Get a load of this from Hot Air… regarding Gordon Brown’s recent visit to the U.S. I will say this. Obama is a pretty good basketball and he smokes the hell out of cigarettes.
I know we all here in Threedonia — where wisdom is in the water — knew that Obama met the Peter Principle back in the early 1980s in undergraduate school, but to actually see it is frightening. Kruschev saw Kennedy in Vienna and the next year we were on the verge of a nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world is even more dangerous today with less rational (at least from a Western perspective) forces at large. We can’t afford to have anyone not be ready for prime time.
Here’s the Daily Telegraph’s take on Obama and his team of trifles:
Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.
British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.
But Washington figures with access to Mr Obama’s inner circle explained the slight by saying that those high up in the administration have had little time to deal with international matters, let alone the diplomatic niceties of the special relationship.
Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president’s surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.
A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama’s inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to “even fake an interest in foreign policy”.
And God help me this:
British diplomats insist the visit was a success, with officials getting the chance to develop closer links with Mr Obama’s aides. They point out that the president has agreed to meet the prime minister for further one-to-one talks in London later this month, ahead of the G20 summit on April 2.
But they concede that the mood music of the event was at times strained. Mr Brown handed over carefully selected gifts, including a pen holder made from the wood of a warship that helped stamp out the slave trade – a sister ship of the vessel from which timbers were taken to build Mr Obama’s Oval Office desk. Mr Obama’s gift in return, a collection of Hollywood film DVDs that could have been bought from any high street store, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state.
Mr Obama rang Mr Brown as he flew home, in what many suspected was an attempt to make amends.
The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.
The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” The apparent lack of attention to detail by the Obama administration is indicative of what many believe to be Mr Obama’s determination to do too much too quickly.
***UPDATE*** And from that Balm of Gilead known as Mark Steyn over at NRO
I would make a modest prediction that in 2012, after four years of the man who was supposed to heal America’s relations with a world sick of all that swaggering cowboy unilateralism, those relations will be much worse. From Canada to India, the implications of the Obama ascendancy are becoming painfully clear. The other week Der Spiegel ran a piece called “Why Obamania Isn’t the Answer,” which might more usefully have been published before the Obamessiah held his big Berlin rally. Written by some bigshot with the German Council on Foreign Relations and illustrated by the old four-color hopey-changey posters all scratched up and worn out, the essay conceded that Europe had embraced Obama as a “European American.” Very true. The president is the most European American ever to sit in the Oval Office. And, because of that, he doesn’t need any actual European Europeans getting in the way — just as, at his big victory-night rally in Chicago, the first megastar president didn’t need any megastar megastars from Hollywood clogging up the joint: Movie stars who wanted to fly in were told by his minders that he didn’t want any other celebrities deflecting attention from him. Same with world leaders. If it’s any consolation to Gordon Brown, he’s just not that into any of you.
You wanted to be Prez,BO…act like one…
But this is what a lot of Americans wanted in the White House: a know-nothing with a know-nothing staff, but can blow hot air up the @$$e$ of most Americans. And not one of them has the guts to admit they made a mistake…
I could be wrong about my previous statement:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/05/buckley-gergen-brooks-opinions-columnists-obama-liberal.html
But there is no rewind in real life: too bad the ones who regret their vote didn’t realize this. I sometimes think that my opinion of most people – that they are so caught up in video games that they think that real life has a “replay level” button – is more than a rash generalization and a joke…
No one expected this, especially the “52″ out there. They didn’t vote for Obama, they voted for Obama’s teleprompter.
Go ahead, call me a racist, but this is what happens when affirmative action meets the Peter Principle. Since you can’t fire or demote or “downsize” him like you would a regular hire, the only way to be rid of him is to kick him up a level. There’s really no other explanation on how The Big Zero! could rise to far and so fast on such little talent or accomplishment.
And it’s probably good for the country to get this out of our system. It’s gonna be much harder for the next incompetent to ride their race or ethnicity or gender or religion or ancestry to the White House without something else to back it up.
Floyd here: Racist.
Did Barry O! even offer an explanation about the Churchill statue to Brown?
So far political correctness has caused us the three preimminent events of the decade. You have 9-11, when surfaced reports of Arab’s in pilot training programs was deemed racist and tossed. Fannie and Freddie, where claims of problems with unpaid mortgages was recanted by Rangel and Frank as “you just don’t want minorities to own homes.” Now we have Obama, whose election was based on a zero-scrutiny media pledge that even Hillary Clinton couldn’t crack, where saying you don’t agree with his policies equates with apartheid.
I hope I live long enough to see the nonsense come to an end.
I couldn’t have stated it better, John. Along with the statement that I hope I live long enough as well.
Does anyone ot there remember Jimmy Carter and that stupid garment he insisted carrying over his shoulder because he wanted to prove that he was a regular guy? And then he disallowed the playing of “Hail to the Chief” at formal occasions. It took Reagan to restore things. Batten down the hatches…..it could be along four years.
Ah, Jimmah. I remember all too well the Carter years. Made me proud that I voted for Ford. At the same time, I think BHO should have at least made an attempt to imitate Jimmah, cutting back on the outrageous spending on his inauguration: times are tougher now than they were then, and a little fiscal restraint, even if just “playing pretend,” would have gone a long way with BHO.
He makes me want to vomit. But you all knew that. And that was ratty foul looking sweater Mom. My dad first saw this (I remmeber I was
and said what a jack ass.
Its funny, eating dinner and having a glass of Syrah, hubby brought out the School House Rock DVD. I think those should be run on Prime Time. Especially the one about the Constitution and both about the Revolution.
Mike Church was on the radio recently saying that a book he wanted to buy by one of the men who helped form the Constutution was sold out. SOLD OUT! Why? People are getting fed up. FED UP! And don’t even bring the Churchill statue up. I have a place for it to be crammed.
I heard from several sources that the other gift given to 0 by Gordon Brown was a seven volume first edition Churchill biography. Gotta love that British sense of humor.
I am so sad that he is tired….poor guy. Who knew being President meant taking care of all this stuff?
How long has he been in office? How many days left until the first monday after the first tuesday in the November of 2012?
Ya know? We need a clock on the side counting how many days the Messiah has been in office, and how many days left until we get to elect him out of office.
Kit… he’s the Messiah… no one knows the day or hour…. OK you’re right — and I have hope knowing that change will be down the road — though 4 years is a LONG time.
4 years IS a long time. I might go crazy waiting for it to end.
Waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . .
waiting . . .
waiting . . .
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting . . .
. . .
______
(beeeeep!)
Funny you say that, Kit, as a friend informed me earlier today it’s 1,413. Tick-tock and you don’t stop…
I have an Obama countdown on my facebook page. Take a gander. Share it with friends.
Emptied out my coin purse….change I can believe in
He was too focused on having the most important position in the world to notice there was actually work and responsibility involved.
As far as the wonderful gifts he gave, he should have thrown in an autographed copy of DREAMS FROM MY FATHER