I think that Austrian is the primary second language in New Pennsylvania.

What language was spoken in Bechtesgaden?

He could sign up to take classes from Arnie.
He should also take lessons in Swiss and Belgian. I'm sure Berltz could help.

BTW, Is it true, as Steyn said on the show, that Korea once threatened to nuke Montreal because they figured America wouldn't retaliate? Shows kind of a subtle understanding of the North American dynamic, but maybe too clever by half.

Added fun:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5110631/Silvio-Berlusconi-threatens-news-blackout-after-reports-of-latest-gaffes.html

Can anyone point out any substantive political/philosophical differences between The Goracle (2000), John Kerry (2004) and His Obamaness?

2000=2004=2008=1984.

"He could sign up to take classes from Arnie.
He should also take lessons in Swiss and Belgian. I'm sure Berltz could help.

Posted by: albertaclipper at April 6, 2009 2:53 PM "

Not to be too picky,but the Ombamadingaling speaks crappy enough ai it is! Maybe you meant Berlitz"???
And hey. If the Owe says Austrian is a language,it MUST be so!!! So what do germans speak?

It shows a woeful lack of understanding of international affairs.

I would like to sit and ask Obama - where was Hitler born? What precipitated World War I? How about WWII? What and when was the Korean War (or police action if you prefer)?

When did Hawai'i become a state?

Who was Charles Martel? etc etc

Without TOTUS, Obama doesn't even seem fluent in "American".

Charles Martel? He be da pimp who done drives da Monte Carlo with plush carpet in-de-terior down on Jefferson in Dee-troit. word bro!

Ahhh Austria. Clever little country that has managed to convince much of the world that Hitler was German and Beethoven was an Austrian...

What an absolute pleasure to listen to Mark Steyn this morning on WMAL. He is an articulate, thoughful, graceful man who knows his subject well and uses devestating wit to disarm the opposition. Woe to the western world that the likes of Hitchens and Steyn are few and far between. This is a prime example of what a public school system does not provide - the ability to think, write and debate.

Simple slip-up, it is sorta like forcing Wagoner out, insulting the Chinese via the Treasury Secretary, threatening the Bank CEOs with populist revolt, adding 10B to the EPA budget over two years in a recession, the Recovery and Re - Investment Act which contained the EPA funding as Stimulus, the Omnibus bill with an 8% rise in spending therein, oh ya protecting the AIG bonuses so they could act all shocked later, giving DVDs as parting gifts, being unable to find a Democrat that pays their taxes, putting non-car people on the Auto-Task force, daily making assumptions of what citizens want from the Government... OK now I have a hand cramp and not even half way through my list.

Easily forgiven little things like that?

Reminds me of the Berlitz commercial. English captain..."We are sinking!...We are sinking!". The German coast guard..."what are you sinking about?"

Erik: "It shows a woeful lack of understanding of international affairs." Obama may have a woeful lack of understanding of things international, but I don't think this incident is particularly significant in that regard -- it's trivial, really. I get really annoyed when news sources pick up on small missteps and try to turn them into major gaffs. Same for blogs.

Remember when Dan Quayle said he'd like to see Latin America, but he didn't speak Latin? How is this any different?

Before I saw the article I was certain this was a fun play on words in regards to the Keynsian vs Austrian schools of economics.

I guess it works on multiple levels.

LindaL - with respect, I think this is significant. This in my opinion reflects the astonishing lack of depth of this man.

We have had some very bright people in the position of POTUS in the past; this one appears to be a serious lightweight.

During one's life, one accumulates knowledge, through reading, experience and curiousity. I have a feeling he's really lazy and incurious.

I'm sure he'll have something more to say on the subject in his third book about himself.

I agree with Erik Larsen - this slip shows the lack of knowledge of Obama. Note also that if it had been Bush who said it, the MSM would be all over it. As it is, with Obama, each gaffe is hidden. Just like his obeisance - and that's what it was - to the Saudi King was hidden by the MSM who either didn't report it or said he was 'merely picking up something from the floor'. Yeah.

Add to that illiquid's list, plus all the others, including the various insults to Heads of State, and his new 50-50 blame game, or rather, Blame America - and it's a mess.

I don't understand Mark's fixation with how the Mugabe....oops, my bad,.. Obama trillions will be repaid. Debauching the currency while enforcing price controls is a common third world government ploy to remove the economic clout of one's opponents who don't appreciate the benefits of being ruled by clueless Marxists who are stealing everything.

