I agree with Bret Stephens — politically incorrect though it may be, the simplest explanation for the past two and a half years is that the president just isn’t that smart:
Much is made of the president’s rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama’s big speeches that didn’t amount to cliché? As for the small speeches, such as the one we were kept waiting 50 minutes for yesterday, we get Triple-A bromides about America remaining a “Triple-A country.” Which, when it comes to long-term sovereign debt, is precisely what we no longer are under Mr. Obama.
Then there is Mr. Obama as political tactician. He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved. He is overbearing when he ought to be absent. At the height of the financial panic of 1907, Teddy Roosevelt, who had done much to bring the panic about by inveighing against big business, at least had the good sense to stick to his bear hunt and let J.P. Morgan sort things out. Not so this president, who puts a new twist on an old put-down: Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of financial capital.
Then there’s his habit of never trimming his sails, much less tacking to the prevailing wind. When Bill Clinton got hammered on health care, he reverted to centrist course and passed welfare reform. When it looked like the Iraq war was going to be lost, George Bush fired Don Rumsfeld and ordered the surge.
Mr. Obama, by contrast, appears to consider himself immune from error. Perhaps this explains why he has now doubled down on Heckuva Job Geithner. It also explains his insulting and politically inept habit of suggesting—whether the issue is health care, or Arab-Israeli peace, or change we can believe in at some point in God’s good time—that the fault always lies in the failure of his audiences to listen attentively. It doesn’t. In politics, a failure of communication is always the fault of the communicator.
In some ways, Forrest Gump was smarter. At least he was aware of his intellectual limitations. I was never as impressed with the president’s intelligence as some have demanded that I be. And now, finally a lot of others are starting to catch on, as the scales fall from their mesmerized eyes. The delicious thing is that the Democrats and their media enablers have thoroughly screwed themselves for next year. He’s a loser, but they can’t primary him because it would be party fratricide, and the blacks, in a best-case scenario, would stay home on election day.
[Update a while later]
Gee, ya think? It turns out that Barack Obama wasn’t Abe Lincoln, after all.
[Update a few minutes later]
The chickens are coming home to roost.
You just realized this? Again this is why I voted for Senator McCain. I wonder how many Tea Party members posting here are able to make the same claim.
You just realized this?
What part of “I was never as impressed with the president’s intelligence as some have demanded that I be” are you having trouble understanding?
Matula brings us another dispatch from Bizzaro-world where Rand “just realized this” and “Tea Party members posting here” voted for Obama. Again, we can only speculate what color the sky is in his dimension.
I voted for Sarah Palin. McCain was just her running mate.
Again, we can only speculate what color the sky is in his dimension.
I think it would take an unhealthy dose of lysergic acid diethylamide to ascertain that. Probably to elevate his musings above the “dull” category too.
Rand,
So I take it you voted against Mr. Obama in the last election? Or did you just complain about him on your blog?
So I take it you voted against Mr. Obama in the last election?
That is the nuttiest question I’ve been asked in a long time. Were you not reading my blog during the last election?
And Tom, how does voting against Obama preclude Rand from critiquing him further?
Stephens’ piece is backed by a bunch of stories in the last few days where lefties are calling him “aloof” and “cold” and “ineffective.” Their liberal political correctness gene would never allow them to say that a black man is less that a stellar intellect, but that just goes to prove that racism in the 21st century is the child of liberalism. Obama’s liabilities have always been obvious to all with eyes to see, but denied by people of the left who have never believed in their heart of hearts that black men were fully human, thus the need that they be lifted up by their superiors, rather than be judged by the same standards that are used to judge everybody else.
But how in the world did Mrs. Palin, who is supposed to be so thick, manage to figure all this out so far ahead of the New York Times and all the economists it talked to?”
She has repeatedly been right well ahead of the curve. Repeatedly. Life IS just a box of chocolates.
Good article: Chickens Coming Home to Roost:
Now the chickens have come home to roost – for all Americans in general and for the adherents of the Democratic Party in particular. As President, Barack Obama has been incompetent. He has led domestically, as he has led in international affairs, “from behind.” He left the stimulus bill to Congress, Obamacare to Congress, and Dodd-Frank to Congress. Instead of taking the lead himself. He rolled out his teleprompter and gave speech after speech – until the very mention of his name caused television viewers to reach for the remote. The results were predictable, and I have no doubt that someone in the White House warned him of the dangers. But he did not listen. He knew better. Reading speeches written by other people had gotten him this far. It would suffice. He evidently still thinks that speechifying will do the job.
Never does it seem to have crossed Barack Obama’s mind that, if Congress were allowed to write major bills, every Senator and every Congressman who had any swat would write into it a special deal for his supporters. Never did it dawn on him that the President – and no one but the President – represents the national interest. The results were utterly predictable – bills running thousands of pages, which no one had read or could comprehend, and debts extending from here to the moon.
