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A Reminder of Obama’s Incompetence

By Larry Johnson on February 14, 2012 at 11:11 PM in Current Affairs

It may be fun bashing Republican aspirants to replace Obama, but it also is worthwhile to recall just one example of how Barry Soetoro is in over his head:

Oil Spill Timeline from RightChange on Vimeo.

Failure to act. Heck of a job Barry.

It is a long way to November but this is one stain that no amount of Obama spin will erase.

  • Wbboe

    Larry–it does not matter a farthing to Oprahnation if Obama is incompetent.  They like him and likeablity is what counts.  If things are going well, then it is the fault of others.  The American People are incapable of judging Mr. Obama on the merits. And by now most people know mainstream media will cover for him.  Same old same old. They protect their lifestyle at the expense of the nation.

    But that is the good new.  Want some bad news.  It is worse than I thought and it scares me big time:

    The recent polling on the state of the GOP Primary is either bad news or catastrophic news for Mitt Romney. According to PPP, this thing is already almost over for Romney, as PPP shows Santorum up by 15 nationally and 15 in Michigan. The latter is probably equally bad for Romney; if he loses by 15 points in what is essentially a second home state for him, he might not recover.
    There are signs, however, that the race is considerably more complicated. Four other pollshave been conducted since last Tuesday’s hat trick for Santorum. CNN/Opinion Research shows Santorum up 2, Gallup shows Romney up 2, CBS News/NY Times has Santorum up 3, and Pew has Santorum up 2. In other words, PPP is outside the margin of error for BOTH Santorum’s level of support and Romney’s level of support. Likewise in Michigan, Rasmussen shows Santorum up by 3 – reflecting that PPP  is within the margin of error (barely) for Santorum’s support but drastically undersampling Romney’s support.
    In a normal set of circumstances this evidence would lead inexorably to the conclusion that PPP had a bad set of polling, and their results should be discarded. However, not so fast. In last week’s contests in Colorado and Minnesota, PPP was the only polling company to sample either state and drastically undersampled Santorum in both. It is at least possible that PPP is on to something here that the rest of the pollsters are missing, and things could be much worse for Romney right now than they would otherwise appear.
    Is there another twist left in this race? The nearly interminable series of debates is almost over and there are few obvious opportunities in the next couple weeks for Santorum to self-destruct. The chorus of well-respected Romney supporters may have already burned up their chance to influence the race by engaging in scorched earth against Gingrich and arguing that he represented certain doom for the GOP; it will be hard to make the same pitch twice. Romney may have just two weeks to turn this thing around before the race is cast in stone against him.

    • Anonymous

      I am glad this is about delegates in a few States only.  The Republicans better smarten up.

  • Wbboe

    I have to restrain my first reaction which is how can people be this dumb?  My studied reaction is somebody in the elite class had better wake up and realize that the working class in the Republican Party are hurting and they do not trust Romney so they will keep running again to the not Romney candidate, and each time the alternative seems to get worse. This does not bode well for defeating Obama. We can only do so much to prevent this—in fact it is depressing to realize how little we can do.

  • http://www.theindependentview.com Matthew J. Weaver

    Obama.  Loser.

    Republicans, short of party-suicide by right-wing social extremists, will eventually join Romney in turning their focus onto Obama.

    As an optimist, by November I cannot imagine Americans will be serially stupid enough to again vote for Obama.

    • Wbboe

      wishful thinking.  Read what Professor Jacobsen is saying.  I wish it were different but it is not.  The Obama administration has been able–with the support of cnn and nbc and abc and nyt and washpo and ap to manipulate Oprahnation at will.  I hate it but that is the way it stands. Put differently, the country is the loser the American People are the loser and the constitution is the loser but Obama is the winner first last and always–as long as we have a corrupt mainstream media–and not a nanosecond longer.

