Boy, that Obama is just a big old bag of FAIL...

[AZRedhawk44]

Pulled up drudge just now.

"Obama breaks precedent by not meeting with Dalai Lama"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6262938/Barack-Obama-cancels-meeting-with-Dalai-Lama-to-keep-China-happy.html

Probably kow-towing to the Chicoms, since any empathy for the Dalai Lama implies empathy for Tibet.  This should anger drum circles across the nation's campuses.  It's just disappointing to anyone that opposes Chicom influence anywhere...

"Arabs plot to drop dollar"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html

So glad he's the watchdog on the economy.  Looking out for the world's interests over our own, like every good Democrat.

"GATES SAYS TALIBAN HAS MOMENTUM BECAUSE OF U.S., ALLIES INABILITY TO PUT ENOUGH TROOPS IN..."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091005/D9B55KK01.html

Way to go, CinC.  Doing a bang-up job of protecting America and honoring the sacrifices of her fighting forces abroad by giving them the resources they need to fight for our country.  

Even 2010 landslide conservative/libertarian elections can't fix the above 3 issues.  This is all State Department and prosecution of the war effort.  Firmly in the hands of Obama and company.

[Scout26]

And Mrs Scout wonders why I occasionaly head out to the backyard and just scream like a wounded animal for a minute or so.

I'm very scared for my country.

[red headed stranger]

At this point he is just one big fail.  I guess one comforting thing is that a lot of the "progressives" have had it with him too.  I think the SNL skit last Saturday sums it up:  he has done "jack and squat"

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/obama-address/1163263/

[Jamisjockey]

I want a Marijuana powered car!

[MicroBalrog]

I want a Marijuana powered car!

Technically a diesel can be made to run on marijuana with little conversion.

[HankB]

Remember the old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day?

I'm beginning to think that even that adage won't apply to Obama; the only things he hasn't screwed up are the things he hasn't gotten around to.

Yet. 

 

[De Selby]

I'm actually relieved Obama didn't meet with the Dalai Lama.  What a clown.  It's shocking that he gets to travel the world getting rich because of his supposed birth-status, all the while letting his people get slammed by an oppressive totalitarian state.

The most useful that guy will ever be is as a sleep therapist - no insomniac can stand his talks.

[Scout26]

^^^^^

Wow, that's a new low.  Slamming the Dalai-Lama for doing what ??  Being exiled from his own country, and speaking to the world about what happening there ??


Darn, S-in-S your right !!  I'm going down to the Tibetan Liberation Army recruiting station and joining up with you to take Tibet back fromt he Chicoms. 

[De Selby]

^^^^^

Wow, that's a new low.  Slamming the Dalai-Lama for doing what ??  Being exiled from his own country, and speaking to the world about what happening there ??


Darn, S-in-S your right !!  I'm going down to the Tibetan Liberation Army recruiting station and joining up with you to take Tibet back fromt he Chicoms. 

Yeah, the Dalai Lama is popular, but not much more.  I'm slamming him for collecting handsome speaking fees in comfort all over the world because of oppression with which he collaborates through the speeches he's paid to give.

I'm not really big on the "free Tibet" thing.  I think it was a slave-state that was, amazingly, worse than Chinese communism.  But I'm especially down on collecting millions of dollars on "free Tibet" while not-so-subtly tailoring one's messages to suit whoever happens to be hosting and paying the fees. 

Doing so when your only claim to fame is having been designated a birthright king just adds to the shock value.  I'm sorry if I don't have much praise for his-hereditary-holiness who works to calm Tibet for China.

[Gewehr98]

Having actually met and held a discussion with His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet myself, I also find this thread to set a precedent in new lows.  

Here's a warning: Let's not go down that path, ok?  

Defending radical Muslims in one thread while dumping on another religious figure that many of us here on APS revere?  Nice, really nice.  

[AZRedhawk44]

The DL isn't so much a king as he is a religious figurehead.

Mahayana Buddhism isn't out to "do good."  As titular head of that faith it is not his duty to go around and right the wrongs of the world.  The primary dictum of his faith is:

All life is suffering.

Spiritual progression (and the only thing his faith is concerned with... not financial progression or social progression or growth of liberty) is obtained by following the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism, but above all the duty is to do no harm.  Mahayana Buddhists seek to leave this life with a karmic 0 for a scoresheet.  Do nothing exceptionally good and do nothing exceptionally evil.  This is due to the belief in rebirth.  When you do good things, your karma is increased and you might be reborn as something better than a human (to them, this is a cow or possibly even an angelic creature similar to a god called a Deva).  If you do bad things, your karma is decreased and you might be reborn as something worse than human.  A snake, an insect, trapped as a rock for thousands of years, or a lower demon called an Asura.  The only way to obtain enlightenment is as a human, and to be awakened to enlightenment with a neutral karma.

