Anybody but Obama
Bear witness to a listless and ineffective leader who is beatable. Carter Redux.
AMERICANS HAVE GROWN WEARY OF THE FLAILING OBAMA ECONOMY. So potent is the public's displeasure, the President's support is fast eroding. Most notably, among key constituencies he will need for 2012.
With the polling sugar high of Bin Laden's death all but gone, and perpetually poor economic data to boot, even AN UNNAMED REPUBLICAN OPPONENT DEFEATS THE PRESIDENT IN TWO OF THREE SURVEYS RELEASED THIS MONTH.
FOR A GOP FIELD THAT IS ROUTINELY DERIDED AS WEAK AND UNEXCITING -- A LEFTIST NARRATIVE -- THESE POLLS, IF ANYTHING, REMIND US THAT AMERICANS ARE LOOKING FOR A COMPETENT ALTERATIVE, and that the race will be competitive.
A Republican candidate who offers a fiscally sound, pro-growth, jobs-centric agenda will provide a sharp contrast to this White House. With a clear articulation of substantive ideas, Conservatives should press their case….
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/obamas_poll_wasteland.html
Certain things are written in the TEA leaves (a play on words here). Obama not only looks beatable, he looks pathetic.
Like Chauncey Gardiner, Obama Is Profoundly Aloof
Which past leader does Barack Obama most closely resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
Well, Obama announced his candidacy in Lincoln's hometown two days before Abe's birthday, and he did expand the size and scope of government. But NO ONE SERIOUSLY COMPARES HIM WITH LINCOLN OR FDR ANYMORE.
CONSERVATIVE CRITICS HAVE TAKEN TO COMPARING HIM, AS YOU MIGHT IMAGINE, TO JIMMY CARTER. The more cruel among them, like The Weekly Standard's Jay Cost, say the comparison is not to Obama's advantage.
But there is another comparison I think more appropriate for a president who, according to one of his foreign-policy staffers, prefers to "lead from behind." THE MAN I HAVE IN MIND IS CHAUNCEY GARDINER, THE CHARACTER PLAYED BY PETER SELLERS IN THE 1979 MOVIE "BEING THERE."
As you may remember, GARDINER IS A CLUELESS GARDENER WHO IS MISTAKEN FOR A WASHINGTON EMINENCE AND BECOMES A PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER. Asked if you can stimulate growth through temporary incentives, Gardiner says, "As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all will be well in the garden."
"First comes the spring and summer," he explains, "but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again." THE PRESIDENT IS AWED AS GARDINER SUMS UP, "THERE WILL BE GROWTH IN THE SPRING…."
I’m not sure anyone can explain BHO, but Barone’s article is an interesting one. Do we have an accidental president that got elected because no one was actually paying attention? It appears so.
What’s the Matter with Kansas? It’s finally coming to its senses.
…. THE LABYRINTHINE ADVENTURES OF LIBERALS IN KANSAS HAVE BEEN HARD TO FOLLOW, BUT LATELY, MOST OF THEM HAVE INVOLVED A SCRAMBLE FOR WANING POWER. So when Sebelius left for Washington to take over HHS for the Obama administration, she left behind AN EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMPOSED ALMOST ENTIRELY OF APPOINTED DEMOCRATS. In addition to attorney general Six, she had already appointed Democrat Dennis McKinney to the post of state treasurer, replacing Lynn Jenkins, a Republican elected to Congress in 2008. Her own office was filled by her lieutenant-governor, Democrat Mark Parkinson, a liberal chairman of the state GOP who party-jumped to be on her reelection ticket (replacing yet another liberal state GOP chairman who had jumped to become her first lieutenant-governor). He appointed a Democrat to fill his job when he became governor, and yet another Democrat to fill a vacancy in the secretary of state’s office. BY 2010, THE ONLY ELECTED STATE OFFICIAL WAS THE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER, A LOW-PROFILE REPUBLICAN.
For years, coastal observers assumed conservatives had already “stolen the heart of America” — mostly because that was the subtitle of Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas?, a 2004 New York Times bestseller, and all that New Yorkers know about Kansas is what they read in the pages of the Times. FOR THEM, THE ELECTION OF 2010 MUST HAVE BEEN CONFUSING, SINCE IT SAW THE DEFEAT OF A DEMOCRAT AND THE VICTORY OF FORMER SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, THE STATE’S FIRST CONSERVATIVE GOVERNOR EVER. But it also saw the defeat of those appointed Topeka-dwelling Democrats — all endorsed by the Kansas City Star — who attempted to hold onto their jobs. VOTERS REPLACED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WITH CONSERVATIVES. Last year, finally, conservatives won the heart of America — BUT ONLY BECAUSE LIBERALS SO COMPLETELY LOST IT. So the literate Left has a new reason to hate Midwesterners. As the New York Times’s David Carr told viewers of Bill Maher’s TV show, Kansas is now the home of “low sloping foreheads.” Obviously, Kathleen Sebelius has left the state.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270528/how-liberals-lost-heart-america-denis-boyles
Obama’s policies have been a dropping of the veil that liberals used to hide what their real intentions were. On top of that, they dropped the veil just as a truly incompetent president was taking office. Lose/lose.
Big government or Stupid government?
… My weekend column concluded with some thoughts on American government’s culture of excess. Big Government – more-more-more money-no-object government — will by definition be profoundly stupid government. Lean, constrained government would not only be affordable but smarter. The bloated moronic airport security regime is a particularly ugly example. In a decade of existence, it has never stopped a single terrorist, but it can successfully cow a dying woman born during the Wilson Administration into removing her diaper.