In any bankruptcy those with the largest pile of IOUs and hired muscle get paid off first. China will likely settle for Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and complete control of the Port of Long Beach as a free port/Chinese naval base for 200 years.

Check out the facial expression of the female reporter when obamamama makes the gaffe.

Right over her head......looks like she is about to have an orgasm....

OBJECTIVITY....ZERO

PATHETIC !

remember 57 or 58 states in the union............anyone with any sense at that moment knew this guy was a hollow man...

is there a translation somewhere?
I only speak Canadian

LindaL: "I get really annoyed when news sources pick up on small missteps and try to turn them into major gaffs. Same for blogs."

In an important sense, I agree. It's easy to appear small-minded to fence-sitters (i.e. most people) if you fixate on this sort of thing.

However, I do like to apply the DSM (double-standard meter) by asking myself the simple question in (the increasingly numerous) cases like this: would the media have pointed this out and derided it if GWB had said it?

If the answer is yes (and it always is), then it deserves not to go unremarked. Besides, it really is funny.

And remarkable too: I don't know anyone who would have made the same mistake. The analogy is with the stereotypical tourist who travels overseas and wonders whether "American" is spoken in the country he's touring.

This was a strange election. The media was bizarre in its approach.

I can't believe that the two major candidates never had a "mano a mano" debate - rather, we had people sending in strange questions through YouTube, (with people dressing up in chicken suits to improve the chance of their question being asked), and putting forth fluffball questions that required no serious thought.

It appears that Obama was a Media Sponsored Enterprise, promoted to improve ratings and hence advertising revenue, regardless of his suitability to the position.

I've seen many people wanting positions who appeared "superficially great" - but who were nowhere near ready to take on the position for which they were applying. They should have either waited for a few years, or not applied at all.

I believe that Obama would have made a fine lower level politician who only had to make stirring speeches - but when it comes to the important decisions of the presidency - that required "content" and "character".

Rush Limbaugh's ratings improved after the Obamaton attack dogs were set loose.

Other than that the jury's still out, far as I know.

Obama has trouble putting a sentence together without the teleprompter. Just a little side effect of doing coke for 20 years.

Kyla:

Because Dan Quayle never said it. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/quayle.asp

As usual, it's another lie picked up by the lazy and uncritical media and repeated often enough that it has a ring of truth.

"Preening buffoon" That's a good one.

I agree that this is kind of a poor way to show off his international image, but after losing two generations of young men to those squarehead krauts, we've earned the right to call them whatever we feel like calling them. As a matter of fact, we should have the right to make them speak English.

How long before Obama becomes known as the first Gen-X President?

I've just looked it up in my Austrian/English dictionary and the phrase Obama was searching for translates to:

"My Hovercraft is full of eels"

KevinB - thanks for that - I thought the Quayle thing was a true story. Interesting . . . . .

"My Hovercraft is full of eels"

"My nipples explode with delight!"

President Obama does speak another language and you hear it ad nauseum. Let us step out of the darkness into the light for up is not down nor is sideways forward but surely the path is clear.....

"Obama did NOT bow to King Abdullah"

http://www.imao.us/index.php/2009/04/dont-believe-your-lying-eyes/

My father who in the R.A.F. was in vacation in Austria after the Anschluss and noticed all the tanks and heavy artillery en masse. In a letter home he said "We are going to lose this war".

I thought Obama spoke Malay or something like that, at least whatever he rememembers from his early childhood. I notice he was very impressed with Harper answering reporters' questions in lengthy and fluent French.

Nicola - we are sure lucky to have Harper. Not a grandstander, just a solid performer.

He could certainly objectively outperform Obama if they were put in a "joint press conference" - but I wonder even then if PMSH would be appreciated . . .

gOOgOO has anschlussed with Herr bOw-wOw?

Yavole, myn hair. Iss gut.
Mao say, tly it.
...-

"Google edits out "Obama bowing" search

I decided to check Google to see how much reporting had taken place on Obama's bow to the Saudi King.

Google has a feature that will pre-fill a drop-down menu based on what you type. For example, when I typed the letters O and b, it started listing various Obama topics. As I typed out O-b-a-m-a b-o-w, the drop down menu listed "Obama bowling". I continued to spell out the word "bowing" and the menu selection remained "Obama bowling".

So I clicked on my original selection "Obama bowing" and clicked "Images". There is not a single image of Obama bowing to the Saudi King on Google. There are various photos of Obama bowing his head to pray, along with other miscellaneous photos of Obama.

