The Democratic Reaction Richter Scale
The Democratic statist transformation suffered a sudden earthquake in Massachusetts last night. How can we measure the severity of the upcoming reaction aftershocks?
The subsequent damage will depend on the magnitude of the next round of shaking—a 7 aftershock ensuring rubble, a 1 suggesting that rebuilding can proceed.
So here is our reaction aftershock scale. (I think a 5-6 is the most likely, a 1 very improbable).
7.0 Obama brings in Pelosi and Reid to plot strategies about dealing with a deluded electorate, and so emulates a defiant Jimmy Carter—complaining about a crisis of national confidence while pressing ahead with socialized medicine, cap and trade, amnesty, more spending and greater deficits. When all that is passed, we will all, to use the President’s words, “suddenly” appreciate the magnitude of His genius and sacrifice on our behalf. We will hear Obama orate about Lincoln’s and FDR’s “difficult” first year on their way to historic achievement analogous to Obama’s to come. Bottom line: Massachusetts was a warning to hurry up and get the Obama deal done.
6.0 The liberal base, and White House insiders, adopt a bunker mode and start leaking off the record quips about the inadequacy of Democratic losing candidates and meaningless symbolic votes, while trashing Bush/Cheney and Rush Limbaugh. They begin turning on centrists and moderates as sell-outs and turncoats.
5.0 Axelrod, Gibbs, Emanuel et al. start talking about the “middle-class” concern about jobs, lack of health care, and the economy, citing Coakley’s defeat as sign of the continual middle-class anger at the Bush debacle and the inability of government to address the people’s needs. “Change” takes a long time.
Methinks you have the numbering on the scale reversed.
Apparently they’re going for a 7 as Glibbs and Axlewad “doubled down” this am on teevee.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/20/following-scott-brown-win-white-house-insists-its-mandate-stands/
I involuntarily laughed at 1.0. I suppose it’s possible, but I would not advise holding one’s breath. I note that the BBC is reporting that “US President Barack Obama will stick to his agenda including healthcare reforms despite defeat in a Massachusetts Senate election.” My only question is: What have the Republicans done to deserve this good fortune?
I’ve already seen 7.0 displayed on MSNBC last night right out of the mouth of Chris Matthews. My sense is still that this administration is so ideologically driven that if not at 7.0 are not far from it.
Victor,
I almost always enjoy your writing, and I get that this is meant to be at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but your metaphor appears to be wildly ill-timed and callous; tens of thousands of people have lost their lives to earthquakes and aftershocks in the past weeks.
As a measure of magnitude, the metaphor could be recast as a measure of brightness?
This administration is made of marxists, their goals are not political, they goals are strategic in the war of international subversion against capitalism and Freedom.
Therefore, they will not relent: they are in power and they will keep trying to destroy the free-market economy and America’s military might.
They don’t give rights to terrorists because they cherish humanitarian ideals, they give rights to terrorists because they share with the terrorists the hate for what America represents.
Each one of us must work at the roll-back of this regime with determination.
Work now like November is tomorrow !!!
Freedom is still in great danger.
ROLL BACK THE COMMUNIST ADMINISTRATION !
GODSPEED AMERICA !
Everything below 5 is fantasy land. They’ll clutch at power like a crackhead in withdrawal. It’s their reason for living.
Agree with Patrick – your metaphor is in very bad taste.
8.0 Obama and the Left galvanize to co-opt as many voting constituencies as they can to assure no such free election ever happens to embarrass them again. Only today, for example, they have started a move to nationalize the student loan industry, thus assuring a free college education for all citizens including illegal aliens–a practice current in Illinois, for example. Voters. More and more Democrat voters. Include Universal Voting, etc, and you have a permanent Left majority. The one thing Obama has learned from the election yesterday is that he has to move faster and more ruthlessly.
These guys are fascists and they are playing for keeps. This is the beginning, and it doesn’t end well.
The Harvard educated Barack Obama is too poorly educated to reverse course on his agenda. It’s all he knows and his narcissism prevents him from reexamining long held beliefs. Throwing his grandmother under the bus was much easier. Obama’s White House is filled with economic illiterates. They are convinced Keynesians. Big government economic policies are fantastic for the elite classes, providing countless career opportunities and incredible power. Since this stuff is so good for them, it should presumable be also great for the unwashed masses who never attended an Ivy League institution. Obama’s people find it inconceivable that Keynes did not offer doctrines guaranteed to create a booming economy. They will not abandon their utopian goal of having the political class and government bureaucrats dominate the private sector. Needless to add, the far left is really going to lose it. Some of them may even turn violent in the near future. They will not go quietly into the night.
Please note that in the very first sentence of my previous paragraph—I criticized Obama’s pathetically awful Harvard education. This cannot be reiterated enough. We must go after the Ivy League schools. Their graduates are too often of very mediocre quality. These vastly overrated individuals have done enormous damage. MSM journalists are increasingly perceived as second rate buffoons unworthy of respect. We now have to focus on the scam jobbing perpetuated by the Ivy Leagues.
The Republican response is more troubling.
Hopefully they read the “tea leaves” correctly. End the campaign on social issues. Select judges based on a litmus test of property rights and Federalism, rather than abortion. Make the Dems a one issue party.
Second, a message of small government, lower taxes wins the day. Congress from 2000-2006 spent like drunken sailors and were tossed out. Republicans also cannot be the “party of No”. They have to offer real solutions to health care, etc. Put Dems on the spot. Reach across the aisle to get moderate Dems to vote with you. If you can’t-Then Reps can say, “elect me in 2010 so we can put these solutions into practice.” They will have a real mandate. Then they better follow up.
Obama ran as a centrist. He governs as a statist.
While a 1 or 2 would be a good thing, I suspect that a 5 would be the minimum reaction we will see. I won’t be surpresed to see a 7. The egos involved are too strong and the narcissism too developed to allow much less.
I agree that the White House will want to do something like a 6.0, but congressional Democrats will force them to dial it down to a 4.0
10.0 The Washington arrogance machine combines with the Massachusetts thuggery machine and pulls off a Chicago Boss machine stall, hinder and delay tactic in swearing in Brown. They pass ambush legislation in the dark of night and cause permanent damage to the trust of the people of this government, not cynicism…damage.
9.0 The administration whispers sweet nothings into the ear of Olympia Snowe and she switches sides, re-establishing a One Party de facto ramrod for legislation that infuriates the center and causes every close election for Democrats to be up for grabs.
8.0 The entrenched media, as an arm of less than 20% of the (furthest left reaches of) country, begin to “Palinize” Brown on behalf of the administration, or worse. The smear campaign begins with Keith Olbermann…asserting every filthy lie imaginable, Newsweek reddens his eyes and gives him demonic look by photoshopping his picture, (then says “oops”, we didn’t know that was done), the NYTimes and their surrogate, the Boston Globe begin to slander his children. The “others” then cover the above…as if it was “news”…not originating it…but propagating it.
The GDI’s…get so fed up with the disgusting behavior of the left…they shift the pendulum completely the other way.
Throw the bums out…bring in the new bums.
If Obama stays true to form (and why wouldn’t he?), he’ll talk a 2-3 on your scale, and act a 7 or 8. All along his duplicity has been clear to me. It can’t be chalked up to good intentions/bad execution, or naivety. Anyone who attends Rev. Wright’s Church of Goddam Amerikkka for 20 years but understands fully that he must conceal the fact from Americans, anyone who consorts with hard-core radicals/terrorists (Ayers, Khalidi, Said) but cloaks his beliefs in shades of moderation, anyone who acts radically but brands his actions in public as moderate (bipartisan uniter turns backstabbing partisan thug, healthcare socialization is retailed as “reform”, cap and trade wealth redistribution is repackaged as “save the planet” ecology), anyone who connives, as Obama connives, to say a moderate thing but then acts radically and surreptitiously, that person is a poisonous snake.
Here are issues that won’t play well with an independent electorate:
1. Abortion-genie is out of the bottle. Seek to constrain it, but not eliminate it.
2. Immigration-Too easy to triangulate it.
3. Anti-gay-too many people interpret this as civil rights. Sentiment is against gay marriage, but you don’t want to be a party that eliminates a group-unless they are absolutely wing nuts (Nazis)
Issues that win:
1. Smaller government
2. government accountability and standards be the same as everyone else
3. lower flatter taxes
4. less welfare and government services
5. less spending
6. strong military
I think a Carteresque bunker mentaility, a 6.5, is most likely. I saw this type of voter rejection of Obama and his policies coming for a long time, as many have. For all this time I repeatedly come to the conclusion that Obama is too much an ideologue to tack to the center. The power is still largely his, notwithstanding Brown, and power is not to be shared when you’re a hard leftist with totalitarian leanings.
From what I’ve seen over the past year, I don’t think Obama is going to change his mind about what he thinks is best for the country. The only thing that would is if the electorate changes the majority party in the House, the senate, or both.