      • Wbboe

        they will fight the battle on social issues, not economic ones.  And if the Republicans meet them on their turf and try to fight that battle they lose.  On the issue of social and economic issues, Romney is the stronger candidate. All he needs to so is convince the grass roots who do not trust him.  But that is a tall order.  One way or another we cannot go into battle with Santorum.  He could not even win Pennsylvania.

    • Anonymous

      I am actually thinking the Americans are that stupid.  When half of the nation is voting on if they should get entitlements… they are not going to vote themselves out of help.

    • Kenoshamarge

      I honestly believe the right-wing extremists would rather defeat Romney, for the crime of not being “conservative” enough, than defeat Oblahblah.

      I wish I felt optimistic. I don’t.

      As for voters being stupid enough to vote for Obama again, why wouldn’t they? Things may not be getting better in their little corner of the world but the JournOlist, Obamamedia, Presstitutes who care more for ideology that their country continue to paint a pretty picture of  their Obamamessiah and many people never hear, or read, or see anything but GOP bashing and Obama adoring.

      Many are not stupid. They are uninformed and for that we have a corrupt media to thank.

      • Anthony

        I’m a little more cynical.  I think the GOP wants to lose the WH and win the Senate.

        Srsly – would you want to clean up this mess?  Better to neuter the Messiah and have him live in public shame for 4 more years from his government housing on Pennsylvania Ave.

        I think its reprehensible behavior on the part of the GOP, but I do understand the politics of this tactic and have seen this coming for a while now.  

        • Flop flipper

           I agree that they are concentrating their energies on the Senate. I don’t agree that they WANT to lose the WH. I do think that they believe their prospects of winning it are wishful thinking. And that IS the problem.

        • Dorinda

          I don’t believe they can do both – win the WH and win the Senate.  If the GOP is holding out for people to split their tickets, they will soon turn a nice shade of blue.

      • Barb FD

        Hi- I just wanted to let you know that I am a very conservative Republican, and I will support ANY candidate that ends up opposing bama….I am on the Board of Directors of a local Rep. club, and have been stating this over and over- plus, vehemently voicing that ANYONE who votes third party, i.e. Ron Paul, will be giving their vote to bama, in the upcoming election…at this point, I will take anything other than bama, simply because his bunch are destroying the freedoms, liberties and rights that so many have died for, in this wonderful country!  At this point, we MUST stop the liberal agenda, bent upon destroying what is great about our country- I hope you agree!

        • Anonymous

           agree.

    • Flop flipper

       Stupid is as stupid does.

      At this point the Dems have been able to cast the Republicans into their little meme. They are already running ads against Romney because they know he will present the largest challenge to them in November.

      My optimism is that Team Romney has already figured out how to go after Obama but is holding back until they secure the nomination. No sense showing your cards until you have the opportunity to play them.

  • Wbboe

    Interesting theory from Steve Kates at the Catallaxy Files (“Australia’s leading libertarian and centre-right blog”) that Obama does not want to run against Romney and that exciting the religious base in the Republican Party decreases Romney’s chances.
    I’m not sure I agree with what amounts to a double-manipulation theory.  I agree with Dan Riehlthat Obama is trying to make the campaign about social issues, not economics:
    This administration is many things, politically dumb isn’t one of them. Something in some poling somewhere must be telling them there’s just enough of an angle for them to exploit, along with their wanting social issues, not financial news, driving as much of the political discussion as possible.
    This comment from LI reader stevewhitemd also is on point:
    In any left revolution, be it progressive, bolshevik, socialist, fascist, maoist, or bolivaran, it is necessary to knock down organized religion. The Catholic Church competes for the hearts and minds of people and does so effectively, as do the evangelical Protestant churches, etc. Further, the Church is organized and so can put out a message of opposition.So at some point the revolution has to take the Church on, or lose. Socialists today understand the power the Church had in Poland in the 1970s, in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s, and in Venezuela today. The current revolution will not make the mistake of allowing the Church to survive long-term.If the revolution is strong enough to take out the Church directly, it does so. But if not, it has to take on the Church in ways that compromise the Church’s moral authority and organization. It’s rather Alinsky-like, eh?
    Here is the money quote from Kates as to what is going on in this country:
    There is an Alinskyite Marxist in the White House who has undoubtedly pulled punches in his first term to maximise the likelihood of winning a second term. He is possibly the worst economic manager in American history and is overseeing a series of foreign policy disasters that have left the US in an incomparably weakened position in relation to every major issue in the world today.Yet for all that Obama is still the favourite to win in November. I have been astonished at the ability of the Obama administration to manipulate the electorate almost at will.
    The view from down under is quite clear.

