July 3, 2015

I guess Obama didn't expect Scott Walker to come out and meet him at the airport.

Obama comes to Wisconsin and gives Scott Walker a prime photo op.

As Walker says in the title to his book: unintimidated.

Obama's speech seemed peevish in the context of the Governor's midwestern-friendly greeting.

ADDED: Here's the transcript. You can decide for yourself whether Obama expresses a peevish attitude toward the man who greeted him at the airport. He never mentions Walker by name.
We’ve got some healthy competition in the Democratic Party, but I’ve lost count of how many Republicans are running for this job. (Laughter.) They’ll have enough for an actual “Hunger Games.” (Laughter and applause.) That is an interesting bunch. (Laughter.)...
My understanding of "Hunger Games" is that the participants fight until only one is left alive. So that's a laugh line.
And I want to emphasize -- I know some of them well. They’re good people. It’s just their ideas are bad. (Laughter and applause.) And I want to emphasize that. We’re one country, we’re all on one team, and so we’re all one American family. But we all go -- we're at Thanksgiving and Uncle Harry starts saying something and -- (laughter) -- you say, “Uncle Harry, that makes no sense at all.” You still love him. (Laughter.) He’s still a member of your family. Right? But you’ve got to correct him. You don’t want to put him in charge of stuff. (Laughter and applause.) That’s all I'm saying. (Applause.)

And by the way, if there’s an Uncle Harry out here -- (laughter) -- I wasn’t talking about you. (Laughter.) I was just using “Harry” as an example....

60 comments:

Mark said...

Washington Post yesterday used a photo that showcased the bald spot, which wasn't much of a photo op. This one is better.

Meade said...

Barack the back biter.

MathMom said...

Barack is always petty and peevish. When Barack came to Texas to do his "alligators in the moat" speech, all of Texas was on fire. Barack wasn't interested in looking at the wildfires with Rick Perry, who declined to meet him in El Paso and sit in the audience being insulted to his face. I got a chance to thank him in person for that.

Any time a Republican has a chance to poke our brittle, juvenile Preznit, he or she should absolutely do it. It's good sport.

Sprezzatura said...

Althouse is hilarious. I didn't hear BHO's speech, but the link indicates that BHO was talking about serious, meaningful issues.

Maybe peevish means something else in WI.

Etienne said...

Then he drove over to the local university campus...

Meaning they drove downtown, as the university appears to be the River Rouge Complex of Wisconsin, but not because they manufacture anything, well except maybe term papers, and tardy slips.

à plus tard(y)

Michael K said...

I think Walker has Obama's number. He is living in Obama's head. Very funny.

But Obama went even further, taking shots at the fiscal policies enacted by Walker, who's expected to jump into the presidential race in two weeks as a likely GOP frontrunner.

"Your right to organize and bargain collectively was attacked. Your ... education funding was cut. Your minimum wage has been stuck in place," Obama said to the crowd, referring to Walker's policies.

"Wisconsin is this extraordinary state filled with extraordinary people, but if you end up having policies that cut education, help folks at the top, aren't expanding opportunity, then it's not going to work. We need better policies," Obama said as the crowd rose to their feet in support.


Hilarious that this is what ritmo thinks is "serious, meaningful issues."

Just hilarious.

CarlF said...

Peevish is one of Obama's defining characteristics.

Etienne said...

Another way of raising wages, is to reduce federal taxes. Overtime is such a blue collar (proletariat) word anyway. I mean, real Americans all have a salary.

This really wouldn't affect the budget, as Congress can just issue more IOU.

The Presidents speech sounded way too Beltway, and was too wordy for the mid-west.

Original Mike said...

PBandJ is Ritmo?

Clyde said...

Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. Obama gotta Obama.

Like the story about the frog and the scorpion, it's his nature.

Owen said...

I guess Obama thought that was a brave and imaginative move, to go on the attack when this Republican upstart least expected it. To me (and I expect at least some of the audience) it comes across as amateurish and rude and misplaced. A campaign speech for a campaign that Obama isn't in; a campaign where he is only a proxy and a messenger (but for whom? The Party?).

