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Topic: A Terrorist Horror, Then Golf: Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics (Read 1361 times)

legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
not all people are strong, obama has never been one to be shown as a "manly" president or "a man of courage" or "a hero" or anything like that.

yet people think he is god because of his skin color.
This is what Obama's assistant has to say about him:
Quote
“You know what Obama’s problem is? He’s bored because he’s just too damn talented to do what other people do.”
And thus golfing is his leisurely way of dealing w/ boredom.
newbie
Activity: 37
Merit: 0
maybe we shold gold with terrorists then kkill them. they not expect it!
member
Activity: 91
Merit: 10
Hi I am back from a long period of away time :)
Golf is a destressor
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.

I have many issues with this POTUS, but vacation is not one of them.  People jumped on Bush playing golf.  Very few people can imagine how stressful work like that can be.  Clearly it has aged him.  The media is harping on the wrong things.

I spent a lot of my youth cramming for classes and tests. In med school I had some tests that were given 3 hours after the lecture.  During my internship on night float I found myself crying due to constant sleep deprived state and feeling alone - and I have never cried watching a movie or TV.  It just wears you down and the body can't cope.  The man is probably woken up in the middle of the night every night for something.

He said what he had to say.  I didn't look at the speech.

If the media wants to be critical of him they should focus on why his crowning achievement of ACA is such a failure.
Yes I agree that the president deserves to go on vacation every once and a while but he shouldn't be doing it in times of crisis. Obama going on vacation now is very similar to as if Bush had gone on vacation right after 9/11 or right before the Iraq war started. There are several crisis going on in our country and around the world that need his immediate attention. Once these are taken care of and/or are somewhat under control then he can go on vacation.

Look at my past history of posts that I've made about Obama.  On here and other forums I mock the man.  He is a Jr Senator with no real world employment who managed to work his way into the White House thanks to a smooth media campaign, his race and some help from people in the right places (Kennedys).

Is he short sighted - yes.  Does he understand small business - no.  Is he any better than Republicans at reigning in crony capitalism - he's worse.  Is he at least honest with his ineptitude like Carter - no, he thinks he's God with his executive orders.

But he is the POTUS.  One man getting beheaded and the middle east going up in flames is nothing new.  How many people died in VA hospitals that day in a sadder way than the journalist - probably many.  How many people died in gang violence that day - probably many.  These are all chronic conditions but the media only wants to exploit the acute and sadly some of the posts are harping on him not shedding a tear.  It's never the right time for a president to party.  To the parents of the journalist I could understand them being disgusted.

Being in a position where I have coded people and pronounced more than 10 people dead in an hour before and still gone home and watched a movie - I will cut the POTUS some slack.  Sometimes you just need to clear the brain no matter how much you care.  That's my opinion.

I thought his behavior after Benghazi was more sacrilegious. He also missed Major General Harold Greene's funeral and made no comment on it but he had to comment on Robin Williams.  Clearly this president was not cut from the same cloth as our armed forces.

Obama not respecting the armed force is NOT a lack of experience. Look at the number of superior officers he is firing now... Everything he does behind that great smile is cold political calculations. He has 2 more years and things are going to accelerate for the worse as he has nothing to lose and DOES NOT care about other fellow democrats' fate.



DrG
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 1035
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.

I have many issues with this POTUS, but vacation is not one of them.  People jumped on Bush playing golf.  Very few people can imagine how stressful work like that can be.  Clearly it has aged him.  The media is harping on the wrong things.

I spent a lot of my youth cramming for classes and tests. In med school I had some tests that were given 3 hours after the lecture.  During my internship on night float I found myself crying due to constant sleep deprived state and feeling alone - and I have never cried watching a movie or TV.  It just wears you down and the body can't cope.  The man is probably woken up in the middle of the night every night for something.

He said what he had to say.  I didn't look at the speech.

If the media wants to be critical of him they should focus on why his crowning achievement of ACA is such a failure.
Yes I agree that the president deserves to go on vacation every once and a while but he shouldn't be doing it in times of crisis. Obama going on vacation now is very similar to as if Bush had gone on vacation right after 9/11 or right before the Iraq war started. There are several crisis going on in our country and around the world that need his immediate attention. Once these are taken care of and/or are somewhat under control then he can go on vacation.

