Thanks, But No Thanks

Mmmm, that's delicious irony!

Yep...just waiting the US MSM to start screaming:
"Obama gets his marching orders from the Canadian Prime Minister."

I'd suggest the Republicans might complain but do they even know anything about Canadian politics and Canadian media?

Ontario Liberal "McGuinty refuses to answer media questions unless reporters stand five feet away".
urlm.in/bqpy (asspress)

McGuintyasskedK for advice. ("OO")

Contrast Gregg with Dion/Ignatieff/Rae. It seemed that there was nothing Jack Layton was proposing with Le Coalition that violated any principles they have.

How much longer the MSM in the USA can be mesmerized by the flash & dazzle is unknown. But I feel once one significant journalist gets over the problem of worrying about being called a racist, the dam will break with a roar.

Don't know who it will be be, but it will probaly be a women.

After watching the Lincoln coverage today I dont think there is any worry it will be CNN....how many times they compared the two was nauseating....once or twice, since they are both from Illinois and Obama admires him, is ok...but it is like they are trying to say Obama is the incarnation of Lincoln.

Look, he is in the hoineymoon period. The press will cut him slack, they did it to Bush for some time, they do it for all of them. But with this number of issues Obama might find the press less friendly sooner rather than later.

The American people want O to do well, but at this rate they may well have buyers regret pretty fast.

Bernie Goldberg has written a book about the "slobbering" Obama U.S. MSM.

They helped elect him so the honeymoon may well last a long time, because of their heavy investment in him.

The same slobbering we are starting to see with Canadian MSM and Iggy.

Goldberg calls it "slobbering", I have been calling it "lickspittle" for a few years now.

I bet there will be no "Hundread Day" Special on Obama. Its been only a month since His acendancy.
Already there fleeing the ship.

I don't think that it is the MSM that is comparing Obama to Lincoln. It is Obama who is doing that, and he's done it right from his inauguration.

It's a deliberate tactic by Obama to invest himself with the mythic stature of Lincoln; that is, Obama is not leaving it up to the American people to define him by his actions. Obama is 'pre-selecting' his own definition, his own description by not allowing Americans to judge him on his work. He's providing them with his own image. Remember, he's already written two autobiographies about himself - yet another action of defining himself by himself.

With regard to Gregg's removing of himself from Obama's cabinet, that is an extremely important 'image' - one that Obama won't like. You aren't allowed to disagree or dissent in Obama's World.

Indeed, the White House has already tried to taint Gregg by stating in their statement that Gregg originally offered his services to Obama - but Gredd has denied this; he states that it was the White House that made the first approach.

However, the split between the two sides is widening and the Republican voices are reasoned, rational, logical. Obama is moving more and more into representing only the left; he's losing any reality to his oft-stated bipartisanship and his insistence that 'his' government represents all Americans.

As for the MSM, when you get CNN talking about the 'amount of pork' in the stimulus package, and their concerns about waste and debt - I think the honeymoon is over. What is left are evangelistic voices that are immune to facts and reason..and they won't be listened to for long.

But, Obama is not someone to put up with any loss of power, so, we'll have to see how he treats dissenters. He's never had to deal with them before.

Obama stumbles again by saying with the stimulus Caterpillar would begin hiring again after it announced a 20k layoff of employees. After O left Owens, the CEO, stated this is not true and he probably would have more layoffs before he possibly could begin rehiring.

ET is right, this guy is just saying whatever HE likes to hear and moves on. This could get real ugly, real fast as people confidence in O fades and morale sinks as it did under Carter.

Fred at February 12, 2009 6:48 PM.. A woman?

You are either prescient or have read about this...

It already has started and you will not believe who and where:

This popped up yesterday!

BTW ...... BWAAAAAAAAA......inhale .... HAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAA !

Lincoln hired a team of rivals, tolerated and could handle dissent.

Obama seems intent on being Commander in Chief.

The difference could be Mary Lincoln Todds vs. Michelle Obamas influence over their husband.

C'mon Kate ..... uncork that blog admin filter and post my comment with the link.

There is absolutely nothing to it that violates anything you have ever said about your rules.

