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The Daydream and The Nightmare--Peggy Noonan on Obama
Posted on 7/4/14 at 4:58 pm
Posted on 7/4/14 at 4:58 pm
I hope you can read this. LINK
Noonan pretty well sums up my impression of Obama to a T.
Some exerts from the Wall Street Journal, July 4th, Peggy Noonan
Noonan pretty well sums up my impression of Obama to a T.
quote:
The Daydream and the Nightmare
Obama isn't doing his job. He's waiting for history to recognize his greatness
Some exerts from the Wall Street Journal, July 4th, Peggy Noonan
quote:
But I'm not sure people are noticing the sheer strangeness of how the president is responding to the lack of success around him. He once seemed a serious man. He wrote books, lectured on the Constitution. Now he seems unserious, frivolous, shallow. He hangs with celebrities, plays golf. His references to Congress are merely sarcastic: "So sue me." "They don't do anything except block me. And call me names. It can't be that much fun."
In a truly stunning piece in early June, Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown and Jennifer Epstein interviewed many around the president and reported a general feeling that events have left him—well, changed. He is "taking fuller advantage of the perquisites of office," such as hosting "star-studded dinners that sometimes go on well past midnight." He travels, leaving the White House more in the first half of 2014 than any other time of his presidency except his re-election year. He enjoys talking to athletes and celebrities, not grubby politicians, even members of his own party. He is above it all.
On his state trip to Italy in the spring, he asked to spend time with "interesting Italians." They were wealthy, famous. The dinner went for four hours. The next morning his staff were briefing him for a "60 Minutes" interview about Ukraine and health care. "One aide paraphrased Obama's response: 'Just last night I was talking about life and art, big interesting things, and now we're back to the minuscule things on politics.' ''
Minuscule? Politics is his job.
When the crisis in Ukraine escalated in March, White House aides wondered if Mr. Obama should cancel a planned weekend golf getaway in Florida. He went. At the "lush Ocean Reef Club," he reportedly told his dinner companions: "I needed this. I needed the golf. I needed to laugh. I needed to spend time with friends."
You get the impression his needs are pretty important in his hierarchy of concerns.
quote:
This is a president with 2½ years to go who shows every sign of running out the clock. Normally in a game you run out the clock when you're winning. He's running it out when he's losing.
All this is weird, unprecedented. The president shows no sign—none—of being overwhelmingly concerned and anxious at his predicaments or challenges. Every president before him would have been. They'd be questioning what they're doing wrong, changing tack. They'd be ordering frantic aides to meet and come up with what to change, how to change it, how to find common ground not only with Congress but with the electorate.
Instead he seems disinterested, disengaged almost to the point of disembodied. He is fatalistic, passive, minimalist. He talks about hitting "singles" and "doubles" in foreign policy.
"The world seems to disappoint him," says the New Yorker's liberal and sympathetic editor, David Remnick.
What kind of illusions do you have to have about the world to be disappointed when it, and its players, act aggressively or foolishly? Presidents aren't supposed to have those illusions, and they're not supposed to check out psychologically when their illusions are shattered.
***
Barack Obama doesn't seem to care about his unpopularity, or the decisions he's made that have not turned out well. He doesn't seem concerned. A guess at the reason: He thinks he is right about his essential policies. He is steering the world toward not relying on America. He is steering America toward greater dependence on and allegiance to government. He is creating a more federally controlled, Washington-centric nation that is run and organized by progressives. He thinks he's done his work, set America on a leftward course, and though his poll numbers are down now, history will look back on him and see him as heroic, realistic, using his phone and pen each day in spite of unprecedented resistance. He is Lincoln, scorned in his time but loved by history.
He thinks he is in line with the arc of history, that America, for all its stops and starts, for all the recent Supreme Court rulings, has embarked in the long term on governmental and cultural progressivism. Thus in time history will have the wisdom to look back and see him for what he really was: the great one who took every sling and arrow, who endured rising unpopularity, the first black president and the only one made to suffer like this.
That's what he's doing by running out the clock: He's waiting for history to get its act together and see his true size.
He's like someone who's constantly running the movie "Lincoln" in his head. It made a great impression on him, that movie. He told Time magazine, and Mr. Remnick, how much it struck him. President Lincoln of course had been badly abused in his time. Now his greatness is universally acknowledged. But if Mr. Obama read more of Lincoln, he might notice Lincoln's modesty, his plain ways, his willingness every day to work and negotiate with all who opposed him, from radical abolitionists who thought him too slow to supporters of a negotiated peace who thought him too martial. Lincoln showed respect for others. Those who loved him and worked for him thought he showed too much. He was witty and comical but not frivolous and never shallow. He didn't say, "So sue me." He never gave up trying to reach agreement and resolution.
It is weird to have a president who has given up. So many young journalists diligently covering this White House, especially those for whom it is their first, think what they're seeing is normal.
