Governing -- 2010

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I Know Whose Ass To Kick
Jayme Evans says Barack Obama has failed miserably.

After just a year and a half, it is virtually impossible by any measure to see the regime of Barack Obama as anything other than a failure.  Elected on lofty rhetoric espousing the nebulous agenda of change, hope, prosperity and unity, his first, only, and hopefully truncated term in office has turned into a cold, clammy, national nightmare.

On transparency:  Failure.  His promises of transparency would be pretty comical if his collection, misuse and withholding of information wasn’t so dangerous.  Threatening to sue media organizations for negative campaign reporting, soliciting snitches to report on health care opponents, attacking those in the press corps for asking tough questions and claiming Fox isn’t news are but a few examples of his attitude towards information.  If that wasn’t enough, he has told both high school and college graduates that information can be dangerous.  Not the way it is used or misused, but the information itself.

On the economy:  Utter, abject failure.  The results of Obama’s multiple efforts at "stimulating" the economy through redistributing wealth, instead of increasing it have been dismal at best.  Unemployment has barely budged, consumer confidence sucks and thousands more layoffs are on the horizon with the end of the census, the evaporation of stinkulus cash and changes to capital gains taxes in 2011.  At a frightening 90 percent of GDP, the sum of our entire economic output is now comprised almost entirely of government debt, the lion’s share of which was incurred in just the last year and a half.  The only way out of the hole is drastically higher taxes which Obama will likely enact beginning in 2011 under the political cover of his deficit-reduction committee.

On health care:  Failure.  I don’t care how many people will gain health insurance under Obama’s health care plan.  That isn’t the proper measure of success.  At what cost?  If it bankrupts the country, hurts scientific research, results in doctor shortages or less quality care and if the entire country has to shoulder the economic burden of deals that were concocted against their will, behind locked doors, using bribes, trickery, arm-twisting and disinformation, then it is a failure.  Period.

On national security:  Failure.  American blood has been spilled on American soil multiple times under Barack Obama already.  There have been several attacks and multiple failures of intelligence that were near-misses that could have been disastrous had it not been for faulty devices or inexperience.  Every effort Obama has made to, as he said in his inaugural address, "reach out our hand, if you will unclench your fist" has been met with scorn, recalcitrance or outright hostility.  The world is a much more dangerous place as a result of Obama’s lack of leadership.

On foreign policy:  Failure.  Bowing to dictators and foreign heads of state was an enormous mistake.  It did not command respect, rather screamed weakness.  Sensing this weakness, North Korean tantrums have increased, culminating recently in the sinking of a South Korean vessel which killed 46 amid continued vows of all-out war in response to international punishment.

Despite his past claims that Israel had no better friend, Obama has turned his back on the Israelis.  Who can forget his ill-mannered snub at Benjamin Netanyahu a few months ago?  How about Turkey?  Turkey has not been a reliable ally for many years and should be thrown out of NATO altogether.  They supplied thugs for the flotilla that ran the Israeli blockade.  Along with Brazil, they were the only two council members to vote against a UN Security Council resolution penalizing Iran, yet, Barack Obama rewarded this intransigence with verbal assurances that he backed UN inquiry into Israel’s blockade, setting a dangerous precedent which may open the door to future UN inquiries of US anti-piracy efforts.

And, taking the side of a foreign country over your own citizens such as he did with Mexican illegal aliens is High Treason.

On the BP Oil Spill: Continuing Disaster.  Unlike Obama, who blames his predecessor for every woe, I do not hold him responsible for the actual spill.  But, the buck stops with him, it did occur on his watch, his federal agencies had approved BP’s disaster response plans and his Minerals Management Service was far too engrossed in watching porn to be concerned about BP’s safety shortcomings.  Obama campaigned for two years to earn that responsibility, so I do fault his excruciatingly slow, inexplicably aloof response and his failure to fully engage every last resource, including the US Navy.  I also fault his politics.  After being less than attentive for two months, he now gave BP an unattainable weekend deadline to stop the oil, just ahead of a big Tuesday address, where undoubtedly, with fistfuls of your tax dollars and legislation in-hand it will be BO to the rescue.  Obama’s Waterloo may not be forthcoming just yet, but his Katrina will be here for a very long time.

The true measure of a US president’s success is not how how many of his pie-in-the-sky promises have been kept, nor how he is perceived by 2009 Pulitzer-Prize-winning Politifact.com.  It isn’t how many of his socialist legislative priorities have been enacted, but how those policies affect the lives of the people who entrusted him to represent them.  It is how he has upheld his oath of office, respected the US Constitution, promoted US exceptionalism, energized our free markets, represented the majority, defended our freedoms and ensured our security.  And, on that score, Barack Obama has failed miserably.  It’s his ass that needs to be kicked, right out of the White House.
Obama Skips Arlington To Visit Louis Farrakhan
Atlas Shrugs asks, how is Obama spending his Memorial day weekend?  Honoring the glorious dead?  Not a chance.

He pow-wowed with race baiter, Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan, a frequent visitor to the White House.  Back in March, Farrakhan blamed the Jews for Obama's woes.

Jackie Calmes, a New York Times reporter who covers the White House, was in Chicago covering Obama's visit there this weekend.  On Saturday night, she was one of the reporters who was assigned to the White House pool of reporters covering Obama on his evening out having dinner at what appears to be, according to the Chicago reporters on site, the home of Louis Farrakhan.  The official line is that it was the home of Marty Nesbitt, treasurer of Organizing for America, but the house is "is tax exempt for being a religious institution."  The press pool van was parked nearby.  Here is what Jackie Calmes reported on behalf of the press pool:
    

At 7:20 local time the pool was holding at Woodlawn and 49th, next to a large sandstone mansion that the Chicago reporters say is the home of one Louis Farrakhan.  Our Secret Service agent allowed us off the bus (Air!) and as a dozen of us congregated on the sidewalk, inevitably some shoes touched grass.  Immediately a polite man in jeans and Tshirt emerged to ask us to stay off the grass.  Though this grass was the curbside city property, we obliged.

Soon, however, he was pacing and talking on a cell phone.  He went inside the mansion's black wrought iron fence, crossed the well-landscaped yard, lifted a water bucket behind rose bushes and, voila!, a walkie-talkie.  He was heard to refer to "the CIA" once he began speaking into it.

Soon he approached our agent, asking him to move the van and its occupants, though your pooler could not hear much else he said.  But the agent said, "How is this a security breach?"  And he asked if the house was a government property.  The man said something else and at that point the agent stuck out his hand to shake hands and introduced himself as a Secret Service agent.  He added, "Sir, I can assure you that we will do nothing to interfere with whatever is going on in there."

The man is back to pacing and talking on his cell, walkie-talkie in hand.

A co-pooler searched the Internet for the address and found it listed on a Web site called NotForTourists and another called Taxexemptworld.com.

Indeed, another pooler found a county Web site that confirmed this property is tax exempt for being a religious institution.

Reinforcements arrived -- three men in T-shirts reading "Wide or Die!"  One surly man has been staring daggers at us.  Asked if this is Minister Farrakhan's house, he just stared at your pooler.  Asked again, he said, "I don't have no comment."

At nearly 8 pm local time we are still holding while POTUS and family remain at the Nesbitts.

It's 8:45 and nearly dark; your pool has retreated back inside the van.  We're outnumbered now by roughly a dozen Fruit of Islam agents for the Nation of Islam.  As each casually dressed man arrives, he exchanges elaborate handshake/hug/double air-kisses with others.  Two walked by your pooler chanting "Islam."

    
Read the whole thing here . . .
    
The Google Maps satellite view for this address shows a large building with one of those mosque thingies on the roof?

This map clearly shows that this is indeed Louis Farrakhan's home.
Obama Returns To "The View"
Lisa de Moraes is reporting that Barack Obama has agreed to sit down with the ladies of "The View" this Thursday -- the first time a sitting president has appeared on a daytime talk show, ABC says.

"View" den mother Barbara Walters, who has been out since May after undergoing open heart surgery, will "make an exclusive in-studio appearance" to interview Obama, even though she wasn't supposed to return to work until September.  You didn't think she was going to let Whoopi Goldberg or Joy Behar, who moonlights as a CNN Headline News show host, take the lead on this interview, did you?

ABC says Obama's making the appearance in order to talk about "his administration's accomplishments, jobs, the economy, the Gulf oil spill and family life inside the White House."

The last time he appeared on "The View," in March 2008, he was running for president. First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on the "The View" in June 2008.

What accomplishments:

Jobs:  3 million lost -- unemployment at 9.5%
The economy: In the dumpah -- $13 trillion in debt
Gulf oil spill:  What, me worry?
Family life inside the White House:  Vacations, parties, golf . . .


So Obama will lie, and Walters won't challenge him.  It will be a hug-fest.
Threats Against Obama Prompt Secret Task Force
Ronald Kessler is reporting that threats against Obama have become so disturbing that a secret Presidential Threat Task Force has been created within the FBI to gather, track, and evaluate assassination threats that might be related to domestic or international terrorism.

The task force operates within the FBI’s National Security Branch.  It consists of 20 representatives from pertinent agencies, including agents from the FBI and Secret Service and operatives from the CIA, the NSA, and the Defense Department, as well as analysts.

Kessler reports that threats against Obama rose by as much as 400 percent compared with when President Bush was in office.  Although threats fluctuate, the level continues to be at high enough levels to call for the threat task force.  Many of the threats are from racists who have no connection with politics.

At the same time, the Secret Service, which let party crashers into the White House in November, has been spinelessly acceding to requests of the Obama administration officials for Secret Service protection in instances where there are no threats against them.

As a result, 40 Obama administration officials and White House aides are under Secret Service protection, compared with 32 under George W. Bush.  No one outside of the government has heard of most of these officials, but they have one thing in common: They enjoy being chauffeured free of charge by the Secret Service.

Continue reading here . . .
The Perpetual Campaign Continues
Ben Shapiro says that sometimes, you get the feeling that Obama simply isn’t very comfortable in the job.  Sure, he loves speaking before adoring crowds.  And we all know that he adores his trusty troop of teleprompters.  But as soon as he moves off script -- when we get Obama being Obama -- he seems ill at ease.

Unless he’s in his element, that is.  He’s in his element while playing golf.  He’s in his element while playing basketball.  And apparently, he’s in his element while appearing on "The View."

In the past, I’ve compared Obama to a teenage girl.  "The president is like an unattractive high school girl desperately looking for a date to the prom," I wrote in June 2009.  "Any boor can take her home for a few compliments."

He may not be a teenage girl, but he certainly likes chatting like one.  It is utterly unpresidential for a sitting president to spend his days chatting up Joy Behar just because, as Obama put it, "Look, I was trying to find a show that Michelle actually watched, and so I thought this is it, right here."  Note to Obama: if you want to talk to Michelle, walk down the hall.  You don’t have to subject the rest of the country to the spectacle of Joy Behar drooling on your sleeve.

Obama’s brilliant repartee with the girls on "The View" included talk about Snooki from Jersey Shore -- "I’ve got to admit, I don’t know who Snooki is"; his vacation -- "it couldn’t have been a better couple of days"; and blacks -- "we’re a mongrel sort of people."

But most of all, it contained copious doses of Obama’s patented False Humility™ and Unintentional Irony™.  "[W]e shouldn't be campaigning all the time," Obama said.  "There's a time to campaign, and there's a time to govern."  He said this on "The View," a daytime television show.  Over the weekend, he’ll be doing two DNC fundraisers.  Now that’s what I call governing.

That wasn’t all.  After spending the better part of two years blaming President Bush for everything under the sun, Obama told the sycophantic audience, "You said it’s been tough for me, but the truth is it’s not tough for me.  I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about me."  Excuse me while a laugh hysterically … still laughing … okay, done.  Have you ever noticed that the people who speak most about their selflessness are often the most selfish people you meet?  This guy does nothing but worry about himself, which is why he tosses people under the bus on a regular basis -- and why he constantly tells us how grand he is.

People like Shirley Sherrod, whom he appointed knowing full well what she was.  When confronted about his firing of Sherrod, he immediately blamed everyone in the entire world, except for himself.  "What I do think happened in that situation is that a 24/7 media cycle that’s always looking for controversy and often times doesn’t get to the facts first, generated a phony controversy," he said.  "A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration."  Not him, mind you.  People in his administration.

Actually, he said, it was God who was to blame -- or Darwin -- since God/Darwin created a "reptilian side of our brain" that leads to mistrust "if somebody sounds different or looks different."  By God, we’re all third graders and he’s going to lecture us on basic classroom morality.  Then he’ll sing Barney songs.

But this is the crowd that eats this sort of thing up.  That weeps when Oprah trots out her latest sob story.  That cheers wildly when Tyra hands them bottles of Vaseline.  No wonder this is Obama’s target audience.  Many people who watch "The View" are, quite simply, idiots.

And Obama preys on idiots like a vulture on the carcass of a bloated beached whale.  That’s why he can tell them with a straight face that he has saved 2.5 million jobs and they hoot and holler as though he has.  He can play the innocent victim of brutal bullies and they sigh as though they’re watching a re-run of My Bodyguard.

Here’s the problem for Obama: even though he thinks we’re a nation of morons, we’re not.  We’re onto his act.  And there aren’t enough people in the studio audience of "The View" to make up the electoral gap.
Obama's Calendar For August 3, 2010
The Associated press reports that after a series of morning briefings, Barack Obama will sign the Fair Sentencing Act in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

The legislation narrows the disparity between sentences for crack cocaine possession and those for powder cocaine.  This has been one of Obama's biggest issues for years.

In the afternoon, Obama will host a town hall meeting in the East Room.  It's part of his Forum With Young African Leaders.

The event brings 115 young leaders from more than 40 African countries to Washington to meet with their American counterparts and U.S. government officials.

Obama will discuss with them their vision for Africa for the next 50 years.  He also will talk with them about partnerships that can be fostered between the U.S. and their countries.

There goes another 10 or 20 billion.
A Dim Bulb In The Oval Office?
Herbert E. Meyer recalls that during his eight years in the White House, President George W. Bush was often described by liberals as being about halfway between an idiot and an imbecile.  They told us he was so inarticulate -- so unable to express himself clearly -- that his very presence in the Oval Office was an embarrassment for the United States.  Members of the White House press corps, spoofing a popular movie, called him the English Patient.

Yet no one, anywhere in the world, ever had trouble understanding what President Bush was saying.

Obama, on the other hand, is invariably described by these same people as brilliant -- indeed, the most articulate carbon-based life form ever to have walked the Earth.

So how come every time Obama opens his mouth to state his position on some issue -- as he did this weekend, speaking about his support for that mosque near Ground Zero -- the White House scrambles to issue a "clarification" -- followed less than a day later by an "elaboration" of the clarification?

Come to think of it, President Bush speaks twice as many languages as Obama (to be precise, two).  Oh, and in eight years President Bush never said anything even remotely as stupid as Obama's comment that people in Austria speak Austrian.

Perhaps we should put less effort into forcing the release of Obama's original long-form birth certificate, and more effort into forcing release of his IQ.  Anyone want to take my bet that it'll be lower than George W. Bush's?
Obama Takes A Break
CNSNews.com is reporting that there has been no mainstream media criticism of Obama for taking another vacation -- his sixth.

The Associated Press (AP), which has become Obama's number one apologist and propagandist headlines:
    

"Oil spill and Iraq combat over, Obama takes break"

    
AP tool, Glen Johnson, writes, "Finally, President Barack Obama can relax on vacation.  The Gulf oil leak is plugged.  The last combat troops are out of Iraq.  And Congress is on its own summer break."

Martha's Vineyard has previously played host not only to Obama, but also two other presidents, Bill Clinton and Ulysses S. Grant.  It has been a traditional gathering point for affluent African-Americans, and Obama visited even before he was elected the country's first black president in 2008.

"It's a beautiful part of the country.  It has really nice beaches and the folks are really great.  The food is terrific," deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One.  "And it's someplace that the president went before he was president and likes to go back, because it's a comfortable place where he can rest and recharge the batteries a little bit."

The spokesman said he expected Obama to indulge in golfing, beach time and a visit or two to the island's numerous ice cream stands.

Obama was "hands off" on the Gulf Spill, and was opposed to Iraq and The Surge, but APer Johnson provides these events as rationale for another Obama absence from the job.

Poor guy, he's all worn out from reading the teleprompter -- do you ever wonder who's really running the gummint?
The Lost Promise Of Barack Obama
Michael Gerson says the most destructive gap for Obama is not the Republican lead on the generic congressional ballot, or even a job disapproval that has surpassed approval -- it is the gap between aspiration and reality.

The Manhattan mosque controversy showed the problem in compressed form.  First came the Obama of high-toned principle.  Then a politically motivated recalibration.  Then a scrambling staff explanation.  Then an embarrassed silence, since it is difficult to clarify the clarification of a clarification.  Then Obama's regretful assertion of "no regrets."

It was more than a lapse.  From the firing of Shirley Sherrod, to the obsession with Fox News, to lashing the "professional left," the Obama administration engages in a daily hypocrisy.  It attacks the sound and fury of the cable news cycle while being entirely captive to its rhythms.  In the process, it often appears reactive, windblown and unprincipled.

This gap between ideals and practice is becoming a defining narrative of the administration.  Obama once promised, for example, to end the "divisive food fight in Washington."  Apparently there is an exception for sugary, frozen beverages.  In his new stump speech, he says: "We're slipping and sliding and sweating, and the other side, the Republicans, they're standing there with their Slurpees watching us."  In Seattle, the Obama pantomimed drinking a Slurpee to mock his opponents.  A campaigner such as Ronald Reagan could draw political blood with a wink and a smile.  Obama's partisan rhetoric manages to be prickly, mean-spirited and unfunny.  On the campaign trail, he taunts and whines.  He does not charm.

But this much can be said: The rhetoric fits the message.  Having spent beyond the dreams of Franklin Roosevelt to produce a 9.5 percent unemployment rate, Obama has reached an ideological dead end.  His natural policy inclination would be even more stimulus spending, now a political impossibility.  So he is left with attacking Republicans.  This is a natural political instinct, but it leaves Obama looking like any other beleaguered, partisan politician.

The tensions accumulate.  The candidate who pledged to reach across party lines passed his agenda in a steady march of party-line votes and strong-arm legislative maneuvers.  The candidate who sought to transcend partisan divisions is viewed in a recent Democracy Corps poll as "too liberal" by 57 percent of likely voters.  The candidate who said he would "fundamentally change the way Washington works" has seen public distrust of government grow to pre-French Revolutionary levels.

The failure to change, or even to challenge, the culture of Washington rankles on right and left.  Here is Lawrence Lessig writing in The Nation: "Obama will leave the presidency, whether in 2013 or 2017, with Washington essentially intact and the movement he inspired betrayed."

The height of Obama's political fall is measured by how awkward the echoes of his past rhetoric now seem.  When he said recently, "Let's reach for hope," it was indeed a stretch.  It sounded like an aging pop singer, grown paunchy and out of tune, stumbling through an old favorite.  Obama is pursued by the memories of his own promise.

Politicians have been known to say one thing and do another.  And high ideals and high rhetoric always create the potential for hypocrisy, but the disappointment with Obama is especially acute.  He won office by providing new voters with intoxicating hopes.  America was tipsy with idealism -- resulting in a particularly difficult hangover.  Few presidencies have been built so consciously or completely on an idealistic brand, with its own distinctive language and icons.  But this "new kind of politics" has proved conventional in its conduct, predictable in its content and exceptional only for the depth of division it has inspired.  The Obama administration is presented, not just with the prospect of electoral repudiation, but with a question: How will it adjust to the death of the belief that gave it birth?

For some, this is merely a confirmation of their pre-existing view of politics -- that idealism is a fraud, that rhetorical inspiration is a con.  It is true that many politicians do not improve upon closer acquaintance -- that no man is a hero to his valet, but a nation of valets would lose its capacity for great purposes.  So it should be a source of sadness that Obama, for many, has become a source of cynicism.

All politicians fall -- but not from such a height.
On "The Vineyard," Bush Tees Outsell Obama Tees
Brent Baker picked up on a nugget surprisingly included in a Wednesday Boston Globe article -- on Thursday night FNC’s Bret Baier reported in his "Grapevine" segment: "President Bush is apparently more popular than Obama on Martha's Vineyard -- at least when it comes to clothing."  Baier relayed the day the First Family arrived on the Massachusetts island:
    

When the First Family vacationed there last year, Obama-themed trinkets were flying off the shelves.  Now, the owner of a store called the Locker Room says this summer's best-selling shirt features Mr. Bush. And even Democrats are buying it.  It reads: "Miss Me Yet?  How's that Hopey-Changey Thing Working Out for Ya?"

    
In an August 18 Globe story, "Vineyard buzzes less for Obamas’ second visit," Milton J. Valencia reported on the Oak Bluffs store:
    

...One barometer of the plunge in excitement has been the sale of Obama-themed T-shirts, which designers had been banking on after the craze of last year.  Clothing labeled with Obama’s name sold by the thousands, helping to salvage a tough economic year for the island.

    
But this year’s T-shirt sales are much less brisk, merchants say.

"Last year, Obama gave you goose bumps, but I don’t think you’re going to see that this year," said Alex McCluskey, co-owner of the Locker Room, who sold more than 4,000 "I vacationed with Obama" T-shirts last year.  But so far this year, he said, his hot item is T-shirts of former President Bush asking, "Miss me yet?"

Related:  Obama doesn’t travel light -- even on vacation -- he'll shut down the tiny island for a photo op.

Related:  Howie Carr busts Obama's balls.
Obama Doesn't Travel Light
Glen Johnson, reporting from Vineyard Haven, says Barack Obama had a simple task for his first morning on vacation -- shoot over to a Martha's Vineyard book store to fill out his daughters' summer reading list and grab himself a novel -- easier said than done.

His sports utility vehicle, part of a 20-vehicle motorcade, passed through a cordon of Massachusetts State Police motorcycle officers, in a protective cocoon of Secret Service agents.  Tagging along for the quick trip on Friday were White House communications trucks, an ambulance and two vans full of reporters and photographers.

It was the same drill on Saturday when he went to the beach for a picnic lunch with his family.

This may be down time for Obama, but like all modern presidents, celebrities and some wannabes, he must move about with a not insignificant entourage, that includes security officers and their array of arms, as well as advisers, friends in and out of politics, and a cook who doubles as a golfing buddy.

Obama aides said before the Massachusetts trip that Obama would travel light, with a skeleton staff.  When they landed on Cape Cod, Obama transferred to Marine One, the presidential helicopter, while his staff and reporters raced to a pair of Marine Corps CH-53 helicopters.  Other Blackhawk helicopters, painted identical to Marine One, flew with Obama's as decoy aircraft.  A State Police chopper swept over the route to Martha's Vineyard Airport before the president passed overhead.

More details here . . .
Iran Goes Nuclear -- Obama Goes Swimming
John Lillpop says in a jolting reminder of just how far the American brand has fallen, the Islamic state of Iran began start-up of its first nuclear reactor, a gift from the rejuvenated "evil empire," AKA Russia.  Yahoo.news.com reports:
    

"BUSHEHR, Iran – Trucks  trucks rumbled into Iran’s first reactor Saturday to begin loading tons of uranium fuel in a long-delayed startup touted by officials as both a symbol of the country’s peaceful intentions to produce nuclear energy as well as a triumph over Western pressure to rein in its nuclear ambitions."

    
While the world is pushed to the brink of nuclear confrontation between Iran and Israel, America’s Marxist Muslim and part-time U.S. president is off to Martha’s Vineyard for his sixth -- sixth! -- vacation of the year.

