From ABC's description of Bob Woodward's upcoming book on the 2011 national debt ceiling negotiations:
Obama's relationship with Democrats wasn't always much better. Woodward recounts an episode early in his presidency when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were hammering out final details of the stimulus bill.
Obama phoned in to deliver a "high-minded message," he writes. Obama went on so long that Pelosi "reached over and pressed the mute button on her phone," so they could continue to work without the president hearing that they weren't paying attention.
As debt negotiations progressed, Democrats complained of being out of the loop, not knowing where the White House stood on major points. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, is described as having a "growing feeling of incredulity" as negotiations meandered.
"The administration didn't seem to have a strategy. It was unbelievable. There didn't seem to be any core principles," Woodward writes in describing Van Hollen's thinking.
Larry Summers, a top economic adviser to Obama who also served as Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, identified a key distinction that he said impacted budget and spending talks.
"Obama doesn't really have the joy of the game. Clinton basically loved negotiating with a bunch of pols, about anything," Summers said. "Whereas, Obama, he really didn't like these guys."
Summers said that Obama's "excessive pragmatism" was a problem. "I don't think anybody has a sense of his deep feelings about things." Summers said. "I don't think anybody has a sense of his deep feelings about people. I don't think people have a sense of his deep feelings around the public philosophy." …
Woodward portrays a president who remained a supreme believer in his own powers of persuasion, even as he faltered in efforts to coax congressional leaders in both parties toward compromise. Boehner told Woodward that at one point, when Boehner voiced concern about passing the deal they were working out, the president reached out and touched his forearm.
"John, I've got great confidence in my ability to sway the American people," Boehner quotes the president as having told him.
But after the breakthrough agreement fell apart, Boehner's "Plan B" would ultimately exclude the president from most of the key negotiations. The president was "voted off the island," in Woodward's phrase, even by members of his own party, as congressional leaders patched together an eleventh hour framework to avoid default.
Frustration over the lack of clear White House planning was voiced to Obama's face at one point, with a Democratic congressional staffer taking the extraordinary step of confronting the president in the Oval Office.
With the nation facing the very real possibility of defaulting on its debt for the first time in its history, David Krone, the chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told the president directly that he couldn't simply reject the only option left to Congress.
"It is really disheartening that you, that this White House did not have a Plan B," Krone said, according to Woodward.
My vague recollection is that I didn't write much about the debt ceiling crisis in 2011 because the whole topic sounded dreary and depressing and I'd rather think about other stuff. So, I can totally sympathize with Obama. I would have botched the whole thing up at least as badly as he did for pretty much the same personality-based reasons. I don't like politicians, I don't like negotiating, I don't like face-to-face politicking, I'd rather, say, walk to the bookstore by myself than call up a whole bunch of conniving people and try to bend them to my will.
Of course, I haven't wanted to be President since I was a child, either.
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50 comments:
The rats are streaming off the ship now. Is there a recent book or thoughtful article praising the big O?
Obama--entered politics with no skill set for anything except getting elected (and face, it his handlers did most of the work).
NOthing will change with another term except he'll believe even more than edicts are how POTUS' rule.
Empty suit. Empty chair. Empty character.
Steve, it's not just his personality. He has never wanted to learn how to be a good legislator or a good POTUS--that takes effort.
He's effete, he's w/out the energy, the verve it takes to do this job.
I can see why he spent so much time smoking weed--it fits his personality. The guy is lazy....and a narcissist. Awful combo.
I can't believe Pelosi/Reed would mute the president on the phone. He must've been talking for awhile. What I would give to get the audio of that call. I' trying to imagine what he could've spent so long talking about. Does he talk as boring as he does in his speeches in private? Really none of us know what Obama sounds like in real life. We only know his pompous speech-giving voice ("there are no red states or blues states only the united states of america", yawn). I like to assume he actually is more intresting and orginal behind the scenes. If somehow the audio of that call got out I wouldn't be suprised if it created quite a stir over whether or not it really was Obama we Americans probably wouldn't recognize him in normal-non-calculating, platitude mode.
to the first commenter ("the rats are..."), in case your assuming Obama will loose in Nov. you should be prepared for the opposite. The national polls are deceiving. Obama i think is still leading in most all the key swing states (wisconsin, ohio, etc.). My money is on Obama winning.
