It Shouldn’t Be This Way

April 29, 2009 in Barack Obama

by jhwygirl

But I am awed by a President that can stand at a podium, give a press conference and then take questions and – and – answer them.

No goofy jokes? No smart ass answers?

Has it been that long? Should I be awed by something like this?

What is this? His 3rd press conference? 4th?

Wow.

27 Replies

  1. Debra Greenwood

    April 29, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    I am so with you! I just memtioned to my husband that I was also awed by the President and what he stands for. Makes me proud to be American. Again.

    Reply
  2. Lizard

    April 29, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    oh yes, simply amazing. Obama is truly an oratorical alchemist, transforming the tricky task of maintaining the status quo into a fantastical tale of change.

    unfortunately i didn’t hear any indication this administration has the courage to restore our global credibility by prosecuting sadistic torturing criminals walking free and clear. that’s a shame, and good soldiers will pay the price for this administration’s cowardice.

    all Obama has to say to the floundering GOP is this: if you can go after a sitting president for lying about a presidential blowjob, then I can have my DOJ prosecute people who who created the legal justification for tactics that included frying men’s testicles and nearly killing one man five times a day for an entire month.

    Reply
  3. Binky

    April 29, 2009 at 10:21 pm

    Courage, Lizard, courage? Really? If you mean that there is a higher moral principle to be found in the prosecution of these crimes, then I might agree. But, I don’t hear I don’t think that prosecution is the only means towards a clear statement of past wrongs.

    Obama may be restoring greater global credibility by not pursuing the lawyers, politicians, and officers who persecuted these crimes. Somehow, for better or worse, the world seems be a little distracted to be coping with that.

    Reply
    • Lizard

      April 29, 2009 at 11:05 pm

      higher moral principle? how about simple jurisprudence? if the law still means anything in this country, then Holder has no choice but to appoint a special prosecutor. and if this administration refuses to follow our country’s obligatory statutes, then another country should.

      Obama may be restoring greater global credibility by not pursuing the lawyers, politicians, and officers who persecuted these crimes.

      are you kidding me?

      people in this country really need to start getting use to the idea that global opinion actually matters, and that our behavior in past conflicts where “human rights” was our righteous justification for intervention will no longer work.

      Somehow, for better or worse, the world seems be a little distracted to be coping with that.

      no, for better or worse, the world is focusing on us as the epicenter of a global economic crisis, and they are focusing on us for spending stratospheric amounts on the ability to destroy the world ten times over, and they are focusing on us, the self proclaimed beacon of freedom and democracy, as the biggest threat to global stability. and the shitty thing is, they’re right.

      Reply
  4. Doug

    April 30, 2009 at 2:05 am

    What would you say surprised, humbled, or enchanted you the most? Was the color of his tie acceptable? How about his choice of footwear? Oh, never mind; only this President could have a full grasp of such pressing matters. Wow indeed.

    Reply
    • jhwygirl

      April 30, 2009 at 6:28 am

      Not “only this President,” but gosh-darn, it’s been a while….

      “such pressing matters” – what? Are you saying he walked into a cake-walk?

      Reply
      • Doug

        April 30, 2009 at 9:21 am

        I couldn’t sleep last night, but what I think I was saying was that, articulation notwithstanding, it might be nice to have a press corpse that asked a question that somebody actually cared about.

        BTW, I missed stating it last night, but in my opinion the smart ass responses were what made watching a Bush presser worth while.

        Reply
        • problembear

          April 30, 2009 at 10:13 am

          nothing about bush was worthwhile…

          Reply
        • Big Swede

          April 30, 2009 at 10:16 am

          Doug, Dennis Miller nailed it when he said, “We’re living in odd times when Miss CA gets asked tougher questions than the Pres.”

          Reply
          • JC

            April 30, 2009 at 12:49 pm

            You think the questions on torture were less difficult than getting asked a question on gay marriage?

            Only in eastern Montana…

            Reply
  5. Big Swede

    April 30, 2009 at 8:17 am

    Wow, 13 softballs in an hour.

    Was this really just another photo op?

    Kinda like Scare Force One?

