Maureen doesn't answer those questions. She merely murmurs "he seemed to have come through exceptionally well adjusted. " She quotes an Obama hagiographer's dubious quotation:
“His aides from the Senate, the presidential campaign, and the White House routinely described him with the same words: ‘psychologically healthy,’ ” writes Jonathan Alter in “The Promise”...Isn't it funny that Alter put "psychologically healthy" in quotes when referring to the words of what appears to be a large crowd of individuals? If anything, that large crowd of individuals sounds a bit deranged, if they were really all mouthing the same mantra about their leader.
So it’s unnerving now to have yet another president elevating personal quirks into a management style.We thought he was so normal that now we're unnerved — we're so unstable! — to find out that, like all those nutty other Presidents — Dowd cites Bush, Clinton, LBJ, and Nixon — Obama's got his quirks too.
Hey, Maureen, how about peering into the complexities of the appearance of normal? Whenever I hear the word "normal" used to gloss over things, I think of one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies, Kubrick's "Lolita." It's the one where Peter Sellers, as Clare Quilty, is pretending to be a cop and inquiring into what Professor Humbert is doing at a hotel with that "pretty, tall, lovely little girl":
I said to myself when I saw you... there's a guy with the most normal-looking face I ever saw in my life... It's great to see a normal face, 'cause I'm a normal guy. Be great for two normal guys to get together and talk about world events, in a normal way....
What was the matter with your wife?... She had an accident! That's terrible! Fancy a normal guy's wife having an accident like that! What happened to her?... I get sort of carried away, being so normal and all....
I could easily have a word with George Swine. He's a really normal, nice sort of guy and I've only got to have a normal word in his ear and you'd be surprised what things could happen.... It's his job to fix you up with something nice. He gets paid for doing that and when he sees a guy like you, all normal... I think you're really normal.... Before you go, I was wondering whether maybe in the morning, you know... me being lonely and normal....I'm sorry. The word "normal" has had extra texture to me since I saw that movie about 40 years ago.
But Dowd says "normal" and moves on. She describes the emergent quirkiness of the man whose normality supposedly impressed us so much we made him President. (Here's another Peter Sellers movie you need to see, by the way, if you want to fully experience the political chatter around Barack Obama.) Dowd, then:
How can a man who was a dazzling enough politician to become the first black president at age 47 suddenly become so obdurately self-destructive about politics?Oh, but isn't it so much more likely that we were the ones whose vision was obscured? We need to take responsibility. In the end the story of Barack Obama will make perfect sense. It will all fit together. The lonely man — raised by wolves — swept up into our American psychosis.
President Obama’s bloodless quality about people and events, the emotional detachment that his aides said allowed him to see things more clearly, has instead obscured his vision.
“Even though I’m president of the United States, my power is not limitless,” Obama, who has forced himself to ingest a load of gulf crab cakes, shrimp and crawfish tails, whinged to Grand Isle, La., residents on Friday. “So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw.”We need to suck it up. We need to see what we've done. We've elected a man, and we need to cast aside our silly illusions and see what we've done. He's not the essence of magical "normal." He's a particular man with skills and limitations, and he is our President for the next few years. Now, shape up, see clearly, and deal with it.
ADDED:
Posts
269 comments:
1 – 200 of 269 Newer› Newest»"We've elected a man, and we need to cast aside our silly illusions and see what we've done."
There "we" go again.
"Barack spent so much time by himself that it was like he was raised by wolves."
Black man = Mowgli, from The Jungle Book...?
"RAAAAAAAAAAACIST!!!"
What's with all the we?
Out here there are people who say that only Jerry Brown can undo the mess that he helped make.
Are you saying that you (second person plural) are now going to fix the mess you foisted on the rest of us?
I for one applaud that.
Who is we white woman?
By deal with it I assume you mean do everything we can to see that he's removed from office at the earliest possible moment and in the meantime do everything we can to circumscribe his ability to do any more damage, by voting in a Republican Congress in November, for example.
"What's with all the we?"
We We.
You're getting all wee wee'd up again Ann.
We need to suck it up. We need to see what we've done. We've elected a man, and we need to cast aside our silly illusions and see what we've done.
Well... it's a beginning, at any rate, Professor. ;)
"What's with all the we?"
Well, that was soooo predictable. I was going to put that in the post. We are the electorate. As a group, we picked him over McCain. It's something we need to understand. I think that's interesting. I'd love to talk about that. So, duly noted: Many voters voted against him. Now, can we proceed to talk about some other things this time?
Tying oneself into neurotic knots about the psychological meaning of a politician rather than evaluating his qualifications and likely impact upon the Nation is one of the malignant side effects of the dread 19th Amendment.
I'm assuming the professor is talking about the what, 52%, "we" who screwed up so badly they now cry themselves to sleep at night while dredding the fact that they have to get up and pretend to believe in him for one more day.
"So, duly noted: Many voters voted against him. Now, can we proceed to talk about some other things this time?"
Get your filthy first person plural off my sacred first person singular.
We became great as a Nation of "I"s, not as a mush of "We"s.
Is Wes?
The limitations of discussing English structurally.
"Well, that was soooo predictable."
Yep, you could see it coming a mile away. Being a Lone Ranger fan, though, I would have said, "What you mean we, Kimosabe."
It is nice to see all these People of Change we we themselves.
They're not so good at plugging leaks of any sort.
Such gymnastics performed by all to avoid saying: I made a dumb emotional decision based on nothing but hope for something that showed zero evidence of it's existence. I was part of a mass hysteria. It's an embarrassing admission, but so are the gymnastics.
We need to suck it up. We need to see what we've done.
Who is this 'we' you keep talking about? Got a mouse in your pocket.
WE didn't elect this piece of shit.
YOU did.
Now, can we proceed to talk about some other things this time?
OK. I'd prefer to talk about November anyways. I think talk about Obama and Palin and what might happen in 2012 are a distraction from what needs to get done in November.
Palladian - couldn't have said it better.
Who the heck cares about what we can guess about his psychological makeup? Did he have the experience and qualifications to be POTUS? No. He did not.
Btw, we're not talking about the 52% who voted for him. He could have been named Alvin Greene and 48% of the electorate would have voted for him. We're talking about the 4% that voted for him. Which includes our hostess.
Professor Althouse, I wrote this immediately after the election, when I was unhappy about the outcome but trying to force myself to be fair and give Obama a chance.
I suspect you might find it kind of interesting reading now.
Those weren't wolves. They were coyotes.
"we" who screwed up so badly they now cry themselves to sleep at night while dreading the fact that they have to get up and pretend to believe in him for one more day.
Who does that with any elected official? That implies rather a high bar for expectations. Ridiculously high, given that we're (WE) talking about politicians.
You vote with the information you have, and you hope for the best. Look forward, not backwards.
I will say one thing. Obama is the master of the calculated insult. The BP group arriving for their 20 minute "meeting" was dropped of at the gate and walked to the door of the White House.
Maybe he was giving Hillary the finger during that debate after all?
November 2010: I mean Jerry Brown said some outrageously funny things that happen to rhyme with what "our" guy at the top thinks.
This President has raised strawman building to a high art. The only alternatives are to do nothing and suck it all up with a straw? But he can't suck it up with a straw so he does nothing.
Well, let me partially take that back. He is going to establish a commission. Wow! That's doing nothing, but getting more people involved.
NPD is not a "quirk".
NPD is not "normal".
So I guess the idea is that if you voted for Obama you have no right to say anything critical about him? It's like being trapped in a bad marriage with your Mother harping in your ear about how she told you he was bad news and you should never have married the jerk if you're stupid enough to tell her that you're having problems with the guy. Because you know exactly what she's going to say.
And I guess castigating Obama voters for putting him into office makes people feel better. Or maybe it's just evidence that the critics don't really have any better ideas about what to do now than anybody else. Everybody's got 20/20 hindsight, staring out the rear window while the bus careens off the cliff.
"Barack spent so much time by himself that it was like he was raised by wolves."
Is that supposed to be some kind of Romulus and Remus reference?
Or is simply the fact that we elected Nell?
All the consternation about Obama's supposed lack of "connection" is horseshit. It's a media fabrication. Now, if you voted for Obama thinking that nothing bad would happen for the next four years, then yeah, I bet you're disappointed. However, I don't know of anyone who did that. Actually, I believe it's a strawman set up by people who voted against Obama and can't understand why other people voted for him.
