Thoughts from Victor Davis Hanson, on just how big Barack Obama has blown it:
What is strange about all this is how the clueless behavior only intensifies. We expect each day another crazy outburst from another fringe appointee, another “battle” to push through something the public does not want — all overseen by the “healer” of “no more red state/blue state” fame.
In short, in just 18 months, Obama has ended talk of permanent Democratic majorities and may well do to the Democratic party what Carter did in 1980 and Clinton in 1994, all while taking a once-obsequious press down with him. With idols like Obama, Mort Zuckerman, Chris Matthews, and Evan Thomas hardly need enemies.
I never had much hope for him, but I do have to admit that it’s quite impressive, and he’s done the Republic a great favor by putting a blast furnace under the kettle so that the frog noticed in time.
don’t count your chickens yet…
Indeed, Ryan. There is some speculation in the pro-freedom blogosphere that at crunch time, the Thugocracy will unleash a wave of voter fraud and intimidation to a level the non-Chicago part of the US has never seen, ever.
Is the scenario a republican wins in 2010 leading to complacency with a huge turnout of thugs in 2012 leading to a second term?
Obama’s dismal job as the Chief Executive just confirms the reason why he was the first sitting senator to get elected president since 1960. Executive experience counts. Obama was plainly unqualified as any rational observer could’ve seen.* If anything, it should be a long, long time before another candiate without executive experience is taken seriously.
*McCain’s executive experience was really thin, too, dating back to his time in the Navy. Biden had no executive experience and Sarah Palin only had a couple years as a governor. We voters had some really weak choices in 2008. Unfortunately, the poorest choice won.
“If anything, it should be a long, long time before another candiate without executive experience is taken seriously.”
And hopefully a long, long time before another Red Diaper baby who has never left the collectivist nest is taken seriously.
The possibility of fraud is one thing that worries me, but I’m also concerned about the fickleness of the people living in America (not all of whom deserve the title of “American”).
People were so angry at Clinton in 1994 that they dumped the Democrat Congress of 40 years. Four years later, they were saying, “Ha, ha, ha, Clinton got laid and you didn’t. So take that, you inferior gun owners.” We came within a hair’s breadth of gun owners, primarily patriotic veterans of the military, having their firearms seized and their homes and families Wacoed, because Hollywood had convinced the people in America that Clinton’s draft dodging and his vile attacks on the 2nd Amendment made him cool (along with every other antigun draft dodger, like Harry Reid).
What would have been the best years of my life were squandered, because the people living in America told me I wasn’t welcome, because I wasn’t cool enough to dodge the draft, burn the flag, or rat out gun owners to the ATF. As a result, I will almost certainly be the last of my line.
Ken,
Are you seriously telling us that Bill Clinton ruined your love life? Otherwise I don’t get your diatribe. The draft-dodging Sixties were a long time ago; most of the country is quite welcoming to people who were in the military, own guns, are patriotic, etc. Just don’t live in places like San Francisco.
We need to consider how McCain became the nominee? It would seem to indicate something terribly wrong with the republican party (beyond the obvious.) The media brags about how they can swing an election. It seems they set things up so, even if they lost, they got the alternate they wanted.
Sarah was an amazing development. She wasn’t ready, but she did well considering the massive attack campaign against her. If she continues to support candidates as she has, that could be enough.
I’d just like to see the really bad choices eliminated. Obama was a shocking development. The adults definitely left the room.
Andrea Harris:
I think I get what Ken was driving at. During the Clinton impeachment, I knew a guy who said, “I’m not going to vote for a party that’s against oral sex.”
He really believed that it was the “cool” Clinton vs. Republican prudes.
I’ve seen the claim that Democrat crossover votes in Michigan gave the primary to McCain instead of to Romney … and the Republican party nomination was a consequence of that. Can anyone confirm?
If the Republicans really want to win — and want to come up with good candidates — they ought to reform the primaries and caucuses. As things stand, the winner-take-all contests can sandbag candidates that can win in the general election, and cross-party voters can distort things too easily. I wish some state’s politicians had the nerve to try an innovation like approval balloting.
rickl: as a former Democrat and someone who voted for Clinton, I can tell you that I and all my friends were really irritated and squicked out at the way he couldn’t seem to keep his pants zipped, and dismayed at the way his sex antics had derailed the country from just about everything important. It was a big factor in turning me, at least, off of the Democrats.
