The Strange Case of the Obama Meltdown
The Obama Meltdown—Symptoms/Diagnosis/Prognosis
Strange things are happening to the Obama administration and quickly so. His polls are diving and may not stop at 50/50, the most precipitous drop in approval of a first-year President since Bill Clinton in 1993 (cf. Hillary care).
First, here are some of the problems the President faces:
Symptoms and Diagnosis
1) Health Care. Health-care take overs and socialized medicine have terrified not just the right and conservatives, but the elderly of all persuasions who fear their shaky Medicare funds will be diverted to Obama’s new plans. In short, they believe their care will be rationed and given to all sorts of new recipients. And they fear age will be a basis for meriting treatment; as if the gang banger with a long felony record of mayhem at 22 would be more deserving before a federal health panel than would someone at 90 who scrimped and saved for insurance in case of some future need for a hip replacement (and was still active and productive; cf. great octogenarians from Sophocles to Barzun who did their best work in their late lives).
It was an insane political move to demonize these town-hallers, when streaming video showed the participants scared and angry, but not violent, trying to get answers from smug politicos who either cell phoned away, ridiculed questioners in the manner of Barney Frank, or mocked their interrogators. These were for the most part not Code Pink/Cindy Sheehan type protestors. (And by the way, what happened to Code Pink, given we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan?)
2) The Spell is Broken. Cap-and-trade, the mega-deficits, the apology tours, and the sleaze of some appointments and congressional grandees (cf. Rangel, Dodd, Murtha, etc.) were stimulants, but not in themselves enough to awaken the somnolent American people from their collective trance. Yet health care was like a shot of adrenaline that jolted the patient out of his slumber. Suddenly hope and change no longer worked like the swinging watch and “you’re getting sleepy” lingo. Voters are feeling they’ve been “had” and were mesmerized into being used for an extremist agenda.
Who made the following decisions? 1) to propose a 1,000 page bill that no one had read, much less could explain?; 2) to ram down the greatest change in the US economy in fifty years by the August recess?; 3) to talk loosely of the “uninsured” without knowing why they were not insured, how much it would cost to insure them, or whether they currently in fact find some sort of care?; 4) to reference Rahm Emanuel’s doctor brother as a source of wisdom? 5) to demonize the health-care industry as greedy?
(NB: Does Obama really believe that illegal aliens do not possess 200-300 dollars a month to buy catastrophic health coverage, when they send on average at least that amount back to Mexico on the assumption the emergency room here is free, for everything from injuries to natal care? Does he believe that a 25-year old does not gamble that his robust health means he prefers his I-pod, DVDs, and nights out to squirreling away cash each month for health insurance? There are flaws in our system that must be corrected, but the notion of conspirators in black hats who plot to prevent health care for the “uninsured” is fallacious.
3) The Counter-attack is not working. The Obama shotgun has blasted all sorts of magnum loads—town-hall and tea-party critics were un-American, Nazis, tools of the insurance industry, dupes, and Astro-turfers. Now the religious argument is thrown out at the 11th hour: those who doubt neo-socialist care are somehow un-Christian and uncaring. But that tactic evokes Trinity-Church politics, where religious piety rings false and serves political advantage. Did not the Christian Right get demonized for just that avenue of political mobilization? And because Obama assumed messianic pretensions, such a prophet suffers the wage of hypocrisy, given the growing reality that he is, on the presidential scale, rather mean spirited, highly partisan, too sensitive to criticism, and surprisingly ill-informed given the emphasis on his Ivy-League education and the whiz-kids around him (who wrote the error-plagued Cairo speech).
The Therapy
1) Cool the “this is our moment”, “hope and change” rhetoric. Obama reminds me of what Wellington supposedly said of Napoleon’s Old Guard at Waterloo “They came on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way.” Instead, he should quietly follow the 1995 triangulation model of Bill Clinton/Dick Morris.
Instead of the old sops of welfare reform, school uniforms, balanced budgets, and more police officers on the street (I’m not being entirely cynical here), Obama should concentrate on debt, debt, and more debt. He could freeze federal spending at 2% per annum, and get into the black in two-three years, given his income tax hikes. He could pacify the Left with, “I’d love to pursue our socialist agenda, but we are going broke and cannot right now.”
Instead of cap-and-trade, he could allot a few feminist, green and gay ambassadorships that would not impact the federal treasury. Given the sudden silence on Iraq, the Left has demonstrated that their furor was always about power lost and hatred for George Bush in the White House, never much about principles or convictions. That Obama is in the White House is more important to most former critics of Bush than anything he does or says.
2) Return to the “no more blue/red state” bipartisan tropes. Consider Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barney Frank as the real challenges, since the animosity that they engender can do far more damage to Barack Obama than Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and all of the Fox News cast put together. Voters are more comfortable with Blue Dogs than Barbara Boxer. Soon the tea-party anger is going to spill over and result in Boxer, Reid, etc. having reelection nightmares.
3) Retire Robert Gibbs. He is as disingenuous as Ron Ziegler; as buffoonish as Scott McClellan; as abrasive as Ari Fleischer without the accompanying competence; and as mean-spirited as Bill Moyers. He must be some sort of Republican plant? (David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel seem likewise increasing liabilities. Axelrod is knee-deep in conflict of interest problems (his former firm is paying out his final settlement in part from business generated from Axelrod’s present West Wing influence). Emanuel is the architect of ramming through these borrow-and-spend radical proposals all at once, on the theory that a left-wing government can be institutionalized and permanent constituencies established before the public catches on and the treasury can borrow no more.)
4) Stop the apologies abroad and emphasize the continuance of the war on terror (renditions, tribunals, Predators, etc.). Stay the course in Afghanistan and don’t broadcast our intentions in Iraq. The model is Truman and JFK, not McGovern and Jimmy Carter. Read up on Iwo Jima and Chosun, and cool the victim studies chants.
5) End the class warfare against those who make over $150,000 (or is it $200,000 or is it $250,000?), and begin to thank them for creating national wealth and giving so much of it back to the government (state, federal, and payroll taxes already result in a 50 percent plus bite for many). As it is now, Obama’s agenda is not so much against the wealthy (the rich own the homes he vacations in, organized the salons that enriched him in the campaign, and are among his most generous supporters and recipients of insider favors), as it is directed at those who wish to be wealthy.
And the Republicans?
1) Mea Culpa. At some point the opposition will have to offer counterproposals that are the opposite of the financial recklessness of 2001-06. On health care reform, they could offer tax incentives for private health care accounts, craft subsidies for the poor to purchase private catastrophic plans, and insist on tort reform. It won’t do any good to blast Obama for bankrupting the treasury if conservatives still vote in multi-billion-dollar agriculture subsidies, expand earmarks, and dream up new programs like No Child Left Behind and Prescription Drug expanded benefits. The Republicans gain from the Obama meltdown, but will be embarrassed when voters turn and ask , “And you? What have you got for us that is any better?” and they have no detailed reply.
2) Clean House. If opponents are to emphasize the Democratic sleaze—Rangel, Dodd, Murtha, the Obama Cabinet tax-cheaters, Axelrod, etc—then they must pledge no more Tom Delays, Duke Cunningham’s, Mark Foleys, and Jack Abramoffs. Parts of the success of the old Contract with America were provisions about congressional behavior.
3) Something Different This Time. Conservatives must appreciate that Obamism transcends the usual liberal challenge posed by past Democrats. For a variety of reasons, the liberal agenda this time is much more far-reaching and systematic. Obama proposes not just to grow government and absorb much more of the nation’s GDP into the state, but to create a lasting legacy of statism.
His “gorge the beast” philosophy of mega-deficits ensures the goal of “spreading the wealth” (cf. his campaign interview in which he was unfazed by the point that targeted tax cuts and economic expansion brought in greater federal revenue). Income is deemed arbitrary and compensation not rational; thus government is called upon to even things out given its greater wisdom and superior moral sensibility. The rapid growth in the state leads to permanent loyal constituencies of those who grant and receive entitlements—and could not be undone for generations, if ever. A religiosity surrounds these proposals, and critics (“fishy”) are targeted on email and websites, considered un-American and now un-Christian, in one of the most glaring examples of the utopian ends justifying devious means that we have seen in our lifetimes.
What’s Next?
In exasperation I think Obama’s supporters will revert to the race card more often still, which in turn will only take his popularity even lower. Because of his inexperience and unfamiliarity with political hostility, I think Obama will press ahead on the present course, heightening partisan tensions, dividing the country, and ultimately diminishing his presidency further still. Again, the voters wanted youth, charisma, competence, fiscal sobriety, non-partisanship, and are getting radicalism with an increasing edge to it.
An inflation-, debt-induced mini-recovery, I think, will help Obama by early next year. But the laws of physics will then catch up to him, as a falling dollar, high interest, high inflation, low growth, and high unemployment return to choke off a return to former prosperity. His political fortunes will hinge on what part of this economic cycles the elections fall, and the degree to which he jettisons the Chicago style (I predict many of us critics will be fully audited by next April or see Team Obama increase the swarm on websites and postings). With savvy Democratic role models like Truman, JFK, and Clinton, it is suicidal that he pursues a Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, or Kerry agenda—as if he really thinks voters supported him to resurrect such unpopular policies.
Augustus II has arrived! The man with a “special gift” does not know how to think beyond Ayers, Wright, et al. His ivy league education provides words within which as a trained lawyer he can hide, much like the health care bill crafted by other lawyers…which brings to mind this reality:
Vote the bums out of office! Our only hope, period.
Thank you for this nuanced article, Dr. Hanson. Your comments on some of the uninsured and why they are so is logical. I mostly appreciate your comments on the Liberal Protestants and others who have come to Obama’s defense. I know a Liberal Protestant minister who keeps doing things that seem like crimes, but his religious status saves him from judgement. There is a Chief of Police who apologized for not arresting him on a murder charge. I know this minister is just one, but he wraps himself in the moral authority role and laughs at true believers. His book proving to himself that there is no devil or evil is his religion. Beware Liberal Protestant ministers.
Time for a third party. How about something called the Centrist party or the Common Sense party?
Since, I believe, our African American population feels like outsiders to mainstream America, has a multitude of grievances, and deep down inside desires reparations, I think not only will gang-bangers be first in line for medical treatment, they’ll also be first in line getting the jobs behind the thousands of new desks and computers as part of the bureaucracy of Obama’s programs. The people may be there like the President, I believe, because of race instead of competence.
The Town Hall and Tea Party movement has been compromised by infiltraters. The large spontaneous demonstrations took everybody by surprise. Now we should use the mail, watch and wait for the ballot box.
Nice of you, Professor, to make suggestions to the President. They sure make sense. At least you keep trying. You’ve tried to help the President numerous times. All futile except to demonstrate your bi-partisan credentials. If I have one criticism of Sarah Palin, it’s that she hasn’t come to you for help. There’s so much potential.
Some of us think Soros and his buddies authored the September 08 crash. Plan ‘B’ may be to boost the market in a timely way before the next election as arbitrage does. And the President is still keeping the lion’s share of the TARP money to himself as a slush fund to buy people.
Thanks again to the PJM person who is helping to refine the tone here.
In summary, arrogance is usually a definitive sign of ignorance.
There has been a (media-foisted) presentation of deep intelligence (Meaning: understanding the connections amongst bits of information, which requires being correctly – not biasedly – informed)which was supposed to engender “TRUST.”
Arrogance in demanding trust (See: Il Duce, History of) will require use of forces that are not effective in the dispersions of American civic responses. That is, “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.” when it comes to those responses.
To better understand what is happening, read:
“Bureaucracy” by Gordon Tullock (Vol. 6 of Collected Works, Liberty Fund [2004])
Google or Bing or whatever “Liberty Fund” – a publisher of historical texts important to understanding Liberty.
I heartily concur. Especially irritating is the naked hypocrisy; where “dissent” was to be revered, it is now reviled, and to an absurd degree: ACORN’s mission statement enshrines the notion of noisily infiltrating town hall meetings, but random citizens who are unhappy with the proposals on the table are demonized and villified by the elites who cannot hide their smug sense that they know better than their own constituents.
If the roles were reversed, and Bush, or McCain, or any Republican were president, the outcry would be deafening.
Thanks again; you always help me remember that not everyone sees beautiful new clothes on our emperor!
Brings new meaning to “Hope and Change”.
(There is hope we will change….)
Remember always that Obama’s ONLY objective is the destruction of the middle class in America!
Stimulus will destroy the economy and the dollar, ObamaCare will kill off millions of older middle class folks and cap & trade will seize the property of those who now own and turn it over to those who truly deserve it.
Obama is prepared to use his off to accomplish his goal. If he can’t using the traditional legislative means, he will simply use his brown shirts and ACORN thugs to do it for him.
The wild card here is that another terrorist attack on the US would allow Obama to declare all sorts of emergencies and employ the brown shirts. My view is that Obama is currently negotiating with the terrorists what the target would be. San Francisco, the logical target, is off limits because of all the Pelosi property there.
There is something else that many Americans are finally realizing on a gut level: Barack Obama is a poorly read and shallow man. The fact that he earned a law degree from Harvard University really doesn’t mean that much. He is not even slightly an intellectually curious adult. I doubt very much if he could read and comprehend a halfway serious book or article. Obama has the necessary I.Q.—but he simply does not give a damn. He is existentially committed to the non-violent and nasty political radicalism of Saul Alinsky. Any ideas conflicting with this worldview are perceived as illegitimate and even possibly evil. Obama may not wish to hurt you physically, but he is more than willing to significantly harm you in other ways.
“As it is now, Obama’s agenda is not so much against the wealthy (the rich own the homes he vacations in, organized the salons that enriched him in the campaign, and are among his most generous supporters and recipients of insider favors), as it is directed at those who wish to be wealthy.”
His agenda is to declare war on the middle class (the bourgious) and eliminate it by redistributing its earnings to the lower/poverty classes. Elevate the lower class, demoralize the middle class and you have the Marxist ideal of utopia, because the truly wealthy remain completely unaffected by this warfare – other than to collect more power and money by the disenfranchised and dependent lower classes.
One of the most incredible aspects of this entire debacle is how this administration is so blatant about their schemes. It’s like a child pinching the kid next to him while the mom looks on, and when confronted about it, says “What? I didn’t do that!” These America haters attempt to enact legislation that has the potential to devolve our country’s progress back several decades, and when called on it, they say “What? That’s not what I’m doing!”
Thank you for the fine article, Dr. Hanson, even though it’s highly unlikely Obama will ever have advice of this kind whispered into his ear, as long as he has Emmanualx2 and Axelrod advising him.
I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ’93 presaged his crushing defeat by Bob Dole in ’96.
I thank Pajamas Media and Dr. Hanson for providing this level of analysis.
Many of us, who have grown accustomed to this quality of thought and writing, are rudely awakened when we pick up an issue of Newsweek or Time in a waiting room and realize what rubbish commonly passed off as news and commentary.
