Politics
More PoliticsHe's Done Everything Wrong
Mortimer B. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Boston Properties Inc. He is a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
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Obama punted on the economy and reversed the fortunes of the Democrats in 365 days.
He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.
This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.
In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It’s now worse than it was. I’ve now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It’s politically corrupt and it’s starting at the top. It’s revolting.
Five states got deals on health care—one of them was Harry Reid’s. It is disgusting, just disgusting. I’ve never seen anything like it. The unions just got them to drop the tax on Cadillac plans in the health-care bill. It was pure union politics. They just went along with it. It’s a bizarre form of political corruption. It’s bribery. I suppose they could say, that’s the system. He was supposed to change it or try to change it.
Even that is not the worst part. He could have said, “I know. I promised these things, but let me try to do them one at a time.” You want to deal with health care? Fine. Issue No. 1 with health care was the cost. You know I think it was 37 percent or 33 who were worried about coverage. Fine, I wrote an editorial to this effect. Focus on cost-containment first. But he’s trying to boil the ocean, trying to do too much. This is not leadership.
• More Daily Beast opinion on Obama’s first year Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things.
I don’t consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster.
One business leader said to me, “In the Clinton administration, the policy people were at the center, and the political people were on the sideline. In the Obama administration, the political people are at the center, and the policy people are on the sidelines.”
I’m very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.
I hope there are changes. I think he’s already laid in huge problems for the country. The fiscal program was a disaster. You have to get the money as quickly as possible into the economy. They didn’t do that. By end of the first year, only one-third of the money was spent. Why is that?
He should have jammed a stimulus plan into Congress and said, “This is it. No changes. Don’t give me that bullshit. We have a national emergency.” Instead they turned it over to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who can run circles around him.
It’s very sad. It’s really sad.
He’s improved America’s image in the world. He absolutely did. But you have to translate that into something. Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. “We are convinced,” he said, “that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned,” he said “that he is not strong to support his friends.”
The political leadership of the world is very, very dismayed. He better turn it around. The Democrats are going to get killed in this election. Jesus, looks what’s happening in Massachusetts.
It’s really interesting because he had brilliant, brilliant political instincts during the campaign. I don’t know what has happened to them. His appointments present somebody who has a lot to learn about how government works. He better get some very talented businesspeople who know how to implement things. It’s unbelievable. Everybody says so. You can’t believe how dismayed people are. That’s why he’s plunging in the polls.
I can’t predict things two years from now, but if he continues on the downward spiral he is on, he won’t be reelected. In the meantime, the Democrats have recreated the Republican Party. And when I say Democrats, I mean the Obama administration. In the generic vote, the Democrats were ahead something like 52 to 30. They are now behind the Republicans 48 to 44 in the last poll. Nobody has ever seen anything that dramatic.
Mortimer B. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Boston Properties Inc. He is a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
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Mortimer B. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Boston Properties Inc. He is a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
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Mortimer B. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Boston Properties Inc. He is a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
djmelfi
Mort, you are probably a good guy but there should be no confusion. Obama is a flim flam man. He flim flammed you. His whole "preparation" has been about getting MADE. There was no preparation about what to do when you got there.
What? Oh yeah there is that, Mao and Marx yes there is that.
He LEARNED that government had all these things to do, he learned the constitution got in the way, he learned the Chicago way.
About 40% of us he scared from the beginning, Now he has flim flammed himself so he has broken families accross ideological lines.
But now we are convinced his transformation is unwanted. WE WON. The cold war. Now we are threatened by our president. Your fault Mort, you voted for a communist, you got flim flammed. Or perhaps you knew that?
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strydes
One more thing "an arrogant flim flam man".
BMW123221
wow
KemCho
Wow! I can not agree more. Thanks to Teleprompters, Hope and change vision, we American voters got fooled. Obama smells like a communist now. Obama protects unions, work against big business and `rich' people. Is this not what Stalin did?
a37view37
I read Mr. Zuckerman a lot back in the 80's. I did not know that USNWR had endorsed Obama. Surprising to say the least.
I skimmed both of Mr. Obama's books prior to the election. How Mr. Zuckerman somehow missed those two tomes I cannot fathom. Especially, Dreams...! That book let everyone know what Mr. Obama's background and influences were. If you couldn't intuit from Mr. Obama's written words what he wanted America to become (he even said in the campaign, "fundamentally transform America"!) you either did not read them or were sorely deceived by the fluff of the unicorns and rainbows campaign.
I thought you were a smart guy, Mr. Zuckerman. Perhaps I was deceived also.
truthiness2
My thoughts exactly. Who would had thought,You & I and a lot of other people must be smarter than Mr. Zuckerman.(industry giant that he is). We figured out what Obama was all about a long time ago.
mushduck
Thank you, thank you djmelfi.
I was going to try to compose a response, but you took the words right out of my tired giddy brain.
Move the useful idiots like Mort and Peggy Noonan out of the way so that we can get this great land back on track.
Let freedom ring!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
GGsgang
Ninety percent of the reason we have this "disaster" as a president, is the media. In their hatred for George Bush and the Iraq War, they portrayed him as evil, dumb and incompetent. He was far from a perfect president, especially his last 2 years, but he did keep us safe and we did have a booming economy for most of 6 years. The media never gave him credit for anything.
Because of this, we were ripe for "change". Along comes a politician with no history and lots of beautiful words. When his connection with Reverend Wright came up, no one investigated and those who did were called racist. When his relationship with Bill Ayres came up, how many in the mainstream media cared. They said it was only those "right-wing radio hosts" who were trying to destroy Obama.
Did the media care that this man has no experience running anything? Did they care about Tony Rezko or any other Chicago connections? Did they dig through his trash like they have been known to do for conservatives? How many operatives were in Alaska digging dirt on Sarah Palin, while no one was asking questions on the South Side of Chicago?
