April 15, 2011
I guess the big speech didn't help.
Obama's approval rating — from April 12-14 polling — is down to 41%. But maybe the speech worked, if the purpose was to appeal to his base. Off-putting to people in the middle, but he can get us back later.
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94 comments:
"Off-putting to people in the middle, but he can get us back later."
If you are fooled yet again Ms A., you are a lost cause.
Four buck a gallon gas.
And, he did this on purpose because he thought it was a good thing.
Shutting down oil production in the Gulf. Refusing to start up production again.
Traveling to Brazil to encourage them to Drill, baby, drill! You don't think people noticed that Obama won't allow drilling here?
Jimmy Carter committed political suicide in this manner. It says something about Obama that he set out deliberately to drive gasoline prices to 5 bucks a gallon. He thought it would ignite the Green Revolution.
The liberals/progressives keep hanging themselves on the Holy Grail of energy without environmental or human cost. Hint guys: It doesn't exist.
(The Crypto Jew)
Obama is AWESOME.
And, let me add:
Obama has revived talk of something unheard of since the Carter administration: Stagflation!
But maybe the speech worked, if the purpose was to appeal to his base
Great theory. However, the poll results indicate he actually lost ground with Dems.
I keep hearing how "green" jobs will save us.
What are those folks smoking?
Job 1 is to hold the left.
Special cigar and scotch night when he finally hits the Thirties. The point of no return.
Obama v. Jon Huntsman in 2012 - a thought to brighten the weekend.
I'm pretty sure Ann was being ironic.(And in a particularly clever way, because I'm sure that's the kind of calculation going on between those famous jug ears.)
Does 39 count? Or does he need to be south of 35 for a couple weeks to really make it stick before we light up?
Scott, definitely a cushion of a few points for a few days. Just dipping under the line won't allow for the proper relaxation factor.
Human debris is not such a great voting base. Maybe that is why Obama's economic plan turns us all into economic debris. But Ryan's plan saves us from economic disaster, so Obama will fight against it to the bitter end.
"If you are fooled yet again Ms A., you are a lost cause."
Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around? I'm not fooled. I just have restricted choices.
A highly partisan speech filled with lies, delivered in that sanctimonious tone he adopts when he wants to appear moral - as if he would know morality if somebody hit him with it.
It's amazing he's not in the 20s.
Quayle said...
Obama v. Jon Huntsman in 2012 - a thought to brighten the weekend.
No, that's like being told either Hitler or Stalin will win the war on the Eastern Front.
Ann Althouse said...
"If you are fooled yet again Ms A., you are a lost cause."
Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around? I'm not fooled. I just have restricted choices.
So does everyone in every election. The trick is to learn from one's mistakes.
If you are fooled yet again Ms A., you are a lost cause.
If the Republican party can't field a candidate that wins the Althouse vote on this background, I venture to say that it's the Republican party that is the lost cause.
Do you begin to sense the inevitability of a Sarah Palin presidency? I do.
Palin is the only candidate with the sense to state the obvious.
Stop shooting ourselves in the foot by deliberately crippling domestic gas and oil production.
The enviro left is catastrophically stupid and destructive.
Only Palin can save us from this stupidity. She will be president. Maybe not in 2012, but at some point in the future.
Americans are going to refuse to commit economic suicide in the pursuit of the Green Utopia.
"[B]ut he can get us back later."
Hope and Change seem to be in conflict here; it turns out that O-man wasn't the One we were waiting for after all. Even for Ann, his only hope now is to be the least bad alternative. Perhaps even the oceans have stopped their decline (or was it rise?).
I don't see how he gets the PR-magic back. And that's all he ever had going for him.
What big speech?
Do you begin to sense the inevitability of a Sarah Palin presidency? I do.
After Scott Brown got elected, I don't feel inevitability with anything elections-related. Inflation, on the other hand, dead certain. If you are going to need big-ticket items soon (large appliances, etc) buy now.
OT:
The Milwaukee results are in. Prosser still has a 7200+ lead. HTTP Legal Insurrection
If I had read the earlier post about the Milwaukee commissioners, I would have seen I was behind the curve. Sorry
The speech was the beginning of Obamas re-election campaign...that's about all I can make of it.
