Yes. We have a penchant for monarchy and credentials. Bush let us indulge our monarchy itch, and BO let us indulge our itch for affirmative action credentials.
Unlike W's predecessor, who was elected in spite of nobody having the slightest idea who his Daddy was, and also proved a lightweight. (And thank you for introducing me to the euphemism "lightweight" => dud). Will W's Daddy go down as the last half-decent Emperor of the USA?
Off-topic, Steve, but up your alley: rare genetic disorder hits Gaza families. Since I've read your site, just looking at the headline told me that cousins marrying cousins would have something to do with it.
That's a little harsh. I'm no fan of the fashionable cults, but I do think there's probably a valid distinction to be made between the two men's capabilities and levels of accomplishment.
Spot on. I've been thinking "empty suit" ever since the campaign, and every time I see the president speak, that's only confirmed. Not that he's stupid, necessarily, but there's a huge gap between his actual talents and the ones the SWPL crowd projected onto him.
Obama maybe is a lightweight, but at least he can read, write and speak well. Talents not noticeably evident in GW Bush's repertoire.
Obama is in many ways the anti-Bush. Bush is the scion of a privileged family, very much from a stable background and without any hint of tragedy in his life. Obama is, by contrast, the classic classic outsider figure of mythology, somewhat alien in aspect, with a hint of tragedy in his upbringing (more or less an orphan) who has come to deliver us from evil.
But yes, both Bush and Obama, in different ways, speak to the importance of ancestry.
The depressing thing is that we've had no clear alternatives. We were offered Gore - also a daddy's boy, Kerry - another empty suit, and McCain - an aging self-aggrandizing uberhawk willing to put a bubble headed moron in the VP slot if it could get him elected. These haven't been good years.
Right now, it seems to be too soon. But once the Obama tenure has ended and his bio is placed alongside the bios of all the previous Presidents, some deep thinking might begin to take place, in spite of attempts to prettify his story. I mean, how do you portray a father who dropped in on this country, was already in a polygamous marriage, making him a bigamist of sorts in this society, who then immediately abandoned Barack and his mother? How do you portray a mother with wanderlust, who seemed to travel around Third World countries, getting involved with men and having babies with them?
With all the scandals that might attend the story of other Presidents, does anything come close to this? And yet, we blacks are exhorted to take great pride in this Male Ideal, apparently, the best that we could come up with. It's mortifying.
I don't know. Do you think he could have gotten elected if he were raised by decent normal conservative folks? Or do you think he would wind up like Keyes and Thomas vilified for his lack of liberal beliefs?
And also because he wasn't Hillary Clinton. I voted in the dem primary for Stanley Ann's red diaper boy because I thought a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton dynasty was too profoundly undemocratic for America. I did not vote in the general election, but if I did it would have been for Baldwin. At least Obama has energized white conservatives. Hopefully his incompetence will slow down his truly horrible agenda before it kills our country.
Yet Obama looks to be nowhere as powerful as Bush. For eight years Bush did mostly what he wanted- he suffered only one major defeat, immigration reform, and two minor defeats, the Harriet Myers Supreme Court nomination and the Dubai ports deal. He did No Child Left Behind, the Medicare drug benefit, and he ran the Iraq war as he saw fit almost until the end, when the surge was forced on him. The real story of how he did all this will be told someday, although not anytime soon, and it will be very interesting.
It was Gore's blatant display of rudeness and its implied "I -am- so- damn -superior- to- you- I- don't- even- know- why- we -are holding- an- election" attitude that marked Bush's ascendancy to the Oval Office. Americans hate that kind of display of elitism. They remember too well the attitudes of a few of the smarty pants kids in school.
Recall Gore's incessant interrupting of Bush during their Presidential debates, his repeated sighing, the eye-rolling, the shaking of his head, the smirking as his opponent spoke--he cemented his fall from grace as the polling demonstrated, when, in a final demonstration of boorishness, he got up from his stool as Bush was speaking at the edge of the stage to the audience(this was the "debate" that was conducted in a town-hall format) swaggered clumsily up to Bush from behind as if to try to intimidate him, and interrupted him once again, this time with some inane policy-wonk reference which no one in the tv audience understood (I am sure Bush didn't either).
Bush's reaction, the look on his face, was priceless, and more importantly, it reflected what millions of Americans were thinking at that moment: "You gotta be kidding me, man. Did your momma not teach you ANY manners?"
The polls were never the same. It was the inarticulate but forgivably goofy Bush vs. the rude and snotty and just as goofy Gore.
