Hoisting The Towel

The Times excerpts their upcoming magazine story on "The Education of a President", emphasizing a beaten down Barack.

This won't exactly rally the Democrats in their last gasp before the elections.  Some punchlines:

Now He Tells Us!

In the magazine article, Mr. Obama reflects on his presidency, admitting that he let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend Democrat,” realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” and perhaps should have “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” in the stimulus.

Hey, We Were As Screwed Up Then As We Are Now:

“The mythology has emerged somehow that we ran this flawless campaign, I never made a mistake, that we were master communicators, everything worked in lockstep. And somehow now, as president, things are messy and they don’t always work as planned and people are mad at us,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not how I look at stuff, because I remember what the campaign was like. And it was just as messy and just as difficult. And there were all sorts of moments when our supporters lost hope, and it looked like we weren’t going to win. And we’re going through that same period here.”

Don't Hope For Any More Change. Or Any More Laws:

“Even if I had the exact same Congress, even if we don’t lose a seat in the Senate and we don’t lose a seat in the House, I think the rhythms of the next two years would inevitably be different from the rhythms of the first two years,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of work in this administration just doing things right and making sure that new laws are stood up in the ways they’re intended.”

Wow. 

Ok, these defeatists soundbites may be misleading and out-of-context.  But remember, they are what the NY Times chose to highlight!  Times does not permit just now, but I bet Obama's critics can find even juicier stuff.

THE LAST ALLIANCE: I rarely find myself agreeing with Zandar in his dark struggles against the stupid, but I have to back this:

Amazing to see Obama basically throw in the towel three weeks before the election in order to...

Hmm, I thought my Metaphor Masher was the Special Limited Right Wing edition.  Yet lefties have Obama throwing towels too...

Comments

[peter]

But they liked the re-deco job on the Oval Office!

[alesum]

Keep up the good job.
Alesum:summarizing the world.

[daddy]

Sorry OT already,

But just got a response to my VFW-PAC letter.

The responder was not the guy I wrote to who according to Pager's links is the VFW=PAC rep up here in Alaska. Instead I was replied to by this guy:

Gary Kurpius
State Adjutant
VFW, Department of Alaska

His reply: "Been extremely trying times for the VFW over the endorsement procedure this year. The whole process is flawed and the National organization is trying to correct it. If you can go to VFW.org you can get all the updates and they'll explain the "flawed" process used this year."

Good. Obviously the VFW is well aware of the "flawed" procedure, and is feeling the heat to do something about it.

Well done Pager and Sandy Daze and others for bringing up this issue.

[Thomas Collins]

Following up on peter's comment, perhaps the goals for Jan. 2011-Jan. 2013 will be (i) making sure the new rug is clean, (ii) keeping those solar panels going, (iii) adding a windmill to the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue grounds, and (iv) producing a White House Cookbook based on Michelle's dietary exhortations.

[Ranger]

“Even if I had the exact same Congress, even if we don’t lose a seat in the Senate and we don’t lose a seat in the House, I think the rhythms of the next two years would inevitably be different from the rhythms of the first two years,”

Translation: You think I'm going to jepardize my re-ellection by pushing unpopular, job kiling bills? This was always about making the Blug Dogs taking the bullets for me.

[Rick Ballard]

TC,

Don't forget I.(A.)"Keep right elbow tucked in tighter on backswing."

[Rick Ballard]

"making sure that new laws are stood up in the ways they’re intended"

HLR should be so proud...

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

He should resign.

[Extraneus]

1/22/09:

President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.

[snip]

The Republicans stressed that they want to include more middle class tax cuts in the package, citing their proposal to cut the two lowest tax rates — 15 percent and 10 percent — to ten percent and five percent, rather than issue the refundable credit Obama wants.

[centralcal]

Ditto what Jane said.

[Jack is Back!]

daddy,

Like I pointed out on the other thread about the VFW PAC, it is seriously divorced from the VFW Executive and State organizations. But this is what you get with PACs - independent decisions from corporate or organizational management decisions. The same with Unions and a lot of corporation PACs. Management puts people on the PAC board but the PAC is literally run by the political guys - the DC reps, lobbyists, congressional affairs people etc. If you want a more livid illustration, the VFW PAC also endorsed and gave money to Barbara "call me Senator" Boxer and Alan "Republicans want you to die" Grayson.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

What on earth does that man thinks he accomplishes by admitting he doesn't have a clue? Whose vote is he looking for now? The crybabies on the planet.

