Our “Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain” Moment
Them/us—so what?
Until 2008-9, the rubric $250,000 was just an arbitrary number. Now it is a sharp ethical divide in a strange new class war in which those above are veritable parasites who “do not pay their fair share”, while the 50% of the population who pay no income tax ipso facto are suddenly moral and patriotic. In sum, no president in 78 years has done more to incite class resentment, envy, and polarization—and that fact is as shocking as the sun rising in the morning. “Oh, more of Obama’s class warfare? So what else is new?”
Abroad, there is now not a reset foreign policy but a reset, reset foreign policy. The president could not give another straight-faced speech about the Islamic roots of the Western Enlightenment, why Guantanamo has to be closed this year, how KSM will be tried in a civilian court, or why Harold Koh is stopping renditions, tribunals, and predators in worry over their constitutionality. Either no one would believe him, or they would snore half way through at the boilerplate, or they would point out that Obama 1.0 and Obama 2.0 do not even share the same operating system. If an American diplomat were to give another “we are not Bush” reset speech, the audience would respond with a Jon Stewart type ironic look. A bow to another Saudi prince would be as shocking as Obama on the golf course. We live in an age in which Iraq is Obama’s “greatest achievement”.
When a Paul O’Neil, Scott McClellan, or Colin Powell left the Bush administration, critics saw a crisis and looked for whistle-blowing juicy tell-alls about Bush incompetency. Now we sleep when Obama officials plan to flee halfway in a first term, the fixer Rahm Emanuel, the architects of the $3 trillion borrowing that was supposed to ensure that unemployment did not go above 8%—Peter Orszag, Christina Romer, and Larry Summers—the wartime team of a General McKiernan, General McChrystal, and soon to be gone National Security Advisor Gen. Jones, and Defense Secretary Gates.
I do not think President Obama is our “worst” president, as the Left said often of George W. Bush (who of us is all that familiar with the administration of a Millard Fillmore or James Buchanan? And are not we all tired of such empty superlatives?). Much less do I think Obama has ruined the United States, or has done such damage that it cannot be undone. But I do feel that after only 23 months, the presidency is becoming a caricature of a presidency—and, scarier still, is being recognized as such abroad. Whereas Bill Clinton triangulated to save his administration from descending into Carteresque liberal irrelevancy, the choices of Obama seem much starker—perhaps understandable given the vast lacunae in his resume.
In sum, Obama will either insidiously ignore everything he once preached about (e.g., the seas endlessly rising unless we have cap and trade, the evil rich who make $250,001, the Constitutional-shredding Bush-Cheney nexus), or he will simply give the same empty platitudinous sermons that now come off as convincing as an Al Gore thundering about carbon offsets, John Edwards pontificating on “two Americas” or John Kerry lecturing about the need for higher taxes—or he will at times do both.
The crowd fainting at the sound of our “hope and change” Oz is over. We are already at the end of the movie when Toto pulled away the curtain—witnessing the nuts and bolts of how it once was all projected onto the screen.
And it isn’t pretty.
HAPPY HOLDIDAYS FROM THE “GULF”…..HAYAAK ALLAH !
——-SODAJERK—-
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……. ‘*• ♫♫♫•*’
….. ‘ *, • ‘♫ ‘ • ,* ‘
….’ * • ♫*♥*♫• * ‘
… * , • Merry’ • , * ‘
.* ‘ •♫♫*♥*♫♫ • ‘ * ‘
…’ ‘ • Christmas . • ‘ ‘ ‘
‘ ‘ • ♫♫♫*♥*♫♫♫• * ‘ ‘
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This Christmas Tree is wonderful !
THANK YOU !
Merry Christmas !
PS I WILL steal it…
Stolen…with thanks.
Merry Christmas,
Mark
Good job, my man!
A merry Christmas to you and your family!
Hey – lovely, it’s already out everywhere -
Thanks & merry X-mas!
Such a lovely Christmas tree. Many thanks, and hope you had a very Merry Christmas.
No it isn’t pretty.
But in the long run it’s healthy.
The USA has endured far too much “cult of the personality”, and
seeing the Emperor bare-arsed is a much needed corrective. It might even get is thinking about shrinking the size and power of the Federal Executive, which has become a standing menace to our liberties.
Martin,
You are absolutely correct. This is a watershed moment in our history and one that we should all be happy about.
The last two years have done more than pull back the curtain on one blundering individual. These many months have pulled back the curtain on the entire left/liberal paradigm. We have been given a clear picture of not only the efficacy of liberal political positions but also the character possessed by those in the liberal vanguard.
Liberals like to speak of teachable moments. Now they have given us the mother of all teachable moments.
Yours truly,
ThOR
And the high-water mark for cultural Marxism and political correctitude in the West. It can’t be refuted and sent away until a critical mass understands just what it is. And the al-Bama event is doing just that.
Martin ~
You are right on the mark. I have felt for many years that we needed another world war to get us out of the “I-Me” generation, but Obama should do the trick.
It has been a long long time since we have thought of others before ourselves, and (God willing) we have learned a hard lesson. Only by learning history, and why civilations failed, will we begin to take the steps necessary to get our republic back, for we surely have lost it.
Bring on the Flying Monkeys!
(I love this part….)
So clear and correct. What is left to say except that Obama will spend the next two years telling lies and taking credit. Grinning and snapping fingers will only take him so far with all except the deeply invested socialists. Being the “cool” black guy has run it’s course. No one left to lie to around the globe but that won’t stop him from trying along with the help of his media crew. Thanks for pulling back the curtain Dr VDH.
Miles To Go- Hopefully, you are clear & correct as well as Dr. Hanson. Thanks to VDH once again for his great insight in pulling the curtain back on Obama. However, “not the worst President, end of the movies” is somewhat premature. Act II of the Obama administration is just beginning. More czars, more Supreme Court justices, more federal judges, more earmarks, and his continued romance with Pelosi and Reid. Act II will tell us a lot about the new Republican House and Senate members and if they can keep the diplomatic republican leadership in tune to hear the American voters. Stop spending – repeal Obama Care – no new taxes (permanent). Maybe then our old leadership in the House and Senate can produce some moutain oysters and give the American voters what we want.
