Newt Gingrich On Obama's "Kenyan, Anti-Colional" Worldview

Newt Gingrich, citing this Forbes cover story by Dinesh D'Souza, talks to NRO:

Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D’Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that President Obama may follow a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview.

Gingrich says that D’Souza has made a “stunning insight” into Obama’s behavior — the “most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama.”

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich asks. “That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

Hmm - why can't we just describe Obama as an utterly banal lib who hasn't offered one insight that wasn't a Columbia University bull session staple in 1981?  Why can't we agree that Obama is a classic Blame America Firster as described by Jeanne Kirkpatrick back in 1984 (when Obama was forming his worldview)?

Ramesh Ponnuru is unconvinced, yet unconvincing:

I didn’t find Dinesh D’Souza’s cover story in Forbes as “stunning” or “profound” in its insight into the president as Newt Gingrich did.

D’Souza argues that President Obama’s “strange behavior” is explicable by his adoption of his father’s anticolonialist ideology. Among the alleged “oddities”: “The President continues to push for stimulus even though hundreds of billions of dollars in such funds seem to have done little.” Does this mean Paul Krugman has a “Kenyan, anti-colonialist worldview”?

Another “oddity”: The president used the Gulf spill to talk about his general approach to oil policy and decry America’s “addiction” to oil. You know who else used that (inapt) word? George W. Bush. Another Kenyan?

And another one: Obama’s comments about religious freedom and the Ground Zero mosque are “utterly irrelevant to the issue of why the proposed Cordoba House should be constructed at Ground Zero.” Basically every liberal journalist or blogger has made comments similar to Obama’s–except that they have gone further than he has.

Yes, but...in principle, D'Souza ought to lay out a smorgasbord of positions held by Obama.  His challenge would be to argue that some of Obama's views may be held by both conservatives and anti-colonialists, others may be held by both liberals and anti-colonialists, but only anti-colonialists hold Obama's full range of views.

With such an argument, it would not be a rebuttal to note (as Ramesh does here) that specific views held by Obama are also held by libs such as Krugman or conservatives such as Bush.  The motivated rebutter would have to pin down all of D'Souza's points and identify other groups that might hold that mix of views.

But why bother?  There is a superficial daftness and complexity to D'Souza's view that Ramesh correctly identifies:

I think that it is a mistake to imagine that Obama is a deeply mysterious figure, as opposed to a conventional liberal. He is no stranger than contemporary liberalism is.

A more diligent rebuttal can be found at The Fourth Branch.  D'Souza's facts don't withstand a whole lot of checking.

However, an Iron Law of Blogging is that weak arguments will reliably spawn even weaker rebuttals.  Adam Serwer of TAP illustrates this:

Forbes Embraces Birtherism Lite.

Sometimes it's best to think of racism as intellectual laziness. That is, it reflects a failure to evaluate people for who they actually are, because it's easier to slip them into a familiar, predetermined category that doesn't upset other related conclusions a person might have come to as a result.

If racism is sometimes a symptom of intellectual laziness, what are charges of "birtherism-lite"?  I would exhort Mr. Serwer to have a self-awareness moment here.  Let's press on:

In an essay for Forbes, [Dinesh D'Souza] concludes that the animating philosophy of the president is "Kenyan anti-colonialism." The purpose of the essay is to synthesize the most idiotic conservative criticisms of Obama into one handy term:

A casual reader might infer that the phrase in quotes, ""Kenyan anti-colonialism", is taken from the D'Souza article (to which Serwer did not link).  The casual reader would be wrong, although that mis-impression is reinforced a bit later:

This is birtherism with big words. This is the witchdoctor sign without Photoshop, WorldNetDaily without the exclamation points. D'Souza doesn't need to stare at Obama's birth certificate for hours to come to the same conclusion as the birthers, which is that the president is a foreigner. But neither is "Kenyan anti-colonialism" a superficial term. At once, it engages all the racialized elements of the conservative critique of Obama -- not just that having an African father means he isn't really an American but that his inner life consists of a deep anger toward white people, and the office of the presidency is merely the means to secure a collective payback.

All this baggage with a phrase D'Souza never used.  Oh, well.  Apparently, noting that the author of "Dreams From My Father" has a father from Kenya who influenced his - dare I say it - "dreams" is now "birtherism-lite".  Maybe we can find other examples:

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.

or from 2008:

Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known...

I deplore this dog-whistling by Obama and his Administration.

Comments

[Jeff]

every garden variety liberal has a motivating false core belief about America that drives them ... they all end up in the same staist place but understanding this false core is helpful in understanding the thinking behind the policies expounded ...

[Richard Aubrey]

I suppose the question would be whether d'Souza's theory has more predictive value than others (he's a lazy, unthinking lib, etc.)