And therin lies the problem.....there is no U.S. Jane Taber.

Chris Mathews... would be the US version of Jane Taber.

Ummmm ... Chris Mathews would be the US version of Jane Taber.

If you read the Wall Street Journal (and its online coverage), the media (at least some) are starting to question some of Obama's moves (e.g. about 95% of his "stimulus" pkg. is pork, his green bill will have a very negative impact on the auto industry). The WSJ is probably ahead of the pack with its criticism, but I expect others to follow as soon as the Obama mystique is eclipsed by economic (and other) realities.

Ironically, I suspect it will be the Canadian media that will be the very last to look atObama objectively. Obama's charisma is their current club for beating Harper over the head. (Barbara Yaffe provides yet another tiresome example: http://tiny.cc/lWxp5)" The Canadian media will be loath to abandon the Obama fairy tale.

ET:

I love you like a sister, but...

"he's already written two autobiographies about himself"

Er, as opposed to autobiographies about other people?

kevin b-alright, you're right.

What I was trying to say but didn't.. was that Obama's autobiographies are not so much factual as they are fictional.

Steve Paikin of TVO is worshipping at the shrine of Obama.

Yesterday, he was convinced that the end of the "Me Generation"'s infatuation with itself was, after Bush [sic], a thing of the past.

Today, Paikin opined that, with the coming of Obama, the "culture wars" are over.

Steve, what do the words "Sarah Palin" mean to you?

(I guess they mean, "We won".)

Kyrie eleison.

I really appreciate what ET wrote. And I think she's spot on!

We've all known that Obama is perhaps the biggest narcissist the world has seen in some time ... outside of Hollywood that is. The big question now is: Can average Americans see through his polished veneer? We'll know in about 22 months when the mid-term elections occur.

Question for you all: Do you think the Democrats are serious about bringing back the Unfairness Doctrine to squelch conservative talk radio?

Kevin B: "Er, as opposed to autobiographies about other people?" Don't be such a pedant. It undermines the exchange of ideas. Also, ET is right. There is some question about the authenticity of Obama's "autobiography". What I find amazing is that he presumably was given an advance of $100,000 to write his autobiography. Now I know something about the publishing industry and most publishers do not have that kind of money to dole out to a virtual unknown He had done the Harvard Law Review editorship at that point, but that was it. How could a publisher hope to get that kind of money back. My theory is that the money came from somewhere and was funneled through a publisher, but where? More here: http://tiny.cc/uN12s

Why did Gregg even consider working with the Obamatards? Commerce is a step down from the Senate. He must have known this administration was a sham right from the get go.

gregg is a republican. This exit will put even more pressure on the three gop senators who have signed on to the package to change their position.

It will be unlikely that any of them will unless they can get a dem senator to jump with them.

Before today i thought there was zero chance of that happening - now i am less sure.

If a dem does change to 'no' then Barack's package is doomed and it will sliced and diced to a fraction of what it is now (a lot of dems on the hill want to make changes but cannot speak out unless the solidarity is broken) and there will be enormous pressure on harry reid (and perhaps pelosi as her fingerprints are all over the legislation) to step aside.

Perhaps Obama approached greg because his taxes are all paid.
Perhaps Gregg refused, in part, because he would like to keep more of his earnings; while they still had some value!

LindaL:

I'll stick to my pedantry, as you stylize it. The English language is a precise weapon, and deserves to have its incisiveness and clarity preserved. I'm married to a Chinese woman, and her relatives tell me that many of the tenses and casts of English verbs just do not exist in Chinese, and thus it is difficult to express many ideas in Chinese than it is in English - at least, without resorting to tremendously subtle Chinese metaphors.

I am an avowed student of George Orwell. He, more than any other writer of the 20th century, showed a reverence for the English language, for clarity, for the avoidance of doublespeak. I don't let poor grammar or diction - particularly from someone I respect, like ET - slide.

What bothers me most of all is a lack of rigour - both in English and arithmetic - that seems to pervade most blogs. I take the time to preview all my entries, and often find numerous errors that need correction before the final post. I care that my opinions are crafted carefully and correctly before posting. I don't think the sloppy exchange of ideas is helpful; if you can't take the time to be accurate and precise, why the hell should I care about what you write?

