Tag: Obama

Uh-oh: Howard Dean: Dems 'In Deep Trouble' On Health Care

Here we have one of the textbook examples of why you do not overreach in your campaign promises. It looks like the Democrats are in deep trouble over Healthcare:

One of the leading progressive champions of health care reform is pessimistic about the state of the debate in the Senate, saying he sees virtually no path to passing strong legislation and predicting potential congressional losses for Democrats as a consequence.

Former DNC Chair Howard Dean told the Huffington Post on Monday that Senate Democratic leadership was “in deep trouble” on health care, even after Majority Leader Harry Reid cobbled together over the weekend the 60 votes needed to get legislation to the floor. The problem was as much about politics as policy.

“I think if you passed the Senate bill tomorrow it would be OK. But then the problem is they don’t have any defense for their members in 2010,” Dean said, noting that the public option would not become operational until 2014. “On the other hand, if they drop the public option [to placate moderate members], I think they lose seats.”

“So this is really tough. I didn’t anticipate being in this position. I thought it would pass. Maybe Harry has some magic up his sleeve. But I don’t see how he gets those four votes [Sens. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.)] without compromising the bill,” Dean concluded.

via Dean: Dems ‘In Deep Trouble’ On Health Care, The Only Options Are A Bad Bill Or 2010 Losses.

This situation here is what happens when a Political Party gets extremely arrogant and thinks that there will be no opposition to their plans. The Democrats thought that because of the screw-ups of George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress that the Democrats would be able to run rough shod over everything and everyone and get their agenda fulfilled. They have since discovered that plan is not going to work. That is because not everyone is on board with the far leftist socialism of the White House. What we are seeing here is a repeat of 1994. When the Democrats lost control of congress; and the sitting President got moderate fast.

However, this time, I believe the Democrats have much more to lose. Such as credibility, I say that because the Democrats horrifically oversold this President and themselves in general. The Democrats had many people thinking lots of crazy stuff; and now, it seems that the honeymoon is over and many on the left are realizing that the sell job was nothing more than a well-fabricated lie. I knew this well before anyone else. In fact, I said as much on this blog, back when Obama first started gaining in popularity, that they were totally over marketing the President as a messianic figure to the Democrats and to the far-left; and it was nothing more than over-zealous marketing.

This healthcare debacle could spell the end or at least a marginalizing of that Party for a long time to come. Howard Dean knows the score; he has people on the ground. If he says the Democrats are in trouble, call the ambulance, because there is a serious problem.

Chris Matthews finally decides act like an objective journalist

NewsBusters is treating this like a shocking moment; but I am not buying that at all. Chris Matthews must have finally figured out that President Barack Obama is much like his old boss Jimmy Carter. Because it seems that Matthews is finally climbing out of the tank and is finally going to report the truth about the President. This is no shocker to me, unlike some here on the right, I do not have a short term memory; back before President Obama was elected, Matthews was getting in trouble with the left for stuff that would come out of his mouth, mostly about Hillary Clinton.

The Video:

Transcript:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back. The word these days is optics, visuals, signals. In the Carter presidency, the optics were not exactly robust, and Ronald Reagan rode that to a big victory in 1980. Is the Obama White House sending some Carteresque signals these days? Some see that in the deep bow to the Emperor of Japan, an unforced error say critics. Then there was, there was what happened in China: Obama got nothing in the way of concessions over there in spite of playing the polite visitor. And his effort to speak directly to the Chinese was jammed by the government. Third, that decision to try the terrorists up in that federal court in New York City. Again, nothing that had to be done, and critics say it shows that Obama, his team doesn’t understand this is a war we’re in. David, that’s the question. These optics are everything in a president. Carter used to carry that garment bag over his shoulder. This president is he making mistakes like in China like in Japan?

DAVID IGNATIUS, WASHINGTON POST : I think he is coming across as stiff. He is talking too much sometimes and communicating too little. So the opposite of what we saw during the campaign. Although the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York apparently was Eric Holder’s, it strikes me that it really is a mistake. I mean, there are too many bad things that could happen. There is no reason to have to have done this. And, you know, it’s a political feel for decision-making. That wonderful thing you just did about President Johnson’s feel for the moment. That’s what I think is missing now with this group in the White House. I don’t know where it’s gone. They certainly had it during the campaign. Maybe they’ll get it back. But it’s missing now.

MATTHEWS: It’s the political touch. You were in China. You just got back. Tell me about that. The president tried to speak to the Chinese people and apparently it was jammed. Tell me about that.

ANNE KORNBLUT, WASHINGTON POST: This was the big moment of the whole trip to Asia in fact, eight days in Asia he was going to speak to Chinese students in Shanghai unfiltered at least in his answers, and in fact the Chinese government, you know, they allowed the event to take place, but it was only shown locally on Shanghai television. People didn’t see it. The one piece of news he made in it saying that the internet should be free and people should have access dribbled out to the Chinese public and then started being deleted from all the Chinese websites. So, then, the following day he held a quote unquote press conference with the Chinese President Hu Jintao in which there were no questions and they read statements. Now, this is of course, this is the Chinese, it’s their home turf. They were allowed to do what they wanted to. That was the White House’s argument. And the White House haggled with them to get it more open.

