He Can't Take Another Bow

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/27/2009 | Peggy Noonan

[Servant of the Cross]

This week, two points in an emerging pointillist picture of a White House leaking support—not the support of voters, though polls there show steady decline, but in two core constituencies, Washington's Democratic-journalistic establishment, and what might still be called the foreign-policy establishment.

From journalist Elizabeth Drew, a veteran and often sympathetic chronicler of Democratic figures, a fiery denunciation of—and warning for—the White House. In a piece in Politico on the firing of White House counsel Greg Craig, Ms. Drew reports that while the president was in Asia last week, "a critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes for his presidency began to wonder whether they had misjudged the man." They once held "an unromantically high opinion of Obama," and were key to his rise, but now they are concluding that the president isn't "the person of integrity and even classiness they had thought."

She scored "the Chicago crowd," which she characterized as "a distressingly insular and small-minded West Wing team." The White House, Ms. Drew says, needs adult supervision—"an older, wiser head, someone with a bit more detachment."

As I read Ms. Drew's piece, I was reminded of something I began noticing a few months ago in bipartisan crowds. I would ask Democrats how they thought the president was doing. In the past they would extol, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, his virtues. Increasingly, they would preface their answer with, "Well, I was for Hillary." (snip)

He added that rather than bowing to emperors—Mr. Obama "seems to do this stuff spontaneously and inexplicably"—he should begin to bow to "the voices of experience" in Washington.

When longtime political observers start calling for wise men, a president is in trouble. (snip) ....

[Servant of the Cross]

The Obama bowing pictures are becoming iconic not for those reasons, however, but because they express a growing political perception, and that is that there is something amateurish about this presidency, something too ad hoc and highly personalized about it, something . . . incompetent

Yea, Peggy you were willfully blind but it is fun to see your coming enlightenment.

[Fido969]

The White House, Ms. Drew says, needs adult supervision

FINALLY getting the meme right!

[Former Proud Canadian]

The photos of POTUS bowing make me cringe, and I’m not even an American.

[Cicero]

I’m afraid when she says “adult,” she’s talking about herself and her clone friends.

I thought this might be happening when I saw that 27% strongly approve figure from Rasmussen. I had thought that 29% was probably rock bottom, because that’s the approximate number of braindead leftists who will never change.

What it means is tha at least some moonbat leftists are mad at Obama because they don’t think he is far enough to the left. Just as Bush’s figures tanked in his last years partly because a lot of conservatives were unhappy with him over issues like amnesty, as well as the usual suspects on the left.

[Felis_irritable]

There are so many “duhs” in this article I’m speechless. Those of us who are a little older were saying before he became “The One” that he was an inexperienced product of an insular machine, that he had poor judgement, and that he couldn’t possibly get elected.

Events are proving us correct re: his inexperience and judgement to the point that even independents and*gasp* some democrats are embarrassed.

The worst part of this for me is that the Republicans are, as is so typical lately, clueless, and I don’t think the vast, uninformed and unwashed American electorate gives enough of a damn to become informed about/support a third party candidate who could do the job. Plus, that candidate would upset the tidy little two-party system in DC, which seems to me to be a herculean task.

I’m ready for the Prozac here...

[silverleaf]

people like the elitist Noonan are as responsible for this phony pretender being in the WH as are the radical left

Take your own bow, peggy, then exit the stage

please

[nathanbedford]

Peggy, dear Peggy you are like an adolescent bopper always pining after the next rockstar, always substituting personality for policy, always believing that form will overcome substance.

The problem with Barack Obama is not that he is amateurish, it is that he is an extreme leftist radical. The problem is not personality, it is not the absence of wise men, it is wrongheadedness. To engage in a little alliteration, the problem Peggy is policy not personality.

Just a couple of hours ago I posted this reply:

Obama's First Year and Buyer's Remorse Freitag, 27. November 2009 09:06:16 · 17 of 34

We are told that the author has published 11 books some of which have been translated into as many as 20 languages and I am at a loss to see this piece is anything other than a manifestation of intellectual onanism. If this author has something to say in any language it might be to draw a lesson from the Obama experience. We have buyer' s remorse because we begged Obama to flimflam us and he cheerfully and expertly did so. Now we want to blame Obama because we are disillusioned.