Give me a Chilean miner. Every one of them could run a country better than the moron- in-chief, and they would man up too. I am so sick of the wusification of America

[DebinNC]

NYT last June when Obama flew to Ohio for the upteenth time for "shovel ready" road project outside a hospital:

"Stimulus-financed construction is set to explode this summer: 10,700 highway projects should be under way next month, up from just 1,750 last July. States expect to weatherize 82,000 homes this summer — 27 times the number of homes that were weatherized last summer, when the program got off to a slow start. And there will be 2,828 clean-water projects under construction, a twentyfold increase over last year."

Did the explosion fizzle? Why wouldn't Obama et al have been pointing to these successes if they'd occurred?

[daddy]

Just a little bit of timeline:

USA Today, Dec 8, 2008:

"Barack Obama said Sunday the plan includes spending on "shovel-ready" projects to rebuild roads, make buildings energy efficient, modernize schools and upgrade hospital technology."

WaPo: Jan 8, 2009:

"Barack Obama can create jobs, and the president-elect promises to move fast. After all, he says, he's met with a bunch of governors "and all of them have projects that are shovel-ready."

Announcing his energy team, Obama beams about "shovel-ready projects all across the country." Unveiling his choice for education secretary, Obama plugs his plans "to start helping states and local governments with shovel-ready projects."

NPR: February 9, 2009:

"...one of his President Obama's favorite selling points is the thousands of projects nationwide that he calls "shovel ready" — meaning planning is complete, approvals are secured and people could be put to work right away once funding is in place."

FOX News Interview 15 Feb 2009: David Axelrod:

"shovel-ready," projects are set to get underway almost immediately after President Obama signs the $787 billion stimulus bill on Tuesday, his senior adviser said Sunday."

Now Public: 1 Mar 2009:

"Obama's StimulusWatch.org - proposed "shovel-ready" projects. ... Please look at your local Shovel Ready Projects."

The People's Cube: April 22nd, 2009:

"Obama: Shovel-Ready on Lenin's Birthday / Earth Day...Americans must be more shovel-ready and faster!" (Nice pix here of Obama and Michelle with shovels.)

May, June July August, 2009, 2010, etc etc etc...

October 2010:

“there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”

[Danube of Thought]

This presidency is a disaster, and has already affected the country in ways that can't be cured. Neither Obama nor anyone close to him knows this, and they are not capable of believing it.

What an out-and-out fraud.

[Ranger]

Obama lied, Jobs dies.

[Old Lurker]

You know...Mrs. Lurker and I have just taken up golf in the last year or so and are working hard to get past the duffer stage. As hard as we have worked at it, we cannot imagine having played 52 rounds of 18 in less than two years. That is a serious amount of time.

[PD]

In the magazine article, Mr. Obama reflects on his presidency, admitting that he let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend Democrat,”

He looks like it because that's exactly what he is. It's not a perception issue, it's a reality issue.

realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects”

But he was willing to go out and allege the existence of such things, without knowing whether that was true.

His words are meaningless.

and perhaps should have “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” in the stimulus.

I thought it was supposed to be full of tax cuts. No?

His words are meaningless.

Anything this man says should be immediately discounted as "whatever's needed to sell the bill du jour".

[MarkO]

Wow. He really is just not that smart.

[Mike Huggins]

Yeesh, 2nd paragraph in and you get this and all you need to know about Timesman Peter Baker, the writer,

"As he welcomed me, I told him I liked what he had done with the place. Gone was George W. Bush’s yellow sunburst carpet (it says “optimistic person,” Bush would tell practically anyone who visited), and in its place was a much-derided earth-tone rug with inspirational quotations."

[Mike Huggins]

Oh, please... This is just pathetic:

“Given how much stuff was coming at us,” Obama told me, “we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular.

Can we get a real President?

[Danube of Thought]

Who knew? Medicare actuary says reform will cost seniors. And dog bites *&$%ing man.

[macphisto]

resign? he should be taken out and shot, but that would be too merciful. no, i want to watch him squirm as his fantasy world falls in around him and the hollow ringing in his ears gets worse and worse. then he and the Clothes Mare can both be taken out and shot like the Ceaucescus.

