March 21, 2021

"Biden was not part of the Obama entourage. He was sort of a goofball and windbag. He was a member of an older, outmoded generation."

"In other words, uncool. The West Wing attitude was that Biden should simply be grateful that the Great Obama had handed him a ticket to ride. Biden was viewed as a past-his-sell-by-date pol who needed the president’s guiding hand to keep Uncle Joe from making a fool of himself as vice president.... They trashed him anonymously to reporters, froze him out of meetings and barred him from doing some national media.... In eight years, Biden said in a recent reveal that stunned Anderson Cooper — and left Washington gasping — he and Jill were never invited by the Obamas to their private digs in the White House.... So now comes a delicious twist: President Biden is being hailed as a transformational, once-in-a-generation progressive champion, with comparisons to L.B.J. and F.D.R. aplenty, while Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas.... Obama’s failure to go big and to send the tumbrels rolling down Wall Street certainly greased the runway for Donald Trump. The paradox of Obama is that Americans embraced radical change by electing him but then he held himself in check, mistakenly believing that he was all the change they could handle.... Obama seems more comfortable as Netflix talent, sitting pretty with celebrities and chit-chatting with Bruce Springsteen...."

Writes Maureen Dowd (NYT).

125 comments:

Jamie said...

You mean... no bromance?

Color me shocked.

And that was Obama holding himself in check? I mean, I guess Dowd's invocation of "tumbrels" would indicate that Obama could have gone way harder, but myself, I think he did plenty.

Temujin said...

Obama oversaw the largest loss of both Senate and House seats in history- nationally and within the individual states. He had his impact. Just not the one Dems (Dowd) are prone to acknowledge.

Biden will have a similar impact. More Trump-leaning Republicans about to unseat RINOs. And Dems losing the House and Senate in 2022. But before that happens, Biden's handlers have a number of large bills and Executive Orders to place in front of him for his signature. Then they'll lead him back to his quarters.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Obama did NOT hold himself in check. Obamacare, Iran nuclear deal, Syria, Libya, etc.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

how does she know>?

Xmas said...

Is Dowd not remembering PPACA (aka Obamacare), Ted Kennedy dying and the Democrats losing control of the Senate less than one year after Obama's inauguration?

Is she not remembering Obama's "I won" slap to Republican congressmen when they went to negotiate the 2009 stimulus package?

Matt Sablan said...

How much bigger could Obama have gone and still won a second term?

Will Cate said...

Back around inauguration day, when Biden said something like "I've never been upstairs to the residence" I remember nodding my head & thinking yeah, he probably is remembering that correctly. He was on the ticket just to bring in more white votes, that's all

John henry said...

Kind of like LBJ in the kennedy administration.

Per Robert Caro also Richard Dallek

John Henry

mezzrow said...

While the captain sleeps at the wheel, the crew tosses the spinnaker into the howling gale.

Are those rocks over there past the mist? Don't miss next week's episode...

narciso said...

Yes dowd is indicative of anything except ignorance

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/the_battle_of_burbank_.html

John henry said...

Or truman under fdr, nixon under Eisenhower, Agnew, Rockefeller & Ford under nixon, Mondale under Carter Quayle under bush,

John Henry

Fandor said...

Barack Obama, a "suit", defined by the "crease of his pants", arrogant, clay shaped by many liberal potters to suit a moment's need. Possibly, the lest qualified man to ever become President of the United States.

Beaver7216 said...

Yeah, let's not forget Obama's accomplishments. 7 wars. Debt increasing from 77% of GDP to 103%, most post recession. Declining life expectancy from 2014 to 2017. Increase in income inequality nearly 4 times the rate as under GWB-check out Census Bureau GINI figures. 10% increase in the income of the lowest quintile in 8 years versus an 18% increase in the first three years under Trump. Plus all that more sdubjective stuff like the decline in the US in the world, racial hostilities, Iran, China, loss of election security (heck, if you want to say the Russians meddled then blame Obama who was Pres.when it happened).

rehajm said...

Nice Beaver!...erh, nice, Beaver.

It's like liberals are more interested in the prestige of power than anything they claim to stand for, or more to the point, the policies that accomplish what they claim to advocate.

Tommy Duncan said...

Biden is very cool. I saw him break dancing on the stairs to Air Force One a few days ago.

Inga said...

Dowd is 100% correct. IMO Obama held back, was too cautious, capitulated too many times to Republicans. If old senile Biden has more testicular fortitude to do what needs to be done, more power to him. He should stop trying to run up the stairs to Air Force One though.

Sam L. said...

Ahhhhh, MoDo! I believe her NOT!

MadTownGuy said...

Dowd:

"So now comes a delicious twist: President Biden is being hailed as a transformational, once-in-a-generation progressive champion, with comparisons to L.B.J. and F.D.R. aplenty, while Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas..."

