Obama demonstrates his grasp of the situation once more...

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Based on the premise that it's very unlikely one would preform all of the completely wrong actions unintentionally?

Partially.  It's certainly true that they can't honestly be so stupid to think that what they're doing is really going to help.  It goes deeper than that, though.

Looking behind the public persona a bit, we see that Obama is a hardcore far left socialist who wants to remake American society according to his own warped ideology.  He's made statements to that affect both recently and during the campaign.  So, how do you re-order a society? 

Saul Alinsky gave one answer to that question.  In a nutshell, he said that to get people to accept radical change you must first make them unhappy with the status quo.  To that end, spread chaos and discord at every opportunity.  From the chaos you can present your radical alternative as a solution to the problem, and get people to accept it on those grounds.  The more severe the calamity, the more radical your "solution" can be.  Obama is a student of this brand of politics.

Does this strategy sound familiar?  FDR used much the same strategy to push the New Deal during the Great Depression.  Hitler used similar tactics (I don't mean to Godwin, but the Nazis burning of the Reichstag is an excellent example of this strategy at work).  A recent example would be a statement made by (I think) dick Gephardt a few years ago, saying essentially that the Democrats picked up one new seat for every 100 points the stock market fell.

The more I watch Obama in office, especially the public statements he makes, the more I'm convinced that weakening the economy is deliberate part of a strategy.

[Nick1911]

Would this be the strategy outlined in Rules for Radicals? 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

To be honest, I don't remember specifically.  It's been a few years since I read Rules for Radicals, and that's not his only book.  Regardless, Rules for Radicals is an eye-opening read.

[El Tejon]

Read Rules for Radicals.  It is Obama's playbook.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Can I have a sanity check here?  When I made reference to dick Gephardt above, is the 'd' in Dick capitalized?  Try as I might, I can't get it to capitalize properly.  I try editing the message, but it always comes back "dick Gephardt" instead of "dick Gephardt".

WTF?  It's doing it in this post, too.

[Nick1911]

Can I have a sanity check here?  When I made reference to dick Gephardt above, is the 'd' in dick capitalized?  Try as I might, I can't get it to capitalize properly.  I try editing the message, but it always comes back "dick Gephardt" instead of "Dick Gephardt".

WTF?  It's doing it in this post, too.

Yea, the software does that.  I don't think we ever figured out exactly why.  It only does it to the word "Dick", as far as I know.

[grampster]

That's because "dick" is not a noun, it's a descriptive adjective when describing Gephardt.  You more properly capitalize the letter T in the word That preceding dick.

[Monkeyleg]

Hey, I resemble that remark!

It's really looking as though all of this could be intentional. Even Jimmy Carter couldn't screw up the economy this bad by trying to do what he thought was right.

[Impure Client]

IBTL 

[Nick1911]

IBTL 

Why would/should this be locked?

[Werewolf]

Why would/should this be locked?

It shouldn't...

Guys that post a message with the only content being IBTL are doing it just to increase their post count.

Quite rude in my opinion...

[Harold Tuttle]

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/03/05/mr-president-you-shouldnt-have

Mr. President, you shouldn't have!

By Nicole Russell on 3.5.09 @ 2:45PM

To celebrate Britain's "special relationship" with the U.S. and celebrate the new President, Prime Minister Gordon Brown outdid himself.

During his historic trip to Washington, Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet - once called HMS President.

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that already takes place in the Oval Office in the White House, after being presented by Britain to the US in 1880.

Surely Mr. Obama gave Brown something nice in return. We are in a 'down economy' caused by our former President, but I'm thinking Obama could spare something decent to give the poor guy. It wouldn't even have to be expensive, just a gesture. One of those new aides could have thought of something––well––thoughtful.

For despite being leader of the world's most bountiful nation, President Obama handed over nothing more thought-provoking than 25 classic American films on DVD.

Brown apparently, is not a film buff and was underwhelmed by the generosity of the new American President.

I'm sure Brown realizes it's only a result of our tough economy. While Obama is busy fixing it, he can watch a few movies.

[Manedwolf]

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that already takes place in the Oval Office in the White House, after being presented by Britain to the US in 1880.

The grammar, it burns...

[Perd Hapley]

Guys that post a message with the only content being IBTL are doing it just to increase their post count.

Quite rude in my opinion...

Why would anyone want to increase their post count?  Trust me, there's no pay-off. 

Anyway, it looks like it was supposed to be a joke, to me. 

[Harold Tuttle]

it's an arfcom-ism