A Snakebit President

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 17, 2010 | Peggy Noonan

[Wpin]

The president is starting to look snakebit. He's starting to look unlucky, like Jimmy Carter. It wasn't Mr. Carter's fault that the American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran, but he handled it badly, and suffered. He defied the rule of the King in "Pippin," the Broadway show of Carter's era, who spoke of "the rule that every general knows by heart, that it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart." Mr. Carter's opposite was Bill Clinton, on whom fortune smiled with eight years of relative peace and a worldwide economic boom. What misfortune Mr. Clinton experienced he mostly created himself. History didn't impose it.

But Mr. Obama is starting to look unlucky, and–file this under Mysteries of Leadership–that is dangerous for him because Americans get nervous when they have a snakebit president. They want presidents on whom the sun shines.

It isn't Mr. Obama's fault that an oil rig blew in the Gulf and a gusher resulted. He already had two wars and the great recession. But the lack of adequate federal government response appropriately redounds on him. In a Wall Street Journal investigation published Thursday, reporters Jeffrey Ball and Jonathan Weisman wrote the federal government at first moved quickly, but soon "faltered." "The federal government, which under the law is in charge of fighting large spills, had to make things up as it went along." It hadn't anticipated a spill this big. The first weekend in May, when water was rough, contractors hired by BP to lay boom "mostly stayed ashore," according to a local official. "Shrimpers took matters into their own hands, laying 18,000 feet of boom," compared to about 4,000 feet by BP's contractors.

[GLDNGUN]

Spare me the Carter apologia, Ms. Noonan.

Exactly! Like Carter had nothing to do with what happened in Iran? Is Peggy that stupid? Or that dishonest? I didn't need to read any more of her tripe after coming across that steaming pile in her opener.

[Palladin]

Good one!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The president is starting to look snakebit.

Poor snake.

[Flag_This]

Thanks!

[OrangeHoof]

So sad to watch this woman deteriorate from Reagan’s top speechwriter to a suck-up for Democrats and RINOs.

[Freddd]

So she’s give up on cheerleading Obama blindly, and will now move it to Clinton.....

I’m not impressed.

[duckln]

IMO.... Mr Carter was actively envolved. His religious side sided with the Iranian fundamentalists and the MSM. All three demonized the Shah and he was run out of Iran. Russia was at most passively envolved.

Obama is actively envolved as he prevented US assistance to BP and the states to immediately contain the mess. He tied their hands to magnify the catastrophy.

He was 'out to lunch'!

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Why is the question “Is it Obama’s fault?” even the question? We all make mistakes. Bush made mistakes. Reagan made mistakes. Eisenhower made mistakes.

The question should always be “What is Obama doing about it?”

This seems pretty basic to me.

[Obadiah]

It’s great that there are some who still acurately remember history. You are spot on. Carter refused to support the Shah because of his human rights violations, which in fact were legitimate in some regards, but his stubborn actions clearly and deliberately lent tacit US support to the radical unrest. And then we had the hostage crisis, organically enhanced by Carter and Cyrus Vance.

Accident of history my foot. Demonstrates why Peggy Noonan is dead to me.

[Wpin]

I think Peggy’s point is not saying he is unlucky but that Americans are perceiving him as unlucky and that is the death bell for his presidency.

[elisheba]

Your descrition of Obamas character flaws is excellent. I would add one more. He has been led to believe that he is a LOT smarter, more able, and more charismatic than he really is. I believe this started in his family when he was small and was terribly worsened by the affirmative action climate in our school system clear through law school. Most recently, the media have reinforced his massively inflated oinion of his intellect and abilit. Obama is clearly nowhere near as smart or as effective as he believes himself to be. Because he cannot accet that he is ever wrong, he cannot selfcorrect, he cannot imrove. This unfortunate man truly believes his own ress notices.

[MattinNJ]

Didn't get past the "Carter was unlucky with Iran" bit. Shah was overthrown because Carter didn't back him.

Kennedy was lucky. He screwed the pooch on the Bay of Pigs only to look tough during the Cuban missile crisis. Wouldn't have been any missile crisis if he let the carriers launch their planes to support the brave Cubans that hit the beach.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

Boy are you ever right. The suint is a fat, old, ugly pig-in-a-pants-suit. If she thinks she can run a successful campaign in 2012, she is gonna be in for the second biggest surprise of her ill-begotten life.

EYE - HEART - HILLARY - TREE - MUSIC

[Wpin]

“If you stand back and observe what has happened just in the past few days,the President’s broken promise to Arizona regarding National guard troops to help them with the border, and Hil’s news that the Fed is planning to sue Arizona for it’s illegal immigration bill just voted in, and is a near copy of Federal law; not to mention his photo op speech regarding the oil spill in the gulf, or his bully pitting through his Socialist heath
care bill against the will of the American people, one could surmise that the American people are being deliberately goaded to start some kind of aggressive action. A very sneaky method in which the Fed would invoke Martial Law in the land. Be careful! Let us keep our heads. Somehow we will take back our country in a sane and legal way through the ballot box. Unless some emergency erupts “unexpectedly” at just the right moment. Then, boys, wait until you see the whites of their eyes!”

Words of wisdom, let’s all hope and pray that we can still cause the peaceful revolution utilizing the election process that our Founding Fathers envisioned (with God’s guidance) so long ago.

[El Cid]

It wasn't Mr. Carter's fault that the American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran, but he handled it badly, and suffered.

I'm sure someone has already posted this reply (I haven't waded through the 50+ posts yet) but I call balderdash on this one.
Mr. Carter pretty much drove the Shah out of Iran, because he wasn't a 'nice dictator', in favor of the more heinous mullahs. President Peanut engineered Khomeini's return, and the islamic dark ages that Iran (and the rest of the world) has suffered through these past 30 years... Yes, I put the hostage situation right on Mr. Carter's doorstep. He certainly mishandled the hostage 'negotiations' - but he was also culpable for the actual event.

[El Cid]

Re: 15

You beat me by 40 posts... Agreed.

[Kukai]

[exDemMom]

Well—one thing you can say for Hillary, and that is that she is not going for the endless series of facelifts that many wealthy (liberal) women often engage in at her age.

[JimSEA]

Snakebit? I suppose Winston Churchill was blessed by the good
luck of his times that he was a great man. Leaders rise to the temper
of their times. Who could have come to the Presidency at a worse
time than did Lincoln? They actually pay Noonan to write this crap?

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Throughout the speech the president gestured showily, distractingly, with his hands. Politicians do this now because they're told by media specialists that it helps them look natural. They don't look natural, they look like Ann Bancroft gesticulating to Patty Duke in "The Miracle Worker."

While "snakebit" is typical Noonan, affecting American heartland vernacular...the quote above is virtually proof that she has found herself a ghostwriter. The switch from "this" to "they" shows a feeble command of English, and the reference to Bancroft is hilarious.

BTW, it's spelled Anne.