So it's really not surprising that people who supported Bush and the Republicans for at least the first 4 years of that administration, who became "independent" when things got sour and it became obvious how obscene and ridiculous the Iraq war was, who then proceeded to warn us all about Obama's muslim past, "all those years spent in racist reverend wright's pews" (WHO CARES), who view an obvious fake like Sarah Palin as a "real American" (making everyone who disagrees with them a fake American)... so now "Obama has lost their support" as president. Support he never had since before he took office. From people who have labored every day to make a scandal out of the ordinary functions of government. Who became aware of fiscal problems and taxes as of the fall of 2008.
Whoop de do. You can keep talking about how "Obama's lost the country" but, tell you what. It's my country too. I'll fight you for it, too. STOP SPEAKING FOR THE COUNTRY. You don't represent "the country" any more than I do.
Blame Obama for the oil spill. I wasn't smart enough to blame Bush for 9/11-- I believed in that unity bull-- so don't make my mistake. Please make partisan hay out of every single thing that happens. Because all the problems will go away, if we can just elect Republicans.
There's no "I' in team, but there's 3 'U's in
shut the fuck up.
MoDo is an idiot. Everybody needing so much hand holding. Stupid electorate- one breath it's "Obama
isnt doing anything!" the next is "Big Government
will wreck us!" Which is it?
bagoh20 said: "Such gymnastics performed by all to avoid saying: I made a dumb emotional decision based on nothing but hope for something that showed zero evidence of it's existence. I was part of a mass hysteria. It's an embarrassing admission, but so are the gymnastics."
This.
+1
FTW
QFT
...and all those other hip internet phrases expressing approval that escape me at the moment.
As a country, by omission or commission, We, as a whole, did elect this man president. Each side is responsible, in some part, for where we're at with this, today.
You vote with the information you have, and you hope for the best. Look forward, not backwards.
It's not that hard a concept to understand...
As for the "normal", you're right, he is not the essence of magical "normal" (yes, whatever the hell that is).
The Lone Ranger and Tonto were riding across the plains one day, when Tonto suddenly cocked his ear at a passing falcoln's cry. "Kemosabe... Apache to East!" he whispered.
The Lone Ranger looked to his faithful companion. "What do we do?"
Tonto pondered a moment. "We ride West!"
After riding a short while, Tonto again paused, searching the horizon with his eagle-sharp eyes. "Kemosabe... Apache to West!"
The Masked Man looked once again at his friend. "What should we do?"
Tonto scratched his head in thought. "We ride North!"
After a brief ride, Tonto stopped to scent the breeze. "Kemosabe... Apache to North!"
"What do we do now?" his companion asked.
Without hesitation, Tonto replied, "We ride South!"
Within minutes, Tonto reigned in his horse and dropped to the ground. Placing his ear to the earth, he listened intently. "Kemosabe... Apache to South!"
Worried, the Lone One asked him, "NOW what do we do?"
Tonto thought hard for a moment, his eyes squinting in concentration.
Then his face lit up. "What do you mean "WE", White Man?"
"Or maybe it's just evidence that the critics don't really have any better ideas about what to do now than anybody else."
Bullshit.
It's called stop spending money you don't have. It's called make a fucking decision about the oil spill.
This isn't hard. And unfortunately the critics can't do a damn thing to stop the bus drivers.
You got a mouse in your pocket?
"Being a Lone Ranger fan, though, I would have said, "What you mean we, Kimosabe.""
Yes, I said that out loud, as Meade will attest, as I was about to open the comments and predicting what I would find.
But I appreciate Palladian's "Get your filthy first person plural off my sacred first person singular." And it might connect to the post linked at "ADDED" where you learn that the sculpture of the wolf was a gift from Stalin.
MontyMonty said: "It's a media fabrication."
Sort of like Obama's campaign? His level of competence? His qualifications? His intellect?
As a group, we picked him over McCain. It's something we need to understand. I think that's interesting. I'd love to talk about that. So, duly noted: Many voters voted against him. Now, can we proceed to talk about some other things this time?
Fair enough, what do we do now? My own answer is to contribute to the RNC and to vote for Republicans for Congress in 2010 to act as a counter-balance to the President and his staff. What is your answer, Professor?
Well, “we" are stuck with him, at least through 2012, if not beyond (the future is basically unknowable if we consider the track record of prognosticators of all flavors).
I will say I've never had much faith in folks who tried to get their decision making process to fit some preconceived and personally attractive narrative they bring into the room with them to get a job done (I abandoned R&D engineering a few years ago to confront the problem of developing quantitative metrics to assist in risk mitigation; the professional problem was best stated by a mentor of mine who used to say, "Engineers never know when's it time to shoot one of their own children."). That observation can be extended to the psychological investment we extend to most of our choices; personal, political, and professional. It basically translates into, "Of course I'm right (or at least my error was very understandable)!"
To the specific question "What do we do?", I would suggest the appropriate response is neuter him politically. Retake congress; stall, stop, or reverse his remaking society initiatives, restore some sense of fiscal balance to the Washington funhouse, and address real problems which .
I think the republic will survive (it's certainly survived worse). What will we learn from this? Probably nothing useful. The next crisis will be different and we’ll just make different mistakes thinking back to today.
AA:
Nice Romulus/Remus pic for the 'raised by wolves' theme.
"This isn't hard. And unfortunately the critics can't do a damn thing to stop the bus drivers."
Yeah, we can. We can wrestle the steering wheel away if the driver refuses to slow down or go faster or change direction, whatever it is we want him to.
Is it risky? Yeah, but then that's life. Better to risk crashing than to sit back paralyzed while he kills all of us with his crazy reckless driving.
“His aides from the Senate, the presidential campaign, and the White House routinely described him with the same words: ‘psychologically healthy,’ ” writes Jonathan Alter in “The Promise”...
Isn't that in the same class as when your friends are trying to set you up with a girl, you ask, "is she hot?" to which you get the answer, "well, she's got a great personality".
Barack Obama. The Great Presidential Blind Date. Definitely one drink then I'm excusing myself because my grandmother's on fire.
"Oh, but isn't it so much more likely that we were the ones whose vision was obscured? We need to take responsibility. We need to suck it up. We need to see what we've done. We've elected a man, and we need to cast aside our silly illusions and see what we've done."
We lied to ourselves - about everything, looking at it all through a NewAge prism - but mostly we lied about Bush, and we were determined to punish and betray those who warned us, and using a black man to do it was even sweeter. We thought no one could question that.
There - fixed it for you.
I lift weights with my local City Councilman and talk politics with him; I support and vote for my elected State reps. I tweet DMs to my US Congressional rep and he writes back (sometimes); These people are all up for re-election this November.
All of these people are working together to check the power of the one "we" elected at the top.
Trooper--"What you mean we, white man?" is a punch line I've used for about 30 years. It's a classic without any setup needed, at least for people 50 and over.
I'm about ready to give up on the guy...Where is the beef!.
Now he gets BP to agree to a $20billion fund. If you have spent your life in negotiations you come to realize when you hold the cards and the other guy doesn't. He held the cards and didn't raise. He could have just told them to hand over their checkbook and their credit card and go home...and they would have had no choice.
Sheeesh.
"“His aides from the Senate, the presidential campaign, and the White House routinely described him with the same words: ‘psychologically healthy,’ ” writes Jonathan Alter in “The Promise”..."
Talk about being damned with faint praise and this from one his biggest fellators.
Well, “we" are stuck with him, at least through 2012, if not beyond (the future is basically unknowable if we consider the track record of prognosticators of all flavors).
I will say I've never had much faith in folks who tried to get their decision making process to fit some preconceived and personally attractive narrative they bring into the room with them to get a job done (I abandoned R&D engineering a few years ago to confront the problem of developing quantitative metrics to assist in risk mitigation; the professional problem was best stated by a mentor of mine who used to say, "Engineers never know when's it time to shoot one of their own children."). That observation can be extended to the psychological investment we extend to most of our choices; personal, political, and professional. It basically translates into, "Of course I'm right (or at least my error was very understandable)!"
To the specific question "What do we do?", I would suggest the appropriate response is neuter him politically. Retake congress; stall, stop, or reverse his remaking society initiatives, restore some sense of fiscal balance to the Washington funhouse, and address real problems which are amenable to government driven interventions.
