This is a great movie about the need for secrecy in military operations. Both political parties have been guilty of this to some extent, but the Obama administration has been far and away worse than any.
Patriotism should always trump politics.
In other words, what can we point to and say “this thing or that thing is better since he’s been President?”
The *best* I can come up with is the Bin Laden raid, but let’s be honest here, at most the President (be he from either party) contributed 1% (and I’m being generous here) of the overall work required to execute that plan. I mean, the guy played golf the morning of the raid and watched it happen on a satellite feed. The real work was done by SEAL Team 6, the CIA and a bunch of people who don’t officially exist.
The second best I can come up with is Obamacare, which according to the Supreme Court’s ruling was a massive tax hike on everyone (and especially the middle class). To be fair, it does cover some people who previously weren’t covered, but it does nothing to address the *causes* of the spiraling costs. We’ll call that a wash.
In the next post we’ll look at the failures of his presidency (I might need a few posts to cover them all).
Rather than listening to the media spin about what Paul Ryan’s ideas are or are not, I think it’s a lot better idea to listen to the man himself in his own words.
This is pretty hypocritical comment coming from a guy who’s best year in office (from a spending point of view) was with a $1 trillion deficit, and who has added more to the national debt in 3.5 years than Bush did in 8—the very performance he is critiquing in this clip.
And while we’re on the topic, let’s put this notion of blame bush for everything to rest once and for all. Obama has been the President for 3 years and 8 months. For the first 2 of those years, he had the majority in both the house and the senate as well as ton of political capital from the general public. If he can’t use those advantages to get something done then he’s just not an effective leader.
“Yeah, but he inherited this mess…” you say. Well let’s examine that further by looking at another guy who inherited a mess.
Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin, took office in 2011 (a full two years after Obama) and walked into a $3.6 billion budget deficit. Through policy changes he enacted, he has turned that deficit into a $150 million budget surplus. Read that sentence again. A SURPLUS. He did that all while reducing unemployment in his state to below the national average. Keep in mind a state can’t print money like the federal government can. Yet with less time to work with and fewer tools at his disposal, Walker turned his state’s economy around whereas Obama with more time hasn’t even come close to turning the national economy around.
Granted, there are a few differences in terms of scale between running a state government vs running the federal government, but that said, we can still observe a turnaround in Wisconsin’s case and a regression at the national level.
So please, let’s agree to dispense with the malarky about Obama inheriting a mess and continuing to use that as a crutch for why he can’t turn the economy around? It’s a silly argument and most people aren’t buying it anymore.
Final point: from a perception point of view, I really don’t think it looks good to be blaming things on external circumstances anyway. It makes Obama look incredibly weak. America voted this guy into office to do a job. Whatever the reason might be, if he can’t do that job, we need someone else who can.
If you want to play in the big leagues, you either make stuff happen or you find yourself on the bench
If anyone actually believes the downgraded US debt was a result of the Tea Party, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. The fact is the National debt when Obama took office was $10.6 TN. In just 2.5 years, his policies have added nearly $4 TN to that number. To put that number in some perspective, Obama has spent 10x as much (even adjusted for inflation) than FDR spent during the height of the depression.
The truly amazing thing is that now some Democrats—particularly WH Chief of Staff David Axelrod—are making the ridiculous claim that the downgrade was somehow brought on by the Tea Party. His logic is laughable at best. The “Inconvenient Truth” for Axelrod, Obama and the rest of their crew is that the Tea Party has loudly been advocating for this thing called a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment’, which would require all future congresses—whether they be controlled by Republicans or Democrats and no matter whether the President is a republican or democrat—to pass a budget that is, wait for it… balanced.
So, to anyone listening to Mr. Axelrod (or the others) in the coming days and weeks, I would simply caution you to “be careful not to step in the bullshit.”
…but they just got shellacked In the closest thing we’ve had to a national referendum of the government thus far.
“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The Dems have had absolute power for a full year. They control the White House and both houses in Congress, even with a filibuster proof majority (until today). With all that power, support (even some from me *gasp*), and a lot of political capital following Obama’s historic win, they moved their agenda so far to the left that they’ve completely lost touch with reality… and apparently the voters in Massachusetts!
It really is tragic because a lot of the ideas Obama talked about in the campaign—including more transparency in Government— were good ones. But good ideas are not enough. Good ideas need to be backed up with determined action and sound implementation. I hate to say it but Obama has failed to live up to a lot of the promises he made on the campaign. The most glaring example is that he has begun to defer on key issues to his party’s leadership on Capitol Hill (you know who I mean) to define agenda, and the definition they’ve come up with has alienated a lot of people. For a President with such political power as he has, this is entirely ridiculous. Obama better get his house in order… fast.
Perhaps this Republican win will shake things up on Capitol Hill and finally convince the Democrats that the American people are unhappy with them. Very unhappy with them! This is not what we voted for, and if they want to avoid getting hosed in the next round of elections they had better get their act together real quick.
It’s not that the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess; it’s that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse’s office because once again they glued their balls to their thighs.
This guy is hilarious, ripping into everyone. Craig Ferguson from last year’s press correspondent’s dinner.
