Patterico's Pontifications

11/14/2013

Obama: Sure, We Screwed This Up, But MAN! Am I Ever Working Hard!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:15 pm



Today’s epic speechifying on health care was remarkable on several levels. But I think the most sickening part was listening to this clown talking about how hard he works:

And in terms of the impact on me — I think to some extent I addressed it when I talked to Julie (sp) — you know, there are going to be ups and downs during the course of my presidency. And, you know, I think I said early on when I was running, I am not a perfect man and I will not be a perfect president, but I’ll wake up every single day working as hard as I can on behalf of Americans out there from every walk of life who are working hard, meeting their responsibilities but sometimes are struggling because the way the system works isn’t giving them a fair shot.

And — and that pledge I haven’t broken. That commitment, that promise continues to be — continues to hold; the promise that I wouldn’t be perfect, number one, but also the promise that as long as I’ve got the honor of having this office, I’m just going to work as hard as I can to make things better for folks.

Permit me, if you will, a rare profanity.

Bullshit.

Here, for your reference, is Obama’s interview with Chuck Todd.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

At 10:45, we hear more about the HARD WORK he is doing: “We are working every single day, 24/7, to improve it.”

24/7! You hear me? He is working 24/7!

Now here is the good part. Here is a transcript. Watch at 18:49:

Just because this was important and I was saying this was my top priority. And I was meeting with folks once a month telling ‘em, ‘Make sure this works.’

Wow! He was meeting with “folks” once a month! HE IS WORKING AS HARD AS HE CAN!!!!!

Obama has now played 150 rounds of golf. He has been President since January 20, 2009. That’s about 62 months. That’s more than two rounds of golf every month.

So he’s meeting with “folks” about the health care Web site once a month, and playing golf more than twice a month.

It gets worse. His rounds of golf last six hours. Do you figure the health care meetings lasted six hours every month? I’ll bet my house they didn’t.

I have said this before: I work harder than this guy does. My colleagues work harder than this guy does. The folks who clean our building work harder than this guy does. No joke. And we all get paid less. And we don’t have even the tiniest fraction of responsibility that he has.

Mr. Obama, you get to live in a fancy house. People wait on you hand and foot. You owe us hard work in return. We’re not getting it. Don’t try to tell us we are.

You know, Mr. President, it’s bad enough that you screwed this up, and real people are suffering as a result. We really don’t need to hear about how hard you’re working on it . . . when you can manage to squeeze in the time between rounds of golf. We really don’t.

74 Responses to “Obama: Sure, We Screwed This Up, But MAN! Am I Ever Working Hard!”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Don’t you trust him to fix his screw up?

    AZ Bob (ade845)

  3. And I was meeting with folks once a month telling ‘em, ‘Make sure this works.’

    Telling people what to do is hard work, ‘specially since Obama can’t write code and do it himself, because then everything would’ve worked out great or something.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  4. On the other hand, if he really did work hard and had a brain just imagine how much more damage he’d be doing to our nation and its future…

    in_awe (7c859a)

  5. It’s all about him. It’s always all about him.

    Peeuu.

    I’d be disgusted by the guy even if I liked his politics.

    Mark (58ea35)

  6. He said, “work as hard as I can” and “working as hard as I can”. Maybe this is as hard as he can work. Not everybody is an 80-pound lifter.

    I intended to point out, sarcastically, the weaselry in “as I can” when I started the comment. But now I’m afraid that it is a true confession. He is lazy and interested only in eating his waffle.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. Remember how he was going to calm the oceans, heal the planet, get everyone to hold hands and sing Kumbaya and give everyone a Skittle pooping Unicorn because he was the LightWorker? Or how he was focused “laser-like” on creating jobs and getting the economy going again? Any other job, and this clown, and his entire staff and cabinet, would have been pink-slipped and escorted out of the building. But, since he’s a product of “affirmative action”, we have to give him a second, third or fourth chance to get it right (which will NEVER happen).

