White House to Harry Reid: Obama wants his A-minus, damnit! Give Lieberman whatever he wants!
That’s what the headline ought to say. As Obama said to Oprah, in the course of explaining why he gave himself a B+ for his first year in office:
“B-plus because of the things that are undone. Health care is not yet signed. If I get health care passed, we tip into A-minus.”
It’s all about checking off those boxes, kids. What’s actually in the healthcare bill doesn’t matter. Just the bill itself. Look, he’s already dreaming about his place in history:
“And” Obama concluded, “I think that we’re going to pass the most significant piece of social legislation since social security, and that’s health insurance for every American.”
That’s some industrial strength smoke blowing right there, pretending that the absurd legislation now in Congress is the most significant thing since Social Security (skipping right over Medicare, you notice). But hell, maybe Obama believes it. I’m starting to think the dude’s lost in his own magnificence.
How long can this Potemkin presidency go on? As long as we let him get away with it, that’s how long.
People have got to stop shifting the blame and making excuses. Look at tonight’s Memeorandum; look at the stories about this latest healthcare meltdown. People are blaming Rahm Emanuel, Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, even Hadassah Lieberman. Christ! Could somebody please have the ovaries to blame the fucking president? You know, the guy in charge of the fucking administration? The guy who’s pulling the strings? The head of the U.S. government? The leader of the fucking free world? Hello?
27 Responses to “White House to Harry Reid: Obama wants his A-minus, damnit! Give Lieberman whatever he wants!”
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hm says:
I blame the fucking president and I have ovaries.
You’re rocking, violet!
December 14th, 2009 at 11:01 pm EST -
lambert strether says:
“If I get health care passed…” Gee, it’s always about him, isn’t it?
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bygones says:
The whole bloody bunch need to be replaced. But no. The same stupid bunch of crooks and liars will be sent back once again come 2010 for a repeat performance.
I hate them all.
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dave says:
IMPEACH!
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Violet says:
I wonder if our first campaign slogan ought to be “throw the bums out!” But I suspect that’s already taken.
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Nessum says:
Presently, leaders from all over the world are pouring into Copenhagen for the COP15 to debate, defend, demand, discuss, deliberate, work hard trying to reach an agreement.
Then on friday Obama will sweep in (as you probably know he had to cancel the plan of just making an appearance last week on his way to Oslo) and will probabbly – read a speech!
I for one am very interested in seeing how the other leaders will treat him this time around. Will they continue their seemingly blind admiration – or will they finally stop the asskissing and demand more than a cartoonish grin and a speech?
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Nessum says:
Apologies in advance if this is considered too OT, but I just so want to share.
At the NPP dinner, Obama was asked to propose a toast. Something tells me that his staff hadn’t seen that coming and therefore hadn’t prepared him for it. So this is what THE master of eloquence (sans teleprompter) had to say:
“Errr… I’d like to propose… actually…
If you’ll bear with me, err in, in, in a, in… in… in Washington, in, in the Senate or the House, this is called a Point of Personal Priviledge, ehh… ehh, I don’t wanna make her cry, ehh, but I do want to… say my sister is here tonight! And err…eh, eh, it was, eh, in, in one of the earlier toasts eh discussed err a passage in my book, that talks about my mother and the values she instilled in me. And I do think that err, it’s worth noting that, err to the extent I am deserving of errr, err this esteemed prize either err now or in the future eh, it will be largely because of her. Andthelargeness ofherheart.”
[Raising his voice and the glass that had been brought to him on a tray, though without even trying to simulate to drink from it:]
“So: To Alfred Nobel! Skål! Cheers! Thank you. Thank you very much.”See! He even praised his mother!
(Who apparently was brought up in one of the earlier speeches. But still!) -
bluelyon says:
Nessum, oh dear dawg - seven minutes. I would have been squirming in my seat! Painful. (video)
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Donald W. Paulus says:
What has this apostle of change brought to America except another sorry example of the corporate state? President Obombya is one super slick politician, but, I think, the teflon is starting to wear off. Guess he will reap the world wind of falling popularity and increased irrelevance. Let’s see how this all plays out in 2010.
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DancingOpossum says:
Even the Obama-skeptic blogs are cutting him waaaay too much slack on this, blaming the process, the Blue Dogs, the Lieberschnitzels, Rahm, everyone except the dude in charge.
Of course, when Bush was ramming through every last one of his party’s sweet desires, it was all completely and entirely his fault, nobody else’s. Oh, I know, I know, the Congress was Republican-controlled! If only we had a Democratic majority!!
Oh, wait…
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willyjsimmons says:
You guys and gals got it all wrong…
this is obviously the fault of a Clinton.
Maybe even Roger!
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madaha says:
“we have a pretty witty king
on whose word no man relies on
who never said a foolish thing
nor ever did a wise one”
-the Earl of RochesterI thought this quote was quite fitting, but on reflection, Obama’s said plenty of foolish things….if you’re actually listening.
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Bella Donna says:
Actually, while the MSM is covering for him, people seem to be waking up from their Obama stupor.