As much as words, maybe more, the physical expression of attitudes can lift or sink a politician and I think we see this playing out now with Obama. His habit of raising his chin in the air during his addresses (and God knows he has made plenty of addresses) was once seen as one marker of an "elegance." I think that habit is now beginning to be seen as a posture conveying his elitism rather than any elegance.
Peggy Noonan said what I had been thinking for a long time. He's too cool--cool as in "not warm," and he's very close to cold, which may yet spell his doom.
People can't help it. It's in their make-up--they don't like cold politicians even if they wind up with a Bush. It's one of the reasons Nixon couldn't last yet Clinton did.
Funny. Funnier: framing it in a "Philosoraptor" graphic, all the kids are putting their deep thoughts into them these days:
http://images.google.com/images?q=philosoraptor
Speaking of which, why so graphic-o-phobic Steve? There's some discussion of this matter over at the Occidental Observer blog. We're discussing a certain infamous website which heavily uses graphics to get its point across. It's as lowbrow as you can get but even the academic types admit it is very effective. I agree.
To paraphrase a 20th century statesman, if freedom is short of weaponry, we must compensate with PhotoShop.
See also Advice Dog, Courage Wolf, Depression Dog, Socially Awkward Penguin:
Well, I guess you could say that if the drunken skirt-chaser had not abandoned that teenage dreamer and the baby he left her with, then Obama would never have become President, come to think of it.
i'm not so sure barack obama would have been elected, if a couple of very lucky things had not happened for the democrats at exactly the correct time.
1) if the price of oil not been $140 a barrel in gw bush's final year, after having been low for years under gw bush due to the prudhoe bay field in alaska
2) if stock market had not crashed at the perfect time for democrats, after having gone through an unprecedented positive cycle during gw bush's administration.
then what? senile, out of touch john mccain might have won a close election if those two things had not happened at the perfect, absolutely perfect time for democrats.
George Bush is an alpha male and Barack Obama is a beta male. George Bush gave world leaders silly nick names, but Barack Obama bows to premiers, emperors, and kings. Obama brought the girl to the party, and she went home with Bush.
Harvard MBA vs. Harvard Law? Advantage Bush (at least a passing glance at the importance of markets and economic growth and the limits of state-run enterprises).
Running (badly) a baseball team vs. community organizer? Advantage Bush, at least he could see his failures while Obama did not.
Governor of a State vs. State Senator/US Senator? Advantage Bush, who had to make hard budget choices that would win him few friends.
Hostile vs. Worshiping Media? Advantage Bush who knew his re-election would hinge on his being marginally better than his opposition to his base. Instead of puffing up his ego as a magical unicorn rider with rainbows flowing out his behind ala Obama.
Instinctive ability to understand Middle Class White America vs. instinctive hatred of Middle Class White America and its traditions and values, and identifying with Third World tyrants, dictators, and Jihadis?
Advantage Bush, who could at least as President attend Memorial Day celebrations and put his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, respectfully, instead of grabbing his crotch like Obama. ----------- The Surge was not forced on Bush. In fact, it was opposed by the Joint Chiefs and Petraeus made an end-run to reach Bush and propose it. It was HIGHLY RISKY and opposed by everyone in the military except the commander on the ground (Petraeus). Bush to his credit saw its possibilities and backed it over the opposition of his National Security Advisor, the CIA, the Pentagon, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.
I'm not a fan of Bush, but a poor President still beats a terrible one.
Indeed, if you want "qualified" you need: Executive Experience, private sector experience, White Majority background or at least ability to understand them, and considerable time outside DC.
The real story of how he did all this will be told someday, although not anytime soon, and it will be very interesting.
There's nothing magical about Bush's lack of setbacks in Congress. Bush is a Republican, but he isn't a conservative. So he had no problem supporting all manner of budget-busting social programs as long as Congress agreed to fund the war. Were he an actual conservative he'd have had more trouble.
I mean, seriously, Medicare part D? In what sane world does a Republican support a plan to tax millions of people without medical care to find prescription drug coverage for people who already have medical care through the state?
I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him.
And are we back on the "Bush was an Alpha Male" fiasco again?
The guy was a FUCKING CHEERLEADER in college for Christ sakes.
Whiskey once again makes a boob of himself, and shows that he know very little about anything...
"Bush is more qualified than Obama: Harvard MBA vs. Harvard Law? Advantage Bush"
Of course, that's why we have so many more CEO politicians in this country than Lawyers.
