President Obama’s Toughest Opponent

After eight years of bumbling and cowtowing to special interests, we finally have a President who has the courage and the integrity to place America first. The Repubicans have failed this country and their chosen responder to Obama’s call to action was a dismal failure as well.

Great Speech!!!
Ed Rollins said it best in terms of Bobby Jindal. He said “it was a good night for Sarah Palin”!

And of course it’s true that if we don’t get any better or get even worse, Obama will be judged on that. But to suggest that this speech somehow increases his expectations is just partisan spin from you.

Jake Tapper,
Thank you for that. Very insightful! We will see what all of this brings. Praying for all of us that it will work, and do what it is intended to. We all need this to work.
your independent viewer/reader

I agree with Mike there. These were not promises. This was a vision for the future.

We kats will sell short at the open, big.
PBO spoke, and the Dow will go down trip digits.

I never thought he would keep the promises he was making. The way the Demcrats conduct business is why I left the party and will stay that way. No confidence, is what I feel right now. Nothing coming out of the White House will surprise me in the least. I only see things getting worse. Everyone better watch their doors.

I never heard the word promise. Funny that Jake is saying that Obama promised, like we’re deaf and dumb. BTW- What’s the big deal about laying that broadband cable and improving on the medical tech? That’s promisable even though it didnt get promised. Sorry but I don’t like spins no matter who or what their favorable or not favorable to. Please try to remember we consumers of the news aren’t as dumb as we may seem.

“it certainly wasn’t Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal”
NO, IT CERTAINLY WASN’T!!!
AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
PRE-EXISTING CONDITION!!
VOLCANO MONITORING!!
LEVITATING TRAINS!!!
AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
Americans can do ANYTHING!!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
G.O.P. = R.I.P.

I heard so many stupidities said tonight by Mr. Jindal that I wonder how in the world will the GOP come back.
All the GOP has is strange people from the 1800′s with modern clothes. No ideas, no creativity, Many lies, Much corruption, Much manipulation.
Republicans wish they would have an Obama or a Hillary…but they don’t.

So you Repubs still don’t like Obama?
Who would you rather have …
Bobby Jindal?
AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
O!!! M!!! G!!!
AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
G.O.P. = R.I.P.

I’ve heard several references to the Republican’s response to Obama’s bill as the strategy that Newt used in 1994 that led to the Republicans congressional gains.
Sadly, for them, it is always political posturing instead of finding solutions to problems confronting the nation.
Republicans don’t govern, and they don’t lead. They talk about how government is the boogeyman. Well guess what? You can’t govern if you don’t believe in government, e.g., George W. Bush.
And if Bobby Jindal is the Republican’s future, the Democrats can look forward to a long tenure in Washington. Jindal sounded like a 12 year old, and the leader of a pep team with a “the Republicans are great” chant.

Jindal and Palin sitting in a tree, means 2012 for the Republicans is R – I – P!!
What a joke!
If Jindal and Palin are the best the Republicans can offer America, then they are out for a generation or more!

An ultra inexperienced president tried his best to boost people’s confidence by mouthing anything he could. Has anyone checked his work on affordable housing in IL? The results — 39 defunct affordable housing projects, 8 million tax payers’ dollars, and a slumloard in jail. Will that be the future of the $800 billion?
I fear.

Right, Amy, we should have elected someone with lots of experience… in being wrong about everything, with 20th century answers to 21st century problems, who married into money, who lights up a room like a wet match.

Poor Bobby who is a bright guy himself But misguided..was WAY out of his league, Was like watching a major league hitter VS double A hitter,
Which just reminds all the big mouth talking heads/critics who thinks being President is as easy as it looks.
I hope its a palin/ jindal ticket it would make for great COMEDY and reality TV.

Well I belive that we don’t need any more bailouts for the worst co. that don’t know how to run there co ( the big 3) they need to file chapter 7 or 11 which ever will be better for them an the money they already have do some good with it. Also AIG does’nt need to be given any more $$$$ so they can take there vaction on us.