Then I clicked on "Web" to see what stories were posted about this episode. The only stories listed by Google are all from blogs, which means one of two things - either there are NO stories from any news organization other than blogs, or Google is not listing them."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2223626/posts

"Ich bin ein Wiener."

With German being a pluricentric language, Austrian dialects should not be confused with the variety of Standard German spoken by most Austrians, which is distinct from that of Germany or Switzerland.

Etc.

It was entirely appropriate to use the word "Austrian" in that context. F*ck, what a bunch of knucklewalkers.

Get a life.

Now Bush -- he was far better at royal protocol:
http://www.tmz.com/2008/01/15/bush-the-king-and-i/

Now, now MsMew

If they were smart or sophisticated, well, they wouldn't be conservatives, now would they?

Same with your exhortation: "Get a life".

If they had a life, they wouldn't be...well, you know.

Ooooooops....my post should have read obamarama......and double ooooooops, my wife, who is German, confirmed that Austrian is a separate dialect of the German language......oooooops

Awwww...bleet formed a sentence!
Friggen idiot.

MsMew,

Swearing & calling people names is so Neanderthal, but hey I'm not judging you.

h.ryan

Do you think it's wise to throw the word "idiot" around when you guys have got a post here and a lengthy thread based on a fallacy caused by rampant stupidity?

Well, I guess you do think it's wise.

Which sort of proves my point, huh?

maz2 - I'm not sure of the point of your snip. I typed in 'obama bowing to saudi king' and Google came up with pages and pages of videos and commentary of that same bow.

As for Austrian vs German, my understanding is that one refers to both versions as German. Austria has its own dialect and Germany has its own - but both are versions of German. Just as we speak English in America and in England and in Australia - each with different accents and some vocabulary differences.

maz2 - I'm not sure of the point of your snip. I typed in 'obama bowing to saudi king' and Google came up with pages and pages of videos and commentary of that same bow.

As for Austrian vs German, my understanding is that one refers to both versions as German. Austria has its own dialect and Germany has its own - but both are versions of German. Just as we speak English in America and in England and in Australia - each with different accents and some vocabulary differences.

You have no point bleet, you are a moron, nothing personal. Now off to KOs with you little boy.

Austrian? Let's put some shrimp on the barbie then.

MsMew: Yes, exactly -- Obama was talking about a dialect of German when he referred to the "Austrian" language. How wonderful it is for the US to have a president whose grasp of these linguistic subtleties is so much more refined than anyone else's (especially the cowboy who preceded him) and can show it off at a moment's notice. A truly gifted man.

What a load of special pleading.

But seriously, this single incident is no big deal but it is the aggregate of gaffes coupled with the remarkable ineptness of the protocol practices of his entourage (can you imagine the outcry we would have seen if Stephen harper had given the queen a iPod with his speeches on it?) that really give one pause and cause one to wonder whether this guy and his posse are qualified to even run a school board.

When one considers what's at stake, it makes one very thirsty for very good quality Irish whiskey.

I thought they spoke Australian.
NeilD

Right about now is a good time for a juxtaposition...Obama vs. W

50. "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." --at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

49. "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." --Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

48. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

47. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." --Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

46. "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004 (Watch video clip)

45. "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." --at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001 (Listen to audio clip)

44. "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." --interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006

43. "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th." --Washington, D.C., July 12, 2007

42. "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." --as quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War

41. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." --discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson in 2003, as quoted by Robertson

40. 3. "I think I was unprepared for war." –on the biggest regret of his presidency, ABC News interview, Dec. 1, 2008

39. "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." --talking to key Republicans about Iraq, as quoted by Bob Woodward

38. "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." --presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Watch video clip)

37. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." --Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000 (Listen to audio clip)

36. "Do you have blacks, too?" --to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001

35. "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." --as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

34. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." --on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina

33. "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." --Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

32. "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake." --on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006

31. "They misunderestimated me." --Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

30. "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." --Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001

29. "This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base." --at the 2000 Al Smith dinner

28. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

27. "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right." --Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

26. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 (Listen to audio clip)

25. "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

24. "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it...I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet...I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." --after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

23. "You forgot Poland." --to Sen. John Kerry during the first presidential debate, after Kerry failed to mention Poland's contributions to the Iraq war coalition, Miami, Fla., Sept. 30, 2004

22. "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." --in parting words to world leaders at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as those present looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

21. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." --State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false

20. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

19. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." --Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

18. "So what?" –President Bush, responding to a an ABC News correspondent who pointed out that Al Qaeda wasn't a threat in Iraq until after the U.S. invaded, Dec. 14, 2008

17. "Can we win? I don't think you can win it." --after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, "Today" show interview, Aug. 30, 2004

16. "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." --Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

15. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." --to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004

14. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." --speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

13. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories ... And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." --Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003

12. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!" --joking about his administration's failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004

11. "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

10. "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000

9. "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." --on the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

8. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." --Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

7. "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense." --Washington, D.C. April 18, 2006

6. "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." --Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

5. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

4. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

3. "You work three jobs? ... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." --to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

2. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

1. "My answer is bring them on." --on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003

I see little ulianov has mastered ye olde cut-and-paste. Well done, sunshine. The point here is not that GWB was a master of malapropisms (he was, then so was Yogi Berra), it's that the MSM is so biased and enamoured that it won't call BO on his after pilloring GWB for eight years...

And MsMew, I have to ask, don't you get nauseous from all the spin you're putting on this nonsense?

As a German, I can tell you we don't really want consider the Austrians anything close to German, ever since they sent us the little monster with the funny mustache and washed their hands of him, but dialect aside, there is no such language as "Austrian", just as there is no "Swiss". BO f**ked up there, people. The Austrians speak Deutsch, just as the Swiss in the german-speaking cantons speak Deutsch.

Mind you, there are bigger b)oners on which to call BO - like his cabinet appointment attempts, his porkulus plan, etc, etc, etc. Let his cheerleaders defend his lack of substance on things that matter... of course they'd have to be economically literate to start off with, and no leftie I've ever met is anything other than economically illiterate.

""""It was entirely appropriate to use the word "Austrian" in that context. """"

sort of like "special olympics"

Only 50 uli? I figure you leftoids would have 101 just in case it ever came up in conversation. The truth is aaaah, without his aaaah TOTUS, aaah the Big O aaaah isn't such a great aaaah orator. Not only that, compare what he is saying now with what was said before he was elected. Can you say:"One of these things is not like the others?"

If you want to get into a pissing contest then be prepared for some hard things to swallow... ooops, I believe Clinton said that to Monica. If you want to get a headache then read Jean Crouton's speeches before they're translated into either official language. Remembers, da proofs is da proofs.

Nice list Ulianvov, but I thought Obama was/is the archetype educated/urbane/knowledgeable liberal with remarkable oratory skills?

Funny thing 'bout them dar skills, eh?

ulanov: fifty verbal missteps - some of them pretty lame - from a guy who himself admits that his skills in this area are not the best in EIGHT years. BO who is supposed to be one the greatest ever has made about five as hood as any onthis list in 70 days.

Thanks for the juxtapose.

Hey this is delicious - a post about Obama's supposed ignorance which only proves the ingorance of the poster and the usual collection of faux-outrage-addicts.

Almost as good as those 'Recession Watch' posts Kate used to put up, ridiculing anyone who predicted an oncoming economic meltdown!

Remember those? :)

Nah bleet, this is all a conspiracy to get guys like you to react... it's called "troll fishing" and may I ask how you like the hook in your mouth?

Well, Tanker

I feel flattered that this has all been put on for me.

Not surprised, though, since with its constant procession of subhumanly stupid posts, its global warming 'debunking' posts (debunking gravity next, guys?), its Recession Watch posts (you guys are real Nostradamuses), its general brutish, racist tenor, I've long thought SDA must be some sort of SDA parody site, or an exercise in performance art.

Surely grown adults with functioning brain stems in the year 2009 don't think and believe such things! It's all a joke, right?

You're right... we don't believe in such things as...

Anthropogenic global warming - or is that climate change... you're hard-pressed to follow the twisted logic without a program now that reality is intruding on the IPCC dream-world

economic meltdown... yeah there is a recession on, but sunshine, the meltdown thing is in your god BO's speaking points... and perhaps in some of the least adaptable portions of the economy, but Canada, without the rhetoric and useless stimulus deficit spending is doing fine, thank you very much. Keep in mind that the trigger to the recession has been the long-standing pressure by Democratic congresses and presidents to loosen lending rules to the point where lenders were forced to give credit to people who should never have qualified. Their arguments were solely based on race... yep, your democrat heroes were the racists here - the racists of lowered expectations. So the banks were left with toxic debt forced on them by congress...

opposition to BO is based on race... heck, the man was ELECTED based on race, dude. Yet the opposition to him is based on his inept cabinet choices (worst in living memory) his pork-laden stimulus bill which contradicts all of his high-minded campaign trail rhetoric and his lack of knowledge on international affairs (and you leftists made fun of Sarah Palin, who at least had a track record as a leader, which BO utterly lacked).

