Obama: Time for an Apology
But was S&P’s judgment flawed? The rating agency’s response to the Treasury Department is worth pondering.
In response to questions, Standard & Poor’s today said that the ratings decision to lower the long-term rating to AA+ from AAA was not affected by the change of assumptions regarding the pace of discretionary spending growth. In the near term horizon to 2015, the U.S. net general government debt is projected to be $14.5 trillion (79% of 2015 GDP) versus $14.7 trillion (81% of 2015 GDP) with the initial assumption. . . .
In the near term horizon, by 2015, the U.S. net general government debt with the new assumptions were projected to be $14.5 trillion (79% of 2015 GDP) versus $14.7 trillion (81% of 2015 GDP) with the initial assumption – a difference of $345 billion.
In taking a longer term horizon of 10 years, the U.S. net general government debt level with the current assumptions would be $20.1 trillion (85% of 2021 GDP). With the original assumptions, the debt level was projected to be $22.1 trillion (93% of 2021 GDP).
The primary focus remained on the current level of debt, the trajectory of debt as a share of the economy, and the lack of apparent willingness of elected officials as a group to deal with the U.S. medium term fiscal outlook. None of these key factors was meaningfully affected by the assumption revisions to the assumed growth of discretionary outlays and thus had no impact on the rating decision.
The emphasis is mine. “The lack of apparent willingness of elected officials as a group to deal with the U.S. medium term fiscal outlook.” Think about that. Behind the antiseptic prose is a moral and political condemnation of the first water. Our political elites have failed us dismally.
The response? If you’re Harry Reid you read S&P’s opinion that “the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges” and then conclude that Congress should address their “weakness” by raising taxes! “The action by S&P,” said Reid, “reaffirms the need” for us to raise taxes on all you slobs out there. Like the president, Harry Reid calls this a “balanced approach,” but the balance in question, as John Boehner observed, means “We spend more, you pay more.” (Incidentally, Harry Reid should get together with the Treasury Department to work out a consistent story. Just when Harry Reid was saying that the S&P downgrade meant Congress should raise taxes, the Treasury Department was saying the S&P analysts got it all wrong, in which case, presumably, nothing to worry about and Congress would not have to raise taxes: which is it, boys? Note that this is a situation in which both cannot be right but both can very easily be wrong.)
It’s worth thinking carefully about this brisk reveille that Standard & Poor’s has brought us. As Amilya Antonetti noted in her interview with Neil Cavuto, the business community was not surprised by the news. Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin: they had seen the writing on the wall for months. S&P issued a warning last spring, which prompted Timothy Geithner’s little “no risk” ejaculation. The narrative is now up for grabs. The stakes could hardly be higher. The United States is at a crossroads. One way, the way advocated by our political elites, is the Keynesian path. We travel that road endeavoring to spend, and tax, our way out of debt. We have grand, economy-wrecking schemes according to which every auto shall travel 56 miles on a gallon of gasoline. Coal will be taxed and regulated to oblivion. Light bulbs will be toxic, cast a sickly light, but be “energy efficient.” And all Americans will be dependent on the federal government for their basic necessities.
Alexis de Tocqueville came up with the name for that road, and F.A. Hayek made the phrase famous: it is the Road to Serfdom. Vice President Joe Biden said that the Tea Partiers “acted like terrorists” by having the temerity to criticize the recent decision to increase the federal debt by $2.5 trillion. Here’s the question: how much more proof do you need to see that business as usual in Washington is ruining the country? Federal debt at $16.7 trillion. Unemployment above 9 percent. The credit worthiness of the United States downgraded for the first time in history. Isn’t it time to wake up and smell the latte?
More at the Tatler: “The King of Excuses“
The problem is this: the ruling class, which includes people like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. We need a mature Conservative, someone who is not frightened by politics, but does not see himself or herself as a member of the ruling class. We’re tired of being the little people, the ordinary people, the flyover people.
In my humble opinion Oblather can beat Mitt Romney: two peas in a pod, one in one end, the other somewhere at the other end. And would some please ask Rick Perry about his stand on ILLEGAL ALIENS?
“Paging William McKinley……Paging Mr. William McKinley…..You are wanted on the telephone.”
In 1994 Romney made his mark for me when he responded to the Contract with Amarica.
“That’s the House, I’m running for the Senate,” he said.
That tells me everything I need to know about him. He’s spineless and without vision.
Romney will Manage the Fiscal Mess better than a Democrat can, but he will NOT Reverse Course. He may change heading from South to South South East, but he will not change course to North.
We don’t need RINOs. We need leaders with Backbone and Vision.
If America wants to go bankrupt, lets let it happen by 2016 rather than waiting for 2024. Because all a Romney election will do is delay the inevitable.
I don’t care if Romney is Electable. In 1978 and 1979 I kept hearing how John Anderson and George H.W. Bush were the electable ones. No one would ever vote for that John Bircher, Reagan.
How did that work out again?
Sadly, in order to get someone that isn’t part of the ruling class, we’d need someone who has never participated in politics, preferably run a small business, and does not have a lot of money. Unfortunately that lack of money is what would make it near impossible to get the right kind of people we need in D.C. because political campaigns these days tend to cost millions of dollars.
