Posted on 01/21/2013 9:08:29 AM PST by NCjim
The ennui that hangs over the second inauguration of President Obama like a thick blanket of fog is not simply a function of Republican weariness and wariness after four years of fights with the president. Democrats too are less than thrilled on this august occasion.
As my colleague Dana Milbank put it, Obama’s agenda looks “little.” The certitude that he will accomplish significant things is nowhere to be found. Those who made the case for his reelection seem almost wistful. The Post editorial board writes, “We hope, given the opportunity, he will rededicate himself to being a president who is bigger than party and above partisan squabbling.” But we’ve seen too much of the president and watched him in operation long enough to sense that isn’t going to happen.
It turns out it is harder than one suspects to pivot away from an empty campaign entirely devoted to character assassination of the opposition. Once lost, it becomes difficult to regain the high ground and concoct a mandate for much of anything. (Obama sure didn’t run on gun bans.) He didn’t bother in his reelection campaign to lay out any sort of growth agenda to ignite the still lethargic economy nor on any specific entitlement reform approach. His solution to almost any issue is to spend more money and tax someone else. He ran on nastiness and demonization; for once he is governing just as he campaigned.
The president since his reelection has been joyless and irritable, taking pleasure only in taunting his political opponents. His first question on any issue seems to be: What will make the Republicans look bad? It is such a partisan, senseless exercise ( So what if they look bad? What about the country?).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
First Term - Grow the dependent base voters - Check
Second Term - Destroy political opposition - Che
I dunno - he sure got the ball rolling on firearm sales!
Obama wants to destroy the Republicans, because he wants to destroy any hope this country may have that our decline can be turned around. Obama wants the country to be badly damaged. He has done much to accomplish this -- ridiculous spending, a culture of dependency, diminishing Christian influence, promoting homosexuality, botching all the foreign affairs, saddling us with Obamacare, and causing massive racial polarization.
If he can kill the GOP, and leave the Democrats with no real political opposition, then he will have done to us what Ronald Reagan did to Gorbachev and the Soviet Union.
The WaPo says Obama's second term is shaping up to be "small". I think this is misdirection. I think this term will be large and horrific.
I'm pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming or awake. The writer is actually verifying that the Emperor has no clothes!
I'm dead serious when I say that most newspapers in all major cities are experiencing a drastic loss of revenue as their local advertisers are going broke and shuttering the doors and windows of their businesses....or, their advertising budgets have been slashed to the bone.
Watch for other liberal rags begin slowly to break away from the Messiah as stark reality hits all the publishers on their bottom lines.
The New York Times, however, will remain a lover of Hussein because it is a communist organ and communists never waver or stray from their goals. The NYSlimes will eventually go swirling down the toilet bowl into oblivion still frantically clutching the coat tails of its hero, Obama H.
Nothing the president says matters anymore because every word out of his mouth is a lie and everyone knows it.
Good points. It’s interesting to see this coming from WAPO.
Now if the MSM could start to eat itself and have a war amongst themselves, then we might see Obama derailed.
Rubin is the token conservative.
Let’s say we consider the 16 trillion in debt. Then throw in the unfunded liabilities —that gets us to 115 TRILLION.
If you used the $100 bill, that amount of money reaches twice as high as the World Trade Center, with the same depth and width. Twice as high, literally (excluding compression of bills low in the stack).
For all his treachery, GayMuzzie is like an ant trying to hold back the tidal wave about to his us. At this point very little he did would make a difference, though he does seem to be cheering for the swimming the whole country is about to have to do.
The crisis time bombs like the tax cut expiration and the Debt limit give O the opportunity to paint Rs into a corner (as the libs on MSNBC cheer) and then brag about his victory, but the GOP has no incentive to give O anything he wants outside of those.
Amnesty immigration, guns, VAWA, tax reform : the (House) GOP will get nothing out of taking these on as long as O is in the WH.
I certainly don't see Amnesty as getting the GOP any votes, contrary to what the MSM and GOPe claim..
The sheer hatefulness of the comments at the original article confirm that it is indeed the compost.
Wasn’t going to read it, but since she uses the word unnui, thought I give it a shot.
Jennifer Rubin has been writing such Post articles for years.
The comments there are dripping with hate.
One can only hope this is the case!
I had to go check the comments since I usually run with scripts off I don't usually see them. So much self-superior hate in those comments ... I really am sick of sharing this country with those people. Thralls of the state, dismissive, arrogant, and self-righteous. Hope there are not enough of them to sustain the business plans of the ever shrinking left-leaning media.
“I think this is misdirection.”
