We Still Embarrass Him
By Mona Charen | 01/29/10 | 10:18 AM EDT | 14 Comments
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. The president had some things to get off this chest -- and if it took 70-plus minutes, well, lucky us, we got to listen.
The speech answered the question that began to form when Republicans took the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey and came into sharp focus after Scott Brown delivered his haymaker Jan. 21: Would Obama pivot like Clinton in 1994 or not? He will not.
This isn't surprising. Obama is a conviction politician. Raised in a left-wing cocoon, he has never given evidence of being anything other than a true-believing left/liberal. Describing his college experience in "The Audacity of Hope," he wrote: "I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets." Sounds like a list of his czars.
So no, President Obama is not going to reassure voters that he has gotten their message. He is not going to tack to the political center. He is not going to acknowledge overreaching on the matter of nationalizing health care. These are moral issues for him. Promoting his health care reform to religious leaders last August, he said, "It is a core ethical and moral obligation that we look after each other. In the wealthiest nation on earth, we are neglecting to live up to that call." We embarrass him.
Though he shot to political stardom as a supposed "post-partisan," he has presided over the most ideologically dogged administration in memory. Bill Clinton might have triangulated to please the electorate. Barack Obama is more inclined to search for villains.
In this, he begins to resemble Jimmy Carter. When the country was reeling from his catastrophic mismanagement, President Carter diagnosed "a crisis of confidence ... a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America." Um, no. The nation's soul and spirit and will were just fine. Carter was the problem.
Last night, endeavoring to explain (to himself?) the peculiar failure of the people to adopt his social democrat agenda, President Obama too, found fault with them:
"Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions -- our corporations, our media, and yes, our government -- still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away. No wonder there's so much cynicism out there. No wonder there's so much disappointment."
That could be it. Alternatively, people may be dismayed to find that they elected a left-wing ideologue who wasted most of his first year pushing health care reform when something like 17 percent of the nation is unemployed or underemployed; who reads terrorists their Miranda rights and gives them lawyers; who apologizes to the world for America's manifold sins; who increases the national debt by $1.6 trillion in his first year; who elects to try Khalid Sheik Mohammad in Manhattan; who promises transparency and then presides over shameless backroom deals; who clings to cap and trade even in the midst of economic misery; who extends more conciliation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than to Republicans; who has nearly the entire press in his back pocket but nonetheless attempts to punish Fox News; who disdained all Republican proposals as "the failed ideas of the past"; and whose vanity (a presidential podium and teleprompter in a sixth-grade classroom?) is verging on the pathetic.
President Obama has signaled that he will not change course. It's an affront that it took him 70 platitudinous and self-indulgent minutes to say so.
TAGS: CarteresqueBarack Obama, State of the Union, Obamacare
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This country has a lot to do. Rotting infrastructure, tenacious unemployment, a declining middle-class, an unsettled world. What Americans expect, Mona, are solutions from our leaders.
Obama and the Democrats may not have all the right answers. Certainly some of their policies are designed to appeal to constituents more than to the greater good. But Republicans are doing nothing. They haven't offered real solutions to real problems. By that I mean solutions that stand a chance of being implemented in a two-party system. Most of all, when they had a chance to actually deliver on small government, limited business regulation and low taxes - which have to be considered together - they too made bad choices resulting in larger government and massive deficits. And, with some help from Democrats, Republicans created a regulatory environment that was a prescription for an economic meltdown.
Why should Americans trust Republicans to get it right just one year after Bush left office? And so soon after Republicans relinquished control of both elected branches of government? Why should anyone trust them to get it right anymore than we can trust the Democrats?
Digging in their heels and blocking everything the Administration wants to do may be good short-term politics but just like the hubris of 2004 (the "permanent majority" built on 51%) it is a losing bet for Republicans. If Republicans want to return to power and stay there they need to solve some problems. The problems are real and they will not get solved without compromise from both sides.
