During my recent interview with Ari David, he mentioned that he perceived his generation as ‘Reagan / South Park Conservatives’. It is with this reference in mind, that I make this point.
During South Park Episode 1205, a sub-plot saw the character ‘Cartman’ poses as a Latino high school teacher named “Mr. Cartmenez” at a under-preforming urban high school. During this time, “Mr. Cartmenez”, installs the values of ‘cheating‘ to motivate, and improve the lives of his students.
LANGUAGE WARNING
Much like this example, the final scoreboard was 219 vote for Health Care Reform. The final score does not count the kick backs, the arm twisting, or back room deals needed for the final vote. Nor did it count the fact the bill being voted upon, was an incomplete Senate version, originally passed merely as a procedural vote pending a final amendment. All that counted for Pelosi at the end of the day, was the 219 ‘Cartmanesque’ votes for Obamacare.
Now Obama and the Democrats have to sell (convince people), what they passed by force was worthwhile. What you will instead see, will be the Democrats still attacking those raising reasonable concerns over Obamacare. What Pelosi and her ilk showed, was their ignorance conquers all when emotional rationalization, and self justification are added. When the dust settles, the middle class will see what Obamacare offers, and how much it will hinder them. That is, if the dust can be allowed to settle.
Act 2: Orchestrated Distractions: And so starts the next thorny issue of public debate on Immigration Reform. Any rage over Health Care Reform, or worrying about Obamacare will be pushed aside while a new battle is fought.
Welcome to the tactic of Orchestrated Distraction. Compared to the 12 months it took to pass Obamacare, November 2nd is a hard deadline they can’t get around. So expect the push for Immigration Reform, Economic Reform, Cap & Trade to be rammed past the House and Senate. Even if Obama loses the Democrat controlled House in November, Obama gets everything he needed in time. Even if the Senate loses a few Democrats in the Mid-terms, Obama can still pass everything he want in the Senate, by tweaking the rules and pushing for reconciliation with the 51 remaining Democrat votes.
The fact is this, Obama and Pelosi wont let the dust settle until they are finished implementing the most expensive social engineering program the world has ever seen. After which, a few billion spent on Iraq, and Afghanistan for eight plus years of warfare will be viewed as a bargain.
Hold onto your hats folks, we’re not even close to the end.
Once again, Obama’s most adamant supporters are now becoming his critics. The gloves are off.
Craig Edwards
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are headed to the White House for a meeting on jobs Thursday, and they’ll have a few words to say about how President Barack Obama is doing his.
The 43-member caucus is fighting through one of the most difficult periods in its 39-year history, and some members and aides said they’re getting far too little support from the nation’s first black president — a man they once believed would be their strongest champion.
It reminded me of that old Monty Python skit where British soldiers are equipped with the world’s funniest joke, a joke so funny that even to hear it guarantees you’ll die laughing. The British army translates the gag into German (different translators for each word so as to prevent their own deaths) and has its troops read the German version as they march through Ardennes forest. Suddenly, Nazi soldiers start falling dead from the trees.
Substitute “boring” for “funny” and you’ll get a vague sense of how dull this summit was.
There is already a debate over what went wrong with the Obama presidency.
Is his team of advisers — nearly universally considered the best and the brightest until the day before yesterday — serving him poorly? Has he failed to communicate effectively, even though almost all his speeches have been critically acclaimed? Did he fail to “pivot to jobs” fast enough?
Actually, Obama has a more worrisome problem: a reality gap.
“It’s going to be very difficult to have bipartisan conversations with regard to a 2,700 page health care bill that the Democrat majority in the House and the Democrat majority in the Senate can’t pass,”
When America was winding down from the Superbowl, and Bourbon Alley partied on, Solid Principles asked this question about the Obama Health Care summit with the GOP leaders on this article ‘Malicious Transparency?‘
Let me be the first to speculate, I don’t think he told any of the Republican congressional leaders about this plan. If am I right, then this tactic is not transparency, this is ‘Malicious Transparency’.
