But being president is his first real job, so maybe we should cut him a little slack. He’s still learning.
Mr. Obama has said the lack of an effective narrative has been one of his administration’s biggest missteps. “The mistake of my first term — couple of years — was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right,” Mr. Obama said in an interview last month with CBS’s Charlie Rose. “But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people.”
The president still thinks poor story-telling is his biggest problem. In the real world, while high unemployment festered he chose to lard up his stimulus bill with payoffs to unions, and he chose to ram job-killer ObamaCare through, despite the majority’s opposition to that bill. By casting the blame on story-telling, Obama is casting blame on his message handlers and on the press, and not accepting any blame for his own poor choices.
That’s pretty childish, really.
It’s also childish to reject reality and attempt to substitute your own.
While Mr. Obama frequently criticizes the heated speech of cable news, he sees what he views as deeper problems in news outlets that strive for objectivity. In private meetings with columnists, he has talked about the concept of “false balance” — that reporters should not give equal weight to both sides of an argument when one side is factually incorrect. He frequently cites the coverage of health care and the stimulus package as examples, according to aides familiar with the meetings.
Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, was previously Time magazine’s Washington bureau chief. He said the president thought that some journalists were more comfortable blaming both parties, regardless of the facts. “To be saying ‘they’re both equally wrong’ or ‘they’re both equally bad,’ ” Mr. Carney said, “then you look high-minded.”
The term “false balance,” which has been embraced by many Democrats, emerged in academic papers in the 1990s to describe global-warming coverage.
“I believe this type of ‘accuracy’ and ‘balance’ are a huge thing afflicting contemporary media,” said Josh Marshall, editor and publisher of the left-leaning Web site Talking Points Memo.
You can almost hear Marshall saying the air quotes, and you can almost see Obama nodding his head in approval. These folks on the left just hate the fact that people like us on the right exist and have a voice. The left’s hatred of genuine diversity rears its head again, and occupies the Oval Office. Life would be so much easier for them if we all would just shut up and let them do whatever they want to us. We’re standing in the way of his “fundamental transformation” project.
That’s certainly Obama’s attitude.
Further evidence of narcissism without bounds.
There isn’t any adulation sufficient for this guy.
How can anybody be fooled by him?
The funny part is the left was fooled — at least as far as Obama’s core personality goes.
They knew he was lying about his politics when he ran in 2008. But they also thought Obama was lying about his personality to the swing voters, and that, once elected, he would shed his laid-back, ‘professorial’ style and basically turn into North America’s Hugo Chavez, destroyer of all things conservative. But you can’t lie about your personality over a two year campaign.
That’s in part why Axlerod picked Obama, because he knew having an African-American presidential candidate with his ideology but with an alpha male personality would have scared off not just general election voters, but Democratic primary voters. They would have looked at ‘angry’ Barack Obama, thought “Al Sharpton” and run screaming to either Hillary or Rielle Hunter’s sugar daddy.
Obama has a massive ego, but at the same time, he’s grown up in politics thinking the rules are other people do things for him, and then he receives all the credit. It’s not in his psyche to be the out-front leader of the attack squad when it’s something controversial, only the beneficiary of the attacks. He can call out the Republicans in front of crowds of hundreds of donors or thousands of DNC delegates, but he can’t cope with face-to-face meetings with Paul Ryan or John Boehner. And in the end, I suppose we should be happy that the president is a beta male at heart, and didn’t have the guts to shut down Fox News and talk radio, arrest Bush and Cheney for war crimes and let his full Hugo freak flag fly in January of ’09 the way his most rabid liberal backers wanted him to.
“The president still thinks poor story-telling is his biggest problem. In the real world, while high unemployment festered he chose to lard up his stimulus bill with payoffs to unions, and he chose to ram job-killer ObamaCare through, despite the majority’s opposition to that bill.” – Not to mention the fact that the only real leadership he has provided has been to direct the EPA and The Interior Dept to enact more encumbering and job killing rules and regulations. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772404577587310951310628.html
The president still thinks poor story-telling is his biggest problem.
I think Obama believes all the hype about his awesome speaking ability. Obama believes that if he just keeps giving speeches, miracles will happen. Of course, he’s a deluded fool who only speaks well when reading from a Teleprompter. I can’t help but wonder who actually writes the words in the Teleprompter script.
I may disagree with lefties but the fact that their opinions are different from mine doesn’t bother me – so why does it drive them so fricking nuts?
Because they are insecure. The ‘reason’ they believe in global warming is “consensus” not facts. This is where relativism ultimately leads – no mooring, insecurity, frustration, and anger.
It also leads to mass murder.
… so why does it drive them so fricking nuts?
Because you believe that when you disagree, they are wrong. But they believe that when you disagree, you are evil.