No Obama is losing. Smart money knows Obama works Chicago style, so for this book to be published which is unflattering in every detail says a lot. As do big money moving heavily to Romney after Obama's explicit punishing of Romney donors. The weakness of the Chicago Way is when it loses, it loses like a deluge. And gets to go to jail. See Blago.
As for Obama, yes he's a zero. Not a hero.
Avoiding fiscal meltdown ought to be easy. Even Jimmy Carter managed that one. Obama is not even Jimmy Carter. He's fundamentally a Black President, in the toxic self esteem, and manifest incompetence, that marks most of Black culture today (but didn't up until say 1960).
Obama had no key spending issues, and money equals policy, that he wanted done, and had no sense of what the other side wanted and would be happy with. That's elementary. You're talking money here Steve. That's ALWAYS an interesting subject.
Obama just isn't very smart.
Someone decided to write a book on the debt ceiling negotiations?
There was never any risk of default. The government simply would have run out of its ability to borrow, but it could still rollover existing debt and has more than enough revenue to pay interest.
What would have happened was spending would immediately be cut 40%.
"With the nation facing the very real possibility of defaulting on its debt for the first time in its history": fairy story. The US defaulted under FDR.
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/01/21/was-there-ever-a-default-on-us
"to the first commenter ("the rats are..."), in case your assuming Obama will loose in Nov. you should be prepared for the opposite. The national polls are deceiving. Obama i think is still leading in most all the key swing states (wisconsin, ohio, etc.). My money is on Obama winning."
This is about right. Romney has consistently run a few points behind Obama in almost all of the battleground states all summer. Obama has done just about everything wrong all summer, but he's still held onto about a 2-4 point edge on Romney in all the battlegrounds (with maybe a little push toward Romney in the last week).
But between Michelle Obama's speech Tuesday night, the political grand slam Bill Clinton hit on Wednesday night and the "historic" address that President Obama will, no doubt, deliver on Thursday (every time he gives a speech it's described as "historic"), Obama will probably leave Charlotte on Friday with a 5-10 point nationwide post-convention bounce.
Republican pundits can try to spin it all they want, but Bill Clinton's speech (slippery with the truth though it may have been) will go over really, really well with the small number of people who remain undecided -- especially in old Clinton coalition battleground states like Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri.
Highlights from the speech -- and it was a typically Clintonian loooong speech, so there will be lots of highlights -- will be viral
by morning.
Hey Mitt, good luck trying to make up the likely 5-10 point post-convention bounce Obama is about to receive.
When the MSM talking heads interview Woodward, they'll do all they can to steer the discussion to the Boehner "not bending any more" and they'll try to make it look as if BO has been putting up with bullies, you know, the subtext being, of course, that because he's black, people are out to get him.
BTW, did you see the cadre of delegates with their buttons pinned to their hats: "Once you vote, black, you can't go back."
Those folks don't seem to like diversity.
Whiskey wrote,
"Smart money knows Obama works Chicago style, so for this book to be published which is unflattering in every detail says a lot. As do big money moving heavily to Romney after Obama's explicit punishing of Romney donors. The weakness of the Chicago Way is when it loses, it loses like a deluge. And gets to go to jail. See Blago".
Whiskey,
The Chicago Way hasn't lost yet. You can't lose when there's no competition.
Individual Chicago pols and non-elected practitioners of the Chicago Way have gone down in flames, but nobody's beat the Chicago Way.
And the official narrative of Gov. Blago's downfall is a made-for-public-consumption fairy tale. Rod Blagojevich didn't get brought to justice by some uncorrupted forces of goodness and light for participating in the lowdown, dirty "Chicago Way." He was a low rent, 3rd rate political hack who made enemies with the wrong people and who lost a political battle with the guys who have the real political power in Chicago.
As such, the world came crashing down on him.
But his nemesis, Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan (who's held power for almost 40 years and who always wields much more power than whatever schmuck gets elected governor of IL), was right there in Charlotte on Wednesday night, speaking for the Illinois delegation at the Democratic National Convention.
Flawed as it may be, with Obamacare, Obama got the biggest piece of domestic legislation passed since LBJ, accomplishing a decades-old liberal policy objective that Clinton tried and failed to accomplish. Now, Obama may have been "voted off the island", but it's immaterial, since 1) there's little daylight between his leftism and that of Pelosi and Reid, and 2) Pelosi and Reid were able to get the ACA passed without him.
