A Humpty-Dumpty View of the World
In 2007 candidate Obama had some interesting theories about the world abroad — not unlike those voiced in the 1920s by the well-intentioned who formed the League of Nations to end all wars. A Gilbert Murray or H.G. Wells or Alfred Zimmern all had interesting things to say, as did Smuts and House — all interesting and all dead wrong once an Austrian-born corporal fancied himself the architect of a new Reich.
The “reset button” foreign policy postulated that twangy, “smok’ em out” Bush had caused all the bad feelings. As an antidote, a postracial, postnational charmer could assure the world that we were on its side. We are back to 1930 in a blink of an eye.
Remember, in this reset narrative, there are no such bothersome things as irreconcilable differences, antithetical agendas, or reductionism such as thugs like Ahmadinejad, Assad, Chavez, or Putin, who always interpret magnanimity as weakness in their nonstop quest for more influence and power at the expense of the perceived weaker party.
So here we are after all the apologies, all the bowing, all the trashing of Bush, all the Cairo speeches and al Arabiya interviews: Putin brags about a new generation of nuclear weapons, bullying his neighbors and doing nothing to stop Iran; Iran kills its dissidents while we sleep and promises a bomb to come. Chavez wants one too, and Syria does it best to destroy Lebanese autonomy. And that is just the beginning.
It was not supposed to happen that way. (All those adoring crowds in the streets of London, Cairo, and Nairobi were supposed to translate into their leaders’ infatuation with Obama.)
Tilting at Windmills
Those in the faculty lounge, in the community-organizing hall, or media green room often wax on about how “they” are doing nothing to make us energy independent. In this fantasyland of a con artist like Van Jones, millions of windmills and solar panels will free us from energy costs and cool the planet.
In such mythologizing, and without any knowledge of the grubby world of oil rigs and dirty pipeline laying, we could have all the clean power we wished if only an Exxon just weren’t so greedy. So the narrative emerged that we need not drill for more oil here in the US. New natural gas fields still meant bad carbon fuels. Coal, burned daily, was still politically-taboo. Nuclear plants were always referenced in terms of Chernobyl and Three-Mile-Island.
The result, however, in the real world was that low energy prices are a result of a global downturn in the economy, not Obama’s dreams of ugly windmills on every mountain ridge. In short, very soon a President Obama is going to have to explain what exactly he did to transition us to new sources of power during this reprieve, as we begin to pay for $5 a gallon of gas.
I could go on. But most of you readers remember young Barack Obama in late 2007 hitting the stump against Hillary, proclaiming to the world how his hope and change bromides would stop the Bush-Cheney nexus from destroying the planet.
Those were heady times when Guantanamo was still a gulag with its hundreds of Solzhenitsyns, not psychopaths like Khalid Sheikh Mohammeds, when we could just leave Iraq by “March 2008”, and when there would be no lobbyists, no tax cheats, no insider buy-offs and horse-trading for votes. In such a dreamy world, geniuses like Timothy Geithner don’t pocket their FICA allowances, and Tom Daschles don’t fudge on their complimentary limo services.
And then tragically Obama got elected and discovered that the real world had no relationship whatsoever to his fantasy impressions of it. In a cosmos of radical Islam, Chinese bankers, Japanese exporters, and Arab oil producers, there were no more law school profs, Rev. Wrights, or Chris Matthews and Newsweek editors to wink and nod and reassure Obama that his mellifluous but empty rhetoric allusions were at all reality-based.
So here we are. A president of the United States does not want to rush to the microphones and swear he will hunt down the Abdulmutallabs of the world and their sponsors, or that there will be no more Major Hasans (so much easier to rush to call the Cambridge police “stupidly” acting, while employing “allegedly” for the bomb-making of Abdulmutallab).
He does not wish to sound like a can-do guy who reassures us that we will tap all the American energy we can to ensure that we don’t go bankrupt before the new generation of power arrives. Obama does not wish to sound like some retrograde SOB who warns Ahmadinejad there really will be things he won’t like if he insists on going nuclear. Our commander in chief does not wish to snarl at the American people to announce that the party is over and all those trillions really do have to be paid back.
No, all that was someone else’s fault, others’ reality — and certainly not what Obama signed on for.
So if he seems bewildered, angry sometimes, and more at home in warm, lush Hawaii, you would be too — once you discovered that your easy fantasies and winged rhetoric of the last thirty years have no relation with the here and now.
All the soaring cadences in the world, all the self-referencing, and all the whining and blame-gaming sadly cannot put the shattered Humpty-dumpty view of a once comfortable world back together again.
The entire Obama Administration had better drop the mantra of, “We inherited this mess.”
The American people are getting real tired of that excuse.
As usual Dr. Hanson, right on target. I don’t think Obama can escape from his own narrative. He’s painted himself into a corner. He can only hope that things get better before they get worse. If events continue to go against him, he–along with his handlers and sycophants–will lash out at his critics even more. 2010 could be an ugly year.
“In this fantasyland of a con artist like Van Jones, millions of windmills and solar panels will free us from energy costs and cool the planet.”
I too realize that solar panels are an ineffective solution for our energy problems, but I’m installing them anyway.
Why? Because the government is making it a logical personal strategy, while it is an irrational national strategy.
How are they doing this? One by subsidizing my installation by up to 60%. So, I either have a choice of seeing my tax money go to my neighbor’s installation, or I do it myself. Another is that it is highly probable that our energy costs are going to go way up. Much of this rise is government produced, rather than the result of market forces.
A good portion of this rise will be due to carbon credits. I was amazed when I found that I could sell my carbon credits for approximately the same value as the electricity I’m producing, while getting to keep the electricity!
What is the significance of this in respect to the national economy? In effect, the government has doubled the cost of energy overnight. Some company is either going to have to install a costly renewable energy system, or buy my credits if they continue to buy conventional energy. Either way, their energy costs are going way up.
Ultimately, that comes back to the consumer. I’m not being green, I’m simply playing the government’s game as a matter of survival.
I wonder what his favorite Fantasyland rides were: Matterhorn Bobsleds, Mad Tea Party, or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
In any case, the metaphor holds. Maybe we should revoke his day pass for the duration.
Good stuff from the Brits.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100020934/barack-obama-gets-an-f-for-protecting-americans/
Well done Professor Hanson. The curse of the modern age is the rise of “magical thinking.” If we just want something to be true hard enough, and do a good enough job of pretending, it will be true.
Your reference to Humpty Dumpty is particularly apt. I am reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
It distills the post-modern mindset down to its essence.
But Barack Obama is tired. Don’t we understand that? He’s tired. Remember shortly after he descended from the heavens to the office of the Presidency? His aides announced that he–and they–hadn’t anticipated how stressful the job was, and he was tired? Well, the job is still stressful, and he’s still tired. And let’s not pick on him about his response to man caused disasters, or alleged near disasters that proved the system worked brilliantly until it didn’t. He boldly proclaimed that we would hold “accountable” those responsible. And yes, it’s true that his definition of “accountable” is not the same as ours. He might sternly lecture them while extending the warm and slightly moist and girlish hand of friendship and engagement. And yes, it’s true that our nuclear arsenal hasn’t been upgraded in decades and it is deteriorating to the point that we can’t be absolutely sure about the reliability of many of the warheads, but Barack Obama is tired.
He didn’t anticipate how stressful the job would be. On one hand, no one can truly understand the complexities of the job without having had it. But on the other, to have a mindset that allows him to be surprised that the job is stressful–at all–and to actually announce his bewilderment on that account to the world, says a very great deal about Mr. Obama’s complete failure to understand that as POTUS, he is not an individual, but one in a long line of executives responsible for the interests of the United States, and for the success and survival of liberty around the world.
We must waste no time on delusions. Barack Obama is a hard core socialist/communist, such that if he moved a mile to the center–and there is no indication as yet of even a single, real step in that direction–he would merely be placing himself, ideologically, in Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid territory. People of good will try to give him credit whenever he actually says something rational, when he actually conducts himself, for the briefest of rhetorical moments, as an American president acting in America’s interests, because they are people of good will, but we must keep in mind the Grand Canyon wide difference between cheap and easy rhetoric delivered in Obama’s trademark, swivel-headed left/right, chin tilted upward, looking down his nose at the little people teleprompter style, and actual policy change and commensurate action.
Let’s not forget the example of the Soviet Union which lasted for decade after decade despite more than abundant evidence that its philosophical underpinnings were not only wrong, disastrous and foolish (Lysenkoism, anyone?), but utterly murderous (Stalinism, anyone?). A central tenant and effect of socialism is the absolute necessity of ignoring reality in favor of theory and, where socialists are sufficiently powerful, suppressing–up to and including by genocide–those who disagree. Cause and effect and consequences mean nothing to the true believer, only the glorious socialist theory, understandable and made manifest by the “scientific communists” (remember that term? It’s what the elite called themselves), could establish the worker’s paradise. Thus did the Soviets destroy the economies, the environment, and the very lives of those they ruled by force.
