Senator Obama's speech at Hampton University, June, 2007:
The '07 Obama Video. So here's Obama proudly
advertising his relationship with Reverend Wright, and even imitating Wright's divisive rhetoric on Katrina. Is anyone surprised?
Essentially, every excuse Obama used to explain away his relationship with Reverend Wright during campaign 2008 was a lie. But we already
knew that. We also see here that Obama doesn't want to build more highways out in the suburbs. That's news to most, and there's
a lot more going on in that line than racial code.
Tucker Carlson on 2007 Obama race speech: 'This
isn't a dog whistle — this is a dog siren'. [Scroll down] "This is not the way Obama talks — at least it's not
the way he's talked in the dozens, the scores of speeches I've watched him give, or public appearances I've seen him make. This is a put-on.
This is phony. That's issue one. The second issue is he is telling a predominantly black audience something very clear: The federal
government doesn't like you because you are black." He said that Obama's use of racial overtones to describe the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
had negative implications on several levels.
Video
surfaces of Obama in 2007 suggesting racism slowed aid to post-Katrina New Orleans. It's the Obama speech on race you probably
haven't heard. In June 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama told a mostly black audience of ministers that the country's leaders "don't care
about" New Orleans residents, suggesting the city was neglected in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because of institutional racism,
according to an unedited video uncovered by The Daily Caller.
In heated '07 speech, Obama lavishes praise on Wright, says
feds 'don't care' about New Orleans. In a video obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama tells
an audience of black ministers, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that the U.S. government shortchanged Hurricane Katrina victims because of racism.
"The people down in New Orleans they don't care about as much!" Obama shouts in the video, which was shot in June of 2007 at Hampton University in
Virginia. [...] The effect is closer to an Al Sharpton rally than a conventional campaign event.
Media Freakout: Left, Right Spar over 2007 Obama
Video. News aggregator Matt Drudge of The Drudge Report set political social media circles on fire with the announcement of a video
purporting to show troubling racial statements from President Barack Obama. [...] Since then, the popular news website has leaked further details.
The tape is in the possession of the Daily Caller, features the then-Senator giving a warm adulation to controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright, and
features divisive statements about inner cities vs. suburbs and the needs of the poor.
DNC scrambles to deflate Obama
video before Daily Caller story published. The mere prospect that videos of Obama talking about race and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah
Wright, would be published had the committee quickly working to kill the story. In an attempt to link the story to Republican nominee Mitt Romney,
the DNC also sent out an old story about Romney saying he would not make Wright a campaign issue.
Coulter
on Obama's urban accent. "Obama is such a fraud," Coulter said. "He grew up in a 'Beverly Hills, 90210' existence, but he's
just desperate to have this angry, black persona. It's rather like reading about you know, Hitler's musings on his Germanic identity.
You know, he graduated from this fancy, fancy school in Hawaii, voted recently the greenest school in America. And yet, when he wants to, he just
turns it on and suddenly we've got Malcolm X speaking to us."
Barack Obama Is An Anti-White Racist.
It actually shouldn't be a secret that Barack Obama is not overly fond of white people. The first clue was that he spent 20 years
in Jeremiah Wright's anti-American, anti-white, anti-Semitic church. You don't go to a church for twenty years unless you're in general accordance
with the pastor. Furthermore, Barack Obama has made a number of racist comments over the years. [...] Barack Obama says racist things about white
people, his Department of Justice discriminates against white Americans, and he lies to black audiences to convince them that white people hate them.
A white man voting for a man like that is like a black man voting for David Duke. Why in the world would you vote for someone who
doesn't like you because of your skin color?
Obama's race speech echoed Wright's ravings.
In the months before Barack Obama made his now-famous statement that the U.S. government cares less about majority-black New Orleans than other
American cities, his longtime spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made similar claims in public. The Daily Caller has obtained weekly
bulletins from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Church of Christ in which Wright condemns the federal government's Katrina policy as racist.
Until now, those remarks have never been reprinted.
So Obama Is a Lying,
Race-Baiting Demagogue: Does Anyone Care? Over the last four years we have seen a petty, vindictive, frequently dishonest, and often
shameless politician in the White House. The video shows that Obama will lie, race-bait and adopt a fake accent for votes. Really?
All of that, on top of being a lousy president? So, no: in political terms, I think the video is a non-event. But what, you might
ask, about Obama's alleged likability? Surely people who watch the video will no longer consider him likable.
Obama's Other Race Speech. In a video obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller,
then-presidential candidate Barack Obama tells an audience of black ministers, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that the U.S. government shortchanged
Hurricane Katrina victims because of racism.
Top Ten Reasons the 2007 Obama Video
Matters in 2012. Once the Daily Caller story did hit, and it became clear that Tucker Carlson had found never-before-seen video of
Obama in a way voters have never seen him, none of that mattered. The desperate narrative to protect Obama had already been set and, as
though the rest of us were insane, the corrupt media doubled down in its efforts to tell those of us who had never seen this video that we had.
Senator
Obama Was Pretty Awful in 2007 and Hasn't Got any Better Since Becoming President. I reported on then Senator Barack Obama's Hampton
Univeristy speech of June 2007, when he had entered the race for President. [...] This is Barack Obama — community activist, autobiographer
and President of the United States. He is the same man today, as he was in 2007, 2004 and 1995. His world-view fully formed by Planned
Parenthood, Frank Marshall, Andy Stern, Derrick Bell, James Cone, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and prepared for public consumption by Marilyn Katz.
NBC
Dismisses Obama Video as Old News, Edits Out Jeremiah Wright Comments. In a stunning omission on Wednesday's NBC Today,
brief coverage of a 2007 video of Barack Obama completely ignored the then-Senator praising his controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright as a
"great leader, not just in Chicago, but all across the country."
JournoList plotted to kill Jeremiah
Wright story in 2008. Now that The Daily Caller has uncovered and published video of President Barack Obama's "other race speech," liberal
media figures are once again trying to quell coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story — just like in 2008. Records obtained by TheDC
in mid-2010 showed that "at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their
favored candidate," after ABC News' Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked then-Sen. Obama about his controversial reverend during an April 2008
debate.
Barack Obama's "Other Race Speech"
Vindicates Glenn Beck. There's a very fine line between racist and racialist. Both are ugly, and when used as a political weapon,
dangerously so. Obama's belligerent racialism, on full display before a black audience exposes his animosity toward "the white power structure"
and could fairly be called racist.
No, Obama's Divisive 2007 Speech is Not 'Old
News'. As a senator, Barack Obama was in a position to know both where New Orleans' money was and that the Stafford Act had been waived
several times for the people of New Orleans. He was also in a position to know that the Bush administration had offered assistance to Louisiana
and to New Orleans before the hurricane struck, but the local governor and mayor — both Democrats, and one of them black — had
turned the administration's offer down. [...] The city of New Orleans, it turned out, had dozens of ghost police officers on the rolls to pad their
federal grant money, and did not even have a comprehensive list of its city school bus drivers, so they could be contacted to help evacuate stranded
citizens. Sen. Obama was in a position to know all of this, yet he chose to channel Kanye West and suggest that the disaster in New Orleans was
a result of racism.
Phony in Chief. [Scroll down] Innumerable
facts, however, show that it is our Commander in Chief who is Phony in Chief. A classic example was his speech to a predominantly black
audience at Hampton University on June 5, 2007. [...] Why is the date of this speech important? Because, less than two weeks earlier,
on May 24, 2007, the United States Senate had in fact voted 80-14 to waive the Stafford Act requirement for New Orleans, as it had waived that
requirement for New York and Florida. More federal money was spent rebuilding New Orleans than was spent in New York after 9/11 and in
Florida after hurricane Andrew, combined.
Obama's speech in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008:
Senator Obama was expected to give a speech about race relations on March 18 that would
patch up this controversy and straighten out any misunderstandings about his pastor. It didn't
have much of an effect — in fact, most observers are now less convinced of Obama's qualifications,
and the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward Hillary Clinton.
Philadelphia:
The Perfect Spot for Obama to Resurface. It makes altogether perfect sense for Barack Obama to make his first
in-person campaign stop for Joe Biden in Philadelphia, PA. On at least three occasions, Philadelphia helped save
Obama's own political bacon. The first time came in March 2008 after the racist, anti-American speeches of Obama's
wild-eyed pastor, Jeremiah Wright, first surfaced. To neutralize the fallout Obama chose Philadelphia as the site for a
speech, immodestly titled "A More Perfect Union." [...] The bottom line, said Obama: "I can no more disown Wright than
I can disown the black community." The speech wowed Obama's white liberal supporters and silenced his critics. [...]
Obama's promise to not disown his pastor lasted just forty days and forty nights. Unfortunately for Obama, Wright kept
saying what he always had been saying. [...] Obama had been attending Wright's church with some regularity for twenty
years. Wright officiated at Obama's marriage to Michelle. He baptized Obama's children. Yet when faced with
the fallout of the HIV quote, Obama claimed that he had never seen this side of Wright before.
No Cliché Left Behind.
For some years now, the American media have marveled at what they called the eloquence and sheer oratorical
genius of Barack Obama. ... His most impressive performance, it is widely agreed, was his March 18, 2008,
speech on race. ... A close look at the text of the 2008 race speech the other day more than confirmed my first
impression. Obama has been a beneficiary of what G.W. Bush used to call "the soft bigotry of low
expectations." He is the first man to be propelled all the way to the presidency by white condescension.
Eloquent Speech, Troubling Worldview. Barack
Obama just gave an eloquent speech, but one that does not address the underlying nature of Senator Obama's beliefs.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, like Mr. Obama, believes in a state-centered 21st century form of big-government socialism.
This 21st century form of socialism is at the heart of the Liberation Theology Rev. Wright preaches from the pulpit.
Today, Mr. Obama again made it clear, with all his eloquence, that he still embraces these beliefs that would require
dismantling the free-market system that has made our country's economy the most prosperous in all of human history.
Obama Defends Wright's
Anger. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama defended the anger of his longtime friend, "spiritual
guide" and controversial pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright in a major speech on race and religion Tuesday [3/18/2008]. … In
the last week, video clips have surfaced of Wright blaming the U.S. government for AIDS and 9/11 as well as invoking racial
slurs while discussing Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton's candidacy in the pulpit. In the clips,
Wright repeatedly blames "the culture of rich, white men" for the modern day problems of blacks in America.
Yesterday's
Baggage. Obama says that pretty much any inconvenient discussion of race is a distraction from
what America really needs: a huge expansion of the welfare state. Obama says our racial problems can
be healed with more money. By "investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights
laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of
opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations." … The old baggage has been replaced with
shinier suitcases, but the contents are the same as ever.
The Tragedy
of Obama's Speech: The tragedy of Obama's speech and the mindless endorsement of it was the
rejection of any constant moral standard — an absolute sense of wrong and right that transcends situational
ethics, context, and individual particulars. … When he failed to "disown" Rev. Wright, and then brought in
parallels of things purportedly as bad, or offered excuses that Wright had done good things to balance the bad,
or that there were certain mitigating circumstances that explain his hatred, then the universal wrong of
Wright's racism and lying disappears and with it any ethical standard by which we have moral authority
to condemn such vitriol.
Obama:
Grandma 'Typical White Person' Fearing Everyone She Doesn't Know. It seems the more Barack Obama
tries to explain the peculiar statement he made Tuesday concerning his white grandmother's "fear of black men
who passed by her on the street," the more he's assuring attention regarding the matter.
Who decided
to call Obama black? Mr. Obama could label himself with obvious legitimacy as white —
he was, after all, raised by his white mother and white grandparents after his father abandoned the family
when he was 2 years old. Yet he describes himself as black, and news organizations around the
world have followed suit.
Obama blew it: What
the candidate should have said about race. Instead of giving us a polarizing treatise on the
"black experience," Obama should have reiterated the theme that has brought so many to his campaign:
That race ain't what it used to be in America. He should have presented us a pathway out of our racial
boxes and a road map for new thinking about race.
The Roots Of Black Anger.
In his speech, Obama rationalized that "the history of racial injustice in this country" gives rise to the kind
of anger that fueled Rev. Jeremiah Wright's anti-white rants. He ticked off slavery, Jim Crow laws, school
segregation and job bias, and maintained that discrimination still is holding back African-Americans. While
these racist crimes of the past still sting, Obama is wrong to suggest that legalized discrimination still
exists today. There is no conspiracy of racism in America.
Obama:
From Valiant to Victicrat. Billed as an "important speech about race," presidential candidate
Barack Obama condemned some of the remarks of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. But Obama refused to denounce
the man himself, considering him family. Commentators gushed over this "groundbreaking," "stirring"
speech about the "state of race relations in America." Funny, some people actually thought that Obama
might explain why he chose and attends a church led by a hateful, anti-Semitic, racist America-condemning
pastor, a man whom Obama refers to as his "spiritual advisor."
A Brief for
Whitey: It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running
since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on,
as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves." Was "white racism" really responsible for those
black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner
said — that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery. Barack says we need to have a
conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.
The masterpiece of a
disaster: Their squeals of praise were universally breathtaking: "It was an extraordinary
moment of truth-telling." "A masterpiece!" "A profile in courage!" "Brilliant, inspiring,
intellectually supple!" "Searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching and loyal." "A speech we have all been
waiting for for a generation." The punditocracy, having overdosed on nuance, seared by supple and sore from
all those wrenched guts, is fresh out of exclamation points, now on back order in newsrooms everywhere.
Barack Obama shops his
grandma but won't save his skin. Barack Obama's mistake was to choose to be black, and on
Tuesday he only made that mistake worse by betraying his white grandmother. And as a result, his speech
to excuse his links to race-baiting black preacher Jeremiah Wright may have killed his chance of becoming
the next president of the United States.
Wright's gift to the
right: Early reactions to Sen. Barack Obama's Big Speech in Philadelphia last week about his pastor
and spiritual adviser of 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., sound like a mixed review: "It
was a nice speech about race, but what about that nutty preacher?"
My Whiteness
Versus My Wrightness. Watching the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright gesticulate like a horny peacock and spew
out ignorance, hatred, and bitterness towards America truly inspired my religious faith. … How could so many people
not understand that white people have caused all the world's problems? As Wright pointed out to his congregation,
the Bible says it's so. I'm not sure what verse actually says that, but I'm now betting that rich, white people
are responsible for my biblical ignorance.
Wimping Out:
Obama's Squandered Chance at Post-Racialism. His distancing speech was more a justification speech than
anything else. … Barack Obama is uniquely positioned to talk about race in America in a new way. It would have
served his post-racial aspirations to do so today. He did not take that opportunity.
Obama's Speech: No
one had to be in church the day Wright made his inflammatory and obscene remarks to know about them. The cable
news journalists who are playing the tapes of those sermons were not there. The tapes were on sale in the church
itself. Obama knew that because he had bought one or more of those tapes. … There was no way that he didn't
know about Jeremiah Wright's anti-American and racist diatribes from the pulpit. Someone once said that a con man's
job is not to convince skeptics but to enable people to continue to believe what they already want to believe.
Three
Big Problems With Barack's Speech: [Scroll down] An even worse comparison involved Barack's
exploitation of his own grandmother (who is still alive) to make a political point. … This wretched analogy should
make all of us cringe: there's no arguable equivalence between his grandmother's very private kitchen-table
remarks (no matter how insensitive) and the very public and thunderous sermons of a famous clergyman addressing
thousands of his congregants and later selling his hateful remarks on DVD.
Say
Goodbye to the Glowbama Mystique. Instead of accountability, we got excuses. Instead of disavowal
of demagoguery, we got whacked with the moral equivalence card. Instead of rejecting the Blame America mantra of
left-wing black nationalism, we got more Blame Whitey. Same old, same old.
Obama Not Yet
Out of the Woods. Obama's forte is not, as many have suggested, waxing eloquent while saying nothing.
His real gift is saying one thing while appearing to say the opposite, so mellifluously and disarmingly that audiences
shake their heads in affirmation of the very proposition they oppose. Without changing their minds, they believe
they have agreed with him. Amazing — and scary.
Obama's
Speech Leaves a Few Question Marks. "Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered
controversial while I sat in church? Yes." … An interesting, if belated, admission. But the more
important question is: which "controversial" remarks? … Wright's assertion from the pulpit that
the U.S. government invented the HIV virus "as a means of genocide against people of color"? Wright's claim
that America was morally responsible for 9/11 — "chickens coming home to roost" — because of, among other
crimes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? (Obama says he missed church that day. Had he never heard about it?)
What about the charge that the U.S. government (of Franklin Roosevelt, mind you) knew [in advance] about Pearl Harbor,
but lied about it? Or that the government gives drugs to black people, presumably to enslave and imprison
them?
Obama May Not Have Fully Contained Damage
From Ex-Pastor. Sen. Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech on race relations last month seemed to
put the controversial remarks of his former pastor behind him. But three weeks later, there is evidence
of lingering damage. "It has not been defused," says David Parker, a North Carolina Democratic Party
official and unpledged superdelegate.
Eloquent
misstep by Obama. If Sen. Barack Obama loses the presidency, he can very likely trace the beginning of the
end of his unprecedented run for the White House to last week's much-discussed speech on race. He never should have
gone there. It was a deadly mistake, a political blunder of the first order.
Obama's
Clintonesque Speech. Barack Obama came to Philadelphia on March 18 not so much to address
his poisonous pastor, Jeremiah Wright, but to talk vaguely of race relations. The news media
swooned. … Newspapers and news networks tried to insist that Obama's speech drew praise "across the
political spectrum," but this was nonsense. Many outlets utterly excluded conservatives and Republicans
from their stories. They were hermetically sealing Obama from criticism.
Barack
Obama's Big Mistake — and How He Fixes It. It was a fateful decision — and a
significant strategic mistake. Battered by the controversy over the remarks of his mentor and pastor, Jeremiah
Wright, Barack Obama delivered a speech designed to switch the national conversation from Wright to race. … But
both the decision to speak on race and the speech itself damaged the Barack Obama "brand."
Expedience and Experience:
Like senior citizens stampeding into a restaurant for the Early Bird Special, commentators are falling all over
each other in trying to declare that the Obama speech on race was the best speech since the Gettysburg Address
… Obama's speech, however, was brilliant for a different reason. He gave a speech about race when
race was not the issue. It would be like President Bush addressing Congress and making a speech about
crabgrass. The issue was Obama's nitwit pastor.
The Blathering
Storm: The question with Obama remains exactly what actions he'll take to give real meaning to
his fine speeches. ... My problem with Obama and my fear of a potential Obama presidency is that his
ostentatious plans for inaction may be more than just a clever political strategy. If you look at his
record, Obama seems to lack much fondness for action. His record is littered with evidence that he's a
congenital ditherer who doesn't bother to offer actions that support his words.
Wright Stuff
vs. the Woods Model. In response to the controversy stirred by the Wright revelations, Obama
gave a speech on race relations. Most of the media swooned. But as columnist Charles Krauthammer
pointed out, its tired themes were moral equivalence and white guilt. Geraldine Ferraro and Obama's white
grandmother were made to seem just as wrong as Wright.
Analysis by Charles Krauthammer:
In his swoon-inducing Philadelphia speech, Obama instructed the nation from on high that America was greatly in
need of a national conversation on race — a need curiously absent before his pastor's words sent his
campaign into a tailspin — and that he, Barack Obama, was ready to lead it. Everything was now
on the table, except his association with Wright. … After the speech, it became an article of faith that
even referencing Wright's comments was somehow illegitimate, the new "Swift boating."
Not Too Swift.
In much of the media, as in the Democratic party's talking points, "swift boating" has come to be defined not only as a smear
but as any criticism of Barack Obama. But before the phrase slips irretrievably into the general usage, can we take one
moment to remember how this all got started?
The Editor says...
The article makes no mention of "Borking", which was the old name for "Swift Boating."
Borking was invented by Ted Kennedy.*
Obama's
Unofficial Slogan: 'No, You're Wrong'. [Scroll down] One of the [Philadelphia]
speech's overall themes was that America had misjudged Jeremiah Wright and was jumping to conclusions on
"snippets." He explicitly warned against dismissing Wright as a demagogue and a crank. … Then
Wright went to the National Press Club, and his hour-long, bombastic, controversy-embracing performance
suggested that those five things were not, in fact, out of the ordinary.
Dreams From My Father, Lame Excuses
From My Grandfather. If Obama is sent reeling by the mere words of an elderly white woman, how
is he going to negotiate with a guy like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? … Your grandmother wasn't a racist,
Barack. Your grandpa was just a loser. Can we wrap up our national conversation about race
now? I think we'd like to move onto questions about your stupid plan to hold talks with Iran.
Obama May Not Have Fully Contained Damage
From Ex-Pastor. Sen. Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech on race relations last month seemed to
put the controversial remarks of his former pastor behind him. But three weeks later, there is evidence
of lingering damage. "It has not been defused," says David Parker, a North Carolina Democratic Party
official and unpledged superdelegate.
Obama 'transcends' mere
investigation. Obama-the-uniter holds membership at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, a
black separatist church where anti-American rants replace the gospel of Christ's atonement and racism is
excused as cultural expression. Never once in 20 years did Obama, whose campaign slogan is "The
Judgment to Lead," object to its hateful invective. Moreover, he was mentored by pastor and race-merchant
Jeremiah Wright — crown prince of divisiveness. The damage from "Pastorgate" is anybody's guess,
but the Philadelphia "race speech" was pure postmodern politics — with a dash of double standard.
The 'Race'
Speech Revisited: Guess it's time to disown Granny, if Obama's famous Philadelphia "race" speech
is to be believed. Of course, the speech was not just believed. It was hailed, celebrated, canonized
as the greatest pronouncement on race in America since Lincoln at Cooper Union. A New York Times columnist
said it "should be required reading in classrooms across the country." College seniors and first-graders,
suggested the excitable Chris Matthews. Apparently there's been a curriculum change.
To Obama, 'we' means 'me'.
[Scroll down] It was never a great speech. It was a simulacrum of a great speech written to flatter gullible pundits
into hailing it as the real deal. It should be "required reading in classrooms," said Bob Herbert in the New York Times; it
was "extraordinary" and "rhetorical magic," said Joe Klein in Time — which gets closer to the truth: As with most
"magic," it was merely a trick of redirection. Obama appeared to have made Jeremiah Wright vanish into thin air, but it turned
out he was just under the heavily draped table waiting to pop up again.
"The charm may have worked once. It still
works on some. It won't work forever in the age of the Internet. The fog of ambiguity
and dissimulation is dissipated by the harsh, unforgiving and scrutiny of the blogosphere and its
unlimited access to historical facts and time-stamped testimony."
Reaction to Obama's speech in San Francisco on April 6, 2008:
Sounding
Bitter: Barack Obama seems to have stepped in it. This time the offending words are not
his former pastor's, but his own. … What Obama said about the small-towners, as you've probably heard by
now, was: "It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to
people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their
frustrations." Not good. A pretty significant blunder. Plays into the worst stereotype of
him as an elitist who can't connect with the working classes.
The Mask
Slips. [Obama is] disdainful of small-town America — one might say, of bourgeois
America. He's usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And
it's not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize. And what are the grounds for his
supercilious disdain? … What has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on
his fellow Americans?
The Other Obama:
The Democratic Party fight is helping us learn that there's more to Barack Obama than the eloquent, post-partisan,
disciplined purveyor of "hope" that he typically projects. There's also the Barack Obama who attended
Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, the one who emerged from the Chicago Democratic machine with
friends like Tony Rezko, the one with the most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate, and now we learn the
one with a Harvard-eye view of American angst. At an April 6 fund-raiser in San Francisco, this
Obama explained to his non-blue-collar donors….
SnOb-ama
on Small Town Voters: Bitter, Xenophobic, Religious, Anti-Immigration. Only an elitist who
attributes religious faith and gun ownership to bitterness would think that tax cuts for the rich include
families who make $75,000 per year. Only an elitist would say that people vote their values only out of
frustration. Barack Obama thinks he knows your hopes and fears better than you do. You can't be
more out of touch than that.
Snob-ama
slight a big-time error. When they accused Obama of being out of touch for saying small-towners
"cling to guns or religion" out of frustration, Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain were too kind.
Snob-ama is not just out of touch. He's from another planet.
The
McGovernization of Obama: I still believe that by August, Obama, the half-term rookie Senator,
will have become the second George McGovern. … Obama goes to the Bay Area to an affluent liberal enclave to
give a condescending take on the supposed poor fools that he is currently trying to court. This is not
just hypocritical, but abjectly stupid. All of Pennsylvania surely is asking today what is so hip and
sophisticated about the Trinity Church and Rev. Wright?
Big Snob or Little Snob? It's a triple whammy.
Obama claims to speak for people, something folks don't like, whether they live in small towns or large ones.
He touches on some of the most explosive issues in politics — religion, guns, race, and
immigration — where voters tend to have deep-seated views. He then says something really
tone-deaf, ascribing suspect reasoning to choices people have made about core parts of their daily lives.
Off-the-Record
Obama. Senator Obama's words are significant because they were said off-the-record, meaning they
provided a more authentic glimpse into the attitudes of Obama than a carefully scripted event.
Nonetheless, his words were not merely careless; his comments were based on a carefully constructed,
if deeply condescending, explanation.
Obama's Flaws
Multiply. Barack Obama's San Francisco-Democrat comment last week — about how
alienated working-class voters "cling to guns or religion" — is already famous. But the fact
that his aides tell reporters he is privately bewildered that anybody took offense is even more remarkable.
Better
Than the Bitter. Obama's political approach is wearing poorly. Obamaism seems to consist of
the belief that the candidate transcends the understandable but confused anger of black and white Americans.
And so Obamaism requires an unfavorable comparison of the American people to Obama himself. This message
is inherently prideful: I understand your bitterness and confusion, but I don't reflect it. You
know me. I'm better than that. The problem is: We really don't know Obama very well.
Barack
Obama to Rural Voters: I Can't Believe in You. To many liberals, views as detestable as
conservative ones cannot be explained by anything other than mental illness and ill will, false motives and
false consciousness. … Obama's comments about small-town America, delivered to a group of rich liberal
donors in San Francisco, were the utterly unsurprising culmination of a electoral plan built on disrespecting
the very voters needed for election.
Candidate on
a High Horse: Obama may be the fulfillment of modern liberalism. Explaining why many
working-class voters are "bitter," he said they "cling" to guns, religion and "antipathy to people who aren't
like them" because of "frustrations." His implication was that their primitivism, superstition and
bigotry are balm for resentments they feel because of America's grinding injustice.
Loose Lips
and Democratic Ships: Barack Obama violated two elementary rules of political campaigning.
A candidate should never play the role of a political scientist or sociologist analyzing a key electoral swing
group from afar and should never dissect the motivations of less privileged people when talking to a group of
privileged people.
Snob-ama Is Not Alone.
Obama is reportedly flummoxed that his remarks have been interpreted as arrogant. After all, he was a
"community organizer" who came from a single-parent home! He is The Everyman. The Uniter. The
Soul-Fixer. The Vessel of All Hopes and Dreams. How could he possibly be perceived as out of touch?
Obama is
'Bitterly' Out of Touch. Obama apparently believes one embraces religion out of bitterness, not
due to spirituality, values, belief in or the acceptance of and submission to a higher power. Perhaps
this explains why Obama clung to the Trinity Church of Christ for 20 years, with its anti-Semitic,
anti-white, anti-American, conspiracy-believing pastor, Jeremiah Wright. If Obama attended the church
out of "bitterness," surely, his reasoning goes, others do so as well.
Obama's Projections of Bitterness:
With such distorted perceptions about his fellow citizens, it's no wonder Obama appears bitter and angry at
this nation. Given his experience with hostility emanating from his own pastor's pulpit, it's not
surprising that he sees Middle America through that jaundiced prism and jumps to the perverse conclusion that
small-town Americans turn to God out of bitterness. Obama has some nerve presuming to lecture the rest
of us about prejudice and being out of touch with what people think.
A 'Bitter'
Misstep. Mr. Obama's political brilliance to date has been to use his message of hope to deflect
questions about himself or his record. He'd actually created the perception that to challenge him was to
challenge "hope" itself. … But the San Fran comments proved one scandal too many; man and message have now
been delinked.
Obama's speech in Berlin, Germany, July 24, 2008:
Obama's
Berlin Speech: Mixed metaphors and soggy logic. It was a great moment — so
long as you viewed it with the sound off. But if you listened to the speech, you heard an ominous and
disturbing statement, one that raises the same unsettling question Hillary Clinton raised: Is this man
really capable of meeting the responsibilities of commander-in-chief? Many commentators have observed
that the speech was an unusually poorly written one, filled with weak language and mangled metaphors.
Let's fact check
Obama. Beginning with getting wrong the bio of his father, Barack Obama Sr.
Senator Obama's Excellent Adventure.
The Obama Machine's, "Hope & Change World Tour" has left more than a few people perplexed. Some … are
American voters who wonder why the presumptive Democrat nominee is campaigning in foreign countries for
President of the U.S. Others seem baffled by the places and people chosen for meetings and photo-ops
with the candidate.
Kumbaya falls flat in
Berlin. As Senator Obama went global with "Yes, we can" and "Change we can believe in" he left
at least some of the horde in Berlin scratching their heads. Perhaps these Germans, out to hear what all
the excitement was about, were looking for leadership and substance rather than kumbaya.
Sweet Nothings.
You really need to be on your toes if you're going to get anything out of a newspaper's election coverage. You've
got to tune your ear to euphemism and translate as you go. So last Friday, having missed the television broadcasts
of Obama's speech in Berlin the day before, I read the Washington Post with a cocked ear, and when I saw that the speech
was described as "broadly thematic" and "sober and serious" I knew exactly what it meant: a boring speech full of
blah blah blah. And so it was.
Missing
from that Berlin speech: Not once in his Berlin speech did Obama acknowledge [President]
Truman's fortitude, or even mention his name. Nor did he mention the US Air Force, or the 31 American
pilots who died during the airlift. Indeed, Obama seemed to go out of his way not to say plainly that
what saved Berlin in that dark time was America's military might. Save for a solitary reference
to "the first American plane," he never described one of the greatest American operations of the postwar
period as an American operation at all.
Obama's
Naive Berlin Speech: Obama: "People of the world — look at Berlin, where a
wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a
world that stands as one." The wall came down because America stood strong, not because the world
stood as one. What he said here is John Lennon-like fantasy, the opposite of reality, and as such,
coming from the man who may well be the next president of the United States, a bit frightening.
World
Citizen Obama. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's single most illuminating statement
in the course of a just-completed overseas tour was his self-description during the stop in Berlin as a "citizen
of the world." Widely interpreted as nothing more than an innocuous expression of solidarity with his
adoring, post-nationalist hosts, this declaration is actually just the latest indication that Senator Obama
embraces a vision of his own country and its role in the world that should be exceedingly worrisome to
America's citizenry.
Obama's
Berlin 'Smoke And Mirrors' Speech: This is not the first time Mr. Obama has used a marquis name
singer to draw a crowd and make it seem that the crowd was there for him. During Mr. Obama's May speech
in Portland, he was preceded by a free concert given by The Decemberists. This group has drawn rave
reviews by Rolling Stone magazine. … We need an adult in the White House — not a rockstar.
One
world? Obama is on another planet. Although well received in the Tiergarten, the Obama
speech actually reveals an even more naive view of the world than we had previously been treated to in the
United States. In addition, although most of the speech was substantively as content-free as his other
campaign pronouncements, when substance did slip in, it was truly radical, from an American perspective.
Obama's
'Audacity' Is For Dopes. Barack Obama at least has one thing right: the author of "The
Audacity of Hope" is certainly audacious. ... And so the political savior went to Berlin to stand on the
shoulders of giants, and didn't even have the courtesy to tip his hat to the president of the United
States — Ronald Reagan — whose monumentally historic rhetoric he adapted ad nauseam,
showing an audacious disregard for creativity and originality.
Crowds for Obama,
or for rock bands? I've gotten some emails complaining that the mainstream media didn't mention
something about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin: He was preceded on stage by a couple of popular rock bands,
which could account for the size of the crowd. That's a fact worth knowing, and one the major U.S.
newspapers didn't report. If a presidential candidate is hanging onto the coattails of a music act,
voters watching from the other side of the planet ought to be aware of it.
Gullible Travels.
It has been suggested that Barack Obama went overseas in order to morph into "presidential" material; that
his mere presence on foreign shores would somehow be transformative. That would be like me jetting off
to Never-Never-Land in order to become Peter Pan; an excursion that too many Obama backers already seem to
have taken.
Obama Uses Deceit To Draw Crowds During
European Tour. Mainstream media reports have indicated that an estimated 200,000 Berliners attended
Sen. Barack Obama's speech last week. This figure is currently in dispute even though it is being widely
reported around the world. The mainstream media also failed to report that just prior to Obama's speech,
Berliners were treated to a rock concert with the German reggae band Patrice and the pop band Reamonn. Free
bratwurst, beer, and pizza were provided during the three-hour concert.
Obama Plays Reagan in Berlin.
The depth of the deception that is now underway can be understood by analyzing the significance of Obama's "I
love America" foreign policy speech in Berlin, Germany, in view of the fact that the candidate and his media
acolytes continue to conceal the central role that a Stalinist Communist by the name of Frank Marshall Davis
played in his upbringing.
Obama's Naive
Berlin Speech. To better understand Sen. Barack Obama, his speech before 200,000 Germans in
Berlin is one good place to start. As we shall see, however, it does not leave one secure as to the
senator's understanding of history, of America's role in the world, and what to do about evil, among other
important issues.
Barack
Obama's Naive Berlin Speech [Part Two]. Sen. Barack Obama's recent speech in Berlin may have
been a hit with American journalists. That, however, is due to most journalists' politics, not to the
profundity of Obama's remarks. They were neither profound nor stirring. Indeed, a careful study
of the speech should lead an impartial observer to be concerned about Obama's grasp of the world.
President of What
World? In Berlin, Obama credited the "people of the world" for bringing down the Berlin Wall.
That will be surprising news to the people of Mexico, Switzerland and dozens of other nations who not only
sat out World War II as "neutrals" but never gave one penny to support the 1949 Berlin Airlift or NATO.
Contrary to Obama's rosy Code Pink revisionism, the "people of the world" were bit players in the 40 year
struggle against Soviet occupation of East Berlin and Eastern Europe.
Obama's Task:
The beginning of Obama's decline in the polls was the Berlin speech. It took a while for the absurdity of
that event to sink in, and for the McCain campaign to take perfect advantage of it in parody. Not only did
Berlin (as a stand-in for a host of grand Obama gestures) prove a liability in and of itself. But, additionally,
it accentuated the basic thinness of Obama's history and experience.
Obama
Berlin speech cost $700K. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama paid a German company nearly
$700,000 for staging, sound and lighting services at the time he delivered a speech this past summer in Berlin and
declared himself a "citizen" of both the U.S. and the world.
Barack Obama's
problem: I remember the day last July when candidate Barack Obama gave a speech in Berlin.
I was living abroad, getting my news from SKY and so able, unlike most Americans, to watch the speech live and
in full. After it was over I picked up the phone and called a friend back home. "It's worse than
we thought," I told him. "The guy's actually crazy."
Obama and the Spirit of Antichrist -- Part
Two. Evidently [making a speech at the Siegessäule] was not problematic for Obama, who
stood in front of it and saluted the German audience in a way eerily similar to what Adolf Hitler used to do,
followed by thousands returning the salute, which is against German law. When Obama ended his speech in
front of the war goddess, he said, "With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember
this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again." This is exactly what Hitler had
promised to do and exactly where he had planned to memorialize it.
Reaction to Obama's acceptance speech, August 28, 2008:
A speech full
yet empty. This address was not nearly as good as his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic
convention. His lines this time ran from serviceable to pretty awful. A supposed hard truth that
he told to Democrats was "We can not meet twenty first century challenges with a twentieth century
bureaucracy." It sounded like something Al Gore would have said, circa 1995.
How Obama lost the election:
The speech itself dragged on for three-quarters of an hour. … On television, Obama's spectacle might have
looked like The Ten Commandments, but inside the stadium it felt like Night of the Living Dead.
The longer the candidate spoke, and the more money he promised to spend on alternative energy, preschool education,
universal health care, and other components of the Democratic pinata, the lower the party professionals slouched
into their seats.
Barack Obama Isn't Santa Claus. In
his speech, Obama speaks of America being "a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the
equipment that he's worked on for 20 years and watch as it's shipped off to China." Yet he left out
that he recently told the Las Cruces Sun-News about his plan to give citizenship to all the undocumented
illegal immigrants already here taking Americans' jobs and undercutting wages. I wonder how all the
union employees who applauded this week as some 600 illegals were hauled out of their plant during an INS raid
in small town Mississippi would feel about Urkel Obama's plans to turn around and give all such cheaters
citizenship?
Puff, the Magic
Obama! Despite the fact that Obama's camp suggested that these Athenian columns were merely
representative of the history of democracy, the entire visual felt more like a temple than a tenured politician's
presidential platform. Even his podium looked more like a lectern or pulpit, rising and falling at will
and out of sight beneath the stage. Is this the simple, substance-oriented, budget-cutting Obama we can
expect if he's president?
Obama's
Panic: In his Denver speech, it seemed that every American home was on the auction block, every
car stalled for lack of gasoline, every credit card bill past due, every worker treated like a Russian
serf. ... In obedience to the best Democratic advice, Obama managed to be conventional, bitter and graceless.
Obama's inaugural address, January 20, 2009.
Obama
may be the 'no we can't' President. [Scroll down] Mr Obama's inaugural address, then, was
a piece of expectation management. Already he is warning his supporters to understand the limits of
change and the constraints he is under. It was a distinctly different tone from the campaign.
But then it is not hard to see why many election campaigns (Mr Obama's was routine in this respect) are
relentlessly optimistic. Optimism works at the ballot box. "Yes we can" is the ideal slogan
for the hustings.
A New Era?
That's what they all say. On the war on terror, Obama delivered the words that any incoming
president would have to. He was Churchillian — no, to be honest, it was faux Churchillian.
To terrorists, "we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast
us, and we will defeat you." Good stuff, but what else could he have said?
Gloomy inaugural lecture triggers
Wall Street sell-off. Well America, you asked for it! Your precious Barry Obama is now the
president, and the market has tanked, again, because he vowed in his inauguration speech to take all the rich
people's money.
The Festival Is Over.
The 19-minute address was filled with trite metaphors from "the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and
raging storms" to "let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come." At times,
its somber tone recalled Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" talk rather than the sunny optimism of Ronald
Reagan or Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Obama gets it backwards. You're listening to
Barack Obama's inaugural, and yes, it is a splendid moment in American history, the adulation is very nearly
palpable and it is impossible not to be affected. One thought nevertheless keeps nagging at you.
On some of the most pressing issues of the day, this speech has things absolutely backwards.
President Obama's
First Message To The Nation. The core message of President Obama's first address to the nation
was this: Americans must grow-up and become responsible. That parent-to-child message was
surrounded by an assortment of free-standing quips, crudely stitched together with non sequitur
threads, all in an effort to etch memorable quotes into the granite of our collective memory.
Promises Made, Promises to Fear.
In his inaugural speech, President Obama made one brief comment about the need to "roll back the specter of
a warming planet." The planet is cooling, not warming. Spending a dime on "global warming" is a
waste. Instituting programs to reduce the generation of carbon dioxide based on the false assertion
that it causes "global warming" will endanger our already damaged economy.
The first untruth.
Barack Obama was not President of the United States for five minutes before he spoke his first untruth to the
American people. In the first sentence of the second paragraph of his inaugural address, Obama stated
that "Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath." This is just not true. And if
Barack Obama is as smart as the mainstream media has proclaimed, he ought to have known better.
How to Save $40 Billion:
President Obama said in his Inaugural Address yesterday that government must spend to rebuild roads and
bridges, but that those "who manage the public's dollars" must also "spend wisely" and "reform bad habits."
With that ambition in mind, here's an idea to save tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in the months ahead:
Repeal Davis-Bacon superminimum wage requirements for construction projects.
Maybe This Is a
Small Point, But ... In mentioning Muslims before Jews, Obama can only add fuel to the fire for those who
believe he is soft on Islam or even a secret adherent. It is unfathomable to think that he or his speech writer
weren't aware of this ever-present issue. Of course they were.
The Camouflaged Treachery In Obama's Inaugural
Speech: The 20-minute speech was full of glittering generalities and rolling hyperbole ... words
of nationalistic pride and words of defiance to our enemies ... words for the freedom lovers and words for the
union members ... words for the believers in global warming and words for those who would devastate America by
yanking, or over-taxing, the energy source that powers our economy, oil.
It's Mourning
in America. If you listen to Barack Obama you hear his programs and policies described the way Ronald
Reagan would have described them had they been his agenda. The difference between the two men was that [Reagan]
believed everything he said all the way to the core of his being, while Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats use
speeches to mask what they really believe. The bottom line is that the new president's widely anticipated
inaugural address, which beforehand was widely touted to be another stunning example of exalted oratory, just
plain fell flat.
Obama's
speech was a cliched dud. Barack Obama could read a string of fortune cookie messages and some people would
come away thinking they'd heard the Gettysburg address. He gave a great performance Tuesday. The speech
itself, however, was a dud.
Criticizing the Obama Messiah's Inaugural
Address: Obama's inaugural address continues his post-election pattern of being more moderate
and rational than he was in campaigning for the election; however, his speech is also filled with ironies,
arrogance, inconsistencies, and glaring grammatical errors.
More Boos Than Balls. Obama's
inaugural address tracked much of Reagan's first inaugural address — minus the
substance — the main difference being that Obama did not invoke God as stoutly or frequently,
restricting his heavenly references to a few liberal focus-grouped phrases, such as "God-given"
and "God's grace."
Jon
Stewart: Obama's Inaugural Address Sounded Just Like Bush. It appears the good folks at
Comedy Central noticed the same thing that many on the right have been saying for many months: Barack
Obama's vision of hope and change when distilled down is actually nothing new.
The Sermon on the
Mall. Obama was attempting to preach civil religion; such religion draws on biblical terms and
imagery to interpret the American experience, and Obama has professed to be a student of it. But this
assurance of our confidence was not so assuring.
Inaugural Address Failed to Inspire.
The dignitaries arrived to varying degrees of enthusiasm. Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were warmly welcomed while the
elder President Bush and Barbara received tepid applause. Republican lawmakers were openly booed when announced, but
this was to be expected. I would imagine Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the crowd by about 5,000 to 1.
Would the Founders Remake America?
"At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office,
but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding
documents... Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of
remaking America." Barack Obama delivered these magnificently eloquent yet baneful and inaccurate
statements during his first inaugural address. They are pregnant with historical fallacies and present
Americans with a clear question that must be answered in the next four years: does America need
to be "remade?"
Obama's Inaugural
Address: Two Years of Broken Promises. Obama said, "We will act not only to create new
jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth." But even Pollyanna must admit that new jobs are not being
created, and the only new foundation being laid for growth is a thicker concrete upon which debt grows toward
national bankruptcy. Obama said, "We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital
lines that feed our commerce and bind us together." But when none of that happened, he announced that
there really never were any "shovel ready" projects after all.
Reaction to Obama's address to Congress, February 24, 2009.
Obama's Cap on Carbon Pollution
Is A Huge Tax Increase, Republican Lawmaker Says. In his speech to Congress Tuesday night,
President Barack Obama "committed himself to the largest annual tax increase in the history of America," warns
a Republican congressman. The implementation of a cap-and-trade system, something Obama favors, would
raise $300- to $330-billion a year, said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).
The Cal Ripken President. Obama
spent more than twice as much time in his historic speech genuflecting to the teachers' unions than talking
about terrorism, Iraq or Afghanistan. So it was historic only in the sense that Obama is the first
African-American president, but was the same old Democratic claptrap in every other respect.
The Era of Big Government Is Only
Getting Warmed Up. The president's address tonight comes at an interesting juncture. The
stimulus has passed, but the administration is backpedaling on just how much good it is going to do and how
quickly we will feel its effects. The mortgage bailout plan has induced a populist backlash. And
the financial sector is paralyzed with fear. Despite promises of fiscal responsibility, there is nothing
but government spending and rising deficits in the near term.
Those
Foreclosure "Victims" Deserve No Sympathy. As I reported last week, ACORN launched a lawless
"civil disobedience" campaign across the country to demand their housing entitlement rights. With this
well-oiled propaganda campaign buoying his efforts, President Obama used his State of the Nation address last
night to advance his push for a massive government home foreclosure plan that will help "responsible
homeowners avoid foreclosure." But a closer look at ACORN's sob stories shows that the prototypical
foreclosure "victims" don't deserve an ounce of sympathy — or a cent of our money.
More historical
obfuscation from Obama's address to Congress. President Obama opined, "History reminds us that
at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big
ideas. In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred
commerce and industry." The expansion of the railroads was accomplished by, primarily, British railroad
speculators and a land bribe, giving a section (one square mile) of land along each mile of railroad bed
right-of-way. ... To suggest that the great railroad expansion was a Federal program is patently silly.
Obama's shaky
claims before Congress. Last night, President Obama made two very dubious claims. Yes,
Henry Ford made the automobile affordable for the masses, but the actual grunt work of inventing the
automobile was done mostly in Germany. Sorry. Any machinery as complex as the automobile
has many people contributing to the "invention" of the product.
Try
again, Mr. President — America didn't invent the auto. While the right-leaning blogs
blaze with the inaccuracies, over-reaches and empty promises of last night's Presidential Address to the Joint
Session, I have been contemplating the backlash had it been Dubya who claimed this country invented the
automobile. President Obama, while trying to convince the taxpayers that we need to save the ineptitude
that is Detroit, stated that he believes "The country that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."
Obama Gaffe: America
Didn't Invent Automobile. President Obama's speech to Congress last night might have emphasized
urgency over historical accuracy when he stated, "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot
walk away from it." Many inventors contributed to the rise of the car in modern-day life. But the
U.S. Library of Congress credits German inventor Karl Benz with creating the first true automobile that ran
on an internal combustion engine.
Fact check: Obama glosses over some realities.
President Barack Obama's assurance Tuesday that his mortgage-relief plan will only benefit deserving homeowners
appears to be a stretch. Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress
and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who should have known better
than to buy that huge house.
Obama's
automotive history rewrite. This had to be music to the ears of Detroit: "I believe the
nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it," President Barack Obama said in his address to a
joint session of Congress last night. ... The only problem is, this nation did not invent the automobile.
About Last Night:
What was perhaps most striking in the speech is what it ignored: national security. It is kind
of extraordinary, really: last week President Obama ordered an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan,
yet there was no effort in last night's speech to put this decision in any larger context. The same is
true of Iraq; almost nothing was said about it. It was almost as if America was not at war and militant
Islam has evaporated as a threat. It hasn't, of course.
Obama's Deficit
Charade. President Obama posed as a fiscal conservative Monday when he hosted a "fiscal
responsibility summit." Close inspection reveals that what he is actually proposing, however, is a
massive increase in government debt — thus raising the already unsustainable burden of government
that is certain to fall on our children unless the welfare state is somehow curtailed.
Obama's
words on home aid ring hollow. President Barack Obama knows Americans are unhappy that the
government could rescue people who bought mansions beyond their means. But his assurance Tuesday night
that only the deserving will get help rang hollow. Even officials in his administration, many supporters
of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who used
lousy judgment.
Obama Unbridled: Anyone who
thought the recession and financial market turmoil would moderate President Obama's policy ambitions discovered
the opposite last night. Far from suggesting limits on Congress or federal spending, the new President
made clear in his first State of the Union address that he believes in government power as the answer to our
current difficulties, and he intends to use it.
'Wrong Way' Obama.
Last night, with his faux State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama
lifted off on a flight of dramatic rhetoric that will attempt to take America in exactly the wrong direction.
Where's the
Beef?. The swooning media were enraptured by President Obama's soaring rhetoric in
last night's address to Congress despite the speech's total lack of substance. They never
bothered to ask "Where's the beef?" in all those oratorical flourishes.
Obama Shoots for
Mars. [Scroll down] When the applause died down, the President took out a scattergun
and attempted to hit everything in sight. He confidently asserted his and our intention to overcome
the current economic downturn and march toward an even brighter future. How? Government/taxpayers
will spend our way to the summit. He/Congress/we will "invest" in health care and education; "save or
create" 3.5 million jobs; "cure cancer within our lifetime"; provide assistance to the states; "save our
planet from the ravages of climate change"; save banks and other financial institutions while holding
"accountable those responsible" for their problems; increase the size of the military; end torture
(presumably he meant of our enemies); and cut the size of the deficit.
The Two Faces of Barack Obama: Obama aims to be
the president of all Americans, a position that appears to be sincere. But I wonder whether in the process he
might also want to consider appointing himself chief executive of his own head. All night long, with equally
sonorous vigor, he served up confident assertions, only to state moments later, with equal conviction, their
near opposite.
Is Obamamania Fading Amongst the Media?
The day following President Obama's State of the Union speech I opened my daily newspaper to read the headline
"What the president said and what the facts say." It was an Associated Press story and it drove a tank
through the President's various promises and assertions. The AP reporters weren't the only people who
had some doubts.
Obama Removes the Mask. President Obama's
speech Tuesday night should put to rest the argument as to who he really is. He revealed plans so sweeping and so
expensive that, if they came to pass, we would permanently refashion the role of the federal government in the lives of
every American. ... Obama is an unalloyed and extreme liberal. He does not intend merely to slay the recession.
He intends to remake the country's education, health care, and energy policies, with a hugely expanded and enormously
powerful federal government directing vast swatches of American life and industry.
Dead End. Immediately after the
election, Obama chose a number of centrist advisers and even kept Robert Gates at the Pentagon. Some of us wondered
whether he was really planning to govern from the center. Left-wing bloggers began to shift uneasily in their chairs.
But they can relax now. With his "stimulus" package and his quasi-State of the Union address this week, President
Obama has made it abundantly clear that he intends to hustle this country into European nanny state socialism if he
can (and just as fast as he can).
Truth Be Told. [Scroll
down slowly] Perhaps 27-year-old Jon Favreau, [Obama's] eloquent speechwriter, just doesn't know the facts or
recognize "where have I heard those words before?" Here are a few examples of when Obama's words this week just
didn't match what's right: ... "So I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary." Those
unfamiliar with history may not recall that this was exactly what Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler asked their
legislatures to do in creating National Socialism.
Obama Gives Failing Schools
a Pass. In the course of a generally frank and direct speech, one might expect the president to explain
honestly why American education is lagging. It doesn't need "more investments," it needs more efficiency and
greater productivity — like our health-care system. It's no accident that our schools aren't producing
enough well-educated graduates; that's because the system has been designed to place the needs of adults over the needs
of kids. But saying any of that would put him at odds with the education establishment, which he doesn't appear
to want to cross.
Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, And
More. Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama's State of the Union speech and his
budget. He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity
and venture-capital funds. That is the meaning of his anti-growth tax-hike proposals, which make absolutely
no sense at all — either for this recession or from the standpoint of expanding our economy's long-run
potential to grow. Raising the marginal tax rate on successful earners, capital, dividends, and all the
private funds is a function of Obama's left-wing social vision, and a repudiation of his economic-recovery
statements.
President
finds the third rail — earmarks. The joke was over when Obama followed with, "Now, I'm proud
that we passed a recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar
we spend reflects only our most important national priorities." There was consensus, the consensus of no applause.
At Obama's utterance of "earmarks," grumbles and grunts of dissent wafted through the television as if this was the
British Parliament. It was the only such moment of the speech. With one word, Obama found the third rail
that could electrocute his lofty plans to trim wasteful spending and fund his promised programs.
Obama lied; the
economy died. George W. Bush didn't lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He
was merely mistaken. Whereas President Obama told a whopper last week when he claimed he was not for
bigger government. As he said Tuesday night: "As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress
to send me a recovery plan by President's Day that would put people back to work and put money in their
pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government — I don't." This he asserted
though the budget he proposed the next day asks for federal spending as 28 percent of gross domestic
product (GDP), higher by at least 6 percent than any time since World War II.
The
Six-Trillion-Dollar Man. [Scroll down] Bailoutman started out as a huge staggering
behemoth and has inflated from there. Once upon a time he was as a meek, mild-mannered trillionaire,
but a mere five months later he was a meek, mild-mannered multi-trillionaire. If you find it hard to
keep track of these all these evolutions, the President in his address to Congress finally spilled the beans
and unveiled our new hero in his final form: the Incredible Bulk, Statezilla, Governmentuan, a colossus
bestriding the land like a, er, colossus. What superpowers does he have? All of them!
Let's Get Real About Renewable Energy.
[Scroll down] Solar and wind sources are providing the equivalent of 76,000 barrels of oil per day. ... It's
approximately equal to the raw energy output of one average-sized coal mine. During his address to Congress,
Mr. Obama did not mention coal — the fuel that provides nearly a quarter of total primary energy and
about half of America's electricity — except to say that the U.S. should develop "clean coal."
Obama
is in trouble. Again, the speech to Congress was the pivot point. Before the speech, Obama
was protected by a kind of political equivalent of the Star Trek Shield. ... But the magnetism of his historic
moment began fading once the economic stimulus, the omnibus and the budget were on the table.
Cap
and Trade: Wall Street's Latest Scheme. One sector is immune from the economic downturn:
global warming lobbyists. ... It can be assumed that this lobbying bonanza will only increase in scope since
President Obama, in his February 24 speech to Congress, asked for "...legislation that places a
market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America."
Obama, the
Mortal. [Scroll down slowly] Just look at Obama's behavior as president, beginning
with his first address to Congress. Unbidden, unforced and unpushed by the congressional leadership,
Obama gave his most deeply felt vision of America, delivering the boldest social democratic manifesto ever
issued by a U.S. president. In American politics, you can't get more left than that speech and still be
on the playing field. In a center-right country, that was problem enough.
Reaction to Obama's speech in Cairo, June 4, 2009.
It's
really quite easy to rewrite history. [Scroll down] Now we come to the
Middle East. There's so much agenda-charged misinformation about that place that it's really
a serious challenge to distil an accurate picture. Barack Obama's Cairo speech was given in
the early days of his presidency. In it, he way overstated the existence of friendly ties
between the U.S. and the Moslem world. He also emphasized, falsely, the complete equivalence
between Jewish and Arab claims to a homeland in the area of Palestine. Suffice to say that
today's Middle East is largely the result of the mess that was created by the destruction of the
Ottoman Empire at the end of the first World War.
Obama's
Transparent Presidency. Obama's speech at Cairo University [6/4/2009] was the most important speech of his presidency.
In it he laid out both his "aspirational" vision of relations between the West and the Islamic world and his plans for implementing his
vision. [...] Obama's address that day at Cairo University lasted for nearly an hour. In the first half he set out his framework
for understanding the nature of the US's relations with the Muslim world and the relationship between the Western world and Islam more
generally. He also expressed his vision for how that relationship should change. The US-led West he explained had sinned against
the Muslim world through colonialism and racism. It needed to make amends for its past and make Muslims feel comfortable and respected,
particularly female Muslims, covered from head to toe. As for the Muslims, well, September 11 was wrong but didn't reflect the
truth of Islam, which is extraordinary. Obama thrice praised "the Holy Koran." He quoted it admiringly. He waxed poetic
in his appreciation for all the great contributions Islamic civilization has made to the world — he even made up a few.
And he insisted falsely that Islam has always been a significant part of the American experience.
Obama
fails history 101. In his therapeutic 2009 Cairo speech, Mr. Obama outlined all sorts
of Islamic intellectual and technological pedigrees, several of which were undeserved. He
exaggerated Muslim contributions to printing and medicine, for example, and was flat-out wrong about
the catalysts for the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. He also thinks history follows some
predetermined course, as if things always get better on their own. Mr. Obama often praises those he
pronounces to be on the "right side of history." He also chastises others for being on the "wrong
side of history" — as though evil is vanished and the good thrives on autopilot.
Obama's Willful
Blindness. [Under Obama,] Terrorism is magically transformed into an act of workplace violence (Ft. Hood) or
called man-made disasters. The words "Islam" or "Muslim" are never to be used in the context of violence, since that
would be racist or xenophobic — it is the hate that dare not speak its name. Instead, his fiction-filled Cairo speech
was a paean to the wondrous history of Islam written by Ben Rhodes, a failed short-story writer promoted to Deputy
National Security Deputy Adviser.
Obama's speech to the Muslim
world. President Obama promised that he wanted his Cairo speech to be the start of an "honest" dialogue
with the Muslim world. When it comes to how he handled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he fell short.
Obama Butters
Them Up In Cairo. At one point, Obama fretted over the rise of new power that, to the horror of civilized
people, exudes an obsessed and twisted view of "sexuality" and "mindless violence." Islamo-fascism? No, the
Internet. The guy is confronting one of the most evil and relentless mindsets in the history of man and he finds
room in his big address to whine about the Internet — by far a greater tool for freedom than anything else.
The president's Cairo
speech: worse than feared. The president said: "I consider it part of my responsibility as President
of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. But that same principle
must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the
crude stereotype of a self-interested empire." The same principle? Shouldn't an American president feel
an attachment to his own country above all? Shouldn't misrepresentations aimed against that country energize
him more? And yet the tone of this speech suggested that if anything, such misrepresentations energize him
rather less.
Sorry Barack, but there were no Muslims on the
Mayflower. Speaking at the University of Cairo, President Barack Hussein Obama said that
Americans are indebted to Islam for the great contributions Muslims have made to the history and development
of the United States. "I know that Islam has always been a part of America's story," Mr. Obama told the
throng of unenlightened Muslims.
Barack Hussein Bush. Mr.
Obama also offered a robust defense of the war in Afghanistan, calling it "a war of necessity" and promising
that "America's commitment will not weaken." That's an important note to sound when Mr. Obama's left
flank and some Congressional Democrats are urging an exit strategy from that supposed quagmire. On Iraq,
he acknowledged that "the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein" and
pledged the U.S. to the "dual responsibility" of leaving Iraq while helping the country "forge a better
future." The timeline he reiterated for U.S. withdrawal is the one Mr. Bush negotiated last year.
The Naiveté of Barack Hussein Obama.
[Scroll down] It wasn't just the applause that was significant -- but the deadly silence
at other statements that the president made. Obama was cheered loudly when he said, "The
United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction
violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It's time for these
settlements to stop." But the silence was deafening when the president called on the Palestinians
to renounce violence. The references to rockets being fired into Israel and old women being
blown up on buses was met with absolutely no reaction from the audience.
Total Tolerance. There is
nothing new in a president calling for "a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons," as Obama did in Cairo.
Ronald Reagan expressed such hopes. But isn't contending that "no single nation should pick and choose which nation
holds nuclear weapons" the opposite of zero nuclear tolerance? How is it a step toward a nuclear-free world when we
announce that the West should stop practicing what might be called "nuclear discrimination?" Tehran will interpret
Obama's words as carte blanche to pursue its goal of building a nuclear weapons arsenal.
What Obama
Taught Me. Salaam aleikum, dudes! I thought I knew a little bit about the Middle East.
Boy, was I wrong. Last week, President Obama set me straight. Here's what our president taught me during his
Middle-Eastern pilgrimage: There is no more terrorism. Wow, cool! No more security checks at
airports, right? It's unclear which side won, but it's all over. Obama didn't mention terrorism a single time
in his star-turn speech in Cairo.
Obama blew
speech. The content was generally fair, rational, evenhanded and fitting for a moderator, arbitrator or
neutral adjudicator. But that's not what Obama is. He is, or should be, the embodiment of his country and
its interests. When he appoints himself the go-between who sees all sides and takes no sides -- who
chastises all conflicting parties equally and impartially -- he does a disservice to himself, his country and
to truth. His speech has generally been applauded. Superficially, at least. But on reflection
it was arrogant, condescending. A "father knows best" speech of moral and practical equivalency.
The Not So Golden Mean.
The best way to view President Obama's speech in Cairo is to understand the way Obama views himself and the
rhetorical devices he employs. In this case, the key to unlocking Obama's speech may be Aristotle's golden
mean, the search for a mid-point between extremes. Obama's rhetorical template is an increasingly familiar
one: he gives voice to one side of a dispute and then the other.
Barack
Obama extends his hand to Islam's despots. What do you do when you have no policy, but want to appear as
if you do? In the case of Barack Obama, the answer is simple: you go around the world making speeches about
your "personal journey".
Awful. What an awful speech.
Among the problems, one was the president's claim that there are "nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today."
The true number is probably less than half that ... During the campaign I had actually defended Obama against those who felt
he would be a disaster for Israel. This speech makes me think that may have been a mistake. The only chance now
is that this speech will be mere rhetoric, like so much in the Middle East, intended only for public consumption. But
if Obama really means it, it is bad news for the Jews in Israel and America, not to mention for American national security.
The Speech. What
struck me most about Barack Obama's speech today [6/4/2009] in Cairo is what was missing: Iraq. He didn't
skip Iraq entirely, but his discussion of it was perfunctory and incomplete. ... Iraq today is a model for many of
those things Obama says he hopes to see in the region — women right's, religious freedom, the defeat of
"violent extremism," economic development and opportunity, and, yes, democracy. ... In Saudi Arabia, women cannot
drive. In Iran, they're stoned on suspicion of adultery. In Pakistan, politicians publicly defend "honor
killings" of young girls who have the audacity to choose their own husbands. Those women are struggling
for equality.
Let Women Wear
the Hijab: The Emptiness of Obama's Cairo Speech. With women being stoned, raped, abused, battered,
mutilated, and slaughtered on a daily basis across the globe, violence that is so often perpetrated in the name
of religion, the most our president can speak about is protecting their right to wear the hijab?
'Inner Muslim' at work in
Cairo. Now it's on to Normandy, to apologize to the Germans. It's the least an American president can
do after the way the Allied armies left so much of Europe in rubble. There's a lot of groveling to do for what America
accomplished in the Pacific, too. This prospect should appeal to Barack Obama, who relishes the role of Apologizer-in-Chief.
Barack
Obama's 10 mistakes in Cairo. [#1] "Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates
one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail." With this phrase, Obama dismissed the notion
of American exceptionalism, the belief that the United States occupies a special place among nations. Obama
clearly doesn't see the United States as a "Shining City upon a Hill" or its history, constitution or way of life
giving it special qualities or responsibilities in the world.
Obama's Age of Moral Equivalence.
Though he made a number of important points about fighting terror, religious tolerance and women's rights and
democracy, the speech was constructed and delivered as a series of moral equivalencies that undermine both the
search for peace as well as the equally necessary drive to reform the Islamic world. As a statement of
philosophy as well as a proclamation of American values it was as morally unserious a speech as an American
president has ever made.
Obama Renews Openness
About His Muslim Roots Ahead of Egypt Speech. President Obama has spoken proudly of American Muslims,
even referencing his heritage as the son of a Muslim man, ahead of his highly anticipated speech Thursday [6/4/2009] in
Cairo aimed at shoring up relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world.
Obama's Cairo speech signals end of the 9/11 era.
If Barack Obama fulfills even some of the promises he made during his important address in Cairo Thursday, June 4,
2009 will be remembered in world history as the last day of the 9/11 era. ... Obama gave Israel the following choices
Thursday: Either the conservative Israeli government will adjust itself to the American people's choice in electing
a liberal president, or the speech will be the lightning that precedes the thunder.
The End of America's
Strategic Alliance with Israel? From an Israeli perspective, Pres. Barack Obama's speech today in Cairo was
deeply disturbing. Both rhetorically and programmatically, Obama's speech was a renunciation of America's strategic
alliance with Israel.
15 Hard Questions about the Cairo
Speech. [#9] The speech called Iraq's war one of choice but stated that Iraqis are better off without
the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. Doesn't this statement need more explanation? Is the conclusion that it is better
to leave people under tyrannies even if they are subjected to mass killing? As for Afghanistan, the President didn't
mention the Taliban once. Who are NATO, the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan facing off with?
Obama
quotes verse 5:32, omits 5:33. The supposedly noble sentiments of the first verse, taken from a Jewish
source, are entirely undercut by the second verse, which becomes a bloodthirsty menacing by Muhammad of the Jews.
(And as an aside the Muslim sources estimate Muhammad killed 24,000 Jews in his jihad campaigns against them). Far
from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively insist that any who oppose the Muslim prophet will be killed, or
crucified, mutilated, and banished.
President
Obama's Cairo speech proves he's experiencing a moral muddle. The outlines of an Obama Doctrine
are taking shape. Our President's world view can be summarized as "Everybody is a little bit guilty,
especially Israel." His demand in Cairo that Israel make major concessions before Palestinians recognize
Israel's right to exist was a pander of the rankest sort. What a difference a year and the audience make.
Exactly a year before his Cairo speech, on June 4, 2008, candidate Obama told the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee he would "never force Israel to the negotiating table" or to make "concessions."
The Grand Apology Tour.
As the Grand Apology Tour swept into Saudi Arabia, the al Qaeda terror chieftain [Osama bin Laden]
released yet another audiotaped diatribe, condemning "U.S. aggression" in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though
Mr. Obama's carefully scripted "grand gesture" before a thoroughly screened audience in Cairo was simultaneously
translated into a half-dozen tongues and broadcast around the world, it wasn't enough to push the bin Laden
commentary off Islamic Web sites. That's because bin Laden "gets it" and Mr. Obama doesn't.
American Legion Critical of Obama
for Apologizing to Muslim World. The nation's largest veterans' organization, the American Legion,
criticized President Obama for apologizing for to the Muslim world for U.S. behavior in the in aftermath of the
9/11 attacks during his address from Cairo last week. "When the president pronounces, as he did in his
conciliatory address in Egypt, that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in his words, 'led us to act contrary to
our traditions and our ideals', he must, in our opinion, demand equally public admission from the Muslim
world," David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion said in a news release.
When the Extreme Becomes the Norm. But to the
women who are compelled to dress according to the requirements of others, Obama had nothing to say
at all, as if the only "right" at stake were the right to obey an instruction that is, in fact — if
it matters — not found in the Quran. In Turkey, too, head scarves for women are outlawed in
some contexts. Is this, too, Islamophobia? Does the president think that the veil and the burqa
are also freely chosen fashion statements?
Presidential Historical Revisionism.
Obama's much anticipated speech to the Islamic world is being widely hailed as a major breakthrough in U.S. relations
with the Islamic world. Whether it is a breakthrough or not, one thing is clear: the speech was filled
with historical revisionism. Let's examine the historical inaccuracies, ommisions and biases of the speech.
America's first
Muslim president?. With Mr. Obama's unbelievably ballyhooed address in Cairo Thursday [6/4/2009]
to what he calls "the Muslim world" (hereafter known as "the Speech"), there is mounting evidence that the
president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself. Consider the following
indicators: Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to "the Holy Koran."
Non-Muslims — even pandering ones — generally don't use that Islamic formulation.
Obama
Needs to Brush up on Middle East History. For a man of his impressive educational credentials,
Barack Obama has sometimes shown a surprising ignorance of history. ... "No system of government can or should
be imposed upon one nation by any other." But that's what the United States did in Germany and Japan,
and in Iraq, as well. As one of the Democratic senators who insisted that the Iraqis meet benchmarks,
Obama was a micromanager in that process himself. "We did not go by choice; we went because of necessity"
into Afghanistan. No, it was by choice; we could have stayed out and depended, as we did after the
attacks of the 1990s, on homeland defenses. And as for his claim that "Islam has always been a part of
America's story," that's a stretch, and one that requires airbrushing out the war against the Barbary pirates.
The Anti-Reagan.
[Scroll down] As for Barack, he behaves on the world stage like some Ivy League kid ashamed of the people
he came from, letting one and all on campus know that he is nothing like his benighted family with its sordid
history. In Cairo, he confessed that America had a hand in dumping over the regime in Iran in 1953.
He did not mention that the United States forced the retreat of Joseph Stalin's army from Iran in 1946.
Atheists keep faith with Barack Obama.
Obama has repeatedly invoked religion in his speeches. The latest dose came Thursday in Cairo, in his
speech to the Muslim world, during which Obama talked of the "Holy Quran" and invoked this Quranic supplication:
"Be conscious of God, and speak always the truth." But while atheist advocates railed against Bush, they
seem willing to give Obama a pass on his God talk — at least for now.
Our Historically Challenged
President. In the recent Cairo speech, Obama's historical allusions were even more suspect. Almost every
one of his references was either misleading or incomplete. ... In reference to Iraq, President Obama promised that "no
system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other." Is he unaware that the United States
imposed democracies after World War II? After the defeat of German Nazism, Italian fascism, and Japanese
militarism, Americans — by force — insisted that these nations adopt democratic governments, for both
their own sakes and the world's. Indeed, it is hard to think of too many democratic governments that did not emerge
from violence — including our own.
Egypt's
Mubarak says Obama has new approach to Islam. Barack Obama has presented a fresh understanding of
Islam not shown by predecessors, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in his first interview since the U.S. president
addressed the Muslim world from Cairo. Obama called for a "new beginning" in ties between the United States and
Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the "war against terror" launched by former President George W. Bush after
the September 11, 2001 attacks, and his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama's Cairo Speech Will Cost Lives. President
Obama, in his long-promised address to the Muslims given Thursday in Egypt, embraced Islam, gave a green light to Iran's
nuclear program, and said that the "trauma" of 9-11 led America to act contrary to its ideals. In 6000 words, the
president managed to prove that everything conservatives worried about — his naivete, lack of expertise and
belief in moral equivalency — was correct and even understated.
Time To Use the 'T Word'.
President Obama's June 4th speech in Cairo will go down in history as a courageous and sincere effort to repair the
damaged relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. However, when addressing the conflict between
Israelis and Palestinians, President Obama failed to mention a key word that could have made this historic speech a truly
transformative speech. That word is the "T" word that the Obama administration simply refuses to acknowledge:
Terrorism.
Why Has Obama Got It In for Muslim Women?
Obama would protest, of course, that he does not condone forced marriages or honor killings; indeed he says, in his Cairo
speech, that women should be free to choose "traditional roles." But how free is that choice, in a family where Islam
can be exercised "unimpeded"?
Obama
Throws Muslim Women Under the Bus. It is a Catholic woman's right to become a nun and shave or cover her hair;
it is an Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish woman's right to shave or cover her hair; and it is a Muslim woman's right to cover her
hair and her face — as long as those women who refuse to do so are not browbeaten, beaten, ostracized, stalked,
stoned to death or honor-murdered. I have written about just such cases in the West ... cases in which young
American- and Canadian-Muslim girls were tormented, then killed because they refused to wear hijab. In Europe, where
there are many more Muslims, there is a veritable epidemic of such exceedingly dishonorable and incredibly gruesome "honor"
murders.
Prominent Rabbi Blasts Obama.
Claiming that "some Jews may be naïve, but we are not stupid" former Navy and Marine Corps officer and Chaplain
Rabbi Dr. Morton Pomerantz has blasted Barack Obama for "creating a climate of hate" against Jews. In a breaking
Newsmax.com story, Pomerantz delivers a blistering assault on president Obama's troubling and dangerous game of moral
equivalency ... Pomerantz goes on to level a series of jaw dropping charges against Barack Obama's understanding
of Middle East history, Islam, foreign policy, and most importantly, truth.
Obama's
Cairo Speech Through the Lens of Islamists. Only after the despotic governments of Egypt and Saudi
Arabia, who are blind and intransigent to political and religious reform, expressed pleasure and approval of
our president have our local domestic Islamist groups become jubilant. Are the reformers in Egypt or the
oppressed minorities of the "Muslim world" jubilant? No one knows because their voices cannot be heard.
Obama
Bows and Sells Out to Saudi Royals. [Obama's] speech in Cairo was like a coming out announcement
by a Muslim debutante. He said about himself all the things no one else was allowed to say about him
before the election when some Americans may have had reservations about a president so steeped in Islamic
culture. Some have said that this was Obama relating to the peoples of the world so he can bring them
together and declare an end to all wars. The terrorists who bombed a hotel in Pakistan less than a week
following his speech didn't get Obama's memo that they are members of a peaceful religion.
