— George Orwell
Obama's speech in Lorain County, Ohio, January 22, 2010:
Obama's
Train Wreck of a Town Hall in Ohio. Maybe it's me; maybe I can't see any Obama speech as a good
one these days. But today in Ohio, it seemed like the president was way off his game. I thought he was
defensive, prickly, almost indignant that he's found himself in the tough spot that he's in. He began by
talking about how much he didn't like being in Washington, and apparently said something about the job being
stifling. Sir, you spent two years trying to get this job.
How hope, change turned into bum
year for President Obama. Every time Barack and his Teleprompter go out on the stump, he sinks
further in the polls. As a pol, he's gone from Teflon to Velcro in record time. In Ohio he told his
handpicked audience of swooning fellow travelers that he doesn't like being in Washington. Memo to
Barack: Self-pity is not good box office. Then the narcissist in chief said, as he so often
does, "This is not about me!"
Obama's Ego Continues to
Reign Supreme. Is it 2011 already? I could swear that sounded more like a campaign speech
than a presidential address. And for something that's not about him, it's amazing how he manages to
slip references to himself in 20 times after saying "it's not about me."
The State of the Union address, January 27, 2010:
Haven't We Heard This Before?
Obama delivered the least fresh State of the Union address I've ever heard, and I've heard more than
30 of them. It was filled with old ideas, campaign cliches, and frequent use of personal pronoun,
"I." That's the Obama pattern.
State
of confusion. The president can read the election results; that much is clear from his State
of the Union Address last night. ... But while the president spoke for some 70 long minutes last night, he
didn't actually propose to do anything much to address voters' concerns.
A
dissenting justice and a critical Obama, who sure likes the sound of 'I'. Obama's speech was
a long one, even for State of the Unions, clocking in at 70 minutes. And full of what felt like
downsized ambitions. ... According to one count, Obama used the words "my" or "mine" 18 times
and "I" 88 times, better than once a minute.
State
of the Union: How did he do? In the history of the State of the Union has any President
ever called out the Supreme Court by name, and egged on the Congress to jeer a Supreme Court decision, while
the Justices were seated politely before him surrounded by hundreds Congressmen? ... This was a truly shocking
lack of decorum and disrespect towards the Supreme Court for which an apology is in order.
President Obama gropes for a strategy.
[Scroll down] With the big-bang strategy officially a failure, Obama's speech revealed in real-time a
president groping for a new and more effective one. ... Health care, the consuming issue of 2009 and the one
on which Obama aides insisted they should be judged, did not show up until more than halfway through.
Mister
Speaker. As mawkish and shameless as the Clinton SOTUs were, they nevertheless projected a
kind of authenticity. With Obama, the big-picture uplift seems unmoored from any personal
connection — and he's not good enough to make it real. Same with all those municipal
name-checks.
The State
of Obama. The president gave a campaign speech tonight, but the Democrats had better hope that
this is not what their campaign speeches are like this year.
President
Wrong on Citizens United Case. Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind,
when he claimed that last week's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, "open[ed] the floodgates
for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our
elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful
interests, or worse, by foreign entities." The president's statement is false.
Obama's Dirty Laundry List:
The State of the Union address Obama delivered last night gave new meaning to the term "laundry list." It
was an endless parade of campaign promises and presidential initiatives. It had no theme. The text
literally could have been clipped together from the hundreds of speeches, press conferences, and town halls the
president has delivered since beginning his run for the presidency three years ago.
Obama Defiant. In a speech that
signaled his intention to "start anew," perhaps the most notable feature of President Obama's first-ever State
of the Union address was how remarkably stale it sounded.
A Response to the
president's State of the Union speech: There are so many things I found objectionable with
President Obama's State of the Union Address I don't know where to begin.
Now, Even Speeches
Fail President Obama. Obama's State of the Union address last night was not just overly long
and dull, it was totally tone-deaf politically. Coming on the heels of a political upset in Massachusetts,
with deteriorating poll numbers and anxious members of his own party, Obama badly needed a home-run to change
the political dynamics. He struck out.
The
Slam, the Scowl and the Separation of Powers. It was an impromptu moment of political theater
with a constitutional lesson at the heart of it. President Barack Obama took the extraordinary step of
bashing a decision of the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address last night — while six
of the justices sat there stonily.
With all due disrespect Mr. President!
[Scroll down] But to suggest in your state of the union speech — "
With all due deference to
separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates
for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." — after
coming to power on an unprecedented and vulgar amount of corrupt international special interest funding, is just
plain insulting! You spent more to become president than any president in US history, more than four times
your opponent, and every penny of it came from "special interest groups," more than $200 million of it from
still unknown overseas sources.
Carteresque.
In 1960, Fidel Castro addressed the U.N. General Assembly for four-and-a-half hours. President Obama
didn't hit that target last night — it only felt like it.
Obama
Lies About the Supreme Court; Media Blames Justice Alito. President Obama's State of the Union
address last night was notable for many reasons. First, it is not often that you hear such petulance
from a sitting president of the United States — complaining about not receiving applause from your
political opponents is simply ridiculous. Second, it is not often that a president directly lectures
the American people...
Obama's gambling problem:
The American people watched as he placed his usual cards on the table: cap-and-trade, health-care reform,
handouts for various factions of our society, populist demagoguery, etc. Regrettably, he hasn't learned
that those cards aren't winners, and perhaps we now have to finally admit to ourselves that our president has
a problem.
A
perpetual campaign? Yes, he can. It was a welcome call to end the partisanship that has
gripped the political process — but a prescription rendered utterly meaningless when, just minutes
after finishing the speech, Obama's permanent-campaign organization dispatched a mass e-mail soliciting, yes,
campaign funds.
Obama
Letting It Ride on a Bad Bet. In his State of the Union, the president waxed eloquent about the
baleful climate of what is commonly called the "permanent campaign" mindset in Washington. This was an
interesting line of attack from a man who has never disbanded his campaign operation, Organizing for America,
and who responded to the Scott Brown election by bringing his campaign manager into the White House.
Obama Was Wrong and Alito Was Right.
During his first State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Barack Obama incorrectly stated that
foreign nationals and foreign entities can now contribute unlimited amounts of money to U.S. political
campaigns because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting certain campaign finance restrictions.
Racing towards
destination unknown. So it's full speed ahead, even if nobody knows where we're going.
We can console ourselves that if we're lucky we might not get there. That's the main point of President
Obama's eagerly awaited assessment of the State of the Union.
A
speech with nothing for everybody. That was some performance Wednesday night by President Obama,
delivering one of the longest-ever State of the Union addresses but offering no evidence whatsoever of a
willingness to listen to the swelling nationwide chorus of voices of discontent with his policies.
State of the Union: More
Lies, Fewer Facts. After President Obama finished delivering his State of the Union speech in the
House chamber last night, it was evident that the Democratic loss in Massachusetts on January 19 had taught
him nothing. He still attacked the free market, talked of raising taxes, pushed for the passage of ObamaCare,
and continued blaming President George W. Bush for every economic woe that couldn't be pinned on a sitting
Republican. In fact, Obama did everything but the one thing citizens wish he would do: take the will
of the people into account somewhere in the midst of his decision-making process.
State of Confusion. This
was — as Obama likes to say — "the moment" to ackowledge this scene, and talk about what
it means and where it goes. The real State of the Union. Instead, what sticks in my mind is that
the president put more gusto into castigating the Supreme Court than he did into addressing the clear and
present danger of Iran's terror-sponsoring mullahs and their nuclear bomb program.
Obama's
dream dead in less than 15 hours. Less than 15 hours after President Obama promised a three-year
freeze on non-defense discretionary spending, Senate Democrats went and killed the dream. With their 43 "no"
votes, they blocked a bipartisan provision on Thursday [1/28/2010] that would have allowed only 1 percent
spending growth in the categories President Obama intended.
Foreign contributions to
Obama campaign should be investigated. [Scroll down] The charge is ironic because Obama's campaign
disabled a track back feature on its website which did permit such contributions to be made through pre-paid credit
cards purchased around the globe. The campaign never was fined or otherwise disciplined for this because his
party had blocked replacements to the overseeing Federal Election Commission and lacking a quorum, it could not act
at the time.
Obama's Deaf Ear May
Cost His Success. This week, Obama showed himself once again to be out of touch with both Americans and
with the current debt situation in the United States.
Obama's 17% unemployment
rate: The president is full of it when he talks about creating or saving jobs. During his State
of the Union address Wednesday night, he said, "Now, because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million
Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. ... Economists on the left and the right say this
bill has helped save jobs and avert disaster." This is pure fiction. Job losses under President Obama's
watch have increased steadily without remission.
More Mr. Nice Guy. In his lengthy
State of the Union address, President Obama was brief on national security issues, which he squeezed in toward the
end. International terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even America's relief efforts in Haiti all
flashed past in bullet-point mentions. On Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama emphasized neither victory nor
determination, but merely the early withdrawal of U.S. forces from both. His once vaunted Middle East
peace process didn't make the cut.
Obama 'One-term'
State of the Union. The election last week of Scott Brown in Massachusetts sent a powerful message to
President Obama and company. Massachusetts very dramatically reflected the thoughts of Middle America and did
something about it. ... President Obama's State of the Union address did very little to instill confidence that
Washington has gotten the message.
This is President Obama's office, is it not? Whoever
said that there is no "I" in team clearly had nothing to do with crafting President Obama's State of the Union
Address. His remarks underscored the man's flawed hubris and served as a metaphor that echoed the housing
crisis mindset of buying a house that he couldn't really afford.
How do you spell brazen? In
listening to the State of The Union Address, and other recent pondering of President Obama, I am constantly
amazed at his ability to say things that he knows can be fact checked. Let me give you a few examples.
Obama's crocodile
tears over the "perpetual campaign". It turns out that almost before the TV lights went out in
the House chamber following his SOTU address, the administration sent out a fund raising appeal to the
millions of supporters in the president's personal political army, Organizing for America.
Obama's
SOTU speech scores readability of an eighth grader, two grades below GWB. President Obama blamed
himself for not being able to communicate his message properly to Americans, but a new analysis of the president's
State of the Union speech, brings to light why Mr. Obama could be having problems in this area.
Most Voters Don't Believe President's Assertions About Economy.
The president in the speech declared that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans. He even
chided Republicans for not applauding on that point. However, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that
taxes have been cut for 95% of Americans.
Voter
Views on State-of-the-Union Points: The president presented the $787-billion economic stimulus
package as a success story. However, just 35% of voters believe the stimulus plan has helped the
economy, while 31% believe it hurt.
Let Me Be Clear: It Was a Boring Speech.
What a different speech this could have been. And it's only luck that allowed President Obama's first
State of the Union (although it's his third speech to a joint session of Congress) to be as boring as it was.
The Audacity Of
Deceit Continues. Unbelievable! That's the only way I can describe the State of the Union
Address last week, but first I have to admit that I didn't watch the live broadcast. ... It was much easier to
read President Obama's speech than to watch him at the podium with Vice President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi
nodding like bobbleheads and grinning at his every word. I did get to see portions of the broadcast and
came away with a feeling of wonderment: Is he serious?
Obama
picks campaigning over leading. It began with the State of the Union address last week.
Obama could have tried to catch some Republican flies with honey, challenging them to meet him in the middle
and letting them weigh the political consequences of saying no. He opted for vinegar instead. The
speech started with a call for cooperation and ended with the president taunting Republicans and tagging them
with the blame for Washington's mess.
Obama
makes a mockery of his own lobbyist ban. More than 40 former lobbyists work in senior positions
in the Obama administration, including three Cabinet secretaries and the CIA director. Yet in his State
of the Union address, Obama claimed, "We've excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs." Did Obama speak
falsely? Well, it depends on what the definition of "excluded lobbyists" is.
Ego, Obama's Achilles' Heel.
[Scroll down] In President Obama, I see a bully. During his State of the Union address, Obama used his (pardon
the pun) "bully pulpit" to bully the free market, banks, insurance companies, Republicans, and even the Supreme Court.
Obama governs the Chicago way: no compromise — simply destroy your opponent.
Mr. Clout Goes to
Washington would be the perfect title of a movie about his reign.
Obama's
Philosophically Fascist State of the Union Address. President Obama's State of the Union address was the
greatest American rhetorical embrace of fascist trope since the days of Woodrow Wilson. I am not suggesting Obama
is a Nazi; he isn't. ... President Obama is, however, a man who embodies all the personal characteristics of a fascist
leader, right down to the arrogant chin-up head tilt he utilizes when waiting for applause. He sees democracy as a
filthy process that can be cured only by the centralized power of bureaucrats.
Clarence Thomas on Why He Skips
the State of the Union: [Scroll down] Thomas offered several reasons for the court's decision,
which I won't repeat here; but what intrigued me was his parenthetical explanation for his absence from the State
of the Union address. "I don't go because it has become so partisan," he said, "and it's very uncomfortable
for a judge to sit there. There's a lot that you don't hear on TV: The catcalls, the whooping and
hollering and under-the-breath comments. One of the consequences is now the court becomes part of the
conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It's just an example of why I don't go."
What Obama might as well
have said. Obama's State of the Union address reminded me of Eddie Murphy's "Saturday Night Live" Gumby
skit. The president could have conveyed the entirety of his 70-minute, petulance-on-parade speech in about
70 seconds.
The Constitution, Nazis, and the Corpse Man:
In his State of the Union address, Obama stated that "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise
enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal..." Darn near made me want to stand up
and salute, (something our POTUS could use some lessons in, by the way). There's a problem here, however. It
turns out that "the notion that we are all created equal" is not "enshrined in our Constitution" — it's
from the Declaration of Independence.
The Editor says...
The writer goes on to remind us that Mr. Obama is a Harvard-trained Constitutional lawyer. You would
think that he must have rehearsed this speech numerous times before delivering it, and yet he never caught
this error.
Supreme Arrogance:
It has been widely recognized that President Obama's attack on the Supreme Court during his State of the Union
address was arrogant and rude. Obama broke with two hundred years of SOTU tradition and publicly
humiliated and denounced the honorable justices of the Supreme Court in a move that should make Americans
cringe. By using the privileged platform of his State of the Union address to attack a specific judicial
ruling, Obama crossed a line that even many in his party have admitted was beyond the pale.
What a generous way to put it.
The president's habit of telling
untruths: Here's how predictable the president's slippery relationship with the truth has
become: Hours before the State of the Union address,
Washington Examiner reporter Timothy P.
Carney posted a "pre-emptive fact check" that, among other things, prebutted any presidential claim to have
"stopped the revolving door between government and corporate lobbying." As it happened, that night
Barack Obama made an even bolder (read: less truthful) claim: that "we've excluded lobbyists from
policymaking jobs."
'One Nation' under
Obama Has No Respect for America. In his State of the Union address before Congress, Obama became
the first president to ever publicly deride sitting Supreme Court justices for their recent decision upholding
the free-speech rights of American corporations. Such a mockery of Constitutional separation of powers is
unprecedented and smacked of third-world dictators threatening to jail resistant judges.
The Rage Against
Citizens United. Presidencies and parties decline for lots of reasons, but looking back, one of
the pivotal events in writing the history of the first Obama term is likely to be the tongue-lashing he gave
several Supreme Court justices seated before him at his 2010 State of the Union message.
Health Care Speech #35, March 3, 2010.
Apparently Mr. Obama thinks that if he keeps repeating the
same
lies over and over we'll eventually
forget that they're lies and we'll all like his ideas. Beyond that, the White House propaganda
office seems to place a great deal of value on the visual impact
of
doctors in lab coats. Any
reasonably observant person can't help but notice that Obama's speeches are carefully staged, and
the doctors are mere props.
All
Rhetoric, No Reality from White House on Health Care. Flanked, again, by doctors in lab coats,
President Barack Obama gave yet another speech this afternoon [3/3/2010] urging Congress to pass his health
care reform plan. The President again claimed his plan lowers health care costs. It doesn't.
The President again claimed his plan would not give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats
more control over health care. It does. The President again claimed that "if you like your
plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." That simply is
not true. The President again said his plan gives the American people the same health care as Members
of Congress. It doesn't.
Obama
Health Care Speech Given to Room Full of Doctors Wearing White Lab Coats. So let me get this
straight, the White House is claiming all these doctors spontaneously decided to wear white lab Coats?
Wow, they really think we're stoopid...
Obama
throws down gauntlet on health care. President Obama declared the health care debate over on
Wednesday and urged congressional Democrats to take the politically risky step of pushing his newly written
compromise reform bill through using a controversial tactic to circumvent a Republican filibuster.
Obama speaks ... again.
Thirty-five. Including today's speech, that's the number of times Obama has delivered major remarks on
health care reform, according to the Washington Post. What has happened between number one and number
35? Tea parties, town hall protests, and rising public opposition to the legislation before Congress.
Doctors in lab coats won't change the numbers: The public does not want this bill and does not think it
will improve health care in America.
Obama and the Doctors:
One of Barack Obama's favorite stage props lately is a doctor in a lab coat trying to make us believe that
physicians support Obamacare. In keeping with every other Democrat claim about health care "reform," the
truth is something rather different.
Strongsville, Ohio, March 15, 2010.
Obama:
Polls Do Not Reflect the People. President Obama was out stumping for his health
care bill in Ohio today. In the conclusion of his speech, he told the crowd that he would
ignore the polls and do what the people want.
The Editor says...
I wonder what Mr. Obama thinks a poll
is.
Getting
Onboard? Obama Travels to Ohio With Kucinich. President Barack Obama traveled to Ohio to
campaign for his health care bill, and he just happened to go to the congressional district of Rep. Dennis Kucinich,
the only Democrat currently in the House to vote against the bill because it was not liberal enough.
Obama: The
American People Don't Want Us to Consider Polls of the American People. President Obama
made another stop on his health care road show in Strongsville, Ohio this afternoon [3/15/2010], making the rather odd
case that the American people don't want their representatives to look at polls measuring what people
want. ... If Obama refuses to look at public opinion polls, then how can he profess to know what the
American people want?
Obama
softly threatens Dennis Kucinich. President Obama just finished enthralling a crowd in Ohio
in one of the last acts (one hopes) of his push to pass health-care reform. Rolling up his shirtsleeves,
Obama began his speech with a little public arm-twisting, calling out a few of the local notables assembled;
and way up at the top of his list was Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D), in whose district Obama was speaking.
This proves that Obama will read whatever comes up on the teleprompter.
Obama
saves us all!! Under Obama's Healthcare Plan, business owners who provide health insurance to
their employees "would see their premiums fall by as much as
3000%." According to the President,
this means, "they could give you a raise." So those of us lucky enough to be employed will soon be
rolling in it.
[Emphasis in original]
Obama: You
will see 'premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent' under Obamacare. Monday in Strongsville,
Ohio, President Obama said that ObamaCare will reduce health insurance premiums by "3,000 percent." ... Just
think, America: These are the people telling us that they know best how to run 1/6 of our economy.
3,000 percent! Stumping
for Obamacare yesterday in Ohio, Obama touted its manifold virtues like the patent remedy salesmen of old.
For whatever ails us, this legislation is the cure. Here Obama touts the legislation's magical reduction
of expenses for employers with an incidental benefit to employees.
Hundreds
protest as Obama makes health reform pitch in Strongsville. Hundreds of veteran and first-time
protestors lined several blocks of Royalton Road in Strongsville Monday, making what could be a last-ditch
appeal to stop health care legislation and chanting "kill the bill," as President Obama's motorcade sped
by through a chilly mist.
Obama
Wags the Dog with the Obama Intifada. President Obama's health care plan is swirling the drain.
Americans don't like it — the latest Rasmussen poll has just 43 percent of Americans in favor,
with 53 percent opposed — and that dislike has the Obama administration suggesting that polls
don't actually mirror the will of the American people. "They're waiting for us to act," Obama told a
crowd in Ohio on Monday. "They don't want us reading polls. They want us to look and see what is
the best thing for America." This is paternalism of the highest order — he knows what's
better for us than we do ourselves.
Dose of
truth for Obama. Forget "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." All Mrs. Martin had to do was
stay in her seat, and she landed another blow against Obamacare. ... While she kept her reactions more in
line with Justice Sam Alito's, the president must have noticed. As he shook hands after the speech,
he asked her, "Are you OK?" "'Yes, sir, I'm fine,' I told him. 'I just don't support your
bill,'" she said. "And at that point, security and everyone stopped."
Three Thousand Percent. Is
it all that simple, or does the president not know what he's talking about?
The world watches our president fail.
In case the president has not noticed, since he began giving these great speeches on health insurance, public
support for his plan has gone from slightly supportive to grab the pitchforks. His speech in Strongsville,
Ohio, was so poorly researched that it took Fox News one phone call to discredit it.
Charlotte, North Carolina, April 2, 2010
Obama
gives 17-minute answer to health-care query in N.C.. Toward the end of a question-and-answer
session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the
president whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package. "We
are overtaxed as it is," Doris said bluntly.
Obama gives rambling, incoherrent 17 minute response to concern about
being 'overtaxed'. We constantly hear about the President's supposedly cool demeanor and
unflappability, regardless of evidence to the contrary. Keep that in mind as you read this Washington
Post account.
Eloquent No More.
The mainstream media is slowly waking up to the fact that Obama is a bore. No, really. He's long
since stopped saying anything new or interesting, and he talks constantly, at great length. So when he
went into a mind-numbing filibuster to a perfectly reasonable question from a woman at a Q&A session in Charlotte
as to whether it was smart to throw a load of new taxes into health-care "reform," not even the
Washington
Post's Anne Kornblut could conceal her — and the audience's — disdain for the
Condescender in Chief.
Obama's
17-Minute Non-Answer Answer. The president's remarks at a North Carolina lithium battery plant
last Friday were so tedious as to garner attention of, among others, the Washington Post's Anne E. Kornblut.
In answer to a question from Doris of Lake Wylie, S.C., Kornblut wrote that Obama gave a 17-minute response
that lulled "the crowd into a daze" as "his discursive answer — more than 2,500 words long —
wandered from topic to topic." The worst part: Obama didn't answer the question. He didn't
even come close.
Some
presidents talk too much. The president, who early on came to regard himself as the prince with
the voice that could make the earth move, has never been able to resist the sound of his voice. He likes
question-and-answer sessions with carefully screened constituents because it gives him jumping-off places for
stump oratory. When a woman named Doris stood up at a rally at a battery factory in North Carolina to
ask whether "it was a wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care package," he had a few words
for her. Nearly three thousand of them.
Challenging Obama: He's weaker than
you think. President Obama does not like to be challenged. During a Q & A in
Charlotte, North Carolina, last week, a woman named Doris asked the president whether it was smart to raise
taxes in the midst of a sluggish economic recovery. ... Anyway, Doris raised what Obama sometimes annoyingly
calls a "legitimate" point. But the president did not answer her question. Instead, he launched
into a 17-minute defense of the health care reform.
Hampton University, May 9, 2010.
The President's Trick Or Tweet.
President Obama, while addressing college graduates, condemns our access to new media as a subversion of
democracy. Is the iPad a threat to democracy or exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind? At
Hampton University in Virginia on Sunday, the president lamented that in an age of text messaging, the Internet
and the iPad, information and its unfettered exchange had become a diversion that was putting a strain on
democracy. We are not making this up.
The Editor says...
Hmmm... The internet puts a strain on democracy, he says. Is that why he's trying
to
take control of the internet?
Obama Doesn't Like the iPad.
For someone who is supposed to be the very essence of cool and with-it-ness, President Obama gave a remarkably
technophobic if not luddite talk at Hampton University yesterday [5/9/2010].
Last Year He Said He Had All Michael Jackson's Music on His
iPod. President Barack Obama told Hampton University's graduating class on Sunday that he does
not "know how to work" an iPod. Last July, however, after pop-star Michael Jackson's death, Obama told
the Associated Press that he had Jackson's music on his iPod.
The shameless,
shocking hypocrisy and lies of President Obama. [Scroll down slowly] What a phony... and,
btw, for someone who decries people's use of IPODs, why did he give one to Queen Elizabeth as a diplomatic
gift — one filled with his own speeches. How priceless!
