He Was Supposed to Be Competent [spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy]

online.wsj.com ^

[Sub-Driver]

He Was Supposed to Be Competent The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy.

By PEGGY NOONAN

I don't see how the president's position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president's political judgment and instincts.

There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity. I don't see how you politically survive this.

The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen. This is a terrible thing to see in a political figure, and a startling thing in one who won so handily and shrewdly in 2008. But he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center. The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.

[aliquando]

Glen Beck is telling us what X,y, and Z are.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

One word - Sestak.

Methinks that Zero is going to one day wish he’d never heard that name.

Today he basically gave the “I did not have sex” denial. That denial may get replayed a bunch in the coming weeks and months.

[Ann Archy]

Glenn is FABULOUS!!

[Hayride]

He has yet to be vetted so why would Peggy or anyone else assume BOzo “was supposed to be competent”? Actually the fact that the MSM has avoided vetting him tells you all you need to know. They’re accomplices and when BOzo goes down, they go down with him.

[nathanbedford]

Peggy, Peggy, dear Peggy, you are so terribly behind the power curve that you have no more hope of recovery then did Thurman Munson.

The president's problem is not that he has "chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen." His sinking poll numbers are not caused by the fact that, " he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center." And finally, God knows, the fault is not that oil spill has betrayed his lack of competence. Peggy, you sound as pathetic as governor Dukakis.

The president's problem is that he is a radical Marxist who does not give a damn about the "center", or "competence". It is not that he does not have an idea about the "central concerns of his countrymen," rather it is that he does not give a damn about those concerns. He does not pursue his policies against the will of the American people because he does not get it, he pursues those policies because they advance radical socialism. Obama understands exactly what he is doing as he pursues these policies:

There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity.

Peggy you must understand that these policies were fundamental to radically altering the American Republic. The health care proposal is designed to control one of every six dollars spent by Americans; it was calculated to insinuate the government between the patient and his doctor. Ultimately, it was designed to render Americans the servile supplicants of their government over the preservation of their precious bodily health.

Likewise, Obama's actions on illegal immigration are for the same purpose. They were so predictable they were in fact predicted by many of us on Free Republic long before he took office. They are designed to so jigger the American electoral system as to render it impossible to democratically check his ambitions to radicalize America. His demagoguery on the subject of the Arizona law confirms the malignancy of his intent.

These actions are not the result of misunderstanding the mood of the American people. They are a calculated campaign to accept the distress of the American people to gain his desired goals. Peggy, you as a putative conservative who attains the position of columnist for the Wall Street Journal, ought to understand that failures of government are not the product of incompetence but the inevitable result of using the wrong tool for the job. But mostly, you ought to be able to spot a red when you see one.

Wake up, Peggy Noonan, for God's sake, wake up, the automatic warning is flashing and a claxon is sounding. Your glidepath is falling below the power curve you are destined to crash.

[dsutah]

Oww... now stop laughing, behave yourself! ;^)

[Da Coyote]

Competent? Intelligent?

I see. Must be why he hides his probably ludicrous academic records which would demonstrate that Harvard has lowered its standards to the sub-creten level.

Obama is a joke and all the colleges which let this loon enter share in the ridicule.

He’s a slime mold - on his best day.

Stupid.

Ugly.

And totally repulsive.

[Eagle Eye]

Peggy’s assessment is very charitable.

[hinckley buzzard]

The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.

It took Peggy a long time to get a clue. But what she says is true, and it means he doesn't give a crap about the support of the people.

He will never resign. The Supreme Court may have to send Federal Marshalls backed up by a SWAT team to get him out of the White House whenever the time comes.

[Graybeard58]

However I am almost feeling bad for him how bad this is getting and how obvious it is to everyone including himself how over his head he is.

Piss on him.

Kick him in the nads while he's down (politically).

[Oceander]

Piss on him.

Kick him in the nads while he's down (politically).

[goodnesswins]

YEP...and I DO NOT listen to ANYONE who “swooned” or voted for this imbecile.

[Sarah]

I clicked here JUST TO READ THE COMMENTS!
I used to love her stuff
(pre Obama...)

I guess the New York koolaid’s wearing off.

[highlander_UW]

I don't see how you politically survive this.

You survive it by having a (D) after your name...that guarantees you tens of millions of votes from idiots, criminals and the dead.

[WOSG]

Millions of idiots still have his bumper sticker on his car and his sick demented party still have more money and more power than you or I will ever have.

obvious? Not to everyone.

Its mind-boggling to feel ‘sorry’ for someone who is so powerful, so destructive and so blase about his own incompetence.

[WOSG]

Some truths just cannot be explained... like describing color to a bunch of color blind people.

[nathanbedford]

As someone somewhat colorblind I can confirm the insight of your analogy. I cannot distinguish grays, greens, and blues very well and I always fail those tests that have numbers hidden in the dots. My wife points out the correct answer and I am dumbfounded. She tells me that a color is blue and I swear it is green and I am utterly convinced that she is the one who is colorblind.

The colorblindness is not acute, I still got my private pilot's license but it would deny me a commercial license. But slight as it is, my minor handicap is acute enough for me not to be able to see reality.

[autumnraine]

And all this ‘disaster’ talk, comparing to Katrina... and no mention of the flooding in Tennessee. Too bad most folks think it’s just a bunch of white racists so who cares?

[autumnraine]

And he wasn’t even able to keep his law license. No one knows why he and Michelle lost it or why they were stripped of it, but that’s probably why he went into community organizing. He made out as if he was some altruistic fellow, but more like he had no other option.

[ShandaLear]

I live in King Country in Washington State. Lately I’ve noticed a lot of those bumper stickers have disappeared. It’s telling.