“Let Me Be Perfectly Not Clear” and “Make Lots of Mistakes About It”
4) The Deadline Lies. Remember those? You’ve seen that sort of “if you don’t, then you….” in the supermarket when the poor harried mom has the three-year-old kid screaming and kicking on the aisle floor, and screams back as she blocks shoppers, “If you yell one more time, I’m going to spank you!” — as he screams and kicks all the louder.
Guantanamo shut by January 21, 2010? Iran in non-proliferation compliance by the UN summit or the G-20 meetings or the October face-to-face negotiations or the first of the new year? Remember health care done by the summer break? By Thanksgiving? By Christmas or else? By the first of the year?
I used to have a relative of sorts who came around the ranch and wanted $500. I gave it to him once and he’d return sheepishly every three months, and promise, “This spring I am going to pay you back.” “This summer I’ll paint your barn.” “Before the first rain, I’ll fix that tin roof on the shed.” Finally, I forgot I ever gave him the money, and now only vaguely recall how silly I was. So too, we forget the promises, so frequent and impossible they now seem.
The list could be expanded exponentially and already, reader, you are screaming even as you read this, “But Victor, you didn’t list the worst of all, the lie about (fill in the blanks)…”
What are the catalysts for such prevarications?
1) Habit. Obama could more or less say anything in mellifluous tones, and the media would become enraptured. This ability to charm by sounding honey-tongued while saying nothing started perhaps in the Ivy-League and has never ceased. Some habitual liars persist since they are never caught or even admonished. Obama is never called to account (cf. Robert Gibbs’s angry reaction to the blasphemy when asked about the C-SPAN fantasies). The most transparent administration in history hasn’t had a news conference since mid-summer, even amid the toadies (Note to media: photo-ops and interviews are not press conferences). The media and Obama have an unspoken pact that goes something like the following: “We both are educated elites who know best for the Neanderthals. So from time to time I will have to lie to you to get our shared aspirations realized; and I accept from time to time, you will have to play act as critics to cling to some sort of legitimacy that is likewise necessary for our joint aspirations.” (And then we’ll both have a beer together afterwords.)
2) Morality. All philosopher-kings believe that the ends justify the means. To make us loving, caring equals — with no rich, no poor — we must sometimes adopt the Chicago politics that we insist we abhor. A Tony Rezko is bad, but a Tony Rezko is temporarily necessary to get the sort of hope and change we’ve been waiting for.
3) Squaring circles. You can reconcile thinking that the U.S. is culpable for its race/class/gender felonious past, and globe-trotting the world on a presidential luxury jet with the red, white , and blue plastered all over it — the logical manifestation of a uniquely meritocratic, capitalist, and free-enterprise economy. One cannot damn insider, influence-peddling, private-jet flying Wall Street bankers, corrupt insurers, and “the rich,” and then hire the same, frequent the same, and aspire to be the same. Class warfare is hard when your own profile is the logical target. And so one is bound to change the story as hypocrisy begins to cramp.
4) Personal confusion. Read both Obama memoirs (is that the right word for these auto-hagiographies?), and it becomes clear that he is still confused who he is. Barry Soetoro? Barry Dunham? Barack Dunham? Barack Obama? Barry Obama? Prep school upper-middle class in Hawaii or impoverished minority in need of affirmative action? African or African-American or plain old American suburbanite? Harvard Law Review and Chicago Law lecturer or unpublished wannabe legal professor? Harry Reid’s unaccented “Negro” dialect or Harry Reid’s ability to turn it on only as needed? Racial healer who wows the suburbanite and NY-DC insider clique, or angry racialist who throws out “stupidly,” the clingers speech, “typical white person” and brags about not missing a Rev. Wright sermon to the Chicago Sun-Times? When one is confused about who one is, one creates alternate narratives and personas — and, yes, often they will clash.
The economy might just be in what we heard once (wrongly, in fact, in 2004) categorized as a “jobless recovery.” And, yes, the people have roared that they don’t want the remedies of statist health care, mega-deficits, higher taxes, more government, green boondoggles, apologetics abroad, blanket amnesty, and more lunatic appointments like Van Jones and Anita Dunn.
But what is taking Obama down below 50% approval is mostly a public awareness that they elected a deeply cynical man, who either cannot or will not speak the truth or keep his promises (note the Nixonian resonance in “perfectly clear about…”). In fact, it is worse than that — in the postmodern world of Barack Obama there is no truth per se, just competing narratives privileged by the relative degree of power behind them and the relative perceived moral intent involved.
So when the advocates of hope and change, of non-traditional America, of the poor and the needy and the more noble, say something, it must be true because, you see, it should be true.
Mr Hanson, please explain the seemingly smart people (some of whom are my friends) who still don’t see this!
Where were you in 1968?
We could have used you then for our then “Prime Minister” Pierre Trudeau and his “Just” society.
Canada looks pretty good in this financial mess. Only because it took so many years to right the wrongs of the previously mentioned fool. The U.S. is experimenting with their own version in Obama, I wish you well.
Oooooo . . . such a pretty gauntlet lying there on the ground.
In fact, it is worse than that— in the postmodern world of Barack Obama there is no truth per se, just competing narratives privileged by the relative degree of power behind them and the relative perceived moral intent involved.
VDH, when truth is a privilege to be bestowed by the keepers of the facts at their whim, changed at their whim, hidden at their whim, bent at their whim and ignored at their whim…then it becomes a commodity of declining value, lost in the mist of misdirection and deceit.
This administration is not held to account for anything they say (or do)by the Fourth Estate, which, of course… is a Fifth Column instead.
Therefore, neither feels any immediate consequences for their distortions, since the truth “belongs” to “their” side…and is treated as if it was a concubine, they aren’t married to it…but will use it for their purposes when they are in the mood.
And we…the people, are never even kissed when they get around to us.
Dr. Hansen,
Your four catalysts for Obama’s prevarications are right on target. But the first three (habit, morality, and squaring circles) seem more the result of the fourth (personal confusion).
It is no uncertainty that all politicians bend the truth from time to time and this habit is often accepted by both sides of the political spectrum as a political necessity depending upon the gravity of the business at hand.
But it occurs to me that with Obama there is no limit. I understand his “advisors” are willing to have him say anything that will make him/them look good and to advance an agenda they share.
I wonder though, at what point will Obama shed all the Columbia/Harvard hype about his more than abundant intelligence and all the phony admiration for his silver tongue by the gushing elite.
Where is the man’s soul? Who is he? It seems he’s lived a life of being what was best to succeed by being whatever made that most possible in the midst of people who have never known the gritty ugliness of life.
It is rank hypocrisy. And disappointing.
And dangerous.
Dr. Hanson: Well analyzed. May I add three additional categories that support yours?
(1) Political Philosophy: Frank Davis, Saul Alinsky, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Van Jones, Rev. Wright, Anita Dunn, just a few names of Obama’s mentors, associates, friends, and people who have significantly influenced Barack Obama. Many are self avowed communists, others terrorists, virtually all self described “radicals” (IE: leftist/communist/socialist revolutionaries), but all share one primary motivation: A raging hatred of America and an overwhelming need to bring about its destruction. All, including Obama, have benefitted greatly from the American system. All have been given breaks and perks few can attain. Yet all persist in their hatred of the very system that not only allows their virulent hatred and agitation, but actually rewards them for it. The communist philosophy is violent, barbaric, homicidal and genocidal, paranoid, based in economic and social lunacy, cruel, brutal and unrelenting, yet its adherents cloak it in populist disguise and use the very system they loath to destroy that system from the inside. Redistribution of wealth is one of the milder tenants of this faith, but every communist believes and knows that “power flows from the barrel of the gun,” and should Obama ever attain absolute power, he would indeed impose, by violence, his beliefs on all Americans, for their own good, of course. This is, after all, the goal of all communists, like our president. But he’s not a communist! Think for a moment. Who has mentors, friends, advisors, associate like these? Would any decent, rational American knowingly befriend or work with such sociopaths? If we are known by our friends and associates, and those who are truly wise understand the truth of this truism, is it unreasonable to believe that he shares their beliefs and desires? We have elected as president a man who hates America and whose overriding political philosophy demands its destruction so that a worker’s paradise may flourish as all good communists believe it inevitably must. And they will support “revolutionary” movements everywhere so long as they are opposed to America and democracy. Iran will get nucs? Iran will surely use them? Iran will cause a second holocaust? No problem. Not a big deal. We can live with that. A massive, destructive, economy and freedom destroying health care scheme is far more important. Want to understand Barack Obama? Study communists throughout history. He’s a slightly slicker version, and is addicted to the teleprompter, but in essential beliefs and goals, no different.