Welcome Back, Carter. Now that our
silver-tongued president has gone to Cairo to soothe Muslims' hurt feelings, they love us again! Muslims in
Pakistan expressed their appreciation for President Barack Obama's speech by bombing a fancy hotel in Peshawar
this week. Operating on the liberal premise that what Arabs really respect is weakness, Obama listed,
incorrectly, Muslims' historical contributions to mankind, such as algebra (actually that was the ancient
Babylonians), the compass (that was the Chinese), pens (the Chinese again) and medical discoveries (huh?).
Assessing
Obama's Cairo Speech. Barack Obama's mention of "seven million American Muslims" in the course
of his rambling and complex six-thousand-word address to the Muslim world from Cairo symbolizes the whole
message. Study after study has found that demographic figure about three times too high. But Islamist
organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America
relentlessly promote the notion of seven or even ten million American Muslims.
Capitulation in Cairo?
The real meaning of President Obama's recent address to the Muslim world in Cairo is that he is turning his back
on the Jews at a time when they face another possible Holocaust. Mr. Obama called for a "new beginning" in
relations between the United States and Islamic civilization. He praised Islam's commitment to "peace," "justice"
and "religious tolerance." He listed the Muslim world's supposed contributions to history — algebra,
the compass and the printing press, among others. There is only one problem: It is all false. ... What's
next: Islam invented the Internet?
The United States Of America And Islam Have Nothing
Fundamental In Common. There are few greater scams or sins ever committed by an American
president than the one committed by President Barack Obama today. The United States of America is at
war. At war, not just on the battlefield, but in the realm of ideas. We are in the ongoing war
between reason and faith. An American president has just yielded to the enemy.
Obama's biggest
character flaw: They've got his number, all the political con artists around the world.
For a little balloon-pumping flattery Obama will sell out American national security interests —
not to mention those of our allies. Obama's "historic" Epistle to the Muslims, delivered last month at
Cairo's Al Azhar University (an international center for Islamist propaganda) was not really intended to make
a billion Muslims fall down at his feet. No, the main goal of all those grand gestures is to make Obama
feel better about himself. That's the key to his character.
Hey media, Obama isn't 'God'.
So, as it turns out, U.S. President Barack Obama is not "God" when it comes to dealing with the Islamic world, after all.
This, contrary to that gushingly inane description of him by Newsweek editor-at-large Evan Thomas, following Obama's
June 4 speech in Cairo, seeking reconciliation with Muslims.
Obama's Demagoguery. [Obama's]
celebrated address to the Moslem world (which was so much advertised in advance and so deeply infused with America's
desperate desire to get into good graces of Moslems that it may well have given the ayatollahs an idea that there was
nothing to fear from America no matter what) was itself a grand piece of demagoguery, with all its hallmarks in place:
inconvenient facts omitted, supporting facts blown out of proportion, friends disparaged, adversaries patted on the back,
and the whole package couched in smoothly flowing words delivered in a steady, powerful, confident voice.
New Survey on Islam Calls Into Question Population
Figure Used by Obama. A comprehensive new survey of the world's Muslim population finds that
nearly one in four people on the planet is an adherent of Islam, but the number of Muslims it gives for the
United States is significantly smaller than those routinely cited by Islamic organizations — and
used by President Obama in his Cairo speech last June.
President Obama
Must Choose Sides. In his speech last spring in Cairo, Mr. Obama said, "I consider it part
of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam
wherever they appear." Defending the honor of Islam and protecting Muslims is one of the goals
that Barack Obama has set for himself. It constitutes a personal definition of his presidency.
But is he doing so to the point of misleading the public in general, and at the risk of jeopardizing the
American people in particular?
Cairo: One Year Later.
One year ago this month, President Obama addressed the "Muslim world" from Cairo, Egypt. Some saw that
speech as unnecessary groveling. Critics — and I am among them — think such displays
communicate weakness and only encourage those who wish to damage our economy and kill our people.
NASA's Mission to the Muslims.
Obama's Cairo speech on June 4, 2009 was filled with the kind of lies that portray Islam as a peaceful
religion and one responsible for all manner of scientific breakthroughs from the invention of the magnetic
compass to the printing of books. Neither is true. What is true is that the Chinese had developed
the compass and Islam had resisted printing books for a thousand years following its rise after 632 AD.
Those under the oppression of Islam did not contribute to or experience the rise of science and the arts as both
were rejected as un-Islamic. Many forms of music, for example, were banned in Islam.
Obama's Arabic
Teleprompter — Imam Rauf! In a stunning revelation, it appears that the controversial
Imam Rauf has been quite instrumental in the crafting of the speech that Obama gave in Cairo. This
report comes from Walid Shoebat who speaks fluent Arabic. It is a shocking audio recording of Rauf's
own voice boasting in Arabic that Obama's historic speech in Cairo was provided by the Imam's work with the
Cordova Initiative.
Cleric Says Parts of His Book Were Woven into Obama's
Cairo Speech. The cleric who wants to build a mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero claims
that ideas from his book were incorporated into President Obama's landmark Cairo address to the Muslim world
last year by one of the drafters of the speech. Feisal Abdul Rauf made the remarks during two media
interviews in Egypt last February.
So Is He a Christian?
[Scroll down] [Obama] said in his Cairo speech to the Muslim world that Islam is a revealed religion. ... Words
have meaning, and if Obama believes Islam was revealed, then he most certainly believes it was revealed by God.
If it was revealed by God more than 600 years after Christ was on earth and contains beliefs wholly inconsistent
with doctrinal Christianity — such as that Christ was not God, but a mere prophet — then,
in that essential particular, it cannot possibly be reconciled with Christianity. If Obama truly believes
Islam was revealed by God, I can't fathom how he could be a believing Christian.
Speech to the American Medical Association, June 15, 2009.
Obama AMA
Speech. "[N]o matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your
doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you
will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away.
No matter what."
Full
text of that speech, from the White House web site.
Reaction to Obama's socialized medicine speech ("news conference"), July 22, 2009.
Trying
to Talk Around the Facts. Rhetoric: Obama said last night [7/22/2009] his plan
"will keep government out of health-care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're
happy with it." Reality: The Lewin Group, a respected economics-consulting firm, estimates
in a new study for The Heritage Foundation that more than 80 million people would lose the coverage they
have today if the Obama plan is implemented.
Obama
health-care claims disputed. Even as President Obama delivered a prime-time sales pitch for his
embattled health care reform plan Wednesday, basic facts about coverage, cost and who foots the bills remain
in dispute and many of the president's favorite talking points are challenged not only by Republicans but also
by independent fact-checkers. For example, Mr. Obama promises that people who are happy with their
current health insurance can keep it. That's a claim contradicted by Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan
consumer advocacy group at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Obama
Attacks Docs and Cops. The juvenile happy talk reached its peak with this presidential
statement: "If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the
red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you well?"
Now, there's good idea. Why hasn't anyone else thought of that? For this reform, we need to
spend $1 trillion?
Warning: May cause drowsiness.
While Obama had a chance to turn the entire conversation around Wednesday, he may have missed it. Despite
the primetime exposure, he didn't bring much in the way of new rhetoric ... Unable, or unwilling, to get out
ahead of negotiations in Congress, Obama stuck to the same broad statements of principle that he's been making
for months.
At big moment, President Obama goes small.
The president's remarks on his chosen subject, health care, were cautious and choreographed, hemmed in on one
side by the calculations of his professional wordsmiths, on the other by the delicacy of negotiations with two
houses of Congress. He never detailed his own plan, or named a single victim of America's broken system,
and he spoke largely in the abstractions of blue pills, red pills, and legislative processes.
Specifics, Please.
From the president we now know that cops are stupid, doctors are greedy, Republicans don't play nice, people
are dying and we're all going broke if we don't embrace socialized medicine in a week or so. Everything,
in other words, but what Wednesday's press conference was supposed to be about: the health care reforms the
president and his party want voted on by the time Congress breaks for another vacation.
Do We Want
Obama to Be Our Doctor-In-Chief? I listened to President Obama last night, hoping that he would
answer some hard questions during his press conference about his universal health care plan. He did not.
The mainstream liberal press gave him a free pass. Bill O'Reilly summed up his own reaction on his show
that immediately followed the press conference, when he said that he was more confused than ever
about Obamacare.
Obama's Ethics: There was
an overwhelmingly fictional quality to President Obama's press conference last night from his opening remarks
on. Promoting his notional health care reform plan, whatever it is, he endlessly asserts a set of talking
points that would be demonstrably false if we had the text of a plan to check it against, such as the House's
thousand-page monstrosity. When he is about to unleash a whopper of special magnitude, Obama emits a
tell-tale sign. He prefaces it with "let me be clear" or "understand this." Last night he achieved
such "clarity" twice in his opening remarks.
What
Obama forgot to talk about last night: Obama presented a false choice last night, either the
status quo or Obamacare. But what about empowering consumers and letting markets work?
Dr. Obama's Tonsillectomy.
Those greedy doctors. "You come in and you've got a bad sore throat, or your child has a bad sore throat or has
repeated sore throats," President Obama explained at Wednesday's press conference. "The doctor may look at the
reimbursement system and say to himself, 'You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out.'"
If that's what he really thinks is wrong with U.S. health care — and with the medical profession — then
ObamaCare is going to be even worse than we thought.
Self-Immolation
Week at the White House. The president blamed America's health care cost problems on doctors who
remove kids' tonsils out of greed. The press conference, which addressed none of the troubling aspects of
health care reform, went so poorly that Senate Democrats opted immediately afterward not to vote on a health
measure until after the August recess.
President Obama's $6,000 Lie.
During last week's prime time press conference, President Obama incorrectly said the United States spends $6,000 more
per person than any other country in the world. Perhaps his defenders would chalk it up to an honest mistake he
made during a long press conference. But the problem is, he not only repeated, but elaborated on the error this
time, making additional factual errors.
Obama's address to Congress, September 9, 2009.
Anticipation:
President Obama to Address Congress.
President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time on
Wednesday, Sept. 9, a senior official tells POLITICO. ... The last time a president addressed a joint
session of Congress that wasn't a State of the Union, or the traditional first address by a new president, was
Sept. 20, 2001, when President George W. Bush spoke on the war on terrorism following the 9/11
attacks.
Myth, Fact & ObamaCare:
[Scroll down] The president will give a speech to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday, in an effort to
"re-launch" ObamaCare. ... The underlying assumption is the public just hasn't heard enough from Barack Obama
on health care. If Obama really believes this is the reason his health-care effort is in critical condition,
then he has lost touch with reality. Obama's health-care ambitions are being shattered because what he
wants to do would make things worse rather than better, and costlier rather than cheaper.
Obama must
face reality. [Barack Obama's] health reform plans are sinking, and so Wednesday evening he will try to
rescue them with a big speech, a televised address to a joint session of Congress.
Pledging allegiance to our beloved
Obama. Obama's given 111 speeches, interviews and press conferences in which he's talked about health care,
and the more he opens his mouth the more the American people recoil from his "reforms." Now he's giving
a 112th — to a joint session of Congress — and this one, we're
assured, will finally do the trick.
Another Speech.
[Scroll down] The Senate can't decide whether to include the public option. The liberals are
threatening not to vote for a bill without the public option, but no one believes them. And the
solution to this is another prime-time address by Obama? Hmm. I suppose it beats the
alternative, which for Obama is to finally govern...
Obama
prepares to try to reclaim lost ground in health debate — again. When President Barack
Obama tries to salvage his healthcare agenda on Wednesday, it won't be the first time. Obama's heavily
anticipated address to a joint session of Congress comes just six weeks after the White House tried to
reclaim the healthcare debate in a nationally televised primetime press conference.
Obama's moment
of truth. On Wednesday, President Obama will make the most important speech of his presidency.
We hear this phrase so much that it has become a cliché. But, in this case, the cliché is
accurate.
Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech.
President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a
government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided
lawmakers and voters for months.
Many of Obama's Claims about Health-Care Reform Have Been
Debunked. While President Obama will likely make news tonight by telling a joint session of Congress
what he wants and is willing to accept from a health care reform proposal, he may also repeat some points he has
made over the past few months that have been refuted by non-partisan sources.
Reaction:
Shut Up, He Explained.
It's a sign of how badly things are going for Barack Obama on the make-or-break issue of his tenure that the
president delivered yesterday's prime time health care address in a forum traditionally reserved for national
crises. But with public disapproval of the president's handling of health care rising to an all-time
high of 52 percent, and with even Democrats fleeing from the government insurance "public option" that
had been a centerpiece of the president's health care vision, Obama's speech before a joint session of
Congress was crisis management in all but name.
The Experts on Obama's Health Care
Speech. The President's speech reaffirmed his goal of achieving universal coverage by
expanding the role of government in our health care system. It will be expensive, a global budget
will have to be set, demand for care will not be met, and in the end, we will all be covered under the public
option. The late Senator Ted Kennedy who the President quoted in the end of the speech will have his
wish. We will all be covered under "Medicare for All." We will suffer long waiting lists,
rationed care, and lack of access to the latest diagnostics and treatments.
Pulling the Trigger? The
president's health care speech last night [9/9/2009] consisted of discredited canards bookended by emotional
manipulation. Between his distortions, token gestures for opponents, and lengthy bouts of tongue-lashing,
Barack Obama signaled he will continue pushing forward toward socialized medicine. However, it seems
likely he will move incrementally through a final bill that will nationalize health care a year after the
next presidential election.
Obama's Speech: Did It Help Him?
One striking aspect of the speech was that Obama kept talking about the "plan" that he "announced" tonight —
but there is no plan; not in writing, anyway. Not unless Obama meant Nancy Pelosi's House bill, but he
didn't seem to, since he made a point of saying that details remain to be filled in, referred to work still
going on in committee, and said that "his plan" is open to alternatives to the public option. This
vagueness gives him a sort of deniability: what he was describing was more his concept of the qualities
health care legislation should have, rather than a specific bill. ... This was not, to put it kindly, a speech
that was directed at thinking people.
A
dandy speech — if truth doesn't matter. "Now is the season for action," Obama
intoned. In other words, please don't bother me with your inconvenient Congressional Budget Office
reports, with your tiresome concerns about ballooning government in an era of exploding debt, with your
facts — yes, the House bill would end up covering abortion — that I prefer to
deny. Now is the time for all good men to vote with me or get out of the way.
Obama's Health Care
Pitch: Now with more Ted Kennedy. President Obama's speech to Congress last night can be summed
up rather easily. It was 40 minutes of boilerplate followed by a socko, emotional finish exploiting
the death of Senator Teddy Kennedy. ... Did he repeat the false claims he's made repeatedly in earlier
speeches? Yes indeed. He brought up nearly all of them, including the ones on no abortion
coverage, no loss of one's current health insurance, and the "savings" that would come from more preventive
care.
All
sizzle, no substance. In President Obama's first national address on health care in, oh,
49 days, he gave us lots of showmanship. The rhetoric was as usual carefully crafted and
persuasive. He threw a couple of bones to Republicans, such as demonstration projects for tort
reform, and mollified liberals by defending the public option. He effectively countered some
of the more hyperbolic opposition claims about things like "death panels." He even played the
Ted Kennedy card. The speech was interrupted dozens and dozens of times by applause. But,
beneath all the sizzle, there remains the same bad bill.
Everyone
Gets Insurance... Or Else. President Obama managed to create a new center of gravity among
Democrats on health care in his speech to Congress, but he also raised more questions than he answered.
Does
Obama think Americans are so gullible? President Obama's address to Congress and the nation
Wednesday evening was yet another illustration of his seemingly endless ability to soar to genuinely
impressive rhetorical heights without ever landing back on truthful ground. Nothing better illustrates
this than Obama's medical malpractice "demonstration project" gambit. Here's the essential fact about
federal demonstration projects — they are nothing more than a dodge, a deceitful way for Washington
politicians to appear as if they are doing something concrete when in reality they're tucking the idea at
hand safely out of sight over in a corner.
The
Real Public Option: Start Over. [Scroll down slowly] He said, "I am not the first
president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last." This suggests how grandiloquent
his self-understanding is. After all, even if he were to prevail with some form of his legislation,
others would come along with further and other reforms. Obama really isn't our last, best hope for
public policy changes in this area — or in any other. And the American public isn't
buying it. ... There is no health care crisis, and doing no harm is far preferable to doing real damage
to a good health care system.
Obama's Big
Political Gamble. Millions of Americans watched President Barack Obama's speech last night
to a joint session of Congress. Much of it was familiar, having been delivered in at least 111 speeches,
town halls, radio addresses and other appearances on health care. But his most revealing remarks on the
topic came on Monday, at a Labor Day union picnic in Cincinnati.
Time to Get Out the Iron.
In a much-hyped speech aimed at rejuvenating his health care push, Obama delivered a message that was strikingly
similar to the one that has failed to resonate with the American people thus far. ... As he has done before,
Obama pledged to veto any bill that added to the deficit. But despite that commitment, the Congressional
Budget Office has ruled that the House Democrats' health care legislation would create $230 billion in
deficits over ten years.
President
Changes Number from 46-47 Million to 'Over 30 Million'. "Up until tonight, it was always
47 million," [Fox News commentator Frank] Luntz said. "But what they realized was that they
were defending health care coverage — government money, your taxpayer dollars — going
to illegal immigrants that they realized they had to take them out of the pool." The total number of
uninsured, 45.7 million according to the U.S. Census, also includes roughly 10 million people
who are not citizens. The Census Bureau is scheduled to update that number this month.
Obama's 'Gift' Has
Stopped Giving. In last night's speech before a joint session of Congress, the President pulled
all the stops on his vocal organ, played his strong suit, and deployed the "gift." But the gift has
stopped giving, because people have started listening. ... He accused opponents of using "scare tactics."
This came after he'd piled scare tactic upon scare tactic himself to illustrate the problem. The
healthcare system is "at the breaking point." It offers "insecurity today." People are dying!
Thirty million can't get coverage, he said. Wait, we been told for years that it's 47 million.
What happened to the other seventeen?
Obama's missing millions.
Only last month In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Obama declared: "I don't have to explain to you
that nearly 46 million Americans don't have health insurance coverage today. In the wealthiest nation
on Earth, 46 million of our fellow citizens have no coverage." Tonight Obama declared that "[t]here
are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. The number of our fellow
citizens who have no coverage is 30 million."
LIES. [President
Obama] says that if we don't act now, the country will fall apart. LIE.
He says that quality of health care won't suffer. LIE.
He says that there won't be rationing and those that say there will be are liars. LIE.
He says that the Republicans have no solutions to offer up. LIE.
He says that this is not socialism. LIE.
... And then ... Like a voice from above, I think I just heard someone shout out, just what I
was thinking, "LIE."
Obama Bill For Illegals
Healthcare. You would never know if from the protestations in his speech last night and in other venues, but
way back in May of 2006 US Senator Barack Obama co-sponsored a bill to federally fund healthcare for illegal aliens.
At the top of the
televangelist's game. The faux humility — the appeal to his Republican "friends" — was
intended to seduce the independents who have been deserting his game for weeks. The Republicans contributed to the
emotionalism of the evening with an outburst of frustration and bad manners — "You lie!" — that was
unexpected manna from Democratic heaven. The ferocity of the media exploitation of the incident reveals the desperation
of the Democrats to find something, anything, to stop the bleeding.
Medicare for Dummies.
The thing about the bully pulpit is that Presidents can make the most fantastic claims and it takes days to sort the reality
from the myths. So as a public service, let's try to navigate the, er, remarkable Medicare discussion that President
Obama delivered on Wednesday. It isn't easy.
Last Night Didn't Quite
Do It. The President really has to watch this constant return to these soaring cadences that
deliver banalities. One cannot sound like Lincoln if there really is no message. It is time to
move on, ignore criticism, and offer something that most can work with; instead, after 9 months we are
getting a 'they are mean to me' whine at about every speech and photo-op, in the manner of biblical prophets
who lash out at doubters.
Obama's Speech Prompts Ten Questions from Republicans.
President Barack Obama: "We spend one and a half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we
aren't any healthier for it." Common Sense Question: Then why do people travel from around the world to receive
health care in the United States?
Character and Care.
Toward the end of his speech on health care Wednesday night, President Obama said that he had been thinking a lot about the
phrase "the character of our country." Too bad the president's speech had all the character of a free lunch.
Obama argued for the moral imperative of providing quality health care for all Americans — but it's not such
a moral imperative that most people should have to pay for it.
A Masterpiece Of Charlatanry For The
Naive. "Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama
administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the charlatan-in-chief, Barack Obama, whose
speech to a joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud. To tell us,
with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is
world-class chutzpah and an insult to anyone's intelligence.
We Will Call You Out!
President Obama's very big, incredibly important, game changing speech-to-end-all-speeches on health care cam across as
panicky, too high pitched, and schoolyard bullyish. The president's theme was obvious early on: Nothing that
was said against his plan in August had merit and certainly nothing that came up at the townhalls was legitimate.
"Misinformation," "bogus claims," "scare tactics," "such a charge would be laughable,' "it is a lie plain and
simple" — welcome to the civil discourse of the hope and change era.
Obama Misrepresents Insurance Case.
Despite Mr. Obama's claims, Mr. Raddatz's treatment was never delayed. And he did not die because of it.
Meanwhile, in this very same speech Mr. Obama accused others of misrepresenting the facts.
Obama Perpetuates Abortion Funding Myth In Joint Session
Address. In his address to a joint session of Congress tonight, President Obama said, "One more misunderstanding
I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions." Douglas Johnson,
legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, commented: "Barack Obama needs to learn that the
mere repetition of a verbal formula does not change reality."
Obama's
Dissolving Credibility. This is what Obama's supposed gift for rhetoric amounts to: the
ability to tell a smoothly polished bald-faced lie. And that was the whole essence of Obama's big
health-care speech. It was a pack of lies from beginning to end, and if we're going to finally see
through this flim-flam artist once and for all — as more and more people are beginning
to do — then we had better identify them one at a time.
Tall
tales from a president's speech. You lie? No. Barack Obama doesn't lie. He's
too subtle for that. He ... well, you judge. Herewith three examples within a single speech —
the now-famous Obama-Wilson "you lie" address to Congress on health care — of Obama's
relationship with truth.
Obama Used Faulty Anecdote in Speech to
Congress. President Barack Obama, seeking to make a case for health-insurance regulation, told a
poignant story to a joint session of Congress last week. An Illinois man getting chemotherapy was dropped
from his insurance plan when his insurer discovered an unreported gallstone the patient hadn't known about.
"They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it," the president said in the nationally televised address.
In fact, the man, Otto S. Raddatz, didn't die because the insurance company rescinded his coverage once he
became ill, an act known as recission.
Obama Claims 30 Million 'Cannot' Get Health Insurance. In
his Sept. 9 speech to Congress, President Barack Obama unveiled a new claim that 30 million Americans "cannot" get
health insurance, but this statistic is not supported by the government's latest definitive data produced by the Census
Bureau on Americans lacking health insurance.
Congressman Joe Wilson's reaction
In the opinion of The Editor, Congressman Wilson should have muttered under his breath to the friendly
men on either side. Hollering at the speaker is an affront to decorum and has the potential to
turn a joint session of Congress into a shouting match. If that happens, there is no discernable
difference between the two parties. Pretty soon they would all be hurling rotten tomatoes at each
other. On the other hand, there are evidently many people around the country who are very proud
of Congressman Wilson for voicing their sentiments. President Obama won't listen to me, but he
sure got an earful of Joe Wilson.
In Praise of Joe Wilson.
Wilson has taken much criticism, much of it from his own Republican Party, especially from the prissy, supercilious
John McCain. The only thing I criticize Wilson for is the apology that he made to Obama. That was
a mistake. He should have stood firm.
Obama accepts Joe Wilson's apology for 'You lie'
outburst. President Barack Obama on Thursday [9/10/2009] accepted Rep. Joe Wilson's apology for
his outburst during Obama's speech to Congress on health care, sayting "we all make mistakes." "He apologized
quickly and without equivocation, and I appreciate that," Obama said. "I do think that we have to get to the
point that we have a conversation without... assuming the worst in people."
Joe Wilson says outburst to
Obama speech 'spontaneous'. The GOP congressman from South Carolina who shouted out during President
Obama's health care address to Congress insisted Thursday that his outburst was "spontaneous."
Joe Wilson Becomes the
Latest Online Craze. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has sent the Internet into a tizzy since interrupting
President Obama's Wednesday night address to Congress, accusing the president of lying. The congressman's Web
site crashed due to exceptionally high traffic and asked visitors to "Please come back shortly."
The Editor says...
Perhaps his web site crashed due to his sudden popularity, or or perhaps it is the result of a "denial of
service attack."
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[2]
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[4]
[5]
Joe Wilson is Rude But
Right. Set aside Joe Wilson's bad manners — what about the substance of his accusation? Mr.
Wilson claims that various Democratic proposals wending their way through Congress will use U.S. taxpayer dollars
to further subsidize health care for illegal immigrants. Democrats say this is not true, and the
back-and-forth continues like this...
Wilson Defends Outburst,
Says He Will Not Apologize on House Floor. Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday [9/13/2009] that he will not apologize
on the House floor for his outburst during President Obama's health care address, even though Democratic leaders have
threatened to formally discipline him if he does not.
Speaking Of Misinformation.
Millions of Americans finally got to hear the Democrats' pitch on health care reform, made by their top salesman.
But they heard nothing new — just a lot of discredited myths recycled as the truth.
Liar-in-chief.
Senate Democrats rushed to insert language into the healthcare bill to require verification of citizenship to receive
government healthcare. It wasn't in there Wednesday night when President Barack Obama claimed, erroneously, that
his bill ensured illegal aliens would not receive the taxpayer-funded healthcare. Republicans in the House tried
to insert language for verification, but Democrats defeated those efforts. Obama knew this on Wednesday night
when he spoke to Congress and the American people. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) knew this, too, when he called the
president out on his lie during the speech.
House admonishes Wilson for
his 'You lie' outburst. The House has voted to admonish Rep. Joe Wilson over his "You lie" outburst
to President Barack Obama during the president's health care speech to Congress last week.
10 More "You
Lie" Moments On Health Care. The aftermath of Joe Wilson shouting out "You lie" at a shameless liar in the
midst of a shameless lie about health care has turned out to be one of the most Orwellian moments in recent memory.
After Wilson's outburst, liberals, in and out of the mainstream media, rushed to tell us that it was Wilson, not Obama
who was wrong. Why, there was simply no way that illegals would be covered! But then, a funny thing
happened: the Senate started working to close the loophole that Wilson pointed out. You know, the one
that allowed illegal aliens to get coverage.
Deception a dangerous basis for
presidency. Wilson's outburst was rude and obnoxious. But it's a good bet a lot of Americans were
thinking the same thing, or yelling it at the television in their homes. Wilson distilled into two words what
troubles so many people about President Obama. We don't trust anything he says, because it has been demonstrated
on issues from war to health care that he does not say what he means, or mean what he says.
ObamaCare's
Calculated Deception. In his health overhaul speech last Wednesday [9/9/2009], President Obama
accused his critics of spreading "misinformation" and "bogus claims," of "demagoguery and distortion," and of
using "scare tactics" instead of honest debate. Ironically, all of that can be found in his own speech.
You Mislead!
It is a good thing that other congressmen did not follow Rep. Joe Wilson's lead. If they yelled out every time
President Obama said something untrue about health care, they would quickly find themselves growing hoarse.
Five years later: Joe Wilson
Was Right. On the night of September 9, 2009, a still highly popular President Barack
Obama spoke spiritedly to a joint session of Congress. He had summoned the members of both parties
to introduce his plan to transform American health care. The promises he made that night were many
and, to most in the television audience, at least, sounded fresh. "Nothing in this plan will
require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have," said the president.
"Let me repeat this: nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have." Simmering
throughout this litany of disinformation was an obscure five-term South Carolina congressman named
Joe Wilson.
Who
Lied? Jonathan Gruber Linked to Getting Obamacare to Illegal Aliens. Jonathan Gruber,
Sylvia Burwell and Joe Wilson. Added to the mix of the two biggest issues of the day — ObamaCare
and an expected Obama executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, this is a
potent cocktail of political explosives.
Reaction to Obama's address to the United Nations, September 23, 2009.
Obama's sophomorically utopian oration.
Earlier today, I was mildly critical of the suggestion that President Obama is our worst president ever when
it comes to foreign policy. I noted, however, that Obama certainly has the potential to earn that
distinction. Today, that potential was fully on display before the assembled thugs and hypocrites that
make up the U.N. General Assembly. ... I will venture that no American president, and probably no world
leader, has ever poured more nonsense into one speech.
Barack
at the UN: Was this Obama's most naïve speech ever? It's always a bad sign when a US
president gets several rounds of heavy applause at the UN General Assembly, as Barack Obama did this morning in
New York. Needless to say, the loudest cheers from the gathering of world leaders came when he condemned
the actions of a close US ally, Israel, in continuing to build settlements in the West Bank. You can
always rely on attacks on the Israelis to generate the biggest roars of approval at any meeting of the
United Nations, and Obama dutifully obliged.
Obama takes the supplication of America
to a disgusting new level. Conservative commentary on President Obama's U.N. speech has correctly
taken note of the extent to which Obama once again has apologized for America. What struck me as new,
though, was extent to which he begged his audience to award the U.S. brownie points for his good acts.
The one form of supplication follows from the other.
Prez
comes across as a gullible sap. President Obama yesterday [9/23/2009] did his best impression of
a high-school soph omore participating in his first Model UN meeting, retailing pious clichés he learned
from his pony-tailed social studies teacher. Even Woodrow Wilson might have blanched at the mushy-headed
exhortations to world peace and collective action better suited to a college dorm-room bull session or a
holiday-season Coca-Cola commercial.
The
naif-in-chief. What a truly pathetic performance. Not only because of the president's
stunning cluelessness about the world's nature. But also because of his repeated insults to
America. And his back-stabbing of Washington's top Mideast ally, Israel.
America's Relativist in Chief.
The task of unpacking just one portion of President Obama's recent convoluted speech at the UN is eerily reminiscent of
Winston Churchill's famous description of Soviet foreign policy: "a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma."
For certifiable proof take a look at the following bizarre series of thoughts that collectively reveal a president without
much in the way of an anchor — historical, intellectual, or moral...
'Kick Me' — Again. The
U.N. General Assembly was overjoyed to hear a U.S. president tell them on Wednesday that America has "re-engaged the
United Nations. We have paid our bills. We have joined the Human Rights Council." For, contrary to
the fanciful image the U.N. would like the world to believe, it is an elitist establishment of dictators and
governmental panhandlers with their hands in the pockets of U.S. taxpayers. It is also corrupt.
Bad Day at Turtle Bay. Obama went first
and delivered a speech notable for its numerous and repeated repudiations of the Bush administration. President Obama
said that in his nine months in office, the United States has made great strides toward undoing Bush-era policies that had
rankled many in the world body. "For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at
the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months."
Afterthoughts from
the U.N. Address. It was the most Obamaesque address to date. "For those who question the character and
cause of my nation," the president pronounced Wednesday, "I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just
nine months." America is 233 years old. Some think that there are ample accomplishments speaking to our
character and cause that predate Obama's ascension to the presidency.
Obama's Self-Worship.
President Obama's speech to the United Nations has been called naive and even "post-American." It was something else,
as well: the most extravagant excursion into self-worship we have yet seen in an American leader. Beware of
politicians who claim to be "humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed upon me." It's a neon
sign flashing the opposite.
Obama's Competing
Waterloos. Within the first minute of his talk, he noted approvingly that when he took office, much
of the world viewed America "with skepticism and distrust." While he implied some of this perception was
unjustified, he said straightaway, "America has acted unilaterally, without regard for the interests of others.
This has fed an almost reflexive anti-Americanism." Oh, man. He proceeded to tell those present, a good
chunk of whom hail from thugocracies, that we share common interests. Well, speak for yourself, Mr. President.
What
country does this president live in? I have lived long enough, listened to enough presidents and spent
enough time in formal education along with extensive reading of various topics to be wary of misinformation and lies.
This week our president has again attacked our country before an international audience at the United Nations.
If you listened, you would think this particular president was the first in untold years to be concerned about people.
He sounded more like a world king rather than the president of the United States.
The
Theological Virtue of Obama. What struck me wasn't so much what Obama said as what others said
about him. I cannot recall any time, in the entire history of the United Nations, where nearly every
single one of the world's worst rogue dictators came out of the woodwork to shower heaping praise on the
president of the United States.
Obama's
Globalism: We Are the World. Obama should not get off the hook in just one short news
cycle for the shots he took at this nation in his shameful first speech to the United Nations General
Assembly. In his opening salvo, he said, "For those who question the character and cause of my nation,
I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months." Then he proceeded to
tick off those "concrete actions," such as prohibiting torture — as if to suggest that prior to
his ascension, it had been official U.S. policy.
A Clear and Present Danger.
Obama made his point clear in his speech to the General Assembly on September 24, (?) saying, "I have outlined
a comprehensive agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons." He added that America has
already begun its own nuclear disarmament ... In other words, on a global platform, with the whole world
watching, Obama focuses not on the threat to world peace from the rogue powers Iran and North Korea acquiring
nuclear weapons, but on the nuclear disarmament of America and its allies!
Obama the Player. Like all
players, Obama cares only for himself. 'It's not about me,' he says. But when speaking before the UN,
Obama asked, "those who question the character and cause of my nation" to merely, "look at the concrete actions
that we have taken in just nine months." As if the greatness of America is embodied in the Obama
Administration? Even if that's true, it still shows that Obama himself is his own proof.
President Stupid. One of Great Britain's
most widely read columnists is Melanie Phillips who writes for The Spectator. In a recent column titled "Who does he
think he's kidding?" Ms. Phillips noted that "On Wednesday Barack Obama addressed the UN. If this was supposed to be
a triumphal projection of the wonders of his foreign policy, his timing was singularly unfortunate. It was as if he
had unveiled his shiny new bus after the wheels had come off and the engine had fallen out."
Obama Is Average.
[Scroll down] Look at Obama's speech at the UN General Assembly: "No one nation can or should try
to dominate another nation." Take the first half of that sentence: No nation can dominate
another. There is no eight year old who would say that — it's so absurd. And the
second half? That is adolescent utopianism. Obama talks in platitudes, but offers a vision
to the world of America diminished or constrained, and willing to share leadership in a way that no other
presidency and no other great power would.
Reaction to Obama's speech in Fort Hood, Texas, November 10, 2009.
Who? Perhaps the
president is too cowed by the political-correctness crowd or too personally uncomfortable to name our enemy.
Apparently our commander-in-chief can't quite get out the words "Islamic fundamentalists" or "Islamic fascists" or
"Islamic" anything. This is a very, very bad sign.
Obama's Cowardly
Fort Hood Speech. [Scroll down] At no point during his speech did he mutter any words that
describe the enemy we continue to face. He spoke vaguely of "twisted logic" and "extremists", but
failed to point the finger directly at Islam. If we didn't know any better, we wouldn't have a clue
who or what he was talking about.
Ignoring Infiltration.
[Scroll down] Obama has confronted the crisis with yet another serving of Hope and Change rhetoric.
We shouldn't "jump to conclusions," says O., giving no notion of what those conclusions might be. He
goes on to praise the "diversity" of the armed forces, as if the fact that Hasan the Assassin's victims
came from different backgrounds somehow makes things better.
Dobbs
Compares President's Post-Cambridge to Post-Fort Hood Remarks. Some of the mainstream media
intelligentsia following the Fort Hood, Texas massacre have cautioned people to reserve judgment about the
suspect Major Nidal Malik Hasan and have bypassed many key details in order to live up to what could be
construed as a politically correct standard. CNN's Lou Dobbs isn't one of them.
Twisted and Nuts. Okay,
our orator in chief at least admits we are at war, but he can't seem to connect the clues between the shooter
and the "war": Obama admitted twice that we are at "war." He implied that religion was a motivating
factor of the alleged shooter. He conceded that "the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans
continue to endanger America." Maybe we need an updated version of Clue. How long does it take to
identify the terrorist with the guns in the readiness center?
Obama's speech at West Point, December 1, 2009.
Obama at West Point. Tomorrow
night, President Obama will tell the world how he will — in his own words — "finish
the job" in Afghanistan. ... Obama will get it entirely wrong. We know this now, a day before
the speech, because the president has resolutely committed himself to the wrong theory, asking
the wrong questions in search of his new strategy.
Obama: 'End this war successfully'.
In a room full of young Army cadets on the campus of the country's oldest military academy Tuesday night
[12/1/2009], President Barack Obama took ownership of the Afghanistan war.
Not
Nearly Enough On Afghanistan. President Barack Obama declared, "I want the American people to
understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in
Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future." To achieve
those goals, the president explained, "we need a stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy."
Unfortunately, the strategy Obama announced tonight will not achieve it.
Obama's
Wartime Egg Timer. So, President Obama's speech wasn't a bad one, but it wasn't a great one
either. If anything, it reminded me a little of Osama bin Laden's speech — the one where he
told us exactly when he was going to take down the World Trade Center. And remember the speech given
right before Pearl Harbor — the one where the Japanese Imperial Headquarters let us know when the
planes would arrive? Eerily similar. I kid. Those speeches never took place —
because our enemies never tell us when they're going to attack. But we're different.
The
Speech. If you accept, as I do, the premise that President Obama is an Alinskyite, last
night's speech was totally predictable. From 2003 forward, he and his party cynically raised the
Afghanistan mission into a noble calling — not because they thought it really was one, but
because it made their political attack on the war in Iraq more effective.
Outnumbering the enemy 300-to-1: President
Obama's Secret: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan. As he justified sending 30,000
more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama's description
Tuesday of the al Qaeda "cancer" in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials
have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country.
Obama
Hard and Soft, Right and Left. I was wondering how he was going to pull off the famous Obama
split tonight. He did it chronologically, and in two ways. First, in the speech itself:
In the first part of his speech he sounded like Winston Churchill. In the second part of his speech,
he sounded like Lady Churchill.
What Obama Really Said
Last Night. Last night, President Obama delivered an historic speech to the nation and to the
world on his plans for Afghanistan. Here, in sum, is what the president said.
Obama's
Hedged Bet on Afghanistan. President Obama is committed to victory in Afghanistan -- at
least for 18 months. That seemed to be the upshot of the president's announcement yesterday
that he would order an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan, a bold decision he hedged with
the political caveat that they would be withdrawn in time for the 2012 election.
Obama
to Terrorists: You Win In 2011. President Obama's lengthy speech on Tuesday night was a
bag of confusion, poorly defined terms, badly defined objectives and even less overall clarity. In one
sentence President Obama proclaimed that the effort in Afghanistan was the greatest threat to peace for the
worldwide community and in the next sentence he declared the deadline by which the military objectives must
be completed.
Obama delivers a cynical speech to a cynical nation.
President Obama's invocations of Sept. 11 in his West Point speech on Afghanistan landed with a clatter. ... It
came as a particularly cruel irony for many of the president's most ardent supporters when he argued for
escalating a war most liberals believe should be ended, framing his argument in the same terms that
launched the Bush doctrine.
Obama
blew the Afghanistan speech. In his clumsy attempt to appease the left while simultaneously doing
what absolutely needed to be done as president (and promised by candidate Obama in '07 and '08), rather than
speaking softly and carrying a big stick, as did President Ronald Reagan, Obama seemed to convey a philosophy
of "speak with soaring rhetoric from the teleprompter, but then hand over your lunch money to the bully."
Obama
has no stomach for this fight. Obama's Afghanistan strategy oozes with desperation not to be
there — and the Taliban will bide their time until the exit.
Afghanistan
is President Obama's war now, after his West Point speech. Yes, Afghanistan is a colossal,
inherited mess. But the statute of limitations for blaming his predecessor has tolled. It's
Barack Obama's war now. As Colin Powell famously warned about Iraq, we own it. There's no
way to tell whether Obama's buildup will "finish the job." Afghanistan, after all, is the boneyard
of empires. Ask Alexander the Great, the British (twice) or the Soviets.
What I Heard Tonight.
The speech sounded to me like a slick lawyer trying to sell a dubious settlement to a skeptical client or,
in this case, set of clients. Consistent with slick salesmanship — as well as the president's
character — the speech was quite self-referential. Providing a potted history of our
military efforts in the war on terrorism, Obama took shots at his predecessor and attempted to cast
himself as the hero throughout.
Obama's Eeyore
Act. In the parlance of Olympic diving, President Obama's speech at West Point had a
significant "degree of difficulty": How to impress upon a nation, weary and wary of war, the
importance of winning in Afghanistan? It would have helped him immensely if he'd actually used the
word "winning" — or any kindred words — somewhere, anywhere, in his speech.
But he did not.
A Fighting Chance.
[Scroll down] The speech did almost nothing to advance the public's understanding of what is at the
core of a counterinsurgency (as opposed to a counterterrorism) strategy. Obama's remarks were also
another instance of his being ungracious and unfair to his predecessor. You would think that given
Obama's haplessness on a whole range of foreign-policy issues, he would begin to show a smidgen of humility.
Not a chance. In addition, the West Point address was far too self-referential and self-justifying...
A
Sinking Feeling. It's a strange rhetorical trick to announce a policy and at the same time
sow doubts about your own suitability to carry it out, yet Obama managed it.
Obama's
surrender will end in blood. They say that the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was
an odd venue for President Obama's Afghanistan speech. And indeed it was — after all,
surrenders are usually offered to the enemy on the battlefield. For that is exactly what the
President proposed Tuesday night; surrender, abject and total.
Wait And Hurry Up.
The West Point setting gave goose bumps to the millions watching, but the president's claims Tuesday night
that he's dispatching the cavalry just in the nick of time aren't so. We're waving goodbye.
Obama's West Point Address.
Where do the courageous, all-volunteer U.S. troops stand after the West Point speech: marginalized and
insulted. Where does the enemy stand after delivery of the Obama West Point Speech: In full benefit
of intelligence writ large, right from the proverbial horse's mouth: American troops will be withdrawn
from Afghanistan beginning July, 2011.
Obama Faces Enemy Combatants at West
Point. Barack Obama staged another photo op Tuesday night when he delivered his Afghanistan
speech to cadets at West Point for the purpose of screwing with their heads. Obama's message was:
I'm sending more troops to Afghanistan, but only for a few days. Deal with it.
Mission Impossible.
The commander in chief's Dec. 1 lecture at the U.S. Military Academy has to go down in history as one of
the strangest presentations ever offered by a wartime president. ... Though he was standing before West Point's
Corps of Cadets, the president's remarks were devoid of strategic vision, lacking any definition of victory
and empty of the rhetoric elected leaders employ to rally democratic people to a cause requiring the
sacrifice of blood and treasure.
A Call To Arms So Ambivalent And
Dispiriting. We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight
in the fields, we shall fight in the hills — for 18 months. Then we start packing for
home. We shall never surrender — unless the war gets too expensive ... What a strange
speech it was — a call to arms so ambivalent, so tentative, so defensive.
Does Obama
Listen to Himself? Barack Obama is demonstrating bottomless reservoirs of gracelessness.
A full 13 months after his election, in the course of justifying the deployment of 30,000 more troops
to Afghanistan, President Obama could not spare a word of praise for George W. Bush — not
even when recounting the nation's "unified" response to 9/11.
Obama's
Fog of War. As Hillary and Gates fan out to explain what Obama really meant the other night,
it's becoming clear that the "Great Communicator's" skills are breaking down. It's a strange paradox
for a great wordsmith, but whenever Obama makes an important policy speech these days he leaves everyone
totally confused.
A leader of the free world
not to be feared. If you happen to live in Kabul or Jalalabad, Ghurian or Kandahar, then a U.S.
presidential speech about Afghanistan is, indeed, about Afghanistan. If you live anywhere else on the
planet, a U.S. presidential speech about Afghanistan is really about America — about American will,
American purpose, American energy.
Alinsky Does
Afghanistan. If there is one word that captures President Obama's much-anticipated Afghanistan
speech, it is "cynical." Yes, the speech was also internally contradictory, counter-historical, and
premised on fatally flawed assumptions about Islam and the Afghan people. Cynicism, however, is the
defining feature of Obama speeches.
A Quagmire
Of Our Own Making. [Scroll down] President Obama, in a speech given at West Point on December 2nd,
has given us our answer: 30,000 new troops within the next six months, followed by a phase-out by the summer
of 2011. This, I submit, is a travesty, and will only result in the senseless loss of more American lives with
nothing to show for it in the end but another major defeat for the United States to pile on top of Korea and Vietnam.
And, it will happen for exactly the same reason: half-measures instead of decisive, overwhelming strength.
Cheerleader in Chief. At no time
in recent American military history has a speech delivered by a President of the United States done so much to
distance our nation from victory and put the men and woman of the military and intelligence agencies in
harm's way.
A Tale of Three Obama
Speeches. After listening to President Obama's last two major speeches — his
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance in Oslo and his announcement at West Point of a renewed commitment to
fighting the war in Afghanistan — many of his leftist supporters are a bit confused.
The Lies of Obama: President
Obama evidently believes that he can solve any problem with a speech. But he really does not care
whether what he says is true or not, nor does he feel any responsibility to honor the assurances and promises
he makes. As a result, this nation is now in a position where it cannot believe a word that he says,
and that amounts to an unprecedented crisis of confidence in the Presidency.
Obama's speech in Lorain County, Ohio, January 22, 2010:
Obama's
Train Wreck of a Town Hall in Ohio. Maybe it's me; maybe I can't see any Obama speech as a good
one these days. But today in Ohio, it seemed like the president was way off his game. I thought he was
defensive, prickly, almost indignant that he's found himself in the tough spot that he's in. He began by
talking about how much he didn't like being in Washington, and apparently said something about the job being
stifling. Sir, you spent two years trying to get this job.
How hope, change turned into bum
year for President Obama. Every time Barack and his Teleprompter go out on the stump, he sinks
further in the polls. As a pol, he's gone from Teflon to Velcro in record time. In Ohio he told his
handpicked audience of swooning fellow travelers that he doesn't like being in Washington. Memo to
Barack: Self-pity is not good box office. Then the narcissist in chief said, as he so often
does, "This is not about me!"
Obama's Ego Continues to
Reign Supreme. Is it 2011 already? I could swear that sounded more like a campaign speech
than a presidential address. And for something that's not about him, it's amazing how he manages to
slip references to himself in 20 times after saying "it's not about me."
The State of the Union address, January 27, 2010:
Haven't We Heard This Before?
Obama delivered the least fresh State of the Union address I've ever heard, and I've heard more than
30 of them. It was filled with old ideas, campaign cliches, and frequent use of personal pronoun,
"I." That's the Obama pattern.
State
of confusion. The president can read the election results; that much is clear from his State
of the Union Address last night. ... But while the president spoke for some 70 long minutes last night, he
didn't actually propose to do anything much to address voters' concerns.
A
dissenting justice and a critical Obama, who sure likes the sound of 'I'. Obama's speech was
a long one, even for State of the Unions, clocking in at 70 minutes. And full of what felt like
downsized ambitions. ... According to one count, Obama used the words "my" or "mine" 18 times
and "I" 88 times, better than once a minute.
State
of the Union: How did he do? In the history of the State of the Union has any President
ever called out the Supreme Court by name, and egged on the Congress to jeer a Supreme Court decision, while
the Justices were seated politely before him surrounded by hundreds Congressmen? ... This was a truly shocking
lack of decorum and disrespect towards the Supreme Court for which an apology is in order.
President Obama gropes for a strategy.
[Scroll down] With the big-bang strategy officially a failure, Obama's speech revealed in real-time a
president groping for a new and more effective one. ... Health care, the consuming issue of 2009 and the one
on which Obama aides insisted they should be judged, did not show up until more than halfway through.
Mister
Speaker. As mawkish and shameless as the Clinton SOTUs were, they nevertheless projected a
kind of authenticity. With Obama, the big-picture uplift seems unmoored from any personal
connection — and he's not good enough to make it real. Same with all those municipal
name-checks.
The State
of Obama. The president gave a campaign speech tonight, but the Democrats had better hope that
this is not what their campaign speeches are like this year.
President
Wrong on Citizens United Case. Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind,
when he claimed that last week's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, "open[ed] the floodgates
for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our
elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful
interests, or worse, by foreign entities." The president's statement is false.
Obama's Dirty Laundry List:
The State of the Union address Obama delivered last night gave new meaning to the term "laundry list." It
was an endless parade of campaign promises and presidential initiatives. It had no theme. The text
literally could have been clipped together from the hundreds of speeches, press conferences, and town halls the
president has delivered since beginning his run for the presidency three years ago.
Obama Defiant. In a speech that
signaled his intention to "start anew," perhaps the most notable feature of President Obama's first-ever State
of the Union address was how remarkably stale it sounded.
Now, Even Speeches
Fail President Obama. Obama's State of the Union address last night was not just overly long
and dull, it was totally tone-deaf politically. Coming on the heels of a political upset in Massachusetts,
with deteriorating poll numbers and anxious members of his own party, Obama badly needed a home-run to change
the political dynamics. He struck out.
The
Slam, the Scowl and the Separation of Powers. It was an impromptu moment of political theater
with a constitutional lesson at the heart of it. President Barack Obama took the extraordinary step of
bashing a decision of the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address last night — while six
of the justices sat there stonily.
With all due disrespect Mr. President!
[Scroll down] But to suggest in your state of the union speech — "With all due deference to
separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates
for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." — after
coming to power on an unprecedented and vulgar amount of corrupt international special interest funding, is just
plain insulting! You spent more to become president than any president in US history, more than four times
your opponent, and every penny of it came from "special interest groups," more than $200 million of it from
still unknown overseas sources.
Carteresque.
In 1960, Fidel Castro addressed the U.N. General Assembly for four-and-a-half hours. President Obama
didn't hit that target last night — it only felt like it.
Obama
Lies About the Supreme Court; Media Blames Justice Alito. President Obama's State of the Union
address last night was notable for many reasons. First, it is not often that you hear such petulance
from a sitting president of the United States — complaining about not receiving applause from your
political opponents is simply ridiculous. Second, it is not often that a president directly lectures
the American people...
Obama's gambling problem:
The American people watched as he placed his usual cards on the table: cap-and-trade, health-care reform,
handouts for various factions of our society, populist demagoguery, etc. Regrettably, he hasn't learned
that those cards aren't winners, and perhaps we now have to finally admit to ourselves that our president has
a problem.
A
perpetual campaign? Yes, he can. It was a welcome call to end the partisanship that has
gripped the political process — but a prescription rendered utterly meaningless when, just minutes
after finishing the speech, Obama's permanent-campaign organization dispatched a mass e-mail soliciting, yes,
campaign funds.
Obama
Letting It Ride on a Bad Bet. In his [2010] State of the Union, the president waxed eloquent about the
baleful climate of what is commonly called the "permanent campaign" mindset in Washington. This was an
interesting line of attack from a man who has never disbanded his campaign operation, Organizing for America,
and who responded to the Scott Brown election by bringing his campaign manager into the White House.
Obama Was Wrong and Alito Was Right.
During his first State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Barack Obama incorrectly stated that
foreign nationals and foreign entities can now contribute unlimited amounts of money to U.S. political
campaigns because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting certain campaign finance restrictions.
Racing towards
destination unknown. So it's full speed ahead, even if nobody knows where we're going.
We can console ourselves that if we're lucky we might not get there. That's the main point of President
Obama's eagerly awaited assessment of the State of the Union.
A
speech with nothing for everybody. That was some performance Wednesday night by President Obama,
delivering one of the longest-ever State of the Union addresses but offering no evidence whatsoever of a
willingness to listen to the swelling nationwide chorus of voices of discontent with his policies.
State of the Union: More
Lies, Fewer Facts. After President Obama finished delivering his State of the Union speech in the
House chamber last night, it was evident that the Democratic loss in Massachusetts on January 19 had taught
him nothing. He still attacked the free market, talked of raising taxes, pushed for the passage of ObamaCare,
and continued blaming President George W. Bush for every economic woe that couldn't be pinned on a sitting
Republican. In fact, Obama did everything but the one thing citizens wish he would do: take the will
of the people into account somewhere in the midst of his decision-making process.
State of Confusion. This
was — as Obama likes to say — "the moment" to ackowledge this scene, and talk about what
it means and where it goes. The real State of the Union. Instead, what sticks in my mind is that
the president put more gusto into castigating the Supreme Court than he did into addressing the clear and
present danger of Iran's terror-sponsoring mullahs and their nuclear bomb program.
Obama's
dream dead in less than 15 hours. Less than 15 hours after President Obama promised a three-year
freeze on non-defense discretionary spending, Senate Democrats went and killed the dream. With their 43 "no"
votes, they blocked a bipartisan provision on Thursday [1/28/2010] that would have allowed only 1 percent
spending growth in the categories President Obama intended.
Foreign contributions to
Obama campaign should be investigated. [Scroll down] The charge is ironic because Obama's campaign
disabled a track back feature on its website which did permit such contributions to be made through pre-paid credit
cards purchased around the globe. The campaign never was fined or otherwise disciplined for this because his
party had blocked replacements to the overseeing Federal Election Commission and lacking a quorum, it could not act
at the time.
Obama's Deaf Ear May
Cost His Success. This week, Obama showed himself once again to be out of touch with both Americans and
with the current debt situation in the United States.
Obama's 17% unemployment
rate: The president is full of it when he talks about creating or saving jobs. During his State
of the Union address Wednesday night, he said, "Now, because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million
Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. ... Economists on the left and the right say this
bill has helped save jobs and avert disaster." This is pure fiction. Job losses under President Obama's
watch have increased steadily without remission.
More Mr. Nice Guy. In his lengthy
State of the Union address, President Obama was brief on national security issues, which he squeezed in toward the
end. International terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even America's relief efforts in Haiti all
flashed past in bullet-point mentions. On Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama emphasized neither victory nor
determination, but merely the early withdrawal of U.S. forces from both. His once vaunted Middle East
peace process didn't make the cut.
Obama 'One-term'
State of the Union. The election last week of Scott Brown in Massachusetts sent a powerful message to
President Obama and company. Massachusetts very dramatically reflected the thoughts of Middle America and did
something about it. ... President Obama's State of the Union address did very little to instill confidence that
Washington has gotten the message.
This is President Obama's office, is it not? Whoever
said that there is no "I" in team clearly had nothing to do with crafting President Obama's State of the Union
Address. His remarks underscored the man's flawed hubris and served as a metaphor that echoed the housing
crisis mindset of buying a house that he couldn't really afford.
How do you spell brazen? In
listening to the State of The Union Address, and other recent pondering of President Obama, I am constantly
amazed at his ability to say things that he knows can be fact checked. Let me give you a few examples.
Obama's crocodile
tears over the "perpetual campaign". It turns out that almost before the TV lights went out in
the House chamber following his SOTU address, the administration sent out a fund raising appeal to the
millions of supporters in the president's personal political army, Organizing for America.
Most Voters Don't Believe President's Assertions About Economy.
The president in the speech declared that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans. He even
chided Republicans for not applauding on that point. However, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that
taxes have been cut for 95% of Americans.
Voter
Views on State-of-the-Union Points: The president presented the $787-billion economic stimulus
package as a success story. However, just 35% of voters believe the stimulus plan has helped the
economy, while 31% believe it hurt.
Let Me Be Clear: It Was a Boring Speech.
What a different speech this could have been. And it's only luck that allowed President Obama's first
State of the Union (although it's his third speech to a joint session of Congress) to be as boring as it was.
The Audacity Of
Deceit Continues. Unbelievable! That's the only way I can describe the State of the Union
Address last week, but first I have to admit that I didn't watch the live broadcast. ... It was much easier to
read President Obama's speech than to watch him at the podium with Vice President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi
nodding like bobbleheads and grinning at his every word. I did get to see portions of the broadcast and
came away with a feeling of wonderment: Is he serious?
Obama
picks campaigning over leading. It began with the State of the Union address last week.
Obama could have tried to catch some Republican flies with honey, challenging them to meet him in the middle
and letting them weigh the political consequences of saying no. He opted for vinegar instead. The
speech started with a call for cooperation and ended with the president taunting Republicans and tagging them
with the blame for Washington's mess.
Obama
makes a mockery of his own lobbyist ban. More than 40 former lobbyists work in senior positions
in the Obama administration, including three Cabinet secretaries and the CIA director. Yet in his State
of the Union address, Obama claimed, "We've excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs." Did Obama speak
falsely? Well, it depends on what the definition of "excluded lobbyists" is.
Ego, Obama's Achilles' Heel.
[Scroll down] In President Obama, I see a bully. During his State of the Union address, Obama used his (pardon
the pun) "bully pulpit" to bully the free market, banks, insurance companies, Republicans, and even the Supreme Court.
Obama governs the Chicago way: no compromise — simply destroy your opponent. Mr. Clout Goes to
Washington would be the perfect title of a movie about his reign.
Obama's
Philosophically Fascist State of the Union Address. President Obama's State of the Union address was the
greatest American rhetorical embrace of fascist trope since the days of Woodrow Wilson. I am not suggesting Obama
is a Nazi; he isn't. ... President Obama is, however, a man who embodies all the personal characteristics of a fascist
leader, right down to the arrogant chin-up head tilt he utilizes when waiting for applause. He sees democracy as a
filthy process that can be cured only by the centralized power of bureaucrats.
Clarence Thomas on Why He Skips
the State of the Union: [Scroll down] Thomas offered several reasons for the court's decision,
which I won't repeat here; but what intrigued me was his parenthetical explanation for his absence from the State
of the Union address. "I don't go because it has become so partisan," he said, "and it's very uncomfortable
for a judge to sit there. There's a lot that you don't hear on TV: The catcalls, the whooping and
hollering and under-the-breath comments. One of the consequences is now the court becomes part of the
conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It's just an example of why I don't go."
What Obama might as well
have said. Obama's State of the Union address reminded me of Eddie Murphy's "Saturday Night Live" Gumby
skit. The president could have conveyed the entirety of his 70-minute, petulance-on-parade speech in about
70 seconds.
The Constitution, Nazis, and the Corpse Man:
In his State of the Union address, Obama stated that "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise
enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal..." Darn near made me want to stand up
and salute, (something our POTUS could use some lessons in, by the way). There's a problem here, however. It
turns out that "the notion that we are all created equal" is not "enshrined in our Constitution" — it's
from the Declaration of Independence.
The Editor says...
The writer goes on to remind us that Mr. Obama is a Harvard-trained Constitutional lawyer. You would
think that he must have rehearsed this speech numerous times before delivering it, and yet he never caught
this error.
Supreme Arrogance:
It has been widely recognized that President Obama's attack on the Supreme Court during his State of the Union
address was arrogant and rude. Obama broke with two hundred years of SOTU tradition and publicly
humiliated and denounced the honorable justices of the Supreme Court in a move that should make Americans
cringe. By using the privileged platform of his State of the Union address to attack a specific judicial
ruling, Obama crossed a line that even many in his party have admitted was beyond the pale.
What a generous way to put it. The president's habit of telling
untruths: Here's how predictable the president's slippery relationship with the truth has
become: Hours before the State of the Union address, Washington Examiner reporter Timothy P.
Carney posted a "pre-emptive fact check" that, among other things, prebutted any presidential claim to have
"stopped the revolving door between government and corporate lobbying." As it happened, that night
Barack Obama made an even bolder (read: less truthful) claim: that "we've excluded lobbyists from
policymaking jobs."
'One Nation' under
Obama Has No Respect for America. In his State of the Union address before Congress, Obama became
the first president to ever publicly deride sitting Supreme Court justices for their recent decision upholding
the free-speech rights of American corporations. Such a mockery of Constitutional separation of powers is
unprecedented and smacked of third-world dictators threatening to jail resistant judges.
The Rage Against
Citizens United. Presidencies and parties decline for lots of reasons, but looking back, one of
the pivotal events in writing the history of the first Obama term is likely to be the tongue-lashing he gave
several Supreme Court justices seated before him at his 2010 State of the Union message.
Health Care Speech #35, March 3, 2010.
Apparently Mr. Obama thinks that if he keeps repeating the
same lies over and over we'll eventually
forget that they're lies and we'll all like his ideas. Beyond that, the White House propaganda
office seems to place a great deal of value on the visual impact
of doctors in lab coats. Any
reasonably observant person can't help but notice that Obama's speeches are carefully staged, and
the doctors are mere props.
All
Rhetoric, No Reality from White House on Health Care. Flanked, again, by doctors in lab coats,
President Barack Obama gave yet another speech this afternoon [3/3/2010] urging Congress to pass his health
care reform plan. The President again claimed his plan lowers health care costs. It doesn't.
The President again claimed his plan would not give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats
more control over health care. It does. The President again claimed that "if you like your
plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." That simply is
not true. The President again said his plan gives the American people the same health care as Members
of Congress. It doesn't.
Obama
throws down gauntlet on health care. President Obama declared the health care debate over on
Wednesday and urged congressional Democrats to take the politically risky step of pushing his newly written
compromise reform bill through using a controversial tactic to circumvent a Republican filibuster.
Obama speaks ... again.
Thirty-five. Including today's speech, that's the number of times Obama has delivered major remarks on
health care reform, according to the Washington Post. What has happened between number one and number
35? Tea parties, town hall protests, and rising public opposition to the legislation before Congress.
Doctors in lab coats won't change the numbers: The public does not want this bill and does not think it
will improve health care in America.
Obama and the Doctors:
One of Barack Obama's favorite stage props lately is a doctor in a lab coat trying to make us believe that
physicians support Obamacare. In keeping with every other Democrat claim about health care "reform," the
truth is something rather different.
Strongsville, Ohio, March 15, 2010.
Obama:
Polls Do Not Reflect the People. President Obama was out stumping for his health
care bill in Ohio today. In the conclusion of his speech, he told the crowd that he would
ignore the polls and do what the people want.
The Editor says...
I wonder what Mr. Obama thinks a poll is.
Getting
Onboard? Obama Travels to Ohio With Kucinich. President Barack Obama traveled to Ohio to
campaign for his health care bill, and he just happened to go to the congressional district of Rep. Dennis Kucinich,
the only Democrat currently in the House to vote against the bill because it was not liberal enough.
Obama: The
American People Don't Want Us to Consider Polls of the American People. President Obama
made another stop on his health care road show in Strongsville, Ohio this afternoon [3/15/2010], making the rather odd
case that the American people don't want their representatives to look at polls measuring what people
want. ... If Obama refuses to look at public opinion polls, then how can he profess to know what the
American people want?
Obama
softly threatens Dennis Kucinich. President Obama just finished enthralling a crowd in Ohio
in one of the last acts (one hopes) of his push to pass health-care reform. Rolling up his shirtsleeves,
Obama began his speech with a little public arm-twisting, calling out a few of the local notables assembled;
and way up at the top of his list was Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D), in whose district Obama was speaking.
This proves that Obama will read whatever comes up on the teleprompter. Obama
saves us all!! Under Obama's Healthcare Plan, business owners who provide health insurance to
their employees "would see their premiums fall by as much as 3000%." According to the President,
this means, "they could give you a raise." So those of us lucky enough to be employed will soon be
rolling in it.
[Emphasis in original]
3,000 percent! Stumping
for Obamacare yesterday in Ohio, Obama touted its manifold virtues like the patent remedy salesmen of old.
For whatever ails us, this legislation is the cure. Here Obama touts the legislation's magical reduction
of expenses for employers with an incidental benefit to employees.
Hundreds
protest as Obama makes health reform pitch in Strongsville. Hundreds of veteran and first-time
protestors lined several blocks of Royalton Road in Strongsville Monday, making what could be a last-ditch
appeal to stop health care legislation and chanting "kill the bill," as President Obama's motorcade sped
by through a chilly mist.
Obama
Wags the Dog with the Obama Intifada. President Obama's health care plan is swirling the drain.
Americans don't like it — the latest Rasmussen poll has just 43 percent of Americans in favor,
with 53 percent opposed — and that dislike has the Obama administration suggesting that polls
don't actually mirror the will of the American people. "They're waiting for us to act," Obama told a
crowd in Ohio on Monday. "They don't want us reading polls. They want us to look and see what is
the best thing for America." This is paternalism of the highest order — he knows what's
better for us than we do ourselves.
Dose of
truth for Obama. Forget "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." All Mrs. Martin had to do was
stay in her seat, and she landed another blow against Obamacare. ... While she kept her reactions more in
line with Justice Sam Alito's, the president must have noticed. As he shook hands after the speech,
he asked her, "Are you OK?" "'Yes, sir, I'm fine,' I told him. 'I just don't support your
bill,'" she said. "And at that point, security and everyone stopped."
Three Thousand Percent. Is
it all that simple, or does the president not know what he's talking about?
The world watches our president fail.
In case the president has not noticed, since he began giving these great speeches on health insurance, public
support for his plan has gone from slightly supportive to grab the pitchforks. His speech in Strongsville,
Ohio, was so poorly researched that it took Fox News one phone call to discredit it.
Charlotte, North Carolina, April 2, 2010
Obama
gives 17-minute answer to health-care query in N.C.. Toward the end of a question-and-answer
session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the
president whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package. "We
are overtaxed as it is," Doris said bluntly.
Eloquent No More.
The mainstream media is slowly waking up to the fact that Obama is a bore. No, really. He's long
since stopped saying anything new or interesting, and he talks constantly, at great length. So when he
went into a mind-numbing filibuster to a perfectly reasonable question from a woman at a Q&A session in Charlotte
as to whether it was smart to throw a load of new taxes into health-care "reform," not even the Washington
Post's Anne Kornblut could conceal her — and the audience's — disdain for the
Condescender in Chief.
Obama's
17-Minute Non-Answer Answer. The president's remarks at a North Carolina lithium battery plant
last Friday were so tedious as to garner attention of, among others, the Washington Post's Anne E. Kornblut.
In answer to a question from Doris of Lake Wylie, S.C., Kornblut wrote that Obama gave a 17-minute response
that lulled "the crowd into a daze" as "his discursive answer — more than 2,500 words long —
wandered from topic to topic." The worst part: Obama didn't answer the question. He didn't
even come close.
Some
presidents talk too much. The president, who early on came to regard himself as the prince with
the voice that could make the earth move, has never been able to resist the sound of his voice. He likes
question-and-answer sessions with carefully screened constituents because it gives him jumping-off places for
stump oratory. When a woman named Doris stood up at a rally at a battery factory in North Carolina to
ask whether "it was a wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care package," he had a few words
for her. Nearly three thousand of them.
Challenging Obama: He's weaker than
you think. President Obama does not like to be challenged. During a Q & A in
Charlotte, North Carolina, last week, a woman named Doris asked the president whether it was smart to raise
taxes in the midst of a sluggish economic recovery. ... Anyway, Doris raised what Obama sometimes annoyingly
calls a "legitimate" point. But the president did not answer her question. Instead, he launched
into a 17-minute defense of the health care reform.
Hampton University, May 9, 2010.
The President's Trick Or Tweet.
President Obama, while addressing college graduates, condemns our access to new media as a subversion of
democracy. Is the iPad a threat to democracy or exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind? At
Hampton University in Virginia on Sunday, the president lamented that in an age of text messaging, the Internet
and the iPad, information and its unfettered exchange had become a diversion that was putting a strain on
democracy. We are not making this up.
The Editor says...
Hmmm... The internet puts a strain on democracy, he says. Is that why he's trying
to take control of the internet?
Obama Doesn't Like the iPad.
For someone who is supposed to be the very essence of cool and with-it-ness, President Obama gave a remarkably
technophobic if not luddite talk at Hampton University yesterday [5/9/2010].
Last Year He Said He Had All Michael Jackson's Music on His
iPod. President Barack Obama told Hampton University's graduating class on Sunday that he does
not "know how to work" an iPod. Last July, however, after pop-star Michael Jackson's death, Obama told
the Associated Press that he had Jackson's music on his iPod.
The shameless,
shocking hypocrisy and lies of President Obama. [Scroll down slowly] What a phony... and,
btw, for someone who decries people's use of IPODs, why did he give one to Queen Elizabeth as a diplomatic
gift — one filled with his own speeches. How priceless!
Obama
Swipes at Media, Says 'Information' Onslaught Pressuring 'Democracy'. In his latest swipe at the
modern media environment, President Obama used a commencement speech over the weekend to bemoan the onslaught
of information in the digital age and suggest that the gusher of news out there is too much of a good thing.
The Thinness of His Skin.
President Obama is beginning to say reliably disconcerting things in public, from his offhand dismissals of
longtime foreign allies to his recent assertion in Illinois: "I do think at a certain point that you've
made enough money." ... But for startling insight into the mind of our 44th president, we cannot do better
than his recent commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia.
West Point, May 22, 2010.
Forked-Tongue-In-Chief
at West Point. In modern history when it comes to forked-tongue-ness President Barack Obama
excels well beyond anyone's imagination. Like most of his foreign policy speeches on American national
security, his commencement address to the cadets at West Point on Saturday proves my point.
Obama
Call for 'International Order' Raises Questions About U.S. Sovereignty. President Obama is facing
criticism for his declaration over the weekend that he would seek a new "international order," with some
questioning how much U.S. sovereignty the administration is willing to cede in exchange for more global
cooperation. Obama, delivering the commencement speech Saturday [5/22/2010] at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, said that "stronger international standards and institutions" and stronger alliances can
"resolve" challenges ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to climate change to economic decline.
Obama Speaks His
Mind at West Point. President Obama used a teleprompter for his West Point commencement
address, which means that he took the occasion seriously. What he said, however dull and
clichéd, represents not just the sometimes-flighty emanations from his remarkable brain, but
also United States policy at large. ... The speech, marked by Obama's frequent slouching into the
passive voice, may reflect the fact that the president had little intellectual or emotional sympathy
for the ranks of cadets in front of him.
Obama
at West Point: Lessons Unlearned. On Saturday, Pres. Barack Obama gave a commencement
speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point, which in effect told the thousand or so soon-to-be
second lieutenants that, if he has his way, they'll soon be out of a job. Obama outlined for the cadets
his vision of a new international order organized around bodies such as the United Nations.
What
Diplomacy? Saturday, President Obama announced to West Point cadets that the U.S. military
role was set to be diminished and "diplomacy and cooperation" would take its place instead. Then on
Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration's new National Security Strategy
would emphasize diplomacy over military action again, with the latter to be used only in concert
with U.S. allies and organizations.
The Oval Office, June 15, 2010.
Anticipation:
Obama defending Gulf
effort in Oval Office address. National anger rising, President Barack Obama is defending his
efforts against the country's worst environmental disaster and hoping his first Oval Office address Tuesday
night will stoke confidence that he can see the job through until the gushing oil is gone and Gulf Coast
lives are back to normal.
Obama to name oil recovery 'czar' in
first Oval Office address. President Barack Obama, in his televised speech to the nation
Tuesday [6/15/2010], will announce the creation of an oil recovery "czar" to oversee progress in siphoning
crude from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, his chief spokesman said.
Not
Another Czar! In a "fireside chat" to quell concerns about the Gulf oil disaster, the president
announced the appointment of an oil czar. Is more bureaucracy the answer to every problem?
The Obama Window.
Politico reports that the president will make another push for his central planning repackaged
as a "green economy" in a national address tomorrow night. The reason for what used to be a
global warming tax then a climate change tax is now "green jobs" and showing he's really engaged and
angry at BP. You see, they spilled some oil when drilling in deepwater offshore instead of in
ANWR and other, drier places onshore with lots of oil where they're not allowed. So it just
follows that we should stop offshore drilling and... mandate windmills.
Obama will use
Oval Office speech to politicize the Gulf oil disaster. Has the Obama administration willfully
been scuttling clean up efforts in the Gulf so that the oil could make its way to shore and onto the beaches
and birds for maximum political leverage? Now Politico is reporting that the President will use his
oval office address for a full court, no hold-bars, assault on the oil and energy industries.
Obama
Oval: Nothing but nets. President Obama has waited all this time to throw down the big
Oval Office address to the nation. Tuesday night at 8 p.m. will be the debut Oval chat of his
presidency — carried live on all four networks, says Yahoo. Because nothing says "I mean
business" like wooden, artificial remarks to the pool camera from behind the Resolute desk to an impatient,
non-cable audience who thought they were tuning into "Losing it with Jillian."
