From an article about how members of that inner circle are going to be leaving:
The inner circle - Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, senior advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, press secretary Robert Gibbs and Vice President Biden - is breaking up, or at least breaking open. Emanuel is widely expected to run for mayor of Chicago, and Axelrod is likely to leave this spring to prepare for Obama's 2012 reelection effort.Like some sort of "Team of Rivals"? If only he'd thought about that at the outset of his presidency!
Obama will soon lose other top advisers. His chief economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, announced that he will return to Harvard, where he is a professor; Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina is expected to join Axelrod in Chicago; and national security adviser James L. Jones is said to want out by the end of the year.
Some former aides and allies of the president expressed hope that Obama will take advantage of the departures - which are common at the two-year point in any presidency - to bring in outsiders who will challenge the president's current team.
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134 comments:
I have long been struck by how weak Obama's appointees are, across the board, and predict that their successors will be even more obscure.
first link is bad
Miscalculated my ass. O never was, nor ever intended to be, a centrist. Some of us figured that out a long time ago.
What struck me in the article was a couple of things.
1. they were clueless on all the important issues. "out of touch on jobs?" how clueless can you be...
2. they were insular and incestous in their thinking.. The Politiburo describes it well.
3. the end of the article indicates that the replacements will be the assistants to the current clueless folks. amazing....
4. in particular, watch out for Donilon, a useless toady.
To expand, Donilon is a white shoe DC lawyer, ex-Fannie Mae millionaire, Biden buddy, is is currently the Deputy National Security Advisor. His entire Defense/State/Security credentials prior to joining Obama were 3 years as the Clinton State Dept PR Flack...
I think Jones has been fairly powerless as the NSA, but Donilon is a dangerous yes man without any experience in the field.
It's time to hit that RESET button!
Call the Russians and see if they will return it to us.
Obama, a minion of Wall Street as much as was the bum he replaced, brought in a team made up of Wall Street men.
Continuing the same policies--with tweaks--and expecting better results will not get them...and will not win over a beleagured populace.
"Office of the President Elect"
Downhill from there.
Well, insularity is only part of the problem. And it itself is a symptom of the largest problem with the administration: it is driven by a rigid ideology it knows is opposed by a strong majority of Americans but is committed to forcing on them anyway. Obama ran as a centrist, knowing full well that was just a ruse to get into power. The media propaganda machine was the chief enabler, along with the shamelful gullibility of the American voter.
The administration is "insular" because its goal is to force as much "fundamental change" on the country as it can before it loses power. Insularity is not a bug, it's a feature.
I think the the "good will" was lost on two issues and two issues only...
Everything surrounding jobs and the economy. This really is one thing and not many. It's the perception of focus, and there was none. The stimulous was supposed to work like magic but confidence in it was never "sold" to the people and then Obama was off doing other things while we looked for work or tried to get our teenagers a job flipping burgers and no one was hiring.
So just about anything Obama did... tried to get Chicago the Olympics, pushed health care reform, took a vacation, it all contributed to a feeling that his focus was not on jobs. Even his response to the gulf oil spill failed to be focused on jobs and keeping them.
The other thing that lost his good will was every time some ignoramous on television opened her mouth and explained how no one could possibly POSSIBLY disagree with Obama except that they were racist haters. That really was something Obama should have "got out in front of" because it's hard to shut up people like Gerofalo or the stupid View lady or any number of other celebrity pricks who think they're "helping" by reducing all political argument to charges of racism. But they're getting face time on television, and that's the plan. Obama should have got out in front of that and denounced the use of that charge early and often. (The fact that he did the same thing campaigning is beside the point.)
@Hagar - agree with that. Wonder who would be willing to jump on this crazy train before it derails.
I'm sure there will be a preference for "double-dips" - i.e., supposedly Ann Mulcahy, former CEO Xerox Corp., is a candidate to replace Larry Summers. A business person (one dip) and a woman too. Viola - a double dip!!
Cleaning House Starts at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: Caroline Baum
These people wanted to implement their own agenda to vindicate all their pet theories as well as the notion that FDR attenuated, rather than killed, the Depression.
As well as secure a far-left regime in the US for the foreseeable future.
Agree with Widmerpool on the miscalculation thing (except, maybe, where ZeroCare was concerned) and Sarge on Gen Jones, although I doubt the former military appointees were ever intended to have much clout.
Ann Althouse said...
Some former aides and allies of the president expressed hope that Obama will take advantage of the departures - which are common at the two-year point in any presidency - to bring in outsiders who will challenge the president's current team.Like some sort of "Team of Rivals"?
If The Zero liked being challenged, I don't think we would have shut Eric Cantor off with, "I won".
We'll see a bunch of yespersons.
This is what happens when you hire a community organizer to do a President's job.
I cannot wait to see eggs/tar/paint on all faces the day after the election.
Here is the prediction for 2010:
- House (Speaker Pelosi)
- Senate (Leader Reid)
Obama/Biden will continue to be popular, and heading towards a comfortable victory over Palin or anyone else in 2012.
I hope you all eat crow with all this false and misleading polls, etc.
We are all happy with the way things are. Patience is the medicine.
"to bring in outsiders who will challenge the president's current team."
Isn't Axelrod going off to prepare so this doesn't happen?
This isn't really new, for first-term Presidents, is it? My vague recollection is that there's always a clearing out and that the first wave of appointees are invariably linked to the election campaign team, and honed to insularity in that crucible.
I wonder if the "longtime Democratic strategist" smack talker could be longtime "political strategist" Dick Morris. He worked with the White House on a variety of issues -- of course it was the Clinton White House, but what the hey.
I can't wait for the grownups to get back in charge and do some serious governing by shutting government down and flooding the Executive with a mountain of subpoenas.
FLS - off with his head right?
It's not the insularity--they had no intention of governing according to their campaign promises.