Behold, an online poll asking what grade YOU would give Obama. The results show just how quickly he has dropped in public estimation.
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RKMK says:
Pandagonites seem to be waking up a wee bit, ’tis true. Too bad it’s a year and a half too late to do any good.
Amanda’s clearly on crack, though. Obama was the FDR candidate? Sure. Right.
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RKMK says:
I’m in moderation! *flails*
Anywayz, for giggles: http://pandagon.net/index.php/....._scolding/
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Violet Socks says:
Good lord. Amanda makes me sick. “Low information voters.” Right. Same as last year. Anybody who thinks Obama is full of shit is a “low information voter.” And it’s up to “high information voters” like Amanda to ’splain what a great job he’s doing, really, even though it doesn’t seem like that to the low-information mouth-breathers.
I wonder if Amanda lives in an upside-down house, like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. I’ve never seen anybody so backasswards in my life.
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RKMK says:
Srsly. I’m so “low-information”, yet I’ve been far less surprised than any of the Kool-Aid Kidz. All it took was for me to, y’know, take Obama at his word instead of imagining he was playing 11th dimension chess.
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Alison says:
I would just like to take a moment to revel in the fact that it is Obama-lovin’ Oprah who delivered this question! O’s answer to this - B plus! It’s going to come back to haunt him again and again.
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RKMK says:
John Aravosis is upset too!
It’s not about the votes, people<. It’s about leadership. The current occupant of the White House doesn’t like to fight, and the leadership in Congress has never been as good at their jobs, at marshaling their own party, as the Republicans were when they were in the majority. The President is supposed to rally the country, effectively putting pressure on opposition members of Congress to sit down and shut up. And the congressional leadership is supposed to rally its members to hold the line, and get the 51 votes necessary for passing legislation in a climate where the minority is too afraid to use the filibuster. When you have a President who is constitutionally, or intellectually, unable to stand for anything, and a congressional leadership that, rather than disciplining its own members and forging ahead with its own agenda, cedes legislative authority to a president who refuses to lead, you have a recipe for exactly what happened last night. Weakness, chaos, and failure.
We lost real health care reform not because we don’t have a “real” filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. We lost health care reform because we don’t have a real leader anywhere in our party. It’s not going to get better if we elect more Democrats to the Senate and it’s not going to play out any differently should we try to revisit this issue in the future.
And one final point. What do you think is going to happen if, during the House-Senate conference, a combined bill is returned to the Senate that even vaguely improves upon the garbage they’re currently debating? Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Evan Bayh will threaten the same filibuster. We’re not getting anything better than the crap they just came up with last night. It’s over. The next three years are going to be about mediocrity, broken promises, and striving for second best. That’s not the America I grew up in. And it’s not what I voted for, or was promised.
Poor, poor Aravosis. There’s a bit where he goes on about “Such is the power of a president and a congressional leadership with balls and smarts” and I have to laugh, because he rejected the better candidate because her gonads were of the wrong chromosomal base.
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Sameol says:
Has Aravosis ever heard of the 50 State Strategy? They built their majority on the basis of not having any standards and electing anyone with a D after his name, the more conservative, the more likely to win in their estimation. And now they’re stunned that they don’t have a cohesive majority. Because Barack Obama’s magic unicorn was going to transcend politics and bring us all together, as his beautiful outpouring of primary love did.
I truly don’t understand where this brilliantly thought out plan went wrong.
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willyjsimmons says:
You mean the threats of Obama being the only thing stopping McCain and Palin from destroying our perfect democracy may have been overblown?
Say it ain’t so.
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FembotsForObama says:
Jesus Cristo, Nessum @7 … most people just make a toast to world peace!
But not the lightbringer who made the most awkward acknowledgement of his mother and sister I’ve ever heard in my life. Reminds me way too much of when you have to toast the bride and groom who you know won’t make it past a year if they’re lucky. Incidentally, just attended one of those weddings and the toasts were said with gritted teeth — is that the reason for all them ums, ahs, and errrrs
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FembotsForObama says:
After reading Aravosis’s piece, I have some ~hope~ that the Obot progressives will finally come around. But I doubt it will be to the point that they admit that Hillary was the far better choice, and they got a first-rate boondoggle despite the superiority of their thinking.
All I can say to him is — HA HA HA HA
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FembotsForObama says:
OT, but please note the background pic … Obama now thinks he is channeling the other Roosevelt.
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Kill the Bill | Reclusive Leftist says:
[...] important it is to pass this bill so needy Americans can get health care and needy Presidents can get their A-minus, goddamnit. No, wait, he didn’t say that last part. But he was thinking [...]
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Nessum says:
Fembots @ 22, and the way Obama said “Andthelargenessofherheart”, hurried, and as if it was just one word, tells me all I need to know about how he really feels about his mother and about having to mention her.
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Grace says:
So sad that the Obama apologists can’t blame Hillary now, or use her as a punching bag in order to protect the Messiah. And ironically for them Hillary is the one with the high ratings (75 %) in recent polls.