It confirms him as graceless; as an angry and selfish man unwilling or unable to read the occasion and answer the hospitality he was shown with anything but spitefulness. It made him look small and ironically it gave Walker a chance to be big. Which Walker took. Elegant result: the biter, bit.

For somebody billed as one of the consummate politicians of our time, Obama isn't doing such an impressive job here.

tim maguire said...

Scott Walker is a better man than Barack Obama. But then, most men are.

Original Mike said...

18 months.

steve uhr said...

Unintimidated? According to Cindy Archer:

"Worst of all, I have discovered that my demotion as Gov. Walker’s deputy director of administration, which came four weeks before the raid on my house, appears to have been engineered by the governor’s team after word reached them that I had been targeted by the district attorney. Subsequently, I have not been given any role in the administration that may bring public attention."

If this is how he treats those loyal to him, ... Better book title -- "The Wuss"

donald said...

A boy. A snotty little boy who some how got out of his teens not getting the complete ass kicking he so richly deserved and needed.

MadisonMan said...

@donald, which one?

Temujin said...

Obama is a small man who sees himself as the reason for expanding the Mt. Rushmore monument to 5.

garage mahal said...

Big news here is that Walker paid a rare visit to Wisconsin. Luckily Obama didn't have to deal with this guy

"On Wednesday, according to an affidavit written by Secret Service Special Agent Jeffrey Ferris, Dutcher approached a security guard at the La Crosse Public Library and said, “The usurper is here and if I get a chance, I’ll take him out and I’ll take the shot.”


"According to the affidavit, on Tuesday Dutcher wrote on his Facebook page, “That’s it! Thursday I will be in La Crosse. Hopefully I will get a clear shot at the pretend president. Killing him is our CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY!”

Ahh, the Usurper. Where have I heard that before?

Michael K said...

garage, you really have a nose for useless information, don't you ?

How many nuts do you think there are besides that kid that shot up the church in Charleston ? Mental health, garage, mental health.

Fernandinande said...

"They’re good people. It’s just their ideas are bad."

Said the gorilla.

stlcdr said...

Lots of people vying for one job. Huh. Not like unemployment is high or anything. There's plenty of jobs available, of course, so the losers won't be out of luck.

garage mahal said...

garage, you really have a nose for useless information, don't you ?

Really? Obama visits La Crosse. Man threatens to kill him, in La Crosse. I wonder how times Obama was referred to as "Usurper" on this blog. I bet hundreds.

Michael K said...

Oh, so there was an Althouse commenter stalking Obama ?

You are too much, garage.

jeff said...

Only 566 days 15 hours and 19 mins and an Americam nightmare will be over

Paco Wové said...

PBandJ is Ritmo?

No, I'm pretty sure that PB&J is a Democratic lickspittle in his own right.

campy said...

"Only 566 days 15 hours and 19 mins and an Americam nightmare will be over"

Then a new 8-year nightmare begins.

Phil 314 said...

I appreciate Walker's gesture. I'm so tired of ridicule.

m stone said...

Readers of the Washington Post and likely mush of MSM learned today that Walker, not Obama, was childish and peeved resorting to twitter attacks.

So half the US lives in another world.

According to WaPo, Obama did once engage Walker a couple months ago and told him to "bone up on his foreign policy," Zing!

Mark said...

A campaign speech for a campaign that Obama isn't in; a campaign where he is only a proxy and a messenger (but for whom? The Party?).

"Campaigning" is what Obama does when he's bored, or anxious, or (yes) intimidated. It's the only thing that he's ever shown any skill at; it's the only thing to which in the past 12 years he's shown any real commitment (other than golf I suppose.) Anyone who thinks Obama will retire to some out of the way location to practice some low-key avocation can forget it; if worse comes to worse he'll end up like Scott Brown, doing how-I-gave-up-smoking infomercials. You will have The Barry in your face for as long as The Barry wants to be there.

bbkingfish said...

