August 15, 2009

"Remember how Bush was supposed to be the idiot who went into Iraq without a plan, while Obama was supposed to be the cool methodical one?"

"But Reich is admitting that despite all the Administration hoopla, there’s still no plan. Or, possibly, that the White House has a plan, but won’t tell us what it is. And yet the people who don’t want to see a bill — some bill, doing who-knows-what — rammed through in the dead of night are somehow the ones who are ignorant and being manipulated. Right."

***

So I've got to use my "Obama is like Bush tag" again. And since it's a secret plan, I'm going to whip out the less-used "Obama is like Nixon."

32 comments:

Chase said...

Someone else said it best:

He can take 6 months to decide which dog to get for his family, but the health care bills have to go through in less than 2 months?

hawkeyedjb said...

"He can take 6 months to decide which dog to get for his family, but the health care bills have to go through in less than 2 months?"

Yeah, because the dog is something he and his family will actually have to live with...

Wince said...

He can take 6 months to decide which dog to get for his family, but the health care bills have to go through in less than 2 months?

Oh, goody, I can't wait for the "Checkers Speech."

Speaking of death panels, whatever happened to the rambunctious "Bo"?

Triangle Man said...

Can't they just remind people that it is supposed to be the legislative branch that makes the laws?

traditionalguy said...

The message I recieve from all this covering up (like Nixon?)is just how gut wrenchingly horrible the Plan they all know will pass out of a secret conference must be. Not one of the Congress persons is willing to admit that they have even read it...Or which of their 5 shell proposed-bills the poison pea for us is hidden under. This is the all time height of arrogance in American politics while most of the News Media is conveniently MIA. It is little wonder that Palin now looks sharper and truer in words and deeds than ALL of the Congress persons put together plus that useless non-leader living for free in government housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Drill SGT said...

The really frightening thing is not the opaqueness of the process that we see. (BTW: remember, "most transparent adminstration evah", "no lobbyiest behind closed doors", and "everything on C-SPAN").

Reid, Pelosi, and the Miracle Worker, just need any bill, any bill at all.

then they'll take it to conference, make it into something different. Think the little Alien popping out of a chest. The new "improved conference language" will be 1500 pages long and will go to both floors in a 6 hour process. It will be voted on, signed and celebrated before any of it makes it to the internet for the first people to read.

Anonymous said...

With all due respect to Glenn Reynolds, I think we are all aware of what the plan is:

Get something passed. "Implement" it however you want since whatever is passed will be vague enough for anyone to interpret it however they like. Destroy private insurance fast enough that by the time the courts get involved there will be such a mess that government control over health care decisions are a fait accompli.

That's the Democrats' plan. Republicans don't have the votes to stop them.

Obama doesn't care how many Democrats he takes down with him ... this is what he perceives to be his legacy.

He'll doom his second term, and a lot of Democrats will be used as cannon fodder. But this is Obama's Waterloo and he plans on going down with the ship.

Unknown said...

The Drill Sgt. is exactly right. They (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, et al) know exactly what they want but do under the guise of 'health care', and they do not want 'we the people' to know what that is until long after the bill becomes law.

The plan was to have Obama and his MSM blow sunshine and unicorns up our collective butts about how wonderful his health care plan will be while avoiding discussion on their actual agenda which would only be codified in the reconciliation process a few short hours before the bill was actually passed.

However, their amazing mix of hubris, arrogance and incompetence got the better of them and they lost control of the situation.

Big Mike said...

@Triangle, on something this big he's supposed to be providing leadership.

former law student said...

on something this big he's supposed to be providing leadership.

Example of leadership: "I believe this nation should commit itself, before this decade is out, to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth."
--President John F. Kennedy, 25 May 1961

Note that JFK did not discuss the design requirements of the Lunar Excursion Module.

We’ll guarantee health care for anyone who needs it, make it affordable for anyone who wants it, and ensure that the quality of your health care does not depend on the color of your skin. And we’re not going to do it 20 years from now or 10 years from now, we’re going to do it by the end of my first term as President. -- Barack Obama Jul 12, 2008

Anonymous said...

Some more examples of leadership:

I promise to close Guantanamo Bay.

I promise to end signing statements.

I promise to stop tapping phones.

No more lobbyists.

Obama's trail of broken promises is the quintessential essence of his leadership style.

DADvocate said...

I've made the Obama-Nixon comparison several times now. Mostly in regard to his arrogance, demonizing those who disagree with him, his references to "most Americans" (Silent Majority), and his secrecy.

Fred4Pres said...

So why did you vote for him? Questioning that now?

Perhaps? Perhaps not?

Anonymous said...

"I'm going to whip out the less-used "Obama is like Nixon.""

"Less-used" for now.

Anonymous said...

The "Obama is like Nixon" tag???

Oh good golly!

That's like throwing down the while glove in front of liberal America, with a challenge of a duel in the morning.

Can't wait to see where this leads...

Anonymous said...

I think we're about to get Fleeced With Honor.

Der Hahn said...

The design of the LEM only affected the astronauts who voluntered to attempt a landing on the moon.

The details of Obama's health care plan will affect everyone in the United States.

hombre said...

We’ll guarantee health care for anyone who needs it,... [and] we’re going to do it by the end of my first term as President. [No matter how disastrous it may be in the long run.] -- Barack Obama Jul 12, 2008

And not only that, I'm going to emulate the Russians in Afghanistan!!!!

William said...

