New Dawn Of American Gaga-Eyed Idol Worship
Only 100 more days of fawning suckupitude before the pandering excuse-making kics in. But don’t worry, there’s still is plenty of slack-jawed wonderment to look forward to.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If Barack Obama felt nervous about becoming president in a few hours, he didn’t show it Monday, as he cracked jokes and breezed through a series of volunteerism events and bipartisan dinners.
“I don’t sweat,” said the 47-year-old man about to inherit responsibility for two wars, an economy in crisis and the helm of the world’s lone superpower. “You ever see me sweat?”
It was vintage no-drama Obama, who seemed determined to carry his not-too-high, not-too-low demeanor to the Capitol steps for his swearing-in Tuesday.
In fairness, the pandering excuse-making has been underway for a while, and an end to fawning suckupitude isn’t even on the horizon.
NYT with a more cautious take on the same “I don’t sweat” anecdote that got the AP’s Charles Babbington gushing.
WASHINGTON — On the day before moving into the nation’s most storied house, Barack Obama visited a shelter for teenagers with no home. With sleeves rolled up, he spent a few minutes painting for the benefit of the cameras that trail him everywhere now.
Cara Fuller, a shelter worker, asked if he was sweating.
“Nah, I don’t sweat,” he told her. “You ever see me sweat?”
Not yet. But then again, it is still early.
AFP: The world looks on in wonder.
BBC poll of people in 17 countries found that most — an average of two-thirds — believe Obama will improve the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world.
Obama inherits a wobbly global economy, bloody conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a United States whose international standing is widely seen to be lower than any time in living memory.
He also comes to power with massive expectations, on everything from climate change to Middle East peace to disarming North Korea, and analysts have already warned many of those expectations are unrealistic.
Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said the world economic crisis could be shortened if Obama’s administration inspires confidence. But Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not hesitate to pour cold water on the hopes of optimists.
“I am deeply convinced that the biggest disappointments are born out of big expectations,” the prime minister said.
I’m with Vlad on that one, though I suspect the world like much of America will give Obama a pass and be more than happy to blame his failures and shortcomings on George Bush.
Boston Herald’s party girl Lauren Beckham Falcone is loving the big Inaug bash, but adds,
… are we Americans one big Bridezilla, focused on the wedding, and not on married life?
Not to harsh your Barack Obama buzz, but after all the dresses are shipped to the Smithsonian and Bono jets back to Ireland and Malia and Sasha put up their Jonas Brothers posters, our new president is faced with one heck of an overflowing ashtray to empty: wars, stock market jitters, a recession, bailouts, Bernie Madoff fallout, Gaza, tax increases, unemployment.
And like the giddy bride who married Mr. Right Now, something tells me our beloved groom is going to be sleeping on the couch before the inaugural champagne has lost its fizz.
And whose fault is it? Look in the mirror. As a whole, we Americans have the attention span of Homer Simpson. Forget checks and balances and the House and the Senate and “reaching across the aisle.” We want tax cuts and more jobs and cheap oil and a fat line of credit and we want them as soon as the Lincoln Bible is put away.
Um, aren’t we going all Disney princess on the man? Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. Barack Obama is just a man, not a fairy-tale concoction.
WPost: Unchained of the bonds of tradition, on Day One, he dives into foreign policy.
Last Thursday, in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, Obama criticized Bush for treating Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as “discrete” problems. Under his watch, Obama said, policy in that region will be treated as a single, unified one.
“One of the principles that we’ll be operating under is that these things are very much related and that if we have got an integrated approach, we’re going to be more effective,” he said.
Hey, I thought Iraq had nothing to do with Afghanistan. Sounds like the GWOT’s still on, unless the new integrated approach is a negotiated surrender.
Set your watches. Hitchens at Slate disparages Bush while thanks whatever an avowed atheist thanks that Bush was our president in the last seven years of war. And the righteous socialist who trashed the country hick in favor of the city slick begins to pave the way for his next switch:
It’s just that there’s an element of hubris in all this current hope-mongering and that I am beginning to be a little bit afraid to think of what Wednesday morning will feel like.
So he has a sense of embarrassment after all. It’s one thing to be a principled turncoat. Looks like he’s just trying to get ahead of the next change in the weather now. You’d think he’d have learned from the guy he was trying to tongue the other night that no one expects anything but spin from a weathervane.
