Obama the Inflexible Robot
Two news articles published in the last few hours make the very same point I make in my column for tomorrow: Obama is absolutely unrepentant about his economic policies and divisiveness and will stay the course on both -- even if he pretends otherwise.
Exhibit A -- Reuters reports that Obama "touted his administration's job-creation efforts" in Rhode Island today. Oh, here's something he hasn't said before, "It took us a long time to get into this economic hole that we've been in. But we are going to get out." With all due respect, this is getting tiresome.
Exhibit B -- AP reports that "Obama attacked Republicans with gusto Monday as he plunged into a final week of midterm election campaigning." Then, he chose another old standby: Republicans, he said had driven us into this economic ditch and stood by while Democrats pulled us out. What? Pulled us out? Continuing the driving metaphor he said, "we can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back." This one is just a recycling of "I don't want the ones who got us into this mess to do a lot of talking."
I wonder how that attitude's going to work for him when Republicans trounce him on November 2?
Then again, truth be told, he hasn't allowed Republicans in the car the entire first year, except for photo-ops and Health Summit charades.
When President George W. Bush was president, Democrats rejected his overtures to work together and accused him of partisanship. Obama has refused to invite Republicans to ride in his policy limo yet has blamed them for partisanship for not being in the car.
What's amazing is how few arrows Obama has in his quiver, how few plays he has in his playbook, how few GPS routes he has in his car. What's also strange is his apparent belief that he can persuade voters the hundredth time when he failed to convince them with the same words the first 99 times. It's rather like his insistence on more stimulus spending when the first $Trillion failed.
It's scary how programmed, rote, and inflexible and robotic he is. This might help explain his Teleprompter fettish. There's just no improvising with this guy. There's no movement. How would he react in a true crisis when there is no template in his experience to guide him? I'm almost tempted to write a book about this guy.
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Sep '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
"How would he react in a true crisis when there is no template in his experience to guide him?"
We already know the answer. It's called the gulf oil spill.
Jul '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
I hate to disrespect our President, but I am begining to think there is no there, there. How do they say it? All Hat, no Cattle?
He has a mish-mash of basically incoherent leftist views, and that is all. He has, no - zero, zip, nada - actual executive skill. None. If he were a CEO he would run his company into the ground. Which, come to think of it, he is doing to USA, Inc.
He was probably a modestly successful Community Organizer, whatever that means. He is so completely out of his depth as President that he doesn't even know what to say or how to say it.
I find the most interesting aspect of his first two years to be his "delegating" almost every aspect of his agenda to Congress. That's what a Community Organizer does. He doesn't actually do anything. He facilitates. It is the least accountable role in the world. Now he is being asked to be accountable. The deer-in-the-headlights act is the result.
Jul '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
David Limbaugh: Continuing the driving metaphor he said, "we can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."
I wonder how that attitude's going to work for him when Republicans trounce him on November 2?
Gotta sit in back, eh? That's cute. In the short term, I suspect it will roughly match Custer bugling "rally to me."
In the long term, though, I'm afraid the passage of Obamacare will place a similar marker.
May '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
Let's not forget the alleged White House Enemies List...which became a little more official today...
"...we’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us..."
It is good to see the President of the United States label conservatives using the same word we normally reserve for dirtbags like the Taleban....
Jul '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
The guy reminds me more of Huey Long every day. Except Long was a far better extemporaneous speaker.
Jun '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
I think it was Glenn Beck that compared Obama's faith in Keynesianism with the 18th-Century physician's faith in blood-letting. If the 18th-Century pneumonia patient hadn't regained enough strength, then obviously, they hadn't drained enough "tainted" blood out of the body yet. And if the patient died anyway, it was because the blood-letting wasn't started soon enough.
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
What's amazing is how few arrows Obama has in his quiver, how few plays he has in his playbook, how few GPS routes he has in his car. What's also strange is his apparent belief that he can persuade voters the hundredth time when he failed to convince them with the same words the first 99 times.
Couldn't agree more, David--just couldn't agree more. Apart from anything else, the language is stale. Yet Obama has five or six professional speechwriters. They can't be this bad--certainly if any members of the Reagan speechwriting shop had turned out such flat material he'd have been shown the door. No, I have to believe Obama just isn't using his writers, convinced that he has a special magic when he's winging it, all on his own.
Even now, in short, he's still convinced he's The One.
Astounding.
Jul '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
I just keep thinking that a person who is as rigid as Obama seems to be, may just break into bits when the world least needs him to do so.
It's like a horror movie, about three quarters of the way through.
Oct '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
Something about the vehicle metaphor with the privileged people riding up front and the undesirables riding in the back seems fairly inappropriate to American politics. And the cynic in me thinks that if a white politician were to use that metaphor the black community's self-appointed leaders would be screaming racist at the top of their lungs.
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
ElevenX, welcome to Ricochet! My grandfather was a Canadian (I still have cousins in Toronto), so a Canadian who's becoming an American holds a special place for me. As I say, welcome.