You’re right. Anyone who talks, as this author does, as if democrats want to fix things but can’t, is why we keep getting hammered. You can’t negotiate with someone who wants to destroy you. All the bad stuff that’s happened over the last 4 years is not due to incompetence, it’s on purpose.
The Post editorial board writes, “We hope, given the opportunity, he will rededicate himself to being a president who is bigger than party and above partisan squabbling.” But we’ve seen too much of the president and watched him in operation long enough to sense that isn’t going to happen. IIt turns out it is harder than one suspects to pivot away from an empty campaign entirely devoted to character assassination of the opposition. Once lost, it becomes difficult to regain the high ground and concoct a mandate for much of anything. (Obama sure didn’t run on gun bans.)He has plenty of help with character assassination from false flaggers.
Obama will not get a honeymoon - while we can’t turn the country around we can make sure his second term is filled with frustration and angst.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
I am surprised this was in WaPo. They are one of zero’s leading cheerleaders.
Did they pull back the curtin and see the $oro$ behind it!???
The fact is that is zero’s lips are moving, he’s lying. That’s all anyone needs to know about him.
I know I never listen to him. I turn the channel whenever he comes on.
Between MLK day and Obama’ s inauguration, makes me want to move to Russia.
The repeal of obamacare needs to remain on the Republican’s agenda In four years more people will hate it....maybe in 2 years enough headaches will be obvious
“The comments there are dripping with hate.”
The libs who comment at the WaPo are truly a disturbing group. Not only are they hate filled, they are imbeciles. And think, they are most likely residents of the DC metro area, possibly many of them are members of our governing class. Compared to them the people who comment at the NY Times are paragons of reason and forbearance.
It’s quite a spectacle, really. No wonder this country is going down the tubes, it’s not the 3rd worlders, it’s the 1st world, 1st class morons running it and the schmucks who keep re-electing them.
A better editorial would have noted concisely that nothing 0bama says matters because what he does is constantly differently from what he says.
0bama *says* that he will close Gitmo on his “first day in Office” and then he keeps it open (even extends its mandate through 2015 with scheduled trials).
0bama *says* that raising the deficit limit is an admission of failure, and then he demands that Congress raise the debt limit.
...and on and on. He won’t raise taxes on the middle class, then payroll taxes pop back up 2%.
Seriously, nothing 0bama says matters. His words mean nothing to him.
Read this today. Worth considering.
...Both Obama and Rubio swear up and down that their "path to citizenship," as they call it, is not amnesty because those here illegally today would have to jump through a series of hoops before they obtained legal status. Both Obama and Rubio would require illegal immigrants to: prove they were in the United States for a lengthy period of time, undergo a background check, pay a fine, pay back taxes and prove they have learned English.But even these minimal requirements would obviously never be enforced. Just imagine if a grandmother came forward, passed a background check, paid her taxes and fines but failed her English test. Would Rubio deport her? Of course not. As Rubio admitted above, no one is going to vote for you if you threaten to deport their grandmother.
So how can a conservative both be true to his or her principles and avoid alienating those millions of voters who don't want to see their loved ones deported?
Boston College political science professor Peter Skerry has outlined such a proposal in the most recent National Affairs. Skerry advises conservatives to offer those who illegally enter the country a choice: either return home and apply for citizenship like everyone else, or stay and become permanent noncitizen residents. Those with serious criminal records would, of course, not be eligible. Aside from that minimal requirement, no one else would face deportation. No English tests or other phony past records would be necessary.
Conservatives will never win sizeable portions of the Asian or Latino votes if they are constantly the bad guys of immigration enforcement policy. The Obama-Rubio plan forever keeps Republicans in that role. Permanent noncitizen resident status is one proposal conservatives should consider to get around that problem.
I been saying that for years. It allows Republicans to say they are for something (balanced) for PR purposes without the suicidal letting illegals vote.
Dems are on to this now, all their talking points use the term “Path to citizenship”
What they should do is to offer to pass Os Dreamer EO into law. Dreamers have to renew every few years, and they can repeat that it's O policy.
Living here in the Beltway, I am sure they are governing class people, working for the Justice Dept, NIH, or some other government department.
Living here in the Beltway, I am sure they are governing class people, working for the Justice Dept, NIH, or some other government department.
Living here in the Beltway, I am sure they are governing class people, working for the Justice Dept, NIH, or some other government department.
Living here in the Beltway, I am sure they are governing class people, working for the Justice Dept, NIH, or some other government department.
Living here in the Beltway, I am sure they are governing class people, working for the Justice Dept, NIH, or some other government department.
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