Newsweek getting tired of Obama's Act

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Fuct Jup
    Head Fluffer
    • Nov 2006
    • 236

    Newsweek getting tired of Obama's Act

    No shit. What has Obama accomplished since he has been elected? Maybe if he spent a few days in the While House he would get something done.

    If ubiquity were the measure of a presidency, Barack Obama would already be grinning at us from Mount Rushmore. But of course it is not. Despite his many words and television appearances, our elegant and eloquent president remains more an emblem of change than an agent of it. He's a man with an endless, worthy to-do list—health care, climate change, bank reform, global capital regulation, AfPak, the Middle East, you name it—but, as yet, no boxes checked "done." This is a problem that style will not fix. Unless Obama learns to rely less on charm, rhetoric, and good intentions and more on picking his spots and winning in political combat, he's not going to be reelected, let alone enshrined in South Dakota.

    The president's problem isn't that he is too visible; it's the lack of content in what he says when he keeps showing up on the tube. Obama can seem a mite too impressed with his own aura, as if his presence on the stage is the Answer. There is, at times, a self-referential (even self-reverential) tone in his big speeches. They are heavily salted with the words "I" and "my." (He used the former 11 times in the first few paragraphs of his address to the U.N. last week.) Obama is a historic figure, but that is the beginning, not the end, of the story.

    There is only so much political mileage that can still be had by his reminding the world that he is not George W. Bush. It was the winning theme of the 2008 campaign, but that race ended nearly a year ago. The ex-president is now more ex than ever, yet the current president, who vowed to look forward, is still reaching back to Bush as bogeyman.

    He did it again in that U.N. speech. The delegates wanted to know what the president was going to do about Israel and the Palestinian territories. He answered by telling them what his predecessor had failed to do. This was effective for his first month or two. Now it is starting to sound more like an excuse than an explanation.

    Members of Obama's own party know who Obama is not; they still sometimes wonder who he really is. In Washington, the appearance of uncertainty is taken as weakness—especially on Capitol Hill, where a president is only as revered as he is feared. Being the cool, convivial late-night-guest in chief won't cut it with Congress, an institution impervious to charm (especially the charm of a president with wavering poll numbers). Members of both parties are taking Obama's measure with their defiant and sometimes hostile response to his desires on health care. Never much of a legislator (and not long a senator), Obama underestimated the complexity of enacting a major "reform" bill. Letting Congress try to write it on its own was an awful idea. As a balkanized land of microfiefdoms, each loyal to its own lobbyists and consultants, Congress is incapable of being led by its "leadership." It's not like Chicago, where you call a guy who calls a guy who calls Daley, who makes the call. The president himself must make his wishes clear—along with the consequences for those who fail to grant them.

    The model is a man whose political effectiveness Obama repeatedly says he admires: Ronald Reagan. There was never doubt about what he wanted. The Gipper made his simple, dramatic tax cuts the centerpiece not only of his campaign but also of the entire first year of his presidency.

    Obama seems to think he'll get credit for the breathtaking scope of his ambition. But unless he sees results, it will have the opposite effect—diluting his clout, exhausting his allies, and emboldening his enemies.

    That may be starting to happen. Health-care legislation is still weeks, if not months, from passage, and the bill as it stands could well be a windfall for the very insurance and drug companies it was supposed to rein in. Climate-change legislation (a.k.a. cap-and-trade) is almost certainly dead for this year, which means that American negotiators will go empty-handed to the Copenhagen summit in December —pushing the goal of limiting carbon emissions even farther into the distance. In the spring Obama privately told the big banks that he was going to change the way they do business. It was going to be his way or the highway. But the complex legislation he wants to submit to Congress has little chance of passage this year. Doing Letterman again won't help. It may boost the host's ratings, Mr. President, but probably not your own.

    Enough TV, Mr. President. How About Governing? | Newsweek Voices - Howard Fineman | Newsweek.com
    Anything left in that bottle?
  • ZahZoo
    ROTH ARMY WEBMASTER

    • Jan 2004
    • 9071

    #2
    Can't argue with the content... whole lot of talk and appearances. Not a lot accomplished.

    I really do think it's time to get off the campaign trail type speeches and focus on who President Obama is and is going to be. He's clearly established who he's not... GW Bush. The rest of the world gets it... So what's he bringing to the table???
    "If you want to be a monk... you gotta cook a lot of rice...”

    Comment

    • Big Train
      Full Member Status

      • Apr 2004
      • 4013

      #3
      Newsweek is just pissed that he is the reigning cover boy, nearly 26 issues, of Time Magazine. Which by the way, like MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CNN, oh and nearly all major newspapers and well, anything not on talk radio, has yet to find fault at all with him.

      Comment

      • sadaist
        TOASTMASTER GENERAL
        • Jul 2004
        • 11625

        #4
        And this week he's stumping for Chicago to get the Olympics. I'd like to see Rio get them this time.
        “Great losses often bring only a numb shock. To truly plunge a victim into misery, you must overwhelm him with many small sufferings.”

