Posted on 06/17/2010 7:14:44 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I don’t like her anymore.
I would say one doesn’t need luck when you usurp all power of 3 branches of government and you have harvested billions from companies and you have Soros’ pocketbook.
Peggy now jumping ship after her idol Obama has hit the ice berg?
Reminds me of Joe Btfsplk from Li’l Abner - the dark cloud over his head.
Let’s hope it keeps getting bigger. I’d like to see a total meltdown on national TV.
A snake with a yellow background.
I’m not buying her ‘he’s just unlucky’ crap either. He’s botched this from the start.
Personally, I think Obama is Pharoah and his plagues are coming. Curse Israel and you are cursed. Unfortunately for us, he’s in this country.
But apparently obama cannot walk on oil.
"Luck is the residue of hard work."
I don't know who said it, it is correct.
Of course 0bama looks unlucky.
Do we know whether “BP’s Contractors” are union? I’d bet they are!
This is such bullpatooie!
Peggy Noonan and anyone who likes her can go fornicate themselves with an iron stick.
Peggy Noonan doesn’t get web page hits from me. She’s on my boycott list.
I agree. Fool me once Peggy.
Near the end of the article, she segues to Hillary Clinton. Good grief!
I’m glad I read the whole thing, but look at it like this, I did it so you don’t have to. Because she hasn’t changed one bit.
Hah!!
President Carter refused to help the Shah against the Kohemeni radical fundamentalists who were sponsored by communist U.S.S.R. in what became the Iran Revolution. The whole Iran problem and ALL its sequelae are a result of Carter's inaction.
There were ramifications to what Mr. Carter didn't do, and there are ramifications just as serious to what President Obama isn't doing today.
Spare me the Carter apologia, Ms. Noonan.
And then there were giants like Reagan. Snakes (from Washington to Moscow) were trying to bite him all the time. And he handled it.
It wasn’t Mr. Carter’s fault that the American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran
its only the first line of the article but that’s enough for me.
it was Carter’s fault. he sent clear signals that the US was not going to support the Shah any more. and he did not. he let Iran go to the fanatics without a fight. and they responded with the successful revolution and then taking the embassy....and murdering some of our people.
it was Carter’s fault....that is history...and Noonan is an idiot.
Well done!!!
Can a snake be snake bit? Plausable I guess.
Not incompetent.
Not malevolent.
Snakebit!
It's more than a question of blind luck, Peggy.
"Love him or not he's what we've got, and he's what we have for the next two years.
Hopefully not, he doesn't pay much attention to the law and if a few Dems get fed up he may just be impeached.
Good point - some Presidents aren’t “lucky” they’re competent. Reagan had more snakes than Raiders of the Lost Ark - he fought them... successfully.
He is inept. Since he has never done anything, he cannot do anything well.
He is lazy - He considers himself a visionary, but is to lazy to take on the real difficult job a managing a great nation.
He is immature to nearly an adolescent level. He sees the world in the same melodramatic egocentric manner as a 16 years old. He truly believes the world revolves around him.
These sort of character defects generally result in bad luck.
58 days after 9/11, how were Bush’s poll numbers? Through the roof, no? Where’s 0bama, 58 days after his 9/11-WW2-Black Plague?
Morons make their own bad fortune,
Now that liberals are starting to question Dear Leader Noonan feels she can criticize him (just a little) and still get invited to the good parties.
Yup...cater’s fault totally...
Ignoring the revolution isnt what drove them to sieze the embassy...proping him up would have only delayed it..
Giving the shah sanctuary is what drove them to seize it...his advisors where screaming NO!..Dont do IT!
He blew them off..they took our peeps hostage...
Cause...effect.
Peggy has "issues". I barely ever read her anymore, decided to give her another chance with this article. I'll be going back to ignoring her again.
The luster of Hillary as of today.
Ohhkay, I understand now: Carter and Obama aren’t loosers,
they’re just .. unlucky. Thanks for that insight Peggy. Fail.
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!
Yep.
Next up K. Parker. The kneepad queen.
No, she's not, and she apparently thinks that we all have very short memories...
Noonan is still smitten by the media lie that Obama is smart. The guy is dumber than a box of rocks. No one who is smart could make as many bad decisions as he does.
Unlucky? Give me a freakin' break, the press are lying again. still.
Carter stabbed the Shah in the back,leading to the Shah's downfall, the success of the initial Revolution and the hostage-taking.
Calling Carter "unlucky" for the hostage-taking is like calling a DUI driver "unlucky" for the others she killed.
Clearly the Belle of East Rutherford NJ is not a baseball fan. Else she would know the wisdom of Branch Rickey.”Luck, good or bad, is the residue of design. Or as Sophocles might intone,”Character is Fate.” And with credit to the Bard of Avon and Ed Murrow.”Cassius was right. ‘The fault dear Brutus lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.’”
Why did it take till the 15th post for someone to point out that the second line of Noonan's article was erroneous? Thank you for doing so.
Peggy, you get snakebit when you play with snakes.
Can you imagine what Obama had done with a REAL crisis? George W Bush and Reagan showed us how it’s supposed to be handled.
Good one!
Poor snake.
Thanks!
So sad to watch this woman deteriorate from Reagan’s top speechwriter to a suck-up for Democrats and RINOs.
So she’s give up on cheerleading Obama blindly, and will now move it to Clinton.....
I’m not impressed.
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'!
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.
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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.