Eric Holder: I don"t know, I"d have to look at that, you know, the determination. I don"t know, I"d have to look at that, you know, the determination.
Lindsey Graham: We"re making history here, Mr. Attorney General. I"ll answer it for you, and the answer is: None. We"re making history here, Mr. Attorney General. I"ll answer it for you, and the answer is: None.
By the middle of November 2009 Barack Obama"s job approval rating was crashing. The softness he showed on Fort Hood and the mind-boggling Khalid Sheikh Mohammed decision had made a deep impression. Also, the continuing health care chaos weighed heavily on his image, as did his reluctance to make a decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan. On November 18 the Rasmussen daily tracking poll of likely voters had showed 52 percent of Americans disapproving of the President"s job performance. That is a stunning number for a President who took office just ten months earlier with approval numbers in the high 60s because of his pledge to bring change we can believe in.
Roughly four months later, the Obama administration put up a white flag. During the first week in March 2010 unnamed "White House sources" whispered to Fox News and the Washington Post Washington Post that the President was "rethinking" Holder"s plan to try KSM in New York and most likely would return him and four other al-Qaeda thugs to the military for trial. that the President was "rethinking" Holder"s plan to try KSM in New York and most likely would return him and four other al-Qaeda thugs to the military for trial.
You can imagine how that that went over in San Francisco, where the liberal ideology reigns. went over in San Francisco, where the liberal ideology reigns.
Actually, for those clear-thinking Americans who want a robust defense against fanatical al-Qaeda members, the Khalid fiasco turned out to be a positive. Because the President had no idea what to do with the man and his cohorts, the prison at Guantanamo Bay remained open far longer than many Obama supporters thought it would. As time marched on, Khalid and his gang continued to cool their heels behind the barbed-wire-ringed facility. Attorney General Holder tried his hardest to give the al-Qaeda members a forum but failed dismally. Have I called Holder a Pinhead yet?
FIRE AND ICE The presidential election of 2008 is just a distant memory for many of us, but one thing is clear: eighteen months after President Obama"s triumphant inauguration, the country had turned on him. A Gallup poll on June 24, 2010, said that 62 percent of Americans believed the country was heading in the wrong direction. That was the highest number since before Mr. Obama won the election. So what went wrong?
Did the Pinhead factor just kick in? What is the story behind the story? The answer to that question may lie in a committed left-wing ideology or perhaps in hubris, but most likely it is to be found in a different personality trait. President Obama is a loner, a man who lives deep within himself. While many of us feel the pain of others around us, the President is more of a technician, a man slow to respond outwardly to any emotion. It would not be fair to say he doesn"t identify with others, but his public persona is definitely detached.
My a.n.a.lysis explains why the President could be great friends with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the America-hater. Obama"s interaction with Wright was all about Obama. Period. Not about the country. The thinking, hypothetically, goes like this: So what if Wright spouted anti-American stuff? Who really cares? He offered spiritual guidance, and the President honored that with a form of friendship. What Wright did or said apart from Obama did not seem to matter to the politician.
In the same way, the President"s personality may explain his take on the subject of Muslim terrorism. The President views it as a major problem to be solved, not an evil to be eradicated. While President Bush took 9/11 personally-as an outrage that must be avenged-President Obama sees it as a catastrophe that must not be allowed to happen again.
It is all about emotion. Americans are largely an emotional people. We feel things deeply. But the President is able to rise above emotion, a skill that has served him well up to now. He survived a childhood that would have emotionally crippled many other children. And he later overcame the powerful Clinton machine to win the presidency. In more than one instance, his cool has won the fight.
But in running the country, the President often appears to be separating himself from the common folks. Many can"t believe that he is not feeling and identifying with their anger and pain. It seems that he is not, as they say in California, "in the moment" with their concerns. Those who pay close attention to Mr. Obama"s actions and words are picking up a kind of coldness. Wrong-headed decisions combined with a lack of pa.s.sion when dealing with evil could wind up derailing the Obama vision. If, in fact, there actually is is a vision. a vision.
The oil spill disaster only highlighted the pa.s.sion problem. As millions of people began suffering from the ma.s.sive pollution, Mr. Obama remained kind of detached. It took him nearly two months to actually address the problem from the Oval Office, and then when he did, the speech was flat. Even his supporters on MSNBC and CNN laced into him. Why didn"t he do something right away? Why was he not showing more fire?
The answers: (1) He didn"t know what to do, and (2) fire is not his style of governance. Ice is.
