October 1, 2012

Any stories of Obama going out of his way to do something nice for somebody?

Romney is widely assumed to be heartless and out of touch, but he has a long history of organizing helpful interventions for private citizens in need, partly as a Mormon leader, partly as a boss. 

I know a fair amount about Obama, but very few similar stories about him leap to mind. He was professionally employed as a do-gooder for 3 years, but primarily seemed to help get some asbestos removed on the job, much less accomplish anything off hours. Any suggestions for good things Obama has done in his private life to help others?

102 comments:

DaveinHackensack said...

Whadaya, whadaya? He let tens of millions of Americans feel good about themselves for voting for him.

Baloo said...

Typo in title.

Anonymous said...

I've never gotten the feeling there's "much there there" with Obama. He's a media created creature, isn't he?

dearieme said...

He's cleaned up a bit. Cleaned up his birth certificate anyway.

a woman said...

I understand POTUS referred to himself as "eye candy" when he found himself on the couch with a bunch of women of "The View" (and his wife).

Talk about narcissism.

Frankly, I've never seen him as a sexually or sensually interesting man, but rather as a cold fish sort.

Chuck Ross said...

Saved Michelle from a life of female attorney spinsterhood? That's all I got.

Kylie said...

You're right--you just keep getting funnier.

"Any suggestions for Obama?"

You bet.

Anonymous said...

Mormons reach out to blacks and get nothing.
Mormons reach out to Jews and get nothing.

How about Romney reaching out to white people for a change? He's too busy reaching out to Zionists.

Anonymous said...

Romney may have been generous but as a private individual. Private charity come and go according to the WHIM of individuals who give them.
And that's why most people don't trust charity. If people choose not to give, the well runs dry.
Government spending, on the other hand, never dries up. It comes and comes and comes.
Also, entitlement and 'rights' sound less insulting to the take than 'charity'. If you take charity, you feel like a bum taking handouts.
But if you take from the government, you are being 'empowered' and getting what you're 'entitled'.
Since Romney chose Ryan the libertarian, it means he's for smaller government, and that, for a lot of Americans, is 'heartless'.

And whatever Romney may have given as an individual, his financial globalism and his speech about 250,000 middle class folks sounds ridiculous.

to be sure, both Obama and Romney are out of touch. but if Romney's out of touchness seems economic/classist, obama uses his out-of-touchness to his advantage with the spiritual card. He's above us since he's black jesus. But he fistbumps you so, so he is sort of in touch.

Anonymous said...

Obama gave black farmers a lot of cash and prizes. Why give as an individual when you can use big government to spread billions around?

Obama gave mega-billions to Wall Street Jews.
Obama gave more dough to Israel.
Obama gave amnesty to illegals.
Obama made a wise latina SC.
Obama gave open gays in military.
Obama gave 'gay marriage' to gays. Obama gave free healthcare to 50 million Americans.
Obama gave more foreign aid.
Obama gave free beer to Gates and the cop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI1H0Np6a9g

Giving through gubment is bigger than giving as private Mormon.

Anonymous said...

Obama is the sort to constantly complain that others don't do enough. He thinks they should employ him to supervise others to "do something." Obama sees his role as prodding the consciences of others.

Anonymous said...

Obama uses the government to spend our money but takes all the credit.

It's like a politician promising everyone $100,000 and passing out the buck by printing money or borrowing money or raising taxes and then saying, "I gave each of you 100,000."

Obama takes our money, spreads it around, and takes credit. But Wall Street took a whole chunk of it, and Romney is closer to Wall Street. Both are assholes.

Icepick said...

Yes, there's the story of the time Obama decided to get elected President so we could all worship his magnificence. Or is that not the kind of thing you're looking for?

Anonymous said...

When your motives are pure (i.e., you are a certified liberal and member of the elite, who are the elite because they are better than you, so obviously their motives are pure, because if they weren't pure they wouldn't be better than you), then you have no need to do nice stuff for people to prove that you have good motives.

And what other reason would there be to do nice stuff for people?

-ovaldo M.

Zhora Misha said...

