Obama: Unscripted and Unprepared
By Ani on August 13, 2008 at 12:15 PM in Barack Obama, DNC, Democratic Nomination, Georgia, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Presumptuous Nominee
Every day, Barack Obama reminds me a little more of George Bush. I can’t help it. The similarities are too striking to ignore: His love for vacations at the worst possible time. And he, like King George, purports to be a ‘Uniter.’ Well, let’s test this claim.
How would you characterize a man who:
has played the race card to great effect repeatedly and with impunity throughout his campaign, and gotten the mainstream press and the Democratic elite to gamely play along;
has insulted or ignored anyone who didn’t vote for him;
is too politically shortsighted to realize that by nixing a roll call for Hillary and not placing her name in nomination, he is probably costing himself the election, further alienating her voters.
Forgive me, but he doesn’t sound very unifying.
More telling are Senator Obama’s unscripted moments – very Bush-like. I know Senator Obama reads a teleprompter well, and perhaps imitates the cadence of Rev. Martin Luther King. But the message underneath rings hollow.
In moments of crisis, and the leader of the free world will encounter many, there may not be time for 20 scriptwriters to pull him together if he himself cannot exhibit the proper leadership to guide this nation. He will not have a long weekend as he did in creating his “scintillating speech on race” to distract from the debacle that was Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Jonah Goldberg’s op-ed in the LA Times yesterday, Obama Without His Script, was a welcome surprise, considering the source – a newspaper that, with rare exception, has given the newbie Illinois Senator glowing coverage. The subtitle…
Judging by his reaction to the Georgia-Russia crisis, Obama’s make-believe presidency isn’t ready for prime time…
…makes it look as though, at least for this columnist, the bloom is off the rose. Mr. Goldberg’s recent columns hit both Obama and McCain pretty evenly, but for the LA Times even to print this, wow! Senator Obama must have made a boo boo:
The Obama campaign has for months pursued the odd strategy of having the junior senator from Illinois act as if he were already kinda-sorta president of the United States. In June, it tried sticking a quasi-presidential seal on his lectern. Then in July, he conducted what seemed like official state visits with foreign leaders and delivered something like a “prenaugural” address in Berlin, inviting comparisons to JFK and Reagan.
…
If the would-be president can seem plausibly presidential, voting for him might not seem like such a crapshoot. It all makes sense, even if it fosters an air of presumptuousness.
…
The invasion of Georgia elicited a wan written communique instead of the sort of exciting rhetoric we’ve come to expect from his make-believe presidency. But he did make it in front of the cameras the next day for a rally celebrating his vacation in Hawaii. He promised “to go body surfing at some undisclosed location.”During Obama’s make-believe presidency, we’ve heard about bold action, about the courage to talk to dictators. When faced with a real “3 a.m. moment,” Obama – who boasts about 200 foreign policy advisors, broken into 10 subgroups – proclaims, “I’m going to get some shave ice.”
…
Indeed, President Bush’s jaunt to the Olympics as a “sports fan” should also have been cut short the moment tanks started rolling over a country he’d proclaimed a “beacon of liberty” during his visit there in 2005. By Monday, both Bush and Obama were playing catch-up to Sen. John McCain, who seemed to have grasped the gravity from the get-go…
Putting Bush and Obama in the same sandbox and well behind McCain’s much touted handling of the 3 A.M. moment is not the kind of press Obama wants at this point.
But, for once, in the press, the assessment is honest. This country doesn’t need any more versions of someone caught flatfooted reading “My Pet Goat” instead of standing up and taking appropriate action to get on top of the situation.
Referring to Obama’s statement on the crisis, Steve Huntley, in yesterday’s Chicago Sun Times made the point:
It took first-term Sen. Barack Obama three tries to get it right. Headed for a vacation in Hawaii, the presumed Democratic candidate for commander in chief issued an even-handed statement, urging restraint by both sides. Later Friday, he again called for mutual restraint but blamed Russia for the fighting. The next day his language finally caught up with toughness of McCain’s.
Making matters worse, Obama’s staff focused on a McCain aide who had served as a lobbyist for Georgia, charging it showed McCain was “ensconced in a lobbyist culture.” Obama’s campaign came off as injecting petty partisan politics into an international crisis. This was not a serious response on behalf [of] a man who aspires to be the leader of the Free World. After all, what’s so bad about representing a small former Soviet republic struggling to remake itself as a Western-style democracy?
The comparison between the two candidates served to emphasize the strength McCain’s experience would bring to the White House in a dangerous world.
