Kenneth The Page Responds

I don't know who this internet chatter character is, this Kenneth the Page, as I don't watch television, but from this clip I can see what they are trying to suggest.



Ann Althouse suggested there was an undercurrent of racism about the personal attacks on Governor Bobby Jindal's speech. After all, it was just a speech, and some people bomb in them. He did last night, stylistically, but given the instantaneous diarrhoea of posts his performance got (possibly as much as the actual and much more important State of the Union), you'd think he had slain three kittens on national TV.

Althouse asked.

"Why the urge to paint him as a white white man? Where did that come from?"

Probably the critics will mention that his regionalism and conservative religion made the connexion evident, but she is going for something deeper here.

There is a programme on IFC called "The Whitest Kids You Know".

A blogger described such kids as:

"The whitest kids I know all sort of look like Ashton Kutcher, listen to Jack Johnson, think Dane Cook is funny, and dig Adam Sandler movies."

I think what many people don't like about Jindal is that he doesn't talk like Apu, doesn't look like he could break into a Bollywood dance routine, and therefore isn't the "other" that is cool because of cultural expectations. Take it into another level, and they are also inferring that he is a race traitor by being a poseur, this Republican Southerner Indian fella.

What I BELIEVE Althouse is saying is that he fails to live up to some kind of stereotype they refuse to acknowledge they have deep inside themselves.

He acts like just another vanilla geeky white guy, like Kenneth the Page. More Millionaire, than Slumdog, if you will.

And that makes him the fairest of game.

Sure, he did himself no favours with that speech.

But if Obama had stunk up the joint, and others had criticised him so savagely, don't you think that his supporters wouldn't have claimed racism as a possible reason for the derision?

You bet they would have.

ADDED: Some journalists are not even hiding their references about Jindal and his Indianness.

“Bobby Jindal was ‘pitiful,’ Helen Thomas tells film crew, right before making a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ crack.”

That is Helen Thomas, the doyenne of the press corps who practised unbiased reporting all those years, you know.

IN THE COMMENTS: I mean, after Chris Matthews admitted he uttered that infamous "Oh God", and stating that the GOP CPAC conference this week will resemble a Star Trek convention (you know, more uncool geeky white guys), what do we expect anymore.

But JSU reminds us of his latest Jindal crack.

There was definitely something rotten in Matthews' "outsourcing" remark.

State Of The Union Word Cloud

Think you caught some words in President Obama's State of the Union debut, occuring more than others? Let's see if you were right.

According to one source, Curtiss on Althouse, here were some word count stats.

- Crisis: 11
- Bank: 12
- Jobs: 19
- Economy: 22
- I: 73
- Freedom: 1

Here is a retrospective on some past State of the Union word clouds.

PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON, 21 January 1790



PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 3 December 1861



PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER, 3 December 1929



PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 3 January 1934



PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN, 21 January 1946



PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, 30 January 1961




PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 26 January 1982



PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH'S AMALGAMATED STATES OF THE UNION



PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, 24 February 2009



(Latter via Jason Griffey)

The Football Arrives

I did not know the briefcase containing the nuclear codes had to follow the President even to the State of the Union address. Here it is, carried by an unnamed military aide, arriving at Statuary Hall.



Thanks to Wikipedia, we learn the following about the so-called "football":

The case itself is a metallic, possibly bullet-resistant, modified Zero Halliburton briefcase which is carried inside a black leather "jacket." The entire package weighs approximately 40 pounds (18 kg). A small antenna, presumably for the SATCOM radio, protrudes from the bag near the handle. A common misconception is that the football is handcuffed to its carrier. Rather, a black cable is employed that loops around the handle of the bag and the wrist of the aide.

That's a sobering thought. Perhaps much more reassuring than also learning via Wiki of something that happened back when, to President Jimmy Carter.

"Jimmy Carter once left nuclear launch codes in his suit when it was sent in for dry cleaning."

Never mind "ineffectual". Try incompetent.

You Don't Mess With Joe!

