From Thomas Friedman’s column in the New York Times today:
I voted for Barack Obama, and I don’t want my money back. He’s never gotten the credit he deserves for bringing the economy he inherited back from the brink of a depression. He’s fought the war on terrorism in a smart and effective way. He’s making health care possible for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, and he saved the auto industry.
There it is: The Idiot’s Guide to the Obama Reelection Campaign.
But it’s SO weird.
For example:
“bringing the economy he inherited back from the brink of a depression”: Wot? This IS a depression.
and:
“fought the war on terrorism in a smart and effective way”: Again—wot? Drone attacks and assassinations that piss off the whole world is smart?
and finally:
“health care possible for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions”: Double wot here. The Republicans are going to win next year (if there’s an election), and they’ll repeal Obamacare.
If you know anyone from Detroit, they can tell you about the auto industry.
17 Comments.
“bringing the economy he inherited back from the brink of a depression”
The stock market recovered. As far as this stupid, rich dumbfuck is concerned, everything is A-OK.
I was on the TIMES website the other day and a sidebar had a little Friedman tab right below a David Brooks tab. Jesus. “Tard Tabs.”
I’d rather staple my dick to my leg than read a Friedman or Brooks piece.
@Grouchy: Agreed. Beyond the idiotic tonedeaf ideas, I can’t believe what a shitty writer Friedman is. Safire he ain’t not.
Follow the logic.
1. In New York, the police can ask to search your bag before you get onto the subway.
2. You are, for now, still allowed to refuse. But if you do, you are not allowed to enter the subway.
3. Let us assume that this technique works 100% of the time. Everyone the police stop ACTUALLY has something in their bag that they were planning to use on the subway to create death and mayhem. A vial of anthrax, a pocket nuke, whatever. But the police stop it every single time with this technique.
4. Pretend you’re a terrorist. Obviously, if they ask to search your bag, you’ll refuse. Turn around and leave. What’s the next thing you’d do? What’s that? Pick a secondary target? Get onto the subway at one of the smaller stations in Queens or Brooklyn that doesn’t have a copstapo table?
5. So it doesn’t do anything other than condition people to allow the copstapo to molest them.
6. P.S. Gitmo’s still open.
7. Bradley Manning — who either did or did not do what he’s accused of — was isolated practically around the clock and made to sleep naked in a cell for months and months, and Obama approved. Manning should have been tried and — if found guilty — sentenced over a year ago.
8. I will not be voting for Obama because he has turned out to be just as much a war criminal as Mr. Bush ever was. He’s more polished than Bush (I know, that’s faint praise indeed) but he’s just as degenerate.
You want to make a wager on next year Ted? Unless somebody new gets in the race, Obama keeps his jobs versus the current crop of clowns, and the House flips back to Dem.
There’s only a tiny handful of ideological purists that don’t get it. People will grumble sure, but when it count’s, make no mistake about it- they are going to pull that “D” lever.
@Whimsical: You very well may be right. I’d say the odds are currently with you.
But things are changing fast.
“and the House flips back to Dem.”
And once in control the cowards will fuck us over again.
“Whimsical” will spread his cheeks and beg for more.
As I go from Reagan to Obama, I find that I can come up with reasonable explanations for not giving up on the system until Bush started his second term. Up to that point, I can justify the reasoning [sic] of the majority. After the second term began however, all bets are off.
I voted for Obama because he genuinely looked like someone who was signaling all of us. “Look, I’m going to be the first Black president. Do you REALLY think I’m not going to use that opportunity to make sure the working class finally gets a fair deal again? When else are we going to get universal health care? When yet another Millionaire WASP gets elected? There have been dozens of those guys. If they coulda gotten it done, they would have by now.”
But Obama really was the last chance I was willing to give the system. I’m through with the “better of two evils” method of voting.
From any reasonable perspective, one would have to conclude that Obama is the most conservative president we’ve had since Ronald Reagan, bar none. (Fuck, he’s even quoted Reagan – conservative ass-kiss that he is.) The facts are clear: From his war policy, to his economic policy, his “health care reform”, his corporate obedience, and on and on – he is a conservative Republican.
We’ll be seeing a lot more pro-Obama propaganda in the coming months, as Democrat loyalists try to force us to see a reality that doesn’t exist. They’ll be lying 24/7 to confuse liberals into believing Obama is one of them, that he is the most progressive president in a generation. The lies will flow like water, and the scary thing is that the people publishing them BELIEVE them! Such is the power of propaganda in today’s world.
Obama propagandists should just attach a disclaimer to all their lies. It would read: “When a Democrat does it, it’s ok”.
Obama SAID the Palestinians have rights. Under his administration, the US will veto any UN action to give them any rights, but they’ll have them in a nice abstract sense. The right-wingnuts said ‘Obama just threw Israel under the bus.’
Obama said the US must close Guantánamo. Even though he kept it open, SAYING he would close it has capitulated to the terrorists, according to the right-wingnuts.
Obamacare mandates that everyone must pay the insurance companies for polices that, while many Obamabots have written that it’s given them full coverage at a reasonable cost, does not match what I’ve seen when I’ve read the fine-print of individual health insurance policies.