As far as the average Democrat cares, Woodward's book will just be inside baseball.
Obama may be the LEAST interesting person in the country. There was never anything inspiring about him, he just had that fake appeal of The Other for hipster Whites and of course he was brown/black.
Avoiding fiscal meltdown ought to be easy. Even Jimmy Carter managed that one.
It depends on what type of meltdown you're talking about.
I'm sure that Ben, Larry and Timmy have tens or hundreds of billions of dollars to dump on Wall Street at the first sign of trouble. The big players are being watched for any sign of collapse to avoid triggering a credit default event. The big players are doing a better job of watching the smaller players, like with what happened with Knight Capital.
The non-FIRE economy could melt down further, but no one in Washington gives a shit, or has any real plan for dealing with it.
"As far as the average Democrat cares, Woodward's book will just be inside baseball."
The average American will never know the book was written.
The first Black President is quite a dissapointment when you compare him to the first white president, or even the first Catholic President.
He reads good books, big deal, he won't even comment on them and risk being exposed as the average guy he is.
This is about right. Romney has consistently run a few points behind Obama in almost all of the battleground states all summer. Obama has done just about everything wrong all summer, but he's still held onto about a 2-4 point edge on Romney in all the battlegrounds (with maybe a little push toward Romney in the last week).
Romney is the one with the bounce, he is up on Obama or in a dead heat in all the latest national polls. Obama has played the soak the rich, Romney is a heartless rich guy card for 3 months now. Which was stupid on his part, because now Romney who hates conflict knows that there is no alternative to playing hardball with this guy. Obama can't run nothing but negative ads for 2 more months after doing it all summer, people begin to tune you out, particularly if you're the incumbent because it looks like desperation, which it is. The reason that Romney was down post primary was because Obama still had a substantial fundraising edge and was absolutely carpet bombing the airwaves with negative ads. I probably saw 3 or 4 Obama ads for every Romney ad all summer and I don't watch much TV outside of sports and AMC. The fundraising edge has now evaporated and gone against Obama, Wall Street has gone for Romney after going strongly for Obama in 2008, and the deadweight of an unconscious economy is now around Obama's neck, not his opponent like it was in 2008. Obama is the one with the loose cannon VP, not his competition. His VP is also a lot older than Romney's Veep candidate.
In other words, all of Obama's advantages from 4 years ago are gone: No Old Man River on the other side ( McCain ), defending an unpopular administration ( Bush II ) with a horrible VP candidate ( Palin ) and with an imploding economy that can be pinned on the other guy, along with the rich veering towards the Democrats. Not only does he not have those advantages, they are against him now. Oh, and not every voter under 30 thinks he is Batman like in 2008, which also hurts him. I think Obama thought he could define Romney negatively all summer and then the economy would begin to rebound and he could take credit for it and cruise to victory. The problem is the economy after a brief bump has headed back south again, and Romney spent the entire summer watching Obama go negative from the moment Romney sealed the nomination up. Romney isn't going to lulled into thinking this is going to be a civil campaign after a summer of being demonized for 3 months prior to the convention, in fact that may have been why he picked a young combative VP like Ryan. He wanted someone who liked political trench warfare more than he did, and could be the point man for a nasty campaign. Additionally every week seems to bring more bad news on the economy front for Obama, the economy is heading down again after a tepid recovery, which even if it was still around wouldn't help Obama anymore than a then early recovery in 1992 helped Bush Sr. who lost with lower unemployment than Obama has at the moment.
Steve,
I was shocked by that statement, too.
Obama has been doing well on intrade, but everything economy and gas-wise is against him. The old-timers here can perhaps explain when it is that polls and perceptions harden; I tend to think we don't reach that point until after the last debate; we had a lot of fluctuation with Bush and Gore until the very last minute.
Until God got booed last night at the Democratic National Convention (or was it Jerusalem, angry twitter libs suggest it was God that made them upset), I thought things were going pretty well for the Dems: the Republican establishment made clear at their convention that there are some votes not worth having (fundamentalists with Akin and anti-war with Paul) so their was division when unity is so essential.
Mitt must have been crying sweet, sweet tears of joy last night.
"I would have botched the whole thing up at least as badly as he did for pretty much the same personality-based reasons. I don't like politicians, I don't like negotiating, I don't like face-to-face politicking, I'd rather, say, walk to the bookstore by myself than call up a whole bunch of conniving people and try to bend them to my will.
