Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
Two doesn't make a trend, but taken together with Mollie's post below, it certainly looks like President Obama is in trouble -- at least, out there in grassroots-land if not in the national lickspittle Obama-besotted press. From the Chicago Tribune:
When President Barack Obama hauled off and slapped American small-business owners in the mouth the other day, I wanted to dream of my father.
There was no federal bailout money for us. No Republican corporate welfare. No Democratic handouts. No bipartisan lobbyists working the angles. No Tony Rezkos. No offshore accounts. No Obama bucks.
Just two immigrant brothers and their families risking everything, balancing on the economic high wire, building a business in America. They sacrificed, paid their bills, counted pennies to pay rent and purchase health care and food and not much else. And for their troubles they were muscled by the politicos, by the city inspectors and the chiselers and the weasels, all those smiling extortionists who held the government hammer over all of our heads.
I thought about this after I heard what Obama told a campaign crowd the other day, speaking about business owners and why they were successful.
And then it gets personal:
Obama's changed. Gone is that young knight drawing the sword from the stone, selling Hopium to the adoring media, preaching an end to the broken politics of the past. These days, he wears a new presidential persona: the multimillionaire with the Chicago clout, playing the class warrior, fighting for that second term.
And he offers an American dream much different from my father's. Open your eyes and you can see it too. He stands there at the front of the mob, in his shirt sleeves, swinging that government hammer, exhorting the crowd to use its votes and take what it wants.
I have a tin ear, sometimes, for this kind of thing. But how bad is this comment going to be for the president? We all spend time scanning the headlines and the web for the first sign of a Helmet Incident -- you remember that famous (and deadly) photo of Michael Dukakis, in 1988, wearing an absurd tank helmet? -- and some might say it's Romney's tax issue, some might say it's something else.
But it might be the moment when a sitting president told small business owners that someone else got up in the morning and went to bed late and scrimped and saved and built their business.
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Mar '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
I hope and pray that you are right. Obama's comments go to the heart of his belief system. And his beliefs are an electoral loser in America today.
Let's hope everyone who votes keeps this in mind.
Mar '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
What issue? - oh, you mean that Mr Romney is not following instructions from the Democrats and MSM (but I repeat myself) to release 10 years of returns, rather than the 1 required? How dare he!
As for Mr Obama's helmet, it's more a case of it slipping off, revealing the Marxism underneath.
The fact that he was riding atop a T72 might also be a clue?
Edited on July 18, 2012 at 6:18pmDec '10
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
Might help if the link to the column goes viral. As for it being a symptom of a wider distaste for the President on the part of small businessmen and those who know what small businessmen do and have done to build America. well, there are lots more worker drones than entrepreneurs in the US - so it behooves us to spread these stories and educate the masses.
Nov '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
He managed not only to be wrong, but to word it in an incredibly offensive way. And you don't have to be a small business owner to find it offensive.
Sure, the context maybe makes it very slightly less offensive. It just doesn't make it less wrong.
Jun '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
John Kass writes the best non-partisan political column in the country. He's a throwback to the old Chicago newspapermen who figured everybody they covered was a crook and nobody down at City Hall was "on the level." Even when you disagree with Kass he's still one of the few must-reads out there. This column is a great example of what he can do to a political hack who doesn't know what the heck he's talking about.
Jan '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
I'm not so sure. Most people have already taken Obama's measure and know what they think of him. Even if you consider the independents and their notoriously limited attention span, Obama has been the most famous man in the world for the last four years. Surely a new round of advertising isn't going to suddenly make people aware of him who weren't aware before.I suspect that whatever people will think about him in November, they already think it now.
As bad as Obama is, at least he's a known bad. The same can't be said for Romney. Romney is the variable, not Obama. Things are bad under Obama, but they're trying to argue that things will be even worse under Romney. It's what we don't know about Romney that drives the Obama strategy, so the idea that he's hiding his tax returns is just what they want. It's nonsense, of course, but it fits their strategy.
What killed McCain in 2008 was his volatility. He was actually ahead until it looked like he panicked. Romney should play it steady and predictable.
Jun '12
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
If it isn't, the country is already lost.