Worst presidency: Buchanan, followed by Wilson, and FDR, just measured by the casualties in the wars that began on their watch.
Wilson in particular violated the constitution, and forced many casualties from Spanish Influenza caused by his wartime cheek by jowl camps, as well as the excessive war casualties caused by his cowardly attempts to stay neutral. Add in the resegregation of the federal government as a bonus.
Buchanan had to be pretty special to permit 11 states to pretend to decamp and organized their rebellious army equiped with US weapons and led by US Officers while he did nothing. In my book, he gets tagged with the losses of the War of the Great Rebellion.
FDR violated the constitution in oh so many ways, raised taxes, crippled the economy, and permitted a German/Japanese arms buildup, while giving the Alies the cold shoulder. Vice president Wallace was a communist agent.
Sort of warms the cockles that Harding and Coolidge are getting coo-do’s.
And what!?? Lincoln gets no credit for having started that war with his insane invasion and dedicated bloodthirsty prosecution of that bloodbath. Keep the army north of the Potomac and there never would have been a war.
I really wonder about this man’s education. A week or so ago, he began a speech about Social Security by stating that it had begun as aid to widows and orphans. That is not true. It began as Old Age Assistance and the Widows and Orphans program evolved into AFDC. Is there anything that this man knows in depth ? It seems that he spent his college life in “Studies” programs and I really wonder how he was accepted to Harvard Law School. His lack of education just contributes to the mystery and the speculation about his life.
“I really wonder about this man’s education.”
Having a look at his educational record might give you an answer.
Oh wait….silly me.
You would think, of all things, he would at least know the origin of the two or three social welfare programs that were the central focus of his professional and political and academic peers.
At least that.
VDH:
“Abroad, there is now not a reset foreign policy but a reset, reset foreign policy.”
Gee, if the Alleged Hawaiian has lost the Europeans, then he really IS in the toilet.
They were his biggest fans.
Why is it that some of us saw this guy for what he was long before others, like as soon as there was any basic info?
We have to see the media as complicit in marketing this guy to the public. Do not they deserve their fair share of scorn and rebuke? If any of the media has any shame, have they stated so and pleaded for penance?
Obama is Obama: A poorly educated, honey-tongued, thin-skinned, narcissistic, lying, anti-American racialist, inexperienced, Chicago-thug politician without an ounce of true grit and leadership open-mindedness wholly undeserving of the Presidency. As they say, a tiger cannot change its stripes.
That the media (ABCCBSNBCCNNNYTLAT) ran cover for him and pro-actively marketed him without any “objective” scrutiny deserving of being called the Fourth Estate is the bigger story. Have they learned their lesson? I am entirely unconvinced that they have, and they should be mercilessly scorned and taunted to abject abasement.
A. Reasoner
Why is it that some of us saw this guy for what he was long before others, like as soon as there was any basic info.
Why is it that some of us don’t waste our money on Pet Rocks or the other senseless fads hyped by marketing husters? Maybe we’re rubes who can’t be easily manipulated. Maybe we’re too unsophisticated to fall for slick marketing pushing hype over substance. Maybe we don’t care about being part of the “in crowd.” Maybe we aren’t nearly as unintelligent as the liberals think we are, nor are they nearly as intelligent as they believe themselves.
Amen, brother! As George Orwell stated, there are some ideas which are so stupid that only an intellectual could believe in them.
To be fair, Obama did have the benefit of perfect timing. The donks could have run Rufus T. Firefly and still won the election. Also, Obama is a helluva salesman; it’s not everybody who could repackage 40-year-old bad ideas and sell them to the public so easily.
Thanks for what you do, Prof. Hanson; I always read your columns.
Maybe all of the above…
One more: some of us are old enough to have voted for Jiminy Crickets Carter. Some of those were smart enough to have learned from that mistake.
My wife is a ‘legal’ immigrant to this country. She knew very little about our politics, but the first time she saw Obama speak, she looked at me and said, “I don’t trust him.” Classic. She had said the exact same thing about Hillary. Since then she has studied American politics, and she is much more intuned to what is going on. The more she learns, the more she has validated her first impressions of both Obama and Hillary. By the way, her first reaction when she saw Bush was that he had a kind heart. Now I just sit back and watch for her initial reactions.
My wife is one who has good instincts about people and her first impression is generally the best and in most cases, very accurate. The first time she was Obama speak, Democrat Convention 2004, she was turned off immediately. Thereafter, when he was on television, she kept commenting that he was not what he tried to portray himself as being.
Then, I started paying closer attention and bought his book, “Dreams From my Father” and come to the same conclusion by the time I had read about half the book.
He is a devout socialist and he does not like America very much. How could this country have been so blind?
I think you and your wife might be interested in this fascinating article, if you haven’t seen it already: “Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuehrer” — by an Iranian emigre who, like your wife, immediately recognized what kind of person Obama is.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/op-ed/understanding-obama-the-making-of-a-fuehrer/
I first read this article back in the fall of ’08, showed it to everyone I knew — but those who had already made up their minds to vote for Obama dismissed it as paranoia or, worse, mean-spiritedness. Bet they wouldn’t say that now!
For me, the most telling thing about Obama was that when he was a member of the Illinois state senate, there were four occasions on which he worked AGAINST a bill that would have stopped the practice of taking born-alive babies who’d survived late-term abortions and leaving them, like garbage, in dirty-linen closets to die, alone, of neglect and exposure. When a nurse who’d found one of these abandoned babies, and gently cuddled and rocked the baby until he died, came to the Illinois Senate to testify about the horrors she’d witnessed, Barack Obama just sat there expressionless and impassive — and then proceeded to vote to continue this barbaric practice in Illinois hospitals.