[narciso]

He hasn't learned anything in two years, depleted uranium is more permeable, or he really does take us for fools, the end result is about the same

[MayBee]

If Tom Maguire does not delete that post from macphisto, I'm never posting here again.

[Jack is Back!]

Somewhere, at some point of time, there is a "shovel ready" project if you understand the planning, development, financing, permitting, engineering and construction process. At any one time today, in fact, there is a project, public or private that is being approved and ready to strike ground. He is an ignoramus of the highest order when it comes to matters of business, management and the economy. He and his ilk haven't a freeaking clue. Its embarrassing. He needs a subscription to ENR. LUN

[Mike Huggins]

Is macphisto a plant to smear this site?

[Mike Huggins]

Before macphisto jumped in here spewing violent rhetoric, I was trying to post this - that it was time for the WH to call in Linda R., again.

[Porchlight]

“there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”

So he lied. Because at the time of the stimulus he said he had thousands of such project lined up and ready to go.

He stole a trillion dollars from the country to pay off his constituent groups.

When do we get to impeachment?

[MarkO]

Wait, wait. He's a liar.

[Extraneus]

macphisto has posted here in the past, and I don't think he/she is a troll.

Very inappropriate, macphisto. You should be the one to email TM on that request to delete.

[Cecil Turner]

I liked this part:

“But you know what? We’ve made progress on each of those fronts.”

Heh. Howzabout that bit about "good jobs to the jobless"? Unless you consider a 9.6% unemployment rate "progress" over the 7.6% rate when he took over. Maybe he does.

[Extraneus]

Rush mentioned today that Obama is taking foreign money to pay for his political operation. Debt financing from China is being transferred to Obama's union buddies, for example.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Macphisto,

You should email Tom and ask him to delete your post. I bet he will.

Oops - what Extraneous said.

[sbw]

Not just trolls, but trolls who would try to drape the rest of us with ideas that run counter to everything civil people like us believe.

Maybee, don't leave, but thank you for immediately objecting and shunning the commenter.

[Danube of Thought]

Do we know that TM has the ability to delete individual posts?

That strikes me as the kind of post that might invite Secret Service attention.

[MarkJ]

Obama vs. Reality:

"An Idiotic Force crashing into an Immovable Object"

[Extraneus]

Here's how to delete Typepad comments.

[Barbara]

I wondered how long it would take Obama to horn in on the dramatic and heroic events taking place in Chile. He just couldn't restrain himself. It must have pained him to watch the President of Chile getting all that good press last night.

I'm not sure of the proper word that describes Obama and his grandstanding this morning here on the left coast, but I'm certain that Rick, bgates, Clarice, Jane, H&R, Janet and all the rest of you will come up with something fitting and appropriate to describe this smarmy buffoon.

[BlueOx]

Obama expressed optimism to me that he could make common cause with Republicans after the midterm elections. “It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, they feel more responsible,” he said, “either because they didn’t do as well as they anticipated, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and throwing bombs didn’t work for them, or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals and work with me in a serious way.”

Yep, a landslide victory for the other side means that Americans want Obama to be taken more seriously by the Republicans.

Who says it's not all about him?

[Extraneus]

He may be a poor president, but he sure can fund-raise.

Rove-backed group raised $13M since attacks from Obama

[Jim Ryan]

something fitting and appropriate to describe this smarmy buffoon

Amateur.

[Clarice]

MayBee, No one seems to think that macphist post was appropriate, but as you know TM often doesn't read this stuff. Perhaps if a number of people email him, he'll delete it but in the meantime we'd so miss your valuable contributions that I hope you will regard your ( and others) dissent as sufficient.

As for the VFW issue, I sent the VFW's statement someone posted last night to Allen weest because the "VFW" endorsed his opponent, Ron Klei. He reports that in yesterday's debate Klein said he'd been endorsed by the VFW, a comment that was met
with a chorus of "the VfW PAC" from the vets in the audience.

West has raised a lot of money, run a good campaign, but the race is--I think--neck and neck. Please kee him in your thoughts and if you are anywhere nearby volunteer to help.