Of course, I haven't wanted to be President since I was a child, either."
Ah, come on, Steve. You know full well Obama hasn't wanted to be President since he was a child -- you said so yourself.
What Obama wanted was to be Mayor of Chicago.
The Presidency was just a consolation prize for not being Black Enough.
Wow - strange new respect for that chick Pelosi.
Always thought that she was kinda hot - but now she's sounding like a real broad.
PS: I may be the only paleocon on the face of the earth who thinks this, but Debbie Wasserman Schultz is hotter-n-hades.
She strikes me as being the kind of chick where you'd take her out on a date, and, after a few glasses of wine, you'd both agree to skip the stupid movie and go straight back to her place.
IYKWIMAITYD.
[Or, if her place was too far away, then just walk right over to the hotel across the street and get it on.]
Woodward and his ilk alternately amuse and enrage me. Now they're expressing surprise at what an empty suit lightweight Obama is. This is the enrage part - what possible reason did they have (just ONE reason) for thinking he was anything else? Gee, he's not up to the task of steering leviathan despite his vast track record of NOTHING. But no, they had to force him on the rest of us (granted, McDunce was helpful in this).
People invested hopes in an effete self-absorbed dweeb (what kind of person writes his memoirs in his 30's? What kind of normal person writes memoirs at all?) for no reason whatsoever beyond him being half-black or being good at reading off a teleprompter but then they're surprised he's not up to the job? Despite a lifelong track record of being interested in nothing beyond himself (its not like he wrote two books - about himself) now they're surprised he's uninterested in governing? He can't engage in the hand-to-hand combat with other giant egos necessary? Well that's a surprise. WTF, idiots.
The president was "voted off the island," in Woodward's phrase, even by members of his own party, as congressional leaders patched together an eleventh hour framework to avoid default.
I've seen this time and again with affirmative action beneficiaries. When you get in a clutch situation, ultimately, they are content to sit on the sidelines and let the grownups handle things, not make waves.
And nobody ever talks about it afterwards, everyone returns to the same old pretenses, even makes no impression on the affirmative action beneficiary.
Should Obama lose the election, one of the more delicious things to look forward to will be the many, many articles and books in which his former underlings and fellow politicians will dish on everything that went wrong.
After all the absurd hype for this man, the Emperor With No Clothes will finally go full frontal.
It's no wonder Obama isn't interested in negotiating with legislators and lobbyists. When he got elected, he said he knew more about everything than anyone else in government, and he meant it. He sees himself as the smart teenager babysitting a bunch of toddlers. He shouldn't have to negotiate with them; he should just tell them what to do and they should do it! When they refuse, he just wants to send them to their rooms so he can smoke weed and watch TV in peace.
That muting the phone thing is striking. That doesn't just show that he's a boring windbag, but that his allies have no respect for him. You just don't do that to someone unless you're certain he would never take revenge, even of the petty variety. There's a level of contempt there that's surprising, considering he does have a certain amount of power as president.
"So, I can totally sympathize with Obama."
With Sailer turning like this, who needs liberals?
they'll try to make it look as if BO has been putting up with bullies
BO? Pleeease! Ladies and gentlemen try to show some respect. Recall the given names of previous presidents, William Jefferson Clinton or Richard Milhouse Nixon. Names are important.
The President's name is Barack Hussein Obama Jr. and was named after his father, Barack Hussein Obama of Kenya.
He can also be called B. Hussein Obama or BHO Jr. but not BO.
It's telling that Obama was in any way surprised by the loss of the House to Republicans, and didn't even have Boehner's phone number. Really, they hadn't even thought that far ahead, even though it was plain that they were going to get a shellacking in the 2010 election?
It seems to me that, in different ways, both Bush and Obama were just not that suited to the office. By contrast, for all his many flaws, Clinton and Bush Sr seem to me to have been rather more suited to the office; each had been in charge of stuff for a long time and knew how to run an organization, both were very smart men, etc. Clinton was quite a bit better at the public side of being a politician, while Bush Sr was probably quite a bit better informed about a lot of what he needed to know to be president when he arrived in the white house. (8 years as VP surely didn't hurt, and the military and intelligence services aren't going to stampede the ex-director of the CIA into doing whatever they want by wowing him with BS.)