I go with an Obama is like Wilson analogy. Like Wilson, Obama mistakes a mastery of academic subjects with wisdom. I'm thinking of the Treaty of Paris negotiations to end WWI. Wilson excluded the Republicans from his delegation. He recruited whiz kids like Walter Lippmann to redraw the maps of Central Europe and the Balkans. (Lippmann was under thirty, but he had graduated from Harvard and read a lot.) Wilson accepted Clemanceau's suggestion that America take on Armenia as a protectorate and insisted that the Senate accept all of the provisions of the League of Nations in todo--including the controversial one where the US was obliged to come to the military defense of any League member that was invaded. The whole thing crashed and burned. A generation of historians liked to blame isolationist Republicans on his failure, but it was Wilson's high minded stupidity that doomed it.....Insofar as a plan exists Obama has done a very poor job of selling it. He needs to include Republicans in his deliberations and promote some reforms that everyone can understand. The fact that tort reform is nowhere mentioned in any of the various proposals undermines his position as being above special interests. He is above Republican special interests, Democratic ones not so much. This is sometimes defined as being a partison......I admire the measured cadences with which he bifurcates his obfuscations, but really the plan needs a few strong bullet points that people can support or, at least understand. Obama's plans will insure the health of Americans the way the Treaty of Paris furthered world peace.

Penny said...

Robert Reich and Obama are both "redistribute the wealth" junkies. He was Clinton's Secretary of Labor during his first term, but left before the second term to "spend more time with his kids". RIGHT.

I suspect he was much too far to the left for Bill Clinton. If you get too far over there, some might even call you a communist.

Penny said...

Reich tidbit...

He dated Hillary Clinton in college.

hombre said...

wv = "wartme": What Barrack says the "mob" is trying to do to him.

garage mahal said...

How long will we have to wait for an "Obama is like Hitler" tag? Not long I bet!

hombre said...

Obama mistakes a mastery of academic subjects with wisdom.

I'm sure you are right about this, but there is no reason to believe that he has mastered any subject relevant to the presidency other than Con Law.

Mostly, he ignores the Constitution. So that's not much help either.

DADvocate said...

Well, it didn't take long for a crazy leftie to compare Nixon to Hitler.

You lose, gargage.

daubiere said...

obama is like nixon minus the genius and wisdom and love of country. in other words, obama is the bad parts of nixon.

1775OGG said...

OK, Mrs. AAM, Madame Lawyer, is a bill going through a Congressional Conference, without subsequent voting in the two houses, Constitutional? My understanding and perhaps it's wrong cuz I got that from a Rag Reporter, NYT I do believe, is that some bills do not go back for a followup vote. Also, what about earmarks added in those Conference meetings, are they Constitutional?

Anonymous said...

"And since it's a secret plan..."

Actually it's just an alleged secret plan. I'm not sure what tag is appropriate for that.

"He can take 6 months to decide which dog to get for his family, but the health care bills have to go through in less than 2 months?"

I first saw that line here.

Cedarford said...

DADvocate said...
I've made the Obama-Nixon comparison several times now. Mostly in regard to his arrogance, demonizing those who disagree with him, his references to "most Americans" (Silent Majority), and his secrecy.


The funny thing is that when historians in recent years looked back at what they thought were Nixon's "secret", but actually nonexistant plans - reviewing the notes and meetings and memoirs of key Nixon people, and Nixon - they found Nixon generally did have plans. Well thought out plans, some years in the making..
He had been thinking about detente, ending nerve gas and biowar weaponry since the 50s. Triangulating with China since the Amor river clash of 1968.

Nixon elected secrecy in foreign policy to keep America's enemies guessing. In domestic matters, because he feared any policy of his that was fully aired out in public before he was ready would be sabotaged by DC lobyists, East Coast Elites, and "those damn liberal Jews in the media".

By and large, this strategy worked. Most of what Nixon planned got done, and almost nothing he did was discarded by later Admins as not working. Nixon was also the last American President not beholden to the Ruling Elites and the power brokers inside the Beltway.

BTW, the Centrist-Moderate Party Nixon built was a true Silent Majority. When you look at his '68 Election, you see that would have been a landslide almost as big as '72 had Wallace not run.
Nixon also holds the record, by considerable margin, over FDR and Reagan - as being the politician the most Americans voted for in his contests. A record that may stand a long, long time...even with the population twice as large as when he was active.

===================
daubiere said...
obama is like nixon minus the genius and wisdom and love of country. in other words, obama is the bad parts of nixon.


That's one that will get worshipers of the Black Messiah's teeth gritting:

"Obama is like Nixon. But without Nixon's redeeming patriotism and intellectual vision & brilliance. And his independence from the manipulations of the Puppetmasters in the Ruling Elites"

AlphaLiberal said...

What Republican Bruce Bartlett, a veteran of the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations, said:

political parties should do penance for their mistakes and just losing power is not enough. Part of that involves understanding why those mistakes were made and how to prevent them from happening again. Republicans, however, have done no penance. They just pretend that they did nothing wrong. But until they do penance they don't deserve any credibility and should be ignored until they do. .

It's ridiculous that Republicans have any credibility today with their continued antics and refusal to accept the will of the people shown in the election results of last November.

AlphaLiberal said...

More Bartlett:

...the media don't treat Republicans as if they are discredited. On the contrary, they often seem to be treated as if they have more credibility than the administration. .

How much damage do the Republicans have to do to this country before they are ignored?

Link for these quotes

fivewheels said...

As a right-leaning non-Republican, I'm sympathetic to those statements. But then again, I'm still waiting for the left-leaning to admit how completely butt-wrong they were about every single issue, large or small, concerning the Cold War and the Soviet Union for just about the entire 20th Century. The day we won the Cold War (which they kept saying only existed because of how evil the United States was), they just went straight to "This is how we should spend the peace dividend." No reflection, no mea culpas.

It's the nature of politics.

(hamphob: mmmm, ham)