MATTHEWS: The White House got jammed here. Did they know this was coming, that it wouldn’t get to the people?

KORNBLUT: Sure. They knew, previous presidents had been allowed to reach the Chinese public. They knew that it might or might not. It did. But they didn’t have to stand there at a press conference, call it a press conference, and not answer questions. And I think they’re expect, they may have raised expectations a little for how much they were going to be able to do.

Again, I am glad to see that Chris Matthews is actually starting to do his job and being an objective journalist and not some “In the Tank” apologist for the President. While doing so might not endure him to many on the far left; it will in fact possibly earn him some respect from some of us on the right. I have always viewed Chris Matthews as a “Left of Center” Bill O’Reilly and I respected him for not letting the far right or the far left come on his show and spout talking points. Chris always held their feet to the fire and made them look like idiots, if said people were programmed spokespersons. In short, I am glad to see that Chris Matthews is actually playing hardball again and no longer playing the DNC’s game of softball.

The Democratic Party is scared to death of Sarah Palin

Lookie what bounced into my inbox:

Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn.

It’s dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term “Death Panels” — and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists.

Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform.

As we approach the final sprint on health reform, we can’t afford more deception and delay. We need to be ready for anything — and have the resources to respond with ads, events, and calls to Congress when the attacks come.

So we’re setting a big goal: $500,000 in the next week to help push back against Sarah Palin and her allies. Please chip in $5 or more to help reach our goal.

Please donate

Earlier this month, Palin publicly said that she hopes health reform will be “dead on arrival.” And since then, she’s been working fiercely toward that goal.

On Tuesday, Palin went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show where she outrageously — and falsely — suggested that Americans could “face jail time as punishment” if they don’t buy insurance.

Palin has many more interviews scheduled on Hannity and other conservative shows in the next few weeks, with more platforms to go after the President. As soon as she does, the rest of our opponents will likely parrot those attacks.

We need to be prepared. And we’re counting on you help. Can you chip in $5 or more?

http://my.democrats.org/SarahPalin

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart

Director

Organizing for America

Oh Yeah, they are scared out of their minds.

Breitbart to AG Holder: Do your job douche nozzle or we will burn the Democrats come 2010!

Oh Man, there’s gonna be many a Democrat singing the blues, if Eric Holder does not do his job before 2010.

The Video:

Breitbart: There’s a lot of hypocrisy and the dust has settled for ACORN and at the end of the day they’ve recognized that Eric Holder, the Attorney General, has not initiated an investigation into ACORN after we now have seven tapes. There were five initially that came out, ACORN was defunded by the Senate, was defunded by the House, lost it’s link to the Census; while all that damage occurred, Congress didn’t come in to investigate them, obviously not the Attorney General’s office, and they’ve now realized let’s get back into business because they realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated, it was Hannah, James, and me who were being investigated, that’s why we’ve been forced to offer this latest tape.

Hannity: Are you saying, Andrew, that there are more tapes?

Breitbart: Oh my goodness there are! Not only are there more tapes, it’s not just ACORN. And this message is to Attorney General Holder: I want you to know that we have more tapes, it’s not just ACORN, and we’re going to hold out until the next election cycle, or else if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have, we will comply with you, we will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward but are fearful of this organization and the retribution that they fear that this is a dangerous organization. So if you get into an investigation, we will give you the tapes; if you don’t give us the tapes, we will revisit these tapes come election time.

Hannity: This is a blockbuster, what you’re saying here. You guys have more tapes, you’ll release them before the election, that could have a big impact on the election, obviously…

via Big Government  – Breitbart to AG Holder: Investigate ACORN or We’ll Release More Tapes Just Before 2010 Election.

Needless to say; this election cycle coming in 2010 is going to be an extremely interesting one.  😯 If I were holder, I would be contacting Andrew and pronto. Because if there is something huge that Andrew is sitting on, like a corruption tape, involving say, The President. The fall out would be huge; As in Richard Nixon kind of huge.

Others: Townhall.com, Moe Lane, Top of the Ticket, Stop The ACLU and YID With LID

Major Nidal Hasan to radical cleric: "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife

Unbelievable.

United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, “I can’t wait to join you” in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009.

“It sounds like code words,” said Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a military analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. “That he’s actually either offering himself up or that he’s already crossed that line in his own mind.”

Other messages include questions, the official with access to the e-mails said, that include when is jihad appropriate, and whether it is permissible if there are innocents killed in a suicide attack.

“Hasan told Awlaki he couldn’t wait to join him in the discussions they would having over non-alcoholic wine in the afterlife,” the official said.

via Major Hasan’s E-Mail: ‘I Can’t Wait to Join You’ in Afterlife – ABC News.