The last word in your post is funny. Did you leave out a 'd'—or a space?

Anonymous said...

Steve, who cares? "Nice" isn't an essential, or even positive, quality in a president

peterike said...

OT, but speaking of Communists, Eric Hobsbawm has at long last departed this earth. Let the wave of panegyrics begin!

Anonymous said...

Obama let his aunt stay in America.

Obama allows black flashmobs to rob.

He's a river to his people.

Pat Boyle said...

If you mean his time as a community organizer, I think you're wrong. Community organizers as a profession were intended to oppose "do-gooders". The institutional do-gooders were discredited public social workers.

Community organizing came in just about the same time when the idea of public social workers was going out. This was about 1970.

In the mid sixties the idea was to hire nice white psychology and sociology graduates who would have control over some public resources (money, housing, advice) to do good things for poor people.

Social workers had been upper class women who lived among the poor and supplied direct services. They were volunteers. They gave out their own amateur medical services and legal services. The public social worker was supposed to do much the same but with paid professionals. The public civil servant social worker did case management and referred the poor to real paid doctors and lawyers.

But these social workers also had the power of the purse. They had some discretion over benefits. They could give more money to those whom they decided on their own authority were particularly needy.

This idea was a disaster and soon abolished. Doing good with other people's money didn't work.

About the same time the War on Poverty hit upon the idea of paying ghetto gang leaders public money. This idea was to build on the already existing power structure. So the feds gave money to pimps, murderers and hoodlums. Read some Tom Wolfe.

Community Organizers were never conceived of as "do-gooders". Just the opposite.

Albertosaurus

Anonymous said...

"Any suggestions for Obama"

Resign

sunbeam said...

"In 1998 the 14-year-old daughter of one of Romney's partners at Bain Capital, Robin Gay, had disappeared after attending a rave party in New York City. The distraught father was beside himself with terror of what may have happened to his little girl.

Upon hearing of this, Romney stopped all operations at Bain and flew himself and all of the company's employees to New York to conduct the search. Using his contacts with establishments in New York that did business with Bain and an outlay of cash, Romney led a search for the girl from a command post he had set up in the LaGuardia Marriott that involved a private detective, Bain employees and customers putting up posters, handing out flyers, and interviewing prostitutes, drug addicts, and other street people in New York, and coordination with the New York Police.

A break came, after media publicity of the search, when a teenage boy called a tip line asking if there was a reward. He hung up, but not before the police traced the call to a home in New Jersey. The girl was found in the basement of the house undergoing withdrawals from a hit of ecstasy.

Romney, through his efforts, had saved the girl's life."

Ooookaaaaay. Now what am I to do with this story?

It just doesn't pass my smell test.

Now, be honest.

Do you believe this story?

Yes, or no. From everything you know, or think you know, at this point in time do you believe this story?

100% in or out, no equivocation. Do you believe this story?

DaShui said...

He didn't bogart that joint one time.

rightsaidfred said...

Helped his illegal aunt stay in the country?

No evidence he intervened, so let's call it a "contact help".

NOTA said...

The natural place to look for this would be from his history in Rev Wright's church, where he was surrounded by blacks who were poorer and less-educated than he was. I'd assume he and Michelle would have been pretty natural leaders in that community if they wanted to be.

Auntie Analogue said...

Obama do something nice for somebody? How quickly you forget his Cairo speech! His bow to the Saudi king! His Henry Louis Gates & police office Beer Summit! His "if I had a son he'd look like Trayvon" moment! How about his release of God knows how many Gitmo jihadists - including the one who is now the chief suspect in the jihadist murder of Ambassador Stevens! Let's not overlook that full-time, 24-7 employment he gives to the White House projectionist. Then there are 470+ employed at Obama's pesonal appointment to his presidential staff! Why Obama's even nice to dogs1 - since his dog has a full-time handler on the government payroll and enjoys government flights to take it to wherever the Obama's are vacationing! How much nicer might you expect the One Who Leads From Behind to be?!

Enoch Powell said...

