I understand that quick quips about weird stories — like the President’s press conference pullback — are why people come to VodkaPundit. And yet, two days of silence. That’s not entirely true. On the Tony Katz Radio Spectacular on Friday afternoon, I did manage to quip that apparently Obama feels that “the business of the nation can wait, but Michelle can’t,” or words to that effect.
But here on the blog? Silence. And this doesn’t happen often, but I was just too taken aback to write anything worthwhile. Here with the explanation is Roger L. Simon:
But there is a bigger reason not to gloat. We are stuck with this odd duck for another two years at minimum and now everyone, the entire world really, knows what he is like. They also know, if they have been paying the slightest attention, the etiology of his behavior: the man never had to face serious adversity until he was elected POTUS. And now he can’t deal with it. He’s the very model of Harry Truman’s famous advice about getting out of the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat. Obama was out of the White House briefing room the second he realized he was being outclassed by Clinton. And, boy, was he ever!
AdvertisementWe need a leader and don’t have one. This is extremely bad news for our country, especially now.
This is exactly right, and I want you to read it again — “the entire world, really.” There is no longer any denying the (wee tiny) measure of the man. That is, we can’t deny it any longer. But I submit to you the rest of the world has understood for quite some time.
Here’s just some evidence:
But wait, there’s more.
What Roger said. Jeebus, we’re in trouble.
I’d never really paid attention to Section 4 before. Kinda creepy in this light. The thing is–I’d take Biden over Obama at this point. And that’s a pretty sad state of affairs. Biden’s actually an upgrade….
As I said on Roger’s page, it’s true we don’t have a leader in the White House, but America does have leaders. An emergency will bring them forward, and Americans will follow them.
I know, I know — we’re virtually there, but I already see Obama conceding to concerned leaders both in and out of office.
Yes. But President Obama’s Commander-in-Chief. If he fails to lead at a crucial point, say in a face-off with the NorKs, we’re screwed.
I emailed Steve privately yesterday about this. Roger said it much better than I did, though. You can bet that everyone overseas is paying attention to what’s going on in DC. They’re very aware of the power vacuum that is developing. As tense as things have already been of late, it is absolutely certain that the pressure’s going to be ratcheted up big time very shortly. If Obama doesn’t step his game up enormously very quickly, we’re going to be faced with some scary crises.
I’m past snark. I’m in full-blown freak-out mode. I don’t know what to think anymore.
He won’t concede.
We had best prepare ourselves, personally/privately, dig a hole in your yard, whatever it takes.
There has to be a way to save ourselves. The dems will not allow this man to “merely” step down at this point. He will have a nervous breakdown (which will be described as something else), a brain tumor, no longer able to work/walk without his backbone.
Something … even a hugehugehuge crisis to keep him in office and safe from a vote.
Stupid, evil, and mad is no way to go through life.
Especially not for a head of state.
With Biden, two out of three ain’t bad. Biden appears not to be crazy, though some might argue that Biden never had enough of a mind to lose one.
Biden, My Time
Some fellers like to tip-toe through the tulips
Some fellers go on singin’ in the rain
Some fellers keep on paintin’ skies with rainbows
Some fellers go on singin’ down the lane
But I’m Biden, … my time
‘Cuz thats the kind of guy I’m
While other folks think I’m dizzy
I’ll keep busy Biden… my time
Next year, next year
Somethin’s bound to happen
This year, this year
I’ll just keep on nappin’
I’m Biden… my time
That’s the kind of guy I’m
There’s no regretin’ cuz from where I’m settin’ Biden’s… my time
Biden’s …my time
Thats the kind of guy I’m
Listen to the song
You were gonna think were wrong
But then, I was only Biden…my time
That’s the kinda guy I’m
You’re finding out too late
‘Bout the missing head of state
But I’m just layin’ low in wait
Biden…my time.
The problem with the 25th Amendment is that the President (Obama) can just turn around and declare in writing that he is fit. Assuming that Biden then decides to make a fight of it, it goes to Congress, and a 2/3 majority is needed in both houses to keep Obama from re-taking the Oval Office.
Given Obama’s galaxy-sized ego, there’s no way he’ll accept being declared unfit to be President.
Given the makeup of the Senate, even after the new Senators are seated, there’s even less chance that we can get 2/3 of them to remove Obama. Every single Democrat would dig in his/her heels on that one.
Sorry, Stephen, I seriously doubt it’d work.
Sorry, but which part of calling Section 4 “ill-conceived and hastily written in the aftermath of JFK’s assassination,” and that “invoking it now would be a case of jumping out of the frying pan and into the shark-infested molten lava without so much as your towel,” made you think I was endorsing the idea?
