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Relentless Incompetence: Americans Are Giving Up on Obama


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2014 Jun 6, 3:30am   12,778 views  35 comments

by zzyzzx   ➕follow (5)   💰tip   ignore  

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/relentless-incompetence-americans-giving-obama-100000019.html

Over the last several months, the American public has had a hard and clear look at the executive talent inside the White House, and has begun to despair for real leadership and competence.

When leadership fails, people stop following. It appears in the sixth year of the Barack Obama presidency, that moment has arrived.

CNN’s most recent poll provided a clear indicator of this dynamic in the wake of two major controversies involving military issues. The results showed that Obama did not gain a majority of support for any of twelve issues surveyed from the respondents. In fact, in ten of the twelve issues, majorities disapproved of the President’s performance, and only on one – the environment, usually an overwhelming Democratic strength – did his approval exceed his disapproval, and only barely at 49/45. On the economy and health care, which the poll identified as the top two priorities of its respondents, Obama’s approval ratings sank to 38/61 and 36/63, respectively.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza assigns the change in polling to a crisis of leadership and competence in the White House. “The core of Obama’s appeal,” wrote Cillizza about the 2008 election “was the idea that he would restore competence back to the White House after President George W. Bush's eight years…. Obama openly embraced the idea that he was the anti-Bush on nothing much more than his commitment to putting the best people in the right places within his administration.”

Related: Obama’s Unpopularity Continues to Hurt Dems’ Prospects

Now, the series of disastrous scandals and unmistakable incompetence have completely eroded confidence in his leadership, Cillizza argues, pointing to a Pew poll series in which his perceived executive competence went from 70/15 in February 2009 to 43/51 in December 2013.

1) Obamacare. That final result came after the inexplicable failure of the White House to take much of an interest in the rollout of its central domestic-policy project – Obamacare. By December, the Healthcare.gov exchange that the Department of Health and Human Services had 42 months and upward of $400 million to build turned out to be a complete flop.

Millions of people who had been promised they could keep existing plans found their insurance canceled, and millions more who managed to enroll in a plan found that they couldn’t keep their doctor, as Obama had promised. In the face of these disasters, Obama scowled at the cameras, proclaimed himself madder than anyone, and … left the people in place who’d failed.

Related: Double Digit Health Premiums Coming

When the sheer weight of the mandate and its penalties convinced eight million Americans to finally sign-up through the still-buggy website by the twice-extended deadline, Obama claimed victory. Just this week, though, we discovered that two million Medicaid enrollees or more may not have been processed correctly in that still-faulty system, and may not have coverage after all.

Who could have guessed that leaving the same incompetents to run the system they couldn’t produce correctly in the first place would create more problems? Pretty much anyone with any actual executive or managerial experience, actually.

2) Department of Veterans Affairs. The lack of responsiveness at the VA was such an issue that Obama campaigned on it in 2008. He demanded a huge increase in funding from Congress, and the VA annual budget went up 78 percent during his presidency, with $235 billion more in funding during the last five-plus years over the FY2008 baseline.

However, the last time Obama sat down with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki prior to this spring had been in July 2012. It took whistleblowers telling the media that wait lists had been falsified at VA facilities and that dozens of veterans in Phoenix had died while being denied medical attention to shake the tree.

A subsequent internal audit showed that 64 percent of all VA facilities had instances of wait-list fraud, and that 13 percent of all schedulers had received training in how to commit it. Obama scowled at the cameras twice in this scandal, pronounced himself once again madder than anyone, and only finally accepted the resignation from Shinseki just before the second presser.

Related: Pogo Blows the Lid Off Veterans Affairs Scandal

3) National Security. This week, we have another serious crisis, this time in national security, and the incompetence reached new heights. President Obama traded five high-ranking Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay for a soldier held captive for almost five years in Afghanistan. Two of the men released are wanted by the United Nations for war crimes, and one was a close associate of Osama bin Laden himself. Obama insisted he had confidence that the men posed no risk to American security while celebrating the return of an American service member.

Then the story began to fall apart. First, the White House mischaracterized the capture of Bowe Bergdahl as “on the battlefield” after serving “with honor and distinction.” The Pentagon had concluded in 2010 that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had in fact deserted his post, leaving behind a note to that effect and that at the least Bergdahl had wandered into Taliban territory on purpose.

