Poll: What was the Obamateurism of the Week?
posted at 9:30 am on July 5, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Now that the fireworks have ended and the grills have cooled (until this afternoon, natch), we can turn our attention from Independence Day and focus on our Sunday tradition of choosing the most amateurish moment of the Obama administration this week. You may not think that we would have many choices in this short week, but at least I didn’t have to rely on planting moments on which I could easily call. I understand if having to choose between these makes you coup-coup, but hey — at least I’m not re-running last week’s poll. Or, maybe, I should just spend today doing some California dreamin’ … or fantasizing.
Previous “winners”:
- Obama plants a question on Iran with HuffPo
- Change in Iran coming because “Obviously, after the speech I made in Cairo…”
- Flashing his soles to the camera while talking to Netanyahu
- “If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”
- “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem.”
- Siccing Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel on tax cheats
- Phony Churchill quote on torture throws Grandpa under the bus
- Torture probe flip-flop
- Obama covers up IHS while quoting Jesus
- Austrian is a language?
- Obama bows to the Saudi king
- 1908 Model T got better gas mileage than today’s SUVs
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!
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Choices.
blatantblue on July 5, 2009 at 9:37 AM
I chose the Honduras one because it reflects BHO’s preference for dictators over free societies.
jgapinoy on July 5, 2009 at 9:38 AM
This is a tough one .. hmm.
pambi on July 5, 2009 at 9:39 AM
You know Ed, to be perfectly blunt I’m starting to have doubts many of these “Obamatuerisms” are actually due to inexperience. I think we are starting to see a pattern of ideological behavior we need to start classifying not as stupiduty but malice.
The Honduras issue is ideology driven.
The California issue is also ideology driven.
The use of plants in the Healthcare “townhall” is also ideological.
The only amateurism may be the radio address. Maybe.
elduende on July 5, 2009 at 9:40 AM
The health care townhall. Something finally perked up the MSMs ears.
Limerick on July 5, 2009 at 9:40 AM
That’s right! Firing up the smoker soon, yardbird, ribs and sausage!
conservnut on July 5, 2009 at 9:41 AM
My choice as well, anything that gets Helen Thomas to go after a democrat gets the vote!
conservnut on July 5, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Touchflow test
DarkCurrent on July 5, 2009 at 9:43 AM
Good grief, every week the decision gets harder and harder. Honduras or California economic model, hmmmmm. Is it really that odd that a Dem would prop up a dictator and thug? Don’t we kind of expect that? I am going to have to revisit.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 9:44 AM
On further reflection, #3 is best as it shows true idiocy. #4, which I selected, is not an example of amateurism but rather the lying despicable nature of this Marxist scumbag.
csdeven on July 5, 2009 at 9:44 AM
I agree.
On another note, though not an Obamateurism, I’m still trying to figure out how a “freakish and irrelevant” politician from Alaska can completely overshadow a president of such “historic significance” during a period immediately following his responses to Iran’s unrest, his contemporaneous responses to the Honduran unrest, and just before his first trip to Russia.
BuckeyeSam on July 5, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Ed hates Sarah Palin.
/sarc
blatantblue on July 5, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Right, notice that when he veered into their territory, all of the sudden they notice. Narcissistic much?
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 9:46 AM
I feel like I have to rank them from the least worst…not helping this week…
ladyingray on July 5, 2009 at 9:48 AM
My vote went for the Honduras “coup” debacle. IMHO it represents perfectly the left wing MO that only results matter, not principles. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, for the first time in my life I am ashamed of my country.
jwolf on July 5, 2009 at 9:52 AM
What I see is a deliberate tearing down of the old in order to make room for the new. Old = America as we know it. New = Obamanation.
Judge Andrew Napolitano noted on FNC yesterday that so much of what BO is doing is unConstitutional. While court challenges are being filed, trouble is that it”ll take a few years for them to reach the USSC, and by then, much of the damage will have been done.
petefrt on July 5, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Great minds, I was thinking that Ed might want to change the format to that or ranking each on a 1 to 5 scale. It shouldn’t be this hard without a prize.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 9:54 AM
I think I agree with this thought… but #1 shows just how “amateur hour” Obama really is.
psrch on July 5, 2009 at 9:55 AM
I have thought that myself, why is he getting away with it? I think we should start a HotAir class action suit. Is that how you spell suit when it pertains to the law?