Reaction:
You know an Obama speech is bad when Keith Olbermann trashes it.
You know that President Obama's speech was a dud when Keith Olbermann trashes it immediately afterward.
I'm glad to hear that Obama finally has a plan for the Gulf oil spill. I am quite underwhelmed, however,
by his recycled (no pun intended) call to solve the problem by making our buildings more energy-efficient.
Era of
Obama rhetoric is over. President Obama's Oval Office speech Tuesday marked the end of an
era — an era in which at least half the population believed any crisis could be defused by one
man's supposed rhetorical genius and personal charisma. The derisive reception of President Obama's
Tuesday night speech from the Oval Office on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill makes it clear that Obama's sweet
voice no longer suffices, not even for his biggest boosters.
ABC's
Moran, Stephanopoulos Shill for Obama's Gulf Address. Despite widespread criticism of President
Barack Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill — including flak from MSNBC's left-wing
posse of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman — ABC's Terry Moran and George
Stephanopoulos on the June 15 "Nightline" fawned over the president's speech and ignored its obvious
shortcomings.
Obama
in the Oval Office — This Emperor Has No Clothes!. [Scroll down] What did
President Obama do? He blamed everyone he could think of for the Gulf oil fiasco — BP, President
Bush, the bureaucracy, Mother Nature, and the American people (for consuming too much oil) — but
of course NEVER took responsibility, himself, for his own administration's slow and bungled response.
What answers did he offer? The typical Obama solutions: we'll throw money at the problem, lots
of it, but we're not quite sure yet what we're throwing it at or how it will turn out; we'll
confiscate a private company to punish it; and with stirring and eloquent words tells the American
people "trust me," everything will be okay.
Obama
disappoints from the beginning of his speech. Less than a minute into President Obama's Oval
Office address, my heart sank. For the umpteenth time since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began, an
anxious nation was informed that Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a Nobel Prize. Obama's speech pretty
much went down hill from there.
The Liberal Tipping Point
Away from Obama. [Some have pointed out] the grave disappointment expressed last night about
Barack Obama's speech on the part of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman. This
is a significant development, because it indicates this is a liberal tipping point — both tactical
and emotional — away from Barack Obama.
The President's Oil
Reserves Lie: During his speech, the president made a statement that was blatantly false.
The president noted, "We consume more than 20% of the world's oil, but have less than 2% of the world's oil
reserve. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the
ocean — because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water." We are
not running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water. In fact, it is due to the president's
party of extreme environmentalists that BP had to drill some forty miles from the coastline in deep waters to
extract oil.
That
Stench of Rotting Bull is Just Obama's Oval Office Speech. Putting aside for a second the fact
that this speech was given about 50 days late, last night's oval office speech proved that the President
is not ready to be honest with the American people. For the first 30 days of this crisis, President
Obama was ignoring the fact that the crisis existed, and now when he uses the oval office to give the people
confidence that he is on top of the problem he spends more time trying to sell cap and trade than discussing
capping the well. Essentially, he is still ignoring the crisis.
Obama's
address: grand setting, weak policies. The main impression left by President Obama's
address on the oil spill is the chasm between the ambition of its commitments and the thinness of its
policies.
Hope and
Change Meets Fix the Leak. I don't think vague hope and change rhetoric works when thousands of
gallons of oil spew forth. ... In other words, instead of the vague dreaming, we needed (1) a review of
concrete fix-it methods for the leak, and then (2) short-term mechanisms that will lessen dependence on
oil. Instead, we got nothing detailed how to solve the problem, more green dreaming, more now-is-the-moment
campaign mode, more "some say, others say," and more "they will pay."
Crude
grab for power never ends. Once again, President Obama channels Oscar Wilde, who famously said
the only thing he couldn't resist was temptation. So it is with Obama's attempt to turn the Gulf oil
debacle into a reason why America should embrace his cap-and-tax energy policy. No matter the crisis,
Obama can't resist the temptation to exploit it in his quest to grow the government.
Obama makes nice
Oval Office speech, but is the BP well capped? President Obama addressed the ongoing BP oil
spill catastrophe from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, using that particular venue for the first time of
his presidency because, well, he's trying everything. No matter what Obama says, as long as the
deep-water well is still gushing, his administration is going to be on the defensive.
Where Does He Get the Authority to 'Inform' a Private
Company That It Must Surrender Its Money? In his first-ever address from the Oval Office on
Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said he was going to "inform" the chairman of BP that he must surrender
the company's money to an independent party that will distribute it to people and businesses determined to
have been harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The president's declaration raises a serious
constitutional question about his authority.
There's a pipe
spewing oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills. Obama, the first modern president
to pass his first full year in office without addressing the country from his historic desk, had the setting
right. Just back from a day-and-a-half on the gulf coast listening, reassuring, talking tourism, eating
seafood. He wore the proper suit, had the requisite flags and family photos in the background. For
18 minutes he delivered the words crisply and forthrightly, though too often distracting anxious viewers
with his fidgeting hands like the lecturing professor he once was. Or wait! Was Mr. Cool
nervous?
Obama's First
Oval Office Speech a 'Flop'. That harsh judgment was delivered this morning by Dana Perino on
Fox News Channel. She has plenty of company in regarding the effort as less than successful. As
predicted, he used the free TV time to shill for cap and trade (although avoiding that term —
apparently the marketing team led by David Axelrod is rebranding the tax scheme). He also ended with an
appeal to God, something he normally avoids as much as he has avoided attending church since leaving Rev.
Wright under the bus.
Obamas' Long Nose. I
read President Obama's Oval Office speech at an airport gate rather than seeing it on television, so I might
have misjudged its impact. But it struck me as uninspiring at best. Obama has been behind the
curve ever since the Deepwater Horizon exploded, and over the last week or two he has transparently tried to
stop the political bleeding with a series of symbolic acts. The problem is that these gestures won't do
anything to contain the oil that is already swirling around the Gulf...
MSNBC
trashes Obama's address. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman react to President
Obama's Oval Office Address on the oil spill. Here are the highlights of what the trio said:
Olbermann: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."
Matthews compared Obama to Carter. Olbermann: "Nothing specific at all was said."
Matthews: "No direction." Howard Fineman: "He wasn't specific enough."
Obama's
Curiously Flat Gulf Speech. Somewhere between Pensacola and the Oval Office, the oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico went from an "assault" to an "epidemic" — and President Obama went from commander
in chief to surgeon general. In Florida, he had referred to the disaster as an "assault" and spoke, at
an Army post, in military terms, but by the time he got home he had changed the analogy to a medical matter.
And that, in short, is why his speech to the nation fell so flat even as he delivered it.
Rahming
Through a Lame Duck Climate Bill?. Ominous words are emanating again from the president on
climate change and energy independence, this time as "a response" to the Gulf oil catastrophe. Somewhere
between the war rhetoric and comparisons to the moon landing, President Obama last night (vaguely) told
Congress to pass the energy legislation that's been languishing there since last summer.
Barack
Obama Embraces His Inner Jimmy Carter. Perhaps it is because his chief speechwriter has spent
the crisis playing beer pong in Georgetown bars. Perhaps it is because while embracing peak oil, the
oil spill never piqued his blue state interests since it affected red states. Whatever the reason,
Barack Obama gave the most depressing Oval Office speech since Jimmy Carter's malaise speech.
Obama running on empty:
The president's energy speech was fueled by hot air. In his Oval Office address on Tuesday night,
President Obama issued a ringing challenge to "embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and
seize control of our own destiny" through developing clean alternative energy. The president stated that
the future of unlimited clean energy had been denied to Americans through a cabal of "oil industry lobbyists"
and politicians lacking "courage and candor." But don't worry, the O Force is determined to focus
the efforts of government on the problem, defeat these conspiratorial forces and save the country.
President
Obama's Oval Office Address Fails To 'Cap' America's Frustrations. The tragedy in the Gulf of
Mexico forced President Obama to dive into what were previously uncharted waters for him last night: the
Oval Office address. Alone, with no crowd to save or jeer him, nothing but the prestige of his title as
a safety net, it was his responsibility to remind Americans that, no matter how out of control any situation
may seem, he was fully in charge. If you're not feeling particularly reassured this morning after,
you're not the only one.
Mr.
President: If we can put a man on the moon... [Scroll down] Stopping the
leak — now believed to be shooting between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf each
day — was a topic the president sidestepped during his 18-minute speech. ... Hearing the president
invoke American technological genius in the service of his political goal — a cap-and-trade
bill — while remaining silent on the application of that technological genius to the problem at
hand in the Gulf cannot have increased the public's confidence in Obama's ability to handle the crisis.
Oil Talk.
Enduring criticism from partisans of every stripe for his response to the accidental gusher in the Gulf of
Mexico, Mr. Obama managed last night to convey that he's deeply upset about the disaster and angry at BP.
And this being a crisis, he naturally took the opportunity to put his moribund climate legislation back in
play.
Obama's Boring Speech.
Frankly, Obama was a crashing bore. He's been that way for a while, but at moments like this, when you
know what he is going to say ("Bad BP!" "Pass cap-and-trade!"), he is especially so. And he can never
pass up the chance to pass the buck. He describes the difficulties with the Minerals Management Services
as if someone else had been president for over a year and as if this is the fault of "deregulators" rather
than a massive bureaucracy without accountability.
Obama's
intentions. President Obama's Oval Office speech last night focused on the Gulf oil catastrophe,
but its true purpose was impossible to miss: shoring up the president's tanking popularity. Some
57 days after the BP oil rig blew — triggering an underwater oil gusher that's yet to be
contained — a majority of Americans, polls show, think Obama's been too detached from the crisis.
Thus, the president is taking a new tack: huffing and puffing.
Obama is Kicking Louisiana.
During his address this week to the nation from the Oval Office, the President made clear that he will not
offer real help to the struggling people of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. In his speech, he presented
no specific action plans and instead relied on lame platitudes. In contrast, he made clear his support
for a destructive national energy tax and a horrible cap-and-trade energy bill, which will devastate
Louisiana's economy. Obama is using the tragedy of the oil spill to further his political agenda, all
at the expense of Louisiana jobs.
Will oil
drilling become a pipe dream? If President Obama's Oval Office speech made one thing clear, it
is that his administration and the activists who back it view the Gulf oil spill as simply an opportunity to
advance their pre-existing agenda — which has nothing to do with cleaning up the Gulf, protecting
the fragile coastal environment or fostering the region's economy.
The no-win presidency.
President Obama has been criticized by both the left and the right for his lackluster address to the nation
on Tuesday. He clearly deserves the harsh reviews. Instead of dwelling on the horrendous situation
in the Gulf — and the ways he intends to fix it — he spent the latter part of his brief
speech in the Ivory Tower.
Obama Holds up China as Model for 'Green Energy Jobs'.
In his speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday, President Barack Obama cited one foreign nation —
the People's Republic of China — as a model for creating what he called "green energy jobs."
But the environmentalist group Greenpeace released a report in October 2008 that said China was the world's
"largest producer and consumer of coal," making coal that nation's largest source of air pollution, and
that — in 2005 alone — 5,938 people died in China as a result of coal-mining accidents.
Obama
Speaks At Lower Grade Level Than Bush. You know why President Obama's Gulf Coast oil spill
address from the Oval Office failed so miserably on Tuesday? It went over too many heads. At
least that's what the folks at CNN.com believe.
Is Obama really
doing everything in his power to fight the spill? In his nationwide address last night on the
Gulf crisis, President Obama declared: "We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long
it takes." But at least one congressman isn't convinced, complaining that Mr. Obama won't pursue
promising solutions if it means bucking his union allies.
Presiding
over disaster. Whatever he said, Mr. Obama confronted an insuperable difficulty. It's hard
for a President to speak effectively when there's nothing that he can do effectively. Mr. Obama's
earlier likening of the Gulf disaster to the attacks of 9/11 only heightened this dilemma. When George
Bush appeared at Ground Zero on 9/14 the attacks were over and retaliation was imminent. ... In the Gulf of
Mexico, by contrast, the oil continues to gush, and there's nothing the President can do about it.
Who
told Obama drilling is 'absolutely safe'? There was one particularly striking moment in
President Obama's widely panned Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster. About midway through his
talk, Obama acknowledged that he had approved new offshore drilling a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon
rig explosion on April 20. But Obama said he had done so only "under the assurance that it would
be absolutely safe." Absolutely safe? Even before the Gulf spill, few defenders of offshore
drilling would go that far.
Obama's
Answer To Spill Comes Up Short. He could barely get himself through the pedestrian first half:
a bit of BP-bashing, a bit of faux-Clintonian "I feel your pain," a bit of recovery and economic mitigation
accounting. It wasn't until the end of the speech — the let-no-crisis-go-to-waste part that
tried to leverage the Gulf Coast devastation to advance his cap-and-trade climate-change agenda —
that Obama warmed to his task. Pedestrian is beneath Obama. Mr. Fix-It he is not. He is
world-historical, the visionary, come to make the oceans recede and the planet heal. How? By
creating a glorious, new, clean green economy.
Will Obama Be the 'Jimmy
Carter of the 21st Century'? US President Barack Obama's address from the Oval Office on
Tuesday was supposed to be a moment of leadership during the worst environmental disaster in American
history. But critics from across the political spectrum wondered afterwards whether he'd shown
leadership at all.
Obama's Latest
Shakedown. President Obama's oil spill speech revealed, once again, how stunningly shameless
he is. This relentless ideologue is not even marginally competent at masking his ongoing crusade
to apply a wrecking ball to every sector of our economy and remake it in his own image.
A Beginner Behind the
Wheel. After the Tuesday Oval Office address to the nation, I was grumbling about the speech
when my son asked me what was making me so angry. Desperate to find an analogy to convey my meaning in
understandable terms, I brought it down to his teenage level.
Obama now
owns oil spill. It's his. Obama now owns the BP mess. His Oval Office oil spill
speech was a colossal disaster. Far from being uplifting or helpful, it disappointingly added fuel
to the fire. Devoid of answers, solutions or leadership, the president's speech was a stark reminder
of why campaigns are tough, invasive and a brutal examination of a candidate's experience and record.
Or at least should be.
Obama's oil
speech sinks. [Scroll down] There was the president of the United States, speaking from
the Oval Office, where our presidents have warned us of grave dangers, mourned great tragedies and
articulated the great sacrifices of brave Americans fighting for our freedom in wars across the
ocean. And essentially, Obama looked like he had been dragged there.
Insult
to Injury? It's safe to say President Obama's first Oval Office address to the nation
last night was not an overwhelming success. Or any success. When you've lost Keith
Olbermann... mostly you just gain some Drudge headlines. However, suffice to say, not only did
Obama not quell any doubts about his ability to handle this crisis, he may have raised some.
The Left Turns on
Obama. The far-left in America is turning on their guy Barack Obama. After his speech on
the oil disaster a few days ago, the crazy left Greek chorus on MSNBC hammered the president. He wasn't
specific enough, he was too weak, I don't sense "executive command," they wailed. You would have thought
they were talking about President Bush.
A
Few Questions for President Obama. America needs decisive leaders who understand what
government can (and cannot) do to stop the Gulf gusher, clean up the mess, and get business, jobs and
prosperity back on track. Instead, President Obama sounds like an anti-business Community Organizer in
Chief — pointing fingers, making baseless claims about ending our "addiction to oil," and leaving
no crisis unexploited to promote job-killing cap-tax-and-trade and renewable energy policies. His
June 15 "vision" raised more questions than it answered.
Cap-And-Trick:
President Obama says the oil disaster proves the need to get off fossil fuels. ... With an abundance of hand
gestures, the president didn't really say in his speech Tuesday night. He did say fossil fuels were bad
and green energy is good, but the people of the Gulf states don't need wind turbines right now. Contrary
to Obama's assertions, our "addiction" to foreign oil no more caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill than any
addiction to nuclear energy caused the reactor accident at Three Mile Island.
No energy
in Obama energy speech. Barack Obama made a dull speech on Tuesday evening. And he
made a frightened speech — an overly careful assembly of energy cliches likely to be remembered
by no one. All this in the face of the greatest ecological catastrophe in American history, the
seemingly unending oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. This was a man playing catch-up, aware that the public
is apparently even less enamored of him on this issue than they were of George W. Bush on Katrina.
No
Leadership, No Solutions, No Clue. [Scroll down] It is, of course, a solemn time in
American politics, and the president may have missed an opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership and
originality. Economic uncertainty is unabated across the land, and American forces continue fighting
foreign conflicts of uncertain resolution. Perhaps the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has become the
proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Unfortunately, bland speeches offering refurbished
climate change initiatives probably aren't going to thrill a lot of pressed and worried voters.
The
Left Wanted Barack Obama, and They Got Him — Warts and All. After Obama's Oval
Office address to the nation about the oil spill (which, as Ed Morrissey rightly points out, should have
been on Day 1, not Day 57), Keith Olbermann and guests Chris "Tingle Me" Matthews and Howard
Fineman couldn't even find it within themselves to give their man the benefit of the doubt. As
Olbermann said, "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days." And
Matthews opined, "I don't sense executive command."
No
Leadership, No Solutions, No Clue. [Scroll down] It is, of course, a solemn time in
American politics, and the president may have missed an opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership and
originality. Economic uncertainty is unabated across the land, and American forces continue fighting
foreign conflicts of uncertain resolution. Perhaps the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has become the
proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Unfortunately, bland speeches offering refurbished
climate change initiatives probably aren't going to thrill a lot of pressed and worried voters.
Can Obama plug leak in his
support? I believe it was Jean Giraudoux who first said, "Only the mediocre are always
at their best." Barack Obama was supposed to be the best, the very best, and yet he is always,
reliably, consistently mediocre. His speech on oil was no better or worse than his speech on race.
Their Finest Hour but Not
Ours. In the wake of yet another disappointing Oval Office speech, this time about the
oil spill and energy policy, the arrival today of the 70th anniversary of two of the most influential
speeches by world leaders is a harsh reminder of the gap between President Barack Obama's pedestrian
yet self-aggrandizing style and the measure of genuine leadership.
Obama
tilts at windmills. We learned again in the president's speech on the BP disaster this week that
all of our interests in the energy sphere are aligned: Move from carbon-based fuel to renewables and
we'll create American jobs, heal the climate, put more distance between us and geopolitically unstable
regions and punish those nasty oil companies while saving our shrimp and seagulls.
Win-win-win-win-win.
Obama's
energy pipe dreams. Just once, it would be nice if a president would level with Americans
on energy. Barack Obama isn't that president. His speech the other night was about political
damage control — his own. It was full of misinformation and mythology. Obama held out
a gleaming vision of an America that would convert to the "clean" energy of, presumably, wind, solar and
biomass. It isn't going to happen for many, many decades, if ever.
A Big
Government Disaster. On June 15, 2010, President Barack Obama made his first address
to the nation from the oval office. Hearing his address, several things struck me. First of all,
Obama mentioned that when the oil spill occurred, he ordered scientists and the Energy Department to study
how to repair the spill. True to his big government agenda, Obama wasted time on the study while more
oil continued to pour into the Gulf region. Secondly, Obama also said that we are running out of oil to
drill. This is patently false.
Malaise All Over
Again. Surely it's just my fallible memory, but I can't recall a presidential address that has
fallen as flat as Barack Obama's last week, at least not since Jimmy Carter gave his (in)famous Malaise speech
back in the dismal summer of 1979. ... Barack Obama had scarcely finished his speech last week about the oil
spill and what a great job he'd been doing to contain it when the rotten tomatoes started flying.
Environmental Rift
Widens. The conflict came into view this week in the aftermath of Mr. Obama's Oval Office address
on the spill, when environmentalists, bloggers and even sympathetic commentators accused Mr. Obama of failing
to lay out a tough legislative response that seized on the public's outrage over the spill. Complicating
matters, green groups themselves have split over whether to attack or support the White House.
The Vuvuzela President.
The constant droning noise emanating from President Obama sounds more and more like the kazoo-like tone drowning
out World Cup Soccer games. His vacuous Oval Office oil speech last week was redundant proof that he's
succeeded in turning the bully pulpit into just bull.
Does
Barack Obama want to be president? Ever since viewing his depressing and disconnected "energy"
speech last week, I have been mulling whether Barack Obama actually wants to be president anymore.
That was an address given by a man who looked very much like he didn't want to be there, didn't want to
continue. He appeared slumped and worn, as if he aged eighteen years in eighteen months. His
demeanor was oddly distracted.
Obama's Gulf Oil Spill
Commission and the Missing Experts. Instead of an oil spill commission staffed with experts, as
promised in his Oval Office address, the president has announced a panel with membership that reads like a
Who's Who of radical environmentalism. Former Senator Graham of Florida, for example, has consistently
pushed for a ban on oil drilling, and Frances Beinecke of the National Resources Defense Council has argued
for the global warming agenda — including linking "global poverty" to global warming, an argument
used at the Copenhagen conference to support reparations to be paid to nations such as Robert Mugabe's
Zimbabwe for our supposed global crimes.
The
Bait-And-Switch On Cap-And-Trade. President Obama's speech to the nation last week about the
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico followed a predictable script. Whenever a problem confronts this
administration, the president's answer is sure to include one of a trio of his 2008 campaign initiatives:
health care reform, action to address climate change or education reform.
Obama in Crisis. [Scroll
down] We have a president who in April gave a 17-minute, 2,500-word answer to a woman's question about
taxes in the health care bill, but who cannot come up with an appropriate response to an oil spill. ... So he
did what he knows how to do. He gave a speech. It was so awful, even the left panned it.
Instead of acting to end the crisis, the president tried to exploit it. A huge oil spill? Use it
to hype cap-and-trade! That's not a response, that's a sales pitch.
Obama's 58 minutes in Ohio.
President Barack Obama turned his attention from the BP oil spill Friday to talk about another concern:
economic recovery. But not for long — 58 minutes to be exact. In fact, he spent
less time on the ground in Columbus, Ohio, than it took to fly there and back. The president revved up
Air Force One, flew to Ohio, motorcaded to a road construction site, gave a speech on the Recovery Act and
flew back to Washington all in the span of three hours. ... This was Obama's eighth trip to Ohio since
taking office.
10
minutes of talk with each golden word costing you $502. Obviously, as part of his administration's
plan to reduce spending to address the ginormous deficit, President Obama flew on Air Force One the other day
from Washington all the way out to Columbus, Ohio, and back. About a four-hour round-trip flight.
He was on the ground in the Buckeye State for a total of 70 minutes. By another count, he was on
Ohio soil barely 58 minutes, touting more what he sees as an economic recovery. (Obama had tickets
to an evening White Sox baseball game back in Washington.)
The Golfer in Chief.
[Scroll down] Last week, for example, Mr. Obama spent between $500,000 and $1 million of taxpayer money
to fly to Ohio to deliver a 10-minute speech touting his purported achievements. Because of the presidential
presence, the work site Mr. Obama visited was closed for the day, taking work hours away from the working man.
"That's $200 we are missing out on," said construction worker George Harrison. "Everybody needs to eat,
right?" Eat cake, George.
The Editor says...
It costs about $68,000 per hour to fly Air Force
One.*
One year ago, a round trip to Chicago cost an estimated
$236,000.*
Yearly operating expenses are somewhere between $240 million and
$280 million.*
And of course the President flies aboard Marine One, back and forth to Andrews AFB, before getting
on Air Force One, and there are numerous other aircraft and ground vehicles on duty when the
President flies, and we may never know how many there are or how much they cost to operate.
American University, July 1, 2010
Obama
Immigration Speech: Policy or Politics? Even the White House seems skeptical that
the president will present anything new. Speaking with the press aboard Air Force One on Wednesday [6/30/2010],
Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton offered, "I think a lot of the elements [in his speech] will be familiar."
Obama's Stirring
Immigration Speech Slightly Tainted by Misquote of 'The New Colossus'. With immigration reform
attracting negligible Republican interest and seemingly going nowhere, President Obama laid out the case for
action and what it would look like in a major speech at American University this morning [7/1/2010].
In doing so, Obama employed a familiar formula: identifying what the extreme left wants to do (straight-up
amnesty), identifying what the extreme right wants to do (round up every illegal and kick them out), and
then placing his vision for immigration reform squarely in the middle.
Obama
edits Emma Lazarus poem on Statue of Liberty. In his immigration speech today, President Obama
cited the most prominent symbol of America's immigrant tradition: The Statue of Liberty. He also
quoted famous lines from the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed at the base of the statue — at least
some of them.
MSNBC's
Witt: I Got 'Chills' Listening To Obama Immigration Speech. When it comes to Barack Obama,
MSNBC is the network of thrills and chills ... Chris Matthews famously felt a thrill going up his leg listening
to an Obama speech. Now, MSNBC anchor Alex Witt has been similarly moved by Obamian oratory, declaring
this morning "I got a few chills" listening to PBO's "very powerful" speech on immigration.
Why
Obama's Immigration Speech Was a Failure. The president stepped up Thursday to update his
campaign promise of immigration reform. But Tunku Varadarajan says his words were banal, completely
conventional, and full of empty rhetoric.
Obama's
Immigration Speech: Big Words and Passion, but What's New? Reaching out in every
direction — to immigrant history, to the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus' stirring
poetry — Obama showed at times the fervor of his 2008 campaign speeches, calling immigration
reform "a moral imperative," and demanding accountability and a common sense solution. But beneath the
powerful rhetoric and genuine commitment, there was little new.
Assimilation
and the Founding Fathers. In his immigration speech on Thursday, President Obama heralded
America as a "nation of immigrants" defined not by blood or birth, but by "fidelity to the shared values
that we all hold so dear." If only it were so. Left-wing academics and activists spurned
assimilation as a common goal long ago. Their fidelity lies with bilingualism (a euphemism for
native language maintenance over English-first instruction), identity politics, ethnic militancy and
a borderless continent.
Immigration
bill advocates miffed at Obama speech. Immigration Works, the pro-comprehensive immigration bill
group headed by the indefatigable Tamar Jacoby, hailed Barack Obama's speech today, but then had some sharp
words for the president.
Politics
Over People. The president's immigration address was little more than a cynical bid to sugarcoat
amnesty for illegals as his polls sag. Maybe that's because he's not doing his real job: fostering
jobs and enforcing the border.
The Fix Is Not In. It's a
measure of the minimal importance that President Obama assigns to enforcing the country's immigration laws
that he waited until this week to deliver his first speech on immigration. When he did, the president
merely confirmed what is already common knowledge: the system is broken and there is nothing that his
administration will do to fix it.
Obama and Immigration:
Rewriting History? This week, while shilling for "comprehensive immigration reform" (aka
amnesty for illegal aliens), President Obama cited the famous poem "The New Colossus" ("Give me your tired,
your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free") written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. For one
whose intellectual powers are constantly being touted by his followers, it's interesting to note how little
he seems to know about the Statue of Liberty's history — or, perhaps, how little he cares about
twisting that history in order to push his radical progressive agenda.
Barack Obama
Is Making Me Laugh. I sat chuckling all through Obama's immigration speech Thursday.
Forgive me, but that has been my recent response whenever I listen to Obama's speechifying. I am
somewhat surprised at my recent response to his outlandish rhetoric, but he makes such a mockery of his
very words, of America, and of capitalism, that he is, invariably, comical. ... So I listened to his
speech on immigration and chuckled as he lectured us, yet again, on what America is — as if he
had a clue about what America is.
Shootout At El Paso City
Hall. In his speech Thursday, President Obama assured us that our "southern border is more
secure today than at any time in the past 20 years." So why is El Paso's City Hall taking fire
from Mexico?
Obama
Plays Election-Year Politics on Immigration. "Years before the statue was built," Barack Obama
began the peroration of his July 1 speech on immigration, Emma Lazarus "imagined what it could mean."
Actually, the French sculptor Bartholdi was at work on the Statue of Liberty before Lazarus published her famous
"give me your tired" poem in 1883. (The statue was assembled in New York Harbor two years later and
dedicated in 1886.) The speech itself was similarly misleading.
University of Nevada at Las Vegas, July 9, 2010.
Obama's
Economic Unreality. Sadly, with President Obama, each day is crazier than the previous one.
His latest economic speeches border on the surreal. I just can't quite figure out who he thinks his
audience is because so much of what he says doesn't square with reality. In a speech Friday [7/9/2010] in
Las Vegas, Obama painted quite a rosy portrait of his economic record to date — at least rosy
compared with what we've all experienced with our five senses. ... [It's like] a student telling a math
teacher that three minus two equals four.
Free Market Obama.
Now he tells us. He's been reading Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman instead of playing golf and shooting
hoops, as reported by the press. While no one was looking, he's been downloading podcasts of the Glenn Beck
show and checking out heritage.org on his iPad. He's a born-again free-marketer, supply-sider, and
friend of business large and small. That's the freely translated gist of President Obama's July 9
speech at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Holland, Michigan, July 15, 2010.
He
came, he saw, he insulted. In the latest stop on his "Recovery Summer" tour, rock star President
Barack Obama landed in Holland, Michigan Thursday [7/15/2010], insulted its congressman, handed American
stimulus dollars to a Korean corporation, and proclaimed Obamanomics a success even as Michigan has lost
94,000 jobs since his Recovery Act was enacted. ... Obama said his benevolence would create 300 jobs in
Holland — but that's $500,000 per job. At least it's a bargain compared to the $1.25 million
per job Obama spent on two solar companies in Arizona over the July 4 weekend.
Obama Speech:
Avoiding Confrontation? Does President Barack Obama have a problem with direct confrontation?
The president swooped into Holland, Mich., to break ground on the last of nine advanced automotive battery plants
funded by the stimulus plan, a $300 million Compact Power plant owned by the South Korean company LG Chem
and financed in part with $150 million of federal dollars.
Iftar dinner at the White House, August 13, 2010.
Islam Means the End of Religious Freedom.
At an Iftar dinner in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama proclaimed that he supports the building of the
Ground Zero mosque as part of his "unshakable commitment to religious freedom". Which of course sounds
very noble and good, until you ask a single question, Where is the religious freedom in the Muslim world?
Islam Means the End of Religious Freedom.
Obama concluded his remarks by saying: "And we can only achieve "liberty and justice for all" if
we live by that one rule at the heart of every great religion, including Islam — that we do unto
others as we would have them do unto us." But that is not the rule at the heart of Islam. And
this is not the first time that he has tried to sell that particular lie.
How
stupid does Obama think we are? Pretty stupid. Already getting trounced in the polls, Democrats
are reeling over the President's decision to side with the Muslim Brotherhood over the American people by endorsing
the Ground Zero mosque. So he's trying to close Pandora's Box.
Let the backpedaling begin! Under Fire, Obama
Clarifies Support for Ground Zero Mosque. President Obama on Saturday [8/14/2010] sought to clarify
his comments supporting the building of a mosque near ground zero that have ignited a political firestorm ahead
of a difficult election season for Democrats.
No, Mr. President — We're not traumatized.
Penetrating commentary on President Obama's remarks last night on Islam, 9/11, and Ground Zero is already
available. The lawyers at Powerline dissect Obama's high-flown rhetoric...
An Awful President, A Worse Theologian.
[Scroll down] This is revealing: the ultimate destination of multiculturalism is platitudinous stupidity.
All religions, Obama tells us, are really the same, and can be summed up in the Golden Rule. Actually,
there is no religion that can be reduced to the Golden Rule, least of all Islam. Islam does not enjoin
believers to do unto infidels as you would have infidels do unto you. On the contrary! Islam tells
its followers to subdue infidels; to kill them; to, at best, reduce them to dhimmitude. The Golden Rule
is antithetical to Islam.
Two days later... Obama's "forceful" support of Ground Zero Mosque
already changing. After 19 long months, there is nothing new under the sun about Barack Hussein
Obama. His repeated, un-American attacks on America have never changed. Many knew before he "forcefully",
"strongly" endorsed the Ground Zero Mosque that he seemed to much prefer the Islamic way to the Christian one.
Comical to see him trying to backpedal his way out of the forceful endorsement of the Mosque from yet another
vacation. His constant use of "Let me be clear" has never been more clear.
Obama's
Clintonian speech pulls rug from under mosque supporters. When President Obama used the occasion
of the White House Ramadan iftar dinner to announce his support for the Ground Zero mosque, some of his partisans
rushed to praise what they viewed as a ringing endorsement of the controversial project. ... The problem was,
just hours after the speech, Obama began to back away from his clarion call. I wasn't defending the
mosque project, he explained. I was just defending the right of Muslims to build "a place of worship
and a community center" on private property in Lower Manhattan.
Speech on mosque was Obama's call.
President Barack Obama's decision to make public comments Friday that further stoked an already brewing controversy
over the construction of a mosque near ground zero was "purely" his own, an administration official said Saturday
[8/14/2010].
Obama mosque
retreat. President Obama carefully backpedaled on his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero,
saying yesterday that he was merely defending the legal right to religious freedom — but not giving the
project his stamp of approval.
A Dim Bulb in the
Oval Office? During his eight years in the White House, President George W. Bush was often
described by liberals as being about halfway between an idiot and an imbecile. ... President Obama, on the
other hand, is invariably described by these same people as brilliant — indeed, the most articulate
carbon-based life form ever to have walked the Earth. So how come every time President Obama opens his
mouth to state his position on some issue — as he did this weekend, speaking about his support for
that mosque near Ground Zero — the White House scrambles to issue a "clarification" —
followed less than a day later by an "elaboration" of the clarification?
Obama's Mosque
Remarks Reverberate. President Barack Obama's weekend remarks supporting the right to build a
mosque near Ground Zero reverberated across the country, nationalizing a debate over the New York City project.
A number of Republicans on Sunday [8/15/2010] folded the president's remarks into their election-year narrative
that Mr. Obama, a former constitutional scholar, is out of touch with the American citizenry.
Obama
backtracks over Ground Zero mosque. Barack Obama has backtracked over his support for plans to
build a mosque near Ground Zero. The U.S. President was hit by a furious backlash from victims of the
September 11 terrorist attacks after he backed the highly controversial plans in a speech on Friday.
Obama backtracks on ground zero mosque controversy.
Weighing his words carefully on a fiery political issue, President Barack Obama said Saturday that Muslims have
the right to build a mosque near New York's ground zero, but he did not say whether he believes it is a good
idea to do so. Obama commented during a trip to Florida, where he expanded on a Friday night White House
speech asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
Obama Fumbles
Mosque Question. 'Let me be clear," Pres. Barack Obama said at Friday night's iftar dinner
at the White House before making what nearly everyone took to be a deeply felt endorsement of the Ground Zero
mosque. ... "As a citizen, and as president," Obama said, "I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice
their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a
community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."
Our Clueless Professor.
Have we ever had a president so disconnected from the heart of America? On Friday night, at a White House
iftar, the breaking of the Ramadan fast, Obama strode directly into the blazing controversy over whether a
mosque should be built two blocks from Ground Zero.
The
President Distorts Arguments on Ground Zero Mosque. In the process of his unfolding explanations,
the president seemed to be arguing with phantoms, or with straw men. None of the prominent critics of
Cordoba House deny that Muslims deserve the same freedom as other religious groups to build houses of worship
to serve their adherents. But no faith community can use religious liberty as an excuse to build
whatever they want wherever they want it.
The
Incredible, Sinking Obama. President Obama's high-handedness is causing the public to backhand him
in recent polls. A national uproar has followed the president's declaration last Friday that he supports
a Muslim group's right to build a mosque and a $100-million community center two blocks from Ground Zero, where
about 2,600 civilians died in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.
Obama's
flimflammery in the name of faith. Barack Obama, like all flimflam men, is a master of words.
But unlike the best of the flimflam men, he can't keep his stories straight.
President
Obama's Mosquerade. At a Ramadan Iftar dinner at the White House, the president says building a
mosque near Ground Zero is just a real estate deal. Of course, 9/11 was just a "man-caused disaster."
So is his presidency.
Obama puts himself into a terrible rhetorical
tangle. [Scroll down] If Muslims show signs of not being harmless by, say, the deliberately
provocative act of building a mosque at or near the site of the World Trade Center, destroyed by Islamic terrorists
on September 11, 2010, you either stop them (preferably without any public fanfare) or, if you are unable or
unwilling to do that, pretend it is no big deal. The last thing you want to do is to be seen as taking
the side of the provocateurs against the feelings of ordinary, non-Muslim Americans, which must be why
President Obama attempted to backtrack.
The
Cynical Brilliance of Imam Rauf. In the elite modern Western mind, Cordoba has been transmogrified
into a mythical Lala Land of interfaith tolerance. To invoke the city is to prove one's ecumenical credentials.
Just ask our president, who, in his June 2009 Cairo speech, fantastically claimed that the Muslim city taught us
tolerance while Christians were launching the Inquisition (1478) — quite a feat two and a half centuries
after most of the Muslims of Cordoba had fled, converted, or been cleansed during the city's fall (1236) to the
Christian forces of the Reconquista. But no matter, we got the president's drift about who was supposedly
tolerant and who was not.
Obama's Point of No Return.
When historians come to select the moment when Obama went over the edge of the world, I think they'll find the
great Iftar mosque speech of August 13, 2010 hard to beat. During a White House dinner celebrating
Ramadan the president found it appropriate to come out in favor of religious freedom. Not in support of
Christians being attacked by janjaweed gunmen, or Bahais tormented by Iranian mullahs, or Jews being stalked
by assassins, or even American citizens being told that they cannot pray in public, but in favor of a shadowy
foreign foundation with suspicious financing and disturbing Jihadi connections that wishes to build some kind
of victory monument congruent to the site of the 9/11 massacre.
Just How Smart Is Obama?
[Scroll down] Does it take a genius to figure out that coming down on the unpopular side of the issue,
contrary to the will of nearly 70 percent of the American people, would be a major political blunder,
particularly with the midterm elections just around the corner? Liberal pundits heaped praise on the
president for his courage and steadfast adherence to principle. Why, then, did he hastily backtrack the
very next day?
Critics say Obama's message is
becoming 'incoherent'. President Obama's comments on a plan to build an Islamic center in the shadow of ground zero are
not only giving opponents an opportunity to attack him but also reveal a messaging problem from the White House,
a communications expert said.
Obama is
Making Everybody Angry. It's almost as if President Obama's agenda includes provoking anger at
himself. Taking opposite sides over a two-day span, Obama first indicated opposition to the building of
a mosque on the edge of Manhattan's Ground Zero, and the next day opposed the idea. After voicing his
support Friday night, he reversed himself after his remarks sparked a firestorm of criticism, saying that he
was merely noting that the Mosqueteers had a right to build there.
The Separation of Islamophilia
from State. By modern secularist standards, Barack Obama's boosterism for Islam violates the
"separation between Church and state." Had George W. Bush held a rosary and modest fish dinner at
the White House to mark the beginning of Lent, the ACLU left would have freaked out. But these same
secularists didn't mind Barack's "Iftar dinner" last Friday night.
Another Obama White House Lie About Islam.
In his remarks at the iftar observance, Obama claimed that the "first" iftar dinner in the White House was hosted
by Thomas Jefferson. ... What tosh. There has never been a tradition of iftar dinners at the White House,
sporadic or otherwise, until after the year 1992. Jefferson's dinner was no iftar dinner and no other
president until Bill Clinton even hosted one.
Obama doesn't
understand his country. In the iftar dinner speech, Mr. Obama presumes to know what "our Founders
understood," as relating to religious freedom. Mr. Obama cites Thomas Jefferson and quotes the Virginia
Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, in part that "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to
maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." I wonder if Mr. Obama knows the context of the Virginia
Act and Thomas Jefferson's reasoning? The act prohibits the commonwealth of Virginia from compelling
attendance at religious worship and financial support of religion. Significantly, in making his
argument, Jefferson does not appeal to vague principles of "religious freedom" and "our values," as Mr. Obama
does.
Fact-checking
Obama's Iraq speech. A look at some of the statements President Obama made in his Oval Office
speech and how they compare with the facts.
Obama
Has Learned Nothing About Being Commander in Chief. President Obama's biggest problem as Commander
in Chief is that he is not a leader. ... There was not a single moment in his speech where he spoke to the
troops about their mission. He spoke about them in reverent tones, but he never articulated what we
were fighting and why it really mattered. There is a reason for that, he has absolutely no rapport
with them, he doesn't understand them, and he has absolutely no clue how to lead them.
After the Speech: Obama's Commitment to Victory
Questioned. President Obama's prime-time speech to the nation announcing the end of combat
operations in Iraq is getting generally poor reviews from Republicans and conservatives, not only for what
Obama said, but for what he did not say.
A grim speech for a grim war.
It was shocking how little awe there was. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday night "that the American
combat mission in Iraq has ended" in a grim little speech from the Oval Office. He spoke for 18 minutes
and managed to avoid asking — let alone answering — any essential questions about the
war such as: Did it make America safer, and was it really worth it?
A Limp and Boring Speech.
President Obama's speech from the oval office, only the second of his presidency, was surprisingly limp.
With three momentous subjects to cover — Iraq, Afghanistan, and the U.S. economy — Obama
struggled to say anything new or interesting. It isn't just that the soaring rhetoric of 2008 has disappeared;
Obama is now affirmatively boring.
Obama's Speech.
Yes, there were some fine parts. How could there not be? But I really disliked it. Maybe I'm
letting other factors poison my take, and I should probably sleep on it before rendering final judgment.
But here are a few things that really stuck in my craw.
The Bankruptcy of Barack. Obama
delivered a speech about a war that he exploited for political advantage during the election, and ignored
the rest of the time. A war that he tried to sabotage as a Senator, and neglected once in the White
House. Where Bush conducted constant conferences with commanders in the field, Obama has let the
clashing egos of former Clinton Administration staffers, and a few imported radicals, determine how the war
will be conducted.
The President's Pivot
and Divot. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended not with a bang but with a whimper. One would
think a seven-and-a-half-year war deserves more than a seventeen-and-a-half-minute speech, and Obama couldn't
even feign interest or stay on topic for that brief period of time on Tuesday. He was clearly phoning
it in, itching to "turn the page" back to himself.
Obama's 'Come Home
America' Speech. Imagine if after World War II, America had left Europe in the face of the
aggressive Soviet threat. What would Asia look like now if, following the Korean War, the U.S. had set a
quick date for withdrawal from the peninsula? As much as he may wish, Mr. Obama cannot ignore Iraq or
withdraw prematurely from Afghanistan. He has ownership of both wars; it's part of his job description.
He will share in the wars' success or be blamed if they are lost.
The Bankruptcy of Barack. Obama
delivered a speech about a war that he exploited for political advantage during the election, and ignored the
rest of the time. A war that he tried to sabotage as a Senator, and neglected once in the White House.
Where's the magic gone?
The reviews on Barack Obama's Iraq speech on Tuesday night, August 31, 2010 are in and they are almost
all unkind.
Obama's victory lap. President
Barack Obama is like a guy who sneaks onto a marathon race course a mile or so from the finish line and pretends
he ran the whole thing. In his speech Tuesday night commemorating the return to the United States of the
last American combat brigade in Iraq, Mr. Obama patted himself lustily on the back for not screwing up a
self-imposed timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces that was made possible by the policies of President
George W. Bush.
Obama's
shrinking presidency. One of the unintended results of the redecoration of the Oval Office was
the downsizing of Barack Obama. In last week's prime-time address to the nation, the president sat behind
a massive and capaciously empty desk, looking somehow smaller than he ever has — a man physically
reduced by sinking polls, a lousy economy and the prospect that his party might lose control of Congress.
News conference, September 10, 2010.
Obama speaks out for
Muslims. In a press conference designed to defend his economic policies, President Obama waded
deeper into religious tensions gripping the nation by speaking out forcefully in defense of religious pluralism.
Speaking a day before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, Obama made a passionate plea to Americans to
differentiate between terrorists and Muslims.
Obama
says he leans 'heavily' on his Christian faith. President Obama said he "relies heavily" on his
Christian faith as president during a press conference on Friday. ... Obama invoked his religion in response
to a question about several recent national controversies about Islam.
The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Guilty.
These days, Barack Obama would rather talk about his birth certificate than use the word "stimulus."
At the press conference that wouldn't end last week, Obama was asked if his latest and greatest spending
proposal amounted to a second stimulus. He answered, "There is no doubt that everything we've been
trying to do is designed to stimulate growth and additional jobs in the economy," but adamantly avoided
the dreaded s-word.
Obama Unplugged — and
Unintelligible. For starters, it is hard to be "thoughtful" when you are touchy and prone to
regurgitating leftist talking points. In fact, Obama's Friday presser was at times rather incoherent —
he didn't change Washington, it's the GOP's fault, the stimulus isn't really a stimulus but it is stimulating,
and so forth. ... At this point, all but the die-hard Obama supporters must be chagrined to find that the only
straight answer he can give is on the Ground Zero mosque. (He is fine with it.)
Talker-in-Chief Barack Obama. At
Friday's East Room Q&A, President Obama weighed in on the Manhattan imam's plan to build a mosque at Ground
Zero (an "inalienable right") and the Florida preacher who had threatened to burn the Koran ("that's a problem").
It was his first press conference since May, which proves not that he doesn't like to talk but that he doesn't
like to talk to people who talk back. Barack Obama is America's first lecturer-in-chief.
Ruse Conference. The
president on Friday revealed the narrative for the Obama re-election campaign of 2012, and it shamelessly
rewrites history. The story goes like this: Bush hurled the global economy on a path toward
depression by cutting the taxes of millionaires. Obama then came to the rescue with his policies —
but the Republicans dug us into such a hole that it's taking even longer to dig out. The trouble with
this myth is that even Democrats running for re-election are shunning it.
Pentagon memorial, September 11, 2010.
Obama Gives Al Qaeda
a Pass. Please tell me this nightmare will be over soon. What kind of person in this world
would characterize ruthless, evil, filthy, and beheading sadists as "a sorry band of men?" The President
of the United States in a memorial address at the Pentagon on Saturday 9/11, that's who.
Obama on 9/11: Get Over It.
Obama's remarks on 9/11 were about what you would expect from a president who has ridiculed his countrymen for
overreacting to the most lethal terrorist attack on our soil and who can't manage to utter the worlds "Islamic
fundamentalists" or "jihadists." Really, let's not dwell on the bad stuff, he tells us.
Barack
Obama seeks peace with Islam on anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks. The US president said at a memorial
service at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed: "As Americans, we will not and never will be
at war with Islam. It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was Al-Qaeda, a
sorry band of men which perverts religion."
The United Nations, September 23, 2010.
Obama
Addresses the U.N. and Blames...Wall Street?! President Barack Obama told the United Nations General
Assembly on Thursday [9/23/2010] that America's financial crisis was the reason their economies were suffering
and promised to not rest until people around the globe prosper.
Just like he promised not to raise taxes... Obama
vows to preserve open Internet. During his address to the United Nations General Assembly on
Thursday [9/23/2010], President Obama promised the United States would continue to support a "free and open Internet"
and would call out nations that censor content.
Obama 'Pontificus Magnus' Descends Upon UN.
Before Obama took the floor, Ban Ki-Moon continued to attempt to justify his salary and perks against the backdrop
of a laugh track in my head when he issued the prime directive: "Let us remember, the world still looks to
the United Nations for moral and political leadership." And with that, Pontificus Magnus appeared, brushing
aside the 15-minute speech limit Fidel Castro style, and doubling his time allowance.
President Barack Obama Coddles International
Outlaws At the United Nations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that "Normal
practices of diplomacy ... are of no possible use in dealing with international outlaws." Rather than
listen to FDR's advice, President Barack Obama squandered yet another opportunity to confront today's
international outlaws during his annual visit to the United Nations. Instead, Obama delivered
meaningless platitudes to the United Nations General Assembly during his speech on September 23,
2010 — just like he did last year.
Post-election news conference, November 3, 2010.
The Observer at His Own
Funeral. At his post-defeat press conference, Barack Obama worked hard to project an air of
somber reflection, even as his remarks revealed that he had learned nothing from the defeat. Amidst the
practiced pauses and detached narration of the crash came a litany of excuses, evasions, and arrogant denials.
President's
presser shows he's in serious denial. Wittier minds than mine have weighed in on the
President's post-election press conference, Jeff Dunetz and Victor Davis Hanson to name two.
But it was clear from the first moments that it was going to be a dismal experience for all involved.
The President began by thanking Pelosi and Reid for their "extraordinary leadership" these past twenty-one
months. On what planet does this man reside?
The President's
Presser Proves He Doesn't Have a CLUE. On Election Day the American People sent Barack Obama a
message, unfortunately he wasn't listening. During his pres conference yesterday, he looked contrite
(actually he looked as if he was passing a kidney stone), clearly he indicated either he didn't hear, didn't
have a clue, or didn't care what the voters were trying to tell him.
Obama Doesn't Get It. President
Obama came close, but he still just cannot admit that his radical policies and their effects on the economy
are the cause of his devastating political rebuke. For most of his press conference, an oddly depressed
Obama voted present, as he all but said that the problems are mostly ours, not his — or at least
not his agenda but perhaps an occasional inadequate communication.
What I Saw at the
Obama Press Conference. Watching the president speak truly is dispiriting, but I managed to do
so, gentle reader, to spare you the agony. "No one party can dictate where we go from here." Unlike
the last two years?
Skinning
The Carbon Cat With EPA. It's been said that a socialist thrown out the window will come back through
the front door as an environmentalist. This reminds us of something we noticed in the president's day-after
concession speech. Though acknowledging the cap-and-trade law is no longer a legislative priority, Obama
also said he's not giving up on the idea of restricting Americans' output of carbon dioxide.
Obama Doesn't Rule Out
Using EPA Regulations to Cap Carbon Emissions. In a White House press conference Wednesday, President
Barack Obama did not rule out using regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to cap carbon emissions
in the United States without an act of Congress. Meanwhile, on October 25, the EPA announced new regulations
to limit "greenhouse gas" emissions by heavy-duty trucks and buses.
Before
Obama's fall. In his post-defeat press conference, Obama said people are frustrated by the pace
of the economic recovery. True enough. But Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics notes that the unemployment
rate in many electoral models would have only accounted for a Democratic loss of 20-30 seats. In 1982, when
the unemployment rate was higher than today, Ronald Reagan lost 26 House seats.
Obama
jumps on natural gas bandwagon. A remark by President Obama at his postelection news conference
Wednesday should send Iowa's wind energy advocates into full alert. When asked about environmental issues,
the President suddenly started talking up natural gas, saying there are "terrific natural gas resources" in the
United States.
Obama Doesn't Seek Compromise; Neither Should We.
I take no great pleasure in having been correct in predicting Barack Obama's reaction to his Tuesday "shellacking."
To borrow his terminology, he is wired not to hear the American people's opposition to his radical agenda,
as painfully demonstrated in his postelection news conference. Unhappily, Obama's answers showed even deeper
intransigence than I had thought he would be willing to reveal. He is every bit as committed to his
destructive agenda as he was Nov. 1 and, despite his claims, is not looking for "common ground."
Top Democrats in
Denial. In a press conference that was humble in tone but myopic in substance, Obama reiterated
again and again that he got all of the policies right and the American people who disagreed hadn't studied the
issues closely enough. It only "felt" like the government was getting too "intrusive," Obama explained.
For Obama, There Is
No Other Truth. For whatever reason, President Obama, like the cultists, seems incapable of even
entertaining the idea that his policies might be incorrect, even when faced with the evidence of our stagnant
economy and soaring deficit. In fact, the closest the president comes to admitting error is in accepting
responsibility for not getting the message of his success out clearly enough.
Press conference, December 7, 2010.
Obamanomics Takes a
Holiday. In accepting the deal to cut payroll and business taxes and extend all of the Bush-era
tax rates through 2012, Mr. Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is
acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment
and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus.
Get that Man a
Teleprompter! Surely, if President Obama had been scripted this afternoon he wouldn't have let
loose with such a self-revelatory rant at the end of his presser. To this point, the hallmark of Obama
has been his bloodlessness and lack of emotion, in almost any circumstance. ... We've learned today that what
really gets under his skin and makes him boil is criticism, and especially criticism from progressives.
Only a man of the left could care so much about attacks from the left wing.
He Has Met the Enemy, and They
Are Him. Mr. Obama has mastered the ability to look both unprincipled and graceless at the same
time. There is also a touch of bipolarity in this administration that is doing a fair amount of damage to
it. ... Notoriously thin-skinned and accustomed to worshipful treatment by those around him (including the
press), Obama is now clearly disquieted. On some deep level, Obama must understand that, at this moment
at least, his presidency is coming apart.
Obama At War. To say the least, it was
a remarkable performance — and very revealing. In both his opening statement and answers to the
handful of questions my colleague posed, the President almost seemed to be back on the campaign trail where he
was before the Republican sweep November 2nd — or already on the trail for 2012. Partisan rhetoric
flew like shrapnel, with Mr. Obama saying that extending the "Bush tax cuts" for higher income Americans "seems to
be their [Republicans'] central economic doctrine" and "This is their holy grail."
The anger of
Barack Obama. President Obama, long criticized by many in his own party for lacking appropriate
passion, delivered a blunt and confrontational message to his liberal critics during a press conference today.
Faced with increasing criticism from liberals over his decision to ompromise with Republicans on a two-year
extension of the Bush tax cuts, Obama openly chastised the party's base — warning them of being
"sanctimonious" and reminding them that "this country was founded on compromise".
Obama
not so accurate on Social Security, Medicare histories. We were wondering if any historian types
would bring this up. In defending the need for compromise the other day, President Obama mangled the
legislative histories of Social Security and Medicare.
The Incredible
Shrinking President. [Scroll down] Here's the thing: the dynamics of hostage-taking
always involve the threat of harm to the hostage, Mr. President. This means that you would always cave
in to their demands if you cared enough for the hostage. Worse, the comment ignores the fact that until
Ted Kennedy died, Obama's party controlled Congress with a filibuster-proof majority, and the White House
could have steamrolled through any tax provision it wanted. The decision to let the tax issue ride
suddenly put them in an unfavorable bargaining position — though certainly it didn't rise to
"hostage taking." It's called losing the hearts and minds of the voters.
Obama
Turns White House Presser Over to Bill Clinton. The apparent goal: Enlisting Bubba to help
sell the bipartisan tax deal to hesitant Democrats. The practical result: An avalanche of major
media and online buzz over the spectacle of former President Bill Clinton commandeering a White House press
briefing after the current Oval Office occupant surrendered the microphone, and left the room.
The Editor says...
Just imagine for a moment that in the year 2015, President Palin calls a news conference, introduces
former President George W. Bush, and then runs out of the room, leaving Mr. Bush to answer
all the tough questions. The press would immediately call it the beginning of Bush's third
term. Fortunately for Mr. Obama, today's reporters are
all very helpful.
Did Obama just quit? After
watching the following, I think it's a legitimate question. This afternoon Obama met with Bill Clinton.
Afterward he held his third press conference this week, this time with Clinton by his side. Then
this happened...
Obama
abdicates to Bill Clinton, lunacy. The surreal week in Washington was brought to a fitting
climax on Friday when Barack Obama handed the presidency over to Bill Clinton for 20 minutes. "I'm
going to take off," he said. ... And take off the president did. It wasn't an official, unofficial or
illicit transfer of power in any way, of course. But it somehow felt like it. What happened here
has, to my knowledge, never happened. When the president finishes speaking, whenever the president
finishes speaking, the event ends. Period. Not any longer.
Help Me Bubba-Wan, You're My
Only Hope. Did Barack Obama just cede the presidency to Bill Clinton? ... Here's what I saw.
I saw a current president who has never looked less interested in doing his job. I also saw a former
president who never lost interest in doing that job. Obama's demeanor and body language suggested that
he'd rather be anywhere but where he was, and then he followed through and actually bolted for the door.
Should
We Gloat Over Obama's Childish Behavior? It's easy enough for conservatives, libertarians, et al,
to gloat about Barack Obama's recent petulant, child-like performances — at first unable to be even
slightly gracious in compromise with Republicans on the tax bill and then, only a few days later, fleeing in
panic when Clinton acted the real president, fielding questions with a relaxed authority so surpassing Obama's
it was almost comical.
Pelosi and the
Hostage Fakers. President Obama defended his bipartisan tax deal this week by claiming that
Republicans were political "hostage takers" who wouldn't budge, but it looks like he fingered the wrong
suspects. The real kidnappers are Speaker Nancy Pelosi's House Democrats, and the main hostage they
are taking is none other than Mr. Obama. Republicans should not pay the ransom.
Obama's
Stunt-Double Presidency. Late for a Christmas party, the president enlists the Man from Hope to
explain the change we need to make. When the going gets tough, those over their heads send for the
cavalry.
The
second banana at the White House. The most powerful man in the world revealed himself unable to
assert the authority of either himself or his office. His press aide stood helplessly at the edge of the
scene, allowing Bubba to drone on about taxes, the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, credit markets,
economic theory, nuclear weapons, bipartisanship and the weather. ... The ineptitude of the Obama White House,
revealed piece by piece over the months, was at last writ large enough for all to see. Could anyone
imagine Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan allowing a former president to come into his house and take over a
press conference?
The Meme That Would
Not Die. They've said this about Obama for years, that he's some sort of Great Compromiser, who
would bridge the gaps between Left and Right, between Black and White, and all the other chasms of American
political and social life — like... I dunno, like some miraculous kind of spackling paste. ... The
same Obama who, when faced for the first time by real opposition, put on the most petty and petulant press
conference performance in presidential history. The same Obama who, just days later, walked out on
another briefing, blaming his wife.
The Never-Ending Christmas Party. We
got a taste of the real Barack Obama at the end of last year, when he handed a high-pressure press conference
off to an astonished Bill Clinton, and raced off to attend a Christmas party. Everything he has done
since then is consistent with the appalling lack of leadership he demonstrated in that moment. Obama
never came back from his Christmas party.
Tucson, Arizona, January 12, 2011
I didn't hear this speech, nor would I care to listen to it now. But from what I heard, it was President
Obama's best speech yet. (Too bad he still relies on a teleprompter for every word.) In this
case, it was the crowd that ruined the speech, turning what should have been a somber and dignified
memorial into Wellstone III.
Rev. Obama's Revival Meeting.
To the untrained eye, the University of Arizona ceremony appeared to be a well-meaning memorial service visited
by a somber president attempting to heal the nation. However, to an educated onlooker, the event closely
resembled a tent revival run by a hypster whose pious pontificating was more about furthering a political agenda
than consoling the aggrieved. Was I the only one who recognized that when Obama entered the packed stadium,
all that was missing was a donkey and palm branches?
Prez
perfect — but the crowd was appalling. The tone of the event came to resemble a pep rally, no matter the
monstrous fact of the six dead and the many injured. ... There's been a great deal of talk in the wake of the massacre
about the need for a national conversation about civility. Maybe what we need is a national conversation about
elementary manners.
Hume
on Obama Arizona speech: parts 'most peculiar'. "I just wanted to add, I think the president
prepared this speech in the expectation that this would be indeed a memorial service," Hume said. "I think it
ended up being nothing of the kind. This was much more of a pep rally and perhaps that is precisely what the
people of Tucson and the people of this region needed and wanted.
Some question pep rally
atmosphere at Obama speech. Some have wondered whether it was a scripted political event, but White
House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday [1/13/2011] he and other aides didn't expect Obama's speech to receive
as much applause as it did.
Was Obama's Speech His Finest Hour?
The suggestion by Garry Wills in "Obama's Finest Hour" that the speech compares favorably with Lincoln's Gettysburg and
Second Inaugural Addresses strikes me as a tad excessive, but Obama gave a beautiful speech at a critical moment and
lifted both the country and his own presidency. Everything a speech can do, it did. In some sense, it was a
sermon to himself, since he bears as much blame (and perhaps more) as anyone for the divisive rhetoric that has marked
the first two years of his presidency.
Critics Assail Cheering and T-Shirts at
Obama Tucson Speech. There has been relatively little criticism of the context of President Obama's
speech last night calling for civility in the wake of the Tucson tragedy — in fact, conservative blogger Ed Morrissey
called it perhaps "the finest moment of his presidency." But some are pointing to both the response of his audience
and the fact that t-shirts were handed out to cast the memorial as an inappropriately political event.
Was that a memorial service
or a pep rally? President Obama's speech was fine, as always. He read the teleprompter with eloquence
and did a fine chin in the air impersonation of Che Guevara, as usual. His words were appropriate for the most part
and he rose above the political fray by making a point of chiding people that were playing the blame game. My beef
is not with Obama this time. It is his mindless minions in the crowd that draws my ire. Apparently the crowd
was mainly composed of university students and from what I could gather they had already started tapping kegs for the wake.
A somber Memorial, Barack Obama style. Word this
morning indicates the idea for the tacky t-shirts originated with University of Arizona brass. Whether astro-turfed or
university initiated, Obama basked in it. Obama entered the stadium to deafening applause. Was it, too, orchestrated
by university brass? Wearing their most appropriate in-sympathy countenance, both Obamas walked in to the McKate Memorial
Center on the University of Arizona campus Wednesday in condolence mode. During the speech that media pundits forecast
would lead to a new, more centrist president, incredibly the audience screamed out to Obama, "We love you!" There were
resounding cheers for unpopular Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Popular Governor Jan Brewer was booed.
Obama's Tucson
degradation. President Obama is cynically exploiting the tragic shooting in Tucson for
political gain. His memorial address Wednesday night was a surreal spectacle in narcissistic
self-congratulation. ... Instead of being a solemn and serious event, the memorial resembled a pro-Obama
pep rally. The president of Arizona University praised Mr. Obama for his "visionary" and "courageous"
leadership. Throughout the memorial and Mr. Obama's speech, students regularly cheered, clapped,
whistled and hollered.
White House Says It Wasn't
Responsible for Picking Rowdy Basketball Arena. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said
Thursday [1/13/2011] that the White House was not responsible for choosing a basketball arena, as opposed to
a church or a smaller auditorium that might be more conducive to a solemn event, for Wednesday's night's
memorial service in Tucson, Ariz. The McKale Memorial Center, an athletics facility at the University
of Arizona, was packed with a reported 14,000 people, who repeatedly broke out in cheers and screams of a
sort not ordinarily associated with a memorial service.
Obama
showed grace and wisdom in Tucson. President Obama is often criticized in this space, so we think
it only fair to point it out when he does something praiseworthy. In his address Wednesday evening in Tucson
commemorating the senseless slaying of six people, including a federal judge, and the attempted assassination of
Rep. Gabbie Giffords, D-Ariz., Obama performed admirably.
Where Will Obama Go From Tucson? President
Obama is receiving uniform praise for his memorial remarks in Tucson, Ariz. Even conservatives are saying he hit
the right notes, substantively and tonally. I agree, with a few qualifiers and gentle cautions.
Mournapalooza! It's beyond me
why family members of the victims didn't walk out in justifiable indignation. While the commentator
class continues to celebrate the greatness of Obama's speech, the entire galling mess is an excellent
reminder ... about how we got stuck with this guy in the first place.
Theme of "Together We Thrive" T-shirt came
from Obama's Organizing for America. University of Arizona brass did not originate the "Together
We Thrive" T-shirt. They merely recycled it for Obama — and recycled it in time for what should have
been a dignified Memorial for the dead. If you were a mourner who took home a "Together We Thrive"
T-shirt have a look at the bottom of your shirt. "Rocking America and Rocking the Vote" is a common
theme of the DNC, and it's right there on your Memorial T-shirt memento. Welcome to the era of Obama,
where cheering and standing ovations, for the first time in history, became part of the Requiem for the Dead.
Wellstone Memorial
Redux. I suppose the excuse du jour will be that these weren't stage directions, just merely the
assumption that the president would have to pause while the expected hosannas rained down upon him. But
presumably, if you put "APPLAUSE" into the text on a Jumbotron, a sufficient number of people in the audience
will do just that. And as always during solemn memorial services, t-shirts with text printed in an
all-caps avant-garde typeface were provided to all attendees.
30 year-old
Chicagoan Wrote Tucson Speech. In a Friday [1/17/2011] article I had speculated that chief
Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau had penned Obama's over-praised Tucson oration, but it turns out that Obama
elevated heretofore unknown Cody Keenan from the "eulogy and commencement beat" for his moment in the Arizona
sun. In an uncommonly frank moment Wednesday night, while flying back from Tucson on Air Force One,
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told a Chicago Tribune reporter and others that Keenan had been
the speechwriter. By Thursday morning, Gibbs was insisting that "Obama had wielded the heavier pen."
The Editor says...
Wouldn't it be great to have a polygraph examiner interview President Obama about the works that he has
allegedly written? Wouldn't it be refreshing to have a reporter ask Mr. Obama to recite a speech he has
given, right after the speech is concluded? My guess is that he would not be able to remember even one
complete sentence, because (I believe) someone else writes all his speeches.
Obama Is America's
First Post-Responsibility President. The concert hall promoters had done their pre-production
work well. Souvenir T-shirts bedecked the chairs, imprinted with the song title of one of Obama's
lesser-known numbers from his blockbuster year of 2008. The screaming fans were all in place.
At last, He appeared and performed a fresh new rap, a sparkling stew of platitudinous poppycock about not
disappointing the dreams of a child. His fans shrieked and applauded, their ebullience trampling the
dignity of the mourners among them.
Obama's Tucson
degradation: President Obama is cynically exploiting the tragic shooting in Tucson for
political gain. His memorial address Wednesday night was a surreal spectacle in narcissistic
self-congratulation. It dishonored the victims, those who were murdered and maimed by Jared Lee
Loughner, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Democrat. Instead of being a solemn and serious
event, the memorial resembled a pro-Obama pep rally. The president of Arizona University praised
Mr. Obama for his "visionary" and "courageous" leadership. Throughout the memorial and Mr. Obama's
speech, students regularly cheered, clapped, whistled and hollered. All the while, the president
basked in his newfound glory.
Together
in Chains and T-Shirts. On the premise that words have meanings, and in the spirit of vitriol,
eliminationationism, toxicity, and incivility, I offer here an inflammatory, abrasive, and indecorous
critique of the latest bucket of double-talking swill to be dumped on America by the White House. On
Wednesday, January 12th, President Barack Obama delivered a "eulogy" that magically but predictably morphed
into a campaign speech before some 14,000 people in a university sports arena.
A
Philosopher Reflects on the Giffords Shooting. The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords,
though a terrible tragedy, is not of historic significance. More significant is the efforts of the Left
to blame this on the Right, particularly the Tea Party movement. The absurdity of these attempts is
obvious, and many on the right have done a very good job of blasting them. I will add a few things
that need to be said.
Tucson
and the Tea Party. Throughout social media, the left is really blowing the dog whistle on the Tea
Party movement, from blaming opportunist Sarah Palin, whose Tea Party credentials are dubious, to status updates,
comments, and this San Francisco Chronicle editorial posted by the newspaper's editorial page editor
John Diaz (with whom I have worked) insinuating that anyone on America's right and everyone in the Tea Party
movement may somehow be responsible for the heinous crimes, which appear to have been the act of a lone
nihilist who mixes literacy, We the Living, and the gold standard into his puny little mind and
comes up with mass murder.
The
Scarecrow of "Violent Language" and The Left's "Climate of Hate". There is a drive on now to
blame the Tea Party, "right-wingers," and any frank discussion of Obama and/or liberal politics for the
shooting. The liberal/left is scrambling to cast a pall of "responsibility" on the authors of any
"toxic rhetoric" alleged to have "encouraged" the shooter Jared Loughner to act out his fantasies and to
"take action" against a perceived enemy. The abrupt shift of focus from Jared Loughner the mad man
to the necessity of "civil" discourse could only be orchestrated by the left.
Driven To Tears.
It's being called a "national tragedy." That isn't at all what it is. A "tragedy" is the collapse
of a crowded building, an earthquake (like in Haiti), a school bus accident on a rain-slicked highway —
you get the idea. No, the shooting was a crime perpetrated by someone who fits the textbook definition
of criminally insane. I am sickened to my very core at the attempt to politicize this heinous act.
The
Hypocrisy Underlying Obama's Speech: Says Obama: "We recognize our own mortality. And
we are reminded that, in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or
power, or fame, but rather how well we have loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of
other people better." Would Obama give up even one ounce of his power for the sake of people who
still want to live lives of liberty, without the nationalization of medicine, for example? Not a chance.
Wealth and power matter a great deal to people like the Obamas.
Obama's Mandela Moment.
However politically brilliant all of this was, it remains in some sense quite morbid, in a creepy sort
of never-waste-a-tragedy sense. The reaction to the killings almost instantly blotted out
information about and concern for the dead and maimed. Yet in this entire confusing media circus,
questions simply were not only not answered, but in fact never raised. In logical terms, how are
we to use a moment to reexamine political speech when the moment was explicitly declared not to be
connected with political speech at all? How can a president subtly distance himself from the
macabre and revolting behavior of his left-wing base while simultaneously editorializing on unhinged
invective in general?
Intermission for America.
A good speech is a dessert after the job is done and a great speech is an appetizer that inspires a
movement. Obama's speech was a snack. A confection without context. The treat that
he baked for himself and then offered to us.
The Truth About 'Investments' Hurts.
"Think and grow rich" might work for an individual envisioning business success, but it is delusional as
national economic policy. We can't wish or will the country to prosperity, or recover from a recession
caused by too much debt by incurring more debt. "Together We Thrive" was not only inappropriate as a
theme for a memorial to the victims of the Tucson shooter, it is the economic policy of a collective
society, not of a free one.
Media Excuse
Obama's Lies About Shootings. The liberal media have gone from blaming conservatives for the
Arizona shootings to praising President Obama's speech, in which he made the false claim that nobody knows
why the massacre happened. The media called the speech consoling and inspirational. "Obama's
speech likely bound for history books," said USA Today.
State of the Union speech, January 25, 2011
Anticipation:
The SOTU, Hope and
Change. Most of what Obama says Tuesday night [1/25/2011] will focus on ways he can be credited
with "creating and preserving" American jobs and stemming the tidal wave of home foreclosures. Predictably,
he will find ways to blame his predecessor for our current economic travail.
A Solution
at Obama's Fingertips. On Tuesday, the president will deliver his State of the Union message.
The conventional wisdom is that Barack Obama will continue his "move to the center." The quotation marks are
necessary because some people think he really is moving to the center, while others think he just wants to appear
like he is.
Barack Obama's State of the Union address could be a Big Government
disaster. While the British government has embarked on a large-scale austerity programme to
completely eliminate the nation's structural deficit by 2015, the Obama administration still remains
committed to further stimulus spending in the United States, clinging to the naïve and hopeless
belief that Big Government solutions are needed to get America's economy back on its feet.
O's overstimulating.
President Obama's State of the Union speech will outline a spending spree on "green" projects, education and
road-rebuilding, arguing the largesse will create jobs and boost the nation's competitiveness in the world
economy. Obama is proposing the spending hikes despite voters' election of a GOP House last November
that has vowed to be more frugal with public dollars.
Obama to speak
out of both sides of his mouth during SOTU. It should be an interesting State of the Union speech
on Tuesday night. We get to see the president of the United States pull off one of the great feats of
prestidigitation known; talking out of both sides of his mouth. Only a liberal can believe you can cut
spending and increase spending at the same time while reducing the deficit.
Will
Obama's State of the Union Rise Above the Cliches of a Stale Speech? Ever since Woodrow
Wilson invented the modern State of the Union Address by coming before a joint session of Congress in
1913, presidents have been struggling vainly to rise to the rhetorical occasion. The clichés
of this annual exercise somehow inspire even the most eloquent presidents to deal in buzz words and
hackneyed phrases.
The Left's Tucson Strategy: Stage
Two. The Left's attempt to link the Tucson shootings to angry rhetoric (not theirs, of course)
was stage one of a broader strategy — what both military men and political strategists refer to
as preparing the battlefield. The movement to feign nonpartisanship at the State of the Union address
by seating Republicans and Democrats together is another aspect of this stage. At the same time, the
Left is moving on to stage two — an effort to cash in on battlefield preparation by attacking
specific figures on the right and trying to shut down speech that the Left finds inconvenient.
My Advice to the POTUS about the SOTU.
