Words from President Obama

 

Yes! That’s what we’ve been lacking to keep our country safe. We’ve been lacking a “fresh and penetrating look.”

If you think the CDN story is intended to make President Obama look like Dilbert’s boss’s boss, read the directive from the White House. You’ll see it could have been worse. The White House could have been allowed to write the story itself. My guess is that Scott Adams and the staff of the Onion were hired as consultants on this project, and CDN was merely trying to do damage control.

 

Headline: Obama to GOP: ‘Stop trying to frighten the American people’

What the Republicans don’t understand is that they are usurping a function that is the sole prerogative of the president. What do they think this is? Health care? Global warming?

 

President Obama says he will not rush the decision to send more soldiers into harm’s way. I believe him. This time he has made a promise he will keep.

We can believe this promise, even though everything else he wants (e.g. stimulus funding, health care takeover) is an urgent necessity that requires immediate action to avert catastrophe. Now is not the time to debate whether we are sending health care into harm’s way. Now is not the time for delay on that front. But now is the time to consider, very carefully and slowly, what we should do with Afghanistan.

And we can believe this promise even though his delays are putting those soldiers who are already in harm’s way in the way of even greater harm.

I can appreciate his quandry. There is no good solution. Not that that is going to stop him from invading and conquering our health care system.

 

And to think, Gibbs works for the guy who is asking for the power to shut down the internet in case of emergency. He tells people what information sources they shouldn’t use.

“I think this is media generated,” Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One. “Stop reading those London tabloids.”  [URL here.]

There are lots of things politicians can say to deflect issues (or non-issues) like that. Maybe Gibbs ought to try a wording that’s a little less thuggish given the sensitivity about Obama’s attitude toward free speech.

 

This could end up being the equivalent of Jimmy Carter’s rabbit.   I literally LOL’d when I got to this part.

Mr. Obama: “George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. . . .” (URL)

 

Usually when politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths, they don’t do both sides at the same time. But here’s what one of our country’s political leaders said in a campaign speech last Thursday, as reported by the AP. This must be what he meant when he said, “I have a gift, Harry.”

Appealing across party lines, Obama told the Democratic audience that leaders must listen to their opponents and disagree with civility. He pointed to Virginia’s two most recent governors, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, the former now a senator and the latter Obama’s hand-picked Democratic National Committee chairman.

“We want to make sure that we listen to other people’s ideas. We’re going to bring labor and business together,” he said….

He pointed to massive financial challenges and an exploding deficit he said he inherited from Republican President George W. Bush.

“That was gift-wrapped and waiting for me,” Obama said. “I don’t want the folks who created the mess do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

Last I heard, there was a bit of disagreement on just who created the mess and how. But it’s not clear whether that part of that disagreement is one where we want to listen to other peoples’ ideas or where we want them to shut up and not do a lot of talking.

 

obama-wakarusa

Obama was in Wakarusa today, declaring victory. (“In Indiana, Obama declares stimulus is working“) It kind of reminds one of George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech.

bush-mission-accomplished

The first part of the week we had been staying in Nappanee, 6 miles to the south, and at breakfast someone had mentioned that it was hard to get around up there because the President was coming. If I had arranged another day of vacation it would have been nice to ride my bike up there with some protest signs and then listen to leftwing operatives explain where I come from. (Read the memo. I did.)

Who are these people? The people who show up are far right-wing ideologues recruited by paid organizers. Much of this recruitment and organizing is funded by industry lobbyists and public relatgions firms to engage radical right-wing groups. Many of these groups are motivated by far right ideology in general – not by health care as an issue. They are held together by a common vision of the world that centers on defeating Obama and his agenda. We can expect to see anti-abortion groups, pro-gun groups, insurance company employees (mandated by employers to come out), militia groups, and anti-immigration groups.

hamilton-0068

But instead I did a 76 mile ride to Hamilton, to the site shown above, and from there we drove home. Besides, I’ve ridden my bike to Wakarusa before — stopped there to get a bite to eat on my way elsewhere. It got me thinking, though, about how I could deck out my bicycle with some protest signs where I would usually mount panniers. And then there is the question of what to put on them. One bumpersticker slogan I found on the net a few days ago: “Please don’t tell Obama what comes after a trillion!”

 

bo

OK, so Google doesn’t do it only to Republicans. It now prints goofy photos of the Beloved One, too. But surely the media could just print regular photos that the subjects themselves might approve of.

BTW, so what if Gates and Crowley get together over a beer? Even if they shake hands and become best buddies, how is that going to help us have that national dialogue that we’re having?

 

I think we’re having that dialogue whether he wants it or not. Dunno if a dialogue behind closed doors at the White House will contribute much to it, though.

Headline: “President sees opportunity for national dialogue.”

African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates and the police officer who arrested him last week are likely to get together at the White House soon as President Obama tries to quell a furor his words helped fuel.

“The president sees this as an opportunity to get dialogue going on an issue … that has been historically troubling,” adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation. Axelrod said he expects the meeting to take place but did say when.

 

So now (by implication) Obama comes out in favor of profiling in airports. I thought it was to avoid this sort of offense that the TSA makes no exceptions for old, slow-moving people who need canes and walkers to get through the airport security line.

I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement, because I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don’t need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who’s in his own home.

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