All Bad on Day One?
I think history suggests that it is far better for an incoming President (cf. Reagan, Clinton, Bush, etc.) to face a recession than to enter office during a boom—given the cyclical nature of economic downturns juxtaposed with the four-year election span. And abroad the world is not in such dire shape, despite what we have heard the last eight years. Iraq is stable. There is an existing strategy to deal with the Taliban. The Bush second term was multilateral to the core, and pro-American conservative governments now flourish in Europe. Chavez, Putin, and Ahmadinejad are about broke, and losing influence. India and China are friendly. Africa appreciates the massive influx of US HIV-relief. Al Qaeda is in disarray. Bin Laden’s popularity and that of suicide bombing itself have plummeted. Thousands of al Qaeda operatives were killed in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Dr. Zawahiri is shriller than ever, and more than ever neglected. The homeland has been untouched since 9/11. Gas prices have crashed, giving us a half-trillion-dollar stimulus and robbing our enemies of trillions more.
Bush was right then or is Obama wrong now?
Readers may cite some earlier criticism of Bush’s foreign policy (concrete not rhetorical) that Obama has not de facto retracted before even entering office, but I cannot. FISA, the Patriot Act, renditions, Guantanamo, Iraq, Afghanistan? So what in the end was the opposition to FISA, the promises to summarily close Guantanamo, and the desire to have combat troops out of Iraq by March 2008 (yes, 2008 not 2009) all about?
There is no media, again…
After watching Eric Holder fumble over questions that pertained to his own independence, subservience to the President, and faulty memory, I thought those were just the problems that once prompted Senators and the NY-DC press to declare Alberto Gonzales unfit for the office of Attorney General.
In regards to the Geithner nomination, I also thought after the Zoë Baird and Linda Chavez doomed cabinet nominations that the press and Congress would not allow anyone to serve who had hired either an illegal alien or a worker with improper green card credentials. And in regards to the Geithner tax problems, believe it or not, most of us really do try to pay all estimates on self-employed income on time, do pay all of our self-employed FICA taxes, and prefer to overpay than to underpay them. So I am baffled that with his nomination, the two chief federal officers who oversee American tax policy—the Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee—simply cannot follow the tax codes. But if they cannot, who else can and will?
The Rich Party, the Poor Go Hungry
The 2005 Bush inauguration, despite occurring in boom times, was, I remember, deemed by the media as crass and a rich man’s fest, insensitive to the general poverty around. The more than twice as expensive 2009 Obama inauguration, despite occurring in a severe recession, is a measured and proper celebration of diversity and landmark progress. Annuit coeptis indeed.
Is Biden obsessed with Cheney?
Now Joe Biden claims that he is better qualified than any prior VP, and knows as much or more than Cheney. I feel for Obama, for how can he expect Biden to behave the next four years? Joe is self-obsessed, insecure, and lacks the temperament for high executive office. In short, he will have to have a coterie of censors who monitor his every move. The more he gratuitously attacks Cheney, the more one senses that he wishes to be as influential as Cheney. Given Biden’s zillion positions on the war, and his impression that FDR addressed the nation on television as President in 1929, why does he believe he knows as much or more than Cheney?
That’s All it Took?
Gulag Guantanamo becomes problematic and complex once it’s Obama’s rather than Bush’s. Suddenly what do you do with Khalid Sheik Mohammed? Will the Senators allow these non-uniformed terrorist enemy combatants to be tried or held in their states? Do any countries want their own detainees back? If you catch more terrorists on the battlefields of Afghanistan, do you turn them over to the Afghan army? Hold them in prison camps in Afghanistan? Let them go? Do a FDR—that is, try them in military tribunals and shoot them in secret if found guilty? Ship them to Cuba? Indict and try them—if so where—New York or DC (and hope a single juror doesn’t nullify the verdict and free the architect of 9/11)? Probable solution? I think it is the following: say everyday you’re going to close Guantanamo (but don’t for a year), sell some detainees back to their home countries (some federal perks given in the exchange), say you can’t try any of them since three were water boarded and Bush polluted the court process, and then put them in some sort of nameless facility overseas before quietly letting them go.
The Obama Winning Formula
1. Combine charm, youth, rhetoric, a multiracial persona with dramatic sets like the retracing of the Lincoln route to DC and the Latin seal to create a sort of messianic personality that ensures popularity ratings over 50%.
2. In deference to the Left, showcase black feminist poets, gay priests, radical environmentalists, open borders advocates—all in symbolic ways or in appointments to lower, less important offices that won’t turn up too embarrassing on the Drudge Report.
3. Tack to the center on the hunch that the media was anti-Bush rather than anti-his positions per se. So putting an Obama stamp on existing Bush foreign policy does wonders, and helps unite the country. As we have seen with Sen. Patrick Leahy’s softball questioning of Eric Holder (in comparison to his fiery dissection of Attorney General Gonzalez), or the media silence about the suddenly OK Patriot Act (there will be no more stories about a shredded American Constitution), power is all that matters, and all that ever did.
How long can all this last? Well, Clinton survived Monica as the media began emphasizing that Ken Starr was a ‘cigarette lawyer’ rather than the President as a serial philander with a subordinate employee in the Oval Office, who lied about it to the American people. To near silence, he pardoned a fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list who had given Clinton subordinates and surrogates hundreds of thousands of dollars for the pardon. Again, we have no media anymore, only a group of rather elite socializers who believe they play a key role in ensuring social justice by their enlightened ethical commentary. A successful journalist in DC or New York is instead a social position, analogous to the thousands who lived in 18th-century Versailles, and occasionally were invited to dine with Louis himself.
Another great article doc. Thanks for taking the time to write these and sharing them with us.
Today, one wonders how Obama could possibly fail. As you’ve noted, he’s arrived at a time where things have either leveled out or hit bottom and are bound to improve. The media fawns over him and most of the country sees him as another Lincoln or the Messiah.
Despite all this, something tells me the gods will humble this fraud of a man. This bubble has to pop eventually.
There seems to be a laundry list of things that are vehemently denounced if done by Bush, but perfectly okay if performed by (someone like) Obama. I suppose the same forces are at work no matter who’s in power, but it gets tiresome to see such naked hypocrisy on display in “Big Media” year after year – Chris Matthews’s soliloquy on Bush’s failed international efforts revealed only the emptiness within – had president Clinton been the one under review, all the items Matthews was bashing Bush for would have been praised as the height of diplomacy, and transcendence of partisanship, blah, blah, blah.
“Obama can do no wrong” – expect this to be the theme of every news outlet unless and until proved otherwise.
I am concerned America’s enemies might deduct Obama is not, at the core, strong.
A core-strong President Elect does not stand in front of a sign that says “Office of the President Elect.” A strong President Elect would disdain such a sign, correctly, because its use is a sign of weakness.
Ditto for long defensive speeches on appointees.
Ditto for the train ride on Lincoln’s coat tails.
Ditto for for the repeated use of “I am standing here to tell you” while he is standing there to tell us, basically, that as much as he proclaims his intellect is great because of a life-long study of Lincoln, Obama’s witness is much to the contrary. He neither speaks, acts or, most important of all, thinks like Lincoln.
Interestingly, authors and students of history who have studied much of Lincoln, seem to display a writing and thinking process much like their beloved subject.
“The Obama Winning Formula”
Or, it may be that many more millions of Americans now agree to a significant extent with Obama’s ideas and view of what America ought to be like.
That is the scariest possibility of all.
The effects of charm wear off and one can hide behind an allegedly ‘centrist’ persona only so long. But if the majority of the electorate, thanks to decades of public school and major media brainwashing, actually are sympathetic to progressivism, as more and more appears to be the case, then watch out.
Time will tell.
Again, we have no media anymore, only a group of rather elite socializers who believe they play a key role in ensuring social justice by their enlightened ethical commentary. A successful journalist in DC or New York is instead a social position, analogous to the thousands who lived in 18th-century Versailles, and occasionally were invited to dine with Louis himself.
If only that were true, VDH…I would believe that our national tantrum is over. If only that were true, I would believe that we would beging to obtain actual facts from our information stream, rather than a filtered and lockstep message from the far left.
If only that were true, we would simply suffer fools rather than traitors, who positioned themselves against this country for eight straight years and in acts of petit treason aided and abetted those who mean us harm.
If only that were true, VDH, all the giddy voices now light and airy on those same airwaves, in that bankrupt tower at the NYTimes and in those crumbling wire services…once dark, brooding and ominous, have been lifted for all time, regardless of who the NEXT leader might be, but alas …I do not believe the national tantrum has ended.
It is merely a petulant child, who shrieked and screeched for eight years because they wanted cake and candy for breakfast. The lied about my country, they slandered my country and they turned their back on my country. Some believe they are back.
I don’t believe a word of it. They just stopped shrieking for the moment. They got their cake and candy for breakfast.
This could have been a wonderful celebration of many good things about this land of mine. I truly don’t wish to hold this against the new President. I want to show an example of how to treat our leader, that reflects absolutely NONE of the behaviors of those now so giddy and gloating.
But I do not believe for an instant that they have changed, not one iota. The national tantrum is not over, not by a long shot. I must admit, I am enjoying the fact that they have shut up for a minute, though.
It is not an inauguration so much as it is an “inaugurasm”. Today I caught a quote from Putin about Obama: “The biggest disappointments arise out of big expectations”. Whatever you think about the Russian Prime Minister, he has got it right.
As always, VDH is spot on. America is willingly subjugating itself to style over substance. The founding fathers were not perfect men but they made a perfect document that is being ignored by the majority for style and nuance. We don’t care about truth of our leaders nor ourselves. We want to feel good about ourselves and not feel any pain from our decisions. We want to be taken care of by our governement. Let someone else pay for us.
I am disgusted.
VDH is so way ahead of historical patterns and world events, it’s hard to keep track.
Which is why a likely throw away line I believe he has used on a number of occasions about oil independence is instructive.
