth who has been educated past his capacity for comprehension. He has a large number of unassailable beliefs (mainly about himself) that are immune to logic and invulnerable to facts. He would be better suited to be a clergyman than a political leader for this reason. (Of course, in that role’, he might instigate an Inquisition to make everyone else “agree” with him, too.)
# 18 Bohemond;
I am less interested in the exact number of personnel The One intends to send than exactly what he will order General McChrystal to do with them. My guess is, he will have them engaging in “nation-building” exercises rather than combat operations, essentially doing Peace Corps work. This will be to please his constituencies on the left, who either do not understand the concept of “defeat the enemy first, then build the infrastructure”, or else believe that we can somehow “win the hearts and minds” of the Taliban (whom, we must remember, kill Afghans with even more alacrity than they do NATO troops, and were doing so even before 9/11/2001).
The idea that “all we have to do is be nice” has never worked in that region, but that won’t stop The One from doing it again. After all, he’s a Transformational Figure; the rules no longer apply, any more than reality does.
Or at least, that’s the way he sees it.
clear ether
eon
his kings: marx and alinsky…..zealots don’t fold ‘em….and val the pal gal won’t allow it anyway any time…
Imperious Obama has attempted to appeal to his sundry international audiences by criticizing the US.
A foreign policy of penance has won America no friends
Steeped in an overarching idea of American guilt, Mr. Obama and his lieutenants offered nothing less than a doctrine, and a policy, of American penance. No one told Mr. Obama that the Islamic world, where American power is engaged and so dangerously exposed, it is considered bad form, nay a great moral lapse, to speak ill of one’s own tribe when in the midst, and in the lands, of others.
Two words : Chris Muir
His recent strip on The One
is asymptotic to perfection.
There’s only one “exit strategy” I’m interested in: the strategy that will ensure Obama’s exit come January, 2013.
Paraphrased from the Nixon playbook:
He will defend his ideology to the last drop of your blood.
POR has already decided to sacrifice congressional seats to pass the signature health care. Perhaps he thinks that he is heroic in the face of adversity, yet he conflicts with his need of appreciating concensus. He did say that there were decisions to be made above his pay grade. He may have to resign himself to an audience on the retired president circuit.
listen all of you high school drop out simpletons black and muslim haters Jazz you too included:
1- get over and hip to the fact that a black guy in now running the show and he will for the next 7 years. you can all moan and groan here on this site and it is not going to make a difference… at this time you are all IRRELEVANT.
2-this president was handed this mess by our former president a repulican I may add and he is doing his best to fix it….
3-Gitmo it is the right thing to do to CLOSE it. Imagine if the North Koreans captured a few of our solders.. and held them as enemy combatents.. we can not then cry foull.
4-Healthcare.. every amreican deserve it. Imagine if some of you simpletons losing your jobs and not having insurance.. you need to be taken care of who pays for it? that is why I encourage everyone here to go and finish high school and get further education so you know the fact and know what are the real issues are… not just blaming muslims, Obama, Clinton, Bush or anyone else to that matter… for why we have so many problems…
Jazz: do you know Bruce Bawer?
baal #14. It has been considered. the man is not “may be”, he IS an idiot. And anyone who still contemplating whether he is or is not are fooling themselves. Poking the air with fingers while dispersing an absolute idiocy, does not count for leadership. Watch the speeches by Nasralah (of Hezbollah), Ahmadinejead …. some other radicals. I did not vote for this president,but I hoped he would be a pragmatic, centrist, and in the time of current crises – wise. That, my hopes, MAY HAVE BEEN…. well you said it.
All of these are the unforced errors made by the top man himself. There is truly no VRWC for him to pile the blames on, even though he will keep trying.
As has been said elsewhere, all of these policies are not meant to lower unemployment, save money, create jobs, give people better health care, make sure granny gets her meds, make life more fair for all. So what is the end game here? I think people are sensing that this is some sort of massive fraud and stealing of money perpetrated on a level unseen before, as if Obama and the dems are accountable to no one.
Mr., do you prefer grape or strawberry Kool-Aid?
It’s much easier to run a political campaign than it is to actually be a chief executive of a city, county or state, much less a difficult country like this. Yet, many of those in the middle, the large majority of voters who are “independent”, not affiliated with a political party allowed themselves to buy into the message that the Obama campaign was selling. Namely, that he was a “pragmatic moderate”, despite his rather slim record in Illinois politics or the US Senate. In the US Senate, he had the most liberal voting record of any Senator…this is the grade given him by a left-wing organization (not a right-wing one). His associations through out his life were with people on the very far left fringe of the Democratic party. Yet, he sold himself to the country at large as a “moderate”.
