March 7, 2009
Bob Herbert wrote a column: "Miracles Take Time" in which he wonders why folks are "wigging out over earmarks". He talks about the economy and how bad things are, and, of course, blames the right wingers.
..saved up from the increasingly tragic devastation wrought by the clownish ideas of right-wing conservatives and the many long years of radical Republican misrule.
Predictable, comical and lacking in imagination. One cannot defend barry without mentioning his opponents. But how else to promote barry? What has he to show for himself?
Words.
Words that clearly don't matter.
Whose fault is it that the clowns were allowed to misrule for 8 years?
And then he concedes that barry "is as legitimate a target for criticism as any president". But he starts the next sentence with *but* to make it seem like the previous one actually meant something.
What happens when someone legitimately targets barry?
All hell breaks loose and the proobamedia come a'scurrying to cover for little barry.
But now they're starting to walk. They're starting to realize how they were conned and how foolish they looked - look - and their own rage is beginning to surface.
And barry's answer?
Well, if you don't like what I do, you can vote for someone else next time.
Who's stoking the fear?
It took Mr Bill to tell him not to fearmonger in an attempt to drop expectations so he could look like a miracle worker. Hence the change in tone of that speech.
Listen to these words all strung along:
This intense, impatient, often self-righteous, frequently wrongheaded and at times willfully destructive criticism has come in waves...
One gets exhausted trying to read through it. What does it sound like to you? Like he's punching something?
A cushion with Rush Limbaugh's pink face on it, perhaps?
Why doesn't he just come out and say it in similar terms to HE'S BACK! HE'S BLACK! or IT'S A PHALLIC SYMBOL! Something like, LEAVE MY BOY ALONE!
Well, not *boy* because it's a racial code word dontcha know.
And *coward*?
Here's the but about barry being a legitimate target.
But there is a weird hysterical quality to some of the recent attacks that suggests an underlying fear or barely suppressed rage.
It's called buyer's remorse.
Iraq (and race baiting) got him the nomination. And when he had the chance to fulfill his initial promise of bringing all the combat troops home in 16 months, he didn't take it. He took the middle option. Surprise.
Then it's earmarks.
More than 4.4 million jobs have been lost since this monster recession officially got under way in December 2007, and we've got people wigging out over earmarks. Folks, get a grip. Some earmarks are good, some are not, but collectively they account for a tiny, tiny portion of the national budget — less than 1 percent.
Freaking out over earmarks is like watching a neighborhood that is being consumed by flames and complaining that there is crabgrass on some of the lawns.
Except if the freakers voted for a fireman who could walk on water and actually believed what he promised.
You know that nebulous Change! chant?
I am going to change Washington!
I am going to put an end to partisanship!
I am going to bring in a new Era of Responsibility!
I am going to put an end to wasteful spending!
I am going to do away with lobbyists and earmarks!
I am going to get the troops home in 16 months!
I am going to be transparent!
I am going to let the public review the bills for 5 days before I sign them!
And what has he done?
Broken every single one of them (and more) in just six weeks.
Can you really blame them their freaking out?
They looked past his lack of experience because of the above trade-offs. They looked past his lack of specifics because he spoke of Change! and they were hungry for it. They went along with his poll-driven policy "refinements" because they had no choice.
And then what happened?
He has been anything but transparent.
He has whined about how bad things are when he promised Hope!
And he filled his Change! cabinet with Clinton people, tax cheats, illegal alien harborers and pay-to-play governors.
One by one the trade offs have been negated.
It may not be helpful - but when one is deceived for close to two years and donated time and money to someone who promised them something in return and then in a matter of six weeks proved himself to be like every other politician - impatience and frustration follow.
And who's the one freaking out about the crabgrass that is Rush Limbaugh?
In the midst of the craziness, conservatives are busy trying to blame this epic economic catastrophe — a conflagration of their own making...The right-wingers would have you believe this is Obama's downturn.
Was not barry in the democratic controlled Senate? And Chris Dodd, Barney Franks and Harry Reid? Nancy Pelosi?
They are all just as responsible as the Republicans.
And then there's a reference to Alan Keyes' statement (with video) that barry is a "radical Communist".
Thing is, if one were to honestly break down what barry has proposed, one might very well come to the conclusion that barry is a radical Communist.
Now here is the truth:
I don't know whether President Obama's ultimate rescue plan for the financial industry will work. He is a thoughtful man running a thoughtful administration and the plan, a staggeringly complex and difficult work in progress, hasn't been revealed yet.
People have been waiting two years for him to reveal his plans. What he has revealed - what he has shown with his (in)actions - is not what they voted for. They have every right to be angry.
They don't want thinking - they want results.
They don't want a panel of experts deciding before a policy is announced - they want a decisive leader.
They don't want more speeches - they want someone who can govern.
It is becoming clear that barry can't do much more than stump in swing states, snipe with his opponents and complain that he wishes he didn't have these messes, while trying to convince folks it isn't about him.
Who can take him seriously?
Frustration, fear and rage may not be helpful, but they are healthy responses to what he has done in his first six weeks. Responses that are going to turn to something much worse - as in violence - when what he has been hiding is revealed.
Maybe the nuns in grammar school were right when they counseled that patience is a virtue. The man has been president for six weeks.
Patience may be a virtue, Bob, but lying is a sin.
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