It’s All Academic: The Detachment of President Obama
The president seems to tinker from a distance, engaged in politics like an academic rather than a flesh-and-blood citizen.
President Obama possesses a distressing detachment from both his words and actions. His cool demeanor now seems cold. His movie star nonchalance, calculated. His soaring rhetoric, the words of a pastor who has long since stopped believing them.
Yet it is not Obama who has changed. After having had time to watch him make decisions, the world now simply can see and comprehend who he is.
During the campaign, those who saw this dissonance in Barack Obama could be dismissed as partisan. His most strident critics were accused of heartless cynicism, or worse — bald racism. As if critics of the man were driven primarily by his skin color or else hated all things Democrat. Senator Obama had the misfortune of being both.
Those who disagreed did so because of their “reptilian brain,” said Janeane Garofalo.
Barack Obama seemed right. Processing his words through the frontal lobe, they sounded good. Since he wasn’t pressed or questioned, since even Bill O’Reilly seemed beguiled by Barack Obama’s verbal deftness, he rarely had to prove or defend. He was always given enough rhetorical wiggle room. He still is given that room, by the the press anyway. But something always felt wrong. It wasn’t a primal reaction to the “other,” like Olbermann and Garafalo like to claim. It was something ethereal, because Senator Obama had no concrete policies or past accomplishments besides community organizing upon which to stand. His associations aroused some suspicion, but to most they seemed trivial and the press was uninterested.
His associations seem more important these days — at least to the voters. And they’re providing concrete evidence of why some voters felt discomfort before.
The intangibles manifest now because the rhetorical rubber is meeting the policy road. President Obama still tries to have it all ways, but the constraints of legislation do not let that happen. His words matter now and his actions have consequences.
While the unemployment rate continues to rise, the president extends his indulgent Martha’s Vineyard vacation. Worse, when he returns to work, he promptly goes golfing. Forget the optics of such actions. The actions themselves are callous.
Now 9/11 is here. Who can forget it? Evidently, President Barack Obama can. It’s not just that he seems to want to diminish it with a National Day of Service — turning attention away from those lost and the new era we live in — it’s that he seems to not think the day matters all that much. It was cruel to send Air Force One through Manhattan with a military escort plane over the Statue of Liberty. The people were terrified, and this fear was wrought by their own president’s administration.
In addition, one cannot help but wonder about the timing of President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress only two days before the 9/11 anniversary. It seems to display a gross lack of perspective. The health care debate won’t be solved in one peppy speech. Congress and Americans were told to sit and listen, not unlike the nation’s schoolchildren this week, and be lectured by the professor in chief.
Some humility in the face of such a great and terrible day would be wise.
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Dr. Melissa Clouthier is a chiropractor who blogs at MelissaClouthier.com and Right Wing News.
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88 Comments
1. Francis W. Porretto:The reasons for this become clear once we grasp Obama’s real function.
Yes, he’s a bad man doing bad things. Yes, he lies repeatedly, and with no apparent compunction. Yes, he crafts every statement he makes with a Clintonite disregard for truth. Yes, yes, yes.
But he’s not the principal operator in the Big Left Machine. He’s just a front man.
The Democrats were almost overt about why Obama was suited to be their presidential nominee in 2008: it was hard to attack him, given his skin color and the thinness of his resume. No paper trail! But note: that doesn’t apply to the legions riding in his train: all of them have “paper trails” a light-year long…almost always to their discredit. It’s the crowd around him, the Emanuels, the Geithners, the Holdrens, the Van Joneses who really hold the tiller of the Ship of State.
Obama, with his quasi-courtly manner, his speech-delivering skills, and his ability to marshal “racism!” as a defense against criticism, is the indispensable shield behind which the socialist legions advance.
How, then, do we strike the shield aside and deal with the legions themselves? Is the Glenn Beck “pick ‘em off one at a time” approach the best, or is there a more wholesale method available?
Sep 12, 2009 - 3:22 am 2. JOHN WICKEY:You aptly describe the real life behavior of a profound detachment that is a characteristic of his personality. Such emotional withdrawal is developed at a very early age to manage the trauma of disruptions of the person’s primary attachments. This kind of person may be eloquent and charming, but he is not an effective people person or leader.
Sep 12, 2009 - 3:43 am 3. pibill:This post is in no way meant to be racist or vindictive–That said, it’s pretty simple, pretty much fact. GWB was raised to be a responsible parent and treated the country as such. O’bs father took off and left O’b rootless, not unlike many such men, to be raised by mothers and/or grandmothers. He now embodies the same rootlessness with the country and detachment with it’s problems.
Sep 12, 2009 - 4:13 am 4. vivo:“The president seems to tinker from a distance, engaged in politics like an academic rather than a flesh and blood citizen.”
Some people, especially Republicans, complain about President Obama because they expect him to act like a Republican. I got news for you: he is not a Republican. They miss the secretive and conservative sloganism of GW Bush. You didn’t have to use your brain to guess and know what Bush was doing.
People criticize President Obama for his studied and well crafted verbal deliveries. That’s what we expect of the country’s leader! You don’t want someone in high office talking like Gilbert Gottfried or Sarah Palin. But again, the criticism really lies on his divergent views from ideas that don’t belong in a complex and modern society.
Conservative values are good, but their interaction with society is at a first-grade level.
Sep 12, 2009 - 4:36 am 5. Bob McIver:The last paragraph says it all. Pres. Obama does not appear to know anything outside his sphere of Chicago politics. He does not understand what the average citizen thinks. Just like his speech to kids on the first day of school. I don’t think he realized that it was not the first day of school in part of fly-over country. Texas schools had been in session for two weeks and teachers had tests scheduled for that morning and it would mess up the lunch schedules. Pres. Obama lives in his own little world.
Sep 12, 2009 - 4:42 am 6. logdon:Sounds familiar.
He was called Blair.
Our social experiment has resulted in a bloated public sector, huge cultural change, dismissal of indigenous rights, uncontrolled immigration, islamic ghetto’s and massive debt.
We now suffer under his successor, the even more left wing, inept and inadequate Brown.
They adopted the holier than thou insoucance, the sneering tones, the perma-grin as they looked down on those masses as if of no real consequense.
Our worm has turned and Labour are now totally reviled.
How they squirm as if the last twelve years of waste and destruction had nothing to do with them.
They lie so blatantly that one has to wonder what universe they inhabit.
Pretty soo it won’t be ours and for that we must be thankful. But and this is a massive but, how many years to repair the rot? To reclaim Britain for British people who love our old nation?
To get rid of the thousands of radical islamists, bent on taking over, who have benefited from the petri dish of crazy free for all multiculturalism?
If this dire scenario sounds familiar look to what untrammelled Franfurt School socialism has wreaked and act now against this Fifth Column Marxist who would replicate our woes and more in the greatest power in the world.
You didn’t get a President who happened to be black. What the US voted in was a President who identifies his whole body and soul by his skin colour. A man who see’s any failing as the fault of those nasty European Christian descended whites and their horrid racist and oppressive ways.
US history, to him is meaningless unless utilised as soundbite. Only his own Alinsky inspired version will suffice. The one in which whitey is always ‘the man’ and blacks and latinos poor suffering peasants under that caucasian jackboot.
On the credit side the US has jolted to it’s senses far more rapidly than our electorate who, seduced by Blair’s easy charm and easier money ticked ’same again, please’ in three elections.
Times have changed, the money well has dried and the hangover begins.
Your’s has also.
Sep 12, 2009 - 5:22 am 7. BackwardsBoy:Your analysis is spot on, Melissa. Having witnessed mental illness and its devastation in my own family, I’ll offer my opinion from a layman’s point of view.
Obama’s aloofness is a result of two things: the refusal to acknowledge reality in order to guard a large but fragile ego, and a lack of empathy toward his fellow man.
