Obama's Killer Rabbit
Two interesting data points:
1. The Senate is forgoing the traditional July 4th recess, in order to continue to negotiate a debt ceiling adjustment. From the WSJ:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) invited President Barack Obama to the Capitol Thursday afternoon to meet with Republicans as the brinksmanship over the debt ceiling continued.
Mr. McConnell said the president should meet with GOP lawmakers "any time this afternoon he's free" so he could hear "directly from them" that there isn't sufficient support to raise taxes as part of the debt-ceiling increase.
Mr. Obama is currently scheduled to have lunch at the White House with Vice President Joe Biden and then is supposed to travel to Philadelphia later in the day to speak at a campaign event hosted by the Democratic National Committee.
2. The Obama fundraising machine is in trouble. From the indispensable Jim Geraghty, in NRO:
...there’s some speculation that Obama’s fundraising numbers for the quarter ending today will be way below expectations.
Keith Koffler writes at White House Dossier, “The Obama campaign appears to be signaling that its fundraising totals for the second quarter of the year – the first since President Obama announced for reelection – will not be as robust as the campaign would like.
Campaign officials revealed during the last week that they have set a target of raising $60 million for the quarter from at least 450,000 donors. But even $60 million would not seem to be a very ambitious goal for Obama. He raised the same amount during the second quarter of 2007, just after he announced his 2008 campaign.
In an email to campaign supporters today, President Obama unmistakably sought to downplay money.
‘We’re closing the books on the first fundraising quarter of the 2012 race at midnight tomorrow. A lot of folks will be interpreting our numbers as a measure of this campaign’s support. They’re not wrong, but they are wrong about why. We measure our success not in dollars but in people — in the number of everyday Americans who’ve chosen to give whatever they can afford because they know we’ve got more work to do.’
Part of me always looks warily at these sorts of leading indicators, but we will know fairly soon if there’s a reason that the Obama team is emphasizing that they don’t measure their capability to successfully raise money by that traditional metric of money raised. In fact, if they don’t think the point of fundraising is to raise funds, that might explain a lot of their views on economics.
Mitch McConnell clearly thinks his side has the winning hand. That's the idea behind summoning the president to the Hill for a meeting. Whoever has the meeting on his turf has the leverage. Obama must know this, though it probably kills him.
A faltering fundraising effort just adds to the sense that this is a presidency flailing, ineffective, and weak.
We'll know it's over when Obama has his Killer Rabbit moment. That's the moment when a weak and failing presidency crosses over into farce. And it's awfully hard to come back from farce.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
So, We need a picture of Obama in a golf cart swinging a nine iron at McConnell in a sand trap.
Edited on Jun 30, 2011 at 9:22amMay '11
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Obama doesn't want the debt ceiling raised. After August 2 he will quit sending out Social Security checks and military pay and blame it on Republicans. That is his only hope for reelection.
Dec '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
What exactly did he expect to happen when he killed the wounded economy that supports his supporters? They ain't giving cause they ain't getting.
Aug '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Come on, Rob, you know comedy better than that. No one mocks a President based on dry numbers and projections; there's no instantly understandable imagery to laugh at.
Nothing beats small fuzzy animals on a rampage when you need a metaphor for a floundering Presidency.
Jun '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
If that picture of him on a girl's bike wasn't a killer rabbit moment, nothing will be.
May '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
The whole thing has been a farce, from the beginning. Nobel prize? Anita Dunn and Van Jones? Chicago Olympics, anyone? When hasn't it been a farce?
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Maybe this winter Obama will don a fuzzy cardigan and tell us all to turn down the thermostat.
Dec '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Jimmy Carter: So, We need a picture of Obama in a golf cart swinging a nine iron at McConnell in a sand trap.
Ha! Seriously, though. Jimmy Carter's killer rabbit was news. Was there a picture??
Edited on Jun 30, 2011 at 9:58amMar '11
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Have you seen the video of BO's golf swing? Now THAT'S a funny image....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZjc7q2h5dA
I have this strange feeling that if the economy stays in the dumps and his approval ratings continue to sag, the press is going to start to pick on his gaffes, misstatements, and ignorance of the facts more and more. The press loves a winner, and tends to pick on people they think are sinking. One can only hope.