I don't know, maybe President Andrew Johnson called for a spitoon to lob chewing tobacco once, but for me, this is the single-handed most un-Presidential moment in any State of the Union I have ever witnessed. Both in the giving, and in the receiving.

Obama Just Assured Himself A New Running Mate

What a sneaky move by the President, to pass this untenable hot potato to his second-in-command, ripe as he would then be for criticism if something goes wrong, or it doesn't work out. But I cannot believe Vice-President Joe Biden would accept responsibility for overseeing the implementation of the Stimulus Package.



Is he that desperate to remain in the mix?

Whatever happened to the more discrete Vice-President (a cutting snipe about Dick Cheney's role) that both men promised us Biden would be?

"The fact that I'm asking my vice president to personally lead this effort shows how important it is for our country and future to get this right," [President Obama] said.

Even Gore would not been given such oversight in Clinton's term. What a crock.

Dear Foreign Office

Below is the first draft of a letter composed by President Barack Obama, having been found by a White House janitor crumpled up in a corner of the Oval Office.

"Dear Foreign Office,

I won! (I just love saying that) Please find enclosed a bust of Sir Winston Churchill, which had been allowed use by the Foreign Office until the 13th of February instant. Unfortunately, I have no further need of this bust, being as it is an oppressive reminder of the British Empire's heydey, one which enslaved my father's people in Kenya for more than a hundred years, forcing them to become wastrels, drunks and family abandoners. It is not one which I wish to look at for the next four to twelve years (if my new Bill works out).

I am, however, interested in a bust of Keir Hardie. And have you one of Tony Benn, too?

P.S.: Please tell Sir Nigel Sheinwald that I heard that he's a cold wet noodle.

Very sincerely yours,

B. Obama, 44"

Seriously though, of all the media generated non-stories out there, this is the lamest so far in this young Presidency. So he's returning Winnie's bust, big whoop! The man has a right to display whatever image he wants in his quarters.

Anyway, Winston won't mind.

The greatest British Prime Minister has better things to do than to look at the mug of an amateurish one-term American President.

Spidey In Florida

Scold-In-Chief

President Barack Obama scaring Americans straight at his first press conference. Can you imagine four years of Uh-Ahh-Uhhs passing for articulation of policy? Oy. And they made fun of poor Caroline Kennedy, not to mention the-one-who-must-not-be-named.

Best analogy of the night about it came from a Roger Simon Politico commenter:

Does anybody else have the sense that America is clickety-clacketing up a very steep rollercoaster hill, and that the ride ahead of us has some railings that are desperately in need of inspection before the train takes the plunge?

I usually love rollercoasters, but this one (which America stood in line for two-plus years to board, enduring a vast and ceaseless barrage of political jibber-jabber) does not promise any fun...only cold-sweat, white-knuckle fright.

Now I can't get the rollercoaster clickety out of my mind.

ADDED: Rollercoasters must be in vogue, as I just read on Althouse a quote by Dita Von Teese:

"You can have a roller coaster ride with a nice guy in a sweater."

Yeah, only Obama isn't a sweater guy. He's Members Only all the way.



(Wow, is that Malia Obama on the left? She has that loping tomboy look many teen girls in transition go through, albeit age-wise she has a ways to go. She favours her father completely, though)

MORE: I keep thinking about this press conference. It's one thing to disagree with a man about policies, but I just can't shake the sense that he is in WAY way over his head. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that, but it's frightening me all the same.

Can some tech genius out there make a Youtube vid superimposing Christian Bale's rant over Barack Obama's press conference?

Especially this bit:

F***'s sake man, you're amateur.

Yakety O

As a commenter put it, everything is funnier when put at double time, and synched with Yakety Sax.

This includes President Obama bumping his noggin when entering Marine One.



...any chance of Fred Armisen, the current (dismal) Obama impersonator on SNL, adding a Presidential tendency for bloopers in his schtick?

You know, shades of Chevy Chase and Gerald Ford.

I mean, the faux pas are beginning to pile up, and I'm not just talking of the mangled Oath.

ADDED: Heh. The link asking for captions produced some great ones.

