For years we were told the Bush administration was incompetent, evidenced by (normal) delays in Katrina aid and an unexpectedly difficult transition to democracy in Iraq (still an amazing feat by any historical standard). In a few short weeks, the Obama team has managed to make them look like geniuses.
It’s not just the incredible number of nominees with tax and other ethical problems, or the button that was supposed to say “reset” but was mistranslated to “overcharge.” It’s not just the tacky collection of DVDs Obama gave the British Prime Minister (he received furniture made from an ancient and venerated British vessel) that wouldn’t even play in British DVD players. It’s also the bizarre proposal that veterans be forced to pay for their own war wounds, and the hamhanded way they’ve handled the AIG bonuses, first approving then denouncing them. There’s a real sense these people are in over their heads.
That impression was reinforced yesterday, with an ill-advised appearance on Jay Leno (because it’s not like Obama has more important things to do, with 2 wars and an economic crisis):
The first appearance by a sitting president on “The Tonight Show” may well end up being the last. President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.
UPDATE: Dear God, you can’t make this stuff up.
Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony
Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent presidential administration in American history. This achievement and the overall promise of his historic administration caused the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. to name him “Newsmaker of the Year.” The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon.
The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.
UPDATE: No surprise this site is taking off. TOTUS is to Obama what Cheney was to Bush.
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Many employers give their new employees 90 days to determine if they’re worth keeping around.
In defending his poor record thus far his defender will point to the lackluster economy he inherited from the previous Administration, in addition to whatever else Obama must address from that Administration. I’m willing to grant them that, yes, he has a difficult job to do but they’re forgetting a simple fact:
Obama ASKED for the job.
So, about those 90 days? Is it time for Obama to get a call into HR?
Obama seems overwhelmed. I would not be shocked if he resigned, say for “health reasons.”
This was fine when it was all just a narcissistic journey of self-discovery enabled by the press’ devotion. Now he’s being asked to do a really hard job and it doesn’t look like he can handle it or even understands it.
Obama voters cannot say they were not warned.
To call this administration “incompetent” is to seriously understate their levels of gross buffoonery.
Remember those videos Obama picked up at the Wal-Mart rack to give to the British PM?
They won’t even run in his DVD player. See, because DVD players are coded by geopolitical regions.
Incompetent does not even begin to describe the deep and profound dysfunction of this administration. Need to get your economic team in place to address the most pressing financial crisis in a generation? Well, that can wait until you get your mug on the Tonight Show. Priorities you know.
I disagree with the “he should be too busy” line of argument, though I don’t think the appearance was a great idea.
It’s not like he has to run both theaters in the war, after all – that’s what he has the Joint Chiefs, NATO, and the local command structure to do. The President shouldn’t have to (and indeed does not have to) provide even daily attention to the war, so long as the command structure does its job, and refers things he actually needs to attend to up to him.
Likewise, “the economy” – I think the worst thing the President (any President) can do in such a situation is “do something about it” every day; the mess created by Congress and by the President so far should be good evidence of that.
I think we’d get better results (again, under any President) from a policy of “some immediate action to prevent collapse and then no more”. The effects of “waiting to see what they do” are worse than the effects of inaction, especially given that there’s no supercompetent action to take in this context.
Less government is better government.
Sigvald:
The “he should be too busy” argument is not that he should be too busy to do ANYTHING, but that he should be too busy to do such TRIVIAL things as appear on a comedy show. Sure I agree that he can’t be working on this stuff 24×7 (although he seems content to force Geithner into that role) but there are some bounds to what most people SHOULD accept as “responsible” behavior, and to appear on the Tonight Show when his administration is such a clueless mess is, imho, deeply irresponsible and inappropriate.
Of course I agree that governments should do less, not more, I’m a conservative. But once you’ve adopted control of something, you have to control it! To take ownership and then not provide the staff or control to “own” it is just more evidence of deep incompetence.
I could go on for pages with examples of this administrations unprecedented levels of incompetence. It is, as I have said before, breathtaking.
How much longer the press is going to cover for this guy is anyones guess. I can guarantee you that there are already quiet, closed door meetings in most of the MSM editorial rooms where people are whispering “He HAS to get control of things! We can’t keep making him look good FOREVER!!”
No, they can’t. But the longer they run out the clock hoping for an Obamessiah miracle, the worse they are going to look when they actually start reporting the truth.
Yea, but I hear he throws great parties at the White House.
I don’t think Obama appears overwhelmed, or ready to resign for “health reasons”, or incompetent. Nor do I think that going on Leno was something trivial.
Yes, he asked for the job. And as he has said, the buck stops at his door. So one can certainly disagree with his policies, or manner, or the polish of his staff on details.
But in the end, he will either be seen to fail, or succeed, or tread water. It’s too early to say which. But I have no problem with folks who think it isn’t too early. Obama is out on the limb because of the job he sought and the circumstances the country finds itself in. If you wish to climb out on the limb also, well . . . I admire your courage but question your judgement.
I’ve never seen Lost, but from what I hear, those who think the producers of that show have been just stringing the audience along are wrong, and this will become clear shortly. That show too, is about to end, and those in it are promising that all will be revealed at that point.
It’s clear to me that the makers of Galactica definitely were building up to pretty much everything that happened. I know this in large part because I listened to all of Ron Moore’s podcasts for the first two seasons of the show, and it was always clear that he knew pretty much exactly where the show would end and what would happen and when, at least on the big issues–and it’s clear that he succeeded in doing that. The show’s ratings are quite high, but they’re going out anyway, because they’ve finished telling the story that they said they wanted to tell five or six years ago when this started.
This was a movie that was told over five years, not simply an episodic series where everything resets itself on a regular basis and the show never ends until viewers get sick of it. This show had a defined beginning, middle, and end, before the first episode aired. You don’t see near enough of that in American television, although it’s standard in places like the UK and Japan. That it has succeeded in that regard can only bode well for future productions of dramatic television in Hollywood.
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