It’s funny that all you people criticize Obama. One trip to Chicago?? How many trips did Bush make to Texas or Camp David?
Give Obama a chance, he is trying, looking into all options that would help us. What did Bush do? He let us slide into this and now someone else has to clean it up.
What would we have if the Repubs were in. More of the same we had in the last four years.
It sounds like Jindal is another Palin.
Palin chants about ethics, what about her ethics in office, having to pay back $7,000.00.?
GIVE OBAMA A CHANCE. He’s been in office 1 month and is doing more work than the previous president.

OBAMA: “Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.” THE FACTS: This may be so, but itPolitics News FACT CHECK: Obama’s words on home aid ring hollow (AP)
isn’t only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation. ___ OBAMA: “In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and
balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.” THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That’s all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama’s proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress. Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past. ___ OBAMA: “Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.” THE FACTS: While the president’s stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through therecovery plan alone. In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent. If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks. ___ OBAMA: “Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.” THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers. The president’s own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, “It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error.” Beyond that, it’s unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it’s clear when jobs are abolished, there’s no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus. ___ Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Dina Cappiello contributed to this story.

Thanks Bush…
Bye Bush
United States Total Debt (Split)
End of fiscal year Intra-Governmental Holdings Debt Held by the Public
1999 2.020 trillion 3.636 trillion
2000 2.269 trillion 3.405 trillion
2001 2.468 trillion 3.339 trillion George W. Bush Jr.
2002 2.675 trillion 3.553 trillion
2003 2.859 trillion 3.924 trillion
2004 3.072 trillion 4.307 trillion
2005 3.331 trillion 4.601 trillion
2006 3.664 trillion 4.843 trillion
2007 3.958 trillion 5.049 trillion
2008 4.216 trillion 5.809 trillion George W. Bush Jr.
2009* est 5.900 trillion 6.400 trillion

AND ANOTHER WINNER: WOO-HOO!Obama’s reported pick for chairman of the National Intelligence Council, talked business with the Bin Laden family even after September 11.
Amid the criticism that has already emerged about President Obama’s reported pick for the powerful position of chairman of the National Intelligence Council, there is an as-yet unmentioned problem that is likely cause even bigger troubles: He had business ties to the bin Laden family after the 9/11 attacks.
Charles “Chas” Freeman, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, had business connections with the bin Laden family and their Saudi Binladen Group, a multibillion-dollar construction conglomerate founded by the father of Osama bin Laden. As chairman of Projects International Inc., a company that develops international business deals, Mr. Freeman asserted in an interview with the Associated Press less than a month after September 11 that he was still “discussing proposals with the Binladen Group—and that won’t change.”
In an interview, Freeman contested the notion that international companies who had business with the bin Laden family should be “running for public-relations cover”, noting that bin Laden was still “a very honored name in the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia].”
In the same interview, Freeman also contested the notion that international companies who had business with the bin Laden family should be “running for public-relations cover,” noting that bin Laden was still “a very honored name in the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia]”, despite its family tie to the Al-Qaeda leader. (Freeman wasn’t immediately available for comment.)
Mr. Freeman frequently maintained that the larger bin Laden family was closely aligned with American interests. Contrary to the notion that the family was still supporting and even funding Osama bin Laden, the bin Laden family and its business conglomerate were part of the “establishment that Osama’s trying to overthrow,” as Mr. Freeman told The Wall Street Journal in a separate interview less than two weeks after September 11.
However, the Journal also noted that Freeman’s connections with the bin Laden family went beyond business: Freeman’s Middle East Policy Council, a think tank dedicated to Mideast issues, was receiving “tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family” at that time. Since the rumors of his appointment broke, Freeman has been criticized because the pro-Saudi MEPC also accepted donations in the millions of dollars from the Saudi royal family.
Subsequent investigation by US intelligence agencies and journalists of bin Laden family ties to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden raised questions about the authenticity of the family’s claim of financial and emotional distance from the world’s most-wanted terror leader. A number of experts, including Vincent Cannistro, a former CIA counterterrorism specialist, assert that while some members of the bin Laden family have disowned Osama bin Laden in a complete sense, other factions have not. Carmen bin Laden, a sister-in-law of Osama, told Der Spiegel that “bin Ladens never disowned Osama; in this family, a brother remains a brother, no matter what he has done.”