[Ignatz]

Publius's article was less than convincing regarding D'Souza's main point; the wellspring of Obama's leftism is found in the dreams from his father. Indeed in his criticism of D'Souza not a single mention is made of the book nor D'Souza's main thesis.
D'Souza claimed that Obama's administration supports offshore drilling in Brazil but is less than supportive here at home. In that claim he was correct and Publius's criticism incorrect because he put words in D'Souza's mouth he never said.
Publius' analysis of the June 15th speech is equally flawed. He claims that Obama did focus on the cleanup in his speech because he spent four or five paragraphs on the cleanup. There were 33 paragraphs in the speech and considerably more space was spent talking about precisely what D'Souza mentioned.
His take on TARP is similarly superficial and specious.
Moreover, besides his innacurate critique, nothing Publius claims amounts to anything more than the claim that these are all things conventional liberals believe anyway. As TM himself notes the third world anti colonialist viewpoint and the conventional left wing western viewpoint contain considerable overlap, but that hardly makes them synonomous.

[Rob Crawford]

Another “oddity”: The president used the Gulf spill to talk about his general approach to oil policy and decry America’s “addiction” to oil. You know who else used that (inapt) word? George W. Bush. Another Kenyan?

Pottawottamie misses a point on this. Bush never shut down US oil exploration while subsidizing drilling in Brazil and Mexico; Bammers did. *THAT* is perfectly consistent with the anti-colonialist theory of Bammers motivations.

[Rob Crawford]

A casual reader might infer that the phrase in quotes, ""Kenyan anti-colonialism", is taken from the D'Souza article (to which Serwer did not link). The casual reader would be wrong

Particularly because, as I understand it, the whole "post-colonial"/"anti-colonialism" claptrap was started in Western universities and the Soviet Union (but I repeat myself) as justification for the Soviet-funded "people's revolutionary" movements that drove the Third World even further into poverty and chaos.

[Long Time]

I instinctively scrolled right past this Newt article because I thought it was an anduril comment.

[Rick Ballard]

A description of the means by which the drunken wife beater transmitted his "dreams" to Barry Dunham would be helpful. At least with Alex Haley there was a bit of juju involved in the concoction of the fantasy. Did Ayers resort to a seance or some other type of deus ex machina in his development of the rationale for his character or were all the liberal shibboleths transmitted via some type of osmosis at the drunken failure's grave site?

[Rob Crawford]

As TM himself notes the third world anti colonialist viewpoint and the conventional left wing western viewpoint contain considerable overlap, but that hardly makes them synonomous.

If you find a Third-Worlder spouting the anti-colonialist line, the odds are good their intellectual pedigree heads right back to a Western leftist. There really isn't a difference between anti-colonialism and modern leftism -- they're both the mutant child of Soviet communism, and Rosseauean "noble savage" romanticism, with a touch of 19th-century spiritualism filtered through the Church of Gaia.

[Rob Crawford]

Did Ayers resort to a seance or some other type of deus ex machina in his development of the rationale for his character or were all the liberal shibboleths transmitted via some type of osmosis at the drunken failure's grave site?

According to the Obama Myth, the latter.

[JM Hanes]

The central problem with D’Souza's thesis, of course, is that Obama never actually knew his father. That's precisely what made Obama père such a useful memoirist's device.

[alanstorm]

"Sometimes it's best to think of racism as intellectual laziness. That is, it reflects a failure to evaluate people for who they actually are, because it's easier to slip them into a familiar, predetermined category that doesn't upset other related conclusions a person might have come to as a result."

So, according to this pseudo-intellectual analysis, those who claim that tea-partiers are racists are themselves racists.

Works for me.

[Extraneus]

You want predictive, Rob just gave you predictive. This headline is from after D'Souza's piece.

U.S. Backs $1B Loan to Mexico for Oil Drilling Despite Obama Moratorium

Now why would a normal oil-hating, global-warmist lib do this? To support offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, just not by Americans?

Btw, did any of D'Souza's critics explain why normal libs hate Great Britain? Is it because Tony Blair supported Bush in Iraq?

I thought D'Souza's thesis was pretty interesting.

[BB Key]

Thanks TM these bither questions are my favorites.

My great great great great Grandfather was in an 'anti-colonial' militia in Virginia . Does that make me lite birther or a Kenyan ?

[AJB]

There really isn't a difference between anti-colonialism and modern leftism -- they're both the mutant child of Soviet communism, and Rosseauean "noble savage" romanticism, with a touch of 19th-century spiritualism filtered through the Church of Gaia.

I dunno. Maybe people in the third world don't enjoy having foreign armies invade their countries impose the free market on them without their consent? Maybe they don't appreciate having Western intelligence agencies manipulating their political systems and covertly backing right-wing death squads that rape nuns?

I suppose that a general dislike of poverty and oppression could all be just one big Soviet-funded conspiracy, it just isn't likely.

[RattlerGator]

Excellent post, Tom.

[Rob Crawford]

The central problem with D’Souza's thesis, of course, is that Obama never actually knew his father.

