The headline is by fellow Bay Area blogger Bookworm Room, but we’ll get to her post in just a moment. But first, Allahpundit runs down today’s DC weirdness du jour — Bill Clinton taking over President — I think he’s still president, right? — Obama’s press conference:
I can’t do justice to what you’re about to see. The spectacle of the president bugging out of his own press conference to go to a Christmas party is weird enough, but having Clinton back at the White House podium fielding questions on the hottest domestic issue of the day shoots past deja vu and lands firmly in “am I hallucinating?” territory. (The good news: It turned Twitter into an hour-long snark free-for-all, with Michael Goldfarb taking first prize.)
Here’s how the New York Times reported the incident. (Link safe, goes to the Brothers Judd):
The president stood by Mr. Clinton’s side for several minutes as Mr. Clinton held court in front of the White House logo that often hovered behind him a decade ago.But after Mr. Clinton began taking questions, the current president excused himself, saying that his wife, Michelle, expected Mr. Obama’s presence at one of the many holiday parties that presidents host during the month of December.
“I’ve been keeping the first lady waiting,” Mr. Obama said, excusing himself.
“I don’t want to make her mad,” Mr. Clinton said. “Please go.”
And with that, Mr. Obama departed, leaving Mr. Clinton to continue his extended conversation with the media. [...]
Mr. Clinton went on for at least 20 minutes, moving at one point beyond the tax debate and offering his opinion on the administration’s new arms control treaty with Russia and the ongoing crisis in Haiti.
Even before Barry’s Mondo Bizarro moment today, Peggy Noonan writes, “No president has alienated his base the way Obama has:”
We have not in our lifetimes seen a president in this position. He spent his first year losing the center, which elected him, and his second losing his base, which is supposed to provide his troops. There isn’t much left to lose! Which may explain Tuesday’s press conference.
President Obama was supposed to be announcing an important compromise, as he put it, on tax policy. Normally a president, having agreed with the opposition on something big, would go through certain expected motions. He would laud the specific virtues of the plan, show graciousness toward the negotiators on the other side—graciousness implies that you won—and refer respectfully to potential critics as people who’ll surely come around once they are fully exposed to the deep merits of the plan.
Instead Mr. Obama said, essentially, that he hates the deal he just agreed to, hates the people he made the deal with, and hates even more the people who’ll criticize it. His statement was startling in the breadth of its animosity. Republicans are “hostage takers” who worship a “holy grail” of “tax cuts for the wealthy.” “That seems to be their central economic doctrine.”
As for the left, they ignore his accomplishments and are always looking for “weakness and compromise.” They are “sanctimonious,” “purist,” and just want to “feel good about” themselves. In a difficult world, they cling to their “ideal positions” and constant charges of “betrayals.”
Those not of the left might view all this as straight talk, and much needed. But if you were of the left it would only deepen your anger and sharpen your response. Which it did. “Gettysburg,” “sellout,” “disaster.”
“Are the wheels coming off the bus, or are we witnessing the most brilliant, and dangerous, political theater in our life times,” Bookworm Room asks, supplying the headline at the top of this post and a contrarian take on this week’s DC kabuki:
And finally, to add to the surreal quality of it all, Obama seems to have turned the presidency back over to Bill Clinton, at least temporarily. Drew, blogging at Ace, thinks that this is a sign that Obama is not up to the job, but I’m beginning to wonder. There’s much more going on here than meets the eye, and it’s worth remembering, as both Krauthammer and Don Quixote did, that Obama made his way up through the street theater of Leftism.
We may be counting our chickens far in advance of their hatching if we blithely assume that Obama is giving up. He’s a dirty fighter, but he’s definitely a fighter.
Read the whole thing — and talk amongst yourselves in the comments. What the heck is going on amongst our self-styled betters in the Beltway Ruling Class?
Disallowed petition signatures. Sealed court records suddenly published in the papers. Calling Clinton caucus participants telling them the caucus had been moved or postponed. Turning off all verification software for Internet credit card donations.Using OFA to institute denial of service attacks on radio call in shows.
Dirty? Barack Obama?
Barack “I won” Obama?
Barack “John, the election’s over” Obama?
Barack “I don wan hear them talkin” Obama?
THAT Barack Obama? Dirty?
Weird is an understatement. Watching the machinations of Bama and the faculty lounge-lizards he’s surrounded himself with is like you are privvy to an unedited version of Planet of the Apes, and you’ve just watched what landed on the cutting room floor. Didn’t Willie look like Heston addressing the gorillas under duress? Just sayin’.
0bama just wants to party and live large, be a ‘star’ and he could give a flying frick about anyone but 0bama. It’s beyond bizarro when zero acts as if he is only the “president” of half the nation and then seemingly goes on to abandon the wilting half who were on his side when the going gets tough and the grumbles of dissention permeate “The ONE’s” perfect me-me-me zen.
The 0bama admin has officially screwed the pooch, jumped the shark and bought the farm.
@ delia,
you’ve nailed him, spot on. “livin’ large” as if he won the lottery instead of an election. but the party is dwindling down, the guests are leaving, the landlord will be cancelling his lease and he’ll be out in the street with all the fancy toys, the limo, the big airplane, all of it repossessed by the owners, the american people.
And a fat pension with full benefits for the rest of his life. The lotto jackpot is still his, regardless of what happens in November 2012.
I have always felt the Obama was little more than a mouthpiece for the political rants of America’s liberal fringe, and that there was always someone behind the scenes making the actual policy decisions (also very leftist). I don’t think that person is Bill Clinton, but I find this whole episode amusingly absurd. How anyone can still fervently support the guy is beyond me.
I think it’s the Mary-Jane. JMHO
Am I the only person who has noticed that disappearing in a crisis is Obama’s pattern? The crisis occurs, Obama disappears, other people do something to address the crisis, Obama reappears to indirectly criticize what has been done by giving a shallow overview speech and analysis that is then hailed as wisdom and the fawners then agree that Obama would have handled everything much better than what those who took responsiblity to act achieved by their efforts. The fawners conveniently forget that Obama took himself out of the arena.
It doesn’t work so well now that Obama is President, but he still tries to do the disappearing thing — as we saw with this press conference.
Right now Obama is mad at all of us for not being fawners, but he’ll be back. He loves the power.
Very, very weird. And yet … I’ll bet a dollar with Slick Willie back in the saddle we get a tax cut deal. He’s like Demo crack: they *know* he’s bad news, but they just can’t resist ‘im.
THis is Obama’s Killer Rabbit. The event that crystallizes for everyone that he can’t do the job. Or, if you prefer, throwing his shoulder pads into the stadium and flipping off the audience.
He can’t keep Michelle Obama and her party waiting. How pathetic is that? Much less ceding the Presidency in effect to Bill Clinton.
Let us not forget, Obama in his first book noted he often got high and was a heavy drug user. Is he on the stuff again? High? He seemed high during the Kennedy Center Honors. Weird. He could not say Paul McCartney’s name.
A President as a heavy drug user, bored/incapable of doing the job, ruled by his wife, turning over the Presidential Podium to Clinton and caring only about speeches on how awesome he is, party party party, and punishing “wicked” America for past sins. What could possibly go wrong?
One name: Larry Sinclair
It’s a presser where questions were asked. TOTUS would be unable to respond. The One who has a mushed brain would be incoherent answering questions. The brilliant idiot had taken Mark Twain’s(?) advice: it’s better to remain mum and be called a fool, then to open his mouth to prove he’s a fool.
Let me add, I am less than impressed with Obama’s political acumen. I disagree with Bookworm. Nor does Krauthammer have any clue. You can’t push a string. Pumping all that money into the system will only chase asset prices in China. Not any recovery in the US. Manufacturing is 9% of employment and GDP. All America has is services, facing price pressure from India and China.
Krauthammer is reliably wrong on almost everything.
Obama faced weak opponents vulnerable to scandal. He is now facing the American people. Who see him not performing. What, he’s going to dig up dirty divorce papers on … Joe Sixpack? He does not have an opponent he can make the object of ridicule. HE IS THE MAN. So he can’t rail against the man.
Obama is typical of beyond competence advancement. He cannot get it done, and the American people will toss him if he does not get employment back up. Which faces price pressure on services from China/India. Tossing the all that money in … will simply help GE expand manufacturing in China. Not the US.
Walking away, is his killer rabbit. His stumbling down the steps. His “I did not have sex with that woman.” It is bizarre. And seals the deal — he can’t handle the job. It’s one thing to beat a guy fooling around on a Star Trek actress. Another to actually be President.
All good analogies. But I think an even better analogy is this incident:
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/giuliani-takes-phone-call-from-wife-during-nra-speech/06918d8c20135c85d74806918d8c20135c85d748-285924787741?q=rudy+giuliani+cellphone&FORM=VIRE3
Sorry, pal. This incident is not analogous. Giuliani was not in office during this incident and he was certainly not the President.
If you’re talking about Jim Ryan, the Republican who was running against O for senate, it wasn’t a Star-Trek actress; it was Ryan’s OWN WIFE. Only in Illinois.
It was both. His wife, Jeri Ryan, played Seven of Nine in “Star Trek: Voyager.”
“What, he’s going to dig up dirty divorce papers on … Joe Sixpack?”
Uh … yeah…since that’s exactly what they did to Joe the Plumber…
Sadly the Goldfarb twitter link is empty….
Try this one:
http://twitter.com/thegoldfarb/status/13351117429673984
Barack Wally Obama Pitt
Barack/Willy/Obama/Jolie-Pitt
Fixed that for ya (and funny analogy).
Baraak Wally Obama Pitt
“beat a guy fooling around on a Star Trek actress”
hunh?
you lost me on that reference
I think the “Womyn hatin’ one’ be referencin’ the actor “David Arquette” and his latest side.
What that has to do with Totus/Politics is lost on me.
Jack Ryan was married to Jeri Ryan, the actress who played a hot cyborg chick on “Star Trek: Voyager.” They went through a messy divorce. The Ryans made the divorce records available during his campaign for the Senate seat, but they had sealed the child custody documents regarding their ten-year-old som. Obama’s lackeys found a judge who valued the “public’s right to know” over the well-being of the boy, unsealed the court records, and revealed that Jeri Ryan had accused Jack of trying to take her to a sex club. I don’t recall that there were any allegations of infidelity, just that Jeri had been squicked out by the whole sex club thing.
Yeah, Obama fights dirty.
Too bad the public has no “right to know” as far as Obama’s college records are concerned — applications, transcripts, publications, and who paid his tuition.
Am I the only person who has noticed that disappearing in a crisis is Obama’s pattern?
The Lt. Norman Dike of current American politics ….
Exactly. And the rest of us are pinned down in a field outside Foy. Unfortunately, I don’t see Maj. Winters sending us a Capt. Spiers any time soon.
So Obama walks out of his own press conference today to keep ME-Chelle from throwing a fit over him being on time for a Christmas Party. All this while:
1) Leaving Bill Clinton in control of things.
2) Two wars, one with a record death toll, continue to rage.
3) The Wikileaks scandal worsens.
4) The economic numbers come out today and show a worsening economy.
5) The Democrats are actively filibustering against Obama.
6) The Democrats just lost 603 seats.
OK, Afghanistan as one theatre in the Global “War” on Terror I understand and in comparison to Gettysburg, Battle of the Somme and Okinawa I guess you could say it is raging. But what is this second war you say is still raging? Where is the enemy army and who is its commander, cuz I just never heard about it now that the Iraq front of the Global War on Terror is quiet.
Did someone say PARTY?
I wrote 14 months ago that Obama’s in the Mae West presidency. Since then, he has only solidified my assessment
That was a good post, and good to reread now. I thought the Mae West reference was sort of silly–a good excuse for a great photo–but the discussion about Kennedy and Eisenhower is particularly germane to the Obama/Clinton press conference.
It was just one more, but probably the most astonishing moment of the past two years. This man can not possibly win re-election, can he? His job approval must be near zero after this.
What was Goldfarb’s twitter? I missed it…..does anyone know?
Of course he can and probably will. We just re-elected Jerry Brown and Babbling boxer, didn’t we?
Unh yah. And don’t forget Mirrorcowsker from Alasker.
Assuming were not headed towards a steel-balls-and-missing-strawberries moment with Obama, there is a tiny bit of logic in this, if you believe that Obama has decided:
A.) He has to win the moderates back to his side, the way Bill Clinton did;
B.) He knows there’s no way he’s winning conservatives to his side for 2012;
C.) He knows that as much as the left screams and punts the cat over the neighbor’s house about this, they will come back to him in ’12 because they’ll work themselves up into 10 time as big a lather over whomever the Republicans nominate (Alec Baldwin’s probably already telling people he’s moving to France if anyone from Sarah Palin to Lindsey Graham is elected president).
If today’s show was entirely street theater for the moderate swing voters, who judging by David Brooks’ column, are already eating this stuff up, Clinton’s appearance is designed to get David and others to fall back in love with Obama’s pants crease. Which, in the long run, is more important than getting Chris Matthews’ leg thrill back, because you know Chris and the rest of the MSNBC crew’s going to have no choice but to come crawling back to the president 18 months from now.
CA conservative:
Here ya go:
http://twitter.com/thegoldfarb
I’m suspicious by nature. I suspect that Bill Clinton exacted this time in front of the Presidential Podium as his price for pulling Obama’s nuts out of the fire.
Yeah, but you can’t beat somebody with nobody, so let’s see who and what the GOPs come up with for 2012. Palin (much as I like her) and Huckabee can’t beat him and Romney… bleh. Lots of potential talent yet to be heard from, if they want to make the run, but the Dem machine including the big media and incredible amounts of union money (and another round of illegal internet contributions, if needed) will slime any who become credible threats… Obama is as weak and pathetic and at the same time destructive as we all feared, but imagine 6 more years.
With Monty Obama’s flying street political circus in power,
I’ve come to realize it will make headlines if a day passes and something weird DOESN’T happen.
You cannot deny the fact that 0bama’s mother was a hamster and his father smelt of elderberries.
Yet he refuses to go away. We must taunt him a second time.
Heh!
Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!
After watching the video I got the impression that Obama was peeved and impatient with Clinton’s windbag, good-old-boy shtick and didn’t want to risk a scene by trying to cut the old geezer off. As much as I dislike Obama, I think Clinton is getting senile and just can’t stop talking when he has the spotlight.
Alternatively, Clinton could be really quick, could have immediately realized he could seize an opportunity to make Obama’s petulance and arrogance look bad, and kept talking for just that reason. One never knows with Clinton.
Didn’t want to risk a scene! He’s. The. President.
Only Democrats would select a candidate with absolutely no executive experience. When Willie Blue Dress must be summoned, the nation should despair because it is the end of days.
Delia
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
*sigh*-edited-
You are blaming the “I’m outtie for a party and my ho has been waitin’ too long” Ni**a-Rich @sshole on the impeached ex-prez trying to save his black ass after he was ASKED to come help him?
Whitey, stop rescuing the low i.q. fu**tards. It’s pointless.
The wheels on the bus are coming off and Obama is losing it.
I wonder how long before he throws himself under that bus?
I’m wondering about Peggy Noonan, the great commentator. Is she sufficiently self-aware to blush at the thought of originally falling for Obama, partly in horror at the thought of Sarah Palin becoming VP? Has she ever apologized for her incredible lack of judgment?
Peggy’s pretty much using the “2008? There was a year called 2008?” strategy, wherein she acts as if nothing she said nor did during that campaign ever occured, and she can go back to attacking Democrats as if it’s 2004 all over again … which of the Big Five of “Conservative Pundits Who Swooned for Obama” actually makes her at this time the most rational of the group (Brooks seems to be falling in love again with the president; Frum’s still madder at cosrrvatives for not following his game-plan than he is at Obama; Parker’s about ready for some battered cable news show host shelter after two months as Eliot Spitzer’s foil; and T. Coddington VanVoorheis VII has pretty much gone underground, appearing only rarely to issue Unibomber-like tomes to other conservatives, showing them they haven’t cowed his wild side and they never will).
At least Christopher Buckley has had the good grace to keep silent.
Peggy and Althouse. What gets into folks like this?
I really got the impression this was all hastily done by Obama, Clinton was called in on the spur of the moment and he completely winged it. Heck, I hear they were wandering the halls to find someone to round up reporters for this fiasco. Bill did what Bill does. But Obama has seemed to go over the edge and his behavior is incredibly detached and bizarre.
Sorry, but if I were a reporter at this point, the next time he had a presser and if I was allowed to ask a question, it would be this: “Considering your unusual behavior of late and your admitted indiscretions of youth, would you be willing to ‘pee in the cup’ and allow the results be released to the public?”
That’s a good point…most people anymore have to pass a drug screen, and submit to pseudo-random workplace drug testing for the privilege of earning federal payroll taxes, why are the elected officials who spend that money exempt?
(I’d make voters pass a drug screen before they can get a ballot, but I’m pretty sure the suggestion would be deemed racist, like photo ID.)
So, the nation’s first “black” president Bill Clinton doubles today for the nation’s second black president, Barrack Obama. What’s next, Oprah showing up with a stained dress and rug burns?
I guess America finally got over two hundred years of racism and voted for our first (second?) black president, but after Obama’s performance, one has to wonder if it will be more than two hundred years before America elects another. Assuming we survive this.
I take this situation from a different angle. Obama’s first job is to prevent Hilary from running. The Wikileaks leak did this. Was he behind it? Well, Assange’s lawyer comes from Open Society, a Soros organization. Who Knows? The result is that the Secretary of State’s reputation has been lowered.
Obama also must be seen as a moderate, to reclaim the independent vote. As his leftist allies turn up the heat, Obama starts to look like the moderate we wanted him to be.
I think he is very clever, and the only guy in the room smarter is Boehner. A new, single page bill, every week to cut back waste and trim budgets. Boener and budget cuts will be in the news every week. It will be like an advent calendar. Tea party members will like this as will independents. If Palin is smart, she will get in on this, and gain some serious gravitas in what has been her traditional strength, budget cutting.