Soldiers who served with Bowe Bergdahl erupted in outrage, accusing him of desertion and the Pentagon of actively suppressing the truth. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf responded to these first-person reports by soldiers who had served at the post Bergdahl abandoned by suggesting that they weren’t credible witnesses, while other White House insiders told NBC’s Chuck Todd that these soldiers were conducting a “swift boat” smear.”

Nor was that the only White House offense. A law passed with Obama’s signature requires 30-day notice before transferring any detainee out of Guantanamo Bay, let alone the highest-risk Taliban officials Obama released. The White House claimed there was no time to notify Congress before getting the deal done.

Related: More Mismanagement and Millions Wasted at VA

Yet the White House managed to put Bowe Bergdahl’s parents next to Obama for the Saturday announcement. They also insisted that the administration had ongoing consultations on the question of trading the five Taliban for Bergdahl. But the two chairs of the intelligence committees – Rep. Mike Rodgers, a Republican, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat – both said the last such consultation took place in 2011, and the overwhelming and bipartisan consensus opposed such a deal.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) later told Fox News that the file on Bergdahl given to the Senate Intelligence Committee when deliberating on this question never included Bergdahl’s note nor the testimony of other soldiers about the nature of his disappearance.

Obama asked Americans to accept his own assurances that the five released detainees would pose no threat to the United States. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel joined him in making those assurances and said that the cases had been reviewed thoroughly. The Daily Beast’s Eli Lake and Time Magazine separately reported, however, that the review had been rushed through to get the conclusion desired by the White House. Lake’s sources in the defense and intelligence communities called this “forcing the consensus,” while Time Magazine’s source made it even clearer. “There never was the conversation,” the official reported. “This was out of the norm.”

Related: The Bergdahl Affair Feeds Right Into 2016

While Hagel backed Obama’s story, others at the Pentagon strongly disagreed. Fox reporter Jim Angle reported that one source in the military said, “Many at the Pentagon advised the President not to make the trade.” Senior officials at the Department of Defense had warned the White House that releasing these five detainees would be “like handing over five 4-star generals of the Taliban.” Releasing them now, rather than at the end of US participation in Afghanistan that Obama plans for 2016, puts more than 32,000 Americans in Afghanistan at risk of these high-ranking Taliban commanders’ re-entry into the war.

Nothing about Obama’s performance in these scandals and debacles should give anyone confidence in his assurances -- not of security, not of competence, not even of being madder than anyone. The polling numbers suggest that Americans have finally reached a point where the incompetence and dishonesty are just too obvious to ignore any longer.

#politics

Comments 1 - 35 of 35        Search these comments

1   zzyzzx   2014 Jun 6, 3:32am  

Obligatory:

2   Automan Empire   2014 Jun 6, 3:45am  

That moment has been arriving for several years running now, according to right wing media.

Reminds me of an old Cheech and Chong bit; a record is ending and the DJ intones, "Hey hey hey, that was 33 minutes and 15 seconds of I almost came, by Big Billy White.

3   Rin   2014 Jun 6, 3:48am  

But what if you never 'gave in' to Obama, to begin with?

It was 10 years ago, at the DNC in Boston, when Obama got up and made that so-called inspirational speech where he said something like 'they say Red States, Blue States, I see the Red, White, and Blue'

And then I tuned him out, as I knew that this was a talker and not a doer.

4   Rin   2014 Jun 6, 3:59am  

In the end, health insurance will go the way of flood insurance because they don't really want to foot the bills, esp now that they can't deny pre-existing conditions.

There simply isn't enough coming in from premiums to cover the costs of heath care delivery these days.

5   Tenpoundbass   2014 Jun 6, 4:21am  

Rin says

There simply isn't enough coming in from premiums to cover the costs of heath care delivery these days.

You mean there isn't enough coming in premiums to pay the 4 out of 5 people in chain of Healthcare administration who have absolutely nothing to do with a patients medical outcome. Other than deciding if they get medical care or not.

Take executives, and sales people out of the healthcare equation and there's more than enough money in our tax base to pay for free healthcare for all.

