Tag: Obama

Video: The President Backpeddles

First the Video:

Via The Politico:

President Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Friday in an attempt to tamp down the escalating controversy over his comments on the Monday arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates by the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department.

Just hours after Cambridge police union officials called on Obama to apologize for saying the officers involved in the incident with Gates behaved “stupidly,” Obama conceded that he erred in his “choice of words.”

Obama said he spoke to James Crowley, the sergeant who arrested Gates, “and I have to tell you that, as I said yesterday, my impression of him is that he was an outstanding police officer…and that was confirmed in the phone conversation.”

“In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically,” Obama said, walking back his sharpest criticism.

But, the president said: “I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Prof. Gates out of his home and to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Prof. Gates probably overreacted as well.”

Let me get this straight; The President is saying that he should not have called the Police Department stupid? But he still things that both guys overreacted?  In other words; they are not stupid, but they both hotheads. All one has to do, is go over to the smoking gun and you will see what happened.

The simple truth is Gates knew that he could provoke a situation because he was black. Just that simple. If the President believes anything other than that. He is much more stupid that I thought. The simple truth is that Obama is siding with this idiot because he is black. So, Obama is totally biased in this situation.

The truth is this, the Media threw him a curve ball and he took the bait and inserted himself into a local situation and in that process has made himself look very small and petty.

So much for a Post-Racial President!

Obama's poll numbers continue to drop

You know it is a slow news day; when you have to look at another Conservative Blog for see if there is any news at all.

Good Lord.

According to the latest Rasmussen Report: (H/T to Ed Morrissey, who can find news anywhere! 😀 )

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 30% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8 (see trends).

Just 25% believe that the economic stimulus package has helped the economy.

Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. Today marks the first time his overall approval rating has ever fallen below 50% among Likely Voters nationwide. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Democrats continue to approve of the President’s performance while 80% of Republicans disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 37% offer a positive assessment. The President earns approval from 51% of women and 47% of men.

Wow. What a huge drop! The President’s poll number has dropped faster than I’ve ever seen before. At least since I have been paying attention to such stuff. Of course, A liberal will say that Bush’s numbers dropped too. Sure; but it did not happen so fast. Bush maintained high poll numbers for well into his Presidency. That was until the Iraq War turned ugly. That was when, finally, his numbers started tanking.

Heck, even Bill Clinton’s numbers did not start tanking badly until the Lewinsky Scandal hit. So, this is a major development. This could very well spell the beginning of the end of the romance between America and the President. The newness could very well be wearing off rather quickly.

I have few theories as to why this is:

  • The Economy: So far there has been no big clear sign, that the Bush Initiated and Obama expanded Stimulus Package has even worked.  Perhaps a few token projects, in a attempt to make the Administration look good to the American people. But so far, no real progress has even begun.
  • The Stock Market: I realize that this one and the previous point might be intertwined, but for the purposes of explaining, I separated them. Anyone who has even remotely follow the markets, knows what I am talking about. The Markets are totally unstable, one minute the markets are swirling the drain, the next minute they are soaring. That makes investors nervous and distrust the leadership in Washington D.C.; Plus, most hardcore Capitalists are not too thrilled about the idea of the Government venturing into the Private sector.
  • Unemployment: Unemployment is still rising, it is now at 9.7 Percent. Here in Michigan it is at 15.4 percent across all 7 market sectors. The folks see this and they blame the Governmental leadership.
  • Obama’s Healthcare Plan: This is perhaps the biggest reason Obama poll numbers are going through the floor. Most rational thinking Americans just do not like the idea of the United States Government telling them that they MUST take some sort of insurance plan or they will be taxed. There are some, like this writer; who find that to be a infringement upon my Constitutional rights. Thus this would cause Obama poll numbers to drop dramatically.
  • Broken Campaign Promises: Gosh, Where does one even start here? Transparency Promise, Broken. Promise to end the Iraq War, when Obama took office; Changed and then, Broken. I am sure that there are many more that he has broken, I just do not remember them all. To be fair, Bush broke many himself; Some were for the good. Like the Privatizing of Social Security. That is one, that I am personally glad to see did not get fulfilled. Seeing how the markets crashed.
  • Overexposure: AllahPundit over at HotAir wrote about this last night. It is quite true, Obama has had four major news conferences. People are just sick and tired of seeing the President on T.V. trying to get his agenda passed. They would rather just not see him all the time. They elected him; great. Now, please, get to work sir! That is basically the feeling of the American people; at least I believe so anyhow.