Obama is, as was obvious from his record, a man of legislative temperament – eager to dodge responsibility, always happy to run his mouth in front of a microphone, good at posturing, incapable of rising to the occasion, forever intent on blaming someone else. Consider what he did this year. Along the way, someone persuaded him that he would eventually have to deal with the deficit. To that end, he appointed a commission to make recommendations and stacked it with the usual suspects. The commission then issued its recommendations; he spoke a few words of praise; and then he ignored what they had said and proposed a budget that did absolutely nothing to remedy what was an obvious problem. The budget he proposed was so ridiculous that it was voted down in the Senate 97-0. Not one member of the President’s own party was willing to sign on.
Obama seems to believe that giving a speech is the same thing as actually taking an action.
I’m with Larry J, I voted for that team, not McCain. And in all truthfulness, I voted AGAINST BHO, not for McCain.
He’s ‘old’, I thought maybe the stress would get to him and she’d step up!. I can dream, can’t I?
And will someone PLEASE tell me why Mitt Romney is even a consideration now? He’d go more left than Bush went to save us, and do we really need that right now?
We may now be seeing the lowest point in the Obama presidency.
Such a lack of confidence… I can easily imagine Obama going much lower.
I can easily imagine Obama going much lower.
He’s already about as low as you can get. Oh, you’re talking about his poll numbers. I was talking about him as a person.
He may be the first in history to see negative territory. As for a person, he takes his wife on expensive trips and sends his kids to good schools. How could we complain about that? He’s not the first to fiddle during a firestorm. When enough idiots vote you, you’ve earned the right to drive the nation into the ground. That’s our system.
M Puckett,
I think you mean not voting in the election. And the answer is simple, if you don’t vote, then don’t complain about the results. I did vote, for Senator McCain, so I at least did something to stop President Obama from winning.
Likewise.
Rand, even goldfish think Matula has a short attention span.
“It’s his turn.”
Oh, and you misspelled the guy’s last name. It’s Romneycare.
If I had my way that’s how it would be spelled on every ballot it appears on.
And will someone PLEASE tell me why Mitt Romney is even a consideration now?
Because he can beat Obama. Frankly, that’s the only damn thing I care about…who has the best chance to beat Obama. That’s what I’ll be voting on in the Republican primary in my state, and I’m as close to being a stone-age conservative as you’ll find.
At the risk of being even more wrong than last time (in 2008 I simply refused to believe that the American voters would be stupid enough to elect Obama….shows you how dumb I was!), I will double down….Obama will lose, and he will lose big. Moreover, he will lose big NO MATTER WHO the GOP nominates. As someone (I believe on this blog) said, I would vote for a syphilitic camel over Obama at this point. Granted, the GOP may very well put that proposition to the test next November, but I believe that the essential truth of the statement will be borne out.
Romney is valuable as a diversion. ‘His turn; is a ridiculous concept. We might as well run McCain again. We need somebody that isn’t just going to go through the motions. We need actual change. None of the old boys represent that.
The only primary challengers to consider are those the media dismiss.
McGehee Says:
“
Likewise.”
Everyone says this, which is why it is so funny that people keep trying to portray her selection as the one factor that doomed McCain.
“Oh, and you misspelled the guy’s last name. It’s Romneycare.”
And misspelled his first name, Mittens
Anyone who, at this late stage of the game, still believes the State is our best friend, and the more money and power we give it the better off everyone will be, is certainly not bright.
wodun, are you sitting out if Romney wins the nomination? How about you, Ken?
I didn’t think so.
I won’t sit out, but I am not voting for Mitt Romneycare.
No more lesser of two evils, I’d rather vote my principals and go down swinging than vote in another big government statist.
You’re nuts. Romneycare wasn’t even able to beat John McCain.
And that was without Palin on McCain’s team.
Romney is the MSM trying to pick Obama’s opposition, just like they picked McCain. The problem is this time, everybody knows who Obama is. In 2008, the MSM never investigated Obama and tackled his ideas. They gave him a pass. They still don’t really care what he does, but it’s hard to hide failure on this scale. So I agree with Fibonacci, I think the GOP can put anybody up against Obama and squeak out a win.
The MSM has their heads so far up Obama’s butt that if Obama farted, he’d blow out all of their eardrums.
Unfair: I can recall several memorable phrases from President Downgrade’s speeches:
“bitter clingers”
“typical white person”
“all 57 states”
I can’t imagine any other president in history coming up with any of those.
How about you, Ken?
The reason we are here is that smart people think it’s more important to win than to hold principles. It’s not. By holding to principles, which sometimes allows the other side to win, holds them responsible which has a worth.
A whole new generation of young people are going to remember the Obama admin. the way old farts like me remember Carter.
To be more direct. I will not be voting for Mittens.
Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
The only primary challengers to consider are those the media dismiss.
That doesn’t narrow the field by much – the MSM pretty much dismisses any Republican who isn’t a RINO. I’d like to see Herman Cain win it, and then see him appoint Ron Paul as Secretary of the Treasury.
Sure it does Ed. They like Mitt and most of the others. Ask yourself who they hate and you’ve got the right candidate.
