He sums up my feelings.

I like to pose as mainly objecting to this jackass on policy, and keep the level of emotion restricted to snide comments, but the fact of the matter is I'm starting to hate this guy.

After that bizarre, defiant, blame-dodging, position-ditching, doubling-back, credit-grabbing performance, IÂ’d be inclined to call Barack Obama a joke. But protocol and manners require me to call him the president of the United States, and after all, weÂ’re stuck with him in that role for another three years, at least.

I donÂ’t really want to go down the road the left did, with their rabid hatred and childish insults of George Bush. ItÂ’s probably too late to swear off that. IÂ’ve tried really hard to be respectful to the office and the fact that he holds it. But IÂ’m beginning to get the leftÂ’s visceral reaction to everything our often inarticulate, chimp-like former president did and said. The difference between the Bush and Obama cases is, that clown-like cheering section notwithstanding last night, even ObamaÂ’s own stalwarts are rejecting half of what he does and says, and feel he has betrayed them and let them down.

And that is because he never had an actual mandate for any of this hard-left crap he's pushing on us. He lied. If he had told the truth, perhaps the public would have elected him and then he would have that man--

Oh, of course they wouldn't have elected him. He and the media assured us that he was just a common-sense centrist that wanted to tilt the field slightly away from monied interests and towards the middle class. If he had told the truth about his agenda, even bitter old John McCain could have beaten him.

Say what you want about Bush, but he told us what he'd do as president, and then he did it. He said he was going to cut taxes in such-and-such a way and after wrangling with Congress for a while, he cut taxes in almost the precise way he'd planned. He said he'd give seniors a prescription drug benefit, and he did (not that I think that was a good idea -- but he said he would, and he did). He said he'd fight for a private portion of Social Security, and he did fight for that. He said he'd appoint judicial conservatives to the courts, and he did.

Obama, on the other hand, lied up and down about his true intentions and now here we are with three years left (and it will only be three years) on his corruptly-gained presidency and he's broken every promise he ever made, except the secret ones he made to the hard left, and even there, he's breaking most of them. (But fighting for them before breaking them.)

And it's all because we (well not "we," but America) were sold a bill of goods on this thin-skinned malignant narcissist of the hard left.

Reactions... gathered at ABCNews.

I found this one telling:

“It was the politics of Washington, rather than any specific policy, that the president spoke about with the most passion after a year when the change he pledged proved elusive,” Scott Wilson writes for The Washington Post. “Laced throughout the policy prescriptions, though, was Obama's sharp critique of Washington's political culture and Wall Street's irresponsibility that worked so well for him as a candidate.”

Of course he spoke the most passionately about "the politics of Washington," by which he means criticism of himself, his policies, his competency, and general opposition to His Majesty's Royal Awesomeness.

What he means, of course, is that he wants to change "the politics of Washington" into the cult of personality he still enjoys with his dwindling number of zealots and religious nuts.

He doesn't want disagreement. He especially doesn't want criticism. He just wants to be endlessly told how incredibly awesome he is, as he was told his entire charmed life, and as the press used to on a daily basis.

He doesn't want his failed policies to be the issue. He wants his finely-chiseled pecs (actually kinda-flabby moobs) to be the issue again.

I have real worries about this supposedly "First-Class Temperament." A temperament is only first class if it has been tested, repeatedly, and has held up well under such heat.

His never has been. And we see that "first class temperament" in action-- wars against FoxNews and (for the love of everything holy!) Scott Rasmussen. Claims that, are you kidding me?, the press -- the whole liberal press -- is against him. Endless blame-shifting and refusal to take responsibility. Plaintive and cloying whines of poor-me.

Lying about Supreme Court opinions to the Justices' faces.

And on and on.

And we have another three years of this "First-Class Temperament" continuing to come apart under the stress of actual challenge and testing.

Chuck DeVore's Response: He goes a little bit literary.