    Preezy Narcissus is trying to polish a turd and sell it to the American people… and we see it as being a turd. The 2014 midterms should be interesting… and for King Putt I’d be praying that the GOP doesn’t get a majority in the House and Senate.

    Teh Infidel Mataween (ff5655)

  8. Burn.

    Former Conservative (6e026c)

  9. Folk you obama.

    mg (31009b)

  10. The Cubs pitching staff works harder than this guy does.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  11. Frankly, I wish he’d work less. Or retire.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  12. And I was meeting with folks once a month telling ‘em, ‘Make sure this works.’

    This guy is straight out of Dilbert. The contractors were thinking “I sure hope we cash all the checks before they find out.”

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  13. Is it true 70% of the people signed up are porn stars?

    mg (31009b)

  14. working as hard as I can

    This language, or this concept, that how good a job you do depends on how hard you work, which Barack Obama uses in other contexts too, comes straight from Bill Clinton.

    But Bill Clinton knows it is a lie.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  15. By the way, Barack Obama didn’t claim to be working hard on the website, or Obamacare, but, as you can see:

    on behalf of Americans

    to make things better for folks.

    He’s referring to his presidency in general.

    More specifically, he said, his work is to:

    identify the problems that we’ve got, make sure that we’re fixing them

    around the priorities that the American people care about.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  16. He’s not the only person who works hard

    The military personnel and USAID team do this better than anybody in the world

    And why are they better?

    they’ve been already on the ground working tirelessly

    Hard and long.

    organizations are also working.

    “We”, meaning other people * , are working 24/7 to get the website working.

    * Here is proof Obama does not include himself in “we”:

    I’m accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying, this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity a week before the website opens if I thought that it wasn’t going to work. So clearly, we and I did not have enough awareness about the problems in the website. Even a week into it, the thinking was that these were some glitches that would be fixed with patches, as opposed to some broader systemic problems that took much longer to fix and we’re still working on them.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  17. Working in a coal mine, going down, down, down…

    Colonel Haiku (425909)

  18. President Maynard G. Krebs. Period.

    Colonel Haiku (425909)

  19. and teh harder He works, teh luckier He gets!

    Colonel Haiku (425909)

  20. I’ll never be your beast of burden

    pdbuttons (3f6db1)

  21. I think Sarah Palin, the Imbecile, will make hay in the 2014 cycle simply by pointing out that the people who told us Sarah Palin was an imbecile are the very same clowns who swore Barack Obama was a lightwkrker.

    Brendon Carr (8b49e0)

  22. Barack Hussein Obama is the chief executive officer of the federal government; I don’t expect him to write code or do the detailed work. But I do expect him to lead and manage his minions subordinates. When he tells us that he was meeting, once a month, with his minions, telling them that this was his top priority, and to make sure this was going to work properly, that’s actually what a chief executive officer would be doing, though one could quibble about the frequency of the meetings.

    But if the President was telling the truth — nk, stop laughing! — then there are only three possibilities:

    1 – He was really not very interested in what his subordinates were telling him;
    2 – He was interested, but his subordinates were hiding the fact that the roll out was FUBAR; or
    3 – He was interested, and his subordinates were telling him that this was fouled up, but he was going to lie through his scummy teeth anyway until after the Republicans were beaten on the defunding.

    Am I the only one who thinks that if he had kept Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, this never would have happened?

    The businessman Dana (3e4784)

  23. Mr Finkelman pointed out:

    working as hard as I can

    This language, or this concept, that how good a job you do depends on how hard you work, which Barack Obama uses in other contexts too, comes straight from Bill Clinton.

    And so, in business, what do we do with someone who really is working as hard as he can at his assigned tasks, but still can’t get the job done right?

    The businessman Dana (3e4784)

  24. Barack’s working hard even now
    With sweat dripping off of his brow
    But his luck ran out
    With the roll out
    Fix this? He’s still wondering how!

