text:
Obama's Path Not Taken
What Might Have Happened
Remember Obama's initial signature speech (e.g., "there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America"), and all the subsequent conciliatory talk of no blue state, no red state America? Obama won, of course, because he captivated the tiny, but influential left, registered vast numbers of new minority voters, raised a billion dollars, and reconstituted the liberal base. But the key margin that got him from 45 to 53% were the independents and old Reagan Democrats. And what put them on board was not just their weariness with George Bush, but rather their flawed hunch that Obama was another Clinton rather than Carter, a realist and centrist rather than an ossified ideologue, who could talk well, bring factions together, and govern from the center.
Had Obama just continued his charade of the campaign in which he reassured centrists on taxes, defense, energy, and spending, he would now be in a far stronger position with Congress, and not falling in the polls.
Imagine not that in his first six months Obama had acted like a conservative (he could not since he won on a liberal agenda), but simply as a more moderate Clinton-like Democrat, albeit with more humility and skepticism:
1) Financial. Barack Obama rallies the nation in January to hang tough and await the natural upswing after the bust that followed an unusual boom period of a near decade. There is no wasted stimulus. There is no $2 trillion deficit. Instead, he promises to hold spending to an annual rise of 2%, and reassures the country that balanced budgets are on the way. Markets steady on news that we won't be adding another $11 trillion to the debt, and Obama gets credit for the natural cyclical upsurge.
2) Taxes. Obama says he ran on the Clinton-era tax rates—and so must keep his word. Top rates go to 39.5%, but there is no further talk of a healthcare surcharge, much less a lifting of the FICA caps on income over $106,000. In other words, Obama is a classically liberal tax-raiser, who salivates over a 50% state and federal combined rate— but not one approaching 70% in some states. The public accepts that he is a Democrat of the tax and spend sort, but is assured he is no socialist.
3) Reconciliation. After the obligatory two to three weeks of throat-clearing and liberal trashing of his predecessor, Obama by March goes quiet on Bush. To the extent he mentions him, he praises the prior President for keeping us safe for seven years, but promises to do far better on the budget. He taps into independents' and moderates' dissatisfaction with the previous deficits, but wins points for magnanimity by not serially evoking "he did it". In other words, he is not a "they raised the bar on me" / "he did it, not me" / "his mess, not mine" whiner.
173 Comments, 173 Threads
1. frank
I've said the same thing-the center thought they were getting Clinton, and got LBJ/Carter instead!July 22, 2009 - 10:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
2. wildernesscalling
Victor, for someone with such great knowledge of history should know that it takes leaders with strong moral character to be successful and lead a successful country when in the position of interacting with the outside world (Which is the job of the president, not micromanaging internal business!) The Democrat party has produced most of the worst presidents in America's history (the good does not out weight the change they made)July 23, 2009 - 12:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
3. President Pelosi
Don't worry, Doc. "What Might Have Happened" will happen very soon. The country will strongly correct this president in the 2010 midterms. The arrogant Obama will immediately become "a realist and centrist… who (can) talk well, bring factions together, and govern from the center."
It is amazing to me that Obama would campaign so hard, then allow Nancy Pelosi to become President. Happily, the Pelosi Administration will also abruptly end in 2010.July 23, 2009 - 1:01 am Link to this Comment | Reply
4. jeff wyss
Hi prof. Hanson. Great sequence of what-ifs. Ciao from ItalyJuly 23, 2009 - 4:15 am Link to this Comment | Reply
5. J.J. Sefton
Spot on as usual. But in your last paragraph you say "…the country wanted to go a notch left, and ended up instead with a European socialist nursed in the politics of Chicago—and like Nixon, unless he changes, doomed to implode."
The big difference is that Nixon's demise did not bring about the destruction of America. Oboma's, if we don't stop him now, most certainly will.July 23, 2009 - 4:23 am Link to this Comment | Reply
6. Anatoly
When conservatives feel nostalgic for Clinton – it speaks volumes.
Just don't overdo it, please. Clinton wanted to do all the same, but his and Hilary's overreach fueled the Gingrich Republican takeover. Then, he became a smart pragmatist and adopted Dick Morris' triangulation. And together – Clinton and Congress – they actually accomplished something.
It's an interesting exercise in alternative history to ponder what would Clinton done if he had a luxury of Pelosi Congress and 60 senators. I still think he has more of a pragmatist inside of him than Obama, but its a matter of degree of difference, not principal.July 23, 2009 - 5:38 am Link to this Comment | Reply
7. Ron Kean
Joe Biden got it correct in the beginning when he said the President was clean and articulate. People just wanted to show that a black man could be president. I believe it was that superficial. It was all about skin color. The only things we knew for sure were his dubious associations. He dispatched them soon enough.
His earliest mentor, Frank M. Davis had a colleague named Richard Wright, also a writer who wrote a book called OUTSIDER. The protagonist in the book became involved with communists. The thing that struck me was the emphasis on organizing and being an organizer. That's a union term. It's the modus operandi of a communist cell. It's a defining term.
People elected him to show off a black man and he was trained in the manner of a communist. It was a perfect combination. I wish Bush was back.July 23, 2009 - 6:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply
8. David Thomson
When will Barack Obama resign? Are we ready for Joe Biden? I have serious doubts whether Obama will still be president at the end of the year. The job is way too much for him.July 23, 2009 - 6:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
9. Brad
But instead, we're stuck with the real Obama, President Jerk.July 23, 2009 - 7:04 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Obama vs. Nixon: I am not a rook!July 23, 2009 - 7:25 am Link to this Comment | Reply
11. Mike McDaniel
Ah my Dear Dr. Hanson, you're describing an adult, a rational human being. A liberal, to be sure, but a liberal who lives in the real world, and who actually listens to those wiser than himself, taking into account political calculation and reality.
What kind of man, in a press conference televised around the world, accuses doctors of routinely performing unnecessary surgery on children–children–to enrich themselves? Doesn't he realize that most Americans are pleased with the doctors and know they wouldn't do such a thing?
What kind of man tells the public that given a choice of two medications, one much cheaper than the other, both equally effective, they should choose the cheaper medication? Mirable dictu! Does he think everyone is stupid? Everyone save him?
What kind of man will deliver the caveat that he knows nothing about a local arrest, then pontificate endlessly, claiming the police acted stupidly? Didn't he listen to the man he claims to emulate, Abraham Lincoln, who said "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt?" Doesn't he understand that the President of the United States has responsibilities?
Doesn't he know that the POTUS can't just shoot off his mouth?
What kind of man blames everyone but himself for his actions? Doesn't he know people see through that sort of cheap rhetoric? Doesn't he know that's a character flaw?
What kind of man blatantly contradicts himself–commonly in the same sentence–without any sense of shame?
Obama believes his own press. He is above an office as insignificant as the presidency, beyond it, he transcends it. He's far more important and meaningful. One can only imagine his Oval Office rages when foreign leaders and impudent citizens fail to recognize or bow down to his greatness, his historic magnificence. He shares all of the worst qualities of history's worst tyrants; all that saves us is our democratic traditions. In an earlier era, in another country, conservatives would surely have been rounded up and deposited in work camps, at the least. Obama engages in cronyism and corruption on such a grand scale that acts and ideas that would have caused the ouster of any previous politician are unremarkable.
One wonders how long his Star Trek like press defense shields will last? A man with an ego like Obama's (does the word "ego" sufficient to describe it?) surely cannot fail to engage in the feminine delights offered to him on a daily basis. Remember a female journalist gladly stating that she'd be happy to provide sexual services to Bill Clinton for keeping abortion legal? How much more would female journalists do for The One?
Sadly, I find myself hoping that Obama does implode, and that implosion does not set of actual explosions in America and around the world in the process. We've really done a number on ourselves this time.July 23, 2009 - 7:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply
12. Cornhead
I wonder if anyone in the White House will read this and cause the President to change?
What is very disturbing is his entire "rush, rush" position on passing legislation. The President is acting like a high pressure salesman.July 23, 2009 - 8:38 am Link to this Comment | Reply
13. ~Paules
My intuition tells me that when Mr. Obama begins to fail, we're going to see a different side of him. We might very well get another Richard Nixon albeit one from the left. We are starting to get a glimpse that behind closed doors, the man is thuggish, quick to take personal offense, highly egocentric, and perhaps deep down inside actually quite insecure. I'm not trained in psychology and my observations are largely subjective at this point, but something is not right with the man. At the very least I'm seeing some sort of personality disorder . . . or maybe even something worse.July 23, 2009 - 8:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply
14. hobbit
Except that's not what happened, is it?
The question is why?
Not why did he do what he did, but why did you expect different?
History is as History does, all one must do is to review it…July 23, 2009 - 9:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply
15. hobbit
I should have added the above was directed at those truthfully asking themselves why O didn't do as VDH suggested above, not towards the author…July 23, 2009 - 9:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
16. J.E. Dyer
The question I have is what model there is for a Democrat to behave this way in the Oval Office. Certainly the fiscal sobriety cannot be associated with Democratic presidents. That doesn't mean it can be associated with Republican presidents either — it means there is no reason to suppose a Democrat would do any of the things in Point 1.
Of the things listed here, Democratic presidents have been more miss than hit on them throughout the last century. Of what Democratic president since Truman could we say his word was believable, on promises on the level of closing GTMO, or not increasing people's taxes? (Indeed, try finding one in the 20th century BEFORE Truman.)
The foreign policy rhetoric from LBJ and JFK was at least not pusillanimous, but JFK was an inveterate writer of bad checks on national security policy, and he and LBJ gave America Robert S. McNamara. It is not really very impressive to do nothing about the construction of the Berlin Wall, but at least go to West Berlin and proclaim yourself to be a Berliner (or, as JFK technically did, proclaim yourself to be a Berlin-style pastry).
Sure, we'd love to see at least some moderation from Obama. But the Democrats haven't run a presidential candidate who would fulfill all the points listed here for decades. The Republicans have only rarely come close, with Eisenhower and Reagan. They were substantially different presidents in a number of ways, but by my tally, they are the two who would come off the best in comparison to this list.July 23, 2009 - 9:59 am Link to this Comment | Reply
17. J.J. Sefton
I strongly doubt that King Hussein will abdicate. But can you imagine the uproar it would cause if it actually happened??!!!July 23, 2009 - 10:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply
18. zhombre
Character remains fate. Obama can only do what Obama does. A man who memorializes a father who left him at age three and whom he never knew is not engaged with reality.July 23, 2009 - 10:37 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Mike McDaniel:
"What kind of man, in a press conference televised around the world, accuses doctors of routinely performing unnecessary surgery on children…"
The left can debate all they want about how smart 0bama is, how experienced he is, etc. But I'm pretty sure he knows nothing about the decision making process involved in recommending surgery to a patient. If anyone thinks he won't politicise health care decisions — meaning, take that role away from physicians and give it to government suits — think again. This man's ego knows no bounds.July 23, 2009 - 11:02 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Implode? With Biden and Pelosi in line behind him?
We're in it deep now.July 23, 2009 - 11:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply
21. Jack Marcotte
Essential vdh.
#ll, Mike: Great Comments about BHO.
Never underestimate the power of affirmative action and politically correct indoctrination when coupled with ignorance and enough stupidity to not understand what is really true in the world.July 23, 2009 - 1:31 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
22. johnny go
I don't recall EVER having wished so hard something fails as I do the health care 'reform' bid by Obama. I pray for its defeat every other hour of the day. The stimulus was bad enough, way bad. But this, this is economic suicide.
But if it is defeated, then Obama is defeated.
I hope.July 23, 2009 - 2:45 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
23. proreason
Anybody who thought this thug was a centrist is a fool. You would have had to be blind and deaf not to know that every association the man has had in his life has been with a radical.