How does forcing the agenda upon the Republican Party, picking the setting, and televising it ever got to be considered transparency? It is far closer to a show trial or a court involving a hopping marsupial from Australia. CRAIG EDWARDS
If Boehner was playing chess with Obama, he lost on his first move. By not calling the Obama announcement ‘a stunt’, nor pointing out the multiple flaws of the plan (only dragging his feet after Talk Show pundits screamed it was an ambush), Boehner’s delay in responding means the GOP cannot fight the summit invite. It shows the GOP learnt nothing from the House Republicans retreat in Maryland when Obama scored a victory during the Q&A, which Obama had televised at the last moment with Republican approval.
I will say it again, this is the biggest game changer The White House has undertaken in 2010. Obama has discovered a way to force the Republicans to defend GOP opposition to Obama’s version of Heath Care Reform. The Democrats on the other hand have placed Health Care Reform, or the right to Health Care on their party agenda for decades. This forum will force the Republicans to open their play-book on their version of Health Care reform, a topic that is not in their cannon. And best of all, it will be televised!
If you thought watching Palin speeches was awkward, wait till February 25th rolls round.
UPDATE: MARCH 2010: OK, in retrospect, it was all much do about nothing, there was no trap. I still consider the opening statements made by Boehner as poor openers.
Remember the Summer of 2009 when Town Halls meetings on Health Care reform was on the verge of turning ugly? Then Obama held a joint congressional address which he tried to sell health reform as a centrist? We certainly do. It didn’t last that long. After that joint session address, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi went back to the far left antics of ”We Know Best”. In light of the Scott Brown result, Politico has speculated at Obama adopting (or adapting) more Bill Clinton era policies in order to survive politically.
Back in late September, Solid Principles released our 11th Podcast titled ‘Going The Distance’ (reposted below). We speculated and predicted, Obama would eventually morph into taking the Clinton route option once health-care reform stalled.
You know Obama must be in trouble when even Air America is going after his broken promises. Somehow, I just don’t expect Janeane Garofalo to label her pals at Air America as a pack of ‘Tea Baging Rednecks’ for attacking Obama.
Welcome to Obamaville………For you students of history, what does that remind you of? Remember the “Hoovervilles” of the Great Depression? Makeshift camps set up by the homeless on the outskirts of towns, cooking over campfires, ragtag men and women desperate to go back to work so that they can feed their families.
We need to win this election coming up in 2010 so that the people who are impoverishing this nation are summarily cashiered and sent back to their respective communities where they can spend the next 20 years kevtching about how those mean old Republicans done ‘em wrong.
For the past couple of months I have worried about the risks of a failed presidency. No one should want this, regardless of party affiliation. It is harmful and dangerous to our economy and country. However, it appears obvious to me that the royal regime known as Obama has ended.
Seth Leibsohn writing in the National Review summarized it this way:
“This is reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years – the last time the U.S. was seen as weak – unable to move and coax other countries, unable to reassure dependent allies, unable to have the respect of the world and, of course, unable to move the mullocracy of Iran.”
Even the liberal media are beginning to question the effectiveness of the President. The media, in full Camelot mode, are slow to react and often lag what the populace started to recognize months ago. Quotes like these, however, suggest they are not far behind.
The NYT reports: “China held firm against most American demands. With China’s micro-management of Mr. Obama’s appearances in the country, the trip did more to showcase China’s ability to push back against outside pressure than it did to advance the main issues on Mr. Obama’s agenda, analysts said.”
The Washington Post: “If there was any significant change during this trip, in fact, it was in the United States’ newly conciliatory and sometimes laudatory tone. . . . Obama’s trip stood in stark contrast to visits by his predecessors.”
The Times stated that Obama was given “less respect than was given presidents Bush or Clinton.”
All of the above quotes can be found in this highly recommended post by Seth Leibsohn.
He concluded his piece:
“Not a very good first year for America, or the world, under a new leadership that promised a new respect, a new start, and a new way of doing business. It’s new alright – it just isn’t any good.”
