Hot Air:
John Fund: What if a committee of prominent Dems approached Obama and asked him not to run?
The good part starts at 3:05
Allahpundit has the same question I had:
Exit question: Would this “voluntary” refusal to run again really prevent a Democratic schism? Some black Democrats would surely conclude that it wasn’t as voluntary as it seemed. And they’d be right.
IOW – We’re pretty much fucked either way. Thanks Obama!
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From the comments at (where else?) Buffoon Juice:
I am white, and I am overwhelmed by the amount of subtle and not-so-subtle racism displayed by people on the left about Obama (I pretty much expected it from the right). The condescension, the disrespect, the sneering—it’s all so disheartening. Someone on a previous thread referred to Obama as a “deeply mediocre president.” I look at this man and all he has done, under such horrible circumstances, and I think that anyone who can call him “deeply mediocre” must be only able to look at him through some kind of demeaning racial lens. There’s no other explanation.
That paragraph encapsulates perfectly the cancerous effect that playing the race card has had upon our body politic.
First it was Bill and Hillary. Then it was Hillary’s supporters. Then it was the Republicans. Now it’s anybody who doesn’t think Obama is Teh Awesome.
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The best ads connect with the target audience emotionally. The worst ads don’t connect at all.
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Nancy Pelosi: Dems can still win back House
Despite two Democratic special-election losses this week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is still upbeat about the chances of taking back the House.The California congresswoman on Thursday acknowledged the loss of New York’s 9th Congressional District seat, long held by a Democrat, was a “disappointment,” but said it wouldn’t change the House Democrats’ strategy for the 2012 congressional elections.
“This is a mogul,” said Pelosi, pulling out a sports analogy, as she has done in recent days. “A mogul is a bump. You plant your pole and go faster down to your goal.”
Gee Nancy, did it ever occur to you that blue-collar Democrats don’t hit the slopes in Aspen and Gstaad every winter?
Snow skiing is pretty much a sport of the elites. Even if you live within a few hours drive of a ski area (like I do) you still need to purchase lift-tickets and you have to rent or buy pricey equipment too.
I live about two hours from Dodge Ridge and about four hours from Lake Tahoe. I’ve lived most of my life here but I’ve never been skiing. When I was in school there were lots of kids that went every winter. They were the rich kids.
When I first read that quote from Nancy Pelosi my first thought was “movie mogul.” I have seen it used to refer to ancient leaders in India, but I honestly never heard it used as a sports reference before.
It’s little things like “mogul” that demonstrate the disconnect between the Democratic party leadership and the rank and file voters.
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… if you want to see the truth in Ian Welsh’s statement that:
The left must be seen to repudiate Obama, and they must be seen to take him down. If the left does not do this, left wing politics and policies will be discredited with Obama.
The mythology that Obama and his disastrous presidency represent leftism runs very deep, and virtually no one in American discourse will contradict this belief… which is reflected in nearly every one of the countless tweets mocking Obama’s new drop-a-dime site.
Few on the left will accept (or admit) that he’s a conservative, and even fewer on the right will.
So, conservatism wins again. And you lose. Thank you, Bipartisan Man!
There is not going to be a primary challenge. Obama has too much control over the money, party machinery and the advocacy groups. Even if Obama manages to pull out a win next November the Republicans will control both houses of Congress and will win the White House in 2016.
This is what is so pernicious about shallow-enders like kos, Digby, and silverspoon. They would rather take us all down in flames with Obama and maintain their positions than show real leadership.
They have been assimilated into the Borg.
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L is for Loser
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
But Black People Govern Like This …
Via Angry Black Lady, I know Michael Moore and Bill Maher think this is a great line:
I went into the polls voting for the black guy, and what I got was the white guy…
But it really isn’t. In fact, it’s racist, and Michael Moore would do well to stop repeating it. It really is no better than the Kenyan anti-colonial bit, and in fact is good deal worse. I said this yesterday on twitter, but it would be as if my Jewish accountant messed up my taxes and I said, “Dude, you’re Jewish, what the hell?!?!”
In fact, I’d be getting exactly what I deserved. If you paid more attention to Obama’s skin color, than to his speeches, the voluminous amounts of journalism noting his moderation, his two books which are, themselves, exercises in moderation, than you have chosen to be ignorant.
You are now being punished for that ignorance. No one should feel sorry for you. Try not being racist.
