Obamateurism of the Day -- from HotAir

[Eupher]

Analysts universally panned the jobs report on Friday, which showed a growth of only 80,000 jobs — slightly more than half of what’s needed just to keep up with population growth. It was the third straight disappointment in the series, making the second quarter of 2012 the worst period in two years for job creation.  Anyone with even a passing understanding of the jobs data knew that the only good news from the report was that it wasn’t any worse.

Not everyone has a passing understanding of the jobs data, apparently:

We learned this morning that our businesses created 84,000 new jobs last month, and that overall means that businesses have created 4.4 million new jobs over the past 28 months, including 500,000 new manufacturing jobs.  That’s a step in the right direction.  (Applause.)  That’s a step in the right direction.

A step in the right direction? Only if you think falling behind is the “right direction.”

By the way, BLS data shows that the US has added 3.75 million jobs in the last 28 months, not 4.4 million (138,665,000 in February 2010 and 142,415,000 in June 2012).  As I mentioned yesterday, the 28-month starting point was picked by the White House to conveniently overlook the million-plus job loss from the start of the recovery in June 2009, which was four months after Obama signed the stimulus bill that was supposed to keep unemployment from reaching 8%.  But even at the rate Obama claims for the period that ignores jobs lost during the recovery (and not the recession that preceded it), that only comes to 157,142 jobs added per month, or about what would have been needed just to keep up with population growth.

In other words, even if Obama’s bogus numbers had been true, it wouldn’t have been “a step in the right direction.”  It would have been marching in place.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/10/obamateurism-of-the-day-779/

[thundley4]

A step in the right direction is having more people go on disability than actually found jobs?

[obumazombie]

The owebumaManiaMedia is expert at smoothing over any bad news caused by owebuma. But if a GOPer was in the oval office, even good news would be colored to look like bad.

[Eupher]

As Mitt Romney took his family on vacation at Lake Winnipesaukee, where he maintains a tony summer home, Barack Obama decided that this was an opportune moment to paint himself as one of the hoi polloi.  At a campaign stop at Carnegie Mellon University — hardly a discount commuter college — Obama talked about how a trip to a motel with a swimming pool was the mark of a great vacation when he was a wee lad:

“I remember my favorite vacation when I was a kid, traveling with my mom and my grandma and my sister, and we traveled the country on Greyhound buses, railroads. And once in a while we’d rent a car, not that often, and stay at Howard Johnsons,” Obama told supporters at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Didn’t matter how big the pool was; if there was a pool, I’d jump in. I was 11 years old, and I was excited just to go to the vending machine and get the ice bucket and get the ice,” he told the crowd.

Not exactly jet skis on Winnipesaukee. Hint, hint.

Er, sure.  But isn’t this the same man who now vacations with the upper crust at Martha’s Vineyard every summer until, coincidentally, this election year when he needed to look a little more middle-class?  Three days before this speech, ABC News reported that this was the first summer in four years that the Obamas skipped the Massachusetts mecca:

With the campaign heating up before the November  election, there appears to be little time for the president to squeeze in his annual vacation on the idyllic island.

For the past three years, the president, the first lady  Obama and their two daughters have rented a house on Martha’s Vineyard, filling their days with bike rides, golf games and stops for ice cream. This year, however, with what is expected to be a close election just five months away, the president will likely be on the campaign trail.

And let’s not forget the sojourn to Spain that the First Lady and their daughter enjoyed with a few friends and a lot of Secret Service protection:

First Lady Michelle Obama has drawn some criticism from conservative radio hosts for her international travel, including a trip to Spain with daughter Sasha where she lunched with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

The Christmas vacations at the resort in Hawaii aren’t too bad, either.  I’d call that a lot better than the motel swimming pool of Obama’s youth, as are the 100+ golf outings Obama has enjoyed as President by now.  There’s nothing wrong with families taking vacations that fit within their budget, but those who stay in expensive glass resorts on Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii, and Spain shouldn’t throw stones.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/11/obamateurism-of-the-day-780/

[Eupher]

Early in his presidency, Barack Obama had quite a few vetting blunders — appointing people who had tax problems (Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle), corruption probes (Bill Richardson), and so on. It doesn’t appear anything has improved on Team Obama. Last week, Obama had local businessman Daniel Potkanowicz introduce him at a Youngstown, Ohio rally — and the local CBS affiliate noticed something oddly familiar about him:

An Ohio man who says he once lost his job and introduced President Barack Obama at a rally on Friday had been accused of stealing trade secrets by a former boss.

