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The Spectacle Blog
James Carville has some advice for President Obama that can be summed up in one word: panic. The former Clinton adviser does offer some more specific suggestions, the first sounding the most promising.
1. Fire somebody. No — fire a lot of people. This may be news to you but this is not going well. For precedent, see Russian Army 64th division at Stalingrad. There were enough deaths at Stalingrad to make the entire tea party collectively orgasm.
Bill Clinton fired many people in 1994 and took a lot of heat for it. Reagan fired most of his campaign staff in 1980. Republicans historically fired their own speaker, Newt Gingrich. Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. For God’s sake, why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisers that got us into this mess? It’s not working.
The whole item is worth a read to get a sense of how Democratic strategists are feeling after this week’s special election losses. Obama’s numbers have tanked to the point that Carville worries “creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans” can beat him. Carville has given the president advice before, sending a letter earlier this year.
The New York Times’ Matt Bai isn’t sold, however.
View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/09/16/carville-to-white-house-panic
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Oldefarte| 9.16.11 @ 3:16PM
As I've said, IT'S THE DEMOCRATS STUPIDS! Oh, and now consider the following (and possibly the fact that it's YOUR TAX MONEY that was being pi*sed away in NON-STIMULUS, okay Paulistas shouting RINI/CINO """"stupidisms"""" constantly) PLEASE:
'.....Obama’s 'Crony-Gate' Scandal Widens — Billions Now Under Scrutiny Friday, September 16, 2011 01:28 PMAllegations that hite House aides attempted to pressure an Air Force general to alter his congressional testimony in order to aid a firm controlled by a prominent Democratic donor lent new momentum Friday to GOP complaints that “crony capitalism” contributed to the Obama stimulus programs’ failure to revive the economy.
Instead of the money being spent wisely, they suggest, billions were squandered by an administration that believed it could reward its political backers without impeding the economic recovery. They point to the loss of over 1,100 jobs when the now-defunct solar-panel firm Solyndra, which received over half a billion dollars in federal stimulus dollars, closed its doors.“Crony capitalism was responsible for the failure of the stimulus — about $90 billion went to clean energy,” Tom Borelli, a PhD and director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project, told Newsmax on Friday.News that four-star Gen. William Shelton was urged to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a firm with close ties to the White House adds to the narrative of an administration singularly focused on helping its political friends.Those allegations come in the same week as a congressional probe continued into loan guarantees given to Solyndra over the objections of Office and Management and Budget staff who warned the company had yet to demonstrate a viable business model. President Barack Obama later hailed the Solyndra initiative as a model example of how green-energy jobs could help bail out the U.S. economy. The Republican in charge of the Solyndra probe, Oversight and Investigations subcommittee chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns, told Newsmax Thursday that Solyndra’s “enormous amount of expenditures would mean there’s apt to be fraud, there’s apt to be shall we say, crony capitalism because a lot of people were moving too quickly and spending too much money and not carefully assessing its value and its importance to the development of the solar panel.” Conservative think tanks and pundits are positioning Solyndra and the Shelton testimony as just the tip of a much larger problem: An administration all too eager to manipulate the levers of federal power and largess in order to reward its political supporters. Among the examples being cited:• The dual role of GE CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt, whose corporation stood to benefit from the administration’s aggressive development of green energy at the same time he advised the administration on job growth and global competitiveness. Immelt, who has described GE’s energy-efficiency products as an $18 billion-a-year business, has been a heavy donor to both Republicans and Democrats. But Borelli says the green-energy endeavors, including GE’s, are “totally dependent” on federal support and subsidies. According to Recovery.gov, GE has received over $126 million in grants and contracts from various government departments, including $31 million from the Department of Energy. • The Daily Caller has reported that firms associated with venture capitalist John Doerr have received over half a billion in grants and loans related to green technologies. It adds that Doerr and his wife have donated about $800,000 to Democrats since 2000, and his firm has donated a substantial amount as well. Democrats called on Doerr repeatedly to testify at congressional hearings about the economic benefits of green initiatives. In 2009, he went before Congress to call for “a bold, coordinated campaign of investment and incentives to accelerate green innovation” that he suggested would result in thousands of new jobs.