The closest we can get out of the candidates that have officially declared they are running is Cain. To my knowledge though he’s never run a small business (and corporate types are so demonized it’s almost as bad as being a politician to the welfare types), and he has a good amount of money, which the Dems will just use to scream at him about being another part of the rich establishment. Also, he’s made a few mistakes already that will continue to bite him in the rear, such as his “wouldn’t hire a Muslim” comment, even if what he actually said was that he would not want a Muslim bent on killing Americans in his administration.
Obama also inherited a AAA rating from Bush.
You hit the nail on the head…
Marxists don’t apologize; they turn the dial to 11.
Exactly.
Because two centuries of failure MEAN NOTHING! It’s not that their wonderful compassionate ideas are wrong, it’s just that reality is raaaaacist and doesn’t like it when a black man creates a utopia.
Yeah, that’s it.
We’re gonna have a utopia all right – just like the one Mugabe has created. And a RINO will get us there too – just not as fast.
Two centuries? Try two millenia and change.
We have at least one clear description of the failure of Communism under optimal conditions. I refer, of course, to the Book of Acts, 4:32 – 5:11, Ananias and Sephira. NewLiving translation.
1. There is no doubt that they are practicing the economic system of communism:”All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had…There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them, and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.” From each according to his means, to each according to his need — Marx would have been proud to call them brother.
2. They had as close to an incorruptible body of rulers as possible, who were proving their uprightness with miracles every day.
3. And they had pretty close to the ultimate Auditor; when Ananais and Sephira try to cheat the system, Peter knows about it instantly, and the punishment is swift and sure: the cheaters are struck dead on the spot.
And yet there were still cheaters, the apostles couldn’t hold it together for very long, and none of the other churches outside Jerusalem seem to have even tried it. If the 12 Apostles backed up by God couldn’t make communism work, how in the h*ll would any lesser mortals have a shot??
If this is utopia your meaning of it is different than mine.How well off are you? Are you better off now than two years ago? Enough said.
I agree Marxists don’t apologize. Neither do capitalists, socialists, or anybody else wedded to an ideology.
Pull the answer string on any of them and they will say, “What went wrong is we needed MORE Marxism, MORE socialism, More capitalistic principles. And none of them want critiquing or limitations by anybody.
Could we have a PRAGMATIST PARTY please? Let’s all think of something each of the political/economic philosophies have done WELL for a change whether we agree with their ideology or not.
I’ll go first with Marxism. when Castro took over decades ago, I remember an article that said one of the first things he did was take the children of prostitutes away and provide them with a private boarding school setting for them to grow up in. NOW I GO FOR THAT!!
Good thing capitalists do? They’ll provide/do ANYTHING that makes money, so that they give you things you never thought you wanted, and now can’t do without? I love that, I’m a gadget buyer. No planned economy would ever come up with a kitchen gadget.
Socialists? Small socialist countries always seem to win the Happiett Population Award when polls are taken. Surely that counts for something?
If freedom is an ideology then count me an ideologue. Pragmatist just means that you think you can do whatever you want to others if you think (or at least pretend to think) that it will “work.” No thanks.
I suppose we could classify Obama as a pragmatist. He is after all practicing theory on us – trouble is it’s his theory.
Capitalism, or the production of more products at cheaper cost than the cost of production (with the difference call profit) creates money which is congealed profit, or the measure of how much the economy has profited. Where all capital is owned by a monopolistic captialist such as Castro or Kim Jung Il or Stalin or Mao, then no one can produce a profit. The sole owner has no need to and the rest have no incentive or ability to. Everyone starves and money flees and goes back into the misty mists from whence in came, and so oligopolistic or monopolistic capitalism always falters and disappears. Castro promised elections in 1960. We are still waiting. Kim Jung Il and his family will never have elections. Why do you think that is a good thing? Seems anti-American to me. We got rid of kings because tyranny is bad. Calling the tyranny of monopoly communism or socialism does not change its innate nature. The only kind of capitalism (i.e. use of tools) that works is fully competitive capitalism. The rest are inferior because they do not create as much profit, and hence not enough money. Without money we are rendered powerless. But I guess you see a benefit in loss of power. I don’t.
Osama bin laden said that he would have caused America to fall, by destroying its economy.
The internationalist subversives are doing that.
They don’t feel they have to apologize, because their program was and is to weaken America.
I am absolutely sure that the marxists in this administration are congratulating themselves for the good job.
The Soviet Union could not do what one single administration has done in less than three years.
And they have more time, to create more chaos.
They will.
Only the elections in 2012 will stop the madness.
Don’t be so sure about a quick reversal in 2012 – Obama has had his minions working overtime (think czars) corrupting the way our beaurocratic system works – bending it to their advantage. This is an area that many Americans have no clue about – and turn a deaf ear when you try to explain the likes of Van Jones. An avowed communist and Obama buddy.
