Chessmaster Obama Morphs into the Polar Bear in “Don’t Break the Ice” Board Game
Posted by: BeMindful on: June 17, 2009
Obama Economics
cross-posted at Katalusis
The cool objectivity of Amy Walter’s political analysis is almost unnerving at times, especially to one accustomed to sorting out the spin of pseudo-liberal pundits from their mirror images on the right. In Walter’s On the Trail post yesterday at National Journal, she asks, “what if congressional candidates in 2010 have to defend economic results that aren’t there?”
In 2012, President Obama will have had four years to see if the gamble on big federal outlays into a stimulus package, auto and bank bailouts, and energy investments has paid off. For congressional Democrats up in 2010, however, the long view isn’t politically feasible.
At a recent Christian Science Monitor breakfast, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer handed out a tightly spaced one-pager that listed 13 “major initiatives” that have been enacted into law since Obama took office. To be sure, it’s an impressive list. But the next election will be a referendum on the economy. Period. If things are looking good, then Democrats can make the case for why it’s important to keep their party in charge. If it’s not, then all the bragging about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act or Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights won’t mean much.
At this point, it’s tough to argue that the stimulus has indeed stimulated the economy.
The bottom line is that right now, there’s little tangible proof that all the outflows have made much of an impact. In a new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, about as many people think General Motors will be profitable in five years as think it will be out of business. Meanwhile, just 9 percent in a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll say the economy has turned the corner, with 37 percent expecting it to get worse. The good news, if you want to call it that, is that just four months ago, more than half of voters (54 percent) thought the economy would get worse.
Walter takes a jibe or two at Joe Biden, “Obama’s “cheerleader-in-chief for stimulus spending:”
Yet, watching Vice President Joe Biden’s awkward attempts to promote the benefits of the stimulus package suggests that congressional Democrats will have their work cut out for them. A greater effort by the White House to get the money out the door could help matters. At this point, however, it’s tough to argue that the stimulus has indeed stimulated the economy.
On “Meet the Press” this Sunday, when asked by moderator David Gregory about the rationale behind the administration’s estimate of 150,000 jobs created or saved by the stimulus, Biden replied: “There’s an econometric model that economists have been using for decades to correlate the economic circumstances of the nation with the creation of jobs…. It’s a model the Council of Economic Advisers have used to come up with that 150,000 jobs.”
Um, what? You lost me at “econometric model.” Just imagine trying to put this into a compelling 30-second commercial.
Walter concludes:
For now, Obama still has a reservoir of good will built up with the public, and his high approval numbers may help insulate members of his party.
Ultimately, though, watching Democrats these days reminds me of the kids’ board game “Don’t Break the Ice.” In that game, a plastic polar bear was placed on top of an elevated board made up of individual cubes of “ice.” The goal of the game was to knock out as many pieces as possible without sending the polar bear crashing to the ground. Sometimes the polar bear came down after one piece was knocked out; sometimes he could still be standing even as his ice world crumbled all around him.
Obama won’t necessarily be the polar bear on the floor in 2012. But a lagging economy could take out quite a bit of the Democrats’ board.
In addition to the questions raised by Walter, the recent funding of the current Administration’s continuation of war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan reminds me of candidate Obama’s boast about how much money the government would save from defense spending once he took office and magically ended America’s dual military adventures abroad.
38 Responses to "Chessmaster Obama Morphs into the Polar Bear in “Don’t Break the Ice” Board Game"
June 17, 2009 at 2:20 PM
Hi angie,
Nope, didn’t get that memo and if I had gotten it, I would certainly not have obeyed. Besides, as a non-affiliated voter, I’m not obligated to pay allegiance to political hacks from either party.
June 17, 2009 at 2:29 PM
Well the House passed the Obama expand the war supplemental…a few Dems resisted the WH thug tactics and voted no.
Here is the roll call vote, unfortunately is isn’t by party
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll348.xml
June 17, 2009 at 2:49 PM
Gary, I sent you email a few minutes ago. Also, maybe someone will check out my comment very late last night/early a.m. regarding fed employees health care coverage.
I’m getting tired of writing/repeating this shit. I mean, I was only a fed employee for 20 years or so and worked in our local union office for AFGE.
