As revealed by Bob Woodward’s book.
Woodward also reveals the degree to which the White House confounded its allies. (Rep.Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was nonplussed when he discovered that the “administration didn’t seem to have a strategy. It was unbelievable. There didn’t seem to be any core principles.”) This is a man who creates chaos by creating a leadership vacuum.
Third, the degree to which Obama frustrated his main negotiating partner, Boehner, is rather breath-taking. One minute he dangles Medicare reform (including increasing the retirement age) and assures Boehner that he understands tax reform for structural entitlement reforms are the heart of the deal ( “I got it. I hear it.”) The next he is striding into the press room to excoriate the Republicans. (Woodward notes that for all his purported public speaking prowess he spewed a great deal of double-talk. On the July 11 press conference, Woodward writes, “It was classic Obama. You had to listen very carefully and read the transcript several times to spot the inconsistencies.” )
Even Negotiations 101 were beyond Obama’s comprehension. Boehner was flabbergasted Obama insisted on daily meetings, “All we were going to do was nick everybody and irritate everyone and not accomplish anything.”
And Bob Woodward is no conservative.
O knows what he’s doing. It’s what he’s learned from Alinsky:
Rule 4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”
Rule 5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”
O’s behavior is only a puzzlement to those who still project onto him their normative American values and think that O has the same shared history and culture as they do and therefore shares a desire for the same outcome as they do. He doesn’t. (I would put “doesn’t” in bold caps italicized and underlined with asterisks next to it, but I know how Rand feels about that.)
A flaming liberal blocked me on Facebook a couple of days ago because I ridiculed him. Tactic works great!
read the transcript several times to spot the inconsistencies
This is the mark of a great demagogue.
But just remember:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/150936/
Negotiations? Gods and Despots do not negotiate, they dictate.
Oh, yeah!?! Well, Romney lied!! His whole campaign is fact-free, and … Where am I? Man, I just had the weirdest dream that I was an idiot named Jim.