"Running (badly) a baseball team vs. community organizer? Advantage Bush..."
Spending Daddy's money of course makes one infinitely relevant.
"Hostile vs. Worshiping Media? Advantage Bush..."
Hostile media, yes, the greatest criminal cabal this country has ever elected to the white house got a lot of that, didn't it?
"instinctive ability to understand Middle Class White America vs. instinctive hatred of Middle Class White America.."
So the guy who was raised by middle class white America "hated Middle Class White America" and the wealthy, old money New England Preppie turned fake Texan who's daddy started Texaco had an "instinctive ability to understand white America." O'kay then.
"I'm not a fan of Bush"
No, I think sycophant would be more accurate.
I hope you've all read 1984 Recently, if not, I reccomend picking it up...just for kicks and giggles.
Whether he planned it or not, it looks like Obama called the world's bluff by telling them we would be happy to give them billions right after the monitors assure us of their compliance with climate goals for their countries. I can't stand Obama but putting my animosity for him aside, it is the rest of the world that doesn't believe the climate danger to the earth is enough reason to limit their emissions. Obama was ready to give them our money but they weren't ready to "change" for the sake of the "climate".
"No one mistook Bush for a thoughtful man--they didn't care if he was qualified or not as long as he held faithfully to the narrative."
I am assuming you are referring to Bush's election. Just as we have to consider that McCain was one reason Obama got in, Gore was a reason Bush squeaked in and Kerry was the reason he stayed.
One can be thoughtful (as in giving thought to ideas) and still be wrong. Neither Gore's nor Kerry's "thoughfulness" was trusted by the electorate.
Most pundits are correct when they say we are a center-right nation. That Obama was elected had to do with several factors that for just a short time overrode their center-right gut instincts.
get real, truth. we're in the age of total worship of africans by europeans. most whites today LOVE blacks. they love the daylights out of them. in many nations, and in no nation more than the US, europeans have been conditioned for several decades to react positively toward africans completely out of proportion to what reaction is warranted. some of them are so brainwashed that they literally think any negative information about a major black personality is a lie. i had white people, especially white women, tell me that it was not true that barack obama went to a radical church for 20 years.
the US sports media is already trying to spin chris henry as some kind of potential role model! chris henry WAS A MORON, chris henry WAS A CRIMINAL. chris henry got killed in the middle of trying to assault his girlfriend! it's AWESOME that this guy is dead. it's GREAT that he killed himself before he had a chance to kill somebody else. yet NFL fans are now going to deal with WEEKS of politically correct BS about what an excellent person he was. oh wow, he really turned his life around, he managed to not get arrested for several whole months in a row! amazing person, total shame he's dead, NOT.
did we not just go through the whole ludicrous process of watching barack obama claim a nobel peace prize that he did absolutely nothing to deserve, while at the same exact time, authorizing air strikes that cause collateral damage at a fairly problematic rate?
Sport sez: "I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him."
No you don't. You know damned well that many, perhaps the majority, of white people who supported him did so to show everyone what super awesome anti-racists they are, while other supporters did so so guys like you would shut the fuck up once and for all about Americans being racist.
I have to say, though, that I am delighted to see that even black Americans are beginning to admit Obama is fail: according to the latest Rasmussen poll support for Obama among blacks has fallen from 99% to 98%.
Just kidding. A 98% approval rating among blacks is a fucking outrage and proof that, as one apposite commenter here noted, America doesn't have elections, it has racial head counts. Lee Kwan Yew was right: you cannot have democracy in a multi-ethnic state.
GHWB and his partners started an oil company. They later split, with GHWB taking the international part, and the partners kept the domestic part, which became Pennzoil, which was famously bought by Texaco, which led to a huge lawsuit. So, GHWB is sort of related to Texaco.
"get real, truth. we're in the age of total worship of africans by europeans."
None so much as you,and your buddies at stormfront and castefootball, my friend, you seem to spend your entire life thinking about "us."
"chris henry WAS A MORON, chris henry WAS A CRIMINAL.
Yes, Chris Henry was a criminal, but he was arrested for illegal weapons possesion, marijuana possesion, and DWI (along with misdemeanor assault). I'd say more than a few of us have been guilty of those crimes.
chris henry got killed in the middle of trying to assault his girlfriend!.
Really? I read that he was trying to assault the back window of his truck in order to get out while the truck was moving. I don't know why, but I'm glad that you were an eyewitness.