Wishful thinking. She thinks Barack Obama could have gone full-on socialist unopposed without the fix being in on our voting systems. That was ghen. This is now.

Bob Boyd said...

Americans embraced radical change by electing him

No. They voted for Obama because he black and they wanted to prove they and their country are not racist. They wanted to get beyond race. It wasn't because they thought he was a radical. In fact, they thought he wasn't.

rehajm said...

Obama’s failure to go big and to send the tumbrels rolling down Wall Street...

Maureen's feeble mind must obsess over the memories of the swell party New York once was. It is a selective memory however, one where she never fawned over guys from Goldman Sachs, even though they were a big part of the scene, and much admired by the crowds...

jeremyabrams said...

Obama had 60 senate votes and could have pushed through amnesty and national health insurance. Instead, he pushed through the very watered-down Obamacare, which was intended to self-destruct and lead the country to national health insurance. In the meantime, COVID, and Obama, Trump, and Biden's profligate spending has emptied the cupboard, and the money, or even the borrowing power (look at the bond market) for a new entitlement is gone. The dems, now in power, are going on a spree, but it's a spree born of despair at being late to the party of Scandinavian-style socialism.

On social policy, and the attempt to subvert the republic via HR1, though, Biden is going large.

Big Mike said...

The paradox of Obama is that Americans embraced radical change by electing him but then he held himself in check, mistakenly believing that he was all the change they could handle....

Hmmm. My own recollection is that he went substantially farther than the population could handle, or wanted to. Republicans successfully ran for Congress and the Senate in 2010, 2012, and 2016, including in my own Congressional district, by doing little more than campaigning against Obamacare. Of course when Donald Trump’s election gave them the chance to overturn Obamacare in 2017 they couldn’t bring themselves to do so, and a lot of Republicans found themselves in premature retirement, including the Representative from my own Congressional district. Few campaigned harder against Obamacare than John McCain, and I surely hope he died screaming.

But leave it to New Yawkahs like Cookie last night and the red headed bloviating windbag that is Maureen Dowd to live in a long-gone universe where Democrats are the natural opponents of Wall Street. That’s not how it has worked for decades. Did the Democrats coopt Wall Street and Big Business? Or did billionaires like Soros and the Wall Street CEOs buy the Democrat Party for what they regarded as chump change? Either way, if you support working people and small business owners you must support Donald Trump because there is no other choice. If you work for a living, other than as a teacher or government employee, the Democrats despise you.

Bob Smith said...

Another accidental racist. Maureen Maureen. Criticizing the lightbringer, for shame.

DavidD said...

Ah, irony.

Biden, the old white guy, getting credit for doing all the things for which “Progressives” have been salivating lo these last 40 years.

robother said...

"Biden" is Max Headroom. No one knows who exactly is scripting this performance. A perfect recipe for "No Borders, No Wall, No USA at all" and the rest of the radical transformation Dowd loves is a clueless face man who'll take the fall for any blowups, and faceless radicals behind the throne who enjoy power with no accountability.

Bob Boyd said...

Much of Obama's legacy is behind the scenes. He filled the bureaucracy with the right people.

DavidD said...

robother,

Biden may be Max Headroom but Kamala sure is no Theora Jones....

Bob Boyd said...

Obama also took control of the Dem Party and made it much more radical than it was when he was elected. They're the ones putting their foot on the gas. They're doing it now because they can.

rehajm said...

Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas..

Your party has embraced electric vehicles, Maureen. Get with the times...

Tom said...

#cancelmaureendowdbecauseshesracist is likely trending.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Under Obama's nose - the Bidens went full mob and turned his VP power into a international money making scheme to enrich themselves.

what's not to like about Biden's RADICAL CHANGE!. The best part is Nancy pork and the corrupt democrat party attempt to install cheat-the-vote.

Drago said...

Russia Collusion Dead Ender Truther Inga: "Dowd is 100% correct."

LOL

Words no sentient human should ever write.

And it should be a simple matter for resident dullard but self-proclaimed mind reader extraordinaire Inga to read the minds of those involved and tell us what the key players are "really thinking".

As she "did" for the last 4+ years.

Matt said...

Is she saying that Trump won because Obama wasn't "progressive" ENOUGH?

Is it April Fool's Day?

Amadeus 48 said...

The last year has been very instructive in the uses of public health rhetoric to control a population, even one as unruly as the USA. Because it worked, we can expect more of it.

Will there ever be a true review of the facts? A simple look at the numbers over time shows that lockdowns didn't work and that wearing masks had no discernable positive effect. It shows that the schools should not have been closed and that people under 65 (virtually the entire workforce) are at very low risk from this disease. How many people in the USA have contracted Covid-19 in a restaurant?