Court records show that Daniel Potkanowicz and a business partner in the Youngstown area were ordered to pay $500,000 to Clearview Window & Door after a judge ruled in 2009 that they had violated trade secrets.

The man who took Potkanowicz to court couldn’t believe his eyes:

Richard Albright, owner of Clearview, couldn’t believe Potkanowicz would be allowed to introduce the president.

“I’m wondering who put him up there,” Albright told The Vindicator. “He was involved in a scandal, and he’s introducing the president.”

Well, the local station explained the rigorous selection method used:

Potkanowicz now works for Summer Garden Food Manufacturing, a company Obama toured on Friday. He says the president’s campaign selected him to speak after talking with management there.

But just remember — the rest of us have to show picture-ID to get to see Obama attack Republicans for requiring photo-ID verification at the voting booth. (via JWF and Instapundit)

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/12/obamateurism-of-the-day-781/

[obumazombie]

The owebuma administration is a "Culture of Corruption", -Michelle Malkin-

[Eupher]

This OOTD comes to us from Jeryl Bier, and it’s a bit complicated — but only because President Obama and his campaign made it so. Obama has been claiming that he has cut taxes for the middle class “every year that I’ve been President.” But by how much? That’s where someone has some math problems. Here’s the original July 9th speech:

That’s why I’ve cut middle-class taxes every year that I’ve been President — by $3,600 for the typical middle-class family. Let me repeat: Since I’ve been in office, we’ve cut taxes for the typical middle-class family by $3,600.

The problem starts with Obama mixing an aggregate number with an emphasis on “every year.” As Jeryl discovers from the White House site, the claim of $3600 in savings is an aggregate of four years’ worth of two different tax credits — only one of which was his alone, the Making Work Pay credit that was part of the stimulus package.  A typical family of four at average earning saved $800 a year in 2009 and 2010 with that tax credit, which expired after the 2010 tax year.  The additional $2000 comes from the payroll-tax holiday in 2011 and 2012 that saves about $20 a week — even though that proposal came from both Republicans and Democrats.  However, the payroll tax holiday isn’t truly a tax cut; it reduces the contribution of each worker into their supposed Social Security retirement fund, which will either cause a shortfall later that will have to be covered by tax increases or result in lower benefits being paid out.  Those credits do add up to $3600 over four years, and have resulted in no discernable economic stimulus.

Apparently, Obama was so confusing that even his own campaign couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say.  They bowdlerized Obama’s quote — and made it sound as though Obama was claiming to have saved middle-class families $3600 each year:

 

Barack Obama
✔
@BarackObama
President Obama: "I’ve cut taxes every year that I've been President by $3,600 for the typical middle-class family.”
9 Jul 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite

Maybe Obama needs to repeat it one more time … and this time, get the math right.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/17/obamateurism-of-the-day-784/

Barry the Magician - creating numbers out of thin air since January 20, 2009.

[Eupher]

Sometimes, a politician can take a difficult concept and make it easy for audiences to grasp. Others can take a fairly self-evident argument and turn it into … an insult. This week, Barack Obama exemplified the latter when he tried to underscore that economic success depends in some part on a free society, governed wisely. Instead, he told small-business owners that they didn’t have much to do with their own success, emphasis mine:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

Actually, had Obama not been so ham-fisted in his construction, he would have had a good point about the balance between liberty and the government that secures it.  We do need to have roads and bridges and the like that allow sellers and buyers to find each other; we need some regulation to prevent fraud and theft, in order to make markets operate efficiently and honestly. Our system of constitutional self-government provides a framework that allows for enough governance to provide those necessary checks without becoming overbearing, and without government distorting those markets for the preferred outcomes of elites rather than the outcomes decided by voluntary associations in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, we have deviated far down the latter path for decades, and Obama wants to go even farther down a road that leads to economic stagnation and the stunting of liberty.  That path also leads to the arrogance and ignorance on display when a politician who has never operated his own business or worked in any significant manner in the private sector tells people who took enormous risks to start their own businesses that “you didn’t build that” and “someone else made that happen.”  Of course the business owner built the business and was primarily the one that “made it happen”; without someone willing to take the risk, businesses wouldn’t get built at all.

Obama took an opportunity to make a good point and booted it into the realm of clueless-elite satire.  And he did it in a prepared speech.  Whether or not it took a White House village to create that speech, Obama made it, and this Obamateurism, happen.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/18/obamateurism-of-the-day-785/

[Karin]

From the comments at the latest OOTD:

As Iowahawk so aptly put it…

@iowahawkblog

That welfare check? Somebody else made that happen.

OMG the man is a national treasure.   

Most think this will be the OOTY and follow him right into November.  Rush was saying about Mitt's speech afterwards, "it sounds like something finally made Mitt genuinely mad."  The crowd roared.  Sounded big. 

[Chris_]

Iowahawk is one of the best reasons to get a Twitter account.

[Eupher]

We all had a chuckle over Barack Obama’s fumbling of the “Kiss-Cam” at the Verizon Center in Washington DC last weekend, disappointing fans when the First Couple decided not to lip-lock on camera.  After getting booed, the official story was that the Obamas’ daughter encouraged them to smooch when they suddenly got a second chance to make things right.  The crowd cheered, of course.

But was that second chance just a lucky break for the President?  Not according to New York Times reporter Peter Baker, reporting from the pool:

 

Peter Baker@peterbakernyt
Not to be cynical, but press pool was out in motorcade ready to leave and then brought back into arena in time for successful kiss-cam redo.
16 Jul 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite

Obama apparently demanded a re-do just to get the press to report on the smooch, and to cover for his earlier gaffe.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/19/obamateurism-of-the-day-786/

[obumazombie]

Everything owebuma says/does needs walkback and flakking to interpret properly.

[Eupher]

Barack Obama stepped in it when he told small business owners that they didn’t deserve credit for their own success with his “you didn’t build that” speech in Roanoke, Virginia a week ago, but that wasn’t his only gaffe in his class-warfare argument.  Obama argued that government built most of our grandest ventures:

So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam.

Er, perhaps the White House should learn to Google.  Government built the Hoover Dam, all right, but it had nothing to do with the Golden Gate Bridge … except to get in the way of its construction, as  W. J. J. Hoge explains (via Reason):

That’s only half true. The federal government did build Hoover Dam. However, the Golden Gate Bridge was funded by a $35 million dollar bond issue by the six counties in the Golden Gate Bridge District. It was a state-authorized project built by a partnership of local governments.

Reason reveals that we owe a big debt for the Golden Gate Bridge to … the one percent:

What’s more, the conservative commentator Thomas Purcell asserted last November (Obama having been playing the Golden Gate card for a while now), “it was the ‘One Percenters’, as is the term coined of the rich and powerful these days, that built the Golden Gate, not government. More importantly, it was government that posed more obstacles for the building of the bridge than any other entity and if the Department of Defense had their way it never would have been built at all.” More Purcell:

The Department of Defense (then called the Department of War) kicked and screamed saying that the bridge would be dangerous and block the channel from ships going in an out of the Presidio base.

Since the DOD owned the land on either side of the channel, there was no way to build it without Federal approval, and they refused to grant it.

After another year of wrangling, and some heavy support from the fledgling automotive industry lobbying (yes, they had lobbyists back then too), the DOD finally relents and allows construction of the bridge, but only sells the land back to the state commission and does not participate in its construction.

