Andy McCarthy At NRO Nails Obama’s Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Post-Convention Performance
[Posted by WLS]
Andy McCarthy is now a regular contributor over at National Review, and he’s got a blog post up at the Corner that is the perfect synthesis of what Obama has brought with him to a general election campaign for President.
Here are some of the best parts:
To me, there are two very different, very easily severable questions on the table: (a) was the Annointed One intentionally taking a shot at Palin with the “lipstick on a pig” remark, and (b) if yes, should we cry in our beer about it like a bunch of bean-counting, race-bating, tree-hugging, metrosexual wusses? The obvious answers are (a) yes and (b) no. I am not afraid that we can’t handle the (b) part with a confident smile and good cheer, so I am not at all wary about acknowledging (a).
Much of the counter-argument on (a) seems to be that Obama is such a savvy politician it is hard to believe he would intentionally say something so stupid. I just don’t think that’s an accurate read of the away-from-the-teleprompter Obama we are finally coming to know.
He’s not that savvy. He’s lucky — which, as they say, ain’t nothin’. But he’s like a guy who got called up for the World Series after winning the high school championship: now, suddenly, the fields are bigger, the crowds are enormous and more discerning, and the other team is accomplished, professional and comes to beat your brains in — not to provide an exhibition in good sportsmanship.
Obama must react to this drastic change, but he is not as smooth as advertised, he simply does not have a well of experience to draw on, and, importantly, the Democrat nomination campaign did not prepare him. He has always had very obvious weaknesses, but the Democrat candidates could not exploit them because their nomination cannot be won without appealing to a hard-Left base which is night-and-day different from the vast majority of the country. They play a hardcore identity politics and they would crucify anyone who so much as hinted that a young, black community organizer with movement-activist (i.e., terrorist) friends and a record of protecting a woman’s right to choose even into the 4th trimester was not an ideal candidate.
Even as he mathematically eliminated the competition, Obama was sinking like a stone because, as we’re seeing now, he doesn’t wear well over time. Yuval and Jay are entirely right to suggest that he unintentionally says dumb things (e.g., 57 states). Yet, the Chicago pol in him quite intentionally says a lot of offensive things (cling to guns and religion, punished with a baby, lipstick on a pig …). He has not been swift enough to discern the change in the audience. This is a guy who, up til now, had to appeal to (1) an ultra-Left Chicago district, (2) the 7 in 10 Illinois residents who just wanted Alan Keyes to go away, and (3) the Democrats’ antiwar base. They gave him such a warm glow maybe he was duped into thinking everyone would love his routine. In any event, this is his first conversation with America and he’s not ready for prime-time. Plus, he is in the unenviable position of having to pose as a post-racial, post-partisan centrist when his record is one of race-conscious, left-wing partisanship. It’s only natural that when he gets rattled and is not reading a script, he reverts to Hyde Park.
A primary season like the modern Democratic Party has is an exercise in unreality. It molds the candidate into something attractive to a fringe that is unrepresentative of the country at large. When Obama moved from that sandbox to the real playing field, he wasn’t ready. In a panic, he sensed the need to turn to an old Washington pro — and somehow managed to find a pro, Biden, who shares some of his own worst foot-in-mouth tendencies (and has not been able to shake that congenital problem in his three dozen senate years). The result? It’s only been a week and they have already suggested that they will order banana-republic style prosecutions of Bush administration officials, that Palin — mother of a special needs child — doesn’t care about special needs children, and, now, lipstick on a pig.
This is exactly what it looks like: amateur hour. We should say so, and have fun with it.
– WLS
I agree this is Obama’s amateur hour and that’s why it’s appropriate to question his pig and fish comments. If he’s elected President, Obama will have to be even more careful about the things he says.
FWIW, I also think the Obama campaign has told Obama to ad lib more, both to humanize him with unscripted comments people can relate to and to prepare him for the debates when he will have to speak extemporaneously. If that’s true, it’s not going so good.
Comment by DRJ — 9/10/2008 @ 12:44 pm
If he doesn’t win in November, can he still keep the presidential podium?