Look at my past history of posts that I've made about Obama.  On here and other forums I mock the man.  He is a Jr Senator with no real world employment who managed to work his way into the White House thanks to a smooth media campaign, his race and some help from people in the right places (Kennedys).

Is he short sighted - yes.  Does he understand small business - no.  Is he any better than Republicans at reigning in crony capitalism - he's worse.  Is he at least honest with his ineptitude like Carter - no, he thinks he's God with his executive orders.

But he is the POTUS.  One man getting beheaded and the middle east going up in flames is nothing new.  How many people died in VA hospitals that day in a sadder way than the journalist - probably many.  How many people died in gang violence that day - probably many.  These are all chronic conditions but the media only wants to exploit the acute and sadly some of the posts are harping on him not shedding a tear.  It's never the right time for a president to party.  To the parents of the journalist I could understand them being disgusted.

Being in a position where I have coded people and pronounced more than 10 people dead in an hour before and still gone home and watched a movie - I will cut the POTUS some slack.  Sometimes you just need to clear the brain no matter how much you care.  That's my opinion.

I thought his behavior after Benghazi was more sacrilegious. He also missed Major General Harold Greene's funeral and made no comment on it but he had to comment on Robin Williams.  Clearly this president was not cut from the same cloth as our armed forces.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon


WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS OBAMA JV GAFFE NOT ABOUT ISIS


In January, the New Yorker magazine’s David Remnick asked President Barack Obama about ISIS who had raised the black Islamic State flag in Fallujah in Iraq and in Syria. [...]

Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest claimed Obama wasn’t referring to ISIS but the many different al Qaeda extremists.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/08/25/White-House-Claims-Obama-JV-Gaffe-Not-About-ISIS?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=breitbarttv


Jayvee Flashback:

At the core of Obama’s thinking is that American military involvement cannot be the primary instrument to achieve the new equilibrium that the region so desperately needs. And yet thoughts of a pacific equilibrium are far from anyone’s mind in the real, existing Middle East. In the 2012 campaign, Obama spoke not only of killing Osama bin Laden; he also said that Al Qaeda had been “decimated.” I pointed out that the flag of Al Qaeda is now flying in Falluja, in Iraq, and among various rebel factions in Syria; Al Qaeda has asserted a presence in parts of Africa, too.

“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” Obama said, resorting to an uncharacteristically flip analogy. “I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.

“Let’s just keep in mind, Falluja is a profoundly conservative Sunni city in a country that, independent of anything we do, is deeply divided along sectarian lines. And how we think about terrorism has to be defined and specific enough that it doesn’t lead us to think that any horrible actions that take place around the world that are motivated in part by an extremist Islamic ideology are a direct threat to us or something that we have to wade into.”

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/27/going-the-distance-2?currentPage=14

sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.

I have many issues with this POTUS, but vacation is not one of them.  People jumped on Bush playing golf.  Very few people can imagine how stressful work like that can be.  Clearly it has aged him.  The media is harping on the wrong things.

I spent a lot of my youth cramming for classes and tests. In med school I had some tests that were given 3 hours after the lecture.  During my internship on night float I found myself crying due to constant sleep deprived state and feeling alone - and I have never cried watching a movie or TV.  It just wears you down and the body can't cope.  The man is probably woken up in the middle of the night every night for something.

He said what he had to say.  I didn't look at the speech.

If the media wants to be critical of him they should focus on why his crowning achievement of ACA is such a failure.


It is not so much the vacation but how he does not care about laughing on the Golf course, just a few hours after talking to the parents of the beheaded journalist. It is not so much about him relaxing on the Golf course but more about how no media will talk about any failure of him, like for example what is happening with obamacare.

The only way for people to remember a story is for the media to keep talking about it. Since he knows this will not be the case he does not care as the low information voters will forget and love him even more for his golfing. As soon as foxnews will conduct a survey about his conduct obama lovers will scream racism anyway.

