At about this stage in the Carter years, I began to worry: the president was getting a reputation for being a wimp, the economy was going to hell, and his poll numbers were headed steadily south. The main enemy — the Soviet Union — was flexing its muscles, invading Afghanistan in December of 1979. This came amidst the Iranian hostage crisis, which began early the previous month.
We tend to forget that the U.S. military buildup, which ultimately played a big role in the successful outcome of the Cold War, was started by Carter in response to the Soviet move, but by the time it started, “the wimp” could not hope to recover his lost manhood by sending money to the Pentagon.
And so I asked myself, is there a point at which a president realizes that wimps don’t get reelected? And if so, what might he do to shatter that image? For the next two years I worried that Carter might overreact to some international crisis in order to make folks see that he was really a tough guy.
It never happened, to my relief. But I’m starting to have the same worries about Obama. To be sure, he’s got a press that is considerably friendlier than Carter had, but even so we are seeing quite a number of stories about a president who just can’t seem to make decisions, who doesn’t seem to get it when terrible things happen, things that cry out for American leadership. The wimp seems to be mounting a comeback. If he gets tarred with that brush, he might start considering options to recreate his image. There are certainly many opportunities, from Iran to Venezuela.
Yes…. poor Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain, despite social progress, remains an apartheid state in which you can tell a shia neighborhood by just looking at it, where the majority Shias have never been hired in any significant numbers by the army or the police and
remain second class citizens. The Shia regions in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia are not in turmoil because of Iran; they are stirred by the same force that has rewritten the Quran in Saudi Arabia, parenthetically, declaring as non-believers Jews “such as Jews” or “Christians”–surely then deserving to have their heads cutoff; the desired outcome is to wipe the “pure” Islamic state from non-believers. The Saudis have done so long before modern Iranian state turned its eye toward Shias. For Shia theology is indeed a violation of dogmatic simplicity of Islam, it is a return to ritual and idolatry and sainthood and sorts of other anti-islamic paganism.
Thus the mistreatment of Shias in the peninsula and their reaction does not begin with Iranian agitation; it is an internal matter reflecting oppression of religious minorities to various degrees there.
It is interesting to note that shias actually voted for Independence in Bahrain after which Iran abandoned its claim of sovereignty.
The recent uprising, at some point, even attracted small Sunni support based on the 2001 promise to return the country to constitutional rule.
The ruling family had every opportunity to react favorably to the initial demands of hundreds of thousands of Bahrainis and replace the de facto for life prime minster and prevent the radicalization of the movement; instead they have chosen to murder unarmed bahraini freedom-fighters.
“…New York Times colleague Michael Slackman was caught by Bahrain security forces a few weeks ago. He said that they pointed shotguns at him and that he was afraid they were about to shoot when he pulled out his passport and shouted that he was an American journalist. Then, he says, the mood changed abruptly and the leader of the group came over and took Mr. Slackman’s hand, saying warmly: “Don’t worry! We love Americans!”
“We’re not after you. We’re after Shia,” the policeman added. Mr. Slackman recalls: “It sounded like they were hunting rats.”
That is the stark reality, wahabis do think of them as rats.
You are wrong and wrong fundamentally about what US should do about dictatorships that happen to be in alliance with US. Supporting them for fear of what would come next is a short term realpolitik calculation that comes at long term cost to the American republic’s values.
Once and for all abandon support for a state that deep down officially and sincerely believes Jews and Christians and Shias are subhuman infidels and has formalized it by printing the official Qurans saying so (Saudi Arabia) or ia hiding behind (pathetic) Iran to maintain an apartheid Bahraini state going as far as using selective immigration to effect ethnic composition and
now pouring in thousands of foreign troops to suppress those who have not yet even fired a shot. I have been following Bahrainis on the internet and they do know people sharing your views are not few and some have asked me to speak for them. So I speak for them here.
A United States standing consistently on principle would have never encountered the argument that US action is fundamentally counter-productive but speak and act resolutely; a voice which was briefly heard by George Bush on the occasion of his second inaguration.
I think Henry Kissinger will be very pleased with your positions but your position is fundamentally the opposite of what I infer from your philosophical writings. I guess you do carry the manuals.
ps:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2059654,00.html
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/18/134658019/symbol-of-uprising-is-destroyed-in-bahrain
Shocking Destruction:
In occupied Bahrain, a grand 300 feet monument of the city is destroyed by the government itself! The freedom square, the lovely pearl tower destroyed! There you have it; the sort of things that can only happen in an occupied city.
Those who stood with criminal tyrants in Egypt and Tunisia, and now in Yemen and Bahrain stand with tyranny….
Well if you are a Nude Yawk Slimes employee, you ARE a rat. Shotgun him.
who are you people on these blogs? shoot a new york times reporter? If you are not serious, don’t write these kinds of things, words kill.
If you are serious, apply for a job with Saudi secret police and get out of civilized world.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/bahrain/8392820/Bahrain-hospital-attack-Physical-abuse-and-humiliation-of-doctors.html
more evidence of regime and Saudi occupation forces war crimes in Bahrain.
“In Manama, a political scientist, speaking in confidence, said the Bahraini government was shifting more and more power to the Saudi military, even though Bahrain’s regime maintains the forces are only there to help…”
Of course, what other evidence do we need: only an occupation army rips out the very pavement and a destroys a beautiful 300 foot national monument, fires on ambulances and enters hospitals and beats up doctors and severly injures staff mercilessly enmass….(not even the Iranian regime has yet carried out such blatant attack on a hospital)
apparently some Bahraini freedom-fighters are being transferred to Saudi Arabia, no doubt for some specialized treatment there.
Tonight as all eyes are on fixed on Libya, in a small corner of Persian Gulf, freedom-fighters are being arrested and tortured.
The West is too busy or to distracted by Bahrain regime’s apologists who should now see that they are complicit in what is happening there; even long tolerated liberal opposition is targeted as Wahabi occupation forces stamp out any possibility of spreading waves of revolution from the Gulf.
It is left to grand Ayatollah Sistani in his quiet ways to speak for Bahrain’s freedom-fighters…he canceled his class in Najaf.
I share that sense of foreboding. What to expect from a man we mindlessly propelled into a job he cannot command, and who keeps making himself feel important by collecting prizes and teleprompting around instead of making the decisions we desperately need a president for?
Next time around, we will pay more attention to which candidate is better prepared to steer a ship in turbulent waters.
we won’t have a chance to pay attention.
obama will be reelected by hook “and” by crook….because we as Americans do not pay attention to what is going on.
Conservatives sit back and let things happen…don’t answer back, it might rock the boat
I dont think so this time around Sally. Either the Republicans have awakened (tea party rising in November) and the blue dog republicans will have to get in step or there will be another stronger conservative party. I think like in Daniel the writing is on the wall and everyone knows it.
Doesn’t it all come down to Hillary’s question about who do you want answering “that phone” at 3 am. Certainly not BO, and I really don’t want Hillary answering it either. Nor McCain. Someone who knows about enemies and someone with the background to deal with them? I don’t know. But certainly none of the 3 mentioned above.
Chris, all three of those know about enemies and how to deal with them.
The problem is in how they define their enemies.
(Insert picture of McCain embracing Viet Cong officials in D.C., next to a picture of him excoriating the families of M.I.A.s for daring to ask their government to account for its missing men.)
W I L L W E ??? I fear you are wrong sir. Some will look closer, but the dumbing down of the American public is too overwhelming, I’m thinking.