Which is why I wonder about the sanity of Republicans. Big Government – the bureaucracy – is a stronghold of the Democrats. For that reason, if none other, they should be out to cut back on the Government. Republicans should ALWAYS be for cutting, cutting, cutting. Yet they get into Washington, and seem to lose all common sense. During the Debt Debate, the GOP couldn’t bring themselves to cut spending for even such egregious crap as National Public Radio, or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or the National Endowment for the Humanities, or the National Endowment for the Arts. They are so damn “pu**y whipped” by the media, that they actually think it means something in the real world if you get bad headlines in the NY Slimes or the Washington Puss. Or some talking head on TV is mouthing the usual left wing crap. Who exactly are they trying to please, cause it doesn’t seem to be the folks who elected them.
Not true. They actually have passed such bills in the House, but they have gone on to die in the Senate. The House has passed many bills like this, with the same result.
I am not sure how the Senate works. Do those bills languish in committee after being tabled, or are they dead? If they are in a coma, when the next Senate convenes, they can be resuscitated and passed immediately.
The House has been doing the job I expected them to do. I did not expect anything more. They are doing all they can do. They deserve our support. Theirs is a very tough gig. Give them some respect. In 2013, you can demand and expect more. And you will get it.
That Geithner would state there was no risk of a rating downgrade speaks clearly to his naivete and lack of understanding of even basic finance/economics precepts; there is ALWAYS risk, and particularly so with respect to economic affairs and predictions. For this reason alone, he should resign immediately as he’s proven himself to be totally incompetent, never mind, a fool for uttering such nonsense.
Absolutely, Jack. How many times does it take before someone, anyone points out “hey! your are lying again” And, Geithner is the last survivor of the
original economic team.
An real apology requires introspection and humility. It’s blatantly apparent that Dear Leader has has zero introspection or humility.
You might as well hope for the clouds to shine and the sun to rain.
Oh come now. These calls for apologies are silly. Think of all the issues lefties found resignation-worthy or impeachment-worthy during the Bush administration.
Each side believes the other is being obstructionist and must quit. There’s little arguing or apologizing or explaining to be done; we simply have to vote ‘em out and do things our way despite their howls of protest.
What Obama should be apologizing for is bestowing a FORGED Birth Certificate upon the WORLD on April 27th. He should be apologizing for the fraudulent use of a SS# and a fraudulent registration with the Selective Service. He could top those apologies be declaring that he knew he was not a “natural born citizen” and knew he could get away with it because of the color of his skin. After he is done apologizing the FBI should come in and haul him away to a Federal Prison near Chicago. Journalist like Roger Kimball could help speed up this process by just writing about it OFTEN. Now that would be very patriotic.
I agree with everything you’re saying except the prison Obama should be taken to. He should be put in the Levenworth federal prison, the same prison Lt. Col. Lakin had to serve six months in because he questioned Obama’s eligibility to be Commander-in-Chief.
Couple of quibbles with this piece.
The evidence shows that the Democratic Congress of 2006 didn’t really create any significant additional spending. I guess it doesn’t hurt to say it since people will automatically assume that they did, but to be factual, it would be better to not say it.
And although I love the rant in the video, there is, of course, no chance whatsoever that Obama will apologize.
The Narcissist in Chief gave himself a B+ after Obamycare set the table for an economic disaster, so it’s hard to imagine he would lower that grade now.
It’s plain as day that undermining the country is his objective. That is consistent with what he said during the campaign and before, and hundreds of his actions while in office align perfectly with that view.
One could argue that this or that might be the result of legitimate ideological differences with conservatives, but after saying it hundreds of times, one has to conclude that it isn’t merely ideology. If that were true, some actions would have to at least nudge toward the center, simply for the fact that nothing he does works and they have to know it. It must be a deliberate effort to destroy the country.
That might be because there was no Democratic Congress in 2006. They were elected in Nov 2006 and assumed office in Jan 2007. The first fully Democratic Congress therefore was 2007. They are the ones that determined the Fiscal 2008 budget.
Check the data. I did. Spending didn’t skyrocket in 2007; it was below Bush’s budget. The fy2008 budget was less then 2% higher than fy2007 spending. fy2008 actual spending was higher than fy2007 or the fy2008 budget but Bush had a 200B+ stimulus in the spring of 2008.
So it’s not really true that the Democrat Congress caused spending that was out of line with the Bush years.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/budget_news.php?span=usgs302&year=2008&view=1&expand=&expandC=&units=b#usgs302
and here’s another view of actuals
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200
Spending popped in 2009…Obama…while tax receipts crashed during of the Obama Depression.
The second link also clearly proves that Clinton didn’t do anything magical in his two terms. Spending increased just like it always had. But tax receipts soared because of the Internet boom, which created “surpluses”. The “surpluses” are another government lie, btw. The following link shows the national debt during the Clinton Years
http://130.94.230.21/debt_history.htm
The congenital liars say Clinton had a surplus, but the “surplus” doesn’t count everything. If the National Debt increased every year, there was no surplus except in Washington-speak.
Treasury data for those years show an increase in the National Debt at the close of FY-2007 of $500B, and an increase the following year (FY-2008) of $1,018B. Since the year to year deficit more than doubled, I have a hard time believing that the spending didn’t “skyrocket” following the ascension to power of the Pelosi/Reid Congress.