VDH has, I am pretty sure, mentioned a few times that “the days of $24 barrels of oil are gone.”
Now we have not gotten quite that low yet, but close. And it may be an abberation of a once in a century economic crisis.
But it goes to show how truly unpredictable history really is. At $140 a barrel in July, it seemed like an airtight prediction. Who’d have thought how quickly it would prove false?
When thinking about anything in the future, near and far, it pays to remember the “unknown unknowns”.
Applied to Russia, Iran, and North Korea – among all the other things we can’t think of – it sends a shiver up the spine.
But historical surprises can also play in our favor.
Here’s to historians who do the leg work, even when they’re off a bit.
Since it is now Obama’s America with the media and moribund press kissing his butt, let us join with the Left and attack everything America does.
I wonder how much longer the prominence of the MSM will last. Some talk of crash-and-burn. It looks like a slow fade to me.
Obama’s getting his turn at bat real soon. I wish him all the best. I hope he’ll be a friend to Israel. He’s said some good things. But he’s very good at 180′s and he put some strange friends in high places no matter all the talk about centrist appointments.
People hate Bush’s attitude but I like his attitude. When I think about ‘W’, I think about Frank…
And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, Ill say it clear,
Ill state my case, of which Im certain.
Ive lived a life thats full.
Ive traveled each and evry highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
Regrets, Ive had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.
I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
Yes, there were times, Im sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.
Ive loved, Ive laughed and cried.
Ive had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.
To think I did all that;
And may I say – not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,
I did it my way.
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!
I would really like to see Dr. Hanson in a more prominent position in national discourse.
His knowledge and analysis are without peer or major criticism, yet his invective is both effective and mature enough to be successful in broadcast or in the more brutal internet arena. To fact check or rationally criticize Dr. Hanson’s points, one must step up to the highest levels only to find very little, if any, weaknesses in his ironclad arguments.
Another wonderful piece Dr. Hanson.
I admire the way you have boiled down the facts and succinctly presented them.
The ongoing shameful and obstinate media coronation of all things liberal or Obama as blissfully wise and correct regardless of the facts will have dangerous repercussions. The lack of a truly objective peoples watchdog threatens our basic freedoms.
The social club membership seems to be the overriding principle on what and how news is now reported. Just imagine if President Bush had proposed building and funding a domestic security force, nominated a tax cheat for Treasury Secretary, or lawyer who did an ex-presidents dirty work, (including pardons for terrorists), as the Attorney General! In fact, imagine all the out-of-bounds issues surrounding Obamas character and past if they were owned by Bush!
The meteoric rise in alternative medias will continue and the attacks upon them by liberal “fairness” schemes also will continue as the mis-leaders seek to consolidate a monopoly on information.
So we must continue to support these venues and protect them as best we can, as I do not see the elitists relinquishing their memberships anytime soon, and the Fredie Mac/Fannie Mae fiasco give us an idea what can happen when nobody is watching them!
I think Hansen covered his chosen topic rather well.
However, he made the major mistake by not talking about Bush’s colossal failure in attacking Hussein, which brought America its own Hussein, rather than attacking Iran.
Iraq was never a threat to the Western world. Yes Hussein killed millons of Iranians, which was probably a good thing, and wanted to dominate the Middle East. But America should never have fought him anywhere except outside of Iraq. Instead America should have gone into Iran and wiped out that whole terrorist infastructure.
Iran, other than Obama and his cronies, is the biggest threat to democracy in the world.
Bush and his Middle East cronies were also responsible for the oil bubble off of which the Bush family and his cronies made billions, while the rest of Western world choked on inflated oil prices.
The U.S. would have been better off if it had only one Bush President and not the second one.
Victor Davis Hanson
“Bush’s problems are now Obama’s: and suddenly the media is so much more patient and forgiving …”
What an obtuse and idiotic remark!
Bush and crew created their own problems. Obama’s team will try to sweep them off. The “liberal” press is just being encouraging. The creepy conservative press don’t care if the country stays in the mud. Everyone (media) makes money one way or the other.
I agree with most of Dr. Hanson’s piece, although he assumes our economic troubles may be over in two years (I think history suggests that it is far better for an incoming President … to face a recession). Given Pelosi’s and Emanuel’s desire to re-create the New Deal, Obama may end up looking more like Jimmy Carter than William Jefferson Blyth III. In that regard, the reference to the pardons and Monica forgets how tired America was, finally, of the Clinton soap opera and how glad everyone was to have it (seemingly) end.
On the issue of the Winning Formula, this assumes things get better within the usual cycle. Granted, Bambi’s big achievement in life has been selling himself, but now he actually has to do something.
Yes, Vivo, Obama’s team will “sweep them off” whatever that means. They could have started by refusing to throw the biggest, most expensive potlatch in the history of the world during a nasty recession.
However, he made the major mistake by not talking about Bush’s colossal failure in attacking Hussein, which brought America its own Hussein, rather than attacking Iran.
Attacking Iran? Please tell me from where. Just tell me. From Pakistan? From Afghanistan? (Try to get supplies in Afghanistan) From Russia? From Turkey? That is the only half viable route but it is not sure at all the Turks would agree and it is a narrow front over montain country. Great. Oh and you have to keep the Gulf open until you complete the invasion. That means months due to the narrow front I mentionned (plus the fact you have to guard your flank against Saddam)
Now I think of it: for invading Iran the best base is… Iraq.
Iraq was never a threat to the Western world.
You take one enemy at at time. It would have been nice to follow with an invasion of Iran but Russians, French and Democrats so utterly destroyed Bush’s political capital he was unable to follow.
Yes Hussein killed millons of Iranians, which was probably a good thing, and wanted to dominate the Middle East
Giving him 50% of all oil in world and/or putting hundreds of oil wells within missile range.
“Bush and crew created their own problems.”
Vivo you need to submit your entry to the contest that is underway to name the journalist who wrote after September 11, 2001 that “the USA would not be attacked for the next seven years.”
In view of that feature of the Bush administration, that we were protected from further Islamic horror, there really are no problems, are there?
Outstanding article, Dr. Hanson.
Here’s another fair and balanced article — this one from economist, Thomas Sowell, on the Bush legacy:
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/tsowell/2009/ts_01171.shtml.
Hanson, Sowell and all the people who stand for truth should not stop writing the truth. Otherwise, Obama and the establishments that love him, will erase the truth from our memories and from history books.
Obama is following all of Bush’s leads. Obama = Bush III
The self-drawn Lincoln analogy is really getting to me. It is very easy to admire Lincoln’s words, but no one was more aware than Lincoln that it was the sacrifice of average Americans that we must honor. Some weekend when he is at Camp David, he should make private trips to Gettysburg and Antietam. He should count the graves of those who learned to use their guns to put meat on the family table and who, inspired by their faith and enabled by their churches, helped build the institutions of our society. Those graves at Antietam enabled him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln did not see the American people as clinging to outdated rituals while waiting for a saviour. He saw them as the foundation of our country. Lincoln used the word “we” in the Gettysburg Address because he was part of the American people, not a detached observer with prescriptions for our betterment.
Our friend Vivo (@15) reminds us of the rose-colored glasses that the left now wears (or would welding goggles be more apropos?) in its assessment of the new president.
To watch the media coverage of the upcoming inaugural and not come away with the distinct impression that it is more akin to Entertainment Tonight than it is to political journalism is laughable. This unearned adoration that is being fawned upon Mr. Obama does not in any way obscure the fact that a great deal of the media that we grew up reading, listening to and watching is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Some portion of their situation is due to the world passing them by in the internet era, but much of it is due to their abandonment of their necessary role as skeptics in a free society. They now act as cheerleaders for the left and snipers against the right. I am reminded, as someone who works with small machines, I can always tell when an engine is about to run out of gas. It will rev just a little bit faster before it suddenly sputters and dies. I think that I hear quite a bit of revving going on right now in the media. Given their conduct of late, we’d be better off without the pollution that many of these outlets spew into our political atmosphere.
We on the right are on the outside looking at the moment; such is the natural ebb and flow of the political cycle. I was in Washington twenty-eight years ago participating in the first Reagan inaugural. The much despised Carter was finally leaving office, a new and charismatic conservative leader was beginning his presidency and a humiliating foreign policy debacle suddenly ended all on the same day. The mood in the Capitol was electric, something that I will never forget. Those who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much during the Civil Rights Era have much to be proud of as they watch Mr. Obama take the oath of office. Our political opponents are giddy in the wake of their November victory. They wanted a party, so they threw themselves one. Have fun, I certainly did when I was on the inside.
Starting Wednesday morning, Vivo’s penetrating insights notwithstanding, the responsibility for handling the nation’s problems fall smack in the lap of Mr. Obama.
Having watched for some years those muslims who support their fellow brothers and sisters in the struggle to overcome what the jews and infidels have done to their world, I am pleased to note that we in our western world, especially in America, have found a proper answer, a smarter response, a more true truth.
Muslims get done on their hands and knees many times each day to face a power much greater than themselves.
Now we infidels can do the same. We can mirror our sworn enemies.
All hail Obama, all kneel to Obama…all pray for Obama’s wisdom to see us prosper!
Sorry I can’t go on, time for my shrink’s appoinment.
Victor:
Nice article.
The press has done all it can to lay everything that has happened badly to the US onto Bush. And conversely have done all they can to turn Obama into an all supreme human being. I think Obama supporters will soon find out that both aren’t as advertised.
Bush did many things wrong but he didn’t:
* Put GM in dire straits; GM and previous congresses did that by agreeing to labor deals which were economically unfeasible and the stupid regulations of Tarp
* Let bin Laden do what he wanted: Clinton could have killed him and didn’t
* Didn’t set up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fail: Rangel and his democratic buddies did
The list goes on.
Obama has already decreed that there will no longer be harsh interrogation. Now that will really help the war on terror. Closing Guantanamo will be another death blow to al Quieda? And of course he will “fix” don’t ask don’t tell in the military.