Oh, and Elin Nordgren Woods did (allegedly) assault her husband, does this make her a MORON and a CRIMINAL (love the caps.)
"You know damned well that many, perhaps the majority, of white people who supported him did so to show everyone what super awesome anti-racists they are,"
I don't know the majority of white people so I can't speak for 100 million Americans, but it's nice to know that you are so much smarter than "them".
"while other supporters did so so guys like you would shut the fuck up once and for all about Americans being racist."
So you're saying that not one white person in America actually thought that Barry would be a better president than Juan McCain?
You're right Steve, I did screw up the whole Zapata-Penzoil-Texaco thing. There's just too much damn information out there to keep in one's head nowadays.
I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him.
When the polls started to show that McNasty had a reasonable chance to win, that he was cutting it close, he had to make a bold move. He brought on board that airhead Palin for his running mate as insurance he wouldn't accidentally win. Winning wasn't part of the script.
I have come to suspect that there's just a huge amount of randomness in who wins these elections. I mean you or I aren't going to win, but once you're a real contender, there's always a chance that a financial or diplomatic crisis, a bimbo eruption, some swirl in the chaos of media coverage and public attention will knock the obvious winner out. Even with all the negatives they carried, there was some chance that Carter might have had a second term, or that Bush Sr might have beaten Clinton.
I'm sorry to see so many of you responding to truth as if he were worth the effort.
He's the kind of person who thinks it's insightful to accuse you of Nazi sympathies if you express the view that Obama is a bad writer. That's what he did to me.
Ding - Ding - Ding - Ding - Ding - Ding; we have a winner!
"That's what he did to me."
No Jim-Bo, you misremember; I accused you of being a Nazi sympathizer when I saw that tape of you on the internet goosestepping in your bathroom in an SS uniform with a drawn on skinny mustache.
I actually think that winning wasn't part of Obama's script when he began the campaign either. I think he was realistically either making a trial run for experience or running for the number 2 spot. But the press fell in love with him, and the opportunity to stick it to Hillary and things got out of control. I'd like to say 'that'll learn 'em' but it won't of course.
I also agree that McCain picked Palin to make sure he lost and it simultaneously worked and didn't work since it launched her as yet the latest unqualified but mediagenic non-entity to debase American political discourse.
"I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him"
I also agree that McCain picked Palin to make sure he lost and it simultaneously worked and didn't work since it launched her as yet the latest unqualified but mediagenic non-entity to debase American political discourse.
I agree. McCain didn't even seem to want to win. He adamantly refused to explout his opponents obvious weaknesses.
Sarah Palin? Palin was his "gift" to the Republican Party in order to destroy their chances in yet another election. He knew the evangelical fundamentalist elements in the Party would latch onto her like Krazy Glue, and he exploited it.
Yes. We have a penchant for monarchy and credentials. Bush let us indulge our monarchy itch, and BO let us indulge our itch for affirmative action credentials.
ReplyDeleteUnlike W's predecessor, who was elected in spite of nobody having the slightest idea who his Daddy was, and also proved a lightweight. (And thank you for introducing me to the euphemism "lightweight" => dud). Will W's Daddy go down as the last half-decent Emperor of the USA?
ReplyDeleteYes. And George Washington et al ironically founded the American Republic as a deliberate revoly against everything feudal and hereditary.
ReplyDeleteOff-topic, Steve, but up your alley: rare genetic disorder hits Gaza families. Since I've read your site, just looking at the headline told me that cousins marrying cousins would have something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a little harsh. I'm no fan of the fashionable cults, but I do think there's probably a valid distinction to be made between the two men's capabilities and levels of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteSo pithy, so clever. A++++.
ReplyDeleteBad comparison. Obama is definitely more qualified than the Bush the Incompetent.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. I've been thinking "empty suit" ever since the campaign, and every time I see the president speak, that's only confirmed. Not that he's stupid, necessarily, but there's a huge gap between his actual talents and the ones the SWPL crowd projected onto him.
ReplyDeleteBitter much?
ReplyDeleteNice.
ReplyDeleteObama maybe is a lightweight, but at least he can read, write and speak well. Talents not noticeably evident in GW Bush's repertoire.
ReplyDeleteObama is in many ways the anti-Bush. Bush is the scion of a privileged family, very much from a stable background and without any hint of tragedy in his life. Obama is, by contrast, the classic classic outsider figure of mythology, somewhat alien in aspect, with a hint of tragedy in his upbringing (more or less an orphan) who has come to deliver us from evil.
