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The Unpresidential President
Weekly Standard ^ | July 24th, 2010 | JAMES W. CEASER

Posted on 07/24/2010 11:13:45 PM PDT by Steelfish

The Unpresidential President Barack Obama has managed a rare feat: The longer he holds office, the more he diminishes in stature.

BY JAMES W. CEASER August 2, 2010 From charisma to populism—this is the slippery slope down which Barack Obama has been sliding over the past two years. In June 2008, Obama the candidate described his nomination as “the moment when our planet began to heal.” In June 2010, Obama the president promised his partisans he would find an “ass to kick.”

With the peculiar magic of his presidential campaign now a faded memory, Obama is shoring up support by the cruder method of divisive appeals. Long before the current (already hugely extended) campaign season began, Obama made it a practice to target opposition symbols (“the insurance industry,” “speculators,” “a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” the oil companies), call out and assail individual opponents (Rush Limbaugh, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner), and refer disparagingly to the Tea Party movement and Republicans in general (“this crowd”). More than a half-year before the midterm elections, he tried to revive his electoral base of “young people, African Americans, Latinos, and women” by taking a page from Al Gore’s 2000 campaign and embracing the shop-worn slogan, “I won’t stop fighting for you.”

An ass-thumping president frantically fighting for the little guy—it’s hard to imagine George Washington or Abraham Lincoln choosing to project an image of this kind. Barack Obama has managed a rare feat in American history: The longer he is president, the less presidential he has become. Obama has reversed the usual process of growth and maturation, appearing today far more like a candidate for the presidency—and a very ordinary one at that—than he did during the latter stages of his campaign.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; obama; talkradio
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1 posted on 07/24/2010 11:13:47 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

Boy howdy!


2 posted on 07/24/2010 11:18:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Soapbox & Ballot Box or Ammo Box.)
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To: Steelfish

Seems to me he should just get more sleep.

He won the lottery.


3 posted on 07/24/2010 11:19:51 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: Steelfish

If you look at the stock market charts from 2008 you see that the day that it appeared that Barry might win the election the stock market tanked and has never recovered. It’s been plain since Day One that Barry was incompetent. Now even the the most clueless members of the public know that this is the case whether they admit it or not.


4 posted on 07/24/2010 11:20:23 PM PDT by purplelobster
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To: Steelfish

The Won makes Jimmy Carter look like Reagan and Nixon like Washington. Heck, he makes Bill Clinton look presidential!!
And don’t get me started on Aunt Esther and their posse...


5 posted on 07/24/2010 11:22:34 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Soapbox & Ballot Box or Ammo Box.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

6 posted on 07/24/2010 11:32:53 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Steelfish

Long article, but makes some excellent points.


7 posted on 07/24/2010 11:38:31 PM PDT by smokingfrog (freerepublic.com - Now 100% flag free.)
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To: Steelfish

mrkd


8 posted on 07/24/2010 11:41:50 PM PDT by KarenMarie (NEVER believe anything coming out of DC until it's been denied.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is all about Obama and not the interests of the US. Hence, the timetables for withdrawal from Afghanistan next August, the retreat from Iraq, civil trials for terrorists, closing GITMO, and the unwillingness to lend Israel the air-cover they need for a successful attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He needs to do all of these things to insure he keeps his anti-war and Code Pink base and guarantees his re-election.


9 posted on 07/24/2010 11:52:24 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: Steelfish
Obama supporters today regularly insist that his personal standing in the world is a vital element of America’s soft power and the key to altering world perceptions about America.

The only thing I can figure out by reading this statement is that either very few Obama supporters have ever talked to anyone from outside the United States, or they know the truth and are aiming such statements at people who might not know better.

Obama is certainly responsible for altering world perceptions about America -- that much is beyond dispute. But is amazing however, is how much worse those perceptions about America are, in comparison to where they were when Bush was President.

To the majority of foreign leaders and intelligentsia, Obama is a total rube. A cretin of the worst sort. A ditz.

He's simply beyond contempt.

10 posted on 07/24/2010 11:55:00 PM PDT by Ronin
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To: Steelfish

There aren’t enough peacecreeps and hippies in this country to elect a dog-catcher in Bugtussle, Arkansas, as Mr. Obama will find out in November. He was elected in 2008 by white guilt and 98% of the black vote. He’s already lost the more significant of those two and many blacks will stay home because little has changed for them. I could beat him in 2012 if I had the GOP nomination.


11 posted on 07/24/2010 11:55:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Soapbox & Ballot Box or Ammo Box.)
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To: Ronin

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 30 April 2009

Paris, France. It is very cool to be a French intel guy. A spectacular meal at a Parisian bistro with $90 entrées and a $200 bottle of Bordeaux? No problem. I’d known this fellow since he got me out of a jam in Sudan years ago. His James Bond days are over, but still, riding a desk for the DGSE – Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (General Directorate for External Security), France’s military intel agency – in Paris has its decided benefits.

One of them is not being infected with Obamamania. “My agency considers him a joke,” he confides. “Every day there is some fresh lunacy that we cannot believe. Mr. Bush would often make us angry. But at this man we just laugh.”

“In truth, it also makes us sad,” he continued. “French resentment towards America is strong, so being able to laugh at your country feels good. But it is such a sad and strange thing to see America – America The Great! – do something so crazy as to elect this ridiculous man.”