Immaterial -- he knew what his father did, what his father wrote, and read the same material his father did.

Now, I don't think there's much difference between the goals and motivations of a John Kerry blue-blood elitist leftist and an anti-colonialist leftist, particularly in the practical effects of both. Both crowds hate liberty, hate Christianity that isn't just corrupt Marxism, hate the ideas of limited government, free markets, and individuality. There's a reason the lefties get along so well with the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood -- they both rail against the same light.

[Rob Crawford]

Interesting. AJB got seriously spanked over at Protein Wisdom, so he sticks his pimply, empty head in here.

Don't tell me -- he's voicing support for tyranny, so long as it wraps itself in the mantle of being against the United States? Railing against the idea that the US is not the world's villain?

And mouthing the slogans fed to him and his intellectual heirs by Soviet propagandists, right?

[narciso]

To paraphrase Montanee, Vargas Llosa and Mendoza, he is the perfect North American
Idiot,

[Captain Hate]

Let me guess; AJB was a big supporter of the Sandanistas, right? That worked out well...

Right wing death squads raping nuns; Ooga Booga! Wasn't that something that was mentioned in the 80s?

[anduril]

Seems a good place to replay my original comments on D'Souza's article:

It's been obvious for a long time that most of Obama's foreign hijinks can be readily explained through the prism of anti-colonialism. However, I would say that this same concept of anti-colonialism serves Obama as a metaphor (at the least) for the domestic "plight" of America (as he sees it), and should serve us as a way to understand his policies. The colonialists, of course, are the capitalists. The oppressed masses are the minorities, the "average working family," etc.

Obviously this doesn't differ in essentials from the Marxist derived rhetoric that liberals offer up. For Obama, the difference is that this former community organizer can use anti-colonialism to inject moral energy and fervor into his movement in a way that millionaire liberals cannot.

The problem for Obama is that he is essentially out of contact with the masses that he came to save. Instead of being able to expand his base of support, he relied on slippery rhetoric to obtain support by deception. Now that people at least have an inkling of where he's really coming from and where he wants to lead them, that base of support is shrinking back to the traditional Democratic base--at best.

[Clarice]

The perfect idiot,narciso...and that is one of the most important, least read books, of our ae.

Rick:Did Ayers resort to a seance or some other type of deus ex machina in his development of the rationale for his character or were all the liberal shibboleths transmitted via some type of osmosis at the drunken failure's grave site? I guess you didn't pay attention when MO did her rhubarb dance.

As for me, I feel as though I were locked in a room with dim college sophomores every time O or his czarmen speak..Only this time, everything's no smoking so I'm even more evil tempered than I was decades ago as a student.

[Rob Crawford]

Right wing death squads raping nuns; Ooga Booga! Wasn't that something that was mentioned in the 80s?

Yep. Favorite bugaboo to explain why the lefty mass-murderers (who, of course, NEVER raped nuns, right?) should be left to their mass murdering.

No doubt it happened, and I think *any* rapist should be hanged the old-fashioned, slow-death way, but the left has long played the "any atrocities are your fault" game. The mass graves filled by Che, Pol Pot, Mao, etc. ad nauseum are always because we made them do it, not because they have any moral agency of their own.

[Captain Hate]

Don't forget Saddam having filled up a few mass graves, Rob. WTF, I guess those don't count if there weren't any nuns in them.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

That's why I doubt that Name That Meme would ever turn a profit. The thought of slogging through the hash haze Zinnfest on a regular basis makes the hand ache for the feel of a straight razor.

Hernando De Soto explained more about the "root cause" of third world failure in one slim book than has all the pseudomarxist cant and drivel produced since Marx went to Hell.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

That's why I doubt that Name That Meme would ever turn a profit. The thought of slogging through the hash haze Zinnfest on a regular basis makes the hand ache for the feel of a straight razor.

Hernando De Soto explained more about the "root cause" of third world failure in one slim book than has all the pseudomarxist cant and drivel produced since Marx went to Hell.

[MarkO]

"Oh, well. Apparently, noting that the author of "Dreams From My Father" has a father from Kenya who influenced his - dare I say it - "dreams" is now "birtherism-lite". [I will accept this a unconscious parallelism. Nothing more]

On to this: Oddly, the same general, common analysis that a child may be influenced by his father would have application to Churchill, who really did not know the syphilitic Randolph much better than Obama. Why is this explanation [not a theory] so difficult to digest? Must Obama be so rarefied as to be beyond the common drives and emotions of regular folk? He is highly regular and incredibly foreign. Foreign in every way.

If you disagree with me, call me names for God's sake. Please don't take on the argument. I confess to all things.

[MayBee]

I love the way Gibbs ran right for the birth certificate.

[Rob Crawford]

Don't forget Saddam having filled up a few mass graves, Rob.

Our fault, of course. Either we created him (yet, oddly, were not allowed to then remove him) and thus have responsibility for his every act, or we failed to stop him, and thus have responsibility for his every act.

