What Happened to Obama? Absolutely Nothing.

The Wall Street Journal Opinion ^ | August 13,2011 | NORMAN PODHORETZ

[Hojczyk]

To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass. And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?

And so it came about that a faithful scion of the political culture of the '60s left is now sitting in the White House and doing everything in his power to effect the fundamental transformation of America to which that culture was dedicated and to which he has pledged his own personal allegiance.

I disagree with those of my fellow conservatives who maintain that Mr. Obama is indifferent to "the best interests of the United States" (Thomas Sowell) and is "purposely" out to harm America (Rush Limbaugh). In my opinion, he imagines that he is helping America to repent of its many sins and to become a different and better country.

That is why my own answer to the question, "What Happened to Obama?" is that nothing happened to him. He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president, and it is this rather than inexperience or incompetence or weakness or stupidity that accounts for the richly deserved failure both at home and abroad of the policies stemming from that reprehensible cast of mind.

[ozzymandus]

So this guy says Obama’s behavior is because he learned his worldview from a bunch of 60’s radicals? I really don’t care how he got to be an anti-American leftist, I just know he needs to go away.

[devolve]

[steve8714]

He’s a catcher.

[Travis McGee]

And Michelle pitches hard and fast.

[Hunton Peck]

Yeah, I don’t care why a cockroach invades my house; I just want to crush it and flush it, as quickly as possible.

[aruanan]

I disagree with those of my fellow conservatives who maintain that Mr. Obama is indifferent to "the best interests of the United States" (Thomas Sowell) and is "purposely" out to harm America (Rush Limbaugh). In my opinion, he imagines that he is helping America to repent of its many sins and to become a different and better country.

Oh, Norman, poor Norman. You're conflating categories. Limbaugh is exactly right. Obama is purposely out to hurt the United States as it was constituted. He may claim to love the United States, but that is the United States of his dreams, not the one that actually exists. As Rush says, if you say you're going to fundamentally transform something, it means that it is wholly at fault or else there would be no reason for it to be fundamentally transformed.

Sowell is wrong, Obama is not merely "indifferent" to the best interests of the United States. He is actively opposed to the best interests of the United States. It doesn't matter whether Obama, as Norman says, imagines "he is helping America to repent of its many sins and to become a different and better country." Nut jobs imagine they are driving Satan out of kids when they cook them in the oven.

The point is that, for Obama, America as it exists is fundamentally wrong and has to be changed. Doing that is not in the job description of the office of the chief executive. If Obama believes it is or believes that's the job the tiny fraction of voters who enabled him to win elected him to do, then he's as delusional as the nut-job inserting the oven thermometer into his squirming 4-year-old so he can see when the devil is gone.

[Revolting cat!]

Norman,
Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, Norman,
Norman, my love!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqjluvKXi-k 

[Elendur]

you nailed it.

plenty of evidence that you are correct.
anyone who disagrees with you, denies facts and reality.

and they ARE racists, because they wouldn’t say the same thing, if Ayers or a white Marxist was president.

[devolve]

[livius]

Actually, I think Podhoretz is saying that Obama thinks pretty much the same thing as you are saying he does - America is wrong and it must be changed. And Podhoretz is pointing out that Messiah-complex Bambi thinks he is The One at long last come to do it, the culmination of the leftist dreams of the 60s.

60s leftism was different from what came before: it was much more violent, much more focused on forcible “redistribution” and also focused on using the mob, particularly the black underclass, to advance its goals. Podhoretz is pointing out that Obama is part of this stream of the left, and that he always has been and it has always been visible.

Obama hasn’t changed at all, but for some reason the average (non-violent) liberal and even some RINOs were perfectly willing to see what they wanted to see, the ultimate token semi-black ur-liberal, and simply ignored what he really was, even though it was plain for all to see.

[Clink]

I wonder if the “gentleman” on the right is available for comment, or even available period (as in still alive).

[aruanan]

Actually, I think Podhoretz is saying that Obama thinks pretty much the same thing as you are saying he does - America is wrong and it must be changed. And Podhoretz is pointing out that Messiah-complex Bambi thinks he is The One at long last come to do it, the culmination of the leftist dreams of the 60s.

Then what he says about Rush and Sowell is not true. That's why I said he's mixing categories: The one about the U.S. as it actually exists and being deliberately trashed by Barry for the one Norman thinks Barry imagines he wants to make better.

[okie01]

The point is that, for Obama, America as it exists is fundamentally wrong and has to be changed.

Obama's attitudes toward America are not born of love; they are born of hatred (same goes for Michelle, as in "The first time I've been proud...).

And Obama's model is not some benign Swedish welfare state. It is Hugo Chavez' Venezuela.

Podhoretz is far too soft. On Obama...and his tutors.

[TheOldLady]

Click the Pic!

Don't Make Me Open This Up On Ya!

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[Zebra]

It looks like the smart money has caught on:

Obama Trading Below 50% on Intrade

[Zebra]

Oops Obama Trading Under 50% on Intrade

[Spok]

Will he attempt a sudden rush to the middle to try and salvage four more years of life in the lap of luxury? He will if Michelle has her way.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Limbaugh has also insisted that the bottom line doesn’t really matter. Whether from stupidity or malfeasance is irrelevant. We must reverse the damage with great vigor.

[Stepan12]

Oh, Norman, poor Norman. You're conflating categories. Limbaugh is exactly right.

I think Rush Limbaugh is absolutely correct, too!