    Reply
    • jhwygirl

      April 30, 2009 at 4:03 pm

      Mr. President, on the interrogation issue, you have said repeatedly that you want to look forward and not back. But some of your strongest supporters on the left – including your transition chief John Podesta – say a former Bush lawyer, federal Judge Jay Bybee, should be impeached over his role in the “torture memos.” Would you support impeachment proceedings, or any investigation to learn more about Bush-era war-on-terror policies?

      That ain’t softball in my world…of course, I disapprove of torture.

      Mr. President, you already are becoming the nation’s CEO – with the U.S. government holding total control of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The U.S. could own half of General Motors, and upcoming stress tests would give the government ownership in some of the nation’s biggest banks. Your harshest critics say this verges on “socialism.” How can you assure the American people the government can run these companies better than private owners – and how much government control is too much?

      That’s an I-could-care-less kinda question? To you, even?

      Mr. President, you went to London and didn’t get the global stimulus you wanted. In France, you didn’t get troops for Afghanistan. In Latin America, you shook hands with Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega – then listened to them to criticize longstanding American policies. Some of your Republican critics say you’ve been too “nice” when it comes to foreign policy – trying to be too friendly to the world to make up for President George W. Bush’s foreign policy. Can you point to three concrete achievements you brought home from those trips?

      This one, too? Didn’t care to hear this answer?

      Reply
  6. Pronghorn

    April 30, 2009 at 2:12 pm

    No more leaning over the podium to deliver a flimsy answer in a snide tone that left unspoken “you moron”; no more nicknames; no more heh-heh; no more nook-u-ler.
    Now it’s just informed answers delivered with confidence and in an intellectually-astute vocabulary. Makes you realize how low the bar had sunk…and how high it will now rise.

    Reply
  7. Ayn Rand

    April 30, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    More of ” I don’t care if your family is in danger, you are on your own. I gunna talk only”.

    Reply
    • problembear

      April 30, 2009 at 6:12 pm

      what in tarnation is that hallucinatory comment supposed to mean?…..might want to cut back on the oxycontin there ms rand.

      your right wing lunatic fringe agenda is in tatters and mainstream republicans are defecting like rats from that sinking sewer barge called the republican party so even though you make no sense, it means so much that you take precious time out of your busy day of manning the sump pumps to stop by and critique your president….if that is what that was….

      Reply
      • jhwygirl

        May 1, 2009 at 6:43 am

        The sessions over – she got her watered-down Castle Doctrine – I think she’s still celebrating.

        Reply
    • elkamino

      April 30, 2009 at 8:44 pm

      Regardless of how whack your comments are Ayn, readers can actually appreciate or even learn from you if you say something coherent, or even just relevant. Instead, you’re a disappointment to those who appreciate the words of the real Ayn.

      Reply
  8. Lucky

    April 30, 2009 at 9:50 pm

    Finally! A president who speaks in complete sentences! After all those years wondering why we wanted to kill “tourists”.

    Reply
  9. Ayn Rand

    May 1, 2009 at 8:02 am

    Let me put this in a form even leftie loosies can understand. We have a president that, if your child was in dire danger, like in life or death, would not life a finger to help you, your child or any other citizen. Of course we could talk the bad guys to death, I forgot about that one.

    Reply
    • Lizard

      May 1, 2009 at 9:06 am

      i’m sorry, ayn, i am totally confused. don’t you want to minimize govt’ interference in your sad little life? hasn’t that been the gist of your pathetic party since Reagan?

      as for talking the bad guys to death, maybe you haven’t noticed, but this prez is doing just as much killing as the last one. either you are willfully misrepresenting reality, or you really are that delusional.

      Reply
    • JC

      May 1, 2009 at 11:32 am

      Tell that gibberish to the Captain of the Maersk’s family–that the president didn’t lift a finger. You’d get laughed at all the way to Somalia.

      You’re just blowing smoke. Nobody believes that tripe. Why waste a good buzz writing it?

      Reply
  10. Ayn Rand

    May 1, 2009 at 9:33 am

    when the argument is hard to defend..go to name calling. Very prominent on this site.

    Reply
    • Jim Lang

      May 1, 2009 at 10:20 am

      Actually, you are the one who has not defended your nonsensical ramblings.