Obama’s ego drove him to seek approval in the first place he could find it: among those with politically radical ideas. Since radicals were prominent in his family structure at an early age, it’s not surprising that he sought to surround himself with like-minded people in college and later in professional life. His crippling need to be accepted prohibited him from questioning any of the tenets of radicalism, lest he be rejected by the accepting group.
His lack of empathy prevents him from seeing the other side of any argument. He cannot place himself in anothers’ position, for to do so threatens the position of the ego as always being correct in each and every little thing. The concept of the ego being wrong is devastating, and the psychological machinations that the ego uses to protect itself are endless, even to the point of actively rejecting reality.
Mind you, these faults don’t reduce you to the level of drooling or prevent you from holding down a job, but they serve as subtle barriers to healthy relationships. If you’ve ever tried to be friends with someone whose guard is always up even when it doesn’t need to be, you know what I mean.
Sep 12, 2009 - 5:26 am 8. Ruebacca:Obama is no executive. He is a front man for the forces of the left. Heartless and cold. Just like those women in ACORN who think nothing of assisting a Pimp avoid taxes and commit fraud. The left is in power now and there carelessness and incompetency is on full display. You can come to power being a lying street radical but you can’t rule that way.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:00 am 9. David Thomson:“…the president extends his indulgent Martha’s Vineyard vacation. Worse, when he returns to work, he promptly goes golfing.”
Barack Obama is fundamentally lazy. This is especially true regarding the intellectual aspect of his life. The everyday responsibilities of the presidency bore him to death. He has virtually no executive experience—and this fact was well known before the election. Obama is a one trick pony who believes that a few rambling speeches should take care of everything. Our country is in serious danger. I can easily imagine Obama turning into something of a benevolent dictator if the opportunity arises.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:05 am 10. ETAB:In my view, Obama is a pathological narcissist. That means, not just someone with a big ego, but someone who has long ago, probably when he was a teenager, moved himself, psychologically, into a ‘cocoon’ of control.
That is, Obama must feel that he controls YOU; he totally controls how you interact with him. He can’t interact with anyone unless he feels he can control this interaction. And what he wants from you is your total obedience and adoration. You must not question him, you must not criticize him, you must not dissent.
Notice how this is what he demands from Congress: no questions, no dissent..they aren’t even allowed to READ the bills; they must just Trust Obama and Do What He Says.
He achieves this control over you by a triad of tactics: misinformation; manipulation of emotions using fear and hope; and finally, accusations of bias if you continue to resist him.
If you can’t be controlled by Obama, then, his first step will be to denigrate, to insult, to smear you. If you continue to resist, then for Obama, you actually, you literally cease to exist.
And for anyone who is outside of his ’sphere of possible people to be influenced’ such as the people of Iran, of Honduras, the Americans of small businesses etc…they don’t exist for Obama.
If Obama feels you won’t be swayed by him, he’ll try to belittle and insult you – as he did with the prime ministers of the UK and France. Or, he’ll bow to the Saudi King, to mock the patriots in the US. Couple this with his basic anti-Americanism – which is an aspect of his narcissism, for he puts himself higher than the Nation.
He relies, for his success in life, almost totally on this psychological pathology, where he tries to manipulate others into his control. Since he is intellectually lazy, and thus uneducated in economics, history and political theory, and you have a disastrous holder of the US presidency
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:19 am 11. KRB:It is indeed all academic. These are the folks that ignore the gulags, intimidation, and murder of the regimes like those in Cuba and the former Soviet states and tell us how great and visionary the ideas of Marx, Lenin, Castro & Che were. Cuba has no toilet paper -has Sean Penn offered to send shipments? He so readily praises this sort of leader, you’d think he might want to help out the people.But people just get in the way of good ideas, don’t they? The common good is never good for the people; only those who can connect with and respect individuals ever pause to think of the consequences of their actions.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:31 am 12. Enjay:Ronald Reagan was vilified as someone who didn’t care about the plight of people, and yet he kept personal checks in his desk drawer and was known for being all too willing to send them out to people that asked him for help.
Great article Melissa. Your article so aptly puts into words what many Americans are feeling and know about this man.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:33 am 13. LeighB:He inspires the worst traits in people:
Procrastination, Indecisiveness, Tardiness, Failure to Plan, Narcissism, Lacks Moral Backbone & Courage, Insincerity and Untruthfulness, Laziness and Taking Credit for Other Peoples’ Work/Effort, to name a few. To think Obama resonates so strongly with those who elected him…I am concerned for America.
It is all academic with our current President and yet he did not commit to that either. Working to advance beyond a law lecturer was going to require that he dig in, take stands, and put pen to paper. Unless it’s about him, the pen does not seem to find the paper.
At the risk of attracting a lot of attention from the board’s trolls, his public persona reminds me of OJ’s (pre mid-90s). It is carefully crafted, tested, and designed to manipulate. Barack the person may be just fine and far more likable than the public robot–who can tell?
He never gets the details just right, like his comments from yesterday that “on 9/11 everyone is a New Yorker.” OK, because the other two plane crashes did not matter? Because the only people we mourn are New Yorkers? Huh?
Lastly, he may be as smart as everyone says and perhaps I can’t hear it in his words since I don’t have a “social justice framework”. His approach is somewhat unique, I can’t remember another president who has decided being aloof, cold and derisive is a winning strategy.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:37 am 14. George S.:…this artical could have been just a few words.
Obama is a lying marxist wackjob. ..oh I should add elitist.
community organiser = communist
the obama administration is competing with the democrat party as to who has more criminals and criminal activities.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:52 am 15. David Thomson:“He relies, for his success in life, almost totally on this psychological pathology”
Such an individual is also a high-risk candidate for a mental breakdown. Obama is likely to become very dangerous. We need to seriously worry about his doing something crazy with the red phone. The odds are that the TV networks will turn down his next request for airtime. They might be pro-Obama, but they also have to earn a living. The president will not be pleased and this alone could push him over the edge.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:56 am 16. NCBob:It is not detachment; he simply has to check frequently with the pimps who own him. We know nothing about who the Kenyan used to be and we know almost as little about who he is today. All he ever does is read the text that has been prepared for him. An honest media would have raised this issue long ago with a white man or a Republican who was similarly dishonest.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:03 am 17. George S.:16. NCBob:
It is not detachment; he simply has to check frequently with the pimps who own him. We know nothing about who the Kenyan used to be and we know almost as little about who he is today. All he ever does is read the text that has been prepared for him. An honest media would have raised this issue long ago with a white man or a Republican who was similarly dishonest.
actually we know more of him then many care to acknowledge.
he said judge my be the company I keep. ergo he is a MAXRIST/ COMMUNITY ORGANISER/THUG/ELITIST/RACEBAITER …I could go on but hey we haven’t even been introduced to all the cazrs yet. he is a reflection of those wackjobs. (he will probably stop calling them cazrs and we just wont know who is on the congressional payrole …obama isn’t paying their salaries out of his pocket).
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:18 am 18. genghis:Obama is a pod person. He reminds me of the Manchurian Candidate (the original, not the tepid remake) He exemplifies terminal narcissism. His entire life has been lived within a fantasy bubble. His education overseen by the elites of (sic) higher education who are, as well, totally divorced from reality, and shielded from the results of their intellectual musings. The prepared speeches tell you nothing of this man. His off-script remarks reveal his inner thoughts and expose the crap that has been stuffed into his head. Woe is we.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:22 am 19. George S.:funny thing happened on the way to the forum this morning.
when I went to log into my email that I use when posting here; I was informed to change my password since there was some suspicious activity regarding my email account.
anyone else getting this kind of thing ?