    The Limerick Avenger (3e4784)

  25. teh president sez that he’s tryin’
    but peeps without docs, they ain’t buyin’
    cuz if He calls this “work”
    He is one clueless jerk
    and on this, screwed teh pooch, left it cryin’

    Colonel Haiku (1cfc51)

  26. “We are working every single day, 24/7, to improve it.”

    This is about the Obamacare website. Didn’t President Jerkoff say the very same things about jobs?

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/24/president-obama-is-on-his-19th-jobs-pivot/

    President Obama Is on His 19th Jobs ‘Pivot’

    I think to square the circle Tiger Beat needs to fly off on a vay-cay/fundraiser/golf outing and make a speech in which he b****es about how the folks in Washington need to get to work.

    Steve57 (338553)

  27. in the past He was called Teh ChoomMaster
    but as Prez He’s a fu*king disaster
    amotivational syndrome has He
    on display for all world to see
    throw bum out, would they please do it faster?!?!

    Colonel Haiku (879b60)

  28. How can the Colonel write ’bout tryin’
    Our Prez is, even if we ain’t buyin’
    ‘Twas a good start
    Of his rhyming art
    But he should have used the word lyin’.

    The Limerick Avenger (3e4784)

  29. Trucks are coming back
    And I have concrete to load
    Must stop surfin’ net.

    The Senryu Avenger (3e4784)

  30. teh idiots that support Him, what do they seek?
    cuz This Fuggin’ Guy’s left us up Sh*t Creek
    and we don’t have a paddle
    let’s give Him a saddle
    schlep his donkey outta town, he’s got one week

    Colonel Haiku (cd8c27)

  31. One cup of coffee don’t do it
    if I had coca leaf I would chew it
    Avenger had me sighin’
    so obvious was “lyin’ ”
    must now fall on sword cuz I blew it

    Colonel Haiku (7865e7)

  32. I’m glad to see him admit that promise number one is he won’t be perfect. I’s say he’s kept that promise a thousand times over.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  33. I’m glad to see him admit that promise number one is he won’t be perfect.

    2008 Barack Obama would like to have a word with 2013 Barack Obama.

    JVW (7af523)

  34. New york times editorial today:

    Obama’s repeated assertions were “wrong” It also says his statements were “erroneous” and quotes Obama’s claim that “the way I put that forward unequivocably ended up not being accurate”

    The editorial says this is a “modest fix which is “far preferable to a destructive Republican bill” and to a Senate bill “sponsored by some Democrats.”

    “But it raises a few troubling questions”

    “most of which cannot be answered quickly”

    The editorial never explains the questions, but goes on to note the limitations and notes the distinctions between that and the Upton and Landrieu bills.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  35. One of these days — when the website is STILL breaking down left & right — don’t be surprised if he gets angry and actually says “I didn’t build that!”

    Icy (226c06)

  36. Yesterday Crack Whore offered as proof that ‘He didn’t know’ the subjective palliative that “A week before the Oct. 1 launch he was talking up how wonderful it will be for Americans to shop for Healthcare”.

    The he tosses out a plan to fix without any indemnification whatsoever for anyone to evade the consequences of the law.

    http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/obama-threatens-to-veto-house-keep-your-health-plan-act/

    The WH knew in 2010 “93 Million” would lose their Health Insurance.

    What incompetence?

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  37. 36. Like Kirsten Powers and Ace said yesterday, he’s simply endorsing chaos.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  38. President Chauncey Armslegth Blameshifter says he’s trying 24/7. If I were a cartoonist, he’d be a jug-eared empty suit in a pair of golf shoes.

    Colonel Haiku (eb4f5f)

  39. I, I, I, I, ME, ME, ME, ME, I. I, I, I, I, ME, ME, ME, ME, I. I, I, I, I, ME, ME, ME, ME, I. Barry truly is the King. He’s the king of the Boomers.

    glenn (647d76)

  40. Fug me running in all 57 states!

    Colonel Haiku (eb4f5f)

  41. The President is willing to make a compromise with reality, and political necessity, but not surrender to it yet, and the Upton bill would amount to a surrender.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  42. 11. I’m rolling over in my head a new electoral litmus test.

