Althouse: Obama is like Bush... that's been one of my tags for quite a while.

April 2, 2009

Obama is like Bush... that's been one of my tags for quite a while.

This story wants the tag so badly I'm forced to link.

82 comments:

Anonymous said...: I'm still waiting for my Bush is like Clinton tag. I guess that's not going to happen.; 4/2/09, 12:37 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Senator Harry Reid offered some advice: Whatever you do, he told the president, don’t call it a “surge.”

Good idea Harry, considering what a dismal failure that turned out to be.; 4/2/09, 12:42 PM
Henry said...: I read somewhere that the commanding general in Afghanistan preceded Harry Reid's request. He (the general) didn't want to raise unrealistic expectations.

If not for the "Obama is like Bush" tag, the article deserves notice for pointing out the administration's new term for "terrorist attacks":

"Man-caused disasters."

Boy, that's a foggy target. It sounds like something the Obama EPA might try to regulate.; 4/2/09, 12:49 PM
Anonymous said...: "Man-caused disasters" is really catchy and I am certain it's going to stick.

All we need to do is change the words of things. For example, take the concept of giving free money to poor people that encourages them not to work. Let's call that "welfare." Because welfare is a good word. That'll change everything.; 4/2/09, 12:54 PM
garage mahal said...: The old war sucks and everyone hates it. Let's make up something new.... a different name maybe.....let's call it...The Surge!; 4/2/09, 1:02 PM
Richard Dolan said...: "Man-caused disasters" sounds like a phrase only a woman would come up with, making it a woman-caused disaster.; 4/2/09, 1:02 PM
MadisonMan said...: The New York Times shouldn't tell you what you should be blogging about.; 4/2/09, 1:03 PM
Anonymous said...: Garage -- The obvious difference is that "surge" meant something. We are going to add troops and go on a military offensive. Which we did. And we kicked ass.

Here, it's a different word for something that itself has not changed.

You aren't stupid, so I know you see this.; 4/2/09, 1:09 PM
AllenS said...: Why not call it a Blitzkrieg. That hasn't been used for a while.; 4/2/09, 1:14 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I would do the same thing. Why allow my predecessor, he whom I'm trying to visibly break policies if not actually break policies, control the dialogue? I control the vocabulary, I control the dialogue. Now, respect mah authoritah!; 4/2/09, 1:24 PM
Henry said...: Why not call it a Blitzkrieg. That hasn't been used for a while.

LOL.

How about zugzwang. That's German. And we are talking about Afghanistan.; 4/2/09, 1:26 PM
Jeremy said...: Peter from the NYT's) talks about a lack of "policy" change. (And I love it when so many here are suddenly so enamored with anything coming out of the NYT's.)

Can anybody name all of the "policy" changes instituted in the first 70 days of the Reagan, Bush, Sr., Clinton, or G.W. administrations.

Not discussions, not suggestions...actual "policy" changes that took place and were implemented.; 4/2/09, 1:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Why did Michael change his name to Jeremy?; 4/2/09, 1:38 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I never cared much for the term terrorists. These ne'er do wells are more annoying than terrorizing, therefore we will call them annoyingists.

I hereby declare, as ruler of my own realm, all man-made catastrophists, planners, plotters, master minds, undergratuate minds, and freshman minds for that matter, all agents provocateurs working counter to the harmony of my world shall henceforth be termed annoyingists. Let it be written.

* writes *; 4/2/09, 1:42 PM
Henry said...: Jeremy, the parallels are the point. Get it?; 4/2/09, 1:48 PM
Anonymous said...: "Why not call it a Blitzkrieg. That hasn't been used for a while."