I would put my money on 7.0 except Michele is almost certainly telling BO that Nancy and Harry are who ruined his presidency barely one year into the term. With anyone other than this greenhorn it would be cause for heads to roll. Harry’s is half way gone anyway. That leaves on Madam Speaker who is seeming more delusional with each hour that passes. Obama built his entire career in the left. My guess is he is unable or unwilling to do one of those deft Clinton’s pivots.
Methinks it will be 7.0 & 6.0…but I’d LOVE a 1.0!
How many times in a generation do we need to learn the hard way that theft and ruin are theft and ruin?
Because it’s by nature a parasitic taker, the left offers NOTHING but mounting losses, while government is an inherent, absolute negative force. So we’d willingly make a leftist government lord and master?
#11. Couldn’t agree more re: the Ivy League. America has to wake up and stop deferring to those clowns.
I will point out that Sen. Brown is a graduate of Tufts and Boston College.
America’s Jesuit schools can lead the non-Ivy League schools in this revolution.
2. The State of the Union is key. That will tell us what Obama intends to do.
3. An earthquake is an earthquake. The metaphor is apt.
#5 & 8
Gee whiz. Perhaps we should have a respectful period of mourning, just like the Dems had for Katrina. We need to stand bare-headed in the rain for 30 days to show respect for, for…what? Everything that can reasonably done is being done within the limitations of the zero-perfection world in which we live, just as with Katrina. With a little time the work will be done better and faster. It is terrible and sad, but the work goes on, yes, and the hearts that bleed best continue to do so, without perhaps doing much to actually help.
Why do I get these flashes of Spinal Tap with certain members of congress looking for the 11???
John McCain
Lindsey Graham
Olympia Snow
etc.
Will reach across the aisle and have “input” into the crafting of “compromise” legislation on Health Care, Cap and Trade, Amnesty, and all the rest.
What apetra said.
Plus, the shock was measured at 8.9 and as a result, Obama declares a national emergency and federalizes the Nation Guard and seizes all gas stations, allocating gas rations only to Barney Franks’ friends. Obama then shuts down all TV broadcasting except for MSNBC and goes on Chris Matthews’ show as Matthews is declared to be the only unbiased broadcaster.
GITMO is converted to a prison for hardcore Republicans and traitors Senators Webb and Bayh.
Obama, lastly, changes his legal name to simply “Messiah Obama!”
Strategically, the lesson for the Democrat left is to never waste another opportunity; when they next seize power (white house, senate, house), they must quickly enact their agenda before it can be sidetracked by popular revolt. They nearly had it this time, and could have, and will not soon forget. God help us all if they ever get this kind of power again.
Batty-Batty-Batty (Obama’s character from The Hollywood Shuffle)and his handlers will opt for #7. They are SO ideologically driven that there are NO other options. It’s a scorched-earth policy which is about to go nuclear.
in retrospect I’m sure Mr. Hansen would agree that using the earthquake scale as a symbolic yardstick was not the most PC way of highlighting the next steps for Democrats.
I’m also certain that Mr. Hansen was not trying to diminish the suffering in Haiti.
the message conveyed is clear even with the ill timed reference to earthquakes …
#6 Has it right !
Obama is on a mission that has nothing to do with healthcare. He is dead set on transforming the USA into a single party socialist state.
Do the spineless Republicans have the courage of the folks in Mass. to call this travisty by it’s name : MARXISM .
Thanks VDH for the exellent overview.
I think Oblunder and his cronies are such socialist idealogues and Alinsky acolytes that they will double down and increase their efforts to destroy our country. They have been ultra-contemptuous of the citizenry and assume they know far better than we what is best for us, one reason they don’t understand even the concept of the tea party movement. On your scale, Oblunder et al will be at 8.0 (yes, even worse than you depict at 7.0). We The People must ensure that we take back our country. It began, yesterday, with the Massachusetts Miracle. We must continue with the November Knockout.
Spend your time visiting the range and qualifying for CCP, if it’s a 7, revoluion is the next step…
RE: Carter or Clinton
Despite having demonstrated his willingness to throw both his 20-year preacher and even his own mother “under the bus” to ensure his political ascension during the presidential campaign, I was impressed–and pleased–that he stood up to and beat back the Clinton machine by what appeared to be fearless integrity (however ideologically unpalatable for me), and would have bet, a year ago, that he would be willing to go Carter for the sake of his convictions and enacting as much of his socialist agenda as he could (and damn the torpedoes).
But the trappings and creature comforts of power–and, most importantly, the limelight and the lure of entering the pantheon of luminary presidents and the immortal realm of myth– trump selfless principle for the Narcissist, the psychological condition he has revealed to be sharing with Bill Clinton, after all (but was not discerned by me when he was scolding the latter–and his equally egocentric wife–during the campaign for their unpopular histories and behaviors that resulted from that very condition).
It was simply the pot calling the kettle, um, alright, tin.
The parallels with Jimmy Carter are plentiful, but the ones with Clinton also numerous, both in administrative trajectory and character.
(Eerily, like Clinton, Obama even has his own Haiti moment in his first year in office, the outcome of that yet to be determined, but so far Haitians have not turned back American battleships by throwing stones at them from the docks).
I wager that the president will go for the glory and take a hard right turn (as he did during the campaign, managing to outflank a RINO on the right (even though that RINO–i.e. McCain–is, on hindsight, Reaganesque in comparison), and the aftershock will produce a 4 or even 3 on the scale.
Should that damage control fail to stem the tide that is now building into a great wave that will crash down on the Democrats in November, making Obama’s chances for achieving the highly-coveted second term very negligible, I fully expect Obama to engage in military adventurism and to orchestrate fleeting but spectacular one-hit-wonder campaigns that will be evocative of Bush’s Shock & Awe, but with the targeted intention of shocking and awing the American people (who will be the real enemy to subdue for the political campaign of ’12).
Brushing up on his Machiavelli, first things first: Obama will finally find a nice church to attend in Washington on a weekly basis.
Expect the papers to begin showcasing a Bible-toting (or clinging) Obama emerging out of church every Monday morning (devotedly holding his wife’s hand, and with his lovely girls in tow).
All of that allowed Clinton to leave office with 60% approvals, even after being Impeached.
Obama knows that. He and his team study those very things (i.e. what images worked for the quasi-succesful Clinton).
Clinton’s popularity–and even his surviving of Impeachment, it has been analyzed– was greatly assisted, of course, by a ballooning economy.
Obama has no such luck going for him right now, but many believe that the economy should improve significantly in time for critical campaigns (if not the midterms this year, then the presidential one in ’12).
The professor has recently written that a rebounding economy will not be enough to regloss the sheen on the horse–now a nag– that Obama rode in on.
I will rest assured. However, look how Clinton played it. I’m sure Team Obama is looking very carefully.
Anything below 7 is laughable. Recall that team Axelrod is a Chicago machine, pro-Mao gang, priding itself on its Alinsky bring- guns- to- a- -knife fight style strategies. Victory by any means. Give no quarter. The audacity of hoax. They don’t give a damn about incumbents’ waverings. They don’t give a damn about the economy. They don’t care about YOU.
They’ve always known that their frontman is an empty suit, and that their true objective – the imposition of a socialist system – would be revealed and arouse fierce opposition. They just didn’t expect it to come within one year. They are in the White House. They are staffed by believers. They retain the loyal support of the major media. They are hunkered down in their Alamo. Go for broke!
We’re looking at full court press, in-your-face efforts, to create as much damage to our free-enterprise, capitalist system as they can wreak in this brief window of opportunity so that, like Canadians, “we’re all socialists now! So what are you gonna do do about it?”
No more ditherings from “conservative pundits” on “Will he do like Clinton – go centrist”, of “Surely he must recognize….blah, blah,blah.”
We’re in for a year of after-shocks and tsunamis.
10.0..just as cfbleachers (#15) described, PLUS:
Obama engineers a right-ring extremist attack on a government building a la McVeigh, then uses the aftermath to demonize tea party rallies and conservative talk radio as creating a “climate of hate”. Next, he institutes emergency powers that enable him to shut down “hate radio” and deny permits to any anti-government protests. In Nov 2010, he uses union thugs and Black Panthers to intimidate voters. Meanwhile ACORN will pursue massive voter registration drives that will gather millions of fraudulent democrat votes, and amnesty will be granted to illegal aliens, guaranteeing a democratic supermajority in most states. By 2011, all of Obama’s left wing agenda is passed without opposition.
The “blessing in disguise” idea had come to me, in the middle of the vote yesterday.
Put the 40th vote in place by “taking a dive” in Massachusetts. Say things you KNOW are going to turn off voters. Tell them you wouldn’t go out in the cold to shake hands with them…at Fenway.
Have a Kennedy call you Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.
Have someone say “would you turn over the steering wheel from Ted Kennedy…”. I mean, really now.
It looks like a tank job.
And, now…the leftist lords can do what they do best…blame.
Blame the Republicans for “blocking” legislation. Gridlock. And all the momentum and energy of the center evaporates in the mist…as the propaganda arm in the media stirs the pot of discontent once again…with lies, distortions and half-truths.