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 9:57 AM
I vote for the U.S. vetoing the G8 attempt to level sanctions against Iran because it might make “dialogue” more difficult.
Neda Agha-Soltan and a few hundred other Iranians were unavailable for comment.
Bishop on July 5, 2009 at 9:57 AM
I think we need to vote on the Squishism of the week.
a.) Ed
b.) Goldberg
c.) Krauthammer
kevinkristy on July 5, 2009 at 9:59 AM
Got to go with the economic model of California. Just shows true contempt for free market capitalism.
fourdeucer on July 5, 2009 at 10:02 AM
You are coloring outside of the lines again, but you have made the picture much clearer.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 10:04 AM
yea
those stinking rotten FLLYYY OVER COUNTRY hating elitists
bet they eat French fries
palin is perfect and she can do no wrong
bet they hate freedom
blatantblue on July 5, 2009 at 10:04 AM
You really can’t be wrong on this test, they’re ALL great picks. Nothing surprises me any more. It’s like waking up to find yourself in a parallel universe of evil.
Was at a family cook out yesterday. I remember the good old days when we got together and the kids shot at life size cardboard cut outs of the Clinton’s with BB guns, then hung them in a tree in the front of the house. Ahh..those were the days when we thought the Clinton’s were EVIL. I long for those days.
Jeff from WI on July 5, 2009 at 10:10 AM
Amateur Obama? Give Him a break — if you were an affirmative action product, you would goof up a lot, too. Why do you think affirmative action exists in the first place? DUH?
And nobody who has had to wrestle what they believe they are entitled to (by right) from a culture or nation has too much respect for that nation. Let alone someone who has been marinated (seasonal reference) in bitter ideology about democracy and free enterprise.
So we have a stupid guy who hates the dominate culture running the country. Golly, we will be writing a lot. Till we can’t pay the electric bill.
Please put Slate up as a subject sometime. I have my version of a real slice and dice aimed at those morons.
IlikedAUH2O on July 5, 2009 at 10:11 AM
THIS is what makes this so tough.
AMATUER ?? Hardly !! Malicious, yes.
So, I have utter contempt for the last 3;
will pick the radio adress, just because of it’s POSSIBLY ‘innocent’ nature.
What a catastrophe .. sigh.
pambi on July 5, 2009 at 10:12 AM
I agree…why was this not on the list?
ladyingray on July 5, 2009 at 10:15 AM
If they try that with the messiah, they could be charged with hate crime.
conservnut on July 5, 2009 at 10:16 AM
This might make the list. Seems Obama was deeper into Honduran Politics then admitted before
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Do it on your own damn blog, why don’t you?
DrSteve on July 5, 2009 at 10:17 AM
BTW is Zelaya returning to Honduras via Washington DC ???
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Come on! Give it a break already. If you disagree, bust his chops in the thread in question. Then move on!
conservnut on July 5, 2009 at 10:19 AM
Honduras and the Town Hall plants are not really amateurisms. That´s intentional. That´s just how they operate.
el gordo on July 5, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Difficult choice this week.
I ruled out the coup/not a coup because that seems to be rule of thumb for this president and not a rookie mistake.
myrenovations on July 5, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Isn’t it funny that only half of our country is convinced of his rhetorical skills. The rest of the world….not so much.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Joe Biden God love em
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:21 AM
Why no HA posts on Tea Parties?
d1carter on July 5, 2009 at 10:24 AM
a very intelligent, very liberal lady told me yesterday at an Independence Day picnic that we should give bambi a chance because he graduated from Ivy League schools.
pretty elistist, huh?
kelley in virginia on July 5, 2009 at 10:25 AM
I’ve had guests this week and missed alot of news. Is there a link to the California economic story?
ctmom on July 5, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Sure, in the back of a C-5 Galaxy along with a few hundred U.S. Marines courtesy of the freedom loving, don’t-want-to-get-involved-in-foreign-elections, American President Baracky Ogabe.
