I don't know what his favorite word was. Probably not something more than 2-syllables. ← That's a Bush joke. (I miss Bush jokes! (I miss Bush.))
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Note: Maureen Dowd is not promoting Obama in the linked column, which is titled "As the Nation’s Pulse Races, Obama Can’t Seem to Find His."
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86 comments:
Actually, his favorite word might have been a 3-letter one: America.
If it was a 2-letter one, it was: freedom.
If it was a 1-letter one, it was: God.
Ωbama's favorite word is "Bush did it."
(I miss Bush.)
I don't know if it's for the same reason I miss Bush (I doubt it, you probably liked to blog about him), but I miss Bush too. I miss the feeling of being safe during his watch.
I don't care about anything else that he did, most of which was big-government conservatism which I loathe, but that, the security thing, he did really well.
Do you recall the Weekly Standard's Noemie Emery's essay about Colonel Obama?
"Now let us imagine a different candidate, one who looks like Barack Obama, with the same mixed-race, international background, even the same middle name. But this time, he is Colonel Obama, a veteran of the war in Iraq, a kick-ass Marine with a "take no prisoners" attitude, who vows to follow Osama bin Laden to the outskirts of Hell. He comes from the culture of the military (the most color blind and merit-based in the country), and not the rarefied air of Hyde Park. He goes to a church with a mixed-race congregation and a rational preacher. He has never met Bill Ayers, and if he did he would flatten him. He thinks arugula is a town near Bogota and has Toby Keith on his favorites list. Would he strike no chords at all in Jacksonian country? Does anyone think he would lose 90 to 9 in Buchanan County? Or lose West Virginia by 41 points? For those Jacksonians who would be fine with a black man in the White House (not as tiny a group as Newsweek thinks), Colonel Obama is the one we are waiting for. When we will get him is anyone's guess."
I WANT COLONEL OBAMA. GIVE ME COLONEL OBAMA. Him I would suppport with every breath in my body.
Cheers,
Victoria
If Obama won't revoke the visa of a Nigerian with a powerful explosive powder in his oddly feminine-looking underpants and a syringe full of acid; a man whose own father had alerted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria; a traveler whose ticket was paid for in cash and who didn’t check bags; whose visa renewal had been denied by the British; who had studied Arabic in Al Qaeda sanctuary Yemen; whose name was on a counterterrorism watch list, who's visa would Obama revoke?
FIFY
(I miss Bush.)
I don't. I miss Reagan. For all his faults at least there was leadership and a competent Cabinet. Two things that have been sorely missed in every subsequent administration, particularly the last two.
I could have probably broken my 20 year abstinence from the presidential polls had Romney been a candidate; someone who 1) knows something about economics, and 2)is aware of the threat of terrorism.
Bush isn't president anymore. Miller just clued me in to that, yet here he is, talking about Bush.
Oh, I see. It's a topic wherein Obama compares negatively. So that's appropriate.
Silly, Maureen! It's not OK to criticize Bush. You will annoy the Great Althouse!!
Parsing the words from speeches? That is only appropriate if the speaker is Obama.
Bush was perfect. Please don't ever criticize him again.
Annie might cry!!
I miss Clinton.
Cigars just aren't the same any more.
Bush's favorite word was "Laura." His second favorite was "Turd Blossom," his nickname for Rove.
He called Barbara Boxer "Ali." Diane Feinstein was "Frazier."
I miss Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.
We had our Col. Obama, only better. He decided not to run, even though he would have trounced Bill Clinton in 1996.
Like when he resolutely stood by Rumsfeld?
Dowd? She's the one who has worked under Pinch Sulzberger in many different positions, isn't she?
Ed Morrissey from HotAir.com is suggesting that Obama has lost Dowd because of this essay. All I'll say to that, fellow conservatives, is don't be Charlie Brown to Dowd's football moving Lucy.
Screw feeling safe. What we need is a bloated, inefficient ineffectual government.
It's good because it costs more.
Actually, his favorite word might have been a 3-letter one: America.
f it was a 2-letter one, it was: freedom.
If it was a 1-letter one, it was: God.
You realize all three of these are wrong don't you.
I miss the feeling of being safe during his watch.
It was a feeling. The same system existed, and there's no reason to believe there weren't opportunities for catastrophic failures. It may feel better to hear someone speak in a more resolute tone several days after someone is caught with an explosive on a plane, but the upshot's no different. The facts are that our security is haphazard, and communications among agencies is fractured, and these things need to be fixed. The problems didn't start on Jan. 20, 2009.
If it was a 4 letter word it would be boobies.
