The Left Wanted Barack Obama, and They Got Him — Warts and All
Et tu, Olbermann?
After Obama’s Oval Office address to the nation about the oil spill (which, as Ed Morrissey rightly points out, should have been on Day 1, not Day 57), Keith Olbermann and guests Chris “Tingle Me” Matthews and Howard Fineman couldn’t even find it within themselves to give their man the benefit of the doubt. As Olbermann said, “It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days.” And Matthews opined, “I don’t sense executive command.”
Remember the Wendy’s commercial with the old woman shouting, “Where’s the beef?” Essentially, that’s what Olbermann, Matthews, and Fineman were asking — along with the rest of a puzzled nation.
I didn’t think it possible for The One’s most faithful apostles to start questioning the tenets of the New Religion and criticizing its messiah. When that happens, you know things aren’t going well for the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
And we all know how well Obama deals with criticism. Whatever you might want to say about his predecessor, George W. Bush was able to take his lumps. If he complained about how the press treated him, he did it privately and no one tattled on him. Obama? Not so much. Even the teensiest bit of publicly uttered disapproval or disagreement of his agenda gets his knickers in a twist. He becomes self-defensive, testy, and downright snippy. Even during the campaign he felt as though reporters were too intrusive, whining the immortal question, “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”
I’m half expecting him to ask, “Why can’t I just play golf?”
Here’s the thing: Barry’s the president. The oil spill is not his fault, just as Hurricane Katrina was not George Bush’s fault, no matter how the left tried to pin it on him. However, being president is a lot more than singing with Paul McCartney and expensive date nights with the missus. A slow reaction to such destruction as we’ve seen over the last month and a half does not a popular president make. Under Bush, the federal government’s response to Katrina was secondary to that of the local and state government, who should have been the first responders. But the oil spill happened in federal waters. I’m not expecting Obama to, as he put it, “plug the damn hole” or even “suck it up with a straw,” but I do expect him to delegate responsibility to those who can get the job done and to stay informed and work with the executives from BP, not go around talking about looking for some “ass to kick” in a tasteless and pathetic attempt to be the tough guy that he is not. I also expect him to accept the immediate help offered from other nations to clean up the mess, not turn them down.
In other words, I expect him to lead.
Yup Chrissie…that “tingle up yer leg” really is wet peeee……isn’t it?
The Left wants their Utopia, and they thought they had found the man who could lead them there.
Now, it is being revealed that he is incompetent, and the Left has a choice. They can either finally admit that their Utopia is a dangerous and impossible fantasy, or they can stay loyal to their champion.
They will choose the former. They will now try to say that the man failed, not the dream. Unfortunately for them, Obama is the perfect embodiment of all that is wrong with their worldview, but they will never ever admit that.
Get ready to watch the nastiest divorce that you have ever seen.
Arrogance, incompetence, mendacity. Simple enough.
No need to overthink the situation.
Obama supporters claim that the President is not responsible for the Gulf oil spill and that is true. However it should be obvious, and I hope Republicans are listening, that when Obama announced last March the opening up of new offshore drilling it was done without any due diligence. A thorough safety review of existing offshore platforms should have been done prior to the Presidents announcement. That review would have brought the problems on the BP rig to light and corrective procedures could have been taken. Once again the lack of managerial experience and the concept that any idea the President has is, ipso facto, a good idea , has caused the greatest environmental disaster in US history. Should BP be held accountable? Of course. Should the President be held accountable for not protecting the public? The answer is just as obvious.
Lack — Schmack. His “lack” of experience isn’t the point — My Aunt Tillie could have handled the “executive” part of getting expert help — at least within the first week — And I don’t get it why no one else gets it — it’s so clear.
What makes anyone at this point think that BO cares one whit about what the American public thinks — about him or anything else.
(His ultra-leftists are just angry because he hasn’t become “Dictator” yet.)
He said that the “Stimulous” had to be done “immediately” or we’d all go down in flame. Then, in front of all of us, he went on a “date” with his wife to N.Y.C. that cost us about $1 Million — leisurely came back and took several days to sign it.
He pushed through Obamacare against the outrage of the overwheming majority — mocked them — got his Congressional Dems to use “Reconciliation” on the most major bill — with not one Republican vote. And forced many Democrats to commit political suicide.
The way he’s handled everything else … need I list them?
Has he shown any care about losing both Senate and House come November — just a tiny bit. It’s really not that important to him — nor is his re-election in 2012.
What DOES he care about?
Getting Cap & Tax through. They’re even talking about pushing it through during the Lame Duck session.
Closing down as many Oil Rigs as he can.
Transferring (Re-distributing) our wealth out of the U.S. to other countries.
(He donated $2 Billion to Brazil — for what? To DO DEEP WATER DRILLING. Where did the Rigs that were closed down in the Gulf Go with the hundreds of thousands of jobs? To Brazil. Who is invested in the Brazil Oil Co – Petrobras? George Soros.
So, if the spill in the Gulf was cleaned up right away — no damage to the wetlands — no spoiling of the fishing industry — no destruction of pristine beaches — only partial national distress and panic?
Then what good would this Crisis have done for his goals?
He didn’t create the leak — but it’s clear — it wasn’t and LACK that caused him to delay getting those Dutch ships there or all the other clean up proposals that were offered. It was very, very deliberate.
“Forced many Democrats to commit political suicide. FORCED???
Love the Mccartney bit. Modern version of Nero fiddling while Rome is burning.
Exactly.