Ironically, we were called racists because we we didn’t judge Obama by the color of his skin.
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What should the White House do? Panic!
People often ask me what advice I would give the White House about various things. Today I was mulling over election results from New York and Nevada while thinking about that very question. What should the White House do now? One word came to mind: Panic.
We are far past sending out talking points. Do not attempt to dumb it down. We cannot stand any more explanations. Have you talked to any Democratic senators lately? I have. It’s pretty damn clear they are not happy campers.
This is what I would say to President Barack Obama: The time has come to demand a plan of action that requires a complete change from the direction you are headed.
I don’t know how else to break this down. Simply put:
1. Fire somebody. No — fire a lot of people. This may be news to you but this is not going well. For precedent, see Russian Army 64th division at Stalingrad. There were enough deaths at Stalingrad to make the entire tea party collectively orgasm.
Mr. President, your hinge of fate must turn. Bill Clinton fired many people in 1994 and took a lot of heat for it. Reagan fired most of his campaign staff in 1980. Republicans historically fired their own speaker, Newt Gingrich. Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. For God’s sake, why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisers that got us into this mess? It’s not working.
Furthermore, it’s not going to work with the same team, the same strategy and the same excuses. I know economic analysts are smart — some work 17-hour days. It’s time to show them the exit. Wake up — show us you are doing something.
Speaking as a fan of the Raiders and SF Giants and having endured many, many shitty seasons, I can tell you from experience that when a sports team is midway through its third bad year in a row with no hope in sight, they fire the head coach.
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Every person who runs for president, it’s fair to say, has a healthy ego. But Obama was different; the self-assurance, the arrogance, the sense that he viewed himself as a world-historical figure was almost palpable. “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions,” Obama told congressional Democrats during the 2008 campaign. A convention speech wasn’t enough; Greek columns needed to be added. “Generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment,” Obama said – a moment when, among other achievements, “the rise of the oceans began to slow.” And during the campaign, while still a one-term senator, Obama decided he wanted to give a speech in Germany– and he wanted to deliver it at the Brandenburg Gate.
Yet now we see the Obama presidency coming apart, piece by piece, day by day. Democratic lawmakers are attacking the president on the record. The unhappiness in Obama’s own party toward the president might soon evolve into an open revolt. Those who supported Hillary Clinton in 2008 are saying, with some degree of self-satisfaction, “I told you so.” And the words of Solomon will be proven right again. “Pride goes before destruction,” he wrote in Proverbs, “a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Imagine if you were selected by the Democratic party to be part of a candidate selection committee. The committee’s job will be to select three candidates for the presidential nomination. Those three candidates will then run in the primaries and the winner will be the nominee.
The first thing you would probably do is come up with some minimum qualifications. In addition to the constitutional requirements you would expect a certain level of education and experience. As a guideline you would probably look at the qualifications of the previous presidents in the modern era.
Now consider one applicant we’ll call Barry Dunham. Barry is relatively young but he has the educational qualifications. As for experience, he is still in his first term as a US Senator and his only previous experience was as a part-time state senator. He has no executive experience in government or in business, and no significant legislative accomplishments.
Would you even invite Barry for an interview?
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Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet shows Obama what $535M taxpayer money can buy
No, not literally. Geeze, people.
Sarah Palin’s latest facebook post calls GE CEO Jeff Immelt “someone who exemplifies a major crony capitalism problem” and points out that he was Obama’s honored guest at his speech to Congress.
Then she talks about Solyndra:
The President hailed this “green energy” company in a speech last May as “the true engine of economic growth.” When he announced the $535 million guarantee to Solyndra, Vice President Biden said that investments like this are “exactly what the Recovery Act is all about.” (Dear God…If the failed Solyndra venture has been what it’s “all about,” then that explains a lot.)
The link between Obama & Solyndra is Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser.
Now as the truth comes out, we discover that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of Energy’s rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and they tried to move the money through so quickly they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the company (about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with the way the deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid before we the taxpayers see any relief.
Why is it that it’s typically the billionaires who are the biggest cronies? I thought it was Obama that said that at some point people have gained enough wealth or something like that?
Full text of the facebook post after the break.
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Bus driver? Where was your chauffeur?