    If a candidate comes out for having the antikChrist stand in court for his crimes tried by a jury of his peers and serve a term in a minimum security prison at a total cost of some hundreds of millions of dollars…

    then I’m not voting for them.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  43. The President is willing to make a compromise with reality, and political necessity, but not surrender to it yet…

    Yet it’s the Rethuglicans who are unreasonable. You know, in their ability to acknowledge reality.

    Steve57 (338553)

  44. “The president is willing…” sheesh, He should resign, that’s the reality.

    And speaking of “reality”, Nanski Pelosi needs Thorazine and a straightjacket.

    Colonel Haiku (90595d)

  45. Glenn Reynolds calls it as he sees it…

    “Frankly, he [Obama] doesn’t deserve to recover. He not only committed — as Marcus terms it — “political malpractice,” he also lied and then apparently sent a trillion-dollar project off to be managed without keeping tabs on it, so that it blew up in his face. At some level, I suppose, it’s not his fault that he’s utterly unqualified for the job he holds. But it is his fault that he sought it out twice, and lied to get it.”

    Colonel Haiku (90595d)

  46. So far this is my favorite line if the day. But the day is young.

    Well, here we are again—the Democrats are ‘in disarray,’ flailing on Obamacare. It’s a potent story line, but this time Obama must crack the whip, stop the panicking, and make it work.

    Has this leftist Tomasky guy never heard of the joke line, “The beatings will continue until morale improves?”
    Seriously?

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/14/the-democrats-need-to-stop-freaking-out-about-obamacare-and-take-charge.html

    elissa (6d358f)

  47. it’s more believable if you have valerie jarrett cracking the whip

    “whip-crackin with foodstamp” is kinda like “crossfittin with candy crowley”

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  48. I’m thinking about that ex-Secret Service agent who talked about how bad things really are–that the President treats his job like some shiny new toy–that things are much worse than we know.

    It’s hard to imagine things getting much worse, until you get up each day and read what other travesty Obama has engaged in.

    rochf (f3fbb0)

  49. Has this leftist Tomasky guy never heard of the joke line, “The beatings will continue until morale improves?”
    Seriously?

    elissa, this is the administration that talked about putting its boot on the neck of business. Which had a regional director of the EPA talk about perpetrating random crucifixictions as a measure to gain industry obedience.

    It’s how they roll.

    Steve57 (338553)

  50. *crucifixions*

    What can I say. Jet lag.

    Steve57 (338553)

  51. The Colonel quoted Glenn Reynolds:

    At some level, I suppose, it’s not his fault that he’s utterly unqualified for the job he holds. But it is his fault that he sought it out twice, and lied to get it.

    Uhhh, how ’bout some blame for the utter fools who voted for him?

    The voting Dana (3e4784)

  52. Ain’t enuf rope, Dana…

    Colonel Haiku (86ce72)

  53. Every time he says he is working hard, I almost expect the next line to be…I was a school nurse and I know

    (obscure reference to Lois Capps)

    Angelo (e4d31e)

  54. Crack that whip
    Give the past a slip
    Step on a crack
    Break your momma’s back

    When a problem comes along
    You must whip it
    Before the cream sets out too long
    You must whip it
    When something’s goin’ wrong
    You must whip it

    Now whip it
    Into shape
    Shape it up
    Get straight
    Go forward
    Move ahead
    Try to detect it
    It’s not too late
    To whip it
    Whip it good

    – DEVO

    felipe (70ff7e)

  55. In that vein, felipe…
    slap obammy down
    slap obammy down again

    Colonel Haiku (61a8ce)

  56. Look, he’s working hard at improving his golf game, you racists.

    Dirty Old Man (354f80)

  57. Working hard isn’t enough. You have to work smart.

    Amphipolis (d3e04f)

  58. I don’t want Obama to work hard. If he worked harder, he would be putting more effort into enacting laws and policies which presumably would be bad for the country. If Obama stopped trying to push the agenda we don’t like, wouldn’t we prefer that?