I gave you links to multiple views of the data, so what’s your problem?
If you challenged based on a different interpretation of the data, your comment would have merit. As it stands, it a baseless opinion.
The Tea Party are terrorists, huh? That is exactly what the British thought of the original Tea Party and the original revolutionaries though they may have used slightly different terms. The gist being that those who oppose the ruling class are outlaws out to destroy the nation.
There is nothing new under the sun. Only the details change. Then it was an unjust monarchy. Today its our supposedly representative elected leaders who are really just a permanent ruling class as entrenched as any monarchy.
Time for a revolutionary redux. There has never been a greater need for the Tea Party to stand strong.
Roger, Barako isn’t about to apologize, he’s right on track with his plan to destroy our great country! Wake up to reality!
Regarding the downgrade I keep coming back to this portion of the S&P report -
“the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.
“Key”. Entitlements. The Proglodytes’ line in the sand.
Yes, it would. But it’s only happened once in recent history: when Julius Nyerere, Communist dictator of Tanzania, said “We’ve failed. Let’s admit it,” and voluntarily relinquished his powers. It’s never happened in a postwar Western democracy, including ours.
Politicians have the capacity to admit error surgically excised at a very early age. Ask Jimmy Carter if he still believes his policies to have been the right ones. For that matter, ask either of the Bushes. Don’t bother asking Barack Hussein Obama.
Actually there was. Reagan went on television and apologized directly to the American people for the Iran-Contra affair. He also accepted that blame went to him, whether he knew what was happening or not.
That is how a leader deals with it when he screws up.
Anyone thinking Obama will apologize for anything, is THINKING STUPIDLY!
Get over it.
["The president should admit he was wrong about what needed to be done to fix the U.S. economy."]
Yes sir!!!!!
Right along side all the expert economists/seer-theorists of all politcal stripes who have led this nation over time to it’s current crisis.
So yes, Obama should be offering up and apology and admit the experts were wrong.
I see Obama waiting in line to apologize; He’s second in line right behind Hitler.
Do you ever remove your lips from 0bama’s bung-hole long enough to breathe? Methinks you are oxygen deprived, Sir. Remove your lips and take a gulp of something besides B.S.
If you can’t advance a clear and legitmate point on the issue of debate then by all means resort to sewer tactics and add a personal assisantion. Okay Ms Alinsky?
Prove to me Obama has acted in a vacuum on any issues coming before him and I’ll give you your due acalaid. Otherwise, you and your comment are irrelevant. I’m a realist first and a republican second and will never be known by anybody as a zealot minion of anybody or anything.
I’m betting you defended President Bush when he was being ruthlessly attacked by democrat zealots over Iraq and WMD’s. Well, I did! I did so, on the same principles I defend Obama on the economy and jobs….or anything else. NO president has the capacity to act in a vacuum based on his own independent knowledge and expertise of anything. Thats why every president has and calls upon a vast and unlimited resource of discipline experts and by whatever means ultimately gives weight to the ones he most trusts…or in the middle of the adversarial consultations he receives.
Between ‘experts’ and special interest groups, its not any wonder a president of any party gets few things right!
If you think you’re a genius that can run the Executive Branch of the federal government then by all means run! Seems your ego tells you, you could win and be a perfected all knowing president without the need for any expert advisors. I’m betting you’re more in the common zealot category and couldn’t run even the presidents switchboard.
Obama is a pathological narcissist, someone who considers himself as superior to all others. To maintain this self-image, Obama lives within a self-authored ‘virtual world’ of words. What he says, is, to him, real. The external world of objective reality, of hard facts, never intrudes on this fictional realm. If it did, if Obama was in direct contact with reality, he would feel threatened, for Obama needs to feel that he controls all others and he controls all issues.
Cantor noted that Obama becomes ‘visibly agitated’ when someone disagrees with him. That’s because Obama can’t interact with others on an equal basis but only if he feels superior to them.
He will never apologize for anything because that would open him to criticism – and he can’t handle being on such an equal basis to others.
But this economy is owned by, and only by, Obama and his Democrats. Obama is focused on one thing only: his power. Ideologically, he is also anti-capitalist and anti-American.
Economically, Obama must buy the electorate because he has no record of achievement. He does this by emotional manipulation, misinformation..and ..actually creating economic dependency among more and more of the population who become dependent on Big Government.
Obama is ignorant of the need for investment by the private sector so that it can produce wealth. Obama focuses only on consumption – that last part of the economic triad (investment-production-consumption) and his agenda is to make people’s consumption needs dependent on money from the government. That makes people dependent on Him. But where does the wealth come from: Obama is into the Magic Cauldron theory of wealth…it just bubbles up without any investment required!
Obama could have dealt with the debt a year ago when the Democrats controlled Congress; he refused; he didn’t want to spook the electorate. Then, came the rise of the Tea Party, the party of fiscal commonsense, an action that frightened Obama because facts trump his fictions… he decided to bring the situation into a crisis mode. And blame it all on the Tea Party. That’s what he did.
