The Alien in the White House (WSJ)

[ericlp]

I think you sound like one uneducated mother fucking moron. Wow.

I don't know who's worse. But with a response like that I can only guess. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Siddhartha]

With the country fighting two wars, experiencing an ecological disaster in the Gulf and the worst recession since the 1930's. The US needs to step away from the Reagan Era. Everybody I wrote REAGAN ERA not RONALD REAGAN.

This is what Mr Obama is trying ,in an extremely gentle manner, to do. Most of his initiatives are basically directed to get the country close to where it was during Clinton years.

Mr Obama's political opponents have branded this as socialism, communism, etc.

 

[Mani]

More piss from the Wall Street Urinal. Despite everyone falling all over themselves to proclaim Obama's increasing "out of touchness" with the people, his approval ratings haven't changed much since the beginning of the year. This despite being blamed for everything from the economy to the oil spill.

 

[nonlnear]

I'm always baffled by people who claim they want a President they can "relate" to. If that means George W. Bush or Sarah Palin then sign me up for a professorial type any day of the week. And that's coming form somebody who dislikes pretty much everything about Obama's policy preferences!

The need for a familiar figure in the place of supreme authority is utterly pathetic. I wonder if these people realize they are secretly longing for a monarch to soothe their fears. The irony is that most such people believe that clinging to the myth of a leader from "among the people" is an anti-monarchic sentiment when in fact the myth of the everyman President is generally a ploy to manipulate the masses into ignoring the substantive policy issues in favor of that warm fuzzy feeling...

 

[Danube]

I'm always baffled by people who claim they want a President they can "relate" to. .

Having a President who actually likes your country as much as you do and who doesn't take sides with its enemies and malcontents is not too much to ask.

 

[Red Dawn]

Having a President who actually likes your country as much as you do and who doesn't take sides with its enemies and malcontents is not too much to ask.

I agree, that's why someone like you should never be President.

 

[nonlnear]

Having a President who actually likes your country as much as you do and who doesn't take sides with its enemies and malcontents is not too much to ask.

But that's not really what many people are saying when they deride a President for being too detached or aloof. What they are really saying is they don't like the feeling of inferiority induced by somebody who is not ashamed to display knowledge. Now I'm not making any specific allegations of Obama's knowledge (! ), but rather the image he exudes.

While I dislike a lot of things about the Democratic party, they have one very good thing going for them: it is not political suicide in the Democratic party to portray oneself as unapologetically intelligent. In the Republican party one can only construct a successful image that includes intelligence if it is presented apologetically, or with some blue collar context that subtly detracts from the significance of being more intelligent than the average Joe. i.e. "I graduated magna cum laude from [insert school here], but I really learned everything I needed to know about life while fucking my way through the cheerleading team on the football field."

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I want my leaders to be smarter and more capable than I am. If I had kids I'd want the same for them. But there seems to be this serious resentment against people by many folks who deep down must feel inferior to said people. It makes them support retards in politics and raise idiot children. Lowest common denominator FTW.

 

[nonlnear]

I want my leaders to be smarter and more capable than I am.

Exactly.
Why would anyone want to follow somebody without being convinced that that leader is smarter than them? Of course this deceptively simple rhetorical question presumes a lot about the rationality of the typical person which may not in fact be borne out by reality...

If I had kids I'd want the same for them. But there seems to be this serious resentment against people by many folks who deep down must feel inferior to said people. It makes them support retards in politics and raise idiot children. Lowest common denominator FTW.

'tis both sad and true.

 

[Danube]

I agree, that's why someone like you should never be President.

Don't worry - your safe lol

 

[Danube]

But that's not really what many people are saying when they deride a President for being too detached or aloof. What they are really saying is they don't like the feeling of inferiority induced by somebody who is not ashamed to display knowledge. Now I'm not making any specific allegations of Obama's knowledge (! ), but rather the image he exudes.

While I dislike a lot of things about the Democratic party, they have one very good thing going for them: it is not political suicide in the Democratic party to portray oneself as unapologetically intelligent. In the Republican party one can only construct a successful image that includes intelligence if it is presented apologetically, or with some blue collar context that subtly detracts from the significance of being more intelligent than the average Joe. i.e. "I graduated magna cum laude from [insert school here], but I really learned everything I needed to know about life while fucking my way through the cheerleading team on the football field."

People didn't criticize Obama for being too detached until he ignored Louisiana's plea for fed help to get Army Engineers down to help build berms.

In the first days Obama was saying he would leave things up to BP (and good sources said BP was better able to handle issues than military etc). That did not chafe people - it was leaving Louisiana high and wet. Something was very wrong with that and people knew it.

 

[nonlnear]

People didn't criticize Obama for being too detached until he ignored Louisiana's plea for fed help to get Army Engineers down to help build berms.

In the first days Obama was saying he would leave things up to BP (and good sources said BP was better able to handle issues than military etc). That did not chafe people - it was leaving Louisiana high and wet. Something was very wrong with that and people knew it.

The complaints about demeanor were still beside the point. Complaints about results are one thing, but there were plenty of people ignorantly whining that they didn't think the President felt their pain, or some other such emotional BS.

edit: And come to think of it, I'd say you're wrong about your assertion also. There were plenty of people complaining about how robotic and snobby Obama was long before the leak began. Granted the leak made those voices louder and broader based, but the leak was definitely not the beginning of this criticism of emotional style.

 

[Theb]

So basically this is a hit piece not just on Obama, but also on those who are educated and not blindly patriotic as well. Basically everyone who isn't a viewer of Mr. Murdoch's other media outlet.

Why do you hate America so much, are you a tenured radical or one of their political progeny?

 

[Theb]

I think you sound like one uneducated mother fucking moron. Wow.