My goof, Stephen… put it down to inadequate caffeine this morning.
This works if Obama and Biden step down simultaneously say after Jan.. I’d like that better if Pence was speaker. Ya ya, I know Bob already told me I’m crazy.
I need a bumper sticker..
11-03-08 Told ya so
11-03-08 told ya so
You Betch!
there fixed it for you.
11-03-08 told ya so.
you Betcha!
there,fixed it for me!
A bumper sticker? I saw this comment the other day;
Nothing grows ’till Obama goes.
Oh my gosh!! Clueless Joe Biden as president?? I’d rather have Obama. For all his many weaknesses and character flaws at least Obama has the potential to get better. Biden is a moron who has been in Washington for 30 years and is already playing at the top of his game. He isn’t going to get any better than he already is, which is a scary thought.
No Obama can’t get better, he’s like the employee you hope is using drugs in that if he stops he might get better. Obama is not on drugs.
Problem is he’s off the drugs. Somebody get this man some smokes, STAT!
methinks you’ve been reading too much obiluv propaganda if you think he can get better – he is past his absolute best and he’s already started on the path to his nervous breakdown. He can’t take any pressure (the press is covering for him by claiming the presidency is too big for one man) and until this year, he’s never had to actually produce anything in his life, he’s always been given a free pass.
Those of us paying attention saw it two years ago and were called racists for pointing it out.
Biden may be an imbecile, but he’s actually had to do his own work over the years, and is a better choice. (though not by much.)
And y’all wanted to vote Democrat in ’08…
We Americans must never, ever, vote for that demonstrably empty vessel/container called “charisma”.
We’ve brought this on ourselves.
Indeed. Every time we’ve tried it, it’s failed… even with Republican candidates. Go look at Warren G. Harding and his term.
Actually Harding didn’t do badly at all. He signed peace treaties with our WWI enemies. He got the country out of the postwar depression by the clever scheme of doing nothing, which was the fastest way back to prosperity. He released political prisoners put in the slammer by the Wilson Administration, including Eugene Debs. His administration negotiated the Washington Treaties, which were the only really effective arms control treaties ever ratified. The reason for that was that the arms control treaty was accompanied by other treaties settling the political animosities giving rise to the incipient arms race, soemthing later arms control negotiators lacked the wit to understand. Charles Evans Hughes, Harding’s Sec State, was the one responsible for that. And Harding’s administration cut the peacetime Federal spending by 40% in a controlled manner, not just “across the board,” by using the newly established Bureau of the Budget. True, he had Teapot Dome, but Harding himself wasn’t corrupt and only one Cabinet officer was involved, who went to the slammer. How many Cabinet officers did Clinton have indicted? So what’s not to like about the Harding Administration? Harding mainly has a bad rep because of propaganda against him by the 1920s equivalents of Keith Olbermann.
Harding gave us Calvin Coolidge. I’ll count that as a win.
Re the Biden thing, I’m of the opinion that every President since Bush the Elder has picked a VP for the sole purpose of preventing assassination attempts. Not even crazy people want to see Foot-In-Mouth the Elder(Quayle), Foot-In-Mouth the Younger(Biden), the Vice-Presidential Action Ranger himself(Gore), or Darth Cheney in charge of anything more important than a banana stand.
I have suspected that’s why Clinton wasn’t thrown out of office by congress – we’d have had Gore.
Scary. So damned scary. To allow the conscience to digest it all is overwhelming.
The trouble is relying on leaders for everything. The US was designed to avoid that, have some leaders for some things but mostly allow people to be in charge of their own lives. Decentralization is wonderful (someone should write a book about it), but keep leaders for times when they’re needed (see Lincoln & FDR during wartime).
The US will survive the next two years of divided government with a weak president. We survived Jimmy Carter, we can survive Dear Liar. Problem being, I don’t see a Ronald Reagan on the horizon.
Put me in the pro President Biden camp. He’s a buffoon, but unlike The Whine, I do not think he is actively hostile to the American Idea.
I was saying back in 2008 that Obozo lacked any experience dealing with the word NO.
I said then that it would be his downfall as president.
I tried to tell co workers and others that someone who has never experienced setbacks in thier life will be illequipped to run any organization, let alone the presidency.
They told me I was racist.
So now we have Amateur Hour in the White House and Vindication for me as not being Racist.
I think I’d rather be a racist.
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Some of us Righties are in purple-turned-blue states.