A Bush in hand is worth two bushmen in The Bird.
We need a Maasai.
Beth,
What caused your panties to be in such a twist here? Ann didn't compare Bush to Obama, and one has to be in an already somewhat sour disposition to infer that was her reason for posting. As to Maureen Dowd - her contributions to humanity are the equivalent of a 2-week old dog turd surrounded by flies - her column hardly can be read as Obama being compared negatively to Bush.
So what's up? Just because a few commenter use the occasion to bash Obama doesn't mean you have to participate? You are usually far better than this.
Ann,
Awesome job spanking the worthless Maureen Dowd. I suspect the America-hating Sulzberger keeps her because she obviously hates so much of America's fly-over country.
"...All I'll say to that, fellow conservatives, is don't be Charlie Brown to Dowd's football moving Lucy."
That's how I read Dowd. She doesn't disagree with his policies just his style. According to Dowd he needs to pop a vein and pound the podium when reading statements.
As to Maureen Dowd - her contributions ot humanity are the equivalent of a 2-week old dog turd surrounded by flies
Flies do not congregate around aged dog turd. Only the freshest. In other words, bad metaphor.
Absence has not made my heart grow fonder. Neither for Bush, nor for Dog turd. It would be nice if America could look forward.
My panties are unbunched, Chase, and my comments here are on topic.
You meant syllables, presumably.
"That's how I read Dowd. She doesn't disagree with his policies just his style."
This is correct.
Dowd keeps saying that "we" failed.
Dowd: "If we can’t catch a Nigerian ..."
Look here, sweetheart. "We" didn't fail. Obama fucked up. He decided people on the TIDE list of suspected or potential terrorists shouldn't be banned from getting visas or flying.
EPIC FAIL.
It's Obama's people who can't catch a suspected terrorist on a list who shows up at the airport.
It's Keystone Kops with these Democrats.
Can't "Find his pulse" ??
Ah the manless Maureen is four years late and a metaphor short.
I'd have it as "Obama can't find his ass with both hands," but maybe we'll be able to help by handing it to him in 2010 and 2012.
"a 3-letter one: America"
... uh... that was another Bush joke!
(Yeah, I meant "syllables.")
I can't believe no one got the joke(s). It's so obvious, like a blue moon in New Years.
Nice save, Ann!
From the article:
travelers could see we had made no progress toward a technologically wondrous Philip K. Dick universe
"wondrous" is not a word I would use in relation to Philip K. Dick's oeuvre. "Dystopic" perhaps. The Obama administration seems to making some "progress" toward dystopia, but I don't think that's Modo's point.
Beth wrote:
"Bush isn't president anymore. Miller just clued me in to that, yet here he is, talking about Bush."
Yeah, but Beth, what does Miller actually say about Bush?
Miller wrote:
"Ωbama's favorite word is 'Bush did it.'"
Oh, snap! He's saying Bush isn't president anymore, Obama is! That's... um... so weird and hypocritical coming from the guy who... uh... clued you in on the fact that Bush isn't president anymore.
Beth, are you mentally ill or something? Do you have poor reading comprehension? Or are you just dim?
I unloaded a cup of coffee last night on the front door of a Starbucks .
Did you know that a grande cup of coffee with half-and half can completely coat a 10 x 12 foot glass window and door?
Bush favorite number was 911 ;)
wv - portwar
vbspurs (Victoria)
The Army Col you are looking for is Lt. Col Allen West., running for Congressional Representative (R) Dist 22 in Fla. Check him out on you tube.
Her closing paragraph is pretty good:
"Thomas L. Friedman is off today."
Really, it's funny the way she and Tommy have started to taunt each other...
And Henry, good call on the Philip K. Dick reference; I thought exactly the same thing when I saw it. I suppose this means Dowd thought Blade Runner was a chick-flick romantic comedy or something???
Chase
I recommended a Keurig coffee maker, like this one. I haven't been to Starbucks since. Although I do miss seeing all the hot chicks in the morning at my local. Actually I miss that a lot now I think about it. Anyways, it costs 50 cents to brew a cup. Good for tea and hot cocaoa as well.
""Thomas L. Friedman is off today.""
I noted that too and thought, "A nation mourns."
The column is typical MoDo drivel. Fascinating that she still needs Dubya even when she's trying to justify to herself her disappointment with Barry.
More interesting which people needed Ann's jokes explained. Dubya's PC made me crazy, but he, Darth, Rummy, and Wolfie, as Ann points out, did. And the bad guys died.
OTOH, we do have Colonel Obama. And he has his right hand man, Sgt. Rahm Schultz
Huh! And here I thought all the stuff about 3-letter words was a Joe Biden joke.