So:  he's out to awaken people to the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism.  He's not out to right the wrongs of the various governments of the world.

I'm not defending or attacking the guy for his faith... I'm just pointing out that your understanding of what you think his mission in life should be is flawed, SS.

[Silver Bullet]

Getting back on topic ...

Here's an article from the San Francisco Gate, of all sources, thwacking His O'liness for his ineptitude in Copenhagen:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/06/EDCS1A1DVN.DTL

[MechAg94]

Adding to the topics on the OP, Obama also got himself directly involved in Chicago's Olympic bid.  What should have been something for someone else to explain ended up getting hung around his neck since he got personally involved.  It appears in hindsight that they weren't high up in the running and Obama's time was wasted.  And while all this was happening, all these other problems are hot as well.  I have hears comments such that the speeches in Copenhagen were pretty uninspiring as well.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/10/02/obamas_french_lesson
This Op Ed highlighted some recent UN issues and stuff with Iran.  

President Obama definitely does not seem to be showing much political savvy or smarts.  A lot of people may not have liked that Bush had Dick Cheney some other guys around his administration, but it seems like Obama needs some guys like that.  The guys he has don't seem to be cutting it.

[makattak]

Adding to the topics on the OP, Obama also got himself directly involved in Chicago's Olympic bid.  What should have been something for someone else to explain ended up getting hung around his neck since he got personally involved.  It appears in hindsight that they weren't high up in the running and Obama's time was wasted.  And while all this was happening, all these other problems are hot as well.  I have hears comments such that the speeches in Copenhagen were pretty uninspiring as well.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/10/02/obamas_french_lesson
This Op Ed highlighted some recent UN issues and stuff with Iran.  

President Obama definitely does not seem to be showing much political savvy or smarts.  A lot of people may not have liked that Bush had Dick Cheney some other guys around his administration, but it seems like Obama needs some guys like that.  The guys he has don't seem to be cutting it.

That's because President Obama is totally unprepared for this office. Many pointed out his lack of experience in ANY kind of leadership position prior to the election.

What we are seeing is simply the result of playing a rookie where a seasoned veteran is required.

[sanglant]

I want a Marijuana powered car!

wouldn't you rather have a car made FROM marijuana?   

[longeyes]

But he's failing in a good way--if you're a Marxist.  If Obama's a naif the people behind him and aroound are not.  They're dedicated ideologues.  Never mind if their ideology is anti-liberty pie-in-the-sky stuff.  There's a method to this madness; unfortunately, it's still madness.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Remember the old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day?

I'm beginning to think that even that adage won't apply to Obama; the only things he hasn't screwed up are the things he hasn't gotten around to.

Yet. 

 

If he were simply foolish or misguided I figure he'd get some things right from time to time just due to random chance.  The only way to get every last thing wrong, the way Obama seems to do, is to willfully try to do it wrong and be highly skilled at it.

[sanglant]

or, he could still be on the coke

[HankB]

If he were simply foolish or misguided I figure he'd get some things right from time to time just due to random chance.  The only way to get every last thing wrong, the way Obama seems to do, is to willfully try to do it wrong and be highly skilled at it.

Here's my (very) quick take on past presidents that I personally remember, and including Obama at the end. Overall, not a very pretty picture . . .

* JFK - not deserving of the accolades he received (Remember the Bay of Pigs?), he'd be too conservative for today's Democratic party.
* LBJ - crook, slob, war criminal. His Great Society programs are the #1 reason we're in debt up to our eyeballs as a nation.
* Nixon - Arrogant egomaniac. He DID get us out of Vietnam - I'll forgive a lot for that - but my gut feeling is that he resigned over something other than Watergate. (No idea what, but I think a backroom deal was struck.)
* Ford - Placeholder.
* Carter - Probably well meaning but woefully inept, he's become a bitter old man . . . and a rather nasty streak of anti-semitism has surfaced of late.
* Reagan - Contrary to some admirers, he DIDN"T walk on water - but overall, he was quite the respectable POTUS.
* Bush 41 - Not well suited for the job. One of the patrician-like RINOs. Did some good, did some bad. Left the impression that he really didn't want to do the job. (This was reinforced by his pathetic bid for re-election.)
* Clinton - Amoral opportunist, motivated by "ME - ME - ME."
* Bush 43 - Spendaholic. Big-government RINO. No prize, but certainly not the evil Satan-spawn the media makes him out to be.
* Obama - I hope to be proven wrong, but this guy is shaping up to be perhaps the first president motivated by actual malice towards this country. 

