He’s Just Not that Into It

Jennifer Rubin has a great article over at Commentary Magazine re. our President : "He's Just Not That Into Governing". It begins to explain a lot.

He’s not so much into legislation, that’s for Nancy and Harry and the gang over at the Pork Palace. But we knew that. His legislative experience consisted of  voting  “present” when be wasn’t busy campaigning for his next job.

As it turns out, Barack isn’t that much into the economy either. But I guess we knew that too: he has no experience in business, banking or economics. Although he  does play an equities analyst on YouTube, and thinks the Dow Jones is like a political tracking poll. (I worry a bit that he thinks everything is like a political tracking poll.) If he can just get Timothy Geithner to play a Treasury Secretary we could be back in business.

Not that into diplomacy/protocol either. Apparently those skills were considered too bourgeois in Chicago’s community organizing circle. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife  understood that the Prez had  a busy day and was  too tired  for a  press conference and state dinner, but the British press was  quite annoyed (you know how the Brits are). They apparently thought the customary diplomatic gifts given to the Brown’s were thoughtless and tacky as well. But hey, who wouldn't want a gift set of the Obama's favorite movies? And after all, it’s the thought that counts. Well,ok they weren’t that thoughtful, but what the heck: he’ll get the hang of this diplomacy crap. How hard can it be?  W did it.

Maybe foreign affairs is his thing? Nope, that’s Hillary’s forte. But her inaugural tour of the Middle East and Europe resulted in more gaffes than a “Joe Biden on steroids” tour. Although the capper had to be the Mickey Mouse prop and bad translation "gift"  presented to the Russian foreign minister. The stupid red button was supposed to say “reset” in Russian, but instead said “overcharge”. We’ve all been overcharged for gross underperformance. And yes, I would like to “reset. ” To November, 2008. Can we get a do-over?

So, alright. Governing, per se, is not his thing. But we knew that too: he had no executive or leadership experience. So he can be forgiven for not knowing how to pull together a competent team. Or how to establish a manageable agenda. Or how to delegate without relinquishing responsibility. He’ll learn. And meanwhile we have that lovely,soaring rhetoric to lift our spirits. Except that lately all he’s been doing is bumming everyone out with talk of the great depression, and how everything’s going to get worse and worser.  And if he’s not  scaring  us to death he’s insulting us by calling us “shameful” and “selfish”. I already miss W’s endearing malapropisms. At least he was cheerful about it.

In summary then: not so into governing, legislating, economics, diplomacy, protocol, foreign affairs or cheery rhetoric. So what does that leave the messiah to be “into”? It looks like summits (2 down, 1 scheduled), czars (6 and counting) and spending ($1 trillion , but who’s counting).

Technorati Tags: commentary,czars,diplomacy,economics,geithner,hillary,obama,pork,spending,summits

Bait and Switch

Charles Krauthammer calls it the “Great Non Sequitur”. In essence, the argument is thus: we’re in the greatest financial crisis of our life times brought on by the Bush administration’s failure to address education, health care and energy. Therefore, we’re going to fix all of these issues with trillions and trillions of (your tax) dollars.

As Mr. Krauthammer points out, this is nonsense.

“The list is long. But the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe.”

But it’s apparent that these are the “things” Rahm Emanuel had in mind when he said:

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."

I don’t know about you, but to me government paid health care, education K through baccalaureate and government controlled energy policy through increased carbon taxes and cap and trade (the same thing) sounds like European socialism. Nothing radical here!

But how about fixing the financial crisis before we move on to a Brave New World? Unfortunately – and especially in crisis – people tend to continue to do the things they know how to do. Obama’s band of merry men don’t know how to put together a financial stabilization plan. What they do know is how to spread the wealth around.

Technorati Tags: carbon tax,cap and trade,Emanuel,health care,krauthammer,socialism

An Earmark We Can Believe In

I vote to keep Tom Harkin’s  $1.8 million swine and manure odor funding in the Obam-nibus porkulus bill: with the stipulation that it be spent exclusively in Washington D.C.. They now officially have more pig farmers there than in Ames Iowa.

If they have any funds left over perhaps they can be used to stifle the odor of the citizen-tourists that Harry Reid finds so offensive.

Technorati Tags: earmark,Harry Reid,pork,Tom Harkin,Washington D.C.

Buyer’s Remorse, Remorse

Apparently David Brooks has had his buyer’s remorse rescinded. In his NYT's column today he lets the White House staff explain why what he’s said in his previous 3 columns are wrong. Hot Air explains how the White House has put him back on the leash.

Hey David! Grow a pair: you’re an opinion writer, not a mouthpiece!

THE CRYING GAME

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Many Obama voters are having buyer's remorse

Their historic leader is more transformational doofus than messiah

Some are asking: "Can we get a DO-OVER?"

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