Obama thinks that simply being in his presence is an extremely nice thing he can do for people. Like most overgrown, adolescent homosexuals, Obama is profoundly self-centered. He is, at the same time, emotionally fragile. That means he is easily bored, irritated, offended, etc. But all his life stupid, cowardly White people have told him he is precious and special and therefore it is a privilege to be near him. But essentially Obama is an affirmative-action parasite who has been conditioned to be focused on what others can do for him. The rest is very dreary dahling.

Anonymous said...

According to his law school classmates (as documented on iSteve) he's a real gem...NOT.

Thomas O. Meehan said...

He has given out a lot of phones lately. And he gave them away for free! He also gave that girl in New York the thrill of dating a black man, and he didn't even charge her for it.

peterike said...

Speaking of Romney, the recent profile of him in The New Yorker is an interesting portrait. While author Nicholas Lemann can't resist the occasional bit of Liberal sneering, the portrait seems fair and done with good will.

Reading it, you realize that Romney is about as far beyond Obama intellectually as it is possible for two humans to be, yet he has difficulty explaining things outside of certain contexts (such as an understanding of business). In short, Romney's communication problem is that he has a very hard time speaking to fools. In his professional life, he doesn't have to speak to fools, because he can just get rid of them. Unfortunately, he cannot replace the bulk of the American electorate, so he must struggle to communicate with fools. He is likely to fail at this.

Obama, well versed in community organizing (i.e. dealing with complete idiots at the street level), knows the okey-doke inside and out. Romney is too straightforward for his own good.

In any case, Romney seems by every measure to be smart, moral, ferociously hard-working and incorruptible. What he does very well -- literally better than most people on earth -- is tackle problems. Guess what? We have problems.

Bit by bit I'm getting convinced Romney will make a good President. Will he be the border-shutting, HBD white nationalist President of my dreams? Of course not. But given the way things go, he's probably as good as we'll get.

And culturally, underneath all the polite corporate baggage and mouthing of PC bromides (the business world steeps you in these tropes), I suspect that Romney may very well be a white bigot. At the very least, he knows damn well that people are not fungible, because his entire career involves finding good people for the job and dismissing the incompetent. He may be the stealth border-shutter after all.

Anonymous said...

You should reject all comments for this item. It just looks so poetic, your lonely query sitting there asking for replies, then "Comments (0)".

Anonymous said...

No but Obama went out of his way to not help his half-brother's kid who was dying in a hospital.

--Obstinance Works

AllanF said...

Of course not. He's never accomplished anything on his own. The thinnest resume of any president excepting, maybe, that other legacy, GWB. You know that.

Obama's an empty suit, an empty chair, an empty book, whatever. Nothing sticks to him (eg. Solyendra Fast-n-Furious, Arab Spring blow-back, etc.) because everyone knows he's not doing anything that would suggest he has a hand in anything. Can't be held responsible for things you've not done.

Polichinello said...

Well, he did pull his Grandpa off his Grandma because she had the effrontery to be assailed by a black homeless guy.

So there's that.

Anonymous said...

"Romney seems by every measure to be smart, moral, ferociously hard-working and incorruptible."

What's there to corrupt? He signed 'gay marriage' into law in Mass. He pledges to bomb Iran for Zionist masters who fill his campaign coffers. His attacks on GOP candidates in the primaries were extreme and ugly.

Harry Baldwin said...

The story Obama told in "Dreams From my Father," when his grandmother was frightened by an aggressive black panhandler at the bus stop, demonstrated that he is a physical and moral coward. It didn't occur to him to be angry at the man who threatened the woman who had taken him in; instead, he was upset that she was a racist. And, amazingly, he put this story in his book without any concern that it would reflect badly on him.

My wife gets messages from Obama on her Facebook feed, and these often feature a nice little letter Obama wrote someone, or something like that. I suspect those sorts of gestures are handled by staff, however. Read this story and use your judgment.

DaveinHackensack said...

"In short, Romney's communication problem is that he has a very hard time speaking to fools. In his professional life, he doesn't have to speak to fools, because he can just get rid of them."

