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Jake Tapper: Obama Claims He Has “Accomplished More in 30 Days Than Any President in Modern History”

From Jake Tapper’s Political Punch, before THE speech by THE One last night:

"President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history," a senior White House official said this morning in a background briefing for TV reporters.

Pointing to legislation on children’s health insurance and the "Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act," and most especially the stimulus bill, the official compared President Obama favorably to Presidents Reagan, Clinton and Bush, pointing out that the previous presidents’ major economic bills were all months away from becoming enacted into law at this point in their presidencies.

"He has a set of wins under his belt" as he comes to address a joint session of Congress this evening, the senior White House official said, contrasting the president with Bill Clinton, …

(Boy, was that a vague campaign speech, or what??? DID DAVID AXELROD WRITE THAT SPEECH??? Methinks so. God, he even had me going for a while, I hate to admit … that optimism, those promises … then it hit me [with some therapeutic assistance from the acerbic Larry Johnson] that there was NO THERE THERE. No specifics. Nada. LATER TODAY, I will give you a round-up of bloggers’ reactions, both pro and con. The “pro” responses are ALWAYS worth a laugh …. I cannot wait to look up Andrew Sullivan’s adulatory commentaries ….)

BELOW, more from the always alert Jake Tapper:

This one is just interesting; and I have to hand it to President Obama for adopting this practice — I just WORRY about who is sorting through those letters and WHICH LETTERS he is reading. After all, THE ONE needs those strokes from the folks, doesn’t he. So my bet is that there are far more “oh i love you” than the Rush Limbaugh-generated HATE mail):

Political Punch: The Impact on a President of Reading Citizens’ Letters

CHECK OUT MORE TAPPER here. I’m stopping now because I just discovered a gem that deserves its own post.

  • r2d2

    The market has reacted negatively to Obama’s speech, and in the end, what matters is how the economy and the market reacts, not speeches. After Bernanke’s testimony yesterday, me thinks that the market agrees with my view: we’re in for more of the same for a long time.

  • Judy L. NC

    Jake is a Facebook friend. He keeps the slobbering to a minimum and he’s always in the middle of it.

  • Newly Independent

    The market has reacted negatively to Obama’s speech, and in the end, what matters is how the economy and the market reacts, not speeches.

    Exactly.

    The market doesn’t give a good damn about Obama’s “pretty words.” And that’s why our economy’s in VERY serious trouble.

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    Me too. He invited me to be his friend, which I don’t construe that invitation as him digging me but as a way to reach out and make sure that we remember to look at his writing . Because, even during the primaries, he was one of the few — the very few — who did not slobber all over Obama at every turn, or offer head-stand excuses for every one of Obama’s screw-ups.

    (P.S. I haven’t a clue what to do with my Facebook membership, and rarely go there. It’s like Twitter — sounds interesting — but I need one more thing to check like I need the already plentiful holes in my head!!!!)

  • LDW

    Does anyone have the numbers/percentage of viewers that tuned in to watch Obama’s address to Congress? and how many watched the whole thing?

  • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

    Susan, that has ALWAYS been the problem with Obama – no there there. Clinton can talk policy until the cows come home, she can come up with real ideas that help real people, not just her campaign contributors, or political cronies. Obama has always used vauge, flowery language and talk of “the future,” which is mighty hard to pin down.

    Oh, unless he is making personal attacks, that is.

    This morning, I saw on the news that David Axelrod was asked abt Obama’s pledge to do a line by line veto of budget requests as it related to the NEWEST $410 BILLION the House is pushing through right now. Axelrod’s response? That this package was crafted last year, and they want to look forward. I am not kidding you! Never mind that they have already identified over 9,000 earmarks in it…

    Yes, let’s look forward and not hold ANYONE accountable for the present…

  • lark

    The market knows that alternative energy works as 1/100ths (at best) of the power of oil and natural gas and 10 times its cost of production.

    AE = O+NG X 10 / 100 per btu.