Another factor that helped knock the rest of those scales from my eyes was the way so many people reacted the way that guy you knew reacted: as if rutting like a pig was just the kewlest thing for a world leader to do ever. I remember reading articles by so-called feminists on how they’d do it too, because Clinton = Rock Star! Seeing supposedly staunch fighters for the rights of women turn into giggling groupies for this randy boy-man was a real eye-opener, to say the least. And there was of course the way everyone treated the women who had been on the receiving end of his grabby paws and did not like it. They got treated the way I knew well: like uptight prudes. How dare they not be grateful Bill Clinton deigned to grope their breasts! So much for solidarity. By the next election I had signed up as a Republican and voted for George W. Bush.
Yes Andrea, I totally agree. I have a friend that I can’t bring up Bill Clinton’s name around anymore because in his eyes he was the bees knees and did no wrong. The last time I said something about Bill he was like, “Well for me everything Bill did was good so no point to say otherwise.”
We were watching a documentary about the rise of terrorism and the events that lead to 9/11. The documentary didn’t hold back about Bill’s lack luster response to the Taliban in Afghanistan and how he completely dropped the ball on nabbing Osama bin Laden. The documentary said the reason for this was because of the public’s impression that the Kosovo campaign was only be waged to serve as a distraction from Bill’s sex scandal. So, Bill became shy about escalating anything beyond a few targeted attacks in Afghanistan in that it would otherwise be viewed as more of the same type of distraction from his escapades. The whole time I could hear him hemming and hawing until he blurted, “That whore Linda Tripp should have just kept her goddamn mouth shut.” I just couldn’t believe it. He thought it all would have just been peachy if the truth had just stayed secret. I had to point out that the person in the highest office of the USA shouldn’t be engaging in extra marital affairs for any reason known or otherwise unknown. I said something like, “The possibility of graft, cohersion, and blackmail becomes a near certainty when someone engages in any type of activity that could be used against them. If Bill was so smart he should have known better and restrained himself in order to insure that his ability to function as a world leader wasn’t compromised. In fact, we can only be thankful that it actually came to light instead of nefarious individuals keeping it shut and extorting the office of the Presidency to get god knows what.” For a moment there I could see him stare off as he assimilated the notion that this act served as example that there was a fundamental flaw to Bill Clinton’s character. Then, the postmodernist progressive mind trick that was evidently taught to him while he was getting his education degree must have kicked in. He just gave a little shoulder shrug and said, “Naw, it was just a blow job, it was the Republican pruds that turned it into something more than it really was and Linda knew they would.” I just face palmed and said, “okay”, and went back to watching the show. There’s a point where there is just no arguing with the ends justify the means crowd.
Josh Reiter: I don’t know why 9/11 would even be a problem for your friend. Doesn’t every good Democrat support blowing up little Eichmanns?
Andrea Harris: I can see why you would dislike Clinton’s sexual actions. Frankly, though, I don’t care about those any more than the Democrats do. To me, it’s like condemning Josef Stalin for quitting seminary school, or Hitler for having sex outside of marriage.
The real bottom line is that, after losing 80,000 men to Communists, the first thing the “American” people did was to ELECT A COMMUNIST TO BE PRESIDENT. (Twice, and another Communist in 2008, after almost electing Communists in 2000 and 2004).
That was the real evil there. As far as Lewinsky went, I didn’t hate Clinton for cheating on Hillary. I hated him for having Hillary in the first place. Or anyone else, either. You dodge the draft, you lose the sex.
Unfortunately, any time the GOP tries to make the case for family values, they make such a beta male argument that it makes all the rest of us Republicans seem like wimps as well. They always talk about “civilizing influence” and “permanence,” when what they should be saying is:
WE SERVED OUR COUNTRY, YOU DIDN’T. SO STAY THE #$*% AWAY FROM OUR WOMEN, OR GET HURT.
If some hero coming home from Iraq has 30 girlfriends, will I object? You’re damned right I will, because he doesn’t have 40. If some draft-dodging coward like Clinton or HARRY REID WHO IS ALSO A DRAFT DODGER (sorry, I’m fishing for Google hits there, bear with me) wants to get happily and monogamously married, I also object, because they haven’t earned it.
Ken, if the Left can accuse the Right of being crypto-racists (that is, they’ve learned to hide their true ugly feelings from scrutiy), then turn-about is fair play, no?
Crypto-socialists. Mystery solved.