Oh no, he isn't a politician who has wandered a bit off the reservation. He is a hard hard-core leftist who intends to impose his ideology no matter what damage it does.
We will see if America can overcome the Alinsky playbook and win our country back. If not, then expect the iron fist to become stronger and stronger and America to descend into a black hole of despair.July 23, 2009 - 4:06 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
"The incident, Obama said, shows 'how race remains a factor in this society.'" (CNN quoting the President on the arrest of his friend Professor Gates of Harvard)
One of the more correct statements Obama has made recently. Since Gates, the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, treated the police officer investigating a possible break-in at his home with extreme racial prejudice. It should be considered racism to label someone a racist just because they are white and wear a uniform.
Note also how former law school professor (J.D. Harvard Law School) and now Supreme Court nominating POTUS Obamus put his legal erudition on display during this incident: He didn't know the specifics of the arrest, but felt no compunction about exonerating his friend while admitting his bias. He also called the police stupid and conflated the incident with racial profiling. The police were clearly responding to a witnessed break-in by two BLACK men, not knowing that one of them rented the place. That's not racial profiling, Mr President. I mean…DUH. You must have missed that lecture during law school.July 23, 2009 - 4:46 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
25. Ron Kean
13. Paules
18. Zhombre
I wish we had a real shrink here. Father leaves him at a very young age. Step-Father leaves him too. Mother leaves him. Grandfather didn't do much. Grandmother was the breadwinner but is mostly known for telling the story of a scary black pan-handler at a bus stop.
Then, Franklin Marshall Davis steps into Obama's young life a decade or more after appearing in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee for writing communist leaning articles in the Honolulu newspaper.
Davis' contemporary, Richard Wright writes a book called OUTSIDER like I mentioned before. Outsider implies a disconnect. Outsider implies a distance. In the case of the protagonist and other blacks, they felt outside the larger society. If the theme of this fiction has relation to the black experience, which I feel it does, many don't think they're part and parcel of greater America.
So the white policeman is stupid. Churchill is persona non grata. Jews are the bane of dark skinned middle easterners. America is the bane of the world.
It's payback time. Will nemesis come in time?July 23, 2009 - 5:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
26. Alana
All of those things together would probably be difficult for even the most ideal liberal to achieve.
Just one of them would be more than Obama can achieve. Because to meet just one of those tasks, the person would have to be sane.July 24, 2009 - 12:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply
27. Kate
My dream dinner party would include Victor Davis Hanson and Mark Steyn. VDH and Mark would begin conversing about this and that and it would be like that scene in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny where JB causes that guy's head to expode from the power of just his voice. My head would literally expolode from the sheer awesomeness of being a first hand witness to a discussion between these two giants of opinion journalism. Oh, and Lileks would be there too. A girl can dream…July 24, 2009 - 1:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply
28. Gaffe Prices
Most of what Obama has perpetrated so far has been through executive order [fiat] (countless unaccountable "Czars", "closing" Club Gitmo, not being the "anti-war president", etc), now he seeks the imprimatur of congress to pass stealth care, the biggest and most complete obliteration of doctor/patient privilege, not to mention privacy in history.
Don't the same people go to the wall about the so called [inviolable] "privacy" between a woman and her doctor where abortion is concerned?
If the supreme court doesn't shoot this whole thing down then we are really done, but I am reasonably sure they will, based on the obvious need to rein in an out of control executive, but the supreme court has historically disappointed where the federal government is concerned (Marbury v. Madison, Dred Scot, Plessy v. Ferguson, Japanese interment, etc)
However, the stealth care bill is now doomed in congress, so what will 0bama do in retaliation, vis a vis his executive orders? That will only make things worse for him and everyone else.July 24, 2009 - 1:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
29. Gaffe Prices
Correction. I beg your pardon, that's [above] " the biggest and most complete obliteration of Doctor/Patient confidentiality, not to mention privacy in history.
Can you imagine the blackmail, potential exposure, coercion etc, if one so much as passes a psychiatrists office on the way to his regular doctor if such a thing is in government records that any [other] coerced bureaucrat has access to?
And what about seeking a second (doctors) opinion, or a third, or fourth, or fifth as is customary where delicate matters or urgency is concerned? Will that have to be approved through the gov bureaucrat council too?
[source for this argument against stealth care is by way of (credit where due) Tammy Bruce.]July 24, 2009 - 2:08 am Link to this Comment | Reply
30. steve macdonald
prof. Hanson – great post as always.
i agree that we are probably (wishfull thinking?) looking at a one term Presidency. The serial lying, whining, ignorance of facts on the subject on which he is speaking and hyper partisanship are really beginning to grate. Policies that work against economic recovery will be the final element of his fall. I also agree with Paules that as his administration begins to take on serious water, we will see a very unattractive side of our new President.
I was no fan of Clinton but even though he was completely "cavalier" with the truth, he was damn entertaining. He was superb on trade. He triangulated effectively to achieve some concrete progress on a number of fronts.
I can see nothing positive that is likely to come from the current administration. If there is a change in the balance of power in the mid term election, it will at least serve to mitigate the damage.
31. jvon
That's quite an indictment. Unfortunately (for all of us!) it all sounds pretty reasonable to me.
32. Joseph
8. David Thomson:
"I have serious doubts whether Obama will still be president at the end of the year."
I will take that bet. I say Obama president through at least 2012. What will you bet except hot air? How bout domestic six pack of your choice. I'll drink any beer except lite.July 24, 2009 - 2:48 am Link to this Comment | Reply
33. JJKnight
American public had committed abig blunder in electing him for the american presidency.No body knew his back ground or history except as a community organizer.Greatest indicator about his integrity & heart was his 20 years relationship with Jeremy Wright his pastor & friendship with terrorist like Ayers & Khalidi.I clearly knew from the beginning he will lead america to harm & distress because he has no love for US or for it's graetness & standing in the world.
It is not too late for american public to express their displeasure & distrust so that nation can be rescued from greater harm.
Amercan president has becaome a big joke.No one cares or respects america.
His capacity to judge rightly is exposed recently by the Iranian crisis,Honduras issue ,healthcare & shooting off his mouth about Cambridge Police.
He is irresponsible & not fit for the 3AM call.
In this respect Bush was a decent genleman.He had the nation's interest at heart & nobody could question him on that.July 24, 2009 - 2:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply
34. Now and Then
Speaking of Obama's falling poll numbers:
From the WaPo:
Overall, the new poll found that 53 percent of Americans view Palin negatively and 40 percent see her in positive terms, her lowest level in Post-ABC polling since she first appeared on the national stage last summer as Sen. John McCain's running mate.July 24, 2009 - 3:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply
35. Conservative1
Anyone still think the black/white schism will be bridged? Don't call me a pessimist. We make progress only to be set back 50 years by Obama. This latest one with the Cambridge Police will be the 2nd of 3 nails in his presidential coffin. Healthcare, Cap and Trade, and now…. OUR POTUS IS A RAGING RACIST. I knew this a year ago. Oh well.July 24, 2009 - 3:25 am Link to this Comment | Reply
36. LeighB
Obama similar to Clinton? No way. He's Jimmy Carter in Mom-jeans.
I don't think Obama is capable of a course correction. He is ill-prepared for this role and is getting worse, not better. I continue to have faith in my country and her people, we will survive this experiment with socialism.July 24, 2009 - 3:44 am Link to this Comment | Reply
He was always left. Obama's assurances to the center reminds me of a scene from one of the Police Squad movies. Leslie Nielson plays a cop who is undercover with the bad guys. The bad guys pull guns on him and tell him they smell "cop." Nielson's character says "I'm not a cop." and the bad guys put their guns away and say good enough for us.
The center bought the same line of talk from Obama.
His pole numbers had no where to go but down. Question is how far do they go? If they reach Bush's level that would be amazing because the black population of the US will never be less than 95% for him.
Personally I find only one thing surprising in his presidency: That he upped the heat in Afghanistan. Everything else, for me, is a yawn. By that I mean no surprise.July 24, 2009 - 3:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply
38. Fred Beloit
Cornhead at #12 makes a comment that is related to one I have been asking myself: "What is very disturbing is his entire "rush, rush" position on passing legislation. The President is acting like a high pressure salesman." Indeed, what is the big hurry? The answer? 1.23 TRILLION dollars in new taxes for the ever-greedy government for the period 2009 to 2012.
Ezra Klein, a person for whom I have no respect for as a thinker nor writer, inadvertently provides the answer here:
39. BillJ
"And if wishes were fishes, the sea would be full".
Couldn't change if he wanted to-his wife would kill him–
40. Libertyship46
The American people have nobody to blame but themselves. It was no state secret where Obama came from, what he really believed in, and who his close friends were. His political views were always to the far left and his friends were all socialists, if not outright communists (can anyone say "BILL AYERS"). So for people today to be "Shocked, Shocked I say" when they see how far to the left Obama is, they simply were not paying attention during the campaign and believed all of the hype that the mainstream media was shoveling out about this guy. Elections do have consequences. Next time, America, do your homework before voting an inexperienced far-left radical into office.July 24, 2009 - 4:25 am Link to this Comment | Reply
41. Anonymous
President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but
in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.
For my Marine heroes serving in Afghanistan.
Welcome to dirt bag hill number 887.
Kill anything you need to survive.
Our emperor has no clothes.July 24, 2009 - 4:26 am Link to this Comment | Reply
42. fear Obama
President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but
in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.
For my Marine heroes serving in Afghanistan.
Welcome to dirt bag hill number 937.
Kill anything you need to survive.
Our emperor has no clothes.July 24, 2009 - 4:29 am Link to this Comment | Reply
43. pelaut
The Gates "racist" affair was programmed to disrupt the news cycle about to erupt bruiting Obama's healthcare debacle. The Axelrod-Emanuel led gang at the White House mimic Clinton's control of news. This was Obama's Blue Dress Disaster. He had fixed a victory lap press conference for a Wednesday. Disasters are annouced and bad moves are made on a Friday before the weekend stifles notoriety. He got stuck with 48 hours full press exposure when the healthcare thing fell apart.
What did he choose to do? Throw the race grenade into the mess.
Actually Axelrod threw the grenade, the fellow that looks like he stepped off the Kremlin Wall at the May Day parade. He's =:obama's white Frank Marshall Davis, and he runs the government, soon to run America.July 24, 2009 - 4:41 am Link to this Comment | Reply
44. RandyChandler
Even if VDH had been there to advise him, Obama wouldn't have been able to hold back from changing into his Dark Avenger persona. Zealots often come to believe they're bulletproof and can't put a foot wrong. When has anyone ever said no to BHO or stood in his way. He had all that power at his fingertips and he couldn't hold back. It was time to "remake America."
Obama and the Democrats fell into a feeding frenzy and are still gorging on the Mega Pork-and-power Sandwich while handing out those yummy crap sandwiches for the rest of us. Will America bite?July 24, 2009 - 4:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply
45. Gary Ogletree
Vulnerable Democrats are fretting about the Obama disaster among themselves, for now. It's a forlorn hope that Supreme Leader will change. He just gave a talk about health care but it was mainly remembered for his race hustler buddy getting dissed by whitey. And what about the tonsil conspiracy that is bankrupting the nation? Joe Biden couldn't do it better.July 24, 2009 - 4:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
46. Phil Byler
I understand the utility of the reference to Nixon, but it is unfair. Nixon knew what he was doing concerning foreign policy and had many achievements in that field, and we did not know yet what Reagan would mean.