O/T: I watched Gov Walker of WI ad the congressional hearing yesterday. At one point, one of the Dem congressman was asking him questions in a very lawyerly way and asked something to the effect of "Have you ever had private conversations in which you talked about 'crushing the unions' ?".
I had the distinct feeling that he was setting Walker up for something later. Walker just said "no i haven't".
If the congressman had access to some info showing that Walker DID use those words, would that be considered perjury? If so- from a legal standpoint, would that be a serious/prosecutable offense in the setting that Walker was in?
Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around? I'm not fooled. I just have restricted choices.
Petraeus/Cain, 2012.
I hope the GOP gets a decent candidate who can beat this guy in the next election.
Ann Althouse wrote: Who will the Republican candidate be?
You just gotta go back to that three-card monte dealer down on Pennsylvania Avenue, don't you? Do you really think you can rate his game?
If the GOP nominates a cigar store Indian, it'll be a legitimate toss-up. But any Republican with an above-ambient body temperature (and a genuine long-form USA birth certificate) will be preferable to a 2nd term Obama, except among the rubes.
Hey, rube!
Please note:
polling data and results at the polls are not synonymous.
Ms Althouse, may I suggest that if you want to be less restricted in your choices, register Republican and become involved in local politics.
Cruel neutrality is not, I think, a morally sound option this time.
Who will the Republican candidate be?
Ensign/Craig- a new twist on bipartisanship
Who will the Republican candidate be?
Dole in 2012
I'm not dead yet!
Ensign/Craig? Not even a LJG, must be a really fresh face.
"Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around? I'm not fooled. I just have restricted choices."
Yeah, that's a problem.
Obama's answer to everything is to delay delay delay and then give a speech. It's his silver bullet.
But we have become immune, like zombies I guess, to the wondrous, transformational powers of his orations.
If the GOP nominates a cigar store Indian, it'll be a legitimate toss-up. But any Republican with an above-ambient body temperature (and a genuine long-form USA birth certificate) will be preferable to a 2nd term Obama, except among the rubes.
Except Huckabee! (Seriously, didn't we play this game last time around? Let nominate someone decent please?)
I thought it was a very disjointed speech, with something in it to offend just about everyone.
Obama just is not a good speaker, nor a good politician in the "Slick Willie" sense.
Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around?
Exactly. The US needs a Republican Congress and a Republican President like it needs a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President.
7,316 - Prosser over Kloppenburg.
Milwaukee finally reported.
See here.
"I thought it was a very disjointed speech, with something in it to offend just about everyone. Obama just is not a good speaker, nor a good politician in the "Slick Willie" sense."
He has turned out to have an amazing tin ear. All the more remarkable that some people think he's awesome.
"7,316 - Prosser over Kloppenburg.
Milwaukee finally reported."
They couldn't summon the guts to find 7,500 lost votes in the closet, eh?
Phil wrote: [P]olling data and results at the polls are not synonymous.
Noted. However, with a good sample and the right statistical method polls can be uncannily predictive.
wv: khant - what William Shatner shouts when he's unable to comply.
MadisonMan said...
Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around?
Exactly. The US needs a Republican Congress and a Republican President like it needs a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President.
The US needs a Conservative Republican Congress and a Conservative Republican President.
Fixed it.
WV "priapper" A guy who keeps pulling ahead.
Hey Quaestor, even the Rube's won't support that effort.
Listening to Obama is like enduring bad fiction. I actually miss cringing through Bush's speeches - at least you knew he was being honest.
Quaestor:
The cigar store Indian would get my vote! We'd be better off with a president who could not pick up a pen to sign spending bills and it would be so nice, on Saturdays, to not hear the weekly blatherings of whatever empty suit we wrongly elected to the White House.
In fact, maybe we would have been better off these last 11 years if the White House had been unoccupied [except for Bush's handling of 911 terror attack which he did very well].
@edutcher:
WV "priapper" A guy who keeps pulling a head.
Fixed that.
They couldn't summon the guts to find 7,500 lost votes in the closet, eh?
They turned up on Krazy Kathy's laptop. Again! She's a straight shooter though, I'm sure everything is fine.
Who doesn't trust Krazy Kath and Scott Walker anyhow????
The US needs a moderate fiscally conservative Congress and a charismatic moderate conservative President.
There we go.
Yeah, but you think Paul Ryan's plan will be popular when people realize it tries to kick seniors into private insurance plans?