Critics are pouncing all over Obama for his "fun in the sun" excesses, particularly now that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has nuclear power.

By the way, the notion that Iran is going nuclear only for "peaceful purposes" is so absurd that only a goofy, misguided, and naïve Muslim community organizer with a Marxist mind set would believe it -- which brings us back to the world’s greatest obstacle to peace, that being Barack Hussein Obama.

Welcome to Martha Vineyards, sir?  To show their appreciation for Obama’s visit, the locals released the following good news:
    

"Portions of Tisbury Great Pond, the salt-water lagoon fronting the first family’s vacation estate Blue Heron Farm, were closed earlier this week due to high levels of enterococci, an indicator that the water is contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria."

    
Fecal coliform bacteria?

Good heavens, Obama would be better off in a gulf state, on an oil-blasted beach, than the icky stuff at Martha’s Vineyard!

Still, given his disastrous approval ratings and the poor prospects for Democrats in the upcoming election, perhaps fecal coliform bacteria is what Obama deserves?
The Cipher In Chief
Rich Lowry says there was a time when Barack Obama disavowed his middle name, Hussein. During the 2008 campaign, Obama's aides bristled even at references to him by his initials BHO, so sensitive were they to the offending "H."

Then, after he won the election, he proudly brandished his middle name as evidence of his connection to the Muslim world and of America's tolerant embrace of people with even the most exotic backgrounds.  With new polls showing 18 percent (in a Pew Research poll) or 24 percent (in a Time magazine survey) believing Obama is a Muslim, the name Hussein is surely headed back to a secure, undisclosed location.

That a sliver of Americans believes Obama is a Muslim is not shocking in the context of other things they tell pollsters.  In a rebuke to geography teachers everywhere, 10 percent of people either don't think Hawaii is part of the United States or aren't sure.  Twenty percent believe aliens have contacted us here on Earth.  And 11 percent have confidence in the United States Congress.

But the numbers tell us something important about Obama: We don't know him.  The most powerful and famous man in the country is still the mysterious stranger.  He rose from nowhere, winning an election based partly on being an unknown quantity, and an unknown quantity he remains.

Obama has proven adept at crafting and then casting off synthetic identities.  He was the good-government process-obsessed reformer -- until he wanted to raise countless millions of dollars outside the campaign-finance system.  He was the postpartisan scourge of politics as usual -- until his hyperpartisan first 18 months in office.  He was the moderate -- until he pushed his vast left-wing spending agenda.

Obama's candidacy always had the sense about it of a supremely artful marketing campaign.  His bio video during the Denver convention made him sound like a corn-fed product of the American heartland.  There was barely a hint of the father from Kenya and the boyhood in Indonesia and Hawaii -- in short, what made him so biographically alluring to worshipful journalists.

He was the blank canvas upon which people could paint their visions of grandeur.  One moment Obama was the loyal parishioner of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who converted him to Christianity and was the fount of preacherly wisdom from whom Obama ripped off his most famous rhetorical riff, "the audacity of hope."  The next, he'd hardly heard of the good reverend.

An element of the Obama-is-a-Muslim opinion is perfervid critics wanting to believe the worst of him, but not all.  According to Pew, the number of Americans who identify him as Christian has declined from 51 percent in October 2008 to just 34 percent.  The more we see of him, the less we know of him.  Only 46 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of blacks think Obama is a Christian.  His faith simply hasn't made an impression on the public.

Compared with his predecessors, Obama is as transparent as a billiard ball.  You knew George W. Bush was an unapologetically pro-business, freedom-spreadin' Texas evangelical.  You knew Bill Clinton was a flawed but brilliant Southern operator, part of whose charm was the ability to lie with impressive fluidity.  Who is Obama?

He's a man constantly traveling under a cloak of ideological falsity, since he can't speak frankly of his big-government ambitions.  He's emotionally remote.  And he's the product of life experiences alien even to his most natural supporters.  In the heat of the controversy over her firing from the Agriculture Department, civil-rights activist Shirley Sherrod pointedly noted that Obama "is not someone who has experienced what I have experienced through life."

None of this would matter particularly if Obama's program were working -- he could identify himself with its successes.  As it is, he's the cipher in chief, overexposed but underperforming, as detached as a law-school lecturer.  Obama may not be a Muslim, but for many of his countrymen, he remains a question mark.
Barack Obama: The Bully
David Limbaugh writes in his new book, "Crimes Against Liberty," that he believes Obama is the quintessential partisan, for sure, but he doesn’t reserve his vitriol for Republican politicians.  He’ll turn on anyone who stands in his way, and he’ll make it personal through bullying, ridicule, and demonizing.  Obama believes he can use his bully pulpit to say whatever he wants about anyone or any group, whether foreign leaders, bankers, or tea party protestors.

Consistent with his narcissistic proclivities, Obama is angrily intolerant of his critics.  He dismissed President Bush’s rare criticism by snapping, "We won."  Likewise, he lashed out at Senator John McCain for objecting to his stance on Iran, declaring, "Only I’m the president of the United States . . . and I’ll carry out my responsibilities the way I think is appropriate" -- completely ignoring the substance of McCain’s criticism.

This is a hallmark of Obama’s governing style: he takes things personally and keeps score.  He exudes a sense of entitlement about his agenda, expecting legislators to vote as he commands, as opposed to, say, their consciences or the wishes of their constituents.

For Obama, it’s more than just a matter of political power.  There’s also his egotistical sense that he is absolutely right about everything, that everyone else is wrong, and that if given enough time, he can persuade the rest of the rubes of the superiority of his positions.  We’ve seen how he attributed the public’s repudiation of his agenda via the Massachusetts Senate election to his failure to sufficiently explain his healthcare position -- though he had talked ad nauseam on the issue.  But it was true of other issues as well -- even strong moral issues for which there would never be a consensus, as with his attempt to confront pro-life forces at Notre Dame.

He took the same tack with the issue of homosexuality.  At a White House celebration of Gay Pride Month -- a controversial act in itself -- Obama said he aspired to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality -- as if the issue were simply about "accepting homosexuals," and that anyone opposing special legal classifications for homosexuality was prejudiced, discriminatory, and as Obama claimed, possessed of "worn arguments and old attitudes."  He added, "There are good and decent people in this country who don’t yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters -- not yet."

As a candidate, Obama usually told voters what he thought they wanted to hear.  He told an audience in Las Vegas he wanted to help "not just the folks who own casinos but the folks who are serving in casinos."  But after usurping the Oval Office he wasn’t quite as solicitous.  In one of his many anti-capitalist riffs he took a cheap shot at CEOs at a townhall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, in February 2009.  "You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime."  Obama’s careless statement elicited a strong reaction from Las Vegas businessmen, many pointing out that if their business suffers, the first and hardest hit are the front line workers -- the people at the front desk, the bell staff, and the taxi drivers, precisely the people Obama courted during the campaign.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported that more than 400 conventions and business meetings scheduled in the city had been canceled, translating into 111,800 guests and more than 250,000 "room nights," costing the city’s economy more than $100 million, apart from lost gaming revenue.

And despite British Petroleum’s assurances that it was "absolutely" responsible for the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama unleashed on BP a non-stop barrage of verbal abuse.  Using language not usually heard from a U.S. president, he told NBC’s Today Show that he consults experts about the spill to find out "whose ass to kick."

Continue reading here . . .
Let's Face It -- This Guy Hates America
Jim Hoft says the far left Obama just hauled the State of Arizona in front of the UN Human Rights Council.  For the record, this sham council includes human rights offenders Cuba, China and Libya.  The Obama administration told the United Nations Human Rights Council that America's human rights record was less than perfect in a report this week.
    

Apparently Barack Obama is not content to make a federal case out of his immigration feud with Arizona; he just made it an international one.

Obama's first-ever report on U.S. human rights to the UN Human Rights Council contains a rich vein of offensive material.  So far, one aspect has not been reported: petty Barack used the situation to bash Arizona's immigration law -- and possibly transfer jurisdiction over the law from Arizona to the UN.  Throughout the report, which sounds like an Obama campaign speech, he discusses "the original flaw" of the U.S. Constitution, America's tolerance for slavery, and his version of our long and despicable history of discriminating against and oppressing minorities, women, homosexuals, and the handicapped.  After each complaint, he addresses how he is delivering us from ourselves, patting himself on the back for such initiatives as ending "torture," promoting Affirmative Action, and passing health care legislation.

In his section on "Values and Immigration," he praised the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to provide better medical care for detainees and increase "Alternatives To Detention" (e.g., letting them go).  Then he turned to the one state that has had the temerity to stand in his way of fundamentally transforming the American electorate:

    

A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world.  The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law.  That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.

       

On Obama's command, Attorney General Eric Holder has sued the State of Arizona for passing a law that he criticized without reading, and which merely upholds federal law.  (He gave sanctuary cities a pass.)  He now threatens an additional lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio for "racial profiling" when arresting illegal immigrants near the Mexican border.

    
Don't expect any push back from Cuba or Libya on this crazy report.
Obama Cares About The Constitution -- Ha!
Wayne Allen Root says this would be funny if it wasn't so sad and hypocritical.  When it comes to the mosque at Ground Zero, Barack Obama is suddenly concerned with the Constitution?  Why now?

This mosque will never be built.  When you have the police, Mafia, Village People, and Harry Reid all aligned against it, it's safe to say it's not going to happen.  And I think it's also safe to say Obama just waded into the biggest mistake of his political career.  He just cemented his fate as a one-termer by ignoring the opinions of about 70 percent of 300 million common-sense, deeply offended Americans.

The U.S. Constitution didn't bother Obama (a former constitutional law instructor), yet now when the issue involves Muslims building a mosque steps from Ground Zero, where thousands of people died, Obama suddenly cares about the Constitution?

Let's take a look a look at just a few of the cases where Obama has ignored, or violated, the Constitution:

Obama didn't care about the law or Constitution when he threw the bondholders, shareholders and secured creditors of GM and Chrysler under the bus so he could hand majority ownership to his union cronies that bankrupted and destroyed them in the first place.  But hey, what's a little violation of the Constitution when you can pay off your biggest campaign contributors?

Obama didn't care about the law or Constitution when he passed universal health care that will eventually force American citizens at gunpoint (with the help of 18,000 new IRS agents) to buy health care, pay a fine or go to jail.  But hey, what's a little violation of the Constitution when you can pay off your big health care and health insurance contributors?

And don't forget the biggest beneficiaries of ObamaCare -- the trial lawyers.  Obama made them billions by refusing to allow tort reform in the health care bill.

Obama didn't care about the law or Constitution when he raised taxes on everyone to pay for universal health care -- except union employees.  But hey, Lincoln saved the union.  Obama has pledged to do everything in his power to save the union, too -- the government employee unions, even if it means violating the rights of every nonunion employee and taxpayer in America.

Obama didn't care about the law or Constitution when he asked the U.S. Justice Department to sue Arizona for simply enforcing U.S. immigration law.  Don't forget who joined Obama's side in the lawsuit versus one of our own states -- Mexico.  Here's an idea.  What Obama should have done instead is secure our borders and sue Mexico for the billions of dollars America's taxpayers are forced to pay annually for the welfare, education, medical care, Medicare and Social Security of Mexican citizens here illegally.  Where is that lawsuit, Obama?

There's more here . . .

Root leaves out the biggest issue of all -- Obama didn't care about the law or Constitution when he usurped the Office of the President of the United States.
Obama, Eighteen Months Later
Paul Crovo says the downhill slide in Obama's poll numbers seems to continue unabated.  And with each passing week, Obama and the Democratic Party seem unable to get out of their own way.  How did we get to this point in eighteen short months?  It appears that a series of unanticipated events have brought out the true Barack Obama, the one that the wide swath of media supporters wanted us to overlook going into the 2008 election.  Whether it is the incident involving Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley or the issue of the mosque being built in the shadow of the one-time World Trade Center, the non-cerebral, peristaltic utterances that flow from Obama's mouth seem all too reflective of some deeply rooted, core beliefs.  Obama's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico represents yet another example of an inexperienced Obama being caught unprepared, and unable to deal with an unscripted event requiring an immediate response.  The sound bites emanating from the Oval Office during the earlier phases of this disaster sounded like those coming from someone groping for answers, or at least looking for someone to blame.  Finding "someone's ass to kick," and demands to "plug the damn hole," do not sound like composed statements that would come from a true leader during a time of national crisis.  Seemingly lost without his teleprompter to tell him what to say, Barack Obama stumbles and speaks in a glib fashion that diminishes the view that this is an articulate man who can always talk his way out of a difficult situation.

So, then, probing beneath the veneer of stoicism and poise, there appears to be a man very uncomfortable and insecure about who he really is.  When people question his motives or criticize his actions, his thin-skinned personality kicks in.  His lack of experience as a leader is on display for all to see and he has no answer for this.  His fallback reveals those core beliefs that were instilled in him at a much younger age, those which his pandering panoply of progressive press people were never interested in sharing with the American people for fear of questions about who this man really is.  And now that Obama has had to act off-script, his followers still defend him; the inertia is too great.  The deeper the hole Obama digs, the deeper the media go with him, to justify and affirm their earlier decision to support their appointed visionary.  Yes, this was the one who would unite America, bring an end to the racial divide, reach across the aisle to pass legislation and heal the relationships with our enemies around the world.

Using one of his favorite analogies to assess our country's situation that the Republicans drove the car into the ditch, Barack Obama has taken the car out of the ditch, but has proceeded to drive it the wrong way against oncoming traffic along the highways of America, "flipping off" other drivers who rant against his law-breaking style of transportation as he passes them by.  He cares not who he injures in following his dangerous and illegal itinerary because it is all about him and his agenda.  Insidious debate on the airwaves about a more pragmatic Obama that would run to the center before the November elections to help save his Democrat supporters in Congress has been a joke.  His program was pre-calculated, and the speculated tempering of an unpopular set of policies has been some fantasy.  The American public be damned.  Forget the future generations of taxpayers who will be encumbered with the massive debt he has piled on their backs, the Americans of today who shudder to think of the weak-kneed foreign policy that encourages Islamic terrorists to bring their treachery to our shores for lack of reprisal and the citizens who bear the burden of the entitlements and criminal activities of illegal immigrants.  Thus it is that so much of his legacy has already been written in less than two years.

The people of America, by and large, have seen enough of this.  In a little more than two months a highly energized conservative electorate will go to the polls and make their voices heard.  Between now and then, while the congressional Democrats resort to their Saul Alinsky handbooks to tell their legions of MoveOn mercenaries what to do, conservative grass roots organizations will look to match them blow for blow.  In the words of Barack Obama during a June 13, 2008 campaign speech in Philadelphia, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."  The conservative majority of America brings its heart and its belief in the greatness of this country to the fight and they will defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  There is a vigilance among the populace that bespeaks of a determination to right the wrongs of the last eighteen months and return our country to the path which our Founding Fathers had originally plotted more than two hundred years ago.  Their words and their deeds live in the hearts of Americans today and carry them forward in the struggle to reclaim what is theirs.  A government of the people, by the people, for the people…
How Bad Is It For Obama?
Joe Weisenthal says he's completely lost The New York Times (NYT).

The big political event of the weekend was Glenn Beck getting at least 300,000 to hear him talk about faith and restoring America, and all that stuff.

And yes, the level of motivation on the right is bad news for the Democrats, but it's not just that the right is uber-motivated.  One of Obama's key bases -- the NYT and its readers -- is throwing in the towel.

Check out this Krugman post where he wonders when Obama is finally going to do something bold on the economy... and then check out the dispirited comments.

Here's one of the top-rated ones:
    

I don't understand the inaction (both legislatively and use of his bully pulpit) either.... I can only HOPE, that the President knows something that everyone else doesn't.  Barring that, then he isn't the person I voted for.

    
Then go read this unsigned official editorial from the Times: Waiting For Mr. Obama.  The first line:
    

If President Obama has a big economic initiative up his sleeve, as he hinted recently, now would be a good time to let the rest of us in on it.

    
Then go read this from the Week In Review section about Obama's rapidly dwindling policy options on the economy.

It all seems pretty clear.  Obama has lost the NYT and its readers.  That's not his total constituency, but it represents an important one in terms support and money.  His perceived failure to act with gusto on the economy is what did it.
Obama's Shipwreck
Jonah Goldberg says you've got to wonder when White House political guru David Axelrod will look at the churning pools of poll data and, like Chief Brody in "Jaws," say: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

The analogy isn't quite right, because in the movie, the shark ultimately loses.  It's hard to imagine a scenario where Barack Obama and Axelrod victoriously paddle away on the flotsam of their own political wreckage.  But in one sense, the analogy works just fine: This White House is rudderless -- lost at sea, and inadequate to the challenges it faces.

At the beginning of the year, retiring seven-term Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.), recounted a conversation he had with Obama.  His unrelenting push for health-care reform in the face of public opposition reminded Berry of the Clinton-era missteps that led to the Republican rout of the Democrats in 1994.  "I began to preach last January that we had already seen this movie, and we didn't want to see it again because we know how it comes out," Berry told a newspaper.

Or, to quote Brody in "Jaws 2": "But I'm telling you, and I'm telling everybody at this table that that's a shark!  And I know what a shark looks like, because I've seen one up close.  And you'd better do something about this one, because I don't intend to go through that hell again!"

Convinced that his popularity was eternal, Obama responded by saying, yes, but there's a "big difference" between 1994 and 2010, and that big difference is, "you've got me."

The funny thing is, Obama might have been right.  Because things might be much worse for Democrats in 2010 than they were in 1994 -- and the big difference might well be Barack Obama.

Continue reading here . . .
Dear Mr. Obama, Americans Don’t Trust You
Dragon says, you know, if Obama was as smart as he thinks he is, he would understand that the People question who he is and what he is because of what he is hiding.  No president in history has ever sealed all of their files pertaining to their past.

Your religion has been in the news before, and it continues today and with good reason.  Your grand-father was a Muslim, your father was a Muslim, your step-father was Muslim, and you were registered a Muslim when you went to school in Indonesia.  You went on your trip through the Middle East apologizing for America being a success.  You have repeatedly tried to re-write history by telling America that Muslims played a part in America’s past.  As I have stated before, I don’t remember any Muslims traveling with Columbus, coming over on the Mayflower, or signing the Constitution.

Now if this were the early 1940′s and your last name was Shultz or Yamato, even more people would question you.

Now I’m sure that all Muslims are not terrorists, but when the World Trade Center was destroyed, there was dancing in the streets throughout the Muslim world (video).  This is one reason why people don’t like Muslims.

You might also understand that there in a difference between a long form birth certificate and a COLB, and since the one you posted has been proven to be a fake, it’s understandable why people think you are a fake.

None of this is George Bush’s fault, but you would understand this too if you spent more time doing your job and not going on vacation all the time.  Millions of Americans are out of work and you just finished your 10th vacation in less than 2 years.  And what the hell is wrong with Camp David?  You could go there and still play golf, shoot hoops, and ride a bike.

But you are not as smart as you think you are, and the People are tired of your lies and tired of you spending money that we don’t have.

Of the People, by the People, and for the People, remember that Mr. Obama?  Well maybe you should, because you, Congress and the Senate work for us and this is our Country, this is America and God willing the People will show you and your Marxist Administration come November.  So you might want to stay in town that day, and stay off the golf course.
Oval Office Gets Makeover
Julie Mason believes visiting world leaders likely to doze off in Barack Obama's redecorated Oval Office.
    

Even the photographers feel it's a little.....beige.
    
From the pool report:
 
The new wheat, cream and blue colored oval-shaped rug is made of 25 percent recycled wool.  The rug has the Presidential seal in the center and historical quotes of meaning to Obama around the border.  The rug was made and donated by the Scott Group, an American carpet manufacturer headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich.  The Scott Group previously made the Oval Office rug designed for former President Bill Clinton as well as rugs for the White House State Dining Room.

Obama picked a bunch of historical quotes that are woven around the edge of the rug.  They are:
    

"The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself" -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Government of the People, By the People, For the People" -- President Abraham Lincoln

"No Problem of Human Destiny is Beyond Human Beings" -- President John F. Kennedy

"The Welfare of Each of Us is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us" -- President Theodore Roosevelt

    
Shades of "It Takes a Village" -- Obama just had to get that collectivist quote in there.
What American President Would Do That?
Carol Taber says other presidents have been wrong.  Other presidents have been misguided.  Other presidents have been weak and pusillanimous and pathetic.

Only one truly disdains America.  His name is Barack Obama.

How else to explain his latest outrage against the country that elevated him to the ranks of world leadership?  Last week, the Obama State Department submitted a report to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on the supposed human rights violations taking place in the United States.  According to the Washington Times, the report describes how the United States discriminates against the disabled, homosexuals, women, Native Americans, blacks, Hispanics and those who don't speak English.  There is the expected pandering to Muslims...the report notes that until recently, the U.S. engaged in torture, unlawfully detained terrorist suspects and illegally spied on Americans communicating with terrorists...but the report assures readers that Obama has been putting a stop to all that.

Beyond the outrage felt by Governor Jan Brewer, whose move to protect Arizonans' human rights was offered up as an example of an abuse of human rights by Obama's State Department report (gotta protect those drug cartel murderers!), for many citizens, this report is a rank anti-American manifesto and the last straw.  Many believe it to be outright evil, that there is no other word to encompass Obama's disgraceful and indefensible decision.  This odious report has placed America -- us -- on a list of human rights violators that includes Iran, North Korea, and Sudan.  And Obama and his administration have done it purposefully, intentionally, and with malice aforethought.

The truth, on the other hand, is that every demographic group mentioned in the report as victimized by America is better off in America than in any other country on earth.  That's why they stay here.  If they don't like America, they're free to leave at any time.  We're not the Soviet Union or China, restricting population flow.  European glories are only a plane ticket away.

But they don't leave.  That's because the people of America have a higher standard of living, more opportunity for high-quality health care (at least for a little while longer), a better shot at a decent education, and more personal freedom to pursue occupations of their choice -- and life, liberty, and happiness -- than in any other place on the planet.

But according to Obama, splinter groups of Americans (including women, who compose a majority of the population) are hapless and defenseless victims of our "downright mean" country, a description coined by Michelle Obama during Obama's campaign for president.

Continue reading here . . .

Related:  Arizona vs. the U.N. Human Rights Police
It's The People's Fault
Michael Fraley comments on Time Magazine's Michael Sherer's examination of "How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular." Could it possibly be due to a string of broken promises and lies?  Unprecedented spending?  Government overreach?  The ramming through of unpopular legislation?  Nope -- it's all the people's fault.
    

... trust in the federal government was at a historic low, dropping to around 25%, where it still remains.  Yet Obama has offered government as the primary solution to most of the nation's woes, calling for big new investments in health care, education, infrastructure and energy.  Some voters bucked at the incongruity, repeatedly telling pollsters that even programs that have clearly helped the economy, like the $787 billion stimulus, did no such thing.

     
Yes that's right: Obama has called for "investments" and programs that have "clearly helped the economy."  But those people, ungrateful lot, just cannot get past their perceived "incongruity."  Come on people, don't you remember?!  Hope and change? The One we've been waiting for?

Not to worry, for the One is not one to wait around for the people.
   

Rather than dwell on the political problems, the President pushed his team forward, believing, in the words of top adviser David Axelrod, that "ultimately the best politics was to do that which he thought was right."

   
But his team...oh, how they have dragged him down.
    

"It is inconceivable that a team so disciplined during the presidential campaign can't carry a message with the bully pulpit of the White House," says one Democratic strategist working on the midterm elections.  "It's politically irresponsible, and Americans have little patience for it."

