Obama’s Competence Gap
We’ve heard the cliché: there is a difference between campaigning and governing. But in the last few weeks the contrast between the two could not have been more stark. And the gap between President Obama’s effectiveness at the former and shakiness at the latter is coming into focus.
Guantanamo is the most vivid example. As a candidate, Obama pushed the notion that George W. Bush was a constitutional Neanderthal and destroyer of American values. Now he’s discovered that it is really hard to figure out what to do with these really bad people. And he’s even discovered the virtue of the Bush-created military tribunals.
Republicans have kept up the drumbeat, forcing Democrats to include limits on funding and demands to “show them the plans” before funding a Guantanamo shut-down. And it may be that there is no plan, no viable one to allow Guantanamo to be closed. As Kimberley Strassel put it:
If so, Guantanamo will join the growing list of security tools that President Obama once criticized as out of keeping with American values but has since discovered are very in keeping with protecting the nation. Wiretapping, renditions, military tribunals, Gitmo — it turns out the Bush people weren’t a bunch of yahoos but often thoughtful defenders against terrorism. This is all progress, though America might wonder if it could have been spared the intervening drama.
Then we had the detainee abuse photo controversy. Before he took office, Obama seemed agreeable to the Left’s narrative that there was a massive policy of detainee abuse and the American people should see what it looked like. After the firestorm which followed his initial decision to release the photos, he adopted conservatives’ view that we should not let a few bad apples destroy America’s image and endanger our servicemen.
Although the president is tossing the ball back to the courts (at least for now) rather than signing an executive order to make sure the photos aren’t released, his message is clear. He’s not buying into the grand conspiracy vision of the netroots and he’s not going to throw matches on the tinderbox at the moment when we are doing our best to lessen the danger of a conflagration in Pakistan and Afghanistan and complete the mission in Iraq.
We have also had another round of rotten economic news. The deficit is exploding, unemployment is rising, consumers aren’t spending, and the stimulus is doing nothing for us.
In the campaign Obama effectively snatched the tax issue (cut 95% of Americans’ taxes) and the fiscal sobriety issue (“go line-by-line through the budget”) from the Republicans. But now in office (when he’s not flitting off to work on health care or cap-and-trade, or taking vouchers from D.C. school kids), he’s devising plans to raises taxes (on cigarettes, businesses, and energy) and ballooning our debt. Unlike his national security policies, he shows no sign of reversing course on economic policy or coming up with a coherent approach to reviving economic growth and job creation.
Already worse than Carter and looking like FDR. In years to come, even some Democrats will look fondly on the Bush period.
This self aggrandizing pig is going to go down eventually and when he does we’ll all have to pay the price of his sanctimonious ruination.
I agree with the basic premise — i.e., that Obama is not up to the job of President — but as to the idea that people are catching on that the emperor has no clothes, I’m not so sure. The mainstream media went all-out to get Obama in, and they’re doing everything they can to support him in his efforts now; I don’t see them reversing course anytime soon.
Plus I think Obama is very confident; he doesn’t see himself as inept, and he isn’t being presented that way by the MSM. His vision for America may be insane, it may be fueled by an essentially anti-American instinct, but he believes in it, and he’s got the Congress and the MSM to help him push it to the limit.
On the other hand, we can’t afford his vision. So maybe the real question is how far in the hole will we get — financially, militarily, etc. — before the country figures out what’s up.
In the grand scheme of things, though, it might just be America’s time; as history shows us, great nations fade and ultimately collapse, no matter how great. Ideological and spiritual decay seem the only true constants in the history of nations, which is to say that while we’ll probably survive Obama, the forces that brought him to the helm are powerful and determined, and that may just be it.
Sorry to be such a downer; I know you’re trying to look on the bright side. If conservatism — that is, true liberalism — were being loudly and consistently championed in Washington, I might be optimistic. But the conservative movement and the GOP are two different things, and I don’t think the GOP has the moral and ideological clarity to lead us anywhere that will not, eventually, lead us right back to the road that carried us to where we are now.
“Eventually you have to get the governance right,”
Do you really? Didn’t Bush and the GOP try to address the coming disaster precipitated by Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac? To my thinking, they got that perfectly right. But what good did it do them? Barney Frank and Chris Dodd got governance as wrong as wrong can be, and they didn’t pay for their errors (or malfeasance, even); they got off scot-free. The MSM sure isn’t setting the record straight.
So do you really have to get governance right, or do you just have to be able to create the perception among the populace that you’re getting it right?
Obamamania is starting to wear thin.
Obambi hears the clock ticking and wants to make Mommy proud, but is starting to realize that, if things don’t come together soon, all those neo-Commie policies will be discredited for a century.
Obama has made an absolute mess of everything he has touched since taking office. Everything. As for the messes he inherited he has maximized their damage. It would be challenging to attempt to write a better recipe for senseless destruction.
The American people – and indeed, the whole world – will pay dearly for going stupid in November of 2004. It will go down in history as an epic failure of common sense.
@ 1… FDR won four presidential elections. All the revisionist history in the world doesn’t change that. No one looks fondly on Hoover. (or nixon if you want to bring up jimmy carter)
As for the article… I don’t know what a constitutional neanderthal is but Bush lost THREE different supreme court cases about guantanamo. Obama voted nay on the military commissions act of 2006 and lo and behold the supreme court found it unconstitutional. I’ll give the point to Obama. The game isn’t over though because now it’s on Obama to make a constitutionally sound military tribunal.
I wouldn’t turn all debbie downer on the economy though. We all saw what happened to the “obama is killing the stock market” meme.
How about his town hall warning to himself that we can’t keep up this crazy borrowing? Seems he and the prompter aren’t getting along.
And what President ever spent so much time hawking his wares and and so little getting something coherent formulated? Ah, such is the life of a demagogue–speech, check the polls, huddle with the media, load up the prompter, shoot a few hoops, back in the jet, push a new program. “What? The country’s failing? C’mon… I’m having a very good crisis! You really should learn to sacrifice, and a lot more cheerfully, people. Now, pass that terrific steak, honey..Oh, I forgot, we’re flying in that nice pizza man tonight…”
IF [and this is a HUGE effing IF] our country survives 0bama and Co., I doubt any of us will be wearing happy, smug faces. No, we will be survivors, and, angry ones at that.
I hope to GOD that someone, ANYONE who might have one inkling of concern/care/hope for the future of our country actually CARES enough to pull 0bama’s strings and reign the idiot in before he can do more harm to us and the WORLD.
Please, pray for the USA, pray for ISRAEL. PRAY with all your might for those who are good of heart, who will fight the good fight.
This ain’t lookin’ good but GOD can see us through even the darkest hours.
Dear Leader says we need to spend like drunken sailors (3.6 trillion) on our way out of this economic mess but we can not spend like drunken sailors because if we do it will destroy our American way of life.
Is he on drugs?
no offense to drunken sailors.
Ms. Rubin, I think you are being too polite. BHO has a competence gap to go along with his integrity gap. This is a man who has been running from or for something his whole life. This is all there is.
The “line by line” comment tickled my funnybone this morning, without wishing anyone’s kidneys to fail. The only place he has kept the “line by line” promise is in reading the teleprompter.
And about that teleprompter…could the person or persons who are writing the lines of the “Obama one act play”…could we just be straightforward and have experienced government officials help them get up the learning curve more quickly? In some ways I guess I don’t care if Axelrod is really our president’s brain and words, can we help give him some more and better answers?
“Now he’s discovered that it is really hard to figure out what to do with these really bad people.”
And nobody is helping with good solutions. In this land of laws, lawyers and loopholes is like trying to go through a maze: it’s hard to see the end of the tunnel.
Dear Leader says we need to spend like drunken sailors (3.6 trillion) on our way out of this economic mess- but then he says we can not spend like drunken sailors because if we do it will destroy our American way of life.
Is he on drugs?
There is deep suspension within the energy sector that Obama’s Cap and Trade tax scheme will drive gas and oil prices to all time record highs.
Gasoline in the EU already costs over $6.00USD now. Source:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html
With Obama’s plan we could soon be in the same boat without a paddle. Maybe that’s why he’s so friendly with Chavaz, he’s getting pointers on how to nationalize the oil industry. Why not? He’s already got the banking industry, the financial, and the gov now owns a substantial part of the auto makers. Why not go after the energy sector as well to complete the hat trick?
There is a rumor circulating in the biz that George Soros has recently purchased 4% of PXP, and conveniently, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on May 14 his 2009 – 2010 state budget which includes authorizing a lease to proceed with development of PXP’s Tranquillon Ridge project. http://www.pxp.com/
How many of you still believe in coincidences?
note to site managers:
I really would like to see an ‘edit’ button. I’d change my screen name to “Typos R Us”, but I think that one is already taken.
From this account it appears there’s a gap between President Obama’s commitment to his foreign policy campaigning and his domestic campaigning. He’s clearly reversed himself on his national security rhetoric by attempting to keep documents classified, continuing rendition (though not “extraordinary rendition”), delaying full withdrawal from Iraq, etc. So he’s abandoned his Progressive rhetoric and moved toward the middle.
On his domestic agenda, though, he’s abandoned his fiscally conservative campaign rhetoric and seems to be pursuing the most Progressive economic agenda, even though he knows, at least from his recent speech, that it will eventually undermine the economic conditions his policy desires depend upon.
