On a single day this week in Denver, President Obama scarfed down pizza and drinks with strangers, shot pool with Colorado’s governor and shook hands with a guy on the street wearing a horse mask. His top staffers are promoting these stops on Twitter with the hashtag #TheBearIsLoose — a term one of Obama’s aides coined in 2008 when the candidate would defy his schedule....So... this is easy: Obama is campaigning. It's what he does well, and he wants to be seen in a good light. He wants these photo ops to be used as WaPo mostly uses them: To revive old love and to make journalists decry gridlock in Washington.
But can the Obama-for-President routine play when we've got that children-crossing-the-border crisis? Obama is traveling about, doing political theater, and when he was questioned about his avoidance of the scene near the border, he said: "This is not theater." That is, it's a problem to be solved in a serious way, and that to visit the detention camps would be theater. He's right about that. It's not the kind of theater he wants. He's not denying that pizza-scarfing and horse-mask-guy greeting are theater. So the showman chooses what show to mount.
The president... seems genuinely impatient with the limitations of his office.We have limited government. Love it or don't serve in it, conlawprof.
He has started walking around D.C. for short stints, referring to himself in the third person as “the bear” as he walks across Lafayette Park or heads to a nearby Starbucks....Maybe one morning he'll awaken before 4 a.m and wander down to the Lincoln Memorial to talk with the young people. His chief of staff might write in his diary "I am concerned about his condition" and call it "the weirdest day so far." The President might dictate notes to be shared with "anyone else who may have raised questions": "Even when I'm tired, I do not talk about nonsensical things," and talking with the young people was an effort "to lift them a bit out of the miserable intellectual wasteland in which they now wander."
I hope that (your) hatred of the [what's going on these days], which I could well understand, would not turn into a bitter hatred of our whole system, our country and everything that it stood for. I said that I know probably most of you think I'm an SOB. But I want you to know that I understand just how you feel.Nah. That was Nixon. The young people don't think Obama's an SOB, and Obama has never had to entertain the slightest notion that the young people think he's an SOB.
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82 comments:
Know Your Meme: Horse Mask.
The young people don't think Obama's an SOB, and Obama has never had to entertain the slightest notion that the young people think he's an SOB.
Yet.
If you browse Reddit, you'll see that even the "young people" are quite disillusioned with Obama, and yes, they think he's an SOB. (Outside the Leftist echo chamber of /r/politics where the only problem he faces is not being sufficiently Marxist for their tastes.)
So... this is easy: Obama is campaigning.
Exactly. Obama is running for President.
He doesn't think the incumbent is doing a very good job of solving America's problems. He feels gridlock has been allowed to get out of hand. The country is divided. We - America - we deserve a better country, a country where these bad things don't happen, a country where a man such as Obama can eat his waffle in peace.
The thing about campaigning instead of holding office is that you are never held to account for your performance. You can create excitement with a new speech and wow the press, and in the context of a campaign, that "excitement" actually is more important than whether the speech accomplishes anything real. You can "craft" policies and shoot them out into the future, and no one will ever cough politely and point out that the Middle East is in crisis (even more than normal) and that medical insurance costs more and covers less and that there's another, entirely different bear on the loose over in Ukraine . That's the rub: when you actually implement something, your performance on the problem is available to be judged.
And Obama doesn't like having his performance judged. At all. He much prefers being a bright, promising college sophomore studying a rhetoric-heavy subject, speculating in class and impressing all the professors, to being at work. Work is hard and it's not emotionally satisfying in the same way. You don't know what it's like out there! People expect <shudder>... results.
So naturally he's back to the campaign. Campaigning is the closest thing he's had in his adult life to being back in that classroom, speaking confidently and interestingly, enthralling the professor (now the press), who thinks how full of potential this personable young man is. The fact that campaigning doesn't actually fix anything is secondary. It fills Obama's psychological needs. And after all, does he care about anything else?
Would it be snarky of me to point out that Bush flying over a Katrina-devastated New Orleans and looking out the plane window was a "symbol of his disengagement" but Obama doesn't even want to go near the border crisis that was created by his own policies?
And based on everything I've read about his mother, I would have to say that Obama is an SOB in the truest meaning of the term.
The oppression mania indoctrination in schools is why the kids don't know Obama is an SOB.
You are one of the most outspoken proponents of oppression mania, prof.
You don't view yourself this way because you only get in line for oppression mania, when it serves your self interest, i.e., feminism and gaydom.
Not surprisingly, you drop out of oppression mania when it comes to blackdom. You leave that up to Crack. There is nothing in oppression mania for you when it comes to the black stuff.