Comment by Vermont Neighbor — 9/10/2008 @ 12:57 pm
Hey WRJ, don’t you think it would be better if you reviewed Andy’s article by posting one or two paragraphs, (10%-15%), rather than posting everything except one or two paragraphs?
Seriously, you just wanna give a taste of the article, rather than the entire thing.
Just sayin’.
Comment by Ed — 9/10/2008 @ 12:58 pm
Obama needs to find some way to weasel out of that one town hall style meeting with McCain. The uh, er, um dude is not so great ad libbing. I’m assuming we won’t see a repeat of partisan plants that were apropos in the dem primary season. McCain may have great respect for his Senate colleague, unlike many of us partisans who want the equivalency of the Conan the Barbarian speech. Let’s hammer Obama-Biden at the polls.
Comment by madmax333 — 9/10/2008 @ 1:00 pm
Opps. Make that “WLS”, not “WRJ”.
My bad.
You know what this blog needs? A freakin’ preview feature. Yeah, that would keep me from makin’ dumbass mistakes like the above.
Yeah, that’s the ticket…
Comment by Ed — 9/10/2008 @ 1:00 pm
WLS put it up. I put in the whole thing first, and then edited it down. But it would have lost some context if I took out more than I did, and I wanted the parts I highlighted to the surrounding text as well.
I recognized what you say, and I may have went overboard a little, but his take just really captured it for me.
Comment by WLS — 9/10/2008 @ 1:00 pm
I like seeing the whole thing posted and still click the link to see their presentation. FWIW
Comment by Vermont Neighbor — 9/10/2008 @ 1:01 pm
Ed, there’s a “Live Preview” feature right below the box you type your comment in — you don’t have to navigate to another screen. Just look it over one time before you hit submit.
But, consider the source since I’m roundly criticized here for not proof-reading my stuff before posting.
Comment by WLS — 9/10/2008 @ 1:02 pm
I think Obama is so lacking in experience outside of his Chicago support, that he doesn’t even realize how his recklessness plays out to people not in his camp. Whether or not there was intent in the lipstick/pig comment is almost beside the point because what it does evidence is an incredible lack of discretion and just how off balance Palin has him. All in all, this foot-in-mouth syndrome is a gift to Mccain’s camp. I hope they’re smart and not rebuke them every time but let Obama’s camp implode on their own.
Comment by That Other Dana — 9/10/2008 @ 1:03 pm
Poof-reading is so much work.
Comment by Vermont Neighbor — 9/10/2008 @ 1:03 pm
THere’s a prvue feature? Whoknew!!??
Comment by steve miller — 9/10/2008 @ 1:04 pm
Hmmmm.
So he trying to say that Obama was not properly vetted?
Comment by Perfect Sense — 9/10/2008 @ 1:04 pm
Yes, it does appear that the Obama campaign seems to be tripping over its own shoelaces right now… but I have to say that I’m disappointed in how eager people aligtned with the McCain side are to grab the bloody shirt of victimhood with respect to the lipstuck-pig comment.
To me it seemed that O was trying to use a down-home metaphor, in his typically forced and unnatural way. Reading more into it than that is as idiotic as those who contributed to the moronic furor over the use of the word “niggardly”.
Comment by JSinAZ — 9/10/2008 @ 1:06 pm
JSinAZ, no doubt he was trying a down-home metaphor but how clueless is he? He of all people should have put two and two together before opening his mouth. The question is, how could he not know there would be fallout? He didn’t just start campaigning a month ago. He’s been at this for some time. Slow learner?
Comment by Dana — 9/10/2008 @ 1:09 pm
Heh. I know there is. Just cuz there’s a preview screen right below me doesn’t mean I’m gonna use it.
Sheesh. The next thing you know, you’ll be expecting me to think before I type, or to stop reponding to those requests for help with moving money out of Nigeria for those ex-government ministers.
Have some compassion people…
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to moving 163 million in gold bullion out of africa.