    They can’t be impressed. They know the falacy of alternative energy and that’s all that Obama spoke about yesterday. In other words, the U.S. is doomed. Period. Is a matter of time. The bottom will fall in due time.

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    AMY!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

    And this line from your comment:

    Clinton can talk policy until the cows come home, she can come up with real ideas that help real people, not just her campaign contributors, or political cronies. Obama has always used vauge, flowery language and talk of “the future,” which is mighty hard to pin down.

    Amy, I am starved for real hardcore policy talk from our leaders.

    Btw, that goes for Gary Locke, Obama’s new appointee — he is a very clever fellow at being all things to all people, and staying above the fray. He reminds me of what Obama has — that ability to be likable and avoid confrontation or unhappiness — sort of like the kind of guy in HIGH SCHOOL who everyone likes because he focuses on being the kind of person everyone likes, but who actually stands for NOTHING. That kind of guy wins the high school student presidency. He becomes the Homecoming King. The teachers love him because he always behaves in class and always has a nice smile on his face.

    BUT! My one ultimate criterion for a real ally is this: Would I want that person in the foxhole with me? No, I would not.

  • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

    I was wondering what you thought of Locke…And the thing is, a lot of the time, those people who “everyone likes” are also the ones who get away with so much because everyone else has been told that just EVERYONE loves this person, so they cannot speak up when they cheat, or lie, or steal. Sure enough, it’s worse for the whistle blower than the offender.

    That is to say, Obama and Locke sound like two peas in a pod.

    As for the foxhole, you better believe I would take Clinton in a foxhole with me any day of the week. She wouldn’t be looking for someone else to figure out what to do next, SHE would want to be figuring it out herself. Kind of like in all of the sports movies when they say the star player is the one who wants the ball in their hands at the critical moment, not handing it off to someone else. That’s Hillary for sure…

  • lark

    They are talking about social policy. Why don’t they address the fact that his energy secretary said he doesn’t know where to stand in the next energy summit in Europe.

    All they have done in terms of energy policy is to point at alternative energy, which everyone knows is a fallacy. Yesterday he pulled the plug by specifically talking about a carbon emission’s tax without one clear alternative to substitute for carbon base energy. THAT IS INSANE.

    He could have said, ‘we will produce 10 million solar panels per year starting in 2010 and then, and then, and then we will begin to impose a CE tax on households.’ No he didn’t. He just taunted the oil producing countries to raise the price of crude.

    Social policy is great. But he needs to explain what happens when the only thing available to Americans is to stay home all day long waiting for the WalMart truck to arrive with groceries and toilet paper.

  • mountainaires

    Sometimes “accomplishing more” is not the same as crafting good policy. This is just creepy to me:

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/democrats-introduce-public-national-service-bills.html

  • Touchet

    Yes Obama has accomplished more than ANY other president. George Washington, who freed us from English rule, whatever! Lincoln, who freed the slave, whatever! No Obama, who has scribbled his name on a piece of paper is the most achieved of all presidents!

    Its like watching a late night info commercial where the celebrities talk about how there make up is the cure for cancer. America is completely retarded.

  • termo

    Actually the Energy Secretary doesn’t think that OPEC is part of their responsibility.

    The rhetoric has been big but there has been no substance so far at all other than re-imposing a ban on off-shore drilling.

  • Ellen D

    Well, Germany, we give up on cars – it’s up to you according to Obama:

    “And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.”

  • Ellen D

    That’s what you get for having frat boys write your speeches.

  • http://deleted Buzz Latte LaRue

    OBAMA hasn’t even accomplished bamboozling the whole of the nation. That is his only forte, by the way. Other than that, he keeps trying to magically appear like Lincoln and FDR and JFK, when he’s really more like Curly, Moe, and Larry.

    With losing +/- a half a point daily in popularity, his magic show is losing it’s audience.

  • cynic

    I’m not at all sure that the moment-to-moment, emotion-driven mood swings of the stock market are the best measure of the underlying health of the nation or its economy.

  • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

    Well, heck – if that’s the case, then we can stop bailing out Detroit! :-D

  • carr50

    Not all frat boys are stupid and naive. My son is a frat boy that co-headlined a major fundraiser for the county foodbank among other things – and he voted for McCain.

  • Ellen D

    You got it, RRRA!

  • http://deleted Buzz Latte LaRue

    But he isn’t Obama’s fratboy writing shallow speeches.

  • cynic

    What they should consider is that a 100 mile by 100 mile area of southwestern U.S. desert devoted to existing solar steam turbine technology would provide an inexhaustable source of electricity equivalent to all of the nation’s current energy needs. Once built, it would be enormously less expensive. It would also solve carbon emission problems without spending an additional nickle.

    That’s the future because oil will cost more with every passing year–right up to the point, only a few decades down the road, when the global tank runs totally dry.

    Alternative energy isn’t just the better option. It’s the only option.

  • Ellen D

    Didn’t mean to offend your son. I’m sure he wouldn’t have groped a display photo of Hillary Clinton.

  • carr50

    No offense taken – just pointing out. I also find myself generalizing so often, just because I am so frustrated with the obot mentality.

    “I’m sure he wouldn’t have groped a display photo of Hillary Clinton.” No, I raised him better. If he did, he knows I’d strangle hime!

  • Docelder

    Find a 100 square mile section of desert without a ceremonial burial ground, a rare horned toad, or an endangered cactus and we might have something to talk about.

  • bill

    Was this the goal of the Manchurian Candidate aka the Pres?

  • Docelder

    Thank you, he is just our “tour guide” were it not for him we would be given an equally inept guide. He was right about one thing… this never really was about him.

  • FembotsForObama

    good for you (and him)… there is nothing surer than a good kick in the ass from one’s parents for acting like an idiot, to keep a kid from becoming [fill in the blank].

    See, THAT’S the problem… Obama’s never had a parent around long enough to give him one….

    I totally agree with that most popular boy in the classroom — they were the one person you could never count on to stick up for you when someone else was doing you wrong (namely, spreading gossip).

  • Docelder

    I think he was referring to Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter. If so, he is right.

  • cynic

    Some special interests–liberal causes included–are simply going to have to give ground in the national interest. I don’t see how it can be avoided.

  • why lie

    you got that right. Obama has spend more in 30 days that any other president.

  • I’m a Linda too

    He may have spent more and put us at the most incredible questionable and shaky economic ground, but I don’t consider that an accomplishment. And surely not something he should be bragging about.

    This guy is putting Bush delusions at an entire new level.

    I guess we can just count on Narcissim politics for the next 4 years.

    BOberry will make wild claims and say anything. So be careful, what ever he claims, it’s the opposite.

  • Docelder

    I like the idea of growing algae for biofuel. Though the fuel is carbon based, it is also carbon neutral as the algae consume an equal amount of CO2. I a not against this new energy at all. I just see the electric bills and oil doubling during an already tough time from this “carbon tax”.

  • jwrjr

    And what does Obomba intend to do when (not if) “Detroit” defaults on the loans?

  • cynic

    I totally agree. Algae-derived biofuel seems very promising. Also cellulosic ethanol. There are lots of possibilities. I expect we’ll see a combined approach.

    The solar steam turbine comment was intended mainly as a rebuttal to the post in followed. Whatever the future brings, it won’t be an petroleum powered–unless we want that future to be one of very rapid decline.

  • beebop

    Or. They can just persist in falicyville and no one will have a job to drive to accomplishing the same thing, no? At least, it looks that way to people without a job.

  • Doc99

    Hopey One Kenobi is a bigger prevaricator than Joe Isuzu.

  • Doc99

    The difference between Hopey One Kenobi and Joe Isuzu is that Joe Isuzu was funny.

