The Washington Post’s Tom Schales puts on his best critic face and grades the President’s performance last evening:
Barack Obama is a truly flabbergasting president. And in a good way — not the way some of his predecessors were. He’s not flabberghastly.
When Obama answers a question, you don’t slap your forehead and moan, “Oh, brother!†He is, as guest expert David Gergen noted on CNN after the news conference, not only “up to speed†on the pressing issues of our time but also articulate about addressing them in a friendly, accessible way. He’s not the student who wears a button that says, “Smartest kid in class,†but clearly he is, at least when surrounded by the White House press corps.
Obama can use a five-dollar word such as “overarching†in one sentence and a few sentences later utter a folksy “doggone it.†His verbiage is a melting pot that’s always bubbling. A few times, he did stumble over words, and once or twice appeared semantically stranded, unable to find the precise language he wanted to use. But compare him with his predecessor and such moments seem trifling.
Jesus, wipe your fat chin, Tom. You’re embarrassing every man with an ounce of pride left.
And what is it that you’ve said, exactly? That Obama’s greatness lies in being able to gull people? Dazzle them with platitudes? Make them believe he feels their pain?
Fantastic. The American Idol presidency continues apace — and we’re to believe this is not only appropriate but admirable. Forget policy. Ignore substance and long-term consequence. This is the Billy D Williams presidency. It’s smooth.
Here’s the thing, though: If Obama truly is such an easy genius — that is, if he really does, as some people seem to believe, get it, in the way that they seem to believe he does — how are we to account for the number of truly astounding blunders he’s made in his first hundred days, from his talk show gaffes to his constant public dithering on nearly every issue?
More, why does he continue to get a pass? — even as those in his administration say things like this:
Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point†because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.†A little more than one hour later, Biden rushed out a statement backing off.
“I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,†Biden said on NBC’s “Today†show.. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. …
“So, from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation. If you’re out in the middle of a field when someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it’s a different thing.â€
That contradicted more restrained advice from President Barack Obama and the federal government — and the last thing the White House wants to do right now is shut down the airline industry and big-city subways out of mass panic.
Right. For mass panic, the White House likes to keep things a bit more localized, buzzing NYC towers with Airforce One and a fighter jet.
More and more, I’m left trying to reconcile the combination of abject idiocy, political opportunism, and openly leftist policy on display from this administration with the President’s approval ratings and the public consensus that this guy is really a rather moderate chap, a sober centrist, if you will, who — by chance alone, we’re supposed to believe — has been forced to nationalize the auto industry, try the same thing with the banks, and, with no Republican votes, pass a budget that will cripple the economy for years to come.
And I’ve come to the conclusion that unless and until Americans start taking an interest in their political futures once again, we are indeed sunk, and our little experiment in self-governance is over.
Our schools, the media, our popular culture — when taken together, these institutions and their public expressions have left us with a society wherein we no longer insist on natural rights but have instead succumbed to the idea that we get our rights from the government, which is all-powerful and ever-expanding its reach. And because of this, we have become a society whose nanny is the federal government, and whose citizenry have become subjects to a charismatic king who deigns to hand out trifles to the masses.
So you’ll excuse me if I say fuck it all and do my best Timothy Leary.
Somebody grab the bag of Doritos out of my hand when, as Dennis Miller notes, the President is getting tougher questions than a Miss America contestant. Until then, I’ll be playing Tetris and waiting for the rest of the country to tune in, turn on, and drop out.
(h/t Jules, geoff b, Terry H)
****
related: Kat Parker earns her Obama milk ‘stache.
He’s not the student who wears a button that says, “Smartest kid in class,†but clearly he is, ***at least when surrounded by the White House press corps.***
I read this as a veiled insult.
I suppose he’s also the best basketball player in the room when he’s visiting his daughter’s classes for Parent’s Day also.
We’re Doomed, Doomed I say!
Sure wish I was kidding.
I am surprised that these idiots can still surprise me. This has to be the most tone-deaf presidency ever. Genius? These guys are complete tools.