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:22 am 20. Cybergeezer:10. ETAB:
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:26 am 21. Cybergeezer:15. David Thomson:
I think you are on to something here; I believe he’s schizophrenic, with all his straw men and projected evil plot lines.
18. George S.:
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:28 am 22. ETAB:Looks like there’s a hacker in here.
David Thomson #15, I totally agree that Obama’s psychological pathology puts him at high risk for a breakdown. That neurosis requires constant ‘feeding’ of adulation; if it’s not forthcoming, the individual feels threatened and can become insanely enraged.
Francis Poretto #1 – I fully agree; Obama is only the Performer, the Salesman, for what I call the BackRoom Gang; they are hardcore radical socialists and their agenda is to use him to insert this destructive infrastructure into America.
Backards Boy #7 – that’s a perfect outline of Obama’s psychological dysfunctions.
The question then becomes – how do we deal with it? First, it’s not only we who must deal with it. The Democrat and BRG must deal with Obama’s pathology. In his role as President, Obama will require increasing evidence from the public..of adoration.
That means that he doesn’t sit and read and work (as David Thomson has noted, Obama is fundamentally lazy)..plus, he’s never used knowledge and work to ‘get ahead’. Obama requires constant public adoration. How many times can the Democrats put him on stage, and only in crafted, programmed situations where he is shielded from dissent?
How do they deal with his ignorance and outright stupidity when he speaks in an ad hoc situation?
Will THEY ditch him if he becomes a liability? Notice how they’ve ditched ACORN – an integral part of their structure..[or have they?]
As for the rest of America, what must be done is exposure. Glenn Beck, thank god, And blogs and blogs and blogs. Tea Parties, writing to Congress. Exposure and exposure.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:29 am 23. Exliberal:Liberals don’t get irony.
From Vivo:
“You didn’t have to use your brain to guess and know what Bush was doing.”
-And-
“People criticize President Obama for his studied and well crafted verbal deliveries… The criticism really lies on his divergent views from ideas that don’t belong in a complex and modern society.”
In other words, it’s a good thing that we have to guess at what Mr. Obama means because the fact that we have to wonder at what he will do is a sign of his understanding a complex and modern society? Very tortured logic, and I think not. The first thing they teach you in public speaking is be clear, be brief, and leave them wanting more. Mr. Obama must have dropped that class in favor of Obfuscation 101 (where he received an A).
Liberals don’t understand their own irony.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:32 am 24. George S.:21. Cybergeezer:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
18. George S.:
Looks like there’s a hacker in here.
hacker or the NSA …will they leave a card like they do when they go through your baggage at the airport??
and how come I see your post before it has pasted the moderator ??
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:32 am 25. Bob:The uneasy and queasy feeling we have in the gut is our unconscious telling us that he’s not normal and not one of our “tribe.” The man is culturally not an American. He never rode his bicycle in a July 4 parade, holding a small American flag. He never snuck downstairs before dawn on Christmas day to open all of the presents under the tree. He never stood overlooking the Normandy beach and then prayed silently before the cross of a fallen Uncle at the American cemetery. He is not an American.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:53 am 26. Leesburg Guy:My wife recently observed something I don’t know that anyone else has picked up on – all Oval Office pictures show President Obama’s desk to be absolutely clean – no position papers to review, no charts and graphs, no anything. And this from the president who promised to go through the federal budget line by line. He is either managing by Blackberry, or managing by face to face discussions or not really managing at all. I suspect the latter. He is just the front man, delivering the speech but who is writing the text? Inquiring minds want to know.
Sep 12, 2009 - 8:27 am 27. Calvin Ball:You’re assuming that he wants the economy to get better.
Sep 12, 2009 - 8:32 am 28. chambers:I know a lot of people like Obama. Despite their apparant cosmopolitanism they have led the most parochial lives imaginable. For them their enemies are all theoretical abstract constructs that one can demonize with absolute impunity. They have never actually met or dealt extensively any of the bogeymen that take up such a huge chunk of their imaginations such as a genuine pro-lifer, a patriotic soldier, a Milton Friedman fiscal conservative, or a working businessman. Most of them follow the career arc of high-school, college, grad-school and permanent entry into either academia, the media or “public service.” Their language is the overheated rhetoric of late-night college bull sessions where all the problems of the world can be solved through “planning.” Now, the narrow white-hot ideological drive of Obama is wedded to the brass-knuckles poltical opportunism of Pelosi, Reid et al. The result will be a significant, perhaps fatal, loss of traditional freedoms under the rubric of being “caring and compassionate.” They are people drivin by the need to rule, to dominate and to dictate. The most frightening thing about them is that they believe that “this is all for our own good” and that the more power that they amass then the better off “the rest of us.” will be
Sep 12, 2009 - 8:36 am 29. Poor Citizen:The author has a point. As a new president Obama has already made a few mistakes and will have to improve. When he first took over, facing massive problems he was treated well by the press, but now he is entering the business end and needs some results. I am hopeful that in the coming year or so he will settle into the job and get some of those results. Time will tell.
Sep 12, 2009 - 9:26 am 30. Pee Wee Herman, Community Organizer:Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain typing at the teleprompter…
Sep 12, 2009 - 9:26 am 31. Now and Then:Y’all are just not used to a smart president. Trust us. Go shopping.
Sep 12, 2009 - 9:28 am 32. Calvin Ball:28.
Thank you. That was what I was sensing when I read Moran’s article yesterday, but couldn’t quite verbalize. Moran went on and on about how cosmopolitan Obama was with his weird childhood, but the truth is, while he may know and understand Indonesians and Pakistanis, He knows Americans only as an abstract anthropological curiosity. You know, guns, religion, Nascar, Budweiser. All that stuff in the Anthro 101 book, under “redneck”.
Sep 12, 2009 - 9:32 am 33. Sherab Zangpo:Nice article and nice comments (well, trolls excluded of course).
I think that what we are witnessing must be analyzed in this way:
this individual belongs to a sect (the marxist radicals) in which the single person is only one little wheel in a large and powerful organization, hence the lack of personal luster, radiance, wit.
AND
This individual does not think in rational terms but in IDEOLOGICAL terms: every fact is pre-emptively classified within an existing pseudo-conceptual grid and deformed to adapt it to such grid, hence the boring tone of every speech (what is missing is the effort to find the Truth: he already possesses a pre-cooked “truth”).
These two elements are typical, and any European born American has witnessed the same two elements in innumerable examples from the European far left.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Sep 12, 2009 - 9:51 am 34. otis:President Obama, doesn’t have to be a leader to be the head of the democratic party. He understands the mindset of his supporters. Even after being thrown under the bus,Jeremiah Wright was not offended. Know why? Reverend Wright explained; “Barack says what he has to say to get elected and I say what I have to say to be a preacher.” They both understand that their supporters have “itching ears” so,they say what they have to in order to get what they want. They don’t have to be smart, just wiser than their supporters.
Sep 12, 2009 - 10:27 am 35. DoctorT:President Obama is detached, but it is probably because his staff make him so. To know the outrage at what is happening would get in the way of what he feels he has to do. Every Bill and every activity that has occurred since his inauguration is destructive. From excessive spending, misdirected Budget Bill that outspends any prior budget, Bailouts (publically stated and hidden), Tax and spend green technology Bills and the attempted healthcare takeover, all have negative impacts on our already stuggling economy. All of the same bills seek to redistribute wealth, decrease executive and private business executive incomes, and create larger and larger government dependency.
Although, I am a physician, and a specialist, and although this will certainly affect my practice, I believe that the real intention of the Healthcare reform is to take over the largest available piece of the economy in order to change America to a Socialist, possible communistic, hopefully not fascist country. There is very little in the HR3200 Bill that could help the American People. The destruction of hte quality of healthcare and the rationing that would likely follow is inconsistant with any perceived benefits to the American People.