Just stick to your script from those glorious campaign days in 2008. Remind everyone that everything
wrong in the world is the fault of the unexceptional and arrogant U.S.A. Remind everyone that it is
all Bush's fault. Remind everyone that you cannot get out of Iraq or Afghanistan fast enough.
Mention the troops. Everyone loves the troops. It is essential to throw in some reference to
global warming, to electric cars, to wind and solar energy, and to take a moment to remind everyone how
horrid Big Oil and Big Coal are. That's pretty much been your energy policy anyway.
Having Fun with the
State of the Union. It matters not what President Obama will say in his speech tonight.
Despite the exit of some old staffers and the entrance of some new ones, he is not changing, and any
presidential rhetoric that might imply a softening of left-wing ideology is a smokescreen.
What Obama Will
Not Say at the SOTU. The annual take-a-stab guessing game of what any president
will say at the State of the Union address is now on. If I might, I would like to play the other
side of that card. Here is what President Obama will not say in his SOTU speech.
Reaction:
The Speech
Is Flat. Remember in 1957, when President Eisenhower said, "This is our generation's
Sputnik moment"? Of course you don't, even if you are old enough. Ike never said anything
of the sort, nor did he need to. When you're actually in such a "moment," you don't have to
announce it. So of course President Obama was talking nonsense when he said, in his State of
the Union Address last night, that "this is our generation's Sputnik moment."
Obama's
State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism. If imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama's second State of the Union address contained
enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince. I suppose
this is what one does when one not only has nothing new to say, but is required by custom and
Constitution to come forth with a report of some kind by a certain time and day.
Obama's
Plan Would Cost Another $20 Billion. President Obama's agenda spelled out in his
well-received State of the Union address would boost spending an additional $20 billion and lead to
higher taxes, according to a line-by-line analysis from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
The
Obama Presidency remains in a dangerous state of denial. If there is one big takeaway
from Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night, it is that this presidency remains in a
complete state of denial regarding the massive threat the United States faces with its budget
deficit. Obama's speech was a major lost opportunity to address the number one menace to
America's long-term prosperity — the towering mountain of debt.
All
Three Networks Agree: Obama Sounded 'Reaganesque' in State of the Union. During
coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, all three broadcast networks,
CBS, NBC and ABC, managed to compare the tone of the speech to that of Ronald Reagan. Reporters
and pundits uniformly praised the supposed optimism of Obama.
Obama's
State of the Union Speech: underwhelming with a lukewarm reception. So Barack Obama did not
match his performance at Tucson: this was a mediocre speech which did not even succeed in getting the
usual succession of standing ovations. Bottoms stayed firmly on chairs as he recited what he regarded
as the achievements of his spending programmes. (It reminded me more than anything of one of Gordon
Brown's interminable Budget speeches.)
State of the Union 2011: So much
for civility. The civility show didn't last long in Congress. Actually, it never
really started. Sure, Republicans and Democrats were able to beat their swords into photo-ops
to receive President Barack Obama's report on the state of the union. Democrats sat with
Republicans. Senators sat with House members. Bitterly divided delegations cloistered
in the leather-upholstered back benches.
Sen. Jim DeMint Reacts To State Of The
Union. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint was in attendance during President Barack
Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Sen. DeMint spoke to reporters after the
speech and said, "It's hard to take the president seriously." The Senator made the comment
while discussing how he feels that the president hasn't delivered on any of his promises.
The Great
Misallocators. President Obama on Tuesday night stressed U.S. economic competitiveness
as a new policy theme, accentuating the point he made last week by naming General Electric CEO Jeffrey
Immelt to lead his new jobs council. ... The pairing is also instructive because both Mr. Obama and
GE symbolize a major reason the U.S. has become less competitive — the misallocation of resources.
Obama's
class-conscious State of the Union. The fact that Obama used "working class" in the
State of the Union — and a check of the White House website shows that he has used it
many times as president — probably reflects the insularity of the president and his
speechwriters. They see it all the time in the New York Times, so everybody uses it, right?
A
disappointing State of the Union address. President Obama entered office promising to
be a different kind of politician — one who would speak honestly with the American people about the
hard choices they face and would help make those hard calls. Tuesday night's State of the Union
Address would have been the moment to make good on that promise. He disappointed.
The President's Speech:
An Irresponsible Performance. State of the Union speeches are typically unimpressive
and unmemorable. Last night's address by President Obama was in that tradition. While
his delivery was fine, the speech itself was mediocre — flat, undisciplined and unfocused,
at times pedestrian and banal, with goals seemingly pulled out of thin air (e.g., by 2035,
80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean-energy sources).
When Numbers Get
Unserious. "The challenge for the president," The New York Times reported before
last night's State of the Union address, "is to convince independents and centrists of his fiscal
responsibility without further alienating his base." President Obama tried to accomplish
this feat by calling the spending he favors an "investment" and portraying its opponents as
shortsighted misers. Obama depicts budget cutters as panicky passengers "trying to reduce
the weight of an overloaded aircraft by removing its engine," a metaphor that transforms frugality
into a vice and makes continuing to spend money we don't have seem like the only responsible course.
President
Obama, The Bankrupt Do Not Invest. In the State of the Union speech, President Obama
called for numerous "investments." Most Americans, especially fiscally conservative tea partiers,
fully realize "investments" translates from DemocratSpeak to English as "spending."
State
of the Union 2011: Barack Obama gets another F for world leadership. Tonight's remarkably
dull State of the Union address was dominated by President Obama's heavily flawed vision for reviving the
American economy, with plans that remain overwhelmingly mired in an outdated Big Government mentality, and
which spectacularly failed to include a coherent strategy for eliminating America's massive $14 trillion
debt. But the State of the Union is also traditionally a major opportunity to project US leadership
on the world stage, and once again Obama has fallen short.
Obama and the
Bodysnatchers. My pal, a frequent Spectator contributor and a super smart guy,
Aram Bakshian, summed it up perfectly after Barack Obama's State of the Union address. "Obama
does not seem like a leader anymore," he said. It is sadly true. This was painfully
apparent in tonight's speech.
Krauthammer
Underwhelmed by Obama Vision in SOTU Address. If President Barack Obama was aiming for a
"this is our generation's Sputnik moment," he aimed too low according to Fox News Channel's Charles
Krauthammer. Immediately following Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, the syndicated
columnist and FNC regular explained he was underwhelmed by the speech.
Excuses, Excuses.
On January 25, the president delivered his State of the Union address. Speaking with vigor and
aplomb, the president demonstrated once again that he can look serious, act like a president, and read the
words that have been written for him. But so far, he has not demonstrated his ability to be a
president, create jobs, or do anything else.
Was
that plagiarism in Obama's State of the Union? [Scroll down] A number of other passages coming
out of the presidential mouth struck a few listeners as sounding vaguely familiar. Talking of the
need for improved education, Obama in one prominent line said, "We are the first nation to be founded
for the sake of an idea." Hmm. Turns out, someone else said those same memorable words about
the time Obama was editing the [Harvard] law review.
Obama
speech shows he's out of touch. In his first two years in office, he was manifestly so far
removed from America's experience and ideals that he lost the election of 2010. His big spending,
overregulation, government takeovers and bailouts and healthcare program cost him his mandate. But,
in his State of the Union speech, he hewed so close to the conventional that he will now lose control
over events. His speech marks the real end of his presidency and the ascendancy of congressional
government led by the House Republican agenda.
Obama's
State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism. If imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama's second State of the Union address
contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince.
Obama's Tribute To Big
Government. Jimmy Carter's malaise speech of the summer of 1979, in which he seemed oblivious
to the American spirit, ended up in the judgment of history as the archetype of his presidency.
Barack Obama may have just done the same thing to himself with the "Sputnik Speech." Even supporters
of the president and the Alinskyite radicalism that dominates his party will find it hard to acclaim this
gifted orator's decision to spend 60 minutes sermonizing about government being more important than
suffering Americans give it credit for during a hard recession.
Sputnik
Moment Or A Lost Opportunity? Jimmy Carter's malaise speech of the summer of 1979, in
which he seemed oblivious to the American spirit, ended up in the judgment of history as the archetype
of his presidency. Barack Obama may have just done the same thing to himself with the "Sputnik Speech."
Obama
Misses Main Point Entirely. Of all the disappointments of President Obama's State of the
Union speech, none looms as large as his failure to address the fiscal problems. Does he not know it's
getting worse, not better?
The Disastrous
SOTU. President Obama's State of the Union address and the Republican and Tea Party
responses to it were a dismal occasion. From the terminal platitude that all are "part of the
American family," to the likelihood that a girl in Tucson may "have dreams like the rest of us," which
"is what sets us apart as a nation," it was a groaning farrago of clichés and unlikely
undertakings, followed by replies that had been written before the contents of the president's
address were known and had almost nothing to do with what he said.
Obama
Channels Failed Michigan Governor. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has yet
to start teaching her new Cal-Berkeley course on green governing — but she already has a devoted
student in the White House. President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night was eerily
similar to the failed economic vision that Granholm laid out in her State of the State address exactly
five years ago: It even included her rhetorical ruse substituting "investments" for "spending."
Space Cadet Obama's 'Sputnik' Gaffe Says It
All. Earth calling Barack: Do you have any idea which country ultimately won the space
race — and why? This question goes to the heart of what was so wrong with the President's State
of the Union address.
Obama
Believes American Exceptionalism Begins With Government. If you listened to the speech and
came away believing Obama is receptive to moving to the center, then you didn't hear or understand him.
For the GOP to make headway on restoring fiscal sanity to this nation, it must first understand him.
Then it must oppose and reverse him.
We
Do Big Things Through the Government. President Obama's State of the Union address was
arguably his best opportunity since his mid-term "shellacking" to seriously address the debt and deficit
issues that threaten America's economic stability now and far into our grandchildren's future. His
failure to deal with reality, however, was evident throughout the speech. The president called for
the nation to do "big things," yet he cited only government programs and initiatives as examples of
"innovation."
Obama's
spaced out speech. President Obama's announcement on Tuesday that "this is our generation's
Sputnik moment" came across as puzzling. Had al Qaeda sent a suicide bomber into space? But
it turned out to be just a clumsy metaphor. The first Sputnik launch in October 1957 is a now
distant event that no longer arouses passion. It would be as if someone described the Watergate
scandal as that generation's Teapot Dome.
Who Needs a Sputnik
Moment? Never in my worst nightmares did I expect to hear the president of the United States
give voice to a dream of building "our generation's Sputnik moment." For the privilege of
becoming an American citizen some 32 years ago, I paid with two death sentences, both levied on me
by one of those Soviet bloc countries that spawned the Sputnik era and later collapsed under its
own weight. From my vantage point, ObamaCare now looms over us with disturbing reminders of the
Soviet bloc's Sputnik-era health care system.
Obama Stung by
SOTU Plagiarism Rap. Kudos to presidential historian Alvin Felzenberg for his tug on
Obama's cape. A Ph.D. from Princeton and the former spokesman for the 9/11 commission, Felzenberg
is the first intellectual insider to suggest publicly that President Barack Obama is not the writer
the literati have anointed him to be. In his review of the State of the Union speech posted
on the U.S. News website, Felzenberg goes so far as to accuse the president and his speechwriters of
plagiarizing it.
Did
Obama Forget About the Teachers Union? When Obama started to speak about the need to
improve education, upgrade our schools and attract quality teachers, an elephant appeared in the
living rooms of most Americans who were watching. Obama never mentioned the beast, but most
of the country saw clearly the three letters on his back — AFT. American Federation
of Teachers — the union that, along with its counterpart, the NEA, National Education
Association, has destroyed public education in America. How can we take seriously any proposal
to improve schools that does not deal with the force that has dragged them down — the
teachers union?
The
Old Obama in New Clothing. The November election sent a clear message to Washington:
less government, less debt, less spending. President Obama certainly heard it, but judging from
his State of the Union address, he doesn't believe a word of it. The people say they want cuts?
Sure they do — in the abstract. But any party that actually dares carry them out will be
punished severely. On that, Obama stakes his reelection. No other conclusion can be drawn from
a speech that didn't even address the debt issue until 35 minutes in.
'... without
the pat-down'? Whoa, Mr. President! Wait a minute, Mr. President. Did we hear you
correctly in your State of the Union address? Did you really say your new high-speed trains would
be "faster than flying...without the pat-down"? Your administration is said to be quietly pushing
back against public resistance to those intrusive TSA pat-downs. ... For you to make fun of those privacy
concerns is particularly uncaring. You are a privileged person who doesn't have to go through
that gantlet every time he flies.
MRC's
Bozell Blasts Media Coverage of Obama SOTU. When Republican presidents in years past
delivered their State of the Union addresses, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted this morning,
"no sooner had the words, 'God bless America,' left their lips than the analysts were there... just
pouncing on them, pointing out any discrepancy, pointing out any controversy, ridiculing any mistake."
Now "along comes Barack Obama..."
What
Obama's State of the Union speech has in common with Taco Bell. I agree with the liberal
blogosphere — Obama's State of the Union was "Reaganesque." Well written and well
delivered. Awe-inspiring. Except that it was all distortions, false promises, and bait and
switch. Don't believe a word. It was pure sales and marketing, with zero substance.
It was the same old "Cash for Flunkers." Failed programs renamed "investments" in order to sell
the con. Obama's State of the Union reminds me of the Taco Bell lawsuit in the news this same
week. ... There's no meat in Obama's product either.
Support
for Barack Obama plan cooling fast. Initially warm support for Barack Obama's
State of the Union address this week is giving way to criticism that his proposals for big
spending on education and innovation were based on "empty platitudes".
Winning the future: With trains and windmills? Tuesday's
State of the Union speech was President Obama's concession to the hard reality of Nov. 2, 2010.
Instead of massive expansions of state power and control, he spoke of massive infusions of taxpayer cash. ... He
proposed huge federal "investments" in transportation (high-speed rail), "green" energy, high technology and
other areas. But soon after calling us to rise to our "Sputnik moment," he proposed freezing domestic
spending. As The Associated Press noted, either he's serious about the spending increases he calls
investments, or the spending freeze, but he can't be serious about both because doing both is impossible.
Solar
shingles won't save America. Whether it's "solar shingles" or smart grids, President
Obama just can't imagine a world in which government isn't deciding how to spend your money.
Despite Mr. Obama's best efforts Tuesday [1/25/2011] to dress up the classic tax-and-spend agenda
as "investment" in the future, merely freezing the current budget maintains a course that only can
end in fiscal ruin.
Browner Resignation,
Obama Omission Could Spell the End of Global Warming Policy. The abrupt resignation of Carol
Browner, President Barack Obama's global warming czar, and the omission by Obama of global warming from his
State of the Union speech on Tuesday could mean that the White House has given up on global warming,
according to climate change analysts.
Uncle
Sam in the driver's seat. Disregard Barack Obama's rhetorical cotton candy about aspiring
to be transformative. He is just another practitioner of reactionary liberalism and champion of
a government unchastened by its multiplying failures. The word "entitlements" was absent from his
nearly 7,000-word State of the Union address — a $183 million speech that meandered for
61 minutes as the nation's debt grew $3 million a minute. He exhorted listeners to "win
the future" by remembering the past.
Hope, Change, and
"Invest". I missed the middle section of Obama's State of the Union address when I took a break
to read "War and Peace," but I gather he never got around to what I was hoping he'd say, which is: "What
was I thinking?" The national debt is $14 trillion, the Democrats won't stop spending, and President
Nero gave us a long gaseous speech about his Stradivarius.
Cap and Trade
Returns From the Grave. The president presented his new, conciliatory face to the nation this
week, and his State of the Union was as notable for what it didn't include as what it did. He uttered
not one word about global warming, a comprehensive climate bill, or his regulatory attempts to reduce
carbon. ... Listen carefully to Mr. Obama's speech and you realize he spent plenty of it on carbon
controls. He just used a different vocabulary.
Obama
Refuses To Learn Government's Clean Energy Failures. It would have been nice if, prior to
giving his SOTU, the president had checked out a paper by Professor Peter Grossman entitled, "The History of
U.S. Alternative Energy Development Programs: A Study of Government Failure." He traces the numerous
efforts our government has made at investing in alternative energy, from nuclear power in the 1950s to the
Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles in the 1990s, and found that none of them have worked.
High-Speed
Rail, Budget Buster. If the nation is going to reduce its out-of-control spending, the first
step is to stop spending money on things we do not need. Despite President Obama's call in his State of
the Union speech for linking 80 percent of the nation by high-speed rail, it is hard to imagine a more
unnecessary program.
A Sputnik Moment?
From a strategic point of view, Sputnik was a Soviet blunder of the first magnitude. If the Americans
had gone first, it would have given Russia a chance to demonize all space operations as imperialist aggression
in the heavens. Every U.S. satellite launch would have been denounced as a crime against humanity.
The U.S. space program in both its civil and military aspects would have been crippled. But from a propaganda
point of view, Sputnik was a triumph, and in this they were aided and abetted by America's Democrats.
Americans
Don't Have 'Sputnik Moments'. Khrushchev had his Sputnik Moment. The Soviets had their
Sputnik Moment. Communist sympathizers throughout the world had their Sputnik Moment. But despite
President Obama's comment during the State of the Union Address, Americans don't have Sputnik Moments.
What's wrong with
Peggy Noonan? Whether naiveté or denial, Noonan's refusal to recognize Barack Obama's
ideological intransigence is unbelievable. By all means, hope is a virtue, but it must be tempered with
wisdom. Noonan is unwise and begging to be lied to, as long as those lies are less obvious and better
spun than those told by the President last Tuesday evening.
Obama's Rathole Moment.
If there were a Nobel Prize for historical misstatement, this "Sputnik moment" speech would be the
odds-on-favorite. ... It is almost as if Obama believes that in some dysfunctional inner-city school, there
are kids with poor English skills about to drop out, but if we just rescue them and get them to return to the
classroom and study algebra, America's future will be saved. Yes, a bunch of middle-aged, nerdy white
males got us to the moon, but it will take an entire village of ethnically, racially diverse and gender-balanced
people, many of whom were the first in their family to finish high school, let alone attend college, to get
us to Mars — a Spaceship Rainbow.
Obama's Sputnik analogy
doesn't fly. It's a sign of how tinny and uninspiring President Obama's State of the Union
address was that a week later it all seems so forgettable.
Tale of Two SOTU's.
Even though it was Obama's first State of the Union since his party lost control of the House and saw its
Senate majority shredded, the [New York] Times didn't dwell on the decline in his party's fortune. By
contrast, Kate Zernike's 2007 lead story on Bush's first State of the Union after the Republicans lost
Congress emphasized the power shift away from the president, while lauding new Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi.
No Need for
State of the Union. I didn't watch the 2011 State of the Union speech. I didn't need to.
After all, for years now what gets said is merely a lot of cheerleading and campaign style rhetoric.
You really can't take much of anything any president now says seriously. And so, after reading the text
of the 2011 speech later it became obvious that the 2011 speech was another case of a politician speaking out
of both sides of his mouth. While this is nothing unusual, in this instance the amount of double-speak
was worse than usual.
It's Not the Economy Stupid, It's President
Obama. By the time President Obama finished giving his State of the Union message, he had
failed leadership 101 and convinced the nation that he is incapable of successfully leading it,
especially in a time of crisis.
Obama's
antique vision of technological progress. Barack Obama, like all American politicians, likes to
portray himself as future-oriented and open to technological progress. Yet the vision he set out in his
State of the Union address is oddly antique and disturbingly static.
The rot in values that is causing America's
decline. Science and math. Science and math. President Barack Obama's new mantra is
science and math. If only America's students focused on science and math, he told us in his State of the
Union address, then we'll be as innovative as China and will no longer have to farm out the building of wondrous
handheld gadgets. The gods of science and math will make our economy blossom. ... Obama surprises me.
How much science or math does he know?
Obama: A Roman God Updated?
We know the real state of the union: government spends too much, borrows too much, and prints too much
money. Too many are out of work and too many recent grads aren't finding it. Government has
promised but can't pay for health care, retirement, and its hundred-plus-countries military adventures.
As our Janus said in his State of the Union speech, that calls for freezing domestic spending for the next
five years while redoubling the recent transportation and construction projects of the last two.
Redoubling spending while freezing it might challenge mortals, but for a god, it's just a day at the office.
2011 SOTU: The
Patriot Response. Here is the abbreviated version of the SOTU: "I want ... I believe ... I've seen ... I've heard ...
I said ... I will be ... I'm asking ... I don't know ... I challenge ... I urge ... I set ... I
know ... I'm proposing ... I ask ... I took ... I made ... I would ... I intend ... I've ordered
... I will not ... I've heard ... I am eager ... I'm not ... I'm not ... I'm not ... I am ... I've
proposed ... I care ... I recognize ... I'm willing ... I've proposed ... I created ... I don't
agree ... I am prepared ... I hear ... I will submit ... I ask ... I will veto ... I will travel
... I call on all ... I know ... I stand..." ... [Keep] in mind that nothing Obama proposed has an
authorizing provision in our Constitution.
Freedom
Occurs Only Once. Its total effect resembles the result of a vocabulary project assigned to kindergarten
students by a progressive teacher to see how many words could be glued onto a single sheet of paper. Missing
like a deafening silence from the mix-and-match are words that did not frequently occur in Obama's speech, or
not at all: freedom, liberty, capitalism, free markets, totalitarian, control, regulation. Freedom
occurs only once: ["]And America's moral example must always shine for all who yearn for freedom and
justice and dignity.["] ... Liberty does not occur once. Capitalism is nowhere to be found in the text.
On Energy, Obama's Full of Hot Air.
President Obama's State of the Union address last week left a lot to be desired. Lisa Fritsch summed it
up well on [PajamasMedia®], writing, "Obama's speech [...] was focused far too much on lofty goals than
the nitty-gritty we need to refloat our ailing ship of state." In fact, in two specific areas his soaring
rhetoric belied reality and misrepresented our nation's future security. First, in calling for the
"reinvention" of our domestic energy policy, the president issued a challenge rooted in ideology rather than
grounded in a clear understanding of America's current and future energy needs. This is especially
troubling because his goal flies in the face of science and the free market.
The Welfare State of
the Union. President Obama has been speaking lately of what he views as an upswing in the
economy. "The economy is growing again," he declared in the State of the Union address. Not
surprisingly, he failed to mention that for 104 consecutive weeks, larger and larger numbers of Americans
have become dependent on welfare. Or that within those families receiving welfare, fathers have
become more and more irrelevant, and youth crime has increased.
When
one man's 'loophole' is another man's stimulus. President Obama says he wants to cut the corporate
income tax rate while closing "loopholes." But — as is often the case on taxes — it's
best to heed what he does, not what he says. Obama has supported — often stridently —
most of the biggest "loopholes" in the current corporate income tax code. Unless he is willing to end
manufacturing tax breaks, low-income housing credits, and ethanol subsidies, his loophole-closing talk from
the State of the Union and his speech to the Chamber of Commerce is just more Obama jabberwocky on taxes.
Spontaneous Order. At last month's
State of the Union, President Obama said America needs more passenger trains. How does he know? For
years, politicians promised that more of us will want to commute by train, but it doesn't happen. People
like their cars. Some subsidized trains cost so much per commuter that it would be cheaper to buy
them taxi rides.
Leeches of the world,
unite! Working in tandem with Senate Democrats, President Obama delivered a State of the
Union address last month that could have been composed on another planet. He trotted out a variety of
spending initiatives, such as more money for education, high-speed rail, broadband Internet access and green
technologies. He didn't detail any spending cuts worth mentioning.
Defining
"Clean" is the Energy Challenge. Clearly no sane person would be in favor of "dirty" energy
standards, but there are many problems with the impossible goal the administration has set out to reach.
First among them: the administration itself cannot agree on what it means by "clean energy." The
remarks the president made in his State of the Union address to the nation last week are a case in point.
President Obama posed the challenge that "by 2035, 80 percent of America's electricity will come from
clean energy sources." There is an easy part of this pledge. Oil, the "dirtiest" of all among his
environmentalist friends, already accounts for virtually nothing in electric power generation. The
market saw to that over the past 20 years.
Chamber of Commerce speech, February 7, 2011
The Era of the Obama
'Blank Screen' is Over. [Scroll down] Mr. Obama recently stood before a crowd at the
Chamber of Commerce, hoping that the audience might somehow view him as a blank screen. ... As Mr. Obama
went on to expound on the "principles" that made America great, the Chamber speech became noticeably creepy
as the president demonstrated that he knows little about free market principles. The president's alleged
JFK moment was more of desperate demand for business to do something to help Obama look good than anything
else.
Hell just froze over.
[Scroll down] The president knows he doesn't understand business. He's never owned a business, managed a
business or, from what I can tell, even worked for a private business during his entire life. He knows
zippo about how the free market operates and how onerous big-government regulations and high taxes can trample
the economy. All he knows about business is what he has read or what someone has told him.
Press conference, March 11, 2011
Obama
Blames Oil Companies For Lack Of Drilling. In his Friday [3/11/2011] press conference to discuss
gas prices, President Obama was rather defensive, straining to counter the notion that his administration has
been unfriendly to oil drilling, something most people would like to see a lot more of these days. Where
do people get that notion? Perhaps his Interior Department appealing a judge's ruling that it act on
several pending deepwater permits had something to do with it.
O's
urgent inaction. The White House is worried: The Libyan crisis and the general instability
in the Middle East have led to spiraling gas prices. The president wanted to show the American people
he knows it's a problem. So he staged a press conference yesterday, and he basically
said he's going to do ... nothing.
Obama news
conference registers 3.7. President Obama called a news conference Friday. Yes, the
weekend was nigh, and few people beyond the media were listening. But that was his target audience
because he looks to be in a tidal wave of political trouble and needs a quick reset in time for the Sunday
morning talk shows. The Real Good Talker has lost control of the political narrative in the nation's
capital, which is very hard for an incumbent president to do.
Spectator-in-Chief.
President Obama held a news conference today and assured Americans that he's "monitoring" gas prices, Qaddafi
and budget negotiations... leaving many people wondering what exactly he was actually DOING about these
issues... which have been boiling for weeks.
Obama
Comes Up Short On Oil. Not surprisingly, President Obama's news conference on oil prices turned
out to be a melange of deceptive facts and useless proposals, all pointing to a lack of interest in serious
solutions.
Clearing up
Today's Obama Energy Lies. This afternoon the President of the United States tried one again
to mislead the public about domestic oil production and how much untapped oil is left in the ground.
He said that domestic oil production is at the highest level in seven years and he indicated that American
reserves are not adequate to help the US reduced its dependence on foreign oil. If Congressman Wilson
was in the audience he might have repeated his famous shout "You Lie."
Obama in a rush for higher gas prices?
At Friday's news conference, President Obama tried to connect with the common man coping with rising gasoline
prices. Instead, the president left little doubt that he is clueless about cars. "You may want to buy a
fuel-efficient car," quoth Obama, "but you may not be able to afford it. And so you're stuck with the old
clunker that's getting 8 or 10 miles a gallon." Eight to 10 mpg? Which clunker would that
be? I wondered. ... You have to go back to the Carter administration years or earlier to find Obama's idea of
a gas-guzzling family car — and even that vehicle would have been a van, light truck/SUV or luxury model.
And yet he is behind the wheel of Washington's energy policy.
Obama Copies Bush
Speech. Obama closed Friday's [3/18/2011] remarks by saying, "I've taken this decision with
the confidence that action is necessary, and that we will not be acting alone. Our goal is focused.
Our cause is just. And our coalition is strong." Nearly a decade earlier, when President George W.
Bush announced that U.S. forces were launching military strikes in Afghanistan, Bush said: "To all the men
and women in our military ... I say this: Your mission is defined. Your objectives are clear.
Your goal is just." Bush used similar wording in other remarks at the time.
Obama's address to the nation regarding the war in Libya, March 28, 2011
Obama Congratulates
Himself. In his speech on Libya Monday evening, President Barack Obama demonstrated why
self-congratulation is an awful basis for foreign policy. ... Perhaps the wrong speech got loaded onto his
teleprompter, because the preachment Obama delivered fudged the past, gave us weasel words in place of real
goals, and substituted a vigorous Nobel Peace Prize-winning pat on the back for any good reason to make this
our fight. The evasions of fact and friction were so breathtaking that they need to be cataloged for
posterity.
Obama Arming Al Qaeda?
With President Barack Obama scheduled to speak to the nation tonight about the role the U.S. military is playing
and will play in the military action in Libya, the White House national security and communications teams
continue to scramble to get their stories straight.
Obama
ditches Oval for speech. An address from the Oval Office has at least three problems for President
Obama. Among other things, it implies the nation is at war — and if there is one thing the
administration is rather emphatic about, it's that we are involved in a limited military action in Libya,
not a war. The president also is not great in an Oval address — few are. Tense and
alone at the Resolute desk, reading off a teleprompter into a network camera while a few staffers and TV
crew stand silently by — it's an isolating, airless moment that does not always convey confidence.
Barack
Obama's muddled speech leaves Libya war aims unclear. President Barack Obama delivered an
elegant speech in a setting — the National Defence University -- in which he appeared much more at
ease then he does in the Oval Office. ... The bad news is that he left Americans no clearer about how this war
ends and while speaking about American leadership tried to pretend that it was the European allies and Nato
that were going to take the weight from this point on (the reality is that the US wil continue to do the
heavy lifting).
Being a leader is about
more than reading off a teleprompter. Mr. Obama waited nine days after U.S. forces began to
engage in hostilities in Libya to make a major address to the nation. He initially avoided making more than
perfunctory remarks because U.S. involvement in the nonwar was supposed to be brief and limited. But
as the kinetic became more frenetic, and Mr. Obama didn't see the favorable bump in public opinion most
presidents enjoy after unleashing military force, he was compelled to address the issue head on.
A War By Any Name. Tonight,
in a speech that probably should have been delivered before American planes began flying missions over North
Africa, Barack Obama will try to explain to a puzzled nation why we are at war with Libya. Not that
the word "war" will pass his lips, most likely. In press briefings last week, our Libyan campaign was
euphemized into a "kinetic military action" and a "time-limited, scope-limited military action."
Obama
Speech: Full Of Rhetoric, Bereft Of Logic. President Obama's Monday night speech was long on
rhetoric and short on logic. He said: "I believe that this movement of change cannot be turned
back, and that we must stand alongside those who believe in the same core principles that have guided us."
Just what would lead him to conclude that this includes the largely unknown forces who are trying to seize power
in Libya? Too often in the past, going all the way back to the days of Woodrow Wilson, we have operated on
the assumption that a bad government becomes better after the magic of "change."
How I Won the
Kinetic Military Action. President Obama's speech last night was fine as far as it went, which
was not very far: Qaddafi was about to wipe out a lot of citizens, so we had to act fast; a lot of people
told us we could do it, so we did it; we avoided a humanitarian crisis — mission accomplished; now
others can take over. But the crisis ten days ago was actually not a humanitarian crisis but a strategic
one: you don't declare Qaddafi "must go" (for violating the Obama Doctrine that leaders who wage war on
their people lose legitimacy), declare that his violence is "unacceptable" — and then stand by doing
nothing as he wipes out all opposition.
Obama's BAM! ZAP! and POW! It
was "Mission Accomplished" but without the banner. In a strong, almost pugnacious, speech Monday night,
President Barack Obama said he had achieved his initial goals in Libya. "So for those who doubted our
capacity to carry out this operation, I want to be clear: the United States of America has done what we said
we would do," he said.
Obama's
TV ratings for his speeches continue to plummet. Monday night's policy address on Libya
delivered 25.6 million viewers, continuing the president's trend of declining ratings for his
issue-oriented telecasts. ... With a decline like that, it is apparent that "The Obama Show" has
jumped the shark.
Obama plays with dynamite. In his
belated address to the nation Monday, President Barack Obama explained why, after nearly a month of dithering, he
chose to intervene militarily in Libya's civil war. ... The speech was widely praised by liberals, who tried hard
not to notice that Mr. Obama sounded a lot like George W. Bush.
The
Great Prevaricator. After committing U.S. forces to combat in Libya, the administration rehearsed
the message it would deliver to the American people 10 days later. When you tell the truth, you
don't have to practice anything.
Obama knocks down another straw man. A
fundamentally dishonest speech. President Obama gave an impassioned, sometimes eloquent, defense
of his policies in Libya tonight. But when it came to justifying the limited goals of the military
mission, his speech was fundamentally dishonest.
Obama
Still Murky on Libya. President Obama just gave a weird speech. Part George W. Bush,
part trademark Obama — filled with his characteristic split-the-difference, straw-man ("some say,
others say"), false-choice tropes. His support for those "yearning for freedom all around the world"
was the sort of interventionist foreign policy that a Senator Obama — if his past reaction to
the removal of Saddam Hussein is any indication — would have objected to, especially in the
case of sending bombers over an Arab Muslim oil-exporting country.
Left Unsatisfied.
Setting aside the swipes at his predecessors ... From a communications standpoint, I think Obama's speech
tonight fell short of its needs and expectations. I know he reads a speech well, but the cadence is
always the same — it's as if you could take any of his major addresses and guess exactly how they
are going to go. And the sentences often lead to head-scratching: the mind wanders -- thinking,
did he really just say that? Do they really believe those words?
Obama on Libya:
Look, Just Trust Me On This. On paper, I agree with a lot of what Obama is saying. But
he's stringing together a lot of pretty-sounding phrases without really getting at the questions most
skeptical Americans have: why intervene here and not in other places?
More slush from the limp, cont'd.
President Obama took the podium tonight to reiterate the rationale supporting our participation in the limited
attack on the Qaddafi regime. I was struck by the tone (literally) of Obama's remarks. As I heard it,
Obama's tone was was angry and defensive. The speech was as a result extraordinarily uninspirational
and even difficult to understand.
Energy speech, March 30, 2011
Pump
And Circumstance. In a Georgetown University address that echoed President Jimmy Carter's "moral
equivalent of war" speech in 1977, the president on Wednesday outlined his plan to reduce oil imports by one-third
over the next decade. Carter, too, set the goal of reducing oil imports by a third through conservation,
increased fuel efficiency, more use of ethanol and other alternative energy sources, and the wearing of more
sweaters. There was nothing new in Obama's version. It didn't work then. It won't work now.
President pumps
politics. President Obama's promise Wednesday to do something about rising gas prices was
drowned out by the giant sucking sound of American dollars being funneled into OPEC pockets. Not
that many expected his plan to make much difference anyway. A president who, as a candidate, said he
didn't mind high fuel prices is not likely to be the one leading the nation toward energy policy sanity.
Full-Throttle
Drill, Drill, Drill. In the fact sheet that accompanied the speech, there's a lot of talk
about "responsible development" for natural gas fracking chemicals, state regulators, tapping experts, the
environmental community, and protecting public health and the environment. In other words, the standards
for new drilling could be so high that there won't be that much new drilling. The president doesn't
discuss the role of the EPA, which is going after coal, natural gas, and oil. And while he says he'll
speed up new leases and permits, he then blames oil companies for not using their old leases. That's
an old saw of an argument that neglects to mention dry holes.
On Energy, Obama Lies With Statistics.
The Obama administration has been reading the polls, and is panicked by the implications of $4 a gallon
gasoline. Consequently, President Obama gave a speech today in which he trotted out a "Blueprint For A
Secure Energy Future." We will have more to say about the administration's proposals, which I don't
think contain anything new, but for the moment, I want to note the dishonesty with which President Obama
introduced them.
Barack Obama's
Oil Lease LIES! How do you know which parts of Obama's energy speech were either lies or
misrepresentations? The parts where his mouth was moving. This morning President Obama outline
his energy policy which is comprised of trying to pull the energy policy wool over America's eyes.
The
President's New Energy Plan: If you want to lower the price of something, the best solution
is to produce more of it. This is basic Econ 101 stuff. But nowhere in the administration's
new energy proposals, presented by the president this Wedesday in a speech at Georgetown University, is the
idea of pumping more oil in the United States addressed, except to say it is impossible.
Obama's
Energy Policy: A Looming Disaster. Once again, on energy policy and action, President Obama talks
the talk, but has no substance behind his teleprompted words. ... Obama's speech made it clear that while he
advocates making hard choices, he has very little experience and no plan for doing so. ... Within hours of
Obama's speech, the Stock Market apparently weighed, measured and found Obama's proposals hollow, and ineffective,
and the price of oil went up.
Budget deficit speech, Georgetown University, April 13, 2011
The Mendacity of Barack
Obama. While I have always been wary of and have written about his dishonesty, after the speech the
president delivered the 13th of April regarding the federal budget, one that was chock full of lies, deceit, and
crass fear-mongering, it must be said that Barack Obama is the most dishonest, deceitful, and mendacious person
in a position of power I have ever witnessed. That performance was the culmination of four years of outright
lies and narcissism that have been largely ignored by the media, including some in the conservative press and
political class who are loath to call Mr. Obama what he is in the bluntest of terms: a liar and a fraud.
Obama Channels Ted Kennedy.
If Obama wants to make a serious debt reduction proposal, it has to be presented in detail, in budgetary form,
so that it can be analyzed properly and scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Obama hasn't done that;
instead, he purports to shave trillions off the national debt with breathtaking insouciance.
Paul
Ryan responds. Thinking over Obama's speech a bit, I see that the "budget address" was really
an excuse to pummel the House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). After all, that was the only
thing "new" about the speech. It's petty and embarrassing for the president to attack a House member,
so Obama surrounded his attack on Ryan with a whole lot of fluff. But make no mistake: This was
about discrediting the only serious plan out there.
The President's
Speech: As recently as February, in his budget, Obama essentially denied that we had a fiscal
crisis. Today, he admitted it and described it, or at least parts of it. It is certainly unorthodox
for a president to renounce his own budget two months after proposing it, but that is just what the president
did — implicitly dismissing even the goals set out by his budget in its own terms as totally inadequate.
Obama's honesty deficit:
President Obama outlined what he called a framework for deficit reduction Wednesday. It was a tacit admission
that his 2012 budget submission did not go far enough. That shows Republicans succeeded in seizing the initiative
with their own comprehensive, pro-growth proposal to restore America's solvency. Mr. Obama's flimsy "me, too"
smacks of desperation.
Obama to soak rich, please Dems.
President Barack Obama gave a terrific reelection speech Wednesday. It wasn't billed as that. It was
supposed to be a number-packed speech about budgeting and spending and all manner of fiscal gobbledygook.
Instead, it turned out to be a speech in which the president told liberals he still shares their goals and
Democrats he is still one of them.
The President's Budget
Address and the Reality of Taxing the 'Rich'. The President is going to address the nation yet
again. He apparently intends to unveil another revised plan to fool the American people into believing
he is sincere about reducing the deficit and reining in spending after the unserious budget he presented in
February was soundly rejected by the country. While his hand has been forced by the twin factors of the
Republicans in the House (buoyed the effectiveness of the Tea Party movement) and the upcoming Presidential
election, he will nonetheless bring up increasing taxes on the so-called wealthy and corporations as one of
the primary means of solving the debt and deficit problem.
Obama's Deceit.
I have had it with this President's blatant dishonesty. His speech today was appallingly deceitful
and misleading. This President, has spent more money and added more debt than any other President
in history. This is not political rhetoric, this is simply fact! Barack Obama's budget deficit
in March of 2011 was larger than the deficit for all of 2007! ... So where did Obama come up with the
claim that he inherited a trillion dollar deficit? In 2008, the deficit under Bush climbed to a
new high of $458 billion.
Obama's Budget, Again.
Pardon me, but I thought the President had already submitted a budget, and that was just two months ago.
Now he devotes another of his many "major speeches" to the budget and comes out with another policy
makeover — or the appearance of one. This time it is a budget that wrecks the country by raising
taxes and cutting Medicare and defense instead of simply doing nothing, as was proposed in February.
In reality, nothing has changed, especially the President's faith in Big Government.
Obama's
Speech Was a Waste of Breath. Obama had a difficult assignment in this speech, partly
because of the exaggerated hopes for it. Even allowing for that, it was weak both politically
and substantively. My instant unguarded reaction, in fact, was to find it not just weak but
pitiful. I honestly wondered why he bothered.
Waste, Fraud
and Abuse: Obama's speech was replete with all three. Even by the standards of the World's
Greatest Orator, yesterday's was a dreadful speech. We observed recently that Barack Obama's reputation
as the WGO rests largely on his talent for the insubstantial — for reciting "poetry" as opposed to
expounding "prose," in Mario Cuomo's terms. Few subjects are more prosaic than the federal budget,
the topic of the president's talk yesterday.
Obama's
Dreamland. Barack Obama just gave a belated but stern warning about escalating debt — a
few weeks after he presented a 2011 budget with a $1.6 trillion deficit, the largest shortfall in
American history. Congressional Republicans are now crowing about reducing Obama's red ink by
forcing some $38 billion in cuts. Such supposed slashing means America would borrow just
$1,562 billion this year rather than the scheduled full $1,600 billion.
The Presidential
Divider. Did someone move the 2012 election to June 1? We ask because President
Obama's extraordinary response to Paul Ryan's budget yesterday — with its blistering partisanship
and multiple distortions — was the kind Presidents usually outsource to some junior lieutenant.
Mr. Obama's fundamentally political document would have been unusual even for a Vice President in the fervor of
a campaign.
Obama Sinks to the Occasion.
President Obama always lets you down. Just when you think he's ready to deliver a lofty speech chocked
with specifics on handling the spending and debt emergency, he offers up a hyper-partisan attack on the leading
Republican proposal, gives practically no details of his own plan, and then sanctimoniously puts himself on the
side of preserving "the American dream for future generations."
Our demagogue in chief.
President Obama has all but ensured his defeat in 2012. His speech Wednesday outlining his framework
for deficit reduction was a pivotal moment in his presidency — the decisive tipping point, in which he
revealed his almost limitless capacity for cynicism and mendacity. He frittered away whatever
credibility he had left.
Spare
us hollow sermons on taxing the very rich. President Obama, we have endured your unfledged
theories on how to be more popular around the world. We have survived your whimsical approaches to
economic recovery. Save. No, spend! Borrow more! And your earnest dabbles as
physician, public-health expert and hospital administrator have left us bewildered and broke for decades
to come. All this we suffer because, after all, we did elect you president. You beat the other
guy.
Spare
us the lectures, Mr. Obama. The nation's first Facebook president is at it again. At
George Washington University on Wednesday, President Obama managed to insult just about everyone in America
who thinks about things. As for the Obamaphants in the media and on the federal dole, I can't speak
for them. On Wednesday, the "fortunate" members of society who already give so much, were told to
cough up more by the most fortunate and least giving, most self-centered man ever to occupy the Oval Office.
President Boring.
What is it about Barack Obama that caused his vice president Joe Biden to fall asleep during the president's
speech Tuesday? [sic] Did Biden, getting on in years, just need his afternoon nap? Well, maybe, but the
television cameras showed a woman quite near the veep nodding out as well. No, I think it was a natural
response. Biden and the woman were bored stiff. Barack Obama has become the most tedious president
in my lifetime. He is like those college professors whose classes you did everything you could to avoid
but, if you had to go, sat as far back as possible in order to get a little shut-eye yourself.
Save Wrath for Obama.
In his speech on Wednesday, [President Obama] accused Republicans supporting the Paul Ryan budget of aiming at
"a fundamentally different America than the one we've known throughout much of our history. A 70% cut
to clean energy. A 25% cut in education. A 30% cut in transportation." Well, no. This
is a lie. Even if Republicans may propose a 25 percent cut from federal government support for
education, that is not a 25 percent cut in the nation's education: It's a 3.68 percent cut in
total government support for education (local, state and federal combined). And that doesn't even take
into account how much other money goes to private education (more than 6.2 percent of American students
go to private schools).
It's OK To Disagree, As Long As You Obey.
If you watched Obama's campaign appearance yesterday — the one you were told would be a historic
speech detailing the President's plans for deficit reduction — you might remember this passage...
Obama:
Incorrigible Statist and Debt Menace. In my book "Crimes Against Liberty," I described
President Obama as dishonest, hyper-partisan, a bully, a narcissist and a hard-core left-wing ideologue.
Anyone who thinks my description is exaggerated or too harsh didn't hear his Wednesday speech on the budget.
Spare
Us the Hypocrisy, Mr. President. President Obama offered few concrete suggestions for
spending cuts this week in his much-anticipated speech on reducing the federal debt, but he had lots
to say about raising taxes. "As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have
traditionally borne a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate.
Everybody pays, but the wealthier have borne a little more," the president said. So he wants to
raise the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent and eliminate itemized deductions for the top
2 percent of earners.
President
Obama Goes from Wrong to Dishonest. America saw a different President Obama yesterday.
Over the last two years, the president's job was to repair the economy and to make us safer. He has
failed at both but at least he appeared to be trying — his failures were arguably attributable
to inexperience, misguidance, and incompetence. Yesterday, however, the president went from being
wrong to being deceptive and intellectually dishonest.
The Incredible
Shrinking Obama. Barack Obama's budget address last week ranks among the most dishonest and
dishonorable presidential speeches in generations. It contained an avalanche of false and misleading
statements. It was shallow and bitterly partisan. Yet the speech served a useful purpose: It
provided the American people in general, and Republicans in particular, with the basic line of attack President
Obama will use between now and the 2012 election.
A Consequential Man.
What would you think of a man who knew he was not well for more than a year, then assembled a team of experts
which spent seven months to diagnose a fatal, but treatable disease and recommend a comprehensive cure?
Would you consider the man prudent? Sensible? Cautious? What would you say about the same man
if, four months after learning the diagnosis and cure, he rejected the diagnosis of his hand-picked experts,
leaving the disease untreated, but promised that, if his condition hadn't improved in another three years,
he would assemble another team of experts to diagnose his condition and recommend treatment? Most
people would have little sympathy for a fatal act of denial by an unserious man.
Patient Obama. Last week
the president gave a speech on the deficit, rightly trying to convince Americans that it is now beyond
unsustainable. Yet his theme was that the Republicans' attempts to reduce it were cold-hearted, endangering
the most vulnerable among us, such as those with Down's Syndrome, while protecting the proverbial "rich" from
commensurate sacrifice. Let us, then, look at Obama, and the context of his speech, as a doctor might a
patient.
About That Speech.
At first glance, President Obama's partisan speech last week attacking GOP budget proposals was precisely what
an incumbent running for re-election shouldn't do. It was not a speech designed to appeal to independent
voters, a group Mr. Obama has suffered serious erosion with. But Mr. Obama's tone makes more sense when
one realizes that his sinking poll numbers also indicate an erosion in support with his liberal base.
Obama's Got a
Bridge to Sell You. I called President Obama's speech last week among the most dishonest and
dishonorable presidential speeches in generations. This week, it appears he's eager to build on that
reputation. In a town hall event in Annandale, Obama evoked the August 2007 St. Anthony Falls bridge
collapse as a justification for higher taxes.
Obama Seems Incapable of Loving America.
[Scroll down] Every once in a while, as he did in that speech in 2008, Obama shows us who he really is and
what he really believes — if we are listening. Such a moment of startling honesty came recently
when Obama delivered what the mainstream media laughingly described as a "response" to Rep. Paul Ryan's common
sense budget. What the speech really amounted to, of course, was simply a tired partisan kick-off of
his 2012 re-election campaign. In it, Obama again stated his contempt for the nation that has given
him so much.
The Mendacity of Barack
Obama. While I have always been wary of and have written about his dishonesty, after the speech
the president delivered the 13th of April regarding the federal budget, one that was chock full of lies, deceit,
and crass fear-mongering, it must be said that Barack Obama is the most dishonest, deceitful, and mendacious
person in a position of power I have ever witnessed. That performance was the culmination of four years
of outright lies and narcissism that have been largely ignored by the media, including some in the conservative
press and political class who are loath to call Mr. Obama what he is in the bluntest of terms: a liar
and a fraud.
El Paso, Texas, May 10, 2011
Obama's illegal
alien nation. President Obama is in El Paso Tuesday [5/10/2011] to give a speech on what
he calls "the broken immigration system." He'd know because he's the one helping break it. Nowhere
is this more apparent than in the Secure Communities program under which local law enforcement must turn over
illegal criminals to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation. The agency estimates
that local law enforcement arrests over 1 million people a year who are not U.S. citizens.
Obama
says border is secure enough to begin legalization. Facing a political gridlock that has
doomed immigration legislation for years, President Obama, making his first visit to the border since
taking office, turned to activists and immigrant-rights supporters across the country Tuesday and said
it's now up to them to force Congress to act.
The Mexican City That
Had More Casualties Than Afghanistan: President Barack Obama's commitment to providing legal
status for illegal aliens is reflected in the time he has spent focusing on the country's immigration laws
in recent weeks, the White House said on Monday, one day before the president is set to deliver a national
address on immigration in El Paso, Texas. El Paso is across the border from Juarez, Mexico,
a city where 3,111 civilians were murdered last year — more than in all of Afghanistan.
President's El Paso Immigration Pander.
President Obama's El Paso speech delivered the predictable: a call for the same old mass amnesty mix
("comprehensive immigration reform," to open-borders types). And at least for a time, he's put immigration
front and center. First, look at Obama's "solution." Government's "threshold responsibility" is
"to secure the borders and enforce the law." Obama asserted that his administration has done that.
In fact, the Government Accountability Office reports that only 129 of the 2,000 miles of the southern
border are under control.
Border
bluster. Does President Obama want to fix America's broken immigration system — or
just score political points? Judging from his trip to Texas Tuesday [5/10/2011], it's hard to see any serious
interest from him in reform. And that's a shame. Because, as he himself notes, the status quo is
a disaster.
Where Obama's Border
Lies. As noted in this column last week, Richard Stana, director of homeland security issues
for the Government Accountability Office, informed the Senate Homeland Security Committee in March that there
are only 129 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border where the Border Patrol can prevent or stop
an illegal entry from taking place at the border itself. There are another 744 miles where it can
stop an illegal entry at "distances of up to 100 miles or more away from the immediate border." That
leaves at least 1,081 miles of border where Homeland Security has anything but "operational control."
The
Amnesty Bandwagon Rides Again. The public relations campaign for President Obama's latest
revival of "immigration reform" makes one thing crystal clear: This is not, and never has been, about
homeland security. This is not, and never has been, about economic security. It's about
political security, plain and cynical.
Yes Mr. President, I
Do Want Alligators in My Moat. In yet another one of Obama's highly touted campaign speeches
(are there any other type?), the President once again chose to use derisive rhetoric to whip up the masses
against those horrible Republicans. Obama attempted to put the GOP on the defensive by suggesting that
Republicans not only want the country surrounded by a moat to prevent evil immigrants from entering, but that
in order to ensure success, they would fill the moat with alligators. Apparently, the only result that
Obama achieved from these ridiculous and extremely un-presidential one-liners was an electorate feeling complete
and utter disgust at his obnoxious display of arrogance with regard to such an important domestic issue.
Demagoguery
101. Looks like the Tucson truce — no demonization, no cross-hairs metaphors —
is officially over. After all, the Republicans want to kill off the elderly, throw the disabled in the
snow and watch alligators lunch on illegal immigrants. The El Paso speech is notable not for breaking
any new ground on immigration but for perfectly illustrating Obama's political style: the professorial,
almost therapeutic, invitation to civil discourse, wrapped around the basest of rhetorical devices —
charges of malice compounded with accusations of bad faith.
Obama
Brings Non-White Americans Together. Standing at the border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas, on
Monday, the U.S. president scoffed at Americans who want a border fence. "You know, they said 'we
needed to triple the border patrol,'" he laughed. "Well, now they're going to say we need to
quadruple the border patrol, or they'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe
they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."
Border security
is no laughing matter. President Obama claims the border has never been safer, that his administration
has done everything demanded by Republicans, and more, to secure the border, and cites the FBI's Uniform Crime
Reports data to prove his point. He even went so far in a speech earlier this week in El Paso to chide
his critics, claiming they will never be satisfied, not even with a moat full of alligators.
Candidate Obama Secures the Vote of Undocumented
Democrats. Presidential candidate Barack Obama, seeking the Democratic Party nomination in 2012,
stumped for the illegal alien vote in El Paso, Tex., this week, urging Congress to pass an amnesty bill and
hitting Republicans for wanting to build a moat at the border and fill it with alligators. Obama's signature
soaring rhetoric extolled the beneficial impact of immigration throughout the history of the United States, citing
Einstein and I. M. Pei ... After the inspiring reminder of what America owes to past (legal) immigrants,
came the trademark slam, the Alinsky left hook. "At times, there has been fear and resentment directed toward
newcomers." Translation: Enforcing immigration law is racist.
Bordering on demagoguery.
In his speech on immigration reform in El Paso last week, President Obama opined: "[W]e've seen leaders
of both parties who try to work on this issue, but then their efforts fell prey to the usual Washington games."
Michael Barone observes that Obama himself has been a prominent practitioner of these games.
Alligators,
Moats and Other Such Nonsense. President Obama gave what was billed as an important speech on
immigration last week near the border in El Paso, Texas. Unfortunately, it was one of the most
demagogic moments in recent presidential history. Nearly everything Obama said was either factually
incorrect or deliberately misleading.
The State Department, May 19, 2011
Obama's Abandonment of
America: Before we get into what the speech means for Israel, it is important to consider what
it means for America. Quite simply, Obama's speech represents the effective renunciation of the US's
right to have and to pursue national interests. Consequently, his speech imperils the real interests that
the US has in the region — first and foremost, the US's interest in securing its national security.
Obama's Israel Surprise.
President Barack Obama, seeking to get ahead of historic changes rolling through the Middle East, promised
support for democratic uprisings in the Arab world and called for the first time to begin negotiations for a
Palestinian state based on Israel's pre-1967 borders.
Obama's Empty
Speech: There were some fine sentences in President Obama's speech, but two of his main points
were wrong. The first thing he did was take credit for the Arab Spring, saying he had supported it all
along. This is simply not true.
What Obama's MENA Speech
Means. Herewith President Obama's May 19 Middle East speech, annotated: ["]It will
be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.["]
With this Barack Obama openly, unreservedly, and without a trace of irony or self-reflection adopts the Bush
Doctrine, which made the spread of democracy the key U.S. objective in the Middle East.
Obama's Farewell to Israel
Speech. Yesterday [5/19/2011] President Obama, in what only be characterized as a flight from
reality, suggested that "borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed
swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states." But it gets better.
"The full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces should be coordinated with the assumption of
Palestinian security responsibility in a sovereign, non-militarized state." Would that be the "Palestinian
security responsibility" that has long countenanced the firing of several thousand missiles into Israel?
Obama's borders Caused
60 Years of War. Obama has just given an eager world his fantasy answer for the last sixty years
of Arab-Israel conflict. The Great One's long-awaited solution is for Israel to pull back to the cease-fire
lines of the 1948 War of Independence, or what Obama, in a moment of historical amnesia, calls "the 1967 borders."
People have fought and died over those borders since 1949, not 1967. Make that sixty years of regular warfare.
Did
Obama Think He Was Giving a Pro-Israel Speech? Given what he probably truly believes of Israel in his
heart, his acknowledgment of its utility as a scapegoat, its security concerns, its right to determine its own future,
and the problems raised by the Fatah-Hamas agreement surely seemed like the height of generous good feeling.
Barack Obama, Neocon? President
Obama delivered a speech on the Middle East at the State Department today [5/19/2011]. If one takes it seriously,
it signified — with one key exception — Obama's transformation into a virtual clone of his predecessor.
President Bush's democracy agenda, which Obama once scornfully rejected, has now been adopted as Obama's own.
Dancing With Arafat's
Ghost. On Thursday, Barack Obama went to the State Department to "mark a new chapter in American
diplomacy." The president's handlers boldly billed his lengthy address "A Moment of Opportunity" for the
Middle East. It was neither. Instead, he delivered a naive, revisionist lecture that was sufficiently
utopian and self-centered to have been drafted by Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, he also demanded major
concessions from the only democracy in the Middle East and America's most steadfast ally in the region, Israel.
Summing
Up Obama's Speech: Making Israel Pay for the "Reset". Contrary to reports that said that Obama had
decided to pass on enunciating his idea of a framework for Arab-Israeli peace in the wake of the unity pact between
Fatah and Hamas, the president nevertheless proceeded to do just that. Though Obama paid due deference to
Israel's security needs and stated his opposition to Palestinian attempts to delegitimize and isolate Israel, by
stating that a framework of peace must be based on the pre-1967 borders, he has dealt the Jewish state a telling
diplomatic blow.
Credibility
Is Obama's Biggest Weakness In Middle East Strategy. After Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address,
the crowd walked away disappointed. ... In comparison, President Obama's address today proved doubly disappointing.
It lacked Lincoln's simplicity and clarity. And the orator himself could offer no real accomplishments to give the
speech weight. Credibility is the big problem with this president's Middle East strategy. Thursday's speech
had to build on a foundation of next to nothing.
Just How Dumb and Damaging?
How dumb and damaging was President's Obama speech on the Middle East? [#1] Just when everyone was
focusing on how Arab states could get their internal politics in order, Obama shifts the attention back to
Israel. [#2] Just when everyone was focusing concern about the role of Hamas and Iran in shaping the
future of Palestinians, Obama shifts the attention back to what Israel has to do. [#3] Just when the
addition of Hamas was undermining the case for the UN "approving" of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders
with Jerusalem as its capital, Obama legitimizes the effort to go to the UN by unilaterally supporting the 1949
borders, which happen not to include East Jerusalem.
Criticism
of Obama's Middle East speech is swift. The reaction to President Obama's speech has not been
favorable. Tim Pawlenty, keeping to his practice of reacting swiftly to Obama's foreign policy miscues
put out a statement: "President Obama's insistence on a return to the 1967 borders is a mistaken and very
dangerous demand. The city of Jerusalem must never be re-divided. To send a signal to the Palestinians
that America will increase its demands on our ally Israel, on the heels of the Palestinian Authority's agreement
with the Hamas terrorist organization, is a disaster waiting to happen."
The Nuclear
Genie: The president's policy speech lauded changes in the Mideast during the so-called Arab Spring.
Curiously missing was anything about ominous nuclear developments in the Muslim world.
Rabbi: 'The President
of the United States is Asking for Ethnic Cleansing'. President Barack Obama has made an unprecedented
demand on Israel, Jewish leaders said Thursday, after the president called for Israel to redraw its borders to
where they were in 1967 before the Six Day War. One rabbi said Obama was, in essence, asking for "ethnic
cleansing" of thousands of Jewish families.
'Arab Spring,' Christian
Winter. Obama wants to reward "democratic Egypt" with $1 billion in debt relief.
Only, "democratic" Egypt is torching churches and slaughtering Christians left and right.
Obama's Israel Speech
Fools Few. Not only was this one of the most outrageous policy statements, regarding the
Israel/Palestinian issue made by a President in decades, but President Obama's timing was shameful.
The speech was given a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to arrive in Washington.
Edward Koch, a former New York Mayor, a lifelong Democrat, believes that "President Obama is basically hostile
to the state of Israel. A day in advance of his meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel he seeks to
cut off Israel's legs in negotiations.
Obama's Revisionist
History. Always a master at misdirection and diversion, President Obama and his flacks have
taken pains to assert that his new "1967 lines as a basis for peace" formulation for Israel's borders is,
hey, "nothing new." There's a grain of truth in this argument. But a mountain of lie.
The lie renders the truth utterly irrelevant. Let's take a little walk down memory lane of prior US
administrations, and see just how fraudulent it really is.
Obama in the Abstract.
Let's assume that it was not President Obama's intention for the final section of his big Mideast speech, in
which he took up the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to entirely overwhelm everything he had
just said in support of democratization and the "universal rights" of those living in the region. Of
course, that's exactly what happened when the fateful words "1967 lines" passed his lips.
Quick
Analysis Of Obama's Foreign Policy Speech. This whole speech is about 2012. He thinks
it'll be more popular to pull the troops out; so he'll do that. Let's hope his foolish risk pays off.
Barack
Obama's Mission Accomplished? The words were soothing — "take comfort in knowing that
the tide of war is receding", rest assured that "the light of secure peace can be seen in the distance" —
but what was entirely lacking was an explanation of American strategy in Afghanistan from now on.
Obama's
aggravation with Congress over Libya on display. Both in remarks the president made during
his address on Afghanistan Wednesday night and in comments made by senior administration officials, the
White House is losing patience with Congress.
President
Obama's Afghanistan speech confirms America's decline. The American Century just ended. This
was the phrase coined by Henry Luce, which so aptly described America as the modern-day colossus, more powerful
than any nation had ever been. Wednesday night, President Obama said that power had reached its limit.
He was bringing 10,000 troops home from Afghanistan. The war was not finished, but we are.
The president may be
sabotaging his own Afghanistan strategy. President Obama failed to offer a convincing military
or strategic rationale for the troop withdrawals from Afghanistan that he announced Wednesday night. In
several ways, they are at odds with the strategy adopted by NATO, which aims to turn over the war to the
Afghan army by the end of 2014.
Obama's failed state.
The White House plan to begin troop withdrawals from Afghanistan is more political than military strategy.
Whether it improves President Obama's chances of being re-elected depends largely on whether the Taliban think
he should have a second term. In December 2009, the president said troop withdrawals from Afghanistan
would begin in July 2011, and so they will. That original deadline Mr. Obama set was arbitrary, and
there is currently no military rationale for the troop drawdown.
Most
Ludicrous Analysis of Obama's Afghanistan Speech? The elusive distinction of most ludicrous
analysis of Obama's Afghanistan speech should be awarded to NPR for its story, "Obama's Afghan Speech
Echoed Lincoln's Talk." The segment was less than a minute-and-a-half, but it was a doozy.
Obama
is a master of ambivalence. What other American president has employed a public argument so
transparently political — the need to "rebuild our infrastructure" and "find new and clean
sources of energy" — to explain his choices as commander in chief? What other president has
deployed the words "fidelity" and "unwavering belief" — citing examples of military tenacity and
courage — to announce a policy of premature retreat? What other president has more
dramatically claimed "a position of strength" while more effectively conveying an impression of weakness?
Support the Tropes.
[Scroll down] The truth is, there's an Emperor's New Clothes aspect to Obama's supposed status as the World's
Greatest Orator. We've heard the myth of his eloquence over and over, yet he keeps "unexpectedly" making
gaffes or tin-eared statements. Here's the big one from his speech last night: "America, it is
time to focus on nation building here at home." The term "nation building" was popularized by George W.
Bush during a 2000 presidential debate with then-Vice President Al Gore. The soon-to-be president
used it as a term of derision.
Obama Flinches.
President Obama flinched. Last night, he announced his decision to begin rapidly unwinding his Afghan
surge. Of the 30,000 additional troops committed, Obama wants 10,000 out by the end of this year and the
rest out by the end of next summer. This risks giving back to the Taliban all that's been won over the
last year with blood, sweat, and tears.
Obama slides toward Afghan
exit. President Barack Obama is gambling that his gradual military withdrawal from Afghanistan
won't prompt the tribal country to spin out of control in the next 12 months and will help him run as a
jobs-and-growth candidate in 2012. "America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home,"
Obama declared in his prime-time announcement from the White House. "Let us responsibly end these
wars, and reclaim the American Dream that is at the center of our story," he said in a speech that segued
into a campaign-style pitch for the 2012 election.
Obama, the LBJ of
our time. Mr. Obama essentially has admitted defeat. He has publicly announced that
U.S. forces will begin to pull out and that the process will be accelerated by the summer of 2012 —
just in time for the election campaign.
Press Conference, July 11, 2011
Obama's
Marxist Immersion Shows in Presser. In yesterday morning's [7/11/2011] press conference, Obama let
slip a telling expression. To give context to this quote, Obama earlier made multiple mentions of the
fact that he was a "best-selling author" and was personally wealthy due to income from "his" books.
It would seem that Jack Cashill's work has gotten under the Usurper's skin.
A Press
Conference Devoid of Answers. The fiscal crisis, President Obama declared at a White House press
conference today, consists of two problems: the deficit and debt. Spending? That's something
he'd like to see more of, only House Republicans won't let him.
Pat
Caddell On Obama: "Does This Guy Have Any Idea What He Is Doing?". After watching Obama's press
conference this morning, Democrat pollster Pat Caddell said it is time to confront the elephant in the room:
That is, the question as to whether Obama actually has any idea what he's doing. He must be talking about
the elephant in the MSNBC green room, or something, because I think everyone else has been openly wondering
about that for some time now — and we have serious doubts.
Nobody
Should Believe A Single Thing Obama Says About the Budget. Granted, nobody should believe a single thing Obama says
about anything — (including his denials that he knew anything about Fast and Furious), but
in light of his press conference today, ahead of his budget negotiations with John Boehner and the Republicans,
I thought it would be good to count the ways Obama has been duplicitous and disingenuous in his actions re the
economy, (which he really and truly seems hellbent on destroying.) As always with him — you
have to look at what he does — not what he says.
'Exchange' You
Can't Believe In. Maybe the most unknowing moment from President Obama's debt-limit press
conference the other day was when he said that "I'd rather be talking about stuff that everybody welcomes,
like new programs." Define everybody — and, please, let us know when the new programs are going to stop.
Press Conference, July 15, 2011
Obama's
tantrum in a high chair. Every mom who has ever been at her wit's end recognizes Barack Obama.
The president who earlier nagged Congress that it was time for Americans to "eat our peas" finally threw his
own peas to the floor and banged his spoon on his supper dish. Such a tantrum in a high chair is a
familiar sight in a lot of kitchens.
Obama: No Specifics.
It only took a few minutes for the President, broken record-like, to mention the immoral excesses of millionaires,
billionaires, and corporate jet owners. Seriously? I thought we had roundly and soundly debunked
this class warfare-fueled jab at the wealthy? It's mind-boggling that he is still using this as a political
selling point — although he did admit that "I generally don't watch what is said about me on cable
television," all the while blaming Congress for being out of touch with the American public.
Blow by
Blow Account of the President's Press Conference. We're talking too much about debts and
deficits which means we can't talk about spending money on community colleges. Community colleges?? ... The
only specific cut of any sort Obama mentions by name is ethanol subsidies. The only one. ... "Modest
changes" in Medicare and Social Security can save trillions of dollars, Obama says. It's all so simple!
One
Obama Presser, 36 Obama Lies and Deceptions. Obama held a press conference last Friday, July 15
which turned out to be a purely partisan effort to increase taxes and increase the American debt. His
speech and the answers he gave to cherry picked questions from the press was fundamentally dishonest:
in all I counted three dozen lies, deceptions and misleading statements.
Press Conference, July 22, 2011
It's All About
the Senate. President Obama has done nothing to earn his Nobel peace prize, but after
yesterday's [7/22/2011] performance at the White House podium no one should begrudge him an Oscar.
His performance was mean-spirited, petulant, more politically vicious than anything we ever heard from
Richard Nixon — and altogether a total crock...
The
President Is Actually Trying to Talk the Markets Into a Panic. An enraged Barack Obama
just took to the nation's airwaves to announce his effort to strike a deal with Republican Speaker
of the House John Boehner has fallen apart. Perhaps for the first time in American history,
this president is literally using this press conference [7/22/2011] to create a financial panic over
the weekend about the opening of the markets on Monday.
David
Brooks turns on Obama. After Friday night's presidential press conference, even one of
the left's favorite conservatives is scratching his head at President Barack Obama's demeanor.
Krauthammer:
'This is Obama at his most sanctimonious, demagogic, self-righteous and arrogant'. Late Friday
afternoon, President Barack Obama went to the White House press room after House Speaker John Boehner reportedly
walked away from the debt-ceiling negotiation. He had some very stern words about Boehner and the
Republicans in the House. But Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wasn't impressed with
Obama's anger.
Obama,
11 a.m.: We won't default. Obama, 6 p.m.: We might default. [Scroll down] Just a few hours later,
shortly after 6:00 p.m. Friday, the president appeared in the White House briefing room and delivered
a message that was almost precisely the opposite of what he had said a few hours earlier.
Obama's Cool Goes Missing — Again!
In what is becoming a familiar ritual in Washington, President Barack Obama went on a 35-minute tirade of
angry accusations, name calling, and peeved rhetoric; this time, against his former golf buddy John Boehner,
Speaker of the U.S. House.
National Debt Speech, July 25, 2011
Synopsis courtesy of Lucianne. The President
Tonight. Eyelids flutter and slowly close as the nation nods off at Obama's totally political
and hectoring speech.
Barack Obama has
trouble commanding respect. So this is what we have come to: the president of the United States,
and not just any president but the World's Greatest Orator, standing in the White House petulantly reproving
his partisan opponents and imploring his supporters: "If you want a balanced approach to reducing the
deficit, let your member of Congress know."
Obama the Ineffectual.
I didn't watch the president's address live last night, but before reading it I did take a look at the
insta-reaction, and there was a stunning lack of intensity in the response to it. It had become clear
in the two hours before he spoke that he himself had no particular proposal to push or goal in mind for the
speech.
Krauthammer:
Obama "Has Gone From Emperor To Bystander". Charles Krauthammer: "When I heard today
that he was going to speak at 9:00, instantly I thought, 'we've got a deal.' Why else would the
President request airtime? Then I hear he's just going to make his argument.
Hill
Republicans tee off on Obama's debt ceiling speech. Republican responses from Capitol Hill
were swift and brutal Monday night, following President Barack Obama's speech to the American people about
the federal debt limit. The assessments were as unanimous as they were scathing: Obama's
"balanced" fix to the debt limit is flawed.
Baby Talk. Consider the
condescension implicit in the president's statement -- "a term that most people outside of Washington have
probably never heard of before." These "people outside of Washington" are not little children being
lectured on an obscure subject by a worldly adult. These people outside Washington are ... citizens.
White
House Did Not Want GOP Response to Presidential Speech. The President is used to flexing his
muscles and storming the public airwaves whenever he wants to sell skeptical Americans on socialist economic
policies. The White House and media have before refused the GOP an opportunity to present a dissenting
response, thus squelching the presentation of a balanced debate.
President
Obama Is No Longer Tethered To Reality. President Barack Obama's speech to the nation
Monday night [7/25/2011] was highly disturbing. Because read carefully, it reveals a president
wildly divorced from the fundamental realities of the nation he is supposed to be leading. President
Obama actually told America on national television that it is a nation "with a system in which the deck seems
stacked against middle class Americans in favor of the wealthiest few." It is incomprehensible
how a man serving as president of these United States could make such a fundamentally false assertion
about his own country.
Credit downgrade speech, August 8, 2011
White House cooks the
books to project imaginary growth. Standard & Poor's historic downgrade of the U.S. credit
rating is an attempt to bring adult oversight to the political squabbling over out-of-control government
spending. But rather than "eating his peas," President Obama is throwing a tantrum.
Markets to Obama: shut up.
With the stock market facing a historic meltdown, Americans could at least expect the president to be on time
for a speech intended to inspire confidence. ... After twenty five minutes of waiting for Mr. Obama to show up,
the markets resumed tanking. ... In the 20 minutes after he finished speaking the Dow slid
200 points. The market closed having lost 634 points. It was a vote of no confidence.
Debt man talking.
President Obama gave a statement this afternoon on the historic downgrade of the United States' credit rating.
As of this writing, the statement is not posted on the White House site. I wonder why. ... Based on
the Politico account, Obama spoke for seven minutes. If he'd talked a little longer, he might have
taken the stock market down another 14 percent.
Obama's
horrifyingly bad speech. He was a half hour late. His head turned from side to side as
if he were attending a tennis match. He practically never looked in the camera, as if he were averting
our gaze. And those were the strong parts of President Obama's disastrous speech. It was a bit
like a slow-motion car crash. After a while, one stopped listening to the blather and simply watched
the stock ticker go down and down. And down some more.
Is Obama Smart?
Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only
by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can
anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché?
As for the small speeches, such as the one we were kept waiting 50 minutes for yesterday, we get
Triple-A bromides about America remaining a "Triple-A country." Which, when it comes to long-term
sovereign debt, is precisely what we no longer are under Mr. Obama.
Obama
Serves Up a Silly Speech. The speech did at least temporary harm. As soon as he finished
speaking, the already jittery financial markets plunged. Americans didn't want to hear that we're fine
people or that Warren Buffett thinks that we should have an impeccable credit rating. They didn't want
him to repeat his basic talking points: the need to marshal the "political will" to extend the payroll
tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits, or create an infrastructure bank.
