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Our Smartest President?
Townhall.com ^ | January, 26, 2014 | Bruce Bialosky

Posted on 01/26/2014 1:02:34 PM PST by Kaslin

It all kind of started to fall apart when he said “… no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” That was of course after he committed more than $800 billion to government expenditures that would supposedly stimulate the private economy after the 2008 financial crunch. The fact that President Obama was so blindly ignorant about what it takes to get any construction project done in this country -- with the burdensome laws in place -- was foretelling of the avalanche of examples deflating the moniker foisted upon us that our latest and greatest President was “our smartest President.”

Recently we were promised certain things by incoming administrations. Bill Clinton promised the most “ethical administration,” and we all know that lasted about three minutes give or take a few seconds. Obama promised us and then continued telling us “We are the most transparent and ethical administration in history.” We can say no one has gotten shot as happened in the Clinton Administration, but certainly this is the least transparent administration since William Henry Harrison. Even his allies complain about not having access to info. The press corps photographers have been cut out of participating in photo sessions and then are promised by press secretary Jay Carney that the White House is working on it. But the boast of Obama being “Our Smartest President” was endorsed by Obama’s followers and embraced by the Obamas.

The question of the President’s aptitude revolves principally around operation of the government. It would be different if he were anti-government, wanting to slash and burn operations. One would think that he would know about how government operates and then proceed to speak intelligently about how it does. He often seems befuddled.

As was stated to Chris Matthews, “The challenge, I think, that we have going forward is not so much my personal management style or particular issues around White House organization,” Obama said. “It actually has to do with what I referred to earlier, which is we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly.” This is something you would expect to be said by Ronald Reagan in the first year of his presidency, not by Barack Obama after five years of being president -- especially after no previous comments regarding the inefficiency of the gargantuan federal government.

The list of times he has pled ignorance staggers the imagination. Chief among them are the AP records incident, the IRS targeting scandal -- and the list goes on and on – after which and about which our President steps up to a microphone and tells people that he had no idea. Of course, then there are his many foreign policy issues that could be delineated. The fact that he receives an intelligence briefing daily and then pleads no knowledge of events makes one wonder what is being conveyed during those meetings. One might think that there would be a discussion around September 4th or 5th that the anniversary of 9/11 is coming up, and what is being done to protect our personnel in foreign countries plus stopping attacks on the Homeland. But our President was severely unprepared for what happened in Benghazi and the aftermath. He did not even seem to know much once things were happening, and then went to bed while our Ambassador was being murdered.

My personal favorite that questions the aptitude of our President is his professed lack of knowledge that the NSA was listening in on phone calls of foreign leaders. Some may say he was just denying the truth, but I don’t believe so. The argument can be made that denying he knew makes him look stupid, but not as stupid as if he knew of the program. And I do not believe it was willful ignorance. Our President did not think to ask whether the NSA was not just spying on foreign governments but spying on foreign leaders, especially ones that are our friends. It just rankles the imagination that Obama could be overseeing this program and not think to ask that question.

In the end those who attempted to convince us Obama is such a smart guy have been betrayed by their own naiveté. It is characterized by the column in New York Times detailing how Obama’s most loyal followers (New York liberals) have been caught in the Obamacare debacle with cancelled policies and soaring premiums. One of the intelligentsia who attempted to convince us how brilliant our President is was quoted as saying this about Obamacare – “I’m for it, but what is the reality of it?” Enough said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
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To: al baby

“Obama’s IQ is off the charts.”

Which way?

Just asking.

IMHO


81 posted on 01/27/2014 5:00:59 AM PST by ripley
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To: fhayek

“...There are many ways to be smart, unfortunately, Barack Obama does not posess any of these ways.”

Easily said, but difficult to penetrate the endless drumbeat of the media when they repeat daily that
“He’s the most brilliant person ever to occupy the office.”

Herr Goebbles would be extremely proud of his bretheren in the media.

IMHO


82 posted on 01/27/2014 5:11:10 AM PST by ripley
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To: Chgogal

Too funny.........


83 posted on 01/27/2014 5:12:10 AM PST by Chgogal (Obama "hung the SEALs out to dry, basically exposed them like a set of dog balls..." CMH)
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To: anoldafvet

$57 million for one mile of highway????

I would have personally built them one by hand for half that


84 posted on 01/27/2014 6:05:46 AM PST by Mr. K (If you like your constitution, you can keep it...Period.)
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To: All
The beginning of an avalanche of screwups---chief among them being Obamacare----a blunder of Ceausescuian proportion. It all started to fall apart way back when he said “… no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” Obama was blindly ignorant about what it takes to get construction project done. After the 2008 financial collapse, he "said" he committed more than $800 billion tax dollars to "stimulate" the economy.

Wait a sec---gimme that again. $800 billion? Try several trillion dollars. Obama's trillion dollar stim scam is a huge unreported story. Makes Madoff look like a piker. In his new book "Extortion" author Peter Schweitzer writes about Obo, Holder (and other insiders), using the Justice Dept "and assorted govt agencies" to extort and steal Big Money.

Obama's "stimulus" could have built 1,567 Golden Gate Bridges — or one mega–Golden Gate Bridge stretching from Boston to just off the coast of Ireland. Yet there wasn't a single bridge, or a single dam built...where did the money go?

=================================

EXCERPT---FOURTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS Behind The Real Size of the Bailout; A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street
SOURCE motherjones.com
Mon Dec. 21, 2009 12:23 PM PST

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is popularly put at $700 billion—---the actual size of TARP--the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside untraceable money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets.

To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see MJ chart at web site. A guide to the pieces of the puzzle includes massive untraceable Treasury Department bailout programs.

================================================

PAUSE TO REFLECT Remember Obama had tight control of Treasury; Obama calculatedly placed his then-COS Rahm Emanuel in a dual role.......in the WH and at Treasury. Obama had a stranglehold on Treasury via COS Rahm Emanuel's dual role

STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chi/cons (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (the IRS). Read on.

==========================================

THE SMOKING GUN---WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the Obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.

When he got to Treasury, WH COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09

More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html

==================================================

MOTHER JONES CONT--Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF].

Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF].

TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid.

Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets."

GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion ---SNIP---.

LONG READ---go to web site to read more and checkout the shocking financial charts.

SOURCE http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/behind-real-size-bailout

85 posted on 01/27/2014 6:09:56 AM PST by Liz
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To: Honorary Serb
Our two smartest Presidents were Benjamin Franklin and William Tecumseh Sherman who were smart enough not to want the job!
86 posted on 01/27/2014 7:32:12 AM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: Kaslin
Coolidge had only 50 vetoes according to this 4 where overridden

And the rest of the time, he simply shut up.

Hence the nickname "Silent Cal"

Wouldn't that be a blessing today?

We're still hearing crap from Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

At least most of the time, the two Bushes just shut up.

87 posted on 01/27/2014 1:05:15 PM PST by elkfersupper
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To: Kaslin
Obama is both the most corrupt and arrogant president in my lifetime. He is far from the smartest of the lot. I have a border collie who places above him on the intelligence list and the honesty list.
88 posted on 01/27/2014 7:21:31 PM PST by oldenuff2no
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