February 14 – Obama’s FY12 budget. Asked for more debt. Ignored entitlements. Rejected 97-0 in the senate.
April 5 – The Ryan House GOP budget; Obama insults Ryan to his face, viciously misinforming the public with fear mongering rhetoric and ignores the budget.
April 18 – Standard & Poor’s warns of a potential downgrade.
Then, we have the Simpson-Bowles recommendations of deep spending cuts and entitlement reform: Obama ignores them but this is what S&P are focused on.
In July The House passes ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ – a commonsense approach, based on dealing with the debt, tax reform (not tax increases) and entitlement reform. Obama threatens to veto it and the spineless Reid tables it in the Senate rather than debate and vote on it.
In July the House comes up with Boehner’s plan; same thing; Obama threatens to veto it and Reid caves.
Obama is on prime time TV almost daily, misinforming and manipulating, informing people that he, sigh, doesn’t know if their social security checks will be sent out (a blatant and malicious lie).
What’s going on? Obama is..Himself. He’s focused on his needs. He needs the debt ceilin raised so that he can pay his Dependent Class their union salaries, and the non-producing population their dependent monies. AND..he needs this debt to last until after his election. That is all he cares about. Nothing else. Nothing. Not jobs, not America’s economy. Just Himself.
He kicks the can of real economic reform (entitlement and tax reform) down the road; he doesn’t care; he just wants to get re-elected.
So, now, he and his gang are blaming the Tea Party – despite their focus on the nation’s genuine economic needs; But Obama is scared stiff of the Tea Party and the commonsense solutions.
So-Obama not only owes the nation an apology; he should resign. But someone as pathological as him, someone who lives in an isolate bubble of words unconnected to reality – heh – it won’t happen.
Obamanomics 101-
Real world fact- The top 10% of wage earners pay 85% of all Federal taxes.
Obamanomics – Attack top 10% for , ” not paying their fare share. ”
Real world fact- America imports too much oil.
Obamanomics- Give billions to other countries to drill for oil.
Real world fact- More Americans are out of work than at anytime in the last 50 years.
Obamanomics- Spend $275,000 per job to create 1 million jobs that pay $45,000 per year and create no jobs.
Real world fact- Oil spill in The Gulf wreaks havoc in the American tourist industry.
Obamanomics- Send wife and friends to Spain.
Real world facts- For the first time in American history Americas credit rating downgraded. World stock markets
tumble.
Obamanomics- Time to party!
Get it?
A leftist colleague of mine once commented,”Republicans make history. Democrats re-write, and then teach history.”
Obama, once relieved of his official duties, will continue to give speech after highly paid speech about His “Camelot” that was His glorious tenure in office. Liberal audiences, with tears glistening their eyes, will pay rapt attention, yearning for the revival of the Democratic Party and its excesses, eclipsed by an ascendant Republican Party rejuvenated by the Tea Party.
And, of course, yet another biography of the One, perhaps ghost written again by Bill Ayers, will decorate the coffee tables of ever faithful progressives of Hyde Park, Cambridge, Georgetown, Manhattan, and San Francisco.
God Bless America. Long live our Republic.
Indeed.
No doubt, it will be something like this:
His plan would almost certainly cost him a second term, but it had to be done– President Obama intentionally caused the downgrade by S&P in order to jolt an apathetic nation into action. He knew that such a downgrade would be blamed on him, but he did not care. Obama sounded the alarm, a special committee was formed, and their recommendations enacted, thus saving America.
Blast it, Kimball. You made me blow Pepsi out my nose with that one.
Well, Obama has finally achieved what no other American liberal has ever achieved. He has turned us into a European social-welfare state. We are now no better than England or France, especially France. That is what he has wanted all his life, a country dependent on the central government for all of its needs, to be run inefficiently with high taxes, high unemployment, high debt, and a drop in its credit rating. The Federal government is the biggest employer in this country, and it shows. Even the US Post Office is about to collapse because it is so far in debt. And now we have Obamacare waiting to be sprung out on us, the government takeover of the health care industry. Any bets on how that’s going to turn out? Yes, we are all Europeans now, whether you like it or not.
And it only stops if you vote all of the Democrats out of office in 2012. We have now reached a point where compromise, real compromise, in government is impossible. We now also have a European-style parliamentary form of government, where you either have the liberals in power or the conservatives. One political philosophy will dominate the other in Congress and the White House, so every four years or so we will be knocked back and forth between high spending or low spending. But the form of government that was put together by the Founding Fathers is gone. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Lets be fair in our assessment – Obama simply looked at the trend line of entitlement spending and decided to turn up the wick a few notches (ok – a bunch of notches). Had he come along 20 years ago he would not have had the impact he’s had in this period.
But – his plan IMO has been all along to wreak havoc on our country simply because he’s never liked it the way he found it. One must be punished for their sins. And as a true narcissist he’s decided he can make this country better.
I’m having a tough time understanding how he cannot fathom just what he’s doing to millions of lives – only when I put it in the context of ‘he just don’t give a shit’ does it make sense.
That makes sense to me…
I agree with your comments but I don’t think that Obama, who must see the economic harm being done to millions by his policies, doesn’t ‘give a sh-t’.