Woodward is the last media remnant of the post-WWII "Deep State" and he is signaling that Obama isn't cutting it. (Last week's NYTimes piece by Jodi Kantor is a similar tell.) Ironically, the MSM has lost so much authority that these Establishment signals may not have the determinative force they did when, say, Gary Hart was taken down, as too flaky to be President. But my guess is the money men are still getting the message, and smarter MSM types like Mark Halperin are picking up the signals.
What would Obama's "positives" be with a press that was committed, as much as one can be, to avoid bias?
What would it be with even a middle of the road, moderate press.
It's a scary thing that the media can indeed shape the perception of events and of people to the point that it is they who elect a POTUS.
Anyone who regularly watches NBC, (no, not MSNBC, but NBC) heard nothing about Fast and Furious, heard nothing but "racism" being behind Arizona's attempt to keep the illegal population from pouring over their borders.
That's just one example of scores of "protective" choices they made to protect the the guy who "We just can't let him lose or what will the history books say"?
"As far as the average Democrat cares, Woodward's book will just be inside baseball."
The average American will never know the book was written.
________________________________
Woodward will be on all the morning shows; he'll get his usual time of 5-7 minutes, and the hosts will steer his discussion not to Obama's failings as an executive, but to the failings of everyone else.
A story on the progressive Yahoo news site has already done that in a story, highlighting the comments of someone who blames Obama's "people" for not knowing how to run a White House operation, saying, "They didn't serve him well."
HUH????? Isn't it up to the chief executive to choose good people to serve him?
Proves a point. The guy had never been an executive of even the smallest little operation and doesn't have a clue about how to succeed as one.
It's scares me, actually.
Hey Mitt, good luck trying to make up the likely 5-10 point post-convention bounce Obama is about to receive.
I doubt the bounce will be that high, even given the relentless MSM hagiography and deceitful, rigged "bounce" polling.
But a larger point needs to be made here. It amazes me that people are actually influenced by the conventions, that going in they know so little, haven't decided between the two parties yet, and are just dialing in waiting to be swayed by some emotional nonsense, some grrrrrl power, some sob-story, whatever. God, no wonder we're doomed. The fate of America hinges on a bunch of nincompoops getting misty eyed about Michelle's dress.
Woodward's book is being trumpeted far and wide with the usual publicity machine. It's amazing. And he's Bob Woodward. I saw bits of it today in USA Today AND the FT.
As far as Obama/Romney, the polls heavily weighted are showing Romney pulling ahead. The real deal is not even close. A "really big speech" works for Aaron Sorkins characters because he wrote them, in the real world most people tuned into the NFL doubleheader (thank god) than watch Clinton celebrate himself.
The Chicago Way fails when you are believed to be in doubt about delivering both punishment and goodies. Obama is siccing the DOJ on ... Gallup. For what amounts to negative polling, but is ostensibly about some government contract over-billing.
DOJ and the IRS and Obama (on his website "enemies list") have gone after Romney donors. Who have responded by doubling down.
Obama's campaign is so clueless that they went searching for half a million fraudulent Black voters and got caught at i.
Now we have evidence of how stupid Obama is politically. Bill Clinton would never have made that mistake.
Obama's objective should have been to tie Republicans up with him in any deal so it could not be used against him later. He also should have realized that 2008 had been three years ago, and that his powers of "persuasion" were limited and his coat-tails after the debacle of 2010 non-existent. He still operated as if press adulation and actual worship by his followers as Jesus 2.0 meant something anymore. He did not realize he'd become Kim Kardashian. Famouns but disliked.
Obama's objective should have been to get a deal that satisfied the min of Republicans (so they are on board) while forcing them to embrace the stuff HE had to have and more importantly, could conceivably form the line of attack against him in 2012.
This is called intelligence. Obama does not have it. Bill Clinton in 1994 realized it was no longer 1992. The tide had changed. So he out Gingriched Gingrich, and rode "end of Welfare as we know it" to re-election. Obama is like most Black leaders, delusion as to his abilities, much like an aging Ochocinco or TO think they are still wanted on the marketplace.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is hotter-n-hades.
You're insane. Pelosi is hotter at twice her age, and Gabrielle Giffords is way better-looking too.
Some people here seem to be obsessed with the idea Mitt Romney has a chance in this election.
The only chance he has is a whole lot of PAC money swinging things.
Sometimes that works like in Wisconsin, sometimes it doesn't like in California with Meg Whitman.