But, you do obediently bow down before the Mau-Mauing. You've given over your comments section to an incoherent, near psychotic black racist demagogue.
In other words, this is a "pot calls the kettle black" post.
Some things never change in the infantile world of academia. Same shit was going on when I was in undergrad school in the 60s.
You are a sensible, likable person until you venture into the oppression bullshit. Turn off the Dylan. You're listening to him for all the wrong reasons.
Every time I hear about the bear, I wonder if it poops in the woods.
#BearPoopsintheWood
I would suspect that anyone approaching the president with a mask of any kind would have to be pre-screened by the Secret Service.
= Theater.
"The Bear?" Isn't Russia associated with the Bear? Maybe this is his Putin moment because, after all, Putin's been making him look bad for quite awhile.
Pivot now or miss out. All in for Hillary!
Obama makes me hate the youth.
"But can the Obama-for-President routine play when we've got that children-crossing-the-border crisis?"
It's more than children. The Border Patrol is so busy dealing with these "children" that the borders are more porous than ever.
And this is exactly what this asshole wants. Create a disaster.
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Horse heads. Respond with: Sarah Jessica Parker reference. Because she has a face that many have compared to that of a horse. This is unflattering, and unflattering is almost humor. Fill in the rest later. Or probably not.
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Horse heads. Compare Obama to a horse's ass. Then: something like "I've never seen a horse shake hands with its own ass." Not quite it. Would take some work. Probably not worth it.
I know plenty of young people who would call him a lot worse than an SOB. Obama's handlers would never let him leave his cocoon to get near these kids though.
"What exactly is going on with the leader of the free press?" Free press?! Freudian slip?
The term 'bear' has been appropriated to refer to any stout, hairy male that homosexual men are attracted to. At the pride parade, spectators are often said to be "bear-watching."
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
The bear is loose. Does a bear shit in the woods. Needs a middle.
POTUS seems completely tone deaf. I don't think this is really new though. It's just new to those that were so gaga for their political boyfriend.
Let me be clear. The President is who we thought he was, who we thought he would be, and we voted for McCain and Romney because of it.
Just look at the way POTUS reacts to questions about photo ops. "No. It's not a photo op." - as he poses for photos. He even sucks at lying.
I call shotgun if he ever decides to drive the choom gang bus again.
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Seventies show: "BJ and the Bear". About a trucker and his monkey. BJ could be Bill Clinton Ha Ha. Bill Clinton and The Bear, Obama, on the road. Problems with this: probably not many people even remember the show. Have to figure a funny road scenario. Also: "BJ and the Bear" involved a monkey, and even though the joke wouldn't involve monkey/Obama references it is too easy to be seen as racist: headache. A lot of problems for a joke that isn't destined to be that funny in the first place. Wastebasket.
"Would it be snarky of me to point out that Bush flying over a Katrina-devastated New Orleans and looking out the plane window was a 'symbol of his disengagement'..."
That was a major topic for Rush Limbaugh yesterday: here.
@Althouse, thank you for the link.
The young people don't think Obama's an SOB
Their memories only go back to 2000.
Yet.
Perfect assessment, Madison Man.
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Obama the Bear Robot says:
I'm loose.
Need something to follow that up with. Except 'Obama the Bear Robot' bores me before I even start. If I were desperate I would try to turn it into a Michelle Obama joke, but that bores me, too. Cross 'Obama the Bear Robot' off the list.
"I’m the guy doing my job, you must be the other guy."
sick burn...
Obama is like Nixon
Obama is the most Nixonian president since FDR.
I wish I could remember where I first read that, because I feel guilty about not giving the author proper credit.
Obama is just Yogi the Bear trying to steal our picnic baskets and Biden is just a Booboo.
Yogi: Hey Booboo! Let's go steal some pic-a-nic baskets!
Booboo: But Yogi, Mr. Ranger says...
Yohi: Hey Booboo! F### Mr. Ranger!
The Bear.
I'm guessing Putin thinks that's pretty funny.
What other animals are we allowed to associate with the Zero?
What animals (in addition to anything in the monkey family) are we not allowed to associate with the Zero.
What animal best epitomizes the Zero?
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Obama in the Third Person Robot says:
I'm the bear, and I'm loose. Look at me be the bear. Just a bear, walking around the park, stopping at Starbucks. I'm a bear, drinking a latte. I'm the bear, and I'm loose.
Nope. Cross that one off the list, too.
Honestly, I do think it was kind of a weird P.R. move to associate Obama with a bear, when the bear used to mean Soviet Russia, especially considering, you know, the whole Russia reset thing.