Obama
Swipes at Media, Says 'Information' Onslaught Pressuring 'Democracy'. In his latest swipe at the
modern media environment, President Obama used a commencement speech over the weekend to bemoan the onslaught
of information in the digital age and suggest that the gusher of news out there is too much of a good thing.
The Thinness of His Skin.
President Obama is beginning to say reliably disconcerting things in public, from his offhand dismissals of
longtime foreign allies to his recent assertion in Illinois: "I do think at a certain point that you've
made enough money." ... But for startling insight into the mind of our 44th president, we cannot do better
than his recent commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia.
West Point, May 22, 2010.
Forked-Tongue-In-Chief
at West Point. In modern history when it comes to forked-tongue-ness President Barack Obama
excels well beyond anyone's imagination. Like most of his foreign policy speeches on American national
security, his commencement address to the cadets at West Point on Saturday proves my point.
Obama
Call for 'International Order' Raises Questions About U.S. Sovereignty. President Obama is facing
criticism for his declaration over the weekend that he would seek a new "international order," with some
questioning how much U.S. sovereignty the administration is willing to cede in exchange for more global
cooperation. Obama, delivering the commencement speech Saturday [5/22/2010] at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, said that "stronger international standards and institutions" and stronger alliances can
"resolve" challenges ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to climate change to economic decline.
Obama Speaks His
Mind at West Point. President Obama used a teleprompter for his West Point commencement
address, which means that he took the occasion seriously. What he said, however dull and
clichéd, represents not just the sometimes-flighty emanations from his remarkable brain, but
also United States policy at large. ... The speech, marked by Obama's frequent slouching into the
passive voice, may reflect the fact that the president had little intellectual or emotional sympathy
for the ranks of cadets in front of him.
Obama
at West Point: Lessons Unlearned. On Saturday, Pres. Barack Obama gave a commencement
speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point, which in effect told the thousand or so soon-to-be
second lieutenants that, if he has his way, they'll soon be out of a job. Obama outlined for the cadets
his vision of a new international order organized around bodies such as the United Nations.
What
Diplomacy? Saturday, President Obama announced to West Point cadets that the U.S. military
role was set to be diminished and "diplomacy and cooperation" would take its place instead. Then on
Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration's new National Security Strategy
would emphasize diplomacy over military action again, with the latter to be used only in concert
with U.S. allies and organizations.
The Oval Office, June 15, 2010.
Anticipation:
Obama defending Gulf
effort in Oval Office address. National anger rising, President Barack Obama is defending his
efforts against the country's worst environmental disaster and hoping his first Oval Office address Tuesday
night will stoke confidence that he can see the job through until the gushing oil is gone and Gulf Coast
lives are back to normal.
Obama to name oil recovery 'czar' in
first Oval Office address. President Barack Obama, in his televised speech to the nation
Tuesday [6/15/2010], will announce the creation of an oil recovery "czar" to oversee progress in siphoning
crude from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, his chief spokesman said.
Not
Another Czar! In a "fireside chat" to quell concerns about the Gulf oil disaster, the president
announced the appointment of an oil czar. Is more bureaucracy the answer to every problem?
The Obama Window.
Politico reports that the president will make another push for his central planning repackaged
as a "green economy" in a national address tomorrow night. The reason for what used to be a
global warming tax then a climate change tax is now "green jobs" and showing he's really engaged and
angry at BP. You see, they spilled some oil when drilling in deepwater offshore instead of in
ANWR and other, drier places onshore with lots of oil where they're not allowed. So it just
follows that we should stop offshore drilling and... mandate windmills.
Obama will use
Oval Office speech to politicize the Gulf oil disaster. Has the Obama administration willfully
been scuttling clean up efforts in the Gulf so that the oil could make its way to shore and onto the beaches
and birds for maximum political leverage? Now Politico is reporting that the President will use his
oval office address for a full court, no hold-bars, assault on the oil and energy industries.
Obama
Oval: Nothing but nets. President Obama has waited all this time to throw down the big
Oval Office address to the nation. Tuesday night at 8 p.m. will be the debut Oval chat of his
presidency — carried live on all four networks, says Yahoo. Because nothing says "I mean
business" like wooden, artificial remarks to the pool camera from behind the Resolute desk to an impatient,
non-cable audience who thought they were tuning into "Losing it with Jillian."
Reaction:
You know an Obama speech is bad when Keith Olbermann trashes it.
You know that President Obama's speech was a dud when Keith Olbermann trashes it immediately afterward.
I'm glad to hear that Obama finally has a plan for the Gulf oil spill. I am quite underwhelmed, however,
by his recycled (no pun intended) call to solve the problem by making our buildings more energy-efficient.
Era of
Obama rhetoric is over. President Obama's Oval Office speech Tuesday marked the end of an
era — an era in which at least half the population believed any crisis could be defused by one
man's supposed rhetorical genius and personal charisma. The derisive reception of President Obama's
Tuesday night speech from the Oval Office on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill makes it clear that Obama's sweet
voice no longer suffices, not even for his biggest boosters.
ABC's
Moran, Stephanopoulos Shill for Obama's Gulf Address. Despite widespread criticism of President
Barack Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill — including flak from MSNBC's left-wing
posse of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman — ABC's Terry Moran and George
Stephanopoulos on the June 15 "Nightline" fawned over the president's speech and ignored its obvious
shortcomings.
Obama
in the Oval Office — This Emperor Has No Clothes!. [Scroll down] What did
President Obama do? He blamed everyone he could think of for the Gulf oil fiasco — BP, President
Bush, the bureaucracy, Mother Nature, and the American people (for consuming too much oil) — but
of course NEVER took responsibility, himself, for his own administration's slow and bungled response.
What answers did he offer? The typical Obama solutions: we'll throw money at the problem, lots
of it, but we're not quite sure yet what we're throwing it at or how it will turn out; we'll
confiscate a private company to punish it; and with stirring and eloquent words tells the American
people "trust me," everything will be okay.
Obama
disappoints from the beginning of his speech. Less than a minute into President Obama's Oval
Office address, my heart sank. For the umpteenth time since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began, an
anxious nation was informed that Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a Nobel Prize. Obama's speech pretty
much went down hill from there.
The Liberal Tipping Point
Away from Obama. [Some have pointed out] the grave disappointment expressed last night about
Barack Obama's speech on the part of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman. This
is a significant development, because it indicates this is a liberal tipping point — both tactical
and emotional — away from Barack Obama.
The President's Oil
Reserves Lie: During his speech, the president made a statement that was blatantly false.
The president noted, "We consume more than 20% of the world's oil, but have less than 2% of the world's oil
reserve. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the
ocean — because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water." We are
not running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water. In fact, it is due to the president's
party of extreme environmentalists that BP had to drill some forty miles from the coastline in deep waters to
extract oil.
That
Stench of Rotting Bull is Just Obama's Oval Office Speech. Putting aside for a second the fact
that this speech was given about 50 days late, last night's oval office speech proved that the President
is not ready to be honest with the American people. For the first 30 days of this crisis, President
Obama was ignoring the fact that the crisis existed, and now when he uses the oval office to give the people
confidence that he is on top of the problem he spends more time trying to sell cap and trade than discussing
capping the well. Essentially, he is still ignoring the crisis.
Obama's
address: grand setting, weak policies. The main impression left by President Obama's
address on the oil spill is the chasm between the ambition of its commitments and the thinness of its
policies.
Hope and
Change Meets Fix the Leak. I don't think vague hope and change rhetoric works when thousands of
gallons of oil spew forth. ... In other words, instead of the vague dreaming, we needed (1) a review of
concrete fix-it methods for the leak, and then (2) short-term mechanisms that will lessen dependence on
oil. Instead, we got nothing detailed how to solve the problem, more green dreaming, more now-is-the-moment
campaign mode, more "some say, others say," and more "they will pay."
Crude
grab for power never ends. Once again, President Obama channels Oscar Wilde, who famously said
the only thing he couldn't resist was temptation. So it is with Obama's attempt to turn the Gulf oil
debacle into a reason why America should embrace his cap-and-tax energy policy. No matter the crisis,
Obama can't resist the temptation to exploit it in his quest to grow the government.
Obama makes nice
Oval Office speech, but is the BP well capped? President Obama addressed the ongoing BP oil
spill catastrophe from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, using that particular venue for the first time of
his presidency because, well, he's trying everything. No matter what Obama says, as long as the
deep-water well is still gushing, his administration is going to be on the defensive.
Where Does He Get the Authority to 'Inform' a Private
Company That It Must Surrender Its Money? In his first-ever address from the Oval Office on
Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said he was going to "inform" the chairman of BP that he must surrender
the company's money to an independent party that will distribute it to people and businesses determined to
have been harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The president's declaration raises a serious
constitutional question about his authority.
There's a pipe
spewing oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills. Obama, the first modern president
to pass his first full year in office without addressing the country from his historic desk, had the setting
right. Just back from a day-and-a-half on the gulf coast listening, reassuring, talking tourism, eating
seafood. He wore the proper suit, had the requisite flags and family photos in the background. For
18 minutes he delivered the words crisply and forthrightly, though too often distracting anxious viewers
with his fidgeting hands like the lecturing professor he once was. Or wait! Was Mr. Cool
nervous?
Obama's First
Oval Office Speech a 'Flop'. That harsh judgment was delivered this morning by Dana Perino on
Fox News Channel. She has plenty of company in regarding the effort as less than successful. As
predicted, he used the free TV time to shill for cap and trade (although avoiding that term —
apparently the marketing team led by David Axelrod is rebranding the tax scheme). He also ended with an
appeal to God, something he normally avoids as much as he has avoided attending church since leaving Rev.
Wright under the bus.
Did someone
mention Jeremiah Wright?
Obamas' Long Nose. I
read President Obama's Oval Office speech at an airport gate rather than seeing it on television, so I might
have misjudged its impact. But it struck me as uninspiring at best. Obama has been behind the
curve ever since the Deepwater Horizon exploded, and over the last week or two he has transparently tried to
stop the political bleeding with a series of symbolic acts. The problem is that these gestures won't do
anything to contain the oil that is already swirling around the Gulf...
MSNBC
trashes Obama's address. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman react to President
Obama's Oval Office Address on the oil spill. Here are the highlights of what the trio said:
Olbermann: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."
Matthews compared Obama to Carter. Olbermann: "Nothing specific at all was said."
Matthews: "No direction." Howard Fineman: "He wasn't specific enough."
Obama's
Curiously Flat Gulf Speech. Somewhere between Pensacola and the Oval Office, the oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico went from an "assault" to an "epidemic" — and President Obama went from commander
in chief to surgeon general. In Florida, he had referred to the disaster as an "assault" and spoke, at
an Army post, in military terms, but by the time he got home he had changed the analogy to a medical matter.
And that, in short, is why his speech to the nation fell so flat even as he delivered it.
Rahming
Through a Lame Duck Climate Bill?. Ominous words are emanating again from the president on
climate change and energy independence, this time as "a response" to the Gulf oil catastrophe. Somewhere
between the war rhetoric and comparisons to the moon landing, President Obama last night (vaguely) told
Congress to pass the energy legislation that's been languishing there since last summer.
Barack
Obama Embraces His Inner Jimmy Carter. Perhaps it is because his chief speechwriter has spent
the crisis playing beer pong in Georgetown bars. Perhaps it is because while embracing peak oil, the
oil spill never piqued his blue state interests since it affected red states. Whatever the reason,
Barack Obama gave the most depressing Oval Office speech since Jimmy Carter's malaise speech.
The
Left: We didn't like Obama's big speech. Commentators turn up their noses at the oil
address.
Obama running on empty:
The president's energy speech was fueled by hot air. In his Oval Office address on Tuesday night,
President Obama issued a ringing challenge to "embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and
seize control of our own destiny" through developing clean alternative energy. The president stated that
the future of unlimited clean energy had been denied to Americans through a cabal of "oil industry lobbyists"
and politicians lacking "courage and candor." But don't worry, the O Force is determined to focus
the efforts of government on the problem, defeat these conspiratorial forces and save the country.
President
Obama's Oval Office Address Fails To 'Cap' America's Frustrations. The tragedy in the Gulf of
Mexico forced President Obama to dive into what were previously uncharted waters for him last night: the
Oval Office address. Alone, with no crowd to save or jeer him, nothing but the prestige of his title as
a safety net, it was his responsibility to remind Americans that, no matter how out of control any situation
may seem, he was fully in charge. If you're not feeling particularly reassured this morning after,
you're not the only one.
Mr.
President: If we can put a man on the moon... [Scroll down] Stopping the
leak — now believed to be shooting between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf each
day — was a topic the president sidestepped during his 18-minute speech. ... Hearing the president
invoke American technological genius in the service of his political goal — a cap-and-trade
bill — while remaining silent on the application of that technological genius to the problem at
hand in the Gulf cannot have increased the public's confidence in Obama's ability to handle the crisis.
Oil Talk.
Enduring criticism from partisans of every stripe for his response to the accidental gusher in the Gulf of
Mexico, Mr. Obama managed last night to convey that he's deeply upset about the disaster and angry at BP.
And this being a crisis, he naturally took the opportunity to put his moribund climate legislation back in
play.
Obama's Boring Speech.
Frankly, Obama was a crashing bore. He's been that way for a while, but at moments like this, when you
know what he is going to say ("Bad BP!" "Pass cap-and-trade!"), he is especially so. And he can never
pass up the chance to pass the buck. He describes the difficulties with the Minerals Management Services
as if someone else had been president for over a year and as if this is the fault of "deregulators" rather
than a massive bureaucracy without accountability.
Obama's
intentions. President Obama's Oval Office speech last night focused on the Gulf oil catastrophe,
but its true purpose was impossible to miss: shoring up the president's tanking popularity. Some
57 days after the BP oil rig blew — triggering an underwater oil gusher that's yet to be
contained — a majority of Americans, polls show, think Obama's been too detached from the crisis.
Thus, the president is taking a new tack: huffing and puffing.
Obama is Kicking Louisiana.
During his address this week to the nation from the Oval Office, the President made clear that he will not
offer real help to the struggling people of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. In his speech, he presented
no specific action plans and instead relied on lame platitudes. In contrast, he made clear his support
for a destructive national energy tax and a horrible cap-and-trade energy bill, which will devastate
Louisiana's economy. Obama is using the tragedy of the oil spill to further his political agenda, all
at the expense of Louisiana jobs.
Will oil
drilling become a pipe dream? If President Obama's Oval Office speech made one thing clear, it
is that his administration and the activists who back it view the Gulf oil spill as simply an opportunity to
advance their pre-existing agenda — which has nothing to do with cleaning up the Gulf, protecting
the fragile coastal environment or fostering the region's economy.
The no-win presidency.
President Obama has been criticized by both the left and the right for his lackluster address to the nation
on Tuesday. He clearly deserves the harsh reviews. Instead of dwelling on the horrendous situation
in the Gulf — and the ways he intends to fix it — he spent the latter part of his brief
speech in the Ivory Tower.
Obama Holds up China as Model for 'Green Energy Jobs'.
In his speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday, President Barack Obama cited one foreign nation —
the People's Republic of China — as a model for creating what he called "green energy jobs."
But the environmentalist group Greenpeace released a report in October 2008 that said China was the world's
"largest producer and consumer of coal," making coal that nation's largest source of air pollution, and
that — in 2005 alone — 5,938 people died in China as a result of coal-mining accidents.
Obama
Speaks At Lower Grade Level Than Bush. You know why President Obama's Gulf Coast oil spill
address from the Oval Office failed so miserably on Tuesday? It went over too many heads. At
least that's what the folks at CNN.com believe.
CNN:
Americans are Too Stupid to Understand Obama's Brilliant Speech. President Obama's speech on the
gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the
18-minute talk released Wednesday.
Is Obama really
doing everything in his power to fight the spill? In his nationwide address last night on the
Gulf crisis, President Obama declared: "We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long
it takes." But at least one congressman isn't convinced, complaining that Mr. Obama won't pursue
promising solutions if it means bucking his union allies.
Presiding
over disaster. Whatever he said, Mr. Obama confronted an insuperable difficulty. It's hard
for a President to speak effectively when there's nothing that he can do effectively. Mr. Obama's
earlier likening of the Gulf disaster to the attacks of 9/11 only heightened this dilemma. When George
Bush appeared at Ground Zero on 9/14 the attacks were over and retaliation was imminent. ... In the Gulf of
Mexico, by contrast, the oil continues to gush, and there's nothing the President can do about it.
Who
told Obama drilling is 'absolutely safe'? There was one particularly striking moment in
President Obama's widely panned Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster. About midway through his
talk, Obama acknowledged that he had approved new offshore drilling a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon
rig explosion on April 20. But Obama said he had done so only "under the assurance that it would
be absolutely safe." Absolutely safe? Even before the Gulf spill, few defenders of offshore
drilling would go that far.
Obama's
Answer To Spill Comes Up Short. He could barely get himself through the pedestrian first half:
a bit of BP-bashing, a bit of faux-Clintonian "I feel your pain," a bit of recovery and economic mitigation
accounting. It wasn't until the end of the speech — the let-no-crisis-go-to-waste part that
tried to leverage the Gulf Coast devastation to advance his cap-and-trade climate-change agenda —
that Obama warmed to his task. Pedestrian is beneath Obama. Mr. Fix-It he is not. He is
world-historical, the visionary, come to make the oceans recede and the planet heal. How? By
creating a glorious, new, clean green economy.
Will Obama Be the 'Jimmy
Carter of the 21st Century'? US President Barack Obama's address from the Oval Office on
Tuesday was supposed to be a moment of leadership during the worst environmental disaster in American
history. But critics from across the political spectrum wondered afterwards whether he'd shown
leadership at all.
Obama's Latest
Shakedown. President Obama's oil spill speech revealed, once again, how stunningly shameless
he is. This relentless ideologue is not even marginally competent at masking his ongoing crusade
to apply a wrecking ball to every sector of our economy and remake it in his own image.
A Beginner Behind the
Wheel. After the Tuesday Oval Office address to the nation, I was grumbling about the speech
when my son asked me what was making me so angry. Desperate to find an analogy to convey my meaning in
understandable terms, I brought it down to his teenage level.
Obama now
owns oil spill. It's his. Obama now owns the BP mess. His Oval Office oil spill
speech was a colossal disaster. Far from being uplifting or helpful, it disappointingly added fuel
to the fire. Devoid of answers, solutions or leadership, the president's speech was a stark reminder
of why campaigns are tough, invasive and a brutal examination of a candidate's experience and record.
Or at least should be.
Obama's oil
speech sinks. [Scroll down] There was the president of the United States, speaking from
the Oval Office, where our presidents have warned us of grave dangers, mourned great tragedies and
articulated the great sacrifices of brave Americans fighting for our freedom in wars across the
ocean. And essentially, Obama looked like he had been dragged there.
Insult
to Injury? It's safe to say President Obama's first Oval Office address to the nation
last night was not an overwhelming success. Or any success. When you've lost Keith
Olbermann... mostly you just gain some Drudge headlines. However, suffice to say, not only did
Obama not quell any doubts about his ability to handle this crisis, he may have raised some.
The Left Turns on
Obama. The far-left in America is turning on their guy Barack Obama. After his speech on
the oil disaster a few days ago, the crazy left Greek chorus on MSNBC hammered the president. He wasn't
specific enough, he was too weak, I don't sense "executive command," they wailed. You would have thought
they were talking about President Bush.
A
Few Questions for President Obama. America needs decisive leaders who understand what
government can (and cannot) do to stop the Gulf gusher, clean up the mess, and get business, jobs and
prosperity back on track. Instead, President Obama sounds like an anti-business Community Organizer in
Chief — pointing fingers, making baseless claims about ending our "addiction to oil," and leaving
no crisis unexploited to promote job-killing cap-tax-and-trade and renewable energy policies. His
June 15 "vision" raised more questions than it answered.
Cap-And-Trick:
President Obama says the oil disaster proves the need to get off fossil fuels. ... With an abundance of hand
gestures, the president didn't really say in his speech Tuesday night. He did say fossil fuels were bad
and green energy is good, but the people of the Gulf states don't need wind turbines right now. Contrary
to Obama's assertions, our "addiction" to foreign oil no more caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill than any
addiction to nuclear energy caused the reactor accident at Three Mile Island.
No energy
in Obama energy speech. Barack Obama made a dull speech on Tuesday evening. And he
made a frightened speech — an overly careful assembly of energy cliches likely to be remembered
by no one. All this in the face of the greatest ecological catastrophe in American history, the
seemingly unending oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. This was a man playing catch-up, aware that the public
is apparently even less enamored of him on this issue than they were of George W. Bush on Katrina.
No
Leadership, No Solutions, No Clue. [Scroll down] It is, of course, a solemn time in
American politics, and the president may have missed an opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership and
originality. Economic uncertainty is unabated across the land, and American forces continue fighting
foreign conflicts of uncertain resolution. Perhaps the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has become the
proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Unfortunately, bland speeches offering refurbished
climate change initiatives probably aren't going to thrill a lot of pressed and worried voters.
The
Left Wanted Barack Obama, and They Got Him — Warts and All. After Obama's Oval
Office address to the nation about the oil spill (which, as Ed Morrissey rightly points out, should have
been on Day 1, not Day 57), Keith Olbermann and guests Chris "Tingle Me" Matthews and Howard
Fineman couldn't even find it within themselves to give their man the benefit of the doubt. As
Olbermann said, "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days." And
Matthews opined, "I don't sense executive command."
No
Leadership, No Solutions, No Clue. [Scroll down] It is, of course, a solemn time in
American politics, and the president may have missed an opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership and
originality. Economic uncertainty is unabated across the land, and American forces continue fighting
foreign conflicts of uncertain resolution. Perhaps the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has become the
proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Unfortunately, bland speeches offering refurbished
climate change initiatives probably aren't going to thrill a lot of pressed and worried voters.
Can Obama plug leak in his
support? I believe it was Jean Giraudoux who first said, "Only the mediocre are always
at their best." Barack Obama was supposed to be the best, the very best, and yet he is always,
reliably, consistently mediocre. His speech on oil was no better or worse than his speech on race.
Their Finest Hour but Not
Ours. In the wake of yet another disappointing Oval Office speech, this time about the
oil spill and energy policy, the arrival today of the 70th anniversary of two of the most influential
speeches by world leaders is a harsh reminder of the gap between President Barack Obama's pedestrian
yet self-aggrandizing style and the measure of genuine leadership.
Obama
tilts at windmills. We learned again in the president's speech on the BP disaster this week that
all of our interests in the energy sphere are aligned: Move from carbon-based fuel to renewables and
we'll create American jobs, heal the climate, put more distance between us and geopolitically unstable
regions and punish those nasty oil companies while saving our shrimp and seagulls.
Win-win-win-win-win.
Obama's
energy pipe dreams. Just once, it would be nice if a president would level with Americans
on energy. Barack Obama isn't that president. His speech the other night was about political
damage control — his own. It was full of misinformation and mythology. Obama held out
a gleaming vision of an America that would convert to the "clean" energy of, presumably, wind, solar and
biomass. It isn't going to happen for many, many decades, if ever.
A Big
Government Disaster. On June 15, 2010, President Barack Obama made his first address
to the nation from the oval office. Hearing his address, several things struck me. First of all,
Obama mentioned that when the oil spill occurred, he ordered scientists and the Energy Department to study
how to repair the spill. True to his big government agenda, Obama wasted time on the study while more
oil continued to pour into the Gulf region. Secondly, Obama also said that we are running out of oil to
drill. This is patently false.
Malaise All Over
Again. Surely it's just my fallible memory, but I can't recall a presidential address that has
fallen as flat as Barack Obama's last week, at least not since Jimmy Carter gave his (in)famous Malaise speech
back in the dismal summer of 1979. ... Barack Obama had scarcely finished his speech last week about the oil
spill and what a great job he'd been doing to contain it when the rotten tomatoes started flying.
Environmental Rift
Widens. The conflict came into view this week in the aftermath of Mr. Obama's Oval Office address
on the spill, when environmentalists, bloggers and even sympathetic commentators accused Mr. Obama of failing
to lay out a tough legislative response that seized on the public's outrage over the spill. Complicating
matters, green groups themselves have split over whether to attack or support the White House.
