The Telegraph says that President Obama was too exhausted to give British PM Gordon Brown a proper welcome.
Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.
British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.
But Washington figures with access to Mr Obama’s inner circle explained the slight by saying that those high up in the administration have had little time to deal with international matters, let alone the diplomatic niceties of the special relationship.
Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president’s surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.
A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama’s inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to “even fake an interest in foreign policy”.
Maybe part of the reason the White House is frazzling itself into the ground is that they’re trying to remake everything. Everything has now become part of the delta. Everything is changing. Now they are facing the revenge of the second derivative: the rate of the rate of change. They are trying to restructure the government so it is run with Czars instead of cabinet secretaries; “engaging” hostile nations with little or no preconditions and getting blown off; changing the basis of the economy to conform to their untried vision of the future; creating the single greatest expansion of government since FDR; redesigning health care; holding consultations on everything and planning to save the world from Climate Change. They’re busy because crisis creates an “opportunity” for their own vague revolution.
The cumulative consequence of these actions is a vast increase in the amount of risk the entire system has to endure because variables are being added faster than they are being solved. The margins are gone — removed by design. The margins are in the way. But while things might hold together for so long as the road ahead is smooth, what happens if things hit a bump? What happens in the Obama administration, too preoccupied to “even fake an interest in foreign policy meets a sudden challenge?
So far the Obama administration has only had to deal with the economy. And despite their campaign handwringing about how much less safe America has become, its foreign enemies, perhaps still picking themselves up off the ground from the pasting they received at the hands of George W. Bushchimp, have not yet made a move. But one day they too may notice that nobody is at home.
But the cup of foreign affairs will not pass away from Washington. The NYT describes President Obama’s thinking on the Taliban.
Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan, a war he effectively adopted as his own last month by ordering an additional 17,000 troops sent there, Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.” …
Mr. Obama said on the campaign trail last year that the possibility of breaking away some elements of the Taliban “should be explored,” an idea also considered by some military leaders. But now he has started a review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan intended to find a new strategy, and he signaled that reconciliation could emerge as an important initiative, mirroring the strategy used by Gen. David H. Petraeus in Iraq.
At the same time, he acknowledged that outreach may not yield the same success. “The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex,” he said. “You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge.”
For American military planners, reaching out to some members of the Taliban is fraught with complexities. For one thing, officials would have to figure out which Taliban members might be within the reach of a reconciliation campaign, no easy task in a lawless country with feuding groups of insurgents.
And administration officials have criticized the Pakistani government for its own reconciliation deal with local Taliban leaders in the Swat Valley, where Islamic law has been imposed and radical figures hold sway. Pakistani officials have sought to reassure administration officials that their deal was not a surrender to the Taliban, but rather an attempt to drive a wedge between hard-core Taliban leaders and local Islamists.
And now he’s going to try the same thing. Will it work? Maybe. But the devil is in the details or in the lack of attention to them.
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102 Comments
1. Uncle Jefe:Exactly.
I live in Northern California, in Sonoma County.
The inference is, bastion of liberalism.
This morning, I was speaking out front with the neighbors about all of this. Obama was being loudly mocked by the neighbors, and soon several other neighbors came out to share in the jokes. (None of us has ever spoken politics before; I fly the lone American flag on this street.)
It was all about the economy, but I said “wait until he turns his attention to foreign policy; wait until he guts our Military. Then we’ll really be in trouble.”
Mar 7, 2009 - 4:47 pm 2. Willie G:Everyone was in agreement, but it feels like even if folks are waking up and there will be a backlash of anti-obama sentiment that may lead to electoral change in 2010, it will be too little, too late.
A few minutes ago I noticed that two of those neighbors have their flags flying.
Real hope and change coming?
So…now we’re the ones hoping for change from the current amateur hour?
No one at State can read/write Russian?
Gifts to a visiting head of state are purchased from the White House gift shop for $38.95?
The Treasury wunderkind is clueless?
Anxiously awaiting the latest from the “teleprompter Jesus”?
I miss W….
Mar 7, 2009 - 4:48 pm 3. wildernesscalling:Pure amateur time! Man the life boats! this makes Bush a genius, remember “0″ team is made up of be there, done that Clinton members, to blame inexperience and exhausting is too hope all are still under “0″ spell, the Brits are being nice to accept the lame excuse.
Mar 7, 2009 - 4:54 pm 4. always right:OK, anybody with two brain cells to rub together can see team O is way over its head, but it is even worse to have that (Mr Obama had failed so far to “even fake an interest in foreign policy”) ‘leaked out’ and confirm to our enemies around the world.
The kindhearted DC insider tried to apologize to GB, yet directly advertised to the world
Here is OPEN SEASON?????
Jeeez.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:09 pm 5. PA Cat:Funny, Obama has time to sip cocktails at White House parties every Wednesday:
Some Obama guests say he immediately puts them at ease. He indulges them and serves cookies, too.
“People like me felt comfortable in his presence,” said Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., a self-described “poor country boy” who said he felt like a “freshman going to the senior prom” when he attended a White House reception for leaders of the congressional caucuses.
“Sometimes when you’re in the presence of the most powerful person in the world, in the most powerful democracy in the world … I was in awe that I was comfortable,” said Honda, chairman of the Asian Pacific American Caucus. “I think that’s his style and how he grew up, who he is.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96M09BO0&show_article=1
Priorities, dontcha know? Too tired to welcome the Prime Minister of our closest ally but not too tired to serve cookies to Congresscritters. Sounds like Obama’s “exhaustion” is quite selective.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:17 pm 6. whiskey:That bumpy road is likely to come soon and in multiple waves at the same time:
*North Korea, pressed, launches an invasion of South Korea, for well, food. It also fires missiles at Japan.
*Pakistan falls to the Islamists.
*Mexico falls apart with many regions in open secession by drug warlords and economic and violence crisises put 20 million Mexican illegal aliens in the US in a time of deep, lasting recession, instantly available for Affirmative Action preferences, welfare, and job preferences and immune from deportation.
*Iran goes nuclear and threatens both the US and Israel.
*Israel strikes first at Iran’s nuclear base, killing millions.
*A nuke of unknown origin claimed by both Pakistani and Iranian elements kills 6 million in NYC, followed by 3-4 million dead in Boston or Houston.
*Russia and Iran base nuclear missiles in Venezuela, aimed at the US.
*Obama responds to all the crises happening within a three week time span by doing nothing, other than promising “war crimes” investigations and subjecting the US military and CIA to the ICC.