But, eh. Most modern journalists probably don't even see the unintentional irony.
When Obama starts running around and referring to himself as a bear, I would recommend that Valerie have him change into his jammies. This will signal to him that it is almost bedtime. After he has changed into his jammies, then he can be given a glass of chocolate milk and one cookie.
"The young people don't think Obama's an SOB, and Obama has never had to entertain the slightest notion that the young people think he's an SOB. "
Maybe not an SOB, but definitely a joke. Any mention of Obama invariably results in laughter among the young people I encounter.
A "child" is anyone under 18, and the Border Patrol, ICE, etc. apparently are under orders not to ask for proof of age nor of the professed relationship to United States citizens.
The rounding up and transport of these children "refugees" from Meso-America through Mexico is apparently organized and conducted by the drug cartels.
The Obama administration continues to give the cartels factual material to work with, while making nominal gestures of deportation, etc. and releasing statements for the press about what a dreadful humanitarian crisis it is, and how it is all the Republicans' fault.
We were discussing Robert Redford yesterday, but I don't remember any mention of "The Candidate."
After a successful campaign, Redford's character and his campaign manager leave their victory party and behind closed doors he utters the movie's last line. "Now what do we do?" I would be hard pressed to think of a better allegory for this Administration.
That movie came out in 1972 when Nixon was president. How's that for tying together this post with today's and yesterday's Althouse themes?
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Obama walks in on Scarlett Johansson having sex with Sarah Jessica Parker. Work towards a Catherine the Great joke. See, Scarlett is Catherine and Sarah is the horse. Historical reference; too much middle required. Maybe another day.
One might suggest your experience of young people is insufficiently variegated,,,,
Jaed:
Excellent post at 7:36. I believe you have it exactly as it, sadly, is.
He's not denying that pizza-scarfing and horse-mask-guy greeting are theater. So the showman chooses what show to mount.
Is he not? He said he wasn't interested in photo ops. That sound a little denial-y to me.
Why is anyone surprised at how President Obama is handling the border crisis. His immigration policies are very likely the main cause of the humanitarian crisis unfolding there. Going down to the border would just highlight this abject failure of his. Much better to pretend that things are completely normal, completely under control, and would be just fine if Republicans would just give him another $3.x billion dollars AND agree to comprehensive immigration reform that would legalize all those illegals coming to the country as a result of his amnesty. I know, it doesn't make any sense pushing for the Dem brand of immigration reform, since its partial implementation through Executive actions is the reason that we are in the mess in the first place. But, that is all he has to offer - give him what he wants, and then he will talk. Maybe. If it doesn't impact fund raising, golf, hoops, or, now, pool.
Phoning-it-in Betamax says:
Obama is conversing with the Ghost of Nixon. Commiserating. Puffy clouds and harp music, Nixon is in an ill-fitting white robe with black shoes and socks. Obama thinks he has it worse; back-and-forth they top each other with their perceived miseries. Maybe end with Obama saying "I am not a crook." Lot of dots to connect: perhaps another time.
but Obama doesn't even want to go near the border crisis that was created by his own policies?
Children coming from Honduras and Guatemala to the U.S. is the result of which Obama policies?
" He much prefers being a bright, promising college sophomore studying a rhetoric-heavy subject, speculating in class and impressing all the professors, to being at work. "
Exactly. The boy with great promise, never fulfilled.
It also strikes me that as Obama and Eric Holder for years have said they would enforce the immigration laws if, when, and how they saw fit, and have been doing exactly that without the Republicans in Congress making any serious effort to call them on it, they have had a de facto "comprehensive immigration reform bill," if not one passed by Congress, so how can this "humanitarian crisis" be the Republicans' fault?
Unknown said...
Every time I hear about the bear, I wonder if it poops in the woods.
#BearPoopsintheWood
Every time I hear about the bear, I think of BooBoo.
#HeyBooBoo
Hey regarding SJP, she was probably the most likable person I have ever seen on the Seinfeld coffee show.
Much more impressive than any of her acting. Or should I say other acting?
And off topic, but the months really fly by fast these days uh?
@jaed Outstanding, perceptive comment. Thanks.
His immigration policies are very likely the main cause of the humanitarian crisis unfolding there.
Which policies of Obama are bringing kids to the U.S. from Central America?
The youngest voters who will show up in 2016 were born in 1998 and probably won't even remember Bush being president. This administration and it's incompetent blame-shifting management style is all they've known of federal governance. Young people have a strong propensity to vote against the powers that be. Too many of us that lived through Jimmy Carter (age 14-18 for me) wanted a sharp turn away from that party for him to be reelected. The Bear has had six and a half years so far to prove his competence and has proved he has none. This does not bode well for his "permanent Dem majority" plan.