So, I laugh (albeit with clenched teeth) my neighbors who are beginning to freak out over his economic policies. The are upset over the “leftward” lurch he took upon assuming office. The most common refrain I hear from my Balt, MD area neighbors (who are mostly small business owners) is that they believed his promise “not to raise taxes on the middle class” and that he wouldn’t meddle with THEIR insurance. “If you like your insurance, you can keep it”. They bought it, lock, stock and barrel. They refused to listen when I tried to tell them that the guy they were “feel good” voting for, wasn’t a moderate at all…now, buyers remorese has set in. They looking at huge tax hikes in the form of fees and fines as well as direct taxes…and don’t know what to do.
I wrote an article on searchwarp.com about how (at least where I live) the “tea partiers” are moderates from both side of the political spectrum…I had one commenter tell me that I was an idiot…that the tea party people were hard right wingnuts…big sigh…not here they aren’t. They are men and women who are becoming VERY afraid of what the present administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress are doing spending unpresedented amounts of money…unlike most people, they understand that this money will have to be paid back someday…and that day will be ugly.
Now if only we could find someone to run against John Sarbanes (D MD3) (son of a former US Senator) and who is a knee jerk straight party line Congressman…it would be nice. Last year, they ran an idiot…who didn’t do very well. But I’d love to see a local businessman/woman who is independent, and has a real understanding of how business runs and can put up a good showing…
re: #25 mr: Love your pseudonym, NOT. If you continue to blame Bush for all the evils in the world. That’s fine, but at least have the moral courage to use your real name. It’s really rather cowardly to hide behind a false front and throw rocks. If you are going to say something, don’t hide behind a mask.
#25 mr, wrong in four ways.
(1) There will only be a former President Obama after 2012.
(2) What mess do you mean? If you are referring to Afghanistan, Obama announced during his campaign for President that he would fight there and in Pakistan after his election. It is hysterically funny to see real jerks like Mike Moore act surprised that Obie is now actually keeping his campaign promise. I guess his fans, like mr, were so used to Obama tell lies that they are now shocked that he told the truth for once.
(3) We and North Korean forces both wore uniforms during the Korean war, unlike Al Qaeda in their war with us. As a result Al Qaeda terrorists have zero rights under the Geneva convention. Inept and false analogy.
(4) As for everyone “deserving” health care, please show a source for this notion, for instance, in the annals of history. Does everyone deserve wealth, happiness, a good conscience? These things must be earned by someone to be possessed, and then it is often a tough job to keep them.
When, if ever, will y’all wake up and realize that Dumbama, like Dubya before him, is out to deliberately destroy our economy. Economic chaos is the rationale for traitorously surrendering our sovereignty to a New World Order, as directed by Dumbamas’ employers, the Rothschilds, irrevocably committed to their satanic mission of worldwide destruction and death.
This paradigm is made clear in many places on the internet; unfortunately interwoven in places with dingbat delusions and disinformation. But the outline which fits the facts is there.
One suspects that effective counteraction will never be taken, due to sloth, ignorance, stupidity, cowardice , cupidity and the love of evil; as evidenced by the behavior of the Supreme Court and Congress.
The US Public is a sort of Doctor Frankenstein.
Y’all manufactured a Monster; now you must deal with it.
Akaky: no i am not a beliver that all Obama is doing is good. nor can I make a judgment in a short period of tine and not do I vote on party lines.. what I have a problem with is the racism here… it is clear most people who are here do not like blacks. the chairman of repulican party is black and I think he is a jack ass… but his race is meaningless.. let me ask everyone here a question:
what if colin Powell was our president? would you rag on him the same? and by the way I happen to think he was and is one the most dispecable politicain ever again I do not juuge him by his color rather his actions…
Whether you think Obama smart or not one thing we can all agree on is that he has no business experience. He is in an economic swamp and only 8% of his admin has any real life business experience. This turns out to be the lowest on modern record. Who would he turn to to play devil’s advocate? Larry Summers? He lost $1.8 BILLION of Harvard’s investment fund after being warned not to do it. Gietner? He is still trying to figure out Turbotax. Volker? He hasn’t been in the real world for decades. Rubin? He fired the lady that tried to implement a protection against what just happened on Wall St. during Willie’s term. Michele? She’s no help unless it involves really gaudy clothes. We’re f**ked!
#25 mr:
“4-Healthcare.. every amreican deserve it. Imagine if some of you simpletons losing your jobs and not having insurance.. you need to be taken care of who pays for it?”