Are these observations even allowed to be debated? Democrats apparently are deep in the weeds of denial. Republicans are having their mics cut off.

Biden is a zero. Fasten your seatbelts. We are in for a bumpy ride.

chuck said...

Obama's distaste for Biden was apparent during the 2008 campaign but not remarked on.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Senile Joe isn't in charge - corrupt leftist puppets control his every move. The man doesn't even know what he is signing - and has said so. Dowd is ignoring the fact that one of Joe's puppets is Obama.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James K said...

It wasn't because they thought he was a radical. In fact, they thought he wasn't.

Yes, they thought he would be moderate and a unifier. Of course he was exactly the opposite. He got a kick out of dividing people and generating conflict.

Drago said...

Bob Boyd: "Much of Obama's legacy is behind the scenes. He filled the bureaucracy with the right people."

Correct.

From the purging of over 200 senior officers,and even more high grade non-flag officers, replacing them with political lackeys in the Pentagon, the fruits of which we've seen for some years now, as well as the full stasi-like weaponization of federal law enforcement and the entire intelligence apparatus, what obama did then forms the foundation for what the Harris/Obama/Joe Biden's Earpiece administration is doing now.

gilbar said...

They trashed him anonymously to reporters, froze him out of meetings and barred him from doing some national media.

Isn't THIS, EXACTLY what's (still) happening to him as President?

Jeff Brokaw said...

If Obama held himself in check for those 8 loooonngg years, I’d hate to see Obama Unleashed 2.0.

Jon Burack said...

Why is Maureen Dowd worth all this attention?

Night Owl said...

Increasingly as I read these snippets that you provide from the leftist propaganda rags-- because your blog is the only way I would ever read them-- I can't help but wonder if these writers actually believe the bullshit they peddle to their audience?

Biden is hailed as transformational? Does she or any leftist really believe he is calling the shots? He's transformational only in the fact that he is the first brain dead person ever selected for the role as president in the US.

People voted for Trump because Obama wasn't radical enough? What the hell is she smoking? Does she think Trump would've lost if only Obama had gone full commie? Maybe Obama should've nationalized the finance sector like Chavez in Venezuela. That would've been transformational.

Ann, how do you read this shit every day and keep your sanity? The world they present is not based on reality.

tim maguire said...

It’s always amusing to note how unrelated the typical partisan’s opinion of a politician is to the actual record of that politician. The lack of self-awareness is remarkable. And people who have built a successful career out of peddling their opinions have opinions that are no more thoughtful or valuable than any rube on a barstool.

gilbar said...

So Inga?
Obama held back, was too cautious, capitulated too many times to Republicans?
IF he Hadn't been "so Cautious" and hadn't "capitulated" so many times....

How many seats Would he have lost in 2010? How Many Electoral Votes would he have gotten in 2012?
Inquiring Minds, want to know? please show your work

Bob Boyd said...

[Biden] was a member of an older, outmoded generation.

Obama choose Biden for precisely this reason. It was part of packaging Obama as a normal Dem to quell fears he would be a radical.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Oh, God, we are invited to take Dowd seriously, again.
The woman is an idiot. She knows nothing. She is a terrific example of Progressive failure upwards.
Obama pushed through Obamacare with a single vote, and he, and the Democrats, were punished for it at the polls for six years.
Why does anyone think that her columns are insightful?
Obama is said to have urged Biden not to run in 2019, and only endorsed his candidacy after all the other Democrats had given up.
And then Dowd repeats the shallowest of political reasoning: we failed because we weren't bold enough! We needed to be more radical all along!

BUMBLE BEE said...

The steal worth the risk? -
https://abcnews.go.com/US/obama-era-officials-return-white-house-worth-millions/story?id=76582015
Hillary's walkin free. Rhetorical wasn't it!

BUMBLE BEE said...

Inga.ru

RigelDog said...

You would have to be blind during the Obama years to have missed the obvious boredom and barely-checked contempt that Obama felt when in Biden's company.

Bob Boyd said...

They used Biden for the same purpose in 2020. The other leading candidates, Warren, Buttigieg, Sanders, were perceived as too radical. Biden was supposed to sooth those fears. Biden was a Trojan horse.

Robert Cook said...

Yes. Obama was not progressive enough. He was nothing more than a liberal Republican. He should have been a new FDR.

Michael K said...

Blogger Jeff Brokaw said...
If Obama held himself in check for those 8 loooonngg years, I’d hate to see Obama Unleashed 2.0.


That's what we are seeing now.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Bob Boyd said...
[Biden] was a member of an older, outmoded generation.

Obama choose Biden for precisely this reason.
. . .