Bishop on July 5, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Was a pleasure to see the One’s greatness insufficient to pull that one off. btw, he was on the tv yesterday it seems saying some crap about July 4th and heroes and those that sacrificed–you know, the kind of stuff that patriotic Presidents would say. I wonder where he ever got the idea he could pull that off. Seriously, he’s starting to stumble badly in the PR realm. Can’t wait to see how the dope tries to convince Putin that Russia can do whatever the hell it wants just as long as it frees Ogabe to continue destroying America. Before this is over, we may come to like Obama, for serving as the vessel to overturn liberalism.
JiangxiDad on July 5, 2009 at 10:27 AM
bishop: zelaya has been in Washington? state? DC?
i knew he was going back to Honduras today, but i guess i didn’t think about where he had been.
kelley in virginia on July 5, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Planted questions. What is that, the 4th time? The Huffpo Iran question, his ABC infomercial, only allowing military Obama voters into a event when in Iraq, and now a townhall.
And that’s just counting what happened since he became President.
Hog Wild on July 5, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Fascinating. And it’s in the British news, not the American. Perhaps this is why Hillary didn’t go to Moscow with Obama.
ProfessorMiao on July 5, 2009 at 10:28 AM
You are on fire.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Right, the CEO’s of AIG, GM, Citibank, Chrysler, etc. etc. probably did to.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Meanwhile CNN is pushing the “Hard working hondurans push back againg evil Coup” memo
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Everyday, Obama does something that irritates somebody. Personally, I can’t even watch him on tv anymore. The moment he opens his mouth, I have to change the channge. My b.s. meter just can’t handle it anymore. The rigged “townhall meeting” with him hugging the DNC person was over the top.
kingsjester on July 5, 2009 at 10:35 AM
channge=channel
kingsjester on July 5, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Changing the change works for me kj.
thomasaur on July 5, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Obama may want to point with pride to California leading the way again. The Air Resources Board is now talking about restricting electrical generating units from using seawater to cool their plants. Supposed to take effect by 2018. Hey, it will only add 2 BILLION in costs annually. We gotta save the fish!
GarandFan on July 5, 2009 at 10:37 AM
I don’t know about you but when people in the crowd feel the need to cover their faces, I doubt their sincerity.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Come 2012 some Obama voters might be doing that.
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Yeah, I couldn’t even bring myself to watch his little Independence Day address last night.
myrenovations on July 5, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Is Joe Biden really going to make it the whole 4 years?
myrenovations on July 5, 2009 at 10:44 AM
C.O.D. Cap & Trade, R.I.P.
maverick muse on July 5, 2009 at 10:45 AM
What? That was completely sincere on Ogabe’s part; the fake concern, the “there there, I’m here to help” comments, the perfect crying victim just happening to be in the audience. Come on, have a heart.
Bishop on July 5, 2009 at 10:45 AM
I think Joe is running for President in 2012.
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Time magazine dispatched a reporter to give Obama some cover on the California angle, and he decided all of California’s woes are due to Prop 13.
Nethicus on July 5, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Obama trip to Moscow is like his very own private Roots TV Special.
Jeff from WI on July 5, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Of which country?
myrenovations on July 5, 2009 at 10:56 AM
For serving as the vessel to overturn our Constitution while feeding us to the Marxists we will NEVER come to tolerate or like Obama and his deceitful cohorts.
We are looking at the complacency of everyone in government, all so scared to lose their seats of power, cowards to rock the boat, playing “nice sharing” the helm.
Sarah is the exception, regardless of the conjugation, tense, or meaning that “is” to be.
maverick muse on July 5, 2009 at 10:57 AM
There was a time that I would tune in to listen to the President, whether I voted for him or not, in the hopes of getting real information or his his poisition on a topic. Now I’d just as soon watch an infomercial. They’re about equal in reliabilty.
