Ruth Marcus can’t excuse Obama, although that doesn’t stop her from trying
Most of Obama’s cheerleaders lost energy for that enterprise quite some time ago. Now their efforts seem limited to attacking the Republicans who might oppose him.
For example, liberal Ruth Marcus of the WaPo is clearly running out of steam, as evidenced by this tepid effort, in which she’s reduced to saying something like, “Even though Obama has shown no leadership at all, and seems to have wanted the budget negotiations to fail so that he can blame Congress, in addition to previously having ignored the recommendations of his very own Simpson-Bowles committee, we shouldn’t blame him because, because…because…because Republicans are worse.”
One of the hallmarks of the Obama administration has been the combination of his own tendency to blame others—unprecedented (in my lifetime, anyway) in a president of any political persuasion—and the tendency of his supporters and the MSM (is that redundant?) to cooperate in blaming others and exonerating him. Over time that’s faded, but not entirely by any means, and Marcus is an example of its feeble remnants.
This tendency to excuse himself was one of the earliest things I noticed about Obama. In what I believe may have been the very first post I ever wrote about him, written in May of 2007, I said:
…[Obama demonstrates] a willingness to offer up excuses too easily. It’s okay for a Presidential candidate (or President) to be tired, but I’m not so sure he should be so eager to excuse himself on that score. I’ve often thought that, if the campaign is a grueling marathon, it’s probably a (pardon the phrase) cakewalk compared to the actual Presidency…
No excuses, although of course Presidents make mistakes. But, as Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here” for the President””and for the Presidential candidates.
But that was never true for Obama. And although it helped him get elected, ultimately the press did him no favor by cooperating in his excuse-making. It has allowed him to reach his present state, in which he’s managed to alienate a huge percentage of his own supporters.
Of course, he may end up getting elected anyway. But Obama has squandered (perhaps permanently?) the immense goodwill and enthusiasm with which so many Americans regarded him for so long.
And not just Americans.
Hussein does not care. Period. Go back to Neo’s prior, on serfdom; BHO is our Tsar. He knows it. He wants it.
The biggest problem is not Obama, but the people who support him. They are the disease; he is the symptom. The true scope of our present difficulties comes into view when you realize how many of them there are, and what the problem with them really is.
It’s Mega.
Want to have fun? Ask a liberal defending Hussein just exactly for what, if anything, he actually bears any responsibility whatsoever.
It’s good to know CPR before posing this question, btw.
The funny part is that they don’t even think of citing fathering his daughters. Maybe Bush did that, too.
What amazes me is that despite having squandered that goodwill, there are still people likely to vote for him next November, and there are enough of them that it will be a challenge for many of those in the current crop of Republican candidates to defeat him.
One advantage of Obama’s style of doing nothing but hang out is not being responsible for anything.
Should our first affirmative action president, a failure on most counts, the worst president to have ever served/ruled, and a disordered personality to boot, win a second term… I’m at a loss… what’s below despair?
The problem with always voting for the lesser of two evils is your always voting against something you don’t like for someone like dislike a little bit less.
Obama might will reelections with his burn his opponents to the ground 1 billion dollar campaign but can he honestly govern after such a campaign term limited and with both Republicans AND Democrats using him his a punching bag as early as 2014 going into 2016 elections.
Some how I don’t think Obama is going to quietly take the punches the same way Bush did. So will Obama be openly agrueming with the candidates that want his job after he leaves office as if HE is the one that gets to decide.
Other than judicial appointments(which can do a lot of harm). I have seen no compelling reason to think governing will be any easier for Obama in his Second Term or ever that he will be able to work with congress controlled by Republicans. A Congress which will most like continue to gain Repubilcan members as long as Obama is in office.
This is what the lesser of two evils to Democrats right now. And this is why we should try to find positive reasons to support Republicans as not pushed into a corner.
Mike: It does not matter that there are those who support him.While he holds the Imperial Presidency and is Tsar of these United States, he is secure in the exercise of his deviltry. Those who support him also obey him.
Please don’t kick me off the thread but as I mentioned before there is a long term advantage to an Obama re-election. He will obviously do an incredible amount of damage, but unlike the blows done our foreign policy the upcoming damage will be felt and seen at home, and perhaps even understood. Sure Obama will have his believers but maybe enough pain may get through to even the dimmest Obamiski bulbs that maybe there are other qualifications for office other than being left and sexy.
I’m asking a lot, aren’t I?
For the O’ster The Buck is a hyperactive shrew.
Bob, in the long term we’re all dead.
Bob from Virginia: Unfortunately, 30-35% of the population is hopelessly committed to the left as a matter of faith and will remain so no matter how badly an Obama second term goes. Now while the folks in the middle might catch on after a disastrous second term, it won’t mean anything unless they also catch on to how they’ve been played by the media and the educational establishment all of these years. Then, and only then, would the disasters wrought by a second term be potentially valuable, but as Don Carlos says, “in the long term we’re all dead,” so that might just be a vain hope.
“I’m asking a lot, aren’t I?”
Unless the GOP can take the senate and hold steady in the house; a second term for BHO will be a journey to a disaster beyond the edges of the map where all sorts of monsters and demons reside.
Granted it’s a year out….but I see no way Obama gets the re-elect.
There is simply no reason to vote for him. He isn’t even running on anything. He has no platform. He does not even hint at a rationale for a 2nd term except so the Rs don’t undo all the great work they did in term one.
But there is none!
The entire thing is down to the nerve, the courage, the strength of the R candidate. If they really go after Obama he is toast. McCain was probably the worst candidate of all time because he refused to even question Obama in a nice way, let alone a tough way. McCain, in so doing, let the entire country, even the entire world down. He is forever me a figure of ignominy. His courage failed him in the moment of truth. harsh I know, but that is how I see him. I think he wanted to run, as some sort of message to his Dad. I do not think he wanted to win, and we needed him to win.
If the R nominee has guts, they will ask Obama right to his face why he is running. They will ask him to detail with real numbers and data, what he did that was good. They will ask him right to his face to stop with the blaming. If he does not, they should ridicule him mercilessly to his face and in Ads. They should question his very manhood and criticize him in the most brutal way possible – i.e. by telling the simple truth over and over and over again.
I predict he will quit before July if the presumptive nominee does this.
The one to do it the best was Palin. If Romney or Gingrich can manage to pull it off, they will win a huge victory.
Add the positive message to get people to switch sides and it could be a landslide victory.
Mike Mc.: I like your description of McCain as a “figure of ignominy” whose “courage failed him in the moment of truth.” That is certainly true. The only one in that campaign with the courage to speak out and really challenge Obama was Palin, and because of that the left set out to destroy her. And while she might be out of the race this year, fortunately she’s not down yet.
If we live by the rules, we may die by the rules (referring to the election), and will have only ourselves to blame. The enemy knows and heeds Alinsky, yet we ignore him.
The past three years, it’s obvious the country has been running on autopilot. Sure, they come out of the office every now and then, to champion some fiend, or make a big show of something, but really, what have they been up to? As a former liberal, who was enamored of these hools since the late sixties, I read lots of literature and propaganda during that time, but never dreamed the bastards would ascend to such a position of power. What keeps me up at night, is that fact that he really doesn’t care what happens and has worked diligently to set traps the entire time he’s been in office. How much damage has been done? how much can he get away with? Was “Julian Assange” just the tip of the iceberg? what are those troops doing in Uganda, why are they there, are they being set up?…