Narcissism: Narcissists are incapable of empathy, yet capable of skillful manipulation of others. They speak in convincingly populist tones, yet care nothing for individuals. Their self regard has no limits, yet their regard for others exists only to the extent that others can benefit them or sing their praises and when their praise ceases, the narcissist’s support for them snaps off like a light switch. They cannot be wrong, therefore anyone who does not believe everything they say and who will not praise everything they do must be an enemy intent on evil, for they are the ultimate good. At best, they will simply refuse to recognize that everyone doesn’t worship them (Copenhagen X 2). At worst, they will lash out, try to destroy anyone for whom they have no use. They are often immoral, but are at best, amoral. Because of their greatness, they will dare what others would not consider. They will destroy nations, or prevent nations from defending themselves. Who would even think of making and standing behind a pseudo-presidential seal while merely a candidate for president? Who would think of constructing, out of extra-constutitional thin air, an “Office of the President-Elect” with all it’s ephemeral trappings? Who would send political operatives to give assurances to and make deals with foreign governments while still a candidate and while still occupying the non-existant Office of the President Elect? Who would send out official photographs of himself actually looking down his nose at the public and even the Vice President? Who would think, let alone say aloud that his nomination as the democrat candidate for POTUS would be remembered as the moment that the oceans stopped rising and the planet began to heal? Narcissism is mental illness. The degree of that illness and the damage that might be caused by a narcissist depends on their position of power. We have cause to be worried; the world has cause to be worried.
Inadvertent Truth Telling: Anita’s Dunn’s public praise for Mao, the murderer of more human beings than Hitler, is a case in point. One does not even think of citing as inspirational the worst mass murderer in history unless one actually believes them praiseworthy. Several other revealing inadvertent truths were Valerie Jarrett’s cooing like a love-sick adolescent over Van Jones, a self-described communist. Michelle Obama really does believe America is a “mean” country. Rev. Wright really does want God to damn America. Barack Obama really does think that Americans are idiot rubes who cling to God and guns and hate anyone who isn’t like them. Bill Ayers really does believe that he didn’t do enough to kill Americans. Bernadine Dohrn really does think the Manson murders were pretty cool. Barack Obama’s answer to Joe the Plumber remains perhaps the most telling inadvertent truth. He really does believe in “spreading the wealth around.” Let’s not forget that if Obama gets his way, energy prices will “necessarily skyrocket.” Those truths we can believe in.
Remember that Barack Obama has never worked in the real world. He has never had to experience having his theories and beliefs exposed to the reality of the marketplace and the marketplace of ideas. And now, he doesn’t have to care. But why would Obama do X, Y or Z? It makes no sense! It’s politically tone deaf! Yes it is. But he’s not a rational politician for all of the reasons Dr. Hanson so well outlines, and perhaps, for those I’ve flattered myself to suggest. The sooner we understand these essential truths about the man we’ve elected president, the sooner we’ll be able to minimize, perhaps even begin to reverse, the damage.
It does no good to categorize the lies. They are endless. His life itself is a lie. He didn’t just lie about what he wanted to do, he lied about who he was. Who influenced him. Who nurtured him. Where he worked. Who fed him. Who greased his skids. What he had read. What he wrote. What he had done. What he believed. What was in his heart.
This is no frat-boy liar like Bill Clinton, laughing while he manipulates the words so he can get laid with another political triumph or more adulation or another woman.
This is no defensive magician like Richard Nixon, spinning webs to cover his flank, calulating the moves 2 and 3 ahead, luring his allies into the matrix.
This creature is congenital. It’s a habit so deep that he can’t be separated from the process.
He doesn’t know what it is NOT to lie. He couldn’t function without lying. He couldn’t speak without lying.
He lies to his children. He lies to his wife. He lied to his mother. He lied to his teachers. When his mouth moves, he lies.
We have had moral men as Presidents, and we have had our share of immoral men.
Now we have an amoral man.
If we survive him, future generations will look at us with mouths aghast and be dumb-struck that a country could go suddenly and collectively mad after creating the greatest palaces of thought and substance ever conceived.
We must STOP “Taxation without representation” and communism in America!
Many people in this country have become “useful idiots” as the communist regime now in the Whitehouse fills their hearts and minds full of lies.
If they aren’t flat out communists 95% of the remaining politicians don’t understand what a representative Republic actually is. They think we are too stupid to understand why they should lord over us. I say kick the bums out… including John McCain!
Scott Brown is going to be the shot heard ’round the world!
No surprise at all to me…B+rryO wasn’t even eligible to be President due to his dual citizenship at birth.
I hate to say it but we are getting what we deserve…and getting it good and hard.
Bravo!
Finally, the professor deploys the “L” word. Brilliantly.
“But what is taking Obama down below 50% approval is mostly a public awareness that they elected a deeply cynical man, who either cannot or will not speak the truth or keep his promises…”
Obama’s cynicism and lies do not matter much: we’ve dealt with those before. What truly matters are his hatreds for America, the Constitution, and capitalism. He plans to destroy all three and install a new government, shred the Constitution, and create a sociofascist economic system. He can accomplish all those tasks despite having a less than 50% approval rating.
The first broken promise that raised a red flag with me when candidate Obama went back on his word to not accept public financing during the election. I don’t understand why he made the promise in the first place because it would have kept him from a huge financial advantage. For some reason it stood out in my mind. I don’t know that anyone made a big deal of it at the time, probably because America was on the verge of making history. In the end he chose the money, which made sense when the goal was to win an election. But why make the promise in the first place? At this point I can’t believe anything he says anymore.
Does anyone remember any significant broken promises before this one? Please share.
Amen. I believe that our present situation has been in the cards since 68. That’s when the radicals started to make American middle class values disreputable. Finally, now that the Dems have both houses of Congress and the presidency they are being held accountable.
I predicted the present crisis in Californis in 92 when I was in the Navy in the Bay area. Now we are seeing the same problems occurring for the whole country sad.
Keep up the good work. I’m hoping Bismarck was right when he said that God looks after fools, drunks and the United States.
Excellent post, Dr. Hanson. “Auto-hagiographies” is a fine turn of phrase. I hope Tuesday Scott Brown wins in MA and starts the unraveling altogether of this absurd pageant. We have elected an Empty Suit to the highest executive office of the land, to our detriment. The man is a skilled mimic, with no substance, a creature of colossal vanity.
VDH …good essay. you are finally calling it as it is. without so much hedging.
for those news outlets that don’t want to offend and thereby not getting to interview the POTUS.
if it were me I would never want to interview him. Just as I don’t read books if I don’t think the author will be honest. Why would I let someone lie to my face when I already know the man is a liar?
by now anyone who isn’t at least slightly aware that this individual has serious psychiatric problems is not seeing the disconnect of the words from the deeds.
President Gantry will eventually run out of marks. A good con artist never hangs around for long. Burt Lancaster and George C. Scott in their respective roles as Elmer Gantry and Mordecai Jones both understood the necessity to travel light. “You ‘git’ and then you ‘git out’ before you ‘git caught.’” I’m not sure who said that, but it sounds about right. Maybe I did. Anyway, our current president has violated the rules of his trade.
It’s easy to abuse people’s trust when the goal is short term. The con artist can always move on to greener pastures; his victims not so much. It’s ironic, or hypocritical, maybe even “downright mean” that Marxists tend to claw their way to the top over the bodies of the very people they claim to represent. Rather antithetical, I think, to small “r” republican government, but your mileage may vary.
Is that Nemesis I smell? Mr. Gantry, you can’t lie to all of the people all of the time and expect to get away with it. Your prevarications got you to where you are, but they won’t sustain you. Enjoy the pinnacle while it lasts. Your fall will be fast and furious. God help the rest of us for your folly. I have a set of heavy Grecian clasps with pins like ten-penny nails that I will gladly lend you when the time comes. If only you were as heroic as you dream. Idiot.
~Paules
Thank you again Professor Hanson for another great piece!
I have been following your work since the Iraq War. As a historian you have a very good perspective. I saved many of your articles that you wrote during the war. At the time they seemed to be interesting reading. They turned out to be prophetic.
I am also saving many of your writings about the Obama Administration. You are giving us an excellent perspective. Living in this present time our views are somewhat tainted. History will judge these people and their deeds.
The writers of this history have not yet been born. Someday they will write it, and their perspective will be the correct one.
Keep up the great work!
-Loren
So it appears that you agree Congressman Joe Wilson told the truth back in September. I sure think he did.
The dupes that B.O. ‘community organized’ must have been such ignorant sheep that Barry assumed the whole USA was that naïve and then when he ‘won’ the presidency it must have cemented that idea in his mind.
