Barack Obama’s Clown Car [Updated]
By Larry Johnson on February 20, 2009 at 8:11 PM in Current Affairs
Amazed by the news that Barack’s nominee to head up Health Care reform, one Tommy Daschle, forgot to pay taxes and did not realize a free limo constituted income? Astonished that Barack’s boy to rescue the nation from the collapse of the world’s economy, Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner, could not figure out how to pay back taxes until he is nominated to head up the IRS? Well, sit your ass down and grab your blood pressure meds or a stiff drink.
Today we learned that another of the really, really smart guys–a Ph.D. in physics and a Noble laureate no less–who was named to head the Department of Energy did not realize that he was in charge of oil policy for the U.S. Government. Meet Steven Chu.
Just one question–Steven Chu, how fucking clueless are you?
Here’s MSNBC’s take:
The day before, reporters asked him about OPEC output levels after a speech to a group of utility regulators. He responded that the issue was “not in my domain.”
Later, in a conference call to reporters, he said his answer reflected “more of my naiveté than anything else.”
Now, if you are smart like a nuclear physicist what is it about being put in charge of the Department of Energy that would lead you to believe that oil has nothing to do with energy? You are in charge of energy and “oil” is not in your domain? WHAT THE FUCK!!!!
What next? A nominee for Health and Human Services who does not realize they have a responsibility for health care? If you are in charge of the Department of Defense do you think it far out to assume that you might have some responsibility for the military?
Just when you thought no one could surpass Bush for assembling a crowd of mediocrities Barack Obama shows up to give him a run for his money. And the country gets screwed in the process.
UPDATE: And in case you forgot, boy wonder couldn’t figure out that if you condemn a company like Countrywide Mortgage then you should not put a guy linked to Countrywide in charge of your Vice Presidential search committee:
Let’s see this about Barky–at least he’s consistent. He consistently chooses people for jobs who don’t know much about their job, including himself.
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This stuff just keeps getting better and better. This one gave me an actual “laugh out loud” moment when I read it.
What?!? Why are these reporters hounding me about OPEC??
Just goes to show the even nucular physicists aren’t Rocket Scientists…
OMG, this really does crystalize this inexperienced team that is in charge of running our country, doesn’t it?
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
We always maintained that Obama was Bush redux. But it’s actually WORSE! The Bush/Cheney admin as despicable as they were at least maintained the semblance of some competence during their first 30 days in office.
Well, LJ, scientists are not necessarily good policy makers and/or bureaucrats…
(ha ha, I am laughing b/c being totally spaced out seems closer to the description of a scientist)… You see, the problem is Obama is so clueless that he thinks that if he brings all of academia into government then they will run the country smoothly for him… I grant you Steven Chu is clueless but that Obama and his people didn’t discuss the job with him, briefed him and check whether he was up to it (no matter how brilliant a scientist he is) before naming it is the mother of all f–k ups. Ultimately the blame lands on their lap.
Just my two cents….
“naming it” —-> naming him
when obama puts experienced people in place you complain it isnt change you can believe in.
swollow:
I complain?? You are mistaken buddy.
I just laugh my arse off at all the idiots that voted him believing this BS he was campaigning on !!
I complain?? You are mistaken swollow
I just laugh my a$$ off at all the idiots that voted him believing this “change you can believe in” BS he was campaigning on !!
I never did. I knew he was an actor.
I complain?? I don’t think so…. I never believe that complete nonsense.
Well this is definitely change we can believe in. Incompetence in the highest office. We all knew Obama was incompetent for the presidency, and he has confirmed our worst fears in that he can’t even pick competent people for his administration, except Hillary.
No–as I recall it was all the obots who didn’t want experience. Hillary was the most experienced and knowledgeable candidate during the primary, but for obots that was a very bad thing.
When O puts an experienced person in charge of something and we seem to “complain,” we are often pointing out the inconsistency of obot thinking. Or, we are pointing out that the experienced person he is putting in charge might be someone he would have dissed during the campaign for being from the “old” way of doing things.
The obots want inexperience, so now they have to deal with the consequences–as we all do–of having totally clueless people in charge, including the clueless “leader of the free world.”