That's a good point. From his work in the Mormon church, to running Bain, to running the Olympics, to running Massachusetts, Romney hasn't had much practice dropping his 'g's.

Anonymous said...

White niceness is bad. It's because whites have been nice for so long that everyone expects something from whites.
So, whites must always give to be nice.
But blacks can just take to be nice.

Current logic of nice-ology.
Whites must give and non-whites must take.
Since Obama takes stuff from whites and gives it to blacks and browns, he's part of the nice-ology of which Romney is a part of.
If Romney the whitey is so willing to give, then there must be people to TAKE it. And Obama takes and asks for more from whitey.

This is a bad habit. UK is broke but is so addicted to niceness that it still hands out foreign aid to nations like India and China as well as to Africa.

So, the problem is Romney's niceness. Indeed white people's niceness as a whole. Stop giving. Earn and make other learn and earn. Stop giving cuz there will only be more people taking.

Anonymous said...

"In short, Romney's communication problem is that he has a very hard time speaking to fools."

He must never speak to himself then.

Anonyia said...

"And culturally, underneath all the polite corporate baggage and mouthing of PC bromides (the business world steeps you in these tropes), I suspect that Romney may very well be a white bigot. At the very least, he knows damn well that people are not fungible, because his entire career involves finding good people for the job and dismissing the incompetent. He may be the stealth border-shutter after all."

Doubtful. He's a Mormon and they are generally pro open borders because they want poor Mexican converts.

Steve Setzer said...

@sunbeam
Yes, I believe the account of Romney and the Bain team running a rescue operation. I do not like Mr. Romney overall as a presidential candidate, but the account is consistent with his private behavior and personality. (And that of key associates like Fraser Bullock.)
Furthermore, several "debunking" websites including snopes.com also believe it.

The best summary comes from "urbanlegends.about.com":
"Apart from a dollop of hyperbole and a few minor details that conflict with contemporary press reports (most notably the claim that the missing girl was suffering from serious drug withdrawals and "might not have survived another day" if she hadn't been found when she was), this account comports with the known facts."

Would you believe it if I said that chemical magnate Jon Huntsman Sr. has several times used his airplane and people to bring home friends or strangers injured or killed overseas? Google it.

I use Huntsman as an example in teaching my kids. "Where much is given, much is required. We don't have the ability to fly an injured man halfway around the world, but we can help the people across the street move into their house." Now I plan to add Romney to those examples.

Anonymous said...

"He's a Mormon and they are generally pro open borders because they want poor Mexican converts."

And the converts are called
More-Mexicans.

josh said...

Re "Obama sees his role as prodding the conscience of others". The name Aldous Snow comes to mind. NOTE:NY Magazine and some others are apparently outing Cory Booker,mayor of Newark,as gay. At least it seems so. In the first issue of Dujour Magazine (Dujour? Really?) he is quoted,in a loving hagiographic piece, as saying the following: "I had an ex-girlfriend who ruined me in terms of my macho ex-football-player self,she turned me on to manipedis...Its this guilty pleasure I have.Look,manis are good,but pedis-there;s something...transformative." Transformative? Seems I recall another black politician who used that word...

Harry Baldwin said...

He must never speak to himself then.

Whoa--anonymous schnook zings one off the rich guy! My liberal sister-in-law, up to her eyeballs in credit card debt, says things like that all the time--"Romney is such a dope!" etc. No self-awareness whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

whatever Romney may have given as an individual, his financial globalism and his speech about 250,000 middle class folks sounds ridiculous


Not sure where this "financial globalism" BS comes from. Romney is no more or less a "financial globalist" than any other Presidential candidate of the last fifty years, very much including President Barry Goldman-Sachs.

Anonymous said...

With all the inflation on the way, making $250,000 will be the middle class.

Anonymous said...

Obama, well versed in community organizing (i.e. dealing with complete idiots at the street level), knows the okey-doke inside and out. Romney is too straightforward for his own good.


Obama says incredibly stupid things on a regular basis. It's just that the only people who hear about it are the handful of readers on a few right-wing blogs.