Oh, I don't think that Obama was that clever. Remeber, Obama was sold by the media as himself being a moderate.
I think Obama knew that he problems with the old white guy demographic so he picked an old white guy as his running mate.
Obama had a privileged upbringing, mostly outside of the continental US.
Maybe he really believed that ol' "Slow Joe" really appealed to the white working class.

Retail Lawyer said...

Obama (and Biden) made my healthcare plan half as good and twice as expensive. That's pretty big.

narciso said...

He was well credentialed he did grow up in indonesia in the early years of suharto hos father in law (nim) was perhaps the only one who had a clue, his mother his mentor frank davis was vehemently antiwestern unlike his grandfather that didnt bear the animus despite his internment.

Gunner said...

My worry is that even if Republicans win the House in 2022, they will not have the fortitude to do things to get even like expel The Squad, impeach Biden for his corruption etc.

Christopher said...

The paradox of Obama is that Americans embraced radical change by electing him

Other than Obamacare, how much radical change did Obama campaign on? Not gay marriage. Not race war, he didn't start pushing that until his second term.

Bob Boyd said...

The things that seem possible now were not seen as possible when Obama was President. Things have changed and Obama had a lot to do with changing them.
IMO Obama still has a lot of power in the Party. He's still a driving force behind the scenes. Sitting pretty with celebs and chatting with Bruce is just window dressing. BLM is community organizing on an unprecedented scale. It's the hand of Obama, I suspect.

I Callahan said...

Robert - Obama was as leftist as you. He just wasn’t as honest about his views as you, and understood you can’t turn a capitalist economy to a pure socialist one overnight. This is the conceit that all you socialists have, that somehow it’ll all work because it can’t not work.

Balfegor said...

Re: Lewis Wetzel:

Obama pushed through Obamacare with a single vote, and he, and the Democrats, were punished for it at the polls for six years.

Yes. It's somewhat at odds with actual history to suggest that Obama would have been successful if he'd only been more extreme.

Bob Boyd said...

Lewis Wetzel said...Oh, I don't think that Obama was that clever. Remeber, Obama was sold by the media as himself being a moderate.
I think Obama knew that he problems with the old white guy demographic so he picked an old white guy as his running mate.


I think we're essential saying the same thing.

Robert Cook said...

"Blogger Jeff Brokaw said...
'If Obama held himself in check for those 8 loooonngg years, I’d hate to see Obama Unleashed 2.0.'

"That's what we are seeing now."


More crazy talk. Biden will be yet another establishment-friendly president, serving the same masters as our previous presidents.

Ray - SoCal said...

The great thing about Biden being “elected”, is showing the rot, politicization, incompetence, biase, and corruption in the uniparty system.

LYNNDH said...

So Bo is being thrown under a BIG MACK TRUCK. If BO's holding back brought us President Trump then he was a genius that we should laud.
I truly fear for us with Harris/Biden admin.
Guess that sounds like just like the Trump haters, but he did not threaten to put me in jail for thinking or speaking like H/B is.

Drago said...

Night Owl: "Increasingly as I read these snippets that you provide from the leftist propaganda rags-- because your blog is the only way I would ever read them-- I can't help but wonder if these writers actually believe the bullshit they peddle to their audience?"

Whether the writers believe the lies and nonsense they push or not, they understand all too well the army of Ingas that comprise the audience......

Breezy said...

Biden was window dressing, not intended to do anything but fill the “role”. Obama thinks he’s the best at everything, so why would he depend on Joe for anything?

What a predicament, though.... The puppet masters do all the conniving, agenda setting, backstabbing and vote counting, and then get no recognition (so far!) for all the awesome progress towards socialism. Biden, clearly not even himself, gets all the accolades as most progressive Pres ever... That must make their blood boil! Especially if its Obama...lol

Scotty, beam me up... said...

Maureen Dowd said:
“The West Wing attitude was that Biden should simply be grateful that the Great Obama had handed him a ticket to ride. Biden was viewed as a past-his-sell-by-date pol who needed the president’s guiding hand to keep Uncle Joe from making a fool of himself as vice president.... They trashed him anonymously to reporters, froze him out of meetings and barred him from doing some national media....”.

Didn’t Maureen notice that Biden brought back many Obama administration staff? Hello, Maureen? Jen Psaki, John Kerry, Antony Blinken, Alejandro Mayorkas, Ron Klain, Susan Rice, Tom Vilsak, Janet Yellen...the list goes on. It was like they all took a 4 year vacation. Either Biden didn’t realize during his time as VP that he was shut out by Obama and his gang, or he does have dementia and forgot about those 8 years and these Obama people are just pulling the wool over his eyes in order to get back on the taxpayer gravy train.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Michael K said...

Blogger Jeff Brokaw said...