    • Wbboe

      Larry–the above is from Professor Jacobsen at Legal Insurrection.

  • HELENK

    threatens veto of bill that includes the keystone pipeline and oil drilling in Alaska.

    http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-threatens-veto-keystone-oil-drilling/375501

    waste taxpayer money on losing green companies backed by his supporters, but  stop anything that really creates energy independence.
    way to go backtrack
     

    • Dorinda

      Especially as the price of gas goes up, up, up. Explain to the drivers paying $4 and $5 per gallon why it is that its better to pay an exhorbitant price for oil obtained overseas yet its not smart to support the Keystone Pipeline, our good friends and neighbors in Canada and the jobs it would bring to our country. 

  • Wbboe

    This is what gets governor romney in trouble with the grass roots and it is so damned unnecessary . . . .

    Romney Spokesman Behind Plan to Redistrict Allen West out of OfficeOne of the tea party’s most effective and popular leaders is Allen West , a Republican black Congressman from Florida. Last night he rocked the house at the Lincoln dinner in Palm Beach where Newt Gingrich was the headline speaker.Today we learn from Legal Insurrection that the effort to force him out of office through redistricting is being spearheaded by Romney’s Florida spokesman:The establishment is fighting back, alright.
    This has not received a lot of national attention, but the Republican legislature in Florida is about to push through a plan which puts Allen West at serious risk, and the person leading the effort is one of Mitt Romney’s spokesmen [Will Weatherford](Disclosure, I have supported West both times he ran for office.)

    • Wbboe

      On the other hand I know a very smart guy who was part of the Republican elites and when William Howard Taft was President he used to stay at this guy’s grandfathers house. Well, he told me that when the McCain campaign put Sarah on the ticket, he resigned from the party and became an independent. So the war between the establishment and the elites is a two way street.  The challenge is bridging that gap, and I think the key to that is ending these fucking debates (mainstream media is making $5 billion off them–reason enough to stop), and getting this idiot who works for Romney and is doing a hatchet job on West under control.

  • Kenoshamarge

    I see the same two problems I saw in 2008. A corrupt media and a Republican base that would rather lose than vote for someone who isn’t sufficiently conservative for them.

    At this point in time I wonder if Obama’s obvious incompetence and dishonesty even matter. If most voters don’t “know”, it never happened. The Obamamedia will see to it that most voters don’t know, and the GOP base will eat their own.

  • PA

    Lj<

    More BS propaganda from you and your right-wing buddies.

    Let me remind you that more resources were put toward the BP oil spill by Obama than any other environmental disaster in U.S. history.

    Let me remind you that Obama got $15 billion from BP. An unprecedented amount to help tax payers and those impacted.

    Let me remind you that your conservative buddies where not willing to shut down deep water drilling in order to make sure that this would not happen again. They also warned of dire economic consequences from the deep water drilling moratorium, which never materialized. 

    Let me remind you that the problems at MMS developed over years during the Bush adminstration. Bush's lax attitude toward regulation was the real reason for the BP oil spill. Bush, like so many other agencies, turned the MMS into basically an industry run Agency.

