Chill, The Right Should Thank Obama

Jeepers, Melanie Phillips writing at The Spectator.UK.Org displays little regard for our new president. h/t American Thinker. I'm accustomed to our own (liberal) politicians bashing a US president from abroad. This will take some getting used to.

America -- what have you done?

Folks. A month ago, social cons, fiscal cons, libertarians, hawks ... no one was getting along. In some cases they didn't even want to be in the same party judging by some pundits.

Are you sensing a change?

Obama's foolish aggressiveness in bringing about the "change" he desires, but never fully outlined during the campaign, has achieved precisely what the Right was talking about doing all last year but couldn't pull off to get behind a presidential candidate.

And this relative newcomer to the national political scene has no idea what he's up against. There is no Right in Chicago to speak of. There is one in Obama-land today. And it has just what it needed to galvanize and energize it. For heaven's sake, even House Republicans voted in lock step for the first time in I don't know how long. And John McCain and Lindsey Graham seem to have remembered what political party they are in.

Obama is bringing about change, alright. But from Europe to Iran (still the same), a pork-laden House-driven stimulus package - to withdrawn nominees and Republican opposition, little of it has been as he planned. As happens in politics and even life itself, it often requires something outside a thing to define it and bring out its best.

The Right now has such a thing. And it is just what it needed after eight both good and bad years of Bush.

Comments

[Lala]

He's evil.

There's a photo on freerepublic.com at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2180713/posts
It's at comment 19. I've seen it posted elsewhere. Is it real?

[ashok]

I just hope President Obama grows into the role - that he quits dithering and making mistakes such as the Zinni one, stops caring what people think of him, continues firing missiles from Predator drones at al-Qaeda, lets the military cause the Taliban some major pain, gets real about letting terrorists go, and picks competent, trustworthy people for positions instead of Leftist sleaze.

I think it's still early. I think people should chill. The Right needs to focus on getting its house in order, and that has less to do with attacking President Obama and instead making sure the Democrats in Congress get the publicity for their corruption and ignorance they so richly deserve. That's going to be hard to do, because a large enough portion would vote for corruption as long as it was liberal. If President Obama grows into the position - starts taking the Executive power very seriously, and leads well on foreign policy issues instead of "reaching out," that'll go a long way to discrediting hopechangewheredidthemoneygo as a philosophy. Thoughtful conservative rhetoric addressing the bigger themes of liberty, equality, and at what price they have come will go a very long way in discrediting Democratic idiocy. There's a lot of Lincoln talk lately, but what I don't see in it is any recognition that for Lincoln, American values can come at a really high price, that you can't just declare "we're gonna be hopeful and spend lots of money:"

http://www.ashokkarra.com/2007/05/is-democracy-feasible-reflections-on-the-gettysburg-address/

[Mark Turner]

Ashok -

Not sure whether you remember Bill Clinton's first 2 years in office but Obama is making similar mistakes -- pandering to the left, getting token GOP support while arrogantly pressing his own agenda, sensing the voter backlash, then acting surprised about it. 2010 should be a good year for the GOP in the House, and possibly the Senate, unless Obama does something really good, or the GOP really bungles something badly, in the meantime.

Obama even used Bill Clinton's old "hope and change" theme from 1992 to get elected...worked like a charm.

[Dan Riehl]

"He's evil."

With all due respect, Lala - looks like he is either praying, or just composing himself before exiting to perhaps his swearing in? If that's the pic you mean. He is wrongheaded. I don't believe he is evil.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Caught this article. I am sure it want be reported by the MSM. A few comments are below the ariticle.

Reporter restrained after Panetta hearing

Following Leon Panetta’s confirmation hearing Thursday, several reporters approached the CIA director-designate in the hallway outside room G-50 in the Dirksen Building.

There, CongressDaily reporter Chris Strohm — upon asking a question — was physically restrained by a man who accompanied Panetta at hearings both days.

Strohm, when reached by phone Friday, said he was unsure of the man’s role.

“I felt this hand grab my right arm and push me aside,” Strohm said.

By his account, Strohm told the man, “Please don’t touch me” more than once. Eventually, the man let him go.

Tim Starks, a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, said he witnessed Strohm approach Panetta and ask a question, just before the man began “grabbing him by the arm and moving him away.”

“I said to the guy, ‘That’s not the way you do it,’” recalled Starks.

Starks said that he’s covered the CIA for years and had never seen a reporter strong-armed that way before, adding that the agency is typically respectful of journalists.

Reflecting on the incident, Strohm played it down somewhat, saying that he’s “had worse happen” while reporting.

A staff assistant at The Panetta Institute said they are not addressing any media inquiries before Panetta’s confirmation. The White House declined to comment.

After today’s hearing, there was no similar incident: Panetta briefly answered questions from reporters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to the new Amerika. Didn't Strohm realize he supposed to clear questions with Rahmbo first?

Wow! Government modeled on Venezuela, Economic theory imported from Zimbabwe, free speech and political debate in the best tradition of Soviet Russia...can it get any better?