  • Karma

    Germany has solar cells that are breaking new efficiency records…41.1%

    In my opinion, it would be better to do microgeneration on existing roofs then tear up the deserts with thousands of miles of new transmission lines and solar farms.

    But yes, something has to done and the combo approach would be best.

  • Andy

    “President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history,” a senior White House official said this morning in a background briefing for TV reporters.

    Whoever claim that is an ignorant that knows no history and should take BO’s hint last night to go back to school and get some education..

    The Adm. spinners have been repeating this baloney for a while already. Pelosi was the first one to say that when the House passed the stimulus bill first.
    So let me quite again the following:

    Quick, But Not That Quick
    John Steele Gordon – 02.14.2009 – 10:29 AM

    After the House passed the “stimulus” bill by a vote of 246-183 without a single Republican vote yesterday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the chamber that no president in history had ever acted so boldly or so quickly to help the American economy.

    Well, boldness, I suppose, is in the eye of the beholder. But quickness can be objectively measured. The bill passed on the 25th day of the Obama presidency. Is that a record for major economic legislation? No, it’s not even close.

    On March 9th, 1933, only the sixth day of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, he signed the Emergency Banking Act–which revolutionized American banking–into law. It had been submitted at one o’clock that afternoon, passed the House by unanimous voice vote 38 minutes later, passed the Senate a few hours after that with only seven dissenting votes, and FDR signed it into law at 8:36 that evening. Now that’s quick, not to mention bipartisan, which no one can accuse the stimulus bill of being.

    Indeed, by the 25th day of his presidency Roosevelt had also signed into law the bill creating the Civilian Conservation Corps to employ 250,000 young people, the Economy Act, which reorganized the government to reduce government expenses by $500 million, and the Beer-Wine Revenue Act legalizing low-alcohol drinks and taxing them heavily, which proved to be the death knell of Prohibition.

    By June 16th, when Congress adjourned, Roosevelt had signed 14 major acts of legislation into law.

  • Karma

    than

  • beebop

    And Joe was an actor. The other one is supposed to be the President …..

  • Karma

    Something else my husband said he heard on NPR…I think.

    Was that even if those farms were built. Our existing transmission lines couldn’t handle the extra power being sent through them. So they have to build another set of transmission lines along side the existing sets throughout America to bring any of those solar farms online.

    OK…just couldn’t let that stand without checking. So I tried to google it and even google thinks it is an issue.

    http://earth2tech.com/2008/01/28/dark-clouds-in-solar-thermal-industry-itc-and-transmission-lines/

    “Then there is America’s strained transmission infrastructure. Brenmiller said adequate transmission lines are by far the biggest challenge in siting possible solar projects and the cause of most delays. This is the same limiting factor Google founder Larry Page put forward at Davos as the top energy priority for the next U.S. President.”

  • http://firefox AnnieCollier

    Tell that to Nazi’s Salt Marsh Mouse.

  • http://firefox AnnieCollier

    Hahahaha…I feel the same way. No time for Tweeting or anything else…lately not so much time for NQ which is my first choice.

  • http://firefox AnnieCollier

    LOL! A black financial analyst on Cavuto just said “Every time Obama opens his mouth, the market falls.”

    This just after his announcing more regulations of Wall Street.

    I love this guy (Charles Payne)! He’s talking about how Obama’s always trying to shove it off on someone else. He’s taking Obama apart.

  • Lisa-NY

    If Bullshit is considered an accomplishment, then yes, Obama has done more in the first 30 days of office than any other president.

  • Carol HAKA

    He most definately has done more. Problem is, he is traveling full speed backwards into a mountain of granite!

    Congratulations for toally f*cking up what is left of the worlds economies!

    CAROL HAKA :evil:

  • Andy

    Whoever claim—> Whoever claimed or claims

  • Andy

    “He has a set of wins under his belt” as he comes to address a joint session of Congress this evening, the senior White House official said, contrasting the president with Bill Clinton,

    Obama has such an inferiority complex with Bill Clinton that would be ridiculously funny if it were not because it motivates him to UNDO what Bill Clinton has accomplished (and GWB didn’t manage to destroy).

