Imagine if you had said this to a lefty activist back in those happy days of January 2009: "By the end of 2010, President Obama will have escalated the war in Afghanistan, there will be 50,000 American troops in Iraq, Guantanamo will remain open, some of the most controversial aspects of the Bush war on terror will still be in effect, there will be no grand climate legislation, no comprehensive immigration reform, no second round of stimulus, and oh, by the way -- they're going to extend Bush's tax cuts for the rich."
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2010/12/dems-funk-obama-charts-new-course#ixzz173pEAvqB
If he were competent, he'd have been much worse.
Yes, he got the health care bill signed--its fate is still a "to be determined".
I think it's unfair to blame Obama for his failure. Although there's not a lefty living who'd agree with me the tide's turned against them and did so quite a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that Obama's a less competent lefty then those who preceded him, it's that the tide is now running much more strongly against him.
Darren
ReplyDeleteI just finished Woodward’s Obama’s Wars and for a man who likes and supports B Hussein Obama, it’s not a very flattering picture of the Administration higher staff.
Specific examples:
- Rham Deadfish Emanuel was using the president’s name almost constantly to get things done, e.g. “The president wants this … “ and “ Obama needs this…” it was so bad Gen Jim Jones, National Security Advisor had a direct discussion with him and said “You need to assert your own authority…you can’t just use your bosses”
- Obama’s long decision on the Afghan surge…he was adamant about 30k and he would authorize an additional 3k if needed. When SECDEF, Petraeus et all asked some questions about support troops Obama got unsure of himself and demanded a memo “we’d all sign off on”. At first they were thinking he wanted a contract but he wanted a memo. So what does he do? The Sunday before the troop announcement he spent seven hours drafting a six page single spaced memo that he handed out to all the critical staff. Talk about showing a lack of personal authority on the president and Petraeus was astonished Obama did this himself, “President’s have staff for this stuff…” A little sympathy for the devil, if Obama had a competent Chief of Staff Emanuel would have taken this and said “Mr President, we’ll handle this…you go play golf.
I’ve often written about his lack of competence and it’s scary to think about what he could have done if he was qualified to run the night shift of a McDonald’s.