LOL

It'll get even better when the 'O' refers to Afghanistan as his schwerpunkt.; 4/2/09, 1:54 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Surge was a word used to convey the thought that the new tactic was a temporary increase in the number of Boots on the Ground. In action those additional troops were used to hold and occupy an area after the Marines had conquered the area from the many thousands of well armed (by Iran)Al Queada fighters in house to house frontal assaults in each town. The miracle was that Bush and his Pentagon Boys admitted failure of their old strategy, and that this surge happened at the same moment that the Sunni Sheiks were fed up that the army of Al Queada thugs that they had welcomed at first and were then starting to kill off the local Sheik's families in order to take over the control of the Oil from the local Iraqi the day that the USA Dems surrendered Iraq to them.(Blood for Oil bigtime). Now "Surge" has no application to the increase of troop levels in Afghanistan, and everyone knows that. But the news media still pretend that Obama has tried another Surge. You CANNOT compare the Afghanistan Mountains to the River flood plain cities of Iraq. There is no oil at stake in the Afghan mountain areas either. The only goals in Afghanistan are to threaten the Iran Mullahs, and to keep Pakistan and its nukes out of Al Queada'a hands. The Al Queada guys can keep their Mountains to hide out in forever, while we Bypass them, but continue to bomb them. No more Peleliu type offensives are needed to look good in the NYT while actually trying to prove the Dems were right about us being the losers to Al Queada.; 4/2/09, 1:58 PM
Bender said...: "Obama is like Bush"

ENOUGH ALREADY with the insults of Bush.; 4/2/09, 2:03 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Can anybody name all of the "policy" changes instituted in the first 70 days of the Reagan, Bush, Sr., Clinton, or G.W. administrations.

Here are some of the policy changes Bush instituted during his first 100 days in office. The best thing he did was reject the Kyoto Treaty. The worst thing was his massive spending bill. It's also interesting that Bush's budget included the biggest spending increase ever for education.; 4/2/09, 2:03 PM
former law student said...: As tg says, the surge was a temporary increase in the number of troops in Iraq, like an electrical surge is a pulse of additional voltage or current. It's transient by definition.

The increased number of troops in Afghanistan should be sustained, in contrast.; 4/2/09, 2:03 PM
garage mahal said...: The Surge was paying off Sunnis.; 4/2/09, 2:05 PM
Anonymous said...: Wait a minute, Traditional. Are you saying that Afghanistan has no geopolitical significance whatsoever and is impossible to hold militarily because it has no infrastructure, no real institutions, and basically isn't even a functioning state?

Don't let those inconvenient facts get in the way of your grandstanding, nutty leftists.; 4/2/09, 2:06 PM
Anonymous said...: No, Garage. The Surge was killing people.; 4/2/09, 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: The increased number of troops in Afghanistan should be sustained, in contrast.

So, Iraq surge=temporary, and Afghanistan "increase in troops"=forever.

Wow, FLS. Even us diehard neo-con warmongers don't envision having to be in Afghanistan permanently.; 4/2/09, 2:10 PM
TJ said...: I thought Jon Stewart didn't make fun of Obama. I feel so betrayed. You told me he never made fun of Obama, then I watched that awful show, and he did. I'll never trust you guys again.; 4/2/09, 2:11 PM
DaLawGiver said...: It doesn't seem to me that throwing all that money at education really helped much. As a nation, we're still just as stupid as we were 8 years ago.

Houston is offering$20,000 combat pay to teachers who are willing to teach in their most challenging schools. Any bets on how that surge will turn out?; 4/2/09, 2:12 PM
Anonymous said...: And then Trevor Jackson brought up some show on Comedy Central.

Let's talk Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Now there is some funny shit. Do they make fun of Obama?; 4/2/09, 2:12 PM
TJ said...: I bet Carl hates Obama. Master Shake, too.; 4/2/09, 2:14 PM
Anonymous said...: There you go, Trevor. Good work.; 4/2/09, 2:15 PM
TJ said...: Thanks, Seven! I can still trust you. It's these other people that steered me wrong about that Stewart guy. I'm done with them. Professionally.; 4/2/09, 2:17 PM
chuckR said...: As long as the man-caused disaster instigators wind up just as dead as when they were called terrorists, OK by me.

When can we change the DoD's name to Department of Fuzzy Bunnies?; 4/2/09, 2:18 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Garage,

This guy is the real deal. He has spent more time embedded with the troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan that any reporter I know of. Read his book and see how we paid off the Sunnis.; 4/2/09, 2:23 PM
Anonymous said...: There's Yon and then there's a steep drop to second place and I don't know who that could be. He's the only correspondent to spend weeks or months out with the grunts enduring the same dangers and hardships.; 4/2/09, 2:33 PM
Shanna said...: Why did Michael change his name to Jeremy?

Because people stopped responding to Michael?

So, without responding to Jeremy/Michael, I am amused at the idea that Ann JUST started linking to NY times articles!; 4/2/09, 2:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Sy Hersh is in wild outback of Iraq right now digging up conspiracies.

