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Is anyone surprised… — 34 Comments

  1. He is implementing the bend-over, it’s all America’s fault foreign policy that 53% voted for. While I am angry at what he did, like you, I am not surprised. CDOTUS.

  2. Watching the rigid for Obama MSM deflate from their Viagra overdose could be more fun than… well, okay not that much fun — but a lot!

  3. I notice that the MSM is just not reporting Obama’s bowing and scraping to the Saudi King.

  4. Obama won’t read Diehl. According to Fausta, he’s having a romantic dinner with Michelle inn Prague.

    How much do those idiot columnists make for not doing their work in a timely fashion? I may run for president so I can take over the papers and cap the salaries of pundits. Most aren’t worth more than a burger flipper at McDonalds.

  5. “This isn’t “smart power.” It’s mindless, unilateral surrender. That seems to be Obama’s specialty at home and abroad.”

    Again, it’s simply betrayal of seven decades of American foreign policy, bordering on treason. But wait, when the controversy becomes too contentious, the dems will morph back toward the middle to retain the critical political support needed to retain their balance of power. Words don’t mean anything anymore, and the end justifies the means…

  6. The man doesn’t care that about much anything really. He reacts, responds with one of his memorized empty phrases and then moves on to the next little annoying interruption. He’s our play-acting president

    He’s also an ADD narcissist who happens to be a Marxist, because its the easiest way to deal with things that get in the way of his little play.

  7. Jimmy Carter redux #1: Barack doesn’t get what makes America great, or even that America is great.

    Patrick Moynihan said of Carter:

    “Unable to distinguish between our friends and our enemies, he has essentially adopted our enemies’ view of the world.”

    Jimmy Carter redux #2: believing foreign policy is about good will rather than self interest. Good will earns you opportunity to make your case to the other nation about what is in their self-interest; good will does not influence the other nation to take action against their self-interest.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I have as much pent up frustration as I can ever remember. I can barely look at this latest $1Trillion Barack has promised without screaming and scaring the neighborhood dogs. The only solution is prayer, exercise, and pears. And more pears. And even more. I used to hugely enjoy watching U.S. and world events – it was like watching a sports season. Now, it detracts from my happiness and fulfillment.

  8. Don’t be angry; be glad his true character is proving so hard to paper over. Suffering a view of Barack’s bottom is a small price to pay if it spurs just a small percentage of the electorate to recognize the value of American patriotism over cultural relativism. Be angry about the painful Barack-bottom we will have to live through if a fraction of his socialist agenda takes hold.

    I was mistaken in thinking Obama could not get elected because of his anti-American friends and ideas, but I am still willing to predict he is destined to be a one-term President. Ass-kissing abroad and ass-kicking (the productive) at home has never lead to success before.

  9. There are no enemies, just friends we haven’t yet apologized to.

    — Mark Steyn

  10. I came over from the Democrats (I was somewhere near Pat Moynihan, Scoop Jackson, and Jeane Kirkpatrick) to the Republicans in 1982 because it became clear to me at the age of 22 that the only thing that could save the nation was hard money (lower inflation), lower taxes, deregulation, and the unapologetic protection of American interests in foreign policy. In this last category, I included the willingness to oppose international Communism, the Soviet Union, and satellites such as Cuba.

    The disgust and disillusionment I felt from working with people in the Peace Movement was a contributing factor. They exhibited a toxic compound of ignorance, hate, self-righteousness, mendacity, even then, along with a tenuous grasp on reality. Remember Helen Caldicott?

    I won’t say that most of them were trying to be traitors, but they were ok with it if treason prospered, and they were the first to defend and cover for traitors.

    And they flattered themselves for their intellect and enlightenment. Their proteges and students are running the government now. There will be many losses ahead for America.

  11. Oblio,

    Your experience of the Left in the Eighties mirrors my impressions, except that I did not break with Marxism until 1987. The emotional break was already happening before that, but the intellectual break, when it came, was clear and rested on having established to my satisfaction that utopianism is a grave error. A misjudgment of human nature and history.

    I’m with you in your scenario: a lot of damage is going to be done during these next four years and will be very slow in reversing. But I believe that this is probably Marxism’s last gasp. They are trying very hard to shove their way the last yards to the finish line, but I think they are going to fall short of the goal line.