Mr. Ledeen,
You make a concise case. As for your wondering about whether or not it’s “back to Chicago,” consider this:
IMHO Barack Obama is a liar. For two years he has acted to belie his own statements: He claimed to think about the Gulf oil spill day and night, yet did virtually nothing; he claimed to have a laser focus on the economy, yet focused on Obamacare; he claimed to favor free markets, yet expanded govt involvement in private enterprise; he claimed to create “shovel-ready” jobs, but distributed federal stimulus funds mostly to political cronies and unionized public employee who already had jobs; he claimed he would rather be a good one-term president that a mediocre re-elected prosident. What do you think?
” … he claimed he would rather be a good one-term president that a mediocre re-elected prosident. What do you think?”
I think he will be remembered are a one-term mediocre president!
Liberalism defined: Innate ignorance, firmly supported through carefully thought out stupidity.
Obama DOES have a laser focus on the economy. And he burned a hole in it.
What’s sadder, we have 6 more years of this. At least Carter was a 1 termer.
I guess we should be grateful he didn’t pick a viable presidential candidate as VP…
I’m stumped and don’t know how to fill in the blank. I know Obama’s people are pretty teed off at the Pakistanis, and the Karzai clan as well.
Or is Mr. Ledeen talking about Egypt? That’s the only place they seem focused on.
Th last line of Mr. Ledeen’s post may clear up your confusion. If that doesn’t work, try this, he says he hasn’t a clue either!
He’s no wimp when it comes to Israeli’s building those very dangerous homes.
He (the WON) is also no wimp when it comes to restricting Americans. He does not fear us………….
Honestly, I don’t think he cares. This job has turned out to be just as tedious as all the rest–idiotic people who are not as smart as he is wasting his time with piddling problems. He’s not desperate. He’s bored.
He told us America wielded too much power, so he’s stopped. Let Asia fix Japan. Let France fix Libya. Let Israel suffer with Egypt–what’s it to Obama? Oil prices rising? So what–that’s what he told us we needed to have happen to wean ourselves off of energy consumption. Financial instability? Who cares. Let the whole thing burn.
And let me remind you of Obama’s ideas of success in the presidency:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/173817/just-imagine-me-being-me-white-house/byron-york
“…f Barack was going to run, he had to decide quickly, a point the group made by laying out primary schedules and game plans for fund-raising and building an organization. Insights were offered from around the room.
It was Michelle, Axelrod remembers, who stopped the show. “You need to ask yourself, Why do you want to do this?” she said directly. “What are hoping to uniquely accomplish, Barack?”
Obama sat quietly for a moment, and everyone waited. “This I know: When I raise my hand and take that oath of office, I think the world will look at us differently,” he said. “And millions of kids across this country will look at themselves differently.””
He accomplished what he set out to. He got elected. Like George Costanza, he’s done, and wishes he could have walked out on that high note.
Wow ! Just Wow ! If true, that is an extraordinary quote. We have always heard the accusations that he is an empty suit – but to openly say, in effect “I don’t need to do anything, it’s just enough that I am there” is amazing!
Talking about empty suits did you know about
this legal one ?
Yeah he got elected… The first “black” person to hold the office of president. This was to be an event that would improve race relations to the point we could forget about them and yet, he and his cronies have done more damage than any KKK lynching. Their failure to protect rights of law abiding citizens by dismissal of cases of thuggery and their obvious catering to special interests has set race relations back decades if not at least a century. I just hope that people can see that it isn’t his “blackness” that is the problem, it’s his lack of moral character and honesty. MLK must be spinning in his grave over what is going on these days.
So, in other words, his only goal was to be the first African-American president, and to hell with all the rest of the stuff that goes along with being president. I suspected as much, and nothing he’s done since has changed my opinion.
maybe the dewimpification will occur with Libya. It’s easier than afganistan or fighting nuclear fires in Japan, or at least most of the bad guys are within 5in gun range of the coast. More likely president Ocarter will count backing an underdog basketball team as standing strong.
One difference between Carter and Obama is that the latter might both cut military spending and try to act tough militarily. He’ll think that he can cut weapons systems and other “out year” spending and use some of the freed-up money for expendables for his adventure and use the rest for social programs.
It will be very interesting to watch him run for re-election. He’s remarkably silent about a whole host of things: Iran, Afghanistan, terrorism etc. Is it me, or does it feel like his presidency hasn’t really even begun yet? I don’t mean in reference to the amount of impact he’s had on the economy. I mean in the sense that, he hasn’t had any presidential ‘moment.’ He hasn’t given an address where we could say: Ah, yes, this is the commander in chief. He doesn’t talk about the war. It’s surreal.
That is exactly what I keep thinking. There is this sense that he is hoping he finally gets his chance to prove himself. He’s looking for that “put me in coach” moment, in which he can save the game. Years from now, he will still be thinking that his presidency would have been great if he’d just had the chance.
He hasn’t given an address where we could say: Ah, yes, this is the commander in chief. He doesn’t talk about the war. It’s surreal.
Throughout 2006 and 2007 Obama agitated for oil rich Iraq to be conceded to al Qaeda and Iran. In 2007 and 2008 he claimed that The Surge wasn’t working. Commander In Chief? What is surreal is that he was elected POTUS.
Obama will never use American military force to any beneficial effect for any reason. It is simply not part of his belief system that this could even be possible let alone desirable. He has been extremely forthright in earlier years describing his desire for a large civilian militia,”as well-funded as the present military forces” to maintain domestic order.
We have seen examples of this strategy in Iran, Venezuela and most recently in Libya. It appears to be quite successful at maintaining the dominant political elites. Rulers throughout the world have taken careful notice.
Nobody in Obama’s circle of advisors is going to tell him that General Petraeus can pull off a victory in (name that location) that might save Obama. General Petraeus is a potential rival and will not be permitted to win any major war.
The military budget will be reduced in order to “save the welfare safety net for the less fortunate”. Political directives will be implemented which will demoralize the ranks and lead to substantial attrition, followed by a movement to restore the draft. Effective military forces are not useful to the leftists currently in control of our government and they won’t be maintained.
What will expand are the domestic police forces and the tax collection agencies. The next chairman of the Joint Chiefs will be a champion of “diversity” and have an “understanding attitude” towards Islamic nations. That is your most important “tell”.
Things which cannot go on will stop…
I would have to agree with the assessment that Petraeus is a potential rival (not that I think he would necessarily want the job of President. I don’t get that from him), but that the democrats do see him as some kind of danger. hence, the continuing denunciations (some D-congresswoman was recently griping about his/the military’s activities on the senate floor; for the purpose of…?)
It isn’t just about ideological fears of war and military. Who was the first Republican elected after the Democrats only had “non-interventionist” on their ballot with China in North Korea and the USSR expanding post FDR and Harry Truman’s WWII? Republican Eisenhower, previously Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
After just about every major war, the US has had a tendency to elect military officers (except for the Korean Conflict that was not even called a war until later or Vietnam which pretty much tainted any officer, regardless of his performance).
Now the world looks to France for leadership. I just watched a NHK newscast, they talked about a G-8 teleconferencing to discuss the Japanese and imminent global economic crises, they put Sarkozy’s face on the TV screen and interviewed a French minister.
I think you got the wrong wimp in the wrong era.
Obama isn’t a wimp – he’s launched a frontal assault with all his forces – unfortunately, the people he’s at war with is the US public. More specifically, anyone not for large intrusive government. He’s already won a major battle in implementing government healthcare – which the enemy Republicans can’t roll back. His flank attack on industry using the EPA as his shock troops will assure him monster campaign funding – because he’s got industry by the short hairs – contribute or be shut down. Finally, he’s dropped the big one – the unions are going to the mat and will start hitting back twice as hard against the grandma’s and their Tea Party.
