Monday, January 25, 2010

Our Chameleon President

This video isn’t breaking news, y’all. Even thought it’s about three weeks old, it’s worth posting just to demonstrate CNN having a Fox News moment:


It’s looks like the bloom is definitely off the Obama rose, doesn’t it?

And the new news is worse: a right now poll on CNN shows:

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates that 7 in 10 Americans believe that the Democrats’ loss of their 60 seat supermajority in the Senate is a positive move for the country.

The Plum Line blog gives us some context on the poll:

CNN asked that question nine other times since Dems took control of Congress. In every other instance, voters said Dem control was good for the country by a wide margin, almost always by double digits.

The poll also finds that for the first time since the 2006 takeover, the number who have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party equals the number who view the Democratic Party favorably. That’s at 46% apiece.

The question is whether Dem leaders will decide they’re tanking because voters don’t like the health reform bill they’ve been trying to pass, making them decide to shelve it - or whether they’ll conclude that voters don’t like failure, making them redouble their efforts to pass something they can call a historic accomplishment. Anyone taking bets?

So are the Democrat leaders digging their heels in and telling the public, as usual, to kiss off?
- - - - - - - - -
Surprise! Obama is going to cut spending. Must be the political winds blowing so cold off Lake Michigan that has made him decide it’s time for a fiscal freeze of his own:

President Barack Obama, moving to refocus his agenda on Americans’ anger over the tattered shape of their pocketbooks, is preparing new initiatives for federal belt-tightening and aid to middle-class families on problems ranging from child care and student loans to retirement savings and assistance with aging relatives.

The new priorities are expected to dominate Obama’s State of the Union address Wednesday, but the first concrete demonstration of the change came Monday at a White House meeting where the president and Vice President Joe Biden announced a set of proposed tax changes and other steps aimed at middle-class Americans.

“None of these steps alone will solve all the challenges facing the middle class,” Obama said. “But hopefully some of these steps will re-establish some of the security that’s slipped away in recent years. Because in the end, that’s how Joe and I measure progress - not by how the markets are doing, but by how the American people are doing. It’s about whether they see some progress in their own lives.”

Obama promised to “keep fighting to rebuild our economy so that hard work is once again rewarded, wages and incomes are once again rising and the middle class is once again growing.”

[…]

the soaring federal deficit, Obama will announce on Wednesday that the budget blueprint he files next week will contain a “hard freeze” on discretionary spending that lasts through 2013, an effort his advisers liken to the fiscal discipline families impose on themselves every day…

This is the smartest move our President has taken since he assumed office. Perhaps reality has caught up with him at last.

What a relief! No more drunken spending sprees. Of course, how we’ll pay for his first year in office is another matter. Just once, before this man leaves office, I’d like him to apologize for his administration’s impoverishment of so many Americans who actually voted for him. I sure didn’t, but lots of those he hoodwinked with his glib promises are sitting in the middle of their Obama-shattered dreams.

And this bit of news is a real heads-up. Obama always made it plain he was going to be a two-term president. He made no bones about this. Now, he’s facing reality on that front too:

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

Obama sat down with Sawyer two days before he will deliver a State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, and he acknowledged the political setbacks of his first year in office.

The State of the Union will be Obama’s chance to jump start his agenda, but he ducked when Sawyer asked if he could guarantee there would not be a tax increase for anyone making less than $250,000.

“I can guarantee that the worst thing we could do would be to raise taxes when the economy is still this weak,” he replied.

Of course, when talking about their futures, politicians lie even as they breathe in and out. However, you can bet the other side will be using this bit of chat in their campaigns come 2012. As is the case with many of his utterances, this one may come back to haunt Barack Obama.

In his heart of hearts, you know he wants above all to be in that Oval Office in 2013, to get his socialist agenda fired up and running. Whether this new, contrite and fiscally conservative redefinition of himself will achieve that end remains to be seen. The about-face he’s doing now contradicts, even cancels, his earlier ideas.

