Obama’s Town Hall sham
Presidents are free to stage their conversations with the American people however they choose. But some members of the White House press corps, including CBS’ Chip Reid and press room fixture Helen Thomas, are among those upset that this President is using stage-managed “Town Hall” events as pretend press conferences.
President Obama’s hug for the cancer victim, an Obama volunteer, gets the media attention, but of the seven questions he addressed, four were selected by his staff from groups supportive of his health care agenda, including the Service Employees International Union and Health Care for America Now. One of the questioners came from a group that is a part of the Democratic National Committee.
At the Town Hall, Obama waved hugged Debby Smith, who said she had kidney cancer and had been unable to get insurance, saying, “I don’t want you to feel like you’re all alone.” He promised help and offered her as the “perfect example” of the sufferer his efforts are intended to help.
It’s fair enough for Presidents to hold Town Hall meetings and to pretend that he’s taking questions from something other than an infomercial audience. But it is phony, the stuff of campaign commercials. The White House press corps is right to challenge the pretense that a legitimate give-and-take represented as a news event is being held when it’s a sham.
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© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
134 comments Add your comment
Peter
July 2nd, 2009
9:01 am
Yes Jim…….. Something Like “Mission Accomplished” on a Aircraft Carrier..is that what you mean ?
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
9:25 am
The Repubs should have a profound understanding of stage-managed events.
Dubya and his cohorts perfected the function to the point of where it almost became scientific.
Mac
July 2nd, 2009
9:28 am
Good for the White House press corps and you, Jim for pointing out the deceptiveness. Where’s all the transparency Obama promised? It hasn’t shown up yet.
AH
July 2nd, 2009
9:30 am
Henrietta Hughes must be thinking “The new messiah is going to cure this woman’s cancer, and all I got was a house. Damn. I got ripped off”
Shameless
July 2nd, 2009
9:34 am
Looks like “W” os managing Obama’s town hall meetings. Way to go..
Daedalus
July 2nd, 2009
9:36 am
Wow.
Jim did you miss all those years of stage-managed Bush Town Hall Meetings where only the party faithful could attend?
Or what about McCain tossing a librarian from his campaign events for holding a sign that says Bush = McCain?
http://www.wikio.com/video/310216
Does freedom of speech only apply to conservatives Jim?
You never complained about that nonsense. Do you know what the word “hypocrisy” means?
Way passed time for retirement Jim.
Hopefully Kyle Wingnut or whatever his name is will be able to admit that, just maybe, freedom of speech applies to both sides.
Joan
July 2nd, 2009
9:40 am
I never for a moment believed that his town hall meetings were anything but a set-up. He is the most media savvy, lying President we have ever had, and it irks me that he gets a free ride from the press. Mark Twain, I believe, said it best “There is no over estimating the ignorance of the American public”. Given today’s schools and the level to which our education system in this country has shrunk, the time is ripe for a huckster like Obama and his cronies.
Chris Salzmann
July 2nd, 2009
9:44 am
I agree that these Town Hall meetings should include (intelligent) critics of the program, by which I mean, not just idiots who claim we are heading into “socialism”. However, I don’t recall Jim Wooten raising his voice when George Bush was doing exactly the same to push his various initiatives. Here’s something I dug up from Minnesota Public Radio from 06-17-2005:
“President Bush’s focus early in his second term has been on promoting his plan for Social Security reform. He’s settled into the town hall forum format he used often during the 2004 presidential campaign. The events are typically filled with Bush supporters, whom the president can count on for wild applause as he outlines his agenda.”
I didn’t hear you objecting then, Jim.
Stan
July 2nd, 2009
9:46 am
My wife had Kidney Cancer 6 years ago. She has medical insurance today. She has changed jobs 3-4 times since she had Cancer, yet she has insurance. She has struggled with her health a few times throughout the years, yet she has insurance.
How is this possible? We worked our butts off to make sure she ALWAYS had insurance. We paid ~$500 monthly for her COBRA last year when she left her job at a company that she hated. She was let go suddenly by a company that soon after folded a few years ago but she went straight back to work elsewhere and got insurance there. We made sometimes hard choices so that she ALWAYS had insurance.
We did it, we don’t need a public option.
jconservative
July 2nd, 2009
9:46 am
Jim, I agree it is a sham. But anyone with average intelligence will know that when he sees/listens to the meeting. The George W. White House really perfected this on their Iraq tall hall meetings.
It is a sham but it is an issue really not worth
your efforts.
Chris Salzmann
July 2nd, 2009
9:50 am
Joan July 2nd, 2009 9:40 am SAID: “There is no over estimating the ignorance of the American public”.
CHRIS SAYS: Yes, Joan. And you’re a classic example. Of course our school system sucks, especially when conservatives have been more concerned about teaching creationism than the actual sciences. And when the sciences do get taught, ensuring that there is a disclaimer sticker in every text book (recall Cobb county?) . Maybe the Bible should have disclaimer too stating “Based on myth, not fact”.
MoHoward
July 2nd, 2009
9:51 am
Maybe schools and education are at the level Repubthugs want. Uneducated poor kids with no place to go other than joining the military to die for whatever Neocon-plotted get rich scheme they can think up. Cynical? (Hi to you Haliburton) You bet. After suffering through eight years of arrogant, ignorant, evil, greedy Bush/Cheney(or is he really the Penguin? wah wah wah), I’ve seen what the republicans want. Screw them, let the Dems take a shot and we’ll see what happens. With the giant sh*thole bushie left its going to be a hard slippery stinky climb out. Hopefully Cheney can shoot himself in the face soon.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
9:54 am
After several days of high-volume trading of G.M. shares, the automaker
warned traders on that its stock would have no value when it emerges
from bankruptcy.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
9:55 am
The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing Automotive
Industry Holding plans to present a detailed bid for G.M.’s Opel unit
in Europe within the next few days.
