David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

January 28, 2009

The Spoiled Brat-in-Chief (And His Media Creators)

President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press corps Thursday night, but got agitated when he was faced with a substantive question.

Asked how he could reconcile a strict ban on lobbyists in his administration with a deputy defense secretary nominee who lobbied for Raytheon, Obama interrupted with a knowing smile on his face. 

"Ahh, see," he said, "I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here."   [...]

The president was quickly saved by a cameraman in the room who called out: “I’d like to say it one more time: ‘Mr. President.’ ”

Politico, “Obama Flashes Irritation In Press Room,” – 1/23/09

During his private meeting with congressional Democrats and Republicans on Friday, President Obama ended a philosophical debate over tax policy with the simple declaration that his opinion prevailed because "I won." [...]

The "I won" comment came after Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Republicans believed cutting income taxes would do more to stimulate economic growth than providing a $500 per person payroll tax refund for individuals earning less than $200,000. The president said, according to those present, that this was an important philosophical divide between Republican and Democrats and that it had already been settled – and would remain settled – because he won the election.

FOX News, “Obama Says His View On Taxes Prevailed Because 'I Won'”  – 1/23/09

He's only been in office for three days, and President Obama is already behaving like Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. About all that's left is for him to sing “Don't Care How, I Want It Now” and then plummet down the bad egg chute to the furnace.

He apparently thinks that both Republicans and the media should both unquestioningly bend over and kiss his behind, unaware that the latter already has been doing so for over two years.

As the cameraman in the first quote shows, a good many of the mainstream media still have their lips permanently locked on Obama's posterior. And in so doing, they have created an overindulged spoiled brat who, it would seem, has started believing his own hype.

If he honestly thinks a single visit to the press room resulting in a single substantive question is comparable to the Middle East, our president is beyond delusional. Perhaps if the liberally-biased-beyond-all-measure media had actually managed to ask him one during the campaign, it wouldn't be such a shock to his system now.

But they instead joined in drinking the Kool-Aid with the rest of Obama's cult-like followers, determined to manipulate the election outcome. And now the president is biting the hand that overfed him, doing his best impression of the daffy general that Hawkeye and Trapper encounter in an old episode of M*A*S*H when they try to obtain an incubator: “This is a press conference! The last thing I'm going to do is stand here and answer lots of questions!”

And is there any chance in hell a Republican president could do this and not get taken to the woodshed for it, much less “saved” by one of them?

As for the second item, since when was there any difference between Obama and John McCain? That the RINO from Arizona chanced into the GOP nomination thanks to New Hampshire liberals crossover voting in an open primary and the media seizing on that plurality win to shove him down our throat in no way means that voters had a real choice between tax cuts and redistributive checks. Sen. McCain's shilling for Obama now that he's in office is more proof that the election was largely a sham.

The Republican reaction to this sort of thing – and surely there is much more of it to come – will tell us whether they have anything left inside that might resurrect a party on life support.

Will they find their long-lost spine, guts and testicles? Will they firmly and maturely oppose this massive bailout from government that will dwarf what Detroit or Wall Street received? And, in so doing, provide a contrast between responsible, adult leadership and infantile petulance? Or will they meekly join the left in its lemming-like rush off the cliff?

It's ironic – the GOP has the same problem fighting the Democrats as the Democrats do fighting radical Muslim terrorists: They can't get it through their thick skulls that when you insist on playing by the rules against an opponent that purposely ignores the rules, you are almost certain to lose.

While the arena is different, the principle is the same: You have to treat this as a war, not as a polite difference of opinion. If the GOP isn't as determined to substantively defeat the Democrats as the Democrats are to defeat them, it's all academic. Just as Miranda warnings and the Exclusionary Rule mean nothing to psychos who fly planes full of people into buildings full of people.

And in both cases, our nation as we have known it hangs in the balance.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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