As a business neophyte, in my relatively short stint as the accidental CEO of a new media startup (PJM), I have had to learn many things and to play catch-up in many areas. But if there is one lesson that I have had drummed into me repeatedly, it is that success is almost entirely dependent on the people you pick to work with you. Your ability to judge character is close to the most necessary trait for someone trying to lead anything; I would imagine most especially the ship of state.
An interesting review of recent books about Abraham Lincoln in this weekend’s WSJ by John A. Barnes has this quote about our greatest president: “He knew men on the instant.” Considering the current fiasco of seemingly half his cabinet appointments being tax cheats, including the Secretary of the Treasury, Barack Obama appears to be the opposite of that.
But we knew that, didn’t we? Or we should have. Barack Obama picked as his spiritual mentor the most execrable of men, a racist even, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It should have been apparent from that alone that Obama was no judge of character – or, even worse, he simply didn’t care. He was more concerned with his own advancement.
But the country ignored that as the media papered it over. We are paying for it now – and oh how we are paying! Our president is behaving like a man cornered and not a statesman. Being the president of all Americans has disappeared within two weeks. The idea of reaching out to the other side evidently meant no more than a dinner with George Will and Peggy Noonan.
What does this mean? I for one was rooting for Obama on the day of his inauguration, overblown as it was under the circumstances; now I am just depressed. And not just mildly depressed, I have to say. Our government is dealing with a monumental global economic crisis in a manner that is partisan and idiotic. The Congressional leaders are dimwits and our President seems out of his depth while the future of children is being mortgaged to an incomprehensible extent.
In the 1980s the GAO warned us we would not be able to pay for our existing entitlements by 2025. Add a trillion or two and what are we looking at? Global bankruptcy? [Start learning to farm.-ed. I'm thinking about it.]
Visit Doc Hanson at his farm?
Thank you for these points.
Well Roger, I hate to say it, but I think we’re pretty well screwed (for all the reasons you cited).
After some “give and take” Congress will eventually pass a monstrosity of a bail out bill. They can’t help themselves….it’s just in their nature. That will end up being a fatal, financial gun shot wound to our country’s head.
Before we end up bankrupt, the Messiah will stumble about issuing more imperial edicts and making more grevious foreign policy gaffs.The media will continue to sing his praises right up until the end.
Yes, it’s been a horrible three weeks. But I ask you, where is the conservative political LEADER who should be appearing on every TV and radio show saying the same things that we geeks are in the blogosphere?
Where’s Giuliani,where’s Fred Thompson, where’s Huckabee, Where’s Romney? David needs to come out and fight Goliath.
Yes, Obama cannot judge character but neither can 52.9 percent of the american people.
“The Congressional leaders are dimwits…”
Roger, you are being waaaaaay too kind. Seriously. “Dimwits” doesn’t begin to describe them.
“I for one was rooting for Obama on the day of his inauguration”
And so was I. It is foolish to hope for failure. I also think Barack Obama is still the lesser of evils next to John McCain. He is at least inclined to follow the poll numbers whereas the Arizona U.S. senator is too anxious to prove “I’m a maverick.” I will put my money on the former option any day of the week. What can I add to my previous comments regarding the newly elected national leader? Alas, he is a shallow and poorly read man who is not even close to being ready to lead the country. That’s it in a nutshell.
One thing about Lincoln that is often ignored is the fact that he was a practicing lawyer for many years. He tried many cases and knew the business of the country very well. He chose Stanton, for example, because he had tried a case against him, and lost, and knew Stanton well. One of the better books about Lincoln that explains him is one about his law practice that I read a couple of years ago. Obama has never done anything but run for office and seek favors from people who used him or he used in turn. He doesn’t have that instinct from years of working and dealing with people. I’m not sure Bush had it either but Cheney took care of that in a way that historians will be studying 100 years from now.
My Amazon review is up now.
“My Amazon review is up now.”
My Amazon customer review is not up. I have decided to read and think about the book for a few days more.
Don’t forget to add picking Joe Biden. Everyone knew Biden was a blowhard who never had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the presidency because most people laugh themselves silly at the things he says.
Roger, why do you despair, my friend? Is it the Skimulus package that has you leaking endorphins like a 63′ Corvair leaked oil? Seratonin levels bouncing high and low like a new superball?
Weep not for our children or their children. Rest assured, we will be asked to pay….and pay….and pay again before the day ever dawns on our children’s matured savings bonds.
Operating on the age old axiom that it is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, the Pelosi Posse will be saddling up enough debt to choke a horse, but don’t think she intends to wait for your children to come collecting on it.