Can these people even see themselves? Ignorant fucks, politicians and “journalists” alike. They have no sense of self at all.
On a more serious note, I guess freedom is too hard for many folks so they’d rather live short, brutish lives in poverty and subjection.
Shorter Obama: Oh it wasn’t my fault I nationalized the banks, car industry, and am eyeing the insurance and health industry like a lusty child rapist. It was Bush, he made me do it.
From the WSJ link.
This works for salesmen, once, but not the COO or CEO. Actions taken have effects that words can’t completely erase, though our turbo-spin media will try.
Jesus, wipe your fat chin, Tom. You’re embarrassing every man with an ounce of pride left.
Do these people ever suffer indigestion from all the Commiecrat cum they guzzle?
Is Texas still going to secede? Is it too late to move there?
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/
The buzzing of the towers was done for a movie about the Tuskegee airman. Or so the rumor goes.
Well then. That makes it all better.
From Obama’s introductory remarks last night:
Facile, ignorant talk like this has been common for decades. People are inured to it.
Well we will always have Swine Flu.
It struck me the other day that, until very recently, people didn’t need to take an interest in politics because the state was too limited to cause them problems. The only people who devoted themselves to politics were those looking to get something out of it.
But, but, he really means it, believes it. Really, truly. And that’s why we are so screwed.
Well then. That makes it all better.
Actually, I believe that makes it worse. Can decades of serious education reverse the condition? And by that time, what?
I guess it’s only to be expected that the urban, liberal ink-stained wretches would be wowed by Obama, after eight years of Bush’s folksy “dang mah britches” manner.
Don’t you know, the Lightworker is “almost preternaturally calm”? So says the Beeb’s Fellator-In-Chief, Justin Webb.
NB: You may need a drink after, though the taste may be hard to get rid of.
And what is it that you’ve said, exactly? That Obama’s greatless lies in being able to gull people? Dazzle them with platitudes? Make them believe he feels their pain?
— Freudian Slip
Horse shit, SI.
I’m a literary type and I find him to the most condescending asshole in the world.
The difference is, I don’t believe, as do many “pragmatic” conservative pundits, that I’m really far better than those whom I write for — and that, for all his failures, Obama is, too.
Or to put it another way, I’m not one of him, no matter that I’m “supposed” to be or not.
I suppose the VP will be handing out samples of the new “swine flu” at the White House later today.
Fluff and stuff? Go on, click on a link – I dare you. It’s a wonder the man has time to eat a waffle, he’s so busy walking on water, healing the sick, raising the dead….
— how are we to account for the number of truly astounding blunders he’s made in his first hundred days, from his talk show gaffes to his constant public dithering on nearly every issue?
While he ultimately takes responsibility, all gaffes and ditherings were actually not the result of anything HE did. He wasn’t even born then. He was picking a quarter of the floor. He was SO UPSET about that New York fly-over. What? The authentication protocol was turned off his donation gathering website? He’s going to look into that.
Easy explanations, Jeff. I don’t know why you’re giving him such a hard time. Prolly cause you’re (pick which ever applies):
1) a sore loser
2) a racist
3) blinded by your right-wing ideology.
Where does former spook say that?
We are forced to wonder how a statement like this does not cause an instantaneous outburst of raucous laughter and derision in the assembled listeners, mocking finger pointing at the imbecile who would attempt to pass such stupidity as possible, yet, what we see is a solemn acceptance of it, a backward working effort to Make It True, for it must be true.
He is also not for “big government” Sdferr, despite all facts to the contrary. Those statements are just allowed to stand on their own because it is HIS WORD.
Way-ell, it’s the old “he went to the right schools and has the right attitudes” classism. Bush went to the right schools, but had the wrong attitudes, even for the supposedly conservative pundits. He simply didn’t pay them (and their attitudes) the lip-service they thought they deserved.
Obama’s got the “I’m paying attention to you and your input is seriously considered” bullshit pose down pat, plus the press desperately wants to believe. Add those two together and you have a formula for sycophancy. He flatters them; they believe the flattery; they think that his recognition of their worth proves his perceptiveness, intelligence, etc.
