I tuned in a few minutes late to President Obama’s press conference, but from the looks of things I didn’t miss anything. He railed against Republicans for rejecting his phony jobs bill, without acknowledging that Democrat Sen. Harry Reid is the one who is bollixing it up in the Senate. He railed against Republicans for wanting to rein in the EPA, but never acknowledged that his regulatory over reach has already provably caused layoffs and threatens to cause power shortages. He tried to describe and identify with the struggles that millions of Americans are going through in the tough economy, but never acknowledged that his own policies are at least partly to blame. He called for questions from what looked like a preformulated list of approved reporters. From the looks of the CNN liveblog, none of the questions were particularly probing and none of the answers, very insightful. When I tuned in he seemed to be trying to justify government “investments” in green companies like Solyndra, indicating that he still has not learned much from the failure and scandal now dogging his administration. This answer tells me that Obama is still more of a Tom Friedman than a Steve Jobs, on the economy and innovation:
11:32 a.m. ET – On Solyndra: We’ve got to dominate cutting edge technologies and manufacturing. Part of what’s happening is other countries are putting enormous subsidies in these companies to get them started overseas. We knew from the start the loan guarantee program was going to involve some risk. The overall portfolio has been successful. There are going to be some companies that did not work out. Solyndra was one of them…but I have confidence the decision were made based on what would be good for the American economy and getting people back to work.
Didn’t we have this same debate in the 1980s, when it looked like Honda and Toyota were set to take over the world on behalf of Japan?
And while the US auto manufacturers remained mired in Big Labor’s grip and refused to innovate to remain competitive, a little American company called Apple innovated, went to the brink of oblivion, and then brought itself back to become the global powerhouse that it is by making products that people want, and which make lives better? And Honda and Toyota started making great cars right here in America.
We had this debate. It was settled. President Obama is living in the big government past.
I suppose the president’s point was to come out, generate some headlines and appear presidential. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess. The latter has escaped him and gets farther from him with each speech, easily knocked down falsehood or sham bill.
Every time Obama opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it. And in the process, weakens the Office of the President.
Truly amazing….
The world’s–and perhaps history’s–most supreme narcissist once again on display. Pathetic.
Oh, I don’t know. Caligula was markedly worse, and so was Nero, but they were also both more capable leaders. Caligula also did better than Obama on appointing suitable advisors: he nominated his horse to be his consul, whereas Obama repeatedly nominates the back ends of the same for his cabinet and other positions.
And while this “dullest tool in the shed” is talking out both sides of his mouth, none of the Republican candidates are able to get the same amount of coverage to talk up how full of BS Obama is.
I just had an email from an intelligent ex-coworker who said she had heard that it was Bush’s fault for the economy. Obviously the GOP establishment/elite are doing absolutely nothing to contradict the Democrats. And when they are successful at getting Romney as “our” candidate, they will allow Obama to win re-election. And we know what that means (not only another 4 year term, but I bet there will suddenly be talk about removing the two term limit for president).
One of the things I noticed about Solyndra, is that they spent oodles of money on a glitzy office and factory. It was a palace. This was a business start-up in an experimental field.
In contrast, (I forget which tech company it was, now based in San Diego) but rather than route computer lines through the hall into the next room, the founder just took a hammer and pounded a hole in the wall, saving time and money.
I once worked for a place that spent lavishly on salaries, because the President had no qualifications for the job. She ran the company into the ground in less than a year, despite it being heavily capitalized. The former-millionaire, Japanese owner ended up hiding from creditors. His entire life’s work was destroyed, because he hired some unqualified, pretty, young thing to run his new venture.
“Green” is hip and cool, and the hip-and-cool crowd running Solyndra would not even consider punching a hole in the wall. Same with all the Obama crowd. It is all about status. Gotta have the palaces for the cool kids. It’s just taxpayer money, anyway. Profit? We don’t need no stinkin’ profit!
