Another Sign He Doesn’t Get It

Obama has stopped whining about FOX news, for now, and has instead shifted his attention to conservatives.  He’s particularly miffed that he caught heat for taking his wife out on an extravagant date night to New York.

“People made it into a political issue,” Obama told The New York Times Magazine for an article about the Obamas’ marriage, appearing in the Nov. 1 issue. The article was posted on the Times’ Web site on Wednesday.

“If I weren’t president, I would be happy to catch the shuttle with my wife to take her to a Broadway show, as I had promised her during the campaign, and there would be no fuss and no muss and no photographers,” he said. “That would please me greatly.”

Again, this is part of Obama’s massive narcissism.   ‘I just wanted to take my wife out for dinner!  Is that so wrong?’

Usually, when people find fault with something I do, I perform an internal examination to determine if my course of action was indeed misguided.  If I wore a lampshade on my head, and danced around in my underwear at a party, would I then whine about the people complaining about my actions?  Or would I say, “Hey, maybe the Lampshade Underwear Mambo wasn’t the classiest of maneuvers?”

Obama’s still living in the world of Obama, not the world of the President.  Obama the Senator could charter a helicopter to fly him and Michelle to New York to dine at a 4 star, then hit some swanky parties and get home at 4 AM.  But with the office of President, you are now charged with being the Head of State.  You have to arrange travel through the Secret Service, as well as transportation to New York from D.C.  The NYPD need to be alerted and involved.  The FBI has to run checks to make sure there’s no elevated risk of terrorist activity.  Effectively, a little harmless jaunt costs the US money in protection and manpower.  Worse, we’re paying for security for a private date– this doesn’t even have any official State function.  Effectively, the US paid $80,000 so Obama and Michelle could have a date.  And yes, Mr. President, that is a political issue.

Presidents become trapped in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by means of elaborate security measures.  We need our Head of State to be safe.  And if you don’t understand the inherent costs to the taxpayer for your indulgence of the New York Nightlife, you’re just confirming everyone’s suspicions you’re aloof.

Throwing the Money Around

Unbelievable. President Obama is going to hand $250 to seniors to make up for a lack of a boost in Social Security payouts. I guess that money tree behind the White House just won’t stop producing fruit! And by fruit, I mean gold bars, because the dollar is quickly losing its stature. Social Security payments are supposed to increase with inflation, but last year, there was no inflation, so the payments are going to remain constant.

Here’s the money quote of the story:

“Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession,” Obama said in a statement. “This additional assistance will be especially important in the coming months, as countless seniors and others have seen their retirement accounts and home values decline as a result of this economic crisis.”

Huh? The people hardest hit by the recession are people with houses they already own and retirement savings that have slowly been recovering? Plus, he’s going to give them a whole $250? For what? To buy a couple of Snuggies?

President Obama, the people hardest hit by your recession are the folks who lost their jobs (not that $250 would really help there). But he’s willing to spend $12.5 billion dollars to do.. what? Try to quell the backlash against the AARP?

So far, Obama’s shown he doesn’t know much about economics, or history. I don’t see what throwing $250 at a person over 65 is going to do to stimulate the economy. If anything, it’ll stimulate the Matlock Memorabilia market.

Weirdness from Obama on ‘Meet the Press’

First, he and David Gregory bore us to tears as we hear the same lame stuff we got from the boring speech to Congress on health care.  Gregory misses the core questions to ask, such as “How are you planning on paying for a trillion dollar program with a few billion dollars in nebulous waste reduction?”  But it’s hard to ask that question when you’ve got stars in your eyes.  (See below for the starry-eyed Gregory.)

Then Gregory moves into the charges of racism laid on Republicans by Jimmy Carter and members of the Black Congressional Caucus.  You can almost hear Obama say, “Oh, I’ll never say anything Republicans do is racist, Mr. Gregory.  That’s why Presidents have hatchet men.”

But the comedy gold comes when Obama calls Pelosi “rude” and then whines about the 24 hour cable news shows:

DAVID GREGORY: In that vein, House Speaker Pelosi worried about the opposition, the tone of it, perhaps, leading to violence as it did in the 70s.  There’s more recent examples of antigovernment violence— occurring even in the mid 90s.  Do you worry about that?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, look— I think that we have an obligation in Washington, as leaders, to make sure that we are sending a strong message.  That we can disagree without being disagreeable.  Without— you know, questioning each other’s motives.  When we start caricaturing the other side— I think that’s a problem.

And— unfortunately, we’ve got, as I’ve said before, a 24-hour news cycle where what gets you on the news is controversy.  What gets you on the news is the extreme statement.  The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news, or your 15 minutes of fame, is to be rude. [Doc– I don’t think he’s talking about Pelosi, but he’s so vague here about just who he’s talking about, he could be talking about Pelosi.  Or Beck.  Or Wolf Blitzer for that matter!]

