Later, perhaps, he got scared that Romney, with seemingly endless energy, was getting the better of him, embodying optimism. It's almost... Reaganesque! People are supposed to love me, that's the given of this race. What if they love him?!
Obama didn't have a way to change his own demeanor, to veer away from the game plan, mid-debate, and as he relied more and more on studied dullness, hints of his own disappointment in himself showed through. He tried, it seemed, to stave off those feelings by flashing his famously beautiful smile — which, we could then see, does not emanate from a place of joy or pleasure.
I'm reading Andrew Sullivan's his live-blog. His last entry is widely quoted:
But this was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach, and his effete, wonkish lectures may have jolted a lot of independents into giving Romney a second look.That corresponds to the theory that Obama had a strategy that turned out to be bad. And scroll down to 10:29:
How is Obama's closing statement so fucking sad, confused and lame? He choked. He lost. He may even have lost the election tonight.The closing statement is a part Obama would have planned in advance. There's no reason for that to come off badly. Even if he'd been tired before and disappointed in himself and surprised at Romney's strength, the event was almost over. Summon up a final burst of energy and deliver that little speech you've got memorized. That is the thing you're best at — other than that smile — delivering a sermon. Nail that last little bit and maybe that's what people will remember. End big. Why wasn't he ready to do at least that?
Speculating, I'm able to come up with only 2 ideas: 1. He has some burdensome real emotions behind that smile, and 2. He actually doesn't want to win.
Posts
196 comments:
Did Meade make you dance to that goofy Stand With Walker video? That is my standard for whether Romney did well.
"Why wasn't he ready to do at least that?"
-- He told people at campaign stops he was skipping his debate homework. And it showed.
"Why wasn't he ready to do at least that? "
Kids, let this be a lesson. Do not smoke choom during your formative years. It can hurt your brain.
Consider this exchange with Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, head of the Democratic Governors Association:
O’Donnell: “If you could do ten minutes of coaching with the president on the next debate, based on what you saw tonight, what would you tell him to do differently.”
O’Malley: “Uh, I don’t know.”
When the emperor has not teleprompter, of course you can't make a valid suggestion.
The badness of his closing was baffling. Maybe he does hate being President. That's not hard to imagine.
Barack has a lot of explaining to do. If he's able.
Obama is acting like a person who, for the first time in his life, has realized he isn't as smart as he's been led to believe.
I see that exact expression on the faces of Kindergarten children and/or only children the first time they realize there are other kids and the others are cute too.
It did not look like Obama really wanted to be there last night. It does not seem like Obama wants to be President.
Why would he. He has no real plan to deal with the economy. There is no way that Obama can increase taxes to meet his spending ideology even within his own party. The ultimate compromise to be reached will be mostly reducing government.
All the things that need to be done - reducing the debt, reducing spending, etc.. are not liberal things. They are anti-liberal. Why would Obama want to do those things. Obama in his heart is a socialist, leading what is a conservative country. Maybe its just better to lose. But he fights on because he owes it to all those around him to put up an effort.
Obama's demeanor last night is further proof that a 2nd Obama term would be a disaster. We will be left with a President who is tired, worn out, has no ideas, and does not want to be president.
Remember that Obama's internal polling wouldn't have the major D+ skew of the media polls. He likely knows he's toast and just wants to quit, kind of like a kid kicking over the checker board when it's clear he's up against a better player. He's always been a big pouter, but last night was pathetic. He had nothing.
He has too much pride to not punch back next time, I think. Whether he can punch back effectively, I don't know. The level of gloating right now from conservatives seems excessive, however.
He shouldn't practice with some warmed over politician. He should practice with some sharp commentator, someone who debates on television, radio, or in print for entertainment.
Simpler answer... He's not used to facing real, determined opposition.
After all, Althouse, even you keep telling us that we have to be careful what we say and do around him because he's black.
He's used to the deference.
Freeman: I suggested Steny-Hoyer or Manchin, two Democrats who I think could do a good job representing where Romney will come from. I think the problem is that Kerry presented the Romney stereo-type/caricature, not the Romney who would show up.
He wants to win. Just wait and see what he is willing to do to achieve that.
I think his arrogance came into play. And his isolation. He did not think Romney could measure up. He is not accustomed to being challenged in a situation where his dominance is questioned. Kerry as the surrogate? What a joke. Should have used Rahm.
Plus, as usual, he did not have a convincing overall theme.
Obama's smile. Come on America, what else to you need? Ignore the economy, the bad math, the economic failures, the skyrocketing debt, the broken promises, and the wasted tax payer dollars. Just focus on that perfect grin.
If Obama isn't surrounded with friendly pro-Obama media tossing him softballs, Obama is like a fish out of water. Without the pro-Obama training wheels, he's helpless.
I loved how Romney dominated the obviously pro-Obama moderator.
More please.
He looked just like Bobby Valentine at his last press conference.
Next debate....fake mustache!
Obama didn't have a way to change his own demeanor
So you are saying that Obama does not have any control over his facial expressions or his demeanor?
I'd still go ahead and vote for him since everyone voting for Romney is a big racist meany.
Freeman Hunt said...
He shouldn't practice with some warmed over politician. He should practice with some sharp commentator, someone who debates on television, radio, or in print for entertainment.
Rahm.
His closing was very incoherent, I agree.
I won't speculate on why, though. The burdens of the office?
"He is used to deference."
Succinct.
I wouldn't use Rahm; Rahm's style is not Romney's style. Rahm is aggressive and in your face, Romney is assertive, polite and firm. I think that's part of the problem. Obama wanted to get angry, but Romney never gave him an opening to justifiably be pissed.
You're not allowed to talk mean to the quota hire.
That's Althouse's rule.
So, Obama is used to that.
Strategy shmategy, Obama's a big nothing who's finally been exposed.
The problem is we are not grading on a curve.
From NRO:
Meanwhile, Obama kept looking over at Mitt with a “I can’t believe you know all this stuff” look on his face, while periodically casting beseeching glances at moderator Jim Lehrer, hoping to be saved by a bell that never came
Romney is smarter than Obama and it showed last night. In spades.
And I haven't seen a smile, a REAL smile, on Obama for quite some time. These days I interpret his smiles to be masking something else.
Obama is not helpless.
He will fight back hard.
He will be much better in the next debate.
He wants to win. Just wait and see what he is willing to do to achieve that.
Why should Obama bother? All he has to do is start from his guaranteed 47% and steal a few votes here and there, and he's home free.
Face facts, cons, Mittens is burnt toast in Nov.
The problem for Obama, is that the stakes were high in this debate. The expectations were that Obama would win. But really all Obama needed to do was get a draw.
People were on edge with Romney as to whether he could take it to the higher level - the level needed to be President.
Now that has happened. So Romney has proven it to the huge audience that watched last night.
What remains then is why does Obama deserve another term? Before, it was because the alternative, Mitt Romney, wasn't up to the job.
What is Obama's case for re-election now?
Of course he will fight back.
He will scratch.
And pull hair.
And stamp his feet.
He is a tough guy.
Speculating, I'm able to come up with only 2 ideas: 1. He has some burdensome real emotions behind that smile, and 2. He actually doesn't want to win.
That's where I am on him:
Who needs this?
He's the President of the United States, carrying the burdens of the world, and this guy wants the job?
Let him have it.
Speculating, I'm able to come up with only 2 ideas: 1. He has some burdensome real emotions behind that smile, and 2. He actually doesn't want to win.
I suppose that it simply could not be that he is an empty suit and is in no way equipped or qualified to be President of The United States.
Naw.
Option 3.
obama is exactly who the right has been saying for 5 years, a know nothing inexperienced, has never had a real job, coddled his entire life fake. Someone who got elected on the basis of: a leftist media, voters who are/were leftists themselves, ridden by white guilt or just.plain.stupid.