This is what happens when the system that was supposed to check and balance the power in place is broken.


From what I have seen, Obama has been very hesitant to hold anyone accountable for their failures (although most of the failures were entirely his fault). I think this is another example of this. He does not seem to take his work seriously, and appears to think that he is able to do whatever he wants.
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.

I have many issues with this POTUS, but vacation is not one of them.  People jumped on Bush playing golf.  Very few people can imagine how stressful work like that can be.  Clearly it has aged him.  The media is harping on the wrong things.

I spent a lot of my youth cramming for classes and tests. In med school I had some tests that were given 3 hours after the lecture.  During my internship on night float I found myself crying due to constant sleep deprived state and feeling alone - and I have never cried watching a movie or TV.  It just wears you down and the body can't cope.  The man is probably woken up in the middle of the night every night for something.

He said what he had to say.  I didn't look at the speech.

If the media wants to be critical of him they should focus on why his crowning achievement of ACA is such a failure.
Yes I agree that the president deserves to go on vacation every once and a while but he shouldn't be doing it in times of crisis. Obama going on vacation now is very similar to as if Bush had gone on vacation right after 9/11 or right before the Iraq war started. There are several crisis going on in our country and around the world that need his immediate attention. Once these are taken care of and/or are somewhat under control then he can go on vacation.
legendary
Activity: 1428
Merit: 1001
getmonero.org
Implying Obama has anything to do with politics and is not just an actor doing what military, cia, corporations etc wants...

Just watch some Bush videos and you clearly she that he is acting and he is so retarded that he doesnt even know what the scenario is...

Politicians ended being politicians in America in the sixties...
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon
You just need to accept a very simple fact: Obama is clearly out of his league.

He's hiding. He's running away. He is trying to convince others and himself that his half black background makes him above such 'petty' and 'inferior' concerns and that he is a man above man.

He is in fact a small boy in a room full of adults, internationally and domestically.

He was scared to face the military people. He found out that delusional posh 1st world nurtured sense of minority attitude doesn't work in the real world, and as it turns out, not in America either.

He has no experience, and has no passion. The only passion was a childish sense of self aggrandizement coupled with a frankly infantile impulse of 'i will show you' attitude he has as a minority in America.

He is a perfect example of all the weaknesses and ignorance of the current millennial generation. Let us hope that this was a good lesson for the shallow, hollow generation and a good wake up call for people to find TRUE strength, not one driven by some kiddy ideas of 'pride' or 'standing up for yourself'.

The article said it right: Anyone who functions in these posts must understand it was designed to create polarization and factionalism by the virtue of its structure. It was meant to weed out the weak, encourage competitive solutions, and ultimately bring about compromises and promising results that enables people to gather together around a single agreeable goal when all their questions lead them to the similar conclusion.

It is a system based on the idea to foster conflict as to deprive a single institution from gaining the ultimate power, hence having to deal with the basics of human nature and STILL pull through when things get tough.

Obama is exactly the opposite of such an idea. His universe revolves around himself and no one else. He does not understand that his way of thinking and attitude is grossly simplistic and childish. He believed that he was better than all the thinkers and policy makers of history, and that he was above it all.

He was mistaken.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-the-golf-address.html

legendary
Activity: 2926
Merit: 1386
You just need to accept a very simple fact: Obama is clearly out of his league.

He's hiding. He's running away. He is trying to convince others and himself that his half black background makes him above such 'petty' and 'inferior' concerns and that he is a man above man.

He is in fact a small boy in a room full of adults, internationally and domestically.

He was scared to face the military people. He found out that delusional posh 1st world nurtured sense of minority attitude doesn't work in the real world, and as it turns out, not in America either.

He has no experience, and has no passion. The only passion was a childish sense of self aggrandizement coupled with a frankly infantile impulse of 'i will show you' attitude he has as a minority in America.

He is a perfect example of all the weaknesses and ignorance of the current millennial generation. Let us hope that this was a good lesson for the shallow, hollow generation and a good wake up call for people to find TRUE strength, not one driven by some kiddy ideas of 'pride' or 'standing up for yourself'.