Already Obama has made, powerful, serious, and permanent enemies of the military and intelligence communities, simply by suggesting that they will be tried for “war crimes” by the ICC and/or Democratic congressmen.
In making these enemies he has not gotten allies.
He is the true Affirmative Action President — manifestly incompetent.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:20 pm 7. maz2:Of interest?
“From Meccania to Atlantis – Part 9: Goodbye To All That
From the desk of Takuan Seiyo on Fri, 2009-03-06 21:40
When in the Course of human events
“What Robert Graves felt towards the ruling elite of his country after the Great War, some in the West feel toward the ruling elites of their countries after the Great Meltdown. But the financial dissolution is just the beginning of the meltdown. Perhaps, as the most aggressive money-printing campaign in the history of the world brings its likely Weimarian consequences in 3 -5 years from now, people will wake up in hindsight to the stupidity, arrogance and gross misjudgment of their ruling elites in non-fiscal matters as well.
In the preceding chapters we have run through various current news that induce astonishment at the cowardice, venality and stupidity of the West’s ruling elites everywhere — from Australia’s crypto-Marxist Kevin Rudd through America’s spendthrift neocap neocon, George W. Bush and archliberal neosoc Barack Obama, to Amsterdam’s neo-dhimmi Mayor Job Cohen, to the cabal of White bootlickers of Third World despots populating every EU, UN and all other acronymous global organizations.
I have highlighted as well the many ways in which the Western populace deserves contempt for being intimidated by primitive and mostly imported minorities living in its midst, for allowing itself to be turned into mindless Pods hypnotized by consumerism, mired in Third World altruism while its own house is on fire, brainwashed by political and commercial propaganda, wracked by a resistible infection of racial guilt, and addicted to the daily glucose drip from nanny governments, with candy confiscated from others.
Since Revolution is not currently knocking on history’s doors, and the postmodern Western democracy is rigged in such a way that a party with a truly palliative agenda has little chance of assuming power in Pod town (1), other alternatives ought to be considered, outside the box.
“Alternatives outside the box” is dry technospeak behind which there are choices full of pain, struggle, wrenching drama and uncertainty. But then, we are trapped in a loony bin, watching a play that might as well be called The Persecution and Assassination of Reality as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Snatchland Under the Direction of the Marquises d’ Elite, after that nearly-eponymous work by Peter Weiss about the Marquis de Sade’s career as a dramaturgist among the crazies.
The asylum’s restraining device, a chain and ball, is made of paper.” more>>>
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:20 pm 8. Doug:http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3815
Those weren’t just ANY Congresscritters.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:21 pm 9. Doug:Those were Asian Pacific American Congresscritters.
My kindergarten teacher served cookies too, and I was in awe of her from time to time.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:24 pm 10. PA Cat:(like when she broke down in front of the class for one)
We are the Whirreled.
9 Doug
Actually, Obama’s “cookies” might have been the famous Alice B. Toklas (Gertrude Stein’s girlfriend) marijuana brownies:
“Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be pulverized in a mortar. About a handful each of stone dates, dried figs, shelled almonds and peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of canibus sativa [sic] can be pulverized. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the canibus may present certain difficulties…. It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green.”
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/880/alice-b-toklas-brownies-the-recipe
The One supposedly knows all about Mary Jane. Which may be another reason why “nobody is at home” (to quote Wretchard) at Team O headquarters.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:33 pm 11. Mongoose:Doug: and no doubt democrats to boot.
They shold invite Soros, that might change the dynamics a bit. Think of it as “edgy”.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:38 pm 12. bob:He did well to get out of a joint press conference. But why send the Churchill bust back? Would have thought that would be a keeper. (who by the way did it legally belong to?)
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:42 pm 13. MarkL:OODA Loops.
The ’stupid’ GWB got the US inside most of the OODA loops of the major enemies de jour (NK, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya) which, it is now clear, had established themselves as a loose coalition. While each had their own intentions, all had nuclear ambitions, and all sought to place limits on the US ability to respond in their area. One of the limiting tools they sought to use was AQ (9/11 & etc) and there were many others. Of these actors:
NK – stymied
Taliban Afghanistan – destroyed
Iraq – destroyed
Syria – damaged
Libya – forced to abjure the game
Iran – responded effectively and to a degree countered GWB, but very heavily defeated in its intentions for Iraq
Others: Russia. Stymied, but finally capable of limited action on its borders in 2008.
2009’s regime change in the US has swept the board in favour of these enemies de jour. The new regime has essentially tossed the strategic babies that bought the US a series of major victories out with the bathwater of their GWB-derangement syndrome.
Which indicates that Dr Sanity (http://drsanity@blogspot.com) is correct in assessing the new main players in the (genuinely stupid) Obamessiah’s ‘administration’ as self-centred narcissists and fabulists.
So the mostly defeated or contained foes are now in the ‘Observe’ part of the cycle. And the new ‘administration’ appears to have abandoned the concept of OODA entirely unless it relates to US talk-show hosts.
The NorK’s have moved to ‘Orient’ and others are showing the first signs of that as well.
Reading the tealeaves is tough, but ‘Act’ can not be more than 3 months away for at least some of these players.
And that ‘Act’ will be a strategic surprise to the monumentally stupid Obamessiah and his merry band of tax-dodgers and corrupt Clintonite cretins.
What happens when seriously stupid people who are also narcissists are subject to highly unpleasant surprises? It tends to be a combination of ‘temporary paralysis then panic and shoot from the hip’.
The more sophisticated players (Russia, China) will understand this, so expect them to draw lines and clearly articulate that they are only acting inside the lines. They will telegraph their punches, relying on a combination of Obama’s stupidity, ignorance and cowardice to enable their actions. But these will openly be limited ‘bite and hold’, and only of things very close to their borders. Russia wants to undo parts of the strategic apocalypse they have endured since 1990. China wants to expand back into its ancient role as hegemon of north Asia.
I am not overly worried about them – they just want to exploit US weaknesses near to their borders, or in China’s case regarding its acquisition of neo-colonies in Africa. They will proceed with due caution.
But the less rational players (Iran, Syria, etc) have proxy armies and genuinely want to hurt US interests. They also do not have full control over their proxy armies.
And some of those proxy forces are bat-sh*t bay-at-the-moon crazy.
There are clear and present dangers starting to emerge. Some ‘terrible ifs’ are accumulating with startling speed.
MarkL
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:44 pm 14. Mongoose:Canberra
Seems to me that people over at those leisure spots such as Foggy bottom, Langley, Fort Mead and Arlington are going to start to take Obama apart soon.
Even they cannot afford this garbage.
