Posted on 12/17/2010 10:42:43 AM PST by pissant
In his latest column, Charles Krauthammer hails President Obama as "the new comeback kid."
Has Krauthammer gone all David Brooks on us?
Has Krauthammer developed a man crush on President Obama? Well, consider this passage:
Now, with his stunning tax deal, Obama is back. Holding no high cards, he nonetheless managed to resurface suddenly not just as a player but as the orchestrator, dealmaker, and central actor in a high $1 trillion drama.
If President Obama is "the orchestrator, dealmaker, and central actor in a high $1 trillion drama" then why did he odiously refer to the Republicans with whom he made this deal as "hostage takers"? Indeed, if one accepts President Obama's characterization of the GOP then one can only conclude that the President agreeing to this tax deal was the equivalent of paying a ransom. And no one pays a ransom on their own terms, not even President Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
It always surprises me when Dr. K is referred to as a “conservative.” Obviously, he isn’t.
That said, he often has interesting insights. As long as nobody seriously believes he is a conservative, I’m interested at least listening to his point of view.
Or people don’t want to tell a complete stranger on tghe phone that they disapprove of the first black president and be thought of as racist...
“Or people don’t want to tell a complete stranger on tghe phone that they disapprove of the first black president and be thought of as racist...”
Possible. I just keep in mind that the American electorate was dumb enough to elect this POS once, and I don’t think the electorate has gotten measurably smarter since 2008.
This “Compromise” had been talked about for weeks before being implemented. Obama was just along for the ride. Giving credit to Obama is the way the Inside The Beltway crowd is framing the discussion.
Not only the beltway croud, but thr world press has given the credit to Obama for the tax deal
It’s been there all along, not newly ‘developed’. That’s exactly why he denigrates Sarah Palin...he knows she truly could wipe Obama out.
You’re probably right, but that’s not saying Krauthammer’s wrong here.
The bill had a subsidy for ethanol attached if I recall. I hate to say it, but if even Al Gore thinks ethanol is a bad idea, how did R’s let it pass?
Krauthammer’s warning the right that we need to find our balls, or Obama will hand them to us. I remember another recent president people underestimated, and we just passed the tax cuts he proposed yesterday.
He’s normally pretty good. I’ll chalk this up to a temporary loss of his senses.
No, Krauthammer is correct. In making that deal, Obama has once again become "relevant." So it's a comeback for him.
For the moment he really has put himself back into the center of the political game, on an issue of real substance.
For a while, anyway: his intrinsic failings (e.g., the "hostage takers" comment and that shocking laziness about his presidential duties) are already coming back to bite him.
Krauthammer’s subconscious:
“I have much more favorable feelings about an individual who- by his own admittance- received mediocre grades in high school but was able to get into Occidental College and then transfer to even finer schools because of the color of his skin, than I do about an individual who did not have that valuable advantage. I will accept as an article of faith that the individual whom I prefer truly was an academic stalwart, and I will not ask for further evidence clarifying that presumption, as it would shatter everything I have come to believe...
...My immediate, emotional knee-jerk reactions outweigh my, at times, uncomfortable pervasive awareness that the individual whom I favor would likely be determined to have the narcissistic personality disorder, or even worse, ASPD, if I were examining him as a psychiatrist. Further, my feelings outweigh my knowledge that the individual whom I prefer labeled “Iran a tiny country” not to be feared, whereas the other individual whom I innately fear has done everything but cartwheels to demonstrate her beliefs on the issue. When it comes down to it, I have a psychological need for the unresolved struggle, and that need is greater than my reasoned intelligent thoughts on the matter...
...I will value “book-smarts” (even though the individual who is supposedly book-smart never seems to quote anything interesting from books) over street-smarts at all costs. I will never understand that Reagan was a brilliant man- that he had a type of intelligence that is not measured in standardized tests (designed to confirm and preserve status quo definitions of intelligence)...
;-)
That’s low.
I generally like Dr. K., however he has gone “off the tracks” before.. so caution is warranted.
Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic — purely symbolic move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation...De-escalation begins with a change in mentality. And that change in mentality starts with the symbolic yielding of certain types of weapons. The real steps, like the banning of handguns, will never occur unless this one is taken first, and even then not for decades. (CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER The Washington Post, 5 April 1996)
Now I would have hoped she'd spend the next years getting really deep into policy and becoming an expert the way a lot of other candidates have done as they mature and approach the presidency. She hasn't. She has a political star. She's out there, she's very attractive both politically and ideologically to a large segment of Republicans. But I think if you want to expand your base you have to get into policy even though it sounds dull.
Well our current president managed to get elected with out getting in to policy.
Perhaps all Palin needs to do is study Obama’s campaign of 2008 (and buy a tanning bed).
Krauthammer is usually damn good and has slammed BO and the Socialist Administration, Reid and Pelosi and the endless dumbass mistakes they make.
He’s not a liberal anymore.. he grew up and he’s one of the best panel members on Brett Baeir’s show.
Ol’ Kraut does seem to be losing it lately. He even called this recent tax plan as a “stimulus”.
Whether it was a good deal or not, I think Krauthammer's absolutely right that Obama is much better off politically now than he would have been had it failed. I don't even think that proposition is arguable, at least from a rational perspective.
Well, yes.... but apparently it's no longer acceptable to look at political topics objectively. Much better to judge what people say based on ad hominem or its opposite.
“This “Compromise” had been talked about for weeks before being implemented. Obama was just along for the ride. Giving credit to Obama is the way the Inside The Beltway crowd is framing the discussion.”
—Yep. Obama was not the “savvy chess player” five steps ahead of everybody here- the tax compromise, especially the payroll cut, had Austun Goolsbee’s fingerprints all over it...
POTUS was likely out playing hoops while Goolsbee and others came up with it. Not that the idea was great shakes, but if his original economic team was working on it, it would have been predictably even worse Marxist garbage.
I respect Krauthammer, but he is one of the “blue bloods”.
Try this analogy:
Let’s say Krauthammer had irrefutable evidence that little green men visit the Earth on a regular basis.
There is no scenario imaginable in which he would share that information with anyone for fear his reputation would be tarnished, NO MATTER how ironclad his evidence.
Wow. So you don't need to bother with what he actually says, you have a problem with Krauthammer because he's well-educated and successful.
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with populism.
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