Obama is a product of the brass knuckles school of dirty politics; pretty much anything goes. Another post recounted the Jack/Jerri Ryan incident; another his election campaign’s open and notorious electoral fraud, not only stealing and manufactruing votes, but accepting millions in illegal campaign donations, including foreign ones. Billions, if not trillions, have been funneled to his political allies and cronies, during TARP, the AIG and GM fiascos, and much more. As one who has lived near Chicago almost his whole life, I know firsthand that Obama and his crew are thieves, pure and simple, looting the treasury right under our noses. Not to mention that he is an Islamist, a naked Marxist, these will havr to wait for another post…. I’m already too upset to continue.
Ummmm… I don’t really see how he could be a naked Marxist, considering he’s not even faintly leftist. In addition to everything he’s done since he became President, which has been to stiff the Left on every possible occasion, he also did nothing to help his very poor district when he was a state congressman. He did, however, let a rich crook help him buy his house.
Pretending to help the poor is the Left’s whole scam. They steal from the rich and keep it.
Does anyone else wonder what the North Koreans and the Iranians (and who knows who else) are thinking as they watch this? If I am a foreign enemy of the United States, I am licking my chops right now.
This isn’t just criticism. I’m really worried.
The leaders of North Korea and Iran would probably be rolling on the floor laughing after seeing Obama’s behavior. Russia and China are probably giggling over it too,..and bin Laden and his boys are probably just rolling their eyes and scoffing at it.
Four scenarios:
* We have a spoiled child playing dress-up instead of a real president. Obama knew he wouldn’t be able to handle a press conference without flaming out, so he gave the task to someone more competent.
* Bill and Hillary have something on Obama, and this is the first overt sign that a shakeup is coming. Perhaps Biden will resign and Obama will name Hillary as VP, or perhaps Hillary will challenge Obama for the nomination in 2012, or perhaps the Clintons have cut a deal for more power in return for Hillary not challenging Obama.
* Obama can’t function without scapegoats. His advisors have told him that in the next two years the United States is heading for very rough times — the recession gets even worse, the commercial and residential real estate markets collapse, California goes bankrupt, China pulls the rug out from under us, and/or we get double-digit or triple-digit inflation. Obama wants to distance himself from this, so he gives in to the Republicans on extending Bush’s tax cuts but has Bill Clinton handle the heavy lifting. When the economy tanks, Obama will blame the “Republican tax cuts for the rich” for the financial mess and Clinton for forcing it on him.
* He’s hitting the drugs again.
I am beginning to think that it is a combination of all 4 of the above…
Keep in mind this guy was an absolute nullity in Illinois. The Illinois Senate is very small; it only has 59 members. There are a large number of very dim bulbs who park themselves there for eons. It’s basically what the sorta-good politicians graduate to from the House when they aren’t talented enough to run for statewide office or doing something meaningful with their lives. If you can’t stand out among these turkeys, where exactly can you? Voting “present” 139 times? Courageous!
Zero sponsored one major piece of legislation in this House of Solons. That is to say, there was only one that got his name mentioned in a ProQuest search from that era at the Chicago Public Library. The topic of this major and useful bill from the Great, Benighted One? Abortion! That’s it. Some legislator.
To recap, Zero wrote nothing at Harvard, and evidently wrote nothing at Columbia. All that exists from this period is a couple of horrible poems. He was barely able to get hired as a summer at Sidley. He was involved in no significant court cases as an ACORN attorney. He later blew $100 million of Annenberg money and got nothing except some white-hating 5-year-olds as an outcome. Then, in the U.S. Senate his subcommittee never meets and he starts running for president after only two years in office. Anyone noticing a pattern here?
The guy is a BIG NOTHING! Today’s behavior isn’t some acrobatic ju-jitsu move against the Republicans; this is actually who he is: a sulking fool. The man never competed for anything on his own merits and has thus never been tempered by the fire of competition. He’s totally unable to cope because the guy is a real-life Chauncey Gardner.
He likes to watch TV.
The Fresh Prince is out of Hot Air.
Or Clinton finally got around to sticking a knife in Obama’s back.
Its the handshake at the end that gets me. Obama practically shoves his hand in Clinton’s face, Clinton takes it and then Obama turns to the audience, in an instant his mouth explodes into a forced smile which instantly vanishes and then he spins in his heel and marches off.
Obama treats his own press conference and a former President of the US, like a grip and grin in Ashtabula where he has to shake hands with an assistant planning commissioner.
Amazing.
To watch Obama, in front of the entire country.Hold a presser, turn it over to a formerly impeached POTUS and then walk off stage using an obviously orchestrated line that one would use to excuse himself from a preschooler class as not to offend the kiddies is in one word.