[wquay]

At this point he is just one big fail.  I guess one comforting thing is that a lot of the "progressives" have had it with him too.  I think the SNL skit last Saturday sums it up:  he has done "jack and squat"

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/obama-address/1163263/

I'm happy with the current dysfunction in Washington, and just hope it stays that way. The negative "accomplishments" of our federal government tend to far outweigh the positives, and I'd say that's true for most administrations.

[makattak]

If he were simply foolish or misguided I figure he'd get some things right from time to time just due to random chance.  The only way to get every last thing wrong, the way Obama seems to do, is to willfully try to do it wrong and be highly skilled at it.

Our sample size is not large enough to say he can't randomly get something right.

The Olympics debacle is the best example of this: No matter whether you think President Obama inept or adept and purposely harming the United States, he (and his advisors/supporters) wanted the Olympics for Chicago.

He bungled it by not undestanding the interior machinations of the IOC, not engaging the individual members as any GOOD politician would do, and relied simply on his own charm and presence to suffice for political maneuvering. His bungling failures are easily explained by hubris and inexperience- precisely what you'd expect from someone who spent only two years in the Senate (and basically nothing else in his life) before running and eventually winning the presidency.

Pride, inexperience, and a faulty understanding of human nature (and, therefore, economics and politics both international and national) explains all these failures.

Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.

[roo_ster]

* Obama - I hope to be proven wrong, but this guy is shaping up to be perhaps the first president motivated by actual malice towards this country. 

Obama certainly doesn't seem to like America all that much.  Must be all that oppression he suffered at private schools in Hawaii and the Ivy League.  

[MechAg94]

He bungled it by not undestanding the interior machinations of the IOC, not engaging the individual members as any GOOD politician would do, and relied simply on his own charm and presence to suffice for political maneuvering.

I definitely agree with this statement.  Also, that engagement of the individuals could have been done behind the scenes.  He might have known it was a lost cause long before getting directly involved and saved himself a lot of grief and bad press.  As you said, a GOOD politician would not have picked a battle unless he already knew he would win. 

[MechAg94]

Here's my (very) quick take on past presidents that I personally remember, and including Obama at the end. Overall, not a very pretty picture . . .

* JFK - not deserving of the accolades he received (Remember the Bay of Pigs?), he'd be too conservative for today's Democratic party.
* LBJ - crook, slob, war criminal. His Great Society programs are the #1 reason we're in debt up to our eyeballs as a nation.
* Nixon - Arrogant egomaniac. He DID get us out of Vietnam - I'll forgive a lot for that - but my gut feeling is that he resigned over something other than Watergate. (No idea what, but I think a backroom deal was struck.)
* Ford - Placeholder.
* Carter - Probably well meaning but woefully inept, he's become a bitter old man . . . and a rather nasty streak of anti-semitism has surfaced of late.
* Reagan - Contrary to some admirers, he DIDN"T walk on water - but overall, he was quite the respectable POTUS.
* Bush 41 - Not well suited for the job. One of the patrician-like RINOs. Did some good, did some bad. Left the impression that he really didn't want to do the job. (This was reinforced by his pathetic bid for re-election.)
* Clinton - Amoral opportunist, motivated by "ME - ME - ME."
* Bush 43 - Spendaholic. Big-government RINO. No prize, but certainly not the evil Satan-spawn the media makes him out to be.
* Obama - I hope to be proven wrong, but this guy is shaping up to be perhaps the first president motivated by actual malice towards this country.  

I like your list, but ......Bush 41 would have been a two term President if he had not raised taxes.  I agree there was good and bad with him, but A LOT of people simply would not vote for him solely because he went back on his promise.  Clinton only got like 43% of the vote.  Ross Perot wouldn't have done anything.  The sad thing is Bush 41 would likely have bowed to pressure and signed the Assault Weapon Ban in 94.  The Repubs might never have gain controlled of Congress at all had that happened.  

[Balog]

I like your list, but ......Bush 41 would have been a two term President if he had not raised taxes.  I agree there was good and bad with him, but A LOT of people simply would not vote for him solely because he went back on his promise.  Clinton only got like 43% of the vote.  Ross Perot wouldn't have done anything.  The sad thing is Bush 41 would likely have bowed to pressure and signed the Assault Weapon Ban in 94.  The Repubs might never have gain controlled of Congress at all had that happened. 

Yeah, and then we wouldn't have seen all the wonderful reductions in fed.gov size and authority. Oh wait...