Thus does Obama, on the campaign trail, proclaim that if he has his way, our energy costs will “…necessarily skyrocket.” Thus does he swear that science will once again have its rightful place, yet when Global Warning is exposed as a socialist hoax, does he repudiate it? When it’s more than clear that the cost to benefit ratios of solar power, wind power, electric cars, and every other green pipe dream not only don’t add up, but are disastrously negative, and that their pursuit to the exclusion of domestic oil, natural gas and nuclear energy development and production would destroy the world economy and plunge America to a third world standard of living, Obama merely doubles down on orthodoxy. When it’s clear that the green technologies upon which Obama is relying on do not exist–do not exist–and will not exist in the foreseeable future, does he admit error and change to a rational course? Oh course not, for he is a scientific communist. Let’s not even get into the irony of the green moment opposing all of the green initiatives Obama is propounding on environmental and animal protection grounds. People like Obama don’t do irony. Sadly, there is no United States of America (as yet) standing in opposition to him as it once did to the Soviets. What will consign Obamism to the “dustbin of history?”
The ultimate issue upon which historians will one day discourse is the amount and kind of damage wrought by Barack Obama and to what degree that damage was ever repaired. While a Bill Clinton fantasized out loud about being a sort of president of the world, it is not a stretch to assert that Obama imagines himself to be not only the president of the world, but far more important and transcendent than that, and that he is acting out that role. To meet his insanely narcissistic ego needs, Barack Obama will certainly change America and the world. It will not be for the better.
Outstanding. Hanson ’12!
Excellent and, as usual, spot on.
Mr Hanson…That is the most balanced and insightful analysis of the tragedy of the Obama presidency I have ever read. Thank you so much !
Great post. doc. I love your phrase, “And then, tragically, Obama got elected”. Right up there with, “Of all the words of tongue or pen,…”.
Some of this, as you note, is every candidate’s collision with reality upon election, but, since Obama had never really done anything, had always gone along to get along, and had always gotten a free pass, largely because of his background, but also because voting “present” was always an option, it’s a lot tougher for Barry who, like Mr. Wilson, will always see himself as yet to have been wrong about anything.
This president came to power as a marxist, friend of marxist TERRORISTS, disciple of a radical “pastor” who is a black supremacist and a subversive,
AND this PRESIDENT IS DOING EXACTLY WHAT HE COULD BE EXPECTED TO DO, he’s
fighting AGAINST America, THAT HE SEES AS THE GREAT SATAN OF CAPITALISTIC IMPERIALISM.
He is demolishing the economy, the military, the intelligence.
His ideological craziness shouldn’t be further underestimated.
And the fact that the WHOLE administration is made of ideologists and radicals cannot be further underestimated without great damage for the country.
We need that the GOP and the pundits tell the truth and stop being shy.
The sheeple can’t honestly say they weren’t warned about this guy. They just didn’t want to hear the messenger.
When fiction rises, pleasing to the eye…and all that jazz.
“Even the most fawning Obama aficionado does not wish to get blown-up at 30,000 feet, because a political hack appointee wanted to broadcast politically-correct credentials.”
Acute awareness in some unlikely places of unconnected dots by contrast with the Ft. Hood case? Well, you’re just as dead flying in business class as the hoi polloi in steerage when a bomber like Abdulmutallab is successful.
Ouch. This one’s gonna leave a mark.
“Even the most fawning Obama aficionado does not wish to get blown-up at 30,000 feet, because a political hack appointee wanted to broadcast politically-correct credentials.”
Acute awareness in some unlikely places of unconnected dots by contrast with the Ft. Hood case? Well, you’re just as dead flying in business class as the hoi polloi in steerage when a bomber like Abdulmutallab is successful.
Unfortunately, the rest of us are involuntary passengers on this fantasyland express with hope and change at the wheel. Where do I get off ?
“So if he seems bewildered, angry sometimes, and more at home in warm, lush Hawaii, you would be too — once you discovered that your easy fantasies and winged rhetoric of the last thirty years have no relation with the here and now.”
Harvard University is a second-rate scam operation. Barack Obama obviously obtained a mediocre education. He took full advantage of that Ivy League institution’s unofficial policy of providing its liberal arts students with inflated grades. Obama is too busy to get his act together. The White house is not exactly an appropriate location for a think tank. It is highly unlikely that Obama is going to change his mind concerning his adamant belief that America is the cause of most of the world’s troubles. He seems convinced that the terrorists are merely responding to our allegedly imperialistic policies. We should be afraid, very afraid.
I think many Americans (those that I know) feel he should go back to Academia, where he can’t really do much damage . . . other than converting a few college students to socialism and harping about his redistributive theories.
Hanson offers us a fine year-end summary of the dilemmas and paradoxes Obama-world faces.
Where does he go from here? Clinton had a history – nee, experience – of facing such hurdles before. Clinton had his Republican pollster Dick Morris. Obama has no such track-record. He must invent it whole clothe.
And even if he does, will the narcissistic Chicago rabble that surrounds the O-man permit it?
One way forward thru the next year – and yes, sooner will be better for all than later – is hugging a bona fide Republican moderate, making him a close advisor. And there are fewer and fewer of those left.
Didn’t Clinton also find his David Gergern? Hardly a real Republican anymore (except inside-the beltway’s fantasy life). So he’s out. Then who?
(Crickets chirping.)
VDH, I completely agree but would like to add three points:
1. Ten years ago we were on the verge of another American century. The deterioration you describe has happened fast–and, with all due respect to Warren Buffett and Bill Gates–hopefully they are right and we are wrong–, there is little indication the process is reversing or slowing. If anything, the contrary is happening.
2. Unless he does an about-face bigger than Bill Clinton’s after 1994, Obama is shaping up as worse than the unsuccessful Bush–but, just as Clinton shares responsibility for 9/11, much of what is coming home to roost is due to the previous administration’s failures.
3. I don’t notice competent leadership in either party that will reverse our decline (and, as is to be expected, populist dissident movements seem infiltrated by some very creepy people). No doubt such leaders exist, but they don’t seem to get the national traction to be taken seriously. As one example among many, a solidly successful former Republican swing-state governor like Michigan’s John Engler was never even mentioned as a 2008 VP prospect.
Which helps explain his apparent tiredness and snippiness lately.
Barack Obama,what a dangerous delusional bull-shooter.
Mary had a little lamb,
It might have been a llama.
And every time it wagged it tail,
There was Barack Obama.–Fn Fd
Maybe it has occurred to the One that just maybe if there was a serious really really serious major attack directly upon the shores of the United States of America that. The One could actually proclaim a National State of Emergency which would give the One the absolute power he desperately wants and needs. The One would then not have to make those unnecessary TelePrompTer readings and deal with all those critics like that dilettante Dr. Hanson
Brilliant. Although he’s more than a mere commentator, Dr. Hanson’s one of the best in modern memory. I only wish he was more visible on television. There’s a huge demographic of (mostly older) people out there who aren’t blog-savvy, who get all of their news from Fox. Hanson should have his own show. Not a Beck or Hannity-like show (although those two are very effective and I respect them), but more of an intellectual conversation show, William F. Buckley-style.
Riddle me this Batman…
What form of punishment, can the American Jurisprudence system produce that will cause any form of fear in the hearts of someone willing to blow themselves to bits in order to kill Americans.
Yeah, right!
Daily his inadequacy is being exposed. The danger is that in order to hide them or disguise them, the President will resort to faulting others, while at the same time exempting himself. He’s the one who is the commander of the watch, responsible for the failures and erors which happen while he is on watch. Instead he exempts himself. He will order a “thorough review.” In the meantime the terrorists are planning the next attack while, at the same time, the President calls the Christmas day bomber an “isolated terrorist.”
President Obama is tired; however, I thought Obama was the Messiah? The Messiah is superhuman, god-incarnate. He does not get tired. When he sleeps, his sweat can heal the dumb & make them into Harvard intellects. When he sneezes, his snot can turn a desert into an ocean. When he talks, he does not say “um.” He really means “om.” Obama’s “ums” is a secret chant to only be deciphered by the MSM attached to his butt. The gray in Obama’s hair is not gray at all, but clouds. Clouds he pulled from the sky & he gave them to Michelle Obama. The sulking black circles under Obama’s eyes are not black circles, but it is his mother-in-law’s bad make-up job. Remember, she’s in the White House. /sarcasm/
Poor O is tired. Hundreds of business men and women fly on 10 or more international trips a year. They have the stress of meeting huge payrolls and running successful companies.
They get just as tired as big O. However, after years of experience, they also know how to accomplish something for their labor. Poor big O has never had to run anything in his stress-free world, prior to his current job. Grow up.