One didn’t have to be a genius during President Obama’s campaign for the White House to figure out that with his calls for ‘change’, his wife’s stumble on the campaign trail about her pride in America, their 2 decade stint at Trinity’s Jim Cone inspired and Rev. Jeremiah ringled circus of black American self-absorption that we were looking at a dedicated though quiet Afro-centrist. In this sense, the BP oil spill has no imperative for the President and indeed could be considered by him as something of an annoyance. The President cannot gerrymander the spill as the Democratic Party is attempting to do with foreign nationals in this country illegally, he cannot charm it with a glib and over arching speech about the need for change, nor does the spill have any racial dimension around which he can wrap his personal agenda. The President cannot count on a ‘wise latina’ nor Eric Holder’s personal chaff with white America and so it should come as no surprise that the lack of a racial imperative is the true source of President Obama’s seeming disconnect from the worst ecological disaster in this nation’s history. Reality cares nothing for politically correct agendas and reacts poorly to bureaucracy which is a lesson the liberal political Left in America has yet to learn despite some decades of failure. The problem is that a politically correct view of the world does not allow one to clearly see that which one does not wish to see and in this light it is easy to see that President Obama emphatically wishes to deny reality itself and hope that it will just go away. Any politician grounded in common sense and with no agenda to sway their every move would have responded to the oil spill with pragmatic rationalism rather than an air of distraction and even whiny defensiveness. This is the issue around which those opposed to Barak Obama’s presidency tried to rally the nation but with black Americans provincially lost in a dream of a dark skinned world and half the Democratic Party seeing the Rainbow Coalition as tight as ever, the world of reality took a back seat to hope and the belief that disliking the story of America and not being George Bush was in some way a political platform, a mandate and a way to govern. If the Republican Party had a candidate of even half of Ronald Reagan’s stature President Obama’s bid for re-election would go the way of the Passenger Pigeon and Jimmy Carter. As it is, the Democratic Party will have to hope that reality has no more clinkers in it’s tool box with which to imbue any Republican candidate for President in 2012 with stature by default.
The Republicans have the next Ronald Reagan in Sarah Palin.
The election of Obama was not an honest mistake. There was nothing “honest” about it. It was a massive exercise in deliberate self delusion, and narcissism. For the Left it wasnt even about Obama they barely looked
at the guy. It was all about ME..me and my wonderful ideas and noble values.
Mulitculturalism, Change, Hope, Equality, Peace…anyone who believes in such
things must be right..right? The hard ugly world outside the mirror gazing
could all be ignored and the more painful it got..the more
the avoidance. Islamic terror..will all go away when they see how nice
we really are. Budget deficits? Government spending is for a good cause.
Mass Immigration? Everyone should see how wonderful we are.
Such fatuity took years of coddling and a economic success to build up.
Now we get to see the other side of things. Obama himself will not change
his condition is pathological. Most liberals will find another way to delude
themselves after Obama is gone. But we have to dismantle the Far Lefts control of Media and the education system so those capable of sanity have
a fighting chance.
Project, in other words. All the things about themselves that they’re so proud of, projected onto one man because he (a) wasn’t George Bush and (b) knew how to push their buttons. Suckers…
“Regardless, the rub is that the left got exactly who they wanted when Barry was elected.”
Don’t deceive yourselves, yet.
The left’s “real beef” is the nice little old lady across the street that pretends she didn’t see her two miniature schnauzers poop on your grass, the retired school teachers that still have Obama-Biden posters in their yard, the illegal Hispanics that put “Support Our Troops” decals on their cars (upside down) and an endless sea of “Give Peace and Ass a Chance” losers that have to be watered every morning.
“Ohhh… Oouuu…, he’s.. walking down the hallway now..”
“Aghh, he went into the men’s room..!”
“President Obama, isn’t he wonderful..?”
“Ohhh.. mmmm… I can’t breath..”
“Back to you Brad!”
“Brad..?”
“Brad..!?”
This is Doug..
Not until you see Olbermann, Matthews and Fineman openly doing everything they can to suck up to Hillary will you know for sure Barry is finished. Look for it in mid July.
Hillary? As the lesser evil. My God, What has happened to my country?
“Is Obama just incompetent?” Yes, yes, YES!!! As an executive, at least. This is a man who has never run ANYTHING in his life, not a town, a city, a state, or even a major corporation. Nothing, zip, nada. So now he’s expected to run one of the largest and most complicated nations in the world and handle a whole boatload of international and domestic problems immediately, right? Dream on, people. At least Carter could say with a straight face that he was governor of Georgia, not that it helped him much. Obama can’t even say that. The only thing he’s ever done in his entire adult life has been run for public office and that’s it. And 52% of the voting public and the slobbering main stream media all went along with it. “You don’t need executive experience. After all, he went to Harvard. He must be oh so smart. And all he has to do is surround himself with smart people.”
That “brilliance” of Mr. Obama’s is really helping us out in the Gulf of Mexico, with Israel, with North Korea, and with the Iranians, right? Oh, and did I mention his economic policies made us go broke, have made things worse, and have not helped us one bit?
How’s that Hope and Change working out for you now?
The Left put a man in office who has really never accomplished anything except taking part in Chicago politics. He is inept, incompetent, and frankly, I thought he looked terrified in the speech he gave. I think he realizes himself that he and his party are in a world of trouble.
And just why should it matter to Obama? He got the brass ring the first time on the merry-go-round. The brass ring that makes him a member of the most exclusive club in the world: ex-President of the once upon a time richest and most powerful nation in the world. With that – immortality. His immortality is seasoned by the fact that he is the first black president of that nation. Too bad that the immortality also comes with the addendum that his hatred of the country,and its history, and dare one suggest its majority white population, might just give a “blacker” tinge to that immortality. With that membership goes a golden hand-shake that provides him the life of a royal prince/king for the rest of his life, and he’s a fairly young man. ALL paid for from the expropriated taxes from the citizens of that nation whom he set out to ruin.AND succeeded in large measure in that goal in the short time in office.
Personally I hope that the people that voted for Stinker and any other Corruptocrat end up so ruined and out of work that they end up eating cat food, the really cheap stuff, to survive. The only problem is, as you said, the rest of will suffer along with them and B.O. & Co. will tax the crud out of us to support the bums.