AA's comment "Love it or don't serve in it. conlawprof" was perfect.
And I am sure he could never hold a candle to AA as a real conlawprof.
Horse head mask available through AA Amazon portal. Makes a great gift!
Which policies of Obama are bringing kids to the U.S. from Central America?
1) Failure to enforce/beef up the border
2) Reuniting unaccompained illegal alien children with illegal alien parents already in the U.S.
3) Releasing illegal aliens into the U.S. if they promise to show up for a deportation hearing
4) Supporting a path to citizenship for illegal aliens
5) Giving citizenship benefits to illegal alien children brought here by their parents.
6) Failure to enforce laws against illegal aliens working or getting public assisstance
7) Demonizing the Republicans instead of cooperating with them to protect our borders
Oh. yippee! Just in time for O to fit this into his campaigning. Never to late for a Woe-is-me-cause-by-my-predecessor schtick.
Did Bush tax cuts cost the U.S. economy $6.6 trillion?
I was young when Carter was in office and I thought he was wonderfully righteous and concerned and decent.
Now I know better.
Obama will be the Carter of this generation of youth, only worse as a president both domestically and in foreign policy. May they learn his lesson well.
1) Failure to enforce/beef up the border
The kids are being detained at the border. There are more deportations than ever, and there are more border patrol agents than ever.
You guys don't even try anymore. Too hard I guess.
from the WsPo pieve
More than five years into his presidency, Obama is trying to free himself from the constraints of office
No, this didn't just start recently.
So I thought beer drinking for the press was only for serious subjects like racism.
GM says "Children coming from Honduras and Guatemala to the U.S. is the result of which Obama policies?"
Can he really be that dense? I honestly can't tell.
@ GM The kids are being detained at the border.
Try to keep up.
Milwaukee could shelter some border children
Milwaukee could potentially become a destination for some of the thousands of children now flooding the U. S. border from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Father David Bergner, the director of Catholic Charities here, said that its parent organization, Catholic Charities USA, has been asked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to look for sites that might be able to handle the influx of unaccompanied children immigrants.
"We were asked to find potential sites that could accommodate from 100 to 300 children," he said. "Three hundred won't happen, but we can consider 100."
Did Bush tax cuts cost the U.S. economy $6.6 trillion?
The answer to this is decidedly no. It is based on discredited static analysis. This is just another attempt to distract the American people from the reality that the reason for the longest recession in most of our memories is/was the disastrous economic policies of Obama and the Dems. And, indeed, the crash triggering the Great Recession can also be laid to a great extent at their feet (forcing lenders to lend to people who couldn't afford their loans because, apparently, middle class people own houses, and too few minorities owned such (and, now even fewer). Also, didn't help that Fannie May in particular was run as a Dem sinecure for former Clintonistas).
Static analysis makes the Obama/Dem economic policy look like it should work, and the Bush tax cuts like they wouldn't. But, of course, we know that wasn't the case - if we listened to Obama, Hillary!, Krugman, et al., we should have been out of the recession 4-5 years ago. We aren't - unemployment is only down now because long term unemployed are no longer being counted.
Can he really be that dense? I honestly can't tell.
So tell me. Which Obama policies are bringing kids from Central America to the U.S. Specifically, which ones?
...just like the cuts worked in Kansas.
"garage mahal said...
The kids are being detained at the border. There are more deportations than ever, and there are more border patrol agents than ever."
No Corky, the are being detained at a number of places, none of them are "the border". They aren't even being stopped at the border...they are being let in. They are turning themselves in to the border patrol.
And they are not being deported. Obama refuses to go along with a change of law that would allow immediate deportation...it will take years to get these "children" deported. Which means they won't be.
My idea is that all foreign aid to the countries letting their children follow the Pied Piper should be diverted to the "humanitarian crisis" caused by their irresponsible conduct. So that in Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico the elites (who steal all this money anyhow) cease to get it and it goes to those for whom it was intended to help them resettle in the US. And also we should do as we did in the Ukraine and cut off the the visas and credit lines of people close to the Central American Presidents who are facilitating this attack on their own children. And it is an attack. Who would really send children into the American ghettoes except monsters?
Obama refuses to go along with a change of law that would allow immediate deportation...it will take years to get these "children" deported
Okay, so how does Obama change the law, who is pushing for a change of the law, and who passed this bad law?
GM: "So tell me. Which Obama policies are bringing kids from Central America to the U.S. Specifically, which ones?"