And now he is exposed by his record of epic failure and can't hide behind "hope AND change."
It was hard to tell on the C-CPAN split-screen tight-shot, but I wouldn't be surprised if Obama looked at his watch like George HW Bush.
He doesn't want to win. Being president, I think, was a thing half-way pushed on him in the first place by people smitten with him who saw his "uniqueness" (yes, that's a code-word for black and smooth, sorry but it's true)as something they could use to win power. They succeeded with the help of intense hatred of Bush and a crappy candidate in McCain. The perfect storm.
Now he's discovered this gig is not fun. It's hard work. Hard mostly unapprecated work. And he's discovered that, oh my, people are really going to complain about him. First time in his life and he doesn't like it.
So he plays golf and entertains elites and bows to foreign leaders to suck up as much fun and adoration as he can get to offset the bad stuff.
But it's not working anymore. There's too much bad stuff. Only his most loyal followers still believe and much of that is because they just don't want to admit they were wrong.
Conventional wisdom says he will come back in the other debates. That the townhall type of debate will play to his advantage. But I don't think so.
He got his ass handed to him tonight and I don't see him being the type to come out in the second half playing hard. He's never had to do that before and there's no one in his goup of advisers who probably know how to advise him on it either.
His only hope is that the moderators in the other debates go whole-hog for him. But that can work only so well and Romney will be ready for that.
Yes, he doesn't want to win. He wants to go to the house in Hawaii and lecture to adoring fans.
I wish him luck in that.
I have to tell this
I go on a website called Dlisted, which is a gossip website which I consider quite funny, naughty but funny. for some reason, the webguy put up a pic of Big Bird with a Will Work for Food sign, along with a statement of "we all know why"...hypertexted to an earlier "promise" of Romney's to end PBS.
This website, which does not go political much even sees the writing on the wall with Obama.
It is stunning that reasonable people continue to claim, in the face of overwhelming evidence, including the pathetic mumblings of last night, that Obama is a brilliant man.
When his ordinariness becomes apparent, his supporters invent an alternate and highly sophisticated reason for it, such as a "strategy" or a "nuance."
That is silly. He lost because his knowledge is shallow and his intellect is ordinary. This was no "rope a dope," it was another open and notorious failure of his vaunted intellect and worshiped oratorical skills.
He's just not that smart.
I haven't heard as much rationalization since the last time
the Cubs were in the playoffs and went down one, two, three.
Yeah, Obama said "Why bother?" Just like he has every day over the last four years.
I flipped over to MSNBC afterwards to find Maddow grilling David Plouffe about Obama's debate strategy.
That poor guy really was earning his money trying to spin the debate, but he assured Rachel that the strategy was to (paraphrasing here) continue the narrative set by Bill Clinton at the convention.
We should not underestimate Romney's skill as a debater. At various times, he had Newt and Perry reduced to blubbering fools. Santorum alone was really his only competition. Finally - finally - we got the payoff of all those brutal Republican debates.
and it seems that O doesn't want to be president. I don't think he wanted the job, just the bennies, and people have known that since unemployment was up 9%
OMG.
This really squares the circle. I remember when people speculated his inaugural address was lackluster on purpose because times were tough.
He usually disappoints, and people usually want to make that evidence of his genius.
Maybe there is a point where we can confidently state that Obama usually underperforms.
I think he was thinking about how he would be expected to have sex with Michelle on their anniversary.
That would throw anybody off their game.
Obama pushed my hot button last night when he said in his closing statement "Everybody's doing a fair share, and everybody's playing by the same rules..."
You mean like all your cronies who got Obamacare waivers?! How is that "playing by the same rules"? How is it even Constitutional to make laws and exempt your major campaign donors?
He didn’t look at his watch. That’s something.
I watched baseball.
I think he was thinking about how he would be expected to have sex with Michelle on their anniversary.
Black mommies tell their daughters to hit their man upside the head with the iron skillet or to throw hot grease on him when he misbehaves.
That could be worrying Obama, too.
RAAAACIST!
(Thought I'd save everybody the trouble.)
@Sabinal, dlisted is a guilty pleasure of mine too.
To everyone claiming he was out-smarted by Romney, that's bullshit:
Romney was more energized and nothing more.
Both men understood the topics just fine, but their styles were different, and Romney was obviously more hungry for capturing the moment.
Obama just didn't seem to care.
Yes, Obama wants to be president.
He loves being president.
He just doesn't know how to go about it.
Watching with my adult son and some of his friends last night. Regarding Obama's closing statement my son said he sounded like he was running Jr. High student council.
Let's not forget Obama is the most unqualified & inexperienced president we have ever had. He is barely qualified to be mayor of a mid-sized town. Even the MSM and loyal Dems can no longer ignore that Obama is not wearing any clothes.
Maybe it's as simple as Romney is better and has much better facts.
TWM, you've been saying what lots of people been thinkin'
"He doesn't want to win. Being president, I think, was a thing half-way pushed on him in the first place by people smitten with him who saw his "uniqueness" (yes, that's a code-word for black and smooth, sorry but it's true)as something they could use to win power. They succeeded with the help of intense hatred of Bush and a crappy candidate in McCain. The perfect storm."
We're all celebrating, but it ain't over yet.
Althouse has a few more racism fits up her sleeve.
Obama will come back.
The scam artists among the Dems pet groups still want their payoffs.
Don't get over-confident.
I've been of the opinion that Obama doesn't really WANT to win, and that all things being equal, he sees more of an upside to losing than winning. He's imagining the places he'd get to go and the crowds he'd get to speak to (for hefty $) and the golf courses he'd play with people he'd like to hang out with and above all, the lack of pressure, responsibility and consequences of his decisions/actions.
The scary part is that not only did he bring that attitude to the debate, I feel that's the way he's doing his real job these days.
Maybe the State Dept. wouldn't let Obama have bullets for his gun.
Shit like that happens.
Maybe the problem is that Obama's ideas suck, and are hard to defend when the other person is all nice and stuff.
I vote for #2. He doesn't really like being President. It isn't as powerful a position as he thought it would be. That pesky Constitution and its division of powers and all that. Senator or Representative is a better fit for him. They get to make up their own schedule, they can blame other members of Congress or the President if things go badly, they don't even have to show up half the time. They can spend their time enjoying the perques (or is it perks? no time to google) of office and still get re-elected as long as they make sure enough pork gets sent to their home state.
Let's do him a favor and send him back to Illinois, or even Hawaii if he wants.
It is too early.
Expect the mainstream media to go full Mormon.
Crack in one..two...three...
Matthew Sablan said...
Freeman: I suggested Steny-Hoyer or Manchin, two Democrats who I think could do a good job representing where Romney will come from. I think the problem is that Kerry presented the Romney stereo-type/caricature, not the Romney who would show up.
====================
Joe Manchin would be as popular in W Virginia as a cousin who knocked up his 1st cousin and refused to marry her if he was seen as Obama's Svengali. Given Obama's war on coal and drilling.
Steny Hoyer is also not well-disposed to Obama, who ignored him and several other Dem Leaders on Obamacare and Simpson Bowles to kiss Nancy Pelosi's ass. Obama was afraid to seek out and query Steny, The Man Who Should Have Been Speaker on any matter, because if would have incurred Pelosi's wrath.
No upside to Hoyer if Obama is reelected and follows Pelosi's lead still. But if Romney is elected, Steny would likely be the Next Dem Majority Leader and in weekly meetings at the table with Romney. Hoyer is mentioned by Paul Ryan as far easier to work with than Pelosi.
3. He doesn't worry about it because he hopes that there are enough people around like you.
Obama wanted to be president in the same way I wanted to be Sandy Koufax. Nothing about the actual work involved, just the glory of an infant's fantasy stoked by years of being told you are good when you haven't really earned.
