Bamster bailing out?
November 21, 2009
In a CNN interview in China, Obama suggested he may sit out the election in 2012 a la Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
“You know, if – if I feel like I’ve made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we’ve gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I’m in a tough spot, I’ll – I’ll feel all right about myself,” Obama told CNN’s Ed Henry.
“I said to myself very early on, even when I started running for office, I don’t want to be making decisions based on getting re-elected, because I think the challenges that America faces right now are so significant,” the president also said.
“Obviously, if I make those decisions and I think that I’m moving the country on the right direction economically, in terms of our security interests, our foreign policy, I’d like to think that those policies are continued because they’re not going to bear fruit just in four years.”
I am not going to beat him up for doing what he believes is right. Governing in a constitutional republic is not always about pleasing the majority. Protection of the rights and liberties of minorities are important as well. I would be thrilled if Americans elected a conservative who immediately set about dismantling the welfare state, reducing the scope of government and restoring individual responsibility to the citizenry. Surely leadership that took this tack would be at risk during the next election cycle. Still, they would have my support. Doing the will of the majority is not always in the interest of the republic.
It is Obama’s whining that bugs me. Why is he even discussing the possibility of not running at this point? Just a year ago his rhetoric was hope, change and reconciliation. He was going to return civility to government, create bipartisanship and actually create a new way of governing. The “slash and burn” politics of the past would come to an end and he would bring the country together in a new era of partnership. Of course we knew then and it is obvious now that it was bullshit. It is, however, amusing that the man who ran a campaign on how he would unite the country under his leadership is, a year in, contemplating not even running again.
Jim :
Date: November 21, 2009
Well, the next time some liberal with PDS pops off about Palin ‘quitting’ as governor of Alaska, this bit can be thrown out to end the PDS rantings.
The other part of this which doesn’t surprise me but should be concerning is the possibility of Obama having a breakdown. We saw a glimpse of that for the first two weeks after McCain had picked Palin as VP. Obama and his campaign were reeling and you could visibly see the cracks in Obama. That was merely over of campaign, what happens during a real international or financial crisis…
Via Spengler at First Things.
“The President, in this view, consciously sees himself as an outsider who has become the leader of an alien tribe, rather like Eugene O’Neill’s Brutus Jones or Kipling’s Peachy Carnahan—except that Obama leads the world’s only superpower rather than a primitive tribe. He demands personal control over the reins of power, for as an outsider he can trust no-one—surely not David Axelrod or Rahm Emanuel. That is why he has no real cabinet, but rather a set of “policy czars” who reported to him directly. That is also why he runs foreign policy out of his vest pocket through his own special ambassadors (George Mitchell, Dennis Ross and Richard Holbrooke), rather than through the usual mechanism of State Department and National Security Council.
Narcissism is one possible explanation for Obama’s insistence on the spotlight. Another explanation (and in my view a better one) is that he must do everything himself, because there is no-one to whom he can entrust his project, namely to build down American influence wherever he can. He does not believe that America should act like a superpower. As he told the United Nations Sept. 23, “In an era when our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero-sum game. No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold.”
He also needs to appear without respite before the television cameras to prove to himself that the enchantment of his voice remains potent. At some point—and this point already may have been reached—he will cease to convince. Un- and underemployment affect a fifth of the American workforce.
Unprecedented peacetime monetization of debt has weakened the US dollar to the point of real danger. A federal deficit at an astonishing 12% of GDP rules out further economic stimulus and probably will kill his health care proposal, whatever it turns out to be. His foreign policy is in ruins, and Afghanistan promises to be a running sore for his administration.
At some point, if my analysis holds water, we should see behavior from Obama consistent with the other side of antisocial personality disorder. Again, from DSM-IV: “Impulsiveness is often present, including angry outbursts, failure to consider consequences of behaviors, irritability, and/or physical assaults.”
As things go badly wrong and adulation turns into antagonism, we may see a very different side of Obama than he has succeeded in presenting to the public during the past two years.”
Grant :
Date: November 21, 2009
Ozero knows he only has one term to destroy America. That’s why he’s pushing socialized medicine for all its worth now. He knows that after the 2010 elections, his window of opportunity will have closed. Although, he will have four full years to run interference for his “Muslim brothers” like Hasan. His mission is to “fundamentally remake” America, not win reelection. We don’t have much time to stop this bastard.
Roy Ryder :
Date: November 21, 2009
Cap’n'Tax is dead in the water. Obamacare is struggling at best. The actual requirements of governing are beyond him. Between the crushing blows to his policy initiatives, the plainly visible failures on the foreign front, and the ultimate rejection that will come in 2012, he will be forced to confront himself in the mirror and (like us) won’t like what he sees. He will either slip further into his narcisim or dip into a funk that makes his current failure of leadership look like Churchill.
Tatersalad :
Date: November 22, 2009
Obama is going to cram as must BS, Marxism, socialism down our throats in the shortest amount of time possible before the 2010 elections as stated by Grant above. By then, the U.S. will then be called The United Socialist States of America or even worse, The Soviet States of America.
Tatersalad :
Date: November 22, 2009
Is he laying the frameowrk to change the Constitution for multiple terms as a President….”Like his buddy down in Venezuela has done”???? ……………Only if he gets enough Americans on “entitlement programs” and then he can “buy their votes” as socialism always does.
A mom :
Date: November 22, 2009
Why should we believe him when he says this? He NEVER tells the truth! It’s always, “Listen to me say this”, while behind his back he’s DOING the exact opposite.
So I think he’s lying here, too. That’s what makes me think Tatersalad (love the name) is closest to the truth. Obama is trying to sound so noble, so selfless. In the meantime, he’s doing everything he can to rig the election, the Census, ACORN, and all the machinery in order to lock up
the next election.
I hate to wander off the reservation into paranoid territory, but honestly, given everything he’s already done (who could have believed all this crap a year ago?) can we really be so sure he’s not trying to pull a Chavez on us?