    It’s like the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Michael Moore didn’t think Bush had been validly elected in the first place. He didn’t approve of anything Bush did as president. Yet he was complaining that Bush was spending too much time on vacation. If that had been true, shouldn’t Moore have been happy that Bush was not working hard at doing things that Moore wouldn’t have liked anyway?

    Joshua (9ede0e)

  59. Why do we hear from Democrat Presidents, now and 20-years ago, about how they’re either working as hard as they can, or working harder than they’ve ever worked before?
    What did they do before becoming President, just sit on their a$$ when they weren’t otherwise occupied playing golf?

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  60. Its a way of saying they are not better skilled than others – just working harder.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  61. Comment by The businessman Dana (3e4784) — 11/15/2013 @ 4:53 am

    But if the President was telling the truth… then there are only three possibilities:

    1 – He was really not very interested in what his subordinates were telling him;
    2 – He was interested, but his subordinates were hiding the fact that the roll out was FUBAR; or
    3 – He was interested, and his subordinates were telling him that this was fouled up, but he was going to lie through his scummy teeth anyway until after the Republicans were beaten on the defunding.

    As Obama argues, he’d have to be really stupid if choice 3 was true.

    Obama seems to indicate choice 2 is closest to the truth.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/11/14/full-text-of-obamas-remarks-on-health-care-change/

    PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK. On the website, I was not informed directly that the website would not be working as — the way it was supposed to.

    But that doesn’t actually mean that anyone was lying.

    It’s the well established

    THERMOCLINE OF TRUTH

    http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/15/the-wetware-crisis-the-themocline-of-truth/

    a line drawn across the organizational chart that represents a barrier to accurate information regarding the project’s progress. Those below this level tend to know how well the project is actually going; those above it tend to have a more optimistic (if unrealistic) view.

    Actually, it’s more like an incremental process, where each layer, each person, up the chain of command adds a little bit of fudge, but Bruce F. Webster justified calling it a thermocline, because, he said, while news is fudged just a little bit between different layers of management, there is a very narrow band or point where you go from this is going to work to this is not going to work.

    A distinct layer “where the troubled/not troubled flip occurs.”

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  62. Meanwhile medical inflation continues.

    I found out that someone’s Aetna Medicare CVS prescription drug plan is going up Jan 1 from a premium of $0.00 to $24.20 a month. Other plans still offer a zero premium.

    Sammy Finkelman (d7b491)

  63. Now is a good time to go back and watch the youtube clip of the late, great Phil Hartman doing President Reagan, working as hard as he can.

    http://screen.yahoo.com/president-reagan-mastermind-000000075.html

    luagha (5cbe06)

  64. Thanks, luagha.

    nk (dbc370)

  65. 61. “As Obama argues, he’d have to be really stupid if choice 3 was true.”

    Argues? Please, even for a shameless liar like Crack Whore, his riposte was polished, without a trace of embarrassment.

    They ran this project out of the WH not CMS. That’s why they hired Canadians on a no-bid contract, its a black box.

    The contractor, days in said the software “was working as designed”.

    Embarrassed? Sorry? His aim is to destroy Healthcare, to be the only resort. What does he care if dead Kennedy’s ‘effed it up. The fact that it’s an abomination is icing on the cake.

    ‘Eff you America, sideways.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  66. 62. “Medical inflation continues”

    No sh*t Sherlock. Gas, food, rent, no basic necessities are used to compute the CPI.

    More than 90% of all loans are now student loans and car loans, sub-prime the lot.

    Student loans amount to over $1 Trillion outstanding and that level has only increased for 20 years every quarter. Education is rising at twice the rate of Healthcare.