They thought we were stupid and would not notice. Isn't that the animating impulse of the left, their superiority to our stupidity?
Insularity? Is that like when Joe Biden has a "Middle Class Task Force" and none of the task force are in the middle class?
although I doubt the former military appointees were ever intended to have much clout
I fully agree, that Jones can't convince Obama to do anything. He doesn't have the influence and is there just for the military vaccination, HOWEVER, a military voice like Jones is very useful to convince Obama, or maybe a Rahm (who would listen to Jones I expect), about what the military is NOT capable of doing in a particular situation.
example, Secretary Albright was urging military action on Clinton over Colin Powell's objections about the limitaions:
“Albright: What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about, if we can’t use it?”
... as remembered in Colin Powell’s memoir. Powell wrote that he almost had an aneurysm, he was so upset.
That's the role a Jones can play...
That "out in the country" phrase--which matches the mindset--drives me crazy. Both parties use it.
"Out in the country"...used to describe EVERYTHING but the few square miles around the U.S. Capitol.
The Romans used to refer to "the provinces." Same mindset.
Want to pass a tax, Congress? Pass one imposing a fee of $1,000,000 every time one of you uses that arrogant expression.
I can't wait for the grownups to get back in charge and do some serious governing by shutting government down and flooding the Executive with a mountain of subpoenas.
Me too because things were going pretty well back then as I remember. Oh I forgot something...
LOL!
they had no intention of governing according to their campaign promises.
Looking at the biggies he's yet to pull off: you're disappointed that cap and trade did not go through, that warrantless wiretaps continue and Guantanamo's still open? Are you a staunch believer in providing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship? You're not a typical Althouse commenter, if so.
But those failures were not for want of trying. Please tell me which of Obama's 500+ campaign promises were made in bad faith? Per politifact, he's only broken 22.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/
Oh I forgot something...
Yes you certainly did forget something.
Speaking of squandering goodwill, it looks like the Dept. of Justice is about to get busted wide open. AoSHQ has the story from Pajamas Media. One of the lawyers told to allow the New Blk Panthers's to skate on Voting Rights charges is going to testify tomorrow, defying Holder & Co.
The country is not going to like what they hear about this Administration's campaign of racial vengeance at the voting booth. Here's hoping Holder has enough spine to resign after the testimony exposes him for the criminal he is.
"...driven by a rigid ideology it knows is opposed by a strong majority of Americans but is committed to forcing on them anyway. Obama ran as a centrist...."
Completely wrong.
He ran as a "progressive" and governs as a timid centrist. The majority of Americans--those who voted at least, (and those who didn't don't count...they get what they don't vote for)--wanted to see him provide some remedies to the disaster engendered by the Bush Maladministration.
Instead, they got Bush-lite, (as it were).
You know what really pisses me off about this article?
These people will waltz back to academia and tenure, another public office, or a K Street suite, receive multi-million dollar book deals, be paid lavish speaking fees and/or board fees after failing miserably.
No one holds them accountable for the very real destruction they wreaked on the very taxpayers that paid for the bad advice and poor performance.
Every mid-term, no matter the party, the abject failures are allowed to slink out. These people should be shunned, not rewarded for failure.
This kind of shit is why so many of us are mad as hell.
Enough is enough.
Timid centrist, in Cook-speak means he had the government take over health care, two automobile manufacturers, countless banks and I forget how many other enterprises.
I guess, when viewed from the perspective of Stalin that is some what centrist. To normal people it is raving socialism bordering on communism.
WV: exembeam - what Jerry Brown should be after the next election.
Yes you certainly did forget something.
What did I forget garage? I thought the Clinton years were wunderbar! Oh don't tell me you didn't have one of those cute 'I Miss Bill' bumperstickers on your BMW?!
LOL!
"Otherwise, how do you explain" it? Easy. Ideological blindness.
Clinton tried to ram through an unpopular health care bill during a time of improving employment, the result was the first Republican takeover of Congress since the 1950s. What was the conclusion reached by America's left? That Clinton lost Congress because he didn't successfully ram an unpopular policy down the throats of Americans.
Insularity in the President's staff had nothing to do with it; even outsider-iconoclast commentators, like Mickey Kaus, bought into "If we pass it, they will come" idea. An entire political movement decided, "The American people are idiots who have been befuddled by Republicans. Our policies are so good that, if we enact them, the huge benefits will prove us right, and usher in an age where we have even more power to enact our policies!"
Of course, the ideologically-induced blindness continues. Never mind that pushing for health care has driven the Democratic Party into a ditch twice running, the actual problem is the lack of economic recovery. Sure, FDR got re-elected in '36 despite the continuing Depression, but modern Americans, they're so stupid, they can't understand it takes time to fix the economy. Democratic unpopularity is about the economy, it has nothing to do with the fact that health care . . .
But those failures were not for want of trying. Please tell me which of Obama's 500+ campaign promises were made in bad faith?
Are the oceans receding yet?
"Team of Rivals"? If only he'd thought about that at the outset of his presidency!
The "Team of Rivals" referred to the Cabinet (Lincoln's and Obama's), not to the President's inner circle of advisers. And in picking his chief political rival for State, and picking his Republican predecessor's choice for Defense, he made big strides to assembling a team of rivals.
Only Holder of the big four is really in his corner. The only other Obamaman in the Cabinet is Arne Duncan of Education. Republican Ray LaHood is Obama's Sec'y of Transportation.
BJM:
Unfortunately, no one has been held accountable for any of the country's debacles in the last ten years?
BJM has hit the nail on the head - these people have been drunk with power, damaged our nation, and got away with it. Come November we need to throw ALL of the out regardless of party.
"...he had the government take over health care, two automobile manufacturers, countless banks and I forget how many other enterprises."
Completely wrong.
