US under Obama could slide into military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal

The London Times ^ | September 30, 2009 | Tim Teeman

[2ndDivisionVet]

Barack Obama is failing as President and the US is in danger of sliding into a military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal, the American essayist and intellectual.

In an exclusive interview with The Times, Vidal, 83, reveals that he regrets switching his allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Mr Obama during last year’s campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

“I was hopeful,” he said of Mr Obama. “He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.”

America should leave Afghanistan, Vidal said. “We’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it.” Vidal, a friend of President John F. Kennedy, became an Obama backer because he “grew up in a black city” (Washington) and was impressed by Obama’s intelligence.

On Mr Obama’s plan to reform healthcare, he said: “He f***** it up. I don’t know how, because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it happen.”

Vidal added: "He loves quoting Lincoln and there’s a great Lincoln quote from a letter he wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War. ’I am President of the United States. I have full overall power and never forget it, because I will exercise it’. That’s what Obama needs - a bit of Lincoln’s chill.” He also predicted Obama may be assassinated: “Just one lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital.”(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

Consistently wrong, you gotta admire that... LOL

[EGPWS]

Barack Obama is failing as President...

Well, that much is true.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Bore Vidal

[Lazamataz]

I don’t agree with Vidal about much .... but he’s spot on.

[Bender2]

Re: "The only time I envied Jack was when Joe [Kennedy, JFK’s father] was buying him his Senate seat, then the presidency. He didn’t know how lucky he was. Here’s a story I’ve never told. In 1960, after he had spent so much on the presidential campaign, Joe took all nine children to Palm Beach to lecture them. He was really angry. He said, ‘All you read about the Kennedy fortune is untrue. It’s non-existent. We’ve spent so much getting Jack elected and not one of you is living within your income’. They all sat there, shame-faced. Jack was whistling. He used to tap his teeth: they were big teeth, like a xylophone. Joe turned to Jack and he says, ‘Mr President, what’s the solution?’ Jack said, ‘The solution is simple. You all gotta work harder’.” Vidal guffaws heartily."

Got to admit, I've never heard that story... but it makes so much sense now days.

[ExiledChicagoan]

Gore thinks about Lincoln’s log.

[SkyDancer]

Don’t think so ... Obama and the Democrats hate our military.

[Izzy Dunne]

Oh criminy - now we have Gore Vidal as political analyst - after Michael Moore goes up against Chris Dodd - somebody take this circus away, I think I’m dreaming - I’m stuck in a Salvador Dali film clip - HELP!

[randog]

The comments at the end of the article are good, especially this one:

Michael Barnes wrote: It seems that very little is actually known about the man who was elected POTUS. The fact that his credentials have been sealed invites speculation about his legitimacy. Nevertheless very many hopes and expectations were invested in a man who appeared to have a vast amount of potential. But this was despite there being very little known for certain as to whether that potential was real. However, having been miraculously elected, it seems that the rhetoric is not being replaced by substance. Are therefore the 'dreams of my father' to be unrealisable, as dreams usually are?

[Glenn]

Vidal is still living?

[Secret Agent Man]

Doubt that it will be one, Vidal. Also wrong about him being a very intelligent guy. Apparently Vidal’s never tuned in to see Barack sans teleprompter.

[MCH]

The U.S. military would never backup Obama in such a power grab. Ridiculous.

This article is moronic. Obama was "the most intelligent" candidate? Based upon what? Reading in an articulate manner off of a telemprompter? His ghost-written books? His unknown/locked past? Or more likely, because he obviously shared the author's Marxist politial beliefs?

Sorry but actually believing in and practicing Marxist ideas put you in an elite group of totally unintelligent idiots.

[Cicero]

I’ve been an inveterate reader all my life.

I’m proud to say I’ve never read a novel by Gore Vidal, and I’m not about to start now.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Vidal is the perfect example of how the mind behaves when perfectly balanced between hate and retardation.

[kaehurowing]

As nutty as his cousin, Al Gore.