“There are many people in America who think he isn’t a legitimate president as he wasn’t born in the US and isn’t a natural citizen. What do you think?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had reason to make an inquiry.”

“There are a lot of people convinced he is a traitor who hates America and is actively determined to destroy it. Any opinion on that?”

He didn’t shrug at this. After a long slow sip of wine, he mused, “I would not go that far. Many of his actions, however, are very puzzling because they are so counter-productive regarding America’s best interests. There seems to be a consistent pattern in that direction.”

“What does Sarkozy think of him?”

“Nothing but contempt.”

After a pause he asked, “And Langley?”

“Well, if you thought the war they waged against Bush was intense, it was nothing compared to how they’re going to screw Obama. He has tried to gut them with the ‘torture memo’ release and slashing their budgets. The morale is depressed, sullen, and enraged. You know what a left-wing outfit Langley is. They thought he was their boy and they feel betrayed. All kinds of damaging stuff on him will be appearing via their media friends.”

He nodded. “And in Tel Aviv City?”

He was referring to the huge underground city complex of Langley’s underneath the US Embassy in the Israeli capital. “That’s an interesting question. You know how vast and deep the relationship is there. Langley is making every effort to overcome the total and massive distrust their Israeli colleagues have for Obama, whom they know is selling them down the Jordan River. So far though this effort is in words. The Israelis are waiting to see what Langley does.”

He said nothing. I smiled. “You guys wouldn’t be Langley’s cutout for thwarting BO regarding Israel, would you? I’d never suspect that…”

He continued to say nothing, gave me only a slight smile in return, and poured me another glass of wine. “The Bordeaux is good, yes?” I nodded.

“You know, the French media worships this man the same as yours in the US. All of this ‘100 days’ talk, it is impossibly stupid. Most anyone in the French elite, the business leaders, Sarko’s people, they all know this. They all think this is some crazy joke of the Americans. But it is a very, very dangerous joke. For 100 days your president has been a laughingstock among the tout le monde of Paris. No one may be laughing 100 days or 10 months from now.”

He leaned forward. “The world can go – how do you say – sideways with this man very quickly. No one he has working for him knows what they are doing – possibly excepting Mrs. Clinton – and he certainly does not. All of us in our little community are worried – us, our friends in Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, and Langley too as you say. It is not like the barbarians at the gates. It is every barbarian horde in the world being told there are no gates. The Somalis, Chavez, Iran, Putin, Beijing, the ‘Norks” as you call them, the list is long and it is growing. We are not sure what to do.”

It took me a moment to respond. “The best thing that has happened now is Obama making Langley his enemy. They will be cooperating with you more, be more a part of your worried community. Working together, you can undermine his efforts more effectively, block and maybe even repair the damage.”

It was my turn to lean forward. “Then again, all together you could be more pro-active. The man is a mystery. Nobody can make public his actual birth certificate, or even the particular hospital he was born in, or his college grades, or how he got into Harvard, or how he made editor of the Harvard Law Review and never wrote a single article for it. It goes on and on. He really is a Zero. I think all of you guys should find all of this out and make it known.”

I added, “The quicker the better, before the laughing stops and the real dangers begin.”

“What is that phrase you use?” he asked. “Something to consider?”

I laughed. “Yes, there is much to consider – and much that you can do. I mean, really, if the Soviet Union could be dismantled, so can this presidency.”

It was a beautiful April afternoon in Paris. He walked me back to my hotel. It could be that the times we live in may get even more interesting.


12 posted on 07/25/2010 12:00:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Soapbox & Ballot Box or Ammo Box.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s been a year since that was written, but he’s still in office and all the questions are still unanswered.

Why?

That’s what I can’t figure out.


13 posted on 07/25/2010 12:12:39 AM PDT by Ronin
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To: Ronin

I have been wondering how the spooks would hit back at the Obamunists.


14 posted on 07/25/2010 1:12:51 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (m)
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To: Steelfish

The more in a corner he gets, the more he drops his g’s while speakin’ to us lowly citizens. Annoyin’!


15 posted on 07/25/2010 1:17:23 AM PDT by Moonmad27 (That government is best which governs least. - Henry Thoreau)
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To: Steelfish

>> the more he diminishes in stature.

A stature he’s trying to buy back by redistributing our hope.


16 posted on 07/25/2010 1:18:43 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Steelfish; Ronin

2ndDivisionVet for President Ping ! Jobs for everyone.


17 posted on 07/25/2010 1:26:19 AM PDT by onona (dbada)
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To: Steelfish

The US doesn’t have a president these days. We have a Democrat Party Hack stinking up the White House. (We’re going to need a LOT of Lysol in a couple of years!)


18 posted on 07/25/2010 1:59:34 AM PDT by The Duke
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To: Steelfish

As a politician Obama sure has the “Weirdo” thing down

what the hell does the man look at when staring at the ceiling ?

If he was in the sheetrock profession I think it might make sense to look at the mud job someone did, but as a politician looking at ceilings it seems just plain strange


19 posted on 07/25/2010 2:00:34 AM PDT by woofie
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To: Steelfish
Spread your money around.

Unpresidential President
Not your father's White House


20 posted on 07/25/2010 2:33:09 AM PDT by BobP (The piss-stream media - Never to be watched again in my house)
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