I do wish that they could figure out that Soros et. al are the real enemies.
When the Establishment liberals in the beltway crowd bolt it will be over.
Some body has to have some real dirt on the Obama crowd, and it is pretty obvious and Obama cannot conrol the real insiders in DC,
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:45 pm 15. bob:The Brits ought to send the bust back, saying it belongs to the American people. Send it to someplace other than the WH, to someone who can properly care for it.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:46 pm 16. trangbang68:Hey Whiskey ,do you think all that will happen simultaneously? Geesh! I understand optimism is a little hard to find now days but that’s pretty gloomy stuff.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:47 pm 17. bob:“I’m reading last year’s paper
Although I don’t know why
Assassins ,cons and rapers
Might as well die…”
No marigolds in the Promised Land
There’s a hole in the ground where
they used to grow
Any man left on the Rio Grande
Is the King of the World
As far as I know”
-Fagan/Becker
Ah, I see the bust was technically on loan, well anyway….’tis not proper.
Mar 7, 2009 - 5:50 pm 18. bogie wheel:I’m sorry, but this:
He did well to get out of a joint press conference
was really funny, coming just two posts after this:
Actually, Obama’s “cookies” might have been the famous Alice B. Toklas (Gertrude Stein’s girlfriend) marijuana brownies
Or else I’m just sick.
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:06 pm 19. bob:China takes Taiwan must be added to the list, and Russia takes back Alaska, over some futile resistance by the local Palinites. Food supplies begin to dwindle in the US as fertilizer and fuel supplies vanish, and roving bands of armed men and women begin to storm grain elevators. Church attendance soars.
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:07 pm 20. Andrew X:Uncle Jefe – I have seen a few comments from blue staters similar to yours.
I suddenly quite seriously wonder something: What if Obama REALLY does turn out to unite us rather than divide us? Just maybe not quite the way he or his dwindling minions forsaw?
Heh. (Quite serious, though)
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:08 pm 21. trangbang68:Bob #19 (continued): The Mexicans take back the southwest, The Sioux take back South Dakota, the Jews take back Williamsburg,Brooklyn, the Italians take back organized crime, Obama takes back his cocaine habit as he is very tired trying to turn manure into gold.
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:13 pm 22. West:Maybe a good way to put Obama’a plight is that being president is “hard work”?
I bet the media would back him up 100% on that.
Pity no one ever mentioned that before.
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:33 pm 23. Doug:Careful about them Joint Press Conferences al-Bob:
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:35 pm 24. Jamie Irons:Barry might suffer a Punahoe Flashback!
Uncle Jefe (1st comment),
You account is fascinating.
I live in the Napa Valley, and nothing like that has yet happened here (nothing that I am aware of, anyway).
But I have always thought of Sonoma as even more liberal than Napa, so your story is especially encouraging.
Jamie Irons
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:47 pm 25. PA Cat:FWIW:
According to Rasmussen, the percentage of respondents who “strongly disapprove” of Zero is rising again. Graph here: http://neoneocon.com/2009/03/07/a-trend/
Mar 7, 2009 - 6:59 pm 26. Uncle Jefe:Howdy, neighbor Jamie Irons.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:04 pm 27. Walt:Yes, Sonoma County is known for it’s liberalism, what with Sebastopol (gotta love that nuke-free zone they’ve got there…be sure to tell the Norks and any and all assorted terrorists…) Guerneville and other pockets of west county…
However, it is Ag country first and foremost, so folks are American first, believe it or not.
Just very socially liberal, but slowly becoming a bit more pragmatic.
The liberals, as everywhere, are simply the squeakiest wheel, and are fully backed by the NYTimes-owned (and very aptly named) Press Democrat.
I’ve got a feeling that people here who voted for obama with their hearts are coming around to the realization that they’ve been suckers. The obama stickers have quietly been disappearing from car bumpers, though they never were as omnipresent as the Kerry/Edwards or
Gore stickers…
Unfortunately, by the time the populace is united against obammy and what’s happening, he and nancy and harry will have gutted the USA economically, defensively, and anywhere else they see fit to ‘fix’ things.
Much has lately been written here about FDR, and the related worry about becoming a socialist country. A little known accident of history, the untimely death of Wendell Willkie, scotched a plan to do just that. After the 1940 presidential election between a liberal Democrat, FDR, and a liberal Republican, Wendell Willkie, FDR, frustrated, as he saw it, by the southern conservative Democrats, began talks with Willkie with the intent of forming a new Liberal party, uniting the liberal wings of the Democrat and Republican parties, leaving the rest to shift for themselves. Had it happened, the result would likely have been a three party system, with the liberals dominating a rump conservative southern Democrat party and a rump conservative Midwest Republican party. It never happened because WWII intervened, Willkie died, and less than two years after that FDR died. So it never happened, but it could have, with disastrous consequences for the US. As late as 1968 George Wallace could accurately say, of our two dominant parties, that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between them. Had FDR and Willkie succeeded, there would most assuredly have been a great deal of difference between them. The United States would have had political parties on the British model, and our politics and country would have been completely different, dominated as it would be by a far left political party. That is where we now are, with the Democratic party captured by the far left, and leading us down that dank, dark road of socialism that leads inevitably to the cliff.
Washington said no more than two
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:05 pm 28. Doug:To which all did agree
Till FDR said oh pooh pooh
I think I’ll go for three
The GOP guy in that year
Had Wendell for first name
Which tells you all you need to hear
About his chance for fame
Well FDR had up his sleeve
A scheme to flip the donkeys
And then without a by your leave
Unite with Wendell’s flunkies
To make a Liberal party that
Would rule the land forever
And guarantee whoever sat
In White House left it never
The Liberal flag remained unfurled
The thought just died aborning
‘Cause Wendell Willkie left this world
To very little mourning
Jamie,
The collective insight @ BC is that BHO suffers from abandonment issues.
This article argues he’s the Cure for OURS!
How the Election of Barack Obama Helps to Resolve Abandonment Issues
Perhaps you could apply your professional expertise to solving this conundrum!
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:12 pm 29. whiskey:Trang, the reason I think they will happen at the same time is that the main forces acellerating the challenges to the US, world economic collapse, are kicking out the underpinnings of Mexico, North Korea, and Pakistan, making the two collapsing states vulnerable to challenge within and the starving North Korea more likely to roll the dice on a war. As would be Iran.
Moreover, once one crisis errupts, that’s a golden opportunity for another player elsewhere to exploit the fact that Obama, weak, passive, lazy, and limited, will ignore him for the nearer crisis.
