Never has there been a love as true or as blind as media Obamalove, as evidenced by this adoring puff piece written by Jonathan Alter for Bloomberg News, Obama Miracle is White House Free of Scandal:
President Barack Obama goes into the 2012 with a weak economy that may doom his reelection. But he has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest.
The sight of Texas Governor Rick Perry tumbling out of the clown car recently as a “birther” (or at least a birther-enabler) is a sign of weakness, not just for the Perry campaign but for the whole Republican effort to tarnish the president’s character.
Although it’s possible that the Solyndra LLC story will become a classic feeding frenzy, don’t bet on it. Providing $535 million in loan guarantees to a solar-panel maker that goes bankrupt was dumb, but so far not criminal or even unethical on the part of the administration. These kinds of stories are unlikely to derail Obama in 2012. If he loses, it will be because of the economy — period.
Solyndra not a scandal? In what universe is that true?
Even the professional left is having none of this nonsense, from emptywheel at Firedoglake, The Scandal Is that Jonathan Alter Doesn’t See the Scandal:
This Administration has smothered what was left of rule of law. And yet Alter can’t find a scandal?…
And part of Alter’s problem is his adoption of Brendan Nyhan’s definition of scandal: the reference to something as a scandal by a WaPo reporter on that rag’s front page.
Indeed, it’s all how the mainstream media defines scandal. And the MSM has decided to define scandal to exclude anything which could harm Obama’s chances of reelection.
Let’s educate Alter on the scandals of the Obama administration. I’ll start:
- Solyndra – how is it not a scandal when a big Obama campaign donor receives special treatment to bilk the country of half-a-billion dollars?
- Fast and Furious – guns missing, border patrol agent dead, Mexican gangs well-armed, and an Attorney General who is incompetent at best, misleading at worst.
- Nixonian control of press access to fundraisers.
- Obamacare – possibly the most deceptive law ever passed, so much so that one of its key cost-saving tools turns out to be too costly to implement.
- The disregard of judicial orders as to Gulf oil leases and the near shutdown of new production.
And it goes on and on. Please donate to the Jonathan Alter Obama Scandal Education Fund, in the comments.
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Saw the Alter piece, and thought to myself, “What did BOH do to get Bloomberg in his pocket?”
Maybe it doesn’t count as a scandal – although it should – but I think that his lack of transparency and clamping down on FOIA requests has got to rank way up there. Normally it would be business as usual for the government, but BOH made such a point of saying that his administration would be so transparent. Not!
It might also be a good thread to list the many outright lies that the president has uttered – lies, not misinterpretations or the always euphemistic misstatements – lies. To me, the biggest scandal of all is his disingenuousness to the American people.
[…] Jacobson is soliciting funds for the “Jonathan Alter Obama Scandal Education Fund” and finds that Alter is a victim of the Incredible Lightness of Obamalove in which, back in […]
Professor Jacobson is soliciting funds for the “Jonathan Alter Obama Scandal Education Fund” and as a result finds that Alter is a victim of the Incredible Lightness of Obamalove in which, back in February of this year, I wrote:
“Liberals still retain so much blind Obamalove that if he walked out of a Rose Garden cookout with a skewer of barbecued babies in one hand, a teenage prostitute’s decapitated head in the other, was wearing a cloak made of Michelle’s skin and a bloody paper hat made of the original U.S. Constitution, it would still be the Republicans fault. To them, he’s as much purity and light as Bush was evil and darkness.”
Alter is just another Obama sycophant.
http://therionorteline.com/2011/02/16/the-incredible-lightness-of-obamalove/
Alter said, “If he loses, it will be because of the economy — period.”
Well, the least we could do is to give Alter SOME credit – he didn’t say “If Obama loses it’s because we’re all racists.”
I thought it was satire???
Sadly, no.
He either believe his tripe or he is in someone’s pocket, providing propaganda cover.
A tool, regardless.
Libya and the disregard of the War Powers Act.
The Historical Fiction Genre Appreciation Society panned his piece as simple fantasy revisionism.
Lest we forget LightSquared. Someone gets a fast track waiver to act up in the GPS frequency spectrum (which it turns out jams GPS) and the Administration tries to get 4 Star Generals to change their testimony to make it look like everything is OK.
There is no point in trying to educate Alter. No one on the face of the Earth could possibly be as ignorant as he appears. Therefore, he’s lying. He’s playing the role of Joseph Goebbels only without the sincerity.
Every charismatic leader needs his own Leni Riefenstahl.
http://obamascandalslist.blogspot.com/
You can keep your health insurance and your premiums will go down.