The health care industry is still independent and privately run and is still imposing ruinous premium increases on more and more Americans who will be getting poorer and poorer return on their health care dollar.
He SHOULD have tried to institute National Health Care, but he didn't even try.
The automobile companies and banks came begging for money and were at peril of complete collapse; the government is an investor and will be repaid and will have no further "managing" interest in these firms...to the degree they're even bothering to exercise any "management" at all at this time.
Indeed it is all about the insularity. Insularity is why certain college professors' and Hollywoood producers' internal warning sirens didn't start blaring at the mention of Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers with reference to then-candidate Obama. Those types of people are all too familiar on college campuses and in the entertainment business. The rest of us not living and working in such insularity are truly frightened and disgusted by the Wrights and Ayers of this world.
Noting that the President never worked an a real job at a for profit business for one day of his life, it is not surprising that he brought with him to his adminstration similarly (in)experienced people.
What did I forget garage?
That little catastrophic economic meltdown as Bush left office event. That little -700k jobs per month hemorrhaging stat...
But like any anything catastrophic that happened under Bush's watch....it can all be explained!
*BOOGA BOOGA!*
Please tell me which of Obama's 500+ campaign promises were made in bad faith?
I would say the one where he claimed that he would be the President of the entire United States and represent all of us.
Instead from the get go, we have divisive language, race baiting, class warfare, insults to most of middle America, denigration of Doctors, Plumbers, Bankers and any other group that Obama wants to make into the latest pinata for political points.
Bowing and scraping before foreign leaders. Apologizing for the United States. Declaring the US as a human rights violator on the same level as China and Iran.
We have seen favoritism towards special groups and industries, Unions and well Unions. At the same time deliberate attempts to destroy other industries and elimination of jobs.
Blind eyes turned to crimes committed by Blacks. Refusal to prosecute or even look into allegations because the perpetrators are Black. Refusal to clean up the voter roles and to enforce the laws.
Refusal to stand behind Arizona's plea for help in enforcing immigration laws. Refusal to enforce immigration laws....Period.
Need I go on.
Obama LIED when he said he would be the President of the United States. He picks and chooses who he wants to help and who he wants to destroy.
The people yelled and screamed that we didn't want Obama Care. The Democrats do give a rip. They have their ideology and we are damned well going to take it.
@Cookie
He ran as a "progressive" and governs as a timid centrist.
I think you confuse timidity with not leaving fingerprints on anything that might go tits up.
Obama is a blame shifting narcissist too cowardly to stand with the side that elected him.
However you got one thing right, he is a centrist; in his private universe.
For some people, a "team of rivals" would consist of people even more liberal, to counter those "moderates" around Obama currently.
I'm one of those folks that got fooled. I actually donated $ to this guy...the first time I've ever donated to a pol. We live and learn.
errr. Democrats do NOT give a rip.
@ Hagar-"I have long been struck by how weak Obama's appointees are"
I think this is because Obama is essentially a political neophyte.
This is what you get from an untested,photogenic, pearly white smile newcomer that hasn't even been around the block once.
That's why he doesn't have the contacts,acquaintances, friends and mentors that come from a long career in politics....and you're supposed to have a long career in politics BEFORE you get into the white house to prepare you for the rigors and decisions of that office.
Not warming a seat in the Illinois state legislature voting "present".
Barack Obama, 2004: "You know, I am a believer in … in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. Uh, and I think that if I were seriously to consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now there may be some people who are comfortable doing that, but I am not one of those people."
BJM said...
You know what really pisses me off about this article?
These people will waltz back to academia and tenure, another public office, or a K Street suite, receive multi-million dollar book deals, be paid lavish speaking fees and/or board fees after failing miserably.
The evidence?
Jamie Gorelick, the real architect of 9-11 with her wall between criminal and Intel at the FBI. the "Gorelick Wall" barred anti-terror investigators from accessing the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker, already in custody on an immigration violation.
Since then, she's been the pin-up girl for losing causes and pieces of silver.
- Fannie Mae millionaire as their Vice Chairman
- white collar law partner
- Defended Duke against the LAX players
- now defending BP
On March 25, 2002, Business Week interviewed Gorelick about the health of Fannie Mae. Gorelick is quoted as saying, "We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody's gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength -- without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions."[6] One year later, Government Regulators "accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses".
Notyourtypicalnewyorker wrote:
Barack Obama, 2004: "You know, I am a believer in … in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. Uh, and I think that if I were seriously to consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now there may be some people who are comfortable doing that, but I am not one of those people."
If only this were common knoweldge before the election so that people who were considering voting for him might know that even HE suggested that he didn't know what he was doing and wouldn't be ready for prime time and run for president.
Oh wait,it was common knowledge. This like his statement that he was necessarily going to try to bankrupt the coal industry were on Youtube and elsewhere long before the election.
You'd think smart people would have known. Buyer's remorse I guess, but it's not like there wasn't plenty of warning that the product was a piece of crap so that buyers wouldn't have bought in the first place.
I want to know if Obama ever had a summer job in high school or college. He seems clueless as to how a business operates.
Sgt:
You left out a big piece- Gorelick was on the 911 Commission right?
"How do you explain how a group who came in with more goodwill in decades squandered it?"
Umm, I think I've got it:
More people, than just me, can see the scam now?
These people are leftards. Period. They don't know a god damned thing about anything. They are perpetual gamers of the system in the politically/academically elite circles. They wouldn't dare sully their knuckles to earn a buck, but oh, they have their ideas on how to take ours away and give it to other people domestically and internationally, in our name for the good sake of equalizing everyone towards the state of poverty. If you are all poor that's a good thing and when everyone is equal, then everyone is the same and when you are the same, from a governments point of view, you are now fully prepared to take whatever they tell you to take. Fuck Barack Obama and the people who have influenced him, who surround him, and who carry out his idiotic policies that have no value, have no merit, and have no business seeing the light of day in any rational thinking world. More importantly, fuck you to all the leftards out there that are enamored with him.