In this day and age the blow-back from making the wrong choice comes fast and furious. Look at what happened to the Democrats in just one year. If Republicans think the ticket to power is to block solutions to real problems they will get a rude surprise. Maybe not in 2010 but certainly in the next election cycle.
The economy is growing, and fast. Jobs may follow. If Obama and the Democrats are seen as the sole reason for this improvement AND the party that is trying to solve real problems for real people - such as health care - it won't matter that there's a Republican senator from Massachussetts or a Tea Party movement. 2010 will be like 2002 only in blue.
What a crock of Anon left-wing propaganda! puke. Sounds like Ellie Light wrote it. I've seen this same whining crap on several blog sites from Norway to Holland, from London to Los Angeles and they are getting longer in their text. All you Obama Blog Bots write the same crap. Poor poor president obama, whaaaaaaa. "What's a president to do" "The Republicans are offering no solutions." "He inherited big problems." What? Did he think this was going to be like the Harvard Law Review?! Cheech! Give us a break!!!!!!!!!!
Hey! This is Obama's throne, HE promised to fix it. Why doesn't he start living up to his promises. Bring in CSPAN. End NAFTA, end OUTSOURCING of American Jobs, bring our troops home, etc. etc. etc. All this president knows how to do is blame and whine and cry boo hoo and appoint another commission and appoint another stupid ass Czar-of-Nothing. At some point, he will have to DO something, he will have to PERFORM.
We've already lost a year under His Throneship.
Democrats had a 60 vote super majority in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House and yet Obama's proposals have gone nowhere. The problem is not Republicans blocking anything - they can't, they don't have the votes. The truth is even some Democrats are squeamish about the President's very liberal policies. Liberal Democrats can keep blaming others for Obama's failed policies at their own risk. It didn't work in Virginia, it didn't work in New Jersey, it didn't work in Massachusetts, and it won't work in November. The American people are smarter than you think.
You are sadly mistaken, Anon. Intelligent people are not expecting solutions from our leaders. We are expecting that our leaders will get out of the way and let us have "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" without confiscatory or punitive taxation. We expect our leaders to get out of our healthcare and our lives. We do not want them to put our country in debt so that our children and our children's children will bear the burden of national debt for generations to come. We do not think government can grow the economy better than the private sector.
Republicans should try and stop everything the Obama administration is doing because 1.) The democrat solutions are BAD for America. More government power means increased taxation and fewer freedoms. Obama is a statist and we will lose the freedoms established by our constitution (he has said he does not agree with the constiution, that it constrains what he wants to do to empower the federal government and take away individual freedoms) 2.)The policies promoted by the left enslave the American public to the federal government and create power in perpetuity for the democrat party 3.) The Republicans have offered better solutions but Obama's view of bi-partisanship is agreeing only with him.
Democrats have had control of the House and Senate, if the legislation has not passed it is because it is so bad the democrats have not been able to get it through. Stop blaming the Republicans, they have had no power . Republicans have been shut out of the process completely.
Republicans want limited government, but again, the democrats have had control of congress. Congress is as much or more to blame. The liberal media is the right arm of the democrat party. The liberal agenda is consistantly promoted in the media and the conservative agenda is ignored. What do want to know about Republican or conservative solutions? You do not hear about it in the media therefore you assume they have none. This is a Democrat talking point when they do not want to address their own failures.
Barney Frank is to blame for the regulatory environment that led to the melt down. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Community Re-Investment Act putting pressure on banks to loan money to people who should not qualify caused the housing bubble, not Republicans.
The economy is growing fast? Really? What do you say to the 10% of the population who is out of work, and the other 7% who have given up looking? You think jobs are soon to follow? If Obama has his way with the Bank Tax, the entire financial industry will be hurt and those people looking for work in that industry will have even more difficulty finding work. In addition, whenever there is a tax or a fee placed on an industry, they pass the cost on to the consumer.
Conservatives are coming together and reacting against the worst administration in our nation's history. Power to the People!