The PAC's have a lot of work to do, putting Romney in the White House is like putting lipstick on a pig. My memory of Presidential elections goes back to 1976. Aside from Michael Dukakis, Romney is bar none the weakest candidate I have ever seen win a nomination.
If he were running against Ross Perot, get ready for President Ross Perot.
It's a paradox, but Obama being black is the best thing that ever happened to both candidates.
If Obama weren't black, he would never have been selected to run in 2008.
If Obama weren't black, Romney would be looking at a shellacking akin to Reagan's '84 victory over Mondale.
Odds are he will win one or two, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me if Romney lost EVERY swing state.
That's how bad I think he is as a candidate. When the guy talks, you don't want to have a beer with him.
You want to kick his ass.
Obama, I'd rather have a beer with him on the grounds that when he is drinking he can't be talking.
"No Obama is losing"
obama can easily win this thing. it looks like a 50/50 deal to me. you better just psychologically prepare yourself for obama being re-elected and accept that as totally possible.
"Avoiding fiscal meltdown ought to be easy."
f no. the united states is in very deep long term financial trouble.
if PPACA is fully implemented the US federal government will crash by 2020. i guarantee this. jody makes few guarantees but he's making this one. it won't matter who is in office. in fact, no matter who you are, you probably don't want to be in office in the 2016 to 2018 time frame.
PPACA won't go into full effect and remain in full effect for very long, because it can't. full implementation of obamacare in combination with the federal government's other escalating financial committments spells game over. better let a few more mexicans in so they can get some of that free healthcare while the getting is good. because it won't be much longer.
"There was never any risk of default. The government simply would have run out of its ability to borrow, but it could still rollover existing debt and has more than enough revenue to pay interest."
the US federal government will eventually be reduced to not doing much other than paying interest on it's colossal debt. even the GAO people know this.
"I may be the only paleocon on the face of the earth who thinks this, but Debbie Wasserman Schultz is hotter-n-hades."
you are. she almost looks like she has down syndrome and she's dumber than a box of rocks.
"I've seen this time and again with affirmative action beneficiaries. When you get in a clutch situation, ultimately, they are content to sit on the sidelines and let the grownups handle things, not make waves."
lol. how about when the lebron james cleveland cavaliers were in crunch time and needed a bucket, and mike brown had to have john kuester draw up the play while brown himself nervously paced back and forth outside of the player huddle. humorously, kuester was later hired as an assistant coach for the lakers...again as mike brown's assistant. how does affirmative action mike brown end up coaching both of the best players in the league?
"Obama got the biggest piece of domestic legislation passed since LBJ, accomplishing a decades-old liberal policy objective that Clinton tried and failed to accomplish."
as i've said. obama has been the wildest, most out of control success of all time. if you're a liberal. i'm confused whenever i read liberals who have been disappointed by him.
also another point i've made on the constitutionality of PPACA. if it was constitutional, why didn't a democrat president get it passed decades ago? forget about clinton not even passing anything like that in 8 years, go back decades to other democrat presidents. if it's constitutional now (it's not), it was constitutional then, and carter totally blew it. johnson totally blew it. kennedy totally blew it. truman totally blew it. obama came in and in 1 year NAILED it. hit it out of the park. smashed it.
the US military was no homos allowed for over 200 years. then obama comes in and in 2 years the radical homosexual agenda is now a line item in the pentagon's annual budget. that's almost unbelievable. i still wonder if i'm in the twilight zone.
and of course no need to go into how obama sued the states that were trying to resist the mexican invasion under the silly idea they were allowed to defend themselves. he's sued their asses into oblivion and forced the entire united states to surrender to the invaders.
he's been a runaway, out of control success. it's mind boggling how much of a success he was in only 4 years. he said he wanted to fundamentally transform the united states and he's succeeded beyond a liberal's wildest dreams.
I'm really impressed by all the commenters on this thread who are sure they know how this election is going to turn out!
I look at the polls, and I see a race that seems to be consistently within a couple of percentage points, and all I can think is, Man, this is a close race -- it could go either way!
All these other commenters must be SO much deeper than I am, to look at the same data and figure out exactly what's going to happen.
Gosh, I just wish I had their brains!
Nobody will remember the conventions a week from now. The next "big thing" will be the debates. Yes, they will be shamelessly slanted to favor Obama, but he could still come out looking like the clueless slacker that he is. Or not.
