linguo_the_grammar_robot (anonymous) says...

"Things must be getting desperate at the White House. You are suffering the worst poll ratings drop in the last 50 years and you lack any accomplishments on which to hang your hat. As a result, you have resorted to lashing out at your political opponents."

Do you live in a fantasy world? Bush left the whitehouse with a 22% approval rating and Obama is currently around 56%. If Obama had the biggest drop in 50 years, it's only because he was so extraordinarily popular when he came in.

Of course, you ignore the real problem here....Fox News. They are a biased organization and spread lies and falsehoods. Why not cover that?

But hey, keep believing that everyone hates Obama....see you in 2012.

October 29, 2009 at 6:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

dlowell (anonymous) says...

Obama has accomplished nothing? Here's a little list:
Lily Ledbetter Fair-Pay Act
Basically a 180-degree turn in world opinion of U.S.
Massive education reform efforts that even Republicans are lauding
We're now closer to health care reform and climate change legislation than we've ever been.
Along with Secretary Gates, created a sensible defense budget for fighting in the 21st century.
Reversed non-sensical stem cell research policy.
Signed a stimulus bill that has already invested almost $9 billion in highway infrastructure improvements alone, not to mention all the other parts of the stimulus.
Authorized investment of the largest energy-related portion of the stimulus package this week, to create electric smart-grid that will potentially cut energy waste by billions of dollars.
That's just to name a few. Despite your stance on any of these issues, you simply cannot argue that the Obama administration has done nothing, and he's not even out of the first year of his first term yet. What did Bush accomplish in his first 10 months (other than ignoring actionable intelligence that al-Qaeda was about to launch an attack against the U.S.)? In fact, I challenge you to name something Bush did in his whole 8 years that did not profoundly screw us over in some way.

As for Fox News, the administration's criticisms come because it is essentially a political front disguised (thinly) as a news organization. It's got basically one newsman left (Shep Smith), and he's apologizing for the network's behavior almost every other day. Instead of doing the job of a news organization, they're pushing what I might argue is a far-right political agenda. Sirius, you mention opinion being separate from news, but on Fox, there is no distinction. They color their "news" with opinion, and distort facts to support those opinions.

Also, in response to Compton, Bush did not once take off his "politician-in-chief" jacket. Obama, I think, has represented well as a leader since day one. However, you would not see this, because you refer to his leadership efforts as political efforts, simply because your blind ideology doesn't agree with them. It amuses me to no end that you constantly refer to the "far-left" and use pacifists as a dirty word. I think Mr. Compton has a fairly screwed-up idea of the spectrum of political ideologies and theories, which for a political science major, is frankly embarrassing.

October 29, 2009 at 12:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

pantheon (anonymous) says...

You don't even know Chicago-style attack machine. I will build one and park it in your driveway, and then you will know Chicago-style attack machine, and I will hear your lamentations. The short form is that if Fox news brings a knife, Obama brings a gun. If they send one of Obama's to the hospital, he sends one of theirs to the morgue.

October 29, 2009 at 1:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

dlowell (anonymous) says...

You didn't specify, but rather merely said "Obama has accomplished nothing,"
which is categorically untrue.
And what of those campaign promises, Sirius, has he not done, or at least begun serious efforts on? We are investing in clean energy and green jobs, have what amounts to an entirely new (and sensical) foreign policy, reversed the Bush stem cell policy, and are making serious efforts on health care reform.
As for Iraq and Afghanistan, did you really think that any administration could wrap two wars up in ten months? To me, it makes sense to "dither" on making a commitment to Afghanistan, until the elections are resolved. After all, why go through the trouble of making a huge investment in a country if you're just putting a corrupt regime in power? I would say, if the outcome of the run-off is found to be fair and not fradulent, then commit everything everything that McChrystal wants. But, as Nicholas Kristof said in his column today, maybe we should focus on efforts like building schools rather than increasing troop levels.
Another campaign promise, the shutting down of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, would be significantly closer to realized by now if some moronic Senators (Brownback) would rethink their position that somehow, putting a few alleged terrorists in a maximum security prison in the middle of military base is not secure. They're not supervillains, they're poor, uneducated, and mostly innocent. They aren't going to bust out of there.
Sorry, that was a little off-topic. I guess my point is that your original assertion is categorically false, and that ten months in is a little early to judge a president's achievement of his campaign promises. Again, Bush accomplished basically nothing in eight years except getting us into two intractable wars with no money to pay for those wars, and doubling the national debt.

October 29, 2009 at 5 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

domoking (anonymous) says...

