— 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."
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.
More
about the proposed Ground Zero mosque.
Other speeches
An Agenda in Shambles. In
April 2009, President Obama laid out his domestic agenda in a speech at Georgetown University. This was
no ordinary chat; Obama envisioned nothing less than a reorientation of the American system. He sought to
shift the economy from the rough and tumble cowboy capitalism of the past to a less risky, pricier, and perhaps
slightly more comfortable European future. "We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity,"
Obama said. Less than a year later, this agenda is in shambles.
Boehner
says Obama selling 'snake-oil'. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) was not persuaded by
President Obama's just-completed healthcare speech in Pennsylvania. "President Obama's latest health
care sales pitch is, just like all the others were, heavy on snake oil and light on the harsh reality
Americans would face under his plan: higher taxes, reduced Medicare benefits, and lost jobs," Boehner
said in a statement.
Obama's
rhetorical shift on health care. You'll be glad to know that, like with the Obama presidency
before it, we have now moved from the "everything will miraculously change" portion of the Obama health-care
pitch to the "I never said everything would miraculously change" portion. This comes from his speech
selling health-care reform in Iowa today [3/25/2010]...
Will
MSM Let Obama Get Away With 'We Don't Quit' War Whopper? There are lies, damned lies, and then
the kind of brazen rewriting of what a man stands for that Barack Obama engaged in yesterday [3/28/2010]. The
swaggering Barack Obama, in his faux-military leather jacket, who boasted to American troops that "the United
States of America does not quit once it starts on something," is the same man who in 2007 told the troops and
the entire world that America and its military couldn't win in Iraq, never could, and should immediately quit.
Passover Mush. Obama,
as presidents have traditionally done, released a Passover message. It is typical Obama —
off-key, hyper-political, and condescending.
The GOP in the Wake of
ObamaCare: The president has made, repeatedly and on the record, extravagant claims.
He promised the moon and the stars. When those things not only don't come to pass, but when people see
that their lives are worse off thanks to ObamaCare, there will be a very high political price to pay.
Obama tries to mop up the mess he has made.
Obama's
No. 1 focus: It is not jobs. The President comes to New England not to talk to
business owners about how to create more jobs or to seek any input whatsoever on stimulating the economy.
His trip, CNN has reported, is part of a political strategy to help Democrats in Congress who face strong
criticism at home for supporting his health care legislation despite the opposition of their constituents.
As Obama jets around the country trying to convince Americans that his health care law is not the disaster it
so clearly is, the economy continues to struggle.
Financial
District workers can't bear to watch. Wall Street worker Steven Cohen didn't waste his time
listening to Obama's speech to the financial industry Thursday [4/22/2010]. He knew exactly what message
the President was going to deliver, and thinks it's all wrong. "Why would I watch his speech?" the
54-year-old real estate professional said. "The man is hurting the job creation engine that makes New
York City run. "I have better things to do with my time."
President Obama Ribs Iowa Crowd for Not Applauding His Warning About
"Hard Choices". "We're going to have to make some tough choices" about the deficit and national
debt, President Obama said to a crowded gymnasium full of supporters at Indian Hills Community College, after
a lengthy riff on how the unsustainable debt would need to be tackled. This, unlike most of what the
president said during the town hall meeting, was met with silence.
Obama's Big Government Problem:
Listening to an Obama speech is like chowing down on a box of assorted chocolates — you never know what
you're going to get. The president's commencement speech at the University of Michigan last Saturday [5/1/2010]
was a classic case in point. To paraphrase an orator whose reputation for greatness did not involve the
use of either speechwriters or teleprompters: never in the course of American politics has a president
used so many words to say so little.
Obama
Hypocrisy on Small Businesses and Jobs. Obama keeps delivering ill-considered speeches as in
Buffalo, making it painfully obvious that he mistakenly believes that the federal government can create private
sector jobs. Obama does not seem to understand that any government job, or government-created job, can
only be paid for by increasing taxes or by borrowing.
