what are barack obama's flaws?

http://gawker.com/the-state-of-the-union-is-dumb-hacks-writing-garbage-sp-1680681848

yet another reason to hate Woodrow Wilson

command+f "terror" 9 matches

"middle-class economics" smh

This is so dull. Where are the flying cars and micro chips imbedded in our brains?

who needs prose when Boehner's wearing a thistle-colored tie?

Boehner's got a great glower. I love how he looks disgusted over every little bit of good news or silver lining. He just won't be happy until the economy is back in the shitter.

had this thread open when Barack Obama said "my flaws, of which there are many"

who needs prose when Boehner's wearing a thistle-colored tie?

Wtf is this bread bag speech?

Oh I get it, nowadays we can't afford a bread bag

I'll have to listen to this tomorrow, am I missing anything

POTUS proposes, Boehner dozes.

did anybody yell "you lie!" yet

The POTUS is laughing, goodbye, goodbye

I've listened/watched all or nearly all his SOTU speeches and his delivery in each was identical. When you realize that no modern president will risk venturing into the higher flights of rhetoric for a SOTU, you learn to swallow your disappointment and listen for any scrap of matter that is a) specific, b) interesting in a non-horrific way, and c) achievable. There's at most one or two of these extremely dim highlights you can glean, at best. I can recall none from tonight's speech.

He just won't be happy until the economy is back in the shitter.

back huh

did anybody yell "you lie!" yet

Actually, when he asked early on, rhetorically, if it was fair that the wealthy kept getting richer at the expense of everyone else, or something along those lines, some voice did yell out "no!"

As boring as you'd expect. I thought "I know, because I won" was funny, though--played that for my class.

Tea Party response. Nothing exciting, but I really hope that he bellowed TEAM every time the word appeared.

Warmed over lines, unworthy of the NYT's slobbering profile of the speechwriter, but at last he mentioned POVERTY and stopped mentioning MIDDLE CLASS MIDDLE CLASS so much. Also: he didn't look as shrunken as his last few teevee appearances.

p4reene back and on fiyuh!

http://gawker.com/the-state-of-the-union-is-dumb-hacks-writing-garbage-sp-1680681848

Poverty x1 (in an international context), Middle-class x7 (Middle east x2) - according to a quick search through the transcript.

NYT's slobbering profile of the speechwriter

In terms of craftsmanship, it was about as good an effort as one can achieve when one is confined to expressing every idea to a 6th grader's vocabulary and understanding. US politics descended to such ultra simplistic Dick-and-Jane-see-Spot-run stylings in our political speeches a long time ago.

nothing predestined about that.

It is predestined, if everyone involved thinks their primary audience is made up of simple-minded, grossly ignorant people who must be cajoled and flattered, but never made to think.

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/B72Vsn3IAAEjTKN.mp4

the comments in the youtube video where i watched this, whew

Man, I hate people

youtube comments are the worst type of comments

Alex p otm

just in case you thought Obama wasn't as close to the Saudi royal family as our last commander-in-chief

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/27/king-salmans-shady-history-saudi-arabia-jihadi-ties/?utm_content=buffer06ac1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

President Barack Obama arrived in Riyadh today to offer his condolences on the death of the beloved Saudi King Abdullah and to meet his successor, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. But just who is King Salman?

http://imgsrv2.aramcoexpats.com/pipeline/sa_news/other_media/AK_003.jpg

a few weeks before FDR went to the Great Oasis too.

you'd think w/ oil prices + obama's full court press to reestablish diplomatic relationships w/ iran we wouldn't be so beholden to the saudis but i guess we still are!

at least we got some quality Michele Obama side-eye out of it

great pic of O with Condi and Jim Baker greeting His Majesty. Thank God for our "two" parties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSezzirJs_k

1:35-2:35 of that was amazing footage

Cue Morbs:

Barack Obama was "bullshitting" his opposition to gay marriage and support for civil unions during his 2008 presidential campaign, according to a new book authored by former senior White House adviser David Axelrod.

Time magazine reported Tuesday that the longtime Obama confidant said in his new book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics," that he counseled then-senator Obama to soften his position on gay marriage for political reasons.

"Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union,’” Axelrod wrote, as quoted by Time.

Obama had stated his support for legalizing gay marriage on a 1996 questionnaire while running for the Illinois state Senate. But he said repeatedly on the campaign trail in 2008 that he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Publicly stating opposition to gay marriage took its toll on Obama, who Axelrod wrote "routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews."

"I’m just not very good at bullshitting," Obama told Axelrod after one of those events, as quoted by Time.

When it comes time to campaign, they all have to defer to the Christan right, and most of them capitulate. I don't think anything is going to change until someone has the balls to confront them.

or the cunt

did anyone ever believe he was opposed to gay marriage? what in his background would indicate such a socially conservative position? what was the point?

his 1995 position was well known in 2004.

has gotten way better at bullshitting (see odious New Mexico refugee detentions piece in last Sunday's NYT Mag, as he makes mewling sounds about migrant children)

a reminder that obama is good at alienating allies outside the middle east too:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/03/americas-frustration-with-south-korea/

Almost as nauseating apologizing for "collateral damage" as he is for causing it, ain't he?

As always, it depends upon the apology and what's behind it. Maintaining an empire through military force is always pretty nauseating. Somebody said back a few centuries ago (I could track down the quote, if necessary) that 'the ruler who cannot dissimulate his feelings cannot rule for long'.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/07/14/obama-i-m-like-nixon-reagan.html

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/07/15/opinion/15friedman1web/15friedman1web-videoSixteenByNine1050.jpg

pres obama: *don't look at his jowls don't look at his jowls*
thomas friedman: in my book the world is flat--
pres obama: i read your weakass book, jowlface
*shit*