I think the republic will survive (it's certainly survived worse). What will we learn from this? Probably nothing useful. The next crisis will be different and we’ll just make different mistakes thinking back to today.
We need to suck it up. We need to see what we've done. We've elected a man, and we need to cast aside our silly illusions and see what we've done. He's not the essence of magical "normal." He's a particular man with skills and limitations, and he is our President for the next few years. Now, shape up, see clearly, and deal with it.
We? WE? If you're outside looking in, yes, "we" - as Americans, all of us - elected him. If you're on the inside, i.e., an you're an American, "we" didn't elect this buffoon. 53% did, and I'm not part of that 53%. YOU elected him, ma'am, you and your cohort of fantasy addicts. Some of us have seen clearly what we were getting since before the election. Some of us have been dealing with that AND the ninnytalk of the wilfully gullible - like you. YOU need to get down off your high horse and quit dispensing "suck it up" advice when you're a cause of this disaster. And YOU need to apologize for your vote before I take a word you say seriously.
Sorry, I posted that (above) without having read any of the comments -- DBQ beat me to it, anyway.
But still.
Can we talk about something else this time? Doubtful.
The reason those of us who were opposed to Obama keep pushing back on the idea that we elected him is important, because we (all of us) don't want to ever have to survive this kind of half-assed presidency ever again. So we (who voted against Obama, which is not to say we voted for McCain...) feel the need to point out how you Obama voters screwed this up for all of us (everyone). You got taken in, you bought into the hype, you ignored the fact that he had no executive experience, no experience at running anything other than his campaign -- which someone else ran, anyway.
We (who didn't vote for Obama) are hoping that if we keep pointing this out to you Obama voters, it won't happen again and we (everyone) will all be better off.
There's a good reason why this discussion won't go the way you want it to go, no matter how frustrated you may be by it.
Obama always struck me as emotionally damaged and opaque; I had no sense of what really mattered to him. Lot's of intelligent folks didn't have that reaction to him, so I figure I was just too darn stupid and obtuse to partake in the wonderfully imaginative illusions that smarter folks could extrapolate from the smallest hint of style. And evidently my powers argument were too feeble to overcome what I could see standing there in plain sight.
So knock off that *we* bit, some of us are simply too dumb to make the grade.
Trooper--"What you mean we, white man?" is a punch line I've used for about 30 years. It's a classic without any setup needed, at least for people 50 and over.
It's the punchline from various versions of old Lone Ranger jokes, if memory serves.
re the Romulus/Remus:
If I could photoshop I would make a California State flag with an emaciated Golden Bear being suckled dry by the public employee sector.
"Normal", "Well adjusted".
I doubt very much that such a description would fit any great or even semi-great leader.
I can't remember where I read it yesterday, but someone was writing about how Obama has been constantly described as "bright", which essentially means he was a good personality and mind for university life.
Their point was that few if any great leaders are thought of as "bright". That is never how they are described. It is the best you can say about someone who is inexperienced and unaccomplished. It's how you describe someone who is not fully formed. They are all hope and promise. It should be a tell against suitability for important positions of power.
"Yeah, we can. We can wrestle the steering wheel away if the driver refuses to slow down or go faster or change direction, whatever it is we want him to."
How did that work on the Healthcare debacle?
How will it work when this band of crooks use the current crisis and upcoming double dip recession to sink us even deeper toward their statist dreams?
@Scott M.
I also like the old "Far Side" cartoon, in which a retired Lone Ranger perusing his Indian dictionary in a retirement home comes across the following definition:
Kemosabe: Horse's ass.
The reason those of us who were opposed to Obama keep pushing back on the idea that we elected him is important, because we (all of us) don't want to ever have to survive this kind of half-assed presidency ever again. So we (who voted against Obama, which is not to say we voted for McCain...) feel the need to point out how you Obama voters screwed this up for all of us (everyone). You got taken in, you bought into the hype, you ignored the fact that he had no executive experience, no experience at running anything other than his campaign -- which someone else ran, anyway.
We (who didn't vote for Obama) are hoping that if we keep pointing this out to you Obama voters, it won't happen again and we (everyone) will all be better off.
Rather more harshly than I would have phrased it... but, nonetheless: Joan, FTW.
"How did that work on the Healthcare debacle? "
Unfortunately no dramatic pics of wildlife. It will be a slow imperceptible devolution towards chaos.
"There's a good reason why this discussion won't go the way you want it to go, no matter how frustrated you may be by it."
Exactly. There's a lot of stuff they don't want to talk about, like how NewAge became so popular it could propel Oprah to the top - though no one openly claims to be a NewAger - weird, isn't it? The things that are taboo to say, and the mental gymnastics necessary to hide them? Will anyone - not just Ann - ever be willing to cop to it?
I'm telling you - for the billionth seriously undiscussed time - that mental framework is the basis for everything that's happened.
Did she also say “Obama favors black people” as did the racist Rep Steve King? Maybe not.
Did she comment on the Republican keeping Tea Party favorites Rand Paul and Sharron Angle under tight wraps?
What's up with that, TPers? Here you go to all that work to elect your candidates and then the Republican Party muzzles them!
Free Rand Paul!
Free Sharron Angle!
Let them speak!
Alib,
Please answer the following question that you ducked repeatedly recently or stfu about it.
Please provide proof that the tea party movement is loosing support.
It's been said on similar threads many times, but part of me is glad for Obama's election in that it served as a sharp accelerator to get people off their asses. McCain would have simply been a vote for the lumbering slow death we've been witness to for decades.
We'll see how many people get off their asses in November. We'll see if Republicans get the hint and stop behaving like Dem-lites.
If not, then the Tea Party might have sufficient clout next election cycle to start getting rid of all the bums.
"How did that work on the Healthcare debacle? "
I was surprised it didn't work. It almost did though. The push back was enormous, but in the end they ignored it. That's what really struck people and is what will fuel an anti-incumbency theme in November. If it happened again today, I think it would not pass. They expected the public to just forget it and not hold it against them. They were wrong, and the bill pissed off those on both sides. That stuck-on-stupid moment may be the single most important factor in the coming election.
Who the heck cares about what we can guess about his psychological makeup? Did he have the experience and qualifications to be POTUS? No. He did not.
WORD.
vw "defem"
a defensive femme?
to defeminize?
defame a female?
Obama is pathetic, but he would be far less pathetic if he wasn't President.
Obama is a well-spoken Democrat with impeccable liberal credentials. And he's black in a country where "affirmative action" is a national cultural value.
That's all Obama had when he was elected. Nothing more.
A majority of Americans believed that was enough.
Now, a majority believe that November 6, 2012 can't come soon enough!
Alpha Lib pondered: "Did she comment on the Republican keeping Tea Party favorites Rand Paul and Sharron Angle under tight wraps?
What's up with that, TPers? Here you go to all that work to elect your candidates and then the Republican Party muzzles them!"
Maybe their KKK creds aren't as strong as the Democrats' or their Chappaquiddick Driving Club dues aren't paid in full yet.
"all those years spent in racist reverend wright's pews" (WHO CARES),
I'm pretty sure if it was a white candidate you'd care. But I deduce you probably didn't disagree with the 'Reverend' Wright's sermons so yeah, I doubt you cared.
His wife had no reason to be proud of the US until her husband was nominated for President and considering his circle of friends, and his international apology tour I'm quite confident that the current occupant of the Oval office has about as much love for the US as Hugo Chavez.
Strange, no cries of 'racist' for Bo's critics..have we turned a corner?
"And it might connect to the post linked at "ADDED" where you learn that the sculpture of the wolf was a gift from Stalin. "
Benito not Joe. Although it would have been funny if Josef Stalin had sent us that sculpture. But Stalin didn't seem much like a gift guy.
Strange, no cries of 'racist' for Bo's critics..have we turned a corner?
I strategically pre-empted them, in Post #2. ;)
Looks like John McCain is still alive, and wouldn't a healthy dollop of his wise earthy countenance have helped over the last two months?
Experience might have helped, not MTV Barry.
And yes, he is certainly Chauncey Gardiner. I've been saying that for two years.
Change, hope, hope change.
hdhouse said: I'm about ready to give up on the guy...
Good lord, first Trooper and hdhouse find common ground and now the old fart is about to give up on the Won.
Wait...is that a pale horse I see...
Mommy!
"that mental framework is the basis for everything that's happened."
