As soon as I started covering Barack Obama, I knew he was going to be trouble.I always enjoy Dowd's colourful descriptions, but I'm not with here on this one. I've been Obamaed out. His speech was yet another attempt to promise everything to everybody. That's not leadership. That's pandering.
Not Global Trouble, like W. and Dick Cheney. Or Hanky-Panky Trouble, like Bill Clinton and John Edwards. Or Tedious Trouble, like John Kerry and Michael Dukakis.
He was going to be the kind of guy who whipped you up and then, when you were all excited, left you flat, and then, when you were deflated and exasperated and time was running out, ensorcelled you again with some sparkly fairy dust.
It’s an irritating pattern. Not as puerile as Bill Clinton’s pattern of wasting time and plunging into personal chaos, or as horrifying as Dick Cheney’s routine of bullying and cutting paper dolls out of the Constitution.
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President Obama is so wrapped up in his desire to be a different, more conciliatory, beer-summit kind of leader, he ignores some verities.
Sometimes, when you’ve got the mojo, you have to keep your foot on your opponent’s neck. When you’re trying to get a Sisyphean agenda passed, it’s good if people in the way — including rebellious elements in your own party — fear you.
Civil discourse is fine, but when the other side is fighting dirty, you should get angry. Don’t let the bully kick sand in your face. The White House should have impaled death panel malarkey as soon as it came up.
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In the absence of more vivid presidential leadership, the Democrats have reverted to their old DNA — self-destructive scrapping and spending. And the Republicans are sticking to theirs — being mean-spirited and shameless, attacking big government spending while taking no blame for their own.
Just as he let Hillary breathe new life into her faltering campaign in New Hampshire, Obama let the moribund Republicans revivify themselves in the slashing image of Limbaugh and Palin.
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The president told students on Tuesday that “being successful is hard” and “you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.”
He should take his own words to heart. He can live long and prosper by being less Spocky and more Rocky.
While I believe the US could save money via a new health care system, taking the old one and "fixing it up" while claiming "it won't cost one more dime of tax money" is just silly. It will cost money in the short run to save money in the long run. To pretend otherwise is to lie.
In 2008 I had hope that Obama would provide leadership. But he hasn't. The US has run out of luck. In the past during great trails it found leaders like Jefferson and Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. But over the last 40 years there has been a definite dearth of leadership in the US. All you get is hot wind from politicians, promises that won't be kept, and a "we're too good to fail" sunshine passed off as serious politics. At least JFK called for commitment and effort. He was the last leader who actually was an aspirational leader. He flubbed, but at least his heart was in the right place.
I don't see much real promise for the US. The idiocy of the Republicans sitting on their hands throughout the speech and one of them jumping to his feet and crying "liar" when Obama offered yet another olive branch to the idiocy of the right -- the promise to "not spend a penny on illegal immigrants" -- was a disgrace. Both for the stupidity of the Republican who decided he had the right to try and shout down the President. And for the stupidity of Obama to say "no medical care of illegal immigrants".
Hospitals by law are required to treat the sick. Money will be spent. It is the right thing to do. I'm not religious, but all those Bible-thumping Christians need to open up their Bible and read the story of the "good Samaritan". The Samaritan paid out of his own pocket. That is what decent people do. They don't step over the sick and crazy and the homeless. They help the afflicted. The idiot Christians get up and wave and shout on Sundays about their "religion" but when it counts, the other six days of the week, they only get up to shout "liar" and demand that no money be spent on anybody in need, only in tax breaks for the rich. Hypocrites!
1 comment:
I like what you have written here and I agree (trying to think of something that I didn't agree with). You make a good point in saying that Obama is not providing the leadership that we need. I remembered the inaugural address given by FDR and this part came to mind:
I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption. 21
But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. 22
For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.
I think that Obama has not returned "the courage and the devotion that befit the time". There are other parts of the speech that are very interesting when read in context of our current situation and your post and Dowd's review.
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