A disturbingly large proportion of people here are buying into the media's spin on the two men.

Anonymous said...

"Romney is no more or less a "financial globalist" than any other Presidential candidate of the last fifty years..."

But here's the problem. 50 yrs ago, finance wasn't as powerful as it is today. Manufacturing sector was also very big, indeed bigger. Financial sector was also well-regulated due to Depression and New Deal. And globalism wasn't what it is today.
Even during Reagan, one could argue for more de-regulation to loosen up the economy. One could call for more free trade since China and India were dirt poor.

But look at today. Wall Street is the biggest thing in the American economy. It almost owns the American government. And globalism is out of control financially, free tradedly, and immigrationally.

It's like eating ice cream is okay if you're thin. But eating ice cream is not okay if you're fat.
This is no time for eating ice cream. We need to scale back financialism and globalism. But Romney is not that man. He's peddling ice cream to a fat man.

NOTA said...

Anon 1:24:

Romney didn't sign gay marriage into law anywhere. He was generally friendly to gay rights, but not a supporter of gay marriage.

Also, I don't see how Romney's position on Iran is distinguishable from Obama's. What is the difference? Both say they will go to war to prevent Iran getting a bomb, right?

Anonymous said...

His attacks on GOP candidates in the primaries were extreme and ugly.


No, they were not. His attacks on GOP candidates in the GOP primary were notably more restrained than the attacks of other GOP candidates on him.

Newt was forced to repudiate some of his own campaign ads, they were so bad.

Anonymous said...

Ooookaaaaay. Now what am I to do with this story?

It just doesn't pass my smell test.

Now, be honest.

Do you believe this story?



I'm a lot more inclined to believe documented facts than your "smell test". And the story is a documented fact.

Svigor said...

Romney may have been generous but as a private individual. Private charity come and go according to the WHIM of individuals who give them.
And that's why most people don't trust charity. If people choose not to give, the well runs dry.


Translation: without big gubbmint, man is a savage. It took big gubbmint to civilize man. Before big gubbmint, we were all savages, and big gubbmint is mankind's only saving grace.

Anonymous said...

You are kidding, right. The real 1% is the % of Blacks that helps others.

MDR

Anonymous said...

Does "somebody" include himself? If so, then yes.

Anonymous said...

He does nice things for Barack Obama all the time.

Anonymous said...

"Romney is no more or less a "financial globalist" than any other Presidential candidate of the last fifty years..."

But here's the problem. 50 yrs ago, finance wasn't as powerful as it is today. Manufacturing sector was also very big, indeed bigger. Financial sector was also well-regulated due to Depression and New Deal. And globalism wasn't what it is today.
Even during Reagan, one could argue for more de-regulation to loosen up the economy. One could call for more free trade since China and India were dirt poor.




None of which changes the fact that going off on Romney for being a "financial globalist" is idiotic.

China and India are still dirt poor. If "free trade", so-called (it's actually mercantillism) was permissible to make China and India richer in the 1980's it must still be permissible today.

No, globalism is a problem. But people who think that Romney is the living embodiment of globalism are a pretty big problem too. They've been watching too many Obama campaign ads and believing them.

beowulf said...

"Of course not. He's never accomplished anything on his own. The thinnest resume of any president excepting, maybe, that other legacy, GWB. You know that."

Actually the thinnest resume was Abraham Lincoln's. He was a backwoods lawyer who'd served 2 years in Congress (back when it was a part-time gig) years before. He turned out OK as President, you have to have admire a guy with the balls to put his own face on the $10 bill.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/US_$10_Demand_Note.jpg

Marlowe said...

He gave the British embassy in Washington a jolly nice bust of Sir Winston Churchill, created by the sculptor Jacob Epstein.

DaveinHackensack said...

"No, globalism is a problem."

By itself, globalization is neither the problem nor the solution -- the problem is that, with a few exceptions, we haven't been managing it in our economic interests for decades. As Ian Fletcher has noted, the US embrace of unilateral free trade after WWII was done for geopolitical reasons (to support Cold War allies). Then it became dogma.

