17 Responses to “The market drops again…”

1. jeff Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 3:37 pm

   I’m starting to wonder whether, given the chance, Obama would just walk away from the presidency. Knowing that even if he wins a 2nd term he is going to be bloodied from the political battle. If he doesn’t win, he will be in his early 50’s with a credible argument that he was the worst president in U.S. history. Right now, despite his narcissism, I’m sure his thoughts wander to being extremely wealthy when he returns to civilian life and not having to be the point-man on everything bad in the world right now. I don’t think he signed up for this.

2. effess Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 3:44 pm

   Today’s WSJ.com’s Political Diary has a “Bad Luck Barack” posting, with a LOL Rudy Giuliani quote:

   On his bus tour across the Midwest this week, President Obama offered a new explanation for why the economy is floundering. Not surprisingly, his policies aren’t to blame.

   “Over the last six months we’ve had a string of bad luck,” he said on Monday. Then he trotted out his standard campaign theme that despite 9.1% unemployment and a growth rate this year of about 1%, he “reversed the recession” and “avoided a depression.”

   Mr. Obama ticked off the events outside of his control that have caused the slide: the Japan earthquake, turmoil in the Middle East, high gas prices and so on. And to hear Mr. Obama tell it, everything was going swimmingly until the Republicans started demanding spending cuts.

   Of course, it was Mr. Obama who said he would bring to Washington a new era of “accountability.” No more passing the buck. But the last few weeks have been anything but “the buck stops here” moments for this White House.

   In any case, it appears that the blame-shifting isn’t selling with voters. A new poll by Rasmussen finds that “most Americans believe the recession never ended,” and a report released by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress helps explain why. The JEC study concludes that this is the “weakest economic recovery in a lifetime,” measured by jobs, incomes or output.

   Mr. Obama has adopted the infamous re-election theme of former New York Mayor David Dinkins, whose pitch to voters in 1993 was: “It’s not my fault.” Republican challenger Rudy Giuliani responded with a memorable zinger: “Maybe it was our fault four years ago.” Note to Mr. Obama: Mr. Dinkins lost that race.

3. rickl Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 3:48 pm

   There’s a great quote by Robert A. Heinlein about bad luck. Coincidentally, I’ve seen it in a couple of places in the past week or so, even before Obama made his statement:

   Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

   This is known as “bad luck.”

4. T Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 4:17 pm

   jeff,

   I’d bet large sums of cash that his ego would never let him walk away from the presidency. History may regard him as the worst president on record, but HE dosen’t. After all remember this is Obama’s idea of what a “B+” is. it would be an “A” if it weren’t for those damned obstructionist Republicans that won’t let him have his own way!

5. david foster Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 4:23 pm

   A good time to re-read Herman Wouk’s “The Caine Mutiny,” which features a naval captain who is in way over his head. (Even if you’ve seen the movie, the book is very worthwhile)

   There are a few differences between Captain Queeg and Captain Obama, however….Queeg *knows* that he’s not the most brilliant of men, whereas Obama has never suffered such a thought to cross his mind.

6. Curtis Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 4:48 pm

   Remember Obama’s remark about his throw-Palmer-under-the-bus election: I think they got a pretty good state senator.

   Oh yeah. Mmmmmm. Mmmmmm. Mmmmmmm.

7. kaba Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 5:09 pm

   I watched a few clips of Obama on his magical bus tour. He seemed a little less arrogant and cocky and a little more subdued to me. He stuttered badly and had long hesitations in his remarks. I had the impression that he would rather be almost anywhere; doing almost anything other than what he was doing. And his comments were delivered with all the passion of someone reading a weekly shopping list.

   We will never see him admit it but I think in the still hours of early morning the prospect of failure is flitting through his mind.

8. Gringo Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 5:21 pm

   Was it good luck for Obama that he got elected in 2008, or was it bad luck for the US that he got elected?

   I wonder if Obama has been practicing this deflection of responsibility since childhood. Imagine the lines child Obama could have given his grandmother if his grades at the expensive, exclusive school he attended were not as good as she expected. I wager he was much more creative than “The dog ate my homework.”

9. Curtis Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 5:55 pm

   Remember that catchy phrase Subway uses: Five, five dollar, five dollar foot long. (“We didn’t want any blabbing,” say Jerry Cronin and Jamie Mambro of MMB. “It was just, let’s see how many times we can say ‘five dollar foot-long.’)

   Well, if you look at the “five” fear factors (see link above entitled “Here are”) I think someone should co-opt the tune with “Why, Why Obama, Why Obama is wrong,” and show each one of those five fear factors as a vignette. Let’s see how many times we can say Obama is wrong.

   Why, why Obama, why Obama is wrong?

   With that wonderful chord change and lingering on the word “wroooooong.”

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHIo4VruGZY

10. Michael Says:
    August 18th, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    The worse things get, with O’Guy still pushing along, the more the “Obama, Fool or Knave?” question drifts toward the Knave side of the spectrum.

    If he were just a failure, and eventually, no excuses can persuade him that he is not, he would not want to hang around for more abuse. If he is an intended saboteur, he can stay in the White House, if only just to gloat. (And to enjoy the amenities.) He might even get to do it for another four years. Michelle and the girls are loving it. After the re-election, he can even start smoking again.

11. Artfldgr Says:
    August 18th, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    Joe Bt f sp lk

12. Artfldgr Says:
    August 18th, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    would you believe the spamminator spits on his last name without the spaces?

13. expat Says:
    August 19th, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Mike, perhaps he is a fool who thinks he will be applauded for his knavery.

14. RandomThoughts Says:
    August 19th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    I watched a few clips of Obama on his magical bus tour… He stuttered badly and had long hesitations in his remarks…And his comments were delivered with all the passion of someone reading a weekly shopping list.

    That’s just because he doesn’t have the teleprompter on tour with him.

    The only way Obama will not run for a second term is if he has some apparently compelling excuse that makes him appear noble for not running. He’s way too much of a narcissist to walk away from all the attention and perks of the presidency.

15. Artfldgr Says:
    August 19th, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    When blacks were only four generations out of slavery, their illegitimacy rate was about 23 percent (lower than the white illegitimacy rate is now).

    Then Democrats decided to help them! Barely two generations since LBJ’s Great Society programs began, the black illegitimacy rate has tripled to 72 percent.

    Meanwhile, the white illegitimacy rate has septupled, from 4 percent to 29 percent. Instead of a “War on Poverty,” it should have been called a “War on the Family.”

    Democrats’ real achievement has been in destroying the family, and thereby creating an endless supply of potential rioters.

    Ann Coulter

    [destruction of family was the stalinist line, but when they saw what it did to their population and future, they tried to halt it, while visiting it upon us through the commiterm and its organs here in the US and the UK, then called england and sovereign over its own affairs... ]

16. Don Carlos Says:
    August 19th, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    Artfldgr @9:34 pm:
    Al Capp/Li’l Abner.

17. Parker Says:
    August 20th, 2011 at 12:38 am

    Artfldgr,

    Your 8/19 12:18 pm post was succinct and in the bullseye.

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