All that matters is that, should a sparrow fall, the United States gets the blame.

(OK, sometimes they branch out and blame Israel. Maybe Britain.)

[Rob Crawford]

Must Obama be so rarefied as to be beyond the common drives and emotions of regular folk?

You're asking this about the fellow who's mere nomination was enough to cause the seas to cease their rise? The One, the Lightbringer, the Healer? The man who married the Most Beautiful, Selfless, Stylish woman in the world?

[Captain Hate]

Our fault, of course. Either we created him (yet, oddly, were not allowed to then remove him) and thus have responsibility for his every act, or we failed to stop him, and thus have responsibility for his every act.

Exactly; we were supposed to let Saddam stay in power so the lefties could complain about how oppressive and destabilizing he was because of us but not actually do anything about it to help the oppressed they claim to care about. Kind of like all the whining they do about Darfur; I wonder if Mia Farrow realizes by now that all her lefty friends are about as useful to her as Woody.

[MarkO]

Rhetorical device, Rob. King Canute had his own problems and we know what happened to Richard Burton.

[Ignatz]

--Did Ayers resort to a seance or some other type of deus ex machina in his development of the rationale for his character or were all the liberal shibboleths transmitted via some type of osmosis at the drunken failure's grave site?--

Most everyone has a suit of familiarity they wish to slip on comfortably and go through life wearing. Most of us get it from our family.
People like Barry don't really have one so they must invent it. Ayers may have knit together Barry's silly dreams that he attributed to his father into a coherent whole, but they started with the worldview that Barry wished to invent and live and I've yet to see as convincing an explanation as D'Souza's.
And I tend to agree with Rob Walker that it's pretty tough to tell the difference between a US lefty and an anti colonial one except that there is something more foreign and unfamiliar with the latter, which is one reason Barry is unable to connect with anyone who doesn't share his idealogy.

[Rob Crawford]

Rhetorical device, Rob. King Canute had his own problems and we know what happened to Richard Burton.

Canute sent his courtiers to flail the waves to beat back the tide -- as an object lesson to them that he knew their flattery was false.

I think Obama believes his own press.

(But what happened to Burton?!)

[lyle]

On the Democratic side, there was little substantive or ideological difference between the two main contenders, Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton, except perhaps (irony of ironies) that Mr. Obama was the one who actually favored the slightly more modest approach to health overhaul.

Gerald Seib at the WSJ today.

It's getting hard to plumb the depths of obtuseness, denial, and mendacity of the press these days.

[MayBee]

Here's the deal.

Politicians don't have to tell us a darn thing about their family, their religion, their parents, or the deep thoughts they held as adolescents. They tell us about these things because they want to create a story about themselves that will make us vote for them.

So I say, anything they voluntarily bring up can be discussed. It needn't always be discussed in a flattering way. It can be disputed.

We hear about Obama's father all the time from Obama himself. Always in some way he inspired him, inspired Kenya, is inspiring to the world. So it is completely within the bounds to talk about his influence on Obama.

Obama was a biography candidate, and questioning his biography is fair game. Anybody who wants him specially protected because of where his father is from is racist.

[ananair]

Gee, how odd!

I thought these United States were formed because the people at the time who were colonials, subjects of the British royalty, did not like the situation in which they found themselves, so they threw tea into the water(held a TEA PARTY) and started a shooting revolution to drive out their masters. From these comments seems like some want to return to the good old days of God save the King (or Queen) when they would kneel before their majesties and swear allegiance.

[MayBee]

From these comments seems like some want to return to the good old days of God save the King (or Queen) when they would kneel before their majesties and swear allegiance.

Really? Which comments seem like that?

[Rick Ballard]

"(But what happened to Burton?!)"

Elizabeth Taylor

Ignatz,

I agree with your formulation but it still devolves into analysis of a construct. Rich cited an AT piece a few days ago which traced the development of Barry Dunham's lack of character much more accurately, IMO. The Kunta Kinte construct is a bridge too far for me - too many lefty memes running around biting themselves in the ass.

It's definitely one way to look at him but I'm sticking with "plucked from the sewers of Chicago and burnished with Ayers' Own Turd Polish".

[Rick Ballard]

"(But what happened to Burton?!)"

Elizabeth Taylor

Ignatz,

I agree with your formulation but it still devolves into analysis of a construct. Rich cited an AT piece a few days ago which traced the development of Barry Dunham's lack of character much more accurately, IMO. The Kunta Kinte construct is a bridge too far for me - too many lefty memes running around biting themselves in the ass.

It's definitely one way to look at him but I'm sticking with "plucked from the sewers of Chicago and burnished with Ayers' Own Turd Polish".

[Rocco]

They did and for an accurate description of what they did to your side, See Rothbard, pdf page 423.