Indeed. Sanity reigns in my household in Los Angeles, if not without. No doubt there are pockets even in the most irrational regions.
Might he self-medicate? JFK had Addison’s disease and “Dr. Feelgood” provided the amphetamine shots that got Kennedy through the day. This of course is orders of magnitude different/worse.
Alsadius, the only person on your list that is mentally suited for the job is Cheney, the moreso because he would have the support of the House in January and is savvy enough to negotiate a functioning majority in the Senate. He is the only adult on your list, but alas, he has critical heart disease and is blunt to the point of not only being un-electable, but un-appointable.
Welcome to my world. For nearly three years I have been witnessing the mass insanity of the Lame Scream Media (LSM). I knew when the media started trashing Billary, and differing to the Obamasiah, that the big fix was in. The deer in the headlights reaction by Obumer to a simple, unscripted, question from George Stephanopoulos about economics. The deluge of criticism George received for “Sand Bagging” the Anointed One, from the Heavenly Host (LSM) was immediate and unrestrained. Only the LSM has yet to see his empty suitedness. It’s Jimmy Carter’s second term without the character.
Great article! Thanks for expressing my reaction so well.
The president’s finally meeting with business leaders caused me to think that Obama might have an epiphany, and exchange his many ivory-tower-Utopian ‘advisors’ for people with practical knowledge. He wouldn’t be the first radical leftist to wake up…. Thoughts of replacing him are ignoring his still-high approval numbers; to remove him forcefully would cause a revolution. Hopefully, wise heads in Congress will help us through the next 2 years as we seek an adult to lead the country.
rbj says:
But isn’t wishing for the “next Reagan” just another manifestation of relying on leaders for everything?
I truly hope that deguello @11 was joking, even if it wasn’t funny.
“Yo,Clinton…you wanna stand here and tell the American people about my tax cut extension plan?…they ain’t listening to me no mo…and I gotta go party or Michelle is gonna bust my other lip…I’m outta here”
~Barokeydoke Hubris Obozo~
I wish we’d all lose the “Tax cut” Lie. It’s a “Tax rate extension” that was instituted after Bill Clinton’s tax raise was lowered by Bush.
Own the dialogue. Own the message.
More like a vote against a tax hike. I agree with you, let’s call it what it is.
“It’s a long way down.” May it be an express elevator and Obama exits willingly.
Will his ego allow him to walk away and not run for re-election? Will the Democrats and MSM double-down on their support for him? Will he show his birth certificate or choose not to be on the ballot in AZ?
I’m betting he’ll run, his supporters will double down, and he won’t release the birth certificate. I look forward to working for other candidates (challengers) in 2012. The debates are going be great!
Sure, there are leaders spread throughout America. Sadly the US Head of State is not one of them and that is the problem.
Foreign leaders who see a chance for, self aggrandizement, loot and territory; or see a chance to pump up national pride will wonder “who goes first” in some adventure of agression. They will play this game ONLY because they are no longer afraid of being whacked across the nose by the US.
Cloudcuckooland may be an escape for Obama, but not for the rest of us. A presidency founded upon a dream may satisfy Mr Obama but in fact Cloudcuckooland is founded upon deception and injustice.
Dubious oratory, slippery theorizing and bribery do not suggest a golden age. Human pride and human excess may be disguised in many ways but they will always encourage Nemesis to complete his task.
Obama is in a dream from which he will never wake. Nemesis (disaster) in domestic and foreign forms is raring to go.
The vexations that he has given the rest of us can’t be surmounted by treating them as inevitable and unchangeable and being resigned to those vexations isn’t good enough.
Which brings up the topic of the tea party movement.
On a side note regarding the link that mentioned CBS News’ bringing up McDonnell’s wiccan phase, I was wondering why they never reported on Acting Asst. Atty General Loretta King saying in front of a group of people when introducing Holder at the DOJ that it was great to have 2 black men running the country. Considering the Imus flap and what would have happened had a white person said the same thing, CBS definitely is in the Obama bag.
I’m beginning to think that the great Obama is showing signs of unraveling and, perhaps, Biden—as big a buffoon and loudmouth as he is—would really be a safer choice to move into the position of President if ol’ Bama cracked under the strain of the Presidency. However, I agree that even if it becomes more and more obvious that Obama is nuts, the Obama crowd will not put the safety and security of the nation first, but will hold onto power with a death grip that will be hard to break.
The President is indeed lacking in what is necessary to fulfill the duties of his office. His bowing to foreign leaders was foolish and demeaning. Bowing to another is a sign of subservience and is recognized as such throughout the world. What it meant to President Obama is known only by him, but whatever it means to him, it shows ignorance of proper behavior by a head of state. He is no longer and individual tourist. He is a head of state and he fails to recognize that.
