June 2, 2010

The "story line" of Obama's presidency is "passivity, detachment, acquiescence and compromise" — says Maureen Dowd.

She wants him to "seize control of the story line." Hard to do that if you really are passive and detached.

Here's an exploration into Obama's attempt to demonstrate how focused and resolute he is:

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The Spilling Fields
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53 comments:

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

She forgot incompetence.

Meade said...

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate. And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right. Gird your loins. We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It's like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy. I've forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I'm not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it. This guy has it. But he's gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us. There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision'. Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound. You literally can see what these kids are up against, our kids in that region. The place is crawling with al Qaeda. And it's real. We do not have the military capacity, nor have we ever, quite frankly, in the last 20 years, to dictate outcomes. It's so much more important than that. It's so much more complicated than that. And Barack gets it. I probably shouldn't have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here. All kidding aside, these guys have left us in a God-awful place. We have the ability to straighten it out. It's gonna take a little bit of time, so I ask you to stay with us. Stay with us."

Unknown said...

Dowd is assuming she knows Obama's story line. I think his story line is not the traditional one of elections and party spoils and popularity. He is transforming the country by installing apparatchiks and regulations that will change the way America works for generations, long after he decamps to Hyde Park and the globe. He is succeeding in his own story line; has succeeded.

Mick said...

No, the story line is that he is a Non Allegiant, Non Natural Born Citizen (born a British subject due to Obama Sr's Kenyan citizenship)installed by NWO Socialists and Bankers. His job is to put the final touches on the destruction of the Constitution and US Citizen sovereignty.

Bender said...

Can we please get past the lie that the presidency of President Boot on the Throat of (take your pick of countless enemies) is one of passivity, detachment, and compromise?

Is Dowd really that blind as to not see this is a presidency of little more than engaged thuggery and demonization?

GMay said...

Compromise? Channeling my inner Inigo Montoya here.

Ricardo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fred4Pres said...

Say what you will about Dowd, she does not like Beta Males. She wants to be with the Alpha, and she smells weakness in the pack.

Anonymous said...

BP should be nationalized, and all of its assets used to repair the damage it has created. If BP goes under, it goes under. That's free enterprise.

A definition which does much to explain how Ricardo is able to blame everything bad that happens on "the marketplace".

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ricardo:
I don't agree. The marketplace wouldn't have pushed these oil companies so far out to sea to drill fro oil. It was libruls who did that.


wv= sucennit hahhaa

Anonymous said...

"...he’d better seize control of the story line of his White House years."

BO is good at story lines. In fact, he is great with stories. It's engineering, military, and financial problems he can't deal with.

Hoosier Daddy said...

You Republicans are so funny. You scream and yell about private enterprise, and how the marketplace will regulate itself, and should be kept free from all government interference.

Regulations can be a good thing but there is such a thing as over-regulation. The key is finding a happy medium between common sense regulation and complete statism.
Problem with liberals is finding one who has common sense.

X said...

BP should be nationalized

I wouldn't be surprised if the Brish did nationalize it to grant it sovereign immunity.

Hoosier Daddy said...

BP has created the worst terrorist incident against the United States that we have yet seen.

As I said, no common sense.

Rialby said...

Meade, I see that and raise you:

“As I heard it, my chances of surviving the surgery were certainly better than fifty-fifty,” he wrote. “But the chances of waking up with serious deficits to my mental faculties were more significant.”

Triangle Man said...

The marketplace wouldn't have pushed these oil companies so far out to sea to drill fro oil. It was libruls who did that.

Gonna need a link on this one, otherwise I'm going with geology is the reason they are drilling deep.

GMay said...

Ricardo, clearly unhinged, says: "A bunch of stuff he clearly didn't think about before he posted."

Remember that Obama said the Oil spill was the Federal gubmint's problem from day one? (You know, Obama...the President...Democrat guy.) Right after he thought the top kill worked? Then when it became apparent that it didn't, he went right back to pointing fingers at BP? Or maybe you just haven't been paying attention.

Terrorist incident? Wow.

BP should be nationalized and then allowed to fail? Clearly someone hasn't been paying attention to the nationalization of large corporations of late.

Enron? Do we want to start looking at who all was involved with that? Wanna play "Where are they now?"

So let's see what we have here:

Incoherent swipe at Republicans? Check.

Mangling the English language? Check.

Fundamental misunderstanding of basic government and economics? Check.

Yup, average libtard troll.

Rialby said...

But seriously. How is it passive and detached to push for the government to take over the healthcare system, the student loans system, 60% of GM, AIG, etc. etc.?

Is it because those are proactive, socialist moves by the POTUS? Things that the Left had long wished for and had assumed were slam dunks?