• Forbes.com columnist Larry Bell says ABC News and the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity has linked $510 million in stimulus loans and grants to green-tech companies in a portfolio owned by Steve Westly. Westly is a campaign money-bundler who reportedly raised over $500,000 for the president’s campaign. According to Bell, Westly was appointed to serve on a 12-member advisory board that would help set priorities that could impact his business interests. One firm Bell says Westly has an interested in, Tesla Motors, saw its stock jump 6% after the administration announced it would offer $7,500 federal buyer-rebates for electric-car purchases.• Bell also cites “enigmatic circumstances” involving a $584,000 stimulus tax credit granted to Serious Materials, a small window manufacturing company. In his column Bell writes: “Robin Roy, a Serious executive, is married to Cathy Zoi, a former assistant secretary for the Energy Department’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) which was responsible for $16 billion in stimulus money. She was nominated for the position by the Obama administration, and Vice President Biden visited the Serious plant to praise its work. • Bell also tells Newsmax that untold billions of stimulus funds actually went to benefit foreign companies. A new solar plant in Blythe, Calif., received a $2.1 billion stimulus grant, despite the fact that the project was awarded to a German firm, Solar Millennium and its U.S. subsidiary, Solar rust of America. Similarly, he reports the Energy Department gave out $1.45 billion in loan guarantees to Abendgoa Solar, a Spanish company building plants in California and Arizona. On Friday, the National Center for Public Policy Research distributed an e-mail headlined: “Solyndra is only the tip of the crony capitalism iceberg.” “Congress needs to determine if key advisors of President Obama were rewarded with stimulus money in return for political donations and support of the president’s energy policy,” says Borelli. “There is a clear relationship between recipients of economic stimulus funds and support for Obama’s clean energy agenda.”
The White House and the Energy Department have steadfastly denied any favoritism was involved in its grants and loan guarantees.....'
Sean| 9.16.11 @ 6:00PM
Oh I am sure its only the Democrats voting for TARP, autobailouts, and letting the FED devaluate our currency. Not to mention voting for prescription drug coverage unbalanced budgets, and all kinds of nonsense.
Alan Brooks| 9.16.11 @ 8:40PM
Carville, the guy who married Mary Matalin.
What a glory-hound.
W| 9.16.11 @ 4:57PM
Obama cannot fire someone to take the blame because the ideas such as Obamacare, Stimulus, and Regulations, are his ideas. It is not a matter of incompetently executing those ideas, it is the ideas that are bad.
Firing someone is a good idea.
The country will fire Obama in 2012.
beebop| 9.16.11 @ 6:45PM
You give him too much credit. He is far to busy preening in his mirror and fantasizing that he is important (see his pathetic speach upon the occaision of hanging a Medal of Honor around the neck of Sgt Dakota Meyer) wherein the Own speaks of the heroic Sgt Meyer "wanting" to have a beer with him. Isn't it always about HIM? Goodness I hope he's depressed. I know he depresses me.
Occam's Tool| 9.17.11 @ 2:33AM
SGT Meyer is a good guy, but Obama is a scumbag.
Simon Templar| 9.16.11 @ 5:15PM
You know he is finished when NBC pundits including Cramer (who feels it is politically safe enough now) sit around discussing the POTUS poser's extreme dislike from business people and the broad American public. When they admit the off camera remarks being made and feel it necessary to be honest with their viewers who they are losing in droves every day.
Be careful and do not get too excited. They are trying to distant themselves from him as they want to save Liberalism and make it out that he was just not fit for the job. He will go. It was his radical liberalism that is the issue and the rot that got us where we are today.
Alan Brooks| 9.16.11 @ 8:41PM
and you will elect another memoir-writer.
Shamus| 9.17.11 @ 11:06AM
My theory is that the parties and their nominating procedures are not working. If you go back 50 years, it's hard to find anyone who was really outstanding. Republicans would cite Reagan, and Democrats would cite Kennedy, but this is rather slim pickings considering how many people were nominated. It makes me wonder whether it's possible to have anyone good chosen as a nominee with the current selection process.
Alan Brooks| 9.16.11 @ 8:41PM
and you will elect another memoir-writer.
beebop| 9.16.11 @ 9:25PM
You may be right. Its a cinch 0bama cannot write his own memoir without the assistance of someone like Bill Ayers ... where is the "brilliance" Alan? Oh. Right. Bush took it.