I can't feel sorry for him, he laid down with the devil and its still quite possible he will get four more years of blind adoration from a willing media and celebrity elites.
I am not reading the other comments yet as I type this, but how many have said that maybe, just possibly, he is not the man you thought he was? Is that also a possibility?
I don't know how to even talk to someone who thinks Obama's smile is pertinent to whether he should be re-elected.
So where is that PeeWee Herman clip?
"I meant to do that."
Obama is a post-colonialist along the lines of Patrick Mugabe but he can't out himself, therefore his passion must be muted behind euphemisms such as "hope and change" and "forward." Romney has a message and a lineage that is more acceptable to the American people, and thus he's able to stand behind it and deliver. He did.
How can Obama muster that without actually saying what he's about? It's a huge problem for him now.
But he's clever and I expect him to mount a comeback.
Maybe he will just have to paint Romney as the bad white capitalist with imperialistic designs. It could work. It begs the question then of what's Obama. Obama is Mugabe.
The leftwing chorus, including pro-Obama MSMers like NBC's Brian Williams et al... are fixated on Romney's 47% comment.
The left assume that one comment will carry Obama across the finish line. Newsflash: It won't.
Pretty clearly Obama was not expecting to be the Democratic nominee in 2008 - as a result, he was not really mentally prepared to be president (which is a separate issue from whether or not he has the skills/temperament/knowledge to be president). This term has gone miserably for him, at least from the perspective of how the country has fared, and there is no reason for him to think that his policies would work during a second term. If he loses, he has an extremely lucrative, relaxed life ahead of him, writing autobiographies, playing golf, giving speeches, going on talk shows - with the theme that we weren't ready for him, but he managed to push the country forward in spite of us. I don't think he does want to win.
I'm not celebrating, but I am very satisfied that Romney was able to show who he is without having to go through a filter last night.
Romney's a smart and capable man with a talent for solving problems. I am relieved that came through at this debate.
Will his UW-Madison campaign rally be wonky and dull also?
Instead of YEAH!, they all go yeah...
I suppose there wouldn't be any racism behind the patronization of Obama.
That would be ugly.
Let's not forget Obama is the most unqualified & inexperienced president we have ever had.
How quickly they forget about James Buchanan.
Whether or not Obama was inexperienced 4 years ago is irrelevant today.
The left assume that one comment will carry Obama across the finish line. Newsflash: It won't.
No, but the army of ideologues Eric Holder is going to send out to supervise vote counting ... that will.
Now wait a minute....just hold the Obamaphone....there are still millions upon millions in the 47% moocher army...and if they all vote three or four times like they usually do...it can still be close.
So let's not do the victory dance just yet there Snoopy.
Obama's hasn't been getting the overwhelming adulation like he got in 2008. He doesn't want to do this anymore. I suspect this is a pattern he's been repeating all of his life.
Certainly the last few days have been interesting here. First, Ann, over at Instapundit, asks whether she is the only blogger posting there who has a problem with the latest Obama video and its presentation. And she got her answer right quick. She WAS, in fact, the only one. No one else joined her. Damn. That's what happens when you step out of your empire.
As others have posted, it seems that Ann has been casting about for a good reason to vote for Obama again. And now Zero goes Nero, fiddling with golf clubs when he should have been preparing for his debate with Romney.
Stay tuned! What will Our Self-Proclaimed Representative of the Undecided Voter do now? She's still looking for that moment when "Romney lost me."
The President performed badly, but I don't think it was the worst ever. I do think that if you discount "zingers" as I do, then Romney's was probably the best performance in any Presidential debate I ever saw. You can always Monday morning quarterback, but it would be hard to improve the job he did last night.
The revealing thing about that is that debating is the only thing Obama actually has any training or experience at. That was his strong suit on display. The job duties of President are much different.
There was one moment, when Romney's talking, and Obama was looking down, where Obama almost imperceptibly started shaking his head "no," that I found interesting. I think he thought Romney was lying - misrepresenting his policies - but thought it would look rude to interrupt. Which brings up another issue:
For all the criticism of Obama dropping his "g" when he talks to blacks - a situation where he, clearly, feels more comfortable - it's got to be a trial for him, knowing he'll get in trouble for being what he thinks of as his authentic self.
Mind you, that's a problem of his own making - nobody forced him to create the public persona he uses for mixed audiences - but it's got to be limiting, when he wants to call "bullshit" on something, and he's stuck with the fear of public perception being rattled by a switch.
That, alone, is enough to make anyone ambivalent,...
Strategy? That's a joke.
Obama does not want to be president. He wants to be adored, as he was during his 2008 campaign.
He has no interest in daily security briefings. He seldom meets with cabinet officials (quick - when was the last cabinet meeting?).
He loves to campaign, to attend fund raisers where adoring sychophants shower hime with love, money and adulation.
The hard part of governing - he hates that. It's hard work.
Obama's inner circle recognized two years ago that he'd be a one-termer. He isn't in the game. Why do you think Penny Pritzker and friends are putting the double hurry-up on buying and furnishing that big estate in Hawaii? They knew two years ago he was finished, and that he'd never return to Chicago.
His strategy is to grift money from his sychophants, retire in style, then make money by writing and speaking about himself.
Total narcissism.
Baron Zemo,
It is too early.
Expect the mainstream media to go full Mormon.
Crack in one..two...three...
God, some of you are stupid - and you can't read me, at all:
I've been accused of being a bigot, not covering anything but Mormons, being a racist, etc.
What you don't get is many of you live by your stupid assumptions and they're always wrong.
I said Romney won last night, at least, five times last night.
That still translates to you as I can't fair?
Shit, there's a reason I call so many of you morons,...
It is a complete lack of respect for Obama as a man that leads one to discount the idea that he is capable of trying (and wanting) to be good at something and failing.
Obama supporters I hear keep suggesting that the President should have hit him with the 47% or some other point like that would be the holy grail, but Romney was clearly very well prepared and practiced. I have no doubt that he not only had a prepared rebuttal for those, but was ready to hit them out of the park, and probably is disappointed they didn't come up. That's what proven competency does. It gives intelligent people confidence in what they have not seen yet.
. . . it's got to be a trial for him, knowing he'll get in trouble for being what he thinks of as his authentic self.
More like this guy, for instance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crdao-yNAIA
I keep wondering why Obama even wants to stick around another 4 years. That beach house in Oahu must look really good right now.
Let Michelle get a job with some international aid agency, while he plays golf and takes the occasional speaking engagement. He could use his personal charisma and his Muslim background to re-invent himself as an expert on the Muslim world.
Are you saying he subconsciously doesn't really want to win, or that he's intentionally choking?
I find it believable that a president might secretly want to lose an election because being president seems pretty awful.
He said a couple times he's come to like the label "Obamacare", as if to say whatever happens he has that to be remembered for on top of being the first black president. Well, unless its repealed, which seems unlikely.
BTW: Now that various forces in the media have shown they're willing to admit Obama had a bad performance, they are even more free to gush all they want over Obama after the next two debates when Obama might be on the offense more. And, since expectations for Obama's debating skills will be lowered at the next debate, it will make it easier for him to look like he's rebounded and taking the momentum back.
bagoh20 said...
Obama supporters I hear keep suggesting that the President should have hit him with the 47% or some other point like that would be the holy grail, but Romney was clearly very well prepared and practiced.
I heard someone opining that Obama had been advised to stay away from the 47% as it goes over too well with normal people.
Darcy ,
I suppose there wouldn't be any racism behind the patronization of Obama.
That would be ugly.
I think Ann's point was made very clearly last night:
Romney didn't need that silly video, or the "ugly" mouth-foaming reaction of his supporters, to do what was needed.