Pathetic
Embarrassing
Weak
Not present (as his senatorial voting record)
Confusing
Childish
Inexperienced
Funny (as in laughing stock)
Someone needs to explain to this POTUS that “lame duck” doesn’t mean to just party the next two years and it sure doesn’t mean to pull off a stunt as he did here where the entire country is left wondering WTF.
I have news for those who must have figured, “lets plug in the bases beloved Bill to act as a hypnotist in bringing the base back to Obama”.If thats some kind of fighting strategy, it came off more like Obama being curled up in the fetal position, sucking his thumb while hoping the bad mens goes away.
First off – Who gave Obama advice on Obamacare? Bill Clinton.
Second off – Wikileaks shows the incompetence of the entire Dept. of State for at least a decade… now who is in charge? Hillary Clinton.
Third off – Bill now subs in for Obama on a press conference while Obama ducks out for a party. Who is left to take the limelight? Bill Clinton.
Who can claim that the entire Dept. of State is dysfunctional and every ‘special advisor’ that Obama has put in has failed and that Obama has done nothing to help ‘reform’ the State Dept.? Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons seem to have taken the measure of Obama and someone amongst their loyal cohort has something on him… and my bet it is one of the Clintons. It was most and extremely dangerous to have any Clinton near the White House in any official capacity. And now Obama is learning from his mistakes… or will in a few more months of this sort of thing, that’s for sure. Just in time for candidates to start coming out of the woodwork.
Bill comes off looking like he did as President.
Hillary comes off as looking older and wiser.
Obama comes off looking like a violin that has been played to the breaking point.
…And, 0bama ain’t no Stradivarius, he’s more like a Ukulele missing 3 strings and self-plucking the only one left.
As a smoker I recognized the symptoms immediately … the guy was having a nicotine fit!
Bahahaha!
DUDE, you owe me a monitor!
At least America no longer has a lawyer for President.
Why hold a press conference at a time when Michelle expects you to be someplace else? Is scheduling and calendaring beyond the capabilities of this administration?
And, the priorities of a Christmas party take precedence over a press conference on whether the entire country is going to know how to budget their taxes in the coming year(s)?
Ok, so nobody with a firing synapse is buying that bit of broad farce, but, what is/was the point of saying to Clinton, “you have the con”?
Appease the center? Calm the base? Put out the brush fires all around? Scare the fathers of female interns?
A Presidential Press Conference in which the President says, “hey, Bill…you take care of my light work for me, I’m going to grab a little party time with the First Squeeze”?
And Bill responds: “You go, boyfriend. Take care of the girlfriend. I know, I know…how they can get when they feel ignored, take it from me, you don’t want them mad at you. I got you covered with this whole taxing the entire country thing. You go, don’t make her mad.”
“Thanks, Billy. I owe you one. Can you work in a little something on Russia and Haiti while you’re at it? Is that possible”
“Well, it depends on the meaning of “is”, but I’ll try”.
“Thanks a trillion. How can I ever repay you?”
“Oh, we have a couple years to talk about that. I have a few ideas. We’ll share a cigar one day, I promise you.”
“I can’t wait”.
“Me neither”
Obama has never, not even in the first love-in-bloom moments, been a leader or a real president. He ran all over the world, bowing and scraping, making a fool of himself by apologizing to everyone who would stand still and listen to him. He has never seen America in a favorable light, but oh, boy, does he see himself as the One Who Should Be Obeyed. What a farce this presidency is becoming. And calling in Bill Clinton, who still has a cloud over his head due to his unsavory, tacky, shenanigans with women is laughable.
Ace and Bookworm are a little late with this. I was saying definitively that he wasn’t up to the job before he got elected. Nothing in the last two years ever contradicted my conclusion.
There was a reason my original blog’s tagline, back in ’02 and ’03, was “So right, it’s embarrassing.”
Ace DrewSorry. I guess it’s embarrassing regardless of whether I’m right.
<sigh> I’m just going to go away now.
As a former leftist, I knew long ago this was the plan, way before the Left attained their current power. How did they get power? By finding a foothold in the mainstream (the media) and pummeling the public consciousness into tartar. The eight years under Bush — eight years of continuous pummeling that went entirely unanswered and undefended — was the second act in their mainstream revolutionary drama. Prepare for the final act.
This has never been about traditional political persuasion or the management of a point of view within, and with respect for, a dynamic system. It has been about annihilation and takeover. The French Revolution’s Jean Paul Marat and his confreres wrote the charter guidelines, Stalin developed them, and generations of leftists incubating within our academies continued to refine them for their purposes. They cast themselves perfectly, i.e., as the Enlightened. Extremism never found a better beard.