When we as a society eternally ricochet from candidate to candidate always hoping and too often believing that this time this man will produce the magic which will excuse us from our own willful dereliction of duty as citizens, the results are not only predictable but inevitable.

This quadrennial lusting after a political savior is fully in keeping with our human natures. But it does reflect well on us. It is an ignoble trait because it reveals us to be intellectually lazy and emotionally dependent. We were flimflamed by Obama not just because the media worked the crowd while he was on stage, we were taken in because we wanted to be taken in. We were vulnerable because we had not done our homework long before Barak Obama became a household tongue twister. Most of us have an inchoate understanding of our political process and a thoroughly distorted notion of constitutional governance. We have no well considered political philosophy so we seek not to evaluate policy but to judge the man. In the television age that rapidly deteriorates into a beauty contest.

In that televised beauty contest it is Katie Couric who controls the lighting, the camera angles, the editing, and the background music. Is it any wonder that conservative candidates get treated no better than Miss California? Is it any wonder that Barack Obama is literally treated as a Messiah? Is it any wonder that the best of Sarah Palin and the worst of Barack Obama are left on the cutting room floor?

Why do we yield the likes of Katie Couric power over ourselves? Why do we permit ourselves to be so deceived? Why do we want to be taken in by such a transparent siren as, "yes we can," or, "we are the one," when such bumper stickers are not intrinsically compelling, rather, by any objective test are simply mindless?

We are beaten on the one hand by the cynics who say, there is no difference among politicians, it matters not whom you vote for, they are all the same, and apathy, therefore, is the only rational reaction. It is the only way to save yourself from the liars. The only choice is not to choose otherwise you are participating in the sham and, God forbid, you will look foolish.

We are beaten on the other side by the mythmakers, both those who lionize and those who demonize. So Camelot was constructed around a psychotic and compulsive sex addict and a man who was addicted to psychotropic drugs. This myth was so firmly attached to the American psyche that literally no debauchery committed by his youngest brother would disillusion Massachusetts voters. It is folly to underestimate the power of the myth which idolizes an individual. That was why I posted so many times before the last election that Barack Obama had to be morally destroyed or the election was lost.

Equally, demonization myths are not to be underestimated. The mythmakers have denigrated Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, and Sarah Palin, to mention some obvious examples, as stupid. Consider the myth that Richard Nixon is evil. This was well planted and nurtured long before he became president as a result of this politicking against communists in California and his association in the Alger Hiss affair. When Nixon was revealed to be as corrupt, but perhaps no more corrupt than Roosevelt, Kennedy, or Johnson who had recently preceded him in office, he could not escape the consequences for essentially the same acts which they had committed but for which they received no contemporaneous scrutiny and no adverse sanction.

We are beaten into the belief that our solution is in the person and not in the philosophy. We are beaten into the belief that we find truth by identifying the most trustworthy messenger. So if we believed Walter Cronkite we believed that the Vietnam war was lost. If we believed the successor to Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, we believed that George Bush cheated his way out of combat in Vietnam. If we believe those scientists that the media tells us we should believe, we are alarmed at global warming. If we are conditioned into accepting the truth of the message because we accept the trustworthiness of the messenger, we will accept the emotionally easy path of voting for the man and not the philosophy. We will be eternally seeking a Messiah and we will be eternally disillusioned.

By the way, we are not immune from this distemper here on Free Republic where one often reads that some opinion or another ought to be dismissed because the author of it is a liberal. This is the path of know nothingness , isolation, and minority status. This is the conservative world, our beliefs are the correct beliefs and they can stand scrutiny and challenge. To withdraw from the Fray is to commit our belief system to corruption, to a gradual death because we cannot correct ourselves. Is insupportable unless you believe that all conservatives are infallible all the time. It is not the man who brings us the truth but the truth which illuminates the man. No better example of this exists than the biography of Sarah Palin.