I agree, Crack. But, there are a lot of people who while not really new agey, don't have sufficient counter ideology to resist it in the face of another candidate that may have certain inevitable "faults". I know a lot of people who had little real faith in Obama, but voted for him because McCain was old, a Republican, white, rich, etc. Things that certain people simply don't want to vote for regardless of the alternative. They still think like they did when they were 20.
Strange, no cries of 'racist' for Bo's critics..have we turned a corner?
How bout this?:
Obama is a well-spoken Democrat with impeccable liberal credentials. And he's black in a country where "affirmative action" is a national cultural value.
You need to leave Bambi alone. It's not fair to criticize him - I read this in the LA Times this a.m.
Criticizing him is just so unfair. I mean, he's the President and We the People are his mere minions. He says and we do. He commands and we obey.
All Hail Fearless Leader.
Hi, SM:
Please provide proof that the tea party movement is loosing support.
I thought this question was easily enough answered by consulting the Google. It took me less than 30 seconds!
Tea Party Support Slips
Poll shows young voters, white Southerners less happy
* The percentage who hold an unfavorable view of the movement rose from 39% in March to 50%.
* The decline is particularly sharp among 18- to 29-year-olds, whose views shifted from a positive 43%-38% to a negative 27%-60%.
* 45% of white Southerners have an unfavorable view, up from 30%.
There have been similar polls, but I don't want to be a crutch for you as you need to become more self-reliant in finding things for yourself.
-------------
When will the Republican Party free Tea Party faves Rand Paul and Sharon Angle?
Maybe they are in Dick Cheney's undisclosed location.
Wait...is that a pale horse I see...
Worse -- FOUR of 'em!
Lynne (DefSi): that's so good I tweeted it.
Strange, no cries of 'racist' for Bo's critics..have we turned a corner?
Uh, hello? I called Representative Steve King a racist, above. I wonder how many people here agree with him?
Racism happens! And there's a LOT of it in the Republican Party today!
"I'm offended by Eric Holder and the president also, their posture," King said. "It looks like Eric Holder said that white people in America are cowards when it comes to race." {LIE!}
King continued: "The president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race on the side that favors the black person in the case of professor Gates and officer Crowley."
"How bout this?:
""Obama is a well-spoken Democrat with impeccable liberal credentials. And he's black in a country where "affirmative action" is a national cultural value.""
Garage, which part of that do you think is untrue?
That's what is fairly unique to Althouse's blog. Good article, then a killer picture at the end to cap it off.
As for "we" for those who wish to split hairs - "we" came up with two horrible tickets in 2008 - and the election was all about choosing the "least worst" team.
In 20-20 hindsight, Hillary and Romney look a lot better.
If you don't want the WE argument, don't talk about the fix into which WE got ourselves. The posting was worded to get just the response it got.
Althouse, keep this "we" stuff to yourself. The rest of us knew what a danger he was back in Nov 2008.
OTOH, I can't see how having McCain would be any better for the nation or the Republican party. Obama is a golden opportunity to resuscitate the GOP. The real irresponsible ones where the Democrats who nominated "The Won" over Hillary.
Oh, thank you, Rep Steve King!
King stands by Obama bias claim
To their credit, several R candidates have canceled fundraisers with the Republican racist from Iowa. So, let;s be fair.
There is still this Conservative dogma:
* There is NO racism from whites in America today.
* All the racism comes from blacks!
you are supposed to ignore the internal contradiction.
Baby Romans were really small.
Ann Althouse said,
"Well, that was soooo predictable. I was going to put that in the post. We are the electorate. As a group, we picked him over McCain. It's something we need to understand. I think that's interesting. I'd love to talk about that. So, duly noted: Many voters voted against him. Now, can we proceed to talk about some other things this time?"
Do you have a mouse in your pocket? You represent 1/3 of the unholy trinity of Blacks, The Young, and Educated Idiots who were willfully blind, and elected a man who is not an eligible Natural Born Citizen (father was Kenyan citizen, thus Obama 2 was born a British Subject). You were willfully blind the the danger that this Usurper represented when he said that the Constitution was "flawed". You refused to acknowledge the facts of his story and associations that were before your very eyes. You refuse to deal with the Constitutional crisis that you helped create, and now abet. The Usurper needs to be removed by Quo Warranto in the DC District.
This whole Obama thing has gone beyond ridiculous to outright totally completely bizarro.
Those of us whose warning radar was louder than the World Cup games horns are having trouble comprehending how long those who embraced Obama as "exceptionally well-adjusted,""normal," "psychologically well adjusted," and see his fault as "elevating personal 'quirks'" to a managerial (?) style, have been on the planet before The Wone arrived?
President Obama’s bloodless quality about people and events, the emotional detachment that his aides said allowed him to see things more clearly, has instead obscured his vision.
Really?
Did NONE of these people look at his legislative "style" ["present"]? Did NONE of these people READ his books?
Did none of those people wonder how "normal" it is to have NO records. No evidence of a life in NYC? No evidence or much of anything. No sense of American "community" which would have him share, not obscure or erase, his "normal" bio data. (What passport did he travel to Pakistan in 1981 on?)
Obama: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views,” Mr. Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope, his I’m-running-for-president book. “As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them.”
Compare Obama to the Gov. Christie clip up on youtube (and Insty).
Whatever it is that Obama is really thinking, if in fact, he has a core at all, he ain't telling unless he slips up.
Barack Obama's childhood was one huge major screw up by his mother. <--- Repeat 3 x. His grandparents "left him alone" according to Obama himself, after Grandpop introduced him to porn bars and a degenerate communist Frank Marshall Davis. His friends were Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, Pflegler, Rashidi, Weathermen ...
Where were you people?
People with terrible life stories can make it nearly "normally" (sorry Professor A ;-) ) But the catch is there is EVIDENCE that they are interacting and performing "normally," not the feeling that they are "normal" because they are so wonderful. (Laurence Tribe ... you may be a great law prof. You suck at figuring people out.)
Note to Dem Legislators: You must go into damage control asap. This is the Deepwater Horizon rig and someone needs to pick up the phone and make the 911 call before you take the whole country with you.
Garage, which part of that do you think is untrue?
Actually all of it, aside from Obama being well spoken.
In 20-20 hindsight, Hillary and Romney look a lot better.
No argument there. At this point we are looking at the most monumentally ill prepared President we've had since Crater.
Obama and this Congress are tied together and will sink together.
I just realized I misspelled Carter in my 12:51 but somehow it still is appropriate ;-)
There is still this Liberal dogma:
* There is NO racism from blacks in America today.
* All the racism comes from whites!
you are supposed to ignore the internal contradiction.
The Majestic Plural
"The majestic plural (pluralis maiestatis in Latin) is the use of a plural pronoun to refer to a single person holding a high office, such as a monarch, bishop, pope, or university rector. It is also called the royal pronoun, the royal "we" or the Victorian "we". The more general word for the use of we to refer to oneself is nosism, from the Latin nos. It is most commonly used to denote the excellence, power, and dignity of the person that speaks or writes."
Man, you guys are blinded by your hate and deluded by the propaganda you consume as "news."
"Strange, no cries of 'racist' for Bo's critics..have we turned a corner?"
After reviewing subsequent posts, I would like to withdraw my comment.
Let the skin games continue.
Shorter ALib:
"Look! Squirrel"
You may continue the thread derail.
Alpha at some point will you ever post something meaningful and relevant to the topic at hand?
I mean I know thats like expecting a fart to smell like roses but hope springs eternal.
The Majestic Plural
can only be use in the following three cases:
1. Royalty
2. Pregnant women
3. People with tapeworms
" E Buzz said...
Looks like John McCain is still alive, and wouldn't a healthy dollop of his wise earthy countenance have helped over the last two months?"
Not really. The difference would be McCain calling for a military assault on the spill, then a few weeks of running around blustering when the military told him they had no expertise or capacity. Then McCain would do a "my friends, my friends!!" address to the nation amping this up to a "crisis as big as WWII" that only a man who suffered as a POW was able to grasp - in which he called for carbon tax and cap, Amnesty for illegals to do the oil cleanup jobs Americans won't do, and war with Iran.
And he would allow Palin 20 minutes of saying stupid things and throwing partisan red meat out, before he dispatched her on a 3-week long Pacific Island fact-finding trip, sans press plane.