This is just another in a long series of vile, racist attacks on our new Leader.
There was an election last year. We won, you lost, and you will never get another chance. President Obama rules this country now and he will lead all people of good will into the light of a new world of peace and justice.
The racist white males who exploited and oppressed the people who built this country are finished. All their ill-gotten wealth will be used to pay reparations to their erstwhile victims.
Peace and justice.
“Even the most fawning Obama aficionado does not wish to get blown-up at 30,000 feet, because a political hack appointee wanted to broadcast politically-correct credentials.”
I vehemently disagree, you are underestimating the below zero IQ of the obama aficionados (see the usual trolls here, vivo, david something, now and then). They would gladly die in a terrorist attack while screaming against boooooosh and how he made the muslims do that.
Their life is devoted to the cult of obama. Not different from the mohameddans cultists.
Does anyone remember the “US will go bankrupt if we don’t pass HCR” statement? This was so bad that I am still amazed that the press or any other big Wall Street organization didn’t tear him to ribbons over such stupidity. This guy is so used to being unchallenged that he is not afraid to make such a bald faced lie. Dr. Hanson you are preaching to the choir but keep it up! Maybe some on the left will give you a moments read and discover a little bit of truth.
As if ObamaCare is not enough, Obama is pushing Amnesty 2.0 next year. The anger is already a living thing; amnesty will blow the lid off. And it will all be pointed toward the Democrats:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/30/here-we-go-white-house-gearing-up-to-push-amnesty-in-2010/
Good-bye Blue Dogs. You’re the sacrificial lambs for the One’s Leftist agenda. Good-bye Senator Reid & Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.
Great column, Dr. Hanson.
Amazing, isn’t it, that no matter how many time pacifism fails, the left will always insist it is the answer for dealing with any international problems — just as no matter how many time socialism fails, the left will insist it is the solution to all domestic problems.
Surely the faith in these two things — socialism and pacifism — qualifies as one of the world’s great religions, for these doctrines are pushed and pursued regardless of the mountains of bodies they produce.
“Mr. Obama’s complete failure to understand that as POTUS, he is not an individual, but one in a long line of executives responsible for the interests of the United States, and for the success and survival of liberty around the world.”
Bwaahhahhaaa!
Responsible for the interests of the US and success and survival of liberty around the world?
No, no, no. “We are moments away from fundamentally changing America!” His words.
Seems to me Mr. Obama is much more interested in the interests of the mandarin class and the destruction of liberty around the world. He and his ilk are far more interested in taking away my rights and my liberty than in defending or expanding them.
Go to Honduras, to Iran, to Georgia and Israel and see thou what interests Barack Obama.
If I were Taiwanese, I would be dreading now what mean price we will sell them to pay for the financing of bureaucracy and union jobs.
We said that he was an empty suit, and we were right.
Professor hanson is, as usual, spot on. The question, though, is whether any of the past year is going to permeate Obama’s worldview. Unhappily, I rather think not. Neither he nor leftist idelogues generally seem to have much capacity for self-reflection or for second thoughts. If the policies aren’t working then something is wrong and it’s not the policies.
Is there any case to be made that we have ever in the history of the republic had a worse leader? I’d like to see a checklist.
Attaboy, Professor! Roll up you sleeves and have at him!, country style!
Our nation has one major problem. Through calculated fraud, we have a Pre sident who is a life-long, dedicated doctrinaire Marxist in the Lenin/Stalin communist mode, with a cadre of he same mindset, whose Number One objective is to use their brief window of opportunity to turn us into Democrat Socialist Republic as a first step towards a global one-party hegemony. Good governance and revitalization of the economy are of no interest to them. Threats of open warfare are distractions from full pursuit of their objectives, and therefor dismissed or minimized. The Big Lie a la Goebbels and Alinsky is the strategy for placating the sheep.
Blathering and dithering over “Doesn’t he recognize (you name it)?” and “Why does he delay?” and “He should stop apologizing?” is useless waste of time. The American people have no use for Socialism, would never have elected him if he had been exposed during the campaign, and will stifle him and bring down the Democrat party
for good if you and all the other influential voices for our Exceptionalism turn your efforts to exposing the level of his SOCIALIST commitment..
I just wonder –is the president really surprised that his pre-inaugeration fantasy world was a fantasy? that’s to impute an awful lot of ignorance to someone gestaltic enough to win the American presidency.
IMHO it’s much more likely that his evident distraction is being caused by the pace and intensity of a widespread ‘people’s revolt’ (tea partiers and their like) tuning in the secret signal on channel two. The broadcast –the O-men program –wasn’t meant for general consumption.
That the cat got outta the bag so soon (“too soon!”) could be a sign of the spark of the genius of America, the beacon America, so loved and so renewed by so many for so long. Not Amerikkka, which –ever since 150 years ago when we sacrificed three percent of our people (today seven million) to make us all equal before the law –has been a zombie trying to escape the hypos of the crooked and the crazy long enough to die.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Obama had the epiphany –had suddenly the vision of how truly radical the Constitution is and how truly reactionary are his friends the banksters gangsters and watermelon pranksters –and would spin on his heel and do what his face shows he knows is right.
OK, back to the “alleged” terrorist – I’ve got a good one for the current administration. Since he’s going to be indicted in criminal court, he’s just an ordinary criminal, right? Since that’s the case, why are we studying Yemen for a possible retaliatory attack? Shouldn’t the police be called in to just arrest the bad guys? How could a military operation even be considered as a response to an ordinary police matter? What’s next, military strikes on the hideouts of bank robbers?
Seriously, these people don’t really believe we’re at war. This terrorist should be interrogated as an enemy combatant by our military. Instead he’s “lawyered up.” It’s a frightening, upside-down world with these clowns at the helm of the ship of state.
Obama may be tired – but it’s nothing compared to how many people are tired of his pathetic “virtual reality”-based politics.
Anyway, I believe Obama is a transformational figure, someone at the level of Herbert Hoover. Which is why I believed back in November 2008 that he was a perfect man for a perfect job.
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-can-live-with-obama_02.html
Herbert’s Hoover pathetic presidency resulted in a fundamental change in America after he was defeated in 1932, and America for years was run by extreme-left wing. I believe Obama may have the anti-Hoover effect on this country.
Obama and many of his supporters fancy themselves as intellectuals. However, an intellectual is someone who, when confronted with reality that doesn’t agree with his pet theories, will insist that it’s the real world that’s wrong.
Bravo, Dr. Hanson!
“So if he seems bewildered, angry sometimes, and more at home in warm, lush Hawaii, you would be too — once you discovered that your easy fantasies and winged rhetoric of the last thirty years have no relation with the here and now.”
Superb, but incomplete. Who has been cooperating with him in the maintenance of those fantasies? About half the American public who elected the current Congress and Obama. They looked the other way when all the signs were right there all along.
Let’s hope those responsible are finally willing to face reality. Otherwise, Obama can continue not to along with them.
Professor, following up on Nick (#25), have you ever been approached about some sort of broadcast venue? The advantage would be several fold: (1) Your reach would increase; and (2) The taliking heads would fall over themselves (dis)agreeing with you; (3) Which additional exposurfe would cause your reach to increase; (N) Repeat ad infinitum!
OK – didn’t run the spell checker!
The President is doing exactly what I would expect Frank Davis’ son to be doing.
Barack Obamas style is much more like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe except he lacks Mugabes personality .
Simply ignore the criticism and give no credibility to any distraction from the opposition . This air security story is a distraction to him because the likelihood of a bomber getting on AF One is very small. He will simply let the news cycle rotate to next weeks top story and America will forget this detail very soon.
Right on Nick G. Hanson definitely needs a broader syndication. He’s mostly preaching to the choir in this forum.
Excellent analysis. Obama, however, cannot change;he lives in a virtual reality, expressed in his soaring rhetoric, experienced in the security of an academic and government cocoon – and is totally unable to interact with the real world.
The real world, where Other People live, is not Obama’s world. The real world consists of Other People with their own agendas that are immune to Obama’s smiles, bows and words; that even see his bows and rhetoric as the empty fantasies that they are. This real world has its own agendas that are immune to the empty rhetoric of Obama; these agendas are not words but actions..and Obama can’t deal in the world of actions.
The reason why Obama is ‘tired’ is the stress of having to acknowlege this real world of real actions; his virtual world operates only in words. Obama’s wooden speeches acknowledging ‘isolate extemists’ etc – are forced on him by his White House handlers. Left to himself, Obama would ignore these terrorist attacks.
What’s next? Obama can’t move into the real world of actions; he’s going to become very stressed and angered by the intrusion of this real world in his life. The governance of the country will become more and more obviously in the control of the BackRoom Gang of hardcore socialists in the WH, and Obama will retreat to more isolation and will fall back on his core perspective that all US problems are due to white racism, wealth and imperialism.