So it’s clear where his ideological interest and commitment is, remaking America in a fashion that reflects his own moral and ethical beliefs, even if it requires the full power of the State and the relative degredation of personal circumstances for just about every other citizen of the country.
I can just imagine my Jewish liberal-Democrat friends looking back at the Bush years as “the good old days”.
They may never say it, but they WILL think it.
Obama could not do anything without a corrupt and deluded Congress. The Tea Party is the only place this is being addressed. The media, including Fox News, are so busy with their tabloid enthusiasms they can’t see the grand scam that continues unchecked.
What else can be expected from a life long bureaucrat who never worked a ‘real life’ job in his life.
BPT, we may look fondly on the Carter years, this will get so bad.
Liberals and democrats will never look fondly back to George W. Bush or anyone in his administration. To do so would necessarily mean admitting that they were wrong. That would be expecting liberals and democrats to swallow the poison they crafted for conservatives.
we should demand he recall the stimulus package and the omnibus budget and then he can do as he promised and go through them line by line.
Damn that reality. Really bites, eh BO?
I wonder why people believed he would be a moderate. All signs told us he was a Saul Alinsky Marxist Radical who NEVER had a real job, who has had NO real accomplishments of substance, who uses religion whether Christian, or Muslim for his own purposes, and was a product of one of the most corrupt political systems in American history.
There is no excuse for voting for this man, whether Dem or Rep.
If Sarah Palin runs in 2012, I believe she will defeat him. Her authenticity, basic goodness, common sense, and servant’s heart, along with her being straight middle-class like most of America will be a refreshing change from the cynicism, hypocrisy, broken promises, failed policies, and narcissistic behavior.
He is simply a very poor human being.
My prediction is a Republican landside in 2010. He will lose the Senate and perhaps the House. The American public is learning the difference between a President campaigning on policies best discussed and left in coffee houses and the realities of the attempted implementation of those policies.
Be careful what you ask for America. You got it and it ain’t so pretty when the emporer loses his clothes.
Wait a minute Jennifer…..
Are you saying that as a candidate Barry LIED to us?
But, but… HOPE. CHANGE.
His whole demeanor, along with any prominent democrat, is that of an awkward, rude, ignorant,troubled teen-ager.
He never had a paper route, never a minimum wage job.
In his adult life, the only money he has ever gotten has come from non profits or the government, and of course, the non profit got it from the government or scammed it from a donor telling the donor they would spend it one thing and then, they spent it on another.
He doesn’t really understand anyone who has had to pay their own way.
But, the good thing, the really good thing is that everyone but the MSM is beginning to see through this charade. Blue dog Democrats are beginning to stand up, respected Conservatives are calling him and the band of thugs (Pelosi, ACORN) out and calling them what they really are. The thievery of America will not stand, it is only a matter of time now. they are coming apart at the seams!
Why am I not heartened when President Obama reverses himself so often and finally comes to the previous policy that he derided?
It shows no philosophy of government, nor understanding of policy, and for all of his studying of the Constitution, no understanding that government is limited due to the way it is constructed. From that you get meandering thoughts which he will wholeheartedly endorse one day and then do just the opposite the next then put an ‘expiration date’ on that and hope to repeat the cycle yet again. If a couple of months learning what he should have already known as two years as a Senator is enough to change his mind, that demonstrates he didn’t take either job seriously going in.
As he does not like Amendments IX and X and openly wants the Constitution to be a power granting vehicle from government instead of a limited granting one to government, that winds up with you, me and the rest of the Nation as having the entirety of our lives decided BY government. He has acted that way proposing horrific spending, burdening of the civil population with ‘plans’ that have no basis in understanding of economics nor much of anything else, and we are expected to see this as ‘good’. Right up to the moment he changes his mind, of course.
That is not the description of a President of a Republic governed for the common good in which the common man has the greatest say over his own life.
It is a description of an authoritarian view of government, one very close to despotism and tyranny in which the few rule the many and the population is enslaved to government. Without something to safeguard to common man from government we become the subjects of government… and I can do without a President who puts an expiration date on liberty and freedom.
He could have had real debates and talks on the things he has changed his mind about: to layout his views of governing and how his proposals fit in with the structure of our system. Then listen to feedback and not denigrate those who hold opposing positions in good faith and who present substantive views that look at past practices and history, along with outcomes. I have not witnessed that either from this President or his supporters. Castigation, threats, slurs and such I have witnessed in abundance. I have not seen rational discussion much of anyplace nor a willingness to listen by those who ‘won’ thinking that, in third world style, an election means a change forever of a Nation… we have seen where that leads time and again when done by partisan groups enforcing ways from government upon peoples using tyrannical and despotic means. It does not end well for any involved.
“And if we’ve learned anything in the first months of the Obama administration it is that campaigning only gets you so far.”
I appreciate all the points made in the article, but would suggest that it is not WE who have learned that “campaigning only gets you so far”. We already knew that, which is why his election was so alarming.
The United States is a victim of the Peter principle being illustrated LARGE in his pathetic, unAmerican, uneducated, community-organizing, self-centered, arrogant, power-hungry career.
Let’s say it’s all true – Obama wants to destroy America, his only goal is to impoverish the wealthy and create a permanent underclass, he wants to scrap our military and open our borders and kill babies and push us into a downward socialist spiral that allows radical extremism to spread terror and death at will . . . is that necessarily a bad thing?
…he’s devising plans to raises taxes (on cigarettes…
Not just cigarettes, but sin taxes on soda & potato chips and the like, aka junque food.
Hysterical, all these additional taxes to fund “health care”, funniest the huge increase in cigg tax already to fund The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). (cough)
Twilight zone, anybody ?
Since Barack Obama is a pie addict, apple, peach, cherry, key lime, you name it …:) I, personally, propose a sin tax on pie. (you’re welcome for my contribution to the new national initiative)
What’s even more startling, as Yuval Levin points out, is the president’s recognition that the endless cycle of spending and borrowing which his own administration has accelerated is “unsustainable”
Truly bizarre, Obama’s acknowledgement this week in light of what he has done to the federal deficit in a short few months. One might be tempted to gravitate to the argument that destruction of “the economy” as we know it is intentional.
I don’t understand the readiness among conservative commentators to allow that Obama’s performance is a matter of incompetence. He’s consistently steered the United States toward military weakness, international forelock-tugging, economic fascism, and the suppression of dissent. Why is it not possible that these are the outcomes he actually desires? Are we incapable of recognizing a pattern? Or are we unwilling to contemplate the possibility that Americans have put a geniunely evil man with dictatorial ambitions into the Oval Office?
Lou Dobbs and his guests were spinning Obama’s reversals on the release of the photos and “military commissions” as evidence of Obama growing in the job.
At this rate Obama may grow to know as much as Bush – if he gets an IQ implant and serves two terms (ain’t gonna happen.)
The intelligence of a man who thinks Iraq should have been conceded to Al Qaeda and Iran is obviously overrated. As Mark Steyn said prior to the war to liberate Iraq, the choice was between bad and worse.
As difficult as Iraq was, it was better than leaving in power a terrorist supporting and terrorist harboring, mass murdering, genocidal Stalinist dictator who was in daily defiance of UN Ceasefire Resolutions for 12 years. If he had not been removed from power he would today be pursuing nuclear weapons and there would be no valid argument to deny Iran the same right and vice versa.
A hallmark of the liberal mind is to criticize something without considering the alternatives. Gitmo is a perfect example.
The only thing he has down pat is how to run against G W Bush, and he’s still doing it.
Everything President Obama touches turns to dust, decays, or turns rotten from his own need for political power & aim to dictate instead of govern; he sees himself & encourages the media to make him to be a god-like figure when, in truth, he is a very flawed man who has no original ideas on his own thanks for his dependence on at least 2 teleprompters when speaking in public. President Obama will be remembered for being the most corrupt politician & will be the most hated when he sinks our nation into high unemployment, little private economic growth, & high inflation (stagflation).
Watch the example of the Brazilian presidente, mr. Lula da Silva (argh):
He didn’t stop campaigning, although elected.
When crisis approach, he invents a trip overseas.
And, always: “I didn’t know! It wasn’t me! I’ve been betrayed! Blame the other president! Blame the white, rich, blue-eyed elite!”
This way, it’s easy to be presidente, don’t you agree??
4. JR Dogman:
“Eventually you have to get the governance right,” Do you really? Didn’t Bush and the GOP try to address the coming disaster precipitated by Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac? To my thinking, they got that perfectly right. But what good did it do them? Barney Frank and Chris Dodd got governance as wrong as wrong can be, and they didn’t pay . . .
—————–
Perhaps. But many people seem to affix blame or credit to just a few individuals in the administration; despite Frank and Dodd, Obama and his supporters talk about “the economic mess” that Bush left behind. And in Obama’s case, he really is assuming such power that he can be credibly blamed for his bad and ignorant policies. You’ve heard those pathetic soundbites from Obama supporters who think that he’s going to give them a life without car payments or rent. Lefty bloggers are looking every which way right now to find “Cheney plants” left behind in the CIA, EPA, and elsewhere to explain Obama’s broken promises. Sooner or later it will all come down to Obama, though.
