Though Israelis still haven’t figured out who exactly won their parliamentary elections, the rest of the world isn’t waiting for the dust to settle before weighing in on the results.
At Time magazine, correspondent Tony Karon isn’t content with merely lamenting Israeli voters’ rejection of the failed policies of their left-wing parties — that being the theme of a piece published yesterday in Time, headlined “Israel’s Election Dashes Hope for Peace.” The fallacious assumption behind the story is that there was credible hope for peace, given the fact that Palestinians have opted for leaders and policies that made rejection of peace the centerpiece of their culture. The collapse of the Israeli left was engineered by the Palestinian rejection of a two-state solution at Camp David in July 2000, which was followed by Yasser Arafat’s decision to resort to a terrorist offensive known popularly as the second intifada. Rather than taking the Israelis’ “yes” for an answer, Arafat responded with war. The intifada eroded the political appeal of those Israeli parties linked to the Oslo process. The election’s result was the culmination of this erosion of trust in the Israeli Left.
This is an important fact to remember, especially since Karon predicts that the Palestinians’ next move will be to try to play the same card now. According to Karon, the “moderate” Palestinians of Fatah are envious of Hamas’s success in using terrorist missile attacks to force Israel into dealing with it. He believes they think more bloodshed will prompt President Obama to force Israel to its knees”
“Jump starting” an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, then, or simply preventing a further deterioration of the situation, will demand a massive effort and some new thinking on the part of the Obama administration. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, progress would, in fact, require a readiness by Obama to do something no U.S. administration since that of President George H. W. Bush has done: throw Washington’s weight behind positions at odds with those of the Israeli government. And few Palestinians are betting on Obama turning up the heat on Israel. Instead, they’re more likely to try and do so themselves.
It is therefore imperative that Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell disabuse the Palestinians of any illusions about America’s willingness to take down the Jewish State. The administration must make it crystal clear to Fatah as well as to Hamas, that a new terrorist offensive will bring them no diplomatic dividends. For all their talk of promoting peace, if Obama, Mitchell, and Secretary of State Clinton fail to warn the Palestinians that such a tactic will fail, then they will have to bear some of the responsibility for the deaths that will follow.
“as members of the media edge ever so slightly back into their day jobs . . ..”
It’ll be too late then. It’s too late now. The watchdogs were silent and the thief is in the house.
whether the president uses teleprompter, earpieces or telepathy to assure he stays ‘on message’ before the public, i’m afraid the issue remains what he’s saying and not his rhetorical prostheses…
…to the extent that technological support portrays obama as something he is not, it merits a mention – but i am way, way, way more concerned about his (apparent) lack of integrity than his (apparent) lack of unprompted fluency….
…while it is undeniably true that obama’s rhetorical skills persuaded many to put him in the white house, it is equally true that has actions now speak louder than his words…worse yet, the words he utters – not how he’s prompted to utter them – distort, misrepresent and conceal the reality of the actions he’s taking…
that matters most
Ronald Reagan was famous for using prompter cards for even the most trivial comments, so the teleprompter, by itself, wouldn’t that big an issue … if Obama had the slightest thing to qualify or commend him besides his “incredible” intellect and rhetorical abilities. And the evidence for this intellectual acumen is … the inspiring words he read so well off the teleprompter.
Yes, it shouldn’t be that he reads but what he reads. Except that reading is all he’s ever shown an ability to do.
We should care that the man seems unable to think on his feet about policy and subjects that affect us profoundly. Listening to everyone in the room and eliciting opinions in meetings is fine (as Gates said when asked differences with Bush) but that exercise is useful only when you have thought long and hard about a topic and want to find out what if anything you haven’t considered or test your ideas, your views. Not when you don’t have a clue and are looking for info. before deciding…
#3,”Except that reading is all he’s ever shown an ability to do.”
He writes pretty well,and he was a pretty good vote gatherer.
RCAR,
‘
As evidenced, no doubt, by his scintillating record of scholarly publication while editor of the Harvard Law Review and a professor of constitutional law. And his ability to garner just over 50% of the presidential vote in a year when many believe the jackass hisself would have been competitive as the Democrat candidate.
Using cue cards or a piece of papers as aid memoire is perfectly fine. For you still need to elaborate what goes in between the bullet topics. That is quite different than what
Mr. Obama does which is READ verbatim line by line from a tele-prompter. When he speaks it is as if you are watching a man who’s watching a ping-pong or tennis match: left right, right left, left right right left. He seldom if ever can look people (the camera) in the eye for he misses a line… I guess it is easier to lie and pretend when you don’t have to look at the American people (even through a camera) in the eye.
The man had bid screens at rallies and town halls behind the audience screening things for him to say (numbers, statistics and lines about towns in America. )
This is acting folks.