Tea Party Support Slips
Nowhere nearly as rapidly or precipitously as has this bozo's, however.
Oopsie.
Man, you guys are blinded by your hate and deluded by the propaganda you consume as "news."
Unintentional irony so doublerich'n'creamy, it actually qualifies legally as nougat.
"Actually all of it, aside from Obama being well spoken."
So he is not black (I agree).
He is not liberal. (?)
And since he's not black, affirmative action is irrelevant.
OK, thanks
Lars Porsema:
"Strange, no cries of 'racist' for Bo's critics..have we turned a corner?"
After reviewing subsequent posts, I would like to withdraw my comment.
So do you agree that Steve King's comments were racist?
John Cornyn has Rand Paul and Sharron Angle muzzled. Maybe, he says, he will remove the muzzle - some day.
"You're going to have complete 100 percent access to her, but I think it just makes sense, at some point that I think she needs to get staffed up and prepared," Cornyn said. "I don't think anybody would be prepared for a race like this where 20 or 30 million dollars is going to be spent in negative advertising."
"Barack spent so much time by himself that it was like he was raised by poodles."
Fixed.
It's called stop spending money you don't have.
Chris Christie is doing that heroically in New Jersey -- and damned if my born-again, Pentecostal, anti-gay (ex-gay), Rapture-believing friend doesn't COMPARE HIM TO OBAMA (whom she despises). They're both just dictators doing whatever they want. Christie is slashing public jobs. Her daughter-in-law's a teacher, her husband drives a city bus and has STILL not been made full time with benefits. What, you think it's the big people who have to pull their belts in when we start living within our means?
I'm not drawing a political conclusion from this, just that going Chris Christie's way is going to be as unpopular as it is necessary. People need help, and/or have gotten used to getting it from some branch of government.
The problem is a lack of leadership skills. Wolves are loners until they find a pack to run with...and Barack found the Marxist Theory pack and is afraid to leave it. So we are threatened by this wolfman's natural desire to please the Marxist pack. All his smiles and lies to us are crafted to keep American's asleep while he slowly makes the Revolution's success inevitable. In the meantime Pelosi and Reid are only in it to steal money. Where will Barack's natural commitment to destruction of the burgeoisie and its property rights (that is you and me)take us, that is the only serious question.
The cry never heard when Republicans are in power:
It's called stop spending money you don't have.
"I'm not drawing a political conclusion from this, just that going Chris Christie's way is going to be as unpopular as it is necessary. People need help, and/or have gotten used to getting it from some branch of government."
That's not really true Amba. The public sector employees like the teachers and the bus drivers might think they should earn $100,000 with six months off and retirement after twenty years. So they hate Christie like AlphaLiberal hates soap. But the taxpayers with the out of control real estate tax bill, not so much.
Barack found the Marxist Theory pack and is afraid to leave it. So we are threatened by this wolfman's natural desire to please the Marxist pack
That explains his nigh-Pavlovian reflex to submissively urinate whenever confronted by a larger, more dominant Marxist (Chavez, Wright, etc.).
To the specific question "What do we do?", I would suggest the appropriate response is neuter him politically. Retake congress; stall, stop, or reverse his remaking society initiatives, restore some sense of fiscal balance to the Washington funhouse, and address real problems which are amenable to government driven interventions.
Word, too.
""Barack spent so much time by himself that .." Scene from his adolescence
Grandma: "Barack, why do you spend so much time locked in the bathroom?"
BO: "Ahh, Grandma, leave me alone."
There is still this Liberal dogma:
* There is NO racism from blacks in America today.
* All the racism comes from whites!
you are supposed to ignore the internal contradiction.
No, but McCain won 88% of the white vote, so asserting that almost 9 out of 10 whites voted against him is "affirmative action" is pretty dumb, wouldn't you agree?
Some how the use of Nabokov’s ironic underling of the word “normal” in a book which constantly reveals the uncanny off-centered quality not only of Humbert but also of the American landscape as a way to question the use of “normal” when describing Obama because now after watching the movie, the word “normal “for Althouse “has an extra texture” strikes me as a purposeful and perverse juxtaposition. But I realize that this is the way that Alhouse likes to frame the issues concerning this administration. For myself, an Obama voter over sixty, I had no illusions about this great progressive hope who rode into town with Larry Summers and gang—seems normal for the way Washington operates, but I “hope” time will reveal more successes that folks on this board will admit to.
Kemosabe: derived from Que no sabe. Know nothing or doesn't know
tonto: stupid person, mindless, slow
In essence Tonto is getting back at the Lone Ranger for calling him "slow" or stupid by calling the Lone Ranger a "know nothing"
"Hey Tonto"
"Back atcha, Kemosabe"
LOL. Nice working relationship. Both insulting the other.
oooooh. verification word: dicskin.
That one should have been for Titus.
Nice relationship
Every sniveling commercial where the teachers union whines that Christie is destroying education is driving up his popularity.
In New York City we have bus drivers who have taken from 60 days to sick months off from sick leave because somebody spit on them. Due to their union contract.
The days of the general public having any sympathy for government employees are over. Big time.
The aspirations of Obama voters clashing with the reality of Obama himself remind me of this scene.
Indiana Jones: Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He'll blend in — disappear — you'll never see him again.
[Cut to Marcus in İskenderun]
Marcus Brody: Does anyone here speak English? Or even Ancient Greek?
I'm not drawing a political conclusion from this, just that going Chris Christie's way is going to be as unpopular as it is necessary. People need help, and/or have gotten used to getting it from some branch of government.
Well if you ever saw the French Connection II, Popeye Doyle was downright irritable when he was being weaned of the heroin.
I'm quite sure that people will be unhappy with Christie and as long as its a smaller number than those who are actually footing the bill for the goodie bag then I guess he'll be ok.
Honestly when you look at Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain and the financial abyss they are heading into as a result of massive runaway government spending, I am gobsmacked when liberals think that is exactly what we need to do here. It defies basic logic to the point where I’m convinced that logic and common sense don’t even factor into the equation anymore and such a belief in an all powerful Oz government is now just an article of faith (like AGW).
So, duly noted: Many voters voted against him. Now, can we proceed to talk about some other things this time?
Sure thing. Let's talk about how you're going to vote for the guy running against Russ Feingold.
Hahahahahahaha.
Garage:
"No, but McCain won 88% of the white vote, so asserting that almost 9 out of 10 whites voted against him is "affirmative action" is pretty dumb, wouldn't you agree?"
It was 56% white for Mc. Quit making up numbers. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts.
Garage: Mccain won 88% of the white vote? You sure? Or were 88% of the people who voted for him white? I think you will agree that there is a difference. If the former then I would like a recount.
"psychologically healthy"
Sounds like the short version of:
"Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."
Lawler Walken said...
By deal with it I assume you mean do everything we can to see that he's removed from office at the earliest possible moment and in the meantime do everything we can to circumscribe his ability to do any more damage, by voting in a Republican Congress in November, for example.
Hopefully a GOP House will slow down the spending some on the domestic side, however:
failed President's (and Obama is one already) have the foreign policy area pretty much to their own without much oversight.
Like Obama did when he gutted our relationships with the Israelis' the Brits, the Indians, Tiawanese, Poles, Czech's, (who have I left off :)
He can still abrogate long standing relationships and break bonds until 1159 on 20 Jan 2013.
What he has done with some countries is hard to repair. Up till now, foreign governments have expected that promises made by one President carried over to the next. No longer....
"Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."
"Hush, darling. Just sit right down here, and play a nice... relaxing... game... of solitaire." ;)
No, but McCain won 88% of the white vote, so asserting that almost 9 out of 10 whites voted against him is "affirmative action" is pretty dumb, wouldn't you agree?
garage, buddy, did you take your stupid pill today? If McCain won 88% of the white vote he'd be President.
Romulus, raised by a protective pit bull ("wolf"), killed Remus and gave us the walled city of Rome.
Obama is an example of what happens when Remus runs things.
We are Remens.
So we get reamed..
McCain voter here, despite the obvious futility of voting for McCain in California.
Michelle Obama has also referred to Kenya as Barack's "home country." She probably shouldn't talk about his past so much.
The next step is to neutralise the Obama Wolf-man Marxism by beating him in 2012. To do that will first require many GOP types to accept Palin's intellect as good enough to do the job of President. She actually is the only candidate that can beat Obama. Yet many are frozen into their first opinion of her formed after the Katie Couric edited interview.
