https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/11/09/obamateurism-of-the-day-630/

So Sarkozy sandbagged the US on the UNESCO vote that approved full membership for the Palestinian Authority, but Netanyahu's the liar? … "Obama began by reproaching Sarkozy for not warning him in advance that France would vote in favour of Palestinian membership of UNESCO," the website reported. … The good news: Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy didn't divulge any top-secret information in their conversation at the G-20 summit last week…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/11/07/obamateurism-of-the-day-628/

"The U.S. President's picnic on the 'physical' of his French counterpart is only the latest episode of reports [which are] rather cool at best, at worst frankly tense," said L'Observateur newspaper, which called the two leaders "the best enemies." … Mr. Sarkozy, who is said to be very conscious about his looks, did not appear greatly amused by the comment, and some observers who attended the meeting said Mr. Obama's remark fell flat... … "I want to make mention that this is our first meeting since the arrival of the newest Sarkozy, and so I want to congratulate Nicolas and Carla on the birth of Giulia," Mr. Obama told reporters shortly after his arrival at the G-20, with Mr. Sarkozy at his side…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/11/03/obamateurism-of-the-day-626/

Stephanopoulos clearly meant that the question would be asked at election time in November 2012 and wanted to hear Obama's answer, which should still be no ... because we aren't. … They're not better off than they were before Lehman's collapse, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we're going through." … Yesterday we had some fun with Barack Obama's answer to a Minneapolis CBS affiliate's question as to whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/11/02/obamateurism-of-the-day-625/

Now we have government that takes money from future generations to blow it on companies like Solyndra and pass so many ambiguous regulations that it chokes off prosperity and ends up putting government in the middle of the most intimate transactions of our lives, including the choice of food we consume. … "The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don't work even harder than we did in 2008, then we're going to have a government that tells the American people, 'you are on your own,'" Obama told a crowd of 200 donors over lunch at the W Hotel. … Self-reliance defined Americans for generations, starting from our initial declaration that we didn't need a colonial power to survive as a nation, or indeed as pilgrims and entrepreneurs seeking fortunes far from the reach of aristocracy and benevolent despotism…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/10/28/obamateurism-of-the-day-622/

And on student loans and school reform and on a whole host of issues that don't get a lot of attention -- on doubling fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks to not only free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, but also to start reducing carbon in the atmosphere and making us more competitive, to saving the auto industry -- I keep a checklist in my desk of stuff that I promised to do and we're through about 60 percent of it -- (laughter) -- which isn't bad for three years. … We've got 14 months, and I'm going to need all of you to help mobilize people and push back against arguments that say that somehow if we're only -- if we've only gotten 80 percent of what we wanted to get done, that that's a failure. … At a campaign event in Medina, Washington on September 25th, Obama told a crowd that his presidency was a success because he'd achieved 80% of his goals, and needed a second term to finish the last 20%…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/10/26/obamateurism-of-the-day-620/

He wouldn't thank me for following his wife's dietary pronouncements, then instruct a passing college student to study hard, then make fun of a grandson's phone to his grandma. … A skillful politician, say a Reagan or a Clinton, might smile conspiratorially and make a joke about how good my dessert looks, or flatter me by asking for a menu recommendation. … Called me old-fashioned — though I no longer own an "old style phone" — but I'm not greatly interested in running into politicians who might choose to critique my choice of lunch items and the order in which I eat them…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/10/25/obamateurism-of-the-day-619/

"Because we didn't know if [economic recovery was] going to be short or long," the Obama administration tried measures to address both scenarios, Goolsbee explained on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." … Former Obama administration economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said Thursday that if given a second chance he would not have backed the Cash for Clunkers program or the home buyer tax credit passed in 2009 to stave off further economic distress. … "I guarantee it's going to be a close election [in 2012] because the economy is not where it wants to be and, even though I believe all the choices we've made have been the right ones, we're still going through difficult circumstances."…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/10/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-610/