What
Comment by Ed — 9/10/2008 @ 1:10 pm
I don’t think the metaphor is completely insulting. (It is meant to be insulting, but not, on the surface, against Palin as a woman, just against Palin as a Presidential candidate.)
But it is very, very clever, like throwing a rock and then hiding your hand.
Oh wait, now who said that was wrong?
Obama needs to figure out if he’s running against JSM or Palin. I think he’s trying to compare himself against an accomplished woman, and he doesn’t know how to do that.
Comment by steve miller — 9/10/2008 @ 1:11 pm
FWIW: Nice post. I’m glad you kept most of the article, that way I didn’t have to click over to get all the best parts. Obama has never really run a contested election, ever. Talk about untested. I put this pig lipstick up there with his giving Hillary the finger. Both times the crowd got exactly what he was after yet he maintained “plausible deniability. But I also agree, it’s not that big of a deal. Kinda reminds me of Junior High or High School Politics though. He certainly is rattled. Can’t wait to see the town hall meeting.
Comment by J. Raymond Wright — 9/10/2008 @ 1:14 pm
Not ready for prime time my ass.
Did you not watch them both speak at their respective conventions?
Obama did it all himself.
No $100 million backing from a beer heiress.
No daddy commander in the navy
Kind of did it the American way. He earned it.
Seems republicans have a real feel for the folks that inherit their good fortune.
Kind of like most republicans have done themselves.
Comment by jharp — 9/10/2008 @ 1:20 pm
I really think that he would not be talking about the lipsticked pig today, except that the NYT came out with that story about Ayres. Hide a problem by talking about trivialities. I really wonder if he knew the story was coming (was it already up on the websites?) when he went off script for his gaffe, and it was intentional?
Comment by htom — 9/10/2008 @ 1:22 pm
I’d like to complement McCarthy’s high school pitcher analogy with this:
Obama is like the haughty (oops, is that code for black?) film maker who wins all the awards at Sundance and Cannes yet bombs at the box office, when once again and to no one’s surprise other than the film maker and his circle of adoring acolytes (in this case, the MSM and Democratic primary voters), the movies that film critics declare the greatest thing since Citizen Kane just aren’t the movies that Joe and Jane Moviegoer want to spend their Saturday night and hard earned dollars going to see. In other words, Obama just doesn’t play well in Peoria. And since he can’t admit that his movies are the problem, he insults and belittles both the public for not being cultured enough to want to see his films and the producers who make movies people want to see…
Comment by steve sturm — 9/10/2008 @ 1:27 pm
The observation that no one here wanted Keyes, and that Obama was clearly the lesser of two evils – is spot on. If the Tribune had not gone off on their crotch – sniffing escapade and forced the original GOP candidate to drop out, Obama probably would still have won, but at least would’ve been vetted to some extent. Many of his current problems can be traced to never having faced a real opponent before, unless you include his campaign against Bobby Rush – in which Rush flattened him severely.
Comment by Dmac — 9/10/2008 @ 1:30 pm
Ya’ll do know that pigs are smart and cunning??
Comment by Sandy — 9/10/2008 @ 1:34 pm
Steve — excellent analogy.
I’d add to it the examples of people who think Jackson Pollock was an “artist” because he could swirl paint on a canvas.
You ever shoot a paint can with a shotgun, having a white canvass as a backdrop?? Fooking masterpiece. Should be in the Loove.
(Yeah, I know its misspelled).
Comment by WLS — 9/10/2008 @ 1:35 pm
To paraphrase Freud, “Sometimes a spade is just a spade”. I mean, I’m just talking about talking shovels.
Comment by Horatio — 9/10/2008 @ 1:36 pm
“Kind of did it the American way. He earned it.”
Sure, I remember how my friends and I made our way into the world after graduation from college – we first looked for a local Chicago Machine power broker/hack to sponsor us in a job that had no discernible responsibilities, then after abject failure in that work, immediately set about trying to throw our opponents off the ballot during our first run for office. Later on, we met many fellow travelers, people who could help us in furthering our career – Ayers, Daley, Emil Jones, etc. And at no time in our careers did we ever question our political godfathers or go against their wishes – especially when reformers in our own parties attempted to clean up the cesspool in our local county and city political structures. Presto – we then ran for the highest office in the country!