The Vuvuzela President.
The constant droning noise emanating from President Obama sounds more and more like the kazoo-like tone drowning
out World Cup Soccer games. His vacuous Oval Office oil speech last week was redundant proof that he's
succeeded in turning the bully pulpit into just bull.
Does
Barack Obama want to be president? Ever since viewing his depressing and disconnected "energy"
speech last week, I have been mulling whether Barack Obama actually wants to be president anymore.
That was an address given by a man who looked very much like he didn't want to be there, didn't want to
continue. He appeared slumped and worn, as if he aged eighteen years in eighteen months. His
demeanor was oddly distracted.
Obama's Gulf Oil Spill
Commission and the Missing Experts. Instead of an oil spill commission staffed with experts, as
promised in his Oval Office address, the president has announced a panel with membership that reads like a
Who's Who of radical environmentalism. Former Senator Graham of Florida, for example, has consistently
pushed for a ban on oil drilling, and Frances Beinecke of the National Resources Defense Council has argued
for the global warming agenda — including linking "global poverty" to global warming, an argument
used at the Copenhagen conference to support reparations to be paid to nations such as Robert Mugabe's
Zimbabwe for our supposed global crimes.
The
Bait-And-Switch On Cap-And-Trade. President Obama's speech to the nation last week about the
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico followed a predictable script. Whenever a problem confronts this
administration, the president's answer is sure to include one of a trio of his 2008 campaign initiatives:
health care reform, action to address climate change or education reform.
Obama in Crisis. [Scroll
down] We have a president who in April gave a 17-minute, 2,500-word answer to a woman's question about
taxes in the health care bill, but who cannot come up with an appropriate response to an oil spill. ... So he
did what he knows how to do. He gave a speech. It was so awful, even the left panned it.
Instead of acting to end the crisis, the president tried to exploit it. A huge oil spill? Use it
to hype cap-and-trade! That's not a response, that's a sales pitch.
White
House Successfully Puts Cap on Gusher of Unflattering Oil Spill Stories. It's as if the entire
country decided that the president had bombed in his speech, that the federal response was an immense disappointment,
and that the coast was doomed ... and then moved on to more interesting topics.
Columbus, Ohio, June 18, 2010
Obama's 58 minutes in Ohio.
President Barack Obama turned his attention from the BP oil spill Friday to talk about another concern:
economic recovery. But not for long — 58 minutes to be exact. In fact, he spent
less time on the ground in Columbus, Ohio, than it took to fly there and back. The president revved up
Air Force One, flew to Ohio, motorcaded to a road construction site, gave a speech on the Recovery Act and
flew back to Washington all in the span of three hours. ... This was Obama's eighth trip to Ohio since
taking office.
10
minutes of talk with each golden word costing you $502. Obviously, as part of his administration's
plan to reduce spending to address the ginormous deficit, President Obama flew on Air Force One the other day
from Washington all the way out to Columbus, Ohio, and back. About a four-hour round-trip flight.
He was on the ground in the Buckeye State for a total of 70 minutes. By another count, he was on
Ohio soil barely 58 minutes, touting more what he sees as an economic recovery. (Obama had tickets
to an evening White Sox baseball game back in Washington.)
The Golfer in Chief.
[Scroll down] Last week, for example, Mr. Obama spent between $500,000 and $1 million of taxpayer money
to fly to Ohio to deliver a 10-minute speech touting his purported achievements. Because of the presidential
presence, the work site Mr. Obama visited was closed for the day, taking work hours away from the working man.
"That's $200 we are missing out on," said construction worker George Harrison. "Everybody needs to eat,
right?" Eat cake, George.
This is just another example
of money down the drain.
The Editor says...
It costs about $68,000 per hour to fly Air Force
One.
*
One year ago, a round trip to Chicago cost an estimated
$236,000.
*
Yearly operating expenses are somewhere between $240 million and
$280 million.
*
And of course the President flies aboard Marine One, back and forth to Andrews AFB, before getting
on Air Force One, and there are numerous other aircraft and ground vehicles on duty when the
President flies, and we may never know how many there are or how much they cost to operate.
American University, July 1, 2010
Obama
Immigration Speech: Policy or Politics? Even the White House seems skeptical that
the president will present anything new. Speaking with the press aboard Air Force One on Wednesday [6/30/2010],
Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton offered, "I think a lot of the elements [in his speech] will be familiar."
Obama's Stirring
Immigration Speech Slightly Tainted by Misquote of 'The New Colossus'. With immigration reform
attracting negligible Republican interest and seemingly going nowhere, President Obama laid out the case for
action and what it would look like in a major speech at American University this morning [7/1/2010].
In doing so, Obama employed a familiar formula: identifying what the extreme left wants to do (straight-up
amnesty), identifying what the extreme right wants to do (round up every illegal and kick them out), and
then placing his vision for immigration reform squarely in the middle.
Obama
edits Emma Lazarus poem on Statue of Liberty. In his immigration speech today, President Obama
cited the most prominent symbol of America's immigrant tradition: The Statue of Liberty. He also
quoted famous lines from the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed at the base of the statue — at least
some of them.
MSNBC's
Witt: I Got 'Chills' Listening To Obama Immigration Speech. When it comes to Barack Obama,
MSNBC is the network of thrills and chills ... Chris Matthews famously felt a thrill going up his leg listening
to an Obama speech. Now, MSNBC anchor Alex Witt has been similarly moved by Obamian oratory, declaring
this morning "I got a few chills" listening to PBO's "very powerful" speech on immigration.
Why
Obama's Immigration Speech Was a Failure. The president stepped up Thursday to update his
campaign promise of immigration reform. But Tunku Varadarajan says his words were banal, completely
conventional, and full of empty rhetoric.
Obama's
Immigration Speech: Big Words and Passion, but What's New? Reaching out in every
direction — to immigrant history, to the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus' stirring
poetry — Obama showed at times the fervor of his 2008 campaign speeches, calling immigration
reform "a moral imperative," and demanding accountability and a common sense solution. But beneath the
powerful rhetoric and genuine commitment, there was little new.
Assimilation
and the Founding Fathers. In his immigration speech on Thursday, President Obama heralded
America as a "nation of immigrants" defined not by blood or birth, but by "fidelity to the shared values
that we all hold so dear." If only it were so. Left-wing academics and activists spurned
assimilation as a common goal long ago. Their fidelity lies with bilingualism (a euphemism for
native language maintenance over English-first instruction), identity politics, ethnic militancy and
a borderless continent.
Immigration
bill advocates miffed at Obama speech. Immigration Works, the pro-comprehensive immigration bill
group headed by the indefatigable Tamar Jacoby, hailed Barack Obama's speech today, but then had some sharp
words for the president.
Politics
Over People. The president's immigration address was little more than a cynical bid to sugarcoat
amnesty for illegals as his polls sag. Maybe that's because he's not doing his real job: fostering
jobs and enforcing the border.
The Fix Is Not In. It's a
measure of the minimal importance that President Obama assigns to enforcing the country's immigration laws
that he waited until this week to deliver his first speech on immigration. When he did, the president
merely confirmed what is already common knowledge: the system is broken and there is nothing that his
administration will do to fix it.
Obama and Immigration:
Rewriting History? This week, while shilling for "comprehensive immigration reform" (aka
amnesty for illegal aliens), President Obama cited the famous poem "The New Colossus" ("Give me your tired,
your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free") written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. For one
whose intellectual powers are constantly being touted by his followers, it's interesting to note how little
he seems to know about the Statue of Liberty's history — or, perhaps, how little he cares about
twisting that history in order to push his radical progressive agenda.
Barack Obama
Is Making Me Laugh. I sat chuckling all through Obama's immigration speech Thursday.
Forgive me, but that has been my recent response whenever I listen to Obama's speechifying. I am
somewhat surprised at my recent response to his outlandish rhetoric, but he makes such a mockery of his
very words, of America, and of capitalism, that he is, invariably, comical. ... So I listened to his
speech on immigration and chuckled as he lectured us, yet again, on what America is —
as if he
had a clue about what America is.
Shootout At El Paso City
Hall. In his speech Thursday, President Obama assured us that our "southern border is more
secure today than at any time in the past 20 years." So why is El Paso's City Hall taking fire
from Mexico?
Obama
Plays Election-Year Politics on Immigration. "Years before the statue was built," Barack Obama
began the peroration of his July 1 speech on immigration, Emma Lazarus "imagined what it could mean."
Actually, the French sculptor Bartholdi was at work on the Statue of Liberty before Lazarus published her famous
"give me your tired" poem in 1883. (The statue was assembled in New York Harbor two years later and
dedicated in 1886.) The speech itself was similarly misleading.
University of Nevada at Las Vegas, July 9, 2010.
Obama's
Economic Unreality. Sadly, with President Obama, each day is crazier than the previous one.
His latest economic speeches border on the surreal. I just can't quite figure out who he thinks his
audience is because so much of what he says doesn't square with reality. In a speech Friday [7/9/2010] in
Las Vegas, Obama painted quite a rosy portrait of his economic record to date — at least rosy
compared with what we've all experienced with our five senses. ... [It's like] a student telling a math
teacher that three minus two equals four.
Free Market Obama.
Now he tells us. He's been reading Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman instead of playing golf and shooting
hoops, as reported by the press. While no one was looking, he's been downloading podcasts of the Glenn Beck
show and checking out heritage.org on his iPad. He's a born-again free-marketer, supply-sider, and
friend of business large and small. That's the freely translated gist of President Obama's July 9
speech at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Holland, Michigan, July 15, 2010.
He
came, he saw, he insulted. In the latest stop on his "Recovery Summer" tour, rock star President
Barack Obama landed in Holland, Michigan Thursday [7/15/2010], insulted its congressman, handed American
stimulus dollars to a Korean corporation, and proclaimed Obamanomics a success even as Michigan has lost
94,000 jobs since his Recovery Act was enacted. ... Obama said his benevolence would create 300 jobs in
Holland — but that's $500,000 per job. At least it's a bargain compared to the $1.25 million
per job Obama spent on two solar companies in Arizona over the July 4 weekend.
Obama Speech:
Avoiding Confrontation? Does President Barack Obama have a problem with direct confrontation?
The president swooped into Holland, Mich., to break ground on the last of nine advanced automotive battery plants
funded by the stimulus plan, a $300 million Compact Power plant owned by the South Korean company LG Chem
and financed in part with $150 million of federal dollars.
Iftar dinner at the White House, August 13, 2010.
Islam Means the End of Religious Freedom.
At an Iftar dinner in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama proclaimed that he supports the building of the
Ground Zero mosque as part of his "unshakable commitment to religious freedom". Which of course sounds
very noble and good, until you ask a single question, Where is the religious freedom in the Muslim world?
Islam Means the End of Religious Freedom.
Obama concluded his remarks by saying: "
And we can only achieve "liberty and justice for all" if
we live by that one rule at the heart of every great religion, including Islam — that we do unto
others as we would have them do unto us." But that is not the rule at the heart of Islam. And
this is not the first time that he has tried to sell that particular lie.
How
stupid does Obama think we are? Pretty stupid. Already getting trounced in the polls, Democrats
are reeling over the President's decision to side with the Muslim Brotherhood over the American people by endorsing
the Ground Zero mosque. So he's trying to close Pandora's Box.
Let the backpedaling begin!
Under Fire, Obama
Clarifies Support for Ground Zero Mosque. President Obama on Saturday [8/14/2010] sought to clarify
his comments supporting the building of a mosque near ground zero that have ignited a political firestorm ahead
of a difficult election season for Democrats.
No, Mr. President — We're not traumatized.
Penetrating commentary on President Obama's remarks last night on Islam, 9/11, and Ground Zero is already
available. The lawyers at Powerline dissect Obama's high-flown rhetoric...
An Awful President, A Worse Theologian.
[Scroll down] This is revealing: the ultimate destination of multiculturalism is platitudinous stupidity.
All religions, Obama tells us, are really the same, and can be summed up in the Golden Rule. Actually,
there is no religion that can be reduced to the Golden Rule, least of all Islam. Islam does not enjoin
believers to do unto infidels as you would have infidels do unto you. On the contrary! Islam tells
its followers to subdue infidels; to kill them; to, at best, reduce them to dhimmitude. The Golden Rule
is antithetical to Islam.
Two days later...
Obama's "forceful" support of Ground Zero Mosque
already changing. After 19 long months, there is nothing new under the sun about Barack Hussein
Obama. His repeated, un-American attacks on America have never changed. Many knew before he "forcefully",
"strongly" endorsed the Ground Zero Mosque that he seemed to much prefer the Islamic way to the Christian one.
Comical to see him trying to backpedal his way out of the forceful endorsement of the Mosque from yet another
vacation. His constant use of "Let me be clear" has never been more clear.
Obama's
Clintonian speech pulls rug from under mosque supporters. When President Obama used the occasion
of the White House Ramadan iftar dinner to announce his support for the Ground Zero mosque, some of his partisans
rushed to praise what they viewed as a ringing endorsement of the controversial project. ... The problem was,
just hours after the speech, Obama began to back away from his clarion call. I wasn't defending the
mosque project, he explained. I was just defending the right of Muslims to build "a place of worship
and a community center" on private property in Lower Manhattan.
Speech on mosque was Obama's call.
President Barack Obama's decision to make public comments Friday that further stoked an already brewing controversy
over the construction of a mosque near ground zero was "purely" his own, an administration official said Saturday
[8/14/2010].
Obama mosque
retreat. President Obama carefully backpedaled on his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero,
saying yesterday that he was merely defending the legal right to religious freedom — but not giving the
project his stamp of approval.
A Dim Bulb in the
Oval Office? 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. ... President 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 President 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?
Obama's Mosque
Remarks Reverberate. President Barack Obama's weekend remarks supporting the right to build a
mosque near Ground Zero reverberated across the country, nationalizing a debate over the New York City project.
A number of Republicans on Sunday [8/15/2010] folded the president's remarks into their election-year narrative
that Mr. Obama, a former constitutional scholar, is out of touch with the American citizenry.
Obama
backtracks over Ground Zero mosque. Barack Obama has backtracked over his support for plans to
build a mosque near Ground Zero. The U.S. President was hit by a furious backlash from victims of the
September 11 terrorist attacks after he backed the highly controversial plans in a speech on Friday.
Obama backtracks on ground zero mosque controversy.
Weighing his words carefully on a fiery political issue, President Barack Obama said Saturday that Muslims have
the right to build a mosque near New York's ground zero, but he did not say whether he believes it is a good
idea to do so. Obama commented during a trip to Florida, where he expanded on a Friday night White House
speech asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
Obama Fumbles
Mosque Question. 'Let me be clear," Pres. Barack Obama said at Friday night's
iftar dinner
at the White House before making what nearly everyone took to be a deeply felt endorsement of the Ground Zero
mosque. ... "As a citizen, and as president," Obama said, "I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice
their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a
community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."
Our Clueless Professor.
Have we ever had a president so disconnected from the heart of America? On Friday night, at a White House
iftar, the breaking of the Ramadan fast, Obama strode directly into the blazing controversy over whether a
mosque should be built two blocks from Ground Zero.
The
President Distorts Arguments on Ground Zero Mosque. In the process of his unfolding explanations,
the president seemed to be arguing with phantoms, or with straw men. None of the prominent critics of
Cordoba House deny that Muslims deserve the same freedom as other religious groups to build houses of worship
to serve their adherents. But no faith community can use religious liberty as an excuse to build
whatever they want wherever they want it.
The
Incredible, Sinking Obama. President Obama's high-handedness is causing the public to backhand him
in recent polls. A national uproar has followed the president's declaration last Friday that he supports
a Muslim group's right to build a mosque and a $100-million community center two blocks from Ground Zero, where
about 2,600 civilians died in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.
Obama's
flimflammery in the name of faith. Barack Obama, like all flimflam men, is a master of words.
But unlike the best of the flimflam men, he can't keep his stories straight.
President
Obama's Mosquerade. At a Ramadan Iftar dinner at the White House, the president says building a
mosque near Ground Zero is just a real estate deal. Of course, 9/11 was just a "man-caused disaster."
So is his presidency.
Obama puts himself into a terrible rhetorical
tangle. [Scroll down] If Muslims show signs of not being harmless by, say, the deliberately
provocative act of building a mosque at or near the site of the World Trade Center, destroyed by Islamic terrorists
on September 11, 2010, you either stop them (preferably without any public fanfare) or, if you are unable or
unwilling to do that, pretend it is no big deal. The last thing you want to do is to be seen as taking
the side of the provocateurs against the feelings of ordinary, non-Muslim Americans, which must be why
President Obama attempted to backtrack.
The
Cynical Brilliance of Imam Rauf. In the elite modern Western mind, Cordoba has been transmogrified
into a mythical Lala Land of interfaith tolerance. To invoke the city is to prove one's ecumenical credentials.
Just ask our president, who, in his June 2009 Cairo speech, fantastically claimed that the Muslim city taught us
tolerance while Christians were launching the Inquisition (1478) — quite a feat two and a half centuries
after most of the Muslims of Cordoba had fled, converted, or been cleansed during the city's fall (1236) to the
Christian forces of the Reconquista. But no matter, we got the president's drift about who was supposedly
tolerant and who was not.
Obama's Point of No Return.
When historians come to select the moment when Obama went over the edge of the world, I think they'll find the
great Iftar mosque speech of August 13, 2010 hard to beat. During a White House dinner celebrating
Ramadan the president found it appropriate to come out in favor of religious freedom. Not in support of
Christians being attacked by janjaweed gunmen, or Bahais tormented by Iranian mullahs, or Jews being stalked
by assassins, or even American citizens being told that they cannot pray in public, but in favor of a shadowy
foreign foundation with suspicious financing and disturbing Jihadi connections that wishes to build some kind
of victory monument congruent to the site of the 9/11 massacre.
Just How Smart Is Obama?
[Scroll down] Does it take a genius to figure out that coming down on the unpopular side of the issue,
contrary to the will of nearly 70 percent of the American people, would be a major political blunder,
particularly with the midterm elections just around the corner? Liberal pundits heaped praise on the
president for his courage and steadfast adherence to principle. Why, then, did he hastily backtrack the
very next day?
Critics say Obama's message is
becoming 'incoherent'. President Obama's comments on a plan to build an Islamic center in the shadow of ground zero are
not only giving opponents an opportunity to attack him but also reveal a messaging problem from the White House,
a communications expert said.
Obama is
Making Everybody Angry. It's almost as if President Obama's agenda includes provoking anger at
himself. Taking opposite sides over a two-day span, Obama first indicated opposition to the building of
a mosque on the edge of Manhattan's Ground Zero, and the next day opposed the idea. After voicing his
support Friday night, he reversed himself after his remarks sparked a firestorm of criticism, saying that he
was merely noting that the Mosqueteers had a right to build there.
The Separation of Islamophilia
from State. By modern secularist standards, Barack Obama's boosterism for Islam violates the
"separation between Church and state." Had George W. Bush held a rosary and modest fish dinner at
the White House to mark the beginning of Lent, the ACLU left would have freaked out. But these same
secularists didn't mind Barack's "Iftar dinner" last Friday night.
Another Obama White House Lie About Islam.
In his remarks at the iftar observance, Obama claimed that the "first" iftar dinner in the White House was hosted
by Thomas Jefferson. ... What tosh. There has never been a tradition of iftar dinners at the White House,
sporadic or otherwise, until after the year 1992. Jefferson's dinner was no iftar dinner and no other
president until Bill Clinton even hosted one.
Obama doesn't
understand his country. In the iftar dinner speech, Mr. Obama presumes to know what "our Founders
understood," as relating to religious freedom. Mr. Obama cites Thomas Jefferson and quotes the Virginia
Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, in part that "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to
maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." I wonder if Mr. Obama knows the context of the Virginia
Act and Thomas Jefferson's reasoning? The act prohibits the commonwealth of Virginia from compelling
attendance at religious worship and financial support of religion. Significantly, in making his
argument, Jefferson does not appeal to vague principles of "religious freedom" and "our values," as Mr. Obama
does.
More
about the proposed Ground Zero mosque.
Oval office speech, August 31, 2010.
Fact-checking
Obama's Iraq speech. A look at some of the statements President Obama made in his Oval Office
speech and how they compare with the facts.
Obama
Has Learned Nothing About Being Commander in Chief. President Obama's biggest problem as Commander
in Chief is that he is not a leader. ... There was not a single moment in his speech where he spoke to the
troops about their mission. He spoke about them in reverent tones, but he never articulated what we
were fighting and why it really mattered. There is a reason for that, he has absolutely no rapport
with them, he doesn't understand them, and he has absolutely no clue how to lead them.
After the Speech: Obama's Commitment to Victory
Questioned. President Obama's prime-time speech to the nation announcing the end of combat
operations in Iraq is getting generally poor reviews from Republicans and conservatives, not only for what
Obama said, but for what he did not say.
A grim speech for a grim war.
It was shocking how little awe there was. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday night "that the American
combat mission in Iraq has ended" in a grim little speech from the Oval Office. He spoke for 18 minutes
and managed to avoid asking — let alone answering — any essential questions about the
war such as: Did it make America safer, and was it really worth it?
A Limp and Boring Speech.
President Obama's speech from the oval office, only the second of his presidency, was surprisingly limp.
With three momentous subjects to cover — Iraq, Afghanistan, and the U.S. economy — Obama
struggled to say anything new or interesting. It isn't just that the soaring rhetoric of 2008 has disappeared;
Obama is now affirmatively boring.
Obama's Speech.
Yes, there were some fine parts. How could there not be? But I really disliked it. Maybe I'm
letting other factors poison my take, and I should probably sleep on it before rendering final judgment.
But here are a few things that really stuck in my craw.
The Bankruptcy of Barack. Obama
delivered a speech about a war that he exploited for political advantage during the election, and ignored
the rest of the time. A war that he tried to sabotage as a Senator, and neglected once in the White
House. Where Bush conducted constant conferences with commanders in the field, Obama has let the
clashing egos of former Clinton Administration staffers, and a few imported radicals, determine how the war
will be conducted.
The President's Pivot
and Divot. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended not with a bang but with a whimper. One would
think a seven-and-a-half-year war deserves more than a seventeen-and-a-half-minute speech, and Obama couldn't
even feign interest or stay on topic for that brief period of time on Tuesday. He was clearly phoning
it in, itching to "turn the page" back to himself.
Obama's 'Come Home
America' Speech. Imagine if after World War II, America had left Europe in the face of the
aggressive Soviet threat. What would Asia look like now if, following the Korean War, the U.S. had set a
quick date for withdrawal from the peninsula? As much as he may wish, Mr. Obama cannot ignore Iraq or
withdraw prematurely from Afghanistan. He has ownership of both wars; it's part of his job description.
He will share in the wars' success or be blamed if they are lost.
The Bankruptcy of Barack. Obama
delivered a speech about a war that he exploited for political advantage during the election, and ignored the
rest of the time. A war that he tried to sabotage as a Senator, and neglected once in the White House.
Where's the magic gone?
The reviews on Barack Obama's Iraq speech on Tuesday night, August 31, 2010 are in and they are almost
all unkind.
Obama's victory lap. President
Barack Obama is like a guy who sneaks onto a marathon race course a mile or so from the finish line and pretends
he ran the whole thing. In his speech Tuesday night commemorating the return to the United States of the
last American combat brigade in Iraq, Mr. Obama patted himself lustily on the back for not screwing up a
self-imposed timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces that was made possible by the policies of President
George W. Bush.
Obama's
shrinking presidency. One of the unintended results of the redecoration of the Oval Office was
the downsizing of Barack Obama. In last week's prime-time address to the nation, the president sat behind
a massive and capaciously empty desk, looking somehow smaller than he ever has — a man physically
reduced by sinking polls, a lousy economy and the prospect that his party might lose control of Congress.
News conference, September 10, 2010.
Obama speaks out for
Muslims. In a press conference designed to defend his economic policies, President Obama waded
deeper into religious tensions gripping the nation by speaking out forcefully in defense of religious pluralism.