The failure and reluctance of establishment conservatives to recognize this has been devastating and is now approaching tragic. I don’t mean to sound depressing, but nothing suggests to me awareness and/or an effective mass counter-response is near. Not with this current group of conservatives. They are irredeemably clueless. For a number of reasons related to the phenomenon of the hostage-captor relationship, they are as much a part of the equation, equal players and enablers in the tragedy.
Fox isn’t enough. A hundred more Rushes and Becks preaching to the choir are not enough. We’re too far gone. We need a new approach. An unsparing comprehension and fearless will to engage the Left at every level and opportunity — to confront them on their intentions and strategies and on their own grounds — needs to be conditioned within a core group of conservative warriors in the political realm (not talk show hosts but actual politicians, celebrities and citizen). They in turn need to lead by example and spread this practice across the mainstream and teach and strengthen others. We need a kind of league of extraordinary civil samurai (not gentlemen) to set the example and lead the way. Belligerance and aggression are not necessary or desirable — just a total fearless will to speak the unspeakable and name the unnameable and eagerly confront the Left on their own terms, on their own territory. This alone would throw the Left off their game, a game they have refined and dominated for a generation. The Left may be relentless and ruthless, but they are also arrogant and lazy. They are not accustomed to being challenged.
Co-Sign
The military in this country has no political voice. I do believe McCrystal manipulated the Rolling Stone to manipulate his Commander in Chief and then fell on his sword which he then disengaged just in time to throw it to Patreus. This means the military took the measure of the One and found him to be complete putty in his hands. If the left does not have the Army, they don’t have anything. I think the Civil War proved the only way to win this Country in a fight is to control the Mississipi, and WWII and sequel proved the only way to win the World is to control the Oceans. Read Mahan. Right now the Liberals have neither, and their foreign tyrant buddies can’t help them. Obama knows theirs nothing reliable he can fight with, so is going to walk away with his bags of money when the time comes.
Dittoes to your picture of the Left.
Me, too – been there, done that.
We are in incredible danger, and the poor, stupid Republicans do not know – do not even suspect – the enemy.
Brava! What she said.
Failing to recognize the slyness of the entire charade is missing the point: Watch the left hand while the right hand is busy.
“An unsparing comprehension and fearless will to engage the Left at every level and opportunity — to confront them on their intentions and strategies and on their own grounds”
And Frum’s attempt to “stop the name calling” is evidence of just how important name calling and engagement are at this point.
I’ve seen few others mention the significance of Bush’s failure to fight back for 8 years. You can still be a gentleman and refute lies.
Did we ever (once) hear Bush say, specifically, “Anyone who says that ‘the case for the War in Iraq was on finding WMDs’ is a LIAR”? Half the country still believes that it was the main and only reason for the war. Bush allowed the Left to write the narrative of his Administration. The “Rule of Law” applied Internationally has never been championed. It was unrealistic to expect Bush to have the public-speaking ability of Reagan, but come on! Leaving Rush and bloggers holding the bag did not do us any favors.
#42 Heidi @ 8:22 am Dec 11. Our response? Palin the conservative warrior field dressing the opposition?
Palin is a mental midget. She is cute, sweet, patriotic and RETARDED.
So Palin is cute, sweet, patriotic and RETARDED. But she managed, on her own to become Mayor, managed a major State commission, take out a sitting Governor of her own party and run for Vice President. And you have done what,oh superior one?
The Birth Certificate is a red herring, designed to hide the very real Constitutional violation of Obama’s Usurpation. He is not a natural born Citizen, the requirement of A2S1C5, not “Citizen at birth”, not “Born in the US”, but “natural born Citizen”, a term of art of Natural Law (you know, our Federal Common Law– see the Declaration of Independence). The requirement of A2S1C5 was to ensure to the highest degree allegiance and attachment to country in the CIC of the armed forces. It requires SOLE Allegiance from birth. Obama was born a British subject because his father was Kenyan (British Nationality Act 1948). As such he is NOT a Natural Born Citizen, and not eligible. Do his actions show a man with attachment to this country? Certainly NOT. Obama is precisely the kind of man that the framers would have prevented from being POTUS. What kind of man Usurps the Presidency? A dangerous one. What kind of Congress allows it? A treasonous one.
If the well documented reason for the POTUS being a natural born citizen was to prevent foreign influence, then how is it logically possible that anyone born in America, even to aliens, is a natural born Citizen, eligible to be POTUS? How can a man born a British subject be a natural born Citizen? Very little was spoken by the framers about the term, because it was logical, and a well known concept dating to biblical times. Populations desired to be lead by one of their own. It is Natural Law. In Federalist #68 A. Hamilton shed some light on A2S1C5 in an almost in passing, “of course it should be that way” manner:
“Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one querter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?”