All you guys showed (and have been showing for some time) was your desperation, which was completely unwarranted, and now you still refuse to see it. If you'd had confidence in Romney to begin with, you'd have said so, but instead you relied on cheap shit to try and force something to happen.
It WAS "ugly"...
3rd possibility: It's not that he doesn't want to be president but that he believes he's tantamount to a monach and a debate is beneath him. It's the debate that he doesn't want any part of. A "this guy doesn't even belong on the same stage as me, so I'm so above this whole debate" kind of mentality that led to laziness in preparation and frustration in having to be there, on his 20th Anniversary, no less!
There have been plenty of instances over the past four years that have suggested that Obama doesn't really want to be president. Sometimes I would imagine him thinking "Good Lord, how badly do I have to screw up before these people realize? They just keep defending me!"
I think he likes the title of president, he just doesn't like the job of president. Ironically I think he'll be very happy as an ex-president, either in 2012 or 2016. Unlike Clinton, who I think misses the actual job very much.
I love the way Obama's supporters are trying to substitute the word "wonky" for "meandering".
Excitable Andy swings both ways I see. Definitely a good night for Romney, but he's still behind.
I blame John Kerry. Everything he touches at the Presidential level turns to crap.
All the depressed D's remind me of the 2004 joke:
John Kerry walks into a bar. Bartender says "Why the long face?"
Well, at least Obama gets to cheer up in safe Madison, WI. Get a photo-op beer and pretend that he likes it. Hours of rain for today, but looks like it will precede the 4 p.m. timeframe. Maybe Meade can stick his hand out the window and tell us the immediate forecast. Might make for perfect sloppy conditions for drunk student mud slides and human bowling games. So, there's that.
I didn't rely on anything, Crack. The exposure of the full video wasn't my doing, nor did I celebrate or hype the exposure of it. Further, I just have full confidence that Romney will win and I'm not scared of that video nor calling it ugly to expose. I reject the premise that I should be. It was a revealing glimpse into the Obama the media did a good job of hiding. Instructive. If it's ugly, it is ugly because sometimes the truth is. Ugly.
For all the criticism of Obama dropping his "g" when he talks to blacks - a situation where he, clearly, feels more comfortable - it's got to be a trial for him, knowing he'll get in trouble for being what he thinks of as his authentic self.
Yes but in the 2007 Pennsylvania speech, Obama didn't just speak to a black audience in a different accent, he also outright lied to them. He claimed falsely that the "man" had waived the dollar for white people in other disasters, but is making the black victims of Katrina pay the dollar.
This is an outright lie. The same fee was waived for Katrina as well jsut a few weeks before Obama gave the speech Moreover, Obama voted against the bill because it contained funding for Iraq, so he really didn't seem to care much for the waiver.
It appears that Obama assumes that black people will just vote for him because he is black. Thus, it is okay to lie and cheat. How sad is that.
If like Althouse, you seem incapable of seeing Occam's razor, you need to ask yourself: what exactly is it that informs you that this man is actually capable enough to be a good President. You have no school performance data, former employment data, or anything else concrete to produce that conclusion, and the data you do have of the last 4 years shows just the opposite.
Crack we just expect you to be a one note bigot that you have been for the past couple of months.
Keep it real homes.
Let's see....Throughout the debate he did that stupid stuttering thing, his debate prep was an apparent clusterfuck, and his closing statement was a miserable failure.
Unexpected!
I wonder why it took Romney 6 months to start running as a Democrat?
I find it believable that a president might secretly want to lose an election because being president seems pretty awful.
Being a president does seem pretty awful. I cut them all slack for that regardless of anything else. I think they all feel it. They get my respect for that, and I just could never bring myself to hurl epithets even at the worst of them. YMMV (in a lot of cases, obviously).
"I wonder why it took Romney 6 months to start running as a Democrat?"
-- Obama was the one talking about staying strong on defense and lowering taxes and accusing Romney (falsely) of raising taxes. If anyone ran away from their party, it was Obama.
I wonder why it took Romney 6 months to start running as a Democrat?
Now, that's a good one!
He's actually a RINO.
Whether or not Obama was inexperienced 4 years ago is irrelevant today.
Perhaps, but in the meantime one would hope he has developed some record of accomplishment. He hasn't.
Vagina.
His narcisstic supply was gone and Obama had no idea how to get it back. His sexual smile was not enough. His Axelrod designed strategy for destroying Romney as an aloof, rich weirdo was exposed as BS.
Romney truly won this debate by pulling his personality of caring and competance out of hiding. That light was what made Obama's arguments useless.
"Romney didn't need that silly video, or the "ugly" mouth-foaming reaction of his supporters, to do what was needed."
The video was all about Obama, not Romney. Let the black man take credit for his own racism once in a while.
Mormon.
Are you saying he subconsciously doesn't really want to win, or that he's intentionally choking?
Yes.
Peter Principle: for the obvious reason.
Someone finally challenged him.
He hasn't been trained to deal with challenges.
He's grown soft, weak, slow.
Funny.
He's a victim of his own, largely unearned success.
Darcy,
I didn't rely on anything, Crack. The exposure of the full video wasn't my doing, nor did I celebrate or hype the exposure of it.
No, but Ann wasn't just talking about you - she said it made the Right look bad - a criticism few who criticized her (as you're still doing) even bothered to address.
Further, I just have full confidence that Romney will win and I'm not scared of that video nor calling it ugly to expose. I reject the premise that I should be.
Reject all you want - you're all confident NOW, but have been worried as hell about the polls for the last few weeks. Look, Darcy, you can't fool me - I've been here with all of you this whole time, taking the brunt of a lot of bullshit, merely because I don't walk in lock-step. That's the price many decided anyone had to pay for not kissing ass. It's not American, and it is ugly, and this change in Romney's fortunes doesn't wipe away what happened. As a matter of fact, it's so recent, the difference is held in stark relief:
One day, it's "get him!" and the next day, "Our guy is so much better/smarter/faster/able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
It's all denial and other assorted mind games.
It was a revealing glimpse into the Obama the media did a good job of hiding. Instructive.
The lies you tell yourself must be comforting. Here's James Taranto:
Count this columnist among those underwhelmed by the new old Obama video released last night by the Daily Caller and Fox News. In the 2007 video, as the Caller explains, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois "tells an audience of black ministers, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that the U.S. government shortchanged Hurricane Katrina victims because of racism."
Mitt Romney's campaign is underwhelmed too,...
Even Stanley Kurtz, who's published two books about Obama's far-left prepresidential ties and argued that that history should be part of the campaign against his re-election, has a jaded response at National Review Online: "Is anyone surprised? . . . This tape simply confirms what those who've been paying attention should already know."
So if - as I've already said - we already know this stuff, how can it be "a revealing glimpse into the Obama the media did a good job of hiding"? Hiding from who? Oh yeah:
Those who have NOT been paying attention.
If it's ugly, it is ugly because sometimes the truth is. Ugly.
Well, the truth is you're in denial to your own behavior, so why don't you take a look at that and see how perceptive you can be to how it looks?
It won't be pretty,...
The videos of Obama's speech and Romney's 47% one are comparable. They both show the candidate saying something untrue to a safe audience that they did not wan't seen by the general public. The only difference is that Obama's safe group happened to be racial. That does not make it out of bounds in 2012, unless we have made no progress. If you think it was inappropriate to expose it, then you have not made the same progress as most us.
Besides that, Romney's gaffe there was more of a confusion of facts, and Obama's was an outright lie in direct opposition to the facts which he clearly had to know. Romney's mistake appealed to elitism, and Obama's appealed to racism.
"Did Obama have a strategy to make the debate feel wonky and dull?"
That gives the people pulling the levers far, far too much credit. Occam's Razor says he just screwed up.