- “Pentagon cuts overhead”

- Note to Self: Put Amendment in Stimulus for larger Marine One

- How does Karl Rove keep doing these thing?

- A Marine One pilot attempts to knock some sense into the new president….

- The unfortunate cost of raised expectations.

- Racist helicopters still living in the past.

I'll Stop Making Fun Of Obama

When an ex-SNL alum goes on Broadway to lampoon President Obama by, amongst other things, projecting a photo of the presidential penis on the stage.

Don't hold your breath because unlike what occured to ex-President George W. Bush, it just won't happen.

The New York Times via Gateway Pundit:

So far six audience members have stormed out midperformance of the Broadway show “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush,” the comedian Will Ferrell’s lampooning of the 43rd president, according to those keeping count at the Cort Theater. But they haven’t been leaving after a particular Ferrell quip.

They’ve been standing up, instead, after the projection of a supersize photo on the backdrop of the stage. A photo of a penis. Specifically, as Mr. Ferrell (who plays President Bush) leads the audience to believe, the president’s penis. Except that’s not quite right.

“It’s an anonymous but age-appropriate public domain Internet penis,” said Adam McKay, the play’s director. “We went on the Web and got a penis.”

“It’s not the president’s penis, as far as I know [edit: Heh. Heh. Just how would he know?], and Will is 41, so we weren’t going to use his,” Mr. McKay added. “What I do know is that the photo gets one of the great shrieks of delight from the audience, and it’s also the one moment that is followed by people walking out.”

It's not just my sense of lese-majesté horning in. I loved Spitting Image puppets, and howled for hours at the various interpretations of my heroine, Maggie T, and the royals.

When I read in the NYT that the Lebanese had a similar show called "Democracy" (bit vanilla, no? But then, so is "48 Hrs"), which poked gentle fun at the politicians of the day, I clucked approvingly when the show's creator said that everyone is fair game, except the President, since it's against the law to poke fun at the head of government.

Thank God that's not the case in the West, save for ex-Soviet satellites, uncoincidentally enough...

"Mr. Bou-Gedeon becomes grim when asked about the role of comedy, and dramatic art in general, in Lebanon. Only shallow work is possible, he said, because the Lebanese are always trying to escape themselves.

“Shakespeare said, ‘Show a mirror to the people,’ ” he said. “But people do not want to see themselves here. They want an image that is false, not the truth."

No one should be above comedy, especially our leaders. It's a healthy society which can poke fun at those who would rule us. Moreso, when there is absolutely no punishment for doing that.

But with Bush, and with conservatives, it's never gentle, it's never even-handed, it's never even funny -- it's always this side of juvenile, and demented (hello Margaret Cho).

Theirs is no mirror they wish to show us. It's an iron maiden, and yet we're supposed to be both Torquemada and torture victim.

QUICK QUIZ

Is this funny?



How about this?



A) Hellz yeah.
B) How dare you?!

If you answered differently for each, you've got an hypocritical sense of humour.

Look, either both are funny, or none are. You can't have it both ways. That's why some of us are upset -- because you only want it one way. Your way.

Sorry, kids. It's our turn now. Being in opposition is fun.

Aww Mush

I was really upset when some right-wing bloggers dared to question whether this photo was a staged shot of the Presidential couple, showing a lot of affectionate body language towards each other.

Guys, this below is real. THIS was phony. I mean, can't you tell?



The other fact which stuck out for a lot of bloggers, mostly male themselves, was that the men riding in the elevator with the First Couple looked like they wanted the lift to open up and swallow them whole.

Men are strange that way. They would gawp at a couple on a screen having hot sex, but the first sign of tender affection right in front of them, and they're all like "get me out of here".

Mind you, it wasn't always that way. Grandpapa and his generation seemed to enjoy watching a couple making out. Look at the guy with the cigarette and the Fairbanks 'tache.

70 years later, and you can still hear his silent, "awww".



...give the Obamas a break, okay? They genuinely love each other, and I don't know about you, but that's what I want in a President and his old lady, I mean!, First Lady.