What's more no private insurer wants to provide insurance to seniors over 75.
AS TPM writes: "The private insurance industry is based on getting steady premiums for as healthy as possible of population of people. That's why 'pre-existing conditions' have become such a big issue."
The Health Insurance industry would hate hate hate the Ryan plan.
Listening to Obama is like enduring bad fiction.
Brain injury bad as in a "Left Behind" novel, or suicide-inducing bad like "read aloud" night at the adult enrichment creative writing class down at the community college?
Who doesn't trust Krazy Kath and Scott Walker anyhow????
Don't know.
Where's that rebellion by angry voters who feel duped by Gov. Walker, garbage?
I thought that the state was about to rise up to smite the governor for daring to take on the public employees union.
Exactly. The US needs a ... Congress and a ... President like it needs a $SOMETHING_USELESS.
Fixed that for you
He's talking about tax increases the week we pay our taxes. I'm not surprised his numbers are down.
It may helo help him to get renominated but it will destroy him in general election.
Jimmy Carter committed political suicide in this manner. It says something about Obama that he set out deliberately to drive gasoline prices to 5 bucks a gallon. He thought it would ignite the Green Revolution.
You nailed it exactly right. No one would ever buy wind or solar generated electricity due to the high cost. The only way to make alternative fuels competitive is to drive up the cost of fossil fuels.
The Health Insurance industry would hate hate hate the Ryan plan.
And here I thought you leftists were opposed to big business.
poutythomas said...
"I thought..."
There you go thinking again!
He seemed worn out and kind of irritated. Irritated at Republicans, of course, but also at the fact that he had to give this speech at all. Why aren't congressional Democrats making this case for him? The fervor and passion is gone from his voice.
The passion is also gone from his audience. They seemed subdued. Watching it, I didn't get that infectious sense of inspiration I did during his better speeches. How his live audience reacts affects how the television audience reacts.
I came away skeptical, bored, and a little irritated myself that he spent his whole speech bashing Paul Ryan's plan. He embraced the status quo. What was his phrase from the Obamacare debate? The status quo is unsustainable.
You've got no answer, garbage?
Just as I thought.
You've really got your hand on the pulse of Wisconsin voters, don't you?
Care to answer my question?
Where's the angry rebellion against Gov. Walker for taking on the public employee unions?
Didn't happen, did it?
It occurs to me that a Palin presidency would never be possible without an Obama presidency.
A Reagen Presidency also wouldn't have happened without Carter. I think Palin is even less likely than Reagan, and Obama more ridiculous than Carter.
Leftists who crow and crow might be eating some. Obama should have governed as a conservative, like he promised he would. He swore up and down to America he would cut Bush's deficit (average $150 billion) in half. He promised tax cuts, and then spent so much that we'll have to pay for all that eventually (obviously after Obama's far away from the bad news).
Personally, I think we could do better than Palin, though we could do much worse (And have been for over 20 years). Pure partisans on both sides should consider the impact of Obama playing his hand too far.
Calling people teabagger is not going to make you feel any better in 2012.
The passion is also gone from his audience. They seemed subdued.
Probably because all of them:
1. Have rising health insurance costs thanks to Obama
2. Have rising grocery bills thanks to Obama
3. Have rising transportation costs thanks to Obama.
They turned up on Krazy Kathy's laptop. Again! She's a straight shooter though, I'm sure everything is fine.
The last gasp of state mandated public employee unions...
The passion is also gone from his audience. They seemed subdued.
And #4:
Just about all of them have, or know someone who has, lost a job since Harry & Nancy were sworn in.
@Jay: But he was at a college! (A very, very expensive college, no less.) Those people are relatively immune to the adverse effects of inflation. I think that's why he chose that venue. They were supposed to play up his strengths. But they all seemed bored.
They respond wildly to "Yes we can!" It's all mum when Obama's 2012 theme is, "We can't let them do it!"
"I just have restricted choices."
I'm sorry to be so direct, but that borders on nonsense in this particular case. Based on Barry's incredibly pathetic performance to date any choice restriction should be limited to whether Bozo the Clown is the Republican nominee and even that is something any thinking person could get around.
There is simply no excuse for anyone to vote for this man again absent being a 100% flaming leftist. Even the novelty of voting for the first black president no longer applies. Just ask Colin Powell.