Chet, you are the exact representation of Fox News; you spout unfounded opinions that are nothing more than stirring up ignorance and confusion, creating an environment where the politics don't matter because the mass of fools are caught up in name calling games. Fox News is far from a news organization anymore. They are the Britney Spears chasers of tabloid politics, catering to the same small minded audience who doesn't care to put any real thought in their own actions.

Chet Compton, I heard you wear women's clothing and dance to eighties music to relieve stress.
Now, this is obviously unfounded and attacking, meant to distract from any real discussion. But if more people hear me and believe it, what do you do?
I am Fox News, you are Obama, I hope you can reason that one out and see my point.

SiriusBlue, even if Fox News states that they are expressing opinions, the fact that people believe them is what matters. Yes, Obama needs to get things done, but you forget that government is meant to be a tool of the people. It's hard to do good for a country when so many people are resistant to change of any kind. But he has, and is pushing in the right direction. Despite the efforts of people whose beliefs are founded in ignorance, we are learning and doing better all of the time. If someone knew the perfect way to run society, things would be easy, but we don't. It's a trial and error process. So stop holding on to the same mistakes and we can all learn together.

October 29, 2009 at 6:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

G_E (anonymous) says...

I'm starting to develop a theory that SiriusBlue IS Chet Compton.

October 30, 2009 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

TheMightyThor (anonymous) says...

Sirius,

Your information about Obama's approval ratings comes from the Rasmussen Report (rasmussenreports.com) which are GOP oriented for better or worse.

If you check realclearpolitics (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epol...) they give an average of his approval ratings, which are hovering above fifty percent, showing the individual scores from the various polls.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that you need to look at more sources. But since I'm not Glenn Beck I don't expect you to listen to me.

October 30, 2009 at 11:16 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

tdconrad (anonymous) says...

OOO Chet, Chet, Chet... another one of your epic masterpieces. This is by far some of the best journalism I have ever read and trust me SiriusBlue when I say that because all I watch is Glenn Beck.

I found this quote above and adds a great deal of value to this conversation about Chet.

"Chet Compton, I heard you wear women's clothing and dance to eighties music to relieve stress." I have also heard this so this must have some truth behind it. Also, I heard that Chet likes to watch college football and hang out with guys on the weekend (kinda gay) from my inside sources.

With more time information will be relieved about this mysterious writer who has captured so many hearts. I can only hope it will be soon.

ps. pantheon can you contact me about making one of those Chicago killing machine things I can park in my driveway, they sound pretty sweet.

October 30, 2009 at 1:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

linguo_the_grammar_robot (anonymous) says...

SiriusBlue: "Goodness. That's the point that Compton was trying to make. Anyone who disagrees with Obama is uneducated and stupid. ANYONE."

That's the point I'VE been making all along.

October 30, 2009 at 4:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

thtwhtguy (anonymous) says...

I don’t really have much to say either way as far as policies and such, but I would like to say that Obama has NOT "represented well as a leader since day one" dlowell...I'm sorry to tell you that after studying leadership for quite a while now...I've never come across the lesson where calling an entire police department stupid, on national television, was a good idea (If anything it’s a great way to piss those off who try to enforce the law). Furthermore while I agree that Kayne West is a jack-ass I really don’t think that the president of the United States needs to be sharing that with the world. Is he a person just like you and me? Yea, he is. I would be absolutely retarded to say other wise but as a leader he needs to realize that things that he say are viewed as the thoughts and ideas of the white house in our eyes and the thoughts and ideas of the US in the eyes of foreign countries...so...what he has done as far as policies and whatnot can continue to be debated...but him being a good leader has twice now been proven quite untrue. Unfortunately for him, things that are said on television cannot be taken back. Thus I think that he can try and make-up for his mis-sayings all that he pleases but the damage was done, and cannot be reversed...another thing that you should know when you’re a leader. All I have to conclude with, is that if he wants to start being an effective leader, perhaps he should stick to topics that he knows about, or that he can read off the tele-prompter, so that he doesn’t continue to make foolish and very avoidable mistakes. I’m not saying that he’s a bad president or w/e but a bad leader, for sure.

November 1, 2009 at 4:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Geiiga (anonymous) says...

Here's some fun facts. If you remove the South from polling, Obama's approval ratings are in the high 60s. The Republican Party is in the high single digits. In the South, the Republicans are polling in the mid-40s and Obama in the 20s. Those numbers have been stable for a couple of months now. That's fine if the Republican Party wants to be a Southern regional party, but nationally they have the appeal of a pair of dirty socks.