Romney is tiptoeing in the right direction with his policy proposals on China, but he ought to consider embracing balanced trade as a goal, with the Richman's scaled tariff as a tool to get there.

Kandi Kid said...

You definitely don't go through withdrawl from a single hit of ecstasy...

Mac said...

"His attacks on GOP candidates in the primaries were extreme and ugly."

I'd sure like to see Mittens wheel some of those out in the general campaign.

Tony said...

Didn't he give money to Rev Wright's Church? And didn't he bring tears of joy to Jesse Jackson?

Severn said...

As Ian Fletcher has noted, the US embrace of unilateral free trade after WWII was done for geopolitical reasons (to support Cold War allies).


There's no such thing as "unilateral free trade". That's like "unilateral consensual sex", which is another way of saying "rape".

Anonymous said...

>How about Romney reaching out to white people for a change? He's too busy reaching out to Zionists.<

Gotta dance with the one who brung ya. And stay in touch with yer old pals.

>Romney hasn't had much practice dropping his 'g's.<

But he is trying.

Anonymous said...

He gave his daughters to Sidwell Friends to spare the public school kids the disruption of having to go to school with celebrities.

Does Sidwell have metal detectors? Just asking.

Davis said...

He certainly helped pay for Reverend Wright's mansion in Illinois.

Living near your flock is overrated.

Truth said...

Thomas Friedman made two very interesting points on Charlie Rose the other night, one of them was; "Have you seen a Romney bumper sticker yet?"

Truth said...

"100% in or out, no equivocation. Do you believe this story?"

I would say the story is largely exaggerated, but there is probably SOME truth to it. On a personal level Romney strikes me as a nice guy. Good family men usually are.

Anonymous said...

"Thomas Friedman made two very interesting points on Charlie Rose the other night, one of them was; "Have you seen a Romney bumper sticker yet?"

White people's cars are real targets when they go to work.

Truth said...

"The natural place to look for this would be from his history in Rev Wright's church, where he was surrounded by blacks who were poorer and less-educated than he was. I'd assume he and Michelle would have been pretty natural leaders in that community if they wanted to be."

If poor and uneducated black people selected rich and well-educated people as "leaders" they would cease to be poor and uneducated. The problem is that they select upper middle class and uneducated.

Anonymous said...

He plays golf with humble staffers - probably gives them swing tips.

Gilbert P.

Anonymous said...

"you have to have admire a guy with the balls to put his own face on the $10 bill."

Interesting observation. All the Roman emperors and rulers and monarchs to this day are on their countries' currency.

Anonymous said...

"If poor and uneducated black people selected rich and well-educated people as "leaders" they would cease to be poor and uneducated. The problem is that they select upper middle class and uneducated."

I don't know if there Stanley Ann Dunham's to breed a sufficient supply.

Anonymous said...

How about each city have a loot street?

It can be designed and constructed by Hollywood. It will be filled with stores with all sorts of contrabands, and on certain occasions, people who wants to loot and pillage--for sports victory, rage over police brutality, etc--would go crazy over there. The stores would be stocked by the government and manned by government workers pretending to be shop keepers.

That way, the looters have fun on loot street while rest of city is left alone.

Truth said...

"White people's cars are real targets when they go to work."

And they weren't when Bush and McCain were running?

Mr. Anon said...

"Anonymous said...

He's a river to his people."

What a great line. Anthony Quinn had all the best lines in that movie.

Anonymous said...

No, I haven't, but I live in the East Bay Area of CA and know what? I have yet to see an Obama one too.

However, 4 years ago I think I only saw 4 or 5 O bumper stickers, maybe one or two McCain/Palin.

I live in a heavily democratic county, too.

Bumper stickers are passe out here, I guess, but no yard signs either.

Oh, and Freidman? Saw him for the first time in a long time last week. The guy is truly a poseur. It's paid well, though.

Mr. Anon said...

He stopped the ocean's rise. Isn't that enough for christ's sake?

Dr Van Nostrand said...

"Thomas Friedman made two very interesting points on Charlie Rose the other night, one of them was; "Have you seen a Romney bumper sticker yet?"