If you really looked at the man's background and ideas, no one would be surprised by what has happened. From Van Jones, to Cass Sunstein, what did you expect? Were you surprised that he appointed a tax cheat as Treasury Secretary? How about a pervert for school safety czar? This is who Obama is.....he is beholding to the unions, to the Far Left, and to the liberals of academia. Less than 10% of his aides, cabinet members and czars have ever been in the private sector. How can they possibly relate to the American people? Instead, they refer to the "working class", as though anyone who makes more than $100,000 does not work. How do those people think most Americans got their money?
Obama told Joe the plumber that he must share the wealth with those less fortunate. No one listened and the media hated this story.
When Mr. Obama says that he can fix the economy by throwing money at health care, energy (green jobs), and education, does the media even question such an absurd statement? A high school economics student would at least ask how spending more money can help, and why if green jobs were profitable, the private sector would not be involved.
So Mr. Zuckerman, as you wonder what happened with your Messiah, look no further than the Mainstream Media. Fortunately the American people are smarter than the media give them credit for....first Virginia spoke, then New Jersey. Last night we had the "shot heard around the country"! Thank you Massachusetts.....will Mr. Obama listen, or continue with his tone-deafness?
anxious-appliance
They didn't portray Bush as evil dumb and incompetent - he is evil dumb and incompetent. If the press had done their job he'd be in jail.
I don't know which of the 3 you are but - ah heck - take the whole bunch.
macdeez
"but he did keep us safe" (in reference to George W.)
I wouldn't really say George Bush kept us safe. There was that one devastating terrorist attack on our own soil that happened under his administration's watch, remember the Twin Towers?
navigator
amen...couldn't have said it better myself..and what i would add is that if you're going to let the inmates (Pelosi,Reid,) run the asylum, at least make sure they're not two out of touch, brain dead dolts who are clueless to the needs of the American people. we might also toss Ms. Napalitano into that pile who utters that "the system worked" and there "are no terrorists in Afghanistan"..do these people know how to read?..and the next time the congress tries to put through a failed piece of legislation that awards a few at the expense of everyone else, please don't do it behind closed doors and not let anyone read it until five minutes before the vote..bring on the November elections..
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trus283
I could not have said it any better. I woke up after hearing the Rev Wright and then started my own investigation on WHO Barack Obama is. Amazing, America could not get any facts from the press.
Kevlar
Your "booming economy" under George W Bush didn't produce enough jobs to keep up with birth rates.
Before Bush, 135.8 million jobs.
After Bush, 143.3 million jobs.
US population growth 2000-2007: 22 million.
Jobs created during Clinton administration: 22.2 million.
Jobs created during Bush 43 administration: 7.5 million.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Surplus in 2001: $128 million.
Deficit in 2009: $407 BILLION. This is prior to the $700 billion TARP. Don't ask the Treasury what they're doing with it, because they won't tell you...
"For the first time since the Census Bureau began tracking such data back in the mid-1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of this business cycle [from 2000 to 2007] than they were when it started."
Source: Economic Policy Institute, New State of Working America report.
RobinP
Couldn't have said it better!
bbstile
Mort:
When Obama began his run, I had heard his speech to the previous Democratic convention and my first thought was that this guy might be a good choice. While I would prefer a Republican from a pure policy standpoint, the thought of a reasonable Democrat, who would also be the first Black President of the United States, was pleasing and desirable.
Less than half way through his campaign, I realized that this guy was, as stated above, a flim-flam man and possibly even a danger to our freedom.
I live in a rural area in the middle of a large, but basically rural state. Our internet and TV has to be satellite as that is all that is available. The only newspapers are weeklies. I graduated from a state university with only a bachelor's degree.
How is it that a real hayseed like me knew this two years ago, while you, an internationally known, highly educated boulevardier and bon-vivant did not?
I find it hard to believe, like the other commenter believes, that you were flim-flammed. I think that you knew it all along. So, the question remains.
Why did you (and your ilk) do this to us, Mort?
nickoury
Very accurate assessment. Dead on.
trus283
My thoughts exactly!
Monalisa2
Could not agree more. It is rich for Mort to now act like he has been dupped when in fact he just miscalculated. What was it they promised you, Mort, so that you would sell your soul to the devil?
Canard
Wow, that is exactly my biography and parallel Obama experience! Glad to know I'm not alone out there.
jedijd
Let's not be too hard on Mort. He's not as smart as he looks -- or talks. Hmm. Sounds like Mr. Obama. Don't forget that Mort ignored plenty of warnings about Bernie Madoff, too, and lost $30 million. It's no coincidence that so many "smart" people were suckered by Madoff and Obama. Both Ponzi artists but Obama is by far the bigger, scarier Ponzi.
jrfunkenstein
For the sake of your sanity, one can only hope that you are being sarcastic.
Obama is a Communist?
Riiiighhhttt.......and let us know when Elvis gets here.
StevePhoenix
"jrfunkenstein", "ritamary", others like you, if you can't see the truth about Obama's communist philosophical premises, his long-time mentorship by communist Frank Marshall Davis in Hawaii, his close allegiance to communist/Weatherman types Bernardine Dorn & William Ayers, his appointment of explicitly (explicit by their own speeches and writings) communist-oriented administration personnel over and over again like Nita Davis and Van Jones and Carol Browner,.. then your "mock-shock" and eyebrow popping amazement is a sham. His communist thought reveals itself in his own personal writings (which none of you have perused apparently), in his unscripted moments ("spread the wealth around"), and in his easy kinship with red throw-back dictators like Hugo Chavez and others.
truthiness2
What planet do you live on?
jrfunkenstein
StevePhoenix: Dude, it's way past time to up your meds.
You don't know WHAT you're talking about.
dbsmelser
Spot on, djmelfi. Spot on.
ritamary
A flim flam man I agree with, but a communist? Are you crazy? Do you even know what a communist is? He is a Chicago machine Democrat. Nuf said.