A computer screen in the podium seems to be next; that way he would be told what to answer to reporters in real time (for a tele-prompter is fine for prepared remarks but it is hard to change on the spot)
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/16/in-all-fairness
#6,As evidenced, no doubt, by his scintillating record of scholarly publication while editor of the Harvard Law Review and a professor of constitutional law. And his ability to garner just over 50% of the presidential vote in a year when many believe the jackass hisself would have been competitive as the Democrat candidate.
Testy testy, as evidenced by his two books which were purchased by lots of people who vote,and because he beat Hillary,a far more difficult task than beating mcCain.
Joe the Plumber is writing a book, and I bet alot of people are going to buy that one too.
It’s tempting for those of us- Republicans, big time conservative pundits and we ranting no name posters- to point out every chink in Obama’s over-groomed image. But it is the shallowness of his remarks, the glib, reality-free thinking that we need to focus on.
He might very well wean himself off the teleprompters. But will that be some kind of assertion of his mastery of governing? Will greater ease and fluency in speeches be some kind of rebuke to his opponents? It would be if we can’t convince more people of the wrong-headedness of his policies.
On the other hand, the mystique of Obama remains his greatest political assest, so pointing out the artifice behind the One might be as useful as when Dorothy pulled aside the curtain on the Great Oz.
#9,Joe the Plumber is writing a book, and I bet alot of people are going to buy that one too.
I would support Joe as Obama’s opponent in 2012;that would be fun. Socialism vs Capitalism in the raw.
So Obama uses a teleprompter – big deal. Bush had his foibles as did Clinton. Now, if Obama starts using a cigar …
Why keep harping on how eloquent Obama is as a speaker. Everybody knows he only read on teleprompter. When FDIC are insolvent this year and borrowing 500billion to the Treasury. That’s means your money is in trouble.
#10,”— “It would be if we can’t convince more people of the wrong-headedness of his policies.”
Unfortunately,in the short term,Socialism is ascendant;capitalism is bottoming out. I think 401k losers are blaming Wall street for their losses,not Socialism. Most voters need jobs with benefits,the free market is shedding them,and the Government is expanding,so again in the short term,selling “long term” realities is challenging especially to Americans with short term bills to pay. I don’t think it hurts Capitalism for Socialism to win right now;when Capitalism returns,it should be a great comeback. I hope that Bejing isn’t the center of World Capitalism for that process.
RCAR is right. 401ks losers do not seem to be blaming Obama. And China is more capitalistic than the US in some respects. China has generally lower tax rates than America, most importantly on corporate income (25%) and capital gains (0%.).
BHO is the exact equivalent of a television anchorman, a physically attractive, well-spoken actor with a staff that writes his copy. He may or may not contribute to the message, that’s not important. It’s the television age, he and the rest of his package, the family etc., must be something we want to invite into our homes via the magic box. What he says has to sound good, it doesn’t have to mean much of anything. The image is what these Chicago guys are selling and it’s what America is buying. That’s why the polls are so important. They’re the political Neilsen survey.
So boiling the post down to its essentials, we’re living in the Ron Burgundy Presidency. When does “Go f–k yourself, America.” sneak into the teleprompter crawl?
And that’s another reason, beside general leftist, utopian affinity, that the mastodon media has given BHO free advertising. He’s one of them. They (the media) understand what they (the BHO machine) are doing, they’re in the same business. That’s why someone like Romney will have trouble with the national media, he’s in different and generally adversarial line of work.
Are destructive alien beings sending orders to Obama via teleprompter?
and/or BlackBerry?
The question I have is why New York’s Governor, David Paterson, who can’t use a teleprompter, doesn’t use an earpiece.
The problem with President Obama is not so much how he speaks, as what he knows. I suppose he would get a grade of B on most major issues.
It’s not good enough.
He understand more or less what people tell him, but he may not realize there are all kinds of things that could be said.
The problem isn’t that he used the wrong term for price to earnings ratio – or perhaps was thinking in more general terms, of any ratio or statistic that might involve profits or earnings, as that he doesn’t have any real understanding of how the stock market works and what it means or might not mean. He should never have encouraged people to buy stock. That shows he doesn’t understand what a bear market looks like or what causes it.
Overall, the whole view of the economy he and his people have is shortsighted. They only see the immediate future.
The question I have is why New York’s Governor, David Paterson, who can’t use a teleprompter, doesn’t use an earpiece.
The problem with President Obama is not so much how he speaks, as what he knows. I suppose he would get a grade of B on most major issues.
It’s not good enough.
He understand more or less what people tell him, but he may not realize there are all kinds of things that could be said.
The problem isn’t that he used the wrong term for price to earnings ratio – or perhaps was thinking in more general terms, of any ratio or statistic that might involve profits or earnings, as that he doesn’t have any real understanding of how the stock market works and what it means or might not mean. He should never have encouraged people to buy stock. That shows he doesn’t understand what a bear market looks like or what causes it.
Overall, the whole view of the economy he and his people have is shortsighted. They only see the immediate future.
#s21-22
Obama owns the short term,the question is how long does the short term last?