    
So, in reality, the American people lack patience...with Obama's team.  Their challenge, according to Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, is to get the voters "to make connections between what is happening in Washington and what is happening in their lives."  Hmm... actually it seems that voters are making the connections just fine, thank you.  But take heart!

For now, Obama's aides hope that the controversial reforms in health care and financial rules will produce benefits felt by voters, if not by November 2010, then two years later.  That would vindicate Obama's vision of government as a solution and not just a problem.

We people are slow, so it might take us a couple years to catch up to the One.  I mean, we're only human.
Major Newspaper Calls For Impeachment Of Barack Obama
Anthony Martin says The Washington Times, considered by some to be one of the top 10 most influential newspapers in the country, due to its considerable standing with conservatives, has called for the impeachment of Barack Obama.

The Washington Times, which has become known through the years as D.C.'s major alternative newspaper, called for the ouster of Obama in an op-ed column yesterday.  The Times is delivered into the mailboxes of every Senator and Congressman in Washington.

While one major site ranks the Washington Times in the top 100 daily newspapers in the country (No. 92), for a publication to rank even in the top 100 out of over 1400 daily papers in America qualifies the Times as a "major daily."

Although the column does not officially represent the editorial board of the newspaper, the fact that the Times chose to publish it may indicate the official stance of its publisher and ownership, given that the columnist is one of a select few staff editorialists for the paper, and each column written by staff must have prior approval of the brass.

In the stunning opinion-piece, columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner stated the following:
    

"President Obama has engaged in numerous high crimes and misdemeanors.  The Democratic majority in Congress is in peril as Americans reject his agenda.  Yet more must be done: Mr. Obama should be impeached."

    
Continue reading here . . .
Obama's Political Toxicity On Display
Thomas Lifson says Obama flew to Milwaukee to mark Labor Day at a union picnic ("Laborfest"), at a far smaller venue than he used when marking the same event in 2008.  Don't worry about a rambunctious crowd, protest signs, or any other indignities, though.  Admission is by ticket only, with unions in charge of distribution.

Even more curious is the absence of left wing Senator Russ Feingold, facing re-election this year, and not showing a lot of strength in the polls.  Patrick McIlheran, columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has a witty column on the visit:
    

It's quite a party: Parade organizers were still looking for volunteers to help carry the giant protest puppets of the Earth Goddess and such.  Pity, then, that Russ Feingold, the incumbent Democratic senator in a neck-and-neck race, can't hang out with the president. [....]

    
Many presidents fall in public esteem by mid-term, but with Obama, the change is more fundamental.  What put him in office certainly wasn't experience, nor was it any explication of the agenda that, now revealed, has frightened off one in four of his voters.  Rather, it was that he was the great center hope, a man to unite factions and span fissures.  That's gone, say polls.  The center no longer hopes in him, and so when he appears in a state where his party's senatorial and gubernatorial candidates are in deep trouble, he can appear only before a crowd heavy on AFSCME and SEIU.

Another way putting it is that Obama has been discovered to be a fraud.  Once trust is lost, it is never easily regained.  This is the stark reality of Democrat politics; their standard-bearer is toxic.  The only thing that can save the Democrats' fortunes is GOP incompetence and untrustworthiness.  So, regrettably, all is not gloom for the Democrats.
Lil Bow Wow


Barack Obama says "they talk about me like a dog"  (01:24)
    
Toby Harnden says just when it seemed that Barack Obama couldn’t dig himself any deeper into the political hole he’s in, he does something really stupid. "Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me," he told a union crowd in Milwaukee. "They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true."

The comment makes him look ridiculous. First off, there are inevitable racial overtones to it. To be treated "like a dog" is to be treated as something less than human. In the Muslim world, to call someone a dog is a pretty serious insult (and no, I’m not suggesting Obama is a Muslim).

Looks like the self-pitying Obama is looking for sympathy and attention.

Again, it is all about him, but what’s the deal with thinking people are talking about him like a dog?  For an elitist, he certainly has a whopper of an inferiority complex.

Spaniel?  Terrier?  St. Bernard?  No, a mongrel -- "a mutt like me" --  after all, Obama has no papers!
Liberal Elites Concede Obama's Presidency Is Crumbling
Nile Gardiner says America's liberal elites concede that Obama's Presidency is crumbling.
    

Democrats in Congress are no longer asking themselves whether this is going to be a bad election year for them and their party.  They are asking whether it is going to be a disaster.  The GOP pushed deep into Democratic-held territory over the summer, to the point where the party is well within range of picking up the 39 seats it would need to take control of the House.  Overall, as many as 80 House seats could be at risk, and fewer than a dozen of these are held by Republicans.

Political handicappers now say it is conceivable that the Republicans could also win the 10 seats they need to take back the Senate.  Not since 1930 has the House changed hands without the Senate following suit.

    
Is this a piece from National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal or Fox News.com, all major conservative news outlets in the United States?  No.  It’s a direct quote from yesterday’s Washington Post, usually viewed by conservatives as a flagship of the liberal establishment inside the Beltway.  The fact The Post is reporting that not only could Republicans sweep the House of Representatives this November, but may even take the Senate as well, is a reflection of just how far the mainstream, overwhelmingly left-of-centre US media has moved in the last month towards acknowledging the scale of the crisis facing the White House.

To its credit, The Washington Post has generally been ahead of the curve compared to its main competitors such as The New York Times in reporting Obama’s travails, but its striking front page coverage of the "Democrats’ plight" and talk of a possible GOP Senate win (regarded as fantasy just a fortnight ago) was a bold step for a publication that is probably read in every office of the Obama administration.

The Post also ran another headline yesterday on its front page -- "Republicans making gains ahead of midterm elections" -- which would undoubtedly have sent a shudder through the White House.  It carried a new poll commissioned jointly with ABC News, which showed public faith in Barack Obama’s leadership has fallen to an all-time low, with just 46 percent approval.  The Washington Post-ABC News survey revealed high levels of public unease with Obama’s handling of the economy, with 57 percent of Americans disapproving, and 58 percent critical of his handling of the deficit.

For most of the year, America’s political and media elites, including the Obama team itself, have touted the notion of an economic recovery (which never materialized), significantly underestimated the rise of the Tea Party movement, and questioned the notion that conservatism was sweeping America.  It is only now hitting home just how close Washington is to experiencing a political revolution in November that will fundamentally change the political landscape on Capitol Hill, with huge implications for the Obama presidency.  What was once a perspective confined largely to Fox News, online conservative news sites, or talk radio is now gaining ground in the liberal US print media as well -- historic change is coming to America, though not quite the version promised by Barack Obama.

"Historic change is coming to America, though not quite the version promised by Barack Obama."

Sounds good to me.  Let's keep on pressing Obama and his minions.
The Burning Hypocrisy Of Obama
Bluegrass Pundit says the contrast between Obama's reaction to the planned burning of Qurans by a Florida minister and the planned building of a Mosque two blocks from Ground Zero by a New York Imam couldn't be more different.  Both people were clearly exercising their rights under the American Constitution and law.  However, both parties were taking actions that were clearly offensive to certain groups.  Quran burning is offensive to Muslims worldwide, and the Ground Zero Mosque is offensive to victims and families of 9-11.  Obama fully supported the Ground Zero Mosque.  He said:
    

"I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country."

    
When it came to the free speech right to burn Qurans, Obama had a different take on the issue. President Obama said,
    

""If he's listening, I just hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values..."

    
Both the Ground Zero Mosque and the planned Quran burning are boneheaded ideas, but Obama failed to support the free speech rights of the Florida minister, and failed to tell the NY Imam the Mosque location was a bad idea.  Is it any wonder one in five Americans think Obama is a secret Muslim?

After a visit by the FBI, the Florida minister has announced a cancellation of the Quran burning, and said he is flying to New York to meet the Ground Zero Mosque developer in the wake of a reported decision to move the Mosque location.  Sources close to Sharif Al-Gamal deny a deal has been struck.

Obama's could attempt to defend his decision to try and stop the Quran burning by saying he is protecting U.S. Military and civilian's lives by his Quran burning position.  However, this brings to mind the failed policy of German appeasement before WW II.

Remember Obama saying, "In the wake of 9/11...I will stand with them [Muslims] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
Obama Unable To Fill Room
Karen Farkas says with less than an hour before Obama's scheduled speech, 75 seats remained empty in the recreation center at Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus.

So organizers went around campus and recruited more students to fill the seats.

Student Jennifer Rahal, of Parma Heights, whose class was canceled today, was working on her art work in the coffee shop in the basement of the building when the call went out for more guests.

After dropping off their stuff at a bag check, the newly invited guests cleared security and filed into the gym.

Related:  What Ever Happened to Obama's Army?

It's a long way from Berlin.
Obama Was A No Show At 9/11 Remembrance
SpeakNowAmerica.org reminds us that for the second year Obama will miss the 9/11 Ceremony.

Socialist Barack Hussein Obama will again not go to 9/11 ceremonies at Ground Zero.  Obama was too busy to attend last year also.  Obama can play golf, have parties, and campaign across America.  What Obama won’t do is be an American.  What beliefs does he have that he refuses to accept the Muslims destroyed buildings and killed approximately 3,000 Americans?

Every American over 21 can tell you where they were when they heard of the horror that was happening on 9/11.  Many people younger than 21 can tell you where they were also.  This is a day most Americans will never forget and will always reflect on the tragedy.

When running for president the socialist Obama showed up at Ground Zero.  That was for show and to win votes.  Michelle Obama dissed it in 2008.  Campaigning and building the Obama war chest were more important to her.  She went to Los Angeles instead.

Obama can jet to New York for dinner on a Friday night, but is too busy to honor all the brave Americans who lost their lives on 9/11.  He is too busy to honor all the men and women who worked tirelessly and put their own lives in danger helping after 9/11.  He is too busy to honor the families of those who died.

For the first time in America’s history we have an occupant of the Oval Office who cares nothing about America.  Obama has no understanding of what 9/11 is to America.  Worse Obama doesn’t care what 9/11 means to America.  He has an agenda and America be damned.
Obama, The Academic Zombie
John Kelly says for those who've struggled to find out what makes Obama tick, the mystery is over.  It's simple.  His beliefs and values fully embody the same philosophy, to which the vast majority of American university faculty members are fully invested.  He promotes, with near perfect predictability, their left wing, collectivist, counter-American viewpoint.  There are thousands and thousands of academics out there gripping a similar playbook.

Those observers who missed this point early on either went to college long ago or dutifully studied a narrow curriculum and failed to scrutinize the cultural inclinations and revolutionary intentions of their Oz-like, academic surroundings.  Only now are some waking up to find, "We're not in America any more."

Obama is the child of two PhD's and, other than having been a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, has no appreciable practical work experience.  Given his upbringing's remote fatherly attention and his rejection of his mother's native culture, it may be safe to say that Obama is more truly a progeny of academia than he is of either of his natural parents.

One writer currently claims Obama is channeling his father's Kenyan anti-colonialism.  More accurately it is the groupthink of academia to which Obama is fully assimilated and loyally patriotic, not America or Kenya.  Academia is the foster parent of the entire Woodstock generation, culturally orphaned from their WW II fighting parents whose shoes they never could fill.

There is a natural tendency for those of any given profession to encourage the technique and culture of their profession.  The militarist will support a chain of command and promote defensive readiness.  The religious leader will prescribe faith and offer guidance.  The athlete will promote physical exercise and a daily routine.

Accordingly, the academic will replicate the domineering teacher-student relationship and reject out of hand all notions not academically and, these days politically, correct.  Today's dominant academic culture promotes large government, wealth redistribution, and a stylishly green and globally socialist point of view.  To them American borders and culture are irrelevant.

Simply put, Obama is and wants almost everything that regular, self-reliant, non-academic Americans aren't and don't want.

Continue reading here . . .
It's About Obama
Alan Caruba says, "I have this theory about Barack Obama I think he's led a kind of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened because at some point early on somebody or some group took a look at this tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man with an exotic African/Muslim name and concluded he could be guided toward a life in politics where his facile speaking skills could even put him in the White House.

In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very big hurry.  Who else do you know has written two memoirs before the age of 45?  "Dreams of My Father" was published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old.  The "Audacity of Hope" followed in 2006.  If, indeed, he did write them himself.  There are some who think that his mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself a "communist with a small 'c'" was the real author.

His political skills consisted of rarely voting on anything that might be deemed controversial.  He went from a legislator in the Illinois legislature to the Senator from that state because he had the good fortune of having Mayor Daley's formidable political machine at his disposal.

He was in the U.S. Senate so briefly that his bid for the presidency was either an act of astonishing self-confidence or part of some greater game plan that had been determined before he first stepped foot in the Capital.  How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a 2004 keynote speaker at the Democrat convention that nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever even heard of him before?

He outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries.  He took Iowa by storm.  A charming young man, an anomaly in the state with a very small black population, he oozed "cool" in a place where agriculture was the antithesis of cool.  He dazzled the locals.  And he had an army of volunteers drawn to a charisma that hid any real substance.

And then he had the great good fortune of having the Republicans select one of the most inept candidates for the presidency since Bob Dole.  And then John McCain did something crazy.  He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown female governor from the very distant state of Alaska.  It was a ticket that was reminiscent of 1984's Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went down to defeat.

The mainstream political media fell in love with him.  It was a schoolgirl crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now over the man.  The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin, was extraordinary.

Now, one-year plus into his first term, all of those gilded years leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be president.  Left to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.  It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.

Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to "wish away" some terrible realities, not the least of which is the Islamist intention to destroy America and enslave the West.  Any student of history knows how swiftly Islam initially spread.  It knocked on the doors of Europe, having gained a foothold in Spain.

The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his campaign "world tour" were no substitute for having even the slightest grasp of history and the reality of a world filled with really bad people with really bad intentions.

Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political experience, a cakewalk, has positioned him to destroy the Democrat Party's hold on power in Congress because in the end it was never about the Party.  It was always about his communist ideology, learned at an early age from family, mentors, college professors, and extreme leftist friends and colleagues.

Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about a Boston police officer who arrested an "obstreperous" Harvard professor-friend, but would warn Americans against "jumping to conclusions" about a mass murderer at Fort Hood who shouted "Allahu Akbar."  The absurdity of that was lost on no one.  He has since compounded this by calling the Christmas bomber "an isolated extremist" only to have to admit a day or two later that he was part of an al Qaeda plot.

He is a man who could strive to close down our detention facility at Guantanamo even though those released were known to have returned to the battlefield against America.  He could even instruct his Attorney General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial when no one else would ever even consider such an obscenity.  And he is a man who could wait three days before having anything to say about the perpetrator of yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have to elaborate on his remarks the following day because his first statement was so lame.

The pattern repeats itself.  He either blames any problem on the Bush administration, or he naively seeks to wish away the truth.

Knock, knock.  Anyone home?  Anyone there?  Barack Obama exists only as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the people who have maneuvered and manufactured this pathetic individual's life.

When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a birth certificate, this man has spent over two million dollars to deny access to his.  Most other documents, the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been sequestered from review.  He has lived a make-believe life whose true facts remain hidden.

We laugh at the ventriloquist's dummy, but what do you do when the dummy is President of the United States of America?"
Barack Obama's Bubble Has Burst
Donna Joyce says there is much to be learned from the study of history, not the least of which is that bubbles are endemic to human existence.  Seemingly out of nowhere a mania will burst forth, grab hold of the masses, run a brief course, then crash and burn a short time later.  Depending on where one gets on, it can be an exhilarating ride or a brutal lesson on the perils of following the crowd.

Noteworthy bubbles of history include the South Sea bubble, the Dutch tulip bubble and, more recently, the dot-com and the real estate bubbles.  All had meteoric rises, compelling people to dive into them with wallets open and eyes closed.  All had equally spectacular crashes, destroying fortunes and families alike.

Mankind seldom learns from history.  Rather, it rationalizes that "This time is different" or "This is the real deal."  But it is never different, never real.  With bubbles, emotion trumps reason.  Greed is generally the culprit, but other emotions are equally powerful, such as hope.

Our newest bubble, recognizable now that it is bursting before our eyes, is Barack Obama.  A man whose name was largely unknown several years ago soared to stupefying heights of popularity in a very short time.  Millions of people attached themselves to his meteoric persona.  Massive crowds roared their approval of his speeches.  Women -- and not a few men -- wept and swooned in his presence.  Some compared him to God.  He is real, we believed.  He is true.  He will solve our problems because he is the One.

We were told that Obama had extraordinary gifts -- soaring inspirational rhetoric, laser-like insights, economic knowledge, the ability to unite us, to bring adversaries together and to surmount insurmountable odds.  We hoped.  We believed.

Those who questioned this image and pointed factually to his lack of experience were called racists and bigots, marginalized by those who preferred faith to facts.

Believe, hope, and ye shall be saved.  So we did.

Fast forward to 2010.  The Obama bubble has burst.  Political moderates have fled.  His speeches are met with indifference and disdain.  His dependence on the teleprompter has become a national joke.  His policies have exacerbated our problems, not solved them.  His endorsements guarantee electoral defeat.  The "I" word -- incompetent -- is heard with increasing frequency.  Even some media personages are critical.

How did this happen?  Quite simply, the Obama bubble, like all bubbles, was unsustainable.  A bubble is not, by nature, a long-term affair.  It always consumes itself, sooner rather than later.  So it is with Obama.  He promised so much, too much to possibly deliver.  The hype produced the pop.  Did anyone really believe he could slow the rise of the oceans and cool the planet?

Previous bubbles have cost peoples’ life savings.  The Obama bubble may yet do this, but it has already cost us something else of immense importance: our hopes of racial absolution, the belief that electing a multiracial man with black blood would somehow atone for past racial sins and wash away the ugly rancor.  Instead, racial issues have become more sensitive.  No one is happy.  No one wants to kiss and make up.  No one wants to move on.  The hope is gone.

Can we learn from our mistakes?  Maybe.  There will be other bubbles.  Our collective memory is short.  Human emotions will lead us down this road again and again.  The Obama bubble will go down in history as yet another illustration of George Santayana’s words: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Crimes Against Liberty
Ben Shapiro says every president has his bête noire.  For Reagan, it was Sam Donaldson.  For Clinton, it was Ann Coulter.  For Obama, it’s David Limbaugh.
    
No better book has been written compiling the evidence against a president that Limbaugh’s Crimes Against Liberty.  "This book is about a young presidency," Limbaugh opens.  "[Y]oung, but already the most destructive in American history.  Everything about Barack Obama’s radical background signals his visceral contempt for America -- its culture, its values, and its political and economic systems.  His unmistakable goal is to bring America down to size -- an America that has been, in his view, too big for its britches, selfish, exploitative, unfairly wealthy, arrogant, and dismissive."

That’s a powerful thesis, and Limbaugh spends the better part of 400 pages proving it in painstaking detail.  The amazing thing is that he doesn’t even scratch the surface, as he told me on my radio show in Orlando.  Every day, Obama does something new to destroy the Constitution and undermine America’s founding values.

Limbaugh isn’t calling for impeachment -- he doesn’t think Obama has committed impeachable offenses, at least not yet.

Continue reading here . . .
But The Europeans Still Love Obama
Jonathon M. Seidl says Obama has a 78% approval rating -- in socialist Europe.

A new poll finds that Barack Obama retains substantial numbers of fans in Europe even though his popular support has softened at home.

More than three-quarters of those polled in 11 European Union countries say they approve of Obama’s handing of international policies.  That compares with just over half of Americans.

The annual survey was conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an Italian research center.

It found that Europeans were not as enthusiastic about some of Obama’s policies, with just under half approving of his handling of Afghanistan and Iran.

Obama‘s overall approval ratings dipped slightly in Europe since last year’s poll, from 83 percent to 78 percent.
"The President is Losing It"
Ulsterman says that a longtime Washington D.C. insider, and former advisor to the Obama election campaign and transition team, speaks out on an administration in crisis, and a man increasingly withdrawn from the job of president.

In just a few words, how would you describe him these days?
    

"Like I said, it’s been a while since I was last at the White House, but I don’t have a problem saying that the president is losing it.  I don’t mean he is like losing his mind.  I mean to say that he is losing whatever spark he had during the campaign.  When you take away the crowds, Obama gets noticeably smaller.  He shrinks up inside of himself.  He just doesn’t seem to have the confidence to do the job of President, and it’s getting worse and worse.  Case in point -- just a few days before I left, I saw first hand the President of the United States yelling at a member of his staff.  He was yelling like a spoiled child.  And then he pouted for several moments after.  I wish I was kidding, or exaggerating, but I am not.  The President of the United States threw a temper tantrum.  The jobs reports are always setting him off, and he is getting increasingly conspiratorial over the unemployment numbers.  I never heard it myself, but was told that Obama thinks the banking system is out to get him now.  That they and the big industries are making him pay for trying to regulate them more.  That is the frame of mind the President is in these days.  And you know what?  Maybe he is right, who knows?"

    
What does he do day after day?
    

"Well, he takes his meetings just like any other president would, though even then, he seems to lack a certain focus and on a few occasions, actually leaves with the directive that be given a summary of the meeting at a later date.  I hear he plays a lot of golf, and watches a lot of television -- ESPN mainly.  I’ll tell you this -- if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports.  That gets him interested.  You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off.  It’s really very strange.  I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right?  Ivy League and all that.  Well, that is not what I saw.  Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity.  When he is off script, he is what I call a real 'slow talker.'  Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly.  I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite letdown when you actually hear him talking without the script."

    
That sounds like you are calling Obama stupid to me.
    

"No -- I am not going to call him stupid.  He just doesn’t strike me as particularly smart.  Bill Clinton is a smart guy -- he would run intellectual circles around Barack Obama.  And Bill Clinton loved the politics of being president.  Obama seems to think he shouldn’t have to be bothered, which has created a considerable amount of conflict among his staff."

    
So how bad are things at the White House these days?
    

"I don’t know about right now, because I have not been there in over a month.  But I still hear things, and I know what it was like when I left.  It’s not good.  As bad as it might look to voters based on what they do know, it’s much worse.  The infighting is off the charts."

    
The above is excerpted and out of sequence from the original article, here . . .

Related:  Obama, the Thin-Skinned President
Obama Meltdown Under Way
Christopher Ruddy says that he turned on the "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," expecting one of the lead stories to be about Obama's chief political adviser, David Axelrod, announcing that he's quitting, on the heels of other resignations this week coming from top Obama aides -- well, not just aides.

In just the past few days, we have learned that Obama's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, is quitting.  So is his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who may leave as early as next month to run for mayor of Chicago.  And now, the news today, Obama's senior political adviser, David Axelrod, is going back to Chicago -- ostensibly to run Obama's 2012 re-election.

But for the first half of the NBC show, not a word about these developments.

Instead, the "lead" news story was that Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg was donating $100 million to the Newark, N.J., schools.  The network suggested he did so as a PR move to deflect criticisms made of him in a soon-to-be-released Hollywood docudrama. 

An interesting story indeed -- but nothing compared to the story about the wholesale departure of Obama's most senior advisers!

Perhaps it's the media shielding, once again, Obama and his party from negative news on the eve of a historic election.

These resignations can't be welcome.  Why would the Obama White House want a wave of resignations announcements so close to a critical congressional election?  From Obama's point of view, this has to be the worst possible news.  It not only looks bad, but adds to the confusion that seems to have cast a pall over the whole executive branch.

For each of the individuals -- Summers, Axelrod, and Emanuel -- it makes great sense.  They apparently see a sinking ship and realize they need to jump off into a safe place.

