Sep 19 2009
“Revenge Of The Telemprompter”: Obama’s Presidency Is Failing
I have been trying to understand what President Obama was trying to accomplish when, only days after he promised the American people in the well of congress he would never allow illegal aliens to feed at the bottomless trough of tax payer subsidized health care, he came out and openly admitted he would solve the conundrum by making the illegal workers legal under the law! Which of course provides these people access to services they probably did not pay into, and basically makes the case to the nation he is a creative and bold liar.
President Obama said this week that his health care plan won’t cover illegal immigrants, but argued that’s all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage
He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered – a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.
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Mr. Obama added, “If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”
I am a big supporter of comprehensive immigration reform and understand that for the long time illegals who have knitted themselves into our society and neighborhoods they will be on a path to citizenship at some point (starting at the back of the line). I support them paying back taxes (with interest) so that they earn the benefits of this society they will reap.
In just about all cases this tax repayment burden is plenty of punishment for their years of working without permission (a paper crime, like not licensing your car). It will take many a decade to make amends. That is why I break with the Amnesty Hypochondriacs on the right who think punishments more suitable for felons should apply. Not going to happen, is the wrong punishment for the crime and their petty need for vengeance on a ‘group’ of people is why the GOP lost power last two elections (forget the wars, that was what the liberals thought caused the downfall, and we all know how smart they are).
Anyway I realize immigration and health care are coupled under the liberal policy mix (you have to look at the aggregate policy mix to determine what is foolish and what is reasonable). Under the idea individuals must be responsible for their own general welfare, the immigration issues is not coupled with health care reform. But the liberals, wishing to take over everything we do and think, cannot avoid the coupling. I am not surprise, it should have been obvious.
But why push the immigration aspect now? And why be so bluntly open on the shell game? Did anyone tell the President he is supposed to hide the pea as he moves the shells around and distracts the viewers?
This makes no sense from a disciplined group of people who managed their campaign message, timing and events so well last year. What has caused the White House to stumble so badly so often after such a good show last year? Combine this latest faux pas with the outburst of blunt reality that came with the President’s comment about government rationed health care will be like the US Post Office is to UPS and Fedex, and you can see a strange dynamic coming out.
Both times the President let a little honest sneak out. Both times he let slip the reality. In my opinion, both times the real Barack Obama slipped out from under the idiot handlers in DC.
One thing both President Obama and Governor Palin have in common is their lack of inexperience in DC (Palin was still the broader experienced of the two, executive-wise). It is not just the lack of detailed knowledge that can be a problem when you get to DC, it is also a lack of experience sifting the idiotic political experts from the good political experts. Many cling-ons in DC are out for themselves, and it is all about themselves. So they tend to try and shape the politician into what they think the right answer is (poll-tested of course).
The smart and successful politician keep these ‘political experts’ around for the mechanics of getting the message out, getting people mobilized and for testing the pulse of America. You never give these cling-ons control of the message content or policy approach. But sometimes newbies come in, as Palin did for a while, and get overwhelmed by the handlers. As was seen in Palin’ case it was a disaster – she’s best left on her own. She has the gifts, no handlers needed.
Obama seems to be suffering from a similar dysfunction, plus the added pressure of the liberals in Congress who are pulling his young presidency apart with their competing, mad agendas. When Obama unveiled his little shell game scheme on immigrants, he was of course in front of a Latino, pro-immigrant audience. He had to take back the promise from the prior night. But I don’t think he could just shine them on with lofty BS, like the other Dems do. I think there was no greasy words available to cover up the overarching policy mix. So he went with blunt honesty. I bet those handlers went nuts.
If long term illegal immigrants (no short termers, no felons) are allowed to make amends in some manner and become legal residents, of course they would be eligible for some government services. In the President’s mind it was obvious what would be the combined outcome – so he said it.
The problem was not admitting this, it was the BS he spewed on prime time to the country in front of Congress, when he made a false statement to all America. He should have said no dime of health care will go to illegal aliens, until after we make the eligible to be here.
The Obama health care plan is pretty much dead. It is too toxic to too many large constituents (seniors, families of seniors, conservatives, independents, moderate dems, etc) to succeed. If the dems are stupid enough to push it past the Senate it will (a) end up in the courts on endless challenges and (b) be rescinded when the GOP takes over Congress in 2010. And they will get Congress in 2010 if the Dems push their government rationed health care plans.