The President’s first State of the Union Address was an appropriate reflection of his first year in office: rhetorically ambitious, pragmatically muddled, ideologically dangerous, and surprisingly naïve for a product of the Chicago political machine. But as with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Amory Blaine, for whom “It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being,” so too did Barack Obama focus more upon ascending to high office than on using it well. The President is now stuck upon his pinnacle. To borrow a metaphor from the Owens Valley where I spent my high school years, he’s a turtle on a post: you aren’t sure how he got there, and he’s not sure what he’ll do about it.

Before listing the many negatives of the PresidentÂ’s speech, allow me to visit the one positive, when the President said of energy, "That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development..." As someone who has authored five bills on modern nuclear power in the past four years as well as a major piece of offshore oil legislation (the latter actually passed the State Senate) while working on a comprehensive offshore oil and gas bill that IÂ’ll soon introduce, I was delighted to hear these words from the President. His recent record on these matters, however, brings doubt that word will translate into deed.

As for the rest of the speech? The PresidentÂ’s confusion, leavened with indignation at the forces that confound him, was on full display as the evening ground on.

Click the link for the specifics. From Gabe's Twitter feed; he dubs it "must-read."

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (149)
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Coincidentally (or not), it's theone not wwned by the government or the UAW.

Ford Motor Co. made $2.7 billion in 2009, its first annual profit in four years.

The automaker on Thursday also forecast a full-year profit in 2010. Earlier it had only promised to be "solidly profitable" in 2011.

Ford benefited from cost-cutting, a $696 million profit in its credit arm and popular cars and trucks like the Ford Fusion midsize sedan and Ford Escape small sport utility vehicle. It gained market share in North and South America and Europe, despite the worst U.S. sales climate in 30 years.

"While we still face significant business environment challenges ahead, 2009 was a pivotal year for Ford," Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement.

Ford's 2009 net income of 86 cents per share showed a significant improvement from the year before, when it lost a record $14.6 billion. Excluding one-time items of $711 million, Ford made 43 cents per share. Those items included severance payments and retiree health-care charges.

The profit surprised Wall Street, where analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected an annual loss of 31 cents.

When reached for comment, Obama and his business partners at the UAW said, 'We can fix that'.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:20 AM | Comments (80)
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There was simply too much to put in one post (and no, I won't be going through all of it) but the Iraq part, all two paragraphs of it, were despicable. Not so much for what he said but what he left out.

As we take the fight to al Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. As a candidate, I promised that I would end this war, and that is what I am doing as President. We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August. We will support the Iraqi government as they hold elections, and continue to partner with the Iraqi people to promote regional peace and prosperity. But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home.

Tonight, all of our men and women in uniform — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world – must know that they have our respect, our gratitude, and our full support. And just as they must have the resources they need in war, we all have a responsibility to support them when they come home. That is why we made the largest increase in investments for veterans in decades. That is why we are building a 21st century VA. And that is why Michelle has joined with Jill Biden to forge a national commitment to support military families.

The 5 times he used the name Iraq in those paragraphs were the only mentions in the whole speech. What words didn't he use? Victory. Freedom. Or anything that recognized the fruits of the incredible sacrifices millions of men and women in our military and their families made to make it possible.

You see, the war is just "ending". Kind of like a movie or something. Times up, the lights come on, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

As I tweeted last night during the speech: "According to Obama the Iraq war is over. Any word on who won?"

Oh and this 'ending'? Yeah, he inherited that from Bush too but you don't hear him mention that do you?

I doubt W. cares much about what this childish little man says or thinks about him. Bush signed up for the big leagues and if Obama can't do anything but bitch about him, well, that's part of the deal. Besides, Bush only looks better by comparison. But for a serving Commander in Chief to fail to acknowledge the victory of American troops is beyond shameful, it's unpardonable and even un-American.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:16 AM | Comments (144)
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Cambell 41%, Boxer 45%, and remember the old saw about incumbents being under 50%, and most undecideds breaking for a challenger.

She has bigger leads on Fiorina and DeVore, but nothing huge. I mean, no Coakley-sized leads or anything.

And in Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson has a lead of hitherto-believed-to-be-untouchable Russ Feingold.