But I'm also dealing with a Republican Majority Leader who said that his number-one goal was to beat me -- not put Americans back to work, not grow the economy, not help small businesses expand, but to defeat me. … In a press conference last week talking about his failed jobs bill, Obama seemed to think that Mitch McConnell runs the upper chamber … I know that Barack Obama doesn't get out much these days, but just because he's a loner doesn't mean Obama shouldn't know who runs the Senate…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/10/10/obamateurism-of-the-day-608/

"The one thing I hope to get done is to create more jobs," Immelt said in an interview on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," scheduled for broadcast today. … The U.S. government must reduce business regulation to spur job growth, said Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive officer of General Electric Co. (GE) and head of President Barack Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. … "The answer we're getting right now is: Well, we're going to roll back all these Obama regulations…Does anybody really think that that is going to create jobs right now and meet the challenges of a global economy?"…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/10/05/obamateurism-of-the-day-605/

Obama left his party's top senators, who had assembled for a conference call, hanging on the phone for nearly 20 minutes before National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling came on the line with a seemingly vague notion of what the call was supposed to be about, Democratic sources said. … One might have thought that Obama and his team would have worked with Senate Democrats to get the strategy set before rolling out those proposals, but as The Hill reports, Obama seems almost as intent on alienating his allies as much as his opponents … Barack Obama's new strategy of blaming House Republicans for blocking any of his initiatives relied on Senate Democrats to pass his bills -- a strategy that fell apart almost instantly, and disintegrated completely yesterday when Harry Reid blocked consideration of Obama's jobs bill…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/09/27/obamateurism-of-the-day-599/

We certainly would have heard more about it from the media if a Republican candidate had said it than we did the last two days after Obama said it -- but it would still be little more than a very embarrassing tongue tangle. … It's just a slip of the tongue, of course, but–even though the observation couldn't be more commonplace–one wonders what would happen if a Republican presidential contender used the words "billionaire" and "Jew" in the same sentence, even through a verbal flub. … If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/09/16/obamateurism-of-the-day-592/

Anyone who has been in a bad relationship will have heard at least once, "If you love me, you'll --" The request that follows is not only usually unpleasant, it's almost always a bad idea. … " That's a pretty lame argument for drumming up support for a public policy of any kind -- or for that matter, any other kind of request. … And it seems as though Obama was waiting for just this kind of outburst to tell the crowd, "I love you…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/09/02/obamateurism-of-the-day-583/

"An independent federal auditor who has reviewed the energy loan program said moving so quickly without completing thorough reviews exposed the program to perceptions of political influence and put taxpayers at greater risk," CPI's iWatch News reported at the time. … The economic conditions that have put Solyndra in such dire economic straits – the "regulatory and policy uncertainties" to which its CEO referred – may have been perceptible, even when the company received the loan guarantee. … Barack Obama went all in on Solyndra, a solar-power technology company that Obama himself visited and heralded as an example of how his green-jobs stimulus would create "countless jobs" in the US. Here he is in May 2010, justifying the $535 million bet he put on Solyndra…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/09/01/obamateurism-of-the-day-582/

After some friendly negotiations, all parties agreed to a mutually acceptable time: 7:30 Eastern, which meant the speech on the military situation in Libya could be delivered — and analyzed — in time for the fans of "Dancing," as well as other scheduled network shows, to see the shows they expected to see at their regularly scheduled times. … But the administration also recognized that some networks, like ABC, had important priorities of their own: the programs they had scheduled for prime time Monday — like "Dancing with the Stars," the second most-watched show on television. … President Obama had a message for the American people Monday night, an explanation of the government's intentions in Libya, one that he believed was important enough to request air time from the broadcast networks as well as the cable news networks…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/08/24/obamateurism-of-the-day-576/

Instead of acknowledging that, he's excusing himself from responsibility by essentially saying that voters are too stupid to distinguish between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. … " When Barack Obama's economic policies failed and his approval ratings plummeted, he followed the precedents of his predecessors and manfully admitted that ... it's all Congress' fault … " Ronald Reagan told the nation during the Iran-Contra scandal, "I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/08/18/obamateurism-of-the-day-572/