EXTRA: Oh. Remember? Ouch.



IN THE COMMENTS: Chickenlittle says he's down with the Prez and Wifey being genuinely in love, but queries where on earth Mrs. Obama got that dress.

Well, Chicken, I don't know about the provenance of her ostrichy ball gown, but the one she wore to the Inauguration I think came from this.



As Ace put it, "Who shot the curtains?". Heh, right-wing bloggers rule.

Hey, Whatever Happened To That Nice Barack Obama?

(Strewth, my second Instalanche in as many days! Thanks, Glenn, and welcome all! ADDED: Welcome Ace of Spades HQ readers!)

You remember him? This guy.



That cool cat with the million dollar smile. The post-partisan uniter of all Americans, the guy who was going to cure our nation's ills with his wonderful speeches, and steady calm hand. Mr. Cute Puppies, Happy Rainbows and Chocolate Chip Cookies. HIM.

Because when he took his first Air Force One trip to Williamsburg, VA (9 minutes one-way from D.C.; take that carbon credits!) to address the House Democrats' retreat, he belted forth with such angry frustration at the Stimulus Package meeting resistance, that I had to blink.

Surely someone had told him that winning a Presidential election does not equal to a general assuming Supremo command, and expecting everyone to follow orders. Right?

Or do you reckon that in the 47 years of his time on earth, no one had actually, really told him "no", "you can't", "you have to wait", "hey, what's your hurry", and lastly, "settle down, you're behaving like a brat throwing a tantrum" and, "Oh my God, did you just totally give me the bird"?

Because that would explain his petulant, almost Reverend Wrightish delivery, with that strange preacher cadence he assumed on the campaign trail -- which is so very at odds with his new Office.

Alas, I'm afraid I've come to the conclusion that Barack Obama is a rather spoilt man, unused to waiting for anything he wanted, unused to real challenge after having been everyone's darling since the time he was very young.

He will find it very difficult to control his temper, and his emotions, if he doesn't learn grace under fire.

Because right now, he's very, but very unpresidential.



You know, I'm not sure his mask had never slipped before, though. Come to think of it, I've seen Barack Obama looking angry in the past. But just in case you yourself missed it, here's a little refresher.

THE MANY ANGRY FACES OF BARACK OBAMA



















I don't blame you for not remembering him ever looking pissed off though. Media weren't exactly rushing out those stories.

Nope. This is the Obama we were told we were going to get.



Welcome to reality.

IN THE COMMENTS: Orion sums up the underlying threads perfectly.

Some of that "anger" is an act. He's almost certainly focus-grouped it and been told that "acting tough" scores him more points than being polite. Trouble is, he really doesn't have much bite behind that bark. The congressmen he sneered, "I won." to, also won, some by larger margins than he did. And they'll be there after he's gone.

I think we're going to see the most blatantly partisan president in decades for at least the next 2 years. He's going to bully and hector the GOP and get increasingly frustrated when they ignore him - or worse, start winning arguments with him. Because the Democrats in marginal seats in Congress are NOT going to want to go over the cliff with him. He hasn't figured that out yet.

Ironically, President Obama is not as proficient at acting as his Democratic counterpart, President Bill Clinton, was.

When the latter was given the near-hourly polls of each given topic, he knew how to fine-tune himself to reflect the latest nuance in public opinion to a remarkable degree.

Obama is too green in politicking and also temperamentally unable to know how to do that. This might be at the root of his famous faux-pas when going "off-script" (the Green Lantern reference, the Weezy mistake, Nancy Reagan's necromancy).

His only point-of-reference seems to be assuming a Reverend Wright-like persona, whereupon he plays to the crowd, the crowd then laps it up, immediately giving him a false sense of momentum. That only leads to him acting even more out of control.

It's a recipe for destruction. In real-time...

"I Think I Made The Wrong Decision"

Whatever qualms I may have about President Obama and his political ideology, is as nothing compared to people who genuinely have a stake in the matter, whose lives and sacrifices are more than just misgivings.

Like the mother of James McDaniels, Diane.

