The Fall of Obama

[nacho]

Our hero is in decline!  Yay!

Gore Vidal, American literary giant and Democrat insider, is publicly declaring he made a mistake in switching his support during the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

"I was hopeful," Vidal says of an Obama presidency. "He was the most intelligent person we've had in that position for a long time." Now, Vidal says in an interview published in the British paper, The Times, he was wrong and Obama is performing "dreadfully" as president.

The full article:  http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6854221.ece

[nacho]

Of course, criticism is coming only from crazed Republicans, senile octogenarians, and Michael Moore.

But that's all it takes for the freakout ball to get rolling.  

The larger question:  Is change even possible in America?  (Or, specifically, in American politics.)

[Nubbins]

While I respect him and see his point, he's a bitter old coot.  He won't be happy no matter who is President.

Vidal became a supportive correspondent of Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killing 168 people. The huge loss of life, indeed McVeigh’s act of mass murder, goes unmentioned by Vidal. “He was a true patriot, a Constitution man,” Vidal claims.

Douchebag.  McVeigh blew up LITTLE FUCKING KIDS AT DAY CARE.  I spit on his corpse.

Does Vidal really believe Hillary would have been better or, for that matter, any different?  There would have been less penis in the Oval Office, but that's the only difference I can imagine.  I honestly think that a lot of people out there hate Obama simply because he captivates the masses and is elevated to messianic status by idiots.  He's like the band Tool... love his music, but his fans almost ruin the entire experience for me.

I still say, considering the hand he was dealt, Obama's doing a pretty good job.

Is change possible in America?  Yeah, I think so.  The problem with us is that if the change isn't instantaneous, then we all get frustrated, throw up our hands and start whining like a bunch of toddlers.  Consider the national attitudes on race or sexuality.  We're living in a country that enslaved an entire race of people only 140 years ago and was hosing them down in the streets 50 years ago... change is possible, but it is a process and it needs to be given time and less skepticism from people like Vidal.  I mean, fuck... Obama's been in office for 9 months and Vidal's already throwing in the towel?  Wrinkled bag of douche.

[Cassander]

Gore Vidal is on the same point in the continuum of some B-list celeb releasing an authorized sex-tape.  He sort of has to keep saying these things to get attention and then act all like "don't call it a comeback, I been here for years!" 

And, I have to say, this is about the third time around this story has come up.  Just about every three months.  And it's going to keep coming up every three months until next august when we start the "is Obama toxic for congressional incumbents?" fake debate.

i would say that what makes obama look bad is the fact that he keeps trying to throw all these things against the wall and see if they stick.  and a lot of things just aren't sticking.  So I don't think nine months in we can start saying he's just impotent because he has accomplished a few things he set out to do.  I don't think he expected this much backlash against him, figuring the Dems would fall in line and just sign up to make hard decisions.  It's really congress, after all, that fails us again and again.

[Reginald McGraw]

It's really congress, after all, that fails us again and again.

Yep.

[Disco Dust]

Wow! A collective Copenhagen bitch slap for President BO and the Queens of black America: Oprah and Mrs. BO.

Chicago eliminated in the first round of voting for the 2016 summer Olympic host city.

[nacho]

America will never regain world respect.  But we won't need it when the militia's take over and detonate EMP's over the rest of the world!

[Disco Dust]

Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize discredited it a long time ago....at least the Olympics in Chicago would have had some practical economic benefits as well.

[nacho]

President Obama came into office vowing to change the status quo in Washington, but when it comes to rewarding fundraisers, he's behaving no differently than past presidents.

Top donors to the Democratic Party have been given "VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings," according to a Washington Times investigation.

The White House has hosted several receptions for donors; contributors with the fattest wallets were given access to senior officials. One fundraiser visited the Oval Office on his birthday, and others were allowed to use the White House bowling alley and movie theater.

The biggest donors apparently get face time with the president. Robert Wolf, chief executive of the UBS Group for the Americas and a top fundraiser from New York, was invited to play golf with Obama over the summer. Wolf was later appointed to Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Fundraiser Alan Solomont was nominated to be ambassador to Spain.

Presidential aides admitted the Democratic National Committee has footed the bill for certain events at the White House, but denied that there was a "systematic effort" to raise funds for the party at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

In a statement to Politics Daily, the DNC made no differentiation between big money donors and other party allies.

"The DNC routinely identifies appropriate opportunities for party supporters to meet their leaders in the Administration and the Democratic Congressional majority," Communications Director Brad Woodhouse wrote in an e-mail. "This is true for donors, grassroots activists and others who are engaged and active on behalf of our party in different ways and who welcome the chance to meet their leadership."

The Republican National Committee called on the White House to immediately release the names of donors given perks and called for an probe into any quid pro quo. Administration spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president has instituted tough ethics rules and that ''every name of every person that comes to this White House" will be made public.

UPDATE: The White House responded to an inquiry from Politics Daily about the donations:

"President Obama has opened the doors of the White House to hundreds of thousands of Americans since the administration began, and for the first time in history, records detailing who visited the White House will be made public on a regular basis," Ben LaBolt from the press secretary's office wrote in an e-mail. "Many of the people mentioned in this story have been friends and associates of the Obamas for decades ... Given that nearly 4 million Americans donated to the campaign, it's no surprise that some who contributed have visited the White House as have grassroots organizers who didn't contribute financial support and people who actively opposed the President's candidacy."

[Tatertots]

invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings

OH NO!

[Cassander]

so what?  every senator, congressman, governor, and mayor already do this kind of stuff.  plus, the DNC is going to need to hoard all the cash it can after the next 12 years of republican terror start after next november.

[Disco Dust]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5UqUlpI-7s

[nacho]

Here... I'll use this thread for today's WTF news:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/obama-revives-rumsfeld-era-missile-scheme

The Obama administration is poised to take up one of the more dangerous and hare-brained schemes of the Rumsfeld-era Pentagon. The New York Times is reporting that the Defense Department is once again looking to equip intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads. The missiles could then, in theory, destroy fleeing targets a half a world away — a no-notice “bolt from the blue,” striking in a matter of hours. There’s just one teeny-tiny problem: the launches could very well start World War III.

Who'd I vote for again?

[RottingCorpse]

The Antichrist, remember?

[Matt]

Glenn Greenwald has been running some of the best criticism of Obama on his Salon columns. If you're not reading those you're really missing out.