Why do liberals go nuts? Because, as one liberal told me, “The closest thing we have to religion in our house, and in the house I grew up in, is the Democrat party.”
Politics is religion to liberals, complete with high priests in white lab coats, inquisitions for the unbelievers, casting out of heretics and manifestos like An Inconvenient Truth, Rules For Radicals, Fahrenheit 911 and Das Kapital as their scripture.
And as one wag pointed out, “Hatred is a liberal value” when the High Priests direct their venom at a target.
for a wimp, he’s been getting his way so far, and if wimpy whining works, who’s a wimp after all?
speaker boehner’s one, mccain’s another, and rubio, too, wimps all, ganging up on Michelle Bachmann.
there’s a long list of such republican party wimps, for all kinds of wimpy reasons.
so, aside from obama, who else isn’t a wimp? jarrett, axelrod, rice, holder, susskind, etc., all creeps.
but wimps, they’re not.
about Republican wimps, they are truly pathetic.
The wimpiest thing of all about them?
That neither Sarah Palin nor Michelle Bachmann have been invited to speak at the GOP convention.
How much lower can they get?
The liberal Republicans want your (supporters of Palin and/or Bachman) but they have as low opinion of you, and your beliefs, as the dems do.
your vote (dang no edit button).
So far the squeaky wheel (Obama) has gotten the grease. But after a while a squeaky wheel becomes so annoying that it must be changed. Aren’t we there yet?
The best part is 50 years from now, nobody will remember who Barack Obamee was.
Other than the last Democrat president before the party dissolved.
Let’s hope it’s not the last democratic president before the second civil war — or time of troubles, or new constitutional order, or even downfall of ????? (whatever the future decides to call it) — began.
Ya know, if the MSM and the sports press can tell Lolo Jones to suck it up and deal with the “elevator music” that goes with being in the public eye, why can’t the Preezy? Stop whining, Obama. (hopefully none of his aides will send him footage of Ryan campaigning in Florida, that’d give him something to whine about–he’s whomping you with words, BHO, just words)
The leftists have the refs bribed and they’re complaining that the calls aren’t rigged enough.
This guy not only wants his lapdog media to bend the rules, he wants them to bend the scoreboard.
A Republican gets investigated for what he MIGHT have, maybe, possibly, done in high school. Obama doesn’t even get questioned for a policy decision he made last week.
Investigative reporting evaporates when a leftist is the necessary target. It exceeds the bounds of integrity and human decency when a Republican runs for any key office.
Other than Stanley Kurtz, nobody is doing any investigative work as a journalist on a mass media scale…as to…well,…anything related to Obama and this administration.
The fact that Obama likes his propagandists fully and completely obedient is a sign of a true tyrant. But, that’s a first term tyrant. It won’t be a shadow of what would come in a second term.
The reason he hasn’t been an effective leader is, he doesn’t know how.
It’s not just telling a story — especially in his case since the only significant character in any story he tells will be himself.
A leader puts the listener in the story, makes him the most significant character, and asks him, “How can I help make you a hero?”
Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government. When the government lacks an effective, fact-based defense, other techniques must be employed. The success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.
Thirteen Techniques for Truth Suppression:
Dummy up. If it’s not reported, if it’s not news, it didn’t happen.
Wax indignant. This is also known as the “how dare you?” gambit.
Characterize the charges as “rumors” or, better yet, “wild rumors.” If, in spite of the news blackout, the public is still able to learn about the suspicious facts, it can only be through “rumors.”
Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike.
Call the skeptics names like “conspiracy theorist,” “nut,” “ranter,” “kook,” “crackpot,” and of course, “rumor monger.” You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned.
Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money.
Invoke authority. Here the controlled press and the sham opposition can be very useful.
Dismiss the charges as “old news.”
Come half-clean. This is also known as “confession and avoidance” or “taking the limited hang-out route.” This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal “mistakes.” This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken.
Characterize the crimes as impossibly complex and the truth as ultimately unknowable.
Reason backward, using the deductive method with a vengeance. With thoroughly rigorous deduction, troublesome evidence is irrelevant. For example: We have a completely free press. If they know of evidence that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) had prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing they would have reported it. They haven’t reported it, so there was no prior knowledge by the BATF. Another variation on this theme involves the likelihood of a conspiracy leaker and a press that would report it.
Require the skeptics to solve the crime completely.
Change the subject. This technique includes creating and/or reporting a distraction.
Brilliant. And frighteningly effective.
The Left is so self-delusional that the next thing we’ll hear from Obama is:
Mount Rushmore, here I come.
We have muslims in the White House, and at the highest level of government.
Bought and paid for by Saudi Arabia with the oil money we continue to provide.
“False balance”? Sounds a lot like Communism’s “false consciousness”.