Their resignations, at this time, are a slap in the face to Obama.  But, on the upside for them, these three can move onto other, more significant positions in the private and public sector, while still leveraging their contacts in the Obama administration.

This is an extremely important point.  It is very valuable to be a former presidential aide for a president still serving in the White House.  With his immense national network, just think of all the money Emanuel will be able to raise for his bid to run the Daley machine.

Smart guy that Emanuel.  Ditto for Summers and Axelrod.
Obama In Free Fall
Herman Cain says that in less than two years, this administration has produced an unprecedented turnover rate of top administration advisors, a failed stimulus spending bill, failed economic policies that have left the economy stalled, much higher than expected unemployment, a hugely unpopular health care bill, a financial regulatory deform bill, a list of expensive poorly executed populist programs that flopped, out-of-control federal spending, uncertainty about success with the war in Afghanistan, and increased tensions with Iran, North Korea and China.

Millions of voters have come to realize that Obama lacks leadership, direction, decisiveness, economic urgency and, most of all, solutions.  This combination of deficiencies has produced a more than uninspired citizenry, except for his most loyal and misled supporters.

And just like the supporter who confronted Obama at a supposedly friendly town hall meeting last week, people are exhausted from listening to all of the failed attempts to spin failures into successes with speeches and media sound-bites.

A disheartened Obama supporter called my radio show last week and asked if I could name one thing that Obama had done right, since it seemed to him that all I talk about are the things that have not worked.  I honestly tried to think of something significantly positive, but I could not.  There have been too many disappointments and broken campaign promises.

Obama is in free fall, which means this nation is in free fall.

But after further reflection, there is something he has inspired.  With the help of an incompetently led Congress, Obama has successfully awakened a citizen’s movement that has stunned the political establishment in both parties.  The political establishment and the Obama media call it those Tea Party People.  They can’t seem to understand why people are upset.  Maybe they’re not listening.

The administration, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, other Democrats, the ObamaMedia and other liberals have responded to the citizens’ movement with nothing but name-calling attacks on the Tea Party people.  Those tactics have not worked.  In fact, they appear to have further energized the citizen’s movement.  Demonization and intimidation of "We the People" is not working.

Obama's free fall started with an unmanageable management structure.  Fifteen cabinet heads and dozens of czars is not a logical way to structure a leadership team.

Two of Obama’s top economic advisors have left in less than two years, and the third of four, Larry Summers, has announced that he is leaving.  Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, is expected to leave soon [this week] to run for Mayor of Chicago, while senior advisor to the president David Axelrod has confirmed that he will be leaving sometime in 2011 to work on Obama’s re-election campaign.  That might be the uphill political challenge of the century.

Many congressional Democrats running for re-election are distancing themselves from Obama, ObamaCare and the Cap and Trade and Tax and Kill bill.  And they don’t even talk about all of the spending, which has not been the solution to economic growth.  In fact, they want to spend more!

And now the Democrats have decided to wait until after the November elections to pass legislation on the expiring current tax rates.  This is a signal that Obama and the Democrats are going to raise taxes.  We just do not know whether it will be on all of us or some of us.

Instead of a parachute, Obama and Congress are determined to put this economy and nation into a nose dive.

Last night on Hannity, long-time Democratic pollster Doug Schoen referred to the Obama Administration as a "failed administration," and its only 20 months in.
62% Of Women And 63% Of Men Give Obama Negative Marks
Pete Winn says that more than 6 of every 10 college grads are disappointed with Obama, and there is no gender gap when it comes to Obama, according to a Harris Interactive Poll released Monday.  Both sexes now give Obama the same negative ratings on job performance.

According to Harris Interactive, 62 percent of women and 63 percent of men say the give him negative ratings.  That parallels the overall negative rating of 62 percent disapproval of the job he’s doing,

Harris asked 2,620 adults "How would you rate the overall job President Barack Obama is doing?" in an online survey between September 14 and 20.

Though 47 percent of Easterners and 42 percent of Westerners gave him positive marks, nearly seven in 10 Southerners (68 percent) and two-thirds of Midwesterners (67 percent) gave Obama negative ratings after only 20 months in the Oval Office..  63 percent of college grads and 65 percent of those with a high school diploma had negative views.

Republicans were the most likely to give him negative ratings (93 percent) followed by self-described conservatives (86 percent), while liberals and Democrats were most likely to give him positive marks (69 percent and 67 percent, respectively).

Independents, however, gave him more negative than positive marks, as seven in ten of them (69 percent) give Obama negative ratings on his job compared to 31 percent positive.

Related:  Politico Poll: Only 38% Would Vote to Re-Elect Obama
The Obama Scenarios
Alan Caruba asks are we there yet?  Living in Obama’s America is like some horrid, seemingly endless road trip with no bathroom breaks.

He has heard a variety of scenarios regarding the months and days that Barack Hussein Obama remains in office.  There are countdown clocks available on the Internet for those who have to know how much more horror we must endure.

He has long since stopped watching or listening to the man for the same reason he doesn’t pay all that much attention to Mamoud Ahmadinejad.  Both lie all the time.  Both are ideologues who are immune to reality.  Both are destined to come to a bad end.  He favors seeing Obama live to a ripe old age like Jimmy Carter, getting up every day knowing how despised he has become, and he leaves the job of trying to deduce his day to day machinations to those whose job it is to figure out what he’s up to.  To them, he recommends some magical chicken bones and shiny pebbles that can be tossed on a piece of black velvet in order to extract a hint of the future from the patterns they make.

He's not bragging because he had Obama’s number before he took the oath of office.  Dr. Jerome R. Corsi’s book, "Obamanation," was and is a masterful piece of research that spelled out what we could expect from him.  Since then, books about Obama have become a cottage industry with the latest by Bob Woodward confirming that he always wanted to get the hell out of Afghanistan even when he was saying he didn’t.

All this has spawned another industry of sorts; predictions about how the remaining time until January 20, 2013 will play out for him.  These scenarios mostly reflect the wishful thinking of those putting them forth, but they are interesting if for that alone.

There is the assassination theory.  This was advanced early on in the belief that some likely KKK member would kill him for sleeping on the white sheets in the White House.  There hasn’t been a presidential assassination since John F. Kennedy in 1963 so these events are rare.  There was Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley; four out of forty-four.

There is the impeachment theory.  Here again, history does not favor this option.  Impeachment has been rarely tried and never successful.  The effort to impeach Clinton only served to make him some kind of counterculture hero.  Having learned that lesson, a Congress controlled by the GOP should simply do everything it can to thwart any further Obama legislative initiatives, appointments, et cetera.

There is the birth certificate theory in which the courts by some miracle actually allow challenges to Obama’s eligibility to proceed to a point what he is required to produce his long form birth certificate currently a vault in Honolulu.  Was he born there?  At this point, it hardly seems to matter.  For all we know, he’s still a bona fide citizen of Indonesia.  Or Kenya.

There is the resignation theory.  This is the thinnest of hopes because being President of the United States is such a cool job that Obama would never give it up.  Just consider all the perks.  Just consider all the ways he can screw all of us colonialist, imperialist, capitalist Americans?  He has surrounded himself with people who can barely conceal their contempt for the nation.

There is the election theory.  This postulates that he is a one-termer and, for the money, this is the only one that holds up.  His popularity, even among those who voted for him, continues to tank.  He has embarrassed the nation with all that bowing to kings, emperors, and union leaders.  Not unless the Republican Party nominates a convicted child molester will their candidate lose against Obama.

Not all the Tele-Prompters and speeches between now and Election Day 2012 will help Obama get re-elected.  The only exception, possibly, would be World War Three and even then Americans would vote for anyone else because, if there is one thing we know about Obama, it is that he is a coward.

Like Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama will simply have to be endured while the Republican Party, re-energized by the Tea Party movement, plays defense until a new quarterback can be brought into the game.
Obama Is Destroying The Democrat Party
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann say comparisons of Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter miss the point.  Carter's presidency did little to change the basic party construct of the nation or to influence its ideology.  Reagan's presidency accomplished both -- but Barack Obama is destroying the Democratic Party.

It may not recover for a long time.  In this, he most closely resembles a synthesis of the failed candidacy of George McGovern and the catastrophic presidency of Herbert Hoover.

The damage he is doing to his party's image and prospects closely resembles the harm Hoover did to the Republican Party, from which it did not recover for 20 years after he left office.  And the extent to which Obama is discrediting the left parallels the damage George McGovern did to his ideological confreres in 1972, when he went down in flaming defeat.
    
    
In a sense, America met its first conservative in 1981, and fell in love.  We met our first liberal in 2009, and are running away screaming.

FDR was too long ago to count; Lyndon Johnson too distracted by Vietnam to make an impact.  So Obama is the first full-throated liberal in the Oval Office in our lifetimes.  And we won't soon forget him and the lessons his failure is teaching us.

Strangely, the Democrats don't yet get it.  They whistle a happy tune as they march off the cliff.  There is no voice of dissent against Obama's policies, no mumbled animosity, no suppressed discontent.

The party is solid as a phalanx behind its leader even as he sends it to political death.

Continue reading here . . .
Loneliest Man In DC
Michael Goodwin says he's tried homey backyard settings, large campus rallies and teamed up with a crass hip-hop show.  Wherever he goes, he floors the rhetorical pedal, as when he likened his slow-motion polices to the time it took to "free the slaves."  Barack Obama has gone from failing to flailing at ghosts.  Even allowing for desperate times, his desperate measures are a national embarrassment.

Emancipation?  Give us a break.

With each passing day, his denunciations of dissent and inflated claims of economic progress turn off the independent voters who will decide the midterm elections.  He is ignoring the sensible advice to listen to the majority of voters and build a governing coalition.  Instead, he recklessly bets the remainder of his presidency on maintaining the huge liberal Democratic majorities that helped him impose a string of unpopular policies on America.  If he fails, and there is good reason to hope he will face a Republican Congress, he'll be the loneliest man in Washington.

He is losing much of his White House team, yet the obsequious hagiography continues.  When Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel departed Friday, he claimed the last 20 months were "the toughest time any president has ever faced."  This is farce masquerading as fact, but there is no sign Obama is willing to bring in new aides who could help him chart a new course.

If anything, he is doubling down on his self-aggrandizing Big Government agenda, dashing hopes he would use the public revolt against him to finally become the centrist many [brain-dead] Americans believed they were electing.

A friend said the other day that Obama's nonstop campaign speeches were useless because the country has tuned him out.  Politically speaking, that's true.  The thrill is gone, and his efforts to gin up enthusiasm seem a pale imitation of 2008.  It's all vapors now as he hectors former supporters to "buck up."

But it's impossible simply to ignore Obama.  He is the figurehead of a troubled nation, and he regularly reaches new depths of demeaning the office as he fights public will.

His isolation from reality produces cringes when he opens smaller gatherings to questions.  First, it was a woman in Washington who said she was "exhausted defending you" and waiting for meaningful change.  Then it was a business owner in Iowa who complained tax hikes would make it impossible to add jobs.

Both questioners were informed and polite, one a supporter, one not.  They represent the sturdy and loyal backbone of the nation, but Obama was clueless about how to respond.

Continue reading here . . .
Obama's Teleprompters Are Idiot Boards
Byron York is reporting that former Vice President Walter Mondale said on CNN that Obama relies too much on teleprompters -- which Mondale called "idiot boards" -- when speaking to the American people.

In a discussion of whether Obama projects empathy in his speeches, the 82 year-old Mondale said the president "has got to connect with the American people."  When CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked why Obama has not shown more empathy, Mondale answered, "I've seen places where he's done it.  The Milwaukee speech, I thought was terrific.  I think some of these backyard events are terrific.  But I think he -- he's very bright -- as a matter of fact, brilliant.  And I think he tends to -- and he uses these idiot boards to read speeches on television and I think he loses the connection that he needs emotionally with American voters."

"You're talking about the teleprompters that he always has when he's delivering a formal speech?"  Blitzer asked.

"Yes, right," Mondale said.

"And he's reading it, basically from the teleprompter," Blitzer said.

"Right."

"You don't think that works, is that what you're saying?"  Blitzer asked.

"Yes," Mondale answered.  "You know if you're looking at the teleprompter, you're here, you're here, you're here, and your audience is right there.  And I think he needs to do more of that."

Easy for you to say Fritz, but you forget why Obama's handlers won't let him speak without them.  Watch this.

Oh, and Fritzie-boy, where do you get that Obama is brilliant stuff.  I've never seen it.  Slick or clever, maybe, but brilliant?
Obama Is A Jackass
ABC News says derision of Obama on his program is nothing new, but Rush Limbaugh’s tone today may have struck the ears of regular listeners as particularly disdainful, taking his contempt of the Anointed One to a new level.

The nation’s preeminent conservative talk radio host referred to Obama as a "jackass," an "economic illiterate" and an "idiot, where capitalism is concerned."

The rough stuff came during a monologue on Obama’s position on extending the Bush tax cuts to all but the top two percent of wage earners.

Obama, Limbaugh says, is an "economic ignoramus" for not understanding how a "tax increase" on the wealthy won't stimulate growth.

Quoting an AP article from yesterday, Limbaugh pointed out Obama’s remarks at a meeting of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board that the wealthy would "take our ball and go home" if their tax cuts aren’t extended.  Limbaugh then addressed the following line to Obama directly:
    

"Mr. Obama, our imam-child, they have already taken their trillion dollar ball home, and they’re sitting on it, you jackass."

    
(Limbaugh’s been calling Obama "Imam Obama" for several months now.)

"Extend the tax cut to everybody, and you'll inspire confidence," Limbaugh argued, saying that added degree of certainty would free business to spend some of the capital they’re holding onto and hire people, "which, once upon a time, we were told, was Obama’s top priority."

For not getting this, "He's a jackass.  He's an economic illiterate.  He's an economic ignoramus."
 
"And that's being charitable," Limbaugh said.
Obama Considering Rule By Executive Order

Ben Johnson says political commentators are paying a great deal of attention to one of the Los Angeles Times’ stories about Barack Obama’s plans for a Republican takeover of Congress.  Unfortunately, they are focusing on the wrong one.  Most commentators spent the morning quoting Obama’s remarks on a black radio program that a GOP-dominated Congress will result in "hand-to-hand combat."  The reality is most of the action will take place behind their backs and over their heads.  All indications are, if Obama cannot get his legislative agenda enacted by Congress, he will impose it by decree.

 

The evidence comes buried elsewhere in today’s L.A. Times in a piece by Peter Nicholas and Christi Parsons under the hum-drum headline, "Obama Reshapes Administration for a Fresh Strategy."  The story makes clear the "fresh strategy" borders on government by executive fiat.  It begins,

 

"As President Obama remakes his senior staff, he is also shaping a new approach for the second half of his term: to advance his agenda through executive actions he can take on his own, rather than pushing plans through an increasingly hostile Congress."

 

This rule by divine right of kings is confirmed by no less an Obama insider than David Axelrod, who said, "It’s fair to say that the next phase is going to be less about legislative action than it is about managing the change that we’ve brought."  The Times states candidly:

 

So the best arena for Obama to execute his plans may be his own branch of government.  That means more executive orders, more use of the bully pulpit, and more deployment of his ample regulatory powers and the wide-ranging rulemaking authority of his Cabinet members.

 

Nicholas and Parsons note how Obama has replaced the few appointees with ties to Capitol Hill in place of Chicago insiders.  They specifically state the "the Environmental Protection Agency is determined to use its regulatory power…to begin lowering [carbon] emissions, in the absence of congressional action."  In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the EPA could regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act, although the act did not have these "pollutants" in mind.  Seizing on this ruling, an anonymous insider who "was not authorized to speak publicly" told the Times, "The ambition is to get a reasonable start" on implementing his extremist vision.

 

The plan fulfills a threat Obama made earlier this year.  The Associated Press reported in June, "The Obama administration says it would prefer that Congress enact climate change legislation, but has used the threat of EPA regulations to goad lawmakers into action."  Within the last week, Congressional Republicans have called the regulations job-killers, and Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia has sponsored a two-year freeze on certain EPA regulations.  Now it looks as though Obama will run roughshod over Rockefeller, the Republicans, and the will of the American people.

 

More concerning than the aims to which Obama plans to use unfettered executive fiat power is the circumvention of Congress, and the Constitution, in the first place.  William Galston of the Brookings Institution took the LAT Obama will employ this strategy even if Republicans do not take back either House of Congress.  "Whether or not the Republicans take over majorities in one or both houses, the margins will be so much narrower that the strategy of putting together a Democratic bill and picking off a handful of Republicans to push it over the top won’t be viable anymore," he said.

 

Rather than triangulate, repackage his radicalism, or take an electoral chastening, Obama plans to ram his socialist agenda down the American people’s throats "by any means necessary."

 

Continue reading here . . .
Obama Hits Links For 52nd Golf Day
Bridget Johnson says Obama hit the golf course Saturday for what, by CBS News' Mark Knoller's calculation, was his 52nd such outing since taking office.

According to the White House pool report, Obama went golfing Saturday with his usual partners: trip director Marvin Nicholson, press aide Ben Finkenbinder and the Department of Energy's David Katz.

CBS News Radio White House correspondent Knoller tweeted:
     

It's a beautiful 77° & sunny in DC and Pres Obama has gone to Andrews AFB for a round of golf.  His 52nd since taking office.

      

    
Before heading to Andrews Air Force Base for golf, Obama watched his daughter Malia's soccer game in northwest Washington.

Obama heads to Philadelphia with Vice President Biden on Sunday for a DNC "Moving America Forward" campaign rally with Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak (Pa.).

There's a popular band at every Obama rally.  There'd be 11 people at this rally except for the fact that the the hip-hop band The Roots will "warm up" the crowd.  The band was formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson.  They're the real draw.
Obama's War With The American People
Shelagh Gray says her jaw can’t drop any further from things Obama says and does.  Yet somehow, he still manages to deliver what seems to be a daily dose of shock and awe.

Should the GOP retake the House and Senate as a result of the November midterms, an article yesterday in the LATimes.com quotes Obama as saying, "…we are going to have just hand-to-hand combat up here on Capitol Hill."

What?  The continuing undignified and un-presidential phraseology aside, the comment is a profound demonstration of Obama’s unwillingness to accept the will of the people.  Of course we should expect him to continue to try to advance his agenda, and he was elected by a large majority, but if Republicans do indeed retake Congress in the midterms, it will be because the voters … Republicans, Independents, and probably a few newly-awakened Democrats have decreed it.

Thus, Obama would be wise to take heed.  If "hand-to-hand combat" breaks out on Capitol Hill -- if Obama refuses to moderate his agenda and the Republicans have to constantly fight him to enact the will of the voters -- Obama is quite mistaken if he thinks he will be at war with a Republican Congress.

Obama will, in fact, be at war with the American people.
Republicans Will Have to Learn To Get Along With Me
FoxNews.com is reporting that Obama reveals in a magazine article that he is weighing what to do if Republicans win the House majority next month, and has come up with a novel approach: Make the GOP work with him.

In a seeming twist on the post-1994 midterm calculation made by President Bill Clinton -- when Republicans pummeled Democrats in the congressional election -- Obama said he thinks Republicans will have to move in his direction no matter the outcome of the Nov. 2 vote.
    

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, they feel more responsible," he is quoted saying in the Sunday edition of The New York Times Magazine, "either because they didn't do as well as they anticipated, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and throwing bombs didn't work for them, or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals and work with me in a serious way."

    
Accusing the public of mistaking his abilities, Obama also told the magazine that he's a little taken aback that voters are disappointed with the current turn of events in his administration.
    

"The mythology has emerged somehow that we ran this flawless campaign, I never made a mistake, that we were master communicators, everything worked in lockstep," Obama is quoted saying.  "That's not how I look at stuff, because I remember what the campaign was like.  And it was just as messy and just as difficult.  And there were all sorts of moments when our supporters lost hope, and it looked like we weren't going to win.  And we're going through that same period here."

    
The inside-the-White-House account of trouble and turmoil in the administration comes 20 days before the midterm election and is sure to deflate Democrats reluctant to hear the president detailing mistakes from his first 20 months in office.

"It's pretty clear to me based on this interview that the president is saying, 'I've given up, You're on your own,'" said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen.

Among the regrets Obama said he felt during the 111th Congress is letting Republicans make him out to be "the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat."

Continue reading here . . .

This guy is completely out of touch with the mood of the People, but what is curious is the reference to an, "...inside-the-White-House account of trouble and turmoil in the administration..."
I Neglected Marketing And PR And Public Opinion
Mark Hemingway says, Yes!  Obama actually said this in the monster New York Times magazine piece that just came out:
    

"We probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right.  There is probably a perverse pride in my administration -- and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top -- that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular.  And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion."

    
Oh where, oh where to begin.  First, we have the arrogant assumption that the administration’s crime here is getting the policy right.  The fact that majority of the country that hates, say, health care reform with the fire of a thousand suns is presumably because they don’t know what’s good for them.  Then the idea that Obama neglected "marketing and P.R. and public opinion."  Obama gave 54(!) speeches on health care reform, including a special joint session of Congress and prime time infomercial.  And yet, he’s still of the opinion he just hasn’t explained it properly or something?  We’re gonna like this turkey any day now!  (Also, the fact he’s explaining his policy approach in his eleventy billionth magazine profile should tell you something -- Obama’s even posed for the cover of The American Dog.)

Also of note from the profile, Obama says he now knows "there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects."  Wait, government is slow to get public works project underway?  Who possibly could have known?  Good thing we spent $814 billion to find that out!

Gateway Pundit adds, it’s been a year and a half and we all know that the shovels weren’t hitting anything.  The stimulus was a horrible failure.
 

Even Obama agrees.  Obama told the press this week that there is not such a thing as a shovel ready job.


The Caucus reported, via Evan Coyne Maloney:

     

In the magazine article, Mr. Obama reflects on his presidency, admitting that he let himself look too much like "the same old tax-and-spend Democrat," realized too late that "there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects" and perhaps should have "let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts" in the stimulus.

     

Now he tells us.
White House Looks Down On America
The Washington Times recalls that Mark Twain once joked that Richard Wagner's music was "better than it sounds."  Obama administration officials say in all seriousness that the economy is better than it seems, if only people were smart enough to get it.

The same condescending attitude pervades portrayals of the midterm election as a "revolt of the masses," as if peasants wielding torches and copies of the Constitution were marching on the ivory towers of Washington.  MSNBC host Chris Matthews is able to dismiss Republican women candidates as brainless cuties without a peep from the professional feminists who undoubtedly agree with him.  These commentators, and Democrats in general, are indignant that what they see as a collection of bitter rednecks clinging to guns and Bibles (to paraphrase then-candidate Barack Obama) is set to destroy the largest congressional governing majority in a generation.

Those who think in such terms are seriously out of touch.  Polling shows that Tea Party activists have above-average educations and incomes.  Many of those who plan to vote against Obama's party are middle- and working-class moderates who voted Democratic in 2008.  Others are traditionally conservative voters who sat out the last election but have been newly energized as they see more far-left policies being implemented.  Add to the mix a cohort of newly mobilized voters, and the "peasants" begin to look like a broad cross section of America.

If there's one thing that progressives can never admit to themselves, it's their own unpopularity.  So they seek solace in rationalization.  This week, Vice President Joe Biden asserted that it was "just too hard to explain" the administration's many accomplishments, presumably because he thinks the American people are too unsophisticated to understand.  Obama's policies are not causing the problem, he explained; rather, it's the administration's marketing technique.  "[It's] sort of a branding," he said, "I mean, you know they kind of want the branding more at the front end."  Meanwhile, Democratic candidates in competitive states and congressional districts are rebranding themselves as "independents" to run far away from the White House record -- and, in some cases, their own record.