Let me repeat: I don"t find him personally cold or unfeeling, as you will see in just a moment. But, for whatever reasons or lessons learned in a lifetime, this man, reportedly a skilled poker player, keeps things close to his chest. Will he change, or will we come to accept his style? One or the other has to happen or he"ll begin working on his memoirs in 2012.
A WARMER CLIMATE As the year 2009 wound down, I met up with President Obama once again. On December 15 I attended the White House Christmas party for broadcast Pinheads. Actually, I was kind of surprised to be invited. Only a few of the dreaded Fox News crew were. Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Greta Van Susteren, and I each received nifty engraved invitations, and we lined up on a brisk night on Pennsylvania Avenue. After a few minutes, the Secret Service along with White House staffers checked IDs and we entered the White House, which, for me, is always a thrill. I brought along my ten-year-old daughter, Madeline, who tried to feign boredom, but I could see her eyes widening.
I must say the party was "smashing," to use a term I picked up while living in London. And when my daughter and I were brought in to greet the President and First Lady, they could not have been nicer.
I was very impressed with Mich.e.l.le Obama, who commands the room with her physical presence and was as welcoming as a person could be. She discussed the pop singer Taylor Swift with Madeline while I gave the President some jazz about his boast that he could beat me one-on-one in basketball by spotting me ten points in an eleven-point game. (That dialogue happened during my interview with him on the campaign trail. See Chapter 10.) I reminded the President that I was ready to take that bet. He said that I looked to be in better shape than the last time we met. I answered, "That"s because you"re keeping me on my toes, sir."
Two alpha males circling. I could almost envision Mich.e.l.le Obama rolling her eyes. I"m sure Madeline was.
I appreciated the warmth and kindness the Obamas showed my daughter. They did not have to go out of their way like that. For them, the party was an exhausting three-hour marathon of greetings and good tidings. It takes discipline and grace to do that well. Perhaps a small thing in the big scheme of life, but the President and First Lady were Patriots on that night.
After I reported on the evening to the Factor Factor audience, I received a few nasty e-mails from the Obama-haters, but not that many. Laura Ingraham gave me some static, but I gave it right back to her. As I said earlier, there is no reason to disrespect the President of the United States. Disagree, fine. But a certain Patriotic respect should be shown. The man is not audience, I received a few nasty e-mails from the Obama-haters, but not that many. Laura Ingraham gave me some static, but I gave it right back to her. As I said earlier, there is no reason to disrespect the President of the United States. Disagree, fine. But a certain Patriotic respect should be shown. The man is not always always wrong. wrong.
Still, three days after the party, I had to make fun of the President on the air because of the climate conference he attended in Copenhagen. I mean, come on. That incredible dog-and-pony show cost American taxpayers millions of dollars, and what was accomplished? Some countries said, "Yeah, pollution is bad and we"re going to clean up our acts. Only don"t give us mandates or deadlines, and by the way, we won"t allow any verification of our environmental efforts. Other than that, we are down with combating warming! Please pa.s.s the lingonberry sauce."
President Obama lent his authority to the conference, which is not in itself a bad thing. If people pay more attention to cleaning up the world, that is a positive, whether you believe in global warming or not. But Mr. Obama tried to spin the conference as some kind of breakthrough deal, which it certainly was not. That sleight of verbal hand offended fans of no spin. Little of substance was achieved in Copenhagen. Even the anarchists rioting in the streets did not liven things up.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. PRESIDENT With all that had occurred by the end of 2009, Barack Obama had to be happy he was set to enjoy Christmas in Hawaii, his birth state. With visions of sugarplums and Diamond Head dancing in his head, he flew west with his family to the beautiful islands. But the happy holiday didn"t last long.
On Christmas Day, a crazy young jihadist named Umar Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a Northwest jetliner flying from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan. Umar, whose own father had warned the American emba.s.sy in Lagos that his son was hanging with al-Qaeda, somehow boarded the plane with explosives in his underpants. When he tried to ignite them, they fizzled and some pa.s.sengers jumped him. The plane then landed safely, thanks to those brave civilians.
As you"ll remember, the story was enormous. Despite billions spent on national security, a twenty-three-year-old loon trained in Yemen almost murdered three hundred people on a plane. It took President Obama three days to respond publicly, and when he did, he called the terrorist guy an "isolated extremist."
Not good enough.
The Right went nuts, and the President was hammered, even though it had taken President Bush six days to comment on Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, back in 2002. At that time, the U.S. ant.i.terror security program was just beginning. That"s not an excuse for Mr. Bush, it"s just a note of interest. But today Americans expect their government to aggressively protect them against al-Qaeda and other killers. This incident embarra.s.sed the entire American intelligence community, and Mr. Obama"s dispa.s.sionate response only added to the hysteria.
Finally, under withering pressure, President Obama gave a speech in which he said that the country was at war with al-Qaeda and he would correct the mistakes made. The President looked grave and sounded, for once, severely teed off. But even liberals expressed doubts about the depth of his grasp of the issue.
Writing in the New York Times, New York Times, we again turn to lefty columnist Maureen Dowd who put it this way: we again turn to lefty columnist Maureen Dowd who put it this way: When [Obama] failed to immediately step up to the microphones in Hawaii after the Christmas terrors and thank the pa.s.sengers for bravely foiling the plot that his intelligence community had failed to see, President Cool reached the limits of cool.No Drama Obama is reticent about displays of emotion. The Spock in him needs to exert mental and emotional control. This is why he stubbornly insists on staying aloof and setting his own deliberate pace for responding-whether it"s in a debate or after a debacle. But it"s not okay to be cool about national security when Americans are scared.
Ms. Dowd must be a Factor Factor watcher, because that was the same drum I was beating. To effectively lead the nation in times of crisis, you have to feel what the folks are feeling. As stated, cool may have won the election, but cool is losing the public"s support on the terror front. How about some watcher, because that was the same drum I was beating. To effectively lead the nation in times of crisis, you have to feel what the folks are feeling. As stated, cool may have won the election, but cool is losing the public"s support on the terror front. How about some anger anger here? Some terrorist tries to wipe out hundreds of civilians on Christmas Day, but our leader doesn"t condemn the action immediately? Come on. If you can"t get worked up about a ma.s.s murder attempt and the gross incompetence of those responsible for protecting Americans, what can you get worked up about? here? Some terrorist tries to wipe out hundreds of civilians on Christmas Day, but our leader doesn"t condemn the action immediately? Come on. If you can"t get worked up about a ma.s.s murder attempt and the gross incompetence of those responsible for protecting Americans, what can you get worked up about?
This body scanner at a security checkpoint in Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands might have detected the device used in the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, if U.S. authorities hadn"t told Amsterdam"s airport not to use it on United Statesbound flights due to privacy concerns.
a.s.sociated Press/AP Photographed by Cynthia Boll No Drama Obama. That image won"t work in the long run. The President has to step up his urgency level if he wants to be two-termer Obama.
Unfortunately, the President had pretty much the same distanced demeanor a few months later when authorities arrested another jihadist nut for trying to blow up Times Square in New York City. Now, I"m not suggesting Mr. Obama go all Lewis Black on us when he speaks about attempted terror attacks, but understating an attempted ma.s.s homicide is something only a Pinhead would do. Is it not?
FOURTH-QUARTER GRADES With so much in play at the end of 2009, let"s give President Obama a P&P report card for the last quarter of that chaotic year:
Fort Hood.The President was only a minor Pinhead for not forcefully speaking out against violent fanaticism.The Christmas Day terror attack.He was a big Pinhead this time for not reacting in a way that folks could identify with. To repeat, Americans are furious that Islamic terrorism continues to threaten the country. The President should reflect on that fact and perhaps change his subdued tone.Al-Qaeda civilian trials.No question about it-POTUS was a major Pinhead for allowing this atrocity to take place. Nothing good will come of it, just wait and see. When the underwear guy was taken off the plane on Christmas and sent to a federal prison to see his lawyer, you could hear the gnashing of teeth all the way to Waikiki. Such coddling of terrorists could very well be the undoing of Barack Obama.Afghanistan.The commander in chief definitely qualifies as a Patriot for finally giving his field commanders the resources they need to fight the Taliban. Although it was annoying that the decision took so long to be implemented, I understand the complexity of the theater. When I visited Afghanistan in 2007, I was amazed at how primitive the place is. Did you know that life expectancy in Afghanistan is just north of forty years? That ranks among the worst in the world.Global warming.On this issue President Cool gets a mixed grade. He is a Patriot for wanting a cleaner planet, but a Pinhead for buying into theoretical nonsense. Worldwide pollution is a dangerous situation that deserves a serious hearing. Al Gore"s scare tactics are not the solution; finding common ground is. Everybody should agree that less pollution is good. Let"s start there and leave the ideological component home.Energy level.On this final point our tireless leader is a Patriot. President Obama works extremely hard.