The aftershock is absorbed. And redirected.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWM2NjY2YmJmMzRlNGQ1OGQwZTM5NTBhZTVkM2U2MjI=
know how these people work! they may apparently slink back into the shadows, they will likely “talk” centrist like they did during the election, but they won’t go away and they won’t compromise!
NEVER trust them. they must be vanquished with sunlight on the truth and return to and adherence to our Constitution. This battle will last for our lifetimes and likely longer. But finally, we are cognizant of their existence and their agenda.
Sabrina & Patrick – Get over yourselves. You are SUCH touchy little goodies. How can you not collapse in the vapors every day?
The US is getting into Haiti and working their a$$es off to make it better and you come over here to whine.
You have an ID10T error in your software.
I think that 7.0 is the level of idiocy that The Won and The Leftists will reach. I fear they may try and go 10.0
These are trying times.
0.8 The fickle American constituency, upon having their ears tickled by wise men like Bayh and Webb, ‘moderates’ who each cast one of the 60 votes for Obamacare, suddenly feel as the elect they have sent a strong message, we indeed do need to be governed “from the center”, and we begin to hear “Yes We Can” as The One assisted by the teleprompter begins the 2012 campaign with promises of Hope.
Applauded by millions of rubes believing in the nanny state and improving America’s “image” abroad, millions dance wondering what is in it for them from the public slush stimulus fund.
Same as the old boss…
7.0 …When all that is passed, we will all, to use the President’s words, “suddenly” appreciate the magnitude of His genius and sacrifice on our behalf. We will hear Obama orate about Lincoln’s and FDR’s “difficult” first year on their way to historic achievement analogous to Obama’s to come.
Rather than Obama comparing himself to Lincoln and FDR, he is comparing Lincoln and FDR to himself. Nice touch.
*********
I gave Brown small donations and my vote, and I’m enjoying the moment. My enjoyment would be more robust given evidence that the GOP intends to govern competently. Despite the adroitness of the Brown campaign, I fear the Republicans are counting on Democratic incompetence to restore Bush/Rove/DeLay business as usual.
This is off topic, but I notice that the title of your column is “Works and Days,” and after hearing a few lectures on a DVD from a teaching classroom group, I’m thinking it must come from the title of Hesiod’s agricultural manual. Is that right? Makes perfect sense, especially since you obviously identify with the independent farmer. You’ve probably explained this before, but I nonetheless appreciate this teachable moment!
I join the “at least 6″ chorus. No matter how much we wish we had a pragmatic in the White House, we stupidly managed to elect a fanatic, surrounded by less charming characters of the same ilk. If we succeed in frustrating their subversive ambitions, it will be only because we were not afraid of prosecuting the ugly fight that is still ahead of us. If we shrink from our civic duty, we are cooked.
VDH:
Where in there is Hillary Clinton stealing the lifeboat and AG Eric holder getting his walking papers?
From what I’m reading in my slumming, theres quite a sizeable contingent of the Left who got the memo, but simply refuse to divine what the marks on the paper MEAN.
They want their HCR and Eco agendas rammed through ANYWAY, and their rhetoric is still against the same old “evil capitalist and ignorant racist redneck bogeymen fascist axis” variety.
This means a wipe-out in November, if The Alleged Hawaiian chooses to listen to these folks.
While Holder and Emmanuel and others might be glazed-eye zombie Hope n’Change automatons,(though i doubt it), I don’t think the UberFrauFuhrer, (sorry Roger), drinks anyone’s kool-aid but her own. And Lord knows that THAT brew’s strong enough to kill most men.
I Had to bring this over from the Boston Globe, whose servers are smokin’ with comments. I’m still laughing, deep and long. It feels good.
Agentfostergrant wrote:
Hey Joan Vennochi & others at the Globe:
HA HA HA HA HA HA!!
Sorry..that was rude..give me a minute.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
“I will point out that Sen. Brown is a graduate of Tufts and Boston College.”
Scott Brown is far from perfect. He is a bit too left wing for my taste. Brown is simply the best we can do presently in Massachusetts. The guy might be something of an economic illiterate. Thankfully, Mitt Romney will probably be a good influence on Brown. The latter gentleman is now the odds on favorite to capture the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. He realizes that conservatism could be the wave of the future.
Rather than deal in personal fantasies or analysis, let’s deal in facts:
While more moderate democrats got the message the voters of Massachusetts sent yesterday, the administration has not. Axelrod has already said today that the administration will be pushing harder for healthcare reform.
This is, then, just like September, right after a month of town hall protests — a lot of scared blue dogs wanting to pass on healthcare, while Pelosi, Reid, and Obama insisted it had to be done now. So what happened between September and December? A lot of blue dogs were summoned to the WH for private confabs with the One, and ended up returning to support the bill in question. Whether it was some damaging bit of intel the WH had, or just simple hardball politcs, we’ll never know… But they all came back willing to do the President’s bidding. A few house dems were allowed to vote against the bill, since they only needed 218 to pass and they have 256 votes.
And if hardball didn’t work, then outright bribes were the order of the day.
This is the only playbook they have; it’s the only thing they know.
As for Emanuel, he said something like a month ago that his is an 18-month position. He gave up his house seat to work in the administration, and he plans on getting back to his own political career soon. Of course, that kinda depends on whether the voters will have him, and once Obama & Co push forward with their healthcare bill, I kinda doubt they will.
The major problem at this point for Obama, though, is that the media isn’t quite as compliant as it used to be. They’re already starting to ask Gibbs hard and pointed questions during his briefings, and some of Obama’s most vocal supporters in the media are starting to voice concern and even disillusionment over his failures as president. So one has to ask how much of an impact a more critical media will have on Obama and his policies…
This has been a shot across the bough. Obama has barely noticed. He doesn’t really notice anything, except police behaving stupidly of course, because he is merely the mouthpiece for the communists in the white house. There will be much more to come and Obama’s gang will pay. Who knows, maybe the media will even have to come up with a replacement for the derisive “tea bagger” tone. I just want all of MSM to be bankrupt by November.
After health care reform is passed, this new senator, along with most of the democrats and independants will agree on most every issue we face, which is good news for America. From our two on-going wars to domestic environmental issues most of the “sensible center” realize that the country will be demanding some action. Democrats have been trying to move the country forward and if/when the other side of the aisle starts campaigning they too will realize that the country wants some of these important bills voted on…sooner rather than later. Good Luck to them !!
Unless Obama can arrange for the New Madrid Fault to go off, he is not getting emergency powers.
The Mass. election shows that vote fraud has limits; National attention is as powerful as
national campaign contributions.
The economy is now the only issue the people
care about; When Hard Times hit, it will be the
only issue in Washington, for those of either
Party who wish to remain there.
Barbara Boxer’s Republican opponent is the most
fiscally conservative candidate in the country.
As has been said on these pages and elsewhere “the emperor has no clothes”
Those in the halls of the Democratic “machine” believe they are rich and have need of nothing but really are poor in spirit, blind and naked. They have the majority of a nation yelling at them; “hey you are poor, blind and naked” but they cannot hear it for they have been given a ‘spirit of delusion’ so they can be led out onto the battle field and slaughtered (figuratively of course) in the political arena. Look for this same thing to happen around the world.
I think we are in for a 7+ on the Richter scale and heck we have been seeing 5′s and 6′s for months now Mr. Hanson and without as much pushback and yelling from the people as we are about to see in the coming months.
What can Brown do for you? For me he can do what he said he would do in last nights acceptance speech, he will be held accountable.
i hope you aholes all lose your health insurance!
Lay off the overly-sensitive “Haiti earthquake” nonsense!
Political Correctness has infiltrated many psyches, I see.
Hanson’s “Richter Scale” metaphor is an apt and biting exercise.
I’d say we are going to see a “4″ with the exception of any retractions out of Kerry.
Forgot one item: Messiah Obama, aka “The Won,” has declared a 2-minute hate feast twice daily at 9:30 AM and 4:45 PM, Eastern through out the USA and its territories, with the official photo of George W. Bush displayed on all TV broadcasts. The official chant shall be: “Boo, boo, boo, we hate you!”
Axlerod has had the four member SCOTUS declare that this order is lawful and must be obeyed, or else.
Seven for certain. Never underestimate the power of sheer, stupid pride.
I was thinking of another scale, the breathalyzer scale, when the drunk is .40, brain dead, but still walking and talking–there is some resemblance to the current congress. How about pre trial, or pre tribunal, presidential pardons for all those POWs? Release them on site and let the “normal’ criminal justice system deal with them. May I suggest intercultural midnight basket ball followed by sessions of ecumenical Koran readings? And what about all those other “political prisoners?” You know, all those citizens doing more time for crack cocaine rather than the Beverly Hills snortable version. And why stop with just Chicago’s death row pardons by a democratic governor when you can pardon every one on every state’s death row as the President? After all, crime is in the eye of the beholder, like all scales of justice. Hey when you’re on a roll, go for the gold!