Speaking a day before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, Obama made a passionate plea to Americans to
differentiate between terrorists and Muslims.
Obama
says he leans 'heavily' on his Christian faith. President Obama said he "relies heavily" on his
Christian faith as president during a press conference on Friday. ... Obama invoked his religion in response
to a question about several recent national controversies about Islam.
The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Guilty.
These days, Barack Obama would rather talk about his birth certificate than use the word "stimulus."
At the press conference that wouldn't end last week, Obama was asked if his latest and greatest spending
proposal amounted to a second stimulus. He answered, "There is no doubt that everything we've been
trying to do is designed to stimulate growth and additional jobs in the economy," but adamantly avoided
the dreaded s-word.
Obama Unplugged — and
Unintelligible. For starters, it is hard to be "thoughtful" when you are touchy and prone to
regurgitating leftist talking points. In fact, Obama's Friday presser was at times rather incoherent —
he didn't change Washington, it's the GOP's fault, the stimulus isn't really a stimulus but it is stimulating,
and so forth. ... At this point, all but the die-hard Obama supporters must be chagrined to find that the only
straight answer he can give is on the Ground Zero mosque. (He is fine with it.)
Talker-in-Chief Barack Obama. At
Friday's East Room Q&A, President Obama weighed in on the Manhattan imam's plan to build a mosque at Ground
Zero (an "inalienable right") and the Florida preacher who had threatened to burn the Koran ("that's a problem").
It was his first press conference since May, which proves not that he doesn't like to talk but that he doesn't
like to talk to people who talk back. Barack Obama is America's first lecturer-in-chief.
Ruse Conference. The
president on Friday revealed the narrative for the Obama re-election campaign of 2012, and it shamelessly
rewrites history. The story goes like this: Bush hurled the global economy on a path toward
depression by cutting the taxes of millionaires. Obama then came to the rescue with his policies —
but the Republicans dug us into such a hole that it's taking even longer to dig out. The trouble with
this myth is that even Democrats running for re-election are shunning it.
Pentagon memorial, September 11, 2010.
Obama Gives Al Qaeda
a Pass. Please tell me this nightmare will be over soon. What kind of person in this world
would characterize ruthless, evil, filthy, and beheading sadists as "a sorry band of men?" The President
of the United States in a memorial address at the Pentagon on Saturday 9/11, that's who.
Obama on 9/11: Get Over It.
Obama's remarks on 9/11 were about what you would expect from a president who has ridiculed his countrymen for
overreacting to the most lethal terrorist attack on our soil and who can't manage to utter the worlds "Islamic
fundamentalists" or "jihadists." Really, let's not dwell on the bad stuff, he tells us.
Barack
Obama seeks peace with Islam on anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks. The US president said at a memorial
service at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed: "As Americans, we will not and never will be
at war with Islam. It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was Al-Qaeda, a
sorry band of men which perverts religion."
The United Nations, September 23, 2010.
Obama
Addresses the U.N. and Blames...Wall Street?! President Barack Obama told the United Nations General
Assembly on Thursday [9/23/2010] that America's financial crisis was the reason their economies were suffering
and promised to not rest until people around the globe prosper.
Just like he promised not to raise taxes...
Obama
vows to preserve open Internet. During his address to the United Nations General Assembly on
Thursday [9/23/2010], President Obama promised the United States would continue to support a "free and open Internet"
and would call out nations that censor content.
Obama 'Pontificus Magnus' Descends Upon UN.
Before Obama took the floor, Ban Ki-Moon continued to attempt to justify his salary and perks against the backdrop
of a laugh track in my head when he issued the prime directive: "Let us remember, the world still looks to
the United Nations for moral and political leadership." And with that, Pontificus Magnus appeared, brushing
aside the 15-minute speech limit Fidel Castro style, and doubling his time allowance.
President Barack Obama Coddles International
Outlaws At the United Nations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that "Normal
practices of diplomacy ... are of no possible use in dealing with international outlaws." Rather than
listen to FDR's advice, President Barack Obama squandered yet another opportunity to confront today's
international outlaws during his annual visit to the United Nations. Instead, Obama delivered
meaningless platitudes to the United Nations General Assembly during his speech on September 23,
2010 — just like he did last year.
Post-election news conference, November 3, 2010.
The Observer at His Own
Funeral. At his post-defeat press conference, Barack Obama worked hard to project an air of
somber reflection, even as his remarks revealed that he had learned nothing from the defeat. Amidst the
practiced pauses and detached narration of the crash came a litany of excuses, evasions, and arrogant denials.
President's
presser shows he's in serious denial. Wittier minds than mine have weighed in on the
President's post-election press conference, Jeff Dunetz and Victor Davis Hanson to name two.
But it was clear from the first moments that it was going to be a dismal experience for all involved.
The President began by thanking Pelosi and Reid for their "extraordinary leadership" these past twenty-one
months. On what planet does this man reside?
The President's
Presser Proves He Doesn't Have a CLUE. On Election Day the American People sent Barack Obama a
message, unfortunately he wasn't listening. During his pres conference yesterday, he looked contrite
(actually he looked as if he was passing a kidney stone), clearly he indicated either he didn't hear, didn't
have a clue, or didn't care what the voters were trying to tell him.
Obama Doesn't Get It. President
Obama came close, but he still just cannot admit that his radical policies and their effects on the economy
are the cause of his devastating political rebuke. For most of his press conference, an oddly depressed
Obama voted present, as he all but said that the problems are mostly ours, not his — or at least
not his agenda but perhaps an occasional inadequate communication.
What I Saw at the
Obama Press Conference. Watching the president speak truly is dispiriting, but I managed to do
so, gentle reader, to spare you the agony. "No one party can dictate where we go from here." Unlike
the last two years?
Skinning
The Carbon Cat With EPA. It's been said that a socialist thrown out the window will come back through
the front door as an environmentalist. This reminds us of something we noticed in the president's day-after
concession speech. Though acknowledging the cap-and-trade law is no longer a legislative priority, Obama
also said he's not giving up on the idea of restricting Americans' output of carbon dioxide.
Obama Doesn't Rule Out
Using EPA Regulations to Cap Carbon Emissions. In a White House press conference Wednesday, President
Barack Obama did not rule out using regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to cap carbon emissions
in the United States without an act of Congress. Meanwhile, on October 25, the EPA announced new regulations
to limit "greenhouse gas" emissions by heavy-duty trucks and buses.
Did
someone mention the EPA?
Before
Obama's fall. In his post-defeat press conference, Obama said people are frustrated by the pace
of the economic recovery. True enough. But Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics notes that the unemployment
rate in many electoral models would have only accounted for a Democratic loss of 20-30 seats. In 1982, when
the unemployment rate was higher than today, Ronald Reagan lost 26 House seats.
Obama
jumps on natural gas bandwagon. A remark by President Obama at his postelection news conference
Wednesday should send Iowa's wind energy advocates into full alert. When asked about environmental issues,
the President suddenly started talking up natural gas, saying there are "terrific natural gas resources" in the
United States.
Obama Doesn't Seek Compromise; Neither Should We.
I take no great pleasure in having been correct in predicting Barack Obama's reaction to his Tuesday "shellacking."
To borrow his terminology, he is
wired not to hear the American people's opposition to his radical agenda,
as painfully demonstrated in his postelection news conference. Unhappily, Obama's answers showed even deeper
intransigence than I had thought he would be willing to reveal. He is every bit as committed to his
destructive agenda as he was Nov. 1 and, despite his claims, is not looking for "common ground."
Top Democrats in
Denial. In a press conference that was humble in tone but myopic in substance, Obama reiterated
again and again that he got all of the policies right and the American people who disagreed hadn't studied the
issues closely enough. It only "felt" like the government was getting too "intrusive," Obama explained.
For Obama, There Is
No Other Truth. For whatever reason, President Obama, like the cultists, seems incapable of even
entertaining the idea that his policies might be incorrect, even when faced with the evidence of our stagnant
economy and soaring deficit. In fact, the closest the president comes to admitting error is in accepting
responsibility for not getting the message of his success out clearly enough.
Press conference, December 7, 2010.
Obamanomics Takes a
Holiday. In accepting the deal to cut payroll and business taxes and extend all of the Bush-era
tax rates through 2012, Mr. Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is
acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment
and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus.
Get that Man a
Teleprompter! 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. ... 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.
He Has Met the Enemy, and They
Are Him. 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. ... Notoriously thin-skinned and accustomed to worshipful treatment by those around him (including the
press), Obama is now clearly disquieted. On some deep level, Obama must understand that, at this moment
at least, his presidency is coming apart.
Obama At War. To say the least, it was
a remarkable performance — and very revealing. In both his opening statement and answers to the
handful of questions my colleague posed, the President almost seemed to be back on the campaign trail where he
was before the Republican sweep November 2nd — or already on the trail for 2012. Partisan rhetoric
flew like shrapnel, with Mr. Obama saying that extending the "Bush tax cuts" for higher income Americans "seems to
be their [Republicans'] central economic doctrine" and "This is their holy grail."
The anger of
Barack Obama. President Obama, long criticized by many in his own party for lacking appropriate
passion, delivered a blunt and confrontational message to his liberal critics during a press conference today.
Faced with increasing criticism from liberals over his decision to ompromise with Republicans on a two-year
extension of the Bush tax cuts, Obama openly chastised the party's base — warning them of being
"sanctimonious" and reminding them that "this country was founded on compromise".
Obama
not so accurate on Social Security, Medicare histories. We were wondering if any historian types
would bring this up. In defending the need for compromise the other day, President Obama mangled the
legislative histories of Social Security and Medicare.
The Incredible
Shrinking President. [Scroll down] Here's the thing: the dynamics of hostage-taking
always involve the threat of harm to the hostage, Mr. President. This means that you would always cave
in to their demands if you cared enough for the hostage. Worse, the comment ignores the fact that until
Ted Kennedy died, Obama's party controlled Congress with a filibuster-proof majority, and the White House
could have steamrolled through any tax provision it wanted. The decision to let the tax issue ride
suddenly put them in an unfavorable bargaining position — though certainly it didn't rise to
"hostage taking." It's called losing the hearts and minds of the voters.
Obama
Turns White House Presser Over to Bill Clinton. The apparent goal: Enlisting Bubba to help
sell the bipartisan tax deal to hesitant Democrats. The practical result: An avalanche of major
media and online buzz over the spectacle of former President Bill Clinton commandeering a White House press
briefing after the current Oval Office occupant surrendered the microphone, and
left the room.
The Editor says...
Just imagine for a moment that in the year 2015, President Palin calls a news conference, introduces
former President George W. Bush, and then runs out of the room, leaving Mr. Bush to answer
all the tough questions. The press would immediately call it the beginning of Bush's third
term. Fortunately for Mr. Obama, today's reporters are
all
very helpful.
Did Obama just quit? After
watching the following, I think it's a legitimate question. This afternoon Obama met with Bill Clinton.
Afterward he held his third press conference this week, this time with Clinton by his side. Then
this happened...
Obama
abdicates to Bill Clinton, lunacy. The surreal week in Washington was brought to a fitting
climax on Friday when Barack Obama handed the presidency over to Bill Clinton for 20 minutes. "I'm
going to take off," he said. ... And take off the president did. It wasn't an official, unofficial or
illicit transfer of power in any way, of course. But it somehow felt like it. What happened here
has, to my knowledge, never happened. When the president finishes speaking, whenever the president
finishes speaking, the event ends. Period. Not any longer.
Help Me Bubba-Wan, You're My
Only Hope. Did Barack Obama just cede the presidency to Bill Clinton? ... Here's what I saw.
I saw a current president who has never looked less interested in doing his job. I also saw a former
president who never lost interest in doing that job. Obama's demeanor and body language suggested that
he'd rather be anywhere but where he was, and then he followed through and actually bolted for the door.
Should
We Gloat Over Obama's Childish Behavior? 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.
Pelosi and the
Hostage Fakers. President Obama defended his bipartisan tax deal this week by claiming that
Republicans were political "hostage takers" who wouldn't budge, but it looks like he fingered the wrong
suspects. The real kidnappers are Speaker Nancy Pelosi's House Democrats, and the main hostage they
are taking is none other than Mr. Obama. Republicans should not pay the ransom.
Obama's
Stunt-Double Presidency. Late for a Christmas party, the president enlists the Man from Hope to
explain the change we need to make. When the going gets tough, those over their heads send for the
cavalry.
The
second banana at the White House. The most powerful man in the world revealed himself unable to
assert the authority of either himself or his office. His press aide stood helplessly at the edge of the
scene, allowing Bubba to drone on about taxes, the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, credit markets,
economic theory, nuclear weapons, bipartisanship and the weather. ... The ineptitude of the Obama White House,
revealed piece by piece over the months, was at last writ large enough for all to see. Could anyone
imagine Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan allowing a former president to come into his house and take over a
press conference?
The Meme That Would
Not Die. They've said this about Obama for years, that he's some sort of Great Compromiser, who
would bridge the gaps between Left and Right, between Black and White, and all the other chasms of American
political and social life — like... I dunno, like some miraculous kind of spackling paste. ... The
same Obama who, when faced for the first time by real opposition, put on the most petty and petulant press
conference performance in presidential history. The same Obama who, just days later, walked out on
another briefing, blaming his wife.
The Never-Ending Christmas Party. We
got a taste of the real Barack Obama at the end of last year, when he handed a high-pressure press conference
off to an astonished Bill Clinton, and raced off to attend a Christmas party. Everything he has done
since then is consistent with the appalling lack of leadership he demonstrated in that moment. Obama
never came back from his Christmas party.
Tucson, Arizona, January 12, 2011
I didn't hear this speech, nor would I care to listen to it now. But from what I heard, it was President
Obama's best speech yet. (Too bad he still relies on a teleprompter for every word.) In this
case, it was the crowd that ruined the speech, turning what should have been a somber and dignified
memorial into
Wellstone III.
Rev. Obama's Revival Meeting.
To the untrained eye, the University of Arizona ceremony appeared to be a well-meaning memorial service visited
by a somber president attempting to heal the nation. However, to an educated onlooker, the event closely
resembled a tent revival run by a hypster whose pious pontificating was more about furthering a political agenda
than consoling the aggrieved. Was I the only one who recognized that when Obama entered the packed stadium,
all that was missing was a donkey and palm branches?
Prez
perfect — but the crowd was appalling. The tone of the event came to resemble a pep rally, no matter the
monstrous fact of the six dead and the many injured. ... There's been a great deal of talk in the wake of the massacre
about the need for a national conversation about civility. Maybe what we need is a national conversation about
elementary manners.
Hume
on Obama Arizona speech: parts 'most peculiar'. "I just wanted to add, I think the president
prepared this speech in the expectation that this would be indeed a memorial service," Hume said. "I think it
ended up being nothing of the kind. This was much more of a pep rally and perhaps that is precisely what the
people of Tucson and the people of this region needed and wanted.
Some question pep rally
atmosphere at Obama speech. Some have wondered whether it was a scripted political event, but White
House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday [1/13/2011] he and other aides didn't expect Obama's speech to receive
as much applause as it did.
Was Obama's Speech His Finest Hour?
The suggestion by Garry Wills in "Obama's Finest Hour" that the speech compares favorably with Lincoln's Gettysburg and
Second Inaugural Addresses strikes me as a tad excessive, but Obama gave a beautiful speech at a critical moment and
lifted both the country and his own presidency. Everything a speech can do, it did. In some sense, it was a
sermon to himself, since he bears as much blame (and perhaps more) as anyone for the divisive rhetoric that has marked
the first two years of his presidency.
Critics Assail Cheering and T-Shirts at
Obama Tucson Speech. There has been relatively little criticism of the context of President Obama's
speech last night calling for civility in the wake of the Tucson tragedy — in fact, conservative blogger Ed Morrissey
called it perhaps "the finest moment of his presidency." But some are pointing to both the response of his audience
and the fact that t-shirts were handed out to cast the memorial as an inappropriately political event.
Was that a memorial service
or a pep rally? President Obama's speech was fine, as always. He read the teleprompter with eloquence
and did a fine chin in the air impersonation of Che Guevara, as usual. His words were appropriate for the most part
and he rose above the political fray by making a point of chiding people that were playing the blame game. My beef
is not with Obama this time. It is his mindless minions in the crowd that draws my ire. Apparently the crowd
was mainly composed of university students and from what I could gather they had already started tapping kegs for the wake.
A somber Memorial, Barack Obama style. Word this
morning indicates the idea for the tacky t-shirts originated with University of Arizona brass. Whether astro-turfed or
university initiated, Obama basked in it. Obama entered the stadium to deafening applause. Was it, too, orchestrated
by university brass? Wearing their most appropriate in-sympathy countenance, both Obamas walked in to the McKate Memorial
Center on the University of Arizona campus Wednesday in condolence mode. During the speech that media pundits forecast
would lead to a new, more centrist president, incredibly the audience screamed out to Obama, "We love you!" There were
resounding cheers for unpopular Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Popular Governor Jan Brewer was booed.
Obama's Tucson
degradation. President Obama is cynically exploiting the tragic shooting in Tucson for
political gain. His memorial address Wednesday night was a surreal spectacle in narcissistic
self-congratulation. ... Instead of being a solemn and serious event, the memorial resembled a pro-Obama
pep rally. The president of Arizona University praised Mr. Obama for his "visionary" and "courageous"
leadership. Throughout the memorial and Mr. Obama's speech, students regularly cheered, clapped,
whistled and hollered.
White House Says It Wasn't
Responsible for Picking Rowdy Basketball Arena. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said
Thursday [1/13/2011] that the White House was not responsible for choosing a basketball arena, as opposed to
a church or a smaller auditorium that might be more conducive to a solemn event, for Wednesday's night's
memorial service in Tucson, Ariz. The McKale Memorial Center, an athletics facility at the University
of Arizona, was packed with a reported 14,000 people, who repeatedly broke out in cheers and screams of a
sort not ordinarily associated with a memorial service.
Obama
showed grace and wisdom in Tucson. President Obama is often criticized in this space, so we think
it only fair to point it out when he does something praiseworthy. In his address Wednesday evening in Tucson
commemorating the senseless slaying of six people, including a federal judge, and the attempted assassination of
Rep. Gabbie Giffords, D-Ariz., Obama performed admirably.
Where Will Obama Go From Tucson? President
Obama is receiving uniform praise for his memorial remarks in Tucson, Ariz. Even conservatives are saying he hit
the right notes, substantively and tonally. I agree, with a few qualifiers and gentle cautions.
Mournapalooza! It's beyond me
why family members of the victims didn't walk out in justifiable indignation. While the commentator
class continues to celebrate the greatness of Obama's speech, the entire galling mess is an excellent
reminder ... about how we got stuck with this guy in the first place.
Theme of "Together We Thrive" T-shirt came
from Obama's Organizing for America. University of Arizona brass did not originate the "Together
We Thrive" T-shirt. They merely recycled it for Obama — and recycled it in time for what should have
been a dignified Memorial for the dead. If you were a mourner who took home a "Together We Thrive"
T-shirt have a look at the bottom of your shirt. "Rocking America and Rocking the Vote" is a common
theme of the DNC, and it's right there on your Memorial T-shirt memento. Welcome to the era of Obama,
where cheering and standing ovations, for the first time in history, became part of the Requiem for the Dead.
Wellstone Memorial
Redux. I suppose the excuse du jour will be that these weren't stage directions, just merely the
assumption that the president would have to pause while the expected hosannas rained down upon him. But
presumably, if you put "APPLAUSE" into the text on a Jumbotron, a sufficient number of people in the audience
will do just that. And as always during solemn memorial services, t-shirts with text printed in an
all-caps avant-garde typeface were provided to all attendees.
If White House Was Surprised by Applause, Why Did They Ask For It On
Jumbotron? On Thursday [1/13/2011], White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that they
were surprised by the applause at the
memorial pep rally on Wednesday for the victims of
the Tucson shootings.
30 year-old
Chicagoan Wrote Tucson Speech. In a Friday [1/17/2011] article I had speculated that chief
Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau had penned Obama's over-praised Tucson oration, but it turns out that Obama
elevated heretofore unknown Cody Keenan from the "eulogy and commencement beat" for his moment in the Arizona
sun. In an uncommonly frank moment Wednesday night, while flying back from Tucson on Air Force One,
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told a Chicago Tribune reporter and others that Keenan had been
the speechwriter. By Thursday morning, Gibbs was insisting that "Obama had wielded the heavier pen."
The Editor says...
Wouldn't it be great to have a polygraph examiner interview President Obama about the works that he has
allegedly written? Wouldn't it be refreshing to have a reporter ask Mr. Obama to recite a speech he has
given, right after the speech is concluded? My guess is that he would not be able to remember even one
complete sentence, because (I believe) someone else writes all his speeches.
Obama Is America's
First Post-Responsibility President. The concert hall promoters had done their pre-production
work well. Souvenir T-shirts bedecked the chairs, imprinted with the song title of one of Obama's
lesser-known numbers from his blockbuster year of 2008. The screaming fans were all in place.
At last, He appeared and performed a fresh new rap, a sparkling stew of platitudinous poppycock about not
disappointing the dreams of a child. His fans shrieked and applauded, their ebullience trampling the
dignity of the mourners among them.
Obama's Tucson
degradation: President Obama is cynically exploiting the tragic shooting in Tucson for
political gain. His memorial address Wednesday night was a surreal spectacle in narcissistic
self-congratulation. It dishonored the victims, those who were murdered and maimed by Jared Lee
Loughner, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Democrat. Instead of being a solemn and serious
event, the memorial resembled a pro-Obama pep rally. The president of Arizona University praised
Mr. Obama for his "visionary" and "courageous" leadership. Throughout the memorial and Mr. Obama's
speech, students regularly cheered, clapped, whistled and hollered. All the while, the president
basked in his newfound glory.
Together
in Chains and T-Shirts. On the premise that words have meanings, and in the spirit of vitriol,
eliminationationism, toxicity, and incivility, I offer here an inflammatory, abrasive, and indecorous
critique of the latest bucket of double-talking swill to be dumped on America by the White House. On
Wednesday, January 12th, President Barack Obama delivered a "eulogy" that magically but predictably morphed
into a campaign speech before some 14,000 people in a university sports arena.
A
Philosopher Reflects on the Giffords Shooting. The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords,
though a terrible tragedy, is not of historic significance. More significant is the efforts of the Left
to blame this on the Right, particularly the Tea Party movement. The absurdity of these attempts is
obvious, and many on the right have done a very good job of blasting them. I will add a few things
that need to be said.
Tucson
and the Tea Party. Throughout social media, the left is really blowing the dog whistle on the Tea
Party movement, from blaming opportunist Sarah Palin, whose Tea Party credentials are dubious, to status updates,
comments, and this
San Francisco Chronicle editorial posted by the newspaper's editorial page editor
John Diaz (with whom I have worked) insinuating that anyone on America's right and everyone in the Tea Party
movement may somehow be responsible for the heinous crimes, which appear to have been the act of a lone
nihilist who mixes literacy,
We the Living, and the gold standard into his puny little mind and
comes up with mass murder.
The
Scarecrow of "Violent Language" and The Left's "Climate of Hate". There is a drive on now to
blame the Tea Party, "right-wingers," and any frank discussion of Obama and/or liberal politics for the
shooting. The liberal/left is scrambling to cast a pall of "responsibility" on the authors of any
"toxic rhetoric" alleged to have "encouraged" the shooter Jared Loughner to act out his fantasies and to
"take action" against a perceived enemy. The abrupt shift of focus from Jared Loughner the mad man
to the necessity of "civil" discourse could only be orchestrated by the left.
Driven To Tears.
It's being called a "national tragedy." That isn't at all what it is. A "tragedy" is the collapse
of a crowded building, an earthquake (like in Haiti), a school bus accident on a rain-slicked highway —
you get the idea. No, the shooting was a crime perpetrated by someone who fits the textbook definition
of criminally insane. I am sickened to my very core at the attempt to politicize this heinous act.