It took a "Longtime Democratic strategist" to figure this out! Anyone could tell that when the President was touting his great accomplishments(Healthcare reform, financial reform and economic improvement) and yet the polling data kept heading south. And yet it seemed that the Admin simply decided to
talk louder and more often
One thing I can point out (as one speaking from inside the industry);
-Once you "reform" healthcare you own it! And unfortunately the majority of Americans have it (so the uninsured issue doesn't hit home), don't like that they're paying to much (and it was clear that the curve would not be "bent", and certainly not in the next few years), and are otherwise chronically upset by it (its like the weather; it should be better)
Without that appreciation this Administration will never figure out why this marvelous achievement isn't well liked. And without that understanding they will continue to try to convince us.
Don't tell me its going to get better, my premiums just went up $100/month!!!
What happened? The Con, which worked in the campaign, didn't survive the governing.
Drill Sgt: Donilon . . . ex-Fannie Mae millionaire
Nice alliteration.
No one who ever worked for Fannie Mae should ever hold a policy making job in any administration. It was companies like Fannie Mae, at the government's urging, that started us down this slippery slope to a worldwide near-depression by giving mortgage loans to poor people with bad credit. The rationale was that they were under-served and under represented when it came to home ownership. And it's true, they were. But the reason wasn't prejudice. They didn't (couldn't) pay their bills.
Crack...Of course you saw it. The Obama Campaign was an occult religion, as everyone commented on at the time. But the spiritual mesmerism that seemed to satisfy voters and liberal Democrats was suddenly broken. Now every one is saying "what were we thinking?". That is the danger of a Church and state combined rule ( sometimes called Caesaropapism ). The high priests of Ombamaism were the Harvard Faculty and the Jesuits were the Main Stream Media. But they had no power to stop a certain FaceBook writer posting truth boldly about the hidden in plain sight Death panels...and they woke up with no believers left. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastards.
It always ends this way, after the sales department takes over the company.
I've seen it in business time and time again.
The sales guys take over, and they get themselves in so much trouble that they eventually all leave.
And the ops people have to come back in and pick up the pieces, if they can.
Drill Sgt: Here's another ex-Fannie,Freddie millionaire for you, Andrew Cuomo, a person with no business experience being the first to push the bad mortgage snowball down the hill, now within a hair of being the next New York Governor.
Back to academia for the lot.
Why doesn't this administration wake up and hire people with practical experience, that is, people from the business community?
People who not only know how to spell 'economics' and 'free-markets' but have actually worked and built businesses??!!!
What did I forget garage?
That little catastrophic economic meltdown as Bush left office event. That little -700k jobs per month hemorrhaging stat...
Oh dear garage please do try and keep up. I was waxing nostalgic for the Clinton years, as you said earlier back when the grownups were in charge shutting down government and issuing subpoenas to the Executive.
Good times baby! Good times!
LOL!
Synova wrote: "The other thing that lost his good will was every time some ignoramous on television opened her mouth and explained how no one could possibly POSSIBLY disagree with Obama except that they were racist haters."
On target and well said.
I was alerted to the Obama peril during the campaign when some of these same toadies insisted on talking about candidate Obama in terms that would have made Kim Jong-Il blush. He could have eased my mind and perhaps gained my support if he had just disavowed the "worship" in a humorous but firm manner. But he didn't, which convinced me he was either an unalloyed narcissist or just plain stupid.
Good times baby! Good times!
Oh, yes! Serious grownups.
LOL!
the President never worked an a real job at a for profit business for one day of his life
I assure you that law firms are for-profit businesses. And Obama worked for the Davis Miner law firm in Chicago full time from 1993 to 1997, and part time thereafter till 2004. According to the firm, as reported by the LA Times, Obama billed 3723 hours over his tenure.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/06/nation/na-obamalegal6/3
That's why he doesn't have the contacts,acquaintances, friends and mentors that come from a long career in politics
Or at least have your dad's contacts, acquaintances, friends and mentors, like Cheney (GHW's Sec'y of Defense) and Rummy (Ford's Sec'y of Defense when Cheney was Ford's Chief of Staff).
Conservatives have to ask themselves why they are filled with so much hate & bile for out wonderful President. Could it be racism or resentment from state college graduates towards Ivy Leaguers? It's quite unseemly.
FLS - obviously having connections by itself is no guarantee of a successful Presidency. Also I agree that Bush only got the ownership share in the Texas Rangers because of the oil money he had from being a Bush. He never built anything from the ground up. But neither has Jay Rockefeller.
...a group who came in with more goodwill in decades
And is there any reason to believe someone who starts a thesis with this improbable line? How out of touch must someone have been to believe this?
It made me wonder: Which President -- in the 'longtime Democratic strategist's opinion -- had more good will at the start? I'll guess Ford -- up until the pardon. Before that -- LBJ?
@Garage
I can't wait for the grownups to get back in charge and do some serious governing by shutting government down and flooding the Executive with a mountain of subpoenas.
A retreat feint or a Parthian shot?
@Alex
Or John Fing Kerry, he married another man's inherited fortune.
"According to the firm, as reported by the LA Times, Obama billed 3723 hours over his tenure."
3723
900 per year even if you ignore the part time years.
Associates are expected to bill 2000+ a year at most firms. Maybe 1500 as an absolute floor at some places. Its been that way for a long time.
900 would not begin to pay his salary and benefits.
I wonder which partner he was sleeping with?
RC:
"The health care industry is still independent and privately run and is still imposing ruinous premium increases on more and more Americans who will be getting poorer and poorer return on their health care dollar."