“8.0 Obama and the Left galvanize to co-opt …”
Agree that the Left will galvanize and you can see it right here with posters mewling PC complaints about “inappropriateness” vis-a-vis an earthquake analogy. Get over it, Progressives. Haiti is *not* America’s number one priority, and it’s especially tacky of you to try to make it so when America is undergoing it’s very own cultural earthquake, which you are desperately trying to cover up (now that you’ve discovered name-calling “racist” doesn’t work any more).
Over here in Europe we had a BBC documentary aired on a year of Obama. It had a great set up: they followed a couple of Obama voters for the past year and their reaction to the events of last year. A couple of things stuck out for me:
1. From the get go Obama was saying during speeches: The time for talking is over. Already in March the time for talking was over, while nobody had seen a proposal!
2. During the year the Stimulus came through. Of all the protagonists (all blue collar folks) only the community organizer in Chicago got money out of the Stimulus, not the farmer, the factory worker, the soldier’s wife etc. Community worker is not really a green job, but he…
3. At the office of the community worker a IT specialist did voluntary work (setting up the network and the PC, etc). He got invited for a coffee with the community worker and a heated debate erupted because the IT specialist called taxation stealing from other people and that there was no right to health care like there is no right to a BMW. I don’t think many Europeans did appreciate the unique American character of the IT specialist. Doing voluntary work while opposing statist health care at the same time.
4. At a Tea party a sign was held up with a picture of MLK next to it stated: He had a dream, underneath a picture of Obama next to it stated: And we got this nightmare.
Congratulations on a great election night. Can’t wait for the Halloween party the Democrats will be in in November.
You are overstating everything. Brown didn’t even run as a Republican and distanced himself from the GOP every chance he got. Nowhere on his gins or in his speeches did he mention he was a Republican. You right-wingers are so dumb you fifn’t even notice that Brown wanted nothing to dow ith you because he knows being tagged as a Republican is death in American politics, as America has utterly rejected Republicans’ policies of racism, sexism, and making the rich even richer. Besides, Brown will be out in 2012.
#5 patrick and #8. Sabrina – It’s the compassion contest – a masquerade of who cares the most where supposedly the metaphor used disqualifies VDH as per, the sensitive ones with the holy judgement.
This is exactly the kind of tender footed silliness and attempted reframe, that shifts the debate away from the subject, and towards the doubt of character.
If you two were to check the 10’s of thousands of pages of VDH’s writing, you will find that there is anything but a question to Dr. Hanson’s insight, judgement and compassion.
You should particularly read the article detailing how political correctness is deadly, with specific reference to Fort Hood before you continue down your tired, passive aggressive and sanctimonious path, and instead stick to the subject.
Earthquakes happen.
Heck, there was even one in California once before.
Isn’t that where Dr. Hanson resides!?
This is my hopey/changey –
Obumbles resigns tomorrow, realizing that the job is totally beyond his capabilities. That would be an 8.5 Richter. The world will never hear of Obumbles or Michelle ever again — they will live in a thatched hut somewhere east of Nairobi.
We then have to deal with the nitwit, Biden. But at least, he is an AMERICAN.
while Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi gracefully step aside…
Gracefully or no, Reid is stepped aside.
OK — my last comment was Fantasy Land. I truly hope that he does not tack to the center, thus keeping the electorate angry as HELL. Patriotic Americans will see the leftists for what they truly are – Socialists/Communists/Statists.
If he tacks to the center, these pantywaist centrists will think that he has had a change of heart and mind, and keep re-electing the Socialist Big-Government types to Congress.
Obumbles — Keep the mask OFF and let the people really see that you are Joseph Stalin, re-incarnated.
“Obama’s uses his State of the Union speech to do a Dick Morris triangulation, and now talks of balanced budgets, cutting spending, and fighting a “war on terror,” while praising the Bush anti-terrorism protocols, encouraging the “job makers” of the private sector, and announcing that “the era of big government is over.”
And while he speaks there will be dancing actors behind him dressed as santa claus and the tooth fairy.
“My only question is: What have the Republicans done to deserve this good fortune?”
I’d say one of them, Scott Brown, earned it by listenig to voters and responding accordingly.
Dear Professor Hanson – No doubt the reaction will be a “6.0.” The first move for the Obama circle has to be to “re-energize the base.” The O-bots are getting testy after the NJ, Virginia and Massachusetts defeats and the gargantuan balls-up that is health care “reform.” The O team will do this with the usual time-tested tactics of Bush/Cheney smears and plenty of “poor-us-what-a-trainwreck-we-inherited” self-pity. They will then have their media attack dogs ratchet up the vitriol scale against all GOP candidates. The slanderous “analysis” of Scott Brown that we got from Keith Olberman will be dished out to all GOP candidates. It’s going to be “Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war…..”
Michele is almost certainly telling BO that Nancy and Harry are who ruined his presidency
Banjo, I agree, Michelle ought to be in there, too.
1.0 – Barry starts sleeping on the couch.
2.0 – Michelle takes three trips to Paris and one to Switzerland, won’t reveal cost to taxpayers.
3.0 – Michelle photographed giggling with George Clooney at a premiere.
4.0 – Michelle contacts publishers about a book proposal.
5.0 – Michelle won’t say “No” when asked whether she’ll run for office herself.
6.0 – Calls herself “Michelle Robinson Obama” in official communications.
7.0 – It appears that Barry will be the UN Secretary-General if he resigns the presidency at the end of 2011. Michelle gets a face-lift and Barry is back in the bedroom.
15. cfbleachers:
10.0 The Washington arrogance machine combines with the Massachusetts thuggery machine and pulls off a Chicago Boss machine stall, hinder and delay tactic in swearing in Brown. They pass ambush legislation in the dark of night and cause permanent damage to the trust of the people of this government, not cynicism…damage.
9.0 The administration whispers sweet nothings into the ear of Olympia Snowe and she switches sides, re-establishing a One Party de facto ramrod for legislation that infuriates the center and causes every close election for Democrats to be up for grabs.
8.0 The entrenched media, as an arm of less than 20% of the (furthest left reaches of) country, begin to “Palinize” Brown on behalf of the administration, or worse. The smear campaign begins with Keith Olbermann…asserting every filthy lie imaginable, Newsweek reddens his eyes and gives him demonic look by photoshopping his picture, (then says “oops”, we didn’t know that was done), the NYTimes and their surrogate, the Boston Globe begin to slander his children. The “others” then cover the above…as if it was “news”…not originating it…but propagating it.
DAMN GOOD THINKING, cfb! I was thinking of something similar and was going to post it but you beat me to it. Great job!
Their instincts are telling them to tack hard to the left, since that is their comfort zone. Their sense of self-preservation (the dawning realization that November is not that far off, and that there will be a tallying, and a reckoning unlike anything seen before) tells them to break for the center… But the truth is out: the emperor has no clothes! result: paralysis as moderate Democrats seek to distance themselves from the radicals running the show, followed by reactionary panic, i.e. a series of seemingly random hail-Mary plays seeking to please either side depending on what the polls are saying. They no longer have a functioning ideological center of gravity.
Besides, Obama’s puppeteers (the elite of the international left) above all else, want America broken. And so, to some degree it’s out of Obama’s hands (he doesn’t know what he’s doing anyway, its his handlers who dictate policy). If they can’t have ‘global governance’, they will settle for chaos, grabbing what they can on the way out.
There is also the possibility of some kind of ‘false flag’ maneuver, though that would be suicidal.
Pieces of the Democratic Party are still falling back to earth so it’s hard to predict who they will squash.
One thing is sure though. Obama will say that the most Democratic electorate in the USA voted for a Republican because they are still angry at Bush.
“The latter gentleman is now the odds on favorite to capture the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. He realizes that conservatism could be the wave of the future.”
Been sharing koolaid with your “progressive” friends?
Mitt isn’t going to EVER be President. Never, as not a snowballs chance in ‘ell. Not even if he comes clean and runs as the “Progressive” he is.
Methinks you are confusing ‘conservative’ with ‘Republican’.
Conservatives are in the trouble they are in today because after ’94 a bunch of scallywags with ZERO principals started calling themselves Republicans. They did that because a decade ago the Republican ‘brand’ had more power then the Democrat brand.
The scallywags just wanted to get into office so they could steal lots of taxpayer dollars. They had no principals beyond getting rich thru graft and corruption. This is why the Republican party needs to exercise a rigorous purity check before allowing ANY candidate to use their brand.
Voters need to know what the brand Republican stands for. Right now that brand stands for corruption and malfeasance. Cronyism and shady back room deals.
In other words, Democrats under a different name.
We need to get the scallywags OUT of the system. I don’t know how to do that, but it starts with a purity test for wanna-be Republicans. Anyone that has a problem with that, isn’t a conservative and needs to switch parties, or start a new one.
What Brown showed was that a ‘clean’ conservative with no overt signs of influence pedling, or other criminal acts can win in a liberal district. No having to fake being moderate. Just good clean government and we can debate the details later.
Unfortunately, one election does not a landslide make.
Forget the moderate crooks looking for an advantage in their quest for the keys to the vault. Run HONEST Conservative, Principled candidates and they will win.
52. raoul:
i hope you aholes all lose your health insurance!
