Man of the (Amateur) Hour
In his Godawful speech today, Obama tried to be comforting:
No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a AAA country.
Which is quite possibly the worst line ever uttered by a United States president. It hurts as much to read as it did to hear.
But then, these days, listening to this president is always a chore. Even for his former acolytes, like Dana Milbank in the WaPo:
When he began his speech (and as cable news channels displayed for viewers), the Dow Jones industrials stood at 11,035. As he talked, the average fell below 11,000 for the first time in nine months, en route to a 635-point drop for the day, the worst since the 2008 crash.
It’s not exactly fair to blame Obama for the rout: Almost certainly, the markets ignored him. And that’s the problem: The most powerful man in the world seems strangely powerless, and irresolute, as larger forces bring down the country and his presidency.
And then a few graffs later, Milbank gets about as negative as a member of the Obama Cheerleading Squad is allowed to get:
Various reporters tried to elicit more information about Obama’s economic plans and deficit-reduction proposals, but Carney declined again to take the lead.
“I don’t want to get too far ahead of the process,” he explained to the Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler, adding that Obama “will be contributing to that process, not driving it or directing it.”
“Why?” inquired Politico’s Glenn Thrush. “He’s the leader of the free world. Why isn’t he leading this process?”
That is the enduring mystery of Obama’s presidency. He delivered his statement on the economy beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but that was as close as he came to forceful leadership. He looked grim and swallowed hard and frequently as he mixed fatalism (“markets will rise and fall”) with vague, patriotic exhortations (“this is the United States of America”).
“There will always be economic factors that we can’t control,” Obama said. Maybe. But it would be nice if the president gave it a try.
He was always an empty suit, without experience or sophistication, who could read words from a TelePrompTer with enough passion and conviction to win. Projecting onto that nothing canvas, a whole cadre of reporters and media elites saw what they wanted to see, and now that he's been revealed, they're mad....at him.
This is going to be an interesting campaign.
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Aug '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
They may be mad at him but they're sure as hell going to run a slash and burn campaign to make sure he is re-elected. Because winning is everything, fixing stuff is for afterwards.
May '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Where ya' been? They're mad... at the Tea Party. It's all the Tea Party's fault.
Dec '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Obama's reaction to, well, everything reminds me of a story my uncle once told. A man walked into his service station and announced that an agent at the employment office sent him there to seek employement. My uncle asked, "so you want a job?" The exasperated man replied, "That [explitive] didn't say nothing about no [explitive] job; he sent me here to seek employment!"
Obama wanted the title, not the work.
Edited on Aug 8, 2011 at 5:04pmJan '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Besides being an empty suit, he's a coward. He's 25 minutes late to deliver a prepared statement and doesn't answer any questions. Amen to Rush Limbaugh today - 'all he does is talk about the situation he inherited from Bush...he inherited an unemployment rate of 5.7% and a AAA bond rating'.
I realize I'm preaching to the choir here, but I'm finally seeing some cracks form in his base but more importantly the MSM - hopefully these fissures will widen and become permanent.
Jul '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Exactly. They're mad because they built him up so much that they look like fools now. But don't for a minute think they in any way are sympathetic to the right. So they're doubly mad because, in addition to looking like fools, they have to work overtime to drag his sorry carcass over the finish line in his re-election bid. If they didn't enjoy trashing Republicans so much, they'd find no pleasure whatsoever at this prospect.
Edited on Aug 8, 2011 at 5:20pmJan '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Leading from behind just isn't as easy as it sounds.
May '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Could it be that our passive president believes in the scientific view of history: namely that it is the product of faceless forces. He's waiting for the proletariate to throw off its chains maybe...
Jul '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
From day one this guy has defined what voting "present" means. Leaving aside for a moment the gawdawful policies (and they are just horrendous), Rob's got it right: what's this guy done other than deliver a speech shown on the PrompTer? He can't answer a question in a press conference without going straight back to the shibboleths of blame and obfuscate, he has no concrete policy for virtually anything at all (other than his disastrous budget that couldn't get one vote in the Senate), he seems entirely distant from the entire idea of doing anything at all except his golf game and name-calling. Really, if the MSM weren't carrying arks full of water, you can only imagine where he would actually be approval-rating wise. And then there's the policies that he does espouse. Tax, spend, browbeat our allies and try to make nice with the enemies. My goodness.