Weakness invites attack.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:17 pm 30. Uncle Jefe:By the way, Jamie, whilst driving through St. Helena yesterday, I saw more than a few signs of ‘Freedom Is Not Free’ and ‘Support the Troops’, right along the main drag north of town.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:18 pm 31. bob:Very nice.
I’d like to ask Jamie Irons for his thoughts on the proposed makeover of the medical system.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:22 pm 32. Doug:Shame, Uncle Jefe!
Freedom is Slavery!
““Leadership is not about what you do…it’s about how to be.””
– Frances Hesselbein
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:36 pm 33. Doug:…and besides, how could you leave out PETALUMA!
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:39 pm 34. jjmurphy:Not to mention the Russian River.
Whiskey – Not sure if all those events you mentioned will happen at once or at all. However, there can be no doubt, at least among rational people, that our enemies see a drastically vulnerable USA that is being run by total incompetents. Our military, while the best in the world, is hamstrung by these same idiots in D.C. If I were an enemy of the USA I would be working like crazy to accelerate any plans I had to damage us. Perhaps they haven’t hit us yet because even they could not believe Obama and the democrats would be this bad so fast!
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:41 pm 35. Leo Linbeck III:The PM flew over the pond
For a wave of the lightworker’s wand
His hope would beget
Just a DVD set
So like the press, he too was conned.
— —
The Taliban certainly know
That Obama would sure like to go
So to give him a push
Off the ol’ Hindu Kush
They promise to send him some blow.
— —
L3
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:41 pm 36. Jamie Irons:Doug and Bob,
I’d like to address your questions (with my very limited expertise) but I’ll have to do so later, as I’m off to a party at my friend Nina’s place (I’m lucky to have both a lovely wife and a lovely friend each named Nina!), so I’ll try to take a crack at the issues tomorrow.
Unless I’m too hungover!
Jamie Irons
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:43 pm 37. Tony:We’ve been here before. Within just a few years of Nixon forcing North Vietnam to the Paris Peace Accords with Operation Linebacker II, America became extremely weak under Jimmy Carter and our enemies attacked all around the world.
Jimmy pulled the plug in South Africa, where the Cubans had 50,000 troops in Angola. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan and Jimmy boycotted the Olympics. The Ayatollah turned Iran into the world center of Islamofascism after Jimmy undermined the Shah. Central America burned.
Obama is already going gray in the office. His strength is running for office, not governing. His radical plans are more important than actually fulfilling the duties of his office.
God help us all.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:44 pm 38. Doug:Jamie just couldn’t resist the crack reference @ Barry’s expense.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:46 pm 39. jjmurphy:OK, any ideas where I can find info on how to survive the next few years? Really!
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:55 pm 40. fred:We just have to survive the next four years. I believe we can. I hope we can.
We MUST find a way to spread conservative ideas and the knowledge of our foundational documents. The ignorance of these things is profound and widespread. Perhaps we should go on over to the Heritage Foundation’s site and order up those booklets with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Hand them out to your friends and family. I did.
Mar 7, 2009 - 8:11 pm 41. Walt:Far too many of us are feeling unusually doleful these days, as if the world as we know and knew it is about to go keplunk. I don’t think so. Keep the faith, the country will still be here in 2010, when the people who don’t think about politics will turn out the guys they see as the authors of all their troubles, and vote in the other guys, us. That’s the way it works. We only need one of the Houses, will likely win both, and then this will all seem a bad and unnecessary memory.
Forget your troubles come on get happy
Mar 7, 2009 - 8:13 pm 42. PA Cat:Chirped a song of the 30s back then
No matter the lyric was sappy
The point was that women and men
Who looked on the dark side of living
With joblessness, hard times and strife
Need someone prepared to be giving
Them reason to treasure their life
So that’s why I write these here verses
To say that the gloom is misplaced
It’s bad but the thing that is worse is
To think it’s the worst thing we’ve faced
We’re not on the brink of disaster
We’re not going over the cliff
If cheerful we’re out of it faster
This bad time will be just a riff
In this opera bouffe we’re all watching
As Obie and crew crash and burn
The voters the drift they are catching
And soon it will be adults turn
There are those who give sobbing and praying
A bad name, don’t be one of those
You don’t want your peers to be saying
Don’t know why he’s so lachrymose
But the cup of foreign affairs will not pass away from Washington.
Meanwhile, Obama’s SoS isn’t exactly covering herself with glory after yesterday’s gaffe:
“BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts’ names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe’s. . . ”
Just like her boss, she’s claiming overwork: “Tiredness appeared to show Friday when she answered questions in front of 500 young Europeans at the European Parliament, where she was the highest-ranking U.S. visitor since the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1985.. . . A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding:
‘I have never understood multiparty democracy.
‘It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy.’
The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5253XS20090306?sp=true
Predictably for Reuters, the article can’t omit the obligatory fawning even after noting Clinton’s inability to get the names of EU leaders straight: “Still, Clinton has been well received in Brussels, where the Obama administration has been viewed as a breath of fresh air after the unpopular leadership of George W. Bush.”
Breath of fresh air? They must have very low standards of air quality in Brussels.
Mar 7, 2009 - 8:16 pm 43. Cannoneer No. 4:Walt, what makes you think there will be free and fair elections in 2010?
A lot of people sure don’t want to face the cold hard truth.
Mar 7, 2009 - 9:03 pm 44. whiskey:Let me add, commenters on Ace of Spades are noting that “tired and emotional” is a euphemism for drunk, in the British Press, which used that to describe Obama in “sneer quotes” in other words.
Is Obama back on the powder? Or is it crack these days?
He is reportedly having a party every night, with various high-profile celebrities and Black supporters. Including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Oprah, Russell Simmons, etc. Michelle has urged, reportedly that guests refrain from breaking White House furniture, dishes, etc.
Obama every Wed has a big blow-out party with Wagyu beef served for various insiders and supporters. Perhaps party goers are supplying the President’s drug needs? Who knows? He certainly needs “rest” the way Lindsay Lohan needs rehab.
Mar 7, 2009 - 9:22 pm 45. Doug:Luckily, we got the behemoth on our side.
That’s gotta help.
Dreaming of Splitting the Taliban – NYTimes.com
President Obama is sending an additional 17,000 American troops to Afghanistan, as part of his effort to try to put a tourniquet on the hemorrhaging war effort there. He has ordered a strategic review of United States policy there, and tasked a diplomatic behemoth — Richard C. Holbrooke, architect of the Dayton accords — to try to do in Afghanistan what he did in Bosnia. And he has, within days of assuming the presidency, taken ownership of the war in Afghanistan, with all of the Vietnam-era references to quagmire that come with it.