Cara-C
He's a con man and a Communist. His grandparents were pro-Communist, his mother's friends called her a "fellow traveler," his father saw no reason there shouldn't be 100% taxation. Obama has said that as a college student he sought out Marxist professors.
As an adult, he worked alongside ACORN, an organization founded to overthrow capitalism. His close political mentor was Bill Ayers. Their close relationship was proven by the Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers and strengthened by Jack Cashill's research showing strong evidence that Ayers was the ghost writer for "Dreams From My Father." Ayers is a domestic terrorist and small-c communist. Obama's pastor of 20 years preached Black Liberation theology, a Marxist philosophy.
Obama's actions since taking office have consisted primarily of trying to transfer power and money from the people to the state, weakening our national security, showing deference to dictators and snubbing our Democratic allies.
Obama is a Communist, and every day more Americans are waking up to the fact that we have been conned. On the bright side, with the rise of the Tea Party movement and the election of Scott Brown, it's clear we're fighting back.
ruthie2
Poor Mort. Taken in by Bernie ($30 mil). Now Obama. How sad to be so naive, but yet so "educated". Can you even find your way home? Perhaps you are as out-of-touch with what made America great as Obama is! I didn't go much further than high school, but could see (smell) this guy coming from a mile off. Worse is your ability to persuade the masses helped put this guy in office! All rewards are not here on earth!
FarLeftFist
Yeah but we had to choose between him and McCain, I mean seriously, what did you think was going to happen. You gotta always just go with the lesser of 2 evils. Maybe we need Election reform. Heck, maybe even Constitution reform.
Churchill
Mort - You sound like some of my friends who voted for Obama and are now saying, "he sure fooled me." What was in BHO's resume/background that lead you to endorse, vote and support him privately and publicly? Was it his role as an Acorn organizer? Was it the time spent in Reverend Wright's congregation? Was it Ted Kennedy's endorsement? BHO is a charlatan who was elevated to the highest office in the land by the media elite like you. You own it. You fix it.
sasquach
Morty,
We tried to tell you.
cirving
Mort,
I am surprized that you bought into the false news stories about President Bush. He may not have done everything that you or I agree with but he at least was honest and steadfast in his leadership thru some of the darkest days after 9/11. I can remember Dec 7th and the aftermath of war that was declared unilaterly without consulting allies and the support of the greater percentage of American. We were willing to do without and to sacrifice everything to win a war on 2 fronts that cost us a great deal. Yet GW was left out to hang and blamed for everything imaginable. Now we as a nation, werewilling to throw him under the bus for a person who had never accomplished in his short career. His background was suspect to say the least and who knows if he is really a natural born citizen. He never governed, he never legistlated, he only organized a radial group which is suspect of many things and have been exposed in some areas. How could you expect a man who had the kind of background that he had to be able to accomplised what the President of the US needs to accomplished. Then he gathers politicians around him that are acknowledge as to have skirted the law in so many different ways professing to be ignorant of the laws that they were to administer. He is a total failure and that has nothing to do with his race. Look at Clarence Thomas who is an outstanding member of the supreme court. He would make a tremendous President and one that all could support in his leadership.
Gkenyon
djmelfi...oh yeah, and what else did beck tell you. Do you even know the difference between Mao and Marx? Because it's huge. Do you know the difference between communism and socialism? Or how about this -- do you know the difference between a democracy and a socialist country? None of your Confederacy of Dunces seem to. You play well to your audience of thirteen-year-old trolls and pissed-off, rural, uneducated tea-baggers -- but anybody with two thirds of a brain can see that you are simply a parrot who squawks whatever lines you heard on Savage and Hannity last night. You cretins completely destroyed our country for 8 long years -- and now you're worried about Obama destroying it after one? And why -- because he wants to give more Americans the opportunity to buy healthcare? Keep you Rethuglicans from destroying the planet? Give equal pay for equal work to women? Bring some fiscal regulation back to Wall Street? Limit the size of banks? Sure, that's all waaaay worse than lying to your country to start a war which will cost Trillions (not billions, but TRILLIONS) of dollars and get thousands of American soldiers killed, trashing the Constitutions starting with some of the most intrinsic freedoms that define America, presiding over an 8-year power grab the likes of which our nation has never seen, torturing for the first time since the Geneva Convention, maintaining a wall of silence and unaccountability around your entire administration, stacking all the federal agencies with your incompetent acolytes and convicted felons, letting the oil companies literally write our energy policy, ignoring a great American city while its citizens drowned, and waging a failed war against a guy who runs around in caves with a few hundred followers and FAILING to defeat him. Yep- you're right --Obama is the most dangerous leader we've had. Moron.
ru4real
thankyou thankyou
mwreece
For "djmelfi" and "Gkenyon". I am certain you will not believe me but each of you could put your name on the other's responses and still sound pretty much the same: angry, vehement and totally distrusting while sniping at each other with similar points, but with different names attached to them (Bush, Gore, Obama, Reagan, Roosevelt, doesn't matter). And, most likely, neither of you realize that you mirror the rage of most Americans, of either party. The "problem" is neither with Bush nor Obama. The problem is "us". For the better part of the past 80 or so years "we" have been engaged in creating the current condition of the republic: government debt equal to GDP, career politicians whose only apparent motivation is re-election, a near disastrous recession (could still become disastrous), a belief of "entitlement", a declining manufacturing base, and so on. Sure, the politicians, all of the politicians, created all the Acts and all the Laws leading up to the shambles we are in, but who enabled them? We did. All of us. And that is because America simply will not say "No" to the politicians, almost never, as long as "there's something in it for ME". So, we are where we are. And, in my humble opinion, if we continue sneering at and denigrating each other, all the while holding to our particular dogmatic "certainties", rather than coherently attempting to figure out right versus wrong, good versus bad, logical versus nonsensical, smart versus dumb, etc., then our 230 year old republic will go the way of Rome, Athens, Europe and others. And it won't be too many more years (or elections) before that process will be complete.