Baron Zemo,
Crack we just expect you to be a one note bigot that you have been for the past couple of months.
Keep it real homes.
I am keeping it real - I've been here for YEARS.
Only moronic new arrivals decided I'm something I'm not, and then tried to press that upon me as the truth.
What makes you any better than the MSM for doing that?
Sorry if I don't "fit the narrative," homey,...
Sorry, you don't know me Crack. I am not "the Right". I am just me. You can lump me all you want into your perception of "the Right", but it doesn't make it true. It does make it ugly on your behalf. And it was ugly on Althouse's behalf as well.
I'm sorry you don't see that.
I won't speculate on why, though. The burdens of the office?
@MadMan, if you're not going to speculate, then don't.
And you need to find a good course there in Madison which deals with the period leading up to the Civil War. Go take a look at wikipedia. Buchanon was very well qualified to be President. He just happened to be inept.
I'm on travel and needed to do some work in my hotel room so I didn't watch the debate. Looks like I missed a train wreck. Living in what's supposed to be swing state, I'm pretty tired of both men by now.
Btw, I never said hyping that video was good strategy. I do, however, think the "ugly" part is assuming racism and charging it broadly. It's dishonest and quite awful.
Dude you fit the narrative like the feather in Huggy Bear's pimp hat.
You are a one note crank who thinks he knows better than everyone else and has to enlighten the poor dumb white folk who don't get it like the smart hip hoppity cool contrarian brother.
But one thing.....can you link to your blog.
You are laying down on the job bro.
The Crack Emcee said...
For all the criticism of Obama dropping his "g" when he talks to blacks - a situation where he, clearly, feels more comfortable - it's got to be a trial for him, knowing he'll get in trouble for being what he thinks of as his authentic self.
'''''
Crack, over at Bloggingheads there is a pre-2008 election diavlog in which Glenn Loury states that between college and law school, that is, during his community organizing days, Obama made a conscious decision to adopt the Southside Chicago dialect. Loury is from Southside, and was amazed at how perfectly Obama got it. When he's dropping his g's it's just an act.
We need more black voices, Crack is getting raspy.
Everybody, with the probable exception of Ann, at least once, went into a class in school unprepared and tried to fake their way through.
That's what Barry did. All the other times he was told how wonderful he was because anything else would have been rrraaaaccciiisssstttt.
David said...
Obama is not helpless.
He will fight back hard.
He will be much better in the next debate.
Next one is foreign policy, where he gets to explain all those bumps in the road.
Labia.
Arab Spring.
2000 dead in A-stan.
Al Qaeda resurgent.
The Dinner Jacket and the Bomb.
And foreign policy "bores" him.
Getting back to the post itself, my interpretation of Sullivan's remarks is that the hardcore Left is trying to spin the coming election. Barack blew the debate. That's why he's going to lose.
Not Obamacare. Not an official unemployment rate in excess of 8% that understates real unemployment and underemployment rates much closer to 15%. Not failure to produce a serious budget* in every year of his term of office. Not a foreign policy that leaves American ambassadors to die at the hands of terrorists.
If inflation was calculated today the way it was during Carter's term of office, the inflation rate would be in double digits. People who buy food and gasoline know this.
For all of Robert Cook's attempt to back and fill, we are seeing the hard core Left's economic policies writ large, and we are seeing their failure. Time to let the grownups back into office.
_________________
* Yes, Obama submitted something he called a budget. Number of votes for it? Zero. Not a single Democrat voted for their own President's budget. To quote Paul Ryan, that was not a serious budget.
Darcy,
I'm sorry you don't see that.
No, I don't see it. I said yesterday that I didn't agree with her, but was glad she said and did what she did - she's not anybody's handmaiden - and she, rightfully, called all of you out. Rightfully because - as an American - that's what she was supposed to do, with our full support, I might add.
Too many of you have been insisting on this bullshit line that we all have to see things the same - I probably notice it more than most because I get attacked so much - when that's not where our strength lies.
I welcome days like today because they clear the air a little - allow a little reality to enter the hothouse y'all created - where your ugliness is still there, now to be replaced by your silly rationalizations, but still fresh enough it doesn't matter.
I'm not the cardboard cut-out of Baron Zemo's nightmares, Mitt Romney doesn't need "help" from old movies we've seen a million times (featuring nothing new) and the ugly creatures can no revert back to being human beings - albet ones who now will turn one kind of ugliness into another - gloating like the Obots of 2008.
Reality - you know, where I choose to live and stay - is truly a beautiful thing.
Why does Obama need someone to take the place of Romney for debate purposes. Why not do what Romney did and choose an inanimate object which was a chair?
PS Let's not forget Fast & Furious.
I don't see you as a cardboard cutout anything, Crack. I see you as a unique voice here whose comments I often take the trouble to read.
Baron Zemo,
Dude you fit the narrative like the feather in Huggy Bear's pimp hat.
You are a one note crank who thinks he knows better than everyone else and has to enlighten the poor dumb white folk who don't get it like the smart hip hoppity cool contrarian brother.
But one thing.....can you link to your blog.
Wait, wait, wait - how can I "fit the narrative like the feather in Huggy Bear's pimp hat" and NOT HAVE LINKED TO MY BLOG?
Isn't that part of the narrative? That I ALWAYS link to my blog?
Good Lord, man, not only are you stupid but the truth of that is exposed by how often you lie. Only losers have to lie. I don't ALWAYS link to my blog - you made that up! That's part of the narrative you guys stuck on me, and it has no more validity than the claim I'm "a one note crank" blah, blah, blah. It's all just your delusion, based on nothing but your ignorant assumptions, just as I said.
Beg me again to link to my blog:
I love when idiots do my work for me,...
deborah,
When he's dropping his g's it's just an act.
Or it could be something he "came to" in his search for identity. Many people go through identity developments before settling on something that says "me."
I'm not saying I'm right - you and Loury could be - but it's another idea to consider.
ndspinelli,
We need more black voices, Crack is getting raspy.
Shit, you better get appreciative, Spinelli:
My black friends tell me I'm nuts to hang with you assholes,...
Hey Althouse, you were wrong about Obama's strategy.
It turns out he's targeting you, by going w/the criticizing Obama is mean (and probably racist) gambit.
He's apparently worried about his silly-people support base.
The one thing against Crack's explanation is the, in most of his mannerisms, Barry is the whitest white guy there is.
Punahou and that privileged youth come shining through when he speaks.
The street rap is what makes him a sociopath.
But this was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach, and his effete, wonkish lectures may have jolted a lot of independents into giving Romney a second look.
Ah, yes, the old "what's wrong with Kansas?" excuse. Obama's just too brilliant for the proles.
The level of gloating right now from conservatives seems excessive, however.
Consider it delayed gratifaction from watching this stuttering poseur getting a well-deserved punch in the face after four years of continual BJ's.
Mad Man said:
"Whether or not Obama was inexperienced 4 years ago is irrelevant today."
Well, as the old joke goes to the job applicant claiming years of experience..."you may a lot of experience but it is all bad experience"
He is barely qualified to be mayor of a mid-sized town.
Now that you mention it, State Senator is the main qualification of one of the guys running for mayor this time around...
I do disagree with you on one point, Crack. That tape got as much exposure as it did ONLY because it had only been seen in a form that had been severely edited--sanitized--by the MSM to hide everything objectionable we are seeing now. (I understand that CNN covered the event in its entirety--that's not exactly clear--but few had seen it and Obama was only a Senator then.) So how can people be chided for not knowing/not paying attention when they weren't given an opportunity to ever see it? And are all the MSM venues carrying it now? Certainly not. Could that be why such things get more play at right-wing sites? Yes, because they know that the others aren't covering it. Is that hard to understand? How much coverage did last week's MSNBC distortion of that Romney/Ryan campaign event get? You know the one where the people were chanting "Romney" and MSNBC showed on-screen captioning saying "Ryan" so that when Romney said "People, it's Romney, Ryan..." he looked petty, rather than magnanimous?