Grasshopper, when you can snatch the pebble from my hand, you will be ready to leave.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/28/obamacare_the_exit_strategy_98071.html
FLS:
Can you find out if Prez Obama ever had a job in high school or college during the summers? Thanks
Am I the only one who gets a kick out of Dick Morris?
I can't wait for FLS' book, The Fine Art of Nit-Pickery.
Yes, because if there's anything the president and his team are up for, it's a challenge.
Fore!
Morris offers very savvy advice IMO. He has said for months that the Dems will lose both houses. I enjoy watching him because he relishes putting down the Clintons and enjoys skewering the dumb moves by the Dems.
Associates are expected to bill 2000+ a year at most firms. Maybe 1500 as an absolute floor at some places. Its been that way for a long time.
900 would not begin to pay his salary and benefits.
The problem is we don't know his salary and benefits. Nor do we know his billing rate. He might have chosen this as a lifestyle job -- a thirteen attorney firm is not BIGLAW, and may be quite flexible. He also taught(1), was on the board of two nonprofits (Woods Fund and Joyce Foundation), and chaired another (Chicago Annenberg Challenge), which would not be possible if he had to accumulate 2000 billables (2667 hours "at work").
(1)
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media
@Alex
Or Al Gore. He rode his father's coattails until he became the Elmer Gantry of Eco-evangelism.
I suspect that Obama's campaign promises were not been made in bad faith by him. He didn't know enough to know better; still doesn't in at least most areas. I think the bad faith was on the part of his advisors.
Another forced error or appeasment?
Rat's leaving a sinking ship.... wait for the tell-all books and articles.
At least he still has Russ Feingold.
In a just world, people like Rahm Emanuel, who screwed up just by being associated with the Obama administration, would have trouble finding his next job. But since our American political cesspool has an endless supply of mental midgets, a creep like Rahm may get to become a big city mayor. What a great country!
wv = fooll
Another forced error or appeasment?
Or Jewish holiday?
(CNN) -- Israel says its U.N. delegation was not able to attend the U.N. General Assembly session on Thursday because of the observance of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday.
The consulate said the Obama administration had been informed of the absence in advance and stressed that Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak were present at Obama speech on Wednesday at the Millennium Development Goals summit at the United Nations.
All this talk of people deserting Obama could be a plant to try and gin up some political support for Obama.
@Garage
You really that stupid or merely obtuse?
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff. Hello!
Why would the WH schedule a speech that primarily addresses the Palestinian-Israeli problem on an observed Jewish holiday?
I assure you that law firms are for-profit businesses. And Obama worked for the Davis Miner law firm in Chicago full time from 1993 to 1997, and part time thereafter till 2004. According to the firm, as reported by the LA Times, Obama billed 3723 hours over his tenure.
Seems a bit low - associates are expected to bill (and, I think, collect) over 2k hours a year, so this would be maybe 2 years of work.
Yes, law firms are businesses, but most of the business side is essentially hidden to the entering associates, and, except for the brutality of their hours and that in a lot of firms, they also need to be bringing in business, it isn't until they hit partner (shareholder, etc.) that the real business side becomes evident, and, indeed, may seem at times to swamp the legal side.
So, a junior associate is not likely to have seen much of the running of the business. Rather, he (or slightly more likely today, she) is expected to concentrate on learning the legal side of practicing law. And, somewhat ditto for of counsel, who are also employees, and not owners.
@AllenS
At least he still has Russ Feingold.
Okay that was just mean.
*Snert* *Giggle*
Buwahahaha!
it is actually pretty easy.
1. the prior administration lied through its teeth about how bad things were (or not so bad to ask them)
2. republican obstructionists have delayed every program Obmama has put forth.
3. republicans are making a living out of lying about any and everything they can to the point that - as with all lies -- when heard enough they sound like the truth.
You got another question?...if you do the answer is 'the republicans are after personal gain and power and the country and the lower 98% be damned'....i don't actually have to see the question.
HDHouse wrote "You got another question?"
Yes I do - who is this "Obmama" of whom you write?
Tell the attendant to titrate your meds and change your diaper.
Alex, I can't tell if you're speaking ironically or not when you say it's unseemly for state college graduates to resent Ivy leaguers. But as one old Ivy Leaguer I see nothing wrong with griping about the Obama administration's stunning failure to understand the pain caused by unemployment (a third worse than the national average here in LA). What's this country coming to if you can't bitch about the president? Heck, after the weather and Lindsay Lohan's lack of undergarments that's the best thing happening around here.
Got this email from KeithofTampa from the Political Forum blog about the effect of ObamaCare on him in Florida.
Did not realize the personal injury part of auto insurance would also be affected.
From Keith:
As a side note, my health insurance increased this month, by almost a hundred dollars a month, as my agent told me that it would, based upon the new federal legislation mandated by the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress.
What I wasn't expecting, was my auto insurance to increase thirty dollars a month, (beginning in September). That's right folks, an increase in Florida, (by Progressive & State Farm) because of the "Personal Injury Protection" statutes that are mandated by Florida.
"Thank you's" go out to Euwe, Tom, Studio, Biff, Justice, Holly, Sugarshack, and all of those who supported ObamaCare!
"2. republican obstructionists have delayed every program Obmama has put forth."
Yeah, it's tough to get things done when you have the Presidency, as well as majorities in both the House and Senate.
If only we were more like China!
fls,
So in 11 years Zero billed an average of 330 hours per year - that is less than 8 weeks per year. How successful was he in his law practicing. Based on the way he is implementing the laws I would doubt he was a very good lawyer.
So you are telling us that a black lawyer, related by marriage to a Chicago ward heeler and also connected to ACORN and the Annenberg Foundation, a law review editor at Harvard and with bestest friends who either owned banks or owned vast real estate properties, and all he can bill is 330 hours/year? Sounds like he was someone people steered away from.