47. Rick
very good piece. in discussions with my very liberal friends, i have summed up the above by saying that, "Obama had a chance to be real."
the problem is that obama comes from a lower middle/poor class background and is seething with rage. he wants to make us pay for all the perceived slights he suffered, and wants his class to have all the things the middle and upper classes have. health care is one example. he demands that the poor have the same access as upper middle class people have, and all will pay for it.
his chicago time, and the thugs that surround him, have not prepared him for a true fight of ideas and theory. for obama, it is "we won", we get what ever we want. he still has a chance to be real, but i doubt he will change, and there is risk that he will get us into something very serious.
Ron Kean:
"It's payback time."
Six months ago I would've thought this was the case, but only as a salve to his base supporters. Now it comes off more as a crutch. Change the narrative to race when the one you're selling — health care — runs into trouble. The question about the Gates affair at that news conference was almost certainly planted.
It's amazing the groups of people Obama and the Dems are willing to throw under the bus in pursuit of a post-racial America: the police, fireman (Ricci et al), the Secret Service — Obama might be shot breaking into the White House (as if a white person wouldn't be). Next it will be said that doctors make their decisions based on race. Seems we're on a very bumpy road to Hell.July 24, 2009 - 5:23 am Link to this Comment | Reply
49. Tony R
Three words describe your President.
1) Bill
2) of
3) Goods
His socialist leanings were there for all to see if voters had just chosen to look at them. That fact that they chose not to doesn't auger well for your country.
I expect this sham of an Administration to roll on for quite a number of years yet under the protective umbrella of an MSM that will be very reluctant to admit that they got it so badly wrong.July 24, 2009 - 5:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply
50. Brian Richard Allen
In his post #8, David Thomson says Zero will resign.
I believe he will, too – about ten months after the Mid-Terms – in …. say, September 2011.
He is after all a classical clinical Narcissist and by that time will not be able to stand the loathing that upwards of 60% of Americans and a sizable chunk of our criminal alien population will be sending his way.
The idea that a person as bloody stupid and as corrupt as is Plugs Biden might for the few months September 2011 through January 2013 pretend to the presidency would normally scare the bejazzus out of us. But with the sail-eared simpleton already weighing in as surely the most moronic modified-Marxist Mussolini-modeled murtadd-Muslim empty-galabiya glove puppet? We've plenty of time, this next couple of years, to get used to having yet another truly-representative of the modern "Democratic" potty really dumb crook temporarily be-squatting and be-manuring our house.
Brian Richard Allen
Los Angeles – Califobambicated 90028
And the Far AbroadJuly 24, 2009 - 5:25 am Link to this Comment | Reply
51. redbourn
There was no doubt about what Obama was and is, but simply that the 80%+ left wing media swept uncomfortable things under the carpet.
Obama was a member of the New Way Party (communist) until around 12 years ago. No ifs, buts and maybes http://tinyurl.com/obamafarleft
Similar pieces to the above one which was posted on Oct 24, 2008 were circulating freely.
There was no need to try and fathom out what she is or isn't, and it was only necessary to watch and listen to Obama.
When it comes to the selection of Supreme Court nominees Obama disagreed with fellow Democrats over the selection of Justices Roberts and Alito and voted against their confirmation in spite of their excellent legal credentials. He would apparently use an entirely different yardstick to the tried and tested one and stated,
"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges". http://tinyurl.com/nopapertrail
It's only my second visit here, but I like the site and will be back.
MikeJuly 24, 2009 - 5:29 am Link to this Comment | Reply
52. ~Paules
25. Ron Kean: "Will nemesis come in time?"
I don't believe anyone can knock our great republic off its foundations in a mere four years, much less six months. Our founders created a governmental structure and corpus of law that inhibits power from accruing in the hands of a single person. Obama has already crossed his Rubicon by attempting to usurp congressional prerogatives. That's an offense that even members of his own party cannot tolerate. The daggers are out now as the blue dogs are the ones triangulating to retain their seats. If Obama continues his current tactics, Nemesis will feed on his flesh. If character is destiny then Obama is doomed.July 24, 2009 - 5:35 am Link to this Comment | Reply
53. eon
Also, the police officer whom The One is smearing says he is an Obama supporter. My guess is, he has just learned a hard lesson about how fast even someone who "supports the president 110%" (the officer's own words) can be thrown under the bus when The One sees an opportunity for demagoguery.
And that is what is at the heart of this matter. The One never wanted to be President to be President; he wanted the job because it was both a step higher up the ladder, which his ego demands, and because he wanted to punish America just for existing. I don't think he believes for one minute that what he wants to do will make America better, or the world better; he is just entranced by the exercise of power for its own sake.
His ultimate goal is… ultimate power. Which, I suspect, he will have no more idea how to wield responsibly than that which he has now.
But, like James Taggart in "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, he wants it- and that is the only justification he needs.
Let everyone else pay for his fun, he believes.
clear ether
eonJuly 24, 2009 - 5:40 am Link to this Comment | Reply
54. Carson
At best we are flawed at worst we are evil. On any day of the week i'll take Obama over Bush jr. jr.jr.jr. or creepy kill any thing with four legs Pailin. What are you who comment doing to improve anything. Nothing I suspect.July 24, 2009 - 5:43 am Link to this Comment | Reply
55. AThinkingPerson
The point made in Mr. Hanson's article that has always bothered me but one that I hadn't put my finger on is Obama's continued use of the singular "I" and not "we" when he speaks. He truly has taken the American people out of his equation and is more concerned with how this will affect him and his Presidency.
Love Bush or hate Bush, you could never, ever claim that he did ANYTHING with his own poll numbers or reputation in mind. He always said that history would vindicate him and with our current disaster in chief fumbling at every turn, I think he may be right!July 24, 2009 - 5:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
56. "progressive"watch
If,if if–if Obama hadn't been Obama–if Obama hadn't been a stealth Marxist–but he is. If Hitler had loved Jews and treated them fairly…if it rained in the desert…if there were no nuclear weapons…if Amelia Earhart hadn't disappeared…July 24, 2009 - 5:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply
57. kazooskibum
The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.July 24, 2009 - 5:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply
58. SunSword
See the 1951 "Captain Horatio Hornblower" movie starring Gregory Peck. See the rebel "Don Julian Alvorado" who titles himself as "El Supremo". Think about it.July 24, 2009 - 6:02 am Link to this Comment | Reply
59. Sebastian Shaw
President Clinton was just as Leftist as President Obama in 1993-1994 with tax increases; however, as a result of losing Congress in 1994, President Clinton had to move to the center or lose what was left of his agenda. President Obama is too much a Leftist ideologue to move to the center. He will insist to keep his Marxist plans, although he has yet to write any bills himself. The more President Obama speaks without a script the more he reveals his true self. The mask is slipping. Eventually, the mask with shatter completely. More people are becoming aware of Obama's true totalitarian nature, but, if they were paying attention during the campaign, he would not be President now.July 24, 2009 - 6:16 am Link to this Comment | Reply
60. howiem
America voted for a half black man based on nothing but glittering generalities (change and hope, of course), which mean absolutely nothing, until now, when people are starting to wake up and realize that complete state control is real change, and the hope is that no one will have to work very hard in the new workers' utopia. There's an old expression tha a leopard does not change his spots. It is almost beyond belief that anyone could seriously think that after being influenced by Chicaho corruption, by a rabid so-called "Reverend", by communists and other radicals would bring some other sort of change. Just the three words, "redistribute the wealth", should have been enough for anyone with an iota of intelligence and an unbiased education to reject Obama. his doesn't say much for far too many of my fellow Americans. Obama only knows centrist words, but he has never had any intention of being a centrist, except for those who think that words speak louder than actions.July 24, 2009 - 6:26 am Link to this Comment | Reply
61. Immanuel Goldstein
It should have been obvious to anybody who was paying attention last year that Obama was a hard core ideological leftist. He practically came out and admitted it in his books. He took care to associate with Communists and leftist intellectuals throughout his academic career and devoted his whole life to turning every function of society that he could touch over to the federal government. What was interesting was that he was just barely aware that the only way he could sell his candidacy was by playing the moderate. Once in, he tacked hard to the left. He lacks the skills to maneuver back to the center, and that will cost him the Presidency. Look for Hillary to drop out of the administration before the mid term elections, and begin to campaign openly for President well before 2012. A third party campaign? How about four parties. Obama for the Democrats, Hillary for the Blue Dogs, Romney for the Republicans, and Palin for the conservatives. Now THAT would be something to see.July 24, 2009 - 6:59 am Link to this Comment | Reply
62. gaia
Namaskar,by an italian recovering liberal, living in India. I love America, I love India,and I have become a consrvative ,thank to you, too, and I feel happy and free. thank you and God bless AmericaJuly 24, 2009 - 7:07 am Link to this Comment | Reply
63. Charles R. Williams
Obama is a radical leftist with an instrumentalist attitude towards our democratic traditions which he trashes when it furthers his agenda and he can get away with it. He is Hugo Chavez disguised as a pleasant reasonable professor. By overreaching his first six months he has blown the opportunity he had to transform America into something else. Lies and platitudes can only work when you are running for office. When elected you have to do something and he is no more competent at getting things done than his terrorist buddy Bill Ayers.July 24, 2009 - 7:08 am Link to this Comment | Reply
64. donttreadonme
Now and Then(35)…A Day In The Life..
palinpalinpalinpalinpalinpalinpalin…brush teeth…palinpalinpalinpalinpalinpalin…get dressed…palinpalinpalinpalin…eat granola bar…palinpalinpalinpalinpalin…make chai tea…palinpalinpalin…grab backpack…palinpalinpalin…hop in smart car…palinpalinpalinpalin…get front row seat in sociology 405(transgendered marxist theory)…palinpalinpalinpalin….July 24, 2009 - 7:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply
65. Meryl
It's my guess that he will start growing the thin but distinct mustache intended to give him gravitas, but which will just make him look as vicious as he is behaving.
He is one nasty, immature dude.
I admire Bill Cosby for going on record very quickly after the "cops behaving stupidly" comment and basically telling the black left to get a life and grow up already.
Wonder if Colin Powell is feeling a bunch of admiration for his Pied Piper today.July 24, 2009 - 7:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply
66. Meryl
64. Charles Williams
"He is Hugo Chavez disguised as a pleasant reasonable professor." The first four words of this sentence are spot on.
But I see absolutely no resemblence to a pleasant or reasonable person of any profession.
Do you not remember how he looked the night of the election when he stood alone on the spotlighted stage in Chicago, "looking at the crowd looking at him".
THAT was chilling. Very chilling.
A neurotic, immature, gangbanger with a lot of power is not someone anyone wants in their neighborhood.July 24, 2009 - 7:59 am Link to this Comment | Reply
67. Koblog
Any doubt that Rahm and Obambi have an Enemies List a mile long?July 24, 2009 - 8:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply
68. Saltherring
Excellent perspective, Dr. Hanson. Problem is, Obama the narcissist isn't listening. Perhaps he will when his poll numbers inch below 30%, unemployment exceeds 12% and the people shove Cap & Trade and Obamacare back down his throat. I wish the 2010 elections were tomorrow.
69. Moogie
I think the best we can hope for is that our democratic congress, concerned about the 2010 elections, rebels against Obama's policies, holding him in check until the elections, when they'll all be wiped out in a tsunami of replacements – whom I am hoping will also work vigorously against all of Obama's policies. Because God help them if they don't.
Your typical slightly left liberal wasn't voting for this. They were voting for "feel good" politics – not social re-engineering of the lowest order.