Lars
You are correct, my apologies. Sorry I am badly mistaken, I was looking at something else. I'll just run along now.
"garage, buddy, did you take your stupid pill today? If McCain won 88% of the white vote he'd be President."
This will make sense after the new ACORN census figures are published.
garage, buddy, did you take your stupid pill today? If McCain won 88% of the white vote he'd be President.
LOL. guess so. Sorry again to Lars. McCain won white votes by 12%. Oy.
"Lars
You are correct, my apologies. Sorry I am badly mistaken, I was looking at something else. I'll just run along now."
Nuff said; next topic. See you later.
As a group, we picked him over McCain.
No we didn't. As a group, those who voted for Obama picked him over McCain.
Don't lay the blame for that bad decision on the rest of us, the ones who didn't vote for Obama.
Sorry I am badly mistaken, I was looking at something else. I'll just run along now.
Don't forget to pick up milk and eggs.
And when you get back I want you to pit my cherries.
WPogo wrote: We are Remens.
So we get reamed...
There there. Just lie back and think of Kenya.
McCain won 88% of the white vote
White population of U.S. in 2008: 228.2 million.
88% of 228.2 million: 200.82 million.
Total votes for McCain in '08, among ALL groups: 57,678,355 million.
Just FYI, is all. ;)
traditionalguy said...
"..first require many GOP types to accept Palin's intellect as good enough to do the job of President. ...many are frozen into their first opinion of her formed after the Katie Couric edited interview."
Because Bush survived the presidency doesn't mean we shouldn't have learned that a modicum of brains is at least desireable. Other than the fact that Ms. Palin plays the right wing for gushy applause and a boatload of personal money, please cite something of value that she has contributed to the political discussion....
ya betcha she hasn't. I think this sums her up pretty well:
Good neighbors build good fences (pun intended).
Wolves = white people.
BetaLib lied: "The cry never heard when Republicans are in power:
It's called stop spending money you don't have."
Bullshit. But keep up wit the thread de-railment. You're doing a bang-up job.
@HDHouse:
Keep trying to distract all the way up until November.
You help our cause more than you think.
Harold D. House just said:
Because Bush survived the presidency.....
Once again, HDHouse shows his wish that Bush had died while in office.
Didn't we go through this a few months ago, with one of good ol' HD's comments being deleted by Althouse, but saved in the event it needed to be seen?
Hey Harold D House--still waiting for the info on your nine patents, and the abstracts of your papers you were going to send me. You did fes up to not having a physics degree from cal tech, but I suspect you probably stayed in a holiday inn .
Well Romulus he ain't. I'm leaning more toward Elagabalus ;-)
This is not a direct correlation to the two but rather the Romans quickly realized that Elagabalus was joke.
Ann
I think oddly frank J.'s essay here: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/what-obama-needs-is-a-change-of-job-description/
dovetails nicely with some of what you said in the post. only bluntly he's funnier.
btw, i think the pack metaphor is a bad one. packs stress a degree of independance. Obama sees us instead as a herd. a bunch of sheep or cattle to control. And he wants to be our shepherd.
The problem is that he has no idea what he is actually doing. And worse yet, he doesn't realize he has no idea what he was doing. i mean if he realized, we might have at least a little humility about his abilities. but ney. so he is going to make alternative fuel efficient, by legislation. by wishful thinking. sigh.
Obma is pretty normal, that is, he is the norm for lefty Chicago lawyer politicians, owned by the unions/the mob/corporate hacks, whose core principle is incandescent anti-Americanism.
He'd be tough to tell apart from other US college professors, trial lawyers, or SEIU bosses.
So, yeah, 'normal' for his crowd.
He understands things through the race, gender, class prism. Anything that fits inside of that trinity, he understands, and can articulate.
Outside of that trinity, he cannot understand anything at all.
He tries to put the BP blowup into a class framework: BP is classist, and doesn't care about the poor, or about race, (he'd like to call the geyser a white male disaster, which in a sense it is, even though the BP pointmen are black).
There are things outside of the race, gender, class trinity.
McCain made a very good foil for him. He was not only white and male, but was virile.
Sarah Palin was much more difficult for him to contend with, because she trumped him on gender.
Had she been at the top of the ticket, she would have won, in spite of the gaffes (she expected the media to be charmed by her, instead of trying to make her into an idiot, as Charlie Gibson did, and which the left in general seems to want to do).
Obama is a normal product of our elite institutions. He can understand and manipulate the race, gender, class discussions, and position himself to trump others from within that holy trinity.
Outside of that trinity, he's useless.
Well, that was soooo predictable.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
No! We (here at Althouse comments) cannot move on until this is properly hammered. It was, after all, you (hostess) that made two posts in a row with the same conceit of me (the Obama voter) = we (the entire electorate / Americans in general -- the world for that matter. ) And so we (right here) are forced to insist over and over and over again that we ≠ me.
La la la la la.
Bobby Jindal can outnerd Obama, which I think makes him the most effective foil against Obama in the next election at least for those who believe in the holy trinity of race, gender, and class.
For people who think in terms of functionality, almost anyone would be better than BO.
@Roger J: I found one of House's device patents! It's obvious that the POTUS has been paying royalties to House too! Link
"Obma is pretty normal.."
I think a better word is ordinary; as in garden-variety ___________
This confirms what I've always suspected. All Obama knows about the American People is what he has seen on TV. He sees the educated as the right thinking staff from "West Wing" and everyone else as the Jerry Springer audience. Business men are all J.R. Ewing.
traditionalguy - "The next step is to neutralise the Obama Wolf-man Marxism by beating him in 2012. To do that will first require many GOP types to accept Palin's intellect as good enough to do the job of President. She actually is the only candidate that can beat Obama."
1. No, the next step to thwart Obama is to defeat him in 2010, then work on dampening the progressive jewish media's ethusiasm for the guy.
2. The only way to get Republicans to believe Palin has the brains for the job is to get her to shut up and stop proving the critics right, but she won't.
3. At this point, Obama looks pretty defeatable. Putting Palin, a person with a habit of quitting jobs and talking about things well over her pretty little head - would be a Republican gambit to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
=====================
Michael Hasenstab - "No we didn't. As a group, those who voted for Obama picked him over McCain.
Don't lay the blame for that bad decision on the rest of us, the ones who didn't vote for Obama."
Actually, you can blame Republicans who nominated an awful, semi-senile treacherous guy who wanted to do 90% of what Obama has done. Then acquiescing to a man in dubious health selecting a woman most thought was not fit or prepared to be President. (who political analysts now believe cost Angry Johnny 2-3% of the vote and several states as Palin turned off white women and independents in droves)
That left voters with two really bad choices.
Telling how little "McCain regret" there is even as Obama founders. You had Bush I regret a couple of years into Clinton, you had Algore regret...but very little Carter, Kerry, or McCain regret happening.
Ah, where to begin?
Well, first there's normal. Somehow, we're supposed to believe Dubya wasn't. Obviously, he was normal enough to be elected twice. Now, Willie and The Zero were both known to be sociopaths with Zero also having traits like aloof and removed commonly associated with him. We knew about his Commie Mommy and Frank Marshall Davis. Not exactly apple pie Americana, so the idea we didn't know something was up is MoDo trying to get on the right side of history.
Which puts us in the path of the Lefties realizing the whole snow job is coming apart at the seams. Our National Socialists are going all ballistic over the fact that The Zero's even losing Chrissy Matthews and Keith Ubermoronnn. What was the phrase, "media fabrication"? Since the media have been his running dogs since Iowa, that's a tough sell.
Oh, and as I noted when this was first raised, the WaPo poll showing Tea Party losing support was skewed with a bump of about 5 points in the sample on the Left.
PS Trooper York said...
...
Then his face lit up. "What do you mean "WE", White Man?"
Troop, you should know Tonto was a Pototwattamie. He was probably in worse trouble than The Masked Man.
PPS Nice shot of you, Ann. Taken in Rome?
@Roger...the abstracts are around and the assignments are probably in the attic or the basement in old files. unlike you, i have a job and frankly if you want to dig around you can find them in the patent office site and when i go to the trouble of digging the stuff up i'll do it. now go back to your nap.
@Roger J: I found one of House's device patents!
I found one, too! ;)
Michael Hasenstab said...