It may be all of Presidents inaugural address promise to “remake America”, but it is nothing like what I want to see it to be remade into.
The majority of Americans speak daily against health care reform, are calling for a stop to disbursement of funds from the stimulus package, and against bigger government and yet President Obama continues down the path of pushing his agenda.
Hopefully Americans will continue to continue to speak out.
If we all speak out like Congressman Joe Wilson did during Obama’s speeches and the town halls correcting the misrepresentations and lies, we may yet be able to stop the destruction of America.
If we continue to meet (e.g. Tea Parties), and discuss what is going on, we may yet stop the govt. takeover and destruction of our constitution.
The only thing I have seen that has come true from Obama’s campaign is the statement “Yes we can”. Yes they can push their agenda, but is it the right thing to do. Does it even matter if its right to them?
Well, “We can too”. We can stop it, before, “We the American People” have to follow through on Thomas Jefferson’s promise that revolution is necessary. I really hope it doesn’t come to it.
Sep 12, 2009 - 10:31 am 36. Sherab Zangpo:Instead this is not “academic”:
from:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
Hundreds of thousands have converged on DC – not activists, not professionals, not tools of Soros orgs or mainstream media lemmings. People that have never engaged politically before.
…
Down on the mall — its not “tea baggers” or ‘town hallians’. It is Americans.
The line of protesters completely filled Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. People were chanting “enough, enough” and “We the People.” Others yelled “You lie, you lie!” and “Pelosi has to go,” referring to California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
Others are waving U.S. flags and holding signs reading “Go Green Recycle Congress” and “I’m Not Your ATM.” Some men are dressed in colonial costumes.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Sep 12, 2009 - 10:49 am 37. ETAB:Nw and Then #31. Heh..that was a fun remark. ‘Trust us”. That’s how Obama tries to control Others; he insists that they accept what he says not for its empirical and rational values, but only because you must’trust him’. That’s quite the arrogance, isn’t it?
Heh..who says Obama is smart? He’s never written an analytic article, never been an executive, never run anything on his own. So far,his speeches are empty sophistry; his actions to others ignorant and/or insulting; his handling of foreign affairs grossly in error..
Otis #34 – are you seriously saying that Obama is ‘wiser’ than his supporters? Whew. Some proof, please.
Dr.T #35. I don’t think Obama is detached because he’s made so by his staff. I think he’s psychologically extremely damaged, and he’s detached because he’s unable to feel empathy for anyone whom he can’t directly control.
Sep 12, 2009 - 10:56 am 38. Cybergeezer:GPS units with backlighting must be selling well to the liberal trolls on this site; With their heads so far up Obama’s butt, they have to read a lot in the dark.
Sep 12, 2009 - 11:06 am 39. otis:President Obama, doesn’t have to be a leader to be the head of the democrat party. He understands the mindset of his supporters. Even after being thrown under the bus,Jeremiah Wright was not offended. Know why? Reverend Wright explained; “Barack says what he has to say to get elected and I say what I have to say to be a preacher.” They both understand that their supporters have “itching ears” so,they say what they have to in order to get what they want. They don’t have to be smart, just wiser than their supporters.
Sep 12, 2009 - 11:18 am 40. B.H.O.:Like King Louie said, “The State Be Me.”
Sep 12, 2009 - 11:26 am 41. Ed Butt:What with Obama’s insecurities about his dysfunctional family and uncertain parentage, Little Nicky Sarkozy’s insecurities about his lack off height and Gordon Brown’s insecurity about everyone hating him we hasve a pretty lame crop of world leaders.
Sep 12, 2009 - 11:54 am 42. dbrusiee:I do not understand how our media has become so biased for Obama. The biggest example of this bias is its “silence” in regards to the numerous questions regarding most of Obama’s actions. If it weren’t for Fox news we wouldn’t be hearing about most of his appointments and relationships etc. Also the only reason that makes any sense as to why doesn’t Obama defend himself regarding most of the charges we know about? It can only be that he is guilty.
Sep 12, 2009 - 12:21 pm 43. Mark D E:I can only assume that we have already “lost” our democracy and the worst is yet to come.
Pretty close I think.
I know a fellow, well, who has an IQ of 133, putting him in the 97th percentile, meaning, if he’s in a room of 100 people, there is an excellent chance, he’s smarter than all but three of them. But the thing is, he never flaunts it, or brings it up, he listens to everyone, never dismissing anybody as not being smart enough to hold a REAL opinion like him, never does he do that.
I watched Obama, I watched Axelrod, both showing irratation and annoyence with people who question them or disagree. They openly show contempt,. don’t even try to hide it. That may play with an American left so convinced that they are the smartest folks around, utterly certain, every person who’s smart has to agree with them, simply has to or it attacks their inflated opinion of themselves. They are insulted that anyone intelligent could possibly hold an opposing view.
so,.. they simply convince themselves, you aren’t intelligent, are really quite stupid, or insane and there by, salve their injured pride.
The guy I know, observed, that if you are truly intelligent, you don’t need to feed your ego by constantly telling people just how smart you are. Every time someone praises Obama, they are in awe of his brilliance… that’s nice, but really, since he’s had ALL his school records sealed, we know this only by the praise of adoing sycophants. I dispute he’s really all that smart. He’s not stupid no,.. but he aint all that either.
I cannot recall a time since I started watching in 72, that the left didn’t call all republicans stupid or nuts, it’s a mantra they believe through repetition. Not because it’s true, but because it elevates them by default. The real dirty secret of the left, is a near hysterical need to prop themselves up by claiming all opposing views are ignorant or crazy.
Why maybe they can barely stifle a yawn about the war on terror, but get a foaming lather worked up at Joe Wilson, for doing what they have always done. I’d be really relieved if just once,
just once,
they could show as much anger and hate at Bin Laden and foreign enemies, as they do at other Americans for simply saying no to them. Go down the list, and see, they wail at Rush, at Glen Beck, call us terrorists and fear mongers,..
yet,.. name the last time a nationally known lefty denounced in strong terms, Putin, the Iranians, Chavez, or Al Qaeda..
as if no foreign enemy existed, but damn,.. those tea partiers,.. they’re a threat to all mankind,..
I hesitate to say,. group hypnosis, or insanity,.. but how do you explain a greater desire to hate other Americans?
Sep 12, 2009 - 1:44 pm 44. Dave J:I see Obama as detached …from details of policy. He is the “great facilitator” of government intervention — the short-term form of which is not as important to him as establishing it initially — period. His method is to virtually say or propose anything that will accomplish some form of intervention that will be next to impossible to reverse. He leaves the policy details up to others to figure out how much they can get with the political opportunity he tries to create.
The key for his success in this long term remaking of the American idea is the sheer magnitude of the government involvement that can initially be achieved.
The enormity, complexity and dependency of the financial burden created by –take your pick: involvement with GM, banks, health care, deficit spending of any sort — forces a situation where there is no solution to reverse the intrusion — but only to tinker with what it looks like.
So, no public option in this first iteration of a heath care “solution” ? No problem for Obama, it’s the end game that matters… at least he has set the system in place to force the eventual formulation. This happens through changing the future policy arguments from whether government should be controlling our healthcare so much to how it should do so.
Sep 12, 2009 - 1:51 pm 45. Annie:Obama is a front man…he is the “perfect” Manchurian. He does not need to be “involved”…he has the Van Jones’ (etc) and ACORN’s of America to do his work. that way he does not dirty his hands and can say…”i had nothing to do with it”…if the poopie hits the fan.
scoff all you want to… He laughs at America’s stupidity and naivety, as do his handlers.