It's not so much that the masses are revolting as that we are seeing the return of the traditional citizen legislator, the nonprofessional politician who comes to Washington for a brief round of public service before resuming a private life.  It is the model of Cincinnatus and George Washington, of the Minutemen and Davy Crockett.  The diverse group of new candidates standing in this election more accurately mirrors the American people than the doddering representatives of the ancient regime.

The coming election is not a contest between an all-knowing ruling class victimized by bad marketing and an ignorant mass of angry, misinformed troglodytes.  It is a referendum on a vision of government and society in which the state seeks unlimited power to make decisions at the expense of the liberty of the people.  It is a moment of decision on a failed experiment in governance.  If the Obama administration's accomplishments are too complex to explain to the voters, if the beneficial effects of their policies are not self-evident, it may be time for them to question whether they have accomplished anything worthwhile at all.
Scandal To Be Determined

Jonathan Chatt says, hear me now and believe me later:  If Republicans win and maintain control of the House of Representatives, they are going to impeach Obama.  They won’t do it right away.  And they won’t succeed in removing Obama -- 67 Senate votes are needed -- but if Obama wins a second term, the House will vote to impeach him before he leaves office.

 

Wait, you say.  What will they impeach him over?  You can always find something.  Mini-scandals break out regularly in Washington.  Last spring, the political press erupted in a frenzy over the news that the White House had floated a potential job to prospective Senate candidate Joe Sestak.   On a scale of one to 100, with one representing presidential jaywalking and 100 representing Watergate, the Sestak job offer probably rated about a 1.5.   Yet it was enough that GOP Representative Darrell Issa called the incident an impeachable offense.

 

It is safe to say that Issa’s threshold of what constitutes an impeachable offense is not terribly high.  As it happens, should Republicans win control of the House, Issa would bring his hair-trigger finger to the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  The Sestak pseudo-scandal disappeared because there was no process to drive the story forward.  Had Issa been running the Oversight Committee, it would have been the subject of hearings and subpoenas.
Our Psycho-Babbler-In-Chief
Paul Mirengoff says Obama is blaming his political woes, and those of his Party, on the inability of Americans to "think clearly." But Obama declined to come down too hard on Americans for being so obtuse.  It's not that we're always stupid; rather the bad economy has clouded our reason:
    

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does [sic] not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared.  And the country is scared.

    
Obama did not point out that the height of the national panic probably occurred in the fall of 2008, when the banking system seemed to be on the verge of collapse and the stock market was plummeting.  It was then that the nation elected an inexperienced, smooth-talking leftist to its highest office.

What Obama fails to grasp here is that arrogance does not sit well with the public under any economic circumstances.  Thus, Obama's self-serving attempt to reduce the national displeasure with left-liberal governance to an unwillingness, caused by fear, to permit "facts and science and argument" (i.e. Obama's position) to win the day is self-defeating.

Perhaps the single biggest complaint against Obama and his Party by the portion of the electorate that has turned against them is that the Democrats haven't listened to them, most notably when they pushed ObamaCare through despite its obvious unpopularity.  When Obama condescendingly accuses voters of disregarding facts, science, and good arguments, and tops off his disdain by offering a pyscho-physiological explanation for their defective thinking, he reinforces the very perception that is driving down his standing.

"The people have spoken, the bastards," probably captures the sentiment of nearly all elected officials when public opinion turns against them.  But mature, stable leaders keep this sentiment to themselves, at least while they are still in office.  Only officials who are unfit to lead openly attribute their political problems to a "national malaise" or to the hard-wired irrationality of the American people.
Obama Can't Be Wrong, So We Must Be Crazy
David Limbaugh sends this memo to those who believe Obama is going to move to the center following his upcoming electoral smack-down: Dream on!  Many of you also told us he wouldn't be that liberal in the first instance.  Is that egg on your face sticky yet?

I'm not denying that Obama might pretend to move to the center on some issues.  As an accomplished Alinskyite, he'll do what he has to do to move the socialist football forward.  But if he feints to the center, it will not be real.  He will not deviate from his relentless quest to advance his leftist agenda.  And you wouldn't, either, if you had his warped mindset, God forbid!
 
This guy isn't just arrogant; he's an elitist, contemptuous of the unwashed who don't have the mental clarity to see issues the way he does.  It would never occur to him to actually readjust his policies.

The more we've seen him off prompter the more we've learned about his heartfelt beliefs.  His notorious "bitter clingers" moment wasn't a verbal slip; it was Obama being candid.  He didn't just say (in effect) that "some people out there in fly-over country don't share our values but mean well."  He implied there's something wrong with them (us) psychologically, spiritually and even morally for clinging to their Bibles, their guns and their antipathy toward people who aren't like them.  That is, they're simple-minded, aggressive bigots.

When Obama runs into opposition on his agenda, it never occurs to him that he could be wrong.  That's why every time his policies are rebuffed, he reacts the same way: "They don't understand my plan.  It's too complicated.  I haven't given enough speeches on the subject or spoken to people about their core values.  I want the people to take another look at my plan."

This signature Obama arrogance reared its head again this past weekend, when Obama said that Americans' "fear and frustration" are what is driving their opposition to his agenda.  The difficult economic times, which, of course, he blamelessly inherited, are interfering with the people's ability to "think clearly."

But fear not.  He selflessly agreed to undertake the burden of breaking "through the fear and the frustration people are feeling."  Hmm.  What do you suppose he might say differently in his hundredth approach to this that he didn't cover the first 99 times?

According to Obama, people can deal with Bush-induced "trauma" concerning the economy one of two ways.  They can either push "away challenges" and look "backwards" or "meet these challenges" and "move forward."

Don't just casually pass over these words.  Savor them for at least a second, and show me where he exhibits an iota of doubt in his failed policies.  To the contrary, he is saying this is more a perception problem for the American people than it is their rational reaction to real problems he has created or exacerbated.

This same dripping condescension is present in his many iterations of the foreign money slander -- his deliberately manufactured tale that the Chamber of Commerce is fomenting angst and buying the upcoming elections with foreign money.  (It's interesting that Democrats are reportedly receiving twice as much foreign campaign dough as Republicans.)

At his recent "youth town hall" meeting, Obama suggested that "what has happened is layered on top of some of that general frustration that has expressed itself through the TEA Party.  There is an awful lot of corporate money that's pouring into these elections right now."  In the battleground states, he said, "you are being bombarded with negative ads every single day, and nobody knows who is paying for these ads.  They've got names like 'Americans for Prosperity.'"

Do you fellow clingers see the recurring theme?  It's not just the foreign money; it's that the American people are just too weak-minded to resist its influence.

Well, I've got news for Obama and anyone else who is buying into his smear.  I just spoke at two Americans for Prosperity TEA Party events a few weekends ago, and the attendees are hardly dupes being spoon-fed by some foreign-sponsored group -- too laughable for words.  They are self-motivated patriots, outraged by government's power abuses, assaults on their liberties and policies bankrupting the nation.

Regarding the TEA Party protesters, Obama is merely projecting his own antipathy for people who aren't socialists like him.  They are not mindless robots divorced from control of their mental faculties.  They know full well what he's doing and how disastrous it is for the country, and they're fighting back.

Given the "trauma" Obama will be experiencing the day following the elections, we probably can't expect him to clearly comprehend the voters' resounding message.  But everyone else will get it.  They already do.
Obama Is Smarter Than You
The Washington Times says condescension won't prove a very effective campaign tool.

Obama was elected by a country that doesn't deserve to be ruled by someone as enlightened as he is -- or so he thinks.  Last weekend, as it became increasingly evident that Obama's political party is headed for historic losses in the midterm elections, he offered his explanation for the electorate's thanklessness.  "Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument does [sic] not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared," he told attendees at a Democratic fundraiser.  "And the country's scared, and they have good reason to be."

This is Barack at his most self-absorbed.  On his side are facts, science and argument; his opponents, by implication, appeal to myth, irrationality and demagoguery.  His brain trust brings moral clarity and intellectual certainty; his opponents are backward-looking knuckle-draggers.  This is the only way he can explain the ingratitude of the American people toward his benevolent regime.

It's not a new tone for this guy.  In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama sniffed at those sad unfortunates who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."  During April 15 tax protests, a smug Obama said he was "amused" at the rallies, snickering, "You would think they would be saying 'thank you.'"  To the philosopher king who occupies the White House, those who oppose his wise rule are selfish, insolent dolts.

Obama's strange pseudo-biological assertion that people are "hardwired not to always think clearly" when they are scared isn't true.  Fear can be a rational response to an imminent threat, and for some people a crisis brings clarity.  The "fight or flight" instinct kicks in, and what puzzles Obama are the vast numbers of Americans who have chosen the former.

This is the first time Obama has had to cope with reasoned and principled opposition to his fashionably leftist ideas.  Barack Obama has lived in a bubble of acclaim where he was always the kid being praised for how bright he was.  He was elevated through a formal education process in which his race, glibness and charisma were more than adequate substitutes for hard work.  His professional life as a "community organizer" and machine politician in heavily Democratic areas required nothing more than appealing to those who already agreed with him.  His entry to the White House came in the wake of an unpopular presidency and in the midst of an economic crisis, and he floated into office on waves of hope and change rhetoric promising miracles that perhaps even he believed he could deliver.

It makes twisted sense that Obama has no idea why the electorate has rejected his sincere efforts on their behalf.  Because he and his party's policies cannot be blamed, he seeks succor in the notion that the voters opposing him are simply red-state redneck rubes.  As Vice President Joe Biden recently bellyached, they would tell the doubting public how good they have it, but it's "just too hard to explain."

We can at least agree with Obama that the country has good reason to be scared.  The last 22 months have seen a riot of government expansion into every aspect of American life.  The housing crisis has not abated and by some measures has grown worse.  The value of the dollar has plummeted.  Government debt is at record levels and will remain there for the foreseeable future.  The economy is sputtering, the stimulus failed to stimulate, job losses are deeper and will last longer than any economic downturn since World War II.  Obama blames this continuing mess on the Bush administration, on factors out of his control, or on anyone but himself.  Facts, science and argument disagree.
Obama Uses Teleprompter In Task Force Meeting

    
Rush Limbaugh comments -- "I've got a picture of it.  Here is a picture of Obama addressing his own Middle Class Task Force using a teleprompter.  Right here, Snerdley.  'Obama addresses dozen members of Middle Class Task Force,' and there's the teleprompter.  I see the teleprompter screens, and I see Larry Summers sitting around here and some of the other people.  It looks like...  Well, I can't tell who, but there are 12 of them.  Biden was in charge of it, and there you have it.  Middle Class Task Force, one of his own subgroups, and he's speaking to them with a teleprompter."

Related:  Obama uses teleprompter to address 6th graders.

Related:  Obama's Tiny TOTUS -- for those off-the-cuff remarks

 Doesn't this make you wonder who's really running the country?
A Divisive Obama Undercuts The Presidency
Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, both liberal Democrats, say that Obama's post-partisan America has disappeared, replaced by the politics of polarization, resentment and division.

In a Univision interview on Monday, Obama, who campaigned in 2008 by referring not to a "Red America" or a "Blue America" but a United States of America, urged Hispanic listeners to vote in this spirit: "We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."

Recently, Obama suggested that if Republicans gain control of the House and/or Senate as forecast, he expects not reconciliation and unity but "hand-to-hand combat" on Capitol Hill.

What a change two years can bring.

We can think of only one other recent president who would display such indifference to the majesty of his office: Richard Nixon.

We write in sadness as traditional liberal Democrats who believe in inclusion.  Like many Americans, we had hoped that Obama would maintain the spirit in which he campaigned.  Instead, since taking office, he has pitted group against group for short-term political gain that is exacerbating the divisions in our country and weakening our national identity.  The culture of attack politics and demonization risks compromising our ability to address our most important issues -- and the stature of our nation's highest office.

Indeed, Obama is conducting himself in a way alarmingly reminiscent of Nixon's role in the disastrous 1970 midterm campaign.  No president has been so persistently personal in his attacks as Obama throughout the fall.  He has regularly attacked his predecessor, the House minority leader and -- directly from the stump -- candidates running for offices below his own.  He has criticized the American people suggesting that they are "reacting just to fear" and faulted his own base for "sitting on their hands complaining."

Continue reading here . . .
Shock: Community Organizer Flops on 2010 Stump
Kyle-Anne Shiver says one can only shake their head in wonder at why Barack Obama, the brilliant-beyond-brilliant presidential candidate, has flopped so badly in the same type of campaign-stump venues he enchanted with fairy dust a mere two years ago.

Perhaps, as he opined himself in The Audacity of Hope, the throngs loved him in '08 because he was a "blank slate" upon whom voters cast their own pictures.  Now that he has an actual record of governance, his audiences are no longer fodder for easy bamboozling.  In '08, the people saw what they wanted to see; reality bites back in 2010.

Or perhaps Obama's current flop is the natural result of overexposure through constant in-your-face public appearances, even on entertainment television, so that his once-exceptional aura has hit the trash-bin of history.  Familiarity breeds contempt; force-fed familiarity breeds a national demand for barf bags.

However, anyone who knows even a smidgen of Alinsky-style community organizing philosophy sees our community organizer in chief as exactly what he was trained to be.  Both off the stump and on it, the community organizer is not a doer, but a talker.  The community organizer is condescending and arrogant, but he is so far above the station and education of those he is sent in to organize that he gets away with his arrogance.

The community organizer is hired by outsiders to infiltrate a town considered by others ripe for organizing.  The organizer's first priority is to ingratiate himself with the community insiders.  To this end, he is instructed to employ manipulative tools, such as adopting the locals' dialects and particular phraseology.  He is taught to adapt purposely and sell himself as one of them.  The organizer's job is always one of deception -- from start to finish.  Deceit is the organizer's middle name.

Second, the organizer is tasked with "rubbing raw the sores of discontent."  He is to take any complaint he overhears and blow it out of proportion, talking about it to no end, never letting up on the horrors of the people's plight.

Once the people are agitated, angry, and so aggrieved that they are downright desperate, the organizer steps in with the carrot of "hope."

And in the organizer's bevy of solutions, there is but one answer to desperation, one available source of "hope" for the people: government money.

Continue reading here.  This is good . . .
Acclaimed Journalist Ryan Seacrest To Interview Obama

Alex Weprin says Obama has really been making the rounds in the days leading up to the midterm elections.  Last week he appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and this week he goes mano-a-mano against arguably his toughest opponent yet -- Ryan Seacrest.

Yes, the "American Idol" and radio host will interview Obama this morning, according to a post on Seacrest’s facebook page.

As he wraps up weeks of urging potential voters to get to the polls on midterm election day, Obama will join 'On Air with Ryan Seacrest' for an exclusive interview on the state of the nation and life in the White House.

A sampling of the tough questions being submitted by Facebookers:

      

    
Ask him, regarding to Halloween, if he has any experience with the ghost of Abe Lincoln or what he has heard about any ghost story in the white house!!

What do you think about Justin Bieber???

Do you watch Hawaii Five-0?
    

 Yeah, there are some serious questions too, but these are more fun.

In all seriousness, the strategy of skipping the major news organizations makes sense.  Obama will probably face easier questions, and fewer follow-ups, than if were being interviewed by Chuck Todd, or Katie Couric or Chris Matthews.

Will it make a difference come Tuesday evening?  That remains to be seen.
GOP To Urge Obama Officials Not To Shred Documents
Jordy Yager and Bob Cusack say Republicans are likely to urge the Obama administration not to shred documents as they transition to the House majority.

Before the election, GOP officials on Capitol Hill privately discussed the issue but refrained from publicly tackling it, not wanting to assume what would happen on Election Day.  Now that Republicans will control the House, the shredding matter will move front and center.

No one is accusing the Obama administration of destroying documents, but Republicans are expected to try to ensure that all records -- on a range of issues -- are kept intact.

Darrell West, a political scientist and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said Republicans likely will formally ask the administration not to shred or delete any relevant documents that could be requested in a congressional probe.

"That’ll happen right away, because they want to make sure that the documentary record is preserved so that they have something to investigate," said West.

Armed with the House majority, Republicans next year will enjoy subpoena power -- something they have not had in four years.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), poised to become chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, worked closely with the media in the 111th Congress.

Earlier this year, when it was pointed out by a reporter that he didn't have subpoena power, Issa responded, "I have you."  Issa then singled out other reporters in the hallway, saying, "I have him, and her, and him."

John Wonderlich, the policy director for the Sunlight Foundation -- a nonpartisan group that promotes government transparency -- said Republican-led investigations may be initiated more slowly than expected, because the party doesn’t want to be seen as too aggressive.

"[Asking for the retention of documents] is the sort of thing that wouldn’t surprise me at all, but as an opening volley that could be seen as really aggressive," said Wonderlich.  "And immediately, both sides are going to be posturing to look like the reasonable ones with the open hand.  So it’s not like it’s going to be open season right away."

Why would anybody be concerned that Obama would shred, or otherwise hide documents?  Hmmmm!
Obama In Denial
The NY Post asks, election?  What election?

That seemed to be Obama's reaction yesterday to the stunning rout his party suffered Tuesday -- when voters sent Democrats packing by the truckload, handing the House to the GOP. And nearly the Senate as well.

Memo to POTUS: Pretending nothing happened won't erase Tuesday's results, but it does make us wonder: Just what will it take to get Obama to hear the anger of the American people?

"Some election nights are more fun than others," Obama conceded. "Some are exhilarating; some are humbling."  Eventually, he grudgingly termed Tuesday's results a "shellacking."

But a repudiation of his policy choices?  A need to shift course or compromise?  Don't be silly.  Obama's view: "People are frustrated . . . with the pace of the economic recovery," he said.  And that's pretty much it.

As for the year-plus that he and the Democrats spent ramming through an unworkable, grossly expensive health-care plan?  It was "the right thing to do."

The trillion-dollar stimulus package that boosted the economy not one lick?  Just a "temporary" measure.

And by the way, said Obama, let's not "spend the next two years re-fighting the political battles of the last two."  No -- wouldn't want to do that.

And how about the sleazy, wholly undemocratic manner in which he and fellow Democrats conduct daily business -- particularly on legislative issues?  Well, OK, he said, it's true that "when you are navigating through a House and a Senate in this kind of pretty partisan environment that it's [an] ugly mess."  But then, Democrats had no choice.

Right.

Obama can plug his ears if he likes, refuse to acknowledge voters' wholesale rejection of his agenda and brush compromise to the side.  But such arrogance will lead only to more conflict -- and more bad news for the nation.

And two years hence, it may be deja vu all over again for Democrats.

Related:  Obama: Elections Don’t Indicate Rejection of Administration’s Policies

Related:  Obama admits he got a "shellacking," but shows no sign of budging on core agenda

Related:  Obama: I Take Credit For Voter Frustration… But I’m Not Changing
Obama Will Fight GOP
NewsMax.com says that Obama may have expressed humility during his conciliatory news conference Wednesday over the shellacking he took in the midterm elections, but just hours after speaking to the nation, he made it very clear in a phone call to left-leaning activist group MoveOn.org that he is not willing to compromise his core beliefs.

"We always knew bringing about change in Washington wouldn’t be easy, and it might get tougher in the days ahead," Obama told the liberal organization's supporters a day after Republicans won the House in a landslide.  "The message I took away from the elections is very simple: The American people are still frustrated.  They still want change; we just have to work harder to deliver the change the American people want."

Obama said he and activist organizations like MoveOn.org must work harder pushing the progressive agenda "until every American sees real change in their own lives . . . We didn’t sign up for doing what was easy, we signed up for doing what was right," he said of his policies to fix America.  "We are going to continue to take all the time it takes –– and all the effort it takes –– to get our country back on track."

Obama wants MoveOn.org to keep the spirit of hope and change alive because it helps him translate that spirit into accomplishment.

"To those who began the journey with me almost four years ago, think about how far we’ve come," Obama said.  "Think about the ups and downs we went through during the course of the campaign.  There were times when folks counted us out and we always came back.  The same thing is going to happen over the next two years, and the next six years."

"...until every American sees real change in their own lives.

Remember, "change" is Obama's euphemism for socialism.
The Most Arrogant Man He Ever Met
Jake Tapper says you may recall that during Obama’s vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, on August 27 he took in a round of golf at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, playing golf with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Democratic lawyer, business man and éminence grise Vernon Jordan; and White House trip director (and former golf pro) Marvin Nicholson.

The pool report at the time said that "We are told Bloomberg and Obama talked in the clubhouse for about 15 minutes about the economy.  They then went to the driving range."

Apparently -- at least from a second-hand report -- the Obama-Bloomberg conversation could have gone better.

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch says ''Bloomberg said it was a pleasant day.  In conversation he put a few ideas … He said it was like verbal ping pong."

Bloomberg, according to Murdoch, "came back and said 'I never met in my life such an arrogant man'".

A spokesman for Bloomberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Murdoch -- the Australian-born founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of News Corporation, which owns conservative media outlets ranging from Fox News Channel to the New York Post -- is described by The Age as saying in the interview that Obama "might make great speeches but doesn't get things done and doesn't listen to anybody."
"It’s Not Going To Happen Like That"
Peter Andrew says the lefty liberal pundits continue to fill their media onslaught today with talk of compromise.  I wonder if they mean the GOP should compromise with the Dems the same way Obama compromised with the GOP when he won in 2008?

It was the great Obamanator who told republicans they had to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh and then added his memorable quote on bipartisanship…
    

"I won, it’s not going to happen like that."

    
Let’s be honest.  The only reason the lame-stream media storyline is "Compromise" is because the GOP won.  How many remember hearing cries of the need for compromise when Nancy Pelosi reached out a hand to republicans and said…
    

"If there is somebody who is disgruntled, so be it. But we have an overwhelming vote."

    
Both comments were made by the compromising democrat leaders in January of 2009… right after their huge win over Republicans.  Interesting.  Now the GOP has a huge win over the Socialists and the anti-Sarah Palin crowd wants to convince you that Americans want compromise!!!  How convenient!

Don’t you believe it!
Obama Submits America To The World’s Most Despicable Regimes
Anne Bayefsky says the Obama administration got a new "shellacking" this morning, this one entirely voluntary.  In the name of improving America’s image abroad, it sent three top officials from the State Department to Geneva’s U.N. Human Rights Council to be questioned about America’s human rights record by the likes of Cuba, Iran, and North Korea.

This was the first so-called "universal periodic review" of human rights in the U.S. by the Council, which the Obama administration decided to join in 2009.  The move represents a striking departure from prior American foreign policy, which has been to ratify selected human rights treaties after due consideration and submit American policy-makers to recommendations based on well-conceived standards accepted by the United States.

But in the three-hour inquisition which took place this morning, Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor responded with "thanks to very many of the delegations for thoughtful comments and suggestions" shortly after Cuba said the U.S. blockade of Cuba was a "crime of genocide," Iran "condemned and expressed its deep concern over the situation of human rights" in the United States, and North Korea said it was "concerned by systematic widespread violations committed by the United States at home and abroad."

According to the Council’s procedure, all U.N. members are given carte blanche to comment and make recommendations to the state in the docket.  But since only three hours are allotted per state, the practice has emerged of allowing approximately only the first sixty to speak.

This morning fifty-six countries lined-up for the opportunity to have at the U.S. representatives, many standing in line overnight a day ago in order to be near the top of the list.  Making it to the head of the line were Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and North Korea.

