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Incompetence
Wall Street Journal ^ | 12-17-13 | Peggy Noonan

Posted on 12/18/2013 9:41:48 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic

Everyone is doing thoughtful year-end pieces on President Obama. Writers and reporters agree he’s had his worst year ever. I infer from most of their essays an unstated but broadly held sense of foreboding: There’s no particular reason to believe next year will be better, and in fact signs and indications point to continued trouble.

I would add that in recent weeks I have begun to worry about the basic competency of the administration, its ability to perform the most fundamental duties of executive management. One reason I worry is that I frequently speak with people who interact with the White House, and when I say, “That place just doesn’t seem to work,” they don’t defend it, they offer off-the-record examples of how poorly the government is run. One thing that’s clear this holiday season: New York’s Democrats, to the degree they ever loved the president, don’t love him anymore, and have moved on. They are not thinking about what progress he might make in Washington next year, they’re talking about what Hillary might do the year after that.

My worries came home with a certain freshness after the Mandela memorial, where the United States Secret Service allowed the president of the United States to stand for 19 minutes next to the famous sign-language interpreter who, it was quickly revealed, was not only a fraud but a schizophrenic con man who is now said to have been involved in two deaths. ~snip~ That said, it still looks like very basic negligence, as if no one is keeping enough of an eye on the Secret Service, no one’s checking the quality of the advance or sending emails asking: “Hey, what do we know about the sign language guy—any chance he’s a mentally ill criminal?”

It all looks so lax, so loosey-goosey.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bho44; government; management; miserablefailure; obama; whitehouse
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I’m worried, finally, that lines of traditionally assumed competence are being dropped. The past few weeks I can’t shake from my head this picture: The man with the football—the military aide who carries the U.S. nuclear codes, and who travels with the president—is carrying the wrong code. He’s carrying last month’s code, or the one from December 2012. And there’s a crisis—a series of dots on a radar screen traveling toward the continental U.S.—and the president is alerted. He’s in the holding room at a fundraiser out west ......

Pretty bad when PEGGY NOONAN is worried about basic defense of the country & Obummer screwing it up. Then again, I think Obummer told us all we needed to know about whether he will defend Americans when Benghazi happened .... the answer is "no". Of course Benghazi was 'abroad' ... Peggy is actually worried about the homeland. My, how things have changed (for the worse) since The Won was elected.

21 posted on 12/18/2013 10:10:55 AM PST by MissMagnolia (You see, truth always resides wherever brave men still have ammunition. I pick truth. (John Ransom))
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To: afraidfortherepublic

And how did things get to this point?

1. Dumbass voters,
2. encouraged by dumbass “journalists”,
3. elected a dumbass President,
4. who promoted more dumbasses to positions of power.

Eventually, all that accumulated incompetence & idiocy was going to have some consequences. We’re seeing it now.


22 posted on 12/18/2013 10:11:51 AM PST by canuck_conservative
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I think Jimmy Carter was an incompetent president who was in way over his head. 0bama is an evil person who hates America and is doing a damn good job of destroying our country and our liberty.


23 posted on 12/18/2013 10:12:50 AM PST by forgotten man
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To: afraidfortherepublic

25th Amendment time? Section 4?

Biden becomes President, Hillary gets approved as VP.

Obozo is used up and may have no further value to his handlers. He is more and more of a negative, a burden, rather a plus for them.

Podesta joining the White Hut is a big deal. His Center for American Progress is a Soros funded entity.

Sounds like the Clintons will be cashing in some chips soon.


24 posted on 12/18/2013 10:14:36 AM PST by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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To: Psalm 73

Her essays are just one continuous sigh.


25 posted on 12/18/2013 10:16:20 AM PST by randita
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To: Steve_Seattle

Good point but I’m reminded of the AIC (agent in charge) in Dallas the night of November 21, 1963 being interrogated about “where were your agents that night?!

The answer we learned later was that a lot of them were in bars drunk.

The SS likes to brag they are a much more professional organization now.

Letting an alledged killer and madman stand next to the president while he is fake signing renders their claim about “professionalism” dubious at best.

Some of us think it is just another example of how ANY civilian government agency, shot through with political correctness and affirmative action policies, can EVER MANAGE OR RUN ANYTHING.

Turn protection of the President over to the Navy Seals anyone?