    Of course, Barack Obama was already in the White House at the time of the spill, but it takes time to staff an administration and take charge of an agency. For example, the Democrat's MMS director Liz Birnbaum didn't take office until July 2009 months after an exclusion was given to Deepwater Horizon project, which was a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act's requirement for a detailed examination of possible environmental impacts. That was a left over decision from the Bush Adminstration.

    Beyond all the meaningless bullshit in that video (golf? really?), what could have Obama done differentlly to stop the oil from leaking sooner? What would McCain have done differently? 

    End of the day it was a complex and unprecedented event, which took a fair amount of time to find a solution.

    There is no substance to that video. Just a bunch of cheap shots and some complaints about public relations optics.

    • http://noquarterusa.net Larry Johnson

      thank you Obama spin machine.  How bad must your life suck that the Obama team relegated you to being their point guy for lying at my blog? And I’m talking about your lies. The video shows quite clearly exactly what happened. Obama was asleep at the switch.

      • Anonymous

         Lock him up in that special room we have for trolls Larry.

        • PA

          Yeah…you would like that. Guys like you talk about the constitution, but are quick to censor. Always hypocracy from you so-called “conservatives”.

          • Anonymous

             You are the funniest troll we have had in years.

            When no party/President that wins the election manages to keep its/his
            own ideology, and instead, keeps changing it every time it/he feels like
            it, that’s no democracy. That’s hypocracy.

            As you like to say LOOK IT UP

            • PA

              As usual a completely disconnected comment from you.

              You are off on some weird tangent.

              You can never make a straight argument about anything, but rather just bring personal insults and some lame generalization and talking-points.

              Your arguments are always very very weak.

              Just a lot of meaningless hate and slander toward Obama and no actual substance. Why don’t you argue the policy and where you disagree?

              I have no respect for people like you. You bring no intelligence to the conversation. No real argument. I would much more respect for you if you said this is what I do not like about Obama and this is what I would prefer. Instead you just constantly give us your juvenile comments and cut and pasting from the most extreme bias and right-wing media sources.

              Again, you should put your Tea Party flag back up, so we can understand where you come from. 

              • Anonymous

                 As always you fall back on the same tired rhetoric. Poor PA is getting picked on. So typical of bots.
                If you can`t take the heat then fuck off.

                • PA

                  I can take any juvenile heat you throw at me. You just make yourself look like an ass with your childish comments. You de-value the website. You add nothing.

                  You are Ferd aren’t you?

                   

                  • Anonymous

                    You are only here to antagonize. Nobody is interested in anything you have to say
                    .

      • PA

        You posted that propaganda video that is mainly concerned with public relations back when BP was actually happening. It was just as bad and a dishonest video back then as it is today.

        How do you figure he was asleep at the switch? I will once again ask you. What would you have done differently?

        The federal government/Coast Guard was on the scene immediately and the resources began to pour into the event immediately. An unprecedented response by the Federal Government.

        It is funny all you conservatives who preach against Government, seem to always want to run to the Government to solve the problems caused by the private sector. Where was the private sector’s response to this event? Why did the Government need to get involved at all? With your constant call for government spending cuts and support of guys like Ron Paul and Perry who want to eliminate these Government Agencies there will be no ability for the Federal government to respond to these kinds of incidents.  Then who are you going to blame. However, somehow I think you will still and always blame Government.

        • Anonymous

           PA…

          I was on contract during the spill. I know first hand what when wrong, where it when wrong and why it went wrong. Yes there is more blame to go around than you know. There was a ton of stupidity in operations.  But saying that…..

          Here is my only question and it still remains my only question.

          Why did we not Federalize the spill?

          The entire event was a cluster-fuck from the start. Yes I blame DHS/FEMA as well as the WH. If we had federalized things would have gone much more organized. Might not have been easier, but much more organized.  The President should have ordered the Federalization though all it would have taken was Auntie Janet to say the magic word…. Just very poor leadership at the top.