Why, it’s such an All – American story I’d bet that Oliver Stone’s planning his own biopic of Obama, to be released at the same date as his “Dear, Fidel” flick comes out on DVD.
Comment by Dmac — 9/10/2008 @ 1:38 pm
I think the pig comment was probably not meant for Palin but others have pointed out that lipstick comments seemed to have been the script for the day on the campaign so there may have been more than I first believed.
Over at Washington Monthly, I’ve needled them a couple of times about their hysterical screed on McCain losing his honor because he pointed out the clay in Obama’s shoes. One of the deadly ripostes offered was “What would you call Palin if she was a man with that thin resume?”
I resisted the temptation to answer “Obama.”
I agree with the comment that he has never been in a contested election until the primaries this year. He and Hillary were tiptoeing around issues because, a) they agree on almost everything, and b) they were playing to a radical left wing base.
Now, he has to deal with a guy who has 25 years experience in government, has flown attack bombers into flack 25 times and who survived years of torture yet gave his captors the finger when they were trying to make a propaganda movie. He ruined their movie.
That’s a little different from giving the finger to a middle aged woman in a pants suit.
Obama was trying to gird his metrosexual loins to deal with McCain when along came this fiesty WOMAN ! And started messing with his plan.
I think she is in his head and he can’t get her out. Remember in Bull Durham when Kevin Costner is up to bat and he finds himself thinking about Annie ? He has to call time and go walk around to get her out of his head.
That’s Obama but he can’t call time.
Comment by Mike K — 9/10/2008 @ 1:43 pm
funtrivia.com
A pig’s penis is shaped like a corkscrew. Pigs’ orgasms last thirty minutes. So I suppose that pigs enjoy life beyond just rolling in the mud. My own experience with pigs is first and foremost that they are tasty critters..BLT or Pasta carbonara, anyone? Their pig pens smell to high heaven, but not as bad as the human offal used in rice paddies of SE Asia.
Unlike Andy Sullivan, I have no morbid interest in the vaginas of Sarah or Bristol Palin. I thought it was funny that Paula Jones could describe Bill Clinton’s pecker and odd that kids knew about the oh-so-innocent Mikey Jackson’s johnson.
So O thinks he could whip Palin at hoops? What a man! A mother of five kids is a big challenge for the girlie man as far as executive experience and charisma? Say it ain’t so. The man is a racial healer extraordinaire. Yeah, sure.
Comment by madmax333 — 9/10/2008 @ 1:47 pm
Dmac, people who have not lived in Chicago have no idea what it is like. I remember years ago when a friend of my father’s was sick and people wanted to take him to the hospital. The guy didn’t have any insurance, and if truth be told, was an old boozer, probably with cirrhosis. How did they begin to get him admitted to the Cook County Hospital ?
They called the alderman’s office.
I’ll bet it’s little different today.
Comment by Mike K — 9/10/2008 @ 2:01 pm
You think Obama could outplay her at hoops?
My advice to her would be to treat him on the court much like the campaign – overplay him to the right side, and force him to go left.
He can’t win by going left. And he knows it.
Comment by WLS — 9/10/2008 @ 2:04 pm
Mike K, a friend of mine started out as a resident at Cook County. First patient he saw in the ER was a man brought in with a hatchet embedded in the side of his skull. He got in a fight with his wife, she won. He said 30 years later of being in practice, nothing he had experienced was quite like his time at Cook.
Comment by Dana — 9/10/2008 @ 2:06 pm
Amateur hour is right… but more like day after day after day.
I have been ounding the table over Obama’s idiotic statements on the economy.
On the OReilly factor the other night Obama repeated his dumb comparison of growth in Beijing to here in the USA using the building boom there as a backdrop.
Well, workers there toil long hours in unsafe conditions for under $200 a month for semi skilled construction and $80 a month for laborers.
American’s don’t work for $.50HR – $1.50HR with no vacation, holidays, disability, or workers comp. Dumbass.