The lies upon lies are so bombastically blatant now it’s becoming more and more apparent that Barry and Co. could care less what we-the-people-with-open-eyes think.
It’s frightening to think there are still people who ‘believe’ in Barack but all you have to do is take a gander at Huffpo and there they are. Pathetic.
As you say, you forgot some.
Perhaps, first and most egregious, he said he wouldn’t run for President (yet), because he would finish his term as Senator.
He will be re-elected.
What pisses me off is that I knew this in 2011. (Oops. 2008.)
VDH: I’m still seeing the world through a miasma of illness caused by Obama’s stifling rhetoric of lies yet your essays always seem to provide a remedy for that. You’ve accurately described Obama’s speech, his less than sparing rhetoric. But still Obama seems not to care what damage he’s done to our society because my belief is that’s what he intended. Obama’s a statist, his goal is to remake our country and his aides in Congress only consider how they may perpetuate their power and control.
The statist Democrats do not believe that they are in fact playing with fire. IMHO, what the Democrats and Obama are doing will backfire against them in the 2010 elections. However, the key factor is how Conservatives will use their newly elected power, in both Houses I hope, rather than repeating Bush’s mistakes in 2001 – 2006. We need you to be there, reminding Conservatives how to stay on their path.
The thing that gets me about Obama is he seems to be completely void and empty at the center. He oratory carries the same, now overly familiar, cadence and inflection, no matter what he talks about. (I hear a bit of the style of David Brinkley.) I get no dedication to anything beyond a desire for self aggrandizement, maybe.
Does he dislike America? Yes I think so.
Does he dislike average Americans, particularly whites? It sure seems he is pretty much on board with Rev. Wright.
But I’m not sure, I just don’t see anything there. He displays no personal conviction, he just says words.
Richard Nixon who also frequently used the words, “perfectly clear,” had the same enigmatic, murky character. He didn’t seem to believe in anything but himself. The difference is that the elites are propping Obama up instead of tearing him down.
Plainly and simply the President lacks integrity; he has an agenda not premised on governing, but premised on the desire to make an America whose citizens are dependent on government largesse. This is a dangerous game. At first it supplies votes, insures re-election, but ultimately creates a mass of voters, accustomed to handouts, to demand more and more. Witness California’s impending disaster. Businesses and people who generate taxes and pay them are leaving the state, while others come here, whether legally or illegally, do so because they receive more freebies than they are eligible for in the area in which they lived before coming to California.
“…and treated like children in need of Ivy-League Platonic guardians.”
The typical Ivy Leaguer is shabbily educated and anti-intellectual. Contempt for rigorous logical thinking oozes out of their pores. These are people strongly inclined to place their wet finger into the air to see which way the winds of the postmodernist zeitgeist are blowing. They reside in a cultural echo chamber and think backwards. Keynesian economics and John Rawl’s ramblings on fairness provide inherent countless lucrative and power enhancing career opportunities. But since this stuff is good for them—how can it also not be beneficial for the unwashed masses? They squeeze the truth, bend it, and do all sorts of other nasty things to it. The quintessential example of their deceitful rhetoric is Bill Clinton’s insistence that he and Monica Lewinsky did not engage in real sex. These duplicitous individuals too often bury the truth in the third chapter, fifth paragraph, and tenth sentence of their speeches and writings. They justify their lies because of their efforts on behalf of the racially oppressed and other alleged victims of white Western Civilization.
The academic standards of the Ivy Leaguers have also been watered down since the introduction of affirmative action grading in the mid to late 1960s. Countless graduates are similar to Barack Obama. They are poorly read and intellectually shallow. I am not merely describing the minorities. The sons and daughters of the established Anglo-Saxon elites also felt entitled to the inflated grades and other unearned privileges.
Prof. Hanson:
Your phrase, “…in the postmodern world of Barack Obama there is no truth per se,…” says it all.
Thanks for all your fine articles in 2009 and Happy New Year.
Obama does have his moments of intentional untruths — and when he doesn’t, his teleprompter does.
But beyond that, beyond intentionally lying, Obama has a reckless disregard for the truth. That is, more often than not, he is simply talking out of his a**. Is it objectively true? What the hell does he care? If he says it, it must be true.
More than being a liar — OBAMA IS BEYOND NOTIONS OF TRUE AND FALSE. His is a higher morality, a higher truth. He is the maker of truth. ObamaCare is going to have X, Y, and Z because he says so, never mind what the actual language of the bills say. The “stimulus” is working because he says it is. Thus, ipso facto, it is working.
As a woman, I have the inescapable feeling that Obama is a womanizer. By that I don’t mean literally, for he seems to value his family, but I mean the attitude of womanizing the public and people to get power, popularity, adulation, etc. For such people, there truly is “no truth per se, just competing narratives…” or no true absolute moral decisions. If an act will get you want you want and were you want to go, that that’s allowable. To most decent people, that kind of thinking is abhorrent; for decent people want to believe they can trust others in the society to agree that certain behaviors are unacceptable, unethical, immoral, or illegal. But to the womanizing person, what’s acceptable is what is necessary, period. Obama, because of all his narcissitic ways, can’t seem to grasp that most mature people aren’t fooled for long by womanizers. Ironically, the ultimate womanizer, Clinton, did get that people were disgusted with his literal womanizing, so he toned down his political womanizing.
I don’t really know what is achieved by calling the president of the United States a liar. He’s the one elected official who represents us all. Insult him, and we insult ourselves.
Anyway, if the president thinks of his administration as Platonic guardians – which I think is a perceptive, and correct, observation – then, by their own elitist principles, they are entitled to say anything to get the human herd they watch over moving in the right direction.
That, I think, is the proper criticism of the current crowd. Name-calling trivializes the discussion. Calling out the Platonic, elite-driven, undemocratic nature of the Obama administration’s program is proper and necessary.
See “Who we are”:
http://vulgarmorality.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/who-we-are/
Torabora is not correct in his analysis of BHO’s putative citizenship. Either: 1) he was born in the State of Hawaii and is thus a “natural born citizen” under the 14th Amendment regardless of any claim to any other citizenship and thus eligible for election as President; or, 2) he was born outside the U.S. to one U.S. citizen [mother] and one non-citizen [father] and anyhow acquired U.S. citizenship at birth. The U.S. Supreme Court has never had occasion to rule as to whether the circumstance in [2] above constitutes “natural born citizen” or not.
My personal most loathesome Obamism is his continual preface that “We can all agree” to doctrinaire, leftist proposals which he presents as the apogee of compromise.
Guess he really means “You can all agree with me. No other options will be considered.”
Dr. Hansen:
Your intellect and rational way of looking at life does not allow you to see what it is about Obama that has the people turning on him. Come down to our level and see ….
1.An empty suit whose political advisor is a marketing guru and advertising king. We know what the product now is and don’t want to buy it.
To Obama and his worshipers truth is not absolute, it is relative.
This has been taught in our public schools for decades now and the chickens have come home to roost.
Thank you for the great article, and everyone for the great comments. Among those that voted for BO, there were those that believed he was an honest person, and there were some who knew that he was a liar, but they didn’t care. I don’t know who there were more of, but it’s the latter that trouble me. I try to console myself thinking they were just blinded by Bush hatred, and not impressed with a pitiful campaign from JM, but can’t shake the feeling it’s something worse.
Well said Oakley.
If there were a market that priced Ivey league degrees, one would have to conclude the value of Harvard’s to be significantly damaged.
When credibility is withdrawn and spent as political capital – misspent that is – with deceipt and lies added in, the results can be clearly defined – and negative.
The effort required to rebuild losses, is exponentially greater than what it took to create them. And to restore credibility, the same.
This is America’s current circumstance with only the question of to what degree. And it is entirely possible that it is a lost cause to the extent it fails to be addressed and accurately diagnosed as to the core cause.
Tsak, fsk. Shameful to attack this fine, light skinned, non dialect speaking public servant on this day of all days of the year. Yes, it’s true. Sadly, all true. Yet, today we honor MLK an authentic American. Tomorrow there will be time enough to further analyze the shallow, glib, smug politican currently occupying the White House.
32. Spinoneone:
“… or, 2) he was born outside the U.S. to one U.S. citizen [mother] and one non-citizen [father] and anyhow acquired U.S. citizenship at birth. The U.S. Supreme Court has never had occasion to rule as to whether the circumstance in [2] above constitutes “natural born citizen” or not.”
You are close, but not quite there. For the child in the case you mention to be a “natural-born citizen,” if born in wedlock (like Obama), its mother would have had to have physically resided in the US for 5 years prior to the child’s birth, and 2 of those years after the age of 14 (the 5/2 rule we call it in the State Department). You are correct about the Court having not ruled on this, though.