Dr. Hanson: Your article speaks volumes about the incompetence of our president. He's trying to accomplish in one year what he could have accomplished, a nibble at a time, in four. If he had just taken it slower, as you describe, his social/political re-engineering program might have succeeded, as it would have been implemented quietly and under the radar. He threw off the cloak too soon and has exposed the real Obama for all to see (those of us who are gifted with an extra dollop of discernment saw who he was despite the cloak).
IMHO, his biggest, most flagrant mistake was his "acted stupidly" comment. We all know how it only takes one slip such as this to undermine a person's accomplishments (not that he has any) and credibility (not that he has any).
70. EnemyoftheState
Just something to think about at night when you're trying to go to sleep: Given all the irrational, destructive, anti-american actions that obama has set in motion in just 6 months, does it concern you a little bit that he controls the launch codes for enough nuclear weapons to turn the earth into a ragged cinder?July 24, 2009 - 8:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply
71. Newsom
When one turns one's health care over to the State, one is giving it the power over life and death. This kind of institution is called a totalitarian state. The leaders are tyrants. This is obvious to any thinking person; what should be our response?
Great Britain weakly ceded this power; do we?July 24, 2009 - 8:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply
72. tanstaafl
In other words, he is not a "they raised the bar on me" / "he did it, not me" / "his mess, not mine" whiner.
The whining cropped up again ("we inherited…") in Wednesday's swirl and whirl gadabout in Iowa.
And you'll be happy to learn that Obamacare has been re-designated "health insurance", somewhat akin to how terrorism euphemistically morphed into "man caused disaster".
Hey, isn't the assumption that the proles are so dumb, change the language and they'll buy into anything ?
For a little levity…July 24, 2009 - 8:29 am Link to this Comment | Reply
73. tanstaafl
When he speaks to African-American audiences it will be in the same cadence and accentuation that he employs when talking to white audiences or vice versa.
That kind of breathless, "g" droppin', ending the sentence on an upswing…is really aggravatin'. I noted this style of speakin' as phony during the campaign.
He will make plenty of so-called diversity appointments but not the sort who constantly self-reference themselves as "Latinas" or dress down the nation as "cowards" on matters of race.
Eric Holder hardly has room to speak about cowards, he himself the coward who did Bill Clinton's bidding. Plus, Holder seems to really want to bring himself and his department aggrandizement by using the AG's office for "going after" Dick Cheney. Just what we need in these trying times, more witch hunts.
I neither like nor trust Holder.
Obama quickly sizes up Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank as, well, crazy and polarizing…He gets the reputation of a stubborn ethicist, rather than a charismatic Chicagoan Blagoan…Obama is immune to third-world romance and sees nothing but thuggery in the Castros, Chavezes, Ortegas, and Ahmadinejads of the world.
California Dreamin' again :)July 24, 2009 - 8:46 am Link to this Comment | Reply
74. Bear
It will become obvious soon enough that 'we'(or should I say they) elected Caligula.July 24, 2009 - 8:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply
75. Saltherring
# 55 Carson asks, "What are you who comment doing to improve anything."
Well, to begin with, I'm striving to earn a living so other Americans won't be stuck paying my way. What about you?July 24, 2009 - 8:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply
76. rattanman
Obama faked center and is driving left. His tragedy is that as a centrist president he would have been wildly popular and successful. After re-appointing Gates, he should have vetoed the stimulus. Alas he is not a centrist. He has never been one and he will never be one.(McCain was the centrist in the last election).July 24, 2009 - 8:58 am Link to this Comment | Reply
77. MarkD
#55 Carson, I would take Bush or Palin over the current ignorant autocrat any day of the week. I'd take Richard Nixon over Obama, and this is no tribute to Nixon.
78. Thomas L......
What have you been smoking, Doctor Hanson? I want some. If my uncle had _______, she'd be my aunt. Tis what it is.
79. Sebastian Shaw
President Obama's arrogance, immaturity, & any true lack executive leadership ability will be his downfall; he does not see himself as others outside his media-created narcissistic bubble. He is surrounded by sycophants. And his only negotiating skill is to act like a Mafia crime boss giving him the elegance of a hammer trying to thread a needle. President Obama is his own worst enemy.
Thanks to the failure of Porkulus, President Obama has a visible record of his leadership; furthermore, when he went on his international trips, he brought home NOTHING, but he sure had plenty of time bashing America at every turn. President Obama has not endeared himnself with the nationalizing of banks, insurance companies, & 2 American car companies. Everything Obama touches turns into poo.
Yet Obama will NEVER take credit for his failures; it will always be someone else's fault. This will get old real quick. The man-child will be persona non-grata, poison to any other Democrats after this year.
The man will be known as the worst modern day President of the United States.July 24, 2009 - 10:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply
80. Войска ПВО
Dr Hanson,
Not to be unkind, but screw the "what-if" scenarios.
The Clown-in-Chief is what he is, so get over it.
It was apparent to a lot of us that this man was hard-leftist incompetent dolt from day one. He was an avatar into which the media and shrieking, BDS-beset masses poured their hopes for change into. He was what the left-wing elements of the Democrat party wanted as the centerpiece of their return to power. He was and is immature and incapable of managing anything, much less the fortunes of the (soon-to-be-fourth) greatest nation in the free world.
And if it was not apparent that he did not get it prior to 4 November 2008, it should have been when The Boy King hung out his pathetic "Office of the President Elect" sign and started hiring on all of the graft-taking, tax-avoiding bumbling sycophants for his cabinet.
So the time for niceties and nuanced "what-if" analysis is well past us. We are knee deep in the incompetent sludge from this fool's flailing away at the levers of power and there ain't a helluva lot of rescue in sight.
I am with David Thompson except my time-table is a little longer; I give him until the midterms when he has his ass handed to him and Pelosi is sent packing..
..and I happen to like St Pauli Girl, if there are any takers.July 24, 2009 - 10:12 am Link to this Comment | Reply
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I reiterate for the tenth time that Obama won because he had no competition for the largest voting bloc: nubile women.
The Republican Party took a dive by naming an old geezer McCain to run against either a virile youth Obama or Bull Clinton's heiffer Hillary. McCain would have lost against either of them.July 24, 2009 - 10:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply
82. WestWright
I knew 6 months before the election what POS Obama represented and unenthusiastically voted for McCain. We got Obama because the Statist Media refused to do their job. They must pay a price when this towering failure collapses!July 24, 2009 - 10:18 am Link to this Comment | Reply
83. davidt
If the Democrats lose seats in the 2010 mid-terms, or even lose control of the House or Senate or both, does anyone really expect Obama and the Dems to 'moderate'?
What happens when you try to rein in a spoiled brat?July 24, 2009 - 10:22 am Link to this Comment | Reply
84. Войска ПВО
83. davidt wrties:
"If the Democrats lose seats in the 2010 mid-terms, or even lose control of the House or Senate or both, does anyone really expect Obama and the Dems to 'moderate'?"
..I am on my knees, praying to heaven that you are correct!July 24, 2009 - 11:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply
85. Professor Guvinoff
This man was elected on skin-deep criteria, literally. America wanted to take a vacation from reality, and that fanciful trip turns out a lot more expensive than the shiny brochure trumpeted. Wisdom does not come cheap. The hypothetical points of this article shows what could have been accomplished if wisdom had been added to the mix, but that's the component that's missing, and nothing can replace it.July 24, 2009 - 11:18 am Link to this Comment | Reply
86. Strawman
Remember Obama's initial signature speech (e.g., "there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America"), and all the subsequent conciliatory talk of no blue state, no red state America?
You're misinterpreting that statement. He didn't mean that there are two poles, and both need to be respected. What he meant by that is that conservatism is a myth, and everyone he knows is a flaming Marxist. It's a variation on "I don't know anyone who voted for Nixon".
This is why he and his Chicago gang don't understand why their mojo is slipping. They are simply unable to comprehend opposition. They don't know what hit them, because it's coming from a different dimension that they can't even see.July 24, 2009 - 11:28 am Link to this Comment | Reply
87. homero
when I look at what is happening in the USA I can only say …."there is no way these people put a man on the moon"July 24, 2009 - 11:29 am Link to this Comment | Reply
88. Strawman
Obama vs. Nixon: I am not a rook!
No, he's actually more like a queen.July 24, 2009 - 11:31 am Link to this Comment | Reply
It is interesting that even with supermajorities the liberals have begun to implode. Had Obama acted more like a moderate, there well may have been a permanent democratic majority. For the countries sake I am glad he has had a hard time not laying his cards on the table, all the while lying, lying, lying. At the core liberals know that their policies are not popular, so they hide them. But Obama isn't a seasoned enough liar to make himself believable, and his hubris has certainly preceded his rapid descent. It's kind of like those shoot 'em up movies. With enough time the criminals start shooting each other over power and the good guys can stand back and watch, before they finish off the last bad dude standing. Enjoy the popcorn until 2010.July 24, 2009 - 11:48 am Link to this Comment | Reply
90. debmat
this article does a great job of summarizing Obama's problems. I want to support our president but when he makes all of these errors, it is hard to do.
Obama is a great in running for an office but he is lacking as being a president….hate to use the word "stupid" but it is a close description about him. Hey, I knew he had one, maybe two pieces of legislation to get thru…..if health care was #1, he should have pushed it thru in Januarey. Thank the lord he didn't but it shows his ignorance in being a President. hate to see our county after the next 3 1/2 years.July 24, 2009 - 11:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply
91. Ron Kean
78. Thomas L……..
I think you've had quite enough.July 24, 2009 - 11:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
92. GoodDay2u
Obama has stepped in it big time.July 24, 2009 - 12:03 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
93. smellthecoffee
#55 Carson: And what are you doing other than calling people names? Neener. Neener. Neener. There. Now I am as productive as you are.
I agree with those who have expressed concern about the mental health of our president. There was a young man a couple of years ago in Singapore (?) Hong Kong (?) who pulled off some kind of amazing big finance scam that shuddered the world markets. Someone with a better memory than I have will remember the details. I remember thinking at the time, that that story would have made a great movie–something filmed in black and white, that would have showed the young man at his boldest, and at his lowest. One incredible, frenetic month in the life of a samurai grifter. Did he commit suicide? I don't remember how it ended. But that's how I'm starting to see the Obama presidency, as if it were the last big score of a life-long grifter, someone who plans not to be caught alive, but to go out in a blaze of glory. What a movie that would be! The Manchurian Candidate would pale by comparison. Pray only that we don't have to live it.July 24, 2009 - 12:04 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
The Gates affair was a non-entity until Obama opened his mouth and sought to lecture us once again about racial matters. It is one of the dumbest things he has done from a political standpoint. This episode exposes racial, class and elitist issues in a way that Obama cannot win on.
Did the cops act stupidly? Quite the contrary. The arresting officer likely would not, or could not, have legitimately busted Gates for carrying on as he did in his own home. Smart cop that he was he invited the Professor outside where his rant could be heard by his neighbors and portrayed as disorderly conduct in a public place. Hence his arrest and cuffing.(Any cops may correct me if I'm wrong here). Score thus far: Blue collar cop 1; Pointy-headed Harvard professor 0.
I hope Gates does sue over this affair. Keep it in the press a little longer, until everyone understands just how overbearing, smarmy and stupid these Harvard types can be, Obama included.July 24, 2009 - 12:22 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
95. Hanishov
So Dr. Hansen, is there a comparable Greek figure to our follish president?
I know you once mentioned Bill Clinton as Alshibades. Id be curious to know.July 24, 2009 - 12:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
96. greenmtnpunter
VDH does it again, as always. This is very much like the Dale Carnegie "Class Act" approach; being in sales, I recognized it immediately. This is how a President should act, like Reagan acted, like the Bushes acted, but The Big O is doing his absolute best to show that he has "no class" and therefore deserves no respect. He can't leave soon enough.July 24, 2009 - 12:32 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
97. Joseph
80.Войска ПВО:
"I am with David Thompson except my time-table is a little longer; I give him until the midterms when he has his ass handed to him and Pelosi is sent packing.."
