Post by Chaindriven on Jun 12, 2014 14:46:04 GMT -6
> Newsweek Cover
>
> I Too Have Become Disillusioned
> >
> >
> > By Matt Patterson (Newsweek Columnist - Opinion Writer)
>
> >
> >
> > Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election
> of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon,
> the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps
> to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will
> wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment
> beguile so many into thinking he could manage the
> world's largest economy, direct the world's most
> powerful military, execute the world's most
> consequential job?
> >
> >
> > Imagine a future historian examining Obama's
> pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy
> League, despite unremarkable grades and test scores along
> the way; a cushy non-job as a "community
> organizer;" a brief career as a state legislator devoid
> of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his
> attention, less often did he vote "present"); and
> finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States
> Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his
> presidential ambitions.
> >
> >
> > He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no
> signature legislation as a legislator. And then there is the
> matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating,
> America-loathing preacher who for decades served as
> Obama's "spiritual mentor;" a real-life,
> actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and
> political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian
> looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man
> elected president?
> >
> >
> > Not content to wait for history, the incomparable
> Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall
> Street Journal: To be sure, no white candidate who had close
> associations with an outspoken hater of America like
> Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill
> Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama
> was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberal Dom
> to have hung out with protesters against various American
> injustices, even if they were 'a bit' extreme, he
> was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -
> held to a lower standard because of the color of his skin.
> >
> >
> > Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such
> ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and
> elegant and (as he himself had said)
> "non-threatening," all of which gave him a
> fighting chance to become the first black president and
> thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?
> >
> >
> > Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating
> pulse of the Obama phenomenon - affirmative action. Not in
> the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating
> sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and
> regulations, which are designed primarily to make white
> people, and especially white liberals, feel good about
> themselves.
> >
> >
> > Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites
> can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit
> minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet
> take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance
> and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't
> care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't
> around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated
> self-esteem resulting from the racist policy that is
> affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding someone to a
> separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -
> that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that
> isn't racism, then nothing is.
> >
> >
> > And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama
> himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but
> why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was
> good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at
> Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate
> despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was
> good enough to be president despite no record at all in the
> Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told
> he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample
> evidence to the contrary.
> >
> >
> > What could this breed if not the sort of empty
> narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many
> who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications
> nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills,
> intellect, and cool character. Those people - conservatives
> included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed.
> >
> >
> > The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of clichés,
> and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of
> him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or
> speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his
> mouth - it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that
> has failed over and over again for 100 years. (An example is
> his 2012 campaign speeches which are almost word for word
> his 2008 speeches)
> >
> >
> > And what about his character? Obama is constantly
> blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush
> did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. Remember, he
> wanted the job, campaigned for the task. It is embarrassing
> to see a president so willing to advertise his own
> powerless-ness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.
> (The other day he actually came out and said no one could
> have done anything to get our economy and country back on
> track). But really, what were we to expect? The man has
> never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him
> to act responsibly?
> >
> >
> > In short: this president is a small-minded man, with
> neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.
> When you understand that, and only when you understand that,
> will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make
> sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such an
> impostor in the Oval Office.
> Finally, Matt Patterson and Newsweek speak out about
> Obama. This is timely and tough. As many of you know,
> Newsweek has a reputation for being extremely liberal. The
> fact that their editor saw fit to print the this
> article about Obama and the one that appears in the latest
> Newsweek, makes this a truly amazing event, and a news story
> in and of itself. At last, the truth about this President and
> his agenda are starting to trickle through the protective
> wall built around him by the liberal media....
>
> I Too Have Become Disillusioned
> >
> >
> > By Matt Patterson (Newsweek Columnist - Opinion Writer)
>
> >
> >
> > Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election
> of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon,
> the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps
> to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will
> wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment
> beguile so many into thinking he could manage the
> world's largest economy, direct the world's most
> powerful military, execute the world's most
> consequential job?
> >
> >
> > Imagine a future historian examining Obama's
> pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy
> League, despite unremarkable grades and test scores along
> the way; a cushy non-job as a "community
> organizer;" a brief career as a state legislator devoid
> of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his
> attention, less often did he vote "present"); and
> finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States
> Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his
> presidential ambitions.
> >
> >
> > He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no
> signature legislation as a legislator. And then there is the
> matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating,
> America-loathing preacher who for decades served as
> Obama's "spiritual mentor;" a real-life,
> actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and
> political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian
> looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man
> elected president?
> >
> >
> > Not content to wait for history, the incomparable
> Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall
> Street Journal: To be sure, no white candidate who had close
> associations with an outspoken hater of America like
> Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill
> Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama
> was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberal Dom
> to have hung out with protesters against various American
> injustices, even if they were 'a bit' extreme, he
> was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -
> held to a lower standard because of the color of his skin.
> >
> >
> > Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such
> ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and
> elegant and (as he himself had said)
> "non-threatening," all of which gave him a
> fighting chance to become the first black president and
> thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?
> >
> >
> > Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating
> pulse of the Obama phenomenon - affirmative action. Not in
> the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating
> sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and
> regulations, which are designed primarily to make white
> people, and especially white liberals, feel good about
> themselves.
> >
> >
> > Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites
> can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit
> minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet
> take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance
> and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't
> care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't
> around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated
> self-esteem resulting from the racist policy that is
> affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding someone to a
> separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -
> that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that
> isn't racism, then nothing is.
> >
> >
> > And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama
> himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but
> why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was
> good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at
> Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate
> despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was
> good enough to be president despite no record at all in the
> Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told
> he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample
> evidence to the contrary.
> >
> >
> > What could this breed if not the sort of empty
> narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many
> who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications
> nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills,
> intellect, and cool character. Those people - conservatives
> included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed.
> >
> >
> > The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of clichés,
> and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of
> him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or
> speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his
> mouth - it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that
> has failed over and over again for 100 years. (An example is
> his 2012 campaign speeches which are almost word for word
> his 2008 speeches)
> >
> >
> > And what about his character? Obama is constantly
> blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush
> did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. Remember, he
> wanted the job, campaigned for the task. It is embarrassing
> to see a president so willing to advertise his own
> powerless-ness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.
> (The other day he actually came out and said no one could
> have done anything to get our economy and country back on
> track). But really, what were we to expect? The man has
> never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him
> to act responsibly?
> >
> >
> > In short: this president is a small-minded man, with
> neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.
> When you understand that, and only when you understand that,
> will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make
> sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such an
> impostor in the Oval Office.
> Finally, Matt Patterson and Newsweek speak out about
> Obama. This is timely and tough. As many of you know,
> Newsweek has a reputation for being extremely liberal. The
> fact that their editor saw fit to print the this
> article about Obama and the one that appears in the latest
> Newsweek, makes this a truly amazing event, and a news story
> in and of itself. At last, the truth about this President and
> his agenda are starting to trickle through the protective
> wall built around him by the liberal media....