We Are Not Worthy

Andrew Sullivan and Joe Klein take a moment to explain that the Great Unwashed are ignorant fools for failing to appreciate the fine points of Obanomics.  Bailing out banks that refuse to lend?  Genius!  Claiming the stimulus bill will hold unemployment under 8%?  Shrewd message management!

Oh, well.  I am already waxing nostalgic for "No Drama Obama", who never seemed to get riled up by Wall Street bonuses, or rising unemployment, or terrorist attacks, or much of anything other than getting to Hawaii by Christmas.  But since he is likely to spend the next ten months playing the Angry President, Klein and Sully had better prepare to shift gears - since Obama is going to embrace and endorse the anger of the American voter, his apologists will need to embrace it as well.

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

Joe Klein, real men of genius, Mr. How-to-shed-the-last-of-your-subscribers-man.

Here's economics wxplained, as picked off at the Corner. Mind the hip-hop Hayek.

[Danube of Thought]

When the loonies start blaming those pesky voters for being stupid, we know we're winning big-time.

[Twit]

Jake Tapper Twitter:
"# being briefed by senior administration officials on something i cant tell you til 9 pm EST. (sad face) about 3 hours ago from mobile web "
LUN

[Fritz]

At the opposite end of the scale from Klein and Sullivan is former Obama supporter Jim Cramer of Mad Money. He spent a good chunk of his show today railing against Obama's anti-capitalist policies - he went so far as to rate the impact of these policies on the price of stocks in various sectors. Considering he is on CNBC I was shocked he was so blatant in his criticism of the big Zero - even Kudlow is more polite about it.

[RichatUF]

Humm...maybe Obama is going to turn Iran into a shovel-ready project?

But it is probably be more mush from the wimp.

[Danube of Thought]

"'I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,' he told ABC's 'World News' anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview today."

Can anyone think of an unmentioned third possibility?

[Twit]

"Can anyone think of an unmentioned third possibility? "

Obama declares the Constitution unconstitutional and appoints himself King of the U.S. for life?

[Tollhouse]

Bernanke withdraws from consideration?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Der Spiegel covers a private report on the issues within the EU. LUN.

You've been told the dollar is bad for you, well, meet the Euro.

[Tollhouse]

Apparently this is the story.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/president-obama-to-push-3-year-spending-freeze-on-non-security-discretionary-spending.html

"In his budget for Fiscal Year 2011, to be presented on Monday, February 1, President Obama will propose a three-year hard freeze on non-security discretionary spending, to last from 2011 through 2013.

This will save $250 billion over the next decade, senior administration officials told reporters. By 2015, non-security discretionary spending will be at its lowest level as a component of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in 50 years."

A non-starter. Are his advisers stupid?

[daddy]

Perhaps Sully and Joe Klein were in that grade-school classroom and Obama's use of the TOTUS was for their benefit, not the other adolescents.

[Cecil Turner]

Does that mean the health care bill is history? Or is some spending more equal than others?

[Twit]

Tapper Twitter Update (boring):
"RT @jaketapper: President Obama to Push 3-Year Spending Freeze on Non-Security Discretionary Spending>>> "

[King Barack I]

Obama declares the Constitution unconstitutional and appoints himself King of the U.S. for life?

Trust me. I'm a Constitutional scholar. I know about these things.

[Twit]

After racking up a few trillion in new spending, shouldn't Barack strive for budget cutting and not just freezing?

[daddy]

I am not a Lawyer nor a Constitutional Law Professor from Harvard.

That being said, my understanding is that Congress controls the purse-strings, not the Executive Branch. So help me out here Lawyers. Is it Un-Constitutional for our Constitutional Law Professor in Chief to freeze Congressional spending, and/or mandate what Congress can spend funds on and what it can't?

Help me understand please---I drive a truck.

[Cecil Turner]

Claiming the stimulus bill will hold unemployment under 8%? Shrewd message management!

The most telling part of this is that both articles don't even mention the word "unemployment." Which kinda makes you wonder what the "stimulus" was supposed to stimulate.

[Porchlight]

$250 billion over ten years? That's chump change in Obamaworld. He does think we're dumb.

[The Educated Class]

Look people...

Can we just establish once and for all that you simply don't know what's good for you, and have a weak grasp of the nuances of Constitutional law?

We've tried to be gentle about this whole business, but you simply must learn to behave yourselves and understand your place. This incessant kibbutzing from the groundlings does no one any good, least of all your moral and intellectual betters.

Just calm down, give us your money, and let the experts handle things. You know, many of us attended Harvard. I think we're due.

[RichatUF]

Yes, remember when his first budget proposal was rolled out.

Anyway, quite a bit of that this year is going to be the wrap up of the Space Shuttle program and his ongoing attempt to kill off Ares. Oh, and do your part to help close the budget deficit: For Sale, used Space Shuttle Orbiter, cheap.

Good thing it will be for FY11 after spending has shot up nearly 35% and all the "stimulus" has created all that funployment.

[Soylent Red]

For Sale, used Space Shuttle Orbiter, cheap.

The can put it on the White House lawn. Up on blocks.

[clarice]

Yeah-and they could sell organic veggies out of it. Repurposing is the way to go.

[MikeS]

Wow! The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Joe Klein seemed to be talking about me personally. I'm one of those ignoramuses who was judging the 'stimulus' bill by whether or not it actually stimulated anything.

[daveinboca]

This entitlement condescension by two Cape Cod bro-boys Klein & Sullivan reminds me of the comment of Kurt Weill in 1953 after Stalin's death & the resulting Berlin riots elicited a rebuke from the GDR Stalinist Commie Magnates of East Germany that "the Germans were unworthy of the gift of Communism."

Longtime Party Member Weill was heard saying out loud "Perhaps the government should find itself another People." Or with these two dudes, another country.

[JM Hanes]

Tollhouse:

"A non-starter. Are his advisers stupid?"

It doesn't matter whether or not it is a serious proposal, he just desperately needs something to hang his hat on in the SOTU. "I've told Congress that this out-of-control spending must stop!" He's trying to reposition himself as the outsider champion of the middle class, fighting the excesses of Washington, DC.

[RichatUF]

Remember all those "shovel-ready" projects? Well, they didn't exist.

Joe Klein isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

I also recall that Obama touted that 90% of the jobs would be created in the private sector, but now, Klein et al, are touting it as saving government jobs.

Keep f'in that chicken, Joe.

[narciso]

Ah Dave wasn't that Bertold Brecht, although
Weil might have agreed with the same sentiments, but it'sof a piece with that horrid Tribe piece mentioned earlier

[Tollhouse]

I'm not sure that will continue to hold water. People can only be fooled for so long. They thought they elected a centrist, but I think everyone's patience is gone now. Obama only has the media now, which while powerful, can't hide the ugly truth.

[RichatUF]

JM Hanes-

So after outsourcing Obamacare to Congress with a showy Joint Session address, he is going to lecture them on not taking care of the people's money. Should work out well.

He ought to stick to Blaming Bush.

[bad]

As long as I have a breath in me, I'm going to believe that Obama is a steaming pile of BS...

[clarice]

Hi, bad! Now find MayBee for us, please.

[RichatUF]

Hi bad, hope all is well.

[bad]

We are all doing well.

Is Maybee missing?

[PD]

"'I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,' he told ABC's 'World News' anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview today."

Can anyone think of an unmentioned third possibility?

That's easy. A really mediocre one-term president.

[Ignatz]

--Yes, remember when his first budget proposal was rolled out.--

Did they ever even find the puny $100 mil?

--We are all doing well.--

Wonderful.

[narciso]

These people are starting to make Carter look good by comparison, in the LUN

[Danube of Thought]

Bingo, PD.

[PD]

What's my prize? :-)

[Janet]

Obama only has the media now,

You know the MSM has become such a joke in their love of all things Democrat that it is cringe worthy. The pinnacle was Obama winning the Nobel prize. Dems were embarrassed. That over-the-top adulation just HAD to wake some people up.

[bgates]

A really mediocre one-term president.

I can't comprehend the optimism required to think this guy could ascend to mediocrity over just three years.

[narciso]

Only if we're grading on a curve, bgates

[RichatUF]

Janet-

The pinnacle was Obama winning the Nobel prize. Dems were embarrassed. That over-the-top adulation just HAD to wake some people up.

If we had real investigative journalists, they'd be investigating how much money changed hands for Obama to get the prize. I'm thinking it was around $50 million.

[JM Hanes]

Tollhouse:

I didn't mean to suggest that it would work. :-) That's just been his basic M.O. which I don't see him changing.

[EBJ]

Wait a minute. These two never missed a chance for a high lonesome whine during the Bush years. No nit too small to pick. But now we're supposed to take a "it's bad, but it's not 100% bad" approach to the President's policies? Fail.

[Terry Gain]

I can't comprehend the optimism required to think this guy could ascend to mediocrity over just three years.
Posted by: bgates | January 25, 2010 at 10:51 PM

My thoughts exactly when I read the quote. As for Cramer supporting Obama I fail to understand how any capitalist could have supported him.

[RichatUF]

How is Cramer a capitalist?

[JM Hanes]

Ranger just put this up in the Contract thread:

Diane today said to the president, "a lot of people think you must say at the end of the day, this is not who I was in 2008, these deals with Nebraska, with Florida... "

"Let's hold on a second, Diane," the president cut in. "I mean, I think that this gets into a big mush. So let's just clarify. I didn't make a bunch of deals. There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked."

Yep, he's the anti-Congress guy! We should add "hold on" to the list of drinking words.

[RichatUF]

JM Hanes-

Good grief. I heard some mention "triangulation", but I didn't think the Obama Administration would be dumb enough to try.

An investigation into the Americorp's IG firing could clog up his agenda for the next couple of months.

[bgates]

Thinking about that WaPo article that mentioned the ridiculous "relativity" paper as an example of Obama's limitless gifts reminded me of this old chestnut, the best college application essay ever:

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

It goes on in that vein for a while. I remember enjoying the gleeful absurdity of the whole thing when I saw it years ago. It seemed a lot more over-the-top before the Obama coverage started.

[Tollhouse]

Yeah, running against his own Democratic congress boggles the mind. Does he think this will go anywhere? The Congress has already shown that they call the shots when it comes to THIS white house. Remember, Obama is the guy that sits back and ponders the options and when Pelosi and Reid decide what to do, Obama cooly decides to either support it or support it lukewarmly.

Nicely mixed metaphors there.

[JM Hanes]

The public despises Congress -- Democrats and Republicans alike. Perfect scapegoat.

[windansea]

I didn't make a bunch of deals

1-10 of 15,400,000 results

[JM Hanes]

Hah! Do you like Bing better than Google, windansea?

[Elliott]

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention.

The CO2 Monster was in college 20 years ago?

[windansea]

JMH

Bing seems to work ok, just got new laptop and haven't put google yet

[clarice]

If he keeps this up they'll knock out his lights in the Capitol cloak room even before he gives the SOTU address..and the k.o. will be delivered by his own party.

[Ignatz]

--As for Cramer supporting Obama I fail to understand how any capitalist could have supported him.--

1) Lots of people making money off of the free market are socialists.
2) There is no group of people more eager to have the government eliminate competitors than capitalists.

Capitalism, I trust.
Capitalists, somewhat less so.

[daveinboca]

narciso, right you are! It was Berthold Brecht, author of Threepenny Opera who penned a poem:

"After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?"

I'm sure many members of the JournoListServ Marxist mafia/cabal feel very much like the GDR's Secretary of the Writers' Union!

[jimmyk]

Capitalism, I trust.
Capitalists, somewhat less so.

Adam Smith agrees: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

That didn't stop Smith from being an ardent advocate of capitalism.

[cathyf]

Capitalism, I trust. Capitalists, somewhat less so.

"Capitalism" is simply a legal structure which, most importantly, enforces contracts and protects property rights.

"Capitalists" are people who advocate the creation of and enforcement in those legal structures, because they believe that everyone is better off subjecting themselves to the constraints of enforcing property rights as opposed to the natural chaos of "nasty, brutish and short."

"Humans" have noticed that they, personally, are best off if the legal structures protect their property rights from other people but not other people's property rights from them.

[JorgXMcKie]

Let's not totally forget that "free markets" and "capitalism" are not co-terminous.

Capitalism is largely a Marxist term used as a bugaboo.

[TCO]

The Republican-led bailouts were miserable economics and poor politically. They transferred wealth from taxpayers to counterparties who had made bets at their own risk. And they also led to similar bailouts by the Obama adminstraition, to the GM takeover, to stimulus bills, to an industrial recession. You had a chance to speak out against this and you blew it.

And of course, admitting you were wrong is something you will never do...

[TCO]

How are you liking that Paulson-Geithner AIG bailout now? Now that we are learning that Goldman was made whole on incredibly dodgy paper? That efforts were made to conceal this?