    And their demise will probably doom the Democratic party to generations of being on the outs. Couldn’t happen to better folks.

    But if the Marxists should succeed, we’re keeping the powder dry, stocking up on ammo, and caching and hiding it all away from any replays of Gen. Thomas Gage’s mission.

  12. The best we can hope for is four years of watching the President be a clueless punching dummy – just like Carter. The problem is he can do a lot of damage in those four years. We recovered because we had Reagan and people realized he was what we needed. I hope it works out that way again.

  13. Just ran across a quote from Mussolini, just before Munich:

    “As soon as Hitler sees that old man, he will know that he has won the battle. Chamberlain is not aware that to present himself to Hitler in the uniform of a bourgeois pacifist and British parelmaentarian is the equivalent of giving a wild beast a taste of blood.”

  14. Ugh, I know. Obama’s presidency, as it unfolds, is like a nightmare come true. It’s amazing– I’m continually amazed– that so far he’s matched, and actually far far surpassing, everything I feared in the event of his election.

    Well, not yet ‘everything’ I feared, because included in that are the consequences, to come, of his actions. And yet *more* than ‘everything I feared’, because the misguidedness & malignancy of his administration extends, it turns out, into realms I could not have imagined. I don’t think anyone, even the most grim of Cassandras, really expected that we’d have– so soon, so explicitly, so openly, so dramatically– the closest thing to a Hugo Chavez in the White House, this nation has ever seen. Most recently, of course, we see him in Europe refer to, treat of our ex-president with about as much respect as Chavez did. (This *outrages* me.)

    Virtually everything the “wingnuts” predicted (at the time, hyperbolically, it seemed) Obama would be like, he– almost comically (bitter bitter comedy)– has turned out to be. Like, the spitting caricature– or much much worse. It’s unbelievable. It’s like having a Kos Kid in the Oval Office.

    I always knew his campaign image– centrist, bipartisan, pragmatic, moderate, positive, patriotic, etc.– was carefully constructed propaganda. But that it was so utterly & completely a lie– an entirely opaque smokescreen through which Americans would admit into the White House the diametric opposite of all those things… It’s just unbelievable. So much so, that it seems like this must be a joke– as if America were being “punk’d.” I cannot stop shaking my head.

  15. So, the question in my mind, is how can we get this word out? The MSM is not covering it.

    This group is a good cross section and good example. We have former democrats and even a former Marxist. How are we going to get our arguments out to help others move way from O / this new left in the guise of Obama Democrats?

  16. rachel Says:

    “Virtually everything the “wingnuts” predicted (at the time, hyperbolically, it seemed) Obama would be like, he— almost comically (bitter bitter comedy)— has turned out to be.”

    He is an asshat but at least he didn’t screw up Iraq… Also, I don’t know if his Afghan policy will work but at least it is a serious shot / try (it seems). If not for those, I’d probably go ODS.

  17. Thomass, I agree re Iraq & Afghanistan– I had those exceptions in mind. His only saving grace, so far. We’ll see if that holds out.

  18. rachel Says:

    “Virtually everything the “wingnuts” predicted (at the time, hyperbolically, it seemed) Obama would be like, he— almost comically (bitter bitter comedy)— has turned out to be.”

    This is what was amazing about Barack’s candidacy: if you spoke straight about it, you looked like a wack job reactionary fool. If you wrote: Barack is possibly the most liberal Presidential candidate in history, you would lose credibility with readers b/c you would look like a hyperbolic verbal bomb thrower … for doing nothing more than speaking well researched and well reasoned opinion. Multiply this example by … I don’t know, maybe 50 separate circumstances, at least, and you have the through the looking glass ignoring of reality which comprised much of our national reaction to the Presidential candidacy of Barack Obama.

  19. The only solution is prayer, exercise, and pears. And more pears. And even more. I used to hugely enjoy watching U.S. and world events – it was like watching a sports season. Now, it detracts from my happiness and fulfillment.