As his popularity continues to fall, Obama will retreat into this virtual world isolation, angry at those who reject him; he’ll be our own version of Chavez, blaming any and all for his problems.
Cornhead: Why? Bush had inherited a perfect world.
whistling dixie 24:
I’ve wondered about the effect of another 9/11-style attack on The One’s approval numbers (as, I’m sure, has he). Bush’s went way up, you’ll recall, but as for me, I get sick at the thought of having to tune in to the soaring sanctimony of Barack Obama for answers on what comes next.
30: yes we did. you left out the part where its above his paygrade to know these things. its the evil teleprompter i tell you.
26: jd. its the retirement home we have built for rascals such as these. in the balmy breezes of the mar Caribe while singing verses of a rewritten tune called Guantanamera, only in the masculine Guantanmero, feeding these guys all the most fattening dishes fried in lard. till they forget their bible verses or their arteries clog up and they go to meet their maker. we figured out our prison population was stronger than the guards so they removed the weights. why must we accommodate these freaks at Gitmo like it was a 5 star resort?
Susan, #31
Brilliantly put. Thanks for lifting up the rocks so those worms can blink mindlessly at the light as they are wont to do.
I am pleased to be part of the choir to whom you preach. Your analysis as usual is exellent. Where/who is the Republican or Independent leader ? How about you ? If Carter or Obama can become president then——-. No insult intended.
It was the Republican crew of the previous administration who clearly paved the way for complete takeover by the Democrats. They/Repubs. should be thrown out with Obama and his socialist supporters. We hear much chatter from Republicans about how Obama’s health care and other plans must be stopped now as they cannot be turned back even if Republicans take over. This impotent attitude has become hallmark for most Republicans holding office. How pathetic. Who of them will shout “This will not stand”.
So, Dr. Hanson, give us your alternatives for near term coping with Obama . We already know that longer term we must vote him out. The time for yet another explanation of what is going on is approaching the land of “dithering and blather”. Repetition has diminishing returns unless accompanied by new ideas and plans for action. But keep preaching and we readers will keep forwarding your words. Putting Humpty-Dumpty back togather again takes action, not further explanation.
33. Sebastian Shaw: Once they legalize illegals, and make it illegal to require IDs to vote, the new previously illegal voters will vote Democrats who will stay perpetually in power. That’s why they don’t much care that more than 60% of voters don’t like their HCR, or legalizing illegals. Btw, it’s illegal to arrest illegals.
32. Then again, there’s always the possibility that he actually believes this stuff. It is anathema to him that anything he does could possibly fail.
Doc, the moron isn’t any more a university dreamer who got whipsawed by reality than Stalin was a pro-worker union boss seeking to elevate the working classes.
He’s a thug, a criminal and a tool of an international cabal that intends to set themselves up as an unimpeachable master class.
Get a grip.
I don’t see it.
Sure, we knew before the election that O. was nothing but a platitude-bot, an empty suit puffed up with hot air. And predictably, he’s remained such. But I don’t see that any trace of realization of just how clueless he’s been up until now has seeped in. He’s still certain that he’s totally fabulous. His conceit is, by far, his most outstanding quality, and I expect it to remain so. So he’ll keep hammering the same vacuous and childish ideas over and over. He’s not the kind of guy who gets better with age. He’ll get a bit more peevish, and insist more often that we let him finish his waffle, but he’ll never realize that he’s acting like a clueless putz.
Nick @ #19: “I think many Americans (those that I know) feel he should go back to Academia, where he can’t really do much damage . . . other than converting a few college students to socialism and harping about his redistributive theories.”
Wrong, I’m afraid. These brainwashed dupes, in academia, are the very ones who run (into the ground) all the West’s public institutions. They, themselves, and their acolytes voted Obama in and continue to support him. Far from not doing much damage, they’re extremely dangerous.
Nick @ #19: “I think many Americans (those that I know) feel he should go back to Academia, where he can’t really do much damage . . . other than converting a few college students to socialism and harping about his redistributive theories.”
Wrong, I’m afraid. Where do you think the dupes who voted for and continue to support Obama come from? Academics and their acolytes run (into the ground) most of the institutions of the West. Far from being unable to “do much damage”, they’re extremely dangerous.
That said, I’d rather Obama were NOT the POTUS.
#30: King’s “rule” and are born into the privilege, often without the proper character development to be in that position. President’s lead a country, and are voted into office by the people.
Slavery ended over 100 years ago. How long will you go on hating? The Bible says we need to forgive others and move on! Quit blaming white people for everything wrong. Black people have forced slavery on people, too.– you know?
He is hiding in Hawaii because he is clueless. He who is more dangerous to our safety and well being than all the underwear bombers on the planet. I really fear this fool will cause me to have a stroke before 2012. If I do have the stroke he causes , I hope I don’t know anything so I can stop watching this destruction and evil. The ACLU is in charge of the war on terror. Blaming Bush and Cheney is really rich. They bankrupted their political capital to do what had to be done. How many attacks did we have under real leadership as opposed to the one a month we have had since the buffoon in chief took the helm. Bush would have had this scumbag down at Gitmo being interrogated properly and finding out more information to keep the country safe. Obama reads him his rights and gives him free ACLU lawyers. The people are going to tire of this sure as God made little green apples. US citizens are going to die as a result of this administration’s actions. It will happen. He has emboldened these people when he has sought to appease. He is a disaster
An all-encompassing,pointed, masterpiece indictment of Obama’s first year.
VDH if there is a civil war in the USA will the democrats become republicans or just independents?
I don’t see people rallying behind Pelosi or Reid if it comes to a shooting war.
#30 is just a racist troll who shows up from time to time and makes the same racist post over and over. An obvious beneficiary of affirmative action, he is an uneducated, mentally lazy,racist moron who stones himself with revenge fantasies. Not unlike the Palestinians.
#30,
If it was not for white Christian males, your kind would still have to sit in the back of the bus. You, and Obama are full of BLT hate. Just like your Rev., GDA, White.
You, and any racist POS like you make me want to puke. We are all green, or we will be murdering each other before it is over.
One nation united under the law?
The sheeple can’t honestly say they weren’t warned about this guy. They just didn’t want to hear the messenger.
They WEREN’T warned about this guy. They loved the MSM – that was the messenger. Said messenger had hated Bush for six years, and now loved this guy Obama, this extreme unBush, out of sheer reactionary animus. Tempered, of course, with a mid-to-far-leftist bias in common with university faculties and NPR.
Those of us who did try to warn our communities were ostracized for believing right-wing extremists. Ears closed, eyes closed, history books closed, and double-time to the left.
A few, just a few so far, are beginning to get it.
“And then tragically Obama got elected and discovered that the real world had no relationship whatsoever to his fantasy impressions of it.”
Concise, precise, accurate, true. You nailed it, Dr. Hanson.
Okay, I personally wish we were back in the Bill Clinton days. GWB sucks and we DID inherit his 8-year mess.
I now will go back to my personal choice of keeping my political views to myself and will ignore everybody else’s.
Yours Truly
JW
It is not enough for America to hope we can rid ourselves of Obama and his cronies, Washington is full of Obama’s. Phoney Politicians, working for themselves and their cronies. The Government Unions have become a Gestapo working the elections through out the country. Soon they will become more powerful in their operations.
Moveon.org is a Socialist anti American organization, working against Freedom at every issue. Supporting the terrorist and enemy states of America. ACLU is another.
For sure VDH has the Obama view of the POTUS and America pegged. We all agree, But the major problem remains Political Correctness and the culture in Washington Political Class. This bunch will not even use the work Terrorist or Muslim.
Patrict Lahey, Barney Frank, Dick Durbin , Evin Bayh, Chris Dodd, John McCain, Linsdy Grahm, Orin Hatch, Just to name a few.
GOVERNMENTLIST/STATEST ALL. These guys will keep TARP going forever into the future. Buying support and votes.
Just think about all of the entrenched Politicians Republican and Democrat that have a political hold on Government Spending.Blocking Oil Drilling, Nuclear Power Plant Construction, Clean Coal Technology. This country will need energy in the future if America is to remain a global leader and military strong. Windmills and solar panels manufactured by GE with government funding, yea, that will work.
America will need to wake up and take control of our future and stop the political class from spending programs and growing government.
What about the rest of the Democrats. If any of them were real Americans they would have had a hard time getting 60 votes in the Senate for so called “health care”. They are overwhelmingly doing everything he is doing to destroy our country. Now they are working on “illegal immigration”. They do not fear getting reelected because they have a plan. And we gave them the throne.This is so sad.