Howard
July 2nd, 2009
9:55 am
Jim…no surprise that this happened in the world of Obama-nation. If this dictator gets his stupid cap and trade and national health care…then kiss this country good-bye. Paraphrasing Obama’s mentor and pastor and confidant Rev. Wright…”It’s not God bless America…but God HELP America. I still cannot believe 50% of this country is that stupid, lazy, naive and moronic that they put this bunch of 1960s Katzenjammer Kids in control of this country. Then again, maybe I can. But after all, the Republicans had the chance to right things and get rid of these liberals…but W. Bush tried to play nice guy and “preserve the integrity” of the office…and then along came John McCain to hand Obama and his brown-shirts the keys to the country. You can’t really get mad at Democrats…they’re like rattlesnakes…they’re always gonna survive and bite and kill you if you get too close. But you can get mad at the mongoose (GOP)…instead of biting the snake in the neck and killing it, it lay down beside the snake and licked it and tried just to get along.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:02 am
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to issue new rules that
could make it slightly easier for private equity firms to buy failed
banks,
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:03 am
A U.S. bankruptcy judge denied Delphi’s request to pay private equity
firm Platinum Equity up to $30 million in expenses tied to the firm’s
bid for the bankrupt auto parts maker.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:05 am
California prepared to issue i.o.u.’s to pay its bills, a move that
raises questions about its ability to make timely payments on the
billions of dollars in state bonds now outstanding.
WTF
July 2nd, 2009
10:06 am
HAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHHAH W and the word integrity never belong in the same sentence, let along the same room. Please see the dictionary and you’ll understand that W and his ilk were the exact opposite. Republicans are like Satan incarnate. Killing folks in mad Neocon my d*ck is bigger than your d*ck wars and endless greed compounded by a holier than thou attitude make for very little “integrity” Hell they even shoot their friends in the face. F*ck them. I’m no fan of either party but eight years of a puppet president and a Batman villan VP is enough.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:06 am
On Wednesday, the S.E.C.’s inspector general released suggestions for
improving the agency’s oversight after it missed the Madoff fraud,
including an expanded bounty program that awards tipsters.
Chris Salzmann
July 2nd, 2009
10:07 am
Howard July 2nd, 2009 9:55 am SAID: Jim…no surprise that this happened in the world of Obama-nation. If this dictator gets his stupid cap and trade and national health care…then kiss this country good-bye……………But after all, the Republicans had the chance to right things and get rid of these liberals…but W. Bush tried to play nice guy and “preserve the integrity” of the office…and then along came John McCain to hand Obama and his brown-shirts the keys to the country.
CHRIS SAYS: LMAO!!! And the way you conservatives are going, we liberals are going to keep wining for a long. long time. You idiots shot your own candidate in the head, if I recall Limbaugh’s daily rants against McCain. The Republican Party is growing SMALLER. Its a party of EXCLUSION and not inclusion. Get rid of these liberals??? On the contrary, its extreme conservatives like you who have become the endangered species. Enjoy your many years wandering in the wilderness.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:07 am
James Davis, the chief lieutenant of R. Allen Stanford, will plead
guilty to fraud and conspiracy after reaching an agreement to cooperate
with prosecutors in their case against the Texas billionaire, his
lawyer said Wednesday.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:08 am
Federal prosecutors filed criminal conspiracy charges against Beazer
Homes USA, one of the nation’s 10 largest home builders, and reached a
deal that allows it to clear its record after it pays millions of
dollars to borrowers defrauded by its former mortgage arm.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 2nd, 2009
10:10 am
Crabtree & Evelyn, the purveyor of specialty soaps, fragrances and
lotions, became the latest retailer to fall victim to the economic
downturn, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United
States.
The Baron
July 2nd, 2009
10:29 am
Interesting how the shoe pinches on the other foot. The widespread notion that Republicans are bigots and hypocrites has been given huge impetus since Obama’s emergence. If commentators like Wooten and his cohorts at Fox News are really concerned about the issues they now raise, they would have raised them under ‘W’, who perfected all the ills that plague Washington today- intolerance of differing viewpoints, railroading of ideologically based agendas despite bare majority status, etc etc.
I haven’t heard anything from Jim about ‘Mission Accomplished’, or about the idiotic, short-sighted and blustery foreign policy of ‘W’s first term that plunged us into the worst period for America’s global image in our history, when in fact we had the greatest opportunity to forge a global front for our national interests after 9-11.
Obama has the right to enlighten Americans about his agenda. He asked them not to listen to him or to the fearmongers either, but to avail themselves of the facts of the matter and make up their minds from an informed perspective. Is this too much or wrong to ask?
At least we have a president with a support base that doesn’t thrive on ‘red meat’…
Chris Salzmann
July 2nd, 2009
10:43 am
HAHAHAHA………….Rush blaming Obama for Michael Jackson’s death!!!
Did Democratic presidents kill Michael Jackson? It appears that Rush Limbaugh may think so.
“I have an observation about this Jackson thing,” Limbaugh began on his radio show Wednesday. “Jackson’s success paralleled the rebound of the United States under [Reagan]. Jackson’s biggest successes took place the in 80s … He flourished under Reagan, he languished under Clinton [and] Bush, and he died under Obama.”
Then he added, cryptically: “Let’s hope this parallel does not continue.”
Arguing, presumably, with his producer off-screen, Limbaugh asked: “What about what I said is not true?”
And then, as if turning Jackson’s death into a partisan issue wasn’t enough, Limbaugh went after the race angle.
“Michael Jackson died during the era of the first black president,” he said. “How about if I say it that way?”
Th
July 2nd, 2009
11:05 am
Another day – more dishonest crap from Wooten. Don’t count on Kyle to be any better. Notice his column today was about Europe’s just beginning cap and trade and never mentions our very own and hugely successful cap and trade to cut sulfur dioxide produced acid rain. We met our 2010 goal in 2007 at a fourth of the projected cost. It is amazing what Americans can do when they have incentive and the freedom to come up with their own solutions. Too bad conservatives have so little faith in us.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
11:07 am
Wooten, a complete stranger to fact once again illustrating why we take pleasure in stomping you in nearly every political race.
The issue is health care, and Wooten has no facts to back k any position he holds.
In the first place, Obama has already held more press conferences in 6 months than Bush held his entire last 3 years. Count ‘em. He excels at taking questions from the press.
He doesn’t wink and say “I’m not going to answer any questions but I’m going to deliver my Borderline Personality word salad to the people” like your idiot Palin did nor does he duck interviews the way your idiot Palin does and did.
You won’t hear Wooten address recision. Recision is painful for the doctors trying to literally save a patient’s life and the patients who face death. There were 20,000 plus of them in the last 5 years from the Big 3 Insurance companies. Recision is when the patient did not lie about a pre-existing condition which will soon be revised anyway in the Health Plan that happens, but gets their policy cancelled as punishment for getting sick–and often cancer is the sickness.
This impacts small businesses that Pubs always claim they care about, (but don’t) because the insurance companies cherry pick the patients who get ill who work in small business, and cancel their policies and/or raise the premiums by as much as double or more for the business.
Wooten, who has always had insurance paid for by a news outlet, and for most of his life Wooten and his wife and children were covered by Cox News, doesn’t give a damn about the health of others as long as he and his country club friends are taken care of.