Yep, nothing but parodies and racism here - thankfully provided by bleet, ulianov, lberia, msmew et al. Thanks guys, you make my day go by quicker with the chuckles you provide

Surely grown adults with functioning brain stems in the year 2009 don't think and believe such things! It's all a joke, right?

Posted by: bleet at April 6, 2009 8:28 PM

Gee, do you mean things like:
- global warming is man-made
- spending $trillions, nationalizing the banking, auto and who knows how many other industries, implementing Cardcheck and gigantic pork spending will help the present US economic disaster
- obama is qualified as POTUS
- obama is a caring, cultured and urbane individual
- obama can string together more than 2 sentences without verbal pau-a-a-a-ses

Things like that, bleet? I have to agree: you'd really be a halfwit to believe that nonsense, certainly.

What side of the fence do you fall on? Oops - for a guy who equates AGW with the law of gravity, no need to answer that.

mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm

I'll leave aside the drool-spattered idiocies of your comment, Tanker and just comment on one point.

Your statement that Obama was elected based on race is verifiably false. McCain was actually ahead until the time of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. At that time Obama's numbers went up and kept going up, leaving McCain far behind and never going down again.

This is in addition to the fact that Obama held a position on the Iraq war which was identical to what the majority held, and McCain held the opposite view. All of these factors are more responsible for Obama's election than race. Again,, this is verifiably true, shown by his poll numbers which pulled dramatically ahead of McCain's as the economic crisis became apparent.

Your mania for attributing his success to his race is evidence of your own racism.

In other words: blow it out your racist ass, Tanker.

bleet- Don't be ridiculous. "Verifiably false", "verifiably true". How do you verify what's in the minds of individual voters? Every black voter who was asked, said race was a factor. That's a big voting block.

Not that it matters much now.

I've noticed that Obama's strategy to ban nuclear weapons, is an extrapolation of his plan to ban private ownership of firearms. He's using the same flawed logic in both cases.

I listened to his speech in Turkey. He mentioned that rogue states, and terrorist organizations have access to nukes, so the US should begin to get rid of their arsenal. Huh? That's exactly the same logic as; the bad guys have handguns, so we should ban handguns, and take them away from law abiding citizens.

I think this is the time to increase the size, and quality of the US arsenal of WMDs. Now, more than ever, it's necessary to carry a big stick.

tanker - thanks for your very astute comments.

Yes, Obama is totally incapable of, on his own, thinking through a policy or program. He can read it, as written by someone else, off a teleprompter. But he doesn't understand the theory or structure of a policy or program well enough to answer without someone writing that answer for him.

Obama did indeed use race as a major factor - but not the only factor - in his election. He deliberately used 'white guilt' as a tactic - remember his statement that his white grandmother was afraid of 'big black men'. And, remember, he attended Wright's anti-white and anti-American 'sermons' for 20 years, without standing up and confronting him on those opinions.

But Obama's narcissism, his paucity of experience, his intellectual shallowness and quite astonishing ignorance about economics, foreign affairs etc, and his reliance on his empty rhetoric and manipulative skills, is becoming more obvious to more people.

His narcissism leads him to insult key leaders; - and - to openly denigrate America. And his ignorance leads him to make factual errors where, if it were Bush or Palin or anyone else - well, the MSM would be ranting about such errors for days.

He's embedded within the socialist agendas of Soros, Pelosi, Reid and who knows...and these are disastrous for the American economy. His tactics of creating emotional crisis so that Congress passes a stimulus bill without reading it - are irresponsible. What about his inciting lynch mob hysteria about AIG? Incredible.

He's already broken key promises of his campaign about openness, earmarks, time passages for bills, etc.

He's unable to take questions from genuine press conferences; his press conferences are staged, with pre-selected inocuous questions, and major MSM presses refused - and ignored. Dissenters are attacked by his staff!

dp -

I'm not sure that D'ohbama's domestic disarmament strategy may be extended internationally. The idea behind disarming the US citizenry is simple: a disarmed populace is much easier to control than an armed one. And you can't enforce liberalism except through the barrel of a gun, so nuking the Second Amendment makes perfect sense for the dumb-ocrats. Not too sure that'd entice rogue nations or the chicoms to disarm, though.

mhb

Wow, dp

I guess all those black people who said race was a factor must've really gotten on board after the financial crisis hit, huh? That's when Obama's number really skyrocketed - especially after McCain had his hissy fit & 'suspended his campaign'.