Times of London: New Dawn Begins on Day One.
Mr Obama’s schedule for “Day 1” includes meetings with his economic and national security teams to discuss his planned stimulus package, as well as the next steps for the unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Aides say that he will fulfil a campaign promise that “on my first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission” to end the Iraq war. The Pentagon has drawn up plans to withdraw combat brigades within the 16-month timetable proposed by Mr Obama and redeploy many to Afghanistan.
Steady as she goes. What was that they used to say about George H.W/ Bush? Born on third base and thought he hit a triple. Good thing for Obama that George W. Bush won that war for him, so he can declare victory.
The new President is expected to issue an executive order calling for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and forbidding the use of interrogation techniques denounced widely as torture. Both issues have done much to tarnish America’s reputation, but Mr Obama has said that the final closure of Guantánamo is “a challenge” and unlikely to be completed within his first 100 days.
I predict uncompromising pronouncements you could fly a military transport full of guys in orange jumpsuits through.
In the Middle East, where Israel’s invasion of Gaza has passed without significant comment from Mr Obama, his senior adviser promises that “you’ll see him act quickly”. David Axelrod said: “The President-elect has said repeatedly that he intends to engage early and aggressively with diplomacy all over the world.”
You know, smart presidents usually leave that lost cause for the end, because they know it doesn’t make any difference to anything (else), and you don’t actually have to solve Mideast conflict, you just have to be seen to try. Obama apparently is keen to start with a failure. Unless Obama truly cares about Israeli and Palestinian misery, wants to see an end to it, and his plan is to encourage Israel to start killing Hamas again, and continue Bush’s progress in bringing Arab nations onside, in which case he could have that thing resolved by, say, September.
Quick glance in the rearview while barrelling on down the highway, McGurn at WSJ, Bush’s Real Sin was Winning in Iraq. It revealed the surrenderists for what they are. This great read that summons up the ghost of one of my favorite NYT editorials, the one in which the NYT ed board stated its preference for genocide. McGurn:
“Americans must be clear that Iraq, and the region around it, could be even bloodier and more chaotic after Americans leave,” read the editorial. “There could be reprisals against those who worked with American forces, further ethnic cleansing, even genocide.” Even genocide. With no hint of irony, the Times nevertheless went on to conclude that it would be even worse if we stayed.
This is Vietnam thinking. And the president never accepted it. That was why his critics went ape when, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he touched on the killing fields and exodus of boat people that followed America’s humiliating exit off an embassy rooftop. As the Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti noted, Mr. Bush had appropriated one of their most cherished analogies — only he drew very different lessons from it.
Mr. Bush’s success in Iraq is equally infuriating, because it showed he was right and they wrong. Many in Washington have not yet admitted that, even to themselves. Mr. Obama has. We know he has because he has elected to keep Mr. Bush’s secretary of defense — not something you do with a failure.
Mr. Obama seems aware that, at the end of the day, he will not be judged by his predecessor’s approval ratings. Instead, he will soon find himself under pressure to measure up to two Bush achievements: a strategic victory in Iraq, and the prevention of another attack on America’s home soil. As he rises to this challenge, our new president will learn that when you make a mistake, the keepers of the Beltway’s received orthodoxies will make you pay dearly.
But it will not even be close to the price you pay for ignoring their advice and succeeding.
I think Bush’s sin is deeper and more complex than that. He declared war to be a necessary evil, and proceeded to fight one. The handwringing peacenik Left, having gone along in its fear, was embarrassed and turned on him once it appeared the danger was past, claiming it had been hoodwinked, Saddam was a harmless old fuddyduddy and they should have just send cops after al-Qaeda.
Astonishingly idiotic op-ed by Mario Cuomo at Newsday: “Lincoln May Well Have Had It Easier.” Lincoln only had to worry about the Union being ripped apart in violent struggle and an end to the United States and everything it stands for. Obama … nobly Lincoln-like in towering intellect, political genius, etc. … has to worry about warmalist panic-mongering, the global status quo on war, terrorism and disease, and a bum economy. Cuomo fails to credit Bush with doing the heavy lifting re war, terrorism, disease and the bum economy, tasks which earned him the kind of opprobrium Lincoln enjoyed during much of his presidency.