And that’s— that’s— something that I think has to change.  And it starts with me.  And I’ve tried to make sure that I’ve sent a clear signal.  And I’ve tried to maintain an approach that says, look, we can have some serious disagreements but, at the end of the day, I’m assuming that you want the best for America just like I do.

[…]Well, you know, the— I— I— I do occupy— a pretty special seat at the moment.  But— but I do think that— look I mean, let’s face it, the— if you look at the news cycle over the last— over the last week— you know, it— it— it hasn’t been the— the sensible people who, you know, very deliberately talk about the important issues that we face as a country.  [Doc– Pelosi?  Carter?]  That’s not the folks who’ve gotten a lot of coverage.

Yes, his clear signals.  Such as “I just want the guys who made the mess to get out of the way”, or telling the Repbulicans that they can just bugger off because “I won”.  As for the “sensible people”, as I say it my edits above, just who are they?

It seems to be Chris Wallace was right— the White House is full of crybabies, and it starts at the top.  “Waah, FOX has been hitting me hard lately!  But it’s because they’re a bunch of 15-minute of fame freaks!  Waaah!”

Gregory talks about Afghanistan, and Obama gives an answer where he’s going to evaluate the strategy of McChrystal and Petraeus before he sends in more troops.  Let me help you out, Mr. President:  McChrystal has already said he needs more troops.  And any dispatch from Michael Yon from Afghanistan will clearly state the need for more helicopters.  (Before the British pulled Yon’s press credentials for unknown reasons.)

Here’s a follow-up question for Gregory:  if you’re non-committal on a strategy in Afghanistan, why did we ditch missile defense in Poland for permission to use Russian airspace for a theater we’re likely to abandon?

But instead, Gregory takes Obama to a new, hard-hitting subject– the White Sox.  Seriously, nothing on ACORN in the first few questions?  No questions on exploding deficits?  No tough follow-ups on any line of questioning?  I think Gregory needs to be replaced by this woman from Extra who interviewed Tyra.

On another morning news show, Obama was asked about ACORN.  He said:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congress said they should cut off all funding for ACORN.

OBAMA: Is — is — is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: … all funding for ACORN. Are you for that?

OBAMA: Is that true on the other side, as well? Of course that’s true.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, it’s — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

Yeah, the Community Organizer of Community Organizers didn’t get a call from Bertha “I’m OK with Child Immigrant Slavery and Prostitution” Lewis saying that the mean ol’ Republicans were being awfully racist when they exposed corruption of ACORN officials all over the country (and for that matter, Joe Conason at Slate is down with Child Immigrant Slavery and Prostitution, too, but only because they register a lot of voters).  He wants to be absolutely clear– being OK with Child Immigrant Slavery and Prostitution was something ACORN started doing after he left the organization.

Been a While

Life’s still in flux here, so wanted to drop by and see how the ol’ site is doing.

I’ve been quite busy with work, personal life, and other pursuits that blogging has been on the back burner.  This upcoming year is going to be quite eventful.

I’ll try to put in some posts more often.  I’ve been fascinated with the revolution in Iran, and even more fascinated with the Obama response, such as inviting the freakin’ Iranians to a shindig at the White House on July 4th (aka, Independence Day).  Allahpundit is rightly angered about it, and it just shows what an absolute moron we elected in November.

His budgets are a disaster.

His foreign policy is a disaster.

His nominees for positions are tax-laden disasters.

And all the while, the mainstream press in this country has been more than happy to kiss his ring.  How many covers of Time has he graced?  17?  Including his wife?  And ABC holds a health-care presser from the White House without any sort of rebuttal?  Even through paid ads?  And Obama has the gaul to insult Fox news?

Wake up, people.  Obama’s going to be big-time trouble.

Disasterous Foreign Policy

and it’s only been 2 months!

So, with his economic recovery package pushing the major indexes to new lows, Obama’s pulled out some new tricks to win over supporters.

First, he’s going to ignore Kyrgyzstan’s offers to wait on a Russian deal in case something better comes from the Americans.  (Hey, President Obama, Kyrgyzstan is how we resupply our troops in Afghanistan!)  If we can’t resupply in Afghanistan, how are more troops going to help?  Clearly I must have brain damage to challenge the gifted mind of Obama, but I can’t understand how denial of logistical ports is going to help us win in Afghanistan.  Imagine what it would have been like in Iraq if we couldn’t use Kuwait as a staging area.  That’s what Afghanistan is going to be like if we’re denied use of Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Iran and Chian.