Let me divert for a moment to point folks towards this damning assessment of 201o by the venerable Charlie Cook:
I am becoming convinced, based on this and other research, that although many independent voters are disappointed in specific things that Obama has done, they still hope that he will do well and believe that he might. To be sure, red America has already given Obama the thumbs down. And blue America just wishes he would be more liberal. But it’s purple America, the independents who voted for Democrats in the 2006 midterm election by an 18-point margin, that makes the biggest difference right now. Most House Democrats live in blue America and show little awareness that their party has a problem. However, the Democrats’ majority is built on a layer of 54 seats that the party picked up in 2006 and 2008 that are largely in purple — or even red — America. Democrats ought to keep in mind that 84 of their current House members represent districts won by President Bush in 2004 or John McCain in 2008.
A whopping 48 of those Democrats — eight more than the size of their party’s majority — are from districts that voted for both Bush and McCain. That America is very different from the Democratic base in blue America, and it sees many major issues very differently.
I think the dems are 90% there already. Most polls out now are for adults or voters, not likely voters. And the most likely voters of all voters in mid-term elections are the seniors, who have rejected this liberal experiment completely. Combine that with months and months of unemployment coming and Cook’s next comment is spot on:
… the cumulative impact of Democratic missteps has reached a critical mass, with Obama receiving some damage and with Democrats in Congress and the Democratic Party receiving much more.
Right now there is a video circulating showing Obama admitting a lot about his health care vision early in the campaign. He admits it is going to be expensive and there will need to be lots of taxes raised. He admits government uses Medicare/Medicaid payments to push the cost of the programs onto the private sector, which is WHY we pay so much for our insurance premiums. The government is not paying its share so we get stuck with it in our premiums and treatment costs. Here’s the video.
Yes, there are lots of “Gotcha!” lines in the video, but the surprising thing to see is the old Obama candor on display. He is simply laying out the benefits and challenges that make these issues tough. He is not trying to mislead as he did in front of Congress last week. He is not spewing one line BS – like the bill will not add a dime to the deficit, or you can have endless amounts of care, or nothing requires you to change your insurance (whoppers all).
I think the democrats have created their coming disaster on many fronts. They have been pushing naive liberal fantasy policies; therefore, they are demonstrating a frightening ignorance of the real world. They have assumed Americans are pathetically stupid, which means they don’t think they have to make a valid argument for their cause, they just take the lazy way out and spin a yarn. Bad policies, failed policies (stimulus bill) and stupid messages have left them sputtering ‘racists’ at the growing numbers of opposition. They failed, and we are the racists for noting it. Pathetic.
But I think they also over managed their savior and leader. I think they have tried to make Obama into something he wasn’t, and that is so obvious it is painful. Obama seems to want to go back to his candor mode, but the political industrial complex will not let him.
I don’t think the President has the confidence to start cleaning house and making this his presidency. For too long it has been their presidency, their time. He has been trying to placate confused and angry mobs that form his party’s far left factions. Their time, not his.
I don’t think he has the will, and probably doesn’t have the respect on issues, to pull them under control. He has been crippled by his message handlers. Call it “Revenge of the Teleprompter”. When he stopped being in charge of the message he stopped being effective. He has lost control of his party, and they are imploding.
Perhaps Obama is a really reasonable guy, with honest and good intentions for the American people. Maybe he IS searching for the best answers (it doesn’t seem so). Maybe his handlers are overwhelming a really good man. I have seen glimpses of the reasonable guy, and then it disappears in really bombastic rhetoric, I’m not going to loose mind set. But none of it matters who Obama is if he is not going to stand up. President Bush had good parting words for Obama, know where you stand. It is going to be Obama’s presidency, not Axlerod’s or Rham’s. So if Obama cares, he had better stand up, because he will be the face of the failure.
If Obama really wanted the people to get behind him he could say, Health Care needs to be reformed and Cap and Trade needs to be looked at, immigration policy needs to be dealt with, but the American people need help first, I saw you, I heard you. So before we can tackle these big issues I am going to go through the budget line by line and cut out the waste, duplicitous programs, freeze hiring, and get our house in order, I’m going to reduce the budget of the American people. Then I’m going to come back to the American people and ask them to help me with these big issues. He would be a winner.