The
most powerful man on Earth? A familiar air of indecision preceded President Obama's pep talk to
the nation. The first draft of his schedule for Monday contained no plans to comment on the downgrading
of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's. Then the White House announced that he would
speak at 1 p.m. A second update changed that to 1:30. At 1:52, Obama walked into the State
Dining Room to read his statement. Judging from the market reaction, he should have stuck with his
original instinct.
Dow drops 200 points
during Obama speech. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 635 points today, but it shed
more than 200 of those points after President Obama began speaking on the economy this afternoon.
Fanning
the flames. An hour late and many trillions of dollars short, President Obama took to the podium
yet again yesterday to explain that none of this mess is his fault. It's not about leading the nation,
you see, let alone addressing its problems — it's about Campaign 2012.
The
President Owns This Bad Economy. Reacting to the U.S. credit downgrade, President Obama
gave a damaging statement proving he has learned nothing from his ideological mistakes. A true leader
accepts blame — and reality.
Presidential
Failure. If the president meant to calm the markets on Monday, he failed utterly — and
no wonder. All he did was make it clear he's completely out of ideas on how to get the economy moving
again.
'A'
what?! Rhetorical 'whiz' fails to make the grade. I don't think any president has
ever said anything quite as depressing as the line Barack Obama delivered yesterday: "No
matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country."
Really? That's the best he could come up with in response to the unprecedented downgrading of
the creditworthiness of the United States of America?
Teleprompter of the
United States. How bad was the president's speech yesterday? So bad that Dana
Perino, former press secretary for George Bush, dismissed it on Fox News last night as the work of
TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States). Even the usually supportive Dana Milbank of the
Washington Post was appalled by it: "It's not exactly fair to blame Obama for the rout:
Almost certainly, the markets ignored him. And that's the problem: The most powerful
man in the world seems strangely powerless, and irresolute, as larger forces bring down the country
and his presidency."
Obama's
Bay of Pigs Moment. Monday's speech, in which he addressed the downgrade, had the ring of
denial about it. America's credit, dropping from AAA to AA+, was diminished. The moment
called for frankness about what could — and should — be done. Instead,
we got a dodge.
Obama and the
'Competency Crisis'. The rising impatience with the leadership of President Obama was epitomized
on Aug. 8 in the middle of one of the now-habitual Wall Street roller coasters. His speech on the
economy was 53 minutes late. What showed on TV screens was an empty White House podium, an image
suggestive of the absence of leadership. When the president did speak, the best he could come up with
was "We've always been and always will be a triple-A country." The market's response was a Bronx cheer,
a drop of another 300 points.
Johnson Controls, Holland Michigan, August 11, 2011
When Obama Loses
America Wins. [Scroll down] Not coincidentally, Johnson Controls is the recipient of
$300 million of Obama's stimulus money as part of the administration's focus on so-called "green"
technology and jobs. Nowhere on the President's Teleprompter was the part about the resulting
"green" jobs costing about $2 million each.
Joint Session of Congress, September 8, 2011:
The Big Jobs Speech That Will Fix Everything
Anticipation:
Obama's Road to Bali.
Last month's jobs figures — zero jobs created — is further testament to the genius in chief
and his posse. And while we wait for the speech laying out his latest jobs plan, the White House press
office is making every effort to dampen expectations, as if that were necessary. The White House says
it's not his full plan.
Will
This 'Major' Jobs Speech Be Any Different. Democrats hope the president will deliver big, bold
ideas in his much-hyped jobs speech. But why should this one be different from his other "major" jobs
speeches that consisted only of stale, failed ideas?
Obama's
speech will save civilization. The Harvard-educated professor is out of ideas. His
$800 billion stimulus was supposed to drop the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent by now.
But it's 9.1 percent, and last month, the president's efforts produced not one single job. But his
speech will place new blame. Mr. Obama will, in the grand hall of Congress, portray Republicans —
and the grass-roots tea partyers swept into office in direct response to his policies — as rubes
and, between the lines, as racist.
Obama's
dirty job. The president will deliver a major speech on the employment situation only days after
his government reported that no jobs — that's none, nada, zilch, zero — were created last
month. For the first time since 1945, when World War II came to an end, not a single new job
was created in the United States.
Obama: I'm Done Working with
Congress. Pundits decrying the level of rancor between the Obama White House and Congress
should hold onto their hats — it's about to get worse, if the New York Times is right about
the president's planned jobs speech to a Joint Session of Congress. ... Buried late in the article is a window
into the two-part strategy the president will deploy at the speech: blame his captive audience, then
announce he will be enacting policies that don't require congressional approval.
The President's
Speech Impediment. In this universe, a bigger stage is often the solution for a lack of
substance. Put it this way: Without the backdrop of a joint session of Congress, how many
networks would broadcast another Obama jobs speech?
Reaction:
The Humpty Dumpty President's
Magic Words. Anticipating President Obama's address also reminded me that my dogs communicate
better than he does. They bark or growl to tell us things and they use actions to show us, now.
President Obama, however, reads stuff written for his indispensable ally and constant companion, TOTUS. ... Dogs
don't lie and don't need teleprompters.
Obama
Came to a Fork in the Road and Took It. Will President Obama's Thursday address be the worst speech
ever? Kevin Hassett almost thinks so: ["]It might be that this jobs report stimulates the Obama team
to drop all the Keynesian nonsense, but I doubt it. Frankly, I expect Obama's jobs speech to be the worst
presidential speech in my lifetime.["]
Nancy's Nobbled
Knickers. Having just decided the other day to stop using the word "stimulus" (she's a
quick study, fer sure), Pelosi now has her knickers in a bunch because congressional Republicans have
decided not to have the usual post-presidential speech rebuttal Thursday night. ... Pelosi is right
that it is very telling that Republicans think the speech will sink so badly of its own weight
that the best response is no response.
Time to
quit blaming and start leading. In advance of Mr. Obama's coming recommendations, a few
requests: Stop the blame game, take responsibility and show leadership. "Owning" the economy
entails accountability for outcomes. To this day, Mr. Obama still blames his predecessor and
Republicans for every problem facing our country.
Stimulus Jr.: Funneling taxpayer
money to teachers unions won't create jobs. President Obama can't shake his stimulus addiction.
In his Thursday joint-session speech, he's expected to announce $300 billion in additional spending,
adding to the $4 trillion he's already borrowed from future generations since taking office.
Football tonight!
Also, Obama. Some presidential addresses can overshadow sporting events. Richard Nixon's
resignation speech temporarily halted nine major-league baseball games, two pro tennis matches and a contest
in the World Football League. It would take an oration of great moment to force the delay of the opening
game of the NFL season between the past two Super Bowl champions. Barack's paean to government spending
isn't it.
Enough
With The Deficit-Fueled Stimulus. In his speech Thursday, the president is expected to announce
a stimulus 2.0 package said to cost $300 billion. But why should anyone expect this to work any
better than the $4 trillion in stimulus already in the economy?
Is Obama Insane?
A popular definition of insanity, variously attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Ben Franklin, is,
"doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." By this standard the President of
the United States is clearly insane, if reports are true that Obama will tonight call on Congress to pass for
yet another stimulus program, this time in the ballpark of $300 billion.
Why the
Stimulus Failed: Even zero jobs growth in August doesn't seem to have disrupted President
Obama's faith in the economic policies of his first three years, so one theme we'll be listening for in
tonight's speech is how he explains the current moment. Why did his first jobs plan —
the $825 billion stimulus — so quickly result in the need for another jobs plan?
Invisible
Hand vs. Clenched Fist. The advance word on President Obama's Thursday jobs speech
is: nothing new. According to George Stephanopoulos, it will contain tax cuts for
corporations, an infrastructure bank, and the usual pabulum of job training for the unemployed.
We
Need Jobs, Not Another Jobs Speech by the President. Following a much-publicized brouhaha over
the scheduling of a "jobs speech" in September 2011, President Obama finally delivered an address to the nation
in which he outlined yet another stimulus program to create jobs. After all the hoopla associated with
the speech, investors expected something imaginative — something new, different, and better. Instead,
the president tossed up a $450-billion package that looked eerily similar to the "stimulus" programs he
sold to Congress in 2009 — the ones that failed so miserably.
Reaction:
The
irrelevancy of the Obama presidency. Usually, the press gallery is standing-room-only; this time,
only 26 of 90 seats were claimed by the deadline. Usually, some members arrive in the chamber
hours early to score a center-aisle seat; 90 minutes before Thursday's speech, only one Democrat was so
situated. Republican leaders, having forced Obama to postpone the speech because of the GOP debate,
decided they wouldn't dignify the event by offering a formal, televised "response."
"Fantastic Words, but..."
An eagle-eyed lipreader passes along this clip of Nancy Pelosi reacting to President Obama last night.
Unstimulating, Again.
If $900 billion in fiscal stimulus did not deliver us from high unemployment, perhaps another $450 billion
will do the trick: That was the theory underlying President Obama's speech.
Where's the Plan to Pay for it?
Supposedly, Obama's been advocating his $450 million jobs plan "for months." But based on last night's
speech, it sounds like the entire concept was copy-and-pasted together at the last minute from his 2009
stimulus and a couple of his August speeches.
The
'hidden meaning' found in Obama's words. People have lost confidence in Obama's ability to do
anything positive for the economy. Once the feel good rhetoric fades away, the stark reality of a nation
in crisis with a president who doesn't know what he's doing will return.
A
Guide To Code Words In Presidential Speeches. One thing that's clear after reviewing Obama's many
jobs speeches over the past two years is that his speechwriters have gotten lazy. Over and over again,
the president returns to the same basic formula: Times were tough when I got here, we've achieved a lot,
but the hole was so deep it will take time to get out. And then he trots out the same rote prescriptions.
Obama's
Address Was About Style, Not Substance. In his speech he said he is asking Congress "to increase
that amount (the amount they will cut spending) so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act."
In plain English that means that cuts in spending the Congress might have made independently of this "Jobs Act"
will now be assigned to cover this bill, which means they are no longer cuts to reduce the deficit.
Cutting spending and enacting new programs isn't cutting spending.
Using
a Joint Session of Congress as a Prop. Make no mistake: the president cheapened and
degraded the majesty of an address to both Houses of Congress. We have every reason to expect that with
the precedent now set, Joint Sessions are fair game for appropriation by future presidents seeking a majestic
backdrop for political posturing. Barack Obama fond of the word "unprecedented" as a descriptor of his
actions. Unfortunately, the word applies to his address last night, and not in a good way.
More Leeches!
President Obama's speech tonight was a political act, and has generally been treated as such. Indeed, his
political purpose was so transparent that he felt compelled to devote his opening paragraphs to denying it.
Politics, nevertheless, suffused the speech.
The only newly created "jobs" is the one
called Saving America. Joint Congress charades and hype notwithstanding, people know that
government and trade unions do not supply jobs. They take them away. Especially since the Obama
Regime came into power. With nothing new to say almost three years in, is it any wonder why Internet
news on Obama's "Pass this jobs bill" has been scarce?
Obama speech like Groundhog
Day. The speech itself was almost literally a retread of the 2009 stimulus plan Obama pushed
through a friendly Congress with almost no Republican support, with one important difference: The president
never mentioned the cost of his proposal. He demanded that Congress pass his bill immediately more than a
dozen times during the speech, but not once did he inform Congress of its price tag.
The
Speech That Broke The Patience of the Country? President Obama's speech on Thursday night
bordered on parody. His repetition of long-overused talking points combined with his repeated attacks on
job creators and his incessant demand to "pass it right now" produced a mixture of arrogance and absurdity so
transparently political that it lacked any capacity to cause political movement or to change anyone's opinion
on any issue.
The Jobs Speech.
Immediately after the speech ended reporters began Tweeting that the cost of the bill would be $447 billion
according to a White House "fact sheet." If there is no bill, how can the WH say that?
Soaring
rhetoric — again. President Obama has always given good political rhetoric.
His downfall is substantive follow-up. ... "Every proposal I've laid out tonight will be paid for."
With Monopoly money, no doubt.
Jobs
plan deja vu. Americans who watched President Obama's call for a new jobs bill Thursday night might
have wondered whether they were stuck in a time warp. A proposal to spend hundreds of billions of dollars
to put people to work: Is this 2009 all over again?
Obama
gives campaign speech to liberals. President Obama's jobs speech was one of the weaker addresses
of his presidency. The delivery was rushed, the laundry list of policies were rehashed from prior
speeches and his constant refrain imploring Congress to "pass this jobs bill" made him come across like
a salesman on a TV infomercial.
Pass
This Speech Full of Old Ideas ... NOW. Throughout the night, Obama pulled out his "we're in a crisis,
we must pass this now" card, and repeatedly asked for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act "right away," promising
twice that everything will be paid for. Then, there were flashbacks to 2009, when Obama called for the
immediate passage of the $1 trillion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or stimulus package.
Obama's
jobs plan paid for? Seems not. President Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his
jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.
Obama:
The Obsolete 'Post Office President'. The preposterous irrelevance of President Obama's jobs speech
is summed up by the fact that he repeatedly urged Congress to "pass this jobs bill right away" — but
there is no bill. By the admission of his own aides, Obama's jobs bill is still being drafted.
It won't be submitted until next week, and his plan for how to pay for it won't be submitted until the week
after that.
Obama's Gift Has
Stopped Giving. Obama feels our economic pain. We know this because he was so sincere
as he addressed a joint session of Congress last Thursday. Or at least he tried to sound that sincere.
The problem is that Obama struggles to come off empathetic, due to his inherently professorial speaking style.
To make up for this shortcoming, Obama often employs a sort of out-loud whisper to give the impression of
intense emotion while still speaking quietly. On Thursday, the president sought a doubly empathetic tone,
but what resulted was speaking that sounded like an awkward cross between a grunt and a whisper.
Back to the Future?
Those who are impressed by words seem to think that President Barack Obama made a great speech to Congress
last week. But, when you look beyond the rhetoric, what did he say that was fundamentally different from
what he has been saying and doing all along? Are we to continue doing the same kinds of things that have
failed again and again, just because Obama delivers clever words with style and energy?
What Job 'Training'
Teaches? Bad Work Habits. Last Thursday, President Obama proposed new federal jobs and job-training
programs for youth and the long-term unemployed. The federal government has experimented with these programs
for almost a half century. The record is one of failure and scandal.
Devoid of reality.
President Obama's speech this past week should have been labeled, "Believe what I say, not what I do."
All too much of the speech was devoid of reality.
You
call that a jobs program? After waiting for weeks to hear President Obama's answer to staggering
unemployment and a stalled economy, the nation last night got nothing more than a $447 billion pile of
recycled ideas that isn't likely to pass Congress.
Obama's jobs bill is
no solution. "Pass this jobs bill ... pass it right away ..."[,] President Obama
urged Congress in his speech on Thursday night. Nearly 20 times in his 34-minute talk, the
president used that phrase or a variation ... "You should pass this jobs plan right away." Obama
sounded like a razzle dazzle TV infomercial pitch man telling his listeners to act fast, don't delay,
call now, operators are standing by. What the speech did not have was an explanation of why Obama
believes his proposal to spend another $447 billion on this Sequel to Stimulus will help the
economy any more than his original stimulus plan.
The
American Jobs Act: Why It Will Not Create Jobs. President Obama, last night,
outlined his latest greatest proposal for creating jobs: The American Jobs Act.
It's a combination of some good things (tax reductions) and some bad things (tax increases).
It's his grand plan to finally focus on jobs (after 3 years with unemployment over 9%).
All of the past stimulus weren't enough so we are going to try it again with more stimulus money.
Stock Market, Associated Press Not Buying
Obama's Speech. As anyone who even remotely follows politics knows, Barack Obama had
an electioneering speech a Congressional Address yesterday. It
bombed in the eyes of the stock market and in the eyes of the normally sycophantic Associated Press.
As of right now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen over 300 points after Obama's after-hours
speechifying. And the Associated Press basically said to Obama "you've been weighed and measured
and found wanting."
The
President's Pedestrian Speech. Several thoughts occur, all starting with P. Projection.
That's psychologist-speak term for projecting your own faults on others. "This isn't political
grandstanding," Obama told members of Congress, as Republicans snickered (but thankfully resisted the
temptation to shout "You lie!"). "This isn't class warfare." These sentences came four
paragraphs after Obama insisted that "the most affluent citizens and corporations" should pay more
taxes (which spurs job creation how?), and not long before he promised to "take that message to
every corner of the country."
Obama's
Combative Save-My-Job Speech. President Obama's address to Congress was exactly what we
thought it would be: a shallow, callow campaign rally masquerading as something serious and important.
As Charles Krauthammer framed it on Fox, tonight's address represented the first presidential campaign speech
delivered in the House of Representatives in US history. Obama tried to strike an urgent tone,
repeatedly instructing Congress to pass his plan "right away." These appeals for immediate
action started before he even described a single idea.
A Stale
Speech. Is Obama just politically dense, or he is so inured to the Chicago us/them
confrontational mentality that he knows no politics other than polarization, even when appealing
for help?
Obama and
the lunatic left. Much of his speech called for more of the same — government
activism; massive spending on infrastructure, bridges and roads; extending the payroll tax cut;
and more public aid to states and municipalities. In short, he seeks to perpetuate the dismal
policies of Obamanomics. He is a reckless ideologue masquerading as a pragmatist.
Mr. Obama's presidency has been dominated by one seminal reality — failure.
Obama's
bad jobs idea. President Obama did not mention it in his speech last night, but his
American Jobs Act contains one really bad idea that will probably destroy jobs in a misguided effort
to save them. I refer to his call for a ban on what some are calling "unemployment discrimination":
the alleged practice by which some companies refuse to hire applicants because they are unemployed,
or even announce in their job postings that they don't hire applicants who aren't currently working.
The
President's Old, New Jobs Program. President Obama's jobs program is disappointing, to
put it mildly. Given our economic troubles, this heavily politicized rehash of failed policies
is a slap in the face to 27 million Americans without full-time jobs. In an angry speech
clearly intended to rally his demoralized troops, the president on Thursday unveiled a $457 billion
jobs plan that was touted as "new," but really just recycles past failed policies.
The
President's Plan Falls Short. Who really expected an unbelievably large
$450 billion plan? That's way more than 50 percent of the original $800 stimulus
package in 2009 — which did not work. Leaked reports leading up to the speech suggested a
$300 billion plan — already way too big. But $450 billion? At a time of
massive deficits and debt? And a downgrade? How is this going to be paid for?
That's what many folks want to know. Obama didn't tell us.
GOP
to Obama: Can We Have That in Writing?. House Republican leaders have sent President
Obama a letter requesting a non-speech version of the "jobs plan" he outlined before Congress on
Thursday. They intend to have the written legislation scored by the Congressional Budget
Office. Because as CBO officials have previously made clear, they "don't estimate speeches."
Twelve
Words to Describe Obama's Jobs Speech. Thursday night's show by President Obama struck me as...
Presumptuous: He demanded — 17 times — that Congress immediately pass a bill
no one has seen. Tired: The speech contained little new, just mostly recycled ideas or
extensions of current programs that haven't worked. Small: Its proposals, while expensive,
offer little hope of really jump-starting the economy.
Canada's
Oil Sands Are a Jobs Gusher. For all its soaring rhetoric, President Obama's "jobs
speech" last week didn't demonstrate a lick of insight into why economies grow or how wealth is
created.
Obama
Makes Plea to 'Pass This Bill' 100-Plus Times. In six speeches during the course
of seven days, President Obama has hammered home his call for Congress to act on his $447 billion
jobs plan, saying some version of the phrase "pass this bill" more than 100 times.
The tragedy of Obama.
Once again, the president seeks a "stimulus" for the economy in the form of nearly a half trillion dollars
in government spending and tax cuts. We've been through this before. It didn't work in 2009
and 2010, and it won't work now.
The American
Con Job Act. The president is out and out campaigning for re-election while
promoting his latest half-baked half-trillion-dollar "American Con Job Act," which he says
will generate jobs and jump-start the sluggish economy, which continues to slide south.
When I sat down to write this, there was no bill for Americans to read and digest. In
my America, the president would have had the bill to present to Congress when he spoke to its
members last week. What happened to all that transparency, Mr. President?
Obama's
Big Green Boondoggles. With the scandalous bankruptcy of Solyndra (a shady California solar
power company that received $535 million in stimulus funds and is now under investigation by the FBI)
hanging overhead, President Obama wisely whitewashed any mention of "green jobs" out of his latest address
to Congress. But buried in the details of his latest government jobs bill released this week ... are
yet more big green boondoggles that will reward cronies, waste taxpayer dollars and make no dent in the
jobless rate.
Obama's None-Too-Divine
Comedy. Obama's political irrelevance has now become so obvious that on the night of his
infamous jobs speech the GOP didn't even feel the need to offer a rebuttal to his political theater
masquerading as a major policy speech. ... But far worse than enduring those indignities, during his grand
pontification, a unique sound was heard in abundance. Even the Washington Post's Dana Milbank
heard it: laughter. Perhaps for the very first time in his career, the golden child was openly
laughed at — and deservedly so.
The Obama presidency enters
its pathetic phase. For Obama, the pathetic phase began over the summer when the economy weakened
further and his job approval rating tanked. ... For one thing, Obama suffers from what Maureen Dowd of
the New York Times has identified as the "speech illusion." This is the notion that he can
swoop down from on high, deliver a speech, persuade millions, and move the political needle in favor of
his legislation. And, naturally, make himself more popular. Quite the opposite has
happened. The speech wasn't a bomb, but it was close.
Dumb And
Dumber. Over the weekend, President Obama encouraged everyone to read his jobs proposal and
judge it for themselves. We took him up on his offer, and found five more reasons to kill the bill.
Weeks later... Obama's
Jobs Bill Has No House Co-Sponsors. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) today [10/4/2011]
said that he supports President Barack Obama's $447-billion jobs proposal although he is "not enthusiastic"
about the plan's payroll tax reduction provision. Hoyer, however, is not listed as a co-sponsor of
Obama's job proposal legislation...
Pass the "Buffett Rule". On
Monday [9/19/2011], President Obama will propose a minimum tax for millionaires whose earnings come from
capital gains and from dividends. This is not a serious legislative effort — the president is
not working with congressional leaders to craft this legislation — rather, this proposal is an attempt
to boost a sagging re-election campaign...
Obama:
'This Is Not Class Warfare'. At a press briefing at the White House on Monday, President Obama
formally announced a package revealed over the weekend to trim $3 trillion off the federal deficit over
the next several years. "This is not class warfare," Obama insisted. "It's math."
Obama's
Deficit Plan: Neither Bold nor Courageous. Judging from President Obama's Rose Garden speech
today outlining his proposal to reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years, there are two
groups in America who apparently have job security and are working overtime: his pollsters and
straw men.
Obama Hits Bottom.
Pres. Barack Obama promised to have a plan to pay for his massive new stimulus bill by Monday. He broke
that promise, as he has broken so many others, and remains in the "plan to have a plan" stage of his inscrutable
meditations, having only made yet another unsubstantial speech, full of high sentiment and short on details.
The president says he wants to ensure that the very wealthy do not pay lower effective tax rates than do the
middle-class, and argues that families and businesses earning more than $250,000 in any given year should pay
an additional $1,500,000,000,000.00 or so in taxes...
Playing
Robin Hood isn't leadership, Mr. President. "This is not class warfare, it's math," President
Obama said in the Rose Garden on Monday while pitching his latest round of tax increases, the so-called
Buffett Tax on millionaires. ... Obama isn't fooling anybody, except perhaps himself, with this Robin Hood
act. As WTOP's Mark Plotkin, a liberal Democrat, said Monday, "It is class warfare. They're not
gonna say it, the Democrats, but they feel there is a political advantage to saying that people who make
that much money are not paying their fair share."
The
Lecturer in Chief Has Forfeited His Moral Authority. As predictable and repetitive as Obama's
economic speeches are, his capacity for audacity shows ever increasing signs of creativity. Do you
suppose he has any ability to feel shame for what he's doing to this country and embarrassment for blaming
everyone but himself? ... Almost three years into his term, did you hear him accept any ownership of his
policies? Did he apologize for nearly doubling the national debt?
I'm for The Rich.
"We simply cannot afford these special lower rates for the wealthy," President Obama declared in his Rose
Garden message Monday. ... The president, brimming with indignation, asserts that hedge fund managers are
paying taxes at a lower rate than teachers and firefighters. "How can you defend that?" he demands.
You don't have to defend that, because it isn't true.
Obama
ties Medicare cuts to tax increases on wealthy. Seeking to put his stamp on deficit-reduction talks,
President Obama on Monday said he will veto any debt plan that cuts Medicare benefits without also imposing higher
taxes on the wealthy, and he embraced a broad call that all millionaires be made to pay an effective higher tax
rate on income than middle-class families do.
Obama
Is Careening Down the Wrong Path. Barack Obama is careening down the wrong path towards re-election.
He should be working as a president, not a candidate. He should be claiming the vital center, not abandoning it.
He should be holding down taxes rather than raising them. He should be mastering the global economy, not
running away from it. And most of all, he should be bringing the country together rather than dividing
it through class warfare.
Obama's
Bizarre Tax Attack. It could almost make your head spin. With an economy on the front end
of another recession, President Obama's tax attack on the folks who are most likely to succeed, invest, start
new businesses, and create jobs is nothing short of staggering. Only liberal-left class-warfare ideology
can explain this.
Republicans
to President Obama: No, really what is your plan? President Obama rolled out his notion of a
debt plan today. House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had this response:
["]The President's partisan speech and misguided proposals are disappointing, but not surprising. ... The
President has finally admitted that he plans to send the bill for Washington's reckless spending straight
to American businesses and families.
Obama's
$1.5 Trillion Election Ploy. President Obama's $1.5 trillion tax increase on job creators is
a dead-on-arrival campaign ploy. He himself said two years ago that such taxes during a recession would
only "put businesses in a further hole."
Obama
Yields to Liberal Outcry on Entitlement Reform. President Obama has tried for months to convince
critics on the left that entitlement programs such as Medicare had to be cut in order to save the programs,
but he seems to have yielded under pressure from his political base. In his new $1.5 trillion
deficit-cutting plan, unveiled Monday at the White House, Obama backed away from the changes he had been
talking about for months.
His Biggest Big Lies.
[Scroll down] So if "the rich" are not paying their fair share, Mr. President, what would that fair
share be? Based on these official facts, for you to run around the country telling America that we
could have jobs and balance the budget and solve the debt crisis you are creating if the rich would just pay
their fair share of taxes only demonstrates that you are not qualified to be President.
Obama figures he can just lie.
A polite word for what President Obama is being with his claims about millionaires and taxes is "disingenuous."
A more straightforward term would be lying. Neither the Associated Press nor the Wall Street Journal called
him that yesterday, but both reported the facts that the President is grossly and willfully distorting.
Presidential prevarication. Not that there was ever any
doubt, but the Associated Press ran the numbers on President Obama's soak-the-rich tax scheme, and guess what?
The president's a fibber. The news agency culled figures from a number of key authorities — like
the IRS and the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center -- and demonstrated conclusively that top US earners pay far
higher rates than other folks. And foot a wildly outsized portion of the federal tax tab.
Obama's jobless economy.
President Obama is asking Congress to raise taxes on job creators to pay for his "jobs" bill. On Monday,
Mr. Obama said the Joint Select Committee for Deficit Reduction should find another $450 billion in deficit
reduction (i.e., tax hikes) to bankroll his American Jobs Act, further impoverishing the nation while doing
nothing to alleviate the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
Math
says Obama's speech was class warfare. "Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than
millionaires and billionaires. That's pretty straightforward." That's what President Obama said
in his White House speech Monday on deficit reduction. It was even more straightforward than he seemed to
think. Not only should middle-class families pay less than millionaires and billionaires, but in fact
they already do pay less than millionaires and billionaires. Much less.
Obama is right. The
cold, hard truth is that the rest of America — the poor, the lower-middle class, the unions and the
government employees have to pull more of the load. The reality is that Mr. Obama's voters get a free ride
as a bribe to vote, support and contribute to the president. Yes, we need more "fairness." The
problem is that Obama voters — those doing the most protesting and complaining — are the ones who
need a refresher course in the definition of "fair."
Obama's Math: More
Fuzz Than a Peach. In Obama's fist-pounding, finger-pointing, bellyaching repeat of many previous
speeches, he put forth a "plan" to bring down the deficit. And what an original non-plan it was.
Raise taxes, fake spending cuts — just like all his other non-plans. Nothing written, you
understand, just promises to cut out fraud and waste. And, of course, tax the rich. This time he
prefaced his "tax the rich" part by saying, "This is not class warfare; it's math."
Obama
disconnects rhetoric, reality. In President Barack Obama's sales pitch for his jobs bill, there
are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington.
The United Nations, September 21, 2011:
Barack
Obama's UN speech sounded like a second-rate university lecture. After watching President Obama's
40-minute address to the United Nations General Assembly this morning, I think the White House should seriously
consider hiring a new team of speechwriters. There was little depth or direction to this muddled speech,
which seemed to meander from one foreign policy topic to another without really saying anything of substance.
Obama's UN Speech: A Failure.
President Obama's speech to the United Nations on September 21st struck at many targets in his
tour d' horizon but it was neither inspiring nor bold. ... Most of the speech was rhetorically
engineered, a kind of pabulum for U.N. delegates.
'We
Must Stand Up for the Rights of Gays And Lesbians Everywhere,' Obama Tells U.N.. In his speech
to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday [9/21/2011], President Obama called for "open societies" that "empower
their citizens," including homosexuals and women. "No country should deny people their rights because of
who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere," Obama said one
day after the United States started allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the U.S. military.
Press conference, October 6, 2011:
Fact
Check: Obama claims miss some evidence. In challenging Republicans to get behind his jobs bill
Thursday, President Barack Obama argued Republicans have supported his proposals before, demanded that they
explain themselves if they oppose him, and challenged others to come up with a plan of their own.
Obama's Empty Threats.
In the president's press conference today, there were several things that stood out. Obama continued his
compulsive need to blame others for his problems. He continued to make transparently untrue claims.
He continued to portray himself as a man of incomparable political virtues and his opponents as selfish,
uncooperative partisans. None of this is new; in fact, the act is all getting a bit tiresome. But
what particularly amused me is the president's imperiousness.
The two Obamas: Professor and populist.
President Barack Obama's midmorning White House news conference on Thursday offered a rare glimpse of an inwardly
calm, disciplined and analytical president wrestling with his outer demons. For 72 minutes in the
East Room, Obama the Professor publicly grappled with Obama the Populist.
Obama expects unanimous agreement, which is exactly the opposite of what he's got. Obama's
New Mantra. Any senator who's thinking about voting against President Obama's jobs bill when it
comes up for a vote in the Senate next week "needs to explain exactly why they would oppose something that we know
would improve our economic situation at such an urgent time for our families and our businesses," President Obama
said Thursday. At a White House news conference, Obama also said he expects and hopes that "everybody" in
Congress will vote for his bill because it includes ideas that both parties traditionally have supported.
Obama
'makes up meeting with teacher who "lost his job"'. Barack Obama is today facing accusations that
his tale about a teacher told he was losing his job three times was not entirely accurate. The President
claimed on Thursday to have 'had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz' — but they have
reportedly never met. He also talked about the teacher 'receiving three pink slips because of budget
cuts' — but neglected to mention he reportedly never lost his job.
Obama Lies For "A Higher Truth".
It's quite telling that President Obama couldn't find a highly qualified teacher in the Boston Public Schools
to talk about who is actually unemployed. It would seem that liberals who accused President Bush of lying
about WMD don't care if President Obama lies if it promotes a cause with which they agree. It's OK for
President Obama to lie if it is in service of "a higher truth."
President
Obama's Teachers Tale Embellished?. Obama said he had met a young man named Robert Baroz who has
two decades of teaching experience, a master's degree and and excellent track record of teaching. "He's
an English teacher in Boston who came to the White House a few weeks ago," the president explained to reporters.
"In the last few years, he's received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn't we want to
pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?" But there are two
elements of Mr. Obama's story that are being questioned. According to the Boston Herald, Robert Baroz
never met the president when he was at the White House. And Robert Baroz is currently employed.
Obama's English Teacher
Fiction. President Obama gave yet another speech on Thursday trying to peddle AJA to the American
people — the American Jobs Act, as opposed to the 1977 Steely Dan album. Obama cited the
experience of a Boston English teacher named Robert Baroz to urge passage of the bill. Unfortunately, the
president used a little creative writing to make the story more effective.
Aimless Obama
walks alone. [Scroll down] Obama himself is spending his public time pushing a $450 billion
"jobs" bill — really another stimulus in disguise — that even Senate Democrats won't support.
He grimly flogged it repeatedly at his Thursday press conference, even though snowballs in hell have a better
chance of survival. If he cracked a single smile at the hour-plus event, I missed it. He seems
happy only on the campaign trail, where the adoration of the crowd lifts his spirits.
Osawatomie, Kansas December 6, 2011:
Welcome to Texas!
Campaigning in Kansas today, President Obama momentarily forgot which of the 57 states he was in. But
that was just a slip of the tongue. The really dumb thing he said is that the internet is causing
unemployment. ... This is one more reminder — as if we needed it — that President
Obama has no understanding of the economy.
Enough with
the Dishonest Spending. The president's speech today [12/6/2011] was an unserious response to the
serious economic threats our nation faces. It represented a virtual declaration that, for the remainder
of his term, his focus will be on campaigning rather than governing. America faces profound long-term
challenges, but the president still has no real long-term plan. This cannot be denied.
And
the Next Presidential Mask Is TR? This is all pretty pathetic. What we have here is an
adolescent president in desperate search of an adult identity of his own, without which he borrows liberally
from others, often oddly from Republicans or conservatives.
1910 and 2011 are as
Different as TR and Obama. [Scroll down] Obama is right when he says Roosevelt was
called a socialist and a communist for his manifest of a "new nationalism." But Roosevelt was not an
opponent of the free market. His objective was to save capitalism from the capitalists whose goal was
largely the destruction of the free market and its conversion into a network of monopolies.
Obama:
Limited Gov't That Preserves Free Markets 'Doesn't Work. It Has Never Worked'. In a
speech delivered at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama
argued that while a limited government that preserves free markets "speaks to our rugged individualism"
as Americans, such a system "doesn't work" and "has never worked" and that Americans must look to a more
activist government that taxes more, spends more and regulates more if they want to preserve the middle class.
Obama
attacks Republican economic theory: 'It's never worked'. President Obama, in one of his most
expansive speeches to date, declared on Tuesday that supply-side economics is a failure and called "gaping
inequality" across the country a moral shortcoming that is distorting American democracy.
'Osawatomie
Obama' launches assault on facts and history. President Obama delivered his Osawatomie speech,
according to aides, because he wanted to associate himself with the rhetorical and ideological significance of
Teddy Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" address at the same Kansas location in 1910. It's odd enough that Obama
would associate his policies with a speech that defined a failed political movement — the Bull Moose
Party — but there is something else about Osawatomie County that makes it a strange locale for a presidential
address ostensibly intended to encourage greater American unity. This was the place in Kansas that was
headquarters for John Brown, the murderous radical who obsessed throughout his life about inciting a race war he
believed would end slavery in the South.
1913 NYT editorial blasts Obama's policies.
Lefties are abuzz about President Obama's speech in Kansas, saying he channeled Teddy Roosevelt. Clive Crook of the
Atlantic headlined his reaction: "Obama Channels Teddy Roosevelt." Aha! Gotcha! Liberals seize the
T.R. connection as somehow giving credibility to President Obama in that T.R. was a Republican and all. But there is
just one problem with T.R.'s political philosophy: It was too socialistic for the New York Times.
Obama
recycles themes from failed democratic presidential campaigns. Which presidential candidate said this in an
ad: "I refuse to make your family pay more so that millionaires can pay less?" Who promised to "fight for
seniors" against opponents who wanted to "slash Medicare?" If you answered President Barack Obama, you're about
27 years too late. Those pronouncements came from an ad for Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, the
Democratic pols who ran against Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Obama's Kansas Declaration.
Declaring that the debate over how to restore our economy is the "defining issue of our time," President
Barrack Obama invoked former president Theodore Roosevelt's progressive reforms of the early 20th century
as a template for economic recovery today. "Roosevelt," the President said, "... knew that the
free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can. It only works
when there are rules of the road to ensure that competition is fair, open, and honest." From there, the
President made the regent argument that the "rugged individualism" that characterizes laissez-faire capitalism
has "never worked," and that we should echo Roosevelt's call for a New Nationalism.
Obama's Godfather
Speech. Democrats are depressed about the awful economy we've had the past three years.
In Mr. Obama's view, this is a coincidence; the bad economy happened during his term because of mistakes someone
else made in 2001 and 2003. Lest the base confuse his policies with someone else's, Mr. Obama needs to
transform Democratic depression into some form of Democratic energy. This week, and apparently in the
election next year, he has chosen a strategy based on fear and loathing of an opposition he identifies simply as,
"They." "They argue, even if prosperity doesn't trickle down, well, that's the price of liberty."
Obama Blames the Rich.
A haze of ugliness hung over Pres. Barack Obama earlier this week in Osawatomie, Kan., where he delivered a speech as
malodorous as an Occupy Wall Street encampment and about as thoughtful.
Whitewashing
History, Obama Style. If U.S. history is a painting on a giant canvas, President Barack Obama's
speech this week in Osawatomie, Kansas, is a thick coat of whitewash layered all over it, and the failure of
the last three years lies underneath. The President's pretense is that, no, it's not Obamanomics that has
caused persistent unemployment, stunted growth and record deficits — it's supply side economics! Talk
about audacity.
Obama should quit emulating others.
Pundits and politicians, perhaps struggling to make sense of their own era, are fond of finding parallels between
contemporary figures and those from times gone by. President Obama, in particular, appears to takes great
comfort from this exercise.
Obama: Man on a Mission.
In his remarks this week in Osawatomie, Kansas — the site of Theodore Roosevelt's famous 1910 "new
nationalism" speech — Obama laid out the themes for his re-election campaign. White House Press
Secretary Jay Carney denies it was an "election speech," but Obama's own campaign manager, Jim Messina,
touted it as one in a fundraising email. But such is the way of this White House. Facts are
dependent variables, history the president's Pool of Narcissus, reflecting his own glory.
Barack Obama, Political
Hack. In his speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, President Obama took another stab at summarizing the
philosophy of the Republican Party. And this is the best Obama could do: "Their philosophy is
simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules."
This is a silly and intentionally misleading statement — silly because it's so transparently false and
intentionally misleading because the president surely cannot believe his own rhetoric. The problem for
Obama is it's becoming a pattern.
Obama's
Osawatomie Speech Echoes Symbols of Occupy Wall Street, Abolitionism, and the Weather Underground.
President Barack Obama's recent speech in Osawatomie, Kansas is being hailed by the left and the mainstream media
for its renewed focus on inequality — and for its crafty use of Republican president Theodore Roosevelt to
push socialist themes. Even some conservative observers are hailing the speech — not for its divisive
substance, but for the fact that Obama is no longer attempting to hide his radical views in moderate rhetoric.
Indeed, the choice of Osawatomie may be more significant than the Roosevelt conceit or Obama's maternal family roots.
Obama's
campaign for class resentment. In the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama averred
that if in three years he hadn't alleviated the nation's economic pain, he'd be a "one-term proposition."
When three-quarters of Americans think the country is on the "wrong track" and even Bill Clinton calls the economy
"lousy," how then to run for a second term? Traveling Tuesday to Osawatomie, Kan., site of a famous 1910 Teddy
Roosevelt speech, Obama laid out the case.
Five
Big Lies in Obama's Economic Fairness Speech. One thing is certainly true about President
Obama — no matter how many times people point out the falsehoods in his speeches, he just keeps
making them. Case in point: his latest "economic fairness" address. In that speech Tuesday,
Obama once again tried to build a case for his liberal, big-spending, tax-hiking, regulatory agenda. But
as with so many of his past appeals, Obama's argument rests on a pile of untruths. Among the most glaring...
Obama's
Kansas speech: some suspect facts. To bolster his case about unfairness, the president is also
relying on a suspect statistic about billionaires paying as little as 1 percent in taxes. Even if
true, it is a clearly a rare event. Moreover, it is certainly surprising that the White House would
rely on such a dubious, unverified source for a major presidential address.
Obama
Channels Hugo Chavez, Shows Why He Can't Lead On The Economy. On Tuesday, President Obama went to
Osawatomie High School in Kansas to deliver an address framing the economic issues for the 2012 election. ... But
the speech only showed why Obama can't lead America on the economy. Instead of leading us forward into the
modern economics of the 21st century, he keeps reaching back into the economics and politics of old —
the failed Keynesian economics of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, the disastrous stagflation of Jimmy Carter in the
1970s, and the supposed promise of progressivism 100 years ago, before the demonstrated failures of Marxism
worldwide in the 20th century.
Obama's
thin gruel at Osawatomie. Even by the standards of campaign rhetoric, this is a shockingly shoddy
piece of work. You can start with his intellectually indefensible caricature of Republican philosophy:
"We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules." Or his simple
factual inaccuracy: "The wealthiest Americans are paying the lowest taxes in over half a century." Or
his infantile economic analysis, blaming job losses on the invention of the automated teller machine (they've been
around for more than four decades, Mr. President, and we've had lots of job growth during that time) and the
Internet. But what's really staggering is the weakness of his public policy arguments.
Craving Another Great
Depression: How else to explain the celebrated Kansas speech? Pushing his agenda for higher
taxes on "the rich," President Obama kicked off his December 6 speech in Kansas by saying his Kansas
grandparents "shared the optimism of a nation that triumphed over the Great Depression." In fact, the
1929 stock market crash turned into the long-running Great Depression because the counterproductive soak-the-rich
policies of the federal government hadn't "triumphed" in reversing the downturn.
Remember who we're
fighting. In a major speech in a Kansas high school, Mr. Obama told us too many Americans no
longer can become part of the middle class, whether or not they play by the rules. He blames not himself,
of course, but large corporations and wealthy interests, many of which also contribute to his campaign.
America has pioneered democracy, the rule of law, free-market economics and the Bill of Rights, but Mr. Obama
thinks it's our system that denies most Americans a "fair chance" to succeed.
Barack Has a Record.
Every Obama speech is fraught with lies and half-truths. He relies on his belief in the ignorance of his
audience, and that Americans are too lazy and soft to recognize his dishonesty. When your record is abysmal,
you can't tell the truth. Obama, hasn't a clue on how to fix the economy. Instead, without ideas,
he copied Teddy Roosevelt's 100-year-old speech in Osawatomie.
Liberal History from
Osawatomie Bam. Send us more money, says the president after his history lesson, so his administration
can inflate the higher-ed bubble just like Fannie and Freddie and the housing bubble. In the interest of
balance, I think we need some "conservative history" for a change. It is different from liberal history,
because it doesn't make heroes out of politicians, but instead portrays politicians as ordinary men with ideas.
Obama's Osawatomie decree.
I've tried to read all of the conservative commentary on President Obama's big speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, this
past week. The speech is important from a variety of perspectives. Perhaps most significantly, the
speech previewed Obama's reelection campaign themes; insert groans here. To some extent it shows Obama hitching
his wagon to the Occupy crowd and provides another case of his leading from behind. It sinks to the
level of left-wing tripe. Obama's heart and mind are full to overflowing with this stuff.
Our Marxist Wizard of Oz.
This is the man the Democrat party took off the streets of Chicago, then pursuing a career as a Marxist street
agitator, and launched into the White House, favoring him over Hillary Clinton because she was too moderate for
the party. They did that because he best reflects the heart and soul of today's radical-left, Che Guevara
Democratic Party. It is in this context that we should understand and analyze Obama's Hugo Chavez speech
given last week at Osawatomie High School in Kansas.
A
lesson in combating invasive government. In his recent speech in Kansas, our misguided president
again attacked capitalism, tax-cuts, and limited government and perhaps made his die-hard belief in socialism
clearer than ever before. ... [Obama speech excerpt omitted for brevity.] ... This is, of course, utter
fiction. But being so used to the majority of Americans laying down like lambs, the president feels
perfectly comfortable spreading this sort of misinformation around.
Why
does Obama channel racist TR? With great fanfare, President Obama made a speech last week in Osawatomie,
Kansas, the venue in 1910 where then-ex-President Roosevelt had introduced his theme of a "Square Deal" for
Americans. In doing so, Obama attempted to clothe himself in Roosevelt's own reputation as a Progressive
thinker and activist political leader. But how "progressive" was Roosevelt's thinking? Is his positive
reputation deserved? The sad fact is, Theodore Roosevelt was an unabashed racist who celebrated genocide.
He was a Nobel Peace Prize winner who glorified war and facilitated the Japanese conquest of Korea. He was a
eugenicist who thought only fit people (as he, or the government, defined them) should be able to reproduce.
Most
Americans don't buy Obama's class warfare rhetoric. President Obama believes the greatest threat
facing our country today is income inequality. ... According to a Gallup poll conducted just days before Obama's
speech, only 46 percent of Americans believe it is important that the federal government do something to
reduce the income gap between the rich and poor. ... A closer examination of the numbers shows that income
inequality is little more than a perennial obsession among liberal Democrats like Obama. Just 43 percent
of independents, and only 21 percent of Republicans, say the gap between the rich and poor is an important
issue, whereas 72 percent of Democrats say that it is. Maybe Obama's Osawatomie speech maybe
wasn't written to appeal to most Americans but rather to fire up the Democratic base for his 2012 re-election
campaign.
If GOP Goes Easy on Obama, It'll Be a Fatal
Mistake. Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, was supposed to focus on the economy. But
its real purpose was to continue to stoke class envy. Obama lashed out at those who "want to go back
to the same policies that stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for way too many years.
"[T]heir philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and
play by their own rules," he declared. ["]We simply cannot return to this brand of 'you're on your
own' economics if we're serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country." Obama has repeatedly
shown that he's the Mudslinger-in-Chief.
'Fairness'
and 'Social Justice'. In Osawatomie the President tried to conjure up progressive Teddy Roosevelt's
"New Nationalism" speech of 1910, but sounded like a man speaking scoffingly and carrying a big chip on his shoulder.
The speech was pocked with economic fallacies, hypocrisy, class warfare rhetoric, anti-Americanism, distorted
history, and some outright lies. Leftists lauded it.
State of the Union address, January 24, 2012:
Commentary in anticipation of the SOTU address: Obama
Misreads Roosevelt In Speaking In A Rooseveltian Tone. Now comes word from White House aides that
Obama plans to don the costume once more for Tuesday's State of the Union. Expect a speech casting the
upcoming campaign as a contest between the interests of the American people and the interests of powerful
corporations apparently owned and operated by something other than people.
Obama
to strike partisan tone in State of Union. President Obama will invoke populist themes and attack
Republican lawmakers as obstructionists on Tuesday in his most widely viewed remarks of the year, the State of
the Union address. In the last year of his first term, Obama will use his third address to a joint session
of Congress as a launching pad for his re-election campaign.
Obama
Flunks His Own Fairness Test. If State of the Union speech leaks are any indication, the president
wants his re-election campaign to be about fairness. But why should anyone believe him, since his own
policies have made America much less fair?
Oddsmakers
predict Obama cliche-o-rama in State of the Union. Wondering what cliche President Obama will use
first in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday? So are the oddsmakers. ... What Will Obama say first?
We have more work to do
Health care reform
As I stand here today
Fundamental belief
God bless America
Crossroads of history
Defining moment
Make Washington work
Common purpose
Pursuit of happiness
Building a better America
Reduce the deficit
War on terror
It won't be easy
Hungry for change
Don't get me wrong
We'll have to make hard choices
No
Matter the State of the Union, Reporters Love Obama's Speeches. There's no need to spend a lot of
time wondering about what the media will say after The Great One speaks, since — like a gaggle of
corporate yes-men — journalists have gushed over every one of these major addresses. ... If the media
were to focus on the dismal state of America under Barack Obama, their reviews might not be so adoring.
How to tune out and mentally survive Obama's
State of Union Address. [Scroll down] While countless mothers try to stretch out the evening
meal of Kraft dinner and rehearse their children to rush the door to welcome their father home from another
unsuccessful day of landing a job, Obama will drone on about how everything is alright. There will be jobs
provided by him and only him; there will be government money to save the house and farm mortgage and food stamps
for all who need them. But everything is not alright, and there is nothing Obama can say that matters
because the only words that count to patriots are the ones he should take back and bury with the dog's backyard
bone: "The fundamental Transformation of America".
Reactions to the SOTU address:
Obama's
State Of The Union: The Hollow Man Speaks. First off, the speech was obviously very well rehearsed
down to the last vocal inflection and raised eyebrow in fact. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there were
theatrical directions emanating from TOTUS tonight. Simply amazing. Yet as he spoke, the contradictions
between what was coming out of his mouth and what we've seen coming out of this White House are so radically
different they underlined one of the qualities I dislike most about this president — the way he
arrogantly thinks everyone's stupid except him, and thinks that the usual rule that nothing ever goes away on
the internet doesn't apply where he's concerned.
Obama Misquotes Lincoln. Leaving aside
the tortured logic of describing a government takeover of health insurance, with the practical effect (and secret
ultimate goal) of driving private companies out of the industry altogether, as "a reformed private market," or a
top-down federally controlled public education system as containing any meaningful amount of "competition," Obama
is deliberately misquoting Lincoln, in a way that completely changes the meaning of what the Great Emancipator said.
We've heard all this before. Deja Vu At the State of the Union.
Someone at the Republican National Committee noticed that a lot of what President Obama had to say during his
2012 State of the Union address sounded awfully familiar.
The Real State of the Union:
Has Barack Obama learned nothing in three years? Last night, during his State of the Union address, he promised
"a blueprint for an economy." But economies are crushed by blueprints. An economy is really nothing more
than people participating in an unfathomably complex spontaneous network of exchanges aimed at improving their material
circumstances. It can't even be diagrammed, much less planned. And any attempt at it will come to grief.
What
Exactly is the Actual "State" of This Union? I watched the State of the Union address and thought it
was flat; in spite of polite interruptions, there wasn't any passion. Sure, President Obama tried to muster up
emotion and that typical crescendo, but even for stuff he really believes in I found it wanting.
Obama
Policies Failing Americans. One didn't need to be a political insider to know that in this year's
State of the Union the president would address the public's concern over scarcity of jobs and an unsteady
economy. Attempts to assuage these worries included overviews of new proposals to spur growth and examples
of success stories already unfolding as a result of his work. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different.
This administration's policies have failed the American people. The recovery President Obama promised
is not happening; and worse, he is destroying many new opportunities for job creation.
Obama plagiarizes Ford ad. In a
stunningly cynical and ironic statement, Barack Obama said: "Let's never forget: Millions of Americans
who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a Government and a financial system that do the same.
It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts." This
comes from the man who bailed out company after company, who increased by 44% the handouts of food stamps and who
threw away billions in loan guarantees to his billionaire cronies. His speech was perhaps the biggest copout
of the year if not the century.
Obama's SOTU
Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year. Obama's SOTU addresses have the lowest average
Flesch-Kincaid score of any modern president; Obama owns three of the six lowest-scoring addresses since FDR. ... In
Obama's own words: "My message is simple."
Barack
Obama is still driving America towards decline. Two words hardly mentioned in Barack Obama's 65-minute
State of the Union address to Congress: freedom and liberty. President Obama's fourth and possibly last
State of the Union speech was long on big government proposals, but short on the principles that have made America
the world's greatest power.
All
he inspires now is outrage. Barack Obama doesn't have his mojo back. Last night's State of the
Union was so pedestrian that even its most provocative sections — proposing new taxes and new witch
hunts — had little rhetorical power or oomph.
Obama
announces financial crimes unit. President Obama announced a new unit devoted to major financial
crimes as he offered tough words for Wall Street during his State of the Union address. The unit will be
staffed by "highly trained investigators" and charged with tracking "large-scale fraud."
The Editor asks...
Isn't that what the FBI is for?
A State of Denial.
Toward the end of his State of the Union address, President Obama delivered a paragraph that was so blatantly absurd
and self contradictory as to actually become clarifying — so incoherent that it shed a bright light on his
thinking and his grave dilemma. It's hard to believe he actually said this, but he did.
Obama's Open Buffet.
While the nation drowns in debt and the economy continues to teeter, Obama devotes himself to the empty symbolism
of the "Buffett rule." He had the Omaha billionaire's secretary placed in a seat of honor near the First
Lady. Barack and Michelle are the quintessential champagne socialists, enjoying the trappings of
power — the First Lady donned an ostentatious royal blue designer dress that probably cost more than
several months of her prop's secretarial salary — while decrying the excesses of the rich.
Obama's proposals
evasive and irresponsible. Don't worry, America. There's nothing that ails this country that
can't be made right by a catalogue of piddling proposals that will be forgotten tomorrow — and oh
yeah, more taxes on the rich. Such was the message of President Obama's State of the Union address.
Haven't We Heard this Before?
The Republican National Committee has compiled this video comparing lines President Obama used tonight in his
State of the Union Address with lines he used in previous addresses before Congress.
Obama pushes plans that
flopped before. President Barack Obama laid out an array of plans in his State of the Union speech
as if his hands weren't so tied by political realities.
Every
millionaire should pay 30% tax. Mr Obama, in what Republicans hope will be his last State of the
Union address, outlined steps he believes will bolster the embryonic economic recovery, making the case that
the US government should act to reduce inequalities in wealth. But the speech was short on specifics and
long on campaign-style rhetoric.
Obama Makes Populist
Pitch. If there was any doubt Mr. Obama's address was intended as a campaign speech, he made a
point of including policies that appeal to many possible constituencies: Hispanics, women, anti-Wall Street
groups, labor and environmentalists. Two hours before delivering the speech, he sent an email to his campaign
supporters saying, "Tonight, we set the tone for the year ahead."
Obama
calls for taxes, investments. While the speech focused on the lofty goals of rewarding hard work and
providing more economic opportunity for all Americans, the details of the president's plans for leveling the playing
field — such as raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, imposing stricter regulations on Wall Street
and creating government mandates for health care — have deeply divided the nation during his time
in office.
Obama's
Big Six State of the Union Tax Myths: In his speech, Obama repeatedly turned to the tax code to explain
what's wrong with the country. It favors the rich, he said. It benefits companies that send jobs abroad.
It subsidizes the dirty old oil industry. It's the cause of our deficit problem. And worst of all, plenty
of people and businesses aren't paying their "fair share." None of it is true.
Obama's
Hypocrisy: Making Warren Buffett Richer. As the great investor's secretary sat with the first lady
at the State of the Union, the president spoke of economic "fairness." Is it fair to make a supporter wealthier
at the expense of the American people?
Obama's new
mortgage-fraud unit met with skepticism. President Barack Obama's State of the Union pledge to
create a special unit to punish fraud in mortgage finance met with skepticism Wednesday for coming so late in
his term and amid signs that his administration is close to settling with large banks accused of shoddy
mortgage-lending practices.
Obama
Proposes Mortgage Bailouts, Handouts, Copouts. Inquiring minds are reading the complete text of
President Obama's State of the Union Address to see what distortions, lies, and hypocrisy it contains.
I found a nice Orwellian set of paragraphs smack in the middle of his speech.
Keystone Kops energy
policy. In his State of the Union speech, President Obama had barely cleared his throat when he
outlined his vision for an American "future where we're in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity
aren't so tied to unstable parts of the world." Just days before, he had delivered a crippling blow to
his own plan.
Obama's
SOTU ratings tank 12%, worst of presidency. President Obama's State of the Union Address was the
lowest rated of his presidency, down 12 percent from last year's speech. Obama drew 37.75 million
viewers last night on 14 networks and cable news channels, according to the website TVbythenumbers, which
tracks television ratings.
Obama
Says He's 'Protecting Our Kids From Mercury' — While Mandating It In Their Homes. Last
night, Pres. Obama reaffirmed his determination to protect our country's children from the dangers of mercury,
despite his vigorous defense of a mandate that all Americans put more of it into their homes. "I will not back
down from protecting our kids from mercury poisoning," Obama promised in last night's State Of The Union address.
State of Obama's Tax Assertions — ATR
Fact Check. Obama Claim: "Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving
jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the
highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it." Reality:
Companies don't get tax breaks for moving anything overseas. Rather, they face double taxation when they
try to bring foreign-earned profits back here to America. America is one of the only countries in the
world which seeks to tax income coming back home from overseas.
The State of His Policies.
Normally a President at the start of his fourth year would be running on his record, accentuating the legislation
he's passed. Mr. Obama can't do that with any specificity because the economic recovery has been so weak and
the legislation he has passed is so unpopular. So last night he took credit for the shale gas revolution he
had nothing to do with and proposed new policies to "spread the wealth around," as he famously told Joe the Plumber
in 2008 before he took the words back. We thought he meant it then, and now he's admitting it.
The
Deteriorating "State of the Union" Parody. Barack Obama's latest iteration lasted for more than
an hour, and could more precisely be characterized as the "state of Obama's ego."
What can the President do to make America Prosper? The President's
policies are raising energy prices, which makes consumers poorer and destroys jobs in energy-intensive industries.
If President Obama is sincere when he says that 'we can't wait' to create jobs and economic growth, then he should
reverse his anti-energy policies and tell the EPA to stop its regulatory onslaught against coal-fired electricity.
He could start tonight by taking back his decision to block the Keystone pipeline.
Renewing
War Against Coal. President Barack Obama talked a lot about "renewable" energy during his State
of the Union speech Tuesday night. But he made it crystal clear he plans to renew his administration's
war against coal while forcing expensive, unrealistic non-alternatives down the throats of Americans. During
his entire speech, the president never used the word "coal." Yet he criticized Congress for rejecting his
"climate change" proposals — at the same time failing, on purpose, to mention he has instructed the
Environmental Protection Agency to ruin the coal industry with or without lawmakers' approval.
The State of the Union flop. Once
upon a time, small ball was not Barack Obama's game. Tuesday, it was the essence of his State of the Union
address. The visionary of 2008 — purveyor of hope and change, healer of the earth, tamer of the
rising seas — offered an hour of little things: tax-code tweaks to encourage this or that kind of
behavior (manufacturing being the flavor of the day), little watchdog agencies to round up Wall Street miscreants
and Chinese DVD pirates, even a presidential demand "that all students stay in high school until they graduate
or turn 18." Under penalty of what? Jail?
Obama loves oil! Not!
Without his nose growing visibly, the President claimed the government was behind the technological advances that
led to the current shale gas boom, and even suggested that he might take credit for the rise in domestic oil
production. In fact, Mr. Obama's administration has hampered and castigated oil companies at every turn.
In the light of the hysterical grandstanding over the BP Gulf spill (whose impact proved to be greatly exaggerated),
it was ironic indeed to hear the President now declare a great opening up of offshore exploration.
Only the debt ceiling will
reach the moon. An honest leader would feel he owed it to the citizenry to impress upon them one
central truth — that we can't have any new programs because we've spent all the money. It's
gone. The cupboard is bare.
Trade, Tires, and Jobs.
"Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires," asserted President
Obama in his State of the Union Address. President Obama referred to steep tariffs that his Administration
imposed on tires imported from China. Not everyone sees it that way.
Obama's
Vision for a Spartan America. What Obama is saying, quite plainly, is that America would be better
off if it wasn't America any longer. He's making the case not for American exceptionalism, but Spartan
exceptionalism. It's far worse than anything George W. Bush, the supposed warmonger, ever said.
Trust
deficit made visible by State of the Union. Obama tried to take credit for the current jobs and
economic success of the natural gas boom: "We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly
one hundred years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy."
The duplicity lies in the weasel word, "safely." Big Green's minions insist there's no safe way to develop
fossil fuels and they comprise a lobbying and regulatory roadblock sufficient to heap mountains of delayed and
rejected drilling permits on sites properly leased by oil and gas companies. They have Obama's
ear — and apparently the keyboards of his speechwriters.
Obama's
Misstatements on the Union. Excessive spending is the primary threat to our nation's and Americans'
financial future, yet Obama glossed over it and distorted his record. He said, "We've already agreed to more
than $2 trillion in cuts and savings. But we need to do more." But everyone knows he's had to be
dragged kicking and screaming to the cutting table. His unrelenting passion is spending.
Obama embraces default
amnesty. President Obama's State of the Union address — coupled with recent troubling
decisions by his administration to expand a pattern of de facto amnesty for illegal immigrants —
cemented the unfortunate reality that this president continues intentionally to abdicate a responsibility to
advance serious immigration reform. Empty rhetoric, repetitive platitudes and continued support for
the already-rejected Dream Act do not make up a comprehensive proposal to this complex policy issue.
Obama
Tosses Left A Bone With Anti-Bank Witch Hunt. President Obama has unveiled a new task force to
"investigate" America's banks. But he's just pinning blame for bad economic choices on the victims of
job-killing mandates, while throwing a bone to his political base.
Obama loves oil! Not! If the
President thinks he won any Greenie Points by kicking the Keystone XL pipeline down the road, he certainly lost them
all — and probably then some — with his support for fracking and offshore drilling [in his State of
the Union speech]. Radical environmentalists don't want to hear about energy security, objective risks, or practical
safety measures: they want to close down hydrocarbons as the work of the climate devil.
These Dems spin better than
Rumpelstiltskin. How profoundly America has changed since January 2009. I was pondering this
the other night during the State of the Union address. Did you know that our elite military units like the Navy
SEALs are now examples of America at its absolute finest? Why, wasn't it just a few years ago that Sen. Dick
Durbin was comparing these very same troops to the Khmer Rouge and Joe Stalin's Red Army?
After
Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?. How much bailing out does one company need?
After receiving some $50 billion in tax dollars from us courtesy of Obama's "cash stash," GM is claiming success with a "big
profit" with last year's third quarter report, and in his recent State of the Union Speech, President Obama claimed that GM was
"back on top as the world's number one automaker." But true or not, if all is coming up roses for GM, why is the company
now lobbying the individual states for mini bailouts? That is exactly what is happening.
How
I woke up to the untruths of Barack Obama. When I happened to wake up in the middle of the night
last Wednesday and caught the BBC World Service's live relay of President Obama's State of the Union address
to Congress, two passages had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief.
Natural
gas sector set up by Obama to be sabotaged? President Obama spoke of the role natural gas must
play in America's energy future during his State of the Union address last week, but industry insiders fear
it's merely lip service designed to distract from what they consider the administration's behind-the-scenes
plan to sabotage the sector.
Obama
forgets his first two years in State of the Union address. If you came away from President Obama's
State of the Union address thinking nothing worth mentioning happened during his first two years in office, then
you got precisely the message he intended. ... Why no mention of Obama's signature economic legislation, the
$814 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the stimulus bill? His biggest domestic
accomplishment, the $1.2 trillion Obamacare plan was noted, but only twice and almost in passing.
Obama's
Love of Neo-Soviet Russia Shines Through in SOTU Address. Russia is ruled by [Vladimir] Putin,
a proud KGBer who has sought to rehabilitate Stalin; restore the national anthem of the USSR; control the
content of school history texts; abolish local elections; and liquidate, often by murder or incarceration,
his toughest critics. He has also radically increased Russian military spending and has launched an
invasion of Georgia, a cyber-attack on Estonia, an energy war on Ukraine, and a verbal conflagration against
the United States, which he most recently referred to as a nation of parasites. In his State of the Union
address, Obama did not say a single word about any of this.
The people are tired and simply shut their
ears during Obama's boilerplate SOTU speech. What We Do Not Want to
Hear Anymore. The State of the Union could have been written by a computer program. ... What is
it about George Bush that obsesses Obama? It is now January 2012, 40 months after the September
2008 meltdown. So let us finally quit scapegoating "they" ("In the six months before I held
office..."; "In 2008...") who did such terrible things to poor us. Instead, accept the truth about both
culpability and responsibility.
Rubio: Obama 'made everything
worse'. Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) panned President Obama's State of the Union speech during
the weekly Republican address, saying the president largely ignored his own record because he has made the economy
worse during three years in office.
The
NEA's Plan: Keep Your 'Kids' Captive Longer. Not surprisingly, given that the NEA is a key part
of the Democratic Party base, President Obama endorsed a similar idea for turning us into a nation of illiterate
Peter Pans in his State of the Union address, in which he advocated that all states make the legal age for leaving
school to 18. Some states allow people legally to leave school at 16, which actually strikes me as the better
option.
The
Audacity of Deceit. Knowing President Obama's Alinskyite proclivities, his third State of the Union
address — coming as it did amidst a reelection campaign — could have been predicted to be
filled with lofting, sometimes inspiring but routinely bait-and-switch rhetoric. Even so, his exploitation
of the U.S. military for nakedly political purposes translates into an extreme plumbing of what might be called
his audacity of deceit.
Obama to reporter: I will unite America!
[Scroll down] It was not even a week prior to his conversation with [ABC's Diane] Sawyer that Obama once
again emphasized the sham "Buffet rule" in his tedious State of the Union address, the idea that the country is
replete with millionaires and billionaires who pay lower tax rates than their poor, downtrodden secretaries, and
that in order to bring fairness and equity to the tax code, such high-rollers shouldn't pay lower than
30 percent in taxes.
Life Is Not Fair.
During his January 24, 2012, State of the Union (SOTU) speech, Obama used the word "fair" over and over again to
justify his desire for more and more government control over outcomes. "Fair" is one of those words that
allows the listener to define it to his own personal taste, and the definition changes from one specific case to
another. To Obama, "fairness" is not a description of the opportunities available, but rather the results
that occur.
President Obama's
Civilian Soldiers. President Obama's State of the Union speech last week was about battlefield
preparation. He is taking his party back to the old Progressive totem of the "moral equivalent of
war." ... There's a harsh logic to this. Ever since Karl Marx, liberals have rebelled against the fat,
sloppy way of voluntary cooperation that leaves no room for political power and civilian soldiers. So
voluntary cooperation must go. Forget about humans as social animals. Think soldier ants.
The great achievement of President Obama is to present his vision so clearly: America as a progressive
ant-hill.
Obama
laughs over spilled milk but fines companies for not producing fictional fuel. During his State
of the Union address last week, President Obama joked about the absurdity of an Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) regulation that could have forced dairy farmers to pay $10,000 for spilled milk. Equally absurd is
the same agency fining companies $6.8 million in 2011 for failing to use a fuel that does not exist.
Even more absurd is raising the fine in 2012 — but that is exactly what the EPA is doing.
All the President's Props.
[Scroll down] Warren Buffett's Secretary was played by Debbie Bosanek, who is Warren Buffett's actual secretary,
and who makes between $200,000 and $500,000 per year, according to the calculations of Paul Roderick Gregory over
at Forbes. ... If Gregory's deductions are correct, then Bosanek is likely a member of that charter club known as
the "wealthiest 2%," a coven of blackhearted plunderers and blue-blooded aristocrats that looted the country for
all it was worth in 2008. Progressives have demanded higher taxes on the wealthiest 2%, yet hailed Bosanek
as an overtaxed hero. They've blamed the wealthiest 2% for all the nation's ills, but hoisted up this
secretary as an emblem of justice in the class wars. Well, which is it?
Obama
Delivers 'Class Warfare' SOTU. President Barack Obama contends that government-imposed
'share-the-wealth' schemes truly represent 'American values.'
Obama's Calculated Deception.
Calculated deception as a central public manipulation strategy practiced by President Obama involves the President
taking advantage of what he thinks the average person doesn't know and won't be told by a compliant media.
Such calculated deception was central to last week's State of the Union Address. That address is useful
only as an outline of the President's reelection strategy. ... The Obama SOTU exhibited again Obama's core
"progressive" conviction that the average American is hopelessly stupid.
ANWR — Is President Obama Serious
About Domestic Oil Production? President Obama admitted in the State of the Union that energy
production creates jobs, so why isn't he opening up new areas like the North Slope of the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge (ANWR) for oil and gas production? As we have noted numerous times, the federal government leases a
mere 3 percent of federal lands for energy production. The United States is already the world's third
largest oil producer, but we could produce a lot more oil if the federal government would let the American people
explore for oil on more federal lands.
[Italics in original.]
Or
is it state of the disunion? The president made no fewer than 15 references to manufacturing
and the importance of private sector jobs. He talked about pushing more than 500 regulatory reforms to
enhance the country's business environment, and made other comments suggesting that the White House puts a priority
on the private sector. But in reality this administration has been all about spending and expanding the
scope and reach of government to the tune of $9.4 trillion since 2009. Under President Obama's watch,
we have also added more than $4 trillion to a national debt that now exceeds $15 trillion, making the
U.S. the brokest nation in world history.
Obama's Amazing Energy Spin
Machine. The bankruptcy of Ener1, a "green energy" firm that got a $118 million stimulus grant, has
brought the Obama administration's commitment to sinking billions of dollars into alternative energy boondoggles
back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, President Obama remains committed to continuing down this wasteful
path, as his statements about energy in his recent State of the Union Address made clear. While the president
spent more time on the topic than any other policy area, he distorted the facts, misrepresented his plans, and
ignored his record.
The Obama Fable about Energy. As I always
say it is better to read Obama's speeches then to just listen. Obama never talked about the high price of gasoline at
the pump in his last SOTU. It is way too high, and it is causing folks to have to sacrifice. But, after all,
Obama said we would need to sacrifice for hope and change. The big question should have been answered by the community
organizer as to why the price of oil is getting out of sight again?
An economy drowning in Obama's
'fairness'. "If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent
in taxes," asserted President Obama in his State of the Union speech. That would effectively double the tax
rate on income from capital gains from the current 15 percent rate, producing a triple negative impact on U.S.
economic growth and job creation by reducing the incentive for domestic investment, increasing the incentive to move
more jobs and capital overseas and reducing the amount of capital available in the private sector by way of greater
transfers of income to the government.
Drill There, Build Here, Now!. Obama has continued the crazy lefty
polices of his party and refused to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He has curtailed drilling off the
coast. And his actions have contributed to the chaos in the Mideast as even long-friendly Egypt teeters ever closer to
Islamist insanity. But he capped his anti-energy term with such blatant hypocrisy that media lefties should be
screaming. First, he fought GOP efforts to take action on the Keystone pipeline. Finally, when his hand was
forced, he shut down plans to move tar sands energy via pipeline from Canada to Texas. He then followed that blatantly
political and amazingly cynical move with a State of the Union speech claiming he believed in power to the people — mentioning
the word "energy" nearly two dozen times.
As Hope Shrieks Away.
In his State of the Union address Obama actually urged us to model a failed program of the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam, as an
example America can use once again. There are many good arguments to support the construction of the Hoover Dam — it's
a neat engineering feat and helped open the West — but it's didn't do a thing to solve the issues of the Great Depression
it was proposed to solve. Today, it wouldn't even make it past OSHA, the EPA, the State Department or the Canadian
Convention and Visitors Bureau's approval processes. Thus it's a typical liberal big-government proposal that resembles
our president — high on grandiosity and iconography but poor on real results.
National Prayer Breakfast, February 2, 2012:
Obama Speech at National Prayer Breakfast:
Insincere Theological Farce . Glancing down at his notes every few seconds Mr. Obama managed to
get through what looked like the worst drudgery of his day at the National Prayer Breakfast. ... There was a
good helping of name dropping in which Obama said various ministers dropped by or phoned him at the White House.
He specifically named Joel Hunter and T. D. Jakes. A fully emotionally embellished account of his
visit with the Reverend Billy Graham was also added to the obviously perfunctory address. The subtle infusion
of Obama's politics and policy filled the air, and the speech, which the president could hardly disguise, was an
attenuation of his usual political rhetoric.
Render unto Barry...
President Obama advertised some big endorsements for his tax-the-rich more policies and class warfare reelection
strategy yesterday [2/2/2012]. In a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast ... Obama made the case that
Jesus, Muhammad, Moses and Plato (?!) are all on board with him, although that may be understating the matter.