Thomas Friedman? Seriously, the man is notorious for his ,usually failed, attempts at squeezing profundities out of the most meaningless and trivial observations.

Google Friedmanisms

Anonymous said...

obama has one thing in common with putin. after drunken moronic yeltsin, russians wanted a man to exude and exert power or the semblance of power. putin played that role masterfully.

after 4 yrs of dweeb bush 1, 8 yrs of slick willy, an 6 yrs of dumbass bush 2--and dullards like dole, kerry, edwards, mccain--, americans wanted someone with a sense of authority and power. even in this economy, obama comes across as confident, firm, and sturdy. americans like that.

so, both putin and obama have actually tapped into strains of neo-fascism.

romney comes across as stiff than firm.

now, obama's aura of power may just be an act--he is controlled by his Jewish masters--, but it's a good and effective act.

Anonymous said...

Obama bumper sticker:

SHIT HAPPENS

Anonymous said...

svigor said:

Translation: without big gubbmint, man is a savage. It took big gubbmint to civilize man. Before big gubbmint, we were all savages, and big gubbmint is mankind's only saving grace.

if it weren't in the context of charity, this would be totally true.

if libertards really like small government they can live in afghanistan or somalia instead of US.

Peter A said...

" In short, Romney's communication problem is that he has a very hard time speaking to fools."

That alone should disqualify him as President. All great leaders have the gift of being able to talk to the mob. Romney is not temperamentally suited for the Presidency.

DaveinHackensack said...

Truth,

Can't recall seeing a Romney Ryan bumper sticker around here, but I did see this on a Hummer recently.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:24, you expose yourself as a fool if you think Romney had anything to do with gay marriage in Massachusetts.

Our liberal legislature (82% Democrats) couldn't summon the balls to pass a gay marriage bill and go on the official record as supporting it, so they left it up to the Supreme Judicial Court to rule, which they did in Goodridge vs. Dept. of Public Health. The court, led by South African expat Margaret Marshall (ex-NY Times scribbler Anthony Lewis' wife) voted 5-4 in favor of gay marriage. Romney actually came out in support of an amendment to the MA Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, but couldn't get the votes in the Legislature to get the needed Constitutional Convention.

The lesbian couple that the case was named after broke up 2 years.

Anonymous said...


"That alone should disqualify him as President. All great leaders have the gift of being able to talk to the mob. Romney is not temperamentally suited for the Presidency."


What percent of great problem solvers like Romney have this all important gift of effectively manipulating the stupid?

Any examples from history?

It may be an either or kind of deal. Either you can have an effective administrator who fixes the real problems (truth) or you can have the exciting guy who makes you feel good and leaves you in ruins (pretty lie).

This is exactly why the founders limited the franchise to male property owners 21 and over, because they had a vested interest in the fundamental integrity of the state. Single moms and poor men would just vote for fools such as themselves and kill the goose laying the golden eggs. You don't trust the judgement of those who have not shown themselves to be competent or worse, proved themselves incompetent.

Truth said...

Yes, there are anti-Obama bumper stickers everywhere, but I have not seen ONE pro-Romney sticker. Mittens has to be the most disliked presidential candidate ever. He makes John Kerry look like FDR. He is so marginalized that he got TROUNCED four years ago by the second most disliked presidential candidate ever.

The second interesting thing that Friedman said:

"This is the first presidential election in which both candidates are running on the same platform, that platform is; 'I'm not Mitt Romney.'"

Severn said...

after 4 yrs of dweeb bush 1, 8 yrs of slick willy, an 6 yrs of dumbass bush 2--and dullards like dole, kerry, edwards, mccain--, americans wanted someone with a sense of authority and power. even in this economy, obama comes across as confident, firm, and sturdy. americans like that.



People like you are why this country is screwed. You obediently think whatever thoughts the media tells you to think, nothing more and nothing less.

Remember, everyone! - the meme for the day is that Obama is confident, firm, and sturdy, with a sense of authority and power! Internalize that message!

Severn said...

