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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Mar 17, 2011 8:57:46 GMT -5
I thought this was a good read. The author makes an astute comparison and very good point. If I was a journalist, I would create the headline: "Obama Fiddles with NCAA Brackets while the World Burns" - Get the reference? (Emperor Nero). Clever, no?....But I digress.... www.nationalreview.com/articles/262335/president-hamlet-victor-hansonPresident Hamlet Thinking out every possible side of a question can mean never acting on any of them. More than 400 years ago, William Shakespeare wrote a riveting tragedy about a young, charismatic Danish prince who vowed to do the right thing in avenging his murdered father. That soon proved easier said than done. As a result, Hamlet couldn’t quite ever act in time — given all the ambiguities that such a sensitive prince first had to sort out. In the meantime, a lot of bodies piled up through his indecision and hesitancy. President Obama wanted to give us all universal health care. But then he discovered that the country was broke and that most people did not like his massive federal takeover. So we got both his health care and, so far, more than 1,000 exemptions from his landmark plan for unions, corporations, and entire states. The president wished to please his liberal supporters with more government redistributive programs and higher taxes on the wealthy. But such entitlements cost lots of money — more than $4 trillion in new borrowing in just three years – and scare to death the job-creating private sector. So the president not only borrows at record levels, but also sets up a commission to warn us that his borrowing will soon bankrupt the country. He damns the “fat-cat bankers” and the rich who “at some point” have made enough money, even as he courts them for campaign donations and begs their companies to start hiring new employees. Obama warned us that we could not drill our way out of the ongoing gas crisis and needed instead to develop new green energy. As proof, he borrowed billions to promote wind and solar power, and stopped most new leases for fossil-fuel exploration in Alaska, the west, and offshore. But it turned out that we still need lots of oil as gas nears $4 a gallon. So the president brags that America is now pumping more oil under his green administration than ever before — but neglects to mention that this is true only because Presidents Clinton and Bush long ago approved the sort of oil leases that Obama had rejected. President Obama wanted so much to discontinue George W. Bush’s war on terror that he banned the phrase “war on terror” altogether. He apologized to the Muslim world, promised to “reset” our foreign policy, and vowed to close Guantanamo Bay and stop the other nasty Bush antiterrorism protocols. But our “to be or not to be” Hamlet also wanted to continue to keep the country safe from another 9/11-style terrorist attack, so he kept Guantanamo open, quadrupled the number of Predator drone attacks, and either preserved or expanded all the Bush protocols that he had once derided. Abroad, a new multilateral Obama wished to act only in concert with the United Nations and our allies. He vowed to respect the sovereignty of other countries and not “meddle” in their affairs by imposing American values. And yet the president also embraced eternal and universal human rights and wanted the United States to be on the right side of history. So he criticized our intervention to foster democracy in Iraq even as his vice president praised it. We surged in Afghanistan even as we posted deadlines to leave. We promised not to meddle to support Iranian protestors, and to meddle to support Egyptian protestors. Hosni Mubarak was a dictator and was not a dictator, who had to leave yesterday, today, or maybe tomorrow. The situation in Libya is deemed “unacceptable,” but how exactly it could be made acceptable is never spelled out. Intervening there to support rebels is said to be good; but apparently so is supporting Saudi troops intervening in Bahrain to put down rebels and protect the status quo. Middle East strongmen, the president tells us, are cruel and must leave. But the why and how of it all are also never stated. Are they supposed to flee only when protests reach a critical mass? In Egypt and Tunisia, but not in Saudi Arabia, Syria, or Iran? President Obama has spent most of his life either in, or teaching, school — or making laws that he was not responsible for enforcing. His hope-and-change speeches were as moving in spirit as they were lacking in details. But now Obama is chief executive, and learning, as did Prince Hamlet, that thinking out every possible side of a question can mean never acting on any of them — a sort of Shakespearean “prison” where “there is nothing either good or bad.” Worrying about pleasing everyone ensures pleasing no one. Once again such “conscience does make cowards of us all.” Hamlets, past and present, are as admirable in theory as they are fickle — and often dangerous — in fact. — Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern. © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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Post by NYR on Mar 17, 2011 15:32:41 GMT -5
oh, please. as much of a disappointment that he is, it could be worse. we could have had mccain and palin in office. or, even worse, mitt romney.
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Post by globe on Mar 18, 2011 8:20:56 GMT -5
But then he discovered that the country was broke Hmmm.
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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Mar 18, 2011 9:44:08 GMT -5
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Post by NYR on Mar 18, 2011 16:56:58 GMT -5
say what you want about obama, but he's better than bush.