It says something very, very disturbing about the American people that even when they were informed of Obama’s action in this matter, they chose to simply ignore it. They just couldn’t be bothered to even think for a few seconds about what such behavior tells us about the sickness of this man’s soul. Or perhaps–and this disturbs me even more–they, like Obama, just don’t give a damn about babies being killed in this manner.
I am sure you already know this but you are one lucky man. Congrats.
from the movie The Flim Flam Man…”you can’t chaeat an honest man”. That’s exactly why “We the People” saw right through this worthless flim flam man.
Well said, Larry. The following article helps bring it home:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/the_adolescent_left.html
If you notice, all of the items on the liberal wish list appear to be geared towards alleviating adults of adult responsibilities. Most of us adults, for instance, keep a rainy day fund in case we are fired or laid off. Instead of buying useless trinkets to keep up with the Joneses, we invest in ourselves – maybe with a 401k or a prepaid college plan for our kids. Most of us wonder where the income will come from once we are unable to work in our old age – and plan accordingly. Most of us know that we will inevitably require expensive medicine and insure ourselves accordingly.
I like to give the following illustration to show just how much Social Security and Medicare infringe on our right to pursue happiness: We pay 15.3% of our gross pay into these programs, so imagine a person who averages a $50,000 salary (a mere 20% of the official definition of “rich”), gets to invest instead in his own retirement, and averages a 7% rate of return on monthly contributions (the average return of the Dow). After a 40-year career, this person would have $1,673,319 to retire on. If this person invested and additional 10% (as I do now, for a combined 25.3%), this person would have $2,766,991 to retire on. On a $50,000 salary!! If that’s not a direct violation of my individual rights I don’t know what is. The reason I like to give this example is because most people don’t consider the compounding opportunity cost of excessive taxation.
Any adult willing and able to work can live within their means and retire comfortably without any assistance whatsoever. It’s just that we are a country that is short on adults and top-heavy on adolescents and children, most of whom will continue to vote in favor of abdicating their adult responsibilities to Washington. In summary, the left comprises primarily of man-children who move back in with their parents every 5 years or so because they are literally incapable of keeping a roof over their own heads. Truly pathetic is the person who is capable yet does not know how to provide for himself and his family without having the government confiscate from others on his behalf.
In a different era nature would have culled these helpless, undisciplined, emotionally stumped individuals from the herd before they were even born. Or they would be the person sitting out in the woods in the rain, waiting either to starve to death or for a handout from a more responsible adult. Fast forward a few hundred years and these people have their own political party and the power to confiscate money from other people almost at will.
A reasoner
Well Said
Word.
Shhhh A. Reasoner, it isn’t politically correct to tell the truth. You’re mean and insensitive.
Besides, I think Fox News is going to let John McCain run against the huckster in 2012, and the same nitwits will buy that package too.
Viva La Mexico.
Because we were imbibed with concept of critical thinking tempered with everyday common sense.
Foreign concepts to the progressive set.
There is no way to know how damaging Obama’s ruinous presidency will eventually prove, but merely two years into it, virtually all of our current enemies, especially the Muslim ones, but also the communist ones, the totalitarian ones, and the radical leftist ones, are encouraged and on the move like never before. The antithetical forces being unleashed today will resonate for the rest of our lifetimes, of that I am certain. They include significantly stepped up Iranian, NoKo (and no doubt other) nuclear endeavors by the world’s worst actors – and the groundwork for decades of monstrous nuclear Muslim terrorism are now being laid, all of which have been 100% abetted by this vile imposter on the Potomac.
It may not be possible to call him the worst president yet, but personally I believe he will be proved to be so, and we will not have to wait long to see the blatant evidence for the truth of this.
The secret service provide security for EX Presidents for the remainder of their lives,don’t they ???Damn
No, not anymore. I think it is 10 years now. So like former President Bush would be on his own in 2019 or so.
It didn’t have to be this way. As much as I think that Jimmy Carter was a bad President, he was in many respects victimized by circumstances. (some of which he had a hand in forging)
President Obama had the opportunity to lead. He chose to outsource major decisions to Congress. He spoke before he had all the facts. (Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq) Shorter version, he failed to lead, to pursue a “moderate” course. Ideology trumped political common sense. As much as he deserves what he gets, we are along for the ride.
Nonsense.
He HAS led. Only, he led towards a Leftist hell. Knowingly. Deliberately. And with the greatest success ever of a Leftist american president. He never was interested in leading this country to strength, prosperity, and stability. Indeed, that would be *counter-productive* to his, and Left’s agenda. This guy is much more capable than people give him credit for, and much more sinister. VDH talks about people laughing at him etc.., but the truth is that every night, before going to bed, he must be laughing his head off, like the Joker from Batman, thinking, “God, these americans are so naive, they think i failed, when i have taken their behinds from under their pants in mere two years …”
Oh surely there is nothing a few speeches and some new columns can’t fix. I mean really, he has already saved us from a Greater Depression, saved the world’s financial system, put the country on the road to economic triumph with his no-cost, high quality all-things-to-everybody Health Care System, blocked every effort by the Terrorists, saved or created 3 million jobs, caused peace in the Middle East, faced down the wee North Korean Hitler, won the next Olympic Games for our country, won the next World Cup for our country, and created 7 million living breathing human stimulus packages.
With that resume, talking through these piddly litte political problems will be a piece of cake.
Pfff eay job, all in a day’s work for someone who stopped the rise of the oceans and healed the planet.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D912VD200&show_article=1
I expect that he will also get the Nobel Peace Prize for the next three years as he resolves the Palestinian-Israeli, American gun ownership and world wide Sharia law questions.
Obamas trajectory with moderates and lefties almost sounds like a marriage going bad. First, uncritical love and adoration, then dismay and a sense of betrayal, then active dislike, now contempt and boredom. Of course in my case, as a conservative, I skipped the adoration phase, and the dismay and betrayal phase only confirmed what I had already feared. I used to fear Obama, now I just feel contempt.
Thank God that he has turned out to be incompetent–or life under this communist would be much, much worse!