Sep 12, 2009 - 1:59 pm 46. Sebastian Shaw:I believe President Obama’s detachment comes from his abandonment of his parents as his father went on to have other children with other women while his hippie mother went to go “find herself”; however, these are not excuses for Obama’s lack of leadership as Commander-in-Chief. President Obama has always been detached, but it has become a pejorative since his never-ending spending priorities have turned into disasters such as Porkulus which its own rotten eggs will continue to hatch into Harpies until the law is repealed or canceled. Yet Obama demands more spending so he can hope to change to the United States of America into some quasi-dictatorship.
Sep 12, 2009 - 2:24 pm 47. carla:Definitely a pod person. Otherworldly. Alien. forget Hawaii. Venus,maybe.
Sep 12, 2009 - 2:28 pm 48. Inrptrn:Weird dude. Beware. Danger. Danger.
One is reminded of the hauntingly vacant stare of Mao Zedong. Whose greatest enemy, like Obama and the left, was his own people.
The irony surrounding the left is to be expected. Obama is the prophet of delusion. He and his supports have this detachment from reality in common. The world to them is absolutely simple. They know what everyone needs whether they ask for it or not. The world just hasn’t had the opportunity to be changed into their perfect mental image. Progress has finally attained perfection. Who needs inevitable realities when the grand delusions of ideology rule the day? It is a cycle as historical and predictable as it is human. Only they don’t see it. But hell if they won’t force it to fit their naive vision.
Sep 12, 2009 - 2:31 pm 49. Calvin Ball:47. carla, Moho?
Sep 12, 2009 - 2:48 pm 50. rbell:Vivo: “The president seems to tinker from a distance, engaged in politics like an academic rather than a flesh and blood citizen.” This statement is correct. You have been to college, liberal arts of course, nothing that requires a brain. We don’t expect the President to act like a Republican. We expect him to act like a human being. Well some people do. I don’t. I expect to act like someone who sold his soul to be President. Five million Americans have lost their jobs during his administration and all he can think about is nationalized medicine.
It is not “We the People” but “Me Obama”. This is what you get when you elect a man who idolizes Fidel Castro instead of Jefferson or Washington.
Sep 12, 2009 - 4:00 pm 51. vivo:26. Leesburg Guy:
“My wife recently observed something I don’t know that anyone else has picked up on – all Oval Office pictures show President Obama’s desk to be absolutely clean – no position papers to review, no charts and graphs, no anything.”
It could have been cleaned for a photo op; or, an empty desk is the sign of an organized executive.
33. Sherab Zangpo:
“Nice article and nice comments (well, trolls excluded of course). . . This individual does not think in rational terms but in IDEOLOGICAL terms: every fact is pre-emptively classified within an existing pseudo-conceptual grid and deformed to adapt it to such grid,”
Trolls don’t write the kind of bullsh/t that you wrote.
35. DoctorT:
“Although, I am a physician, and a specialist, and although this will certainly affect my practice, I believe that the real intention of the Healthcare reform is to take over the largest available piece of the economy in order to change America to a Socialist, possible communistic, hopefully not fascist country.”
It’s incredible that some physicians (intelligent people) can get so paranoid. They get fat too.
36. Sherab Zangpo:
“Down on the mall — its not “tea baggers” or ‘town hallians’. It is Americans.”
Correction, it’s wacko Americans.
Sep 12, 2009 - 4:17 pm 52. ambisinistral:If you were one of his handlers would you put Obama in front of an open mike?
Listen to his answers to anything approaching a tough question at a press conference. He rambles, interjects about a bajillion ‘uhs’ and ‘ahs’, and frequently says quite silly things in the midst of all his fluff. Listening to him speak extemporaneously makes it pretty clear there is no clarity to his thought process.
Obama appears detached because, contrary to the left’s conventional wisdom, he doesn’t speak well. They have to keep him distant to maintain the fiction he is a deep intellectual.
Sep 12, 2009 - 4:22 pm 53. al gore vidal:I think Obama’s handling of the Afghan war will increasingly become the issue through which his pathological detachment and reptilian emotional compartmentalization will be revealed.
We all knew his term would be a national disaster but the breathless pace at which he and his handlers are attempting to dismantle the country and remake it into a collectivist zombie cult is terrifying.
Sep 12, 2009 - 5:14 pm 54. dbrusiee:Folks, As far as I can determine there can only be one reason or strategy behind Obama’s aloofness. He is working for the Democratic party which has a goal to take over and change the country to a state that it can never recover from. He has done so much damage at this point that I can’t envision another president rebuilding our country for many, many years. We need to impeach Obama as soon as possible.
Sep 12, 2009 - 5:16 pm 55. Judy, NYC:he still smokes. even after billions have been spent and millions of hours of education, this nutjob refuses to stop. he is completely mad. in a gross, bad way.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:22 pm 56. vech:Obama’s detachment is the result of not knowing a damn thing about what’s going on. His teleprompt material is written by a 28 year old speech writer whe doesn’t know history and for whom the word “tact” is a foreign concept. This is the reason the speeches sound so immature. Rahm Emanual puts the bitterness in the speech and Gibbs most likely contributes the stupidity. Obama contributes nothing but the verbal words because he doesn’t comprehend the ideas, having nothing to do with forming them. So, as I have said time and time again, and will say again, there is no grand plan, there is no strategy. This stuff is being made up as we go along.
Sep 12, 2009 - 6:23 pm 57. myth buster:The American people are finally waking up, and Now and Then is a siren trying to sing us a lullaby to go back to sleep until after we’re past the point of no return.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:02 pm 58. Jbl:Never thought I’d miss Bush the way I do. I miss Bush.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:02 pm 59. Anonymous:During the campaign, those who saw this dissonance in Barack Obama could be dismissed as partisan. His most strident critics were accused of heartless cynicism, or worse — bald racism.
==============
Who cares?
Really.
When the truth is obvious and exposes evil one must stand firm against all critics.
For there is no greater quality that a human being can possess than integrity in support of the natural truths of the universe.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:05 pm 60. Mike:During the campaign, those who saw this dissonance in Barack Obama could be dismissed as partisan. His most strident critics were accused of heartless cynicism, or worse — bald racism.
==============
Who cares?
Really.
When the truth is obvious and exposes evil one must stand firm against all critics.
For there is no greater quality that a human being can possess than integrity in support of the natural truths of the universe.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:06 pm 61. JackofNoTrades:I am highly offended by Obama telling me that he knows best and that I should not question him. I didn’t blindly follow Bush, I was vehemently against his immigration and economic policies, not against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan-from everything I read and, yes, studied, I knew it would be best to take the war to them, that’s one of the reasons we’ve been safe. Obama reminds me of my arrogant Constitutional Law professor in laws school who was with the ACLU, constantly lecturing and not being able to explain her position with any thing other than, because that’s how it is. She hated me.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:28 pm 62. Someone Who Knows:Aggressive narcissism
1. Glibness/superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Pathological lying
4. Cunning/manipulative
5. Lack of remorse or guilt
6. Emotionally shallow
7. Callous/lack of empathy
8. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopath
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:34 pm 63. Peaches:29. Poor Citizen: “I am hopeful that in the coming year or so he will settle into the job”
Really? Almost 8 months into this national nightmare and the guy hasn’t done a lick of actual work. No desk time, quite obviously not an hour spent in an effort to understand the issues — all he wants to do is fly around in his spiffy new plane, give meaningless, whiny, scolding campaign speeches, throw weekly cocktail parties, take a vacation on top of his vacation. Have you ever started a new job and, almost 8 months later, had the folks you were accountable to cut you that kind of slack and hope that you’d eventually “settle into the job?” Because I sure haven’t . . . if I’m not actually grasping the concept and producing some concrete and useful results, I wouldn’t have the job any longer.
Of course, I’m not in the community organizing field — the standards are a bit different out here in the real world.