GOP
lawmaker walked out on Obama's speech at National Prayer Breakfast. Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey
(Ga.) walked out of President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, his spokeswoman
confirmed to The Hill. Jen Talaber said the five-term lawmaker "left quietly" in the middle of the
president's remarks. "He was disturbed and offended by the president's use of prayer and reflection
time for partisan politics and class warfare," Talaber said. "Rep. Gingrey enjoyed listening to the keynote
speaker and found the breakfast to be inspiring until President Obama began politicking."
The President at the Prayer
Breakfast. President Obama, whose church attendance during the three years of his presidency has
been as notable for its paucity as his visits to the golf course have been notable for their frequency, showed
up — as he proudly pointed out, for the third time — at the National Prayer Breakfast to
talk about the importance of his faith in his governing, politics, and policy-making. Coming from a president
whose administration, from one end to the other, has worked consistently to limit religious freedom in this country,
demonize Christian believers, and remove religion from the public square, the speech was a masterpiece of
manipulation and demagoguery.
Is Jesus On Board
with Obama? Perhaps most interesting about the President's speech is what people are NOT saying in
its aftermath. For example, President Obama's admission that his understanding of the Bible is his basis for
his economic policies has not drawn any public concerns about the so-called "separation of church and state"
(Barry W. Lynn — where are you?). Likewise, there seems to be no apprehension about
President Obama's remarks from the ranks of religious leaders.
Marx,
Jesus, or Obama — Who Are You Going To Believe? President Obama has hit a new low.
By promoting his reasoning for hiking taxes on the rich at the National Prayer Breakfast, he diminished the seriousness
of his proposals and manipulated Jesus' teachings for his own political purposes. Listening to Obama talk about
taxation almost as a form of worship was beyond the bounds as he said, "For me as a Christian, it also coincides with
Jesus's teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required." He was quoting and distorting the
Gospel of Luke and the Parable of the Faithful Servant. And, as Christians, we are greatly grieved by what
Obama has done.
"We have had egotistical presidents before,
but never to my knowledge have we had one who saw himself as replacing God." Obama's abuse of scripture.
Many of us who are biblical scholars have watched Mr. Obama's use, or should I say abuse, of the Bible with dismay.
Who can forget when he gave a speech mocking the ceremonial law of the Old Testament then saying something to the
effect of, "How can you govern by the Sermon on the Mount?" Well, he did it again at the National Prayer
Breakfast on Thursday. I never understood that name since very little prayer, if any, takes place.
Instead, perhaps it should be called the National Breakfast Gathering.
American Exceptionalism Under
Assault. In this election cycle, one noticeable phenomenon is how the Republican presidential candidates
are emphasizing our country's founding principles — liberty and freedom — more than in any
campaign in the modern political era. Each speaks often of the Declaration of Independence. Citing articles
of the Constitution is commonplace. The president's record of evoking such themes stands in stark contrast.
In his State of the Union address, for example, our president made only one perfunctory reference to the
Constitution and then went on to misquote it.
Energy policy speech, February 23, 2012:
Obama
owns these gas prices. With the average price of a gallon of gasoline rising 40 cents just last
week, President Obama attacked Republicans yesterday [2/23/2012], trying to distract voters from his own failed
energy policy. "The American people aren't stupid," Obama said "You know there are no quick fixes to this
problem." And Obama is right. There are no quick fixes to this problem. But Obama has been in
office for three years now. There is plenty the federal government can do to lower gas prices in three
years. Problem is, everything Obama has done on energy has been designed to increase Americans' pain at
the pump.
'Stupid' and Oil
Prices. 'The American people aren't stupid," thundered President Obama yesterday in Miami,
ridiculing Republicans who are blaming him for rising gasoline prices. Let's hope he's right, because not
even Forrest Gump could believe the logic of what Mr. Obama is trying to sell. To wit, that a) gasoline
prices are beyond his control, but b) to the extent oil and gas production is rising in America, his energy
policies deserve all the credit, and c) higher prices are one more reason to raise taxes on oil and gas
drillers while handing even more subsidies to his friends in green energy.
The Five Biggest
Whoppers In Obama's Energy Speech. The White House billed President Obama's energy policy speech
as a response to mounting criticism of record high gas prices. What he delivered was a grab bag of excuses
and outright falsehoods.
Gasoline Prices and
Dollar Prices. Surging gasoline prices are back in the news, and President Obama shows his
concern for Americans by doing what he does best. He gave a speech. Happy now?
Gassy Rhetoric: DNC chair blamed Republicans for high gas prices in
2005. Obama told students in Miami on Thursday that there is "no silver bullet" when it comes to lowering
gas prices. The White House press secretary told reporters this week there are no "magic solutions." But
Democrats haven't always been so consistent in their message. In fact, one prominent Democrat argued in 2005 that
President Bush and Republicans were directly to blame for high gas prices.
The Soylent Green Energy Initiative. Anguished that
people are actually holding him accountable for the results of his policies, President Obama — master of the moratorium,
enemy of oil pipelines — fled to the University of Miami to assure everyone that he really wants an "all of the above"
strategy. Much like "jobs created or saved," this is a lazy rhetorical device designed to allow Obama's dwindling band of
die-hard supporters to pretend he's actually devising some sort of complex technocratic solution to America's energy needs.
New Chart Shows White House Plan for Higher Gas Prices & Fewer Jobs.
In yesterday's speech defending his failed energy policies — under which gas prices have nearly doubled and are rising
faster than ever — President Obama called for the kind of "all of the above" energy strategy long-championed by
Republicans. But far from supporting "all of the above," the Obama administration has spent more than three years blocking
efforts to expand energy production and bring down gas prices, while pushing job-crushing tax hikes and taxpayer-backed loans to
companies like Solyndra.
Miracle of the algae.
If Americans aren't sold on electric cars as the solution to our energy problems, I'm pretty sure that they won't fall
for pond scum (algae). Yet this is part of what President Obama had on offer this past Thursday when he spoke at
the University of Miami.
Deconstructing Barack
Obama's Blatant Energy Lies. I didn't get to hear President Obama's energy speech in Miami today,
but I do know this much. He deflected blame. He passed the buck. He blamed Bush. He lied.
And he demonized Republicans for begging Democrats to unleash America's vast treasure trove of energy.
Obama's
Claim of Increasing Domestic Drilling Not Accurate, Say Energy Analysts. President Barack Obama
does not deserve credit for increased domestic energy production, according to non-partisan energy observers, as
well as critics. President Obama spoke to a crowd in Miami on Thursday about rising gas prices. Today,
the national average for one gallon of unleaded gasoline is $3.57, which is 18 cents higher than a month ago,
according to AAA. In Florida, where he spoke, the average price per gallon is $3.68. The speech comes
less than a month after Obama rejected the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have run from Canada
through the midwest to the Gulf of Mexico.
President Blameless. As expected, President
Obama strode purposefully to the lectern at the University of Miami late last week and, solemnly surveying the crowd, took responsibility
for skyrocketing gasoline prices that threaten our struggling recovery. Of course, that is not quite the way it went down.
Shortly before the Florida speech, the Hill newspaper reported that the president was planning to "move aggressively this week to deflect
blame for rising gas prices." Mr. Obama deflecting blame? You don't say. This must be the most blame-deflecting White
House in our nation's history.
United Auto Workers, February 28, 2012
Auto
bailout helped Obama's friends, at taxpayers' expense. To chants of "Four more years! Four more years!", President Obama gave an
impassioned defense of his auto bailout Wednesday [2/29/2012]. In front of a raucous crowd at the United Auto Workers conference in
Washington, D.C., Obama said, "It wasn't popular. And it wasn't what I ran for president to do. ... But now, three years later, that
bet is paying off." Obama got one thing right in that statement: Spending billions of tax dollars bailing out the auto companies
rendered uncompetitive by the UAW and federal regulatory burdens wasn't popular. And it still isn't.
Obama to UAW: 'Trying to Climb
to the Very Top' Is 'Greed,' Not What America's 'About'. President Obama — in a speech to the United Auto
Workers union — said that "trying to climb to the very top" was not what America is "about," saying that it was "greed"
and that in reality "we're all in it together." "America's not just looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's
not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down," Obama said at the UAW's annual National Community
Action Program Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.
The Editor says...
Obama climbed "to the very top", didn't he?
Obama's Union Speech a 'Load of
You-Know-What'. Speaking before the United Auto Workers union in Washington, Obama, champion of the working man,
challenged auto bailout "naysayers" to "come around" and admit that "standing by American workers was the right thing to do," as
bailouts "saved" the auto industry. (You have to wonder whether downtrodden citizens appreciate just how close they came to
having to roller-skate to work.) "They're out there talking about you like you're some special interest that needs to be beaten
down," Obama told cheering union members. And those who claim that bailouts were just a labor payback are simply peddling
a "load of you-know-what." I do know what, Mr. President.
Obama gambles with our money: Obama in
speech to UAW convention: 'I placed my bet on the American worker'. President Barack Obama delivered
a rousing, combative speech Tuesday [2/28/2012] to UAW members, chastising his would-be Republican rivals for
opposing a government intervention he said helped save the American auto industry and promising to battle on
to protect the rights of workers.
Obama
Slams Romney In Auto Worker Speech on Michigan Primary Day. President Obama took two swipes at
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in front of auto workers in Washington on Tuesday -- on
the same day that Romney is fighting for a crucial win in his home state of Michigan. In front of the
friendly union crowd, Obama took a more campaign-style approach to his remarks, with a casual delivery and
often booming statements in the microphone that pumped up the auto workers. Audience members often
interjected his speech with cries of support and chants of "four more years, four more years!"
The Editor says...
Wow. It is amazing that the auto workers want another four years like the last four.
Or maybe the union bosses told them to cheer, and they were just following orders.
The Shameless Obama Campaign.
The timing of Obama's speech to the UAW could not have been accidental. As the president was delivering his
broadside against his political adversaries and rallying labor's shock troops, Republicans held primaries in
Michigan and Arizona. Again and again, the president has demonstrated an eagerness to interfere with the
GOP's moments in the spotlight.
Live Not By Obama's Lies. [Scroll
down] His February 2012 speech to the United Auto Workers convention had all the trappings of a 1930s
labor rally. The president played the role of Agate in this impromptu production of "Waiting for Lefty,"
whipping-up the workers in an impassioned polemic that reminded the union of who handed them Chrysler and who,
like Romney, thought normal bankruptcy laws should apply even when the political interests of the Democratic
Party are at stake.
AIPAC, March 4, 2012
Fisking Obama's AIPAC
Speech. President Obama delivered a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on
Sunday [3/4/2012]. ... Barack Obama's reception was lukewarm when he walked on stage — and for good
reason, given the treatment he has meted out to Israel since assuming the presidency. I thought it would be
interesting to do a so-called Fisking of his speech to illustrate its inaccuracies. Fisking is named after
the British "journalist" Robert Fisk who has been notorious for passing off his biases and errors as facts.
Obama's
AIPAC speech: what he didn't say. A nuclear-armed Iran, he declared, could funnel nuclear
weapons to terrorist groups and trigger a nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile region. All
well said. And yet, Obama's speech still left one wondering about his far-from-smooth relations with
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. If the U.S. and Israel are on the same strategic path in countering
Iran, as Obama claims, why did he fail to say anything nice about Netanyahu?
A few words from President Civility. President
Obama held his first press conference in five months yesterday [3/6/2012], in a bid to grab some media attention away from the
Republican primaries on Super Tuesday. After retailing more of the wonderful Obamanomic ideas that have somehow
failed to lift America out of grinding unemployment, soaring gas prices, and general economic malaise, he settled down
to some questions, and of course the subject of the dust-up between radio host Rush Limbaugh and leftist agitator Sandra
Fluke was broached. The most divisive President in history was as nasty and manipulative as ever.
5 questions for Obama. President
Barack Obama's first full news conference in four months has nothing, nothing whatsoever, to do with upstaging the
GOP on Super Tuesday, to hear White House officials tell it. Of course, nobody outside the four walls of the
West Wing really buys that...
Prince George's Community College, March 15, 2012
Who's Obama sneering at?
Delivering his big speech on energy at Prince George's Community College, he insisted the American economy will be
going gangbusters again just as soon as we start running it on algae and windmills.
Obama
errs on Rutherford B. Hayes phone slam. President Barack Obama slammed former President Rutherford B.
Hayes, a Republican, on Thursday [3/15/2012] when excoriating his critics for dismissing alternative energy sources.
He compared them to President [H]ayes, who he wrongly believed dismissed the invention of the telephone.
Obama in
Full Crisis-Control Mode on Gas Prices. President Obama is in full crisis-control mode as gasoline prices
continue to rise. On Thursday [3/15/2012] at in Largo, Md., he gave his third
speech on energy in two weeks, reiterating the same points he has tried to hammer home to voters since his State of
the Union address.
Obama
Flubs U.S. History — Again. Barack Obama shares with his fellow Americans one of their most
dubious national traits: a nonchalant disregard for historical accuracy.
Obama smears Rutherford B. Hayes.
Apparently, President Obama is so full of hate for the Republican Party that he even hates dead Republican
presidents. Today he smeared Rutherford B. Hayes in a classic lefty manner — by putting words in
his mouth and then slamming him for "saying" them.
These
Gas Prices Are Obama's Gas Prices. Barack Obama has spent his presidency finding scapegoats and fleeing
responsibility. For example, our massive deficit is not his fault. Rather, it's George W. Bush's
fault. Our painfully high unemployment isn't his fault either. Rather, it's due to the fact that "the
economy is so automated." He's even tried to assure us that we can't blame him for the sharp rise in gasoline
prices we've seen under his watch either. Rather, he boasts that he's expanded domestic oil production to its
highest point in the last eight years.
Stop
the demagoguery on oil and gas, Mr. President. That was quite a performance Thursday [3/15/2012] at Prince
George's Community College when President Obama spoke on energy issues. He repeated so many Big Green energy myths
that even the most obsessive environmentalists must surely have been exhilarated. One of those myths deserves
particular attention because it is at the core of Obama's "clean energy" agenda for America's future. As he so
frequently does, Obama repeated the misleading assertion that America has only 2 percent of the world's proven
oil reserves but uses 20 percent of all the oil consumed every year.
More Energy Lies From
Obama. Barack Obama gave a speech on energy and gas prices to an audience of college students today,
at Prince George's Community College. He chose his audience carefully; the kids knew nothing about energy,
and received him enthusiastically. But anyone even slightly knowledgeable about energy policy would have
recognized Obama's speech for what it was: one misrepresentation after another.
Hayes quip a 'cheap shot,' says kin.
Count Stephen A. Hayes among those perplexed by President Barack Obama's knock on a late-19th century White House
predecessor. Stephen Hayes, great-great grandson of Rutherford B. Hayes, took immediate notice Thursday [3/15/2012]
when Obama, in a Maryland speech promoting clean energy, scoffed at what he called early skepticism about the telephone
from Hayes, who was president from 1877-1881.
Obama's Energy Stance Taxes the
Brain. President Barack Obama said in a campaign speech Thursday that the reason you are paying a lot more
at the gas pump is due not to supply or demand issues, or geopolitics, but because of tax breaks. ... [Oil companies] paid
$1 trillion in sales and excise taxes out of their revenues between 1981 and 2008, a total that exceeded their
after-tax profits by 40%, according to data from the International Energy and the Energy Information Administration.
That doesn't count federal or state income taxes.
Krauthammer: Obama energy speech 'a double technical'. In a
speech on Thursday in Maryland, President Barack Obama claimed former President Rutherford B. Hayes wasn't
particularly good at his job because he was supposedly dismissive of the telephone and its technological
potential. Obama was making a case for his administration's push for renewable energy investments.
But his jab at Hayes was historically unfounded.
Obama's
whopper about Rutherford B. Hayes and the telephone. In a speech on energy Thursday, the president took aim at
the "cynics and naysayers" who dismiss potential new sources of energy, such as wind and solar. Leave aside the canard
about most Europeans believing the earth was flat before Columbus — that's an elementary-school tale with little
basis in fact. What about President Hayes? Was he really so dismissive about the invention of the telephone?
The
president flunks history — again. For a guy touted as an "intellectual," President Obama does
get a lot of history wrong. In a speech attacking Republicans as "flat-earthers" Obama asserted: "One of my
predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, 'It's a great invention, but who would ever want
to use one?' That's why he's not on Mount Rushmore because he's looking backwards. He's not looking forwards.
He's explaining why we can't do something, instead of why we can do something." The [Washington] Post's Glenn Kessler
easily nails him with four Pinocchios for his slur on Hayes.
Poking around the
propaganda factory. [Scroll down] In order to refute the charges of Newt Gingrich and others in the Republican
Party that the president is responsible for high gas prices, the president made the following claim: "Do not tell me that we're
not drilling. We're drilling all over this country. There are a few spots we're not drilling. We're not drilling in
the National Mall. We're not drilling at your house. I guess we could try to have, like, 200 oil rigs in the middle
of the Chesapeake Bay." So now, according to the president, if you are for more drilling for oil — if you are for lower
prices at the gasoline pump — you should vote for President Obama. Except he knows, and you know, and everyone else knows
that it isn't true.
Bagram Airbase, Kabul, Afghanistan, May 1, 2012
Obama Campaigns in Afghanistan.
Today, President Obama essentially declared victory in Afghanistan. Just in time for his re-election campaign, of course.
First, he blamed President Bush for us not winning the Afghanistan war sooner. [...] Then he claimed credit for President Bush's
goals...
Obama's
midnight dash to Kabul shows that he dare not visit the place in daylight. After the signing, there was just time
for Mr Obama to duck into hangar and make a rousing address to the poor troops who must daily wonder which direction enemy fire
is coming from, before making an address to the nation. This was, of course, another perfect excuse for the President to
remind everyone of his heroic decisions in the Situation Room a year ago. Mr Obama tried to make a virtue out of absurdity,
referring to a "new light" breaking on the horizon for Afghanistan, even as he gestured to the "pre-dawn darkness" in which he was
speaking, but even Mr Obama oratorical skills couldn't disguise the tail-between-the-legs 'optics' of the event. It was terrible.
Obama's
Afghan trip: 14,000 miles for brief remarks lacking one crucial word. Here's what Obama got politically from this
stagecraft: Bonus public attention focused on the Osama bin Laden assassination anniversary. Photos of troops
clamoring for his fist bumps. An entire day focused on him, his words and non-stop talk of the 10-year war winding
down. An entire news day, one of only 189 precious ones left before Nov. 6, not focused on Solyndras,
prostitution scandals, GSA parties, $5 trillion in new national debt, no federal budget for three years running,
high unemployment, sluggish growth, legal crucifixions nor Mitt Romney.
Obama: 'I traveled to
Afghanistan to thank our troops'. President Obama's weekly remarks, as provided by the White House[: "]This week, I
traveled to Afghanistan — to thank our troops serving far from home, and to sign an historic agreement that will help us complete
our mission and end the war.["]
The Editor says...
He should have said, "This week, I traveled to Afghanistan at your expense, to get myself on television for another
few minutes and make a campaign speech using American soldiers as background props."
American Narcissus, Ctd.. President Obama gave a shout-out
to President Obama during a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday [5/1/2012]. Speaking to American troops gathered at Bagram
Air Base, the president called out the names of several military units "in the house" — who cheered upon hearing their
name — before adding: "And we've got me in the house."
Obama's
Afghan trip: 14,000 miles for brief remarks lacking one crucial word. As usual with this president, Obama's trip to and
speech from Afghanistan had way more to do with politics than any real substance. Seven thousand miles, one way, is a long journey
to share war remarks with countrymen that he should have and could have shared back home many months ago. Despite the administration's
best backgrounding sales efforts, the document he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a meaningless basic agreement to talk later
about forging a real agreement.
Generalissimo Obama. One of President Obama's most annoying
habits is his tendency to mistake the 300 million people of the United States for soldiers in an army charged with national
reconstruction. He, of course, is the general. [...] And on Tuesday [5/1/2012], in the televised address at the close of his
targeted Afghan night raid, Obama challenged his audience to "summon that same sense of common purpose" one finds in "our soldiers,
our sailors, our airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and civilians in Afghanistan," and "redouble our efforts to build a nation
worthy of their sacrifice."
Obama, liberal imperialist. President
Obama has put America on the disastrous path toward another Vietnam. This is the real meaning of his recent trip to Afghanistan.
On Tuesday [5/1/2012], Mr. Obama delivered a nationally televised address from Kabul. The speech was filled with symbolism.
The president spoke on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. [...] The speech was a cheap publicity
stunt — political theater masquerading as statesmanship. Mr. Obama was not there to mark America's victory
in Afghanistan or to boost the morale of our soldiers. Rather, his message was aimed at the electorate back home.
Obama Gives Himself Shout-Out At
Bagram Airbase. Speaking to troops at Bagram Airbase, Obama began doing his usual campaign routine of giving shout-outs
to various members of the audience. He gives shout-outs to two task forces — "We've got Task Force Paladin in the house!"
The soldiers cheer loudly. He continues, "We've got Task Force Defender in the house!" The soldiers give a rowdy "Hooah!"
Then, impressed with his own bravery for being at the Airbase, Obama says, "And we've got me in the house." Halfhearted
applause follows. Awkward!
Obama's hollow triumph.
Barack Obama's message during his surprise visit to Kabul was unequivocal: America's involvement in the war in Afghanistan is coming to
an end, and her soldiers will soon be going home. Mr Obama is launching his re-election campaign this weekend, and is eager to
remind Americans that he is the president who brought the troops back.
Barnard College, May 14, 2012
Barack Obama,
the first female president. Obama was still early in his address when he acknowledged that his praise for the young generation
of women is "a cheap applause line when you're giving a commencement at Barnard." But Obama was being modest. He didn't deliver
a cheap applause line. He delivered an entire speech full of them. His reelection campaign has been working for months to exploit
the considerable gender gap, which puts him far ahead of likely GOP rival Mitt Romney among women. But Monday's activities veered
into pandering, as Obama brazenly flaunted his feminine mystique.
Press conference, June 8, 2012
'Uhhh,'
the president's 'uhhh' press conference was 'uhhh' terrible. If you are president of the United States and you don't have
anything to say, don't have a press conference to say it. If you're the president of the United States and by Thursday it's
widely believed you've had one of the worst weeks of your presidency, take Friday off, and specifically avoid having a press conference.
Obama's Most Clueless Moment Yet?
President Obama's seemingly-bizarre claim that "the private sector is doing fine" is echoing across the country.
When I first saw the quote, I thought it must be a momentary gaffe, or perhaps taken out of context. But no: Obama
really did say, at some length, that the private sector is prospering and we need to spend more money on government.
'The
private sector's doing fine': Obama's astonishing claim. President Barack Obama, defending his economic record after
unemployment rose to 8.2 percent last month, has told Americans that 'the private sector is doing just fine'. Speaking at a
White House press conference, Obama sought to blame troubles in the European economy, the legacy of President George W. Bush and
inaction by Congress for poor economic numbers in the United States.
Mission Accomplished. President
Obama called a press conference this morning [6/8/2012] to deliver an important announcement: "The private sector is doing fine."
Seriously, he said that. Then he said, "The big challenge we have in our economy right now is state and local government hiring has
been going in the wrong direction" — meaning it hasn't been growing fast enough.
Obama: "The Private Sector Is
Doing Fine". Question: What about the Republicans saying that you're blaming the Europeans for the failures of your own
policies? President Obama: The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months,
over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do
with state and local government. ..."
Sen. McConnell On
Obama: "He Must Be On Another Planet". Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) responds to President Obama's address made Friday
morning in which he urged Congress to take action on jobs and said the private sector was "doing fine."
Romney: Obama 'doing fine' comment will 'go down in history' as 'extraordinary miscalculation'. Mitt
Romney blasted President Obama for comments during a press conference Friday in which the president suggested the private sector was "doing fine." "He
said the private sector is doing fine. Is he really that out of touch?" Romney said at an event in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "I think he's defining
what it means to be out of touch with the American people."
President Obama's 'fine' mess.
President Barack Obama said the "private sector is doing fine" at a morning press conference Friday, as part of an answer to a
question about whether he was blaming Europeans for "the failures of your own policies." Mitt Romney immediately pounced
on the opening Obama gave him. "Is he really that out of touch?" Romney said while stumping in Iowa.
Clueless
appeal to aid gov't workers. A startlingly listless President Obama appeared in the White House press room yesterday
morning, spoke some dull preliminaries about the European financial crisis — and then slipped and tumbled headfirst into
re-election quicksand from which he will find it very difficult to extricate himself.
NYT Denies It Received White House Leaks
Despite Evidence to Contrary. "The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive," President Barack
Obama said at a press conference Friday [6/8/2012] in reference to two New York Times stories.
No Obama agenda. It is
becoming painfully apparent that the president has no message and no agenda. Excuses for the persistent economic slump, which President Obama
delivered in his news conference on Friday, are not an agenda. The unintended message is: I can't get anything done.
It's the public sector
that's 'doing fine'. "It's very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine." Sound familiar? These words are not
President Obama's. They were spoken six months ago by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. While pushing a Democratic proposal to spend
another $35 billion we don't have to help states hire more public workers, Reid declared: "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have
been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers." At last week's news conference, Obama simply repeated the
point Reid made last October.
Obama's pregnant 'denials'. President Obama is offended by
accusations that the White House authorized leaks of highly classified national security information detailed in Confront and Conceal, a new
book by David Sanger of The New York Times. Obama hasn't denied that leaks occurred. "The notion that my White House would purposely release
classified national security information is offensive. It's wrong," he said during Friday's press conference. Media usually
call it a "non-denial denial."
Obama's
new economic adviser, Wile E. Coyote. One of the immutable rules of politics is that if you have to explain something you've said publicly,
the argument is already lost.
Obama Private Sector Stumble
Shifts Debate Back to Stimulus. It has been said that President Obama on Friday "walked back" a statement earlier in the day that "the
private sector is doing fine." But in truth, the president doubled down, explaining again his argument that the only real problem that the
private sector really has is the decline in government hiring as federal stimulus funds have dried up.
Another Fine Mess Obama's
Gotten Us Into. "Tone deaf" fails to describe President Obama's statement at Friday's press conference that "the private
sector is doing fine," when median income is down 10% in three years, family net worth has plunged 39%, 23 million Americans are
out of work and the official unemployment rate tops 8% for the 40th month in a row, the longest sustained period at that level since
the Great Depression. Mitt Romney's charge that the president is "out of touch" might be more accurate, but we would prefer
"clueless."
While
Obama campaigns, the private sector is not doing fine and the middle class is shrinking. Quite how aware the Prez is of the
scale of America's economic problems is unclear. On Friday he made a big gaffe when he said, "The private sector is doing fine.
Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government." That's an astonishing statement, implying
that the issue isn't the health of the market but the miserliness of the GOP.
Cleveland, Ohio, June 14, 2012
Our Plagiarizing President.
John Podhoretz notes — as have others, including the Obama-worshipping Jonathan Alter over at MSNBC — how boring
Barack Obama's speech was yesterday in Ohio. Not only was it long-winded but it just recycled the same rhetoric
Obama has been using for the past few years. Literally recycling — using the exact same phrases from previous speeches.
Running on empty.
OK, presidents repeat themselves; it's no crime. But they tend to repeat themselves when they're trying to advance a specific argument,
piece of legislation, or cause — and they tend to repeat their strongest and most potent points in an effort to win that argument.
That's not what happened yesterday. Instead, Obama dug back into his bag of tricks and brought out a bunch of unsuccessful
arguments — ones that failed to generate support when he first advanced them and failed to move the policy needle in his
direction.
Krauthammer
On Obama's Speech: Anybody Who Believes Him Is "Hopelessly Oversold". "This isn't, this isn't a vision, this is a
rehash," Charles Krauthammer said about President Obama's address on the economy today. "There is absolutely nothing new
here and look, his own staff admitted that days ago saying 'this a way to frame the debate again.' Well to frame the debate
means there is nothing the frame. The picture is empty, it's the same one he has been saying. It's small ball and the
reason is the big answers that he thought he had in 2009, he has tried."
Joe
Klein Pans Obama Speech On MSNBC: 'Failed Profoundly To Explain What He's Done'. Time's Joe Klein added his
voice tonight to people who support the President but weren't exactly sure about his speech on the economy today. Appearing
with Lawrence O'Donnell on tonight's Last Word, Klein said he thought the speech "works well with the base" but that the base wouldn't
be enough to win the election, and the President had generally "failed profoundly in his ability to explain what he's done."
Obama: "This Election
Is About Our Economic Future". Speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, President Obama says "this election presents a choice between
two fundamentally different visions of how to create strong, sustained growth; how to pay down our long-term debt; and most of all,
how to generate good, middle-class jobs."
Obama's 'Reboot'
Speech Is Just a Summer Rerun. What a letdown for those pinning hopes on President Obama's "major" campaign speech
Thursday. Nothing but recycled lines, cliches, dreary policy details and a campaign message that didn't sell before.
Obama's Pity Party. Obama's overly long,
repetitive, and by turns self-pitying and self-congratulatory address was so soaked through with nostalgia that
MSNBC should have broadcast it in sepia tones. The speech — which even the liberal Obama biographer Jonathan
Alter called one of the president's "least successful" political communications — revealed an incumbent desperately
trying to replay the 2008 election. But no oratory will make up for a flawed record and a vague, fissiparous,
and unappealing agenda.
Obama Speech 'Widely
Panned' By Political Press Corps. President Obama has no greater fan base than the mainstream media.
They gleefully carried his water through Bill Ayers, the BP oil spill, and Fast & Furious. But because they have no
more soul to sell, the one thing the media can't do is make the economy better for him.
Obama's Big Economy Speech: No Hope,
No Change. President Obama's campaign speech on the economy today was an utter disaster for him. It
was a bromide of tired old arguments, pathetic blame-placing, and shopworn con tricks. And even liberals like Jonathan
Alter had to admit that it was, overall, a dramatic failure. He began where he always does: with blame.
MSNBC left-leaning pundits turn on Obama after economic speech. At the
very end of MSNBC's "NewsNation" hosted by Tamron Hall, immediately after President Barack Obama had wrapped up his
much-ballyhooed economic speech from Cleveland on Thursday, MSNBC's liberal-leaning pundits appeared to be less-than
impressed. According to Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Alter, formerly of Newsweek, the speech was too long-winded
to be effective.
Why Obama's Speech Today Was a
Fail. Neither Mitt Romney nor President Obama said anything particularly new today. Both delivered
standard stump speeches — Romney without a teleprompter, the president with, as both candidates customarily do.
Even MSNBC had to admit that the president's speech wasn't much to write online about. He spent 54 minutes
saying things he has said a zillion times before.
Five Reasons Why Romney is the Favorite.
[#3] Intellectual exhaustion: The Obama campaign is out of ideas. On the economy, Obama has used virtually everything in his progressive
toolkit. Nothing has worked. And so the president, unable to defend his record in the first term, is left with no compelling vision to
offer in a second term. Witness his speech in Ohio yesterday. It was billed as a "major" address on the economy. But it was widely
panned even on the left for being empty and uninteresting. The president himself cannot articulate why his agenda in a second term would be
more effective than what he's done in his first term. He's running on empty.
Obama Economic Speech
One Insult Too Many For Media. It's true there were some reporters continuing to play the lapdog after Obama's economic speech at a Cleveland
community college on Thursday, like the Washington Post's description that it "at times had the ring of a State of the Union address" and was "the
most vigorous defense of his presidency to date ..." But the complaints of disappointment and being lied to in the aftermath of perhaps
the worst speech of his presidency make the ever-worsening month of June even worse for the president. To lose Newsweek's Jonathan Alter,
of all people, speaks volumes.
It's the public sector "doing fine". After
recently letting it slip that he believes the private sector in the United States is "doing fine," many looked to President Barack Obama's economic
speech Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio, as a potential defining moment of his reelection effort and, perhaps, as an opportunity to negate some of the
backlash resulting from his "doing fine" remark. Yet, in a swing state as important as Ohio and at a critical juncture in his campaign,
President Obama failed to break new ground or outline an agenda for economic growth. Instead he offered up the same tired approach that he has
employed throughout his presidency: more government spending.
Priebus: Obama Just Loves the Sound of His Own
Voice. President Barack Obama makes the same speech over and over again because he just likes to hear himself speak, Republican
National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told Newsmax.TV on Friday [6/15/2012]. "He's in love with the sound of his own voice; he's
in love with the man in the mirror," charged Priebus, citing what was supposed to be a major policy speech that the president gave in Cleveland
on Thursday.
Obama's Perverse Plan for Permanent Recession. President Obama told the
nation in his June 14 economic policy address in Cleveland that his economic policy plans for a second term would "create strong sustained growth;... pay down our
long term debt; and most of all... generate good, middle-class jobs... ." He then spent almost an hour describing policies that would do just the opposite.
Obama ignores
questions about controversial de-facto amnesty decision. President Barack Obama declined to take any questions from reporters
about his controversial and significant decision to offer a de-facto amnesty to at least 800,000 foreigners aged 15 to 30.
The president turned and walked away from reporters at the end of an early afternoon address in the White House's Rose Garden, even though
two reporters called out questions about his decision.
Hecklers are Rude, But
Obama Doesn't Often Take Questions. President Obama told a heckler that he wants his press corps to ask him questions after
he's done speaking — and when he was done speaking, he walked away without taking any questions. "Excuse me, sir," Obama said as a
reporter from the right-leaning Daily Caller website interrupted him. "It's not time for questions, sir. Not while I'm
speaking." Shortly after, Obama told the reporter, "the next time, I prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask that
question." The rest of the press corps waited, as Obama asked. When he was done, the reporters shouted their questions.
Obama turned his back, and walked inside the White House.
The Editor says...
Barack H. Obama is a coward who is afraid to answer unanticipated questions, probably because he realizes now that most news reporters are smarter
than he is. The teleprompter would be no help in such a situation, and without that crutch, Obama is a stammering doofus.
Another Feckless Attempt to Change the Conversation.
So, what to do when your Keynesian-cuckoo economic policies are running the country into the ground? Change the subject, certain
in the knowledge that our lapdog media will more than accommodate you. And so it is that the Obama administration has announced
that it will once again bypass Congress, and stop deporting illegal aliens who come to America at a young age. Make no mistake:
this is classic sleight-of-hand, designed to get the country roiled up about something — make that anything — that
will obscure the monumental failure best labeled Obamanomics.
Obama interrupted by heckling
reporter. In a surprising breach of etiquette, President Barack Obama's Rose Garden remarks on Friday were interrupted by
heckling from reporter Neil Munro of the website Daily Caller, whose editor-in-chief is conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Obama, announcing a change of policy that would allow the children of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation if they meet certain
criteria, was interrupted mid-speech by Munro. "Why'd you favor foreigners over Americans?" Munro shouted. "Excuse me,
sir, but it's not time for questions," Obama responded. "Are you going to take questions?" Munro asked. "Not while I'm
speaking." Obama said.
The Editor says...
The President is giving away the rights of citizenship — if not citizenship itself — to illegal aliens, and Politico is worried about a
breach of etiquette. Is etiquette really important to the press? When somebody threw a shoe at President Bush, the reporters had a hearty laugh
over it. Suppose the President calls the press to the White House and announces that he has declared himself Emperor Obama the First and
will stay in office for the rest of his life. Are the reporters supposed to stand there and take notes without raising any objections or questions,
knowing from past experience that the President is about to turn his royal back to them and saunter back into the White House?
Do You Recognize Barack Obama in These
Texts? The narcissist perceives every disagreement — let alone criticism — coming from people whom he does not consider
to be his "peers" (e.g., the media) as nothing short of a threat. He reacts defensively. He becomes indignant, aggressive and
cold. He detaches emotionally for fear of yet another (narcissistic) injury. He devalues the person who made the disparaging remark.
By holding the critic in contempt, by diminishing the stature of the discordant conversant — the narcissist minimises the impact of the
disagreement or criticism on himself. This is a defence mechanism known as cognitive dissonance.
Rep.
Steve King to sue Obama administration over new immigration policy. Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King said Friday
that he plans to sue the Obama administration to halt implementation of its newly announced selective illegal immigration law
enforcement policy. He told Mike Huckabee on the former Arkansas governor's radio program Friday that he successfully
sued his own state's governor — and won — over a similar separation-of-powers issue. "I will tell
you that — I'm not without experience on this — I'm prepared to bring a suit and seek a court order to
stop implementation of this policy," King said.
Rep.
King 'launching immediate review' into Obama admin ending deportation of under-30 illegals. House Homeland
Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King told The Daily Caller he's going to be looking into the Obama administration's
newly announced plans to selectively enforce illegal immigration law. "The Administration is overstepping its authority
by weakening immigration laws without Congressional approval," King said in an email. "I am very concerned about efforts
to administratively implement amnesty for countless illegal aliens under the age of 30. It is vital that US borders are
secure prior to any consideration of amnesty proposals."
Lindsey Graham: Obama
Immigration Move 'Possibly Illegal'. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took to Twitter Friday to attack President
Obama's move to grant effective amnesty to young illegal immigrants: He was among the first lawmakers to react to the
surprise announcement. "President Obama's attempt to go around Congress and the American people is at best unwise and
possibly illegal," he tweeted. Graham, a former Air Force prosecutor, said the move, "regardless of motivation, will
entice people to break our laws."
Obama grants legal status
to young illegal immigrants. The Obama administration said Friday it will stop deporting most illegal immigrant students
and young adults in a campaign-year move that escalates the immigration debate to the fore. For years the administration had said
it didn't have the authority to make such a move, saying it couldn't decide to stop deporting wide categories of people on its own without
approval from Congress. But on Friday President Obama says administration now interprets the law to give it the discretion.
Mr. President: U.S. Latinos
Respect the Constitution, Too. President Obama can rewrite U.S. immigration policy all by himself.
Who knew? The Obama administration will stop deporting — and begin giving work permits — to younger
illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children and have since led law-abiding lives. The administration's
policy will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants: they will avoid deportation and be eligible for work permits
if they arrived in the U.S. before age 16, are younger than 30, and have been in the country for at least five
continuous years. This president has continually lied to people with my skin color and surname.
Obama's Public Sector Full
Employment Plan. Last week, President Obama said "the private sector is doing fine." This was not reassuring to those of us
who suspect the Democrats haven't the first idea what "private sector" means.
Cummings: Racism 'has
something to do with' Obama interruption. On Martin Bashir's Friday MSNBC program, Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah
Cummings said that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have received an "alarming" amount of disrespect, possibly
because of their race. According to Cummings, the so-called disrespect included an incident involving The Daily Caller's Neil
Munro in the White House Rose Garden on Friday [6/15/2012] and coverage of Holder's handling of the Operation Fast and Furious
gun-walking scandal.
Statements
from The Daily Caller regarding exchange in White House Rose Garden. Tucker Carlson, Editor-in-Chief: "I don't remember
Diane Sawyer scolding her colleague Sam Donaldson for heckling President Reagan. And she shouldn't have. A reporter's job
is to ask questions and get answers. Our job is to find out what the federal government is up to. Politicians often
don't want to tell us. A good reporter gets the story. We're proud of Neil Munro."
Obama ignores
questions about controversial de-facto amnesty decision. President Barack Obama declined to take any questions from reporters
about his controversial and significant decision to offer a de-facto amnesty to at least 800,000 foreigners aged 15 to 30. The
president turned and walked away from reporters at the end of an early afternoon address in the White House's Rose Garden, even though
two reporters called out questions about his decision.
Nobody ever interrupts a black man when he's speaking, except maybe a racist. MSNBC's
Touré: Obama Being Interrupted 'Cannot Be Disconnected From the Fact That He's Black". NewsBusters reported moments
ago that MSNBC contributor Julian Epstein strongly suggested President Obama being interrupted during a press conference in the White House
Rose Garden Friday was because he was African-American.
More about Barack H. Obama's attempt to portray himself
as the victim of racism.
Only Voters Can Hold Obama
Accountable for Illegal Amnesty Policy . President Obama's new amnesty policy regarding illegal aliens violates the law. But there's
probably no route to trump it either in Congress or in court, so the only recourse is for the American people to trump it by electing a new president.
Obama's
immigration amnesty: is it motivated by humanity, economics or crude politics? The Obama administration has announced that
it's granting what effectively amounts to amnesty to 800,000 children of illegal immigrants. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet
Napolitano, says this is about reducing expenditure on "low priority" cases so as to beef up enforcement elsewhere. You have to hand
it to Obama: this is bold, radical, liberal stuff. It's the kind of thing you could imagine a hypothetical President Ted
Kennedy doing on a wet afternoon when he's run out of other ways to offend Middle America.
Obama's
move on immigration is an unconstitutional disaster for the unemployed. President Obama thwarted the will
of Congress and shunned the 20 million under- and unemployed Americans by announcing he will grant work permits to
2 million to 3 million illegal workers. This unconstitutional fiat ignores the rule of law and bypasses
Congress, which on three occasions rejected DREAM Act amnesties in part to protect unemployed workers born here or who
came here legally. We have a long tradition of election-year pandering by sitting presidents, but it is hard to
recall when a president has proposed a measure so destructive to the most vulnerable of our society.
Rep. Steve King
to sue Obama admin over amnesty order. Rep Steve King, Iowa Republican, and Vice Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee,
said he plans to sue the Obama Administration over its decision to halt deportations of young illegal immigrants. On Friday's Mike
Huckabee's radio show he discussed the matter.
Granting new 'rights' out of thin air. Whatever the merits
or demerits of the Obama immigration policy, his executive order is good only as long as he remains president, which may be only a matter of months
after this year's election. People cannot plan their lives on the basis of laws that can suddenly appear, and then suddenly disappear, in less
than a year. To come forward today and claim the protection of the Obama executive order is to declare publicly and officially that your
parents entered the country illegally. How that may be viewed by some later administration is anybody's guess.
Dobbs
defends TheDC's Munro: 'What's rude is the president not speaking to the American people'. According to [Lou] Dobbs, [Neil] Munro
did the right thing because the president ultimately took no questions following his statement about his new immigration policy. "Well I
think it's as funny as can be for this reason — Neil Munro of The Daily Caller, the gentleman asking the question, the White House
would argue he was not being a gentleman, the president responding it's not time for questions," Dobbs said. "Well, the fact is after he
made his statement, the president took no questions." In fact, Dobbs said Obama had been the rude one.
Illegal Amnesty. Though apparently a little fuzzy on
the subject of judicial review, President Barack Obama is supposed to be a constitutional scholar of some sort. On the subject of his decision
yesterday to unilaterally enact sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy on nothing but his own say-so, we would like to introduce Barack Obama to
Barack Obama, who during a Univision interview just last year affirmed: "America is a nation of laws, which means I, as the president, am
obligated to enforce the law. ... There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration
system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president."
A little softness in the polls and one executive order later, the president has reversed himself.
Now What? Everything Obama does in his first
term has always been meant to serve two purposes. The first is to soften up and undermine the nation's basic institutions, including the
Constitution itself; the second is to get himself reelected. He tested the waters earlier with his "recess" appointments and now, with
the imposition of a form of the DREAM act, is openly mocking the Congress.
Are We in Revolutionary Times?
Legally, President Obama has reiterated the principle that he can pick and choose which U.S. laws he wishes to enforce (see his decision to reverse
the order of the Chrysler creditors, his decision not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, and his administration's contempt for national-security
confidentiality and Senate and House subpoenas to the attorney general). If one individual can decide to exempt nearly a million residents from
the law — when he most certainly could not get the law amended or repealed through proper legislative or judicial action — then
what can he not do?
Obama's Naked
Pandering To Illegals. In his most brazen act of pandering to date, President Obama has dangled de facto amnesty to 800,000 illegal
immigrants in a shameless bid to win Latino votes. This is pure banana-republic electoral politics.
Executive Overreach. President Obama's claim
that he can refuse to deport 800,000 aliens here in the country illegally illustrates the unprecedented stretching of the Constitution and the rule
of law. [...] President Obama cannot refuse to carry out a congressional statute simply because he thinks it advances the wrong policy.
To do so violates the very core of his constitutional duties.
If We Took the
Constitution Seriously, Obama Would Be Impeached. If the citizens of this Republic still took the Constitution seriously, Obama
would be impeached for his decision to unilaterally grant amnesty to certain illegal aliens. Article 1, Sec. 8 of the Constitution,
which enumerates the power of Congress, states that "Congress shall have the Power To... establish an [sic] uniform Rule of Naturalization."
Congress has passed numerous laws pertaining to immigration and naturalization, including laws requiring the deportation of illegals.
The role of the President, according to Article II, Sec. 3, is to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." Obama's
refusal to execute Congress's immigration laws (or, for that matter, Congress's Defense of Marriage Act) is an impeachable offense.
On immigration,
Obama wanted to bypass Congress. With his announcement that he will, in effect, unilaterally enact a key feature of long-debated
immigration reform, President Obama is doing something he has always wished to do: Get around a Congress that doesn't see the issue his way.
Associated
Press, 1987: 'Why Do Grown Men And Women Shout At President Reagan?' You'd think from the reaction to Daily Caller White House
Correspondent Neal Munro's shouted question during President Obama's announcement of de facto amnesty for 30-and-under illegal aliens at the
Rose Garden yesterday that it's the first time any reporter has ever shouted a question at a U.S. president out of turn.
I, Barack Obama. We learned two things today: President Obama
can apparently nullify laws he dislikes and he doesn't much care for questions from mortals, especially the uppity journalists at the Daily Caller.
First off, how un-cool are those reporters? They would have never been allowed into the Choom Gang. And how un-intellectual?
They didn't even edit the Harvard Law Review like a younger Mr. Obama did. It's a pretty easy job too. He showed you don't even
have to write a single piece to be the editor. Only suckers do that.
An imperial presidency, on steroids.
A desperate and angry president can't even handle a boorish reporter without visible pique? Whatever happened to the maxim that the essence
of good taste is never to be offended by bad taste?
You don't interrupt the president. So goes the
media narrative in the wake of the media hysteria surrounding the Daily Caller's Neil Munro and his so-called "heckling" of President Obama.
Yeah, right. This is bunk. A pluperfect illustration of a double-standard, as was illustrated in this space yesterday with a video clip of
the White House press corps not only interrupting then-President Ronald Reagan as he read a statement but then shouting and shrieking at him as he
left the room. But is there more than meets the eye in this dust-up over Mr. Munro? [...] Someone needs to say this: There is a
culture of corruption in the media world that is the White House press corps.
The Daily Caller's
Tucker Carlson: 'The point is Neil Munro wants his questions answered'. On the Fox News Channel's "Hannity" on Monday night during "The
Great American Panel" segment, The Daily Caller's editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson offered an on-camera explanation for the events that transpired on
Friday at the Rose Garden involving TheDC's White House correspondent Neil Munro. According to Carlson, Munro was being aggressive only to get
answers from the administration.
The maddening details of Obama's DREAM Decree are becoming
clearer. As [a recent] CIS report notes, 1) The decree doesn't just apply to illegal immigrants who were "brought to this country
by their parents." It also would give work permits to those who snuck across the border by themselves as teenagers. "Through no fault of
their own" is a talking point for DREAM proselytizers, not an actual legal requirement. 2) The same goes for the phrase "and know only this
country as home." That's a highly imaginative riff on the decree's actual requirement, which is for 5 years "continuous residence."
It turns out "continuous residence" doesn't mean what you think it means.
"He is giving away things that are not his to give." Prince of Handouts. Quite a lot has been said about what
Obama's instant amnesty scheme means in the purely procedural sense — that it's illegal and unconstitutional on its face, all of which is
undeniable. What we haven't heard discussed is what it's actually for. It's being taken for granted that it's of a piece with general
Democratic corruption at the voting booth — ACORN, Black Panthers swinging nightsticks, phantom voters, Eric Holder defending the voting
rights of the deceased, and so forth. But in fact, it's much more straightforward than that. Obama's amnesty ukase is simply Chicago
writ large.
Mark Levin goes nuclear in defense of
TheDC's Neil Munro. On his Tuesday [6/19/2012] show, returning from a brief hiatus, conservative talker Mark Levin, author of
"Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America," gave an emotional, and a at times angry, defense of The Daily Caller's Neil Munro. Munro was criticized
and maligned by a number of public figures after his ill-timed question of President Barack Obama during a Rose Garden speech on Friday. Levin
started out with criticism of the Republican response, which he called "pathetic-to-tepid" and chalked up to fear.
Obamarule and the
killing of the Constitution of the United States. If last Friday's dictatorial action by President Obama is allowed to stand, historians
may someday look back on June 15, 2012 as the day the Constitution died. [...] In declaring that his administration will not deport those who
came to this country illegally at a young age, President Obama has suspended the law for approximately 800,000 young people. In truth, no one
knows how many people will be covered by Obamarule. Will more come into the United States while the regulations are being written? Which
bureaucrat decided in secret it covered 800,000 people and what was their analysis based on? Why people 16 and under? Why not 15?
Why not 17? Why was serving less than one year in jail okay? Why not zero jail time? Why not 18 months?
It's the Cloward-Piven Strategy! Obama's
election-year immigration move could create logistical nightmare. President Barack Obama's new de facto
amnesty for young illegals will create a logistical nightmare when it is implemented, according to a chorus of legislators and
policy analysts. The new program, initiated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and announced by President Obama,
will bring nearly one million new people into the offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Obama Using Hispanics As Patsies.
Isn't President Obama a clever one? He ordered a change in policy via executive edict that could allow as many as 800,000 immigrants who
came to the United States illegally not only to remain in the country without fear of being deported, but to work legally.
Now why would he do that after boasting that his deportation record of illegals was the strongest ever?
ABC Reporter Engaged to Obama Press Sec. Sets Romney
Up. Last Friday, Barack Obama violated his oath of office by proudly announcing he would no longer enforce the law and deport
somewhere around a million Mexican illegals. This act was nothing more than a power grab/political stunt and the result was cheers from the
President's Media Palace Guards. Boxed in, or so the corrupt media thought, all eyes turned to presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who
wisely chose not to play.
Obama's
amnesty-by-fiat: Naked lawlessness. "With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations [of immigrants brought
here illegally as children] through executive order, that's just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed." — President
Obama, March 28, 2011. Those laws remain on the books. They have not changed. Yet Obama last week suspended these very
deportations — granting infinitely renewable "deferred action" with attendant work permits — thereby unilaterally rewriting
the law. And doing precisely what he himself admits he is barred from doing.
Roanoke, Virginia, July 15, 2012
The "you didn't build that" speech.
"You didn't build that?!" Once again Barack Obama has
demonstrated that he doesn't have a clue about how America works. [...] Obama claims that anyone in the US who runs a successful business
has not achieved that success on his or her own volition, but instead has to thank the government for making that success possible.
Obama Insults Small Business Owners.
President Obama insulted small business owners during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va. on Saturday [7/14/2012]. "If you've got a
business — you didn't build that," Obama told the crowd. "Somebody else made that happen." President Obama said successful Americans
did not become successful on their own — they had help. "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own," he said.
"You didn't get there on your own."
"You didn't build that?!" Once again Barack Obama has
demonstrated that he doesn't have a clue about how America works. [...] Obama claims that anyone in the US who runs a successful business
has not achieved that success on his or her own volition, but instead has to thank the government for making that success possible.
President Obama — Public Employee #1.
President Obama gave a speech last weekend that was so utterly out of touch with American values, so clueless as to how things work in this country,
that I have to add a few footnotes to his performance.
Obama's Socialist Mantra: Risk Takers Are
Free Riders. The unbridled disdain President Obama has for the entrepreneurs who work hard and risk everything was made plain when he
told supporters in Roanoke, Va.: "If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
This was stunning news and a colossal slap in the face to the millions of small-business owners who get up every day and by the sweat of their brow and
the drive of their ambition still pursue the American dream in spite of the obstacles and hurdles this administration has put in front of them.
Barack
Obama says government invented the internet and the American Dream is a fantasy. Of course, capitalism is a team sport.
But the idea that an individual's merit is the product or property of the community is the antithesis of the pioneer spirit. On
Sunday [7/15/2012], President Obama gave us a fascinating insight into his alternative philosophy. In a speech to supporters, he
said that business leaders owed the government more money in taxes because it was the state that made their success possible.
The Ultimate
Takedown of Obama's 'You Didn't Build That' Speech. President Obama's instantly infamous "You didn't build that"
speech is a major turning point of the 2012 election not because it was a gaffe but because it was an accurate and concise
summary of core progressive fiscal dogma. It was also a political blunder of epic proportions because in his speech
Obama unintentionally proved the conservatives' case for limited government.
Obama Certainly Built His Own
First Term. What a head fake: Just when you think Obama's going to genuflect to the Founding Fathers for creating
a system of government that allows free markets to thrive, he insists that your small business was made possible by government
spending. This quote perfectly bookends Obama's entire first term. Think about it: Anything good that happens
is thanks to the government's "bold actions." The stimulus, the auto bailouts, and most importantly, the Affordable Care Act,
are examples of Obama's one and only solution to a broken economy: expanding government without limit.
Carolla sounds off on
Obama's 'ridiculous' class warfare speech. Last week in Roanoke, Va., President Barack Obama gave a speech eerily similar
to one given by Democratic Massachusetts senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren, which suggested many successful people didn't get to
where they are on their own, but with society's help, specifically government.
Obama against the Self-Made
Man. If Bartlett's ever puts together a collection of insultingly deflating quotations, it should include President
Barack Obama's take on business success before a crowd in Virginia the other day: "If you've been successful, you didn't
get there on your own." Obama was explaining — as is his wont — why the rich should pay more taxes.
The Biggest Mistake of Campaign
2012 ...is not Mitt Romney's handling of Bain Capital, or anything Mitt Romney has done. The biggest mistake
was the one made by Barack Obama on Friday, when what you might call his now-familiar "Declaration of Interdependence" went
completely off the rails.
Media Shields Obama from... Small
Business Owners. Yesterday, I showed you how Slate's Dave Weigel and NBC's Peter Alexander worked together to journOlist
away the Romney campaign's compelling and troubling evidence that the Obama White House has used billions in taxpayer dollars to pay off
campaign supporters. Today, I'm going to show you how the media is protecting Barack Obama from paying a political price, not only
for these alleged payoffs, but also for Obama's off-teleprompter statement in which he said, "If you got a business, you didn't build
that — somebody else made that happen."
Hey Obama: We Built That Stuff
Too! First, let me say how thrilled I am that you went off-teleprompter last week. This "If you've got a business,
you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen" thing was just wonderful. Now I know how Chris Matthews felt.
Oh ... I know. Your handlers weren't all that thrilled with your amazing screw-up, and, frankly, they have been worried
this day was coming for a long time. They know how you feel about the private sector. [...] They had hoped to keep your true
feelings in check with those teleprompters ... but nooooooooo ... you just had to improvise, didn't you?
The left's confused "you
didn't build that" defense. You can tell President Obama's defenders believe Mitt Romney's new attack on Obama's "If
you've got a business, you didn't build that" comment is an existential threat to his campaign by the sheer volume of pixels devoted
to the topic. Problem is, they just can't quite agree on how to defend him.
Context
doesn't improve Obama's comments on building businesses. Mitt Romney's success in going after Barack Obama's recent
declaration that, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen" has prompted liberal
bloggers to charge that Obama's comments were taken wildly out of context. But even if viewed in their full context, Obama's
comments downplay the accomplishments of successful small business owners and diminish their contributions to government.
Krauthammer:
"You Didn't Build It Should Be Hung Around Obama Until End Of His Presidency". Charles Krauthammer: ["]I think Obama
has made the gaffe of the year when he said if you created a business, you didn't build it. That phrase, 'you didn't build it'
should be hung around Obama until the end of his presidency. I read the totality of the statement and it's worse if you read
it all. [...] "
The deeper
importance of the "you didn't build that" debate. There are multiple ways to discuss President Obama's "you didn't
build that" comments. One discussion centers on whether Mitt Romney is fairly representing Obama's words, which is related
to, but not quite the same as, a debate about what Obama meant. Then there's a deeper philosophical debate about liberal
and conservative views about the proper role of government.
The Marxist Heart of Darkness. Those who
doubted Obama's immersion in Marxism now have a perfect window into his soul — namely, in the form of the stunning class warfare
remarks he recently made in Roanoke, Virginia. We must grasp, however, what Marxism is and what it is not. Marxism is not a political
philosophy to help the poor at the expense of the rich, and it is not a design for a utopian future. Marxism is simply a Heart of Darkness,
a Siamese twin of Nazism, a curse on all humanity committed to three themes: (1) hatred, (2) misery, and (3) lying.
CNN
Four Days Late to Obama's Infamous 'You Didn't Build That' Remark. Four days after President Obama insulted job creators
by asserting "If you've got a business, you didn't build that; somebody else made that happen," CNN finally reported the controversial
remarks, and only once the Romney campaign featured them in a campaign attack. In contrast, when Romney surrogate John Sununu said
on Tuesday morning [7/17/2012] that he wished "this President would learn how to be an American," it only took CNN a few hours to jump
on the remarks.
You Didn't Sweat, He Did.
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that." If the World's Greatest Orator turns out to be a one-term president, it is likely
to go down as the most memorable utterance of his career. Mitt Romney certainly hopes that happens.
'You Didn't Build That!' ... Oh Yeah?
One of the many great things about Paul Johnson's magisterial A History of the American People is that he begins that history in the
Sixteenth Century. There was an identifiable, culturally distinguishable American People long before there was a Revolutionary War,
a Constitution, or a central government. The American People, by their industry and ingenuity, didn't just build successful
businesses... they built the most successful nation in history — and all, somehow, without HUD, Fannie, Freddie, the EPA,
OSHA...
Obama
camp denies POTUS said 'if you've got a business, you didn't build that'. President Obama's campaign managed to deny that
he said "if you've got a business, you didn't build that" in a campaign video that replayed a clip of the president saying that at a
campaign stop in Virginia on Saturday [7/14/2012]. "That's not what he said," the video declares in response to Mitt Romney quoting the
president's remarks. To contradict Romney, the Obama campaign replays this line: "If you were successful, somebody along
the line gave you some help; there was a great teacher somewhere in your life."
It's Not Fair! President Obama is right.
There is a lot of unfairness in America. And he is the source of much of it. [...] Barack Obama has ditched the "hope and change"
slogan of his 2008 campaign and is now peddling "fairness" as his mantra. He promises he will make life "fair" for Americans.
The Truth Behind President
Obama's Attack on Success. [Scroll down] Yes, the President was wrong, [...] but he was also boring. What he
said is what progressives have said for more than a century. It wasn't true in Soviet Russia, in Nazi Germany, in fascist Italy,
in poor and oppressed Cuba, or in starving and shivering North Korea. It has not been true anywhere nor at any time. Free
markets bring innovation, health, and prosperity for any who will work hard enough to get it. Collectivism brings
stultification, sickness, and desperate want for everyone.
Obama of Roanoke: We Saw You
Coming. Now that Brit Hume, perhaps the best network anchor of our time, is on record that it's fair to say
that we know more (after the Roanoke speech) than we ever have about the President's view of business and the economy," the
real Obama is finally starting to be recognized in the truly mass media. While Mr. Hume and many others have been
reticent, Obama of Roanoke has been out there for all to see for years quite frankly. What might be "fair to say" is
that Obama let slip in a momentous way what many of us knew all along about him.
The
Vagabond at the Intersection: The Consequences of Pooled Burden. [Scroll down] By the President's logic, it is not
only our economic endeavors which are not ours alone. To arrive at my property, I must travel roads paid for by the
masses. The innovation I may wish to patent came forth from an intellect cultivated by the public education system.
Perhaps, instead of whining about the President's declaration, we should look back on the atrocities we've permitted over the
last 80 years and acknowledge the unfortunate accuracy of his point. By tempting us all with the convenience of a
pooled burden, our government has slowly and methodically eroded our sense of individualism and invaded our duty of
self-responsibility.
The Ultimate Takedown of
Obama's 'You Didn't Build That' Speech. President Obama's instantly infamous "You didn't build that" speech is a major
turning point of the 2012 election not because it was a gaffe but because it was an accurate and concise summary of core progressive fiscal dogma. It was also a political
blunder of epic proportions because in his speech Obama unintentionally proved the conservatives' case for limited government.
This essay will show you how.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Debt.
In his words: if you have any money at all, "you didn't get there on your own." You owe it somebody else. The
roads you drive upon, the wealth that you enjoy. But is the same true of President Obama's ideas? Did he think them
on his own? Or were they were provided by a whole lot of other people?
The Roanoke Shuffle: Obama
and the Racial Gratitude Racket. President Obama's Roanoke speech was not really an insult to businessmen. No, in fact, it
was far worse: it was a threat. Worse still, it was a threat rooted in a long and ugly racial history in the United States.
Obama is divider in
chief. I must be having a nightmare, because what I hear the president say in his campaign speeches is scary stuff. When he
went off the teleprompter in Roanoke and made the ridiculous claim about successful businesspeople not having done it on their own I thought I was
listening to a Third World dictator speaking. The problem is, that is what he truly believes, and that should be enough for thinking people
to absolutely tune this guy out and turn him out of office. His real philosophy came through as he did not have Mr. Teleprompter turned on
to help him deliver his speech.
Democrats prosper when America doesn't. Obama's "You Didn't Build That" Was No Gaffe. [Scroll
down] So why did Barack Obama say what he said? Understand one thing above all else: despite all the analysis from both sides,
it was no mistake. Barack Obama meant every word of it, and more importantly, he meant every word of it in the context of trying to
get himself re-elected. Thus, there is only one logical conclusion: Mr. Obama believes that more than half the electorate is
now on board with his promise to fundamentally transform this nation from the greatest wealth-producing engine in the world, to a government-centric
society where bureaucrats pick winners and losers.
Media Declares Use of 'You Didn't Build That' Racist.
Obama's Media Palace Guards know that when the full context is played of Obama's revealing "you didn't build that" quote, it's absolutely devastating
for Obama because the full context of those comments show the President openly ridiculing America's small business owners. So what's a panicked
media to do? Well, at first the corrupt media lied about Obama being taken out of context. But that's a desperate lie and everyone
knows it, which means the Romney campaign was comfortable to keep on keeping on with its use of the President's comments.
Obama Throws Himself and Liz Warren Under the
Bus. The "You didn't build that!" line resonated most quickly because it's the clearest rebuke to business starters and builders
in the speech. "Somebody else made that happen" gives the credit to whoever invested in the roads and other infrastructure, which, in America's
progressive tax system, are the very same successful people Obama is rebuking. It's debatable whether the "that" refers to roads and bridges or
to the businesses themselves, but the fact remains that the entire passage of the speech is an unmistakable slap at business creators. Context
does not help him one bit. The context fully explains Obama's innate anti-business mindset.
Obama Built The Trouble He's In. For a campaign
that claims not to be worried about the fallout from President Obama's "you didn't build that" bomb, they sure are spending a lot of time and money
hopelessly trying to do damage control on it.
You Didn't Build It... because I Didn't Earn It.
It isn't socialism that explains Obama's dismissive "you didn't build that" remark toward people of talent and individual initiative; it's the culture
of affirmative action. As I listened to Obama's silly, if not pathetic, comments, I was reminded of nothing so much as the comments and attitudes
of people like him: the so-called "multicultural" affirmative-action students one encounters in colleges and universities. These are
people who, like Obama, earned little except a greased skid because of the color of their skin. [...] Obama knows he didn't have what it took to
get into Columbia, and he didn't have what it took to get into Harvard Law. Let's face an inescapable reality. If Obama had great grades,
his transcripts would be in a full-page ad in the New York Times.
Refuting Obama: The Story of Henry Ford.
Everyone is by now familiar with President Obama's famous collectivist speech in Roanoke, Virginia. Governor Romney promptly reacted to these
statist sentiments, saying, "The idea that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motor, that Ray Kroc didn't build
McDonald's, is not just foolishness; it is insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America. And it's wrong." Truly, in
addition to their efforts, entrepreneurs did get help, but it was from private — not government — investors and employees,
who in turn were rewarded with pay, promotions, and dividends.
Sorry Obama, Government Didn't Build That.
President Obama whines that he didn't mean what Mitt Romney says he did when he uttered, "You didn't build that." But even if you take Obama at
his word, he's hopelessly and terribly wrong.
When push-back falls flat.
In response to Obama's push-back, Team Romney sent out the entire clip of Obama's remarks, notably unmanipulated or trimmed and a list of business
owners quoted in local press taking umbrage at the president's remarks. The beauty of the gaffe for Romney's camp is the entire passage is
offensive, even without "you didn't build that."
Liberal Columnist: These
Devastating 'You Didn't Build That' Attacks Sure Are Racist. Like the rising of the sun in the east and its setting in the west, one
can always count on some element of the Left to resort to the 'R-word' to shield President Obama from the consequences of his own words and actions.
Today, the inevitable officially occurred.
Four Little Words. What's the difference
between a calm and cool Barack Obama, and a rattled and worried Barack Obama? Four words, it turns out. "You didn't build that" is
swelling to such heights that it has the president somewhere unprecedented: on defense. Mr. Obama has felt compelled — for
the first time in this campaign — to cut an ad in which he directly responds to the criticisms of his now-infamous speech, complaining his
opponents took his words "out of context."
Obama can't hide his contempt
for small business. President Obama's belated defense of his infamous "you didn't build that" comment has turned
Clintonesque: it depends on what the meaning of the word "that" is. But it doesn't, really. Regardless of whether
Obama said that entrepreneurs didn't build their own businesses, or whether he said they didn't build the roads and bridges to which the
president presumably thinks they owe their success, he has once again taken a revealing and gratuitous swipe at small business owners.
It's the Bureaucrats, Stupid. Once the very
foundational nature of this insidiousness is understood, everything else falls into place. Perhaps even in the minds of the precious
moderates and independents. It's the bureaucrats, stupid! Vote Obama in 2012, and you have cast your ballot for more rules and more
paperwork and more bureaucrats to answer to should you dare to try to carve out your little piece of the pie without government help.
Vote against Obama, and you are at least saying "no" to the Roanoke vision. Yes, bureaucrats, bureaucracies, red tape, endless and mindless
regulations are the real cancer that is sapping the freedom from not only our economy, but also our very lives.
Obama's Entrepreneurial Communist
Manifesto. Obama's statements shouldn't come as any surprise, as he has declared emphatically from early in his presidency that
"only government" is our savior, and he has supported his socialistic platform through multiple company and corporate bailouts. To Obama,
government is your business partner; government is your savior; government is your hero; government is the economic caped crusader who swoops
down like the Dark Knight to save your soul, sales and pocketbook.
A "You didn't build that" convention? Could
Democrats really be this tone deaf? For nearly two weeks, Team Obama has been reeling from his "you didn't build that" comment —
to the extent that Barack Obama himself had to cut a personal response ad to stanch the bleeding, so far to no avail.
'You Didn't Build That' and the
Darkness of Collective Punishment. As Obama's "you didn't build that" quote is probed and analyzed, note that the idea
of redistributing other people's achievements is only the tip of an ideological iceberg. Lest we take Obama's words out of
context and be accused of "swift-quoting," let's review the full passage.
The most famous words of Obama's
presidency. President Obama's comment — "You didn't build that" — is the political gift
that keeps on giving. They are now the most famous words he has said in his presidency. And oh, how he wishes
they weren't.
The Key to Obama's Personality Can Be Found in "You didn't build
that" Words. Small business owners, who are the backbone of America, know that the fateful words spoken by Obama on
Friday, July 13th best describe Obama without his mask. They are words that show more than any others what Obama and
the Democrats are all about.
The Obama Ad Blitz Isn't Working.
Despite President Obama's effort to walk back these remarks, the damage they've caused to him remains. And that's because what he
said in Roanoke, Va., on July 13 came across as a true expression of his worldview. The president's vivid words did not
come out of nowhere.
Lost: The Plain Meaning of Words. Remember
the days when you didn't need an interpreter to understand what a president of the United States was saying? But that was ages ago, that is, before this
year's endless presidential campaign began. Now the country has a president who has to keep explaining, or rather not explaining, what he said about
American businessmen not creating their own businesses. That's his story and he's sticking to it, despite the plain meaning of words.
The
case against reelection. There are two ways to run against Barack Obama: stewardship or ideology. You can run
against his record or you can run against his ideas. The stewardship case is pretty straightforward: the worst recovery in U.S.
history, 42 consecutive months of 8-plus percent unemployment, declining economic growth — all achieved at a price of an
additional $5 trillion of accumulated debt. The ideological case is also simple. Just play in toto (and therefore in
context) Obama's Roanoke riff telling small-business owners: "You didn't build that."
Derisive mockery is well deserved and entirely appropriate in this case. Thank you, road. My president is smart. He has read many books about work.
He has consulted academic experts. He is as bright as the sun that shines on this idle road-crew. Their neon-orange vests, stained by sandwiches from
Subway, reflect his undimmed brilliance. He sees what we cannot, beyond our own meager inventiveness and effort. He understands, as lesser beings don't,
that we are part of a greater whole, a community that has enabled good fortune to come to me, though it is I who will lose everything if the business tanks.
The negative campaign is Obama's only weapon.
"You didn't build that" has become the defining line of campaign 2012, and it appears to have generated panic among the leaders of Team Obama.
Socialism and the
Meaning of Investment by Government. Many, including me, have identified the socialist premises in President Obama's
remarks on July 13 in Roanoke, VA. But are Obama's actual policies as socialist as his socialist rhetoric? The
answer is yes, but there has also been plenty of socialism in the policies of Obama's predecessors. Obama has merely
accelerated our civilization-ending march toward a predominantly socialist system. [...] Even Obama and others in his
Administration, in moments of candor, acknowledge that their policies entail income redistribution.
Barack Obama: The welfare king. Consider the
pernicious nature of Mr. Obama's deeply rooted hostility toward individual achievement: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that.
Somebody else made that happen." A rationale for confiscatory taxes? Certainly, but it's so much worse. Mr. Obama's notion that
government, rather than people, creates prosperity is not only an insult to every hardworking American, it is the subversion of the individual.
"You Didn't Build That" Isn't Going Away. The official theme of the GOP
convention Wednesday night [8/29/2012] was "We Can Change That," but that didn't stop several of the speakers from revisiting Tuesday's theme, the
base-rallying battle cry: "We Built It." The message: The righteous exploitation of President Obama's "You Didn't
Build That" gaffe isn't going away.
The
Philosophy Behind the Policies of Obama and the Left. Referring to their enterprises, Obama informed the country's
entrepreneurs that "you didn't build that." The President didn't misspeak, as he now claims. Rather, he expressed a
concept that is logically inseparable from the massive redistributive schemes that he favors and for which his intellectual
counterparts like [John] Rawls have intelligently — even if wrongly — argued for a long time.
Why Obama is a third world president.
Just when the furor over the socialist sentiments in President Obama's "you didn't build that" speech seemed to subside, Paul Ryan
has charismatically and cogently revived the issue in his newly-minted VP candidacy, thus rightfully keeping the issue alive as we
approach the election. But even Ryan, as articulate as he is, is omitting the underlying point. And that point is that
not only does Obama have socialist thoughts — but he is also a Third World thinker.
The
25 Most Obnoxious Quotes From Barack Obama. [#4] "If you were successful, somebody along the line
gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this
unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.
If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
You didn't build that!
Republicans hand out Legos at the Democrats' national convention.
Obama,
supporters lying to us. Let's go back to "you didn't build your business, someone else did" — immediately
the spin doctors began the narrative that President Obama was talking about infrastructure. Go listen to the full unedited
video and it is painfully clear he was not talking about roads and bridges because he used the terminology that "someone else did."
Don't Even Think of Building That.
It was a gaffe on the order of bitter clingers, and this time in full public view: "If you've got a business — you didn't
build that," President Obama said at a July 13, 2012, campaign rally in Roanoke, Va. "Somebody else made that happen."
The president's defenders and sycophants rushed to rationalize it away.
National Urban League convention, Wednesday, July 25
Never let a crisis go to waste. President Obama calls for more thorough background checks when purchasing firearms. President
Obama called for "common sense" steps to reduce gun violence during a high-profile speech Wednesday night — but his spokesman later said
they won't include any new laws. Obama told a supportive audience at the National Urban League convention that hunting and shooting are part of
the nation's "cherished national heritage," but he said even gun owners would agree "that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of
criminals."
The Editor says...