I am most confused over the fact that…..Whilst he enjoyed a super majority in both the Congress and the Senate, why didn’t he push through the socialist Bills like ‘cap and tax’ or even ‘immigration act’ or even ‘an amnesty act’ which would have all passed with flying colours with the numbers he had. I cannot believe that Obama or his mentor Soros ,is that stupid. There HAS to be a reason for this and I hope it does not surface in the next two years.I saw him for what he is and I know of Soros.I am truly worried.!!!
In a few words:
if someone is ignorant enough to be a marxist, ipso facto he/she is
ignorant enough to look like a clown when appearing on the “stage”.
And this apologizer in chief is a marxist.
Ergo…
The curtain is indeed pulled back and not only should we pay no attention to the man behind that curtain, we need avert our eyes as he is standing there, naked.
The pronouncements from on high are, “Obama is perfect in every way” and “Sarah Palin doesn’t have the tools to be president.”
But with the slightest resistance, Obama crumbles, appointing on the fly no less than Clinton as “President Czar” (Czar of Czars?) before running to yet another party with the excuse that “Michelle’s been waiting a half hour…!” The whole thing is surreal.
Meanwhile, “incompetent” little Sarah has weathered withering attacks from both deathwish-dealing hate-filled enemies on the left and helpful “friends” on the right (talkin’ to you, Matt Labash)… with each attack thickening her skin and challenging her to come up with answers and responses, which she has done with humor and grace.
Obama’s hothouse orchid upbringing has not served him well.
True. Chris Matthews can’t go ten minutes without taking a shot at
Sarah- “Has she ever read anything?, All she’s done is shoot a moose”, etc. This media has gone dangerously far left, they are the lead contractor laying the yellow bricks and the road will not end at Dorothy’s house or Wasilla, AK if they have any say.
The internet and Fox News are the ‘little engine that could’ which explains why they’re attacked constantly. After the mid-terms we’ve awakened (well, mostly) from the sleep induced by the WML’s (wicked media from the Left) curse. We can see a few GOP are still groggy and have less than two years to snap out of it.
When the house comes spiraling down (thank you, Barry), I hope to find many a leftist journalist’s feet poking out. The task of getting back to Kansas will require more than heel-clicking, it’ll be a struggle over time with some major doses of austerity thrown in, but it’ll be worth it. Trillions, in fact.
In a just world I would write like VDH.
That said, why does BHO still poll in the 45% favorable range?
Bob:
Forty-five percent roughly equals the percentage of Americans who pay no federal income tax and/or receive some sort of federal assistance. They more or less have sold their soul to the democrats in order to continue receiving the largesse from the central government courtesy the US taxpayer. I don’t expect that number to decrease much despite ODummy’s best efforts to tank our economy.
Right! And 45% is enough to win every election for the next 1000 years. We’re toast, and W Bush and his Nelson Rockefeller Candy Butt Republican Party paved =:obama’s path for him, so don’t bring them back either.
Oh, come off it VDH. This was no flim-flam theatrics of bells and whistles: this was the real thing- an outright action to take over the government and, within 4 years, impose a Soviet-style nomenklatura, destroy capitalism and assume leadership of a global union of socialist nations. That was, and remains, the intent. That they picked a weak and ineffective frontman, and roused the proletariat, does not lessen the outright evil of the purpose or deprive him of the rating of the worst President EVER, by far.
It’ll take a lot more than Toto to undo what has already been accomplished.
My, My, the truth tellers seem to be out in force today. Hope Dr. Hanson doesn’t get upset with those who are willing to look over the horizon before apologizing for the Communist wannabe Dictator.
No offense Dr. Hanson but I agree with Stuart Williamson. I have felt that this was a barefaced attempt to destroy the Constitution ever since I saw Obama’s Berlin speech. On the other hand, the far left might have done the nation a favor by waking up the voting public. The midterms were a start but there is so much more to do to protect our liberties and I don’t know if the Republicans are up to the task. Don’t be surprised if the DREAM Act gets passed before Christmas.
In Act I/Scene III of “Richard III”, Queen Margaret says to Dorset:
“Peace, master marquess, you are malapert:
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.
O, that your young nobility could judge
What ’twere to lose it, and be miserable!
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces”
Never in American history has a candidate been raised so high as candidate Obama in 2008. The MSM and our (mostly corrupt) elites made a conscious decision to fall in love with the guy and impute to him qualities that no mere mortal (fallible vessels that we are)could possess. Any suggestion that the journalistic profession may have had the duty to investigate the guy was dismissed as racist claptrap. Obama understood this and played them all like a harp.
It is clear that Obama believed that occupying the office of President would be the same as running for it. He could not conceive that his agenda cold be opposed by others in good faith. All presidents have “many blasts to shake them” but Obama lacked, and still lacks, the imagination to understand this.
A. Reasoner, In answer to your question, the majority of voters for Obama engaged in the psychological condition called projection. They so wanted a superman to appear they were prepared to suspend their reasoning power and project all their wishes on a man with almost no qualifications. My yard man got a harder employment interview and background check before getting the opportunity to cut my grass. Now they are like kids who find out there is no Santa Claus. They knew it all along, they just didn’t want to believe it. Now they are suffering from that special type of buyer’s remorse you only get when you know you tricked yourself. The rest of us wonder why we let them even have a vote. As to the disgusting American press, you know everything about them when you hear their motto: If it bleeds, it leads. They love a tragedy and will go to great lengths to help create one. Thank God for VDH. I wish he were President.
Mr. Hanson, when it comes to the magic $250,000 mark, you have just succinctly put one of the fundamental hallmarks of all liberal thinking/excuse-making from Palestinian Arabs to native Americans to Rage Against the Machine fans to Tavis Smiley. Intent is stripped from reality and it is success itself that has come to be associated with immorality and failure with morality. It soothes minority egos, losers of conflicts, white guilt and adult teen age rebellion.