I guess she's writing specifically about his utter inability to REACT to external forces. Perhaps because that's the m.o. of the Left as well? I don't know.

Salamandyr said...

How is it the US is going to nationalize a British corporation anyway?

vnjagvet said...

Those raving Republicans John Stewart and Maureen Dowd have it all wrong. "Yeah that's the ticket" comes immediately to my mind with due credit to John Lovitz.

kent said...

... and, in the meantime, the pedigreed brain trust of President Present is seeking sage counsel, re: how to handle the BP oil spill, from...

(waaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiit for it)

... James Cameron.

From Obamessiah Annointed to, literally, Beyond All Possible Hope of Effective Satirization... in a mere eighteen months.

Yikes.

Anonymous said...

She wants him to "seize control of the story line."

Well, sure. What else is left?

Hoosier Daddy said...

Yikes.

Not to worry until Jessica Lange, John Couger Mellencap or Bruce Springsteen are called to testify before the Senate.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Is this the newest genre of political opinion columns? I would call it the "What If" genre and it is used to discuss and analyze why and how the Obama admin failed.

What if the Obama presidency had not been doomed by Bush? What if the laws of economics could be repealed? What if Obama had not been outshouted by asmall number of knuckle-dragging small govt loving neanderthals? What if the American people had been smarter? What if Obama's brilliant team of Rivals had truly been brilliant?

Scott said...

BP's PACs gave Obama nearly $1 million in campaign contributions. I wonder if they're getting their money's worth?

Obama's passivity makes him a lot like Bashar al-Assad. The political machine installed him, but he doesn't have a vision, so he's enjoying the perks and doing as little as he can get away with. (Barry O. has played more golf in his first year than Bush 43 played in eight.)

William said...

While documenting his Job like tribulations, Dowd takes notice of the fact that one of the SUV's in his motorcade blew a tire. A tad grandiose that. Flat tires are not afflictions of Biblical proportions.....Nature and circumstances were supposed to conspire to augment this man's grandeur. It is a horrible injustice to impose a flat tire on this man. This man should be occupied with the business of remaking America in his image--moderate, post-racial, transcendent of all the dark forces of history. It is not the destiny of Obama to fret about oil spills and flat tires. He has a larger purpose. If we let the oil spill subvert him from his grand goals, that will be the greater tragedy.

bagoh20 said...

Present!

And while I'm here, let me take this opportunity to point out some entities for you hate over there, no not here, over there. Them bad, me cool. Hope. Change.

Leadership.

bagoh20 said...

I remember Democrats lamenting that 9/11 happened on Bush's watch and thereby robbed Clinton of the chance to demonstrate his greatness in dealing with it.

But this enemy now is a slippery one.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Obama

He.Just.Doesn't.Care.About.You.

Anonymous said...

May we now draw up the articles of impeachment?

SteveR said...

Triangle Man: I don't have time to prove the sun rises in the east with a link, but its more than evident that regulations, not geology, are the reasons so much deepwater drilling is done instead of in places where the costs and risks are lower.

Start with ANWR, shallow off shore Santa Barbara, California, Otero Mesa NM, etc. etc. places you are restricted or prohibited from drilling.

traditionalguy said...

This Dowd approach reminds me of the Marriage Counselor story that says the counselor (Dowd) is advising that the spouse (moderate voters) get their needs met elsewhere.

Drew said...

Compromise? Is Obama able to compromise? He's arrogant, hard-headed, aloof, and incompetent.

The Crack Emcee said...

"BP has created the worst terrorist incident against the United States that we have yet seen."

Bullshit - BP was drilling that far out, and that far down, because liberals have refused to allow drilling anywhere else.

The lies, and delusions, never stop.

Phil 314 said...

Well now have had the fourth cabinet member (Holder) join the fray, this time with shaking fist declaring someone's gonna pay for this!!!

11 to go.

AlphaLiberal said...

The "storyline" or "narrative" written up by The Villager pundits is so often very divorced from reality.

Facts don't matter to them, they value their narrative much more. Like a bunch of middle school gossips.

chickelit said...

I think Maureen Dowd is a spent force. She's the one who asked why we can't we just send in a couple undercover guys and take out bin Laden.

Legacy Opinion. Why should we care?

bagoh20 said...

"someone's gonna pay for this!!!"

And we know who that will be. The public pays for everything, but the political and chattering classes are always telling us that someone else will under a policy, regulation or tax.

All costs are passed on, except people at the bottom of the pyramid have no one to pass it on to. This is always the case for all costs in all things. This is why small government benefits those at the bottom most, while empowering everyone but the politician.

The costs to BP will be paid by their customers and stockholders who will pass that cost through less hiring and purchasing which spreads it all around to the rest of us. This happens no matter what is done by government. Costs to the government are likewise passed on. Arguing about who will pay for this is just theater.