But yes, both Bush and Obama, in different ways, speak to the importance of ancestry.
Sure - this country is famous for electing black guys raised by food-stamp collecting white women to the highest office in the land.
ReplyDeleteHow did those book sales work out for ya?
- KXB
The depressing thing is that we've had no clear alternatives. We were offered Gore - also a daddy's boy, Kerry - another empty suit, and McCain - an aging self-aggrandizing uberhawk willing to put a bubble headed moron in the VP slot if it could get him elected. These haven't been good years.
ReplyDeleteRight now, it seems to be too soon. But once the Obama tenure has ended and his bio is placed alongside the bios of all the previous Presidents, some deep thinking might begin to take place, in spite of attempts to prettify his story. I mean, how do you portray a father who dropped in on this country, was already in a polygamous marriage, making him a bigamist of sorts in this society, who then immediately abandoned Barack and his mother? How do you portray a mother with wanderlust, who seemed to travel around Third World countries, getting involved with men and having babies with them?
ReplyDeleteWith all the scandals that might attend the story of other Presidents, does anything come close to this? And yet, we blacks are exhorted to take great pride in this Male Ideal, apparently, the best that we could come up with. It's mortifying.
OUCH
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Do you think he could have gotten elected if he were raised by decent normal conservative folks? Or do you think he would wind up like Keyes and Thomas vilified for his lack of liberal beliefs?
ReplyDeleteAnd also because he wasn't Hillary Clinton. I voted in the dem primary for Stanley Ann's red diaper boy because I thought a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton dynasty was too profoundly undemocratic for America. I did not vote in the general election, but if I did it would have been for Baldwin. At least Obama has energized white conservatives. Hopefully his incompetence will slow down his truly horrible agenda before it kills our country.
ReplyDeleteYet Obama looks to be nowhere as powerful as Bush. For eight years Bush did mostly what he wanted- he suffered only one major defeat, immigration reform, and two minor defeats, the Harriet Myers Supreme Court nomination and the Dubai ports deal. He did No Child Left Behind, the Medicare drug benefit, and he ran the Iraq war as he saw fit almost until the end, when the surge was forced on him. The real story of how he did all this will be told someday, although not anytime soon, and it will be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt was Gore's blatant display of rudeness and its implied "I -am- so- damn -superior- to- you- I- don't- even- know- why- we -are holding- an- election" attitude that marked Bush's ascendancy to the Oval Office. Americans hate that kind of display of elitism. They remember too well the attitudes of a few of the smarty pants kids in school.
ReplyDeleteRecall Gore's incessant interrupting of Bush during their Presidential debates, his repeated sighing, the eye-rolling, the shaking of his head, the smirking as his opponent spoke--he cemented his fall from grace as the polling demonstrated, when, in a final demonstration of boorishness, he got up from his stool as Bush was speaking at the edge of the stage to the audience(this was the "debate" that was conducted in a town-hall format) swaggered clumsily up to Bush from behind as if to try to intimidate him, and interrupted him once again, this time with some inane policy-wonk reference which no one in the tv audience understood (I am sure Bush didn't either).
Bush's reaction, the look on his face, was priceless, and more importantly, it reflected what millions of Americans were thinking at that moment: "You gotta be kidding me, man. Did your momma not teach you ANY manners?"
The polls were never the same. It was the inarticulate but forgivably goofy Bush vs. the rude and snotty and just as goofy Gore.
As much as words, maybe more, the physical expression of attitudes can lift or sink a politician and I think we see this playing out now with Obama. His habit of raising his chin in the air during his addresses (and God knows he has made plenty of addresses) was once seen as one marker of an "elegance." I think that habit is now beginning to be seen as a posture conveying his elitism rather than any elegance.
Peggy Noonan said what I had been thinking for a long time. He's too cool--cool as in "not warm," and he's very close to cold, which may yet spell his doom.
People can't help it. It's in their make-up--they don't like cold politicians even if they wind up with a Bush. It's one of the reasons Nixon couldn't last yet Clinton did.
Funny. Funnier: framing it in a "Philosoraptor" graphic, all the kids are putting their deep thoughts into them these days:
ReplyDeletehttp://images.google.com/images?q=philosoraptor
Speaking of which, why so graphic-o-phobic Steve? There's some discussion of this matter over at the Occidental Observer blog. We're discussing a certain infamous website which heavily uses graphics to get its point across. It's as lowbrow as you can get but even the academic types admit it is very effective. I agree.