Obama never ducks press conferences. He has huge failings, but they aren’t any Wooten is aware of or apparently the MSMedia.
Obama’s DOJ is taking orders from Emanuel and Craig because they are trying to asuage the 40 Pubs in the Senate and Blue Dog Dems (de facto Pubs) with even worse human rights and civil rights stances in the appellate courts. They have supported all Bush filings or made worse ones, and they are losing most of them. They have muffled former Bush DOJ dragon slayer Neil Katyal who is the point guard who litigates for the US in the Supreme Court as Principal Deputy SG. Katyal won Hamden v. Rumsfield and served as National Security advisor at DOJ.
Dawn Johnsen’s confirmation to come soon after the holiday, should help put a stop to this.
Worse, the bills that are passed are pieces of pure crap watered down to assuage the pubs and would be better simply never passed like the Cap and Trade in the HOuse that sucked that Wooten has yet to read or comprehend.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
11:23 am
Better question: WHERE ARE ALL THE JOBS OBAMA HUSSEIN PROMISED WHEN HE AND THE DEMOCRAPS PASSED THE STIMULUS BILL?
1984
July 2nd, 2009
11:28 am
Obama Husseins poll numbers are dropping like the Hiroshima bomb in WW2. People are waking up to the reality that this guy a complete clueless politician. Unemployment is up to almost 11%, 600,000 jobs were lost last month and the economy has shrunk 5.5% in the last month. 2012 can’t come soon enough.
Oh, and sense the blog topic is the town hall sham, MSNBC reported on Morning Joe, that the fat lady who hugged Obama Hussein is non other than a campaign worker. Talk about idiocy.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
11:30 am
Obama Husseins Socialist Utopia. CHAINS WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
Payrolls Fall More Than Forecast, Unemployment Rises
uly 2 (Bloomberg) — Employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate rose and hourly earnings stagnated, offering little evidence the Obama administration’s stimulus package is shoring up the labor market.
The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop in May, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983, from 9.4 percent.
Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year just as the income boost from the stimulus package fades, undermining prospects for a sustained rebound in household purchases, analysts said. As companies from General Motors Corp. to Kimberly-Clark Corp. cut costs, the lack of jobs will restrain growth.
“This will be another jobless recovery,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We may get positive economic growth driven largely by federal spending, but people on the street will say, ‘Where are the jobs?’”
Stocks slid after the report, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping 2.2 percent to 903.43 at 10:16 a.m. in New York. Treasuries rose, sending yields on benchmark 10-year notes to 3.512 percent from 3.538 percent late yesterday.
Unemployment Claims
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits last week fell in line with forecasts, Labor also said, indicating firings remain elevated. Initial jobless claims dropped by 16,000 to 614,000 in the week ended June 27, from a revised 630,000 the week before.
Revisions added 8,000 to payroll figures previously reported for May and April.
A separate report today from the Commerce Department showed that orders placed at U.S. factories climbed for a third time in four months in May on rising demand for aircraft, machinery and computers. Bookings gained 1.2 percent, the most since June 2008, after a 0.5 percent increase in April.
Payrolls were forecast to drop 365,000 after a 345,000 decrease initially reported for May, according to the median of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from declines of 150,000 to 500,000. Job losses peaked at 741,000 in January, the most since 1949.
The jobless rate was projected to climb to 9.6 percent from 9.4 percent. Forecasts ranged from 9.3 percent to 9.7 percent. By the end of the year, unemployment will reach 10 percent, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed last month.
6.5 Million Jobs
The world’s largest economy has lost about 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. That’s the biggest drop in any post-World War II economic slump.
Today’s jobs report showed factory payrolls fell by 136,000 after decreasing 156,000 the prior month. Economists forecast a drop of 150,000. The drop included a decline of 26,500 jobs in auto manufacturing and parts industries.
More firings are in the works following the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler LLC as shutdowns ripple through auto-parts makers and car dealers.
Payrolls at builders fell 79,000 after decreasing 48,000.
Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, subtracted 244,000 workers after falling 107,000. Retail payrolls decreased by 21,000 after a 17,600 drop. Financial firms reduced payrolls by 27,000, after a 30,000 drop the prior month.
Government payrolls decreased by 52,000, the biggest decline since July 2007, after dropping 10,000 the prior month.
Temporary Workers
The decrease reflects the layoff of workers hired on a temporary basis to prepare for the 2010 census. The U.S. Census Bureau has said it will hire more than 1.4 million people over the next year to conduct the population count that happens once every 10 years.
Unemployment will “remain painfully high for several more years,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen said this week. “I expect that we will turn the growth corner sometime later this year, but I am not optimistic that the economy will spring back to normal any time soon.”
Tax cuts and Social Security payments under the stimulus plan propped up incomes last quarter, supporting household purchases. Consumer spending rose in May as earnings climbed 1.4 percent, the most in a year.
Still, the wealth destruction caused by the housing and stock-market slumps prompted Americans to rebuild nest eggs. The savings rate in May surged to a 15-year high.
Household Purchases
Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, dropped at a 0.6 percent annual rate last quarter before growing again in the second half of the year, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg in early June. Purchases rose at a 1.4 percent pace in the first three months of 2009.
The auto industry isn’t alone in trimming jobs. Kimberly- Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, plans to cut 1,600 jobs worldwide by year-end. About 800 salaried employees will leave Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment, under a voluntary program.
“These actions, while difficult, are necessary to help us emerge from this demanding economic environment,” Kimberly- Clark’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Falk said in a June 25 statement. The company’s net income has declined for six straight quarters.
3M Co., the maker of Post-it Notes and Scotch Tape, reduced positions and offered early retirement to workers, while Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, is cutting jobs following the acquisition of Rohm & Haas Co.
Government, Services
Service providers and government agencies are also looking to lower costs. Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, yesterday announced it will eliminate about 1,400 jobs by July 9. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he’ll force state workers to take a third unpaid day off every month to conserve cash and will order lawmakers into an emergency session to tackle the state’s growing budget deficit.
Today’s report also showed the average work week fell to 33 hours, the lowest level since records began in 1964, from 33.1 hours in May. Average weekly hours worked by production workers rose to 39.5 hours from 39.4 hours, while overtime held at 2.8 hours. That brought the average weekly earnings down to $611.49 from $613.34.
Workers’ average hourly wages held at $18.53 for a second month. Hourly earnings were 2.7 percent higher than June 2008, the smallest gain since September 2005. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.1 percent increase from the prior month and a 2.9 percent gain for the 12-month period.
