Mark Steyn on Obama, the Unengaged President
[Guest post by DRJ]
Mark Steyn’s most recent essay is The Unengaged President, and he isn’t talking about whether our President is available or not:
“Stanley McChrystal is a liberal who voted for Obama and banned Fox News from his HQ TV. Which may at least partly explain how he became the first U.S. general to be lost in combat while giving an interview to Rolling Stone: They’ll be studying that one in war colleges around the world for decades. The executives of BP were unable to vote for Obama, being, as we now know, the most sinister duplicitous bunch of shifty Brits to pitch up offshore since the War of 1812. But, in their “Beyond Petroleum” marketing and beyond, they signed on to every modish nostrum of the eco-Left. Their recently retired chairman, Lord Browne, was one of the most prominent promoters of cap-and-trade. BP was the Democrats’ favorite oil company. They were to Obama what Total Fina Elf was to Saddam.
But what do McChrystal’s and BP’s defenestration tell us about the president of the United States? Barack Obama is a thin-skinned man and, according to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, White House aides indicated that what angered the president most about the Rolling Stone piece was “a McChrystal aide saying that McChrystal had thought that Obama was not engaged when they first met last year.” If finding Obama “not engaged” is now a firing offense, who among us is safe?”
Then again, maybe it is about whether Obama is available. He doesn’t seem to be doing that much.
(And read the whole thing.)
— DRJ
Imagine how much more he could f@ck things up if he was engaged.
JD (53a6ca) — 6/26/2010 @ 9:10 pmEar Leader is a whiny little punk a55 biatch.
my cats have more balls, and they’re neutered.
oh yeah, and one more thing:
I TOLD YOU SO!
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 6/26/2010 @ 9:16 pmMcChrystal put troops in harms way by his policies. I am not sorry to see him go. The entire mission is on a slippery slope.
Arizona Bob (e8af2b) — 6/26/2010 @ 9:48 pmBeing “engaged” means accepting things the way they really are, not as you would hope they would be in order to conform to your little campaign nostrums. Obama — the guy who thought that he could soothe radical Islamists just by the force of his awesome demeanor and dazzling intellect — isn’t the first liberal to think that everything is going to fall in line as long as he hews to the policy solutions proscribed by Ivy League faculty clubs and newspaper editorial boards. For a group that used to like to consider themselves part of the “reality-based community,” they really are blind to the reality of our situation.
JVW (8aff2c) — 6/26/2010 @ 11:18 pmBump, bump, bump — another thrown under the bus!
Bump, bump, bump — another thrown under the bus!
And another one falls, and another one falls;
Another thrown under the bus!
Hey! Gonna get ya too — another thrown under the bus!
Look out!
Icy Texan (4c62c0) — 6/27/2010 @ 3:07 amThat argument’s been going on forever (ok, since Caesar’s invasion of Spain), and the evidence is on the side of the conventional war strategy. Taking out enemies clandestinally is fine, but you win the war with hobnailed-booted troops occupying enemy territory, directing traffic, and making the enemy pay their taxes.
nk (db4a41) — 6/27/2010 @ 3:25 am“clandestinely*
nk (db4a41) — 6/27/2010 @ 3:38 amTrue except the likes of Mithridates of Pontus, (modern day Turkey)kept the Romans tied up for the better part of 40 years, in part occasioning the
ian cormac (7bb4f2) — 6/27/2010 @ 5:54 amRoman Social (Civil) War of the early 1st century
BC, Marius had a similar problem with Jugurtha a generation before
I think Obama was running to be the VP and never expected to be President.
bradnsa (4c9195) — 6/27/2010 @ 6:46 amThank you, Jugurtha is likely the better example.
nk (db4a41) — 6/27/2010 @ 6:51 amI think you might have been thinking of his campaign in Gaul, against Vercintorix, in any case
ian cormac (7bb4f2) — 6/27/2010 @ 7:09 amthere’s nothing new under the son, except they didn’t have the Latin equivalent of Rolling Stone
red – Hairballs don’t count.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 6/27/2010 @ 9:20 amJD raise good point
ColonelHaiku (181d1a) — 6/27/2010 @ 9:36 ammaybe best strategy keep
O disengaged
“Stanley McChrystal is a liberal who voted for Obama and banned Fox News from his HQ TV…. BP was the Democrats’ favorite oil company.
Not too many people in the media have noted the rich irony of and schadenfreude-type symbolism surrounding Obama’s recent major controversies and symbolic gashes emanating from generally politically/socially friendly sources.
Mark (411533) — 6/27/2010 @ 9:50 amSome of Julius Caesar’s tactics in Gaul are now frowned upon, such as cutting off the hands of tens of thousands of prisoners.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/27/2010 @ 10:25 amHis ROE was, shall we say, overly dogmatic?
Dmac (ab1849) — 6/27/2010 @ 10:31 amOh yeah, our POTUS is still a huge puss – puss. Big surprise. Watch what happens when he loses his congressional majorities – infants will appear less whiney and petulant than this guy.
Dmac (ab1849) — 6/27/2010 @ 10:32 amhaiku know stanley
ColonelHaiku (181d1a) — 6/27/2010 @ 10:35 amDmac think he dogmatic?
maybe he screw pooch?
This short linked article about another Illinois politician, (also a poseur with an over-developed sense of self) may offer some insights into Obama himself. Obama, too, was always looking ahead to his next gig while not doing a very good job with his current one.
Reasonable people can argue about whether O was originally only going for VP at the beginning of the campaign but got swept to the presidency along with the tide, or if he always had unrealistic expectations about his own talents and what all being the nation’s chief executive would entail. Whatever the case, his aloof dis-engagement with policy matters, his slow actions attending to emergencies, and especially his demeanor of late, all suggest he is not enjoying himself unless he is on the golf course or at a concert–and suggest that he is feeling very overwhelmed by how *hard* and generally *un-fun* it is to be POTUS. I have no doubt he also dreams of doing something “else”.