Has anyone seen the new “free cell phone” commercials? Evidently a cell phone is now a “right” we have to pay for. Ever hear of a Go Phone? Let them buy one of those, we don’t need to pay for other people’s cell phone bills. Next thing you know we’ll be buying people console systems, ’cause you know everyone is entitled to a PS3, Xbox, or Wii.
“Hate the government…?” Yes, of course we hate the government, look who you voted in.
Good article and you said it all with the words “tenets of the New Religion”. I have not forgotten all the high flying rhetoric like “we are the ones we have been waiting for” and “the oceans receding and the earth beginning to heal”. I remember the huge crowds listening raptly to Obama’s speeches and how, in their adoration, they frighteningly reminded me of the massive crowds listening to Hitler’s speeches in pre-war Germany. And how about the ecstatic utterances after the election about how Obama was going to give us all “free gas and all kinds of free stuff”? This nation elected a Messianic figure and now the birds are coming home to roost. I hope no one thinks that the oil spill will be the last episode of incompetence and arrogance for this administration. The next biggie coming down the pike is going to be regulation of the Internet and an attempt to stifle free speech. I hope our Supreme Court will be up to the challenge.
The day after the election in 2008 a friend asked me what I thought about it all and I told him that I had a very dark feeling of foreboding of what was going to come upon this nation. So far I have been proven right.
I woke up with that same feeling the next day. It was a feeling similar to what I woke up with the day after 9/11. And after deaths in my family.
Iowahawk described that feeling best in one of his satirical pieces he wrote right after the election:
“Although I have not always been the most outspoken advocate of President-Elect Barack Obama, today I would like to congratulate him . . . I don’t care whether you are a conservative or a liberal . . . I hope you felt the same sense of patriotic pride that I experienced, no matter how hard you were hyperventilating with deep existential dread.”
Lol – so true! “Deep existential dread.” That was the feeling I had.
Barack Obama, meet Mr. Accountability. Unlike Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or Hopenchange – Mr. Accountability really exists. He brings the glow of glory to the competent and the stench of a soiled diaper to the fool.
Folks – I know this is going to sound like a broken record – but what did we expect? Irrespective of his politics, BHO is the first president of my lifetime – perhaps ever – who is elected POTUS with no executive leadership experience whatsoever. (And I am not saying “NO” experience as an exaggeration for “not enough” experience. I mean literally absolutely no leadership experience at all. He has never managed a fast food restaurant, a shift at a work place or a 12 person military squad. When questioned about this BHO himself lists his most significant leadership experience qualifying him for the office of the presidency is managing his campaign for the presidency. Previous to that – nothing.) Most people’s first formal leadership position is serving as boss to 5 to 12 people. BHO’s very first leadership position is serving as President of the United States – the largest and most complex executive position on the planet.
Being a leader or manager (hiring, firing, mentoring, training, resource allocation, planning, execution, etc.) is a specific skill set – one that Obama does not possess. And folks it gets even worse. Because Obama does not possess this skill set – he doesn’t see the value in this skill set. Few of his direct hires possess it either. (Can you believe we are saying SOS Hillary Clinton?) We have to get several levels down in the Obama administration before we can find anyone who has successfully run anything. Almost everyone in the Obama administration (from the POTUS on down) is there exclusively because of their ideology with little if any consideration for their ability to actually accomplish the functions of their job.
We as a country elected someone as President based solely because of his ideology with a little nod to the historic nature of his skin pigment with no consideration of whether or not he actually had the basic skill set for the job. Again – what did we expect?
As to the Poll Question now making the rounds of whether Oilbama is a very savvy traitor to our national principles or just a stupid substitute instructor from Academe, my vote is that — He’s a stupid traitor. As Mark Levin would now intone: “There! I’ve said it!”
It wasn’t just the left who wanted Obama. A whole lot of other people did, too, including a fair number on the right. Somewhere along the way 52% of the voting public decided that speeches equaled accomplishments and while we couldn’t say for sure that Obama was capable of doing the job it was worth giving him a shot at it anyway. For a bunch of different reasons, historic election of the first Black president, McCain failing to impress, Obama was the opposite of Bush, whatever. And maybe it’s understandable that those 52% were willing to give him a chance on spec as it were, because we’re a “Field of Dreams” nation, if we elect him, he will lead. Too bad his Presidency isn’t a movie because we could have walked out of the theater already.
But it too is a theater. Since TV/ Hollywood drives the modern world, success is to be a Star in Media: glamourous talk-show hostess, glamourous “newsreaders” or wise daddies/brothers with steepled fingers. And the other theater Politics. The “Stars” are all supported by experts in make-up to make them look better than they are, photographers to show them as demi-gods, script writers for their words, and sound engineers to provide olympian tones where desired to con, sorry charm the audience.And where possible to show the Star as in some way extraordinary to enhance the god-like impression. The most expert “MAD-MEN” to sell the product, the best slogan, the right logo. Many products are sold with a money back no questions asked guarantee if the
product does not perform as advertised, OR if dissatisfied for any reason. OBAMA would be the perfect model for this modern western consumer culture with such a guarantee. Unluckily . So what is the usual action for consumers if they can get no satisfaction for their mental, emotional, financial,and even physical distress caused by some product which does not perform as advertised. OR even causes damage to the consumer or his chattel? The usual procedure is class action from ALL dissatisfied consumers against the producer of the product and the advertising agencies. And WHAT would they be in the case of OBAMA? Remembering that the USA is a Country of Law Not of Men!
They wanted a smooth guy with a sharp crease in his slacks who was ” articulate, and good-looking”. That he was black was just the icing on the cake. All style and no substance, while the Chicago hacks pulling the strings are completely at a loss as to how to operate the White House. Look at the pathetic speech they wrote for Barry to read. If he weren’t so damned arrogant, I’d have felt sorry for him Tuesday night, sitting behind that huge desk like a little kid in his Daddy’s office, hands flopping around in an attempt to reinforce his rage, or his empathy, or whatever “emotion of the day” is called for in response to his pathetic leadership. At this point, he’d do less damage to his ratings if he just threw up his hands, said “screw it” and played golf through the summer until the leak was plugged. Every time he speaks, he just digs himself in deeper. Or as one wag pointed out in comments elsewhere, he only opens his mouth to change feet.