As long as we as a commonweal whore after the emotional release of surrender to a false Messiah, statists will have the advantage over us. Our commitment is to the principles of conservatism and not to an individual, not even Sarah Palin, not Glenn Beck, and not Rush Limbaugh. Our belief system is righteous and fully capable of meeting every test the left can throw at it. The one thing it cannot overcome is that folly which infects the rest of our culture.

[Mac from Cleveland]

This was previously posted—no biggie, just saying. I responded to that one-and liked my own response to asshat Peggy so much I’m going to copy and post it here, after minor tinkering. Here it is:

Gee, Peg-Leg, last year you were swooning over your new black overlord before his coronation—like one of the Conservative-Lite girly-men at National Review, who, last year, while a little nervous about BOs policies and persona, gibbered about the “majesty” of a black running for President. Yeah I guess like the majesty of Marion Berry running for DC mayor. What a bunch of simpering idiots.

Now the bloom is off the rose—this guy is a sleazy, incompetent, racist,hate-filled, Anti-American POS with no redeeming factors—no experience, no foreign or domestic answers, no personality—the most controlled,scripted, and stage managed White House in history.

You’re supposed to be smart enough to see what’s up beforehand, Peg-Leg. All you did was vote for the guy because he’s black—no other reason. People like you live in the few all-white areas of NYC and DC, and send your kids to private schools—all to stay away from blacks—and your white guilt and spinelessness made you act out in a stupid frenzy—and wonder of wonders, your ill-considered embrace of a guttersnipe Chicago politician who, without affirmative action would be managing an Arby’s, blew up in your faces. Imagine that?

To give you an analogy that you can probably relate to personally:
You got drunk and had a one night stand with a he-skank—Poor naive, deluded Peggy—somewhere around the fifth drink, before you went home with the guy, not even knowing his last name, you were thinking about what what kind of dresses your bridesmaids would wear when you got married to him. BWAHAHAHAHA!
Then came reality........
the sex was lousy, he turned out to be dumb and had bad breath, You caught him lying to you—you felt stupid and used the next morning after he high-tailed it out of there, leaving a phony phone number.

Then came the herpes a week later as a keepsake..

A lot like your remorse now-too late—and with a heap of consequences. Consider it your tuition in Dumbass Libtard University.

Oh, and from your article:

“It also raises a distressing question: Who are the wise men and women now? Who are the Robert Lovetts, Chip Bohlens and Robert Strausses who can came in to help a president in trouble right his ship? America seems short of wise men, or short on those who are universally agreed to be wise”.

Those are “old white men”, Peg. No use for them anymore, so why bring them up?. White men (or as they are termed now—white guys, white males, or even white boys— per that two legged turd Donna Brazile ) like the ones you talk about are yesterday’s news. Now you have “wise Latinas” and BO and Michelle and Oprah and Atty General Corn Holder—you helped shape this world, Peg-Leg— have fun with it. I knew better, as did a lot of folks. I wish you and your fellow assholes were the only ones hurt by your idioc

[swain_forkbeard]

The elder statemen in our country, in the US Senate, if they have an ounce of integrity, need to limit the damage that Obama can do until his replacement arrives.

Obama is a sham. He is dangerously unprepared to be the POTUS.

[gorilla_warrior]

He does not represent me or my country, so who cares. If any foreigner is stupid enough to think we are bowing to them, they are in for a surprise. Oh and Peggy, please shut up.

[quantim]

Wait until a trip to Cuba, there will be bowing.

[PreciousLiberty]

"The White House, Ms. Drew says, needs adult supervision"

Was this one of the useful idiots criticizing Rush's "man-child" label? I'd not be surprised.

As is often the case, Rush is right.

The other piece of stunning cognitive dissonance from the Left is the continued assertion that Sarah Palin is "too inexperienced, too stupid" to be President. What a complete joke - she'd outshine 0 like the Sun compared to a nightlight.

[TaxPayer2000]

In the past they would extol, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, his virtues.

I wonder which virtues they were extolling to her.....besides him being; "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy"?

[Interesting Times]

Slowly, dimly, it is dawning on Peggy Noonan that something smells funny.

However, the reeking Marxist elephant in the drawing room remains undetected...

