Thoughts on the collapse of the Obama cult.
[Update a few minutes later]
The politics of “liberals” bashing Obama:
As I can fathom this August of discontent, it runs something like this: at best Barack Obama is too aloof, professorial and unable temperamentally or unwilling politically to mix it up with Republicans. Therefore he has compromised far too much on various budget deals, which in part explains his sagging ratings and the general laments in the American and European press that Obama lacks leadership qualities. The nearly $5 trillion in new debt since 2009 is a needed, if too timid, “stimulus”; and if it is seen by some as too excessive, it can be easily remedied by new taxes on the wealthy — something Obama talks about a lot but does little to enact, this buskin Theramenes who bends with the wind.
At worst, there is a sort of victimization that might be described as, “Obama mesmerized us and therefore we did not quite appreciate how inexperienced and unaccomplished he was until now when we sobered up — and when it is too late.”
…A number of us throughout 2008 and later were criticized for raising just these issues, both about Obama’s lack of experience and his Hamlet-like propensity of hesitation and his academic disengagement. But why this sudden about-face from former disciples?
They’re finally figuring out who the rubes were.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Not that it’s a shock that the president would lie, but it turns out that Joe Wilson was right:
There are between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens in the United States. The fact that immigration status will not be checked at these health centers means illegal aliens will be treated, at American taxpayer expense, and in contradiction to what President Obama said. He lied in the service of passing a bill that a majority opposed and which is helping sink the US economy.
Hey, the ends justify the means.
[Update mid morning]
The growing bipartisan consensus on Obama:
My favorite panegyric to Obama comes from the Times’s columnist David Brooks, recalling his first interview with then Senator Obama. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging,” says Brooks, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense that he knew both better than me.” Brooks went on to make this invaluable observation, “I remember distinctly an image — we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I’m thinking, (a) he’s going to be president and (b) he’ll be a very good president.” What would this precious Washington insider have reported if Senator Obama had been wearing pantyhose?
There are several things that the president could do to save both the country and his presidency. In no particular order, they would be: 1) Agree that the health-care bill is both unconstitutional and a mistake, and offer to sign a repeal; 2) Do the same for Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley; 3) Come up with a serious proposal to reform Medicare and Social Security to put it on a sound footing; 4) Come up with a serious proposal to reform the tax code, eliminating subsidies, the AMT and flattening the rate structure; 5) Sign an executive order ending all federal restrictions on the exploration and production of energy — in the Gulf, in Alaska and in the Mountain West; 6) Rein in the Environmental Protection Agency on carbon emissions; 7) Conduct a serious review of federal regulations in general, using Iain Murray’s book
He could do those things, but he can’t, because he is too bound to his ideology. And so the country will continue to suffer another year and a half of his lack of leadership, and he will go down in history as a presidential failure on a monumental scale.
There was that PBS David McCullough narrated series on the the American Presidents, where Truman related his getting the measure of Stalin in their first meeting, remarking that the Soviet dictator was “just like (Kansas City political boss) Tom Pendergast”, with McCullough intoning “but Stalin was no Tom Perdergast”, telling the audience that Truman was about to get p0wned.
Much has been made of Mr. Obama being in the tradition of Saul Alinksy as a grass-roots Socialist, community organizer, and general political gadfly. But the tactics that may be effective in dealing, say, with a white-ethnic slumlord who is exploiting his black tenants by not keeping his building up to code seem to be completely ineffective in the big leagues. That slumlord probably goes back to his religious congregation where the leader gives him an earful about Social Justice whereas someone like Mr. Ahmadinejad has his religious leader telling him he is not being ruthless enough.
In doing the Alinsky thang on the Tea Party people, they are probably going, “So-shul juhs-tiss? Wasthat?”
But it seems that Mr. Obama has only that one play in his playbook and keeps executing it over and over again to less and less effect. For his own sake, and for the sake of getting the country through until January 2013, I hope that he learns some new tactics.
Dream on. He’s a one-trick pony.
Are you talking about Alinsky not understanding “social justice?” If so, yes indeedie.
Is it just me, or do these fraying leftists seem like they really need someone (or something) to worship?
Ann Coulter once joked about invading Muslim countries and converting them to Christianity. It sure seems like someone should do that to the salons of the left, if for no other reason than to provide them something other than a second-rate politician to worship… I’m embarrassed for them.
this is the most racist thing on the internet today
What, your comment is racist? If you say so. The rest of us are having a discussion.
It is not that people don’t understand Obama’s policies, it is that they disagree with them.
“In doing the Alinsky thang on the Tea Party people, they are probably going, “So-shul juhs-tiss? Wasthat?””
Let us not forget the Tea Party is better educated than the average American, at least according to those silly polls. They know what So-shul juhs-tiss is and they don’t care for the philosophy that is anything but justice.
mmm mmm mmm
John Wolfe: you must have just started paying attention. Criticism of Obama, in any form, is inherently racist. Especially when Joe Wilson is involved.
Not sure that I know what social justice is. Is that where everyone gets to have the same stuff regardless of how much money they have?
Not sure that I know what social justice is. Is that where everyone gets to have the same stuff regardless of how much money they have?
No, no, no. There must be some added dispensation for those who distribute. One must compensate those who take on the burden of deciding from whom to take and to whom to give. And anyway, if you pay them the same as all the rest, won’t they be vulnerable to bribery? After all, who can resist the evil seduction of money?
Social justice is when everybody unfriends a cyberbully on Facebook.
Roga, don’t forget that the distributors will be SMART PEOPLE, and better than just about everybody else. So the extra “compensation” is obviously correct and right, especially since everyone they know believes it too.
Social Justice is when Jesus laid hands upon a rich persons coin purse and then through the holy spirit said, “Bring unto my people the trappings of health care eternal, a right a mule, the right to a hut, the right to a job, and the right to a union. For these things you will certainly ensure your salvation in kind. And remember to vote for me….Jesus…’27 A.D.”
Kings may be eighteenth century but Toryism isn’t. Today’s”liberals” are the New Tories. If you read the Tory criticisms of people like Paine and Sam Adams, they often sound eerily like today’s State-humping pseudo-liberals. (Sam Adams was even criticized for spreading “hate.”) The New Tories have simply replaced the Divine Right of Kings with the Divine Right of the Majority. And if the majority doesn’t fall in line, the Divine Right of Obama. (Witness all the authoritarian “liberal” wet dreams of “Il Dufe” ignoring that stupid ol’ Constitution and just seizing more power.)
Wodun, that was fantastic. I was thinking it should get massive play Oct 2012, until I realized it would motivate the koolaid drinkers out to vote. The joke would be lost on them. It’s just too subtle, ya know man.
I now have my tune for the day.
I’m guessing there won’t be any Greek columns at his next nomination acceptance speech.
Maybe a Slurpee machine, or something.
Great, wodun. Thanks much.