I believe that Victor Davis Hanson is correct. Olbermann, Matthews, Dowd and others don’t actually care about competence in this instance. They have realised for some time that Obama just can’t cut it. Finally the oil spill is giving them the excuse to back away (quickly) from carrying this loser’s water. They are concerned that Obama is going to ruin liberalism for a decade, and they are concerned about their own relavance going forward.
They need to disassociate themselves from the administration, but they had to wait for the right issue. They put their credibility on the line for Obama, now they want it back. The oil spill is an issue that doesn’t involve liberal dogma – it allows them to break with Obama, but not change “religons”
HH, alas, you point out another tragedy of this mess. The leftists who are backing away from Obama will not get the bigger picture. They won’t go back and consider what his opponents had to say about him back in 2007-2008. They won’t consider Charles Krauthammer’s prescient remark in August 2008:
They will continue to call such right-minded Cassandras racist and obstructionist, and they’ll continue to defend the left’s poverty of intellect, experience, and morality.
I heard the current occupant of the Oval Office speak live when he was on the campaign trail. I had a visceral reaction that his words were thin platitudes and he was saying nothing but buzz phrases.There was no meat,ho heat, no resolve. .His speeches since then have borne out my initial impression. At the campaign event, he pulled the “somebody has fainted in the front row get some water” fakery, which did not set off any alarm bells in the media. The press was dazzled…By what? They saw what they wanted to see. I came home and tried to convince friends and family the man was shallow. They didn’t care. They just didn’t care. Now they do.
It is understandable that journalists have to be roundabout when reporting ( e.g. ‘alleged murder of …”). Why should an opinion piece find it necessary to hedge it’s own opinion. More opinion writers and commentators on the Right say what almost everyone is thinking, the sooner we can get rid of this evil joker of batman fame. Let us call it the way it is, “Obama is not dithering, he is actively inhibiting any effort to ‘plug the damn hole’, because it is in the best interest of his agenda, that of destroying america’s energy sector, and hence break america’s neck.” See? It is much easier to tell the truth than to beat around the bush.
A minor request to all the opinion writers and commentators on the Right. Please contact your peers, colleagues, and together, decide to tell as i am sure you do in the locker-room and/or the ‘powder room’.
Say it openly. Besides being liberating, it will serve a very important strategic point in the war against the criminally insane Left.
Actually it might help to put Obama’s whole strategy, goals, and achiements towards the Leftist insanity on a chart and we check off ‘done deals’ one by one. Just to get a graphic idea of how competent he is in achieving what *he* wants to achieve. Then put how each of his acheivements destroys america one piece at a time on accompanying chart.
American Eagle @ 20
Exactly! Like you say, Obama is very, very competent “in achieving what *he* wants to achieve.”
While it’s good to see lefty groupies Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews change their wet panties and accuse their idol of inaction and incompetence in this oil spill crisis, like conservative critics, who have been saying the same thing all along, they’re flat-out wrong.
Obama’s been very busy doing something by doing nothing, and his so-called dithering has accomplished a great deal. The spill’s doing us great harm, he knows that, and the more the oil spills, the merrier. As far as he’s concerned, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow …
Sure, there’s a fuss about playing golf, going on vacation, or sitting on his ass while the oil keeps gushing. So what? Let ‘em squawk! Obama, he looks at the big picture. Economic and ecological disasters, one after another, all coming down on America — what could be bad?
The American people have to become more serious about elections. We will not be the first country to vote for suicide ,check Argentina.
“However, being president is a lot more than singing with Paul McCartney and expensive date nights with the missus.”
Oh, goodness. I hope oblameya doesn’t get upset when he finds out.
This is the sort of leader one gets when one votes for someone who is smart rather than a leader. All the leftists kept talking about how smart Obama was. My response was that when I was growing up, I was the smartest kid in the neighborhood, but I also knew I wasn’t a leader. They just brushed that aside as though it didn’t matter. But it does matter, as leftists are now finding out, because being a leader means, in part, knowing how to handle unexpected problems.
This incredible show of incompetence and malfeasance should not surprise anyone. Doesnt it track the same pattern as the Health Care legislation? It took Obama a year to drag that bill through Congress with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and the House under the iron-fisted control of his political allies. There was no evidence of any kind of leadership at any point in that maladroit process. Now he is doing the same thing with the BP oil spill. The actions he is taking, and the actions he refuses to take (suspending the Jones Act and allowing the barrier islands to be constructed) show a complete disregard for anything but his own political convenience and bizarre ideological preconceptions. The most amazing irony of the whole situation is the rage his policy of preventing BP from paying any dividends has stirred up across the Atlantic in our former ally of Great Britain. While he was attacking the ‘P’ (petroleum, always a boogie-man of the left) he didnt have any thought that the ‘B’ (Britain) would react at all. It turns out that British pensioners looked on their country’s largest corporation as a secure source of retirement income just like pensioners in this country relied on GM a generation ago. There is RAGE over there as dividends are stopped and the stock becomes virtually worthless. I’m sure Obama thought that the main shareholders were New Age lefty fatcats like the ones who contributed so generously to his campaign and didnt give a thought to the pension funds and grandmothers he has left out in the cold. Luckily the media have given him a pass on the cozy financial relationship between the Dems and BP and the MMS’s curious lack of action on the 750+ safety violations BP had wracked up in contrast to the other oil companies in the Gulf. This is the worst President in American history and if he sneaks Cap and Tax past the voters in a lame-duck session of Congress this autumn the weak economy will completely collapse.