HDHouse,
"republicans are making a living out of lying about any and everything they can to the point that - as with all lies -- when heard enough they sound like the truth."
You probably don't see the irony there, do you?
Why would the WH schedule a speech that primarily addresses the Palestinian-Israeli problem on an observed Jewish holiday?
I don't know how exactly schedule arrangements are made at the U.N., and I'm pretty sure you don't either. Or the fools at Breitbart. I highly doubt the only possible two explanations are not simply a "forced error or appeasement" though.
Why would the WH schedule a speech that primarily addresses the Palestinian-Israeli problem on an observed Jewish holiday?
Same pattern as the announcement that he was scrapping the European missile defense system on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.
Pogo said...
"Yeah, it's tough to get things done when you have the Presidency, as well as majorities in both the House and Senate."
hey idiot boy.
the senate operates on a 60 vote super majority to open debate otherwise it is an automatic filibuster...which this republican minority has involved more than any senate in history. What about "hey let's just have an up or down vote"..remember that idiot boy?
grow up. get real. don't act like a typical republican liar.
When was the last time the Republicans had 60 votes in the Senate, HD?
mesquito said...
When was the last time the Republicans had 60 votes in the Senate, HD?
I'll make a SWAG.
1864? :)
Reality just called. They said the HDHouse has escaped again and they want their spaceship back.
Hoosier Daddy said...
What did I forget garage?
That little catastrophic economic meltdown as Bush left office event. That little -700k jobs per month hemorrhaging stat...
Oh dear garage please do try and keep up. I was waxing nostalgic for the Clinton years, as you said earlier back when the grownups were in charge shutting down government and issuing subpoenas to the Executive.
Good times baby! Good times!
LOL!
I'm assuming that's /sarc, Hoosier.
The adults came into office in January 2001.
HDHouse said...
it is actually pretty easy.
1. the prior administration lied through its teeth about how bad things were (or not so bad to ask them)
Nobody let them lie about anything. Pelosi Galore and The Zero lied about what they would do.
2. republican obstructionists have delayed every program Obmama has put forth.
With super-majorities, that should have been impossible. Could be a few of the Demos actually started listening to the home folks.
3. republicans are making a living out of lying about any and everything they can to the point that - as with all lies -- when heard enough they sound like the truth.
If HD projected any harder, he'd have Bell & Howell stamped on him somewhere.
You got another question?...if you do the answer is 'the republicans are after personal gain and power and the country and the lower 98% be damned'....i don't actually have to see the question.
When HD, usually well-mannered if always wrong, starts using invective, even he's giving up the ship.
And he has his Republicans where his Demos belong.
connected to ACORN
ACORN was a client -- you wanted him to work, right? Lawyers work for clients. But which ward heeler was Obama married to?
And I want to see the booth Israel's U.N. delegation built for Sukkot. Skipping work is nice and all, but the command is to build a Sukkah.
When was the last time the Republicans had 60 votes in the Senate, HD?
When Democrats use the available tools to govern wingers throw absolute shit hissy fits.
Like Hitler marching into Poland! DEMON-PASS. Ramming down our throats!
His whole presidency has confirmed my first assessment of him: inexperienced, radical, and not all that bright. I guess I missed the good stuff by not watching the Democratic Conventions, but everything about him was too vague to be trusted.
He's been carried along by others because he's African American, well spoken and handsome. I'd feel the same if his only credential was as a POW who bore it well. The U.S. government is too big an operation to be left up to people with no management skills and no concern for being entrusted with the peoples' money.
Insularity is what happens when you find yourself in over your head and you're too proud to admit you didn't know what you were doing. That's why big federal government is so dangerous. He's added tens of trillions to our deficits unless we repeal just about everything he's done, and the chances of that are close to nil because the Constitution makes it so much easier to pass bad laws than to repeal them.
This is the first week of the annual session of the US General Assembly From their Rules of Procedure, Rule 1:
The General Assembly shall meet every year in regular session commencing on the Tuesday of the third week in September, counting from the first week that contains at least one working day.
Apparently this is the week for heads of state to address the Assembly. For example, while I couldn't find the exact schedule for today, I note Ahmadinejad spoke to the GA after Obama did.
(The Crypto Jew)
When Democrats use the available tools to govern wingers throw absolute shit hissy fits.
Like Hitler marching into Poland! DEMON-PASS. Ramming down our throats!
Not a response Garage, almost incoherent. Yes, “Deeming” a bill passed, in order to avoid a vote, on the House Floor seems a bit desperate…and this was when the Republicans were in a minority, in a chamber with no filibuster…and until December of 2009 the Democrats had a FILIBUSTER-PROOF majority in the US Senate…tell me again about Republican “obstructionism.” And that ignores the likes of Grahamnesty, or Snowe, or Collins, or even that Scott Brown freely admits he’s a “Northeastern Republican” and hardly a Jim DeMint. But if these faerie tales make you feel better about your POTUS’ inability to connect with the Public, by all means continue on.
HD;
I'm waiting for the day when you post
President Obama, I am exhausted of defending you
1. AJ Lynch, as a plus, Rahm will have the mailing a dead fish down cold.
2. Exhelo, re Obama was sincere? Go stand in the corner and think about it.
3. OBMAMA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNR4hKbSH7I
Health insurance industry lobbies the federal government for tax credits. Money. That's what they lobby for. This time some of the tax credits went to us, the people, and a few other minor reforms like not being able to rescind you because of a typo on your enrollment form, or, for just getting sick while being a customer. And for that they got mobs of screaming idiots [many appearing to need some health care] storming townhalls demanding it be given back to the same health insurance companies that have been bending them over sideways for decades. It's just incredible how fucking dumb some people are in this country. Too dumb to survive. Sorry.
(The Crypto Jew)
It's just incredible how fucking dumb some people are in this country. Too dumb to survive. Sorry.