Michael W. Reece
Tally Eddings
Yes, Sir, I HEAR you; those MANY of us in America were disturbed by the
very things you listed about the Bush II Administration and it is for those very reasons we though the "FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE" Obama was talking about was to REJECT those very things you listed and others. After all, Obama is a Harvard Educated, intelligent, poised, articulate man who
was going to take care of the Evil Wars and bring our Soilders home; he was going to "debate the Health Care Issues on C-Span" so we could now have an "open government"; he was going to stop Torture (I believe he did) and Close Gitmo, which in my opinion was in Error because there was no answer as to WHERE the radical, hating the World, willing to DIE to kill masses of the inocent populace, would go. And in Obama's RELIGION, he LIED to us. Obama CLAIMED to know Jesus as his personal Savior ("I am a Christian"), yet we can see by his Words ("America is no longer a Christian Nation"...A BOLD FACED LIE FROM SATAN HIMSELF) and his ACTIONS (Doing away with the National Prayer Breakfast, celebarting the Islamic holidays but not the Birth of Jesus, repeatedly quoting from the Muslim Book, the Koran, instead of the Holy Bible, bringing into advisory capacity those who, too, are NON-CHRISTIAN or ANTI-CHRISTIAN...I could go on but the point is well made. WE WERE FOOLED. ALL OF US. We believed Obama to be the BEST of the Choice offered, McCain (ignorant and part of the same establishment in government we were DISCUSSED with), or
OBAMA. We choose Obama, unaware that the choices had been pre-dertmined by the REAL Selectors, the CFR, the Elite, the REAL Rulers. Well, We have HAD it. We do NOT want a "Fundamental Change" since this means Socialism, Communism and Fascism. We were DECEIVED and we want OUT.
Tally Eddings
One other thing; Mort Zuckerman is not only a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is an established LEADER. Mort, then, is one of our PROBLEMS. From his article, we can see that he (the CFR) believes a mistake was made. So look for the Republican Candidate in the next Presidential Election to have been BETTER VETTED but still under the control of the CFR. PLEASE CFR, give us a "God Fearing Man', i.e., defined in PROVERBS as one who "hates Evil, Pride and Arogance, the Evil Way; and the 'Froward Mouth" (rebellious, sexually perverse)". Let us get this Nation back to ONE NATION UNDER GOD (The Great "I AM", Jehovah,
the ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD). Back in the 1940,s, candidates were identified as being "God Fearing" or nothing was said. Everyone KNEW what "God Fearing" meant; nowadays, people believe "God Fearing" to be AFRAID OF GOD. This, too, is a fundamental ERROR. REPENT, AMERICA.
whoever
Socialism and Democracy can coexist. It is capitalism and socialism that cannot. Your list of do-good activities is impressive. It is easy to tout your moral enlightenment when it is funded by hard working people. It is a mistake to assume someone who disagrees with you is less intelligent. Your kind of blather was washed out by cries for action after 9/11. Try not to forget how that day felt.
Monalisa2
Yeah, go back to Canada Mort.
igross
why are people so surprised by what Obama has done or accomplished. If you looked at his resume and you were running a company you would not have hired this guy. You would have wondered what he could do, he had not done much for 48 years. He is smart and educated, but so what. There are a lot of people who are smart and educated and can not hold a job or accomplish anything. I was always amazed at how well he gave a speech and how poorly he answered questions. To take a person like Obama with no experience other than winning elections, and give him the most important job in the world, and in affect putting the world at risk was stupid. We will pay he price.
For the Democratic Party to ram through a health care bill no one wants, to out and out buy votes in public, as if we the public would not care, is an assault to our intelligence.
I am angry, there are many of us who are angry. The silent majority is angry. Washington is killing the American Dream. The person who is worked his whole life and saved, who sent his kids to school, has watched as his retirement savings have disappeared, his house is underwater, his kid is living home because he can't get a job, this person is angry.
We are watching the American standard of living declining. We are trying to raise the down trodden in society by bringing everyone down not up to the same level.
The government has spent us into a financial position that can only lead to more recession or inflation or both. We will watch as we lose our ability to be competitive in the world. We have no choice. We have to put new people in office who are committed to reduce government, to improve education, to foster business creation. We need to produce our own energy. We have to drill here, we have to use our own Gas. We need to salvage our economy before there is nothing to salvage.
Obama will not lead us in that direction. No one he has appointed has the experience of running anything but a campaign. Wake up America and lets take our great country back and end this disconnected corrupt political group that is running our country.
dancingczars
Mort, absolutely great take with recent You Tube with Neil and articles you have written on the direction of this presidency. It is great to see a liberal with common sense. Everything you said on Cavoto I absolutely agree with and I'm a fiscal conservative. Are there many more like you that you are aware of that backed Obama and share your ideas? I'm Jim
NoFool
Obama is an actor with evil intent. He reads scripts from the teleprompter. Who knows who writes this bull, the same old lines, over and over. But as a leader, he is an empty suit.
darrelb
Wow! Mort, tell it like it is. These numbskulls are having a hard time getting the message.
BMW123221
llllllll
JackDavis1
Obama has done enough on his own, by himself, to earn my deep disgust. These actions include, but are not limited to, the following.
The stimulus package that was supposed to keep unemployment from going above 8 percent
Dithering...YES, DITHERING...on Afghanistan
Not following through on Black Panther intimidation on Election Day
Bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to NYC to stand trial
Screwing the Chrysler bondholders
The monstrosity called health care he is trying to cram down my throat
Hiring Janet "The System Works" Napolitano
Hiring Eric "Mr. Pardon" Holder
Failed outreach to Iran
Failed outreach to Muslims
Giving up a missile shield and getting nothing from the Russians in return
Apologizing for America tours
Obama is THE WORST president EVER inflicted on the United States.
showerbars
President Obama was elected not imposed on us.
morris1030
But he has not met his obligations, promises, or set an agenda that is intuitively needed to govern this country.