Thanks Kirk,
If Dowd is going to keep pushing her science-fiction "Obama is Spock" meme she had better do some background reading.
Here's another passage:
Given that every utterance of the president is usually televised, it was a throwback to radio days — just at the moment we sought reassurance that our security has finally caught up to “Total Recall.”
Again, Dowd writes the opposite of what she means. "Total Recall" is about the confusion of false and real memories. It's not some place we want our security to "catch up to."
Though, as with her first Philip K. Dick reference, what she doesn't mean to say seems closer to reality that what she thinks she is saying.
I'm not sure how my posting about OBAMA's favorite word is somehow turned to talking about Bush.
But then, YMMV.
Victoria, here's your 'Colonel' and he's in your neck of the woods.
If nothing else, McCain would have had a pulse:
Vice President Palin, could you please hand me the latest security briefing? It's in the bottom draw of the filing cabinet there on the far wall.
Carl Bob's favorite word is goober.
Or at least thats what he hears all the time when he goes out.
Medved hit it today: Ωbama's speeches consist largely of "Don't blame me."
Remember when we had a president who said "the buck stops here"?
This president avoids picking up the check whenever he can.
Dowd got O's favorite word wrong too. She thought it was "unprecedented." Miller thinks it was "Bush did it," three words but much closer that MoDo's offering. Anyone paying attention to O (and he gets annoyed if others don't) knows that it's "I" in all its case-forms (me, myself ....).
Medved also pointed out that the U.S. claims we need to get the "moderate Muslims" to turn in their fanatical brethren; we had such a moderate Muslim turn his own son in - repeatedly - but the Ωbama administration FAILED TO ACT to protect American citizens.
Quick - blame Bush!
Obama's favorite word for the bitter clingers here in the bastion of Capitalism is Destitute. He is sworn to get us there ASAP and would have finished us off in Copenhagen if the Chinese had gone along with his agenda there. The Chinese want to see us back at work buying their stuff again and keeping the Dollars value from disappearing. Obama was certainly frustrated by that. Now we may linger and not become Destitute for a few more years.
Based on his past speeches, I'd say Obama's favorite word is "I."
If you don't understand why that's a huge part of his problem -- make that our problem, then you just don't get leadership.
Obama's desk is more Resolute than he is.
wv: "reempet" -- a particularly accommodating breed of Cabana Boy.
Miller wrote: Remember when we had a president who said "the buck stops here"?
Just don't kid yourself into thinking that was the previous administration.
Aside from Bill Maher, who got fired because of 9/11?
And every time I hear Obama say that something is unprecedented, I am reminded of the catch phrase that was uttered too often in the previous administration: "No one could have imagined. . . ."
Maybe it would have been better for Napolitano to assert that underpants bombs are proof that the terrorists are in their "last throes."
Ann, I am mystified that you had to explain the 3,2,1 favorite words joke. It good thing you don't invoke the 3 day in school suspension on these people.
It was suggested on national radio show earlier this week that President Obama create and an underwear czar. That way he could be continually "briefed".
It was reported that Sen. Boxer had a leg up for the position.
My suggestion for the position would be former President Clinton. If there ever was a guy who took extreme pleasure in being continually "debriefed" it was our former President.
P.S. I hope I don't have to 'splain this
Peter, I appreciate your attempt at reading my mind, but - sad for you - FAIL.
I was thinking of and alluding to President Harry Truman, who happened to be a Democrat.
You really need to stop your fixation on FORMER President Bush and look at what your CURRENT President Obama is doing.
I'm OK with Bush no longer being president, and I voted for him twice.
You might want to let go, too.
Obama is screwed. If he does what is necessary (bringing the fight to the terrorists, implementing effective security measures, denying terrorists sanctuary in our Courts, etc.) he will be admitting that Bush was right and he was wrong.
If he does nothing and just hopes that his teleprompter sessions will somehow mollify our enemies, then he will be held responsible when they next slaughter us.
He can't win politically, so he might as well do the right thing and save some American lives. Unfortunately for our country his vanity is an obstacle that may prove insurmountable.
If the constitution had truly been kept it wouldn't be all that vital whether presidents were weak or strong and we would neither particularly need them or particularly miss them. But if we must miss a president let it be Silent Cal who at least tried to keep the constitution, what was left of it when he arrived.
It was reported that Sen. Boxer had a leg up for the position.
God what a horrible image that summons.
I agree with you Lincoln. Pres. 0 has painted himself into a corner on many fronts.
