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The Obama Administration : What Went Wrong
NRO ^ | August 17, 2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 08/17/2009 9:16:58 AM PDT by RobinMasters

We are witnessing one of the more rapid turnabouts in recent American political history. President Obama’s popularity has plummeted to 50 percent and lower in some polls, while the public expresses even less confidence in the Democratic-led Congress and the direction of the country at large. Yet, just eight months ago, liberals were talking in Rovian style about a new generation to come of progressive politics — and the end of both the Republican party and the legacy of Reaganism itself. Barack Obama was to be the new FDR and his radical agenda an even better New Deal.

What happened, other than the usual hubris of the party in power?

First, voters had legitimate worries about health care, global warming, immigration, energy, and inefficient government. But it turns out that they are more anxious about the new radical remedies than the old nagging problems. They wanted federal support for wind and solar, but not at the expense of neglecting new sources of gas, oil, coal, and nuclear power. They were worried about high-cost health care, the uninsured, redundant procedures, and tort reform, but not ready for socialized medicine. They wanted better government, not bigger, DMV-style government. There is a growing realization that Obama enticed voters last summer with the flashy lure of discontent. But now that they are hooked, he is reeling them in to an entirely different — and, for many a frightening — agenda. Nothing is worse for a president than a growing belief among the public that it has been had.

(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 111th; bho44; democrats; discobama; lameduckobama; miserablefailure; obama; obamacare; obamalegacy; pelosi; third100days; vdh; victordavishanson; waterloo
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To: RobinMasters
The Obama Administration : What Went Wrong

Marxism, Africanism and Anti-Americanism.

141 posted on 08/17/2009 3:43:46 PM PDT by melancholy (Hey Marxists, don't Crap & Tread on me. Zer0's defeat has just begun.)
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To: RobinMasters

Good post mortem. Obama was a stealth, “under the radar” candidate. You can run a campaign with concealment and dissimulation, but you can’t run a country and expect a false image to remain intact.


142 posted on 08/17/2009 3:57:19 PM PDT by x
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To: livius

http://www.volunteerflorida.org/americorps/programsbycounty.html

Take a look. The programs are already in place. This seems to be a way to get money, recommendations & a stipend for Master’s Programs. Also, unless I am reading incorrectly, AmeriCorps is affiliated with some Catholic school programs like reading tutoring and other helpful things.


143 posted on 08/17/2009 3:58:41 PM PDT by reformedliberal (Are we at high crimes or misdemeanors, yet?)
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To: RobinMasters

Millions of non-voting Americans don’t give a crap about politics, or which party is in charge. They want to work, take care of their families, and get whatever enjoyment out of life they can. Then some numbskull leftist gets elected POTUS and starts screwing around with a healthcare system that they’re perfectly satisfied with, and they suddenly wake up. Add those people to the huge amount of voters that already knew the danger of Obama, and the Independents that voted for him but now have buyers remorse, and you get Obama’s joke of a presidency.


144 posted on 08/17/2009 4:38:47 PM PDT by smedley64 (Sun Tzu trumps Alinsky.)
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To: RobinMasters
The Obama Administration : What Went Wrong

.....Lipstick

.....Pig

.....You know the rest.

145 posted on 08/17/2009 5:12:16 PM PDT by SteamShovel (When hope trumps reality, there is no hope at all.)
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To: RobinMasters; PhilDragoo; devolve; potlatch; Grampa Dave; y'all
The Obama Administration : What Went Wrong?

My guess is that folks didn't get the kind of "Hope" & "Change" they expected.


146 posted on 08/17/2009 5:34:39 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (2008: The year the Media died. --Sean Hannity, regarding Barack HUSSEIN ObaMao's treatment ...)
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To: RobinMasters

The man is a liar and a hypocrite. The sooner he is dumped the more the US improves. He can take his crappy hope n change and shove it.

He lied to everyone.


147 posted on 08/17/2009 5:38:17 PM PDT by dforest (Who is the real Jim Thompson? I am.)
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To: RobinMasters
It is encouraging to see that things aren't going quite so well for obama, his handlers, minions and plans.

However, we are barely into his first year and he has already done much damage with the only cost being his drop in popularity. A temporary setback from which he has plenty of time to recover.

Let's not become as overconfident as the dems are now or as the republican majority was a very short time ago.

Incrementally, the left and the republican moderates have delivered a thousand cuts to the Republic and put distance between our government and the Constitution. Reagan's legacy has been undermined and forgotten by most and we now have the most liberal government we've ever seen. It is early and we have only begun to fight, but ours is a righteous cause and we must prevail.

148 posted on 08/17/2009 5:57:28 PM PDT by GBA
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To: SCalGal

Lovely idea! A little Americorps appreciation party...


149 posted on 08/17/2009 6:56:23 PM PDT by livius
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To: Borax Queen
I saw something sorta similar that made me wonder if I was living in the pre-Stalinist days that my parents and grandparents escaped from...

It is strange. I've been thinking about this all day and it almost doesn't make sense to me. Why 30 of them in this little, relatively prosperous town? We don't really need any "help" or "organizing" and I can't imagine what their pretext is.

Maybe their purpose is, as some have suggested, to create "community organizers" and take over local projects; I think it may be that, but I also think that they will be giving regular reports to whoever controls them on what they have observed about us. That is, if there are any movements like Tea Parties, etc. starting up, they will hear about it and will include it in their reports.

