Obama’s critics are nuts
Sure, Obama cannot regain the extraordinary promise of 2008. We’ve already elected the nation’s first black president and replaced a tongue-tied dauphin with a man of peerless eloquence. And he has certainly failed to end Washington’s brutal ideological polarization, as he pledged to do. But most Americans in polls rightly see him as less culpable for this impasse than the GOP. Obama has steadfastly refrained from waging the culture war, while the right has accused him of a “war against religion.” He has offered to cut entitlements (and has already cut Medicare), while the Republicans have refused to raise a single dollar of net revenue from anyone. Even the most austerity-driven government in Europe, the British Tories, are to the left of that. And it is this Republican intransigence—from the 2009 declaration by Rush Limbaugh that he wants Obama “to fail” to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s admission that his primary objective is denying Obama a second term—that has been truly responsible for the deadlock. And the only way out of that deadlock is an electoral rout of the GOP, since the language of victory and defeat seems to be the only thing it understands.
If I sound biased, that’s because I am. Biased toward the actual record, not the spin; biased toward a president who has conducted himself with grace and calm under incredible pressure, who has had to manage crises not seen since the Second World War and the Depression, and who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name. “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,” George Orwell once wrote. What I see in front of my nose is a president whose character, record, and promise remain as grotesquely underappreciated now as they were absurdly hyped in 2008. And I feel confident that sooner rather than later, the American people will come to see his first term from the same calm, sane perspective. And decide to finish what they started.
Blowback
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Comments are epic!
Sekhmet on January 16, 2012 at 2:05 PM
Oh I am sure he already has a supply and some with sequins.
I thought the same.
———–
Oh and the Repubs no doubt will bring back the use of Predator drones. You can bank on it.
/
THE labor force has shrunk in the Obama economy. Unlike in the past NINE recoveries.
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/economy-still-sucks-and-its-not-likely.html
CW on January 16, 2012 at 2:05 PM
*hands Obama the Nobel Peace Prize just because of who he is (whatever THAT is)*
Paul-Cincy on January 16, 2012 at 2:05 PM
Who cares . . . Romney v. Obama tweedledee vs. tweedledum?
Pragmatic on January 16, 2012 at 2:08 PM
My God, have we descended into some kind of Alice-in-Wonderland alternate-reality universe? I’ve never seen such a concentrated collection of slobbering double-speak nonsense.
Even at $1, it was still a rip-off.
Harbingeing on January 16, 2012 at 2:10 PM
The whole purpose of this is only to convince politicians that the average American is dumb enough to believe this tripe. They’re in an echo chamber and don’t read the comments section.
Lost in Jersey on January 16, 2012 at 2:11 PM
From dictionary.reality:
Eloquence el·o·quence A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain by the use of teleprompters.
CW on January 16, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Funny…just because someone states something, it doesn’t make it true…
Especially if their bias has been shown before.
Case closed.
ProfShadow on January 16, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Yep, you bet your sweet bippy we’re nuts. Crazy as the old uncle in the attic.
If you’re smart, you’ll keep your distance because around these parts we have three pictures on the wall: Jesus, the Pope, and charlton Heston holding a rifle.
platypus on January 16, 2012 at 2:16 PM
And he closed Guantanamo Bay just like he said he would!
Sea Wolf on January 16, 2012 at 2:21 PM
One of my all time favorites from IowaHawk lampooning Sullivan on his obsession with Sarah Palin’s womb:
Dial ‘M’ For Maternity
Excerpts from the new Mike Loads gyno-mystery by Andrew Sullivan
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/10/dial-m-for-maternity.html
RJL on January 16, 2012 at 2:21 PM
Sullivan, aka Excitable Andy, aka the Great Gynecologist, exhibited profound knowledge in regards to Sarah and Bristol Palin’s and pregnancies.
You can trust that whatever he writes will be understated and practical. /s
theCork on January 16, 2012 at 2:26 PM
Do people who writer this drivel have any idea how extraordinarily weak it makes Obama appear? Ohhh, Mitch McConnell said he wanted me to be a one-term President!! Wahhhh!!!! Rush Limbaugh wants me to fail!!! Wahhhhh!!!!
It’s so obvious these clowns expected everyone in Washington to just fall at Obama’s feet and worship him and then shut up for four years, just because. Who are the dumb ones then?? Has that ever happened? Does Sullivan think that if Mitt Romney wins 300 electoral votes this year, Harry Reid should just say “wow, Mr. Pres8ident, what can I do to help make you successful so you will be reelected?”