In Chicago, the machine doesn’t care about foreign policy – and neither does Obama. And you know what? They still kick butt.
This pretty much sums it up. So many in the conservasphere are still trying to figure Obama (and his administration) out. But he’s not really that hard to figure out.
My thoughts exactly. Obama and his marxist cronies don’t care one whit about foreign policy and is simply maintaining the status quo in Afganistan for domestic political consumption. When the time comes he will cut and run without the slightest hesitation. He is waging war on his own country and quite successfully, witness the lastest reports about bypassing Congress and the Courts by imposing higly illegal gun controls.
As far as getting re-elected he is already running around like a rat in heat trying to raise a billion dollars which he figures will be enough to buy and or steal the 2012 re-election. People need to stop evaluating Obama like he is an ordinary politician who respects the laws of this country. He and his administration ignore the Constituion on a daily basis. Foreign policy is a distraction to his ultimate goal of transforming America into a quasi-marxist society. Do not underestimate the lengths Obama and his Democrats will go to maintain a permenant grip on power.
You hit the nail right on the head. He is at war with the American people, and the press is aiding and abeting at every turn. No one in the media will ever criticize him because he’s the first black pResident. He doesn’t care about this country, just himself. Worse than Jimmy Carter ever was. With all his faults, I never doubted Carter cared about the US. This guy is basically giving everyone the finger.
I’ve been wondering the same thing, but it seems that several opportunities to lead, or look tough while appearing to lead, have been allowed to pass by almost without notice. Libya stands out. Nobody likes Ghaddafi, France and Britain would have leapt at the chance to take equal or greater roles in the action, and it would have commanded broad approval at home even among the most fervent opponents of everything Obama (like me). And yet . . .
So I asked myself, “Just what is it Obama likes so much about being President, given that he doesn’t seem to have any core principles which inspire him to lead (he even left the details of Stimulus and Obamacare to Pelosi and Reid)?” The only answer I could believe is he likes the wealthy lifestyle and prominence, just not the actual “work” part of the job.
Why then would he just not run again? He gets the pension, millions in book and speech revenue from the Left around the world, and the eminence of “former President” without all the pesky meetings and having to duck reporters.
Why not run again? That’s easy. Four more years of Air Force One, no wait tee times, getting to pick your NCAA brackets on ESPN, Michelle too busy being FLOUSA to be beyotchin’ at you…
There’s no denying it. The job’s got a lot of perks.
Obama is running for re-election in order to inflict the maximum damage on the United States.
I agree he doesn’t seem to “like” what is the main job description of President of the US: making the tough decisions that no one else can make. So he avoids doing it as much as possible. But Air Force One and Hail to the Chief….. hmm. Hard to say which one this one will go. But if we reelect him so he can avoid doing the job of the President for 4 more years….. shame, shame, shame on us.
Obama is smart enough to know that the big war–the big, ugly, all-consuming war on our horizon–will be domestic. (And BTW, despite my martial imagery I’m not suggesting a shooting war–I think.) As the freight train of insolvency prepares to run us all over in the next 20 years, Americans will need every ounce of their strength to tear their own country apart. O is setting it in motion and giving himself plausible deniability for when the blame starts to be assigned.
Doing anything, vis a vis military action, to erase the perceived “wimp factor” (that was aimed at the ba$tards who created that headline for Bush 41) would go against 0bama’s weltanschaaung. He can’t destroy American exceptionalism by doing something that reinforces it.
“One” and done, please G-d.
Just what is it Obama likes so much about being President, given that he doesn’t seem to have any core principles which inspire him to lead….
The chance of fulfilling the heart’s most fervent wish…of cutting America down to size.
Who else would have the courage—the sheer audacity—to even attempt it?
Hope and change, baby, hope and change!!
Carter, for all his faults, was much more his own man than Obama. Obama is so purely the creation of a political machine that his handlers have a real chance of swaying him with an argument that might run like this:
“Mr. President, we understand that it will look like a shift away from our mutual philosophy of governance to [do some seemingly rightward shift in policy], but if we don’t back and fill a bit now, we’ll be derailed in November next year, and our progressive agenda will be thwarted for a decade or two. It’s time for some consolidation, even if we must do it behind a smokescreen of agreement with out enemies.”
That’s what I most fear: a cosmetic adjustment that would permit Obama to retain the White House, and perhaps an auxiliary blocking caucus in the Senate. But he’ll have to be at least as courageous about his convictions as Carter was…and frankly, he’s not even courageous enough to put Michele in her place when she deserves it.
What would a desperate wimp do? Go to Rio. Play golf. Fill out his NCAA bracket. Appear on ESPN.
With Obama, there is no there, there. He is a cardboard cutout, “selected before he was elected”, swooned over by liberal male media types, marketing campaign creation. Does he want four more years after the next two? I see no evidence. Will he try to exploit an event for his own advantage? Yes, but we’ll never see him really step up, it’s not in his nature. Best self-promoter in politics ever? Probably.
Although there are other leaders in the Democratic Party, the far left has control of the party now. He’s their guy, they don’t seem to care about the results in November, willing to sacrifice many of their own for the sake of Obama. The results in Wisconsin have them worried because that’s about campaign dollars and boots on the ground.
Leadership will come from the Republican Party. It is sorely needed and will be welcomed with enthusiasm. Just as Reagan’s rise signaled to the rest of the world that America was turning back to its traditional values and strengths, potential candidates have a similar opportunity available now. We need strong patriots to step forward, take the keys from Barky, and get us out of the ditch.
Jackie Mason once explained the subtle distinction betwen a schmuck and a putz. There’s no need to quibble concerning Obama.
What about a limp sock?
He won’t lose, he has the magic mix of minorities, labor and anarchists not to mention traitors to support him. They along with those in the media will make sure he gets re elected no matter the vote. Besides he’s from Chicago, they haven’t even begun to cheat yet.
This president makes Forrest Gump look like a genius. He should rename himself Barak Gump or Forrest O’Gumpa. That could take away the Muslim stain and put him over the top.
Michael, don’t cry too loudly for the boys in Benghazi. Remember, at the outset of this ongoing debacle, they specifically and vociferously ruled out the use of “foreign troops.” Looks like they are fishing their wish.
Too bad for the wimp…Libya was a Freebee but he blew it. Now he can wring his hands and say that its really bad that the cross-dresser decided to line several thousand “traitors” up to be shot….when Iran comes to ‘the aid’ of the ‘freedom fighters’ in Bahrain, he will likely decide that is a great day to play golf.
Maybe we doesn’t want to get reelected.
That would probably be the first reasonable decision he’s made – not in his administration but in his life.
I believe that Obama is viscerally opposed to the effective use of American leadership and American power, believing as he does that the big problems of this earth are the consequences of past American sins, which in turn were based on the misguided doctrine of American exceptionalism.
I don’t believe Obama is “viscerally opposed to American Leadership”. I believe he is simply afraid to exercise that leadership because it would mean actual work and possible failure. He also knows the direction he would take “American Leadership” would not meet with the approval of the country. So, unless he can provide “leadership by talking”, he does nothing.
“For the next two years I worried that Carter might overreact to some international crisis in order to make folks see that he was really a tough guy.
It never happened, to my relief…”
You are mistaken. It did happen.