With the Dems contemplating the nuclear option there is no hope and things will change.
With the Dems contemplating the Nuclear option there will be not hope but things will change.
oh come’on
seriously? he’s doing alright.
jeeze; what a yucky feeling essay, to me, personally.
I’ll note that the Republican miscreants cited are either out-of-office or in prison. The Democrats are incumbents. This is not to attack one party, because both are bad, but to note that the ethics pledges are vacuous drivel.
Incumbents are like socks. They get dirty fast and should be replaced often. The congressional staffs should be changed often. Like the politicians, they quickly forget that DC is Disneyland, not real life.
I don’t know, VDH. According to Obama’s recent sermonizing, he’s now in partnership with God. That’s a big jump for a guy who just last year was proclainming that certain issues were “above his pay-grade”. I haven’t checked with The Big Guy yet on this, but it could of course be somewhat of a self-promotion, and in the past He hasn’t looked too kindly on hubris…
The truth about government run health care in one real example:
http://www.redstate.com/dan_mclaughlin/2009/08/20/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-death-panel-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-death-panel-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-death-panel/
Mr Hanson; I appreciate your attempts to be generous to President Obama and to cover detailed points and suggestions.
The fact is he is simply a scoundrel who has lately been found out by the American voters.
I agree with you about the Republicans. I think that more time and effort should be focussed on them to help the GOP become a credible alternative to the present Administration.
You are right about the debt problem – it dominates everything. If government wasn’t a political matter, the only Republican party platform required would be a coherent method for facing up to and minimizing the damage from the National Debt.
But government is political so the Republicans will need more than demonstrated debt management skills to succeed. Given their recent track record, I wonder how they can appear credible even in debt management.
It’s a troubling time. Governed by scoundrels but with the Keystone Kops as the only alternative.
I am always amazed after reading your fine articles and the posts following that we, as a country, the most powerful on earth, have come in 230+ years to this point-electing a naught, neophyte, narcissist to be our president.
I can only conclude, mostly for self-sanity, the a Higher Power loves the concept of our country and knows we have to subjected to such crises, from time to time, to have us realize the beauty of America.
For to know beauty, you must know ugliness. To know knowledge, you must know ignorance. God Bless America!
#12
Yeah, Blarty, but Clinton was a go-along guy, not the socialist idealog we have on the throne now.
“I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ‘93 presaged his crushing defeat by Bob Dole in ‘96.”
This is a sarcastic reminder concerning the ongoing danger of the Barack Obama phenomenon. I think the odds are on our side—but we damn well better not get overly confident. The fact that Obama is a “man of color” is of mind-boggling importance. Many guilt-tripped whites will continue to feel obligated to vote for him. Needless to add, he will also get the minimum of 95% of the black vote no matter what he does in the next few years. We are definitely not out of the woods. Lastly, the influence of the MSM is on the decline—and yet it will likely remain a force to be reckoned with for the next few years.
Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon won landslide elections. They kicked the crap out of their Democratic Party opponents. Nixon beat George McGovern by a 20% margin. That won’t probably happen in 2012. I suspect, at best, the Republican candidate will be lucky to win by 7-8%. That means we cannot afford to take anything for granted.
It is decidedly confounding why all of the punditry on this side of the fence pontificate on how Obama should solve his problems. Rove on Fox News, Dr Hanson here on PJM, right-wing opinionists everywhere..
..and it is annoying.
The guy embarked on this journey over three years ago, secured a butt-smooching media and a swooning horde of followers to his crusade. He also cast a spell over the more benighted and disenfranchised of the American [Idol] Public to vote for him. the Boy King alone auditioned for the job with rhetoric describing that he would solve the problems as well as causing the waters to recede — and all we had to do was trust him.
Well, with the greatest of respect, Dr Hanson, the only justifiable shovel-ready job I can see is the one requiring him to clean up the crap-fest he is creating. When he gets done in three-and-a-half years, this country will be circling the drain. The economy, jobs, national defense, and world reputation will have suffered greatly and he will be on his way back to Chicago to write his memoirs and bask in the adulation of the hoodwinked few who still think he is competent.
Until then, let him figure it out.
From Althouse’s blog and the NYT we learn of Obama’s daring to tread where Bush would never. Obama seeks to rejoin church and state:
“Bearing false witness? Breaking the 9th Commandment? So his opponents are sinners. I’m trying to imagine the separation-of-church-and-state freakout if George Bush had taken this approach to arguing for one of his policies.
According to the lede paragraph in the linked NYT article:
‘President Obama sought Wednesday to reframe the health care debate as “a core ethical and moral obligation,” imploring a coalition of religious leaders to help promote the plan to lower costs and expand insurance coverage for all Americans.’”
How do you like them apples, Blarty, you cute little pagen you?
We need to crush this plan in its entirety and only accept a plan that removes government and advances the free market. Anything less should be fought intensely.
The Federal government has NO Constitutional authority to run a health care plan or system. None! If we can’t or won’t draw a Constitutional line in the sand here and now we have effectively surrendered our liberty because the Federal government will feel it has the authority to do whatever it has the will to do.
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
WE MUST PUSH THE PLEDGE: The pledge is this. Any and all republican elected official must pledge, and must swear to resign immediately if he breaks the pledge, to NEVER vote in favor of deficit spending. In fact, we must have a platform of spending CUTS until we have a surplus–such that we ALWAYS, as POLICY have a 10% surplus.
And I’m sorry if this is heresy, but we can’t cut taxes until those goals have been met. This is penance for the Bush years.
It wasn’t the ’96 election that was important. It was the ’94 election.
And more from Greta van Susteren and Althouse:
Greta:
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: “These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation. That is that we look out for one other, that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call.”
Althouse:
“Now, we know that Barack Obama doesn’t “keep” his actual brother — we remember George Hussein Onyango Obama, the brother who lives a hut — and it’s clear that what he means is that government has the moral obligation to regard all citizens as brothers and sisters — I’m coining the word sibizens — and to care for them.”
Our new Pres. is a joke, but a very dangerous one, right, Blarty?
The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.
Blarty Blarckleblart:
“I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ‘93 presaged his crushing defeat by Bob Dole in ‘96.”
Yep. And Reagan’s 35% approval rating in 1982 doomed any chances of a second term for him.
23. David Thomson:
“I suspect, at best, the Republican candidate will be lucky to win by 7-8%.”
Take another toke on the bong. The GOP’s approval rating makes Obama look like Jesus Christ himself.
It’s real simple. I am an independent and highly insulted at the way Congress leaders call me un-American when the Health Plan they propose begins with “we in Congress will NOT be a participant in the plan”. I believe America started with the revolt against King George with the same kind of arrogrance.
second, since Obama has come to office I have yet to hear him tell me the truth on anything. His purple shirts, corruption at the DOJ and support of ACORN will never be a voice I would ever support!
Obama’s biggest liability is his mouth. Whenever he is off script, away form the teleprompter he regularly blurts out his true intents. Maybe he thinks that nobody listens. Or that he can always count on the mainstream media to cover for him. But there are too many alternative sources of information, and to many people with I Pods and minicams to bury the truth. His apologists are looking and sounding like fools. And more and more people are listening and watching. He has demonstrated that he is merely an adept, deceptive and somewhat unscrupulous Chicago Pol. The usual leftwing attack strategy labelling whose who dissent from their policies as racist, homophobic, radical jackbooted fascists has been so overused that that it now evokes snickers rather than outrage.
The appeal to religion to justify socialism is completely wrong. In the Gospel according to Matthew, when the rich man approached Jesus and asks how he can enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus does not tell him to sell other people’s possesions, but to sell his own.
Jesus asks us to help the poor but does not force us to , other wise their would be no free will. Any religion (or person ) which advocates “social justice” (what they are really advocating is the government confiscating by force the fruit of a person’s labor/talent’s) is putting themselves above God – attempting to force mankind to be good. In any case it doesn’t help the poor: it just creates dependency and empowers the legions of politicians/government workers.
“Social Justice” has no foundation in the bible, of course, Liberal Prostetants and certain factions in the Catholic Church have no foundation in the bilble either.
The appeal to religion to justify socialism is completely wrong. In the Gospel according to Matthew, when the rich man approached Jesus and asks how he can enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus does not tell him to sell other people’s possesions, but to sell his own.
Jesus asks us to help the poor but does not force us to , other wise their would be no free will. Any religion (or person ) which advocates “social justice” (what they are really advocating is the government confiscating by force the fruit of a person’s labor/talent’s) is putting themselves above God – attempting to force mankind to be good. In any case it doesn’t help the poor: it just creates dependency and empowers the legions of politicians/government workers.
“Social Justice” has no foundation in the bible, of course, Liberal Prostetants and certain factions in the Catholic Church have no foundation in the bilble either.
Question; How much will ObamaCare cover for mental health and treatment? There’s going to be an explosion in mental health issues if ObamaCare becomes law! Not that it isn’t already needed for the Soldiers of Obama marching to this music now.
26. Eric:
“The Federal government has NO Constitutional authority to run a health care plan or system. None!”
Sometimes the stupid here boggles the mind. You couldn’t have come up with such ignorance unaided. Where’d you get this idea, Limbaugh?
So Medicare, in place for 44 years, is unconstitutional?
Go read your Constitution son. And turn off Limbaugh and Hannity.
The Constitution empowers Congress to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,” to “provide for” the “general welfare” of the United States, and to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.”
I wonder if Harpo and Blarty support Obama’s efforts to rejoin church and state? The separation of the two, as I understand it, is to be found in the mysterious penumbras, auroras, and and and sort of between the lines of the neon signs in the Constitution, which is the document that gives untrammeled and omnipotent powers to the Feds to do whatever in the hell they want to do.
“… radicalism with an increasing edge to it.”
Leader of the Huns, the Obama we see is an invention, a persona — the work of his own shoddy craftsmanship. About the person of Obama we may say “there is no there there”.
Symptoms: grandiose, delusional visions. Diagnosis: malignant narcissism. Prognosis: incurable.
When popular opinion troubles the water and obscures his reflection, we can only wonder about the consequences.
Centralist:winger:extremist:fascist. The Obama justice department left the reservation when he opened the justice department to subpoena the insurance companies for pay scale and called the townhall protestors “Un-American.” In the scale of the balance of power, he seems more comfortable in the extreme.
The six month list is longer and the cry for “redistribution” for moral reasons is louder. Perhaps we will soon reach more than a tipping point.
The Democrates are just crooks pain and simple. Dashel has already made a mint on healthcare reform and would have made more if he payed taxes on the first round of loot.
Think of all the Democrats who make 6 figure incomes at Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, SEIU, ACORN, UAW, Fanie Mae, Freddie mack, Women studies Departments, Africian American studies Departments, Envoirmental stuies Departments and all the local and state welfare departments. It’a massive racket the Dems have going.
Every thing Obama does has the goal of feeding this massive government beast.
Poor Old Colonel Sanders would have been put in a government home for the mentally challenged.
Stupid 75 year old man dressed up like a southern plantation slave owner using his first SS check trying to sell Kentucky Fried Chicken 11 herbs and spices and mashed potatoes gravy recipes from his van.
Ever wonder how many buckets of chicken ACORN volunteers ate at voter booths last year?
22. Fred Beloit:
#12
Yeah, Blarty, but Clinton was a go-along guy, not the socialist idealog we have on the throne now.
Back in the nineties y’all were calling Clinton a communist, the antichrist, and worse, ultimately leading to the Follies of 1999. Now he was “a go-along guy”?
Makes me wonder what praise you’ll be heaping on Obama in the twenty-teens.
VDH,
I think code pink might be in Pittsburgh, Pa now gearing up for the G-20 summit in Sept.
I appreciate your commentary.
F. Vazquez
36. jharp
Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Medicare and others are good programs that liberals fought for. True.
The UAW, Textile Worker’s Union, and others used their power to take and take and eventually they hurt themselves by taking too much. We see these new liberal programs to be similar.
They’re just too much. They’re over the line. Sometimes enough is enough.
25. Fred Beloit:
According to the lede paragraph in the linked NYT article:
‘President Obama sought Wednesday to reframe the health care debate as “a core ethical and moral obligation,” imploring a coalition of religious leaders to help promote the plan to lower costs and expand insurance coverage for all Americans.’”
I am not aware of any Supreme Court jurisprudence under which this plan runs afoul of the Establishment Clause, Fred. Perhaps you could enlighten me? Thanks.
I agree, we can expect more racist appeals from the Obama camp, but not just from exasperation.
While racial tactics stir up conflict, they also advance collectivism by heightening group affiliation and de-emphasizing individual identity.
In Leftist ideology, racial class warfare functions like economic class warfare in framing the debate in terms of group rights, rather than individual rights.
So as a result, Obama and his Leftist supporters can’t become “post-racial” without also becoming more individualist and less collectivist, thereby betraying their Marxist world view.
And speaking of patently phony and cynical non-stop “campaign” rhetoric: Obama now resorts to the citation of religious scripture to supposedly shame us into being more generous and giving (“I am my brother’s keeper”). This is rich especially when one bothers to look at Obama’s tax returns the five years prior to his election. The Obama’s high-water mark in charitable donations hit 5% in 2007. In the previous four years it averaged less than two percent.
Even Obama fawners the NYT summarized it thusly:
“The Obamas’ returns are striking on a number of levels. They show that the couple made very few charitable contributions, sometimes less than 1 percent of taxable income, until Mr. Obama began his run for the White House.”
But when he finally decided to dramatically increase his charitable giving where did he send it? Red Cross? Salvation Army, Leukemia Society, Save-The-Children?
Nope.
One of his largest contributions ever ($13,000) was to the Congressional Black Caucus in 2006. Of course, political contributions are NOT allowed as charitable deductions so he had to file an amended return to comply.
And now he hectors us about our stinginess.
President Obama’s meltdown is coming sooner than expected since all of these things begun in the early Summer around May through August; Obama is indeed a shallow man with less depth than a cartoon of a man. His arrogance & ignorance create a powerful bomb for the Democrats & possibly for the United States if he is not careful. I believe many other Democrats largely associated with President Obama will go down in 2010 in the form of the ever building backlash President Obama is making with the tinderbox of Socialized medicine & in his need for absolute control over everything. People will not forget given President Obama also wants to pass the awful Cap & Trade now in the Senate & wants Amnesty version 2.0.
Those who sit on thrones they build for themselves are the first to fall.
Fall, Barry, fall!
Obama and his handlers are all communists. What did we expect from them? Obama is only the speaking face of this crowd. Like any good TV anchorman, he can read words from a teleprompter with his natural gift of a soothing and convincing baritone voice. He smiles nicely when he is on camera. This is all these communists want from him. The Dem Congress is enacting their long time agenda and Obama, devoid of any real plans of his own, is just the slick talking salesman. He no more understands anything he says than your local TV anchor.