I mean, NOW just defended Bachmann! You know, the better female conservative in their view.
gedaliya Says:
August 9th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
“wodun, are you sitting out if Romney wins the nomination? How about you, Ken?
I didn’t think so.”
I could stay home and drink until I pass out but I vote from home so…
In some ways I like Romney. I would have preferred him to McCain last time around. A Romney candidate will play right into Obama’s class warfare and the Democrat’s stereotype of Republicans.
He would do better than Obama but he is not my preferred candidate.
Ron Paul or Gary Johnson would be my first choice.
Palin or Bachman would be ok.
I’m not sure if its fixable at this point.
Do I want an honorable liberty loving candidate to preside over the collapse? They will get blamed. How will this effect what comes after?
Do I want an honorable liberty loving candidate to preside over the collapse?
Collapse? What is going to collapse?
Paul, Johnson, Bachman and Palin have 0% chance of beating Barak Obama, so whatever this “collapse” thing is, they won’t get blamed.
You don’t actually believe that, do you?
Yes, I believe it. The Republican base does not have enough votes in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa or North Carolina to overcome a $1 billion Obama GOTV ground operation in those states. As such, we will need a majority of “independents” in those states to beat Obama.
None of the candidates I mentioned is capable of getting a majority of the “independent” votes in those states, IMHO.
I hope you’re wrong, ’cause the base is not going to vote for Mittens, especially if there’s a Tea Party-backed third candidate, so we’ll wind up with four more years of Dear Leader anyway.
Then again, if Americans are addled enough to vote for him again, we deserve what we get.
Notice that on the WSJ site, there are 2,236 comments last time I looked. That’s more comments than I’ve ever seen attached to any article. Why?
I have a hypothesis why so much activity. This question skates perilously close to an unspeakable subject: Not smart while black. If this possibility is acknowledged in the public conversation, then the next thing will be to look at Affirmative Action and other such legal favoritism as the attempt to pretend that this possibility did not exist. We may now be able to confront the cost of this pretense.
I’m thinking this question may have sounded the death knell for this great pretense and once more competence may need to be demonstrated. If this be the case, it will be the best thing to have happened for all of us – blacks included.
So, in a rather upside down fashion which many didn’t expect, Obama will be the end of Affirmative Action. If not, you can be sure we live in a pure dictatorship. I’m hopeful since seeing the Wisconsin recall victory favor sanity. I think Wisconsin is the first of many such painful corrections of irrational public policy and law.
Obama will be the end of Affirmative Action
The “equality of outcomes” crowd goes back a long way, at least to Rousseau…and I’m sure even his ideas weren’t original. So don’t kid yourself about affirmative action ever going away.
JP,
And don’t forget Donald Trump who is threatening to run third party if the Republican winner is not to his liking:-)
If it came down to Trump, Mittens and Dear Leader, I’d vote for The Donald in a heartbeat.
None of the candidates I mentioned is capable of getting a majority of the “independent” votes in those states
I’m really not smart enough to say… independent does seem to be another name for people Leno would choose for his Jaywalking segments. However, anti-Midas BO has hardly left a person untouched. Even with a billion dollars, how could he overcome that. He lost his halo. What possible campaign would work? Even his base is talking about finding a primary challenger.
As much as a republican couldn’t win last time, only massive fraud would allow BO to win this time. I do worry about fraud. I do not expect that billion to be spent on tv commercials.
Sometime around labor day, Sarah will announce. The whole picture will change (forgive me, I’m seeing the art behind Pacino in the final scene of Devil’s Advocate here… but in a good way!)
Nobody besides Sarah has the balls to clean house, something our government at all levels desperately needs (should take a generation or two of disinfectant but the idiocy of the Obama crowd has given us a good reference to the dirt involved.)
We need somebody that will kick butt and not compromise. Only Sarah fits that bill and a lot of the American people including ‘independents’ have begun to awaken to that fact. A real campaign with Sarah in charge will overcome the smears she was unable to defend herself from last time out.
Ken,
Sarah Palin seems to get along with Donald Trump, perhaps she will be his running mate 🙂
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/05/donald-trump-and-sarah-palin-eat-pizza-in-new-york-city-.html
A Trump/Palin party ticket would be fun to watch.
Perry/Palin or Palin/Perry for President. Never underestimate alliteration.
Thomas, Thomas, Thomas… [you can see my head shaking right?]
Sarah is agreeable. Don’t confuse that with being in agreement. I think Trump is a joke, but that doesn’t mean he’s not important.
If she sat in Rev. Wrights pew once I would not make a judgement from that. The media would have you believe that sitting there for twenty years is less important.
This is the one defining qualities of the left. A complete lack of judgement based on a lack of ability to perceive quantitatively.
For a leftard, one and a trillion are the same number.
I trust my judgement before Sarah Palins. But since nobody is going to make me president I have to look at the field. I think she appears too defensive, but then they’ve been hosing her down with mud just to see if something would stick for so long it’s kind of understandable.
Her wrongs would be better than Obama rights. I saw a republican debate the other day. None of them even comes close to being as qualified as Sarah. I’d still pick any one of them before Obama.