Many voters who supported him are no longer elated by the historic novelty of his candidacy and presidency. They hoped for a president who would be effective. Remember “Yes We Can”? Now many of his sharpest critics are his former supporters. Witness Bill Broyles, a one-time admirer who recently wrote in Newsweek that “Americans aren’t inspired by well-meaning weakness.” The president who first inspired with great speeches on red and blue America now seems to lack the ability to communicate any sense of resolve for a program, or any realization of the urgency of what might befall us. The teleprompter he almost always uses symbolizes and compounds his emotional distance from his audience.Mort Zuckerman/WSJ
“If you stop licensing taxi cabs, tomorrow you will see guys and women on every street corner saying, ‘Who wants to go to XYZ address?’ (The cabbie) will put five people in the car and drive them to that address. … When the guy drops them off, if he’s smart, he’ll say: ‘Tomorrow — same thing, right? What do you guys want to drink for breakfast?’ There will be cappuccino and ice tea and glass of milk. After X months, he will have three cars; after X months, he will have a fleet. And everyone will be competing to meet the needs of the commuters, which also is going to reduce traffic. Why are they allowed to compete? Because the government got the hell out of the business.”
I’ve argued before that Tony Blair and Barack Obama have an awful lot in common. Both are lawyers; both are snake-oil-salesman; both claim to be post-partisan, and Third Way and consensual; both play the acceptable, moderate-seeming public face of a regime chock full of Communists, class warriors, single issue rabble rousers, malcontents, communitarians and eco-loons hell bent on destroying every last vestige of what once made their country great. And both do (or did) the things dodgy political leaders always do when the going gets tough at home and their domestic audience finally wises up to how totally useless they are: they hop on the plane and pose as international statesman instead.James Delingpole/UKTelegraph (emphasis mine.)
Isn’t that an interesting observation (from a Brit, no less) considering the geo-political education Obama got last week from Benjamin Netanyahu?
Have you seen the movie Soapdish? The scene: Soap opera star and “America’s Sweetheart” Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) has been dumped by her boyfriend and is being maneuvered by political ner’do-wells at work. She’s depressed and emotionally falling apart when her friend and writer at the Sun Also Sets, (Whoopi Goldberg) takes her to the mall and pretends to be a fan. This incites all the shoppers to gather ’round Celeste and beg for autographs and go all gah-gah over her. Just the “worship fix” Celeste needed.
When I saw Obama in Ireland today, in front of thousands of cheering, adoring fans, I thought immediately of that scene in Soapdish. In his own version of television soap opera, Obama’s not getting the kind of reception in America that the Irish have lavished on him, and in fact he’s been getting a lot of criticism, so I’m sure he’s in need of a little messiah worship infusion. He’ll get it from those European socialists who want nothing more than to slobber all over the first Black American president.
Delingpole’s blog is a definite must read. You’ll enjoy it and be sure and read his link to a previous story about Michelle.
On another topic: Doesn’t Hillary look good since she got that LifeStyle lift?
Obama has been everywhere, raising money. We’re seeing him everyday. He’s campaigning all over the place: bad mouthing the Republicans and the Tea party. Intimidating any would-be opponent because he’s going to raise $1billion. Who can compete with that?
And we have 19 months until the next election.
Does this mean Obama fatigue (or more like voter catatonia) to anyone but me?
The Republicans are right to hold back and not announce their intentions to run. This is a smart move for them. This gives Obama lots of time to muck things up for himself before the real races and debates occur. And it gives Obama time for the voters to be burned out and sick of him. Or sicker than we are now.
Yep, I think the Republicans are doing the right thing and Obama is on his own track to ruination. Or at least I’m praying so.
I’m a Brit lover like no other. Next to Israel, I think the Brits are the best friends we could ever have. I love reading their opinions about America because it’s interesting to see how the rest of the world views us. But sometimes they are a little arrogantly off the mark about things over here.
Anna Pukas, in her column from the ExpressUK is just a little off kilter in her assessment of the Obama regime. She makes some good points about the weakness of this regime and then she falls back on the false reporting and propaganda (for instance, about Gitmo) to back up her assertions. She says, for example, the Obama has been “stymied by a hostile Republican led congress.” Can’t she count? He had both houses of Congress for nearly 2 years and now he still has the Senate. And yet, he still couldn’t and can’t get anything done.