Recommendations to improve the U.S. human rights record included Cuba’s advice to end "violations against migrants and mentally ill persons" and "ensure the right to food and health."

Iran -- currently poised to stone an Iranian woman for adultery -- told the U.S. "effectively to combat violence against women."

North Korea -- which systematically starves a captive population -- told the U.S. "to address inequalities in housing, employment and education" and "prohibit brutality…by law enforcement officials."

Libya complained about U.S. "racism, racial discrimination and intolerance."

In response to the many Guantanamo-related criticisms, the State Department’s top legal adviser, Harold Koh, blamed the failure to close the facility on others: "President Obama cannot close Guantanamo alone.  That also involves our allies, the courts, and our Congress."

The U.S. delegation was at pains to impress the international crowd.  Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organizations, told the assembled: "it is an honor to be in this chamber."

The Obama administration has until Tuesday to decide if it accepts or rejects the recommendations.  The whole list of criticisms and recommendations, as well as the U.S. response, will be put together in a document distributed globally by the U.N. for the future edification of America-bashers around the world.

Administration officials are attempting to spin the exercise as one of justifiable and cathartic mea culpa on the world stage.  But the impression they really left was one of moral and cultural relativism in which American leadership has been squandered to the detriment of victims suffering egregious human rights violations worldwide.

Obama hates America, and he demonstrates this hatred every chance he gets.  That's why he's working so hard to turn America into Cuba.
US President No Longer "Most Powerful Person On Earth"
Lady Liberty says the hits just keep on coming!  As if the news of Tuesday’s midterm elections wasn’t bad enough, Forbes has announced that Obama has been knocked off the top spot of their annual list of the "Most Powerful Persons On Earth."

Obama has been replaced by Chinese President Hu Jintao as "The Most Powerful Person On Earth."  According to Forbes, the prerequisite to be chosen for their list is "because, in various ways, they bend the world to their will".

Mr Hu topped their list because, as Forbes wrote, "Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts. Recently surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy both in absolute and purchasing power terms.  Credible estimates have China poised to overtake US as world’s largest economy in 25 years -- although, crucially, not on a per-capita basis."

The Telegraph (UK) says, "The list, another blow to the US president, cited his party’s poor performance in the midterm elections.
    

"Obama’s Democrats suffered a mighty blow in US midterm elections, with the president decisively losing support of the House of Representatives, and barely holding onto the Senate. It’s quite a comedown for last year’s most powerful person, who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two."

    
Way to go Barry!
Obama Is Isolated
Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei say Barack Obama has performed his act of contrition.  Now comes the hard part, according to Democrats around the country: reckoning with the simple fact that he’s isolated himself from virtually every group that matters in American politics.

Congressional Democrats consider him distant and blame him for their historic defeat on Tuesday.  Democratic state party leaders scoff at what they see as an inattentive and hapless political operation.  Democratic lobbyists feel maligned by his holier-than-though take on their profession.  His own cabinet -- with only a few exceptions -- has been marginalized.

His relations with business leaders could hardly be worse.  Obama has suggested it’s a PR problem but several Democratic officials said CEOs friendly with Obama walk away feeling he’s indifferent at best to their concerns.  Add in his icy relations with Republicans, the media and, most importantly, most voters and it’s easy to understand why his own staff leaked word to POLITICO that they want Obama to shake up his staff and change his political approach.

It should be a no-brainer for a humbled Obama to move quickly after Tuesday’s thumping to try to repair these damaged relations, and indeed, in India Sunday, he acknowledged the need for "midcourse corrections."

But many Democrats privately say they are skeptical that Obama is self-aware enough to make the sort of dramatic changes they feel are needed -- in his relations with other Democrats or in his very approach to the job.

In his effort to change Washington, Obama has failed to engage Washington and its institutions and customs, leaving him estranged from the capital’s permanent power structure -- right at the moment when Democrats say he must rethink his strategy for cultivating and nurturing relations with key constituencies ahead of 2012.

"This guy swept to power on a wave of adulation, and he learned the wrong lessons from that," said a Democratic official who deals frequently with the White House.  "He’s more of a movement leader than a politician.  He needs someone to kick his ass on things large and small, and teach him to be a politician."

Continue reading here . . .
A Staggeringly Empty Suit
David Limbaugh says many commentators are speculating whether Obama will move to the center or "triangulate" in order to salvage part of his agenda and increase his chances for re-election.  I don't believe he has either the inclination to move or the political skills to successfully pretend to (or otherwise outmaneuver Republicans), which leads me to conclude his re-election will depend less on his shenanigans and more on how the GOP acquits itself.

Dick Morris recently argued that Obama will not be able to move to the center or triangulate "because -- even if he wanted to -- he can't.  The issues today are very different from those that separated the parties in 1994 and do not lend themselves to common ground."  I agree with Dick but also think there's more to it.

Every indication is that Obama is utterly intransigent and will continue to butt his head against the leftward wall.  But even if he were to employ head fakes to the contrary, he couldn't pull them off.  He doesn't have the political skills in his whole body that Bill Clinton has in his pinkie.

The way Obama stormed onto the political scene, excited crowds, caused women to faint, and annihilated the Clinton machine led to the perception that he is a peerless campaigner, but I reject it.

There is no question that his shtick, backed up by a highly oiled and ruthless cabal of veteran community organizers, worked the first time around.  But given what's transpired since, could it ever work for him again?  I think not.

His carefully choreographed messianic mystique, coupled with his lack of an executive record, nicely accommodated his platitudinous promises of hope and change.  But now we have his record -- confirming his unambiguously liberal background, associations and legislative record (all of which his useful enablers refused to acknowledge) -- and it violently contradicts his platitudes.  We have watched him in action, and he's no conciliator; he's a petty partisan bully.  He brought not Utopia, but misery; he displayed not "bipartisanship," but hyper-partisanship; he did not end racial discord, but exacerbated it.

Unfortunately for Obama, but fortunately for America, Obama has only one play in his policy playbook (extreme liberalism) and one method of running it (Alinskyite strong-arming).  He has proved himself congenitally incapable of the slightest flexibility or adaptability.

Continue reading here . . .
One And Done
Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell say Obama should not seek reelection in 2012, and must decide now how he wants to govern in the two years leading up to the 2012 presidential election.

In recent days, he has offered differing visions of how he might approach the country's problems.  At one point, he spoke of the need for "mid-course corrections."  At another, he expressed a desire to take ideas from both sides of the aisle.  And before this month's midterm elections, he said he believed that the next two years would involve "hand-to-hand combat" with Republicans, whom he also referred to as "enemies."

It is clear that Obama is still trying to reach a resolution in his own mind as to what he should do and how he should do it.

This is a critical moment for the country.  From the faltering economy to the burdensome deficit to our foreign policy struggles, America is suffering a widespread sense of crisis and anxiety about the future.  Under these circumstances, Obama has the opportunity to seize the high ground and the imagination of the nation once again, and to galvanize the public for the hard decisions that must be made.  The only way he can do so, though, is by putting national interests ahead of personal or political ones.

To that end, we believe Obama should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012.

If Obama goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it.  But by explicitly saying he will be a one-termer, Obama can deliver on his central campaign promise of 2008, draining the poison from our culture of polarization and ending the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity and common purpose.

We do not come to this conclusion lightly.  But it is clear, we believe, that Obama has largely lost the consent of the governed.  The midterm elections were effectively a referendum on Obama.  And even if it was not an endorsement of a Republican vision for America, the drubbing the Democrats took was certainly a vote of no confidence in Obama and his party.  Obama has almost no credibility left with Republicans and little with independents.

The best way for him to address both our national challenges and the serious threats to his credibility and stature is to make clear that, for the next two years, he will focus exclusively on the problems we face as Americans, rather than the politics of the moment -- or of the 2012 campaign.

Quite simply, given our political divisions and economic problems, governing and campaigning have become incompatible.  Obama can and should dispense with the pollsters, the advisers, the consultants and the strategists who dissect all decisions and judgments in terms of their impact on the president's political prospects.

Obama himself once said to Diane Sawyer: "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president."  He now has the chance to deliver on that idea.

Continue reading here . . .
The Incredible Shrinking President
Thomas Lifson says Barack Obama's global stature has taken a catastrophic fall, as evidenced by his latest trip overseas.  Even the New York Times cannot avert its eyes from the disastrous decline in his (and therefore America's) influence: Obama's economic view is rejected on world stage:
  

Obama's hopes of emerging from his Asia trip with the twin victories of a free-trade agreement with South Korea and a unified approach to spurring global economic growth ran into resistance on all fronts Thursday, putting Obama at odds with his key allies and largest trading partners.

   
Germany (which has recovered nicely from the global financial meltdown by shunning stimulus spending) rejects him out of hand: "Germany rebuffs Obama on trade gap"
    

In one-on-one meetings with the heads of the U.S.'s biggest nemeses on trade issues at a Group of 20 economic powers meeting in Seoul, Obama pressed his case for trying to curb ballooning trade deficits and surpluses to help prevent another financial collapse like the one that toppled the world economy in 2008.

But Mrs. Merkel shut the door on any concrete commitment from Europe's export engine to limit its large trade surpluses to 4 percent of economic output -- a proposal floated by the U.S. in behind-the-scenes negotiations.

    
Foreign leaders have taken the measure of Barack Obama, and found him a lightweight, a head of state whose proposals can be dismissed as substance-free fantasies, unworthy of serious consideration.  American voters should take note of this, for nobody understands a national leader better than his or her peers.  Foreign leaders are also immune to the blather of the American propaganda media.

We have a serious problem when the leader of the free world carries no weight.  America has two more dangerous years with this poseur, this dabbler of an ideologue at the helm.
The Little Obama Who Couldn't
Lame Cherry says the billion dollar baby, Barack Hussein Obama, (200 million a day........so I guess that makes him the 2 billion dollar baby or political bastard not claimed by Europe, Asia, or America now.), really is part of the eunuch corps now.

Obama fled to India after the 2010 shellacking America gave Democrats rejecting Obama policy.

Obama in India gave away nuclear power, UN seats and 600 million dollars in vacation bucks.........and didn't get one job for Americans.

Then Obama went to Indonesia...........and didn't put out the volcanic fires there, but we did find out Obama had a lesbian nanny, and was the kid who ran like a duck, according to locals.

Then there was .....South Korea, where Obama got told to get stuffed by everyone as no one wanted his policy of destruction, and now Obama has made the Chicom cannibal regime looking pretty Peking girl enticing.

Somewhere in this Obama did nothing with Japan, but is apparently making goo goo eyes at Medvedev and Putin before coming back to America in renewing his undocumented status.

Oh I almost forgot, some American enemy launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in California waters to tell Obama to FU yourself.

It must be stated at this point, that what Obama and Democrats were bitching about for the 8 years of George W. Bush is that America was not a partner, not listening to enemies and allies, and so was unpopular.  Well folks, the world has now had 2 years of B. Hussein's way and amazingly America is now humbled, humiliated and disrespected, and Obama can't even bow his way to a treaty now.

The reason is, Obama has handed over all the people of the world to either Russia, Iran or China, and when you have shot your wad baby, the tyrants don't give jack sh*t who is in the suit, as they are coming to America to be the new colonists and exterminate you.

America in these few days has gone from a Super Power to an Obama Whimper.  The entire world saw the regime lie about that missile launch and Obama do absolutely nothing in return.

For the record, when China knocked down our spy plain in the first weeks of Bush 41, he paid the bribe, made it go away, and then over the next years made the Chicoms pay in spades in dirty tricks from Tibet to Gulf War II.  That now has all ended with the kid who runs like a duck, B. Hussein Obama.

For the record, what the GOP did to Obama on November 2nd, was nothing compared to what the Eurasians did to Obama on this vacation.  Barack Hussein Obama is now eunuch to the world, and all he got to bring home was that Muchelle with a bigger johnson than he has, and that helmet hair she has been wearing.

This is not yet the utter ruin this blog spoke of almost 2 years ago.  This gets worse children.

I guess it's time for another vacation.
Obama To Redouble Effort On Core Principles
Tahman Bradley is reporting that en route back to Washington after a 10-day trip overseas, Obama was introspective about his first two years in office.  He told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had an "obsessive focus" on policy and he will now "redouble" efforts to get back to his core principles.

Got that "his core principles."  Obama's core principles are found in the writings of Marx (philosophy) and Alinsky (process).

Obama said he "neglected" things that matter a lot to Americans in his rush to get major legislation passed.  He explained those things as maintaining a bipartisan tone, dealing with earmarks, making sure that policy decisions are fully debated and shaping public opinion.  He can better focus on these principals now, Obama explained, because the economy is more stable.

Bipartisan?  Policy fully debated?  More stable?  He's nuts!

Obama plans to meet with Congressional leadership this week and said he expects that even though his party lost badly in the midterm election, Republicans will work with him to get things done.

For two years, Obama has told the Republicans to "take a Dudley," now he expects their support.  Not hardly!

"I am very confident that the American people were not issuing a mandate for gridlock," Obama said.  "They want to see us make progress."

Progress!  Socialism!  The American People want no such thing.  He's delusional.

Obama repeated his belief that the country can’t afford to extend the Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 a year, saying, "I believe it is a mistake for us to borrow $700 billion to make tax cuts permanent for millionaires and billionaires," he said.

Marxism requires an enemy for its permanent class struggle.  It's Marxism 101.  "Millionaires and billionaires" are Obama's bourgeoisie.

And how come he never mentions the "thousandaires," those earning between $250,000 and $999,999, that are going to be creamed by Obama's redistribution.

Obama's millionaires and billionaires have paid professionals to help them defend their money from the taxman.

The people that Obama will hurt are the little guys -- your local grocers, cleaners, restaraunteurs, hardware and auto repair guys, dentists, physicians, etc.  They're the ones that stand to lose the most.

Reflecting on his stop in Asia, Obama said he leaves with the impression that America will need to step up its game because countries across the Asian continent are working to better educate their workforces, rebuild their economies and enter into new markets around the world.

How in the hell is America going to step up its game when Obama wants to hobble the country with taxes, regulation, quantitive easing and redistribution?

The answer is he doesn't.  He believes America's wealth is stolen, and should be returned to those from which it was stolen -- minorities, workers (unions), and the third world.
Obama Stood His Ground
Ulsterman says this email is the most recent communication we received from the "White House Insider."  Though brief, it suggests Obama is clearly suffering from considerable doubt and uncertainty as he prepares for his third year of usurpation, and a Democratic Party that continues to wage war among its own.
    

Hello again.  Assume you noted all of the incoming by Democrats against Pres?  Of particular note is that of Doug S [Doug Schoen].  Doug has been acting as Hillary’s gadfly for some time now.  Very connected.  Very insightful.  Very good.  One to be feared.  I like Doug.  His and Pat’s [Pat Caddell] open declaration against President is clear signal Hillary camp fully engaged.  Developing.  And gotta love Pat.  He’s back in it now!  I strongly suspect they know of Obama’s coming scandal(s).  Foundation being set in place for all out offensive going into 2012.  The DC diaper is full up and in need of a change…

As for particulars on Obama, much info received this past week.  All pointing to Obama as very upset/angry at treatment by world leaders and media RE trip.  Behind scenes mood "dejected and confused."  Later noted as "emotionally debilitated."  Reported outburst between President and First Lady.  What makes this account unique is that "…President stood his ground."  WH staff involved in serious protective plan for President regarding incoming scandal.  Very fearful of Issa.  Told WH reps have already visited Issa office several times since election.  Promises made?  Issa is bright and loves attention.  Could prove formidable vs White House.  Staff sent to Chicago this past week and DA is heading there on more permanent basis in coming weeks.  Why?  Why indeed.  PAY ATTENTION.

Lastly RE question on "missile" off CA.  I have no -expletive- clue what that was.  Go ahead and file that question with your Birther question from last time.  Any more of these and you’ll be waiting another month or two or ten before we have next sit down.

Talk soon.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

       
A Question For Obama
PoliPundit says the next time Obama has one of his townhall/backyard meetings, I wish someone would ask him the following question (don’t tell the screener you’re going to ask him this, of course):
    

Mr. Obama, do you see yourself as the elected representative of the American people, or do you see your job as waging a never-ending assault on the American people?

When you have made it mandatory for every American to purchase health insurance, or pay a fine.  Just for the privilege of breathing.

When your TSA gropes and fondles American citizens, while Arizona cannot ask illegal aliens if they’re illegal aliens.

When your justice department refuses to prosecute thugs who intimidate voters.  Meanwhile, a terrorist who murdered hundreds of Americans was found "Not Guilty" on those charges, because you insisted on trying him in a civilian court.

When you have banned the incandescent light bulb, you dictate how much water can flow through my shower, and you decide how much water can be flushed by my toilet.

When, in the midst of a terrible recession, the EPA, and Democrats in Congress are figuring out ways to make energy costs "skyrocket" -- your words.

When millions of Americans are struggling to find work, you want to amnesty millions of illegal foreign workers to compete with them.

 
Obama's Bad Judgment
Ronald Kessler says the trial of Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani demonstrates that Barack Obama’s claim that enemy combatants can be tried effectively in civilian courts is bogus.

A federal jury convicted Ghailani of one count of conspiracy and acquitted him of 284 other counts, including murder and murder conspiracy, in the bombings of American embassies in Africa.

The verdict came after U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan barred testimony from a key witness who said he sold dynamite to Ghailani before the bombings.

The judge had ruled that the government learned of the witness only through the use of coercive interrogations at CIA prisons and thus his testimony would taint the process.  Had Ghailani been tried in a military tribunal predicated on a war setting, most likely that ruling would not have been made.

"I was disappointed that they only got one guilty verdict out of 285 counts," former CIA Director Michael Hayden tells me.  "It shows the challenges of trying to do this in Article III courts with the traditional rules of evidence.  From my professional point of view, I want foreign terrorists off the battlefield as enemy combatants.  Whether or not they end up in any kind of judicial process is another matter entirely."

While Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. have claimed that civilian trials will show the world that we respect human rights, the White House has leaked word that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the admitted architect of the 9/11 plot, may never be tried during Obama’s term of office.

That topsy-turvy position demonstrates the hypocrisy of Obama’s stance, which in turn goes back to his desire to play politics with the war on terror and appease his left-wing constituency.

In a revealing passage in the new book "Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Bush White House," Richard Wolffe quotes an unidentified Obama aide as saying of Obama, "He reads everything.  And I mean everything.  Every news story, every column.  It’s driving everyone crazy."

In other words, Obama is so thin-skinned and obsessed with his image that he spends much of his time reading about himself.  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s effort to call acts of terrorism "man-caused disasters" is a symptom of that tendency.  By avoiding calling the enemy by its real name, Obama hopes to enhance his popularity overseas.

After the 9/11 attack, President Bush traveled to ground zero and stood on a crumpled fire engine with his hand on the shoulder of a firefighter named Bob Beckwith.

The crowd was shouting they couldn’t hear him.  He turned and said, "I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked down these buildings are going to hear from all of us soon."

In deciding to try Ghailani in civilian court, Obama showed that if he had been on the fire truck that day, his message would have been quite different.

He literally would have said that he intends to try the hijackers in civilian court, not recognizing that they were all dead, ignoring the fact that al-Qaida had declared war on the U.S.

"The Obama administration recklessly insisted on a civilian trial for Ahmed Ghailani and rolled the dice in a time of war," Liz Cheney aptly said after the verdict.  "The Department of Justice says it’s pleased by the verdict.  Ask the families of the victims if they’re pleased.  And this result isn’t just embarrassing.  It’s dangerous.  It signals weakness in a time of war."

That puts all Americans at risk.
Obama Using Executive Orders to Implement Radical Agenda
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann ask, does Obama plan to move to the center in response to his overwhelming rejection at the polls on Nov. 2?  No way!  Instead, he is moving to implement, through executive action, two of the most controversial items in his 2010 agenda -- a carbon tax and pollution permit system and a ban on the use of secret ballots in union elections.

Through executive action by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Obama administration is planning to effectuate both policies without asking Congress.

Never mind that he couldn't persuade even a top-heavy Democratic Congress to pass either program.  Or that public opinion polls show massive rejection of both measures.  Or that each is a sure job killer by itself -- and together, they are even worse.  This arrogant, ideologically driven radical is determined to have his way, and the public be damned!

The EPA is currently soliciting public comments for its plan to use the Clean Air Act of 1970 to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.  The Clean Air Act, as the name indicates, is designed to fight against pollution -- unhealthy chemicals that are belched into the air by smokestacks.  It was passed to fight sulfur dioxide, particulates, nitrous oxides and other chemicals that cause human diseases.  To use it to fight carbon dioxide -- which we all breathe without ill effects -- because of concerns about global warming is a perversion of the law.

Worse, because the Clean Air Act is designed to protect public health by measuring aggregate pollution in each geographic area, it limits economic development in communities where the pollution levels exceed prescribed standards.  But carbon dioxide doesn't poison anyone.  It makes no sense to ban factory expansion in areas where the nature of the industries is that there will be high carbon dioxide levels (like oil area of Texas and Louisiana).  But that's what the EPA plans to do, virtually making economic growth illegal in large parts of the United States.

Meanwhile, Craig Becker, the former chief counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) -- now the head of the NLRB -- has secured a 3-2 party line majority to repeal the Dana decision, which mandates secret ballots in unionization elections.  The NLRB will rule that if a majority of workers check off that they want a union on cards, then the union will automatically be approved without a secret ballot vote of the entire workforce.

Currently, if a majority of the workers sign the cards, a secret ballot vote is then triggered.  Frequently, the union loses these elections, proving that the card check-off is subject to coercion and bullying.  The Democratic majority in the Senate wouldn't approve the card check change, so the NLRB is planning to accomplish the same objective administratively, trapping workers into unionization they would reject if afforded the opportunity to vote by secret ballot.

Both the pollution permit/carbon tax and the forced unionization proposals will be job-killers.  The U.S. has maintained its 25 percent share of global manufacturing by replacing workers with energy-driven machines.

In the past 10 years, the number of manufacturing employees has declined by 33 percent, but our production has risen by 50 percent.  But automation takes energy -- lots of it -- by taxing energy, we are eliminating the strategy that has preserved our jobs.  And massive unionization of the private sector will also drive out our jobs.  Since 1990, unionized manufacturing jobs have declined by 75 percent.  But non-union manufacturing jobs have actually risen over the same period by 15 percent.

After he lost Congress in 1992, Bill Clinton, too, resorted to executive orders to maintain his momentum as president.  With Congress unwilling to pass anything he proposed, Clinton canvassed the administration for ideas that could be implemented by executive orders.  A very productive period followed, during which tobacco regulation, higher educational standards, affirmative action reform and other key measures were implemented without asking Congress' permission.

But Clinton's executive orders were on subjects on which Congress had not voted.  They did not contradict the express will of the body.  Obama is using the strategy to act in direct defiance of congressional action.  He is passing ideas Congress refused to pass, even when he had huge majorities.

Obama will live to regret these moves.  Republicans in the House will de-fund these actions and insert legislative language making it a crime to spend appropriated funds to implement them.  By this strategy, all of the controversial Obama legislation will be at issue during the budget fight -- taxes, ObamaCare, cap and trade and card check.  The more these issues are inserted into the budget fight, the greater the chances of Republican victory.

So Obama has not learned the lessons of 2010 and likely never will.
When A Weak Man Is President
DrJohn says Barack Obama has used his occupation of the office of POTUS to do little more than weaken the United States of America and now events are spiraling out of control around both him and us.  His first real focus was to go on an apology tour.
    

Barack Obama has finished the second leg of his international confession tour.  In less than 100 days, he has apologized on three continents for what he views as the sins of America and his predecessors.