As a pathological narcissist, he needs, really needs to feel superior to others. Eric Cantor said that Obama becomes ‘visibly agitated’ if you disagree with him. Obama can’t take advice – and particularly, advice that empowers others. So, the Bowles-Simpson commission’s recommendations? Ryan’s budget? He ignores them. He declares he’ll veto Cut-Cap-Trade, veto Boehner’s plan. All of these expert analyses are rejected because he can’t handle others having power. And these plans are commonsense, realistic views of the economy. Obama was only interested in a plan that got him past his re-election and gave him slush money to buy votes. He’s not interested in the economy.
Obama needs to feel that he controls others. He’s not interested in the rightness/wrongness of a policy. His interest is only in whether it controls you and reduces your freedom.
Leave someone that pathological in a local envt as community organizer and his need to control extends only to the activists he leads. Put him in as president of a nation – and he has to destroy the governing institutions and the citizens.
That’s what it’s all about.
But – Obama was selected as representative of United States, to America and the entire world. As Hitler in his time was elected by German citizens to lead their country. In understandng Obama, those -DNC- who offered him as candidate, and those who swept his path to the White House must bear equal opprobrium, whatever his personal psychopathology. He’ll take advantage where possible to achieve his goals and use anyone who volunteers as ally in his aims. Even if the buck theoretically stops with him. This lets equally destructive others continue without being spotlit live “to fight another day” for destructive aims of their ideology of collectivism whether socialism/communism/liberalism in their bastardisation of that idea/multiculturalism/internationalism, etc.
As Hitler and other monsters in the known 20th century history could not have done their damage without voluntary and active collaboration, however misguided, from others is it worthwhile to spread the net wider? To gather others deliberatly responsible for the actions of Obama and his army and to hold them accountable. Pour encourager les autres?
Hey, Roger Kimball, this is off topic, but HOW COME YOUR BOOKS COST SO MUCH?
Bought your RAPE OF THE MASTERS on Kindle for 12 bucks, even though it wasn’t so new. A fine book, but the illustrations are impossible to see on the Kindle screen.
I’ve been waiting for LIVES OF THE MIND to come out on Kindle. Now I see that it has, but it’s 12 smackers as well. C’mon, it came out in 2002, why are your pixels so pricey?! (Stove’s DARWINIAN FAIRYTALES – hat tip, you – is only $7 on Kindle.)
And don’t go blaming the publisher, Mr. Encounter Books who tools around on WFB’s old boat. Don’t you want to be more widely read?
To hell with an apology from Barry. It would be a lie anyway. The man is genetically and metaphysically incapable of accepting responsibility for ANYTHING. Screw it. I want him to resign. Limbaugh has it right, we are in a dead heat to the 2012 Finish Line; who will detonate into a gaseous fireball first?: Obama (or, rather, the Myth of Obama), or America herself? We have not seen such precarious times since the Civil War. And once again, it is the Democrats who seek to destroy the Union in order to protect slavery — only this time it is not slavery to the plantation system, but slavery to the bureaucratic State — a state that wants to control EVERY aspect of our individual lives, from cradle to grave, including (I don’t doubt) the uses to which our dead bodies will be put to. There is no time for apologies. I would like to see Boehner and McConnell apologize for their cowardice in the latest legislative crisis, but it would be of little help. Marco Rubio is correct in stating that in the current situation there probably is no basis for compromise between the Obama camp and the Tea-Party-driven Conservative camp. Once again it is the (God-fearing) Abolitionists vs. the (self-serving) Slavers. One side must win; one side must lose. As Lincoln stated, a house divided cannot stand. I contend that either the Leftist Slaver agenda be destroyed, root and branch, or America will never return to its original ideal: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Lincoln reiterated this high ideal when he said that “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” Once again, the outcome is in the balance. Will we be a cradle-to-grave Nanny State, like the wizened puddin’-cup states of Modern Europe, or will we hold to our original, perfect, notion? Will we be a nation of free men and women who agree to the necessity of government, but only — ONLY — if it is a government of our own choosing — not a government that pursues its own interests behind closed doors — and with only the Major Players in attendence — not a government that FORCES unmistakably unpopular bills down our throats — like Obamacare (above all), Porkulus I, II, and beyond, and the Great (cancerously precedent-setting) Banker Bailout of 2008-2009? (Pardon the run-on.) Congress’s approval rating has been in the teens for nearly five years now. The clear reason for that is that the Congress is more interested in serving its own interests than those of The People. We are at a crossroad. We need courage, clarity, and leadership from the ground up — from the workaday citizen — as well as from Republican freshmen, talk radio, the pro-American/pro-Constitution blogosphere, etc.). We do not need apologies. We do not need propaganda. We need the will to fight for what is true and right and worthy of our great history. FIGHT! Yield nothing! Destroy the internal forces who would assign America to the ash heap for no other reason than to win some stupid tribal ideological meme of the cappucino-sipping, dope-smoking greying-hippie Left whose time has long since come and gone. Make war, not love, with these fools. Do it for the kids. Dammit.
Well said Doc.