She complains about the aggressive cowboy leadership of George W. but laments that Obama has no clear goals and has shown no leadership for the world since he was elected. You can’t have it both ways, Anna. You want America to lead or not? Or is it about the personality of the leader that you object to?
On this point, she is correct and why the American people, as well as the rest of the world, is feeling insecure: What is President Obama doing about anything? The most alarming answer – your guess is as good as mine – is also, frankly, the most accurate one. What the President is not doing is being clear, resolute and pro-active, which is surely a big part of his job description.
It might be easy and fine for Brits to travel by bicycle, train and foot since England is about the size of Alabama and as the United Kingdom, it’s about the size of Oregon. But take a look at a map, Anna. America is 48 more of those states and many are pretty danmed huge. So to lament your that “American love affair with the car and oil remains undiminished despite any alleged commitment. But the White House appears to shy away from any tough action,” is really to misunderstand the size of my nation and traditions of the American people
The energy with which Obama entered the White House seems to have all gone in the push to bring in health care reform, which many Americans didn’t want (or still don’t realise they want). No, Anna, most Americans realise that we don’t want it and that we don’t like it. Period.
But here again is another mostly accurate truism from Pukas: All of which means that it is starting to look as if Obama and the Democratic Party have but one aim in mind for the rest of this presidential term: to get elected for a second. That means not doing anything that might upset any number of special interest or niche groups, which in effect means not doing very much at all. So, not too many harsh but necessary measures to tackle the financial deficit; no clear direction on where America goes with Afghanistan, even though the war there is going nowhere except from bad to worse.
Puka’s complaints are valid and the same as most Americans share, but most of her examples to bolster those complaints are not.
Yes we can was a noble and powerful mantra which secured for Barack Obama the leadership of the free world.
“Hope and change” and “Yes we can” are not clear or meaningful slogans, let alone “noble and powerful.” All they do is incite emotion. Yes we can what? Elect an inexperienced, naive, amateur president? We sure did that.
Now, “Drill Baby Drill” – there was a clear, concise message.
Ezra Klein is an idiot wizkid. He has no idea what he’s talking about but sure has convinced a whole lot of folks that he knows something about something.
When did it become the common knowledge in this country that in order to know what the Constitution says, we need lawyers and judges to tell us? There is no way that anyone can convince me that the Founders wrote this document so that NONE of us could understand it. This document was not written to keep the populace in the dark about their God-given rights. No way – no how!
But Ezra says that it’s too complicated and written in an old fashion-y way and it’s over 100 years old (no, Ezra, you brilliant 26 year old, poli-sci grad, it’s over 230 years old) so therefore, it’s irrelevant today. And it’s confusing.
Confusing to liberals, yes. Because they are having a difficult time finding ways to twist the old fashion-y text to fit their changing attacks on our rights.
Irrelevant? To progressives, yes. They continue to write law that has no basis in the Constitution. And they are not ashamed to tell you so, either. Just take note of the comments from Congressmen and Senators who state that they don’t consider the Constitution when making law. You’ve all heard and seen those clips of Pete Stark, Pelsoi and others.
Ezra also says it’s non-binding. Non-binding to progressives yes, as they try to find loop holes around it, while they try to tie us in knots by restricting our rights. How can the reading of it at the opening of the 112th Congress be non-binding?
The Constitution is binding on every person who takes an oath to uphold it, Ezra, you stupid jackass! It’s binding every day that those men and women are in session and every day those same people are writing and voting on laws that effect our lives.
Tell me, you big dummy, (now I’m channeling Levin) when in any of our daily lives is that document non-binding? It’s the only thing that is keeping a Chavez-like regime from really taking root in this nation.
Lastly, someone tell me when it became okay, in fact fashionable, to be a self-avowed communist in the body politic of this nation? As a caller asked last night on Levin, how can a communist (or some variation of that – a marxist or socialist) take an oath to uphold the Constitution? It is in total ideological opposition to the communist ideology and therefore, a communist cannot make an honest and truthful oath to uphold our Constitution.
“Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun,” 31-year-old Faisal Shahzad told a federal judge. “Consider me the first droplet of the blood that will follow.”
Stop Sharia in America
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Obamas Wisdom and Terror in the Street
"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever...we absorbed it and we are stronger."
Diary of a Mad Conservative 