Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Hundred Days



The historically famous “Hundred Days” marked the end of one egomaniac’s career. Unfortunately, this newsworthy elapse of time occurs at the beginning of another’s venture into the history books. The Left swoons, of course, and engages in its typical practice of attributing qualities and virtues to its hero that are mostly imaginary. Does his “coolness” really reflect self-confidence and steadiness of purpose, or is it the absent-minded insouciance of an ignoramus who has launched himself onto the crosswalk in the path of rush-hour traffic? When he extended the hand of friendship to the caudillos of hostile foreign regimes, was it patience and humility, or callous disregard for the dignity of his office that caused him to ignore the sting of the joy-buzzer? Does the mere association of his awesome self with the idea of statist control expunge inefficacy and injustice from socialism, or does Obama, in fact, care only for the power at the end of the journey, and view personal freedom as just another annoying pothole in the road to serfdom?

By almost any measure of good governance, Obama’s performance is abysmal. He seems to have no sense of the idea of stewardship, of the fact that he is “standing on the shoulders of giants”; quite to the contrary, he appears to be under the impression that the election has awarded him a personal and proprietary interest in the presidency that permits him to rewrite the social contract. He has led the charge on historically-unprecedented spending, he has diminished the dignity of the United States in the eyes of the world, he proposes the kind of health care “reform” that, on its face, has been a disaster wherever it has been implemented, he has embraced the junk science behind the theory of anthropogenic global warming, and he has frozen out the GOP in his egotistical drive to ram through policies that, were they to be described honestly by the MSM, would be rejected as unpalatable, not only by Republicans, but by millions of independents, and probably by millions of Democrats, as well.

To expand on this last point: the concept of a “loyal opposition” presupposes some workable level of inclusiveness and fairness. If Obama – and the leaders of his party – believe that we should have a government of the Democrats, by the Democrats, and for the Democrats, then loyal opposition is at an end, and it is time, as I have said before, to begin working toward a constitutional convention.

9 comments:

mojo said...

Convention hell, I'm gonna shoot me some o' the bastards...

richard mcenroe said...

But there's money to be made in this brave new world!Does anybody know if any of the network talk shows did anything with the strafing of Manhattan yesterday. I know Jon Stewart did something, but what about Letterman or Leno?

RebeccaH said...

Well said, Paco, and I think you should archive that photoshop for the upcoming elections. A lot of Obama's (charitably described) "missteps" are going to be forgotten between now and 2010, not to mention 2012. So it becomes a responsibility for all RWDB bloggers to keep the historical perspective (i.e., the "goods") on these f****ing political miscreants, and to trumpet their misdeeds wherever possible.

Don't make me make another blog!

cac said...

Well done Paco for reminding us that the first 100 days is misused as an historical analogy almost as often as King Canute and his tides. At least though Napoeleon left some decent if overblown architecture. I wonder what legacy your current head of state will leave? I think history is going to treat Bush much kinder than most think now while Obama will be remembered as Carter Mark II (admittedly less of a stretch even now).

Paco said...

CAC: This is the first presidential administration which has made this much fuss over the first 100 days. They are likely to be Obama's best, so I hope he enjoys them; he is definitely headed for Carter-like levels of "accomplishment."

blogstrop said...

Hi Paco,
Knowing what a fan you are an' all, I knew that you'd want to read this transcript of some supposedly educated pol-science types discussing the Obie One's 100 days. You might not want to do it on a full stomach, however, if you take my drift.

cac said...

Paco, interesting. I had assumed that the 100 days thing was a standard benchmark of every presidency and something that sort of comes with a nice house on Pennsylvania Avenue. Given that one of the less functional aspects of the US system (at least seen from down under) is the need to get literally hundreds of people confirmed in their jobs before anything can get done, why would anyone voluntarily handicap themselves with such an early assessment?

Paco said...

cac: Oh, the hundred days always get a write-up in the press; this is the first time, however, that I remember such a huge amount of self-congratulation, aided and abetted by a fawning MSM.

richard mcenroe said...

This may be Obama's 100 days. The problem is,where's our Wellington, or evem our Blucher? All we have is a gaggle of Slender Billies on the Potomac, routing back to Brussels at the first sign of hostilities....