  • Carol HAKA

    Not only that, Payne is the smartest I have ever heard on the economy. He is on Bulls and Bears on Fox Saturday mornings.

    He knows Obama and his minons are embeciles!

    He also said what Obama says is just wrong!

    CAROL HAKA :evil:

  • Carol HAKA

    1st Dog has been chosen however the girls will have to wait until after April to get it because “the family is going away for Spring Break”!

    There goes our tax dollars and our Spring Break since we don’t have any money left in our 401′s flying across the world in the Big AF1!

    CAROL HAKA :evil:

  • trixta

    Obama is just suffering from the “mission- accomplished syndrome.” Guess he caught the virus from GWB.

  • http://firefox AnnieCollier

    Didn’t they just have a vacation in Hawaii? I know, bless his little heart, he’s exhausted after 8 or so weeks of showing up from 9 to 3.

  • Carol HAKA

    Hawaii over Christmas and New Years.

    Chicago for Valentine’s Day.

    Spring Break – who knows!

    CAROL HAKA :evil:

  • Carol HAKA

    Hawaii over Christmas and New Years.

    Chicago for Valentine’s Day.

    Spring Break – who knows!

    CAROL HAKA :evil:

    And, it is 4 weeks and a couple of days!

  • Animal Control

    How about “the Badlands” I’m no expert but I am an avid gardener from Farming stock and I see no use for that geography.

    Just a thought.

  • cynic

    A substantial portion of stimulus package money is allocated for energy projects which include a grid upgrade. Upgrade is long overdue. Private companies have gone a long time without making necessary investments in something so critical. Serious problems were already evident over 10 years ago:

    http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-9/iss-5/p8.html

    Grid upgrade is needed even if we stuck to fossil fuel power generation or opted for new nuclear plants. We’ve let things get very marginal there, just as we’ve neglected the nation’s dams and bridges.

  • Diana

    Have you read this article yet? I did a search on him yesterday to see what skeletons he was hiding before they came out.

    Found this on Michelle Malkin, she even published copies of checks, etc.
    http://tinyurl.com/awb7jd

    In case the link doesn’t work I saw something about Google and tinyurl’s in the headlines, but never read the article. If you go to her website, you click on archives, then February, this article:
    The Chinagate/Buddhist temple cash skeletons in Gary Locke’s closet

  • http://BREAKINGNEWS.COM Oisafraud

    Can anyone point out the difference between Obama and Bush. None. Obama is to the economy as Bush is to the war of terror.

  • cynic

    We probably won’t see 4,251 dead American soldiers and 99,101 dead foreign civilians as a result of Obama’s economic recovery package.

    Bush’s yearly deficits were basically money pissed away. How much was invested in the nation’s infractruture and its economic future?

    I see little resemblance at all between the two men and their policies.

  • Mutiny on the Mounds Bar

    Well, those special interests beg to differ.

  • Mutiny on the Mounds Bar

    The market is not driven by emotion. Investors do not make emotional decisions with their money. The economy has merely changed. Obama says he wants the rich AKA small business owners to pay more taxes. Our economy has discredited itself. Therefore, there has been a flight of capital. If you’re a communist, this doesn’t bother you.

  • Mutiny on the Mounds Bar

    Too bad the truth is when our economy collapses, others will follow suit and millions will starve to death. Why do you think Obama signed an executive order to subsidize abortions throughout the world?

  • athena

    That is creepy.