I have a nephew who is rather naive – we were playing a round of golf and discussing politics (as usual). He fancies himself a centrist of late – I of course am a card carrying Tea Party member. He was lamenting the lack of ‘compromise’ in the budget debate and challenged me to look for some sort of compromise in my stance which was to forgo the dept increase and immediately start hacking the budget. I looked at him and retorted that I couldn’t do that – I’d be compromising my principles. He laughed and told me I wasn’t a ‘compromiser’ – I told him it wasn’t funny – how – I asked him – how would you compromise with someone who is looking to kill you? How can you get half dead I asked? Maybe a quarter dead? He had no answer – but refused to see the insight I’d tried to give him. I keep hoping he has some sort of epiphany. He voted for Obama – and now he sits on the fence – and calls himself a centrist. Ha!
Now is not the time for fence-sitting.
At least he understands (unlike The Won) that we cannot keep spending at such a prodigious rate.
The problem is he does not know the meaning of the word ‘compromise’.
It can mean: “1. a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.
It can also mean: “9. to make a dishonorable or shameful concession: He is too honorable to compromise with his principles.”
The Left makes compromise out to be a good thing. It is not. It is barely tolerable, if the compromise is equitable, and ethically/morally acceptable to both parties. The debt deal agreed to WAS a compromise. Both sides were unhappy. It was ugly.
When the Left says compromise, though, they mean the other side should surrender, a shameful act. Just because they call it compromise, does not mean it means what you think it means. If they said the other side should just surrender, no one would take them seriously. They did say it, but they use the word compromise instead of surrender.
Compromise also has another meaning: “6. to expose or make vulnerable to danger, suspicion, scandal, etc.; jeopardize: a military oversight that compromised the nation’s defenses.
Compromise is NOT a good word. Compromise your principles and compromise your country. It is an ugly word.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compromise)
Lacking any real world/private sector experience, The One has only his theoretical constructs on which to explain what is happening, and to guide him. Apologizing would mean that everything he knew, believed in and fought for was wrong. Apologizing would mean his entire professional life was a waste.
Might as well expect the Pope to come out and say “I’ve been doing some thinking, and you know what, this whole Christian thing isn’t working for me. Yea, all those stories in the Bible just seem to fantastic to believe. I mean, come on! The whole world floods and one guy saves 2 of EVERY animal in a 500 foot long boat? Water into wine? So, sorry to have wasted everyone’s time. Why dont you all go check out Hinduism or see what the Jews are up to. By.”
Don’t expect an apology. Expect him to lose in ’12, then a long, bitter post-presidency filled with blaming others for what is written in the history books about him.
The Israeli stock market is down 7% as the close of business today; Ever hear of an economic tsunami?
It shall be history that Barrack Hussein Obama was in power and in control when the largest economic disaster to ever befall the United States of America took place.
Usama Bin Laden would have been so proud.
Prepare to defend your property and your family. The rich ivy leaguers will loose their proleterian army on you and give them orders to destroy and burn everything; much the way Lincoln ordered the torching of the South in the nineteenth century. Look at London today, Greece and Spain etc. it is coming here soon; corrupt parasites rioting in the streets. Sure glad that I do not live close to one of the big democrat cities in the USA; they are going to become torched ruins. Americans voted for hope and change and boy are they going to get it good and hard.
– admit he’s wrong so long as his supporters won’t admit they were wrong.
DHOTUS
Diversity Hire Of The United States.
Unqualified for the position. Selected only because of his skin color.
Out of his depth. Can’t handle the workload. Cuts to play golf.
Grows frustrated, bitter and angry. Blames everyone else for his own mistakes.
Its the same pattern we’ve seen over and over again in our classrooms and in our workspaces.
Next time, lets elect our leaders based on thier competence instead this Diversity PCBS.
President O-Blame-Ya.
He loves being president, but hates the work.
This is the KENYAN KRASH!!
Let’s remember that Boehner was about to do a deal with Obama that included $800B tax increase, when the Gang of 6 came up with a scheme to raise taxes by $1.2T and Obama walked away from Boehner. The common interpretation was that Obama couldn’t face his base if he settled for less than the Gang of 6 had on the table. But there’s another (not mutually exclusive) interpretation, that Obama was following Alinsky’s playbook that the point of negotiation is to NOT have a deal. If the other side gets close to offering you what you’ve been demanding, you up your demands, because the purpose is not to make a deal but to keep your people angry and stoked up.
Just sayin…
Obama can keep his apology. I would think more of the man if he tendered his resignation and took his entire staff with him. Walk the walk…
Otherwise, we will do it for Obama without goodwill and reconciliation in about 15 months. Walk the plank…
Excellent article Roger. I will pass this to every liberal I know so that they may brush up on the reality of their dismal failure as leader.
He inherited gas prices at $1.60 a gallon. Bush got them there from $4 a gallon, in six months, by overturning gulf drilling bans. Executive order, fall 2008. Three years ago, not ancient history.