Her naval son died in the USS Cole attack. She is directly affected by President Obama's decision to close down the Guantanamo detainee camp, and in fact, now regrets her decision to vote for him.

"My son was blown up along with 16 others. I buried body parts for three years," she told FOX News. "I'm still suffering and now he's withdrawing the charges?

Brutal, absolutely brutal. Poor woman.



(Via Picketlines)

Seventeen U.S. sailors died on Oct. 12, 2000, when Al Qaeda suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, as it sat in a Yemen port.

The Pentagon last summer charged al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, with "organizing and directing" the bombing and planned to seek the death penalty in the case.

In his Jan. 22 order, Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The order also froze all Guantanamo detainee legal cases pending a three-month review as the Obama administration decides where -- and whether -- to prosecute the suspects who have been held there for years, most without charges.

Two military judges granted Obama's request for a delay in other cases.

But a third military judge, Army Col. James Pohl, defied Obama's order by scheduling a Feb. 9 arraignment for al-Nashiri at Guantanamo.

Watch her become a media and progressive aisle darling like Cindy Sheehan in 3...2...1...actually, in "never". Her pain at losing her son is devalued because she dares not to toe their line.

Thank you for your son's service, Mrs. McDaniels. May he rest in peace, since justice may be out of the reach of fate.

Electoral Dysfunction

This spot by Reason TV is fantastic. Check out the visual with the accompanying voice-over:

"It should not be used in the hopes of achieving actual growth"

Oh man...made my day.



IN THE COMMENTS: Starless poses a logical question.

"Does this mean Obama needs Stimulus when he's with his unicorn?"

Ewww. Heh. Though doesn't it occur to anyone that maybe the unicorn is the one in need of a little help.

Wait, is saying that seditious in the new Hopium Den?

Just Do It

The last time I read an opinion piece in a newspaper by a sitting President of the United States, was George W. Bush's Wall Street Journal piece on the incoming Democratic Congress in 2007.

He wrote then:

Our Founders believed in the wisdom of the American people to choose their leaders and provided for the concept of divided and effective government. The majority party in Congress gets to pass the bills it wants. The minority party, especially where the margins are close, has a strong say in the form bills take. And the Constitution leaves it to the president to use his judgment whether they should be signed into law.

That gives us a clear challenge and an opportunity. If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate. If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation. We can show the American people that Republicans and Democrats can come together to find ways to help make America a more secure, prosperous and hopeful society. And we will show our enemies that the open debate they believe is a fatal weakness is the great strength that has allowed democracies to flourish and succeed.

To the new members of the 110th Congress, I offer my welcome--and my congratulations. The American people have entrusted us with public office at a momentous time for our nation. Let them say of these next two years: We used our time well.

Barack Obama doesn't want two years of politicking. He wants everything done in 2 weeks.

He wrote in the Washington Post today:

That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come. [...]

These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay.They're patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide. So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time.

The comparison in message is not that stark.

Both sitting Presidents invoke our Founders -- that's usually done to prey on Americans' sense of needing to better themselves each and every generation. Not just as a people, but as a country. Each chapter of American history has to be loftier than the next, so each president tries to make sure his administration is not the one "to let down the side".



What is stark are the platitudes written by Barack Obama, unhighlighted above. It's like he has not been able to come out of campaign mode, and his writing (once filled with wiry energy, and elegance) has become stilted beyond belief.

He began each sentence in the middle of the piece with "Now is the time to...", in what I presume he meant to sound more Patton than Eisenhower. Charge up the troops! Get them to believe your message! Be inspiring by aspiring!

Bush's message was categorically different in tone, though he too employed a rhetorical device. Instead of the rising alarmism that Obama has in each sentence, he used the self-confident: "I believe...".

Though his emphasis was, as ever, on the military defence of our country, Bush did touch on the pressing economic situation which, with 20/20 hindsight, now seems portentous to me. He was sending a hidden code that Democrats would probably not work well with Republicans in the next years, fearing the public would only hold the President accountable.