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
11:38 am
The follow-up question relating to jobs and the stimulus package would be “how long has it been since the stimulus package passed Congress and signed by the President?”
1984
July 2nd, 2009
11:38 am
Correction: 467,000 jobs in June were lost. Unemployment is at 9.5%. Still, worst in 26 years. My apologies for the number mistakes.
retiredds
July 2nd, 2009
11:39 am
Dear Jim, thanks for the missive that is going to change the world. I don’t recall your hero, GWB, or any other Republican in the last ten years appearing before any crowd that wasn’t screened to make sure that a question wouldn’t come up that would “stump the stars”. As usual you have nothing constructive to say about Obama and that is to be expected by you and your conservative right-wing buddies. You play well to your 22%. Again, you, Rush, Hannity, et. al. are continuing to be rather pathetic.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
11:40 am
Jackie, a few months. Problem is, no one has said, including the President, how long it would take for it to kick in. GM is bankrupt. Millions and millions down the drain to pay off the unions. Mitt Romney was 100% correct in his GM assessment last summer.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
11:41 am
retiredds, you same trashy libs, including every nightly news anchor, trashed W over stuff like this. I guess you can call it payback and guess what, payback is a bitch! I do think that we need a system similar to Great Britain where people can ask any question and rail on public officials without it being scripted.
retiredds
July 2nd, 2009
11:52 am
1984, I agree with your Great Britain statement. Your beginning is lame because you don’t know me or anything about me. I could be Libertarian, Conservative, Liberal, far left or far right, middle of the road, etc., for all you know. If you and others would quit labeling others your comments would carry more credibility.
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
12:17 pm
@1984
Since it took longer than 6 months for this calamitous event to occur, do you not believe it will take more than 2 months for the stimulus package to take hold?
GM is bankrupt because of poor management decisions. They continued to produce the Hummer, SUV’s and other inefficient vehicles as their primary profit maker.
I say to you, the three most pernicious words in our financial lexicon are Return On Investment(ROI). Many believe the “markets” will regulate itself without understanding the “markets” are a product of the demand/supply equation.
I would counter that Mitt Romney had nothing right. I believe that GM will emerge from bankruptcy leaner and stronger within the next year. Many, many corporations have and still file for bankruptcy because of cash flow problems. Has to do with getting net income curve ahead of net expenses.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
12:36 pm
Jackie, GM is 90% owned by the government and the unions. It’s dead. And no, even Joe Biden said he didn’t think the stimulus would work. When a number of Obama people don’t pay their taxes there is no way you can convince me to trust them.
retiredds, sorry about calling you trashy. You’re right, I don’t know where you stand. My apologies.
Says Me
July 2nd, 2009
12:38 pm
You know what’s so ironic about those Teleprompter “Town Hall” meetings? The libtards defecated themselves over Gannon during W’s term as being a plant with pre-released questions; the libtards drooled and spit their toxins and accused the Bush administration of having closed meetings without the press. Guess what The Teleprompter In Chief and Nanny Pelosi are doing and nobody calls them on it? Well, what do you expect in libtard land. We just had the worst bill passed for the US economy in HISTORY, and what are the mindless media troglodytes reporting over? Michael Jackson.
And now that we are on the eve of the greatest holiday for the US, why celebrate Independence Day? For what? What the hell “independence” do we have to celebrate anymore with the Dimlibs running Washington these days? “Independence” from the tyranny of government? “Independence” from the Nanny Pelosicrats nanny state? “Independence” from draconian imperial federal government global warming Dunce Cap & Traitor laws that will put limits on home ownership upgrades (yeah, have any of you mindless Obamabot numbnuts on the left even READ any of the bill)? “Independence” to choose your own private health care provider (eventually)? “Independence” to make your own decisions in life and buy what you want and make as much money as you want without having both confiscated for the “greater common good?” Maybe one of you mindless libtards out there can help us out here on what the hell it is exactly we are supposed to be celebrating these days, because between and under the (true) fascist Pelosicrats and The Teleprompter Administration, I can’t find a damn thing to be happy about on this all express runaway train to socialist hell. Yeah, how are you liking your “change” America?
1984
July 2nd, 2009
12:38 pm
Back to the Obama Sham socialist show. Does it bother anyone that the fat lady who hugged Obama Hussein is a DNC staff member?
Says Me
July 2nd, 2009
12:41 pm
Any blog libtard idiot who thinks that an Obama “car czar” who self-admittently knows ZERO about the automobile industry is, well, just that. A libtard. And how about the EPA hiding alternative opinions to the junk science of man-made global warming? Does this really surprise you? It shouldn’t. This is the kind of draconian bull squeeze we will be dealing with. You think you’ll have freedom down the road with these fascist goons running the show? Better get ready:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15567
1984
July 2nd, 2009
12:44 pm
Jackie, would you buy a government designed car?
I sure would not.
retiredds
July 2nd, 2009
12:50 pm
1984, thanks for the apology, much appreciated.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
12:53 pm
On a lighter note, Bobby Cox was voted best manager to play for by a large survey of MLB players.
dave
July 2nd, 2009
12:59 pm
Pubtards Continue to Lose – “He excels at taking questions from the press.” As long as he tells them what questions to ask and the answer is on his teleprompter.. give me a break
Matilda
July 2nd, 2009
1:03 pm
Wow….. Did OBAMA’s people plant a MALE ESCORT (prostitute), working for a phony “news” organization under a PHONEY NAME in the audience of dozens of press conferences to ask leading questions, and then give the admitted, aliased hooker nearly unlimited access to the White House AFTER HOURS on days with no press conferences? Wow. If Obama is indeed behaving like Bush, then I can certainly understand the outrage, Mr. Wooten, what with your commitment to transparency and all.
You did cover the Gannon/Guckert story in detail, after all. That was you, right?
1984
July 2nd, 2009
1:06 pm
Matilda, yeah that was stupid but guess what, that W press conference wasn’t about pushing socialist government health care on people.
Billy Bob
July 2nd, 2009
1:07 pm
You can trust the government to manage your life or you can own your own life! I choose the later.
HERE’S ONE MORE REASON WHY.
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
1:10 pm
@1984
Whether you realize it or not, any car that you buy is partially designed by the “government.”
Think of all the style and safety features the government mandates be incorporated into vehicles. Would you want to be without seat belts, anti-lock brakes, catalytic converter, safety glass, rollover protection, crash and impact protection, speed ratings on tires, etc., etc.,etc.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
1:13 pm
Jackie, yeah, but thats regulation. Not government design. Car Engineers are not government workers. Isn’t it interesting that foreign car companies flourish?