Aug '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
I've wondered the same thing, too, Rob. Will we look back at this campaign and see this horrible speech by the President as the moment he lost 2012? (Yes, I'm probably wishcasting.) I'm hearing negative reactions to this speech from friends who don't normally have political reactions.
Sep '10
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
The Romney campaign should play that tape over and over up through the election, because it's the video equivalent of a toothache. No matter how many times it gets replayed, it will be just as bad the 100th time as the first. It's inspired a lot of outrage on my Facebook feed, including friends who are usually apolitical on FB.
Oct '10
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
Worth it for the term "lickspittle" alone. The LickSpittle Media, or LSM. Lickspittle: toady - bootlicker - sycophant - groveller - truckler.
And I find that Merriam-Webster is ahead of me, their example being:
Perhaps the tide has turned!
Jun '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
Such a moment is "The Dead Zone" dream: a pic of a lib holding a kid in front of him as a shield, then the scales drop from everyone's eyes. Not happening, sadly.
Jun '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
There's actually a major difference between the Obama speech and the Dukakis tank moment.
Dukakis looked ridiculous precisely because he was trying to be something/someone he clearly wasn't: a tough guy with a strong affinity for the military.
Obama's speech is frightening, not comedic, precisely because it reveals him for who he truly is: a statist with an almost hateful (yes, hateful) view of free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the rights of the individual v the collective.
Jul '12
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
My guess is that the damage from this comment will be sufficient that his campaign handlers are going to bristle at any suggestion the President go off-prompter at any point between now and the debates.
He can't unring this bell, and the attack ad pretty much writes itself.
Jan '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
Every small diner that Mitt Romney goes to, he should say "I know you built this yourself". Every little mom and pop operation he visits, he should compliment them and say "I know you built this yourself". To the public, he should say we are all helping build this country. We're all doing it. And we don't need the government to tell us our contributions don't matter
Sep '10
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
Overheard at the market yesterday:
"Looks like the President needs to get some big boy pants soon cuz he appears to have wet the ones he's wearing."
(Not sure if that's CoC compliant but hey, I'm a figment of my own imagination!)
May '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
"Hopium." What a wonderful, one word description of what happened in 2008 and so appropriate to the Left.
Feb '12
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
I couldn't agree more. Kass always does thoughtful, independent work, and can be counted on to gore every ox that needs goring.
To Rob's question, I am not sure that Kass's dissatisfaction here can be taken as an indication of a change in the mood of likely voters. There are so many voters who believe that any inequality of ownership is unjust, or who are accustomed to voting themselves benefits, that I am not sure that Obama's recent statements will matter much at all. So many believe that - as has been advocated by the Left since more than a century, and as was taught to me in public school history classes - private business is the greatest threat and greater government control is the only solution. Voters listening to Obama today don't feel the economic threat of austerity in the way that voters looking at Dukakis in 1988 felt the military threat of the Soviet Union.
Edited on July 18, 2012 at 7:23pmNov '11
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
I wonder... Do they really? People are disappointed in Obama, but outside the conservative movement, there seem to be a lot who give him the benefit of the doubt to some degree. They think he's in over his head, but I don't know how many really recognize (despite the evidence) that the fundamental problem is his ideology. He usually cloaks that ideology well in his language, though not his actions. This time he let it slip in a big way.
Romney's response was an effective expression of something intrinsically American, and Obama's on the wrong side of it. If Romney keeps it up, explaining that this is why Obama isn't working, it might work.
Aug '10
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
I would venture to guess the probability is proportional to the repetition of the quote. Now who is gonna do that ? The NYT might have printed it once, page 43281 in the want ads, but won't revisit it.
We need to beat this drum loudly and ad infinitum, there is no mistaking the intent behind the words. And to think they tested this speech with Elizabeth Warren . And how.
Jun '12
Re: Barack Obama's Tank Helmet
As someone pointed out over on the Member Feed, a majority still believe that venture capitalists do a better job of creating jobs than government programs.
I know the parallel isn't exact, but it does indicate that Obama is expressing a view (government creates success) that still -- despite all the leftymedia has done -- runs counter to American beliefs.