Obama’s mother qualifies on the 5/2 rule, and of course if he was born in Hawaii it’s all moot anyway. As I see it, from the perspective of a US diplomat who often handles passport and citizenship cases, the subject of Obama’s legal right to serve in the presidency is settled, and opponents would best serve their causes by moving on to other things. When it comes to reasons to oppose someone, Obama is the gift that keeps on giving.
Oh, and to #4, cfbleachers; nicely put.
“…In fact, it is worse than that — in the postmodern world of Barack Obama there is no truth per se, just competing narratives privileged by the relative degree of power behind them and the relative perceived moral intent involved.
So when the advocates of hope and change, of non-traditional America, of the poor and the needy and the more noble, say something, it must be true because, you see, it should be true.”
You nailed it. This amorality that pervades our society is so evident that it’s mind-boggling; one example being the caliber of education that is provided to most of our children via the public school systems
SUDDENLY
“Believe me, I know how big a lift this has been,” Obama said. “I see the polls. . . . I catch the occasional blog poster, cable clip that breathlessly declares what something means for a political party, without really talking about what it means for a country.
“But I also know what happens once we get this done, once we sign this . . . bill into law: The American people will suddenly learn that this bill does things they like and doesn’t do things people have been trying to say it does. The worst fears will prove groundless.”
Svengali Axelrod and Rasputin Emanuel have played their mendacity once too often for the teleprompter reading sock puppet Obama. The folk from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts have taken the “Kennedy Seat” back as the peoples Senate seat and are giving it to Republican Scott Brown. God bless them and God bless America. Tarbender from Blue Hill, Maine
It is very instructive these days to read the Comments on articles by entrenched Liberal pundits in the Wash Po and NYT. Such comments are full of acerbic criticism and animus against these pundits as “Liberal ideologues”, uncritical fellow travellers, apologists and propagandists.
For example, the response to E J Dionne latest in Wash Po – “Mass. Senate lesson for Obama” -effectively damns his essay 100%, and the criticism is overwhelmingly rational and to the point.
It pays to read the Obama apologists – just for the Comment.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room is the blatant and brazen stealing of taxpayer money. When Bush passed the stimulus, everybody got a $300 check. With Obama’s stimulus, all that money went, well, where exactly? Millions upon millions going to “Chicago Housing Authority”, made-up districts, cities and zip codes. Why? There can’t be that many typos. It’s like we elected Al Capone and are forced to watch as he fleeces the taxpayers and explodes our deficit.
It’s almost like a shotgun wedding; after a dreamy one night stand, you get married and soon find out that your new spouse has maxed out your credit cards, stolen all your money from your 401(k), sold all your stocks, got you fired from your job, deliberately failed to pay your mortgage and you are foreclosed on and left homeless and penniless. I think that’s the sort of shock people are feeling.
You’re a little late in the use of this word from my perspective; however, it’s good to see so many sailing in the same direction relative to this malignant narcissist known as Obama.
Perhaps a far more important question to ponder is what our country was yearning for that he (Obama) manipulated into votes and how those voters might react once they realize the con.
Note also that this Haiti issue is just great for the democrats, all those touchy feelie, group versus individual types to rally round and pronounce how important and superior they are and their “principles” to all others.
Meanwhile, will those people in Haiti learn how to stand on their own and live free with dignity while working for a better society?
As long as our “progressives” have a say…keep’em down home on the farm so to speak…I doubt it!
Seems to me these people, these liberals, need and want slaves still! Even Obama, who in my opinion, wants to get even with Whitey!
Bond slavery is his game!
#34 Exactly!
“An empty suit whose political advisor is a marketing guru and advertising king. We know what the product now is and don’t want to buy it.”
Wrong. It has been bought. In NOV 2008, and will be again in 2012.
The marketing guru is backed up by Soros/Saudi billions & billions.
All that is backed up by Union and Chicago gangland thuggery.
The spectacle of America’s ruin breaks my heart, but it exonerate my having —
Gone Galt.
Sorry, but Bush did lie and did so big time, and no Senator had the some info that he and his people did. And it’s been the Republicans who have refined the “Big Lie” to an operating tactic finely honed over the past decade or so. What you guys are disingenuously whining and moaning about is Obama’s adoption of Bill Clinton’s “war room” tactics to counteract the Republican BS machine. For the truly well-informed, Republican tactics are repulsively clear: 1) Take a phrase or whatever out of context, deliberately and grossly misrepresent it, and then make a BFD strawman thing out via the right wing mediasphere; 2) Try to mainstream the most idiotic rubbish floating about on right wing web sites by introducing them disingenuously as “some people say…”; 3) Smear, smear, and smear some more your political opponents and anyone with embarrassing knowledge, and never pass up an opportunity to distribute disinformation; 4) Take advantage of the fade-out of skeptical and investigative journalism, as well as the gullibility and fact-confusion of your core base for rabble rousing; 5) Obstruct, obstruct, obstruct and never cooperate on getting anything done, no matter the issue, so you can blame your opponents for not getting anything done; 6) When you can, always keep bad or embarrassing news buried, regardless of its importance.
I can go on, but a complete list would take all day. This is not a bad, quick summary.
Whenever The One starts a sentence with “Let me be clear”, I immediately think of this exchange;
Major Milligan; “I’ve no objection to being frank with you.”
Lord Peter Wimsey; “How nice it is to hear anybody say that. It always prepares one for a lie to follow. Fore-warned is fore-armed, isn’t it?”
-Dorothy L. Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise”, 1933, chapter XIV.
The most telling version was his statement, “Let me be clear; I will allow no one to question my love of this country.”
Quite aside from the fact that like most “progressives”, The One is apparently more in love with what he dreams of turning this country into, you may notice that he never actually states that he does love the United States. He just won’t allow any questions on the subject.
This is the arrogant declaration of power one expects from a demagogue who dreams of being a tyrant.
And I would remind everyone (except Dr. Hanson, whose command of the Classical languages far exceeds mine), that the word “tyrant” springs from a Greek root meaning a dictatorial leader who initially comes to power through popular acclamation.
Our ancestors understood the dangers of pledging their troth to a “man on horseback”. And the saying “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” really means “you should be checking his legs and back”.
Not to mention taking a close look at whoever is riding him into town.
clear ether
eon
Fortunately, or not, a combination of the worst aspects of Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter takes very little time to crash and burn.
Gosh I”m happy for VDH’s article’s and the intelligent comments afterward, I’ll say it again, McDaniel is like the nice lingering aftertaste of the fine bordeaux you just had a sip of. Better yet knowing that a my fellow canucks relate and vist PJM is soooo comforting. That makes three freedom loving conservatives in Canada. I’m not alone.
I concur the only thing missing on Obama’s empty suit is a rose in his lapel
Scott Brown , the gift that keeps on giving:
“Mr. President, unfortunately in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck. My goal is to change that by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money.”
Just one more observation on the concept of nemisis that we’ve been learning in the previous posts. First, nemisis is female and there’s a parallel in the Bible, Eve who was made to be against (Hebrew – k’negdo) Adam to oppose him when necessary.
I read an article about the terrible state of the neighborhood that Obama represented in Chicago. Violence and disorder is off the charts. The article attributes this to the absense of fathers. In other words, men together with women to oppose their uncontrolled tendencies are the cause of this dysfunctional group.
The same with Moslems. When their women are powerless to oppose their men, in a constructive way, again, might be the dominate reason that many Moslems seem so wildly out of control.
Might it be that Japan, South Korea, and others in the far east have grasped the Judeo/Christian/Greek concept of the value of a woman’s influence, contrary to her man as a stepping stone to prosperity and the goodness they seem to enjoy? I think so.
As for the above topic of lies, I’ve been hearing that word used about Obama more and more… before this post. My Senator, McCaskill is writing Obama’s very same points to me (form letters to her her constituents) and even before this post I was thinking of telling her to take me off her list because I believe she’s lying to me. Her credibility is shot.
It seems to me that O’Barry is a fabrication of someone with a whol’ lotta mojo and a big dream for the world.
Can it be The Won is some sort of “90 day wonder” sent into the White House to bring on the revolution?
Lincoln once said that a nation divided against itself cannot stand…well? In spades. We got it in spades.
Just askin’ are citizens of America (the ones who are paying the freight, I mean) being endlessly goaded by the outrages of this administration by intent…think martial law, censorship, jailcells.
Anyone else notice that America’s globe trotting leftists keep buying round trip plane tickets?
