A rookie president, indeed

Here are the thoughts of our nation's most brilliant thinker, Dr. Thomas Sowell, concerning The Big Zero's lack of experience.

Someone once said that, for every rookie you have on your starting team in the National Football League, you will lose a game. Somewhere, at some time during the season, a rookie will make a mistake that will cost you a game.

We now have a rookie President of the United States and, in the dangerous world we live in, with terrorist nations going nuclear, just one rookie mistake can bring disaster down on this generation and generations yet to come.

Barack Obama is a rookie in a sense that few other Presidents in American history have ever been. It is not just that he has never been President before. He has never had any position of major executive responsibility in any kind of organization where he was personally responsible for the outcome.

Other first-term Presidents have been governors, generals, cabinet members or others in positions of personal responsibility. A few have been senators, like Barack Obama, but usually for longer than Obama, and had not spent half their few years in the senate running for President.

What is even worse than making mistakes is having sycophants telling you that you are doing fine when you are not. In addition to all the usual hangers-on and supplicants for government favors that every President has, Barack Obama has a media that will see no evil, hear no evil and certainly speak no evil.

They will cheer him on, no matter what he does, short of first-degree murder-- and they would make excuses for that. Even former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan has gushed over President Obama and even crusty Bill O'Reilly has been impressed by Obama's demeanor.

There is no sign that President Obama has impressed the Russians, the Iranians or the North Koreans, except by his rookie mistakes-- and that is a dangerous way to impress dangerous people.

What did his televised overture to the Iranians accomplish, except to reassure them that he was not going to do a damn thing to stop them from getting a nuclear bomb? It is a mistake that can go ringing down the corridors of history.

Future generations who live in the shadow of that nuclear threat may wonder what we were thinking about, putting our lives-- and theirs-- in the hands of a rookie because we liked his style and symbolism?

In the name of "change," Barack Obama is following policies so old that this generation has never heard of them-- certainly not in most of our educational institutions, where history has been replaced by "social studies" or other politically correct courses.

Seeking deals with our adversaries, behind the backs of our allies? France did that at Munich back in 1938. They threw Czechoslovakia to the wolves and, less than two years later, Hitler gobbled up France anyway.

This year, President Obama's attempt to make a backdoor deal with the Russians, behind the backs of the NATO countries, was not only rejected but made public by the Russians-- a sign of contempt and a warning to our allies not to put too much trust in the United States.

Barack Obama is following a long practice among those on the left of being hard on our allies and soft on our enemies. One of our few allies in the Middle East, the Shah of Iran, was a whipping boy for many in the American media, who vented their indignation at his regime-- which now, in retrospect, seems almost benign compared to the hate-filled fanatics and international terrorism sponsors who now rule that country.

However much Barack Obama has proclaimed his support for Israel, his first phone call as President of the United States was to Hamas, to whom he has given hundreds of millions of dollars, which can buy a lot of rockets to fire into Israel.

Our oldest and staunchest ally, Britain, has been downgraded by President Obama's visibly less impressive reception of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, compared to the way that previous Presidents over the past two generations have received British Prime Ministers. President Obama's sending the bust of Winston Churchill in the White House back to the British embassy at about the same time was either a rookie mistake or another snub.

We can lose some very big games with this rookie.

Change you can believe in: The Big Zero insults the disabled on his first talk show appearance.

Hope and Change.

President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he's gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

It's "like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

Isn't that special? I bet he wishes he'd brought along his teleprompter.

Looks like the shine is wearing off the halo

Hope and Change.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 38% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. With just a few exceptions, that number has remained steady on a daily basis between 38% and 42% since Inauguration Day.

Thirty-two percent (32%) now Strongly Disapprove of the President’s performance, the highest level of disapproval measured to date. The rising negative is driven by Republicans, 56% of whom Strongly Disapprove of Obama’s performance. Since Inauguration Day, Republican opposition has doubled.

These figures give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +6, his lowest rating to date (see trends). The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates also available on Twitter.
[emphasis mine]

And, for those who voted for The Big Zero, here it is in a picture.

Since they have TVs in England, might it be considered a regift?

Hope and Change.

He had put clearly great thought into giving the U.S. President lavish gifts to signify Britain's 'special relationship' with the U.S.

During his historic trip to Washington, Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet - once called HMS President.

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that already takes place in the Oval Office in the White House, after being presented by Britain to the US in 1880.

The Prime Minister went to the trouble of hunting down the perfect gift after becoming the first European leader invited to the White House by the new Commander In Chief.

So far, so good. And then comes the embarrassment.

So it would be perfectly understandable if Mr Brown felt a little underwhelmed at the official gift he received in return.

For despite being leader of the world's most bountiful nation, President Obama handed over nothing more thought-provoking than 25 classic American films on DVD.

...

Despite being a 'special collector's box set', any film buff could have picked up the movies from their local video store for just £250.

Can you believe that? The Big Zero bought the Prime Minister of our most trusted ally a boxed set of DVDs. He's the epitome of cluelessness.

I wonder if he'll brag about buying them from Amazon with his Blackberry.

Chief Tax Cheat to go after tax cheats. Seriously.

Because that's what Hope and Change is all about.

The pot has issued the kettle an ultimatum: tax dodgers beware.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was forced to fork up $34,000 in unpaid back taxes, told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday that the Obama administration will be going after people who avoid and evade taxes.

As Bob Dole famously asked, "where is the outrage?"

Another day, another Defeat-ocrat tax cheat

Hope and change.

Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, who is President Obama's nominee to be the U.S. trade representative, failed to pay almost $10,000 in taxes during the past three years because of a series of mistakes, the Senate Finance Committee said yesterday.

Kirk's errors involved honoraria from speeches, on which he should have paid taxes; the cost of sports games, for which he deducted too much; and improper treatment of accounting fees on his income taxes. Kirk has agreed to file amended returns.

Can we just get every Defeat-ocrat nominated for a Big Zero cabinet post? That way we'll at least get have the budget deficit taken care of.