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Our Petulant and Inept President
Commentary Magazine ^ | July 25, 2011 | Peter Wehner

Posted on 07/25/2011 1:28:32 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The negotiations about raising the debt ceiling remain extremely fluid, and it’s still too early to draw any definitive conclusions at this stage. But just a week away from the August 2 deadline, a few things do seem clear.

The first is the president’s angry and narcissistic press conference on Friday badly damaged the president, even with those, like David Brooks, who have been sympathetic to Obama’s substantive position.

It’s been clear to some of us for a while that Barack Obama is a man of uncommon self-admiration, quite thin-skinned, and increasingly consumed by his grievances. Obama has masked these traits pretty well so far, but on Friday his mask slipped more than it ever has. And that is bound to hurt him.

Second, Democrats on Capitol Hill are rapidly losing confidence in the president’s competence as a negotiator. Obama’s conduct during the debt ceiling negotiations – from his flip-flops to his irrelevant deadlines to his backtracking on his agreements with various parties – has been so erratic and uneven that his own party has decided the best hope of reaching an agreement is to sideline him.

And third, conservatives in the House, by holding firm rather than folding, have succeeded in shifting the debate away from tax increases, “grand bargains,” and Gang of Six compromises to spending cuts in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. How serious those spending cuts are remains to be determined, and there will be enormous pressure for Republicans to agree to Potemkin Village budget cuts, including from GOP appropriators. That pressure needs to be resisted. The cuts Republicans must agree to have to be real.

But there’s little question that so far at least, this whole messy debt ceiling episode has not helped President Obama politically (his approval ratings continue to slide). That may be one reason why he is instructing Majority Leader Reid to push for a deal that moves the next debt ceiling debate to after the 2012 election.

The president and his team entered these negotiations believing he could strike a grand bargain that would allow him to present himself as a born-again budget cutter, as fiscally responsible, as a Man of the Center. And in the process, he kept instructing us, he would emerge as the only adult in the room. At this juncture, it looks like Obama is the most adolescent, even childish, figure in the negotiations – a petulant man who also happens to be an inept negotiator.

This isn’t what the president and his supporters expected. But of course, that could be said for his entire presidency. Barack Obama, we were told by not a few liberals, would be America’s next Lincoln or FDR. It turns out with every passing day, he more and more resembles James Earl Carter . This is very bad news for our nation and very bad news for the Democratic Party.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: congress; debtceiling; democrats; obama
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To: forgotten man

That was an incredibly screwy remark - like verbal dyslexia or something.

Great speaker - HOGWASH. Great reader - maybe.


21 posted on 07/25/2011 1:56:01 PM PDT by Aria ( "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.")
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To: econjack
He doesn't have to imagine how dumb most Americans are. MOST voted for Obamalamadingdong. That not only proves how dumb the electorate is but at least 85% or more of those same people will vote for him again. That, my friend, is the absolute proof that the blind wish to remain blind. There are more career Democrats than there are career Republicans in every strata of the population. You'd think the lower 20% would not vote DemocRat, since there station never seems to improve with the Dems. And you'd think the upper 20% would see the Democrats as desirous of their money. BUT the idiots in the lower strata, believe the lies and the upper strata, that is home to the biggest contributors of DemocRat candidates know they will be protected and the Republicans will be blamed.
22 posted on 07/25/2011 1:57:24 PM PDT by cashless (Unlike Obama and his supporters, I'd rather be a TEA BAGGER thaln a TEA BAGGEE.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

IMHO anyone who is reading mkre than just the headlines and listening to what is being said and done knows that Obama is in way over his head.He looks like an impatient teenager who’s just been told he can’t have the car tonight.The only thingg lacking is the slamming of doors and if this goes on a few mone days we may just get a few of those.


23 posted on 07/25/2011 2:08:47 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

IMHO anyone who is reading more than just the headlines and listening to what is being said and done knows that Obama is in way over his head.He looks like an impatient teenager who’s just been told he can’t have the car tonight.The only thingg lacking is the slamming of doors and if this goes on a few mone days we may just get a few of those.


24 posted on 07/25/2011 2:09:10 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

F U B O


25 posted on 07/25/2011 2:20:05 PM PDT by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways a Guero y Guay Lao >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona.....)
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To: Scotswife

When does the media pay/promote someone for telling the truth?


26 posted on 07/25/2011 2:36:10 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Friday I was waiting for him to pull the Brass Balls out of his Pocket and to start talking about who ate the Strawberries


27 posted on 07/25/2011 2:47:31 PM PDT by ballplayer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ain’t that the truth. He’s so over his head it’s frightening and he’s to egotistical to even realize it. Here we are at the worst possible place in our history and an egotistical, narcissist with absolutely nothing of worth on his resume is in charge and is the most powerful man in the world.


28 posted on 07/25/2011 2:47:36 PM PDT by MsLady (Be the kind of woman that when you get up in the morning, the devil says, "Oh crap, she's UP !!")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The media and their Hollywood liberal friends elevated this wet-behind-the-ears Senator (who happens to be a cool black guy) to celebrity status, then it was easy to elect him President. The drawback to having a celebrity for a President is that you have a celebrity for President. It’s obvious that he has no idea what he is doing, but what is worse is that years of having everything handed to him on a silver-plated affirmative action platter has made him arrogant and petulant when he doesn’t get his way. Any honorable person would have found a polite way to decline an unearned Nobel Peace Prize, but not Mr. B. Hussein Obama. That is a damning condemnation of his character. And yet a significant sector of the voting public still think he is a deity.


29 posted on 07/25/2011 3:01:53 PM PDT by Apparatchik (If you find yourself in a confusing situation, simply laugh knowingly and walk away - Jim Ignatowski)
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To: ballplayer

LOL good one.
But I wouldn’t expect brass balls from B-hole, maybe ping pong or nerf. I think the Cheeseburger Moose holds the brass in that house.


30 posted on 07/25/2011 3:06:48 PM PDT by vwbug
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To: The_Media_never_lie

good point!


31 posted on 07/25/2011 3:09:25 PM PDT by Scotswife
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He is a leftist street punk,Nothing more.


32 posted on 07/25/2011 3:25:04 PM PDT by Cheetahcat ( November 4 2008 ,A date that will live in Infamy.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

33 posted on 07/25/2011 3:48:17 PM PDT by 4Liberty (88% of Americans are NON-UNION. We value honest, peaceful Free trade-NOT protectionist CARTELS)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is a Vegas-style wedding but the bad news is the divorce is four years off.


34 posted on 07/25/2011 5:00:16 PM PDT by jmacusa (Political correctness is cultural Marxism. I'm not a Marxist.)
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To: Apparatchik

“His character’’? The man is utterly without any.


35 posted on 07/25/2011 5:06:17 PM PDT by jmacusa (Political correctness is cultural Marxism. I'm not a Marxist.)
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To: ken21

“comrade obama was a street organizer.”

comrade obama is a sissified street punk.


36 posted on 07/25/2011 6:03:43 PM PDT by jivin gene (Breakin' up is hard to do)
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