Mar 7, 2009 - 9:23 pm 46. Thrasymachus:Aiaiai, read the whole thing, it’s a lot scarier than the quote.
The “major African American figure who Obama courted for two years for his endorsement” says he’s in over his head. I’m guessing this is Colin Powell, as ever the first to leave a sinking ship.
If he’s tired and snappish after six weeks, and more ominously if people on his staff who would know are willing to tell a foreign newspaper he’s tired and snappish after six weeks, he really is in over his head.
The outraged State Department official denying there was any special relationship was not a good sign either.
Mar 7, 2009 - 9:27 pm 47. RPI:Illinois Republican Rep. Ray LaHood (Wiki): – “He (Emanuel Rahm) recruited the right candidates [for 2006 elections], found the money and funded them, and provided issues for them. Rahm did what no one else could do in seven cycles.”
The frenetic, frazzling pace…could it be that the Ballet Dancer is both the Brains and Cattle Prod behind Obama?
Mar 7, 2009 - 9:28 pm 48. fred:I’d be curious to know what the total market value is of all the “troubled” mortgages in the United States? And then compare that figure with the total amount in all of the bail out packages rammed through. My gut tells me the numbers do not add up. Something fishy is going on.
Mar 7, 2009 - 9:34 pm 49. PA Cat:Meanwhile, back at the (Washington) ranch: The O. apparently can’t keep Pelosi and Reid from getting into a public cussing match over the porkulus bill:
The heated, sometimes profane, exchanges were described as “ugly” by Democrats on both sides of the Capitol. Staff, kicked out in the hall, could hear the yelling, and Pelosi herself seemed a little abashed the next day, joking that nothing her leadership could say to her now would match the night before.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/06/politics/politico/main4849452.shtml
Kinda makes you hope Nobody-messes-with-Joe is watching his back these days.
Mar 7, 2009 - 10:06 pm 50. Walt:Cannoneer @43
See my post about the census in the “Pushback” thread. I am confident the Dems/Acorn will do everything they can to see the election is rigged in their favor. I am suggesting that vigilance and hard work is the counter, not despair.
Walt
Mar 7, 2009 - 10:27 pm 51. Robohobo:Walt and others:
As I said in another thread last night in reference to us needing to ‘get busy’:
“Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [RE: What they found on Miranda] This record here’s about twelve years old. Parliament buried it and it stayed buried until River here dug it up. This is what they were afraid she knew. And they were right to fear. There’s a universe of folk who’re gonna know it, too. Someone *has to* speak for these people.”
[pause]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: “Y’all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all come to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this – they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave.”
Well, I aim to misbehave.
And do some ‘Go John Galt’ in my own way. Investing in the following stocks in the next months:
Canned goods
Ammo
Firearms
Dry goods
Fuel
Etc – you get the idea.
The actual goods not pieces of paper.
The crew running DC is the most amateurish in recent memory, maybe any memory. Like a friend once said, “Rookies make rookie mistakes.”
Mar 7, 2009 - 11:11 pm 52. JMH:Bob #19 (continued): The Mexicans take back the southwest, The Sioux take back South Dakota, the Jews take back Williamsburg,Brooklyn, the Italians take back organized crime, Obama takes back his cocaine habit as he is very tired trying to turn manure into gold.
Havana goes back to the mob and Fidel and I open a chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken shops. Ain’t life sweet? I feel good. I feel better than James Brown. I feel better now. How do you feel?
Though if we’re going for Was Not Was lyrics, maybe “I blew up the United States” would be more appropriate for The One (termer).
Mar 7, 2009 - 11:23 pm 53. wildernesscalling:Impeach “0”, Pelosi and Reid, Impeach “0”, Pelosi and Reid, Impeach “0”, Pelosi and Reid, That’s kind of catchy! Yes ML (#13) has a great scenario, I agree it will come in waves as each one gets worse depending on how long the “Loser in Chief” along with his 1001 clowns stay in town, the only way this goes good is if ether they are thrown out thru political process in short quick manner (can’t happen in today’s settings), the economy collapses and drags the US into a very dark period where the US disappears from the international stage and nearly with in its own boarders or a very quick military revolt (what’s that called again, oh ya. Coup d’etat!)
Mar 8, 2009 - 3:30 am 54. mjB:Not only is Obama a lazy slacker who is spending millions of dollars entertaining and smoozing late into the night at the White House, but he is a confirmed narcissist with no real interest in the day to day work of being President.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1543285/the_ploy_of_inaction.html?singlepage=true&cat=75
mB
Mar 8, 2009 - 4:21 am 55. Doug:– Barack Obama must grow as a statesman if he is to lead the free world –
America’s new president will learn a thing or two about decorum on the world stage when he visits the Queen.
One thing’s certain when President Obama arrives in London at the end of March – he’ll receive a far warmer and more cordial welcome than the one he doled out to Gordon Brown in Washington earlier this week. As the British media widely noted, the Prime Minister was given a humiliatingly low key reception at the White House at the hands of a new U.S. Administration that seems to care little for the Anglo-American alliance or even the basics of international diplomacy.
No British leader in modern times has been greeted with less decorum by his American counterpart, and the amateur reception he received was more fitting for the arrival of a Third World potentate than the leader of America’s closest ally.
Mar 8, 2009 - 4:32 am 56. Pops in Vienna:Whiskey #6:
Here’s a few more for you…
China’s economy collapses, leaving no buyer for US T-bills.
Russia establishes a major naval base in Venezuala.
Medical Insurance companies collapse in the USA – ask for bail out.
Numerous state and local pension systems become insolvent due to poorly performing stock market.
Public employees walk off the job in California after state is unable to pay them for several weeks.
Hungary, Ukraine and Poland suffer a complete financial collapse. Major riots in many eastern European cities. Russia moves in to establish order in the Ukraine.
Russia cuts off supply lines for us troops in Afghanistan. Troops are left stranded but China permits an evacuation through their country as long as troops leave all weapons and equipment behind.
Argentina retakes Falklands.
Farmers are unable to plant a spring crop due to lack of financing and new federal regulations related to carbon emissions from farm equipment.
Alaska is unable to turn back massive waves of immigrants from the lower 48.
Riots in Los Angeles, Detroit and Atlanta over a Washington Post cartoon of Obama.
Mar 8, 2009 - 5:54 am 57. Pops in Vienna:Ooooops, forgot the most important one of all..
Obama wins 2009 Noble Peace Prize.