We have a failed presidency that cannot be retrieved. The dream cannot be rebuilt because there was never a foundation to begin with. It was all show and no substance. Yes, it created much excitement and (false) hope. But so did Elmer Gantry and James Jones. However, the image was akin to an old Hollywood set, all facade and no depth. Now the winds of reality are slowly and inexorably tearing the facade away.
The politicians in Congress see these same signs and read the polls. At this point they are trying to decide what is least dangerous for their individual careers. For the Republicans that probably means pouring gasoline on Obama’s burning ship of state. For the Democrats, it is a more difficult problem. Ultimately, I believe they will abandon ship. Politicians of both parties are like rats; they are survivors. All politicians will take that course which they believe gives them the best chance for individual survival. Loyalty be damned.
This powerful essay was sent to me by someone I only know through our conversations on a chatbox on one of the political blogs I frequent. He has sent me other articles over the course of the last six months or so, one or two of which I have published as front page blogs. Due to time constraints, I have to be somewhat selective about which articles I read and then decide to run with. They have all been interesting, but this one is exceptional. This one expresses what most conservatives and, it seems, soon most Americans will be thinking…..Barack Obama is not just failing: he is failing miserably!
Hat Tip to “aggieschip” for forwarding this to me and “christielbrush” for sending the article to him. I don’t know who the original author is, but who ever wrote this piece deserves major kudos.
[Editor's Note.....Here is the info on the author.This article was written by Geoffrey P. Hunt. For those interested in reading more articles by him, here is a link:], And surely all the not so good ones were better than this one.
~~John Cronin~~
Another Failed Presidency
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson.
In the modern era, we’ve seen several failed presidencies–led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait– they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China.
George Bush Jr. didn’t fail so much as he was perceived to have been too much of a patrician while being uncomfortable with his more conservative allies. Yet George Bush Sr. is still perceived as a man of uncommon decency, loyal to the enduring American character of rugged self-determination, free markets, and generosity. George W will eventually be treated more kindly by historians as one whose potential was squashed by his own compromise of conservative principles, in some ways repeating the mistakes of his father, while ignoring many lessons in executive leadership he should have learned at Harvard Business School. Of course George W could never quite overcome being dogged from the outset by half of the nation convinced he was electorally illegitimate — thus aiding the resurgence of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What’s going on?
No narrative. Obama doesn’t have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn’t connect with us. He doesn’t have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don’t align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.
But not this president. It’s not so much that he’s a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task– all contributory of course. It’s that he’s not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn’t command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don’t add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don’t make sense and don’t correspond with our experience.
In the meantime, while we’ve been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he’s dissed just about every one of us–financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: “For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn’t give me enough time; if only I’d had a second term, I could have offended you too.”
Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state–staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there’s always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along
Here is the comment I left atSolidPrinciples.comregarding Craig andAfroConservative’s Vanessa on their outstanding podcast. Please help us spread the word on why black conservative’s best interests are served by a rebuilt and much more conservative Republican Party!
~~John Cronin~~
1. john says: October 21, 2009 at 7:09 am
I believe we have just discovered a future Republican superstar. This podcast performance by Vanessa from the AFROCONSERVATIVE blogsite is just outstanding. Vanessa reminds me of a younger, female version of Dr. Thomas Sowell. So well read, so much a student of history, so much insight. Craig and Vanessa, major kudos for a job well done. We have got to get this podcast widely distributed, so that these “conservative principles” reach as many liberals as possible and start the process of the re-examination of the leftist dogmas that have proved to be so ruinous to this country.
The majority of Americans do not ‘Hate’ President Obama. Deep down I disagree with him, but I have never felt hatred towards Obama. The Majority of Americans simply disagree with Obama politically, they feel his agenda is out of step or not what he promised to do once in office.