For me the moment was when he called Chrysler bondholders "speculators". For others, that moment comes at a different time, but it ultimately comes. By the time November 2012 rolls around, even some very lame GOP candidates will be capable of beating him like a rented car.
Apropos of nothing in particular, could you and Meade get some video of protestors heads exploding as Sara Palin is speaking? Great TV.
"I guess the big speech didn't help."
If words were horsepower, the jobless would drive.
I Think it is occurring to people that he was trying to shore up his base and couldn't do it. He is so inept that a lot of folks think he is just being clever when it is just old fashioned incompetence.
I saw a little bit of Ploufe last weekend, just until I could switch the channel. He has even more of a smirk than Bush had. What a team !
Matt;
The Health Insurance industry would hate hate hate the Ryan plan.
Speaking from inside the industry, not true.
Don't get me wrong, the industry would always like new dollars into the system (what business wouldn't) but marketing an affordable product to an affluent clientele would be enticing.
Of course, many unanswered questions such as:
-what mandates?
-what level of management?
etc.
Coketown said...
@Jay: But he was at a college!
Exactly.
What a great place to talk about federal spending, taxes, and the debt.
I guess a tiger can't change it's stripes...
Off-putting to people in the middle, but he can get us back later.
Peggy Noonan makes the point at the end of her latest article that Republicans cannot assume that Obama's ineptitude makes him so detested that just anyone can beat him.
Democrats learned in 2004 that putting up any old brain-dead flip-flopper who can say "behold, I am not Bush" was not enough to win. Republicans need to be certain that whoever gets put up in 2012 can say more than "I am not Obama."
Of course $5.00 a gallon gasoline, 9% unemployment, and 10% inflation, if that's what is happening in November 2012 (and it may be even worse than that!) then it won't take much more of a message than "I am not Obama."
How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around?
Hmmm, Professor. You didn't seem all that concerned about one party government when Democrats had decisive control of both houses of Congress, plus a neophyte president. Just sayin'
FWIW, Obama has to go because of the vast quantity of intrusive regulations that have the same force as congressional laws but are on the books just because someone can put them on the books. I'm especially thinking about the EPA regulating spilled milk on dairy farms -- something you as a Wisconsinite might be concerned about -- apparently because they have nothing better to do with their time.
To those of us that from day one were not fooled whatsoever by the unqualified agitator dolt Zero, more speeches only serve to symbolize just another wasted shotgun blast into a deer that long ago was pronounced dead.
His failed, flailing speeches have become ubiquitous. Every one is couched with the 'hope' that maybe, just maybe, Jug ears will connect with the masses, the stars will align, and the unicorns will piss aged scotch.
Instead, we have a president searching for a coherent thought, looking for a way to repackage the hackneyed and corrupt ideology of utter failure. This is the signature of fraud, cubed.
Shit packaged in a designer bag is still shit in a bag.
Check out Drudge’s subtle president two-face reference.
@Lem
Fitting that its a 'prompter' eclipse...
Damn he looks tired. Must have stayed up late working on his slice.
Oh man, King Barry issued a signing statement in signing the budget bill today!
With respect to section 1113 of the Act, the restrictions on the transfer of detainees to the custody or effective control of foreign countries interfere with the authority of the executive branch to make important and consequential foreign policy and national security determinations regarding whether and under what circumstances such transfers should occur in the context of an ongoing armed conflict. We must have the ability to act swiftly and to have broad flexibility in conducting our negotiations with foreign countries. The executive branch has sought and obtained from countries that are prospective recipients of Guantanamo detainees assurances that they will take or have taken measures reasonably designed to be effective in preventing, or ensuring against, returned detainees taking action to threaten the United States or engage in terrorist activities.
Remember when Bush did that how it was illegal?
Peggy Noonan makes the point at the end of her latest article that Republicans cannot assume that Obama's ineptitude makes him so detested that just anyone can beat him.
True. The Democrats thought John Kerry was a winner.
"To those of us that from day one were not fooled whatsoever by the unqualified agitator dolt Zero, more speeches only serve to symbolize just another wasted shotgun blast into a deer that long ago was pronounced dead."
The good news is this...
Unusually large herds of elephants and donkeys are migrating into lands previously designated for deer.
Oh dear!