June 17, 2009 at 2:59 PM
OT — I just saw this over at Violet Sock’s site — authored by Toonces — it is the “new Obot talking points” — I died laughing & wanted to share it here with y’all:
I think the new thing now is, “When Bush spied on me, I felt bad, but when Obama does it, it feels like unicorn kisses!” Or maybe, “Real liberals have enough money not to care about universal healthcare!” ? Or how about, “Going out of his way to strengthen the DOMA is really just a clever ploy to get gay marriage legalized!”
June 17, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Fredster — what you are saying about the Federal Code makes total sense (can’t believe I didn’t think about that), which goes to show how lazy the reporters are that were stated Obama was giving health benefits to same-sex partners. If Obama really wanted to give gays benefits (which, make no mistake, he wants your money, he doesn’t give a shit about you) he would be lobbying for legislation (which, of course, he isn’t). Just as I feared, this is exactly like his signing an order to form a committee to investigate closing gitmo & announcing that he closed gitmo. A whole lotta bullshit.
June 17, 2009 at 3:05 PM
angie> We’ve already seen people making those arguments. It’s like something out of The Onion!
June 17, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Guess once he got into office, he determined spending on the wars helped the economy in a recession. Or maybe he knew that during the campaign.
June 17, 2009 at 3:27 PM
That One’s house of cards is falling and a lot faster than I would have imagined. Has it been less than six months? He’s on track to alienate everyone except the Africa American community by the end of the year. Hell, he might even throw THEM under the bus. Like he cares because “They have no where else to go.”
Meanwhile in Foggy Bottom, I sense that a true mistress of 11th dimensional chess (who made that crap up anyway) is at work. Notice how she still has her finger on the pulse of the nation and leads by example, yet keeps her hands clean because she’s not involved in domestic policy.
Mark my words, expect a high profile resignation in 2010, a re-energized candidate in 2011 and a fraud to be primiaried in 2012.
-TW-
June 17, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Any chance Hillary may have introduced partner benefits for State as a way of supporting states on gay marriage, and pressuring Congress and the Executive on DOMA repeal. Too much to hope? Ok, maybe not.
June 17, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Well the IG firing may be getting legs:
POS McCaskill:
““The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service,” McCaskill said. “The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.”
The Chicago Thug responds by smearing the IG.
Responding to criticism, President Obama explained why he fired the Inspector General without the 30-day notice required by law, calling Gerald Walpin so “confused” and “disoriented” that there was reason to question “his capacity to serve.”
If he was confused, maybe Mr. Walpin had a medical condition..so Obama fired the man because he was ill?
June 17, 2009 at 3:41 PM
3 W,
I’m guessing Hillary just does what she thinks is right and lets the chips fall where they may. People keep commenting on how happy she seems at State; as a dedicated, hard-working, smart leader, she’s probably in her element and having the time of her life.
The U.S. and the world are the beneficiaries.
June 17, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Sounds good Torchwood. Was thinking of that yesterday when I read about Obama moving Dennis Ross (Special Advisor on Iran) from State to the NSC. And of course Samantha Power is always there.
June 17, 2009 at 3:46 PM
“Mark my words, expect a high profile resignation in 2010, a re-energized candidate in 2011 and a fraud to be primiaried in 2012.”
From your mouth to God’s ears, 3W. She just needs to wait for him to pass a shitty health care bill (which is her pet peeve) and watch him loose seats for the Dems in 2010 and watch him totally break every promise to the gay community and women and on and on and on.
June 17, 2009 at 3:47 PM
SHV,
Here’s the entire scary scoop on the W.H.’s firing of IG Walpin, as reported by Josh Gerstein at Politico, including Walpin’s response:
President Barack Obama removed a government agency’s internal watchdog last week and plans to fire him in part because he was “confused” and “disoriented” at a meeting last month, the White House said in a letter to Congress Tuesday night.
The letter came after several senators, including key Obama supporter Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), expressed concern that Obama skirted the requirements of federal law in the terse explanation he gave Congress about his reasons for removing the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Gerald Walpin.
“Mr. Walpin was removed after a review was unanimously requested by the bi-partisan Board of the Corporation,” Obama ethics counsel Norm Eisen wrote in a letter to senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.), with a copy directed to McCaskill. “The Board’s action was precipitated by a May 20, 2009 Board meeting at which Mr. Walpin was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the Board to question his capacity to serve.”
“We further learned that Mr. Walpin had been absent from the Corporation’s headquarters, insisting upon working from his home in New York over the objections of the Corporation’s Board; that he had exhibited a lack of candor in providing material information to decision makers; and that he had engaged in other troubling and inappropriate conduct,” Eisen wrote.
