Tag: obama

Obama avoids saying ‘genocide’ in Turkey*.

(H/T: Dan Riehl) With regard to President Obama’s decision to not confront the Armenian Genocide question while in Turkey – as noted here from someone on the scene, he specifically avoided using the word genocide – it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that he didn’t keep that particular campaign promise (“America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that President.”).  Politician, lying, lips moving, etc. etc. etc.  Besides, I saw this coming last month.

What should be the focus now is what Congress plans to do about it.  Rep. Mark Kirk (R, IL) is still hopeful that his resolution recognizing the Genocide – which he’s worked on with Rep. Adam Schiff (D, CA), Rep. George Radanovich (R, CA) and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D, NJ) will make it to the floor of the House, but that’s up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA)… who has been noticeably silent on this issue in this Congress.  One would have to be a terrible human being to suggest that this is because there’s no convenient scapegoat this time around…

Moe Lane

*I’d be sympathetic to the problem he’s got with this, except that he shot off his mouth a lot on the subject last year, and the man needs to learn that people pay attention to what Presidents say.

Crossposted to RedState.

The Democrats’ budget has passed. [UPDATED]

It is now theirs, with no ambiguities and/or caveats. They own it all.

I’ve received word that the Senate passed our current budget monstrosity 55-43. No Republican defections: we picked up Bayh and Nelson of Florida Nebraska [my bad!]. Earlier, the House version passed 233/196 with no Republicans voting for it, 20 Democrats voting against it, with supposed fiscal conservatives (and European junketeers) Charlie Melancon (LA-03) and Bart Gordon (TN-06) singled out for special ridicule as being part of the group of Blue Dogs that signed off on a 3.6 trillion dollar budget. In short, the GOP Held The Line again.

This, by the way, despite a whopping 214,000 signatures gathered by the Democrats in support of the budget: as the Washington Post rather gleefully noted [H/T: Instapundit], the stenographers over at CNN and Huffington Post duly wrote down the 642K number quoted without asking how many duplicates. It turns out that they counted each signature three times.

Continue reading The Democrats’ budget has passed. [UPDATED]

The NRSC goes after… the President.

Interesting gambit, that.

Mind you, this is all perfectly accurate (Via Ace):

…but a bit unexpected to have happen quite this early. Admittedly, the President hasn’t been having the best of months, but this is something that normally takes place after, say, disastrous midterms for the party in power.

I think that the answer is in the format: Ed Morrissey notes, this is a web-only ad*. It may be designed primarily to kick an anthill or two on the other side; from the NRSC‘s point of view, it’s not so much why the Online Left screams, as long as it screams. Which would also explain why the AIG shout-out; just a little extra flick of the earlobe. Cheap enough to do, and it’s kind of a slow season for the NRSC right now anyway while they wait for the next spectacular Democratic meltdown.

Moe Lane

*A point lost on a good number of critics of said ad, from what I’ve seen so far.

Crossposted to RedState.

Obamateurism* of the Day, 03/22/2009.

This new feature comes from Ed Morrissey, and it’s pretty much in direct response to Slate’s unaccountable decision to not let go of what was never a particularly funny joke in the first place. But if Slate wants to play, hey, we can play too. With more video footage.

You can send in your tip to Ed at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com . He figures that he can make this a daily feature, and so do I. Who knows? There even might be a book or two in it – and now we know why Jacob Weisberg’s so keen to keep this thing going. You get used to income streams, know what I mean?

Moe Lane

*I’m not entirely loving the name, though.

Crossposted at RedState.

Obama to quietly break promise on recognizing Armenian genocide.

Which happened, by the way.

I said that it did back in February, and I say it now. It happened, and while there are consequences to saying that it happened, there are consequences to not saying so, too. And the administration has apparently decided to go with the latter set of consequences.

Obama wavers on pledge to declare Armenian genocide

The Obama administration is hesitating on a promised presidential declaration that Armenians were the victims of genocide in the early 20th century, fearful of alienating Turkey when U.S. officials badly want its help.