Other comments such as his “57 states” remark betray culpable ignorance.
His conduct in dealing with domestic political adversaries betrays a hostile and demaning attitude toward them. Whatever his personal feelings may be, they should remain within the confines of his heart. He is President of all of the United States, not just those who agree with him.
Bite Me is a gaffe-ridden fool, no doubt. However, he does not despise the nation, therefore he is a much safer bet than Obama. In addition, Bite Me has a birth certificate and there is no question about his citizenship. Obama made his biggest mistake internationally when he ran around on his ‘apology tour’ and disrespected this nation. While Obama believed that he would ingratiate himself to other leaders, he actually denigrated himself. Those leaders have no respect for a man who curses his own nation. And that was only the beginning…
What should really scare the left wing moonbat Deem’o'crats most is that Bush is now more popular than the Hussein the Lying Mohamedan Bogus POTUS Obamination.
It is too easy for the lazy liberal intellectual to live in their intellectual fantasy land with their media enablers at their side. Obama will be running in 2012 and the media will be bucking him up.
My prediction: Obama will begin to campaign for re-election and then suddenly announce that due to health reasons, he will no longer seek it. Enter Hillary.
What do you mean we’re stuck with him. Is his behaviour merely a subject for psychological guessing, or politics? Or is there a question of the safety of the nation ?
WHAT is the job of Legislature and Judiciary in this nation with Separation of Powers, presumably established as such for precisely the situation today : overstepping of Constitutional Limits IN LAw from ANY of the office/ officers who do so, e.g. addition of Csars.
You’re letting the members of these two corps off the hook by blaming it all on Obama. AS the Germans and their apologists did, and still do, in blaming it all on Hitler. Even some Germans who had backed Hitler finally, in July 1944, decided enough was enough when they realised their war was lost.
IF the electorate in a nation of self-governing peoples is neither informed enough, astute enough, interested enough in the real world, easily gulled by interested others as e.g. establishment Media and ivory towered intellectuals, and elect persons who abrogate rights belonging to those peoples, what then ?
The Legislature and Judiciary are not established just to make and interpret Law, but also as barrier to encroachment on liberties that belong to the People. THAT’S WHY they’re called Representatives of the People not royal courtiers, however much they act as courtiers.
WHAT are these “representatives of the People” doing about the situation. Keeping their heads down, as usual when it comes to their civic and lawful RESPONSIBILITIES ? Or debating territorial and vanity political claims, or both or neither ?
Do they represent the peoples in this case, and if so all the psychology and interpretation of the character / past causes of
Obama’s behaviours, causes of which we can only guess, satisfies as letting off steam, but otherwise…
There remains the question, WHAT is / are the civic responsibilities of the members of Legislature and Judiciary when the nation is in danger from actions of its own officers/ managers ?
.
The sad part about all of this is what Americans will buy if it has charisma attached to it. The Democrat Party,the media and every human that can read and voted for Obama was played for a sucker and lives in a dream world. You cant make sugar out of crap. Anyone with the ability to do any research would have seen from the start Obama was not able to accomplish anything but was a very good orator.His past record indicated nothing but failure from the housing problems in Chicago which still exist to nothing on his background other than what he told you. America holds itself up as the most powerful nation on the planet and like everything else we keep telling ourselves how great we are and the world has passed us by. Everyone else is finally awakening to what is going on and we are still following the person behind the screen.
“But first I need to make a Bloody Mary the size an oil drum.”
SAVE SOME FOR THE REST OF US.
“But first I need to make a Bloody Mary the size an oil drum.”
If you’ve got an extra garden hose for a straw I’ll join you.
Maybe there is Hope after all.
Here in NC libertarian/conservative tongues are a’wagging at the sudden right turn of Gov Bev Purdue. Until the Nov elections she seemed a typical mush brained liberal big spender. Now that Republicans have taken over the legislature she suddenly trasmogrified into Sarah Palin! So maybe the takeover of the US House will do something similar to Obama. Just Hopin’.
As a resident of NC in I believe the only district to flip our congressman I put no more faith in death bed conversions in the Governor’s office than in Obama’s. First time both Houses have been in the hands of the Republicans in what 130 something years. It’s been over ten years since there wasn’t a Dem in the NC governors office. Don’t know bout you but I’ve had enough and I think so has most of North Carolina.
What, ‘odd duck??’ What about: ‘queer quacker??!”