[schu]

Those are “old white men”, Peg. No use for them anymore, so why bring them up?. White men (or as they are termed now—white guys, white males, or even white boys— per that two legged turd Donna Brazile ) like the ones you talk about are yesterday’s news. Now you have “wise Latinas” and BO and Michelle and Oprah and Atty General Corn Holder—you helped shape this world, Peg-Leg— have fun with it. I knew better, as did a lot of folks. I wish you and your fellow assholes were the only ones hurt by your idiocy.

Nicely said.

I recall in the summer of 2008 telling friends to beware, Bam was Carter Redux. They all asked what that meant ... what was the problem with Carter? This is our problem, no one knows ANY history, even recent history.

Peggy, for all her supposed eloquence, is really not that thoughtful if you ask me.

They frankly have not even begun to see angry white men. They will before it is all over.

schu

[Jim Scott]

Excellent commentary that hits the mark.

Many conservatives saw Barack Hussein Obama for the radial, anti-American Alinsky follower he always was and is now revealing himself to be. Too late. He's the President of the United States, now.

The neo-con elitists running the RNC (and the RINO politicians who went along with them) basically refused to mount a credible Republican candidate against Obama. The leftmedia pro-Obama blitz and the infamous apathy of the American people who have long been easily led by 'charismatic' political figures devoid of sensible governing policies, going back to FDR and possibly earlier, combined to help elect an unqualified, dangerously radical leftist to the most powerful position in the world.

Obama being of mixed race was the topper. This gave guilty white liberals and those Americans who do not consider themselves 'liberal' but, having been conditioned by Al Sharpton and his MSM press agents to believe that even the slightest negative comment about a 'black' person - no matter how solidly based in fact - is inherently 'racist', wanted to assure themselves they weren't 'racist', no sir, and gave them the reason they needed to ignore Obama's distinctly questionable associations, his lack of leadership credentials and his vague promises of 'hope and change' with almost no real explanation of what that 'change' might consist of. The GOP candidate (John McCain) wasn't going to press the point with Obama because he never expected to win.

So, now we have the inevitable voter 'buyers remorse'. Too late and too bad. Sage advisors and 'adult supervision' in the White House is not the solution and won't happen, anyway. Obama's administration will do as much damage as they can, while they can. They know full well that the sham that is Obama is going to fall apart as the country continues to suffer economically and events overtake this glaringly unqualified president. Things could very easily get very bad.

I believe that the Democrats will be routed in the 2010 congressional elections, which will finally give America the chance to contain some of the damage Obama is inflicting on our economy, our security and our freedoms. However, come the morning of November 3, 2010, despite whatever gains Republicans make in the elections, Barack Hussein Obama will still be president and have the power of the Executive Order and other prerogatives. He will do as much damage as he can, while he can, as that has always been his goal. I'm certain Obama views America as a terrible country full of bad people doing bad things - and he wants to bring us to our knees. Sadly, voter apathy, massive hype for Obama by the leftist MSM and a series of blunders by the political opposition gave him the power to do just that.

The neo-cons such as Peggy Noonan now wringing their hands about Obama disgust me. They wanted him in office as much as any liberal did - and helped him gain power so they could feel good and preen about helping America experience an 'historic' political moment. Their too-late whining is a bit irrelevant to most conservatives. I just hope our great nation can survive this massive mistake and learn from it, but looking back at recent political history, I'm not optimistic.

[SteamShovel]

He is dangerously unprepared to be the POTUS.

But he is very prepared to be the anti-American, Marxist mole that he is.

[nathanbedford]

I share your repugnance at Peggy Noonan and her histrionic handwringing about that which she herself did much to bring about and in so doing betrayed every meaningful value she possessed for the fantasy of Barack Obama. She has abandoned the convictions of her faith and her conservatism for the graven image of a new political rock star. How terribly, terribly sad. All the more sad that the damage is not limited to the individual.

I share the rest of your sentiments in your reply as well.

[sionnsar]

[kenavi]

An untried man who became President is finding he must follow many of the methods of the predecessor he scorned.

Perhaps the system IS indeed working.