It’s the circle of ego.
We began by passing a recovery act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95 percent of all working families.
Heh, I almost cracked up last night at the gym. Saw AGAIN that same story about all those laid-off workers who have a job fixing that bridge in TEnn. How many times do you think they’re gonna shove that same example in front of our face?
THANK GOD those 60 guys are working in Tenn!!!
#24 Oops – http://perfunction.typepad.com/perfunction/
I was mixing up my blogs. Former spook does mention the red tails of the escort planes, I should have linked the other blog too.
Obama’s got the “I’m paying attention to you and your input is seriously considered†bullshit pose down pat, plus the press desperately wants to believe. Add those two together and you have a formula for sycophancy. He flatters them; they believe the flattery; they think that his recognition of their worth proves his perceptiveness, intelligence, etc.
It’s a circlejerk.
FTFY
Tom Shales is a drunk. I don’t know what Kathleen’s excuse is.
I’m with ya, Jeff. A nice long bender to start, I think. Then, once I sober up, down to the range for target practice. I can pop the eye out of a plastic squirrel at 200 yards. Then maybe some TeeVee. If I stay away from the political channels, my head probably won’t explode.
It’s gonna be a nasty hangover for the kool-aid drinkers, though.
scuse me I meant Tom Shales is a dirty socialist drunk with pronounced fascist tendencies
#29 Ah-hah. Thanks.
>When Obama answers a question, you don’t slap your forehead and moan, “Oh, brother!â€
Not sure if I’m repeating JG here (my apologies if so), but for all the swipes taken at GWB for being inarticulate and stupid, you never heard him say things so patently stupid (“we’re air raiding villages”), rife with cheap shots (“I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances”) and social ineptitude (Special Olympics comments on Leno). Then there’s Biden…where to begin?
As has been repeated here over and over, journalism is as dead as…well…newspapers.
Which worked so well for Bush.
I didn’t watch the Press conference/Media tongue bath last night but did he slip in a dig at Fox news yet again?
There’s a reason that one of his nicknames is Teleprompter Jesus.
Politico noted that he chose to pass over the Fox correspondents present at the press conference Pink, though that can’t be construed as a dig, it may carry another message. At least, I’d bet Politico sees it that way.
He’s going to wash all of their racial sins away.
No, but he did stiff Major Garrett.
That dirty socialist Jennifer Loven slut from the Associated Press what was there yesterday was the one what fed us this recently… words really are useless to describe how not a journalist she is.
Barack Il Douche Obama
Good thing for BarryO’s boundless narcissism less he get a little peeved at all the stroking he’s getting from half the press in treating him like five year old special needs kid. The other half gets off on some weird psycho-sexual fixation. I’ve seen strung out junkies with more self respect than the press.
That “saved or created” thing makes me green at the gills. The guy is a lawyer. He crafts his language carefully, and every person with a modicum of sense who reads that sees that he’s presented an unfalsifiable data point. He knows it’s a rotten lie. Everyone in the room knows it’s a rotten lie, but nobody calls him on it. I feel like a crazy person when I see the nodding jackasses of the press corp just swallow that load without pointing out what an obviously unquantifiable load of horseshit it is.
I fear the jacobins that will come because I know that I’m not of an orthodox sect and my head will probably roll with the bastards who deserve it. I’m starting to fear the coming jacobins less than I fear the current bastards.
WaPo:
Pitchforks.
None dare call it the neo-religion of statism. Well, except OUTLAWS.
I think not quite. More circular. They flatter him, and their flattery proves their etc. Obama’s freakishly blank.
They need him, but not him. Someone. Somenoone, like him. Empty signifyin’.
“You need a prop what for your Tuskegee movie?! That’s re-goddamn-dicu–! Wait a sec. Looks like we got one in. Hm. Funny thing, I never saw it there until you mentioned it.”
