Tag: barack obama

I’ve tried, but I can’t make myself believe the Biden rumor.

Basically, the one where Obama told Biden that he’d support Joe’s running if Joe ran for only one term and had Deval Patrick as his running mate. It’s a great rumor – it’d start a three-way bloodbath in the Democratic party, for one thing – but I can’t buy it. The first part essentially screaming Hello, the Democratic party has lost all sense of higher purpose*; the second says Man, you’d think that the Democratic party would have more than two qualified black people to be Vice President. I’m just not feeling the oomph on this one, sorry.

Moe Lane

*Which is true, yet not something you’d think that they’d admit.

Quote of the Day, Yeah, Sure, Barry: Insult A Potential Ally For No Good Reason edition.

It’s almost admirable, this ass-hattery.

Even when hosting the most ideologically sympathetic pontiff in his lifetime (climate change, Cuba), Mr. Obama cannot restrain himself. He cannot be civil and respectful, searching for common ground. No, he must include on the official guest list of those greeting the Pope at the White House, a transgender activist, an openly gay Episcopal bishop, and a nun who supported Obamacare despite its funding of abortion and contraception.

Not to mention, amazing. It’s like Barack Obama wants to never be able to take full advantage of his position. Or something like that. I understand that people think that President Obama will continue to have influence, once he’s no longer President; but I would note that the effective use of power is a skill. And Barack Obama is remarkably unskilled at anything except shutting up, and letting other people do the work.

Let us stop pretending that the Iraq War was the Worst Thing Ever.

(Via Instapundit) This is a pet peeve of mine, and it got triggered by this otherwise not-as-bad-as-it-could-have been article on Obama’s Syria debacle (the NYT prefers the term ‘nightmare’):

American interventionism can have terrible consequences, as the Iraq war has demonstrated. But American non-interventionism can be equally devastating, as Syria illustrates.

Stop. Freeze-frame. Rewind.  Look at those two sentences. Also look at that word ‘equally,’ which means that the author of this piece wants his readers to conclude that there are two separate military situations here, each one of which was, well, equally disastrous. Continue reading Let us stop pretending that the Iraq War was the Worst Thing Ever.

News not-flash: Brass altered intelligence reports on ISIS to appease Barack Obama.

I’ve long held the opinion that this administration, when it wants to be competent in foreign affairs, actively attempts to imitate the last administration. Because – and this will come as a shock to the folks who have been drinking too deeply from the antiwar movement’s poisoned wells – the last administration actually was competent at foreign affairs*. Which would be great, except that this administration doesn’t actually know what the last administration is like – so it imitates the fever-dream version of the Bush administration, and then wonders why things keep turning to crud.

Case in point: “More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.” Although contra the Daily Beast, this situation is not particularly like what happened in 2003. What happened in 2003 was, essentially, that George W. Bush decided to take no chances in trusting the good intentions of an uncontrollable dictator. What’s happening now is that the military cadre that interacts with the Executive Branch is too ready to tell the Executive Branch what it wants to hear, and the Executive Branch is collectively too arrogant – or just too stupid – to realize that this is happening. Continue reading News not-flash: Brass altered intelligence reports on ISIS to appease Barack Obama.

Mt. McKinley: political Cialis for Barack Obama.

I know, I know: I’m supposed to be outraged that Barack Obama is unilaterally changing the name of our tallest mountain from Mt. McKinley back* to Denali. But I can’t. I well and truly can’t.

electile dysfunction barack obama

Electile dysfunction is no joke.

Moe Lane

*I presume. For all we know the actual name was something like That Big-Ass Mountain Over There. Heck, apparently Alaskans themselves want the new name.

White House kind of hints that Joe Biden is running for President.

Let us parse this.

“White House spokesman says Obama’s choice of Biden as VP indicates president’s view of Biden’s capability for presidency.” This, indeed, could be read as “The White House feels that Joe Biden would make a suitable President.” I will even concede that the White House probably would like people to read it as such. However, you could just as easily read it as “The White House admits that it picked Joe Biden for Veep as insurance against somebody shoving Barack Obama out into traffic.”

Seriously, you have to admit: it’s a valid parsing of the sentence. Albeit a highly obnoxious one.  Welcome to politics: here’s your accordion. Continue reading White House kind of hints that Joe Biden is running for President.

Quote of the Day, Hell Is Not Supposed To Be FUN edition.

Oh, sure, there’s the Merry Hell beloved of the old time writers. But Hell’s largely supposed to be a punishment. And what a punishment it would be, to be forced to sit and sup for eternity with Barack Obama, and the people he considers worthy to be graced with his ineffable company:

Trapped in a room with a collection of pompous and entitled people utterly convinced of their brilliance and moral purity, whose conversation ranges from what’s in this month’s Atlantic to what’s in this week’s Economist, who haven’t been told No in years—and then being informed that there is no escape? This, friends, is the vision of hell that greeted me in Monday’s paper: not of other people but of self-important ones, in a well-appointed house with no exit, eating an organic gluten-free farm-to-table meal and endlessly repeating the conventional wisdom as if they were coming to it for the first time. To look at the plans for Obama’s retirement is not just to see that big-dollar fundraising never stops. It is to peek inside the Bobo abyss, to visit the purgatory of the coastal elite—to enter, in horror, the balsamic inferno.

And I like balsamic vinegar.

Quote of the Day, Trolling Level: Master edition.

This is good, solid work:

What Clinton needs most of all is a way out, a means of escape. Before she can recover politically, the legal uncertainty must end. And the only way to end it is a presidential pardon. Clinton’s future isn’t only tied to President Obama’s job approval and economic performance. It’s also tied to his compassion. Obama alone can resuscitate Hillary’s campaign.

It’s the ‘compassion’ part that impresses. It’s that extra attention to detail that distinguishes the master from the journeyman. I despair at ever consistently playing at this level.

Just to establish something: Barack Obama’s successors won’t ask him for help.

Note the plural: it’s not just the next President who will clearly not want to have Barack Obama’s input on foreign affairs.  You see, eventually we’ll elect another Democratic President*, and that one is going to be equally wary of letting the current Democratic President touch the controls with regard to anything.  This is just the way of it: the man simply doesn’t have a reliable track record on this, or indeed any other, policy topic.  So I hope that Barack Obama really enjoys golf, because he’s going to be playing it a lot more…

Moe Lane

*I’m sorry, but that’s the way things work in this country. You cannot assume that state Democrats will keep shoving their genitalia in the garbage disposal forever.  Eventually they will revolt against their bicoastal masters, because the alternative is dying as a national party. Again, this is just the way of it.

Barack Obama plagiarizes the Onion.

Well, I can’t call it ‘Life imitates the Onion,’ now can I? This is just straight-up ripping off. From the Onion, July 14th:

U.S. Soothes Upset Netanyahu With Shipment Of Ballistic Missiles

And from Haaretz, July 15th:

After Iran deal, Obama offers military upgrade to help Israel swallow bitter Iranian deal

In a phone conversation between the two leaders Tuesday, Netanyahu did not respond to the offer, said the official, who requested anonymity.

Continue reading Barack Obama plagiarizes the Onion.