Obama's lazy tribute to
Daniel Pearl. Like a lot of guys who've been told they're brilliant one time too often,
President Obama gets a little lazy, and doesn't always choose his words with care. And so it was
that he came to say a few words about Daniel Pearl, upon signing the "Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act."
What
Daniel Pearl's decapitation means to Barack Obama. Even given Obama's ever more terrifying
and lethal performance in office, his comments about the jihadi murder of Daniel Pearl, and in front of
Daniel's bereaved family, are simply astounding. This is what Obama said: "Obviously, the loss
of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world's imagination because it reminded us of how
valuable a free press is."
America's sophist in chief.
The president traveled to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University on Wednesday [6/2/2010] to yet again tout his
vision of economic renewal and to rip Republicans for their supposedly regressive opposition to his supposedly
"progressive" agenda. The rhetoric, much of it Orwellian and liberally peppered with a half-baked political
screed, came straight from the dented-can section of the grocery store. Obama is an accomplished shaman
of the genre. But that's not a compliment.
Santa and Frank.
[Scroll down] This old trick is now being unveiled by the Obama administration, like so many other old
political tricks used in this "change" administration. In one of President Obama's many prissy little
sermonettes, complete with finger wagging, he has declared: "Next year when I start presenting some very
difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits step up.
Because I'm calling their bluff."
All
Talk, No Action. President Obama uttered some fine words Wednesday [7/7/2010] on the value of
export trade. But with no trade pacts on the horizon until after elections, it's just political
busywork. What's really needed is courage.
Blather in Kansas City.
[Scroll down] Just as when the President lied about not having available oil reserves last month in his televised
address to the nation regarding the BP oil spill, he told another outright lie in Kansas City. It was so blatant
that it was almost humorous. Note the President's words, "So our goal has never been to create another
government program, our goal has been to spur growth in the private sector." Really? Does any sane
person who even casually follows politics or watched the 2008 presidential campaign believe this?
He's Playing You. The
bamacare socialized medicine takeover legislation doesn't even go into effect until 2014, and he is saying
now in 2010 just 3 or 4 months after its passage, hey, look around, where are all those scary results
they told us about? What I am wondering, actually, is just how stupid does he think we are? He is
thinking that enough of us are too stupid to know that his socialized medicine bill doesn't go into effect until
2014, and that he can play us for fools with this kind of shameful, manipulative, abusive rhetoric.
President Obama Once Again Makes Erroneous Claim.
President Barack Obama on Monday incorrectly stated that a landmark campaign-finance ruling allows foreign
entities to pour money into U.S. elections. It's the second time he's made such a claim, and this time
it happened while he was promoting the Democrats' DISCLOSE Act in a Rose Garden speech.
Obama's Lack of Disclosure.
You know when a politician starts a sentence with "frankly," he's about to lie to your face.
Urban Myths.
Speaking to the Urban League on Thursday [7/29/2010], the president had a great chance to tout his accomplishments.
Sadly, when it came to the economy, he had to stretch the truth quite a bit just to say anything.
In
Wisconsin, Obama Touts Clean-Energy Jobs, Says Economy Is Rebounding. Touring the ZBB manufacturing
plant in Menomonee Falls, Wis., on Monday [8/16/2010], President Obama continued to make the case that the economy
is on the rebound and that his administration's actions in the last 18 months to boost growth and create
jobs have been the right ones. ... "What's clear," Obama continued, "is that we are heading in the right
direction. Just a year and a half ago, the economy was shrinking rapidly. Now the economy is
growing."
[Does anybody believe that?]
What
Barack Obama's really saying at all these cross-country stops to collect money. If any president's
supporters knew what they were going to hear for their $30,400 fundraiser admission ticket, few would likely
shell out even $30. Which is why so many Hollywood liberal luminaries like Jeffrey Katzenberg and
Barbra Streisand bought the tickets and then completely skipped Barack Obama's speech...