Obama’s favored approach to international issues, diplomatic talks, failed to stop Russia’s invasion. Vladimir Putin, a KGB bull in the former Soviet Union, wants to restore Russia as the supreme power of Eurasia…
However the world’s newest war ends, America’s leadership must recognize and respond to the underlying dynamic of Russia’s resurgent aggressive instincts — the power bestowed on Moscow by its oil and gas riches.
I am not endorsing Senator McCain. I think by now, everyone knows who my candidate is. Hillary exhibited great foresight about this crisis. But Senator Obama is making newbie mistakes all over the place. These are schoolyard games – harping about lobbyists at a time like this? There are far larger issues at stake here.
Mr. Goldberg of the Times further observes:
[Obama] has been playacting at being presidential in order to convince voters that we live in a “new moment” with “new challenges” – and that he is the president we need for this new era.
This moment calls for more than playacting, yet Obama looks lost without a presidential script. Events in the Caucasus – and, for that matter, in Beijing – suggest that the times aren’t so new after all. Two powerful antidemocratic foes are once again flexing their muscles at a moment when America seems weak and distracted.
That is not a new challenge but a very old one. Perhaps this is not a time for a novice spouting grand rhetoric about a new page in history, but for someone who’s actually read the pages of some old, but still relevant, books. Perhaps this is not the time for playacting.
Perhaps it is not the time for body surfing?
Obama presents grave cause for worry. He may actually be naïve enough to think that he can just “delegate” the yucky stuff and someone else is going to do the actual clean up.
I have witnessed many of his supporters recite a similar mantra – “He’ll surround himself with great people. Congress does everything anyway. He has really good judgment.” This is the President they want? A figurehead to make a “speech” and leave the rest of the work to the grown ups? This Democratic Congress isn’t doing very well – and after the behavior I have witnessed these past seven months, these are not the people I want ‘running the show.’
Aside from choosing David Axelrod (better known as Axel-Rove) as his slash and burn campaign manager, what were his good decisions exactly? I reference here my earlier assessment of why I cannot support him and his prior ‘boneheaded’ actions. This is another way he reminds me of Bush. Every time I think I have looked into the nadir, Obama does something else to earn my mistrust. I have actually started to get numb and lose track.
His shocking reversal on FISA, for example, from a supposedly dearly held belief in the sanctity of the fourth amendment betrays an arrogant “well, too bad, where else are you gonna go” attitude, taking advantage of and even diminishing the value of his most fervent supporters. Tiresome as it may be, I will remind people once again that Senator Clinton voted correctly on FISA. What happened to the filibuster Senator Obama promised us?
No off-shore oil drilling, anyone? Another one of his campaign promises. To quote Senator Obama, “Words, just words.”
But Senator Obama would be gratified to know a number of those original supporters are still making excuses for him. I would imagine it is getting both exhausting and frustrating for them.
Further, his plan to ‘accept’ the nomination at Invesco Field before an audience of 75,000 smacks simultaneously of hubris and bullying – just squash the competition, the detractors, the protesters with a wall of noise and size.
This is reminiscent of George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” declaration where, to quote General Wes Clark, Bush “pranced around on the deck of that aircraft carrier.”
I was a lifelong Democrat until two months ago. I certainly hoped we’d have a better choice at this point than to be force fed a man so arrogant and inexperienced; someone who is more interested in image management than rolling up his sleeves to do the work required to deal with the world that is – not the world he wishes could be. Perhaps he really believes that he alone can ‘heal our planet.’ Unfortunately, this is grandiose to the point of being delusional.
Leaders in other countries will not be so easily hypnotized just because our American press has been. Putin, for example, may not get a ‘tingle up his leg’ as Chris Matthews has.
Surely it has occurred to the Party elite that if Democrats cannot win the election in this ‘no-lose year,’ with the Republican brand damaged as it is, the Democratic Party will be over. Not that that would be a bad thing in its current state.
More and more, I remember Hillary’s claim to be ‘ready on day one.’ I believe she is. And we’re going to need somebody who is.
Delusions are not required. Solutions are.
Obama Movement and the DONC are FRANTICALLY trying to hold the increasingly restive Clinton delegates in line. A delegate in Colorado was forced to seek legal representation when the Colorado state party started making moves to strip her of her status and replace her with an Obama loyalist. In Kentucky, delegates are being told to shut up, sit down, or lose your seats.
arent all the supers going to obama? gov etal?