If Obama held himself in check for those 8 loooonngg years, I’d hate to see Obama Unleashed 2.0.

That's what we are seeing now

I disagree. I think we're seeing Clinton II.

Quaestor said...

Obama’s failure to go big and to send the tumbrels rolling down Wall Street certainly greased the runway for Donald Trump.

Greased the runway? Maureen Dowdy's grasp of English idioms has always been tenuous, perhaps that's why some readers of the NYT think she's funny -- like Leo Gorcey and Mrs. Malaprop had a love child. I don't think it's funny. That come hither look from that desiccated eighty-year-old piece of baggage is quite disgusting. It gives me a headache. Or maybe it's just eye strain... Think I'll go see an octopus.

Ray - SoCal said...

Amazing!

Difference between us and Chinese military recruiting commercials...

https://davidharrisjr.com/steven/analysis-watch-these-chinese-military-ads-then-these-american-military-ads-which-country-wins-wars/

I think we are seeing Obama 2.0 + Clinton 2.0, with a bit of Sanders.

Michael K said...

I disagree. I think we're seeing Clinton II.

Clinton (Bill) was actually sane. This is not sane.

farmgirl said...

On the topic of P*Biden, but also O/T-
I was thinking of why he always calls Harris “President” and am incline to believe it’s b/c he spent 8yrs in previous office being VP and the habit of calling someone President is ingrained. And, w/a diminishing memory- it’s not likely to change. I still feel badly about his puppetry, although he and those who “voted him into office”- ** certainly asked for exactly this.

It’s all so wrong.

farmgirl said...

Candor: Harris says- hold my purse...

Amadeus 48 said...

Actually, the passage of Obamacare was a watershed moment. No substantial social program had ever before been adopted in the US without bipartisan support. It set the stage for all the nonsense currently being passed with Dim only support.

The Dims lost control of the House for eight years but got it back in 2018 and kept it--barely--in 2020. The GOP has always had trouble establishing a solid majority in the Senate, and, against all odds, they lost their small majority in 2020. As far as Pelosi and Schumer are concerned, the GOP hasn't put a scratch on 'em. They are ready to move forward with three generations' worth of progressive dreams. They have a zero in the White House who doesn't know where he is on many days.

There is schadenfreude galore as many of us contemplate who is going to pay for all this: the children and the grandchildren of us Boomers. The kids are all in on this stuff.

We have done it again!

Krumhorn said...

If the tumbrels roll, I sincerely hope they are full of lefties.....starting with the entire NYT and WashPo crews.

- Krumhorn

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Michael K said...

Clinton (Bill) was actually sane. This is not sane.

I'm not talking about Bill. I'm talking about the Chardonnay swilling has-been who would have been Clinton II.

farmgirl said...

That was to Fandor 8:51 (autocorrect)

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a guy who's easy to control...

MikeR said...

Dowd actually believes that Biden is doing any of this. Amazing.

DavidUW said...

I'm old enough to remember a certain current private citizen saying that the R's "shellacked" them in the mid-terms and that might be the reason nothing much happened to further a commie agenda after the garbage obamacare and "stimulus" porkulus passed.

Michael K said...

Blogger NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
Michael K said...

Clinton (Bill) was actually sane. This is not sane.

I'm not talking about Bill. I'm talking about the Chardonnay swilling has-been who would have been Clinton II.


I don't disagree but I find it hard to believe the technocrats running Biden would pay any attention to a multiple loser like her. She was responsible for the 1994 debacle with her secret Hillarycare task force.

What Pelosi and Reid did in 2009 was put the insurance company lobbyists in charge and they wrote Obamacare. The electronic medical record laws were written to control (ration) utilization.

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

Maureen Dowd understands nothing about politics. One more fall up the stairs and no one, but no one, will be hailing Biden for anything.

Also, doesn't Mo remember when she exposed Biden as the most arrant plagiarist? Back in 1987? That was one useful column she wrote (even if she turned out to do a spot of plagiarizing herself).

Molly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The level of corruption that went on before and after this election is unprecedented.
In terms of the total media black-out of Biden crime - and the big lie that any negative info about Bide is "Russian disinformation"

What crap. and what crap from the loyal democrat legions for accepting it.

We elected an old man crook. Loyalists to The Party have no problem with the mass censorship from the mega corporate tech oligarchs.

The left are soviets now.

Skeptical Voter said...

Inga is looking for testicular fortitude in Biden; cmon Inga, the poor guy is in his late 70s' He can't remember his testicles much less find them or fortitude therein.

But he doesn't need them. All he has to do is sign whatever is put in front of him and remember not to drool in his oatmeal. The old goofball and gas bag is now senile.

Lurker21 said...