#30 has gotta be a moby. Too many hot buttons. Reparations? 150 years ago a young man died for every four slaves freed. And the slavbes’ descendants got to be born citizens in the land of opportunity. So reparations are a done deal. The 50 year ‘war on poverty’ is a fresh ledger, so please let’s not get into ”owes”. “O”‘s are plenty bad enuff.
BTW, it was conservatives in the GOP which pushed thru the 50s and 60s civil rights legislation –the Dems were by and large against it. And not just the dixicrats either.
whatever is going on in Yemen, is going on –most likely –because of the long unguardable border (think “sanctuary”) with KSA. KSA will continue to be the swing producer in OPEC and the world, and/but if the Caspian Axis can wrangle KSA’s protection (‘fealty’) away from the west (and already this year the Sauds have made an unprecedentedly large weapons purchase from the Kremlin), then the world contest between the individual and the collective will be over for the foreseeable future.
The Hans Anti-JudaoChristian Anderson fable in the grim green mind of this admin holds that it’d be GOOD for the west to face a hostile OPEC extorting –under the Kremlin’s new generation thermo-nuclear ICBM shield –oil prices a penny per barrel short (if that cheap) of creating a western famine. That is, if it would sell to us at all -remember with a depleting asset the customer is not necessarily king; fewer customers just make your wasting asset last longer into the future.
The Underwear Bomber’s handler is apparently Yemeni and may have contacts with Eric Holder’s law firm, which has long been deeply involved with Yemen, and not only thru defending the Yemeni terrorists at Gitmo. I say “defending”, but that defense has cost the speedy justice the dispensation of which is –even in the breach, even unto foreign nationals –still as a founding principle of Constitutional law a worthy ideal. But Mr. Holder’s firm has been the main force throwing up barriers to the military tribunals that presumably would otherwise have long since disposed their cases –if not in the most remunerative manner possible for Mr. Holder’s law firm (an inefficiency of opportunity now apparently DOJ-rectified).
Yes, one must hope that of all the law firms and all the potential Attys Gen’l in this vast land, that we somehow managed to have this AG and this law firm conducting what promises to be the enormous opening of a rexamination by Marxist critique of the fundamental meaning of right and wrong, and of the very legitimacy of the political/economic model AKA the western democratic free market nation state, is just a wee coincidence.
http://www.pbase.com/opinion/opinions
humpty is done for
Yes We Did:
“This is just another in a long series of vile, racist attacks on our new Leader.
There was an election last year. We won, you lost, and you will never get another chance. President Obama rules this country now and he will lead all people of good will into the light of a new world of peace and justice.
The racist white males who exploited and oppressed the people who built this country are finished. All their ill-gotten wealth will be used to pay reparations to their erstwhile victims.
Peace and justice.”
I just wanted to post this piece of twisted logic one more time because I know by the time everyone has read to here, they have stopped laughing after having read the first time. Sheesh, I added the quotes.
An excellent column!
“And then tragically Obama got elected and discovered that the real world had no relationship whatsoever to his fantasy impressions of it.”
This assumes that he realizes what is happening and has regrets. I’m not so sure. He thinks he deserves a B+.
And even though a drop or two of criticism is leveled at him from the mainstream media, they’re still in bed with him.
They don’t seem to be bothered.
Ask our trolls here who’s got it all wrong.
Think back, back to 2008 and the primaries….
There were many that voiced their concerns about Obama’s lack of experience. The fact that he was unprepared to assume the job of Potus.
The leftist MEDIA proceeded to hide and cover up those concerns by comparing their chosen one’s lack of experience to that of the Republican’s V.P. candidate, like that is relevant.
But it, along with other things, worked and the leftist got what they wanted.
Now all Americans are saddled with a hopelessly inept occupant of the oval office. He hasn’t a clue as to how to lead and govern, because he never has.
His ZERO foreign policy experience has Americas foreign policy in shambles. Foreign leaders know he is a joke.
All those lofty pre election promises, where are they now?
They are forgotten meaningless words spoken long ago to entice the naive and wishful into casting their votes for false promises that were never meant to be kept.
I challenge all to go back and listen to the videos on Youtube of obama in his campaign mode, where in his own spoken words he makes promise after promise which once elected were but trash littering the ground. There was no intention of being the president voiced in his campaign rhetoric. It was lie after lie after lie…
It was all for show, just like he himself conducts his presidency.
Here is a video to start with. Spoken in his own voice like only he can….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UErR7i2onW0&feature=player_embedded
watch it , you will be amazed how easily he can stand there and tell lie after lie.
“What might explain the inexplicable like the following?
A president comes into office facing a $500 billion deficit and grows it to $2 trillion.”
Didn’t the money went to the BANKS and AIG and
the like? They have the answer.
“A president comes into office facing a threat of radical Islamic terrorism, and at home changes the very name of the struggle from war on terror to a variety of wishy-washy euphemisms.”
A war includes a state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties. Terrorism is the systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal.
Two similar but different situations.
“A president comes into office facing a variety of Middle East thugs, from al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas to Syria and Iran, and employs the ancient kowtow, the postmodern apology, and the Carteresque reach-out to allay the threat?”
It’s worth trying that. You can always revert to violence and intimidation anytime. The real solution comes from commerce and higher education.
“A president comes into office after record high energy prices have nearly crippled the American economy, and he ignores new drilling and brushes off nuclear power — only to wax about wind and solar that provide less than 5% of our energy needs, and crushing cap and trade taxation to come.”
We can drill oil anytime. Someone has to start alternative sources of energy, which take longer to reap benefits. When are we going to design airplanes that fly with little gas? Can we obtain power from the water in the vast oceans?
Illusory prestidigitation is the gift of the artist to disorient his audience.
When he says his is not the face you see on our country’s currency, he conceals one side of his family, his Christian faith, and his natural born Citizen eligibility set forth in Section 1., Article II., of our Constitution.
Yet, who will be the victim tangled in the illusions of our historic first Islamic apostate president? America? Or, his pretentions to rule with a fallacious posture of rectitude?
Afflict chaos upon your nation; you shall seize more authority over it. Subordinate the wealth of your nation to foreign creditors; you shall take possession of the means to produce it. Employ the labor of your nation; you shall have their vote to preserve it. Cajole the fourth estate of your nation; they will lead the fifth column of sedition against it.
But, try the Spirit of America; you shall forevermore fear the exhortation thundering upon your failure: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
26. JD
You can’t deter such people. What you can do is teach the societies that produce them that it is not in their best interest to continue doing so. This is a slow process (think generations) that requires both carrots and sticks. Our superb military men and women are learning how. But it takes a different mindset than the current DC regime is capable of. Basically its old-style tribal power dynamics which boils down to “peace through superior firepower” (and the will to use it), combined with a sincere and constructive outreach to moderates. We need to induce a type of ‘Reformation’ in the Muslim world. Do we have the will to do it? This is the kind of riddle upon which civilizations rise or fall.
Obama never was bullied as a kid. Never got into a fight. Never had a bloody nose.
Now, he is being bullied by Hillary’s “vast right wing conspiracy”, talk radio, and the American people. Obama doesn’t know how to handle it because he never experienced it.
People really hate him and wish him ill. He still thinks like a liberal college professor not a leader let alone a warrior.
Obama is The Peter Principle on steroids
#3 Bob:
When you decide to play Uncle Sam for a sucker, it’s my money you’re putting in your pocket, along with the money of other taxpayers who disagree with the economic idiocy of this Administration. Why don’t you grow a pair and tell Obama to stuff it?
“If you’re not part of the solution, you must be part of the problem.”
While I have to agree with those who wish VDH had a wider audience, say, his own show on cable…I’m also in agreement with Tom #59.
Simply put, this article imagines Obama as a “normal” person…
and Obama is NOT normal.
While volumes could be written, and probably will, on his psyche, the one right off the top of my head is his giving himself a “B+” for his first year.
He is simply BLIND to his faults and shortcomings. He is a narcissist in full bloom totally incapable of objective reasoning or careful analysis of WHY he might be wrong or have a mistaken world view.
It’s something most politicians have to some degree…Obama has it beyond anything we’ve ever seen…to a point of being dangerous.
It has been what has helped him succeed at all levels of his life, except now it is on full display for the country (and the world), and it affects you and I in ways beyond anything he could ever imagine.
And that’s all very well and good for him! In fact, it’s perfect.
It’s what he’s always wanted.
My take is that Obama is the moral, ethical, and experiential equivalent of a college sophomore. Not a good choice for President of the United States.
The good news is that this president is rallying the states to fortify and implement the mostly ignored 10th admendment. The MSM has failed to check their level of check and balance in the dynamics of policy and debate. We have rapidly emerging the states’ interest in checking the massive federal build up of authority, deficit, taxation, and intrusion. If, for example, the states can break the alledged criminal mandate of Obamacare, cap and trade, and the breaking of the deficit ceiling, then the power can more return to the people and of of the hands of the elite in D.C.