Obama's foreign funny
money. In his weekly radio address on Saturday [8/21/2010], the president went on about the
supposed effects of the Supreme Court's January decision in the Citizens United case, which loosened
restrictions on certain types of corporate political activity. Mr. Obama warned of a "corporate takeover
of our democracy." With plenty of melodrama, he complained about "a flood of attack ads run by shadowy
groups." He even claimed, "You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation." Mr. Obama
surely knows his talking points are nonsense. His claim about foreign contributions repeatedly has been
proved false.
Obama's speeches in general
Obama's Demoralized Left.
The president is almost as ubiquitous as Big Brother in 1984, but he does not reign over Orwell's Oceania.
Every redundant or pointless appearance Obama makes diminishes him. Americans know all about advertising
and self-promotion. We are savvy about oversold products, particularly political products like Obama, who
works in an utterly scripted and unchallenged public environment. This fatigue affects Democrats, too.
All Americans bore easily when the same face is saying the same things.
When the Charm Rubs
Off. His Dec. 8 televised economics speech at the Brookings Institution was followed
on Dec. 10 by his televised Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which was remarkable for 38 uses
of the pronoun "I." And for disavowing a competence no one suspected him of. ("I do not bring with
me today a definitive solution to the problems of war." Note the superfluous adjective.) And
for an unnecessary notification. ("Evil does exist in the world.") And for delayed
utopianism. ("We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes." But in someone's.)
And for solemnly announcing something undisputed. (There can be a just war.) And for
intellectual applesauce that should get speechwriters fired and editors hired.
How
O says he's about to mislead. [Scroll down] For connoisseurs of Obama-speak, the address
featured a trifecta, combining three of his favorite rhetorical tropes. There was the vague reference
to "those who" question his agenda; the "false choice" they use to deceive the public; the determination to
"be clear" and forthright, in contrast with those dishonest naysayers. These devices are useful as
signals that the president is about to mislead us.
Obama's
Speeches Become a Weak Point. Obama's rhetorical challenge runs deeper than the recession.
In the most unexpected development of his presidency, what was once universally recognized as Obama's greatest
political strength — his oratory — now seems a serious weakness.
In Obama's
speeches, one favorite phrase: 'Let me be clear'. Whether President Obama's upcoming State
of the Union address focuses on jobs, health care, foreign policy or something else entirely, there is one
thing we can count on: Obama will make himself absolutely clear.
Their
Own Worst Enemies . Obama is clearly doubling down on his plans to push through a health-care
bill, and his remarks today underscored just how partisan the once "post-partisan president" has become.
Lipstick On A Pig.
[Last year] the physicians were told to bring their white lab coats with them to make sure the TV cameras
captured the proper image. Those who just showed up wearing suits or dresses were provided with lab coats
hastily rustled up. This year's event was similarly staged, and the stage props standing alongside President
Obama might as well have been straight out of central casting. Clearly the White House has run out of ideas,
both on the substance of their bill and how to persuade the American people to swallow this bitter pill.
The
President's Imaginary Health Plan: The president launched a last-ditch effort to pass a
government takeover of American health care yesterday [3/3/2010]. To hear him tell it, his plan would let
every American keep the health insurance he has today if he wants to. And it would reduce premiums,
cut taxes for the middle class, slow the pace of rising costs, reduce the federal budget deficit, and
keep bureaucrats out of health-care decisions too. This latest presidential health-care pitch might
have left some Americans scratching their heads. What plan is he talking about, they might ask
themselves. Because the plan he described doesn't remotely resemble anything the Democrats have
assembled over the past year.
Obamacare worth the
price to Democrats. So there was President Obama, giving his bazillionth speech on health
care, droning yet again that "now is the hour when we must seize the moment," the same moment he's been
seizing every day of the week for the past year, only this time his genius photo-op guys thought it would
look good to have him surrounded by men in white coats.
Gloomy
Obama would rather be a victim than leader. While the straw men Obama creates in each speech
say he should do nothing, the president says he is compelled to act, even if the only option is unpalatable.