In this politically correct scenario, solutions become tabu no-go zones and obvious reality unlikely, requiring the sleuthing skills of a Sherlock Holmes to come up with racism 2.0 and white privilege. Thus, overwhelming numbers of black folks in prison doesn’t equal people who commit crime, but white racism.
I once wrote a shorty essay about intent versus success and failure in great historical competitions as a kind of a devil’s advocate thought experiment and surprised myself at how much of an argument I was able to make in throwing cultural relevance back in the face of those who wish to pillory the West by my making a claim that copper spearheads versus gunpowder does not an angel make.
My vote for the man behind the curtain to ignore would be Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Perhaps — but Wright has neither the bottomless pockets nor the global power that George Soros does. Soros is my pick for the real power behind the curtain.
A. Reasoner: “Obama is Obama: A poorly educated, honey-tongued, thin-skinned, narcissistic, lying, anti-American racialist, inexperienced, Chicago-thug politician without an ounce of true grit and leadership open-mindedness wholly undeserving of the Presidency.”
This. A million times this.
VDH, hmmmm.
No superlatives…well, ok. Maybe this isn’t the worst Congress in history. There are historians with their fingers on the facts that can run circles around me on the topic.
So, maybe there is an argument that there was a Congress that spent more of the people’s money, got us deeper into debt, did it with less authority and will and intent of the people, ignored more of the Constitution, circumvented more of the procedural checks and balances and obtained worse results in the economy, in jobs, in protecting our borders, and securing our freedoms and liberties as a nation.
I suppose it is possible that there have been worse administrations. I simply can’t name one.
In my lifetime, even a near century before I was born, (minus a decade or so) I am not aware of a time when our nation was more intentionally divided by the actions of an administration. Clearly we were divided during the Civil War era. It is generally accepted that Lincoln was interested in uniting the country, however.
By all the incidents you mentioned, and hundreds more via Pelosi/Reid/Frank/lapdog media/hollywood there is a palpable chasm, a “them vs us” that is so prevalent in virtually every discourse of the day.
A couple of fake “centrists” (I know what one really looks like and this ain’t them), want a “No labels” discourse, in what appears to be an audience of entirely one side and nobody from the other.
But, nobody seems interested in a “No Libels” against America, Israel, the Tea Party, climate change skeptics, conservatives, libertarians, Christians or Jews. Certainly nobody on the leftist side of the curtain.
So, VDH…maybe this isn’t the worst administration ever. But, that’s only because they aren’t done yet.
I cannot think of an administration since then that has .
The next President will really have his hands full, trying to undo both the damage to the country and to the reputation of the Presidency.
And if a fiscal conservative starts to cut entitlements, with a conservative congress behind him, which is what many of us want in our next president, leftist rage will be huge and name calling and hyperbole will be extreme.
But riots and insurrection in the streets as a reaction to a conservative president still will be better than President Obama for those next four years.
From my perspective, I do not think President Obama will be able to change. It is increasingly evident that the responsibilities of the office of the President of the Unted States are too great for him. He thought that by posturing he could win favor abroad. He did not! He thought that with the enormous majorities the Democratic party had in the Congress after the 2008 elections, he would have free reign. Instead he is a prisoner of the leaders of that majority, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and their allies. The health bill was their product, not the President’s. The President endorsed it because, in his mind, it was impossible for him to do otherwise. His walk off when he stood before the microphones with former President Clinton recently tells a lot. No President of recent memory would have ceded the stage to a former President. Would John F Kennedy have done so, or Harry Truman, or Dwight Eisenhower, or Lyndon Johnson, or Richard Nixon, or Ronald Reagan? Even George W Bush, so reviled by the incumbent, would never have done any such thing.
I, for one, don’t want him to change. I want Democrats and “liberals” and this fraud in the WH to keep on truckin’ the way they have been. I don’t believe the people are yet as angry as they need to be, so we can’t have Obama and his ilk “triangulating.” There are still too many Americans who need to be hammered repeatedly with a giant cluebat until they get it.
“We are already at the end of the movie when Toto pulled away the curtain…”
My only quibble with VDH’s article is that the Obama curtain has been pulled back, and we’re only HALFWAY through the movie.
Glad to see you’re back Kim. Just in time for the runup to the election in 2012 Do you think we can correct the current situation by getting Fred Thompson to run for the GOP nomination again in 2012? Gotta stop the cultist don’t we? And we need to get an early start again.
Which only serves to underscore Teh One’s ineptness.
“mellifluous tones”
You can sing about this swan song all you want…but when the bullets start flying, where do you go?
The damage isn’t over yet. Harry Reid threatens to keep the Senate in session until he’s finished working us over and Nancy is not likely to get in his way. The left knows this is the last chance they’ll have for a very long time. As for a primary challenge, that is not going to happen. The Democratic Party relies on the 11 percent of the population that is black and ever faithful to its redistributive agenda to have any power whatever. Offend that bloc and it will be reduced to Green Party status.
Well, it’s not as if President Obama has accomplished nothing. He did win the Nobel Peace Prize, after all. (Admittedly, he won that for doing nothing.)
Will Barack Obama be remembered to history as the Nobel Laureate who not only did nothing to earn his Prize, but didn’t do anything afterwards either, and in fact accomplished nothing at all?
Yes, on the plus side one can credit Teh One with being the principle recipient proving the superficiality and vapidness of the Nobel committee’s endeavors. Not only did they “suck”, but they sucked big time. Maybe they forgot to click their heels three times before they wished?
I love it!
…(¯`O´¯)
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……. ‘*• ♫♫♫•*’
….. ‘ *, • ‘♫ ‘ • ,* ‘
….’ * • ♫*♥*♫• * ‘
… * , • Merry’ • , * ‘
.* ‘ •♫♫*♥*♫♫ • ‘ * ‘
…’ ‘ • Christmas . • ‘ ‘ ‘
‘ ‘ • ♫♫♫*♥*♫♫♫• * ‘ ‘
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Obama will be remembered as the blank slate onto whom a “wish-fulfillment” Nobel peace prize was projected as he was just strolling out of the starting gate (because he was not Bush) but whose inept policies thereafter actually led to the return of nuclear war, and the death of millions. Read the notes from above. That is what they say.
