Is Obama Really Cartman?

Wouldn't it be great if we had a mainstream media who was able to present a cogent expose' of the constant attack on civil liberties that wasn't colored by, say, comedy?

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Be Nice, By Order of the President

My favorite part of President Obama's commencement address to the University of Michigan:

It is a privilege to be with you on this happy occasion, and, you know, it’s nice to spend a little time outside of Washington. (Laughter.) Now, don’t get me wrong -– Washington is a beautiful city. It’s very nice living above the store; you can’t beat the commute. (Laughter.) It’s just sometimes all you hear in Washington is the clamor of politics. And all that noise can drown out the voices of the people who sent you there. So when I took office, I decided that each night I would read 10 letters out of the tens of thousands that are sent to us by ordinary Americans every day –- this is my modest effort to remind myself of why I ran in the first place.

Some of these letters tell stories of heartache and struggle. Some express gratitude, some express anger. I’d say a good solid third call me an idiot — (laughter) — which is how I know that I’m getting a good, representative sample. (Laughter and applause.) Some of the letters make you think — like the one that I received last month from a kindergarten class in Virginia.

Now, the teacher of this class instructed the students to ask me any question they wanted. So one asked, “How do you do your job?” Another asked, “Do you work a lot?” (Laughter.) Somebody wanted to know if I wear a black jacket or if I have a beard –- (laughter) — so clearly they were getting me mixed up with the other tall guy from Illinois. (Laughter.) And one of my favorites was from a kid who wanted to know if I lived next to a volcano. (Laughter.) I’m still trying to piece the thought process on this one. (Laughter.) Loved this letter.

But it was the last question from the last student in the letter that gave me pause. The student asked, “Are people being nice?” Are people being nice?

Well, if you turn on the news today, or yesterday, or a week ago, or a month ago –- particularly one of the cable channels -– (laughter) — you can see why even a kindergartener would ask this question. (Laughter.) We’ve got politicians calling each other all sorts of unflattering names. Pundits and talking heads shout at each other. The media tends to play up every hint of conflict, because it makes for a sexier story -– which means anyone interested in getting coverage feels compelled to make their arguments as outrageous and as incendiary as possible.

Now, some of this contentiousness can be attributed to the incredibly difficult moment in which we find ourselves as a nation. The fact is, when you leave here today you will search for work in an economy that is still emerging from the worst crisis since the Great Depression. You live in a century where the speed with which jobs and industries move across the globe is forcing America to compete like never before. You will raise your children at a time when threats like terrorism and climate change aren’t confined within the borders of any one country. And as our world grows smaller and more connected, you will live and work with more people who don’t look like you or think like you or come from where you do.

Full transcript via WSJ

Obama Tweaks Palin on Nuclear Weapons Policy

Via Think Progress:

In an interview last night, President Obama responded to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s criticism of his nuclear weapons policy, saying, “the last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues” “If the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin,” said Obama.

Obama Needs to Twitter on His Blackberry

John Aravosis at AMERICAblog dishes on his visit to the White House, where progressive bloggers were taken to some basement rec room and lectured by a Biden flunky on what a terrible job they were doing selling President Obama's stimulus results.

What could possibly go wrong.

Aravosis:

The problem with the stimulus messaging is, well, the stimulus messaging itself. The problem is the White House messaging operation. It kind of sucks. And while Joe and I were living in Democratic exile over the past year for being the Cassandra's who saw all of this coming early on, nowadays it's pretty much accepted around town that the WH has been losing the messaging war with the GOP on a lot of issues. The stimulus isn't the problem, it's the symptom. We had the same issue come up with health care reform, a wildly popular idea that somehow the White House just couldn't sell.

I'm not going to write a graduate thesis here on marketing. But at times it feels as though the White House messaging folks - and I'm talking Axelrod's shop - don't think they even need try to sell what the President peddles. It's as if they think they're all so smart, and what they have to offer so obviously good for America, that the President's agenda will magically sell itself to both the Hill and the American people.

Yeah. What he said.

Obama Debating Republicans - Who Could Have Predicted The Result?

"On Friday Obama appeared before House Republicans in a historic televised Q and A, and performed so well that afterwards GOP aides said that allowing the cameras to roll like that was a mistake.  Come on, Republicans...are you on such a Scott Brown high that you thought you could take down Barack Obama by debating him? You realize debates are why he's president, right? Seriously, all you guys do is complain about how Obama is all talk, and then you invite him to a forum that's literally all talk. That's like saying, 'Let's see how tough Aquaman is when we get him in the water.'"

---Seth Meyers

Via Daily Kos

SOTU: The Truth Can Be Hard To Hear

Remember this - I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I can do it alone. Democracy in a nation of three hundred million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is.

Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths. We can do what's necessary to keep our poll numbers high, and get through the next election instead of doing what's best for the next generation.

But I also know this: if people had made that decision fifty years ago or one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, we wouldn't be here tonight. The only reason we are is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and grandchildren.

Chris Matthews: Obama Enemy Camp?

I think Chris Matthews forgets that the President is also the Commander in Chief by default.