It's a rhetorical trick that helps Obama avoid the label of hard-Left liberal. But it also helps
perpetuate Obama's image as a gloomy pessimist, a label that may be even more damaging. He'd do better
by owning his agenda and selling it with vigor instead of moping through his term as a victim of fate.
Obama Has Given 54 Speeches on
Health Care. On no other issue has President Obama put in as much effort and displayed as
much passion as on health care. Since launching his campaign for health care reform with a White
House forum on March 5th of last year, Mr. Obama has delivered 54 speeches and statements on
the issue.
The End of Hope and Change.
President Barack Obama's final speech before this weekend's anticipated vote on health care legislation had the same
soaring rhetoric he's been known for, those turns of phrase that sound awfully pretty unless you think about them too
hard. Obama's speeches are what a speechwriter I knew liked to call "cotton candy communication" — sticky
sweet and airy, made for children, comforting to the listener as they hear, but melting away, instantly
forgettable. Plus, ingest too much of it and you get sick as a dog.
Obama incorrectly "quotes" Lincoln.
Obama:
Bound to be Fake. [Scroll down] The book he was consulting may have been
They Never
Said It, by Paul F. Boller and John George. If so, he missed what they said about the Lincoln
passage: "This sounds like Honest Abe, but honesty compels admirers of Lincoln to admit that there
is no documentary evidence for the statement."
Without Lies, What Could Obama Say?
[Scroll down slowly] Contemplate the reticence, and effectiveness, of George Washington in building this
nation. Then compare it with the 500+ speeches that our current leader has given in less than a year and
a quarter; all scripted fiction, (do you find that the word 'lie' perhaps applies here?), completely forgettable
and delivered to a (or so Obama thought) gullible American public. These increasingly ineffective professorial
lessons in everything that is wrong with us were delivered by Obama simultaneous to his systematic dismantling of
the United States of America as created by George Washington and the others.
One Man's Quest To
Catalog Presidential Minutiae. Without somebody counting, "a lot of this vaporizes," [Mark] Knoller
says. "I've got an assessment of the presidency that others don't... I'm amused by it." While
Washington marveled at the verbosity at the president's health-care summit Feb. 25, it was Mr. Knoller
who put a number on it: at 60,000 words, the 155-page White House transcript of the summit was the
longest ever recorded — by Mr. Knoller, anyway. He says that as of Tuesday [3/30/2010], Mr. Obama has
delivered 481 speeches, comments and remarks, and used a TelePrompTer for 220 of those.
The Empty Vessel President.
[Obama's] rhetoric has been shown to be the same hackneyed product of political speechwriters, his communication
skills very similar to that of any good news anchor, and his language has shown a disturbing tendency towards
propaganda... short on facts, long on emotion, and big on inverted meanings where taxes are investments,
spending is saving, and more government intrusion is freedom.
"Enough Money".
One of the many shallow statements that sound good — if you don't stop and think about it —
is that "at some point, you have made enough money." The key word in this statement, made by President
Barack Obama recently, is "you." There is nothing wrong with my deciding how much money is enough for
me or your deciding how much money is enough for you, but when politicians think that they should be deciding
how much money is enough for other people, that is starting down a very slippery slope.
Silent signals:
In 2009 President Obama subjected the nation to 52 addresses, 158 interviews, 42 news
conferences, 23 town hall meetings and used the teleprompter 178 times. Oddly, the master of
speechifying says more by saying nothing then if every utterance that ever passed Obama's lips was pooled
into one unending communiqué.
It's Complicated. Jon
Stewart pointed out something interesting: how often President Obama or his underlings tell us how complicated or
complex the job is. So I did some searching on the White House web site to see how often such words appear in
various speeches and remarks.
Shut Up, Barack! Does anyone
recall the first weeks of Barack Obama's presidency? He was everywhere on the media all the time.
His constant use of TelePrompters became an instant joke, suggesting he could not say anything unless it was
scripted. Indeed, listening to him try to speak without them is a painful process of a very slow
selection of words and very long pauses in between.