1. He wasn’t a Republican.
2. He wasn’t Bush.
3. He is a Democrat.
4. He is Black.
5. His wife is Black.
6. Everyone feels real good about that. Makes them feel emancipated and liberal and all-encompassing ‘good’ people. The fact that he’s totally inert, supine, lying, anti-Semitic, craven, appeasing, racist and highly, highly dangerous is neither here nor there. It shouldn’t matter what colour or gender you are.
There are really two reasons why he won:
1. He wasn’t a Republican.
2. McCain’s shortcomings were VERY obvious during the campaign, while Obama was able to hide his.
McCain was headed for an upset win after the RNC, until the market imploded, followed by McCain’s campaign.
Being black won him the nomination, not the election. Hillary Clinton would have beaten McCain, too and probably with a wider margin.
Maybe the affirmative action wonder boy could restore his street cred with the Left, by singing with fellow stalinist Pete Seeger instead of Paul McCartney.Let’s have a marxoid Hootennany, How about it Obamoron?
Simply, he is the leftist college kid with radical ideas and a belief in Man (where he and his fellows are the ones to define what ‘Man’ should be), financed by very wealthy, screwed-up people, and package in the best TV gift-wrapping that Axelrod and Hollywood could provide.
His absence of experience was obvious.
His ‘record’ in the Illinois legislature was there to see.
That he was running for President when he spoke at the Democratic convention in Boston was obvious.
That he did virtually nothing as Senator was clear.
That his personal history is a forgery was also clear.
The American people voted for a fraud.
#23 JFP: OBAMA isn’t smart;he’s affirmative action !
can we put a cork in it? i mean the oil spill, somebody get BP some duct tape for crying out loud. the oceans will recede and the gulf will be one puddle of oil.
Rahm Emanuel:
Mr. President, The Leadership Counsel is calling. They’ve rescinded the request for you to do their speech. What shall I tell them?
Obama:
I don’t know. Whatever you think.
Here’s the thing: Barry’s the president. The oil spill is not his fault, just as Hurricane Katrina was not George Bush’s fault, no matter how the left tried to pin it on him.
“Cute” way of phrasing it, but, um, Bush’s fault was in basically the complete fail of his response in the aftermath when all was needed to be done was what the feds were suppose to do.
In Obama’s case, thanks to the Valdez incident, the responsibility of dealing with the oil spill was primarily BP’s — they have, or were suppose to have, the equipment, expertise and resources to deal with major spills, whereas the US government really couldn’t do much beyond getting booms laid out and putting pressure on BP.
The press, as usual, is doing its usual bang-up job of taking polls and quotes while doing little actual journalistic research (how many people here actually have a clear idea of what’s really leaking, and where and how?) So the general public has no idea, again, about what’s really going on (Bush was a lot, LOT worse than people realize, and Obama much, much better, but crappy media coverage tends to equalize everybody.)
Mr. BC – just as a point of order, you are a little mistaken as to the appropriate chain of command in these two events. In the case of a hurricane, leadership is to come from local and state officials. It is their territory. The federal government’s role is to provide resources upon specific request and stay out of the way. It is not the role of the federal government to lead those efforts – to take over. They do not have the authority to do so. Hurricane evacuation and recovery plans are not federal things – they are local things. FEMA is not an immediate response organization. It is not meant to be. Its role is to deliver assets to support local efforts. The federal government’s first offer of help to Louisiana was declined. You can make reasonable arguments re: FEMA’s ability to provide those supplies and Bush’s role as oversight of FEMA in general – but leading hurricane recovery is under local and state leadership and the Katrina failures lay largely there.
Deep water is, however, a federal issue. It was the moment it occurred. I am not saying that Obama should have gone there the day of the event with one of his famous mops, but someone at the federal level should have been assigned as the emergency manager immediately. Not only are there no other levels of government who could take ownership of this situation – the federal government will not even permit local and state governments to act to protect themselves. Not only is there no clear response (even to this day) the feds wont even get out of the way so the people on the gulf can help them self.
whereas the US government really couldn’t do much beyond getting booms laid out and putting pressure on BP.
Not true. There is plenty of documentation – even in the MSM which usually isn’t very credible – that the Fed – led by your hero Obummer – had plenty of lead to respond to this spill. Like giving Jindel more free hand to build berms – for burning oil where it was thick enough to do so – for dispersants that might have broken up the first of the oil to make it to shore – and allowing foreign skimmer boats to enter the US. But the Fed – led by your hero froze like a deer in the headlights and was unable to make any coherent decisions until it was too late.
Funny thing about all this is I always thought individual states had full range to protect their own shores in case of disasters like this. Why is the Fed so tangled up in decisions that should be left to the states? We don’t need permission in Washington State to fight forest fires – and aren’t directed on how we go about it – why then should Jindel have to wait for permission to protect his coastline?
Obummer’s Oval Office speech was another a disaster of Obummer’s own making. He showed his total lack of leadership – and no hint of compassion. I can only imagine had he been in office in 2001 what his response to 9-11 might have been.
No – your hero is feckless – branded forever as lacking the leadership qualities that make a good President. Good speeches do not a good president make – Obummer has proven that in spades.
“The press, as usual, is doing its usual bang-up job of taking polls and quotes while doing little actual journalistic research (How many people here actually have a clear idea of what’s really leaking, and where and how?)”
How very disheartening. It is sad to read that a convinced Obamaphile is kicking the press for not being particularly competent in their jobs. It’s rather like beating up the father for the sins of the son. (A more apt metaphor would be that it is like smacking around Dr. Frankenstein while the monster rampages across the countryside.) Never in the history of this nation has a president been so much the creation of both the “news” and entertainment media.
Are we all forgetting ow “deep”, “intelligent”, “insightful” and “savvy” the 2008 Obama was? Suddenly you want to put the boot into the mediaocrats because they really aren’t very good at their jobs. If that’s the case then they also wern’t very good at what they were doing in 2008. You can’t have it both ways.