I think fallout man is a pretty cool guy. eh posts memes and doesn't afraid of anything.

 

[Atheus]

You people are amazing - when are you going to get over this stupid idea that Obama is foriegn or loves foriegners or something just because he's black 0_o

 

[werepossum]

Exactly.
Why would anyone want to follow somebody without being convinced that that leader is smarter than them? Of course this deceptively simple rhetorical question presumes a lot about the rationality of the typical person which may not in fact be borne out by reality...

'tis both sad and true.

Just out of curiosity, why would you imagine Obama to be smarter than yourself? This is a man who thanked himself for inviting himself to come to the White House to meet himself - not even Bush did THAT.

BTW I also think Fallout Man is cool, even though I don't agree with him much.

 

[nonlnear]

Just out of curiosity, why would you imagine Obama to be smarter than yourself? This is a man who thanked himself for inviting himself to come to the White House to meet himself - not even Bush did THAT.

I don't think I ever said in this thread that I think Obama is smarter than myself! (Although he may well be. Odds are we're not that far apart on certain meaningless scales, although I suspect our strengths are in very different areas... )

My only point was that I find criticisms of style uncompelling (and often self defeating). Specifically I dislike the Republican penchant for propping up vapid "everyman" characters as compelling leaders for the supposed virtue of the fact that they don't inspire feelings of inferiority in the electorate. Obama certainly doesn't fit that mold. However the fact that a man has groomed an academic image is hardly proof of exceptional intelligence. I do give him significant deference in the intelligence department for having presided over the Harvard Law Review. That's not a position that can be filled by just any ol' dubya.

 

[Danube]

You people are amazing - when are you going to get over this stupid idea that Obama is foriegn or loves foriegners or something just because he's black 0_o

taking the sided of a Mexican President (with harsher border laws than US) over Arizona (who only mimicked fed law) might have something to do with it.

Same with trying to help Honduran dictator wannbe - and bowing around the world - and apologizing every chance he gets etc.

He doesn't like UK though or Israel though.

 

[flavio]

taking the sided of a Mexican President (with harsher border laws than US) over Arizona (who only mimicked fed law) might have something to do with it.

The AZ law is different than the fed law and gives up freedoms of all people of AZ. ANy pro-freedom person would be against it.

Same with trying to help Honduran dictator wannbe - and bowing around the world - and apologizing every chance he gets etc.

Are you one of those people that refuses to apologize when they're in the wrong?

He doesn't like UK though or Israel though.

He likes both actually.

 

[Danube]

Your lost in the sauce flavy

 

[flavio]

Your lost in the sauce flavy

Go ahead and contradict anything you feel I'm wrong about.

 

[Danube]

Won't do much good. Just the UK thing is bizarre. teh UK is well aware the Obama doesn't like them. From sending back Churchill's bust, to giving Brown a gift of cheap DVDs, to giving Brown a meeting with Obama in the White House Kitchen after 5 requests for a meeting, to now calling BP "British Petroleum" on purpose despite fact everyone knows BP is multinational now. Obama is becoming hated in UK


"Has the worm turned at last? As the oil continues to gush in the Gulf of Mexico, angry rhetoric has gushed from President Barack Obama's lips. His rabid denunciations of BP have damaged the interests not only of that company but of most British people, in a way that must make us wonder whether he leads a friendly country.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...-Britain.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qWzO1Ini


BP shares continue slide after US attacks



"The severe market reaction came as UK industry expressed alarm at the “inappropriate” and increasingly aggressive rhetoric being deployed against BP by Barack Obama, US president, and warned that the attacks on the oil company could damage transatlantic relations."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ca63d0c8-73e8-11df-87f5-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss


There is no love for Obama in UK because they know he resents them.

 

[flavio]

Won't do much good. Just the UK thing is bizarre. teh UK is well aware the Obama doesn't like them. From sending back Churchill's bust, to giving Brown a gift of cheap DVDs, to giving Brown a meeting with Obama in the White House Kitchen after 5 requests for a meeting, to now calling BP "British Petroleum" on purpose despite fact everyone knows BP is multinational now. Obama is becoming hated in UK

So none of that proves in the least that he doesn't like the UK. Kinda bizarre. It's seems like things you personally don't like.

"Has the worm turned at last? As the oil continues to gush in the Gulf of Mexico, angry rhetoric has gushed from President Barack Obama's lips. His rabid denunciations of BP have damaged the interests not only of that company but of most British people, in a way that must make us wonder whether he leads a friendly country.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...-Britain.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qWzO1Ini


BP shares continue slide after US attacks

One heavily biased opinion piece does not rationally prove "Obama is becoming hated in UK". You know what proof is, get it.

"The severe market reaction came as UK industry expressed alarm at the “inappropriate” and increasingly aggressive rhetoric being deployed against BP by Barack Obama, US president, and warned that the attacks on the oil company could damage transatlantic relations."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ca63d0c8-73e8-11df-87f5-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss

You're ft link is for registered users only. Please provide non-opinion piece sources that you don't need to register for to back up your claims that Obama resents the UK or that the there is no love for Obama in the UK.

 

[beginner99]

I would say a detached president that is not a flamming patriot is a very good thing. Because then he will be able to make good decisions based on logic and rationality and not some non-sense decisions based on emotion, his "patriotic principles", religion or some other doubtful inner-urge.
Plus he might acutally be able to think himself and not just execute what his advisors tell him to do.

Now this sounds like I'm an Obama fan. I'm not. that was just my 2 cents about an emotional distant leader. I'm not American but if I could have voted I would have prefered Clinton over Obama (but rather Obama than any republican).

 

[Danube]

So none of that proves in the least that he doesn't like the UK. Kinda bizarre. It's seems like things you personally don't like.

Of course it does and the UK knows it. Your a mental lock-out is the issue here