I hope I am wrong, but the Marats, Neville Chamberlains and James Buchanans of history always cause war, even if it Jefferson Davis, Hitler/Stalin, and Yamamoto who always strike the first match to the powder keg. (And don’t forget Victoria’s royal children and nephews. They don’t always get blamed for World War I 30 million dead, because they are such great non-entities, but who else can you blame? The weak are always war mongers.
So Obama the Weak was given a peace prize. But even as he is lobbing cruise missles into Pakistan, his weakness is encouraging the next conflagration. The peace prize hereafter means nothing.
I disagree again with the idea (no offense Dr. Hanson but you are not an economist or CEO, rather a History Professor) that America is too big and resilient to fail, and thus Obama is not the worst President ever.
Evidence: 1. China and India make US Services losers, being higher cost than those and with services easily replaced. Boeing is doing not only wing assembly for the newest Dreamliner in Vietnam, but also engineering. Vietnamese engineers being cheaper than American ones, even H1-B Visa folks.
2. The US manufacturing sector accounts for 9% of GDP and employment, both. It is globally uncompetitive and as even the FT acknowledged, you can’t have manufacturing sent abroad and not have engineering and research follow it. The Apple model of a few hip designers working on new Iphones and Ipods while all the technical details are done in China and India make America weak.
3. America is vulnerable to nuclear attack, with Wikileaks showing China helping North Korea’s nuke program, and assisting the Taliban with MANPADs. Even a failed people like the Pakistanis can kill millions of Americans with impunity.
4. America is filled with people who don’t like us, are not Americans (as your column on the Central Valley showed) and do not like America as a nation much at all. As Mexico collapses further, expect mass refugees to be permanent “American voters” by decree, all the while hating the symbols, language, culture, and race of those who were formerly the majority while demanding hand-outs.
America in 1940 was 89% White, 10% Black, and 1% everything else, allowing it a margin of what amounted to half a million casualties against existential enemies. If you want an explanation of why America is so disunited after 9/11, look no further than the demographic balance. As Dr. Hanson explains, why would Mexicans in the US feel the slightest bit of allegiance, sympathy, or desire for sacrifice for America. As he notes, he would not as a guest throw trash around in Mexico, yet he observes the reverse daily in the Central Valley.
America is weak economically. Making almost nothing, depending on agricultural and commodity exports. A nation of Wal-Mart greeters and day labor immigrants and rich media/politico types. It is weak demographically. It is weak militarily. Other peoples and nations can attack us with devastating power with no real comeback. While the worst President ever seeks to “punish” a “wicked White America” for its past racial sins. Which are real enough, but those responsible are all long dead.
Consider this: WHEN not if, WHEN the Munis all fail, and Illinois and California declare bankruptcy, and repudiate their debt after there are no bail-outs (or alternatively Obama just prints money and gives it to them, functionally the same thing), what will a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-national America look like with either massive cuts in fire, police, welfare, education, and government employment, or the functional equivalent in Weimar inflation. Make no mistake, that is where we are headed, clearly, even/especially Nouri Roubini can see it.
THAT is precisely where we are now. Because America is so weak. Lacking either financial/manufacturing margin (exporting our way out of problems with machine tools and the like ala Germany) or the demographic unity (a vast majority of Americans being White middle-working class) to take massive punishment (massive casualties, rationing, total disruption for four years).
Amen Brother, I read your post and nearly wept. Now I’m trying to figure out how some serious intellects can still be bamboozled by this buffoon and still refuse to label him the Marxist that he obviously is.
It’s a snobbery thing. Obama is ONE OF THEM–Ivy League, Univ. of Chicago. They’re not going to reject one of their own. Plus, they’re not going to admit that they were wrong, so very very wrong.
Good to see you here, Whiskey. Generally I concur with most of your post. but re: your #4, disagree when you claim Mexican illegal aliens “hate us”. IMO the majority want us to succeed, because they are tired of the way it is “back home” and see us as their best hope for the future. But I agree there is a strident and significant minority wanting – or working for – us to fail. I think you also disregard the significant number of Mexican nationals using enlistment in US armed forces pathways to citizenship.
That said, there are lots of bad apples among the illegals in our midst, but also a great number of potentially good citizens. Your point is valid but overly broad, IMO, and would be stronger with slightly less hyperbole.
Cheers
Some time ago a Latin American industrialist opined to me that Cuba, if it turned around today, would take 50 years to climb back out of its 40-some years’ decline. Examine the economic stats of east Germany since the reunification. Same thing. I could go on with many real examples of Sisyphusian “returns from socialism”.
American cultural and institutional decline is in its fifth decade, and its further descent is inevitable. It’s over.
Three generations of unfit teachers teaching “self-esteem”.
Three generations of institutions exploiting “affirmative action”.
On and on and on . . . . . Whiskey! you truly are the clear-eyed one here.
Obama has always seemed to me someone that is a non-curious intellectual type. There’s no stretch in his imaginative abilities and he is profoundly non-empathetic for a politician.
Bush’s recent greeting of the troops in a Texas airport seemed genuinine. I can’t imagine Obama engagining in a similar exercise ever. He’s just not that interested in other people or ideas.
Say what you will about presidential rogues like Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon or even Clinton. At least they’d be interesting to talk to. Obama strikes me as an interminable bore.
Family, Country, God!
America will survive the Obama outrage. Certainly hope the “youngsters” that fell for President Outrageous’ socialist (i.e. Marxist) nonsence remember that elections have consequences.
When do we find out who President Outrageous gave most of the “Stimulous” money to?
Tin Woodsman: What have you learned, Dorothy?
Dorothy: Well, I – I think that it – it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em – and it’s that – if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?
(And you won’t find it chasing after the Leftist dreams of a wizard or the dreams of his father.)
God save our Republic.
and yet we have 2 more years of Obama Pelosi and Reid, and a complicit slobbering Obamamedia….Iraq Obama’s great achievement. That’s a whopper.