No, no, and no. In terms of Katrina, the city, state, and feds had roles to play, and if you had clicked on that link, you might have been enlightened to know that the feds were noshows for their bit. As far as deep water drilling responsibilities go, you might want to check this article and the date on it.
As far as the press and Obama go, it was the right that has been obsessively attacking Obama early on, as well as cynically exaggerating the natural optimism and hope that Obama would fix the gargantuan mess that Bush and his people left behind. And don’t forget (that is if you knew this in the first place) that Bush got re-elected thanks to the press not doing its job, and chances are that he wouldn’t have been elected in the first place for similar reasons. You right wingers keep bashing the mainstream media in this country as being a mouthpiece for the liberal agenda, but the more fundamental truth is that our not so free press just plain sucks overall at its responsibilities and has so for quite some time. “Coverage” is not nor has it ever been the same as journalism. They may talk the liberal talk at times, but true liberals and progressives call them by their true name: the Corporate Media.
There’s a saying that the left refuses to learn from history. That’s wrong, the left refuses to learn history in the first place.
FEMA has always said that it will take them three days to show up in force. After Katrina, they did it in two.
When Bush was in office, BP was being fined. Once Obama came into office, they were given awards for safety and granted waivers.
Just say NO.
Obama is quickly become a de facto lame duck. And, Congress is scared to pass any more legislation regarding spending. Can you believe this:
Senate rejects more stimulus funding
Democrats join GOP in defeat for Obama
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/16/senate-rejects-more-stimulus-funding/
Besides, the BP mess is proving that Obama is both arrogant and misguided about solving ANY problem. Obama takes his responsibilities with great disdain and careless abandon.
OBAMA’S REWARD FOR HIS ACTIONS: NO MORE OBAMA.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
Just say NO to Obama.
MS. MEISTER: Obama didn’t really mean to say “KICK” When he bloviated about buttocks,He meant to say LICK,as in: “I’m looking for a new thirld world thug’s ass to lick! This is what this baby) this baby does whenever reality bites him. For security,Linus had his blanket, Obama,kisses dictators’ butts.The problem is,HE CAN’T EVEN READ a teleprompter! You can blame government schools and affirmative action for these gaffes,but his crew keeps blaming me! It’s sooo UNFAIR! – WHITE HOUSE TELEPROMPTER,WASHINGTON, D.C.
#31 BC You lie and distort far better than Gibbs does BC! Have you thought of applying for Gibb’s job? It won’t reduce the public’s perception of the marxoid affirmative-action wonder boy’s manifestly incompetent presidency;but it could give you something better to do than smoking crack before trolling PJM.
Just three days after the oil spill Holland and others offered to help but
following the ‘Jones Act’ Obama refused to allow any international help that does not bear an american flag into the american waters to help clean up the ‘oil spill’ Glenn Beck had a piece on this story which shocked me that this president refused outside help. Yet if you notice he stressed it is BP’s fault which BP accepted but OBAMA is to blame as well for not allowing outside help.
During the Katrina disaster, George Bush wavered the ‘Jones Act ‘to allow’ outside help into the USA.
It is amazing that the lefty medias who ‘claim’ to ‘report’ for/to the americans have not put question OBAMA on his refusal, seems to me that he is no more interested in the american people only that to get to use this oil spill to get his cap and trade, and his green energy through the senate into law. that is his main goal.
I believe POTUS caused the oil spill to confirm his long held opposition to offshore drilling. “See, folks, what can happen…?”
He wants us dependent on moslem oil, the chief source of income for his fellow raghead crazies, so as to fill their coffers and to drain our economy.
The sooner we wake up and see that POTUS is a traitor, an hybrid communist/moslem with messiah-like delusions, the sooner we will, legally and morally, relegate him to solitary confinement for life, and begin to undo the vicious mess he has made of our government and economy.
This may not be possible as it seems probable that the majority of voters have come to love evil, hate good, and, therefore, side with the satanic Obama administration. They murder, unborn babies and our military, with ridiculous rules of engagement; they steal: your life savings, as they print tons of worthless dollars, thus reducing the value of your dollars in your savings account. They lie- just compare what POTUS said before to what he is saying now. They promote sex perversion. They encourage and approve of vicious, disgusting, ugly, bestial conduct- and teach your children to do the same. They unconstitutionally take over private enterprise, as if the tenth amendment did not exist. Now way more than half of our working force is employed by government and thus paid for by less than half in private enterprise. They are hypocrites, pretending to be religious, but committing every conceivable sin brazenly.
And what is the GOP response to all this chaos? To propose a feminist takeover of the conservative political structure? To offer us a choice of this religious nut,(Romney), or another,(Gingrich, Huckabee)? To pretend that the New World Order is not just over the horizon? To proclaim that murderous, vicious, filthy Islam is “a great religion”? To spend our hard-earned donations on alcohol and pornography?
And, folks, there is and will
never be, any amalgamation of the many splintered, conservative factions into a Third Party. First, the religious cannot, in good conscience, unite with the irreligious. Second, the Religious do not constitute a monolith, but are dispersed over a very broad spectrum of moral perspective. The irreligious have only the pragmatic moment to consider and can hold no value as absolute as, by their own definition they are but chance collocations of subatomic particles; without inherent value or rights.
Third, the irreligious will, in the main, fall into the camp of the obamanites, as they perceive no real reason not to do so.
There is a solution, but only a handful will hear it. Just pick up your New Testament and begin to live by it. Obey our Lord, Jesus Christ. Not what you heard Pastor Dumbrowski say; or what you think you heard him say, but what Jesus Christ said, and what He authorized His apostles to say. And read ALL of it! Don’t build your theology on ignorance of either the immediate or remote context.EG: “Judge not lest ye be judged” needs to read in context with “Judge not by appearances, but judge with right judgment”.