Sep 12, 2009 - 7:45 pm 64. Kate:I read both of President Obama’s books before the election. From his own writings, he seemed to be an ideologue, a statist, and a narcissist. I found it strange that a state senator from Illinois knew the answer to all of our country’s problems. Of course that answer was government control. His books sold by the thousands. It was all there in writing…but apparently no one read the words he wrote or perceived the kind of man who would write those words.
The day his minions closed hundreds of auto dealers, potentially putting 100,000 people out of work, he displayed an utter lack of human empathy.
Sep 12, 2009 - 8:24 pm 65. Sallie:If disliking Obama because I think he is stupid, ineffectual, self concerned, socialists, is racist..then okay, I’m a racist. A proud racist at that..
Sep 12, 2009 - 8:45 pm 66. Banned by Huffpo:“This year, we marched on Washington unarmed.”
My favorite sound bite from the million-plus people
who value freedom.
Sep 12, 2009 - 8:50 pm 67. Ani:I hate to tell you this, but I spotted his narcissism and disturbing detachment from his words in January of ‘08. It took about ten minutes. That coupled with his lack of experience and “elastic” policies, there was no reason to vote for him. I am not sure what collection delusion was operating in this country that so many chose not to see what was quite obvious to a number of us out here — and for that we were endlessly derided and insulted.
His disturbing habit of cocking his head to one side, lifting his nose in the air and observing others as one would a bug under a glass, an academic who had never run anything, yet thinks he knows how to do everything. Not working out so well.
Sep 12, 2009 - 10:25 pm 68. vivo:23. Exliberal:
‘You didn’t have to use your brain to guess and know what Bush was doing.’
“In other words, it’s a good thing that we have to guess at what Mr. Obama means because the fact that we have to wonder at what he will do is a sign of his understanding a complex and modern society?”
What I meant is that Bush pushed very few issues, like his Iraqi invasion, 9/11, xenophobia and disregard for Americans well being (health care). President Obama has completely overloaded conservatives capacity to understand changes, so they are desperately gasping for air. They are acting like turtles out of their element. They contradict themselves: too much here, not fast enough there.
Sep 12, 2009 - 11:44 pm 69. vivo:50. rbell:
“Five million Americans have lost their jobs during his administration and all he can think about is nationalized medicine.”
You obviously follow the news, so that’s what you see and hear.
Do you think that the government is frozen like a slow motion picture and JUST working on health care legislation?
Don’t you think that there are hundreds and thousands of people working on other issues ‘behind the scene’?
Have you forgotten the causes of unemployment, like the housing bubble, 0%-down mortgage bubble, banking collapse, high inventory of unsold homes, little car sales, people saving and not spending, no construction jobs, shrunk manufacturing, offshoring, outsourcing, stock market jiggles, and other miriad of causes?
And what are you doing about all this?
Sep 13, 2009 - 12:01 am 70. Anonymous:It’s with a sprinkle of sadness, a dash of melancholy and probably a touch of Chanticleerian seasoning that fills my heart as I bid adieu to my friends here at Pajamas Media.
Yep. This is Happy Trails.
To me, it seems quite apt to be leaving my final missive among the afterthoughts of a superb article crafted by my favorite PJM writer, Melissa Clouthier, the owner of a true gift for writing and love of country.
Also having my highest respect and esteem are my two dear friends from the left coast, Miss Delia and Mr. Bill; and those the nation wide; Ed Wallis, Meryl, Misanth.., Thinkingperson, Steve, David, Dr. Hanson. The list is longer, much longer than my memory.
You know who you are. Thanks for all the encouragement, exceptional thoughts and wonderful writing which was born of mellifluous talent and soul deep love of the red, white and blue.
Why goodbye? Why now?
I just feel a lack of time is catching up to me.
To often I feel tired to the marrow. And Rachel Peepers, my pen name, not to mention one of the true loves of my life, has a story that needs telling. Needs all my attention if I’m going to get it right. Rachel and I yearn to give the next generation a feel for what it means to love, live and fight for family, friends and the land of liberty.
To Jim, my creative partner for 28 years, who read the first page of “Rachel’s Story” and gave me the go ahead to go the distance, your sheer brilliance I never ever took for granted. The support you gave me when I needed it most; the strength to reach for my star, and hold it for all to see, I am eternally grateful.
To Harold, my biggest fan, the war hero of war heroes, to whom the horror of Malmedy lives in infamy in his heart every day of his life, I am so sorry. I’m sorry you hurt. I hope I’ve helped. I thank you and your brothers in arms for keeping us free. We are trying to do the same.
To my father, the writer and teacher, I have never known what it’s like not missing you. To my son, the writer, the chip off the old block, you know that I’m so proud of you that Betty is constantly re-sewing all the popped shirt buttons.
And me? Well, I’m the ham and cheese of the sandwich. The middle writer of the line.
But, now for me, it’s a race against time.
To you, at PJM, you know you have a fight on your hands. There is not a smidgen of doubt in my mind, though, that in the end the enemy will fall on his handsome, brown eyed, petulant face followed by all the Deminoes (no typo) after him. Bullies who want to enslave and communize the population aren’t exactly a winning combination.
In my book, winners are self reliant, freedom-loving, optimistic, responsible, loyal, honorable. You get the idea.
And my Rachel’s a winner.
Right now she’s sleeping. We had a big day. Made some new friends. Had a spot of tea, actually. Hey, when it comes to tea parties, England has nothing on us. We can throw em’ far as the eye can see.
Didn’t see Obama. I heard somebody stole some of his Acorns. Melissa says he’s a little detached. Very astute observation. It’s getting to the point where he’s told so many whoppers his speech writers can’t remember them. Obama has the talent for going from 45 million uninsured to 30 million in the blink of an eye. Keeping track is important, Barack.
Take away enough of Barack’s Acorns and it just might drive him nuttier than a fruitcake. Maybe let him go out far enough on the limb, then saw it off. Where there’s a national will I know there’s a way.
When all is said and done, though, guys, remember he’s nothing more than a Harvard educated paper tiger. A bully who never won a real fight in his life.
Just keep your left up, and wait for an opening. Bullies hate bloody noses. Nathan Hale. John Paul Jones. Tony McAuliffe. They all said it in their own way. Americans know when it’s time to rock ‘n’ roll.
Rachel and Bill
Sep 13, 2009 - 12:06 am 71. Rachel Peepers:It’s with a sprinkle of sadness, a dash of melancholy and probably a touch of Chanticleerian seasoning that fills my heart as I bid adieu to my friends here at Pajamas Media.
Yep. This is Happy Trails.
To me, it seems quite apt to be leaving my final missive among the afterthoughts of a superb article crafted by my favorite PJM writer, Melissa Clouthier, the owner of a true gift for writing and love of country.
Also having my highest respect and esteem are my two dear friends from the left coast, Miss Delia and Mr. Bill; and those the nation wide; Ed Wallis, Meryl, Misanth.., Thinkingperson, Steve, David, Dr. Hanson. The list is longer, much longer than my memory.
You know who you are. Thanks for all the encouragement, exceptional thoughts and wonderful writing which was born of mellifluous talent and soul deep love of the red, white and blue.
Why goodbye? Why now?
I just feel a lack of time is catching up to me.
To often I feel tired to the marrow. And Rachel Peepers, my pen name, not to mention one of the true loves of my life, has a story that needs telling. Needs all my attention if I’m going to get it right. Rachel and I yearn to give the next generation a feel for what it means to love, live and fight for family, friends and the land of liberty.
To Jim, my creative partner for 28 years, who read the first page of “Rachel’s Story” and gave me the go ahead to go the distance, your sheer brilliance I never ever took for granted. The support you gave me when I needed it most; the strength to reach for my star, and hold it for all to see, I am eternally grateful.