    You misspelled “tears”. And more tears…

  20. “He is an asshat but at least he didn’t screw up Iraq… ”

    He tried to, pre-election, but now he would have to face Petraeus man to man, he wouldn’t dare…

  21. gcotharn,

    And the frustrating thing is, given the persistent (albeit gradually, slightly, weakening) MSM cover/ deflection/ spin for Obama, if you speak straight about things *going on right now*– verifiable & incontrovertible facts, events, actions, and statements, which have even been reported (at least in some little corner) by the MSM (but not, needless to say, highlighted)– you *still* look like a wack job reactionary, hyperbolic bomb thrower, to many people– those whose main source of information is the MSM, who have barely any conception of the Obama we’ve been following, delineated in the blogosphere, now plain to view (*for us*).

    It’s frustrating. Take my dad, who’s a post-Carter hard-core Reaganite (campaigned for Carter– then underwent the “conversion,” from left to right, many of us here have gone through). He, of all people, who so viscerally went through the Carter experience, should be able to recognize & be angered by the kinds of things Obama is doing. During the campaign, I remember, when we talked on the phone, I held back on my true feelings about Obama– he saw the centrist “Obama” Buckley, Brooks, Althouse, McArdle et al so shrewdly discerned, was impressed by his “intelligence”– whereas McCain was “old” & Palin “stupid.” I shared my concerns that Obama would be “too far left,” but for the first time in my life, I felt if I was really frank about what I feared from Obama, my dad would think *I* was a right-wing wacko.

    And now– yes, my father recognizes that Obama is too liberal. But even now, when we talk politics on the phone, it still feels that we inhabit very different realities, with very different presidents. I casually mention any of the innumerable things that shock me about this administration, any of the things everyday linked & highlighted in the political blogs I read, & he generally has *no idea* what I’m talking about. And this is a man who reads the paper every day (& NYTimes every Sunday). A significant difference: my dad has never read blogs (not interested), but at a certain point last year– during the Democratic primaries, I think– his cable service stopped providing FOX, which had been his main news channel. So he spent almost all of campaign season, and now, subjected solely to: CNN. (He can’t stand MSNBC, which means he’s preserved his sanity.) It’s uncanny, but I think that moment– when FOX, as a source of information, dropped out from his world– is when I started to feel this strange sense of reality-disconnection… even with someone who, politically & ideologically, largely overlaps with me. (NB I don’t watch FOX.)

  22. Neo,

    For what it’s worth, I’m angry too.
    “This isn’t “smart power.” It’s mindless, unilateral surrender. That seems to be Obama’s specialty at home and abroad.”
    I disagree with the first part of this statement though. Obama may be an unctuous naif abroad, but he is certainly not that at home.

    His statement t the congressional republicans early on, “I won” or his comment don’t think were not keeping score brother clearly indicate that he is anything but a pushover at home.

    Characterizing Obama as weak is just a clever rhetorical slight of hand to make excuses for Obama by saying that he’s weak, but implying that the real bad guys are ‘over there’. Don’t fall for it. It’s also that particular writer’s rather lame attempt to cover his own sorry ass for having carried this empty suit, like most of the rest of the MSM.

    How can anyone say that after the progressive wing of the democrat party swept Congress and took the White House, and managed to hornswoggle more money that Bush & the Republicans did in 8 years that Obama is weak? Ask the former head of GM how weak Obama is.

    Look at his campaigns and how he ascended to power. He has done nothing, other than relentlessly promote himself and he has succeeded in getting all the way into the White House! Disagree with him, despise him, love him but don’t underestimate him.

    His weakness is;
    1. that his cleverness and cunning are all focused on acquiring power and position politically at home. His one-dimensionality shows through clearly when he has to venture from the domestic political arena.
    2. he is NOT the great orator that the MSM claim him to be and is an embarrassingly bad speaker when he must do so with out a prepared speech or teleprompter.
    3. He is a tone deaf elitist snob.

    It used to make me cringe to listen to Bush speak. However, when I read his speeches, he was coherent and had something intelligent to say. Obama is clever, glib and empty.

    Now we are on the threshold of a democrat majority for more than just his presidency. Look at the re-election rate of incumbents. Look at he fact that the White House is usurping control of the census process and hiring ACORN to help in the count. This is all towards skewing the census to influence the re-apportionment of districts which will be further jerry-mandered to favor democrats. Look at the still almost uniform support in the MSM.