The
Hypocrisy Underlying Obama's Speech: Says Obama: "We recognize our own mortality. And
we are reminded that, in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or
power, or fame, but rather how well we have loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of
other people better." Would Obama give up even one ounce of
his power for the sake of people who
still want to live lives of liberty, without the nationalization of medicine, for example? Not a chance.
Wealth and power matter a great deal to people like the Obamas.
Obama's Mandela Moment.
However politically brilliant all of this was, it remains in some sense quite morbid, in a creepy sort
of never-waste-a-tragedy sense. The reaction to the killings almost instantly blotted out
information about and concern for the dead and maimed. Yet in this entire confusing media circus,
questions simply were not only not answered, but in fact never raised. In logical terms, how are
we to use a moment to reexamine political speech when the moment was explicitly declared not to be
connected with political speech at all? How can a president subtly distance himself from the
macabre and revolting behavior of his left-wing base while simultaneously editorializing on unhinged
invective in general?
Intermission for America.
A good speech is a dessert after the job is done and a great speech is an appetizer that inspires a
movement. Obama's speech was a snack. A confection without context. The treat that
he baked for himself and then offered to us.
The Truth About 'Investments' Hurts.
"Think and grow rich" might work for an individual envisioning business success, but it is delusional as
national economic policy. We can't wish or will the country to prosperity, or recover from a recession
caused by too much debt by incurring more debt. "Together We Thrive" was not only inappropriate as a
theme for a memorial to the victims of the Tucson shooter, it is the economic policy of a collective
society, not of a free one.
Media Excuse
Obama's Lies About Shootings. The liberal media have gone from blaming conservatives for the
Arizona shootings to praising President Obama's speech, in which he made the false claim that nobody knows
why the massacre happened. The media called the speech consoling and inspirational. "Obama's
speech likely bound for history books," said USA Today.
State of the Union speech, January 25, 2011
Anticipation:
The SOTU, Hope and
Change. Most of what Obama says Tuesday night [1/25/2011] will focus on ways he can be credited
with "creating and preserving" American jobs and stemming the tidal wave of home foreclosures. Predictably,
he will find ways to blame his predecessor for our current economic travail.
A Solution
at Obama's Fingertips. On Tuesday, the president will deliver his State of the Union message.
The conventional wisdom is that Barack Obama will continue his "move to the center." The quotation marks are
necessary because some people think he really is moving to the center, while others think he just wants to appear
like he is.
Barack Obama's State of the Union address could be a Big Government
disaster. While the British government has embarked on a large-scale austerity programme to
completely eliminate the nation's structural deficit by 2015, the Obama administration still remains
committed to further stimulus spending in the United States, clinging to the naïve and hopeless
belief that Big Government solutions are needed to get America's economy back on its feet.
O's overstimulating.
President Obama's State of the Union speech will outline a spending spree on "green" projects, education and
road-rebuilding, arguing the largesse will create jobs and boost the nation's competitiveness in the world
economy. Obama is proposing the spending hikes despite voters' election of a GOP House last November
that has vowed to be more frugal with public dollars.
Obama to speak
out of both sides of his mouth during SOTU. It should be an interesting State of the Union speech
on Tuesday night. We get to see the president of the United States pull off one of the great feats of
prestidigitation known; talking out of both sides of his mouth. Only a liberal can believe you can cut
spending and increase spending at the same time while reducing the deficit.
Will
Obama's State of the Union Rise Above the Cliches of a Stale Speech? Ever since Woodrow
Wilson invented the modern State of the Union Address by coming before a joint session of Congress in
1913, presidents have been struggling vainly to rise to the rhetorical occasion. The clichés
of this annual exercise somehow inspire even the most eloquent presidents to deal in buzz words and
hackneyed phrases.
The Left's Tucson Strategy: Stage
Two. The Left's attempt to link the Tucson shootings to angry rhetoric (not theirs, of course)
was stage one of a broader strategy — what both military men and political strategists refer to
as preparing the battlefield. The movement to feign nonpartisanship at the State of the Union address
by seating Republicans and Democrats together is another aspect of this stage. At the same time, the
Left is moving on to stage two — an effort to cash in on battlefield preparation by attacking
specific figures on the right and trying to shut down speech that the Left finds inconvenient.
My Advice to the POTUS about the SOTU.
Just stick to your script from those glorious campaign days in 2008. Remind everyone that everything
wrong in the world is the fault of the unexceptional and arrogant U.S.A. Remind everyone that it is
all Bush's fault. Remind everyone that you cannot get out of Iraq or Afghanistan fast enough.
Mention the troops. Everyone loves the troops. It is essential to throw in some reference to
global warming, to electric cars, to wind and solar energy, and to take a moment to remind everyone how
horrid Big Oil and Big Coal are. That's pretty much been your energy policy anyway.
Having Fun with the
State of the Union. It matters not what President Obama will say in his speech tonight.
Despite the exit of some old staffers and the entrance of some new ones, he is not changing, and any
presidential rhetoric that might imply a softening of left-wing ideology is a smokescreen.
What Obama Will
Not Say at the SOTU. The annual take-a-stab guessing game of what any president
will say at the State of the Union address is now on. If I might, I would like to play the other
side of that card. Here is what President Obama will
not say in his SOTU speech.
Reaction:
The Speech
Is Flat. Remember in 1957, when President Eisenhower said, "This is our generation's
Sputnik moment"? Of course you don't, even if you are old enough. Ike never said anything
of the sort, nor did he need to. When you're actually in such a "moment," you don't have to
announce it. So of course President Obama was talking nonsense when he said, in his State of
the Union Address last night, that "this is our generation's Sputnik moment."
Obama's
State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism. If imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama's second State of the Union address contained
enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince. I suppose
this is what one does when one not only has nothing new to say, but is required by custom and
Constitution to come forth with a report of some kind by a certain time and day.
Obama's
Plan Would Cost Another $20 Billion. President Obama's agenda spelled out in his
well-received State of the Union address would boost spending an additional $20 billion and lead to
higher taxes, according to a line-by-line analysis from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
The
Obama Presidency remains in a dangerous state of denial. If there is one big takeaway
from Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night, it is that this presidency remains in a
complete state of denial regarding the massive threat the United States faces with its budget
deficit. Obama's speech was a major lost opportunity to address the number one menace to
America's long-term prosperity — the towering mountain of debt.
All
Three Networks Agree: Obama Sounded 'Reaganesque' in State of the Union. During
coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, all three broadcast networks,
CBS, NBC and ABC, managed to compare the tone of the speech to that of Ronald Reagan. Reporters
and pundits uniformly praised the supposed optimism of Obama.
Obama's
State of the Union Speech: underwhelming with a lukewarm reception. So Barack Obama did not
match his performance at Tucson: this was a mediocre speech which did not even succeed in getting the
usual succession of standing ovations. Bottoms stayed firmly on chairs as he recited what he regarded
as the achievements of his spending programmes. (It reminded me more than anything of one of Gordon
Brown's interminable Budget speeches.)
Fact
Checking President Obama's State of the Union Address. ABC News takes a close look at some
of the claims in the president's second annual State of the Union address to the joint Houses of Congress.
State of the Union 2011: So much
for civility. The civility show didn't last long in Congress. Actually, it never
really started. Sure, Republicans and Democrats were able to beat their swords into photo-ops
to receive President Barack Obama's report on the state of the union. Democrats sat with
Republicans. Senators sat with House members. Bitterly divided delegations cloistered
in the leather-upholstered back benches.
Sen. Jim DeMint Reacts To State Of The
Union. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint was in attendance during President Barack
Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Sen. DeMint spoke to reporters after the
speech and said, "It's hard to take the president seriously." The Senator made the comment
while discussing how he feels that the president hasn't delivered on any of his promises.
The Great
Misallocators. President Obama on Tuesday night stressed U.S. economic competitiveness
as a new policy theme, accentuating the point he made last week by naming General Electric CEO Jeffrey
Immelt to lead his new jobs council. ... The pairing is also instructive because both Mr. Obama and
GE symbolize a major reason the U.S. has become less competitive — the misallocation of resources.
Obama's
class-conscious State of the Union. The fact that Obama used "working class" in the
State of the Union — and a check of the White House website shows that he has used it
many times as president — probably reflects the insularity of the president and his
speechwriters. They see it all the time in the New York Times, so everybody uses it, right?
A
disappointing State of the Union address. President Obama entered office promising to
be a different kind of politician — one who would speak honestly with the American people about the
hard choices they face and would help make those hard calls. Tuesday night's State of the Union
Address would have been the moment to make good on that promise. He disappointed.
The President's Speech:
An Irresponsible Performance. State of the Union speeches are typically unimpressive
and unmemorable. Last night's address by President Obama was in that tradition. While
his delivery was fine, the speech itself was mediocre — flat, undisciplined and unfocused,
at times pedestrian and banal, with goals seemingly pulled out of thin air (e.g., by 2035,
80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean-energy sources).
When Numbers Get
Unserious. "The challenge for the president," The New York Times reported before
last night's State of the Union address, "is to convince independents and centrists of his fiscal
responsibility without further alienating his base." President Obama tried to accomplish
this feat by calling the spending he favors an "investment" and portraying its opponents as
shortsighted misers. Obama depicts budget cutters as panicky passengers "trying to reduce
the weight of an overloaded aircraft by removing its engine," a metaphor that transforms frugality
into a vice and makes continuing to spend money we don't have seem like the only responsible course.
Education and the
State of the Union. In which Obama rests on his laurels and tells parents and 20-somethings
to get their acts together.
President
Obama, The Bankrupt Do Not Invest. In the State of the Union speech, President Obama
called for numerous "investments." Most Americans, especially fiscally conservative tea partiers,
fully realize "investments" translates from DemocratSpeak to English as "spending."
State
of the Union 2011: Barack Obama gets another F for world leadership. Tonight's remarkably
dull State of the Union address was dominated by President Obama's heavily flawed vision for reviving the
American economy, with plans that remain overwhelmingly mired in an outdated Big Government mentality, and
which spectacularly failed to include a coherent strategy for eliminating America's massive $14 trillion
debt. But the State of the Union is also traditionally a major opportunity to project US leadership
on the world stage, and once again Obama has fallen short.
Obama and the
Bodysnatchers. My pal, a frequent
Spectator contributor and a super smart guy,
Aram Bakshian, summed it up perfectly after Barack Obama's State of the Union address. "Obama
does not seem like a leader anymore," he said. It is sadly true. This was painfully
apparent in tonight's speech.
Krauthammer
Underwhelmed by Obama Vision in SOTU Address. If President Barack Obama was aiming for a
"this is our generation's Sputnik moment," he aimed too low according to Fox News Channel's Charles
Krauthammer. Immediately following Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, the syndicated
columnist and FNC regular explained he was underwhelmed by the speech.
Excuses, Excuses.
On January 25, the president delivered his State of the Union address. Speaking with vigor and
aplomb, the president demonstrated once again that he can look serious, act like a president, and read the
words that have been written for him. But so far, he has not demonstrated his ability to
be a
president, create jobs, or do anything else.
Was
that plagiarism in Obama's State of the Union? [Scroll down] A number of other passages coming
out of the presidential mouth struck a few listeners as sounding vaguely familiar. Talking of the
need for improved education, Obama in one prominent line said, "We are the first nation to be founded
for the sake of an idea." Hmm. Turns out, someone else said those same memorable words about
the time Obama was editing the [Harvard] law review.
Obama
speech shows he's out of touch. In his first two years in office, he was manifestly so far
removed from America's experience and ideals that he lost the election of 2010. His big spending,
overregulation, government takeovers and bailouts and healthcare program cost him his mandate. But,
in his State of the Union speech, he hewed so close to the conventional that he will now lose control
over events. His speech marks the real end of his presidency and the ascendancy of congressional
government led by the House Republican agenda.
Obama's
State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism. If imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama's second State of the Union address
contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince.
Obama's Tribute To Big
Government. Jimmy Carter's malaise speech of the summer of 1979, in which he seemed oblivious
to the American spirit, ended up in the judgment of history as the archetype of his presidency.
Barack Obama may have just done the same thing to himself with the "Sputnik Speech." Even supporters
of the president and the Alinskyite radicalism that dominates his party will find it hard to acclaim this
gifted orator's decision to spend 60 minutes sermonizing about government being more important than
suffering Americans give it credit for during a hard recession.
Sputnik
Moment Or A Lost Opportunity? Jimmy Carter's malaise speech of the summer of 1979, in
which he seemed oblivious to the American spirit, ended up in the judgment of history as the archetype
of his presidency. Barack Obama may have just done the same thing to himself with the "Sputnik Speech."
Obama
Misses Main Point Entirely. Of all the disappointments of President Obama's State of the
Union speech, none looms as large as his failure to address the fiscal problems. Does he not know it's
getting worse, not better?
The Disastrous
SOTU. President Obama's State of the Union address and the Republican and Tea Party
responses to it were a dismal occasion. From the terminal platitude that all are "part of the
American family," to the likelihood that a girl in Tucson may "have dreams like the rest of us," which
"is what sets us apart as a nation," it was a groaning farrago of clichés and unlikely
undertakings, followed by replies that had been written before the contents of the president's
address were known and had almost nothing to do with what he said.
Obama
Channels Failed Michigan Governor. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has yet
to start teaching her new Cal-Berkeley course on green governing — but she already has a devoted
student in the White House. President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night was eerily
similar to the failed economic vision that Granholm laid out in her State of the State address exactly
five years ago: It even included her rhetorical ruse substituting "investments" for "spending."
Space Cadet Obama's 'Sputnik' Gaffe Says It
All. Earth calling Barack: Do you have any idea which country ultimately won the space
race — and why? This question goes to the heart of what was so wrong with the President's State
of the Union address.
Obama
Believes American Exceptionalism Begins With Government. If you listened to the speech and
came away believing Obama is receptive to moving to the center, then you didn't hear or understand him.
For the GOP to make headway on restoring fiscal sanity to this nation, it must first understand him.
Then it must oppose and reverse him.
We
Do Big Things Through the Government. President Obama's State of the Union address was
arguably his best opportunity since his mid-term "shellacking" to seriously address the debt and deficit
issues that threaten America's economic stability now and far into our grandchildren's future. His
failure to deal with reality, however, was evident throughout the speech. The president called for
the nation to do "big things," yet he cited only government programs and initiatives as examples of
"innovation."
Obama's
spaced out speech. President Obama's announcement on Tuesday that "this is our generation's
Sputnik moment" came across as puzzling. Had al Qaeda sent a suicide bomber into space? But
it turned out to be just a clumsy metaphor. The first Sputnik launch in October 1957 is a now
distant event that no longer arouses passion. It would be as if someone described the Watergate
scandal as that generation's Teapot Dome.
Who Needs a Sputnik
Moment? Never in my worst nightmares did I expect to hear the president of the United States
give voice to a dream of building "our generation's
Sputnik moment." For the privilege of
becoming an American citizen some 32 years ago, I paid with two death sentences, both levied on me
by one of those Soviet bloc countries that spawned the
Sputnik era and later collapsed under its
own weight. From my vantage point, ObamaCare now looms over us with disturbing reminders of the
Soviet bloc's
Sputnik-era health care system.
Obama Stung by
SOTU Plagiarism Rap. Kudos to presidential historian Alvin Felzenberg for his tug on
Obama's cape. A Ph.D. from Princeton and the former spokesman for the 9/11 commission, Felzenberg
is the first intellectual insider to suggest publicly that President Barack Obama is not the writer
the literati have anointed him to be. In his review of the State of the Union speech posted
on the U.S. News website, Felzenberg goes so far as to accuse the president and his speechwriters of
plagiarizing it.
Did
Obama Forget About the Teachers Union? When Obama started to speak about the need to
improve education, upgrade our schools and attract quality teachers, an elephant appeared in the
living rooms of most Americans who were watching. Obama never mentioned the beast, but most
of the country saw clearly the three letters on his back — AFT. American Federation
of Teachers — the union that, along with its counterpart, the NEA, National Education
Association, has destroyed public education in America. How can we take seriously any proposal
to improve schools that does not deal with the force that has dragged them down — the
teachers union?
The
Old Obama in New Clothing. The November election sent a clear message to Washington:
less government, less debt, less spending. President Obama certainly heard it, but judging from
his State of the Union address, he doesn't believe a word of it. The people say they want cuts?
Sure they do — in the abstract. But any party that actually dares carry them out will be
punished severely. On that, Obama stakes his reelection. No other conclusion can be drawn from
a speech that didn't even address the debt issue until 35 minutes in.
'... without
the pat-down'? Whoa, Mr. President! Wait a minute, Mr. President. Did we hear you
correctly in your State of the Union address? Did you really say your new high-speed trains would
be "faster than flying...without the pat-down"? Your administration is said to be quietly pushing
back against public resistance to those intrusive TSA pat-downs. ... For you to make fun of those privacy
concerns is particularly uncaring. You are a privileged person who doesn't have to go through
that gantlet every time he flies.
MRC's
Bozell Blasts Media Coverage of Obama SOTU. When Republican presidents in years past
delivered their State of the Union addresses, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted this morning,
"no sooner had the words, 'God bless America,' left their lips than the analysts were there... just
pouncing on them, pointing out any discrepancy, pointing out any controversy, ridiculing any mistake."
Now "along comes Barack Obama..."
What
Obama's State of the Union speech has in common with Taco Bell. I agree with the liberal
blogosphere — Obama's State of the Union was "Reaganesque." Well written and well
delivered. Awe-inspiring. Except that it was all distortions, false promises, and bait and
switch. Don't believe a word. It was pure sales and marketing, with zero substance.
It was the same old "Cash for Flunkers." Failed programs renamed "investments" in order to sell
the con. Obama's State of the Union reminds me of the Taco Bell lawsuit in the news this same
week. ... There's no meat in Obama's product either.
Support
for Barack Obama plan cooling fast. Initially warm support for Barack Obama's
State of the Union address this week is giving way to criticism that his proposals for big
spending on education and innovation were based on "empty platitudes".
Winning the future: With trains and windmills? Tuesday's
State of the Union speech was President Obama's concession to the hard reality of Nov. 2, 2010.
Instead of massive expansions of state power and control, he spoke of massive infusions of taxpayer cash. ... He
proposed huge federal "investments" in transportation (high-speed rail), "green" energy, high technology and
other areas. But soon after calling us to rise to our "Sputnik moment," he proposed freezing domestic
spending. As The Associated Press noted, either he's serious about the spending increases he calls
investments, or the spending freeze, but he can't be serious about both because doing both is impossible.
Solar
shingles won't save America. Whether it's "solar shingles" or smart grids, President
Obama just can't imagine a world in which government isn't deciding how to spend your money.
Despite Mr. Obama's best efforts Tuesday [1/25/2011] to dress up the classic tax-and-spend agenda
as "investment" in the future, merely freezing the current budget maintains a course that only can
end in fiscal ruin.
Browner Resignation,
Obama Omission Could Spell the End of Global Warming Policy. The abrupt resignation of Carol
Browner, President Barack Obama's global warming czar, and the omission by Obama of global warming from his
State of the Union speech on Tuesday could mean that the White House has given up on global warming,
according to climate change analysts.
Uncle
Sam in the driver's seat. Disregard Barack Obama's rhetorical cotton candy about aspiring
to be transformative. He is just another practitioner of reactionary liberalism and champion of
a government unchastened by its multiplying failures. The word "entitlements" was absent from his
nearly 7,000-word State of the Union address — a $183 million speech that meandered for
61 minutes as the nation's debt grew $3 million a minute. He exhorted listeners to "win
the future" by remembering the past.
Hope, Change, and
"Invest". I missed the middle section of Obama's State of the Union address when I took a break
to read "War and Peace," but I gather he never got around to what I was hoping he'd say, which is: "What
was I thinking?" The national debt is $14 trillion, the Democrats won't stop spending, and President
Nero gave us a long gaseous speech about his Stradivarius.
Cap and Trade
Returns From the Grave. The president presented his new, conciliatory face to the nation this
week, and his State of the Union was as notable for what it didn't include as what it did. He uttered
not one word about global warming, a comprehensive climate bill, or his regulatory attempts to reduce
carbon. ... Listen carefully to Mr. Obama's speech and you realize he spent plenty of it on carbon
controls. He just used a different vocabulary.
Obama
Refuses To Learn Government's Clean Energy Failures. It would have been nice if, prior to
giving his SOTU, the president had checked out a paper by Professor Peter Grossman entitled, "The History of
U.S. Alternative Energy Development Programs: A Study of Government Failure." He traces the numerous
efforts our government has made at investing in alternative energy, from nuclear power in the 1950s to the
Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles in the 1990s, and found that none of them have worked.
High-Speed
Rail, Budget Buster. If the nation is going to reduce its out-of-control spending, the first
step is to stop spending money on things we do not need. Despite President Obama's call in his State of
the Union speech for linking 80 percent of the nation by high-speed rail, it is hard to imagine a more
unnecessary program.
A Sputnik Moment?
From a strategic point of view, Sputnik was a Soviet blunder of the first magnitude. If the Americans
had gone first, it would have given Russia a chance to demonize all space operations as imperialist aggression
in the heavens. Every U.S. satellite launch would have been denounced as a crime against humanity.
The U.S. space program in both its civil and military aspects would have been crippled. But from a propaganda
point of view, Sputnik was a triumph, and in this they were aided and abetted by America's Democrats.
Americans
Don't Have 'Sputnik Moments'. Khrushchev had his Sputnik Moment. The Soviets had their
Sputnik Moment. Communist sympathizers throughout the world had their Sputnik Moment. But despite
President Obama's comment during the State of the Union Address, Americans don't have Sputnik Moments.
What's wrong with
Peggy Noonan? Whether naiveté or denial, Noonan's refusal to recognize Barack Obama's
ideological intransigence is unbelievable. By all means, hope is a virtue, but it must be tempered with
wisdom. Noonan is unwise and begging to be lied to, as long as those lies are less obvious and better
spun than those told by the President last Tuesday evening.
Obama's Rathole Moment.
If there were a Nobel Prize for historical misstatement, this "Sputnik moment" speech would be the
odds-on-favorite. ... It is almost as if Obama believes that in some dysfunctional inner-city school, there
are kids with poor English skills about to drop out, but if we just rescue them and get them to return to the
classroom and study algebra, America's future will be saved. Yes, a bunch of middle-aged, nerdy white
males got us to the moon, but it will take an entire village of ethnically, racially diverse and gender-balanced
people, many of whom were the first in their family to finish high school, let alone attend college, to get
us to Mars — a Spaceship Rainbow.
Obama's Sputnik analogy
doesn't fly. It's a sign of how tinny and uninspiring President Obama's State of the Union
address was that a week later it all seems so forgettable.
Tale of Two SOTU's.
Even though it was Obama's first State of the Union since his party lost control of the House and saw its
Senate majority shredded, the [New York] Times didn't dwell on the decline in his party's fortune. By
contrast, Kate Zernike's 2007 lead story on Bush's first State of the Union after the Republicans lost
Congress emphasized the power shift away from the president, while lauding new Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi.
No Need for
State of the Union. I didn't watch the 2011 State of the Union speech. I didn't need to.
After all, for years now what gets said is merely a lot of cheerleading and campaign style rhetoric.
You really can't take much of anything any president now says seriously. And so, after reading the text
of the 2011 speech later it became obvious that the 2011 speech was another case of a politician speaking out
of both sides of his mouth. While this is nothing unusual, in this instance the amount of double-speak
was worse than usual.
It's Not the Economy Stupid, It's President
Obama. By the time President Obama finished giving his State of the Union message, he had
failed leadership 101 and convinced the nation that he is incapable of successfully leading it,
especially in a time of crisis.
Obama's
antique vision of technological progress. Barack Obama, like all American politicians, likes to
portray himself as future-oriented and open to technological progress. Yet the vision he set out in his
State of the Union address is oddly antique and disturbingly static.
The rot in values that is causing America's
decline. Science and math. Science and math. President Barack Obama's new mantra is
science and math. If only America's students focused on science and math, he told us in his State of the
Union address, then we'll be as innovative as China and will no longer have to farm out the building of wondrous
handheld gadgets. The gods of science and math will make our economy blossom. ... Obama surprises me.
How much science or math does he know?
Obama: A Roman God Updated?