Eisen’s letter also noted that a complaint was pending against Walpin, brought by the acting U.S. Attorney in Sacramento, who accused Walpin of failing to disclose evidence in an investigation.
“Mr. Walpin had become unduly disruptive to agency operations, impairing his effectiveness and, for the reasons stated above, losing the confidence of the Board and the agency. It was for these reasons that Mr. Walpin was removed,” Eisen wrote.
Reached at his home in New York Tuesday night, Walpin called the allegations in the Eisen letter “absolutely amazing.”
“Anybody who’s heard me speaking more than I’m used to speaking on radio and TV in recent days, obviously under great pressure from what happened would clearly know that I know what I’m saying and what I’m doing and I’m not incoherent,” Walpin told POLITICO. “There’s nothing confusing about malfeasance and there’s nothing confusing about what appears to be the fact that they terminated me because I was doing my job because the White House wanted to protect people who proclaim they are friends of the White House.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23831.html#ixzz0IibKBYdJ&D
June 17, 2009 at 3:47 PM
SHV – it gets better! Walpin responds:
“That’s a total lie,” Walpin said of the latter charge. And he said the accusation that he was dazed and confused at one meeting out of many was not only false, but poor rationale for his ouster.
“It appears to suggest that I was removed because I was disabled — based on one occasion out of hundreds,” he said.
“I would never say President Obama doesn’t have the capacity to continue to serve because of his (statement) that there are 56 states,” Walpin said, adding that the same holds for Vice President Biden and his “many express confusions that have been highlighted by the media.” Obama mistakenly said once on the campaign trail that he had traveled to 57 states.
June 17, 2009 at 3:53 PM
Agree BM. It’s evident in her face. She may not be thinking 2012, but there’s a lot of history being made very quickly these days. As the National Journal piece says, the economy next fall will mean everything for the midterm. I hope very much the economy is zooming along by then. But most analysts are saying housing bottom by end of next year earliest. Hillary had some very different ideas about managing the current financial and economic crisis. I hope the country is healthier next year and Hillary continues to be inspired by her role at State. We’ll have to see.
June 17, 2009 at 3:55 PM
TorchWood — from your mouth to God’s ears — that’s my dream scenario.
June 17, 2009 at 4:01 PM
At best, the Walpin firing was handled badly and was a breach of protocol. At worst, it was obstructing a cabinet level legal official from doing his job.
June 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM
He was speaking again?? I missed it. He’s like a Law & Order rerun, on all the time. Here’s the Totus transcript on financial regulation.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/06/17/obamas-remarks-on-financial-regulatory-reforms/
June 17, 2009 at 4:09 PM
it was obstructing a cabinet level legal official from doing his job.
*******
Mr. Walpin also pointed out that he wasn’t personally involved in the Sacramento investigations…I suspect that he wouldn’t call of the investigators after he was pressured to do so.
June 17, 2009 at 4:10 PM
from twitta:
TAPPER: Does the president stand by the legal brief that the Justice Department filed last week that argued in favor the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act?
GIBBS: Well, as you know, that the Justice Department is charged with upholding the law of the land, even though the president believes that that law should be repealed.
TAPPER: I understand that, but a lot of legal experts say that the brief didn’t have to be as comprehensive and make all the arguments that it made, such as comparing same-sex unions to incestuous ones, in one controversial paragraph…
GIBBS: Well…
TAPPER: …that’s upset a lot of the president’s supporters. Does the president stand by the content, the arguments made in that brief?
GIBBS: Well, again, it’s the president’s Justice Department. And, again, we have the role of upholding the law of the land while the president has stated and will work with Congress to change that law.
TAPPER: OK. And just one other question. The — Senator Claire McCaskill yesterday expressed concern about the way in which President Obama fired the inspector general of the Corporation for National Community Service, saying that it did not abide by the law that McCaskill wrote and President Obama as a senator co-sponsored in terms of giving Congress 30 days notice. Do you think that the White House handled the firing of Inspector General Walpin appropriately and according to that law? And if so, why is the author of the law incorrect?
GIBBS: Well, I would direct you to the letter that Senator McCaskill received last night, addressed to Senators Lieberman and Collins, which outlined exactly the reasoning for the board’s — the bipartisan board’s request to change inspector generals.
TAPPER: I’ve seen the letter. The — the law that McCaskill wrote…
GIBBS: I’m not familiar with that part of what she’s saying. I would — again, I’d point you to the letter.