The majority of people only get their news from ABC, NBC, and CBS and their local broadcast outlets feauturing that same network coverage and emphasis. They don't supplement that with searching around on the web. Alternate sources are going to show what hasn't been covered.
edutcher,
The one thing against Crack's explanation is the, in most of his mannerisms, Barry is the whitest white guy there is.
Punahou and that privileged youth come shining through when he speaks.
The street rap is what makes him a sociopath.
Nah, I definitely don't buy that:
How do you think I talk at work? When I'm "kickin' it wit the fellas"? Talking to family? When I was talking to my wife?
They're all as different as when I'm talking to you now. And everybody does it - you can be bullshitting with your friends and then your girl calls, and your voice accommodates her, to the laughter of your homies. It's typical.
Obama's just seems so extreme because, as far as I know, he's the first president we've had who really does it - except, maybe, for Nixon and LBJ - who were waaay different in private than they were in public. But that's not quite the same thing because, with Obama, we're talking about different public personas.
And BTW, there's nothing "white" about knowing how to be well-spoken:
That's a lie and a stereotype every American should try to put to rest as soon as possible.
It does no one any good - not even white people,...
How quickly they forget about James Buchanan.
Not that I'm a big fan of Buchanan, but nearly his whole life was spent in high government circles. He was hardly unqualified.
Now, William Henry Harrison or Franklin Pierce, on the other hand. . .
For all the criticism of Obama dropping his "g" when he talks to blacks - a situation where he, clearly, feels more comfortable - it's got to be a trial for him, knowing he'll get in trouble for being what he thinks of as his authentic self.
Crack, I find this comment interesting. Since Obama was raised in Indonesia/Hawaii and by mostly white parents and grandparents, he would have had to pick up this dropped g/fake southern accent in college at the earliest, right? My accent probably lessened in college, but I still think of my natural accent, the one I got in childhood, as my ‘authentic’ self.
Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow started to speak in a British accent. People thought they were phonies, too.
"Reality - you know, where I choose to live and stay - is truly a beautiful thing."
Crack, I like you cause you often say things that need to be said. But you're going off into liberal-land when you start saying you live in reality and others don't.
My life is real and we don't always agree.
Point taken, Crack. I don't doubt he had a fair share of racism directed against him, and he may have reached out to join with others. But it's still feels unnatural to him, I think. That is, he knows he's a con. And like you say Romney's good works were part of his ultimate plan to be president, I feel this was part of Obama's.
Then again, is it as Shelby Steele said, Obama was required to to the song and dance of the black minstrel, wear the mask, in order to be elected. Or was that just one path.
Darrell,
I do disagree with you on one point, Crack. That tape got as much exposure as it did ONLY because it had only been seen in a form that had been severely edited--sanitized--by the MSM to hide everything objectionable we are seeing now.
I hear you, but I still think you're missing the point:
That video was the equivalent of "exposing" that Tucker Carlson once wore a bow tie.
Now it may be true that, today, those who see him would be surprised ("Tucker Carlson was dumb enough to wear a fucking bow tie?") but it's hardly startling to anyone who's followed Tucker Carlson's career, and saw Jon Stewart ridicule him for his fashion sense and then noticed he changed it.
The real point of that video - five years after Obama won, and we've heard his "stupid" cop comments, and Trayvon Martin bullshit - is that it wasn't newsworthy, and neither The Daily Caller, Drudge, Glenn "I don't care" Reynolds, or their readers understood that:
They all tried to turn pork and beans into red meat and rice, revealing their own unworthiness to be in the positions they are.
They were all attempting to roll us, as always, making them no better than the MSM they criticize so often.
Obama secretly wanted Obamacare to fail at SCOTUS.
Obama secretly supported Scott Walker.
Obama secretly wanted to look bad at the debate last night.
Does that about sum up Obama's secret conspiracies in the past year? All of what might have looked like failures for Obama were really his secret desires. He is just that good.
Obama's problem is that he prepped, learned his closing statement and all that in Vegas. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
MayBee, an excellent reminder of the man's many successes. Another unappreciated triumph was how he saved Chicago from being burdened w/the Olympic games.
I don't think Obama underperformed at all. He was fine. He never misspoke, got tongue tied, or found himself at a loss for words. He was articulate and said what he wanted to say.
He just wasn't nearly as good as Romney. It showed that Romney put in the effort so that he was better prepared.
Why is it so hard for people to say that Obama was good but Romney was much better?
Shanna,
Crack, I find this comment interesting. Since Obama was raised in Indonesia/Hawaii and by mostly white parents and grandparents, he would have had to pick up this dropped g/fake southern accent in college at the earliest, right? My accent probably lessened in college, but I still think of my natural accent, the one I got in childhood, as my ‘authentic’ self.
It's insecurity on display. Obama didn't think he'd be accepted by blacks for being himself, so he adopted someone else's identity. Tom Cruise is going through that now, from the reports I read. (Oh, God, I linked to my blog! Don't read it, Shanna - that makes it untrustworthy!)
I noticed this kind of thing, in myself, when I was in the navy:
That white guys didn't "pimp" when they walked, etc., and I wondered why I I did it, realizing it was a desire to prove something - to "make space" for myself - when (duh) I was just another swinging dick on the boat.
In one way, I give Obama a *little* credit for being open about his search for identity, even if he's not being as honest with himself as his actions prove him to be. He's still got a long way to go, and I don't think the coddling he's received - being helped, and allowed, to rise on the basis of his self-deception - was good for him.
I mean, when you're President of the United States and you're still incapable of putting the pieces together, that's got to be pretty depressing.
Yeah, he meant to do that. You stupid Rethugs couldn't possibly understand a brilliant strategery misfire when you see it. And who could possibly have anticipated a smart Rethuglican? Fetch the smelling salts, it's positively UNHEARD OF, underhanded, sneaky. The Democrat is always the smaht one. They told me so in college.
Reality: Not as smart as he and everyone else thinks he is. No teleprompter. Debate format minimizes interference from Palace Guard. The. End.
Freeman Hunt said...
He shouldn't practice with some warmed over politician. He should practice with some sharp commentator, someone who debates on television, radio, or in print for entertainment.
Obama should use Chris Matthews to prep for his next debate. Matthews all but volunteered last night-- he begged Obama to start watching MSNBC to find out how to fight effectively. "We bring the knives out" Matthews bragged.
I'll bet David Axelrod is digging really hard for those Romney divorce records.
TWM,
Crack, I like you cause you often say things that need to be said. But you're going off into liberal-land when you start saying you live in reality and others don't.
My life is real and we don't always agree.
I'm not saying your life isn't real. It's just that I seem to take a harder line towards fooling myself - or being fooled - than most. And, I know, people in the midst of delusion think what they're experiencing is "real."
More importantly, to me, is the fact that some people, here, seem to enjoy it. Look at Baron Zemo - he gets off (along with others) on the lies he tells himself, and others, about me - they bolster his self-worth. A lot of the attacks I get are based on that same premise:
They're going to take me "down a few notches" so I can exist where they see themselves.
I, though - living in reality - know all I have to do is wait. Survive the barrage.Reality will reappear, eventually, through the smoke and mirrors and I'll be the sane guy again, while the Baron will keep spouting his nonsense, never realizing he now has no cover without "the fog of war" or whatever.
And, let's be clear, I'm outnumbered when it comes to this phenomena. When shit gets tight, most people freak out - as just happened - and they decide, based on their fears and delusions, that my word HAS to be bullshit NOW. But it's not - nothing's changed - especially not for me:
One thing I was thinking during the debates is, witnessing the efficiency of Romney's presentation, THAT'S what we're going to be faced with from the Mormon "church" soon.