When all the young obots are older and they and their children are paying off O’s debts, guess who they can blame. (Hint: the answer is that they can blame themselves.)
Just more evidence that our POTUS is a complete fraud who is putting in place people he thinks look good or are smart without any regard for their ethical eligibility or their practical ability to do the job in question. You see, Barry does not know what it takes to succeed in the world of work. He never has. We are in deep doo-doo.
Exactly, he thinks that by surrounding himself with brilliant people the
will think “Obama is sooo brilliant” (as the fawning media keeps saying).
But he just doesn’t get it. First “brilliance is not transferable and second that
you have a brilliant person in academia does not mean he will be able to lead or implement sound and successful policy.
It is really dumb; but you see what does he (Obama) know? He NEVER did anything really in government. He is just about … theory and words.
President experiment Obama!
We are seeing the Affirmative Action mentality that Obama has maintained all through his so-called career.
Obama, Reid, and Pelosi = the perfect storm of disaster.
Is it too soon to consider impeachment? LOL!
Steven Chu is a brilliant man, Nobel Prize in physics. He belongs in a laboratory inventing new kinds of energy and in the classroom teaching other geniuses. He does not belong in Washington. He’s a very nice man, but I don’t know why he took the job. He was a top professor at Berkeley and Stanford, running the famous Berkeley Lab. I say he quits after a year maybe and goes back to UC Berkeley.
“He belongs in a laboratory inventing new kinds of energy..” This might very well be his role, and there is the possibility he was being honest: oil will not be under his jurisdiction. GS has stated oil will spike toward the end of the year, oil policy might very well be in the hands of a money man….just a thought.
ho is on his cabinet nominee locating team? Seriously! Who is finding these people and do they think they are impressing us with choosing the elite scientists who have absolutely no real-life sense?
That’s the team in the Admin that scares the bejeezus out of me cause they are hidden yet can do a lot of damage. BarryO isn’t coming up with these names himself but he sure is giving the ol’ thumbs up.
Oops - not ho, but Who is on the team to select new cabinet members. Don’t want to be called a racist.
It seems obvious now that most of his advisers and aides are nothing but political operatives.
Heck of a job BOberry.
And that Barry is an improviser….What an actor we’ve got as POTUS…
I just ask myself the same question clara and I came across this hysterical (in retrospect) article on CNN dated Nov. 22,2008:
As a presidential candidate, the former Illinois senator quickly adopted the nickname “No Drama Obama” for the meticulous level of prudence he applied to nearly every campaign speech, strategy decision and personnel appointment. The result was a nearly two-year-long presidential bid most notable for its seeming lack of a damaging gaffe or embarrassing misstep.
But some political observers say the president-elect’s similar caution with respect to recruiting new administration officials and key high-level advisers may be turning away a string of qualified candidates wary of subjecting themselves and their families to the most rigid presidential vetting process on record.
Geez. Are all Obama’s buddies from Affirmative Action?
Obama: “You know, you just need to show up and they’ll promote you. You don’t really need to study or actually KNOW anything.”
You could excuse this one away as inexperience, but on the reality level, Obama and Co (Hillary excluded) are looking like the entertainment for a kiddy show.
I am no fan of President BHO but I bet he did not get into Harvard by Affirmative Action. His father went to Harvard and he probably got in through their “family rule”. If I am wrong, please dissuade me.
Larry, for Pete’s sake, the country is not getting screwed, we;re getting screwhoped or hopescrewed. This poor Chu guy is a giver of some kind of screw.
String theory you bet. Oil not so much.
Perhaps he can invent a better clown car
So Nuke power is on the rise and oil?
According to Secratary of Energy Chu his main focus has been the Helios Project.
Which means that coal is dead meat and the billions that FutureGen is getting is for what? Clean coal Technology.
oops, guess we’re getting screwed one way or another.
This is ridiculous. So is that jerk Obama. We’re in such trouble. It’s the inmates running the asylum all over again God help us all.
The good news is that Obama is screwing up so badly already that I think we’ll be rid of him, Pelosi, Reid and all the other clowns in the clown car WAY sooner than we thought.