*WOW* I couldn’t have said it better, and yet you and Jeremy continue to live, breathe, eat, and post here….
I call this thread, "Spelunking in the Echo Chamber."
We must govern the country through anger, folks. More anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger.
Ritmo...Doesn't it make you angry to be lied to and conned into destroying your future while the agent of that disaster walks off with all of your money. Well, Barack Obama and his accomplices Pelosi and Reid have earned all of the anger being directed Obama's way.
HD: "1. the prior administration lied through its teeth about how bad things were (or not so bad to ask them)"
This is so ignorant.
I mean... those of us paying attention to Obama making his ignorant remarks about what he'd do different and the promises he was making and the stoopid remarks about the war and Pakistan... even *we* laypersons understood that he was necessarily speaking from ignorance. The government of the United States isn't supposed to be an open book any more than Obama suddenly lets everyone partial to all the data that leads to his decision making now that he's president. But *thoughtful* people realize that they don't know shit.
Every presidential candidate and his uncle isn't *supposed* to have all the information. A *Senator* has access to a lot more, but that didn't seem to help Obama much when it came to blithe statements about how he was just gonna *do* stuff... like close Gitmo.
I think you might be on to something - perhaps HdIlliterateHouse can not use prepositions any better than that stupid fat woman in that video. "Exhausted of" - really! We already know he thinks of Obama as his government teat - hence the "Obmama" he wrote earlier.
WV: jesatic - what does this house have upstairs? Jesatic.
The Republicans will not reduce long-term spending, TG. They never intended on it. It's all just vague politicking. For a reason. People buy it.
until December of 2009 the Democrats had a FILIBUSTER-PROOF majority in the US Senate
Assuming a FILIBUSTER-PROOF majority is 60 Democrats, this statement isn't even remotely true.
Assuming that Independents Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman will vote with Democrats, this statement is less untrue.
There were 58 Democratic Senators from July 7 to August 25, 2009 and from September 25, 2009 to February 4, 2010. Or, roughly five months of the Obama Administration.
July 7: Al Franken finally sworn in after Minnesota Supreme Court rules against Sore Loser Norm Coleman. 58 Ds in Senate
August 25: Ted Kennedy dies. 57 Ds in Senate
September 25: Paul Kirk named to replace Kennedy. 58 Ds in Senate
February 4, 2010: Scott Brown sworn in to replace Kirk. 57 Ds in Senate
I have no idea what I wrote there but what I intended to say was...
Obama doesn't let everyone in on all the data either, now that he's the president. Of *course* Bush kept a lid on things. That was his *job*.
But a Senator has access to a whole lot more than regular people do, and even that didn't help Obama.
That's some damn poor politics, fls, if they can't even find 3 measly votes. Buncha losers.
Palpatine: They don't trust you, Anakin. They see your future, they know your power will be too strong to control. You must break through the cloud of lies the Jedi have created around you.
Let me help you to know the subtleties of the force.
Anakin: How do you know the ways of the force?
Palpatine: My mentor taught me everything about the force, even the nature of the dark side.
Anakin: You know the dark side?
Palpatine: Anakin, if one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace - a larger view of the force.
Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin. Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the force and you will be able to save your wife from certain death.
Anakin: What did you say?
Palpatine: Use my knowledge. I beg you.
Anakin: You're the Sith lord.
Palpatine: I know what's been troubling you. Listen to me. Don't continue to be a pawn of the Jedi Council.
Ever since I've known you, you've been searching for a life greater than that of an ordinary Jedi. A life of significance. Of conscience.
Are you going to kill me?
Anakin: I would certainly like to.
Palpatine: I know you would. I can feel your anger. It gives you focus. Makes you stronger.
Anakin: I'm going to turn you over to the Jedi Council.
Palpatine: Of course you should. But you're not sure of their intentions, are you?
Anakin: I will certainly discover the truth of all this.
Palpatine: You have great wisdom, Anakin. Know the power of the dark side. The power to save Padme.
They didn't miscalulate.
They didn't care.
And still don't. It's about starting something going which they think cannot be stopped.
You know "fix" what's "wrong" with America ... while they have the power.
The People of America (as in We The People) be damned.
PBS NewsHour spoke to business and economics correspondent Paul Solman about his series on the underemployed and unemployed:
"The striking thing -- one striking thing -- and actually, a somewhat disturbing thing when you're ...doing the interviewing, is how many of them are now -- or have been in the last six months months, let's say -- crying on camera. It's just happening spontaneously. Now, I've been doing reporting on TV about business and economics for 33 years -- I swear to you, in the last six months I've had more people cry on camera than in the entire thirty-two-and-a-half years before that."
Heckuva job, Barry!
"This time some of the tax credits went to us, the people, and a few other minor reforms like not being able to rescind you because of a typo on your enrollment form, or, for just getting sick while being a customer."
Really, that's what we got? Tax credits? Because that sounds like we would be SAVING money, instead of spending extra money for our insurance because Obamacare is forcing expensive new requirements on insurance companies during a time of extreme economic contraction and joblessness. Forcing us to spend even more of our money during a time of unprecedented personal debt.
I will be so glad when the retard of a president who foisted this insanity on us is drummed out of office 2 years from now.
Ritmo-mo-mo-mo, cool it-it-it.
Garage Wrote: "I assure you that law firms are for-profit businesses. And Obama worked for the Davis Miner law firm in Chicago full time from 1993 to 1997, and part time thereafter till 2004. According to the firm, as reported by the LA Times, Obama billed 3723 hours over his tenure"
Oh Sweet Baby Jesus!
First, Oabama had a chance to work at Sidley, a real, commercial law firm but turned it down to do community activist law at Davis Miner.