Posted by: O. | Feb 25, 2009 7:35:45 AM
And people have the nerve to say Bush didn’t have any part in this mess…what liars they are…lol

When the president speaks about shared responsibility, he doesn’t really mean it.
42% of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes. Where is their share of the burden? They have representation in Congress without the taxation.

Anna -
Gallup published the polls of Bush and Obama at the same time into their presidencies and Obama was 3 pts behind.
Bush
Approve-62
Disapprove-21
No Opinion-17
Gallup From Feb 2001
Obama
Approve-59
Disapprove-25
No Opinion-16
Gallup from Feb 22 2009

So are they going to replay Jindal’s response to the HS students that laughed at Obama’s economic speech (btw crafted by some of the best experts and grads)?? With Jindal they will be rolling on the floor in laughter..and will conservative journalists post their reaction on their sites and play it on their radio’s?

JWENCH—
THERE ARE STILL SOME HONEST REPORTS OUT THERE!
IN AP NEWS THIS MORNING: The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation. ___

JWench,
Thank You
President Obama is Right, this Nation, his Administration and his Political Party [Inherited] this Debt Below…
————
United States Total Debt (Split)
End of fiscal year Intra-Governmental Holdings Debt Held by the Public
1999 2.020 trillion 3.636 trillion
2000 2.269 trillion 3.405 trillion
2001 2.468 trillion 3.339 trillion George W. Bush Jr.
2002 2.675 trillion 3.553 trillion
2003 2.859 trillion 3.924 trillion
2004 3.072 trillion 4.307 trillion
2005 3.331 trillion 4.601 trillion
2006 3.664 trillion 4.843 trillion
2007 3.958 trillion 5.049 trillion
2008 4.216 trillion 5.809 trillion George W. Bush Jr.
2009* est 5.900 trillion 6.400 trillion

What I found striking about President Obama’s speech was what was lacking! He stated: “Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.”
President Obama failed to apologize to the American people for his complicity in forcing lending institutions to give loans to individuals who could not afford the loans.

President Obama stated: “I have told each of my Cabinet, as well as mayors and governors across the country, that they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend.”
The Cabinet yes! But mayors and governors to be held accountable by the President of the United States? Is THAT the change all of you voted for?

Everyone will hear what they want to hear with Obama. He very skillfully says just enough and nothing at the same time.
Take the line about “…launch(ing) a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time…”
No promise of finding a cure (of course he can’t say that). I think there are quite a few research scientists would take issue with the idea that wa are not presently and vigorously “seeking” a cure for cancer. Just enough “feel good” but really, nothing there.
And then there is this statement:
“Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for.”
This is nitpicking but c’mon. A sentence in a prepared speech about education ending in a preposition? How about, “Many of our public schools do not prepare your children to compete for jobs in a global economy.” Teacher’s unions need to be held accountable for this, but nothing. No stick or carrot for the teachers, just a throw away line. Those who can afford to will send their children to private schools to prepare them for the future.
I really do not know if President Obama’s newfound optimism will counteract his earlier fear mongering. Time will tell. Everyone will hear what they wanted to hear…

Randy the A/C guy, thanks for referring Matthew Continetti’s article. It certainly is well written, but most importantly it is right on the mark!

Keep up the good work, Jake. We need a combative, engaged press corps. If it’s Rick Santelli today, they could go after you tomorrow. We all applaud you for fighting the good fight.

Posted by: O. | Feb 25, 2009 7:35:45 AM
And people have the nerve to say Bush didn’t have any part in this mess…what liars they are…lol
————————————–
Jwench ,
Exactly WHO said this…and WHERE?
Your the top of the Lying class out here!