EVEN THOUGH their constituents went for hillary ..most go with obama…with the exception of louisville district…(my congressman will get a pass this time with me)…he did say IF louisville went to hillary he would change his endorsement….so? tell me otherwise
i am so sick of this shit
i love DONC….perfect
THE TIME TO SPEAK IS AT THE CONVENTION…….RIGHT ON CAMERA…….THE CLINTON DELEGATES SHOULD BE MUTE TILL THEN AND THEN RAISE HELL AND LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW THE TRUTH
ROLL CALL AT THE CONVENTION FOR HRC!
O & gang hold advanced degrees in Gangster Diplomacy.
Bluffing, bullying, threatening, and lying.
Hussien Obama’s nomination is a joke. Just read the mark Penn memos, he is brilliant, and every thing he said came true.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200808u/clinton-memos
check out http://barrysoetoro.us
I’ve got news for Obambi and the DNC thugs…….
Kentucky will not sit down and shut up. They come from a long line of Scots/Irish who believe in democracy and truth. kentuckians don’t back down for anyone, let alone a raicst, anti american liar like Obama.
I hope Kentucky gives Obambi the biggest a$$ whippin of them all in the general.
I second that!
Third! Obambi does not even deserve a community organizing position.
New Obama logo.
http://chicagoagainstobama.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/name-change-we-can-believe-in/
Isn’t toro in spanish BULL?
The DNC is SOOOOO SCREWED!!!!!
His love for vacations at the worst possible time.
Ummm… why is early August the “worst possible time” for a vacation?
mosquitos. hot sun.
Reminiscent of the “August 6 PDB” that warned: “al Qaeda determined to strike within US.”
Vacationing American PRINCE, too busy cutting brush (or body surfing and eating waffles in Hawaii) to be bothered with “work” and national security “diversions” and the “tedium” of world affairs.
Granted, bambi’s not the president, nor will he be, but he thinks he is - and that’s the first thing I think of when “vacation” and “August” are mentioned in the same sentence - idiots asleep at the wheel…
DNC chairman in Arkansas has been shot.
was he shot by an Obot?
Don’t know he was a Hillary Supporter. The man is apparently a white male and is in custody. I bet we will find out though.
They are also talking about how you have work 6 hours for Obama before you can get into the convention.
The Chairman that is was a hillary supporter, don’t know about the shooter.
I heard the shooter was a black guy.
nah, white guy 4os.
FOX is reporting a shooting at a Democratic campaign office in Little Rock Arkansas with the chairman there hospitalized.
The chariman of the campaign was shot they have not released any names
Defiant Clinton Women Refuse To Support Obama
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild doesn’t look like a radical.
http://countusout.wordpress.com/
We have a better choice–John McCain. I say this as a Democrat who has voted for every Democrat since Lyndon Johnson. However, this is not my father’s Democratic Party. No longer can they be billed as the party of Unions, Seniors, The Poor, The Middle Class, Gays, Women. As Lou Pinnella, the Manager of the Cubs said when asked about the Cubs possibly winning the World Series after 100 years. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FIRST 98 YEARS JUST THE LAST 2.
The current Democratic Party is not the party we have known for the last 98 years. They have morphed into something we consider dispicable. People like Pelosi and Dean are not responsible for the last 98 years–just the last 2.
“”I have actually started to get numb and lose track.”"
Well said… Isn’t obassole just plain tiresome?!
I agree with you about Obama. But really, quoting the moronic Jonah Goldberg (or any other Wingnut) doesn’t help the cae against Obama or for Hillary. (Neither for that matter does fake “expert” examination of Obama’s birth certificate). We have enough real weapons and ammo to use against the Unity Pony without using those that will end up shooting ourselves in the foot.
I thought about that. I looked at his recent columns at LAT however, and they are more balanced and not wing nutty so I thought I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. Everyone is always welcome to consider the source, but there is no denying that his assessment of Obama’s response here (made by many) is spot on.
I am wondering if you find the same problem I do this campaign season, that because so many in the MSM are in the tank for Obie, it is near impossible to get one of them to step up and admit “the Emperor has no clothes”.
Dana Milbank of WaPo finally did it only to be banned from MSNBC (good for him that he took another gig anyway and did not go back). Not that Milbank has been any help this campaign season either.
Truly, anyone watching this all unfold would think they were delirious, because it is preposterous to me that Senator Obama can be given a pass for his behavior and actions, record (or the lack thereof) and associates.
So apparently now they are shooting Hillary’s superdelegates. Bill Gwatney is in the hospital right now, according to Fox.
He died
they are going to lock up demonstrators in a warehouse with wire cages…story is on drudge…cbs2 in denver investigated and took pictures…very interesting what this evil man and his cronies will do…
I think its over folks, it was a good couple of hundred years, but from sham elections to and now people gettting shot, our democracy is over. I wonder how long before this site gets taken care of?