Don’t have any and don’t want ∅bamacare. Any health care reform that doesn’t take on the issue of tort reform is a sham. When congressmen support and vote for two thousand page bills that they haven’t read, they are betraying their constituents.
Right now, some piecemeal reform would be better: something that would REDUCE costs, such as tort reform and portability of insurance plans across state lines.
∅bama is shooting for a 7.0.
Chris Matthews MSNBC advice to David Axelrod, “Go for it”. Meaning, push the health care agenda.
Nope. After the dust settles, watch for the orchestrated assault on Brown. The long knives will scramble out from under their rocks. So a word to the wise; if they bring knives, we bring guns. NO MORE MR. NICEGUY!!!!!!!!!!!!If tht means driving an M1 Abrams over their Prius…so be it. Bring it on.
Scott Brown and Conservatism
Ok, it’s great news. Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown trounced Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and will be heading to D.C. asap, hopefully driving his truck. (http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=5338)
The “Kennedy seat” can be termed the “Brown seat” for the next 3 years or so by Republican United States Senator Brown since he will be sitting in it. The Democrat/Kennedy death grip on that seat has been broken and Democrats in the super-blue Bay State couldn’t be much bluer if they held their breaths until the cows came home.
In an effort to shield Obama and his policies from valid criticism, the Dems are spinning crazily and blaming poor Martha Coakley for everything from meanness to ineptitude to being a closet Republican just because she blew a sure thing.
To their credit, the party big wigs have been unexpectedly gracious toward Brown and his victory with David Axelrod grudgingly conceding his “clever” campaign and Harry Reid pledging to seat the new senator posthaste and forego any cynical parliamentary delays.
All fine and good. Even better, Pelosi may be in trouble, Barbara Boxer’s seat is threatened, Reid’s 60 filibuster-proof senate votes just became 59 very filibusterable votes, and Obamacare should be cooked for the nonce unless Dems start playing numbers games with reconciliation.
So, God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world–for now.
Speaker Nancy is no doubt lining up Blue Dogs to be shot at dawn if they don’t tow the Pelosi line and . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1436)
Look for Obama to bend like the bamboo in the current hurricane and count on the culture’s attention-deficit syndrome to come to his rescue. The left is patient. The rest of us have lives.
Of course, we’ve already seen 5, 6, and 7 in the last 24 hours.
I sincerely hope Brown doesn’t cross party lines when least expected…
Being politically correct has gotten America “no where”…
Time to call a spade a spade folks…quit the eggshell walking. So, put your delicate little feelings in a box and quit looking for a chance to be “hurt”…
raoul..get in your boat and go home to your mud hut.
ALSO!!!!
I get tired of Ried saying now Republicans “must work with us”…what the hell…how do you work with anyone that excludes you and goes behind closed doors to make decisions…So much BS it’s disgusting!!
I would advise President Obama to reach out to John McCain by appealing to McCain’s so-called “maverick” instincts. Sweet talk him with a few well placed “bipartisanships” and “reaching across the aisles”, and before you know it McCain will be running down the hall with a table to start dealing. Once it is all over, the table will be completely filled with all leftist ideas but McCain will be proud of himself because, well, he brought the table.
I’m telling you, it would work like a charm. Hopefully the White House does not read this site.
VDH:
Obama is out of his league — so far out, that one considers a 9.0 Richter event would be his resignation.
It is likely that Obama has insulated himself from failure so long, that he is unable to describe to himself how he failed, and therefore can do very little to correct it. Remember, in his mind, he did everything he could, despite the failure in MA. On Obama’s grading scale, he gets an A for effort.
I would expect Obama to behave ordinarily in the coming weeks — meaning a continuation of narcissism and naivete. Obama is so far out of touch that his behavior may seem alien, but it is predictable. In the process he may earn himself the title of the worst President ever.
I hope he finds the courage to quit so we all can sleep a little easier at night. But then, I must be careful what I ask for, because Biden would be no better!
Trolls posting @ 5 & 8 forget the Richter Magnitude Scale numbers are everyday conversation to Californians such as VDH, and are not reverently reserved for the PC use of feel-gooders. And Fred Beloit, Wes and David Sheedy also pointed that out.
My guess is also 7.0 or thereabouts. It might distress many here to consider 59. Vinny B.: may be closer to the truth on this election than we conservatives would like. Right now I’m with Spengler’s failed state theorem:
This may only be a small pixel in a much larger graphic. Interesting? yes. Significant? Only time will tell.
Even if obama channeled Ronald Reagan at the State of the Union (better now than 36 hours ago), it wouldn’t mean a thing. We know who he is. We know what he wants. Please….do we not understand that what he SAYS will never, never matter. Do.not.forget.who.he.is.and.what.he.wants.
Poor, dear, deluded Vinny B…Every single voter in Massachusetts KNEW Brown was a Republican.He may well be out in ’12.Your only problem is all the dems that are toast in ’10.
Take a time out and wipe the sand from your “femininity”.How does America’s tea-bag taste?
As salty as your tears?
52. raoul:
“i hope you aholes all lose your health insurance!” ~~spoken like a true lib. They just have the hardest time with reality and disappointment. And in their case, they’re in for a whole lot of it in the months ahead. Just for the record, raoul, I don’t hope you lose your health insurance. I hope your health is good and stays that way. I hope you have enough to eat tonight. And I hope your favorite blankey isn’t in the wash.
I agree with others that this metaphor is poorly timed.
Secretary General Obama sounds good to me. The UN is something Obama couldn’t possibly harm, because it’s already so incompetent that Obama’s ineptitude is more likely to destroy it than to make it worse. As for Biden, I’ll take the idiot over the malicious guy any day.
Ah, Ha ha ha ha ha ha! VHD at his finest. Every clause draws blood. My favorite is: “Obama uses his State of the Union speech to do a Dick Morris triangulation” — Oh so true. I wonder if anyone in the administration has the cojones to tell Barry that the American public is ON to his lies. He is a Saul-Alinsky protege pure & simple (hat tip to Mark Levin — the man who first alerted us to this all-important fact).
The metaphor is fine. Haiti is a horrible tragedy but doesn’t own the earthquakes of the world now – there will be plenty more to go around.
1. Ill-timed metaphor? That’s from the people who don’t want to face the issue.
2. Will the response be a 5, 6, 7? Nah, B+ all the way, thanks to his narcissism and loser inner circle. Obama won’t change, he will push, get nowhere and eventually go into a sulk. It won’t be pretty. What’s silly is he could have had it all if he had done things in the right order. He’s smart, but not street smart, just like his inner circle. That will continue to cause him to be ineffective. Thank goodness.
Just a note about the metaphor; I didn’t say (or imply) that the point was invalid, I simply pointed out that given the current news cycle it might have been in poor taste.
I didn’t criticize the ~content~ of the post because I agree with the content. I criticized the form because I didn’t agree with the form.
I happen to like Victor’s writing. I think it’s clear that he takes pride in his writing. Part of good writing is selecting the appropriate tone, tenor, and demeanor of your argument. I think in this case he made an unfortunate choice.
I was neither sanctimonious nor passive aggressive; I pointed out what I thought was a poor rhetorical choice.
As for political correctness, it is indeed pernicious and insidious. But its greatest danger lies in its implicit threat to censor valuable speech because the _content_ of the speech might possibly offend. Political correctness is evil because it concerns the content, not the form, of speech.
Respect and deference to tragedy and disaster is not politically Correctness; it’s simple manners. The idea that we should pay attention to our language and hold the context of our comments in mind is not something we should avoid or dismiss.
91. patrick stevens: Point taken but rejected, imo. Here in CA it’s like saying what time the sun comes up. Just because there might be a tragedy at dawn in some other land we are not supposed to mention first light here? Maybe where you live, but not here. Face life, not wistfulness.
Beware of this corrupt adm. they will use diversion to implement an use the , STRATEGY of RETREAT, used to cause confusion, then counter attack from all sides. (THE TRAP). on the scale i would say a 2.
The AMERICAN PEOPLE are dealing with a deadly enemy, from within.
37. cfbleachers:
More likely a story floated by Demwits — you know, the smartest guys in the room — to salvage something from this disaster. IMO, that theory is too cute by half.
These people really are stupid. It’s not just a talking point.
Deaf & Dumb: Caroline Kennedy tradin’ on the name to get a senate seat “cuz, like, I just wanna’ help people…”, and Marcia Coakley — the most tone deaf politician in recorded history — vying for the last “Kennedy seat”. Time to bury the Camelot myth for good.
Obama/Axelrod won’t triangulate. They’ll never concede that the American electorate has a say so in determining the course their country takes.
Wingnuts of whatever ilk don’t do retrograde. They’ll stay the course and ruin the Democratic Party for a generation.