[the invisib1e hand]

now, if they named kids after one another, you could have Gore Gore and Al Vidal.

[RU88]

“He was once quoted as saying that he’d had sex with a 1,000 men by the time he was 25.”

Enough said.

[hinckley buzzard]

Gore Vidal has been in eclipse in America for forty years. Only the eurotrash are naive and childish enough to give him the time of day, much less credence as a pundit.

[laweeks]

“He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time”

Where’s the proof of this illegal alien resident of the White House to be “the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position”? Where? He’s locked up all academic records so we can’t see a thing. What a stupid, unfounded, moronic thing to say . . . just another Anybody-But-Bush moment from an “intellectual?”

Besides, what makes Vidal an intellectual? His lifestyle????????

[BunnySlippers]

On what do they base their assertion that Vidal is “an intellectual”?

[truthguy]

“He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time.

No Gore, he really isn't. Obama is the ultimate Affirmation Action Baby. He gives off the aura of intelligence but he really isn't all that bright. He speaks well (when reading a teleprompter) with good timing and pace. He has good diction and pronounces all his words correctly and doesn't use many if any malapropisms. But when you analyze what he actually says it's total gobbledygook. If you would simply read his speeches instead of listening to them, he comes off as a rank amateur.

But this is enough to fool most of the people most of the time (almost what Lincoln said). But he didn't fool me for even a micro-second. That's because it's the nature of my job to spot BS artists a mile away. He fits the bill perfectly. I'm hoping that the American people wake up. I don't just want those fools who voted for Obama to change, I want them to fill very foolish and suffer a bit. In this way and only in this way can they start the process of recovery.

[hellbender]

a letter he [Lincoln] wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War

Nice try, Vidal. Lincoln was assassinated before the Civil War ended. Joseph E. Johnston did not surrender until 11 days after Lincoln died.

[SkyPilot]

A homosexual who hates God, and at his age, he does not have long to find out what Hell really is like. He does not have much time to accept the Savior.

[2ndDivisionVet]

"...But he didn't fool me for even a micro-second. That's because it's the nature of my job to spot BS artists a mile away."

What do you do?

[M Kehoe]

Barack Obama is failing as President

Well Gore, you got one thing right in your pathetic life...

...and the US is in danger of sliding into a military dictatorship,...

No Gore, it won't be a military dictatorship. There are only 1.7 million people in the military. There are, by the most conservation estimates, 80 million armed Americans.

... says Gore Vidal, the American essayist and intellectual.

Gore, you may be an "essayist," but you sure as hell aren't an "intellectual."

Fasten you seat belts folks, 2010 is going to get nasty.

5.56mm

[Josh Painter]

“He also predicted Obama may be assassinated: ‘Just one lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital.’”

Has Vidal been questioned by the Secret Service and the FBI for this hate speech?

- JP

[GBA]

Here's another take on the military v. obama and the John L. Perry editorial that got everyone so upset that NewsMax took it down: Obama Risks a Domestic Military ‘Intervention’

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Exactly my feelings.

[NRA2BFree]

IF it ever gets so bad that the military takes over and throws Obama under the bus, that will be a good thing for America. Anything to get that communist pos out of office. They will give it back as soon as another election gets a real American leader in the office of President. I totally trust our military!

[Dick Bachert]

Fascinating story. Just confirms what many of us knew at the time: That Joe BOUGHT Jack’s elections.

Fast forward to 2012.

If Jack had old Joe’s dough and was able to buy the election and Obozo has Soros’ dough and all that foreign money — the sources of which remain a mystery (can you say MUSLIM and MIDDLE EASTERN) — and essentially bought the 2008 election, does anyone doubt that Obozo and his well heeled pals COULD NOT buy the next one??

THEN WHAT?

I’d say we’re in deep doo doo and sinking fast!

[TurtleUp]

"Nevertheless very many hopes and expectations were invested in a man who appeared to have a vast amount of potential."

Potential: An unborn child. The baby may grow up to be the governor of Alaska and a future president, a careful and dedicated carpenter who puts in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, or a Nobel scientist ... or the baby may be killed in the womb by Mommy because she doesn't believe in potential.

