The American Spectator

IT ONLY GETS WORSE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s Worse Than Carter:

Thanks for articulating what has become painfully obvious for some time now.
— Jeff Rennie
Chesterhill, Ohio

Mr. Tyrrell, it is not only time to declare one obvious truth — that Obama is worse than Carter — but a second one as well. Let’s drop the blather about Obama’s supposed intelligence. His inexplicable serial blunders re Troopergate, the Arizona border, the 9-11 mosque, et al. cannot continue to be dismissed simply as signs of tin ear disease. His inability to utter anything moving or uplifting when the teleprompter is off has become the stuff of comic legend. Spouting banal platitudes about hope, change, and freedom of religion without any awareness of context are the signs of an uncritical mind skilled at parroting what others have told it, not of any innate intelligence.

I grant that Obama is educated. I grant that he reads his teleprompted words well and thus give a scripted, artificial impression of eloquence. But I think it’s time to lay aside the meme, probably psychologically inspired by the exquisite racial sensitivity that now lies within us all, that the man is somehow any more intelligent than any other failed politician. From foreign policy, to domestic policy, to understanding the culture that elected him, his cognitive skills have been painfully lacking.
— John Rogitz
San Diego, California

While I agree wholeheartedly that Obama has surpassed Carter on the “worst” list, I don’t consider that to be a stand-alone issue. This Congress is the worst Congress in recent times. The two, together, constitute an as yet unmatched force for the decline of the country. However, it should be borne in mind that the reason for the election of these incredibly destructive performers was the notably poor performances of a Republican President and Republican Congress. The American public, with the possible exception of those Democrats who still support Obama, surely realize that they have replaced poor performers with worse performers. The forthcoming elections confront the voters with the problem of determining who, if any, may be better. I think that it would be a mistake for dissatisfied voters to leave the selection of the candidates to the same political groups, the Republican and Democratic parties, from whose ranks the poor and worse performers have come. The Tea Parties offer voters a potential source for something better.
— Syd Chaden
Palermo, California

Mr. Tyrrell’s “Worse Than Carter” article is fantastic, but I would like to add a few points. First, Mr. Obama is the type of liberal who believes the First Amendment requires the removal of the Ten Commandments from a state courthouse, but allows the building of a controversial mosque at Ground Zero. While his view is supported by the Supreme Court’s liberal interpretation of the First Amendment, most voters would not find the Ten Commandments in a courthouse offensive, but would find a mosque built at Ground Zero offensive.

Second, when conservatives are quick to criticize Mr. Obama’s credentials as a community organizer, liberals are quick to respond that Moses and Jesus were community organizers. Aside from the fact that Christians believe Moses was a spiritual leader and Jesus was the Son of God, rather than community organizers, the liberal comparison of Mr. Obama to either of them implies that in 2008, liberals voted for a religious leader, Mr. Obama, and thus violated the “separation of church and state” principle.

Third, nothing symbolizes the intersection of religion and state more than Ground Zero. In fact, it was the site of the most violent interaction between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic Middle East in recent history. The idea of Saudi Arabia and Iran funding a mosque at Ground Zero is akin to the idea of the U.S. funding a Catholic Church and Jewish Temple in Kabul and Baghdad. The difference is that the U.S. would never consider such absurd projects, not only because our Constitution prohibits it, but also because the motives are clearly malicious. Unlike the president of the United States, most Americans realize the motives behind the Ground Zero mosque are malicious and oppose it.
— Mike Mitchell
Scottsdale, Arizona

I’d say the article misses two greater instances of petulance and bad manners: his chronic blaming of his predecessor for all the economic woes he “inherited,” when in fact the worst were attributable to the Clinton/Barney Frank laws requiring irresponsible loans to house purchasers, and his mindless “I want to know whose ass to kick” comment in respect of BP which, although likely negligent in its drilling, was working diligently to staunch the flow from the spill and had already agreed to set up a $20 billion fund.
— Roger M. Milgrim
Easton, Pennsylvania

“President Obama represents the leadership of a sterile elite”? How about intellectually bankrupt, spiritual bereft, morally anchorless, totalitarian, arrogant and inbred elite?
— C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, West Virginia

Hey Tyrell [sic],

Don’t forget “W”, Grant, Garfield, Buchanan, and Fillmore!

Obama is “THE OTHER,” right?

The cynical exploitation of FEAR and xenophobia by the right wing is truly APPALLING. That is indeed “The Other.”

Cheers.
— Moshe Mandelman