You may be correct about the Dems losing the Congress, but I doubt if Obama leaves before 2012. If you and David Thomson are right tell me where to send the beer, if not I prefer Sam Adams any type.
"When one turns one's health care over to the State, one is giving it the power over life and death."
When one turns one's health care over to a for profit corporation, one is giving it the power over life and death. Who do you want rationing your health care? Pay in for years and now you need something expensive better pray for divine intervention because here on earth you are sh*t out of luck.July 24, 2009 - 12:44 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
98. Gaffe Prices
I've always had the theory that there is a critical mass point at which the democrat establishment will realize that this gig is up and cut 0bama loose to twist in the wind, while they simultaneously
1) do their best to repair the damage to democrat "brand", while
2) become the unnamed source of all the dirt they've kept hidden about 0bama, and by that time, gratuitously heap onto his scandalized condition.
By then they will rue their involvement with him and the Chicago taint, and get all sentimental about how things "might have been", (another what if…) consider:
My theory came about when I decided that democrat party actually thought 0bama would lose the election, which is what would have been a better scenario (for them). Because they could have played McCain off as the Bush sequel, blame him for recession, and whenever McCain balked at congress, they could demonize him as someone who is "against change", and when McCain might go the moderate route, and cave, then McCain would be on receiving end of fallout from "the base". Democrat Party retains their majority in off year elections, more or less a win/win scenario for dems.
But Obama previously called their bluff because his strategy (has always been) is to lie, break any law, and rule by fiat (executive order) his way into as much despotism as possible, and worry about the rest after he reaches the point where he could laugh and say "catch me if you can" playing the most mammoth race card yet for not only his own sake, but that of his most inside crony czars (Holdren, Jones being a particularly good, but by no means only example)
0bama has damaged those whose made the mistake of trusting him, in the mass insanity that was 2008 election, but he's trying to play everybody off everybody else because the race baiting politics has been waning for a while now and was in desperate need of a bypass to restore it to the top of tabloid style politics.
It must be remembered that no scandal (travel office, tampering with a crime scene in Fosters office, TWA 800, bombing of WTC in 93, Kobar towers, Waco, FBI files) could lay a finger on Clintons, but with a sex scandal, the pent up need for a ratings bonanza and a story with legs meant that media was willing to eat their own, provided a back door to damage republicans was at least a potentiality.
All three principals are miscalculating: Pelosi and Reid, in their stubbornness, have been forced to punt- no vote by this weeks end- yet swear that passage will come after the recess. 0bama colludes with press to plant a question about Cambridge police policy, to provide distraction and some forced passion to an otherwise soft soap, soft sell of generalities, outright lies and sky high promises as to stealth care at a "press conference". (conference indeed, teleconference phone-in more like…)
And the Media for its part, must re-place shoulder to the wheel, and mount a propaganda blitz on CNN with segments such as Soledad O'Brian"s "Black In America", working the newly invigorated race card angle on that portion of "uninsured" americans who fall into the black or hispanic demographic and what that must be like.
Are any of those the "health care" mafia numbers as, once 30 million, then 40 million, now 47 million "uninsured" include the 40 millions souls lost to abortion?
Just asking.
Meanwhile "Health Care Reform" is re-christened "Health Insurance Reform" with all the attendant straw men and villains, "nay-sayers" and indefinite and un-named mean-spirited pundits and "critics" curtain-called out and subjected to ridicule in yet another variation of the whole narcissist "Why Me?" paradigm.
Elsewhere, democrat representatives who gained their seats in 2006 by running as fiscally responsible, 2nd amendment defending conservatives are having their bluffs called back in their home districts and home states, based on their involvement in Tarp 2, "Stimulus", Cap & Trade, and now Health Care Reform. And that fallout might have been blunted had the promised [floor] "vote by the end of the week" been called by Pelosi and Reid as planned and reported as [all] the irrationally exuberant press reports kept reminding us.
Now these 2006 sophomore senators and reps must return and face the mounting fallout from their constituents all during the recess. And beyond. These democrats offer the first chance for a re-emergence of conservative democrats with the clout to challenge the Boxer/Pelosi hierarchy in 50 years. Will they succeed? only time will tell.
And despots all around the world are laughing at 0bamas latest faux pas- "winning is not necessarily the goal for Afghanistan" and rubbing their hands and saying, seeing "opportunity, opportunity, opportunity" just as they did when Carter was president, all of which serves as a cold reminder of the republican VP nominee's acceptance speech when she said- "The opposition only talks about winning when they talk endlessly about "winning" their Campaign.".
Yeah, yeah, we know, campaign, campaign, campaign. Campaign in the neck, more like
Yeah, this is all, this is, this is, this is all, just, this is all just terrific! Happy recessJuly 24, 2009 - 12:46 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
99. Lisa
To think we could have had a president like that…. his name was John McCain. (sigh)July 24, 2009 - 12:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
100. homero
none of that could have been with O-BUM-A !
he said as much during his campaign. HE IS A MARXIST.
it doesn't matter what happens to the country or the citizens. they/he has a vision of a utopia and he will deliver it or try too, no matter how much you don't want it.
he will be fine no matter what …if he gets his way he wins big …if he doesn't he is still one rich person. And all those things he has in store for you will not affect him.
good luck with thatJuly 24, 2009 - 1:20 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
101. Jack Marcotte
Essential vdh
A conservative or anyone with common sense acts based on experience and knowledge and appreciates the fact that most of what is known about the world today comes from the past and that the future is built on past knowledge. This is true from mathematics to building buildings and is also true for understanding human nature.
It would be impossible for a true conservative to overthrow or disregard knowledge and information that is still good and needed. Reinventing wheels is inefficient and seeded with failures.
The founding fathers of America were guided by over a thousand years of written and documented history and understood full well the reason Western Christian Culture became and was even then the high water mark in human history.
These ideals that were given life in the Constitution and Bill of Rights along with the Declaration of Independence were the engine of the American Revolution, a shooting war, that created the United States of America.
Were these ideas and so carefully crafted documents important? Men and women were willing to fight and give their lives for it.
What then is the source of the subversion now to change it? To change America? What does BHO and his cronies know that our founding fathers did not know? What does he know about communism that is new to the history of its results—failure and destruction of private property and humanity. What new knowledge have we gained about human nature in the last couple of hundred years that we would so easily overthrow what the men and women of the revolution fought and died for. Are we missing something?
Knowing who BHO has been associated with and indoctrinated by is a good starting place for our insight to begin. These anti American subversives include Bill Ayers, Rev Wright, and many others particularly communist indoctrinations as presented by simple Utopian statements written by American subversives of the communist USSR that started out from the Kremlin trying to destroy America.
They of course failed before they could be successful in America. Unfortunately the Utopian language of subversion like a perfumed hidden scorpion has a following in America.
The communist Utopian language of class warfare developed a following in America primarily as a low level political tool to get reelected by flack career politicians. They don't think this appeal to human weakness is revolutionary and destructive to the believers but they are ignorant and greedy so what do they really understand about damage and unintended consequences.
This Utopian ideal and language also developed a following among the embedded University Academics and intellectuals who found it easier to deal with than the real world of America. The Utopian scripts fit their idea of a static world. After all it only worked in a static world. Not the real and dynamic world.
There is nothing deep or new here and indoctrination not truth is at play. Is this all it takes to destroy America? It depends on what true Americans do about it and this has not changed since the revolution.
America is at risk and must be renewed and revived.July 24, 2009 - 1:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
102. Marc Malone
To those who are critical of VDH for this article, please understand that he is pointing out what a moderate Dem would/should do. That O is doing NONE of these things is very telling of how far Left he is.
I'd like to see a follow-up article showing how a Conservative Republican would/should have handled things.
As for Obama, I find myself looking forward to a Biden Presidency. That's how bad Obama is. How INSANE is that? Gaaaahhh!July 24, 2009 - 1:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
103. Strawman
Umm, Thomas. This isn't the drunkblogging thread.July 24, 2009 - 1:44 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
104. Lummox
Where the heck are these 'Checks' and 'Balances' that I heard so much about while growing up?July 24, 2009 - 2:15 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
105. Terry Magrath
Hi Dr. H. Was with you in Thera. Great comments. Thanks. But an impending issue may be the perverse effect that Obama could likely start to have on racism in our country. Under the law of unintended consequences, his actions may well cause us to regress towards warring racial camps again.
We truly had been growing together after WWII and the troubles of the sixties, to the point that Blacks had attained parity in most walks of life and representation in most all major political and business positions. The most impressive achievement is that the issue was becoming a non-issue, with the exception of a diminishing group of opportunists, like Sharpton and Jackson, that kept it alive. Obama's electorial success was a stunning affirmation of this progress.
But now I suspect that we will start to become divided by race again. I suspect that the vast group of non-blacks that swung toward Obama were expecting basic fairness in the execution of our government, but many are not seeing it. Instead, they are seeing a reverse bias, deserved or not, which will only serve to re-segregate us. Gatesgate, the checkoff, the voided prosecution of the Philadelphia election case, Acorn, these are a pattern that will start to intrude on our combined sense of progress and generate the reaction, hostile camps.
It doesn't need to be so.July 24, 2009 - 2:47 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
106. Newsom
Joseph, if I must choose between dealing with someone whose motive is money and someone whose motive is power, I'll take the money any day. Has it occured to you that if your insurance company won't pay, you have other options. If the State, with complete power refuses, you have no options.July 24, 2009 - 3:15 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
107. Войска ПВО
94. TLM writes:
"I hope Gates does sue over this affair. Keep it in the press a little longer, until everyone understands just how overbearing, smarmy and stupid these Harvard types can be, Obama included."
If you want to understand what a truly horribly sto-o-o-o-o-o-o-pid unthinking gas bag we have for a president, read the excellent analysis of The Boy King's bloviating attempt to defuse the Cambridge PD problem — which is a startling indication as to how unadroit this idiot really is.
Don't think this is freaking serious? How about having him misstep like this in serious negotiations with — say — some foreign power like Russia or Iran or North Korea or China..
..oh, wait..July 24, 2009 - 3:16 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
108. Rob De Witt
"the problem is that obama comes from a lower middle/poor class background and is seething with rage"
If 0bama comes from a poor background, then I'm Oliver Twist. His Grandmother was a bank officer who had either the wherewithal or the connections to ensure that he went to Punahou (that's Hawaiian for "Choate",) and his subsequent mentors managed to get him admitted to Harvard. His Leftism is the perfect reflection of the wealthy intellectual elite who fomented the French Revolution, bequeathing the world an unending history of employing the Little People as cannon fodder for the arrogant pretensions and internecine hair-pulling of the privileged class.
Neither he nor Michelle have the least notion of what it means to sweat or have callouses, and have lived their lives in a perfect bubble of privilege and assumed victimhood.July 24, 2009 - 3:36 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
109. Uniblogger
After over seventy years in business, my experience with people: working for them; working with them; managing them; promoting them; has shown me that when people take a new tough job, they automatically tend to revert to the things in their old job that 'made them successful'. These old skills may not be appropriate, or may even be harmful to their new duties, but under stress – what used to work for them is likely to be endlessly repeated.
Therefore, we need to look at President Obama as someone who is trying to be a 'Community Organizer' for the whole country.
