Obama: You just don’t get how great I am
If you’ll all excuse a drive by posting by a really busy guy:
Obama told Charlie Rose today that his biggest failing as President was that he didn’t spend enough time communicating how successful he is to the spooked herd of sheeple roaming the American countryside which constitute the voting (or polled) public. You see, he’s been doing a bang up job as President, he just hasn’t worked hard enough to let you know about it. But don’t let me tell you, take it from him:
“The mistake of my first term – couple of years – was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.”
President Obama said he’s fallen short in “explaining, but also inspiring” the American public, which is why he has been spending more time traveling the country.
He continued, “It’s funny – when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job? And in my first two years, I think the notion was, ‘Well, he’s been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where’s the story that tells us where he’s going?’ And I think that was a legitimate criticism.”
Get it?
Now of course one can make a convincing argument that Obamacare, the largest give away from the rich and middle class to the poor since LBJ, is a huge PR problem. After all, it’s always been more unpopular than popular yet the Democratic Party has spent the past 50 years winning votes by giving away other people’s money in just such fashion. As George Bernard Shaw once said to inadvertently indicted his own Progressivism, “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
So what’s the disconnect here?
Explaining away the rest of the tangible numbers over the past four years as him not spending enough time with the American public on his knee might prove to be a bit more difficult.
Category: Politics
Looking at over a trillion dollar defecit for the 4th year in a row. Yeah, I think this guy’s got more problems than just communication.
This is satyrical, right? comrade banana is the biggest POS to ever reside in the white
House!!! He’s trying to turn my beloved America into a socialist state and has sold us out to every tin horn despot and dictator in the world! The POTUS BOWING to other heads of state?! I’m surpassed he hasn’t dipped my flag to those same assh0les! He makes me sick.
The dog don’t like the dog food…sucks no matter how many times you explain it tastes good and is good for you.
Oh, but obama DID tell us a story! Unfortunately, it was a “Cock and Bull” story.
Well come on now, it’s HARD WORK campaigning and telling everyone what a great guy you are in between trips to Martha’s Vineyard and rounds of golf.
Lobster, anyone?
Didn’t tell the story??
All he has done is tell stories. Stories are not the problem. His ability to tell the truth is the problem. Being able to recognize honor when he sees it may be on the short list as well.
Understanding that his being able to live his life as he chooses is not enhanced by destroying the way the rest of us live kinda blankets all his other problems.
It’s called the bully pulpit, and it’s been pathetic the way he’s ignored it, allowed a few billionaires and right wing crackpots to define his administration, which has been far from perfect, but does have some very significant accomplishments to its credit.
Funny, from my side of the fence it seems that he spent ‘way too much time explaining and formulating policy positions and apologizing to foreign leaders, and ‘way too little doing anything really constructive. (I don’t consider most of the bailouts constructive, by the way.) The man may be a good speaker and many may think he’s wonderful, but I find that as is said here in Texas “he’s all hat and no cattle”
Joe loves the stuttering clusterf@ck of a miserable failure. Joe thinks its a messaging problem too. Not trillion dollar deficits, 8%+ unemployment (15% real unemployment),a pathetic GDP, a push for socialized medicine rejected by 60-70% of the public, Solyndra, hundreds of dead Mexicans and a border agent or a dysfunctional foreign policy. Oh and it’s all because of right wing “crackpots” and billionaires that people don’t get it. See?
Come on man, does no one have an objective view anymore? Comrade banana? Could you be any more racist? Admin, why the hell did you even let that guy post that? As far as American being turned into a socialist state, how? How has any of these “socialist” policies directly affected you? But hey, maybe you’re right. Because we NEVER had any socialist programs before Obama, like social security, government subsidizing of farming and various other industries, etc… So you have a point, let’s get rid of ObamaCare and we will be back to the grand old capitalist state that we once were.
Or is it possible that we have never been, or will never be a pure capitalist state. Why America kicks so much ass is because we are based in capitalism, but we take good points from other government and integrate them into our own.
And another thing, as far as Obama bashing. I remember when Bush was president, and all of those liberal’s were basing him left and right. Un-American bastards were even saying “I’m moving to Canada to get away from this fascist”. But I supported him every step of the way, because he was the president. Then Obama gets elected, and conservatives do the EXACT SAME THING that they liberals were doing with Bush.
It’s not Obama that is tearing the country apart. Nor was it Bush or the congress. It’s us. We, the American people as a whole, are filled with so much hate that we are blinded by it, and can’t even agree on anything anymore. It’s this sort of mindset of “If you’re not with me, you’re against me” crap that is ripping this country apart at the seams. We all need to understand that the left is always going to be the left, and the right is always going to be the right. So we can work together, or we cry and fight for decades like 5 year olds.