I’ve heard a lot of people talk a lot of shinola in my time, but this snake oil peddler sets new standards.
I’ve never read much of your stuff, Mr. Tapper, but your work has become one of my favorites. Please continue to ask the hard questions at the press conferences.

I’m watching Barney Frank talk down to Bernanke–can he just go smack Frank every time a lie and pass the blame & buck comes out of his mouth?! I think Bernanke wants to..Makes me like & yrust him more. A/C guy–article is great..
————————————-
Cali ,
Bumbling, Stumbing, Barney Frank!!!!
The poster child for “not me, its everyone else’s fault!”
Then again, look where he comes from, the great Commonwealth of Taxachussetts! Currently being run in the ground by Obama’s bossum buddy Duval Patrick. Massachusetts, Home of the “Big Dig”, the single greatest example of corruption and waste on Infrastructure in this country’s history!
Add to that the corruption of their past couple of Speakers Of the House, the bra-stuffing state senator, and a boston city councilman on the take and you can see how much fun its going to be to watch them waste money from the “stimulator”.
The have so badly mismanaged their state that they are now raising tolls on the roads even more, but will take away the toll hikes…IF a new gas tax gets approved. A tax that will give Taxachusetts the highest gas tax in the country!
I wish I could say that the people in Mass. would waje up and replace Bumbling Barney, but they have also keep Ted Kennedy in the Senate for 40 yrs after he drove off a bridge and killed a woman!

William J. LePetomane,
We disagree about many things here, but on this one we agree. Obamacrat was WAY out of line with that characterization!
The vast majority of people who have lost jobs in this past year are looking to mooch off the system. The unemployment beneifts is the one component of the “stimulator” that will have an immediate positive effect for those who need help now!
I know a number of people who got hit by this thing, and none of them are sitting around home waiting for someone to just fix it for them. They are all aggressively looking for work in their field and even willing to work outside their normal area of expertise in order to get through this!
I think we all know of people who do indeed take advantage of the system, but the vast majority of people do not want to get along that way.

O, I know it’s hard for you to understand anything but proven facts being what they are, Jindel turned down a FULL SCHLORSHIP TO HARVARD, and YALE BUT ELECTED TO BE A ROAD SCHOLAR AT OXFORD..I think I heard that BHO got into Harvard w/ the recommendation by his Muslim friend that he thw under the bus when it became inconvenient…hmm…brains or oratory skillls and a magic touch of a good dentist??? Let me guess..u’re suffering? Just show up at BHO’s next townhall and be touched by his magic..all your problems will evaporate, I’m sure.. BTW, Jindel’s writings are available from college..BHO is still hiding his somewhere w/ his thugs watching over it? I’ll tell u what, if u could present one (not his memoirs), I’d be happy 2 help make ur life better..

O, that’s great that we agree on some facts. Yes, he is unfortunately our pres. He does have great oratory skills (b…s…er). As for 2012, who knows, our wonderful leader might have something great in store for us…

I think short selling should be banned.
The traders and investment firms are feeding the gloom and doom scenario..creating this bear market to set them up so they can ask for more money.
At this point, they all can take a flying leap- I’ll put my money in a mattress or SD box first.

“I’ll admit Jindal’s delivery wasn’t the best, but the words of the speech were right on.”
The above brought to you by Jennifer7, supposed Hillary Clinton supporter.

Obama 2010 and Obama 2012 will be judged on what he promised tonight
========================================
As he should be. But when judging also compare against 2008 and where he began with the mess that was left.

Sorry, but I don’t buy the “mess” he was left with because he knew exactly what he was getting into. The problem with Obama all along has been playing the blame game and making promises he couldn’t possibly keep. He’s still campaigning. You are so right, Jake. Now he’s out there. I thought last night he showed how inexperienced he is-no concept of reality. The part about curing cancer did it for me. Pelosi has been Speaker for how long? What an idiot. Someone please tell her not to think out loud about the number of troops in Iraq.