In the meantime, Obama seems to be doing what he can to insult the British.  First, he returned the bust of Churchill that’s been in the White House since 9/11 (replacing it with a bust of Abraham Lincoln).  He did everything in his power to subdue any hoopla about the arrival of the Head of State of our most important ally.  (Notice, also, that Reuters carries Obama’s water here, throwing out an excuse about the subdued visit.)  Really, a press conference with flags in the background was too much to ask?

Brown really put on a show for Obama, giving some great welcome gifts from the UK, such as a pen hold made from the hull of the HMS Gannet, an anti-slaver vessel.  Obama loved it.  Brown’s wife also got Obama’s girls some new clothes.  Obama, in the meantime, got brown a gift set of 25 DVDs.  Glad to see someone in the Obama administration had time to run to Wal Mart and pick up something fancy!

No wonder some in the English media are a little miffed.  A few in the US media are noticing as well.

He’d better get his act together.  So far his presidency is shaping up to be blunder after blunder.

Still Busy, but…

… you have to wonder about Pres. Obama’s Jedi Mind Powers. Today he said the Stock Market has “Fits and Starts“. President Obama, this isn’t a “fit and start”, because there’s no start. It’s all fit. In fact, it’s practically a grand mal seizure:

But if he says it, the press plays along, nodding their head. They agree: “Yes, the Stock Market has fits and starts” and “These are not the droids you’re looking for”.

No wonder some folks are experiencing buyer’s remorse.

Updating the List

I’ve got more up at the Obama Broken Promises list.  I know I’ve missed a few.  If you’ve got some, shoot me an email or put up a comment.  Remember, I’m looking for campaign promises he’s broken.  It’s not even 100 days in, and he’s already broken many.

Don’t blame the Republicans

So, as I type this, the cloture vote for Porkulus (no, I’m Porkulus– no, I’m Porkulus!) is going on. Obama’s out, giving speeches, disrupting television viewing to explain why it’s important to spend this kind of money. And he’s attacking Republicans for blocking stimulus when we so desperately need to piss $1 trillion dollars to the wind.

But don’t blame Republicans for this revolt, President Obama. People aren’t agreeing with Republicans. People are inherently objecting to the fact they’re being asked to pony up 1 TRILLION dollars for this stimulus package. People are in shock! That’s why support is tanking.

Hey, if you could show me just how $1 Trillion would stimulate the economy, I might buy into it. But so far, there’s 0 transparency from the government. Just lots of receipt waving as Democrats roll around on the ground in pork.

Just to give you an idea, if we paid principle on our debt on the order of $1 trillion a year, we’d be looking at 13-15 years of it just to get back to zero.

The Big Obama Implosion

Pres. Obama’s appointees have tax problems.  It’s up to what, three appointees with tax problems?  Four?  The cabinet’s not that big, folks!  We know Robert Gates doesn’t have tax problems because he’s a holdover from the GWB administration.

Now Pres. Obama reverts to his grandstanding, first with an article full of platitudes and nonsense, and today with a speech to Congressional Democrats.  Let me highlight a line, and I want every single Republican, Libertarian, conservative, or undeclared moderate to pay attention:

A fired-up Barack Obama ditched his TelePrompter to rally House Democrats and rip Republican opponents of his recovery package Thursday night – at one point openly mocking the GOP for failing to follow through on promises of bipartisanship.

So, it’s bipartisanship if the Republicans agree to support your will, but if they don’t, then it’s all their fault.  Who’s the person who basically tried to force Republican compliance with the “I won” statement?  People interested in bipartisanship don’t say things like that.

Now, Jake Tapper of ABC news has trapped the feckless Press Secretary Gibbs to basically admit that Pres. Obama has no real interest in transparency (chalk that one up on the wall).  Here’s the video:

You can see the frustration in Tapper’s face.  And there are rumblings in the press.  They’re showing an early frustration with The One, and I hope and pray that what we’re seeing is the start of a grand realization– that this man they cheered and treated as an icon rather than a Chicago-style pol is not a savior.  He’s woefully inexperienced for executive action, and his decisions have been disastrous– and they’re getting worse.  Instead of recognizing collapsing support for the $1 Trillion stimulus bill (nicknamed Porkulus), he’s digging in his heels and saying he has to because Bush did such a horrible job.

The faster the MSM realizes the President is quickly drowning in a job we can’t afford to let him drown in, they’ll turn into sharks– disaffected sharks, who, hopefully, will drop the partisan facade and revert to non-partisan reporting.

We can hope.  Hope the press changes.

Did I say 5 million? I mean to say 2.5 million!

Obama backpedals on another campaign promise.  Chalk another up to the running tally.