"Because Bush survived the presidency.....Once again, HDHouse shows his wish that Bush had died while in office."
You tired old goat. survived as in "made from beginning to end" or, well not in bush's case, "he survived the examination" or "he survived flight assignment" or "he survived a stint as GM where he traded away his best players" or "he survived, his oil company didn't".
You are a real pain in the ass.
Kirby Olson - "Sarah Palin was much more difficult for him to contend with, because she trumped him on gender.
Had she been at the top of the ticket, she would have won, in spite of the gaffes (she expected the media to be charmed by her, instead of trying to make her into an idiot, as Charlie Gibson did, and which the left in general seems to want to do)."
Had Sarah Palin participated in the Primary process, despite her big tits, she would have been fairly quickly revealed as a blathering idiot - much as Richardson and Brownback were.
But she didn't bother to show up for Primaries, then promptly quit her governorship after her damaging VP nominee time.
In trying to play affirmative action bingo, under the illusion that conservatives can beat liberals at their own game....Kirby ignores that a backwoods babe does not trump a Havard-educated black man even better than Palin at throwing out red meat for his 'peeps.
Not that Caribou Barbie would have been nominated if Angry Johnny had keeled over dead at the Convention. Nor would have Republicans "upgraded" her to the nominee from the VP they had to keep on message...if Angry Johnny had keeled over on the campaign trail.
3. At this point, Obama looks pretty defeatable. Putting Palin, a person with a habit of quitting jobs and talking about things well over her pretty little head - would be a Republican gambit to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Fully agree with this point. This is not Palin's time, if it ever comes. She's far more effective doing what she's doing. Let's remember that, right/wrong/somewhere in between, she kept the administration on defense for months using Facebook, for crying out loud.
No, it will have to be someone else. This completely discounts the not-unrealistic of a Hillary insurgency. As much as I dislike the women, I'd love to see the Dems rips themselves apart given their horrible behavior during the '08 primary.
Kirby said: Sarah Palin was much more difficult for him to contend with, because she trumped him on gender.
Had she been at the top of the ticket, she would have won . . .
Sadly, no. I think we saw very clearly in 2008 that race completely trumps gender, and, more so, that the left is terrified of both women and sexuality in general, and have little qualms about showing it.
They know that they have to destroy any woman who steps out of her pre-determined box (liberal or barefoot and pregnant), and they will, with reckless abandon. If they don't, women may start thinking for themselves, and where would we be then?
- Lyssa
Harold D House: I do enjoy fucking with you because you are a liar and a fraud and generally a worthless piece of shit. You were the one that told me you would send your exploits to me. You may not know this, but when one is awarded a patent they get a plaque with their patent number--since you have nine of them, they should be readily available. As for your physics training, and your teaching experience in research methods (at the doctoral level, no less), please tell us what your terminal degree is in and where you taught? Not to hard, no? You havent even fulfilled your promise to me; I dont expect you to be honest. You are a lying piece of shit, whose only expertise appears to be bad snark. But do carry on.
The internet does weed out the bullshitters harry--and you certainly qualify as a bull shitter.
This has been a fun game, harry, but I will await the documents you promised to provide. Have a nice day .
Fully agree with this point. This is not Palin's time, if it ever comes. She's far more effective doing what she's doing
Agree with your agreement. Palin is just too much of a lightning rod to be the next candidate for President. Damaged goods.
It would be a hoot to see the liberals' heads explode and watch the frantic gyrations in their attempts to denigrate the woman. But it would really be a distraction and we need to win more than we need the entertainment.
I like Palin doing what she is doing now, which is acting like a 'rain maker'. Supporting and highlighting candidates on all sides that represent conservative (not necessarily social conservative) values, smaller government and less spending tickets. Poking holes in Obama's inflated ego and stating the obvious about the left's agenda.
My current dream ticket for 2012 , which will probably change as time reveals, is:
Chris Christie for President
Michelle Bachman for VP
So I guess you're never going to admit you made a mistake by voting for Obama.
AlphaLiberal,
"Did she also say “Obama favors black people” as did the racist Rep Steve King? Maybe not."
That's not racist, that's a fact. I warned against him, before he got elected, for just that reason myself. His own words ("typical white person", etc.) plus his associates made it clear:
There's not a post-racial bone in his body.
it seems to me that the very fact that obama's fans had to keep saying he was "psychologically healthy" should have been a clue. After all, if you have to keep saying it...you're needing to do it for a reason.
unlike you, i have a job
I always admired Wal Mart for hiring you old farts to greet customers.
Sadly, no. I think we saw very clearly in 2008 that race completely trumps gender, and, more so, that the left is terrified of both women and sexuality in general, and have little qualms about showing it.
Yup. Saw plenty of these being proudly sported by local tee-clad lefties, during the '08 primary season.
Adorable, huh...?
"We are the electorate. As a group, we picked him over McCain. It's something we need to understand."
No, "the electorate" didn't pick him. Obama voters picked him. They were the ones who harbored silly illusions (your term) about him. They -- not we -- are the ones who need to figure out how they allowed themselves to be taken in by an obvious charlatan.
Since you were one of those voters, why not share with us your thoughts about how you got taken in? How did someone with your education and keen legal mind get flim-flammed?
Lyssa: Cedarford has always been misogynistic when it comes to Palin. He sees it as a bonus and it gives him strange bedfellows.
I think it's amusing to watch.
The other day, many of us commented of jobs we had when we were young.
That is a sticking point re Obama. To me, Obama just did not pass the reasonableness test. He and the MSM were silent and uninterested in his college grades, SAT scores, how he paid for college, summer jobs he may have had, friends he had whe he was young and on and on.
He is far from normal- he is just plain weird.
Hoosier Daddy--I actually would love to be a greeter at Walmart--its fun to talk to people. As it is, I am now retired on a six figure income--jobs are so HD House. And I do need to keep the integrity of my lawn from the ravages of kids and dogs.
DBQ:
One has to admit Christie seems to "get it" plus he is quick on his feet mentally. He is able to distill the big govt vs small govt issue into reasonable arguments the average person agrees with.
What a strange thing for someone's wife to say.
WV: untill
Roger J - no mention of any patents here.
But he did represent the Russkis for ten years. Figures.
Dust Bunny Queen said...
Fully agree with this point. This is not Palin's time, if it ever comes. She's far more effective doing what she's doing
Agree with your agreement. Palin is just too much of a lightning rod to be the next candidate for President. Damaged goods.
That she is every Lefty's woman they love to hate now does not preclude her from running one day. It may not be the best example available, but consider the sojourn of Richard Nixon 1962 - 68.
@DBQ and AJ It's nice to dream those things down the road (2012 and beyond) but the most important task at hand is still November 2010.
One has to admit Christie seems to "get it" plus he is quick on his feet mentally
I really like him and am more impressed everytime I hear him speak.
Not to be a link whore but ...I will anyway. I posted this earlier about Christie
While the picture finished off an excellent post in a most excellent way, and also makes Althouse look stunning, I disagree.
Now, shape up, see clearly, and deal with it.
Shape up and see clearly that our conceptions of the President are the problem?
No, no, this is not the whole story, nor is this going to provide a solution to the mess.
We need to see that the entire system is the problem; that our susceptibility to Obama's finely-tuned message and to his pretty smile is the result of lots of hard work by the two establishment parties. We respond to potential Congresspeople, for instance, in pretty much the same way. It's not just the President.
We overlook deeper and more important issues of virtue and competency and instead vote based on a sales pitch.
But what is the virtuous and competent alternative? For President, let's say, was it McCain/Palin? A sellout and another pretty face? No, no, it wasn't that.
The fact is that there was no virtuous and competent alternative in 2008; the Democrats and Republicans started conspiring long ago to prevent such an alternative from being presented to us. When one does arise-- at a lower level, like with Scott Brown-- the whole country gets excited, and then the establishment goes to work to plug the hole before it can happen again.
Obama went from "Hope & Change" and "YES WE CAN", to "don't expect too much, I'm only a man" in 18 months. That's terribly fast. Even Nero took longer to turn into a turd; he had Seneca at the beginning to keep his actions, if not the man, somewhat virtuous and somewhat competent.
The way out? We stop the internecine Democrat vs. Republican fighting. Instead, we fight the entire combined we-have-more-in-common-than-we'll-admit-to Democrat and Republican establishment... fight them all, all of them, until more virtuous and competent leadership emerges.