I wouldn't disagree with the main idea. Joe was an old clown for the Obama crowd yet now bigger changes are happening now under the Biden-Harris team, changes that Obama couldn't make.

Where she goes wrong is first in thinking that the public was voting for massive changes when they voted for Obama. It's not at all clear that the public wanted major changes when Obama was elected. He was himself the change and the hope and the "first Black president" idea did a lot to defuse social discontent. I'm not sure that the people who gave him a majority of the vote wanted much more than that.

She's also wrong in thinking that Joe Biden is doing all this stuff. He's a convenient figurehead for Susan Rice and the staffers who are enacting their agenda. The difference between Obama and Biden is a difference in circumstances. COVID knocked the country down flatter than even the 2008 recession, and gave the Democrats more opportunities to change things. It's also a difference in the mood of the party. Obama and Biden both had crises to exploit, but Democrats want more now and they have the drive and the power to get it (or come closer to getting it). In 2009, they were more or less just glad to be back in office and big talk about fundamentally changing the country was only big talk.

Obama’s failure to go big and to send the tumbrels rolling down Wall Street certainly greased the runway for Donald Trump.

I love the bit about the tumbrels (another French Revolution reference), but the runway greasing throws off the whole sentence. And those who can't make it up stairs without falling down three times shouldn't talk about greased runways.

AZ Bob said...

He should stop trying to run up the stairs to Air Force One though.

Good one, Inga.

Lurker21 said...

The commercial with Clinton, Bush, Obama and Carter telling people that the vaccine is safe is making people believe that it isn't. Are you really going to blindly believe something because Clinton or Bush or Obama or Carter says it?

narciso said...

obama fanning the flames in that commencement ceremony of the rioters, private citizen my eye,

walter said...

"The paradox of Obama is that Americans embraced radical change by electing him"
That's racist.

walter said...

I think I'm gonna be sad I think it's today, yeah
The prez that's driving the sled is flailing away
He's got a ticket to ride
He's got a ticket to ride
He's got a ticket to ride But he's not there.

Joe Smith said...

Why isn't Hunter rotting in a PMITA prison somewhere?

That is the question nobody is asking anymore.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Sounds like a guy who's easy to control...”

MoDo has the problem that she believes the propaganda is reality. She is reading all sorts of importance into how Biden’s policies differ from Obama’s. Biden doesn’t do policy, except maybe to determine what flavor of Insure to drink today. They may have been able to do this with Biden before he lost his marbles to senility (he has been an empty suit for a long time, mostly interested only in the graft of the office). But I seriously doubt that he has made a single major decision the last year. Certainly not the last couple months.

Part of the problem is that we really don’t know who is pulling his strings, as well as those of Palsi and Scheamer in Congress. More and more though, it looks that the Executive is being run by a partnership between the Obama people and the Deep State #Resistance. They write up EOs, and put Biden in front of a camera to sign them. He doesn’t know or care what he is signing. We know this because we have seen him read the synopsis they wrote for him, and garble it. He is truly a puppet. Nothing more. Palsi and Scheamer, pushed hard left by their slimmest of caucuses, at least have the option of saying that that is enough. Biden every clearly does not. Cabinet posts are going to radicals, apportioned, again, by Dem party constituency.

The Dems very blatantly stole the election. They know it. We know it. They probably have less than two years to set as much of their radical agenda in as much concrete as they can, before they pay the price at the ballot box. I don’t think that HR 1 will save them, but it is extraordinarily telling that it was the first bill introduced into the House. Everyone knows (except maybe Joe Biden) that it’s purpose is to protect their ill gotten gains, and to facilitate mass voter fraud in the future. In state after state, where they stole Presidential electors and even Senators, the legislatures are trying to close up the loopholes that the Dems utilized to steal the election. One big question though is whether Congress can really preempt what has been a state function for over 200 years, esp for the purpose of instituting election fraud. Just as important though is that Trump did too good of a job filling the judiciary with Republicans. Very likely highly compromised CJ Robert’s isn’t going to be able to shut it down this time, because the cases would mostly be coming up through a number of Republican dominated Circuits, where refusal to grant Cert isn’t going to help the Dems one bit, because the adverse Circuit decision would continue to stand. (Of course, the death of Justices Alito or Thomas, under suspicious circumstances, as happened with Scalia, is going to look very suspicious).

Also keep in mind that it is very likely that the economy will have crashed by the 2022 election. It would probably crash anyway, but the policies enacted, the legislation passed, and that proposed, is going to crash it that much harder, and cause a deeper recession. We will be back to 2009, when the Dems’ poor economic decisions reduced employment and delayed the recovery for probably four years - only they are doubling down on their highly counterproductive legislation they enacted, before the oversized gavel was taken away from Palsi in the 2010 election. People don’t vote for a party that puts them out of work and destroys the value of their 401Ks. Meanwhile, they are welcoming COVID-19 into the country across our southern border, and then increasing the problem by packing infected in with hordes of uninflected. So much for the social distancing forced on the rest of us. At least they are sharing the pain, apparently planning to ship a lot of the potentially infected illegals up north to share the infection.

walter said...