The Sellout Socialists will come knocking on your door telling you that they “won” and you owe for sins genetic and generic. Your class and caste are out of vocgue and reparations for your inherited sins of birth and berth must be paid.
Pelosi is Jimmy Carter, only with more testosterone. No bunny makes her cower in a corner. Unlike Cater, she is not going about slithering, skulking, slinking behind the scenes. She spits in your eye and steps on your neck. She is the most dangerous demagogue in the nation, a sellout socialist to the core. She will break the backs of small business and rip the money out of your pockets without so much as a blink of an eye.
She “won” and she will hiss that phrase at you for four more years. And there isn’t a single legislator currently in Washington man enough to stand up to her. On either side of the aisle.
We, the people…elected a “Mommy” government…and if she is Typhoid Mary, that’s what we get.
So buck up, my brilliant friend. Our children won’t have to worry. The Typhoid Mary impact will take care of business long before it would be their turn to worry…long before. Have a wonderful weekend!
The only hope this nation has is that Obama and his minions in Congress produce such an unmitigated disaster than he and many of the rest of them are swept out of office (including most of the incumbent Republicans who are within a hair’s breath of being just as bad as the Dems) in 2010 and 2012…
IF, we actually get to have elections again (yes, seriously, I’m doubtful…that is, if you’re talking free and fair elections)…
Even then, I think it may well be too late. It’s high time to find a place with some tillable land, gravity-powered water supply, off-the-grid power supply and defensible approaches in a remote location.
Remember when Governor Palin was mocked by the media when she exposed Obama for “palling around w/ terrorists.” Even McCain wouldn’t own her statement. Yet, given that Obama had no record or excutive experience (except maybe leading ACORN in its fraudulent activities), his stream of ugly associates carries more weight in reflecting the character of this man. Personel is policy & what kind of policy should we have expected given Obama’s connection w/ Alinsky, Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, Rezko, Said, Odinga…to name but a few…never mind the whole Chicago thug politcal machinery he & his never-proud-of-America wife embraced. I still feel manipulated every time I walk by a news stand w/ all the magazine covers featuring this paper-cut-out of a President smiling in all his smug mediocrity. Worst of all the main stream media still has the nerve to view itself as legitimate conveyors of unbiased news…they are as lazy as Obama is & Obama’s ataff is working over time to provide the pravda media w/ Obama’s talking points.
The next 4 years in the Presidency will be the longest Obama has ever remained at the same job. At the end of his travails in the White House we will all have to admit he had the best jump shot of any one who ever sat behind the desk in the Oval Office.
The history of Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, did not happen overnight. The world media and every political leader fawned over leftist Robert Mugabe with his ‘brave new world’ media, blessing his every move. CHANGE was what he sold and CHANGE is what his followers (and victims) got. In Spades. Our only prayer, keep up the pressure on the crew (Senators and Representatives) that we have elected, possibly they will learn how to sail the ship…with practise.
“President smiling in all his smug mediocrity”
If Obama ever got to mediocre he’d look like George Washington compared to now.
“Yes, it’s been a horrible three weeks. But I ask you, where is the conservative political LEADER who should be appearing on every TV and radio show saying the same things that we geeks are in the blogosphere?…”
I will be VERY interested in the CPAC events, and hope that most of it is on the ‘net.
And, I am reluctant to add, the show has just begun. The least exerienced president in history will be drowned by events that he could only conceptualize in a theorical framework. The realities will overwhelm him. If he is over his head now, with a honeymoon mandate and a democratic congress newly energied, how is this going to look a few months from now when the problems domestically and internationally only escalate? We are in for a very bad ride.
spell check where are you?
Sad to say, Illinoisians could have told you that about Obama’s taste in associates long ago… the three politicians he gave the most support to over the years were Impeachment Boy himself, Rod Blagojevich; John Stroger, the ultimate Chicago machine hack, who at the time of Obama’s crucial show of support over a reformer, was literally brain-dead of a stroke; and Alexi Giannoulias, scion to a mob-connected bank. Needless to say, far better candidates existed on the scene, and Obama’s support was crucial to ensuring they didn’t get into power.
And the worst thing about this three week debacle is that it’s self inflicted. Wait till the worlds real bad guys show up.
One small favor we can appreciate is the role John McCain is playing now. Even the LA Times is honest about it. We need some new leaders but McCain is doing pretty well right now. I wish I could say the same about Judd Gregg who seems to have checked his balls at the New Hampshire border.
I am rapidly approaching davidingeorgia’s position. I am becoming truly afraid that what this miserable excuse for a party is setting us on is the road to tyrrany ala Venezuela.