A highly-organized outfit, very professional-looking, that appears to be the answer to everybody's prayers, until you understand - or they reveal - what it's in the service of.
I simply will not be fooled by the imagery of it,...
The Crack Emcee said...
The one thing against Crack's explanation is the, in most of his mannerisms, Barry is the whitest white guy there is.
Punahou and that privileged youth come shining through when he speaks.
The street rap is what makes him a sociopath.
Nah, I definitely don't buy that:
How do you think I talk at work? When I'm "kickin' it wit the fellas"? Talking to family? When I was talking to my wife?
OK, fair enough, but that was never his milieu. Even in Chicago, he lived down the street from people like William Ayers, not his homies, and Rev Wright is a very well-spoken man.
I submit that O knows very few people who speak like that, but, if that much-quoted passage in his book is recalled, he's very good at finding ways for people to project on him what they want to believe about him.
YMMV.
And I know what you mean about how you talk in the neighborhood. If I ever ran into anybody from Penn St, we'd sound like the cast of "Rocky".
Rich B said...
I'll bet David Axelrod is digging really hard for those Romney divorce records.
Zing!
Or maybe he thinks it's time to have a national conversation about polygamy.
deborah,
[Obama] knows he's a con.
I thought about that a lot during the 2008 election:
To have all those people calling him "The One," and the "messiah," and how he just kept his mouth closed.
That's one of the main reasons I despised him - the rank dishonesty. Unlike, say, Hitler, Obama never believed his own bullshit. (Joseph Smith didn't either, BTW.) He just let it happen. He let Oprah orchestrate it - she had the juice, and the cult (her NewAge-saturated TV show was her "ministry" she said) already in place. All he had to do was hit his marks, repeat his lines, and otherwise not blow it.
Anyone, of reasonable intelligence, could've done it - I tried it, long time ago, and it worked like a charm - but the lie at it's core is something no decent human being with follow through with, I think:
We're just human beings, and that's enough,...
Oh, yeah, it was all a master plan to appear dull.
"I'm able to come up with only 2 ideas: 1. He has some burdensome real emotions behind that smile, and 2. He actually doesn't want to win."
1. He killed bin Laden, again!!! All secret-like. Yeah. Best foreign policy president evah. But lives were lost. It is a lonely vigil, Presidentin'.
2. Redistribution of job.
edutcher,
I know what you mean about how you talk in the neighborhood. If I ever ran into anybody from Penn St, we'd sound like the cast of "Rocky".
LOL! Ain't it the truth,...
Crackie baby I don't tell any lies about you.
Only the truth.
You are a one note crank who self promotes until the point that we all have to avert our eyes.
But don't let that stop you.
Repeat after me.....Mormon...Boo!!!
"That video was the equivalent of "exposing" that Tucker Carlson once wore a bow tie."
The difference of course is that Carlson actually did wear a bow tie. What Obama did in that video was a lie. What he said and the way he said it were both dishonest. He was never of the culture that talks like that, never. That's reality, and it's important to know. Not for us, but for the people who were sitting there listening, and anyone else who is buying that crap. They are being played, and need to know it. Then they can decide to ignore it if they please, but it's no longer the truth if it's selectively delivered.
bagoh20 said...
"That video was the equivalent of "exposing" that Tucker Carlson once wore a bow tie."
What an incredibly stupid comment you've quoted, bagoh20.
What that video put on display for all to see was a pathological liar using his lies to stir up a sense of institutionalized racial injustice for purposes of generating high turnout among the aggrieved class.
Not only did he lie about the suspension of the Stafford requirement, he failed to mention that he himself voted against that suspension.
Any fool who thinks that video is just about a politician merely telling an audience what it wants to hear is a fucking idiot.
Baron Zemo,
Crackie baby I don't tell any lies about you.
Only the truth.
You are a one note crank who self promotes until the point that we all have to avert our eyes.
My biggest wish, for this blog and the internet, is someone will come up with a way to create a trapdoor, so - when fools are exposed - they can't keep coming back as though it never happened.
I mean right here, on this very thread, Baron Zemo himself exposed his false narrative about me, and here he is again - still spouting the same nonsense - as though everyone's forgotten he just clowned himself a few posts ago.
It's simply maddening for me to be exposed to such foolishness.
If this was offline, and he was trying this shit, my friends would've already been like "Shut-up, Baron!" - I wouldn't even have to say a thing.
But here, where there's no rules, ethics, or consequences, he can just act as a continual thorn in my side - on the same thread where he clowned himself - because he knows he'll pay no social cost for it.
And the payoff, when he finds another thread where nobody knows what transpired here, will be his reward:
He'll be a god again,...
bagoh20,
They are being played, and need to know it. Then they can decide to ignore it if they please, but it's no longer the truth if it's selectively delivered.
Bagoh, if "they can decide to ignore it if they please" then what's the point? It can't be to teach anybody anything because, you say yourself, it was something they could walk away from without penalty or new-found knowledge. I know I did, and I watched it.
Plus, I don't know of a single Dem who was moved an inch by that - they've got their own delusional narrative and they'll go down with it, so it did no good except to do what I said:
Expose the Right's bullshit - which needs to be exposed as much as the Left's.
Ann's point was made clear last night in the debate:
That ugly display yesterday simply wasn't needed,...
Poor Crackie.
Nobody gets how great he is.
Sort of like the Jug Eared Jesus.
Mormon...Boo!!!!!!!!
Chip S.,
Not only did he lie about the suspension of the Stafford requirement, he failed to mention that he himself voted against that suspension.
You're seeing what you want to see:
If there were subtitles on that video, explaining the lies as he was telling them, I'd agree with you, but there weren't - there was nothing anybody could learn - it was just a video of Obama giving a speech to black folks.
Your knowledge of our politics' "inside baseball" simply didn't translate to anyone else,...
And Crackie...the thorns are in your crown...not your side.
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!!!!!
Baron Zemo,
Poor Crackie.
Nobody gets how great he is.
Yeah, but everybody knows how small you are:
I'm, at least, bigger than my avatar,...
Oh yeah baby!
You are big.
Big man.
Oh baby!
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!!!!!
Let's get back to the meme.
Mormon...BOO!!!!
Crack, you've dulled your edginess, giving Romney a perpetual wedgieness.
"Your knowledge of our politics' "inside baseball" simply didn't translate to anyone else,.."
I didn't know he lied about it, until the video, and without seeing the video, the lie could not be exposed. Of course I wasn't moved because of where I already stand, but I think someone else, especially the fence sitters Ann was so concerned about might be.
You are suggesting we not expose lies and ignore the truth just because it may make us look bad to bring it up. That's not very Crack Emcee-ish.
I won't speculate on why, though. The burdens of the office?
Yeah, the key difference between last night and the debate environment for the incumbents in 04, 96, 84, 72, etc etc etc, is that due to the toxic legacy of George W Bush for the first time ever being President is hard.
Maybe there is a point where we can confidently state that Obama usually underperforms.
Based on what they're doing to Kerry right now, I'd say that will come when Obama helps the next Democrat candidate with debate prep.
But after last night, who would be stupid enough to enlist Obama for help with debate prep?
Speculating, I'm able to come up with only 2 ideas: 1. He has some burdensome real emotions behind that smile, and 2. He actually doesn't want to win.
Or how about 3. Obama is just not very good at anything besides canned speeches, exploiting racial guilt, and basking in approval.
People have been overthinking and overestimating Obama since he was a child. Sure, he's kinda smart and kinda handsome. He is a master at working racial guilt, which seems to have Althouse in thrall. But other than the overwrought emotional responses liberals bring to Obama, there has never been any evidence Obama is all that special.