I have to ask. Why do you like government so much?
Matilda
July 2nd, 2009
1:22 pm
1984, bless your heart! You really believe what your heroes are spouting, don’t you? OMG, somebody please get this poor soul some iced tea, a slice of pound cake, and a chair under a big shade umbrella. Bless his heart.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
1:24 pm
Matilda, who are my heroes? I mean, since you know me and everything. Sorry but I don’t buy your crap.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
1:26 pm
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP, Um, if you are going to address me please provide facts and coherent sentences. I can’t seem to make out your hieroglyphics. I might need to call in Professor Dan to interpret your strange alien language.
Matilda
July 2nd, 2009
1:34 pm
Billy Bob at 1:07: So you’re PRO-CHOICE and PRO-GAY RIGHTS! How refreshing!
Thanks for the link showing that federal employees collecting paychecks under the Bush administration failed to exercise their defined regulatory duties on our behalf and protect hard-working American citizens from the lying financial predators who flourished under the era of unapologetic free market worship and the idolatry of imaginary paper wealth.
Jake
July 2nd, 2009
1:35 pm
Has anyone else noticed how the evil, illegal war is transforming the Middle East in very positive ways? It’s still a little early for the ‘mission accomplished’ parade, but there are a lot of positive signs.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
1:39 pm
Jake, yes, but libs won’t talk about anything good that’s gone on over there. The MSM refuses to report anything that helps the GOP.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
1:45 pm
Life under George W. Bush- We all had jobs.
Life under Barrack Hussein Obama- We all lost our jobs.
CHAINS WE CAN BELIEVE IN!
BiteMe
July 2nd, 2009
1:48 pm
HOWARD – The people who vote now are the same who live and breath for voting for an American Idol – What do you expect? We are in trouble for sure.
Peter
July 2nd, 2009
2:01 pm
Life under George Bush – We all got bilked…….. That WAS ” Mission Accomplished ” !
Life under George Bush – We let Bin Laden go free under the ” Terrorist Protection Policy ” !
Life under George Bush – The United States Financial Systems crumbled and almost totally collapsed !
Life under George Bush – We attacked a country due to ” Faulty Intelligence “.
Life under George Bush – The US housing market collapsed !
Life under George Bush – The USA went from being a country with a positive cash flow, to the largest deficit in the History of the United States.
Life under George Bush – The rich got richer, and the Middle class and poor got Poorer !
Life under George Bush – The stock market tanked, and by the end of his time in office it was lower than when he took office !
Life under George Bush – Markets were not regulated causing the Great Recession we are currently in.
Life under George Bush – Bernie Madoff could get away with the largest Ponzi Scheme in the History of the world !
Matilda
July 2nd, 2009
2:12 pm
Jake, I certainly hope so! It would seem that there are strides over there for more freedom, especially regarding women’s rights. Neda will be a martyr for that cause, to be sure, but the struggle is far from over.
Of course there are positive results in Iraq and Afghanistan! AMERICAN SOLDIERS have been there, and for all the bad that’s happened, it’s inevitable that what’s good about our fine military and their hard work will leave residual goodness behind them. As someone who has never visited the Middle East, and someone who does not rely on any one source of “news,” I take all news, good or bad, with a healthy grain of skepticism, knowing full well we don’t get the whole story on either.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
2:14 pm
Life under Bush: stock market hit all-time high.
Life under Bush: we all had jobs.
Life under Bush: WE NEVER HAD ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK.
Life under Bush: Africa received more money for AIDS than from any other US president in history.
Life under Bush: Unemployment was at 4%.
Life under Bush: he appointed more minorities to high office than any previous administration.
Life under Bush: we lived under freedom instead of Socialism.
Life under Bush: we still had affordable health care.
Life under Bush: Libya gave up it’s nuclear weapons.
Life under Bush: Europe threw out their Socialist thugs and put in pro-America prime ministers.
Life under Bush: Saddam Hussein was hung.
Life under Bush: Al Gore invented global warming.
Life under Bush: John Kerry lost in 2004.
Life under Bush: John Edwards cheated on his cancerous wife.
Life under Bush: Jay Bookman lost hair.
Life under Bush: the AJC still had circulation.
IC Atlanta
July 2nd, 2009
2:16 pm
Peter = get a hold of yourself. Bush is gone and the dems are in charge. Bush became a lame duck in 2006 so we are three years into Dem control and life under them has been job loss after job loss – 9.5% unemployment with no end in sight. Facts are stubborn things. You dems will never stop blaming Bush, but you are making yourselves look like little 5-year old kids who don’t get their way and don’t accept responsibility for anything. Grow up!
1984
July 2nd, 2009
2:18 pm
Looks like Honduras is defying Socialists like Obama Hussein. GOOOOOOOD FOR THEM! FREEDOM RULES!
Honduras resists pressure to allow Zelaya’s return
By Patrick Markey
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Rejecting the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras’ interim leaders dug in for a fight on Thursday after governments across the region demanded the deposed leftist be restored to power.
In the worst crisis in Central America in a decade, Zelaya was toppled by troops and whisked out of the country on the weekend in a widely condemned coup after he angered opponents with plans to amend the constitution to lift term limits.
The Organization of American States on Wednesday issued a weekend deadline for the interim government to reinstate Zelaya, in a standoff that is testing U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration after he promised an era of better relations with the region.
“We have established a democratic government and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country,” said Roberto Micheletti, who was named as caretaker president by Honduran lawmakers shortly after Zelaya’s ouster.
Zelaya, a logging magnate fond of wearing cowboy hats with his suits, has promised to return, but appeared to be waiting for the outcome of the OAS ultimatum. An OAS mission will arrive this week to discuss the ouster, the caretaker government said.
Honduras, an impoverished coffee exporter of around 7 million people, has seen days of protests against Sunday’s ouster, but the interim government has rallied supporters onto the streets, underlining divisions over Zelaya’s return.
The Honduran Congress approved a decree to crack down on opposition during a nightly curfew imposed after the coup. The decree allows security forces to hold suspects for more than 24 hours without charge and formalizes the prohibition of the right to free association at night.
But Tegucigalpa, the capital city nestled in low-lying hills, has remained mostly calm, with traffic clogging streets and most businesses open during the day, although schools remained closed.
CHAVEZ FACTOR
The army ousted a president who took office in 2006 and who had upset the country’s traditional elite with a leftward tilt that many worried would take him down the same path as Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez.
