THE 10 Biggest Mistakes By the Obama Admin.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Passed along from my friend Bill. This constitutes the state of republican criticism today. Feel free to jump in and roast. They are nicely numbered for convenience.

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John Hawkins : The 10 Biggest Amateur Mistakes By the Obama Administration So Far - Townhall.com

During the 2008 presidential campaign, people speculated whether someone like Barack Obama, who has never really run anything or had any major achievements other than winning political office, could handle a three AM crisis call. Well, as it turns out, Obama has been such a bumbling incompetent that he probably couldn't handle a trip through a Wendy's drive-in window without a teleprompter telling him what to order and whether he wants a Coke or a Mountain Dew. Even though Obama has been in office less than two months, he has already made more boneheaded errors than most Presidents do in an entire term.

10) After doing the "We've got to have this stimulus package passed right this second or the economy is going to explode" routine so convincingly that not one single soul in Congress actually had time to read the entire bill before it was signed, Barack Obama then promptly went on a three day vacation to celebrate before he signed it. If the bill was so important that no one could even have time to read it before it was passed, then why wasn't it important enough for Obama to skip dinner at Table Fifty-Two in Chicago to immediately make it a law?

9) In a juvenile stunt, reminiscent of something a third grader might come up with, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov a button that was supposed to say "reset." However, incredibly, the word on the button translated to "overcharge," not "reset." Apparently, despite the enormous deficit the government is going to run up this year, Team Obama forgot to budget enough money to hire someone who speaks Russian for the State Department. If only America could just press a button and reset the entire Obama presidency so far and start over.

8.) When Barack Obama was trying to sell America his stimulus bill that will put the country more than a trillion dollars in debt, he alerted America that, "Caterpillar's chief executive…told him the company will rehire some laid-off workers if the stimulus bill passes." But, when he was asked about Obama's statement, Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again."

7) A large part of Barack Obama's appeal was the idea of racial reconciliation. The implicit deal was that by putting our first black President in office, America would prove once and for all that it wasn't racist, and we could put all this silly squabbling about race in the rear view mirror once and for all. However, not only has it failed to work out that way, Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder issued an an insulting challenge on the topic to the American people,

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."

Maybe someone should ask the poor guy who did an innocent cartoon for the New York Post that made fun of the stimulus bill and the rampaging monkey that was in the news why people might be afraid to get dragged into a debate about race.

6) Typically, Presidents don't pick fights with pundits and talk radio hosts for obvious reasons. It draws more attention to their criticisms, elevates their status, and comes across as thin skinned and a little creepy, much like Richard Nixon's "Enemies list."

But, the Obama Administration hasn't figured this out -- yet. They've launched attacks at Rick Santelli, Jim Cramer, and most prominently, Rush Limbaugh. Ratcheting up the creepiness factor a couple of notches in Limbaugh's case, the President of the United States, members of the mainstream media, and liberal interest groups are all coordinating an attack on a private individual for daring to criticize Barack Obama. That sounds more like something that would happen in the old Soviet Union than in the United States.

But happily, if you look at the results of the White House campaign, it has backfired in every instance. Rush Limbaugh is on pace to make more revenue by the end of March than he made all last year, there are Santelli inspired "Tea Parties" popping up all across the country, and every criticism of Obama that Jim Cramer utters is now linked by the Drudge Report.

5) The first task a new President engages in is bringing a staff on board. After choosing Joe Biden, who has behaved like he was kicked in the head by a horse as a child, things have really gone down hill from there. Bill Richardson quit as Commerce Secretary after coming under investigation. Republican Senator Judd Gregg accepted, then declined Obama's offer to be his Commerce Secretary over irreconcilable differences. Tom Daschle quit after having tax problems. So did Nancy Killefer. Ron Kirk also has tax problems, but he's trying to hang in there like Hilda Solis and another cabinet member who gets his own special entry -- and keep in mind, Obama has a considerable number of positions left to fill. Hey Barry, the word of the day is "vetting." You should look into it.

4) George Bush spent a lot of time strengthening our ties to Eastern European nations like Poland and the Czech Republic during his two terms in the White House. Yet, it took Barack Obama less than two months to undo much of Bush’s good work with those nations.