Mar 8, 2009 - 6:12 am 58. Neo:So why does this come to mind ?
Mar 8, 2009 - 6:25 am 59. Bosslowrider:Obie should have told the Brit PM he was baking a cake ’cause if he didn’t want to meet the guy one excuse is as good as another.
I just now found out what arugula is and now I gotta figure out what wine to serve with cookies? Geeze, it never ends.
Mar 8, 2009 - 8:37 am 60. Obama was too exhausted to give British PM a proper welcome. - XDTalk Forums - Your HS2000/SA-XD Information Source!:[...] was too exhausted to give British PM a proper welcome. Belmont Club An disaster waiting to happen [...]
Mar 8, 2009 - 8:57 am 61. Barry 0351:Stunned that their (democrats) world view did not resemble the reality of the real world.
Mar 8, 2009 - 9:07 am 62. DaveinPhoenix:this leads to mass confusion, hesitation, gray hair and eventually an attack on our country I believe Mr. Obama and company have read the handwritting on the wall and it’s scared the livin’ shit out of them.
“About floggin’ time I say!”
Maybe a few less lavish dinners and excessive partying Wednesday nights at the White House (at taxpayer expense)will cure Barry.
Mar 8, 2009 - 9:25 am 63. Vllera:Exhausted? maybe cutting back on rich food and WH parties might help.
Mar 8, 2009 - 9:41 am 64. feeblemind:And we are less than a month into the Obama presidency. The nightmare has just begun.
Mar 8, 2009 - 9:55 am 65. The Real Problem » The Ethereal Voice:[...] Belmont Club has a couple of posts up that are critical of Obama. The first examines his “I am so tried” excuse for miss handling the the visit Gordon Brown. The second post exams the signs that his honeymoon [...]
Mar 8, 2009 - 10:14 am 66. ag:“Now they are facing the revenge of the second derivative”
Mar 8, 2009 - 10:25 am 67. StarStella:Wretchard, I love the way you write.
First of all, before you criticize, go back to grade school and learn grammar. It’s “A DISASTER” not “AN DISASTER.” That is what I called a disaster, illiterates with opinions.
Mar 8, 2009 - 12:25 pm 68. wretchard:I write about 2,700 words a day and do make typos. Thanks for pointing it out. But as to your larger point, my troubles are the use of its — it’s, a propensity to use complex sentences and an occasional change of tense in mid-composition.
Mar 8, 2009 - 12:29 pm 69. exhelodrvr:Hey, StarStella, get off your high horse. I will take Wretchard’s occasional typo anytime. His columns are, as a group, the best on the internet.
Mar 8, 2009 - 12:32 pm 70. Jamie Irons:Way up the thread bob wrote:
I’d like to ask Jamie Irons for his thoughts on the proposed makeover of the medical system.
Of course, it would be presumptuous of me to pretend to have any special expertise here, beyond that of experience as both a primary care physician (a few years), and a specialist and, later, chief of a large department (many years). What I have learned as a member of the most successful multi-specialty group in the country (The Permanente Medical Group of Northern California*) has led me to believe that allowing physicians to build (perhaps a number of varying) systems of care, which are allowed to compete with each other, provides our best hope of ending up with high-quality, affordable medical care. (The medically indigent, a relatively small group, will probably always require some government intervention.)
The model with the lowest chance of successfully delivering high quality, accessible care is any form of “universal health care” made “free” by extorting one portion of the population to pay for the care of the others, and setting providers’ salaries into the bargain. But this is what the geniuses who are now in charge are about to implement.
Jamie Irons
*Of course, I do not speak for my medical group. These opinions are simply my own personal views.
Mar 8, 2009 - 12:50 pm 71. Jamie Irons:After writing the remarks just above I happened on this in Smart Money by Donald Luskin:
What will our world look like when President Obama “reforms” health care by nationalizing it given that it represents about one sixth of U.S. economic activity (and the part that’s still working)?
Yes, what happens indeed?
Jamie Irons
Mar 8, 2009 - 12:57 pm 72. neo:*
never fear… the mesmerised leftosphere and the adoring media know they just have to impart the proper spin here.
think they can’t, or more to the point… won’t?
give yourself a shake.
*
Mar 8, 2009 - 1:36 pm 73. Lifeofthemind:The first iteration of economic implosion is being felt by those elements of Civil Society that compete with government to ensure the variety of expressions and network of interactions essential for a democratic polity. As this disaster unfolds the impact will differ in urban and rural settings. The cultural and social institutions that put the gloss on civilization in the civitas are failing, the zoos, gardens, museums, charities and private schools are going to the wall. At the same time the infrastructure needed to maintain an urban community is failing. Hospitals are closing and the ideological war on religious institutions, especially Catholic hospitals, will accelerate the loss. We could face seriously reduced life expectancies in the urban centers, possible epidemics and large scale fire events as well as reduced trash removal and increased violence. In New York City just 40,000 people out of over 8,000,000 pay for half the municipal budget. If they pull out, and nothing but nostalgia keeps them, then the city may become ungovernable. Look at this collection of maps colored red and blue to show the vote in 2008 by county and then altered to show electoral impact.. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/ If the urban centers that elected Obama collapse then what will protect the surrounding rural and mixed collar counties from the desperate mobs? What I would like to see is a variation on those maps that displays wealth creation by locality and electoral voice.
Mar 8, 2009 - 2:04 pm 74. Tony:Note to Writing Professor:
I write about 2,700 words a day and do make typos. Thanks for pointing it out. But as to your larger point, my troubles are the use of its — it’s, a propensity to use complex sentences and an occasional change of tense in mid-composition.
Technically, it’s called self-editing; practically, it’s called reading before hitting the Send button.
And giving a shit.
Mar 8, 2009 - 2:50 pm 75. buddy larsen:jjmurphy/39; first, i’d search ’survival blogs’ and see if something addresses your questions.
Mar 8, 2009 - 3:24 pm 76. buddy larsen:w, re its and it’s –just do it wrong and it’ll be right.
Only in ‘it’ does the language reverse its rule, and it’s confusing to be sure.
‘It’ uses the apostrophe to contract its ‘it is’ so it can’t use it to indicate its possessive case.
if that helped, send $5
Mar 8, 2009 - 3:51 pm 77. Jamie Irons:Buddy,
The check is in the mail.
But if you closely at it, you will notice it’s missing its signature, its routing number, and any other mark of authenticity, so it may be that it’s not going to help much, in spite of its good intentions.
In that way, it’s a lot like its inspiration, the Obama administration.