But Obama is lucky. No matter how bad he is he or what wrong he does he will get cover from the press and all failures will still be laid to rest at Bush’s feet.
Don’t know if America will be so lucky.
A brilliant piece, again, professor VHS.
I would just add one very, very important point that cannot ever be forgotten: It took a G. W. Bush presidency to make it possible the coming into law, at last, of the much precious BAIPA (Born Alive Infants Protection Act) (in 2002), which under Clinton was vetoed twice.
In doing so, Bush struck a magnificent blow aginst the culture of death, which, unfortunately, will proceed with full speed ahead under President Obama.
God bless you, Victor Davis Hanson!
God have mercy on us!
Thanks, Dr Hanson. Well, here we go, America. Nothing more to say.
You can always depend on Hanson for a biased view. Poor Bush – screwed up for eight years and the Press and American Public gets impatient with him. Obama has not started yet and Hanson wants to blame him for all that has gone wrong under Bush.
Anyone else wonder what the MSM could possible find to talk about now that they’ve elected President Obama? What on Earth will Rachel Maddow have to blather on about? There’s only so many times she can pet Obama before she becomes redundant. One can not even imagine Chris Matthews playing “Hardball” with anything involving Obama. Bush became a sporting event for them and now that he’s headed off for Texas they’ll only have Obama to fawn over. Buhbye MSDNC! Buhbye Huffington Post! Buhbye Daily Kos! Good riddance.
The season of campaign promises, speculation, and hyperbolic theory is almost at it’s end. Now we can measure out the unknown in the traditional “first 100 days.” Will the aftermath of the inaguration be a hangover or a cure?
What will Maddow talk about? What will MSNBC and the New York Times and the Washington Post and CNN talk about now that they control all the branches of government? They’ll talk about you.
I mean they’ll now concentrate on marginalizing every challenge to leftist influence, they’ll demonize every Republican as an incipient fascist that needs to be dealt with before he can harm America’s progress. That is why the fairness doctrine won’t be reborn – not because they don’t want to shut down the opposition, but because they’ll now fund generously a media attack machine that will dwarf FOX news and talk radio in influence and power. All of their paranoia will now take real form, and there’s nothing as dangerous as an ideology that has become religion.
I, like many Americans, looked forward to the day that we would move completely past race and elect our first black President. I looked forward to the day that a black person of great stature and great achievement could render their race irrelevant and be elected to the highest office in the land. To our great national sadness and shame, what we have today is the opposite of such a person. Rather than someone who is elected to the Presidency in spite of their race – we have someone who was elected to the presidency because of their race. BHO’s sole qualification for the presidency is that he was the black candidate. He has no leadership experience whatsoever and the only greatness he has achieved is to have won the popularity contest we call our presidential election.
I looked to the day when the election of a black President would signal the end of racism in America. Sadly, the election of BHO is the single greatest act of collective racism in the history of the Unites States of America.
I am concerned America’s enemies might deduct Obama is not, at the core, strong.
Ditto :)
On home “ownership” for the “30%”. Well, it’s not so much home ownership as a contract to change phone numbers every two months as the debt collectors catch up. If it wasn’t for the DEBT ownership it might otherwise be a social benefit if every couple starting out could own a homestead.
Don’t thing condos count as (as much) a homestead, nor even do many homes in developments where home ownership associations rule like fierce tyrants.
Yet to have a small independent homestead — free of the debt burden — is a training camp for Liberty, Responsibility and Private Property. Nothing fancy! Just the simplest — one that can be improved considerably.
I do think Mr. Bush missed the long bus on that effort — he spoke of “home ownership” meaning I’d assume the homesteader’s idealic. Yet what he committed to and what he allowed was a massively corrupting, socially hobbling, dysfunctional debt “ownership” almost wholly absent of positive educational value. Instead this modern debtsteaderism teaches victimhood, class envy, a no account low caste entitlement lifestyle where junk food, fancy sneakers, ipods, entertainment centers, magical thinking and single motherhood rule. In other words, the ideal socialist untermenschen, the Obama voting blocs.
To GDT in 33 : Sadly, the election of BHO is the single greatest act of collective racism in the history of the Unites States of America.
Nuff said!
GDT,
Sadly, the election of BHO is the single greatest act of collective racism in the history of the Unites States of America.
I believe you are spot on with this assessment.
Victor, I rarely disagree with you but I must here. Any reference to the liberal partisan hacks and Democrat party shills who pick up pay checks at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, the New York Tmes, the Washington Post, etc., as journalists is obscene. These leftist DNC propagandists are not more journalists than was Tokyo Rose.
This whole situation reminds me of the problem with Africa and Afghanistan – tribalsm/factionalism. Interests of the tribe/faction override those of the larger interest. We simply have a case of the support of the various factions on the left only collectively rising to the level of the Democratic party, never higher to those of the country as a whole. Therefore bad policies from Bush = good policies from Obama. Was it always this thoroughly bad? I don’t think so, except perhaps in a few waves. Very disturbing long term for the country.
The nightmare is not over yet. The followers of Antonio Gramsci and Karl Marx are not done with us yet. They don’t have quite the numbers or the guns to pull it off, so they are hoping that the brave minions of Allah can accomplish that task. And to that end they bring all they can to bear upon the legal, political, and cultural fight to see that we cannot fight back against the jihad.
Obama is their best hope yet that their proxies will get some breathing room to continue the stealth jihad.
Let me edit my comment. In the last sentence, change “not” to “no”. Although I am not a professional journalist (and by that I mean a real journalist), I do have some self-respect when I commit something to print, unlike the lap dogs I referred to in my original comment.
Rhetoric aside, Obama is still an empty suit. I hope he does well because, if not, we will all suffer for his failings.
I wish President Obama not an ounce of ill will. I fervently hope that he will accomplish goals that enhance his legacy and our lives. It is my true and honest desire that he succeed beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.
But those giddy with glee today, singing God Bless America…with trained voices and profound acting skills…yesterday were slandering my country. Yesterday they were rooting for the enemy to defeat us, yesterday were exalting Castro, Chavez, and Che Guevara.
Yesterday they were attempting to bring down the morale of our country and worse, our brave men and women in the windblown sands of Iraq and the snow covered hills of Afghanistan.
Yesterday they were ghoulishly counting out loud the “grim milestones” and trying to never utter the word “terrorist”. Yesterday they were ignoring the beheadings and brutal tortures of our enemies and pointing loudly and screaming about interrogation techniques by our side.
Yesterday they were forging documents, photoshopping pictures, conducting hit pieces on wives and children. Yesterday they were withholding evidence, putting forward only half a story…and that half filled with distortions.
Yesterday they were staging events to give off an impression of facts on the ground they knew were false, but they intentionally wished to present a lie.
Yesterday we were not all “one” America. Today, they wish to tell us that they believe in America again. That, for them…America holds the promise that was lost for the last eight years.
Here’s my answer. Your hypocrisy and principles of convenience precede you. YOU stain the promise of the new President. YOU soil the landscape with your creepy “NOW, I’m an American again”.
Your fawning, mewling, drooling, groupie act is unbecoming juxtaposed against your eight years of snarling, frothing, eye bulging, spittle flecked tantrums and eight years of propaganda, distortion and lies.
President Obama is my President and I will accord him my full support, my full backing, my fullest wishes for the accomplishment of every dream. But you, the treasonous liars who abandoned this country for eight years and overtly and covertly rooted against it…for you, I hope for only a conscience that I don’t believe you possess. May the shame of your acts and deeds haunt you all the days of your lives.
If you say you are NOW my countryman, I am ashamed to be yours. You stain this new administration by your very participation and giddy, gloating, sycophantic embrace of it. And if you spread the lies about my country, may your tongue turn to stone. If you TOLD the lies as part of the entrenched media, may the day come that you account for your treason.
From the Thomas Sowell piece…
“This issue can be debated, and no doubt will be debated for years, if not generations, to come. But the irresponsible charge that “Bush lied” for some nefarious purpose– to trade “blood for oil” or to generate business for Halliburton, for example– is more than a slander against him. It undermines our whole nation and gives comfort to our enemies around the world.”
The Bush Legacy
vivo:
You can disagree with VDH’s remark, but it’s hardly obtuse. Your reference to “the conservative press”, though, is a bit out in left field. Few conservatives would condone keeping this country “in the mud” for any reason. We are not the same species of American as you liberals.
vb:
Your comments about Lincoln are much appreciated. However, I cannot imagine Obama visiting Gettysburg or Antietam without giving a speech, and in that case (as I’ve written before) it would be a sacrilege for him to do so. Not on his part, but on that of the godless media and the history-ignorant masses of his supporters who would show up. The mere thought of such an irreverent horde trampling on such hallowed ground makes me want to puke.
I don’t have a problem with Obama seeking to emulate our greatest president. After all, in our current situation, better Lincoln than FDR. And it just points out how desperate the Democrats are to have their own truly iconic president. Camelot and all, JFK didn’t come close.
The media hullaballoo about Obama’s inauguration is as expected. They’ve gone from recording “history in the making” to making history. Having in large part made him president, so they assume, they’re already at work enhancing his legacy. They’ll be showing clips of Obama taking the oath of office for decades.
If they’re still around, that is. A sycophantic media works well in totalitarian societies, where the ruling elite do not change so frequently. No guaranty the same holds true here, especially after the advent of internet sites like this one. The MSM backed the winner of this election, but anything can happen in four years (n.b. to vivo — not all of a president’s problems are of his own making). And if the MSM’s favorite screws up or loses, they may just be history for good. Now that’s a novus ordo seclorum I can believe in.
Why is the press not hard on Obama? Because nobody, including the press likes a loser like Bush.
I never thought I would live to see the day when a man so unqualified, with so little integrity, and without a notion of how the real world works would be elected President of the United States.
As usual Doc, your intolerance of hypocrisy has comes to the fore. Wish more folks in the country were as intolerant, especially the MSM.