Now what?
The speech showed that Obama simply has nothing to say.
TWM wrote: [A]ny choice restriction should be limited to whether Bozo the Clown is the Republican nominee and even that is something any thinking person could get around.
No sweat, at least Bozo the Clown was a successful clown, with lucrative international syndication, franchise and license incomes, not to mention his own animated series. On the strength of his entrepreneurial and managerial prowess alone he beats Obama's achievement-free career. One might say Bozo is the Donald Trump of grease-paint and fright wig world. (Come to think of it if the hair is any clue Bozo the Clown might very well be Donald Trump)
wv: moopel - a failed English Plutonium Age rock band, aka Hott the Moopel
The Democrats thought John Kerry was a winner.
Kerry was the first major party candidate to lose the election on the night of his nomination, even by the utterance of the first sentence of his acceptance speech. The Democrats are the Red Queen, believing six or more impossible things before each breakfast (with their fat government service salaries financed by Chinese bankers they're well able to afford breakfast)
wv: subscurv - Dive! Dive! Eat your limes! Dive!
The man is an incredibly boring speaker, especially when he's not saying "Hope and Change" or "Ye, we can." He talks in a semi-monotone and makes quasi-feminine hand gestures.
Now that reality that reality has collided with the idea of voting for the first black president and becoming a part of history, his luster has worn off and more people are seeing him clearly.
"but he can get us back later"
This only works on women and beta males. "Sure, he beats me sometimes, but I love him, and he can change."
It still seems to me that he's finally having to answer for his political beliefs, due to his lack of experience and our good will.
Instead of playing the independents, re-living the campaign magic, playing professor, "transcending" race, (a deep moral issue hang a pathetic raft of moralists, wannabes and rich liberal white women) which he plays like any good politician would....he's having to choose, play politics, and make policy.
On green issues, he's frightening. On immigration, anyone who flirts with undermining laws (or any politician who one day must rally a base which does) is too far left for me. He seemed to have followed Samantha POwer, Sarkozy and BHL into Libya.
He's much, much further left than I'm comfortable with. Let's see what the republicans can do.
Seriously, His supporters look like those beaten wives on that "Cops" show outside their trailers watching their husband being dragged away and berating the cops for taking him.
"Who will the Republican candidate be? How decisively will Republican control of Congress appear when election day comes around? I'm not fooled. I just have restricted choices."
I can't understand what priorities would make Obama a good choice regardless. The Repub. nominee is not going to be Mussolini, but even if.
Your Obama vote was simply a 40 year old bias, you have yet to outgrow. Your excuse was a good one, but it won't work again. I assume you are laying the groundwork for the new one, but what matters is who you vote for, not why.
This time Obama has to campaign defending Gitmo, donations from BP, a new front in Libya, massive increases in both debt and deficit, unemployment that would shame a SimCity noob, etc.
Just put someone up there who won't melt down and give it all away. We're talking about a potential Senate/House/Exec. trifecta at exactly the time we need it. If the conservatives are mostly in the House, so be it. Just so long as they're not getting vetoed, we're good.
gm: They turned up on Krazy Kathy's laptop. Again! She's a straight shooter though, I'm sure everything is fine.
Again, you persistent liar, explain how this story appeared:
"As expected, Brookfield city voters ran up a good turnout in the state Supreme Court race and gave incumbent Justice David Prosser nearly 11,000 votes.
http://brookfield-wi.patch.com/articles/brookfield-gives-prosser-nearly-11k-votes"
on election night if the votes were invented by Nickolaus?
Or was the AP actually correct and nobody in Brookfield even voted?
Try honesty ... just once. For a change.
Also Althouse prefers divided government so she will vote for Obama anyways.
"Off-putting to people in the middle, but he can get us back later. "
Truer words never spoken...liberals WANT to be fooled...and they always will. Make me feel tingly now...what good go wrong???
There is something to be said for divided government, but Obama is not a normal Democrat.
"Down to" 41%? Sheesh. That's enough to get re-elected pretty easily. Call back when he's down to '06-'08 Bush approval levels.
I'd urge Obama to keep on talking. Half the country is reaching for the mute button already when they see those jug ears on their screen. With a little bit more work, and a few "off microphone" comments about "do you think we're stupid?" he can get that proportion up to 90%. You go Barack!
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