The article said it right: Anyone who functions in these posts must understand it was designed to create polarization and factionalism by the virtue of its structure. It was meant to weed out the weak, encourage competitive solutions, and ultimately bring about compromises and promising results that enables people to gather together around a single agreeable goal when all their questions lead them to the similar conclusion.

It is a system based on the idea to foster conflict as to deprive a single institution from gaining the ultimate power, hence having to deal with the basics of human nature and STILL pull through when things get tough.

Obama is exactly the opposite of such an idea. His universe revolves around himself and no one else. He does not understand that his way of thinking and attitude is grossly simplistic and childish. He believed that he was better than all the thinkers and policy makers of history, and that he was above it all.

He was mistaken.
+1

I am afraid these are the sad, unfortunate truths.

However, the solution is not more strength to liberal fascist socialism.

Neither is the solution a drum roll for foreign intervention by the US.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250
You just need to accept a very simple fact: Obama is clearly out of his league.

He's hiding. He's running away. He is trying to convince others and himself that his half black background makes him above such 'petty' and 'inferior' concerns and that he is a man above man.

He is in fact a small boy in a room full of adults, internationally and domestically.

He was scared to face the military people. He found out that delusional posh 1st world nurtured sense of minority attitude doesn't work in the real world, and as it turns out, not in America either.

He has no experience, and has no passion. The only passion was a childish sense of self aggrandizement coupled with a frankly infantile impulse of 'i will show you' attitude he has as a minority in America.

He is a perfect example of all the weaknesses and ignorance of the current millennial generation. Let us hope that this was a good lesson for the shallow, hollow generation and a good wake up call for people to find TRUE strength, not one driven by some kiddy ideas of 'pride' or 'standing up for yourself'.

The article said it right: Anyone who functions in these posts must understand it was designed to create polarization and factionalism by the virtue of its structure. It was meant to weed out the weak, encourage competitive solutions, and ultimately bring about compromises and promising results that enables people to gather together around a single agreeable goal when all their questions lead them to the similar conclusion.

It is a system based on the idea to foster conflict as to deprive a single institution from gaining the ultimate power, hence having to deal with the basics of human nature and STILL pull through when things get tough.

Obama is exactly the opposite of such an idea. His universe revolves around himself and no one else. He does not understand that his way of thinking and attitude is grossly simplistic and childish. He believed that he was better than all the thinkers and policy makers of history, and that he was above it all.

He was mistaken.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.

I have many issues with this POTUS, but vacation is not one of them.  People jumped on Bush playing golf.  Very few people can imagine how stressful work like that can be.  Clearly it has aged him.  The media is harping on the wrong things.

I spent a lot of my youth cramming for classes and tests. In med school I had some tests that were given 3 hours after the lecture.  During my internship on night float I found myself crying due to constant sleep deprived state and feeling alone - and I have never cried watching a movie or TV.  It just wears you down and the body can't cope.  The man is probably woken up in the middle of the night every night for something.

He said what he had to say.  I didn't look at the speech.

If the media wants to be critical of him they should focus on why his crowning achievement of ACA is such a failure.


It is not so much the vacation but how he does not care about laughing on the Golf course, just a few hours after talking to the parents of the beheaded journalist. It is not so much about him relaxing on the Golf course but more about how no media will talk about any failure of him, like for example what is happening with obamacare.

The only way for people to remember a story is for the media to keep talking about it. Since he knows this will not be the case he does not care as the low information voters will forget and love him even more for his golfing. As soon as foxnews will conduct a survey about his conduct obama lovers will scream racism anyway.

This is what happens when the system that was supposed to check and balance the power in place is broken.

newbie
Activity: 62
Merit: 0


A Terrorist Horror, Then Golf: Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics

Photo

President Obama on Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. Republicans and Democrats have said his vacation is ill timed. Credit Steven Senne/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — He had just hung up the telephone with the devastated parents before heading in front of the cameras. Unusually emotional, President Obama declared himself “heartbroken” by the brutal murder of an American journalist, James Foley, and vowed to “be relentless” against Islamic radicals threatening to kill another American.