Second, I know people who've billed well over 3,000 hours in a single year - I'm not that crazy, I'd need a little over a year and a half to do it. Even discounting his part-time status, that's less than a thousand hours a year. Was he golfing the whole time?
Third, in his time at that firm, did he ever represent any actual businesses, or did he just sue them for being mean to people of protected classes?
From the article you cite "Davis [the name partner], who could not be reached for comment, has been a partner with other Chicago developers who also are clients of the firm and are Obama backers. One Davis partner was Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a major Obama patron who is now on trial in a federal public corruption case.
Sorry, FLS said that, not Garage.
The problem with Obama is the problem with all progressives. They like to construct self serving versions of history that validate their ideologies and cast them as the heros of the story.
So the lastest crisis is a crisis of capitalism, greed, deregulation, etc. Never mind that fannie/freddie bailouts are much greater than all of the bank bailout combined. Government intervention in the name of egalitarianism(i.e. patronage) was at the very root of the housing bubble. But forget that. Evil banksters were to blame and socialism is the answer.
Blaming one president for bad economic times, or blaming his rivals in congress, or the tooth fairy, is just pointless exercise in spin. The country has drifted towards more and more big government statism for the past 80 years, no matter who was in charge. The states that have the ponderous, statist governments(the most liberal) are the ones in the deepest trouble right now. Conclusions can safely be drawn from this fact.
The public pension bomb is going to explode pretty soon here. Who are Obama and his fellow travelers going to blame for that? What about when social security goes down? Reality eventually impresses itself on even the most resistant mind. Austerity is the future. There are no other options. Obama could have gotten the economy moving forward and then tried to give Americans a soft landing to a lower standard of living, but instead he indulged himself with his destructive pet theories.
The future belongs to the Republicans because they are the only ones with any answers to the questions of the day. The same thing is happening in Europe. You can go for the right or the socialists, but it's all the same because it's austerity either way. The people will vacillate between the two for a while, but eventually they will understand the socialists have nothing left to give them. The goodie bag is empty.
deborah,
"Exhelo, re Obama was sincere?"
I said I didn't think he was lying; he spoke about things he had no knowledge of - he said what he was told to say by his briefers. I don't think he had a clue about foreign policy or economics or border security or health care. And for the most part, he still doesn't. But I don't think that he made his promises with the intention of breaking them.
Exhelo, I think he knew exactly what was going to happen, and was just saying what he said to get in. I think he's an extremely savvy politician, and that's why he won. I can get you some links about past behavior, taking credit for others' work, voting present a lot, etc., keeping his mouth shut when certain shady characters came up for votes into Chicago city positions. He's no angel, and I understand he's a politician and that is what they all do. Sorry for the lecture.
Sorry for making you stand in the corner...that just wasn't right... ;)
I guess we're about even: when he was running for president, we had no real idea who he was. As it turns out, he had no idea who we are, either.
Former Law Student wrote:
Apparently this is the week for heads of state to address the Assembly. For example, while I couldn't find the exact schedule for today, I note Ahmadinejad spoke to the GA after Obama did.
I love how, when Ahmadinjead said that 9/11 was an inside job the US delegates got up and walked out, as such a statement was SO beyond the pale, especially in New York. I love it because isn't that the exact position that a ton of (mostly) liberals took concerning 9/11. THey went even further suggesting that someone (the govt) planted explosives in 6WTC AND that what hit the pentagon wasn't a plane (so they somehow had to make a plane that had actual people on it disappear. I guess they shot the plane down and then fired missiles at the Pentagon. Trying to figure out the logic of it, but as it's the ravings of insane people it's kind of tough). Anway, after the movie about 9/11 being an inside job and Rosie O'Donnell's science lesson "fire can't melt steel" isn't it funny that Ahmadinejad repeats the same smear and it's suddenly newsworthy. Oh my god, ahmadinejad actually suggested that 9/11 was an inside job. How scandalous. Yet liberals said the same shit daily, and no democrats or liberals walked out on them ever. No one with any importance stepped forward and said "You Truthers are crazy!" or defend Bush in any way.
Deborah,
His campaign team ran a very smart campaign, which was aided immensely by the huge advantage given them by the media, as well as by mistakes made by the McCain team.
If you think he is a savvy politician, you haven't been paying attention the past 19 months. He has done a horrible job politically, both from a personal and from a party perspective, as well as a very poor job from a national perspective.
And if he was a savvy politician, he would have known that blatant lies would catch up to him.
Swede said...
Yes, because if there's anything the president and his team are up for, it's a challenge.
Fore!
So has this president bunkered or roughed the economy so far?
Exhelo, I think we're talking about two things. You said he wasn't lying, but believed what he said during the campaign. I think he was lying, and was a savvy politician (during the campaign) in that he'd come up from obscurity, was hand-picked by the head of the Illinois Senate to be the next golden boy, threw people under the bus without remorse, kept his mouth shut as much as possible, etc.
Even after election he's been semi-savvy, eg, letting Pelosi and Reid take the reins on healthcare, because A)he didn't know jack about congressional wheeling and dealing, as far as who to call favors in on, and whose arms to twist, and B)they'd take a lot of the blame for the dissatisfaction with it. He's the teflon kid, and there's every chance he'll be re-elected. I'm guessing he's praying for a turn-over of both Houses so he can become a stately Clintonian. He's pure sleaze, and man is he good at it.
Former Law Student is right about Obama's imitation of Lincoln in choosing a true "Team of Rivals" for his cabinet. This made a lot of people feel hopeful after the election. Obama was still polling very well at this time, as I recall.
Then he started naming all those "czars", some with responsibilities which seemed to overlap those of his cabinet members. I wondered at the time if there would be rivalry between the cabinet members and the czars. I don't think I could have managed to make such a tangled web of advisors into a "team". Wonder if that's one reason he reportedly retreats frequently to an insular inner circle?
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