Obama told the French (the French!) that America "has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" toward Europe.  In Prague, he said America has "a moral responsibility to act" on arms control because only the U.S. had "used a nuclear weapon."  In London, he said that decisions about the world financial system were no longer made by "just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy" -- as if that were a bad thing.  And in Latin America, he said the U.S. had not "pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors" because we "failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas."

By confessing our nation’s sins, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbels said that Obama has "changed the image of America around the world" and made the U.S. "safer and stronger."  As evidence, Gibbs pointed to the absence of protesters during the Summit of the Americas this past weekend.

    
Stronger by confessing to what Obama believes is our sins.

Sure.

Obama made clear he does not believe in the exceptionalism of America
    

Obama was asked in Europe if he believes in American exceptionalism.  He said he did -- in the same way that "the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism."  That’s another way of saying, "No."

    
Karl Rove was prescient:
    

When a president desires personal popularity, he can lose focus on vital American interests.  It’s early, but with little to show for the confessions, David Axelrod of Team Obama was compelled to say this week that the president planted, cultivated and will harvest "very, very valuable" returns later.

    
Rove was dead on correct.  Obama was more (and still is) interested in his own popularity than the welfare of his country.

Continue reading here . . .
Obama In Stitches
Fox News is reporting that Barack Obama needed 12 stitches in his upper lip after taking an errant elbow during a pickup basketball game Friday morning with family and friends visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House said (video). 

First word of the injury came in a statement from press secretary Robert Gibbs nearly three hours after the incident.

The White House did not initially name the person who caused the injury, but identified him later Friday as Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Obama received the stitches under local anesthesia in the doctor's office on the ground floor of the White House after returning home.  Doctors used a smaller filament than typically used, which increases the number of stitches but makes a tighter stitch and leaves a smaller scar.  The stitches were probably administered by a plastic surgeon for the purpose of ensuring that no scar remained.  If there was no excessive bleeding, the only thing that would justify stitches is vanity.
    
    
This photo is weird.  Obama was seen sulking in his chambers, looking like he wants attention and sympathy (video).
    
    
The North and South Korea are on the brink of war, and this guy is playing games.

Maybe that elbow to the kisser will knock some sense into him, although I doubt it.

Undoubtedly, Obama will now claim he’s shed blood for his country.  He'll probably give himself a medal.
How Obama Sees Himself -- And Us
Kyle Smith asks, what’s it like inside the Obama White House?  A lot like what you’d guess from outside the Obama White House.

In "Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside Obama’s White House," MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe, a writer sympathetic to Obama, reports the prosaic backroom details of the White House struggles from early this year, but occasionally stumbles upon an off-the-cuff revelation that’s much more interesting.

One staffer was conspicuously overweight. Obama, in an incident that Wolffe believes proves how caring the man is, took it upon himself to present the aide with a salad for lunch -- "then listened to him protest that he could take care of his own health. 'I love you, man,' Obama said. 'I want you to look after yourself. Eat the salad.'"

I love you, man.  Eat the salad.  That is the Obama presidency in a plastic see-through clamshell.  (Hold the ranch dressing!)  Obama loves us.  He knows what’s best for us.  We should bow to his superior wisdom.

Jimmy Carter obsessed over the White House tennis court schedule.  Obama wants to be your life coach, guidance counselor and spouse, kicking your shins under the dinner table when you order chocolate cake instead of steamed celery.

Obama has to deal with transnational terrorism, arms control, unemployment, the deficit, health care and limiting damage from the Joe Biden Gaffe-u-tron.  Add in the possibility of North Korea throwing a nuclear tantrum, and it seems unlikely that Obama is going to have time to follow me into Wendy’s.  Yet there he is, pushing for all restaurant chains to post calorie counts, as already required in New York.  Like much of liberalism, this little nudge isn’t a terrible idea, but it does impose a cost on business with little apparent benefit.

The "eat the salad" command is echoed throughout the book, which finds Obama in emergency mode at all times and always convinced that his combination of charisma, intelligence and moral authority makes him uniquely qualified to solve any problem that has bedeviled humanity for any number of generations.  As Obama sees the hapless White House underling -- an oaf who has never heard of salad and has been waiting for a visionary to guide him to the land of arugula -- he sees the world.

When an earthquake strikes Haiti, Obama demands immediate action: "Make sure we are moving fast and aggressively," he says.  "I don’t want to hear any excuses."  Excuses?  Wolffe morosely cites "the inability of the White House, or any government, to ease Haiti’s suffering."

Never mind, Obama is off to the START negotiations with the Russians, negotiating arcane details himself.  He sprints through the process and pronounces the treaty done, delivering on his promise to move to "a nuclear-free world."  Now it seems to have as many structural wobbles as Haiti.

A signature Obama line -- economic policy "has less to do with big government or small government than it has to do with smart government" -- amounts to proclaiming, "I must be right because I’m brilliant."  Obama evidently feels that his tireless brainwork tidied up the war-peace problem for the ages in his Nobel Prize speech (peace, we learned, is desirable but war is sometimes necessary) and that he wrought a profound new balance on civil liberties by largely retaining Bush anti-terror policies with the major fix being that, this time, he is the one in charge (a position Wolffe ably summarizes as, "In other words, trust me").

Obama’s self-regard is at its most resplendent when he delivers a remark attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "I am not bound to win, but I’m bound to be true.  I’m not bound to succeed, but I’m bound to live up to what light I have."  That the words are actually those of Ronald Reagan is an amusing but trivial detail.

What’s telling is that Obama set up the remark by saying he takes great pleasure in the White House library, and that he stumbled upon the remark in the process of searching out the wisdom of his predecessors.  This was not a true statement.  In fact Obama later admitted to Wolffe that he had found the quotation while reading one of his own diaries, in which he had mistakenly attributed the Reaganism to Lincoln.

So: In times of worry and strife, Obama looks for comforting inspiration in the sacred, timeless words of . . . Obama!

Presidents are often accused of surrounding themselves with yes-men and retreating from the world.  Obama doesn’t even need the yes-men. He lives in a hall of mirrors, and he’s awed by the view.
Obama Urged To Rule By Executive Order
Jerome Corsi is reporting that a prominent leftist think tank suggests Obama ignore Congress and the American people altogether by enacting a leftist agenda through executive action.

The Center for American Progress, based in Washington, D.C., and headed by former Clinton administration Chief of Staff John Podesta, has issued a series of recommendations regarding how Obama can implement a progressive agenda in complete disregard of Congress, now that the Republicans control the majority in the House of Representatives.

In a daring expose that openly advocates utilizing presidential executive decisions without regard to new laws passed by Congress or the will of the American people, Podesta and his Center for American Progress staff and senior fellows issued this month a report titled "The Power of the President: Recommendations to Advance Progressive Change."

"In the aftermath of this month's midterm congressional elections, pundits and politicians across the ideological spectrum are focusing on how difficult it will be for President Barack Obama to advance his policy priorities through Congress," Podesta wrote in a foreword to the report.  "Predictions of stalemate abound.  And some debate whether the administration should tack to the left of the center and compromise with or confront the new House leadership."

Podesta suggests ignoring Congress and the American people altogether, recommending instead that Obama enact a leftist agenda through executive action, utilizing the following prerogatives of the presidency:
    

•  executive orders;
•  rulemaking through executive branch administrative agencies;
•  agency management;
•  convening and creating public-private partnerships;
•  commanding the armed forces; and
•  diplomacy

    
"The ability of President Obama to accomplish important change through these powers should not be underestimated," Podesta stressed.  "Congressional deadlock does not mean the federal government stands still."

Corsi noted, "What Podesta makes clear is the concept of elevating the presidency into the status of the first among the three U.S. branches of government and expanding the powers of the presidency with an imperial resolve remain alive and well in the Obama White House."

Commanding the armed forces?  Just what is Podesta suggesting Obama do with the armed forces?
Obama's Chickens Come Home To Roost
Paul Mirengoff says a front-page story in the Washington Post finds that leading Republicans have unearthed a previously obscure concept with which to attack Obama.  That concept is "American exceptionalism."  The writer, Karen Tumulty, seems to view this development as part jockeying for position among presidential hopefuls and part attempt to raise questions about Obama's Americanism.

Tumulty's first error is to assume that the concept of "American exceptionalism" is obscure.  The term may not be common, but the view that this is a special nation -- which is, I believe, supported by overwhelming evidence -- is a staple of American thought.

Until now, U.S. presidents have consistently articulated this view, their speechwriters competing to find ways to say it in novel ways.  President Reagan's "shining city on the hill" probably takes the first-place prize.  But think too of George H.W. Bush's statement (reiterated by Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic convention) that "America is a special place, not just another pleasant country somewhere on the UN Roll Call between Albania and Zimbabwe."

If the theme of American exceptionalism generally has been articulated mainly in "big occasion" speeches, that's because it is considered a given.  And if we are now suddenly witnessing a drumbeat, that's because Obama has challenged American exceptionalism.

He did so most notably when he stated in France, during his first trip overseas, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."  Suddenly America was just another pleasant country like England or Greece.

Obama followed up by saying that the values in our Constitution are exceptional.  But he also mentioned our "imperfect" faithfulness to these values.  And, though he acknowledged that U.S. leadership in the world is "incumbent," he expressed no particular enthusiasm or pride in this role.  Thus, Obama's attempted "walk-back" from his initial put down of American exceptionalism was incomplete and unsatisfying.

Tumulty also implies that the comparison to the "Brits and Greeks" is the sole basis for the claim that Obama rejects American exceptionalism.  But after Michelle Obama said that her husband's progress as a candidate made her proud of America for the first time in her adult life, Obama's gloss on her remark took no serious exception to it.  And when Rev. Wright regularly castigated America in his sermons, Obama took no offense.  Oprah Winfrey left Wright's congregation; Barack Obama did not.

One can understand why the concept of American exceptionalism underwhelms Obama.  As Tumulty notes (per Seymour Martin Lipset), the concept often has been invoked as an explanation for why the U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not have a significant socialist movement or Labor party.  Much of Obama's career, especially his many years as a community organizer, strongly suggests that he is less than comfortable with the fact that the U.S. is exceptional in this respect.  No wonder he put the concept of American exceptionalism down when asked about it in France.

If American exceptionalism has indeed become a "conservative rallying cry," it means that Obama's chickens have come home to roost.
Unemployment Up, Obama Flees The Country
Joy Tiz says just as we find ourselves a mere whisper away from double digit unemployment, our inept Commander in Chief runs off to Afghanistan where he lectured General Petraeus on how to run a war without winning.
    
It’s the Christmas season and retailers should be adding jobs, albeit temporarily.  Instead, we lost 28,000 retail jobs.

Hamid Karzai will be spared a meeting with Obama.  A planned tête-à-tête was scrapped due to "bad weather."

Secure video conferencing was also abandoned, but Karzai could still be forced to listen to Obama’s pontifications via telephone.

Obama’s prized Deficit Commission has been a complete flop.  The new unemployment numbers are miserable.  What else could poor Obama do other than flee the country and hope it all blows over?

So, Obama traveled to Afghanistan on a "surprise" visit.

Obama thanked U.S. troops for their service during a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Friday as casualties mount since he escalated the war last year.

In a speech to several thousand troops inside a hangar at Bagram Air Field, Obama declared that the troops are making important progress in the country and will succeed in the U.S. mission.

"We’ll never left Afghanistan be a safe haven for terrorists to attack America," he said, adding that he didn’t need to tell them it was a tough fight and difficult days are ahead.

Curt says, that "surprise" had been planned for a month, and occurred on the very day the new unemployment figures were released showing a rise in unemployment.  Quite convenient for him to be out of the country on this day seeing as how those numbers are released on the same day every month, and a visit like this will knock the bad news off the front pages.

Related:  How To Ruin A Photo Op: Obama Poses With Troops As Really Gay U2 Song Blasts On Live Feed

Related:  Obama delegates the job of breaking the bad news to Joe Biden.
Obama Turns Government Up To 11
Glenn Reynolds says Obama's term so far has been compared to many fictional and non-fictional characters: Chauncey Gardener of "Being There" is frequently invoked, along with the self-invented charmer Don Draper from "Mad Men," and of course there are the usual tiresome comparisons with Hitler that most presidents face these days.
 
But I have a different character in mind.  The more I watch this administration at work, the more I think we're seeing the first Nigel Tufnel presidency.

Nigel Tufnel, many will remember, was the fictitious heavy metal guitarist in the fictional "rockumentary" "This Is Spinal Tap."  In a classic scene, he displays his guitar collection and his special amplifier that -- unlike all other amplifiers in existence -- has knobs that go all the way up to 11, instead of just 10.

And that's what Obama has done: In his first two years of governing, he's taken us to 11 in so many ways.

Under Bush and the Republican Congress from 2000-2006 federal spending was bad, and many people groused.  But Obama has turned it up to 11, running up trillion-dollar-plus deficits that dwarf the worst we saw under Bush and the congressional Republicans, and producing open revolt from Tea Partiers and others.

Under Bush, and previous presidents, government regulation was creeping up steadily, year by year.  But under Obama, the regulatory knobs have been turned to 11: New health care laws, a new financial regulation bill, proposals for carbon taxes and new Environmental Protection Agency regulation of carbon dioxide -- the list seems endless, made even worse by the near-body-cavity-searching now being done by the Transportation Security Administration.  (Tufnel's grand opus, a bondage-themed album titled "Smell the Glove," sounds all too close to air-travel reality now. . . .)

Under Bush, the left complained about the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, which candidate Obama characterized as "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians."  But under Obama, air raids and drone attacks have drastically increased, not only in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.  Obama has turned the air-raid knob up to 11.

Under Bush and previous presidents, political friends were rewarded with government money.  But under Obama, the cronyism has been turned up to 11, with General Motors and Chrysler bondholders stiffed to reward union members, with massive federal grants (later rescinded) to a voter-fraud ridden ACORN, and with numerous other special carve-outs for Obama-supporting special interests.

Under Bush and previous presidents, the Justice Department was sometimes politicized, but under Obama, the politicization has been turned up to 11, with blatant favoritism in the refusal to pursue voter-intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party, and with repeated complaints from insiders about the corruption of the Civil Rights Division.

For Nigel Tufnel, turning the knobs to 11 was a way to excite the crowd, and Obama's approach has certainly done that, if not quite in the way that Obama intended.  While many Americans were uneasy about big government before, Obama's shock-and-awe approach got them downright upset.

Al Gore used to tell the story of a frog in a pot of slowly heating water, left insensible to the fact that it was being boiled by slow degrees.  Obama turned the knob on the stove to 11, and now the frog has decided to jump.

Obama's advisers thought that the sudden introduction of numerous big-government programs would produce a sort of shock-and-awe effect, paralyzing opposition and getting the public used to the idea of European style government involvement in American life.  But instead of shock and awe, Obama's approach has produced shock and action, with the Tea Party movement and other anti-big-government protests sweeping the nation like wildfire, and producing the biggest Democratic midterm defeat in generations.

And, like the beleaguered band Spinal Tap, Obama is seeing his appeal shrink rapidly despite the increased volume -- though his advisers, like Spinal Tap's manager Ian Faith, protest that his appeal isn't shrinking, just becoming "more selective."  In fact, as it flounders before the WikiLeaks scandal and the TSA brouhaha, Obama seems to be shrinking, much like the 18-foot model of Stonehenge that, through a slip of Tufnel's pen, became an 18-inch model of Stonehenge that left audiences unimpressed.

But here's where the analogy fails.  In the movie, Tufnel's career was ultimately, saved by a surge of popularity in Japan.  Obama, on the other hand, has pursued policies that seem to make America likely to suffer Japan's fate, a decade or more of economic stagnation coupled with massive growth in government debt.

For Spinal Tap, luck produced a happy ending to a humorous story of ineptitude and decline.  Can Obama expect similar luck?  Sadly, such happy endings are far easier for Hollywood than for Washington.
Obama Comes Unglued
DrJohn says Barack Obama held a press conference today.  He should have stood in bed.  The reviews are nothing less than brutal:

Rich Lowry:
    

Surely, if President Obama had been scripted this afternoon he wouldn’t have let loose with such a self-revelatory rant at the end of his presser.  To this point, the hallmark of Obama has been his bloodlessness and lack of emotion, in almost any circumstance.  North Korea could nuke Seoul and he’d come out and coolly pronounce it a regrettable event that proves we need to ratify New START.  We’ve learned today that what really gets under his skin and makes him boil is criticism, and especially criticism from progressives.  Only a man of the left could care so much about attacks from the left wing.  Only a president who is extremely thin-skinned would let criticism bother him so much that he’d -- relative to his usual affect -- erupt in anger in public about it.  Only someone who desperately hates the position he’s in now, having to try to accommodate political realities in a center-right country and kiss his former messiahship goodbye, would show such peevishness.  We got a good look behind the curtain for a moment this afternoon, and it wasn’t pretty.

    
Peter Wehner :
    

Mr. Obama has mastered the ability to look both unprincipled and graceless at the same time.  There is also a touch of bipolarity in this administration that is doing a fair amount of damage to it.

In the Washington Post this morning, under the headline "The president extends an olive branch to the GOP," we read this:
    

Although his liberal supporters are furious about the decision, President Obama’s willingness to extend all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts is part of what White House officials say is a deliberate strategy: to demonstrate his ability to compromise with Republicans and portray the president as the last reasonable man in a sharply partisan Washington.  The move is based on a political calculation, drawn from his party’s midterm defeat, that places a premium on winning back independent voters.

         

It’s not clear to me how referring to a party that just smashed your own in an epic midterm election as "hostage takers" is going to help Mr. Obama either win back independents or appear as "the last reasonable man in a sharply partisan Washington."

    
And it doesn't stop.  Continue reading here . . .
  
Related:  The anger of Barack Obama
Obama Compromises, But He Doesn't Know How
James Taranto says, OK, maybe the World's Greatest Orator does have a communication problem.

The news that Obama had struck a deal with congressional Republicans to avert a brutal tax increase came as a pleasant surprise.  We didn't think Obama had it in him to compromise.  It turns out we were right, even though he has compromised.  Having decided to compromise, he has shown that he hasn't the foggiest idea how to go about doing it.

Consider this exchange with NBC's Chuck Todd from yesterday's White House press conference:
    

Todd:  Mr. President, what do you say to Democrats who say you're rewarding Republican obstruction here?  You yourself used in your opening statement they were unwilling to budge on this.  A lot of progressive Democrats are saying they're unwilling to budge, and you're asking them to get off the fence and budge.  Why should they be rewarding Republican obstruction?

Obama:  Well, let me use a couple of analogies.  I've said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts.  I think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed.  Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy.  In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

    
Obama must read the Puffington Host.  The "analogy" is problematic, to say the least.  Whereas a hostage-taker is a criminal, Republicans in Congress are acting in a perfectly lawful manner.  Further, they gained their power through democracy, not coercion.  Hostages do not elect their captors.  And having just been elected, in a vote that was a clear (though not irrevocable) rebuff of Obama, at least for the moment they have a stronger claim than he does to be acting on behalf of the American people.

Accusing your political opponents of hostage-taking is not an analogy, it is mere rhetorical invective.  We don't object in principle to such inflammatory language (though we won't hold our breath waiting for a denunciation from the no-labelists and other "civility" phonies).  But the appropriate time to employ it is in the midst of a political disagreement -- when you're trying to rally your supporters or turn voters against your adversaries.  When you're announcing and trying to sell an agreement, you act agreeably.  You put your differences aside, at least for the time being.

Perhaps Obama feared that if he did so, he would look weak.  In fact, he looks much weaker for behaving in such a petulantly confrontational manner.  He left no doubt that this agreement goes against every fiber of his being, that it was forced on him and he didn't have the strength to resist.

That is, in fact, true.  Because of the timing of the automatic tax increase and the start of the new Congress, the Republicans' success in last month's election, and the Democrats' failure to address this matter months ago, he really had very little choice in the matter.  From his standpoint, it was a bad deal -- and it was also about the best he could get.

But a professional politician should have known better than to put his personal feelings on display in such a manner.

Continue reading here . . .
US House Votes To Scrap Guantanamo Closure
The Australian says US lawmakers voted yesterday to kill efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists in 2011 or try the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil.

The House of Representatives voted 212-206 for a catch-all spending Bill covering government expenses in the fiscal year that began October 1, a measure that included the restrictions affecting Guantanamo and its detainees.  The legislation prohibits Barack Obama from spending any money to transfer prisoners to US soil or to acquire facilities to hold them on US soil.

It also explicitly bars the transfer of the confessed Al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11, attacks Khalid Sheik Mohammed, to the US mainland or US territories.

"None of the funds made available in this or any prior Act may be used to transfer, release, or assist in the transfer or release to or within the United States, its territories, or possessions Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other detainee'' held at Guantanamo Bay as of June 24, 2009, the Bill says.

To become law, the Senate must approve the same legislation, sending it to Barack Obama to sign into law.

Obama vowed during his 2008 quest for the White House to shutter the notorious facility, and even signed an executive order shortly after taking office to do so, but ran into unyielding opposition from the US Congress.

The prison, located on the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, currently holds around 170 detainees, including three who have been convicted and 58 who have been placed in indefinite detention without trial.  Scores of other inmates have been transferred to third countries, where they have been released.

Efforts to try some Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts were dealt a major blow last month when a jury cleared a former inmate of all but one of the 286 charges brought against him for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa.
 

Former President Bill Clinton gave a statement after his meeting with Barack Obama about his tax compromise with the Republicans.

However, after his statement, Clinton began to call on and take questions from the press with Obama at his side.  Obama, clearly uncomfortable,  leaves promptly after a few moments, saying he was keeping Michelle "waiting."

"I don't want to make her mad, please go," Clinton told Obama. (video)

Obama's gestures were telling: the crossed arms is one of the worst gestures a public figure can take: closed, defiant, defensive.  Obama looked embattled, weak.

And check out the flash of teeth just as Obama exits stage right.
    
To leave your former rival's husband, the former President of the United States to field questions for you, while you need to go because your wife is waiting for you.  Man, oh man!  Wow!!  I think Bill was taken aback as well.  This is probably a first in our country's history.

The wife is waiting, so instead of doing his job, Obama bails and lets someone else do the dirty work because he's an incompetent moron.

He is not at all able to prioritize.  He apparently thought his duties at the Christmas party were more important than resolving the tax cut issue, at least that is certainly the message he gave.

We are in serious danger the next two years.  All because of the media malpractice, and their lying and deceptive biased reporting that gave us this guy in the first place..

Notice, when Obama leaves Gibbs stands up, puts his hand out as if "What am I supposed to do?"

That's exactly how he looked.  The hands out gesture was a shrug and his mouth was stretched in a frown.  There was a hint of defiance in it, expressing "I warned you it could end like this.

Obama basically just told the country, and the world -- he's not up to the job.
What Happened During The Clinton-Obama Closed Door Meeting?
Ulsterman has another communication from Deep Throat II about Obama and Clinton's two hour White House meeting.  Here is an extract:

Reportedly, after the cordialities were dispensed with, Bill Clinton began a rather determined dissertation on the many wrongs the Obama administration had undertaken against fellow House and Senate Democrats over the course of the last year.  Obama listened, even agreeing at times, but all the while clearly expressing his primary concern was to get a public mention of support by Bill Clinton for the tax deal compromise.  Clinton indicated he would be willing to do so, while also urging Obama that today may in fact be the best time to make that announcement.  Once his public support was given, Clinton would then reach out to those members of Congress he continues to enjoy strong relationships with, and obtain assurances they would support the Obama tax plan proposal.  Obama is said to have indicated agreement that the sooner the Clinton support was made public, the better.