Nov '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
You give far more credit where credit is certainly not due. What traumatizes me most is the lackadaisical attitude of supposed capitalists toward an individual that clearly has been waging war against the free market system for some time now. He is far too educated and savvy for us to write this off as mere naivete and inexperience.
He is hardly an amateur!
Edited on Aug 8, 2011 at 5:41pmMar '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Rob Long:
He was always an empty suit, without experience or sophistication, who could read words from a TelePrompTer with enough passion and conviction to win. Projecting onto that nothing canvas, a whole cadre of reporters and media elites saw what they wanted to see, and now that he's been revealed, they're mad....at him.
Too right!
It was the liberal media who sold this pup. Not only did they project their wishes onto a blank cavas, they buried the truth. At the least, they should have explained what "community organizer" was a euphemism for.
Aug '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
I love this statement about his leadership as Mother Earth in the Arab Spring Musical.
"I will be contributing to that process, not driving it or directing it.”
or was that another show..?
(dont believe a word from Milbank, short memories handicap our views)
Nov '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Raw Prawn
It was the liberal media who sold this pup.
Yeah, but it was We The People who elected him.
Apr '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Obama is much like his policies - a vague abstraction.
Apr '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
I think their anger at him is more a general reaction to the fact that the liberal worldview is collapsing around them both here and in Europe. Obama was the crown jewel of the liberal march here in the States over the last 100 years (both in policy idealism and racial makeup) and was supposed to be a mandate to completely overhaul this country into their dream. The failure of these unbridled policies has created a sense of profound horror that this dream may be ending. These folks are taking it out on Obama, but you hear in the comments of Krugman and Kerry the desire to completely shut down any other points of view. It's as if the absence of the other "crazy, invalid" side would somehow magically make their policies more palatable and actually successful. In this light, these people have become a bit unhinged.
Jun '11
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Elizabeth Dunn
You give far more credit where credit is certainly not due. What traumatizes me most is the lackadaisical attitude of supposed capitalists toward an individual that clearly has been waging war against the free market system for some time now. He is far too educated and savvy for us to write this off as mere naivete and inexperience.
He is hardly an amateur!
· Aug 8 at 5:39pm
Edited on Aug 08 at 05:41 pm
I agree with Elizabeth. I have been looking for something positive as a business owner as long as Obama has been around. Nothing.
I hold Stanley Kutz's view in his book, and Rush, and it is obvious Obama is a "Rules for Radicals" Aylinsky follower.
He is a pro. A great 21st century liberal (a clandestine Marxist).
May '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
I'm not so sure, Rob - they seem more like frustrated fans who can't understand why their beloved slugger hesitates to swing for the fences.
They know he could smack those knuckle-draggers out of the park if he wasn't so doggone collegial!
Nov '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
Terrell David
Elizabeth Dunn
You give far more credit where credit is certainly not due. What traumatizes me most is the lackadaisical attitude of supposed capitalists toward an individual that clearly has been waging war against the free market system for some time now. He is far too educated and savvy for us to write this off as mere naivete and inexperience.
He is hardly an amateur!
· Aug 8 at 5:39pm
Edited on Aug 08 at 05:41 pm
I agree with Elizabeth. I have been looking for something positive as a business owner as long as Obama has been around. Nothing.
I hold Stanley Kutz's view in his book, and Rush, and it is obvious Obama is a "Rules for Radicals" Aylinsky follower.
He is a pro. A great 21st century liberal (a clandestine Marxist).
Exactly. And may I add, succinctly put.
Jun '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
If it makes black liberals feel better, Barack Obama was not raised inside black culture. Not at all. He was raised inside socialist culture. His mother was a socialist, his grandparents were socialists, and his early mentors were socialists. That doesn't make a person black. That makes him a socialist. I think someday, blacks will again claim Bill Clinton as first black President. At least Clinton grew up within sight and sound of black culture.
Aug '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
I was going to make a similar remark. Pres. Obama and the Left had these grandiose ideas of remaking the US: universal health care, cap and trade, deep cuts in defense, etc. The last three years have played against them to keep them from making those changes. At this point it's become plain to everyone that they know nothing of how handle these situations. Hence this whole idea of "leading from behind", "contributing to the process", and phoning in these speeches. They don't know what to do, because all they know is what they wanted to do. Pres. Obama doesn't get to do what he wants so he blames everyone else.
It's amazing how the narrative has switched since 2008...
Aug '10
Re: Man of the (Amateur) Hour
I know you can always tell a scandinavian... but you can't tell him much !
anyway, read this