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How can this guy run for reelection as a new kind of politician?

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Even the AP called the president’s press conference yesterday “confrontational.”  I didn’t watch the press conference as I was spending the morning (Pacific Time) with my sister in the Bay Area before driving back home.  And well, I’d rather spend time with my sister — or play trains with her son — than watch a political talkfest.

What struck me about the conference was the consensus of the coverage, with many pundits and reporters echoing the AP’s evaluation; others labeled it “combative.”  I wondered, as I read the coverage, whether we were getting a foretaste of his reelection campaign, with attacks on partisan adversaries replacing promises of a new kind of politics.

A man who holds such a presser can’t run for reelection as the kind of politician he billed himself to be in the 2008 campaign.  And offering such confrontational public statements, Jim Geraghty reminds us, is hardly new for this president:

What I think this reveals is that Barack Obama is not used to being challenged. Most of us have scoffed at his predictable straw men, his off-the-cuff references to tonsil-stealing doctors, his exhausted, “some on the right say we should take this extreme path, some on the left take this extreme path, but I choose this sensible path in the middle” framing of every issue.

As we recall from his attacks upon Paul Ryan at GWU, the Supreme Court justices at the State of the Union, and his jabs at Pete Hoekstra, Obama loves to go after his opponents in national addresses, with his targets in the audience, unable to respond. In the setting of the grandiose national address is that there is rarely a rebuttal.

He bristles when challenged and lashes out at his ideological adversaries.  Is this the way to lead the country facing great economic challenges and a budget severely out of balance?

Comments

  1. Mark Helperin on MSNBC was right for saying, “…”I thought he was a dick yesterday”, and now the Oh-So-Politically-Correct Network is punishing him for it…even tho’ he was told it was on the 7-sec delay and wouldn’t air. And watching his fellow Morning Joe commentators fall over themselves to distance and abase themselves was embarrassing…not the comment itself.

    I guess I shouldn’t expect much from the home of the Angry (and bitter) White Liberal, tho’ I expected better of Joe Scarborough.

    It’s pretty-obvious that the wheels have totally come-off the “Hope and Change” Administration, and it’s back to their default-mode of Chicago-style politics of blame and incompetent governance once-more.

    … While I’ve in the past defended Obama’s playing golf, if this is how he wants to govern; then the Congressional Republicans should demand that he cut-back on the Air Force One junketing and immediately stop playing golf several times a week.

  3. MSNBC fired Mark Halperin for calling Obama a dick. They did not fire Ed Schultz for calling Laura Ingraham a slut. They did not fire Keith Olbermann for calling Michelle Malkin a “Mashed up bag of meat with lipstick.” They did not fire Chris Matthews for (repeatedly) calling Michele Bachmann a balloon-head.

  5. Or for that matter 1916 America when Pres. Wilson ran rough-shod over the civil rights of many loyal Americans through draconian censorship, imprisonment without (fair) trial, vicious ethnic intimidation and threatened-expropriation.

  6. After not offering any leadership, the man-child chastises the Republicans, yet he bolts Washington DC for 2 fundraisers:

    http://weaselzippers.us/2011/06/30/yesterday-obama-chastises-congress-work-ethic-you-need-to-be-here-today-obama-bolts-town-for-two-fundraisers/

    Obama’s speech caused him more harm & I think he’s empowered the Republicans. He’s got to raise money for his 2012 campaign while he acts like he’s not President of the United States. Obama the impotent has spoken.

  8. This will be a very interesting election cycle. Obama, never toughened to life through personal accomplishments, will now have to run on his own miserable record. It’s interesting to note that usually fawning press is showing signs, however slim, of running for cover and not giving him his usual (and expected pass). The more he’s pressed the more he will respond as he did in yesterday’s presser. It is possible to see a scene in the future where he will completely come unglued in front of the cameras. Can you say President Biden (until January 2012)?

  9. I wondered, as I read the coverage, whether we were getting a foretaste of his reelection campaign, with attacks on partisan adversaries replacing promises of a new kind of politics.

    There’s nothing else left. He sure as hell can’t run on his accomplishments. There’s a storage warehouse with an army of straw men waiting to be called into play.

    Obama refuses to meet with Senator Mitch McConnell on the 2012 budget:

    But he’ll talk to the Muslim Brotherhood all day:

    http://tinyurl.com/3zhpass

  10. Couple things, I was embarassed for Obama and the Presidency yesterday. He looks more and more like a fool. And the white house press CORPSE looks more and more foolish laughing at his tired attempts at humor as well.
    Now that Obama has used his daughters, Dasheka and Miressa as political props, are they fair game? (you recall the leftists excuse for attacking Palins children….)
    Oh by the way BHO didn’t know the age of his eldest daughter.
    (Said she was 13 when she is only 12 duhhh)
    Now is that a mis statement, a factual error or are we guilty of taking him out of context?

  11. Couple things, I was embarassed for Obama and the Presidency yesterday. He looks more and more like a fool. And the white house press CORPSE looks more and more foolish laughing at his tired attempts at humor as well.
    Now that Obama has used his daughters, Dasheka and Miressa as political props, are they fair game? (you recall the leftists excuse for attacking Palins children….)
    Oh by the way BHO didn’t know the age of his eldest daughter.
    (Said she was 13 when she is only 12 duhhh)
    Now is that a mis statement, a factual error or are we guilty of taking him out of context?

  12. Couple things, I was embarassed for Obama and the Presidency yesterday. He looks more and more like a fool. And the white house press CORPSE looks more and more foolish laughing at his tired attempts at humor as well.
    Now that Obama has used his daughters, Dasheka and Miressa as political props, are they fair game? (you recall the leftists excuse for attacking Palins children….)
    Oh by the way BHO didn’t know the age of his eldest daughter.
    (Said she was 13 when she is only 12 duhhh)
    Now is that a mis statement, a factual error or are we guilty of taking him out of context?

  13. The Teleprompter in Chief has Philly traffic stopped on three major commuter interstates — at rush hour — at the start of a major Jersey Shore Holiday weekend — in 90-degree weather. AND Phila. Intl. Airport on lockdown.

    Mark Halperin was right…and today also.