To Harold, my biggest fan, the war hero of war heroes, to whom the horror of Malmedy lives in infamy in his heart every day of his life, I am so sorry. I’m sorry you hurt. I hope I’ve helped. I thank you and your brothers in arms for keeping us free. We are trying to do the same.
To my father, the writer and teacher, I have never known what it’s like not missing you. To my son, the writer, the chip off the old block, you know that I’m so proud of you that Betty is constantly re-sewing all the popped shirt buttons.
And me? Well, I’m the ham and cheese of the sandwich. The middle writer of the line.
But, now for me, it’s a race against time.
To you, at PJM, you know you have a fight on your hands. There is not a smidgen of doubt in my mind, though, that in the end the enemy will fall on his handsome, brown eyed, petulant face followed by all the Deminoes (no typo) after him. Bullies who want to enslave and communize the population aren’t exactly a winning combination.
In my book, winners are self reliant, freedom-loving, optimistic, responsible, loyal, honorable. You get the idea.
And my Rachel’s a winner.
Right now she’s sleeping. We had a big day. Made some new friends. Had a spot of tea, actually. Hey, when it comes to tea parties, England has nothing on us. We can throw em’ far as the eye can see.
Didn’t see Obama. I heard somebody stole some of his Acorns. Melissa says he’s a little detached. Very astute observation. It’s getting to the point where he’s told so many whoppers his speech writers can’t remember them. Obama has the talent for going from 45 million uninsured to 30 million in the blink of an eye. Keeping track is important, Barack.
Take away enough of Barack’s Acorns and it just might drive him nuttier than a fruitcake. Maybe let him go out far enough on the limb, then saw it off. Where there’s a national will I know there’s a way.
When all is said and done, though, guys, remember he’s nothing more than a Harvard educated paper tiger. A bully who never won a real fight in his life.
Just keep your left up, and wait for an opening. Bullies hate bloody noses. Nathan Hale. John Paul Jones. Tony McAuliffe. They all said it in their own way. Americans know when it’s time to rock ‘n’ roll.
Rachel and Bill
Sep 13, 2009 - 12:08 am 72. Hildegard:One of the most revealing comments Obie made during the election campaign was when some friendly journo asked if he regarded America as a great country. Obie’s answer was nowhere near a yes, but basically this: “I know what needs to be done to make it great.”
That pretty well captures the man’s malignant narcissism.
Sep 13, 2009 - 12:35 am 73. Don L:I don’t believe Obama is much beyond a well Photoshopped puppet, long ago programmed by the nefarious crowd and philosphy of hate America -a nihilistic group set on destroying what is good. The danger here is to focus on Obama when it is a much bigger movement that has finally found opportunity in a naive and complacent nation, that has long ago lost its moral direction and is vulnerable to anything attractive, to the point of committing national suicide.
Sep 13, 2009 - 12:56 am 74. It must be remembered that Obama is a subversive. He's just spinning his wheels, waiting for the hammer to fall.:Have read here analysis both beautiful and sound. One should also recall that Obama and most who surround him are proponents of CFR, Biden is a Bilderberg man, Brezinsky springs from the Trilateral Commission – minions, all, of the treacherous and seditious David Rockefeller. The agenda here is New World Order. Everything transpiring until that day – in their mind – is so much pretense and waste of time. This detail goes far in explaining the detachment and unconvincing aspect of their manoeuvres. In the strange peregrinations of Potus and his train, we witness nothing more than a dark and lurid Kabuki stagepiece.
A note of reassurance: the plot for destroying America to enable her absorption into a global state is madness. It’s schemers are cowardly effete of the metropolitan milieu, who have no firsthand knowledge of the robust patriotism of heartland America. Such cabals operate in stealth precisely because of their impotence and cowardice. In forthright engagement milksops haven’t a chance. Thus in their greed and lust for dominion, these miscreants eye the course of traitors. What they do not know, however, is that their dark and furtive treason also leads to decimation.
The stalwart and fearless folk who forged this republic are intact and unchanged across the reaches of this country. Wholesome and clean of mind, close to the earth and the realities of nature, these patriots are indomitable. Living among them – deep in the heart of fly-over country – I know. Spawn of many generations bred amid homogeneity of European Americans, such stock have little suspected elements in their midst characterized by deception, treason, theft, arson and every conceivable specie of crime. Yet be assured: alert to a threat, facing a corrupt foe, this legion of humanity will rise against every impendence, slaughter every menace to the heritage of their forbears.
Have no fear. Have NO fear. Safely are you guarded by the true sons of this country.
Cody Saddler
Sep 13, 2009 - 3:18 am 75. rbell:60: Vivo: Have you forgotten the causes of unemployment, like the housing bubble, 0%-down mortgage bubble, banking collapse, high inventory of unsold homes, little car sales, people saving and not spending, no construction jobs, shrunk manufacturing, offshore, outsourcing, stock market jiggles, and other myriad of causes?
And what are you doing about all this?
Answer: The causes are big government and communists pretending to be Democrats. It does not take a genius to figure that out.
What am I doing? Attending the TEA Party Express in DC. You should have been there. A chance to meet real Americans – and nice people to boot. Of course you only watch MSNBC which will report the event as nothing more than an angry mob of few hundred white racists, ignoring the fact that many of the speakers at the rally were black.
Hope you are enjoying the Lords Day.
Sep 13, 2009 - 4:18 am 76. Dr. Lumplevin:What is perceived as aloofness or cold detachment on the part of Pres. Obama by the reptilian-brained, brownshirt-Brooks-Brothers-attired, religious-and-gun-nut Tea baggers is simply the natural effect of being far more intelligent and educated and hence, entitled by natural selection to positions of power and influence. This is why we Progressive national socialists are always so frickin exasperated with and blatantly condescending with respect to the education-level of all you disgustingly middle-class, FoxNews-watching, denizens of offices, sports stadiums, car garages, and shopping malls. Those of us gifted by nature with higher intelligence and larger brain cavities, as well as with government entitlement programs providing an Ivy-League education in post-modernistic hermeneutics and Chomskian ethics, understand that words are simply tools of the ruling class as well as of the revolutionary forces, and that Judeo-Christian sentimentalism is a weakness and hinderance to evolutionary leaps of consciousness and progress. We on the enlightened Left fully understand the liberating feeling of detachment while speaking in tautological oxymorons, the archaic linear-thinking of moralistic limitations. Of course you morns do not know what I’m talking about.
Sep 13, 2009 - 7:30 am 77. Sapwolf:Of course he is.
Any man who believes in letting die a baby who survives abortion is pretty Mengele-cold.
Why are we wasting time discussing this?
Duh!
Sep 13, 2009 - 8:56 am 78. NC Mountain Girl:Obama may have lived in many places, but he was always surrounded by those who had the same leftist worldview and academic sense of detachment. His idea of diversity reminds of the Unitarian church I flirted with in my silly youth. They relished everyone bringing different ethnic dishes to the potluck supper while shunning anyone who expressed a different idea.
In late March, I was talking to the daughter of a client who was a life long resident of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. She told me “At least Obama listens.” I shot back, “He certainly does. To Hyde Park leftwingers and no one else!” I went on to explain that Obama had a remarkably narrow network of influences and associates and that was going to get him in trouble. He had no friends in the business world: No friendships made across the poltical aisle: Not even much contact with academics and politicians from south of the Mason Dixon line. His circle of associates and acquaintences were from a mere handful of cities: Chicago, New York, Washington, Cambridge, LA and the Bay area and had all gone to the same schools. Even worse, like all Hyde Parkers, Obama disdained suburban life. This is and will remain a largely suburban nation. His circle of advisors did not reflect this.
Sep 13, 2009 - 9:27 am 79. Dred Scott:Speaking of Academic: where are Barry’s grades? If the Bush haters can find his driving infraction hours before the 2000 election, why can’t the school produced the transcript? Off to Occidental!
