Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Death of the Obama Dream
Washington Examiner ^ | 3/25/2009 | Noemie Emery

Posted on 03/25/2009 2:16:35 AM PDT by ComputerGuy

Well, that was fast.

On March 20, only two months after the cosmic anointing, Vanity Fair, of all people, unloaded on Barack Obama, in the terms it had reserved for the past four or five years for the likes of George W. Bush.

Well, not the whole magazine, but one of its writers, media writer Michael Wolff, took an axe to the president, in a posting beginning “Sheesh, the guy is Jimmy Carter,” ending “This guy is leaden and this show is in trouble,” and titled “Barack Obama is a Terrible Bore.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; first100days; obama
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 03/25/2009 2:16:35 AM PDT by ComputerGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy
...three or four variations on the theme of incompetence have had time to harden and set...
2 posted on 03/25/2009 2:17:29 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Affirmative Action + Peter Principle = 0bama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

It was D.O.A.


3 posted on 03/25/2009 2:20:31 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

ex-fan Peggy Noonan called him “insubstantial and weightless...not fully focused...jumping from issue to issue and venue to venue from day to day.”

ouch, especially coming from Peggy Noonan


4 posted on 03/25/2009 2:23:41 AM PDT by ari-freedom ( Hail to the Dork!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ari-freedom
... ex-fan Peggy Noonan called him “insubstantial and weightless...."

So what does that make Peggy?

5 posted on 03/25/2009 2:25:39 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (What's Black and White and Red all over?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Mr Ramsbotham
Peggy, you're nothing to me now. You're not a sister, you're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do. I don't want to see you on television, or read what you write. I don't want you near any conservative conferences. When you see my friends, I want to know a day in advance, so I won't be there. You understand?

With apologies to Michael Corleone.

6 posted on 03/25/2009 2:27:11 AM PDT by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

"Your narrative has become tiresome."

7 posted on 03/25/2009 2:31:08 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (In honor of my late father-Gysgt/Comm. Chief, USMC WWII, Korea 1925-2002)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: abb

abb, this is exactly the way Isee the frumpy Noonan, Peggy, you’re nothing to me now.
You’re not a sister,
you’re not a friend.


8 posted on 03/25/2009 2:44:41 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa

There are several “conservative opinion leaders” to whom such a speech should be read. They have not served us well. New leadership is going to have to come from us at the grass roots.


9 posted on 03/25/2009 2:47:55 AM PDT by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/99/barack-obama-is-a-terrible-bore.html

“”Barack Obama Is a Terrible Bore by Michael Wolff

Sheesh, the guy is Jimmy Carter.

That homespun bowling crap on Jay Leno, followed by the turgid, teachy fiscal policy lecture, together with the hurt defensiveness (and bad script for it) that everybody in Washington “is Simon Cowell… Everybody’s got an opinion,” is pure I’m-in-over-my-head stuff. Even the idea of having to go on Jay Leno to rescue yourself from the AIG mess is lame. Be a man, man.

The guy just doesn’t know what to say. He can’t connect. Emotions are here, he’s over there. He can’t get the words to match the situation.

This began, I’d argue, from the first moment. He punted on the inaugural. Everybody ran around like crazy trying to praise it because if Barack Obama couldn’t give a speech then what?

But now, at week 11, we’re face-to-face with the reality, the man can’t talk worth a damn.

You can see the fundamental mistake he’s making. Having been so successfully elected, he’s acting like people actually want to hear what he thinks. He’s the great earnest bore at the dinner party. Instead of singing for his supper, he’s just talking—and going on at length. The real job of making people part of the story you’re telling, of having them hang on your every word, of getting the tone and detail right, the hard job of holding a conversation, he ain’t doing.

He’s cold; he’s prickly; he’s uncomfortable; he’s not funny; and he’s getting awfully tedious.

He thinks it’s all about him. That we want him for himself—that he doesn’t have to seduce, charm, surprise, show some skin.

So Jimmy.

It’s instructive and humorous to remember that Carter ran a brilliant campaign that succeeded largely because his voice was new. Simple, direct, basic, human. And then, of course, he turned into a sad-sack twit.

What happens when you move into the White House?

Well, shit, of course. The true secret of the power of language is in quickness. Barack Obama can’t keep up. He evidently needs too much preparation. And then there’s the organization. He’s undoubtedly got too many people debating what he should say. That’s the other secret of language: You’ve got to just go for it. Can’t think too much about it. It’s like hitting the ball. And then there’s knowing who you want to be—which is different than knowing who you are. You’re on the stage. You’re acting. You’ve got to make yourself believable, cleverly make yourself up as you go along.

