Mar 23 2009
The Laughing President
I am not as worked up over President Obama’s disaster on 60 minutes as others are, but I do detect a bit of reality hitting our young and inexperienced POTUS, and that could be a very good thing. It seems to this observer that Obama was laughing at himself and how unpopular (and maybe unrealistic) his policies and strategies are:
This is only a glimmer of realization, but it is a small step to possible recovery for the President – if he so choses to face up to the harsh numbers. We cannot bail out companies that took on too much risk (even though it was the Congress who led them down that path with liberal social engineering policies). We don’t need to change our health care infrastructure, we need to make it affordable (and President Bush had some excellent ideas for small businesses to sign up into insurance pools to get the prices down, as well as tort reform to keep the lawyers from skimming off the process). And there is no amount of energy tax that will change the laws of physics regarding CO2 and its negligible role in the planet’s climate.
I wonder if he is even beginning to appreciate how well George Bush did in Iraq? Clearly the situation in Iraq was also something he ‘inherited’ from the previous president.
If Obama is ready to face reality and his lack of experience, and grow beyond his 3rd grade view of the complexities of society and reality, then maybe we can survive his first term. Otherwise, we will have to change out Congress in a year and undo the damage. He’s either going to be with us, or lost on his own. Let’s hope he starts to wake up and salvage his historic opportunity as POTUS.
I have a different take. Obama laughs because he literally doesn’t care. If America succeeds in the socialist-green direction he is taking us, then he will be a leftist hero. If this attempt to remake America destroys America, then he will be a Muslim hero. It is all good to him.
The laughter shows how much he is open to being the Muslim hero. He recognzes that there is a bit of a theater-of-the-absurd aspect to it, but if this is the kind of hero he turns out to be, this is the kind of hero he turns out to be, with a big “whoud’a thunk it” laugh that bubbles straight up from inside.
I don’t believe he is a muslim in disguise, maybe a Marxist at heart, either way he will destroy the hopes and dreams of the black community, his family and especially his children with a failed Presidency. He will not destroy this country because we have the mechanism to right a sinking ship…elections. Just like we saved Clinton. Did you hear that Obama wrote a letter to France and addressed it to Jacques.
PS Thank God Bush is gone. Only smart Presidents from now on!
Do you remember how when Bush laughed people said he did not care about America?
I don’t think he is laughing at himself, nor that he thinks he is in “over his head.” Remember when he told the press corps that he was “quite comfortable” and “good at it” (president of the United States). Whether it was nervous laughter or otherwise, he should be able to project an appropriate tone to the gravity of the crisis facing ordinary Americans. He comes across as elitist, condescending and without sympathy or empathy for other mere mortals.
“Did you hear that Obama wrote a letter to France and addressed it to Jacques.”
OMG. Seriously – do you people go hunting for ways to delude yourself? Obama’s letter was in response to a letter from Chirac who was writing him as the head of his foundation — the Jacques Chirac Foundation for sustainable development and cultural dialogue.
BTW, AJ – thanks for this post. I really needed a good laugh today. Oh, if only Obama could be as popular as George W. Bush!!
To be truthful Guy I don’t much care about France. It is the pandering the dictators in Iran that worries me. But then Obama said he wanted to return to happier days in our relationship, like it was 20 or 30 years ago.
That would be when the Iranians took our embassy hostage and later helped Hezbellah kill hundreds of American Marines.
ahh, those were the good old days, before the big bad Bush came along and ruined everything.
And as for popularity, Guy. I can remember when Bush had an approval rating of 90%. Go look it up. In fact Obama’s numbers are much the same or even a little lower than Bush’s were at this same point in his presidency. So maybe those are numbers it would be more realistic to look at. Instead of pretending to yourself that Obama knows what he is doing.
For instance for years I heard morons compare Bush’s economy to Hoover’s. Even when the DOW hit record highs and the unemployment rate was 4.5%, Bush was still Hoover.
Obama gets one good day on the market and his fan club is wetting itself with joy.
I guess that is what is called scaling back expectations.
“I can remember when Bush had an approval rating of 90%.”
So do I. Man, he really pissed that away, didn’t he?
And – Bush as Hoover? Guess I must have missed that. All of the recent comparisons to Hoover concern the GOP leadership in Congress, who seemingly have never taken a single course in macroeconomics, and don’t know the first thing about American history 1929-1945.
Guy:
I guess you did miss it, because I heard it time and again.
But then again if you are going to talk about Bush’s popularity vs Obama’s popularity, you should wait a few years.
And I till tell you something else Guy, Obama has not been around long enough to really get on people’s nerves yet. However, people do not agree with his policies…not on spending or deficits or bail outs or nationalized health care or cap and trade and once the new wears off and they learn more about what Obama wants to do..they might not like him so much.
For instance the EPA is going to push forward with more regulations, the price of oil and gas are starting to go up again and these regs will only make it more costly. That is the kind of thing Obama will have to deal with. The difference between his bs and the reality of his policies. Some of the media people are beginning to catch on to all this, other people will too.
Terrye,
“For instance for years I heard morons compare Bush’s economy to Hoover’s. Even when the DOW hit record highs and the unemployment rate was 4.5%, Bush was still Hoover.”
Maybe those “morons” were the ones who saw this economic trainwreck coming down the tracks since the so-called economic growth was illusory. Sorry, but I think the real morons were the ones who kept saying how great the Bush economy was even when the telltale signs of a problem were becoming evident. What good is the record high DOW more than a year ago doing us now?
Hoover was not judge based on the economic conditions for the first part of his term, but rather the economic mess he left for his predecessor. All but the Bush worshippers judge Bush on those same grounds.
One other thing. Even if you look at the first 7 years of Bush’s term, it was one of the worst periods of economic growth. “The number of jobs in the nation increased by about 2 percent during Bush’s tenure, the most tepid growth over any eight-year span since data collection began seven decades ago. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, grew at the slowest pace for a period of that length since the Truman administration. And Americans’ incomes grew more slowly than in any presidency since the 1960s, other than that of Bush’s father. ” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011102301.html?hpid=topnews
conman:
Well if they saw this trainwreck coming they should have taken Bush seriously in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 when he tried to get Congress to put the brakes on Fannie Mae. They passed the reforms Bush wanted all right, but only after the meltdown in September 2008.
And conman, the Democrats took over Congress in 2006. The Dow was up, unemployment was down and the deficit was a fraction of what it is now.
That means they had control of the Congress for almost two years before things got really tough.
And other than hope for Bush’s failure so that they could exploit it for political gain, just what did they do?
kathie
PS Thank God Bush is gone. Only smart Presidents from now on!
I was about to say: You don’t think Yale gives out Bachelor’s degrees and Harvard gives out MBA’s to dumb people do you? but then I realized, Havard gave out a JD degree to a dumb guy.
but I don’t think Bush is dumb.
Redteam:
I think kathie is being just a tad sarcastic.
Bush is not a dummie. At least we know his grade point average. obama refuses to release his transcript.
Conguy
What good is the record high DOW more than a year ago doing us now?
well during the first 7 years of Bush with the skyrocketing Dow, my 401K went up exponentially. Then when I saw the media getting in the tank for Obambi, I knew the market would likely tank, so I moved my funds into a guaranteed 5% return, just before the big fall. What good was the record Dow? It was amazing for my 401K. So since the fall, I’m getting 5% returns.
The Depression? it was all FDR. If we have another one, it’ll be all obambi.
Terrye is right. I don’t think Bush is dumb at all. Actually he is able to marry intellect with gut which is very helpful in governing.
Those who complain about Bush and job growth should remember the dot com bubble and then 911, a war in Afghanistan and then Iraq. Yet he managed to grow the economy, began to reduce the debt, take many people off the tax rolls, reduce all taxes, grow the GNP, rebuild the armed forces. Actually he began to tell congress about Fanny and Freddy in 2001 and then every year there after to no avail. And most of all he created an umbrella of safety for all of us and he didn’t treat the bad guys as if they were misunderstood friends. He knew the enemy instinctively, and they knew he knew.
Tough, yes, moral confusion to a bully is like honey to a bee.
“The Depression? it was all FDR.”
Every time I think you have typed the dumbest comment in the history of the Interwebs – you out-do yourself.
The Great Depression started in 1929. Roosevelt was elected in 1932.
Explain how his election – THREE YEARS after the Depression started – “caused it”.
Or better yet – just stay in the corner and suck your thumb. That appears to be the only thing you’re capable of doing proficiently.
Sadly, this administration knows EXACTLY what it is doing. The worse you feel and mourn for America as you knew it, the MORE this administration is THRILLED.
Marxists to the core. Power is all that matters to them as they are reshaping a country that WAS the most successful country in the history of the world….to be more like Kenya.
However, WE THE PEOPLE, WILL prevail…..in time. Let them (and all their useful idiots) crow. They will eat their words…in time.
You call THIS administration, smart? L.O.L.!!!!!!!!!!!
One Big A Mistake, America.