President Obama has a plan to RE-INVENT America. The only way he can do that is by instilling a sense of purpose into the masses. His rise to the presidency has occurred by rallying people behind his image. The inauguration is a continuation of the same philosophy that will actually allow a re-invented America. Re-distribution of concentrated centers of wealth can only occur with intense public support. Don’t be suprised if another civil rights movement appears. That is what happens when the mass actually pays attention to politics.
Great article VDH. you hit the nail square on the head.
One note though, for the benefit of those of us that can only (barely) handle English, when you use a Latin or Greek phrase please annotate it with the meaning.
43. cfbleachers…
Very well said. The difficulties of the past eight years have been made all the more painful by the manner in which political opponents have conducted themselves, only to now excoriate those who attempt to offer objections to Mr. Obama based upon principle.
I will try to conduct myself based upon what you said in your first paragraph, but it ain’t gonna be easy.
Bruce:
“I never thought I would live to see the day when a man so unqualified, with so little integrity, and without a notion of how the real world works would be elected President of the United States.”
Actually, Bruce, you just lived through eight years of it.
For the 80% of us pulling for Obama, it behooves us none to disabuse someone of such bilious delusions. If the 20% of the country that still thinks Bush was a good president wishes to sputter away like sore losers, be our guests. See where that gets you!
Well, I voted for Bush twice. The Dems didn’t offer anything better. And that is disturbing. VDH does a great job at NR trying to rehabilitate a bad president. Bush was horrible and so was his Republican congress. They lied to us about their goals to make government smaller. Bush was inept, not much better than Jimmy Carter. And I say this as a life-long Republican. And now this cult of personality thing with Obama is just creepy. I am not very optimistic.
Mark, we’re just taking a lesson from the Dems’ behavior during the past eight years. Pot, kettle, etc…
Mark,
“bilious delusions” Who are you trying to impress?
# 52 Mark Rinzel:
“For the 80% of us pulling for Obama,…”
80%? What 80%? There are 58 million of us that voted for “the other guy.” But who cares, The One will forgive us for our own foolishness in not embracing Obamaism.
He wants to “change America” but there are 58 million of us who didn’t want his kind of change. He wants a “new Declaration of Independence” but there are 58 million of us who think the Founders got it right in the first place.
I plan to accord The One the same respect and support that you guys on the left gave George Bush from Day One, which is to say none.
45. TLM:
“We are not the same species of American as you liberals.”
I’m starting to see that . . .
VDH has become one of my favorites: reasoned, fair and well documented.
And for Conservatives such as myself, I would suggest for a time we simply take one step back and let some of the grandiose plans play out. Personally, I can’t help but have a degree of joy for the exuberance blacks are feeling, much like I have a short-lived joy for the underdog who wins the big one, even if I don’t root for their team. Since blacks have felt marginalized, some of it a fair assessment, most of it not, let them have their week of celebration.
Then give the Dimocrats their chance to perform. They will find it is much easier to criticize than perform; talk rather than do. Let a fickle and mostly uninformed American public, duped by a corrupted media and an empty barrel of promises, get a taste of Dimocratic rule and now without excuse, recognize things indeed do change and, in fact, can get much worse. Four years from now, those duped may very well find their own lives have taken a turn for the worse. No doubt, personal pain can be followed by a substantial change of attitude.
We survived Carter; we will survive this. I predict just as Carter brought us Reagan, Obama will bring us an equally worthy successor.
Prof. Hanson, re: “I think history suggests that it is far better for an incoming President (cf. Reagan, Clinton, Bush, etc.) to face a recession than to enter office during a boom—given the cyclical nature of economic downturns juxtaposed with the four-year election span.”
Agreed, if what the economy is facing is a recession similar to the ones those three faced.
But if unemployment prints in the double digits for very long, indicating that we’re in a depression, the pattern may not hold.
Four years from now, blaming Bush will succeed in bailing out Obama about as well as Treasury and the Fed have succeeded in bailing out the banks.
Broke: “President Obama has a plan to RE-INVENT America. The only way he can do that is by instilling a sense of purpose into the masses. His rise to the presidency has occurred by rallying people behind his image. The inauguration is a continuation of the same philosophy that will actually allow a re-invented America. Re-distribution of concentrated centers of wealth can only occur with intense public support. Don’t be suprised if another civil rights movement appears. That is what happens when the mass actually pays attention to politics.”
—-
We dont need to reinvent America. America was perfect as originally invented. We don’t need redistribution of wealth, nanny state or oppression of press that doesnt agree with Obama. We don’t need our gun rights repealed, our children brainwashed or an aristocracy in Washington DC. We dont need to become the soviet union or even France. America was founded on the principles of LIBERTY, SELF RELIANCE and HARD WORK, not a government handout and government control.
I, like most conservatives, will spend the next 8 years opposing Obama’s policies where I disagree with them. I will be tenacious in my opposition of those policies. I will hope that America returns to prosperity, that we win in Iraq and that Obama is successful in bringing about those things.
I WILL NOT slander the man, call him names, attack his children, allege he has incest with his kids, try to advocate his assassination or impeachment or any of the other things, all of which were ADVOCATED, PRESSED and FORWARDED by the left in this country under President Bush. When Obama comes up for re-election, I will vote based on his actions and his policies, not on his speaking patterns, origin of his degrees, amount of slobbering propaganda coming out of the left wing media or the advocacy of a self absorbed hollywood star.
And THAT is the difference between a conservative and a liberal.
This was long coming. Every coin has two sides and President elect Obama certainly has another side. He has plannd his ascendancy to the office of the President well. We only hope that he will show the same level of planning and foresight (and cunning, I pray) in the office. The future of this country depends on it.
Rinzel, What a testy, immature little lefty tool you are. You have no idea of what competence is. Example: 80% pulling for this buffon? only 52% voted for him. What, you believe some poll? Mark my world, the country will be sick of you Hibi master by August. The fact that you can be taken in by such vapid nonsese is no doubt why you workat whatever cr@p job you manage to cling to. Stop projecting your frustrations with your own incompetence on decent Americans. You deserve your lot.
Bush will go down as one of the best presidents ever once hysterical children like you have grown up and have learned how the world works. If the history of America shows anything it is the fact that the Democrat party can rarely do anything competently, and when they do it is really because the rest of us have to do it for them. Almost all of the problems that this country has to deal with are the direct or indirect creations of the Democrats. I imagine that if we were to track down what you think is an example of “Bush’s incompetence”, and assuming the event was actually found to have happened, it can be laid to rest at the feet of the Democrat party. There is nothing lower than a Democrat. The electorate just might figure this out this time around, and then the Democrats will regret that they foisted this clown on the country.
You need to learn to think for yourself and stop believing what the Leftists’ propaganda machines tell you. You are just a tool to them. You should be a fly on the wall when the real Democrats discuss useful idiots like you.
Hobo Obama is a crooked and incompetent empty suit. The people behind him are ruthless enemies of this country and indeed, our civilization. They are the ones in control of your HOBO.
Stop kidding yourself that 80% are “pulling” for this bum. Cut that in half. And it will get worse.
I guess I am one of the 20% who still thinks Bush, for all his faults, is so much better then the empty suit Obama. Its not even close which is more indicative how bad Obama is rather then how great Bush is.
I wonder what percentage of the nations taxes the 20% who support Bush pay?
Whats really sad is seeing our nations young people show so much support for such a disgusting human being.
Michelle Obama is the perfect first lady for such a man, her being a bitter racist who used her color to get benefits she wouldnt get all while criticising the country who set her up to get it and taking the jobs and seats in college that a white person with more qualifications deserved.
Does affirmative action stop now? When do we look at people based on their achievement not the color of their skin.
“Obama has been very good in lowering expectations by reminding us 24/7 that there are no easy solutions to the present fiscal meltdown.”
Anyone can be good at that — or, indeed, at manipulating any other expectations — if the national media act as his press agents and cheering section.
Of course, the people also have to WANT to buy into his proclamations. This is all far more about us than it is about Obama, or even about the news media.
With respect, this:
“the responsibility for handling the nation’s problems fall smack in the lap of Mr. Obama.”
is exactly the fundamental error shared by too many on both Left and Right. The proper purpose of the Federal government is NOT to “handle the nation’s problems.” The Constitution limits what they are legally allowed to do and those limits have been exceeded many fold.
By all means, self-defense against foreign invasion or treason within, protection of life, liberty, and property domestically. But that is a very delimited set of responsibilities. Beyond that, solving “the nation’s problems” is a function of private individuals and the Feds’ interference can only make the situation worse, not to mention being immoral to begin with.
43. CFBleachers: right on the money, I always like reading your comments.
President Obama will co opt everything good George W. Bush did and call it his, and everything bad he will let him keep. he did the same with John MCcain in the run for office. he overlapped MCcain in his positions and MCcain didn’t call him on it. Wait for the media to tell us that very same positions that GWB took are now the right ones for Obama to take because it is the right time for them. May President Obama mimic a great president, and save the union from destruction.
Thank God for the New Media. Obama won’t so easily get away with his deceit and corruption.
WWW and talk radio, beware…you have targets on your backs.
If John (post #66) were indeed from “cinncinatti” (sic) he would have learned to spell to speel it.
In grade school, or earlier.
Double standards.
One example might involve the way different Presidents are treated by the media.
Another might be the way Barack and his merry men want to be treated when it comes to following laws, and exercising their freedoms.
As opposed to how they (the government) plan to treat American citizens who didn’t support them, who don’t even like them, and their children as well.
A flashback. Let me think.
Yes, as I remember on inauguration day, four years ago, I was in high school, sitting in Mr. Sterling’s half hour chorus class.
Belting out all time hits like the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah.
If, say, after class walking to my next class, I had said anything “Unwelcome” like the Mason School superintendent, Emily Litella, yesterday, in Dayton Ohio warned students not to say, my statement would have bounced off the school hallway walls causing not an eyebrow to raise, or any thought patrol police siren to blare.
But in four short years, times I guess have changed.
