The Buck Flops Here
We're back to hollow, inconsequential claims of "accepting responsibility." The Change President? How about a new nickname, maybe the Plus Ca Change President. Or the Spare Change President. Status QuObama.
There's a not-so-fine line between a reassuring sense of calm and a tone-deaf lethargy. As Stiglitz notes, "no drama" can be a liability as well as an asset. It looked great when McCain was running around like a sparrow on acid, suspending his campaign in the middle of the financial crisis. But Obama is like the high school valedictorian who got into Harvard then slept through all his freshman year classes.
My support of him in 2008 was always more about the dangerous alternative. But measured against anything other than a McCain-Palin nightmare or the low standards of the previous administration, he's becoming a terrible disappointment, and the window is closing on his chance to rewrite the emerging narrative of "squandered opportunity."
There's a not-so-fine line between a reassuring sense of calm and a tone-deaf lethargy. As Stiglitz notes, "no drama" can be a liability as well as an asset. It looked great when McCain was running around like a sparrow on acid, suspending his campaign in the middle of the financial crisis. But Obama is like the high school valedictorian who got into Harvard then slept through all his freshman year classes.
My support of him in 2008 was always more about the dangerous alternative. But measured against anything other than a McCain-Palin nightmare or the low standards of the previous administration, he's becoming a terrible disappointment, and the window is closing on his chance to rewrite the emerging narrative of "squandered opportunity."
posted by The Cunning Realist at Friday, January 08, 2010
18 Comments:
Amen. He campaigned as a statesman. He is governing as a politician sold out to big business. We've been punked. Nice fake, man. We really went for that one.
Smart as everyone says he is, he either doesn't seem to get it, or figures he'll get a second term anyway. Where are those who believed in him going to go, Palin? If he's the best we've got, this country is in serious, self-inflicted decline.
That Obama was a fraud was obvious.
That he would be worse than Bush was also obvious. One ring to rule them all. That ring is greed. How much longer can Americans extend and pretend about their failure of nerve?
How much longer are you going to play two party politics and pretend you have a Republic? Will it last this Administration? Will there be a Republic after his failure? How many more wars and how much more debt does it take before you recognize the swindle?
Maybe you eggheads should read Thomas Sowells' works; the latest being, "Intellectuals and Society." From the American Thinker blog,"One of the themes of Sowell's work is that decisions in society should be made by people who will experience the consequences of those decisions and that the more there is a separation between power and consequences the greater the danger to society."
LOL...ummmm I blogged on this site that this is the way it was going to be before he was elected. I also told TCR he was freakin nuts to be supporting Obama. Even his mild support for him now is ridiculous. Honestly. What does it take?
I saw McCain on CNN. Frankly, the guy is senile. You Republicans don't get it. We don't elect Obama and Clinton in order to get good, or even moderately competent and honest presidents. We elect them to make sure we don't have a President for four years who sets off nuclear weapons.
Eventually the streak will end and we are pretty much f-----.
Echoing juvenal -- to me, a vote for Obama was a vote against war with Iran. McCain was plainly dangerous. (Anybody else recall his hilarious "Bomb bomb bomb / bomb bomb Iran" ditty?) It's really not that hard to understand. Those who chortle smugly about "partisans" are simply obtuse. There IS such a thing as a lesser of two evils.
-- sglover
I think the problem is more your expectations than Obama. The choice is always, always about the lesser of two evils when it comes to presidential politics. Anyone could clearly see Obama was promising too much when campaigning given our broken political system. The point is to pick the team who will move in the right general direction on greatest number of issues.
McCain thought Palin should be VP. That is simply nuts. There was not really a valid choice in this last election. It is what explains the landslide win and all of those red states going blue.
http://www.jokeemail.com/pictures/mccain_palin.jpg
Well...who should be President RIGHT NOW!
Pick someone. Who would you put in Obama's place right now to run this place.
The man isn't a magician. I find it somewhat amazing to read this post here. Say what? You believed the hopey changey stuff?
Washington D.C. is a cesspool of money and corruption, and no one can change that in a year, not even Obama.
Quit yer whining! When I see McCain or Palin in the news, which is quite frequently, I breathe a sigh of relief. A huge one.
Crikey!
LMAO...The wars were widely unpopular until "the great black hope" became president. That alone was restraining our war machine. Obama was allowed to become president to overcome that so our leaders could expand their wars into Afganistan and Pakistan. The only reason Bush and Cheney didn't was their popularity was in the 30 percent range and recruiting had dried up. Not the case anymore. Obama is far more likely to set of Nuclear weapons than McCain or Bush would have been. You Liberals are living in dream land. The only president to ever incincerate people in nuclear expolsions was a democrat.
Anon 10:19: The fact that "Washington D.C. is a cesspool of money and corruption" shouldn't stop Obama from creating a sense of accountability for blatant screw ups. This is something he talked about during the campaign.
Anon 9:14: I agree wholeheartedly. I am trying to not let fear replace my glass half full usual state of mind, but the more I read, the less assured I am of the outcome of this presidency. The post after this one doesn't help. Neither does this:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=aR9zVMXzOeX0
Now it looks like they are going to come after our 401K accounts, since they are one of the few sources left to tap. For those of us who still have them, that is.
LOL...Another call I made in the past. I said we were going to follow Argentina...and this was another reason to buy Gold. We aren't there yet but we will get there. Some dummies always tell me I should worry about the government taking my gold like FDR did. I tell them look... back then people used gold for savings. They don't anymore and the government can't take what they don't know you have. I break laws everyday. I have no respect for the American injustice system. I will not hand over my gold if they make it illegal. But back to the point...when the government gets in a bind...like FDR did...they will come for where the money is. Americans don't have gold. Americans have 401K accounts. Argentina provided future governments with the road map. We will get there...but Americans aren't panicked enough for the government to get away with it just yet.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adAhccpML_q8&refer=home
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