Obama's Direction

News is out today that Q2 GDP is a lot worse than the unexpectedly bad numbers that were reported just several weeks ago. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

The GDP number for the second quarter got revised sharply downward by a third today, dropping from the initial estimate of 2.4% last month to 1.6% in the intermediate revision. The number represents a hard rebuke to White House attempts to paint a rosy long-term economic picture, as the anemic growth rate may indicate even more trouble ahead for joblessness

You know what this calls for . . . an Obama speech!

Of course.

Over to you Jim Geraghty:

The White House seems really convinced that if they say “moving in the right direction” enough times when discussing the economy, the voters will give them some sort of credit, or at least not notice that the economy has mostly sputtered over the last two years, and really for the last three

Geraghty also provides a handy list of GDP growth over the past 10 quarters.

This calls for a chart!

So that's the direction Obama considers to be the right one?

Yike.

In Defense of Obama as a Movement

In his nightly “Quotes of the Day” post at Hot Air, Allahpundit calls our attention to this Washington Post article:

Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University, has studied political activism for decades. But two years ago, he thought he was participating in a unique political movement, one not organized against an idea or a war – like most he has seen or been involved with – but in support of a specific candidate: Barack Obama…

But Kazin, like many other liberal activists who once shared that view, says he may have been too optimistic. As conservatives, led by talk show host Glenn Beck, prepare for a rally in Washington on Saturday – another sign of the increased activism on the right since Obama’s election – some liberals say the energy of the campaign on their side has dissipated and is not matching the energy and passion “tea party” activists have captured on the right.

In an interview, Kazin said, “I was a bit optimistic in the glow of victory,” adding that “the campaign had the aura of a movement, but in the light of day it was not a movement.”

Wait. What?

Obama *not* a movement?

I disagree!

The problem for folks such as professor Kazin is that they’re relying on their lying eyes.

I have long maintained that Obama is a movement. It was this Ace of Spades post back in 2008 that convinced me, bringing me into agreement with liberal Oliver Willis:

Obama: Smells Like a Movement

It was at that point that I saw the light recognized the odor:

And as lefty Oliver Willis quipped about Obama, Smells Like a Movement. Oh, yeah a big movement. A toilet-stopping, get-the-plunger, why-didn't-you-courtesy-flush, where-the-hell are-the-matches movement.

Follow your nose. The Obama Movement has been BS all along.

The Big Difference Here Is...

Back in January, we had a report that certain Democrats were urging President Obama not to underestimate the surge Republicans could mount in the 2010 elections. However, Obama seemed to have little concern. He was, afterall, the unprecedented President Barack Obama. In one meeting, Marion Berry (D-AR), who is not running for re-election, recounted his visit with the President:

Berry recounted meetings with White House officials, reminiscent of some during the Clinton days, where he and others urged them not to force Blue Dogs “off into that swamp” of supporting bills that would be unpopular with voters back home.

“I’ve been doing that with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all,” Berry said. “They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.”

That was then, this is now. Oh how the mighty (full of themselves) have fallen:

WASHINGTON — As lunch was served in the Roosevelt Room of the White House one day last week, President Obama assured the nine Democratic members of Congress sitting around the table that he would do anything he could to help them survive their fall elections.

Even, he said, if it meant staying away.

“You may not even want me to come to your district,” Mr. Obama said, according to guests, nearly all of whom hold seats that Republicans are aggressively seeking.

Those poor Democrats heading into the fall elections. But don't fear -- Nancy Pelosi is here to save the day!

Three months before what certainly will be brutal House elections, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is again the happy campaigner, vowing to defend “every grain of sand” of what she’s built in Congress and predicting this August will prove kinder to Democrats than a year ago.

Perhaps she was channeling her inner Churchill ("we shall fight them on the beaches!"), but as James Taranto said: "Breaking News From Matthew 7:26" (and 27)

26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

But verse 27 surely is evidence of global warming -- so let's Blame Bush.

[VIMH: So Bush is who we should hold responsible should the Democrats lose their majorities in Congress...]
I like the way you think. Ironic,isn't it?