To sum this up. Obama needs to work on being the President and quit trying to be a rock star. It could only help.

Local News: Michigan Unemployement rates are now at 15.2 percent, across ALL Markets

Oh Wonderful…. 🙄

Lansing — Unemployment rates rose in all 17 of Michigan’s major labor markets in June.

The loss of manufacturing jobs and of seasonal employment in education drove up the unemployment rates announced by the state Thursday. Michigan gained seasonal tourism jobs.

All of Michigan’s regional markets had unemployment rates of more than 10 percent last month, ranging from a low of 10.6 percent in Ann Arbor to a high of 17.4 percent in Flint.

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Two rural counties, Baraga and Oscoda, each had jobless rates of more than 20 percent.

Regional unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted. National and state unemployment rates are adjusted to remove seasonal influences.

Michigan’s statewide seasonally adjusted rate of 15.2 percent was highest in the nation.

via Unemployment rates rise across Mich. —  The Detroit News.

Just another perfect example of the failure of the socialist Democrat polices in my wonderful state. When will the fine people of Michigan wake up and realize that the Democrats have nothing, but their own special interests in mind and vote these socialist twits out of office, once and for all?

I will not hold my breath, least I turn blue and die.

Michigan needs change, but not what Obama and Socialist goon Jennifer Granholm have mind.

I have come to a conclusion about the President

That he is either abysmally ignorant or grossly naive.

The reason I say this, is because now, Obama is now saying that he is shocked SHOCKED that there would be any uproar over him calling the police dept “Stupid” for how they handled race-baiter and general stupid idiot, Henry Gates.

ABC News reports:  (Please,be sure and watch the video, please, I cannot embed it here)

President Obama today stood by his comments that the Cambridge, Mass., police department acted “stupidly” in its arrest of Henry Louis Gates, telling ABC News that the Harvard University professor should not have been arrested.

“I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement, because I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don’t need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who’s in his own home,” Obama said.

In an exclusive interview with ABC’s Terry Moran to air on “Nightline” tonight, Obama said it doesn’t make sense to him that the situation escalated to the point that Gates was arrested.

“I think that I have extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job that police officers do,” the president told Moran. “And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed. That’s my suspicion.”

The president said he understands the sergeant who arrested Gates is an “outstanding police officer.” But he added that with all that’s going on in the country with health care and the economy and the wars abroad, “it doesn’t make sense to arrest a guy in his own home if he’s not causing a serious disturbance.”

It is quite obvious that Obama is biased in this situation, because he is black. So much for a Post-Racial President! The man still clings to the past racial nonsense of the 1960’s. I guess his Communist mentor in Hawaii had more influence than we thought.

What really perplexes  me, is how Obama is going directly against the Police union:

Crowley and his union slammed the president today for his comments about the incident at Gates’ house last week.

Obama “was dead wrong to malign this police officer specifically and the department in general,” Alan McDonald, the lawyer for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, told ABC News today.

Crowley also chimed in, saying that the president’s characterization was “way off base. … I acted appropriately,” Crowley told WBZ Radio in Boston Thursday.

“I support the president of the United States 110 percent,” Crowley told WBZ. “I think he’s way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts, as he himself stated before he made that comment.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that the president was not calling the Cambridge police officer stupid when he criticized his actions in the Gates incident.