        Comment

        • Nitro Express
          DIAMOND STATUS
          • Aug 2004
          • 32902

          #5
          Obama is out to get an Emmy for playing president. He would be better suited in Hollywood than Washington DC.
          No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!

          Comment

          • Nitro Express
            DIAMOND STATUS
            • Aug 2004
            • 32902

            #6
            The middle east is heading for a real crises with the Iran situation. Iran is going to attack Israel or shut the Persian Gulf down and if we do nothing, Israel attacks Iran to stop an attack. One miscalculation could start World War III and we have this fool in office that all he knows how to do is bullshit.
            No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!

            Comment

            • Nitro Express
              DIAMOND STATUS
              • Aug 2004
              • 32902

              #7
              <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AMolPFEP_jk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AMolPFEP_jk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
              No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!

              Comment

              • Fuct Jup
                Head Fluffer
                • Nov 2006
                • 236

                #8
                Come on now, doesn't charisma and narcissism count for something?
                Anything left in that bottle?

                Comment

                • Fuct Jup
                  Head Fluffer
                  • Nov 2006
                  • 236

                  #9
                  Originally posted by sadaist
                  And this week he's stumping for Chicago to get the Olympics. I'd like to see Rio get them this time.
                  For the Olympics that will take place 8 fucking years from now.
                  Anything left in that bottle?

                  Comment

                  • Nitro Express
                    DIAMOND STATUS
                    • Aug 2004
                    • 32902

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Fuct Jup
                    For the Olympics that will take place 8 fucking years from now.
                    The way the world is going, we may not be here 8 years from now. We can't afford another failure president. The geopolitical and economic situation is going to split the world up into waring factions and the US itself is in REAL danger of coming apart once the US Dollar hyperinflates.
                    No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!

                    Comment

                    • Nitro Express
                      DIAMOND STATUS
                      • Aug 2004
                      • 32902

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Fuct Jup
                      Come on now, doesn't charisma and narcissism count for something?
                      LOL! Those are the only two things Obama is good at.
                      No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!

                      Comment

                      • Nickdfresh
                        SUPER MODERATOR

                        • Oct 2004
                        • 49361

                        #12
                        I agree with the basic thesis of the article that Obama needs to focus more on substance and less on style via the media - and he is overexposed. However, the people here reading more into the articles criticisms than what is really there might want to think a bit. Obama's been President for like nine months? He's minimized a recession and we're seeing it ending; something Reagan took two years to do, and he's actually tackling heady issues such as health care and two Wars.

                        Where were half of you whiny bitches when Bush was taking more vacation time in history than any pResident and clearing brush at his recently purchased, pseudo-cowboy hang out in Crawford?

                        Comment

                        • Fuct Jup
                          Head Fluffer
                          • Nov 2006
                          • 236

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Nickdfresh
                          I agree with the basic thesis of the article that Obama needs to focus more on substance and less on style via the media - and he is overexposed. However, the people here reading more into the articles criticisms than what is really there might want to think a bit. Obama's been President for like nine months? He's minimized a recession and we're seeing it ending; something Reagan took two years to do, and he's actually tackling heady issues such as health care and two Wars.

                          Where were half of you whiny bitches when Bush was taking more vacation time in history than any pResident and clearing brush at his recently purchased, pseudo-cowboy hang out in Crawford?
                          Obama minimized a recession? Yea, lets give the Do-Nothing-in-Chief credit for that? We have the highest unemployment rate in the history of the country and you think he minimized the recession? Some states have a 15&#37; unemployment rate. Pull the other leg and it plays jingle bells.
                          Last edited by Fuct Jup; 09-29-2009, 02:51 PM.
                          Anything left in that bottle?

                          Comment

                          • Fuct Jup
                            Head Fluffer
                            • Nov 2006
                            • 236

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Nickdfresh
                            He's minimized a recession and we're seeing it ending; something Reagan took two years to do, and he's actually tackling heady issues such as health care and two Wars.
                            The recession is ending huh?
                            "Americans' worries about job security flared up in September, causing a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to fall unexpectedly and raising more concern about the upcoming holiday shopping season."
                            Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Slides in September - Political News - FOXNews.com

                            What has he done for the 2 wars? He hasn't even talked to the General in 71 days about strategy? Yea - that's rich. He's in Copenhagen with Oprah fighting for the Olympics that will take place 8 years from now...
                            Anything left in that bottle?

                            Comment

                            • BITEYOASS
                              ROTH ARMY ELITE
                              • Jan 2004
                              • 6530

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Nitro Express
                              The way the world is going, we may not be here 8 years from now. We can't afford another failure president. The geopolitical and economic situation is going to split the world up into waring factions and the US itself is in REAL danger of coming apart once the US Dollar hyperinflates.
                              AAAAAAAAHHHHHH THE WOILD IS COMING TO AN END AND JAAAAYYZUS IS HEADING DOWN HIS CHARIOT! GET YOUR GUNS BECAUZE EVEN THOUGH THEY WILL DO NO GOOD AGAINST THE DEVIL'S MINIONS!

                              Seriously, get a fuckin grip!

                              Comment

                              Working...