President Obama and other top administration officials pledged during the presidential campaign to officially designate the 1915 killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. Many Armenian Americans, who are descendants of the victims and survivors, have long sought such a declaration.

But the administration also has been soliciting Ankara’s help on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and other security issues amid Turkish warnings that an official U.S. statement would imperil Turkey’s assistance.

Administration officials are considering postponing a presidential statement, citing progress toward a thaw in relations between Turkey and neighboring Armenia. Further signs of warming — such as talk of reopening border crossings — would strengthen arguments that a U.S. statement could imperil the progress.

Continue reading Obama to quietly break promise on recognizing Armenian genocide.

Leno over the Gridiron.

After deciding to stay away from the Gridiron Club – where everything is off the record, on both sides of the equation – the President has decided to go on Jay Leno:

Obama to appear on Leno – will he bring a teleprompter?

The news that President Obama will appear on Jay Leno’s show Thursday night could be told in a couple ways depending on what type of site you’re on.

More right-leaning: Faced with plummeting polls and Boston Tea Party-like rebellions popping up all over the country, President Barack Obama is attempting to save his faltering presidency by going to the last place that still accepts him: Hollywood.

More left-leaning: With rock solid poll numbers (higher than Reagan at this point in the presidency), President Barack Obama has the courage to leave the Washington echo chamber and talk to the common man.

Via Glenn Reynolds, who notes that the headlines have been getting less respectful of the President lately. Given the ludicrously over-enthusiastic treatment that the man got from them, it’s not before time. The sooner that the President gets it through his head that he’s just a man, the better off we’re all going to be. Continue reading Leno over the Gridiron.

And so the 2010 fundraising cycle begins.

Via Andrew Malcolm we see that Obama’s first Presidential fundraiser is scheduled for March 25th, for the DNC. Currently, the Democrats are trying to lower expectations, which… doesn’t mean much of anything, really. They did a lot of that last year to heighten their eventual totals, and it worked out pretty well for them.
Continue reading And so the 2010 fundraising cycle begins.

Obama adopts McCain’s economic rhetoric.

Did he admit to it?
HAHAHAHAHA! Good one!

I’m jealous of this line from the Sundries Shack (H/T The Other McCain):

Today, the administration wheeled out a new option to add to its Repertoire of Incompetence: 5) Act Like John McCain.

It’s in response to Christina Romer’s reversal of administration economic rhetoric from the far-off days of last week. Back then, the economy was fundamentally weak; now it’s fundamentally sound. As the AP summed it up (somewhat devastatingly):

The economy is fundamentally sound despite the temporary “mess” it’s in, the White House said Sunday in the kind of upbeat assessment that Barack Obama had mocked as a presidential candidate.

Continue reading Obama adopts McCain’s economic rhetoric.

Witness the power of this fully armed and operational Debt Star.

A Republican Senate leadership aide responded: ‘It really is a silly campaign. What are we saying ‘no’ to? Trillions in new spending? An unpopular, earmark-laden bill that the President himself was embarrassed to sign? A new national energy tax? Releasing Gitmo terrorists into the U.S.? We’d like to thank them for reminding the American people that we are saying ‘no’ to those things.’

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

I have officially run out of alternative ways to express the concept that irony is dead, so I will simply say: “Irony is dead:”

Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.

A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats’ message that Rush Limbaugh is the Republican Party leader. “We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter,” the official said.

David Plouffe, manager of Obama’s presidential race, helped design the strategy, which includes the most extensive activation since November of the campaign’s grassroots network. The database—which includes information for at least 10 million donors, supporters and volunteers—will now be used as a unique tool for governing, with former canvassers now being enlisted to mobilize support for the president’s legislative agenda.

(Via Hot Air Headlines)

And this is why you don’t run candidates as if they were demigods come down to earth. You end up being critically short of people who aren’t afraid to tell you when you’re singing off-key. Continue reading Witness the power of this fully armed and operational Debt Star.