Posted on 01/20/2010 6:16:50 AM PST by ChocChipCookie
Obama punted on the economy and reversed the fortunes of the Democrats in 365 days.
He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.
This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.
In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It’s now worse than it was. I’ve now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It’s politically corrupt and it’s starting at the top. It’s revolting.
Five states got deals on health care—one of them was Harry Reid’s. It is disgusting, just disgusting. I’ve never seen anything like it. The unions just got them to drop the tax on Cadillac plans in the health-care bill. It was pure union politics. They just went along with it. It’s a bizarre form of political corruption. It’s bribery. I suppose they could say, that’s the system. He was supposed to change it or try to change it.
Even that is not the worst part. He could have said, “I know. I promised these things, but let me try to do them one at a time.” You want to deal with health care? Fine. Issue No. 1 with health care was the cost. You know I think it was 37 percent or 33 who were worried about coverage. Fine, I wrote an editorial to this effect. Focus on cost-containment first. But he’s trying to boil the ocean, trying to do too much. This is not leadership.
Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things.
I don’t consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster.
One business leader said to me, “In the Clinton administration, the policy people were at the center, and the political people were on the sideline. In the Obama administration, the political people are at the center, and the policy people are on the sidelines.”
I’m very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.
I hope there are changes. I think he’s already laid in huge problems for the country. The fiscal program was a disaster. You have to get the money as quickly as possible into the economy. They didn’t do that. By end of the first year, only one-third of the money was spent. Why is that?
He should have jammed a stimulus plan into Congress and said, “This is it. No changes. Don’t give me that bullshit. We have a national emergency.” Instead they turned it over to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who can run circles around him.
It’s very sad. It’s really sad.
He’s improved America’s image in the world. He absolutely did. But you have to translate that into something. Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. “We are convinced,” he said, “that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned,” he said “that he is not strong to support his friends.”
The political leadership of the world is very, very dismayed. He better turn it around. The Democrats are going to get killed in this election. Jesus, looks what’s happening in Massachusetts.
It’s really interesting because he had brilliant, brilliant political instincts during the campaign. I don’t know what has happened to them. His appointments present somebody who has a lot to learn about how government works. He better get some very talented businesspeople who know how to implement things. It’s unbelievable. Everybody says so. You can’t believe how dismayed people are. That’s why he’s plunging in the polls.
I can’t predict things two years from now, but if he continues on the downward spiral he is on, he won’t be reelected. In the meantime, the Democrats have recreated the Republican Party. And when I say Democrats, I mean the Obama administration. In the generic vote, the Democrats were ahead something like 52 to 30. They are now behind the Republicans 48 to 44 in the last poll. Nobody has ever seen anything that dramatic.
Don't you just love the smell of FEAR in the morning ?
That also is, as you say, very naive.
You can never control the cost of medicine unless you control what someone makes. If you do that then you will not have the best and brightest going into the field of medicine. Better to go for tort reform and allowing people to buy over state lines than to try to contol anything.
Mort Zuckerman might as well have said, “Woe is me”! Please, God help us.
The President could have “ordered” Pelosi and Reid to accept his Stimulus Plan, not outsourced it to them and the corrupt Committee Chairmen in the Congress.
Zuckerman hasn’t figured out that Obama himself is corrupt.
Better late than never . . I suppose his Daily News has some influence and could help the GOP get another Senator in New York.
I think during the transition the 0 was quoted about soon to be ruling. Not serving but ruling. I think the 0 does believe he is a celebrity-king hybrid or a vanguard of the proletariat (a term he is probably familiar with).
We all knew he was an idiot...didn’t have a clue...and started from the get-go to destroy this country...
Government "stimulus" is part of the problem unless that stimulus consists of reading Article 1, section 8 of the US Constitution, realizing most of what they do is illegal, and then slashing the federal budget to about 10% of its current size.
Where in the US Constitution is the federal government granted the authority to test consumer products and deem them “safe” to put on the market?
Until someone points that out to me, I say we can make medicine cheaper by abolishing the FDA.
But of course, the logical will come by to tell me that someone dying of cancer shouldn’t be allowed to try “risky remedies” that haven’t been blessed by the imperial bureaucracy because they might die.
"The Congress shall have power To ... provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States;"
Maybe congress goes overboard in making laws to promote the "general welfare" sometimes, but apparently the Supreme Court has not done much to restrict the interpretation of "general welfare".
, the Democrats have recreated the Republican Party. And when I say Democrats, I mean the Obama administration. In the generic vote, the Democrats were ahead something like 52 to 30. They are now behind the Republicans 48 to 44 in the last poll. Nobody has ever seen anything that dramatic.
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Well thats what happens when the democratic president is doing crack and doing men.
I would have loved to have seen the fallout from that. Pelosi and Reid are almost as big megalomaniacs as Obama is (just lacking the spit and polish needed for a good presidential campaign). While they would not have "in principle" (ironic quotations) disagreed with Obama, their sense of importance would have been hurt. There would have been some interesting knifing and intriguing going on behind the scenes if Obama had tried it.
I'm sure you're right. Let's just hope that Obama's over the top run will prevent the same stunt from being tried for a while. Obama makes Clinton look like a class act--and Clinton was a piece of slime.
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