I went to Harvard Law School. And you have the temerity to question my competence?
His incompetence is the only thing protecting us from the consequences of his malevolence.
Obama is not killing the stock market because he can’t (at least not easily) eventually investors will ‘learn’ where to invest by observing his policies and initiatives…the job market is another matter, and he is killing that. Along with a few state governors.
Talk to any small business owners lately…having just got the ax from a high tech company, (which by the way are predicted to do well), the fictitious creation (no saving) of millions of jobs with his stimulus is a fantasy. That will be what gets him in his second year if the recession doesn’t recover on its own. (Which btw is what appears to be happening now)
Let’s say it’s all true – Obama wants to destroy America, his only goal is to impoverish the wealthy and create a permanent underclass, he wants to scrap our military and open our borders and kill babies and push us into a downward socialist spiral that allows radical extremism to spread terror and death at will . . . is that necessarily a bad thing?–Sheesh #32
President Obama does not want to destroy America; however, he wants to remake America into a Totalitarian State. He obviously views America as an evil, racist country (hence, his constant need to bash America in speeches & bash the military). Most liberals think this way, but rarely do they get in this seat of power. The worm will turn & President Obama will fall from grace; when this happens, I expect him to play the race card, victim card, & everything else he can foster to preserve himself. Ironically, this will sink Obama further as his lack of leadership, incompetence, & hatred for America at last wakes up the Sleeping Giant.
I also think President Obama’s perpetual campaign will get old real quick, despite the MSM licking his boots. However, campaigning is all Obama knows.
He will be like a broken record in this case.
……good governance by Obama are mixed at best” ? That’s an awfully kind way to close your editorial. I’d say the prospects are nil, zilch, nada. Everything Obama’s doing that affects the economy, is HARMFUL to the prospects of restoring vibrancy to our Capitalism. Gee, maybe he has something else in mind? Like possibly……..turning us into a European entitlement state, come hell or high water, even if it’s the WORST time in our nation’s history to do that!! Which means people like Rahmbo and Axelrod are dangerously assisting by proclaiming a crisis is the BEST time to do it. How do they figure that? These idealogues, semi-socialists, federal govt power-freaks, have ZERO chance, Jennifer, of governing our country well. Zero. This is almost as easy to prove as a Euclidean theorem from 10th grade. They simply are clueless of how to restore the vibrancy to our economy, by the multiple steps of: slashing govt pay and bfts by 25%, reducing red-tape, getting out of states’ matters, permitting oil and gas exploration and drilling everywhere it’s available, permitting nuclear energy reactors to be built, reducing the legal power of unions, sending illegal immigrants back below our borders, reducing tax rates significantly, AND finally to get on the bully-pulpit and tell our states to get their fiscal houses in order by reducing their massive spending and confiscatory taxation. Period. Now tell me: What are the chances Obama/Pelosi will get on that “road”? That’s right………zero chance.
34. Francis W. Porretto:
“I don’t understand the readiness among conservative commentators to allow that Obama’s performance is a matter of incompetence. He’s consistently steered the United States toward military weakness, international forelock-tugging, economic fascism, and the suppression of dissent. Why is it not possible that these are the outcomes he actually desires? Are we incapable of recognizing a pattern? Or are we unwilling to contemplate the possibility that Americans have put a geniunely evil man with dictatorial ambitions into the Oval Office?”
I think that many conservatives who speak of his incompetence (myself included) are quite aware that what you describe is a real possibility.
My elderly friend who was born in post-Bolshevik Russia in 1929, and escaped with her family through China at age 5, is completely horrified at the speed and destructiveness of the central planning/collectivist/destruction of individualism that we are seeing.
I’ve been talking with family about the fallacy that many entertain about Russia, that somehow Russia was just “destined to be a communisted-dominated economic train wreck” rather than realizing that Russia was the victim of power-hungry men who used destructive policies to control people.
Russia was not genetically condemned to such destruction any more than we are. And we are are not safe from such destruction any more than Russia was.
It is my sense that if we do not succeed in blowing the situation wide open in the time period between now and November 2010, we will have lost the opportunity.
At least 75% of those in office now have got to go, from both sides of the aisle. For the sake of national and personal safety, we had best purpose to regain the solid ground of a Constitutional Republic. (including, for instance, the glories and liberties of contract law!!)
Brazil’s President Lula fascinates me. He’s utterly uneducated (I don’t believe he finished grade school), from the lower classes of Brazil, is the child of a bigamist and philanderer, and, still, rose up through the ranks of the Trotskyist worker’s party. He’s a union guy, but only because it gives him a sense of status. Not to be too psychological, but it is diffiult not to imagine that union participation, for Lula, is a father and family substitute. In short, Lula is a small man of huge needs.
He’s grown in office — grown more capitalistic, that is. Many of his advisors are FORMER Marxists, Trotskyists, etc. I wouldn’t call them capitalists, but they seem to be moving in the right direction.
Like Chavez, Lula has dictator tendencies. Like Chavez, he’s an insecure man with too much power. His recent racist statement about blue-eyed devils showed a lack of maturity and an inability to handle juvenile insecurities.
I’m afraid #41 hit it on the head. He reminds me of the old insult: “if you had a brain, you’d be dangerous”.
30. ajacksonian:
Why am I not heartened when President Obama reverses himself so often and finally comes to the previous policy that he derided?
I totally agree. Obama is a marxist and wannabe despot whose foundational beliefs lay far outside mainstream American political thought. He’s a Chavez-like figure writ large … with tact and charm. He veers from his take-over of our economy when it seems expedient. He reads the polls, but unlike Clinton, he doesn’t have a need to be loved. He’s overly secure, not deeply insecure. Poll numbers, for Obama, are merely part of the strategy of pushing for as much as he can get, as quickly as he can.
In short, he’ll do whaever he can get away with.
This is why we’ve got to speak loudly and forcefully. Cheney, thankfully, has been filling this void. But Cheney is ONE voice. Fox news, occasionally, speaks loudly against Obama’s totalitarian acts. Gingrich speaks, but not loudly enough. I wish my Senators — McCain and Kyl — would find their voices and have the courage to articulate a clear dissent.
Only forceful dissent and articulate, well-reasoned push-back will stop Obama.
Where are my Republicans?
It’s fun reading PJM. It’s like an old Bizarro Superman where reality was reversed. At least that would be the kinder, gentler interpretation.
The sadder interpretation would be that a visit to PJM is like the bad old days when normal people would visit Bedlam and laugh at the lunatics.
I am sorry Folks, but I want to state my point again:
while it is obvious that Obavez has entered a heightened state of flip-flopping on several issues, WE STILL DON’T KNOW if this is due to “incompetency” or to the fact that his goals are completely different from the goals that should be typical of a President, however liberal.
And with I mean that if we have to do with a radical, a commie, an internationalist, his “flip-flops” and his “mistakes” ARE perfectly consistent with his goals …because his goals are the goals of Soros and of the rest of the “Shadow Party”: they want to make America weak,they want to allow the emergence of more and more commie regimes around the world,they want to disrupt forever the Constitutional fabric that has made America Free (and the world PROTECTED against the aggressions of the radicals).
And if you consider the problems from this point of view…you will not see any real “mistakes”.
Higher taxes, cap and trade, national healthcare system are NOT mistakes if you WANT to crush the American economic strength now and for the foreseeable future.
Same for the cuts to the Defense budget.
Same for flip-flopping on Guantanamo trials.
Etc.
I could be wrong, but the REAL situation today could be that all the thugs of the world today know that they have a FRIEND at the White House.
And it is probably better if Obavez knows that we know.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
PS I could be wrong of course, but that will be proven only by policies that HELP America, and Freedom.
Sorry, read that:
“And with that I mean…”
#34 Francis W. Porretto
And of course I agree with you.
8. Derek writes:
“I wouldn’t turn all debbie downer on the economy though. We all saw what happened to the “obama is killing the stock market” meme.”
..oh, really? I see that we’re right back up there at 12,000 where we were for for most of the Bush years in office, right? Oh, we’re not? We’re still hovering some 3-4,000 points lower?
Also, I gues things aren’t so bad anymore because our 401Ks are only down 35% instead of 55% at the low.
Get a grip. The steps this clown has taken to insinuate himself into THE AUTO INDUSTRY, big business, and small businesses with his inept and bumbling spaz tax and takeover moves will keep the stock market rooted where it is until he is thrown out into the streets in 2012.
#41.goldstien spot on. btw,nice name…..i bet pelosi wishes she had access to a ‘memory hole’right about now.
obama does not need one,he was pretty up front about what he planned on doing from day one.the fact potential voters didn’t run away,screaming like their hair was on fire is a mystery to me.
12. fear Obama:
I’ll drink to that!
40. Teleprompter Jesus:
“I went to Harvard Law School. And you have the temerity to question my competence?”
~
LOL! T.J., I think uh lurves youuuuuuuu. he-he!
Dohbama is becoming so stale that I don’t doubt that even his speedos smell funky. Time to fumigate the White House! Raid the tax dodgers/cheats first! Then the liars!
Oops. Nobody left to govern if we did that. heh!
Seriously: With such overwhelming incompetence, lack of etiquette, and overt aggrandizement, why do we need a President at all? Looks like if things were done by committee, we would be better off. And, naturally, the committee would have a much different and responsible make-up were this the case.
After this administration (read abomination), the office of the president of the U.S. isn’t going to be the same anyway.
Not a good time to be a liberal, as they insist on misnaming themselves. But if you’re totally crazy then the times don’t matter.
Obama, crafty, a Hall of Fame liar, sneaky, and with a considerable vicious streak in him. A Real Man’s Liberal.
A shame he couldn’t manage his own way out of a broom closet. I’m not sure the word incompetent covers it.
The above goes for leftists in general. No? So where’s the famed skills of Rahm Emanuel, ballerina extraordinaire, or the hapless Pelosi, [ and I thought Bush was supposed to be the stupid one]. But the list is long and time is both valuable and short.
Keep smiling all you little lefties, it’s only just begun.
41. Immanuel Goldstein:
Understood; Succinct & profound.
Ms. Rubin:
“But in each instance the gap between campaign rhetoric and governing reality is wide.”
That’s a very polite way of saying that all his high-minded speechifyin’ about our endangered Constitutional freedoms and the illegal wars was all just a load of overheated bunk designed to get the glazed-eye mouth-breathers to vote for him.
It is what he’s doing to the economy that is, and always was, the REAL thrust of the campaign.
When you boil it down, what exactly is it that a “Community Organizer” DOES except agitate:
“Give ME your MONEY!”?
That’s it, kids…that’s all this overeducated boob with an overdose of self-esteem is all about.
I could burn Gitmo detainees alive at the stake on pay-per-view, and bomb abortion clinics while using illegal aliens to round up and ship homosexuals off to concentration camps, and as long as Obama and his folks got THEIR cut, they’d give it their blessing.
Do the research and look at the district in Chicago he represented when he was a state senator…the only people who benefited from his service was himself and, (for awhile), Tony Rezko.
The largely black folks stuck in government subsidized housing didn’t benefit, and the rich white folks over on the Gold Coast got shafted too.
That’s what this guy is doing to America.
Come together and throw this constitutionally unqualified societal parasite under his own bus…and I would even welcome our new Joe Biden overlord.
9. D-wah:
You’ve got a point; Obama doesn’t remember what the tele-prompter said the day before. Apparently, he doesn’t take it seriously.
#50.mike reynolds;absolutly right..all the lefty websites i peruse are just overflowing with sane,coherant people stating polite,well formed opinions.
This is the result you get when you elect an untalented ideologue with no leadership experience. He is so light intellectually he actually thinks (or believes he can make us believe) that the most intractable problems of our time can be fixed in a 2 hour powwow. “Dolt” doesn’t begin to define him. More like Supreme Scam Artist. Yes, WE will pay the price. Not much comfort to those of us who knew enough not to vote for this.
Here’s a shocker… I feel that I have to defend President Obama. These changes in policy when confronted by reality have been the right thing to do in all cases. He education and experience may have been fawlty (ha ha) but he has shown the guts to face that he has been wrong and has repeatedly reversed course. Good on him.
Also, look at the alternatives that were offered to the American people – Hilary Clinton – who has so far been probably the most stupid and incompetent Sec of State ever, (reset anyone) how bad would she have been as President? or
McCain, who appears to take his policy advise from his daughter, young ‘Paris’ McCain. Scary.
The President’s Keynesian pump priming economic policies may yet result in stagflation and a devalued dollar but so far the markets have been happy.
Maybe if they fail he will do the right thing and listen to the Tea Partiers and change course. Better late than never.
What I’m saying is that it is a sign of surprising smarts to change course when shown to be wrong. Something that neither Hillary nor McCain have shown the ability to do and as for Biden — another zero IQ’er like Hilary.
I not yet ready to pronounce the man as President Stalin and call for rebellion, that’s all.
Shaui-Jan:
I’m glad you agree with me that this site is as nutty as the nuttiest left wing nuts.
Obama would make a good script on SNL once. Unfortunately, it isn’t comedy it is the reality that half the country voted for and now the other half must suffer too.
It is amazing how the right seems to have forgotten that Ronald Reagan was maligned, and ridiculed, and was called the dumbest president ever. Two decades later, both sides of the aisle say he was at least a good president.
In two decades, I dare to say both sides will be saying that GW did at least a moderately good job.
Gee, the left still listens to Carter, and the right believe him to be the most inept EVER.
I didn’t and don’t understand how Carter, Clinton, and now this clown got elected. I believe that is true of alot of us on the right and we need to figure that out in clear, concise, explantation so that we know how to keep anymore of these creeps out of power.
How interesting, Friendly Girl. I’ve never heard Hillary called dumb before. I’m guessing her IQ is 20 points higher than BHOs and her GPA a full point higher. Oh, and she’s had a real job. Several in fact. And she’s written things. And can speak at length without a teleprompter. And we know where she was born and her religion.
And if our transparent prez will release information about himself, we can all make the comparisons.
I’m going to be called a racist for this, but…
Geraldine Ferraro was right. You take Baraaq Hussein Obama’s resume, and attach it to a white guy, and you get…John Edwards!
At least Edwards was a successful trial lawyer.
It is funny when you hear about the GOP struggling to define itself. Obama is the best recruiter the Republicans have. In the last year America swung into a position where over 50% are pro-life, Thanks BO. As unemployment rises more people are questioning the Democrats ability to manage the economy, and we haven’t even experienced his tax increases yet. Most people have abandoned the global warming fantasy.
The GOP just has to stick to its basic conservative philosophy and wait for the public to turn back to basic conservative beliefs. However, we must focus on becoming the party of sound ethics. Pelosi has led the Democrats to the edge of a cliff and Obama will lead them off the edge. Thanks BO, we will just have to pick up the pieces like we did after Jimmy Carter.
…how this clown got elected. I believe that is true of alot of us on the right and we need to figure that out in clear, concise, explantation
Not too hard to figure, just heard commentary on PJM, noting that Obama’s election was at the hands of élitist rich types (who will manage to remain relatively immune to his financial machinations) and poorer types, who are waiting for the proverbial check in the mail to cover the monthly house & car payments. In both groups, we can count numerous idiotlogues who have been relentlessly brainwashed in their public educational experiences for more than several decades now and who understand nothing of the Constitution, especially the fixation of the Founders on limiting the size of the federal government.
The drivers of the economy, members of that vast middle class (who aren’t among the around 45+% of workers who pay no federal income tax) constitute the vast group of 60 million voters* who did not opt for The One™. 60 million is close to half of the total number of individuals who cast a vote for President in November.
(*these are the people that Janet Napolitano obliquely threatened just before April 15 (Tea Party Day) and who Axelrod, Carville et al., in good Alinsky fashion, mocked post April 15)
Perry at #19 said:
“I can just imagine my Jewish liberal-Democrat friends looking back at the Bush years as ‘the good old days.’ ”
How much do you want to bet Jews will vote for Obama in 2012 at 2 to 1 levels no matter what? Great depression; another 9/11 or worse; an Iranian nuclear strike on Israel: none of it will matter.
It fills me with sadness and chagrin – being Jewish myself – that Jews are as wedded to liberal orthodoxy as are Blacks. For different reasons to be sure.
The bond is unbreakable.
He’s doing exactly what he planned to do, what he explained to us he would do during his campaign. Only a few of us got it right. He wants this country to be transformed into a third world country, weak, poor, and looking to him for everything. He’s well on his way to getting all that he has been yearning for. Total collapse and rebuilding of America in his image of what it should be. He must be giddy with delight. The wife too.
Could it be that Obama is a gag gift from God to see if anyone still cared about right and wrong, good and evil? Face it; it was getting hard to tell. It’s not funny of course but it seems it was necessary. We have really tolerated some unbelievable corruption for decades now, whether we knew it or not, chances are we had an inkling something was very wrong but really weren’t that upset. So maybe God put the topper on the cake and ‘whoa Nelly, we aren’t going down this road, why this is the road to hell. This is the very road that caused our forefathers to leave Europe, Asia, and Africa etc…’
So here’s to staying awake, getting off the fence, choosing sides and getting busy defending your freedoms, your rights and your beliefs.
Congratulations to us. Just don’t shut up.
Obama is nowhere as competent, educated, experienced, or smart as he thinks he is, but he can still–in his malicious, partly bumbling, fumbling way–do a hell of a lot of damage.
As someone posted earlier, all of Obama’s moves that appear to be mistakes—if he were truly trying to fix America’s problems–are not mistakes at all, and make much more sense, if you realize that they are steps he is taking toward his goals of destroying the Capitalist system and the Rule of law, of frog marching us towards some variant of Socialism/Fascism/Marxism, and establishing a Tyranny.
One aspect of Obama’s plans that has not gotten the attention it deserves is the Federal Reserve’s radical increase in the money supply—by one estimate a fifteen-fold increase. All this stimulus and bailout money given to banks is sitting in the Federal Reserve, where banks have temporarily parked it but, when banks start to loosen credit again and resume normal lending, all this money will hit the economy, and since banks typically lend five or six times the amount of their reserves, this enormous tidal wave of money is going to cause hyperinflation.