To paraphrase a 20th century statesman, if freedom is short of weaponry, we must compensate with PhotoShop.
See also Advice Dog, Courage Wolf, Depression Dog, Socially Awkward Penguin:
http://piratepasta.com/2009/05/29/yay-captioned-animals/
And my new fave Bachelor Frog:
http://memegenerator.net/Foul-Bachelor-Frog
Related: we need to be funnier in the HBD movement, and it's not like we have a shortage of material.
brilliant
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess you could say that if the drunken skirt-chaser had not abandoned that teenage dreamer and the baby he left her with, then Obama would never have become President, come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteBoth lightweights, yes.
ReplyDeleteA variation for Obama might be "lite weighty", particularly when referring things like his famous "race speech".
...levels of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteOther than getting elected President (granted no mean feat), which Bush II did as well (twice actually), what has Obama accomplished?
It's an honest question.
As a politician, I find Obama absolutely mediocre in every way. And I agree he got elected in large part because the media fell in love with the symbolism of 'America's first black President', and they excitedly reported (i.e. pushed) his candidacy and campaign like no other in my voting lifetime -- it was a spectacle. Add in an extraordinarily weak Republican opponent -- go back and watch McCain in one of the debates say how his plan is to have the Treasury buy up all the troubled mortgages in the country -- and Obama was in.
i'm not so sure barack obama would have been elected, if a couple of very lucky things had not happened for the democrats at exactly the correct time.
ReplyDelete1) if the price of oil not been $140 a barrel in gw bush's final year, after having been low for years under gw bush due to the prudhoe bay field in alaska
2) if stock market had not crashed at the perfect time for democrats, after having gone through an unprecedented positive cycle during gw bush's administration.
then what? senile, out of touch john mccain might have won a close election if those two things had not happened at the perfect, absolutely perfect time for democrats.
George Bush is an alpha male and Barack Obama is a beta male. George Bush gave world leaders silly nick names, but Barack Obama bows to premiers, emperors, and kings. Obama brought the girl to the party, and she went home with Bush.
ReplyDeleteBush is more qualified than Obama:
ReplyDeleteHarvard MBA vs. Harvard Law? Advantage Bush (at least a passing glance at the importance of markets and economic growth and the limits of state-run enterprises).
Running (badly) a baseball team vs. community organizer? Advantage Bush, at least he could see his failures while Obama did not.
Governor of a State vs. State Senator/US Senator? Advantage Bush, who had to make hard budget choices that would win him few friends.
Hostile vs. Worshiping Media? Advantage Bush who knew his re-election would hinge on his being marginally better than his opposition to his base. Instead of puffing up his ego as a magical unicorn rider with rainbows flowing out his behind ala Obama.
Instinctive ability to understand Middle Class White America vs. instinctive hatred of Middle Class White America and its traditions and values, and identifying with Third World tyrants, dictators, and Jihadis?
Advantage Bush, who could at least as President attend Memorial Day celebrations and put his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, respectfully, instead of grabbing his crotch like Obama.
-----------
The Surge was not forced on Bush. In fact, it was opposed by the Joint Chiefs and Petraeus made an end-run to reach Bush and propose it. It was HIGHLY RISKY and opposed by everyone in the military except the commander on the ground (Petraeus). Bush to his credit saw its possibilities and backed it over the opposition of his National Security Advisor, the CIA, the Pentagon, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.
I'm not a fan of Bush, but a poor President still beats a terrible one.
Indeed, if you want "qualified" you need: Executive Experience, private sector experience, White Majority background or at least ability to understand them, and considerable time outside DC.
The real story of how he did all this will be told someday, although not anytime soon, and it will be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing magical about Bush's lack of setbacks in Congress. Bush is a Republican, but he isn't a conservative. So he had no problem supporting all manner of budget-busting social programs as long as Congress agreed to fund the war. Were he an actual conservative he'd have had more trouble.
I mean, seriously, Medicare part D? In what sane world does a Republican support a plan to tax millions of people without medical care to find prescription drug coverage for people who already have medical care through the state?
Now let's move on to another parallel; how much of his behavior is down to daddy issues?
ReplyDeletevery much from a stable background and without any hint of tragedy in his life
ReplyDeleteHis younger sister Pauline Robinson Bush died of leukemia when Dubya was seven.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought Obama's daddy was Malcolm X?
ReplyDeleteRemind me Steve, who did you support for president?
ReplyDeleteI think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him.