The Aurora shooter did not use an AK-47. He had a Smith & Wesson M&P .223, two Glock handguns, and a Remington 870
shotgun.* But the facts apparently
are of secondary concern to Barack H. Obama when he is trying to capitalize on recent tragedy and public outrage. Besides, he was speaking
to a friendly crowd, so even if they know the difference (between an AK-47 and an AR-15), the facts don't matter to them, either.
Obama calls for strengthening
gun rules, Reid says no time for debate. The president was vague in what specific measures he'd like to see enacted when he touched
on the issue Wednesday evening in a speech to the National Urban League. He affirmed his belief in Americans' right to own guns, but he singled
out assault rifles as better suited for the battlefield. "I believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms," Obama
said. "But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets of our cities."
Obama Has Demagogued Guns, from 2000
to Today. As Barack Obama attacks "AK-47s," while his press secretary promises that Obama respects Second Amendment rights, it is worth
recalling Obama's long-running campaign for gun control, dating back more than a decade — a campaign he now seeks to downplay as he heads
into a difficult presidential election, because he knows how deeply unpopular it would be.
A President is Known by the Weapons He
Chooses. Talk about a gaffe and a tell, "AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals." said President Obama.
To the millions of American veterans who have faced multiple enemies around the globe who were armed with the AK 47, this is such a huge admission
of where the sympathies of our supposed commander-in-chief lie as to make one want to choke. The President of the United States of America just
identified what he believes to be the weapon of choice for military forces and guess what? It is in fact the weapon of choice of America's
enemies.
The president did not suggest improving educational achievement for everybody, just blacks. Obama
announces new education program focused on African Americans. Locked in a tough re-election battle with Mitt Romney, President
Barack Obama aimed to energize his core supporters — African American voters — by delivering a rousing speech and unveiling
a new executive order at the Urban League's annual convention in New Orleans Wednesday night. The president told the largely African American
crowd of roughly 3,700 people that the executive order will seek to improve educational achievement for African Americans at all levels "so every
child has greater access to a complete and competitive education from the time they're born to the time, all through the time they get a career" the
president said to cheers.
Obama
creating African-American education office. The White House says the office will coordinate the work of communities and federal
agencies to ensure that African-American youngsters are better prepared for high school, college and career.
In Obama's World,
The Government Owns Your Paycheck. Speaking last Wednesday in New Orleans at a campaign event, Obama talked about "another
trillion-dollar giveaway for millionaires" in reference to an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. A day later, White House spokesman
Jay Carney did the same thing. He called the extension "another $1 trillion giveaway to the wealthiest Americans." What they
are talking about is the House Republicans' opposition to legislation approved in the Senate that would raise taxes on those earning more than
$250,000 a year, a sum less than the president makes yet is somehow considered to be the mark of wealth.
Obama's Second Term. Trying to
decipher what Obama's 53 minute speech — when printed, it's 17 pages! — actually says about his proposals on
economic issues is, at best, painstakingly difficult. [...] He claimed that he asked Congress for the authority to reorganize the federal
government for the next century. Does anybody remember that? And where's the bill? Was it presented in the House
and was there a hearing?
Chicago fundraiser, August 12, 2012.
True Colors: Our
Post-Constitutional, Liberal Fundamentalist President. It is no revelation that people are uncertain of the future. But in
these words you can see that Obama clearly believes that the course that this country is on needs to be changed and that the problems which
exist are not due to his policies. ["]Do we go forward towards a new vision of an America in which prosperity is shared?["] This
second sentence is chilling. Karl Marx or Joseph Stalin could have written this. Obama is saying a lot here. His philosophy
is clear: our present system is unfair, and his solution is to change the "vision," the fundamental values and goals of America.
"Surprise" press conference, August 20, 2012.
Obama Knocks Romney for Not Releasing Medical Records,
Hasn't Disclosed His Own. This was brilliant timing on the president's part. [...] First off, by surprising the media, Obama knew the few good
ones in there wouldn't be as ready to hit him with tough questions as they would with some notice. Secondly, Obama knew that he would be asked about [Todd] Akin
and that his response would be what got all the media attention afterwards — not any questions he might receive about his failed economy and ugly
campaign.
Obama Preps Media For "Surprise" Press
Conference. A quick on-the-road communication from a longtime D.C. political operative rips the cover off of what is being reported as a
surprise visit by President Barack Obama to the daily White House press briefing. This was no surprise visit — it was a carefully planned
and staged event with the complicit cooperation of White House approved media figures all intended to gain political points by reigniting the now old and
tired "war on women" ploy.
Obama's Campaign Speech 'Press Conference' In The
White House. While the President has been continually appearing on television and radio programs that are considered to be extremely "light media", he has
been avoiding any and all media outlets that would ask the difficult questions about policies including the present troubled economy. On Monday [8/20/2012], Obama
stood cautiously before the White House Press Corps and fielded a variety of questions on the current presidential campaign, domestic and foreign affairs, as well as jobs
and the economy. While the President spoke, one couldn't help but notice how he livened up when the questions were about the presidential campaign and GOP
presidential candidate-to-be Mitt Romney.
Don't buy the 'surprise' part of that
Obama news conference. "Looks like there's a surprise guest here," said Obama press secretary Jay Carney, sounding not the least bit surprised.
Indeed, his boss took the podium in the White House briefing room Monday to make a statement and then answer a few questions. But there was as much surprise to
this abbreviated Q&A as the Chicago River turning green on St. Patrick's Day.
Obama Programming Media to His Favor.
Obama threw the White House press corps a bone on Monday by appearing for 20 some minutes and taking a grand total of four questions
from those members of the Old Media whose official job is to report from the White House. The President has taken about six serious questions from the
press since June. But this doesn't mean he's taken no other questions from the press. Unfortunately, the questions he has taken have not been
from a free and open press but have been pre-programmed.
Obama's dark side. President Obama's ugly campaign is backfiring.
With bad news clouding over our struggling nation, Americans are sick of all the political lies, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's claim that Mitt Romney
hadn't paid taxes for 10 years and the Obama camp's inference that the Republican presidential candidate was guilty of a felony related to his business
background. A defensive Mr. Obama even stopped hiding from the press for a few minutes on Monday to stammer, "We point out sharp differences between the
candidates, but we don't go out of bounds." Yeah, right.
Nomination acceptance speech, September 6, 2012
Critics
savage Obama's speech as new poll shows NO convention bounce. President Barack Obama is a near-legendary speaker who has
been hailed the world over for the beauty of his words, the exquisiteness of his rhetoric and the historical significance of his
oratory. But his speech in Charlotte, one of the most crucial junctures of his political career, has been almost universally
branded a gigantic flop.
Did Obama's speech play
fast and loose with the facts? Obama in Thursday night's speech took out of context a statement by Republican presidential
challenger Mitt Romney about the end of the Iraq war. And while Obama sidestepped discussion of his mother's fight with insurance
companies over her cancer coverage — an issue that tripped him up with fact checkers earlier this year — Vice
President Joe Biden resurrected the subject.
The Democrats' Soft Extremism.
Barack Obama is deeply overexposed and often boring. He never seems to be saying what he's thinking. His speech Thursday was
weirdly anticlimactic. There's too much buildup, the crowd was tired, it all felt flat.
Obama: A Pedestrian and
Overconfident Speech. Barack Obama gave a dull and pedestrian speech tonight, with nary an interesting thematic device,
policy detail, or even one turn of phrase. The crowd sure didn't see it my way. The delegates were near delirium; to what
extent they were merely still feeding off the amassed energy of the previous two nights I can't say.
Krauthammer
On Obama: "One Of The Emptiest Speeches I Have Ever Heard". Charles Krauthammer: ["]I was stunned. This is
a man who gave one of the great speeches of our time in 2004, and he gave one of the emptiest speeches I have ever heard on a national
stage. Yes, it had cadence, and yes, there were deceptions in it, but that is not what is so striking about it. There was
nothing in it.["]
Krauthammer
on Obama: 'One of the emptiest speeches I have ever heard on a national stage'. Consider syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer
unimpressed with President Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech. During Fox News Channel's coverage of the Democratic National Convention
Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C., Krauthammer said Obama's speech lacked vision and called it "one of the emptiest speeches I have ever heard on a
national stage." "I was stunned," Krauthammer said. "This is a man who gave one of the great speeches of our time in 2004, and he gave
one of the emptiest speeches I have ever heard on a national stage. Yes, it had cadence, and yes, there were deceptions in it. But
that is not what is so striking about it. There was nothing in it."
Obama's Convention. The president's convention
speech was never going to be a make-or-break moment for him in this campaign: People already have an opinion of him, they basically know his
pitch, and unless he planned to offer a major new proposal or argument it wouldn't have been easy for him to move anyone with his convention closer.
But he surely could have done better than he did.
Obama
at the DNC: That's it? It would have been better had he not spoken. Seriously. Like an aging rock star, President Obama, in a
downsized venue, with downsized proposal and spewing downsized rhetoric only reminded us how far he has fallen from the heady days of 2008. The man,
the agenda and the aura are faint imitations of their 2008 incarnations. And most importantly, he put forth an agenda that was entirely, and
obviously, lacking, one that didn't begin to match the demands of our time. Even for the liberal media, it will be hard to characterize a
speech this prosaic as uplifting or fresh.
Fact-Checking Obama. Obama had to give the speech
of his life tonight, to convince not just the independents watching, but his own base whose faith has been diminished after "yes we can" went to "no, we
couldn't." At the heart of Obama's speech was the attempt to reprogram the American dream from one found in the freedom of individual liberty and
owning one's own output, to "sharing" — and by "sharing" he means the government will own your output.
Change You Can't Believe.
The lies began even before President Barack Obama started speaking. The introductory video claimed that Obama had been affected — and roused
to action — by "watching [his] mother die." Obama, while very emotive about his mother, neglected to visit her before she died of
cancer — a mistake he admitted and regretted. Yet he has repeatedly lied about her in his speeches, including the lie that she died
without health insurance.
Speech excerpts: Obama promises leadership
similar to FDR. President Barack Obama promised leadership similar to that of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his
convention speech Thursday night. Speaking of the challenges facing the country, Obama said: "It will require common effort, shared
responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."
The Terrifying Line in Obama's Speech That Everyone
Missed. President Obama's convention speech got rough reviews, and rightly so. He offered little but tired bromides and recycled
promises. [...] The language was flat, his delivery languid. The speech was stuffed with standard Obama chestnuts about the smallness of politics, the
corrupting influence of money in politics, and how cynicism is our worst enemy.
Verdict is in: Obama speech a
flop — even with Democrats. Politico is blaming this on Obama's strict adherence to the "politics of 2012" — "a
race that has been defined by relentless, almost mechanical efforts to motivate voters with narrow appeals to specific constituencies and to destroy
the opposition as a credible alternative." Such may be the case, especially since for the first time in 30 years, a sitting president had
absolutely no case to make for his own re-election. Even rhetorically (forget the delivery) the speech fell flat. It was like giving a
sports report and not mentioning the scores.
Obama fell flat. A surprisingly long parade of Democrats and media commentators
described the speech less as a failure than a fizzle — an oddly missed opportunity to frame his presidency or the nation's choice in a fresh or inspirational
light.
Obama takes us backward in the worst speech of his
career. [Scroll down] Then we got to Obama, whose much-repeated claims of burning patriotic fervor were difficult to square with inviting a
man who once compared American soldiers with Nazis to introduce him. And there isn't really much to say about Obama's flaccid speech, because you've heard it
all before. To borrow a Bidenism, it was literally scotch-taped together from his stump speeches and 2008 campaign promises — an open, somewhat
embarrassing play for nostalgia, inviting the audience to remember how swell they felt when voting for Hope and Change four years ago.
Obama Flops. The President's torpid, partisan acceptance speech fails to excite
mainstream media, WFB analysis shows.
Disappointing speech, jobs report,
presidency. After Thursday's Democratic convention close, the "faded Obama poster" of Paul Ryan's speech eight days earlier
had a faded soundtrack to accompany it. No one pretended to love President Obama's speech, and only a few really attempted to defend
it. Like his record, his supporters in and out of the media thought the speech just better moved on from, an unhappy reality that
needed glossing over. And there is no shining up the jobs report that came out the following morning.
Obama
tells voters they 'can do something about' droughts and floods and wildfires. President Barack Obama's Democratic
National Convention speech declared that American voters can "do something about" extreme weather by supporting his re-election.
Obama: "And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet — because climate change
is not a hoax.
The Editor says...
That sounds like President Nixon's self-exhonerating proclamation, "I am not a crook." I agree that "climate change is not a hoax", because the
climate has been constantly changing for thousands of years. However it is my opinion that the notion that industrial activity and gasoline-powered
cars are heating the planet is a hoax, and many others share this opinion.
Obama's Speech
Ignores Independent Voters. He tossed them (us) a few rhetorical bones — a reference to the Simpson-Bowles
debt commission he previously ignored, a bow to free enterprise as a jobs engine, acknowledgement that government can't do
everything and needs reform. But basically, Obama's acceptance speech was defiant, confrontational and contemptuous of
Mitt Romney and Republicans, portraying them as heartless tools of millionaires, job-exporters, lobbyists, oil and insurance
companies, toxic polluters, banks that break the rules — and as enemies of old people, students, women and gays,
to boot.
Obama, Convention Speeches and Soviet
Propaganda. My expectations were realized when, the morning after the Obama acceptance speech, the morning drive time
radio host featured a montage of sound bites from that speech and from one four years ago. They were, almost word for word,
the same. Not to be out done by a local personality, the nationals I listened to later had similar features. And to top
them all, Rush Limbaugh even dug up material from a Jimmy Carter speech made in 1980 that had extremely similar language.
The United Nations, September 25, 2012
Obama
to UN: It's Not My Fault Stevens is Dead. Passing the buck in dramatic fashion on the world stage, President
Barack Obama told the UN General Assembly this morning [9/25/2012] that the U.S. government was not responsible for the anti-Islam video
that he once again blamed for recent attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East. He added that more guards at the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi would not have helped save Ambassador Chris Stevens, and that the real problem was "deeper causes" such
as religious intolerance.
Obama's
Tragic Pander: 'The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam'. Addressing the representatives of the
United Nations General Assembly in a time of global crisis, President Barack Obama opted to legitimize the growing chorus of critics who
condemn America's provocative right of free speech. The president's address to the world was anything but a full-throated defense of
American values. It was, instead, an abundantly disappointing abdication of his responsibility to defend the cherished freedoms of
the nation he leads.
President Obama
Declares The Future Must Not Belong to Practicing Christians. In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly today the
President of the United States declared that the future does not belong to practicing Christians. Already, the media and the left are in
full denial, probably based on their general lack of understanding of theology. This would have been a gaffe had Mitt Romney said it.
But with Barack Obama, he's just speaking bold truths. His bold truth declares that the future does not belong to practicing Christians.
Allen West to U.N.: U.S. 'Angel of Death'. Florida Rep. Allen West
ripped President Barack Obama's United Nations speech Tuesday, saying he would have told the U.N. that America would be an "Angel of Death" that
wreaks "havoc and destruction" on anyone who attacks the U.S.
Another
painfully 'historic' speech for young Democrats to download on their iPods. Obama's speeches all come in one
tone — what the mainstream media calls "historic". All those grand hopes and calls for unity can be moving, but they
can also be intellectually empty. His speech to the United Nations General Assembly was a classic example.
Obama: Anti-Islam
Rhetoric Must Be Rejected. Today [9/25/2012], President Barack Obama stated that negativity about Islam was a message
that had to be rejected "by all who respect our common humanity."
At
U.N., Obama downplays terrorism in Libya attack. Although his administration in recent days
acknowledged that the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others were caused by a
terrorist act on Sept. 11, Mr. Obama didn't mention terrorism as the likely motive in front of an
international audience at the U.N. General Assembly's annual gathering. After referencing the killing
of the ambassador, Mr. Obama focused much of his speech on promoting religious tolerance and free speech,
blaming the film for provoking the anti-U.S. outbursts while saying there is never an excuse for violence.
Obama at U.N. Talks 5 Minutes About YouTube
Video, 1.5 Minutes on Iran. President Barack Obama devoted 5 minutes of his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday
to a YouTube trailer that insulted Islam and 1 minute and 32 seconds talking about the threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
President Obama made his first reference to what he called a "crude and disgusting video" at 11 minutes and 33 seconds into his speech.
Media ignore Obama
attack on 'those who slander the Prophet of Islam'. President Obama spoke to the UN Tuesday, but what he had to say depended
on the media outlet reporting it. [...] It was a 4,000-word speech. Obama covered a lot of ground. But the ground the major media
covered conveniently left out was the most provocative line of the entire speech. The president told the UN that the "future must not
belong" to a series of people including "corrupt" leaders and those who "bully women." But one line from that list stood out.
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." That line appeared almost nowhere in the old media where
Obama's supposed defense of free speech dominated.
O's missing word: 'terror'. That was a
perfectly fine speech Barack Obama gave at the United Nations yesterday. Perfectly fine, except that he has been president for the last four
years. Perfectly fine, except that terrorists murdered our ambassador in Libya on the 11th anniversary of 9/11. And perfectly fine,
except that the head of al Qaeda released a videotape urging that murder and others during what he called a time of "American weakness."
Mr. President: The video didn't do it. Terrorists did.
The President Minces Words.
Check out Tuesday's UN speech: [...] "Understanding that such a peace must come through a just agreement between the parties, America will walk alongside
all who are prepared to make that journey." Blah. Blah. And more blah.
'Slander' and free speech are one and the same. Who said the
following: "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Iran's Ahmadinejad? Egypt's Morsi? Some
little-known, fatwa-flinging cleric increasing the bounty on Salman Rushdie's head? None of the above. The words are President Obama's,
and he spoke them this week to the U.N. General Assembly. No Big Media outlet reported this stunning pronouncement.
No Vetting Needed. Obama is out in plain sight before
Americans and the rest of the world. There is no mystery. Nothing to uncover. He has intentionally taken America down.
His most recent proclamation at the United Nations that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam" says it all, doesn't
it? There is nothing vague about that comment.
Religious Visas Put Lie To
Obama's Suggestion Muslims More Tolerant. Referring to the Muhammad video during his U.N. speech this week, Obama lectured Americans about
"intolerance" toward Islam. "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam," he said. "It is time to heed the words
of Gandhi: 'Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.'" He actually believes Muslims
have heeded those words. "Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance," he intoned during his 2009 Cairo speech. "Throughout history, Islam has
demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality." Obama must have learned his history at that
Jakarta madrassa he attended.
Read This While You Can. Read this column by
Diana West while you can — while we still have journalists brave enough to write the truth, and before the truth is censored. West, a
syndicated columnist and author, noted an astonishing statement within Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly, and dissected and explored its meaning
and terrifying implications.
"The Country He Served".
What does that phrase "the country he served" mean? The country Ambassador Stevens was supposed to be serving was the United
States, just as Libyan diplomats in Washington are supposed to serve the national interest of Libya. Yet in the context
of his surrounding remarks (which are all about the place he was posted to: Chris "crafted a vision for the future", "supported
the birth of a new democracy", etc) the President appears to give the impression that he thinks "the country he served"
was Libya.
Steyn
notes Democrats' 'extraordinary' double standard on Allah, Christian God. In his regular appearance on Hugh Hewitt's
radio show on Thursday [9/27/2012], Mark Steyn, author of "After America: Get Ready for Armageddon," noted what he said were
absurdities in President Barack Obama's address to the United Nations. Obama carved out new territory for a U.S. president
during that speech when he said, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." "He also said, I
believe, that the future belongs to those who empower women," Steyn said of Obama, "and the power belongs to those who invest
in education." [...] The fact is the president of the United States had no business saying that. If you happen to be a
believer in Islam, Muhammad is your prophet. If you're not, he's just a bloke who died in the 7th Century and it
should be permissible to say as much."
Re-election victory speech, November 6, 2012
Obama's appalling victory speech.
President Obama has shown a willingness to ignore the Constitution whenever it suits him, overriding creditors' rights, ignoring the Constitutional
cabinet officers in favor of czars not subject to the inconvenience of a confirmation process, assassinating American citizens with no judicial
involvement, and issuing frightening executive orders.
Obama Calls United States 'A Former Colony'.
In his re-election victory speech on Tuesday night [11/6/2012], President Barack Obama referred to the United States as a singular "former colony," when
the United States was actually composed of 13 separate colonies prior to gaining independence from the British. "Thank you so much.
Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward," said
Obama, which was the first sentence of his remarks in Chicago, Ill.
The Editor says...
Perhaps he was thinking of his native country, Kenya.
Obama's Teary-Eyed Speech. I can't help but
be dismayed by the blossoming of Obama's narcissism when he gets tears in his eyes addressing his Chicago staff. "I'm really proud of all of you."
I mean, that's a good start. But his pride and sanctioning imply a grandiose self-love. What he's really proud of is his minions celebrating him
and loving him. He is really proud of them being proud of him.
Press conference, November 14, 2012
Obama Press Conference: Stonewalls on
Benghazi, Petreaus, Pushes Tax Hikes. Today [11/14/2012], President Obama held his first press conference in five
months. It was a bizarre mix of softball questions from his press sycophants, false righteous indignation from the president
over his administration's Benghazi failures and lies, and an oddly blustery position shift on tax hikes as opposed to tax loopholes.
Obama opened his press conference with his usual patter about class warfare and the fiscal cliff, insisting on raising taxes first and
foremost.
The Sad
Sate [sic] of Today's Presidential Press Conference. I've covered nearly all of these news conferences over the past quarter-century.
And in the not so distant past, presidents seemed to feel more of an obligation to explain themselves and the media seemed more willing to press the
presidents when they were elusive. But there is no one in the current press corps with the aggressive, bulldog style of a Sam Donaldson or a
Helen Thomas. Both of them are long gone from the beat, and they are missed.
Sen. Graham To Obama: I Hold You
Responsible for Benghazi. Today, President Obama presided over an absurd press conference in which he puffed himself up
with righteous indignation over Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) calling for a full-scale
investigation of Benghazi and opposition to Ambassador Susan Rice's possible nomination for Secretary of State. "Come after me," he
said, calling Rice's opponents "outrageous."
President
Obama, Washington Press Corps Gather for a Game of Slow Pitch Softball. President Barack Obama opened his first press
conference in eight months, noting that America remains in a difficult economy. After reiterating his campaign boilerplate
language regarding jobs and education, the president noted that he had met with "civic leaders" before he meets with business leaders
later today. Those "civic leaders" included union heads and the leader of far-left MoveOn.org.
Our defiant and uncompromising president.
This week's press conference was more of the same President Obama whom we saw on the campaign trail this year. He was resolute and even defiant. And
though there was more conciliation at times than we are normally used to hearing from the president, he was ultimately espousing the same attitude towards
resolving our fiscal challenges that we have heard all along.
Mr. Obama's
latest temper tantrum. President Valerie Jarrett sent out her spokesperson Barack Obama to take questions from the media. It was Mr. Obama's
first real press conference in eight months. As with previous press conferences, questions requiring a "yes" or "no" answer would be given lengthy explanations
to reduce the number of questions asked. Whether the topic was Benghazi or the looming fiscal cliff, President Jarrett instructed Mr. Obama to answer all
questions with "invest in education" or "green energy."
'Obama Part 2' a lousy sequel. Just a week after
his re-election, President Obama showed only occasional flashes of conciliation yesterday, with his press conference sounding more like a sequel to the bitter campaign
than a fresh start to a second term. Whatever the topic, he was by turns evasive, strident and pugnacious.
In victory, Obama remains hostile and evasive.
Obama's first post-election press conference, if you could call it that, tells us a great deal about his attitude and the approach he intends to pursue in his second
term, which is the same failed policy mix on steroids. Obama's re-election, of course, gives him the right to pursue these policies, but it doesn't deny elected
Republicans the right or relieve them of the duty to oppose them.
Benghazi gate.
After almost 3/4 of a year the president finally holds a press conference but the press fails to show up. I mean they physically showed up but not
journalistically. In the world of politics and press when the press fawns over someone they find a way to either not ask a probing question or they simply
ask a non-consequential one. That is what happened on Wednesday when the president was served up a bunch of softball questions that made for one of the
dullest press conferences in recent memory.
Sandy Hook Interfaith Prayer Vigil, December 16, 2012.
He Says He Wants Us to Change. I have no doubt that the people
who assembled at Newtown High School found comfort in President Obama's words on Sunday night. But make no mistake (as Obama is so fond of saying). The
President didn't only come to Newtown to pay his respects to those who were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary last Friday morning. He also came to lecture
the nation and to save us from ourselves.
Mark
Levin: Did you notice Obama didn't mention Fort Hood as a massacre at Sandy Hook vigil? [Quoting Barack H. Obama:] ["]If there
is even one step we can take to save another child, or another parent, or another town, from the grief that has visited Tucson, and Aurora, and Oak Creek,
and Newtown, and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that — then surely we have an obligation to try.["] He never mentioned
Fort Hood. 13 people were killed and 29 wounded and yet it didn't get mentioned. Why? [Mark] Levin explains why
and also points out that there's another massacre that happened under his presidency never got mentioned either.
Obama Call For Change Exploits School
Massacre. By using the massacre in Newtown, Conn., to fire up the left's anti-liberty agenda, President Obama and other prominent liberal Democrats
are taking Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's infamous maxim — "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste" — to new depths. At a
Sunday night [12/16/2012] prayer vigil in Newtown, the president delivered words that on their face appear soothing, hope-filled and decisive — exactly
what's expected of presidential leadership. "These tragedies must end," he said. "And to end them, we must change." But when Obama repeats that
single-worded slogan from his presidential campaign, we know what kind of "change" he wants.
Team Obama still raising
money — off Sandy Hook shootings. They won the campaign handily and even had $14.2 million to spare, but the
Obama-Biden campaign is still raising money, this time off the president's comments about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut.
Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking.
It was a comforting speech for the victims of a tragedy, so it would be unfair to criticize the arguments from the point of view of logic. However, it is worth
analyzing the issue of mass shootings as a problem that might be addressable with public policy.
Obama is so invested in reducing gun
violence that he hands the job off to Biden. At Sunday's memorial service for the 26 innocent Newtown shooting victims, President Obama told a
tearful crowd: "In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens — from law enforcement to mental health
professionals to parents and educators — in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this." Turns out "whatever power this office holds" is
just the ability to tell Joe "BFD" Biden to come up with some ideas by late next month.
President Obama's
Sandy Hook speech turned into a pro-life video. President Obama delivered an emotional speech about protecting America's children
in December in response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. But the producers at Blackstone Films have
turned that speech into a remarkable video to reflect on the duty of Americans to protect our nation's unborn children. It's a very
powerful video that is sure to spark some controversy.
The Funeral for Senator Daniel Inouye, December 21, 2012.
Obama Has to Fib Even at a Funeral.
Yes, everything is about Barack Obama. From the beginning, he has built his career on his own personal story, and the funeral service of former
Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye at the National Cathedral on Friday apparently struck him as an opportune time to remind the world what
that story was. [...] The problem, however, is not just that Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me" 12 times, and "I" 30 times in
the course of telling his story, but rather that even at a funeral, he could not keep the story straight.
Obama and Bush Eulogies: The
Grotesque and the Graceful. President Obama has a very serious ego problem, and when he goes off teleprompter, it sticks out like a sore
thumb. His eulogy for Senator Inouye on Friday was grotesque in its focus on the speaker, not the dearly departed.
Today
We Are Gathered ... To Hear More About Me. Someone needs to tell Barack Obama — it must get particularly confusing this time of
year — that his own birth is not Year One, the date around which all other events are understood. His much-noted, self-referential tic
was on cringe-worthy display Friday when the president gave his eulogy for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, who served in Congress for half a century
representing Obama's birth state of Hawaii.
Obama Uses Funeral Service to Talk About
Himself. President Barack Obama used the funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye to talk about himself. In the short 1,600 word
speech, Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me" 12 times, and "I" 30 times. Obama's speech discussed how Inouye had gotten him
interested in politics. "Danny was elected to the U.S. Senate when I was two years old," he said.
Grotesque Obama eulogy for Sen. Inouye.
Signs are accumulating that re-election has aggravated an already serious ego problem for Barack Obama. His eulogy for Senator Daniel Inouye
yesterday shocked even some people favorably inclined toward the president, for its focus not on the departed, but on Barack Obama himself.
Press conference, January 14, 2013.
Our
Mean-Spirited President Gives a Press Conference and Talks About Guns. Obama's comments on the debt ceiling were breathtakingly
dishonest [...] Obama said, at least three or four times, that this year is different: he refuses to negotiate with the Republicans because
they insist on "getting 100 percent of what they want." But wait! The fact that Republicans are willing to negotiate means that
they aren't insisting on getting 100%, while, conversely, the fact that Obama refuses to negotiate means that he is the one holding out for
100%. Presumably most people are smart enough to understand this.
It's the old Karl Marx strategy: "Accuse others of what you do." Obama: GOP
'Will Not Collect A Ransom In Exchange For Not Crashing The American Economy'. During a press conference in the White House on
Monday, President Barack Obama warned Congressional Republicans not to hold the debt ceiling limit hostage in order to secure concessions on
spending cuts from the White House. He spelled out what not increasing the debt limit would mean, and said clearly that the GOP in
Congress "will not collect a ransom" from the president by holding the debt ceiling hostage.
Obama's Latest Political Slander.
During the Obama years, in fact, the ranks of America's poor have climbed to levels unseen in nearly half a century. In addition, Obama
was opposed to the 1996 welfare reform bill, which was arguably the single best policy reform to help poor Americans, and his administration
has taken steps to weaken welfare work requirements. Yet the president feels like he's in a position to lecture Republicans about caring
for the most vulnerable members of the human community.
Obama
says Congress must pay its dinner bill. But he's the guy who ordered the caviar and champagne. Obama gave a press conference
today that displayed some of the most controversial features of his governing style. The big issue was raising the debt ceiling. [...]
Whereas the Republicans want to debate spending and then lift the ceiling, Obama wants to lift the ceiling first and debate spending
later.
Obama on Congress: 'They Order Me to Spend'.
Explaining why he has no choice but to demand an increase in the legal limit on the national debt, President Barack Obama said at a Monday press
conference that Congress orders him to spend money. "This is a matter of Congress authorizes spending," Obama said.
Mark Levin is
right: Obama is an imperial president. Levin's words will resonate with hard-working, over-taxed households across the country,
and with good reason. There was not an ounce of humility in the president's remarks, as he lambasted Congress and flat out refused any
negotiation on the debt ceiling issue. There were no words of gratitude to the American people, or any sense that his administration was
there to serve the country, as opposed to lording over it.
Krauthammer:
Obama Presser "Over The Top," Essentially "Libel". ["]The tone of this address was quite remarkable. He talked about
Republicans being suspicious of Social Security and Medicare by the oldest saw that you could hear. And then he added — and
suspicious of the government's role in making sure that impoverished children get food. Now that's a little bit over the top.
That's essentially libel. And then he said 'Oh yes, I love hanging out at a Congressional picnics with these people who want to starve
America's children.'["]
Liberal
media glazes over Obama press conference attacks, contradictions. "I don't think anybody would consider my position
unreasonable here," he said, shortly after he called for additional spending that would further boost the nation's debt. The
debt is already slated to reach $20 trillion by the end of his second term — or roughly $125,000 per working-age
American.
Krauthammer:
Obama's attack on 'suspicious' Republicans 'essentially a libel'. "The point of raising the debt ceiling is to allow us
to continue to borrow," Krauthammer continued. "That's the essence of what it's about. He talked about the debt ceiling a
dozen times. Not once did he use the word 'borrow.' And what it means is we are now going to continue to borrow. For
every dollar the government spends, only 60 cents of it come from our taxes; the rest, 40 percent, is borrowed money.[ ... "]
Obama Lies And
Bullies Republicans On Debt Ceiling. 'If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America's bills on time, Social Security
checks and veterans' benefits will be delayed," President Obama claimed at his much-ballyhooed "Final Press Conference of His First Term"
on Tuesday. "We might not be able to pay our troops," Obama warned. "Food inspectors, air traffic controllers, specialists who
track down loose nuclear material wouldn't get their paychecks." Even the left doubts Obama's phony claims.
Obama
Slanders Conservatives, and the Constitution Loses, Again. Obama's whole position is predicated on the belief that if some
government activity is even potentially desirable, then ipso facto the federal government should do it. That the
Constitution is based on the principle of limited and enumerated powers for the federal government — and would never have
been ratified otherwise — is, to him, one of those antiquated notions that we luckily got over decades ago.
President
Obama Exaggerates Deficit Savings. At his press conference this week, President Obama made it seem as though the job of
getting the government's deficits under control is nearly done. "The consensus is we need about $4 trillion to stabilize our
debt and our deficit," he told reporters, "which means we need about $1.5 trillion more."
Obama Lies And
Bullies Republicans On Debt Ceiling. "I'm a pretty friendly guy," President Obama said after suggesting Republicans plan
to contaminate food, crash planes and let terrorists build nuclear bombs.
Obama's Debt Claims Debunked, Line by Line.
Should we raise the national debt limit to accommodate more trillion-dollar deficits? In Washington, it's taken for granted that
we should and will. But a lot of fiscal conservatives have got the crazy idea in their heads that any debt increase should be
accompanied by something we haven't seen in years: a budget. An actual plan to balance the budget and stop accumulating debt.
Gun control announcement, January 16, 2013.
Obama
plans to surround himself with children during gun control announcement. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced this
afternoon that President Obama will unveil a "concrete package" of gun control proposals including assault weapons bans, high capacity ammunition
magazine bans, and closing loopholes on background checks. Carney said that the president will be joined by Vice President Joe Biden as
well as children who wrote to the president after the Newtown shootings.
What
President Obama proposed on guns, and what might actually pass Congress. President Obama announced a sweeping slate of new
gun control proposals Wednesday designed to curb mass violence, including new restrictions on guns, efforts to enhance school safety, and
improving treatment of mental health issues. Some items will be enacted via executive order while others will require action on Capitol
Hill.
Obama unveils gun
plan, concedes tough fight ahead. Seeking to circumvent at least some opposition, Obama signed 23 executive actions on
Wednesday [1/16/2013], including orders to make more federal data available for background checks and end a freeze on government research
on gun violence.
Mark Levin on Obama gun
proposals: 'This is 1930s stuff'. On Wednesday's broadcast of Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto," conservative
talk show host Mark Levin said President Barack Obama's executive actions to curb gun violence, which were announced during a Wednesday
press event, are as "un-American" and "fascistic" as they are unhelpful. "What do any of these 23 [executive actions] have to do
with what happened in Newtown? I've studied all 23 of them now. They have absolutely nothing to do with the mass murder
that took place in Connecticut — zero. And the president won't be asked about it. [..."]
Not a single one of the items Obama intends to implement would have stopped Adam Lanza. On Guns, an Abuse of Power. Now,
the 23 executive orders President Barack Obama signed that are aimed at "reducing gun violence" could be considered, at
worst, cynically political or, at best, completely useless. But the way Obama treats the process, children, the debate, the
Constitution and the American people is another story. Sen. Rand Paul recently remarked that "someone who wants to bypass
the Constitution, bypass Congress — that's someone who wants to act like a king or a monarch." That may be a bit
hyperbolic, but it is also a bit true.
On Guns, an Abuse of Power. Didn't Alexander
Hamilton and James Madison warn us against the dangerous "passions" of the mob? It is amazing how many times this president uses
majoritarian arguments to rationalize executive overreach. And really, speaking of ginning up fear: "If there's even one life
that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try," the president said, deploying perhaps the biggest platitude in the history of
nannyism. Not a single one of the items Obama intends to implement — legislative or executive — would have stopped Adam
Lanza's killing spree or, most likely, any of the others.
Conservative
group sues to block White House gun control recommendations. A conservative activist group is suing the White House's gun
violence task force in an effort to block a sweeping set of new restrictions on firearms to be unveiled Wednesday [1/16/2013].
FreedomWatch, founded by attorney Larry Klayman, argues that the task force held illegal meetings with lobbyists and did not give proper
public notice. The group filed a lawsuit in a Florida federal court, seeking to shut down the task force and block any of its
proposals from implementation.
Statement
by Gov. Perry on President Obama's Executive Actions. Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President
Obama's executive actions: "The Vice President's committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his
recommendations have anything to do with what happened there. Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who
did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his
terror. [..."]
Obama the Children Savior, Champion of Partial Birth Abortion.
The White House spokesman Jay Carney-identified "little kids", filling in as props at Barack Hussein Obama's gun proposal presser today,
have more respect for human life than the president does. Young as they are, those with baby brothers and sisters at home, would
be absolutely traumatized to know that as a senator Obama championed partial birth abortion, the brutal slaughter of babies who make it
through abortion.
Obama's
Executive Disarmament Confirms that the Tea Party Can Not Go Away. Due to extensive media coverage of Obama's Disarmament
Show, low-info voters will cry hearing stories of how guns make kids fearful and give Obama carte blanche, regardless of the Constitution.
Predicting from their pattern of spineless behavior, Republicans will probably simply go along with Obama's illegal dictates. So who
will stand and be the voice of our Founding Fathers and We The People? Answer: the Tea Party.
Hiding Behind the Children. The
substance of Obama's proposals will not matter. This is strictly about emotion, not reason. All that will matter will
be the powerful visual image of Obama being surrounded by beautiful, young children of all backgrounds. His underlying message
will be, "Support my gun control proposals or else you hate children. You don't hate children, do you?"
Gun
Sales and Background Checks: Obama's Bogus 40 Percent Stat. Of all the gun-control measures touted by President Obama on
Wednesday, the one that got top billing was a dramatic tightening of background checks on gun purchasers. Obama himself said the
need was urgent because "40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check." But before we make the
most sweeping changes in federal firearms law since the 1960s, shouldn't we at least examine the validity of that figure? It's
about as dubious as they come.
Photo-op president
shooting blanks. [Scroll down] But all these are tepid, marginal stuff. And others are outright
posturing — such as issuing a presidential memorandum "directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the
causes and prevention of gun violence" — or simply risible — such as the order to nominate a new director
for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Um, what's stopping you, Mr. President? (Of course,
senators may well want to ask the ATF nominee about the Fast and Furious debacle.)
Obama's Unserious Gun
Proposals. Rifles, in general, are one of the least popular murder weapons. More than five times as many people are
killed with knives. More are killed with blunt instruments. Twice as many are killed with bare hands. As an
anti-violence program, focusing on a subset of rifles is a joke. The Obama administration's other gun-control measure is
equally silly. It proposes to ban magazines that hold more than ten bullets.
Krauthammer:
'The Things Obama Signed Today, the Executive Orders Are Useless'. While Obama's media predictably gush and fawn over the
President's anti-gun initiatives Wednesday, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer not surprisingly had a different take.
Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer said, "The things he signed today, the executive orders are useless".
Ivory-tower
Obama can't abide views he doesn't share. Obama supporters like to portray Republican attempts to negotiate as hostage-taking
or extortion. But those are violent crimes. Negotiations — discussions attempting to reach agreement among those who
differ — are peaceful acts. What we do know, from Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics," is that Obama is not very good
at negotiating. He apparently can't stomach listening to views he does not share. Perhaps that is to be expected of one who
has chosen all his adult life to live in university communities and who made his way upward in the one-party politics of Chicago.
Obama Ignores Dangers
Of Father-Free Zones. If gun-control worked, the president's hometown would be safe. Instead, gangs of fatherless
youths daily kill other fatherless youths. How about an executive order endorsing marriage and intact families?
Obama's use of wide-eyed children to promote his gun-control proposals. There was
something nauseating about the way Barack Obama surrounded himself with children as he unveiled his gun control plans. It looked
like emotional blackmail. "Look these innocent babes in the face and tell them guns are good" — that was the implicit message
of this cynical, innocence-exploiting press conference, which brought to mind one of the late Wacko Jacko's weird child-centred peace
concerts more than it did a serious Lincoln-style presidential address. What Obama and his advisers appear to have overlooked is
that it doesn't matter one jot what children think of guns, or anything else for that matter: politics is an adult business, and
should be shaped by adult arguments, not childish fears.
Tax dollars for gun control.
The directives on gun violence President Obama signed Wednesday were meant to seem harmless. A closer look at the president's first
memorandum reveals it to be a sneaky assault on congressional authority in order to fund gun-control propaganda. Getting this done
has been on the White House "to do" list for some time. In his 2013 budget submission, Mr. Obama deleted the prohibition that
has been in effect since 1995 on the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control.
Forward! Obama's
gun control agenda. President Obama's Wednesday press conference was political theater at its best. The carefully-selected
audience applauded at all the right moments. The reading of letters from children was classic heart-tugging emotionalism. A little
girl wrote: "We are sad. We want everybody to be happy and safe." How could we want anything else?
Tax dollars for gun control.
The directives on gun violence President Obama signed Wednesday were meant to seem harmless. A closer look at the president's first
memorandum reveals it to be a sneaky assault on congressional authority in order to fund gun-control propaganda. Getting this done has
been on the White House "to do" list for some time.
Obama Now King of the Gun Grabbers.
In just one afternoon, the man who is suspected of okaying the smuggling of guns into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels — known
as Fast and Furious — has 'outed' himself as the king of the gun grabbers.
Where Are the 23 Executive
Orders? The President held a press conference on January 16th explaining 23 executive orders that he was to
sign in relation to gun control measures. President Obama, surrounded by children, concluded his press conference by sitting
at a desk and signing several papers. But why are those 23 orders not listed on the White House website?
Kids Write Obama on Abortion.
I'm getting sick and tired of the Obama administration using children selectively in order to help the president advocate his public policy
positions. [...] As I sat and watched Obama surrounded by little human political shields, three things struck me as being especially
hypocritical: 1. Just a few years ago, the president would have supported murdering all of those children by dismemberment.
2. The president would have classified their dismemberment as "health care" within a comprehensive reform package necessary to preserve
the well-being of children, and finally 3. All the children at the press conference were protected from being murdered at that
particular moment by government agents carrying concealed weapons.
The Children's Hour. Thus far, the
criticism surrounding the president's shameless exploitation of schoolchildren at the recent White House 23-Executive-"Actions" performance has
focused largely on how wrong it was to use little kids as political props. Even more reprehensible though is staged propaganda falsely
promoted as unsolicited 'Letters to the President' written from the hearts of vulnerable children. Therefore, based on the content, style,
and an odd mix of childlike misspellings and decidedly unchildlike opinions featured in the letters, it's highly probable that four children
were used as political pawns recruited to assist President Obama in "fundamentally transforming the United States of America."
Obama's No-Show at the OK Corral.
Obama's confectionery press conference had a whiff of artificial vanilla, not cordite. From somnolent to laughable: imagine primary
care physicians seriously diverting time from filling out Medicare reimbursement forms to asking patients about their gun ownership.
A Shameless Media. Bob Schieffer of CBS News
described President Obama's recent opening remarks at the gun control press conference as, "one of the best speeches I've ever heard him
deliver". Schieffer went on to praise the president's cause as similar to the ten-year hunt for Osama bin Laden and Lyndon Johnson's
successful attempt to pass civil rights legislation. Although Schieffer indicated that more than an Obama speech would be required,
this wasn't objective journalism but slobbering praise for a man with a checkered record of accomplishment.
Obama Defiles Reagan Stagecraft.
The $500 million gun violence 'package' included 23 executive actions addressing "gun control proposals including assault
weapons bans, high capacity ammunition magazine bans, and closing loopholes on background checks." In other words, the same guy
who claims he can't find millions of illegal aliens has miraculously found a way to track down and register 300 million guns.
In pseudo-Reaganesque mode, the president's anti-Second Amendment effort was made public while armed Secret Service agents stood in
the wings ensuring his personal safety.
Obama's Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 2013.
The
time Obama apologized to Kamala Harris for calling her good-looking. Years before Barack Obama urged voters to
make Kamala Harris the first female vice president at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, he took heat for praising her
looks and then apologized for doing so. "You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant, and she is
dedicated, and she is tough, and she is exactly what you'd want in anybody who is administering the law and making sure that
everybody is getting a fair shake," the then-president said at an April 2013 fundraiser outside San Francisco about Harris,
who was the California attorney general. "She also happens to be, by far, the best-looking attorney general in the
country." "It's true! Come on," Obama said as the crowd laughed. The comments prompted allegations of sexism.
The
Father's Day Obama Betrayed Black America. On Father's Day 2008, candidate Barack Obama made his most honest
speech on race, maybe his only halfway honest speech on race. The media barely noticed. The site was the
Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. From the pulpit Obama spoke to the gathered voters — excuse me,
congregants — with uncharacteristic audacity. He reminded his audience that too many black fathers were
missing from "too many homes." He knew something of the phenomenon himself given that his father "left us when I was two
years old." Yes, that con again. Putting aside for a moment his personal story, however fictitious, Obama made the
traditionally conservative argument that fatherless children were five times more likely to grow up poor, nine times more
likely to drop out of school, and twenty times more likely to get into serious trouble than children who grow up with both
parents.
Barack
Obama in 2008: Both Parties 'Have Monkeyed Around With Elections'. Barack Obama warned supporters that
politicians had "monkeyed around" with elections, during a campaign speech at Kent State University in New Philadelphia,
Ohio, on September 3, 2008. Then-Senator Obama (D-IL) said: "I come from Chicago. It's not as if it's
just Republicans who have monkeyed around with elections in the past. Sometimes Democrats have, too. You know,
whenever people are in power, they have this tendency to try to tilt things in their direction."
Obama's Speech for the Ages.
We are rapidly approaching the anniversary of one the most historic speeches ever delivered by a U.S. President. No, it's not
President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address or President Regan's Berlin Wall speech or even President Kennedy's inaugural address.
October 21st will mark the 4th anniversary of President Obama's "I Don't Have a Clue" speech. On that date, in less than
900 words, our President took to the podium of the White House Briefing room and proceeded to deliver a statement proving just
how misguided his foreign policy is. It stands an incredible combination of incompetence and incorrectness and should never
be forgotten.
Fact-Checking Obama on Health Care.
Never one to let anything speak for itself, the president made his case for the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, the day its exchanges launched.
To listen to his speech, the health-care law has fixed the U.S. economy, will save tens of thousands of lives, and has solved the U.S.'s long-term debt
problem. Needless to say, none of these things are true.
Read this article: Obama's Road to
Nowhere. "There are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery," President Obama said
at a Jeep plant in Toledo the other day. "We're going to pass through some rough terrain that even a
Wrangler would have a tough time with." His audience booed. They're un-fire-able union members
with lavish benefits, and even they weary of the glib lines from his twelve-year-old speechwriters.
Obama defaults to
economic blame game. A cascade of bad economic and political news knocked President Barack
Obama off his game today, and prompted him to revive his 2008-style criticism of his predecessor, and also
to suggest that investors, consumers and even the media are responsible for today's stalled economy.
Obama Versus the Open Mike. When
he's not enjoying a round of golf or an expensive vacation at public expense, Barack Obama spends most of his
time fund-raising these days. After delivering a campaign speech at George Washington University on
Wednesday, he dashed off to Chicago to raise funds from the evil rich people who want to starve your grandparents
so they can enjoy huge tax cuts. After speaking at one of these events, he forgot his microphone was
turned on, and he said some interesting things.
An Agenda in Shambles. In
April 2009, President Obama laid out his domestic agenda in a speech at Georgetown University. This was
no ordinary chat; Obama envisioned nothing less than a reorientation of the American system. He sought to
shift the economy from the rough and tumble cowboy capitalism of the past to a less risky, pricier, and perhaps
slightly more comfortable European future. "We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity,"
Obama said. Less than a year later, this agenda is in shambles.
Boehner
says Obama selling 'snake-oil'. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) was not persuaded by
President Obama's just-completed healthcare speech in Pennsylvania. "President Obama's latest health
care sales pitch is, just like all the others were, heavy on snake oil and light on the harsh reality
Americans would face under his plan: higher taxes, reduced Medicare benefits, and lost jobs," Boehner
said in a statement.
Obama's
rhetorical shift on health care. You'll be glad to know that, like with the Obama presidency
before it, we have now moved from the "everything will miraculously change" portion of the Obama health-care
pitch to the "I never said everything would miraculously change" portion. This comes from his speech
selling health-care reform in Iowa today [3/25/2010]...
Will
MSM Let Obama Get Away With 'We Don't Quit' War Whopper? There are lies, damned lies, and then
the kind of brazen rewriting of what a man stands for that Barack Obama engaged in yesterday [3/28/2010]. The
swaggering Barack Obama, in his faux-military leather jacket, who boasted to American troops that "the United
States of America does not quit once it starts on something," is the same man who in 2007 told the troops and
the entire world that America and its military couldn't win in Iraq, never could, and should immediately quit.
Passover Mush. Obama,
as presidents have traditionally done, released a Passover message. It is typical Obama —
off-key, hyper-political, and condescending.
The GOP in the Wake of
ObamaCare: The president has made, repeatedly and on the record, extravagant claims.
He promised the moon and the stars. When those things not only don't come to pass, but when people see
that their lives are worse off thanks to ObamaCare, there will be a very high political price to pay.
Obama tries to mop up the mess he has made. Obama's
No. 1 focus: It is not jobs. The President comes to New England not to talk to
business owners about how to create more jobs or to seek any input whatsoever on stimulating the economy.
His trip, CNN has reported, is part of a political strategy to help Democrats in Congress who face strong
criticism at home for supporting his health care legislation despite the opposition of their constituents.
As Obama jets around the country trying to convince Americans that his health care law is not the disaster it
so clearly is, the economy continues to struggle.
Financial
District workers can't bear to watch. Wall Street worker Steven Cohen didn't waste his time
listening to Obama's speech to the financial industry Thursday [4/22/2010]. He knew exactly what message
the President was going to deliver, and thinks it's all wrong. "Why would I watch his speech?" the
54-year-old real estate professional said. "The man is hurting the job creation engine that makes New
York City run. "I have better things to do with my time."
President Obama Ribs Iowa Crowd for Not Applauding His Warning About
"Hard Choices". "We're going to have to make some tough choices" about the deficit and national
debt, President Obama said to a crowded gymnasium full of supporters at Indian Hills Community College, after
a lengthy riff on how the unsustainable debt would need to be tackled. This, unlike most of what the
president said during the town hall meeting, was met with silence.
Obama's Big Government Problem:
Listening to an Obama speech is like chowing down on a box of assorted chocolates — you never know what
you're going to get. The president's commencement speech at the University of Michigan last Saturday [5/1/2010]
was a classic case in point. To paraphrase an orator whose reputation for greatness did not involve the
use of either speechwriters or teleprompters: never in the course of American politics has a president
used so many words to say so little.
Obama
Hypocrisy on Small Businesses and Jobs. Obama keeps delivering ill-considered speeches as in
Buffalo, making it painfully obvious that he mistakenly believes that the federal government can create private
sector jobs. Obama does not seem to understand that any government job, or government-created job, can
only be paid for by increasing taxes or by borrowing.
Obama's lazy tribute to
Daniel Pearl. Like a lot of guys who've been told they're brilliant one time too often,
President Obama gets a little lazy, and doesn't always choose his words with care. And so it was
that he came to say a few words about Daniel Pearl, upon signing the "Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act."
What
Daniel Pearl's decapitation means to Barack Obama. Even given Obama's ever more terrifying
and lethal performance in office, his comments about the jihadi murder of Daniel Pearl, and in front of
Daniel's bereaved family, are simply astounding. This is what Obama said: "Obviously, the loss
of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world's imagination because it reminded us of how
valuable a free press is."
America's sophist in chief.
The president traveled to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University on Wednesday [6/2/2010] to yet again tout his
vision of economic renewal and to rip Republicans for their supposedly regressive opposition to his supposedly
"progressive" agenda. The rhetoric, much of it Orwellian and liberally peppered with a half-baked political
screed, came straight from the dented-can section of the grocery store. Obama is an accomplished shaman
of the genre. But that's not a compliment.
Santa and Frank.
[Scroll down] This old trick is now being unveiled by the Obama administration, like so many other old
political tricks used in this "change" administration. In one of President Obama's many prissy little
sermonettes, complete with finger wagging, he has declared: "Next year when I start presenting some very
difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits step up.
Because I'm calling their bluff."
All
Talk, No Action. President Obama uttered some fine words Wednesday [7/7/2010] on the value of
export trade. But with no trade pacts on the horizon until after elections, it's just political
busywork. What's really needed is courage.
Blather in Kansas City.
[Scroll down] Just as when the President lied about not having available oil reserves last month in his televised
address to the nation regarding the BP oil spill, he told another outright lie in Kansas City. It was so blatant
that it was almost humorous. Note the President's words, "So our goal has never been to create another
government program, our goal has been to spur growth in the private sector." Really? Does any sane
person who even casually follows politics or watched the 2008 presidential campaign believe this?
He's Playing You. The
bamacare socialized medicine takeover legislation doesn't even go into effect until 2014, and he is saying
now in 2010 just 3 or 4 months after its passage, hey, look around, where are all those scary results
they told us about? What I am wondering, actually, is just how stupid does he think we are? He is
thinking that enough of us are too stupid to know that his socialized medicine bill doesn't go into effect until
2014, and that he can play us for fools with this kind of shameful, manipulative, abusive rhetoric.
President Obama Once Again Makes Erroneous Claim.
President Barack Obama on Monday incorrectly stated that a landmark campaign-finance ruling allows foreign
entities to pour money into U.S. elections. It's the second time he's made such a claim, and this time
it happened while he was promoting the Democrats' DISCLOSE Act in a Rose Garden speech.
Obama's Lack of Disclosure.
You know when a politician starts a sentence with "frankly," he's about to lie to your face.
Urban Myths.
Speaking to the Urban League on Thursday [7/29/2010], the president had a great chance to tout his accomplishments.
Sadly, when it came to the economy, he had to stretch the truth quite a bit just to say anything.
In
Wisconsin, Obama Touts Clean-Energy Jobs, Says Economy Is Rebounding. Touring the ZBB manufacturing
plant in Menomonee Falls, Wis., on Monday [8/16/2010], President Obama continued to make the case that the economy
is on the rebound and that his administration's actions in the last 18 months to boost growth and create
jobs have been the right ones. ... "What's clear," Obama continued, "is that we are heading in the right
direction. Just a year and a half ago, the economy was shrinking rapidly. Now the economy is
growing."
[Does anybody believe that?]
What
Barack Obama's really saying at all these cross-country stops to collect money. If any president's
supporters knew what they were going to hear for their $30,400 fundraiser admission ticket, few would likely
shell out even $30. Which is why so many Hollywood liberal luminaries like Jeffrey Katzenberg and
Barbra Streisand bought the tickets and then completely skipped Barack Obama's speech...
Obama's foreign funny
money. In his weekly radio address on Saturday [8/21/2010], the president went on about the
supposed effects of the Supreme Court's January decision in the Citizens United case, which loosened
restrictions on certain types of corporate political activity. Mr. Obama warned of a "corporate takeover
of our democracy." With plenty of melodrama, he complained about "a flood of attack ads run by shadowy
groups." He even claimed, "You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation." Mr. Obama
surely knows his talking points are nonsense. His claim about foreign contributions repeatedly has been
proved false.
Obama's Belabored Labor
Day Speech. An increasing number of Americans wish President Obama would stop trying to fix the
economy, since his every effort seems to bring the country closer to bankruptcy. ... The president's speech to
honor Labor Day, delivered last Friday [9/3/2010], naturally addressed the issues of labor, jobs, and the economy.
Unfortunately, the president shows no signs of coasting. ... Mostly the speech was a tired collection of divisive
class warfare attacks, in which Obama paints himself as the champion of the "great American middle class," and
the enemy of the "powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for far too long."
Obama:
They talk about me like a dog. Those following President Obama's prepared remarks during a speech
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Monday [9/6/2010] were thrown a bit of a curveball when it came to a description of his critics:
"Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they're not
always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That's not in my prepared remarks, but it's
true," he told a crowd largely consisting of union members.
The World
Turned Upside Down. Barack Obama recently addressed the Congressional Black Caucus and warned them,
"Remember, the other side has a plan too. It's a plan to turn back the clock on every bit of progress we've
made." The scare speech was a veiled attack on the Republican Party in terms of civil rights and racial
progress — couched in equating Obama's own record since 2009 as the antidote to reactionary forces
that would turn back the clock.
Does
President Obama Think Our Rights Come from Our Creator? The most famous words in the Declaration
of Independence — and almost surely the most famous words ever written by an American —
read, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
On Friday evening [9/17/2010], when President Obama addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, he
quoted that passage as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal
[pause], endowed with certain unalienable rights: life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
In Obama's version, there is no "Creator."
Cramer
Credits CNBC-Obama Infomercial for 146-Point Dow Jones Rally. On Sept. 20, CNBC hosted a so-called
"town hall" meeting on its network about President Barack Obama and how his administration is dealing with
business issues. Obama took some criticism from participants and observers said the president was
playing defense. However, CNBC's "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer had a different take on the made-for-television
event.
Obama Warns That Corporations Are
Taking Over. No matter how shadowy or flush with corporate dollars an interest group is, the only
thing Citizens United allowed it to do is speak. Advocacy has no impact unless it persuades people.
The Ego-in-Chief.
Two weeks ago, Obama essentially claimed Americans are too scared and ignorant to understand what his administration
is doing. Taken to task for this arrogant claim the president nevertheless pushed ahead with his theory
that Americans just aren't bright enough to appreciate his genius.
Obama's
'Green' Energy Plan Infringes on Liberty. In numerous speeches, President Obama has stated that
America's energy policy should be modeled after Europe's failed "green energy" project. During a speech
in Ohio, Obama claimed that countries in Europe have superior energy policies, "And think of what's happening
in countries like Spain, Germany and Japan, where they're making real investments in renewable energy.
They're surging ahead of us, poised to take the lead in these new industries." In reality, Europe's
experiments with government subsidized renewable energy and "green" jobs have been a costly disaster.
What's Up
With 'Sputnik?' The list of American innovations that have changed life on Earth is practically endless,
but President Obama is trying to inspire America's next technological wave by referring back to a 50-year-old
achievement by a defunct nation — Sputnik.
Obama
Mispronounces Name Of 'Great Friend' Gillibrand. [President Obama] was at an event at
GE in Schenectady, New York today, announcing his selection of GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as a senior
economic adviser. The president began his remarks by recognizing dignitaries in attendance.
The only ones among them he identified as "great friends of mine" were the two New York senators.
He then proceeded to mispronounce Gillibrand's last name.
Obama
on Libya: Better He Should Have Said Nothing. After days of silence, the president of the
United States took to the microphone and, in a statement of almost unbelievable pointlessness, said as
little as he could.
The Speech
Obama Hasn't Given: I cannot for the life of me see how an American president can launch
a serious military action without a full and formal national address in which he explains to the American
people why he is doing what he is doing, why it is right, and why it is very much in the national interest.
He referred to his aims in parts of speeches and appearances when he was in South America, but now he's
home. More is needed, more is warranted, and more is deserved. He has to sit at that big desk
and explain his thinking, put forward the facts as he sees them, and try to garner public support.
Obama Administration
takes victory lap in clown car. It's been less than 72 hours since President Barack Obama announced
that U.S. Special Forces "a small team of Americans" had killed Osama Bin Laden.
Since then, his administration has been hard at work screwing the whole thing up. Let's start with that speech
Sunday night. It was originally announced for 10:30 but didn't happen until 11:30. By that time, the news Obama
was supposed to be breaking had broken already. Not the best start. Presumably he was delayed arguing with his
speechwriters about keeping in all the "I," "Me," and "Mine." Everything having to do with this raid was "I"; anything
that could be attributed to the Bush administration was "We." "I gave the order, I did this, I did that."
Obama's Predictable
Immigration Lies. President Obama went to El Paso, Texas, yesterday to pander to Hispanics by
promoting the myth that anyone who wants to get serious about border security is a dishonest racist.
President
Obama's phony accounting on the auto industry bailout. What we found is one of the most misleading
collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the
president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true
car loan.
President Obama's war on facts.
President Obama's "corporate jet" line from his press conference Wednesday [6/29/2011] is crashing along with
a host of other claims that fact-checkers dismissed in the hours after his speech. Obama referred to
private jets six times in his remarks, essentially describing the Republican position on how to decrease
rampant deficits as being "willing to compromise their kids' safety so that some corporate jet owner
continues to get a tax break."
Smartest
president ever gets lost in the grammar weeds. I caught this howler of a statement from the president
on a clip on Fox last night. ... "And so that mitigates against this danger that you're suggesting that our
main goal is going to be to kill these individuals as opposed to potentially capturing them." I
challenge anyone to diagram that sentence.
What
was the point of that Rose Garden speech? Following the release of the dreadful jobs numbers,
President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden this morning [7/8/2011]. However, it was entirely unclear
why he was there or what his plan is for digging the economy out of the deep hole in which we find ourselves.
The speech, if you can call it that, seemed to be a disconnected collage of one-liners and excuses.
The Permanent Obama
Campaign. At Barack Obama's White House, the presidency and the president's reelection campaign
have merged. Totally. In the past, presidents have exploited their office to boost their reelection
prospects. But never like this. The weekly radio address from the White House, the presidential
policy address, and the opening statement at a presidential press conference have been transformed into campaign
tools. Though there's nothing sacrosanct about these events, they've never before been used in such a
blatantly partisan way.
Demagoguery
is not leadership, Mr. President. Does President Obama even read what is put in the teleprompter
before he delivers it? On Monday night [7/25/2011], Obama claimed that "because neither party is blameless
for the decisions that led to this problem, both parties have a responsibility to solve it." But
just three paragraphs earlier, Obama put the blame for our $14.3 trillion debt squarely on President
George W. Bush, claiming that "trillions of dollars in new tax cuts," "two wars" and "an expensive
prescription drug program" caused government surpluses to turn into annual deficits. This despite
the fact that in only three years Obama's spending has added $3.7 trillion to the national debt.
Leave Us Alone Mr. Obama.
After enduring a week of terrible news, we were blessed today [8/30/2011] with yet another speech by our President.
And the only way to endure that is, of course, by analyzing it and revealing its true nature.
Obama: pass, pass, pass, pass, pass,
pass, pass. The president promised the bill a month ago, addressed Congress last week,
and is now just getting around to delivering a bill for Congress to consider. These inconvenient
little truths did not stop the president from acting as if Congress is dragging its feet as he said
the word "pass" 7 times in his 5-minute speech.
This is what is known as stammering. Obama: "I, I, I,
I, I'm A Warrior For The Middle Class". "You know what? If asking a billionaire to pay their
fair of taxes. To pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what?
I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm a warrior for the middle class. I'm happy to fight for the middle class," President
Obama said at the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati, OH.
All those Jeremiah Wright sermons are now bubbling out. Obama
gaffe: President says billionaires should pay 'Jew' tax rate. While defending his call for the
rich to pay more in taxes, the president said he didn't mind people calling him a class warrior for merely
asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew. Whoops! The president meant to say
"janitor" instead of "Jew," and he immediately corrected himself.
Obama
mocks Perry, Republican debates. President Obama broadened his attack on Republicans Sunday night,
firing an indirect shot at Texas Gov. Rick Perry and condemning audience members at recent Republican debates. ... "I
mean has anybody been watching the debates lately?" Obama said. "You've got a governor whose state is on
fire denying climate change."
Obama's Biggest Lies.
If you work hard, play by the rules, save your money, create jobs, and make a success out of yourself, President
Obama and the Democrat party will plunder everything you have worked so hard for, because in their view that
is only fair. That is the meaning of the policies President Obama is espousing as he campaigns for
re-election around the country this week.
In speech ad-libs, Obama shows anti-business bias. What happens
when Obama is off teleprompter? The texts of Barack Obama's recent speeches seem tailor-made for
softening the White House's often hostile description of American business, but the president's impromptu
additions are highlighting his efforts to subordinate business to government.
How Progressives Work:
This week, the day after asking for another trillion dollars in spending, President Obama gave a speech about
how he wants to shrink government. His plan to combine several departments within the Commerce Department,
shrink the federal work force by about 1,000 and save an estimated $3 billion over 10 years, was hailed
as "bold" by progressives and an example of how seriously he takes our current fiscal mess. They were
counting on, and got, compliance by the media in not reporting that this "bold initiative" save approximately
3/4 of one day's worth of the deficit Obama has racked up ($4 billion).
Here's your post-partisan president at work: Obama the promise breaker.
From the start, the president insisted 2011 would be a bipartisan year. "What comes of this moment will be
determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow." The happy
feelings didn't last long. By October, the campaigner in chief sunk to challenging the intelligence of people
who disagree with him. At a stemwinder in Asheville, N.C., Mr. Obama insisted he had to break his jobs
bill into "bite-size pieces" because Republicans "just couldn't understand the whole all at once."
Obama's
failed energy policies. No one's talking about it yet, but Obama also appears to be fulfilling his campaign promise to
drive up home power bills by aggressively regulating America's industries that produce electricity. It will be difficult for Obama
to escape his positions, which are heavily rooted in ideology. In today's speech in New Hampshire, he made clear that he knows he
has a problem and he doesn't know what to do.
Oil is 'the fuel of the
past', says President Obama. President Barack Obama on Wednesday [6/7/2012] dismissed oil as "the fuel
of the past" as he made an unapologetic election-year pitch for his alternative energy industry policies and sniped at
Republicans over painfully high gasoline prices. "They get out on the campaign trail — and you and I
both know there are no quick fixes to this problem — but listening to them, you'd think there were," he said
at a Daimler Truck manufacturing plant in the battleground state of North Carolina.
Obama really is the non-energy president.
In his weekly radio address Feb. 25, the President said that "under my administration, America is producing more
oil today than at any time in the last eight years. In 2010, our dependence on foreign oil was under 50 percent
for the first time in more than a decade." ... These claims ... are nothing but spin. While it's true that U.S.
oil and natural gas production are up, this is not thanks to, but in spite of Obama. All the increased
production has come from state and private lands, where the President has little power. On federal lands
controlled by Obama, production has actually fallen.
Obama
Misleads on Oil Reserves, Networks Defend Him, Fail to Fact Check. On March 7, 2012, Obama
declared: "We've got 2 percent of the world oil reserves; we use 20 percent. What that means is, as much as
we're doing to increase oil production, we're not going to be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices."
While technically true, Obama's "oil reserves" numbers are very misleading due to the narrow definition of "proven reserves."
The three broadcast networks failed to clear up that misconception for viewers and passed blame for high prices on to others.
Obama's Fuzzy Math. One passage from the president's
April 3 speech at the Associated Press luncheon in Washington, D.C., which he has repeated several times this week,
contains some dubious assertions but has yet to receive any public scrutiny. Obama contends that the GOP budget,
authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), would provide "an average tax cut of at least $150,000 for every millionaire
in America." It is unclear how the president arrived at that figure.
President of the Twilight
Zone. Deconstructing one of President Obama's speeches can be a bit like taking a trip to an alternate
universe. Take his remarks last week to the Associated Press, contrasting his budget vision with that of Paul Ryan
and Republicans. [...] Given that estimates of Medicare's unfunded liabilities run from a low of $25 trillion to as
much as $90 trillion, the program is clearly going to have to change. The president may believe his changes
are better than Ryan's, but to pretend that he would leave the program exactly as it is while Ryan would leave sick
seniors in the streets to die is simply unstuck from reality.
Obama:
I'm not trying to 'redistribute wealth'. President Obama, who famously called for tax increases on the wealthy to
"spread the wealth around," denied today [4/10/2012] that his tax increases on the rich are an attempt to "redistribute wealth."
"So these investments — in things like education and research and health care — they haven't been made
as some grand scheme to redistribute wealth from one group to another," the president said today at Florida Atlantic
University. "This is not some socialist dream," Obama added, as he called for tax increases on millionaires today
to pay for those investments. When he advocated the same plan in 2008, though, Obama described this "spread the
wealth around" policy.
Clueless About Job Creation.
When the president begins a speech these days with praise for free markets, look out! What comes next are proposals for more
government intervention in the economy and higher taxes. That's the recipe, Obama says, to "encourage our long-term economic
growth and stabilize our budget." He said so in his Republicans-are-Social-Darwinists speech in Washington two weeks ago to newspaper
editors. Near the outset, Obama declared: "I know that the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector, not
Washington, which is why I've cut taxes for small-business owners 17 times over the last three years." Those cuts have had
minimal effect, and not surprisingly. They were tiny and temporary, and few small-business owners bothered to claim them, if indeed
they were eligible to do so. Meanwhile, the president has persistently sought to raise their income taxes.
Barack Obama
Shows How Low He Can Go. Four years ago, when he was campaigning on a promise of "hope and change,"
here's what then-Senator Obama said in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention: ["]If
you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to
run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.["] Sound like anyone we know?
Obama
Administration's Energy Policy A Boon To Petrotyrants. Wittingly or not, President Obama has contributed to high oil prices by
stymieing U.S. production. But if that's the idea, it makes sense to secure energy abroad. He hasn't. In fact, Obama's stated
policy, in his March 30, 2011, energy speech has been a crude central planner's diktat of reducing oil imports by a third over the next
10 years and replacing them with increased production of biofuels and other unproven "green" energies yet to be developed.
Dumb and Dumber. The lack of complexity in
President Obama's recent speeches to college students suggests that they were stump speeches more suited for the
presidential campaign than official government business, experts say. Obama addressed the coeds at the
Universities of North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa at a sixth grade reading level, according to Flesch-Kincaid
reading comprehension difficulty tests conducted by the Washington Free Beacon.
Obama
on GOP Agenda. Seeking to shore-up the important organized labor base for his 2012 reelection, President Barack Obama
on Monday [4/30/2012] accused Republicans of seeking to dismantle unions and of being willing to let America "fall further behind"
other countries by rejecting his infrastructure-spending proposals.
Obama's
whopper about an Ohio River bridge. The crumbling infrastructure of the nation's bridges is certainly an important issue,
but symbolism can only go so far. The administration could never explain what, if anything, the jobs bill would do to improve the
Brent Spence Bridge, especially since construction was not slated to start until 2015 — and Obama's jobs bill would spend
most of its money in its first year. Moreover, there is a long history of bipartisan support for this project, but Obama framed
it as if the Republicans were blocking its reconstruction with their opposition to his legislation.
Obama's Discredited Policies Are
Symbols of the Tired Past. In a gimmicky performance before an audience at the State University of New York in Albany, Obama unveiled his plan on two
large flat-screen television monitors in the form of a green Post-it Note with five unchecked boxes next to each proposal. It was a desperate,
hastily slapped-together video show in the wake of last week's bleak unemployment report that showed few jobs were being created and the Obama economy was
slowing down, again.
This Ain't No Polish Joke. You
cannot use the phrase "Polish death camp" without offending tens of millions of Poles. There were no Polish death camps.
The Poles were the ones, by and large, in the Nazi and Soviet death camps. And yet, that's exactly what the author of "smart
diplomacy" said last night [5/29/2012], at a ceremony that was supposed to honor WWII Polish underground leader Jan Karski.
The Consequences of Obama's Conceit.
Mark down the president's Memorial Day speech as another solemn occasion this administration has gratingly managed to politicize.
[...] The White House's pomposity is the flip side of Obama's long-incubated self-pity, which holds that no president since
the 1930s has had things as rough as this one has.
Can Photo Ops Lower Gas Prices? Stay
Tuned. "No matter what happens to America," the satirical pundit Stephen Colbert once observed, "She will always
rebound with the most powerfully staged photo-ops in the world." And so Barack Obama stood before a bunch of big pipes today
[3/22/2012] in Cushing, Oklahoma, to announce that he was expediting a process that is already on the fast track for approval.
Barack O'Gobbledygook. At a fund-raising event in
Philadelphia, he said: ["]There's (sic) still too many people who are out of work, too many homes underwater, and middle-class families
that still don't have the confidence that the future for their kids and grandkids are (sic) going to be brighter than their futures have
been (sic).["] This president gets the right agreement between noun and verb only half the time. For the sake of consistency it
might be better if he got it wrong all the time.