If all men lived by the NT there would be no war, no crime, no poverty, no unloved, no uncared for, no lying, no cheating, no selfishness. Only peace, and unselfish, proactive loving behavior. Will you try it?
If anyone has been paying attention they would know the left has been angry at Obama for a long time now. They expected a firebrand liberal who would act like a Liberal Bush. Instead, the got technocrat centrist. The left has gotten almost nothing it has wanted. As far as leading on the spill Obama has gotten a 20 billion escrow from BP to guarantee that people injured would be compensated. If it was up to the republicans the cap to damages would stay at 75 million. Why are people on this site not irate about the fact that republicans keep voting down an attempt to change that liability. They are sticking up for the Oil industry and not the people of the gulf. I thought the people here were anti establishment anti corruption. This indecent has shown who is in the pocket of big oil. I agree that he could have taken a more active role in the containment and enforcement regulations before hand, but at this point there is nothing he can do to stop the leak. However, he is making sure our citizens will be compensated, and that is more than the republicans are trying to do for us. If the man wants to eat a waffle on campaign it is his right to do so.
This indecent has shown who is in the pocket of big oil.
Absolutely–the recipient of the most campaign funds from BP in 20 years–Barack Hussein Obama.
Why did I not see that 20 BILLION!!! dollar escrow account was Obama placating to BP. Which of course means that the Republicans blocking the legislation to raise the cap are enemies with BP. The logic is so brilliant thank you for opening my eyes.
Nice try. Obama’s “technocrat centrist” is another of his stage gimmicks.
But the show is beginning to come apart, one sign is that its taking him
longer and longer to scrape together his costumes and speeches.
He isnt President..he is playing dress up President. For the first 45 days
he was baffled at what to do. Reality had done it again. But wait.. all could be salvaged The oil spill could be made a positive thing..he could bash a paper mache bad guy with a sign around his neck “Big Business”
The herd loves these shows it makes life simple for them. We will never hear
that the whole “Carbon Credits” gimmickry of Obamas prize Cap and Trade program was written by…wait for it British Petroleum. But hey thats too
complicated to discuss and will ruin the whole mood..and Barrack is all about
mood, image, feel good moments generated out of nothingness.
When one is to the left of Mao, Obama does look like a centrist.
“Why are people on this site not irate about the fact that republicans keep voting down an attempt to change that liability.”
Brian, did you take a basic math class in school? The Democrats have a majority in both the Senate and the House. How can the Republicans vote down anything, especially when 2 Republican Senators from New England pretty much vote with the Dems anyway? Nice attempt at propaganda but the numbers just don’t add up.
I did take math and civics thank you. I thus understand that 59 is not 60, and it currently takes 60 votes to accomplish anything. I also read the news so I understand that D-NJ was trying to attach the cap raise to the Wall street reform bill. This attempt was blocked by Inhofe and was previously blocked by Murkowski. Both of these senitors are big oil people. I will once again ask, and maybe someone has a real answer, why is no one upset at the attempts to block the cap raise?????????
They can’t get 60 because of the blue dog Democrats as you well know. Besides, most of the rest of the Dems are just posing anyway and all the current hearings are about are the whole bunch of them, Republicans and Democrats alike, trolling for campaign cash. The real truth is that there are very few Senators that give a darn for the public interest regardless of party and we keep electing them.
They had 60, but couldn’t get 60. It is as simple as that.
Blame the Pubs all you want, but for a period there, the Dems had complete control. WH, House, and 60 Dems in the Senate. They simply couldn’t get things done. Why not? Because America does not want what they are peddling.
Could they have raised the Cap last year? Yes. But they chose to focus on Porkulus, and HealthCare and Cap-n-Trade. They chose to try to do the things they couldn’t do, rather than the things they could do.
By the way, perhaps as a Lefty, you should be arguing for no cap, rather than raising the cap.
not only have the republicans not repeatedly voted down an increase in that limit, republicans introduced a bill to raise the limit.
Back up your statement. Here is my source http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/98331-inhofe-objects-to-passing-increased-liability-cap-for-oil-companies.
I am sure they are trying to raise the cap between apologizing to BP. I read the bill proposed by Vitter, which I assume is what you were hinting to. The bill does not specifically raise the cap. It only makes mention that BP is prepared to pay over 75 million in damages, but does not say that the company will have to exceed the cap. I can only assume you have read it since you are mentioning the bill. We all know only us liberals believe what we read, and that conservatives always verify what they hear by checking the actual document. Since you are always claiming I am talking without having any facts I am sure you would never be a hypocrite.
You are aware that raising liabilities for events that are already in the past is unconstitutional.
Then again, as a liberal, you don’t believe the constitution applies.
Brian
You have a giant House Majority and 59-41 in the Senate. You can do anything you please. Hell, your hero just appropriated 20 billion in private property from a corporation. What are you complaining about?
Are you a little uncomfortable about how badly President Feckless fell down? Is his complete failure as an executive getting you depressed?
What of the “Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund”.
Sorry, Brian. None of us old folk have been paying much attention lately. Our bad.
Now that this self-absorbed moron – and his troupe of groupies (MSM et al) have been outed it will be interesting to see which democrat has smelled the blood in the political waters and high-tails it to Iowa for ‘just a visit’. Very soon we shall see who thinks they can beat Obama out of the party’s nomination.
Will Hillary resign soon and start ‘visiting’?
Events of the past few days have left no doubt in my mind what Obama and crew are up to now – they’ve just been given the keys to BP’s treasury to the tune of $5B – thats just the start. Want to bet some of that money finds it’s way to pay claims of a dubious nature? Like SEIU and others?
That meeting with BP heads yesterday was nothing short of a shakedown. BP should not have allowed anyone connected with Obama to take control of that fund. The arm twisting in that meeting must have been horrendous.