Whether he can stomach a follow-through on these conservative ideas or not, the fact that he managed to get them past his teeth and over his lips is an amazing feat.


Hat tip: The Okie Lurker

10 comments:

Papa Whiskey said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dymphna said...

Papa Whiskey--

Had to delete your comment and repost it here. The very long URL pushed the page waaaay down.

There's a template at the top when you open the comment box. It gives an html template which permits live links AND avoids having the page problems that long links cause.

Another solution would be to make a TinyURL out of your link. That won't mess up anything

================

Papa Whiskey said:


Not a chameleon, but a monster narcissist. From Politico -- nota bene:

"Rep. Marion Berry's (D-Ark.) parting shot, published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [no link, subscription only] offers a warning to moderate Democrats and border state moderates — warning of a midterm bloodbath comparable to the 54-seat D-to-R swing in 1994.

"But the jaw-dropper is Berry's claim that President Obama personally dismissed any comparison between Democrats now and under Bill Clinton 16 years ago — by saying his personal popularity would bail everybody out.

"The retiring Berry, who doesn't say when the remarks were made, now scoffs at Obama's 50-or-below approval rating:

"Writes ADG reporter Jane Fullerton:

"Berry recounted meetings with White House officials, reminiscent of some during the Clinton days, where he and others urged them not to force Blue Dogs 'off into that swamp' of supporting bills that would be unpopular with voters back home.

"I’ve been doing that with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all," Berry said. "They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now."


Link

Papa Whiskey said...

Dymphna --

Sorry 'bout that. Nothing like being an aging Luddite to bollix things up. ; -)

Papa Whiskey

Afonso Henriques said...

What!?

It does not fit my paralel world in which happens what I think we'll be the future!

We better not know this. I mean, we continue to love the crazy-leftist Obama here in Europe. And oh! He's black! How exotic and moral is that!

Really, I started almost hating him, seeing he would destroy the United States. Then, as I got to know him through the news and blogs, I started to like him in a sadistic way: Obama is the challenge that will revolutionise America, and through much pain, their may come something better.

Then, he sends thousands of Americans to Afghanistan. Then he even fall pray of the powers that be and bomb Yemen (did he? I never saw it in the news) because Americans have to be always killing or they'll lose their empire. Or se we're told.

And then, last week, enjoying some 19~20 years old friends in a night out some of them start to speak about politics over the gin tonic in a bar. The motives?
Deploring the freedom to travel across the Arab countries; Aplauding gay marriage even though recognising their futility and zero importance; and then it came:

Obama is trying to invade Haiti! He's worst than Bush because Obama pretends to be something is not: a good guy.

I warn you: Obama has to do some spetacular move to the left, otherwise we'll not like him in Europe. He should offer Florida to Haiti or something.

What annoys me is that a not so deranged Obama goes counter my World Wide Nationalist Dream: A divided North America consisting of Nation States! So that we can do the same to save Brazil and Argentina in the South.

I am really a strange, lunatic, deranged fellow. Or maybe I'm writing because I'm passing the time so that I can launch. You'll never know the truth!

Afonso Henriques said...

My English was deplorable. But I'm not in the mood of making correction. I'm just feeling like writing...

People, I will not say sorry but you may not want to read my comment on top if you treausure(?) the English language.

Henrik R Clausen said...

Posting your hopes on Dear Leaders has historically been a great fallacy. The more incompetent and unprincipled the man put in charge, the worse.

While I don't consider 0bama to be evil per se, I do consider him incompetent, which is plenty bad enough. This opens the floodgates for chaos.

Dymphna said...

Papa Whiskey--

Another Luddite here. The Baron did the template so I could use links without having it go screwy.

As a Luddite, I find learning Twitter a bit of a stretch. Other bloggers, Fausta and USpace123, have been of immense help.

==============
Afonso--

Hey, man, your English beats the heck out of my Portuguese. The only thing I can say in your language is "vinho verde". Years ago, when the Baron was consulting with some company that was working on a project in Brazil, he picked up a few words here and there so he's ahead of most of us with that.