Joe,
They're apparently purging staff for past pot use while Hunter roams about the WH and the FBI sits (literally) on the laptop from hell.
Gonna need a longer list of questions unasked.

Bruce Hayden said...

“All he has to do is sign whatever is put in front of him and remember not to drool in his oatmeal.”

Or on the EO that he just signed.

Which brings up the question of why hasn’t the 25th Amdt been invoked? Is Kamala not ready for prime time? Maybe the staffers running the WH don’t trust her. Do they question the votes for a VP replacement, or what they would have to give up to the more moderate Dems in Congress, any of whom could block the replacement. Maybe it is just too convenient this way. Or, they figure that the longer they can prop Biden up, the more legitimate his election is going to look.

walter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

Black Eyed Joementia has gone from a lifetime of failing upwards to falling upwards.
That's transformative.

William said...

He's only been in office a couple of months. Isn't it a little early to be proclaiming his policies a resounding success? I think the policies of Chavez were, at one time, exceedingly popular. It's very bliss to be alive when a leftist first takes office. Not so much later on.

William said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jim at said...

Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas

So I simply imagined that Obamacare bullshit being shoved down my throat on Christmas Eve?

Michael K said...

Or, they figure that the longer they can prop Biden up, the more legitimate his election is going to look.

I think this is it. With Biden signing anything put in front of him, why change?

Harris is so dumb she would probably fuck it up worse than Joe. At least he reads his Teleprompter and listens to his ear piece.

Jim at said...

Dowd is 100% correct. IMO Obama held back, was too cautious, capitulated too many times to Republicans.

Imagine how fucked in the head one must be in order to write that.

Capitulated to Republicans? Good lord.

William said...

You couldn't pay me to read Paul Krugman, but I'll occasionally read something by Maureen Dowd. I rarely agree with her, but she's an entertaining writer....Sometime back I read a bio and a few old columns by Walter Lippmann. He was spectacularly wrong about a great many things, but he had a graceful literary style and could put across his arguments persuasively. It's good be a leftist. He was never taken to task for any of his wrong judgments and he died a respected and esteemed tribal elder.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Bruce Hayden said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Which brings up the question of why hasn’t the 25th Amdt been invoked?

Worry about how many seats they'd lose in 2022 once Kamala gets in office before then.

walter said...

Many folks voted Obama for the racial healing....
See Colin Powell..maybe Condi..

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Michael K said... [hush]​[hide comment]

I don't disagree but I find it hard to believe the technocrats running Biden would pay any attention to a multiple loser like her. She was responsible for the 1994 debacle with her secret Hillarycare task force.

I don't find that hard to believe. I think there is a entire wing of the Democrats that are just as radical as she is and are determined to implement as much of their agenda as they can. They're just a little smarter about it than she is.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Worry about how many seats they'd lose in 2022 once Kamala gets in office before then.

Should read; "Worry about how many seats they'd lose in 2022 if Kamala gets in office before then.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Harris is so dumb she would probably fuck it up worse than Joe. At least he reads his Teleprompter and listens to his ear piece.”

Well, he tries to read his teleprompter. Mostly he is relatively successful. Sometimes not as much...

Lurker21 said...

Obama certainly didn't "capitulate to the Republicans." The Republicans don't really even enter into the picture, except in so far as they took back Congress after two years of Obama. Nonetheless, compared to what we are seeing now Obama wasn't very assertive. Pelosi and Reid were pretty aggressive when they controlled Congress -- though not nearly as much as Pelosi and Schumer are now -- but Obama's White House wasn't as pushy as Biden's is.

-

Presidencies, like Dante's Hell, are composed of concentric circles. There are different degrees of insiderdom. People who were key players in Obama's administration weren't necessarily personal intimates of the president. They were outside the innermost circles. I suspect Dowd is talking about the inner circle, the kitchen cabinet of hangers-on who had a personal relationship with Obama. Those in the outer circle (and a few in the inner circle) are only too happy to be back in the White House and working for Biden, and those who are in Biden's administration now may even not remember how they thought of him when he was Veep.