He's wrong.

They're not good people.

Original Mike said...

"I wonder how times Obama was referred to as "Usurper" on this blog. I bet hundreds."

Yeah, and all by one guy.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Fernandinande said...
Said the gorilla.


Like Pavlov's dog, Fernandinande regurgitates Althouse's racialist post from yesterday.


The Althouse blog, not racist, but #1 with racialists.

Original Mike said...

Man, ARM, you are obsessed.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Obama is like having jon Stewart as president. Surrounds himself with sycophants, yes-men and chuckleheads guaranteed to guffaw and applaud every snide insult and bogus strawman, engages in nothing but hyper-partisan blind-eye rhetoric, and every serious person knows he's just a clown, a fool, and a fag-ass punk.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Then that would make Obama President Snow, right? Seems appropriate.

Michael K said...

"and likely mush of MSM learned today"

Nice to know you have a sense of humor, stone.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


"Really? Obama visits La Crosse. Man threatens to kill him, in La Crosse. I wonder how times Obama was referred to as "Usurper" on this blog. I bet hundreds."

Original Mike beat me to it. Garage, using your own reasoning, you're implicated in thousands of threats against Walker's life.

Skeptical Voter said...

Always nice to have a feckless twit show up in your neighborhood and insult you.
But after all that's our narcissistic little three year old's mode of operation.

n.n said...

Obama supports selective-child, class discrimination, selective exclusion, devaluing capital and labor, mass emigration, and expanding "overseas conflicts". Great ideas.

Big Mike said...

And I want to emphasize -- I know some of them well. They’re good people. It’s just their ideas are bad.

Ah, Barack, your ideas haven't turned out all that well, you know. In foreign policy no one trusts the US, no one respects us -- not our adversaries and not our allies. Economically, here's a challenge question. How would the US economy look when compared to Carter's "stagflation" if we still counted labor participation and inflation the same way we did back then?

And I want to emphasize that. We’re one country, we’re all on one team, and so we’re all one American family.

When your electoral strategy is to divide people up and set them at each other's throats then we might be all one family but right now it's a dysfunctional family. And the proof is all around us.

But we all go -- we're at Thanksgiving and Uncle Harry starts saying something and -- (laughter) -- you say, “Uncle Harry, that makes no sense at all.”

The fact that things don't make sense to Barack doesn't mean they don't make sense and aren't right. There's a real world and a world inside the heads of hard core Democrats like Barack. The only place they meet is at the golf course.

You still love him. He’s still a member of your family. Right?

No, Barack, there's no love in your heart for anyone who isn't your devoted follower. In fact, I know no Democrat whose heart isn't full of hatred and bile.

Michael K said...

"In fact, I know no Democrat whose heart isn't full of hatred and bile."

I have three children (of a total of five) who are lefties. One I can talk to although I think she tolerates me. The other two I can't talk to at all. The oldest told me contemptuously about five years ago that I was completely wrong that gay marriage would affect churches.

Sprezzatura said...

I suppose that you folks can criticize BHO for this or that in this situation. But, I don't see peevish.

Maybe Althouse is doing some sort of jujitsu-homage-thingy to Scalia: words no longer have meaning. I know... I'm grasping at straws. More likely, she just made an error. It's the result her Walker balled, oops, I mean her Walker blind spot.

Birkel said...

Can one of the resident Leftists point to a single, identifiable and indisputable, positive accomplishment of President Obama? Democrats and Republicans can admit that the economies of Reagan and Clinton were boom times, for example.

Name one accomplishment of Obama.

bbkingfish said...

Obama is trying to help Hillary by pumping up Scotty.



machine said...

Such bravery!

Petunia said...

IDK, it may all have been done for image, but I think it makes Governor Walker look good to greet the president, which I think he has done every time 0bama has made a non-campaign visit to Wisconsin. And it just makes 0bama look pettier and usual to make the comments he made at his LaCrosse speech.

Erich said...