This study is from UC Berkeley
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/08/14_china.shtml
This one is from Human Rights Watch
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0312-12.htm
The above are all written by likely Obama voters.
The McCain campaign should respond to Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” reference to the economy with offense.
The US economy is actually the Golden Goose. Obama wants to cut the goose up into 100 million little chunks and give it back to “the people” in a stew dish out by community organizers.
The federal governments responsibilty is to feed and nurture the goose to maximize golden egg production. Not to turn it into giblets.
McCain should say he will bring a new energy to the USA and keep our wealth here at home by weaning us from foreign oil from places with people who hate us anyway. *bleep* them.
Americans should be given thre right of first refusal to buy bond issues tied to new energy production. Individual Americans should be able to invest in nuclear, wind, natural gas, solar, geothermal, energy bond issues and profit from their success.
Second we need to spend less. The economy is in disarray in part to government overspending golden egg production.
The GWOT is a big part of that, but clearly Congress needs to be hauled in for accountability here and Republicans need to look us in the eye and admit they’ve overspent.
The meltdown in the financial markets was needed to put an end to the mortgage lending foolishness. The Feds need to keep a closer eye or Fannie and Freddie if the are going to subsidize and guarantee loans. Those loans that are guaranteed need to meet anti meltdown criteria… and Republicans should articulate that.
Comment by SteveG — 9/10/2008 @ 2:32 pm
Harpy apparently believes that the great teleprompterer will be able to read a speech in the debates.
Comment by JD — 9/10/2008 @ 2:33 pm
Obama is dumb…..he’s a product of affirmative action…..his entire educational career has been a pass…..so has his political career.
This is the first time he’s ever had to struggle for anything important.
Comment by Increase Mather — 9/10/2008 @ 2:43 pm
Harpy apparently believes that the great teleprompterer will be able to read a speech in the debates.
Comment by JD — 9/10/2008 @ 2:33 pm
The debates will focus on the issues. Which unbelievable as it have yet to come up.
The war, health care, tax reform are big losers for the GOPers.
No more flag pins, secret muslim, elitist nonsense.
And if the old man can stay awake it should be fun to watch.
Comment by jharp — 9/10/2008 @ 2:45 pm
Obama is dumb…..he’s a product of affirmative action…..his entire educational career has been a pass…..so has his political career.
This is the first time he’s ever had to struggle for anything important.
Comment by Increase Mather — 9/10/2008 @ 2:43 pm
So let’s hear about your great accomplishments you racist pig.
Harvard? U.S. Senate? Please share.
Comment by jharp — 9/10/2008 @ 2:47 pm
That blog entry reads like a lot of the comments here. You can’t miss that wishful-thinking-if-I- say-it-smartly-enough-I’ll-make-it-true tone of desperation.
More shining of cow chips.
Next.
Comment by Peter — 9/10/2008 @ 2:49 pm
jharp -
Not ready for prime time my ass.
– Agreed. Your ass is not ready for prime time.
Did you not watch them both speak at their respective conventions?
– No . . . we’re all just pretending that we did. You caught us. We go sit in the box and we feel shame.
Obama did it all himself.
– It’s all his fault.
No $100 million backing from a beer heiress.
– He doesn’t have $100 million? The all-time fundraising champ?
No daddy commander in the navy
– That sums up McCain’s career in the Navy: 23 years, no hard work.
Kind of did it the American way. He earned it.
– How exactly do you earn the backing of the Chicago machine?
Seems republicans have a real feel for the folks that inherit their good fortune.
– I guess he inherited his 26 year record of accomplishments in Congress as well.
Kind of like most republicans have done themselves.
– That’s a huge huge chunk of the population that’s been very lucky.
Comment by Icy Truth — 9/10/2008 @ 2:51 pm
Hey jharp, I don’t know if you got the memo, but since Palin has been named VP, the right is allowed to be as racist as they want now, because any interest or curiosity or need for answers (in 8 weeks) from a woman who might be President is sexist.
You can put a lipstick on the racist wing of the Right wing, but it’s still a pig.