Well, let's see... there's the obvious explanation that word gets around when we refuse to enforce laws. Or just maybe all that rhetoric about "dreamers" gets heard by more than just US Latino voters.
But maybe we could turn GM's question around for edification. There's clearly *something* going on that wasn't happening before to anywhere near the same degree. What is it? Are conditions that different in their homelands?
Well, let's see... there's the obvious explanation that word gets around when we refuse to enforce laws
But what laws aren't being enforced? Specifically, which laws?
Ha ha. "Bear?"
An aging twink, who will never be a bear.
The opposite of bear is bull. Plenty of that in the the Casa Blanca.
Fat boy is alluding to this being a GWB era thing and pretending Obama is clean look ma no hands gee who farted. What Obama did to evoke this present flare-up should be clarified for him so he can't play dumb anymore. I would take a stab but have already stolen enough time from work.
Did Bush tax cuts cost the U.S. economy $6.6 trillion?
Everyone knows how damaging it is to the economy when we take a little less money out of the productive sector and hand it to the government! Why, the economy would have grown at double the rate if not for those terrible tax cuts! It's good for people to have less money to spend! It's good for businesses to be less able to invest!
My head hurts now.
But what laws aren't being enforced? Specifically, which laws?
Let's try it once more really s-l-o-w-l-y. He will NOT deploy the BPE to the border (ironically also what the B in BPE stands for!) and is instead using them to ferry these MS13 terrorists and some of their children around. The head of BPE union said yesterday that "so long as we are being used to process these wave of migrants NONE of us will be on the border" to secure it.
Is that clear enough?
What Obama did to evoke this present flare-up should be clarified for him so he can't play dumb anymore.
At this rate we'll never get to the bottom of it.
garage mahal said... But what laws aren't being enforced?
Just to check, does your dictionary include something like "not currently enforced" in the definition of the word "defer?" Have you heard of the DACA? Because that's what we're talking about here, genius.
Incentives matter, remember? Word gets around! Even now only about 12% of the kids are sent back without being placed with "family" here in the U.S. Do you think potential "immigrants" see 88% as a low probability of success? Do you understand that what matters is the beliefs of these people, even if they're not 100% correct about what the law says? And further that the actual argument here is over what actually happens, not what the letter of the law is? Do you think that some states extending DACA protections (like CA giving state drivers licenses to DACA success) also adds to the problem?
I mean, what really is your theory, here, chief? 5 years of this Administration's policies and the explosion of this "immigration" are just coincidences?
GM continues to act(?) dense.
Here's a reminder of news from 2012:
"The Obama administration announced on Friday that it would no longer seek the deportation of most young illegal immigrants, and would instead allow them to apply for work permits, a significant policy shift with potentially major electoral implications. The Department of Homeland Security said that, effective immediately, the government would no longer seek the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and would allow them to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria."
Now we all reap what Obama has sown.
"The number of immigrants under 18 who were deported or turned away at ports of entry fell from 8,143 in 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, to 1,669 last year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data released under a Freedom of Information Act request."
From the same article (in the right-wing LATimes):
"Word of mouth gets back, and now people are calling and saying, 'This is what I said'" in court, said a senior U.S. law enforcement official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "Whether it is true or not, the perception is that they are successfully entering the United States.... That is what is driving up the landings."
That help jar your memory, GM? I admit that since Obama ignores so many laws it can be a challenge to keep track.
"Leader of the free world"? I think it was appropriate to describe the West as the "Free World" during the Cold War, when we were locked in what seemed likely to be a death struggle with the Soviet Union. But that struggle is over, and it appears that Freedom lost. Obama is the leader of Left Fascism.
@garage, go away until you get talking points that have some verisimilitude about them.
We should resettle them all in Monona WI. Then we can laugh along with garage.
Big Mike said...
And based on everything I've read about his mother, I would have to say that Obama is an SOB in the truest meaning of the term.
I second that. She birthed the monster. People -- especially her admirers -- need to take a second look at whether she ever respected her native country and whether she instilled the values we now see "leading" us.
The liberals and now the UN claim that these immigrants are refugees. I wonder how many of them would stay in the USA if they were interned in refugee camps such as the UN provides for Syrian refugees.....It's a scandal that Catholic Charities is providing relief for these immigrants. Can assistance that doesn't include birth control for the young woman under their care properly be called assistance? I call it religious persecution. I hope Holder and his DOJ steps in to stop these barbaric practices,
Mark Nielsen said...
GM says "Children coming from Honduras and Guatemala to the U.S. is the result of which Obama policies?"
Can he really be that dense? I honestly can't tell.
Lets put it this way.
In a battle of wits. The bag of hammers would win.
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