In fact I voted for him and I am appalled at his lack of intuitive political smarts and his totally detached and absurd agenda. Axelrod and Rham are running him and what we are looking at is an entirely unsuitable president who is neither bold or strong and has not led. Our economy is key and he's dithered and loused up opportunitites and set our party back for years.
I could make a laundry list of mistakes, but putting him on TV 24/7 is like Ken Auletta's remark in his current NYorker profile. To paraphrase, he likened Obama's overexposure to listening to Muzak in an elevator. We know music is on, but we don't hear it.
MicheleMG
He was supposed to work FOR us not AGAINST us.
truthiness2
It is true he was elected. One Big A..Mistake America!
jrfunkenstein
'Obama is THE WORST president EVER inflicted on the United States.'
Then you must consider George Bush the worst human being ever inflicted on the planet Earth.
Yet why do I suspect that you don't?
donnawinney
Yet George Bush understand his first job was as Commander-in-Chief. He understood there really are terrorists who want to kill Americans and destroy our way of life. As "stupid" as he was, he understood that radicals with nuclear bombs means suicide for the entire planet. The worst human being on the planet did more to stop the AIDS epidemic (by strategically targeting medical supplies) in Africa than any other human being on the planet, including Saint Bono.
Ya know, the longer brilliant Professor Obama occupies the White House, the smarter George Bush looks
FarLeftFist
And Obama isn't doing anything about the war on terror? Did you even hear his inauguration speech, he mentioned it numerous times.
Gkenyon
Really, "he understood there are terrorists who want to kill Americans and destroy our way of life"? Is that why he tacitly ignored a briefing titled BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE WITHIN THE UNITED STATES and half a dozen intelligence agents who were telling him about all the warning signs of 9/11? Is that why 4,000 people died in New York while Bush was reading to third graders (as if he could read)? Is that why, when special forces had bin Laden in their sites in Afghanistan and were practically begging the Pentagon to let them kill him, they told them to stand down? Is that why he cynically used 9/11 to stir up a hornet's nest in Iraq, earning us the undying hatred of millions of more Muslim extremists around the world? Is that why, not one year after 9/11, he told America he "wasn't really concerned" with catching bin Laden?
You know what -- I'm done with you guys. You have extreme cognitive dissonance and selective amnesia. You show no grasp of history or the tenets of basic logic. You do whatever your right-wing talking heads tell you to do, not realizing you are being manipulated by big money players who use you for their dirty work. You vote against your own economic self-interest and call any attempts to help the middle class "socialism." You are truly beyond help. I'm not going to waste my breath trying to educate you anymore -- it's just not sticking. Goodbye.
jrfunkenstein
'Ya know, the longer brilliant Professor Obama occupies the White House, the smarter George Bush looks'
George Bush is the reason your country is in the appalling shape that it is; 8 years of mind numbing fiscal incompetence and a plethora of foreign policy blunders is not erased in one year.
But I suppose you would have preferred McCain bombing Iran and Palin calling for the financial system to implode as more pragmatic approaches to international and domestic issues?
Pondermom
http://open.salon.com/blog/je_robertson/2010/01/06/obamas_first_year_a_vast _array_of_underreported_successes
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Woody58
I find it amusing when liberals use analogies embarrassing to their heroes.
den123, how ironic is it that Scott Brown just extricated Teddy Kennedy's water logged automobile from some surviving Kopechne's attic?
applejacks
What crack are you smoking? Obama has saved this country from a great depression? You're an idiot,mate.Obama hasnt done shit but spend money the US doesnt have,force a bullshit healthcare bill that the majority doesnt want and sent the unemployment statistics into the stastossphere.He's nothing but talk.Too bad that morons like you buy into his crap but when it comes to most liberal tools iI'm not the least bit surprised.
sdt993
Really? Everyone agrees, eh? I'm so glad we have geniuses like you who can speak for the rest of us. And what exactly did Obama do to save us from the great depression? Can you name one thing? Inject massive liquidity into the system? Oh, wait, that was the Fed. Rescue the banks? Oh, wait, that was Paulsen who started that. And Bush drove us into the ditch? Do you think maybe fannie/freddie - the single largest players in the mortgage fiasco might have had something to do with that? And who let them run wild? Was it Barney "I see no problem here" Frank? Chris Dodd? Maxine "Frank Raines is a genius" Waters? Bill Clinton? Nah, i guess it was Bush. You're right. Anyway - enjoy driving the car until November. That will be you're last chance for a very long time. Dems are going to be CRUSHED and WILL lose both houses. I can't wait!
ThomG3434
Sorry Den123, that is the mistake your political types made. President BO did not save us from a great depression, I get why you cling to some fantasy but we will be fortunate if he, with the Pelosis and Reids, haven't put us on track for a great economical meltdown. They sure are trying to ruin the dollar. I used to criticize Bush for spending money like drunken Democrats but apologized after seeing these insane Democrats spend money. Put your training wheels on and hope someone can help us in 3 years when we get rid of this failed community organizer.
peggyflee
Obama has exploited the economic crisis. He has not tried to solve it. He was hoping to pass health care so quickly that no one would have an opportunity to read the bill. Remember, a crisis is a terrrible thing to waste.
Mort has written one of the best op-ed pieces I have seen. The bill is a fiscal disaster that would raise costs and the defict. It is entended to give the Dem's permanent majority status.
I guess you don't consider what he did with the unions---bribery.While we're at it-- Where were the C-Span cameras---I must have missed them.
I'll take Bush any day.
