In the
comments section on
my post on the attackwatch.com issue Kelly the Little Black Dog comented:
Obama's motives often appear sinister to me. [quoting my post.]
Can you indulge me and explain where this comes from. This is a pretty common sentiment on the right. I honestly don't see him as being much different from any of the last 4 or 5 presidents.
So I thought I would respond with a few examples.
- The Fast and Furious operation seems designed to allow U.S. guns to flow to Mexican drug lords to bolster the case for domestic gun control.
- Obmacare seemed designed to deliberately put health insurers out of business, because the individual mandate is not strong enough to incentivize individuals to buy insurance who can afford to.
- Obamacare has allowed waivers to be granted to favored groups, many of whom reside in Pelosi's district. The Darden restaurants receive an Obamacare waiver, then become the poster child for the Michelle Obama's campaign against child obesity.
- The effort to sell Obamacare involved sending emails to an official government email address to report those who were "distorting" Obamacare facts. The email address flag@whithouse.gov seemed sinister enough for me. Encouraging fellow citizens to report the free speech of other citizens to an official government email address is prima facie creepy. The current attackwatch.com effort seemed modeled after that earlier effort.
- The stimulus packages seem designed to send money to favored political groups such as teachers and firefighters, who are unionized. Further the whole Solyndra unfolding scandal shows the extent to which the administration supports crony capitalism. From the NPR article: Emails released Thursday night show that Obama administration privately worried about the effect of a default by Solyndra Inc. on the president's re-election campaign.
- Obama asserts the right to assassinate U.S. citizens abroad on executive order. (Bush did so as well, but I found that sinister as well.)
- The Justice Department has taken the view that the Voting Rights Act exists only to protect the rights of blacks, never of whites.
- Firing an inspector general who investigated a close ally of the administration.
- His campaign pledge to fundamentally transform America.
- His active encouragement of a cult of personality and hero worship.
- Comments by his press secretary during transition period that he wanted to be ready to rule on day 1.
That's my short list. I am sure my readers could supply more.
In the comments section on my post on the attackwatch.com issue Kelly the Little Black Dog comented:
Not so much about him, but I still find it creepy how that oil rig blew up so soon after Obama mentioned possible issues-- I seem to remember there are other really funky timing things. That my husband's cousins was one of the inspectors and says the whole thing stunk doesn't help.
ReplyDelete(At the time, I mostly went "wow, if this was a movie, that would totally be...." I even made a joke of it to my crazy liberal cousin. Post 'fast and furious,' it's freaking terrifying/horrifying/mindblowing.)
Oh! You forgot using regulations-- like the EPA-- for political advantage.
ReplyDeleteI just worked with some Tweet gurus and uncovered the proof that the epoch fail #attackwatch campaign is filtered from top trending topics. Hopping that it gets picked up in the morning. http://blog.doodooecon.com/2011/09/twitter-hides-attackwatch-trending.html
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kelly. I don't see his motives as sinister at all. If he was all that sinister, his plans would work better. If he's really some kind of devious super villain, then he's the one who falls down three flights of stairs while carrying a fragile component of his Doomsday Device.
ReplyDeleteInstead, I'd suggest that he's simply naive. Unrepresented on your list are any signs that he has altered Bush's interrogation, capture and trial policies. Victor Davis Hanson regularly excoriates Obama for hypocrisy on the War on Terror as he said one thing, but ended up doing another. I'd say this is an indication of an intellectual child growing up.
As for his fascist economics, well, he just hasn't faced reality yet. He's not evil or malignant, he's just ignorant.
If he was all that sinister, his plans would work better.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness, having sinister intentions doesn't make you effective.
That said, the question was about appearance, not what we actually think they are. I KNOW my darling husband appears intimidating, detached and unemotional-- that seeming has nothing to do with the facts as I believe them, but he does look it.
Part of why I brought up the funky timing thing. I don't think Obama heads a big conspiracy that blew up the oil rig or anything-- most conspiracies I know of are pure CYA personal interest type things. Same way that the economy isn't run by a single group, it's a bunch of small decision makers going for their own goals. Didn't make the damage from the "conspiracies" any less real.
Obama is both evil and naive. I was in Chicago and when his seat was up for grabs and Blogo was hauled out in handcuffs. The general consensus was, "whadya mean his seat is not for sale" The cronyism from whence he came is a part of political life, evil yes, but also naive to think the rest of the country would turn a blind eye to such a blatant display. Also, he knows he likely has only 4 years to funnel as much funds in the name of hope, change, jobs, and Bush bashing.
ReplyDeleteB-Daddy,
ReplyDeletethanks for going all out on this. I appreciate it. I'm way behind in reading blogs, the last week has been hellish.
In spite of what you say here, I'd still stick by my earlier position that he's little different than any of the last four or five administrations. And if he is really not any different, what makes him so much more sinister?
1.
2. Obama care, aka Romney care National, was written with the direct involvement of the insurance industry. The reason they didn't put effort in fighting it, was because it was a sweetheart deal for them. If they really hated, they'd have been the first ones to try to stop it. unlike the Clinton plan they just let is ride. +1 for me.
3. Many of these wavers are also in solidly Red states where they had "alternative" strategies that the plan allowed them to try. I say its a wash.
4. Can't argue with you there. +1 for your side.
5. More than half of the the stimulus package was tax cuts, so there was plenty of pork to go around. Tie
6. Agreed, but again this has been going on in many of the previous administrations.
7. Haven't personally seen any white folks being disenfranchised, but I've seen plenty of people of color living in Mississippi, Arizona, and New Mexico.
8. A tie. Clinton sold pardons. And Bush Jr. fired Republican Attorney Generals who refused to target Democratic candidates.
9. His campaign pledge to fundamentally transform America. Ya well that was supposed to be an elimination of corruption. So it would have been a good thing if he'd actually meant it. instead we got business as usual.
10. His active encouragement of a cult of personality and hero worship. Two words - Ronald Reagan!
11. ready to rule on day 1. Well he wasn't. and this was in response to Hillary's criticism that she'd be ready to run things out the door and wouldn't need to learn the job.
Kelly-
ReplyDeleteOn #5, the NYT says that the Stimulus was roughly 1/3 "tax cuts." (Quotes because I seem to recall a lot were credits, which are far from the same thing.)
Googling brings up this, which I'm too tired to research, but which lists all "credits" and what appears to be "not raising the taxes" instead of actual tax cuts. (Same way that I don't consider a mail in rebate to be a price cut....)
7- There's the rather famous video of the two armed guys, and the abandonment of any legal action in spite of the video evidence; also, how does simply living in a couple of states mean you're disenfranchised?
8- I seem to remember that a big difference, no matter your view on motivation, is Bush's actions were legal; Obama voted for the law he violated....
10- Reagan is admired for what he actually managed; Obama is admired for... um... being a young-ish black Dem pol who had a lot of college kids vote for him?
Foxfier,
ReplyDeleteOn 5 fair enough. I was just going from memory.
7. Bad sentence structure. I meant to say while living in those places I witnessed things like intimidation and harassment of specific communities around election times. Purging people from the polling records. Understaffing poling places in minority areas and turning people away before they had a chance to vote. While this certainly has happened to (poor) white people, it happens to minorities with much more frequency.
8 I'm not certain his actions were legal. Some of the people were suing for illegal dismissal.
10 Perhaps just a few good speeches before getting elected. Its been pretty much down hill from there.