Note: HughS’ post actually posted first because I type so slowly what with the low grade dementia and infernal dog driving me to distraction, but great minds clearly think alike…
Never underestimate the prophetic genius of Sir Mix-A-Lot. I know I’ve flogged this dead horse before, but just exactly what kind of candy ass is Barack Obama? CBS’s Harry Smith is the latest to hop into the operator’s chair of the White House gloryhole and give Obama platform to come out swinging at his critics.
Smith also asked the president if he is aware of the extreme terms some use to describe him, such as “socialist” or “Nazi.”
Yeah baby! Guilty as freaking charged! Who knew Harry was a Wizbanger? Of course, the HItler thing was a goof and had nothing to do with authoritarianism other than the political death march to which he subjected congressional Democrats ala the Russian winter. And the socialist thing? Well, prove me wrong.
Set aside all of Obama’s past associations with both openly and quasi-socialist organizations. One Obama gaffe – the Kinsleyian one where a politician tells the truth – that’s always stuck with me was his exchange with Joe the Plumber. We all remember the “spread things around” bit. It revealed a lot more than just the words to me, it was the context.
He wasn’t in Manhattan talking to some not-regulated-enough-over-the-past-eight-years derivative trader, he wasn’t in Beverly Hills talking to a gaggle of rich and famous retards, he wasn’t even in front of his Hyde Park neighbors. He was talking to a plumber in Holland, Ohio.
The median income for a household in the village was $33,669, and the median income for a family was $45,500. Males had a median income of $35,938 versus $25,795 for females. The per capita income for the village was $18,196. About 3.1% of families and 7.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 10.1% of those age 65 or over.
If you’re standing in a lower-middle class neighborhood speaking to a plumber whose American Dream is to someday have a plumbing business of his own and your first thought is “We need to spread things around” – you might be a socialist. If you believe Americans require cradle-to-grave supervision of their health, employment, income, retirement, energy consumption, driving habits, diet and exercise – you might be a socialist. If you think any problem could be solved if only the government just spent more money – you might be a socialist. I could go on…
Seriously, he’s just using some Alinsky thing, right? He doesn’t actually look in the mirror and see a moderate does he?
Maybe he sees a very small man?
“Well, I think that when you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, it’s pretty apparent, and it’s troublesome, but keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out,” Mr. Obama said. “It happens often when you’ve got an economy that is making people more anxious, and people are feeling like there is a lot of change that needs to take place. But that’s not the vast majority of Americans. I think the vast majority of Americans know that we’re trying hard, that I want what’s best for the country.”
…
The president said both Democrats and Republicans have a responsibility to tone down the rhetoric, but that much of it has to do with the current media environment in which extreme comments are echoed in the blogosphere.
Good stuff coming from a guy who launched his political rocketship to the moon on the anti-Bush/anti-Iraq war platform. The anti-war left has always been a pantheon of reasoned political debate. How many times did Code Pink lackwits interrupt the RNC? How many times was Obama interrupted? Funny that, huh?
Or, just for shits and giggles he should check out the warm reception conservative speakers get from left-leaning activist groups at…oh, let’s say the University of California, Berkeley. Blogosphere? Has he ever been to Democratic Underground?
As much as he’d like to marginalize his “critics”, simpering and calling them names is just plain stupid. Nobody likes a crybaby, and when more people want to repeal your shiny new health care bill than chose Obama in 2008 you shouldn’t show them your ass and belittle them. We’ve moved far past cranks, nut jobs, and shock value for the sake of attention (guilty on all counts!) when ~55% of people polled favor repeal.
And Lord only knows what a m%^&!*?~king amateur Obama is for punching down at Limbaugh and Beck. Buck up, buttercup. Things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. Folks don’t tend to get more fond of the snake oil salesman when they feel worse after swallowing his tonic.
Very few of Obama’s critics question his veracity. There are some who probably do question whether he really wants what’s best for America. I don’t doubt either his legitimacy or sincerity, but disagree with him almost diametrically on virtually every domestic policy issue. And that, to varying degrees, is where most of his critics fall as well. Spare us the pity party. You could have had it easy. You chose the most egregious and partisan path possible.
And if partisan bomb throwing can work for Beck, Coulter, and Limbaugh why can’t it work for me, President Sissy-Britches?
We’re under attack by Commie Nazis!
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