It is not. It is unprecedented and deeply strange. And, because the world is watching and calculating, unbelievably dangerou
Posted on 7/4/14 at 4:59 pm to I B Freeman
Well unlike Peggy some of us saw Obama for what he was from the get go.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 4:59 pm to I B Freeman
I really do not believe Obama wants to be President.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:04 pm to I B Freeman
Maybe maybe not. But he does want to do as much damage to America as he possible can and he's doing it.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:12 pm to I B Freeman
Pretty close, and why most think he's the worst ever. Clever lies, and the dumb believed him.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:20 pm to I B Freeman
quote:Why should he do this? He has been coddled for 5.5 years. Protected.
All this is weird, unprecedented. The president shows no sign—none—of being overwhelmingly concerned and anxious at his predicaments or challenges. Every president before him would have been. They'd be questioning what they're doing wrong, changing tack. They'd be ordering frantic aides to meet and come up with what to change, how to change it, how to find common ground not only with Congress but with the electorate.
His response is completely expected.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:23 pm to constant cough
I agree with the report. Rather than facing his inability to govern competently, he is retreating into delusion. He may actually be mentally ill. I know all progressives are mentally ill by definition, but preferring to play rather than do his job shows he has an immature disconnect from reality.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:38 pm to I B Freeman
I wouldn't disagree with that.
But I need rex's break down for a true picture.
But I need rex's break down for a true picture.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:40 pm to I B Freeman
quote:
I really do not believe Obama wants to be President.
Exactly. This obama-fool has gone Nero on his role.
He needs to step down and get out of the way.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:43 pm to I B Freeman
It's a Baby Boomer looking at a Gen X President. Those two generations, the times in which each grew up, are like night and day. Oil and water. They see things very differently. Peggy Noonan has always been a hugely annoying drama queen.
This post was edited on 7/4/14 at 5:45 pm
Posted on 7/4/14 at 5:55 pm to Scruffy
quote:
Why should he do this? He has been coddled for 5.5 years. Protected.
He has been coddled for his entire fricking life.
He has always been a Chosen Token. Hell, if he was a white guy with no connections he wouldn't have gotten into an "elite" college to begin with, with his "Choom Gang" record, and none of the ensuing fraud would have been possible.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:05 pm to genuineLSUtiger
quote:Obama is a boomer. He was born in '61. That generation extends to '64.
It's a Baby Boomer looking at a Gen X President. Those two generations, the times in which each grew up, are like night and day. Oil and water. They see things very differently. Peggy Noonan has always been a hugely annoying drama queen.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:09 pm to genuineLSUtiger
quote:
It's a Baby Boomer looking at a Gen X President. Those two generations, the times in which each grew up, are like night and day. Oil and water. They see things very differently. Peggy Noonan has always been a hugely annoying drama queen.
If it was a generational thing Peggy wouldn't have been such an Obama boot licker during the 2008 election.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:25 pm to Scruffy
quote:
That generation extends to '64.
It's embarrassing
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:25 pm to genuineLSUtiger
Deep down, that idiot has to know that he's no Abraham Lincoln. What a joke.
I've said it before, but he is easily the most over hyped human being of my lifetime. He's been pampered and propped up his whole life, and now that he's receiving a "smidgen" of objective criticism, his response has been to blame others for his limitations and basically retreat to a safe haven of being surrounded with celebrities and others who will gladly pretend that the Emperor is wearing clothes.
Just wait until this abject failure is out of office. His book will be the biggest whinefest ever written
I've said it before, but he is easily the most over hyped human being of my lifetime. He's been pampered and propped up his whole life, and now that he's receiving a "smidgen" of objective criticism, his response has been to blame others for his limitations and basically retreat to a safe haven of being surrounded with celebrities and others who will gladly pretend that the Emperor is wearing clothes.
Just wait until this abject failure is out of office. His book will be the biggest whinefest ever written
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:45 pm to I B Freeman
Obama is the dumb, evil president we deserve.
When a nation becomes so self absorbed that they take their eyes off of what is good for the nation, this is what we get.
A self absorbed dumb azz.
His goal from the beginning was to change America into a socialist state, with no borders, and to demean our nation unto the rest of the world whilst diminishing our esteem around the world.
All you fools who voted for this dumb POS, raise your hand
When a nation becomes so self absorbed that they take their eyes off of what is good for the nation, this is what we get.
A self absorbed dumb azz.
His goal from the beginning was to change America into a socialist state, with no borders, and to demean our nation unto the rest of the world whilst diminishing our esteem around the world.
All you fools who voted for this dumb POS, raise your hand
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:48 pm to Scruffy
quote:
quote:
It's a Baby Boomer looking at a Gen X President. Those two generations, the times in which each grew up, are like night and day. Oil and water. They see things very differently. Peggy Noonan has always been a hugely annoying drama queen.
Obama is a boomer. He was born in '61. That generation extends to '64.
Once again, genuineLSUtiger genuinely does not know anything about Obama.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 6:55 pm to I B Freeman
frick her. She spent all of 2008 and 2009 sucking his dick.
Posted on 7/4/14 at 7:43 pm to I B Freeman
Posted on 7/4/14 at 8:00 pm to I B Freeman
I think, like Peggy Noonan points out, that he wants the benefits of being President, not the responsibility. He is far from a deep thinker, and only knows how to stir up people, not lead them. He's not interested in anything that runs counter to his deeply held beliefs, and has no idea what compromise is nor how to achieve it.
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