Things have changed and, as hard as it is to believe, the vast number of people living in the U.S. (notice, I did not say ‘citizens’) couldn’t care less about anything happening on the political scene, locally or nationally.
Those who do vote just choose whomever their friends have said they should vote for. Those choices are made based on whatever they see in a candidate that somehow relates to their lives. Obama appeals to them because he is a minority and from that they conclude that he ‘understands’ them. Put a Romney-type up against Obama and Obama will win 2012 handily.
I get the feeling that Obama is worn out by the Presidency. Obama has found out that being C in C of the American military in wartime is a tough and demanding job. He has also found that managing and running the Presidency is a 24/7 job, especially when he now faces a united and effective opposition.
Obama was a great campaigner, it is only too bad for America that he had no idea what the job of Presidency entailed and how lonely it is at the top.
Which explains why his default response to any emergency, criticism, decision is to revert back to campaign mode. It’s the only thing he excels at.
To McCain: “You know, John, elections have consequences, and I’m the president…”
Does Obama have it in him to rise above the mess he has created and seek out the advice of people who can explain to him what the job of a real president is all about? If you’re talking about democrats performing this service to the country the answer is probably no. So, who is he going to turn to? His instincts are to stay in his ideological zone. It has nurtured him all his life, even if it also left him too intellectually crippled to ever be a good president. My guess is that he wants a second term and can’t contemplate the possibility of not getting one. But will this be enough to push him the right direction?
I am one of those that gave up and bought plenty of ammunition and more guns and I now practice regularly.
I practice gun control by taking careful aim and trigger squeeze!
Essential vdh.
Who ever and what ever BHO is the fact that he is the elected POTUS is a condition that is due to the the citizens of the US. It is time that Americans try to discover who we are and what America is to become. We will not survive as a country if we elect people as the POTUS like Barack Hussein Obama.
Only fools believe in the Utopian rhetoric that spills from the BHOs. Do we want to become a land of fools and “victims” of our own infighting and incompetence?
Thanks for a great, uplifting article; I hope the curtain remains pulled aside. The next two years will be interesting, in the least.
Having recently read “New Deal or Raw Deal?”, a documentary of FDR’s presidency, I’d have to say it was as close to a dictatorship as any I’ve read about, well…maybe tied with Wilson. People in the first half of the 20th century had very little knowledge of what was happening outside their communities.
Lucky us to live in this new age where access to information is universal. Politics, as well as just about every facet of society, is changing due to the impact of the electronic age’s internet and satellite/cable television. We have discovered in the past two years the collective power of electronic communication, as exemplified by the TEA movement. This is just the beginning. Concerned citizens have never had such tools before.
Gee Dr. Hanson you sound like a broken record. Oh no, wait a minute, it’s Obama that’s the broken record along with the Democrats, Socialists, Communists and Statists, same old accusations, same old one way street, same old lies, same old blindness to reality.
It seems every generation is visited by the gods from Olympus and it seems that every generation sends them home worse for the effort of trying enforce their rule over mankind.
Perhaps this time they will return to find their lofty hiding place destroyed, that they are forced to fight it out on the battlefield of ideas and face permanent defeat at the hands of the truth. Their fake benevolence has been exposed as hatred of man and his freedoms thereby ensuring their permanent destruction. After which you won’t have to repeat yourself anymore. :)
The Emperor has no clothes. He is now seen as what he is and what he has been. Nothing more or nothing less than a community organizer. And not a good one at that.
There is still very much to fear from Barry and his administration. Even when the new Congress gets seated the Senate will be controlled by Democrats and Barry will still be in the White House. So there are no guarantees about anything. And the polls still indicate, amazingly enough, that there are still 35 or 40 or whatever the current number is of Americans who support Barry. That is just simply amazing.
I am laughing,you want to know why???? I was told that the Vice President can over rule Congress.IS THIS TRUE?????
No. (Read the Constitution.)
A lot has been said about Obama but I think this best sums it up. A Russian that had spent 15 years in a state insane asylum said, I have lived in your future.
Obama is not the first Obama. There have been many disastrous heads of state throughout history.
I think that Obama is fickle, frivolous, effeminate, pusillanimous and irresolute and then some. That said, I think that Obama is as much a symptom of an America gone wonky, as he is undoubtedly the cause of further wonkiness.
It is deluded to believe that all would be peachy keen if only Obama were not President. I agree with trigeek’s wife that George Bush has a kind heart and he was a brave uplifting and historic leader during and after 9/11. But Bush was a Big Government, big spending, increased regulation President.
When, in the last decade has the idea that the least government is the best government, been on anyone’s radar in Washington? I am sure that things would be better if Obama had not been elected. I am also sure that under a Republican administration, government would continue to grow and become more intrusive.
I may say “shrink government; live free”. I know that is a pipe dream in Canada and with, or without Obama, it’s a pipe dream in America.
Obama is bad news but he’s a symptom of an in-our-time train wreck as much as he is the cause. Simply blaming Obama for all that is wrong and making sure that he is a one-term President won’t stop things going off the rails.
The author is on to something!!! :
Have a comedian – any (other than devout Leftie) comedian – read one of Obama’s earlier “speeches” verbatim and reduce this President to an absolute laughingstock.
I read your comments often and find they mirror events in Australia .Obama’s failure is also mirrored by the failed policy’s of Australia’s government sometimes foolish but always failing the test of a compentent administration.We seem to follow the lead of the USA and when you make a mistake like electing Obama we elect the fool Rudd then Gillard. My point is I think the world needs sensible leadership now and you are the people who can provide it but you need to stand up to the media. I have the feeling we are at a cross road in history the USA can go down the road of Rome/Britain as failed empires or buck the trend and keep to the policys that made you a great free nation giving an equal opportunity for all who wish to contribute.I guess what i’m saying is do wish to lead the world to better place or do you want China or Iran/UN to lead ?
This is the best blog.