What is more depressing to me about the Obama era isn’t necessarily Obama himself -although he is such an irritatingly obnoxious bullshit artist that this should be enough- but the fact that it appears as though most of the US doesn’t seem to care or mind that he’s so full of shit.
“Saved and/or created jobs”? Really? Seriously?
There are so many examples of Obama doublespeak that had even Clinton used people would be calling out. But instead Obama gets a weekly tonguebath from the media and ignores anyone who questions him.
I’m looking for a silver lining here, but jeez man I just dont see it.
[…] RELATED: Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom […]
He’s perfect, until of course the time comes when he isn’t. It will come, sooner would be better than later. Tomorrow isn’t too soon.
Truly and verily I ask unto ye: what man can speaketh so that words, mere words, fail utterly from others? And what worldly record for cum-guzzling can stand forsooth?
Calm down. The bill for this fiasco is not yet due. Next year, when that $400 decrease in witholding has to be paid back, the rubes will begin to see the light.
Even the Dems are backing off on cap and trade. Whacking everybody with a big hit on their energy bill won’t play well in San Francisco, much less Peoria.
That level of presumption is evident, as far as I know, only among the ranks of the tightly closed-minded. So when such “progressives” remark with more than a little glee that, a time of record-busting, world-breaking financial and fiscal losses, this clown makes them feel oh so fresh in exactly the way Clinton did when he and he alone balanced an entire federal budget, I think we can dispense with the progressive moniker. Or the way the constitution did when wielding it against BushCo, now that anything under the sun falls under the commerce clause and therefore everything shall. If they even bother with that dirty old thing at all.
Proggs and the MSM cannot be bothered to see a thing wrong with kicking progress — progress in the human, now-classical terms that actually once mattered, that is — squarely in the teeth.
Against this there’s no recourse but to leave town. Maybe for Texas, one hopes. Never thought it’d go as quickly as it is. The thieves finally figured it out.
So he just skipped over the Fox question then. Well no biggie it is normal that a President knows which ONE network might give him a tough question and that all the other ones in the room are just safe bets. I mean Bush had the same deal right?
I think Schales got ripped off a bit on “overarching”. I wouldn’t pay more than a nickel for it. But then, I’m not a professional wordsmith whose livelihood depends on his vocabulary, so I wouldn’t know how difficult it really is making gerunds out of compound words.
Mebbe Shales meant to say that he’s a flubbergasting Presentdent.
Unless you, like, know history and stuff.
El Senor Presidente just nationalized Chrysler and GM, handing control over to a group of political supporters.
Can someone point me to the bananas?
Actually, Jeffersonian, he’s failed to get Chrysler (for now) due to some
of its investorsenemies of the state refusing to do their patriotic duty.Almost certainly not. How the hell is a fricken huge Panavision movie camera gonna fit in the back seat of an F-16??? If it was for a big-budget Hollywood movie, they would have used something like the multi-camera-equipped Learjet Clay Lacey operates. It was the Air Force making publicity stills, and authorized by the White House (although Presentdent Barry claims to have known nothing about it).
The other rumor I’ve heard (a more likely explanation) is that it was a joyride for Obama campaign donors.
When did we become a nation of castrati? Who raised all these metro-sexuals?
“President Obama blamed a “small group of speculators†for Chrysler’s imminent bankruptcy filing…”
Why would George Soros want to destroy Chrysler?
And the UAW gets a controlling stake. Lovely.
THE WORKERS CONTROL THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION!!!
“THE WORKERS CONTROL THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION!!!”
So is it “Buy my cars or I break your leg” time?
President Obama blamed a “small group of speculators†for Chrysler’s imminent bankruptcy filing today
That’d be the big lenders – you know, the ones keeping the company afloat and workers paid. Strangely, they expect to be paid back, rather than rolled over and ass-fucked.
Weird, huh?
Actually, Jeffersonian, he’s failed to get Chrysler (for now) due to some enemies of the state refusing to do their patriotic duty.
I must be imagining things…I would have sworn I read that the UAW was handed a 50+% stake in the auto maker.