Everywhere Tories were deprived of civil rights and freedom of speech and press; they were especially taxed, and were arrested for the duration of the war on mere suspicion and without benefit of habeas corpus. They were herded together and shipped into prison camps far from the British lines, in which they were sometimes forced to work for the Revolution; they were tarred and feathered, banished, and their lands and properties were confiscated by the State. Sometimes they were even executed. They were forced to take test oaths, they were disfranchised and barred from public office, and they were generally forbidden to practice as professional men. In many cases family punishment was imposed, and relatives of absent Tories were jailed for the behavior of their errant kinsmen and held as hostages. Local vigilante action kept watch on suspected Tories and imposed harsh penalties on them.

[Rocco]

*pdf page 420*

[Porchlight]

I think that it is a mistake to imagine that Obama is a deeply mysterious figure, as opposed to a conventional liberal. He is no stranger than contemporary liberalism is.

Ramesh is wrong. Obama is a supremely weird figure.

Contemporary, conventional liberalism is highly familiar to me. I grew up in blue states. I live in a blue town. Most of my family leans left. I've been surrounded by libs and lefties my whole life.

Obama is of a different order. He seems like a foreigner in his own country. He doesn't seem to fit in at all. He's just - weird.

I don't think it's too controversial to mention this, since he framed an entire autobiography around that notion.

[narciso]

Ramesh has been 'unexpectedly' wrong about a lot lately, is Ponnuru, Hindi for Frum

[narciso]

I think we need a whole new category for this castle, fellow, in the LUN

[RichatUF]

Ignatz-

Remember this article from Feb 08.

Obama inverts the anthropological model: he applies the tools of cultural manipulation out of resentment against America. The probable next president of the United States is a mother's revenge against the America she despised.

Many people have written similiar takes. I recall that Jeff at Protein Wisdom had the most unique take, looking at Obama as Haile Selassie. Someone at AT wrote a good article calling him an African Colonial. I'm surprised that the "clean toga" crowd is just getting to it now.

I'm with Rick though. I'm not sure what the precentage is in going through the various ideological strands that make up Obama. I figure that it is 1/3 Foucoult, 1/3 Schmit, 1/3 Alinsky, baked in Chicago Machine Politics and Ayers money.

We live in interesting times.

[caro]

...is Ponnuru, Hindi for Frum

I was getting those vibes,too,Narc

[narciso]

Another charlatan really spews out his delusions, which explains his embrace by the academy, in the LUN

[Jack is Back!]

He is weird. Consider the award of the MoH to Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the only living service member to earn this for actions I Iraq or Afghanistan. Taking nothing away from the Sgt. His actions are admirable and deserving. But why now? There are and have been many heroic actions in both theatres deserving of MoH recognition based on Sgt. Giuntas distinction. This is in my opinion a political calculation to restore his standing in the public eye at the expense of a courageous warrior. Cynical and calculating. Lots of guys at my AL post are shaking their heads.

[RichatUF]

crap...it'd help if I spelled it correctly: Foucault, Carl Schmitt

[caro]

OT,63 minutes to go on the YouTube upload! I am not sure I can stay awake that long to post it but I will try.

[tommy mc donnell]

if obama is an anti-colonialist he should be opposed to what the muslims are doing in europe. also what central and south america are doing in the united states

[sbw]

If Bill Ayers invested so much in writing Obama's "Dreams" shouldn't D'Souza be following Pop Ayers' worldview instead?

[Jim Miller]

lyle - Gerald Seib is correct in that comparison. Specifically, Obama opposed, and Clinton favored, an individual mandate for health insurance.

And then, sometime after the election, Obama dropped his opposition. I've never seen an explanation for his shift.

(Pure speculation of my part, but I suspect that he had never thought much about health insurance before the campaign, and chose to oppose the individual mandate simply because Clinton was backing it. Since the issue didn't matter to him one way or another -- after the campaign -- he found it easy to switch. But, as I said, that's pure speculation.)

[JM Hanes]

AJB: Q.E.D.

[narciso]

His lips were moving, we know what he wanted from 2001, on, when he expressed his desire
for single payer, but he knew it could not be implemented in one fell swoop.

[Pofarmer]

The whole "mom from Kansas thing is really a false flag,too. They were in very liberal Wichita, and left when she was 13 to attend the " little red schoolhouse" in Seattle. Presumably, even this wasn't commie enough, so they moved to Hawaii. The Dunham's would be no more typical
Of kansas than I would be of Chicago.

[Clarice]

Unless the law is repealed or drastically amended, single payer will be here before you know it.

I kept telling you about the provision that required an employer who did provide acceptable insurance for all his employees would still have to pay a per capita head if even one opted for the govt subsdized plan and anyone making $88k or less can do so.

In a 3,000 person company, if one person opts for that plan, the company (on top of its insurance payments) will be liable for a $6,000,000 fine.($2,000 for each of its employees)

How smart is Congress? That smart..