But as soon as the cameras went off, Mr. Obama headed to his favorite golf course on Martha’s Vineyard, where he is on vacation, seemingly able to put the savagery out of his mind. He spent the rest of the afternoon on the links even as a firestorm of criticism erupted over what many saw as a callous indifference to the slaughter he had just condemned.

Presidents learn to wall off their feelings and compartmentalize their lives. They deal in death one moment and seek mental and physical relief the next. To make coldhearted decisions in the best interest of the country and manage the burdens of perhaps the most stressful job on the planet, current and former White House officials said, a president must guard against becoming consumed by the emotions of the situations they confront. And few presidents have been known more for cool, emotional detachment than Mr. Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/us/politics/a-terrorist-horror-then-golf-incongruity-fuels-obama-critics.html?_r=0


What a strange shit happens nowadays
DrG
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 1035
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.

I have many issues with this POTUS, but vacation is not one of them.  People jumped on Bush playing golf.  Very few people can imagine how stressful work like that can be.  Clearly it has aged him.  The media is harping on the wrong things.

I spent a lot of my youth cramming for classes and tests. In med school I had some tests that were given 3 hours after the lecture.  During my internship on night float I found myself crying due to constant sleep deprived state and feeling alone - and I have never cried watching a movie or TV.  It just wears you down and the body can't cope.  The man is probably woken up in the middle of the night every night for something.

He said what he had to say.  I didn't look at the speech.

If the media wants to be critical of him they should focus on why his crowning achievement of ACA is such a failure.
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
There is much too much going on in both the world and in the US in order for it to be appropriate for him to be going on vacation. It would be one thing if he was simply trying to get away from Washington to get a change of scenery, but the fact that he is spending hours away from any kind of work is very troubling. I think he has already made up his mind as to what he is going to do with his foreign policy and that is nothing.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon


WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS OBAMA GOLFING: SPORTS HELP CLEAR THE MIND


White House reporters questioned Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz about President Obama’s decision to go golfing just minutes after he delivered a speech reacting to the news of Islamic State Terrorists beheading of American journalist James Foley.
“I am not going to get in the president’s mindset on that,” Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said in a press conference on Friday. “I will say that generally I think that sports and leisure activities are a good way for release and clearing of the mind for a lot of us.”

Schultz said that anyone who was questioning Obama’s mindset during the day should watch his speech again, calling it “candid,” “from the heart,” “honest,” and “open.”

Jon Karl questioned the optics of the golf outing especially right after his speech, and as the Foley family was grieving.

Schultz argued that Obama was “deeply engaged” with all of the issues facing the country and the world.

“First and foremost the president is focused on doing his job and to us that’s paramount,” Schultz responded. “Just because the president is in a different location, doesn’t mean he’s not doing his job.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/08/22/White-House-Defneds-Obama-Golfing-Sports-Help-Clear-The-Mind

legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon


Obama Stands Alone: Even the media are baffled by his deepening isolation


Obama Stands Alone: Even the media are baffled by his deepening isolation

President Obama has few remaining friends—either in his own party or in the media.

That’s the unmistakable conclusion of two pieces this week in the New York Times. Just about everyone, it seems, is down on his single, solitary nature.

I’ve been saying for a year now that the president’s liberal media allies have soured on him. It started with the ObamaCare debacle and continued through his seeming passivity or slow reaction time in the wake of the VA scandal, the Bowe Bergdahl mess, the military collapse in Iraq and so on. At this point they’re basically Waiting for Hillary.

What is striking now is a growing sense, fairly or unfairly, that Obama is not capable of rising to the occasion, that he just doesn’t like politics, that he’s disengaged, that despite his soaring rhetoric in 2008 he has a passion deficit.

All the criticism about him playing golf and being at Martha’s Vineyard is kind of a code for his supposedly being unplugged from the job.

A Times news story opens with a killer anecdote about the president meeting with Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, which turned to Democratic complaints that the GOP was bottling up a number of Obama’s ambassadorial nominees.

“Mr. Obama quickly dismissed the matter. ‘You and Mitch work it out,’ Mr. Obama said coolly, cutting off any discussion. Mr. Reid seethed quietly for the rest of the meeting.”

