What happened to clean and articulate?
The great statesman isn’t off to a very good start proving that he wants to put behind us the “pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics.” (Obama’s words. See the transcript of his victory speech Tuesday night.) He’s damn good at reading the nice speeches written for him on a teleprompter, too bad he can’t remember what he reads and practice what he preaches.
I took a few days off blogging. I wasn’t feeling very feisty because I had some big things going on in my life and I also wanted to see how long it would take him, as President Elect, to disappoint me. Regardless of the fact I haven’t been paying close attention to the news the last few days, it didn’t take long.
His first chance at a press conference following his decisive win he had to swing a low blow at the 86 year-old widow of one of the most beloved presidents of our time. He also demonstrated he can’t get his facts straight when he’s not reading the carefully crafted words of someone else.
He was asked if he’d spoken to any ex-presidents, and answered that he had indeed “spoken to all of them…that are living.” Obviously uncomfortable moments after making other brilliant declarations like “when we have an announcement we’ll make it” he ran for cover by making fun of Nancy Reagan. He seemed to have forgotten he wasn’t just among his elitist liberal friends and supporters in the media, but the world was watching too.
“I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances…”
That wasn’t Nancy Reagan. Think Eleanor Roosevelt. This reminds me of his idiotic reference to Fred Sanford telling “Weezy” (The Jeffersons) he was having the big one. Only this wasn’t funny at all. It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t articulate. It surely wasn’t presidential.
Yes, Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer. But if we want to talk about who gets their inspiration and guidance from where at a national press conference, let’s have a look at where Mr. Obama got his the last twenty years like we should have before the election. Jeremiah “God damn America” Wright, would you come to the podium please and take a few questions?
To his credit, Mr. Obama called Nancy Reagan and apologized for the “careless” remark.
The problem is, Mr. Obama is not going to have the teleprompter when he speaks to all these rogue foreign leaders he’s assured us he’ll meet without preconditions. What if he insults one of them or their wife?
Vice President Elect Biden has done a little gazing into the future himself and sees an international crisis within six months of Obama taking office. Obama will be tested. What happens when he tries to crack wise in one of his trademark flurries of uhhmmms, errrrs, and uhhhs and makes another “careless and offhanded” remark? Will it matter if he calls them later and says he’s sorry?
Oh, I saw that! I stopped on him doing the press conference to see how long it would take me to change the channel. It didn’t take very long. About the time he was asked about which pet he’s going to get (who cares?) I changed it.
I just can’t take much of this. I have to ingest it in bits and pieces.
Cmon now. After 8 years of George W. “Nucular” Bush, and Obama makes one off handed remark and that makes him careless and unpresidential. Have you been without a TV for the last two terms?
Apparently it has been you who hasn’t been paying attention. Obama has been running against Bush for the last two years. You can’t very well say “Bush did it, its ok for Obama to do it.” Do you want “another four years of Bush?” Not to mention the fact that mispronouncing words is much different than publicly making fun of a former first lady who hasn’t even been in the public eye in over two decades.
Secondly, this is far from his first stupid remark or insult. I’m not even going into what his surrogates have done. He ran nasty ads against his opponent that his own running mate called terrible.
Third, I challenge you to find me one - just one - example of George W. Bush saying something as mean and reckless as that about another president’s wife. Obama and the Democrats of today, have lowered the bar.
Fourth, Obama has demonstrated hypocrisy. What happened to the post-partisan candidate? He’s not running against anyone any more, he has no need to bring anyone down a notch, especially not someone like Nancy Reagan who can have no influence over policy whatsoever. Obama needs to start delivering on this change and hope he’s been promising.
Liberals need to quit obsessing about Bush.
@Angie, I know what you mean. It can be tedious. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Liberals need to quit obsessing about Bush yet here you are with an entire blog devoted to obsessing about Obama. I look forward to the fairness doctrine taking away the source for most right-wing bloggers inspiration.