I know ET wrote the offending sentence quickly; I'm not really on her case about that. But what, pray tell, is wrong with asking people to be held to higher standard? Isn't the embrace of lower standards one of the problems plaguing us today?

Hitler only wrote one autobiography in his thirties after accomplishing exactly nothing, Obama has two, so no comparisons people.

The reason he compares himself to Lincoln is that they are the two presidents with the least experience. The difference is that Lincoln was an accomplished lawyer and a respected figure before becoming a congressman for a term then president. Obama has always been a pretty face on top of an empty suit.

After his term is over, and he tries to decide what to do with the rest of his life at 49, I might be interested in an honest third autobiography.

Posted by: KevinB at February 13, 2009 4:05 AM

What bothers me most of all is a lack of rigour - both in English and arithmetic - that seems to pervade most blogs. I take the time to preview all my entries, and often find numerous errors that need correction before the final post. I care that my opinions are crafted carefully and correctly before posting. I don't think the sloppy exchange of ideas is helpful; if you can't take the time to be accurate and precise, why the hell should I care about what you write?

========================

What you said - detail is everything.

With computers and software it's too easy to say, "I've done my job". Plug in the variables provided, push the button, and viola! no thinking required.

Many people don't realize that doing a job to 95% is not enough ("someone else will take care of that" - and it never gets done). That last 5% can easily take as much time as the "finished" 95% did, as others have to clean up and fix the shoddy jobs that the celebrators put on resumes as "projects completed".

Once the money is gone for government projects, well, that's it. Drop tools.

If serious about accomplishing something, hire competent engineers and let them have at it. They already know all the factors (including "sociological factors") and make allowances.

On government jobs, too often the politicos get involved.

While the stimulus package is fronted as the reason for his not accepting the Commerce sec. position, in fact the Congress had already passed its version when he came on board, so he was aware of its contents, secondly he voted nay for the initial Senate bill. No, the real reason is the census, after his sign on, the white house indicated it would be supervised by Emanual, altho as the constitution states, it would remain in Commerce, but with Gregg deferring to White house - actual head count vs. statistical model of pop. White house wants model as this dictatesw number of Congress seats and Fed. aid to states.

If Obama were a conservative, the MSM would go absolutely medieval on his string of embarrassing cabinet gaffes. But since he's a liberal, he will continue to receive pass after pass. I suspect that the fawning adoration will end at some time, just like it did with Dion, but I'm not making any predictions as to when that will happen.

Obama is a classic example of a professional politician who talks himself into a position that is way over his ability to cope with. The bland platitudes and vacuous slogans were all he needed to gain the presidency, but they're little help to him when it comes to running a nation. He relies on advisers to tell him what to think, but when they offer conflicting advice, as they are bound to frequently do, he has no clue as to how to sort it all out.

KevinB, I agree. Precise language is very important.

(E.g., "Broad Strata Mob Assault Jewish Centre At York University" thread today, the eye witness account was full of overly long, almost indigestible sentences: one hovered at around 60 words! Someone needed to edit this otherwise helpful account. The editing job would have taken maybe five minutes. That so many can’t be bothered to do this, or worse, don’t think it matters, is a symptom of careless thinking. The product of decades of careless thinking is brain dead liberalism and political correctness, which are now seriously threatening our very freedoms and way of life. The little springs of carelessness, when unchecked, turn into rivers, lakes, and oceans of the same. I’d say we’re now drowning. Thanks, KevinB.)

OMMAG, on the Maureen Dowd link,

"It took Daschle’s resignation to shake the president out of his arrogant attitude that his charmed circle doesn’t have to abide by the lofty standards he lectured the rest of us about for two years."

Is this the same Maureen Dowd...???

I wonder - would that arrogant attitude include his lecturing the American people on not being able to keep their homes at 72 degrees and just expect the rest of the world to say 'ok', while he then goes and cranks up the heat so it is hot enough to go jacketless and grow orchids?