It happened in April 1980 because a desperate President decided to pursue a hare-brained scheme that ended with predictably disastrous results at a place code named Desert One.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/05/the-desert-one-debacle/4803/
I agree with K. This President is in full scale aggressive war mode. He is conducting a focused revolution as fast as he can to destroy the US. He is on a mission, like the Blues Brothers. He does not care at all about foreign policy. He cares about ending the US, period. He is a neutron bomb placed inside the US government designed to explode over four years, leaving the people but destroying the Constitution, the private economy, all private wealth, and the civil society. This mission is going well.
I think you forgot to mention that Jimmy Carter DID try to act tough once during the Iranian Hostage crisis and that was when he tried to send US troops in to rescue the American Hostages. The attempt was poorly planned and was a dismal failure, which only cemented the fact that Carter was a loser and that nothing he did or tried turned out right. Even his one major foreign policy success, the Camp David Accord, was overshadowed by all of his other foreign and domestic failures, from the Iranian hostage crisis to the horrific economy.
Unfortunately, there is a big, big, difference between Carter and Obama. Obama is a dedicated socialist. He doesn’t admit it, but everything he does proves it, from ObamaCare to the stimulus to all of the nationalizing of the automotive industry. He is a strict socialist ideologue and really doesn’t care if he wins or loses, as long as his agenda gets passed, which is why he was so frantic to pass everything while the Democrats still held Congress.
Obama never, ever, believed in American exceptionalism. He always thought America was no better than France or any other European socialist country, and it shows. Obama never leads on anything and will only do something when the United Nations says he can. He IS the most pathetic “leader” since Jimmy Carter, but it’s not because he wants to emulate Carter but because he really wants to be a European socialist, and that’s the difference. And, as we all know, Europeans believe in talking an issue to death rather than actually doing something about it. How long did the Europeans “negotiate” with Iran over its nuclear program and how well did that turn out for them? You see, Obama wants to be just like them.
I’m not sure what Obama is really going to run on in 2012. Will it be the poor economy? A trillion dollar “stimulus” that stimulated nothing? ObamaCare? The lousy reaction to the BP oil spill (remember that one)? His mishandeling of the Iranians and just about everything else in the Middle East? Or his shabby treatment of Israel? I just can’t think of what this guy is going to run on. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to send him back to Chicago in 2012.
He will run on that magic little thing, now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t, birth certificate.
Ah, when you said ‘that magic little thing’, I thought you were going to say the tingles up and down Chris Matthews’ leg. BTW, has anyone heard Chris talking about his tingle for Obama lately?
Heard a young Bahraini woman being interviewed on NPR yesterday about the suppression of demonstrations in her country. ‘Where is the U.S.?’ she kept asking. ‘What is it that you want?’ the interviewer asked her. Unless it’s a round of golf that she wants, I think she’s out of luck.
The criminal Bahraini regime is getting a pass from the right as well because you know it serves the “national interest”; it’s shameful.
If he has any intelligence at all he will step aside sooner rather than later. Few people have stood in the way of the Clintons. . . and nobody does it twice.
If Obama hadn’t spent so much time, effort and money hiding his paper trail (college transcripts, health records, law school writings, even his birth certificate), maybe the American people would have a better grasp of who Obama really is.
And maybe that’s exactly what Obama DOESN’T want . . .
I really hope I live long enough to read a full (and honest) account of the Obama Presidency. None of it makes any sense. He makes no sense. There probably isn’t a lot he can do in a lot of the ongoing conflicts, but he could at least appear to be fully engaged. Instead he’s packing for his next trip.
How can his Press secretary get away with telling a reporter to check his own news outlet if he wants info on Japan?? It really comes down to media protection. How long will the media continue to cover for him, build him up and fawn over him? If there ever comes a time Obama’s lapdogs turn on him, I think we’ll see a full melt down on his part. Frankly though, I think the msn will choose to sink along with the USS United States rather than harm the President.
Oklahoma City. Or something very much like it.
Given the brevity of your comment, I believe you see the whole picture.
However, it won’t stop with ONE building in ONE city, unfortunately.
Aglet
I think you all are forgetting that Obama is the mere actor hired to play the part of the President. It is a case of good casting not excellence in leadership. We all have been had, by a totally empty suit. But what makes you think this wasn’t part of the plan? We have a one party elite that is behind the system that controls us. Barack Hussein Obama was simply their way of transitioning to the next stage of their control. Think I am wrong? Take a look at how the Republican Establishment is running away from the frey and refusing to use their leverage on the Debt Ceiling to defund the $105 Billion of hidden funding in the Health Care bill. Only Michelle Bachmann and Steven King too renegade outsiders have drawn the publics attention to this matter. The Republican Establishment needs to be watched just as much as the current communist/totalitarian/Progressive strutters currently on the stage.
I agree, big government benefits the Republicans also. They need to be constantly reminded about following the wishes of the voters who put them in a position of power. And if they don’t, they need to be replaced by those who will implement the agenda as requested by the American people, this last election. Let each election, from here on, be a means to cleanse the body politic of those who will not honor the Constitution, as interpreted by our Founders. To do less, means the end of the Republic.
He ran as a test,accidentally won,has no clue but he and Mooch love The BLING.
Early on in his administration I heard commentators suggest that Obama is not bored; he’s just plain lazy. I thought the suggestion was ridiculous at the time. Now I’m beginning to wonder. It would explain at least his leaving virtually everything (apart from NCAA basketball picks) to others.
“For the next two years I worried that Carter might overreact to some international crisis in order to make folks see that he was really a tough guy.”
I disagree. The rescue attempt that led to the death of American personnel sounded to me then and still does today like an example of a wimp trying to show that he was really a tough guy.
Greifer:
In re wimps, I was struck by this in the passage you quoted:
“This I know: When I raise my hand and take that oath of office, I think the world will look at us differently,” he said.
He can’t even explain why he should be President without using weasel words, can he?
I’m reminded of Sen. John Kerry, who ran for President in 2004 and was asked if America would have gone to war on his watch, given sufficient provocation. He answered, “You bet we might have!”
There ought to be a book, “The Wimpification of the American Presidency”. I don’t know that I’d have the stomach to read it, though.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Daniel in Brookline: Interesting, but I don’t take it as an example of weasel words. I take it as an example of hubris
This *I* know. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world knows:
*I think* the world will look at us differently: doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
I don’t think he uses the phrase “I think” to equivocate. I think he uses it to mean he’s the smartest guy in the room, according to the most important person in the room–himself.
I don’t think the question of ‘will Obama run again’ should be asked of Obama but of the Democratic Party. Can they afford to have him run?
Obama, as a clinical narcissist, is uninterested in the affairs of the real world. He’s intellectually ignorant of history, of econmics, and in addition, he’s lazy; he’s not interested in researching these areas, not interested in developing policies and programs – he leaves all of that to others and provides no leadership or agenda.
His single focus has always been: getting people to admire or acknowledge him. This was the case when he was editor of the Harvard Law Review when he himself did no work but left it to others; when he was community organizer, exhorting his ‘underlings’ to go out and activate. He does not work on issues. Only people – as when he voted merely ‘present’ in Senate.
Obama is also personally anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-wealth, anti-West. He has no problem with other nations moving in to world power. So his alignment with the radical socialist Democrats who are inserting statism into the US infrastructure is a key aspect of his personal antipathy to the US way of life.
The American reaction to this has been the rise of the Tea Party, the massive repudiation of the Democrats in November – ignored by Obama -and now, more and more open discussion of Obama’s indifference, lack of leadership, and self-focus – his golf, parties, trivial interests.