Obama said Hispanics have rights. He has deported far more than Bush, Jr., including many who may well have been citizens (cf. Born in East LA). The right-wingnuts say he opened the US to illegal immigrants and cost many citizens their jobs (well, he did cost the Hispanic citizens he deported their jobs, so I guess those right-wingnuts have a point).
I was taught that actions speak louder than words, but that just shows that I was educated back in troglodytic times, before we learned modern science where it’s just been proven possible to travel backward in time by some top scientists who are great salesmen (even if their physics is a bit suspect by us troglodytes). Heck, maybe thermodynamics is also wrong, and it IS possible to build a Galt perpetual motion engine.
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As a result, when asked, ‘Will you vote Democratic or Republican in ’12?’ the majority say, ‘Republican,’ meaning House, Senate, and White House.
The smart money says the Republicans are almost certain to take full control of Congress (but still not large enough to convict Obama of high crimes and misdemeanors or to override his vetoes).
But, when asked, ‘Will you vote for Obama or {Perry/Bachman/Paul/Romney/Gingrich/etc., etc}?’ most voters say, ‘Obama, I guess.’
Best guess, Obama will squeak back into the White House in ’12, and the Republicans will get control of Congress, but not veto-proof control.
And the mandatory cuts in spending will take place in ’13, AFTER the election: a whopping 5% of defence and 2.5% of everything else.
@alex_the_tired: actually I would largely argue that Obama is more degenerate then Bush. While Bush worked hard to rape and pillage the world he was more open and honest about do it then Obama. For instance on things like closing Gitmo Bush simply refused, Obama just flat out lied about all such intentions to obtain your vote. Bush frequently admitted much of what was going on while Obama frequently uses semantics to disguise what is happening, like simply declaring troops non-combatants so that he can claim there are no more combatant troops left in Iraq. Bush would at least give critics and inquiring minds the semi-truth via a “Fuck you, I am doing this the way I want” where as Obama tells you sweet lies and misdirections that you want to be true as to ally your concerns before secretly doing everything and anything Bush would more openly do anyway.
And thanks to a health care plan that only the insurance industry could love, I’m being charged an extra $100 per month next year because these F*CKING rejects rebranded my health care plan “Cadillac”. F*CKERS. Yes, I’m a little angry. That, on top of a (usual) yearly rate raise. They can all go to hell, starting with Obama and his stooges.
I think Whimsical may be right. Under any other circumstances Obama would probably not be reelected. But with the republicans crazier, more out of touch with Americans then ever, and outright imploding with new found disorganization (organization being something that used to be one of their fortes and the frequent secret to may of their past success) even the most useless president ever could (and will) be reelected unless the republicans get their act together really quickly.
We could, of course, all try to work together and take this opportunity of well founded universal hatred for the clueless elites we are supposed to select from in the major parties to instead elect a third party candidate. But instead people will either just not vote due to anger and imagine this achieves something other then being read as submission, try to revolt without realizing that it is possible to go to the voting booth between the hurling of Molotov cocktails and won’t hurt the revolution to do so, or simply vote for one of the major party candidates anyway because they feel that they have no other options. … and now for suggesting third party candidates at what may be the most opportune time in US history for them I will be flamed by people who would rather sit around and type about dreams of revolution on one small little corner of the internet and criticize the only activists currently being active rather then actually try to do something themselves however insignificant.
Being as it is, from the pen of Friedman, it should be “The Complete Idiot’s Guide…”. There, fixed that for ya.
Quoth Alex:
I voted for Obama because he genuinely looked like someone who was signaling all of us. “Look, I’m going to be the first Black president. Do you REALLY think I’m not going to use that opportunity to make sure the working class finally gets a fair deal again? When else are we going to get universal health care? When yet another Millionaire WASP gets elected? There have been dozens of those guys. If they coulda gotten it done, they would have by now.”
Alex, don’t take it the wrong way, but I think you were extremely naïve. If anything, Obama had the same “working class” credentials than Clinton. Heck, I’d argue that Bubba had a humbler upgringing than Barry’s, skin color notwithstanding. Those man-of-the-people credentials didn’t seem to do a lot of good in Clinton’s case, now did they?
In the end, both are creatures of the system, raised as political bots in elite universities to serve the system. Seeing Hope there was, methinks, myopic.
The nonsense paragraph you quoted, Ted, could have been written by Joan Walsh of Salon.com. She took that line in a recent Obama arse-kiss. Many of the “liberal” commentators are trying to build up Obama from his self-destruction. They ought, instead, be thinking of all the innocent people whose lives he destroyed, don’t you think?
Yes, Ted, things are moving fast. The % of people who are indifferent to ows is already at 60%, and is growing faster than I anticipated. And, as it gets closer to election time, and people see that ows has no intention of getting the necessary political power to accomplish, well, anything whatsoever, I expect that trend line to continue to do nothing but rise.
Honestly, all that’s keeping the occupy movement alive is the stupidity of the ruling class. If they’d just leave the encampments alone, they’d peter out before winter’s end in most cases.
Oh my head. That’s the first Friedman column I’ve read seen he publish the mountain of trite “the world is flat”. Only did it to see what Ted was talking about. Safire he ain’t that’s for sure. Being an NYT columnist must be just about the most soul corrupting job ever. I can’t even read Krugman anymore because every column of his is the same: “TAX the RICH! the Republicans are LIERS!” Yes I agree but reading the same thing over and over again us boring