Not A Good First Week For Obama
Jan 26, 2009 Political
Barack Obama spent his first week in office undoing things to fit his liberal agenda and to give the appearance that he is fulfilling campaign promises. He has undone sanctions on world wide charities that perform abortions thus allowing US taxpayer dollars to fund abortions around the world. He has signed an Executive Order that closes Gitmo by February of next year but has no clue as to what to do with the inmates who are there. We might get to the point where the ones who can be released are set free in our country and those who cannot are jailed here. This would be disastrous and there would be very serious backlash if one of those released committed a crime here. I think they should be released to the White House. See if Obama is up for having these harmless people around his family.
It did not help that a report was released showing that 60 of the former inmates at Gitmo had rejoined the fight against us, that one had been put in a leadership position in a terror organization and that two recently appeared on a terrorist propaganda video. Yeah, shut down Gitmo and send these angels to live in America…
Then Obama had some setbacks with his nominations though Republicans basically rolled over and allowed the nomination of Hillary Clinton to go through. This very well could come back to bite Republicans and Obama in their sixes. Other nominees are getting grilled but in the end they will be confirmed.
Obama also discussed at length his idea of ethics and the restrictions on lobbyists serving in his administration. He then, not moments after discussing it, broke his own word by putting a lobbyist on board in his administration. The most ethical government is a meme we have heard through many administrations. When it comes down to it, they do what they want.
It is so bad that Muslims are saying bad things about him and al Qaeda has resorted to hurling insults at the man who was going to change the world. Everyone was going to love us if we elected him. Funny how that did not seem to work out, at least not right now.
The last thing Obama did was to take a swipe at Rush Limbaugh, America’s most listened to and highest paid talk radio host. Obama told Republican lawmakers that they could not listen to Limbaugh and expect to get things done. This is obviously a reference to the stimulus package that Rush and other TRUE conservatives oppose. What Obama is saying is, I can’t get this passed if you listen to what he says about it.
Limbaugh is not a politician so why should it matter what he says? Yes, he has a large following and he can get people worked up. When they get worked up they contact their members of Congress and discuss the prospects for future employment if they act in a way that people do not like. This means that politicians listen to their constituents rather than the president. Obama does not like that because he is fixated on the stimulus. To him it is an emergency that must be addressed RIGHT NOW even though most of the money will not be spent until 2011.
Obama wants this stimulus package to pass with a large majority because it is his first major undertaking. He does not want to be embarrassed by having it fail or pass by a slim margin. He needs a great deal of support in order to demonstrate he is in charge. But why pick a fight with Limbaugh?
Kevin Jackson (a talented writer) at The Black Sphere thinks it is so Obama will have a scapegoat if it fails. Obama needs a lot of Republicans on board so if this fails he will have them to blame. He also needs to demonize Limbaugh so that if it does not pass he can lay blame solely at Limbaugh’s feet. Obama is looking for an escape, a way out, a way to keep criticism off his back.
He is trying to make Republicans or Limbaugh his patsy depending on the outcome.
This is a feeble attempt because Obama and the Democrats have what they want. They have control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. They were very quick to assign blame to Republicans when they held that hand and now they will be the ones upon whose shoulders this rests. Obama does not like the idea of taking blame for failure because it might hurt his ultimate goal which is to be reelected. He does not want to serve just one term and if Democrats have their way he will serve more than two. It is hard to accomplish this if he is getting blamed for all the failures.
The Republicans are his way out if it passes but fails to stimulate the economy. He will blame something on them like Pelosi did with regard to the economic collapse. She told us that the Democrats had no blame and it was all the Republican’s fault which was a blatant lie. Obama would like to be able to do the same so he wants them on board.
Limbaugh is the perfect escape valve if the thing does not pass. He can blame it all on Limbaugh and the “disinformation” he put out. This will also allow him, with his cohorts in Congress, to fast track the inappropriately named “Fairness Doctrine.” The goal is to silence dissent, which was patriotic when Democrats engaged in it.
Obama is crafty but he has had a few missteps this week and he has ticked off his once fawning media wing. They were upset with his decision not to allow film crews in to record his do over on swearing in. They were not happy that he gave his first interview to a network that paid a lot of money to sponsor a ball and they were not happy he dismissed a reporter’s question about the ethics issue as “Not the right time.” Maybe it was not but he did invade their space and reporters ask questions.
Perhaps he was not accustomed to that since they ignored just about everything when he was running for office.
Tough questions, how dare they? I am The One…
All this in one week. Only about 207 more to go.
The only thing that could make his week worse would be if global warming were questioned further because snow and freezing temperatures hit a place where that rarely happens.
Sources:
Telegraph UK
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Tags: ethical dilemma, lobbyist, Obama, rough, Rush Limbaugh, shaky start
Will NYT Hit Piece Help McCain?
Feb 24, 2008 Political
The New York Times put out a hit piece on John McCain that its own ombudsman criticized because it made accusations about a sexual relationship without providing any evidence. As the ombudsman pointed out, there is a pretty good story if all the sex references are removed. This is true and the story deserves attention with regard to the meat of the issue. That is, did John McCain engage in activities that favored a lobbyist? If the NYT had stuck to that part of the story there might have been more focus on it and less on the concept of a hit piece.
In essence, the paper might have helped John McCain. It is no secret that many conservatives are unhappy with McCain and it is also no secret that he was not helped by an NYT endorsement though the realists among us knew that as soon as he was the nominee (or close enough to leave no doubt) that the NYT would turn on him. And turn they did. The Times did exactly what many believed it would and instead of casting more doubt on McCain, the hit piece rallied people around McCain for what was seen as an unfair attack with innuendo and speculation.
The Times is an enemy of conservatives and they showed that they are definitely biased when they went after McCain. Given that there are plenty of speculative stories about Clinton and Obama, one would have to ask why the paper has not gone after them as well. Despite the Clinton’s claims that the media is unfair to them, they have gotten a free ride for decades. Obama is a charismatic young man who has brought the Democrats together and given them “hope” though no one, not even Obama, can describe exactly what his message is other than hope and change. Hope is not proper mission planning and it will not get him very far should he actually win the presidency.
McCain has his faults but one thing he has that the others do not is experience. He has more experience in Congress, he has more experience as a legislator and he has more experience with regard to the military which means he has more experience to be the Commander in Chief. I am not overly happy with all of his positions but I agree with more of his than the other two. They will be a disaster for this country while McCain is more likely to do an adequate job. One thing is certain, he will be better for our national security than either of the Democrats.
The paper’s hit piece might be a gift to McCain in that it will rally people around him who otherwise might have sat out the general election. I am sure that was not their intention when they published the piece but it is certainly having the effect of helping rather than hindering him.
Time will tell if he benefited from the piece and it is still a long way until November. Any of the candidates can slip up between now and then. Obama seems to be the cleanest of the crew because he does not have as long a paper trail but if he wins the nomination people will be digging in the weeds to find the dirt he has left behind.
It would be poetic justice if McCain beat him and the determining factor was the Times hit piece. If McCain wins the presidency one gets the impression that on a Wednesday in November a lot of people at the Times will be jumping from the upper floors of the building.
On the way down they will be screaming; “we have seen the enemy and it is us.”
Others with interesting posts:
The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, WayWard Fundamentalist Christian, 123beta, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Cao’s Blog, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, Pursuing Holiness, Chuck’s Place, Nuke Gingrich, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Celebrity Smack, Wolf Pangloss, , Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.