We can all sleep easier knowing that.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270533/tsa-obergropinfuhrer-day-mark-steyn
I posted a similar sentiment yesterday. Mark Steyn does as well but perhaps more colorfully.
Where to put the sidewalks?
One of my favorite political fables concerns Dwight D. Eisenhower and his tenure as president of Columbia University. The campus was undergoing an expansion, and IKE WAS PRESENTED WITH TWO VERY DIFFERENT PLANS FOR LAYING OUT NEW SIDEWALKS. THE ARCHITECTS WERE IRRECONCILABLE, EACH INSISTING THAT HIS PLAN WAS THE ONLY WAY TO GO AND THAT THE OTHER GUY HAD IT ALL WRONG. Ike, sensible fellow that he was, had grass planted instead, telling the architects to WAIT A YEAR AND SEE WHERE THE STUDENTS TROD PATHS IN THE TURF, AND THEN TO PUT THE SIDEWALKS THERE. It is a story that, as they say, is true, and may even have happened.
The Eisenhower sidewalk story often is used as an example illustrating the emergence of spontaneous orders. But it also invites by analogy a second, related question: What is the job of government? Is it to tell us which paths to take, or to help smooth the way as we choose our own destinations and our own ways to get there?
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270523/gay-marriage-where-do-we-put-sidewalks-kevin-d-williamson
I believe this is another way to speak about majority rule. And isn’t that really a fundamental piece of democratic government?
RFK jr. Praises Air America as more popular than right wing radio
“…So much of the media's really dependent on corporate money, so you're not going to see, like AIR AMERICA FAILED NOT BECAUSE IT WASN'T POPULAR. IN EVERY JURISDICTION WHERE IT WAS OPERATING IT WAS BEATING OUT RIGHT-WING RADIO. There was a huge appetite for it. THE PROBLEM WAS, IT COULDN'T GET ADVERTISING BECAUSE THE CORPORATIONS, THE OIL COMPANIES, THE BIGGEST ADVERTISERS, the pharmaceutical companies, which is now 70 percent of the, of the revenue for, for, news shows on TV, is pharmaceutical companies. And so it's very hard to criticize them on the news. Automobile companies, which is the other big player, and many other, these companies won't, wouldn't advertise, they all boycotted Air America.
So Air America was like, you know, relying on, like, you know, hair growth products and this kind of stuff and they were scrambling for money and they couldn't find it and it killed them.”
http://nation.foxnews.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/2011/06/27/rfk-jr-claims-air-america-was-more-popular-conservative-radio
When you read something like this, you need to realize that the left likes to rewrite history completely changing what actually happened. Air America did not beat right-wing radio. In fact they didn’t beat right wing radio even in liberal bastions.
You can read about that here:
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2006/03/air-americas-ratings-in-top-100-radio.html
Transparency
While lawmakers continue to call for a budget deal that addresses the country’s growing deficit, REPUBLICAN SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS OF ALABAMA IS TAKING IT ONE STEP FURTHER BY CALLING FOR THAT DEAL TO BE NEGOTIATED IN PUBLIC.
Sessions, who is the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, has been one of the most outspoken critics of the stalled budget process in the Senate. But in an interview with The Daily Caller, Sessions had a different target.
“I acknowledge that people can enter into private discussions to help them form and reach certain compromises, but WHAT WE’VE BEEN SEEING IS A PATTERN OF HUGELY IMPORTANT ISSUES BEING NEGOTIATED BY A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF PEOPLE, THEN PRODUCED TO CONGRESS FOR RAPID PASSAGE BEFORE SOME EMERGENCY EVENT OCCURS,” said Sessions.
“This is not good legislative work.”
A look back at the Obama Administration shows Sessions may have a fair point.
The STIMULUS BILL IN FEBRUARY 2009 WAS WORKED OUT BY A BIPARTISAN GROUP OF LAWMAKERS IN CLOSED MEETINGS.
The president’s number-one agenda item upon assuming office was to pass comprehensive HEALTH CARE REFORM. THE BILL WAS NEGOTIATED BY A FEW SELECT DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMEN BEHIND CLOSED DOORS without C-SPAN cameras,, then presented to Congress.
And this past spring, the DEAL THAT EXTENDED THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION AND AVOIDED A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN WAS WORKED OUT IN PRIVATE BETWEEN SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID, HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER, AND PRESIDENT OBAMA. It was then “dropped into the legislative hopper with crisis providing motivation” to pass it or else…..
http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/27/in-budget-debate-one-senator-sees-pattern-of-secret-negotiations/#ixzz1QVPihbI3
So much for the more transparent administration in history.
Desperation
Republicans aren’t Patriotic
Pelosi has been iced out of debt talks and has reportedly demanded a seat at the table … to no avail … and appeared visibly upset about it. Imitating Jack Nicholson’s famous line from “A Few Good Men,” Pelosi told Eric Cantor he “can’t handle the truth,” and then told this whopper: "All this talk about tax cuts, in the Bush years the Republicans said that tax cuts would produce jobs; they didn't. They produced a deficit."
In fact, following Bush’s 2003 tax relief, the U.S. had 52 months of uninterrupted job growth, the longest run on record. The former speaker finished off the interview by claiming Republicans were not “patriotic.”
http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2011/06/27/blackballed-pelosi-stammers-through-interview-series-offensive-and-false-cla
I haven’t got a clue what the left’s definition of patriotism is. Joe Biden said paying taxes is patriotic, but then we’ve had dozens of high profile Democrats who have done their best (legally and or illegally) to avoid paying them. Hillary asked the question whose side the House was on when they questioned what we were doing in Libya, but the Democrats find questioning war patriotic when they do it. There just doesn’t seem to be a solid definition of patriotism for the Left.
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