Hmmm. Predictions, eh? Well, we know that Obama’s narcissism is boundless. We know also–from his performance on Sunday–that he still believes that most Americans are drooling, missing-toothed, inbred, provincial rubes who drive pickup trucks. Pickup trucks! So deeply does he believe this that he mentioned Scott Brown’s pickup truck no less than six times in a short speech of support for Martha Coakley. We know that he still blames George Bush for all of failings and believes that Americans are angry, but such anger has nothing whatever to do with him. How, after all, could a superior being be culpable? We know that every time he has put his personal prestige on the line (Copenhagen X 2, Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts), it has blown up in his face. What’s that you say? In Copenhagen he was putting the prestige of the United States on the line? Not so. He has transcended the Presidency. He is far more important than the mere office of the POTUS. I suppose that makes it much easier for foreign leaders to be singularly unimpressed with his self-imagined greatness. We can reasonably infer that Obama is completely incapable of recognizing error and that all conflicts issue from the lack of sophistication and intelligence on the part of the unwashed proles who cannot sufficiently appreciate and laud his majesty.
So, changes? Style only, never substance. Socialist tactics in this situation suggest a more stealthy approach, but give up their ultimate goals of absolute power? Never. So we can expect more “populist” rhetoric from Obama. Pelosi and Reid will continue to spin ludicrously, calling day night and night day. Rational democrats (if such exists) are no doubt realizing–slowly and dimly–that Obama cannot–indeed, never could–endow them with political immortality and invulnerability and will cravenly and clumsily begin to try to position themselves for self-survival. Most of their constituents will not be amused or fooled. Absent the defection of utterly clueless Republicans, Obamacare is dead, or at least mortally wounded, and when it finally dies, no one will hold a memorial service, let alone a funeral. That said, Obama and his followers will press forward in a variety of stealthy ways taking a much more Chinese-like long view, but always pursuing the goal of far more governmental power and far, far less individual freedom.
What will remain the same? Many democrats will proclaim that the problem is that they haven’t sufficiently explained Obamacare and if the rubes could only understand its sheer wonderfulness and boundless benefits, they would surely embrace it and them (in fact, they’re already saying just that). Obama will continue to appoint lunatic communists, but they will all be much more careful about embracing, for public consumption, the great international socialist revolution. Corrupt unions will continue to meet regularly with Obama and demand quid pro quo, and they will get it, but much more quietly, for at least awhile. ACORN will be fully funded by the taxpayers, but such funding will be cleverly concealed and laundered. Obama will allow Iran to get and use nuclear weapons (it will be Bush’s fault) unless Israel acts to prevent it, and if they do, he will break off all relations with Israel and blame Bush too. Obama will continue to pursue policies that will allow terrorists to conduct mass casualty attacks in America and elsewhere. He will continue to treat terrorists as shoplifters and will continue to allow favored victim groups and political supporters to violate the law at will. He will also continue to make an ass of himself in international forums everywhere. He will continue to use Air Force 1 for dates, vacations and golf outings. Far too many republicans will continue to behave like petty, entitled, self-important twits. Few in Congress will actually try to live up to their oaths to defend and support the Constitution.
Options? It is possible that when democrats face electoral slaughter in November, more dems will make sounds like people more concerned with America, freedom and democracy. A few might even mean it. The danger is that this will encourage feckless Republicans to behave even more like Democrats.
Brown’s election was historic, interesting, and a good first step, but the road back to politicians acting for the good of America is long and rocky and may take generations. Ultimately, I suspect that Barack Obama will make Jimmy Carter look like a virtual lion of fierce, pro-American foreign policy and a pillar of granite-like strength and wisdom.
More like the Sphincter Scale…
My guess is around 8.5 . Obama and his regime don’t take defeat well and their instinctive reaction is to double down. Reid knows he’s toast in Nevada and Pelosi has never paid the slightest attention to anyone to the right of Leon Trotsky. Brown is not seen as a warning, he is seen as an insult. I expect bunker mentality and thermonuclear suicide belts.
I wonder how that great investor, George Soreass, values his political investments now?
Axelrod runs the show because Obama really is a dolt after all. Whatever the excuse, whatever the action taken and words spoken, it will be on behalf of Obama’s controllers and their view of one worldliness. His task is to destroy the sovereignty of America. If Axelrod has to write a new script, he will do so.
Bless the writers like Dr. Hansen and the brave patriots who will fight for this beautiful country.
Thanks for clarifying your point, and your concern for what truly is devastating to millions of people in the most recent tragic natural disaster.
In no way does VDH believe otherwise, as may have been misconstrued from your point of critique.
Political correctness is evil, additionally, because it typically attacks the form to discredit the content. It reframes the argument to one of character and judgement, in the process disregards the content, and attacks the intent based on a trivial result.
Your point is that the result of this metaphor is not trivial, but too close to a real moment of sufferring for so many, and especially those that are already struggling.
I accept your crticism, and remain of the opinion that there is only respect for those facing this challenge, and find the distinction between this metaphor as a support to VDH’s point as only constructive.
Agree to disagree.
And on a subject that really is distinct from the content of Dr. Hansons article, let’s all have hope for those who have been so brutally and tragically affected by this violent natural tragedy and pray for all those that are there assisting.
Patrick, you are very right about the lives affected and that all of us need to
help those in need. I’m sure we all agree to this.
And thanks again for clarifying your earlier comment.
This all comes down to character. If Obama is a fraud who will say or do anything to push America toward Social Democracy, then the results will be 7 or greater on the political Richter scale. If Obama is pragmatic, and thus more progressive, then he will adopt the slower strategy of 5 or 6. Anything lower that that seems out of Obama’s character.
I believe Obama, at heart, is a narcissist who thinks that he can talk the America public into anything. Hence, a vote by the people means nothing to him, any more than the Constitution means anything.
The real impact of this election is from the shockwaves moving through the rest of the body politic. This is an election year; massive numbers of Blue Dog Democrats are rendered vulnerable by the Brown election. If the Blue Dogs are to stand a chance of winning reelection, they must move toward the right in self defense. This makes them neutral, at best, to an Obama policy of revanchement.
If Obama is the fanatic that I see him as, he will double down and push all the harder, rather than step back to reconsider and accept a slower progress.
I noticed, early last year, that there was a sense of desperation in the Obama camp. The feeling which I got was that if Obama did not ram these issues through quickly, then all was lost. That is, Obama would be stymied as soon as the public woke up to what he was doing.
Look at David Gergen’s language in the Brown / Coakley debate. Gergen asked Brown if he wanted to be responsible for sabotaging Teddy Kennedy’s dream of health care reform for another generation. Gergen’s attitude was symptomatic of a sense of entitlement combined with fanaticism. It did not matter to David Gergen that the majority of Americans are dead set against a Socialist, single payer, health care system. It did not matter that every one of Obama’s issues, Cap and Trade, Card Check, nationalizing banks and health care, etc, are opposed by the public.
Obama’s attitude is that he won the election, so he has a right to do anything he pleases. Obama seems to think of himself as a king, although he still has the velvet glove on the steel fist. That attitude means a strategy of 7 or higher.
If Obama bears the steel fist in 8 or higher, then a huge backlash will result. And the Democrat Party will be in tatters for a generation like it was after Jimmy Carter.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Obama say 1.0 while doing 7.0. He’s like the Martians from Mars Attacks! “Do not run! (BLAM! BLAM!) We come in peace! (BLAM!) We are your friends! (BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!).”
I could laugh, shake my head, dance a jig, frown, get some fresh water for my cats. I could do a lot of things to try to politely
overlook the politically correct embedded society we live in, but I’m afraid my criticism will go right over your heads like a Latin phrase your education never caught up with.
You accuse Dr. Hanson of using an ill-timed metaphor. I say get a life. Ninety of Ninety-two of your comments are filled the some of the least interesting, most pedestrian writing on the internet. You judging Victor is like Simon Cowell judging a classical guitarist. Folks, Hanson is way out of your league. It’s like a little leaguer trying to describe throw a 90 mile per hour fastball. Like Inspector
Clouseau, you don’t have a clue.
Dr. Hanson, in terms of writing and explaining, is like a Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Duke Snider rolled into one. Run. Throw. Field. Hit. Hit with power. Steroid free.
Even if you live in a warm climate, I hope you get my drift.
If CF Bleachers, who bats second to Hanson’s third slot in the all star lineup, had a problem with Richter Scaling it in this article, I
might have to take a second look. But Bleachers was ready to play today. Ready to take the metaphor and run with it.
I’ve put up with your insipid, dull, high school writing long enough. I think it’s time to put it down. Sorry. Bleachers and Hanson
are in a class by themselves. Next time, engage your brain before opening your mouth. I know, verus vulnerat. But that’s something I
can do nothing about. I’m just a utility player.
This is not the first time that oversensitive crybabies whined about metaphors. Back in 2001, these dolts were trying to protect the sensibilities of the fragile American egos after 9/11 by getting songs banned from the radio that evoked any imagery from the attacks (ex: “Bodies” by Drowning Pool), removing the Twin Towers scene from the Spiderman movie, and petitioning to have the name of the movie “The Two Towers” (based on the book by Tolkien) changed out of “sensitivity” to the 9/11 victims.
“” Robert Gibbs goes the way of Scott McClellan …”"
Why not?
They are, after all, indistinguishable from each other dullards.
And, it has turned out, are ideologically identical, too!