Now granted, Blago is a singular head case, but never forget that Mr. Obama is from the very same political swamp that Blagojovich called home and operated in.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/blagojevich/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-0627-20100626,0,6203874.story
elissa (7df0ad) — 6/27/2010 @ 10:52 amElissa, when my friends from other states insisted on telling me how awesome Obama was during the election, I vainly attempted to explain that he was the fruit of the poisonous tree, etc. No one listened because no one cared – that famous axiom of “none are so blind than those who refuse to see” applies perfectly to the media and the general electorate. They projected their own fantasies onto their Rorshack Test of a candidate, so anything interrupting their daydreams was summarily dismissed.
Dmac (ab1849) — 6/27/2010 @ 12:01 pmelissa, my own impression of Obama’s career is that he’s never worked very hard at anything and certainly not for stretches of more than a few months at a time.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/27/2010 @ 12:03 pmAs far as ‘running for VP’ goes, considering the actions of the Chicago gang in bussing vast quantities of ringers into every caucus-based primary and the various shenanigans that took place at said caucuses; I’d have to say he was in it to win it.
Maybe he would have been okay with VP if he never got traction or if his cheating didn’t go over so well; but he entered with intent to win.
(and winning popularity contests is what Obama has done best for his entire life.)
luagha (404f57) — 6/27/2010 @ 12:11 pmWould that national security secrets could be kept as well as ear leader’s scholastic records and how his education was paid for over the years, not to mention that elusive birth certificate. Funny how friendly judges and media have no problem kissing O’s ass and releasing seven of nine’s sealed divorce court records to benefit the junior senator. The Chicago Way certainly benefits the good old USA. I suppose WH coverage will go back to ass-licking levels once taxpayers subsidize the media and they become official house organs for the Dem party.
aoibhneas (6e9f23) — 6/27/2010 @ 12:37 pmWe’d all be better off if President Puss Puss Wee Wee Obama put it neutral and coasted the rest of the way to November 2012, not doing a damned thing except maybe disturbing the earthworms under the fairways at Burning Tree Golf Club.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 6/27/2010 @ 1:59 pmElissa is spot on. Obama is overwhelmed. What a surprise.
cassandra in MT (c6a1d3) — 6/27/2010 @ 2:10 pmI’m wondering if the recent spate of golfing isn’t an indication of a psychotic break. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad for the rest of us, I suppose it depends on whether he comes down closer to the real world or to his dream world.
htom (412a17) — 6/27/2010 @ 3:39 pmLeftists are most dangerous to other leftists.
Mao and Stalin killed millions of communists.
Amphipolis (e01538) — 6/27/2010 @ 3:51 pmThe other day, Hillbuzz was asking who is your bellwether when it comes to Obama’s support among blacks. In my case it’s my coworker. She’s had a photo of the Obama family on her wall since the day after the election. It fell once and she freaked out, then she found it on the floor right under where it had hung. I think when she finally takes that dang picture down I’ll know his odiousness is truly out there and known.
Vivian Louise (643333) — 6/27/2010 @ 4:27 pmhaiku think VL
ColonelHaiku (181d1a) — 6/27/2010 @ 4:37 pmbetter not be holding breath
while waiting for that
*claps* I got my own haiku!!
Vivian Louise (643333) — 6/27/2010 @ 5:30 pmI’m surprized at what appears to be the recent disappearing of the various Obama bumper stickers; some magic glue that they’d fall off after two years on a bumper? Obama supporters (government employees?) buying/leasing new cars, dealers cleaning the older ones?
htom (412a17) — 6/27/2010 @ 6:04 pmHillbuzz was asking who is your bellwether when it comes to Obama’s support among blacks.
Another reminder of just how philosophically corrupt (or screwed up) far too many liberals are was run home to me after watching a Youtube video of a rightwing version of Al Sharpton. The minister in question was ranting about how lousy Obama was, alluding to bisexual scandals involving the guy.
Although I agree with the minister’s ideological slant, I was turned off because he was spewing in such an over-the-top, hot-headed manner. IOW, he was a variation of Sharpton—but at least devoid of the nonsense of leftist thinking, and, most crucially, minus all the Tawana-Brawley type scandals linked to Sharpton’s name.
In spite of that, I still found myself wanting to hold the conservative minister at arm’s length, not being totally sure about his credibility and reliability. IOW, is he too extreme and inflammatory?
That’s when I realized — all over again — just how bankrupt so many liberals are, particularly the ones in the press and throughout the Democrat Party. I’m referring to the people who gladly suck up to Al Sharpton, time and time again. For example, a liberal columnist in today’s Washington Post who commented how good it was that some recent winning Republican candidates from South Carolina happen to be black. Of course, the writer wrinkles his nose about such politicians’ conservatism. Moreover, he got a quote from — surprise, surprise — Al Sharpton to put the situation in perspective (“reactionary blacks”). The same Sharpton who continues to be feated by virtually every major Democrat politician, including Bill and Hillary, and given a place of honor by the Democrat Party.
Bleech.
Mark (411533) — 6/27/2010 @ 6:06 pmlast obama sticker
ColonelHaiku (181d1a) — 6/27/2010 @ 6:09 pmI see on old ford next to
sh*tty car club one
Good friends of mine still have a Bush Cheney bumper sticker on their ’03—–wait for it———Volvo. (Yeah, they really do like to f**k with people.)
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lidadaidaihua (4629b8) — 7/8/2010 @ 2:02 am