          Oh just in case your actually interested in fact.
          Trying reading this account of what caused the blowout and who the real heroes are.

          http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042FZVT4?ie=UTF8&tag=gcaptaincom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0042FZVT4

          • PA

            Obama was not responsible for the blow-out.

            Not sure what you mean by Federalize the spill? Please explain?

            Again, why do conservatives come crying to the government when the private sector fucks up?

            Why did taxpayers and the government even have to get involved in the oil spill at all?

            The Federal government did not have the resources or the experience in dealing with this incident. They did a very good job given the literally uncharted waters. Anyone can play Monday morning quarterback.

            The bigger picture I mention above is that Obama got $15 billion from BP (at the time Republicans did not think it was fair that BP had to pay for this).

            You want to blame anyone, blame BP and its partners. Blame the Bush Adminstration for letting the industry take-over MMS.

            • Anonymous

              To federalize an event such as the Gulf Spill basically means that the USG would take charge and would work and bill the responsible party. Just as we have done in the past. Take for example the Valdez Spill. We federalized that spill event and worked with Exxon to handle it. BUT the USG was in control calling the shots not Exxon.

              The USCG Strike Force is very well experienced to manage an event such as this.

              The only thing I would not have federalized was the capping. That is where the USG has zero experience…

              This was a complete failure of industry, and especially the USG…The WH should have taking a more active role.

              • PA

                I think the clean-up was not “federalized” to the extent you wanted for legal reasons. It was going to be much easier to prove BP to be “criminally negligent” by keeping this on them. It also probably put more pressure on BP in order to get the $15 bn settlement. It was a private sector problem.

                Also, the government did not have all of the resources necessarily to skin oil out of the water and to lay boom and do the necessary things to get the oil out of the water and out of the marshlands. The government had to rely on BP and the industry.

                However, the U.S. coast guard basically took charge, so I am not sure what more the USG could have done.

                Again, you are not proving your case. How was this a complete failure of the USG? What actually failed?

                You, as a representative of the private sector, are running to the government and taxpayers to solve your problems.

                Instead of blaming BP, you and LJ want to make a very bullshit case to blame Obama for something, whatever that is?   

                Again I will ask you and LJ what more you would have like seen done by the WH? And don’t give me this “federalized” generality.

                It is ironic the LJ and you think government could have done a better job versus the private sector.

                “HORSLEY: Well, the cleanup, the federal government can play a larger role. I mean, there are other entities could play a role in stretching out boom and washing the soiled birds and so forth. But the only people who have the expertise to clamp off this well a mile below the surface of the water are the oil companies, and that’s why we’ve had this back and forth every day with reporters peppering Robert Gibbs and the administration: Who’s in charge? And the administration’s saying: We’re in charge, but it’s going to be BP that carries out the operation.

                CONAN: And a BP official finally saying yesterday, as their patience wears thin, too: Look, if the government wants to be in charge, they can be in charge. They can take control of it.

                HORSLEY: Oh, I’m sure they’d love to hand off that responsibility, but as the Coast Guard Incident Commander Thad Allen said yesterday: If we push BP out of the way, who would we replace them with? And no one’s come up with a good answer to that question. “

          • PA

            Obama was not responsible for the blow-out.

            Not sure what you mean by Federalize the spill? Please explain?

            Again, why do conservatives come crying to the government when the private sector fucks up?

            Why did taxpayers and the government even have to get involved in the oil spill at all?

            The Federal government did not have the resources or the experience in dealing with this incident. They did a very good job given the literally uncharted waters. Anyone can play Monday morning quarterback.

            The bigger picture I mention above is that Obama got $15 billion from BP (at the time Republicans did not think it was fair that BP had to pay for this).

            You want to blame anyone, blame BP and its partners. Blame the Bush Adminstration for letting the industry take-over MMS.