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Post by manualex on Mar 18, 2011 17:31:31 GMT -5
say what you want about obama, but he's better than bush. Even chavez is better than bush(wont discuss anything else)
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Post by lionsden® on Mar 18, 2011 17:40:06 GMT -5
say what you want about obama, but he's better than bush. Good argument. K+
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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Mar 18, 2011 18:17:55 GMT -5
say what you want about obama, but he's better than bush. Good argument. K+ I'm a big fan of W. Sure, he wasn't perfect. But at least he had a strategy, and was decisive, and was a leader (bar Katrina, to be fair), and we knew where he stood. Can't say any of that for the current POTUS. Better than Bush? It's debatable whether Obama is better than Carter! That says it all, really.
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Post by lionsden® on Mar 18, 2011 18:35:52 GMT -5
Good argument. K+ I'm a big fan of W. Sure, he wasn't perfect. But at least he had a strategy, and was decisive, and was a leader (bar Katrina, to be fair), and we knew where he stood. Can't say any of that for the current POTUS. Better than Bush? It's debatable whether Obama is better than Carter! That says it all, really. Its called sarcasm Einstein.
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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Mar 18, 2011 18:45:01 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of W. Sure, he wasn't perfect. But at least he had a strategy, and was decisive, and was a leader (bar Katrina, to be fair), and we knew where he stood. Can't say any of that for the current POTUS. Better than Bush? It's debatable whether Obama is better than Carter! That says it all, really. Its called sarcasm Einstein. Well, my post is still directed at NYR. Disappointing is an understatement to describe Obama.
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Post by Crazy Joe Davola on Mar 18, 2011 19:08:32 GMT -5
the u.s. would be fucked up no matter who got elected in '08. until everyone gets over themselves, stops acting like children and starts really working together then the u.s. will remain fucked up.
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Post by NYR on Mar 19, 2011 2:04:46 GMT -5
say what you want about obama, but he's better than bush. Good argument. K+ i know i'm not changing l4e's mind, so i thought i may as well have some fun with it and troll him while i can. he's been rooting for obama to fail ever since day one, so i don't know what he could be disappointed with. his argument of "at least (bush) had a strategy, and was decisive, and was a leader (bar katrina, to be fair), and we knew where he stood." yeah, same with stalin. big whoop. in all honesty, i'm very disappointed with him as a president. he's weak as fuck (for that, l4e is right, but for the wrong reasons) and will bend to almost every demand by his opposition in hopes that they'll like him. (he should know by now that the day we'll see a nonpartisan washington is the day unicorns poop out lollipops on a rainbow above the washington monument.) he needs to man the fuck up and grow some balls. i understand that obama is unpopular to republicans because he isn't a republican, but as far as i can see, obama's been pretty conservative as president. he hasn't ended the prison at guantanamo bay or the secret prisons around the world. he took out the public option in his healthcare bill and helped continue the bush era tax cuts to the wealthy. refused to prosecute the people who lied to get us into iraq, and not only refuses to prosecute anyone who tortured (including waterboarding, which we executed japanese officer for after the second world war) but has continued to use those illegal practices. he's escalated the war in afghanistan, opened up new areas to offshore drilling (even after the bp disaster), continued faith based initiatives, and continued the bush era policy of giving corporate welfare to companies like bank of america, aig and hasn't stopped the war on drugs. all of that doesn't sound very liberal to me. i'd absolutely vote against him if there was a viable candidate. if the best the republicans have are hypocritical sacks of shit like newt gingrich, sarah palin and mitt romney, then they'd be forcing me to vote for obama.
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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Mar 19, 2011 9:01:07 GMT -5
He hasn't ended Guantamo Bay for the simple reason that he can't. As for the War on Terror, maybe he realized how good Bush's policies were, and I thank him for continuing it, don't get me wrong.
But the man has no convictions. He goes missing in action during the big events (unemployment, Japan, Egypt, Libya, Iran), to attend to his own agenda of Healthcare (not the time nor place to institute it), and pops up at idiotic times (Gates and Crowley - what became known as Beer Gate, the NYC Mosque, etc). His administration took ages to call Fort Hood a terrorist attack, and he was again AWOL during the botched Xmas bombing of 2010, and again missing in the botched times square car bomb attempt. Sure, they may have missed their target, but it would be nice to see the supposed leader actually fucking lead instead of being on vacation.
Speaking of which, Bush got criticized for taking too many vacations - erm, no. He was at Camp David for most of those, which isn't really a vacation. He also quit golfing once the Iraq War started as a sign of respect. But this current president has now completed 61 rounds of golf, and has gone on many luxurious vacations in his 2.5 years. Where's the media criticizing this? I hate double standards.
Obama is not a leader. He dithers for extents of time and misses opportunities.
Yes, I wanted him to fail from day one because I don't want him to enact his socialist agenda. The more time he spends playing golf, the less time he has of screwing up this country. But he's screwed this country up already.