===================

Henrik--

I consider Obama to most closely resemble Hamlet. He's a narcissist. This sudden turn in his policies goes against every single (supposed) principle of his and it will be his demise, I think.

His unmoveable base was the far left. His other mandate came from moderates who thought his "hope and change" signified something beyond words. But as you see with the very angry TV commentator above, people took him at his word about government being transparent. They wanted accountability. Not only did they not get any so-called transparency, but the White House had private meetings with all sorts of folks, including the robber baron pharamaceutical companies.

When Hillary tried to ram socialized medicine thru back in Bill's first term, she ran aground on these "secret" meetings. It's even more ironic because Bill&Hill hadn't promised to be transparent but it was mainly the secrecy which permitted her opponents to crush her hopes for leftish medicine.

The failure of Hill's secrecy makes obama's broken promises re transparency even more pointed.

When a CNN announcer goes after O, you know there's been a huge shift in the wind. For Americans, that's an amazing video because CNN was openly partial to The One We've Been Waiting For.

Obama's policies can be measured against the number of people who have converted to conservatism since his presidency got underway. For the first time in many, many years the polls are registering the fact that a small majority of people have labelled themselves Conservative (the number who called themselves Leftists hasn't changed).

So the Chameleon had to go with the flow and he had to do it well ahead of the November elections because he knew the Dems were facing a bloodbath if he didn't act quickly.

And it is nothing but and ACT. He's a narcissistic opportunist. I'll bet his wife and the handlers from Cook County are none too happy about this.

Proud Infidel said...

Alfonso, don't sweat it. Your message comes in loud and clear.

I'm convinced the new "Fiscally Prudent Obama" is just another smokescreen from our Big-Spender-In-Chief. Lies come naturally to socialist slime like him. I'll believe it when I see it.

Afonso Henriques said...

Henrik, I know... but I can't help it but admit I have kind of three different modes:

Mode 1: Normal type, like 75% of the time.

The other 25% of the time are divided between modes 2 and 3. Mode 2 is falling into a deep mob mentality to such an extent that I end up making excuses for football hooligans to fight among each other as something "healty".
Mode 3 is anti-mob, a sense of self entitlement that causes me to have a distinct need to not see people because they can't help it but be a very ugly animal. Excepting like, 10% of females, I'd prefer the company of a loyal dog in those hours...

But my idea rested more in aknowledging that some personalities are able to "flashforward" history (Obama, Churchill) than depositing hopes in dear leaders.

------------------------

Dymphna, because I don't know when I am returning to write here, I'll write all today. The Wall Street Institute, which is an American institute where we can learn English, made a very funny set of comercials. The premiss is that "a so so percentage" of the Portuguese Population was infected with "lingus presus" (something like latin sounding "stuck tongue"), a condition that "attacks that part of the human language that is destined to speak English". It can bring serious problems. It also highlighted how difficult it is to rapidly say: I love codfish with grain, but only the middle part of it in english.
Many fluent english speakers could not say that.

So, I developed a close thing for languages. How fast can we say it?

English: Billy Jean is not my lover, but the kid is not my son.
Russian: Can't.
German: Billy Jean ist nicht meine verliebt (?), aber das kind ist nicht mine sohn(?).
French: Billy Jean ne c'est pas mon'amour, mais le infant(?) ne c'est pas mon garçon(?)
Spanish: Billy Jean no es mi amante, pero el chico no es mi hijo.
Portuguese: Billy Jean não é a minha amante, mas o puto não é meu filho.
and lastly Italian: La Raggazza (Italians never remember the name of their no lovers, do they?) noy ere mi amante, mas il raggazo no es mio figlio.

Those are the language I want to master, and that's how I know how I'm going with the task ;)

Have a good night you all. Because I had a great day!

Henrik R Clausen said...

Obama promised to "keep fighting to rebuild our economy..."

I thought that was the task of millions of hard-working, honest Americans?

Congress sets out the legal framework for this to take place, and the President loyally oversees the exectution of said laws.

Or did I read too much Constitution?