Ted Rall, State Journal-Register
MIAMI – We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.
No further comment.
Addendum:(Eric)
Well, heck, I’ll comment. This thing is a case study in liberal politics, this is.
It’s apparent that my original comments hold true… There’s no arguing with liberals on a logical basis, because their support for their candidates and for that matter their politics itself, is not based in logic. Thereby, no logic can defeat it. Think about this, now;
“We expected broken promises”?
Rall KNEW Obama was lying from the outset, and yet supported him? What does this say about the truthfulness of Rall himself? In all honesty, it’s nothing that we didn’t already know. But it’s interesting and rare to have such matters displayed so prominently.
He also now … after all this time… admits the sleazy operator Clinton was? And yet supported him as well? Rall Makes excuses for him not only for the eight years that Clinton was in office, but just up until recently as well? And yet he expected Obama represented a change for the better? I’m telling you, friends, Freud woulda had a ball with this guy.
There are a few trends that lend themselves to our deciphering this, however.
You’ll recall Rall just got canned from his op-ed cartoon job a few weeks ago. With this comment from Rall, it’s apparent why. Someone canned his back side because they knew the way things were going with Obama, Rall would be in high dudgeon against The Chosen One before much longer. Can’t have that. Loose cannon on deck, and all that.
The Democrats are in power, and Rall’s out of a job. Ponder that for a moment, all by itself.
There’s one of two ways we can play this.
Either Ted Rall is simply an extraordinarily bitter individual, whose bitterness served the purpose of the Democrats for a while, (See “Willing Idiot” ) and now finds himself with no further purpose for his bitterness now that the Democrats he snarked for, for so long, are in power, or else he’s simply a fool who has finally figured out how foolish he’s been.
Either way, with this complaint from him, the question becomes whether or not he’s going to have the intellectual integrity to work against the reelection of Obama, or will start making excuses for him again, come election time.
We’ll revist this, I’m sure as 2010 and 2012 come along. -E
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, chasm, gap, inauguration, integrity, memory, paragon, promises, state journal, state journal register, ted rall
May 30th, 2009 at 10:23
While I agree with all you both have said, every responding blog I have read so far is missing the point of Rall’s ultimate fear: the “preventative detainee” program and how it can be turned against anyone.
This should be a fear that all US citizens of whatever political stripe share. Look at the way our country is going under Obama. Sure, today it would be locking up potential or possible terrorists. Obama knows that most conservatives and those wanting a strong national defense will be ok with that. He lulls us, reels us in, and then . . . maybe tommorrow that preventative detainee is anyone who is not on the same political page as The One.
I remember seeing an interview with an FBI agent last summer who infiltrated the Weathermen back in the 70s. Part of the long-term Weather Underground plan was to take over the government and then send “resistors” to re-education camps. One day the FBI agent asked, “What if they won’t be re-educated” and the answer was extermination.
I’ll take off my tinfoil hat now but I’m keeping it close by for emergencies.
May 30th, 2009 at 12:30
I think what you’re talking about, GG, comes down to a matter of trust. I mean come on a little. Did anybody really think that Bush… either one… would have used the power and the way you describe? To my mind this is decidedly not a question of whether not the power should have been granted; the power was always there. The question was whether not it would be abused. Only a couple of fire leftists ever figured that about President Bush, Rall among them. Clearly, there are some occasions when such power is a requirement, and wartime is one of those. Certainly, the power to detain on a preventative basis was something that FDR used. Consider the Japanese. The differences, the American people trusted him enough to return the power, once the need was no longer. That said, the fact now is that we have someone in office who even staunch leftists do not trust enough with the power. The ironic part is, they not only put him there, but they put him there against the advice and consent of the rest of us. Obviously, complaining about it at this point is noticing that the genie isn’t in the bottle anymore. It’s already done.To my mind this exemplifies the point that I’ve often made in these spaces about the importance of voting, and carefully considering that vote before making it. clearly, most citizens fell well outside those parameters in the most recent election. Make no mistake whatever; we are going to see more examples of this kind of thing for the next three and a half years. As Bill Clinton once suggested about being raped, you may as well enjoy it. Oh, and you’d better put some ice on that. Are the biggest question to my mind at this point is whether not we’re going to survive as a nation until such time as we can send this guy back to the fertile crime fields of Chicago.
May 30th, 2009 at 14:36
“Rall KNEW Obama was lying from the outset, and yet supported him?”
But Eric, this lying stuff isn’t really new. I’ve read in several places that many many liberals KNEW (wink, wink, nod, nod) Obama was lying his arse off. They condoned it. Libs love being “in the ‘know’.”
The REAL reason Rall is so exercised is, the libs believed he was ONLY lying to the large blocs of Democrat conservatives, Republican moderates, liberal Jews, and cafeteria Catholics – which was, as Martha Stewart would say, a “good thing.”
Obama’s lies and obfuscations worked like a charm on these voting blocs. Unfortunately for Rall, Obama also lied to him. And THIS is what’s really wigging Rall out.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Rall’s a girly man and a lousy cartoonist. He’s been used and spit out, and he knows it.
May 30th, 2009 at 23:47
Marybel,
Look at it this way; Liberals by definition are easy to take in, or they’d not have bought into modern day liberalism.
May 30th, 2009 at 14:51
Obama’s problem is that he wants to move away from the Bush administration view of the war on terror as military problem, back to the failed Clinton adminstration view of terrorism as a criminal justice problem.
As enemy combatents, the President has all the authority he needs to detain combatents for the duration of the hostilities, which may be a very long time.
What Obama wants to do is treat enemy combatents as if they were civilian criminals, except Obama wants to try only those who can convict but detain the others without benefit of trial. This is absurd.
There is no criminal justice model which will past Supreme Court muster which will allow any president to base detaintion status on the probability of criminal conviction.
Obama’s basic problem is that Obamaland delusional assumptions don’t work in the real world.