On whether the president regrets the use of his words, Gibbs said: “No. He was not calling the officer stupid. The situation got out of hand.”

Gibbs said he was not aware whether the president had spoken to Gates.

This is part that makes me wonder if the President is dealing with a full deck —- or not. Why I say this is; does the President have any remote clue, how stupid it is to insult a union worker? The Police do have a union, does Obama even know this or realize the implications of crossing the police union? I mean, Obama may as well have called the United Auto Workers, a bunch of lazy bums!  Obama has basically gone against his own base! I mean, does not Obama release that this union is, as are all Union affiliated with the A.F.L-C.I.O; and that these organizations communicate with one another? There is an old saying when it comes to progressive politics; and anything else for that matter, and that is; you just do not bite the hand that feeds you. Obama has just bitten one the biggest hands in progressive politics!

Something tells me, that Obama is going to be doing some serious kissing up here in the next few weeks or else he can forget about running in 2012. Because you just do not stab the unions in the back and expect to be reelected. You would think that Obama, being quite the progressive that he is, would know something like this.I may now be a Conservative; but I do know the inner workings of progressive politics and Unions are a big part of it. Obama might find this out, when it is time for him to be reelected come 2012.

When you have lost the unions, you have basically lost your base and your chances of being reelected.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: No Healthcare Vote Before August Recess

A victory, albeit a minor one:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that the Senate would not attempt to pass sweeping health care reform until after returning from the August recess.

“It’s better to get a product that’s based on quality and thoughtfulness than on trying to just get something through,” Reid told reporters.

Reid said the Senate would try to complete a package in the fall.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Wednesday that he expected that a bill would not be passed before the upper chamber breaks for recess on August 7.

“All this is no surprise to anyone,” Reid said.

Reid also said that the Senate Finance Committee’s long-awaited markup would be completed before the August 7 date.

Reid said Republicans, who have shown intense resistance to President Obama’s push for health care reform, had asked for more time to work out a package.

“We will do what we can to make sure their concerns are not buried,” Reid said.

via Reid: Health care won’t happen before recess – Politico.com.

So, it looks like the President’s little dog and pony show last night was all for naught. Instead of forcing the hand of Congress; Obama succeeded in making himself look like quite the jackass, in front of the American people. Instead of Obama pushing his Healthcare plan; Obama just played the game of trying to reassure the American people. Which, in this writers opinion failed; because he simply dealt in generalities, instead of specifics.

Seems to me that President Obama believes that the entire Democratic Party is just going to roll over and allow this Healthcare bill to pass unchallenged. It just does not work that way. The entire Democratic Party, is just not sold on the idea of President Obama’s far left socialism. The Blue-Dogs as they are called, still believe in free market values. They are just not going to swallow Obama’s agenda; just because he is black.  This was the fatal flaw in the Obama strategy, thinking that he was going to get his way; and if anyone tried to block it, he would play the race card. It worked during the campaign, but it will not work in Washington D.C.; because the Blog Dogs just are not that stupid.

If the Blue Dogs are going to be convinced to pass something like this, they will have to be told how, in very specific terms, this Healthcare program is going to be paid for. So far, Obama has not given that. Only simple generalities; that will not fly with the Blue Dog Democrats at all.

I will continue to cover this interesting little story. Because I want to see what strategy that the Obama Administration employs. I can tell you, that if the Obama Administration tries to employ the “race card”, there could be some backlash from that as well. Because some in the Democratic Party just do not buy into that whole, “Play the card, if you’re losing the argument” strategy. It could cost Obama in poll numbers and possibly in 2012, should he decide to run again.

Update: You can read the round up of opinions on Memeornadum

Open Thread: Obama's Healthcare presser

So, what do you all think about the Press Conference thing tonight on Healthcare?