[Clarice]

daddy, thanks for the shovel ready thru history post. One of these days I'll have to hare my big bucks from blogging revenue with you guys.

[lyle]

The Obama disaster presidency could have been completely avoided if this country had one thing: an honest, non-partisan press. The vaunted Fourth Estate...pfft.

[peter]

871. Threats against President and successors to the Presidency

(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(from the US Code Annotated)

[Dave (in MA)]

Maybe one way of explaining
all this is that even the MSM is
looking at what's going on
and it's starting to sink in that
it was foolish to push Obama's
socialist agenda while the
economy was tanking.

Nah.

[Steve in SoCal]

"Please, oh please let the republicans win big in November so for the next two years I've got someone to blame for my policies" is what this article is about.

This is what happens when you don't run anything in your life, have never had to take responsibility by actually being at the same company to go thru the ups and downs of the business cycle.

When you are dependent upon government or outside money for your livelihood, you never have to worry about not making your 'number" so your actions never have any consequence.

Let's put it this way: Can you imagine what the MSM would be saying if a republican controlled congress had passed 1 trillion in tax cuts and two years later said "it worked. Had we not done that, the unemployment rate which was 7.7% when we passed the cuts and now is ~10% would have been 13-15% had we not passed the cuts."

Bottom line is Obama has never had to worry about making a profit or controlling spending because he's always had acces to more money. When you've never had a budget, even 1 Trillion will eventually turn out to be constraining.

It's like Micheal Barone says, Obama ran in 2008 on foreigners like me and will like the US better if I'm elected. Now he's concerned that 1/2 of 1% of campaign ad money MIGHT come from foreign. And this was a guy who disabled the address verification for credit card donations on his website?

He's has absolutely no freakin' clue. This would be funny if he weren't the POTUS but rather some adversarial leader.

[daddy]

Thanks, Clarice,

There's tons of links to O's shovel ready quotes via google, but I think this one from 22 April 2009 may been my favorite, as it's a Communist website. Alongside excellent photos of O and Moo with shovels in hand are patriotic paintings of Comrade Lenin outside the Kremlin in 1919 on the very same day doing the very same thing.

">http://thepeoplescube.com/current-truth/obama-shovel-ready-on-lenin-s-birthday-earth-day-t3317.html"> Here's the link Comrades. Subbotnik!

[daddy]

Clarice,

Let me modify my above. I think that link is sarcastic. Still great pix tho!

[Clarice]

**Share my big bucks***

[Janet...off the couch & sportin Tea Party chic]

The Obama disaster presidency could have been completely avoided if this country had one thing: an honest, non-partisan press. The vaunted Fourth Estate...pfft.

So true lyle! IMO one component of the crappiness of our press is laziness. Look at this video via Drudge of the old press getting mad at the new press. They have/had a system, & the new guys are messin it up! Get to know the politicians you cover...ask a few puff questions...take their word at face value...go out for drinks. Life was so good.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Peter,

Let's not over react, Macphisto didn't make a threat. He over reacted, but he didn't threaten, and I'm sure he will ask TM to expunge the comment.

[Clarice]

Jane--from Insty, citing the Boston Examiner:

MASSACHUSETTS: Soon in a different column? “I was speaking with a prominent Tea Party member in the eastern part of the state — she has been doing the heavy work of going door to door on days off to talk to voters, passing out literature and pushing her candidates. The report I got was astounding. Over and over doors were about to be closed until the voter heard the Magic word ‘Republican’. When the voter heard that word, doors were opened, literature accepted and thumbs up given. Only one in four at best thought otherwise.”

[Rick Ballard]

"Amateur"

Jim,

Many, if not most, amateurs possess at least a basic level of skill regarding the task to be performed. There's no discernible evidence that BOzo possesses even the minimum level. I can't think of a single word which encompasses the manifest incompetence displayed by the President. Hell, there will be 500 page books written which still won't be enough to detail the subject. One word alone could never suffice.

[Cecil Turner]

Let's put it this way: Can you imagine what the MSM would be saying if a republican controlled congress . . .

My thoughts exactly while reading the WH wailing about communication problems. If they can't manage to sell their program with a perfectly compliant lapdog press (this hagiographic lament of the poor misunderstood President being an archetypical case in point), a logical man might conclude the problem lay more in the program than the communication. But nooooooo . . .