Gotta go, I think the brown shirts are ringing the doorbell…dang…how do I get through this basement window in my underwear…
It took only year, but it seems that nemesis is waiting at Fenway Park ready to deliver a grievous blow to Obama and his progressive minions at the polls tomorrow. Feeling omnipotent ,like the German army in the fall of 1941, Obama thought that the American people were too weak and stupid and fed up with Bush that he would have Carte Blanche to do what ever he wanted. With huge majorities in the congress and a fawning media, who was going to oppose him? The Republicans were leaderless and too weak to offer any opposition to his machine.
It is the American people of our great country who are standing up to Obama. It has nothing to do with party affiliation this time. It has everything to do with uniting as Americans and realizing that Obama is destroying the DNA of our society, and must be stopped before we become a second rate power, with the futures of our children and grandchildren in jeopardy. All those social issues that seem to divide us can be debated at a later date.
Massachusetts will not be the fatal blow to Obama, but it certainly will be his December 6, 1941. Nemesis is not ready to call it quits, at least for right now.
Excellent oolumn and analysis, and thanks also to Mike McDaniel for his further comments. Yes – that blatant ‘office of the president-elect’ was quite a statement of elitist arrogance.
I’ll add another part of the structure.
1) Obama is a malignant narcissist. His goal is to control people into a state of adulation. He achieves this by constant misinformation (a PC word for lying); emotional manipulation using hope and fear (crisis if you don’t pass the bill!); and, if you resist his control, accusations that the reason you reject him, is strictly due to your own failings of being biased.
All of this means that the integrity of truth and morality has no meaning for Obama. Only his control over you.
If he can’t control you, then you literally do not exist for him.
2) Obama also, psychologically, operates in a cocoon,where he is rendered immune from accountablity. This includes his cocoon of race, where he is protected from accountability…and he reminds people often of this cover.
The cocoon is also made up of ‘higher authorities’. There are two structural parts to this authority. One of them is a strong woman who makes key decisions which he follows. These include his mother and grandmother. And his wife Michelle.
Obama went to the Rev. Wright’s anti-American and anti-White preachings for 20 years; this was the venue, I suggest, of Michelle.
NOTE: Since they left that church, it is important to note that the Obamas have not attended any church since then. They do not go to church in Washington.
I suggest that Michelle’s anti-Amercanism and anti-White views are part of the Obama cocoon.
The other part of the cocoon is the radical left who now run the Democratic Party. And they run Obama.
3) They selected Obama as a non-Washington smooth salesman to get them into power. They selected him against Hillary because they felt, both, that she wouldn’t fall in line for their elitist and statist agenda,and because they weren’t sure that she would win them the elecion.
They have now effectively destroyed her, politically, by marginalizing her as SOS, and inserting her husband ..and others, instead.
This BackRoom Gang,(BRG) as I call them, run Obama. As a narcissist, Obama has no capacity for analyzing or developing policies and no interest in anything other than public adulation.
They develop the policies and had hoped to get them through, fast, via Obama’s slick talk.
4)But it’s not working out that well. Obama won them the election but he’s only able to sell himself as Himself. He can’t sell a policy.
They’ve had to remove him from press conferences because his shallowness and his ignorance about the policies leads him to answers which the BRG must immediately deal with by a counter press release of ‘what Obama really meant’…
And they haven’t been able to silence the people. They’ve tried – with attacks against news pundits, and against the Tea Parties and against the Town Halls…but it’s not working.
They are now trying for Speed – get it through before the people can stop it.
5)I suggest that this BRG, who are Obama’s puppet-masters, will get rid of him if this trend of awakening rebellion by the people, continues. Before 2012 – They’ll find him a Higher Calling, at, let’s say, the UN, that highest office of pure unaccountability, where he can pretend and lie and obfuscate as much as he wants.
Dear Professor
You probably remember one of those rare occasion when your essay was received with much criticism – not by those who have a knew-jerk reaction to anything you say, but by your conservative friends, by your “fans”, if I may. That was an essay where you criticized Joe Wilson for his “You Lied!” outburst.
While your conservative critics largely agreed with you that we indeed don’t want our Congress to lose decorum and be a place for hacklers and screamers, there was an instinctive wide acceptance of this single outburst. The 9/12 march on DC Tea Party had signs playing out “You Lie!” as one of the dominant themes of the protest. People were galvanized by it. Because decorum or not – that is the distilled truth: people see Obama, who he is, what he does, and what he wants to do as one big lie. I am happy that more and more Americans begin to see what Obama’s opponents were saying all along.
Obama’s lying chickens will come home to roost. The Truth is chasing Obama down and there is nothing anybody can do to stop it. There are accusations of lies as in “Bush lied people died” and then there are actual lies (see above). The mainstream media can no longer handle the truth because the truth is a two edged sword (it cuts both ways) they will be exposed for what they are. Obama and friends are trying to hide but won’t be successful, the truth will expose all of their corruption and the question is who cares enough to make them pay.
To fail to exercise proper analysis and judgement in so important a task as electing the President of the United States, and ignoring all the serious warning signs (any one of which would have doomed a Republican candidate) in favor of being mesmerized by pretty words and promises is not simply naive and immature, it is profoundly irresponsible.
If only the ones who committed this atrocity were to be affected, I could laugh it off, but, as it is immediately affecting us all and will continue to affect our children and grandchildren into the distant future, I have nothing but the most intense anger for the willful fools who elected Obama.
“There’s been a lot said in this race that this is not the Kennedy seat it’s the people’s seat,” President Obama said. “And let me tell you that the first person who would agree with that is Teddy Kennedy.”
Speaking of lies, you might have gagged on this one yesterday.
Teddy leaned on, uh, worked with Massachusetts state officials to change election law back and forth to his liking, in the interests of the continuance of “the seat”.
“No, the American people are losing confidence in Team Obama because quite simply they are tiring of being lied to, and treated like children in need of Ivy-League Platonic guardians.”
Bam. That’s it in a nutshell. The rest of the article is elaboration on this simple truth.
When I think of this administration, the very first word that comes to mind is: dishonest. The second word that comes to mind is: incompetent. The third word – a variety suggest themselves. I am leaning toward arrogant.
“Obama is a malignant narcissist. His goal is to control people into a state of adulation.”
Barack Obama will most assuredly try to exact revenge on the American people for rejecting his vision. We are to be punished—and he has three more years to accomplish this goal. The only real hope we have is that Obama resigns from the presidency. He may be able to justify it by claiming he suffers from some sort of health problems. We are in deep danger. Obama has the red phone next to him at all times. He will find any excuse to impose a benevolent dictatorship. It is time for a serious discussion between those knowledgeable in Constitutional law. What can we do when the president is a bit wacky?
Again to Illustrate the Doctor’s assertion
1) Feigned Nonchalance:
The president said of Brown: “I don’t know him, he may be a perfectly nice guy. I don’t know his record, but I don’t know whether he’s been fighting for you up until now.”
But he also revealed some fairly intimate knowledge of Brown and the race: “He voted with the Republicans 96 percent of the time,” the president said of Brown’s time in the Massachusetts legislature. “Ninety-six percent of the time.” He took on one of Brown’s best lines during the campaign, when he pushed back on a debate question about sitting in “Teddy Kennedy’s seat” and said it’s “the people’s seat
There’s been a lot said in this race that this is not the Kennedy seat it’s the people’s seat,” President Obama said. “And let me tell you that the first person who would agree with that is Teddy Kennedy.”
And he went after one of Brown’s signature shticks, his old pickup truck, used to convey Everyman appeal. “You’ve got to look under the hood,” President Obama said. “Forget the truck. Everybody can buy a truck.”
Clearly President Obama — as he should — is well aware of Brown’s record.
Cobra, what does Obama’s lies have to with his re-election campaign of 2012? I think you should be more focused on the 2010 mid-terms; Obama is radioactive & will be a liability he himself created with his Leftist agenda. Obama absurdly believes he has some kind of magic to his words when he’s nothing more than a terrible script reader at best & even worse without his precious teleprompter to keep him on message. Obama’s narcissism will destroy him since he believes he’s perfect. He refuses to see his own faults as a Communist-in-Chief. The people are rising against the red tide of Communism as shown in the unexpected elections of Republican governors in New Jersey & Virginia & the possible election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts for the Senate. Deval Patrick–who ran as Obama-light in Massachusetts–is also in trouble in Massachusetts too & may get replaced by a Republican.
The Democrats have overreached & the people are telling them with the electing Republicans in traditional Democrat states. Obama has no credibility since his words have no substance as the people have learned the hard way.
Obamaa’s mistake is that he is living in the wrong country. How was he supposed to know?
At first the mob was calm . . . watched and waited . . . Then the mob was shocked . . . disbelief owned the day . . . Then the mob became angry . . . shouted and shook our fists . . . Then the mob got SCARED . . .
