That Tears It

He's a plant. From whom I don't know.

Obama speech in Indiana:

But it is wonderful to be back in Indiana. In a few moments, we’ll open up the discussion. But I want to offer a few comments about some of the emerging threats that we face in the 21st century and offer some ideas about how we can face those threats.

Throughout our history, America’s confronted constantly evolving danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the frontier, from the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor, to the threat of nuclear annihilation. Americans have adapted to the threats posed by an ever-changing world.

The guy grew up in Hawaii!

Says Ed:

[A] whole lot of bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. And the threat wasn’t the bomb, it was the empire that sent massive waves of planes to drop them on our Pacific Fleet. Those bombs fell because we didn’t adapt to the threat, and in fact we kept telling ourselves that we could talk the Japanese out of their policy of aggression and empire. We came within a few aircraft carriers of losing the Pacific out of our willful blindness to the nature of the Japanese.

I think you're expecting a little too much thinking from our next president(!!!), Ed. And listen to his delivery of the speech. He sounds like a robot--like an actor reading the first run-through of a script.

This is frightening.

UPDATE: Just a few reminders...

57 States

Auschwitz versus Buchenwald

Stalin as WWII Enemy

UPDATE:Karl at Protein Wisdom takes note. For a good time, read the comments.

Comments

[notropis]

How long before Leno, Letterman, Stewart, et al start making fun of Obamisms, as they did Bushisms and Quayle-isms?

(Answer: At least not until well after November.)

"the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor, to the threat of nuclear annihilation" actually makes it sound like he's mixing up Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima ("the bomb" - singular - usually is in reference to The Bomb - a nuclear bomb.)

It's like either "when the Japanese dropped The Bomb on Pearl Harbor," or more likely, "from the bomb that fell on Hiroshima" -- no, wait, it wasn't America that faced that danger -- stick "Pearl Harbor" in instead, you know, America, Japan, Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor -- it's all the same stuff, basically. It's that old war that my grandfather fought in and saved the Jews.

[Phelps]

Pshaw. Everyone knows that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. Ask Bluto.

[JBean]

Ever since I slogged through Obama's "Dreams," I've been thinking about something: in the book, there are few, if any, actual dates given -- for anything. Instead, when trying to determine when he moved to Indonesia, you have to slog through several pages until you learn "I was six." When he returned to Hawaii? No date, just that he was a "ten-year-old" at Punahou School. The death of his father? When he was 21. Moving to Chicago? 14 years after he took a trip there in the "summer before my eleventh birthday."

In any other biography/memoir I've read, dates, or at least years as expressed in numbers, are important, and expected, because they structure the narrative. But in Obama's world, dates are not important. In other words, there is no history, or at least no objective history, other than Barack Obama's self-referencing. Events that happened before he was born, such as Pearl Harbor, are just a "bomb," and not really important. The liberation of Dachau? Only important because Barack Obama's uncle helped liberate some camp or other after WWII. "Patton's army" gets a nod only because his father was a member. If not part of the Barack Obama's personal narrative, dates and fact are simply a distraction.

The only history that's important to Barack Obama began on August 4, 1961, and even then, only if it relates to this extreme narcissist in some personal way.

[notropis]

JBean,

That is very perceptive. I never even thought about it, but I think it really does say a lot.

[JBean]

Thanks, notropis; it's something that's been knocking around in my brain for a while. Juliette just jogged it lose.

The bigger problem, I think, is that Obama connects with too many people who think in the same narcissistic terms: i.e. what's in it for me, right here and right now?

[Karmi]

JBean,

Obama doesn't need to worry about time, dates, and such. It all changes when he dies anyway...no more AD/BC or CE/BCE. Changes to BBO and ABO...

[Khaki Elephant]

Ah, and don't forget his reasoning on why Hillary beat him in Kentucky.

"What it says is that I'm not very well known in that part of the country. Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it's not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle."

Um, I guess he forgot that Illinois actually shares a border with Kentucky.

[baldilocks]

"Um, I guess he forgot that Illinois actually shares a border with Kentucky."

That was hilarious.

[Donna B.]

Humorless and self-centered, what more could we want in a President?

[Maggie45]

I find it extremely frightening that this guy could actually be our president.

The commenters at PW have always been the funniest on the net.

The Krauthamer column was right on.

[Karmi]

Donna B. - "Humorless and self-centered, what more could we want in a President?"

How about a 'Puff Piece' on him?

'Time' Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece

[me]

I defy you to find a single video of GWB going for more than 10 consecutive sentences without a single malapropism or smirking with that silly frat boy /man child smile or the overwrought and forced "concern mask" that is the tell tale sign of his intellectual vacancy. Go to youtube. Yes Obama fumbled a few times but then several months of 14 -18 hour days is known have that effect on a person. Those of us that actually work for a living know this. You guys on the radical right have a ton of (flawed)ideological based criticism of Obama you can (and should) make. That is how our system works. But to compare the low wattage, inarticulate, illiterate, national embarrassment that is the worst presidency in US history to the former president of the Harvard Law Review and U of C law professor is just dishonest. The Republican party is a clown car overstuffed with mouth breathing Babbits and George W. Bush is its 3 story tall hood ornament for at least the next generation. Any possible criticsm you will ever make, well founded or not, will be nullified by just 1 letter "W". You people broke it and now you people own it.

[baldilocks]

Stop crying, 'me.'

Obama isn't committing malapropisms or smirking and complaining about such things shows your emotional investment and your shallowness.

Obama does not know the things he should know. The things cited aren't merely things a president should know, but, more importantly things a reasonably well-educated American citizen should know. And by reasonably well-educated, I mean possessing a high school diploma.

Stop having an emotional sh*t-fit and wake up to the fact that you're going to bat for a cipher--and one who likely believes that people like you (I'm sure you're white) need to be punished.