But that would require a system where the highest paid people are the Doctors making around 180K a year or less. And no one in administration making anywhere near executive salaries, as it should be a public utility and service, not a price point to make Buffet cream his penny loafers.

6   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Jun 6, 4:24am  

Rin says

It was 10 years ago, at the DNC in Boston, when Obama got up and made that so-called inspirational speech where he said something like 'they say Red States, Blue States, I see the Red, White, and Blue'

My moment was right after he was elected, and he got rid of his progressive campaign staff he had implied would be given important positions in the administration, giving them only positions on various committees and boards with only advisory powers. He then staffed the various departments and secretariats with good private-public partnership neoliberals, whose only solution to joblessness and inequality was more student loans..

7   clambo   2014 Jun 6, 4:24am  

Even most of the bleeding heart koolaid guzzler people I know think Obama's inept.

Inept is of course a compliment. He's beyond that, he represents everything wrong about liberals.

He hates success ("you didn't build that!), he hates white Americans, he hates our country because he won't defend its sovereignty. He hates our founders, he hates the constitution, he likes muslims, he likes terrorists/despots/kings.

He does like pretending to be presidential however, Normandy is of course nice to visit this time of year, although actually anytime it's pretty nice.

8   edvard2   2014 Jun 6, 4:27am  

clambo says

Even most of the bleeding heart koolaid guzzler people I know think Obama's inept.

Inept is of course a compliment. He's beyond that, he represents everything wrong about liberals.

No... actually only right-wing conservatives "wish" he was inept but secretly down inside they know he is doing a hell of a lot better job that his predecessor.

All the right can do these days is whine, whine, and whine some more after hearing their little AM chat shows.

9   Tenpoundbass   2014 Jun 6, 6:42am  

bgamall4 says

This is so much BS. W Bush was part of the 9/11 conspiracy. There is enough evidence to convict the leaders of our government for this crime.

bg I say this with the most admiration for you.

"Fuck off already!"

10   Rin   2014 Jun 6, 8:26am  

CaptainShuddup says

Take executives, and sales people out of the healthcare equation and there's more than enough money in our tax base to pay for free healthcare for all.

Well, given the fact that a hip replacement, in even first world Singapore is 15-20% the costs of the US, it's no surprise that our health care system is the biggest rentier industry out there.

11   zzyzzx   2014 Jun 6, 10:08am  

CaptainShuddup says

Take executives, and sales people out of the healthcare equation and there's more than enough money in our tax base to pay for free healthcare for all.

You forgot about all the fraud.
http://patrick.net/?p=1213528

12   Ceffer   2014 Jun 6, 10:16am  

Relentless incompetence, because ordinary incompetence just isn't good enough.

14   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jun 7, 1:13am  

LOL, America gave up on him in 2010 when they handed Congress to the GOP.

15   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jun 7, 1:17am  

clambo says

He hates success ("you didn't build that!)

what I hate more than ineptness is people lying.

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

Obama wasn't talking about private business, he was taking about the common infrastructure that we all employ to succeed in business.

16   Tenpoundbass   2014 Jun 7, 1:36am  

Bellingham Bill says

Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.

In context out of context, that's some fascist commie pinko shit to say.
There were a million other ways to word what that fuck stick said and the context you're trying to spin it. If it makes you proud to be a minion of a dictator then be my guess beam away with pride. The rest of us sane folks will just look on in disgust.

17   bob2356   2014 Jun 7, 1:56am  

CaptainShuddup says

Take executives, and sales people out of the healthcare equation and there's more than enough money in our tax base to pay for free healthcare for all.

A lucid comment in reasonable english grammer. Great job captain. You forgot the biggies though: corporate profits, lobbying/bribes (excuse me it's actually free speech through campaign contributions), advertising, the huge cost of billing, and last but certainly not least pharma's relentless abuses of the patent system.

18   bob2356   2014 Jun 7, 1:59am  

lostand confused says

That's the fact jack.