HoustonRight on July 5, 2009 at 10:58 AM
USSA (United Socialist States of America)
William Amos on July 5, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Check out Scott Ott’s nonsatirical post at Scrappleface: “What Obama’s Critis Are Really Saying”
onlineanalyst on July 5, 2009 at 11:00 AM
William Amos 10:21 a.m.
Blame the TOTUS. But fear not! There are new jobs building banana coffins.
maverick muse on July 5, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Aren’t all of Obamao’s trips, speeches, “townhalls,” and press conferences like his very own private “Roots” TV specials?
onlineanalyst on July 5, 2009 at 11:04 AM
LOL..true…but in THIS trip, it’s more a flashback to the “Mother Country” of his Communist “roots”.
Jeff from WI on July 5, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Would that not be the best campaign EVER? The insider stuff he knows combined with the inability to control his mouth…..
You’re just trying to cheer everyone up.
Cindy Munford on July 5, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Scott Ott
Amen, brother.
And best wishes with the Lehigh County executive seat in E.Penn.
Obama, your malocchio has warped your vision. With your big ears, can you hear us? You are NOT too good to listen.
maverick muse on July 5, 2009 at 11:10 AM
RICH. The guy has no poker face and no stamina, but can he ever shuffle a deal!
maverick muse on July 5, 2009 at 11:19 AM
I thought your guys focus on the California comment was unfair. Obama was clearly talking about California in the *70’s and 80’s*, not today. So I’d go with Honduras or the healthcare plants.
Hal_10000 on July 5, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Using the health-care plants at a Town Hall didn’t really surprise me. Everything Barry does is scripted and/or staged. But I really loved the way Helen and Chip (God love ‘em) ripped into Gibbs over it.
I honestly believe using the failed state of Kalifornia as an economic model is far more bizarre and gasp worthy. It makes me wonder if Barry has the slightest clue as to what’s happening in our own country!
Barb Dwyer on July 5, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Honduras is not just the Coup/non-coup conflicting statements from Barry and Hillary, it’s the extraordinary hypocrisy between Barry’s approach to Iran and Honduras. And then, there’s the ideological implications of Barry bowing to Islamic terrorists while buddying up with Latin American Leftist tyrants and their wannabes. This is very scary to me. Barry is promoting a much more dangerous world.
Barry’s use of union and DNC plants at his Obamacare Sham Hall Meeting points right to his Chicago method of doing business. It looks all shiny and new, but underneath the shine it’s the usual political thuggery at work. It provides one of the few hopeful notes about politics in our country, in that some in the MSM got offended by Barry’s incursion into their turf. Well, think about how the rest of us feel when you team up with him to help him take over our country. That’s our turf.
California as Barry’s economic ideal. To me, this is the only option in this poll that points to Barry’s flare for being incredibly stupid. And as his ideology and thuggery are so scary, and his stupidity is my only hope we will survive his term in office, if much poorer for it, I voted for this.
Loxodonta on July 5, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Same here, for the same reasons.
3 great choices this week. The re-run of his radio address, not so much.
Timothy S. Carlson on July 5, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Somebody ought to hand Obambi a humongous beer mug of STFU so he can actually go somewhere helpful and learn something useful.
SilentWatcher on July 5, 2009 at 12:27 PM
I too thought all this week’s choices were intentional. I’m now unclear on the definition of Obamateurism.
alice on July 5, 2009 at 12:34 PM
I had to give it to the California one, because that’s like saying that Somalia is a vacation paradise. Or that Michelle is a gorgeous fashion plate.
Alana on July 5, 2009 at 1:03 PM
If only for the inadvertent truth
phineas on July 5, 2009 at 1:29 PM
Gotta give Barry a break on the Honduras thing. He has seen his future if he tries the same crap here.
My vote goes to California! Best laugh out loud moment of the day (and the only one so far this year) to see him making that stupid speech, praising California for growing businesses, and producing jobs, and all the while cutting their energy consumption below the levels of the rest of the country. Next clip shows tens of thousands of out-of-work Caw-lee-fah-nee-ons holding up protest signs.