Comment by Peter — 9/10/2008 @ 2:52 pm
And if the old man can stay awake it should be fun to watch.
– Drink lots of coffee and you should be alright.
But keep a piss-jar handy so that you don’t have to leave the room; you don’t want to miss any of the Messiah’s gaffes.
Comment by Icy Truth — 9/10/2008 @ 2:58 pm
What’s up with this Biden Eagleton Moment today? Was this just Biden being Biden, IOW goofy, or was it signalling a change as the campaign is going down the tubes?
Comment by daleyrocks — 9/10/2008 @ 3:21 pm
harp, I think the debates are going to determine the election. I also think Obama has serious problems with spontaneous situations. One suggestion that would be fun to watch would be for Sarah to walk out for the third debate saying that she wanted to put to rest the concern about being able to take over. I think he would have a meltdown.
You are probably too young to recall the Reagan Mondale debate. The big difference is that Mondale was a classy guy.
Comment by Mike K — 9/10/2008 @ 3:24 pm
“harp, I think the debates are going to determine the election”
Cannot disagree. And on the issues, something that has yet to come up, most Americans favor Obama’s position which is a huge edge. And again, I gotta give the GOP credit for completely obfuscating the issues.
And for that matter I give em credit for stealing Obama’s campaign slogan, “change”.
Even after voting alongside Bush 90% of time.
The American electorate are extraordinary stupid. A bad sign no matter who wins.
And I’m old enough to remember the Reagan Mondale debate.
Comment by jharp — 9/10/2008 @ 3:47 pm
Mike K — Oh, my.
Comment by htom — 9/10/2008 @ 3:54 pm
“Kind of like most republicans have done themselves.
– That’s a huge huge chunk of the population that’s been very lucky.”
Not really. They made a very wise decision to pander to the snake handlers which has won them a lot of elections.
Even though they have no intent of actually doing anything more than lip service for them.
Comment by jharp — 9/10/2008 @ 4:04 pm
jharp -
The American electorate are extraordinary stupid. A bad sign no matter who wins.
– What a surprise! jharp is a liberal elitist. A leftist science fiction writer posted the exact same sentiment (the general public is too stupid to know what’s good for them) on his blog today. Great minds slime alike.
Comment by Icy Truth — 9/10/2008 @ 4:06 pm
Even after voting alongside Bush 90% of time.
As compared to BHO whose purported intellectual superiority can only manage to vote “present” most of the time.
Comment by Perfect Sense — 9/10/2008 @ 4:07 pm
“The American electorate are extraordinary stupid.”
Does this mean that you’re including yourself in that category?
Comment by Dmac — 9/10/2008 @ 4:28 pm
#38 – Peter
You can put a lipstick on the racist wing of the Right wing, but it’s still a pig.
– Peter Griffin: This country needs more immigrants like my cousin Peter the Pig needs a new house.
Comment by Icy Truth — 9/10/2008 @ 4:55 pm
Even after voting alongside Bush 90% of time.
I wasn’t aware Bush voted in the Senate.
Comment by Anon — 9/10/2008 @ 4:59 pm
Has there ever been such an immature major party presidential candidate?
Comment by Daryl Herbert — 9/10/2008 @ 5:06 pm
They don’t have to pander to “the snake handlers” on anything at all… except replacing a couple of judges who believe in things like “a penumbra” and “using foreign law as precedent”.
Comment by Al — 9/10/2008 @ 7:41 pm
The American electorate are extraordinary stupid.
Especially those who don’t know when to use the adverbial form.
Obama will be helpless in the debates (hence his avoidance of town halls) without a teleprompter. Jharp is right, all McCain needs to do is stay awake. The registered-D missus watched both Hillary’s and Obama’s convention speeches and declared: “The Democracts fooked up”.
Obama hit a 3-point shot once upon a time. Sarah won a state title.
And where’s the lovely, scowly Michelle? We all saw her clenching her jaw during Hillary’s convention speech — she must have been cracking molar enamel during Sarah’s speech.
Comment by furious — 9/10/2008 @ 8:56 pm