Inthemidwest
Keep on drinking that Kool-Aid den...
gsllick
You have drank way too much of that cool aid. Hey, wake up... Obama is bringing this country done and is the most devisive president ever.
hank1961
Sorry to disappoint den123, but the worst of the financial meltdown was averted in the fall of 2008 shortly after it arose about the time and shortly after he was elected. Obama has shown a complete inability to lead or even show an ounce of creativity in governance which is why is always punts the responsibility to Congress
Letscheck
Obama is a Soros puppet. If you don't know about Soros then you cannot understand Obama and his agenda.
Research Soros, then you might understand why the country is against Obama.
voyager5k
No, everyone certainly does NOT agree. If you even suggest that Bush 43 was a lousy POTUS, then you have zero understanding of history. The absolute worst Presidents that we have ever had is a tossup between Ulysses S. Grant and one James Earl Carter. William Jefferson Clinton certainly challenges for that title based on corruption. Obama is well on his way to climbing up the list, but still has time to change.
Awelowynt
I'm gonna have to put Harding and Buchanan up there with Grant and Carter. Those two were pretty bad as well.
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redbourn
And around 93% if blacks still support him.
But if you're white and don't like The One then you're a racist.
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jrfunkenstein
Funny how Bush's core supporters were almost uniformly White, yet no one bothered to make that distinction or consider it important during his woefully abysmal tenure.
Curious how those same supporters now reference Obama's popularity among Black Americans as somehow telling.
But God help you if you suggest any racial overtones form those who see Blacks supportive of the first Black President somehow being suspect.
doug-c
About 90% of blacks vote democrat in every election regardless of who's running. They just hate republicans.
And conservatives sound stupid when they use little nicknames for Obama. ('The One' 'The Messiah' 'The Grand Cyclops') Grow up.
ThomG3434
doug-c, in your wise opinion, what did your cohorts sound like calling Bush a chimp or BusHitler? Dignified adults surely, I bet.
BO is more white than black so despite what dialect Harry Reid thinks he only uses when he wants, he is less black than white. His father was more Arab than African black. I just don't like him because he is a socialist at best and a communist at worst and we don't need those types in office. Mort Z. is one I have read for years and been a subscriber to his magazine for longer than he has been publisher but I am genuinely disappointed in him that he didn't do his research on BO before voting for him. It was all there for those wishing to see.
doug-c
ThomG3434, I also thought it was stupid and immature when democrats were throwing around dumb tags for Bush. Thank you for your wise and uniformed opinion.
prdejong825
Kudos to PoliticallyKorrect. As succinct and accurate an analysis as any I have read since the "One" was elected.
RDJ
Vineland, NJ
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cottonmouth
Monk66, not that facts will matter to you, but the US Census - controlled this year by Grand Cyclops Obama ( that is a joke dummy), supports putting blacks, whites, browns and yellows into categories, most often at the immense demands of the blacks, yellows, and browns.
Your convenient claims of racism based upon identification long ago failed to convince anyone other than your true believers.
By the way, how do those teabags - and by this I mean political views - taste on your tonsils?
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section9
You guys need to leave that dead dog on the porch. Palin was the only thing that got McCain as close as he came. Obama should have gotten 58-60 percent last year. That he didn't was the result of Palin juicing Base Republicans to get out and vote. Even Schmidt had to admit as much.
McCain was always going to lose this election after September 15th. 2008 turned out to be a Democratic year, and Obama a very lucky man.
Sometimes, a man's luck runs out.
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jgreene
Mort, it's not JUST the economy stupid, it is Obama's Marxist heavy handed appoach to everything. If only you and the other numbskulls who voted for this left wing idealogue had bothered to READ HIS BIOGRAPHY and paid attention to his and his wife's adult life associations you wouldn't have been so taken in with his "suntan".
Now it's obvious to everyone who and what he is and it just isn't pretty. Obama has three more years of trying to figure it out. He won't; he's gone and the Congressional Democratic Kleptocrats are going to be swept from office in 2010 and 2012.
The good news is that the American People have been forced to pay attention to politics and economics and common sense. Some may even be reading the Declaration of Independence and Constitution for the first time. This is the beginning of a New American Revolution begun in Massachusetts with a Tea Party for tyrants.
Quicksilver123
You're really not very smart, are you...
vanderleun
Monk66 is a sad and uttely colonized mind. I hope, at some point, somebody deprograms the bot.
VictorErimita
We are very lucky he is as inexpereinced and incompetent as he is. If he were a competent revolutionary, he would done done far more damage so far than he has done.
Mr. Zuckerman, like many (though still too few) Americans, is awkening to the collosal con job he submitted to in 2008. Obama was a carefully constructed illusion, and the majority of American voters allowed themselves to fall under its spell. Now we are paying for it in spades, and we will be for many, many years to come.
LeftieGirl
"Mr. Zuckerman, like many (though still too few) Americans, is awkening to the collosal con job he submitted to in 2008. Obama was a carefully constructed illusion, and the majority of American voters allowed themselves to fall under its spell. Now we are paying for it in spades, and we will be for many, many years to come."
Ummm... Someone please explain to me how this is ANY different than W's 4th Reich?
finjap1982
Beautifully said.
He is floundering wildly and spending all his political capital like a drunk.
What an amateur!! (thank God)
gsllick
I totally agree, If the media did what the media was suppose to do then we wouldn't be calling Obama president. Gone are the days of a non bias media. It is sad to say.
Laurs1
I can understand Zuckerman's angst and regret. What I can't understand is why and how he supported someone like Obama in the first place. Or thought things would be different from what he's complaining about. Did he really think Obama was anything but a rookie ideologue? No one knew anything about Obama -- no accident; and what WAS known certainly didn't recommend him as a leader or representative of this country.
As for Obama's reclaiming our position in the world. Get real! I read the foreign press daily, and other than audiences of kids swooning at a celebirty, the diplomats and leaders of foreign countries do not like what they see.