No President ever gets massive cooperation and support from the opposition, much less one that comes in with such a radical ideological agenda like Obama did. But the good ones work hard to try to win over their opponents, to neutralize them, and as a last resort to come to some agreements with them when they can. Good leaders have the ability to do that. Obama never did.
rockmom on January 16, 2012 at 2:28 PM
The comments are worse only because they marvel at Sullivans ability to shine light on Obama’s true greatness.
Sullivan has core group of followers who believe he is the man they can get behind.
filetandrelease on January 16, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Fast and Furious doesn’t count?
Lots of people being killed by guns essentially given to criminals by the government seems like it should qualify as a significant scandal.
BadgerHawk on January 16, 2012 at 2:32 PM
When success means more federal intrusion into the states and into our lives …yes I want him to fail. When I see a pathetic recovery and an exploding debt yes I want him to fail.
CW on January 16, 2012 at 2:32 PM
Just wait one second, not one, I repeat, not one of those killed were water boarded! /s
filetandrelease on January 16, 2012 at 2:34 PM
Sullivan is in the bag over the whole gay marriage and DADT things. Let us stop playing around.
The reality is Sullivan will never see a significant scandal in the Obama administration. He doesn’t want to.
CW on January 16, 2012 at 2:35 PM
Jimmy Carter was the greatest president of all the centuries!!!2!!
John the Libertarian on January 16, 2012 at 2:35 PM
So we’re racist, dumb, violent, AND nuts. Kewl.
The Rogue Tomato on January 16, 2012 at 2:36 PM
Hmmmmm…
KS Rex on January 16, 2012 at 2:41 PM
LMAO
therightwinger on January 16, 2012 at 2:49 PM
Is Sullivan really as innumerate as he appears to be here?
Where the hell does one produce tortured numbers like this? It reads as though, in evaluating who is the big spender, he defines the Bush tax cuts as “spending” (neat trick — if you cut taxes you are “costing the taxpayer”).
The prescription drug benefit GWB signed sure wasn’t $5 trillion — more like one tenth that. And President Obama just backed an expansion of that benefit, and got it, in 2010. Somehow this makes GWB a bigger spender than President Obama.
Obama adding only $1.4 trillion in two terms? You kidding me? Stimulus alone was $800 billion, the new health entitlement over $1 trillion. That’s $1.8 trillion right there.
Sullivan really is nuts.
Chuckles3 on January 16, 2012 at 3:02 PM
The man of “peerless eloquence” relies entirely on a teleprompter. Without it, he’s constantly struggling not to slip up and reveal his true beliefs.
darwin on January 16, 2012 at 3:04 PM
FORMAL COMPLAINT TO HOT AIR:
You tricked me into clicking this link by falsely labeling it “Newsweek” instead of truthfully labeling it “Andrew Sullivan”!!!
You owe me the 5 minutes I wasted…plus a future click.
landlines on January 16, 2012 at 3:13 PM
My nuts are critics of Obama.
John the Libertarian on January 16, 2012 at 3:15 PM
This truly amazes me. Not that Sullivan wrote it – he’s already proven certifiable. No, the fact that it’s on NEWSWEEK’S cover just blows me away.
The damn thing is a tabloid now.
And to think I subscribed to it in the 80s.
Sad.
RedNewEnglander on January 16, 2012 at 3:19 PM
Well, of course. That is what I meant. Obama campaigned as some gauzy moderate, then immediately moved to add a trillion dollars to the national debt and take over the health care industry. The Dow fell 2500 points after he released his first budget, which included cap and trade, repeal of the Bush tax cuts, Card Check, and more or less read like The Communist Manifesto. But in Sullivan’s world, Republicans are either crazy, racist, evil, or dumb to openly oppose such policies and announce that such a radical President should not win reelection.
But my main point is that this has become a favorite meme on the Left, yet it points up just how weak their Dear Leader is.
rockmom on January 16, 2012 at 3:25 PM
Newsweek was a respectable publication right up to the late 1990s. Then editor-in-chief Maynard Parker died and was replaced with Evan Thomas, who proceeded to run the magazine into the ideological sewer.
John the Libertarian on January 16, 2012 at 3:28 PM
Then there’s this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyshop/6704986165/
RedNewEnglander on January 16, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Obama’s
criticssupporters are nutsJoe Mama on January 16, 2012 at 3:56 PM
Newsweek is out. Great. My dog will have something to read while he lands a few choice contributions on their pages.
Mallard T. Drake on January 16, 2012 at 4:24 PM
Ahahahaha. uh, uh, uhhhhhhh, uh, that is, uhhhh, really, uh, funny uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Mallard T. Drake on January 16, 2012 at 4:28 PM
That there is a veritable parfait of bovine and equine excrement. I may go buy a few copies to spread on my roses before the first snowfall arrives!
Naturally Curly on January 16, 2012 at 4:41 PM
Axeman on January 16, 2012 at 6:39 PM
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