"Thomas Friedman made two very interesting points on Charlie Rose the other night, one of them was; "Have you seen a Romney bumper sticker yet?"


Why is that a "very interesting point"? Why is it not a really stupid question? Two lefties in Manhattan asking each other how many Romney stickers they've seen reminds me of Pauline Kael: "I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon."

NOTA said...

Svigor:

That translation is even true, for some value of big government. Places with no government at all very quickly find themselves run by the local warlord or strongman, and are genuinely godawful places to live.

The argument is all about how much government to have. The differences between Republicans and Democrats on this question are *tiny*, as demonstrated by the history of government getting bigger under both parties at what looks like about the same rate.

66chevelle said...

Well, after today, I have to assume that he's hugged his garbageman.

Harry Baldwin said...

Obama comes across as confident, firm, and sturdy. Americans like that.

Wait, I thought Obama comes across as articulate, bright, and clean, and that's what Americans like.

Harry Baldwin said...

Truth said...Mittens has to be the most disliked presidential presidential candidate ever.

Romney fills me with a combination of ennui and despair, but I can't say I really hate him the way I hate John McCain.

Anonymous said...

"...reminds me of Pauline Kael: 'I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon.'"

But this was a time when liberals could be free-thinking and politically incorrect. Recall that Mike Royko was a liberal all his life but a free thinker.

During the 60s and 70s, liberals were more on the side of free speech and free expression than conservatives were. And Kael was frank about the race and sexuality in her review of the 1976 KING KONG.
How times have changed. She'd be called a whole bunch of names today, mostly from PC libs.

Anonymous said...

"Romney fills me with a combination of ennui and despair, but I can't say I really hate him the way I hate John McCain."

I hate Romney more than McCain.

McCain was a moderate and ran as one. He wasn't trying to put something over us. He was what he was, like him or not. And I respected him for his war record.

But Romney.... a two-faced jerk who isn't even good at being a two-faced jerk.

Anonymous said...

"Yes, there are anti-Obama bumper stickers everywhere, but I have not seen ONE pro-Romney sticker."

Dat's cuz even Romney doesn't know what being pro-Romney means.

The fool attacked Giuliani for making NY a 'sanctuary city' but is now saying he supports amnesty for illegals.
Romney looks like a tall sturdy guy but has no backbone at all.

Anonymous said...

"Thomas Friedman? Seriously, the man is notorious for his ,usually failed, attempts at squeezing profundities out of the most meaningless and trivial observations."

But he wouldn't be wrong to write a book called ROMNEY IS FLAT.

Anonymous said...

All great leaders have the gift of being able to talk to the mob.


Yeah, just look at Hitler and Mussolini.

unix said...

""That alone should disqualify him as President. All great leaders have the gift of being able to talk to the mob. Romney is not temperamentally suited for the Presidency."

Are you trying to say that includes B.O.? Because the media tells us (usually its not even true) that the crowds adore him? He talks to a teleprompter most of the time. Of course, Reagan had cue cards. But B.O. is the Mussolini of the Teleprompter.

bo no mo said...


"now, obama's aura of power may just be an act--he is controlled by his Jewish masters--, but it's a good and effective act."

No it's not. I can't look at that pouty, Howdy Doody face with its dead eyes and feel anything but revulsion. He's a psychopath. His "control" is not firmness. It's more like rigor mortis. His words when intelligent,are the words of the teleprompter. His words when stupid and uncomprehending, are his own.

Anonymous said...

He got Larry Sinclair $250 of cocaine. Nice man, that Obama.

Anonymous said...

there's no such thing as "ecstasy withdrawal". It's not an addictive substance. hat there is is a relatively mild comedown involving exhaustion, sadness, introspection and an inability to pee. it's not dangerous - but the level of dishonesty the media manifests in its reporting of ecstasy is close to that which it manifests in its reporting of obama.

Anonymous said...


Remember, everyone! - the meme for the day is that Obama is confident, firm, and sturdy, with a sense of authority and power! Internalize that message!



And remember, everyone, this was your own idea.


You are all individuals!