Likewise, prosperity and growth is passed on. Whenever we think we are punishing someone we are shooting ourselves in the foot, and when we think we are working hard to make ourselves rich, we are helping our neighbors, coworkers, everyone.

Unknown said...

Bag has it on the money. Simply put, MoDo is complaining that The Zero is voting present.

It took her this long to figure it out?

PS The marketplace usually cleans up its own mess. When the Feds stick their nose in the marketplace (subprime mortgages, drilling rules to please the enviro-nuts, etc.), that's when you have the truly sterling messes.

Lost in the finger-pointing is the reality that, if this had happened closer inland, it would have been capped and cleaned up by now.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Meade,
"it's not gonna be apparent that we're right. "

Biden was certainly right on target with that line, at least.

Blue@9 said...

Meh, MoDo has never really liked Obama. Besides, she's a hacktastic fool, a terrible writer and an ugly person masquerading in the spent body of a woman whose face may once have been beautiful. She may be the least effective writer for any major publication today.

However, I did find Stewart's piece pretty funny. He, unlike MoDo, is probably the best at what he does today. Way better than that fatuous gasbag Maher and that other guy, Colbert, whose schtick has just gotten way old, way fast.

Unknown said...

If anyone has a link that proves Triangle Man wrong, I would like to see it. Because I can't find one.

"Mr. Leuffer, the Bear, Stearns analyst, said the Mars project would bring twice the oil for about the same investment, making it a very attractive venture for Shell. He added that it could encourage other companies, notably Amoco, which have found oil in deep water in the gulf, to begin to extract it. And Mr. Leuffer said that British Petroleum, which has a 28.5 percent interest in the Shell project, would benefit, too." - The Deepest Dive Yet For Gulf of Mexico Oil, 1993

"Today's almost singular focus on deepwater drilling has placed the Gulf of Mexico firmly in the spotlight, accounting for almost 90% of the US Gulf's discovery prospects - and with good reason." - Gulf of Mexico study links deep basement structures to oil fields, 2000

"The easy oil has all been found. The next stage of exploration will be more complex. - Finding Oil Under Salt, 2004

Fen said...

Libtard: BP has created the worst terrorist incident

*snicker*

And please learn the difference between limited gov and no gov.

Fen said...

The only reason Obama gives a damn about the oil spill is that it gives him another scapegoat to ride.

Scott said...

@Almost Ali:

"May we now draw up the articles of impeachment?"

I was thinking about that too. Maybe there are enough on the far left and far right in the House to form a coalition to do this.

This won't happen, though.

(a) Barry O. is a big fat Election Day gift to the Republicans. No way would they ever consider taking him out of office, at least before November. (b) The Senate would never convict him. It's the world's most exclusive men's club, and he's one of them.

garage mahal said...

Obama

He.Just.Doesn't.Care.About.You.


Just leave me alone! I'm a tough rugged independent. I don't need your help or sympathy!

Give me a hug! Talk to me! CALL!!!!!

AC245 said...

The "storyline" or "narrative" written up by The Villager pundits is so often very divorced from reality.

Facts don't matter to them, they value their narrative much more. Like a bunch of middle school gossips.


I think they're still calling themselves Journolist these days.

Ray said...

Gonna need a link on this one, otherwise I'm going with geology is the reason they are drilling deep.

I guaran-damn-tee that a spill in ANWR wouldn't have been this much trouble.

michaele said...

The last segment of the Jon Stewart clip made me realize that Obama seems much more suited to the role of a British Royal rather than President of the United States.

Ralph L said...

The marketplace wouldn't have pushed these oil companies so far out to sea to drill fro oil.
Honestly, can't black people just use Wesson?

Opus One Media said...

Mick said...
"No, the story line is that he is a Non Allegiant, Non Natural Born Citizen (born a British subject due to Obama Sr's Kenyan citizenship)installed by NWO Socialists and Bankers. His job is to put the final touches on the destruction of the Constitution and US Citizen sovereignty."

I must say Ann, the quality of posters this blog has attracted over the past few years has certainly gone downhill.

Remember the good old days of Simon et al?

Opus One Media said...

@Meade said...
"Mark my words...."

Well they aren't your words and it is always good to know where you get your words don't you think?

I'll see if I can find some words on the prior president "Mark my words, in 6 months the world will test this cypher and he will be reading a kids book to some third graders and not grasp what just happened to the nation because he is still trying to figure out the plot of My Pet Goat."

Mick said...

HDHouse said,

"I must say Ann, the quality of posters this blog has attracted over the past few years has certainly gone downhill."


So prove me wrong. Where does it say that anyone born in the US w/o regard to parentage is a Natural Born Citizen, eligible to be POTUS?
Many have tried, no one has.