Potential: A lottery ticket - probably worthless but a chance in several million that it's worth a fortune.

No potential: A losing lottery ticket AFTER the drawing - worthless and no chance that it's worth anything.

No potential: A socialist community organizer who has never accomplished a single positive thing in four decades of riding on racial preferences and a nice (but wooden) smile - again, worthless and no chance that it's worth anything.

Gore Vidal and many others need to learn the difference between "potential" and "no potential".

[SunkenCiv]

Gore Vidal's a pretty unsavory character, was born with the proverbial spoon (among other things) in his mouth, and has an altogether unrealistic attitude toward his own importance, cognizance, and relevance. IOW, kinda like me, only with money and, uh, not straight. ;') Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

• regrets switching his allegiance from Clinton to Obama
• calls Zero "the most intelligent person we've had in that position for a long time"
• sez Zero "has a total inability to understand military matters"
• sez America should leave Afghanistan
• claims Zero is "acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism"
• claims "We've failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it"
• claims Zero "grew up in a black city" (D.C.)
• regarding health care 'reform', sez that Zero "f***** it up. I don't know how, because the country wanted it. We'll never see it happen"
• predicts Zero's assassination -- "Just one lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital."

[Brad from Tennessee]

For at least 50 years Gore Vidal has been obsessed with the idea that a sinister figure would rise up out of politics or religion and become dictator of America. This was the theme of two novels—”Messiah” in 1954 and “Kalki” in 1978. Now that a flesh-and-blood “messiah” has been elected president Vidal doesn’t recognize him.

[2ndDivisionVet]

What snippets we have from the interview don't show is that I think Mr. Vidal meant a military takeover of the government from Mr. Obama, not in leaugue with him: A coup de etat, anotherwords.

[RipSawyer]

He ain’t spot on about this little statement,“He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time.”

Obama is the most intelligent person to be president since W left office. Whoever replaces him will almost certainly also be the most intelligent person to be president since W left office. Even if Biden replaces him he will be the most intelligent president since W left office.

[2ndDivisionVet]

There are hundreds of millions of firearms in America but only 80 million armed citizens?

[FDNYRHEROES]

Barack Obama is failing as President...

Even the deck chairs will end up under the bus...

[se_ohio_young_conservative]

charm and charisma only get you so far.

I have said it before. Being President is not a job for just any politician. im sure Obama thought he could be a great President. A lot of Junior High quarterbacks in this country think they could play in the NFL. But not just anyone could handle the pressure. Not just anyone could read the Pittsburgh Steelers defense on a Sunday afternoon. Obama is in way over his head.

[Uncle Ivan]

Not just anyone could read the Pittsburgh Steelers defense on a Sunday afternoon.

Jay Cutler and Carson Palmer apparently can.

[RoadTest]

What rock has this guy been living under? Did he just come out?

[HereInTheHeartland]

“I was hopeful,” he said of Mr Obama. “He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.” “

What a doofus. Anyone with half a brain (and the wllingness to just look and listen); could see this a year ago.

[Brad from Tennessee]

I read the whole article earlier yesterday. Gore Vidal, despite his politics, has written some historical/political novels worth reading, in my opinion. These include Washington D.C., Burr, 1876, Lincoln, Empire, and The Golden Age. That is why I have paid some attention to what he says over the years. The point I was making is that in interviews and in two futuristic novels (”Messiah” and “Kalki”) Vidal has warned that a charismatic figure, using politics or religion, would mesmerize the American masses and seize control. Because of Vidal's politics and “lifestyle” he doesn't recognize Obama as that sinister character but instead more of a JFK in danger of assassination or a military coup.

[boatbums]

What do you do?

I think he spots BS artists. ;o)

Probably law enforcement - GO BLUE!!!

[boatbums]

Has Vidal been questioned by the Secret Service and the FBI for this hate speech?

Coincidence this came out the same time the FaceBook poll did? Think not!!!