“” Robert Gibbs goes the way of Scott McClellan …”"
Why not?
They are, after all, indistinguishable from each other dullards.
And, it has turned out, are ideologically identical, too!
As military historians know, to breakthrough the front line is great. But without a plan to support and firm up the victory, the war might not be won.
Good news was that Romney’s crew worked to help Brown win. Maybe Romney is best as a back room man. It’s a shame that he looks TOO good. Too successful, too moral, too sharp looking, too smart, too great a family, too much. It’s so odd that that works against him. I wanted him over McCain.
Billions in TARP or Stimulus funds haven’t been spent. I fear that Obama is waiting for September and October of this year to flood Democratic campaigns like his was, but now with that money to get Democrats in the congress while taking acceptable losses.
We are looking at a formidible foe with few scruples and we need big victories that can’t be questioned in court by Democrats who seem to have votes in their pockets to use on a rainy day.
And still the media won’t question him. That’s a real disgrace.
Rachel Peepers: YOU ROCK!
71. Rosinante:
How about a purity test for all politicians instead?
We(the people) need to get the scallywags out of public office and back under the rocks they crawled from.
Instead honest,decent Americans who seek to serve their neighbors in office for a term or two,then return to private life as the framers intended.
Americans whose bank accounts were or are modest upon entering public service should not show huge financial gains for the period they were in office.
Too many of the past and current crop of political wheeler-dealers come into office with barely two dimes to rub together and leave it fabulously wealthy.
All politicians because they are human are susecptible to being corrupted, regardless of whichever political organization they belong to.
If you need a hand,I’ll help you down from your high horse.
Where are the articles on PJM talking about the way forward? We need to be talking about more than just beating the democrats. We need to be talking about cutting the budget drastically. This will not only save our country–it will inherently limit the progressive agenda.
Think about it we can kill two birds with one stone simply by requiring RESPONSIBILITY.
We will know what direction they are headed after President Acorn give his State of the Trade Unions address on Jan. 27th.
we have already seen the admin shake at #6 while the govt. media outlets(Matthews et al) are at #7. I doubt we will see a retreat by either from those autonomic response levels. If anything, those are pre-shock levels with the actual quake levels yet to come.
I believe that the hubris of this group is so vast that they will not listen to anyone that contradicts there preformed idea of what is best for the American people. Obama, et al, clearly and repeatedly indicate that the American people are ignorant about what is best for them and that “experts” are needed to “do the right thing”. I see a number 7 coming.
110. baal
I agree. The problem is that when budgets are cut, Democrats say that we who want the cuts want to see people starve and die because many cuts affect many programs limiting many gifts.
ATTN: Thursday January 21st:
Article by VDH in nationalreviewonline dot com
Don’t miss it.
Referring back to #26 – Yes, those are the ones that will be our real undoing. John McCain is every bit the narcissistic egoist that Mr. Obama is. His compulsion to “reach across the aisle” will ensure that a lot of very bad legislation will be foisted upon us in the name of “bi-partisanship.” He’s another elitist compelled to control.
Kate @45
You -killed- me dear! It took me 10 minutes to stop laughing on that one.
Bravo, Bostonians!!! And thank you. For all of us.
114. Ron Kean: Thanks for pinging me back on that–we need to make this site –and forum into an actual forum for ideas on how to execute our goals for governance–it’s got to be about more that beating up the trolls…even though that is a lot of fun.
I’m a VDH fan from pre-9/11. I read everything he writes.
I have to say, this is the first time Victor did anything in poor taste. Earthquake metaphors are an old art form.
But to do it a week after a few hundred thousand people died and millions are in desperate need – it was imprudent and a bit callous.
I don’t think it was malicious, but for something as paltry as political reaction to a special election – it could have been avoided or delayed a respectable amount of time without any harm to his main argument.
Love the guy. But he went off-road on this one.
Don’t look good for the knuckledragging right wingers. They are not going to like Dr Volcker’s prescription. Wall Street is already quaking. Obama needs to realize he is a one termer and go for the throat with an 8.1. Then let these carping conservatives have it all in a 2010 & 2012 tsunami.
Wouldn’t you love to see what President Palin and VP Brown could do? Can you just imagine her cabinet? Pat Robertson would make a great Secretary of State… Some of you think VDH is insensitive? Oh dear.
107. It’s a lie. Romney isn’t moral, and he isn’t conservative. To say either would imply that he has core principles, rather than shifting whichever way the wind blows, which is what he does. Romneycare and its $50 abortions ring a bell?
lol :) unfortunately I agree with the number 1 apetra
raoul:”i hope you aholes all lose your health insurance!”
i don’t have health insurance….and why don’t you run your fat butt(you know it is)around the block a few times so i don’t end up footing the bill for your rascal.
baal:”We need to be talking about more than just beating the democrats.”
not…just…yet.their sadness and desperation nourishes my soul.
Here here. Raise a glass to Kate!
It will be a Dick Morris triangulation…except it will just be a head fake.
They know the value of owning the Oval Office. Most of the radicalization in the last year has been by executive order and via the bureaucracy anyway. With 7 more years, they can create a marxist state without a single piece of legislation.
So the Moron is likely to become an almost Normal Rockwell’eque figure, rigorously centrist in his every thought and action, struggling with an impossible legislature, but with the great confidence of a public that apprecieates and loves the brave turn to the center he made after “listening to the people”.
And about 2013, the dictatorship will be firmly in place.
He has waited 25 years and his puppet master and their predecessors have waited 60. The full-court press didn’t work, so plan b will be to be patient for a few more years.
The aftershock has already triggered more crumbling. Oddly it has the elements of your 2.0 within your 4.0 – IT HAS BEGUN.
Schumer has begun an alignment process that will lead to his replacing Reid before November (to maintain “unity” which is slipping away).
With that Hoyer will move openly on Pelosi (who tried to block him earlier)to accept the need to change the “face” of the party before November.
Believe in change – it always happens.
Nonsense. The left always resorts to violence when thwarted.
they will this time too, and like all oter tyrants of the 20th century, blame it on the nutty right.
Watch out for American “Jihadis” and a ramping race war — all blmaed on the right but started by the radical left.
Having invented and patented stuff, raised $100M+ in early money from all types of investors, staffed 5 companies with over 440 people and taken 3 public, I’m worried.
About 15-20 million are unemployed (11% U3 as of today – U6 may approach 19%). Even if the economy turns around by some miracle, a vast majority of those jobs is NOT coming back, because they were superfluous. Either their employer went out of business, or cut back.
So if I’m writin a plan to raise funds, given the absence of any IPO activity, I’d better be showing instant revenues and profitability in like weeks and minimal overhead, or I’m not gettin any upfront financing.
High-tech isn’t gonna solve this employment problem, aka the next great social networking app. The goal of the entrepreneur being to create wealth using the smallest G&A, startups cannot be about hiring the most people.
My fear is that the Once is out in Ohio talking up jobs. It’s not like any of that gov’t money can legitimately be slated to create businesses that produce taxable income; just salaries and benefits and subsidies forever.
I’m hardpressed to dream up a sustainable business that could gainfully employ even 1 million unsubsidized workers. However, if we’re going to spend hundreds of billions, let’s be sure it’s ALL directed to the private sector.
For example, I’d like to unshackle an industry – see an RFP from the Feds requesting pricing on 500 modular nuclear generators to be installed over the next 10 years nationwide…along with a mandate to serve 50% of US energy needs by that time. Communities would be bidding for priority placement.
And, the expertise gained is an exportable competitive advantage. Just this one effort should employ 200,00 directly and many more indirectly building out the grid.
Next unshackle oil and gas.
Two necessities: downsize EPA and NRC, and make certain Islam understands that jihad is over. Otherwise, any investment in large enterprises bear an unnecessary risk.
Two things are needed to raise money on reasonable terms – a great story and a backlog. geoffgo
This will definately be a 7.0 or above.
My Prediction: Look for Hillary Clinton to resign as Secretary of State within the next 12-18 months. She will challenge “he who will not be named” and will paint herself as a “Centrist Democrat”. The current occupant of the White House will not be re-elected. In fact, America will not elect an ill-prepared President for quite sometime. The Republicans or Tea Party canidate will have to be a somewhat experienced politician and not a quasi-liberal. The next election cycle is due to heat up soon, it will be another interesting event.
Annie: “Being politically correct has gotten America “no where”…”
Could not agree more.
It has begun, and he’s cranking the wheel and taking a tire-screeching hard right that evokes a 1.0:
“Obama’s uses his State of the Union speech to do a Dick Morris triangulation, and now talks of balanced budgets, cutting spending…”
So he will revert back to his campaign pose of fiscal conservatism, dovish on public sector spending (after having already–and greedily–drained the treasury) and hawkish against private sector “greed and corruption,” like a good conservative populist:
Published: January 21 2010 16:42 |Last updated: January 22 2010 00:11
“The global banking industry was thrown into turmoil on Thursday after President Barack Obama , responding to public rage over the financial crisis, proposed the most far-reaching overhaul of Wall Street since the 1930s.”