Can anyone at all explain the reason that something as banal as the census should be moved into the White House? The only ones I can come up with are chilling. After all, the census controls apportionment, it also controls the distribution of huge amounts of money. In other words the only reason I can come up with is a naked partisan power grab of unprecedented proportions.
Add in the nationalizing of banks and the control over OTHER salaries that is being proposed; the reinstitution of the worst of Fannie and Freddie policies and I can’t help but think that things are looking very grim.
David:
Obama is the lesser of evils compared to McCain? Oh please. This is so ridiculous. I am so tired of that nonsense. Conservatives could not get just what they wanted so way too many of them decided to sit back, trash McCain and let Obama win.
Well, he won. thanks a lot. And thus far he has supported this ridiculous bloated so called stimulus bill, unlike John McCain. McCain is at the very least a real man. I am not sure what Obama is. I guess the typical metro sexual male sitting on the fence and trying to have it all both ways.
Not only doesn’t Zero know men on the instant, but apparently not many people in his background ever got to know him. I was always amazed at the reports that there aren’t any classmates of Obama who remember him at Columbia.
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2008/10/did-barack-obama-go-to-columbia.html
Indeed, being a Messiah, perhaps Obama has a Holy Trinity thing going on and in fact, the spirit of Obama attended Columbia for those two years.
Having the virtue of men on the instant is probably difficult for someone who grew up in Hawaii. I would think that obtaining the gift of instant is somewhat easier to develop while growing up in say Brooklyn as opposed to Honolulu.
In fact it is high time that Republicans started sticking together and stopped this silly circular firing squad thing they do. It would not have mattered who got the Republican nomination, some group or clique or sect would have whined and complained and decided to sit home and send a message rather than vote. One thing about Democrats, often as not they will stick together when it comes right down to it. Republicans need to start doing the same damn thing or people like Pelosi and Obama will run the country right into the ground.
president obama is incexperienecd, has never held a real job, never managed a supporting staff and has shown an incredible lack of judgement – all in just under three weeks. We are destined to suffer with this fool for nearly four more years. Imagine what other troubles his exerperience will lead us into. The “Catastrophe” he has been mentioning his him – The One and his Jimmy Carter style of dispair!
John McCain proposed a year break from the payroll tax. That’s a far better solution than this “stimulus” bill. The only thing it stimulates is Democratic Congressmen and Josh Marshall’s wet dreams. This bill is all about Democratic power and attempting to control the vote in the long term. How this sort of thing is better than having McCain as president is a head scratcher. BTW there’s more where this stimulus came from. This is only the first three weeks. Wait till we see how they attempt to “fix” the inevitable consequences of this.
Maybe Obama should name Mayor Daley as his chief of staff. Think I’m kidding? The man runs a tight city.
I’m with Terrye–McCain would have been much better at this point–and I am shocked that I really believe this after just 2 weeks of an Obama administration. When McCain lost, I was disappointed for a day, then relieved I wouldn’t have to defend him anymore and could just be in the “loyal opposition”. I believe Obama is just clueless in every way, but don’t think the MSM will hold him accountable for a long time, if ever, as that would expose their incompetence and stupidity. So, I think we just have to all speak up, whenever we can, to critique the President, in case there are a few Obamabots out there with some independent brain cells left.
Terrye:
“I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!” Will Rogers.
Still want some of that famed Democratic organization. It is the GOP who have the 11th commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Ronald Reagan. Forgot all about that one I guess. No the GOP should get back to it’s core values Money and the competence to make sure our financial system doesn’t collapse. They seem to have failed at both recently so it is the Dem’s turn now. Who in the age of Tom Delay would, could ever believe a Democratic candidate who wasn’t personally wealthy, out spent the Republican by millions. People power is an amazing thing to watch.
Barry Dauphin:
You, John McCain and George Will are probably right about the best way to stimulate the economy by having a payroll holiday, so why didn’t Bush or any other Republican suggest it before we gave away billions of dollars to a bunch of bloated banks?
The Republican’s own incompetence and failures led our country to this point and so we picked the only other choice we have here, the equally (it seems) incompetent Democrats.
If in four years we feel differently we will elect some new fool, be they Democratic or Republican.
I say stop worrying about what your country will do to you and start doing for yourself.
Joseph:
A payroll tax cut is fine, but someone has to pay for the services and those taxes will come right back. As for why Bush did not suggest it, Bush took millions of poor working people off of the tax rolls entirely.