What? He's not? He's sitting at a desk in a Manhattan skyscraper, digesting the prix fixe from Gramercy Tavern?

Oh. Well, never mind.; 4/2/09, 2:39 PM
traditionalguy said...: Seven... The preferred strategy for the Afghan/pakistan Mountainous areas is to By-pass and Bomb. The necessity to Raid behind the lines to keep a taliban/Al Queada offensive off balance will need troops. But the isolating and by-passing is our favored outcome.Frontal assaults on an enemy's Mountain Fortress hideout would be another Peleliu or Iwo Jima or Kennesaw Mountain none of which we need to waste our Military upon, unless we are chosing to lose the war. But we also don't want the Bad Guys to re-deploy to Sudan right away either.; 4/2/09, 2:40 PM
Joe said...: Why not call it a Blitzkrieg Because blitzkrieg refers to a very specific tactic that has no relationship whatsoever to any recent war.; 4/2/09, 2:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Do you understand what a rhetorical question is, Joe?; 4/2/09, 2:43 PM
Jeremy said...: Henry said..."Jeremy, the parallels are the point. Get it?"

I just think it's rather disingenuous for many here to suddenly find anything from the NYT's being relevant.; 4/2/09, 2:44 PM
Anonymous said...: It's so weird, Althouse. When did you begin posting stuff from the New York Times?

I remember the good old days, when it was nothing but National Review and Fox News.; 4/2/09, 2:45 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I just think it's rather disingenuous for many here to suddenly find anything from the NYT's being relevant.

What's that adage about even a stopped clock is right twice a day?; 4/2/09, 2:54 PM
Unknown said...: It will sink in eventually, but right now the Obamaniacs I know are all obsessively watching the Will Ferrel Bush show on HBO. Anything to delay the inevitable. One day, the hoopla will fizzle out and they will have to contemplate what they have wrought.; 4/2/09, 2:54 PM
PWS said...: I like Obama but never drank the Kool-Aid.

Having said that, Obama is not like Bush yet: Bush screwed up a lot of things and didn't know how to govern.

Bush had an incredible opportunity to rise to the challenge; he failed miserably.

The jury is still out on whether Obama will meet his challenges: the economy and the mess Bush left.; 4/2/09, 3:00 PM
al said...: LarsPorsena said...

There's Yon and then there's a steep drop to second place and I don't know who that could be.

JD Johannes is pretty good. He hasn't embedded as much as Yon but his Outside the Wire DVDs are worth the watch. Bill Roggio has spent a fair amount of time embedded but Yon is the best.; 4/2/09, 3:02 PM
Anonymous said...: PWS -- My love for Bill Clinton has grown so over the last couple months. The country's in a recession? Great, let's pass a law, NAFTA, that creates limitless opportunity for commercial expansion. Also, I'm going to do my level best to deliver on my campaign promises.

Obama hasn't caught onto the part about increasing opportunity for commercial expansion. Can't quite wrap his head around how it all works. That's why he's going to fail.; 4/2/09, 3:04 PM
jayne_cobb said...: I really think you need a separate tag of "What if Bush did it" as the "Obama is like Bush" tag seems more appropriate for policy issues rather than gaffes.; 4/2/09, 3:05 PM
Meade said...: Summoning one of the most memorable moments of the Bush presidency, Mr. Stewart then showed a mocked up photograph of Mr. Obama in a pilot’s flight suit on the deck of an aircraft carrier under a banner proclaiming, “Redefinition Accomplished.”

That is funny.

In seriousness, if President Obama is as smart as he's purported to be, he will be like Bush in one most important way - he will take the advice of General Petraeus on Afghanistan in a way he failed to do in 2007 when he was a senator running for president and ready to give up on Iraq.; 4/2/09, 3:18 PM
Henry said...: "many here" is not me.

"many here" is not anyone here. Because what is here are individuals.

When anyone is "many" no one is "many."; 4/2/09, 3:19 PM
Joe said...: Do you know how to write a rhetorical question, Seven Machos?; 4/2/09, 3:31 PM
Anonymous said...: What exactly is a rhetorical question?; 4/2/09, 3:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Do you think rhetorical questions are wasted on humorless pedants?; 4/2/09, 3:41 PM
bearbee said...: Voter memory banks must be scrubbed of Hope and Change.