"enslave" --- "worst" --- other strong words and phrases which evoke images of gray gloom.
Things must look mighty grim to you.
America has always been a place of optimism. So many of today's Republicans lack that spirit. They want a return to something that never was and never will be. Good thing there are still those in the party who are clear thinkers. Maybe they'll continue to keep you and those who think like you out on the edge where you belong. America needs action not inaction, Nancy.
Of course you've got your facts wrong. Both Republicans and Democrats share blame for the economic meltdown. Obama took office with unemployment already at historic highs and rising fast. Did you think that was going to turn around in a couple of quarters? When the opposition party uses every tactic imaginable to stall progress? What planet do you live on?
Perhaps some of the bankers you are worried about will go out and get more productive jobs. Something that really helps the economy. Did you read Bonfire of the Vanities? Do you remember the passage where the investment banker's wife explains to her kids how their father makes money? Cake crumbs. Less of that and more of people figuring out how to invent, produce, sell and deliver new products and value-added services are what this country needs. Not more people who skim large amounts off the money made by others or who design financial instruments that throw risk on unsuspecting millions. How is your 401K doing today versus June of 2000?
As I noted in my comment Republicans had the White House, House and Senate for six full years. All they did was muck up the country and beyond, from the economy to real wages to war to infrastructure to the environment. Republicans have no credibility. Neither do Democrats, for that matter. It's past time for these people to work together. The nirvana you desire is not going to happen, Nancy. Compromise will produce results. Ideology just produces frustrated, unoptimistic and angry people. People like you, apparently.
America does need leaders. On that point you couldn't be more wrong.
I see you're back. What are you smoking THIS time?
Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi's in-flight 'food, booze'
Speaker's trips 'are more about partying than anything else
Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them.
"We have ... folks prepping the jets and crews driving in (not a short drive for some), cooking meals and preflighting the jets etc," said one Department of Defense e-mail then.
Another official sent an e-mail questioning a series of Pelosi's requests for aircraft.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123472
2012 CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!!!
wow. this is really one of the worst 'articles' you've ever written.
and if it took 70-plus minutes, well, lucky us, we got to listen.
for most americans, it was only 51:44, which was a minute less than gwb's last SOTU, and 17 minutes less than the average.
Would Obama pivot like Clinton in 1994 or not? He will not.
um, maybe you weren't listening to the speech? he pivoted. and this november won't be quite the bloodbath Rs were praying for because of this pivot.
Sounds like a list of his czars.
better than the box of rocks czars from the previous admin.
He is not going to tack to the political center.
why should he? we're not a center-right nation.
He is not going to acknowledge overreaching on the matter of nationalizing health care.
why acknowledge something that hasn't happened?
he has presided over the most ideologically dogged administration in memory.
you must have long term memory loss... the previous administration was even more dogmatic.
In the wealthiest nation on earth, we are neglecting to live up to that call." We embarrass him.
i don't think you understand the term. you don't embarass BO, you are underachieving. the Rs are preventing the U.S. from achieving greatness.
Alternatively, people may be dismayed to find that they elected a left-wing ideologue who wasted most of his first year pushing health care reform when something like 17 percent of the nation is unemployed or underemployed;
no, they're dismayed that Rs are complete obstructionists and that something as critical as health care reform will be stymied by a bunch of whiny losers.
who reads terrorists their Miranda rights and gives them lawyers;
imagine, treating criminals like criminals. remember nuremberg? again with the long term memory loss...
who apologizes to the world for America's manifold sins;
humility. it worked for jesus, too.
who increases the national debt by $1.6 trillion in his first year;
congress increased the debt. the president doesn't hold the power of the purse.
who elects to try Khalid Sheik Mohammad in Manhattan;
we're repeating topics now?
who promises transparency and then presides over shameless backroom deals;
as opposed to doing everything possible to evade transparency AND the law, like the previous administration?