Gitmo is another one. Released detainees coming back to fight us.
Iran telling him to get lost. None of these people apparently got the hope and change memo.
China is another potential issue of major proportions. The chinese appear not to respect him (read: the Copenfrauden meetings). They has him (and us) by the shorthairs.
Corretion: they have him
I would have a lot more respect for President Obama if, in the face of things not working, he changed tack.
Perhaps, just perhaps, President Bush was right on some things. President Obama should display some pragmatism and the courage to buck his own supporters. If he did that he would find many conservatives would support him.
Ann Althouse said...
If it was a 1-letter one, it was: God.
True.
He, Bush, pulled up lame in Baghdad as a result of reading and re-reading Mathew. God revealed therein the lilies of the field - obscuring the death and destruction to come.
And how long did it take, how many lives - before he got his eye-for-an-eye groove back? Years. And thousands.
Now it's Obama, drowning in the steel, blue-cold of reality. Or so he would have us think.
He can't win politically
I disagree Lincolntf. He can win politically by doing the right thing. The American public would reward him for it. I guess it just depends on whether he's smart enough to figure this out.
Bushman, I suppose he could have a total conversion and end up with the votes of some conservatives to offset the Libs he loses, but I put the odds of that at about a million to one.
This isn't only about a policy or two. It's about who Obama is. He has spent a lifetime believing that empathy for our enemies is the answer. That the US military is a source of misery around the world is a key tenet of his philosophy. I see no realistic way for him to overcome these massive handicaps to his thinking. If the thousands of Americans who were killed by Muslim terrorists on 9/11 didn't wake him up, what will?
Lincoltf, I agree with you about Obama's state of mind. However, I still believe that most Americans want to know that the president will do what is necessary to protect the country. And besides, how many votes would he lose from the left? They really have nowhere else to go.
All you need to do is look at the falling poll numbers to see where his current direction taking him.
It's true that the Libs won't have anywhere else to go in 2012, but the same logic dictates that conservatives will vote for just about any Republican over Barry. I can't imagine a less defense-oriented candidate than Obama ever getting close to the GOP nomination.
Anyway, my hope is that a true professional comes in to replace Napolitano. Someone with a military background or similar experience (FBI, CIA, NSA) could do all the "dirty" work and Obama could keep some distance.
The staus quo (putting ill- qualified figureheads in key security posts) has got to stop.
Harry, at least I get to go out. That ankle monitor you wear has to cut into your social life. Loser.
word verification: fugly
The first thing Ωbama needs to do when he gets back from his extensive vacation is to fire Janet and that guy (Brown) who suggested we release the terrorists into America so they can get welfare.
Some things are so stupid only intellectuals believe them.
Well of course you can get out. Isnt that what the doctor said you should do?
Plus standing in one of them orange jump suits with a stick with a nail at the end spearing candybar wrappers aint exactly getting out there bubba.
Lessen it means you out like that Titus fella.
That would explain that thing you wore to Christmas dinner.
Sometimes when I'm feeling really down on myself for my lack of material and professional success, I read something by Maureen Dowd, and then I feel worse.
She cites, as really cool uber technological progressive advancement and hope for the future, Philip K. Dick, and Total-freaking-Recall?
WTF?
Is that what the cool kids are going to be doing now? Gonna be edgy by name-dropping sci-fi icons? Dick wrote about a soulless and frightening future (or at least, that's what movies were made) and in Total Recall the method of control used against "terrorists" was to cut off their air. What were his other famous (movie) stories? Android sex slaves and laborers trying to get their internal time-bombs turned off and, what might actually be *relevant* to public safety, a method of divining future criminal acts and stopping them before they start.
At what point did it the obvious message that these things were *bad* become obscured?
"Even before (...) travelers could see we had made no progress toward a technologically wondrous Philip K. Dick universe."
Wondrous.
"...just at the moment we sought reassurance that our security has finally caught up to “Total Recall.”"
Reassuring us.
Egad.
You know what we do with technology? We *listen* to people. We invade their privacy. We use imagers to look under their clothes.
And Dowd just wrote a column saying how *bad* it is that Republicans (in a bi-partisan effort, but it was still *them*) said that we didn't WANT freaking PHILIP K. DICK.
Maybe instead of dropping cool-sounding names to be like the cool-kids... Maureen should read.
Liberals do that, right?
Read?
Whenever I read a Maureen Dowd column I always come away thinking, "What is your f---ing point?"
Why does she keep inserting random thoughts like "Janet Napolitano (who learned nothing from an earlier Janet named Reno)..."