Therefore, can the Democratic Party afford to keep Obama for the 2012 elections? The GOP are wisely keeping quiet about who they will put forward, for to do it now would energize the Democrats to fight-against-an-individual. The current problem of the Democrats is their bad policies they have rammed through..and their failures in the economy..and in foreign relations.
And they have a problem with Obama, because all he can do is campaign to adoring crowds, speaking ambiguous meaningless future-oriented phrases. He’s indifferent to and can’t speak on hard reality…usually getting facts wrong and mixed up. He can’t handle hard questions; he can’t handle criticism. The Democrats would love to have the public interest switch to One Individual.
And the Democrats have kept new blood out of the party while the GOP has brought them in. So- do the Democrats keep Obama..or find him a King of the World position to dump him into? They are in trouble.
he is as you say a narcissist etc.
but the whole administration is driven by him. he lets the others do all the work but he is pushing the agenda.
he is intent on destroying the USA and I think he may have already since the spending he incurred and the deceitful bureaucrats he has installed will be there even if he is gone.
when the real accounting is done and the effect of QE 2 and QE 3 are added up it may be too late.
I don’t think that it is just Obama who is pushing the socialist statist agenda. I think that Obama is, intellectually totally vacant; there’s no-one there. He is psychologically a socialist both because of his upbringing (parents typical postwar leftists) and because his psychological need to control others fits in perfectly with socialism.
Socialism, after all, is about an Elite Ruler(s) controlling the masses. Suits Obama perfectly.
I think the active agenda comes from his wife Michelle, who is extremely anti-American, anti-white, anti-wealth, anti-capitalist. The usual. And, from the radical socialists on his czarist team…all of whom are old buddies and all of whom are unaccountable to Congress and form an elite isolate group around Obama.
It’s this gang of thugs – and they are all thugs – that are running the show. The Democrats, even the radicals among them, have little control over them. Have the Democrats, the moderates amongo them, become aware that the White House is alienated from them, from Congress, and from the people? Will they do anything about it?
ETAB’s explanation of little lenin’s behavior and motivations sounds totally implausable until you realize that all of the numerous verifiable details are 100% true. Until I see some counterexamples, it the best explanation going.
I also like his suggestion (now beginning to be repeated by some conservative pundits) that the Republicans shouldn’t even attempt to settle on anyone for a long while. Picking a favorite would provide the boy king the opportunity to do one of the few things he is good at…demonize an opponent; and it would also take the focus off an incompetant buffoon and give the Make Believe Media the opportunity to do what they do best…carry the water for their masters. Let Party Boy continue voting present for another year without a pinata to stick pins in. Maybe some of the brain dead voters will notice there is no there there.
One thing Obama has going for him is that he has demonstrated a profound ability to cheat and has the most expert voter fraud infrastructure in the business. When he his DOJ green light intimidation tactics at polling places, you know there are no limits to what he is willing to do. It’s hard to imagine any other leftist going that far. He’s in another league when it comes to thuggery. It’s probably worth 5% in 2012.
“One thing Obama has going for him is that he has demonstrated a profound ability to cheat and has the most expert voter fraud infrastructure in the business. …It’s probably worth 5% in 2012.”
The cost, though, is hard to calculate. If democracy in the US is a sham it will do more damage than even the spending to the cause of freedom. High time to take the steps necessary to ensure proper enumeration, voting and counting.
yes dislodging the poser is not as easy as it looks. Ried got “re-elected” with more votes then voters
Mr. Obama’s future is already decided.
Rahm Emanuel has set aside the job as Commissioner of Parks and Recreation – City of Chicago, a post more fitting of Mr. Obamas beliefs and capabilities.
Now if Mr. O would only leave early to take his new post we…nay, the world at large, will be a better place.
Hopefully,
G. Hugh Bodell
He gave a headfake to the center in the SOTU but WTF went over like a lead balloon! However the MSM lapped it up! Followed up with the “civility” speech in Tuscon but could not bring himself to comment on the democratic obscenity that was the actions of his supporters in WI.
He could have been a great president but that would have required jettisoning the blinkered ideology which he has embraced his whole life!
In his re-election run I predict the same thin-skinned polarizing liar we have seen for the past two years. He just cannot help himself.
When Carter was running for re-election he declassified the stealth bomber program for the sole purpose of boosting his military bonafides. I remember my father, a life time military man, fit to chew nails that a president would weaken the country for political gain. I shudder to think what Obama will do.
Please God we get a Republican candidate who can debate well enough to effectively challenge these lies.
Little boy wanted to pway pwesident, got his wish from the magic media fairy, then found out actually being pwesident was too hard, so now he just wanna pway. It’s not his fault, cut him some swack.
France and Great Britian are paper tigers, as they don’t have the military strength to do anything. France doesn’t even have a military. The U.S. has furnished the defense of Europe from our taxes for 66 years; it’s pathetic to see France’s president calling for an airstrike in Libya – he’s just trying to urge us to handle the heavy lifting.
Why did America’s voters go so far left in 2006, and then finish the job in 2008, by electing an unknown with ties to black liberation theology, admitted on video by Rev. Wright to be marxism?
Trying to read Obama’s mind is an exercise in futility; his words have consistently been the opposite of his actions. Consider who funds the Democratic Party, per the Washington Examiner’s expose’, the unions, George Soros, the environmentalists, the subsidized green energy companies, and the trial lawyers. He appears to be in conflict with enviros by espousing GE’s rent-seeking nuclear power bonanza; is this more empty rhetoric? His war on coal is upsetting miners, yet the UMW heads still plan to support him. George Soros has publicly in books and interviews called for a one-world government, and spent a lot of money over the years on Obama’s campaigns. The president called on the U.N to attack Arizona’s immigration laws; what that more empty phrases to appease the one-world-government supporters? Obama’s mentor Frank M. Davis has been proven to be a communist working to destroy the U.S., and Obama surrounded himself with anti-American, anti-capitalist radicals. The investigative reports found in several books all point to his being a radical marxist, but who knows? He might be a wimp in wolf’s clothing…..
We the American people are running around chasing our tails. I think he gets reelected and America continues to slide towards, who knows what?
At the rate he is going by 2012 Obama will appeal to only a select group of voters, zombies, and only radical left leaning ill-informed ones at that.
Does Moochelle know what those people are eating? That would cause more reaction from the White House than, say, a nuclear meltdown.
The whole world is nothing but a nice little playground for the Obama’s to play in. Just let the real leaders take care of the big stuff.
You sound like a hawk and/or a neoconservative out of touch with reality. The only way the United States could take on all the challenges and problems in the world is if we activate the draft and call up about twenty million of America’s youth to go fight in foreign wars.
Currently, our military is overextended and bordering on exhaustion. Many of our volunteer military has been sent back to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan so many times, that the military is suffering from mental problems brought on by stress and PTSD. If you read Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, you would know that is a recipe for disaster. Wars must be won quickly. Once a nation is mired in a war that seems without end that is a lost war.
Since there is no comparable threat in the world today equal to Hitler’s Germany and Imperial Japan of World War II, there is no need to go wage war in every country where a neoconservative sees a threat or another nation to build.
Then there is the challenge of finding enough young Americans that are in shape to be in the military. Since World War II and Vietnam, America has become fat and diabetes among our children is an epidemic. We may not have 20 million healthy Americans to serve in the military.
In addition, do we have the industrial capacity to produce weapons as we did in World War II? The only reason the US won that war against Germany and Japan was we had more people and could produce weapons faster than they could.