Today, freedom of speech is okay just as long as it doesn’t make light of Barack Obama’s big expensive, expansive inauguration day. By the way, has Mister Obama ever presented an original birth certificate as the law says you must do to prove you’re eligible under the constitution to be President? Just wondering.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Freedom of speech. Students freedom of speech.
The big school tadoo reminds me of how during the primaries Obama tried to silence radio and TV stations that said things that made him feel unwelcome (or was it uncomfortable).
Parents and friends, I’m concerned that the nation is losing its way. In school, I was taught that our country was conceived on the notion that we have certain inalienable rights granted by the creator that no man can take away.
Like freedom of speech. Yes, even high school students have a reasonable amount of freedom of speech, Yet, today’s teachers (98% of whom are rabid Obama supporters) see those limits with the clarity of blind-as-a-bat Mr. Magoo. They don’t think students have a right to say anything about Barry that might make another student feel “unwelcome. Friends, that doesn’t ring right. I believe students still have that right. Surprisingly, the ACLU hasn’t said, “Boo.”
Moreover, over the next few years, I’m afeared that in much the same way, Obama and his merry band of Bill of Rights assassins will be taking pot shots at our freedom of speech from sea to shining sea. I do declare, it could even come to the point where you can talk about the President but only in hushed, not heated tones. Which would have our forefathers spinning in their graves like turbines in a jet engine.
During the Bush years, may I remind you, the broad latitude given freedom of speech against a standing President was stretched shall I say to the breaking point, (yet, nothing broke) and nobody was the worse for wear. (ibid, AirAmerica Radio, 2007.)
Call me crazy, but today’s Democrats, as a group, seem to be of the mental state that says it’s acceptable to limit the amount of freedom of speech now that the brown eyed handsome man is taking up residence in our White House.
The ironically named Fairness Doctrine is just a small example of where their limits might land them.
People laughingly call these Democratic freedom of speech constraints, the mobilization of the thought police.
Maybe the spirit of their language, though, is quite apt.
I’m afraid the Obama contingent of election winners take no prisoners when their man is verbally attacked. No matter how unwelcome by freedom loving Americans, the interpretation of the first ten amendments is, let’s fact it, going to be narrower than ever before; narrower perhaps even than than Twiggy in her skinniest days.
From now on, when you sing “tiptoe though the tulips”, I politely suggest you stick to the script, or more accurately, the lyrics written by John Burke in 1926. Because the Obama boys seem intent on stomping on our rights.
In fact, if you’re a teacher, or student, or doctor or lawyer, blogger or newspaper reporter or have a TV or radio talk show; if you say things that make the band of Barackian brothers feel unwelcome, albeit uncomfortable, you just might be sent down to the the office of the principal. Or worse.
Unfortunately, it looks very much like electing Barack Obama is going to test the Bill of Rights like they’ve never been tested before.
Barack has put people in high places whose ethical standards are some of the lowest.
We have a Treasury head that pays taxes only when he’s nominated for a high government job; like running the IRS.
Harry Reid sloughs it off as a glitch. Does that me if I don’t pay taxes for three years, the IRS will slough it off?
Then there’s our new attorney general, Eric Holder, who forgets when it’s inconvenient for him to remember any crimes he may have committed when he worked for a President who lied under oath, and played more than tiddly winks with a subordinate.
Gosh, am I pushing my free speech beyond Barackian limits.
I wouldn’t want the creeps that half this country elected as a result of some mass psychosis decide I need some adult attitude adjustment, much like the North Korean’s tried on captured American soldiers during the Korean war.
Likewise, if some Mason school student makes an unwelcome comment about the new Messiah’s big day, I hope they don’t treat him or her too harshly.
If the student said something like, “I feel like spitting every time I hear the words, “President Obama” I hope the authorities hold their tongues and temper, and don’t go overboard with punishment.
Like deciding water-boarding wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Word to the (un)wise:
Thank you for proving my point with your childish, error-ridden response.
Where to begin?
“What a testy, immature little lefty tool you are.”
That’s your opening salvo? How sad.
“The fact that you can be taken in by such vapid nonsese is no doubt why you workat whatever cr@p job you manage to cling to.”
Er…Ok.
“There is nothing lower than a Democrat.”
Really, nothing lower? While that might be the only complete sentence in the entirety of your embarrassing rant, it says very little of substance except reveal your own petty close-mindedness and prejudices.
VDH brings serious and important historical perspective to our present dilemma. There are those who want a collectivist, statist society controlled and governed by elites who determine who gets what and how much, and who determine the goals and objectives of our society. And then there are those of us who want a society of independent, freedom loving individualists who voluntarily agree to collective action to protect ourselves from enemies, internal and external, to provide useful, disciplined and above all moral education for all students, to provide an infrastructure for our economy and the adjudication of disputes, period. As things stand now the collectivists are in ascendancy, the individualists are fading. The societal goal of the collectivists is the former Soviet Union. The individualists goal is a meritocracy that provides support and a helping hand to those genuinely in need, provided by the charitable instincts of a good and just people.
There is an old photo that my brother and I cherish, that says oodles of what our country used to stand for. It is a photo of my dad, (who passed away four years ago)standing shirtless, on the island of Peleliu after a day of bloody combat, saying Kaddish (Jewish prayer for the dead)for a fallen Marine over his gravesite.
My Dad was a corpsman in the Navy attached to the First Marine Division during the war. He rarely talked about his experiences there, always telling my brother and I that he only did what he had to do, and he did no more than millions of others did. He never displayed his purple heart and other medals, preferring to keep them in a box in his dresser. When my father was very sick and dying of cancer, he told me not to weep over him, but to save my tears, (he had had a good life) for the others who never made it off that bloody island.
The point of what I am trying to say is that my Dad and so many others paid an enormous price so a Black American was able to live in freedom and eventually be elected to the Presidency, even though Obama surrounded himself for so many years with the worst elements in our society.
Let us all please remember that it is not our constitution that enables us to live in a free and democratic society, but the power and weight of our military that stands by the constitution and defends her.
vivo
Anonymous
David Dee
I’ll never understood why Bush haters can’t see that our determined, violent, admitted adversary – militant Islam – provoked the turmoil that Bush haters blame on Bush.
Iraq existed to suck the evil adversary into conflict, expose their weakness, and kill them. It caused the focus of conflict to shift away from the US. And only the ill informed say it didn’t work
Katrina? If a similar hurricane happened and somebody else responded better, there would be a comparison to judge. With no standard of behavior, all judgement is strictly subjective. Your opinion is as good or as bad as anybodys.
Bush has acted like a gentleman to his critics. His critics have acted in irrational ways. I like Bush and I’ll always remember him demonstrating the stregnth of our country.
Today, one wonders how Obama could possibly fail. As you’ve noted, he’s arrived at a time where things have either leveled out or hit bottom and are bound to improve. The media fawns over him and most of the country sees him as another Lincoln or the Messiah.
While we do seem to have leveled out, we have really quite a ways from rock bottom. If Obama ( and Pelosi and Reid) pursue sober economic policies, then the recession may end and perhaps everything will be on an upswing by the 2010 elections. But those aren’t the policies they want to pursue. They want to pursue a redistributionist agenda raising taxes on the productive sector in order to pay for an expansion to the parasite sector. If they do this, it will put the economy back into free-fall and tip us into a depression. I really, really hope Obama is both smart enough to figure this out and strong enough to force Pelosi and Reid to go along. I am unsure of either. His period as President-Elect has given us indications he is both smart and strong enough, and indications that he is neither.
Bill Clinton took office as a “moderate” Democrat, a high-profile member of the DLC, an organization dedicated to furthering Democrat party power by moderating positions on unpopular liberal agenda items. He also took office with less than a majority of the popular vote (thanks to H. Ross Perot). Even so, his ham-handed overreaching cost him control the Congress in his first mid-terms, and the remaining six years of his administration accomplished nothing of consequence save wasting opportunities, sullying the office, and embroiling himself in scandal. He was unable to enact much in the way of Democrat party policies.
Obama takes office as a radical Democrat with large majorities in both houses and a significant popular vote majority. He will have fewer constraints on his desires than Clinton had. It is more likely he will pursue, or allow Pelosi and Reid to pursue, a very liberal agenda. Such will be disastrous for the country, and given the current state of the economy and the outside world, the disasters will be quick in capitalizing on any bad policy decisions.
In addition, there are several economic shoes left to drop. The public pension crisis faced by so many government agencies is only just beginning. Millions and millions of public sector employees (and public sector union members) are going to face massive cutbacks in their retirement packages. To avoid this, state and local governments are going to demand their own bailouts. No elected Democrat is in a good position to say no to any union, let alone the AFSCME. Those bailouts will hamstring any recovery. Likewise, though Wall Street as currently comprised is badly broken, the Progressive/Liberal idea of how to fix it will only break it worse. Compounding that problem, the leadership of both parties right now are pursuing strategies for bailing out Wall Street that are highly detrimental to small business, and small business is really the only hope for growing the economy in the near future.
So, while Obama and the Democrats have every opportunity to succeed, they are philosophically unlikely to take advantage of it. If they do manage to change their stripes and enact responsible, forward looking policies, then they will very much deserve reelection and celebration. Sadly, they’re unlikely to do that. Obama’s second term, and Pelosi and Reid’s continued tenure leading Congress, are more likely to depend on whether the Republican Party can get its act together or not. Based on the simple fact that they are out of power, it is more likely for Republicans to shed their bad ideas than it is for Democrats. I wish “more likely” was the same as “sure to” but the jury’s still out on that.
My advice to everyone who gives a damn is this: join and become active in your local Republican party. Borrow a page from Clinton and remind you fellow party memeber that “it’s the economy, stupid.” Force the Republican party into responsible fiscal behavior. We need at least one party that we can count on to not bankrupt the country.