Obama wrote a "secret" letter to Dmitri Medvedev offering to leave Poland and the Czech Republic twisting in the wind on missile defense in return for Russia's help in stopping Iran from getting nukes. The problem was that the letter went public even as Russia turned down the deal. So, in other words, our friends in Eastern Europe were publicly alerted that we were willing to sell them down the river to the Russians, who they were already afraid of, and yet we got nothing out of the deal. That's a real "welcome to the Big Leagues" maneuver from the Russians for our naive, rookie President.

3) After making a stink by sending back a Winston Churchill bust, Barack Obama blew off a press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- but, the real kicker was the gifts.

After Brown presented Obama with a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President (whose sister ship, HMS Resolute, provided the wood for the Oval Office's desk), Obama offered up ... 25 DVDs of American movie classics.

The Brits offered Obama a thoughtful, priceless gift and he handed them back a bad Netflix queue that was probably picked up at Wal-mart earlier that day.

2) Choosing tax cheat Timothy Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary was such an incredible screw up that it deserves it own entry. It's mind boggling that any Administration would choose a tax cheat to run the department that's in charge of the IRS. Moreover, in Obama's case, he has already announced plans for the largest tax hike in American history, nearly a trillion dollars, and the man in charge of that effort doesn't pay his taxes? Prediction: a few years from now, if the New York Times isn't out of business by then, they'll write an article telling you that they're baffled, baffled I tell you, by the massive increase in the number of people cheating on their taxes.

1) Barack Obama may be a liberal thriller, but he's also a stock market killer. Since he came into office, his Bunyanesque new spending proposals, his plans for a trillion dollar tax hike, his regular badmouthing of the economy, and his incessant tinkering with banks and the housing market have caused the stock market to go into a freefall. Granted, stocks would have likely dropped anyway because of the economic crunch we're in, but the market wouldn't have already reached the lowest level since 1997 without lots of help from Obama. As Democratic financial wiz, Jim Cramer, has said of Obama’s performance, "it's amateur hour at our darkest moment" and it's "crushing nest eggs around the nation."

LINK

DAR
I went to the site and read some of the comments. Here's a good one:

"Mistake?
You think these are mistakes? I think they are very calculated, purposeful, deliberate actions meant to change this country once and for all. His continual power-grabs, forcing of abortions, promotions of the left wing agenda, diabolical lies and misdirection, egotistical, meniacle, and outrageous direction was conceived in a marxist think tank and is carrying them out step-by-step. We talk about it all, but do nothing about it, and he continues his relentless march toward the doom of this country. Mistakes? I don't think so. Anti-Americanunconstitutional, and evil? Without a doubt."

[Dardedar]

DAR
Doug starts it off with this response to #10.

:
10) After doing the "We've got to have this stimulus package passed right this second or the economy is going to explode" routine so convincingly that not one single soul in Congress actually had time to read the entire bill before it was signed...

DOUG writes:
More GOP lies.
a. The bill was online in several places. There was no need to wait for a paper copy.
b. The bill was mostly a combination of bills moved through major committees, all of which were done in plenty of time to read them.
c. Most congressmen and women NEVER read the bills anyway. They have their assistants read them and give them summaries. Why couldn't the GOP liars do it again this time?

Why do Republicans always have to LIE???

And after Bush broke Ronald Reagan's old record for going on vacation while being president, Republicans have NO room to talk. GW Bush spent almost a third of his historically bad presidency on vacation. Bush didn't care that he was wrecking the USA.

[Betsy]

On the one hand, whatever. If it makes them feel better to build up an hysterical case against Obama then let them just stew in their own angry insanity. Let them tear themselves down and ruin their party and make general ass-clowns of themselves.

BUT, on the other hand, how very UNPATRIOTIC of them. By perpetuating this kind of misguided anger and hatred, they're only making things WORSE, not doing anything to make it better. And by "it" I mean the situation - the economy, war, poor foreign relations, failing infrastructure, undermining science - that THEY got us in.

O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh - all of them used to call Democrats "unpatriotic" for not rallying behind the president whether what he was doing was right or wrong or whatever. Now we've got a president trying to FIX all the things their beloved Bush destroyed and all they can do is try to undermine his efforts because they're BITTER WHINY BRATS.

It doesn't look good on them.

[Doug]

9) In a juvenile stunt, reminiscent of something a third grader might come up with,

DOUG
After Bush became known for nicknaming heads of state and other notables with stupid names (Putin was "Pootie-Poo," Karl Rove was "Turd Blossom"), the GOP has no room to talk when they kept mute during the 5th-grade antics of GW Bush.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov a button that was supposed to say "reset." However, incredibly, the word on the button translated to "overcharge," not "reset." Apparently, despite the enormous deficit the government is going to run up this year, Team Obama forgot to budget enough money to hire someone who speaks Russian for the State Department.