I heard that the new motto for the Government healthcare conglomerate is going to be “With All The Efficiency Of The Post Office,All The Compassion Of The Internal Revenue Service”
37. jharp: Neat misquote there! Just like a lefty to misrepresent the text by selectively exerpting passages and re-arranging them to make your point. The passages you mangled are as follows;
From the Preamble:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Note that there is no reference to taxing authority in the Preamble, just a general direction to do the listed things to secure the blessings of liberty.
Article One: Section 8
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Note, they could have included healthcare at this point but they did not, and the tone of the text refers to the general welfare of the nation not the individual citizen. The section also then goes on to list those functions assigned to the Legislative Branch, again healthcare is not listed.
And, of course, the most widely violated Amendment, the good old 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
Here is a clear statement that unless the power is specifically given to the Federal Government in the Constitution is is reserved to the People or States.
When quoting a document as easily accesible as the Constitution currently is one should take the care to read it in full to gain the full tenor of the text, not just cherry-pick certain phrases.
As long as we are reading the Constitution please check this (Article 1 Section 9): “No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.” and explain how Obama used TARP money to bail out GM and Chrysler? It was appropriated for the banking industry, not the auto industry.
Sorry about the over-long post but things had need of being set straight.
I believe that, in his own mind, O-man has good intentions, and that the road to hell is coming along quite nicely.
Evidence of the O-man’s proudest accomplishment can be found in all the hatred that, while always having been there, is now irrevocably brought to the surface.
O-man has mastered the art of oration, of carefully constructed language that is designed with intent. Those who find themselves fixated on his every word cannot see that behavior as a red flag. They’ll shout down anybody and everybody; insulting family members, ruining family dinners, and in the name of what?
People are ridiculed, intimidated, and even hurt by your O-man’s orders, and you are nothing more than a Manson girl.
(yes, I am bitter and yes, it is personal).
One must pick their battles and pick them with care. People say things in these matters for the sole purpose of picking a fight. How many of these disputations have succeeded in anything more than anger and hatred? Often I find that a person feels as though they’ve “won” the dispute just because they’ve engaged me. This is because their dialogue consists of insults more than arguable points. In other words, it’s just a well planned game of phony psychological self-empowerment; which is the act of a sociopath. These people are sick- try not to catch it.
VDH
I agree with your analysis but not the second part where you have some suggestions for obama. they are great suggestions but I think you are way off by omitting something that negates that possibly.
HE IS A MARXIST WITH AN AGENDA …so from that perspective you can see he will not take your suggestions.
there is the possiblity that he ill CHANGE …but again I doubt that very much. he is part of a machine that he has only some control over.
good luck with that.
regards
Actually Cindy Shehann, and her comrades of Code Pink will be on Marthas Vineyard the week of ‘our dear leaders’ vacation. Should be interesting, but do not expect much media coverage.
Love the Wellington reference but it would be even more appropriate as Obama surveys the opposition ranged against him if he used another of The Iron Duke’s one-liners, spoken as he inspected the troops befpore battle; “I don’t know what they do to the enemy but by God they frighten me.”
We are in a catch 22.
The more we challenge and resist, the more they will clamp down. I fear we are playing into their hands. When things get really out of control there will be massive crackdowns. Marshall Law. They will have the perfect excuse to come down on us hard in true fascistic form.
I also believe that HUSSEIN Obama is deliberately tearing this country apart just so that he will “have” to take control. He aims to tear down our foundations, pit citizen against citizen until we don’t know who we are or what we’re fighting for. That’s the whole plan.
I also don’t believe there will be free and fair elections ever again. There will be an orchestrated crisis, or he’ll do away with term limits. Or they’ll just steal the election like they did this last one. His buddies are A-Jad, Chavez, KJ Il & Zelaya. Connect the dots. He will RULE AND DICTATE for as long as he wants. They will never ever give up their power.
VDH: Nice job putting into words what so many think. History, experience and common sense tell us what the future will be for this administration but few are able to state it so elegantly. The foolish that don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in the future. As you pointed out while on your trip there are living examples of what not to do everywhere on this planet. It’s very sad that there are dark days ahead. The administration is running out of schemes and gimmicks, soon it will be time for the administration to get mean and nasty and start forcing its will down the throats of the citizenry. The end result will not justify the means. Truth and justice seem far away.
Obama’s messianic behavior and self-image make him looks increasingly as if he wants to be America’s Savonarola – he may well do tremendous damage to America before he’s finished, but, one suspects he will end up like Savonarola as well: thoroughly discredited.
Ron Kean:
“Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Medicare and others are good programs that liberals fought for. True.
The UAW, Textile Worker’s Union, and others used their power to take and take and eventually they hurt themselves by taking too much. We see these new liberal programs to be similar.
They’re just too much. They’re over the line. Sometimes enough is enough.”
I knew it. Eventually a right winger would make some sense. Congratulations.
However, doing something to get everyone insured is hardly “over the line”. Nor is public option to lower our health care costs “over the line”.
What is “over the line” is American’s paying twice what the rest of the world pays for the same level of care.
And also “over the line” is America being the only country in the world that doesn’t cover provide some kind of insurance for every one of it’s citizens.
Think about that. We have the most expensive system in the world by double, and are the only country not to cover everyone.
That, my friend, is “over the line”.
I love the picture accompanying the article a polar bear on a small shrinking piece of ice drifting around. That seems to be what is going on with his approvals one of two things will happen the ice will completely melt and the bear will have to swim eventually or looking at his predicament will go ahead and take the jump and start swimming.
So far Obama is getting a free ride from the MSM but it is melting and much like the child learning to ride a bicycle must eventually take the training wheels off and probably crash and receive a few scuffs or even broken limbs or even death. I think without the MSM Obama would have already crashed kind of like the adult that runs alongside their child and then lets go unknown to the child to let nature take its course. I hope for God’s sake the MSM let’s go to see what the child can do soon.
“”"”"And because Obama assumed messianic pretensions, such a prophet suffers the wage of hypocrisy, “”"”"
You mean like this messianic pretension:
Latest pronouncement from President Obama:
‘We are God’s partners in matters of life and death’. . .
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/We_are_Gods_partners_in_matters_of_life_and_death.html?showall
Tom Ridge: Rumsfeld and Ashcroft wanted to raise terror threat level because it helped Bush’s approval rating.
“The most dramatic example — and one that Mr. Ridge said would help him confirm his previous plans to leave his post — came on the eve of the 2004 election between Mr. Bush and Sen. John Kerry.
Osama bin Laden had released a videotape with one more ominous sounding but unspecific threat against the United States. Neither Mr. Ridge nor any of the department’s security experts thought the message warranted any change in the nation’s alert status.
” . . . at this point there was nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm,” he writes.
But that view met resistance in a tense conference call with members of the intelligence community and several other Cabinet officers including Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“A vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion ensured. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld.”
Noting the correlation found between increases in the threat level and the president’s approval rating, Mr. Ridge writes, “I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’”
The dispute remained open at the end of the call. Mr. Ridge’s aides carried the word to the White House staff that the threat escalation would court accusations of politicizing national security. Mr. Ridge’s view finally prevailed.
“I believe our strong interventions had pulled the ‘go-up’ advocates back from the brink,” Mr. Ridge writes. “But I consider the episode to be not only a dramatic moment in Washington’s recent history, but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, credibility and security.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09221/989665-176.stm#ixzz0OkYNCrV5
Hmmmm … attempting to manipulate a national election by arbitrarily raising the threat of a terrorist attack in order to terrify Americans into re-electing Bush.
Can you say “treason”?
Oh, but I guess we’re not supposed to look backwards, now, are we?
#42
Blarty, I never called Clinton those names. I called him a perjurer and a lair, both of which he was. A court found the first to be an accurate description, and he admitted to the second.
#46
There is no jurisprudence on this yet, Blarty. That’s because we never had a god/king in the office of POTUS before who would dare to go before religious leaders and ask them to recognize his political opponents as sinners and ask their help to pass political programs. But I could be wrong.
Damn glad to hear of this. Seems choice is the key word.
Give it up, wingnuts. You are doing nothing but destroying the GOP. And believe it or not, I think that is a bad thing.
“More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a “choice” between a government-run health care insurance option and private coverage, according to a public opinion poll released on Thursday.
A new study by SurveyUSA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.”
I, as usual, am in agreement with Dr Hanson. I should like to add that I have contributed modestly to Republican efforts in the past. I continue to receive phone calls and mail in this regard. In a recent phone call from a representative of the Republican National Committee again asking for money after denouncing, as usual, the Democratic opposition, my exasperation with Republican inaction boiled over. I told him I would no longer contribute until I saw some evidence of constructive activity on the part of the Republican National Committee. He was undeterred, asking that I send at least some amount.
I don’t know professor Hanson. I don’t think that given our narcissism, hedonism, ignorance, and covetousness, that we’ll be able to recover soon nor easily. I believe we need to revisit Tocqueville’s “soft despotism” description, and grasp that we’re there. Identifying the problem is the first step to recovery. You, I believe, and have identified the symptoms.
agree with David Thomson’s assessment of Obama as shallow, ill-read, ignorant of both history and theory and disinterested in such analysis.
But the cause is not his commitment to Alinsky’s mechanical tactics. The cause is that Obama is a pathological narcissist and his only focus is on himself and his psychological need to control others.
Certainly Alinsky’s tactics enable him to do this but that deeper cause is of more concern. Criticism and dissent is unacceptable to such a pathology; and after a while, the need to be always ‘on-stage’ and adored take precedence to everything. How do the Democrats, never mind all Americans, deal with such a pathology?
“”"”"I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ‘93 presaged his crushing defeat by Bob Dole in ‘96.”"”"
So, the ’94 mid-term disaster for the Democrats doesn’t count? Are you one of those who “cherishes his vote” and only shows up every four years for the “big one?”
jharp,
You are correct about the words in the Constitution. It clearly states that the government may provide for the general welfare and NOT for individual welfare. Please attempt to understand the difference in your scholarly pursuit into the meaning of the Constitution.
Obama will be in a multi-million mansion on Marth’s Wineyard and his brother will be cooling his heels in a hovel. “We are our brothers keeper.” As in zoo-keeper, sir? “We are a rich nation”. (We’ll take your word on that, sir; you ought to know.)
President Obama’s meeting with liberal religious leaders is just another gimmick to get his BIG GOVERNMENT health care plan passed; I find his sudden need to invoke religion in the discussion disingenuous, & desperate on his part since he views himself as as a god. I too believe this gimmick will not work. The resistance will harden. And, hopefully, the Democrats will fold. Anyone who votes for this mess Socialized medicine is toast. They are already on eggshells as a result TARP, Cap & Trade, & Porkulus.
President Obama reveals himself to be a narcissistic empty suit to all. It’s only a matter of time before the MSM turn on him to save themselves.
4-3-2-1…
#24 Войска ПВО:
“His gorge[ing] the beast” phiosophy of megadeficits…” = Shredding the Wealth.
“Augustus II has arrived!”
If only. I don’t recall that Augustus was famous for voting ‘present’ a whole lot.
If I remember my history, the Devine Augustus was and is considered to be amongst the best of the Roman Emperors. Bar none.
All other considerations aside, if you want to revisit Imperial Rome,there are many other examples that could have been used instead of slandering Augustus.
To paraphrase a famous comment: ‘I have read a lot about Augustus and Obama is no Augustus.’I do grant you that he’s got the ‘tude’ down pat ; it’s just the annoying ACCOMPLISHMENTS part that he can’t lay any claim to. And he never will.
A perfect example of ALL HAT — NO CATTLE.
Amen on the Robert Gibbs point, Dr. Hanson. Every time I hear him speak, I think of Baghdad Bob, Saddam Huissein’s information minister who kept reporting on how Iraqi forces were butchering the Americans, even as American tanks roamed Baghdad streets unopposed. The guy gives me the creeps (Robert Gibbs, not Baghdad Bob – I found him amusing).
37. jharp:
I find it amazing that you are calling 26. Eric “stupid.”
The founders intent was to provide a document of laws enumerated specifically to prevent the government control that the kenyan is now trying to implement… Medicare and Medicaid not-with-standing. If you care to take the time to read the Federalist Papers and the mountains of information on the intent of the founders, you will find that Eric is dead-on correct. The scope of government you rationalize under the term “general welfare” is what the authors of the Constitution sought to PREVENT.
We all KNOW why Obama’s poll numbers are dropping. It’s because he’s a TERRIBLE President! Not since Carter have we seen anyone with such dismal leadership skills.
The man is a bumbling oaf and no amount of spit-polish or lipstick can put a shine on this stinking heap of an administration.
He’s a one-termer.
16. Dr. Eme (not a real doctor):
seriously? he’s doing alright. jeeze; what a yucky feeling essay, to me, personally.
To Not-A-Real-Doctor,
Did you sleep in the Holiday Inn Express last night?
18. HalifaxCB:
Last year HE is just a unfinished first-term US Senator. Things changed, ‘He Won’.
60. jharp
Thank you for the complement but you were not altogether correct. I’m a far right winger.
Once there was a goose that laid golden eggs. People wanted more of her eggs so they tore her apart to get them. The goose died and there were no more golden eggs for anyone.
“(And by the way, what happened to Code Pink, given we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan?)”
Prof,
Well, they’re not Code Pax, are they?
37. jharp:
Sometimes the stupid here boggles the mind. You couldn’t have come up with such ignorance unaided. Where’d you get this idea, Limbaugh?
So Medicare, in place for 44 years, is unconstitutional?
Go read your Constitution son. And turn off Limbaugh and Hannity.
The Constitution empowers Congress to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,” to “provide for” the “general welfare” of the United States, and to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.”
Yes actually they are. Your own quote proves as such, the “provide for the general welfare” does not state nor mean “general welfare of US citizens”. It means things like Interstate Highways, harbors, canals, waterways, and to establish certain national standards/laws where beneficial to all states. The 10th Amendment says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Thus programs like Medicare, Social Security, etc. are the province of the individual state governments to provide, not the Federal Government.
The men who wrote the Constitution would be appalled at the confiscation of a person’s wealth to be redistributed to those who did not earn it. They believed you saved/worked towards your retirement, lived with family when you could no longer provide for yourself, and charity was given by the individual, church, or community.
“His “gorge the beast” philosophy of mega-deficits ensures the goal of “spreading the wealth” (cf. his campaign interview in which he was unfazed by the point that targeted tax cuts and economic expansion brought in greater federal revenue).”
I think, more to the point, the goal is to splatter the wealth. There is nothing sane or constructive about this level of spending and public sector growth. It’s about destroy and rebuild anew. It is economic warfare on the homeland.
jharp:
However, doing something to get everyone insured is hardly “over the line”. Nor is public option to lower our health care costs “over the line”.