What a moron.
winfield on July 5, 2009 at 1:33 PM
If the definition of Obamateurism is an novice action with unintended consequenses, the hands down winner has to be the lauding of California’s regulatory atmosphere as a sound economic model. Especially at the heighth of that states fiscal meltdown.
On the other hand IMHO the sides supported by Obama in regards developments in Iran & the Honduras, these moves are entirely in line with his intentions of undermining democracy and capitalism as a set piece of his policies overall. Therefore don’t really catagoerically qualify for poll in question.
Archimedes on July 5, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Keeps getting harder to decide.I could have read the comments first,but that would be dishonest.So,I had to choose Honduras,because I think its the one Obama really doesn’t understand.
Calif.IS his ecnomic ideal.
Planting questions is just par for the course
Repeating speaches is is simply a matter of someone who was run out of origina thoughts,and Obama has never had any original thoughts.Not his fault,it is the writers fault,after all he just says what TOTUS tells him to say.
DDT on July 5, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Double plus good that!
I went for the Honduras coup carried out by Bush-loving fascists thing…just reading in between the lines here.
Dr. ZhivBlago on July 5, 2009 at 2:42 PM
This one was hard! He’s so fucking stupid that the blunders are competing with each other now.
Honduras was probably the most glaringly obvious “blunder”, in that this was so easy – you support a Democracy in central America without hesitation and without question, rather than play footsie with some tin pot Marxist in South America.
Still, the propaganda/media manipulation/union thug stunt pissed me off more because it’s here. My President is a brainless piece of crap.
Jaibones on July 5, 2009 at 2:49 PM
-
Ditto to that… But I was torn between this and Ca. as an economic roll model. lmao at Odumbo.
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RalphyBoy on July 5, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Hard to believe anything could top the staged press conference, but I had to go for the Honduras option
ThereGoesTheNeighborhood on July 5, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Ed – All of the above
Kini on July 5, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Did BHO open his mouth, sign anything, make any gestures, or send an email? Did he breathe?
All those constitute an Obamatuerism, IMHO.
Anyone?
bluelightbrigade on July 5, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Where’s the wormhole so I can return to the real universe?
chemman on July 5, 2009 at 4:40 PM
Always, always just kills me Ed, that on a blog so tanked for Palin (who has so very little experience, and apparently now will get no more, in a POTUS way,) you continuously brand Obama as a beginner and a lightweight. Do you ever ponder the irony, nay, the hypocrisy, of it?
I’ll answer that one myself – Never. Blogging for money must be tough on the soul at times.
trailboss on July 5, 2009 at 5:07 PM
Oh, and Ed, by the way, strike me from the comments allowed list please. I’m done with HA. It has become a haven for the closed and nearly-closed minded. It’s a base that true conservatives must deal with but never embrace.
trailboss on July 5, 2009 at 5:37 PM
Hard , hard choice this time but I see I am not alone with this.
jeanie on July 5, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Thank God for the close and nearly close minded–the world is a better place with us in it.
jeanie on July 5, 2009 at 10:14 PM
Cali economic model for sure. He has always used plants at his “town hall” meetings, this is nothing new. He even does it at pressers.
The only difference is that the media is getting a little sick of it, that’s all.
More horrifying is that he thinks California is doing well enough to emulate on a national level. I mean really, how far up his rectum does he keep that bozo looking head anyway?
Spiritk9 on July 5, 2009 at 10:26 PM
That was a particulary ill-thought-out comment. I’m going out on a limb to suggest that you’re probably not as stupid as you sounded on that one. Hell, no one is.
Jaibones on July 5, 2009 at 11:16 PM
CrockObama has media plants? Why, I’m SHOCKED.
The #1 winner of all time: November 5th, 2008.
dthorny on July 5, 2009 at 11:44 PM
Ya got a good point there.
And California as Obama’s economic ideal,along with Obama uses union and DNC plants at health-care town hall are kinda like one in the same, just the other side of the coin.
DSchoen on July 6, 2009 at 12:25 AM
Or he just wants to spread the misery.
Hey here’s a Churchill quote for him to bastardize!
DSchoen on July 6, 2009 at 12:33 AM
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