Tag: BHO

Obama Breaks Promise to Stop Congressional Earmark Pork

Obama Breaks Promise to Stop Congressional Earmark Pork

By | | Comments 0 Comment

I wrote a comment on the blog “Replace Congress” that I wanted to repeat here.  Yes, I am the famous (infamous?) Irishman.  The subject of the blog post was the disgust of the signing of the latest spending bill even though it contains billions of dollars of pork and earmarks and is contrary to the campaign promises of Barack Hussein Obama.  Here are my comments but please click through and read the original posting and the comments of that blogger.

It is unlikely that BHO could have not signed this bill and keep 50+% of support that he currently enjoys. The really bad news is that he will almost definitely not be that strong in a year, will be looking at mid-term elections and therefore have to make the same compromise of his principles.

He needs to save this 50+% political capital for the other great socialization of the country that is to come – health care.

What we need is a President that doesn’t care about his party and doesn’t care about getting re-elected but is not a lame duck on his/her second term. Then we will have someone that actually do the job efficiently (maybe). The job can’t be a popularity contest – we need someone that can make the hard choices. By my reckoning we haven’t had someone that could do that since Harry S. Truman.

Not withstanding the above, we could also do the job if our Representatives and Senators were not so wired into their jobs and responsible to the country not just to the pork barrel projects that they delivered.

The line item veto that Ronald Reagan so desperately wanted, would help as well.

, , ,

Obama has set the standard as the Great Communicator

Obama has set the standard as the Great Communicator

By | | Comments 1 comment

For the past decade or two, Ronald Wilson Reagan set the standard as “The Great Communicator” while he was President of the United States.  There is no question that he excelled over the many bumblings of George Walker Bush as David Letterman has so aptly recorded for us!

However, it is already clear that President Barack Hussein Obama is going to take the mantle of the Great Communicator if he hasn’t already done so.

Here are some of his accomplishments so far:

Congratulations to BHO and his staff on all of this.  I am sure that it has been quite difficult! Our government has never been the center of excellence for the use of technology. Clinton’s team was extremely frustrated at the lack of technology when they moved into the building.

Let us hope that all of this will result in a better run government, although the various missteps on getting nominees approved has been a bit disconcerting.  And like all Presidents, he needs to stop exaggerating the truth.

, , , , , ,

Least qualified President in decades/century?/ever?

Least qualified President in decades/century?/ever?

By | | Comments 1 comment

The current President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, has had a very troubled start to his Presidency.  Not only did he inherit a mess in the economy, but he has had multiple mis-steps in his selection of his cabinet and advisors.  While the tax problems with Daschle and others have plagued the first few nominations, now there is even some concern about his most important advisor, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.  There has also been some criticism for his first international discussions, the first phone call he made to a foreign power was to President Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority.

There is also a great deal of controversy about the replacement to BHO’s Senate seat although it is likely that none of this is his fault (even if it makes one wonder how he could have thrived in such a corrupt political environment as Illinois / Chicago politics).

Why is there such turmoil in the first 100 days of the BHO presidency? It is quite likely because he is so inexperienced at being in such a large stage.  He has had little experience in this area.  In fact, he is easily the least experienced President in decades and he is probably the least experienced President in over 100 years.  The table below lists all the Presidents since 1900.  It shows their previous national office as well as other significant positions that they held.  Most Americans allow a Governorship to be qualification for office and so I am lumping this in with Senate and Congress service.

A quick look takes us to Hoover before we get to someone that didn’t get elected to a major office and hold that office for a term or two.  Hoover did run a major cabinet before the election and was very prominent in world and national politics and had been a moderately successful businessman so it is arguable that he was less experienced in a national office.  He is also not a President that most people regard as being very successful!  In addition, while the election of the President was a populist effort at that time (dirty politics aside), the selection of candidate by the party was very much decided by power brokers in the parties of the day.

A little farther down the list, we see that Harding and Taft didn’t have a great resume for national office but they did have a bit of experience in running a territory or State and, like Hoover, were major players in the political machines of the day. Harding is often referenced as being among the worst President’s ever and takes specific criticism for his cabinet and appointees.

So the conclusion that we must draw is that BHO has less experience for national office than, at a minimum, the previous 12 men who held that office.  It is also reasonable to conclude that he has less experience than any President since Teddy and the leadership of the United States within the world has definitely evolved since Teddy was talking about big sticks!