There are 2 problems with the above. 1) “doing something” is not the problem – it’s what they are proposing that is over the line. Which goes right to the heart of the 2nd point; 2) The “public option” is NOT going to lower our health care costs. There is no way that it can. Once Health care is essentially “free” there will be much more demand (imagine “free” cars at your Govt car lot), and that increased demand will drive UP the price, and lower the availability. Not to mention that the number of quality people choosing a career in health will radically decline (who wants to be another cog in the govt. machine – think “post office”).
“We have the most expensive system in the world by double, and are the only country not to cover everyone.” Most uninformed comment here today.
We not only cover everyone… we cover a full 10% of Mexico’s population as well.
AIR AMERICA, the ultra-liberal talk radio channel, has now called Obama a “charming liar”.
Watch the video and listen to a LIBERAL radio host out Obama’s secret deal with the drug companies. The honeymoon is truly over friends.
http://www.thefoxnation.com/air-america/2009/08/20/air-america-radio-calls-obama-charming-liar
#’s61&62.Obama’s manifest incompetence, is the result of affirmative action:promoted way beyond his intellectual and political gifts,by left-wing plutocrats,who needed a sock puppet,he’s unable to think coherently,and speak effectively,when the hand is removed.He is emotionally unstable as well:witness his pathetic attempts to channel god.What will he do next,call his former racebaiting preacher, and place dissenters under an interdict?How about proclaiming himself an ayatollah?This guy is both ridiculous and dangerous!
Grrrrr! Why is nobody talking about this?:
During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.
Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The Demint motion to instruct passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.
As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.
Here are four posts where additional details are provided:
http://tinyurl.com/lnkr9v
http://tinyurl.com/owxu8v
http://tinyurl.com/mavrbu
http://tinyurl.com/np629z
TO: #42
As I agree with your overall comment.
I just wanted to clarify a few details. Col. Sanders was a Hoosier, born in Henryville, IN and had a light pink Rolls Royce not a van to the best of my knowledge. –Indiana Fried Chicken didn’t have the right ring to it!
It’s come to this: A Website for those suffering buyers remorse for their Obama vote.
http://www.iamsorryivotedforobama.com/
Great analysis, but the fight isn’t over. Do the dems really believe that the kind of victory they apparently envision will make Americans feel all warm and fuzzy toward them? I can’t wait till 2010.
Electing Obama to be POTUS was the equivalent of putting in a 3rd string bench-warmer from your single-A farm club to close out the bottom of the 9th inning of the World Series with the score tied and the bases loaded JUST BECAUSE he looks good in the uniform and gave a rousing clubhouse speech.
We elected a neophyte ideologue with NO experience governing and he is governing like a neophyte ideologue with no experience. Should this really surprise anyone?
And regarding the “Obama is brilliant meme”, exactly WHAT EVIDENCE do we have of this? Where are his many accomplishments demonstrating his brilliance? If Obama was arrested for being “brilliant” would there be enough evidence to convict him?
vdh does the usual thorough job of laying out his rational case, but he refuses to recognize the greater truth.
Obama and his cabal are intent on implementing a radical agenda that will transform America, with themselves as unassailable commissars for life.
To their delight, they have managed to get a bet on the table of $10,000 at 50-50 odds, but a $10,000,000 payoff if they get lucky.
They’re going for the gold.
The future of the country hangs in the balance.
And the wheel is spinning.
Barry won’t listen. It’s no longer about health care, it’s ABOUT BARRY. The Chosen One’s ego shall not be bruised. And the Democrats are actually dumb enough to fall on their swords for Him.
Any one proclaiming themselves savior of the world, of healing entire oceans and of heavenly lights shining down whispering their name; then denouncing longtime associations with a whole host of cheats, thugs, and criminal opportunists has surely got to raise questions about their mental and moral capacity to tie their own shoe laces let alone lead the most powerful nation on earth.
In terms of charismatic leadership Obama is no different to Ahmadinijad – the hubris, the tone deafness, the sheer ignorance and audacity to lie continuously, the stubbornness to accept responsibility (ever), the eagerness to please corrupt mentors (mullahs/czars), on and on and on… That so many invested so much false hope in O, is just astonishing to say the least. For those who can spot commie-luvvin-madman-con-artist-megalomaniac in a nanosecond the lack of statesmanship, the contempt for democracy and its citizens, Obama’s own destructionist goals and the current meltdowns are sadly not all that surprising.
Barry need to tell himself the truth:
1. There is a God – and I not Him.
2. I was elected by the ignorant and the distracted.
3. I will keep most of the ignorant.
4. If the distracted start to pay attention, I am toast.
Okay, just name me a few “Republicans”
(Conservative Republican) Not a U.S. Senator, that could run and win the Office of the United States President.
As a real practicing conservative, I am fed up with the Moderate to Left Republican.
There is not one Politican in Washington that functions as a Small Government Conservative. Reduce Spending, Stop Earmarks, have influence in the Republican side of Congress.
Mit Romney loves social health care, his history tells us he loves “Government”
So, we sit and wait for a leader to appear,
Newt Gingerich has too many Girl Friends and ex Wives. No Moral Compass.
Rudy, McCain, PLEASE.
The Republicans will not step forward and demonstrate leadership required. Obama will recover and be reelected in 2012, along with the balance of the Democrats to Congress. Get used to it.
obamas conduct is so predicable. this is what happens when one proposes and supports something that one knows is b.s. but supports it for secondary reasons. we have all been there, done that, seen that, and have the tee shirt. too bad this administration thinks we are all so stupid. but we, collectively, did elect obama, did not we? dg
83. jonno:
“2) The “public option” is NOT going to lower our health care costs. There is no way that it can. Once Health care is essentially “free” there will be much more demand”
You are a fool. The public option is the only mechanism to lower costs. Look around. Everyone other country covers everyone and delivers the same level of care, for about 1/2 of what we spend. All of them have a some sort of a public plan. We are the only ones who don’t.
And health care isn’t going to be free. Not even the dimmest of bulbs believes that.
I agree with this article however I do not feel Obama has the gray matter or stones to deal with this debacle.
He would rather incite and bully than manage the situation. Soon it’ll just come down to race or have against have nots. He should hire John Edwards for PR he’s good at that tactic.
I hope we can hold out untill the 2010 election cycle. He should be a lame duck for duration after that. A one term nightmare for sure.
Why haven’t we heard each and everyone of our congressional leaders burst forth to take credit for this part or that part of a page in their monstrously improbable concoction of a bill?
Yes, we have heard that we will get more services at less cost for more people, but why don’t they tell us in which section(s) we can specifically read those soothing revelations (which we have been so terribly obtuse not to pursue under a government-run program during better times before)?
Why haven’t we heard our historic first Islamic apostate president praise the health care professionals whose work and honor he so earnestly defended during his days on the benches of the Illinois legislature: the ones who perform live-birth abortions?
Yes, we have heard him tell us that everything his opponents fear are fishy and for nothing, but from which corner of the world will all this more and better felicitously come in supply with their equipment, medicine, and services?
There is a limit on how much deceit words may convey. So they will revert to their craft, consisting of saying nothing more while they pass, under the cover of an ironically named bill, another curse on our traditions that will be nothing less than the usurpatory transfer of power from the individual to the state in determining how we live and die.
Sure is echo-y in here.
3. JB: The third party is here…The Libertarians. http://www.lp.org/platform
52. anton: You just won the best post of the year award!!!
Anyone who deludes himself into thinking that he is “partners with God” in determining who lives and who dies under Obozocare is not fit to hold high public office and cannot be trusted….that is pure overweening hubristic ambition…”by which sin the angels fell”.
Today he said he is a partner with G-d. There is no saving this fool.
The beautiful thing about Obama is that he’s not constitutionally capable of doing any of the things you recommended. He’s a Leftist, and been waiting his whole life NOT to do any of those things.
Sadly, the GOP isn’t capable of doing what you recommended for them either.
Re: 98 – jharp:
” Everyone other country covers everyone and delivers the same level of care, for about 1/2 of what we spend. All of them have a some sort of a public plan. We are the only ones who don’t.”
Which country? Canada? the UK? Both are going broke; both ration care. Why is it that many Canadians come to the US for care? Answer: because they DON’T get the same care in Canada as they do here. Why is the Mayo clinic a mecca for health care – if it is so common to get good care elsewhere in the world?
“…And health care isn’t going to be free.”
HA-Ha! You got that right! Obviously taxes are going to WAY up to cover the cost.
But consider: if you can’t be denied care; if you can walk in any time with your pre-condition and care will be provided; if you can walk in 10 times a week – simply because you can; well that sounds “free” (because you are “free” to use it any time you like).
Now of course we know it won’t work that way. When you come in the 1st time you’ll have to wait in line – as well as the 10th. Because there are no restrictions, there will be no lack of patients. Quality will go down – and the overall cost will go way up.
You understand don’t you, the idea of monopolies – and why they are bad for the consumer – antitrust and all that? This will be no different.
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage ”
Alexander Tyler, 1787
America is at number 6…
Let me begin by assuring all that I am inalterably opposed to any government takeover of American health care and further that I believe that while there are issues that should be addressed, these issues in no way justify a frontal assault on doctors, nurses, hospitals, insurance companies and a skeptical American public.
What strikes me about Obama, however, is his fundamental laziness. I don’t think it takes much effort on his part to give rousing speeches, or to appear at town halls (especially the contrived sort), or to tour various facilities, or to fly around in the Presidential air fleet and otherwise wallow in the accoutrements of the Presidential office. But the hard work of the Presidency is not all of this PR, but rather managing the White House staff to produce the legislation that is intended to implement the articulated policies. Obama doesn’t do any of this. He delegates the legislative activities to Congress (Pelosi and Ried) thereby avoiding all of the truly hard work of managing the crafting of the bills. He doesn’t show any comprehensive awareness of the contents of the proposed legislation and he often misrepresents what are among the clear provisions of the pending bills. Apparently there are more than 1200 lobbyists who are working with the Congressional Committees just as there were with the Stimulus. Thus, the so-called reform measures are actually hodge-podges of special interest deals that have not been integrated into a coherent measure, rather than “reform” legislation that results from firm Presidential leadership. It is thus revealed that Obama lacks any plan for healthcare reform and apparently any plan that satisfies Pelosi and Ried will do just fine. Oh yes, he has lots of statist ideas, but crafting those ideas into legislation is damn hard work and he won’t do it. The result is that there are a number of incoherent, internally inconsistent bills floating around in various committees, none of which are responsive to the articulated concerns of the public.
This same laziness pervades his lack of leadership with respect to the two ongoing wars. We hear nothing from him on either. We hear an occasional platitude, but never a discussion of what we are doing and why. He characterizes Afghanistan as a war of necessity while violence in Iraq escalates in response to his policies. He shows no public support for our soldiers nor do we have any hint of any Presidential involvement in tactical or strategic decisions. He is, after all, the commander in chief. I wonder if he is following the practice of Pres. Bush, to write personally to the families of the fallen service people. I doubt it, for it would take work and he is not so inclined.
I have attempted to read some of the health bills. I am a trained attorney with many years experience and these bills are incomprehensible. They are written like provisions in the Internal Revenue Code, with all sorts of references and cross references to other sections. It is very hard to make out exactly what is intended or even how the whole thing hangs together, if it does.
He ran a very effective campaign although his victory was less a product of brilliance and more a product of Bush fatigue. But he created an image that he is unable to fulfill. I listen to him now and I realize my pre-election concerns were true: that he is rather shallow, not particularly bright, and that he is growing tired of the job. There is danger in all of this and we must remain vigilant.
If the voters wanted competence and fiscal sobriety, they shouldn’t have voted for an inexperienced leftist.
Obama should just keep doing what he’s doing, thank you very much.
Can you say Lame Duck?
Obama is not a typical black guy — his guilt at not having to go through what the majority did growing up in the 1970s makes him a radical. I have 3 black brother-in-laws. They are awesome, very apolitical, just working their butts off to do well, love my sisters, and succeed. The are all very successful businessmen who used education to get out of our poverty-stricken town.
Any of my brother-in-laws would have made a better president.
We don’t need a third party. We need to dismantle the party system entirely, the only difference between dems and repubs is which businesses/organizations they suck up to for money. We all need to register in whichever party happens to ‘own’ our district and than vote out the incumbent.
We’ll never be able to throw out incumbents in most districts because of gerrymandering and the number of partisan idiots who view their political party like a sports team. They vote for the party even when their candidate has proven themselves to be an idiot or someone who refuses to listen to and vote in accordance with their constituents wishes.
An even better way to fix it would be to eliminate elections and simply draft representatives. A group of common Americans (housekeepers/businessmen/salesmen/grocery store clerks/police/fire/fishermen would be far better than the group of lawyers we have now.
Well,when Obozo starts talking,he makes my butt want to chew tobacco.
#35: ““Social Justice” has no foundation in the bible….”
Allow me to channel Mr. Rogers: “Can you say … tithing?”
#104: ‘Anyone who deludes himself into thinking that he is “partners with God” in determining who lives and who dies under Obozocare is not fit to hold high public office and cannot be trusted….that is pure overweening hubristic ambition…”by which sin the angels fell”.’
Anyone who thinks the health care bill calls for deciding who lives or dies is a moron. The bill calls for voluntary end-of-life counseling, the exact same benefit that has been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including ex-Governor Palin.
VDH:
The constructive nature of your article is appreciated. However, it may not apply to this situation, because Obama is far too insidious to be corrected by any ‘change’. We are stuck with him, and his inferior decsisions, intellect and character. He is masquerading as President, while Rahm and the congress run amok.
I have not heard him comment once about the integrity of his opposition — he is divisive beyond repair. Even a politician sometimes has to retract from politics, but he is incapable of removing his patronizing and righteous veneer. It is becoming evident that his idealogy is a tattoo that he will always bear.
Unfortunately, it may be necessary for much of the country to at some point become afflicted with an “Obama derangement syndrome”. There is much I can tolerate about Obama, but his practice of poor leadership from a position of leadership is not to be tolerated. At least Bush managed to prevent an subsequent terrorist attack, whether he deserved credit or not is perhaps irrelevant because in the end his character was intact. In contrast, Obama has embroiled the nation in this legislative travesty called health care reform, and there is every reason to blame him for the mess. The moral is that narcissists require attention!
Well,’bibio44′clearly has no understanding of the Holy Bible…tithing is and always has been voluntary…paying taxes is not….he needs do so some SERIOUS homework
Regarding #110 Disturber’s comments:
“I listen to him now and I realize my pre-election concerns were true: that he is rather shallow, not particularly bright, and that he is growing tired of the job. There is danger in all of this and we must remain vigilant.”
Interesting point about Obama growing tired of the job. Has he stuck with, and proven success, any job for at least four years?
And I agree with your and other poster’s comments regarding his intellect. He doesn’t appear to have a very wide general knowledge, impressive analytical abilities, or any kind of intuitive understanding of the American people or the country’s history.