Some notes:

  1. Steven Green and Dr. Melissa Clouthier live Blogged about it.
  2. I watched Bill OReilly’s reaction to it, it was as I expected. Bill did not understand any of it.
  3. Some in Congress are saying that there will be no vote before summer recess.
  4. Pelosi says that Congress should work till it is passed.
  5. Obama feels that the Blue Dog Democrats are going to ruin his Presidency.
  6. Some feel the Healthcare bill is better than nothing at all.

My take: I watched the presser myself. All I heard were generalities, no details. Mostly talking points and bluster.

So, what do you all think about his Presser?

The more things change…..

The more they stay the same….

Reporting from Washington — Invoking an argument used by President George W. Bush, the Obama administration has turned down a request from a watchdog group for a list of health industry executives who have visited the White House to discuss the massive healthcare overhaul.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.

The Secret Service sent a reply stating that documents revealing the frequency of such visits were considered presidential records exempt from public disclosure laws. The agency also said it was advised by the Justice Department that the Secret Service was within its rights to withhold the information because of the “presidential communications privilege.”

via White House declines to disclose visits by health industry executives – Los Angeles Times.

Hope! Change!

Yeah, Right!

Just another lying Politician, like the rest of them. No Change, at all.

Updated to Add: I did not want to say too much here. Because my shoulder was hurting me pretty bad. It is a little batter and plus, I do want people to come to my blog. This whole thing stinks to high heaven, and even the Liberals are pissed about it; and rightly so. Barack Obama and the other Democratic Party candidates  railed against the Bush Administration for this same very thing during the 2008 election. So, what does Obama do, once he is in the White House? The very same damned thing. President Barack Obama promised total transparency when he was elected and what does he do? Lies out his rather large ass, that’s what! I tend to believe that Obama is going to face a very large backlash here and this one might be his undoing come 2012.

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Bobby Jindal makes a good argument against Socialized Medicine.

Some very good points made here…:

In Washington, it seems history always repeats itself. That’s what’s happening now with health-care reform. This is an unfortunate turn of events for Americans who are legitimately concerned about the skyrocketing cost of a basic human need.

In 1993 and 1994, Hillary Clinton’s health-care reform proposal failed because it was concocted in secret without the guiding hand of public consensus-building, and because it was a philosophical over-reach. Today President Barack Obama is repeating these mistakes.

The reason is plain: The left in Washington has concluded that honesty will not yield its desired policy result. So it resorts to a fundamentally dishonest approach to reform. I say this because the marketing of the Democrats’ plans as presented in the House of Representatives and endorsed heartily by President Obama rests on three falsehoods.

First, Mr. Obama doggedly promises that if you like your (private) health-care coverage now, you can keep it. That promise is hollow, because the Democrats’ reforms are designed to push an ever-increasing number of Americans into a government-run health-care plan.

If a so-called public option is part of health-care reform, the Lewin Group study estimates over 100 million Americans may leave private plans for government-run health care. Any government plan will benefit from taxpayer subsidies and be able to operate at a financial loss—competing unfairly in the marketplace until private plans are driven out of business. The government plan will become so large that it will set, rather than negotiate, prices. This will inevitably lead to monopoly, with a resulting threat to the quality of our health care

via Bobby Jindal’s Bipartisan Health-Care Reform – WSJ.com.

Of course, when Bobby Jindal makes this Argument:

Second, the Democrats disingenuously argue their reforms will not diminish the quality of our health care even as government involvement in the delivery of that health care increases massively. For all of us who have seen the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to hurricanes, this contention is laughable on its face.

Zendar The Stupid writes:

On number 2, I see Bobby still hasn’t learned the lesson of the difference between “There are things the government can and should provide” and “Let’s underfund these services, they waste money.” You get no cred talking about FEMA as a Republican, because your state didn’t exactly pick up the slack there after Katrina, Bob.