TAPPER: OK. Well, the law says that the president needs to give 30 days’ notice to Congress before an inspector general is terminated. So that letter came, whatever, five or six days after he was terminated.
GIBBS: Again, I’ll check into that. I mean, again, the board’s action was precipitated by a meeting that happened on May the 20th.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/todays-qs-for-os-wh-6172009.html
I had twitted jake and asked him to ask gibbs about the healthcare issue, but looks like he asked about the DOJ filing instead.
June 17, 2009 at 4:15 PM
TW some of the bots are addicted to his appearances like some are addicted to porn.
June 17, 2009 at 4:21 PM
Just had a great luncheon party with a group of women and the concensus is that he is a complete washout. And coming from one who is a diehard Democrat and believed that a Dem was better in the WH than McCain, this is saying a lot. Apparently some are beginning to realize that though they bought into the hype, there is no policy of “return” on this brand.
I admit to being somewhat surprised at the turnaround coming from this particular friend because she is a Dem right down to her Irish genes and she is the one who was most vociferous about her opinion concerning him. I almost said “I told you so” but why interrupt someone who was on a roll? So I just merely played the part of a good hostess and kept the wine flowing.
Looks like some of the luster is beginning to wear thin.
Back to cleaning up the mess and “hiding” the empty wine bottles until dark.
June 17, 2009 at 4:22 PM
3W
Blame Bush (spit!) for “there are those who say..”. Whenever I hear that my BS detector goes off. My credo: “If you can’t name them, then whatever you have to say on the subject is BS”
June 17, 2009 at 4:22 PM
“IG witness Blows Up White House Excuse”
Several people familiar with the situation speak up and call bullshit on Obama
It’s at the Mooney Times so caveat emptor
http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/jun/17/ig-witness-blows-white-house-excuse/
June 17, 2009 at 4:23 PM
Gibbs says he’s not familiar with the 30 day frickin notice?? This really stinks. People need to look into this. If the questions become more heated, Barry will come on TV with his “uh, we screwed up” routine.
June 17, 2009 at 4:26 PM
“Barry will come on TV with his “uh, we screwed up” routine.”
…so much for Ready to Rule on Day One.
June 17, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Ruh..Rho..
“FBI probes obstruction of justice claim by former St. HOPE official”
The FBI’s Sacramento division is investigating a former St. HOPE executive’s allegations of obstruction of justice, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown confirmed Tuesday.
The news fuels the controversy that has followed Mayor Kevin Johnson since 2008, when his brainchild St. HOPE Academy first was investigated for misuse of public funds.
(snip)
However, Rick Maya, who officially left his position as executive director with St. HOPE last week, alleged in an April resignation letter that a member of the charter schools’ board deleted Johnson’s e-mails during the federal investigation. Those claims, uncovered by a public records request by The Bee, caught the interest of Brown’s office, who asked the FBI’s Sacramento division to look into it.
“The FBI has, in fact, opened an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the alleged destruction of e-mails, and is working with criminal prosecutors in this office,” Brown said in a statement to The Bee. “Beyond confirming the existence of an investigation, we are not at liberty to discuss the details of the investigation.
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1952940.html
Obama fires Wilpin to cover for his buddy Kevin Johnson and now the FBI is investigating Johnson for obstruction of justice..the worm turns
June 17, 2009 at 4:46 PM
Ok, I got through the interminable speech on financial regulation. As expected, there is nothing there, and that’s a tragedy and big mistake, imo. The things he talked about wouldn’t scare a fly much less a hardened banker. Most of it is mush. Only one thing of any substance, they will require hedge funds now to register with the SEC, whatever good that will do, it’s still long overdue. He is letting them get away. Incomprehensible. Here’s one Reaganesque line that pretty much captures his true intent.
I believe that our role is not to disparage wealth, but to expand its reach; not to stifle the market, but to strengthen its ability to unleash the creativity and innovation that still make this nation the envy of the world.
June 17, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Cool. Would guess the Sacramento FBI are a serious and capable bunch. As long as Holder doesn’t get in the way.
June 17, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Does anyone know where they are televising the fed benefits announcement? CSPAN lists it as something they are going to cover but it is not on their schedule.
June 17, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Didn’t I hear a few months ago that the Intelligence agencies thought That One was an idiot over the torture memo release flap and had an axe to grind with him?
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June 17, 2009 at 2:11 PM
Oh, haven’t you gotten the memo? We aren’t allowed to mention the wars in the middle east anymore.