Facing the reality of Obama

The folks at the Economist are becoming disenchanted with their fella but they're still in denial about what's wrong with this relationship.

Jennifer Rubin in Commentary:

Yes, there is an element of managerial incompetence, but the real issue is that the Right was correct about Obama: he’s an ultra-liberal at least on domestic policy, not a pragmatic centrist either on policy or in style. His mode of governance — denigrate the opposition, engage in ad hominem attacks, refuse to compromise on substantive policy, disguise radical policy intentions with a haze of meaningless rhetoric — bespeaks someone supremely confident in his ideological views and undaunted by fears (which are slowly creeping up on his Red state colleagues) of having overshot his mandate.

It is therefore unlikely that Obama will change course unless forced by electoral realities or external events. If the next several bond auctions are a bust perhaps then the spend-a-thon will slow. If unemployment rises and his poll numbers fall, perhaps he’ll hold off on burdening employers for just a bit. If he loses 30 or 40 House seats in 2010 he won’t have the legislative latitude to throw up whatever legislation he wants (or to defer to Nancy Pelosi).

But barring these developments it appears we are in for more of the same for the remainder of his term. It’s not what the Economist expected, but it is pretty much what most conservatives did. [emphasis added]

In other words, we are so screwed.

Infatuation clouds judgment. And when the cold gray light of morning reveals that Prince Charming isn't at all what he seemed at the ball and it turns out it was just one of those things, infatuation may be followed by a self-justifying and wholly unreliable analysis of the relationship. It's possible that more honesty will emerge when the disenchantment progresses into disgust and revulsion.

Mark Steyn would like the Obamacons to face reality at some point:

The nuancey boys were wrong on Obama, and the knuckledragging morons were right. There is no post-partisan centrist "grappling" with the economy, only a transformative radical willing to make Americans poorer in the cause of massive government expansion. At some point, The Economist, Messrs Brooks, Buckley & Co are going to have to acknowledge this. If they're planning on spending the rest of his term tutting that his management style is obstructing the effective implementation of his centrist agenda, it's going to be a long four years.

"I told you so" gives no satisfaction in this case.

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Help wanted: More people to do 'Dirty Jobs'

Below is an absolutely fascinating video I swiped from The Anchoress. Visit her and read her commentary on the validity of the vocation of the tradesman: carpenters, electricians, plumbers.

Watch the video below, and you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about sheep ranching (!!!) but it will be worth it.

We were visited by a plumber the other day and as I'm wont to do with X-ray technicians, auto mechanics, and roofers, I asked him how he had acquired his training. Pundit and I aren't pushing our children toward the obligatory four years of college. Their vocational plans might require a four year degree, or not.

I'm all in favor of knowledge for its own sake and believe in the value of a liberal arts education. But there are a couple of problems with that: 1) it's not for everyone; 2) the cost has to be considered; 3) what the vast majority of colleges and universities provide to their students is a far cry from a liberal arts education.

We all know about the indoctrination that takes place in most colleges so I won't belabor that, though someday I'll ask #1 son to recount for you his community college horror story about the English prof who spoke regularly and at length to his class about the evils of Bush, and how the US government brought down the World Trade Center. This man also called Helen Keller 'a monkey.' Then there was the math instructor who sent her students to the computer lab so that she could retreat to her office for a nap. What a rip-off for our son, who is paying for this with his own hard-earned money.

But back to the video. It's a twenty minute talk by Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. He advocates a PR campaign for hands-on vocations which are denigrated by our culture (and which he says make for the happiest people he knows). I know it's a bit long but you won't regret it.



*The Anchoress has updated her post with Mr. Rowe's take on the AIG bonuses. Bottom line: "A deal is a deal" and "My deal was with AIG, not you [i.e., the government]."

I asked Pundit (have I mentioned he's a genius?) if he could find an article he once sent me about opting out of college. He sent the following:

From John Derbyshire:
Learn a Trade
The Next Bubble to Burst?
The College Racket
Is College Necessary?
Down with College!

From Charles Murray:
What's Wrong with Vocational School?

From Kathy Kristof:
The Great College Hoax


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Steyn on Obama's ineptitude

Sharing the Steynian love:
The New Enemy Combatants

It's hard to excerpt Mark's longer columns. I don't want to cheat him by posting the whole thing. But it's filled with fantastic quotables. I'll give you a couple of tastes but you must promise to click on the link and read every word.

To his credit, the hopeychanger-in-chief has had some difficulty doing the outrage kabuki with a straight face. In the middle of his press conference the other day, he got a tickle in his throat and departed from his telepromptered script to joke: "Excuse me, I'm choked up with anger here." How the assembled hacks laughed! Why, it was almost as funny as his gag on "The Tonight Show." Referring to his 129 score at the White House bowling alley, the president cracked that "it was like the Special Olympics." Ha-ha! What a card that Obama is when he unplugs the prompter and kicks loose a little. Maybe next time he can toss in that the Dow Jones has got "Down" syndrome – geddit? Oh, come on! Don't be so uptight and politically correct!!! And besides, anyone who says the president shouldn't be doing crip jokes is a racist.

[. . . .]