True, emotional blackmail of the worst kind – right out of the Sharpton and Jesse Jackson playbook. Jackson may have speculated on camera about cutting off Barack’s privates (he was overhead threatening to do so), but he should be delighted in fact. Obama and the Chicago Way are Jesse’s vision realized.
First of all it is to the tunes of 20 Billion. I am glad you are paying attention and not just regurgitating crap you read elsewhere. The money will be distributed by the person who handled the 9/11 victims claims. From what I have read he did a good job. BP will be able to track where the money is going and make appeals where it finds appropriate. I am sure some of this money will find its way into the wrong pockets, it is 20 Billion dollars. That just happens to be a product of human nature. People try and rip off insurance companies all the time. Second, it is not a shake down. This is something BP wants to do otherwise they would just say no. For BP this is good because it is a way for them to show their share holders that they are able to manage the clean up costs and puts some kind of number even if it is not a cap or floor. Any left over money will go back to BP. Will someone who actually knows what they are talking about respond to this issue?
This presidency is effectively over.
Period…
There is a god!!!
Then lets get rid of him before he does something even more stupid.
In defense of the left they could never have elected a someone as far-left as Obama who actually had been responsible for something. Gov. Dean for example.
The counter attack from the right needs to be ruthless. All of the left is paid for by my tax dollars and that needs to stop. Total ruthlessness and pull the weeds out by the root. I want tough-love or incompassionate conservatism.
Wait until the dopes get hit with the tax increases that were supposed to be for the rich only,[in the interest of fairness to be sure]. We will then see how many say,”but the nation needs it”, putting aside that the nation is not the federal government.
Then there’s the price of oil in the near future, the screwing up of our health care,[forget about waiting to 2014], and some measure of Cap and Trade that however limited is designed to hurt Americans.
This keeps up and HuffPo will have about twenty nuts left to vent their spleen.
the people I know on the left are happy with him. I live in a very liberal area of chicago. But they are ecstatic. health care passed, unions strengthened. whats not to like for the hard core left?
Let’s not do it again. Let’s properly vet the next candidates for president. Let’s validate every credential and let’s ignore Hollywood. A president is too important to have been elected because he seems to be smart, nice guy. A classy style is not enough to elect a guy to this office. Or a woman, let’s do the same with her, of course. But let’s not vote in some candidate who is chronically running against the previous president because that got us nowhere. They have to run FOR something. And for goodness sake let us vote for someone who has managed something and made it work. This experience was money for nothing.
#38 BRIAN NULL your president’s just another ghetto shakedown artist,a laundered Al Sharpton , and just as irresponsible.No sane corporation wants to pay protection money.Obama is desperate to shift the blame away from himself to corporate scapegoats.He’s also insecure about his future,and badly needs street cred with the stalinist left,by ending oil drilling and destroying corporations ,and with his crack-crazed inner city constituency that confuses thuggery with politics,and welfare extortion with economics.He needs to excite them with criminality to motivate them to vote,or to intimidate voters.Your’e big on Math aren’t you Null?BPs net worth is 7 billion;it will be fun to watch it attempt to pay the blackmailer,20 billion while going bankrupt.I can see the OBAMORON asking for a bail out for BP, in order to enable it to pay off the extortion.
IT’S BUSH’S FAULT!!! …oh, wait, that’s not working any more. Damn.
For most of us, it never worked.
Executive command?We had some of that under GWB.We had some of that with John Mccain.Now your asking about executive command?Two years AFTER he was elected.You clowns in the MSM shouldve done that in 2008.But when your busy falling over yourselves to worship the guy well….
Even if Obama is a Marxist and is using the Oil Spill to advance his radical agenda his handling of the crisis still tags him as an incompetent, if his performance is anything to judge him by. He can’t seem to learn anything from his mistakes, and one has to doubt he completely understands what he trying to do. Much of his agenda is theory driven, untried (or has already failed elsewhere), and amounts to the favorite mental play toys of the Left for the last decades.
One can sympathize with those people that find it hard to accept that someone this intellectually twisted became president; that a true believing Marxist managed to lie and deceive his way to the presidency. But given the state of the Democratic Party after Clinton it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Make no mistake about it, though, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud.
With apologies to small dogs …. MoMo, I don’t think we’re in Chicago anymore.
The only solution to this mess is: “Kissinger for President”
There is a reason, a really, really good reason why we don’t use affirmative action when choosing air line pilots, traffic controllers or brain surgeons.
No one in the MSM would give anyone in those professions a pass for error, malfeasance or even just being unclear. They would never give them a pass. But Barack Obama? They’ve been giving him cover for ever. If Barack Obama is over his head, and he clearly is, then it is the MSM who put him helped put him there. They should be held accountable too.
Pam Meister says it well.
A talented analyst on the good side.
We simply must provide change this 2010 – to check this Disastrous Democratic Party Insanity.
Removing the horrid Mrs. Pelosi, or even Harry Reid, would be extremely positive for our Nation.
In short, the 16 month-hangover is easing? For it to have lasted this long is mind-boggling.
Nonetheless, that Kool-Aid had some kick!
‘Back to life.. back to reality..’.
I expected ALOT more from this dude…I mean its not just anybody who can organize a community, chain smoke, AND shoot a free throw!! Color me flummoxed!
“Now they expect the man known for “voting present” in the Illinois Senate to suddenly morph into a modern version of Teddy Roosevelt leading the charge up San Juan Hill.”
When TR and his Roughriders reached the top of San Juan Hill, they found that it had already been taken – by a force of mostly black soldiers. So no – we don’t expect Obama to morph into the kind of guy who got there second. Most of us are glad we’ve got the kind of guy who got there first as president.
(And isn’t it funny how TR omitted this little fact from his account?)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/100/
http://www.history.army.mil/documents/spanam/bssjh/shbrt-bssjh.htm
Has Obama still got his panel of experts to tell”what asses to kiss”