19   Shaman   2014 Jun 7, 2:10am  

You know, it's really a shame that Obama had to dash all the hopes of Americans to uphold his liberal elite agenda. I keep looking for something good that he did, but so far all I've got are two things: 1) closed down Mexican trucking into the US that Bush pushed through. 2) finally gave the order to get Osama. Though he promptly fucked that up twice with an immediate press release before Intel could be gathered and acted upon, and by being so fucking concerned with Muslim feelings that he buried the asshole at sea, giving rise to all kinds of suspicions. He should have displayed that asshole's corpse on the steps of the Capitol building where real Americans could line up to piss on it.

I also feel sorry for black people in general on this issue. After experiencing years of racism and bigotry and being told they weren't good enough, having a black man elected to the nation's highest office was a real milestone that most were very proud about. Many very nice black people I know were/are still proud of this accomplishment.
But his dismal failure as a leader is taking that award and smearing it in shit. A more cynical person might say it was planned from the beginning to further disparage black people.

20   mmmarvel   2014 Jun 7, 3:12am  

Rin says

And then I tuned him out, as I knew that this was a talker and not a doer.

No - he's a teleprompter reader, not a anything else!

21   marcus   2014 Jun 7, 5:29am  

clambo says

He hates success ("you didn't build that!), he hates white Americans, he hates our country because he won't defend its sovereignty. He hates our founders, he hates the constitution, he likes muslims, he likes terrorists/despots/kings.

This says everything and more about a bias you possess that is far beyond words.

You're not stupid enough, that you don't understand what he meant (well maybe you are), with "you didn't build that."

Very simple logic. If you aren't that stupid, then you are an incredibly dishonest. I had much worse words to describe you're emotion based viewpoint and TOTAL lack of integrity.

But your words make it clearer than any name I would put on your character.

22   marcus   2014 Jun 7, 5:35am  

The glee with which zzyzzx cheers for Obama's failure, and the degree to which this has been the highest (and almost singular) priority of republicans in congress, as well as in right wing media, speak volumes about how fucked we are politically.

Zzyzzx, I have a question. Does it ever occur to you how fucked up it is that if Obama was more successful, that is if he was a great leader that effectively bought about way more much needed change, that that would make you very unhappy ? And that editorials prematurely declaring Obama such a failure, bring you such happiness?

Why doesn't someone now tell me how most of the moderate media, by not being rabidly tea party right wing, is therefore "liberal."

23   zzyzzx   2014 Jun 7, 6:47am  

marcus says

Zzyzzx, I have a question. Does it ever occur to you how fucked up it is that if Obama was more successful, that is if he was a great leader that effectively bought about way more much needed change, that that would make you very unhappy?

I would be OK with Obama if he were not such an epic failure, pretty much in every way! Do you see me complaining about Bill Clinton? The only particularly egregiously terrible thing Clinton did was to sign NAFTA (which I do complain about), the other stuff he did that I don't like much I can overlook.

marcus says

And that editorials prematurely declaring Obama such a failure

They are not premature!!! Even liberal CNN agrees with me on this!

24   FortWayne   2014 Jun 7, 9:54am  

CaptainShuddup says

In context out of context, that's some fascist commie pinko shit to say.

There were a million other ways to word what that fuck stick said and the context you're trying to spin it. If it makes you proud to be a minion of a dictator then be my guess beam away with pride. The rest of us sane folks will just look on in disgust.

They never want to acknowledge that our taxes built that. Something Obama loves to avoid bringing up.

25   lostand confused   2014 Jun 7, 10:01am  

FortWayne says

CaptainShuddup says

In context out of context, that's some fascist commie pinko shit to say.

There were a million other ways to word what that fuck stick said and the context you're trying to spin it. If it makes you proud to be a minion of a dictator then be my guess beam away with pride. The rest of us sane folks will just look on in disgust.

They never want to acknowledge that our taxes built that. Something Obama loves to avoid bringing up.

Exactly it is not the bums and the welfare hordes who built that. Not only did our taxes build that, we get yelled at for contributing to society.

26   HydroCabron   2014 Jun 7, 10:39am  

Obama has had a lot of big wins: solid Supreme Court appointments; the Affordable Care Act; a stimulus which, in light of plummeting state and local spending, averted a massive collapse; Dodd-Frank; the humiliation of raving wingnuts during the sequester battle; the end of the Iraq insanity and a drawdown in Afghanistan; and the end of the pointless Bush tax giveaways to Richie Rich.