You really need to work on your hyperbole. Maybe throw in swarms of locusts and rivers of blood, stuff like that.
A superdelegate for Hillary was just murdered. Imagine the pissing and moaning if he had been a superdelegate for Obummer.
Yes indeed. Lots of saber-rattling in the McCain camp.
It’s almost as though there’s a PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN underway. And I wonder if JOHN McCAIN IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT? He sure is making lots O’ noise…
But where’s his opponent?!? Wherever can he be?
What’s that you say? “On vacation in Hawaii where he’s NOT looking or sounding particularly presidential”, you say?
Heaven forfend. I thought he was ready to lead?
It’s not 3 am yet. He has to call HRC first.
HRC would be prepared. I hardly think HRC would not be sunbathing at this time.
Obama is running scared right now. This man is REALLY nervous about something. His internal poll numbers must be awful.
He knows he might now be able to actually be president and is hoping no one find out.
Further, his plan to ‘accept’ the nomination at Invesco Field before an audience of 75,000 smacks simultaneously of hubris and bullying – just squash the competition, the detractors, the protesters with a wall of noise and size.
The great thing is: these gimmicks are not working. Despite all his cash, the DNC prop machine and full-time promotion by the media, he continued to lose major contests against Hillary. Now, with his Euro-Disney tour etc., his numbers are stagnant. People are not fools. Well…enough people. (Can’t speak for the Bots of course).
Here it is. IF the shooter is an Obot. Here comes the anarchy in the Dem party full force.
Arkansas…Clinton territory…interesting.
Buzz:
That’s too awful to contemplate. The story is just developing. The shooting victim, Bill Gwatney, the Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman, had endorsed Hilary Clinton, and he is now hospitalized in critical condition. The shooter took off and was chased down and shot by the cops, but we don’t know anything about the shooter and his background at this point. I sincerely hope that there are not political motivations in this shooting, but we will need to wait to see how this story develops. If this shooting was politically motivated, God save our country from these folks.
I think that even gun-totin’, Bible clingin’, low-information voters know that you can’t make yourself “look Presidential”. Not with a fake seal. Not with a Carnival Cruise to Europe. You either do or you don’t.
And you can’t get “foreign policy credentials” by going around the world in 9 days. Obama would have been better off keeping his trip low-key, and really doing some fact finding, instead of finding new venues to be worshipped. It made it look like he thinks he needed all the publicity because he knows he’s not qualified or experienced enough to be CIC, but he thinks he thinks he can fool enough people into believing otherwise if he makes enough noise. We don’t need another Cliff notes President.
Agreed.
What will be interesting is the motive for shooting in AR. Don’t get me wrong. I am completely sorry that this happened, but the animosity the Obots display has to escalate the closer it gets to the convention. If the shooter is not an Obot, then that will be a real twist.
Obots are the low information voters otherwise they wouldn’t be supporting Obama.
But this is just another hightlight into the totally fabricated hologram that is Obama.
Where’s Obama’s statement about the incident. No one has told him yet or wanted to disturb him from his shell hunt?
the shooter lost his job.
The police have debunked that.
Every time some one accuses me of being a racist, I laugh because from the beginning of this I’ve always said that Obama is uncannily Bushlike–right down to getting into Harvard for an advanced degree based on being a legacy.
He smirks like Dubya, he’s got a massive need to be right and have his ego stroked like Dubya. (Mostly due to a fixation on an absentee dad — real for obama, emotional for dubya) He thinks his guts are the best indicator of all answers, has little need for facts or studied thought, he has that same air of entitlement that Bush does, and he seems to think his version of god put him a position of greatness, even though he’s got parents that went to ivy league schools. They both work at feigning being something other than their roots. Dubya feigns texasness. Obama feigns streetwise blackness.
I argue that Obama had to spend 20 years in the pews with Rev. Wright learning to be black. There is nothing in his background that would connect him to the black american culture until that point.
You can not take the prep school outta the kid. If you’ve ever grown up around prep school kids, you can tell their airs and their hang ups a mile away.
there is no excuse for him not letting the Press meet his Grandma Dunham The met his Kenyan Grandma
The woman in Kenya is not his grandmother. She is a wife of his polygamist Kenyan grandfather. Notice he calls her his step-grandmother. I have never seen any information whatsoever about his real Kenyan grandmother.
But I am telling you that I am going to solve the problem one way or the other…I have a historic mission, and this mission I will fulfill because Providence has destined me to do so…
Where have we heard BS like this before? Ummm?? Hint: Germany.