1 million vehicle, one of two that Quebec-based Prevost sold the government, has been tricked out by the Secret Service with state-of-the-art security features and creature comforts. … President Obama is barnstorming the heartland to boost US jobs in a taxpayer-financed luxury bus the government had custom built — in Canada, The Post has learned. … Barack Obama wants people around the world to buy American, he told a Rural Economic Forum as part of his Midwestern bus tour this week…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/08/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-568/

He and his Treasury Secretary seem to think they can demonize Standard & Poors enough to get them to ignore that fact. … Obama's policies have just run headlong into basic market realities – too much is going out, and not enough is coming in. … I'm sorry, Mr. President, but declaring that we'll always be AAA in your heart means jack squat to lenders…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/08/08/obamateurism-of-the-day-564/

His last economic prediction -- that he could keep unemployment under 8% with Obamanomics -- cost us over $800 billion in 2009. … But what I want the American people and our partners around the world to know is this: We are going to get through this," said Obama. … Johnny Carson used to have a great running gag in which he played Carnac the Magnificent, a man who could answer questions that he had yet to read simply by holding the envelope containing the query to his forehead…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/06/29/obamateurism-of-the-day-537/

I can't tell you anything more than that — but let's just say if you haven't yet thrown your name in the hat for this thing, I have a feeling this announcement might change that. … Turning it into a raffle for a finster is a rather new wrinkle for the Leader of the Free World, though, but in the end other events arose. … While traveling out of the country last week, I pondered whether to add the Win A Date With Tad Hamilton President Obama $5 fundraiser to the list of OOTDs…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/06/23/obamateurism-of-the-day-533/

He might still get authorization for military action there if he followed the War Powers Act and asked for approval, although Italy's call for an end to airstrikes might mean a tough sell in Congress for continued operations. … You know, that's not a bad argument for intervention -- and had Obama made that argument to Congress within 60 days of our military involvement in Libya, he probably would have gotten approval by wide margins in both chambers. … When a President exceeds his Constitutional authority to send the American military into a new conflict without getting at least some approval from Congress, it's understandable when patience starts to run thin in the nation's capital…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/06/17/obamateurism-of-the-day-529/

For instance, who said that Republicans wouldn't be satisfied on immigration until they installed a moat around the border -- with alligators? … Our friend Jammie Wearing Fool decided to keep looking, all right -- and found some oddly partisan rhetoric in Obama's past. … Barack Obama wants you to take him seriously as a statesman, not an ideologue or a party man…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/06/14/obamateurism-of-the-day-527/

But look on the bright side; we'll get a chance to change presidents in less than 17 months, which will hopefully feel more like overnight than the last 28 months. … "The effects of ARRA on employment and unemployment are estimated to lag slightly behind the effects on output; CBO estimates that the employment effects began to wane at the end of 2010 and continued to do so in the first quarter of 2011." … In fact, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published in May, the maximum number of jobs created or saved as a result of the stimulus through the second quarter of this calendar year (which ends in June) will be 2…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/07/02/obamateurism-of-the-day-774/

The difference this time is that unions don't get the only exception to campaign-finance regulation, and so others can build the same kinds of political-action war chests that unions have used for decades. … First of all, Obama's campaign has raised much more money than Romney's, it has spent more money than Romney's, and it has more cash on hand than Romney's, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. … On Friday, Barack Obama personally held a conference call with recalcitrant big-ticket donors from Air Force One as he flew back from Colorado, urging them to get off the sidelines and into the game…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/06/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-760/

At that point, Republicans forced him to compromise on the remainder of the FY2011 budget -- and by the end of the year, the federal workforce had trimmed 43,000 jobs, with another 12,000 reductions this year so far. … When Democrats controlled Congress in the first two years of his presidency, federal jobs increased by 83,000, and peaked in March 2011 at 89,000 above the level when Obama took office. … Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government -- oftentimes, cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/06/04/obamateurism-of-the-day-754/

None of them have worked, even though he's been promising for more than four years that all we need to do to fashion a roaring recovery is to buy a bunch of doohickeys. … Obama has offered nothing for economic policies but short-term gimmicks like the Making Work Pay tax cut, the payroll-tax "holiday" (with Republicans partnership), Cash for Clunkers, and temporary homebuyer tax credits. … The real Obamateurism is that Obama is trying to sell yet another short-term cash rebate as a macroeconomic stimulus, and he's so bad at it that he didn't even bother to write it out to deliver it cleanly…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/05/25/obamateurism-of-the-day-749/