Well, I hold both he and that do-nothing Congress highly accountable, but in Bush's case, he had a handy (if cynical) out: 'The economy was fine when we Republicans were in charge, but went completely downhill in the last 2 years of my administration'.

Since President Obama doesn't have that handy out, he is laying himself completely bare in the first two weeks of his administration. There is not even a pretense to calming the nation now.

WE MUST PASS THIS STIMULUS BILL OR AMERICA IS DOOMED! DOOMED I SAY! I AM OUT IN FOUR YEARS!

Ironically, of course, this is the tone ascribed to President Bush during the heady, awful days following the attack on American soil in 2001. The Patriot Act and other system-altering legislation passed in record time. A war on two fronts was announced, and Congress didn't blink.

The public who were against these measures, which later included the distancing of media from the Bush Administration (accused as they constantly were by progressives of "carrying Bush's water"), said this was rank warmongering.

So tell me: what is it today, but that very note of urgency, so pregnant with panic if acts are not taken immediately, if not alarmism? What is this situation if not taking advantage of an opportunity, as Barack Obama wrote, using another meaning of the word "opportunity".

"We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity."

Both the freedom of our country and the economic stability of our country mean everything to the world's foremost superpower. One without the other is unthinkable. It's therefore inevitable that the President leading the nation would sound the warning bells with the full force at his disposal.

Just don't tell me one was warmongering, whereas the other is compassion on stilts.

Let's be honest for once, about what both these op-eds mean.

They want to protect their country by first protecting their legacy as Presidents. To do that, they must plant an idea that others are actively preventing them from implementing their plans, and it's not their fault if it all goes bang.

Mission accomplished.

Worst Week

(Welcome Instapundit readers! Thanks, Glenn!)

My word, the President of the United States is having a bad week. I believe everything started going south for Barack Obama when a little of the Kennedy Curse rubbed off on him, after the Caroline Kennedy nomination fiasco.

Since that time, he's totally lost his mojo, and doesn't seem anywhere close to getting it back. Worse yet, the worry hasn't half aged him.

In a month he went from this:



To this:



Yipes! Next stop, McCainsville.

IN THE COMMENTS: Mister Snitch notices something odd.

And yet, this Frankin Miint porcelain painting of him only seems to be getting younger!

One of the various Sundries' Anonymouses (Anonymii?) blasts off on the President's ear.

Would you look at that ear. I think it would qualify for a UAV.

Heh. Tangentially, shouldn't it be a leftist President who should spill the beans on Area 51, don't you think? After all, wasn't it Carter who claimed he saw an UFO?

Meanwhile, Qwinn-Anonymous is suddenly confuzzled:

Wait, I don't get it... what's Dennis Kucinich got to do with Obama?

Incompetent

Tell me something.

If our President's oratorical gifts are so pronounced, as is universally believed, why is it that even during a minor speech in the East Room today, he had to have a teleprompter to deliver it?



I understand the use of it at his very first speech outting in the White House, when the teleprompters were meticulously put up for him, perhaps to steady his nerves.



But a man of his supposed speaking skills shouldn't have to use them, lest the tag of "empty suit" linger in people's minds.

On the other hand, you know how who needs a teleprompter...bad? Robert Gibbs.



I wonder how long this vastly incompetent official mouthpiece, who seems to have gotten his Press Secretary gig after tussling with Sean Hannity on Fox, will last?

That's Two Close Supporters Out

Ex-Senator Tom Daschle, a very early Obama supporter who threw his lot with the rising politician over 2 years ago, joins Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg in the "sorry, but you're expendable" category for President Obama as he takes his name out of consideration as HHS Secretary.

As if we didn't already know that Barack Obama likes to throw inconvenient or controversial people "under the bus", we now have another concrete example of that habit. The President went on national nightly news with Brian Williams to say he "screwed up" about the Daschle choice, the day after vowing to stand by his man. He's cutting his losses, even though on the surface he's apologetic about it.

Of course, neither Kennedy nor Daschle helped their cause, having had significant barriers to their proposed positions -- especially given that these centered on the tricky tax question, a deeply unpopular and hypocritical situation to be in at the moment.