President Obama may want to reconsider comparing the republican field to the participants of the 'Hunger Games', considering how things turn out for the President and his administration in Panem's Capitol.

Guess who wrote the following:

"The 'Hunger Games' is [...] the story of an out-of-control state, distant and untouchable, exploiting the labor and lives of millions of citizens. Even as progressive populists see it as a cautionary tale of hoarding and excess, conservatives view the 'Hunger Games' as a narrative of big government run amok. [...] We live in a time when we can all agree that our large institutions are failing us and even threatening our children. We seem so divided only because we cannot agree on which institutions are most to blame. That is the true secret to the popularity of the 'Hunger Games.' We can all see our stories in its sweeping plot line of oppression and rebellion. We know that the 'Hunger Games' is just a fantasy. But when its world feels so frighteningly real, we cannot help rooting for Katniss Everdeen to win."

Richard Dolan said...

Peevish isn't quite it. O presents himself as the cool dude, king of the in-crowd, who uses a put-down to dismiss the hopeless dopes who don't get the wonderfulness of the One. He's quite good at it, and those who like O just eat it up. Everyone else listening to his shtick is wondering what this guy thinks he's done that didn't turn into a colossal mess.

The sensibility on display is all at a high school level. In many ways O has never left the Choom Gang behind.

mccullough said...

So Walker acted presidential. Obama probably leaned in and told him "anyone but Hillary."

Nancy Reyes said...

I guess none of you realized that the HungerGame reference might have accidentally been closer to the truth than the President imagines.

In that series, the Districts are oppressed by those in power, who sit in District one in luxury while the hard working people of the poorer districts remain poor, with a President who manipulates the media and distracts them with trivia to keep them happy.

And in case you miseed the last book: the "winner" from the least important district ends up starting a revolution to overthrow them.

Moneyrunner said...

Richard Dolan, you have it exactly right. Obama's admirers are people who are perpetual adolescents. Adolescents have parents who provide for them. In their minds, the economy is an abstraction; it's just there. School, college, garbage collection, food in the grocery store, their welfare check ... what keeps them fed and amused is a given. Obama's the cool guy who has a put-down for people they dislike; the grinds and nerds. Like the people that Bernie Sanders despises as grad-grids.

Remember how Ann’s candidate in 2008 was the man who could bring us together after all the acrimony that enveloped his predecessor? The man who would end wars. lower the sea levels and heal the planet? The man who could bring white and black together in three part harmony? The great thing about the Obama era is the racial and social unity.

Well if you can't have that, you can have snark. And Greece is still a long way off.

donald said...

Barack Hussein Obama Mr Man.

He's a bitch.

Fernandinande said...

AReasonableMan said...
Fernandinande said...
Said the gorilla.

Like Pavlov's dog, Fernandinande regurgitates Althouse's racialist post from yesterday.


What you wrote is a micro-aggression: please try harder.

And please try to be not quite so ignorant, because I've been conditioned to salivate, not regurgitate, when the MSM and your ilk freak out over silly racial trivia.

As a gorilla returneth to his vomit, so Obama returneth to his folly.

Michael K said...

"Can one of the resident Leftists point to a single, identifiable and indisputable, positive accomplishment of President Obama? "

Crickets chirping.

I'd settle for a disputable one.

Aussie Pundit said...

The tone was overall contemptuous, but I enjoyed this little joke.

And by the way, if there’s an Uncle Harry out here -- (laughter) -- I wasn’t talking about you. (Laughter.) I was just using “Harry” as an example....

It was no doubt written by a speechwriter, not by Obama himself, but even so, nice touch.

kcom said...

He's been a dick since Day One.

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Cynicus said...

It seemed peevish toward Harry Reid to me. Uncle Harry indeed, why not Uncle Tom?

Alex said...

Obama visits Wisconsin, garage splooges all over keyboard. Everyone goes EWWWWWWWWWW.

ken in tx said...

I don't think gorillas eat vomit, however, they do line their sleeping nests with sh!t.