Obama, Prepping For His Next Gig

I love this guy. Obama used his final Presidential press conference to preview some of his material as he tries to pull together his five minutes for a stand-up comedy routine.

This howler will be hard to top:

And almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago.

After your laughter dies down, give credit for his use of the word "almost". Possible exceptions to the "more respect" meme would include Putin's Russia, which packed our bags and handed them to us in Syria, then hacked our elections as Obama headed out the door. More on that from the First Ditherer turned First Stand-Up:

What I was concerned about in particular was making sure that that wasn't compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself.

And so in early September when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that did not happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, there were going to be some serious consequences if he did not.

And in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. But the leaks through Wikileaks had already occurred.

He and DNC Chair Donna Brazile need to coordinate their laugh lines since she said the DNC saw attempted hacking activity right up to the election.

Well, maybe Obama was talking about something else and the rest of us are not able to keep up with his subtle thinking and subtler phrasing. Not the first time.

For other possible exceptions to Obama's declaration of New Respect, we can turn our eyes to the Pacific. The Chinese have such great respect that they sailed up to a US Navy vessel in what even they agree is international waters and stole an underwater drone. Worrisome? Only for the countries out there! The Times:

Muted U.S. Response to China’s Seizure of Drone Worries Asian Allies

In the eyes of America’s friends in Asia, the brazen maneuver to launch an operation against an American Navy vessel in international waters in the South China Sea about 50 miles from the Philippines, another close American ally, has raised questions about one of the admiral’s crucial words. It was also seen by some as a taunt to President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has challenged the One China policy on Taiwan and has vowed to deal forcefully with Beijing in trade and other issues.

They are taunting Trump? I really don't have the heart to tell them, either.

Across Asia, diplomats and analysts said they were perplexed at the inability of the Obama administration to devise a strong response to China’s challenge. It did not even dispatch an American destroyer to the spot near Subic Bay, a former American Navy base that is still frequented by American ships, some noted.

After discussions at the National Security Council on how to deal with the issue, the Obama administration demanded the return of the drone. On Saturday, China said it would comply with the request but did not indicate when or how the equipment would be sent back.

The end result, analysts said, is that China will be emboldened by having carried out an act that amounted to hybrid warfare, falling just short of provoking conflict, and suffering few noticeable consequences.

“Allies and observers will find it hard not to conclude this represents another diminishment of American authority in the region,” said Douglas H. Paal, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

But there is New Respect for the US other than in Russia and China. And probably Syria, where Assad must go but hasn't yet gone. And maybe not in some other Middle Eastern countries, too, but probably only the ones that happened to notice that we backed down on Assad, dropped the ball on ISIS and empowered the Iranians. Everyone else loves us there. In fact, they want more Obama like they want more sand.

It's a puzzle. I can't pin this rumor down, but... it may be that before the New Respect material got into his remarks Obama meant to riff on Rodney Dangerfield and explain that today the US gets No Respect. Maybe!

Comments

[Barry Dauphin]

Perhaps he's counting California as a country?

[Marlene]

The Bernie Bro in Maine switched back to Hillary in the second round of voting.

[jimmyk]

Yes, so far no faithless electors. Texas should be voting right now (2pm Central Time) to put Trump over the top.

[jimmyk]

Live feed for Texas EC vote:

https://www.facebook.com/FOX7austin/

[Cecil Turner]

Where are the hateful 8? The world wonders.

[jimmyk]

Only 34 electors present, not sure what they do about the absences.

[Jim Eagle]

Has the New York Times corrected the bona fides of Zuphrin, the Texas "faithless elector" who wrote an OpEd why he would not vote for Trump but he turns out to have a "stolen valor" resume as a 1st responder?

[henry]

hillary only wins 8/12 in Washington.

[lyle]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/19/bill-clinton-bashes-trump-blames-angry-white-men-and-comey-for-wifes-loss.html

What does it matter to you, Slick? Your life changes not a whit. Well, except maybe the money starts drying up...