Obama - "I was actually black before the election"

Obama's Teleprompter Doesn't Lie - Education Edition

From Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog:

Big Guy is really excited to be doing his speech to students this morning. All those bright, eager, young faces ready to learn reading, writing and arithmetic from the finest teachers available.

And as soon as he's finished with that speech to the kids in China, he'll speak to the American kids about whatever it is the NEA approved for him to say.  

Still Fired Up, Still Ready To Go

It's been awhile since he trotted this out, but there's no time like the present to remind us that our responsibility didn't end on Nov. 4, 2008.

Obama's Education Speech - I Don't See No Stinkin' Socialism

Ok, you fargin' iceholes - show me the passages on Socialism.

I'm waiting.

Link at TPM

Hey Kentucky - what's wrong with you?

Only 51% of Kentucky residents believe that President Obama was born in the United States.

As long as they never stop believing in Daniel Boone, I guess.

Image via http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/

Cash for Clunkers Put To Sleep

The feds announce that the "Cash for Clunkers" program will end this coming Monday, and a stimulated auto business alternates between gratitude and disappointment about how the program was executed.

There's just no pleasing some people.

If the goal of the program - as articulated at its launch - was to rapidly, and temporarily, stir up activity during a languid summertime car selling season surfing the wave of a terrible economy, then by most measures, Cash for Clunkers was a resounding success.

With more than 457,000 car sales tied to the incentives, and $1.9 billion in deals made by dealers, it's difficult to argue that some economic good didn't result from the program. Some will counter that the government's backlog of reimbursing dealers due to the crushing volume shows how ineffective a federal solution can be, or that shredding an 18 mpg car in favor of a newer 21 mpg model does less to protect the environment than, say, allowing someone who motors around in a 24 mpg sedan to trade it in for a Prius that gets 40 mpg.

But Cash for Clunkers was never meant to solve all problems, or to act as a poster child for how much the bureaucracy has changed execution-wise in the first six months of the Obama administration. That's moving the goal posts in order to find something about which to complain.

When KFC experienced a PR nightmare resulting from their poorly-executed grilled chicken - Oprah Winfrey partnership, with restaurants crushed under the unanticipated demand to the point that they ran out of product and needed to come up with a Plan B to assuage customer anger, no one said that fast food joints should cease all crazy promotions. Long term, KFC accomplished their goal - significant buzz about KFC grilled chicken and increased traffic to their locations. Heck, I even tried the one-piece grilled breast. It was awful.

Let's not gloss over the fact that Cash for Clunkers ran out of funding in the first month due to overwhelming demand, or that additional billions needed to be appropriated to keep the program running because of its continued success. And ending the initiative early because the second round of funding is almost exhausted seems prudent, too - don't spend money that you don't have.

$3 billion in deals in a couple of historically-slow summer car selling months, sales that have resulted in factories stepping up production to fill in the massive holes in dealer's inventories caused by tremendous sales of certain models, with the recall of several thousand auto makers from layoff to build more cars seems to be a pretty good investment. It's not perfect, but it beats anything else that was proposed.

Shame on KFC for not properly estimating how many people wanted to try their grilled chicken, and shame on the Obama administration for launching a program that helped drive staggering increases in new car sales during the worst recession in more than 60 years. Next time you guys plan on exceeding expectations, do a better job of predicting it.

I'm sure no one on FOX news will squawk if you fail to meet unrealistic stretch goals.

Jon Stewart on Obama's Public Option Waffling

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Progressives to Obama: Time To Deliver

Eugene Robinson writes in his Washington Post column about the struggles President Obama is enduring pushing through the kind of health care reform he promised on the campaign trail.

Progressives grow increasingly fidgety about the tone and direction emanating out of the White House, as there seems to be more appetite for compromise than there is for digging in to deliver a transformational health care reform package.

As Robinson notes, any reform might be better than what we have currently, but with key components being dropped left and right (universal coverage, price negotiations with big Pharma), the best hopes for groundbreaking reform are dissolving like a Tylenol Rapid Release Gelcap.

Folding on requiring a public option in the final reform package might help get some version of legislation passed by Congress and sent to the President's desk, but for the legions of progressives who responded to Obama's call to action on November 4, an easily accomplished victory is meaningless if it doesn't provide the reform this country needs or that Obama promised was possible.

As Robinson posits, "Giving up on the public option might be expedient. But we didn't elect Obama to be an expedient president. We elected him to be a great one."

Jon Stewart on the Obama Birther Crazies

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Bobblespeak Translation of Obama Press Conference 7/22/09

AP: How do you plan to pay for this and what’s your dealbreaker?

Obama: hey dude right now we’re all paying for it - at this rate we won’t be able to afford to iPhones, cable tv, or to invade every tiny little country that pisses off

AP: oh no

Obama: yeah! so that’s 2/3 of the cost right there

AP: and the rest?

Obama: remove tax deductions but I don’t foreclose other options

AP: oh no don’t say foreclose

Obama: hey we could raise taxes on millionaires

White House Press corps: oh shit

Obama: or eliminate waste

White House Press corps: oh yeah much better

President Barack Obama Press Conference - July 22, 2009