'Verifiably true' means poll numbers don't lie. Go read them.

Obama did indeed use race as a major factor...
Posted by: ET at April 6, 2009 10:15 PM

Awaiting bleet to demonize ET as a racist in 5... 4... 3...

mhb

Folks you are not being understanding. After all Obama's telepromter must have been on coffee-break.

Bleet:

Obama would never even have been the Democrat candidate except that his race made him a bigger "victim" than Hillary's "qualification" of being a woman, another special interest victim group.

Democrats live to pander to victim groups. McCain might have lost anyway, but he would have been running against Clinton.

Obama is President because of his color only. He had no resume and no experience. To be fair, neither did Hillary, but she was the clear Democrat favorite for years until Obama suddenly showed up and out-victimized her. The entire election was about nothing but race.

Before you call me racist or sexist, I would proudly vote for a candidate of any race or either gender, provided they stood for beliefs that I share.

Gee, guitarman

We weren't talking about the primaries - we were talking about the election. How'd you miss that?

Sure, Clinton and Obama have no qualifications other than their sex or race. But you're no sexist or racist.

The facts insist that the financial breakdown was a much larger factor in Obama's success then his race. But you continue to deny.

No - like Tanker, dp, and mhb, you're an irrelevant relic of a long gone age, ineffectually shaking your fist at a changed world which will never change back to your way again. The 'good old days' when everyone knew their place, right?

Yes, it is indeed a changed world and the good old days seem to have disappeared.

Remember them? When a President of the USA was, first and foremost, committed to defend the Constitution and the Rule of Law and the best interests of the American people. Now, we have Obama, who violates all three.

He's unable to take questions from genuine press conferences; his press conferences are staged, with pre-selected inocuous questions, and major MSM presses refused - and ignored. Dissenters are attacked by his staff!

How did this conversation segue into a discussion of Stephen Harper?

"We weren't talking about the primaries - we were talking about the election. How'd you miss that?"

Bleet, it's pretty hard to get elected President if you don't first win the primary. How'd you miss that?

There are plenty of qualified women and plenty of qualified black men. Hillary and Obama are not even mediocre examples of either.

Yes, ET... but he's the champion of the self-important victim-Americans. Bleet can marginalize and slander all he wants, but the fact is obama has no qualifications to his name. Voting for obama was more about self-congratulation and preening over the defeat of the racial hurdle, and nothing more. How ELSE could somebody with his lack of qualifications win POTUS? Even bleet with his ad hominems doesn't answer that question. Because he can't; the irrefutable proof is in obama's laughable performance to-date.

That Americans were willing to overlook race and elect a black man to the Oval Office is historic and kudos to them for that; that they elected this particular man with his extreme background and moral character is proving disastrous.

Bleet is just covering his bases with the racism smears, a predictable liberal strategy. However, bleet - as intelligent as he wishes he was - ignores a real potential tragedy of obama's presidency: when he flames out ignominiously in 2012, this will fan the flames of real racism, and people may look suspiciously at electing another minority president. Perhaps even one with impeccable credentials: one who honors the US Constitution, has worked in the private sector and understands and values business, doesn't believe in marxist wealth redistributionism, doesn't associate with terrorists, felons, and racist america-hating ministers. In short, a minority candidate the exact opposite of obama.

And that would be a tragedy.

mhb

mhb

"Remember them? When a President of the USA was, first and foremost, committed to defend the Constitution and the Rule of Law and the best interests of the American people..."

Posted by: ET at April 6, 2009 11:39 PM

HAHAHA!!! Like W? HAHAHA!!! Go take your meds!!!

Examples ulianov, examples. Insults a more denigrating to the one who utters them when they are uttered without proof.

Give me a break and use your brain for a moment: The Patriot Act, loss of habeas corpus, extreme rendition, torturing people and lying to start an illegal war.

But, but...Obama said "Austrian".

Loss of habeas corpus for the taliban? Sorry, they're not US citizens, and have no such rights. They're not even entitled to Geneva Accords as they're illegal combatants. Waterboarding isn't torture, so that's another error. The entire UN believed iraq had WMD, and - for that matter - 5000 or so Kurds who were gassed also believed.