I do not believe I can quote one statement from the “won”, obamas Bin Ly’n, that is any where near the truth or has any rhyme or reason behind it to conclude he is any smarter than a “fifth grader”. I do not even believe he’s a “legal resident” of these United States for that matter. (Yeah go ahead and start the name calling if you must, but prove me wrong first, you know with all the records hidden of course, how can you even do that, no proof). but to call him the President is an insult to all other before him, he is no such thing. A bitter, hate filled, resentful nobody is more like it. Yeah there were other “progressive/regressive people at the helm before him that were sure flock ups, but this one, he nothing short of a traitor to this Republic. Again, prove me wrong. Anything he has his name to was not of his doing, rather the caucus of the anti self hating american traitors he calls “leaders. and they are no such thing to boot. They are derelict of their duties, they swore an Oath to protect and defend the Constitution, did they not. Instead, they have thrown everything at us including the white house kitchen sink in hopes of bringing this Nation to its knee’s and he calls us the terrorist?, someone please explain this one to me if you would?
O’bortion is looking for the backdoor because he is living a lie. Even for someone as misled as he by the socialists and world puppeteers like Soros, the lies are getting thicker and thicker and he can’t even keep up with them. If it was easy and he could be “The Messiah” which is the part of this he enjoys, he would stay. But the fun part of his Messiah show is over. They have been found out and he will either do himself in, or the American people will do it for him at the ballot box. Now we have to stop the Congress and Senate from doing any more damage. We can recover quickly once we have just a little more even playing field.
The American people are ready to fix what is broken and get back to work!
I dunno, Proffessor. It’s a bit too early to gloat. The tax bill he just brokered was not a victory for the Republicans. I definitely would not underestimate Obama-san.
In a dazzling display of incompetance, the Republicans picked Shell 2, even though there was only one shell on the table.
For their next effort, they have agree to play Liar’s Poker with our exceptionally honest president. But since he reminded them that he is our first black president, to be fair, the Republicans have agree to let Honest Ob peak at his card before making his bet.
Victor Hanson wrote: “Much less do I think Obama has ruined the United States, or has done such damage that it cannot be undone.”
Mr. Hanson, I think you vastly underestimate how much damage he HAS done, and WILL do in the next two years. Kagan and Sotomayor are two VERY damaging acts that will harm us for decades to come. And how many other appointees will remain long after Obama is history? One of Bush’s great failures was to NOT clean house of the Clintonites.
You also underestimate the stubborn blind faith of the left. They DO find Gore, Kerry, etc. to be convincing. No matter how often proven wrong, they continue to lap it up and defend it.
You also underestimate the stubborn blind faith of the left. They DO find Gore, Kerry, etc. to be convincing. No matter how often proven wrong, they continue to lap it up and defend it.
BINGO!! Every time I see a “Proud to be Democrat” bumper sticker I’m amazed that the driver can honestly look at the Democrats and feel pride. Really? Pride? I mean…I can understand being anti-Republican. But pride in the Democrats?
There really is no explanation other than stubborn blind faith.
After another updated litany of the burgeoning set of wounds to the body politic of America by our child president, Obama—remember our boy prez, Clinton?—how can anybody of sound mind be thrilled, or hopeful?
Here’s the ugly thing—
Given our life expectancy tables, Obama will live until he’s around 80, so we’ll have to put up with him and his shenanigans—hello jimmuh carter—until, what, 2050?
Actually, the ALREADY failed state of our countries voter’s consciousness is what’s true.
It’s the VOTERS, stupid!
It’s the voters who ARE stupid!
THEY are the “ONES” who torpedoed our republic by casting their “free” ballot for such an uno like BHO!
We are doomed.
The die, ‘er votes, have ALREADY been cast.
We have essentially elected President Palmer – not a real president but a convincing actor (for a season or two anyway) – to preside as leader of the free world. Serious leaders around the world might have hated Bush, but they are enjoying belly laughs at the expense of our American Idol president.
Speaking of flying monkeys, open the following link and tell be that’s not Joe Biden in the flesh:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/media/archives/cowardlylion.jpg
FYI – everyone who toils in the groves of academe knows the truth of affirmative action grace and favour students like Barack and spouse. When the first wave of academically unqualified affirmative action blacks hit the elite campuses, they failed miserably. Needless to say this was ballyhooed as a whitey set-up to keep the pickaninnies in their place on the plantation. So in response to the non-stop hooting and hollering about fairness it was decided to give all aa students social service passes – no questions asked – which is why Michelle’s incoherent babblings were accepted as a thesis and probably why the dear leader can’t or won’t display his academic records. Maybe Julian Ass something should look into revealing Obama’s secrets!
I cannot wait for Obama to get into his hot air ballon and sail off to lands unknown!
this is good. i have seen this imposter compared to the wiz before. the monkey line is always funny. he is exposed. no doubt, but only to free thinking, living in reality folks. not those who depend on the gov. dole.
we should start mailing those government free $$ checks into space. americans would be having millions of babies on Mars in a couple years. the moon would be one gigantic trailer park.
I apologize, new computer, TEST for ID
This is the best series of blogs I have ever read! Thank all of you.
You are a national treasure, Mr. Hanson!
The real reason why Obama is so eager to capitulate to the Republicans is because he’s beginning to get worried. There are whispers on Capital Hill about an upcoming, public F.B.I investigation into the crooked machinations of the Obama administration, and where all that missing stimulus money actually went. And it looks like they had it coming. Over the past two years, Attorney General Eric Holder has been harrassing the F.B.I and C.I.A. by filing criminal charges against certain agents for alleged “crimes” committted durung the Bush administration. His criminal investigations have destroyed reputations, blown covers, and put agents and their missions in jeopardy. And then, after the damage was done, he simply dropped the whole thing. But now that the political winds have shifted, I do believe that it’s payback time. That’s why Obama is walking on eggshells. The man is his own worst enemy. He allowed Eric Holder’s foolish power trip to put ideology ahead of common sense, and now it’s coming back to bite him.