who clings to cap and trade even in the midst of economic misery;
you don't believe in american innovation? why are republicans always rooting against american exceptionalism?
who extends more conciliation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than to Republicans;
you may not recall, due to your tragic memory loss, that obama tried to be bipartisan, and was met with some of the foulest vitriol from the right.
who has nearly the entire press in his back pocket but nonetheless attempts to punish Fox News;
darn the librul media and all the lying liars on every station but faux noise!
who disdained all Republican proposals as "the failed ideas of the past";
that's not disdain, that's called Truth!
and whose vanity (a presidential podium and teleprompter in a sixth-grade classroom?) is verging on the pathetic.
yeah, he certainly didn't need a teleprompter to dismantle and humiliate the Rs today, did he? BTW, at least his teleprompter doesn't need pronunciations for common names and nations, like the previous president.
President Obama has signaled that he will not change course.
again, he actually DID signal this. you just might have been busy scowling at his rising popularity
It's an affront that it took him 70 platitudinous and self-indulgent minutes to say so.
only, it didn't... it took 51:44
...are predictably partisan. They move the country absolutely nowhere. They are all about putting bricks in the wall.
Roger Waters must be proud.
someone should tell Chris that it was only 51:44.
Mona, you did a fabulous job nailing this fraudster in the White House. Barack Hussein Obama II not only MISSED his target, MISSED the mark, he just doesn't have a clue man!!!!! He's a bumbling idiot who happened to get elected and is there for the ride.
The problem is that the rest of the country has to suffer while he and Michele Evita Obama stuff their faces with lobster, fly on holidays on Air Force One, have 5-star chefs, limos, butlers, maids, personal assistants, nannies, and we all know what else.
His speech was not only unpolished (as he is) it was slimey and disjointed. He is out of touch with REAL AMERICA. He hires blog bots to diffuse the bad press, like this moron Anon on Red County, and others who change their names at whim. The minute I heard Barack Hussein Obama II begin to speak and heard the difficulty he was having with the speech itself (even HE didn't believe what he was saying) I was embarassed FOR him. California is a cesspool of empty buildings, foreclosures, lost jobs, as is Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and manyother states. Unfortunately nothing seems to phase this used-car salesman of a president. I'm just waiting for justice to happen here.
Mona, you know you wrote a good article when the blogbots slither out from the sewer and condemn you.
DON'T TREAD ON ME.
When the quality of the demonizing here at demonizeobama.org starts to sag, Mona steps up with a virtuoso slam on The Devil Incarnate Himself.
However, Mona's efforts were thrown away by the (R) nitwits who provide "leadership" to the (R) congressional caucus. Boehner, Cantor, and Pence invited Obama to the GOP Conference in Baltimore. He suckered them into an open rather than a closed meeting. Then he showed them that he could well handle the140 to 1 set up without breaking a sweat. Boehner, Cantor, and Pence sat on the stage looking like sand-bagged puppies. When Obama invited them to dispute his facts and figures, they sat there looking bummed.
Where was Joe Wilson? Where was Michele Bachmann? Mona would not have sat on her hands. She needs to launch an elected political career using demonizeobama.org as her launching pad.
More, more give me more lies, I believed them the first time, not.
Obama says he is a progressive.
Progressive, code speak, liberal, elite, and communist. Not new in history..
Also known as the "Divine Right of Kings".
Obama is using the play book of progressives, it has worked for 100 years.
George Benard Shaw, progressive, Fabian,read wickapdia on him, one bad dude.
George advocated murder to rid society of undesireables or unproductive people.
Who, then, would decide who was undesireable or unproductives, the elite.
The elite, educated people, i know best for the state and you.
Translation, dummie I am so educated, do what I tell you, even if it kills you.
Sounds a lot like Obama Care (scare) death panels. not in our time. Really.
It has already happened. It was called WW II.
Wake up Obama is no friend to America.
OBAMA EMBARASSES **** US ****
Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs 'expecting $100 million bonus'
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7010492.ece
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