Via Hot Air:
Obama Surprised To Learn Schools Use “Trailers”
While addressing college students in Richmond, VA, President Obama was surprised to learn that schools use trailers, also called ‘modular buildings’ or ‘modular classrooms.’ During his visit Obama said he was approached by an educator who mentioned she teaches in a trailer. Obama did not mention that the teacher had a problem with her situation, but he made it clear this was unacceptable.“I just — in the back, I was taking some photos with folks who had helped out to organize this event, and there was a young lady who is a teacher. And she said, “I heard your speech last night. I really appreciate it. I’m teaching eighth grade English, and I teach in a trailer.” We shouldn’t have people teaching in trailers. We shouldn’t have kids learning in trailers. They should have classrooms with Internet and science labs,” President Obama said to the college crowd.
The practice of using trailers is quite common at public schools and more often than not the accommodations in the modular buildings are better than classrooms inside the the main building. These modular buildings are used for several different reasons including for temporary purposes. For example, while the building or a classroom is being renovated the school may opt for a trailer until the improvements are completed. Ironically, renovating classrooms and schools is something Obama is pushing for in his this new stimulus bill.
I’m older than Obama and we had trailers when I was going to school. Of course I didn’t go to no fancy private prep school, I went to public schools like the rest of the proles.
I guess we can’t expect much awareness from a guy who didn’t know his own constituents were freezing:
”Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko’s low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems — including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers. The building in Englewood was one of 30 Rezmar rehabbed in a series of troubled deals largely financed by taxpayers. Every project ran into financial difficulty. More than half went into foreclosure, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found. “Their buildings were falling apart,” said a former city official. “They just didn’t pay attention to the condition of these buildings.” Eleven of Rezko’s buildings were in Obama’s state Senate district.“
“For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago’s South Side.”
“It was just four years after the landlords — Antoin “Tony” Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru — had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.”
“Rezko and Mahru couldn’t find money to get the heat back on.”
“Rezmar kept getting city and state funding, even as earlier projects fell into disrepair and financial troubles.
But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building.”
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Intellectual?
John W. Smart says Obama isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer:
Obama is not politically brilliant at all. We were told – often and with smug glee – that he would be a President with an unrivaled intellectual power. I’ve always found this particular froth laughable. Intellectual giants become giants because of what they achieve. Einstein wasn’t a genius because people thought he might one day come up with a theory that restructured our view of the entire universe. He actually had to come up with it. Only then did “genius” become the go to modifier for Albert. There was no evidence that Obama would be transformative. None. Zero. Zilch. There still isn’t.
We heard a lot of things about Barack Obama back in 2008.
We heard he was a great speechifier. I’ll agree the speech he gave in 2004 was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. The one in 2002 sure didn’t seem to make much of an impression at the time. I didn’t listen to the one in Iowa but his followers sure loved it. But I listened to the Greatest Speech on Race Ever™ and I was underwhelmed.
But whether or not someone is a great speechifier is fairly subjective. What you find moving and inspirational I might consider boring. Nothing in Obama’s speeches has had the enduring impact of “I have a dream” or “Four score and seven years ago.”
But intelligence, brilliance, genius – those are things that we can determine somewhat more objectively. While the accuracy of any specific criteria can be debated, we would expect plenty of evidence to be available.
There are IQ tests, like the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. I was given the WISC when I was ten and afterward they put me in a special class (not the short-bus kind.) We have never heard whether Obama ever took any of these tests.
Grades in school can provide some evidence of intelligence, but effort is as big or bigger a factor as brains. Someone with average intelligence can often get straight A’s if they work hard enough. But we don’t know what Obama’s grades were because he won’t release his transcripts.
From time to time we are told that Obama is reading various works, but he is never tested on the material. Does he really read all the things he claims? ¿Quién sabe?
Obama hasn’t contributed anything in the realm of mathematics or science. We’ve been told he is a legal scholar but he has never authored anything scholarly.
Obama has authored a couple of non-scholarly books, but then again so has Sarah Palin. If that makes him a genius then it must make her one too.
The reality is that Obama isn’t an intellectual, he’s a pseudointellectual.
pseu·do·in·tel·lec·tu·al
[soo-doh-in-tl-ek-choo-uhl]
noun1. a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
2. a person who pretends an interest in intellectual matters for reasons of status.
adjective
3. of, pertaining to, or characterized by fraudulent intellectuality; unscholarly: a pseudointellectual book.
Like the guy with the pony-tail in this scene:
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