Every action he has taken, and will probably take in the future, is an effort to arrange things so that he and his group have the mechanisms to take, maintain and keep power. When viewed through this prism, the seemingly irrational things that he has done will make sense.July 24, 2009 - 3:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
110. longun45
Obama is a straihgt up liar. what he doesn't know he makes up as he goes along. He hasn't read the house bill on health care but is trying to sell it hard, talking like he knows what is in it. But then says I havn't read it.
If it's so damn good then he should be the first in line. Pelosi and Reid should be right behind him for counseling.July 24, 2009 - 5:36 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
111. Tri Geek
48 Rick: "the problem is that obama comes from a lower middle/poor class background and is seething with rage. he wants to make us pay for all the perceived slights he suffered, and wants his class to have all the things the middle and upper classes have. health care is one example. he demands that the poor have the same access as upper middle class people have, and all will pay for it."
The only problem with this is that he didn't grow up poor. His grandmother, who raised him was a Vice Pres of the largest bank in Hawaii. He attended the most EXCLUSIVE, and most EXPENSIVE private school in the state. I know he talks about being troubled by his mixed heritage, but the reality is that the school he attended was/is made up of predominately mixed race children. This is Hawaii after all. He just makes up hardships to fit the liberal pitty/party mode. Despite all his advantages, he still leaned towards a bunch of communists.July 24, 2009 - 5:44 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
112. Ron Kean
I'll take a Busch. Head for the mountains.
113. Tri Geek
By the way, the house he grew up in is about $900,000, and is located in a beautiful old neighborhood next to the University of Hawaii. Again, this is Hawaii, so that doesn't translate into a castle on a hill, but it sure doesn't translate to poor either.
114. vonbear
We have moved from democracy to oligarchy. Our representatves, on both sides, don't even pretend to author the laws that sap our freedom. Hell they don't even read them.
With ACORN set receive 8.5bn in stimulus funds Obama has his special police. Our votes will become a joke.
Obama and the elites are consolidating power. It all makes sense; polls, public opinion, tea parties are all meaningless. Look for Obama to server three or four terms.July 24, 2009 - 5:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
115. AtheistConservative
It amazes me that, after tiring of defending the indefensible Obama, now the left are happily seizing on Pelosi.
Of course Pelosi is ridiculous – which begs the question of why she still holds office (along with Barbara Botoxer). But it's not as if Obama has dressed her down. He builds her up. He enables her. He never admits his own fault, never admits problems with his ridiculous, lofty sentiments, never admits anything.
The problem is Obama, first and foremost. After all, Bush certainly seemed capable of keeping Pelosi in her place.July 24, 2009 - 6:30 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
116. AtheistConservative
And why are people convinced that Obama ever was, is, or will be a 'centrist'? He's the most loony, radical leftist we've seen in ages. Do you not recall the constant citing of his 'most liberal Senator' record? The fact that his friends and associates were all left-wing nutjobs? His left-wing speeches?July 24, 2009 - 6:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
"I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur," Obama told ABC News.
Yet another stupid comment from our Columbia/Harvard educated President who apparently thinks that facts are irrelevant. He continues to play fast and loose with the truth because for him there is none, just competing narratives. And, as he implied in the Gates affair, the narrative offered by really smart people is to be accepted at face value, no facts necessary.July 24, 2009 - 6:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
118. Moogie
#52 Redbourne: That's one heckuva link you dropped in your comment! Thank you for sharing that. When you add up all of these little tidbits about Obama's life, they equal the sum of socialism. His demonstrated pattern of behavior, association and ideology mark him very clearly as a socialist.July 24, 2009 - 7:17 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
119. davidt
"95. Hanishov: So Dr. Hansen, is there a comparable Greek figure to our follish president?
I know you once mentioned Bill Clinton as Alshibades. Id be curious to know."
Narcissus.July 24, 2009 - 7:21 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Войска ПВО:
That's a good article at Powerline. For such an insignificant event there appear to be dozens of good articles about Obama/Gates on the web. Not to belabor the point, but I think Obama not only misjudged the public's reaction to this affair, he had no idea how stupid he sounded taking Gates' side (without knowing the facts) until his handlers pointed it out to him. He still seems surprised that people are not buying the racist-cop trope like he expected: You know, the Economy, Cap'nTrade, ObamaCare… that's just politics. But the Gates thing…man, that's some serious sh*t we're talking about. If that goes down wrong with the public, we're in real trouble.July 24, 2009 - 7:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
121. Moogie
#94 TLM: My husband is a cop, so of course he watches cases like this very closely.
1. The officer identified himself, per protocol.
2. The officer was smart in not turning his back on Gates, especially before he knew who Gates was, and certainly after he knew who Gates was, given the belligerence and escalating anger Gates expressed.
3. The cop warned Gates to calm down or he would have to arrest him.
4. Gates disobeyed the officer repeatedly. Despite what our society may think, when an officer of the law orders you to do something, you are required – by law – to cooperate.
5. The officer could not just leave the scene, given Gates continued and increasingly angry behavior. The officer is never to assume that the confrontational person is going to just calm down after the officer leaves the scene. That person's anger might be out of control, in which case, the person might be capable of inflicting harm on innocent bystanders – or on the other officers who were present.
Obama, as an outsider to all things American, especially our laws, spoke rashly and stupidly. He may have just "jumped the shark" with his comment. I guess we'll see as this stupid little incident, that certainly didn't rate front page news, is played out.July 24, 2009 - 7:31 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
That's my take on this episode. Officer Crowley was following protocol. The pointy-headed history prof was in the wrong, and now he's doubling down on his rogue-racist cop story because he's too vain to admit it. For any Boston area burglar the safest place to hit tonight is Professor Gates' home. He'll look like a fool if he calls the cops, and they may not show up too quickly knowing what's in store for them. Justice is served.
And for Obama, this is like a child's parable: The President Who Cried Wolf. IMO, he has lost all credibility to speak on race issues in this country. That may be the real fallout from this very minor incident.July 24, 2009 - 8:32 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
123. davidt
Next comes the media digging in the dumpster behind Crowely's home.July 24, 2009 - 9:20 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
124. newscaper
SAF said
"Personally I find only one thing surprising in his presidency: That he upped the heat in Afghanistan."
Upping the ante (perhaps not wisely) there, and things like welshing on many of his promises to the lefties about undoing all the Bush anti-terror policies are flukes in terms of his larger approach to foreign policy (which is Carteresque weakness in all other aspects).
The reasons for these exceptions are pure political motivations: 1)wrt Afghanistan, its purely about a fig leaf of cover for dodging charges of spinelessness, posturing about that as the 'good war' in order to bash Bush for Iraq. Its a phony hawkishness so people can't [as readily] accuse him f being your garden variety liberal pacifist/defeatist.
2) wrt domestic security — that's more specifically about defending the flanks of his #1 goal, which is apparently turning the US euro-socialist on the economic front, in fact if not in name. He knows that a US attack after him gutting Bush policies is deadliest vulnerability of his Presidency.
It's purely a case of him doing a [very] few of the right things for the wrong (or inadequate) reasons, political calculation, and not that he is presumably more genuinely moderate in these areas.July 24, 2009 - 9:21 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
125. D'oh!
Calibrate this, Barry.July 24, 2009 - 9:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
126. Joseph
"Has it occured to you that if your insurance company won't pay, you have other options."
Please tell me what options one has if you are seriously ill and your insurance company won't pay for your treatment. I guess you can sue and your heirs would benefit. Now you may be right about how bad government health care is but I beg you to consider the plight of all those without any health insurance and without the means to pay for it. I don't care if you have wonderful coverage go to a big city emergency room and you will wait like everyone else. I don't know the answer but it ain't the status quo.July 24, 2009 - 9:51 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
127. Michael
An interesting point, comparing Obama at least in part to Nixon. Latest polls put Obama with lower approval ratings than Nixon at this point in their respective Presidencies. Just an interesting point.July 24, 2009 - 10:13 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
128. Jeffrey
If he were a rational man he would have done as VDH suggests. If he were a moral man he would respect the rights of the citizens and seek the truth before speaking. If he loved the country which has given him so much he would uphold its founding values.
Instead he possesses a criminal mind with the stupid arrogance of a mob boss, he can never fully admit wrong doing, it will always be someone else's fault. He depends on cunning lieutenants and uses lies and deception to get his way. He uses enforcers to arm twist and leg break to ensure his policies are carried out.
He is destined for a fall and a spectacular one at that. There is no other route for him to take. It would be wise and prudent for those close to him to find some distance lest they fall too.July 24, 2009 - 11:09 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
129. Marc Malone
Krauthammer said something great (as he so often does) on Special Report, "Obama's intellect collides with his arrogance."
Pure poetry!July 25, 2009 - 1:42 am Link to this Comment | Reply
130. Realist
96% of Blacks vote in a BLATANTLY RACIST way for the Obamanation. 89% of violent crimes including murder are committed by Blacks/Hispanics. However if you took your que from Hollywood and TV they ALWAYS have a Black as the hero/brilliant scientist/leader of any group/computer expert/prime suspect but ALWAYS innocent/quirky villain with a heart of gold/the BOSS be it Police or ANY Organization and if the hero is white his bestest most true friend ever. Now THAT is RACISM.July 25, 2009 - 4:01 am Link to this Comment | Reply
131. Nick Reynolds
He can only be who he truly is and he is PRESIDENT STUPIDLY! That is how I will address him going forward . . . PRESIDENT STUPIDLY! It has a certain ring to it, a certain panache . . . PRESIDENT STUPIDLY!
Heh.July 25, 2009 - 4:44 am Link to this Comment | Reply
132. Moptop
"I beg you to consider the plight of all those without any health insurance and without the means to pay for it."
Really, so let me get this straight, they are 300% of the poverty level or so, so they are not eligible for govt help. Somehow they were gambling that they didn't need insurance and spending the money on other things, you know, like a nicer car or a better house. Then they lost their bet and this is my problem.
If the poor really couldn't get health care, I would be with you, but I would like an example of somebody who couldn't get a proven life saving course of treatment from their insurance company.
I can tell you now that Obama is looking at "bending the cost curve" of medicare by denying treatments on account of age in some kind of cost benefit analysis. As if a grandchild's years with his or her grandparent can be cost quantified.July 25, 2009 - 4:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply
133. Moptop
I am glad to see you put the part in at the end about your scenario being "ridiculous". It remains to be seen though, how he will act when he has his wings clipped by losing one or both houses of Congress in '10. I live in the deepest, bluest state of Vermont. But I will cross the border to upstate NY and work for Republicans who have a chance in '10.
We have seen what not working on politics gets us.July 25, 2009 - 4:59 am Link to this Comment | Reply
134. Fred
VDH, you just described what would have been the McCain Administration. Still a drift to the left, but not the suicide march that we have now.July 25, 2009 - 5:40 am Link to this Comment | Reply
135. analogy
This is the candidate that moderate Democrats and Independents thought they were electing.
Instead, as Republicans warned long before November, they've elected the most Leftist radical in history.
And McCain, one of the true Mavericks, a centrist with a thirty year record, was bashed by Obama's cadres as a fiercely radical conservative, as the media kept quiet?July 25, 2009 - 6:06 am Link to this Comment | Reply
136. Gail
With respective to the issue of Obama as a narcissist, I found the following discussion by Sam Vaknin of what happens when a narcissist's world starts to unravel. Also note at the beginning of this excerpt that a narcissist can also evolve from a form of parental abuse where the child is pampered and idolized – does this better match the Obama situation?