  • so saddened

    have seen several of your posts – looks like you can find a way to defend your guy no matter what. so will only waste my time once and won’t bother to engage further.

    you mention dead soldiers and foreign civilians. odds are very high that your guy will cause the deaths of many more soldiers and foreign civilians through his inept handling of pakistan, iran, afghanistan, north korea, and wherever he else he decides to screw up.

    in addition to the deaths of soldiers and foreign civilians that he will directly cause, odds are very high that he will indirectly cause the deaths of many thousands of americans when we are repeatedly attacked by those who know weakness when they see it. and that’s not even taking into account the additional weakness cause by his multi-trillion dollar spending sprees that will make us financially unable to defend ourselves.

    it seems clear that you believe the bull you’ve been fed, so don’t expect you to agree. sadly, some only recognize danger when it’s too late to do anything about it.

  • cynic

    …looks like you can find a way to defend your guy no matter what.

    That might be because you’re seeing my responses in a setting where the majority find ways of relentlessly attacking him, regardless of what he says or does. Perhaps the forum name reveals much about what one should expect here. How many know what the phrase “no quarter” implies?

  • Karma

    We have the same issue on the west coast. Where one point on the grid can take out several states by tripping the safety/circuit breakers.

    Of course, everyone knows how deregulation along with Enron worked CA over.

    Hopefully there are no deregulation schemes in that stimulus package. At this point, I assume nothing with Dems or Reps, because both sides have pushed it in various states. ;)

  • http://msplaceddemocrat.com navyvet48

    Must you read that blathering idiot Sullivan. He always makes vomit work its way into my mouth!

    As for the speech it was awful. The O never says anything substantive in a speech. He is afraid he will get caught with his pants down around his ankles later!

  • http://quoteforhealthinsurance.com/2009/02/26/senior-health-insurance/ Senior health insurance | Health Insurance Article Blog

    [...]  Jake Tapper: Obama Claims He Has “Accomplished More in 30 Days Than Any President in Modern History”Posted by arashtoudeshki via NO QUARTER   [...]

  • mountainaires

    “President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history,” a senior White House official said today in a background briefing.

    WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama charted a dramatic new course for the nation Thursday [...] accompanied by an astonishing $1.75 trillion federal deficit [for the year] that would be nearly four times the highest in history and 12% of GDP.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_budget

    The deficit is expected to remain around $1 trillion for the next two years before starting to decline to $533 billion in 2013, according to budget projections.

    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96J7CT83&show_article=1

    Of course, budget projections are almost always understated and revised upward. Karl Denninger at MarketTicker thinks the deficit for next year will be $2 Trillion

    http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

    A Primer on Modern Accrual Accounting Methods and the true deficit: $65 Trillion

    http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=7446106

    Taking a little trip down memory lane to 2004:

    On Feb 27, 2004 FactCheck.Org responded to a statement by John Kerry regarding Bush’s $500 Billion annual deficit:

    Biggest Deficit in History? Yes. And No.

    Half a trillion dollars is the most ever, but several others have been worse relative to the size of the economy.

    Summary

    John Kerry said Feb. 26, 2004 that Bush’s budget deficit is “the largest in history.” But by the most important measure that’s not quite true.
    This year the deficit is projected to be in the neighborhood of half a trillion dollars, a record. That’s 4.5% of the entire economy, a figure large enough to worry Alan Greenspan and others concerned about a drag on future economic growth. But it was even higher in both the Reagan administration and in the term of Bush’s father.

    The federal deficit for fiscal year 2004 (which ends Sept. 30) is projected by the President’s Office of Management and Budget to be $521 billion. The Congressional Budget Office is predicting a somewhat lower total of $477 billion. But either would easily exceed the previous record deficit of $375 billion set last year. That in turn broke the previous record of $290 billion, which was reached under Bush’s father in 1992

    Footnote: The biggest deficits by far — measured as a percentage of the economy — came during World War II. In 1943 the deficit was $54.3 billion — which today would amount to little more than rounding error. But back then it amounted to more than 30% of the wartime economy. Nothing since the war years has come close.

    More:

    http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2004/biggest_deficit_in_history_yes_and_no.html

    Obama has made a lot of promises. But he’s overstating what he can accomplish:

    http://www.factcheck.org/politics/stimulus_bill_bravado.html

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