We know the real state of the union: government spends too much, borrows too much, and prints too much
money. Too many are out of work and too many recent grads aren't finding it. Government has
promised but can't pay for health care, retirement, and its hundred-plus-countries military adventures.
As our Janus said in his State of the Union speech, that calls for freezing domestic spending for the next
five years while redoubling the recent transportation and construction projects of the last two.
Redoubling spending while freezing it might challenge mortals, but for a god, it's just a day at the office.
2011 SOTU: The
Patriot Response. Here is the abbreviated version of the SOTU: "I want ... I believe ... I've seen ... I've heard ...
I said ... I will be ... I'm asking ... I don't know ... I challenge ... I urge ... I set ... I
know ... I'm proposing ... I ask ... I took ... I made ... I would ... I intend ... I've ordered
... I will not ... I've heard ... I am eager ... I'm not ... I'm not ... I'm not ... I am ... I've
proposed ... I care ... I recognize ... I'm willing ... I've proposed ... I created ... I don't
agree ... I am prepared ... I hear ... I will submit ... I ask ... I will veto ... I will travel
... I call on all ... I know ... I stand..." ... [Keep] in mind that nothing Obama proposed has an
authorizing provision in our Constitution.
Freedom
Occurs Only Once. Its total effect resembles the result of a vocabulary project assigned to kindergarten
students by a progressive teacher to see how many words could be glued onto a single sheet of paper. Missing
like a deafening silence from the mix-and-match are words that did not frequently occur in Obama's speech, or
not at all: freedom, liberty, capitalism, free markets, totalitarian, control, regulation. Freedom
occurs only once: ["]And America's moral example must always shine for all who yearn for freedom and
justice and dignity.["] ... Liberty does not occur once. Capitalism is nowhere to be found in the text.
On Energy, Obama's Full of Hot Air.
President Obama's State of the Union address last week left a lot to be desired. Lisa Fritsch summed it
up well on [PajamasMedia®], writing, "Obama's speech [...] was focused far too much on lofty goals than
the nitty-gritty we need to refloat our ailing ship of state." In fact, in two specific areas his soaring
rhetoric belied reality and misrepresented our nation's future security. First, in calling for the
"reinvention" of our domestic energy policy, the president issued a challenge rooted in ideology rather than
grounded in a clear understanding of America's current and future energy needs. This is especially
troubling because his goal flies in the face of science and the free market.
The Welfare State of
the Union. President Obama has been speaking lately of what he views as an upswing in the
economy. "The economy is growing again," he declared in the State of the Union address. Not
surprisingly, he failed to mention that for 104 consecutive weeks, larger and larger numbers of Americans
have become dependent on welfare. Or that within those families receiving welfare, fathers have
become more and more irrelevant, and youth crime has increased.
When
one man's 'loophole' is another man's stimulus. President Obama says he wants to cut the corporate
income tax rate while closing "loopholes." But — as is often the case on taxes — it's
best to heed what he does, not what he says. Obama has supported — often stridently —
most of the biggest "loopholes" in the current corporate income tax code. Unless he is willing to end
manufacturing tax breaks, low-income housing credits, and ethanol subsidies, his loophole-closing talk from
the State of the Union and his speech to the Chamber of Commerce is just more Obama jabberwocky on taxes.
Spontaneous Order. At last month's
State of the Union, President Obama said America needs more passenger trains. How does he know? For
years, politicians promised that more of us will want to commute by train, but it doesn't happen. People
like their cars. Some subsidized trains cost so much per commuter that it would be cheaper to buy
them taxi rides.
Leeches of the world,
unite! Working in tandem with Senate Democrats, President Obama delivered a State of the
Union address last month that could have been composed on another planet. He trotted out a variety of
spending initiatives, such as more money for education, high-speed rail, broadband Internet access and green
technologies. He didn't detail any spending cuts worth mentioning.
Defining
"Clean" is the Energy Challenge. Clearly no sane person would be in favor of "dirty" energy
standards, but there are many problems with the impossible goal the administration has set out to reach.
First among them: the administration itself cannot agree on what it means by "clean energy." The
remarks the president made in his State of the Union address to the nation last week are a case in point.
President Obama posed the challenge that "by 2035, 80 percent of America's electricity will come from
clean energy sources." There is an easy part of this pledge. Oil, the "dirtiest" of all among his
environmentalist friends, already accounts for virtually nothing in electric power generation. The
market saw to that over the past 20 years.
Chamber of Commerce speech, February 7, 2011
The Era of the Obama
'Blank Screen' is Over. [Scroll down] Mr. Obama recently stood before a crowd at the
Chamber of Commerce, hoping that the audience might somehow view him as a blank screen. ... As Mr. Obama
went on to expound on the "principles" that made America great, the Chamber speech became noticeably creepy
as the president demonstrated that he knows little about free market principles. The president's alleged
JFK moment was more of desperate demand for business to do something to help Obama look good than anything
else.
Hell just froze over.
[Scroll down] The president knows he doesn't understand business. He's never owned a business, managed a
business or, from what I can tell, even worked for a private business during his entire life. He knows
zippo about how the free market operates and how onerous big-government regulations and high taxes can trample
the economy. All he knows about business is what he has read or what someone has told him.
Press conference, March 11, 2011
Obama
Blames Oil Companies For Lack Of Drilling. In his Friday [3/11/2011] press conference to discuss
gas prices, President Obama was rather defensive, straining to counter the notion that his administration has
been unfriendly to oil drilling, something most people would like to see a lot more of these days. Where
do people get that notion? Perhaps his Interior Department appealing a judge's ruling that it act on
several pending deepwater permits had something to do with it.
O's
urgent inaction. The White House is worried: The Libyan crisis and the general instability
in the Middle East have led to spiraling gas prices. The president wanted to show the American people
he knows it's a problem. So he staged a press conference yesterday, and he basically
said he's going to do ... nothing.
Obama news
conference registers 3.7. President Obama called a news conference Friday. Yes, the
weekend was nigh, and few people beyond the media were listening. But that was his target audience
because he looks to be in a tidal wave of political trouble and needs a quick reset in time for the Sunday
morning talk shows. The Real Good Talker has lost control of the political narrative in the nation's
capital, which is very hard for an incumbent president to do.
Spectator-in-Chief.
President Obama held a news conference today and assured Americans that he's "monitoring" gas prices, Qaddafi
and budget negotiations... leaving many people wondering what exactly he was actually DOING about these
issues... which have been boiling for weeks.
Obama
Comes Up Short On Oil. Not surprisingly, President Obama's news conference on oil prices turned
out to be a melange of deceptive facts and useless proposals, all pointing to a lack of interest in serious
solutions.
Clearing up
Today's Obama Energy Lies. This afternoon the President of the United States tried one again
to mislead the public about domestic oil production and how much untapped oil is left in the ground.
He said that domestic oil production is at the highest level in seven years and he indicated that American
reserves are not adequate to help the US reduced its dependence on foreign oil. If Congressman Wilson
was in the audience he might have repeated his famous shout "
You Lie."
Obama in a rush for higher gas prices?
At Friday's news conference, President Obama tried to connect with the common man coping with rising gasoline
prices. Instead, the president left little doubt that he is clueless about cars. "You may want to buy a
fuel-efficient car," quoth Obama, "but you may not be able to afford it. And so you're stuck with the old
clunker that's getting 8 or 10 miles a gallon." Eight to 10 mpg? Which clunker would that
be? I wondered. ... You have to go back to the Carter administration years or earlier to find Obama's idea of
a gas-guzzling family car — and even that vehicle would have been a van, light truck/SUV or luxury model.
And yet he is behind the wheel of Washington's energy policy.
Obama Copies Bush
Speech. Obama closed Friday's [3/18/2011] remarks by saying, "I've taken this decision with
the confidence that action is necessary, and that we will not be acting alone. Our goal is focused.
Our cause is just. And our coalition is strong." Nearly a decade earlier, when President George W.
Bush announced that U.S. forces were launching military strikes in Afghanistan, Bush said: "To all the men
and women in our military ... I say this: Your mission is defined. Your objectives are clear.
Your goal is just." Bush used similar wording in other remarks at the time.
Obama's address to the nation regarding the war in Libya, March 28, 2011
Obama Congratulates
Himself. In his speech on Libya Monday evening, President Barack Obama demonstrated why
self-congratulation is an awful basis for foreign policy. ... Perhaps the wrong speech got loaded onto his
teleprompter, because the preachment Obama delivered fudged the past, gave us weasel words in place of real
goals, and substituted a vigorous Nobel Peace Prize-winning pat on the back for any good reason to make this
our fight. The evasions of fact and friction were so breathtaking that they need to be cataloged for
posterity.
Obama Arming Al Qaeda?
With President Barack Obama scheduled to speak to the nation tonight about the role the U.S. military is playing
and will play in the military action in Libya, the White House national security and communications teams
continue to scramble to get their stories straight.
Obama
ditches Oval for speech. An address from the Oval Office has at least three problems for President
Obama. Among other things, it implies the nation is at war — and if there is one thing the
administration is rather emphatic about, it's that we are involved in a limited military action in Libya,
not a war. The president also is not great in an Oval address — few are. Tense and
alone at the Resolute desk, reading off a teleprompter into a network camera while a few staffers and TV
crew stand silently by — it's an isolating, airless moment that does not always convey confidence.
Barack
Obama's muddled speech leaves Libya war aims unclear. President Barack Obama delivered an
elegant speech in a setting — the National Defence University -- in which he appeared much more at
ease then he does in the Oval Office. ... The bad news is that he left Americans no clearer about how this war
ends and while speaking about American leadership tried to pretend that it was the European allies and Nato
that were going to take the weight from this point on (the reality is that the US wil continue to do the
heavy lifting).
Being a leader is about
more than reading off a teleprompter. Mr. Obama waited nine days after U.S. forces began to
engage in hostilities in Libya to make a major address to the nation. He initially avoided making more than
perfunctory remarks because U.S. involvement in the nonwar was supposed to be brief and limited. But
as the kinetic became more frenetic, and Mr. Obama didn't see the favorable bump in public opinion most
presidents enjoy after unleashing military force, he was compelled to address the issue head on.
A War By Any Name. Tonight,
in a speech that probably should have been delivered before American planes began flying missions over North
Africa, Barack Obama will try to explain to a puzzled nation why we are at war with Libya. Not that
the word "war" will pass his lips, most likely. In press briefings last week, our Libyan campaign was
euphemized into a "kinetic military action" and a "time-limited, scope-limited military action."
Obama
Speech: Full Of Rhetoric, Bereft Of Logic. President Obama's Monday night speech was long on
rhetoric and short on logic. He said: "I believe that this movement of change cannot be turned
back, and that we must stand alongside those who believe in the same core principles that have guided us."
Just what would lead him to conclude that this includes the largely unknown forces who are trying to seize power
in Libya? Too often in the past, going all the way back to the days of Woodrow Wilson, we have operated on
the assumption that a bad government becomes better after the magic of "change."
How I Won the
Kinetic Military Action. President Obama's speech last night was fine as far as it went, which
was not very far: Qaddafi was about to wipe out a lot of citizens, so we had to act fast; a lot of people
told us we could do it, so we did it; we avoided a humanitarian crisis — mission accomplished; now
others can take over. But the crisis ten days ago was actually not a humanitarian crisis but a strategic
one: you don't declare Qaddafi "must go" (for violating the Obama Doctrine that leaders who wage war on
their people lose legitimacy), declare that his violence is "unacceptable" — and then stand by doing
nothing as he wipes out all opposition.
Obama's BAM! ZAP! and POW! It
was "Mission Accomplished" but without the banner. In a strong, almost pugnacious, speech Monday night,
President Barack Obama said he had achieved his initial goals in Libya. "So for those who doubted our
capacity to carry out this operation, I want to be clear: the United States of America has done what we said
we would do," he said.
AP Fact
Check Destroys Obama's Libya Speech. Here is a look at some of Obama's assertions in his address to
the nation Monday, and how they compare with the facts.
Obama's
TV ratings for his speeches continue to plummet. Monday night's policy address on Libya
delivered 25.6 million viewers, continuing the president's trend of declining ratings for his
issue-oriented telecasts. ... With a decline like that, it is apparent that "The Obama Show" has
jumped the shark.
Obama plays with dynamite. In his
belated address to the nation Monday, President Barack Obama explained why, after nearly a month of dithering, he
chose to intervene militarily in Libya's civil war. ... The speech was widely praised by liberals, who tried hard
not to notice that Mr. Obama sounded a lot like George W. Bush.
The
Great Prevaricator. After committing U.S. forces to combat in Libya, the administration rehearsed
the message it would deliver to the American people 10 days later. When you tell the truth, you
don't have to practice anything.
Obama knocks down another straw man.
A
fundamentally dishonest speech. President Obama gave an impassioned, sometimes eloquent, defense
of his policies in Libya tonight. But when it came to justifying the limited goals of the military
mission, his speech was fundamentally dishonest.
Obama
Still Murky on Libya. President Obama just gave a weird speech. Part George W. Bush,
part trademark Obama — filled with his characteristic split-the-difference, straw-man ("some say,
others say"), false-choice tropes. His support for those "yearning for freedom all around the world"
was the sort of interventionist foreign policy that a Senator Obama — if his past reaction to
the removal of Saddam Hussein is any indication — would have objected to, especially in the
case of sending bombers over an Arab Muslim oil-exporting country.
Left Unsatisfied.
Setting aside the swipes at his predecessors ... From a communications standpoint, I think Obama's speech
tonight fell short of its needs and expectations. I know he reads a speech well, but the cadence is
always the same — it's as if you could take any of his major addresses and guess exactly how they
are going to go. And the sentences often lead to head-scratching: the mind wanders -- thinking,
did he really just say that? Do they really believe those words?
Obama on Libya:
Look, Just Trust Me On This. On paper, I agree with a lot of what Obama is saying. But
he's stringing together a lot of pretty-sounding phrases without really getting at the questions most
skeptical Americans have: why intervene here and not in other places?
More slush from the limp, cont'd.
President Obama took the podium tonight to reiterate the rationale supporting our participation in the limited
attack on the Qaddafi regime. I was struck by the tone (literally) of Obama's remarks. As I heard it,
Obama's tone was was angry and defensive. The speech was as a result extraordinarily uninspirational
and even difficult to understand.
Energy speech, March 30, 2011
Pump
And Circumstance. In a Georgetown University address that echoed President Jimmy Carter's "moral
equivalent of war" speech in 1977, the president on Wednesday outlined his plan to reduce oil imports by one-third
over the next decade. Carter, too, set the goal of reducing oil imports by a third through conservation,
increased fuel efficiency, more use of ethanol and other alternative energy sources, and the wearing of more
sweaters. There was nothing new in Obama's version. It didn't work then. It won't work now.
President pumps
politics. President Obama's promise Wednesday to do something about rising gas prices was
drowned out by the giant sucking sound of American dollars being funneled into OPEC pockets. Not
that many expected his plan to make much difference anyway. A president who, as a candidate, said he
didn't mind high fuel prices is not likely to be the one leading the nation toward energy policy sanity.
Full-Throttle
Drill, Drill, Drill. In the fact sheet that accompanied the speech, there's a lot of talk
about "responsible development" for natural gas fracking chemicals, state regulators, tapping experts, the
environmental community, and protecting public health and the environment. In other words, the standards
for new drilling could be so high that there won't be that much new drilling. The president doesn't
discuss the role of the EPA, which is going after coal, natural gas, and oil. And while he says he'll
speed up new leases and permits, he then blames oil companies for not using their old leases. That's
an old saw of an argument that neglects to mention dry holes.
On Energy, Obama Lies With Statistics.
The Obama administration has been reading the polls, and is panicked by the implications of $4 a gallon
gasoline. Consequently, President Obama gave a speech today in which he trotted out a "Blueprint For A
Secure Energy Future." We will have more to say about the administration's proposals, which I don't
think contain anything new, but for the moment, I want to note the dishonesty with which President Obama
introduced them.
Barack Obama's
Oil Lease LIES! How do you know which parts of Obama's energy speech were either lies or
misrepresentations? The parts where his mouth was moving. This morning President Obama outline
his energy policy which is comprised of trying to pull the energy policy wool over America's eyes.
The
President's New Energy Plan: If you want to lower the price of something, the best solution
is to produce more of it. This is basic Econ 101 stuff. But nowhere in the administration's
new energy proposals, presented by the president this Wedesday in a speech at Georgetown University, is the
idea of pumping more oil in the United States addressed, except to say it is impossible.
Obama's
Energy Policy: A Looming Disaster. Once again, on energy policy and action, President Obama talks
the talk, but has no substance behind his teleprompted words. ... Obama's speech made it clear that while he
advocates making hard choices, he has very little experience and no plan for doing so. ... Within hours of
Obama's speech, the Stock Market apparently weighed, measured and found Obama's proposals hollow, and ineffective,
and the price of oil went up.
Budget deficit speech, Georgetown University, April 13, 2011
The Mendacity of Barack
Obama. While I have always been wary of and have written about his dishonesty, after the speech the
president delivered the 13th of April regarding the federal budget, one that was chock full of lies, deceit, and
crass fear-mongering, it must be said that Barack Obama is the most dishonest, deceitful, and mendacious person
in a position of power I have ever witnessed. That performance was the culmination of four years of outright
lies and narcissism that have been largely ignored by the media, including some in the conservative press and
political class who are loath to call Mr. Obama what he is in the bluntest of terms: a liar and a fraud.
Obama Channels Ted Kennedy.
If Obama wants to make a serious debt reduction proposal, it has to be presented in detail, in budgetary form,
so that it can be analyzed properly and scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Obama hasn't done that;
instead, he purports to shave trillions off the national debt with breathtaking insouciance.
Paul
Ryan responds. Thinking over Obama's speech a bit, I see that the "budget address" was really
an excuse to pummel the House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). After all, that was the only
thing "new" about the speech. It's petty and embarrassing for the president to attack a House member,
so Obama surrounded his attack on Ryan with a whole lot of fluff. But make no mistake: This was
about discrediting the only serious plan out there.
The President's
Speech: As recently as February, in his budget, Obama essentially denied that we had a fiscal
crisis. Today, he admitted it and described it, or at least parts of it. It is certainly unorthodox
for a president to renounce his own budget two months after proposing it, but that is just what the president
did — implicitly dismissing even the goals set out by his budget in its own terms as totally inadequate.
Obama's honesty deficit:
President Obama outlined what he called a framework for deficit reduction Wednesday. It was a tacit admission
that his 2012 budget submission did not go far enough. That shows Republicans succeeded in seizing the initiative
with their own comprehensive, pro-growth proposal to restore America's solvency. Mr. Obama's flimsy "me, too"
smacks of desperation.
Obama to soak rich, please Dems.
President Barack Obama gave a terrific reelection speech Wednesday. It wasn't billed as that. It was
supposed to be a number-packed speech about budgeting and spending and all manner of fiscal gobbledygook.
Instead, it turned out to be a speech in which the president told liberals he still shares their goals and
Democrats he is still one of them.
The President's Budget
Address and the Reality of Taxing the 'Rich'. The President is going to address the nation yet
again. He apparently intends to unveil another revised plan to fool the American people into believing
he is sincere about reducing the deficit and reining in spending after the unserious budget he presented in
February was soundly rejected by the country. While his hand has been forced by the twin factors of the
Republicans in the House (buoyed the effectiveness of the Tea Party movement) and the upcoming Presidential
election, he will nonetheless bring up increasing taxes on the so-called wealthy and corporations as one of
the primary means of solving the debt and deficit problem.
Obama's Deceit.
I have had it with this President's blatant dishonesty. His speech today was appallingly deceitful
and misleading. This President, has spent more money and added more debt than any other President
in history. This is not political rhetoric, this is simply fact! Barack Obama's budget deficit
in March of 2011 was larger than the deficit for all of 2007! ... So where did Obama come up with the
claim that he inherited a trillion dollar deficit? In 2008, the deficit under Bush climbed to a
new high of $458 billion.
Obama's Budget, Again.
Pardon me, but I thought the President had already submitted a budget, and that was just two months ago.
Now he devotes another of his many "major speeches" to the budget and comes out with another policy
makeover — or the appearance of one. This time it is a budget that wrecks the country by raising
taxes and cutting Medicare and defense instead of simply doing nothing, as was proposed in February.
In reality, nothing has changed, especially the President's faith in Big Government.
Obama's
Speech Was a Waste of Breath. Obama had a difficult assignment in this speech, partly
because of the exaggerated hopes for it. Even allowing for that, it was weak both politically
and substantively. My instant unguarded reaction, in fact, was to find it not just weak but
pitiful. I honestly wondered why he bothered.
Waste, Fraud
and Abuse: Obama's speech was replete with all three. Even by the standards of the World's
Greatest Orator, yesterday's was a dreadful speech. We observed recently that Barack Obama's reputation
as the WGO rests largely on his talent for the insubstantial — for reciting "poetry" as opposed to
expounding "prose," in Mario Cuomo's terms. Few subjects are more prosaic than the federal budget,
the topic of the president's talk yesterday.
Obama's
Dreamland. Barack Obama just gave a belated but stern warning about escalating debt — a
few weeks after he presented a 2011 budget with a $1.6 trillion deficit, the largest shortfall in
American history. Congressional Republicans are now crowing about reducing Obama's red ink by
forcing some $38 billion in cuts. Such supposed slashing means America would borrow just
$1,562 billion this year rather than the scheduled full $1,600 billion.
The Presidential
Divider. Did someone move the 2012 election to June 1? We ask because President
Obama's extraordinary response to Paul Ryan's budget yesterday — with its blistering partisanship
and multiple distortions — was the kind Presidents usually outsource to some junior lieutenant.
Mr. Obama's fundamentally political document would have been unusual even for a Vice President in the fervor of
a campaign.
Obama Sinks to the Occasion.
President Obama always lets you down. Just when you think he's ready to deliver a lofty speech chocked
with specifics on handling the spending and debt emergency, he offers up a hyper-partisan attack on the leading
Republican proposal, gives practically no details of his own plan, and then sanctimoniously puts himself on the
side of preserving "the American dream for future generations."
Our demagogue in chief.
President Obama has all but ensured his defeat in 2012. His speech Wednesday outlining his framework
for deficit reduction was a pivotal moment in his presidency — the decisive tipping point, in which he
revealed his almost limitless capacity for cynicism and mendacity. He frittered away whatever
credibility he had left.
Spare
us hollow sermons on taxing the very rich. President Obama, we have endured your unfledged
theories on how to be more popular around the world. We have survived your whimsical approaches to
economic recovery. Save. No, spend! Borrow more! And your earnest dabbles as
physician, public-health expert and hospital administrator have left us bewildered and broke for decades
to come. All this we suffer because, after all, we did elect you president. You beat the other
guy.
Spare
us the lectures, Mr. Obama. The nation's first Facebook president is at it again. At
George Washington University on Wednesday, President Obama managed to insult just about everyone in America
who thinks about things. As for the Obamaphants in the media and on the federal dole, I can't speak
for them. On Wednesday, the "fortunate" members of society who already give so much, were told to
cough up more by the most fortunate and least giving, most self-centered man ever to occupy the Oval Office.
President Boring.
What is it about Barack Obama that caused his vice president Joe Biden to fall asleep during the president's
speech Tuesday? [sic] Did Biden, getting on in years, just need his afternoon nap? Well, maybe, but the
television cameras showed a woman quite near the veep nodding out as well. No, I think it was a natural
response. Biden and the woman were bored stiff. Barack Obama has become the most tedious president
in my lifetime. He is like those college professors whose classes you did everything you could to avoid
but, if you had to go, sat as far back as possible in order to get a little shut-eye yourself.
Save Wrath for Obama.
In his speech on Wednesday, [President Obama] accused Republicans supporting the Paul Ryan budget of aiming at
"a fundamentally different America than the one we've known throughout much of our history. A 70% cut
to clean energy. A 25% cut in education. A 30% cut in transportation." Well, no. This
is a lie. Even if Republicans may propose a 25 percent cut from federal government support for
education, that is not a 25 percent cut in the nation's education: It's a 3.68 percent cut in
total government support for education (local, state and federal combined). And that doesn't even take
into account how much other money goes to private education (more than 6.2 percent of American students
go to private schools).