Hey, #25 mr: what the #!%@* is an “amreican”? We are American, with a capital “A” you dolt! Every American does NOT deserve healthcare. What they deserve is the right to live how they wish (w/o harming others), and if that includes eating double-cheeseburgers with a side of chili-cheese fries every day, plus a sugar-laden Big Gulp, then so be it, but don’t make me pay for the quadruple-bypass operation that becomes necessary therefrom. If you want me to pay for someone’s else’s healthcare, then I get to dictate their lifestyle, what they eat, how much they exercise, etc., and I say they should be running 5 miles a day, biking 20, and swimming 1 instead of stuffing their pie holes.
If you need to be taken care of, then do it. Try asking your Messiah Obama why people are losing their jobs (unemployment>10%) and if they do lose their jobs, they should start their own business and see how business-friendly this administration is. What they will discover is hostility toward small businesses. As has been pointed out, no one in this administration has ever had to meet a payroll; they’ve mostly spent their lives trying (some successfully, some not, e.g. Rangel, Daschle, Geithner, et al) to avoid taxes, and put the burden of paying them on everyone else.
Now, #8 misanthropicus:
“There isn’t such a thing like “kind of pregnant” – hehehe, more grief for Obamatons -”
Au contraire – my fine fellow poster; you know not of what you speak. My wife just gave birth to triplets (2b,1g). We laugh that pregnant with one is “kind of pregnant”. Pregnant with twins is “somewhat pregnant” and with three, now THAT’S pregnant. Sadly, my kids (we have a 9yo, too) are being strapped with debt they will be unlikely to pay (what is the nat’l debt up to now, $38,000 per person?). Generational theft is the best term to describe what the thieving miscreants in Washington are doing to our youth.
2010: vote against EVERY incumbent.
FIRE CONGRESS!
Dumbama just doesn’t have a nice ring to it. I much prefer Obaka (Japanese for “great idiot”). As for Obama being unable to realize he’s holding a losing hand, there’s no such thing as being unable to realize you’ve lost once the cards have been turned over. Many a poker player have busted out due to an inability to lay down a hand, and be stunned to find themselves drawing dead when they go all-in.
President Obama prefers to campaign; since he won last November, that is all the man has been doing for 11 months. Worse, he is going to campaign once more with the start of his laughable “jobs summit.” Obama’s campaigning has already worn thin. Blaming Bush does not work anymore. Yet this is all Obama does: Campaign, give empty rhetorical speeches, & blame President Bush for HIS problems. The man is a spoiled Affirmative Action brat, a man-child. Where are the adults? They are not in the White House or Congress.
Jeff: Since when does the Devil need an advocate? Seems to me the Devil has been doing just fine without an advocate, thank you. Satan got kicked out of heaven because he was always accusing the brethren and as we all know, Jesus kicked Satan out and HE himself is our advocate with the Heavenly Father, quite different roles it seems; the truth versus the lie.
What we all need is the ability to hear the truth and that isn’t likely to come from the Devil, is it? I know “Devils advocate” is just a figure of speech nowadays but it is a totally inaccurate one. No one needs someone else telling them a lie just to get to the truth, do they? Satan is the father of all lies.
The Obama administration, congress, the senate and a raft of other freaks need to hear the truth but right now it seems impossible for them to do so for a reason. That reason is they are listening to the lies of Satan who has been cast down to the Earth and is on the last rampage of his soon to be over existence. How else do you describe the unusual behavior of the Obama-ites who when confronted with the truth just keep spouting something proved to be a lie? They are totally deceived. It’s not like the truth isn’t just knocking people over the head and in your face because it is. So it takes an astounding amount of stubbornness/blindness not to be able to receive the truth today with so many watchmen on the walls blowing the alarms all over the place. We should all hear the truth.
The truth always wins in the end.
This pathetic fraud may do us harm financially with policies designed only to wreck our already fragile economic base, and we will, somehow, survive and, in the long run, prosper. However, as the Commander-in-Chief, he sadly is in a position to make decisions based on cravenly political considerations, that will result in very dead men and women. While he may have the courage to visit them in the dead of night in Dover, Delaware, I would like to see him muster the courage to face the families of good dead soldiers who need not have died, if he had the slightest notion of what it is to be a CIC. Every time I wake up and think it could not get worse, he proves me wrong.