-

Lippmann went through phases. He started out as radical in the early 1910s and moderated some afterwards. He was even somewhat conservative in the later New Deal years, but he couldn't resist Stevenson and Kennedy and identified more with the Democrats and liberals in his later years. People in his day didn't have cancel culture or Twitter or 24 hour cable news or think tanks and advocacy groups so they could be a little more independent in their thinking. Also, if you didn't care for some of FDR's policies in the Thirties, you were in such a minority that you didn't mind if somebody whose opinions didn't match yours was also critical. Nowadays, people are more particular and demand more ideological conformity. There are fashions and manners in hatreds, too. A seventy year old who dislikes a politician or a president may not be so brutal or crude about it as someone younger, so if Lippmann didn't like Nixon, he'd express himself less vehemently than someone younger would.

Michael K said...

Blogger Jim at said...
Dowd is 100% correct. IMO Obama held back, was too cautious, capitulated too many times to Republicans.

Imagine how fucked in the head one must be in order to write that.

Capitulated to Republicans? Good lord.


Unless you count losing Congress.

Lurker21 said...

So much of political debate is turning relative differences into absolute ones. Obama wasn't as assertive as Biden, but he wasn't absolutely passive. It's not like he didn't push the envelope on health care or like he wanted Republican input on anything. Still, what we saw then was mild compared to what we're seeing now. Plus, on some things, like immigration, Obama was more or less following what his predecessors were doing. Biden is reversing everything Trump did and even going beyond that.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Democrats don't like to and should never capitulate to.. republicans - er I mean VOTERS.

Michael K said...

I think there is a entire wing of the Democrats that are just as radical as she is and are determined to implement as much of their agenda as they can. They're just a little smarter about it than she is.

I agree about Hillary's intentions. She is the "Rules for Radicals" girl she was in college. She dressed like Lenin or Mao in those years. But remember, Bill lost his first re-election and Hillary had to start looking more normal and less like a Red Guard. She spent years at the Rose Law Firm, acting as bag man for Bill but keeping up appearances as a normal woman. Hillary had to keep it up when he ran for president and her radical ideology was hidden. Her Hillarycare task force was the first example of her authoritarian tendencies when she made it secret and excluded all providers and insurance companies. The insurance companies, even though they hate health insurance, defeated her for excluding them. Pelosi and Reid were smart enough to let them write the Obamacare bill but could not deliver the promised mandate to end employer plans and force everyone to pay the insurance bills.

As a result, it ended up expanded Medicaid.

Unknown said...

Didn't a guy named Joe on the ticket make a guy named Barack seem a much safer choice to a lot of voters?

NCMoss said...

"Republicans had been driving the car for eight years. It went into the ditch. And now that Democrats have dug the car out., the Republicans want back the keys."

Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas.

I sense a little collusion going on here.

Iman said...

Obama infected and decimated nearly every institution in the U.S. And that’s just for starters.

Just imagine the damage had Mr. MomJeans not held himself in check. Dowd is as stale as it gets.

Iman said...

Blogger Tommy Duncan said...
Biden is very cool. I saw him break dancing on the stairs to Air Force One a few days ago.


He looked like James Brown - sans cape - collapsing after singing “Please Please Please” to end his show.

DeepRunner said...

Maureen Dowd. Real shame. She used to be a good read. Now, she has as much appeal as Conservative Camille, Peggy Noonan.

The bill always comes due. And once Joey Staircase is done with putting his foot on the gas (if it's really him and not Susan), yeah the country will be overstuffed with a border crisis, higher taxes, and "equity" that ain't interested in equality.

Bilwick said...

"Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas."

Want to see what the results would be if Red Diaper Barry had put his foot on the gas? See the last scene of THELMA AND LOUISE.


Mark said...

Two things are clear here:

(1) The leftist impulse for complete totalitarian control even if half the country or more is diametrically opposed. For the left, whatever is done is never enough and not even recognized as a radical lurch light-years to the left.

(2) Dowd just prefers the white guy, like LBJ, the white savior who single-handedly led the civil rights movement.

Lurker21 said...

It's hard to know whether what politicians say is meant seriously or whether it's just so much rhetoric. When Obama spoke of "fundamentally transforming America," what did he mean? Did he have a specific plan in mind or a general aspiration or was it just more empty words? Did he even know what he (or his speechwriter) meant? Maybe getting Bush out and Obama in and getting a national health care plan and whatever else Nancy wanted was enough.

But when you say something like that you give your opponents' imaginations something to work on. People spoke of a "Reagan Revolution" because it sounded nice to them and it fueled attacks on Reagan as some kind of dangerous radical. It was similar with "fundamentally transforming."

Politics tends to be a short-run, improvisational game. Politicians may have vague dreams for the future but they focus on what they can get in the short run, or at least Obama and Biden did. Circumstances and the mood of the Democrats mean that Biden's bunch can get more for the party and its constituencies than Obama did. Talking about what their wider or further or optimal vision for the nation's future was may be beside the point.

PM said...

The daily propping up of Joe like a dead Heston in the last scene of El Cid.