In Worm-Turnage Developments
Obama has a bad Sunday, with multiple whacks from his pals at NYT, and a 60 Minutes dopeslap. You’d never know from the slap-happy grin, though. Politico:
The leading liberal voices of the New York Times editorial pages all criticized—and, in some cases, clobbered—President Obama on Sunday for his handling of the economy and national security.
It’s not unusual for Barack Obama to take a little friendly fire from the Times. But it’s perhaps unprecedented for him to get hit on the same day by columnists Frank Rich, Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd—and in the paper’s lead editorial. Their critique punctuated a weekend that started with a widely circulated blog post by Paul Krugman that said the president’s yet to be announced bank rescue plan would almost certainly fail.
The sentiment, coming just two months after the president was sworn in, reflects elite opinion in the Washington-New York corridor that Obama is increasingly overwhelmed, and not fully appreciative of the building tsunami of populist outrage.
Unlike with President Bush, the Obama administration is less apt to dismiss such commentary, at least publicly, as so much carping from an out-of-touch peanut gallery. These are voices that have been sympathetic, and at times gushing toward Obama, during the campaign and in his administration’s early days.
The president and his top aides read the Times closely and react quickly to its reporting and commentary.
Meanwhile, the notoriously tone-deaf pres stuns Kroft at 60 minutes but chuckling at our woes. Politico again:
President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, touching off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”
His remarks came in a “60 Minutes” interview in which he was pressed by an incredulous Steve Kroft for laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the world’s economy.
“You’re sitting here. And you’re— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he’s sitting there just making jokes about money—’ How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asks at one point.
“Are you punch-drunk?” Kroft says.
“No, no. There’s gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama says, with a laugh.
I thought that’s what all the parties were for. That and the disability jokes. I’m glad he’s having a good time, anyway. Last time anyone enjoyed himself this much in the White House, Bill got impeached and we were out several million bucks worth of cruise missiles. I don’t think we’ll get off that cheap this time. Speaking of friendly fire, here’s the guy who almost became Obama’s commerce secretary but wisely took a powder. CNN: Gregg warns of US bankruptcy under Obama’s spend-happy budget plans.
Gateway and Hot Air examine the punch-drunk president’s symptoms. Malkin admires the showmanship.
Topics: Obama
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:28 pm on Sunday, March 22, 2009
3 Responses to “In Worm-Turnage Developments”
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March 22nd, 2009 at 10:53 pm
The man is clueless, and apparently he’s just too damn smart to listen to people who know a lot more than he does.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] Crittenden, for example, isn’t very amused: Last time anyone enjoyed himself this much in the White House, Bill got impeached and we were out [...]
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 am
[...] Jules Crittenden » In Worm-Turnage Developments [...]