I particularly liked the bits where they were trying to blame the GOP for things like not shutting down Gitmo. As if. The problem there was candidate Obama's hyperventilation over American "war crimes," only to find himself unable to do without a detention camp when faced with the reality of leading a country at war. His dithering over DADT and similar issues are other examples of reality not matching lefty rhetoric . . . and entirely self-inflicted.

[daddy]

I take it all back. I have been too hard on Obama about "shovel ready" jobs.

His problem is that Hillary Clinton used the phrase "shovel ready" first, and he was simply stupid enough to believe her.

From the Washington Post, ">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010703662.html"> January 8, 2009:

Searching for the origin of the phrase "shovel ready", the WaPo tells us:

"The search continues."

"Obama's election opponent and secretary of state designee, Hillary Clinton, provides a clue. She invoked the shovel during a conference call, way back in November 2007. She's talking about 40 "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects "all set to go in New York."

Two days later, she's at it again, this time up in Albany, talking about speeding dollars to "shovel-ready projects in transit and transportation."

So there you have. Obama believed a Clinton.

[macphisto]

my previous post was not a threat; no sentient being could possibly construe it as a threat. as to the actual content, if, say, Captain Hate has said that Obama should be taken out and shot everyone would have guffawed. Tom can do whatever he wishes with my posts; it, after all, his site. However, i feel no obligation to request that he hold me to a higher standard than the range of the regular bell curve, thank you very much.

[macphisto]

*than the range of the bell curve of the behavior of the regular participants*

[Janet...off the couch & sportin Tea Party chic]

From the Daily Caller - "Frank asked donors for money by warning that “Tea Party Express thinks that it has me tied to the tracks,”

We need a picture of ol Barney in bloomers & braids with a limp hand to his forehead swooning at the oncoming "train" - a group of friendly Americans wearing patriotic t-shirts, waving flags, picking up trash,...and carrying dangerous signs that say, "stop spending", "more freedom", "I can see November"

[Jim Ryan]

The difference is expressing a wish that violence befall the president, Macphisto. CH pushes the boundaries, to put it mildly, but not that boundary. I don't know why you're pretending that you are persona non grata compared to him.

[Neo]

we ran this flawless campaign, I never made a mistake
Now where would am idea like that come from ?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Do we know that TM has the ability to delete individual posts?

What you mean "we", white man?

(Yes, Tom can delete individual comments in Typepad.)

[Sue]

Janet,

I had to explain my uncontrolled laughter, thank you very much. ::grin::

[Extraneus]

That would have to be "twain," Janet.

[macphisto]

hey, i came up in the 60s and 70s. if revolutionary justice is good for the goose, revolutionary justice is good for the gander.

arguendo, i'm not "pretending" anything; if trolls can gabble for pages at a time, i can succinctly say what i think once. end of discussion, move on.

[macphisto]

n.b. i'm not calling CH a troll, far from it. i'm not writing well today.

[Janet...off the couch & sportin Tea Party chic]

Yeah "twain" LOL!!

[Danube of Thought]

Extraneous linked to the deletion instructions at 1:57.

[sbw]

macphisto, err on the safe side. You might wonder how deserving it would be if someone tied O's shoelaces together. Funny, but no injury.

None of us wants physical damage to come to the man, but your remark suggested you did. It was out of place. Apologize and we'll get on with life.

[sbw]

JMH. I twisted and burnished your excellent bank problem summary on the last thread.

[Army of Davids]

The media is making an effort to make ObamaCare more popular by focusing on mandates not to deny coverage (2014) that are supposed to be in the legislation.

3 things will likely happen here.

1) taxpayers will subsidize the cost to the health insurers. liberals may like this. Insurance companies definitely will

2) health insurers have likely already written in loopholes for large swaths of this obligation (Leiberman, Nelson, Lincoln). Expect them to create more.

3) premiums for everyone else will rise even more than they would have otherwise.

[Army of Davids]

Why did health insurers throw money at Coakley's campaign in Massachusetts vs Scott Brown?

The ones who owned a seat at the table (Aetna, Humana, United Health, Wellpoint) wanted the healthcare bill to pass.

They owned the bill in the Senate via Leiberman, Nelson and Lincoln.

30 million mandated and taxpayer subsidized new customers.