Laurence Tribe, during the Resolution 511 hearings defined it thus:
“those born WITHIN the TERRITORY and ALLEGIANCE of a nation”. If all that was required was birth in the territory, then why would he have to say “allegiance”? Where does a newborn’s allegiance come from? His parents!!!! DING DING DING!!!
All of congress knows that Obama is ineligible, no matter if born in the White House, on the Oval Office desk, delivered by JFK, who then ate his placenta. They have committed treason, and now seek to cover up. They are dispicable. And where is Althouse, Instapundit, Volokh? Have they been told to shut up? Are they cowed by the “birther” epithet?
Not doubting your passionate belief in what you’ve written… but the idea that the United States Supreme Court would step in like the Calvary to end the Obama presidency is Not.Gonna.Happen…. so… just drop it.
If the USSC weren’t willing to consider the matter on December 1, 2008, there’s no chance in Hell they’ll hear the matter 3 years into his presidency. It would create a Constitutional and National Crises. The USSC didn’t have the collective balls to walk out of the SoTU address, for fear of breaking with protocol. What makes you think they’d have the balls to address THIS matter?
There are many great arguments to use to defeat Obama in 2012. This is not one of them. You lead with your strengths. If all our existing arguments against his re-election fall flat, and we’re still behind in the polls in August, we’ll call you, ok?
Hey, cut President Obama some slack. Would you want Michelle “Wookie” Obama PO’d at you?
I thought so….
Clinton was there as protection, not politics.
‘Something Very, Very Weird is Going on in Washington’
Really? Hadn’t noticed.
Reagan sought the presidency to end the cold war, destroy the USSR, and set the people free.
Obama sought the presidency because he thought being POTUS would be kinda cool.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Its not good no matter how you slice it. Regardless of the why’s and reasons, it is tyranny, treason and usurpation of Liberty and everything America is founded on.
I think you don’t have to understand the particulars, tyranny is breathing down our throats with vengeance, this is what matters most.
Ex President Clinton has absolutely no business or justification doing what he did. That goes for obama. What happened passed into the realm of insanity by any definition.
Ruling elite insanity.
Marshall Law is coming soon. It is going to be implemented before 2012. It is the logical step in the progression of usurpation of the rule of law and the tenets of constitution. All around us are the signs of coming overthrow of our constitutional representative republican form of government. The ruling class has instituted an ever increasing rate of trespasses on our instruments of liberty and the cherished norms of the fabric of our country.
Nothing is sacred to these ends. There are clear signs, for instance abrogating the presidency, even for an hour, that there is no lengths the people attempting to destroy our country will go to complete these ends.
The tea Party and Liberty movement is a great thing, Nov. 2nd did many great things. It was a wake up call also. Not only for the call of the will of the people, but also a clear and definite call of danger to the elites. In no uncertain terms there is an acceleration in the imposition of tyranny. The window of opportunity of victory and redress against tyranny verses destruction of America are one and the same in terms of time. A race against time.
It is the penultimate battle between good and evil.
And evil is going to pull out all the stops if that what it takes to win.
One thing for certain the fat lady isn’t singing. We the people have a couple of aces in the hole to yet play.
How it plays out is the real question.
My money is with the people. It is going to get really testy and ugly, even bloody possibly. Liberty is far from dead, in fact it has yet begun to fight. A Constitutional Republic aroused and unleashed is a vicious beast that once its people rise up in their wrath, there is nothing on Gods green Earth that can stand in the way of its retribution and ferocity.
“Marshall Law is coming soon. It is going to be implemented before 2012. It is the logical step in the progression of usurpation of the rule of law and the tenets of constitution. All around us are the signs of coming overthrow of our constitutional representative republican form of government.”
And who, precisely, is going to carry out this decree of “martial law”? Where does Obama find these forces of coercion in the next two years?
It’s one thing to comment – correctly – on the erosion of freedom and the encroachment of government in areas it has no business. It is quite another to indulge in hysterics that discredit accurate observation.
The real question is, who ordered Barack to do this press conference with Bill Clinton? If you really study Barack’s facial expression is one of extreme displeasure, then he gives that overly-broad grin, like he did to Velma at the supposedly friendly town hall. My guess is George Soros sent the orders.
Featured products for both the home and commercial buildings are trustworthy and guaranteed.Sold only and directly to professional plumbers, these products are dependable. Glen Burnie Plumber.