But what surprises me most is his utter lack of political acumen. That any average American could not foresee the consequences of the many shocking actions he’s taken and the tone-deaf comments he and his represenatatives have made is mind boggling. Especially for a politician. Who is giving him political advice? They should be fired.
111. DuchessOfAustin:
‘“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage ”
Alexander Tyler, 1787
America is at number 6…’
DuchessOfAustin, I think we have the ability to change #6 “From complancency to COURAGE” and get our Liberty back! Don’t give up on the USA, we were founded by fighters and strugglers unlike other countries in the past.
The Republicans do have a counterproposal:
http://www.americanroadmap.org/
Bama will NEVER concede to ANYTHING intelligent or sensible. This inexperienced fool is hell-bent on only “his way.” He’ll reap what he has sewn: dissent, divisity, hatred and racist ignorance! He is so misguided and grossly inexperienced that he actually believes in himself though fewer do so each passing day. This eructating sphincter is so very un-presidential as to be staggering! The REAL QUESTION is how were so many U.S. citizens duped by such an empty-suit poseur???
jharp:
Try reading the Federalist Papers sometime. The Founding Fathers did not intend for the general welfare clause to give the government free reign in providing for every possible need of its citizens. This is probably the most abused and misinterpreted statement in the Constitution, possibly even more so than the first two amendments.
“You are a fool. The public option is the only mechanism to lower costs. Look around. Everyone other country covers everyone and delivers the same level of care, for about 1/2 of what we spend. All of them have a some sort of a public plan. We are the only ones who don’t.”
The same level of care…uhh, you mean substandard? The moment the United States goes single-payer is when we are thrust into a medical Dark Ages. Our relatively free-market system is what keeps the rest of the world afloat and allows them to go on their misguided attempts at socialist utopia. Without us innovations are not made, new pharmaceuticals and equipment are made unaffordable. Really, who’s the fool here?
Medicare is failing precisely because it is a fragment of a single payer system. It does not collect enough in taxes to pay market values for services, so ends are met only by a combination of rationing services and underpaying for them, the latter of which shifts the cost burden to the private sector. Single-payer simply will duplicate this on a much larger level, driving private insurance rates up and forcing more people into the “cheaper” government option.
Forcing people into government dependency is precisely what this President and his ideologically identical Marxist cousins wish for. Render as many people dependent on the state as possible in order to ensure obedience to the state. This is the culmination of seventy years of statism, starting under the closet communist FDR.
Free markets or tyranny. Pick one.
I believe that Republican leadership is taking “wait until he stops digging” approach. Obama is making a lot of enemies amongst the citizery on his own – why have the GOP get in the way of that self-destruction?
Of course, the GOP is not united behind a strong leader at the moment. We are a bit disorganized but that seems to work for us now. We don’t really need to put a counter-proposal to the Dem’s proposals – all we need to do is let them sink on their own merits.
When it comes time to shift to the attack for the 2010 Congressional elections is when GOP leadership will need to offer plans and, well, leadership. I think there are some worthies out there – let’s hope they rise to the top.
Obama is not likely to take the Professor’s advice. Obama is a dedicated leftist who has been working his adult life to “affect change” – he’ll keep butting his head against the middle class until they are sick and tired of him.
I’d call him a one termer with at least one house of Congress controlled by the GOP from 2010 on.
Bottom line: the man is a fascist clown. Hitler was a fascist but certainly no clown. Il Duce was a fascist, something of a clown, but a half-way competent clown whose capers did not fall flat once he captured the office.
But until the Republicans can show that they are not just Democrats-light and until they resolve to reign in their own brand of corruption and favor-granting, the clowns and the fascists will still be there, laughing at us poor suckers who, hypnotized by the barkers’ promises, wandered starry-eyed into this circus tent way back in the 1930s. In other words, all of us citizens who demand one form of entitlement or another share in the show.
When ObaMedicine is in place, get use to “capitation” — maybe even decapitation…
Bottom line: the man is a fascist clown. Hitler was a fascist but certainly no clown. Il Duce was a fascist, something of a clown, but a half-way competent clown whose capers did not fall flat on the very day he captured the office.
But until the Republicans can show that they are not just Democrats-light and until they resolve to reign in their own brand of corruption and favor-granting, there will be no effective organized opposition. The clowns and the fascists will still be there, laughing at us poor suckers who, hypnotized by the barkers’ promises, wandered starry-eyed into this circus tent way back in the 1930s. In other words, all of us citizens who demand one form of entitlement or another share in the show.
If we want to re-emerge into the sober air of responsible liberty, we shall have to demand as much from ourselves as we argue to demand from our elected representatives. Do we possess the necessary resolve?
“Strange things are happening to the Obama administration and quickly so.”
Of course it’s strange: people listen to all kinds of NEWS.
The news people are there to make money, be it MSNBC, CNN or Fox, radio and blogs. They fill time between commercials. So the message is always too short, murky and sensationalistic.
Then, people absorb less than 50% of what is said. They listen to what they want to hear and it happens to be facts that they twist around (death panels, no Medicare, more taxes, insurers will die, illegals get free care, etc.).
This leads to mass IGNORANCE about the realities of government.
They go to their work and neighbors and more rumors are spread, as if they were desperate housewives.
Then some bored pollster calls and ask questions that just lead to one answer, nothing scientific about it. Nothing is black & white in real life. We live in an immense gray area.
Result: everything is doomed!
Solution: discern between morsels of facts and gobs of entertainment.
Then relax and take it easy. The world will look pretty good!
Right on the money – especially about the robotic front man Gibbs. This guy must have been picked for the job based on his lack of a soul. I don’t mean lack of soul in a “he’s evil” way – I mean this guy is little more than a play-back machine. He is a pre-programmed drone of spin and BS. God help this guy if he had to face honest journalists.
I agree with VDH’s attempts and good will to offer up our President with some corrective options. Sadly, I just don’t think the President has the wisdom to understand that he is trashing himself, his legacy, and our country.
Got a robo-call from my (D) congresscritter tonight. She wanted to know if I would be available tomorrow night for a telephone “townhall” discussion on health care. They’d call me at 7:00.
Uh, gee. I don’t know. Would I be labeled a racist if I answered the phone while carrying a weapon? Not sure why I got chosen for this honor, but whatever happened to face-the-people type townhalls? Not going too well for the Dems?
Must be Linda Douglass hasn’t made it to the Em’s on the enemies list yet (the one culled from respondents to flagyourself@WH.gov). On second thought, that’s not it. More likely she thinks people will be intimidated if they have to voice their concerns over a phone line where the Obamaphiles have your name and number.
Our last two presidents have been empty suits – marionettes pulled by various forces. Someone above mentioned that the Reps and Dems are the same, only the lobbyists and special interests change – too true. Time for a third choice. I”m convinced of 2 things: our gov’t has become a parody of what it should be, and the electorate has become a parody of what it too should be.
“What strikes me about Obama, however, is his fundamental laziness.”
Amen. We are in total agreement. I have been saying essential the exact same thing. Moreover, I also think this is why Barack Obama will unlikely finish out his term. The normal responsibilities of the presidency bore him to death. I predict that Obama will resign before the end of August 2010.
Trusting that the Joint Chiefs do indeed have one another’s cell numbers.
The butterfly net may be needed at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave soon.
Imagine what the 6 pm network news shows would have looked like if a Republican had claimed that he was “partners with God in matters of life and death.”
He’s an evil and dangerous man.
Not only does our health care system provide outstanding coverage to Americans, illegal aliens and people with the means to travel here to escape the crappy care in their socialized systems, it has made countless sleazy lawyers like John Edwards filthy rich.
If the Democrats were serious abour wanting to cut costs they would provide for tort reform. That they don’t dare bite the hand that feeds them a majotr chunck opf their campaign cash tells me this is all about consolidating political power rather than helping provide more cost effective medical care.
To ‘vivo’ ‘Blarty’ ‘jharp’ ‘shadow’ and all the other Obamatons reading your posts is like reading from the Obamanations TELEPROMPTER you just PARROTT the party line, What is especially hilariious is to see ‘vivo’ complaining about the MSM you knw the MSM that was so totally and uncritically in the Obamanations pocket all through the election. but now they are raising miniscule criticisms time to stamp on them LOL. Dont you think it would have been more healthy for the USA to have a media which dissected and critically examined the Obamanation and exposed all his LIES and fodgy connections and HIDDEN documents BEFORE he was elected you know like they did with McCain and Palin. So anyway moonbat ‘libtards’ we are STILL waiting for any of you just ONE would do who can give us an explanation of WHY the Obamanation is withholding and HIDING so many documents and paying so much money to do so. I mean you would not be such morons as to vote for a guy about which you KNOW NOTHING would you ??? You would oh well that just proves what we say about you is true.
I’ve had enough “Hopium” from Mr. Obama. What the RNC needs to do is what they didn’t do under Bush:
1. fire enough bureaucrats to hike the unemployment rate to 12 percent;
2. cut corporate and income taxes to 10 percent and capital gains to zero.
3. declare unilateral free trade worldwide.
Our recession would be gone by October and create an economic tidal wave that would pull millions our of poverty around the world.
There is no Republican Party any more. The opposition to ObamaCare is entirely driven by the Grassroots. Whatever political opposition against Obama will be ENTIRELY driven by the grass roots efforts. Which makes it all the more powerful.
There are no candidates for President against Obama in 2012 that are credible. Older women and men love Sarah Palin, but younger women detest her. Huckabee does the best but he’s not credible either, in the latest matchups and crosstabs that HotAir has posted.
My guess is that the candidate we will look at has not yet appeared. He’s likely to be independent, an Iraq/Afghan Vet, possibly a non-com, not a general, and one appealing to a populist and middle class identity along with seniors and oriented against the illegal alien/Affirmative Action lobby in hard times. The economy won’t even have a double-dip recession — consumer spending is in the tank and Cap and Trade, ObamaCare, and the like will kill any nascent recovery. Both in consumer spending and any capital investment. Small business of course will cease to exist, which is part of the Dems plans anyway.
If we are lucky, we will get an independent Reagan, with his sunny outlook and calm good sense. If we are unlucky, we will get Ross Perot on meth.
At any rate, the Republican Party has collapsed, the Democratic Party has been totally transformed into an Aristocratic Party of Rulers and Privilege (who are angry and arrogant wrt “the peasants”) and is the party of what Kotkin calls “the Gentry.” I.E. the hip/cool wealthy urban coastal elites, who have ENORMOUS amounts of money but not much numbers.
Obama clearly wants to to use the money out of ObamaCare (it cuts Medicare by half a trillion) to as Dick Morris says, pay for Illegal Aliens health care. Or as Howard Dean and Dick Lamm said, “die already!” to seniors, who in the estimation of both, are too “white and old.”
This is of course driven by SWPL liberal coastal yuppies who hate older Whites the way Jerry Seinfeld was embarrassed by his “parents” on Seinfeld. Yes they are that mean, shallow, and stupid, constantly driven by class and status. To see Seinfeld is to understand them. They are like an episode of that show that never ends.
Clinton won in ’96 because the GOP took over Congress in 1994. Before that, he was flailing badly. Gingrich and Co. forced him to move to the center. As I recall, the left was not that crazy about Clinton either after he enacted welfare reform and managed to convince Americans that he was a centrist.
The same scenario might repeat itself in ’10 and 2012, but I doubt it. The thing about Clinton is that really, what the Clintons are all about is keeping Clintons in power. Slick Willy is not a man of strong principles, so it didn’t kill him to move to the right.
Obama is a different bird – far more ideological and unbending. Clinton got valuable practice as a pol in Arkansas, a state far more conservative than he is. Obama has been surrounded by adoring white libs most of his life – he really doesn’t understand compromise, because he’s never had to do it.
So I suspect it will be much much harder for him to bend than it was for Clinton – even if he gets a nasty surprise in Nov. ’10.
And yes, I remember the day after the mid-term elections of 1994 very well. I lived in D.C. then and had to smother my laughter as I saw all the shell-shocked libs reeling in the streets. They didn’t know what hit them. They had it all 2 years earlier – Congress and WH. Clinton had been a star. They had laughed at the “Contract With America” for months. Worry about the GOP? Ah, don’t be silly, the GOP is washed up.
So, folks, the worm always turns. As a classical scholar like Dr. Hanson surely knows, hubris is punished. The GOP found that out – the Dems turn will come.
jharp @100
Look around. Everyone other country covers everyone and delivers the same level of care, for about 1/2 of what we spend.
=====
I suggest you look north of the border to see how socialized medicine really works. It really is rationed up here – not officially, they do it by creating long wait times – we are talking months or years for things like hip replacements, depending on the province, for example – or by just not providing services at all.
Some examples. Here in NS it’s almost impossible for someone who doesn’t already have a family doctor to actually get one – new doctors won’t move here because they have to practice where the province tells them (they can’t hospital privleges otherwise). And the smart ones leave, because with the medical shortage the case load is inhuman. GP’s get paid by the consult – 5 minutes or an hour, it’s all the same to the government – which doesn’t exactly encourage much personal attention.
And when it comes to immediate care, I don’t know if you can imagine the anger one feels when you bring in a 7 year old kid with a severely broken and dislocated finger to the major children’s hospital (the IWK in Halifax), and get told after 5 hours of waiting to come back in 3 days because they don’t have anyone who could handle it.(I’m lucky enough to have the connections and the money to browbeat the administrator into bringing in a doctor, most people aren’t). Or anger one feels when it’s your teenager lying on a gurney in a hallway for 4 hours with a severe concussion before even seeing a doctor (remember Liam Neeson’s wife? that’s how long she took to die from something similar, IIRC). Do you know what it’s like to walk into an emergency room with a kid with a severe astma attack, and find no triage nurse? I had to go back into the examining area to fetch a doctor. Not cool. I’ve got lots more personal horror stories from friends & family, any time you want….
In fact, I could probably write a book, but alas it wouldn’t sell because most Canadians have read it already in their own dealings with government run healthcare. (I won’t fault the doctors; I bless each and everyone of them that has the courage & fortitude to do the best they can with this mess). But how many stories about guys dying in a hospital waiting rooms after being unattended for 36 hours; or about someone who had to go to the states to get a brain tumor removed because the Canadian system wouldn’t be able to deal with it for an estimated 8 months, or aboutdozens if not hundreds of women because a province couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay to maintain proper breast cancer pathology services can one read before realizing this model just doesn’t work?
The rationing is there, it happens everyday; it’s just not explicit.
And no, it’s not the same for everyone – those with money go to the States; those in government can use the special services set up for members of Parliament. But for the average person, it really sucks. (pardon my language).
118 bibio44: “#35: ““Social Justice” has no foundation in the bible….”
Allow me to channel Mr. Rogers: “Can you say … tithing?””
Tithing is a voluntary gift TO GOD, as a “thank offering” for all He has done. This gift is presented to promote God’s work on this earth. It has absolutely nothing to do with “social justice” or politics.