Jamie Irons
Mar 8, 2009 - 4:24 pm 78. buddy larsen:Jamie, that reminds me, the Invisible Man knocked on my door the other day. i told him i couldn’t see him right now.
Mar 8, 2009 - 4:51 pm 79. Morenuancedthanyou:#56 Pops, Russia would find a major naval base in Venezuela to be, temporarily, a major source of prestige. Not long afterward, it would be a major money pit that Russia can’t afford, and a major source of illicit importats of coca leaf products.
Perhaps we should oppose the base as against the interests of the Russian people, who might be benefited by equivalent expenditures at home, but as a matter of politics, I’m not sure we shouldn’t welcome the foolish waste of money.
Mar 8, 2009 - 4:56 pm 80. Morenuancedthanyou:“importats” -> I got lost on the way from “importation” to “imports”. Sorry.
Mar 8, 2009 - 4:57 pm 81. jjmurphy:Buddy Larsen – Holy Moly! I googled “survival blogs”. I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while. (Yes, I should have thought of that myself. Doh!) Thanks for the prompt.
Mar 8, 2009 - 5:12 pm 82. buddy larsen:you bet, jj –they say, game the scenarios and prepare accordingly. yeh –that’s like Yogi Berra’s “when you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Mar 8, 2009 - 5:24 pm 83. Habu:Wait until Israel bombs Iran within a few weeks. The snap you will hear will be the pencil neck geek in the WH snapping around in an attempt to mishandle foreign policy.
If he’s exhausted now he’ll be Tony Montana face down in a mound of blow, reverting to his old habit.
Mar 8, 2009 - 5:33 pm 84. Unsk:mjb way back @ 54
It’s the day to day drudgery of work that gets to the narcissist every time. The narcissist needs that extra rush and thrill or they get dangerously bored. They are addicted to the excitement of it all. It helps them forget.
Obama never has had to sit down hour and exhausting hour and analyze complex problems at a real job, which any successful President must do. He just can’t handle it. That is why he has to party and do blow. He will do more and more blow.
And given Obama’s apparent hate for this country and the western world that might be a good thing. Maybe he’ll just OD or get caught in some drug induced psychotic stupor so we can get rid of him.
Mar 8, 2009 - 5:54 pm 85. buddy larsen:I can’t believe we’re dumping Israel –a great nation doesn’t side with a friend and then ”go neutral” when SHTF. That’s not going neutral –not if your friend was counting on you. That’s a “back stab” is what that is. It’s just a heartbreak that those people have to put up with such unholy crap. They wouldn’t even be in the fix they’re in now if Europe hadn’t coughed up the hitler phlegm and murdered most of them and tried to kill them all to the last yellow star. And now in living memory of survivors –here it is again. With the same fair-weather friends studying their fingernails in the crucial hour before it becomes too late.
When the people with the memory decide twice in the same memory is intolerable, their warriors are going to be terrible to behold. They may lose, but they’re gonna leave a mark.
Mar 8, 2009 - 6:14 pm 86. Royal:The most important date going forward is November 9th (if memory serves) 2010. If the Republicans tighten the gap in the House of Representatives greatly, a good deal of the Obama agenda will be short circuited. The Senate is not likely to have a major change until 2012, due to the party breakdown, but a possible conservative wave in the House might spill over and cut the margin a seat or two.
Obama is going so far left, so fast, that the blue dog Dems are going to have a hard time walking this thin line.
None of that, of course, will change foreign policy (other than perhaps the military budget with a GOP House).
Sadly, the GOP doesn’t seem to be in a state capable of taking advantage of the weak status of several Dems in Red States and or districts. If there is a Newt Gingrich in the House plotting the comeback, I don’t know who it is.
Mar 8, 2009 - 6:56 pm 87. buddy larsen:Wikipedia is something, but not an encyclopedia [ ht drudge ]
Mar 8, 2009 - 7:12 pm 88. Leo Linbeck III:One of the arguments for electing a President who has executive experience is that the difference between any other job and the top job are differences of kind, not degree.
I have seen this many times in my career, and experienced it as well. You think “Hey, I’ve been successful at work, and being the man isn’t any different. I’ll just do what I’ve always done, only more so.”
Wrong.
There is a something about being the guy where the buck stops. It’s lonely. It’s stressful. You find it hard to relate to the organization the way you used to. And the job absolutely sucks out all of your energy, especially at the beginning.
Soon, you crave is consistency, routine, predictability, mainly because you’re bombarded with variability. Think about it: the only stuff that hits your desk is stuff that other people can’t handle, and usually they can’t handle it because it came flying over the transom and they are so busy with other stuff they don’t have capacity to think about it. Kick it upstairs!
That’s why slack is so important. You have to force yourself to create holes in your schedule. I routinely start Mondays with half of my schedule empty for the following week, but by Friday it’s almost packed. [Ed: should I check with buddy on whether this is the correct usage of "it's"?]
But it took me about a year to learn this; my first year was a wreck. I worked like a dog, and kept falling further behind. Finally, I realized what was going on, and I told my (incredible) assistant to block out some empty time. I also started to regularize my internal meetings; this minimized the number of ad-hoc confabs – since people knew they’d see me on our regular date, they only brought truly urgent stuff to me out-of-cycle. And there’s very little of the truly urgent – if I have to make a snap decision with no preparation, it’s because either I or someone else screwed up.
Another way to think about it is like a production process: the more variability to the input, the bigger the buffer you need. The whole concept behind lean or JIT manufacturing is reducing variability in the process; this allows buffers to shrink, which allows for a flexible and more responsive production process. (It also decreases design margin, but that’s a topic for another time.)
But the CEO job has tremendous variability, if for no other reason that it is very externally-focused, and you can’t control your environment the way you can your organization. An important customer calls, you have to jump on it – after all, if she’s calling you, the problem is pretty damn big. So CEOs need more buffer time to be effective.
All of this conspires to also make the CEO feel idle, and they aren’t idle people by nature (or they wouldn’t be CEOs), so their psychological reaction is to find things to work on. But if you do too much of that, the whole place melts down. People start coming to you for everything, and thinking that you’re working on the really important stuff, and get confused by your actions. And everybody’s watching, either directly or indirectly.
Anyhoo, I guess my point in this ramble is that Obama exhibits all of the characteristics of a rookie CEO. Doing too much, too fast, too randomly. No discipline, no routine, no ritual. The Gordon Brown thing is a perfect example; there is a specific ritual to this, and he didn’t know it, and apparently neither did his staff. Amateur hour, indeed.
In my experience, within a year either they settle down and learn the job, or they burn out and leave. And if they leave, there’s always a big, burning, stinky pile of guano they left behind somewhere.