I would love to get Christie into the Presidential suite; he even made being fat a plus for him.
Obama is the master of the calculated insult. The BP group arriving for their 20 minute "meeting" was dropped of at the gate and walked to the door of the White House
OMG! I just learned that Clinton was the master of the calculated insult too!
Oddly enough, if any of you are lucky enough to get to go to the White House, you too will enter through the gate and walk to the door.
"So we are threatened by this wolfman's (Obama's) natural desire to please the Marxist pack. All his smiles and lies to us are crafted to keep American's asleep while he slowly makes the Revolution's success inevitable."
Certainly one of the more arrestingly stupid remarks to be made about our "not-too-liberal/not-too-conservative-
but-just right" middle of the road President Milquetoast. Only in our current climate of terminal imbecility as common sense can a President who ties himself into knots to accommodate the corporate oligarchy and who continues our they've-already-bankrupted-us illegal wars abroad be viewed as even convincingly liberal, much less a Marxist and secret agent of the Red Revolution.
Ditch the John Birch Society comic books and smarten up a little bit.
We?
It's funny, as someone who never fell for Obama, I'm less disappointed than his followers.
And I don't understand why nuking the leak - as Russia has done several times- is not at least a viable option.
I agree w/ Scott and DBQ that it's not Palin's time now. I hope that it is someday, and she's young enough that I still think that's a chance, but I really hope that she doesn't try to force it in 2012.
Also agree that she's great at what she's doing now; no one's ever really done anything like it, and it's damned impressive (particularly for a woman, I mean, dummy with big tits).
DBQ said she is damaged goods, which I find interesting. It's true that she didn't do the best possible job early in the campaign, but mostly I think that the damaged goods are a result of others' reactions to her. You see it here; it is perfectly acceptable to call her misogynistic names, dismiss her as a barbie doll, etc. She's not dumb; there's no indication that she is, and she was considered to be a very good governor by the people of Alaska. But most people aren't as tuned in as we are, and they truly are confused about the difference between her and Tina Fey, and I think that's going to take a long time to fade away.
My point is, though, that the fact that she's damaged is not her so much as the fact that the liberals (particularly the media) just attacked her so ferociously (see above re: women need to know their place) that a lot of shots landed.
the most important task at hand is still November 2010
True. It is November or never!!! to stop this run away wagon we are trapped in. If we don't get enough turn over to rescind, repeal or at least stop the progressive agenda, 2012 won't matter because we will be irretrievably broke financially, economically and in spirit. The America that we knew will be gone forever.
Re: the fat thing about Christie. I love it. It makes him look like a real live person. He isn't some sort of Ken Doll, which is how I see Romney, or an artificial construct assembled by committee.
One woman on another blog comment said: "I want to kiss his gigantic cheeks".
I think he is pretty damned cute. I want to bake him a cake.
vw:padounk
Lyssa - "But you can really STFU with the misogynistic references to the size of her "tits," comparisons to a doll, or her "pretty little head.""
That is real world. Meaning the conservative men that built her up to a right-wing Goddess would not have done so if she weighed 300 lbs and had a warty face.
Big tits, fertility, a pretty face and throwing out slogans to cheering men on the right is her schtick, the basis of her popularity on the right.
Accept Caribou Barbie for what she is. Outspoken, photogenic.
She's basically another John Edwards..big on looks and saying the red meat things true believers want....but short on substance.
Michael: I am not sure if Harry understands his claims can be researched.
Now I think that one's personal opinions about politics and other current events are equally valid in the market place of ideas--and I am quite willing to give harry the time to expound on them--the dilemma, of course, is when harry claims some degree of expertise he clearly does not have. His opinions are worth reading; not so much his justification for his opinions.
El Pollo said: Lyssa: Cedarford has always been misogynistic when it comes to Palin. He sees it as a bonus and it gives him strange bedfellows.
I think it's amusing to watch.
I know Cedarford's not exactly the most normal out there, just, as an ambitious, conservative leaning woman who thinks of herself as having a feminine appearance (no big tits, though!), I sometimes fly off the deep end when I hear the shockingly misogynistic stereotypes that people (not just Cedarford) throw around against Palin with such ease.
Before 2008, I never thought that being a woman was a disability to my ability to achieve- now that's changed. It's frustrating. Again, I get not liking her, but it's so clear that so many people are judging her based on what's under her clothes, and not even trying to avoid it, that gets me.
- Lyssa
Cedarford said: She's basically another John Edwards..big on looks and saying the red meat things true believers want....but short on substance.
And show me where you dismissed John Edwards as just a guy with a big cock.
- Lyssa
C4: as you: big on bullshit, short on substance--how did you not find a way to work the jews into this post? you're slipping man.
Ann Althouse --
"As a group, we picked him over McCain. It's something we need to understand."
I'm very late to the game here, but to rephrase something many others have already said: No, something *you* need to understand is that you don't get to assign me membership in your group, regardless of the diluting effect on the results of your decision.
To reflect back on the hard work thread; if you do something stupid that costs the crew a contract, expect at least a verbal ass pounding for it which will escalate quite rapidly if you attempt to unload the responsibility.
DBQ said she is damaged goods, which I find interesting. It's true that she didn't do the best possible job early in the campaign, but mostly I think that the damaged goods are a result of others' reactions to her
@ Lyssa. That is pretty much what I meant. I think Palin would be an excellent President but the perception has become so pervasive that she is some sort of dumb, slutty, hick...you name the insult...that it would be very difficult to overcome that.
Most of a Palin campaign would be tangled up in proving otherwise. They would spend more time in countering stupid memes and outright lies. My MIL still thinks that Palin said: I can see Russia from my house.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public and sheer ignorance of the electorate. Witness the Greene election in S.C. Those things are hard to overcome.
This is why I say damaged goods. Not because of anything Palin is or has done, but because the waste of time, energy and money that would be needed to overcome the perception.
I would rather WIN.
Ok Lyssa--if you dont have big mammaries, not worth listening to
Its all about the breasts
John Edwards as just a guy with a big cock.
Not even a fantasist as wondrously talented as Ursula K. LeGuin or Harlan Ellison... ;)
And I don't understand why nuking the leak - as Russia has done several times- is not at least a viable option.
1. Non-proliferation treaty we signed bars us from setting off nuke bombs for testing, non-military purposes.
2. High risk if you set a nuke off, you may not stop the leak but crack open the whole reservoir, releasing several billion gallons of now slightly radioactive oil, all at once.
3. The Gulf and the Persian Gulf handled larger spills just fine, with any harm to marine life over in 2 years or less with little or no "government cleanup heroes" actions.
Given that, hysterics ideas of setting off a nuke bomb right above a multibillion gallon reservoir of oil..or setting off a thermocuclear device 8 miles above the Gulf to burn off an oil slick to save "thousands of at-risk seagulls" appears nutty stuff.
C4: you are indeed infuriating--sometimes you are totally rational, and other times off the deep end--you need to key your posts so we know what to ignore.
This Harold House? (from USPTO.GOV)
The online database isn't searchable before 1976.
United States Patent 4,255,023
House March 10, 1981
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objective retinal response recorder
Abstract
A retinal response recorder that is fully automatic, comprises a light stimulator, with means for a patient to position his head, such that his eye is on the horizontal axis of the stimulator. Means are provided for selecting any one of the selected number of light beams directed from the stimulator to the eye of the patient at selected angular positions above and below the horizontal and left to right of the vertical plane through the axis of the stimulator. Appropriate electrodes are positioned on the skin surface of the patient to record electro-muscular potentials generated by the retina of the eye. Means are provided for a prearranged program of selection of stimulator spots. If the eye sees the spot of light a retinal response potential is generated and/or a visually evoked response is generated. These signals, one or both, go to amplifiers with selected filter characteristics, and then to a display-recorder apparatus, so that the magnitude of the response can be determined with regard to the specific position of the spot of light.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventors: House; Harold D. (Tulsa, OK)
Appl. No.: 06/011,375
Filed: February 12, 1979
Kirby Olson said...
"Bobby Jindal can outnerd Obama, which I think makes him the most effective foil against Obama in the next election at least for those who believe in the holy trinity of race, gender, and class."
Jindal is not an eligible Natural Born Citizen. He was born in Louisiana of Indian immigrant non citizen parents (he was born a citizen of India).
LOL
Post a Comment