I propose just as meaningless, Pheo dan Gnache.; 4/2/09, 3:45 PM
jayne_cobb said...: Totten is also a good read.; 4/2/09, 3:49 PM
Richard Fagin said...: “The changing of the way they talk is a low-risk way of purging some of the Bush-era stuff without doing any damage.”

You mean EVERYTHING Bush did wasn't destructive and stupid? I never would have guessed that by reading the Times.; 4/2/09, 4:14 PM
Fen said...: As tg says, the surge was a temporary increase in the number of troops in Iraq, like an electrical surge is a pulse of additional voltage or current. It's transient by definition.

No. And this is a common misunderstanding by the Left. The Surge was not just about increasing boots on the ground, it was a radical change in tactics - primarily, living amoungst the locals instead of behind fortress walls.

Look up COIN if you're genuinely interested in learning what you don't know.; 4/2/09, 4:15 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Obama is like Bush.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Hope and Change.
Same shit different day.; 4/2/09, 5:14 PM
Jeremy said...: PWS: "The jury is still out on whether Obama will meet his challenges: the economy and the mess Bush left."

Oh, come on. The guy's already had almost 73 days.

How much time does he really need?; 4/2/09, 5:20 PM
Jeremy said...: "The point of the column was about the language they are using and it noted that even in changing language, in a lot of cases they
are keeping the policies. Moreover, the piece doesn't judge whether he
should or should not change them; it only observes that he's keeping a lot
of them."; 4/2/09, 5:22 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Oh, come on. The guy's already had almost 73 days.

How much time does he really need?

Seeing how much ruin he has already caused, I'd say he has had too much time already.; 4/2/09, 5:26 PM
Jeremy said...: Peter: "Seeing how much ruin he has already caused, I'd say he has had too much time already."

Any examples of this "ruin" you describe?; 4/2/09, 5:34 PM
Revenant said...: Oh, come on. The guy's already had almost 73 days. How much time does he really need?

Its like the joke about the fellow who fell off a skyscraper. As he passed each floor, the folks inside heard him saying "so far, so good".; 4/2/09, 5:51 PM
Jeremy said...: Rev: "Its like the joke about the fellow who fell off a skyscraper. As he passed each floor, the folks inside heard him saying 'so far, so good'"

Only if one considers being the leader of the free world an act of suicide.

But your point is well taken.; 4/2/09, 6:02 PM
Synova said...: Houston is offering$20,000 combat pay to teachers who are willing to teach in their most challenging schools. Any bets on how that surge will turn out?

Of course.

All the positions will be filled by male teachers and the disparity of pay will be used to prove sexual discrimination.

Expect lawsuits.; 4/2/09, 6:04 PM
Synova said...: It's so weird, Althouse. When did you begin posting stuff from the New York Times?

I remember the good old days, when it was nothing but National Review and Fox News.

LOL!

I wonder what an actual count of posts and links would be. Has Althouse ever linked Fox News?; 4/2/09, 6:09 PM
D.D. Driver said...: This is completely unacceptable.

They are called "person-caused disasters."; 4/2/09, 7:10 PM
Penny said...: Let me get this straight. The faces changed, the "language" changed, but the tune remains the same.

There is much to be learned there, folks, and on SO many different levels.; 4/2/09, 7:12 PM
Joan said...: Pheo dan Gnache

My brain read that last word as ganache.

Mmmmmmm, ganache.; 4/2/09, 7:18 PM
traditionalguy said...: A "person caused Disaster" must be Newspeak for a "person planned and carried out attack". The painless way to see no evil is to think that disasters are an act of a careless good persons, sort of like calling everything "Pilot Error" and letting AIG insure it.That is making Orwell a Prophet indeed.On December 7, 1941 the Japanese Navy had Pilot Error. Now don't we all feel better.; 4/2/09, 7:31 PM
D.D. Driver said...: "Evil" does not exist. The idea of evil was created by the Bush administration just to scare us.

Murder = man-caused death.
Rape = man-caused penetration.
Genocide = man-caused population reduction.; 4/2/09, 8:08 PM
MC said...: Oh, come on. The guy's already had almost 73 days.
Hahahah, I remember a commenter here amusingly predicted that the liberal excuse making for Obama would preceed in chronological order as "He's only had 50 days", "Look, he's only had 100 days", "Hey, he's only had one year to clean up Bush's mess", "Hey, you can't expect someone to clean up Bush's mess in one term", and so on ad infinitum.