But yet, our feckless idiotic President will not call this what it is; the worst act of terrorism since 9/11. Could it be because our President secretly sympathizes with this crazy mans actions? Sometimes I wonder.

Countdown to Liberals crying rAAAAcism in 5…4….3…2

Others: The Jawa Report, YID With LID, The Strata-Sphere

Quote of the Day

Douglas MacArthur, who ranked above mere heads of state in his own mind, once invented his own protocol on greeting Emperor Hirohito. The emperor, the father of Akihito, wanted to meet MacArthur soon after he arrived to become the military regent of Japan in 1945, perhaps to thank him for saving the throne at the end of World War II. When the emperor invited MacArthur to call on him, the general sent word that the emperor should call on him – speaking of breaches of custom – and the two men were photographed together, astonishing the Japanese. The emperor arrived in full formal dress, cutaway coat and all, and MacArthur received him in summer khakis, sans tie, with his hands stuffed casually in his back pockets. Further astonishing the Japanese, he towered over the diminutive emperor.

But Mr. Obama, unlike his predecessors, likely knows no better, and many of those around him, true children of the grungy’s, are contemptuous of custom. Cutting America down to size is what attracts them to “hope” for “change.” It’s no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of “the 57 states” is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream.

He no doubt wants to “do the right thing” by his lights, but the lights that illumine the Obama path are not necessarily the lights that illuminate the way for most of the rest of us. This is good news only for Jimmy Carter, who may yet have to give up his distinction as our most ineffective and embarrassing president.


Conservative Bloggers ask "What on earth is Obama doing?"

Smitty over at R.S. McCain’s blog asks “What if he really wants to be impeached?”

I submit that the continued provocations such as the KSM trial, the obsession with the previous administration, the wrenching changes from spendthrift to fiscal hawk could, if he’s a committed con man, be deliberate provocations towards impeachment.

I’m throwing out the idea that the ultimate Blame America piece will be when, pushed beyond all tolerance, there is a serious demand for impeachment. The con has reaped all of the desired financial rewards, and needs to exit the stage before the bankruptcy of the domestic policy meets the bankruptcy of the foreign policy somewhere around his head. The shiny factor of being POTUS is all drained away, leaving more disgruntled voters than W ever faced.

This is a bizarre possibility. I’d laugh at it, if not for the series of bizarre incidents that form 2009.

Jimmie Bise at the Sundries Shack says:

the trial does give the President a chance to make the pouty lip about the sins of America, which the world could love if only she’d throw off the bleak cloak of Bushism, while promising that he’ll put everything. But that’s his go-to and I’m pretty sure that’s he’s practiced that routine enough to do it whether KSM is standing tall before a judge in Manhattan or a military tribunal in Gitmo.

Shannon Love over at Chicago Boyz says:

For over two hundred years we were careful to keep a firewall between civil and martial law. We did so because civil and martial law are polar opposites. Civil law is focused on protecting the rights of the accused against the overwhelming power of the state. When there is doubt, the accused walks free. Martial law is focused on imposing a minimal order on bloody chaos. It was focused on allowing the military to complete its mission and win wars. When there is doubt, the accused is presumed guilty.

Now, Obama wants to bring martial law into a civil court room in Manhattan. In order to let a civil conviction of KSM stand, the higher courts will have to overturn almost all the current constitutional protections of the accused.

The Neo-Neo Con Says:

…Obama has some of the qualities of the best con artists. That’s not to say that Obama is literally a con man; he’s not pulling the old Spanish Prisoner scam. But he shares more than a few of their attributes.

Obama held himself out to be one thing during the election (a bipartisan moderate), and on taking office became quite the opposite. Cons, like Obama, are ordinarily out to deceive people as to their true purposes. But it’s an error to think they come across as sleazy. The most effective ones are unusually likeable and charming, even as they pull off their scams. This likeability is not a tangential characteristic of con artists, either; it is a central one.

“Con”, after all, is short for “confidence”. The con artist works by gaining the victim’s confidence and trust. The successful con artist is so very likeable, in fact, that he seems especially credible, and people who might otherwise be wary and cynical drop their guard around him. They don’t examine him too closely, so great is their desire to believe.

Contradictions are waved away. Acts that would arouse suspicion if they were committed by someone else are excused. Important omissions go unnoticed. Inconsistencies are rationalized. Shady company is defended or ignored. Sound familiar?

The con artist is able to gain trust by using the right vocal inflections to fit the mark (or, in Obama’s case, the audience), changing accents and speech patterns to match. In addition, a con doesn’t usually stay in one place very long (it has been remarked how often Obama changed jobs) because, although people may not catch on to his game all that quickly, he is afraid that if he sticks around they eventually will.

President Barack Obama Flip Flops again

This comes via BreitBart TV:

Way to go Barry…..

Others: Scared Monkeys, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Stop The ACLU, Macsmind, Atlas Shrugs and Redhot