Obama Plugs Birth Control and Planned
Parenthood in Speech at High School. Listing the reasons why Americans should vote for him, President Barack Obama told an audience at a
high school in New Hampshire on Monday [6/25/2012] that failure to subsidize abortions and contraception is the same as "restricting access" to those
services.
'I,' 'Me' — Obama Uses
First-Person Pronoun 117 Times in 1 Speech. Speaking in Sandusky, Ohio on July 5, President Barack Obama used the
first-person pronouns "I" and "me" a combined 117 times in a speech that lasted about 25 minutes and 32 seconds.
Obama used "I" 98 times and "me" 19 times, according to a transcript of the speech posted by the White House.
Obama's July 4 speech sets immigration
above the law. President Barack Obama used the White House's Independence Day celebrations to tout his June 15
amnesty for at least 800,000 illegal immigrants, and to suggest that the sweeping change is more important to the nation than compliance
with the law. "Just as we remain a nation of laws, we have to remain a nation of immigrants," he told his audience.
With Today's Tax Flip-Flop Obama Moves Left of Pelosi,
Hits 900K Small Businesses. With the economy threatening to fall into another recession and job growth plummeting, Obama came before the
American people today [7/9/2012] demanding taxes be raised on those making over $250,000 a year, including what he admitted would include 3% of small businesses.
Even if that 3% is correct, which is disputed, that 3% means a tax increase on 900,000 small businesses.
Obama's 'Progressive' Tax Plan Actually
Screws Over The Little Guy. What the President didn't say in his speech yesterday [7/9/2012] is far more important than what he did say.
He did not say word one about the 2% Social Security tax break that has been on the books the past few years. What this means is that the FICA tax
break is going to expire. When it does, every worker's paycheck is going to get hit by 2%.
Tuning Out a President. Somewhere around early 2006, the nation
tuned out George W. Bush for a variety of reasons, some warranted, but many not. [...] So Barack Obama is likewise being tuned out. "Let me be
perfectly clear," "Make no mistake about it," "In truth," "In point of fact," "I'm not kidding," and "I'm not making this up" all tip off a weary public
that just the opposite is true.
The Invincible Lie. Anyone
who wants to study the tricks of propaganda rhetoric has a rich source of examples in the statements of President Barack Obama.
On Monday, July 9th, for example, he said that Republicans "believe that prosperity comes from the top down, so that if we
spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth."
Let us begin with the word "spend." Is the government "spending" money on people whenever it does not tax them as
much as it can? Such convoluted reasoning would never pass muster if the mainstream media were not so determined to see no
evil, hear no evil and speak no evil when it comes to Barack Obama.
I, President. This week, President Obama gave a
25 minute speech in which he used the personal pronouns "I" and "me" some 117 times. He preferred "I" to "me" by
a margin of 98 to 19. It's not uncommon for presidents to use first person pronouns in speeches. President
Bush did it often enough. But Obama's stampede of "I's" and "me's" is unprecedented in its quantity. The President
clearly has a high opinion of himself. That's a problem. Americans don't tend to like leaders whose narcissism is out
of control. That's because those leaders tend toward the authoritarian and the imperial. They like executive orders
and top-down control.
Obama's Shared Prosperity: A
Euphemism Wrapped in a Lie. "Spread the wealth around" sounded like the casual remark of a tone-deaf authoritarian, someone
used to speaking to rooms full of like-minded leftists. The problem lay chiefly in the word "spread": so impersonal, it gives
the impression that someone — Obama obviously meant government — should just forcibly disperse the successful
citizen's property to others, willy-nilly. Government will spread your wealth around. Aside from completely addle-minded,
entitlement-besotted slugs, what American would approve of reconfiguring America in accordance with such a principle?
Obama's AARP Speech Broke My BS Detector. [Scroll
down] My BS detection device didn't actually begin to smoke until Obama started talking about the mythical Medicare trust fund: "We lengthened
the life of the trust fund by eight years." This lie not only caused serious damage to my machine's internal circuitry, it was too much even for the
administration's lickspittles over at Politico.
Obama Also
Discussed Katrina Racism in 2005 Speech. Coming on the heels of the revelation of a 2007 speech by Barack Obama sewing
racial division by discussing Hurricane Katrina, Breitbart news has uncovered another video where Sen. Barack Obama discusses Katrina
as an example of white racism. The speech was given on Sept. 17, 2005 at Harvard Law School Association Award Luncheon, as
part of the "Celebration of Black Alumni" weekend. Senator Obama was the keynote speaker.
Jeremiah Wright introduces candidate 18 days after Hampton University speech. Another Obama Tape Surfaces. It's June 23,
2007 — a mere 18 days after the now infamous Obama speech at Hampton University that the Daily Caller and the Drudge
Report titled as "Obama's Other Race Speech." An angry, racially divisive speech in which Obama effortlessly slides into a Southern
accent, shouting "The people down in New Orleans they [the Bush administration and the federal government] don't care about as much!"
The event: The United Church of Christ's 26th General Synod, the bi-annual gathering of UCC pastors and lay leaders from across the country,
meeting that year in Hartford, Connecticut.
Obama's
speech at the University of Chicago, January 21, 2002. In a video that surfaced on YouTube Wednesday morning [10/3/2012], a young state
Sen. Barack Obama is seen explaining from a church pulpit that the principle of nonviolent resistance for social change applies more readily to the
wealthy than to Americans in lower social classes. "I don't know if you've noticed," Obama says in the video, shot on Jan. 21, 2002 at the
University of Chicago, "but rich people are all for nonviolence. Why wouldn't they be? They've got what they want. They want to make
sure folks don't take their stuff."
The Editor says...
This was a political speech made from a church pulpit, and the "separation
of church and state" people have no objection because the speaker is a left-wing Democrat.
Obama's America will Become Detroit.
President Barack Obama travelled to Michigan this week and made his case for class war in defense of the welfare state. We need to take
more money from the rich, he said, or schools will not be able to afford books, students will not be able to afford college, and disabled children
will not get health care. "Our economic success has never come from the top down," said Obama. "It comes from the middle out.
It comes from the bottom up." Obama spoke these words a few miles from Detroit — the reductio ad absurdum of his argument.
Impeachment
lite is a farce. The Democrats' punch-drunk base has demanded that President Donald Trump be impeached ever
since the 2016 election when they suffered a knock-out in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and then went down again in the
recounts. Then they couldn't turn the Electoral College rogue, and failed with something called the Emoluments Clause,
and botched their smears of Trump's judges and couldn't convince anyone that the new first lady is last and the last first
lady is first. Of course, they attempted all that not for the purpose of succeeding, but for the purpose of making them
feel virtuous. That's what they do. Former President Barack Obama brilliantly capitalized on this mindset.
Instead of arguing that proposals with which he disagreed would not work, he simply condemned them as unvirtuous. He
declared at least 46 times, "That's not who we are." Saying, "That's not who we are" is who
Obama is.
An Obama Scandals
List 1-100. When Obama spoke of "Yes, we can" that "we" did not include most Americans. But it was still
a stirring moment when he said it. Obama does give a good speech. He can often be inspirational. The
problem is that his policies don't fit his rhetoric. He gives an uplifting speech and immediately starts walking back
the promises he made in it.
Obama
White House deleted online speeches about the immigration crisis hours before Trump entered office:
Report. The Obama administration deleted hundreds of speeches and statements on the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) website just hours before President Donald Trump officially entered office, according to research released
Tuesday. A collection of 190 transcripts of speeches on ICE's website was deleted on Jan. 18 and late in the evening on
Jan. 19, 2017, according to research conducted by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for
government transparency. Statements made by high-ranking ICE officials regarding controversial immigration topics such
as sanctuary cities, E-Verify, treatment of detainees, and other issues were included in the reported deletions.
Beto O'Rourke Is Fauxbama.
Only once did I sit in a medium-sized room with Barack Obama. It was May 19, 2006, and the then-senator was speaking at
a BookExpo America breakfast to promote his book The Audacity of Hope. [...] Winding down, he deployed Martin Luther
King Jr.'s remark about how "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice" and said, "I look forward to
working with you guys to spread the hope." The place went bananas. In a room full of booksellers and librarians, I
was the only one not applauding. I was the only one who didn't leap to my feet as though I had just received a life-altering
revelation. As my success is obviously not tied to that of my neighbors, I am obviously not caught up in a mystical
mutual-destiny tour with 300 million Americans and never have felt any rhapsodic "collective life" created by the nurturing
bonds of government, Obama's speech struck me as completely false, not to mention vapid, platitudinous and void of all meaningful
content. Still, a great many people were entranced by Obama's platitudes. Giving speeches, it turned out, was the
only thing he was good at. But those speeches made him president.
Obama:
Still the Master of 'Making Stuff Up'. Barack Obama is campaigning hard for Democrats and claiming "the
character of our country is on the ballot" and Republicans are "making stuff up." Though entirely predictable, that rhetoric
might be half right. The character of our country was on the ballot 10 years ago when the freshman U.S. senator from
Illinois said, "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." To get to that point,
some believe, the former president of the Harvard Law Review had to make up a few things, such as his founding story.
Obama allegedly campaigns
for Democrats, but.... Probably my favorite Barack Obama campaign story involves an outdoor speech on a
sweltering 2012 day in Roanoke, Virginia. As he went on and on, members of the adoring crowd began fainting from the
heat. The president's revealing response was not to cut his remarks short and let everyone seek a cold drink and air
conditioning. No, the president of the United States began issuing advice to crowd members on how to avoid fainting so
he could finish his remarks. Don't lock your knees, he said. Don't stand on just one leg. Drink water.
And he assured everyone that paramedics were on the way. Then, Obama resumed his speech and continued to the very end.
Obama's
back, and he's more like Trump than you might think. Neither Obama nor Trump has a limited opinion of
himself. Neither minds sharing his observations, whether you asked or not. Neither is shy playing to his
crowds. Neither is immune to an affliction called tone-deaf. And neither is capable of publicly apologizing.
Remember Obama speeches? It seems like years already, doesn't it? They're meticulously organized and
chronological, almost like a lawyer wrote them. Oh, wait. He did.
Impersonators
of God. Obama himself began his presidency with the odd notion that he could control the world with a series of
speeches — not speeches announcing particular policies, but speeches constructed entirely of grand dreams and
virtue-signaling tropes. Not to be ignored is the left's confidence in flinging the word "racist" like a voodoo
curse. To be fair, the tactic of shaming their opponents has worked well for them for decades — withering
weak Republicans in place like Christ's fig tree. We drown in the perennial mantras of "diversity," "social justice,"
and "white privilege" — vague ideas that are moldable enough to suit whatever magic incantation the circumstance
requires. All of it nonsense.
Obama's 'Greatest' Speeches Have Been
Collected in One Book. Here's a Brutally Honest Assessment. In 2004, a handsome young Senate candidate
gave a remarkable autobiographical address at the Democratic National Convention. Drawing on his life as the son of a
Kenyan Muslim exchange student and a white daughter of a World War II veteran, raised in Hawaii and the Philippines and
graduating from Harvard Law School despite his odd-sounding name, it captured the attention of millions of people who
otherwise had no interest in the week's blandly coronal proceedings in Boston. It remains a shame to this day that this
moving and funny speech had to be wasted on bolstering the electoral prospects of an empty suit like John Kerry. Four
years later, after triumphing over a woman who has never uttered a memorable phrase in her life, the orator became first his
party's nominee, then his country's president. It was difficult not to be heartened by this assurance that, in an age
of officialese and stat-dropping, it was still possible to make it in politics almost entirely on the strength of one's
ability to do things with words.
No, You Didn't. Barack
Obama will remain in office for a little while still, but we might reasonably consider last night's speech the end of the Obama presidency. [...] Barack
Obama has spent eight years under the misconception that the job of the president consists mainly in the making of speeches. And for a man who rose
to national attention on the basis of his oratory, he has said relatively little that is memorable. That is because he has relatively little to say,
being a man who brought no new ideas or insights to the office, only a pointlessly grandiose sense of his own specialness.
How Obama
ruined his Dallas memorial speech. I was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, and like all those who have had the
inestimable privilege to help craft a president's words, I'm a connoisseur of the form. Despite his reputation as a
stemwinder, Obama has not given an address in his seven years that any serious student would elevate into the pantheon of
American oratory.
You
Don't Know What Obama Said at the Mosque. If you seek to understand Barack Obama and his views, the best place
to go is his speeches. But you have to read them in their entirety, not rely on hearing them or on the media's summary of
them. When you do, you come to realize how often what Obama says is morally and intellectually confused and even untrue.
Barack
Obama and the Hall of Fame of Straw Men. Barack Obama is famous for the false choice: time after time, he posits
only two alternatives, one of which is his preferred course while the other option is an obvious straw man, sometimes a course that
has never been advocated by anyone.
Inspector
in Chief Barack Clouseau. What is [Obama's] default reaction to every terrorist attack on American soil?
Before he even has time to receive, much less analyze, the bulk of the evidence on such an attack, he immediately rushes to
the presidential microphone and makes two equally bizarre points: that gun ownership is the principal cause of the attack and
that we dare not jump to the conclusion that it was motivated by Islam or perpetrated by Islamists. [...] How many times has he
lectured Americans on guns after such an attack? How many times has he chided us not to presume it was committed by an
Islamist? How many times has he rushed to shame us against jumping to the conclusion that Islamic violence was the culprit
and then waxed eloquent about how wonderful Islam is?
The
Wrong Side of 'the Right Side of History'. Barack Obama has always evinced a fascination with history. [...] If
Obama's interests run toward history, so does his rhetoric. "It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by
so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once
more toward the hope of a better day," he said the evening of his first election. Since then, the president has repeatedly
deployed a series of phrases — especially "the right side of history" and "the wrong side of history" — that
suggest a tortured, idealistic, and ultimately untenable vision of what history is and how it works.
Obama Is Not Who We
Are. The Washington Free Beacon has put together a video montage of Obama using his catchphrase, "it's not who
we are" 46 times. [Video clip] [...] No matter how many times it's used, it is a weak debate trick to muzzle his
opponents by suggesting that no true American could possibly disagree with his point of view. Allow me to turn the tables
and point out some of the multiple instances when Obama's actions are not what we are.
46
Times President Obama Told Americans 'That's Not Who We Are'. President Obama is fond of telling Americans
"that's not who we are" when admonishing them about not agreeing with his liberal principles, a new SuperCut shows. Not
unlike his warning to political opponents that they may be on the "wrong side of history," the expression is useful in its
ability to shut down conversation and seize a moral high ground, however imaginary.
Obama Has Just Begun. [Scroll
down] An Obama press conference is now a summation of all his old damn-you clichés — the fantasy strawman arguments; the
caricatures of the evil Republican bogeymen; the demagogic litany of the sick, the innocent, and the old at the mercy of his callous opponents;
the affected accentuation (e.g., Talîban; Pakîstan, Îslám, Latînos, etc.) that so many autodidacts parade in lieu of learning
foreign languages; the make-no-mistake-about-it and let-me-be-clear empty emphatics; the flashing temper tantrums; the mangled sports metaphors; the
factual gaffes; and the monotonous I, me, my, and mine first-person-pronoun exhaustion. What Obama cannot do in fact, he believes he can still
accomplish through invective and derision.
Strategic Lying and
Obama. Logical fallacies have long been the lifeblood of dishonest politicians and in Obama, we find
an abundance of them. A favorite fallacy is the strawman, which is an attack on a position that is not even
held by the other side. Obama's strawmen have been those never-named naysayers Obama claims are "urging him
to sit on his hands at the White House and do nothing to address any of the economic or national security problems
facing the country." Some telltale indicators that the straw man tactic is being used are the words "there are
those who say" or "some say" as in Obama's "[s]ome people say that maybe I'm being too idealistic." Then there
is the false choice embedded inside another straw man as in his "You can't have 100 percent security and then
also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience" — yet no one ever asked for 100 percent of
these things in the first place.
Why
Won't Obama Stop Lying About Iran's Military Budget? What is Iran's military budget? Read Obama's lips.
It's either $15 billion or $30 billion. Either Iran's military budget changes every time Obama gives a speech or
he's playing with numbers to make it seem small. If $30 billion still seems big, how about $15 billion? And
if $15 billion is still too big, get ready for the $7.5 billion Iranian defense budget. How can you be worried about
that? Obama is borrowing a trick from the Manchurian Candidate. No one is talking about how big Iran's military
budget is, but debating how small it is.
Experts
reverse-engineer Obama's speech-making template. And this brings me to the urgent need
to address [BUZZWORD]. [BUZZWORD] is a threat to our homeland security, our economic infrastructure,
the safety and health of the American people. This cannot be subject to the usual politics and the
usual rhetoric. Confronting [BUZZWORD] is now a key pillar of American global leadership. When I
meet with leaders around the world, [BUZZWORD] is often at the top of our agenda — a core element
of our diplomacy. Around the world, [BUZZWORD] increases the risk of instability and conflict.
As
Jordan, Egypt bomb ISIS, Obama holds a summit on extremism; He plans 2 speeches. Whenever Barack Obama
needs the appearance of taking action on some hot issue in the news, he calls for a summit of some kind. Gun
violence. Bullying. Healthy eating. Oh, look! Another one begins today in
Washington: The White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. It's so very important that Obama
will throw not one but two speeches at it during the next three days.
In
Obama's Speeches, the 'I's Have It. When President Obama gives a speech, it often
seems as though it's more about him than whatever subject he's supposed to be talking about. A
case in point comes from his 33-minute talk in India, during which Obama referred to himself 118 times.
That works out to once every 16.6 seconds. PJ Media managed to compile them all into one amusing
3-minute video. This is quite a feat, but it's not even close to a record for Obama. In a 2010 speech
on jobs and reviving the economy, Obama mentioned himself 132 times. He used the term "small business"
just eight times. Last June, Obama gave a 40-minute speech wherein he packed in 199 uses of "I," "me," or "my.".
Obama's
shtick is getting tired, even with some Democrats. One of the president's favorite rhetorical
tricks is to place himself at the center of any debate and to banish his critics to the extreme fringes.
It was a technique he perfected during the 2008 campaign. For example: "At various stages in the
campaign, some commentators have deemed me either 'too black' or 'not black enough,'" Obama said during his
speech on race relations in March of that year. In this way, the president frames himself as a centrist
and all others as irrational and hopelessly partisan.
The
112 broken promises Mr. Obama made in previous SOTU speeches. As we prepare for yet
another State of the Union address filled with promises and pledges to the American people, the
folks over a Grabien have pieced together a nearly 13-minute montage of the 112 promises that
President Barack Obama made in his previous addresses to joint sessions of Congress but never kept.
Included in the video are broken promises to lower insurance premiums and reduce healthcare costs, freeze
spending for five years, veto spending bills that don't balance the budget, entitlement reform, tax reform,
and eliminate red tape that's hurting American businesses.
Explaining Away Obama.
When the president uses emphatics like "really" or "actually" or "make no mistake about it, "let me
be clear," "in point of fact" or "this is unacceptable," we know that what follows will be untrue
and others will be blamed for the president's own self-induced blunders. Like Jonathan Gruber, and
his surreal statements on amnesty, Obama believes that Americans are too stupid to retrieve videos
and transcripts that prove that Obama makes things up and contradicts himself serially.
Losers.
Arrogance and incompetence are a fatal brew. If once his problem was his failed policies, now it is
also his persona, especially the blame-gaming and sense of boredom on the job that borders on public
petulance, as if he came into the presidency to save us, and we did not appreciate his godhead.
"Make no mistake about it" and "Let me be perfectly clear" have become something like Sominex for
most Americans.
Obama's
Made-for-TV Worldview. In his mostly admirable remarks about the beheading of American journalist
James Foley by the jihadists of the so-called "Islamic State," Obama returned to two of his favorite rhetorical
themes: 1) the idea that in the end the good guys win simply because they are good, and 2) that
world opinion is a wellspring of great moral authority. Obama invokes the "right side of history" constantly,
not only that such a thing exists but that he knows what it is and actually speaks for it as well.
The
Callow President. The notion that Obama might be a grand historical figure was always
an illusion, although at the beginning his rousing words lent it some superficial support. He gave a
truly inspired convention speech in 2004 and a few defining campaign speeches in 2008. But that was
long ago. Once the magic wore off, it became clear he's not really an orator. Few of his big
speeches as president have been memorable or remarkable, and he's almost always failed to move public
opinion. His greatest rhetorical skill turns out to be mockery. The man who once promised to
transcend political divisions is an expert at the stinging partisan jab. What Churchill was to
thundering statements of resolve, he is to snotty put-downs.
No Rest for
the Wicked. Obama's pledge that "we will not rest until..." may sound familiar to you.
In fact, the pledge is so chronically overused, and issued so casually, that it no longer carries
much meaning. Here's a brief history: [...]
Obama's
Words: Like Sand Against the Wind. For Barack Obama speeches are not just motivational
instruments or representations of a desired state of affairs, but feats of political transubstantiation,
where, if he utters them, words become reality. It is a behavior not dissimilar to Adolf Hitler
maneuvering imaginary German divisions from his Berlin bunker while Russian troops rampage throughout
the city above him. Delusional is the only term that I can muster to describe the chasm that
exists between the words Obama uses and the differing reality into which they are dispensed.
Obama's
addiction to speeches: The more he gives, the less people listen. President Obama knows he's in
trouble with the American people. [...] He's giving speeches. Many speeches. Campaign speeches.
Roll-up-the-sleeves speeches. Point-his-finger speeches. Call-on-others-to-do-something speeches.
It's what Obama does, throw speeches at things like pop singers throw eggs at neighbors. What he's always
done because meeting, cajoling, joshing, building teams with Congress, bringing people together is not what
he's good at.
A Performance Review. Even today, some in the
political community and the press regard Obama as an eloquent communicator. They're wrong. He's become windy, boring, whiny, and
unpersuasive. He has a case to make for his presidency, but he makes it poorly. [...] One reason for the failure of Obama's speeches
is their sameness. He insists the public loves his current agenda (minimum wage hike, more money for infrastructure, etc.), blames
Republicans for blocking it, and uses rhetorical devices such as straw men. Republicans, he said again last week at a Maryland fundraiser,
don't believe "we as a community, as a country" should give people "a hand up." I don't know a single Republican with that attitude.
Is Obama Stupid and Lazy? One
reason why the media has declared Obama to be "brilliant" is because of his inspirational speeches. However, Obama doesn't write his
speeches — His campaign speeches were written by Jon Favreau, who is now his main speechwriter at the White House. The soaring words
and inspirational phrases were all written by Favreau. Without Favreau, Obama's speeches are mediocre.
What Obama's 'Making Sure' of.
One of President Obama's less-noticed verbal tics is his frequent use of the expression "make sure." He recently proclaimed:
"Talk is cheap and we've gotta actually make sure we can do it." The "it" in that opening statement of his "Promise Zones" speech
was to "help more Americans get ahead" — beginning with the extension of unemployment benefits. Besides the fact
that Obama's talk is actually anything but "cheap" — the unemployment extension alone will cost billions — have you
noticed how frequently he and other politicians use the phrase, "make sure"?
Obama's Relentless Use of 'Relentless'. The relentless use of "relentless" began in 2009,
when the president nominated John Kammerzell, Mark Martinez, and Stephen James Smith to be U.S. Marshals in Colorado, Nebraska and Georgia. The
president noted all three had been "relentless in their pursuit of justice."
Borrowed Eloquence. Is Barack Obama really the somewhat
interesting guy who wrote Dreams From My Father? I doubt it. I don't say Bill Ayers necessarily wrote the book, but I doubt that it was
Obama. He has yet to formulate a political thought in an even slightly original way. Hackneyed phrases and deadening cliches are the essential
medium of his expression. His speeches are like New York Times editorials.
DNC chair utters a
strange word to defend Obama. Unlike many officials this long into elected service, President Obama has stuck with his teleprompter.
It not only ensures he utters the vocabulary words pre-polled by his communications strategists for effectiveness and resonance with voters. Ever
heard him, for instance, not combine the words "quality affordable health care"? No accident. But the prompter frees Obama from having
to think much about what he's saying, lets him focus more on a really sincere delivery.
Obama Disassociates from Reality. About President
Obama's remarks on Monday in the Rose Garden on the matter of the problems plaguing the Affordable Care Act and, specifically, healthcare.gov, it seemed to me
that they served a valuable purpose, at least to this extent: They distilled the Obama presidency to some of its core qualities: (a) detachment
from reality; (b) misleading in its claims; (c) deeply polarizing and partisan; and (d) filled with lame excuses. But there was another
noteworthy element to what the president said. I have in mind the pitiable quality of his remarks. Speaking about the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Obama
kept insisting — over and over and over again — how good the product is, how really and exceptionally good it is, how popular it is, and
how things really and truly will work out.
Obama as Chaos. In short, whenever the president prefaces a sweeping statement
with one of his many emphatics — "make no mistake about it," "I'm not making this up," "in point of fact," "let me be perfectly clear" —
we know that the reverse is always true. For Obama, how something is said matters far more than what is said. If he stumbles, as is his wont,
through an un-teleprompted remark that on rare occasions can be mostly accurate, that is a serious lapse; if, more frequently, he mellifluously asserts a
teleprompted falsehood, there is little worry. The result is not so much untruth, lies, or distortions, as virtual chaos. Is what he says untrue,
contradictory of what he said or did earlier, or just nonsensical?
A Truly Great Phony.
Like other truly talented phonies, Barack Obama concentrates his skills on the effect of his words on other people — most of
whom do not have the time to become knowledgeable about the things he is talking about. Whether what he says bears any relationship
to the facts is politically irrelevant. A talented con man, or a slick politician, does not waste his time trying to convince knowledgeable
skeptics. His job is to keep the true believers believing. He is not going to convince the others anyway.
Our Make No Mistake About It/Let Me Be Perfectly Clear President.
Never has a commander in chief so casually, so confidently approached the podium as if he were popping open his own laptop, his jaw almost in Mussolini
style thrust out, with eyes fixed three feet above the heads of the audience — all with just the right mixture of self-assurance and canned
humility. No wonder that after all that we expect a "four score and seven years ago" that will match the perfect choreography. Never has a
president so mastered the teleprompter — no easy task in itself — with just the right pauses, followed with a timely ratcheting up
of passion, punctuated with a half-smile, a grimace, a laugh.
Barack Obama Is Boring.
This is the president's favorite false alternative: either we do things "alone," or government does them for us "collectively."
What this world view leaves out, of course, is the voluntary cooperation of private individuals, particularly their cooperation in the free
market. Which is to say that he excludes from his world view the actual majority of human activity. But this is the basic
false alternative of every Obama speech, and it is the flimsy intellectual foundation of his entire presidency.
No More Excuses. Interestingly, Obama and the Democrats have had
their own stock response line to every problem — it's George W. Bush's fault. Blaming the current economic mess on tax cuts, as Obama
and his warm up act, Bill Clinton did, is a bit bizarre, but the Democrats don't have a whole lot to work with. Tax cuts had nothing to do
with the financial panic of 2008 or the real estate bubble that preceded it. At no time in American history can a tax cut be shown to have
caused a recession.
Barack Has a Record.
Every Obama speech is fraught with lies and half-truths. He relies on his belief in the ignorance of his
audience, and that Americans are too lazy and soft to recognize his dishonesty.
Make
this the last speech. [Scroll down] You keep using the wrong words. Your political
vocabulary is stymied by words that will prolong the recession and the decline of the United States.
Your political lexicon is limited to job-killing words like...
Obama's
'Counteroffensive'? Please! Seeing as President Obama cannot govern, he's had to go back to
campaigning — an activity with which he's quite comfortable but decreasingly successful, as
evidenced by his falling poll numbers and his endless, repetitive speeches.
Welcome to
Jimmy Carter's 2nd term. It has taken three decades, but Americans are finally living through
Jimmy Carter's second term. Now we've got Jimmy Jr. barking at us from the White House about eating
our peas and ripping off our Band-Aid. He might not even let us have our Social Security checks.
These are just the latest in a long line of nagging lectures.
Obama's
Journey Through Vanity Fair. At one point I thought it could be attributed to an unusual degree
of cynicism, but now I wonder if it goes deeper than that. What I have in mind is President Obama's obsession
with portraying himself as our moral superior. ... Obama, according to Obama, is quite simply better, much
better, than those around him. He is a man of pure motives and unparalleled reasonableness, extraordinary
intellectual depth, and unsurpassed seriousness. Others are driven by narrow self-interest, by the
political calendar, by outside pressures. They are too ignorant or too weak to do the right thing,
the good thing, the hard thing. Not Obama.
The
Community Organizer Who Would be King. This week's press conference revealed him as a man
desperately clinging to the same rhetorical devices that have long worn thin: demagogic false choices,
class warfare and a preposterous description of himself as the reasonable adult in the legislative process.
Fill in the blanks here, for this is the same speech we have been hearing for his entire term: Republican
leaders need to ask their constituents if they are willing to sacrifice the [health, safety, welfare, future]
of their children for [you name it].
Obama's
Misleading Vocabulary. A quick review of Obama's speeches reveals his most common euphemisms
seem to show a pattern of deception, obfuscation and misdirection. In President Obama's lexicon,
words have different meanings; to decipher the message and understand what the President is saying requires
a special Washington Dictionary. Here are some samples from President Obama's special dictionary...
Obama's speeches are replete with meaningless
pap and filler. Obama
says everything — and nothing. The most cerebral president in America's history —
yes, much smarter than Madison, Jefferson, Adams, any of the Founding Fathers, to hear the mainstream media
gush — is suddenly sounding like a community college dropout.
Intermission for America.
Barry's honeyed speeches come dipped in the comb of Reverend Wright who denounced middle-classness as if
it were a disease. When he speaks you may not always hear it, but even many of the good and kindly
people who voted for that clean shaven young man who promised hope and change, are learning to listen.
The empty charm, the warm glow of a television set, the beaming smile practiced four score and seven times
before a mirror every morning, are losing their magic. There is less of the fireside chat about them
and more of the depression era comedy, lavish and tinkling, but only a distraction.
Oh, Man, Not Another Sputnik
Moment... I keep a list of historical analogies — derived from years of grading
papers — that tell me that the individual using them is (to be polite) more interested in
rhetorical impact than historical accuracy. ... Now, thanks to President Obama, I've got a third
analogy to add to the list: "Sputnik moment." To be fair, I should have added it years
ago. The phrase, according to Google, has popped in and out of the news regularly over the past
decade, with the president himself beginning to use it last June, in a speech in North Carolina.
Obama's Demoralized Left.
The president is almost as ubiquitous as Big Brother in 1984, but he does not reign over Orwell's Oceania.
Every redundant or pointless appearance Obama makes diminishes him. Americans know all about advertising
and self-promotion. We are savvy about oversold products, particularly political products like Obama, who
works in an utterly scripted and unchallenged public environment. This fatigue affects Democrats, too.
All Americans bore easily when the same face is saying the same things.
When the Charm Rubs
Off. His Dec. 8 televised economics speech at the Brookings Institution was followed
on Dec. 10 by his televised Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which was remarkable for 38 uses
of the pronoun "I." And for disavowing a competence no one suspected him of. ("I do not bring with
me today a definitive solution to the problems of war." Note the superfluous adjective.) And
for an unnecessary notification. ("Evil does exist in the world.") And for delayed
utopianism. ("We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes." But in someone's.)
And for solemnly announcing something undisputed. (There can be a just war.) And for
intellectual applesauce that should get speechwriters fired and editors hired.
How
O says he's about to mislead. [Scroll down] For connoisseurs of Obama-speak, the address
featured a trifecta, combining three of his favorite rhetorical tropes. There was the vague reference
to "those who" question his agenda; the "false choice" they use to deceive the public; the determination to
"be clear" and forthright, in contrast with those dishonest naysayers. These devices are useful as
signals that the president is about to mislead us.
Obama's
Speeches Become a Weak Point. Obama's rhetorical challenge runs deeper than the recession.
In the most unexpected development of his presidency, what was once universally recognized as Obama's greatest
political strength — his oratory — now seems a serious weakness.
In Obama's
speeches, one favorite phrase: 'Let me be clear'. Whether President Obama's upcoming State
of the Union address focuses on jobs, health care, foreign policy or something else entirely, there is one
thing we can count on: Obama will make himself absolutely clear.
Their
Own Worst Enemies . Obama is clearly doubling down on his plans to push through a health-care
bill, and his remarks today underscored just how partisan the once "post-partisan president" has become.
Lipstick On A Pig.
[Last year] the physicians were told to bring their white lab coats with them to make sure the TV cameras
captured the proper image. Those who just showed up wearing suits or dresses were provided with lab coats
hastily rustled up. This year's event was similarly staged, and the stage props standing alongside President
Obama might as well have been straight out of central casting. Clearly the White House has run out of ideas,
both on the substance of their bill and how to persuade the American people to swallow this bitter pill.
The
President's Imaginary Health Plan: The president launched a last-ditch effort to pass a
government takeover of American health care yesterday [3/3/2010]. To hear him tell it, his plan would let
every American keep the health insurance he has today if he wants to. And it would reduce premiums,
cut taxes for the middle class, slow the pace of rising costs, reduce the federal budget deficit, and
keep bureaucrats out of health-care decisions too. This latest presidential health-care pitch might
have left some Americans scratching their heads. What plan is he talking about, they might ask
themselves. Because the plan he described doesn't remotely resemble anything the Democrats have
assembled over the past year.
Obamacare worth the
price to Democrats. So there was President Obama, giving his bazillionth speech on health
care, droning yet again that "now is the hour when we must seize the moment," the same moment he's been
seizing every day of the week for the past year, only this time his genius photo-op guys thought it would
look good to have him surrounded by men in white coats.
Gloomy
Obama would rather be a victim than leader. While the straw men Obama creates in each speech
say he should do nothing, the president says he is compelled to act, even if the only option is unpalatable.
It's a rhetorical trick that helps Obama avoid the label of hard-Left liberal. But it also helps
perpetuate Obama's image as a gloomy pessimist, a label that may be even more damaging. He'd do better
by owning his agenda and selling it with vigor instead of moping through his term as a victim of fate.
Obama Has Given 54 Speeches on
Health Care. On no other issue has President Obama put in as much effort and displayed as
much passion as on health care. Since launching his campaign for health care reform with a White
House forum on March 5th of last year, Mr. Obama has delivered 54 speeches and statements on
the issue.
The End of Hope and Change.
President Barack Obama's final speech before this weekend's anticipated vote on health care legislation had the same
soaring rhetoric he's been known for, those turns of phrase that sound awfully pretty unless you think about them too
hard. Obama's speeches are what a speechwriter I knew liked to call "cotton candy communication" — sticky
sweet and airy, made for children, comforting to the listener as they hear, but melting away, instantly
forgettable. Plus, ingest too much of it and you get sick as a dog.
Obama incorrectly "quotes" Lincoln. Obama:
Bound to be Fake. [Scroll down] The book he was consulting may have been They Never
Said It, by Paul F. Boller and John George. If so, he missed what they said about the Lincoln
passage: "This sounds like Honest Abe, but honesty compels admirers of Lincoln to admit that there
is no documentary evidence for the statement."
Without Lies, What Could Obama Say?
[Scroll down slowly] Contemplate the reticence, and effectiveness, of George Washington in building this
nation. Then compare it with the 500+ speeches that our current leader has given in less than a year and
a quarter; all scripted fiction, (do you find that the word 'lie' perhaps applies here?), completely forgettable
and delivered to a (or so Obama thought) gullible American public. These increasingly ineffective professorial
lessons in everything that is wrong with us were delivered by Obama simultaneous to his systematic dismantling of
the United States of America as created by George Washington and the others.
One Man's Quest To
Catalog Presidential Minutiae. Without somebody counting, "a lot of this vaporizes," [Mark] Knoller
says. "I've got an assessment of the presidency that others don't... I'm amused by it." While
Washington marveled at the verbosity at the president's health-care summit Feb. 25, it was Mr. Knoller
who put a number on it: at 60,000 words, the 155-page White House transcript of the summit was the
longest ever recorded — by Mr. Knoller, anyway. He says that as of Tuesday [3/30/2010], Mr. Obama has
delivered 481 speeches, comments and remarks, and used a TelePrompTer for 220 of those.
The Empty Vessel President.
[Obama's] rhetoric has been shown to be the same hackneyed product of political speechwriters, his communication
skills very similar to that of any good news anchor, and his language has shown a disturbing tendency towards
propaganda... short on facts, long on emotion, and big on inverted meanings where taxes are investments,
spending is saving, and more government intrusion is freedom.
"Enough Money".
One of the many shallow statements that sound good — if you don't stop and think about it —
is that "at some point, you have made enough money." The key word in this statement, made by President
Barack Obama recently, is "you." There is nothing wrong with my deciding how much money is enough for
me or your deciding how much money is enough for you, but when politicians think that they should be deciding
how much money is enough for other people, that is starting down a very slippery slope.
Silent signals:
In 2009 President Obama subjected the nation to 52 addresses, 158 interviews, 42 news
conferences, 23 town hall meetings and used the teleprompter 178 times. Oddly, the master of
speechifying says more by saying nothing then if every utterance that ever passed Obama's lips was pooled
into one unending communiqué.
It's Complicated. Jon
Stewart pointed out something interesting: how often President Obama or his underlings tell us how complicated or
complex the job is. So I did some searching on the White House web site to see how often such words appear in
various speeches and remarks.
Shut Up, Barack! Does anyone
recall the first weeks of Barack Obama's presidency? He was everywhere on the media all the time.
His constant use of TelePrompters became an instant joke, suggesting he could not say anything unless it was
scripted. Indeed, listening to him try to speak without them is a painful process of a very slow
selection of words and very long pauses in between.
Why
is Obama Changing "Freedom of Religion" to "Freedom of Worship"? Last November Obama used the
term "freedom of worship" at the memorial service for the victims of the Ft. Hood shooting. A few
days later he did it again in speeches in both Japan and China. In December Hillary Clinton also used
that terminology three times in a speech at Georgetown University and never once used the phrase "freedom of
religion". In January of this year Clinton used the "freedom of worship" term four times while
addressing senators. ... The response by many religious freedom advocates is fear of what this all means.
Obama
Moves Away From 'Freedom of Religion' Toward 'Freedom of Worship'. The change in
language was barely noticeable to the average citizen but political observers are raising red flags at
the use of a new term "freedom of worship" by President Obama and Secretary Clinton as a replacement
for the term freedom of religion. This shift happened between the President's speech in Cairo
where he showcased America's freedom of religion and his appearance in November at a memorial for the
victims of Fort Hood, where he specifically used the term "freedom of worship." From that
point on, it has become the term of choice for the president and Clinton.
"Freedom of Religion" vs. "Freedom of
Worship". That's a departure from what most Americans understand as "freedom of religion," but
it may still seem like an inconsequential difference. The truth is that changing the word "religion" to
"worship" drastically changes what is protected.
Let
me be clear: Obama's condescending phrase. Among his favorite phrases — "make
no mistake," "whole host," "change isn't easy" — one is President Obama's obvious favorite:
"Let me be clear." He uses it — deliberately and extemporaneously — when making
what he obviously feels is his main point. So too, annoyingly, does much of his administration.
The Unpresidential President.
[Scroll down] It may be, however, that Obama has created a box for himself from which he cannot escape.
He has so monopolized and personalized the public relations aspect of his office that now only his own voice can
speak for the presidency. Profligacy in the use of public access — almost a speech a day —
has made indirectness impossible. A president who has become his own chief point man puts at risk an asset
that is helpful to his standing and vital for the nation's political system: the dignity of the
presidential office.
Sixteen
Thousand Birthday Wishes From Obama to His Favorite Person. Since Obama took office January last
year, he's talked endlessly about himself. At townhalls, in speeches, during anniversaries and to the
press, the message has always been the same: "I." Obama has spoken some form of "I" or "me"
more than 16,000 official times since he took office.
How Many "Top Priority" Issues Does
Obama Have? After the Senate passed that $600 million Border Security Bill yesterday [8/12/2010],
President Obama issued a statement asserting that securing the southwest border has been "a top priority" since
he took office. But if you think Mr. Obama can have but a single "top priority," you'd be wrong.
He's got a load of them.
Obamateurism of the Day.
Everyone who has had to listen to Barack Obama speak can identify his rhetorical crutches — "Let me
be clear," "It's not about me," and "I inherited a mess," to name just a few. CBS' Mark Knoller has to
listen more than most, being a member of the White House press corps, and decided to focus on another of
Obama's rhetorical crutches. Just how many "top priorities" can one man have?
The lost
promise of Barack Obama. In his new stump speech, he says: "We're slipping and sliding and
sweating, and the other side, the Republicans, they're standing there with their Slurpees watching us."
In Seattle, the president of the United States pantomimed drinking a Slurpee to mock his opponents. A
campaigner such as Ronald Reagan could draw political blood with a wink and a smile. Obama's partisan
rhetoric manages to be prickly, mean-spirited and unfunny. On the campaign trail, he taunts and whines.
He does not charm.
Our Lecturer in Chief.
President Obama just can't help himself. It's impulse. Every time he sees the American people, in
their infinite and confounding ignorance, pursuing a course they shouldn't, he intervenes to correct them.
Such is the view from the clouds on which he placidly floats above us all. Most politicians speak of the
wisdom of the American people. Some even believe it. But not Obama. Time and time again, he
takes to the lectern to scold or educate us.
United States Declares War on Arizona, Literally.
[Scroll down] Obama proves over and over again his absolute disdain for our Constitution and his deep hate
for our country. His every speech contains at least one derogatory comment about the United States, and
an equal amount of how great is the world of Islam. And there are some people who just can't see the
truth for all of the lies that come out of his mouth.
Our
Hula Hoop President. Hula Hoops are a cheap plastic toy that are easy to use but can only really
do one thing well: go in sometimes entertaining circles; Barack Obama is a skilled and dispassionate
speechmaker whose once dazzling speeches now begin to be seen as circular exercises in talking without any
passion or conviction.
You Want a Speech?
Obama was lauded as a great orator. Ironically, he hasn't given a single memorable speech in his
presidency.
The cliche president.
With a brutal midterm smackdown looming, Mr. Obama is desperate enough to break out the cliches. Consider
how the local-community-organizer-turned-national-schools-chancellor opined that "we can't spend our way out"
of education problems. Without skipping a beat, he went on to provide a long list of ways he thinks we
need to increase spending on schools.
The
Fruits of Obama's Muslim Outreach. [Scroll down] Reading this makes me wonder whether
[Desmond] Tutu has been one of Obama's speechwriters. All the talking points are there. Could
anyone read Tutu's words, which should be revolting to patriotic Americans, and deny that they mirror Obama's
both on the campaign trail and during office? It's all there, from the cowboy references to torture to
unilateralism to rendition and prisoner abuse to environmental wackoism to America's "arrogance."
Obama Edits the Declaration
of Independence. An October 19 article at CNSnews by Penny Star noted that "For the second
time in little over a month, President Barack Obama stripped the word 'Creator' from the Declaration of Independence
when giving a speech." These speeches have generated much debate concerning whether the president's omissions
were deliberate or mistaken. The answer, I think, can be found in President Obama's inauguration speech,
which is perhaps the most striking example of this phenomenon, yet no one seemed to notice it then.
Obama
finally learns Declaration of Independence, includes 'Creator'. Out on the campaign trail, President
Obama is fond of quoting the Declaration of Independence. Time after time as he has appeared on behalf of
Democratic candidates, he has quoted the famous passage that reads: ["]We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.["] Except that Obama always
edited the passage a bit. Specifically, he took out the phrase "by their Creator."
Obama muffed U.S.
motto. Members of Congress on Monday [12/6/2010] called on President Obama to issue a public correction
after he incorrectly labeled E pluribus unum the U.S.'s motto in a speech last month, rather than
"In God We Trust." The lawmakers, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, also said the president was
making "a pattern" of dropping the word "Creator" when he recites the self-evident truths of the Declaration of
Independence. "By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of Independence and our national
motto, you are not only doing a disservice to the people you represent you are casting aside an integral part of
American society," the representatives said in a stern letter asking for him to correct the speech.
The Editor says...
This pattern of behavior clearly shows that President Obama is either dishonest or ignorant.
Obama's revisionist
history. President Barack Obama has been accused of rewriting the Constitution to get his
agenda in place. Now he's also rewording the Declaration of Independence. The Heritage Foundation
notes that in three recent appearances, the president has quoted the opening passage of the document, but has
changed the phrase "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" to simply "endowed with certain
unalienable rights." Heritage suggests Obama's editing out of the Creator is an intentional downplaying
of private institutions such as religion in an effort to make government more significant. Maybe.
Or it could reflect his obsession with political correctness.
President Obama's
Speech Impediment. Our Dear Leader has a serious speech impediment. Now, I'm not thinking
about the mechanics of his highly overrated style and presentation, but rather his apparent inability to
pronounce a particular word: Creator. On three separate occasions, within the last few months, he
has quoted that immortal phrase from the Declaration ("...that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable Rights..."), but omitting the word "Creator." Now, while this might set aside the suspicion
in certain quarters that Obama is indeed a closet Muslim, it gives one pause to reflect on just what is going
on here.
Is this the "great orator" everybody on the left
was so excited about? Obama
stump speech: Car still in ditch, no Slurpees. You've heard it a lot. Barack Obama
describes the economic crisis by accusing Republicans of driving the nation's economy into the ditch and then
sitting back and watching — "sippin' on a Slurpee" — while Obama and the Democrats did
the dirty, exhausting work of pulling the car out of the ditch.
Our "Pay No Attention to that Man
Behind the Curtain" Moment. An Obama speech echoing boilerplate themes such as "there are no red
states, there are no blue states" today simply could not be given -- the laughing in the audience would be far
too much. After Eric Holder's "cowards" outburst, the beer summit, Van Jones, the slurs against Arizona,
and the video appeals targeted at particular racial groups, the public takes for granted that a Rev. Wright,
the clingers speech, "typical white person," and Michelle's angst (e.g., "downright mean country," "never been
proud," "raise the bar," etc.) were disturbing premonitions rather than rightwing racialist paranoias.
Obama Versus Reagan.
This year, the president's speechwriters are trying to figure out how to refer enough to the birth of Christ
in his Christmas addresses that others don't think he's a Muslim, but not smack of being so Christian that
they alienate the president's progressive, Islamic and atheistic base. Though their speech attempts
started better this December than last, both of this year's attempts ended up neutering the soul of Christmas.
The Incredible Lightness
of Obama. I think it's a good rule of thumb that whenever Obama begins a statement with "Let me
be clear," he means quite the opposite of whatever follows. And someone might whisper in his ear that
if you run around the world bowing deeply before foreign rulers and undermining your country's moral position
and standing in the world, you cannot expect to have your imperious demands be taken seriously abroad.
The Limits of Obama's Rhetoric.
[Scroll down] And so Mr. Obama resorts to rhetoric, but not the rhetoric of the wise, cautious statesman,
careful with every word, lest unintended, potentially destructive messages be received. It is the rhetoric
of the community organizer, the union boss, the black liberation theologian, the socialist, the man who, when his
policies are rejected by the American people, thinks it's a failure of "messaging," a failure to be set right
by yet another speech with a new "message" — a new word to replace a word to which the public has
caught on. The American public, he understands, has not heard nearly enough of his speeches.
President Obama's
Yawning Heights. Socialism politicizes everything — literature, medicine, science,
law, education, culture, religion, sports, all of life. And that ultimately makes socialism a crushing
bore. President Obama is finding that tens of millions of Americans have tuned him out as he summons
us to the heights. His audience for the State of the Union Address is down 18% this year over his
first year. Part of this is his speechwriter, a 29-year old who seems never to have had any contact with
literature, American history, poetry, or the Bible. The speeches he crafts for this president are
textbook examples of ennui. ... Hand our leader a foreign crisis — like Libya. What does
the president have to say about that? "This violence is unacceptable." We don't need a
$400,000-a-year Commander-in-Chief and his $172,000-a-year speechwriter to tell us that.
Commander-In-Hiding.
The shift from overexposure to carefully targeted public appearances is the smartest political move the White House
has made this year. Americans appear ready for a president who's not in their face day after day, hectoring,
sounding an alarm, and, more often than not in Obama's case, boring everyone. The less Obama does in public,
I suspect, the more popular he's likely to become.
Barack
Obama's Arrogant Marxist Rhetoric. So far, the analysis of President Obama's deficit speech
has focused largely on its vagaries, obfuscations, and outright lies. ... But the true heart of Obama's
speech wasn't the faulty budgetary analysis or the demagoguery of attacking Paul Ryan personally.
It was Obama's soaring rhetoric. ... And the soaring rhetoric is unvaryingly drawn directly from Saul
Alinsky. ... Obama was raised in the Alinsky tradition, and he speaks with Alinsky's forked tongue.
Obama's 2010: By the Numbers.
Speeches, statements and remarks: 491
-Since taking office: 883
News conferences and press availabilities: 27
-Formal, solo White House Press Conferences: 6
-Since taking office: 69 total, 11 WH.
US
too dumb to know O is always right. When President Obama started talking at his news conference
Monday, I listened intently for 15 minutes or so. Then I got fidgety as his half-truths about the
debt grew into full-blown whoppers. As he droned on, I did something I never did before during an Obama
appearance: I turned off the TV. Enough. He is the Man Who Won't Listen to Anybody, so why
should anybody listen to him?
Job-killing
corporate jet tax. President Obama is rummaging for cheap political points by attempting to tax
corporate jets. Apparently, if one uses a private jet, even for business, one must be punished.
An Industry Maligned.
The president won't let go of his obsession with the corporate jet tax break. Eliminating the tax break
is fine. But there's no excuse for using the bully pulpit to beat up an industry struggling to recover.
The
President's Stale Sermons. Neither the example of the socialist European Union nor that of
big-spending blue-state America suggests that massive government spending and entitlements lead to collective
prosperity. In response to this depressing news, President Barack Obama still offers the same predictably
stale sermons: George W. Bush did it. The Tea Party fiscal reformers are to blame.
Government will fund "millions of green jobs." His political opponents want to destroy Social Security
and Medicare.
Keep Talking, Mr. President.
[There is a presidential speech database which] tracks the 865 speeches and appearances made by the president,
first lady, vice president, and others since November 2009. During that time period, the president
himself made 686 speeches and press-covered comments. The length of each speech, whether in
minutes or words, is not available on the database; however, in this the age of the sound bite, the length of
a speech seems less important than the appearance itself. Therefore, the methodology used herein weights
each speech equally and examines whether the president's speeches are related to his popularity.
Barack Obama's Emotional
State of Mind. I've developed an interest in President Obama's speeches not because they
are eloquent or uplifting — they are neither — but because of what they reveal
about his emotional state of mind. And Mr. Obama's remarks in Holland, Michigan yesterday [8/11/2011]
are helpful in that respect. ... Mr. Obama then added, "The only thing preventing these bills from being
passed is the refusal of some folks in Congress to put the country ahead of party. There are some in
Congress right now who would rather see their opponents lose than see America win." About these
comments several things can be said, starting with this: There is something highly unusual in
watching a president call attention to his own impotence. The president is declaring to the
world that he is simply too weak to govern.
Why President Obama Is
Painful to Watch. If someone looked at your face while watching President Obama make a
speech or hold a press conference, I'll bet it would reflect pain and discomfort. Your facial
expression might be described as a grimace. There are a number of reasons for that kind of
reaction. ... For example, the man is tiresomely repetitive. How many times has he used the terms
"millionaires and billionaires," "shared sacrifice," and "corporate jet owners"? He gives new
meaning to the term ad nauseam. Most of what he repeats wasn't worth saying the first time.
Obama:
The Affirmative Action President. In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications
nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people —
conservatives included — ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the
hoariest of clichés, and that's when he has his teleprompter in front of him; when the prompter is absent
he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth —
it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years.
Compare and Contrast.
Obama's permanent publicity blitz has rendered his pronouncements banal and is helping to create an impression that he
is all talk, no results. Who can recall with any precision what the president says from one day to the next? Why bother
trying when another speech is moments away?
The (Not So) Great
Pretender. [Obama] became president by perfecting the art of appearing cool, calm, intellectual,
and competent. Unfortunately, this seems to be the extent of his repertoire of emotions. ... No matter
the crisis, the president reads his lines the exact same way: cool, calm, detached. He is truly
one of the worst actors I've ever seen.
Messiah of Hate. Not even the
Prince of Chicago is delusional enough to think that a few words from him will convince voters that the economy
is fine. At least not since the last twenty times he tried that particular trick. And he only has
two modes for discussing policy, the simplistic and the long-winded, neither of which hold up well during a
campaign.
The President You Can't
Avoid. Obama is everywhere. Turn on a TV at almost any hour and surf the channels.
How many clicks of the remote will it take before you see and hear Barack Obama? How many days go by
without a sound-bite or two from him? The answer is "Not many." Whether visually, aurally,
or both, the living presence of Obama is practically unavoidable.
A New Chorus for the
Mob. We don't know whether the brave, new and fundamentally transformed America of Obama's
dreams would install him as "dictator," but his physical demeanor doesn't exactly emit an air of humble
servitude, his community organizing has been firmly grounded on the "arousal of passions," and his speeches
certainly include lots of "catchwords." "Hope." "Yes we can."
"Winning the Future." "Pass this bill." Don't read it first, analyze it, or
think about it. Just pass it with "the fierce urgency of now."
Obama's
Misadventures in Miscommunication. As a communications professional, my assessment of the Obama
Administration's communications strategy is that it may be the most inept performance I have ever seen of any
political regime. ... The power with which this message was received allowed the Democratic Congress to ram
through a $790 billion "stimulus" without permitting the bill to be read. Forty-eight hours promised
to read a 1000 page bill that spends $790 billion? Oh, and then Congress lied about that time
frame, and voted on it. So in the communications world, we ask, "What message do the American
people take away from this?" Your voice doesn't matter.
Quit
Coddling Everybody. A common thread in President Obama's speeches is that despite our political
differences, we are all Americans, and we are all in this together, yet his words are hollow because he doesn't
understand the essence of America — or because he does and wants to "fundamentally change" it.
When he speaks his words, he means two things; that we should see things his way, and in a general sense that
we should all be sharing everything.
President Cliché. Fewer
people at home and around the world are paying any attention when Barack Obama speaks. He has become
President Cliché. We were all told what a great speech-maker he was and now nobody wants to
listen anymore. ... Obama is a national embarrassment. And he wants four more years in office.
The
Shuttered White House and Its Fantasies. The president's public statements are repeatedly off
key, responding to imaginary events rather than real ones, and sometimes totally dissonant, as when he gave
a speech about jobs at a company that was closing down, or in his increasingly odd and incoherent efforts
in foreign policy.
The
Speech Obama Should Give to Students Tomorrow. When President Obama once again addresses public
school students this week, he will likely hit all the poll-tested phrases ("The future of America depends
on you") and other warmed-over pablum ("There is no excuse for not trying") which will leave the
kids reaching for their contraband ear buds.
Harvard's Deep Green Pockets.
[Scroll down] At the Think Green event, Harvard Law professor Richard Lazarus lamented that President Obama
used the phrase "climate change" or "global warming" in speeches 69 times in 2009, 73 times in 2010 and
only once in 2011, leading to what he sees as "a crisis in environmental lawmaking" — his crisis being
that nothing is happening. In other words, climate legislation like Cap and Trade is dead.
Top 10 things Obama got wrong:
[#9] He got his power of speech wrong. He is not Abraham Kennedy King. He is pedestrian and the
speeches TOTUS writes are long and boring. He has come up with no meaningful quotes. His speeches
don't sing. They bore.
The purported great
orator has produced no memorable lines or results. The unemployment rate for blacks averaged
16 percent in 2010, according to the Labor Department. In June of 2011, that number stood at
16.2 percent. The overall U.S. unemployment rate is 8.6 percent. Looking at the numbers,
it appears that the Obama administration's solution to America's "original sin of slavery" is to make men and
women of all races equally miserable. But as with every challenge, Mr. Obama is content to package
different flavors of soaring vagueness into a series of candy-coated speeches.
Look
at Me Pretending to Care, Mr. President. In his apparently endless series of speeches, Obama
sounds a lot like a paramedic who arrives at the scene of an disastrous accident, looks at the injured who
are lying among the wreckage and bleeding to death, and then calls a press conference to spend two hours
explaining how HE didn't cause the accident, it wasn't HIS fault that there are people bleeding
and dying because of the accident, and that he and Michelle will now take a vacation to Vail or Martha's
Vineyard or Costa del Sol or somewhere else to relax from this trying experience.
Barack
Obama: In the Footsteps of Twentieth Century Despots. In his public speeches and well-produced
appearances, Barack Obama plays the fictional role of someone who cares for the "little guy." He is the
people's avenger against those he defines as the enemy, be it the wealthy, the corporations, deeply committed
religious groups, conservatives and the Tea Party movement, or those intransigent ideologues in Congress who
stand in the way of his nation-saving agenda. In this quest for power, there are no lies or obfuscations
too egregious to tell or societal tensions too dangerous to create, as he alone can save the nation.
Obama's Rhetoric
is Like Junk Food for the Mind. He really does think we're all stupid, and that if he just keeps serving
it up the stupid masses will gobble it up like free candy. He doesn't want you thinking for yourself. He
talks about fairness, and getting a "fair shake" and "fair shot" when pushing for higher taxes on the wealthy. No
mention of how it's a bit unfair that the top ten percent or so pay 70% of federal income taxes, or that tax
increases tend to hamper economic growth and result in less revenue coming in to the Treasury. He just
regurgitates soundbites.
Ten Indications
That Obama Is Scared. [#7] Obama is changing his slogan. Realizing that "Yes We Can" has turned into "Well, I
Thought We Could," and that "hope and change" now applies to getting rid of him, Obama must adjust his catchphrases. Obama's
handlers are testing various new sayings, but the bad news is that nothing is sticking. The new phrases being tested are "Winning
the Future," "Greater Together," and "We Don't Quit," and Obama has begun lacing these in his speeches, but none are resonating, which
is why Obama is panicking.
Inside
the politics of Obama graduation speeches: For politicians, commencement addresses are an opportunity
to be seen saying unremarkable things to happy people who might hopefully remember their ceremonial presence come
the next election. For politicians' speechwriters, commencement addresses are a time to package the boss's
main messages into remarks that hopefully get out on the media in sound bites — or perhaps the entire
thing on C-SPAN, if they're a big enough name.
Obama and the Volt.
Has anybody else noticed the disturbing correlation between Obama speaking for a product and that product failing
miserably shortly thereafter? And they say this guy gives good speeches. Solyndra, Evergreen Solar,
SpectraWatt — the list of failures touted by Obama goes on and on and on. Midas was to gold as
Obama is to blood-red ink.
Rutherford B. Hayes responds. The mockery is
well-earned by our sneering president. Part of the derision is the usual political guffawing. 57 states.
Speaking Austrian. Corpse-man. But some of it is taking off on a president who boasts about how smart and
well-educated he is, but who in reality is fairly average. Oh he is knowledgeable about some things. I am
pretty sure that he could lecture us on critical race theory, black liberation theology and the life of Saul Alinsky.
But comments like the one the other day about how he feared warm weather in Chicago — as if that were proof
of global warming — reveal his limits.
Obama's Virtual Rose
Garden. When Barack Obama went into hibernation in December and vacationed in Hawaii, we noted that his poll numbers
edged back up some. His advisers probably noticed the anomaly too: that the less the people hear and see of Obama, the
more they seem to like the abstract idea of Obama — a young, charismatic postracial president. The reality of
Obama is something else again: a highly partisan, divisive statist, who cannot finish a speech without blaming his predecessor,
mangling history, or creating yet another straw-man bogeyman.
How Obama Destroys His Enemies:
President Obama has always disliked free speech as a general matter, particularly for those who oppose him. He frequently
suggests that those who disagree with him simply lack the power of reason; he constantly attacks those who do not bow to his
opinions. In the last month alone he has directly castigated the Supreme Court (it would be "unprecedented," he said,
for them to strike down Obamacare); Rush Limbaugh (he called up Sandra Fluke to tell her how out of line Limbaugh was); and
Congress (if they don't act on whatever it is he wants, he will go it alone).
President
Obama's 'Fairness' Vision Would Bankrupt Nation. It's ironic that President Obama would make two speeches this
week in Florida about "fairness," sandwiched as they were between $10,000-a-plate fundraising dinners. But that's the
level of hypocrisy coming from the White House these days. To be polite, most of the comments Obama makes these days
about the economy, taxes and, especially, "fairness" stretch all credibility. Hearing the large number of outright
falsehoods and partial truths he uses to support his argument, it's impossible not to believe it's simply a ploy to get
votes from those who envy the rich and the successful. A full unpacking of Obama's whoppers would require a much
larger space than we have here.
Obama's Bin Laden Pitch
Jumps the Shark. A year ago even as relentlessly positive a chronicler of the Obama administration as the
New York Times noted that the president had begun to use the killing of Osama bin Laden as an integral part of his standard
political stump speech. Since then, the president and even Vice President Biden have rarely disappointed listeners
waiting for the obligatory bin Laden reference.
George Will: If you strike
first-person pronouns from Obama's vocabulary 'he would fall silent'. On Sunday's [5/6/2012] "This Week" on ABC, Washington Post columnist George Will
offered his theory on why Obama might be struggling this go-around. "Look, self-absorption is part of the occupational hazard of politics, and it's also part
of the job description of being president," Will said. "All that said, try to imagine Dwight Eisenhower talking about D-Day saying, 'I did this. I decided
this. I did this and then I did that.' It's inconceivable."
Sununu: Obama Should Return About 70 Percent of His
Salary. On the Obama campaign's "official" kickoff this weekend: "If you look at what [President Obama] has done since last September, he really ought to
return about 70 percent of his salary to the American taxpayers, since about 70 percent of his time has been spent campaigning. I assume with the official
start of his campaign, it will move to 100 percent. He clearly has a strategy of talking about everything but what people want to hear, which is how he's going
to create jobs and how he's going to get the economy moving. Instead he's on a mission to hype himself, and blame everybody else."
Obama, Story-Teller. A sign of an undisciplined mind is
serial lapses into self-contradiction, or blurting out a thought only to refute it entirely on a later occasion. For a president to do that is to erode public
confidence and eventually render all his public statements irrelevant. That is now unfortunately the case with Barack Obama, who has established a muddled
record of confused and contradictory declarations.
Obama's biggest mistake as
president: not enough speeches. The Democrats' fallback position, again and again, is: "Well, people would
agree with our policies if we could just make them understand our policies." The truth is exactly the opposite,
of course. People do understand their policies, which is why they disagree with them. All Obama talked about for a
couple of years was Obamacare — whoops, I mean the "Affordable Care Act" — and most Americans hate it.
That's not in spite of his actions. That's because of them.
President Obama Has Failed to
Tell Enough Stories. President Obama's plight is a sad one, because he has done an historic and truly remarkable job in
every other respect. Due to my post-partisan concern for his continued success, I have thought long and hard about this, his
greatest problem, and have tried to help him. It is now clear that he has simply had story-tellers' cramp and that he needs
only more stories as models for his own.
Obama's Stump Speech Myths: Obama's taking
poetic license with history, both personal and political, on the campaign trail. Where are the media outlets to vet his speeches
for fact-mangling?
Obama's Big, Bad
Story Isn't Right. We're paying White House staffers $38 million yearly, according to Politico, plus
looking at roughly $750 million to a billion dollars in campaign spending to support this president -- and the
best excuse he can come up with for his failed presidency is that he's not a good story-teller? This is a man
who largely won the presidency on nothing other than a fantastic and unbelievable story he sold to America via willing
accomplices in the press.
Errors Start To Emerge in Standard Stump Speech of
President Obama. Really understanding President Obama's governing philosophy and agenda doesn't require a whole fleet of investigative
reporters or opposition researchers. All you have to do is take a reasonably careful look at his campaign stump speech, a collection of
half-truths, misrepresentations, and distortions that are ultimately disrespectful of the American people.
Obama's Calculated Deception.
[In 2007], after 25 years of Reagan Republican tax policies, the top 1% paid 40% of federal individual income taxes.[...] Also
in 2007, again before Obama was even elected, and after 25 years of Reaganomics, the bottom 40% of income earners on net as a
group paid less than 0% of federal income taxes. Instead of paying at least some income taxes to help support the
federal government, the federal government paid them cash through the income tax code. Does that reality sound
like what you hear in President Obama's deceiving speeches?
Mr. and
Mrs. Obama Keep Up Pretense of Growing Up Poor. Let's get this straight. Barack Obama never knew a life of
financial hardship. Ditto for Michelle. But the First Couple keeps bringing up their impoverished childhoods and
student loan debts in stump speeches. [...] Obama went to a fancy private school in Hawaii, his grandmother was Vice-President
of a bank, and his stepfather worked for Exxon in Jakarta. From fifth grade through high school he attended the elite
college-prep Punahou School. Michelle's story of economic misfortune is no more believable than her husband's.
Americans'
expectations for Obama 2.0 plunge. Obama craves speeches to select crowds [...] On cue, someone yells they love him.
He loves them back. No interruptions. No impertinent House Majority Leader challenging his arrogance. And Obama need
make no concessions to them. The Democrat will just recite the same stuff off the same teleprompter that he's been saying for months
about taxing the rich more, protecting the middle class from the very deal he made to protect them before and let's talk about spending
cuts next year maybe perhaps. Air Force One costs about $181,000 per flight hour.
Misleader-in-Chief. Of all the Presidents in my
lifetime, I don't recall a Commander in Chief that seems to purposely mislead. Yet this President often orates with well crafted phrases
that can only be explained as contrived to this purpose. The circumstances are virtually always similar. He speaks to a large crowd
in which there is no chance for rebuttal or honest questioning. The audience can be as large as a national television audience, as in the
State of the Union. The larger the audience, the better.
Fewer Guns, More Crime. To President Obama, the
word "politics" means anyone who disagrees with him, as in the phrase "It is time to put politics aside." Whenever he says that, he is really
saying "It is time to put aside anyone who disagrees with me on this issue."
Obama's
Delivered 699 Speeches Using a Teleprompter Since Taking Office. Since becoming the president of the United States of
America, Barack Obama has delivered 699 speeches using a Teleprompter, according to statistics compiled by CBS reporter Mark
Knoller. That number includes campaign speeches, State of the Union addresses, and everything in between.
Second-Term Reckonings.
Indeed, the more emphatically he adds "make no mistake about it," "let me be perfectly clear," "I'm not kidding," or the
ubiquitous "me," "my," and "I" to each new assertion, the more a growing number of people will come to know from the past
that what follows simply is not true.
The Root Cause of Gun Violence.
Whenever Barack Obama talks, he tells us that whatever he believes is just common sense. And what anyone who disagrees with him
says is just politics. That's actually the open communist Saul Alinsky talking, worshipped by every true Democrat (see, e.g.,
Hillary Clinton). It is just more sophistry and deception.
Obama's State of the
Union: 6,419 words and almost as many clichés. Obama used to be known as a Real Good Talker. He made his
initial national bones with a speech. But the last two — his Inauguration and State of the Union — are
tired, boilerplate, bits and pieces of campaign rhetoric cut and pasted into recycled collections of empty phrases that sound
swell — until you read them.
Obama's Speeches are Chilling. [Adolf Hitler] was,
quite likely, the greatest orator of the 20th century. Here in the 21st century, we have another great orator.
He, too has to power to move his listeners to act while disregarding consequences. He, too, has worshipers — some
who even refer to him as "Lord and Master." His Name is Barack Hussein Obama. And he is President of the United States
of America.
Barack Obama: The Man Behind the Mask.
Nearly all the tyrants of the recent past had a unique capacity to mesmerize a large swath of the populace through ability to deliver a
speech and create a cult of personality, aided and abetted by a media, if not state sponsored, then one willingly intimidated into doing
the bidding of the exalted leader. This ability and extreme narcissism, which Barack Obama has in abundance, is another pre-requisite
for despotism.
Tell me if you've
heard this one before: Obama to focus on jobs. Obama's like the kid who constantly breaks windows playing ball too close
to the house, does a crummy job mowing the grass, won't clean his room, whines about wanting cookies before dinner, and then demands a
raise in his allowance every few months. Heck, the USA Today writer can't even find it in himself to write a full size article,
just a few paragraphs, having seen this again and again [...]
Nemesis, After All. Nemesis warns us on the eve of the
immigration debate that if Obama will ignore the legal requirements of his own bill, then he surely will be even bolder in subverting the
legislative work of others. When shortly he will again lament that he is not a king or tyrant, remember that the disclaimer usually
presages his attempt to act like one. Also remember that the best warning about Obama always comes from Obama: when he sermonizes
to us about cheap photo-ops, endless campaigning and fund-raising, spiking the football, going after enemies, etc., then we expect that he is
shortly to do all that and more.
Obama Takes Refuge on Campus.
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that President Obama speaks almost exclusively at colleges and universities in Blue States? [...] Obama
frequents universities because they are modern-day Potemkin Villages, presenting a façade of presidential popularity. Colleges and
universities are guaranteed to produce a crowd consisting of left-wing enthusiasts fawning over Obama.
The Editor says...
Barack H. Obama is a community organizer. That is the extent of his skill set. He makes rabble-rousing speeches to promote expanded
government, and even then, he only goes where he is most likely to get a warm reception.
Needed: A Different Sort of
President. It is hard now to believe that Obama's banal "hope and change" ever set a nation on fire. Certainly by 2013,
we have come to snore when Obama for the nth time laces his teleprompted rhetoric with "make no mistake about it" or "let me be perfectly
clear." One-term presidencies — or a constitutional change to a single six-year presidential term — make better
sense. A single presidential tenure might curtail an incumbent's customary exaggerations about supposed past achievements and the phony
promises about great things to come that are apparently necessary for reelection.
President 'Long Way to Go'
Obama. For five years now, President Obama has been telling Americans that we "have a long way to go" before the country will
see a return to prosperity. Just how long does he expect us to wait? Do a search of the White House website for "long way to go"
and you come up with hundreds of hits, most of them involving President Obama or someone in his administration counseling patience on economic
growth. Now, it might have made sense in mid-2009 to say that recovery from a deep recession will take time. After all, the recovery
had just begun. But to still be saying it in March 2014?
Speeches he hasn't delivered yet
Why
doesn't President Obama address the nation about the climate change crisis? Let me
make this suggestion to President Obama: [#1] Address the nation, and tell us about the threat
of climate change, in much the same way as previous presidents have spoken about problems. Climate
change is either a crisis or a lot of hot air. Obama should treat it like a crisis if he believes
that it is one. [#2] Tell us how a failure to act will devastate our economy and national
security and affect people all over the world. [#3] Send Congress a proposal that he can
eventually sign into law. Why won't he do any of this?
One
speech can reclaim O's dignity. Dear Mr. President, Knowing your interest in how
previous presidents faced national crises, I recommend an example you might have missed. It's an
Oval Office speech noted not for its oratory, but for its surprising content. The parallels to
your situation are striking. ... Remember, you pledged to end the divisions between red states and blue
states. You have failed, but there is still one hope left. Just say the words, Mr. President.
It's the change America needs.
Obama's DNC
speech could move to BofA stadium. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is considering moving
the final day of the Democratic National Convention to Bank of America Stadium to sell more skyboxes to wealthy donors,
three Democrats involved in the fundraising told Bloomberg News.
A speech I'd like to hear Obama
deliver: Later this month, the Supreme Court will deliver its ruling in the Obamacare case. Suppose the government
loses. What will Obama say?
Weak Economy Exposes Obama's
Upside-Down Priorities. In the first half of 2013, Obama made dozens of speeches on gun control, immigration and global warming, with the
latter culminating in Tuesday's declaration about how imperative it is to act now to combat climate change. But aside from a little "jobs tour"
and one big speech back in February, Obama has been virtually silent on the economy.
The Roots Of Black Anger.
In his speech, Obama rationalized that "the history of racial injustice in this country" gives rise to the kind
of anger that fueled Rev. Jeremiah Wright's anti-white rants. He ticked off slavery, Jim Crow laws, school
segregation and job bias, and maintained that discrimination still is holding back African-Americans. While
these racist crimes of the past still sting, Obama is wrong to suggest that legalized discrimination still
exists today. There is no conspiracy of racism in America.
