Obama the Bully
[Guest post by DRJ]
CNBC Media and Technology Editor Dennis Kneale thinks President Obama has displayed a “striking lack of civility” that makes him a bully. Obama attacks everyone who disagrees with him and nags or lectures the rest. And he has no problem criticizing Arizona simply because its elected officials, with broad public support, enacted a law Obama disagrees with:
“Can you remember any other modern President, wagging a finger from on high, so directly and bitterly criticizing a new law passed by any state?
This is hubris at best and ignorance of the Constitution at worst. The U.S. was founded in part on the precept of states’ rights as an important counterweight to a rapacious federal government. Thus a President must step softly here, questioning gently but avoiding rancor and browbeating.
The new state law itself is disturbing, even detestable, and I don’t like it. It forces immigrants to carry with them proof of their legal status and lets cops demand to see the “papers” of anyone (read: any foreign-looking person) to make sure he didn’t sneak into the country. It smacks of Nazis in the Jewish ghetto in Poland.
But it is the law, and Arizona’s people duly elected the legislators who voted for it. They acted, moreover, on an issue the feds clearly have botched—immigration—and are trying to protect the state’s citizens from an influx of drug-cartel violence from Mexico.
Rather than trash an entire state, Bam could have privately lobbied Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and urged her to veto the bill. Or he could have said, simply, that he hoped to pass better solutions at the federal level.
That would have been statesmanlike, but this President gets pouty whenever anyone dares to disagree with him. He seems to view dissension not as healthy public debate but as a suspicious, pernicious challenge to his omnipotence and popularity.”
Obama likewise attacked the Supreme Court Justices — to their faces — despite the fact they together represent the supreme law of the land. Further, Obama has no problem offering blanket critiques of police officers, corporate leaders, Wall Street, or anyone who isn’t a community organizer or labor union member.
The worst part, according to Kneale? We’re getting used to it.
H/T Eric Blair.
— DRJ
what’s interesting about all these complaints that legal aliens will have to carry their “papers” with them at all times is, that’s what Federal law already requires.
cry me a freaking river: if the usual suspects hadn’t gone out of their way to aid, abet and encourage illegal immigration, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.
FOAD.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:16 pmIf we locked up all of those that were ignorant of the law…why, there’d be no more traffic conjestion, or lines at the market.
AD - RtR/OS! (2ebc1d) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:25 pmAnd that’s just counting the people who are in the media and government.
Why shouldn’t we be used to it, Obama gives a major speech about once a fortnight and he pretty much always makes at least one attack on “those who would divide this country for political advantage”? What is precious is the response Kneale got.
max (2f2a28) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:29 pmEven this guy says: “The new state law itself is disturbing, even detestable …”
He insulted the law worse than Obama. So his point is that the president can’t give his opinion on a law?
What drivel.
I thought Obama’s comments on this steaming pile of law were rather mild.
Myron (a79d53) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:42 pmDRJ – It is pretty clear that erecting strawmen and then savaging them is one of Barcky’s favorite tactics. He uses that repeatedly.
Notice how calling political opponents Nazis is alright when it is the left doing it?
JD (c1a2b8) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:43 pmApparently Myron cannot tell the difference between an editor and the President of the United States. Maybe, just maybe, different standards apply to them.
JD (c1a2b8) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:50 pmSo, if “papers” are required in my home state, I guess we won’t be seeing Barry here any time soon. Ha ha! there. I said it, like a crazy lunatic birther. I am without relent. Seriously, has it come to this? We have the poorly educated mayor of a bankrupt city (Phil “irregardless” Gordon/Phoenix) suing an insolvent state over a law confirming that illegals are illegal. Plus, a representative Grijalva (spelling?) actively campaigning for people to boycott his own state. Wonder who he’s looking out for?
gazzer (7588eb) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:52 pmFWIW, I find it at least mildly encouraging that someone on a network other than Fox made this point.