ReplyDeleteAnd are we back on the "Bush was an Alpha Male" fiasco again?
The guy was a FUCKING CHEERLEADER in college for Christ sakes.
Whiskey once again makes a boob of himself, and shows that he know very little about anything...
"Bush is more qualified than Obama:
Harvard MBA vs. Harvard Law? Advantage Bush"
Of course, that's why we have so many more CEO politicians in this country than Lawyers.
"Running (badly) a baseball team vs. community organizer? Advantage Bush..."
Spending Daddy's money of course makes one infinitely relevant.
"Hostile vs. Worshiping Media? Advantage Bush..."
Hostile media, yes, the greatest criminal cabal this country has ever elected to the white house got a lot of that, didn't it?
"instinctive ability to understand Middle Class White America vs. instinctive hatred of Middle Class White America.."
So the guy who was raised by middle class white America "hated Middle Class White America" and the wealthy, old money New England Preppie turned fake Texan who's daddy started Texaco had an "instinctive ability to understand white America." O'kay then.
"I'm not a fan of Bush"
No, I think sycophant would be more accurate.
I hope you've all read 1984 Recently, if not, I reccomend picking it up...just for kicks and giggles.
Whether he planned it or not, it looks like Obama called the world's bluff by telling them we would be happy to give them billions right after the monitors assure us of their compliance with climate goals for their countries. I can't stand Obama but putting my animosity for him aside, it is the rest of the world that doesn't believe the climate danger to the earth is enough reason to limit their emissions. Obama was ready to give them our money but they weren't ready to "change" for the sake of the "climate".
ReplyDeleteBoth have had no scruples about sending Republicans to go and die in godforsaken wastelands. It is helping one; it hurt the other.
ReplyDeleteDitto affirmative action.
Ditto immigration.
Obama is more qualified.
"No one mistook Bush for a thoughtful man--they didn't care if he was qualified or not as long as he held faithfully to the narrative."
ReplyDeleteI am assuming you are referring to Bush's election. Just as we have to consider that McCain was one reason Obama got in, Gore was a reason Bush squeaked in and Kerry was the reason he stayed.
One can be thoughtful (as in giving thought to ideas) and still be wrong. Neither Gore's nor Kerry's "thoughfulness" was trusted by the electorate.
Most pundits are correct when they say we are a center-right nation. That Obama was elected had to do with several factors that for just a short time overrode their center-right gut instincts.
get real, truth. we're in the age of total worship of africans by europeans. most whites today LOVE blacks. they love the daylights out of them. in many nations, and in no nation more than the US, europeans have been conditioned for several decades to react positively toward africans completely out of proportion to what reaction is warranted. some of them are so brainwashed that they literally think any negative information about a major black personality is a lie. i had white people, especially white women, tell me that it was not true that barack obama went to a radical church for 20 years.
ReplyDeletethe US sports media is already trying to spin chris henry as some kind of potential role model! chris henry WAS A MORON, chris henry WAS A CRIMINAL. chris henry got killed in the middle of trying to assault his girlfriend! it's AWESOME that this guy is dead. it's GREAT that he killed himself before he had a chance to kill somebody else. yet NFL fans are now going to deal with WEEKS of politically correct BS about what an excellent person he was. oh wow, he really turned his life around, he managed to not get arrested for several whole months in a row! amazing person, total shame he's dead, NOT.
did we not just go through the whole ludicrous process of watching barack obama claim a nobel peace prize that he did absolutely nothing to deserve, while at the same exact time, authorizing air strikes that cause collateral damage at a fairly problematic rate?
Sport sez: "I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him."
ReplyDeleteNo you don't. You know damned well that many, perhaps the majority, of white people who supported him did so to show everyone what super awesome anti-racists they are, while other supporters did so so guys like you would shut the fuck up once and for all about Americans being racist.
I have to say, though, that I am delighted to see that even black Americans are beginning to admit Obama is fail: according to the latest Rasmussen poll support for Obama among blacks has fallen from 99% to 98%.
Just kidding. A 98% approval rating among blacks is a fucking outrage and proof that, as one apposite commenter here noted, America doesn't have elections, it has racial head counts. Lee Kwan Yew was right: you cannot have democracy in a multi-ethnic state.
"the wealthy, old money New England Preppie turned fake Texan who's daddy started Texaco"
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Texaco website, they have been around for over 100 years, so I don't thing GHWB started the company.
GHWB and his partners started an oil company. They later split, with GHWB taking the international part, and the partners kept the domestic part, which became Pennzoil, which was famously bought by Texaco, which led to a huge lawsuit. So, GHWB is sort of related to Texaco.
