Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Honduras Completes Legal Structure for... Three Privately-Run Cities? | Main | Good News/Bad News: Romney's Fundraising Continues Outstripping Obama's; "Daisy Cutter" Ad Campaign Ready To Detonate; But Clinton's Ratings A Good Deal Higher Than Ryan's »
September 06, 2012

New Woodward Book: "It was increasingly clear that no one was running Washington. That was trouble for everyone, but especially for Obama."

The book uncovers ”an explosive mix of dysfunction, miscommunication, and misunderstandings," as ABCNews puts it.

Obama didn't have a Plan B in the debt negotiation crisis.

That's telling for a couple of reasons. For one, Obama continues to greatly overestimate himself. He seemed to think his charisma would be enough to secure Plan A (a massive tax increase). He was apparently so taken with his ability to convince people that he didn't bother drawing up a Plan B.

For two, this was an extremely important thing. Not having a Plan B was reckless disregard for the financial health of the country.

In the end, the "Adults in the Room" -- and I use that term advisedly -- had to simply exclude Obama from the process and come up with the godawful sequestration compromise we now have.

Obama got snippy about it.

As the nation's leaders raced to avert a default that could have shattered the financial markets' confidence and imperiled the world's economy, Obama convened an urgent meeting with top congressional leaders in the White House. According to Woodward, House Speaker John Boehner pointedly told the president that the lawmakers were working on a plan and wouldn't negotiate with him.

Obama, surprised, told Boehner and the others that they could not exclude him from the process, Woodward reports.

"I've got to sign this bill," he is quoted as saying.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid then said the four leaders wanted to speak privately, asking Obama to leave a meeting he had called "in his own house," in Woodward's words. The president, fuming, agreed to let them talk.

"This was it," Woodward writes. "Congress was taking over."

Another juicy tidbit is that Nancy Pelosi put Obama on mute as he yapped long-windedly on the phone about his General Theory of Everything or whatnot. She denies this, but Woodward has a source from other people in the room.

First decision of hers I agree with.

He also alienated people with his arrogance (BREAKING!), and thought Joe Biden was a capable enough persuader to be called "The Republican Whisperer."

Now, notice the wide gulf between Obama's belief in his ability to communicate effectively with people and his actual lack of most such ability. And notice that NYT hack Kristof gives Obama a B on the economy (a B!) but an "F" in communications.

Communications, the one thing Obama will admit to not having a godlike competency about.

But now revisit his certitude that simply jawboning Boehner would cause him agree to raise tax-breaks -- and he was so certain he didn't bother with a fall-back position.

Isn't part of competency knowing your actual areas of strength and areas of weakness?

Now consider this: Obama kind of sucks at everything, including golf and basketball, and also quitting smoking, but the one thing he's supposedly good at is communicating.

Compare that to the Great Liberal Meme that "messaging" is the one and only area in which Obama fails.

Doesn't this mean he's a failure at everything? He's even a failure at the one thing he's supposedly so amazing at.

Oh: Big speaker at DNC's (non-televised) panel on job creation?

The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am.

People defend this by noting he's a businessman. Um.... not really. When you consider a business, the defining feature of it is the Force Multiplication factor. Things that are really "businesses" are involved in the systematization of services and crafts so that quality goods or services can be provided by its employees -- who are not necessarily craftsmen or highly skilled themselves.

While it's true that artists sign licensing agreements and such, the heart of what they do is a craft. Only they can do it. The Black Eyed Peas cannot franchise themselves. (Bands have tried something like this; it doesn't work.) They cannot set up a systematized, automated process to produce more anodyne, disposable commercial jingles. Well, I mean, they do do that, but it's not automated; they personally do this.

So he's not a "businessman" in any real sense. He's an artist, like many others, who knows how to sign the shit out of a contract.

That's not really a knock on artists. But their skills are personal-level crafts, and are not systematized so that lots of workers in farflung factories can replicate them.

A craftsman can be a businessman, too. But just because you make money at a craft doesn't mean you know a lick about business.



digg this
posted by Ace at 06:34 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
[/i][/b]andycanuck (2yu8s)[/s][/u]: "750-pound alligator seized from home near Buffalo, ..."

Ben Had: "Only 30 more years of these moronic statements ft ..."

2008 is calling: "Mahalia Jackson>>>>>>>>>>>Affimative Action Jackso ..."

BillyD: "[i]158 Mind you, a Moron claimed the car would sti ..."

Diogenes: "DEI in action, and that's a good thing! Posted by ..."

Piper: "Have we discussed KBJ and her gripe the 1sr amendm ..."

Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ This year in Corsicana - [b]again[/b]! ~ [/i][/b][/u][/s]: "[i]257 Watching another Boeing United Airlines iss ..."

Loose Emergency Door Plug: "Return to Newark? I'd rather ditch. Posted by: D ..."

J. Random UA Flight: "[i]Return to Newark? I'd rather ditch. Posted by ..."

Diogenes: "Watching another Boeing United Airlines issue in r ..."

Truthbomb : "Watching another Boeing United Airlines issue in r ..."

Ciampino - on time: "About 43 minutes [b]SpaceX - Falcon 9 - Starlin ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64