President Bush Was A Community Organizer Revisited

From the WaPo we find this:

"If I were to characterize the mood here, I would say it was a combination of rage and panic," said Joanne Carter, director of the anti-poverty group Results and a board member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The rage is directed at the Obama administration, which many activists say is reneging on a commitment to continue big annual increases in global AIDS spending. The panic arises from the knowledge that in some African countries, patients who want antiretroviral treatment are being turned away and will soon start dying.

Some activists pine for former president George W. Bush, who launched a much-praised multibillion-dollar fund to fight AIDS around the world. But now, in the eyes of many, the U.S. government has replaced the pharmaceutical industry as the main impediment to progress.

I won't hesitate to say, I told you so:

And what’s the difference between Bush the Community Organizer and Obama the Community Organizer?

Results.

Bush inspires hope … AND … helps realize dreams [...]

Obama inspires hope … THEN … heads off for the next big job [...]

It is certainly politically fashionable to run against President Bush in this election. And certainly politically wise.

That’s a shame.

For while the Democratic nominee to be the next President has talked a big game about helping “the least of these” and being his “brother’s keeper”, he has loved the sound of his own voice and the trajectory of his own career more than the people he has been talking about. Contrariwise, the current President quietly went about the business of actually doing it.

Standing up for President Bush may not be popular these days – may not be fashionable.

But it’s the right thing to do.

Still is. Still is.

Obama And The Internet

Mary Katharine Ham at the Weekly Standard points us to an Obama infomercial for healthcare.gov that would make Billy Mays proud. In it Obama demonstrates how easy it is to use and all the wonderful benefits it offers. MKH says:

All the techies and Obama fans will undoubtedly think it's just fab that the President himself is showing the American public the super-sweet drop-down menus on a government website, but isn't this what the Secretary of Health and Human Services or the Chief Technology Officer is for?

A valid concern, perhaps. But what struck me most was not that Obama was giving the tour -- but what appears on Obama's screen on one of the opening shots:

(click to enlarge)

That's not healthcare.gov!!!

I Have Confidence They'll Put Them To The Test

A Gallup poll was making the rounds last week in which Congress was ranked dead last in confidence among the institutions included in its survey. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air covered it here. One note that Ed made got me thinking:

Gallup doesn’t chart the presidential confidence level over the same period of time it does with Congress. The highest Congressional level in the last 10 years was 30%, but it would be interesting to see how Bush fared in that same period. Something tells me it took him a little longer to get down to 26% and on a gentler slope than the 15% drop in a year Obama has had.

But instead of wondering how presidential confidence compared, I wondered how this form of Congressional "approval" was influenced by which party was in the majority. See if you detect a pattern:

(click image to enlarge)

Well. When Republicans control the Senate, Congressional "approval" rises. When Democrats control the Senate, look out below. The notable exception was Republican control from 2003 through 2006, in which the index dropped steeply -- a movement the Democrats have seen fit to continue, to unprecedented depths ahead of the elections this fall.

The FEC Messes With Joe

Remember back in 2008 when Obama's claim to executive experience was that he managed a big honkin' campaign? Good times.

Well, that would make Biden's claim to executive experience that he too managed a campaign! One that was 2/3rds the size of . . . Wasilla.

In all, Biden, who dropped out of the race after coming in fifth in the Iowa caucuses and was tapped eight months later to be Barack Obama’s running mate, received $857,000 in taxpayer money for his campaign, which raised $8.2 million from individual contributions, according to the report.

The 2/3rds claim isn't mine. It's Obama's:

"My understanding is that Gov. Palin's town, Wasilla, has I think 50 employees," Obama told CNN on Sept. 1, 2008. "We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12-million dollars a year"

Speaking of Biden running his campaign, apparently he ran it so well that he was fined $219K last Friday for campaign violations:

The Federal Election Commission has penalized Vice President Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign $219,000 for accepting over-the-limit contributions and a discounted flight on a jet owned by a New York hedge fund. His campaign was also charged with sloppy record-keeping.

Sloppy record-keeping? Accepting illegal contributions? Accepting a gift from special interests? On Wall Street? Yike!

Well, at least Obama wouldn't put Joe in charge of overseeing stimulus spending or anything.

Wait. What?