[jimmyk]

Slick had probably counted on the Lincoln bedroom as his bachelor pad, maybe figures the cooter supply will be a bit more limited now.

[lyle]

http://hotair.com/archives/2016/12/19/obama-let-me-coach-the-next-generation-of-democratic-talent/

Keep in mind, though, that my strong preference has always been to legislate when I can get legislation done,” Obama said from the Cabinet Room in the White House. “In my first two years, I wasn’t relying on executive powers, because I had big majorities in the Congress and we were able to get bills done, get bills passed. And even after we lost the majorities in Congress, I bent over backwards consistently to try to find compromise and a legislative solution to some of the big problems that we’ve got — a classic example being immigration reform, where I held off for years in taking some of the executive actions that I ultimately took in pursuit of a bipartisan solution — one that, by the way, did pass through the Senate on a bipartisan basis with our help.

Lying dirtbag.

[Jim Eagle]

lyle,

If that puss didn't lie he'd have nothing to say.

[Buckeye]

Lying dirtbag sack o' shit.

FIFY lyle.

[Captain Hate]

Fuck off, Slick; I'm a formerly angry white man your entire dysfunctional family wants to avoid. Particularly you.

Btw my dentist who you good people verified was reasonable in her pricing for crowns re-cemented one which fell out while eating Christmas cookies gratis.

[lyle]

Beware cookies gratis! ;)

[lyle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/19/the-electoral-college-is-thwarting-our-ability-to-battle-global-warming/?utm_term=.93cb5534452b#comments

If only someone had informed these idiots about how national elections and the Electoral College work before Nov. '16...

[Account Deleted]

Re "get bills done, get bills passed."

The Bath House Rat has not one whit of technical know how on what it takes.

I had the opportunity as a doctoral student to learn in-depth about educational legislation and what it takes to get bills passed at both the state and federal levels. My program immersed us in real time studies in DC and in Springfield, IL.

BO is largely ignorant of what it takes. He is incompetent in this specific regard: he is unable to design and write a bill from scratch, while putting together a coalition to push the bill through the legislative process so it can ultimately come to the final vote.

99.9% of legislators currently serving are unable to do it. It's one reason why legislative *costs* and gridlock are out of control because the people at the top of that food chain, state and federal, lack the training and competence to do it themselves or to direct the work intelligently. It gets outsourced by and large.

Lying dirtbag was lyle's term for BO on this matter. I concur. FULLY.

[jimmyk]

Texas is going to take forever, as they are now taking nominations for replacement of each of the four absent electors. Guessing they won't actually take the vote for another 40 minutes or so. Trump only needs 14.

[Buckeye]

Btw my dentist who you good people verified was reasonable in her pricing for crowns re-cemented one which fell out while eating Christmas cookies gratis.

Damn good thing you didn't swallow it:)

[Thomas Collins]

Has Trump won yet?

I am enjoying this electoral college vote. But if it had been 270-268 going into today, it wouldn't have been so enjoyable.

[lyle]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/12/islamic-terrorist-assassinates-russian-ambassador.php

Good grief. Some photographer took pics of the assassination.

[Account Deleted]

BO takes a bow here for a "bi-partisan solution" passing the Senate. Whoopedy doo, moron.

A bill becomes law when it passes final votes in the Senate and the House. BO thinks, apparently, that the Senate is the final arbiter of which bills become law.

I am so ready to watch a POTUS use the legislative process to torch everything BO foisted onto the Republic.

If I were a venerable member of the DNC I don't think I'd like the sound of BO's self-aggrandizing memes about developing leadership, people who want to "rise up." (So damned sick of that expression. How about just participate and do things according to law? Jack-ass.)

His "leadership" as the top EmoCrat has been a disaster, a lesson in what not to do. Now, he should just go make his six-figure speaking fees and take his final photo-ops before his Beard divorces him and soaks him for half his ill-gotten gains.