This guy is leaden and this show is in trouble. “”


10 posted on 03/25/2009 3:10:27 AM PDT by iowamark (certified by Michael Steele as "ugly and incendiary")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: iowamark

I use some profanity as much as the next person, but i dont understand why the writer was compelled to include a four letter word at the end of that piece. It spoiled it.


11 posted on 03/25/2009 3:15:19 AM PDT by Canedawg (Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

ping for l8r


12 posted on 03/25/2009 3:15:55 AM PDT by MissDairyGoodnessVT (Off Hunting--- for the COLB)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: iowamark
That homespun bowling crap on Jay Leno, followed by the turgid, teachy fiscal policy lecture, together with the hurt defensiveness (and bad script for it) that everybody in Washington “is Simon Cowell… Everybody’s got an opinion,” is pure I’m-in-over-my-head stuff.

It's embarassing hearing the President kvetch like this....

And then there’s knowing who you want to be—which is different than knowing who you are.

I don't believe he has any idea who he is.... Makes me appreciate President Bush more every day.

13 posted on 03/25/2009 3:17:15 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: MissDairyGoodnessVT
DSC_0085sm
14 posted on 03/25/2009 3:17:32 AM PDT by Fred911 (YOU GET WHAT YOU ACCEPT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

It was never a dream.

It was always a nightmare.

It is not ending.

It is just beginning . . .


15 posted on 03/25/2009 3:18:52 AM PDT by Cap Huff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

16 posted on 03/25/2009 3:21:36 AM PDT by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: iowamark

It’s not something that one puts on a resume, but I have more than a little experience locking up hos (nappy-headed and otherwise) on and around 14th Street in DC. 0bama reminds me of a pimp. He can shuck and jive, and that’s about all.


17 posted on 03/25/2009 3:26:12 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Affirmative Action + Peter Principle = 0bama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: iowamark; Alia

That last big paragraph says more than I think Wolff intended. I infer he’s trying to say that the way to be successful in managing perceptions of yourself when you’re trying to lead is to have those smooth reaction times that make it look like you are right on the beat, just when you need to be. That’s fine, so far as it goes, but it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough.

Let’s just focus on the ballplayer with the sweet swing. Mark McGwire didn’t become a great hitter on the hop but by long years of intense and repetitive practice. He got into the sweet zone by going to the closest place he could get to the sweet zone and working to cross those final crucial fractions of a second that make the difference between a .200 hitter and a .300 one. It takes a lot of time, no matter who you are.

Obama, no matter where you stand on what he professes to believe, and setting aside that he keeps moving where he stands, has not had much time, nor has he devoted much practice, to getting into any kind of political sweet zone. He has not labored on the back benches, hammering out the details of complex legislation for any length of time, nor has he actually governed in situations of any real diversity, whether of accidental condition or of political stripe. It’s to be expected he won’t know how to really speak to people about issues that actually matter for longer than a cocktail party. Krauthammer got that and said so back in Feb 2008.

The real question now is whether professional Democrats are going to allow the mistakes to continue to accumulate or will they undermine and perhsps dethrone him. I don’t doubt that Democratic leaders are sufficiently venal and self-interested, I just doubt whether they perceive the time line to be short enough from Obama blunder to consequence that personally impacts Democratic leaders for them to act. It’s sobering to consider, but our best hope right now is that the effects do happen quickly. That will hurt us more than our Democratic rulers, but unless it does hurt them, they’ll cooperate in their own downfall happily, content in thinking they’re enjoying themselves on the way down.


18 posted on 03/25/2009 3:35:06 AM PDT by BelegStrongbow (I'm still waiting for the One to say something that isn't a lie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Canedawg

If you knew that Michael Wolff is a leftist, you would not be so surprised. I posted his essay to show that even the left is having regrets about Obama.

Michael Wolff:
http://cityfile.com/dailyfile/4743


19 posted on 03/25/2009 3:39:15 AM PDT by iowamark (certified by Michael Steele as "ugly and incendiary")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy
Great article. I especially liked the comment : "The smoothest transition in history ended when G.Bush got on the plane."

I miss W. I wonder if the crowd that made the new Reagan documentary are planning one for Bush? It needs to be done before the academics crucify him.

20 posted on 03/25/2009 3:40:19 AM PDT by CanaGuy (Go Harper!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson