29 thoughts on “Obama’s Resignation”

  1. He appears to think his job is talking smack. Thinking about things is “above my pay grade”, and -doing- things is -below- his pay grade.

  2. He has only thrown two interceptions. And been sacked a bunch of times. Not to mention a bunch of fumbles.

  3. Why would any president resign these days? Spin is out of control, and we clearly don’t value character or integrity in our politicians.

  4. The only way this guy would resign is if you lined up ALL his cohorts for a firing squad. Did the deed. Then said, “Next. That would be you, O.”

  5. Hell, -knowing- things is below his paygrade.

    We’ve gone from a President “too stupid” to live because he’s spending his time reading the mountains of classified reports instead of the NYT … to one who can’t be bothered to read one (read: -any-, -ever-) report on his own signature accomplishment.

  6. He doesn’t even believe he’s done anything wrong

    He sure sounds like someone who thinks he’s done a number of things wrong:

    You have an individual market that accounts for about 5 percent of the population. And our working assumption was — my working assumption was that the majority of those folks would find better policies at lower cost or the same cost in the marketplaces and that there — the universe of folks who potentially would not find a better deal in the marketplaces, the grandfather clause would work sufficiently for them. And it didn’t. And again, that’s on us, which is why we’re — that’s on me.

    my expectation was that for 98 percent of the American people, either it genuinely wouldn’t change at all, or they’d be pleasantly surprised with the options in the marketplace and that the grandfather clause would cover the rest. That proved not to be the case. And that’s on me.

    And by the way, I think it’s very important for me to note that, you know, there are a whole bunch of folks up in Congress and others who made this statement, and they were entirely sincere about it. And the fact that you’ve got this percentage of people who’ve had this, you know, impact — I want them to know that, you know, their senator or congressman, they were making representations based on what I told them and what this White House and our administrative staff told them, and so it’s not on them, it’s on us.

    when I do some Monday morning quarterbacking on myself, one of the things that I do recognize is since I know that the federal government has not been good at this stuff in the past, two years ago as we were thinking about this, you know, we might have done more to make sure that we were breaking the mold on how we were going to be setting this up.

    I also do feel an obligation to everybody who — out there who supported this effort. You know, when we don’t do a good job on the rollout, we’re letting them down. And, you know, I don’t — I don’t like doing that.

    There have been times where I thought we were — got, you know, slapped around a little bit unjustly. This one’s deserved, all right? It’s on us.

    But no, I can’t imagine him resigning.

    1. Jim, thanks for illustrating so clearly why he should not only resign, he should be jailed. If 98% of Americans could keep their current plan, why are millions (a million in California alone) losing their coverage, with the administration itself estimating that perhaps 50 million policies will go away when the employer mandate kicks in, probably representing close to a 100 million people. 98% is not the same as 60%. He knew this, and he lied about it, and is still lying about it. He directly and intentional jeopardized the lives of millions of Americans, especially children, and is causing untold distress and financial hardship to tens of millions.

      He said the knew plans would save families up to $2,500 on their health insurance premiums. He lied. You can’t lower costs for everyone and cover the uninsured, but he claimed he could. He lied.

    2. Let’s see:

      Paragraph 1 is an ongoing lie: The grandfathering clause excludes relatively modest premium increases as “a new plan”. So: Intentionally defective. (Combined with the deliberate, moronic “Well, they’re -annual- plans, so next year they’re -all-new-.” which is a running premise throughout the commentary on this.)

      If Paragraph 2 was even vaguely true, then there’s no early reason to implement this law. The “2%” can be flat-carried as dead weight easier than this insanity.

      Paragraph 3: “Yeah, I know the morons that -wrote- the bill don’t have a clue, but place the blame on me, not them, because I’m a lame duck.”

      Paragraph 4: “Just because it’s become a neverending bureaucratic cesspool most everywhere it was attempted, I’m sorry didn’t pay the slightest attention to history or our own efforts. I’m sure it would have been better if I’d paid any attention.”

      Paragraph 5: “Gosh, I don’t like letting down my tribe.”

      Paragraph 6: “You have my permission to criticize this a little.”

    3. Obama sounded like he said “If you like your health plan, then you can keep it, period.” Obama didn’t believe it: “Under this assumption, the Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013.”

      But hey Jim, if you have any evidence to support your argument other than Obama’s lying words; feel free to present it. I just quoted the federal register of regulations signed by Obama in June 2010. I also note that you previously have proclaimed we must accept CBO estimates that PPACA will lower the deficit. So I’m sure you’ll accept these numbers without quarrel that more cancellations are in our future.

      1. So I’m sure you’ll accept these numbers without quarrel that more cancellations are in our future.

        Of course not.
        “Hey, we’re talking about -this- fiasco, not the one next year! That hasn’t happened yet, so we’ll keep using unicorn-and-lerechaun-math to describe how -that- will work!”

      2. That’s exactly right. Obama and the Democrats are claiming that people with insurance through work will not be affected but they will be, just like those of us with individual plans.

        Ultimately, 100% of people are affected. Every single policy has to comply with the mandates. It isn’t about the relative quality of pre-Obamacare plans. Even high end plans will be cancelled if they don’t follow all of the new mandated coverage items like maternity care for men. Also, with unelected government workers in charge of the system we are all subject to the whims of the HHS secretary dictating to insurance companies and doctors how to run their businesses and treat patients.

    4. Jim,

      How can we be expected to give any weight to Obama’s current words when he, in recent weeks, has gone from trying to scapegoat the insurance industry for the cancellations, to claiming he didn’t actually say “If you like your plan, you can keep it, period!” to blaming his own cabinet (who were the ones who drew up the regulations that he’s now fretting about).

      I also have grave doubts regarding the sanity of everyone involved, thanks to one of the claims Obama made; “What we’re finding is that insurance is complicated to buy.” What the, er, heck? Seriously? They’re just now finding this out? Unless he misspoke, I think this clearly puts in doubt the literal sanity of everyone involved, especially Obama, to a degree where removal under the 25th amendment is warranted.

      Also, I’m wondering what you think of the legality of Obama’s “fix”, and also whether it’s good policy or not?

      1. He also threw the people who lost their current policies under the bus by claiming their plans were cancelled because they sucked. Democrats are still trying to say all the cancelled plans were fraudulent products.

      2. Let me put what Mr. Obama said (and meant) into plain English:

        I was stunned to find out that health insurance is complicated to buy! But rather than spending time digesting that new information and trying to learn from it, today I’m announcing a fix that my crack White House Staff (who loyally kept me in the dark about both the grandfathering details of the PPACA and the status of the HealthCare.gov website) and I cooked-up during the last 36 hours, after internal polling showed my popularity sinking faster with each passing hour. So don’t worry folks, I’m sure my new fix will make it easy for 50 state insurance commissions and hundreds of insurance companies to find a way to give back the policies they took from you, within the next 6 weeks or less. Yup, no problem at all. And next year, remember to vote for all the Democrats whose only sin was trying to help me recover my fumble. Now, where’s my golf cart?

        1. And after he issues a declaration of a fix, he calls insurance CEOs in to talk about it. Maybe he should have done that before hand? But not surprising from a man who at this late date is finally learning how complicated the insurance industry is. Perhaps some knowledge about the industry would have been useful prior to the law’s passing?

          This is “turns out shovel ready jobs weren’t so shovel ready. Heh. Heh” all over again.

          How did Obama get into Harvard being this stupid or more importantly, how did he graduate?

    5. Obama’s ideology is like McCain on border control. They say they get it. They don’t.

      It doesn’t matter if they say “I get it.” times infinity. They don’t.

      Sort of like you Jim?

  7. “to a degree where removal under the 25th amendment is warranted. ”

    People talk about Vice President Joe Biden as a reason that would never happen. But Joe Biden has good relations with members of Congress and at least a collegial relationship with the Republican leadership in both Houses. Joe Biden is who the West Wing people called upon to negotiate deals with Congress when they were serious about getting a deal. Joe Biden may have the wherewithal to lead in a time of crisis.

    1. And there’s the matter of precedent. If one president can be removed for fraud, then it makes impeachment a credible threat for future presidents and part of their political calculations.

  8. Speaking of Joe Biden, I had mentioned Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Bill Daley pleading with the President to show flexibility on a religious conscience exception to some of the health care coverage provisions. Our country has a two-century old tradition on accomodating persons of different religious beliefs, but nothing doing on this one.

    It seems that this inflexibility in implementing the PPACA has pervaded the entire enterprise, contributing to the current breakdown. I had earlier attributed this failure to one of the “lesser gods”, to the invisible part of Creation in which a profess belief every week, an “angel riding the whirlwhind” of GW Bush in his first inaugural quoting founding father Randolph. I am beginning to think that our Lord has a hand in this.

    It remains highly questionable whether Christ is a Republican, as the Democrats among us remind us. But I am beginning to see unmistakable evidence in all of this that Christ . . . is a Roman Catholic.

    Were Joe Biden to become President, I am thinking Providence would have his back.

  9. “He sure sounds like someone who thinks he’s done a number of things wrong:”

    Sounding sorry and being sorry are two different things. Obama’s words mean nothing. Obama isn’t changing his behavior and is carrying on with the implementation of Obamacare so his actions show that he isn’t very sorry at all.

    He isn’t even moderating the rhetoric from his administration against the opposition. Just the other week Republicans were the Taliban for suggesting a one year delay in the individual mandate. Obama even shut down the government because he was unwilling to compromise. Today, Obama declared he would veto any legislation that would let people keep their current policies but yesterday he did the exact same thing by dictate.

    This is just crazy. Obama wants to operate outside the law and when given the opportunity to do the same thing but within the law, he says no.

    1. Operating inside the law would mean he has less control over the situation. No one from the WH could pressure insurance execs with selective enforcement if they didn’t tow the line. Obama wouldn’t be able to put the fear of him in the insurance industry. See, following the rules really sucks.

  10. Obama: “Had I been I informed, I wouldn’t be going out saying, “Boy, this is going to be great.” You know, I’m accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying, “This is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity,” a week before the website opens, if I thought that it wasn’t going to work. ”

    The Incomparable Steyn:

    “Ooooo-kay. So, if I follow correctly, the smartest president ever is not smart enough to ensure that his website works; he’s not smart enough to inquire of others as to whether his website works; he’s not smart enough to check that his website works before he goes out and tells people what a great website experience they’re in for. But he is smart enough to know that he’s not stupid enough to go around bragging about how well it works if he’d already been informed that it doesn’t work. So he’s smart enough to know that if he’d known what he didn’t know he’d know enough not to let it be known that he knew nothing. The country’s in the very best of hands.”

    1. It wasn’t stupidity that made him do it, it was arrogance. He was probably told there were issues, but he figured since it was HIS program, it would work out fine. Even if it didn’t, he still had the press to protect him. What he didn’t realize is what a gigantic goat fornication it would turn out to be, so big the fawning press couldn’t overlook it. Now he’s trapped by reality and no amount of speechifying can save him.

      1. I have no doubt whatsoever that Obama and his staffers are putting in long, tedious hours trying to find some way, any way, to put the blame for Obamacare on George W. Bush.

    2. Except he did know unless he doesn’t read the reports his agency heads send him in which case, he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.

  11. Why do we consider intelligence a requirement for president? Perhaps we need a stupid one for a while?

  12. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. ”

    A. Lincoln

    “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

    J. F. Kennedy

    “Had I been I informed, I wouldn’t be going out saying, “Boy, this is going to be great.” You know, I’m accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying, “This is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity,” a week before the website opens, if I thought that it wasn’t going to work. ”

    B. Obama

  13. Jim, you cannot imagine the President resigning. But are able to imagine, say, Secretary Sebelius resigning?

    One of the things a Commanders in Chief does in our Republic, going back to Lincoln, is to start firing generals. If the President speaks truthfully that the reason he was cheerleading for the Web site and is now embarassed is that no one told him, this is an admission that the lines of communication and the functioning of his subordinate agencies are broken.

    Do people, the Republicans notwithstanding, want health care reform to work? Would Mr. Obama take action and start firing people, and I am not talking about firing low-level workers, I am talking about the people who serve the people at the will of the President and have cushy private-sector jobs lined up when they leave?

    When that happens, I will take the apology seriously.

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