Oh, wait! You forgot Gitmo: the only military detention center where the average prisoner's weight gain is 12 lbs over the duration of their incarceration.

Any other red herrings?

mhb

mhb, you are full of crap...and living proof that stupid can't be fixed.

Not surprised, though, since with its constant procession of subhumanly stupid posts, its global warming 'debunking' posts (debunking gravity next, guys?), its Recession Watch posts (you guys are real Nostradamuses), its general brutish, racist tenor, I've long thought SDA must be some sort of SDA parody site, or an exercise in performance art.

Surely grown adults with functioning brain stems in the year 2009 don't think and believe such things! It's all a joke, right?
Posted by: bleet at April 6, 2009 8:28 PM

bleet, you're obviously beyond reasoning with. Equating gravity with AGW proves you've drank deeply from the Goracle's Kool-Aid. Yum yum.

Bleet....

Baaaaaah

Baaaaaah

mhb, you are full of crap...and living proof that stupid can't be fixed.
Posted by: ulianov at April 7, 2009 2:54 AM

Uli, instead of an ad hominen attack, how about responding to mhb's points? Is it because......you cannot.

Nawwww, can't be.

Colin - that's not possible. When liberals such as ulianov and bleet get cornered, they don't fall back on data and debate, they follow Alinsky's Rules For Radicals #13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it". It's an intellectually lazy way of responding, but these people aren't interested in debate; they want to stifle debate. Remember the dumbocrat attacks on Joe the Plumber? Same tactic. I smile broadly when these trolls stoop to this trick.

And considering one of the smearers takes the name of Lenin as his handle, how concerned must one be about the intelligence of the would-be insult?

mhb

Ulianov

You mention the Patriot Act, so I've got to ask you this. Remember the clips of Michael Moore driving around Capital Hill reading the Patriot Act from a truck because members of the House hadn't read it? Where was he for the Stimulus bill? NO ONE read that thing, yet the Democrats passed it like blind sheep.

So I see President Barack Obama wants everyone to learn a foreign language.

The British learn French, the Australians study Japanese and the Americans prefer Spanish. Yet this leaves Mandarin Chinese and Arabic out of the equation.

I think we need to move forward and teach a common neutral non-national language, in all countries, in all schools, worldwide!

I would prefer Esperanto.

Can ask you to look at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU and see a glimpse of Esperanto at http://www.lernu.net ?

...Picking up on the "race factor made it that Obama won presidency"...

IMO, The fact that most blacks voted Obama because of race is true enough.
Many whites on the other hand voted Obama ALSO because he's representing the 'other' party (Democrat). "Anything but Republicans" was on many lips. It did not matter who had the best candidate/campaign. Even if absolutely moronic, It was all about "punishing Bush's party" (And having the first black candidate who reads a good speech is a bonus too)

I'm still wondering if the Republicans also had a black candidate what the outcome would of been?...What about a black female?

One thing for sure, the MSM would still have vouched for the Democrats. Always did, always will.

"I've just looked it up in my Austrian/English dictionary and the phrase Obama was searching for translates to:
"My Hovercraft is full of eels""

That's the problem...he's got the books mixed up! That's from the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook. I know all those little pissant European countries look the same, but geez!

Thank you, bleet. I've been waiting a long time to be called an "irrelevant relic of a long gone age". I feel I've reached a great milestone in my life. Sort of like Winston Churchill. You've done me a great service.

Meh.. I'd rather be a relic of a long gone age than one of the "modern" people who are spiritually, intellectually and morally adrift in a world where everything is relative, feelings matter above all and the only god worth worshipping is that of "Progressivism", whatever that term means. The people who are the most stridently "progressive" are quickly becoming the most reactionary. And BTW, that long gone age did have some good points, which sadly vanished in our "everything goes" society: less crime, more respect for others, a better work ethic, classical education that prepared one for intelligent debate, etc, etc. It would have been nice if we could have kept those when we threw out the bad things, but nature does have its balance and the good that came from social evolution is evened-out by the good from a long gone age that was replaced by the bad of the "modern" age.

I am encouraged though that the shrill idiocy of AGW and BO worship is slowly being eroded by reality. Let's look at things again in a year and see if the "irrelevant relics of a long gone age" didn't have a few good points

uli,
I didnt' read your whole list, I only read the first, and I can't figure out what is wrong with it.