Fred: the mess I was talking about was the economy… you have to agree this went down under president bush and not Obama… BTW I do not make politcal decsions such a voting. I voted for the elder bush…
Chcuk: sorry for the mispelling … and if there are more mispellings here sorry for that as well
when it comes to health insurance i agree with your point that people who do not have good habits, such as smoking etc… but what needs to done is educating them… do you think an otherwise healthy person who does not have bad habits and has a chest pain should not be treated? this is not how it works.. I give you a great example my son who is 24 years old has a history of kidney stones. this is out of his control and he just graduated from school and I am no longer able to put him on my insurance he had a major attack last month while we were visiting family members.. I had to take him to Bryn Mawr General hospital. it is a federal law that hospitals have to treat people and can not turn anyone back. thay had to treat him he was there for 6 hours… he just got the bill from the hospital and it was close to $7000.00. do you know how long would it take him to ay this back? years and in most cases people are not able their debts to begin with. who will pay for it then? YOU AND I. so there needs to a solution here. Honestly I have no idea what is all involved in this healthcare bill and why are so many people for it and so many are not… I just admire him at least to try something new. we are a great nation here and we can always go back and say part of this is not working and we have to fix it…. let me tell you something else.. I am not sure where you live… I live in NJ in a very affluent town… and there two huge hospitals around the area… our proximity to Newark, East Orange and Irvington to these hospitals are very short… but the emergency rooms are always packed… I would bet that 85% the people who are there do not have emergencies.. they may have migran headaches, a simple cold, a stomack virus etc… but beacuse the do not have access to insurance thus no primary care doctor they then flood the hospitals. chuch you and I are paying for it…..
9 months in, and already knocking the man. 9 months into bush’s term and 9/11 happened. what on earth has bush been doing since?
Devil’s Advocate (I think advocatus diabolus in my very rusty Latin) comes from the process of the Catholic church canonizing someone. There was a trial with an advocate citing the person’s wonderful qualities and a devil’s advocate the one who pointed out to any irregularities there might have been in the life of the proposed saint, etc. arguing AGAINST canonization.
Not that this is on topic exactly what we were discussing, but Obama clearly lacks a Devil’s Advocate. Perhaps he wouldn’t hold himself already canonized or deified if he ever heard and LISTENED to a contrary opinion.
And I only WISH the truth always won in the end. However, even now, most people still believe that Marie Antoinette said “let them eat cake”, a lie fabricated by the press of the time. What we think is the truth is usually the story concocted and passed on. (And right now those stories are Marxist-leninist and fit very badly with reality, which is what Obama is having issues with. He can’t see reality through the story-telling. Whether that bespeaks a lack of mental power or not I don’t know. On the one hand he’s never seemed exactly a bright bulb to me, OTOH it takes intelligence to be utterly stupid.)
Unfortunate for us, Dear Reader doesn’t even have a pair.
@ 33. mr:
Akaky: no i am not a beliver that all Obama is doing is good. nor can I make a judgment in a short period of tine and not do I vote on party lines.. what I have a problem with is the racism here… it is clear most people who are here do not like blacks.
Through Comment #43,you are the only person on this thread to use the word “black” or “blacks.” Very entertaining.
BTW, I have a longstanding dislike of Chicago politicians, which I picked up from my downstate Illinois grandfather. What I found about Daley the elder simply showed me my grandfather was correct. Unfortunately, I have observed nothing in the last year to show me that my opinion of Chicago politicians was not correct.
In school, in business career and in the military – we have all seen this type with a deadly cocktail of aggressiveness, incompetence and narcissism. You don’t want to be stuck in a class with one, have one as a boss or as your commanding officer Unfortunately just the right set of circumstances in 2008 let one of them into the oval office where we are all in his class, all in his department and all in his platoon
It dates me but I keep hearing that quirky song from the 60′s: “Please Mr. Custer, I don’t want to go.
Brer Rabbit and the tarbaby come to mind. Of course, fools today think that this tale had something racial about it, which it didn’t at all. For Obama, there is no Brer Bear or Brer Fox around to release him from a good many “tarbabies” and “throw him into the briar patch”. That is, provide an escape for him. And his huge arrogance and hubris wouldn’t allow him to allow such a thing anyway.
Regarding poker, the loser plaint comes also to mind, which is, “Deal faster, I’m losing!”
A smart politician, like a crafty poker player, has to know when to lay down his cards and wait for a better hand. Think of it as an “exit strategy” that has nothing to do with warfare. Unfortunately, Obama can’t seem to find the exit even when it’s clearly the best option. Sooner or later he’s going to realize that pocket kings can and do blow up in your face.”
Obviously obama doesn’t know when, mainly because he is the ultimate player of denial. For nearly all the years since the beginning of his short political career, he did seem to wear a “smart” mask. But thankfully, the months since Summer 2009, his mask has been eroding, with all appearances of completing this degenerating trend. The sooner the Second Law of Thermodynamics completes its course for the fake president, so much the better for the USA (assuming we’ll end up with a REAL US – loving President). We CERTAINLY don’t need another crap artist in the White House!!!
“Deal faster, I’m losing!”
I wonder, is it possible that bho has nightmares and secret daydreams featuring a similar statement, when he is alone and no one is looking?
#44 Gringo:
Yes Black.. I am a liberal yes. but I hat political correctness BS>>>>