This is fun. CNN: DC tattoo parlors doing a bangup Obama ink business. I sure hope Obama never does anything to make anyone want laser treatment.
OK, Inaug links:
Tigerhawk: “I Am Insane”
Because I am insane, the TH Daughter and I are going to catch the 6:46 a.m. Accela from Trenton and go to Washington for the day. My industry’s trade association happens to have offices overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, and it is throwing a reception for executives who want a warm place from which to see the Inaugural parade. Sadly, laptops are too big to get through the impressive security cordon, so blogging (from me, at least) will be sparse today unless I can borrow a machine down there. I will bring my camera, though, and hope to get some pictures of the Hope and Change.
I, for one, can both fear the consequences of Democrats in control of the Congress with a popular president in the White House and recognize that this is a remarkable moment in history that should be enjoyed for its own sake.
Noble sentiments. And who doesn’t like a trainwreck? This one’s already an official federal emergency.
Blair’s InOzgural liveblogging here.
Vodkapundit’s drunkblogging it, which sounds like a pretty good idea.
Ace, liveblogging, waxes poetic.
Althouse, liveblogging, espies the DC dawn all the way from Madison.
Steyn: Coronation Day
Malkin: Feel the Post-Racialism
Hot Air: Celebs Moved to Become Better People and Spike Lee: The Most Important Day in American History
Gateway with a fun trifecta: Obama’s “Radioactive” Pastors, Gore on Ice, and Shoe-Chucking Gitmo-Garbed Nutjobs Give Bush Sendoff
Surber: The Ug-ministration, also some Consensus on global warming. Looks like it’s jumped the endangered shark. Will the first sign of Obamist weathervanism be a dumping of absurd, expensive policies based on junk science, or will that rate as another new Dawn over Obamaland like the Iraq war thing?
Israel Matzav: First Order of Business, Turn Israel into Northern Ireland
The Other McCain: BDS, RIP
Protein Wisdom tackles it as well. Why They Hate Bush.
Sister Toldjah with more ridiculous Lincoln comparisons.
On the other side of the aisle, even John Cole has had a hard time stomaching the more childish element of the Inaugur-a-palooza, but can’t help declaring the need for a national holiday for a president whose sole accomplishment to date is getting elected. Can we wait till the inaugural speech is chiselled in marble, please? OK, OK, fine, as long as tomorrow can be George Bush Day, in commemoration of his many remarkable accomplishments … keeping the United States safe, removing vile dictatorships, bringing freedom to subject nations … against great odds that included the obstructionism of a Democratic Congress and a lot of squawking from people like Cole.
Andrew Sullivan has suspended his Palin obsession for some Obama gushing.
Greenwald’s anxious to see Obama shoot himself in the foot. Prosecute Bush now!
We’ll close with some SFW political incorrectness from Theo … because we can. Oh yeah, and I get the historical import of the day. That’s why I’ve taken it so seriously:
Hurl-Blogging the Inaugur-a-palooza
Hurl-Blogging the Inaugur-a-palooza, Reflux
Hurl-Blogging the Inaugur-a-palooza, the Dry Heaves
Hurl-Blogging the Inaugur-a-palooza, Iranian Edition
Power-Outage Blogging the Inaugur-a-palooza
UPDATE: He’s president. Another peaceful transfer of power complete, in another grand display of the greatness of American democracy. A little trouble with the oath, though. Hopefully that’s not a sign of things to come.
Jose in Barcelona posits the idol worship and the speech, if it weren’t in the United States with its checks and balances, would be “a little creepy.” Checks and balances? That’s so Bush.
My own Quick Obama Speech Take: WTF?
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:58 am on Tuesday, January 20, 2009
3 Responses to “New Dawn Of American Gaga-Eyed Idol Worship”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Imagine the disappointment of all those lefty street “fighters” who were certain George Bush was going to stage a last-minute coup.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden: Gaga wonder [...]
January 20th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Just a small notation, almost fifty percent of Americans are not in the Gaga wonderland!
The Stock Market was not amused either!
Today’s flabby folly Gaga wonder delusion will naturally crash to its deserving fiasco dissolution, sometime soon, when demands of sacrifices will not meet the expectations. And when, the audacity of miracle of raising the oceans is just raising working people taxes.