I understand Ed Morrissey’s point, here…
A competent executive would have made examples of a few people long ago as a message to the rest to improve their work. The problem is that we don’t have competent executives in this administration, starting at the top. Obama won legislative achievements in his first term without any operational success, which went unnoticed because either the metrics for success ended up being far too foggy (the 2009 stimulus package), or the delivery dates went too far in the future. The lack of competence is so obvious now that a few firings probably won’t help matters; it will take a house-cleaning now to prop up Obama as an executive.
…but it’s not gonna happen. Bluntly: this administration has never made Doing The Job Right a priority, and it’s too late for them to start now. If Barack Obama had fired people, the Republican party would have seized on it as an admission by the President that he had (gasp!) made a mistake*. This administration has spent the last five years trying to make Barack Obama look like some sort of sacred God-King; perfect, without blemish, no impurities or merely human frailties. There can be no reasonable expectation that the White House is willing, or even capable, of reversing that policy and starting anew.If you’re wondering what the Democrats can do in response to that, given that Barack Obama is now effectively useless to them and they’re right now the one’s on the hook for his absolute disaster of a botched health care policy roll-out**… oh, that’s easy.
They can suffer.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Because it would have actually been an admission by the President that he had made a mistake.
**The website will eventually work. Eventually. Then the fireworks will really start. People don’t like losing their doctors, having their premiums raised, or watching their deductibles skyrocket: wait until they get all three at once.
Gotta ask – are you making an Abrams/Ringo mash-up reference here?
.
http://s189.photobucket.com/user/billthebookguy/media/Image001-1.jpg.html
.
Mew
Probably not.
.
God-King is a very standard term for a certain sort of ruler. The example most certain to be familiar in our pop culture might be the pretty boy from 300, but loads of ancient mid eastern, egyptian, and chinese personages count.
.
Thus why Posleen who speak are called what they are, as Ringo knew Iran, and has some exposure to classics.
.
People have been making the comparison for years, due to the mystical value his followers have counted him as having. Note that a solid grasp of history, human nature, or thermodynamics, in many cases, entirely contradicted said magical assumptions.
.
Given what we now know about Sluggy, the picture has additional amusement factor.
I concur with your analysis, including both the glimpses to Mr. Ringo’s background we’ve seen in the eulogy afterwords from several books and what Pete has recently disclosed about Bun-bun.
.
That said, I’ve been .. surprised .. at some of the sources our intrepid host references, and .. would not be surprised if he’s familiar with this sketch.
.
Mew
Of COURSE I’m familiar with John Ringo’s work. *And* 300, for that matter. 🙂
Obama just doesn’t want to be seen adding to the unemployment.
There is another side of this.
.
Anybody they fire is likely to end up disgruntled.
.
Supposing that the Shobama Tenno was misled by many of his very wicked advisers (Neo Classical Reference?). Hirohito’s cronies were fairly hard core. His people had been working on them for decades, at least since Meiji, and they were very invested in him and his family. The win big scheme was relatively late in the process.
.
In comparison, many of Obama’s followers joined up recently, when times were good, in the middle of the win big scheme. It is very likely that at least some of the are fair weather friends, and are not so committed to Obama.
.
Supposing they really fire someone, and not just shuffle them off to a pension and a reliable private salary. Supposing they do this to many, and then do not fix things by doing so. Are these people more likely to keep mum, or to write a tell all explaining how things were really the fault of the one who fired them?
*cough* Lois Lerner *cough*
.
Mew