His popularity had dipped to around 30 percent in recent months.
The interim government says it took a legal course in ousting Zelaya — the Supreme Court said it instructed the army to remove him and Congress voted in the acting president until elections to be held in November.
Opponents of Zelaya believe he was pushing the limits of democracy with his drive to extend the single four-year term of presidents to allow re-election. He faces arrest on a raft of criminal charges if he returns to Honduras.
Several Latin American presidents, including Chavez and his allies in Ecuador and Bolivia, have extended term limits that were often written into constitutions as safeguards after decades of dictatorship in many parts of the region.
Obama’s administration is playing a limited, behind-the-scenes role to show support for democracy and in Zelaya’s restoration without being accused of meddling — a historic charge against Washington from Latin America.
Washington, which has put off until next week a decision on whether to cut aid to Honduras, is letting the OAS take a leading role.
“We will wait until the (OAS) secretary-general has finished his diplomatic initiative and reports back on July 6 before we take any further action in relationship to assistance,” a senior Obama administration official said.
(Additional reporting by Enrique Andres Pretel and Anahi Rama; Editing by Eric Walsh)
deegee
July 2nd, 2009
2:47 pm
In November of 2008 the recession was projected to last for two years. The recession is now projected to last through this year with some signs of recovery next year. There was never any anticipation that job losses and poor economic conditions would disappear this year. We can only speculate on what would have happened if the economic stimulus package and TARP were not approved.
conservative democrat
July 2nd, 2009
3:12 pm
deegee,
“We can only speculate….”
so true.
conservative democrat
July 2nd, 2009
3:13 pm
deegee,
Investing is a nice word for speculating.
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
3:13 pm
@1984
Your response was to try and extrapolate the list I gave to make that into government regulations.
What are government regulations but the government?
conservative democrat
July 2nd, 2009
3:14 pm
deegee,
Speculating is a nice word for gambling.
conservative democrat
July 2nd, 2009
3:16 pm
Jackie,
20,634 words required for regulating the growing of cabbage.
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
3:17 pm
@1984
Foreign car companies flourish because they are subsidized by their respective governments AND all these countries have what you call “socialized medicine.”
Having a hard time proving your negative?
Jackie
July 2nd, 2009
3:19 pm
@conservative democrat
What point are you trying to prove in pointing out government regulations require 20,634 words to grow cabbage?
What would we do if we had no words for growing and maintaining cabbage, E Coli?
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
3:32 pm
Much better question. Is amnesia endemic with pubtardistas? Once upon a time there was a Pressodent named St. Ronnie the Raegan who was the Patron Saint of the current economic ruin. His diciples staged a competition with tne nutcase Michael Jackson followers who have changed the name of the US to the US of dead Michael Jackson with the same 5 Michael Jacksone video cuts or pictures of his family or the gates at his ranch on your TV screen 24 X7.
Raegan cut taxes for the rich and for the next 14 months, his administration set world records for job loss. Seems the pubtards forget this stat. Obama has been combatting the stupidity of Bush economics of 8 disastrous years for 6 months. Bush set world records every every one of the 96 month that Americans were sentenced to his imbecility and financial ruin courtesy of Bush, Greenspan, Gingrich, Phil Graham, Fisk, and other pubtards who pushegd tax cuts for the very rich through for 8 years. Unemployment soared, and every economic indicator plumeted.
Dr. Marti Hernandez Rojas
July 2nd, 2009
3:35 pm
Good list, Che. No, really.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
3:37 pm
Looks like the pubtards here are parotting the idiots Faux News, the big fat drug addict idiot Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, which will insure your party continues to get crushed where it counts.
Jefferson
July 2nd, 2009
3:54 pm
Being in a minority seems to suck, but we have heard it for years we just wasn’t listening.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
3:54 pm
IC Atlanta. Get a grownup to do a whip count for ya. The dems have limited control. During Bush’s last 3 years, the same phenomenon prevailed that exists now. The dems don’t really have 60 solid votes in the Senate and Obama has been governing way to the right. There are several Dems voting consistently as Right Wing nutcases, among them imbeciles Landrui, Ben Nelson, Even Bayh. They voted with Bush on every important vote for the last several years.
It’s true your party keeps losing elections in every place but the ignorant hick South, but we don’t have enough Senate or House votes to be in control yet, and we have someone who seems to be backing the Blue Dogs by forcing through crappy watered down bills, like the House Energy bill and apparently is trying to water down the public health care option.
Peter
July 2nd, 2009
3:56 pm
Hey IC Atlanta …..Where is Bin Laden ? Why are we at War ?
1984
July 2nd, 2009
4:04 pm
Jackie, have you ever held a job OTHER than a government one?
Pubtards Continue to Lose is still pretending to be a doctor.
Pubtards Continue to Lose isn’t really a doctor but she plays one on AJC.
Bin Laden
July 2nd, 2009
4:06 pm
Peter, I am right here on this very blog. YA YAY AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYYAAYY
BAKA LAKA DAKA YAYAYAYAYAYAYAAY
War
July 2nd, 2009
4:06 pm
Peter, you are at me because I started war with you!
Dr. Marti Hernandez Rojas
July 2nd, 2009
4:10 pm
Actually, I’m not Pub. I’ve voted Republican far more often than Democratic and am a conservative. I just hate rigid idealogues of any stripe. Plus, I give you grief about your schtick because it’s not clever.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
4:13 pm
Dr. Marti Hernandez Rojas, I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Pubs. Pubs is really Chad Harris who used to ramble on and on over on Bookmans blog about being a doctor. I’m not clever? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I’m so sad that you don’t think I’m clever.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
4:15 pm
Hey, I have an idea. Let’s deport Barney Frank to North Korea so Kim Jong IL can lock him up and throw away the key.
Barney Frank: Let’s spend TARP profits before taxpayers can get them
By: Byron York
When President Obama announced on June 9 that some financial institutions would be allowed to repay Troubled Asset Relief Program dollars, he said the massively expensive TARP bailout had made money for the federal government. “It is worth noting that in the first round of repayments from these [TARP recipients], the government has actually turned a profit,” the president said. Indeed, TARP supporters have long held out the hope that the program might be profitable.
But now Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before they can be returned to the taxpayers. Last Friday, Frank introduced the “TARP for Main Street Act of 2009,” a bill that would take profits from the program and immediately redirect them toward housing proposals favored by Frank and some fellow Democrats.