The Vaknin extract is at: http://samvak.tripod.com/journal42.html
What concerns me about Obama is that the White House can rapidly become an environment where the President is in a cocoon — that no one wants to tell the emperor that he has no clothes. (This normally happens when the President does not encourage and is not open to a diversity of opinion, but rather insists on uniform group think. If, in fact, Obama has this sort of serious personality issue, and if the advisors are also equally out of touch with reality or have their own serious power goals (as well as unable to influence or advise the boss honestly), we have a real problem. Quite honestly, the bit at the end of the press conference re the Gates affair does not seem like the sort of thing any seasoned political operator would devise or encourage. I think there is some decent probability that Obama wanted to do this and they couldn't stop him; the best they could do was tell him to leave it optional and at the end. Obama just had to do it, and now he bears the cost of reality. And we now have the benefit of getting a major chink in the Obama armor.July 25, 2009 - 6:15 am Link to this Comment | Reply
137. Flyingright
Excellent piece Dr. Hanson! This president has turned out to be everything conservatives feared. The only surprise for me, is the blinding speed he has employed to move his agenda forward- all during a severe recession!
We chuckled about his background as a community organizer during the campaign. Now we can see how he is reshaping this country in the image of ACORN. Waiting for the coming crash and burn is excrutiating and I have to wonder what this great country will look like when it inevitably occurs.July 25, 2009 - 6:38 am Link to this Comment | Reply
138. ginaswo/mim
moderate Dem here. Supported Hill all the way through maxd out contributions, rallied, cheered, screamed at the cheating DNC daily, sent in cans (can i get a revote MI FL) Shoes (walk a mile in our shoes) name it we did it
the fix was in they the leadership not the mod dems, wanted obama
voted for MAC Palin
knew Barry was a malignant narcissist, no one would listen, and HoDe and Nancy are just like him so that was no bar to POTUS for them
I was in my 20s when Big Dawg was elected and so I dont remember the pre 93 Big Dawg really. He was always a smart, moderate, intelligent, driven, fiscally stable, surplus growing DEM in my mind
what the press has done is criminal and I have said from the beginning Axelrasputin is dangerous to America…July 25, 2009 - 6:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply
139. Jack Marcotte
Essential vdh
America is at a crossroads and BHO is a symptom of the problem not the cause. He is a result of this pernicious problem as are his cronies and mentors including his communist mother. This process will eventually destroy America unless stopped. America needs to renew itself by reviving the founding fathers principles and adhering to them. To assume that after a mere 250 years the reasoning of the founding fathers is outdated is ignorance, arrogance and a cover up of political power grabs that greedy politicians need to gain access to American citizen's assets.
This destruction of the original values of America is presented in Utopian language and is used to rationalize the current political process of destruction that is going on in America.
It is simply communism that as always is presented in Utopian words that fool the fools especially the greedy. There of course is nothing new about promising something for nothing. The flim flam snake oil salesmen have been doing it since time began and more than 5 people could be found in a group.
Should these dumbed down PC Utopian words be allowed to destroy America simply because we have a congress of fools, supported by the MSM and various Academic institutions of higher learning?
These institutions have their fair share of "professors" who find it easier to live with the Utopian language of subversive communism that the real world business of America.
Consider the example of "distinguished" Professor Gates, of Harvard, who has demonstrated himself a Black man with the brain of an idiot. Gates spouts nothing but racially motivated stereotype invectives supported by the Utopian language of subversion, in his own "defense". A "defense" when he would not have even needed to be defensive but just let the "white" Cop do his job and thank him for it.
The Cop had many reasons to support how he handled himself, Gates had none, and he was too ignorant and subversively indoctrinated and motivated to know what actually was happening.
I submit Harvard is the Problem not the idiot professor. He demonstrated who he was and has been. He in fact as demonstrated is an Affirmative Action and Politically correct employee of Harvard. If Harvard didn't know who he was why should they have hired him and simply fed his ego with tax payer money. Harvard is contributing to the subversion of America by hiring "racial radicals such as Gates in
BHO demonstrated the same ability by commenting on the "stupidity" of the cop.July 25, 2009 - 7:15 am Link to this Comment | Reply
140. BillJ
It must be sheer hell to be a disrespected megalomaniac–July 25, 2009 - 8:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply
141. Blue Eyed Indian
There is no doubt in my mind that someone is pulling this man's(Obama)chain. There are many clues out there but no one seems to be able to put them all together. Where is the conservative Woodward type when we need him?July 25, 2009 - 8:31 am Link to this Comment | Reply
142. Steve
Anyone who truly researched Obama's background would have realized that this kind of potential behavior once elected would be a pipe dream.July 25, 2009 - 8:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply
143. Skypilot
Obama's performance can be criticized apart from his political stance.
He acts like an interim leader sent in to clean house by a cabal of disaffected board members. He's a short termer with no genuine commitment to the future or sustainability to bring change before he gets fired. As result, he displays an appalling lack of understanding of what is going on his watch. For his VP Biden that they misread the economy is a basis for most CEO to be shown the door.
His lack of executive experience has been of display since the election. Runnng a good marketing campaign doesn't mean you can run GM.
A even marginal executive experience would have showed him that he first had to win the opposition, take care of the finances and draft a plan of change going forward that was realistic and achievable. He has done none of this. He has daily paraded his own personal ideological agenda thinking that is what people elected him to do. During the campaign, I asked my friends who were rabid Obama supporters about his policies. Not only did they not know what he stood for, but were incensed that I would challenge their judgment of the man. I gave up because their cognitive dissonance threaten our friendship and work relationships.
We now have an interim president, for whom the next president will also be an interim, because he or she will be cleaning up the mess of this one. Couldn't have come at a worse time.July 25, 2009 - 9:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply
144. jaafar
There are a number of comments blaming "the American people" for voting wrong. That's on target, but let's not forget WHO NOMINATED HIM FOR THE PRESIDENCY. Maybe the Democrats can learn something from all this: nominating someone for the Presidency of the United States is serious business. PLEASE: No more of such as John Kerry, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, or Walter Mondale. Think Liebermann (or did the Democrats kick him out? I forget.)July 25, 2009 - 9:36 am Link to this Comment | Reply
145. Art De Vany
Brilliant.July 25, 2009 - 11:10 am Link to this Comment | Reply
146. Yehudit
Excellent list Victor, here are several more:
He listens to the more free-market oriented of his advisors, if only because he really wants to get more revenue for his pet projects, therefore understands why the Bush tax cuts worked in 2001. On Nov 5th he promises NOT to raise capital gains taxes, understanding that the markets will recover and the Treasury will get more revenue if people are relieved that their investments wont be penalized. The stock market does not plunge and in fact begins to recover as uncertainty is removed.
He is humbler about his lack of experience and eager to delegate so he buckles down to learn how to inhabit the Office of the President. Before entertaining heads of state and diplomats he seeks out those experienced in protocol so he can do the right thing.
Even if his leftist background has left him with stereotypes about capitalism and CEOs, he is eager to repudiate his Chicago reputation, and is respectful enough of his office and the Constitution, that he wouldn't dream of strong-arming business leaders (or anyone for that matter). As he triangulates away from Pelosi & Co, and because he respects the Constitution, he mildly rebukes their "soak-the-rich" populism and does not willy-nilly invade private industries. The GM and Chrysler bankruptcies proceed in a lawful fashion. AIG gets jerked around in Congress some, but the showboating dissipates quickly.July 25, 2009 - 12:18 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
147. Yehudit
Ginaswo, I have met more moderate liberal Hillary supporters who felt like you do about Obama. I don't know if this also describes you, but they not only voted for McCain, but love Sarah Palin. They know some of her views contradict their own, but they understand her character and love her genuine feminism. This gives me hope for our republic, that many moderates won't be defined by one issue like abortion, and do not let the media pull them around by the nose. At the NYC Teaparty this summer I met a legal immigrant Indian who wanted Hillary but wore a Sarah Palin t-shirt, and a Black whose parents immigrated from Haiti who also loves Sarah Palin because "she's one of us," not an elite.
(I came out for McCain right away but would have felt fairly safe with Hillary (and she wouldn't have chosen Biden!). BHO creeped me out from Day One. )July 25, 2009 - 12:32 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
148. Jack Marcotte
Essential vdh
In the past, new immigrants and poor Americans with their minds, hands, and sweat planned and built huge fortunes and then paid America back.
They created foundations, they built libraries, and they funded Universities. A little town in Kansas has a library built by Andrew Carnegie, in fact many do.
These "type of people" are now the enemy in this class warfare struggle as stated by Obama and political cronies using words right out of the Communist Manifesto.
BHO and his cronies are now simply liars and thieves of American truth and value and they now lead America like a Judas goat into communism and socialism— he is the POTUS. A nasty wizard of Oz, an indoctrinated communist hidden under a curtain spouting Utopian words and thoughts to fearful fools that make up his following.
Now any American criticizing Obama is a racist by definition. As is the cop who was doing his job protecting the "distinguished Professor from Harvard" while being subjected to verbal abuse by the "distinguished Professor from Harvard". The cop sentenced by BHO as stupid. Now BHO is trying to "recalibrate" that word.
This "sentence" of racism "only committed by whites" is handed out by the dumbed down MSM that is like a 5th column for America's destruction. The MSM weakens the founding fathers political system of America even further. A "free press" and they have reduced themselves to BHO's Gestapo.
Now the MSM is indoctrinated and subversive with not even the awareness needed to be called human. They are a disgrace.
90% of the current and ongoing MSM comments about any subject, such as politics, Gates or Global warming are a lie and represent propaganda for the Obama regime.
There is no commonsense or rational debate now. Only "recalibration" No real knowledge of the subject within MSM. Only political outcomes are important.
The teleprompter journalists within the MSM are mere puppets in a play they do not understand nor even care to if it interferes with their career. A Katie Couric is the poster girl for this group of idiots.
The MSM is truly ignorant and for the most part stupid with almost no insight on what the parroted words on the teleprompter mean. Listen to that idiot on Fox, H. Rivera on Gates and his actions when talking without a teleprompter. He loves adding fuel to a non existent fire.
Just listen to Obama or Nancy Pelosi talk about criticism that is leveled at policy. They attack it not with specific answers but with shouts of racism and blocking of progress.
Obama a POTUS cannot even talk about a "black friend" that was arrested trying to get into his own house by having to break in without implying the cops were racist and stupid.
There should be no doubt where and what voting Americans need to do in the elections if they want America back.July 25, 2009 - 12:50 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
149. gracie
Obama doesn't know what a hard day's work is all about.July 25, 2009 - 2:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
150. Jack Marcotte
Essential vdh
In the past, new immigrants and poor Americans with their minds, hands, and sweat planned and built huge fortunes and then paid America back.
They created foundations, they built libraries, and they funded Universities. A little town in Kansas has a library built by Andrew Carnegie, in fact many do. I was aware of that fact when I checked books out.
These "type of people, the rich" are now the enemy in this "static" class warfare struggle as stated by Obama and political cronies using words right out of the Communist Manifesto. Indoctrinated by American PC and subversive Institutions
BHO and his cronies are now simply liars and thieves of American truth and value and they now lead America like Judas goats into communism and socialism— he is the POTUS. A nasty wizard of Oz, an indoctrinated communist with a background closer to petty crime perp Al Sharpton.
The real BHO is hidden under a curtain spouting Utopian words and thoughts to fearful fools that make up his following.
Now any American criticizing Obama is a racist by definition. As is the cop who was doing his job. Or a Joe the Plumber. This "sentence" is handed out by the dumbed down MSM and some government bureaucrats that are like a 5th column for America's destruction.
The MSM weakens the founding fathers political system of America even further. A "free press" and yet the MSM have reduced themselves to BHO's Gestapo.
Now the MSM is indoctrinated and subversive with not even the awareness needed to be called human or rational.
The MSM "reporters" are a disgrace. Ninety percent of the current and ongoing MSM comments about any subject, such as politics or Global warming are a lie and represent ignorance and propaganda for the Obama regime. The 10% left is the fig leaf to add credibility to the lies.