      Reply
  11. Lizard

    May 1, 2009 at 10:53 am

    For Ayn:

    The first monstrous problem for the GOP is that they’re so good at winning elections. Or at least they were. They’d have been great if only they hadn’t actually governed. Had they just stayed over there in the weeds, carping incessantly about taxes, weakness abroad, taxes, homos, taxes, spending and – did I mention taxes? – they could have gone on forever getting enough votes to continue on as America’s Perpetual Pain in the Ass Party. Unfortunately, though, they made the mistake of actually winning. They got so good at sliming their opponents and stealing elections and employing fear to get votes that, the next thing you knew, they were actually in charge.

    Big, big mistake. Americans have seen what Republican government looks like. It’s seriously ugly, and that’s even when it doesn’t produce a crisis. All the more so when it does produce one, and far more yet when it’s six or seven, simultaneously.

    I know, I know, it’s weird. But, just the same, Americans just don’t seem to want economies plummeting, debts exploding, cities attacked by terrorists, other cities drowning, endless wars based on lies, cronyism, nepotism, looting, environmental disasters, alienated allies, wrecked national reputations, or snarling vice presidents on their television sets. Nor do they want congressional legislation, enacted by a president flying across the country to sign the bill, that tells Americans how to handle their individual family medical tragedies. Like I said, it’s weird. I guess Americans are just quirky that way.

    Well, okay. Then it would seem like the logical thing for the GOP to do would be to move away from the baggage of its radical albatross and return to the days of Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, back when the right wing of the party was considered scarier than a 3-D Hollywood horror movie even by the other members of the same party. Well, it would seem. But, you see, that’s the GOP’s second gigantic problem. It cannot do the one thing that could possibly save it.

    Indeed, not only can it not, but it doesn’t want to. And not only doesn’t it want to, but it doesn’t even get that it must, or even should, if wants to have any hope of surviving. It’s truly amazing. I’ve talked to, and read pieces written by, regressives who seriously argue that the GOP’s problem is that it hasn’t been conservative enough. Indeed, I saw one young lady from the Heritage Foundation make the argument that neither George W. Bush nor William F. Buckley were real conservatives. That’s pretty hysterical if you think about it (something regressives never want you to actually do). But consider the main programmatic commitments of the Bush administration: wars overseas, huge military expenditures, lopsided bias in favor of Israel, arrogant unilateralism towards the UN and all other countries, massive tax cuts, anti-gay legislation, Social Security privatization, deregulation, anti-abortion policies, blocking of stem-cell research, environmental degradation, massive expansion of the wealth gap, erosion of the separation of church and state, and so on.

    Which of these, I’m curious, don’t come right out of the contemporary conservative (pardon the obscene oxymoron there) play book? Sure, you could say that regressives are upset because Bush expanded Medicare (although the more accurate way to put it would be that he expanded the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies through the vehicle of Medicare), and that he doubled the national debt (which is kinda inevitable if you massively increase expenditures whilst slashing tax revenues; See Reagan, Ronald W., and the Tripling of the Debt). But let’s be serious, shall we? No one can credibly argue that George W. Bush was not a conservative. No one, that is, except the certifiably insane freaks on the right, who, mercifully, are finally becoming again the laughingstocks they once were in American society, and for precisely this reason.

    –from “The Party’s Over” by David Michael Green @ Counterpunch.

    Reply
  12. Ayn Rand

    May 1, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    you folks some time will have to take ownership of the economy. I am still waiting.

    Reply
    • JC

      May 1, 2009 at 4:39 pm

      Still waiting for the Bushies & conservatives to take some ownership and responsibility???

      Reply
  13. Mayor of Mayhem

    May 8, 2009 at 9:00 am

    Wow. Lizard thats some beautiful shit from David Micheal Green. Ayn, the Democrats have taken ownership of the economy many times and have historically run it better than the Republicans. I’m confident that at the end of Obama’s presidency the economy will be humming like a racecar and some lunatic republican will lie, cheat, and mislead his way into office or maybe just outright steal the office like Bush and crash the economy again. See the problem is when your ideology has given you the same solution to every problem you seldom hear anything new. Lower taxes, lower taxes, lower taxes, won’t end an occupation of another country or repair our credibility regarding torture or the perceived arrogance of the U.S abroad. I am suspicious of anyone who seeks the highest office in the world, but Obama appears to be a serious,contemplative, educated man. Bush’s buffoonery on the world stage is over and I’m glad.

    Reply

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