[Captain Hate]

Zippy was a disaster on selling ZippyCare; every time he had one of those high exposure town hall fluffers for it he sounded like a kid giving a junior high presentation who'd been smoking pot and watching porn instead of boning up, so to speak, on the subject matter. And as a result the support dropped like a rock afterward so they had to pass it with the most outlandish bit of chicanery that took a real nincompoop like Queen Roberts not to see through. So it was a little more involved than "get bills done, get bills passed" on everybody's part but his.

[Account Deleted]

"maybe figures the cooter supply will be a bit more limited now."

You can ask any of the old ones who lived in BO's old "organizing" stomping grounds in Chicago, and they'll tell you that he's never been into the cooter.

[Now, I might go for a bear dancer. These birds are flighty.]

Heh, President Faith Spotted Eagle.

[Account Deleted]

Captain, you nailed that fraud dead-to-rights. He's a complete incompetent and total failure as a statesman.
==========
I think of the difference between a wimp like BO and a grown-assed man like Reagan or Trump.

A POTUS has to walk into a room and command respect. I cannot imagine what it was like for adversaries and allies alike to be in a room when BO and Hamrod walked in together, or BO and Lurcch.

Good grief!

When it comes to Putin, I know for a fact that in Trump's entourage will be two specific individuals who knew Vlad from his KGB days. One of them whipped the braggadocio KGB officer Putin in a vodka-soaked arm wrestling match. The other lost in a contested follow-up match.

I can hear DT now: "Oh, you remember your old buddies....."

A flippin RESET button? Are you kidding me?

[art in newport]

Now at

259 votes for Trump (R)
160 votes for Clinton (D)

Trump total inching up; still waiting for Texas.

[Account Deleted]

"Heh, President Faith Spotted Eagle."

He is a disgusting joke.

[She messes up everything she touches.]

Three Washington electors went for Colin Powell and one for FSE.

[-peter]

Terrorist attack on German Christmas market 9 dead

[Jane]

Brilliant TM

[lyle]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2016/12/obama-plans-to-rule-america-outside.html

Hillary’s defeat removes the Clintons, his only real internal rivals, off the stage. Trump’s triumph in working class areas cuts more ties with the traditional Dem base and transforms it into a party of left-wing urban elites and their radical agendas. And the popular figures on the left, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Keith Ellison, lack his national stature, speaking skills and organization.

Obama will move to consolidate the left. And then the Democrats. He will function as a president-in-exile heading up the opposition to Trump. When it comes to verbally challenging Trump, Obama will be more likely to be interviewed and heard than Ellison or Schumer. And his people will coordinate responses across the left from street level organizing to think tanks and policy moves.

Some of it is ego.

Obama believes that he can find the key to beating Trump in the traditional tactics of the left. But most is ideology and power. Obama is not done transforming America. And America isn’t done with him yet.

Who will rid us of this turbulent dirtbag?

[common man]

Apparently Faith Spotted Eagle has a facebook page at least according to Smax. I refuse to go look. Not going to happen

[Barry]

"Who will rid us of this turbulent dirtbag?"

Trump, of course.

[RattlerGator]

New thread

[Cecil Turner]

Who is . . ., okay:

Faith Spotted Eagle, Ihanktunwan (Yankton), a member of the Brave Heart Society likens the specter of man camps to the U.S. militarization of the Plains during the 1800’s, when U.S. Army forts fostered the systematic sexual brutalization of Native women by soldiers.

Man camps are evil! And you can't build a pipeline without one, so pipelines are evil! Now if I just knew . . . oh never mind.

[Account Deleted]

Old inden woman says what she is going to say and everybody is supposed to accept it carte blanche because her bloodline and birth accident.

Okay. Got it.

Indenz....our own worst enemies since we decided to pick up the gun (against the consistent counsel of our elders across tribal lines).

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

There's no such thing as a gratis cookie.

[Janet]

Who cares WHAT this guy has to say?

[DemsArentInsaneEverybodyElseIs👂]

Gee, obamamster retiring in typical cia fashion. Getting rid of loose ends. Never mess with a dem promising direct action from an intelligence report! Thank god the fbi peer pressured in at the end. 💎