I hope and pray the investors take the Courtland option instead of handing it over to our Maximum Leader.
#62
I would love to see GM’s execs just walk out. If the UAW wants to control the place, let ’em. And teach those who think building stuff is purely physical find out firsthand what it takes.
I actually have a friend who designs commercial trucks for GM, even as much as a year ago, he was seeing the writing on the wall and thinking about returning to Academia to teach. Haven’t heard from him in a few months to know if he’s even still employed there.
Jeff, after reading your post, I’ve come to the conclusion that I love you. :)
And if you’re CEO of Ford, you’d better start negotiating with Il Douche’ (great nick, that) for surrender terms. With control of the banks and your domestic competitors, it’s not going to be long before you’re going to find your credit tightening and your cars languishing on lots as prices drop on Chevies and Chargers, subsidized by the State.
Full blown fascism is right around the corner.
Going off Jeffersonian at 68, I think if the tea parties are serious, we’ll start seeing Chevies and Chargers going into the bays.
tetris is for speed freaks i think. if leary were still alive and dropping out today i imagine he’d probably roll himself a ‘trickster’ toon, for to grief some n00bs in 2nd life with.
and yeah… it’s the whole culture of shallow self-esteem whoring and ego fluffing. and i hate it like poison. i think i’m still allowed to say that word, hate. aren’t i?
Many of those that voted for him are like the person that bought the car that turned out to be a lemon. You struggle to find any positive about that deal and put forth that positive, because to admit that you bought a lemon is like unto admitting that you are stupid and nobody wants to do that.
I do. Except I don’t say “brother” because that would be racist.
You did. But that was the deal they had that assuming everyone played ball. Everyone didn’t.
My bold. There it is, an open, public plea against Executive branch lawlessness.
It is reassuring to see this stated in the affirmative. It’s something less than reassuring that it so obviously needs to be re-affirmed.
Now, excuse me, I need to delete the bookmarks from all the blogs and websites full of those too timid to call this what it is. It’s that lack of courage, cloaked in manners, that is as much to blame as anything.
I find myself taking heart in the smallest things.
……or it’s a ADHD kid who cooks you dinner for the first time and then he uses his own poop for the brownies and you can’t criticize the poor kid because of the ADHD and all, so you eat shit.
I find myself taking heart in the smallest things.
Same here, Mac. That is, until one of the Maximum Leaders’ “regulators” shows up at Cerberus offering to stick a red hot poker up their collective ass unless they play ball.
Why would George Soros want to destroy Chrysler?
“Some people just want to see the world burn.”
Hi McGehee.
Obama can use a five-dollar word such as “overarching”
Ex-squeek me? It’s not in my WFB Lexicon, so it’s hardly worth 50 cents, let alone five bux.
Here are some five-dollar words, sir:
Janissary — a member of a group of loyal or subservient troops
paean — a fervent expression of joy or praise
paternalistic — relating to the practices of a government that undertakes to supply the needs or regulate the conduct of the governed
execrable — deserving of being declared evil or detestable
dissimulation — deception; hiding under a false appearance
For example:
Tom Schlaes’s paean to Obama marks him as yet another Janissary of the president’s domesticated journalist squad. Schlaes’s execrable dissimulation of the president’s true intent — to implement an overweening paternalistic government — reveals not that Schlaes is being bamboozled, but rather that he knows exactly what Obama is up to, and he ain’t agin it.
But do I get lavish praise from Tom Schlaes? No! No, I tell you!
Shales. I blame Jeff for the “c”. Amity doesn’t need the association.
Thanks, sdferr. I was wondering if there were any relation, and I’m happy to see that there’s not.
Antidisestablishmentarianism
That’ll be $20.00
No, really, the Obama administration simply believes you are all morons.
Hi, Juliette!
How much for “bamboozled”? I think there is a big market opening for it coming.
My word for the day, appropriate for faux conservatives slobbering over our Maximum Leader’s collectivization of the economy, is “tergiversation.”
This is quote of the day: “Jesus, wipe your fat chin, Tom. You’re embarrassing every man with an ounce of pride left.”