Sep 13, 2009 - 10:36 am 80. Dave K:I won’t speculate as to our President’s motives. In fact, I’ll grant that he believes in the programs he’s pushing.
However, I’m thinking that we are seeing the Peter Principle at work here. Barack Obama has soared through and past his level of incompetence.
Obama was a pretty good community organizer. He also has some pretty shrewd political infighting skills. From that base, he leveraged himself into the Senate. And before he could build any kind of record in Congress he managed to leverage himself into the top elected office.
The problem is that he just has terrible leadership skills. He won’t take on programs as “his own,” but instead lets the House of Representatives dream up the pork-infested bills that he deems urgent. He says he has a plan for health care reform, but then again abdicates to Congress to create the details. He wants to get credit for everything done that seems positive, but insulates himself from the programs so that he, personally, cannot be blamed if things go wrong.
He is nothing but a community organizer in over his head. You see, what community organizers are really good at is gathering together a whole bunch of folks who are pushing a particular agenda. The community organizer then facilitates the group so that they can put their plan into a specific proposal that is pushed up to the community leaders for action. Because the community group is large and politically powerful, the proposal is likely to be implemented. The community organizer takes credit for making the change happen, even though all he did was to get his already powerful group to put together a specific program of action, and have the group leaders (note: NOT the organizer) take that plan forward.
Now that Obama is our President, he can no longer depend on the skills he used so well in Chicago. He can’t easily go out and cozy up to the left-wing, to help them craft the plan that becomes, eventually, law. His community is now the entire United States of America, and there are diverse opinions on what should be done about (say) health care reform. He’s use his minions to try and intimidate, he’s used crisis-talk to evade thoughtful debate, and he has tried to skirt constitutional checks and balances through the appointment of various czars. And all to little success.
Our President has yet to exhibit real leadership. He has broken promises of openness and bipartisanship. He keeps trying to blame others because they have pointed out the weaknesses in the programs he is promoting. And he has shown shown virtually no loyalty to those who helped promote him to the position he has achieved (yes, he has granted favors to some, but he is all to quick to throw former supporters “under the bus” when their presence becomes inconvenient). And finally, he has yet to push forth a plan that he is willing to call his own, with specific details of what he hopes to achieve, what has to be done to achieve those goals, and how much it will cost us to implement those plans. Our President’s words sound pretty nice when they’re coming at us off his teleprompter, but rhetoric doesn’t get things done.
And where is all of this taking us? As the world emerges from a severe global recession, it is beginning to look like the USA, instead of leading the world out of that crisis, will be the laggard. I don’t see it likely that we will become a third-world economy, but the likelihood of a decade of anemic economic growth coupled with persistent high unemployment is a real possibility.
Sep 13, 2009 - 11:24 am 81. ETAB:Dave K#80 – nice post. I agree with a great deal of what you’ve said; I’d add, however, that I think that Obama is not simply a community organizer – who works with the ideology of others – but is a Performer of ideology.
That is, he himself is not an intellect, not someone who plans and intellectually analyzes policies. As you note, he leaves all of that to others. Therefore, I suggest that he is a Salesman for a hard core radical left BackRoom Gang – Soros, Pelosi, Reid and others.
THEY develop the policies. Obama is their poster boy they use to get these programs past Congress – a Congress which they trivialize, whose importance they reject and which they see only as a stumbling block which their Boy, Obama, is supposed to deal with by his ‘charm/crisis’ tactics.
As you note, Obama will never claim a policy as his own; he is a narcissist and will not take the blame for anything. It’s always someone else’s fault – as he constantly reminds us.
Sep 13, 2009 - 2:00 pm 82. Lee Wacker:Dr. Lumplevin: You, sir, are an idiot! I’ll have you know that I am not, as you claim, an uneducated, boorish, beer-swilling nonentity. I am educated, well-traveled, well-versed in the history of our nation, I also have raised nine children, all of the boys served their country, I have two grandsons in the Army at present, and several former Marines. What do you have?
As for Obama’s distaste for the masses, do any of you remember one debate between him and Hillary? While she was speaking—rather passonately, as it were–he regarded her with the most horribly contempuous expression I have ever seen! She wasn’t a peer; someone who was campaigning for a high level office, she was a bug–an insect suited only for pinning on the board. I know something else about Obama–he is a spousal abuser–other than the stupid fist-bump, have you ever seen him put his arm around Michelle, has he ever taken the hand of one of the children? Look at the way he salutes—oh, such misery that he has to recognize those who serve the country! Watch him! He is a lunatic!
He is America’s King George III — mad as a hatter!
Sep 13, 2009 - 4:32 pm 83. vivo:75. rbell:
“Answer: The causes are big government and communists pretending to be Democrats. It does not take a genius to figure that out.”
Sorry to hear that. You negate the facts and just cling to the wacko propaganda of right-wing exploiters.
Sep 14, 2009 - 4:41 am 84. Paul -Indiana:#70. Go with God.
Sep 14, 2009 - 8:48 am 85. adams:is there anyuse of obama in us?
Sep 14, 2009 - 4:55 pm 86. bobby bb:Yet, despite all these rants, Obamas’s approval ratings still over 50%..what does that tell us?
Sep 14, 2009 - 9:24 pm 87. Hans Moleman:Former President Jimmy Carter has now declared that Joe Wilson and most of the opposition to President Obama is motivated by racism. Yes, racism. “The overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity against President Obama is based on his being a black man.” “I think it’s based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”
This was preceded by NBC film clips of the anti-Obama demonstrators at the latest “Tea Party” march. The clip shows numerous protest signs, some in very bad taste (including the stupid “Hitler” reference) – but not one with a single racist reference. Not one! Even NBC couldn’t manufacture a shred of reality to support the charge. Of course, Carter himself offered no evidence at all.
Such appears to be the new racial standard: Opponents of Obama are racist until proven innocent. Opponents of Obama are deemed racist by definition.
It remains to be seen if serious Democrats condemn all this as it deserves. It could happen.
But the Party should be able to see the magnitude of the problem it now faces. Cheapening the charge of racism has been the life work of race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. It has run increasingly close to the surface in many Democratic circles. But it has never been quite so blatant.
The effect of all this is predictable. Obama is losing support among independents and moderates, but not by any means irretrievably so. Obama and the Party need to win them back. Do they really think that accusing them of racism for reconsidering their vote will help matters? Can we honestly say that opposing a president must be racist if that president is black? Do they really think they can prevent opposition by playing the race card in such an egregious fashion?
Every president in my long lifetime has evoked intensely demonstrated animosity among many citizens. But the abiding principle of American civil discourse was that such feelings may have been mistaken but were held in good faith, that reasonable people could disagree about politics. That citizens engafed in public debate should be given the benefit of the doubt, at least as regards their motives?
Politicians might accuse their opponents of every despicable act. LBJ, Nixon, and George W. Bush were all called murderers in their time. They were each wantonly and stupidly compared to Hitler.
Some of the haters even declared that the supporters of these presidents were themselves evil. Certainly Nixon and Bush (and Reagan) voters were all subtly accused of being closet racists.
Jimmy Carter! I voted for this guy! I campaigned for him!
Surely the responsible voices of the party, and especially President Obama, must speak out at once and unequivocally to repudiate this horrid libel on the American people. When that happens, I will feel much better
But for now, my shame as a Democrat has never been greater.
Sep 15, 2009 - 10:26 pm 88. Carl in MI:No matter what you say about President Obama… he’ll never match the horrible, inexcusable and irresponsible things that the Bush and Cheney Administration did.
When you lie about starting a voluntary and unprovoked war, put the costs of that war on the federal credit card for your nation’s grandchildren to pay for it, and you poll at under 28%… no further explanation is necessary.
Nov 3, 2009 - 8:56 pm