It's OK To Disagree, As Long As You Obey.
If you watched Obama's campaign appearance yesterday — the one you were told would be a historic
speech detailing the President's plans for deficit reduction — you might remember this passage...
Obama:
Incorrigible Statist and Debt Menace. In my book "Crimes Against Liberty," I described
President Obama as dishonest, hyper-partisan, a bully, a narcissist and a hard-core left-wing ideologue.
Anyone who thinks my description is exaggerated or too harsh didn't hear his Wednesday speech on the budget.
Spare
Us the Hypocrisy, Mr. President. President Obama offered few concrete suggestions for
spending cuts this week in his much-anticipated speech on reducing the federal debt, but he had lots
to say about raising taxes. "As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have
traditionally borne a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate.
Everybody pays, but the wealthier have borne a little more," the president said. So he wants to
raise the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent and eliminate itemized deductions for the top
2 percent of earners.
President
Obama Goes from Wrong to Dishonest. America saw a different President Obama yesterday.
Over the last two years, the president's job was to repair the economy and to make us safer. He has
failed at both but at least he appeared to be trying — his failures were arguably attributable
to inexperience, misguidance, and incompetence. Yesterday, however, the president went from being
wrong to being deceptive and intellectually dishonest.
The Incredible
Shrinking Obama. Barack Obama's budget address last week ranks among the most dishonest and
dishonorable presidential speeches in generations. It contained an avalanche of false and misleading
statements. It was shallow and bitterly partisan. Yet the speech served a useful purpose: It
provided the American people in general, and Republicans in particular, with the basic line of attack President
Obama will use between now and the 2012 election.
If
Obama Had Kept His Campaign Promises, We Wouldn't Have a Deficit Today. President Obama
pledged Wednesday "to act boldly now" on the huge deficits. But alas his newly revealed budget
for 2012 is no better at cutting the deficit than was his first attempt just two months ago.
A Consequential Man.
What would you think of a man who knew he was not well for more than a year, then assembled a team of experts
which spent seven months to diagnose a fatal, but treatable disease and recommend a comprehensive cure?
Would you consider the man prudent? Sensible? Cautious? What would you say about the same man
if, four months after learning the diagnosis and cure, he rejected the diagnosis of his hand-picked experts,
leaving the disease untreated, but promised that, if his condition hadn't improved in another three years,
he would assemble another team of experts to diagnose his condition and recommend treatment? Most
people would have little sympathy for a fatal act of denial by an unserious man.
Patient Obama. Last week
the president gave a speech on the deficit, rightly trying to convince Americans that it is now beyond
unsustainable. Yet his theme was that the Republicans' attempts to reduce it were cold-hearted, endangering
the most vulnerable among us, such as those with Down's Syndrome, while protecting the proverbial "rich" from
commensurate sacrifice. Let us, then, look at Obama, and the context of his speech, as a doctor might a
patient.
About That Speech.
At first glance, President Obama's partisan speech last week attacking GOP budget proposals was precisely what
an incumbent running for re-election shouldn't do. It was not a speech designed to appeal to independent
voters, a group Mr. Obama has suffered serious erosion with. But Mr. Obama's tone makes more sense when
one realizes that his sinking poll numbers also indicate an erosion in support with his liberal base.
Obama's Got a
Bridge to Sell You. I called President Obama's speech last week among the most dishonest and
dishonorable presidential speeches in generations. This week, it appears he's eager to build on that
reputation. In a town hall event in Annandale, Obama evoked the August 2007 St. Anthony Falls bridge
collapse as a justification for higher taxes.
Obama Seems Incapable of Loving America.
[Scroll down] Every once in a while, as he did in that speech in 2008, Obama shows us who he really is and
what he really believes — if we are listening. Such a moment of startling honesty came recently
when Obama delivered what the mainstream media laughingly described as a "response" to Rep. Paul Ryan's common
sense budget. What the speech really amounted to, of course, was simply a tired partisan kick-off of
his 2012 re-election campaign. In it, Obama again stated his contempt for the nation that has given
him so much.
The Mendacity of Barack
Obama. While I have always been wary of and have written about his dishonesty, after the speech
the president delivered the 13th of April regarding the federal budget, one that was chock full of lies, deceit,
and crass fear-mongering, it must be said that Barack Obama is the most dishonest, deceitful, and mendacious
person in a position of power I have ever witnessed. That performance was the culmination of four years
of outright lies and narcissism that have been largely ignored by the media, including some in the conservative
press and political class who are loath to call Mr. Obama what he is in the bluntest of terms: a liar
and a fraud.
El Paso, Texas, May 10, 2011
Obama's illegal
alien nation. President Obama is in El Paso Tuesday [5/10/2011] to give a speech on what
he calls "the broken immigration system." He'd know because he's the one helping break it. Nowhere
is this more apparent than in the Secure Communities program under which local law enforcement must turn over
illegal criminals to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation. The agency estimates
that local law enforcement arrests over 1 million people a year who are not U.S. citizens.
Obama
says border is secure enough to begin legalization. Facing a political gridlock that has
doomed immigration legislation for years, President Obama, making his first visit to the border since
taking office, turned to activists and immigrant-rights supporters across the country Tuesday and said
it's now up to them to force Congress to act.
The Mexican City That
Had More Casualties Than Afghanistan: President Barack Obama's commitment to providing legal
status for illegal aliens is reflected in the time he has spent focusing on the country's immigration laws
in recent weeks, the White House said on Monday, one day before the president is set to deliver a national
address on immigration in El Paso, Texas. El Paso is across the border from Juarez, Mexico,
a city where 3,111 civilians were murdered last year — more than in all of Afghanistan.
President's El Paso Immigration Pander.
President Obama's El Paso speech delivered the predictable: a call for the same old mass amnesty mix
("comprehensive immigration reform," to open-borders types). And at least for a time, he's put immigration
front and center. First, look at Obama's "solution." Government's "threshold responsibility" is
"to secure the borders and enforce the law." Obama asserted that his administration has done that.
In fact, the Government Accountability Office reports that only 129 of the 2,000 miles of the southern
border are under control.
Border
bluster. Does President Obama want to fix America's broken immigration system — or
just score political points? Judging from his trip to Texas Tuesday [5/10/2011], it's hard to see any serious
interest from him in reform. And that's a shame. Because, as he himself notes, the status quo is
a disaster.
Where Obama's Border
Lies. As noted in this column last week, Richard Stana, director of homeland security issues
for the Government Accountability Office, informed the Senate Homeland Security Committee in March that there
are only 129 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border where the Border Patrol can prevent or stop
an illegal entry from taking place at the border itself. There are another 744 miles where it can
stop an illegal entry at "distances of up to 100 miles or more away from the immediate border." That
leaves at least 1,081 miles of border where Homeland Security has anything but "operational control."
The
Amnesty Bandwagon Rides Again. The public relations campaign for President Obama's latest
revival of "immigration reform" makes one thing crystal clear: This is not, and never has been, about
homeland security. This is not, and never has been, about economic security. It's about
political security, plain and cynical.
Yes Mr. President, I
Do Want Alligators in My Moat. In yet another one of Obama's highly touted campaign speeches
(are there any other type?), the President once again chose to use derisive rhetoric to whip up the masses
against those horrible Republicans. Obama attempted to put the GOP on the defensive by suggesting that
Republicans not only want the country surrounded by a moat to prevent evil immigrants from entering, but that
in order to ensure success, they would fill the moat with alligators. Apparently, the only result that
Obama achieved from these ridiculous and extremely un-presidential one-liners was an electorate feeling complete
and utter disgust at his obnoxious display of arrogance with regard to such an important domestic issue.
Demagoguery
101. Looks like the Tucson truce — no demonization, no cross-hairs metaphors —
is officially over. After all, the Republicans want to kill off the elderly, throw the disabled in the
snow and watch alligators lunch on illegal immigrants. The El Paso speech is notable not for breaking
any new ground on immigration but for perfectly illustrating Obama's political style: the professorial,
almost therapeutic, invitation to civil discourse, wrapped around the basest of rhetorical devices —
charges of malice compounded with accusations of bad faith.
Obama
Brings Non-White Americans Together. Standing at the border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas, on
Monday, the U.S. president scoffed at Americans who want a border fence. "You know, they said 'we
needed to triple the border patrol,'" he laughed. "Well, now they're going to say we need to
quadruple the border patrol, or they'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe
they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."
Border security
is no laughing matter. President Obama claims the border has never been safer, that his administration
has done everything demanded by Republicans, and more, to secure the border, and cites the FBI's Uniform Crime
Reports data to prove his point. He even went so far in a speech earlier this week in El Paso to chide
his critics, claiming they will never be satisfied, not even with a moat full of alligators.
Candidate Obama Secures the Vote of Undocumented
Democrats. Presidential candidate Barack Obama, seeking the Democratic Party nomination in 2012,
stumped for the illegal alien vote in El Paso, Tex., this week, urging Congress to pass an amnesty bill and
hitting Republicans for wanting to build a moat at the border and fill it with alligators. Obama's signature
soaring rhetoric extolled the beneficial impact of immigration throughout the history of the United States, citing
Einstein and I. M. Pei ... After the inspiring reminder of what America owes to past (legal) immigrants,
came the trademark slam, the Alinsky left hook. "At times, there has been fear and resentment directed toward
newcomers." Translation: Enforcing immigration law is racist.
Bordering on demagoguery.
In his speech on immigration reform in El Paso last week, President Obama opined: "[W]e've seen leaders
of both parties who try to work on this issue, but then their efforts fell prey to the usual Washington games."
Michael Barone observes that Obama himself has been a prominent practitioner of these games.
Alligators,
Moats and Other Such Nonsense. President Obama gave what was billed as an important speech on
immigration last week near the border in El Paso, Texas. Unfortunately, it was one of the most
demagogic moments in recent presidential history. Nearly everything Obama said was either factually
incorrect or deliberately misleading.
The State Department, May 19, 2011
Obama's Abandonment of
America: Before we get into what the speech means for Israel, it is important to consider what
it means for America. Quite simply, Obama's speech represents the effective renunciation of the US's
right to have and to pursue national interests. Consequently, his speech imperils the real interests that
the US has in the region — first and foremost, the US's interest in securing its national security.
Obama's Israel Surprise.
President Barack Obama, seeking to get ahead of historic changes rolling through the Middle East, promised
support for democratic uprisings in the Arab world and called for the first time to begin negotiations for a
Palestinian state based on Israel's pre-1967 borders.
Obama's Empty
Speech: There were some fine sentences in President Obama's speech, but two of his main points
were wrong. The first thing he did was take credit for the Arab Spring, saying he had supported it all
along. This is simply not true.
What Obama's MENA Speech
Means. Herewith President Obama's May 19 Middle East speech, annotated: ["]
It will
be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.["]
With this Barack Obama openly, unreservedly, and without a trace of irony or self-reflection adopts the Bush
Doctrine, which made the spread of democracy the key U.S. objective in the Middle East.
Obama's Farewell to Israel
Speech. Yesterday [5/19/2011] President Obama, in what only be characterized as a flight from
reality, suggested that "borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed
swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states." But it gets better.
"The full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces should be coordinated with the assumption of
Palestinian security responsibility in a sovereign, non-militarized state." Would that be the "Palestinian
security responsibility" that has long countenanced the firing of several thousand missiles into Israel?
Obama's borders Caused
60 Years of War. Obama has just given an eager world his fantasy answer for the last sixty years
of Arab-Israel conflict. The Great One's long-awaited solution is for Israel to pull back to the cease-fire
lines of the 1948 War of Independence, or what Obama, in a moment of historical amnesia, calls "the 1967 borders."
People have fought and died over those borders since 1949, not 1967. Make that sixty years of regular warfare.
Did
Obama Think He Was Giving a Pro-Israel Speech? Given what he probably truly believes of Israel in his
heart, his acknowledgment of its utility as a scapegoat, its security concerns, its right to determine its own future,
and the problems raised by the Fatah-Hamas agreement surely seemed like the height of generous good feeling.
Barack Obama, Neocon? President
Obama delivered a speech on the Middle East at the State Department today [5/19/2011]. If one takes it seriously,
it signified — with one key exception — Obama's transformation into a virtual clone of his predecessor.
President Bush's democracy agenda, which Obama once scornfully rejected, has now been adopted as Obama's own.
Dancing With Arafat's
Ghost. On Thursday, Barack Obama went to the State Department to "mark a new chapter in American
diplomacy." The president's handlers boldly billed his lengthy address "A Moment of Opportunity" for the
Middle East. It was neither. Instead, he delivered a naive, revisionist lecture that was sufficiently
utopian and self-centered to have been drafted by Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, he also demanded major
concessions from the only democracy in the Middle East and America's most steadfast ally in the region, Israel.
Summing
Up Obama's Speech: Making Israel Pay for the "Reset". Contrary to reports that said that Obama had
decided to pass on enunciating his idea of a framework for Arab-Israeli peace in the wake of the unity pact between
Fatah and Hamas, the president nevertheless proceeded to do just that. Though Obama paid due deference to
Israel's security needs and stated his opposition to Palestinian attempts to delegitimize and isolate Israel, by
stating that a framework of peace must be based on the pre-1967 borders, he has dealt the Jewish state a telling
diplomatic blow.
Credibility
Is Obama's Biggest Weakness In Middle East Strategy. After Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address,
the crowd walked away disappointed. ... In comparison, President Obama's address today proved doubly disappointing.
It lacked Lincoln's simplicity and clarity. And the orator himself could offer no real accomplishments to give the
speech weight. Credibility is the big problem with this president's Middle East strategy. Thursday's speech
had to build on a foundation of next to nothing.
Just How Dumb and Damaging?
How dumb and damaging was President's Obama speech on the Middle East? [#1] Just when everyone was
focusing on how Arab states could get their internal politics in order, Obama shifts the attention back to
Israel. [#2] Just when everyone was focusing concern about the role of Hamas and Iran in shaping the
future of Palestinians, Obama shifts the attention back to what Israel has to do. [#3] Just when the
addition of Hamas was undermining the case for the UN "approving" of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders
with Jerusalem as its capital, Obama legitimizes the effort to go to the UN by unilaterally supporting the 1949
borders, which happen not to include East Jerusalem.
Criticism
of Obama's Middle East speech is swift. The reaction to President Obama's speech has not been
favorable. Tim Pawlenty, keeping to his practice of reacting swiftly to Obama's foreign policy miscues
put out a statement: "President Obama's insistence on a return to the 1967 borders is a mistaken and very
dangerous demand. The city of Jerusalem must never be re-divided. To send a signal to the Palestinians
that America will increase its demands on our ally Israel, on the heels of the Palestinian Authority's agreement
with the Hamas terrorist organization, is a disaster waiting to happen."
The Nuclear
Genie: The president's policy speech lauded changes in the Mideast during the so-called Arab Spring.
Curiously missing was anything about ominous nuclear developments in the Muslim world.
Rabbi: 'The President
of the United States is Asking for Ethnic Cleansing'. President Barack Obama has made an unprecedented
demand on Israel, Jewish leaders said Thursday, after the president called for Israel to redraw its borders to
where they were in 1967 before the Six Day War. One rabbi said Obama was, in essence, asking for "ethnic
cleansing" of thousands of Jewish families.
'Arab Spring,' Christian
Winter. Obama wants to reward "democratic Egypt" with $1 billion in debt relief.
Only, "democratic" Egypt is torching churches and slaughtering Christians left and right.
Obama's Israel Speech
Fools Few. Not only was this one of the most outrageous policy statements, regarding the
Israel/Palestinian issue made by a President in decades, but President Obama's timing was shameful.
The speech was given a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to arrive in Washington.
Edward Koch, a former New York Mayor, a lifelong Democrat, believes that "President Obama is basically hostile
to the state of Israel. A day in advance of his meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel he seeks to
cut off Israel's legs in negotiations.
Obama's Revisionist
History. Always a master at misdirection and diversion, President Obama and his flacks have
taken pains to assert that his new "1967 lines as a basis for peace" formulation for Israel's borders is,
hey, "nothing new." There's a grain of truth in this argument. But a mountain of lie.
The lie renders the truth utterly irrelevant. Let's take a little walk down memory lane of prior US
administrations, and see just how fraudulent it really is.
Obama in the Abstract.
Let's assume that it was not President Obama's intention for the final section of his big Mideast speech, in
which he took up the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to entirely overwhelm everything he had
just said in support of democratization and the "universal rights" of those living in the region. Of
course, that's exactly what happened when the fateful words "1967 lines" passed his lips.
The Afghanistan Withdrawal Speech, June 22, 2011
Text of
Obama's Afghanistan Speech.
Obama's
speech: A missed opportunity. I am at a loss to understand what President Obama was trying
to do with his speech tonight.
Quick
Analysis Of Obama's Foreign Policy Speech. This whole speech is about 2012. He thinks
it'll be more popular to pull the troops out; so he'll do that. Let's hope his foolish risk pays off.
'The
Most Irresponsible Speech Ever Given in Wartime by a US President'. "It is time for nation
building here at home," Obama said.
Barack
Obama's Mission Accomplished? The words were soothing — "take comfort in knowing that
the tide of war is receding", rest assured that "the light of secure peace can be seen in the distance" —
but what was entirely lacking was an explanation of American strategy in Afghanistan from now on.
Obama's
aggravation with Congress over Libya on display. Both in remarks the president made during
his address on Afghanistan Wednesday night and in comments made by senior administration officials, the
White House is losing patience with Congress.
Did
someone mention Libya?
President
Obama's Afghanistan speech confirms America's decline. The American Century just ended. This
was the phrase coined by Henry Luce, which so aptly described America as the modern-day colossus, more powerful
than any nation had ever been. Wednesday night, President Obama said that power had reached its limit.
He was bringing 10,000 troops home from Afghanistan. The war was not finished, but we are.
The president may be
sabotaging his own Afghanistan strategy. President Obama failed to offer a convincing military
or strategic rationale for the troop withdrawals from Afghanistan that he announced Wednesday night. In
several ways, they are at odds with the strategy adopted by NATO, which aims to turn over the war to the
Afghan army by the end of 2014.
Obama's failed state.
The White House plan to begin troop withdrawals from Afghanistan is more political than military strategy.
Whether it improves President Obama's chances of being re-elected depends largely on whether the Taliban think
he should have a second term. In December 2009, the president said troop withdrawals from Afghanistan
would begin in July 2011, and so they will. That original deadline Mr. Obama set was arbitrary, and
there is currently no military rationale for the troop drawdown.
Most
Ludicrous Analysis of Obama's Afghanistan Speech? The elusive distinction of most ludicrous
analysis of Obama's Afghanistan speech should be awarded to NPR for its story, "Obama's Afghan Speech
Echoed Lincoln's Talk." The segment was less than a minute-and-a-half, but it was a doozy.
Obama
is a master of ambivalence. What other American president has employed a public argument so
transparently political — the need to "rebuild our infrastructure" and "find new and clean
sources of energy" — to explain his choices as commander in chief? What other president has
deployed the words "fidelity" and "unwavering belief" — citing examples of military tenacity and
courage — to announce a policy of premature retreat? What other president has more
dramatically claimed "a position of strength" while more effectively conveying an impression of weakness?
Support the Tropes.
[Scroll down] The truth is, there's an Emperor's New Clothes aspect to Obama's supposed status as the World's
Greatest Orator. We've heard the myth of his eloquence over and over, yet he keeps "unexpectedly" making
gaffes or tin-eared statements. Here's the big one from his speech last night: "America, it is
time to focus on nation building here at home." The term "nation building" was popularized by George W.
Bush during a 2000 presidential debate with then-Vice President Al Gore. The soon-to-be president
used it as a term of derision.
Obama Flinches.
President Obama flinched. Last night, he announced his decision to begin rapidly unwinding his Afghan
surge. Of the 30,000 additional troops committed, Obama wants 10,000 out by the end of this year and the
rest out by the end of next summer. This risks giving back to the Taliban all that's been won over the
last year with blood, sweat, and tears.
Obama slides toward Afghan
exit. President Barack Obama is gambling that his gradual military withdrawal from Afghanistan
won't prompt the tribal country to spin out of control in the next 12 months and will help him run as a
jobs-and-growth candidate in 2012. "America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home,"
Obama declared in his prime-time announcement from the White House. "Let us responsibly end these
wars, and reclaim the American Dream that is at the center of our story," he said in a speech that segued
into a campaign-style pitch for the 2012 election.
Obama, the LBJ of
our time. Mr. Obama essentially has admitted defeat. He has publicly announced that
U.S. forces will begin to pull out and that the process will be accelerated by the summer of 2012 —
just in time for the election campaign.
Press Conference, July 11, 2011
Obama's
Marxist Immersion Shows in Presser. In yesterday morning's [7/11/2011] press conference, Obama let
slip a telling expression. To give context to this quote, Obama earlier made multiple mentions of the
fact that he was a "best-selling author" and was personally wealthy due to income from "his" books.
It would seem that Jack Cashill's work has gotten under the Usurper's skin.
A Press
Conference Devoid of Answers. The fiscal crisis, President Obama declared at a White House press
conference today, consists of two problems: the deficit and debt. Spending? That's something
he'd like to see more of, only House Republicans won't let him.
Pat
Caddell On Obama: "Does This Guy Have Any Idea What He Is Doing?". After watching Obama's press
conference this morning, Democrat pollster Pat Caddell said it is time to confront the elephant in the room:
That is, the question as to whether Obama actually has any idea what he's doing. He must be talking about
the elephant in the MSNBC green room, or something, because I think everyone else has been openly wondering
about that for some time now — and we have serious doubts.
Nobody
Should Believe A Single Thing Obama Says About the Budget. Granted, nobody should believe a single thing Obama says
about
anything — (including his denials that he knew anything about Fast and Furious), but
in light of his press conference today, ahead of his budget negotiations with John Boehner and the Republicans,
I thought it would be good to count the ways Obama has been duplicitous and disingenuous in his actions re the
economy, (which he really and truly seems hellbent on destroying.) As always with him — you
have to look at what he
does — not what he
says.
'Exchange' You
Can't Believe In. Maybe the most unknowing moment from President Obama's debt-limit press
conference the other day was when he said that "I'd rather be talking about stuff that everybody welcomes,
like new programs." Define everybody — and, please, let us know when the new programs are going to stop.
Press Conference, July 15, 2011
Obama's
tantrum in a high chair. Every mom who has ever been at her wit's end recognizes Barack Obama.
The president who earlier nagged Congress that it was time for Americans to "eat our peas" finally threw his
own peas to the floor and banged his spoon on his supper dish. Such a tantrum in a high chair is a
familiar sight in a lot of kitchens.
Obama: No Specifics.
It only took a few minutes for the President, broken record-like, to mention the immoral excesses of millionaires,
billionaires, and corporate jet owners. Seriously? I thought we had roundly and soundly debunked
this class warfare-fueled jab at the wealthy? It's mind-boggling that he is still using this as a political
selling point — although he did admit that "I generally don't watch what is said about me on cable
television," all the while blaming Congress for being out of touch with the American public.
Blow by
Blow Account of the President's Press Conference. We're talking too much about debts and
deficits which means we can't talk about spending money on community colleges. Community colleges?? ... The
only specific cut of any sort Obama mentions by name is ethanol subsidies. The only one. ... "Modest
changes" in Medicare and Social Security can save trillions of dollars, Obama says. It's all so simple!
One
Obama Presser, 36 Obama Lies and Deceptions. Obama held a press conference last Friday, July 15
which turned out to be a purely partisan effort to increase taxes and increase the American debt. His
speech and the answers he gave to cherry picked questions from the press was fundamentally dishonest:
in all I counted three dozen lies, deceptions and misleading statements.
Press Conference, July 22, 2011
It's All About
the Senate. President Obama has done nothing to earn his Nobel peace prize, but after
yesterday's [7/22/2011] performance at the White House podium no one should begrudge him an Oscar.
His performance was mean-spirited, petulant, more politically vicious than anything we ever heard from
Richard Nixon — and altogether a total crock...