The line between reality and delusion has become so blurred for so many leftists that it is hard to say whether this person is knowingly lying or simply so delusional as to be unable to see obvious reality.
Either way, objectivity has become so compromised as to make the observer’s opinion completely detached from reality and therefore absolutely irrelevant from an objective point of view. The problem is, many people reading this tripe don’t realize this or are similarly delusional.
I have seen similar situations in organizations (even conservative and Christian organizations). Executives often seem to come to believe their press releases are objective truth, regardless the fact that press releases are written by the organization with the intent to portray the organization in the most flattering light and gloss over any shortcomings or problems.
Obama honest???
Well… Yes IF you accept the administration’s definition of the truth.
As the prof pointed out, Solyndra, Fast and Furious should show the additions of that auto plant in Easter Europe, use of AF One for political fund raising, Mooch’s extravagant vacations etc should be more than enough to limit him to a single term.
But, is the American public smart enough to act???
In no particular order:
1) Does anybody really think BP was accorded due process when it “voluntarily agreed” to donate $20 billion to clean up the gulf? Does it look and feel more like a fair, arm’s length negotiation or a coercive strong arm act?
2) Usurped judicial branch authority by unilaterally declaring DOMA is unconstitutional and ordering his Justice Department to no longer enforce a legally enacted law.
3) Usurped Congressional authority by using executive orders to tighten environmental regulations and modify homeowner mortgages and student loans.
4) Usurped Congressional authority by unilaterally using American taxpayer resources to engage in the Libyan civil war.
5) Violated campaign finance laws during his 2008 campaign.
6) Is currently using taxpayer resources to jet around the country campaigning for his 2012 re-election campaign.
I suppose this poor, ignorant, uninformed elitist would not actually LEARN anything, no matter how much FACT AND TRUTH was “donated” for his enlightenment and education. Such is the mental state of the blind, elitist lemmings on the left.
You can put facts and irrefutable evidence in their faces, and they will blithely say, “Ahhhh, but the New York Times didn’t print it, so it didn’t happen!” or some such delusional excuse.
Of course, he would be right, in a way; the NYT – aka the “paper of record” (or as Michelle Malkin says, “the fishwrap of record”) – has been grossly negligent in reporting ANY scandal related to Obama, Holder, the Administration (I prefer REGIME, myself), or anyone else even loosely tied to Obama.
So, he is perhaps merely a reflection of what he reads…..and will refuse believe anything until it is fed to him by the NYT.
Which reminds me of two different scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s movie A Clockwork Orange.
Some of the comments are excellent especially for a Bloomberg publication. And it was refreshing to be able to “Like” the best comments without having to register.
I went back and read the first 20-25 commnets at Bloomberg thanks your commnent here. I think all but one took Alter to task.
How can this guy see anything when his head is up his ass?
Alter should remember that individuals who choose to betray others, in order to improve their own position, will be the first sacrificed once their leaders manage to consolidate capital and power. The leaders of the new system cannot afford to retain individuals in their ranks who have demonstrated a lack of integrity. Well, at least not those without sufficient leverage. Hopefully, he possesses the means to extort concessions from the new regime.
Obama honest? Now that *is* news – at least it would be, were it true.
Alter had better watch out that lightning doesn’t strike him dead for telling such a whopper himself.
[…] Prof Jacobson […]
[…] unlikely to derail Obama in 2012. If he loses, it will be because of the economy — period. Professor Jacobson: Let’s educate Alter on the scandals of the Obama administration. I’ll […]
After reading Alter’s piece, all I can say is – Welcome to Oceania.
Obama is scandal-less because, as the post says, “scandal” is defined in a way that can’t bu used against him. Never mind the czar who ended up suproting cop killing. nor the czar who has the atheistic mass murder Mao as one of her “favourite philosophers”. We’ll ignore that.
Remember that Alter grew up in Chicago, and his mother, JoAnn Alter was a machine politician there. Based on this fact, is there any reason to believe that Jonathan would do anything but pucker up anytime a Democrat is around?
Nobody’s mentioned that during his governmental takeover of General Motors and Chrysler, Obama told GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner to resign (which he did).
I suppose that causing a “voluntary resignation” isn’t against the the law, but that incident (as well as Obama bypassing bankruptcy court and thus shafting GM’s & Chrysler’s secured bondholders, in order to assign the viable remnants to the UAW) could certainly lead one to believe that Obama thought he was elected king (“l’etat c’est moi”), not merely President.