Mar '11
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Mr Obama's Presidency has been a farce since Jan 20, 2009, when he stumbled over the oath of allegiance. There was something symbolic about that.
Jul '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
I thought he crossed over into farce when he gave that substance-free speech at the convention with the Greek pillars. And howzabout that oceans receding line?
As for Carter, maybe [expletive] Cheney could take him in hand and teach him some hunting skills so he knows what to do with a rabbit.
Apr '11
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
MICHAEL HUSSEY: Have you seen the video of BO's golf swing? Now THAT'S a funny image....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZjc7q2h5dA
I have this strange feeling that if the economy stays in the dumps and his approval ratings continue to sag, the press is going to start to pick on his gaffes, misstatements, and ignorance of the facts more and more. The press loves a winner, and tends to pick on people they think are sinking. One can only hope. · Jun 30 at 10:15am
Not a chance! I think what will happen is that Obama will not utter a word, anywhere on camera or other taping device that's not 100% scripted until the debates in late '12. The press will then spend all their attention tearing apart the GOP candidates.
Edited on Jun 30, 2011 at 10:48amDec '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
The photo of Obama holding the umbrella for Michelle on Martha's Vineyard and trying to walk through a gate with an overhead crossbar was pretty farcical: sort of like Gary Larson's Far Side cartoon of the student at the School for Highly Gifted Children pulling with all his might on the door marked "PUSH".
Mar '11
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
ctruppi
MICHAEL HUSSEY: Have you seen the video of BO's golf swing? Now THAT'S a funny image....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZjc7q2h5dA
I have this strange feeling that if the economy stays in the dumps and his approval ratings continue to sag, the press is going to start to pick on his gaffes, misstatements, and ignorance of the facts more and more. The press loves a winner, and tends to pick on people they think are sinking. One can only hope. · Jun 30 at 10:15am
Not a chance! I think what will happen is that Obama will not utter a word, anywhere on camera or other taping device that's not 100% scripted until the debates in late '12. The press will then spend all their attention tearing apart the GOP candidates. · Jun 30 at 10:47am
Edited on Jun 30 at 10:48 am
he'd better avoid press conferences, then; yesterday's was full of you-know-what...
Aug '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
I don't like the analogy to Carter's killer rabbit, because at the end of the day the story about Carter's swamp rabbit turned out to be true. Rabbits can, indeed, be nasty creatures.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19126_5-adorable-animals-that-are-turning-to-dark-side_p2.html
May '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
MICHAEL HUSSEY: Have you seen the video of BO's golf swing? Now THAT'S a funny image....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZjc7q2h5dA
I have this strange feeling that if the economy stays in the dumps and his approval ratings continue to sag, the press is going to start to pick on his gaffes, misstatements, and ignorance of the facts more and more. The press loves a winner, and tends to pick on people they think are sinking. One can only hope. · Jun 30 at 10:15am
He swings a club like he's heaving a sack of bricks up the stairs. Painful to watch, like everything else about this guy.
Dec '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Mr. McConnell said the president should meet with GOP lawmakers "any time this afternoon he's free" so he could hear "directly from them" that there isn't sufficient support to raise taxes as part of the debt-ceiling increase.
Mr. Obama is currently scheduled to have lunch at the White House with Vice President Joe Biden and then is supposed to travel to Philadelphia later in the day to speak at a campaign event hosted by the Democratic National Committee.
McConnell and Boehner can start using the line "we're staying here in Washington to do the people's business while the President is flying out of town to do the Democrat Party's business."
Jul '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
In Carter's defense, an amphibious rabbit assault is a tough thing to defend against.
Oct '10
Re: Obama's Killer Rabbit
Kind of a nerd point, but I like the implications of this grammatical error from the OMB:
"Having emerged from the worst recession in generations, the President has put forward a plan ..."
Thanks to the dangling modifier (I know, I know, sometimes used by Jane Austen), only "the President" has emerged from the recession. We can parse this statement in a couple of ways:
1. The president, in his arrogance, thinks that he is the country
2. Only the president has emerged from the recession (we peons must continue to live with its effects)
I'm looking forward to the ironic consequence: having emerged from his recession, the president will have to sit and watch as the nation elects a leader who will undo the effects of theirs.