Know your Bible before you try quoting it.
I don’t like how the PJ comment form no longer keeps our info handy. That last “anonymous” comment re: biblio44 was from me.
Barack Obama.
Does not his birth certificate prove that he’s a natural born American?
If it in fact does, then let me ask this question.
Why, more than once in the last eight months, has this country had to apologize for being the leader of the free world? Is that the appropriate message from an American President?
FDR never thought to apologize for America. Nor did Ike, Clinton, Truman, Bush, Jefferson, Washington or any other.
Do we need to apologize for keeping the world free, fighting two world wars during one century?
If Obama is an American, wouldn’t he be proud to be one? Is it not in our fiber to be proud of our country?
I am flabbergasted to come to this realization:
In the last eight months, this country has been brutalized in the fashion of an innocent man beaten by a gang of union thugs.
If you’re keeping score, you know that every move President Obama has made since taking office has been intended to take us farther and farther down socialism highway; been intended to knock America off her feet. To knock her down for the count. To turn national greatness into national remorse.
From Rachel to the President. Don’t apologize on behalf of my country ever again.
Like a ferocious, anything goes cage battle, Obama and his congressional majority not only have apologized for the past actions of Uncle Sam, but tried to force feed this nation every anti-American/Euro/Socialist poison pill they think we’re willing to swallow.
That’s Obama now. This is then.
Looking back, Obama seemed like a winner.
That perfectly modulated voice. Glistening sweat during those hot summer day speeches. Super agreeable words. The prototype of a winning Democratic Presidential contender.
Granted, the most liberal voting record in the senate should have been a tip off that the moderate talk during the primaries amounted to simply a series of great head fakes.
In point of fact, he strode into the oval office on that first day with fire in his eyes and an extreme left wing agenda in his heart.
And started throwing his weight around. “I won. You lost. Shut up. Nancy Reagen is a joke. I agree with the attorney general, racially, Americans are cowards. Private enterprise is public enemy number one. ”
Fact is, Obama unloaded on every American value that’s stood us in good stead for more than 200 years. Independence. Self reliance. The pioneering spirit. The belief in peace through strength. The American Dream.
Replacing those touchstones of Democracy with watchwords of socialism; accompanied by protestations to “spread the
wealth.”
Scapegoat corporate leaders.
Scapegoat pharmaceutical companies.
Aver that the American people shouldn’t listen to Rush Limbaugh.
With some fancy footwork and closed-to- Republicans back door shenanigans, President Obama created an economic virus called, “Stimulus One,” a cash-giveaway-to-political supporter plan, (who among you has seen a nickle of that money?) which is destined to send our financial system to the canvas for a technical knock out sooner rather than later.
Only socialists make believe you can spend your way out of debt.
All any governmental spending scheme winds up doing is, like a rocket, sending the monetary system into overdrive; hyper inflation.
If you’re on a fixed income, sorry to say but Barack Obama has put you into a horrible fix.
Then President Obama pushed the socialist envelope a little too far.
Got hit by the handful of still honest media types with a stinging right cross for accusing one of America’s best and brightest cops of “acting stupidly” for arresting a bum Harvard Professor one night. “Obama,” one editorial stated, “Your racism is showing.”
Our first post racial President? I don’t think so.
Then, just three weeks or so ago, Obama’s nose was blooded when he hired an ethnocentric, wild-eyed, Sonia Sotomayor; sticking her on the supreme court.
The fact that she rants over and over again for all to hear that “any Hispanic woman will make smarter decisions than a white male didn’t seem to bother the President.
Then there’s everybody’s favorite slow motion train wreck:
ObamaCare.
When millions of Americans spoke up against it, Obama directed Palosi and Franks to hit back doubly hard at anyone with anything negative to say about socialized medicine.
Not with facts, of course, but with lies and slurs and put downs.
Palosi called one female detractor of ObamaCare a Nazi. Frank said to another woman, “talking to you is like talking to a table.” Ethnic slurs. Insults. Those kinds of punches don’t land. They’re like boomerangs. Barney Franks flew home last night with a black eye.
It’s really not that complicated.
The people don’t trust ObamaCare mainly because they don’t want a government bureaucrat to have veto power over medical decisions between us and our doctors.
Why is that so hard for Obama and the Democrats to understand? Unfortunately, people tell me they do understand. They just don’t care.
Now Obama has a parliamentary plan to pass his viral health overhaul with what’s called reconciliation which splits the bill in two, so it needs only 50 votes to pass.
It amounts to sleazy Chicago style pizza politics. It’s so unsavory, unfortunately, it just might work.
Personally, I’m sick and tired of reading about the latest Obama tactic whose endgame is as despicable as they come.
To deface, defame and defile the memories of the great Americans who came before us.
Theirs was the vision.
One of decency, honesty, honor and liberty; beliefs that brave Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice for on the alter of freedom.
In a short, short time, Barack Obama is well on his way to turning America into something foreign and unrecognizable. A place I wouldn’t even care to visit.
The damage one rogue administration can do is inestimable.
It’s so ironic.
So many well intentioned Americans thought Obama would go down in history books as one of America’s greatest Presidents.
Little did we know that it would be his intention to effectively change and destroy this nation. Dispatch with an acid vengeance, palpable fury the ideals on which this country was founded.
Barach, I’m afraid you’re not that great leader from Chicago.
I fear you’re just another bum from the neighborhood.
Vivo,
Your latest comment was very, very poorly written. I’m not kidding. It exposed English as a second or third language.
There’s no point to your message.
It’s just worthless drivel.
I’m actually embarrassed for you.
Regards,
Rachel
Blarty:
Clinton was thown a life line by Timothy McVeigh, whom he so rudely had executed.
#37 Jharp:
You should lighten up on Eric. It’s not the constitution, but its judicial gloss that appears to give the government the power to run medicare, a health care system, a national bank, etc.
But Eric’s point is not without merit. The Supreme Court has been called on to decide these issues in the past and will so again if the public option passes.
Maybe YOU should read the constitution.
“I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ‘93 presaged his crushing defeat by Bob Dole in ‘96.”
Barney Fife could have beaten Bob Dole.
Two of the worst campaigns ever launched were Dole and McCain.
Interesting is where Carter was at this point. We know how that went.
Too, Reagan’s poll numbers dropped while he fixed (RALLY FIXED) Carter’s massive screw-ups. In ’84 he issued Mondale the about the worst drubbing in history yes, Nixon’s was wider, but not in terms of % of the vote (?).
“Can you say … tithing?”
Mr Rogers calls this “charity”, as in, giving from your own heart and not demanding the government do your charity for you..
“Social Justice” is not tithing, it is extortion through taxation in which Statists use emotional blackmail is to steal from Peter’s efforts to pay Paul’s whining.
“Social Justice” preaches pride, envy, hate, anger, jealously, theft; all those traits which deny tithing.
“Social Justice” demands that people of faith betray God’s word and in return Judas’ priests dole out a few measly pieces of government silver.
51. Jim Baker:
We’re on the same team here; I think you have this game right in focus!
75. dougf:
I came to Augustus II after recently reading the first three chapters of Gibbon. You may wish to poo poo such thoughts, and you may be correct, however in such matters I would be willing to defer to Professor Hanson’s point of view as mediator or enlightener. Augustus started the dynamic move to weaken/change the Roman government model while grabbing power for his supreme leader notion which I feel dear ole Barry is attempting.
VDH,
I generally agree, but not with some of your “Clean House” – you include Tom Delay in this, though I am not aware of what sin he committed that warrants this (be specific), but you don’t include Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, George Voinovich, Lindsay Graham, John McCain and other Democrats posing as Republicans. Tom Delay is one of the last Republicans I remember willing to fight. Once the Democrats succeeded in having the Republicans remove him for a faked up charge, the succeeding Republican leadership has been pretty docile. How about Clean House of Republicans who don’t fight and spend their time making arguments for Democrat causes and attacking conservatives. That would be better.
Vivo the MSM has been in the Obamanations pocket from the get go this is why people don’t know what is going on in Government. The same MSM that has torn Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin to pieces dissecting their lives and peering in to every corner has completely ignored the Obamanations criminal and Terrorist buddies his HIDING of documents and constant blatant LIES and stupidity. The Obamanation HIDES everything then his moronic supporter claim there is a CONSPIRACY when people try to find what he is HIDING. The Universities have been brainwashing students since the 60′s with left wing moonbat ideas and the average American has the attention span and desire for knowledge of a fruit fly. Thats why you have the Obamanation as President and guys like you who know NOTHING at all about him supporting him and critisising anyone who is not a stupid blind worshiper as you are for questioning him.
America is in the midst of a great Ah-ha! moment, waking up to what happened in the last election and seeing for the first time exactly who and what the leftwing Democrats are and where they really want to take the country.
Obama may or may not wake up to the fact that America is not Chicago. In the end, it won’t matter because it’s already too late for him. There will be no political resurrection for The One. A radical to his core, Obama couldn’t change his stripes even if he wanted to.
As Bob Dylan said in “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”: “But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.”
Exposed, Obama and the Dems are bleeding, and while wounded beasts can be dangerous, the citizenry can take protective measures as long as it is aware of the dangers.
J.B. wrote
“Time for a third party. How about something called the Centrist party or the Common Sense party?”
I Like It!
Obama=Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
62. Steve DeMarcus:
“I think without the MSM Obama would have already crashed kind of like the adult that runs alongside their child and then lets go unknown to the child to let nature take its course.”
Without the MSM, he would never have been elected!
Victor David Hanson is very insightful and I love reading what he writes. However, I have long been irritated by people on my side giving good advice to the enemy. SHHHH! Why on earth would you want to help them ?
If they are morons, (which I firmly believe) then it is in the best interest of the country for their idiot voters to be made painfully aware of this fact.
Let the nation see WHY you never vote Democrat. If people aren’t permitted to see how bad Democrats in power are, how are they ever gonna learn ?
His father’s son is living in a hut in africa, and hes talking about moral obligations. bwahaha.
Your republicans need to cool down as well and push for more minority involvement in the GOP. Otherwise you guys are toast, if not in the 2012 cycle, by 2016 the national GOP would be pretty dead.
It certainly is amazing to watch Obama under fire from all sides. His only real fault at this point is indecisiveness and just plain being too nice of a guy. He ought to take a page out of the Rovian/Bush/Boorish Cop playbook. Take a clear position right or wrong, unflinchingly defend it by any means necessary even when he is acting stupidly. He really needs to go for the conservative jugular and let the chips fall where they may. He may very well be a one termer. So what.
The republicans ought to be cautious with the quid pro quo especially when they offer no alternatives. Sure Bush took a great deal of criticism but he didn’t have the racial Sword of Damocles hanging over his head. Nobody hated Bush because he was white.
Just a word about Ron Hearn’s opinion that Gang Bangers would be the first to receive medical care under Obama; actually they for years they have been among the first to receive the best medical care and therapy under government auspices.
My daughter is Director of Physical Therapy and her husband is Director of Social Services at a large county operated Rehab hospital in Southern California. A high percentage of their patient population has always been gang bangers funded by MediCal. Another large percentage (actually overlapping) are “undocumented” aliens.
And Californians wonder why their state is broke.
Moonbat ‘libtard’ ‘bill’ says the Obamanations ONLY fault is that he is too nice LOL how misguided moonbats are. So his blatant LIES are OK, his document HIDING is OK, his historical, geographical and international relations ignorance and STUPIDITY is OK, his destruction of the US economy is OK, his rush for CONTROL is OK , his TRIPLING of the National Debt in six months is OK. Sometimes you just wonder what planet ‘libtards’ inhabit because it certainly is not planet earth.
Calling the Obamantion NICE reminds me of a joke. When Germany was re-unified they sent a delegation to find Hitler who was hiding in South America. Thet found him and said Adolph please come back Germany needs you and Adolph said ‘OK but with one condition this time no more Mr NICE guy’. And thats about as nice as the Obamanation gets.
The cynical use of religious words to manipulate reminds me of when I was 15 years old and knew everything. I tried the manipulation game, it occasionally worked. But it only took me a few months to learn that people are smart enough that they only fall for it once or twice, and the consequences for me were very unpleasant. It took a long time to regain the trust of those I tried it on, and they were people close to me. How long then before we again trust relative strangers who try to manipulate us?
Moral obligations are for us to decide as individuals.
Focus on 2010. Obama may hamstring himself with his manipulations, but we can only regain a semblance of sane government by taking back Congress. Whatever happens in the interim, whether the economy improves, or we have a terrorist attack, we can’t forget or be distracted.
How moronic would you have to be to actually believe that Obama’s “meltdown” and standing in polls are due to racial hatred? Couldn’t possibly be because his intentions for America are too radical for the majority of his countrymen, could it?
Obama a nice guy? Right, for a coldblooded Chi Town politico, maybe he is. Who do you think called out the union thugs to beat up and intimidate “protestors” at townhall meeting? Mr. Nice Guy, of course.
#37-Jharp
“Go read your constitution boy” Turn off Hannity and Limbaugh.
I offer a quote from Walter Willams PHD from and article he wrote on July 29, 2009:
“If you asked President Obama or a congressman to cite the specific constitutional authority for the bailouts, handouts and corporate takeover, I’d bet the rent money that they would say that their authority lies in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution that reads: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Impost, Excises to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.” They’d tell you that their authority comes from the Constitution’s “general welfare” clause. James Madison, the father of our constitution, explained, “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.” He later added, “With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” Thomas Jefferson said, “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” That means only those powers listed.”
I suggest you do a little research.
And it’s not just the half brother in the hut, but the auntie in subsidized housing in Boston!
#161 Bill:
Quite a few might disagree that Obama’s real fault is being “too nice of a guy.” That said, I infer from that comment and the follow up line about the need “to go for the conservative jugular” that you see this whole debate as nothing more than good old partisan political bloodsport at its finest; where the objective is NOT to actually pass meaningful reform or deal with concrete problems, but to simply make the other team “bleed.” This is corrosive, destructive and ultimately pointless and why many people detest politics and politicians in general.
Health Insurance reform without the jizz
Obama
Let’s cutout the trash talking, (weeweeup?)here are the stated issues, anything else is a scam on the American People by a socialist elite!!
1) Previous Illness
2) Citizen owns insurance policy
3) Caps on payments
4) Policy provisions and understandin…g/clarity
5) Tort reform from Ambulance to hospital to Drug MFG to equipment MFG
6) Aprx 12 million uninsured
7) National groups, eliminate state restrictions
8) Emergency room (illegals etc) compensation when greater than a certain ratio at hospital.
9) Medicaid and Medicare financing and SS (tax all of salary)
At 10 pages an issue this should take 90 pages I DONT WANT TO SEE THE OTHER 920 that hide funds for ACORN and Greenies and all the other garbage.
Wish the church had the $3billion it has paid out in settlements to just pay premiums for the uninsured.