In exchange for receiving TARP money, financial institutions were required to hand over shares of preferred stock that paid a dividend for the government. In theory, if a financial institution paid the dividend faithfully, and then repaid the TARP money, then the government would turn a profit. Last month, the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported that, through June 12, 2009, the government had received $6.2 billion in dividend payments. The original TARP legislation required that money made from the program “shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.”
Frank, however, wants to spend the money before it can be used to pay down anything. First, the “TARP for Main Street” proposal would take $1 billion “from dividends paid by financial institutions that have received financial assistance provided under…the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” and apply it to a trust fund that Frank has long wanted to create for low-income rental housing. (The measure, unfunded, was part of last year’s bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.) Next, Frank would take $1.5 billion from TARP dividends for a so-called “neighborhood stabilization” fund. Republican critics have charged that both measures might allow federal dollars to be distributed to activist groups like the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN.
The “TARP for Main Street” bill would also spend $2 billion, apparently from remaining TARP funds, to subsidize people who are delinquent on their mortgages, and another $2 billion to “stabilize multifamily properties that are in default or foreclosure.”
Frank’s proposal comes at a time when Republicans, and some Democrats, are expressing concern about the continued use of TARP money. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch recently complained that TARP funds are “now being used as a go-to solution to address all of our nation’s economic ills.” Hatch and Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln recently introduced a bill that would require that TARP money goes back to the Treasury for debt reduction.
Spending the dividend payments now, as Frank proposes, would reduce the chance that TARP might ever be a break-even deal for the taxpayers. “We don’t know if TARP is going to be making any money, so taking the dividend payments going back to Treasury is pretty questionable,” says one House GOP aide. Indeed, in its June report, the GAO revealed that 17 troubled institutions have not paid their dividends, much less repaid the TARP money itself. And last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that three other institutions were not paying dividends. But now, Frank is proposing that dividends be spent immediately. “It defeats the idea of taxpayer protection,” says the GOP aide.
Dr. Marti Hernandez Rojas
July 2nd, 2009
4:16 pm
Sorry for interjecting. Good day.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
4:21 pm
Not only is this dead wrong, but 1984 is reduced to his six year old mode of name calling, and parotting Rush the big fat drug addict, and backing a Borderline Personality whose backers were so stupid they still believe she will be President.
If 1984 wants to take me on medically, pick any topic that’s even peripheral to medicine and I’ll slice and dice you as only an MD can and would. Bring it to yourr catheter chained ’s chair to Wooten’s comment section and lets see you take me on medically. Other than to delusionally worry about whether I’ve practiced medicine my adult liftetime, because you’re incapable of discussing issues like an adult because you don’t understand them, the law, congress or the courts, you crowd these comments with your name calling crap.
When you want to allude to an issue, you paste from some right wing newspaper. How’s the right wing doing these days where it counts? If it weren’t for the idiot Blue Dog Dems, you wouldn’t have a voice in Congress.
Prove your claim since you obsess about it 1984 that besides your delusions you have any idea about someone’s profession or its relevance here. Nobody cares what someone does for a living, but if you think you can take a doctor on medically, why don’t you show everyone that you understand anymore about medicine then that you piss and you take dumps.
1984
July 2nd, 2009
4:27 pm
Pubtards Continue to Lose, no I am dead on. You’re Chad Harris who claims to be a doctor all while obsessing over Sarah Palin 24/7.
Pubtards Continue to Lose isn’t really a doctor but she plays one on AJC.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
4:28 pm
There will be a ;public health option. It won’t be the dilute piece of crap that McConnel gand his insurance company pimps think they’re gettinorg and it will completely remake the platform of insurance that exists now. Control of medicine by insurance companies is coming to an end no matter how much ignorance rears its head on right wing blogs.
I’d like to thank the pubtards for staging the best reality show the past 3 weeks with Ensign, ex-governor Sanford, and Borderline Personality Palin that exists today.
Chris
July 2nd, 2009
4:34 pm
So the Free Pass President finally gets called on something and the liberals can’t stand it.. I thought you people loved criticism/controversy, etc…oh, that’s right, only if it’s not your guy..
AmVet
July 2nd, 2009
4:38 pm
Notwithstanding Obama’s very mixed performance so far, I still honestly believe that George W. Bush will finish in the top 44 US Presidents of all time. Until there’s a 45th and a 46th and a 47th…
Mac
July 2nd, 2009
4:41 pm
I like that Meet Your Russian Bride ad. She’s really pretty.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
4:41 pm
1984 what you won’t do is take me on in anything close to the fields of medicinge or law. Your tactic of making claims you can’t back up is well known. It’s what McCain, Palin, and Coleman did when they had their butts handed to them.’
Start with a medical topic you want to use to show I’m not an MD. Can’t do it can you scumbag?
Churchill's MOM
July 2nd, 2009
4:50 pm
Why do these liberals hate a real woman.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The National Society of Newspaper Columnists chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the winner of its annual Sitting Duck Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor that pokes fun at the most ridiculed newsmakers in the United States.
Palin beat out Democrat Rod Blagojevich, the ousted former governor of Illinois allegedly caught trying to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
Blagojevich was the runner-up. Palin was noted for making headline after headline, month after month.
The selection was made last week at a conference in Ventura, Calif.
*****Handel 2010********Palin Sanford****************
spectator
July 2nd, 2009
4:55 pm
I find it interesting that the same few strident liberals/leftists such as Pubtards (what is a pubtard, anyway?)rant on the Wooten blog most days in defense of their boy wonder, Obama, as he systematically goes about dismantling our economy, and mortgaging our future for the sake of his personal power. Unfortunately, none of these ranters have any factual, positive responses in support of his moves (such as orchestrated town hall meetings to sell takeover of the health care system), but merely spout the same old tired, trite, non-factual criticisms of George Bush. What a lame argument this presents. And for those who say the “stimulus” has only been in effect for 2 months, I beg to differ. The first stimulus package started last fall, with the full support of Obama and the Dems. Make no mistake, Obama and the democrats own this economy, and have made it much worse than it had to be with their interventions and take-overs…FDR and lengthening of the depression all over again. How do you like your big democratic government now?
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
5:00 pm
We hate real morons and Palin qualifies. We don’t want a Borderline Personality which is her true disorder, not postpartum psychosis 2nd in line to the WH. We defeated her. She will never run for any office again in or out of Alaska. She is putting on a great reality show however due to her borderline perpetual thirst for attention.
All quotes are from the superlative Todd Purdom VF piece:
What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?
In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this. Rather, she has pursued an erratic course that, for her, may actually represent the closest thing there is to True North. Her first trip to Washington since the election was to attend the dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an elite group of politicians and businesspeople whose sole function is an annual evening in honor of a plant that would “do anything for a drink.” Some of her handlers first said she had accepted—though she then went on to decline—an invitation to speak at the annual June fund-raiser for the congressional Republicans. She created a political-action committee—Sarahpac—with the help of John Coale, a prominent Democratic trial lawyer. But just months into its existence the pac’s chief fund-raiser, Becki Donatelli, a veteran of Republican campaigns, suddenly quit. One person familiar with the situation told me that Donatelli could not stand dealing with Palin’s political spokeswoman in Alaska, Meghan Stapleton, who has drawn withering fire from Palin friends and critics alike for being an ineffective adviser. Also with Coale’s help, Palin formed the grandiosely named Alaska Fund Trust, to defray a reported half million dollars in legal expenses arising from a slew of formal ethics complaints against her in her home state—prompting yet another formal complaint, that the fund itself constitutes an ethical breach. Onetime supporters have become harsh critics. Walter Hickel, 89, a former two-term governor and interior secretary, and the grand old man of Alaska politics, who was co-chair of Palin’s winning gubernatorial campaign, in 2006, now washes his hands of her. He told me simply, “I don’t give a damn what she does.”
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
5:02 pm
What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?
In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this. Rather, she has pursued an erratic course that, for her, may actually represent the closest thing there is to True North. Her first trip to Washington since the election was to attend the dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an elite group of politicians and businesspeople whose sole function is an annual evening in honor of a plant that would “do anything for a drink.” Some of her handlers first said she had accepted—though she then went on to decline—an invitation to speak at the annual June fund-raiser for the congressional Republicans. She created a political-action committee—Sarahpac—with the help of John Coale, a prominent Democratic trial lawyer. But just months into its existence the pac’s chief fund-raiser, Becki Donatelli, a veteran of Republican campaigns, suddenly quit. One person familiar with the situation told me that Donatelli could not stand dealing with Palin’s political spokeswoman in Alaska, Meghan Stapleton, who has drawn withering fire from Palin friends and critics alike for being an ineffective adviser. Also with Coale’s help, Palin formed the grandiosely named Alaska Fund Trust, to defray a reported half million dollars in legal expenses arising from a slew of formal ethics complaints against her in her home state—prompting yet another formal complaint, that the fund itself constitutes an ethical breach. Onetime supporters have become harsh critics. Walter Hickel, 89, a former two-term governor and interior secretary, and the grand old man of Alaska politics, who was co-chair of Palin’s winning gubernatorial campaign, in 2006, now washes his hands of her. He told me simply, “I don’t give a damn what she does.”
1894
July 2nd, 2009
5:03 pm
“Funny how Liberals rip Sarah Palin apart, but love Al Franken.” Al Franken graduated Cum Laude from Harvard with a degree in political science. Palin attended, what, five or six colleges before eking out a journalism degree. Al Franken was highly successful for decades in the private sector, wrote best selling books and went on numerous USO tours. Sarah Palin was on the Wasilla city council, and during her reign Wasilla became the crystal meth capital of Alaska. Yeah, you know what, I’ll take Franken over Palin on any given day.
El Jefe
July 2nd, 2009
5:08 pm
Just a couple of comments while on vacation. Yes, some of us do have jobs.
It appears that everything that the chosen one has championed, has failed.
Unemployment, the recovery, even his vaulted town meetings, not to mention Biden’s slim turnouts.
Where has the majestic one prevailed?
Where has his successes been?
He is stabbing Israel in the back, he supports the sham election in Iran (his boisterous condemnation of the violence), the support of a Chavez like President of Honduras. A President, like our own who wants to usurp the proper democratic processes.
So far, as far as I can see, the first 6 months have been a dismal failure for the wunderkind.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
5:20 pm
Spectator can you actually read? Read the words before you type.
1) A pubtard is the bell shaped curve of Republicans who are too lazy to read and totally out of touch with political reality.
2) I’ve been very critical of Obama as are many people but only a moron would say he has had time to fix this economy. None of the nobel prize winning economists who are either conservative or liberal like Krugman expect that to happen.
3) I’ve been very critical of Geithner and Summers for the bailouts but you aren’t going to know whether Obama helps the Republican economic mess or not for years. In the meantime, you can scream on blog comment sections every nanosecond like 1984 if you like, but I don’t think that’s your objective.
Obama’s administration and this Congress now own the problem or platform of cleaning Bush’s mess and nothing could change it in 6 months. McCain btw wanted to do the same–one dimensional tax cuts for the rich.
3)I’ve said but you can’t read won’t read or pretend you can’t read that Obama’s appellate court filings and stance are to the right of Bush. It’s all over every paper and political journal right now. I think the
dynamic is that Obama wants a real putlic health plan. So Rahm Emanuel and Greg Craig WH Counsel are willing to make all kinds of consessions to Republicans and Blue Dog Dems to get it.
Dawn Johnsen isn’t in place to stop this idiocy, but she will be in a couple weeks and she’s going to tell Obama to change his stance on indefinite detention, wiretapping, and state secrets in appellate briefs which to date have been exactly replications of Bush “DOJ or she’ll leave.
The energy bill in the house has more than 100 Republican pork pieces of crap. It sucks. It’s not change you can believe in, it’s pure crap and Republicans who don’t understand how bad it was, haven’t read it. I bumped into 3 pub lawyuhs bitchin and moanin ’bout cap and trade like the Wooten replacement AJC signed up for their new high school paper.
I asked them to sketch what passed. There was silence. One started to recite Limbaugh and Mark Levin crap that didn’t resemble the bill. I cut him off. I asked him if he read the bill, and of course he hadn’t. I asked him if he counted the 100+ Republican pork concessions in it. He said “Ya kiddin!”
Read the bill. Obama was willing to let the energy bill become a joke (its tax measure that the pubs are showcasing is de minimus but it’s a piece of crap) so that he can get votes on a public health plan, and right now Obama seems to be waffling on that.
So if you stereotype people who think Obama is a quantum leap better than Bush/Cheney or McCain/Palin, when they are clearly critical of Obama like I am in a number of areas, you aren’t reading and undrestanding what we’re saying.
Take a deep breath and read critically for a change.
Pubtards Continue to Lose
July 2nd, 2009
5:25 pm
For Churchill’s MOM–
We find Palin repulsive because she is stupid and fully incapapble of handling any public office including Alaska.
What’s your response to the Republican criticism of Palin quoted by the McCain campaign chiefs in this article, or do you refuse to read and comment?
It Came from Wasilla