People look at Bush directly and see the 2 wars and judge him. Obama supporters - and there's not many left - look at him and ignore the fact that he's spent us into unbelievable debt (he outspent Bush in one year!).
If Obama continues for another 4 years after 2012, where he can do whatever he wants because he doesn't have to worry about re-election, god fucking help us all.
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Post by Beady’s Here Now on Mar 19, 2011 9:08:47 GMT -5
Good argument. K+ i'd absolutely vote against him if there was a viable candidate. if the best the republicans have are hypocritical sacks of shit like newt gingrich, sarah palin and mitt romney, then they'd be forcing me to vote for obama. In political science classes, I learned that elections really depend on the economy and the unemployment number. How I see it: >8.5%, any Republican wins 7.5%-8.4% he has a chance, increasing as the number gets smaller, decreasing as it gets better <7.5% he wins in a landslide. Although your statement is a big one. You're a liberal. If liberals are thinking the way you are, and hold on to that belief in 1.5 years + the unemployment number, Obama is fucked. He's already lost the independent vote. And many Republicans voted for him in 2008 that won't be around to do the same in 2012. Basically, ignoring polling numbers atm, if the election was held today he would not win. It's as simple as that. He needs a reverse of fortune to come out on top, and I fear he's not doing anything currently (may change) about Libya etc because he wants to keep his re-election prospects. That may be fair for him, but it's unfair for the country -- again, Bush never cared about popularity, he did what he thought was right at the time. And that's why I respect him. He had convictions.
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Post by NYR on Mar 19, 2011 14:18:15 GMT -5
he's lost many liberals, but they'll still vote for him in 2012 if there are no other candidates. and you're right that it's all his fault. he has a stubborn belief in bipartisanship. he had no chance against a united opposition party that has been out to get him since day one. meanwhile, what he's doing is kowtowing to every request that the republicans have in order for them to like him. what he doesn't get is that they'll never like him. if he bleached his skin white, became a quaker and a member of the republican party, they still wouldn't accept him. however, you're wrong in saying he doesn't have convictions. he does, but we rarely see them because he's trying to appease his opposition. as for the economy, obama was put in a catch-22 situation. bush came into office with a record surplus and left us as a record deficit. he had a few options. firstly, a lot of people pin him on tarp, but that was signed by president bush in 2008 and went into effect after obama became president. obama's biggest problem with the economy is that he continued with the same bush-era policies that got us into this mess in the first place. plus, 61 rounds of golf is a whole lot different than bush's record 487 vacation days during his presidency. ( edit: there are 18 rounds of golf in a game. that makes just over three whole games. big ass difference between 3 1/3 games of golf and over 16 months of vacation.) you're incorrect in saying that he rarely visited his ranch in crawford, texas, as well. while he made less visits there, he spent more vacation days there. and if you really think the war of terror has helped us, then i can't disagree with you more.
"Yes, I wanted him to fail from day one because I don't want him to enact his socialist agenda." this country is already socialist. you just don't see it. medicaid, medicare, law enforcement, fire departments, libraries, public education... that's all socialism at work.
i really do fault you for wanting barack obama to fail. he's our president. i never wanted george w. bush to fail. none of us did. he was still our president. if he failed, the country failed. he failed. the democrats did, too.
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Post by globe on Mar 19, 2011 14:25:30 GMT -5
he's lost many liberals, but they'll still vote for him in 2012 if there are no other candidates. and you're right that it's all his fault. he has a stubborn belief in bipartisanship. he had no chance against a united opposition party that has been out to get him since day one. meanwhile, what he's doing is kowtowing to every request that the republicans have in order for them to like him. however, you're wrong in saying he doesn't have convictions. he does, but we rarely see them because he's trying to appease his opposition. as for the economy, obama was put in a catch-22 situation. bush came into office with a record surplus and left us as a record deficit. he had a few options. firstly, a lot of people pin him on tarp, but that was signed by president bush in 2008 and went into effect after obama became president. obama's biggest problem with the economy is that he allowed plus, 61 rounds of golf is a whole lot different than bush's record 487 vacation days during his presidency. (that's 16 months of vacation.) you're incorrect in saying that he rarely visited his ranch in crawford, texas, as well. while he made less visits there, he spent more vacation days there. and if you really think the war of terror has helped us, then i can't disagree with you more. "Yes, I wanted him to fail from day one because I don't want him to enact his socialist agenda." this country is already socialist. you just don't see it. medicaid, medicare, law enforcement, fire departments, libraries, public education... that's all socialism at work. honestly, socialist i really do fault you for wanting barack obama to fail. he's our president. i never wanted george w. bush to fail. none of us did. he was still our president. if he failed, the country failed. he failed. the democrats did, too. Stop talking so much sense man.
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