He, Obama, is not a good man. He is cold, humorless, insecure, egomaniacal and an authoratarian. I thought this before he was elected and I've seen nothing to disprove it so far. He will attempt to styfle free speech and use thug tactics to get his way. He is the product of the chicago machine. This truly is scary. We're in for a rough ride by some one who does not respect free speech, and will even find ways to squelch it if he finds it necessary. If women voted with their brains and not their ******s then this fraud would never have gotten anywhere near the white house. I'm refering to the majority of single women who voted for him. This is a bad, bad man. He's an angry man who is used to getting his way and will not tolerate someone who gets in his way.

[Peg C.]

Well, I do believe he's evil. We're all entitled to our beliefs (Until the government implants brain probes in all of us.)

Republicans only find their principles when they are in the minority, unfortunately. As for Melanie Phillips, she wrote "Londonistan" and sees the stark realities, as opposed to deranged fantasies. She's also a Jew living in an (always and) increasingly anti-Semitic UK. The UK is a huge warning for us and we're ignoring it.

[Lala]

I'll stick with evil.

Anyway, there's an open letter online requesting Obama to let everyone read the stimulus bill at

http://readthestimulus.org/openletter_020709.php

[Dan Riehl]

Years ago I was discussing evil at length with a college prof. For whatever reason, the question was asked, "Am I evil." Can't recall the context.

He inform me that I need not worry, I was too dumb to be truely evil. I think that's the case for most people, actually. Now if you want to go with the case M Scott Peck made years back in eople of the Lie that lying in itself is evil - I can appreciate the viewpoint. I think it has application in personal affairs.

I'm not sure it translates as well to politics, or society itself. And eventually we all become evil if you cast such a wide net.

He is arrogrant, liberal, a collectivist and a host of other things. Evil? Perhaps. But I always like to keep something in reserve for the real thing when I see it. Putin may be evil, hard to say because we don't know all the truths there.

Obama? Too much a lightweight to get himself into hell, I suspect.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

I'm in the Obie not evil camp too. He's a dreamer unmotivated by evil, he simply sees the same utopia of Marx, Engils and Mao. Theirs fell asunder but he (in his mind and the minds of MSM) is smarter....he, THE ONE, can make it work. Did no one notice that the cap he personally put on executive pay is a mere 100k more than his wife made at the hospital she worked for? Power hungry, elitist and arrogant yes......Evil? nope.

[Lala]

I look at his eyes and that's what I see. Could I be wrong? Of course. Maybe he is just an arrogant,lazy person. Time will tell.

[North Dallas Thirty]

Evil, no.

Completely amoral, yes.

If you look at Obama's life, there's been only one overriding lesson, starting with his parents who ditched him to go after others, his grandparents who apparently tried to buy his affection and popularity, and the liberal left who has thrown money, jobs for which he was unqualified, and grades he didn't earn at him because of his skin color: "Nothing you do in the pursuit of self-gratification is wrong, and everything I do is right."

It's hard to deal with someone like Obama because there simply is nothing he will not do in the pursuit of power. He can wax pious about attacks on Sarah Palin's family while simultaneously encouraging and supporting the people making them to continue doing so. He can demand higher taxes while himself dodging them and hiring people who dodge them. He can whine about how evil lobbyists are while putting them all over his administration, bash NAFTA while leaking to the Canadians that he won't do anything with it, and claim to be a patriotic American while going on Arab TV and namecalling the entire country -- all with the full support and endorsement of the Obama Party, global liberalism, and the media.

What ultimately is bringing him down is the fact that the media can no longer spin his lies without compromising themselves utterly and completely. People are finally realizing that you can't trust a word that Obama says and that, no matter what you've done for him, if you don't fit his current self-interest, under the bus you go.

[Jake]

True evil has the capacity to exist alone. It does not need the approval of others. Obama would not exist without the approval of others - and I suspect he's been that way since he was very young. He is not evil; but he is dangerous because he is needy.

[John]

When are you guys going to get real. I'm a conservative but I've not taken leave of my senses. Have you seen the CNN and Gallup polls out today basically showing Obama, the needy according to Jake, scoring in the high sixties and seventies for how he's handling the stimulus while the GOP is in the thirties. And the guy has only just started to use the bully pulpit today and he's obviously going to be all over the TV for the next 48 hours essentially reinforcing the message that he's reaching out trying to get something done while the GOP are hoping for failure. He's even got Charlie Crist out campaigning with him tomorrow. Guys whatever you may think at this moment this is not a formula that is going to commend itself to the American people. And if Mr Riehl thinks we're all "united" he should read the couple of statements put out by the American Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce urging passage of the stimulus bill. If you guys think bloviating about how evil or amoral or whatever he is, is going to cut any ice with the vast majority of the American people you're in dreamland. In fact when I read a lot of the postings I see here and on other conservative blogs I'm starting to think some of these pundits are right....we're going to spend a very long time in the wilderness.