This argument is so damn stupid, that it is absolutely pathetic. Hence the name of this idiot’s blog. In case Mr. Stupid has forgotten, Bobby Jindal was NOT the Governor during Katrina.  Kathleen Blanco; a Democrat, was in office. A Democrat who did not have a damn clue as to how to run a State. To cover for her blatant inability to run a State Government, she tried to blame BUSH for the failures during the Katrina Disaster. Nice try at spin there buddy, but this Blogger clearly remembers that whole little incident and how the Liberal Media tried to use it to slime Bush.

Funny how when the Liberals begin to lose an argument they have to resort to Ad-Hominem attacks and straw man arguments. Losing the Healthcare debate? Blame Bush! Economy in the toilet? Stimulus not working? Blame Bush! It is quite lame, but very humorous to watch.

Here we go again — Bitter and Clingy Part II

First the Video via Verum Serum:

John sums it up quite nicely:

You begin to get the idea that, underneath all his efforts to talk to people like adults, he thinks there are really just two camps: Courageous progressives, e.g. himself and people who agree with him, and backward bumpkins who huddle around failure because they’re too afraid to be more like…him.

It must be an empowering way to see the world. It’s also arrogant, elitist and false. But I wonder if any of that can compare to the psychic kick of seeing oneself as a superhero among benighted mortals.

Rough translation:  President Barack Obama thinks the following: “‘Dem stupid Conservative honkey Hillbillies don’t know what good for ‘da Country; I do. ‘Cause I’m black and I’m down with ‘da struggle and chit…”

Ed Morrissey, who is much more refined that me, sums it up nicely as well:

Remember when Obama scoffed at the notion that he was an elitist during the campaign? I wrote at the time that Obama was deliberately confusing “elites” and “elitism”, and that having a sitting US Senator attempting to deny his elite status was a little odd anyway. This is a perfect display of elitism — someone telling people that they don’t know how to calculate their own self-interest and declaring that a few people in Washington can figure that out for them better than they can themselves. It’s patronizing, condescending, and in fact is the very kind of attitude that created the impulse for our separation from the paternalistic monarchy that refused to allow for the notion that the colonies should have a say in their own governance.

NYT Headline: HotAir’s Ed Morrissey calls for a Revolution against the Government! :rotfl: 😉

I kid, I kid! 😀 :-)) :laugh: :rotfl:

This above is another reason why I will never, ever vote for another Democrat for as long as I live. Because they snivel at the common class people; who disagree with them.  Janeane Garofalo proved this to me, which she uttered these works on Keith Olbermann’s show:

Which was when I decided that I no longer wanted to listen to what Mr. Olbermann had to say any longer.  You see, I am nowhere near to the far, far right that some of my fellow Conservatives are. I have always considered myself to be a bit of a moderate, in the sense that I just do not believe that the Republican Party has all of the answers. However, when I see a liberal Democrat actress getting on National TV; who is most likely not hurting for money, and sit there and call average working Americans rednecks and racists —- all because they happen to disagree with the President’s politics; there is something abysmally wrong with the politics that she represents.

The real kicker is the fact that these were the same group of people, that moaned to the high heavens about how the Conservatives were being “meanies” for saying that the Liberals were being Anti-American for not supporting George W. Bush and his policies. Albeit idiotic as some of them were; it still seems quite hypocritical to this writer, that the Liberals are engaging in some of the idiotic behavior that liberal Blogs and Media lambasted when the Republicans were holding the ball, so to speak.

But this is really nothing new really. I am sure this sort of nonsense has went on for years. It just has been become much noticeable to me. Because I have been paying attention to politics since running this blog. The overreach that has been taking place, so far; during the Obama Administration is classic, it happened during Clinton’s era, During Carter’s era. It even happened during both the Reagan and both Bush Administrations as well. Politicians always overreach, make promises they cannot keep, it is nothing new at all.

The tragic thing is this, Obama made a great deal of promises to many people that had never voted before. Many of thee people are not old enough to remember many of the previous Administration’s overreaches and hallow promises.   This could hurt Obama greatly come 2010, in the form of rejection of his Democratic Senators and Congressman and hurt him, should he decide to run in 2012.