If Obama proceeds on his current path, I will continue to believe he has a hidden agenda.
Kahthie, AJ,
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All of Obama’s inner circle are leftist true believers who will not tell him the hard facts in a way Obama will believe.
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Pres. Obama’s problem is that he does not have a “Reality-check Guy” like Bush 41 did with James Baker and Reagan had with his “California Cabinet” in his first term. These guys got both men elected and Reagan re-elected. They told their candidates the hard on the ground truth with American voters past the bubble of sycophants that surround the powerful.
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Bush 41 lost Baker when he became Secretary of State and Reagan lost his California clique in his second term due to attrition and his wife’s manipulations. The results with Bush 41 was losing re-election and Regan got “Iran-Contra.”
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Reagan didn’t have either a reelection to face or the economic down turn Bush 41 had, but what Bush allowed himself to be painted by then Gov Clinton as being oblivious on the Economy.
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It is absolute political death for a President to seem oblivious to the concerns of ordinary people. The perception that a President is not even trying to address their No. 1 concern, the economy, does that.
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Bush 41 without Baker allowed it to happen.
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Obama is doing it now.
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IMO the Obama administration has put so great an emphasis on its preferred policy objectives, rather than economic recovery, as to create a perception that President Obama is oblivious to the economic pain suffered by ordinary Americans during this recession.
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Americans who have not, and will not, buy mealy-mouthed explanations that “Human caused global warming” and “changes in national health care” will somehow fix the economy. That claim is dead on arrival.
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So, again IMO, the Obama administration has a rapidly closing time window to reverse a growing public perception that it does not care about them.
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This can only be done by dropping its global warming and health care changes, and loudly focusing on issues that the public believes might address their economic woes. (The only man inside the Obama Administration that has tried to focus on the economy is V.P. Joe Biden, and *nobody* is listening to him.)
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But doing so would put the Obama Administration on a collision course with the Democratic base, who truly do not care about the concerns of ordinary people, particularly that so many of the public are unemployed, but do vociferously believe in global warming, a national single payer health system, and see low tax rates, a large dynamic private sector and the CIA as the roots of all evil.
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Right now it seems like the White House has only the latter sort of Leftist Democratic base people in it.
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There are structural reasons for this. The Democratic party overall has devoted more than 30 years of effort into single-payer in terms of study, think-tanks, candidate development, etc. I.e., the Democratic party overall simply cannot back away single payer, however much individual candidates, even most of them, might want to.
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The Democrats have invested too much into single-payer for them to abandon it. This is a self-identification issue.
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In terms of political effects, though, it’s their tar baby. They can’t let go of it and will keep pushing it long after it is politically hopeless. Plus their continued pushing of it will remind senior voters with money that the Democrats threaten the seniors’ survival interests.
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We’ll know for an undeniable fact that there is no “Reality-Check” adult supervision in this Administration if Obama doesn’t refocus on the economy before Thanksgiving.
An observation from a C- Stanford Psychology student [the only Major I had enough credits to graduate in] from 1960… You felt the need to compare the President of the United States to an Ex-Governor… the only other Politician mentioned in a pretty good post…
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The Power of Palin? hmmmm
I agree TRENT whole heartily. I was trying to give him the benefit of doubt. If he is being run by the left, and HE, IS LETTING IT HAPPEN, because his base is where he stands, OK. Or maybe he is being played. Either way HE will be the face of a loosing President, and a broke nation. IT IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO HIRE PEOPLE WHO WILL TELL HIM THE TRUTH. What I’m afraid of is that he is the far left, he believed Rev. Wright, America is the problem, and he is going to fix our social ills, we will now pay for our pass indiscretions, and George Soros has the financial philosophy that he really believes in.
The problem is that we do not know this man, what are his core beliefs? Where will he stand?
Great post, Trent. And I would add that Obama and Axelrod (I see Axelrod and Emmanuel as the true architects of this administration) are caught in a catch-22 with regard to their support by the far left which is even worse than the position Bush found himself in when the far right began to become unhappy with some of his positions.
It’s this – Obama’s last and perhaps only true core of support is the far left. The middle only supported him when he was able to lie and obfuscate about his true views. When he was able to present himself as a talking rohrshach test as he did during the campaign, a majority of voters looked into what they hoped was a mirror of their own wishes, liked what they saw, and voted for him.