DOUG
Yes, it was a mistake. Clinton exlained what it was supposed to say, and Lavrov understood. He didn't make a big deal of it. Only the GOP stayed up at night sweating over it. But the intent was clear. After 8 years of Bush screwing up our relations with Russia, we needed a "re-set." The Russians know it, and the American people (including the honest GOP members (both of them!)) know it.

If only America could just press a button and reset the entire Obama presidency so far and start over.

DOUG
It doesn't look good when the GOP is constantly whining about Obama and saying that he's going to destroy the country when (a) he's only been in office less than two months, and (b) Bush DID destroy the US, or at least he came close to it, and the GOP LOVED HIM for it. They wanted McCain to keep those very same destructive policies. Bobby Jindal voiced those same failed strategies in his "response" to Obama's "State of the Union" address.

The GOP is in a hole, and they are not only digging, they are bringing in the heavy equipment...

[Doug]

7) A large part of Barack Obama's appeal was the idea of racial reconciliation. The implicit deal was that by putting our first black President in office, America would prove once and for all that it wasn't racist, and we could put all this silly squabbling about race in the rear view mirror once and for all. However, not only has it failed to work out that way...

DOUG
More GOP lies. No one except Republicans (who are apparently too stupid to believe otherwise, being rather oblivious to nuances about issues concerning race) ever claimed that putting Obama in the White House would prove that America is not racist.

It was the GOP that, right after Obama's election, sent around e-mails stating that African-Americans must now abandon any claim to being discriminated against.

Utter rubbish. Republicans must lie as a matter of course. To them it's like breathing...

[L.Wood]

.

bill
not one single soul in Congress actually had time to read the entire bill before it was signed,

I suppose those THREE Republicon Senators I saw on C-Span, taking the Stimulus Bill apart line by line some
weeks after it had been submitted was just an illusion, or if bill is to be believed the Republicon Senators
who criticized the bill, line by line, were just blowing smoke.

Great observation Betsy, and one we should all memorize:

"If it makes them feel better to build up an hysterical case against Obama then let them just stew in their own angry insanity."

Unfortunately for us they do stay on message when stirring up the hysteria. They use a combination of FOX News, Dopehead Limbaugh to
do the deed for them plus a few columnists. But, they are not doing it "to feel better." They are doing it to shift the tax burden from the upper 10% of Americans to the bottom 80% of Americans. That's been their goal since Reagan pronounced "gubbermint is the problem."
Bet you don't hear many banks saying that now.

.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Doug has already dealt with 7, 9 and 10. Let me try my hand at the remainder.

8.) When Barack Obama was trying to sell America his stimulus bill that will put the country more than a trillion dollars in debt, he alerted America that, "Caterpillar's chief executive…told him the company will rehire some laid-off workers if the stimulus bill passes." But, when he was asked about Obama's statement, Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again."

DAR
Notice the CEO doesn't deny he said this to Obama, he doesn't suggest Obama made it up or lied, he just says something different. People do that. And they change their minds too. It's not even clear where the supposed "mistake" is supposed to be in this one. We just have a CEO, giving an opinion at different points in time. Yawn.

7) A large part of Barack Obama's appeal was the idea of racial reconciliation. The implicit deal was that by putting our first black President in office, America would prove once and for all that it wasn't racist, and we could put all this silly squabbling about race in the rear view mirror once and for all. However, not only has it failed to work out that way, Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder issued an an insulting challenge on the topic to the American people,..."

DAR
Doug already dealt this this silly one. This idea, this assertion, of an "implicit deal" is laughable.

6) Typically, Presidents don't pick fights with pundits and talk radio hosts for obvious reasons. It draws more attention to their criticisms, elevates their status, and comes across as thin skinned and a little creepy, much like Richard Nixon's "Enemies list."

DAR
I think Obama and his administration have played this one perfectly. Instead of ignoring the blowhard rightwing media they have given them a few, only a very few, well placed kicks, with good effect. Good job! They have played Limbaugh like a fiddle. It's hard to find a person who has an approval rating lower than GW Bush but there is one and is Rush. This one was put on the list because the strategy has been effective and this really pisses some people on the right, off. And the Demo's are making hay with it. Here is a new billboard they are putting up in Rush's home town. "American's Didn't Vote for a RUSH to Failure."

5) The first task a new President engages in is bringing a staff on board. After choosing Joe Biden, who has behaved like he was kicked in the head by a horse as a child, things have really gone down hill from there.

DAR
Just a baseless insult. Even most republicans were impressed with the Biden pick. It took the air out of the "experience" question. Especially when McCain picked Palin.

Bill Richardson quit as Commerce Secretary after coming under investigation.

DAR
Yes he did. And it was the right thing to do. This should be credited as a sign of a responsible and honorable administration. Why is it here being given as a supposed sign of the opposite?

Republican Senator Judd Gregg accepted, then declined Obama's offer to be his Commerce Secretary over irreconcilable differences. Tom Daschle quit after having tax problems. So did Nancy Killefer.

DAR
See above. While Obama has made hundreds of appointments it's inconceivable that a handful wouldn't end up not qualifying under the high standards set. And this is supposed to somehow be a "mistake?"

Ron Kirk also has tax problems, but he's trying to hang in there...

DAR
Headline today: "Senate panel OKs Ron Kirk for Obama trade post." Link

4) George Bush spent a lot of time strengthening our ties to Eastern European nations like Poland and the Czech Republic during his two terms in the White House. Yet, it took Barack Obama less than two months to undo much of Bush’s good work with those nations.

DAR
This one is laughable on it's face. No one in modern history has done more to damage America's reputation in Europe and around the world than GW Bush and his illegal and immoral war which has caused the death of over a million people and orphaned 5 million children (so far). These "Eastern European nations" overwhelming disliked Bush and like Obama. As I posted January 08, (long before Bush hit absolute bottom):

"Domestically, Bush has "a disapproval rating of 65 percent, the highest level of disfavor for any sitting presidents since Richard Nixon and Harry Truman. In Europe, Bush tops the list of the most unpopular politicians, with disapproval of 87% in France and Germany, and 88% in Spain." Link

Obama wrote a "secret" letter to Dmitri Medvedev offering to leave Poland and the Czech Republic twisting in the wind on missile defense in return for Russia's help in stopping Iran from getting nukes.

DAR
Incidentally, that's a really good idea. The Bush/Cheney idea of continuing to poke Russia with a stick over these unnecessary and unworkable missile defense systems needs to stop and it is nice to see that it will. But it's also smart to negotiate something out of it on the way out.

3) After making a stink by sending back a Winston Churchill bust, Barack Obama blew off a press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- but, the real kicker was the gifts.

DAR
Considering what Bush has left on Obama's plate, I will grant that someone, somewhere, bought a mediocre present for a visiting head of state. BFD. That this makes the list just shows how pathetic and petty this list is. Oh, and for a juicy bit of rightwing hypocrisy on this issue, see: First Beck smears British PM. Now he wants to apologize to him for Obama miscues. Good stuff.

2) Choosing tax cheat Timothy Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary was such an incredible screw up that it deserves it own entry.

DAR
There is no evidence that Geithner cheated on his taxes. Even such conservatives as Orrin Hatch considered his tax issue, which was cleared up, no big deal. This has already been roasted on this forum here.

Moreover, in Obama's case, he has already announced plans for the largest tax hike in American history, nearly a trillion dollars, and the man in charge of that effort doesn't pay his taxes?

DAR
I really doubt that it is "the largest tax hike in American history." That trillion is over ten years. Bush blew at least $4 to $5 trillion on his Iraq adventure. Now it's time to pay for at least some of it rather than pass it on to the kiddies. And his increases don't even go as far as Clinton did. Boy those were rough years! Incidentally, the person who actually did once have the largest tax hike in American history? Reagan. See Tefra.

1) Barack Obama may be a liberal thriller, but he's also a stock market killer. Since he came into office, his Bunyanesque new spending proposals, his plans for a trillion dollar tax hike, his regular badmouthing of the economy, and his incessant tinkering with banks and the housing market have caused the stock market to go into a freefall.

DAR
Actually, it's just as easy to claim that it would have fallen much farther and much faster had he not taken the actions he did. And neither claim can be shown. Here is something we do know. Under the last democrat the stock market went up 330 percent. Under the last republican, in the worst showing since the great depression, it went down 20 percent. Obama has been in less than two months and is still cleaning up after this mess. If the market is still down two years from now, then you may opine about "Obama's market." This one is still Bush's.

That's it. Now I am going to post some of this on the site of the guy who seems to have put this list together. Feel free to join in.

D.