And I refuse to blame Republican incompetence for any of this. At least Bush and McCain both tried to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and neither one of them got the support they needed from either party to get that done. I also do not think it is fair to assume that if Bush had just let the banks collapse back in September we would be better off. In fact chances are if the Feds had refused to do anything, the situation would have been worse and the Democrats would have made greater gains. There is no reason to believe it would be otherwise. There is not one country in the industrialized world that could afford to act, that did not. Not one. And the countries who did not act were the ones which lacked the resources and now they are facing protests.
I am not against all government intervention, but this bill is way too much for all the wrong reasons. For instance, word is all the work has to go to union members. That means that 85% of the workforce is locked out of the jobs.
And while we are on the subject of who is and is not to blame for Obama being president, etc…let us just remember that if some of the more outspoken critics on the right who were livid about Harriet Miers, outraged about Dubai and beside themselves over immigration had paused to ponder the subprime lending situation, things might have been different.
Too often the right has allowed itself to attack its own in an effort to find some kind of nonexistent purity, meanwhile the Democrats have slowly but surely garnered more and more support. They picked up young people tired of the social conservatives lecturing them. They picked up hispanics who found the hardliner’s rhetoric to be insulting. They picked up working people who felt that Republicans only cared about the rich. And so on.
Republicans need to learn to get out of their own way. They also need to spend as much time and energy criticizing Democrats as they do each other.
Terrye,
I think you are a little too hard on Republicans here. The sub-prime disaster was on very few radar screens when Harriet Miers was in the news, Dubai and immigration are legitimate and serious concerns too. I’m sure the Dems did garner votes from all the illegal immigrants and their supporters, so the Pubs should have not attacked that policy?
There are many things that Pubs don’t agree on it is a big tent party in reality, unlike the Dems and their “bribe a constituent” methodology.
I too wish that there was less circular firing squad but you seem to leave out the culpability of the media who planted and nurtured all the memes that you rail against, especially the uncaring, rich loving Pubs vs. the compassionate, for the little guy Dems. Talk about a crock.
Considering you gave blowjobs to most of the Panther Party, Roger, your judgment matters little.
p.s. to Roger’s fans: Get real. How do YOU think he lost all that hair?
Noah ‘S”bagles
If Roger L Simon’s judgement matters less, why are you even coming on his blog? You have an ughly tongue and I am sure his reader’s and fans see you
as you must be, a non talented wantabe. Have a good week
let us just remember that if some of the more outspoken critics on the right who were livid about Harriet Miers, outraged about Dubai and beside themselves over immigration had paused to ponder the subprime lending situation, things might have been different.,/i>
The Wall Street Journal has been running editorials about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for years. Now maybe you are referring to conservatives who disagreed with the WSJ on immigration but there was plenty of talk on the right about the credit bubble. What we had were a bunch of astrophysicists working for Wall Street who had concocted these models (sort of like the global warming models) that bore no relation to the facts on the ground. None of them had ever written a loan or appraised a piece of property. Everybody was just too smart.
Where is George Bailey when you need him ?
I ignore trolls, by the way, and highly recommend it.
This situation is far more than a Left or Right issue. I fear that if this nation goes bankrupt, it will be because so many were busy pointing fingers at each other, rather than sticking them into the dam. The Dems blame the lack of oversight and tag that on the GOP. The GOP claims “forced loans” and tags that on the Dems. One side blames Bush’s policies, while the other side bashes Obama’s planned policies.
We’ve had CEO’s paying themselves more money than most Americans see in a lifetime, while playing fast and loose with the responsibility inherent in running a company. Bankers gave loans to people that were well outside Barny Franks scope of who should get loans, they gave bigger loans to far less financially capable people. Then we have the citizens themselves. What idiotic Asshole would take out a loan for a home, when they had no job, or knew they couldn’t afford it? Well, apparently a lot of American assholes.
Capitalism works, ONLY if the Seller and Buyer are personally responsible. Our society has degenerated into a consumer society, where the Seller is responsible in the “You’re responsible for this ad campaign sense” and the Buyer is responsible in the… well, no, the Buyer is just completely irresponsible. Our corporate leaders in a Free Market, must Freely accept the responsibility of what they do… yet, we have nothing from them but bullshit excuses. The buyer must Freely accept the responsibility of being a good consumer… not simply a human vacuum for whatever latest piece of shit is sitting on the shelf at Best Buy.
Neither political party is responsible for this mess. Both of them surely made some decisions, that in retrospect, weren’t wise… but this epic failure lies with us. The buck should stop with the American Citizen. Yet, as usual, we pay lip service to “Personal Responsibility” while bl;aming everyone else and demanding that they fix the problem.
Although, I have to admit… its kind of funny to visualize Senators clinging to the top railing of the Titanic screaming and pointing fingers at each other while the rest of us float among the icebergs, face down.