Summing up, 2009 began with great expectations and ended with a country divided and exhausted by a brutal economy, ideological divides, and implacable enemies abroad. The young President got quite a dose of reality throughout his first year in office, and as we know, how a person handles adversity will eventually define his or her ultimate Pinhead or Patriot status.
CHAPTER 3
To Your Health
IF BARACK OBAMA THOUGHT the last few months of 2009 were rough, well, the opening weeks of 2010 made them look like a piece of chocolate layer cake. Ladies and gentlemen, let the Tea Parties begin! the last few months of 2009 were rough, well, the opening weeks of 2010 made them look like a piece of chocolate layer cake. Ladies and gentlemen, let the Tea Parties begin!
Exasperated by record-breaking government spending and a confusing health care bill that the President could not explain, thousands of everyday Americans began publicly demonstrating against the perceived signs of "socialism" and, in general, the liberal tendencies of the Obama administration.
Led by Fox News commentator and radio talk show host Glenn Beck, and featuring high-profile encouragement from Sarah Palin, the so-called Tea Party movement blasted into the national consciousness.
But it was largely the ugly attacks against this group that drew them further into the spotlight and kept them there for so long.
Here"s what I mean. Some committed left-wing commentators on NBC and CNN quickly branded the protestors as "teabaggers," a crude s.e.xual slang term that is a.s.sociated with oral s.e.x. Because of their divisive tactics, these media Pinheads not only brought huge attention to the Tea Party movement, but their vitriol also angered many nonpartisan Americans, making the Tea Party message more readily acceptable.
My take on the Tea Party movement is simple and, I think, Patriotic. These folks are practicing the time-honored tradition of public dissent. They are brave enough to make their political feelings public, which, I believe, shows love of country.
Tea Party protesters steep in the heat of a tax revolt rally in Washington, D.C.
Freedom Works As we all know, the Tea Party attackers in the media did not demean the Iraq antiwar movement, did they? Certainly not. So liberal media people, let me get this straight: if you sympathize with a protest, it"s legitimate, but if you disagree with the message, it"s not. That doesn"t sound very American to me. How does it sound to you?
The same thing was true of the Minuteman movement, which protested illegal immigration across the Mexican border. These men and women were immediately branded as "racist" by some in the liberal media because they wanted an end to the immigration chaos. Doesn"t it strike you as strange that the liberal movement in the United States is so intolerant? I mean, isn"t the left-wing mantra "individual freedom"? Have liberals stopped believing that America is a place where diversity of thought is encouraged? I always thought the liberal handbook promoted political activism. "Power to the people," right? Sure. Today that handbook would more accurately read, "Power to the people who agree with us; obscene names to those who don"t." Some of you may remember the term hippie fascism hippie fascism that floated around during the late 1960s. Everything was mellow, man, until you questioned the movement. Then it wasn"t far out anymore. It was, what the F is wrong with you? that floated around during the late 1960s. Everything was mellow, man, until you questioned the movement. Then it wasn"t far out anymore. It was, what the F is wrong with you?
Thinking back, I was surprised that CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper joined the Far Left chorus regarding the Tea Party folks. Cooper is a solid reporter who, despite sympathizing with the Left on many things, has forged a respectable career out of being fair. To be equally fair to him, Cooper did apologize for his use of the term tea-bagger tea-bagger, but in the eyes of some reasonable folks, his initial comments demeaned him. On that occasion, Anderson Cooper was a Pinhead.
It isn"t even worth commenting on the vile stuff coming from NBC"s cable news arm. Suffice it to say that it is Pinhead Central over there.
CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH?
As the first few months of 2010 unfolded, the health care debate exploded into a national battle. President Obama found himself defending a huge new ent.i.tlement that would, among other things, force Americans to buy health insurance or possibly suffer financial penalties. The President urged us to support his vision of providing more than 30 million uninsured citizens with a chance to improve their lives. What the President did not emphasize, however, was that 60 percent of the newly insured would have to be subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayers.
Vice President Joe Biden is overheard telling President Obama, "This is a big f--deal," after introducing the President at the health care bill-signing ceremony on March 23, 2010.
a.s.sociated Press/AP Photographed by Scott Applewhite The President also claimed that ObamaCare would actually reduce America"s deficit by bringing down health care costs, a vital component of the overall plan, as the USA currently owes about $14 trillion to its creditors and could very well slip into bankruptcy down the road. Despite Mr. Obama"s pa.s.sion, every Republican in Congress disputed the President"s financial numbers, and, polls showed, so did most Americans.