Are you sure about that? He might be "a fairly sensitive and compassionate man." Alternatively, he could be a mean, self-absorbed S.O.B. who regards anyone other than himself as intellectually disabled. The truth is we don't know, because in the course of the presidential campaign the press declined to do even the most elementary due diligence on him. And, like Congress with the stimulus, the electorate didn't bother to find out what's in there before they voted for it.

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Michelle, the home economist's mentor

I'll file this advice in that special place where I keep Hillary's cookie recipe:

But, sitting in her office in the East Wing, Mrs. Obama stressed that she doesn’t want people to feel guilty if they don’t have the time to have a garden: there are still many small changes they can make.
“You can begin in your own cupboard by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables,” she said.

Cue laugh track.

Does she mean more often than never?

Maybe her full-time Chicago chef supplied her with the tip about incorporating more fruits and veggies.

And she's never had a garden before.

But thanks for the advice, Michelle! Don't know where my family of nine would be without your guidance. Next up: parenting advice from a woman whose mother provides full-time child care.

















As for the physical labor the garden will require, the First Nag said this:

Virtually the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, “whether they like it or not,” Mrs. Obama said with a laugh.

Let's deconstruct this a bit:
She's the alpha-spouse for sure.
He's not going to pull more than one weed.
And doesn't he have better things to do with his time, like watch basketball, or improve his bowling skills?

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Questioning the role of schools in promoting self-esteem

Here's an interesting story from the BBC about how the bankrupt but pervasive self-esteem movement in parenting and education results in empty narcissists instead of mature, confident, compassionate young adults. Even "the chief executive of the centre for confidence and well-being in Scotland" warns educators that a steady diet of false praise has "gone too far." She may put herself out of a job with talk like this:

She said an obsession with boosting children's self-esteem was encouraging a narcissistic generation who focussed on themselves and felt "entitled".

"Narcissists make terrible relationship partners, parents and employees. It's not a positive characteristic. We are in danger of encouraging this," she said.

"And we are kidding ourselves if we think that we aren't going to undermine learning if we restrict criticism.

"Parents no longer want to hear if their children have done anything wrong. This is the downside of the self-esteem agenda.

"I'm not saying it's of no value… but you get unintentional consequences."

Constant praise is one of the principle carrots used in carrot-and-stick parenting, a method I've come to seriously question. Adult-child conversation is typically spiked with false, empty praise. I mentioned this in a post a while back:

This all brings to mind the book Generation Me by Jean M. Twenge. She dissects the self-esteem mania that is still firmly in place in our homes and schools. If you have young children, try counting how many times you say "good job" in one day. Then try ditching that empty phrase and see how hard it is.

It's our little seal of approval, a mass-produced sticker we slap on everything children do that is remotely positive.

Back to the BBC story. Teachers in in the UK are now expected to practice psychology and counseling without a license:

Since 2007, there has been a statutory responsibility on schools in England to improve pupils' well-being and primary and secondary schools are increasingly teaching social and emotional skills.

Indeed it is possible that Ofsted inspectors will soon appraise schools' performance in this area; and well-being could be one of the measures used in the school report card system that the government wants to introduce.

But Dr Craig told head teachers that this was not the role of schools.

"Schools have to hold out that they are educational establishments," she said.

"They are not surrogate psychologists or mental health professionals."

Learning about feelings from a professional in a classroom did not send out a positive message, she added.

And she warned there was a danger the more schools taught emotional well-being, the less parents would take responsibility.

"We run the risk of undermining the family as the principal agent of sociability," she said.

Pundit and I don't send our children to government schools. But judging from our neighbors, including teachers and parents, schools are already fully engaged in shaping the emotional and social lives of their students. Teachers see it as part of their job. And inherent in messages on what constitutes emotional and social well-being are moral values which may or may not coincide with your own. Like moral relativism.

An anecdote from real life: Two moms are talking on the porch after school. The child of Mom A, a public school teacher, relates a local news story she has heard at school, about a teenager who has murdered his parents. Mom A explains this atrocity to her child with these words: "He made a bad choice." Mom B, horrified, exits.

File this under "another reason to homeschool."

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The Obama meltdown

The verdict is in. Obama can't handle it. Contrary to his own opinion, he is not very good at being President. In fact, he's an epic failure.

This Mad Mag cover would be funnier if it weren't so deadly accurate.

Read this from the Telegraph, via Hot Air, and weep.

Excerpts:

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.

British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister. …

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president’s surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama’s inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to “even fake an interest in foreign policy”. …

The American source said: “Obama is overwhelmed. There is a zero sum tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.

“That was the gamble these guys made at the front end of this presidency and I think they’re finding it a hard thing to do everything.

No wonder he's tired. He's overextending himself, trying keep up with a busy social life, maintain his workout schedule, maximize abortions worldwide, and learn the ropes at his first real job. Why shouldn't he be overwhelmed?

There's a lot more to be said about this administration and the way it's conducting itself, but it will have to wait. I'm too busy to do this travesty justice right now. Suffice it to say that all the losers who voted for this loser owe the country an apology. What a sick joke this 'administration' is.

Follow-up post here.

Related:
Obamas disses the Brits
Obama as narcissist
Kurtz et al. on 'Who is Barack Obama?'

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