Here is where the information gets most interesting.  After White House staff and the Press Corps scrambled to prepare for the impromptu press conference, and after Obama gave yet another brief, halting, and clearly uncertain explanation of the tax rate proposal, replete with a multitude of umms and uhs, and staring down at the floor, Obama indicated he was going to let Bill Clinton "speak briefly."  Where Obama had spoken to the press for less than 3 minutes, Bill Clinton took center stage and spoke, without teleprompter, and with a concise and authoritative understanding of issues ranging from tax rates to Haiti, for the next half hour.

Clinton began his remarks by stating he spends about an hour a day trying to understand this economy, so he can figure out what to do.  Clinton went on to expound upon the essentials of the agreement, and defend its implications -- in essence, appearing to have far more understanding of the Obama tax compromise than Obama himself.  There were likely more than a few members of the press wondering if Obama had yet even read his own tax proposal agreement.  At the 6:35 mark [in the video], Obama made his first attempt to cut off Bill Clinton and take back the podium.  Clinton disregarded Obama's move, and continued to speak -- somehow managing to talk over Obama while still maintaining his instantly recognizable "aw shucks" tone of voice.  It is at that moment we note the first clearly visible anger come from Obama.  From this point on, Bill Clinton is completely off script.  He is now effectively "running the show" -- and Obama knows it.

By the 8:20 mark, the White House Press Corps begins asking Bill Clinton questions while Obama stands next to the former president, looking increasingly uncomfortable and agitated.  Clinton is likely aware of Obama's condition, quite possibly having knowingly orchestrated this very scenario just moments prior.  At the 10:28 mark Obama folds his arms across his chest, staring down the reporter who continues to pose questions to Bill Clinton.  At 10:55 Obama again attempts to retake the podium -- Bill Clinton does not give it up.  It is at that point Barack Obama, current alleged-president of the United States, looks down at his watch and declares he is 30 minutes late for a Christmas party, and that, "Gibbs will call last question"  (even though Obama has actually only been at the press conference for about 10 minutes).  A clearly terse handshake Obama between Obama and Clinton is undertaken, [and a quick grimace-as-smile] followed by Obama's abrupt turn away from the podium and a short walk to the door.

It is at this moment, some 11 minutes into the press conference, the situation does indeed enter into the surreal.  Obama is now off camera as another reporter poses the next question to Bill Clinton while using the title "Mr. President".  For the next 20 minutes, Clinton is speaking to the nation from the White House, without the use of a teleprompter, without specific preparation of the questions being posed -- and he hits it out of the park.  Each Clinton response shows an indisputable depth of knowledge, with an ability to explain that knowledge in terms easily understood by all.  It is the kind of presidential performance not seen at any time yet during the Obama administration.

I have no opinion as to whether the "White House Insider" really exists, or not.  The reader will have to decide if these reports are real or not, but the description of the events in the video is spot-on.

Read the whole thing here . . .

Link to the 32-minute impromptu press conference video here.
Should We Gloat Over Obama's Childish Behavior?
Bill's cool and Barack's an uptight prig.

Cue the laughter.  Bring on the guffaws.

But wait -- didn't we already know that?

It's easy enough for conservatives, libertarians, et al, to gloat about Barack Obama's recent petulant, child-like performances -- at first unable to be even slightly gracious in compromise with Republicans on the tax bill and then, only a few days later, fleeing in panic when Clinton acted the real president, fielding questions with a relaxed authority so surpassing Obama's it was almost comical.

But there is a bigger reason not to gloat.  We are stuck with this odd duck for another two years at minimum and now everyone, the entire world really, knows what he is like.  They also know, if they have been paying the slightest attention, the etiology of his behavior: the man never had to face serious adversity until he was elected POTUS.  And now he can't deal with it.  He's the very model of Harry Truman's famous advice about getting out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.  Obama was out of the White House briefing room the second he realized he was being outclassed by Clinton.  And, boy, was he ever!

Roger L. Simon says we need a leader and don't have one.  This is extremely bad news for our country, especially now.

What is to be done?  Unfortunately, the answer isn't close to simple even with a real leader.  Merely cutting taxes -- assuming we do that -- may not be nearly enough.  And pseudo-stimulus spending, such as has been shamefully added on to this "compromise bill," will most likely make matters worse.  Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on our economy, our way of life really.  Interest to China alone will soon be enough to bankrupt us.
The Obama-Stockholm Syndrome
George Neumayr says that early in the week, the press spoke of Barack Obama's willingness to extend "an olive branch" to Republicans.  By the middle of the week, his "olive branch" looked more like a thorn bush.

A politician who promised a glorious new era of civility and concord was referring to his Republican opponents as hostage-takers on the issue of tax cuts.  "It's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers unless the hostage gets harmed," he said.  It doesn't occur to him that he qualifies more as the captor in the analogy.  After all, he is the one who was threatening to take action against the people by raising tax rates on job-creating business owners.

Obama can only hope that the American people will be seduced by a political version of the Stockholm Syndrome, a term that was popularized after Swedish robbers took hostages at a bank in 1973.  During the five-day ordeal, the hostages, instead of resenting their captors, grew emotionally attached to them and made excuses for them after it ended.

Obama thinks the American people should feel gratitude to him for offering to release them from a tax-hike crisis into which he had thrown them.  He casts himself as the passive negotiator in the struggle, but he is one who has been controlling Washington for two years.

His stance as a proponent of tax cuts for the middle class is as plausible as his stance during the healthcare debate as a champion of the Hyde Amendment.  Had Obama been in Congress during the Reagan era, he would never have voted for middle-class tax cuts or a ban on government funding of abortion.  But whenever a conservative policy drifts to the middle of a debate, he acts like he came up with it.  He suddenly becomes an "angry" advocate for a policy he doesn't like but has to take, or appear to take, out of political necessity.

The Democratic Party counts on a political version of the Stockholm Syndrome on most issues, for almost all of the debates in Washington revolve around "saving" the people from crises Democratic policies exposed them to in the first place.  The way it usually works is that the Democrats create a program the federal government shouldn't have established at all, the program inevitably fails, and then they rush in to "reform" it.  Obama has talked about "education reform" in this way, as if his party had nothing to do with the failed policies and programs under discussion, as if he favors releasing children from unionized public schools with vouchers in hand.

Obama could put on a smile back in 2008 when he spoke of moving to "the middle," because he didn't think he would actually have to do so.  But now that political pressures force him to the middle on a few issues, his smile has turned into a snarl.  Real moves to the middle tax his ego badly.  He regards the left's lack of docility and the right's resistance as a personal affront, and to build himself back up he has to play the victim and tear America down.  "This country was founded on compromise.  I couldn't go through the front door in this country's founding.  And if we were really thinking about ideal positions, we wouldn't have a union," he spouted bitterly at Tuesday's press conference.

The media was very impressed by his "passion."  But it was more like pouting that he had to give up yet another cheap, ill-considered campaign promise.  That he knew his liberal base would be reading his stitched-up lips and hearing "no new taxes" on job creators made him feel very uncomfortable and defensive.  So while ostensibly rebuking liberals he promised to practice class warfare at a more opportune time in the coming years.

In his post-defeat November press conference, he said that the American people failed to view his socialism as only temporary.  But as his promise of class warfare at a later date shows, it's only his minor suspensions of socialism that are temporary.  It pains him to let the productive keep their own money, and he expects his spared victims to feel grateful for not having been mistreated more.
Obama's Not The Man Obots Thought He Was
When viewed with the long lens, the uncivil war between Obama and progressive-socialist Democrats is merely another example of the gradual awakening of Obots.  The big story of the last two years is how millions of Americans who voted for him have concluded he's not the man they thought he was.

Michael Goodwin says, as a former supporter myself, I know the phenomenon too well.  First you wince as he betrays some principle you thought he shared.

It could be a fiscal issue, ethics or national security.  Or you might have believed, as I did, he was serious about governing mostly from the middle.

You overlook the breach once, twice, and by the third time, you face the disappointment.  Your eyes and mind now open, disenchantment comes in waves.  As the anger builds, it finally dawns on you that you were a sucker for your own hopes.

Yet not all suckers are equal, which brings us back to the temper tantrums of the moment.  "Liberals and other brats" describes what's happening in Nancy Pelosi's haunted House.

It's shocking to see the open profanity and mockery -- "F- - k Obama" and taunting chants of "No we can't" -- coming from Dem members of Congress.  But the temptation to sympathize with Obama should be resisted.  He has only himself to blame.

Messiahs either deliver, or they are abandoned and vilified.  Having failed to deliver, Obama is now paying the price in terms he helped to shape.

Indeed, his self-reverence and personal attacks on any and all critics mark him as the brewmeister for much of what is wrong with our politics.  Payback is not just a bitch -- it's fair play.

Obama's grandiose promises -- "our planet will begin to heal" -- turned the 2008 campaign into a mutual fantasy society.  His [bogus] life story, race and rhetorical talent made him special, and cult-like status was conferred on those who "got" his greatness.

The awakening began the instant he had to govern.  For some, it's the things he couldn't get done -- closing Gitmo, charming Iran, getting out of Iraq.

For most, the problem is that the things he did haven't worked.  He busted the budget for a stimulus that didn't stimulate, turned on Israel and other allies for no good reason, and insisted on the historic health-care fiasco, which will take years to fix.  There are so many ticking time bombs in it that even its authors are discovering unintended consequences -- and it's only started to take effect.

The country's response was a no-confidence vote in the midterms.  Yet Obama still doesn't accept the verdict, stumbling between excuses that belittle voters' concerns.

Worse, he's declared that class warfare will be his campaign theme for 2012.  He called Republicans "hostage takers" and "bomb throwers," reflections of an immature and ideological mind that refuses to recognize any legitimacy in rival views.  He would rather campaign on divisions than govern in tune with the majority consensus.

Continue reading here . . .

Obama's not the man they thought he was because Obama and everybody associated with his campaign lied to them for two years -- simple as that.
Whatever Happened to Barack Obama?
Bob Leibowitz says Obama thinks of himself as an amalgam of the best of presidents past, ascending past them into his own historic greatness.  He may have a soaring intelligence, though the jury is very much out on that, but the greatest share of it seems always to be taken up with his own self-awareness, leaving never quite enough left over for the issues he faces.

Yes, the man can talk.  He certainly can talk.  He's really quite good at talking.  But talk is about all he's got.

In his mind, he has the coolness under pressure and the foresight of Lincoln, while sharing the transformative powers of Wilson in foreign affairs and FDR in domestic matters.

During the campaign, the press played to these strengths, treating seriously his views of the progress he had already created, where under his magic spell the oceans stopped rising and the earth began to heal.

Even Joe Biden, widely remarked as the dumbest man ever to score 1600 on the SATs, commented that Obama represents a previously inexperienced paradigm for America, a clean and articulate black man.

What more can one ask?

Two years into his presidency -- which is about his single longest work experience -- in a time of grave threats to the nation, we're finally acknowledging the reality:
    

Obama plays more golf than Ike.
Obama suffers more from maladroitness than George H. W. Bush.
Obama is every bit as feckless as Jimmy Carter.
He's as personally ambitious as Richard Nixon ever was.
And he parties heartier than Billy Carter.

    
Obama is Marie Antoinette masquerading in the role of president in order to keep the goodies flowing and the flattery of his/her courtiers in full fever.

He brings Clinton halfway around the world for 90 minutes of advice on the economy, an area Obama has bollixed so thoroughly that it will take America decades to dig out, a crisis he describes as the worst ever faced by any American president.  Then he bails out to a higher priority.
    

Hey, man, I gotta go.  It's party time!

      
63% Of Americans Say Obama's A Weak Leader
Zogby International says 68% say the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

Barack Obama's job approval rating has fallen again to 39%, equaling a low since he took office.  Also, 63% of likely voters say Obama is a weak leader, compared to 19% who label him strong.

Much of the slippage in Obama's approval rating from 42% on Dec. 1 was caused by a drop of nine percentage points among Democrats (82% to 73%).  His approval also went down among independents, from 39% to 36%.  Just 7% of Republicans approve.  His approval was also 39% on Nov. 22.

These results are from a Zogby Interactive poll of 1,914 likely voters conducted from Dec. 8-10, 2010.

Details here . . .
Can You Dig It?
Ross Kaminsky says that one of his favorite bits of practical advice is "when you find yourself in a deep hole, stop digging."

The hole that Barack Obama finds himself in, while largely due to his policy positions, is also a function of his seeming out of his league, a man-child who was elected to an office he was unprepared to hold, perhaps the only candidate for president who made Sarah Palin look like an experienced and worldly statesman in comparison (and who continues to perform that remarkable feat today).

Obama is not offering much new in the way of policy -- fortunately for the nation, still suffering from a tremendous bout of indigestion over ObamaCare, cap-and-trade (being implemented by the EPA regardless of lack of congressional action), Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and his failed effort to shutter Guantanamo Bay (because Muslim radicals in Yemen will hate us so much less if their Mohammedan brothers are kept in frigid northern Illinois instead of their current Caribbean resort).

Thus, his biggest ongoing issue is the reinforcement of the perception among Americans and foreigners alike that America has its most unpresidential president since at least Jimmy Carter, and perhaps in its history.

Early in his term, he seemed aloof, as if he felt above the governing process.  Now we know it's because he's incompetent, if not an outright hindrance, in that process.  He, perhaps the most leftist member of the U.S. Senate during his time there, can't convince the most leftist House of Representatives since the FDR Administration to go along with his tax "deal," the best deal he's going to get given the upcoming change in majority in the House and lessening of the Democrat majority in the Senate.

So, in order to try to sway House Democrats who were in revolt to the extent of some yelling "f**k Obama" during a House Democratic Caucus meeting about the "deal," Obama felt the need to meet with and then display the peacock president, i.e. the president most interested in displaying himself, Bill Clinton.

It was a sharp contrast to the recent book-promoting TV appearances by George W. Bush. Bush is routinely asked why he's been all but invisible in public discussion of government policy and his answer is consistently (and I'm paraphrasing now) that he thinks ex-presidents should focus on the "ex" part and leave governing to the current office holder.  Meddling by ex-presidents seems to be a tendency of Democrats (just another symptom of the Progressive holier-and-smarter-than-thou mindset), whether Clinton or Carter, whereas both Bushes and even Reagan and Ford led distinctly private post-presidency lives, or at least refrained from acting like some sort of public senior adviser to the president. George W. Bush has said repeatedly that he basically never asked his father for serious policy advice -- and implied that his father wouldn't have wanted to be asked.

So now we have Barack "Peter Principle" Obama walking up to a hastily-called press conference with Bill Clinton who is probably thinking that Hillary might have an opening to run in 2012 despite all her protestations and who is therefore glad to do anything that boosts the Clinton name while damaging Obama at Obama's remarkably naive invitation.

It would have been bad enough for Obama's stature to have a joint press conference with Bill Clinton -- the same guy who urged the House to pass ObamaCare because not passing it would mean Democrat losses in the election (doh!) -- but Obama actually ceded the stage to Clinton, like a low-level flunkie introducing the boss, like an emcee introducing the keynote speaker.  Clinton preened and displayed for the better part of half an hour, showing the press corps and all the world the communications skills that Obama, for all his early vaunted talents as an orator, is distinctly and damagingly missing, at least when he is sans-teleprompter.

And it would have been bad enough if Obama ceded the stage to Clinton but stayed in the room and answered questions at the end.  But instead, he said "I've been keeping the First Lady waiting for about half an hour, so I'm going to take off..." to which Bill offered the helpful response "I don't want to make her mad, please go."  We can all be our own screenwriters of the tragicomic lines representing what he was really thinking...

So, let's get this straight, Mr. Obama: The fate of a tax measure that is of critical import for an economy with a near 10% unemployment rate, a measure that will impact directly or indirectly a 9-digit number of Americans, and a measure with political ramifications potentially as large as ObamaCare's is to be left in the hands of an ex-president (did I mention "ex"?) because your wife is waiting?

The political naïveté of Barack Obama is becoming, even more than his far-left agenda, his political Achilles' heel.  Given what Barack Obama believes in and hopes to achieve, perhaps America is Troy to Obama's Achilles.  He was the strongest warrior the "transformers" of America could send our way, but even he was vulnerable -- even to the point of destruction -- in an area that few would have considered the most likely to be attacked on their particular fields of battle.

Obama's weakness is America's gain, though perhaps not as much as it is Bill Clinton's gain.
Obama's Ego Keeps Getting In The Way
Rick Moran says a trenchant piece of analysis in WaPo by Michael Gerson this morning regarding Obama's monumental ego where even a slam dunk like extending the Bush tax rates is botched.

Gerson echoes what many on the right have been saying about Obama for years; it doesn't matter what the issue is, it's all about him:
    

It is Obama's favorite rhetorical pose: the hectorer in chief.  He is alternately defiant, defensive, exasperated, resentful, harsh, scolding, prickly.  He is both the smartest kid in class and the schoolyard bully.

There are many problems with this mode of communication, but mainly its supreme self-regard.  The tax deal, in Obama's presentation, was not about the economy or the country.  It was about him.  It was about the absurd concessions he was forced to make, the absurd opposition he was forced to endure, the universally insufficient deference to his wisdom.

The administration further complicated its communications task by presenting Obama as ideologically superior to his own agreement.  The upper-income tax rates and the estate tax provisions, in David Axelrod's description, are "odious."  As a rule, staffers should not use such a word to describe policies that Obama has agreed to accept.  It makes him look compromised and weak.  Instead of a leader brokering a popular agreement, Obama appears to be a politician forced under threat to violate his deepest convictions.

At this point in Obama's occupation of the Oval Office, even Democrats must be asking: Is he really this bad at politics?  The list of miscalculations grows longer.  To pass the stimulus package, the administration predicts 8 percent unemployment -- a prediction that became an indictment.  It pledges the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison -- without a realistic plan to do so.  It sends Obama to secure the Chicago Olympics -- and comes away empty-handed.  It announces a "summer of recovery" -- which becomes a source of ridicule.  It unveils a Manhattan trial for Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- which nearly every New York official promptly turns against.  Press secretary Robert Gibbs picks fights with both conservative talk radio hosts and the "professional left" -- which uniformly backfire.  Obama seems to endorse the Ground Zero mosque -- before retreating 24 hours later.  He suggests that Republicans are "enemies" of Latinos -- apparently unable to distinguish between hardball and trash talk.

    
Once you start a list, and the evidence is right before your eyes, it is truly shocking to realize how much of an incompetent politician Obama really is.  Forget his missteps as a statesman or as an executive.  This aspect of Obama's failure is much more damning because it is directly linked to his ability to get things done.

And in that department, he is found wanting.
Is Jarrett Running The White House?
Ulsterman has another communication from Deep Throat II.  The entire article is here.  The following is an excerpt:

LOL!  I don’t have enough time in the day to give you all my thoughts on that!  As I told you earlier, Clinton was very happy following that press conference.  It sent some serious rumbles through the party structure.  And here is what is being under reported.  It wasn’t so much how good Clinton was but how bad Obama was.  Bill Clinton was being Bill Clinton, and nobody does that kind of thing better than he does.  But seeing Obama leave that stage for a Xmas party??????  That was just crazy stuff wasn’t it?  If Obama didn’t still somehow enjoy having most the media working to protect him that kind of thing might have just finished him right there.  And you were right when you asked about how he treated Robert Gibbs.  To be that dismissive of your Press Sec. to dismiss him as "Gibbs" to the press.  Wow!  There’s so much to read between the lines on what Obama showed us that day, and none of it is good for Obama.  I’ve been saying it to you for a while now.  The guy is cracking up.  Nobody who watches that press conference can believe otherwise.  It wasn’t just bad.  It was HORRIBLE.  How many times has he said that turning the economy around is important?  Jobs are critical?  Etc????  And so he meets with a former Pres. to talk tax rates that impact every American and leaves the press conference regarding that meeting after a few minutes???????  I actually felt bad for Gibbs, and that is saying something for me.  The damage control for that mess must have been off the charts.  Gibbs is gone soon though.  Taken longer than I had thought.  Jarrett wants him gone.  She has effectively taken over WH at this point.  AND she is behind much of the anti-Rahm movement in Chicago.  Her hands are all over it.  Bitch.

I want to point you on something about Jarrett if you don’t mind.  She was at a recent WH/business leader thing.  She WAS the White House at this meeting.  Obama was there but said little after the intros.  Jarrett spoke almost all the policy and the push for organized labor was HUGE by her at this meeting.  The WH needs business to help out if they are to get a 2nd term.  They have to admit that now.  So what is going on is simple bribery.  We are talking billions and billions here to come via the health bill requirements and tax code and other "perks."  It was a strong arm attempt that appeared almost fully coordinated by Jarrett.  I don’t believe Obama even understands the process here.  He is being told what to say, how to react, etc.  That’s not new, but on this it’s even more so than before.  Jarrett is running the show, with input from First Lady.  Those two have formed quite a formidable team inside WH.  Anyway, what I want to tell you specifically on this meeting was that after it finished up, Jarrett came out to speak with media.  CNBC I believe.  She gives a rundown on meeting as the "President said this.  President said that."  Making it appear Obama was up to speed on every question posed to her by CNBC.  IT WAS ALL A LIE.  Obama hardly spoke at that meeting.  As I said, Jarrett did almost all the talking for the WH.  And regarding those specific questions being asked to Jarrett -- some of them NEVER CAME UP IN THE MEETING.  She was LYING over and over again during that brief interview.  And she was taking some of her own responses in the meeting and then saying "The president said this."  Obama didn’t say any of that.  Jarrett basically admitted on camera she is the president.  The two are one and the same.  Jarrett is Obama’s brain.  It’s her WH now full on.  There is nobody left in the West Wing to counter her agenda.  And her agenda is almost 100% labor unions.  Not the kind of support I’m familiar with and have worked with.  Something else.  Something far bigger.  Watch that.  There is something going on there.  Unions are blasting Rahm in Chicago.  Those strings lead right back to Jarrett.

snip . . .

Holder is very nervous.  Something up at DOJ.  The place is a mess.  Normally he would have been long gone but Jarrett supports him.  Only as long as Holder can keep a lid on the stink of what is at the DOJ though IMO.  If some of that breaks open Holder is gone and could even face full on hearings against HIM.  Those would be deserved IMO.

Once again, you're going to have to decide if this is a hoax, or if the White House Insider is real and/or truthful.
A Vast Domestic Snooping Machine
The Washington Post is reporting that the Obama administration is creating a vast domestic spying network to collect information about Americans in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and subsequent terror plots.  The system collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of US citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing

The administration is using for this purpose the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators, the daily added.

The administration's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, noted the paper, which has conducted its own investigation of the matter.

According to the report, the network includes 4,058 federal, state and local organizations, each with its own counter-terrorism responsibilities and jurisdictions.  At least 935 of these organizations have been created since the 2001 attacks.

The probe has revealed that technologies and techniques developed for use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have migrated into the hands of law enforcement agencies in the United States, the paper pointed out.

In addition, the FBI is building a database with the names and personal information of thousands of US citizens and residents, and  the database is accessible to an increasing number of local law enforcement and military criminal investigators, the report noted.

The cost of the network is difficult to measure, but the Department of Homeland Security has given 31 billion dollars in grants since 2003 to state and local governments for homeland security and to improve their ability to find and protect against terrorists.  Only this year, it gave 3.8 billion dollars to local law enforcement agencies.

If the Obama administration is behind it, I would describe the initiative as "half-vast."
 

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