…So Sorry

I would add something to Ed Morrissey’s  Hot Air item, but alas, I think he’s pretty much nailed it:

Even Obama supporters worried about White House incompetence

posted at 9:37 am on March 16, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

I guess we can officially say that the honeymoon’s over.  The New York Daily News, not exactly a pillar of conservative thought, finds itself wondering aloud about whether Barack Obama and his team have the competence to lead the nation.  The whispers have grown into a chorus:

Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, “Do you think they know what they’re doing?”

The question caught me off guard because the man is a well-known Obama supporter. As we talked, I quickly realized his asking suggested his own considerable doubts.

Yes, it’s early, but an eerily familiar feeling is spreading across party lines and seeping into the national conversation. It’s a nagging doubt about the competency of the White House.

Well, what did people expect?  For the first time in decades and perhaps ever, America chose a President without executive experience in the public or private sectors, and without military command experience.  If people expected smooth performance and cool competence from that kind of resume, then the best that can be said about them is that they indulged in self-delusion on a massive scale.

For the rest of us, this comes as no surprise at all.  The failed appointments have managed to be less embarrassing than the ones that “succeeded”, such as Tim Geithner and Vivek Kundra.  The administration keeps promising plans that never get delivered, and Obama all but abdicated to Nancy Pelosi during the Porkulus debacle.  And that doesn’t even begin to cover Obama’s embarrassing performance during Gordon Brown’s visit, and Hillary Clinton’s shameful “I don’t understand multiparty democracy” tour at the EU.

Obama is in over his head, and so are his closest aides, such as Geithner, Hillary, and the entire team.  The best we can hope is that on-the-job training can work quickly.

The Social O

For those of you in denial, as well as for those still debating the issue, here’s James Lewis’ definitive call: "Of Course He's a Socialist".

Really, what was that NYT reporter thinking? Asking the O if he was a socialist? The O was so astounded that, after thinking about it, he felt compelled to call the reporter back to reiterate his plausible denial… and to point out that  it was the evil Republican administration before him that started this whole bailout give away.

Maybe so O, but damn, I just love what you’ve done with it!

Pick your “ism” of choice – Progressivism, Socialism, Marxism, Communism – they all place you firmly in  the the embrace of Nancy Pelosi’s bosom. If that doesn’t make you squirm, you might be a socialist.

Technorati Tags: communism,marxism,progressivism,socialism

Those Pesky Mormon Crickets

"Have you seen the little piggies"

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