One more Democratic senator who has long been regarded as a safe prospect for reelection may be facing a challenging year in 2010.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Wisconsin finds Republican Tommy Thompson edging incumbent Russ Feingold 47% to 43% in a hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

Any incumbent who attracts less than 50% support at this point in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable.

Thompson hasn't jumped into the race yet; he's just being urged to do so. Obviously, with good poll numbers, his entry becomes more likely.

A lot of these guys might genuinely not want to serve anymore in politics. I hope they will run anyway, and turn that into a virtue, promising to only run and serve for a single term.

Hell, it would be nice if they promised to serve a fraction of a term. Give us two years or something.

Although most pollsters are being very conservative on the odds of a GOP takeover of the Senate (the House looks almost likely at this point), personally, the way things look now, I'd say the Senate is more likely than not to flip to the GOP, too.

Posted by: Ace at 06:50 AM | Comments (52)
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The more I thought about last night's speech, the more annoying it became.

It was filled with mistruths, insults, excuses and was generally combative in tone.

For a taste of the 'it's not my fault' look at this paragraph early in the speech.

One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted – immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.

Really champ? There were some challenges when you took over? I'm not sure anyone knew that. I mean, that's pretty much why you got elected and you've spent the last year talking about it.

Later in the speech he disingenuously says not interested in 're-litigating' the past.

Throughout our history, no issue has united this country more than our security. Sadly, some of the unity we felt after 9/11 has dissipated. We can argue all we want about whoÂ’s to blame for this, but I am not interested in re-litigating the past.

Aside from the fact he does nothing but re-litigate the past, who exactly is responsible for breakdown the post 9/11 unity? Bush and his stubborn insistence in fighting terrorist or liberals who decided they were more interested in protecting terrorists than Americans.

The rest of Obama's speech involved his economic plans for 'jobs'. Quite frankly there was nothing new in the speech compared to what he spent the last year hawking: "Green jobs", a 'jobs bill' (Son of Stimulus"), expansion of the public sector and of course, health care.

The economic agenda he laid out last night (aside from the idiotically stupid 'spending freeze') is exactly what he said throughout his first year in office.

The bottom line from last night was Obama basically said, "Things sucked when I got here and you're lucky to have me, even if you are too stupid to know that. I understand you don't like what I proposed last year and...I don't care. I'm awesome and you're not, so deal with it".

As I said the night of Scott Brown's election, Obama's presidency is over as he originally envisioned it. Apparently he hasn't gotten the memo and that's only going to deepen his problems.

More: Via Slublog...AP Fact Checks Obama and doesn't seem to impressed.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:15 AM | Comments (170)
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I think Gabe is having some issues connecting with the inter-tubes, so here's your headlines thread.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:54 AM | Comments (83)
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The "Big Winner" from tonight's speech?

Jimmy Carter.

It's official: Jimmy is no longer the Worst President of my lifetime.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 07:47 PM | Comments (205)
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Nutroot Nirvana alert!

Expect calls for Alito's impeachment to begin no later than tomorrow morning (if they haven't already).

It's a natural reaction to Obama's bullshit but it's a breech of etiquette and Alito will likely apologize either privately or in public.

I swiped the better video from The Corner so I'll give you this link there to see why Obama is either a liar or stupid.

[Update-PA] The NYT is saying Obama lied too.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:55 PM | Comments (500)
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The SOTU is over and the fun finally begins...

The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media
Note that they only counted hawt babes in 'new media' which I think is a fancy term for bloggers who actually make money from it. So alas no Fox News babes. And sadly I recognized only about half of them and that was only with the help of Red Eye. To see what the other side of the aisle has to offer take a look at The 10 Hottest Liberal Women In Politics. Surprisingly enough no eye bleach is necessary. Though I'm not sure I'd consider Meghan McCain to be a liberal - she's more of a RHINO squish.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:35 PM | Comments (425)
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Before posting, please read the "Please Read" thing on the Live Blog a couple of posts below.

Posted by: Ace at 04:50 PM | Comments (489)
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