Nevertheless, on Sunday, March 20, ObamaCare pa.s.sed the House, and two days later the President signed it into law. The highlight of the subsequent victory lap was Vice President Joe Biden telling Mr. Obama in front of a microphone that the situation was a "big f--deal." No argument with that, and don"t you just love Biden in front of a mic? I mean, the man becomes absolutely possessed!
But winning the ObamaCare battle is not a full victory. The President has to hope he hasn"t lost the war. There is no question that the new law will do some good and may improve some lives, but it is still at the expense of other tax-paying Americans. It is also a fact that to get national health care pa.s.sed, Barack Obama badly damaged his well-honed image as a new-style politician. The Democratic Party is now a.s.sociated with Western Europeanstyle top-down governance. In traditional America, that is a precarious place to be.
DEAL OR NO DEAL For the record, and as part of our Pinhead-or-Patriot a.s.sessment, let"s take a look at the "back-room deal" factor. In order to get support for his controversial bill, the President had to okay the following: a special deal that exempts 800,000 Floridians from any Medicare Advantage cuts; a $300 million increase in spending for the state of Louisiana alone; a $100 million guarantee for hospital construction in Connecticut; a $2 billion increase in Medicare spending for Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah; a $600 million Medicare spending boost for Vermont, plus almost the same amount for Ma.s.sachusetts (a state that already has universal health care requirements); and an extra $850 billion in Medicaid funds for Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Ma.s.sachusetts (again), Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont (again), Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
That"s just a partial list of the deals struck behind the scenes to ensure pa.s.sage of ObamaCare. Remember, the President campaigned on "change we can believe in." But these quid pro quo deals have been around since the Continental Congress. Call me a Pinhead, but I"m not seeing much change change in the legislative process. If ObamaCare is really so good, the folks would have lined up behind it. in the legislative process. If ObamaCare is really so good, the folks would have lined up behind it.
They did not.
And here"s the kicker. The President says that the ma.s.sive ObamaCare expense, estimated to reach close to $1 trillion, will be paid for largely by cuts in Medicare spending. But not only is there speculation that costs will come in way higher than that, check out the chart on the previous page of special deals again, and you will clearly see significant increases increases in Medicare spending. The whole deal is a recipe for cynicism pie. in Medicare spending. The whole deal is a recipe for cynicism pie.
There is no question that the President and most Democrats believe that the ends justify the means in health care reform. On the other side, the conservative opposition is pulling out all the anti-Obama stops. In fact, even I, your humble correspondent, got hammered in that wordstorm....
RUSHING TO CONCLUSIONS Perhaps the most vociferous anti-Obama guy in the country is radio commentator Rush Limbaugh. To say that Mr. Limbaugh and the President see things differently is like saying Michael Moore needs a personal trainer. There is no doubt.
A few weeks before ObamaCare pa.s.sed the House, we had a series of debates on the Factor Factor about whether or not the President is a closet socialist. I said he was not because he wasn"t actively trying to control private property, which is what socialists do. I did say, however, that Mr. Obama believes in some socialist tenets, such as income redistribution and the imposition of social justice through legislation or even through the use of executive orders. By the way, I said that to the President"s face during my interview with him, which you can read at the end of this book. about whether or not the President is a closet socialist. I said he was not because he wasn"t actively trying to control private property, which is what socialists do. I did say, however, that Mr. Obama believes in some socialist tenets, such as income redistribution and the imposition of social justice through legislation or even through the use of executive orders. By the way, I said that to the President"s face during my interview with him, which you can read at the end of this book.
Anyway, Rush Limbaugh took exception to my a.n.a.lysis of President Obama"s belief system and brought my name up while talking to a caller on his radio show. Here"s what he had to say (with some of my thoughts interjected throughout in the gray-shaded boxes):
Rush Limbaugh: Let"s pretend that you"re talking to Bill O"Reilly. Let"s pretend that you"re talking to Bill O"Reilly.
Caller: Okay. Okay.
Rush: What do you think of me? Where have I gone wrong today? What do you think of me? Where have I gone wrong today?
Caller: You"re asking me what I think of Bill O"Reilly? You"re asking me what I think of Bill O"Reilly?
Rush: No, I am Bill O"Reilly. What do you think of me? Tell me where I"ve gone wrong today. No, I am Bill O"Reilly. What do you think of me? Tell me where I"ve gone wrong today.
Caller: He does say that a lot. He does say that a lot.
At this point, El Rushbo has set me up as a target of derision. He didn"t say to his listeners flat out, "Hey, I"m going to mock O"Reilly." Instead he is pretending to be me in a satiric riff. He continues.