On one level, they love a weak United States -- Obama's only true accomplishment -- but on the other hand, they know that a weak US weakens them, too.
A French politician probably said it as well as anyone: that as much as they didn't always want to do what Bush wanted, they cooperated. With Obama, they just laugh. I don't call that reclaiming anything in the international arena other than embarrassment.
There is no need for other countries to respect us, because Obama has already done the disrespectng of us during his world apology junkets. For that he should be ashamed. But I doubt he's bright enough to realize that if you don't respect your own country, no one else will, either.
onecaguy12345
What did we tell you guys before the election? He had NO experience, and now it really shows.
You voted for the IDEA of him without actually looking AT him. That was incredibly foolish, as we told you.
Obama is Mr. Spock? Obama has absolutely no empathy, the guy is an empty suit. He just doesn't care about anything about himself. Just watch as it unfolds.
You said he was Lincoln, he didn't need experience. And now you see how weak he is, how he abdicates to Reid/Pelosi, and how he will continue to isolate himself because he has no internal strength.
I think only now you are beginning to see how incredibly dangerous having such a weak, empty man as President will be. To all of us in American and many other countries around the world.
He will cave and cave hard, and he will bring down the Democratic Party not only in November but also in 2012.
Let's just hope he doesn't do too much damage or allows damage to be caused to America before that happens.
ChanRobt
I'm with you onecaguy. But, in fairness to Lincoln, he had extensive experience as a very successful practicing lawyer. And he had acquitted himself superbly in a series of long, arduous debates.
Obama never really practiced law. And never really did anything but run for office, hang out for a bit, and run for another, higher one.
MissOrange
Mort, you hear that? YOU effed up. Voting for this man was a juvenile, frivolous act, and now America is going to suffer terribly.
You owe us. You must atone.
Get off your ass and lead the charge for some serious investigations of his misbehavior (dropping charges againt the New Black Panther vote fraud might be a place to start) and uncover the criminal acts he is undoubtedly committing. Get the bastard impeached or force him to resign.
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section9
People who advocate impeaching Obama aren't serious conservatives and need to be laughed off the stage.
Stop being a clown. Advocating impeachment is the surest way for Republicans to return to Clydesville.
VictorErimita
You could start your atomement, Mort, by turning The Atlantic Monthly back into the intellectually vital, wide-ranging magazine it once was, instead of the carbon copy left wing echo chamber clone it has become since you bought it (Andrew Sullina, for God's sake?) You are a great example of how really smart people can be utterly deluded by ideology and wrapping oneself in a cocoon of likeminded people.
jrfunkenstein
'What did we tell you guys before the election? He had NO experience, and
now it really shows.
You voted for the IDEA of him without actually looking AT him. That was incredibly foolish, as we told you.'
I think only now you are beginning to see how incredibly dangerous having such a weak, empty man as President will be. To all of us in American and many other countries around the world.
Let's just hope he doesn't do too much damage or allows damage to be caused to America before that happens.'
Are you talking about Bush? Because it sure as Hell sounds like it.
donnawinney
I find it fascinating that the only defense Obama's defenders can mount is attacking George W. Bush. Not sure how to break it you folks, but Bush left office more than a year ago. He is now enjoying retirement at his ranch in Texas. Why are you still talking about him?
If you can mount a defense for Obama, do so. But attacking his predecessor is just intellectually lazy.
morris1030
I pray that someone strong in the party [is there anyone?] can get him to course correct. But then there's his flat personality and lack of real empathy. No intuitive political skill, no experience, no ethics. The circus of open corrupt dealmaking in the senate was beyond anything I have ever seen.
jezter54
Brilliant! You've summed up his disastrous presidency better than anyone so far. Nothing to add and I agree with everything. He has proven to be completely incapable to lead and to govern. Thank god for Massachusetts and Scott Brown and Kudos to Barney Frank and Jim Webb for respecting the voice of the people.
ChanRobt
There's a famous scene in THE CANDIDATE, the 60's era film about a handsome, charismatic guy -- played by Robert Redford -- who runs for the Senate.
In this final scene, it's all over, including the shouting. The Redford character has won. He turns to his campaign manager and asks, bewildered, "Now, what do we do?"
That's Obama.
NikniVilki
Another movie that comes to mind is "Being There". We've elected Chauncey Gardiner.
CaliforniaIsADream
Yes, Obama is a flim-flam man with the most horrendous of agenda's. An agenda that most people, including Mr. Zuckerman probably couldn't comprehend. Obama does not care for us, this county or it's people and is willfully burdening us with debt and obligations deliberately to send us down the drain. He's not concerned about how he or his administration is viewed by us, the American People, because he's playing to another audience. It's the World Wide Socialist Movement and their fellow travellers that he looks to for approval. His job is to cripple this country politically, economically and militarily. People need to see him with the blinders off as apparently Mr. Zuckerman and those he mentions are seeing him. He really must be stopped or we'll never recover. Also, the quality of the comments made here are really very good. Smart and well informed people.
hkjonus
uh hello, who got the country into this mess? George W. Bush and the Republiocans. So much for you being Smart and well informed....obviously you have memory or perception problems.
Larry178
uh, hello, you're not factual. Bush, or shrub as some called him, along with the Repubs, did their part, as did the Dems, led by Barney, Pelosi, Dodd and others. Note that the Dems controlled congress before the crash and note, if you were awake during your high school civics class, Congress influences the economy far more than the President.
You can also blame career bureaucrats for being asleep at various regulatory agencies, the Fed, Fannie and Freddie, seeds planted during Clinton years and the repeal of Sarbanes-Oxley, something engineered by the Repubs and Dems to thank their friends on Wall Street, as led by Goldman-Money$acks after they went public.
You can also thank the American Consumer, who knowingly bought houses they couldn't afford and the Banks and Wall Street empires that packaged products they knew were at risk.