And FoxNews doesn't make a distinction between fact and opinion. Their opinion hosts never correct themselves when they are (frequently) wrong. Their news anchors read Republican memos verbatim as being news. Their field reporters take off-the-record comments by other journalists and twist them to fit the narrative Fox is pushing that day (happened to a friend of mine who was covering a video game conference -- he said something along the lines of "I'm glad there are violent games here. These nerds are making me want to shoot something," which Griff Jenkins ran with as "Even the reporters here say that the violent video games make them want to shoot somebody"). Hillary Clinton said it best: If Obama walked on water, they would say he couldn't swim.

Here's the FoxNews story life cycle: Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, or Bill O'Reilly says something stupid. The "news" people report on what was said by Beck, Hannity, or O'Reilly as if it were true. Those three then use the news of what they said as confirmation. And that's not when they're not devoting their Sunday morning "news" show to the most ridiculous softball interview of Rush Limbaugh ever.

And thtwhtguy, congratulations on totally misrepresenting two events. Show me where Obama called a police department stupid on national television or intended the Kanye West is a jackass remark to be for public consumption.

November 2, 2009 at 5:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

thtwhtguy (anonymous) says...

Misrepresented? Oh really? I think that it's rather funny that there are people who can attempt to refute what has been all over the news. Here, let me make this simple for you geiiga

Calling the police department stupid:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3094209...
It’s about...1 min 23sec into the video if you want to skip the rest of that...

Calling Kayne West a jackass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbatjA...
This one is about 25sec into the feed.

I would love to see how you think that that is appropriate for the president of the United States to say those things. And if those links are not good enough to demonstrate the incidents, go ahead and do me a favor...Google it. There are about half a million hits for the police event and 350,000 for the Kayne thing. I highly doubt that they can all be refuted.

And just so you know...anything that he says outside of the privacy of his living quarters is open to the public...probably something that one would notice when all eyes are on you while in public. Or maybe he never got that in the 'how to be a public figure for idiots.'

November 2, 2009 at 5:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

dlowell (anonymous) says...

Ok, thtwhtguy, the two incidents to which you are referring have absolutely nothing to do with President Obama's ability to lead this country to face the economic, military, and environmental challenges we face. Has it comprised his decision-making faculties, diplomatic efforts, or political leadership? I don't see how you could realistically draw a causal effect there.
As for the two incidents you mentioned, I believe that Obama said the police department "acted stupidly." There is a distinct difference here. People who are not stupid act stupidly all the time. For instance, Obama did it here. People are fallible, including presidents. It's not as if he outright lied to the entire public in order to launch us into a costly war, and cut taxes so we couldn't pay for that war. He just made a careless remark about a situation, I'm sure the information about which he received came from our media conglomerates. Probably didn't get a CIA briefing on that one.
He called Kanye a jackass. Who cares? I would love to see how you think that matters in the least bit, considering, you know, all things that actually matter.

November 4, 2009 at 10:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

thtwhtguy (anonymous) says...

Let me start with saying I never claimed to know 'all things that actually matter'.
While I had plenty more typed out I decided that leaving such a lengthy comment would be a waste of time because some other die-hard Obama fan was going to come in and argue some more. I simply want to say that I think in some ways you are right. I did misinterpret what he said about the police, not that it matters overall in the end because in any case he demeaned the very people that are working to help him (obviously indirectly). If you don’t think that what i'm saying it true, please ask a police officer what he/she thought about what the president said about the Cambridge police dept, and how they would feel if he said the same about their department. You could venture a little further and think about how you would feel if placed in their same situation. I’m saying that he could have handled that situation as well as that of calling Kayne a jackass, better. I expect him to. He’s the president for Christ sake...I would hope that of everyone in the U.S. he would know how and when to bite his tongue. Do I have high expectations for him? of course I do...he’s running our country and making decisions that will effect my life as well as the life of my peers...potentially my children...Obviously you disagree. So let him say what ever comes to his mind then...i’m sure that things will run much more smoothly that way...

He failed to be an effective leader. In this case being a leader is not about JUST economics, JUST the military, or JUST the environment. Infact it is not about even just those three together. Being a true and effective leader is just as much about what and how you say things was well as the listed above and many other unmentioned aspects about our society as a whole. A person can be a good economist and environmentalist but still be a horrible leader...just as people can 'act stupidly' but not be stupid. I think that you misunderstand what I’m arguing here dlowell, I’m not saying that he sucks as any of the things that you have listed. I’m saying that he sucks as a leader. That’s it.

November 4, 2009 at 12:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )