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Can’t Touch Him: Obama's uncanny ability to shake off blame
Newsweek ^ | May 17, 2010 | Howard Fineman

Posted on 05/16/2010 12:06:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Let's try a political thought experiment. Imagine that a few months after a new president takes office, his administration approves an offshore oil well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico. It is to be run by BP, whose employees were very generous donors to the president's campaign. The oil company airily dismisses the possibility of a catastrophic leak that might destroy the coastline. Nearly a year later, the president—to the dismay of his environmentalist supporters—says he wants to greatly expand offshore drilling. Soon after that, the BP well explodes, and oil spews into the gulf. It's clear to everyone that the blowout is a major catastrophe, requiring a federal mobilization. But the president's initial response is to say, in effect: do not worry, BP will pay for the cleanup. Eleven days pass before he goes to survey the scene.

Of course, this is a sketch of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and the president is Barack Obama. But here is the rest of the experiment. Imagine the reaction of Washington—the media, Congress, the "national conversation"—if the president wasn't Obama but George W. Bush. "We would be under siege," says Dan Bartlett, who was communications director in the Bush years. "There'd be calls for special prosecutors, investigations everywhere. The focus wouldn't be on what was happening out in the gulf—it would be on what happened in the West Wing."

Now, I hold no brief for George Bush, and I have no desire to launch a screed against the home-field advantage that Obama still gets in the non-Murdoch media.(continued)

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2010; bho44; bush; jourbalism; mchammer; obama; obamasfault; oil; oilspill
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Oh Fineman Fineman Fineman

If your hero Zero personally showed up in a Satan costume you’d still love him ...

Or would that be dedicate a book to him, like your other hero Alinsky???


21 posted on 05/16/2010 1:22:00 AM PDT by DontTreadOnMe2009 (So stop treading on me already!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Can’t Touch Him: Obama's uncanny ability to shake off blame

Totally amazing how often he can stand at 'his' podium, look us all in the eye and explain how 'the dog ate his homework' and get away with it.

22 posted on 05/16/2010 1:35:06 AM PDT by Dustbunny ("Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. " Ronald Reagan)
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To: allmost
It would be interesting to see obama try a ‘big boy’ news conference though. One time, ever.

Interesting? Heck, it'd be a HOOT to watch 0 try to field two honest questions without pre-screening or TOTUS support.

During the first one, he'd get peevish and surly.

As soon as the second one was asked, his head would explode and he'd stalk off like the spoiled child he is.

23 posted on 05/16/2010 1:54:31 AM PDT by Quiller (When you're fighting to survive, there is no "try" -- there is only do, or do not.)
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To: allmost
He doesn't shake off blame. It's never assigned.

Exactly!

The liberal media do not blame Obama because to blame Obama is to blame themselves- they created this monster.

24 posted on 05/16/2010 1:56:15 AM PDT by citizencon
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To: Quiller
I think he would stay. so encompessed in his self righteousness, the true deep anger would show.
25 posted on 05/16/2010 2:01:35 AM PDT by allmost
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To: citizencon

He cannot exist without them.


26 posted on 05/16/2010 2:03:02 AM PDT by allmost
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is easy - three words - “THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA”.
If the Bush Administration had done a tenth of what this Marxist Regime has done, the media would splash this on the news for weeks and months or until they (the media) felt they had conditioned people to think the way they wanted them to think.


27 posted on 05/16/2010 2:18:25 AM PDT by Paige ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," Edmund Burke)
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To: onyx

Which is ironic considering Nashville’s “new” country scene is very liberal and strong BO supporters. This may be a wake-up call for them to re-assess their devotion to the marxist.


28 posted on 05/16/2010 2:26:06 AM PDT by newfreep (Palin/DeMint 2012 - Bolton: Secy of State)
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To: newfreep

“Which is ironic considering Nashville’s “new” country scene is very liberal and strong BO supporters. This may be a wake-up call for them to re-assess their devotion to the marxist.

Not to mention that their “New Country” Music sucks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Vrur_ewM
George Strait and Alan Jackson - “They Committed Murder Down on Music Row”
They even told my Homie “The Possumm” to pack up and go back home.


29 posted on 05/16/2010 2:56:09 AM PDT by BnBlFlag (Deo Vindice/Semper Fidelis "Ya gotta saddle up your boys; Ya gotta draw a hard line")
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To: allmost
I think he would stay. so encompessed in his self righteousness, the true deep anger would show.

You might be right.

I tend to think that most of his tight-lipped anger glare is scripted posing, composed when he knows the 'anger moment' is coming.

The first question would be an affront, but he'd get through that with much 'uh', and 'ah' going on, and a convoluted appeal for submitting to his superior wisdom.

The 2nd question would be a follow-up which completely revealed the total BS of his first answer.

He'd have no response.

He'd have no way to hide that his 'emperor has no clothes' moment had happened.

He's never risked being pinned as a poseur on a broadcast media before, and he never will.

But still, it's a little amusing to think of it.

30 posted on 05/16/2010 3:10:57 AM PDT by Quiller (When you're fighting to survive, there is no "try" -- there is only do, or do not.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Who’s side.....
Don’t know...but hope you live in my neck of the woods!


31 posted on 05/16/2010 3:14:49 AM PDT by FES0844
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To: Political Junkie Too
instead of the media asking who, when, why, how, and what else, they marvel at the new president's ability to avoid being asked who, when, why, how, and what else?

LOL! Great summary!

32 posted on 05/16/2010 3:19:15 AM PDT by livius
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He doesn’t have an ability to escape blame, he just doesn’t accept the consequences of his actions and the state run media doesn’t hold him to any says or does. This isn’t ability it is biased news reporting.


33 posted on 05/16/2010 3:19:44 AM PDT by calex59
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“When one or more American cities go up in flames, everything will do a 180.”

That’s what I’m thinking.


34 posted on 05/16/2010 3:21:19 AM PDT by nolongerademocrat ("Before you ask G-d for something, first thank G-d for what you already have." B'rachot 30b)
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To: Quiller
An amusing thought. I don't think it will ever happen. A press conference where this man was actually grilled by the press?
35 posted on 05/16/2010 3:25:23 AM PDT by allmost
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To: onyx

Of course, Fineman is criticizing the idea that, in his mind, Bambi has maintained Bush’s policies. He hasn’t - while he hasn’t closed Gitmo, for example, it wasn’t for lack of trying. He was simply unsuccessful in his attempts to reverse them, but he has tinkered with them enough so that they are ineffectual or distorted.

But I guess Fineman proves his own thesis: Obama is never even criticized for not being effective in totally undoing Bush’s programs. No matter what he does, Obama is protected by the press.


36 posted on 05/16/2010 3:26:06 AM PDT by livius
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

That’s because he says, with CONFIDENCE, BOTH SIDES of EVERYTHING!! He’s For offshore drilling, he’s against it....he’s FOR nuclear eneregy, he’s against it, etc., etc., etc.....and he ALWAYS BLAMES a SCAPEGOAT and STUPID people eat that up!!


37 posted on 05/16/2010 3:27:22 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion,,,,,,the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
To those on the right, he's evil incarnate, but on the left, he still can do no wrong

IMO this is the nut in the pile of leaves.

Conservatives are mature people. They live in a world which is defined by "right" and "wrong"!

And when they look at Obama, they see him first in those terms...they see him in the clear light of day!

They see that he is not just evil, he is the very epitome of evil!

But Liberals...of course they can't see Obama for what he is! They hate morality so much that they have gouged out the eyes of their souls!

Obama knows this...he is counting on it.

38 posted on 05/16/2010 3:36:04 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself... - D.H. Lawrence)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I dont know what a BO supporter is, but I have an idea it bears an amazing resemblance to a butt plug.


39 posted on 05/16/2010 3:52:01 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Well what does Howard Fineman expect from the State Run Media?

After all, did the 'Frankfurt Times' ever criticize Adolph Hitler or Albert Speer for polluting the environment? Or Pravda raise a peep when Stalin turned the Aral Sea into a toxic lake dump site? I don't think so.

It's the same story, just a different time.

40 posted on 05/16/2010 4:24:38 AM PDT by Condor51 (SAT CONG!)
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