Or, expressed another way, every dollar in existence on the day before the Fed started to print unprecedentedly huge amounts of new money will—if the 15-fold estimate is correct—be worth around something like a 1/15th of its prior value, so that the same concrete item (and service too) you bought before the Fed drastically increased our money supply—a Whopper, a roll of toilet paper, a sweater, a bar of soap, a new pair of shoes, or a automobile—will require you to pay increasing numbers of more and more devalued dollars to buy it.
Then, it will be hello Zimbabwe, where, for instance, in July 2008 they were printing up $100 billion Zimbabwe dollar notes worth $1 dollar U.S. By January 2009 they were printing up 100 trillion dollar notes, and in the last of several currency devaluations, in February 2009–before they suspended use of the Zimbabwean dollar altogether–the government decreed that the former $1 trillion dollar bill was now worth $1 dollar.
we should demand he recall the stimulus package and the omnibus budget and then he can do as he promised and go through them line by line.
AMEN
OK I know this sounds weird, but has anyone noticed how Obama always speaks of “pillars” when he talks about the economy or anything else? Maybe it’s just me and mistrust…….????
LeighB #68 Hillary is an interesting question, you might say a puzzle, certainly an epistemological paradox. A brilliant student ,no doubt, a political blunderer and stumbler of Olympian proportions, equally of no doubt. As to writing books; I assume you refer to that paternalistic horror, “It Takes a Village”. She made may have read the drafts but she couldn’t even bring herself to give the typical credit to the ghostwriter who did write her ‘magnum opus”. An interesting thought experiment would be to decide who is more incompetent, her or the Big O, as well, who is nastier?
Not to debate but just a thought.
@ Friendly Girl
Here’s a shocker… I feel that I have to defend President Obama.
Stop feeling and start thinking.
These changes in policy when confronted by reality have been the right thing to do in all cases.
When confronted by reality? He announced the closing of Gitmo with great anti-Bush flourish before a fawing and clueless media with no clue what to do with the detainees. This isn’t being confronted by reality . This is someone with the mentality of a college freshman becoming President.
He education and experience may have been fawlty (ha ha) but he has shown the guts to face that he has been wrong and has repeatedly reversed course. Good on him.
If he was up to the job he would have know going in what he now knows. So bad on him and you for not being smart enough to figure this out in advance.
Also, look at the alternatives that were offered to the American people – Hilary Clinton – who has so far been probably the most stupid and incompetent Sec of State ever, (reset anyone) how bad would she have been as President? or
I’m no fan of Hillary but she’s hardly worse than Rice or Powell or Halfbright or Christopher.
or McCain who appears to take his policy advise (sic) from his daughter, young ‘Paris’ McCain. Scary.
Your evidence for this is what?
The President’s Keynesian pump priming economic policies may yet result in stagflation and a devalued dollar but so far the markets have been happy.
The markets are self-deluded. The bill for this excessive spending is inflation and higher taxes. It has yet to become due but when it does you won’t be quite so friendly to Obama.
Maybe if they fail he will do the right thing and listen to the Tea Partiers and change course. Better late than never.
No. It’s better for the nation that he fail miserably so that this kind of stupidity isn’t soon tried agaisn by the next snake oil salesman.
What I’m saying is that it is a sign of surprising smarts to change course when shown to be wrong.
Please. If he was at all smart he wouldn’tbe quadrupling the deficit and wouldn’t have promised to close Gitmo and abolish military commissions with no idea what to do with the detainees.
Something that neither Hillary nor McCain have shown the ability to do and as for Biden — another zero IQ’er like Hilary.
I not yet ready to pronounce the man as President Stalin and call for rebellion, that’s all.
He’s not Stalin. But there’s some Mussolini and a lot of Pelosi, Reid, Michael Moore and Al Gore. Cluless.
When you’re not ready to think for yourself, you’ll undersand.
(just got in)
Meryl 46–3 important really good points:
1. “Russia was not genetically condemned to such destruction any more than we are. And we are are not safe from such destruction any more than Russia was.”
Great historical context point. I don’t know the psychological term, but our tendency is to think it could never be us, by distancing ourselves from the past and rationalize “they were predisposed for it”. Very dangerous. This dumbed down generation can’t even remember 9-11 never mind have a clue about recent history. Pathetic.
2. “It is my sense that if we do not succeed in blowing the situation wide open in the time period between now and November 2010, we will have lost the opportunity.”
Totally agree and everyone better think this way or we’re cooked. No urgency, no success. He’s moving too fast to not be screaming at the top of our lungs. At least Cheney’s showing some heart, and Gingrich is finally getting off his philosophical cloud. Where the hell is everyone else?
3. “At least 75% of those in office now have got to go, from both sides of the aisle. For the sake of national and personal safety, we had best purpose to regain the solid ground of a Constitutional Republic.” Let’s hope and pray so–a total flush would be nice, but there are some good folks. I just don’t know how long people can wait for “someone else” to speak up for us. The frustration is palpable and people are gonna march and do whatever they can to make a fuss and be heard. “All things work together for good” but I don’t think anyone wants to pay the price for the lesson that Obambam has in mind.
74.El hefe “Congratulations to us. Just don’t shut up.” Yes, indeed!
80.D-wah … thanks for your further comments. Agree totally…
johnt – no offense taken. I was actually thinking about Hillary’s early work “Children Under the Law”, which I think was in the Harvard Educational Review. I also read her senior thesis, to see what all the hubbub was about, and I thought it was pretty good, it gave me quite a bit of insight into BHO. People can be intelligent and make choices that seem pretty dumb to others.
Regarding the last part of your comment, I’ll give BHO high marks for incompetence and ruthlessness. HRC gets high marks for toughness and at times, faulty (political) radar. I give him the edge in nastiness.
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Dear Mr. President:
1) The United States of America IS A CHRISTIAN NATION, not a Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or any other religion, nation. It was founded on the basis of Christianity and English Common Law. That we are a tolerant people, and accept others who immigrate here, and let them worship without hindrance, does not mean that we welcome that they try to convert us or impose barbaric laws on us, such as Sharia.
2) Mr. President, please help pass legislation to prohibit the use of a Burqa in the US. This attire is at the center of the tremendous abuses inflicted upon innocent girls and women in many Muslims countries. If Muslims come here, they must abide by our laws, otherwise, they should go back home, and in the process, we must make sure they take with them their so-called prophet Mohammed. You see, among the 58 million citizens that voted for McCain, and even in the group that voted for you, many believe that this Mohammed was a cruel and deviant person and a pedophile. Actually, if they take Mohammed, why not take also the Allah that they worship, a blood-thirsty demon passing for God.
3) A question Mr. President: Why did you, during the campaign and under pressure, finally stated that drilling for oil and gas was to be part of your energy plan, but once elected reneged on your promise? Those who did not vote for you always knew your intentions, but for others this information tilted the balance in your favor. We want to drill here and now.
4) Moreover, even though we all know you are pro-abortion, can you come clear with us on the issue of gay marriage? To say that marriage should be between a man and a woman while, under the table, helping states pass legislation to make it happen, is not honest. Gay lifestyle is not natural, besides those predisposed genetically; there are others that can be cured of this abnormal behavior. We don’t want our children taken to gay weddings as it happened in California.
5) Mr. President, can you clarify why you campaigned center-left, and once elected moved like a meteor to the far left? We run the risk of a huge backlash that, not differently from Germany in the 1920s may pave the way for electing another Hitler, or Mussolini, or a Jean LaPen-like politician.
6) Please, Mr. President, stop apologizing for the United Sates, and if you must do it, do it here to our face, and not in some foreign country. We suspect that you have been influenced by the hateful tirades of Reverend Wright after attending his church for 20 years. The United States is the greatest nation on earth, and in the last 100 years, it has done many times more good than bad. If you don’t believe us, ask the French. This is the nation that uplifted Europe with the Marshall plan, defeated evil Imperial Japan, then helped Japan to get back on his feet, later defeating the evil empire of the Soviet Union, in essence this is verily THE LAND OF THE FREE, THE HOME OF THE BRAVE.
7) Is it to much to ask to secure the border with Mexico? Or finally the Minute Men will have to return there, this time around armed to the teeth.
Wow I found a forum, blog, where I actually feel comfortable and have truly enjoyed reading the many posts here. There seem to be well thought out posts with real rational reasoning. Most new sites basically have people constantly posting the same old thing and insulting one another, but so far at least on this particular site or subject there is real discussion with some thought provoking and profound posts much unlike anywhere else. Glad I found this site and have it bookmarked in my browser. Thanks for the great site and posts all.
Mary B (#73), Obama is not getting what he wants since Democrats are stonewalling on Cap & Trade, Nationalized Healthcare, & the budget. These same Dems have to run for re-election next year & are already is deep sh*t thanks to Porkulus.
ardon me if someone else has made this point but I am returning to this thread after viewing it to post 35.
Back during the campaign many us pointed out that Sarah Palin was better qualified then Obama. While many Obama supporters scoffed at such a notion we now know that indeed this is true. Obama’s adoption of President Bush’s security framework in total is an admission that Bush was right. Does anybody believe that Palin would have questioned this framework to begin with?
While Obama has not yet learned his lesson on the domestic side that day of reckoning is coming and I suspect the President will, as the British used to say, make a U-turn and move toward fiscal sanity. Does anybody believe that Palin would have been panicked into these bailouts? She would have let GM and Chrysler file Chapter 11 on their own without government assistance and Palin certainly would not have proposed Porkulus and tolerated 2 trillion dollar deficits.
If Sarah Palin was not qualified for Vice President then it is a certainty that Barak Obama wasn’t either.
74 El hefe writes:
“Could it be that Obama is a gag gift from God to see if anyone still cared about right and wrong, good and evil?”
Chief, this is the funniest comment of the day! I am doubled over with tears rolling down my cheeks! Add it to the list of aliases our clown-in-chief:
Obumble
Obambi
The Alleged Hawaiian
Chimpy, the Kenyan
Teleprompter of the U.S. (TOTUS)
The Dear Leader
The Great Pretender..
..and The Gag Gift from God
..Lord preserve our beloved nation.
Want to thank our president (sarcasim here) for all the jobs his stimulus billions we the taxpayers are paying for have created. Now, for the 150,000 saved/created jobs this administration is bragging of. Now we have the closing of the GM Chrysler dealerships which will create more losses than the supposed job gains. Please somebody tell me how this is supposed to be progress!!!!!!!!! Think I may go upchuck right now
74, 87. You may remember that Pelosi said He was a gift from God, and she wouldn’t lie to us, would she?
Disaster.
The person Obama entrusts as the mouthpiece of the administration – Robert Gibbs – is all you need to know about this president.
(a) Gibbs is terrible. When Bush II was on TV, I’d change the channel; that’s how bad it was to put up with his manner. I thought no one could top him. I was wrong.
(b) Perhaps it is by design to have Gibbs as spokesman: make Obama look even more smooth and charismatic. And perhaps Obama does not want to be upstaged.
The problem is not that Obama is not intelligent, but that he is too intelligent for his own good. His ego is writing checks this nation can’t cash. High intelligence without wisdom and common sense doesn’t make you a good leader; it makes you dangerous.
86. jerryofva
I do believe you are absolutely correct. Sarah Palin would neither have panicked, nor gone Machiavellian.
Character counts – and it certainly doesn’t come from an Ivy League school.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus is a 5th Column. They are standing proxy for the Democratic Socialists of America who are the affiliate governmental organ of The Socialist International in the USA.
Removing “American Individualism” as a barrier to international socialism is the object of the exercise. Chicago has been the national home of these SI forces for decades. There is nothing new here, but a decades old effort playing out.
They dominated FDR’s government until he woke up and tossed Henry Wallace, replacing him with Truman. Now they are back, the Truman Democrats are forever gone, and the Progressives have their own precious robotic sycophant in Barack Obama.
This is a coup, not a political party. The point is to collapse the nation in such a way it cannot be put back together in a manner which affronts and conflicts with the transnational socialist hegemony of SI… obsolete throwback that it is.
This is sick sick stuff, and very dangerous. Don’t you realize why the collapse of FNM/FNM was deliberately forced upon the American economy? You think Shumer’s congressional letterhead sabotage of Indy Mac was an accident?
It all depends on what the word “govern” means. If it means leadership in the grand tradition of Presidents past with statesmanlike wisdom and care for the rule of law on which this country is founded; then yes, Obama is falling far short. But that might never have been his or the democrats goal.
If, OTOH, it means leadership in the tradition of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and a host of other successful dictators of failed nations; then Obama is right on track to “succeed admirably”.
After all…he won, right? Apparently gives him the right to define the meaning of “successful governing”…among other things.
80. D-wah:
(just got in)
Meryl 46–3 important really good points:
1. “Russia was not genetically condemned to such destruction any more than we are. And we are are not safe from such destruction any more than Russia was.”
Great historical context point. I don’t know the psychological term, but our tendency is to think it could never be us, by distancing ourselves from the past
~~~~
One of my husband’s favorite movies is Dr. Zhivago. I’ve seen it a number of times, but two days ago, it provoked a reaction in me it never has before. The deep seeded terror it WILL happen here. After all, now we have comrade bambiovich to lead us.
The most interesting thing is that now that reality is sinking in and TeleBama is forced to quit campaigning and actually start governing, he’s starting to adopt all of Bush’s policies that he previously trash-talked.
Not sure about this. So far, everything Obama was doing was helping him to get more and more power…
#23 – Macko: We don’t need him to recall anything, we need to have HIM recalled.
We then need to get all Congress members replaced with people who will work for their constituents. We need to vote people in who will set up a system by which each person running for office is given free, equal air-time on C-SPAN and C-SPANII for their commercials. Commercials from special interest groups would not be allowed. Candidates could also make full use of the internet. The tv networks would be required to set aside some time for Presidential candidates, at a time of their choosing, as long as it’s during the time when families are thought to be home from work – such as, Mon-Fri, 6pm – 11pm and Sat&Sun, 7am-11pm and each candidate gets equal time. Local stations would carry commercials for candidates for Congress. To ensure that no one is getting an unfair advantage, the times could be picked like the lottery.
There would still be debates, but the rules would be proposed by the candidates, and voted on by the citizens by internet and phone like the reality shows.
Since there would be operating costs to the campaigns, each candidate would be given a certain amount of money – depending on whether it is for state or federal campaigns – and the candidates could not add any more monies, whether donated or personal monies.
The citizens of each state would vote for raises for their Congressmembers, based on their performance. No more voting a raise for themselves when the rest of the country is struggling. Also, candidates would have to campaign on their own time, or be docked for the time they are not at work.
Lastly, Congressmembers would have to use the Medicare and Medicaid health plans since they think those are great plans for the citizens, or they would have to pay for their own health coverage.
That is my proposal. I just haven’t figured out all the logistics. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Dope – I guess you must be for Obama now that he has adopted all of Bush’s policies
He weaves. He bobs. He wobbles. He lurches. He slurs.
While I guess this is typical drunken behavior, the problem goes deeper than that.
You see, this guy, let’s call him Bob, isn’t simply a town drunk, Otis Campbell style, presumably ruining only his own sad, sorry life.
Bob has a big job; he’s way up there in government, and makes life and death decisions; for soldiers, for citizens, for an entire country.
Worse, up to now, all of those decisions have not just been calamitousness in a here and now state, but, as if ten thousand time bombs have been armed and set, some of the horrific damage will be done sooner, other later.
The seriousness of the situation? Perhaps a metaphor would help explain.
Bob is like a drunk driver, gas pedal to the floor, going the wrong way on the exit ramp of a California freeway, backlit by dawns early light. A family filled car is entering the freeway at 45 miles an hour. They’re 200 feet apart. Two hundred feet from eternity. Less than a second.
Of course, Bob isn’t his real name. And I’m not just talking about a fiery, family-killing car crash.
This guy goes by the name of Barack. He’s President of the United States.
And if there was a breathalyzer test for someone drunk with power, the brown eyed handsome man would be off the scale.
Who’s fault?
Well, if we put everyone who voted for this cretin (essentially giving him license to kill this Republic) on trial for reckless endangerment of a country, their defense would have to be either temporary insanity or permanent senility.
For having such a destructive force sitting in the oval office is like playing Russian Roulette with the land of liberty, from sea to shining sea.
Epilogue:
Part of the reason for lil’ole’ Rachel’s latest missive is the suggestion by Dr. Hanson, Jennifer Rubin et al that Telebama’s actions are simply a series of a very liberal president’s missteps, miscalculations, mistakes.
Poppycock.
I say, guys, smell the coffee. These Barackian creatures hate this country and everything it stands for with a passion usually reserved for child molesters. Their intention is your country’s ruination, not to mention the stuffing of Democratic pockets with gazillions of greenbacks. They are the Stalins and Lenins of our time.
Drunk with power. And then some.
Scienter. Barack and his band of brothers have it by the truckload.
I guess I could write about the competence gap of Jennifer Rubin, but on second thought she never has given any evidence of competence from the beginning; so there is no gap
My one HOPE is that there will be a CHANGE in presidents in 2012!!!!!!!
83. MiamaMan:
“1) The United States of America IS A CHRISTIAN NATION, not a Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or any other religion, nation. It was founded on the basis of Christianity and English Common Law.”
Did you know we have freedom of religion?
That Christianity is not the fastest growing religion but others including atheism?
“2) Mr. President, please help pass legislation to prohibit the use of a Burqa in the US.”
And don’t forget the Jewish little hat, the Amish clothing, the African robes, etc.
“3) We want to drill here and now.”
Are you? I thought the oil companies did that.
“4) Gay lifestyle is not natural, besides those predisposed genetically; there are others that can be cured of this abnormal behavior.”
Homosexuality is genetic. Hope you get some gay kids.
“5) Mr. President, can you clarify why you campaigned center-left, and once elected moved like a meteor to the far left? We run the risk of a huge backlash that, not differently from Germany in the 1920s may pave the way for electing another Hitler, or Mussolini,”
You make absolutely no sense.
“6) Please, Mr. President, stop apologizing for the United Sates,”
It’s not apologizing, it’s telling the truth. Foreign people are not idiots.
“7) Is it to much to ask to secure the border with Mexico? Or finally the Minute Men will have to return there, this time around armed to the teeth.”
Securing the border is not the final solution. There are several legal ways to get into the country and stay illegally. You have no idea. And don’t forget the Chinese and Middle Easterners, they don’t come in through Mexico. It’s all about fair and effective immigration legislation.