We The People are SCARED SH**LE$$
Dr. Hanson-
Appreciate all that you write but this latest strikes me as a particularly devastating critique.
To Deb, #1. – let me suggest that your friends, bright thought they may be, still cling to the fantasies that have been offered because their sense of self worth is contingent on him remaining adequate/special. ie – if he falls apart then they fall apart. Their continued to need to cling to faith in him reflects either their own fragility and/or narcissism.
Noting the comments on narcissism that others have made, my own take is that statements made concerning economic and racial inequities are a projection of internal concerns ( eg – you don’t pay enough attention to me and recognize how special I am. how brilliant I am becomes – the special people in society are not paying enough attention, giving enough respect to others in society that share qualities with me). while there is real pathology in the philosphy that is played out, it is also the case that the political beliefs become the vehicle for the expression of the narcissism that is present.
also – among the catalysts noted, I’m not sure which carries greatest weight, but the idea of habit and sense of confusino about self is dead on. Additionally, with regard to moral concerns, if there is no truth then words carry no weight beyond their ability to accomplish a given task.
One concern, what if the current lack of appreciation from the public evokes a state of rage?
How can the thousands of Obama “enablers” keep it together much longer? He shut his grandmother up. His contributors addresses were not verified, so the world bought him the election. A lifetime of written records is in a “lockbox”. He Mau-Maued Citibank into giving out subprime loans, yet successfully blames the financial community for the meltdown. Bernake and the top bankers don’t even have the guts to mention Congressional complicity!
I just don’t get this level of loyalty/fear.
“In fact, it is worse than that — in the postmodern world of Barack Obama there is no truth per se, just competing narratives privileged by the relative degree of power behind them and the relative perceived moral intent involved.”
Superb. Accurate, profound, and one major root of the entire problem with Progressivism in general, stemming straight from Dewey onward.
BC,
Bush did it? Thats original.
President Barack Obama and his associates are not “philosopher-kings” but “tyrants,” according to the list of character-types and constitutions in Plato’s Republic. In this list, the Ideal State is the one ruled by the Wise – and only the gods are wise. The closest to this is the one ruled by the Philosopher Kings, lovers of wisdom who know they are ignorant, like Socrates.
VDH:
1. Considering that your mother was a lawyer and judge, I can’t believe I’m correcting you on this point of substance.
All the promises that Obama made were about *future* events (e.g. C-Span televising the negotiations, posting the bill on the net, etc.)
Fraud and perjury can’t be premised upon intention to do something in the future.
Essentially the same deal with Pres. Bush. Bush was told by the CIA, the Brits and everyone else that Iraq had WMD. But it was based upon spies and electronic intercepts. Even Saddam’s generals thought they had WMD.
The point is: no one but Saddam *knew* for certain. The possibility exists – to this day – that Iraq had WMD and transferred them to Syria.
That info was all secret and knowledge was imperfect.
2. I read law student Obama’s case note in the Harvard L. Rev. Average, at best.
3. You did get correct Obama’s ability to get *both* sides to think he is in favor of them. According to fellow Harvard law students, that’s how he won the campaign (and apparently it was a campaign and election) to be the President of the Law Review.
4. I watched Sen. Tom Coburn’s town meeting on CSpan on Sunday. It was broadcast from Rogers State University; not an Ivy League school.
The guy is amazing. He really connects with average people, is smart as a whip and tough as nails.
He focused in on the debt problem: over $1,000,000 for each person under the age of 25 will be the sum in the near future. Do we saddle our kids with that?
43% of our current budget is borrowed money.
And his key point: every republic has collapsed because of internal fiscal problems.
One voter challenged him because he is a “part-time Senator and part-time doctor.” Sen/Dr. Coburn replied (in the best manner) that it keeps him in touch with *real* people and he does it from 6-9 A.M.
He won the crowd over and they applauded.
He said he reads the WSJ and Washington Post every day. “I’ve been blessed with a good enough brain to figure out which one is correct.” CF. Sarah Palin.
He finished with a Ronald Reagan quote that each generation must work to keep freedom.
Coburn, like Reagan, is a party outsider.
I hope we’ve found our next Reagan.
As always Professor Hanson’s analysis is right on target. His description of the relationship between the elites of the Obama administration and the elites of big-time media is particularlyt telling. This has been well illustrated by the news reporting of the tragic events in Haiti. While watching the coverage of this catastrophe it suddenly struck me that the one term I hadn’t heard was “blame.” For the first time in memory a horrible natural event claiming tens of thousands has taken place and nobody is to blame. I keep waiting for Anderson Cooper or one of the other talking heads to say something like “Many critics are now saying that the earthquake and it’s devastating consequences are the direct result of the Bush administration’s policies towards third world nations.” Where are the pontifications about “The veiled racism of the Bush administration which has ledt this impoiverished nation to struggle and starve?” Despite the appalling scope of this tragedy there seems something very pro forma in the way this event is being covered. The relief effort is facing a bottleneck at the Port-au-Prince airport where there is no room to unload planes with food and medical supplies. You can almost feel the emotional need on the part of the correspondents to blame someone for this but Bush, Cheney et al aren’t around anymore.
On the plus side, it is nice of Mr. Obama to preface his whoppers with “Let me be clear” and “Make no mistake” – that way, you can ignore most of his blathering and just listen for the keywords.
BC: Imagine a couple of left-leaning organizations insist that “Bush lied!”. How shocking. Although, if you glance at the listed sites, they do hedge all over the place. And you might want to be more careful – you wrote out a list of leftist tactics, but labeled it as “Republican tactics”.
The only one you got right was #5. Here’s a clue, slowboy – the Repubs, since they’re the closet thing we have to conservatives in Congress, are the opposition party. It’s their JOB to oppose, and it’s especially important that they oppose this administration’s imbecilic proposals. Too bad they couldn’t find the same spine when they were in the majority.
Just a correction to my post #51…men who are not together with women to oppose them is the cause of the problem in Chicago.
47. BC
You don’t make sense. How people like you can contradict the professor and all the wise comments on this blog, and maybe think you might influence somebody rather than just being out of place, is a mystery.
It would have been nice to get a few quotes from South Carolina’s Joe Wilson you know like “You lie!” during Obama’s speech before a joint session of Congress.
Obamacare by Groundhog Day or else!….Daylight Savings Day?……April 1st?……
I think stand up comic who mimicked Obama had it about right… Candidate Obama to cheering crowd: “We are a great nation, I need you to help me change it!”
VDH:
Have you noticed that Obama has shown very little enthusiasm and imagination in his latest speeches? This is mounting evidence that Obama is in denial — that the Presidency is not what he was expecting. Where there is denial, there is often an inability to face the truth.
It takes quite a bit of character to get your facts straight, and Obama’s behavior shows that his character is lacking.
One example of weakness in Obama’s character is his golfing. Reports are that he uses golf to do work. While mixing sport and work may be acceptable for many executives, Obama cannot reconcile this image with a serious work ethic. Maybe Obama is uncomfortable communicating in the office of the President, so he must resort to other informal venues? How can he reconcile the increasing unemployment rate with his ‘focus’ on jobs?
We all wish to have strong character, because character is to be (instead of pretending that we are). It appears that Obama did not find the right peers to guide him, because he is showing us how little he cares that his actions follow his words. We would like to learn something new from him, but instead we seem to only be learning that history can be repeated.
#70 PAthena;
True, but by the same token, Plato’s definition of a “true” philosopher-king essentially meant “A tyrant who agrees with me”.
The One clearly sees himself as a Platonic philosopher-ruler. And considering that he is seemingly as obsessed with the idea of a “Dictatorship of the Chosen” as Plato was, he is very probably correct in this self- assessment.
clear ether
eon
You can safely bet that when The Prevaricator of the United States/POTUS declares he will take certain action(s), he will then follow up that declaration by doing exactly the opposite of what he declared he would do. Yes,he is a bald faced liar. What does one expect of someone who won’t produce an original birth certificate, or school records, or bar records, or State Senate records, or medical records, etc., etc.. I wish the whole GOP side of the aisle had stood up that night and yelled “YOU LIE!!” at him. That would have been so worth the media explosion…..
31. vulgar moralist: “I don’t really know what is achieved by calling the president of the United States a liar. He’s the one elected official who represents us all. Insult him, and we insult ourselves.”
It is not an insult to ourselves or to the office of the President to call Obama a liar. It is an insult to us and to the office of the President when Obama lies.
Obama wants to believe that the mainstream media and most of the population will accept any lie he speaks. If enough people call him a liar, then he may realize that speaking the truth is necessary to successfully lead and persuade.