#73 Ron Kean…Bush haters can’t see that militant Islam provoked the turmoil because they have blinders on. They blame America for everything and are promoting a one-world government. If they could get rid of the military tomorrow after Obama’s swearing in ceremony, it would not be a minute too soon for them. All Americans hold dear is on the chopping block….just ask Nancy Pelosi (she’s the one moving Obama’s marionette strings anyway). I just hope the liberals will have a good excuse for their future generations as to why they were in such a hurry to sell out their own country (I’m just hoping they can find a way to hide that Obama tattoo or they’ll be laughed at in later years).
Really good article. Much appreciated.
As for the Geither nomination, I believe the author has stumbled upon a double standard that pertains to gender, as well as party affiliation and what is or isn’t forgiven.
As for religious figures who will be involved in the Inuagural festivities and prayers, Obama’s choices have not all been so left or cutting edge as the author suggests. In Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the Invocation, he selected a man who preaches that women should be submissive to their man AND that domestic violence is not grounds for divorce. (This is the face of 4 women in America being killed every day as a result of violence inflicted upon them by their intimates.)
#4 Jeff: “The Obama Winning Formula” Or, it may be that many more millions of Americans now agree to a significant extent with Obama’s ideas and view of what America ought to be like. That is the scariest possibility of all.
I agree.
#46 David: “Why is the press not hard on Obama?”
I would add, and why wasn’t the electorate more demanding that the press be. It’s my view that everyone was so busy tripping over themselves so as not to appear racist, they dared not hold Obama to the same standard as they might otherwise, and in so doing, behaved in the most racist way of all.
#54 J.E.: “Obama has been very good in lowering expectations by reminding us 24/7 that there are no easy solutions to the present fiscal meltdown.”
Anyone can be good at that — or, indeed, at manipulating any other expectations — if the national media act as his press agents and cheering section. Of course, the people also have to WANT to buy into his proclamations. This is all far more about us than it is about Obama, or even about the news media.
I agree that the public and the media have made dumbedown bedfellows.
General Comment re: double standards (sorry for reitterating a bit): When you think of all the money spent by the Obama campaign, the DNC, and now on this Inuaguration fiasco in this time of economic collapse, you KNOW that if it were the Republicans the msm would be slamming them at every turn.
I post all of this, btw, as someone who is NOT a Republican, but I am a thinking American and find the double standards beyond repulsive. The msm shapes how much of the public thinks (sadly), so I suppose the media must be feeling rather self-congratatory on the person they’ve just elected President.
John,
..I too fear that there’ll be a “whole lotta co-optin’ goin’ on” during the reign of Emperor Obama I. There will be the MSM leg-tinglers defending any misstep Obama makes, blotting out all buit the most egregius (failure to fix the economy and failure to ready America against terrorist attack).
But first he will have his little multi-million dollar soiree and everyone will be frolicking around declaring themselves free of the evil G. W. BushHitler, cavorting, and singing about the new era dawning.
Come Wednesday at 0800, he will go to war with Harry Reid (if he’s still around) and that ditsy broad running the H.O.R. and we will be lending money to banks who will then turn around and lend it to us. He will bail out his union buddies in Detroit. He/they will also see to it that we get a stipend to buy another set of earrings..
..and the charade that is federal government will continue unabated.
The one difference is folks like the terminally juvenile vivo will be happy for a time until the criticism of his beloved leader starts, a trickle at first, then a freshet, ultimately a roaring river. And vivo and the other adorers of Obama will know what it’s like to back a guy who is the target of the American (Idol) public’s antipathy.
Enjoy it, vivo, fame and happiness are transitory — especially to one who is an empty suit.
#43 CFBleachers
AMEN to your words and sentiments. I could not have said it better
A little lesson in logic: it’s natural to be more sympathetic to the president who inherits problems than the one who CAUSED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Why would anyone want to “wish Obama well”, as some posters claim they do?
Weren’t you paying attention when he clearly stated what he intends to do with our nation?
Haven’t you heard the tape on which, in his voice, he lists the things that he considers problems in our Constitution?
I do not wish him well. God help us if he succeeds in doing what he has indicated he wishes to do.
If you really want what obama wants, it would be easier on the rest of us if you would just leave the country and take him with you, and let us get back to being America.
i have not heard such hate from america since the ’60s. why are the ones that voted for Bush twice so blind? i mean, we pretend to be smart, yet we put the idiots in charge of the greatest country on this planet. Bush is a male Palin. Governor from a big state and a VERY small city. why would you, in your right mind put a country Hick in office? In essence, Bush heck, Palins hometown is larger than Bushs, so was my high school. check your past presidents education file and you’ll see not many come close to Obamas higher learning level. you finally have a person that KNOWS law and doesn’t have to destroy the constitution to make a dollar. lets not talk about the MSM’s relationship with Bush. For some reason, in less than a month we’ve been made aware of over 1000 civilian deaths and injuries in Gaza. With all the imbedded journalist from America in Iraq, strange that we Americans haven’t seen or heard what civilian damages we’ve inflicted over there.
I am worried about a President who has stated he believes that our Constitution is a flawed document that needs revision, and who made every effort to avoid revealing his record and then lied about it.
And I worry about a Big Media that adores and ignores.
then again, we live in a country that has forgotten about the terrorism in its DNA from slavery. brush it under the carpet and move forward. forget about what makes Lincoln our hero. just keep finding ways to surpress the knowledge.
stuart Williamson, you sound like a person that knows American history. NOT!!! if the constitution was written when slavery was legal, i guess in your cloudy prehistoric brain, ITS PERFECT… America stood for oppression then as it does now. its just that old America is dying and new America is being born.
Lowered expectations?? You need to come up for air man… you will choke yourself on those fumes down there…The new President has an immeasurable amount of work to do without crybaby rhetoric like yours.
Little Georgie Bush and Big Dick Cheney have lined their pockets and filled the coffers of big oil and the offshore accounts of their cronies like no one could even imagine… it is time for the repugnant right wing to face up, fess up, and stop with all the shifting and shoulder part of the blame. Just hush….get busy doing something productive for a change. You should be ashamed.
I’ve read the preceding rhetoric of the right-wing sore losers. You know what the bottom line really is. THEY’RE AFRAID THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA ACTUALLY MIGHT DO A GOOD JOB. I’m hopeful that, despite the hate-mongering of media personalities like O’Reilly and Coulter, who get plenty of air time, the Nation can recover well and promptly, with everyone’s support and cooperation.
George W. Bush subverted the Constitution and international treaties, like the Geneva Conventions. He abetted the use of torture on people who had not been convicted of any crime. How does one justify that, when such treatment could not be done to anyone convicted in this country because it would be cruel and unusual punishment? What outrage would have emerged if Americans, in other countries, were subjected to that treatment? George W. Bush destroyed any international good will, which we had after 9/11. Under George W. Bush, the Justice Department was deranged to an agency directed to hire only “RTA’s” (right-thinking Americans) and to purge all others. He was a right-wing ideologue, willing to commit catastrophic blunders because he wouldn’t listen.
Thanks to a war, which was begun on the basis of intelligence distorted by the White House, and failed economic policies, the nation has the highest debt in its history. I’m sorry if it has upset you right-wingers that the press reported all that.
As to our Constitution being a flawed document, nothing is perfect, but it is the Law of the Land and can only be changed accordingly. It has been amended (the Bill of Rights, to begin with, which includes the Second Amendment–you good, old boys ought to know that), and even amendments have been amended.
The stock market and U.S. business has been voting on the Obama administration and Congress for over a month now. Needless to say, this is seen by the rest of this planet as fundamental weakness. As Biden says, Obama’s mettle shall be tested; Actually We the People shall find out whether Obama has any mettle. I’m betting he does not. He’ll have to be propped up by Congress. And with the turmoil and disfunction reigning in Congress now, We The People might have to fend for ourselves.
Indee: I make no claim to profound knowledge of history but venture to say that I have considerably more than one who parrots deconstructionist platitudes and hides behind an infantile nom do blog. Indee future consider that slavery was abolished without altering the Constitution, that the “old” America of Freedom and Liberty is still very much alive except in your circles, and that there is nothing “new” in the the tired and discredited Socialism that the witless disciples of a Chicago machine puppet are trying to peddle as “Change”.
Is being afraid to put your real name on your drivel symbolic of the New America we are supposed to look forward to? Or is it just, as we old Americans say, -gutlessness?
You are a prime example of The Audacity of Stupidity.
Indee Future:
A President with an Ivy league education has about the same success rate in office as Hiesman Trophy winning Quarterback in the NFL.
Our best Presidents this Century are: Reagan (Eureka College), Truman (no college), Eisenhower (USMA), Coolidge (Amherst); FDR and TR (Harvard);
Our worst Presidents: Hoover (Stanford), Wilson (Princeton), JFK (Harvard), Carter (USNA);
The in the middle group: Nixon (Whittier), Ford (Michigan), Bush 41 (Yale), Taft(Yale).
History is yet to be written for Clinton (Georgetown) and Bush 43 (Yale).
Your obsession with Obama’s paper credentials marks you as someone who is overawed by overrated Eastern Establishment schools.
On a more serious note there are only two things that Obama can do to destroy his Presidency before it gets off the ground. Support and pass the Orwellian named Freedom of Choice Act with NARAL’s preferred language. It will immediate destroy the US medical system as the Catholic Church shuts down its hospital system thereby reducing the number of hospital beds by 1/3. The other killer is to push global warming legislation that will drive up the cost of energy and destroy entire industries driving the economy into a 1930′s-like depression.
J.E. Dyer:
“This is all far more about us than it is about Obama, or even about the news media”.
Unfortunately, I would have to agree with your assessment. For some reason, Americans now look to an unknown politician to save them from themselves.
Hey, coloradonative (85), and charlie (86), go back and read comment 43 carefully. Especially that first line. cfbleachers speaks for a lot of us who are conservative.
true_ liberal dude my name isn’t even john and this being America i can speel it any way i likes it.
“i have not heard such hate from america since the ’60s. why are the ones that voted for Bush twice so blind?”
Maybe some people are blind, Indee, but you must be deaf. I’ve been hearing much, much more hate from the Left for the last eight years.