"'I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here.' --at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002"

Was it that you have a language processing problem and take the word "listen" to narrowly mean hear with your own ears directly the auditory vibrations, rather than take the point of view expressed by the conference into account in his role as president? Your apparent interpretation is one a person with an auditory processing defect might make. If that is number 50, then the best you got is 49 over 8 years.

While I don't agree with anything bleet has to say,any posts under my name are not from me,they are from my house guest whom I wish would remember to use his own name.What I've learned from this blog is that personal attacks diminish any points one might have.

Edward T: Thanks for reminding me! I looked the sketch up on youtube. One thing that struck me is how much Sasha Cohen (aka "Borat") seems to have stole his schtick from Cleese, especially the "Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?"

While I don't agree with anything bleet has to say,any posts under my name are not from me,they are from my house guest whom I wish would remember to use his own name.
Posted by: h.ryan at April 7, 2009 11:57 AM

Sheesh - nice house guest you have there, h.ryan. Still, kudos to you for having taken in the homeless...

Oops! Sorry, couldn't resist that one haha

mhb

"Waterboarding isn't torture, so that's another error"

well, aside from the fact that most of the people we held in gitmo where in afganistan to fight the northern alliance (kind of like american jews used to go to israel to fight palistineans of whomever) and just happened to still be there when we attacked after 9/11....and that before Bush pulled it ot of his butt, there was no such thing as a "illegal combatants" at least not in this context...sure we electrocuted a few germans spys in the 1940s using military legal precidence...but not sure how that makes combatants in a war in another country "illegal combatants"...but I digress. As far as waterboarding not being torture? let me water board you and then get back to me. my buddy used to watch the south viet troops waterboard the VC prisoners. they were always in a hurry so instead of using a wet cloth over the mouth and noseand pitcher of water, they would just shove as garden hose in the victim's mouth while he/she was tied flat on their back...after a person is drowned and revived a few times they pretty much say anything you want them too-even admit to planning 9/11 AND personally killing richard pearl if you want....

dont kid yourself. being drowned and revived is torture and that's what water boarding is.

Posted by: huh? at April 7, 2009 9:45 PM

The taliban captured in the afghan war are unlawful combatants because they wear no discernible uniforms, follow no organized hierarchy of command, and hide amongst citizens to wage war. That's per the UN, & thus they are excluded from the Geneva Accords on Treatment of Prisoners. This is to protect innocent civilians against military attacks (see hamas lobbing rockets into Israel and then hiding like the cowards they are amongst schools and populated areas). Get it? Of course, I'm sure the military would be just as happy shooting them on sight, as many of those who were released from Gitmo went back to fight the Coalition troops again. But I bet that would really ruffle your shirt, eh?

let me water board you and then get back to me

Mmm... appeal to fear, that'll support your argument nicely. Special Forces troops have been waterboarded in training exercises to help them cope with anticipated interrogation techniques in the event of capture. Was the US guilty of torturing its own troops? Even if you don't buy into the definition of torture noted in the Bybee memo, waterboarding was done with medical personnel attending to ensure no permanent physical harm was done to the detainee. Contrast this to the torture as practiced by saddam, the taliban, al qaeda, etc: amputations, flayings, feeding victims into industrial shredders, decapitations. Do you really equate the exercise the US did to its own troops to real torture? Yes: waterboarding is unpleasant. It's supposed to be; it's not meant as a substitute for Saturday night bar-hopping. But it doesn't leave permanent physical or psychological damage, and it is quite effective: just ask khaled sheikh mohammed. As for my wanting to experience waterboarding, I'll pass. However, if I were planning to blow up a dirty nuke in the US and they were on a countdown to detonation, I'd hardly blame them for using the technique to make me talk. You want to play in a rough game, then don't b*tch about the rules.

my buddy used to watch the south viet troops waterboard the VC prisoners...

Who cares? Assuming your "buddy" is real, of course; we have no way of knowing or proving it. It's irrelevant, anyway, as anecdotal fallacy is just another lazy way to debate a topic. If another reader replied, "Well, my buddy also interrogated VC prisoners, and they were just fine, after the waterboarding sessions", it'd be no less "valid" than your story above.

mhb

Because Dan Quayle never said it. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/quayle.asp
As usual, it's another lie picked up by the lazy and uncritical media and repeated often enough that it has a ring of truth.

Good page. The lack of an internym indicates that David Snopes, not Barbara Snopes, wrote that piece.