What is the significance of the fact that Janet Napolitano has the same first name as Janet Reno? Is that supposed to be one of those clever plays on words that Dowd never tires of? That let her readers know what a fun gal she must be to hang out with, dropping bon mots right and left? Like writing "...it looked as though the Obama operation was flying by the seat of its pants." Get it? "seat of its pants" works on so many levels!
Also, this connection: "President Obama’s favorite word is “unprecedented,” as Carol Lee of Politico pointed out. Yet he often seems mired in the past as well..."
Why should Obama's frequent use of the word "unprecedented" make it ironic that he is mired in the past? Obama just uses that word to make it sound like no one has ever tackled problems as big as the ones he faces, so don't blame him if he screws up.
Natter, natter, collect big paychecks, great gig while it lasts.
Why does she keep inserting random thoughts like "Janet Napolitano (who learned nothing from an earlier Janet named Reno)..."
Paul, you proceed from a false assumption. Dowd isn't in the NYT because she's some kind of great thinker. She's there because there are people who like the way she writes. To her fans the subject matter is of far less importance than the style.
Yeah...
Cool kids, name dropping Dick.
Althouse might do that on purpose, but she'd deliver internal consistency to the reference and we would know it was a "Dick" reference. No way Dowd did that on purpose, and it's not even a point that supports her supposed point, which she then mucks up with a diversion to Total Recall instead of Minority Report. Minority Report *destroys* the point of her reference, so maybe that's why she didn't use it, but Total Recall in no way supports what she seemed to be trying to be all cool and progressive over saying in a "hip" sort of way.
Maybe the mastermind who will save the day is a parasitic twin stuck on her "hip?"
Maybe her readers like her style, but they sure can't be reading for meaning or content.
Pfeh... maybe they all read to make fun of her.
Eric, I guess I just don't understand why anyone likes the way she writes. To me it's distracting and tiresome to be reading a piece that contains lots of forced, pointless word associations. But obviously you're right, someone must like it.
Speaking of whether or not anyone actually likes it, when I scroll through the columnists on the Drudge page I note with amazement that certain people still have syndicated columns despite the fact that no one has cared what they had to say for 20 years now. It's like my surprise when I'm reminded that Hugh Downs is still alive.
My daughter says Dowd's column reads like a high school paper.
And not one that would get a good grade.
Lessen it means you out like that Titus fella.
Harry, you just can't get over him, can you? Ever since he paired up with that Indian you've been heartbroken.
I know it's been difficult, but keep on looking and you'll someone else to watch Yentl with.
Thanks, guys, for pointing me to Lt. Col Allan West. I really appreciate that, as I think I had heard of him, but he's in District 22 -- way up in Palm Beach Gardens.
I will keep an eye on him, not the least of which because HE IS THE COLONEL OBAMA OF MY IMAGININGS.
Cheers,
Victoria
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/296400.php
Has a picture of what seems to be the body scanner image of the "reassuring" and "wondrous" Philip K. Dick future that the backward thinking Republicans deprived Maureen Dowd.
How anyone could fuss about *that* I sure don't know! I expect Maureen to publish her body scan as part of a future column so we can enjoy all her folds and crevasses.
Now, monitoring large overseas money transfers is an *obvious* assault on human rights, and let us not *even* get into listening to phone calls from suspect foreigners to US destinations or that bounce through a US communications relay. OMG!
Some people got no perspective.
I don't mean to interrupt Brokeback Mountain here but I wanna say something,...
When history has finally given George W. Bush his due, I think his face will wind up on Mount Rushmore.
Col. Obama. His methods have become ... unsound.
@Crack, I rather doubt that, but the longer he's out of office the higher he'll climb in the ratings.
Worst president ever? Not even the worst in the 21st century.
"I WANT COLONEL OBAMA. GIVE ME COLONEL OBAMA. Him I would suppport with every breath in my body.
Cheers,
Victoria"
Eh, Victoria, look over to Florida. There's a man (not mixed race) rising there going by the name of Colonel Allen West. There's a viral vid of him. Had he run for President last year, I'd have been standing behind him. Obambi? Not even owning all of Fort Knox could make me piss on him if he were on fire.
Bush fisal policies were crap
But I want a President who admires this country, warts and all, who understands and appreciates its history, its traditions, its culture and its struggles to acomplish what it has, and one who admires and respects its people collectively without regard to their individual or group politics, culture or heritage.
Back to Philip K. Dick, eh? Nobody went for my Voight-Kampff 2010 test on the other post though ;< Even though you'd be 'scanning' minds or personalities and leaving boobies alone...
Crack, LoneWacko, I know how you feel.
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