101. Rachel Peepers:
“Drunk with power. And then some. ”
You’re so jealous of this man it shows.
vivo:
I can see you are very intelligent and a follower of Alinsky and Chimpy. Let me help you:
a) Did you know we have freedom of religion?
That Christianity is not the fastest growing religion but others including atheism?
Yes, I know, still the US is a Christian nation, founded by Christians without a single Muslim. Did you know that? Freedom of religion I am for, but not distorting history.
b) And don’t forget the Jewish little hat, the Amish clothing, the African robes, etc.
Really? I have never heard that those attires you mention pose any threat to us, I do not believe there is a Jewish, Amish, or Native African Jihad, nor that these cultures want to impose barbaric laws on others, like Sharia Law, or fly airplanes full of innocent people into buildings, behead innocent Americans and video tape the deed. So I do not have a problem with any of the 3 garments you refer to, but I definitely have a big problem with the Burqa, a symbol of all the abuse and hate of Islam against their own women.
c) Are you? I thought the oil companies did that.
Naw, you are more intelligent than that? Don’t you?
d)Homosexuality is genetic. Hope you get some gay kids.
Thanks, my kids are OK without your sick wishes, I have read your posts here full of hate before, and know you cannot control your sphincter, may be you have an enlarged prostate, check it out. Homo is not always genetics, and often CAN BE CURED.
e) You make absolutely no sense.
You make absolutely no sense.
f) It’s not apologizing, it’s telling the truth. Foreign people are not idiots.
US people are not idiots, and can smell this rat, apologizing and worse.
g)Securing the border is not the final solution. There are several legal ways to get into the country and stay illegally. You have no idea. And don’t forget the Chinese and Middle Easterners, they don’t come in through Mexico. It’s all about fair and effective immigration legislation.
You are right, it is part of the solution. I can see you are not well informed, the scary part is that, according to the experts, about 100 illegal Arabs enter THROUGH MEXICO every months, the same experts state that a percentage are surely Iran, Al Queda, and other extremists’ plants.
Войска ПВО, I think ked5 is on to something. I hope you will change your list and include Comrade Bambiovich.
Ever noticed which threads attract the trolls? The one thing that they shan’t abide is criticism of their Dear Leader.
Hussein’s budget is slavery reparation funding.
ConfusedinVA@99
Several great suggestions. Social Security would have been fixed long ago, if the Congressionals had to rely on it for their retirement. They don’t. Same for Healthcare.
Look, it’s not just the One. It’s the “political class” at all levels of gov’t. While, I agree that we need to replace the critters with different folks, all the newly elected will be installed in the same corrupt, pandering, rent-seeking environment, and in most-junior status.
This Congress is on schedule to enact 62,000 NEW Federal Laws this year, after passing 60,000 NEW Federal Laws last year. Add in new State and local laws…. About what? To benefit who, except special interests? Think about it. None of US can name even 10 of these new laws. However – ignorance of the law is no excuse.
The “political class” (including every gov’t worker) is in the business of enslaving US via the law and regulation. That’s their JOB. We pay them inordinate amounts to do it, and they’ve attempted to make themselves immune from prosecution for doing it, even when it’s clearly unConstitutional, or infringing on individual rights.
If we don’t prosecute and jail everyone of the legislators that voted FOR the porkulus bill without reading it, we have no hope of changing the system, or reducing the corruption, or stopping/reversing our enslavement. If this behavior doesn’t qualify as “crimnal,” then nothing ever will. Absent severe repercussions, they’ll just keep on keepin on. Both parties.
Just think – if by some stroke of fate or fortune – they happen to get defeated at the polls, then they get to retire with full-boat pensions (avg. $150K/year), plus lifelong healthcare and federal protection (why would they need that?), all on our and our children’s tab. Such a deal they’ve made for themselves.
If the “producing class” is not prepared to go to the “prosecutorial extreme,” then we’d better prepare to go the barricades; because the majority of the US population is fully prepared to live off the labor of the minority, from now on.
Lastly, we must disband current and ban future unions for gov’t workers at local, state and federal levels. They represent a clear prescription for national doom. EG, see GM & Chrysler & California. Taking back the nation, gonna get interesting, no?
I would suggest that this cycle – obama worship, Obama’s grab for power over every facet of American life, extreme liberalism and socialism must go to its’ extreme before it swings back. I would suggest that Obama will attempt to become our dictator soon enough, certainly within the next four years. It will be during a crisis that he attempts this. (remember Roman History, please!) He loves power, loves it more than life, I would suggest. Whether he succeeds I do not know. But I think that he really wants it and believes it is his fate. He is not a man to see his limits, to see his failings as failings. He does not respect us or our Constitution. As this article says, there is a competence gap the size of a small planet in this administration and certainly in Obama, but I doubt Obama is capable of humility even in his sleep.
He is a man with feet of clay.
Could something save the republic? yes, world events heating up to over boiling. Things becoming utterly uncontrollable … power is great but how to do you control the uncontrollable? Our enemies may do us a favor they, themselves, could not name.
Also, I would suggest that we are being dismantled as a country and a world power, our glory and gravy days are OVER – and, that was the intention all the long, not of a conspiracy but as a philosophical desire on the part of liberals/progressives.. the intellectual educated, college professors, the rich elites, the political class.. the communists, etc. They have wanted this for a very long time. We have seen America’s gold days; now comes its decline, either slow or fast does not much matter.
This current crisis is just an excuse, a reason for doing what they always wanted to do.
It doesn’t need to be a conspiracy. It is a desire that thousands/ millions hold. The environmental movement is just an excuse, also. They do not think that common man deserves the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” In control of our educational and entertainment industries, they have slowly worked to produce generations who have no dignity or individuality. People who want to be liked not respected. Been rather successful at it, also.
So far, socialism and liberalism has not worked out successfully anywhere in the world, and particularly, not here in the West. I would point out that Europe is doomed demographically, that Islam is rising throughout the Middle East and Europe, that even Russia is threatened by its rise. In part, because socialism and liberalism tends to make people both compliant and rather unmotivated – when people become lazy, civilizations, fall . One of the ironies of human existence is that both liberalism and conservationism in their extreme forms becomes restrictive and cruel – tyrannies of the worse kind. Like the Greeks said, moderation and self-control!
Now, will they realize in dismantling the USA they are destroying many good things and people that can not be replaced and that without the USA Islam will march forward and most of the world will either be communist or Islamic in a 100 years?
No, not until they are inconvenienced in some very great way. Their world-view both blinds and binds them.
Ironically, I think in 50 years a lot of people who now believe all kinds of very liberal things will be bowing to Mecca and sewing their first burka or head scarf. Liberalism, even at its best, is a very weak, cowardly, emotional world view. It will never stand up to conflict and violent challenge.
The extremes of this time are pulling the world apart and I would suggest that Islam is stronger extreme. Sad, very sad.
I recall that we former ‘drunken sailor(s)’ were always only spending our own money. All due credit to Reagan for making that point so many years ago.
Obama’s incompetence is boundless, and we have only seen the first 100 or so days of it! Check this blogger out for an idea of how it can seriously impact America. http://theblacksphere.blogspot.com/2009/05/ghosts-of-democrat-presidents-past.html HYSTERICAL!
Given the complete lack of competence demonstrated by the previous administration, I am quite delighted and satisfied at the improvement that Obama represents.
Perhaps there is a competence gap between his campaign skills and his governance skills. With practice, his campaign skills proved to be stronger than anyone expected. I suspect his governance skills will likewise exceed the expectations of most observers.
Obama has taken deliberate and pragmatic action to implement his agenda, and has shown wisdom, flexibility and charm in the process. There will be compromises and setbacks, and there will be reversals and failures. This is not a surprise. Regardless, Obama will continue to advance his agenda, and will adapt and respond intelligently to the challenges he faces.
I would note that impugning Obama’s competence is a pretty funny gambit coming from Jennifer Rubin. At least, if it weren’t so sad, it would be funny.
Peace.
DS
106. MiamaMan:
It’s very clear you are a complete idiot.
Have you noticed that I only reply to the most idiotic people in this thread?
Sure vivo, I noticed “der spiegel”, you go round and always answer yourself. Thanks for epithet.
It’s not incompetence. It’s design.
Don’t mistake the objective and everything will become perfectly clear.
The “political class” swirling in the Congress is the incompetence you look for in relation to governing.
They don’t look past anything but elections, and they have won reelections by paying out money to the mob that doesn’t pay taxes for so long that they are conveniently blind to Obama’s objective.
Obama isn’t were he is to fix anything. Nor to govern. Nor to keep any promise made to any external individual. Oath, duty, right thing to do…?
Please.
He’s there to bring it all down. Read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.
Even a dictatorship is safe until individuals become directly angered by the actions of the dictator. In a representative republic where the governed have abdicated their responsibility to choose adult representation, you end up with a clown show that totters along for decades on the fruits of past accomplishments.
Obama is here to end the Establishment. And given the fact he still owns the media and the “political establishment” AFTER nationalizing major chunks of our financial and manufacturing industries shows he’s still got a field to play on.
It’s about breaking, not fixing. Watch.
The last few weeks? It was obvious from the start. The guy is the least qualified, least experienced and least talented president in history. His only talent seems to be self promotion.