    • Anonymous

       ”The world will little note, nor long remember”
      Barack Obama, because contrary to his own opinion, he is the nation’s
      worst president.  He is an arrogant, hyper-partisan, race-baiting,
      committed socialist — a man whose deliberate attempts to transform the
      nation into a banana republic, with pictures of himself on the side of
      every building, have been thwarted only by his need to win one more
      election.
      Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/obama_the_great.html#ixzz1mSehDQ3j

      • PA

        You got all the standard far-right buzzwords in with that quote. The author forgot “muslim” and “America hater”.

        Sounds a lot like your hero Glenn Beck.

        • Anonymous

           If the shoe fits.

          • PA

            Yeah… makes sense. Obama is a partisan, a race baiter and a socialist. Such ridiculous bullshit.

            “bvana republic”? The only morons who took this country down are your GOP buddies. 8 years of Bush destroyed this country. Obama has only being trying to clean your mess.

            • Anonymous

               “I pledge to cut the deficit that I inherited in half by the end of my first term in office.”

              -Barack Obama 2009

              By the way, shouldn’t that “Obama will cut the deficit in half” video be turned over to the Truth Squad?

              Yep….He is really cleaning up.

              • PA

                Yeah.. it has proven very difficult to reduce the Bush deficit in half, given the extent of the recession that Obama inherited. Hard to recover all that lost tax revenue from the recession.

                Obama has done a very good job at getting the economy growing again and tax revenue growing again with the economy.

                The deficit is shrinking, but just has not shrunk as much as Obama thought it would before he or anyone else know the depth of this recession.

    • Stefanikn

      PA,

      Lately information has begun leaking out that you trolls are being paid anywhere from $75, 000 to $125,000 to sit at a computer all day, in our WH as well as off site, and troll various sites.

      Since you are leeching off the taxpayer dime, and expect to get full benefits when you are “retired”, just how many like you are on this sooo hard duty, and how much is it costing the taxpayers???

      For once, just answer directly without going around the block a few times

      • PA

        Let me know who to call, as if someone is willing to pay me then great….

        ….otherwise you need to adjust your tinfoil hat.

  • Anonymous

     Obama’s Budget Proves He Should Not Be Reelected

    President Obama does not deserve to be
    reelected. By refusing to address the greatest challenge this nation
    faces – our financial security – Mr. Obama has failed the American
    people. Despite warnings from the IMF, the credit ratings agencies,
    China — our principal foreign creditor — and the American people, the
    president continues to offer up budgets and programs that ignore the
    dire trajectory of Medicare and Social Security spending, putting the future of this nation at risk. 

    http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/02/14/Obamas-Budget-Proves-He-Should-Not-Be-Reelected.aspx#page1

  • Anonymous

     Now He Tells Us… Barack Obama: I Didn’t Understand How Bad Things Were (Video)

    The definition of failed leadership…
    After blowing a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus Barack Obama finally admits he didn’t understand how bad things were when he took over in 2009.
    It must be Bush’s fault.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/02/now-he-tells-us-barack-obama-i-didnt-understand-how-bad-things-were-video/

    • Dorinda

      We already knew he didn’t understand anything other than he won and he got to wear the uniform and fly in the big plane.  Obama never had to tell me he didn’t understand and he still doesn’t.

  • Anonymous

     OMB director undercuts legal case for Obamacare
    Testifying before Congress this morning, President Obama’s acting budget
    director Jeffrey Zients directly undercut one of the administration’s
    key legal defenses of its national health care law as it nears a hearing
    before the Supreme Court.

    In a hearing of the House Budget Committee Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J.,
    pressed Zients on whether the penalty that the health care law imposes
    on individuals who do not purchase health insurance constitutes a tax.
    Eventually, Zients said it did not.

    But this directly contradicts one of the arguments the Obama
    administration is making before the Supreme Court in defense of the
    health care law, which is that the mandate is Constitutional because
    it’s a tax and government has taxing power.

    Utter incompetence.

    http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/omb-director-undercuts-legal-case-obamacare/376561

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