The
President Is Actually Trying to Talk the Markets Into a Panic. An enraged Barack Obama
just took to the nation's airwaves to announce his effort to strike a deal with Republican Speaker
of the House John Boehner has fallen apart. Perhaps for the first time in American history,
this president is literally using this press conference [7/22/2011] to create a financial panic over
the weekend about the opening of the markets on Monday.
David
Brooks turns on Obama. After Friday night's presidential press conference, even one of
the left's favorite conservatives is scratching his head at President Barack Obama's demeanor.
Krauthammer:
'This is Obama at his most sanctimonious, demagogic, self-righteous and arrogant'. Late Friday
afternoon, President Barack Obama went to the White House press room after House Speaker John Boehner reportedly
walked away from the debt-ceiling negotiation. He had some very stern words about Boehner and the
Republicans in the House. But Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wasn't impressed with
Obama's anger.
Obama,
11 a.m.: We won't default. Obama, 6 p.m.: We might default. [Scroll down] Just a few hours later,
shortly after 6:00 p.m. Friday, the president appeared in the White House briefing room and delivered
a message that was almost precisely the opposite of what he had said a few hours earlier.
Obama's Cool Goes Missing — Again!
In what is becoming a familiar ritual in Washington, President Barack Obama went on a 35-minute tirade of
angry accusations, name calling, and peeved rhetoric; this time, against his former golf buddy John Boehner,
Speaker of the U.S. House.
National Debt Speech, July 25, 2011
Synopsis courtesy of Lucianne.
The President
Tonight. Eyelids flutter and slowly close as the nation nods off at Obama's totally political
and hectoring speech.
Obama
'Shouldn't Have Gone On National TV To Give A Political Address'. It didn't take long for the
reviews to start coming in, and at least one MSNBC anchor wasn't too happy with President Obama's performance
during his debt speech tonight.
Barack Obama has
trouble commanding respect. So this is what we have come to: the president of the United States,
and not just any president but the World's Greatest Orator, standing in the White House petulantly reproving
his partisan opponents and imploring his supporters: "If you want a balanced approach to reducing the
deficit, let your member of Congress know."
Obama the Ineffectual.
I didn't watch the president's address live last night, but before reading it I did take a look at the
insta-reaction, and there was a stunning lack of intensity in the response to it. It had become clear
in the two hours before he spoke that he himself had no particular proposal to push or goal in mind for the
speech.
Krauthammer:
Obama "Has Gone From Emperor To Bystander". Charles Krauthammer: "When I heard today
that he was going to speak at 9:00, instantly I thought, 'we've got a deal.' Why else would the
President request airtime? Then I hear he's just going to make his argument.
Hill
Republicans tee off on Obama's debt ceiling speech. Republican responses from Capitol Hill
were swift and brutal Monday night, following President Barack Obama's speech to the American people about
the federal debt limit. The assessments were as unanimous as they were scathing: Obama's
"balanced" fix to the debt limit is flawed.
Baby Talk. Consider the
condescension implicit in the president's statement -- "a term that most people outside of Washington have
probably never heard of before." These "people outside of Washington" are not little children being
lectured on an obscure subject by a worldly adult. These people outside Washington are ... citizens.
White
House Did Not Want GOP Response to Presidential Speech. The President is used to flexing his
muscles and storming the public airwaves whenever he wants to sell skeptical Americans on socialist economic
policies. The White House and media have before refused the GOP an opportunity to present a dissenting
response, thus squelching the presentation of a balanced debate.
President
Obama Is No Longer Tethered To Reality. President Barack Obama's speech to the nation
Monday night [7/25/2011] was highly disturbing. Because read carefully, it reveals a president
wildly divorced from the fundamental realities of the nation he is supposed to be leading. President
Obama actually told America on national television that it is a nation "with a system in which the deck seems
stacked against middle class Americans in favor of the wealthiest few." It is incomprehensible
how a man serving as president of these United States could make such a fundamentally false assertion
about his own country.
Credit downgrade speech, August 8, 2011
White House cooks the
books to project imaginary growth. Standard & Poor's historic downgrade of the U.S. credit
rating is an attempt to bring adult oversight to the political squabbling over out-of-control government
spending. But rather than "eating his peas," President Obama is throwing a tantrum.
Markets to Obama: shut up.
With the stock market facing a historic meltdown, Americans could at least expect the president to be on time
for a speech intended to inspire confidence. ... After twenty five minutes of waiting for Mr. Obama to show up,
the markets resumed tanking. ... In the 20 minutes after he finished speaking the Dow slid
200 points. The market closed having lost 634 points. It was a vote of no confidence.
Debt man talking.
President Obama gave a statement this afternoon on the historic downgrade of the United States' credit rating.
As of this writing, the statement is not posted on the White House site. I wonder why. ... Based on
the Politico account, Obama spoke for seven minutes. If he'd talked a little longer, he might have
taken the stock market down another 14 percent.
Obama's
horrifyingly bad speech. He was a half hour late. His head turned from side to side as
if he were attending a tennis match. He practically never looked in the camera, as if he were averting
our gaze. And those were the strong parts of President Obama's disastrous speech. It was a bit
like a slow-motion car crash. After a while, one stopped listening to the blather and simply watched
the stock ticker go down and down. And down some more.
Is Obama Smart?
Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only
by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can
anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché?
As for the small speeches, such as the one we were kept waiting 50 minutes for yesterday, we get
Triple-A bromides about America remaining a "Triple-A country." Which, when it comes to long-term
sovereign debt, is precisely what we no longer are under Mr. Obama.
Why
Did Obama Give A Speech If He Had 'Absolutely Nothing To Say'? President Obama's speech
yesterday in the aftermath of S&P downgrading America's credit rating resulted in generally negative
reviews from the
Morning Joe crew.
Obama
Serves Up a Silly Speech. The speech did at least temporary harm. As soon as he finished
speaking, the already jittery financial markets plunged. Americans didn't want to hear that we're fine
people or that Warren Buffett thinks that we should have an impeccable credit rating. They didn't want
him to repeat his basic talking points: the need to marshal the "political will" to extend the payroll
tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits, or create an infrastructure bank.
The
most powerful man on Earth? A familiar air of indecision preceded President Obama's pep talk to
the nation. The first draft of his schedule for Monday contained no plans to comment on the downgrading
of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's. Then the White House announced that he would
speak at 1 p.m. A second update changed that to 1:30. At 1:52, Obama walked into the State
Dining Room to read his statement. Judging from the market reaction, he should have stuck with his
original instinct.
Dow drops 200 points
during Obama speech. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 635 points today, but it shed
more than 200 of those points after President Obama began speaking on the economy this afternoon.
Fanning
the flames. An hour late and many trillions of dollars short, President Obama took to the podium
yet again yesterday to explain that none of this mess is his fault. It's not about leading the nation,
you see, let alone addressing its problems — it's about Campaign 2012.
The
President Owns This Bad Economy. Reacting to the U.S. credit downgrade, President Obama
gave a damaging statement proving he has learned nothing from his ideological mistakes. A true leader
accepts blame — and reality.
Presidential
Failure. If the president meant to calm the markets on Monday, he failed utterly — and
no wonder. All he did was make it clear he's completely out of ideas on how to get the economy moving
again.
'A'
what?! Rhetorical 'whiz' fails to make the grade. I don't think any president has
ever said anything quite as depressing as the line Barack Obama delivered yesterday: "No
matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country."
Really? That's the best he could come up with in response to the unprecedented downgrading of
the creditworthiness of the United States of America?
Teleprompter of the
United States. How bad was the president's speech yesterday? So bad that Dana
Perino, former press secretary for George Bush, dismissed it on Fox News last night as the work of
TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States). Even the usually supportive Dana Milbank of the
Washington Post was appalled by it: "It's not exactly fair to blame Obama for the rout:
Almost certainly, the markets ignored him. And that's the problem: The most powerful
man in the world seems strangely powerless, and irresolute, as larger forces bring down the country
and his presidency."
Obama's
Bay of Pigs Moment. Monday's speech, in which he addressed the downgrade, had the ring of
denial about it. America's credit, dropping from AAA to AA+, was diminished. The moment
called for frankness about what could — and should — be done. Instead,
we got a dodge.
Obama and the
'Competency Crisis'. The rising impatience with the leadership of President Obama was epitomized
on Aug. 8 in the middle of one of the now-habitual Wall Street roller coasters. His speech on the
economy was 53 minutes late. What showed on TV screens was an empty White House podium, an image
suggestive of the absence of leadership. When the president did speak, the best he could come up with
was "We've always been and always will be a triple-A country." The market's response was a Bronx cheer,
a drop of another 300 points.
Johnson Controls, Holland Michigan, August 11, 2011
When Obama Loses
America Wins. [Scroll down] Not coincidentally, Johnson Controls is the recipient of
$300 million of Obama's stimulus money as part of the administration's focus on so-called "green"
technology and jobs. Nowhere on the President's Teleprompter was the part about the resulting
"green" jobs costing about $2 million
each.
Joint Session of Congress, September 8, 2011:
The Big Jobs Speech That Will Fix Everything
Anticipation:
Obama's Road to Bali.
Last month's jobs figures — zero jobs created — is further testament to the genius in chief
and his posse. And while we wait for the speech laying out his latest jobs plan, the White House press
office is making every effort to dampen expectations, as if that were necessary. The White House says
it's not his
full plan.
Will
This 'Major' Jobs Speech Be Any Different. Democrats hope the president will deliver big, bold
ideas in his much-hyped jobs speech. But why should this one be different from his other "major" jobs
speeches that consisted only of stale, failed ideas?
Obama's
speech will save civilization. The Harvard-educated professor is out of ideas. His
$800 billion stimulus was supposed to drop the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent by now.
But it's 9.1 percent, and last month, the president's efforts produced not one single job. But his
speech will place new blame. Mr. Obama will, in the grand hall of Congress, portray Republicans —
and the grass-roots tea partyers swept into office in direct response to his policies — as rubes
and, between the lines, as racist.
Obama's
dirty job. The president will deliver a major speech on the employment situation only days after
his government reported that no jobs — that's none, nada, zilch, zero — were created last
month. For the first time since 1945, when World War II came to an end, not a single new job
was created in the United States.
Obama: I'm Done Working with
Congress. Pundits decrying the level of rancor between the Obama White House and Congress
should hold onto their hats — it's about to get worse, if the
New York Times is right about
the president's planned jobs speech to a Joint Session of Congress. ... Buried late in the article is a window
into the two-part strategy the president will deploy at the speech: blame his captive audience, then
announce he will be enacting policies that don't require congressional approval.
The President's
Speech Impediment. In this universe, a bigger stage is often the solution for a lack of
substance. Put it this way: Without the backdrop of a joint session of Congress, how many
networks would broadcast another Obama jobs speech?
Reaction:
The Humpty Dumpty President's
Magic Words. Anticipating President Obama's address also reminded me that my dogs communicate
better than he does. They bark or growl to tell us things and they use actions to show us, now.
President Obama, however, reads stuff written for his indispensable ally and constant companion, TOTUS. ... Dogs
don't lie and don't need teleprompters.
Obama
Came to a Fork in the Road and Took It. Will President Obama's Thursday address be the worst speech
ever? Kevin Hassett almost thinks so: ["]It might be that this jobs report stimulates the Obama team
to drop all the Keynesian nonsense, but I doubt it. Frankly, I expect Obama's jobs speech to be the worst
presidential speech in my lifetime.["]
Nancy's Nobbled
Knickers. Having just decided the other day to stop using the word "stimulus" (she's a
quick study, fer sure), Pelosi now has her knickers in a bunch because congressional Republicans have
decided not to have the usual post-presidential speech rebuttal Thursday night. ... Pelosi is right
that it is very telling that Republicans think the speech will sink so badly of its own weight
that the best response is no response.
Time to
quit blaming and start leading. In advance of Mr. Obama's coming recommendations, a few
requests: Stop the blame game, take responsibility and show leadership. "Owning" the economy
entails accountability for outcomes. To this day, Mr. Obama still blames his predecessor and
Republicans for every problem facing our country.
Stimulus Jr.: Funneling taxpayer
money to teachers unions won't create jobs. President Obama can't shake his stimulus addiction.
In his Thursday joint-session speech, he's expected to announce $300 billion in additional spending,
adding to the $4 trillion he's already borrowed from future generations since taking office.
Football tonight!
Also, Obama. Some presidential addresses can overshadow sporting events. Richard Nixon's
resignation speech temporarily halted nine major-league baseball games, two pro tennis matches and a contest
in the World Football League. It would take an oration of great moment to force the delay of the opening
game of the NFL season between the past two Super Bowl champions. Barack's paean to government spending
isn't it.
Enough
With The Deficit-Fueled Stimulus. In his speech Thursday, the president is expected to announce
a stimulus 2.0 package said to cost $300 billion. But why should anyone expect this to work any
better than the $4 trillion in stimulus already in the economy?
Is Obama Insane?
A popular definition of insanity, variously attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Ben Franklin, is,
"doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." By this standard the President of
the United States is clearly insane, if reports are true that Obama will tonight call on Congress to pass for
yet another stimulus program, this time in the ballpark of $300 billion.
Why the
Stimulus Failed: Even zero jobs growth in August doesn't seem to have disrupted President
Obama's faith in the economic policies of his first three years, so one theme we'll be listening for in
tonight's speech is how he explains the current moment. Why did his first jobs plan —
the $825 billion stimulus — so quickly result in the need for another jobs plan?
Invisible
Hand vs. Clenched Fist. The advance word on President Obama's Thursday jobs speech
is: nothing new. According to George Stephanopoulos, it will contain tax cuts for
corporations, an infrastructure bank, and the usual pabulum of job training for the unemployed.
We
Need Jobs, Not Another Jobs Speech by the President. Following a much-publicized brouhaha over
the scheduling of a "jobs speech" in September 2011, President Obama finally delivered an address to the nation
in which he outlined yet another stimulus program to create jobs. After all the hoopla associated with
the speech, investors expected something imaginative — something new, different, and better. Instead,
the president tossed up a $450-billion package that looked eerily similar to the "stimulus" programs he
sold to Congress in 2009 — the ones that failed so miserably.
Reaction:
The
irrelevancy of the Obama presidency. Usually, the press gallery is standing-room-only; this time,
only 26 of 90 seats were claimed by the deadline. Usually, some members arrive in the chamber
hours early to score a center-aisle seat; 90 minutes before Thursday's speech, only one Democrat was so
situated. Republican leaders, having forced Obama to postpone the speech because of the GOP debate,
decided they wouldn't dignify the event by offering a formal, televised "response."
"Fantastic Words, but..."
An eagle-eyed lipreader passes along this clip of Nancy Pelosi reacting to President Obama last night.
Unstimulating, Again.
If $900 billion in fiscal stimulus did not deliver us from high unemployment, perhaps another $450 billion
will do the trick: That was the theory underlying President Obama's speech.
Where's the Plan to Pay for it?
Supposedly, Obama's been advocating his $450 million jobs plan "for months." But based on last night's
speech, it sounds like the entire concept was copy-and-pasted together at the last minute from his 2009
stimulus and a couple of his August speeches.
The
'hidden meaning' found in Obama's words. People have lost confidence in Obama's ability to do
anything positive for the economy. Once the feel good rhetoric fades away, the stark reality of a nation
in crisis with a president who doesn't know what he's doing will return.
A
Guide To Code Words In Presidential Speeches. One thing that's clear after reviewing Obama's many
jobs speeches over the past two years is that his speechwriters have gotten lazy. Over and over again,
the president returns to the same basic formula: Times were tough when I got here, we've achieved a lot,
but the hole was so deep it will take time to get out. And then he trots out the same rote prescriptions.
Obama's
Address Was About Style, Not Substance. In his speech he said he is asking Congress "to increase
that amount (the amount they will cut spending) so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act."
In plain English that means that cuts in spending the Congress might have made independently of this "Jobs Act"
will now be assigned to cover this bill, which means they are no longer cuts to reduce the deficit.
Cutting spending and enacting new programs isn't cutting spending.
Using
a Joint Session of Congress as a Prop. Make no mistake: the president cheapened and
degraded the majesty of an address to both Houses of Congress. We have every reason to expect that with
the precedent now set, Joint Sessions are fair game for appropriation by future presidents seeking a majestic
backdrop for political posturing. Barack Obama fond of the word "unprecedented" as a descriptor of his
actions. Unfortunately, the word applies to his address last night, and not in a good way.
More Leeches!
President Obama's speech tonight was a political act, and has generally been treated as such. Indeed, his
political purpose was so transparent that he felt compelled to devote his opening paragraphs to denying it.
Politics, nevertheless, suffused the speech.
The only newly created "jobs" is the one
called Saving America. Joint Congress charades and hype notwithstanding, people know that
government and trade unions do not supply jobs. They take them away. Especially since the Obama
Regime came into power. With nothing new to say almost three years in, is it any wonder why Internet
news on Obama's "Pass this jobs bill" has been scarce?
Obama speech like Groundhog
Day. The speech itself was almost literally a retread of the 2009 stimulus plan Obama pushed
through a friendly Congress with almost no Republican support, with one important difference: The president
never mentioned the cost of his proposal. He demanded that Congress pass his bill immediately more than a
dozen times during the speech, but not once did he inform Congress of its price tag.
The
Speech That Broke The Patience of the Country? President Obama's speech on Thursday night
bordered on parody. His repetition of long-overused talking points combined with his repeated attacks on
job creators and his incessant demand to "pass it right now" produced a mixture of arrogance and absurdity so
transparently political that it lacked any capacity to cause political movement or to change anyone's opinion
on any issue.
The Jobs Speech.
Immediately after the speech ended reporters began Tweeting that the cost of the bill would be $447 billion
according to a White House "fact sheet." If there is no bill, how can the WH say that?
Soaring
rhetoric — again. President Obama has always given good political rhetoric.
His downfall is substantive follow-up. ... "Every proposal I've laid out tonight will be paid for."
With Monopoly money, no doubt.
Jobs
plan deja vu. Americans who watched President Obama's call for a new jobs bill Thursday night might
have wondered whether they were stuck in a time warp. A proposal to spend hundreds of billions of dollars
to put people to work: Is this 2009 all over again?
Obama
gives campaign speech to liberals. President Obama's jobs speech was one of the weaker addresses
of his presidency. The delivery was rushed, the laundry list of policies were rehashed from prior
speeches and his constant refrain imploring Congress to "pass this jobs bill" made him come across like
a salesman on a TV infomercial.
Pass
This Speech Full of Old Ideas ... NOW. Throughout the night, Obama pulled out his "we're in a crisis,
we must pass this now" card, and repeatedly asked for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act "right away," promising
twice that everything will be paid for. Then, there were flashbacks to 2009, when Obama called for the
immediate passage of the $1 trillion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or stimulus package.
Obama's
jobs plan paid for? Seems not. President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his
jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.
Obama:
The Obsolete 'Post Office President'. The preposterous irrelevance of President Obama's jobs speech
is summed up by the fact that he repeatedly urged Congress to "pass this jobs bill right away" — but
there is no bill. By the admission of his own aides, Obama's jobs bill is still being drafted.
It won't be submitted until next week, and his plan for how to pay for it won't be submitted until the week
after that.
Obama's Gift Has
Stopped Giving. Obama feels our economic pain. We know this because he was so sincere
as he addressed a joint session of Congress last Thursday. Or at least he tried to sound that sincere.
The problem is that Obama struggles to come off empathetic, due to his inherently professorial speaking style.
To make up for this shortcoming, Obama often employs a sort of out-loud whisper to give the impression of
intense emotion while still speaking quietly. On Thursday, the president sought a doubly empathetic tone,
but what resulted was speaking that sounded like an awkward cross between a grunt and a whisper.
Back to the Future?
Those who are impressed by words seem to think that President Barack Obama made a great speech to Congress
last week. But, when you look beyond the rhetoric, what did he say that was fundamentally different from
what he has been saying and doing all along? Are we to continue doing the same kinds of things that have
failed again and again, just because Obama delivers clever words with style and energy?
What Job 'Training'
Teaches? Bad Work Habits. Last Thursday, President Obama proposed new federal jobs and job-training
programs for youth and the long-term unemployed. The federal government has experimented with these programs
for almost a half century. The record is one of failure and scandal.
Devoid of reality.
President Obama's speech this past week should have been labeled, "Believe what I say, not what I do."
All too much of the speech was devoid of reality.
You
call that a jobs program? After waiting for weeks to hear President Obama's answer to staggering
unemployment and a stalled economy, the nation last night got nothing more than a $447 billion pile of
recycled ideas that isn't likely to pass Congress.
Obama's jobs bill is
no solution. "Pass this jobs bill ... pass it right away ..."[,] President Obama
urged Congress in his speech on Thursday night. Nearly 20 times in his 34-minute talk, the
president used that phrase or a variation ... "You should pass this jobs plan right away." Obama
sounded like a razzle dazzle TV infomercial pitch man telling his listeners to act fast, don't delay,
call now, operators are standing by. What the speech did not have was an explanation of why Obama
believes his proposal to spend another $447 billion on this Sequel to Stimulus will help the
economy any more than his original stimulus plan.
The
American Jobs Act: Why It Will Not Create Jobs. President Obama, last night,
outlined his latest greatest proposal for creating jobs: The American Jobs Act.
It's a combination of some good things (tax reductions) and some bad things (tax increases).
It's his grand plan to finally focus on jobs (after 3 years with unemployment over 9%).
All of the past stimulus weren't enough so we are going to try it again with more stimulus money.
Stock Market, Associated Press Not Buying
Obama's Speech. As anyone who even remotely follows politics knows, Barack Obama had
an electioneering speech a Congressional Address yesterday. It
bombed in the eyes of the stock market and in the eyes of the normally sycophantic Associated Press.
As of right now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen over 300 points after Obama's after-hours
speechifying. And the Associated Press basically said to Obama "you've been weighed and measured
and found wanting."
The
President's Pedestrian Speech. Several thoughts occur, all starting with P.
Projection.
That's psychologist-speak term for projecting your own faults on others. "This isn't political
grandstanding," Obama told members of Congress, as Republicans snickered (but thankfully resisted the
temptation to shout "You lie!"). "This isn't class warfare." These sentences came four
paragraphs after Obama insisted that "the most affluent citizens and corporations" should pay more
taxes (which spurs job creation how?), and not long before he promised to "take that message to
every corner of the country."
Obama's
Combative Save-My-Job Speech. President Obama's address to Congress was exactly what we
thought it would be: a shallow, callow campaign rally masquerading as something serious and important.
As Charles Krauthammer framed it on Fox, tonight's address represented the first presidential campaign speech
delivered in the House of Representatives in US history. Obama tried to strike an urgent tone,
repeatedly instructing Congress to pass his plan "right away." These appeals for immediate
action started before he even described a single idea.
A Stale
Speech. Is Obama just politically dense, or he is so inured to the Chicago us/them
confrontational mentality that he knows no politics other than polarization, even when appealing
for help?
Obama and
the lunatic left. Much of his speech called for more of the same — government
activism; massive spending on infrastructure, bridges and roads; extending the payroll tax cut;
and more public aid to states and municipalities. In short, he seeks to perpetuate the dismal
policies of Obamanomics. He is a reckless ideologue masquerading as a pragmatist.
Mr. Obama's presidency has been dominated by one seminal reality — failure.
Obama's
bad jobs idea. President Obama did not mention it in his speech last night, but his
American Jobs Act contains one really bad idea that will probably destroy jobs in a misguided effort
to save them. I refer to his call for a ban on what some are calling "unemployment discrimination":
the alleged practice by which some companies refuse to hire applicants because they are unemployed,
or even announce in their job postings that they don't hire applicants who aren't currently working.
The
President's Old, New Jobs Program. President Obama's jobs program is disappointing, to
put it mildly. Given our economic troubles, this heavily politicized rehash of failed policies
is a slap in the face to 27 million Americans without full-time jobs. In an angry speech
clearly intended to rally his demoralized troops, the president on Thursday unveiled a $457 billion
jobs plan that was touted as "new," but really just recycles past failed policies.
The
President's Plan Falls Short. Who really expected an unbelievably larg