Fascinating. Now having seen “pragmatic” suddenly turn up in a series of liberals’ comments, I realize that it’s become the new liberal watchword, replacing “robust.” Who coordinates all you guys’ talking points, now that the KGB has fallen on hard times?
Contra you, the Nubian Nullity has realized that even his most glassy-eyed acolytes (I’m not looking in your direction) would turn on him if he allows a successful terrorist attack. Even without that, he’s on course to be a dusky version of Jimmy Carter, whose popularity was greater at the same stage in his (mal)Administration.
President Obama is a gift to fiscal conservatives, a wonderful gift so fulsome and complete that it will eventually satisfy even the most economically illiterate amongst us that leftist economics and the policies based upon it are the most destructive ideas ever to spring from the mind of man.
For the last eight years I watched in horror as the Democrats crafted and sold the fiction that they were the party of fiscal restraint. No one seemed to remember that the budget surpluses of the late 1990s coincided with the first Republican Congress in two generations, no one seemed to remember the stagflation of the late 1970s, or the punishing tax rates that the Democrats imposed from WWII to Reagan.
But now no one will have to remember. By the time Obama’s first term comes to an end the tinny dollar coin currently being pushed by the Treasury Department will be the new quarter. Eight dollar Big Macs and gallons of milk and gasoline will have become permanent. Only the rich will be able to protect their money from roaring inflation, and for the working classes buying a house will have become a pipe dream.
The Democrats have spent so long building their reputation of fiscal prudence that it is literally breathtaking to watch them flush it within months of obtaining the total power they’ve craved for so long. After Obama, the Democrats will never see power again—until the generation born after the destruction, with no memory of the misery currently descending upon us comes of age. And hopefully the Democratic Party will have by then come to realize what the rest of us already know: capitalism IS economics.
@101. Rachel Peepers:
Rachel that was hands down one of the best comments I’ve read on PJM or anyplace else lately. Kudos!
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@114. David S: - Given the complete lack of competence demonstrated by the previous administration…
Ooop!! Begs the question AND deflects, all in one sentence fragment! Is OFA paying you by the fallacy, or what?
- … his governance skills will likewise exceed the expectations of most observers.
HA. Ha. ha. This is like saying a mediocre used car salesman – made successful through his skill at verbal deception and the aid of his rich uncle’s advertising monopoly – is capable of managing a multinational conglomerate corporation. BHO keeps selling used cars because that’s the only thing he knows.
- … Obama will continue to advance his agenda …
Of this there is no doubt. And his blunders so far have nevertheless made his fascistic agenda crystal clear.
With respect to things like wiretaps, GITMO, tribunals, the WOT in the ME – all the nonsense about which the Anti-Bush Party lied with the willing help of the whores in the entrenched, Fifth Column media – BHO’s administration has effectively called BULLSH!T on Bush’s critics.
In other areas, such as claiming he’d go through spending bills line-by-line and claiming the public would have ample time to review legislation, it’s clear he plainly lied to get elected.
As trends go, since 1/20/09, more and more people are catching on to this every day.
I agree with the basic premise — i.e., that Obama is not up to the job of President — but as to the idea that people are catching on that the emperor has no clothes, I’m not so sure. The mainstream media went all-out to get Obama in, and they’re doing everything they can to support him in his efforts now; I don’t see them reversing course anytime soon.
Plus I think Obama is very confident; he doesn’t see himself as inept, and he isn’t being presented that way by the MSM. His vision for America may be insane, it may be fueled by an essentially anti-American instinct, but he believes in it, and he’s got the Congress and the MSM to help him push it to the limit.
On the other hand, we can’t afford his vision. So maybe the real question is how far in the hole will we get — financially, militarily, etc. — before the country figures out what’s up.
In the grand scheme of things, though, it might just be America’s time; as history shows us, great nations fade and ultimately collapse, no matter how great. Ideological and spiritual decay seem the only true constants in the history of nations, which is to say that while we’ll probably survive Obama, the forces that brought him to the helm are powerful and determined, and that may just be it.
Sorry to be such a downer; I know you’re trying to look on the bright side. If conservatism — that is, true liberalism — were being loudly and consistently championed in Washington, I might be optimistic. But the conservative movement and the GOP are two different things, and I don’t think the GOP has the moral and ideological clarity to lead us anywhere that will not, eventually, lead us right back to the road that carried us to where we are now.
——————–
I agree JR Dogman. These are my same feelings that I just keep to myself. I don’t bother to share them with anyone. We’re in deep due due.
I wander if Obama was elected after the Truman presidency if he would have brought Truman up on war crimes?
Unfortunately there are many cases that politicians go from bad to worse and the electorate doesn’t do anything about it. See the case of once prosperous countries like Argentina that have been going downwards for decades. Did you know that in the early 20th century Argentina was the 7th richest country in the World and now is 25th? And do you know what did it? “progressive thinking”, unions, populists, the idea that judges nneeded to be “empathetic” with whomever the favored group of people seemed to be at the time, etc. The left likes to portay the military juntas as right wing and pin the decadence on them. But it is not true. They were right wing in the sense that they fought a leftist insurgency. But on everything else they were populist.
“I wonder if Obama was elected after the Truman presidency if he would have brought Truman up on war crimes?” (122.MichaelCrosby)
Probably.
I’m not so sure I’m as ready as Jen Rubin is to call Obama’s performance as President thusfar, a demonstrated incompetency. She makes great points, but I suggest there may be something else besides incompetency at work, here. When we make judgements about someone’s competency at a paricular task, we’re operating from an agreed upon task. Jennifer, good American that she is, makes the assumption that avoiding the consequences of the federal government spending trillions it doesn’t have to be part of the presdiential job description. She assumes that spurring the economy is part of the presidential job description. She also assumes an America fairly safe from the actions of terrorists to be part of the job description. Most would make such assumptions. But, now think; Is it possible that these things are not a part of the description, from Obama’s view, and that of the people like George Soros, who funded his presidential run? Seems to me the job description needs to be agreed on before we make any judgements about his competence within that task.
@125. Eric Florack:
The President is not responsible for any of the tasks you have listed. As a reminder, here is the oath of office:
As far as “avoiding” the consequences of spending trillions of dollars, we’ve got a pretty good example of that from the past three GOP presidents. You can delay the consequences, but you can’t avoid them. Furthermore, the previous administration’s record on preventing terrorism is pretty dismal. The worst terror attack ever on US soil is not a great selling point for GOP anti-terror policies. Obama’s competence exceeds that of his predecessor, and unlike Bush, Obama actually understands what the oath of office means. Our Constitution needs this kind of President.
Peace.
DS
You’ve certainly left a good deal of low hanging fruit, but I think I’ll leave others the pleasure of flaying you, David.
- …I think I’ll leave others the pleasure of flaying you…
Where would poor lemming David S be without the “previous administration” to lie about, eh?
Oh wait – I think I see here why he’d rather deflect than talk about BHO’s fascistic policies, which are presently trampling the Constitution he promised to protect in ways not dreamed of since FDR’s mostly unconstitutional New Deal.
As far as “avoiding” the consequences of spending trillions of dollars, we’ve got a pretty good example of that from the past three GOP presidents. You can delay the consequences, but you can’t avoid them. Furthermore, the previous administration’s record on preventing terrorism is pretty dismal. The worst terror attack ever on US soil is not a great selling point for GOP anti-terror policies. Obama’s competence exceeds that of his predecessor, and unlike Bush, Obama actually understands what the oath of office means. Our Constitution needs this kind of President.–David S (#126)
David S, you have made some incredulous statements. President Obama’s so-called “stimulus” is more than the previous 43 Presidents of the United States COMBINED! President Obama has no fiscal restraint. In fact, he’s far worse.
Furthermore, President Obama has a contradiction problem. For example, he lectures the people about spending money they don’t have, yet President Obama & the Democrats can spend money the United States of America does not have with the “stimulus” & the budget??? That’s just one contradiction.
JOE BIDEN SHOULD BE A LIFETIME, NOT A HEARTBEAT, AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY
This guy is a national liability.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/vp-biden-national-liability.html
@130. The Historian:
And just when you thought Biden might be running out of steam…
…he doubles down!
Biden and the cast of the screw-ups who infest the new cabinet have pulled back the curtain to reveal a black hole presently occupying the space previously reserved for the POTUS’ good judgment. Inept doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Occam – usually when a new word shows up, it’s marketing. “Pragmatic” is positive spin for unprincipled. It’s bug as feature. It’s a little more positive than “expedient”, and a lot more positive than “corrupt”.
i think it’s too early to judge the person.give him a chance, the year is not over yet. and i really would like him to succeed, because i am sure that his plan will benefit everyone.
world of signs–I am sure Obama & Co. would be thrilled by such touching naivete as yours–”I’m sure his plan will benefit everyone,” indeed–and, in fact, are counting on this attitude among many citizens to delay–until it is too late–any effective reaction to his Blitzkrieg against the Constitution, Democracy, the Capitalist system and our Economy, as he frog marches us all towards Socialism at the best, Fascism at the worst; my bet is on Fascism, with the “One” playing the role of Il Duce.
I concur!
Goy,
Love the name, goy, and the compliment. Rachel
I’ll bet Captain Smith had people saying similar things about him… right up ’till his ship, the Titanic, went down.