Obama And The Shadow (Puppet)

Some people think all Obama does is play golf and go to parties.

Wrong. Sometimes his tee times get rained out.

And Obama really buckles down:

Obama gestures while leading a session
on the Gulf spill in the White House.

If "We're Out of Money Now" ...then... "Stop Spending!"

Obama told us last year that we were already out of money.

That didn't slow him or the Democrats down one bit in their efforts to spend like drunken sailors.

Now Rick Santelli gives the only sane two word answer:

You Were Always On My Mind

Obama last week:

"I have not spoken to him directly," Obama said. "Here's the reason. Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's going to say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions."

"A little less conversation and a lot more action..."

OK, tough guy.

Obama yesterday:

“I emphasized to the chairman that when he’s talking to shareholders, when he is in meetings in his boardroom, to keep in mind those individuals; that they are desperate; that some of them, if they don’t get relief quickly, may lose businesses that have been in their families for two or three generations,” the president said. “The chairman assured me that he would keep them in mind.”

See? Obama was right! BP execs just said all the right things to him.

And yet . . . Obama seems to have fallen for it.

"You're whispering in my ear...Tell me all the things that I wanna to hear...'cause that's true...That's what I like about you..."

Obama went on:

Mr. Obama said the standard he would be applying “is whether or not those individuals I met with, their family members, those communities that are vulnerable, whether they are uppermost in the minds of all concerned.”

Finally! We have specifics from Obama on how he is going to handle the crisis caused by the spill for those directly affected.

So if you are down on the Gulf coast and worried about your livelihood, fear not: Obama has extracted the assurance from those responsible for the spill, and has vowed to hold himself and all those involved to the standard that they will . . . be thinking about you.

"You were always on my mind.....you were always on my mind..."

Awwww. He’s so sweet. Who says this president can’t connect on an emotional level?

Obama Is Growing In Office -- Growing Smaller

Mark Steyn has written an excellent, incisive article on President Obama. In it he says:

[Obama]'s the first president to give off the pronounced whiff that he's condescending to the job - that it's really too small for him, and he's just killing time until something more commensurate with his stature comes along.

And so the Gulf spill was an irritation, but he dutifully went through the motions of flying in to be photographed looking presidentially concerned. As he wearily explained to Matt Lauer, "I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain, talking..." Good grief, what more do you people want? Alas, he's not a good enough actor to fake it.

So the more desperately he butches up the rhetoric – "Plug the damn hole!," "I know whose ass to kick" – the more pathetically unconvincing it all sounds.

Indeed, history has now shown us that it is Obama who is too small for the job and not the other way around.

The Resolute Desk in the Oval Office provides us with a visual:

The Office of the President of the United States has revealed Obama to be small by comparison. And he appears to be steadily growing smaller.

Speaking Truth From Powerlessness

Jake Tapper at ABC reports on Obama speaking truth from powerlessness at the Gulf:

“Even though I am President of the United States my powers are not limitless,” Obama said last Friday at Camardelle’s Live Bait and Boiled Seafood, “So I can’t dive down there and plug the hole. I can’t suck it up with a straw."

It's true. He has limited power. Some call it impotence.

Others say he's not doing enough. But cut him some slack here. When he says he can't suck it up with a straw, it's not like he didn't try:

President Barack Obama tries to suck tar balls
through a straw as Lafourche Parish President
Charlotte Randolf, left, looks on at Fourchon Beach
in Port Fourchon, La., May 28, 2010.

We'll give him an A for effort with the tar balls and straw.

His overall performance in the managment of efforts to plug the damn hole and contain the spill?

Easy. That's a good, solid B+.

Obama Approval Polls Overtaken By GOP

Jim Geraghty highlights this graphic from Pollster.com, which represents an average of approval polls for President Obama:

Geraghty notes that the disapproval has inched well ahead of the approval.

You know what jumped out at me? What the poll visually resembles:

Obama's Mad As Hell And He's Not Gonna Take It Anymore

[OVAL OFFICE]

Obama: Thank you for joining this call today. As I have always said, make no mistake, this oil spill is and has been my number one priority. There are those who say we should do nothing, but let me be clear, I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and…

Muffled Voice: Excuse me, sir…

Obama: …tell our children that this was the moment when the flow of the oil into the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…

Muffled Voice: Sir, please, sir?