This is the first time Obama has had to go head-to-head on a level playing field with a prepared opponent. Obama walked onto that stage assuming he was going to "LeBron" Romney and found out different.
This was a sustained public humiliation of Obama that even liberals have had to acknowledge. Obama's spell as a political wizard has been broken, and that's all that has been holding his poll numbers up. He just dropped seven points on Intrade last night.
All the king's horses and all the king's men won't put Obama-Dumpty together again.
I won't speculate on why, though. The burdens of the office?
My guess is that he triple-bogeyed the last 3 holes of his debate prep and was still tormented by that.
Very good observation by wyo sis:
"Obama is acting like a person who, for the first time in his life, has realized he isn't as smart as he's been led to believe."
I don't buy the observations that Obama may not want to win. It is possible that he thinks he is going to lose, but if the internal polls were so bad, there would be a hint of it in the media (both sides will be getting those polls).
There is a tiny possibility that Obama has a grander plan. Lose this time, watch the consequences of his bad policies explode over the next four years, and then come back to complete the socialist transition. I doubt it. He is not that smart. And, he is an insanely ambitious politician and that type does not let loose of power voluntarily.
By the way, my assessment of Obama is that he had a bad night. All politicians and others in jobs that require performance sometimes have bad days. President Reagan offered that explanation for a bad political performance by himself [I think a press conference, but it might have been a speech), analogizing to an actor.
What does Ann mean when she raises the possibility of "some burdensome real emotions behind that smile."
As to whether Obama wants to be president, he loves the perks of being president and his wife adores them. He may not like the job that much, but he adores the life and I don't think he will voluntarily give up. Heck, he only seems happy in public when he is campaigning and being the subject of adulation.
I came to the same conclusion that maybe he doesn't want the job.
He really sucked big time and now all the attention is on how bad Obama was - and he was. But I keep thinking Romney was like a used car salesman.
(me)Maybe there is a point where we can confidently state that Obama usually underperforms.
(bgates:)Based on what they're doing to Kerry right now, I'd say that will come when Obama helps the next Democrat candidate with debate prep.
Ha haha hahahaha ha!
Meade,
Is Baron Zemo commenting in good faith? I don't think so.
Yours,
Tom
The Prof speculates:
> 2. He actually doesn't want to win.
I'm in this camp. Certainly feels like it. There's been speculation of this here and elsewhere long before last night.
Chris Christie was right!
So Crack is Tom DeGisi your real name?
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!!!!
I know we are not allowed to question the black guy but this is kind of ridiculous.
Here's a third possibility. Obama took focus groups' feedback to heart.
Not sure if anyone else watched those focus group meeting on C-Span with supposed "Undecideds" like Althouse?
After two hours, of the 12 people in the group, it turned out that only 3 really seemed undecided. You might be surprised that all three were woman, two of whom worked or had worked in education. Not surprised? ha ha Well nevermind about that then.
At the end of the meeting, all three offered up that they would most likely decide on an "emotional" basis. Not a one seemed in the least bit concerned or embarrassed about that either.
But I digressed! Thought the above was of interest to Althousians, given her undecided nature.
Anyway, back to a third possibility about Obama's performance last night...
Every single one of the people in the focus group of Independents thought Obama's biggest negative was his arrogance and many thought his self esteem was over-inflated, making him look cocky.
And last night? Our President appeared as our "humble servant".
Will it work to ease some independent minds?
Stay tuned.
Be careful what you say, people. Tom DeGisi is ready to drop a dime on you should your comment displease him.
That would mean I have 11 cents in my pocket, Chip S.
Eleven Penny's?
ha ha
Really?
chickelit,
Crack, you've dulled your edginess, giving Romney a perpetual wedgieness.
I said he won the debate. What am I supposed to say?
He lost?
bagoh20,
You are suggesting we not expose lies and ignore the truth just because it may make us look bad to bring it up. That's not very Crack Emcee-ish.
No, I'm saying - as James Taranto, Stanley Kurtz, and the Romney campaign said - nobody cares about that video.
Ann said you look bad, and, without the video containing text to point out the lies, she's right:
Most of the comments were about shit like he drops his "g" when he talks black - not politics - so it did put you in with a bad crowd.
Kansas City,
Very good observation by wyo sis:
"Obama is acting like a person who, for the first time in his life, has realized he isn't as smart as he's been led to believe."
Please. Wyo sis is seeing things:
Romney didn't "out smart" Obama, Obama just wasn't up for the game - he lost from a lack of engagement.
Ambivalence is the word I keep coming back to - and why wouldn't anybody be ambivalent when people can just delusionally see shit?
What's the point if THEY'RE not engaged?
EFB,
I keep thinking Romney was like a used car salesman.
Romney IS a used car salesman,...
Most of the comments were about shit like he drops his "g" when he talks black - not politics - so it did put you in with a bad crowd.
I can't help it if people comment on how someone talks. It's part of that group thing. People want to feel good, so they stoop to saying stupid, meaningless things, when there are so many meaningful things to discuss.
You say you weren't surprised by the now president stirring up racial resentment by distorting the record. Obama's manipulation of those people is precisely what prevents on racism, by cementing in place the status quo of opinion as fact. The press deserves to be skewered by this, starting by those people in New Orleans who were lied to and manipulated.
Compare this to Bill Cosby's approach. While he harbors obvious anger over US racism, he has a positive message for people. Be responsible. Don't let the racists define you. Isn't that a message that can make a difference?
The odd thing is there was no need for the president to say these things. That too is a character flaw worth discussing.
Dante,
There's lots of things worth discussing (I come here everyday and wonder, "Why are they going after, Garage?") but that's what people do and it's stupid and ugly.
And - especially from this crowd - I'll concede "Obama told a lie in 2007" is a story whenever they start acting like "Romney and his cult are telling lies NOW" should turn a few heads as well.
Otherwise, I question their integrity and the integrity of the whole video enterprise,...
Otherwise, I question their integrity and the integrity of the whole video enterprise,...
If you mean there is hypocrisy here, agreed. I'm curious what you think about my view. Is it a wrong way of thinking?
After I found out that Rezko was given millions to fix up slums in Obama's district, and didn't,
After I found out that Obama got a sweet deal on his house, in what appears to be a payoff from Rezko (OK, is there any other way to think of it?),
After I found out that Obama had his democrat challengers thrown off the ballot with questionable legal maneuvers,
After I found out one of Obama's minions, in conjunction with some crappy judge opened the sealed child custody records of Seven of Nine and Jack Ryan,
I thought, there isn't enough underhandedness that isn't justified to get this guy out of office. That's how I felt then.
Now, all I feel is complete disdain for the press. It's so bad it is hard to know what is good for this country, only what's bad, and Obama is bad, a lie, a sham, perpetrated on voters by a press tonging Obama's balls.
I despise the man. I despise the press. I despise the people who gave up their responsibility for their lives with "Hope and Change."
But, perhaps as you said, most if not many of these people are unreachable, and people (perhaps even me) seize on this as some sick validation.
Baron Zemo,
No, I'm not Crack.
Chip S.,
Cutting and pasting the same insults over and over is the kind of behavior that destroys the conversation, no? So yes, I am dropping a dime on him! Maybe the good Baron will stop being so utterly tiresome.
Yours,
Tom
Dante,
I despise the man. I despise the press. I despise the people who gave up their responsibility for their lives with "Hope and Change."
I WISH my disdain could just be limited to that roster, but now it's extended to the citizens, conservatives, the Tea Party, the conservative press and blogosphere, and more. I see a total lack of responsibility for this country in all quarters.
Setting Romney up to fix our problems is no more taking responsibility than paying rapt attention to a awful newscast is being informed.
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