It’s gonna be an interesting year. In the Chinese sense of the term.
L3
Mar 8, 2009 - 11:35 pm 89. peterike:StarStella, nobody needs you dropping in just to point out a very minor typo. But I figured I’d point out something else. You wrote:
First of all, before you criticize, go back to grade school and learn grammar. It’s “A DISASTER” not “AN DISASTER.” That is what I called a disaster, illiterates with opinions.
Note your last sentence. It should read “that is what I CALL a disaster,” not “called.” So now shut up.
Leo, your take on the CEO’s life is excellent. However, I see nothing to make me think O will grow into the role. The Presidency is, after all, the first real job he’s had in his life where voting “present” won’t carry the day. He’s lazy by nature and has spent his entire life charming his way through, mostly by bamboozling weak-minded Liberals who were just SOOOOO happy to see such a clean, well-spoken young African-American fellow.
It’s one thing when a hard working junior exec becomes CEO and faces a rough patch. At least you know he’s got some stones and he’s willing to do what he needs to do. It’s now a matter of getting oriented. Nothing in O’s history shows he’s built for the job.
I wonder if he picked Biden for VP just so everyone would be reluctant to impeach him, knowing the job would fall to such a patent moron.
Mar 9, 2009 - 8:25 am 90. buddy larsen:good stuff, L3 –remember the old trog theories, such as “X” and “Y” –i always found that useful as a way to look at individual issues. IOW, you could be a x-man on this and a y-man on that. In that way your vision would be ‘felt’ in the right way by the right people. but ya still gotta be right on the big ones.
Mar 9, 2009 - 8:50 am 91. Willy:RE: Intl Events
It continues with China:
Mar 9, 2009 - 8:57 am 92. 3-09-2009 | Drive Time Happy Hour:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/09/pentagon-chinese-ships-harassed-unarmed-navy-craft-international-waters/
[...] Richard Fernandez: The NYT describes President Obama’s thinking on the Taliban. “Mr. Obama said on the campaign trail last year that the possibility of breaking away some elements of the Taliban “should be explored,” …administration officials have criticized the Pakistani government for its own reconciliation deal with local Taliban leaders in the Swat Valley, where Islamic law has been imposed and radical figures hold sway.” And now he’s going to try the same thing. Will it work? Maybe. But the devil is in the details or in the lack of attention to them. [...]
Mar 9, 2009 - 10:52 am 93. buddy larsen:willy, that taking ‘way’ with the dummy mines (wood blocks as the article calls ‘em) ain’t playful tomfoolery in the *least*.
Mar 9, 2009 - 10:53 am 94. Sam:Love the title.
BTW, a world-wide crisis/disaster is not all that detrimental to US as a nation state.
Yes, it would mean a lot of suffering and a lot of bloodshed for non-US entities but let’s not forget that two great oceans (along with the greatest navy that the world has ever seen, and will ever see) separate us from serious bloodshed.
I believe we’re entering a different phase of US policy where we as a nation are not willing to spill our own blood for the sake of others. No more Pax Americana.
Who knows how things will pan out. At least two things we know:
Mar 9, 2009 - 11:48 am 95. buddy larsen:1) in danger, money flows to safety
2) world was a far more dangerous without Pax Americana.
yes, i wonder if anyone in the admin has read Mahan, and understands that the dollar and the US military are the same critter.
Mar 9, 2009 - 12:34 pm 96. The Old Guy:re 88 LL3
Excellent analysis. Enjoyed reading it.
My own experience is at a much, much lower level of management
, but I was thinking about that topic over the weekend.
Starting my first job as a young engineering manager, I was feeling overwhelmed. I tracked the number of interactions – scheduled meetings, ad hoc hallway conversations, walking-around visits to the lab, etc. and was a bit shocked at how many more there were as a manager (seems like about 40 a day, which meant one roughly every 15 minutes). Many of these “touches” involved making a decison. No wonder it was hard to put together a hour to think about anything.
I adjusted, and got up to speed. Over the years, and in more senior jobs, my experience was that it took about 6 months to get past the “drinking out of a firehose” stage. But you are always “on”, and it does suck energy (at least for the non-hyper extroverts).
I would guess one major advantage Bush had was the previous exposure the the White House – he wasn’t surprised at the process, althogh the actual responsibility weighs more heavily when its really yours. I would guess Obama, on the other hand, is trying to do things that demand about 2 orders of magnitude higher throughput than he’s used to. Disater waiting to happen indeed.
Mar 9, 2009 - 12:37 pm 97. Alvin:Well, maybe Obama will flame out and be replaced but, have mercy! Look who is next in line for the office! And after Biden comes Pelosi! Then Byrd! Then Clinton! We’re in a world of hurt here.
Mar 9, 2009 - 1:44 pm 98. Fletcher Christian:Most people here know I’m a Brit. I really do hope that when the new President of the USA eventually finds the time to visit us, that we actually do what we know how to do so well – welcome a foreign head of state.
The office and the man that currently happens to hold it are different. Very different. Washington, Lincoln and Obama. Hmmm…
Would that George III hadn’t suffered from a genetic disorder. From this side of the pond, I realise that the USA is the finest creation of Britain. You have been handed the torch – guard it well.
Mar 9, 2009 - 3:51 pm 99. blert:Buddy…
How many people know that we basically export our defense budget via currency exports?
Apparently none in this administration.
China is already shorting the dollar.
That is the REAL significance of using today’s dollars to buy hard assets on a forward basis.
China is trading away her hoard as fast as possible for the physical: oil, ores… anything that holds value well.
We should be doing that too.
Mar 9, 2009 - 5:45 pm 100. buddy larsen:blert, as a nation, and as personal individuals, too. we ought to be thinking about converting at least some financial assets into hard goods –things we might need –tools. remember if you bury gold, you can’t eat it, and somebody with the drop on you can get it away from you. Urbanites & suburbanites ought now to pool with friends and relatives and buy a few acres somewhere that’ll grow taters. THEN you can relax a bit and show calm if things do get jumpy around here. there’s probably a ten percent chance, i’d guess.
Mar 9, 2009 - 6:01 pm 101. buddy larsen:FC/98; some folks here are chagrined at the recent DC gaffe-on-gaffe.
Mar 9, 2009 - 6:05 pm 102. Belmont Club » The entropy devil:[...] Obama’s desire to turn the economic crisis into a laboratory for his own political vision was a disaster waiting to happen. Andy Grove understands the dangers well. But does Obama? I wrote: Maybe part of the reason the [...]
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