Larger market share for a few players at the expense of competition.

Rockefeller...."competition is evil"

[Clarice]

On a lighter note, I followed Insty's Amazon toy plug and found a way to make my son and DiL hate me forever. if you're evil, here's a big hint: Tattoo Barbie.

[hit and run]

Obama!

That’s not how I look at stuff, because I remember what the campaign was like. And it was just as messy and just as difficult.

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/02/obamas-answer-on-experience-but-im-such-a-great-campaigner/>Wait. What?

Anderson Cooper: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response?

Barack Obama: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years.

So you mean that when Obama was asked about his lack of executive experience and he offered his experience running his super awesome mega-campaign -- what he was really telling us was that he would have a messy and difficult presidency?

See? He tried to warn us and all you wingnuts just made fun of him for it.

[Walter]

MayBee,

Thanks for taking a stand for civility.

macphisto, Tom was kind enough to delete one* of my comments when I asked him. I understand your frustration, but the manner in which you expressed it is excessively brutal. There is no need to provide the other side with bulliten board matterial.
___________________
*Amazing that it was only the one. TM is a kind and forgiving host.

[JM Hanes]

Hey, TM!

Presidential edu? This would be the perfect time to give STANLEY KURTZ' new book a plug. Occidental College and Columbia figure in his sneak preview! RADICAL-IN-CHIEF just came out officially today.

[maryrose]

One word to describe Obama and his bumblings:His sense of entitlement.

[Sue]

The NRCC is sending money to Bielat.

[Jim Ryan]

Clarice, yuck! Do they have lip-ring Barbie?

[Rob Crawford]

Tattoo Barbie

Huh? Shorter than normal and when you pull a string she says "de plane, de plane!"?

[hit and run]

From Mike Huggins quote of Obama in the article:

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration

Put a period on that phrase,make it a sentence that stops right there,and I won't even lodge my quibble about the "probably".

It's not every day I agree with Obama,but today is that day!

[Jim Ryan]

Zero is so stuck on himself that he probably sees this as a big come-to-Jesus moment for himself. He is likely priding himself on it as we speak, bragging about his humility to the wife.

[hit and run]

From BlueOx's quote of Obama from the article:

Obama expressed optimism to me that he could make common cause with Republicans after the midterm elections.

Wait. What?

He needs mid-terms to help bring that about? Besides the "I ran a big campaign,so I have executive experience",Obama also told us on 60 Minutes http://thevimh.blogspot.com/2008/10/not-such-good-reason-afterall.html>why he would be a good president:

KROFT: Why do you think you’d be a good president?
...
OBAMA: You know, I’m a, I’m a practical person. One of the things I’m good at is getting people in a room with a bunch of different ideas who sometimes violently disagree with each other and finding common ground and a sense of common direction.

If you take "getting people in a room" to mean "getting people to the polls" and "finding common ground and a sense of common direction" to mean "voting en masse against me and my policies and my party" . . . well . . . he is just about at his Mission Accomplished moment. For realies.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Howie Carr is having a blast with Barney - all to the tune of ~~I'm leaving on a jet plane"~~~

Apparently even the NY Times has the story.

It must be because he's gay.

Clarice, that's pretty phenominal news. Altho dare I say, it feels like it did about a week before Scott Brown's election.

[Extraneus]

He is likely priding himself on it as we speak, bragging about his humility to the wife.

Heh.

[Clarice]

Hit, you are really brutal today.

In the Midwest, MO' s pitch for Feingold is that like her he often disagrees with BO. Some selling point. Russ and 99 % of the rest of his countrymen

[Extraneus]

Those miners have the extraction process down now. Winch going faster, less delay between trips, everyone playing their parts (including the miners and families). Captivating.

[Ranger]

An interesting story, because of the potential impact on the 2012 race if they can get ahold of these documents (remember, Obama was one of the top total recipients of FM/FM money in the Senate, despite the fact that he was only there 2 years).

http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2010/10/13/court-denies-access-to-fanniefreddie-political-records/>Court Denies Access to Fannie/Freddie Political Records

[Porchlight]

bragging about his humility to the wife.

I somehow don't think she's buying it. I think a great source of her anger is the fact that she knows her husband is a total fraud, and there's not a thing she can say or do about it. Yet she loves the perks and adulation that come with being First Lady.