MD in Philly (0f793a) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:53 pmI’ve seen lots more of Obama’s bully than I would ever have expected. It’s a quality he effectively concealed even through the inauguration, I think. But I’m certainly not getting “used” to it in the sense of accepting it, nor am I likely to.
Beldar (0ccd9e) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:53 pmBTW, people only ever become bullies when they remain unchallenged-something we learn in school. For Barry, those days are coming to an end.
gazzer (7588eb) — 4/27/2010 @ 9:56 pmI hate that guy.
Arizona Bob (e8af2b) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:05 pmObama’s bullying fires up his base. Witness Myron’s reappearance here after the health care debacle.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:05 pmSo when Sarah Palin uses the phrase “death panels” it is somehow over the top, but when immigration supporters and left-wing trash use phrases like “Nazi” it is all part of acceptable discourse?
JVW (08e86a) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:13 pmEven the commentator who is criticizing Obama makes it obvious, by his description of the law, that he has not read it.
George (3895f7) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:13 pmJVW – Yes. Exactly. And you know why? Because telling the truth about something is verboten. Orszag just confirmed that not only are the “death panels” there, but they will be an important tool to manage costs, and dictate rationing. Truth telling is bad. Calling name, and ginning up the breathless outrage that the left so dearly loves is alright, just fine, dandy even. Ironic that very recently the left was all atwitter about how words like Nazi could provoke violence, and that people should be very very very careful about their rhetoric. Apparently, that only applies to some.
JD (c1a2b8) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:18 pmObama attacks everyone who disagrees with him and nags or lectures the rest.
He’s pretty much mentally defective when it comes to basic wisdom and good judgment. He’s been ass backwards about so many issues and controversies, time and time again.
His scoffing at Arizona reminds me of his denouncing Honduras last year when its government prevented the ex-ultra-leftwing president from defying laws that had been instituted to stop coups. So in Obama’s altered reality, he had the gall to accuse Hondurans of staging a coup against their tricky, strong-arm president.
Again, Obama wears his ass backwards.
Mark (411533) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:32 pmIt is encouraging, MD in Philly, although it was CNBC’s Rick Santelli who first called out Americans to stand up to Obama like the first Tea Party patriots. Compared to Santelli, Kneale is practically an Obama supporter.
DRJ (09fa6c) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:32 pmWisdom from my Mom the school teacher:
“Behavior you tolerate you get more of”
–Applies to Presidential bullies
–Applies to illegals sneaking over the border
–Applies to threadjacking trolls
–Applies to lots of situations
elissa (b8aaf9) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:35 pmare trying to protect the state’s citizens from an influx of drug-cartel violence from Mexico.
It would be nice to move the Oval Office and, for that matter, the offices of other various upper-echelon politicians in DC (or Sacramento, San Francisco, etc, too) — certainly if they’re like Pelosi, Boxer, Reid, etc — to a location near the US-Mexico border. Such wonderful, caring, heartfelt idealists — in all their sincerity — deserve nothing but the best.
Mark (411533) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:42 pmObama has no problem offering blanket critiques of police officers, corporate leaders, Wall Street, or anyone who isn’t a community organizer or labor union member.
Or the Tyrant ruler of a foreign nation.
Socratease (02c2d9) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:52 pmIt turns out that Jennifer Rubin over at the Contentions blog is making pretty much the same point that Kneale made, without the rear-end-covering bashing of the new Arizona law.
JVW (08e86a) — 4/27/2010 @ 10:59 pmPeter Wehner joins Rubin in criticizing President Obama’s rhetoric.
DRJ (09fa6c) — 4/27/2010 @ 11:04 pmOnly the Progs could get so upset about people actually enforcing laws. How bloody inconvenient to their social agenda.
Yes, this law is discriminatory. It discriminates against people who flout the laws of this country and are here illegally.
All laws are discriminatory that way. Is it discriminatory to check my ID when I write a check at the grocery store? Is it discriminatory to check my ID when I make a withdrawal at the bank? I guess if I’m Hispanic it is?
People painting this as some sort of precursor to another Kristallnacht are just idiots. This is not anti-immigrant, it’s anti-ILLEGAL immigrant.