We hold the edge technologically when it comes to weapons, but can we make enough to supply a military that would allow America to wage a war on that many fronts as we build nations in the US image all over the world.
The supply lines would be long. The cost would be crippling. Thanks to George W. Bush and the Republican Party the Federal government is dealing with a crippling deficit, the Bush empowered crooks that brought us the 2008 global financial crises that led to 64 trillion dollars in global losses are still in charge because President Obama did not remove them when he moved into the White House.
The best thing America can do at this point is find a way out of wars in the Middle East and hope to leave behind governments of any kind that are not controlled by Islamic fundamentalists.
Even a dictator like Gaddafi is better than another theocratic dictatorship such as Iraq. Even if Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, he was the enemy of our enemy. If we had left Saddam in Iraq, that country would not be threatened with a potential take over by Islamic Fundamentalists sometime in the near future. Sometimes, it is best to leave things as they are and it is better to keep in place the devil you know than one you don’t want to know.
The only other choice is to use a few hundred nuclear weapons and destroy Islam killing more than a billion people, but then we would have to deal with the threat of a floating cloud of radiation that would dwarf what is blowing from those failed reactors in Japan.
After reading your rant, I suspect you would vote “YES” for using as many H-bombs as needed to rid the earth of Muslims.
Lloyd, your statement “The only way the United States could take on all the challenges and problems in the world is if we activate the draft and call up about twenty million of America’s youth to go fight in foreign wars,” has in it the solution from at least two perspectives.
1) If the draft were reinstated every household in this country would have skin in the game…and we would get out of winless wars.
2) We may stand a chance of getting those sadly unfit under 25 year olds into at least some sort of condition.
But we know that is not about to happen. Mr. Obama is either a wimp or a puppet dancing to his masters’ tune and neither of those results are in their best interest.
G. Hugh Bodell
Actually defending ourselves against people who believe “killing the infidels” is an appropriate nay righteous thing to do and that they will be rewarded by their god for as many infidels (man, woman, child makes no difference) as they can destroy, seems like a good place to start.
Those animals over there celebrate anytime “infidels” are slain, including infants in their cribs. So forgive me if I don’t have any tolerance for their religion which they say is the most important part of their lives. If they want to continue to party like it’s 1166 that fine by me but they need to do it in their own countries and they need to be kept there by force if necessary.
Personally I’m waiting for some Twelver to get his hands on a nuclear weapon. We in the US won’t have to do anything, they’ll do it to themselves. I’ll see your imam and raise you a Savior. Not even a contest.
I think you err in assuming that Obama wants a second term. Obama wants to “be” President, not “do” anything. He wants the perqs, the recognition, the self-esteem trophy. Now he’s got the pension, Secret Service detail, and the looking glass Presidential library, and the various speaking engagements and board stipends for life. There’s no need for a second term. Let some other poor schmuck have to listen to all those annoying national security briefings.
Yes. Something in my gut tells me he isn’t running again. The man out-stealthed his own soul, his set of formerly DSA/Alinksy beliefs, into contentless leftoid vagueness, and I think he is more genuinely confused than he is defined by “socialist leftovers” or grand agenda. Clinton had a New Dem rationale behind moving moderate. There is no Obama rationale for triangulation, and we’re already seeing he isn’t good at it nor trying. On the budget numbers, the health-law mess, he seems to be in sheer denial. Things simply are not working the way he expected, and his mind is shaped in ways that do not allow him to correct in time.
The fundraising can be explained otherwise.
Miss-trust of my own gut, and uncertainty as to what such a-try-to-quit-Obama would do when someone close laid down the you-can’t-betray-the-honor-of-blacks argument, tells me to only bet around 40% on this possibility, but I think it’s a real one.
You also have a selective memory.
President Carter lost the election to Reagan because his daring attempt to free the US diplomatic prisoners in Iran held by the Islamist regime failed.
Why did that mission fail?
The answer is Oliver North, who was on that mission, which mysterisly had all but one aircraft disabled so they could not fly the Special Forces teams into Tehran to free the prisoners.
With all but one aircraft sabotaged, the team had no choice but to fly out on the one remaining aircraft and aboard the mission.
Because those prisoners were not freed, the election tilted to Reagan and he won the White House. The GOP’s PR machine used that fact to their advantage somewhat similar to the GOP’s Swift Boat Veterans PR machine that defeated Kerry by making a Vietnam combat veteran into a coward while turning a drunken coward that used his family’s political influence to keep him out of Vietnam into a hero.
After Reagan won, Oliver North was rewarded with a position in the White House then we had the Iran Contra scandal, which should have led to President Reagan’s impeachment.
Oliver North was NOT on that mission. Where do these legends come from?
My God, where do you get your history? From the 57th State historical society? Oliver North had nothing to do with that operation.
What!!!??? Lloyd, your first post sounded reasonably intelligent, your second morphed into a foaming at the mouth, Bush derangement syndrome screed. Come back in from way out in left field.
well it is a moot question as to what a wimp would do since we can plainly see what he is doing.
regards Michael
The United States has been victim of an intellectual ‘melt down’ in our Congress and White House, for the last four years. It doesn’t look like the U.S. will ever be the same.
It could only have been accomplished from within.
It’s always nice when someone like ML echoes your thoughts. As I have said here and elsewhere this man is an incident waiting to happen, one step away from a stupid mistake to try and prove himself. Hopefully when Popeye the president man swallows his tin of spinach he will take on someone like Bahrain where he can’t get into to much trouble.
Humble penitent?? HUMBLE? Did you mean to say HUMBUG?
The slugs who voted this affirmative action wonder-boy,and stooge of the left-wing plutocracy, got the government they deserve.as for the rest of us, Let’s be grateful for the fact that Obama has finally mobilized an effective patriot opposition to Statist oppression(I don’t mean that collection of simpering and pathetic poltroons called the republican party). I can only hope that he radicalizes this opposition,by taking unconstitutional measures to preserve his regime,(like shutting down the internet and attempting to disarm the population),bringing about a much-needed,second American Revolution.
The O has already given up. He has crawled inside himself and pulled the covers over his head. No one can be sure of when this happened or started, could have been the first 48 hours in office, the horrible realization of being totally overwhelmed, of now knowing that your whole life has been a fraud & this job is not one you can fake or lay off on others. Try as you might. He is frozen, in a daze, he cannot make a decision.
Couple this with his hatred of America and we have a nightmare on our hands.
My guess is that he will continue to breakdown, to disassemble, to fall apart.
Sit tight and pray.
In the meantime the media will continue to support and cover him.
Obama cares about 3 things.
Who will fund the Obama library.
Who will fund the Obama Center.
and
Who will fund the Obama endowment.
one term or two does not matter.
HAMLET
A monologue from the play by William Shakespeare:
HAMLET: To be, or not to be–that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep–
No more–and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep–
To sleep–perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. — Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! — Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
Victor Davis Hansen article today titled….President Hamlet…makes this same excellent point.http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0311/hanson031611.php3
Wile all you racists are attacking our President, the key story of the year is being overlooked. After President Obama’s first year in office, he won the Nobel Peace Prize! We can all agree that his accomplishments in his second year in office were much more significant than those of his first year in office. Therefore, President Obama is certainly entitled to this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, as well.
The racists will oppose. But, for all non-racists out there, please join me in petitioning the Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Committee to award this year’s Peace Prize to President Obama! Such an award would only add to the status of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and the Peace Prize, itself.
You have got to be kidding.
Hey TexEd: You did forget to place the /s at the end of your comment, didn’t You? Otherwise folks might think you’re totally obtuse.
