The American Spectator

Reader Mail

THE OBAMA CRACK-UP?
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Obama Agonistes:

The debonair Mr. Tyrrell, a clear eyed chronicler of the Clinton foibles, in a scant two weeks is agape at the stumbling Boy Prophet. I prefer to envision Mr. Tyrrell with his handsome face upturned.

If one reflects on the faux presidential seal of last summer, and the Office of the President Elect bunting, it is obvious that these poseurs will be playing West Wing for the duration. Perhaps our friends at Fox News could play laugh tracks with reportage of Obama, lest we all become gargoyles.
-- Robert P. Yatto
Crossville, Tennessee

Let's face it (if anyone is mature enough to do in this woebegone culture) Obama is the worst kind of political hack who is not only the country's first affirmative action product who was elected president, but who is also a graduate of ACORN and its agenda to completely change our country for the worst in every way. I first encountered ACORN thirty years ago as a young attorney representing General Motors Corp in utility cases before various state Public Service Commission hearings. In those simpler days when GM was healthy we advocated so called rate equity. That meant that if the PSC was going to grant the utilities increases in electric and natural gas rates, GM and other large users requested that the increases be allocated based on the actual cost to serve that class of customers and that the traditional subsidies by large users not be increased and in fact move to the actual cost for each class eventually. ACORN and other groups such as PIRGIM wanted the subsidies increased and also advocated other gimmicks such well below rates for the "poor" and senior citizens, rates known by various names one being "lifeline" rates. We used to have regular customer meetings with the utilities to discuss terms of service but of course not the specific rate cases. The utilities as you might imagine acknowledged the validity of our positions but of course their main interest was getting increased rates so were often sympathetic to these odious gimmicks. I remember we one time asked this one specific utility if collecting payments from its senior customers was problem. They answered no actually this class was its very best and reliable customers in paying for the energy. We next said why then are you flirting with these non cost based rates? That was a rhetorical question since everyone knew the answer. It was political. At that time Michigan had a very effective and ardent Democrat in the Attorney General's office who tacitly worked with these groups that is ACORN and PIRGIM. But to give him credit he did not actively advocate more subsidies from the large manufacturing class. In those far off days at least some Democrats recognized who really created and maintained jobs in our economy.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

The tax, spend, and extort bilge spewing forth from the current Congress and White House will overwhelm the mediocrities of the malaise and scandal administrations of years gone by. At least Jimmah Carter -- whose foreign policy was as kind and good as the American people are themselves -- could claim executive experience. It was a shame that you overlooked Mr. Obama's community activist career which would bolster an already deficit ridden resume.

This paucity of talent and skill of the president -- which was ably documented in this editorial -- will be no match for the crises yet to unfold. Mr. Obama may have been able to deceive the electorate and fool the immigration services regarding his citizenship but he will not be able to skate by with a smile and a sonorous speech with the likes of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, Russia, and China. He has been outclassed, outsmarted, and outmaneuvered by foreigners in his first 2 weeks which is simply a sneak preview of coming attractions after which he will morph into the surly Carter of the disco '70s. Perhaps by then Bill Clinton can show him how not to inhale. Some presidents can learn on the job but there is no option for that this time -- the economic stench alone has not even been half reported -- making it a lesson in the game of chicken.

Obama's loose lips already sunk the Chinese life raft whose massive purchases of treasuries has propped up this decrepit gasping American regime when scalawag Geithner accused them of manipulating their currency. If ever the kettle was calling the pot black we have heard it now. The treasuries auction sale this month will be a colossal catastrophe which will sink this administration regardless that it had its makings in the Bush regime and regardless that the Chinese have few options for recycling their dollars. Obama has continued Bush stimulus policy which is a perfect recipe for continued economic destruction.

I predict that Obama will be shown the door just as soon as someone equally incompetent, inept, and corrupt can be found to replace him. I am shaken to the core over the crises we face and the third rate senators who have ascended the apogee of power in flight piloted by the American Icarus.
-- David Bonn

He has not been in office a month, yet he has already made one thing pretty close to certain: Barack Obama will not be re-elected in 2012.

Really, this is like watching something along the lines of Back to the Future, but with a younger, half-black (albeit smarter) Jimmy Carter in the White House.

Not only has his administration demonstrated sheer political ineptitude in the face of unprecedented public favor -- I am referring to the circus that is Obama's efforts to put together enough prospective cabinet members who can actually be confirmed by the Senate -- the president seems incapable of discerning just how wasteful the so-called stimulus legislation crafted by his fellow Democrats in Congress will prove if actually signed into law by him. All this after he, the new kid on the block in D.C., convinced the majority of Americans that he, not John McCain, possessed the judgment needed to steward our nation during some very dark days.

Bill Clinton was right when he characterized the concept of an Obama administration representing what America needs to be the stuff of a "fairy tale." Meantime, it is looking more like a nightmare with every passing minute.

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is singing "We've only just begun...to live," one thing's certain: The game is already over.

Oh, and for those pundits who thought the conservative movement died when Republicans selected a guy who'd been campaigning for eight years to eventually lose the election for their party, here's a question: If the conservative movement is dead, why is it that within only a few days of his swearing in ceremony President Obama has spent more time talking about Rush Limbaugh than he has the lefty loonies in the media who helped him pull the wool over voters' eyes? Seems to me the Conservative movement is still very much alive in the mind of America's most popular man today -- Republicans thus have less to fear than some of their "thought leaders" may assume.
-- Michael S. Smith II
Charleston, South Carolina

While Mr. Tyrrell has his own reservations about Sarah Palin's overall ability to govern in an error-free manner, she possesses one thing even John McCain manages to hide from view: an instinctive sense of American Exceptionalism. To go even further, she possess that instinctive sense to know what threatens liberty at home and abroad, whether that threat is armed or legislative. Her ability to handle oil execs in Alaska for her citizens, and her obvious joy of life and existence are absent from any of those lunk-heads currently careening the American car down the hazardous mountainous pass of national and international relations.

She also possesses a sense of humor...very important.

Obama doesn't like being president anymore. The fun is already over. Being decisive has consequences, and he can't take criticism. His allies have noticed, so have America's enemies.
-- P. Aaron Jones
Michigan

ONE THING IN MIND
Re: Matthew Vadum's No Justice, No Peace:

Wade Rathke and the other members of the ACORN 8 being at war with the main body of ACORN is no surprise. These people are not out for the "little guy." The little guy is a means to an ends for them and their ilk. What interests them is power. Raw. Unadulterated power. Those who are neither part of this modern day mafia nor part of The Fellowship of the One are best served by staying out of this donnybrook and cheering for complete and utter implosion. Revolutions have started with less firepower than this.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

The Feds and IRS are taking too long to uncover the wrongdoing of Wade Rathke who is the mastermind of financial corruption in ACORN. ACORN 8 is a great example of members taking charge of demanding truth and transparency.
-- Roslyn Dodge

NEGATIVE ACTION
Re: Ralph R. Reiland's Isn't It Reich?

This is rich! The labor unions were forced on construction (and mining and manufacturing) by the Democrats during the New Deal. Roosevelt knew they would directly and immediately throw black men out of work, but decided it was a price worth paying.

If you're old enough to remember the early days of affirmative action, you know it was practically designed for labor unions (and local and state government in the old South). When I was young you couldn't get into a union unless you had a relative in it, so black men had to use their Uncle Sam.
-- D.M. Duggan