And then after the debates there will be.... something. The MSM dirt diggers are still busy rummaging through Romney and Ryan's trash cans every night. Something could turn up. Something may already have and they're just saving it until the time is more ripe.
Or America might realize that Ryan went from dating a super-hot black chick to marrying a super-cute white chick, and the wimmens will swoon in a Whiskey-style way. Take your shirt off Paul, take your shirt off.
You're insane.
Nah, just some guy with a little experience out there in Meat Space who knows a damned good lay when he sees one.
PS: And yes, Nancy Pelosi is some seriously hot GMILF material.
Clinton's speech last night was as effective a dismantling of the Republicans as as ever been heard. His whiteness also highlights that the contest is not a white vs non-white issue as too many, including here, seem to believe. It will be interesting to see what kind of a bounce the Democrats get from their hugely impressive convention.
Clinton's speech last night was as effective a dismantling of the Republicans as as ever been heard... It will be interesting to see what kind of a bounce the Democrats get from their hugely impressive convention.
Congrats Steve! David Axelrod reads your blog!
"SurprisedBarryIsALightweight said...
Woodward and his ilk alternately amuse and enrage me. Now they're expressing surprise at what an empty suit lightweight Obama is. This is the enrage part - what possible reason did they have (just ONE reason) for thinking he was anything else? Gee, he's not up to the task of steering leviathan despite his vast track record of NOTHING. But no, they had to force him on the rest of us (granted, McDunce was helpful in this).
People invested hopes in an effete self-absorbed dweeb (what kind of person writes his memoirs in his 30's? What kind of normal person writes memoirs at all?) for no reason whatsoever beyond him being half-black or being good at reading off a teleprompter but then they're surprised he's not up to the job? Despite a lifelong track record of being interested in nothing beyond himself (its not like he wrote two books - about himself) now they're surprised he's uninterested in governing? He can't engage in the hand-to-hand combat with other giant egos necessary? Well that's a surprise. WTF, idiots. "
I have been thinking the same thing for over 4 yrs now. What did he EVER do that would make any but the most PC deluded think he would move the world and solve problems. Because he's black(ish)? Do blacks or mixed race have such an impressive track record at running government that any one of them we scarcely know is sure up to the job? Are they insane?
Or just PC deluded. yes, that's it. I mean even Bush II had a track record as a governor that was considered strong, if not good. But Obama? Nothing. I've been 4 long yrs for the rest of the world (apparently) to see this faux emperor is buck naked, and depsite his blackness, it ain't working.
"He can also be called B. Hussein Obama or BHO Jr. but not BO."
Gee, this is fun.
How about his original name, Barry. Probably Dunham, later Soetoro. Or just Barry.
Personally, I lean towards Big Zero, aka Bozo.
"So, I can totally sympathize with Obama."
With Sailer turning like this, who needs liberals?
He sympathizes. So what? That fact inspires interesting commentary and not one-note, butt hurt screeds.
"Anonymous said...
Clinton's speech last night was as effective a dismantling of the Republicans as as ever been heard. His whiteness also highlights that the contest is not a white vs non-white issue as too many, including here, seem to believe. It will be interesting to see what kind of a bounce the Democrats get from their hugely impressive convention."
This sounds like paid work (David Axelrod, LOL). Even trying to get into Steve's language with "his whiteness" bit; lacks principle.
That muting the phone thing is striking. That doesn't just show that he's a boring windbag, but that his allies have no respect for him. You just don't do that to someone unless you're certain he would never take revenge, even of the petty variety. There's a level of contempt there that's surprising, considering he does have a certain amount of power as president."
Contempt. I think that's the overriding word that occurs to me with respect to BO. It's a feeling that wells up towards those who are given everything and have no grace in acknowledging that they are really nothing and it was all done for them. Somebody of no capacity who still wants to be the big man.
ewww he is disgusting.
And to think this creature (or really his handlers) is suing states for following federal law.
And don't think the paid trolls aren't out bloging for 'bama.
Just as I suspected. Blacks can put up a good front but when it comes down to doing the job they aint so hot.
candid:
Polls predict that the popular vote will probably be pretty close, but Obama currently looks pretty far ahead in electoral votes, which is what decides who gets to be president. This map shows a current projection based on polls. Obviously, a lot can change, and polls can mislead sometimes, but judging from what information is available now, Obama looks to be in a pretty favorable position.
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