‘Charles Krauthammer’s Selective Attack on Obama‘
Howard Kurtz (The Daily Beast): After two years of carping about President Obama ramming his ambitious and costly proposals through Congress, some on the right now fume that he is determined to get his way by using — the nerve! — his executive powers.
Charles Krauthammer’s latest column, on this very subject, contains a curious omission, almost a sense of amnesia. The esteemed scribe details how the Obama administration is pushing through three important changes in federal policy, accusing the president of trying “to impose a liberal agenda on a center-right nation” through “regulatory stealth.”
….but here’s the thing: Every president uses the federal bureaucracy to push the country in his preferred ideological direction. That, in fact, is part of what elections are about. Each White House occupant appoints agency chiefs who agree with his philosophy ..… the Krauthammer column implies that Obama practically invented the nefarious practice.
Take, for example, George W. Bush. His EPA moved to loosen clean-air rules near national parks. His Interior Department cleared the way for oil drilling on 130,000 acres of pristine federal land near national parks in Utah (which Obama has since reversed) …. his Minerals Management Service, which referred to oil companies as “clients,” told the firms they did not have to provide detailed response plans for blowouts because such plans were “purely speculative or generic.” This was five years before the BP oil disaster …. his White House Council on Environmental Quality edited an administration report to emphasize scientific uncertainties about global warming …. his Securities & Exchange Commission mounted 87 percent fewer fraud investigations that led to federal prosecutions…..
….Obama may well be engaged in a “leftward lurch” toward stricter federal regulation, as the conservative Krauthammer views it. But when it comes to using the Executive Branch to achieve political goals, he’s had plenty of company.
Full article here
The Obama Diary 
I read this article this morning, pleassssse, like former President Bush didn’t use his executive powers. Also they can keep pounding President Obama if they want to. His approval rating at Gallup today is 50% up 8 pts in 10 weeks. http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx
So he is looking good to the public. All I can say is it’s about time. President Obama is slow but sure 🙂
Agreed Brezzdee. President Obama’s moves are well-thought out decisions. They are never knee-jerk decisions. He is calculating and looks at long term results. I love it!! They (adversaries) push, push for him make rush decisions. You make costly mistakes when you make decisions that are not well thought out. If he did make those “hasty decisions” and make a mistake-they would be all over him. Be damned if you do, and be damned if you don’t. He doesn’t do it. He seems to maneuver with a plan. He is his own person, I like that. In his book, ‘Dreams from my Father” he speaks of spending most of his early childhood being alone because of the old age of his grandparents who raised him. He had the good fortune of having to make his own decisions at a very early age.And his poker play partners say, he is a calculating,good player. That time alone and his poker playing skills are now paying off as he uses those transferable skills to “just about” lead the entire world. Thank you, President Obama for marching to the “drum in your own head”.
Forgive me everyone, but Krauthammer’s poor face has always appeared to me like a cadaver’s. If I ever bumped into him in a darkened corridor , I’m sure I’d have a heart attack.
Mentioned this to my husband, reading here behind me, and he said, “Well, the poor guy can’t help how he looks …” But I remember a class I took way back in the dark ages in which there was a discussion on whether a person’s looks evolved as his personality evolved, and I was convinced after that discussion that wrath and meanness is mirrored in a person’s face.
Of course, there may be wrathful and mean people walking around who are cunning enough to effect a beneficent look on their faces. Look at chubby-faced Rush Limbaugh. But are there many of these? (
It would be an interesting discussion, with illustrative photos of course — Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Sarah P. and so on. I mean other than pure stupidity, which is fairly clear in the case of these people. I think I’ll Google the subject and see what’s out there.
You have me weepin’ laughing here Joan! Although, to be honest, I think you owe an apology to cadavers out there – comparing their (admittedly) less than healthy complexions to Kreepy Krauthammer is just cruel, on them.
🙂
I almost feel I owe an apology to Krauthammer, too. Not quite, but almost. I’ve been unsuccessful in finding any photos of Krauthammer before he had a diving accident that rendered him wheelchair-bound and a paraplegic, but that couldn’t have given him that unfortunate face, could it? Consider the equally paraplegic FDR’s laughter, his uplifted chin, and of course, the smiling Max Cleland who lost two of his legs and an arm in the Vietnam war.
But interestingly, Krauthammer’s ideology has evolved, too. One of my favorite authors and commentators, Hendrick Hertzberg, of The New Yorker, pointed out that when he was a colleague of Krauthammer’s at The New Republic during 1978, Krauthammer was “70 per cent Mondale liberal, 30 per cent ‘Scoop Jackson Democrat,’ that is, hard-line on Israel and relations with the Soviet Union;” while in the mid-80s, he was still “50-50: fairly liberal on economic and social questions but a full-bore foreign-policy neoconservative.” Hertzberg now calls Krauthammer a “pretty solid 90-10 Republican.”[This is from Wikipedia.]
So he’s evolved ideologically, all right, and not in my humble opinion, for the better. He had that accident while he was in medical school, and had enough courage to finish his degree and then went into (gahhh) psychiatry. Before that he was in medical practice, and I wonder if he had many female patients. Can you imagine looking at that face through the stirrups?
Thank you Joan, for the laugh out loud last line of your comment. And no, I swear my thighs would be sealed tight in horror.
Joan I believe there is merit to your theory. Perhaps Rush Limbaugh’s nastiness just has more layers to penetrate before coming to the surface. What passes for his smile appears to me to be more of a sneer, and he probably has cold dead eyes, but I am not really sure about his eyes as I try to avoid images of him. I like to instead, look for and appreciate what is natural and beautiful in this world.
Ha! “Perhaps Rush Limbaugh’s nastiness just has more layers to penetrate before coming to the surface.” Sue, I was thinking the same thing as I was typing his name! Rush has many, MANY more layers, but.
He keeps collecting good looking wives, roly-poly as he’s (again) become. I wonder what’s going on there? It couldn’t just be money, could it? There couldn’t be enough money in the world … and so on.
It must be his wit and good nature, Joan …. I know, I know.
Yeah, I don’t get how some women roll. The exchange rate is to high in my book, there just isn’t enough money in the world to compensate for a life shared with that Jackass!
Joan – I think what’s inside is definitely reflected on the outside. Those who are evil within, show it somehow on the outside, just as those who are sweet with good intentions show the same on the outside. I agree wtih you about Krauthammer – he’s scary to look at, but when I hear him speak, I find his looks get even scarier. I find this to be especially true about Sarah Palin.
I really hope this works because this is how I see this man with such an ugly soul, against President Obama. Here goes:
EDP4BHO,
I got a real shock when I clicked on the link and all I could say was,”Ooooooo!” LOL
Edited it for ya EDP4BHO to make that **LOL** pic show up in your comment – friggin’ hilarious!!!!
Thanks CS. Now tell me how to do that. I’m still green with a lot of net tech. Funny, though, huh? 😀
Yeh, it worked. Well, I just had to add that no matter what his life condition, there is no need for anyone to be so hateful. As Whitney Houston said in Waiting to Exhale, “if ya ugly inside, ya ugly outside”. So true! And because he’s so ugly inside, I feel no guilt about making fun of him.