    We are looking at huge cuts to Medicare and Medicaid after the 1st of the year. The house of cards is coming down as we speak.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  67. I don’t know where to put this but I want it to be remembered, because it proves how callously partisan the Obama Administration and the Democrats actually are about what this is doing to Americans. This is what Denis McDonough, the President’s Chief of Staff, told Democrats on Thursday, November 14, 2013, after Obama gave his speech saying he wanted people to be able to keep their insurance:

    When Denis McDonough stepped onto House Democrats’ turf on Thursday, he was armed only with a PowerPoint presentation on fixing Obamacare’s website and talking points about the president’s proposal allowing people to keep their health care plans.

    The White House chief of staff might have been better off revealing a U.S. map with the president’s plan for saving congressional Democrats’ seats — or just apologizing for letting so many Democrats walk out in public and repeat wildly inaccurate White House claims about the health of the enrollment website and Americans’ ability to keep their insurance plans if they liked them.
    ***
    Congressional Democrats are on the line in 2014. Many of them voted for Obamacare, defended it in 2010 and will have to stand in front of voters next year and explain the problems.
    ***
    McDonough, speaking privately to Democrats in a closed session Thursday afternoon, said the president’s hands were tied, to an extent, in trying to move the policy to fit his promise.

    “We do not have a deal where everyone who has received a cancellation notice that they can re-buy. We can’t mandate that,” he said, according to sources present. But, he argued, the new policy shifts the burden for cancellations to state insurance commissioners and insurance companies — an important political distinction. If a tea party Republican contends that someone lost his or her insurance because of the law, McDonough said “that is absolutely untrue.”

    At one point, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked why the White House isn’t doing more to blame insurers for policy cancellation notices.

    McDonough replied that there are good actors and bad actors in the insurance industry.

    “I think it is dangerous to paint with a broad brush,” he said.

    They know they can’t help people who are losing their insurance, but all they care about is Tea Party Republicans and being able to blame someone else for letting it happen.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  68. And they admit it.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  69. Ron Brownstein has an article in National Journal with some interesting insights on OCare. He`says the Dem party’s strategists thought the program would show white voters that government programs can help them,too. It’s not going so well.

    Even before its disastrous launch, the health care law faced anxiety about its goals. On the plan’s best days, polls found Americans split almost evenly on whether reform would benefit the country overall. But even then, nothing approaching a majority ever said the law would help their own families; among whites, fewer than one-third said they expected to personally benefit. Far more whites said the law would help the poor or uninsured. That meant, as the law debuted, most whites viewed health care more like food stamps than Social Security.
    ….
    Although surveys have not yet found any gusting demand for repeal, they continue to record gale-force misgivings about the law’s impact, particularly among whites. In the exit polls taken during Virginia gubernatorial election last week, two-thirds of whites said they opposed the law; incredibly, a 52 percent majority of white voters said they strongly opposed it (three-fourths of minorities, meanwhile, said they backed the law).

    This resurgence of resistance has emboldened Republicans and significantly increased the odds that the 2016 GOP presidential nominee will again run on repealing the law, as Mitt Romney did in 2012..

    http://www.nationaljournal.com/political-connections/obamacare-s-problems-could-haunt-democrats-for-years-20131115

    elissa (6d358f)

  70. Hence Oprah’s statement that America is full of racists. I’s the only explanation people who make everything about race can imagine.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  71. Apparently for years Oprah did a good job of masking her own racism and got very rich in the process. For a long time during the height of her daily show everybody thought Oprah was about as close to colorblind as a person could be. Because she is a hard worker and a businesswoman herself it saddens me that she cannot see people are disappointed in the president for reasons of competency and character rather than his race.

    elissa (6d358f)

  72. If a tea party Republican contends that someone lost his or her insurance because of the law, McDonough said “that is absolutely untrue.”

    DRJ – I see nothing in Thursday’s bogus political fix to a policy problem which suddenly made the claim untrue.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  73. thanks, laugha
    Hartman is missed.

    mg (31009b)


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