May '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
David, let's hit this theme again and suggest a title for your (next) book: "The Man Who Never Hears 'No.'" Need a collaborator?
Edited on Oct 26, 2010 at 5:51amSep '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
“When George W. Bush was president, Democrats, rejected his overtures….” Though I agree with your comments about O’s style, policies, and strategy, I seem to remember several Bush proposals getting Democratic support. No Child, …, Part D, ethanol to name three. I view the situation as O having the guts to fight for what he espouses. I still can’t figure out weather GWB and other mainstream Republicans lack the guts to fight for their principles, are fighting for their principles that happen not to be what they say they are, or have no principles. Setting the bar for Republicans at the “not being Obama” height seems a little low to me.
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
Of course Democrats will work with Republicans when Republicans are engaged in expanding the welfare state and otherwise growing government. But as I recall, even Bush's unprecedented spending on education eventually brought him uniform condemnation from Democrats who said he wasn't spending enough or was unwilling to fund it or whatever. But Bush constantly made overtures to Dems that were rebuffed and rebuffed rudely.
I don't understand your comment about setting the bar too low for Repubs. I sure wouldn't set it low.
May '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
Nonono, David. He was condemned for making teachers "teach to the test". Rather than impart all that wonderful knowledge they got at the ready. Personally, I remember the good teachers because they were good. Which stands out. The others should just teach to the test.
While you may have a higher bar, I gather most voters just want Obama to be cornered and checked in his his ability to do further damage.
Obama the inflexible robot, lives in DC... (Hmm, doesn't quite scan)
Oct '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
David Limbaugh
But as I recall, even Bush's unprecedented spending on education eventually brought him uniform condemnation from Democrats who said he wasn't spending enough or was unwilling to fund it or whatever.
And look what all that spending has reaped over the years:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/wp-content/uploads/coulson-achievement-21.jpg
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html
Aug '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
"...gotta sit in the back..." well, that's pretty racist don't you think ?
Republicans as Rosa Parks............hummm......might be something there .
So this is sorta like a boycott of the Obama Municipal Transit Authority ?
Halloween is right around the corner kids ! Let's all dress up as aggrieved citizens and protest the inability of soldiers to vote. Or being fired because you have certain views . How about getting scholarships on an equal basis with other students (congresswoman's kids in particular) ?
Help ,help ! I'm being oppressed.
just like the poor sooners....ha ha
Sep '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
David: If your point is that Dems play hardball; I agree. My point is that the GOP acts like they’re in a hot and heavy game tiddly-winks. The only ones I see “manning up” are the tea party candidates.
May '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
It drives me nuts when I hear conservatives continue to engage in wishful thinking about Obama's presidency, pretending that he will be "forced" to move to the middle. Even folks who agree that he's a true believer somehow can't maintain that perception of him. They keep waiting for politics to return to what they're used to.
Obama will not change. He will not compromise. He sometimes talks like a moderate for political gain, but his actions are consistenly radical. His words are utterly unreliable.
The challenge for Republicans, as I've said before, is to do more than Democrats have done. It's easier to destroy than to build, easier to spend than to save, etc. So conservatives must make greater gains than progressives while in power just to break even. Others have suggested that Republicans could accomplish more by working gradually and thereby not jarring voters into a swing back to the left in 2016. But, even if that were so, like Steyn, I don't think we have the time. We coming to a tipping point. We must elect a conservative President in 2012 who will act decisively.
Edited on Oct 26, 2010 at 9:39amSep '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
Obama was one of the very few Democrats, and perhaps the only black Democrat who ever uttered a kind word about Republicans. That stopped as soon as he got power, which to me signals that it was a ploy all along.
Obama is unlike any President we have ever had. I believe it stems from how quickly he rose to power. It isn't merely inexperience as an executive, it is that he hasn't been seasoned by years in politics in general and has emerged from an entrenched partisan environment. He has never really had to deal with enfranchised opponents. Even now he has been able to operate with the media on his side and a friendly House and Senate.
Democrats have gotten a free pass from the media for so long they now believe thier assertions create reality.
However, it is becoming clear to more and more Americans that they are willfully promoting falsehoods. Obama, Pelosi et al are taking their media collaborators down with them too.
Oct '10
Re: Obama the Inflexible Robot
Obama's a kite. Having no real power of his own, he can only rise in opposition to something- like a kite in the wind. This is why he is still running against Bush two years after the election. He knows of only one way to get re-elected in 1012, which is, of course, the same way he got elected in 2008: run against the Republicans. This is why he is throwing his own party under the bus in the midterms.
Afterward, from his lofty perch in the sky, he can veto every bill and floridly denounce every congressional investigation as political. Then he can accuse Republicans of fiddling while Rome burns.
He is betting that control of congress will pass back to the Dems with his re-election. It's a long shot, but it's the only plan he can come up with.
Kites are fragile things.