Barry doesn’t apologize…unless it’s to Michelle. And then it only happens when she puts her little man in a headlock and makes him… Most Lefturds don’t have the self-awareness or basic manners to apologize. They know they’re right because mommy told them they were really, really special. So their response invariably devolves into a mindless, profanity-laced tirade.
clearly, s&p is racist.
what are the chances that the first president to get a credit down-grade happens to be african american?
Obama apologize? He’s never wrong. It’s all your fault. And the TEA Party. And the tsunami. And the weather. And the earthquake. And the Middle East. And Palin. And Reagan. And Bush. And…
Wait, as for excuses, has he used:
Japanese tragedy?
Midwest floods?
Maybe something unique?
Is Barney Frank a case of ordinary politician dishonesty in a large dose or just a fool or both?
How was he able to prevent a proper audit of his Fannies?
It was disaster on an EU scale
The President and Treasury Secretary arguing with S&P over their numbers is like Gen. Custer arguing with his Scout over how many Sioux are over the next hill.
Kimball: “The United States is at a crossroads. One way, the way advocated by our political elites, is the Keynesian path. We travel that road endeavoring to spend, and tax, our way out of debt.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why do Obama and his leftist allies (Bill Maher and others) remind me of the prophets of Baal that Elijah confronted in the book of 1 Kings?
“So they (the prophets of Baal) cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.
“When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.”
(1 Kings chapter 18)
An apology from this president is impossible. For people like Obama (and Krugman) acknowledging their Keynesian economic obsession is wrong is like admitting their souls are flawed.
“Oh, but I inherited a mess from George W. Bush.” That’s what the president and his handlers will be saying for decades.
David Axelrod (and John Kerry) are blaming the tea party, Timmy Geithner, after accusing the S&P of a two trillion $ “error”, is blaming Congress. Barney Frank is blaming the military (!) (I didn’t read the story)
I blame the self-serving morons, including, but not limited to, all of the above.
Subject: bin Laden movie for Barack Obama
Hollywood is now in the first stages of bringing a movie to the American public on the killing of Osama bin Laden to counter his image problem before the 2012 election. Just how low can a person go to get re-elected? Barack…it is not going to work! Now with the deaths of 22 Navy Seals during the first week of August, Obama has no morals and is “still” going ahead with this movie……………..or will he? I’m putting money on this one that his re-election is more important and his morals! How about your thoughts? What kind of people would support Obama now and what would be “their morals and character” is a good question!
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/08/07/white-house-working-with-hollywood-to-release-bin-laden-movie-to-counter-obamas-image-problem-before-election/
http://politicons.net/outrage%e2%80%a6-obama-releasing-classified-osama-raid-mission-details-to-hollywood-to-create-movie-to-help-his-image-in-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Politicons+%28Politicons%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
Apology? You are joking. He’ll go to his grave convinced he has never done anything wrong in his entire life and, hopefully, that won’t be too far in the future. After we get rid of him there will be a need for a big cleanup of all his leftist and Islamic appointments and hires; Trojan Horses every one of them.
I couldn’t get through this entire article when it started apologizing for W. So forgive me if I am off point. But until the GOP totally disassociates itself from him, forget it. Obama or W, makes little difference.
Obama is the biggest disaster in Presidential History and the Greatest Failure of Presidential Leaderhip. Nearly 3 years of Obama and everything is a disaster! Spending? Disaster Debt? Disaster UNEMPLOYMENT? Disaster Long Term UNEMPLOYMENT? Disaster Economy? Disaster Credit downgrade? Humiliation and Disaster Obama’s war in Libya? Disaster Obama’s foreign policy? Disaster Obama has done everything wrong and made everything wrong! What a total Disaster!!!
I’m on board with all that disaster stuff! Boobily is a Marxist. What did we expect?
Apology ? Having deliberately run rampant through social and legal structures of the USA with his bully boys, or should that be praetorians, Pelosi and Reid, in Congress,and Holder in Justice and tsars in other offices,he must apologise? So jealous of the siblings they insult them with every breath, steal and destroy their property,i.e lawful rights and when discovered in their vandalism must apologise?
So America is now really a nursery school with the diplomaed kindergarten teachers “educating”/civilizing? the naughty children, read delilberately destructive and try to stop them nyah nyah, to be nice. Apologise to those you
set out to injure, shake hands, give them a hug and be friends. And of course the onus to be on the injured to accept with good grace the “apology” from these vandals. Wow. No wonder the country is in this mess.
What’re the bets the vandals shall have learned the lessons taught by the guardians of the nation’s children/citizens? Not the lesson the educators desire they learn, but that any sentient observer sees in the less than robust response to their vandalism. Do these destroyers really not know what they do? We, ignoramuses, are continuously told they are far more intelligent, with necessary diplomas from prestige educational institutions to prove their intelligence. So of course they are smart enough to learn the lesson any ignoramus would learn in a trice.
That a forced aplogy is all that is necessary, Hooray, on to further destruction because the victims don’t have the grit, lack robustness to defend their territory, i.e. RIGHTs documented for the world to see in the Constitution describing their social contract.
Where does acceptance of a forced apology from destructive vandals, just because they wear expensive clothes and have smooth manners fit with the wisdom of the ages that the best defense is a good offense.