There are times when people are elected into office, that not everyone will support. When Bush was in the White House, it certainly wasn’t out of place to ‘disagree’ with Bush. During his tenure as President, Bush made plenty of decisions many people disagreed with. However, when a party or leader gets in office (even the people you don’t support), you hope they will execute the role adequately enough on a daily basis. When they don’t (such as the case on how the left viewed Bush) critics have the right to become vocal in their disagreement, which is not considered hatred.
Tyren, Obama is not immune to criticisms, no one is. As Obama clearly misses the roar of the adoring supporters on the campaign circut, he holds regular Town Hall meetings as he cannot wait for 2012 to roll round. What might improve Obama’s standing with most Americans would be if he stopped staging town halls & stopped appearing on late night TV shows. He could also silence his critics even further if he stopped flying Air Force One around long enough to spent enough time in Washington D.C, doing the job he asked American people to give him last November.
He is the Commander in Chief, if he started acting like one, more people wouldn’t (in your eyes) ‘hate’ him as much.
Solid Principles welcomes all visitors from Crooks & Liars, would you like to try some Podcast with that?
Hat Tip to “John” from “The City Square Blogspot” and “Lucianne.com” for their hard work in bringing this great coverage of Obama’s San Francisco trip and the protest outside the hotel where he stayed.
Below is a blog from a website that features great pictorial coverage of Obama’s fundraising trip to San Francisco Thursday. The pictures will show the dreaded right wing cabal of Tea Partiers, Truthers,9/12ers and other groups opposed to the Ditherer-in-chief.
This disastrous administration had better get used to these protests. Unless, by some miracle of miracles, they actually start to govern this country in a way that prevents an eventual collapse of our freedoms and/or our economy, these protests will dog Obama until the day he is impeached or the day his term ends, whichever comes first.
~~John Cronin~~
The City Square Blogspot
Even in San Francisco, Pres. Obama cannot escape protesters. He held a fundraiser at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco tonight (Thursday) and a crowd turned out across the street on Union Square to let him know what they thought:
The crowd was not just Tea Partiers. There were also single-payer enthusiasts, 9-11 truthers, and US-out-of-Aghanistan’ers as well. Here is a shot of the central section which, as you can tell from the signs, was largely Tea Partiers:
Bakersfield, CA: Along with their metropolitan suburbanite cousins in Orange County, Kern County is one of the more premier districts of Conservatisms in the ‘Bluest’ of Blue States in America.
In the 2008 Election, 58% of Kern County voted for McCain and 75% supported Prop 8. Given this safe haven for Conservatives, even off the cuff comments during dinner conversation like “If I ever get a terminal illness, I’m going to take out Obama and Pelosi” can land you into hot water. Something that Kern County resident Bill Sekeres is now starting to find out.
Retiree miffed by Secret Service visit
Bill Sekeres of Bakersfield is in a bit of trouble with the U.S. Secret Service.
The 73-year-old retired executive may or may not have threatened to “take out” the president of the United States during idle dinner conversation recently at a Bakersfield restaurant.
Sekeres says he can’t recall whether he also included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in his alleged threat because he isn’t sure he made a threat, and if he did make a threat, well, he didn’t really mean it.
“Truthfully, I can’t remember if I said this or not — that if I ever get a terminal illness, I’m going to take out Obama and Pelosi,” Sekeres said. “I may have. I may not have. I don’t know,” he said. “If I did, it would have been in jest.”
In any case, someone apparently overheard him and took him seriously enough to alert authorities. On Friday, two agents from the Secret Service office in Fresno drove to Bakersfield to have a not so idle chat with Sekeres.
“It is our job to investigate all threats against the president,” said Gil Lejarde, resident agent in charge of the Fresno office. “We did speak to him. Right now we’re still investigating.”
The way Sekeres remembers it, he and his wife were having dinner with three other couples at Rio Bravo Country Club. “All four of us are conservative ex-service people. We kid around a lot,” Sekeres said. “You know how it is, a group of friends just sitting around.”
Sekeres said it’s “ridiculous” to imagine that he could be capable of posing a serious threat against two highly placed political figures. “How stupid to think that at my age, I could do something like that,” he said. “What kind of place are we living in?”
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