An avenging angel–I’d bet the devil’s in the details, though.
His Morrisian triangulation to the right shouldn’t be characterized as “pragmatism,” though (neither for him or his triangulating predecessor), because that implies that he is an ideological moderate, after all (as he campaigned). The better characterization is that he–like Clinton–is a political survivalist, as the Narcissist is concerned primarily, first and foremost, with his own survival, and “principles” be damned.
For God’s sake, he threw his own mother and 20 year preacher (who presided over his wedding and godfathered his children) “under the bus” when doing so served to advance himself.
He’s going to try to position himself at 4 or 3. At least that will be the image he will try to portray and will reenforce as needed.
“Discretion is the better part of valor.” He will run Right to live and fight another day for the Left–if he’ll even think it’ll be worth it at the expense of another four years as king and the future earnings two-term presidents command in book deals, speeches, and the longevity of the limelight’s glow vs. that of one-termers.
McCain had it right when he compared candidate Obama to Britney Spears.
Of the five Boethian pursuits, these self-seeking, ego-driven Narcissists value Fame, Pleasure, and Wealth over real Power and Honor.
Bill Clinton has clearly demonstrated that. And with Obama, it’s already showing.
Rachel Peepers #103, will you marry me!?
82. 49erDweet, I’m a hoser, from Toronto, and I suspected what you confirmed about Cali and quakes – thanks for that insight.
And by the way, there are very few who are willing to prepare for a disaster of any kind… financial, natural, social, personal, physical, or any kind. No different in Haiti, than in public bankrupt California, or the People’s republic of Toronto – “..it” happens.
10.0 – Obama unveils an army of zombies, who crawl across the land in search of Wall Street bankers and middle-class “kulaks.” After three weeks of intense warfare with the undead, the American people come forth to surrender with fire and water. Joe the Plumber – the hand-picked people’s representative – burns the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights in front of an enthroned Obama, he of the upturned chin.
9.0 – On live TV, Obama stuns the world by admitting to being the 13th imam. He pulls off his tailored suit and finely creased pants only to reveal a full-length robe. He dons a skull-cap and sits cross-legged extolling the virtues of the Prophet Elijah Muhammed to a stunned Jay Leno. It turns out Allah is the one true God. Oops!
8.0 – Obama declares the U.S. to be communist, liquidates the other branches of government, and declares his council of czars to be the Politburo. ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN all fall into line behind the coup, explaining that capitalism is so 1980s. Hillary Clinton, who is cut out of the government, teams up with Sarah Palin to form a powerful resistance movement. They persuade Michelle Obama to nag Barack into submitting, and the country is returned to normal by the 2012 elections.
#12 – jeff carter
a slight correction please: obama ran as a centrist. he governs as a moose-lim-lovin’-fanatic-negah-communist. eh, boyo?
Essential vdh
Most of the comments listed herein come under the category of miscellaneous and off the mark positioning of chairs in a house that is already being torn down.
The so called “quake” will just make them, the AA, PC BHO’s move faster with the tear down of America. Like an ant hill being kicked over is a more apt description of what has happened.
Listen to the media and how they will try to retrieve the BHO Utopian idiots howl. They will again get it to echo in the hollow minds that grab at it like a life raft is grabbed by a drowning man who cannot swim. And is too fearful to stand up in knee deep water.
This election in Massachusetts simply gave a glimpse of the reality that people are seeing and perhaps voting on that glimpse.
They were seeing a parade of incompetence within the BHO crowd before them and a serious common sense type candidate. How could it have been any different?
Does anyone realize how far gone we are because of this media “quake” even being described as a “quake” by a “shaken” media who do not seem to be bothered by their own lack of common sense.
The election really did not change the course of America that the BHO’s have set for themselves. Their “intelligence” and “guiding light” is a Utopian subversion of humanity and has been embedded in their hollow generational minds over the last 80 or more years. They have a common gene pool.—stupidity.
The BHO’s stupidity and arrogance knows no bounds. Listen to his speech just given. He responds like the thug “light” agitator he has been made. With preening words, and soaring Utopian rhetoric that would have made your grandfathers laugh. His collected crowd roars their approval.
So what “Health Reform” is dead” or “is it dead”. Look at that comment made by the media. Look how it is worded and tell me if it will not morph into a socialist mantra of class war fare. “Who killed health care” Listen to the idiot media. Listen to the idiot brainless republican responses even on Fox news the wording is the same. Idiots all.
This is about a group of AA, PC idiots with a taste of power after 80 years of simply being anarchists and being marginalized by productive Americans instilled with integrity and individual responsibility. Those productive Americans have been and are now disappearing faster than Algore’s ice burgs. What is left.
BHO’s idiot crowds collected at his last speech tells you what is now going to happen. They roar when he promises them something for nothing. When he calls out those who “killed health care” for Americans. When he confirms their “victim hood”.
Those who crowd around him—They are like the Haitians and those on the African Continent that do not seen to be able to do anything for themselves. Why is that?
We, America have not been exporting democracy or bringing up new Americans. We have been subverted internally. After America is destroyed who will save the rest of the world. Whose army will deliver to the door step of incompetent corrupt nations food and water and their very life when nature moves.
In the end, the end result of their, the BHO’s and the victims Utopian musing is that they know nothing, will learn nothing. Even while displaying the ignorance and the confidence of the true idiot. America is now being lead by idiots.
AA, PC zombies. Experiments in AA and PC— the result of intellectual musings by academics and communist infiltration in America. A subversion that has outlasted the USSR exterminators who themselves had overtly promised to destroy America.
The sympathetic academics believing in communism because of their own fears and weakness and lack of knowledge about how to compete in the real world. Most would have starved to death in any country other than America.
None of the current leadership in America, including most seated Republicans can even tell or know about what it is they believe. Their minds have been replaced by the wet finger in the wind. Moved by wind, no substance, no knowledge. A leaf already dead but clinging to the false life of the wind.
They are not smart enough and with no integrity are like the fish in water and will be the last to discover the damage their Utopian dreams have already done to the world.
America is the last hope of the world and is exactly the opposite of the way the BHO’s describe it. Yet he would destroy it and “remake” it. Do you know what or how. 2000 pages of a “health care plan”. In reality, 2000 pages of rules for dividing up the capital blood sucked out of Americans who spent their life working for it.
All this analysis and talk in the media is similar to talking about the deck chair arrangement on the titanic just as the full effect of the hit with the iceberg is now sinking in. They are diverting the people’s attention before the drowning occurs. Before having a chance of saving the ship.
The BHO’s will scramble to do as much damage to and on America as they can so that it will need to be rebuilt. Their power is in the ability to destroy what individuals have built and own and then to replace it with what the “government will do for you”. If you are good children.
Tell me! What are they not destroying with their hate speech and class ware fare blame? Tell me? Banks, auto, insurance, energy, crony free capitalism,and of course health care. They are just getting started.
Government run health “care” however is not dead. It is not care it is bureaucracy and it needs to feed itself. Wait and see. As it gets implemented over time real health care and healthy Americans will disappear.
America will be so destroyed the weak minded who have been multiplied over the last 50 years will clamor and cry for the socialist nanny state. Taking from those who have worked for it and giving it now to the many more “victims” of that hard work.
The Acorns are not gone, simply renamed and embedded in different places. Just like the Czars.
The BHO’s with their Utopian indoctrination that comes out of AA and PC minds. Limited minds, indoctrinated and cult minds. Like speaking to like. Destroying those that “debate” or diddle while “Rome burns”. Long past the ability to act. Several generations past that ability. Dependency now and forever is the new cry–in stark reality.
Mean while sometimes vdh and others are acting like it is a game of marbles and the task is to count them to see who is winning or to predict who is winning or losing. A game!
VDH–
It’s strange that a voice as steady and moderate as yours inspires such high-strung reaction, especially from those of us who agree with you. A sign of the times.
FM
Mr.Sheedy,
While at first blush I was going to say that I would take your invitation to wed under advisement,
I’ve decided to first tell you a few things about me. Lil’ole’ blond haired blue eyed Rachel is
headstrong, determined, ambitious, needy, very cute, high energy, very high maintenance, emotional,
sentimental, argumentative, impatient, a movie goer, a vegetarian, almost 5’7″, a golfer,
a basketball player, sports nut, quick, a tad too thin, aggressive, assertive, a friend
of countless celebrities and a professional writer.
If all those qualities don’t scare you off, let me know.
The metaphor is apt. We’ve been talking about what a political earthquake it would be if Massachusetts went Republican in this race BEFORE Haiti.
“rachel peepers” just outed herself! From the description she is really Ann Coulter.
Even so….a Vegetatian? I will have to retract my marriage proposal.
IMO: BHO’s primary motivation is the self-satisfaction of being allowed to “play at being President.” His promoters/handlers who put him there are the ones to be worried about.
This shadow-group will do whatever they feel is necessary to keep him there – for obvious reasons. Not knowing who they all are makes predicting their reactions extremely difficult. I believe these reactions will be more Alinsky-like than knee-jerk.
They will be high on the Richter scale. (Sphincter is good too.)