He should just go ahead and agree with John Howard Lawson, a Hollywood Communist leader and one of the Hollywood 10: “You believe in freedom of speech for communists because what they say is true. You do NOT believe in freedom of speech for fascists because what they say is a lie.”
The less leading he does, the less damage he does.
In Obie’s case, what he does isn’t leading. It’s interfering, or hindering, or any other word that describes an impediment to better functioning or operation.
President Honey Boo Boo.
I don’t mean to be defending the guy, but think about it for a minute? What does he owe his political career to, in his own mind? His ability to make speeches. That speech he made to the DNC essentially catapulted him from obscurity in the Illinois State legislature to the Senate, and then his ability to make speeches gave him (in his own mind anyway) the nomination and the President. Remember, few candidates are candid with themselves about the press, and whether they’re treated fairly. Clinton still whines about unfair the media was with him, when he was president. Obama thinks that the part of the Presidency that’s the most important, the decisions that he’s made that are the most difficult, involve his speeches. To him, paying off his buddies in the public sector unions is a no-brainer; any Democrat would have done it, and all evil Republicans wouldn’t have. Any idiot can figure out they need the money: the trick is selling it to the rube taxpayers, and Obama is admitting that he hasn’t done a very good job of it.
Once you think about it like that, money for his cronies at Solyndra, bailing out GM, cash for clunkers, all of it makes sense. All of these policies were good for the country, or at least for his political cronies, the people who matter. It was just that he didn’t convince the rest of us low-brow morons that his policies were worthwhile. He didn’t make enough eloquent speeches.
Obama is the opposite of smart — he’s a lazy, ignorant air-head without pride or principle: only a huge, big-baby ego. This is what makes Comrade Zero so valuable to his puppet masters. They can manipulate the jerk any which-way, and all he does is grin, check the top box on his crib-sheet, and head for the golf course. Beyond this grotesque, drooling incompetence, the man is ultimately, pathologically disloyal. Not only to the United States and to the American people who blindly trusted him, who he has repeatedly, casually betrayed, but to his political party and even to his daughters, whose birthdays escape him and who he has bizarrely referred to as “sons.”
What a bottom feeding mud crawler! The good news is that this odious scum, this political freak, by far the worst “president” America has ever had, is going to get his electoral head handed to him in November. From this debacle, and the immediate, monster recovery that Romney-Ryan’s victory will inspire, Zero’s Democrat co-conspirators, as blatant and warped a cabal of out-right gangsters as any in history, will hopefully never recover.
“false balance”
As a near life-long resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, I have lived in the midst of this mentality for many, many years. It’s a totalitarian world view. Conservatives are 100% evil and wrong, you see, so it is wrong to give them or their viewpoints any forum or fair hearing at all. They are to be completely silenced.
Libs and progressives are not merely happy advocates for gay marriage or recycling. They are bitterly, hatefully hostile towards any viewpoint, organization, or people who don’t knuckle under to them on demand and they will work relentlessly to destroy anyone who stands in the way of their ever-expanding power. If you don’t fear them, you should.
People outside of California have often tended to think that the gay politics in SF or other aspects of progressive politics there are just sort of overly positive about their particular view of the world. The truth is, the progressives are extremely, intensively negative and restrictive not just about others who disagree with them but towards anyone who doesn’t actively express support for all of their views. If you haven’t seen them in action or interacted with them personally, it can be difficult to understand how hateful and ultimately dangerous they really are.
It’s creepy as hell to see a version of this camped out in the White House. I never thought I would see the day, but here we are.
Yup. All viewpoints are acceptable. As long as it’s theirs.
Sounds to me that J. Marshall could easily enough have starred in this piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM8l3X_7Hkg&feature=fvwrel
The fact remains, Obama and the Democrat Party remain in power in all of the Major Cities and largest populated states. They only need too win Ohio or Florida and Obama is POTUS until 2016. By then, the Republican Party will
be lost in the maze. And the Muslim Brotherhood will be sleeping in the White House with Obama and Axelrod.
Liberals have controlled the Public Schools and Universities for the past 40 years. Majority of American’s think Government is the way of the future and accept the premise of control and regulation of Private enterprise.
Wealthly will continue to relocate to Switzerland and Monaco, Bermuda.
Many Americans will move to Texas, Utah, Dakota’s . It could begin to get ugly before we see the end of Obama.
The Good thing to come out of 4 more years of Obama and his team of Liberals, The American People will wake up and get involved in the rejection of the Obama policy. Will be ugly and in the streets of the cities. Get Ready.
Big O (zero) is a sissy. Can’t throw a baseball 60 feet to home plate. Golf score, 120, same as his bowling score, too low to make the Special Olympics, which he demeans. Rides a fat tired bike in his mommy jeans. Moochelle and Jarrett run the show. His only leadership was of his Choom Gang, before too much grass sapped his brain cells.