But of course now that your guy is in power everything is sweetness and light. No more debate, no more controversy required – our socialist future is guaranteed. How could anyone be against that, right?
Blind…that’s great. What else ya got?
#30 – Thinking Person:
The media will have the “show trials” put on by John Conyers etc. to persecute the Bush officials who they will charge with crimes against humanity for their participation in “war crimes” associated with Iraq and the GWOT. That will deflect attention from the Obama administration and yet allow the MSM to maintain as much attention and ad revenue as possible under the circumstances.
Obama is going to prove a lot of people wrong.
To the left,our new leader is a saviour,and can do nothing bad. As one black woman exclamed”We’re all going to be rich”. With this kind of thinking how can we recover?
hahaha if you guys are conservatives so was Lenin. Here here let me take your freedoms away to keep you safe. The “New” freedom.
whoa stuart williamson. i don’t see what difference me placing a name on a screen will to for you. the definition of stupidity is someone on the ANONYMOUS internet looking for a name to attach to. what? will you believe its the actual name of your correspondant? naive little person. it goes without saying that you prefer your leaders uneducated. personally, if i know more than my mechanic or plumber or WHATEVER, he doesn’t work for me if MY knowledge is greater in HIS field of work. Bugs, your voice was absent? happy you are over the last 8 years i’m sure. i live in LA now but i’m from a town in florida where i saw black people hanged and no charges were sought. so i don’t expect you to SEE my POV. i travel this country alot, i work entertainment industry so this country has its pockets of OLD America, people that have stagnated thoughts like you and live in antiquity. This NEW America i speak of is the one where the PURE blooded hatred has died off. its remnants will forever be imbedded in Americas blood. the EVILDOERS as your departing Presdident so eloquantly calls people like himself will diminish. i am an independent, that makes us think and speak with more focus on the greater good than on Party Politics, which is all i hear from your direction. as a black man from the south that lived there in the scary times, i can say with conviction, GOD BLESS AMERICA. thats from a guy that lost trust in religion years ago. tomorrow at noon, i buy my first flag and flag shirt and will fly them proudly for all to see. i’ll meet these bigots in hell and we’ll settle up down there. LONG LIVE AMERICA
indee future:
Hypothetically, Obama could become the next Lincoln. But that’s not predictable, regardless of his Ivy League education. And Lincoln, self-educated though he was, was a “hero” to many of us, white or black. Never forget that.
James:
What freedoms are you referring to? FISA, that Obama now supports? Oh, I see your calculation. It’s just like: Jews = Nazis, therefore Conservatives = Leninists. Oops. Sorry for displaying my personal prejudice. I always assume Leftists are confused by simple math. Something to do with logic.
I agree also with the above (#43): The man in the center field bleachers has a good view of the game to come. As president, Obama’s decisions affect all of us. Let’s hope he makes the right ones. And when he doesn’t, don’t hold back. But let’s stay a few levels above the new low in political discourse set by the BDS afflicted Leftist vermin who seem to have overrun modern (?New) American culture.
98 …. indeefuture….if we “prefer uneducated leaders”, shall we then assume that you are one of those leaders? Apparently you are uneducated, since you don’t know how to structure sentences or use capital letters.
You also identify yourself as a black man, demonstrating once again that it’s always the libs who introduce race into the discussion.
And you are planning on going to hell? Goodness sakes, man, you need to get some higher goals in mind.
The truth is at bottom the democrats have confused Obama not with Jesus, but with Santa Clause.
#80 Ann141, Thank you.
indee future:
Lovely commentary. I doubt you find many people with less knowledge than you.
Racism is alive and well and you are the personification.
Oh geez, four years of no bad news! GREAT!! Chimpy the Kenyan will be our President, at least until the first attack.
Our only hope is the he will be more interested in theft than Chimpy will be in doing anything to the country.
Look at his record and the things in his past that he has distorted. Who is he?
The media has anointed a celebrity, a black celebrity, a Chicago thief to be CinC. We are all in jeopardy. Our only hope is that he will be more interested in robbing us that enslaving us, at least whites in America.
Test- If Obama is really interested in abolishing racism in America, he will immediately abolish the Congressional Black Caucus, the fully racist, all racist organization in America today.
@33
GDT,
I feel dirty. Do you really think that Obama was elected because of his race, and not because he was the best candidate in the race?
I think your racism is showing. I voted Obama, and I could care less if he was an Aborigine or an Eskimo, or any shade at all. He was the most qualified person in the race from either party, and America has done itself proud.
No thanks to racists who voted GOP.
Peace.
DS
Indee future says.
For some reason, in less than a month we’ve been made aware of over 1000 civilian deaths and injuries in Gaza.
Or more exactly Indeefuture lies. What we have been made aware is 1000 total deaths and for civilian deaths (about 20% of the totals) caused by HAMAS habits to hide in cvuilan zones when opening fire (a war crime punished by death) and booby trap inhabited houses. Also are you laying the suicide bombings in Iraki markets at the feet of AL quaeda? Just what I thought.
We were patient and forgiving when Bush came into office as well. That is until he started to show us how stupid he was, how careless he was, and how eager he was to ignore the rule of law and international treaties. But this time we have president who’s actually smart. So we’ll be ok.
Barak Obama is a fantastic projection without even a minute trace of substance. An illusion can only last until it is tested by reality. This world is a very dangerous place and all the fawning sycophants in the MSM will be unable to rewrite the history of a true disaster. And an imaginary past will be no match for insane suicidal terrorists.
I hope for the best but I expect the worst.
84. indee future: “… its just that old America is dying and new America is being born.”
If this be the case, then please bring on BHO and: Abort! Abort! Abort!
After wasting a year and resources to match on electing a president, Americans will no add to that by the inauguration extrvaganza. Think.
After wasting a year and resources to match on electing a president, Americans will now add to that by the inauguration extrvaganza. Think.
Sorry sent again with one correction
77. Войска ПВО:
“And vivo and the other adorers of Obama”
You guys don’t get it. I will criticize Obama if he makes mistakes or commits acts against Humanity. I’m an Independent and just like to set things straight.
Lots of people cannot read literally and be objective. And I’m too lazy to reach for a common denominator. But I agree, some of my ideas are not shared by everyone.
What will MSDNC, NYTimes, CNN, et al, do with themselves now? They don’t have George Bush to kick around anymore. How will they function? Who will they lie about? They have no enemy now- no windmills at which to tilt.
Jack T:
what flavor KoolAid?
VDH- If you know anything about Neuro-Linguistic Programming please share it with your readers. From my NLP training I was able to easily recognize that there were some sinister people “behind the curtain” smithing BHO’s words. NLP is one of the most deceptive forms of communication known to man, is dangerous, needs exposure, and kept out of the hands of politicians and their speechwriters. This was a bigger element in this cycle than peeps think. I’m disgusted.
Ya junk like Fisa and the unpatriot act that Obama supports. i absolutely do not like obama. I am no leftist.
86. charlie: “What outrage would have emerged if Americans, in other countries, were subjected to that treatment?”
Charlie, The treatment of the POW’s by the Islamic terrorists is well known but not reported by the MSM. If an American soldier or an Iraqi that supports America is captured, if they are not rescued immediately, they are either, 1–never heard from again or 2–sent home in bloody pieces. Where’s your outrage? Kinda makes waterboarding seem like a day at the park!!
noprisoners…..Damn. You’re right! I was all excited there for a moment that the MSM might actually REPORT on Obama and how he’s living up to his “hope and change” promises. Geez. Just when I was going to turn on MSDNC and gloat too.
I didn’t vote for him, but I will support him.
69. Rachel Peepers:
Peter writes: Excellent commentary, Rachel. Perfectly expresses the fears many of us have about the next several years.
Let’s hope the damage will not be too extensive to not be undone.
79. Shef Rogers wrote:
A little lesson in logic: it’s natural to be more sympathetic to the president who inherits problems than the one who CAUSED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Peter asks: You mean the Dems like; Frank, Dodd, Pelosi, Reid, Obama? You mean them, right?
83. indee future wrote:
then again, we live in a country that has forgotten about the terrorism in its DNA from slavery.
Peter responds: It’s amazing how people like indee revile the US for events that occurred over a hundred years in the past, as if the US was the ONLY country in the world that had slaves.
News for you, indee. Almost the entire world participated in Slavery. Some parts, mainly in the areas of Southwest Asia, still do. At least the US not only grew out of slavery but grew to revile it. Where is your anger at countries that practiced slavery for decades after the US. For those that still do to this day?
Slavery is a dead issue in this country. Get over it.
cfbleachers
You hit the nail on the head, although I am doubtful the difference in demeanor will be noticed by the left.
I am terribly puzzled. According to many on the left and the MSM, the world was near perfect before 9/11 and the US was quietly enjoying a snooze in the sun until that fateful morning.
However, the hatred for Bush began (so it seems) when someone used that day to declare war on America in the time-honored fashion of an infamous and unannounced assault. Then there was a bad storm, and it was his fault too.
So, if Bush was at fault over all this then we can rest assured he is gone; the world is free to let America snooze again. The weather will be calm. The enemies of democracy and freedom can now put their feet up too.
But then I worry. What if the enemies of America still think Mr Obama is the same as Mr Bush and doesn’t stop hating? What if Mr Obama is surprised by those who didn’t notice peace is with us all?
I am sure he will be fine, but like I say… can’t help worrying and being a little puzzled about the past.
quasar:
RE: Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP.
VDH speaks of it only veiled, as how the great thinkers of Western Civilization made comments about cheap speakers who used various shenanigans to gain and keep power. This shenanigan-speak works on a certain percentage of the populace, ususally those not classically educated or inclined, VDH himself being a prime example.
So… Obama’s “My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us…” included the NLP “I stand here today” as he was standing there today to tell us something NLP, or in shenanigan-speak. He certainly wasn’t humbled enough to tell his kind audience how he used his “I stand here today-isms” to pull wool over the eyes of gullible sheep.