What’s funny is that Mexico has some of the most restrictive and discriminatory immigration laws in the world. These tools need to STFU.
Steve B (5eacf6) — 4/27/2010 @ 11:11 pmFox…it is somewhat amusing (if not infuriating) that Brit Hume seems to have drunk the Beltway Kook-Aid on the AZ law.
AD - RtR/OS! (2ebc1d) — 4/27/2010 @ 11:59 pm“Kook-Aid” was a typo…but, now I’m not so sure.
AD - RtR/OS! (2ebc1d) — 4/27/2010 @ 11:59 pmObama has no idea what he is doing. He claims to be a Constitutional Professor and yet he doesn’t understand the basic job responsibility of his position. Expressed Powers According to Article II, Section 2, the President shall: care that the laws be faithfully executed. And yet he admonishes the Az Gov. This guy is really an embarrassment to our country.
BB (34976e) — 4/28/2010 @ 1:39 amRemember November…………….
krusher (2cfaaa) — 4/28/2010 @ 2:42 amNot only a bully, but a cowardly bully. Eventually, someone is going to give him a public, well-deserved, slap down, and we’ll get to cheer.
htom (412a17) — 4/28/2010 @ 7:25 amOf course Obama opposes the AZ law, it has broad public support.
Can’t let that sort of thing take root, it might get out of hand. Voters could even try sticking their noses into public policy decisions disrupting the proper administration of fundamental transformation.
ropelight (a47510) — 4/28/2010 @ 9:12 am“Kook-Aid” was a typo…but, now I’m not so sure.
Comment by AD – RtR/OS! — 4/27/2010 @ 11:59 pm
“Kook-Aid” does exist, sorta. I dunno if you’re old enough to remember Wacky Packages from the early ’70s. I chewed a lotta bad gum to get those stickers.
L.N. Smithee (b1df03) — 4/28/2010 @ 10:57 amComment by L.N. Smithee — 4/28/2010 @ 10:57 am
Didn’t know about that…LOL!
AD - RtR/OS! (ecaeda) — 4/28/2010 @ 11:39 amBut, I’m quite sure that’s a portrait of Moron on the cover of that package.
As Steve B. pointed out, you can’t go much of anywhere in this country without having to show an I.D. And usually, it’s picture I.D. You can’t board a plane, train or ship, cash a check in any store. I even had to show a picture I.D. the other day to have my food x-rayed! I’m so sick of hearing about “racial profiling” like the ones crossing our southern borders illegally are blonde with blue eyes? If I have to always have I.D. with me everywhere I go, why is it too inconvenient for aliens?
jwarner (0a2a75) — 4/28/2010 @ 12:15 pmApparently Myron cannot tell the difference between an editor and the President of the United States
Sure he can, JD – remember, he works in the journalism profession. Witness his remarks in the later LAT thread about how some remarks might have “got put in there.” Jimmy Olsen would be embarrased, I think.
Dmac (21311c) — 4/28/2010 @ 1:20 pmAnd from an alternate universe. . . this book.
Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc) — 4/28/2010 @ 1:38 pmHA!
Dmac (21311c) — 4/28/2010 @ 3:27 pm“As Steve B. pointed out, you can’t go much of anywhere in this country without having to show an I.D.”
jwarner – Voting and illegal immigrants are the two places I think of that Democrats resist identification requirements most strenuously. Is there some kind of linkage?
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 4/28/2010 @ 5:11 pmPlus, we’re seeing the fiercely independent thinking left once again demonstrating its mass epistemic closure over this Arizona law.
Up is down
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 4/28/2010 @ 5:19 pmBlack is white
Day is night
Liberals are bug nucking futz
I hate to admit Raul Grijalva is the rep for my district. I refuse to call him my representative. Hopefully he will be voted out in November.
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 4/28/2010 @ 5:25 pmIf Kneale thinks we’re getting used to it he’s Knuts! This time it’s serious!
Walnlar
Wallnlar (af6431) — 4/28/2010 @ 6:49 pm