Obamateurism of the Day
posted at 8:05 am on February 16, 2012 by Ed Morrissey
The man who ran his campaign on the promise of Hope and Change has been in office for a little over three years now, and wants a second term of, er, Hope and Stasis, or something. A reporter for a Tampa television station, Keith Cate, asked Barack Obama what kind of change he has brought to Washington, and Obama seemed a little stumped by the question (emphases mine):
CATE: One final question, during the last campaign you talked about fundamentally changing the way Washington does business, a more efficient, more transparent, more creative Washington. Have you succeeded in that goal? Are we fundamentally better off? Is Washington a better place, is it working more efficiently?
OBAMA: You know what I can say is that the federal government as a whole, is working more efficiently. I mean, we have, scrubbed agencies, gotten rid of old rules, eliminated programs that don’t work, you know, we’ve got about 500 rules that we have looked at and said you know, this is a bunch of red tape that’s just impeding progress or is not particularly customer friendly. We’ve used the Internet more effectively to create more transparency so people know where their tax dollars are going. If they need a government service, they don’t have to navigate through 50 websites, they can go to one website so on those fronts we’ve done a lot, we’ve made a lot of progress. Where I have not been able to succeed so far, but I haven’t given up, is changing the tone in Congress and creating an attitude between Democrats and Republicans where we focus on where do we agree, where are our common sense solutions, let’s stop trying to score political points or play to the next election instead of playing in the long game. We haven’t been able to do that, yet. And I’m the first one to acknowledge that there are times where it can be awfully frustrating. But what gives me confidence is that’s where the American people are, they’ve got common sense. They’re focused on trying to find solutions instead of just scoring political points and hopefully, over time, politicians who take that same attitude will be rewarded.
Change is a website update? Most companies manage to update their websites on a fairly regular basis. Expect to see this answer in a few RNC campaign ads this fall.
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.
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Don’t your lips ever get tired and chapped — all stuck to lil barry’s butt-crack like that?
Solaratov on February 16, 2012 at 1:03 PM
There’s nothing more fundamental than the consolidation of websites in my book.
Obama – putting the mental in fundamental
…oh yeah, and taking the fun out.
…and, uh, pretty much interpreting the word to mean “superficial.”
BlueCollarAstronaut on February 16, 2012 at 2:05 PM
The Geek squad from BB could have done this over the course of a weekend or 2 and it would only have cost a couple of 12 packs!
By calling Republicans terrorist? Hostage takers? Locking out the representatives of 50% of Americans a seat at the negotiation table? Ramming thru legislation in the middle of the night without allowing Republican representatives to read it or debate it?
Obama – putting the mental in fundamental
BlueCollarAstronaut on February 16, 2012 at 2:05 PM
Or the “K” in kwality” Kompetency
DSchoen on February 16, 2012 at 2:54 PM
Well someone is completely blind but its not me!
What agencies/ programs/regulations has Obama actual eliminated?
3 years in office name 1 (one) agencies/ programs/regulations he has eliminated for each year?
agencies actually eliminated 2009 2010 2011
programs actually eliminated 2009 2010 2011
regulations actually eliminated 2009 2010 2011
crickets chirping?
DSchoen on February 16, 2012 at 3:24 PM
And the idiots who voted for him.
TexAz on February 16, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Well, sure! We got a spiffy new rug in the Oval Office! Oh! And Michelle had a swell vacation in Spain last year.
PorchDawg on February 16, 2012 at 3:51 PM
That’s nice,if true,but that has nothing to do with your statement.
Again, What agencies/ programs/regulations has Obama actual eliminated?
Did you just lie and make up this claim or are you parroting Obama lackey talking points?
why are you being deliberately obtuse?
because that’s what the average person will see as a tangible result
Only if you think the average person is a moronic imbecile.
giving people better tools to learn what government is doing is indeed change, as both of you agreed. you can ridicule his answer for not being true if you can prove it, but when you’re ridiculing the idea itself, you’re revealing yourself as a partisan hack. that’s my point.
sesquipedalian on February 16, 2012 at 9:48 AM
sesquipedalian, your the one who said “as well as eliminating agencies, programs and regulations” it is up to you to prove this claim is true. If you can’t then you’re revealing yourself as a partisan hack, and a dumb one at that!
DSchoen on February 16, 2012 at 4:28 PM
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