Construction did not go as smoothly as planned. It takes another FIVE years for the government and the architects to come to agreement on the design. Furthermore, Federal contractor unions wanted the contracts to build the bridge and stalled the government on the issue, demanding they take action to halt construction unless they got the contract. Fortunately, local authorities insisted that as part of the contract only local labor would be used instead of Federal union contracts, insuring the area had work during Depression era unemployment.

The financing of the bridge came from private industry and local landowners, too, as Purcell explains, emphases mine:

A second problem in 1929 when the US Stock Market collapsed made for more problems. The Golden Gate committee now has trouble issuing the bond needed for the construction of the bridge, even though the citizens of the surrounding area had put up their own personal lands and farms as collateral. It takes 3 more years and the wealthy President and founder of Bank of America, A.P. Giannini, to personally buy the 35 million dollar bond which he then finances through the bank. Without the bank and the intervention of private industry fueled by personal wealth, again the bridge would not have been built. By 1937 the bridge is completed—and Strauss delivers the bridge 1.7 million UNDER budget, using local non-union labor and private contractors.

The Golden Gate Bridge is not a symbol of government planning or a government project—it is a bridge built DESPITE government setbacks and government intervention and is the sole achievement of individuals working in and with the private sector to overcome these obstacles.

How many more grand projects might the private sector produce if government wasn’t confiscating one dollar out of every four?  Perhaps enough to build a research center, which Obama and his speechwriters rather desperately need.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/20/obamateurism-of-the-day-787/

[obumazombie]

Just because owebuma isn't a self made man, doesn't mean the feat has never been accomplished.

[Eupher]

Barack Obama wanted to impress on people that Mitt Romney’s economic plan wouldn’t help the American economy — which would make it at worst a tie with Obamanomics, of course.  In making that argument, Obama cited a serious study by what he claimed was a disinterested, non-partisan economist:

[video goodness at the link of Barry stumping for, well, Barry]

“We have not found any serious economic study that says Governor Romney’s economic plan would actually create jobs, until today,” Obama said. “I’ve got to be honest: Today we found out, there’s a new study out by [a] non-partisan economist that says Governor Romney’s economic plan would in fact create 800,000 jobs. There’s only one problem: The jobs wouldn’t be in America. They would not be in America.”

Non-partisan? Nonsense, says the Weekly Standard:

As we detailed earlier, “Clausing, according to donor records, gave Obama for America $250 on May 18, 2012. Likewise, on September 14, 2011, Clausing gave $242 to Obama for America, records reveal.”

In addition to her financial support for Obama, Clausing has donated money to the Democratic Party of Oregon ($250), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ($500), the Democratic National Committee ($500), John Kerry for President ($1,000), Dean for America ($300), Gore and Gore/Lieberman ($1,500), and many others.

The Oregonian has called Reed College, where Clausing teaches, “one of the most liberal and academically liberal colleges in the nation.”

Ironically, the Obama campaign’s citation of a donor’s economic research happens to coincide with the same day that the Romney campaign is hitting them for engaging in crony capitalism.

Irony!  That’s one of our favorite qualities at the OOTD Hall of Shame.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/23/obamateurism-of-the-day-788/

[obumazombie]

I would literally consider suicide if I had given $1,500.00 to the Sore/Loserman campaign.

[Eupher]

Last week, Barack Obama wanted a Jacksonville, Florida audience to know that he spends all of his time selflessly devoted to their best interests:

[video of Dear Leader on the stump. Again. At the link.]

And most of all, I would wake up every single day, every single day and spend every waking hour thinking about you. Fighting as hard as I knew how for you.

Unfortunately, that statement came out the day after this story broke:

President Barack Obama is at odds with some of his handpicked outside advisers on hot-button election topics such as regulations and corporate taxes.

Many of the recommendations at issue stem from the president’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, a group of business and labor leaders with whom Mr. Obama hasn’t met in six months.

Jay Carney tried spinning it for the media:

“‘There’s no specific reason [for not meeting with his own Jobs Council], except the president has obviously got a lot on his plate, but he continues to solicit and receive advice from numerous folks outside the administration about the economy about ideas that he can act on with Congress or administratively to help the economy grow and help create jobs,’ Carney said in the White House’s first on-the-record response to a POLITICO story noting the hiatus.”

A lot on his plate?  According to National Journal’s Daybook, Carney’s right.  Obama has held 106 fundraisers in the six months since he last met with his jobs council, and not a small number of rounds of golf, either.  Looks like those supporters in Jacksonville need a waking up moment.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/24/obamateurism-of-the-day-789/

Obama lies like a rug. But of course, you knew that.

[docstew]

Obama lies like a rug. But of course, you knew that.

That statement is unfair to most rugs: they aspire to be able to lie with the natural ease that O has shown throughout his administration.

[obumazombie]

That statement is unfair to most rugs: they aspire to be able to lie with the natural ease that O has shown throughout his administration.

My Grandmother used to say "He'd lie when the truth would do better".

[Jasonw560]

"Liar, liar, plants for hire" -Patrick Star

[Chris_]

You have kids, don't you?

[Jasonw560]

Yep. 9 yo Twin mini-mes running around

[Eupher]

When Barack Obama ran for office in 2007 and 2008, he promised to get troops out of Iraq in sixteen months.  Instead, he stuck with George W. Bush’s timeline, and forty-two months into his term, Obama is taking credit for a plan that, er, Bush built in declaring the Iraq War over:

In a web video released Monday, the Obama campaign celebrated the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. “As your commander in chief, and on behalf of a grateful nation, I’m proud to finally say these two words, and I know your families agree – welcome home. Welcome home,” Obama says in a clip from a speech he gave at Fort Bragg in December. The president repeats that phrase again for dramatic effect, “Welcome home.”

As Jake Tapper reports, the timing was … pretty bad:

President Obama’s campaign today released a video praising the president for ending the war in Iraq. It turns out that today has proven to be the deadliest day of the year in that country.

A wave of attacks throughout Iraq – IEDs, explosions, and gunmen — has resulted in more than 100 people killed and more than 200 wounded.

Yesterday, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Qaeda’s top leader in Iraq, released an audio message announcing, ”We are setting off a new stage of our struggle, with the launch of a plan named ‘breaking the walls.’”

Declaring victory usually means that your enemies aren’t the last ones in the field.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/25/obamateurism-of-the-day-790/

Barry the Amateur strikes again.....

[Eupher]

Barack Obama has mostly avoided talking about the economy on the campaign trail, even though it’s by far and away the most important issue for voters in every poll taken this cycle. When he does talk about the economy, Obama usually fumbles the ball. First he told the White House press corps that “the private sector is doing fine” when it obviously is not, and then last week he told small business owners that “you didn’t build that — someone else made that happen” while arguing to hike their taxes.

This week is no exception.  As Obama returned once again to the economy to undo some of the damage with his “you didn’t build that” remark, he did a victory dance of sorts in Oakland:

[video of Barry telling lies on the stump at the link.]

“We tried that and it didn’t work,” Obama said of Mitt Romney’s proposed tax cuts and spending cuts, which he dismissed as a Bush-style “top down” economic policy. “Just like we’ve tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked,” he added later in the speech. “That’s the difference. That’s the choice in this election. That’s why I’m running for a second term.”

It worked? His plan promised that unemployment wouldn’t go above 8%.  It hasn’t gone below 8% since he put it in place.  His plan promised that the plan would increase GDP by 3.7% by the end of 2010.  We’re heading toward a GDP in the 1s, or possibly lower.  Obama’s plan promised to find 1.529 million jobs for women.  Instead, we’ve added only 2.412 million jobs since the start of the recovery in June 2009, and jobs for women over 16 years of age have only gone up 617,000.

I guess that’s Mission Accomplished in the era of Hope and Change, eh?

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/26/obamateurism-of-the-day-791/

[JohnnyReb]

I guess that’s Mission Accomplished in the era of Hope and Change, eh?

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/26/obamateurism-of-the-day-791/

Did any one really hope to have any change left when the democrats got though?