    There is a lot of work to be done before the next election. I’m not at all sure that the Republicans really ‘get it’ yet. It might take a third party. What are the odds of success? I wish I knew.

    Meanwhile, this administration uses the violence in Mexico to try an implement more extensive gun control at home. Don’t be surprised to see a 21st century version of a Reichstag fire either.

  23. “Meanwhile, this administration uses the violence in Mexico to try an implement more extensive gun control at home. Don’t be surprised to see a 21st century version of a Reichstag fire either.”

    That has been one of the more surreal things they have done. I can’t really see how, even were what they saying 100% true, that would have voters accept strict gun control measures in the US.

    Even the die hard Obama supporter’s around here are confused on this one. I haven’t really seen anything other than a weak kind of defense of it that trails off and tries to change the subject.

    I mean, lets face it, Americans (nor any other country) really care that a bunch of foreigners are killing each other with our stuff. Nor, however far into Obamalove you are, can we see why disarming *us* will somehow make *someone else* quit killing. Does anyone out there *really* want to tell me that those very same Mexicans would willingly give up what they are fighting for so we could be properous?

    That is even assuming that they are correct. I will only say the following there – does *anyone* there think that disarming us will disarm them? That disarming us will make them suddenly quit killing each other? If so – well – I do not know what to say.

    I do not think *any* in his administration think so, I think they figure they can give any thin pretense and have it work and this is the first one they have latched onto (and a certain amount of apologists are running with it). I do not expect it to be the last attempt nor do I suspect this episode be recalled by many for long (the next, probably more reasonable as they learn total stupidity will not be accepted and that they pushed this idiocy will not be part of the thought process). I also fully expect this push to work as well as it did in the early 90’s.

  24. I understand all of your (Neo and the other posters) shock and anger. I’m not too shcoked or angry. Why? Well, welcome to ‘my world’.

    Anyone who has worked in academia for the past 15 years will recognize everything that the administration is doing. As far as I can see, BHO is turning the country into a big university. You get the PC renaming of the war on terror, you get the foreign policy straight out of the halls of government departments at most higher ed schools. You get the environmental policies from all the activists on any campus. etc. etc. etc.

    What you are all experiencing is what I have lived with everyday when I go to work. Now it is becoming a part of the entire country’s life. Explain’s fairly well for me why college kids and recent grads went so heavy for BHO… he’s going to make life a permanent college experience.

  25. physicsguy,

    The “permanent college experience” is cultural Marxism, which has thoroughly penetrated the Western world and is in the process of dismantling our civilization.

    Some good shock and awe for every college student in the country would be a required reading of Friedrich Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom.” That and an intimate familiarity with the Constitution of the United States of America.

  26. Rachel,

    Is your father at all amenable to using technology and reading alternative media? If you explained the benefits of it to him, would it pique his interest?

    I’ve long since abandoned the mainstream media not solely because of its biased reportage: I did so because the quality of the writing at times leaves much to be desired. I have found on the web sites where both the reporting and the writing are outstanding, covering a range of topics.

  27. “Also, I don’t know if his Afghan policy will work but at least it is a serious shot / try (it seems).”

    In Iraq, we have a secure supply route via Kuwait. Afghan supplies will have to go through either an increasingly hostile Pakistan or an increasingly hostile Russia. Maybe we can talk China or Iran to let us supply over their territories.
    Bataan rhymes with Afghan.

  28. If anyone still thinks that Obama is some bumbling incompetent, I suggest that you read this or this.

    If you throw a live crab into a boiling pot of water, it will fight quite vigorously to get out, but if you immerse it in cool water and gradually increase the temperature of the water, it won’t fight at all.

    Oh, and thanks MSM for noticing….

  29. Pingback:Reactions to President Obama’s ‘Mea Culpa’ and safe-play speech to European anti-Americanism « The Western Experience

  30. physicsguy Says:

    “Anyone who has worked in academia for the past 15 years will recognize everything that the administration is doing. As far as I can see, BHO is turning the country into a big university.”

    Yeah, before the election I wrote some letters to pundits and think tanks suggesting that the problem beating Obama was no one remembers what having liberals running the show is like… yet, they run universities… so use them as an example of what life will be like when they have too much power…

  31. Pingback:Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » From bad to worse

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