Hence the passive-aggressive lashing out.

[btraven]

The money quote comes in the full Magazine piece:

Perhaps the more important historical pattern to consider is this one: The last four presidents who failed to win a second term were all challenged in their own party. Lyndon Johnson was driven out of the race in 1968 after nearly losing the New Hampshire primary to Eugene McCarthy. Gerald Ford fended off Reagan in 1976 but went on to lose the general election to Carter, who likewise had to beat a primary challenger four years later, Ted Kennedy, before falling to Reagan. And George H. W. Bush had to overcome Patrick Buchanan before losing to Clinton in 1992.

So it is a high priority for Obama to prevent any intraparty fight in 2012, and to date, despite the fire from the left, no serious challenger appears on the horizon. Putting Hillary Clinton in the cabinet may turn out to be one of Obama’s smartest moves, because it not only eliminated her as a would-be challenger, but it also should presumably squelch the will-she-or-won’t-she speculation that otherwise would have played out for months. (Instead, the guessing game has her replacing Biden on the ticket, however fanciful that might be.)

[bgates]

One word alone could never suffice.

"Obama".

"The once highly regarded recruit who many thought would redefine the sport turned out to be the franchise's Obama, lashing out at teammates, coaches, management, and even fans for his on- and off-court problems."

"Duke graduate and Democratic Congressional candidate Kandi Bottom was embarrassed today by release of an old text message sent to friends during her honeymoon with her now ex-husband. The message read, 'I married an Obama - great body above the waist IYKWIM'."

"In the end, the film many expected to revive Hollywood's Golden Age proved to be the studio's Obama. There were rumors of trouble even before the disastrous press screening was cut short after studio CEO Alec Baldwin physically attacked ostensibly friendly critics to silence their guffaws. Now the throngs of stars who financed the picture in exchange for a cut of the gross face bankruptcy, and some are angrily questioning the edgy marketing strategy which bypassed the domestic audience completely with the tag phrase, "This Film is Un-American: It Has Morals, Humor, and Taste"."

"In fact, while international sales are notoriously hard to calculate, one measure of the film's difficulty comes from the Caribbean island nation of Napsteria, which reports that torrents of the film appear to be generating less download activity than three-year-old cell phone video porn of Ukrainian circus midgets and former Democratic Congressional candidate Kandi Bottom."

[Jim Miller]

Some background on the nearly
universal failure to find "shovel-ready" projects.

And since Tom mentioned the site, I can't help but add this thought: Almost every time I visit "Zander Versus the Stupid", I wonder why Zander is siding with "Stupid".

[bgates]

"Putting Hillary Clinton in the cabinet may turn out to be one of Obama’s smartest moves"

I think that should be listed as one of his major accomplishments.

First black President; responsible for naming the historical third-ever female Secretary of State.

[narciso]

Well I knew after he left Buffy and Giles there would be trouble, lol, that's right up there to Oliver Willis's slogan, "like Cryptonite to Stupid" which would preface his
turn toward Media Matters, or Iranian Press TV, whichever was more craven

[bgates]

"Zero is so stuck on himself that he probably sees this as a big come-to-Jesus moment for himself."

He probably sees this as a big come-to-himself moment for Jesus.

[bgates]

"Court Denies Access to Fannie/Freddie Political Records"

Ha, stupid wingnuts. Why should they turn over those documents when you haven't proved that they contain evidence of illegal contributions, and you haven't proved that the Chamber of Commerce has not taken illegal contributions?

[lyle]

out damn italics!

[boris]

Italiacto!

[JM Hanes]

macphisto:

As you may know, I don't guffaw at just anything. I also rarely feel compelled to explicitly disassociate myself from another poster's comment, but I'm going to have to do so here.

You have contributed here in the past, and I hope you continue to do so, but I'd like to suggest that out of deference to our host, you ask him to remove your comment here. You may have meant it metaphorically, but it sounds as though you did not, and it could cause a great deal of unpleasantness for TM, if not for you.

There are a lot of people who go trolling for just that sort of remark as fodder for tarring bloggers for political purposes. Tom allows us all to say pretty much anything we like on his site, so even if you can't see asking him to remove your post, perhaps you could do him the courtesy of pointing it out, in case he would like to do so.