[narciso]

So there's no incentive for actually cooperating with the plan, I'm still dumbstruck by the audacity of stupidity involved therein

[boris]

From before the election Obamiam Socialism seemed more ANC than Moscow to me.

If the left were a coherent worldview it wouldn't be so compatible with Islam. But it is so it isn't. The left, Islam and 3rd world socialism share a multiverse worldview that shuns coherence for narrative.

[Porchlight]

I suspect that he had never thought much about health insurance before the campaign, and chose to oppose the individual mandate simply because Clinton was backing it.

I suspect the same only I don't think *he* chose anything. I think his handlers explained to him that he had to take the opposite tack from Hillary. It was easy to switch later when they explained to him that you couldn't have guaranteed issue without the mandate or the house of cards would fall too fast.

They needed it to crumble slowly, you see.

He doesn't have an ounce of principle. If he was a principled leftist I might have a little bit of respect for him. Even a Wellstone or a Feingold can earn my grudging respect.

[Clarice]

Exactly, narciso--why bother?

[Ignatz]

Rich and Rick,
Agreed there isn't much percentage in me wondering about what motivates Barry.
But the GOP people tasked with responding to him, or if there are any (and there should be but I doubt if there are), those tasked with making him respond the way they want had better understand just exactly what motivates him.
At least half of the battle is knowing and understanding what makes your enemy tick, especially the weird ones and especially at a personal level. That's why Clinton could run rings around people in tactical politics.

[Clarice]

Well, that's a good point, Ignatz. My take is that he is so arrogant because he is not very bright and has huge lacunae (holes) in his education which he tries to cover with uhs and blather. Elbow him under the net to keep him from being able to read the Teleprompter or rely on canned messages and hire a tough timekeeper to hold him to the agreed upon response limits.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Clarice-

The one employee opting for the government plan would find themselves unemployed, yes?

Full compliance again.

Want to see, first hand, what 35% unemployment looks like?

That ever loyal 22-25% of the population that highly approves of this message will be the victims. Unless, of course, they all happen to work outside of private enterprise, then "those in charge" will really start looking for money.

I can't imagine where they might run into a problem.

[Clarice]

The Wash Times and now Michelle Malkin are reporting that the well-respecting DoJ IG (Glenn Fine) is within the limits of the IG law investigating the Civil Rights Division, including i's dismissal of the Black Panthers voting intimidation case. In the past the thugs in the WH have fired IG's who did their job. I think if they did this with Fine there would be consequences not unlike the night Nixon fired his Atty General.

[Clarice]

Mel, IIRC there are penalties for trying to dissuade employees for opting for the subsidized plan.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I have a suggestion for one ambitious, and nervy, reporter. Next presser, put a magnet to the screen of the TOTUS, for a second, and then wait for the fun to begin.

Just might show how much work Ibama puts into the job.

I doubt it's hardened.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I'm not saying dissuade.

Opt. Lose job.

Action. Reaction.

Simple.

Where is that illegal? For stealing a pen. How dare they.

[See?]

[Clarice]

Illegal, I believe. It would nbe like firing someone for joining a union or reporting a violation to OSHA.

Here's the best part..employers cannot even plan for this--because an employee who might not seem to qualify because of family income might qualify during the year if, for example, there's a divorce or a spouse loses his/her job.

[Clarice]

Employers with large numbers of unskilled, low wage workers have got to be planning to simply pay the fine and cancel any independent insurance.

[jimmyk]

Forgive the off topic, but have JOMers formed a view of Carl Paladino, the supposed "Tea Party" candidate running for governor of New York? I want to support him, but some semi-reliable acquaintances are saying that he's got a lot of skeletons in his closet and is really a dubious character. The fact that the RINO NY Republican party supports his opponent ought to be enough for me, but I'm a little uneasy.

[Ignatz]

--Elbow him under the net to keep him from being able to read the Teleprompter or rely on canned messages and hire a tough timekeeper to hold him to the agreed upon response limits.--

Precisely clarice.
These kind of clowns have big red buttons all over them just waiting to be pushed. My dipsh*t brother can never understand why he ends up looking like a total ass at trial. It's because every time my lawyer and I sit down we think up ways to get him to act like one. Doesn't take much. They always seem to be itching to lend a hand.

[RichatUF]

Ignatz-

No disagreement from me. I could see a "war room" type operation that has instant response to everything that Obama says. But the GOP won't do it because they'd have to get their togas dirty (after the election, the Congrssional investigations will be nice and a haircut to the EOP useful, but the Coleman investigation and Thompson investigation shows how outmatched the GOP is when it comes to investigation politics). And they doubly won't have a "war room" response team set up in one of the more effective ways-having a woman tell Barack that he is wrong.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Depends on local labor law, as I see it, Clarice.

Here, all they would know is the door hitting them.

Provided no Einsteins committed things to paper, or worse, e-mail.

All local. And yes, here you can get axed for OSHA, BBB, and union actions. You don't ever say it, but it's tacit.

There is black, white, and Illinois gray, where all the laws get written and it's miles wide.

[Neo]

Bush never shut down US oil exploration while subsidizing drilling in Brazil and Mexico; Bammers did.

Just last week, President Obama explicitly targeted the industry for two massive tax hikes. First, he’d ban oil and gas companies from using the “Section 199″ tax credit, a measure for domestic manufacturers enacted in 2004 to boost US employment. (The Senate is set to vote this week on its version of the ban.) Second, he wants to end “dual capacity” protection for US energy firms.
Without this shield against double taxation on foreign revenues, American companies would be competing on an uneven global playing field. Again, Obama aims directly and specifically at the US oil and gas industry.
Yet, by the federal government’s own economic model, these tax hikes would lead to huge, immediate job losses. I ran the numbers through the Commerce Department’s RIMS II model; it shows, under the proposed changes to Section 199 and dual capacity, Americans would almost immediately lose more than 150,000 stable, private-sector jobs.

Even more laughable, most of those 150,000 jobs are union jobs.

[Melinda Romanoff]

And I fade.

G'night all.

[Danube of Thought]

Is it entirely out of order for a fellow to mention the exquisite joy derived from watching the vulgar, bombastic New York Jets get their faces rubbed in ordure on national television by the visiting Ravens? The loudmouthed ones managed an all-time franchise low total of five first downs.

There is nothing in sport to rival the sullen, morose silence of obnoxious New York fans.

[Carol Herman]

In all probability, an illegitimate birth in 1961. (And, mixed race babies weren't adoptable.)

Then, there's the law which contained an "act of kindness." IF the mom married at some point, she could have the new husband step forward. And, the birth certificate would be "fixed." The old one, showing an illegitimate birth would disappear.

Has nothing to do with Kenya. And, Stanley Ann Dunham wasn't a virgin, either. Just a bit ahead of the screw loose curve. And, the advantage? She didn't have to give her kid up for adoption. Which was the typical story.

For a side story, there's Carl Reiner's autobiography, where he describes being born in a Bronx apartment, because Jewish women at the time feared hospitals. Feared how nice Jewish babies were taken from their moms with cooked up stories that the birth was still born. To feed the adoption mills.

[JM Hanes]

I don't think Obama actually has any substantive ideological moorings. He's a floater who has made a life study of striking the right pose and whose ladder climbing ambitions have always been personal. He spent a year as a community organizer and discovered there was no glory to be had, so he headed off to law school, came back, attached himself to the most charismatic, messianic, political figures in Chicago, and was richly rewarded for it. He's collected serial mentors of convenience along the way, but Ayers et al set his basic ideological course. They had no coherent foreign policy so neither does he..... They have a soft spot for Chavez.....

He's not interested in governing, he's interested in being a Great President. No one else could pass comprehensive healthcare -- until Obama! He wants to be Lincoln, FDR and MLK rolled into one, with his own statue on the Mall. Alas, he has finally bumped up against something that he can't accomplish just by saying all the right things. What to do now? He's got no Plan B, and unfortunately for Obama, his Chicago inner circle doesn't either.

[Dave (in MA)]

DoT, high-5.

[Clarice]

Mel, it would be in this law--that is, federal law.

[Rick Ballard]

Ignatz,

Why not shift the focus within the mythos to "son of a drunken wife beating loser" rather than than tinker with the Ayers concoction? I agree whole heartedly with a button pushing approach to the thin skinned creep but I believe that "liar" and "failure" are better triggers.

Constant reference to "President Obama's failed stimulus program" seems to bring out the ball bearings and facial twitch. A few good pushes and we'll be hearing Ol' Yellow Streak ramble about the strawberries and the stolen key in response to every question asked.

[boris]

"substantive ideological moorings"

Don't need 'em once they've received the postmodern multiverse cargo cult camp training. Obama's got the merit badge, the tee shirt, the bumber sticker, and the secret decoder ring.

[matt]

Or my mother and my father, both Catholic as the Pope, being born at home in Brooklyn because that was what was done in that generation. Some people always bring up the boogieman while others describe the reality of their circumstances.

DoT, it is my hope that LT rubs the Spanos Family's (as opposed to the Corleones) noses in it. That and a number of friends are Jets fans and Sanchez is a local have me sorta kinda rooting for the Jets. Watching the Chargers tonight so far is painful. Bad karma exists and the Chargers must discharge this through penitence and getting rid of the owners and Norv Turner before they return to their rightful destiny as the NFL's best.

BTW, met a wonderful fellow tonight. Charles Djou is a Chinese/Thai American Republican who won the special election for the Congressional district which includes Honolulu. Folks were ardent anti-communists and he is a JAG in the Army Reserve.

Young and a bit earnest, but very sincere in a good way. He is ahead by a few points right now, but this is Obama's original home district, so the victory would be very sweet. I recommend him highly.

[Ann]

I can't remember were I stole this from but it still makes me laugh.

I might title this picture: The president, "Ventriloquist Totus" and his dummy, Obama:

[Clarice]

Funny you should say that, Rick the strawberry incident is what I think of whenever I see him lately.He doesn't look as if he's really eating or sleeping. Imagine pulling off such a great scam and actually getting elected and now people are like you know trying to say he's um ah the one who should be held accountable...A kid who thinks p/e is profits earnings ratio; that profits are part of overhead; you doesn't know the difference between collision and liability insurance and who thinks Moslems played a big role throughout America's history..that kind of dope.My five year old granddaughter is more focused and tough than he is.

[Clarice]

**WHO doesn't know the difference between **

[MayBee]

Oh I love you JMH.

[bgates]

Constant reference to "President Obama's failed stimulus program" seems to bring out the ball bearings and facial twitch.

Has there ever been an easier target for ridicule? He tells us what works.

Barack Complain Obama.
Woof, woof, woof.

[Danube of Thought]

Good one, Clarice--I see you've been annoyed by the very same errors that have made my ears prick up. They're not misstatements; they're bold-faced evidence of ignorance. Ignorance of a kind that is very scary given his office.

And he also thinks it's "been a great day for Michelle and I." Sorry, but that manner of speaking tells us a very great deal that is alarming. Literate men and women do not talk that way. And being literate is a necessary condition to being president. Shudder.

[narciso]

He gets all 'we weed up over inconvenient facts like that. I imagine when a certain someone dissed his raison d'tre, he went
through three packs of Kools

[Ann]

I am adding this to my Carla Bruni collection:

LOL

[Rick Ballard]

When Wilson cracked up (first prog nutter President, Nobel Peace Prize winner and ardent golfer as well as being the most racist President of the 20th century) Edith covered for him for almost two years. I don't believe Moochelle has the chops for the task. Interesting times.

[Threadkiller]

To bad the founding fathers forgot a provision that would disallow a British colonial’s son to be President.

Or did they?

[OldTimer]

Touche, TK. They of course, did not. Does this mean the colonialist conversation opens up a whole new can of worms...or that it's beyond importance at this point..

[Threadkiller]

If it is beyond importance, why bring up his dad at all?

--"They of course, did not."--

A horse is a horse, of course of course, unless that horse is a ...

I don't think anyone here has proved the founders intentions, 100 percent, including me. It is just that my interpretation avoids this whole mess. That is the can of worms.

[Threadkiller]

Colonial Son

A parody of Dusty Springfield’s ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4339EbVn8"> Son of a preacher man

Barry-o was a colonial son
And when his daddy was gone his muslim days weren’t done
When we gathered round he started planin’
Thats when Barry’s certificate went missin’
That’s when Wright and Ayres went missin’
He set the Constitution aside
Claims he’s the lord, to my surprise

The only one to send a thrill up my leg
Was the son of a British man
The only one I could ever vote for
Was the son of a British man
Yes he can, he can, mmm, yes he can

Givin speeches isn’t always easy
“Change” is the only word he’d try
When he started sweet-talking to me
His teleprompter says everythings all right
It spells and he speaks “its all right”
Can we blame America tonight?

The only one to send a thrill up my leg
Was the son of a British man
The only one I could ever vote for
Was the son of a British man
Yes he can, he can, HE knows he can

How well we remember
That he inherited his lies
Stealin votes from acorn on the sly
Takin time to tax my dime
Tellin me that spreading wealth is fine
Learnin where this countrys going
Lookin how much the goverments growing

The only one to send a thrill up my leg
Was the son of a British man
The only one I could ever vote for
Was the son of a British man
Yes he can, he can, O, yes he can
He was the sweet-talking son of a British man
Who guessed he’s the son of a British man
Commie-lovin son of a Brit, man…

Bgates, should I keep my day job?

[Stephanie]

JiB... I think you missed the rating of the Naval Academy - it got a B. The other services got As.

I'm glad that piece I found was helpful to those who were interested.

[Fashion industry news]

I have to confess, I was taken in by D'souza's theory.
Not that we should ever consider such a thing anyway, which effectively moots D'souza's theory.

[daddy]

As we continue to read about the racist, unconstitutional Immigration Law in Arizona, thought I'd pass on this info I just received about Tom Friedman's favorite "Enlightened Autocracy":

"Guangzhou China will host the 16th Asian Games from November 12-27. In anticipation of an influx of visitors to the Guangzhou area, the local Public Security Bureau has adopted new security measures that require all foreigners living or staying in Guangzhou to carry their passport at all times for possible identification checks by the local authorities.

If stopped by security personnel you must present your passport for inspection. You can also expect to have your passport's main page copied by hotel personnel when checking into our layover hotels. This is a Chinese Government required procedure and the hotel staffs must comply."

Anybody know if China is on that UN Human Rights Commission that we just put Arizona on report to for Civil Rights violations?