No, Obama’s nervous because the air of inevitability has vanished, along with his strong poll numbers, and he’s hoping that no one notices.
You can almost hear McCain, the media spin machine and the republican 527’s sharpening their knives. I wouldn’t trade places with Obama right now for all the tea in China.
Ari, what a great article…I so appreciate all the writers here..thank you..
I’ve been trying think if there are any categories or groups of people this tool and his friends haven’t insulted.
So far all I can think of are Little People and Trekkies, but eiher one of them may fall into a subcategory of bitter, clinging or the over 50’s.
Nope, I think he’s covered everyone.
Good point. What’s scary are the air-headed low information voters that are still clinging to the notion of voting for Obama.
Never has a presumptive nominee for POTUS been a bigger bigot, empty suit, or just plain insulting than Obama.
Let’s hope that’s all he goes down in history for.
His reign of silliness must end.
Thank you for another excellent article.
And I too have seen similar temperament traits in both bush & Obamaling. As mentioned by someone else — it is in part the prep school attitude.
In Hawaii it is a bonus to be of color — and to be multi racial. I’ve noted that Barry Soetoro used his step father’s surname was an asset. Apparently he changed his name to what he now calls himself — when being AA would benefit him the most.
bush used his last name and his father’s position — because it brought a lot of advantages that he never had to WORK for.
Both Obamaling and bush believe that the are OWED.
Screw them — we don’t own these narcissistic jerks anything.
PUMA
FEC Investigation of Obama Eligibility
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Federal-Elections-Commssion/index.html
We need more signatures.all most there.Just go at the end where it ask if you like to donate and if you can’t just go to the bottom of the page and hit go back to petition.And hit ok- againok then hit the back bar till you are at the petition again.go to signutures at the top and click.Look to see if you got yours on there.You can remain Anonymous
We are almost there.We need to get Obama’s true birth certificate and invesagation for it and other stuff to they are working on now
A very good article, Ani. Very insightful.
In order to be a good leader, especially a president, one needs to be well read and informed about history, and the world stage. Unfortunately, Obi heard someone say stage and figured all he had to do was act.
After all, Obi and company see that most of America is enamored with “reality” TV and its mindlessness. Who has time to investigate a presidential candidate when The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Americas Next Top Model or 30 Seconds of Fame ( where Obama should be ) are on.
They count on the laziness and ineptitude of the general public to look past the surface, so all we get are prancing ponies like Bush and Obi.
Yes. Unfortunately, I think you are right. He is counting on the dumbing down of America — that we are too busy being a consumer class and sucking up pablum on TV to be capable of critical thought any longer.
It is my sincere prayer that the American people step up and surprise the DNC, the media, the corporations (who have a strangle hold on our country), and him as well.
WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?
I BET PELOSI AND THE DNC ELITES CAN’T ANSWER THAT QUESTION EITHER.WHY ARE THEY FORCING HIM TO US?
HE IS A GUY WE FIRST DON’T KNOW AND ONCE WE KNOW HIM,WE DON’T LIKE HIM.
Right On Cahil!
This is indeed a Reality TV Nation; Which helps explain how Obama has gotten away with this.
I’m sorry, but I beg to differ here. It was all of you pundits who made nobama the preznit in waiting not us. All along you put the beat down on Hillary, crowning nobama king purple pee, tossing him off on those of us who never wanted him and now you see the light? I always knew this would happen the further along his campaign got, but at what expense? The country having the leadership it should have had from the beginning ripped from it? Just so we could have this pompous fool foisted off on us? Just because those losers, Dean et al, couldn’t stand the thought of winners taking over the White House and bringing this country back to where it should be? For their jealousy? And all we get in return is their unending ineptitude, their boorish attitude, and their looser ways. So, take this on your head, Goldberg, for you are one of the idiot pundits who enabled this man from the beginning. One last thing; we should never again allow any candidate to run unvetted, never. The gop has things it is going to use against nobama after the convention, and I am sure that much of it is confirmed by their own operatives, to be used when it is too late to do anything about it. Freaking clown posse losers!
I think that Obama should be anxious. As I see it it is a loose loose situation for him. When he loses he is going to owe his butt to those who spent their millions and millions of dollars on his fauce of a campaign, because he managed to fool them ,with his Harvard degree, his law degree and “community organizing”. Then guess what they found out that his “smarts” were a fake. They will want some kind of payback.
Then if by some stroke of luck and he wins he will still owe them so…….much that he will not have any say so as to how the goverment should be run. Therefore the country will still be in a mess……because his sponsers will be pulling the strings