ReplyDelete"get real, truth. we're in the age of total worship of africans by europeans."
ReplyDeleteNone so much as you,and your buddies at stormfront and castefootball, my friend, you seem to spend your entire life thinking about "us."
"chris henry WAS A MORON, chris henry WAS A CRIMINAL.
Yes, Chris Henry was a criminal, but he was arrested for illegal weapons possesion, marijuana possesion, and DWI (along with misdemeanor assault). I'd say more than a few of us have been guilty of those crimes.
chris henry got killed in the middle of trying to assault his girlfriend!.
Really? I read that he was trying to assault the back window of his truck in order to get out while the truck was moving. I don't know why, but I'm glad that you were an eyewitness.
Oh, and Elin Nordgren Woods did (allegedly) assault her husband, does this make her a MORON and a CRIMINAL (love the caps.)
"You know damned well that many, perhaps the majority, of white people who supported him did so to show everyone what super awesome anti-racists they are,"
I don't know the majority of white people so I can't speak for 100 million Americans, but it's nice to know that you are so much smarter than "them".
"while other supporters did so so guys like you would shut the fuck up once and for all about Americans being racist."
So you're saying that not one white person in America actually thought that Barry would be a better president than Juan McCain?
You're right Steve, I did screw up the whole Zapata-Penzoil-Texaco thing. There's just too much damn information out there to keep in one's head nowadays.
I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him.
ReplyDeleteAhahaha. Haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaaa!
Probably your best zinger yet T!
Lol, I'm picturing Obama clearing all those racial hurdles the establishment put in front of him...
ReplyDeleteRotFLMAO!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThat's a peculiar thing for an HBD type to say. After all, he got nothing from his father except genes.
ReplyDeleteWhen the polls started to show that McNasty had a reasonable chance to win, that he was cutting it close, he had to make a bold move. He brought on board that airhead Palin for his running mate as insurance he wouldn't accidentally win. Winning wasn't part of the script.
ReplyDeleteI have come to suspect that there's just a huge amount of randomness in who wins these elections. I mean you or I aren't going to win, but once you're a real contender, there's always a chance that a financial or diplomatic crisis, a bimbo eruption, some swirl in the chaos of media coverage and public attention will knock the obvious winner out. Even with all the negatives they carried, there was some chance that Carter might have had a second term, or that Bush Sr might have beaten Clinton.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to see so many of you responding to truth as if he were worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteHe's the kind of person who thinks it's insightful to accuse you of Nazi sympathies if you express the view that Obama is a bad writer. That's what he did to me.
"Winning wasn't part of the script."
ReplyDeleteDing - Ding - Ding - Ding - Ding - Ding; we have a winner!
"That's what he did to me."
No Jim-Bo, you misremember; I accused you of being a Nazi sympathizer when I saw that tape of you on the internet goosestepping in your bathroom in an SS uniform with a drawn on skinny mustache.
Steve, if we are not allowed to discuss BOTH parents...
ReplyDelete(Cliff Arroyo)
ReplyDeleteI actually think that winning wasn't part of Obama's script when he began the campaign either. I think he was realistically either making a trial run for experience or running for the number 2 spot. But the press fell in love with him, and the opportunity to stick it to Hillary and things got out of control. I'd like to say 'that'll learn 'em' but it won't of course.
I also agree that McCain picked Palin to make sure he lost and it simultaneously worked and didn't work since it launched her as yet the latest unqualified but mediagenic non-entity to debase American political discourse.
Sam Smith over at Undernews reads your blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://prorev.com/2009/12/word_19.html
(In case you're wondering why you're getting more idiot 'progressive' reader comments lately.)
"I think even any complete fool would have enough cognition to look at a "team photo" of U.S. Presidents and deduce that Obama was elected in spite of his father and not because of him"
ReplyDeleteIt's official. Truth has Jumped The Shark.
I also agree that McCain picked Palin to make sure he lost and it simultaneously worked and didn't work since it launched her as yet the latest unqualified but mediagenic non-entity to debase American political discourse.
ReplyDeleteI agree. McCain didn't even seem to want to win. He adamantly refused to explout his opponents obvious weaknesses.
Sarah Palin? Palin was his "gift" to the Republican Party in order to destroy their chances in yet another election. He knew the evangelical fundamentalist elements in the Party would latch onto her like Krazy Glue, and he exploited it.