To Cornhead: No — *all* of the evidence together clearly shows that shortly after Bush was elected, he began planning to take out Hussein as per a standing policy wish by the PNAC, and Bush’s admin staff was loaded with PNAC members. 9/11 provided a great excuse under the “war on terror” umbrella and he directed the CIA and other agencies to dig up justifications, however dubious, for an invasion, and ignored the CIA warnings about there being no evidence to support the what Bush and his people were alleging.
People in general really, *really* don’t know the extent of Bush’s little, umm…, faux pas in judgment, ethics, etc., etc…..
I never had any respect for Obama. I knew his ilk long before the election. I volunteered during Vietnam to fight against communism, and now we have one as president. He surrounds himself with Marxists and socialists and I am against these people and their ideas of governance.
I just hope over the special Senate election in Massachusetts and the upcoming 2010 election that a good majority of the democrat party is voted out of office or defeated by a conservative to effectively make Obama a lame duck president!
Hey, we’re missing the bigger problem here. More than half the voters chose Barack. We all know his “lies” were perfectly clear during the campaign. The problem is that half of America buys the Liberal paradigm. What did he do other than become the embodiment of what they wish they could be, or what they truly admire? If we can not change the way people think then nothing matters in politics.
81. Dr. T:
right on. well stated.
liberals want to change the definition of lying to suit themselves.
The American people are beginning to wake up from all the lies and close door deals. The people of this Great Nation are awakeing to CHICAGO POLITICS.
OBAMA’s Hope and change, his fundamentary change to AMERICA, his civilian army, SEIU, ACORN, BIG LABOR UNIONS, BLACK PANTHERS and all others, is OBAMA’S weakness, not his strength.
Until the American people rise up an demand his socialist, markist,communist czars are fired, he will have 3 more years to destroy this great nation.
One example, every parent should be up in arms about his child molesting school czar. This OBAMA adm. and his school czar’s teaching is only the begining of corrupting the very young children of America. MAO’S China is a perfect example.The American parents had better wake up to this corruption , of young childrens mines.
The teachers union is the biggest THIEF of the young childres mind, by teaching this garbage.
The whole dem. party and the OBAMA adm. is the most corrupt orgination on the planet.
I have faith in the people of this great country. to rid this country of false lies of HOPE AN CHANGE,OBAMA STYLE.
This 1st. year is the begining of the end for this corrupt adm. an its style of corrupt CHICAGO POLITICS.
A cold wind is blowing… a nor’easter brings the unexpected storm.
BC: George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq.
It was the right thing to do. Therefore I applaud him.
Now that is my opinion. You are unable to do anything about it. Good day.
Who, what where? We already know the How and why? Can anyone provide links in this thread as concerning this mans past? Not his youth. I’m concerned with the details from Occidental college in LA, Columbia, Harvard. No photos, no recollections. Girlfriends, social life and the social clamor (ups the downs). Who is he???? His books describe a saint in training, yes their was a side trip to Pakistan. We all assume their is more. Much more. Isn’t it time to know the who, what, where, & when of this tale.
OBAMA LIED…HOPE DIED.
a commenter above said, “I don’t really know what is achieved by calling the president of the United States a liar. He’s the one elected official who represents us all.”
What is achieved by calling a liar a liar? Perhaps just a little clearing of the air, which is usually not troublesome to those to whom clear thinking and speaking is valuable.
He represents you? What you think? What you would do? How you behave from day to day? How you treat people for whom you have some responsibility? Then God deliver us from YOU ever holding any office above dog catcher.
I truly believe, trust and hope and strive for a reality in which there is very, very little resemblance between him and me. He certainly does NOT represent me in what he is and does, and he refuses to represent in the things concerning these United States of America. Please give up the nonsense that if we criticize him somehow we lose ground. Talk about Stockholm syndrome. You are toxic, sir. Stay away from impressionable people, please.
Essential vdh.
Thomas Sowell (TS) has a new book out with acknowledged contributions from vdh.
Anyone who reads this blog and contributes and is a conservative is lying to himself if he does not read TS along with vdh and other critical thinkers.
TS has been fighting the good fight intelligently for longer than most Americans have been alive. He is an impressive American in the truest sense of the word and he is also self made in the sense that it is true of anyone who can claim it.
TS, WEW, vdh, Rush Limbaugh and now Glen Beck are among keystone Americans that know and can show and can communicate the way “home” when the socialists have been left alone to fail by dumbed down and flim flamed Americans.
Social theorists and despots like Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Castro, Che, Chavez and other like minded idiots like the BHO’s have been allowed by dumbed down Americans to destroy America and Americans.—Almost.
This has all occurred in the name of trading individual responsibility and personal freedoms for a dumbed down Utopian language, silly words only–a sirens song that has killed millions over the last 140 years.
The AA, PC, Ivy league educated BHO and his pack does not even know of the treads of victims on a beaten down path of self destruction.
Ivy League Intellectuals who could not build an outhouse are left to guide nations over a cliff like Judas goats. Their only ability is to create Socialism, crony capitalism and calculate unearned bonus payments. Lying, cheating and stealing is normal for their mindset.
Now America must rebuild due to those, PC, AA socialists who with inane and idiot theory have been allowed to destroy the character and integrity of America and Americans.
All because the Utopian socialists were left to continue to try and implement known failed socialist theory for power pushed by the above lineup of power hunger and stupid idiots.
Voters Seek guidance. Dump the current rewritten history books and learn how to learn and know how to know what needs to be done. The rebuilding process may begin sooner than you think.
It is high time America goes back to work and quite waiting for the BHO’s Utopian handouts that will not materialize other than to make slaves out of all Americans. We do not need to turn America into a Plantation with overseers. America fought one civil war already.
I am surprised that BO does not flinch even a little bit in light of the ferocious push back on all his major initiatives and approaches coming from a majority of Americans – mostly average, apolitical people.
Is there anyone reading this who, if in that position, wouldn’t stop to reflect on this, get his/her story straight, vet the opposition’s concerns and validate or adjust their guiding principles? Instead we get the bum’s rush.
It almost doesn’t matter who is right – he deserves to be bounced out of office for this trait alone. His approach suggests an unprincipled ideologue, a narcissistic personality disorder or a huge ego underpinned with equally huge insecurity.
The President ought to take the same Hippocratic Oath as a doctor – first do no harm. And our representatives, even if in a majority, should not be able to trample all over people’s constitution guaranteed liberties based on their political ambitions.
Sule (#52):
Are citizens of America (the ones who are paying the freight, I mean) being endlessly goaded by the outrages of this administration by intent? …think martial law, censorship, jailcells.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Sule. If you read Bill Ayers’ manifesto for the Weather Underground, you’ll see that their plan was to foment all-out race warfare in the streets of America. This would be the gunpowder that would set off the great socialist revolution.
And of course, yes, such turmoil would give Obama the excuse to declare a national state of emergency and impose martial law.
Also please remember that Bill Ayers’ group planned to send recalcitrant Americans to re-education camps–and those who still refused to go along with the program were to be “eliminated”–up to 25 million of us.
One of the main checks to the rage I feel at Obama and the Dems’ bulldozing of our country is that I know that rage is EXACTLY what Ayers and company WANT me to feel, so that I’ll rebel, and then they’ll have the excuse they’ve been wanting to crush me utterly.
Doctor Professor,
We have read much about BHO as the classical, clinical narcissist. Narcissism is recognized as a personality disorder, when it is extreme. However, it can be sublimated, channeled into good works within civilized bounds. Tammy Bruce once admitted that her work and advocacies are an outlet for her narcissism. It’s easy to see how this can be done.
But much more serious and pathological, I believe, is the SOCIOPATH BARACK H. OBAMA. It is understandable to hold back on labeling him as such. But I believe the proof and evidence are overwhelming. He is is morally “numb”, from the neck up. The sociopath feels nothing, in reality, for moral transgressions. He is AMORAL: there is no distinction of right or wrong. The immoral realizes what his is doing is out of bounds-and does not care.
Barack Hussein Obama is psychological basket case with a morally compartmented, intra-celluar mind, where voices of conscience are hermetically sealed in echo chambers. He is capable of any treachery, any rationalization, any INTERNAL mix of justifications for his actions. The sociopath is not tethered to historical, cultural, tradition landmarks and hubs of rectitude. Rather, his contempt for them and their contextual society creates the substitute value system of his unique self. It is arrogance beyond, over the line into danger for those around him, i.e., you and me.
Finally, a common trait of sociopaths (ex-psychopaths) is there superficial charm, their sparkling personality, their targeting of those they impress and bamboozle, making them “feel like the most important person in the room”. Remember this description?