Occam's Tool| 9.17.11 @ 2:32AM
"When in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." (Too many possible references)
Tenn Slim| 9.17.11 @ 8:11AM
Carville of course is correct.
Firing the Hired Guns = Czars would help.
But the Midwest Academy would revoke Obamas Diploma. Community Organizer that he is, Obama has to maintain his previous ties. That is his Linus Blanket of security.
Read " Radical In Chief",,, "Masters of Deciet".. both written on the same subject, 40 years apart. Both expose the Community Organizers Etal for what they believe and are.
Carville know these folks. He associated with a great deal of them, knows thier ideas and thier fallacies. He is also basically an honest, straight forward speaker, albeit a Dem.
end
Bob K.| 9.17.11 @ 8:14AM
Do we have a plan if, unlikely as it may seem, he does do what Carville advises?
beebop| 9.17.11 @ 8:22AM
Do you think that any of this is either going to happen and/or at this point in the Demo handbook would have any impact on the coming tsunami? It starts to look as useless as the Party throwing 500,000 into their media buy in New York and getting .... wait for it .... NADA.
Occam's Tool| 9.17.11 @ 12:57PM
Carter (I mean Obama) is intellectually inflexible. Perry looks like the next POTUS.
Bob K.| 9.17.11 @ 8:56PM
When it comes to political demagoguery Carville is a master. I'm am basically talking about his 2nd recommendation. Indicting those "certain people in American finance who haven't been held responsible for utterly ruining the economic fabric of our country."
Who ever they may be as Carville is not specific here.
But suppose it does happen and there is blood on the water which the media sharks will circle around! Certainly there will be Republican targets here along with a few Democrats thrown into the mix as a nod to political diversity.
What should the policy of the elected leadership (not the pundits, mind you) of the Republican party be here? Should it anticipate this and take preemptive action?
This could be very troubling.
Mimi| 9.17.11 @ 10:21AM
Well finally...we are finding out the gross details of things we all surmised were going on with these THUGS ! I'm thinking its way worse than we ever thought!
Just the fact that the investor is ahead of the NATION for the 1/2 Billion in the Solyndra deal...arranged soon after inauguration, visited the Whitehouse 4 times.....so soon after the VOW he took to defend this Nation....sickens me!
The political pay-offs... None of them are worthy to be running this great country.....AND NOTE: The SUFFERING OF THE PEOPLE. Anyone giving THEM one thin dime ...should HANG their head in SHAME!!!
Alan Hale| 9.17.11 @ 11:26AM
Your article is insanely biased but I thank you. You're categorizing the Teaparty is what is going to get all you nut job liberals out of our government. Teapartiers are Americans. Mainstream. We love America, unlike you globalists. We love nature and take care of it, not because of freak science but because it's the right thing to do. We value life and humans unlike you who abort, and worry more about animals than people. Thanks for helping to remove Obama!
Oldefarte| 9.17.11 @ 3:30PM
TARP as originally conceived was critically essential to forestall a collapse of the major banks and a financial run upon every other one in this country; Obama and the Democrats TWEEKED it to bailout the auto companies as a political payoff to its labor union buddies who traditionally stuff campaign money in every Democrat's pockets; and no Fed ever kowtowed to an admistration until now when this chairman has had his arms twisted so hard that he's on his knees providing this admistration with economic grease to attempt to accompolish monetarily what this administration has failed naturally to do from it non-stimulus -to -labor unions ['....Oh I am sure its only the Democrats voting for TARP, autobailouts, and letting the FED devaluate our currency. Not to mention voting for prescription drug coverage unbalanced budgets, and all kinds of nonsense....']. Get your Hope&Change; blinders off and see the reality of truth!!!!!!!!
aware| 9.18.11 @ 6:43AM
So you are saying TARP was a good "Republican" idea till the Dems got a hold of it? You don't know what you're talking about. Talk about "blinders". Blue team/ Red team...its all the same.
And if you think an election will stop what's coming you are badly deceived. Prepare for an unpleasant surprise.
PattyMor| 9.18.11 @ 12:32PM
Companies that are bankrupt should be filing bankruptcy; not getting bailed out. If not, we're the New Soviet Union, but just don't advertise it that way. Cronies and rent seekers get all the profits and the taxpayers are left holding the losses. Sweet Deal; but makes taxpayers chumps.