He did not WIN the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. To win something you must vie for it and he had really done nothing, it was simply given to him and that is all.
Whatever the reasons there were at the time I am sure that they are now a distant memory of those that bestowed this now ridiculous honor!
Michael,
There is a reason that strategist coined the term “WINDOW” of opportunity. this window was WIDE OPEN last year in Iran, nobody cared. a month ago, another window, opened this time in Libya. Wake up dude! the window is still open, but who knows when it will be closed.
As the author says, the absence of leadership from Obama is being noticed by our enemies. To them it shakes out as at least a couple of free chess moves on the geopolitical chess board. The only question now is: was all of this by design or has been it a product of sheer incompetence? No doubt Obama is in over his head, but he can heed the advice of people in his administration who are probably capable of offering him some good foreign policy advice—there has to be a realist or two there that likes his job and wants to preserve it. His people can’t all be of the caliber of his czars, whose advice is probably about anything other than what furthers the strategic interests of this country.
Obama has been president long enough to know that he is unlikely to be reelected at the rate he’s going. But maybe the author is right about him not caring that much if he isn’t. After all, at this point Obama must know that his signature ‘achievement’ is in a lot of trouble and the only way to realistically fund it is with a VAT—the real reason for Obamacare, after all—and he and the dems are unlikely to get it. So, maybe it’s not so much a lull in American leadership that we’re talking about but a pout.
He’s not a wimp by a long shot. He is doing exactly what he set out to do in the teeth of mounting criticism. That doesn’t sound wimpish to me.
Mr Ledeen’s objections seem to be in the realm of foreign policy, but little lenin told us all along that we have sinned from day 1 in this country regarding foreign affairs. He isn’t going to do anything but flap his jaws occassionally about foreign affairs and when he does, it is because he needs a distraction from his domestic agenda. As for Libya, he didn’t want to distract from his Union thugs in Wisconsin, so he said little. As for Japan, he has set the trap to lure Republicans into an unnecessary fight about “entitlements”, and he doesn’t want to distract from that. Japan could fall off the face of the earth, and he couldn’t care less. He probably hates them as much as white people anyway. After all, aren’t the Japanese a sorely evident example of what hard work and intelligence can accomplish – the Japanese are a direct repudiation of “his people”, both Arabs and the American underclass.
No, foreign affairs don’t interest him. His allies rammed through the marxist magic bullet on health care. He has his $1T slush fund (the “stimulus”). Every true marxist knows that he has done more in two years to undermine the United States than all of the marxists who preceded him could do combined. He is a major success; certainly the most influential marxist since Mao. All he is interested in now is stealing the next election. Party on brother!
Well, be careful what you wish for. As I suspected, Obama’s going to tack towards military use in Libya. I just saw on Fox news that the Obama admin is pushing the UN for a resolution that would include not only a no-fly zone, but strikes on Qaddafi’s ground forces (a “strike zone”).
I actually was in support of that from the beginning. I think he waited too long. If we do start gearing up, all that will happen is that Qaddafi will freeze in place. He will already have the rebels cornered. Then all he has to do is go into “siege mode” and starve them out.
We won’t be able to attack Qaddafi’s forces because he won’t be “acting aggressively”. It’s like a really bad game of chess. Obama gets political coverage, a nasty dictator stays in power and the rebels die.
My head hurts.
The problem is; the rebels in Lybia forgot one crucial thing: “When You Shoot at The King You Must Kill Him”. They haven’t, and will pay an awful price because of that failure.
UN just voted in favor of a no-fly zone as the final solution of Benghazi begins. As they voted, the sounds of bombing began. Cry, dear world, cry.
Who is the greater problem – Obama, or those who voted for him ? They will elect him for a second term no matter how destructive he is. He is their God. The passive fools in this country need to wake up and vote if the country and constitution is to be preserved. “who is to be blamed – the master or the slaves ?”
TO #63
HUZZAHS TO YOU FOR UR OCULAR CLARITY. OBAMANATION IS BAD, VERY BAD. WORSE
IN MY MIND, THE THOUGHTLESS NINCOMPOOPS VOTING HIM IN AND MAYHAPS READY TO
REPEAT THE ERROR.
Barracky boy must be experiencing severe stress trying to decide which of his CD’s to send for the Royal Wedding gift.
The Obamas weren’t invited. *giggle*
LOL!!
Personally my fear is he will decide to “man up” by taking on that prominent dictator Netanyahu, drive Israel out of the west bank, become the father of the Palestinian State, and will not shed any tears if the state of Israel is then destroyed. quite the contrary, that could be his monument, once Obamacare is destroyed.
After all, however much he dithered over the green revolution in Iran, he was 100% decisive in returning the bust of the hated Churchill to the limeys. And his State Department did not equivocate in mocking the special relationship, or appreciating the good grounds the Peronists had in demanding sovereignty negotiations over the Malvinas.
So far, in this crisis in the middle east, the only time he has been willing to intervene was to help force out Mubarak, an authoritarian American ally, but he is always willing to see the point of view of American enemies like Ahmedinejad. He does not particularly care what they do to their own dissidents.
Obama can act decisively only against America’s traditional allies.
I think we should hope that he continues to wimp out. Let him fill in his brackets, that is probably the least harmful thing he has done in two years.
One small reality.
Whether or not Obama can “turn it around”, matters not a jot to him. Other persons, the “little people”,pawns in his game of destruction shall pay the price of his egomania. Egomania polished and stroked to further their now evident destructive aims,by the very people who are now to tell him to “turn it around Sir”.
The “little people”, many actually elected him to do exactly what he has done.Who still if polls are to be credited, believe he’s “doing a good job”.
Whatever the upshot of his AND his “liberal / progressive / “Democratic / internatioanlist / one -world cabal he will suffer no harm. He’ll ride off SMIRKING into the sunset with his presidential pension, perks and protections; his sinecures in various academies and think-tanks; the extremely lucrative lecture circuit and be an acknowledged “expert” on all things social / politial, and his special place in history. As have before him his mentors All the Kennedys, the Clintons /Carter. And the audience can look on in dismay. And crown him with adulation when he deigns to make an appearance.
It is fitting that those who were his aggressive supporters / allies, threatened and bribed on his behalf should now recognise their plans for “transforming” the USA are not so easily effected.
AMERICA is NOT YET a prison state controlled by a Commisssariate, however Obama and his tribe wish it so. Obamas/Clintons praetorians won’t pay in any way commensurate to their deliberate damage to the integrity of America as political entity. As usual it’s the “little people who pay the taxes”.
We have been ‘warned’. Obama states that he will make a statement about Japan later today.
What? Is he going to declare a ‘no fly zone’ over Honshu?
Expecting BHO, and the rest of scoundrels, scalawags, deformed souls, and so forth who have way too much clout inside the beltway to repent is asking for a lot.
Maybe what is why such occurences are referred to as miracles.
Frankly Cameron and Sarkozy have more confidence in the best of western culture in the finger nail of their left pinkie, than BHO has in his entire body.
Here comes Hillary Clinton. Watch her reluctantly(wink wink) decide to try to carry the banner for her party so they don’t get slaughtered in 2011. For all we know, a Hillary Clinton run for President has been in the works for three years now. We should be more careful what we wish for because there are no Republicans who could beat Hillary right now. The voters actually think Hillary is level headed. She would be a worse disaster for our country than Obama could ever hope to be, since she will make decisions.
Oops. I meant 2012.
Hillary looks worn out to me.