Of course governing doesn’t work that way. The infinity of possible outcomes has got to be collapsed into the singularity of a real choice, and when that happens all those who saw only themselves in the Mirror of Maybe are snapped out of their reverie and must say “Wait a minute, I didn’t vote for this!!!”
The more Obama favors the left, the more often this happens and the more his popularity sinks. BUT – and this is the crucial part – his base on the left is fanatics, and they will NOT stand for him turning his backs on them and trying to move in a direction that would win back the center! He can have *either* the center or the left, but he can’t have both!
If he would have moved towards the center from the beginning, he would have made a chance, but now that he’s been playing to the left all these months they will be outraged if he shifts now, and he would probably face at least a 20 point drop in the polls if that were to happen. Axelrod knows that he can’t afford that, it would finish off his presidency, and so they don’t dare risk it. But by not risking it, he continues to lose the center in a steady drip, drip, drip of disapointment.
As I said, it’s the perfect catch-22. I see no way out for him anymore. And I haven’t even mentioned the effect that mistakes will have – and this immigration gaffe was clearly a huge mistake on his part.
What we have here is a nastier version of Robert Redford’s “The Candidate”.
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Trent,
I agree whole heartedly. But you know, sometimes you need to do things yourself, even if you don’t have that anchor person around to bring you back to earth.
You and I are saying the same thing, not only could the liberals care less about the people, they could care less about the other dems and demand Obama do their bidding or else.
Because in the end, they don’t care about him either. He is just their puppet.
a particularly good point you made, AJ:
“I don’t think the President has the confidence to start cleaning house and making this his presidency. For too long it has been their presidency, their time. He has been trying to placate confused and angry mobs that form his party’s far left factions. Their time, not his.”
And again we run into that experience issue, as you noted. A man who had run something before such as Reagan, who had run California for 8 years before he was President, knows what it is to grab hold of an organization and make it his own.
On the other hand, someone who’s just been placed in the right positions because he was a useful vehicle for the people supporting him is going to have *no* idea what to do when the situation demands an answer from him. And he’s going to look to those around him without having the experience to know that they’re going to give him the answer that’s best for *them*, not best for *him*. At the end of the day, they will all be in the lifeboats, but he’s going down with the ship.
There’s no time to learn to be a General *after* you’ve been placed in command of your army.
And I still agree with you that Bush’s immigration bill would have been the best long term fix this country was capable of passing. Now, we keep heading towards the worst of all possible outcomes: absolutely no reform of any kind for years, and with that the creation of a permanent and embedded foreign born underclass in most areas of the country. It didn’t have to be this way.
AJ, I agree with your approach to Amnesty as stated above provided the illegals get in line. This is not the Dem party approach and certainly not the far lefts.
Being the skeptic, I fear this is plan two, having been rejected by the public, the America hating and vengeful President with big majorities in both houses will try to pass an amnesty for all bill ramming it through and guaranteeing the Dem Party 12- 30 million new dependents and VOTERS!
This would explain leaderships seemingly fearless abandon in response to a never before seen all out revolt from middle America and fit perfectly into their buying votes by handing out Government goodies.
Our south of the border “friends” are many times Christian, family oriented, hardworkers but come form a culture that would allow big government to give them stuff, I fear!
If they try this approach 9/12 might look like a picnic compared to the next march.
I don’t think the current Dem political leaders care! They would welcome all out rebellion to push forward, Fairness doctrine, amnesty, and Governmentcare!
They have the votes for 1-1/2 more years!
Be forever vigilant!
Pinnochio let slip their plan?
It is odd when you think about it, the right did everything they could to stop comprehensive immigration reform under Bush and now may very well get something a lot worse under Obama.
In the last couple of years the numbers of illegals coming into the country has decreased substantially. However, if they pass something like this, it might actually start to increase again.
Really good post AJ and Trent. So sad that Pugs refused to take advantage of passing something with Bush instead of what we WILL get with Dims.
I had a little different take on him contradicting himself the next day because I just don’t believe that ‘slipped out’ or he was forced because of the group. As big a deal as ‘You lie’ had to have been to The Won and this WH……….no way. They could have even canceled to keep him from proving he was lying or wanted different from the speech.