He has made America strong again, and we're standing tall.

Unfortunately, Obama let Geithner pimp him to the banksters for oral servicing, and wet himself in the presence of the NSA, so he needs to go to jail.

I am still waiting for two more achievements the right wing promised me: seizure of all our guns, and reparations for blacks.

27   lostand confused   2014 Jun 7, 10:46am  

HuggyBumbers McLovkins says

seizure of all our guns, and reparations for blacks.

What if you are half white and half black. Will you give reparations to your self?? What if you are quarter white or quarter black?

What if you are a white Latino or a descendant of a black from Africa who caught and sold other blacks to slavery??

28   HydroCabron   2014 Jun 7, 10:52am  

Jesus.

Tax cut tax cut tax cut tax cut tax cut tax cut. Thirty years of it.

Then a president finally says something about the wealthy not paying enough, and middle-class wingers, who totally identify with the wealthy, have a sad.

Boo hoo hoo! Oh boo hoo hoo!

It's like the ugly-as-shit radical feminist being upset when the hot wife gets less than 100 percent in the divorce settlement.

29   John Bailo   2014 Jun 7, 10:58am  

1) Obamacare. It's here to stay. If anything, its failings will push us towards single payer, not away from mediated health insurance. Republicans, in fact, might lead on this, to save costs.

2) Veterans Affairs. This department is somewhat obsolesced by improved medical therapy and Obamacare. A vet with a Gold Plan + access to the better regular hospitals will find the best care there. Look at the Boston Marathon victims, exhibiting the same wounds as an infantryman, who were able to get care.

3) Foreign Policy. Forget about these individual incidents. The background is an overall shrinking military. We are entering a world where each Region will be self-defended. China, Russia, India are all carving out spheres of influence. That's half the Earth's population right there! The rest need to do the same. Our policy should be a complete retrenchment to North America, with foreign expeditions into Africa until that region unites under a strongman (I favor Joseph Kabila)...Monroe Doctrine is about all we've got at this point.

So, three issues, but when seen in the larger, not small context, favor Obama, 100%.

30   marcus   2014 Jun 7, 1:25pm  

CaptainShuddup says

Bellingham Bill says

Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.

In context out of context, that's some fascist commie pinko shit to say.

There were a million other ways to word what that fuck stick said and the context you're trying to spin it. If it makes you proud to be a minion of a dictator then be my guess beam away with pride. The rest of us sane folks will just look on in disgust.

If this guy is for real, it's a great example of how fucking stupid these right wing idiots are.

They tell themselves blatant and obvious lies, and they believe themselves instantly. It could be pouring rain, and he could tell himself it hot dry and sunny. And HE WOULD BELIEVE HIMSELF !!!!

It's beyond stunning.

BB posted the context (if the captain knows what that means. It's the sentences and paragraphs that came before and after that phrase).

NEWSFLASH: That's not what "spin" means.

Although reading comprehension skills and an IQ over 80 help.

CaptainShuddup says

The rest of us sane folks will just look on in disgust.

You're still thinking that dim bulb mouth breathers who watch Fox news are the "sane folks." I wonder whether you will ever realize the extent to which you're carrying water for the aristocracy.

31   Tenpoundbass   2014 Jun 8, 6:52am  

This Rabbit hole goes deeper than that.

Obama's supporters are grossly incompetent as well.
Inept, Incompetent citizens in a Democracy.

32   Tenpoundbass   2014 Jun 8, 6:55am  

bob2356 says

You forgot the biggies though: corporate profits, lobbying/bribes (excuse me it's actually free speech through campaign contributions), advertising, the huge cost of billing, and last but certainly not least pharma's relentless abuses of the patent system.

You can't have any of those things with out Executives and a competent sales force. No cash register no business.

33   marcus   2014 Jun 9, 9:23am  

CaptainShuddup says

Inept, Incompetent citizens in a Democracy.

This from a guy who thanks his lucky stars for the existence of Fox news.

35   bob2356   2014 Jun 10, 3:26am  

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

What could America expect of a president who spends every waking moment with bankster dick in his mouth to reward them for looting America into bankruptcy?

Repeal of the patriot act?

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