They join a fast expanding list of ex-worthies who had to demur from their rumoured positions because of "personal" problems, including ex-Veep hopeful, Governor Bill Richardson.

People may be saying that if President Obama really really wants someone for a post, he will fight for them like he did with Timothy Geithner. In fact, that nomination may be the last one which was confirmable and he knows it.

Now, Presidential appointments often cause controversy early in an administration. Who amongst us doesn't remember the Kimba Wood or Zoe Baird fiascos? How about Linda Chavez?

Yet, due to the unbelievable goodwill Barack Obama has at the moment, far outstripping anything accorded to Clinton or Bush 43 both, one would think his golden touch wouldn't fail him so early.

One thing is for sure. Americans do not seem at all happy with men and women who, because of their lofty statuses, seem to get away with situations for which the rest of us would pay dearly.

What I'd really like to know is, how do they get away with it for so long, when most of us would be in heaps-loads of trouble with the IRS by now?

Daschle, who has always looked to me like a cross between David Letterman and Paul Theroux, was the great white hope of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Apparently, there is literally no one waiting in the wings to take such a sensitive position. The purported nationalisation of the American health care system requires a deft hand, who knows his or her way around Washington. I've read that ex-Chief of Staff to President Clinton, John Podesta is a possible alternate, but it was Daschle who had the seignorial clout of an ex-Senate Minority leader.

I'm guessing the next nominee won't be a Dr. Sanjay Gupta type, though even if I sound facetious, that type of person is much more likely to have a clean tax record than any former politician or Washington insider.

Who knew that Leona Helmsley's sneer of "only little people pay taxes" didn't include the little people who are supposed to make up the Democratic Party?

Related

A progressive blogger, Punditmom, wonders if there is not an anti-woman bias in the Geithner-Baird-Wood situations. Of course there is, and I say this as a non-feminist. The double-standard is breathtakingly hypocritical.

I'll be delighted to hear opinion about the Nancy Killefer pull-out, because I think her woes put the nail on Daschle's coffin. She took them both out.

"Dr. Strangelove" Or How I Stopped Worrying My Liking Of Palin Was Too Effusive (It's Not Compared To This, Wait 'Til You See It)

Someone explained the phenomenon of "fanfic" to me once.

Enthusiastic fans of a particular show would invent their own stories, whilst the more artistically able of them would even draw their favourite characters in, shall we say, "original poses", sending them on to the actor or actress represented in the picture.

(I remember a friend of mine, who was a big fan of Stargate, or Star Trek or something, telling me about the supposed-ta-be erotic paintings he saw involing Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan. Pass...)

But this, my dear Sundries readers, is on an entirely different dimension altogether. Dan Lacey, the chap whose painting of Palin with three pancakes on her head I once linked to, is at it again.

Here is our President having some kind of relations with an unicorn who has a really messed up hind hoof thingie going on, not to mention, those piercing bedroom eyes.



Strewth! That unicorn is spreading Coppertone on The Prez' back!

...what can one say, eh?

(Check out the coconut with crazy straw. And hey, is that supposedly a pool raft??)

Obama Dozed, People Froze

Where is President Obama during the worst natural disaster to strike the US since Hurricane Katrina? Have you heard of any flybys by the new Commander-in-Chief to Kentucky, to pat his Brownie on the back, and tell him he's doing a heckuva job?

I thought disasters making everything go haywire were always judged the President's fault?



And why is there is almost zero coverage about this, not only of the tragedy of having 55 people die so far in the freezing cold as they await power to return to the State -- but of a lack of personal interest on the part of a sitting President, one cocooned all cosy and warm in his 80F Oval Office, throwing Super Bowl parties, one might add.

I know what his defenders will say. It's too early. He's too green yet, and his miscue might be understandable given the other problems plaguing our country. Give him the benefit of the doubt!

At this point, such a lack of doubt is a benefit.

Further Reading

Time's "Kentucky's Ice Storm: Worse Now That It's Over"