But we can report, too! I hope that if other people on FR notice anything like this in their communities, they mention it here. My town couldn't be the only place where this is happening because we're just not very important and normally we'd be way down the list for something like this, unless it's being done on a truly large scale.

Obama's speech on 9/11 is supposed to be about his "citizen corps," btw, and to announce new plans.

150 posted on 08/17/2009 7:04:23 PM PDT by livius
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To: RobinMasters

bump


151 posted on 08/17/2009 7:32:29 PM PDT by Christian4Bush ("A community organizer can't start bitching when communities organize." - Rush, 8/5/09)
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To: livius
I hope that if other people on FR notice anything like this in their communities, they mention it here.

I hope so!

Obama's speech on 9/11 is supposed to be about his "citizen corps," btw, and to announce new plans.

Oh no.

152 posted on 08/17/2009 7:37:19 PM PDT by Borax Queen
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To: reformedliberal
Hmmm....

UNITED WE SERVE is a national service movement, from June 22 to September 11, founded upon the ideal that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things when given the proper tools. President Obama is asking you to participate in the United We Serve movement and make an initial service commitment to your community by addressing the needs in education, health, energy, the environment, safety and security.

All of these programs seem to be loosely grouped under this "United We Serve" umbrella, which seems to be a government project. Some of them are Americorps programs and some of them are other (probably left-wing) programs. I don't think the Catholic school project is Americorps affiliated (because they wouldn't be able to use government money for it) but it comes out of Notre Dame so it's definitely leftist.

This explains why Obama is planning to make another one of his raving, illogical speeches on Sept. 11, supposedly on the subject of a "citizen service corps," because Sept. 11 is the day the "United We Serve" summer campaign ends.

However, the Americorps people in our case seem to have been assigned for the duration of the school year, since they said they had just arrived and were familiarizing themselves with the place before school starts (in another 10 days or so). Maybe this is a second stage of the plan, that is the installation of semi-permanent Americorps programs in communities?

I think this will bear close watching. I know this is a big objective of Rahm Emmanuel's, and it's probably about time for Obama to stir the pot in some other direction. He's plunged from one area to another, a different one every month, wreaking havoc wherever he goes.

153 posted on 08/17/2009 8:04:38 PM PDT by livius
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To: livius

it turned out they were a crop of some 30 Americorps volunteers who had been “assigned” to my town “”

I believe that Americorps members are PAID. They are not ‘volunteers”.


154 posted on 08/17/2009 10:02:51 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

They are paid, but for some reason they are referred to as “volunteers,” I guess because they rarely have any professional qualifications and it’s not truly a job for which people apply and are selected. They’re like those PIRG “volunteers,” who are also just warm bodies who get paid for going door to door promoting the leftwing cause of the moment.

When their leader was babbling away about her Americorps band, she actually tried to recruit people from our little group of genuine volunteers (unpaid, that is). She said they needed some local people and that they would be paid and trained, although I gathered that the qualifications were minimal and breathing was probably the main one.


155 posted on 08/18/2009 3:38:51 AM PDT by livius
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To: MNJohnnie
"....the American people....are doing just fine on their own,..."

Tea Parties and vocal Obama-Care dissenters at Town Hall meetings are wonderful examples of American can-do spirit - but it will take much more than that to turn Congress back into our tool and not our master.
I'm not being pessimistic, just a realist - people coalesce arond ideas, but it takes a human "leader" (not a messiah) to ram that home.

156 posted on 08/18/2009 3:53:21 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: SeattleBruce
"What about leaders coming out of the 2010 cycle?"

Yes, there are leaders - but NOW is the time to mount a strong counter-attack while they are reeling - the Demoncrats may recover by this time next year - then we will have to storm forward into a re-united, stronger Leftist front - NOW is the time to peel away wavering "O" supporters and win back some ground.
(Sure, easy for me to say from the comfort of my desk/keyboard - I am not a strong leader - I'm a work-horse - God has given others the gift of leadership).

157 posted on 08/18/2009 3:59:51 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: livius

Of course, _that_ is the significance of September 11: the end of the United We Serve summer campaign.

Keep an eye out and watch your own back, as well.


158 posted on 08/18/2009 4:53:44 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Are we at high crimes or misdemeanors, yet?)
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To: RobinMasters

Honestly, I never understood the claims of charisma and celebrity appeal that so many attached to this man, as the reason why he won. Not only do I believe he has all of the charisma of an old tennis shoe stuffed with corn chips, I don’t think charisma had anything at all to do with his election by other voters. I have a hard time believing that he swept people off their feet with charm and social appeal......I never saw any of that. It was all just a huge session of social masturbation.....people wanted to feel good about themselves by shedding the ghosts of racism.


159 posted on 08/18/2009 8:14:22 AM PDT by Badabing Badablonde (New to the internet? CLICK HERE)
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To: A.Hun

They thought they could raise taxes with abandon.
++++++++++++++

Even the dim bulbs will figure out, you can only kick a dead horse so long...will they admit failure...of course not. Will we observe and point out their abject failure. Or course. Will that tree falling, be heard in the forest, if no one is there to hear it, or if the media doesn’t cover the story.

Thank God for the internet and alternate media.


160 posted on 08/18/2009 12:50:52 PM PDT by SeattleBruce (God, Family, Church, Country & the Tea Party! Take America Back! (Objective media? Try TRAITORS.))
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