Why do Americans need so much energy? All they do is waste it.
43 fiery-eyed seconds from a scolder, less than a minute for your O-man Holder folder
Great job Professor,
I still think our only hope in the short term is to hit the liberals hard in the 2010 elections. Much of what has happened in the last year was done by Pelosi and Reid. They have to be stopped. That’s the best way to neuter the executive office. They did it to Bush, now it’s their turn.
this analysis would make perfect sense to me..IF i had not just come from reading comments in response to maureen dowd’s latest column. unbelievable as it may seem to someone sane, there were multiple comments, all of which were given hundreds of updings of approval, to the effect that barack’s casual response to the failed terrorist attack is appropriate because, while planes exploding in the sky might be “an inconvenience for those aboard” (!)
they’re otherwise no big deal since
“more pedestrians are killed crossing the street.” and, of course, the obligatory blaming of bush for leaving a mess for poor, put-upon barack to clean up.
i can easily imagine barack himself (if he could tear himself away from the beach for any reason other than a supporter’s kid’s split lip) making these comments. i don’t think he feels trapped at all by his circumstances. he’s partying, golfing, surfing, and just generally having a grand old time while, clinical narcissist that he is, convinced that the world continues to revolve around him..and there’s still plenty of folks willing to do the revolving.
Maybe Lincoln was wrong. You can fool all of the people all of the time. At least those who have matriculated through our public education system during the last four decades. The modern ‘progressive’ wanders about with a head full of mush. To them, a Free Tibet bumper sticker represents a daring act of political engagement. Whatever befalls us, you can be sure it will be laid at Bush’s doorstep. People usually accomodate misery when it accrues in small steps. Don’t expect any big shifts unless we are faced with abrupt and major dislocations.
I believe this observation is profoundly important:
ETAB:
Excellent analysis. Obama, however, cannot change;he lives in a virtual reality, expressed in his soaring rhetoric, experienced in the security of an academic and government cocoon – and is totally unable to interact with the real world.
The real world, where Other People live, is not Obama’s world. The real world consists of Other People with their own agendas that are immune to Obama’s smiles, bows and words; that even see his bows and rhetoric as the empty fantasies that they are. This real world has its own agendas that are immune to the empty rhetoric of Obama; these agendas are not words but actions..and Obama can’t deal in the world of actions….
This comment echoes Heidegger’s philosophy where he rigorously explored the meaning of “to be”. What does it really mean “to exist”. In so doing he went back to the orginal Greek concept of “truth” and found that the Greeks did not think we could “know” the world in its entirety through reason and logic but that the world, the truth, revealed itself to us.
And that is what is going to happen to America with Obama and the Democrats. Their actions are stirring up people in a myriad of ways and we cannot know or be sure what is going to be the final outcome.
However, I think one thing is for sure: the mass of intelligent young people who bought into the Democrat liberal theology must be having second thoughts. So must those who did not buy into it but found the Republicans unappetising and in many ways as bad as the Democrats they castigated.
There seems little doubt that the majority of seniors have already written off Obama and the Democrats. It is the youngsters who have to set the seal on the death of the liberal Democrats, when they start looking at their liberal professors and their liberal legal mentors not as mentors but simply as “useful idiots” for the politicians who form the Democrat Party.
As the consequences of Obama and Democrat decisions and actions bloom and flower and impinge on their lives, the younger generations will start to construct what they perceive as the proper course for America to follow, a nation which is now in a state of confusion and decline. But who knows what that construct will be? Let’s just hope they read Dr Hanson.
I have loved America all my life (my mother told us what a great country America was), visited you twice and cannot believe what you have done to yourselves with this new limp wristed president. You are the greatest country ever, but your new belief in PC’ism stinks. You are America, please go back to being as proud of yourself as I am and you will soon regain your place in the world. This may require some sacrifice but what the hell you are America aren’t you? Hard work is its own reward (Obummer won’t understand this statement) and America certainly knows this is how it works. Grow up, get rid of comrade OBummer and start working withn us again please.
Some of my observations: The Obama administration will definitely keep saying they inherited their problems, because it’s something that can become reasonable if you keep hammering it in – it’s a great scapegoat, and the people who voted for him also have to save face, don’t they (it’s all psychology)?; The Democrats will focus on two things, Healthcare, and Amnesty because there are two main types of Liberals: anti-American liberals and “pro”-American liberals: There is no Amnesty without Healthcare, but if there is Healthcare, well, Amnesty has a great chance, because everyone (Dems) will understand (wink wink) that this will help Dems keep power for more years.
89. kochevnik:
Why do Americans need so much energy? All they do is waste it.
same could be said about the air you breath.
Humpty-Dumpty, aka BO (what delicious synchronicity, that) is hard-boiled and has obviously been left (synch!) out in the sun too long. The MSM desperately wanted to see only the pretty colors of his outer shell and somehow managed to ignore the occasional whiffs of the stench seeping through a crack or two. But when the rotten, coddled egg was dropped with a resounding thud into the real world and the shell was broken open, the stinking, audacious mess that is BO could no longer be ignored.
Yet they tried to ignore it. Oh, how they tried. Rather than report the facts, they adopted their saviour’s own modus operandi and the MSM resorted to simply trying to marginalize the critics. The average American, many of all colors and creeds now disillusioned by the loss of their “hope” because BO’s kind of “change” holds consequences they never really wanted, could not dislike him because, in fact, he has proven himself to be a mean and stupid man unqualified for the job; no, the average American must be racist! Those who speak out against the historical dangers of blind narcissim nurtured in some radical bubble must be dangerous extremists!
But the truth will always out. The average American can only turn a blind eye to so much hypocrisy before they show it the door. Humpty’s rotten dreams, his handlers and clingers-on, don’t really stand a chance, despite their shrill and fervent screaming that we must all still just trust them to correct everything that every other administration gone before had done wrong.
No, the average American has poured the Kool-Aid down the drain. How can anyone still take this administration seriously when statements like this are made?
“Had this alleged plot to destroy an airplane been successful, scores of innocent people would have been killed or injured.”
No? Really? People made fun of Bush for his “Duh!” statements, but this result of affirmative-action education is courtesy of BO’s crony, Eric Holder. The audacity to think that anyone would find this at all reassuring when Chet was caught trying to roast his own nuts on an open fire in an airplane is but another nail in the progressive liberal coffin.
And so Humpty and the Democrats will end up being buried under the weight of historically-proven untenable dreams. It will take a bit longer to air out all the stench he leaves behind but after not quite one year of his term, the winds of change have already begun to blow.
Thank you, Professor, for your willingness to wrap the insanity in context. May 2010 be good to you and yours.
First off, from last spring BHO has been justifiably termed “a flake”. Required to choose sides, The Flake moves neither one way nor the other, but rather up-or-down; his actions seem erratic, devoid of rationale, mere spasmodic twitches.
Flake as he appears, however, BHO’s twitches consistently reveal who and what he is. Inexperience, unintelligence, weak character are but symptoms of deep-seated traits that govern all he does or says.
First, BHO has occasionally let slip pious references to “my Muslim faith”– not surprising, since from age six he was and remains an Indonesian devotee of mullahdom’s scurrilous Prophetology. Second, he is by all odds a Maoist in collectivist Statist mold, a nihilistic Luddite sociopath intent on wrecking post-Enlightenment industrial civilization, seditiously ripening polities for takeover by a death-eating commissar-and-gauleiter apparat. Finally, in suitably ugly form, BHO is a vile anti-Semitic Black Supremacist, a corrupt and incompetent quota-baby evincing visceral hatred of his despised White America’s mass consumer culture as an obstacle to a Farrakhanist –”Black Muslim”– coup de main.
BHO cites Iran’s murderous kakistocracy in reverent terms. He ignores the Berlin Wall, reneges on East European defense compacts, dismisses the Dalai Lama on the fiftieth anniversary of China’s brutal invasion of Tibet, because as a certified Comintern disciple from his Mombasa birth he actively supports Marxist-Leninist tyranny in all venues.
Alinsky, Cloward-Piven et al. aside, BHO’s antics since inauguration have become predictable, a Trotsyite mishmash of “worse is better” as Rahm Emanuel would say. Bankrupting the exchequer, destroying the U.S. Dollar by hyper-inflation, psychotically impoverishing and even murdering swaths of citizens via Cap-and-Tax, Deathcare, devaluing citizenship itself, is BHO’s inarguable stock-in-trade. This intentional, willful subversion of every Founders’ principle is a “high crime and misdemeanor” worthy of Caligula or Nero; to the extent ranting ideological elites allied with supine media stave off disaster for the nonce, the worse will be the inevitable climax when it comes.
This Post should be re-printed near the 2012 elections. I don’t think much will change by then.