The point was this: His cheering section in the media can’t sing his praises unless he continually gives them opportunities to “critique” his latest
rantspeech. It’s part of the BIG LIE technique.Of course, in addition to exposing himself as a liar once again, sometimes even the syncophants start bickering, like Dylan Ratigan and Crazy Ed Schultz did today on MSDNC. Too funny!
Byran,
The “point” of the “press” conference was to lend support/momemtum to the “Occupy (Fill in the Blank)” protests.
After all, the “protests” are being run out of the White House by OFO and the Unions.
T
Completely untrue. The OWS protest (it has since moved to protests) was a word-of-mouth movement started by a magazine called Adbusters and was in the works for months before it began on September 17. The media coverage after the police maced some people and arrested 700 of them helped catapult it to the protests you see today. There is nothing more American than speaking your mind and voice against the oligarchy that exists in this country. I highly doubt the White House, regardless of who is in there, really wants this right now. Because if you actually listen to the protesters, they deem all politicians as the same–puppets controlled by big money. Until the average American can afford to get his or her voice heard in Congress with millions of dollars, this is our only outlet.
The majority of Obama’s jobs bill’s $447 billion in proposed spending comes in the form of payroll tax cuts for both employees and employers, and tax breaks and incentives for increased wages or new hires. That leaves less than half of the money to pay to prevent layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters, invest in building infrastructure, and help those without jobs transition back into the workplace (http://eng.am/qJQ8jW).
I’m not a big fan of Obama’s jobs plan, but clearly something needs to be done. We cannot continue on with the status quo of little to no job growth month after month.
Bryan quoted a portion of the President’s answer to Jake Tapper’s question re both Solyndra and Fast & Furious. But the Fast & Furious part of his answer was more interesting to me. He left me wondering whether he hadn’t just hung Holder out to twist slowly in the wind on this growing scandal.
Here’s a piece of that part:
“I’ve been very clear that I have complete confidence in Attorney General Holder and how he holds his office . . . He’s indicated that he was not aware of what was happening in Fast and Furious. Certainly, I was not, and I think both he and I would have been very unhappy if someone had suggested that guns were allowed to pass through that could have been prevented by the United States of America . . . I have complete confidence in him and I’ve got complete confidence in the process to figure out who exactly was responsible for that decision and how it got made.”
An embattled cabinet secretary never wants to hear from the White House that he has the “complete confidence” of the President. And you certainly never want to hear it directly from the President himself. And you can definitely go your entire life without hearing it three times in one answer at a Presidential Press Conference.
As far as I can gather, “complete confidence” is traditionally the White House’s way of saying: “Buddy, this is your problem and yours alone. You won’t be discussing this issue with us again. You need to solve it ’cause your job’s on the bubble. If you don’t fix it, have the decency to fall on your sword and shut your yap about it. ‘Kay?”
Moreover, according to Obama, Holder told Obama that Holder didn’t know, but more importantly, Obama certainly never knew. Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark. Just in the last two days, we’ve learned that Holder may have misled Congress in sworn(?) testimony. Do you think perhaps Obama might just claim that Holder also misled him too?
How is the job bill phony?
How come you don’t know that funding is initiated in the congress and approved in the senate?
What is wrong with wanting clean air and water?
This is confusing to me.
First, because in looking at the jobs bill, no one is saying it wont create jobs. The resistance seems to be coming from the idea of taxing millionaires to pay for it.
Second, all appropriations must be initiated in congress. The senate has no power to initiate a spending bill.
And third, the EPA was created because rivers were catching fire, the environment was getting thrashed, and big business did not want to clean up after themselves. Do we really want to strip the EPA out of government and leave a sewer for future generations?
‘no one is saying it wont create jobs.’
Thank you for your insight, WW. Has anyone ever called you brilliant?
Riddle me this, WW.
If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day in a half…how many grasshoppers does it take to kick the seeds out of a dill pickle?