There is no common sense or rational debate now. No real knowledge of the subject discussed or shown within MSM. Only political outcomes are important.
The teleprompter journalists within the MSM are mere puppets in a play they do not understand nor even care to if it interferes with their career.
A Katie Couric is the poster girl for this group of MSM idiots. Truly ignorant and for the most part stupid with almost no insight on what the parroted words on the teleprompter mean.
Just listen to Obama or Nancy Pelosi talk about criticism that is leveled at policy. They attack it not with specific answers but with muted and indirect shouts of racism and blocking of progress.
Obama, a POTUS during a speech on "Health Care", using a subversive slant, while admitting not knowing the facts, mentions a "black friend" that was arrested trying to get into his own house by having to break in—implying the cops who were called by a neighbour, were racist and stupid while trying to sort the break in out. He actually used the word stupid. It is currently being "calibrated".
BHO believes that all Americans are so dumb that this is a humorous game with "do-overs" if his initial and true meaning was understood as it was ment. To further divide America along racial lines but also to imply that because of this "racism" in America we now deserve only BHO as our President. Only he can give lie to this "racism" that exists in America.
Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson could not have set up this demonstration by BHO of extortion and blackmail any better.
America to what end will this subversion bring us. To a bad end if we do not start thinking about and understanding that the democratic Republic of America is under attack and not a shot is being fired. Even our ballots are being stuffed by a criminal element called Acorn funded by the US Government.
This is occurring while crony capitalism run by University educated Utopian indoctrinated kleptos is being presented as the true "free Market that just needs to be regulated and owned partially by the unions and federal government to protect all". All the while destroying private equity owned by American citizens.
This seizure and control is outside the law. How is it being accomplished? What lies are being told to Americans to let it happen? Where is our Supreme Court and the other "Checks and Balances"?
However stated we the people cannot even vote on it, or know about it. Even the idiot elected representative cannot even know but still vote as told. What a disgrace! Americans, the people's elected representatives whipped by idiots and one a women.
The truly ignorant and idiot Nancy Pelosi stands guard at the wizards gate to not let any light be shed on the documents of enslavement for America. Loss of choice! loss of choice what does that mean to you.
What did the Jews know when they were being transported to the gas chambers, "to take showers, after all they were dirty". I often wondered why they did not rebel and fight.
Will others be wondering about Americans the same as the Jews when this is all over. Why was it so easy? They must have lost their ability, bravery, and became cowards willing to believe any story as long as they did not have to really fight or do anything but get on the train with all the others. By then voting was not even an option.July 25, 2009 - 3:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
151. Joe
Clinton wasn't Clinton until the Democrats in Congress were massacred.July 25, 2009 - 3:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
152. Meryl
You know what's really, seriously frightening?
obama has known for years who he is and what his hopes and plans "for" the country were.
And as his exposure (as incompetent, unAmerican, Constitution-hating, immature, arrogant, lying, inexperienced, thoughtless, stupid, etc……) continues, he "doesn't have to care" how he is perceived.
He's set for life regardless.
So he can just concentrate on causing the maximum amount of damage to the country in whatever time remains to him.
Unless (and this is a big "unless") some of those "checks and balances" referred to by another poster become SOMEONE'S GOAL.
Each of them took an oath.
We're finding out how much it was worth.
Words. Just words.
Anyway. He's set for life. No matter what. Courtesy of the taxpayers. No matter what.
He has nothing to gain by changing his behavior.
He's got nothing to lose, because no one is a real threat to him.
Does this not scare you?
Wouldn't the picture be different if Ted Nugent, Bill Cosby, Thomas Sowell, and Mark Levin were in Congress? And a bunch of you guys whose names are not known–you'd be great, right alongside them.
We don't need famous people.
We need honest people who think being American is still worth living and dying for.
Apparently no one who is there now thinks it is.
2010: Cleanup on Aisle AmericaJuly 25, 2009 - 4:39 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
"…it seems the color of your skin can influence how your doctor treats you." (Topic of a headline article at CNN)
Completely predictable.July 25, 2009 - 6:09 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
154. ~Paules
140. Gail
Thanks for the link. It answers some questions in earlier comments. My intuition is flashing red danger lights at this point. The feeling is totally subjective, but there's something not right with our president. My best guess is that when things start to go seriously wrong, Mr. Obama is going to unravel. The press will do everything it can to provide cover for the meltdown, but eventually Mr. Obama will say or do something so totally off the wall that his mental fitness for the job will be called into question. The Gates incident has certainly called his judgement to account.
If my prediction above comes true (and I'm not the only one pursuing this line of reasoning), it will validate PJM, and the rest of the conservative blogosphere, as a legitimate source for insightful commentary. That's heavy. It means the barons who control our information stream will be discredited once and for all.
I was at a faculty meeting not long ago when someone said, "you don't know what you don't know." True enough. But someone else in my circle does know what I don't know. What I'm trying to infer here is that these comment threads have legitimate value in discovering the truth. It's like the process of distillation. Throw all your ingredients in a tank and apply heat. Hopefully, the end result will be a drop of truth.July 25, 2009 - 6:35 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
155. Joseph
136. Moptop:
"…but I would like an example of somebody who couldn't get a proven life saving course of treatment from their insurance company."
"# A 17-year old died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Teen_dies_after_insurance_nixes_transplant_1221.html"
"# At the last minute, insurance company cancels brain tumor operation recommended by doctors: http://cbs5.com/investigates/cancer.treatment.denied.2.1007394.html"
"# Insurance company retroactively cancels insurance for pre-existing condition of "acne" when patient gets breast cancer:http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/16/health.care.hearing/index.html"
How do you like them apples?July 25, 2009 - 11:57 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
156. Miriam
"People elected him to show off a black man and he was trained in the manner of a communist. It was a perfect combination. I wish Bush was back."
- I wish Bush were black.July 26, 2009 - 12:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
157. Miriam
Correction – I wish Bush was black.July 26, 2009 - 12:50 am Link to this Comment | Reply
158. capcap
I was pretty sure Obama would go this direction, but I have nonetheless been astounded at how far and how quickly he has "led" us down the destructive path of socialism. 2010 Cannot get here fast enough for me!July 26, 2009 - 4:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply
159. pelaut
Obama legacy may be that he broke the chains of the "white guilt" canard and, God help us, summoned infernal resentments from non-blacks.July 26, 2009 - 7:01 am Link to this Comment | Reply
160. Robert Morris
So when the Obama administration implodes in a manner similar to the Nixon Administration? So when Barak Obama is staring at the likelihood of his own impeachment?
In that case hope that the community mostly served by organizers learned some shame from the Orenthal James Simpson trial. In that case, "their" guy got away with murder.
Would a significant some really want Barak Obama and his cronies to get away with crimes against the people because the leader happens to be black? Seriously, these people are funneling unaccountable TRILLIONS. And it's all good.July 26, 2009 - 7:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply
161. ding
Where are the trolls? Must be getting harder to face the harsh light of reality.July 26, 2009 - 9:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
162. Steve DeMarcus
I used to despise Bill Clinton and seeing him all the time but this is now replaced with Barak Obama who is the worst ever, the only good that came from Bill Clinton was when the Republicans took over the house and in this case I hope the same occurs and this time the impeachment goes to full conviction and removal from office.July 26, 2009 - 12:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
163. BrainTrust
David Axelrod is the troll to be feared. This marketing guru is the master of Machevellian strategy and is the brain behind the empty tee shirt. He saw Obama's pathological ego self absorption and the control freak tendencies and has worked them into an art. Who do you think controls the words on the telepromptor?July 26, 2009 - 2:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
164. Marc Malone
#160 & 161 Miriam = You had it right the first time. I wish Bush WERE black. Conditional tense.
#137 Moptop – I know VT seems very liberal, but it has put through balanced budgets every year since '91. It is not as liberal as you think. If candidates were to run on fiscal discipline, I think they'd have a chance to unseat the Dems there.
Before '92, VT always voted Pub. They could again. Focus on getting Bernie Sanders out in 2010. It would be a signal moment in this country. He calls himself a democratic socialist. Call him a Socialist! Work on your State.
It could make a huge difference in the 2012 Prez campaign if those 3 electoral votes were to be Pub. That's a 6-point swing. Another swing State? Great!July 27, 2009 - 1:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply
165. ReConUSMC
62. Immanuel Goldstein:
HER HEALTH CARE 2 TRILLION DOLLAR BILL EVEN RAN BLUE DOGS OFF , CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS AND EVEN SOCIALIST LIBERALS OFFAS WELL ALLOWING THE REPUBLICANS TO TAKE OVER THE HOUSE AND SENATE WITH THE LARGEST CHANGE OVER EVER ….. REMEMBER NUTE G.TOOK COMMAND WITH HIS 10 POINT BETTER FOR AMERICA PLAN .July 27, 2009 - 4:46 am Link to this Comment | Reply
166. ReConUSMC
Simply put, but profound…… Are we getting the message yet???
Subject: You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it
What a profound short little paragraph that says it all
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." ~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931July 27, 2009 - 7:23 am Link to this Comment | Reply
167. Meryl
62. Immanuel Goldstein
"It should have been obvious to anybody who was paying attention last year that Obama was a hard core ideological leftist."
It was.
It just so unfortunate that so few were.July 27, 2009 - 7:32 am Link to this Comment | Reply
168. David H
Just watched "Independence Day" the other night. I'll take Bill Pullman in character in that movie over BO. Is this how libs felt when Bush took office?July 27, 2009 - 8:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply
169. annie
Watch GLEN BECK show this afternoon.
video, to help us see where our 1st amendment is headed, that is if you are NOT black or with ACORN.July 27, 2009 - 8:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
170. Linda Rivera
Obama promised HOPE and CHANGE. The media never asked what frightening changes Obama planned for Americans.
July 22, 2009
Obamacare for old folks: Just 'cut your life short'
Health plan provision demands 'end-of-life' counseling
By Bob Unruh
The version of President Obama's universal health care plan pending in the U.S. House would require "end-of-life" counseling for senior citizens, and the former lieutenant governor for the state of New York is warning people to "protect their parents" from the measure.
At issue is section 1233 of the legislative proposal that deals with a government requirement for an "Advance Care Planning Consultation."
Betsy McCaughey, the former New York state officer, told former president candidate Fred Thompson during an interview on his radio program the "consultation" is no more or less than an attempt to convince seniors to die.
"One of the most shocking things is page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory absolutely that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session," she said. "They will tell [them] how to end their life sooner."
McCaughey also said the Obama administration is suggesting that medical care be withheld from seniors based on the expected years they have left to live.
Obama's Civilian National Security Force
Obama promised change. The End of America as we know it:
Obama: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
PRAVDA: America's Descent into Marxism – Brief Video
http://www.solutionsfromscience.com/July 27, 2009 - 12:08 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
171. Mike
Professor you are dead on. Just wondering what the Liberal media would have reported on if this was George W. Bush's 1st 6 months? Probably not Gov. Palin. These people should be ashamed. Do they ever look in the mirror and like what they see? This country needs a bunch of soul-searching. What ever happened to "Love thy neighbor" or "random acts of kindness"?July 27, 2009 - 12:12 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
172. Elaine
No.13 Paules,
Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fueher
Your intuition is correct: Narcissism
Copy this in another window and read it later. If you accept nothing but truth, read this.
This article is not about faith, as it is about who we have elected President. After reading this, you can't say that you never knew.
………. http://www.faithfreedom.org/obama.htmlJuly 28, 2009 - 12:05 am Link to this Comment | Reply
173. author
commentApril 6, 2012 - 8:54 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
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