Hint: this was the the pathetic bleating of the weak minded in reference to the President who occupied the White House during the latter nineties.
84. KevinButterfield:
Now you see it.
And the thinking half is responsible for letting the unthinking half do this to us.
So go Galt. It’s over.
“Class warfare is hard when your own profile is the logical target.”
Ain’t that the truth.
Thanks for another piece reminding us of many (but not all) of Obama’s compromises. Or should I say con-promises.
I used to keep a tally but I ran short on paper.
A leader may be un-charismatic. A leader may be not the brightest light in the house. A leader may be arrogant (to a degree, as most who seeking office are). A leader may be an ideologue (again, to a degree, before the people rise against them).
But at most fundamental level, a leader must be credible. A leader must have integrity. When these are lost, so is the leader’s fortunes.
Obama has lied so many times that he is no longer credible, and he has shown he lacks even a shred of integrity.
And America sees him for what he always was: a silver-tongued liar able to manipulate people’s guilt for his own aggrandizement.
I’d love to see the list of Obama lies since 2004 when he was elected to Congress.
Of course, we know those lies go back further, as he lied about writing his own memoirs.
And it is not a stretch to think he lied about his nationality when seeking college admission.
Keep your eye on “Robespierre Michelle” for far too many don’t examine her direct influence and perhaps control over Obama-Mao.
You’ve been warned!
Quoting #62, Maryann from Totonto:
And he went after one of Brown’s signature shticks, his old pickup truck, used to convey Everyman appeal. “You’ve got to look under the hood,” President Obama said. “Forget the truck. Everybody can buy a truck.”
Project much?
#82 Want to have a laugh? Follow BC’s links to see what he regards as “evidence”.
First, BC takes us to Bush’s WH where BC is shocked to find conservatives and Republicans are among those who advise Bush. Stunned, BC can’t believe that Obama didn’t do the same thing and stack his WH with libs and Dems. Oh, he did? Well that’s OK then.
Second, BC gives us none other than Richard Clark in 2004. Clark was that voice in the wilderness speaking truth to power and whistle-blowing in the wind on his way to writing period pieces for the drive-by media. Clark makes allegations. (I have stated here before that BC and his fellow trolls confuse allegations with evidence. BC once claimed as a fact that Bush senior approved Saddam’s attack on Kuwait.) How does BC know that? Dis guy told him.
Finally BC takes us not to CIA’s Langley, VA, but to Germany, of all places. There Der Spiegle interviews a Herr Dummenheimer or something like that. An guess what, Herr Dummenheimer expresses his love for Germany, refuses to answer some questions and makes some allegations.
Good job, BC. You sure sold me.
A few weeks ago, one of your readers (R.W. Burke) posted a reference to the Neuro-Linguistic Programming technique called “break logic”. This actually goes beyond simple deceit (the hallmark of this administration) and aims at impeding reason itself. It is part a parcel of the grand Leftist design to disorient the populace, making them easier to herd, cattle-like, towards the cliff. Thus, by constantly tinkering with the rulebook (language), the Left presses forward, modifying their positions as they go. This is both a measure of the contempt in which they hold the average citizen, and a window into their post-modern vision of governance: The truth (law) is whatever we say it is…
There is good news here because it is a double-edged sword. Since for the Left there is no truth except political expediency, and the linguistic protocols they use to identify each other (“social justice”, “progressive” etc. etc.), it means they lack a firm, objective grasp on reality themselves. That is why, for instance, they are unable to understand what is happening in Massachusetts today.
Furthermore, many average Americans are a lot wiser than the Leftists believe – having been taught in the school of hard knocks about the difference between quantifiable and moral truths on the one hand, and academic abstraction (wishful thinking) on the other. You may fool some of us some of the time, but you won’t fool all of us all of the time. What is amusing is to watch is a group of Leftists when their artifice begins to crumble. Immediately they go into denial, then they begin to seek external explanations… anything but admit that their brilliant construct of reality is fundamentally flawed. Finally it begins to dawn on the more grounded among them that they have badly miscalculated and authored their own undoing, but they dare not speak it out loud, for fear of being labeled a heretic or made a scapegoat. Their confusion turns inward and mistrust runs rampant. Their unity fragments as the ship of illusions upon which they sail begins to dissolve in the cold waters of reality. It’s not nice to bite the hand that feeds you. Enjoy the show…
Great Article. I used to think Obama was a typical leftist or rather “the definintive perfect leftist.”
He is NOT and VDH correct . He is not like your leftist friend or neighbor or cousin. He is a Pathological liar. A Pretender. Power hungry. A narcissit. etc.
Victor is right. “”Dreams of My Father” says it all. He is a very confused person. When you plug a confused person into the left’s religeon,you get Obama.
Steve Sailor (another great American thinker/writer) nailed this concept and even wrote a book about it for “evil” V-Dare.
P.S. Even though they are seemingly at odds, aspects of Hanson, Sailor and Buchanon add up to the truth and reality in America today.
PaulM #25 – i agree with you completely.
A country dependent upon Government accomodations are useful idiots of the highest order.
Haitians sustained a large portion of their day-to-day due to U.S. Canadian and French aid prior to the recent earthquake.
Less than a week after the earthquake, gangs, individuals and people in between are living as if they’re extras in ‘Road Warrior’.
When given empathy so often and for so long, the opposite reaction is inevitable for most when encountering a crisis such as this.
Yet, many U.S. citizens want more U.S. Government intervention in OUR day-to-day. Be careful what you wish for..
Has it dawned on no one yet that Obama & Co (but most especially he) are DECONSTRUCTIONISTS. In order to “transform America” it must first be broken apart so that bits an pieces may be chosen (by the chosen & annointed)to form a new construct based on conceptual relationships of a “desirable society.”
Sound conspiratorial? Maybe; but, if you believe in a particular political use for crises, the best way to have one or more around “not to waste” is to keep creating them.
We will have more – and their true source should be observed.
Re: “No surprise at all to me…B+rryO wasn’t even eligible to be President due to his dual citizenship at birth.”
Dual citizenship at birth has no effect on Natural Born Citizenship. The original meaning of Natural Born Citizen is simply a citizen who was born in the country.
Yale Law Review wrote: “It is well settled that “native-born” citizens, those born in the United States, qualify as natural born. ”
And why such prominent conservative Senators who are also lawyers as Orren Hatch and Lindsay Graham say that a Natural Born Citizen is simply one who was born in the USA:
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said:
“Every child born in the United States is a natural-born United States citizen except for the children of diplomats.” (December 11, 2008 letter to constituent)
Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), said:
“What is a natural born citizen? Clearly, someone born within the United States or one of its territories is a natural born citizen.” (Senate Judiciary Committee hearing hearing on OCTOBER 5, 2004)
Re: “if he was born in Hawaii it’s all moot anyway.”
No “ifs” about it. Obama was born in Hawaii as his official birth certificate from Hawaii shows. And, the facts on the birth certificate were twice confirmed by the officials in Hawaii, members of a Republican governor’s administration.
The Wall Street Journal commented: “Obama has already provided a legal birth certificate demonstrating that he was born in Hawaii. No one has produced any serious evidence to the contrary. Absent such evidence, it is unreasonable to deny that Obama has met the burden of proof. We know that he was born in Honolulu as surely as we know that Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Ark., or George W. Bush in New Haven, Conn.”
Hmm. So Barry lies? Well who doesn’t?
George “WMD” Bush
Bill “That woman” Clinton
George “Read My Lips” Bush
Ronald “I don’t remember” Reagan
About the only president who didn’t lie to the American people was Jimmy Carter and they ran him out of town on a rail right fast.
Heck, you’d figure lying is practically part of the job qualification.
Planning to invade Iraq means nothing. We were planning to fight a war against Japan as soon as WWI ended (Japan was our ally at the time). We also had war plan contingencies for fighting Canada and England. There’s all kinds of plans to fight wars that will never happen, because a few of these wars will happen, and we need to be prepared if they should come to pass.
BC, take off your tinfoil hat and address the current article. I am sure it will be well reasoned and articulate backed up with actual data.
DAMN! I have been exposed to too much Obama rhetoric. Sorry, I am better now.
#84 KevinButterfield:Hey, we’re missing the bigger problem here. More than half the voters chose Barack. =========
Just a little clarification. Only 58% of the electorate voted in the 2009 November election. Of those, 52% voted for Obama. That computes to 31% of the electorate saddled us with this clown.
Professor,
If I offer one minor edit:
(And then we’ll both have a
beermerlot together afterwords.)The elitists only drink craft brews when they want to appear more middle class. Amongst themselves, in my experience, they try to appear hoity toity, which usually results in EPIC FAIL.
Re #112. Stupid keyboard …. 2008