Israeli psychologist Sameul Vaknin:
“If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or
another, he has no interest in it. The “present” vote is a safe
vote. No one can criticize him if things go wrong. Those issues
are unworthy by their very nature because they are not about him.”
The burning question for 2012 is why the masses of non-critical thinking voters would re-elect Obama on his record. What part of train-wreck broke do they not understand/
Rush Limbaugh is talking about this article right now on his radio show.
What to do?
What to do?
A war. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket.
That’ll distract the flyover rubes.
Carter was the first and last time I voted Democrat for President. These days I avoid Democrats entirely.
What worries me most about the possibility of a second Obama term is the fact that in his first, at times he had to appear as though he shifted toward center in order to appease the right. He did this because he already knew he would be campaigning for a second term, and he needs the independent voter to get him in again. He can’t win without us. In a second term, however, he does not have to appease anyone at all and he can cram his far left agenda up our proberbial behinds, and there’s not thing one we can do about it.
IMO this is both outside his frame of reference, and would require him to make a decision. There are far more plausible things to worry about.
will the real president please stand up??
cue: Valerie Jarrett!!
ask Rahm
Well, what did Jimmy Carter do in a similar situation?
Remember Desert One?
The President is incapable of fulfilling his constitutional oath. He lacks both the fortitude and decisiveness called for by the current crises (plural). In the field of domestic policies what he has already done is disastrous, and in the field of foreign affairs he is incapable of decision.
There are two strains of thought in the comments here, one of them represented by the post. One strain (to include the post) posit that the occupier of the White House is a wimp/incompetent, essentially out of his depth. Most commentators here align with this strain of thought. The other strain of thought here posits that occupier as a brilliant, dedicated anti-American deeply understanding of what he is doing and how he can succeed, going in deed from strength to strength, success to success, including at the next national election.
As I see it, the majority of the American electorate sees that occupier as do those of the first strain mentioned, and that is why those of the second strain mentioned are correct that the occupier will prevail at the polls in 2012. (Prevailing is not necessarily the same as being elected.)
A majority of the American electorate is invested in the occupier’s perpetual elevation to the White House, or, oblivious to the means and reasons that elevation, at any time, is their devolution/destruction as Americans. It is a race war, down home, simple, unambiguous.
It would be far better to have a scarecrow as prez than O. The poor man doesn’t have a clue. But he does play a good game of golf, picks good brackets & can fiddle while the world burns…
Barry, Barry where for art thou, do not worry because as Holder has said that YOUR people will stay with you, not the smart ones who are leaving you in droves already. Barry you where never taught the simpleness thing in life, which all kids learn in the street. It does not matter how smart you think you are. The meanest toughest kid on the block is going to dominate you and take what they want from you. Strength talks BS walks or in your case Barry you run away, run away from the killer rabbit and let someone else lead. Barry why did you want the job? Apparently you are not qualified and strong enough for the job! But you do play a mean game of golf.
Americans will always back a war president, especially one who acts in response to a terrorist act. What’s scary is that Obama is so self-absorbed that he may very well start a war for the sole purpose of getting re-elected…the wimp will metamorphise for the sake of himself & power of re-election. Axelrod, Accorn & the pravda-Obama-loving-MSM will assist.
Obama will not start a war – at least not intentionally. He may be presented with another war, in which case he will certainly not allow the military forces to take any effective action. The socialists who run our government now do not want or need a successful military establishment.
Control of internal security forces is the decisive factor for our would-be rulers. Another key element is to silence political opposition. A third supporting element is to physically intimidate and terrorize the civilian population. Disarming that same population ensures that opposition will remain silent.
Obama and his backers do not need votes or approval from the majority of the electorate. A small percentage of dedicated, competent and organized zealots is sufficient for an elite to remain in power.
US government and the American Republic have not be overthrown;
Obama was elected. Elect someone else in 2012.
These blogs are full of fantasies; you want real oppression check out Bahrain where government destroys national monuments and slaughters freedom-fighters in front of cameras.
US needs cultural and political reform, the establishment is simply becoming corrupt, not ideological, left-right-center. It happens with every grand nation as it gets very rich and money flows up and down the spine of everyone in power, tuning it to a green mush.
Well said and true. Other commentators have mentioned the internal security force. They are in evidence at Tea Party rallies and most recently Madison, WI and elsewhere in the Mid-West. DOJ protects their NBPP iteration in Philadelphia.
And the WI experience demonstrates that police and fire country-wide are part of that internal security force through their public employee union linkage to the White House occupiers and the Democratic Party. Remember how the Cambridge PD Officer could be summoned to a “White House beer summit?” Where was it a few months ago that, when a town let go fire, targeted arson went rampant?
So who does that leave to protect American citizens against the occupiers’ “internal security” comprising race-based gangs, public employee unions (to include police and fire), private employee unions, liberal arts faculties and idling, cheating anarchists/syndicalists? Courts? No, police/fire are their tools. Prosecutors? No, they are Democrats and in any case lack the enforcement arms courts do not. Commissioners of Elections and Secretaries of State? No, they are Democrats: venal, corrupt, tyrannical, racist. US Armed Forces? We shall see. Military personnel follow orders or resign.
Oops – I was really, really, wrong. Looks like Obama has his “good” war after all.
And articles in other countries are pointing out Obama’s incompetence.
One story here.
So many good points to ponder and information to be had here.
The past 2 years, as well as the next 2 will be remembered as “America’s Pitiful Lost Years”.
Unfortunately for America, the person plunked in to the office of president is only a reflection of America’s poverty-of-culture (not material). At some point we had to come face to face with this pervasive self-destructive thinking. In these deadly serious times for America, it’s disturbing to still hear the pitiful chidish cries of TAKE CARE OF ME, ME, ME…I DON’T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT NOTHING ELSE. With this kind of childish mindset it’s no wonder we ended up with a “knock-off”, weak american president/leader.
Sixty years of prosperity has allowed flaws in the basic American culture to take root and grow to unsustainable proportions. Western Europe has experienced a similar evolution for the same reason.
A decisive plurality of the electorate benefits from the present system of government transfer payments and they will fight literally to the end of their lives to maintain their positions. They will eventually lose. A large number of innocents will suffer in the mean time.
The cultural failure which allowed Barack Obama to be installed as President of the United States will be corrected by the collapse of the institutions which put him in that office. Things have already gone too far for lesser measures to work.
What comes afterwards cannot be known in detail, though the evidence of history suggests a number of unpleasant probabilities in the transitional period. It will be the task of a future generation to rebuild the prosperous free American society that we imagine.
uhh- “faster please”….
Precisely. Shame on us and more power to those we leave behind.
Sorry, I just don’t buy the fact that Obama has plans whereby everything is going “according to plan”. I do not give him that much credit. He is merely an inept president(we have had many, folks…Grant, Buchanan)who happens to be in the time where our own government has become too big to fail. What follows is cronyism and who or whatever else can attach itself to this behemoth called the federal govt. SADLY I do not see any resistance thus far from our new congress.
But this article was all about Obamas resurgence through some act of inanity…I myself do not believe he’ll have to act out any such thing since the American public is so devoid of what, how, where or when things work. They just magically do. Proof? Subscribe to PJTV and search “Professor Ledeen Grades Our Schools”
Well, I guess we know now. Ledeen is redeemed.
Yup. ø now has a nice little war to make him look decisive and tough.
And as usual, it is incompetently framed and executed.
We may as well try to figure out what the most disastrous thing for America will be, because rest assured, øbama is looking for it now.
Are we forgeting Barak Hussein Obama is a Muslim and bound to destroy our great country ????