26 posted on 12/18/2013 10:19:27 AM PST by Cen-Tejas (it's the debt bomb stupid!)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
I have a question for Anita Dunn. You know the one who is so in love with communist china.

Question: if this were the regime in China, what would happen to Secretary Sebelius? Would she not, at this point, be lying in a ditch with a bullet in her head?

China executed its former top food and drug regulator today...this was July 11, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/business/worldbusiness/11execute-web.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

27 posted on 12/18/2013 10:21:51 AM PST by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: rktman
But, but, but. What about “colon” powell? LOL! Socially promoted general? Me thinks yes.

It wouldn't surprise me if Powell were brought in next year to serve as another adviser to TOTUS.

28 posted on 12/18/2013 10:24:56 AM PST by Night Hides Not (For every Ted Cruz we send to DC, I can endure 2-3 "unviable" candidates that beat incumbents.)
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To: Hojczyk

“Look at what OBAMA did before becoming president..Nothing”.

If only he had stuck to what he did best.


29 posted on 12/18/2013 10:32:30 AM PST by haroldeveryman
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I disagree with this being a bad year for Obama. In fact. I say it has been a fantastic year for Obama.

In this year he has single handedly taken ALL federal government power in to the executive branch. He has solidified his army of welfare recipients, unions, blacks, and federal workers. He has purged the military of any general officers that will refuse unconstitutional orders. Soon he will have 100% of control of the federal judiciary. Congress has been rendered completely powerless and useless. He has destroyed the US medical industry. He has taken control of nearly all means of production. He has gotten every single thing he wanted and was practically given to him by Boehner and McConnel.

How anyone can say this has been a bad year for Obama isn’t paying attention. I am not saying it is a good thing for us or the country but it certainly hasn’t been bad for Obama.


30 posted on 12/18/2013 10:34:06 AM PST by Organic Panic
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To: Da Coyote

The only thing more idiotic than the Obama regime is the people that voted for him.


31 posted on 12/18/2013 10:36:29 AM PST by Bullish (America should yank Obama like a rotten tooth before he poisons the entire body)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
WSJ doesn't have comments turned on but Instapundit does. Peggy's getting flayed - deservedly - for her stupidity.
32 posted on 12/18/2013 10:41:06 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes everything)
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To: randita

I find her hand wringing, ‘more in sorrow than in anger’ tone repellent. Total fail as a pundit.


33 posted on 12/18/2013 10:44:41 AM PST by pluvmantelo (Vanities don't belong in the news/activism forum!)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Democrats love to be thought of as incompetent. It is their last straw excuse when they’ve been caught doing something illegal or corrupt.


34 posted on 12/18/2013 10:47:28 AM PST by Inwoodian
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To: nascarnation

They helped get Obama elected. Now they want to make money by pointing out what we knew before the election???

Sheesh.


35 posted on 12/18/2013 10:47:42 AM PST by SC_Pete
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To: Da Coyote
Face it, libs, YOUR president is a quota baby.

That's what they really cared about anyway.... Sticking it to whitey.

Liberalism is a mental illness that won't let reality break the delusion.

36 posted on 12/18/2013 10:50:49 AM PST by Bullish (America should yank Obama like a rotten tooth before he poisons the entire body)
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To: exit82

Ooh, I think you’re onto something. I just don’t see how Obama can complete his second term. It makes sense for the Democrats to get him out of the way well before the 2016 election


37 posted on 12/18/2013 10:51:14 AM PST by be-baw (still seeking)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

The administration is most certainly NOT incompetent; they’re doing their level best to destroy the United States, and they’re succeeding quite well, thank you.


38 posted on 12/18/2013 10:52:14 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: afraidfortherepublic

There was Hope and Change,,,
Now we are Leaning Forward . . .
ouch


39 posted on 12/18/2013 10:58:03 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Obozo was so impressed with the incompetent government in South Africa that he's accelerated his plan to bring it here.

Informed sources tell me that he has recruited the unvetted criminal moron the SA Government hired to sign at the Mandella funeral to run the FAA due to the fellow's repeated impressive and creative use of his hand to portray a crashing airliner.

In addition to this idiot “interpreter's” appealing incompetence, did I mention his PRIMARY qualification? He's BLACK!!

And these dorks call US racist!

Enjoy your next flight!!!


40 posted on 12/18/2013 10:59:02 AM PST by Dick Bachert (CONGRESS: GROW A PAIR! IMPEACH THE USURPER!!)
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