As always, Americans are slow to take notice of the things around us, that some of us have seen so clearly. However, once we as a group wake up, look out. Instead of trying to put salve on a open wound, the left goes into full on frontal attack. Like the Pearl Harbor attack, we were asleep at the wheel, until a massive attack on our way of life made us jump to our feet and strike back. Initially we were shocked but quickly rebounded and took the fight right to the ememy. In many conflicts, we were initially thought to be soft and very plyable. However, once bloodied, our compeditive spiriot and need for freedom won the day. The left has always critising us for overreacting, and always wants a “balanced” fight. All sides “should” have equal power. That’s not the American way, once we get rolling, watch out. Obama and his his marxist ideals have finally, finally awakened the sleepy, American capatalist. The Republicans have done nothing to lead. They have just been lefty light… Hopefully they can now atone for their sins.
Obama must be given credit for having courage of his convictions. He wants a statist government period and our idiotic fawning media is at least as responsible as he is. The are arguing AGAINST their own self interests. The media treated Bill Clinton like a Republican compared to their treatment of Obama. The man can do no wrong.
Everyone knows why they are doing this and it is in fact condescending and insulting to Obama but like most elitists they don’t grasp this. If we had even a halfway
objective media Obama’s popularity would be 30%. He is totally incompetent but he might have gotten his sea legs if anyone was allowed to criticize him.
Today on the train, a well meaning college professor told me that she doesn’t care about economic prosperity. She is FOR social justice. Just another sweet idiot.
My favorite media comment is when the economically illiterate “tingle leg” Chris Matthews said that Bush’s tax cuts caused this meltdown. I would prefer to think he is lying than that he actually believes that.
Obama is bright, does not mean evil, but when you have unworkable notions and no one tells you so, you start to believe your own press clippings.
I blame the MSM far more than Obama. Hey how come there is no braying about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even though Obama’s policy is identical to Bush’s.
LT
Obama the usurper, has a false sense of entitlement, that can be seen in everything he does. “Mean spirited” fits the bill. I knew he was a facade the minute he popped onto the political scene. His “mean” spirit comes out whenever there are critics abounding, either opposing or criticizing him. He is snapping like a rubber band as of late, because we don’t agree and are speaking our mind. Remember, he is a dictator, not a president. Dictators don’t behave rationally, that would explain his flailing about with the economy, health care, etc… I saw flashes of his mean streak while he was campaigning.. he cannot take criticism and people like that, usually have NO self esteem. Boy but doesn’t he put on the show?
Tis a shame that now, what we have in OUR White House, is an imposter, a fake, an arrogant man who is hell bent on imposing his radical agenda on the American people.
I say we fight back with all our might and not give in, because with one victory, this man will push onward.
Let’s get him out of the White House people, is there a way to impeach an imposter?
So why do you think the ammo business has been so brisk in the middle of the economic crisis “inherited” by The One??
I don’t know, Doc, you’re starting to sound like you don’t think this guy is going to walk out of this after all.
Maybe the meltdown wasn’t all that surprising.
[This invites the question of whether some people have a simple survival sense. I call it the "Into The Wild" instinct. Can they take on something that is high stakes, "do-or-die," like a wilderness plane crash, and have the pure animal survival sense to walk out to the road in one piece? Fail that test and OUTSIDE Magazine will be reconstructing, analyzing, and gaming your decisions in their next issue.]
One of my friends described President Jimmy Carter as, “a well-meaning boob.”
Maybe we can START to think about how to describe Obama in a phrase (assuming our luck holds).
p.s. Regarding receiving punishment for expressing negative views on Obama.
I once fought City Hall to a bitter stalemate. At one point, a secretary at the City Planning Department asked me with a long cold stare if I was a carpenter. The people I was fighting controlled building permits and inspections, and I was a property owner.
When I told this story to a City assemblymember, he grinned without comment.
Yes, by all means, watch your back. And I can recommend a good attorney, too.
Thank you, Dr. Hanson, for the Hesiod reference! You are awesome!
“It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” —C.S. Lewis
Obama is, at best, pandering the liberal “social action” wing of Christianity–mainline Protestants and liberal Catholics. At worse, he is parroting the diatribe of his “spiritual mentor”, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Christian charity is voluntary and a core part of the Christ-like lifestyle. Government “social action” is coerced , involuntary and inevitably creates a powerful self-righteous bureaucratic caste of its own. We’ve seen enough of that!
Blarty Blarckleblart:- Uh, genius, Clinton had TOTALLY reversed himself by the ’96 election, and faced a mediocre adversary. Obama will not be that smart, or lucky (i hope)….
Greetings All,
I note with interest a recurring theme on this comment trail and others about the need for a third party to surface in time for the 2010 election cycle. I must point out that there is already a national third party, the Libertarian Party, it is organized (somewhat) it is staffed (bare bones) it is not funded by special/narrow/self interested parties that expect an ROI on their investments of 1000%. It is a party composed of Americans of all stripes that has a simple message of lower taxes, smaller government and more liberty.
So if any of you would be interested in tossing a monkey wrench into the gears of government, when you’re standing in the voting booth in the fall of 2010, look for the candidates with an L beside their name. You can be sure that nobody owns them and that they are there for a whole different set of reasons than their republican or democrat competitors.
Re the Clean House. comment.
I notice that the examples on the Republican side are not currently in office. I think that means the Republicans DID clean house (with the help of the hypocritical left)
This just leaves the tax cheats, the real estate cheats and general liars in the Democrat party to finish Cleaning House.
Of course, that will not leave very many of them left now will it?
Rachel Peepers #145:
RP: “Why, more than once in the last eight months, has this country had to apologize for being the leader of the free world? Is that the appropriate message from an American President?”
Me: I’m pretty sure Obama never said, “I’m sorry that America is the leader of the free world.” Your statement is an unfair twisting of words – actually, it’s not even twisting words, it’s simply claiming that Obama said something he never did.
RP: “Do we need to apologize for keeping the world free, fighting two world wars during one century?”
Me: Are you referring to liberating the Iraqis and Afghanis from their totalitarian regimes? Only to be controlled, though perhaps not as extensively, by the warlords and corrupt politicians with which our administration aligns itself? And to which our administration provides funding in the form of military contracts, which the recipients then use to purchase arms? What happens if we leave and aren’t there to make sure that people are “free?” Also, a lot of nations fought during both world wars. You don’t see them going around and unilaterally invading countries against the advice and wishes of the global community, propping up and supporting vicious dictatorships as long as they benefit “US interests” (i.e., stuffing the pockets of the US wealthy), while simultaneously attempting to remove democratically elected governments because they do not benefit “US interests.” (Of course in a post-colonial world, most of them do it through economic means.) I agree that we have done some great things for the world in our history. And if we do a few good things, like fighting in 2 world wars, does that mean that the rest of the actions we take for all eternity are infallible? That we do not need to and should not admit our mistakes?
RP: “Like a ferocious, anything goes cage battle, Obama and his congressional majority not only have apologized for the past actions of Uncle Sam, but tried to force feed this nation every anti-American/Euro/Socialist poison pill they think we’re willing to swallow.”
Me: Are you kidding me? Do you read any other news? Progressives/leftists/Obama’s base are pissed right now! He paid so much lip service to them during the election, promising all kinds of changes and reforms that they supported. And he hasn’t come through with a single major promise. As far as healthcare goes, it went from single-payer talk (not even considered in the bills) to public option talk to non-profit co-op talk. Man, he’s just moving more and more to the left!
RP: “In point of fact, he strode into the oval office on that first day with fire in his eyes and an extreme left wing agenda in his heart.”
Me: See my previous comment.
RP: “Replacing those touchstones of Democracy with watchwords of socialism; accompanied by protestations to ‘spread the
wealth.’”
Me: If you would rather he consolidate the wealth, then congratulations! Consider that the money used in the TARP plan has no oversight. We have no clue where it has gone. Given that it was given to the banks, one can safely assume that they didn’t give it to the dreaded poor people to “spread the wealth.”
RP: “Got hit by the handful of still honest media types with a stinging right cross for accusing one of America’s best and brightest cops of “acting stupidly” for arresting a bum Harvard Professor one night. “Obama,” one editorial stated, ‘Your racism is showing.’”
Me: A “bum Harvard professor.” Racist much? Is he a bum because he’s black? Or because he’s a professor? Are all professors bums? Are all black people bums? What are you? Are you a bum (insert your job description here)? Or are you more worthy of praise and adoration than that “bum Harvard professor” because you do much more for the advancement of all and common good?
RP: “When millions of Americans spoke up against it, Obama directed Palosi and Franks to hit back doubly hard at anyone with anything negative to say about socialized medicine.
Not with facts, of course, but with lies and slurs and put downs.”
Me: And the claims people made against “ObamaCare” were completely factual. Not slanted or influenced by fear-mongering at all. In the slightest. Nope.
RP: “Palosi called one female detractor of ObamaCare a Nazi. Frank said to another woman, “talking to you is like talking to a table.” Ethnic slurs. Insults. Those kinds of punches don’t land. They’re like boomerangs. Barney Franks flew home last night with a black eye.”
Me: Spelling aside, Frank made that comment to a woman who said Obama supported “a Nazi policy,” being his healthcare reform agenda. Are all the other western civilized nations with some form of government-run healthcare aimed at covering all its citizens Nazis too?
RP: “Barach, I’m afraid you’re not that great leader from Chicago.
I fear you’re just another bum from the neighborhood.”
Me: There you go again, referring to another black man as a bum. Perhaps it’s coincidence that the only two black people you mentioned in your post you called bums. Is it? I’m asking honestly.
I was hyperventilating reading VDH’s “treatment” recommendations. I pray Ogabe and his thugs don’t take this approach. We need them to continue along the same arrogant, dismissive, condescending path from now until 2010/2012.
Obama is Caligula to Carter’s Tiberius.
The Obama leftists could make it clear that they are willing to lose their seats over socialized medicine, and then just ram it through. As soon as they enact it, they will have to change the subject. What is they best way to change the subject? Have you ever heard of “Wag the Dog”? Patriotic fervor wins elections in the short term, but it eventually catches up with you, as Bush found out. A small thermonuclear war will change the subject really fast, and would probably help the leftists win reelection in 2010 and 2012. It would catch up with them in 2014 or 2016.
184. NthertaW
1. I’m sure you agree that Obama’s been apologizing for the USA everyplace as if we’ve been the bad guy when most of us think the opposite.
2. We gave Iraqis and Afghans a chance. It was a good and honest effort and we don’t have to beat up on ourselves. It’s just not necessary.
3. Obama’s tried to advance the cause of his far left base but the majority of Americans don’t agree and will oppose his far left direction.
4. Obama has and is hoarding TARP funds to use as his private slush fund to pay his followers.
5. Racist? Go ahead and call other people names. You don’t even know them.
6. Everybody calls everybody else Nazis. It’s dumb.
7. I’m tired of people calling Republicans racists. It’s a lie.
JB #3 up at the top mentioned starting a new party. Not a good idea, but something maybe better is just getting started nation wide called The Common Sense Movement. It is a grassroots movement and not a political party. It`s goal is to unite all the people that want to restore our Constitutional Republic. Check it out, and then send it on to everyone on your list. It just might work out. http://thecommonsensemovement.com
Pretty unbelievable what’s going on with this administration. All I can hope for is that the true American people see him and his administration for what they are in 2010 and 2012. Hang on for this ride, it may get a little rough.
“those who make over $150,000 (or is it $200,000 or is it $250,000?), and begin to thank them for creating national wealth”
What “wealth” did they create exactly? The bubble in real estate and stock prices that have popped 3 in the past 25 years??
How about the those terrible taxes of Bill Clinton that created lots of jobs – rising stock prices are useless when you can’t find a job.
I applaud the balance and insight of this article. I am not sure I can add more to the comments that have already been made, many of which are excellent. I did vote for Obama, and I come from a long line of liberal Democrats. I have never regretted a vote more. I just hope that we can maintain a sense of balanced priorities in the future, remain brave and keep faith with the real vision of this country. This article is a great example.
Obama is Ivy League because he is Black, not bright.
Politics 101:
Meditations from the Vinyard…
“A whale wounded (as we afterwards learned) in this part, but not effectually, as it seemed, had broken away from the boat, carrying along with him half of the harpoon line; and in the extraordinary agony of the wound, he was now dashing among the revolving circles like the lone mounted desperado Arnold, at the battle of Saratoga, carrying dismay wherever he went.” – Hermann Melville, “MobyDick”
At least it’s American lit…
“I’m the new Victor!”
Another Mary for me, Bob…
Discuss….
This is the best analysis of the current political situation that I have read. I especially encourage the only alternative to the Democrats that we have – the Republicans – to quickly get their act together, renounce their hypocritical actions of the past decade, and offer some positive solutions and some trustworthy leadership that is not indebted to special interest groups, but rather, is indebted to the middle class of this country who pick up the tab, fight the wars, and grow the economy.
“So Medicare, in place for 44 years, is unconstitutional?”-jharp
You say so.
I seem to recall that Obama asked his cabinet to come up with $100 million in savings by “cutting waste”. They could not do it. So how do they propose to find Billions of waste in the health care system? Are they going to be as efficient as Cash for Clunkers, where auto dealers still do not have their money and it takes 24 documents to conduct a transaction! Is this how they will run Health Care? It is no wonder people are balking.
JB, I agree. It’s time for the Blue RINO Party.
“as if the gang banger with a long felony record of mayhem at 22″
“In exasperation I think Obama’s supporters will revert to the race card more often still, which in turn will only take his popularity even lower.”
If they do, they will find that you have beaten them to it.
Why give him any advice … let him crash !
Doc,
Your prescriptions for Obama, to rein in spending, proudly be the leader of the free world with no apologies, ask people to look after their own with health savings accounts…Are you asking him to become a Republican? I think I could train my cat to be a Unicorn before that will happen.
If Obama and his flock can’t see that the tea parties and town hall meetings are for real grass roots movements, does anyone here think they’ll say ‘Oh, maybe we should balance the budget and keep our defenses strong’? I think they’ll ignore all the protest as “cable chatter” and try to ram a public option health bill through. If it fails they’ll find someone to blame like Rush or Sean Hannity or the Christian Right, whoever that is. If it succeeds I’m afraid there might be insurrections. I’ve never seen so much disgust with government since the days of Kent State and the Viet Nam war protests.
agree with JB, the Common Sense party is what we need. Fiscal behavior at the federal level is beyond rediculous. I feel President Obama is a kindergarden teacher trying to be the principal.
Believe it or not, I think the road is about to get a lot rougher for Obama. Next year, in order to fulfill a campaign promise to his Hispanic supporters, he is pledged to carry an “immigration reform” (also known as “amnesty”) bill. Just imagine how that is going to be received, particularly during an economic downturn with high rates of unemployment.
In other words, in terms of popular outrage, “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”
Witty and insightful. it’s a pleasure to read a column that encapsulates all that is wrong with this administration. thanks for the shot of adrenalin….http://cooperscopy.blogspot.com/
Each day we see further evidence that Mr. Obama came to office woefully unprepared, with no experience either in management (e.g. having to meet a payroll) or in leadership (e.g. running something more formidable than a law review).
He can give a speech – provided it is on the teleprompter – but can accomplish little else.
Diane Feinstein was correct. He would not be where he is were he not black.
188. Ron Kean
The one point you make that I agree with is I’m sick and tired of Americans calling each other NAZIs. None of us, except for mass murders like Ted Bundy, are anything like Nazis. OK maybe Private First Class Steven Green, look him up. What do you think Ron maybe just a small apology for that bastard?
Dr. Hanson has it right with this column. The ONE seems to only lie, then repeat the lie, have the MSM repeat the lie until it becomes truth. The only problem is that most Americans have now become wide awake as to what is coming out of Washington and it makes it harder to get the lie believed.
Somethin’ weird goin’ on with the moderation lapses…
Politics 101:
Meditations from the Vinyard….
“There is nothing like the perils of whaling to breed this free and easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy; and with it I now regarded this whole voyage of the Pequod, and the great White Whale its object.” – Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”
Discuss…..
Pass the Bloody Mary’s….
Talk about bein’ mislead…an’ false witness….
I posted once….It disappeared..I posted again…Then the original reappears with the duplicate…A little while later, I check back. Both copies disappear…So I post again..Now the three identicals appear….What’s with the hocus-pocus? Is it the China-end of my business or the US end or the “relations” inbetween holdin’ faith in their “Dylan” conservatives revisionisim regimes?…I have to wonder about it…
Once the war starts yer all goin’ under the same truck, bud…ta follow it down, where it ends…
34. Anonymous:
The appeal to religion to justify socialism is completely wrong. In the Gospel according to Matthew, when the rich man approached Jesus and asks how he can enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus does not tell him to sell other people’s possesions, but to sell his own.
Oh how true! But how many will not recognize the truth of what you say.
The most relevant comparison used to define Obama was the constant comparison between HIM as a presidential candidate and Sarah Palin as the Rep VP candidate. Both have charisma, both lack substance.
The problem is the democrats never learned the real lesson of 1994. They walk around saying it was because of “failed” UHC, it just wasn’t “sold” right.
WRONG. It was about big parasitic government. They were thrown out because of what they TRIED to do, not because of what they DIDN’T do. To some, a distinction without a difference, to the nation, black and white.
As evidenced by the current wave of “anti government” and was fortold by the tea parties. The democrats were warned those were an “ominous sign” for them. They didn’t listen, they ridiculed. And here we are, tea parties Xs 5. And again, they’re not listening, just ridiculing.
That’s why they can’t find a “boogeyman” to blame. Because it’s the NATION rising, not just this group or that group.
The “conservative” democrats who lost their seats in 1994 were punished for what the party TRIED to do. Not for failure to DO that. The nation was making sure the democrats COULDN’T do it.
“Contract with America” and “womb to the tomb” came about SPECIFICALLY as a RESULT of what the democrats TRIED to do. The democrats are trying to CONFUSE the nation on cause and effect, as opposed to take responsibility for why they got spanked in 1994. We’re at that point again.
The ONLY saving grace for the democrats WOULD be, go back to the drawing board.
Work WITH the republicans. Remember, 40% of the nation NOW self identifies as “conservative.” (only 21% liberal) The seniors are angry, the independents are angry, the GOP has people approaching THEM to run against democrats. . . .
37% of Independents in Virginia say Obama’s endorsement will make them LESS likely to vote for Deeds for governor, and only 23% say it will make them MORE likely.
That is some MAJOR anger from a bellweather case for the democrats. . . .
Remember, Obama only won 29 states, 3 fewer than Bush did in 2004. They don’t have a “mandate” to pull the nation left. They never did.
Until the democrats stop mealymouthing around trying to “rewrite” the reason they got STOMPED in 1994, and learn the REAL lesson of 1994, that the nation doesn’t want BIG PARASITIC GOVERNMENT, they’ll keep getting hammered every time they try stuff like this.
It took them 10 years to recover from 1994. How long do you think it will take them THIS time?
The United Socialist Republic of America
Coming soon to your neighborhood.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
“Let us not allow our constitutional process be subverted by those who think that it is simply a burden, an impedance to what they would like to make America into.”
Let’s throw all the bums outta the House. Go to http://www.GOOOH.com (Get out of our house). They have a grass roots plan for retaking the House of Representatives.
“Let’s start with the false claim that illegal immigrants will get health insurance under reform. That’s not true. Illegal immigrants would not be covered.”
Mr President.
This is a lie. here is why. There are no eligibility or verification requirements in the bill . Any illegal alien will merely need to claim they are citizems to get free care.
When you hear criticism that the Health Care Bill will allow illegals to get health care, the criticism is the truth. The lie is coming from supporters of the Health Care Bill that point to this fraudulent amendment that merely pretends to oppose rewards for illegal immigration.
here is the real story.
Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) offered the DEAL amendment that would have explicitly prohibited illegal aliens from receiving health care benefits under the health care reform bill (H.R. 3200) and smartly backed it up with eligibility and verification requirements. The amendment was narrowly defeated July 30,2009 28-to-29 after two Democrats on the committee voted against the amendment.
Under the current health care bill, states will be required to automatically enroll non-traditional Medicaid individuals to the proposed government-run option, but the bill does not provide any language that would require the states to verify citizenship or eligibility status before the enrollment. The Bill is useless to keep illegals getting healthcare as it has a bark but absolutely no bite! Rep. Deal’s amendment would have required states to verify an individual’s citizenship status before automatically enrolling them. Illegals need merely lie to break the law to get healthcare the same way they lie to get their jobs. Laws that trust but never verify are useless.
As Roy Beck wrote in Numbersusa,
“Many Congressmen were stung by the intense phone calls from their constituents after they voted on Thursday July 30, 2009 to kill the “Deal amendment” that would have required verification to keep illegal aliens from getting any new federal health care.
So, they came back and introduced another amendment that said illegal aliens couldn’t get the health care.
HOWEVER . . . .
. . . . the amendment provided for no verification. And actually reaffirmed other decisions of the last three years to include illegal aliens in various taxpayer-supported benefits.
the amendment passed on a voice vote.”
I repeat.
When you hear criticism that the Health Care Bill will allow illegals to get health care, the criticism is the truth. The lie is coming from supporters of the Health Care Bill that point to this fraudulent amendment that merely pretends to oppose rewards for illegal immigration.
If there is no explicit wording requiring eleigibility and verification illegals will be getting free healthcare and the cost of this program is so staggering healthcare will have to be rationed. I am a democrat, I voted for Carter and Gore. My Insurance company sucks and I would love to see a single payer plan, but there is no way IN HELL I will see healthcare rationed and American citizens denied care in favor of giving it to the rest of the world first.
Please prove to me how merely stating in a bill illegals can not get enrolled in programs will stop illegals from doing so. we have federal laws that prohibit employers hiring illegals, how is that working out?….., yet after 10 years we still can not get E verify made mandatory or even permanent.
We are being lied to.
Illegals will get free healthcare just like Obamas illegal alien Aunt is getting free housing and has not been deported.
He has famously said he’s willing to
be a one-term president if that’s
what it takes to get his Obamacare
pushed through.
Well, I have some bad news for him…
He’s NOT going to get Obamacare, not
now, not ever. Period…
And, he IS going to be a one-term
president, anyway. Period…
Just half a year in, and this
presidency is, effectively, over!
Period…
Would like to throw them all out, but the 10th Dist. – CA is poised to send a Pelosi reinforcement in its special election.
It was only a matter of time before this affirmative action wonder’s intellectual limitations were exposed by reality.He’s a marxoid skinny ninny,surrounded by dangerous stalinist thugs.
#206 “Titus Oates”
I’m chuckling.
How many people do you think have a clue who Titus Oates was?
I recognize it only from a memorable quote by Lady Antonia Fraser in her book on Charles II, which begins, “It was the Time of Titus Oates…”
Blarty, I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ’93 presaged the first Republican takeover of Congress in 50 years.
>12. Blarty Blarckleblart:
>I remember how Clinton’s plummeting poll numbers in ‘93 presaged his crushing defeat by Bob Dole in ‘96.
>Aug 20, 2009 – 9:04 am
And now his back room deal with big Pharma to generously give back 80 billion a year on their 3.6 trillion dollars. A huge savings of 2%. But wait, they get to continue to keep price gouging Americans as part of the bargain. I must have missed this on CSPAN. This is change I don’t believe in.
NO DEAL NOBAMA
I’ll sign on to obamacare as soon as obama his self signs up his family. Until that happens what is says is lies to appease the masses. He has not been honest in so long he has forgotten how!
I like the style of journalistic writing by Mr. Charles Krauthhammer (don’t always agree with his stance on issues). I’d like to nominate you to join his league for the skills and brilliance you’ve demonstrated in this artcle. Please note, this is an elite league, of which there is a handful of writers world wide. In the age of the Internet, blogs, and declining newspapers readership, real journalism has taken a back seat. Most writers write sloppily, and for the moment. They fail to inspire, let alone provoke thoughtful thinking from their readers. Your current article sets the standard, to be emulated, I hope.
Thank you for the excellent article, it’s well written, factual and thought provoking.
I hope President Obama listens, we want him to be successful, and we realize he has a tough job on his hands.
Let’s wish the President well.
Thank you
Linda
I have been trying to understand for some time how the Obama administration could possibly view Robert Gibbs as an asset. I can’t bear listening to him, but I think his continued presence bodes well for the loyal opposition. One can only hope the White House ignores Dr. Hanson’s advice.
207. Joseph
He is terrible. I’m also disturbed that he can be used to demean our military.
Many good observations here and several decent recs on what to do.
What to do? Well, we have 3.3 more years of this admin and they seem to be recalcitrant ideologues. Will they reform themselves? Doubtful.
Therein lies the rub. What to do if the admin continues on it’s path to awakening the Valkyrie?
You talk as if they are listening. Why, they dis the very people that come to the Town Halls.
There is no process for recalling a POTUS. The Congress is not going to impeach him.
Again. What to do?
Suggestions beyond the nieve thought that they will suddenly “change their spots”?
Obama said the “un-americans” are all ‘wee-weed up” over healthcare.
Depends.
There is a golden lining to the Obama decline for the S&P:
CNBC -
Obama’s rising disapproval polls parallel EXACTLY the rise in the S&P 500 since Feb/March of 2006.
Go Obama!
Mr. Obama is the tip of the secularist spear. Chicago 1968 has come to fruition. This is it. This is the Left’s biggest, best shot: Mr. Obama. Mr. Reid. Mr. Schumer. Mr. Frank. Mr. Dodd. Ms. Pelosi. Mr. Murtha. Mr. Rangle. Mr. Conyers, etc.
The Republicans may come off as a bunch of cut-throats but at least they aren’t smarmy. What happened to people like Everett Dirksen and Daniel Moynihan?
IMO, today’s “elected officials” are the tools of the money-men that put them there. I’m sure it is more fun to be a money-man than a tool. The Dems and Repubs of Congress today are mostly “tools” and simple ones at that.
The wedge is the world’s simplest tool.
If We The People don’t get it together and do something for ourselves as a Nation, our enemies will eat our lunch.
One of the best articles I have read about President Obama’s presidency so far. Everything you say is spot on and well put. This administration is extreme to say the least; hence, its success will be extreme or its downfall will be extreme, but there will be nothing in between. Ever raise an extreme child, one that does nothing in moderation? You get the point.
For those that voted for or still support Obama
‹^› ‹(•¿•)› ‹^›
We need some of these writers to stop lecturing and start serving in Congress.
The Constitution of the United States is to government as the bible is to Christianity. The founding father’s laid out a simple, yet comprehensive plan for success. We either didn’t listen, or we can’t read. Typical of children, isn’t it.
The function of government, according to the Constitution, is to provide for national defense, promote interstate commerce, and provide for the general well fare. General well fare, means passing legislation that benefits 99.9% of all Americans.
Government Social engineering policies have been and will continue to be the downfall of our country. First of all, they are all unconstitutional and secondly they benefit the few at the expense of the many.
The job of a congressman is simple. If it’s unconstitutional, vote against it.
Fred Yeager,
Lancaster, OH
OBAMA could easily regain support by Simply showing ( to the general public ) his REAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE showing that he is actually LEGALLY the PRESIDENT , I do not he he is
Dr. Hanson,
You gave a list of recommended actions to both parties. Of course, we expect it to be ignored by the Democrats and their allies further to the Left. They are, in their view, on the verge of winning the Revolution if they can just be a bit more ruthless.
However, we can also take it to the bank that the Republicans will also ignore any advice. They have no intention of risking their cushy positions by opposing Obama, and they have as little comprehension of the reasons behind the Tea Parties and Town Halls as the Democrats. And they hate those who participate as much as the Democrats do.
Whatever happens between now and November 2010 will determine the fate of a Constitutional Republic. The issue is in doubt.
Subotai Bahadur
Steve said,
“So far Obama is getting a free ride from the MSM but…”
Steve, take it to the bank; up until election night, 2012, the MSM will cover this guy’s rear. They have to.
226.Anonymous
You are correct that Steven Green’s behavior should not reflect on the rest of our military, but an apology might not be out of place.
What do you think about a moratorium on calling our political opponents Nazis?
The excellence and perspicacity of Hanson’s article make one hope that no one close to the Obama Administration reads it.
The silence from those libtarts who tried to claim the Patriot Act took away their rights but can’t tell us exactly how is deafening!
As usual, Dr. Hanson has given us a good essay. However, Obama is not going to change. He is a committed socialist and lies repeatedly as a part of his Alinsky model. I’d further suggest that, since he has being tutored and trained as a marxist socialist since early youth, what we see in his behavior is his personality revealed. On the other hand, the Republicans, if they will have the wisdom to turn to their conservative base, can change and can crush Obama and his acolytes. But will they?
I agree the discourse is rotten, but add Rush and Glen beck; two of the worst liars and hate-mongers I have heard. Long ago I enjoyed Rush, he was funny and didn’t seem to take himself so seriously, I think his ego has long since exploded, and his race-baiting is gross. Beck lies and so does Hainty, and kieth olbermn is a bore. they are all full of propaganda and contemptuous of their audience and not a thing they say will be of interest to anyone in twenty years. for a different example check out the commentary writings of william f buckley, or George orwel, they have strong opinions left and right, but they are not just puffed up ideologues, and they do not lie to their audience. the works of both of these men are still interesting to read today; they practiced a civility in their discourse as well as wit and style. anyone who thinks that it is the left or the right that holds a monopoly on bad behavior is simply not seeing with clear eyes.
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