Even high school kids are laughing at Obama already.
The Keystone Kops
It has only take a month for Obama to prove what we already know - he is completely incompetent and ignorant.
As you aptly characterized these gang of misfits cannot get out of their own way. And now this idiot who runs Energy doesn’t know what OPEC is. Oh Lord.
Juxtapose that with the clearly Presidential appearance of Hillary in Asia and one has to wonder just how Obama got anywhere?
Wow. All I can say is: Wow.
Reading this just made me sigh. I almost feel sorry for Chu [just a little].
The man probably is brilliant, in his particular and specific area of expertise. But that doesn’t make you a good administrator or necessarily adept at communicating to the public. Or being anything but a neophyte when it comes to Washington politics.
I have read he spent many years in the lab and on university campuses. It remains to be seen if he’s up to the job. But this certainly isn’t a glorious start. And why wasn’t he better prepared before answering press questions?
Doesn’t make me real confident with the guys doing the selection–newbies picking newbies.
Thank God, they did a much better job with Defense and State.
Oy!
You will be put in charge of IRS even when you don’t know how to use TurboTax.
Larry, he is an academic/scientist. What does he know about government? The clown here is 0bama for nominating him.
Exactly pm317.
You may remember this (I read it in his books). Richard Feynman the physicist going on and on at the congressional hearings about why Challenger exploded and not realizing that many of those politicians (and NASA guys) already knew what was wrong and were trying to cover up.
pm my husband has read Feynman’s books so many times and he is always telling me one story or another. I remember one in particular when Oppenheimer asked him to go to Oakridge because things were getting dangerously out of hand. Feynman pointed to a symbol on some blue prints intending to ask the meaning of the symbol and inadvertently found the problem. They hailed him as hero and he was confused since he hadn’t done anything. It would be nice to think Chu would have that kind of luck, but it’s doubtful.
…“more of my naiveté than anything else.” That’s a very smart answer from a Ph.D., and it means, “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
Just the lastest from the “Not Ready For Prime-Time Players” up there in the “capetul”.
Is it “above his paygrade?”
The plot thickens eh? At everyturn!
Hey LJ, I bet Pat has a Clown Car in her collection somewhere that would go well with this post.
[...] “Barack Obama’s Clown Car” February 20, 2009 By Larry C. [...]
I was going to make a pithy comment but there are no words to describe what is going on in DC. Every day it becomes more obvious that this administration has no clue what it is doing-they are winging it.
History may yet judge Bush to be a better Pres. than we think. Didn’t agree with his policies, but he ran a smooth ship.
Obama doesn’t have a clue. That’s why he gets irritated when he’s asked real questions. He feels “grilled”. Have you forgotten this incident?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/01/22/obama-suprises-white-house-press-corps-visit-briefing-room/
Light questions about the gym, healthy snack? Oh sure…
Serious and real questions relating to his job as POTUS? Come on guys, please
don’t grill me….
Unbelievable….
Maybe they took oil away from Chu, like they took the census away from Gregg.
Maybe Rahm Emanuel is handling both of those.
or maybe Soros!
Ha, ha good one.
You can’t make up stuff like this!
The gang that can’t shoot straight and its leader are in charge of running the most powerful nation on earth…
While the really qualified candidate AKA should-have-been-elected-president is shining bright 1/2 way around the world!
HILLARY 2012!
You can’t make up stuff like this!
The Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight and Maxwell Smart are in charge of running the most powerful nation on earth…
While the really qualified candidate AKA should-have-been-elected-president is shining bright 1/2 way around the world! Who would’ve thought!
HILLARY 2012!
re: UPDATE.
Oh my, I did forget about that. He started out the gate this way and has stayed on course for the remainder.
When you are so beholden to special interests as he is, this is what happens. They are calling the shots.
Bill Clinton told Greta he had all of his cabinet posts (except one AG) filled on inauguration day. With 0bama it is a fxxking mess, so much for a smooth transition and such.
Why is it I have a feeling that the head of the Department of Defense…Will end up being the webmaster of Obama’s fight the smears webpage!