Why
is Obama Changing "Freedom of Religion" to "Freedom of Worship"? Last November Obama used the
term "freedom of worship" at the memorial service for the victims of the Ft. Hood shooting. A few
days later he did it again in speeches in both Japan and China. In December Hillary Clinton also used
that terminology three times in a speech at Georgetown University and never once used the phrase "freedom of
religion". In January of this year Clinton used the "freedom of worship" term four times while
addressing senators. ... The response by many religious freedom advocates is fear of what this all means.
Obama
Moves Away From 'Freedom of Religion' Toward 'Freedom of Worship'. The change in
language was barely noticeable to the average citizen but political observers are raising red flags at
the use of a new term "freedom of worship" by President Obama and Secretary Clinton as a replacement
for the term freedom of religion. This shift happened between the President's speech in Cairo
where he showcased America's freedom of religion and his appearance in November at a memorial for the
victims of Fort Hood, where he specifically used the term "freedom of worship." From that
point on, it has become the term of choice for the president and Clinton.
Let
me be clear: Obama's condescending phrase. Among his favorite phrases — "make
no mistake," "whole host," "change isn't easy" — one is President Obama's obvious favorite:
"Let me be clear." He uses it — deliberately and extemporaneously — when making
what he obviously feels is his main point. So too, annoyingly, does much of his administration.
The Unpresidential President.
[Scroll down] It may be, however, that Obama has created a box for himself from which he cannot escape.
He has so monopolized and personalized the public relations aspect of his office that now only his own voice can
speak for the presidency. Profligacy in the use of public access — almost a speech a day —
has made indirectness impossible. A president who has become his own chief point man puts at risk an asset
that is helpful to his standing and vital for the nation's political system: the dignity of the
presidential office.
Sixteen
Thousand Birthday Wishes From Obama to His Favorite Person. Since Obama took office January last
year, he's talked endlessly about himself. At townhalls, in speeches, during anniversaries and to the
press, the message has always been the same: "I." Obama has spoken some form of "I" or "me"
more than 16,000 official times since he took office.
How Many "Top Priority" Issues Does
Obama Have? After the Senate passed that $600 million Border Security Bill yesterday [8/12/2010],
President Obama issued a statement asserting that securing the southwest border has been "a top priority" since
he took office. But if you think Mr. Obama can have but a single "top priority," you'd be wrong.
He's got a load of them.
Obamateurism of the Day.
Everyone who has had to listen to Barack Obama speak can identify his rhetorical crutches — "Let me
be clear," "It's not about me," and "I inherited a mess," to name just a few. CBS' Mark Knoller has to
listen more than most, being a member of the White House press corps, and decided to focus on another of
Obama's rhetorical crutches. Just how many "top priorities" can one man have?
The lost
promise of Barack Obama. In his new stump speech, he says: "We're slipping and sliding and
sweating, and the other side, the Republicans, they're standing there with their Slurpees watching us."
In Seattle, the president of the United States pantomimed drinking a Slurpee to mock his opponents. A
campaigner such as Ronald Reagan could draw political blood with a wink and a smile. Obama's partisan
rhetoric manages to be prickly, mean-spirited and unfunny. On the campaign trail, he taunts and whines.
He does not charm.
Our Lecturer in Chief.
President Obama just can't help himself. It's impulse. Every time he sees the American people, in
their infinite and confounding ignorance, pursuing a course they shouldn't, he intervenes to correct them.
Such is the view from the clouds on which he placidly floats above us all. Most politicians speak of the
wisdom of the American people. Some even believe it. But not Obama. Time and time again, he
takes to the lectern to scold or educate us.
The (Not So) Great
Pretender. [Obama] became president by perfecting the art of appearing cool, calm, intellectual,
and competent. Unfortunately, this seems to be the extent of his repertoire of emotions. ... No matter
the crisis, the president reads his lines the exact same way: cool, calm, detached. He is truly
one of the worst actors I've ever seen.
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