Wow. And the nut graph: “Nearly six years into his term, with his popularity at the lowest of his presidency, Mr. Obama appears remarkably distant from his own party on Capitol Hill, with his long neglect of would-be allies catching up to him.

“In interviews, nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers and senior congressional aides suggested that Mr. Obama’s approach has left him with few loyalists to effectively manage the issues erupting abroad and at home and could imperil his efforts to leave a legacy in his final stretch in office.”

Sounds like a dysfunctional marriage. And what is noteworthy is the number of Democrats quoted on the record as trying to diplomatically discuss the problem.

Claire McCaskill: “For him, eating his spinach is schmoozing with elected officials.”

Joe Manchin, asked to describe his relationship with Obama: “It’s fairly nonexistent. There’s not much of a relationship.” And: “Some Democrats say, they have just learned to accept the president’s solitary nature and move on.”

All of which means the failure to get Congress to do much of anything in the second term can’t just be blamed on obstructionist Republicans.

Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who’s already been down on Barry, uses the story to ratchet up her complaints:

“The man whose singular qualification was as a uniter turns out to be singularly unequipped to operate in a polarized environment…

“Why should the president neutralize himself? Why doesn’t he do something bold and thrilling? Get his hands dirty? Stop going to Beverly Hills to raise money and go to St. Louis to raise consciousness? Talk to someone besides Valerie Jarrett?

“The Constitution was premised on a system full of factions and polarization. If you’re a fastidious pol who deigns to heal and deal only in a holistic, romantic, unified utopia, the Oval Office is the wrong job for you.”

To be fair, there are benefits to having a president with an even temperament, one who doesn’t get mired in the muck of partisan politics. But why Obama doesn’t court Democratic pols who could help him, have them over for a movie or up to Camp David, remains a mystery. The office rests on the power of persuasion.

At Yahoo News, Matt Bai riffs on the complaints about Obama’s style:

“What we really need, I guess, is an executive in the mold of a Chris Christie or an Andrew Cuomo or a Rick Perry, all of whom are more extroverted and more brazen about wielding their power as governors than Obama is — and all of whom, not incidentally, are now fending off prosecutors and investigations while scrambling to keep their national ambitions afloat.

“And this illustrates an interesting paradox of modern politics: We love this idea of the ruthless and effective political operator, right up until the moment we're confronted by the reality.”

To those who say Obama should be more like Lyndon Johnson, Bai quotes LBJ biographer Robert Caro:

“Johnson's life is filled with incidents of cruelty — savagery, really — that go beyond any specific relationship to a noble cause. There are things Johnson does that you would just recoil at, no matter how used to ruthless politics you think you are.”

Okay, so Obama doesn’t have to threaten to break any arms, like LBJ did. But how about inviting allies to play a little golf?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/22/obama-stands-alone-even-media-are-baffled-by-his-deepening-isolation/

legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1001
minds.com/Wilikon


A Terrorist Horror, Then Golf: Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics

Photo

President Obama on Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. Republicans and Democrats have said his vacation is ill timed. Credit Steven Senne/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — He had just hung up the telephone with the devastated parents before heading in front of the cameras. Unusually emotional, President Obama declared himself “heartbroken” by the brutal murder of an American journalist, James Foley, and vowed to “be relentless” against Islamic radicals threatening to kill another American.

But as soon as the cameras went off, Mr. Obama headed to his favorite golf course on Martha’s Vineyard, where he is on vacation, seemingly able to put the savagery out of his mind. He spent the rest of the afternoon on the links even as a firestorm of criticism erupted over what many saw as a callous indifference to the slaughter he had just condemned.

Presidents learn to wall off their feelings and compartmentalize their lives. They deal in death one moment and seek mental and physical relief the next. To make coldhearted decisions in the best interest of the country and manage the burdens of perhaps the most stressful job on the planet, current and former White House officials said, a president must guard against becoming consumed by the emotions of the situations they confront. And few presidents have been known more for cool, emotional detachment than Mr. Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/us/politics/a-terrorist-horror-then-golf-incongruity-fuels-obama-critics.html?_r=0

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