Dear Professor Hanson,
Since you have studied reason all your life, Obama is inexplicable. He is above reason! He employs the Neuro-Linguistic Programming technique of “Break-Logic.” It is how dominating people control others. Walk in, say something that breaks logic, control people… Like tell Turkey its the last trip stop, to honor it being Muslim, and continue on to Iraq. Surprise! In Iraq, tell the troops that every mission was excellent (impossible in war!) Say one thing, do another, etc., etc. It’s just evil method of control, totally against Western Enlightenment… He learned it, probably, from wrong-is-Wright. To wit:
Break-Logic Gets a Break!
By Robert Winkler Burke
Copyright 12/30/09
Come gather around demons,
I have got news for you!
Have you tried me before?
Now I insist that you do!
Stop that yelling, stop jumping,
Now, stop carrying on!
Yes, I’m this year’s main demon,
In me, you’ll be strong!
No, I’m not confusing,
I will not hurt your brains,
It’s your hosts that won’t think,
Under our ball and chains!
Your hosts will be confused,
It will be our hour,
Our father’s master ruse,
Break-logic has power!
Yes, my name is Barabbas Break-Logic,
This year I am in charge,
I say you can enslave your hosts covert,
With overt wiles quite large!
Be brazen, dear rotten ones,
That is how it works,
Speak one way, act contrary,
Then you win! Oh jerks!
If you run a pastor,
In winter, dress him in short pants,
When it snows on Sunday,
People will be confused, entranced.
Let a revival healer with,
Full body tattoos, shaman bracelets and ten-finger points,
Confuse dumb bishops,
Who see not, but forgive his sins at the usual joints!
Let a scurrilously weak man,
Preach on virtue and strength,
Though he quotes strong Joshua,
By his witness: who’s king?
Father Satan is king,
Of break-logic preaching!
Have faith in my great wiles,
Each soul, his demon: king!
Dear demons, the wile of break-logic,
Is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming high art,
But never mind studying all that!
Believe it works devious: in your host’s heart!
Very few are Western Enlightened nowadays,
Most are just rigid-Bible-taught,
Which makes them just stupid enough,
To be break-logic caught!
I’m master Barabbas Break-Logic,
I’ll own multitudes this season,
Cry, oh Western Enlightened,
The Bible-taught have no reason!
They believe a weak man I abide in,
Can preach on strength!
There’s just no limit to my surprising,
Break-logic’s length!
The only fear for us demons is the one,
Who laughs at the king with no clothes,
And since now the blind lead the blind to ditch,
Break-logic works perfect, heaven knows!
I think everyone is misjudging Yes We Did. It is obvious satire since it is such utter nonsense that no one could possibly believe what he/she posted.
That was a great post to show the total pointlessness of President Obama’s base by taking it to such extremes.
This presidency is effectively over.
Period…
“Once you discovered…”
We can only hope that Obama along with millions of others discovered that their “easy fantasies and winged rhetoric” have no basis in reality. But that hope may be displaced, which we will all come to find out in the next 12 months. Dare I say the most important 12 months in the country’s next decade?
Happy New Year. May stalemate be the defining term for our government for the next 20 years. Best they do nothing than continue to destroy the country formerly known as America.
“Yes We Did” has to be a conservative who is trying to paint a caricature of the Obama administration.
The post at #30 can only come from someone trying to be clever.
“I think many Americans (those that I know) feel he should go back to Academia, where he can’t really do much damage…”
I believe that this sort of thinking is one of the biggest reasons for the downfall of conservative principles and values – i.e. let the liberals go back to academia and leave politics to us. The problem is that this never works – the liberals always escape into the real world and start causing trouble.
Even more troubling is that the deluded liberals are the one who are teaching the new impressionable generation. Starting with the first grade, children spend 6+ hours in school where they are literally indoctrinated with liberal (and in some cases anti-American) ideology. Out of a typical 24-hour weekday, a child has roughly 10 hours where they’re not sleeping or in school – how much of that is used by the parents to instill their values and beliefs into their children? Leading and teaching by example is always a good thing, but it should never be considered the only means of passing on values and beliefs.
When will the conservative movement realize that we must begin exposing the children to conservative ideas at early age and not just rely on them finally “maturing”. The principles of critical thinking and self-reliance must be taught at an early age.
The liberals have realized that if they have access to children during their formative years they can create new versions of themselves. This was most evident in the Soviet Union where upon seizing power one of the first things the Communist government did was create all sorts of youth programs and camps. They did not bother with older generations but instead waited for them to die off – and in many cases accelerated the process. So thorough was this brainwashing that after the fall of the Soviet Union – many young people still voted for the communist party because they remembered the Oktebryata clubs and Pioneer camps.
The conservative movement in the US must take back the schools and colleges from the liberals to insure that conservative principles live on as it is difficult to fight 16+ years of indoctrination. The liberals realized this and that is why they took over academia and transformed into what we have today.
BO is going to be an ex – president for a really long time. He’ll be young when he’s done in 2012, and he’ll do the lecture circuit and play the racism / victimology card to the hilt. If the Rep/Consv people put in pseudo conservatives like GWB, then BO will be the next Grover Cleveland Alexander, he’ll win again in 2016. My point is, no more empty suits. We’ve had over a decade of them now…..
I thought these observations were significant.
I just read Thursday 12-31 Nationalreviewonline posts from the professor and they were just terrific also.
Same type of thoughts but put in an interestingly different format.
I look forward to reading more this coming year.
Best to you VDH. All the very best.
Most of us have learned that we have incorrect assumptions about reality, most of us the hard way. The resulting humility is at least as valuable as the correction.
We also know people who fail to learn from experience, and the damage they do themselves and others, repeatedly.
Maybe as a nation we needed to learn this lesson, let’s hope enough of us are teachable. Let’s hope there is something of value that can result from this travesty.
6. Tcobb:
The evidence keeps accruing re the influence of “magical thinking”, especially as practiced by the younger generations.
“Hey, if we think real hard, maybe we can stop this rain…no rain no rain no rain….” (Stephen Stills? at Woodstock).
Back in the 60′s & 70′s we’d go out to the desert, drink wine around a campfire, listen to that stuff while reading Carlos Casteneda. We all had conflicted views about Viet Nam, Nixon, the CIA etc.
At some point we grew up, got jobs, joined the military …whatever. Once you get a life the “magical thinking” recedes. Somehow this process has been interrupted and the result is too many young Americans living a fantasy foisted on them by 60′s holdovers who never grew up.
You covered the major issues we are now facing as our country deteriorates before our eyes. Please let Nov. 2010 bring some changes that open some liberal eyes! This is NOT the country we want. Personal freedoms will slowly fade away in favor of “public good”. Thanks for standing up and attempting to wake others in an articulate way – although you, obviously, are one of those ignorant conservative rabble-rousers! Thank you for the article.
Essential vdh
What makes it difficult to assign responsibility to why America has allowed BHO and his cult followers begin to dismantle the god given freedoms handed to humanity with the blood and courage of Americans when America was formed in the World?
Those individual freedoms have been for the most part marginally maintained up to this date by the courage and sacrifice of other Americans, probably some of your relatives looking down the family tree. Is their sacrifice not understood by you and your progeny?
Look no further than in the mirror if you are a voter and or if you have brought children into the world within the last 50+ years and left their education and knowlege, and problem solving skills to some idiot unionized, indoctrinated teacher. And If you have supported an institution of “higher learning” without knowing what they have been “pushing and teaching”. And if you voted for the existing crop of “politicians” at the state and federal level. Thinking that they could give you something for nothing. And of course they did to maintain their power, an “agreement” made in hell that eventually destroys all involved.
You are responsible. Even focusing on the BHO health care, cap in trade, tax changes is a misdirection. Health care is not the issue. Loss of individual freedoms that has been occurring steadily over the last 70+ years is the issue. Starting with FDR another silver spoon baby who really did not understand truly what America was about. His actions prolonged the depression by any measurable metric. History shows this also.
With the the BHO’s and a dumbed down America, a communist/socialist agenda is now working and moving at an accelerated rate. This now accelerating revolution by the BHO’s must be destroyed if you believe that the founding fathers and America’s progress to date has created the high water mark of humanity in the world.
History has proven the values of America about America to many times, that is why the education system is warped and lying. The revolution needs dumb Americans. With Americans dumbed down, time, context, existing options available, and world conditions mean nothing when the means are not important to the end result needed. Killing millions is no problem either for the believers in the communist/socialist systems. You want to be fooled if the real history of communism/socialism can be covered up.
Will you the voter have enough guts to protect individual freedoms in all likely hood you could not have had the courage to create for humanity in the world. Courage that your ancestors needed and had to give you the freedoms you now “enjoy” and are throwing away—for what? A Utopian siren song sending you on the rocks for looters to have.