Thank you.
Tergiversation is excellent. Quite useful in the days ahead.
I learned tergiversar in Spanish before I learned it in English. Do I get points for that?
Overweening is a 4-dollar word, at least.
And defenestration remains my favorite.
losers. they walk among us.
Dan wrote that NY is done because of high taxes. The South is taking the immigrants and building like crazy. This is the exact opposite of the demos before and during the War of Northern Aggression.
By continuing our build up of manufacturing, as well as more liberal gun laws and liberties it will be possible to secede and do so successfully.
The sheeple will get what they want; good and hard.
Actually it is a large group of consumers speculating that Chrysler is producing a whole lot of over priced suck on wheels right now.
I own a Chrysler, it’s fine and since it was half-price at 1 year old that’s fine too.
“More, why does he continue to get a pass? — even as those in his administration say things like this:”
Yes. Why does Obama get a pass for what Biden does. Amazing isn’t it?
I only mock people what buy *new* dirty socialist crappy American state automobiles. I mock them to their stupid face. Scornfully is how I mock them. You better believe it.
Chevy camaro comes out next week. I want one but I refuse to buy anything union owned.
And defenestration remains my favorite.
I love that one, too, Dicentra. Shall we defenestrate the Jello-spined Republicans whose tergiversation have brought us to this point? Yes, yes we shall.
Chevy camaro comes out next week. I want one but I refuse to buy anything union owned.
Ditto. I worked contract for GM for years, but I’ll never own another as long as it’s a ward of the State.
And the UAW gets a controlling stake. Lovely.
THE WORKERS CONTROL THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION!!!
Just what our new socialist country needs, the ZIL.
Obama is not only going to tell the manufacturers what type of car to make, he is going to tell the American public what type of car to buy. There is nothing government cannot accomplish with a light bringer at the helm.
All cars are hybrid Yugo. You buy. Go very fast.
Exactly, Meya.
Truman: The buck stops here.
Obama: Buck? What buck? RACIST!
Well, c’mon, that’s being unfair. The President doesn’t choose his own Veep. The candidate with the second most votes becomes Veep.
What year is this again? I’m confused.
Like Biden needs anyone to tell him he’s doin a heckuva job.
BOOOOOOOOOSH!
I knew somebody had to be responsible. Thanks for clearing that up, meya.
By the way, I hear the darkies were eating each other after Katrina.
No, seriously. The SuperDome was like Country Kitchen, only free! And Boooosh and Brownie just stood by and did nothing!
Yeah, it’s not like anyone ever hung Dick Cheney around George Bush’s neck.
Does this say anything about who the left really thinks is in charge and who is play acting. You know the progressive left, the party of the 3 S’s
Meya, shouldn’t you be out celebrating the
looting of the American treasury and its future generationsbudget bill your party just passed on a straight party vote?I mean, those nasty Republicans are so far out of the mainstream and clearly you are IN the mainstream. The public insists, nay IT DEMANDS, trillions of dollars in deficits every year for the next ten, and by God, your party has delivered it to them.
Go out and celebrate. What are you doing hanging with us “right-wing extremists” here?
Some people can’t feel like they’ve won before everyone else has lost.
Trolls are like that. George Soros is a troll on a cosmic scale.
What we’re seeing here is the journalist/media goon’s fantasy of the Presidency. Obama is every movie and TV Show Hollywood’s made about the White House in the last twenty years made flesh. He refleccts their concerns. He speaks their language. His glamour makes them feel good about themselves for approving of him. They don’t want to pay any attention to the clown behind the curtain.
This is going to end badly.
N”o, seriously. The SuperDome was like Country Kitchen, only free! And Boooosh and Brownie just stood by and did nothing!”
Amen, brother. My Guard unit and I must have spent a week, sweeping the skeletal remains out of there…
[…] Obama’s Press Conference Published May 1, 2009 Obama 0 Comments I still haven’t seen it but Jeff did. […]
LTC John; I denounce you sir, you and your racist broom…