And so the count moves to 73 days.; 4/2/09, 8:39 PM
Penny said...: Interesting take on the new language, traditional guy. Personally, I see the language change as one which is ultimately meant to reinforce our connection to our planet, Earth.

Not one thing wrong with that. In fact it makes TOTAL sense since we only have one. I suppose that my gripe is with what the language-shapers are choosing to focus on... man-made DISASTERS instead of man-made SUCCESSES.

If you want MORE of something, you need to pay attention to it. You need to give the attaboys and attagirls daily. I, for one, am getting tired of the "SHAME ON YOU'S".

On average, eight of ten of us are doing the RIGHT things, yet the movers and shakers only pay attention to the other two.; 4/2/09, 9:03 PM
Jeremy said...: Speaking of politicians:

WASHINGTON — Gov. Mark Sanford will comply with a midnight Friday stimulus deadline and become the last governor in the nation to seek millions of dollars in federal economic-recovery funds for his state, aides said late Thursday.

Shocker.; 4/2/09, 10:37 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Gov. Mark Sanford will comply with a midnight Friday stimulus deadline and become the last governor in the nation to seek millions of dollars in federal economic-recovery funds for his state, aides said late Thursday.

One more iditot driving a stake into the heart of free market capitalism. The cretins and teenagers are in charge of all of our lives. Welcome to the new AmeriKa.; 4/2/09, 10:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Speaking of trolls who change their names.; 4/2/09, 10:49 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: The future:

Obama has only had 1460 days in office. He has accomplshed nothing except creating a socialistic system of government, the nationalisation of industry, and soup kitchens for everyone.

He has not had the time to deal with the real problems of the country due to the fact that the first Black/White president was busy establsihing his history and legacy. His second term will be different.

Please, he knows all of you are suffering and unemployed- 90% of the population. He knows that most of the banks are out of business and he feels the pain. But, you got your house for free, thanks to his mortgage forgiveness plan. You are living on food stamps, thanks to his food for all plan, and you work for the- oops, you are on welfare, thanks to his income guarantee plan for all.

Thanks to his legislature, the Constitution has been suspended so that they can better provide altrusitic services to the masses. Dissenters have been placed in labor and reedeucation camps and their wealth has been confiscated to be redistributed to you, the average poor AmeriKan.

So reelect Obama. He will cure all of your ills. If not, he is building more camps. He idoloizes FDR.; 4/2/09, 10:57 PM
Jeremy said...: Peter: "One more iditot driving a stake into the heart of free market capitalism."

I think you may want to take that up with the "iditots??" who live there.

That was a good one.; 4/2/09, 10:59 PM
Jeremy said...: Peter: Got a little time on your hands?; 4/2/09, 11:00 PM
DaLawGiver said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/3/09, 12:06 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I kind of susspected Jeremy was our old friend Michaeloldson but wasn't sure since his initial posts were actually coherent. But his last two posts have erased all doubt.; 4/3/09, 5:26 AM
Mr. Forward said...: "Obama Abroad: In Some Ways, Much Like Bush"

Michael Barone

http://www.creators.com/opinion/michael-barone.html; 4/4/09, 4:59 AM
Blumuze said...: Finally!! A right leaning blog that isn't calling Obama the Antichrist and fomenting armed insurrection. There is hope for civil discourse in America after all.

I'll come right out and say it; I'm a liberal who voted for Obama, and after putting up with Dubya for 8 years, I've acquired an appreciation for the dissenting voice. So carry on! But, a lot of the stuff I'm reading on right wing blogs is scaring me. It should scare you too. Check out RedState.com if you think I'm kidding.; 4/5/09, 3:22 AM
Dougist said...: From a policy perspective I guess I should be happy. The Obama administration is pursuing policies that look identical to those from the last administration, even if they are named differently. It's become so blatant that even the New York (Obama is the messiah!) Times has begun to report on it.

But somehow I am dishearten by the disingenuousness of it all. Trounced, defeated, and chagrined, conservatives around the nation girded themselves for real change. Lesser pragmatists such as myself looked forward to intelligent action on technology issues, education, and future infrastructure.

It's all starting too look like a sham.

I wrote about the list of “shams” from Redefinition Accomplished to the first stimulus package here...
Barack Orwell Obama

Doug
www.dougist.com; 4/5/09, 10:11 AM