Blaming only Bush and the Repubs is simple minded: spin to feed the ill informed and intellectually challenged. And I have to admire Mort because he seems to be abandoning the MSM media spin machine, unlike so many of his peers.
truthiness2
Uh hello Hkjonus it was not Bush it was the Dem congress. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, real estate bubble courtesy of Barnie Frank and company.
Look it up.
Cara-C
CaliforniaIsADream, you have it exactly right. Well said.
showerbars
This would be a great article if there was some substance to it. What is this? Nothing but the senseless blathering of a frustrated voter/journalist (and based on this article Mr. Zuckerman isn't much of a journalist). I do not know how you are a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations and write this poorly. I get this is a blog and English is not as importnant *sarcasm*, but Mr. Zuckerman I would expect a lot more intelligence from a person as esteemed as yourself.
Frumious
Mazel Tov Mort! Love your passion. H_ll hath no fury like a Democrat scorned (by his own party). I agree with your every point.
It is going to be traumatic being a Democrat. Every 2010 D seat in the nation is endangered. If Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Reid try to move their ideas of health care reform forward now, they are signing their party's death warrant.
Thank you Mort. Thank you Steve Brown. Thank you Massachusetts.
It's been a good day.
Humphster
Obama had two "look straight into the camera and lie" episodes that really turned me against him. The first was about the definition of Tax in the George Stphenopolous interview and the other was the 8 times he deliberately said that there would be complete transparency in the development of health care reform. Trust is very fragile. Once gone, it's gone.
subframer
Mort, the problem is that the country elected a talented man with a staggering narcissistic disorder into the presidency. BHO thinks this whole thing is about HIM. The job, the process, the issues, just vehicles for his manifest destiny. The public overwhelmingly dislikes what he's doing? There must be something wrong with the public. The country hates his health plan? It's his destiny to pass it, so he'll ram it down their throats. The special deals for states and unions? Chicago style bribery.
You're right, we've never seen anything like it.....
FairNYC
But he ran on healthcare, as did Hillary.
Suddenly all of you are horrified over the healthcare thing?
Why, it was a major part of his campaign.
bl-007
He ran on having CSPAN video all the discussions too. He ran on getting lobbyists out of the administration, and eliminating earmarks. HELLO? You still don't know you have been suckered, bro. As to doing health reform in lieu of stabilizing the economy, thats like promising to fill the potholes in the streets of New Orleans the day before Katrina hit. Don't you understand that HCR is about an attempt at permanent political power, not health? It is a just another rung on the Democrat's ladder toward total electoral domination. Why do you think they want to provide amnesty to all illegal aliens during a depression, with unemployment at an effective 17% rate, extending unemployment benefits for years? Power, political power, buying your vote with a taxpayer's money. Politics; plain and simple.
TTSSYF
Why do you guys, even those of you now disillusioned with Obama, insist in the notion that HE ran a brilliant campaign? He was packaged by Axelrod and other handlers. THEY ran the campaign...and I'm not even sure you could call it "brilliant," given that a good many people, rightly or wrongly, were voting for the anti-Bush candidate.
JohnnyO
Well said, PoliticallyKorrect - nailhead fully pounded!
Give us few more Obama magnitude disappointments and the country could be ready for the benign fascism that many believe is the perfect form of government. Indeed that may be the only way to hold a country where trust and confidence is evaporating and which is quickly fracturing along racial, ethnic, economic and cultural lines.
These are all end of empire signals - unmistakable, and I am sorry to say, irreversible.
hkjonus
In their zeal and determination to oppose and inflict failure on the President and the Democrats at any cost, the Republicans will destroy America.
Dencal26
Like they did to Bush for 8 years??> Payback is a Biatch my friend.
redbourn
"He's improved America's image in the world. He absolutely did".
Complete nonsense!
Obama has stabbed some allies in the back and alienated long term ones, and after grovelling to old enemies he got nothing from them.
http://tiny.cc/foreignfailure
I personally don't know why anybody voted for him.
A member of the communist party just 13 years ago.
No legal papers published.
He hid his past.
Links to Jihad.
Describing himself as The One.
The above was enough for me to vote for McCain, even though I didn't much care for him.
carbonman1950
More rightist drivel. I address each point in turn.
He was not a member of the Communist party at any time.
The legal "papers" you insist be published have been published, confirmed, re-published, reconfirmed and certified by the relevant state government.
He did not hide his past. Want proof? You know about it.
He has as many links to Jihad as you do.
Just plain crap.
Larry178
Accurate. I wish some of the guys on my side of the fence would get their facts straight before they spout off nutcase spin.
That said, Obama is a narcissistic twit in my opinion. More than that, before the election I read his books without any rose colored glasses and they scared heck out of me. I got the feeling that his deal is manipulation of the masses and the dumber the masses, the better he liked it.
Dencal26
Black Liberation Theology has its roots in Liberation Theology which was created in South America in order to make Marxism more appealing to the religious people of those nations. Obama embraced Black Liberation Theology and his willingness to hire known Communists like Van Jones and Anita Dunn are more proof. JFK would have slapped Van Jones. Not Hired him.
echumc
It's good to know there are still thinking people in our country. It's going to be interesting to see where all of this takes us!
Meteorlady
"At the time"??
Have you ever been in an ACORN office? The spout communism and are willing to hand out books to educate the masses. I am sick that any of my hard earned tax dollars go to organizations like them, El Centro de la Raza, or any other communist leaning organizations. I have yet to see his college transcripts, his income tax returns.... Other candidates have furnished this information including college papers, etc. Why not him. Did he not go to Syria when it was banned to go there? What did he do there? Where did all his money come from since he never really held an actual job. Oh, wait Michelle got some $200,000 per year of taxpayer money for something to do with the local government, but what did she actually do?
Thank you.
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