The final conclusion is simple, with such an inexperienced man as POTUS, we will continue to see mistakes until he figures out how to do the job.  Let’s all hope that this is a quick learning curve since we need to dig ourselves out of the mess that Mr. Obama inherited.

List of 20th and 21st Century Presidents (data collected and confirmed from Presidential library sites and Wikipedia)

President Previous national office Other significant position
Barack Hussein Obama US Senator (didn’t finish first term) Illinois State Congressman (1 term)
George Walker Bush Texas Governor (didn’t finish 2nd term) Part – owner of a professional baseball team
William Jefferson Clinton 12 years – Governor of Arkansas Attorney General Arkansas
George Herbert Walker Bush Vice President of the United States – 2 terms US Congressman, CIA Director, Ambassador
Ronald Wilson Reagan California Governor – 2 terms President of union
James Earl Carter, Jr. Governor Georgia – 1 term Georgia Senator (2 terms)
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. Vice President of the United States (2 yrs) US Congressman (25 yrs)
Richard Milhous Nixon Vice President of the United States (2 terms) US Congressman (2 terms), US Senate (didn’t finish term)
Lyndon Baines Johnson Vice President of the United States (didn’t finish first term) US Senator (2 terms), US Congressman (6 terms)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy US Senator (2 terms – didn’t finish the second) US Congressman (3 terms)
Dwight David Eisenhower Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe 5 star General in the US Army
Harry S. Truman Vice President of the United States (didn’t finish first term) US Senator (2 terms)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt New York Governor State Senator, Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Herbert Clark Hoover United States Secretary of Commerce Head of the American Relief Administration
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. Vice President of the United States (didn’t finish first term) Massachusetts Governor
Warren Gamaliel Harding US Senator (1 term) Ohio Lt. Governor
Thomas Woodrow Wilson New Jersey Governor President Princeton University
William Howard Taft United States Secretary of War Governor of Phillipines
Theodore Roosevelt Vice President of the United States Governor New York

The continuing saga of the Illinois Senator

The continuing saga of the Illinois Senator

By | | Comments 2 comments

I am sure that a year from now we will all look back at the noise and commotion regarding the corruption of Illinois politics especially regarding the selection of a replacement for President Barack Hussein Obama’s former Senate seat.  The comedy of Governor Blagojovich and his attempt to get rich off of selling the seat will surely be funny a year from now but today it is just sad and frustrating.

It now appears that Mr. Burris, the appointee of Blagojovich, may not have been totally truthful regarding his pursuit of the seat.  While I would never encourage anyone in politics to tell the truth (it would break the mold), it seems that the corruption of Illinois politics is pretty complete and total.  That should not surprise anyone though with the simple understanding that Illinois is home to Chicago and Chicago is home to Mayor Daley (the old man and the son).  If there is anyone that exemplifies dirty politics beside the legendary Boss Tweed, the Daley family would have to be close to the top.

It makes one wonder how BHO ever escaped that massive corruption.

, , , ,

Is the President lying about jobs creation?

Is the President lying about jobs creation?

By | | Comments 0 Comment

Is President Barack Hussein Obama lying? 

I am sure that he doesn’t think he is.  I am sure that if you parse his words he would point out that he didn’t say that Caterpillar would be able to re-hire those laid off employees immediately.  And I am sure that he would say that if Congress would pass HIS package (rather than the compromise package) then the CAT employees would get to work a lot faster.

While we all know when politicians are lying (their mouth is moving), it is not inconceivable that the CEO of Caterpillar told BHO one thing in private and another on television.  On TV, his statements would have been closely followed by investors and so his honesty factor has to go way up.  He could get into all kinds of trouble if he said that he thought he could bring back workers and then announce that he was just kidding.

The reality is that this stimulus bill doesn’t have a lot of stimulus in it.  I wrote about what it should have in it, but I am not naive enough to believe that congressional leaders are regularly reading my site to understand what they should do.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6866999

Obama vs Jim Owens CEO of Caterpillar

, , ,

Obama apologizes

Obama apologizes

By | | Comments 0 Comment

I am extremely impressed that BHO apologized for nomination of Tim Daschle to the HHS Secretary. I don’t remember his predecessor ever being so candid.

Now let’s hope he learns from this experiece and starts paying more attention to the details.

Site info