I think the Dims correctly identified that this issue was what sunk the Pugs. They need their fighters to fight plus stirring the pot might start another Pug internal war. Please Lord, do not let the ugly voices start up to play into Pelosi’s hand.
AJ,
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I disagree on a couple of points.
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First, Obama’s legalizing aliens without penalty comes under the heading of:
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‘Ooo, look, another third rail to grab!’
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Second, The Democratic Party’s presidential selection process, and the MSM, no longer weed out destructive extremists. The only way the public can be sure a Democratic nominee would be a safe President is to select only successful incumbent Governors.
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The problem is that a political moderate that knows how to genuflect before chamber of commerce small business types and the bond markets like candidate Bill Clinton of 1992 can no longer survive the Democratic Presidential primaries.
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A comparison of Obama’s economic policies to Bill Clinton’s economic policies during his first term is highly educational here.
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Obama is doing precisely the opposite of Clinton, during the opening of a major economic downturn.
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There was a capital and small business expansion strike in the first six months of Clinton’s first term, which ended quickly because Clinton convinced them he was an economic moderate.
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Remember James Carville’s ranting about the bond markets when Hillary was pushing health care reform?
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Obama is doing precisely the opposite of Pres. Clinton. He is convincing capital and small businesses that they are right to fear the future, and to conserve their capital and energy because he will rob them of any return on their capital and personal labor investment.
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This augurs for an economic disaster worse than Jimmy Carter’s.
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To quote Tony Blankley:
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/10/obamas-gamble/
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“By trying to fix the financial system and the economy inattentively and with one hand tied behind his back (as he fritters away both attention and trillions on new health care and education entitlements and carbon use), Mr. Obama is betting so much more than his presidency. His willingness to take that risk is the chilling lesson of the first 50 days. Taking that risk itself is the political equivalent of a dangerously leveraged derivative.”
President Obama…
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96% of Black vote… +
Liberal America Vote… +
Substantial amount of Dem and Centrist voters… +
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Now looking to nail down the vast majority of Hispanic voters…
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What’s so hard to understand about that?
owl:
Yes, I think Barack is hoping he can get the Republicans to fight each other on the issue of immigration, after all it worked before.
After Glenn Beck actually made some remarks about impeaching Bush over all this, I wonder what he will say if Palin ends up supporting immigration reform? I know she did before.
I do think that the left will make the whole issue so toxic however, that it will be easier for Republicans to stand against it, especially if Obama ties it to health care.
Add to last post… +
Add another 13 million or so immigrants to the Dem voting blocks…
“Suppose Obama is not a puppet, his handlers are just great with him and he is everything we feared, a Marxist?
Let’s us go down the list.
Banks owned by the government, all loans, large and small
Two car companies
Frannie and Freddie, home loans
Want to add to the list……
Higher Education Budget
Energy
Medical Insurance companies and businesses small and large.
Have I missed anything? Legislation can change every FREEDOM we ever had, mandated through the above named government entities.
Are we giving a Marxist the benefit of doubt? We are, so at what point do we stop?
Did Michelle Obama let it slip yesterday about health care as the first phase of what they are planning or something to that effect? I am going to youtube search her speech…I heard her say something to this effect and Rush mentioned it as well.
There is no doubt in my mind that this group in the WH despise American exceptionalism. Did you see Maddy Albrights comments today? “America has no intention of being First Nation of the World”
What exactly does this mean….?
And a liberal friend of mine that has been reading a book about what America is going to be like, not being the world’s superpower…She was revelling in the notion. And btw, she hates, and I mean, hates strong white males…she is white, btw.
Here is a transcript of her speech I found on Rush’s website:
“MICHELLE: — standing before you as the First Lady of the United States of America because you all didn’t settle for the world as it is, right?
FOLLOWERS: (applause)
MICHELLE: Health care reform is part of that movement. Health insurance reform is the next step.”
Part of that movement…part of the next step. Got it.
As I and many others have been saying since ’07, this is all an attack on one of most important strengths: CAPITALISM.
Capitalism provides more opportunites for more people TO BE ALL THEY CAN BE. What this group in DC wants: the exact opposite. Just listen to the words of Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan.
Seven former CIA Directors have asked Obama to not reinvestigate Bush era agents, as career prosecutors have already investigated them. Obama says he does not want to pick and choose which laws to follow, nobody is above the law. Obama sanctions the investigations. This is not just a Holder deal. Who would have known?