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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Incompetent Mistakes From a Rookie: Gauging the first two months Everybody knows that most newly-inaugurated Presidents get a honeymoon of sorts. The press takes it easy on them. The pundits try to keep their snark in line. And the public generally cuts the new President more slack than the rookie pitcher throwing for the Yankees in his debut outing. For the most part the honeymoon lasts about a hundred days or so. I'm happy to report that we haven't given him the pass others have. Politics doesn't take a day off, and we still dislike this new president. He gets no quarter from us, or from the majority of center-right bloggers out there. (For the record, we'd put John McCain under the same microscope. We are, after all, equal opportunity pundits.) As of the publishing of this column, President Barack Obama will have been in office nearly two months, and we can report that a lot of people just aren't all that impressed with what he's done thus far. We'd like to go over the five biggest moments of incompetence since he took his oath of office. Let us start with the most glaring example of bush league, bumbling thinking on his part. His Cabinet nominations have been anything but stellar, and they certainly are not without their share of controversy. Governor Bill Richardson was nominated to be the Commerce Secretary, and had to withdraw because he is under a federal probe. Timothy Geithner started the tax-cheat mambo in the Cabinet, being the only tax-dodger to gain his appointment. Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer dropped out of contention because of their tax problems. Hilda Solis's appointment was in jeopardy and was nearly derailed thanks to her husband's tax problems, and Ron Kirk is hanging onto his appointment by his fingernails. Why? More tax problems. Joe Biden, on the campaign trail, stated that paying taxes was patriotic. It appears that President Obama's Cabinet secretaries think differently. If we may offer the President a piece of advice? Mr. President, have you ever heard the term "vetting?" If so, could you please do that before you appoint any further secretaries to fill your Cabinet? These mistakes are the mark of a rank amateur. The so-called stimulus package (or as we called it, the "Pork-A-Palooza") was an absolute necessity. the President claimed that if it wasn't passed, and passed quickly, the recession we are in right now might be "irreversible." That's just a stupid statement. No recession this nation has ever had to deal with has been irreversible. We have always come out of them, and that includes the Great Depression which started out as a very deep recession. But let's set that aside for the truly idiotic moment. Remember that he hyped up the absolute need to get this package passed. He spoke of nothing but doom and gloom if Congress didn't pass the stimulus. And every day he talked about how bad the recession was Wall Street responded by dropping like a rock. So, the Congress passes the thing (with three lone Republicans in the Senate voting for it, and no other Republican jumping on board), and what does the President do? Does he sign it immediately? Does he get the thing put on the books so we can begin to recover? No. He takes three days off to celebrate his first legislative victory before signing it. Great message there, Mr. President. Your three day vacation takes precedence over the needs of the nation. How very narcissistic of him. In general, Presidents do not pick fights with pundits because it is seen as low class for a President to call someone out over something they have said or written. President Clinton did this with Rush Limbaugh back in the 1990s, and it did not help him in any way. In fact, it gave more credence to Mr. Limbaugh, and increased his ratings. President Obama has done the exact same thing in attacking Mr. Limbaugh. Mr. Limbaugh has announced on his show that he hopes President Obama fails. We can quibble over the wording, which frankly we have no problem with at all, but a President does himself no favors in going after pundits. The Administration has also called out CNBC correspondents Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer over their comments regarding the stimulus bill, and the planned mortgage bailout proposed by the President. By attacking a pundit, the President demeans himself. Presidents have enough work on their desk, and they do not need to pick public fights with private citizens. When they do this it appears petty to the people and the people look down on them for such antics. Before leaving office President Bush negotiated to install a missile defense system in Poland. The idea behind this was to give Eastern Europe protection against a possible Iranian attack because Iran now has missiles that can strike Eastern Europe. Iran is believed to be working on a nuclear weapons program, and the last thing the world needs is Tehran engaging in nuclear blackmail with Europe. Russia had a temper tantrum over the deal, claiming that the system to be installed was an offensive weapon against them. The President is trying to stall the Iranians from reaching the apex of their goals -- achieving the construction of a nuclear weapon -- and he reached out to Russia for assistance. He offered the Russians a simple deal: help us curb Iran, and we'll pull that pesky missile deal out of Poland. The letter he sent went public, which embarrassed the White House, and Poland wasn't pleased to know it was being tossed under the bus. Add to that the fact that the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, told the President "nyet" on the deal, which doubled the embarrassment to the White House. This was not a smart move, and he should have known better. Russia has a good customer in Iran, and he should have known that they wouldn't go for this deal. What nation is our closest and staunchest ally? If you answered Great Britain, congratulations. You win the prize of the day. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently came to America as the first foreign dignitary to be received by the new President. Such an occasion calls for a joint press conference and a state dinner. President Obama could not find time to do either with Prime Minister Brown. He could barely squeeze him in for a quickie, ten minute meeting. Aides close to the President have tried to spin this snub away on the excuse that the president was "weary" and "tired." That is all well and good, but one does not snub a close ally because they did not get their forty winks the night before. Worse still is that the Prime Minister and his wife brought some very thoughtful gifts for the President, his wife, and their daughters. For the president, he brought a pen set made from the timbers of the HMS President -- sister ship of the HMS Resolute, which the President's desk is crafted from -- and the framed commission for the HMS Resolute. He was also given the classic, seven volume biography of Winston Churchill. President Obama gave, in return, 25 DVDs. Mrs. Brown gave their daughters matching dresses and necklaces. Michelle Obama gave their sons a pair of Marine One models -- $15 dollar trinkets from the White House gift shop -- in return. This was not only insulting to our most important ally, but their inability to understand the gravity of this meeting humiliated the nation. We don't know what is going on with the President, but he's clearly not thinking when it comes to running the nation. These mistakes might be ignored by the mirror-kisser in the White House, but it's not being ignored by the people. What we're seeing is an inexperienced amateur trying to play President. We warned readers before the election that this was the most inexperienced, out-of-his-element candidate that would ever be elected. We can make all the comparisons to Jimmy Carter we want but at least Carter was a Governor; he had executive experience. Hell, he had a record. This President had neither, and still the sheeple voted for him. Actually they voted for his rhetoric. You know what I'm talking about. If you don't, ask Chris "Tingles" Matthews. He'll explain it to you in between orgasms. But the hype of his speeches (all based on teleprompters, mind you) isn't coming close to meeting the expectations that people had for him. These mistakes, missteps, gaffes, what have you are beginning to show the chinks in his armor. He's not the perfect savior that the press claimed he was, and no matter what sort of spin they put on him they can't cover up these screw-ups. They can try but they're failing, and so is he.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: litus (#0)
Excellent article. Obama is out of his depth. He would probably be out of his depth as a city councilman anywhere besides Chicago. I think that requires you to be a crook and con man.
#2. To: James Deffenbach (#1)
He certainly is. I think dog-catcher is beyond is abilities, as well.
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