CLOWN CAR, I love it! On this week’s episode we have Obama’s Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood suggesting that we tax motorists for the miles they drive, and Attorney General Eric Holder calling Americans “cowards.” I can’t wait to see what happens next week.
You see, I am a “scientist” and I worked with scientists involved in gov. policiy for many years. My experience reveals that so very many of such “experts” are nothing more than weak minded activists and often tend to be self absorbed, self righteous, and elitist. Almost all are wanna be philanthropists who can’t even look a regular guy (esp. disadvantaged minority) in the face, let alone understand and solve their problems. Most go around secretly knowing that they are imposters and try to cover this up by pretending to care about the downtrodden or whatever annoying cause. Most are in their self created fields and have animosity for the world because they couldn’t get into medicine…..those that can’t get into medical school are the worst kind of zealots and peddlers of mediocrity.
They are usually petty little shyts who care rarely about real science because it takes an iron stomach to deal with data that doesn’t fit your ideology or your grant proposals….real science is not for the weak minded and indoctrinated types but most scientist today are just that. I like to think of most scientists as middle class welfare recipients….they’ll say of do anything for that next grant handout from you the tax payer. They get addicted to it and eventually all scientific principals fly out the window….along with real science.
I, too, am a scientist and work for a government contractor. I see a few like those you speak of but many, many more who are dedicated to the cause of science and take the scientific method and the data produced seriously. A real scientist does not take sides in a political issue but lets the data speak for themselves, Indeed, when a scientist moves into the realm of policy, the unbiased attitude necessary for producing good science goes out the window. Those are no longer scientists.
Judging from the content of your comment (data), which is so general with respect to criticism and paints with such a broad brush, and, moreover, given the fact that you were or are admittedly part of a policy group, I’d be hard-pressed not to come to the conclusion based on that data, that you, too, might have an agenda–just like the ones you heap all the criticism on.
I think the Democratic Party is into figurehead administrators these days…prime example being Mr Obama himself. Mr Chu certainly is an accomplished, intelligent man, clearly much more so than his boss, Barack. But I suspect the Democrats enthroned him as Head of the Department of Energy because of his prestige and connections and contacts to those at the cutting edge of alternative energy technologies. I would guess that the actual administration of the Department of Energy and related economic issues will almost certainly be left to Democratic Party operatives who know how to keep all the right people happy and who Obama’s controllers would rather not have the public too aware of.
No offense meant, but I do hope that you are incorrect on this one. The Department of Energy has always needed a serious scientist at its helm. We have had mainly bureaucrats running the organization, who don’t understand the first thing about energy in any of its various forms. For far too long the Department has not had “energy” as its focus. I am hoping that at least Chu might be able to redirect the Department. I am no supporter of That One but I will give him credit for picking a person with actual qualifications for the position. Frankly, I’m amazed and can only hope that I’m not ultimately disappointed.
for those of you not regular readers over at Hillbuzz, here’s their hilarious take on Chu!
hillbuzz.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/energy-secretary-steven-chu-i-feel-like-i-have-been-dumped-into-the-deep-end-of-the-pool/
Much of this “run amok” administration would be laughable, if I still had a sense of humor!
What happens when serious, life altering decisions must be made?
Sorry, but the appointment of Geithner is the only real inexcusable screw up nominee.
I would never have known a free limo was taxable and I can understand why someone like Chu might not immediately realize he’s in charge of oil.
Geithner, though, really takes the cake. Geithner asked for the IMF to provide his missing back taxes and instead of sending it to the IRS he pocketed according to reporters on Democracy Now!
That’s is utterly and totally inexcusable.
I bet he could name a qualified Waffle Tzar-other than that Obama is clueless. As true to form Larry has it dead on!
now, after wrong judgement on candidates for Commerce S-ry, Obama choose another falure” SYBELIUS” and Her State is bancrupt. No one believe that Obama has judgment problem , now we know He has!!!
I have to admit that I didn’t know that the Department of Energy had anything to do with oil, either. I thought that it was in charge of making sure that over the counter pep pills didn’t contain too much benzedrine, and about improving the taste of Red Bull and double caffeine drinks. Well, you learn something every day.