Look to known history—where would the world be without America and the individual sacrifices Americans have made not only for Americans but for others.
You will determine if America lives or dies. VDH is an academic and analyzes it from many prospectives but where does that get you and America? Unless you act. VDH is still only one voter. Sometimes the world needs more than “analysis” and one vote. Now it does.
That is why BHO and his idiots have made such a big issue on “how bad America” has acted to the world in the past. They must destroy history. Europe will gladly comply with this lie along with the Media until it is to late even for them.
Without America and its military and economy the world stands still. No energy or progress comes from “dependency”. Europe knows this but could not openly admit it. It admits their failures. Without the American experience, presence and economic engine in the World BHO’s world would not have existed to allow his beliefs in parasitic existance to form the cults of indoctrination and centers of influence. America has given cover, order and justice—even to the communist/socialist parasites in America. PC and AA is now allowing them to “kill” the real America.
Only total blind ignorance could allow what is happening with the success of this subversion that is now going on by the BHOs and the current idiots in congress.
We, the voters have populated the Congress of the US with idiots and greedy piss ants who could not find their way out of an outhouse, with the door already open.
The existing communist/socialist failures that have been clearly demonstrated over the last 100 years, ending with the USSR have not been able to overcome the subversion of idiot intellectuals, unions and other brain dead Americans who think they can get something for nothing.
Or that they think the way to power is to create class warfare where the communist/socialists take money and assets from one group of people and give it to another for no other reason than to declare it “fair” and of course maintain power. The BHO’s are good at this, a single scum bag BHO associate like Bill Ayers is demonstration enough. There are many more like all the Dem’s in congress including the sheep republican.
If the above continues to happens, that my friends can only be due to total abject stupidity and if you our yours fit the bill who but you are responsible.
It appears that you, the voters, are dumb enough to even give up your right to vote if the government will “take care” of you. At that point in time it will be a short period to failure and collapse of what ever is left of America. Starting over will be costly. The old and the young may not make it. History has shown us this and tells us this in many ways.
Blair 95, The United States of America will survive President Obama & his Socialist Democrats; in fact, they are going to be wipe out in the next several elections for their unconstitutional power grabs, their greed, & the overreach. America was in a similar state when we had President Jimmy Carter from 1976-1980. Obama’s collapse is worse than Carter’s & more absolute. Obama will be persona non-grata within the Democratic Party, let along in the whole United States, given he himself is radioactive, poison for any he’s around, & by association thanks to his radical Marxist ideology.
When we see a repetition of the fate of the house built on a foundation of sand (Matt. 7:27, “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”), let us hope and pray that we are prepared to take charge. This means (gulp!) accepting responsibility and not blaming the previous administration.
Obama isn’t going to respond when the Red Chinese take over Taiwan. (This will be a serious breach of our treaties.) America can’t afford to fight even one war anymore, let alone wars in two hemispheres.
But don’t worry, Obama can stop all war just by talking to the aggressors.
– have you begun work on the primaries this Spring?
Obama is close to achieving health care reform, a key pledge of his candidacy. he is working on closing Gitmo, and trying the big fish in a court of law, another promise. he has inspired much of the world with the great promise of what America stands. HE HAS BEEN STRONG AND THOUGHTFUL ON Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, AND Afghanistan, and is utilizing an increase of troops and a winning plan. he has committed himself to defeating the terrorists, The Special Activities Division has increased significantly under President Obama, SAD/SOG’s efforts in Pakistan have been “the most effective weapon against senior Al-Qaeda leadership”. with as many at 50 suspected Al-Qaeda militants being killed in the month of May 2009 alone. He has been calm and strong during the recent terrorist attempt over Detroit and is a strong leader, a solid commander in chief and using the intelligence community better than anyone in 40 years.
the right wing has a fantasy about obama that is so far from the truth, basically the republicans are falling off the cliff, and hVE NO CLUE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD OR AT HOME FOR ALL THEY LISTEN TO IS A ECHO CHAMBER OF THE CONVERTED, clinging to the fairy tales of VDH, Rush, Beck et al. and are in such a mad pathological hatred of Obama that they have become anti-American defeatist!
Ive been quiet for a while but its now Jan 1 2010.Obama overture for peace has been rejected by the mullahs in Iran.Its time to get some action over the nuclear issue.
The problem of delusional dreamers like Obama, Wilson and Hitler is that their irrational dreams inevitably lead to very real war that kills hundreds of thousands of very real Americans.
Wonder what his reaction to the news that Mayo Clinic in Glendale Arizona will quit accepting Medicare effective today 1/1/2010.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHoYSI84VdL0
You will see more of this especially if this “health care” legislation passes!
I’m thinkin’ Yes We Did has outlived his usefulness. I haven’t seen but a single post, repeated ad nauseum. At least vivo uses different word constructs when discussing his fallacious worldview in different posts…
30. Yes We Did:
“This is just another in a long series of vile, racist attacks on our new Leader…(meaningless drivel)”
This is the exact same message that Yes We Did posted following a previous article. I have no idea if he/she is serious or not, I have found it is nearly impossible to underestimate the stupidity of liberals. I have seen similar types of messages on liberal blog sites written in all seriousness. He/she never seem to follow up, so it is hard to say if they actually believe the nonsense or not.
102. I’d like to believe that, but they are from the same stock as Code Pink, who mused about how great it would be if there was an organization of people who dedicated their lives to defending freedom of speech while blockading a Marine recruiting station.
I call them 4th worlders. That is because their view of this world has no basis in reality. They must be from a different world. 2nd and 3rd were already taken, so 4th worlder.
Empty rhetoric cannot take the place of reality and Obama has nothing going for him other than empty pat phrases for every occasion. I never dreamed I would see the presidency occupied by some one who made Jimmy Carter look good.
Happy New Year VDH. Another great piece but I think you are missing a key point (or perhaps just allowing poor slobs like me the chance to fill in the blank):
You seem to be assuming that Obama is somehow going to have “the moment,” sort of like Alec Guinness at the end of “Bridge on the River Kwai” where he realizes his mistake and exclaims “My g-d, what have I done?”
Obama, like 99.999% of those on the left, when confronted with facts and reality will only twist themselves into ever tighter knots of pretzel logic to maintain and defend their weltanschauung.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Let me be clear. Uh.
Victor,
My family wishes you health in the New Year.
Non of us will report true happiness until this nightmare administration is reversed or replaced.
May 2010 afford you a kind of contentment that comes with the knowledge that your courageous battles, both intellectual and physical, fill your readers with gratitude and admiration.
All the best to you and your family,
Catherine Wilson
Ohio
Dear Professor Hanson:
The current occupant of the White House is judged as if he is moved by facts and rational thought after digesting the facts. After deliberating on the facts of a given crisis,it is assumed wrongly, that he will eventually reach a rational, logical conclusion with a resposne to match.
This character is not moved by this epistemology. He is moved totally by his moral code of altruism. He fervently believes in abject self-sacrifice. Facts do not matter to this kind of mentality. He sacrifices, the facts, his perceptions, his reason, his integrity, and even his very political life to attain his goal of worldwide egalitarianism. To this kind of mentality two plus two can equal five.
He intends to bring the United States down to the level of poverty equal to that of the rest of the undeveloped world. Do not expect any change from his morality of surrender to the killers of Western Civilization–he is one of them.
arthur @ 117
J.J. Sefton @ 126
The “pretzel logic” @ 117 proves J.J. Sefton’s point @ 126, that VDH’s hoped-for Obama turnaround just “ain’t gonna happen.”
60 Democratic senators are about to vote themselves VIP status and exclusive healthcare privileges once enjoyed by the totalitarian ruling elite in the USSR, and still enjoyed by the totalitarian ruling elite in Cuba, while 40 Republican senators are about to vote against it, a fact that should be broadcast loud and clear to the American people.
Thank you for sending this article and proclaiming the truth….we must act NOW
Arthur @ 117; i hear the term ‘echo chamber’ in close to 100% of the defenses of this admin. This betrays a shortage of empathy (not to mention imagination) as in any attempt at serious comment one would presumably want to avoid inadvertant self-parody.
IOW, when throwing a charge of ‘echo chamber’ one might endeavor to avoid using the very term which ipso facto sources the charge as itself an emission from an echo chamber (and a crowded one at that).
This is exactly what happens when we elect mentally ill politicians that are doped up on antidepressants! Couldn’t you people see it during his speeches?! A monotone voice is a sign of mental illness not a sign of wisdom!
Ребята , подскажите , кто знает или сталкивался.
Есть желание купить подвеску с бриллиантом массой от карата, но знаю , что это стоит безумных денег и мне не по карману.
Но слышала , что есть облагороженные бриллианты, которые ничем не отличаются от обычных, но стоят дешевле в
два раза.
Кто-нибудь вообще держал такие в руках, они правда прекрасны ?