The problem is that NLP is somewhat discredited by classic thinkers, which probably is a mistake.
My prediction is that Obama will prove to be a very good instructor regarding how wrong it is to shenanigan-speak, i.e. NLP mantra down to others, and how wrong much of his big brother/government agenda is.
Apparently, the nation and the world was totally unprepared for anything resembling Reagan or our nation’s founding fathers in thought, word or deed.
No one on earth, I believe, can better prepare the earth as of this date, for such a return to sanity, than its core antipode, our new and glorious President and nation, which has been called Obama-nation, which mysteriously sounds like the biblical excoration: abomination, meaning total separateness from all which is good or God.
Correction: VDH being a prime example of someone classically educated and inclined; who therefore cannot buy into shenanigan-mantra-deceptionisms that flow from Obama politically as they do religiously from Jeremiah Wright. Like father/mentor, like son. (The media, being full of shenanigan-speak-NLP itself, could not understand that Obama’s 20 years tutelage under Wright was to transfer Black religious wayward mesmerizing into the political/progressive/hope/change newspeak.
86 Charlie wrote:
“despite the hate-mongering of media personalities like O’Reilly and Coulter.”
further:
“George W. Bush subverted the Constitution and international treaties…He abetted the use of torture on people who had not been convicted of any crime…George W. Bush destroyed any international good will, which we had after 9/11. Under George W. Bush, the Justice Department was deranged to an agency directed to hire only “RTA’s” (right-thinking Americans) and to purge all others. He was a right-wing ideologue, willing to commit catastrophic blunders because he wouldn’t listen.”
Congratulations, you have encapsulated the problem magnificently. You live in a disturbed fantasy of self hate projected onto the national authority figure. You and others like you demonstrate the magnitude of the problem this world is facing. It is fundamentally impossible for you and your ilk to even remotely approach a true perception of reality because of the terrible pain you would suffer from the resulting guilt. The pain and suffering resulting from the failed attempts by the “we only want to help” liberals like you are fully documented from the New Deal (extension of the depression} to the War On Poverty {destruction of the nuclear family} to the collapse of the housing and credit markets {home loan foreclosures on tens of millions}
You will only be satisfied by the complete destruction of the greatest social experiment in the history of the world and thus yourself.
How utterly pathetic.
Awesome article
thank you peter the bubblehead N°122, and revile all white Americans as having been slaveholders (heck some of my white ancetos weren’t even in the US until the civil war was over, and the others that were in the US, well they were indentured slaves…
Well, as this historic day comes to a close we should all remember to thank Ex-President George Bush. He made a lot of mistakes and he got some things right. You could argue about the relative merit of it all. But, inarguably, he kept America from being re-attacked for more than seven years. We’ll see how history treats him.
Most of all, Barack Obama should thank George Bush, for without his presidency I doubt Obama would be in the White house. Had Al Gore won in 2000, 9/11 would have discredited (solely) the Democrats. They would have lost in ’04 and likely ’08. Obama probably would not have run — he ran this time to capitalize on a unique opportunity presented by BDS run amok.
That’s not meant to take anything away from President Obama. To the victor belongs the spoils, as they say.
One note about the Geithner controversy with his maid. After Baird and Wood had to retract their nominations to be Attorney General, it was revealed that Ron Brown had done the same thing both Baird and Wood had done. The difference, seen through my eyes at the time, was that Baird and Wood were *women* and women should be careful who they hire to watch their children. Brown (and Geithner) are male, and get a pass. Weird form of sexism.
Also I find the Geithner and Rangel tax difficulties amusing, given the fact that Joe the Plumber’s taxes instantly disqualified him from expressing any opinion about anything political. Last week I saw a reporter from MSNBC on the Tonight Show, and she didn’t even try to deny that her network was biased to the left, agreed that it was and gave it as her opinion that since there were networks on the right too (the very convenient, and universally scorned Fox News) it was OK to be biased. What times we live in!
BDS is like the left’s strain of herpes, it is permanent and they take no responsibility for having it, or spreading it around. They appear to hope once everyone has it they figure it will be more acceptable to have big open hateful sores. It is no accident that those who have this hatred show their alter-ego in adulation for the anti-Bush (Obama) despite his empty suit wardrobe.
If you think that we want to join you in unity, think again!
We just want our country preserved and we know the left will make our country sick.
The unalienable rights will be destroyed by the left, not the right!
49. Broke:
President Obama has a plan to RE-INVENT America. The only way he can do that is by instilling a sense of purpose into the masses. His rise to the presidency has occurred by rallying people behind his image. The inauguration is a continuation of the same philosophy that will actually allow a re-invented America. Re-distribution of concentrated centers of wealth can only occur with intense public support. Don’t be suprised if another civil rights movement appears. That is what happens when the mass actually pays attention to politics.
Jan 19, 2009 – 10:10 am
Ah yes, the bread and circuses….
I’m late to the game, but this line from John Galt stuck out:
“Iraq was never a threat to the Western world.”
Nonsense. Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti had no interest in being a civilized player on the world stage. His entire raison d’etre was to taunt the West, and the USA in particular, to humiliate us any way he could. Even to the point of extending an offer of asylum to Osama bin Laden, as documented by CNN in 1999(!):
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:GFBbzS7_FOEJ:www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9902/13/afghan.binladen/
(Link goes to Google cache because CNN wants to hide the truth about radical Islam. If the cache disappears, just search for the phrase “Bin Laden reportedly leaves Afghanistan, whereabouts unknown”.)
Saddam Hussein was a threat to everyone, but he harbored a special hatred for the USA, and he was willing to lend a hand to anyone who could hurt us.
It is interesting to note that all the pretentious leftists posting here are only attacking the weaker posters here, instead of the original post. And those few leftists with the guts to attempt to address Dr. Hansen’s piece only respond with their bumper sticker arguments instead of something of substance or grounding in reality.
I will not sully the traditional meaning of ‘liberal’ by referring to outright leftists. Leftists who have co-pted that term to attempt to recast their thieving image and intellectually bankrupt philosophies. Then there’s the misinformed on the right who have allowed them to do it and use the term with such disdain.
Call a leftist a leftist.
96. Will:
To the left,our new leader is a saviour,and can do nothing bad. As one black woman exclamed”We’re all going to be rich”. With this kind of thinking how can we recover?
We probably don’t. As for me I say let the 52% support the 48% of us that didn’t drink the Kool Aid. Buy as little as possible, don’t support anything Hollywood puts out, keep the income under the tax levels so as not to contribute to the fiasco, assuming the car is not a total gas guzzler keep it going as long as possible and totally tune out the leftie mass media. Let the 52% pay the bills. They deserve it.
———————————
Who is John Galt?
I make no apologies for not joining Obama’s love train. His weltaunschaung of big government in all spheres of my life is anathema to what this country stands for. Check out this thought provoking article http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Gerald-Warner-New-president-same.4887764.jp
Thank you for an insightful article. All day today I’ve been hearing on the news that Obama has signed an executive order (bet he loves that phrase,too) closing Guantanamo Bay within a year. My question is: why the rush? If one year is ok why not two or ten? Where will he put these terrorists? (I suggest Western Pennsylvania in Murtha’s district). But why the rush?
I take back what I said about our new President. He’s not incompetent. He’s juvenile and adolescent. After this mornings news conference, I’m convinced. He’s an absolute joke. We The People are screwed. And this includes you pathetic Obama supporters.
“The Iraq war was authorized on 23 Congressional counts—not just WMD. So why focus on that alone?”
So… I didn’t just “miss something”?
After having spent a great deal of time studying and restudying all those UN resolutions, especially UNSC resolution 1441, and the Iraq War resolution, I have consistently wondered about a couple of things:
1) WHY was it not hammered home that most of the rationales cited by Congress referred to UN actions from the nineties or to their OWN legislation from 1998, all long before GW arrived, that GW was acting on policies established 4 years prior to his election?
2)In 2002, 1441 detailed TWO equally important conditions to be met by Iraq, the resumption of inspections and a current and complete DECLARATION of all their WMD PROGRAMS.
The world cheered the resumption of inspections and “no WMD”. However, we barely heard a peep about that declaration, the one that was rejected by the UN. Hans Blix spoke about it, Iraq’s lack of cooperation on “substance”, in each of his reports to the UN after inspections had resumed.
1441 said Iraq would be in “further material breach” if it did not provide a complete and truthful declaraton. The declaration was crucial to the work the inspectors were doing. It was the document inspectors were to use, after physically inspecting sites for any remaining WMD, to determine if Iraq had also totally dismantled all its programs to REBUILD and deliver WMD and would not be able to pose a threat should sanctions finally be lifted.
WHY didn’t we hear more about that declaration in the news? Iraq’s continuing refusal to comply with that requirement was an essential part of the argument that Iraq had failed its “final” chance to avoid all those “serious consequences” and the decision to invade.
Interestingly enough, in June of 2003 Rolf Ekeus, head inspector for UNSCOM, wrote an article saying that Iraqi WMD PROGRAMS posed a more serious threat than any degraded WMD that the inspectors might find. He said the Iraqis had decided to focus on maintaining a WMD program that could, instead of storing WMD, produce them on short notice.
Perhaps that is why their WMD declaration of 2002 was “incomplete” and a re-hash of older reports. A truly “current” report, verified by UN inspectors, would have shown they had done exactly what Ekeus had said and were NOT disarming, a reality totally different from the impression given by the resumption of weapons inspections.
139. tournefort asked:
1) WHY was it not hammered home that most of the rationales cited by Congress referred to UN actions from the nineties or to their OWN legislation from 1998, all long before GW arrived, that GW was acting on policies established 4 years prior to his election?
Peter replies: Because that way the members of Congress, if things started to go badly as they did when the insurgency geared up into full swing, had a form of ‘culpable deniability’ and could scream ‘Bush Lied!’ ‘It was all about the WMDs!’ ‘Blood for Oil!’
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