Those of us who've spent time in the real world know that if you want to grow your business you have to max out every credit card you can get your hands on – and after that, we hit the kids' college funds. … It would probably be rude of me to think about Michelle Obama's work, where her salary jumped from $121,910 to $316,962 per year after her husband became a U.S. senator, a job that was strangely left unfilled after she stepped down to focus on her husband's campaign. … President Barack Obama, who has spent almost all of his career and adult life in academia, law firms, and government, begins his criticism of Mitt Romney by declaring, "those of us who have spent time in the real world . . ."…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/05/18/obamateurism-of-the-day-744/

Good thing that Obama replaced Ms. Abramson, because otherwise the graduates at Barnard might never have gotten a woman's perspective on the world. … After the presidential campaign has been focusing on female reproductive rights and other women's issues, President Barack Obama is coming to the city Monday to deliver the commencement address at all-female Barnard College and attend two high-profile fundraisers. … Deciding in February that he needed to keep hammering on the supposed Republican "war on women" after pushing his HHS contraception/sterilization/abortifacient mandate onto employers and schools, Obama requested the commencement-speaker slot at all-female Barnard College this past Monday…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/04/27/obamateurism-of-the-day-729/

"We don't provide those services whatsoever," admits a staffer at Planned Parenthood of Arizona while a staffer at Planned Parenthood's Comprehensive Health Center clinic in Overland Park, Kansas tells a caller, "We actually don't have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics." … Every Planned Parenthood, without exception, tells the women calling that they will have to go elsewhere for a mammogram, and many clinics admit that no Planned Parenthood clinics provide this breast cancer screening procedure. … When people say we should get rid of Planned Parenthood, they're not just talking about restricting a woman's ability to make her own health decision; they're talking about denying, as a practical matter, the preventive care, like mammograms, that millions of women rely on…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2012/04/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-718/

Excelsior of Mexico City reported that President Felipe Calderon bitterly brought up Operation Fast and Furious, a U.S. government operation that permitted Mexican drug cartels to smuggle thousands of weapons into drug-war-torn Mexico. … Canada's take was far more blunt: "Our strong sense is that most of the members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would like to see Canada join," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in essence revealing that it's the Obama administration alone that is blocking Canada, and suggesting that payback on energy was coming. … Canada has also all but gone public about something trade watchers have known for a long time: that the U.S. has blocked Canada's entry to the eight-way free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an alliance of the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, Chile, and Singapore…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/05/24/obamateurism-of-the-day-513/

O'Bama's next stop is London, where Queen Elizabeth is still celebrated as the monarch of Great Britain, Scotland, and Northern Ireland -- a six-county region on the same island that the UK still controls. … England invaded and conquered Ireland more than occupied it; the British believed for much longer than the US has been in existence that they owned the place. … "Yours is also a history of proud and defiant endurance, of a nation that kept alive the flame of knowledge in dark ages that overcame occupation and outlived fallow fields, that tramped over its troubles – of a resilient people that beat all the odds."…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/05/16/obamateurism-of-the-day-507/

Obama is traveling today OVER the devastation being wrought by the Mississippi in order to get to events in Texas, where he will rally his Hispanic supporters with a speech on immigration in El Paso and then head to the Lone Star state's liberal bastion of Austin for two fundraisers. … President Obama doesn't seem to have even peered out his Air Force One window to view the swelling Mississippi, a minimal show of interest for which George W. Bush was pilloried when he took a peek at the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. … When Air Force One flew over New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and a picture of George W. Bush looking out the window got released to the press, Bush was pilloried for not showing more concern for the flooded and battered victims in the city below…

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2011/05/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-505/

But even though we've answered these concerns, I've got to say I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time. … We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. … In a debate where the participants on all sides are too often portrayed as caricatures, the President sought to break through the stalemate by reminding us all that it is a debate about real people…