Oh and if it weren’t for a racial tribal loyalty, if B+rry was a white Democrat (or Republican) with his record his approval ratings would be in the low 30’s. That’s the truly sad part.
Joe, before you go off on your regularly scheduled tangent, consider who controls the media or the dissemination of the message.
The Koch brothers, you say? Really? Soros and other lefties have sat on their hands, letting the political process play out?
Or could it be that we’ve heard such whoppers as, “I won–get over it” or “Ready to rule on day one” among others that has turned people off. His utter tone-deafness at what the American people want, as evidenced by the 2010 midterm results and current polling for he and many other Democrats facing re-election, says a lot more about who’s ignored what.
And Dave, he’s only a “wonderful speaker” as long as the teleprompter is on. Turn it off and watch what happens.
“Go fuck yourself, San Diego!”
What is it with you get along to go along crowd Anonymous? American politics has always been a rough business. Stop harkening back to the grand old days where we all got along. They never existed. Citizens passionately disagree about policy and ideology. I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in a better country. Not one buried in debt where their prospects for economic advancement and happiness are dead. You may choose to ignore the differences that result from philosophy and outlook. But please stop pretending you’re the adult and the rest of us are petty children arguing about incidentals.
@10–having hallucinations? Because I sure as hell don’t see “Comrade Banana” anywhere except your post.
Then again, some people just look for shit to be offended by. Guess you’re one of them.
And how have those “socialist policies” affected me? Well, here’s a short list:
–Stagnant job market
–Declining home values
–Inability to obtain credit
–Compensation of said jobs flat or declining
–State taxes increasing to make up for what they no longer get from feds to perpetuate the gluttonous public employee rolls.
Start to get it now? And for the record, I’ve never seen anyone make a movie about Obama’s assasination, never seen a college kid running around with a t-shirt of Obama with the caption, “Not My President” or TV/radio hosts calling for his execution. So NO, Obama has been treated FAR better than Bush ever was, even right after 9/11.
@10–Just noticed it. But as I’ve said, some people have to look for shit to be offended by.
I watched the video of Baracka and Charlie Rose. Baracka’s eyes were all over the landscape, except on either his questioner or the camera.
The first day of training on interrogations, the instructor pointed out that liars unconciously refuse to look the questioner in the eye when trying to pass a whopper. He would have laughed his ass off over this charade of a “statement”. The only puzzling thing, to me, was why he’d give himself away so easily, he’s had years and years to practice the Big Lie.
Oh, and Joey? Nobody has had to “define his administration”, he’s done the job himself. Can you say Solyndra, Fast & Furious, Fisker, Trillion $ deficits?
Yeah, UpNorth, kinda like when a shrink diagnoses a patient he’s never met.
Holy Mary Mother of God! @10 a “banana” is a racist comment?!? The rest of your post looked like the stuff my 4 y/o granddaughter ‘writes’ on my computer or IPad.
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You have ZERO credibility with me and I'm sure others. As a Hispanic and as a victim of racism, that's the last thing I'd ever do. My father, also a victim of racism, raised us to recognize an asshole as an asshole. It didn't matter if they were brown, black, white, green or purple.
Obama’s problem is anything but one of messaging. He’s been quite consistent and quite effective in communicating that message. Including, but not starting with, his infamous “Gods and guns” snark to a full-on leftist audience in San Francisco. That’s an excellent example of a well thought out expression of Obama’s core beliefs – a disdain for rural white Americans who maintain their own deeply held cultural beliefs in religion and the constitution, both anathema to Obama and his supporters, Anonymous and otherwise. That’s simply one example, but believe me, Obama’s problem is not one of “getting the policies rights but failing to communicate.” He’s a disingenuous, uncompromising dogmatic ideologue who, in all fairness, communicates quite well. Taking exception with the super-wonderful Steny Hoyer et al, I have absolutely no misapprehensions about the “Affordable Health Care Act” or the rest of their culturally destructive agenda.
Or yellow, in the banana’s case, you racist bastard.
“Comrade banana? Could you be any more racist?”
Really Anon? How is this racist? Is it racist to give a general insult based on a name or political ideal? Last time I checked, racism was insulting someone based on their race, not insulting someone of a different race. I used to call a guy I worked with an @ss all the time who was black, does that make me racist? He was an @ss and I called others the same thing.
My big thing is how much of his past is he going to hide from us. Let’s see those college transcripts which EVERY President has had to show (but he classified). Let’s see those tax returns and student loan information that EVERY President has had to show (but he classified). Let’s see those social security cards (yes, he has more than one), and birth certificate without three years of litigation. Let’s see the media actually ask the difficult questions and work for the people (not sit in the President’s pocket like now).
However, as Anon up there pointed out, any dissenting opinions on the President makes you a racist. Hell, even West was labeled a racist for speaking out about the President, and West comes from TWO black parents! People never claimed racism when Bush was being ripped apart in the media. No, they claimed it was democracy. So, what changed?
Oh, right. A black man was elected, so if you run against him, speak out against him, or even roll your eyes at his policies, you are a racist. Who is saying this stuff? Well, let’s just look. The organizations that are almost universally anti-white racists. But, since racism is only white against black, I guess there is no problem.
Oh, yeah. Speaking of racist… Why is the Black community facing almost 30% unemployment under a Black president while the nation is facing almost 14%? Hmm… guess the administration must be racist.
Yay!!!! Joe’s back and really wasn’t locked away in his momma’s basement!! Or did you just off restriction, Joey, you bad, bad boy?
Flagwaver: in the deluded world of those who see everything through racist lenses, calling someone “comrade banana” is tantamount to calling him an “ape”. Have you already forgotten that “ape” is an inherently racist term? Intent doesn’t matter. Just ask SPC NO-GO.
@14, working in the finance industry, I can see that you are somewhat uneducated in these problems derectly affecting you. –Stagnant job market – Repercussions of the recession as a result of Greenspan’s deregulation of the finance industry. He was chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987-2006. This is also because when the Recession hit, many skill employees were laid off, thus creating a surplus of skilled job seekers on the market and creating a much competitive environment. Just last fall, the former president of Dell said to me, and I quote “Consider yourself lucky if you find a job, here in Austin, MBAs are a dime a dozen”. –Declining home values – Result of the housing bubble that was also the result of deregulation –Inability to obtain credit – You’ve got a point there, unless your credit score is in the toilet. –Compensation of said jobs flat or declining – Compensation is a choice made by a company, not the Federal Government. Also, unemployment has been going down. The unemployment rates are also a result of the Recession. –State taxes increasing to make up for what they no longer get from feds to perpetuate the gluttonous public employee rolls – So, the complaint here is the government is tightening its spending (as I’m sure that you support), but you are pissed at the repercussions? What would one expect to happen when everyone is yelling for the government to cut spending? So, do you want the government to spend more or less? You can’t have both. In summation, as with most people, your hate is misplaced. Thing have been getting a lot better since the Recession (which was not caused by the current administration, but by the decades preceding it). If you are pissed because things didn’t get better, faster, OK. But don’t try and lay the cause of the above listed problems at the foot of the current administration. That’s just hating to hate. @18, so what did you mean by “Comrade Banana”? Why did you chose the word banana? Maybe I got mixed up, but we’ve got a… Read more »
@18, one more thing. Don’t give me that crap about because your are Hispanic, your aren’t racist. Over the course of my life, some of the most racist people I’ve ever meet were minorities themselves. I know this because of the time spent with my wife’s family, who are also Hispanic. That’s not to say that all minorities are racist, just the majority of racists that I have met were minorities.
If you’re in Austin, you’re not from the South. Texass is not the damned South, and I’m tired of hearing that crap.
And it’s called assonance – “ba-na-na”/”o-ba-ma”.
I have NEVER (and I AM from the South) seen such racial polarization in my nearly-4 decades of life as I have with the proponents of this administration. What the holy hell???? There are plenty of reasons to dislike ALL of the man, not just his melanin-heavy half.
It’s too bad Hope and Change meant that after he was elected you’d spend the next 4 years hoping for some change….but when an inexperienced junior senator with zero executive office experience and zero DC experience gets into office it should come as no surprise that very little useful work gets done…
It took two years with a Democratic Super Majority to jam Obamacare down his own party’s throat….I do like how every economic situation is a nagging problem from the previous administration…so if this president is re-elected (God Forbid) in year 7 does anyone think the economy will finally be his fault or is it far more likely that when Romney wins and the economy takes off the Dems will try to sell us some bullsh1t that Obama’s administration set everything in motion for a recovery….it’s like the BS that gets told about Clinton’s surplus disappearing under Bush…news flash there was no surplus then and there is still no leadership now….
When you’re the president you actually have to put on the big boy pants and take a beating…whether it’s because you put on a flight suit and told everyone mission accomplished or passed a giant economic mess and called it healthcare…Americans don’t keep incumbents in a sh1tty economy…I’m hoping that means the end of this inexperienced and ineffectual administration.
@26, maybe you’re right. Texas isn’t in the south. Maybe it’s in the north. No, wait, eastern US right? No, no, it’s up by Utah right? Yes, Texas is in the south, there is racism but I’m not going to try and say that there is more for where you are, because I don’t personally know because I’ve never lived there. But hey, you must have a valid reason for saying that “Texass” isn’t the south. I mean, you wouldn’t make an assumption like that without valid evidence, like living there for several years, or growing up there. Now that I realized that there is no way that you would make that assumption without valid evidence, I concede. You’re right, Texas isn’t the south. Man, I got burned.
Joey, Joey. Learn to read and comprehend. I said I watched the video, that implies I also listened to the audio on that. Let me put it in simple terms, just for you. Baracka’s eyes were all over the landscape, as he told Rose that he’d done a wonderful job, but he’d screwed up in the message.
Now, was he lying, “mis-stating” or reading off the teleprompter? Granted, it might have been the teleprompter, as I’ve seen him try to speak extemporaneously. But, I doubt it.
As for “Thing have been getting a lot better since the Recession (which was not caused by the current administration, but by the decades preceding it)”. I have a question for you, Anon, just addressing your point in the next to last paragraph. Where are things getting a lot better?
Second question, instead of wasting all that bandwidth, why didn’t you just go to the fall-back position? It’s Bush’s fault.
Sugar, being in the south proximity-wise does not Southern make. Texas is more southwestern, as the census bureau.
I’ve lived in Texico for a decade, so spare me. I was born at Darnall Medical Center before moving back to my dad’s home in SC until I was 6, then to OK, spending half of every year back home in SC. Again, spare me the bovine excrement, darlin’.
Your disillusion is cute, bless your little heart.
*ask, not as
I like bananas better — BEFORE they turn BLACK .
(“make” something out of that) .
Silly Doc, black monkey pickles are the best for smoothies. You just freeze them first and spin ’em around in a blender.
UpNorth,
Beacuse that goes without saying.
No. 30:
It is very pleasant, to hear your Southern accent — so to speak — and your way of chiding, if you don’t mind my saying so .
(*sincere*)
@29, I don’t say it’s Bush’s fault, because it isn’t. It’s Greenspan’s Federal Reserve policies and the culture of our business world.
As for things getting better, as you can see in the attached link, unemployment topped out at the end of 2009 at 10%, today it is at 8.2%. That is almost a 20% drop in unemployment.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
As for oil, it topped out June 2008 at 132.68 a barrel, but is now at 86.80 a barrel. And as for “We should drill here, now”. Don’t you see the genius of not doing that? We use the rest of the world’s oil, and then we use ours. Sure, we might not have it better, but our children and grandchildren will.
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Chart.asp
Need I go on? Ok.
As for the stock market, the DOW hit a low March 6th, 2009 at 6626.94, today it is at 12742.50. That is a 52% increase. The DOW has DOUBLED.
https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=INDEXDJX:DJI
Once again, if you are going to complain do it for the right reasons. Such as, “Thing have gotten better, granted, but things should have gotten a whole lot better over the course of the last 3 1/2 years”.
Anonymous: Regarding your remarks in comment 24 above: 1. The stagnant job market today can hardly be blamed on fallout from something that occurred between 1987-2006. The “I inherited a mess” argument had merit during perhaps the first year or two of the current Administration. The current administration has been in power for nearly 3 1/2 years. They now own this issue. And it hasn’t gotten any better than it was when they took over. 2. Unemployment was still higher at the end of June 2012 than at the end of Jan 2009. And it has been every month between then and now. We’re simply not better off today than we were 4 years ago (5.7% unemployment). 3. You are correct in stating that the housing bubble was years in the making and was due to “deregulation”. But that “deregulation” was in the form of Clinton-era policy changes that forced mortgage lenders to relax lending rules and practices which previously prevented many questionable mortgages from being granted. This relaxation resulted in literally tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of questionable mortgages that, frankly, should never have been granted at all. The net effect was for many to get in over their heads, while at the same time fueling an unwarranted explosion in housing prices. Neither the current administration nor its predecessor owns blame for this one. The Clinton Administration does. 4. Compensation is indeed set by employers. However, compensation includes much more than wages. Two major factors affecting the amount total compensation available to be paid as wages are competition for talent and the amount of overhead required to hire. The current administration has done little to help the economy recover and add jobs in 3 1/2 years; ergo, supply-and-demand dictates little or no upward pressure on wages due to competition for talent. And the current administration has added significant new overhead to the hiring process in the form of regulation and/or mandates, which also exerts downward pressure on the fraction of total compensation available to be paid as wages. So yes – the current administration owns part of this… Read more »
@#36, Real unemployment is far north of 8.2%. If you’d looked at all the data at data.bls.gov, you’d have found this, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm/
It seems that the “U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force” was 15.1% for June 2012. And that’s not even addressing the math of 10%-8.2%=20%.
Joey, if this is the Intrepid Rock Climber Joey, why don’t you just crawl back in the bong?
@37, BAM, that’s what I’m talking about! All other posters, you can learn from this guy. A laid out, legitimate argument. I didn’t agree with some of the stuff you say, but because of his thoughtful argument, it defiantly got me a different perspective one some of the items. Thank you for your counter post.
NSOM:
Thanks for exposing GB Shaw as the dirty rotten socialist he was .
Anonymous:
Re: your comments in 36 above – not so fast.
1. 12743/6627 = 1.9229. That would be a 92.29% increase vice 52%. (A 52% increase from 6227 would be 10,073).
2. 8.2% (unemployment today) / 7.8% (unemployment Jan 2009) = 1.0512 – which means unemployment is 5% higher today than when the current administration took over. And this administration has the longest continuous period of 9+% unemployment since the great depression – topping even the late 70s/early 80s stagflation period.
3. Cost of gasoline, 26 Jan 2009: $1.84/gallon (reg/national average). Cost of gasoline 9 July 2012: $3.41/gallon (reg/national average). $3.41/$1.84 = 1.8533, or an increase of 85.33%.
Hondo is just that amiable. It’s a bit difficult for the rest of us to take you seriously when you say “defiantly”. Just sayin’.
And the number you cite is the U-3 number, not the U-6, which is a much more accurate representation of unemployment.
Also, workforce utilization has dropped to the lowest level since the early 1980’s. If in fact the workforce utiliaztion percentage were the same now as it was in 2008, that U-3 number you cite would be closer to 12-13 percent.
Total workforce is barely above where it was this time four years ago, and given the increase in population, in real terms we have a much worse labor market now than we did back then.
Have a nice day.
@25 Anonymous, don’t give ME that crap about “my wife’s family…”! Until you’ve lived in my skin and endured discrimination because of that skin, you’ll never understand. BTW, I never said minorities weren’t racist, I said ‘I’ wasn’t.
@41,
1. 52% was my mistake, it is indeed 92%. You can see my contradiction when I said the DOW doubled.
2. 8.2% today, and you reference Jan 2009 at 7.8% when it was in already in steep climb and hadn’t leveled out yet which makes the percentage irrelevant (this is because until it leveled out, we didn’t know the consequences of the recession), I referenced the end of 2009 when it leveled out at about 10%. It shows in the linked chart.
3. I referenced the price of oil, not gasoline. The gasoline companies set those prices (and get record profits doing so).
@44, you still didn’t answer my banana question.
No. 37, Point 3:
Thanks, Hondo, for exposing the damn lie concerning so-called “deregulation.”
FREEDOM IS THE PROBLEM (Freedom = Capitalism) according to the Party Line propaganda. What we hear EVERY DAY today, started with Marx (the REAL problem) .
Bananas are now racist, too??????
So, if I eat a banana, does that prove that I am or am not a racist? We really, really need to know, and quickly because we have a huge bowl of banana pudding in the refrigerator. If we need to throw it out so as not to be perceived as racists, or need to make a public announcement admitting to having said bananas on our property, please let us know soon so we do not handle this ticklish banana situation incorrectly. And we would also appreciate specific instruction for with whom it is OK to share some of this banana pudding. Whites only? Blacks only? Mixed race humans OK?? (And Yat, I am skeered to ask if it is allowed that I offer any to you!)
Do you idiot race baiters see just how stupid your assertions are? Blacks eating bananas really aren’t Oreos and whites eating them really aren’t racists. We all just like bananas. But they really are funny and have been used to describe persons of all races for a very long time. (Ever seen the dancing banana emoticon? It’s a hoot. Try as I might, I can find absolutely nothing about it with racial overtones.)
It is becoming more clear every day that most leftists really are insane. Being mildly delusional is not necessarily dangerous, but seeing things which are not there in every conversation and in every person’s heart is just crazy, and not in a good way.
But for some inexplicable reason the radical leftists want us to think about race when we see a banana or read the word? Huh??
No. 45, Point 3:
So — you judge men can put up any old price as high as they desire, and just rake in big profits, because other men are forced to buy at that price ??
No. 48:
It all depends — if your bananas are white, or if you permit them to TURN BLACK .
(See my Research Paper No. 32)
(*sarcasm*)