Obama: Who is that?

Muffled Voice: Sir, we can barely hear you, could you speak a little louder please?

Obama: Could you say that again, I can barely hear you. There must be something wrong with the connection.

Muffled Voice: Can you speak a little louder please?

Obama: IT MUST BE THE PHONE, I SWEAR...AHEM...AS I HAVE ALWAYS SAID, MAKE NO MISTAKE…

Muffled Voice: We got that part, sir.

[BACKGROUND: various voices laughing]

Obama: WHO’S LAUGHING? WHO IS THAT?

[BACKGROUND: laughing increases]

Obama: Stop it. I’m telling you, I’m not going to rest or be satisfied until I find out who is laughing on this call. I’m going to talk with the folks who potentially have the best answers as to who’s laughing, so I know whose ass to kick. I’m telling you right now, whoever is laughing better shut their pie hole this instant, or I swear I’m going to take this receiver and plug the damn hole.

Muffled Voice: That's much better, sir. We can hear you just fine now.

[BACKGROUND: uncontrollable laughter]

The Smartest Guy In The Room

Obama Is Gonna Kick Your Ass If You Don't Plug The Damn Hole

Tom Maguire:

The First Emoter finds his inner George Bush and tells us he is out looking for "ass to kick" on the BP Gulf oil spill. Gosh, its reassuring to see our President enraged and engaged.

Anger They Hope You'll Believe.

Patent Pending

This level of brilliance is what happens at those 1 am parties playing darts in your neighbor's garage.

The beer bottle fits snug between the thumb and forefingers of the glove, allowing you to relax your hand. Or punch someone without putting your beer down.

Either way...

Using a boxing glove to hold your beer: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Filibuster Kagan . . . For The Children!!!

I have almost nothing to say on the Elena Kagan nomination.

Almost.

Over at Just One Minute, we were treated to an image of a young Kagan readying herself to hit a softball.

MarkO at JOM comments:

Bat at wrong angle. It should point toward the pitcher. Bat likely to be under the ball and not able to strick the ball with any force. Basically, pushing the ball if she can hit it at all. Hands to far from body. This makes for a poor swing path. Back elbow too high. This fits in perfectly with a swing that goes low to high with no power. Front elbow prevents hitting anything inside with any force. Hips already open (don't go there). Face of watch, under. A secret sign, no doubt.

I responded at JOM to the estimable MarkO, and will reproduce it here.....

While you astutely point out all the hitting flaws of the Kagan Stance, I think you miss the fundamental lesson of the photo of Kagan At The Bat.

She's. Not. Wearing. A. Helmet.

We simply cannot confirm someone to the Supreme Court of the United States who would send such a reckless message to the youth of America.

Hell, even Obama wore a helmet when he went bike riding.

(Of course that was 2008, when he was running for president. Once in office, however, not so much...)

Further, while I am the last person to claim that photos of the nominee are dispositive, I think I am on fairly solid ground [note: that's a Boston Globe image] when I say that Elena Kagan has probably consumed more than her fair share of trans fat and high fructose corn syrup items over the years.

Let's Move? What does Michelle Obama think about this nominee?

"In Elena Kagan's America, kids will eat junk food and traipse across the ballfields of America unprotected from the dangers of hard spherical objects projected about..."

Filibuster Kagan . . . For The Children!!!

"I do think at a certain point you've made enough money"

At a speech in Quincy, IL talking about financial reform, President Obama lets us know that he thinks there should be a limit to how much money a person should make when he said, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money."

A few of his biggest supporters from Hollywood, who went to great lengths during the 2008 campaign to let the world know how much they loved him, weigh in in this video.

In many cases these celebrities make a lot more money than the big company executives Obama likes to demonize as greedy. These celebrities find themselves understandably confused.

The Obligatory Obama as Drunken Sailor

I know there are problems with the analogy.

But with this photo, Obama as drunken sailor is too good to pass up.

President Obama stumbles across the White House
lawn early in the morning. Responding to reporters'
questions, Obama could only manage, "hic".