April 28, 2009
NYC Letter: Team Barry Clueless
Day 98 of CHOPE
Say "Government Cheese"!
OBAMA PLANE PHOTO OP STARTLES NEW YORKERS
NEW YORK April 27, 2009 (NYP)
WHITE HOUSE: NO INFO ON AIR FORCE 1 PHOTO-OP
WASHINGTON April 27, 2009 (AP) - The White House says it doesn't have any information about the Boeing 747's* flying photo op over lower Manhattan that sent Manhattan into a panic. ... White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that he doesn't have time to keep track of the planes used as Air Force One. He says he didn't have any information about why the presidential aircraft and its Air Force fighter jet escort were flying near the Statue of Liberty.
Oh. Just a minute.
WHITE HOUSE APOLOGIZES FOR NYC FLYOVER
April 27, 2009 (WT) - President Obama's White House was forced to issue an apology Monday after a photo opportunity gone badly wrong — an Air Force 747 plane* did a low flyover over Lower Manhattan, prompting terrified citizens to flee from their offices and high-profile accusations of government insensitivity in the post 9/11 era.White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera issued a brief statement saying he was to blame.
Last week, I approved a mission** over New York. I take responsibility for that decision. While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, its clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.
Mr. Caldera forgets to mention this little bit.
An administration official said the Federal Aviation Administration was informed the exercise would be taking place, and notified Mr. Bloomberg's office on April 22.The problem was the FAA was told the information was classified and that it should not alert the press to warn the public.
PRESIDENT OBAMA "FURIOUS"
TO HEAR OF PLANE INCIDENT
April 27, 2009 (ABC News) - A White House official tells ABC News that President Obama was "furious" to hear about the incident this morning when Air Force One and Air Force fighter jets appeared to be flying into the Manhattan skyline, scaring many New Yorkers into thinking they were about to face another terrorist attack.Many buildings in lower Manhattan evacuated. Angry New York politicians lashed out at whoever was responsible for the incident -- which turned out to have been for a photo op.**
... Caldera was called into a meeting with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina.
We all breathed easy hearing this wasn't an imminent "terrorist" man-caused disaster by Al-Qaeda. Only a PR man-caused disaster by an Obama minion.
Several videos at Hot Air.
CHOPE.
Poor judgment + Secrecy = Iconic imagery
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* Technically a Boeing VC-25, the military version of the Boeing 747.
** Described in this AP report:
WASHINGTON April 27, 2009 (AP) — An administration official says a presidential Boeing 747* and a fighter jet flew low near ground zero in New York City Monday because the White House Military Office wanted to update its file photo of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty.Posted by Damian at April 28, 2009 04:15 AMThis official said the White House Military Office told the Federal Aviation Administration that it periodically updates file photos of Air Force One near national landmarks, like the statute [sic] in New York harbor and the Grand Canyon.
How many dumb actions and statements will have to come out of this administration before people catch on that these are dim-witted and judgment-deficient dilettantes?
I doubt this is the sort of thing on which Obama would have been briefed ahead of time. But it does show the lack of judgment of the people that surround him. And since advice from specialists is the life blood of presidential decision-making, the administration's performance so far gives all of us cause to worry...a lot.
Posted by: Duncan at April 28, 2009 01:46 PMDuncan,
You are right about the wattage of some major appointments. Geithner is simply incompetent. Napolitano is viciously stupid. HRC, a Secretary of State lost in the big world. Robert Gibbs, a press secretary who gets more info from broadcast news than from his boss.
Disasters.
And Joe Biden -- Dear God, it's not as if Mr. Obama didn't give us a big clue early on as to the caliber of his administration.
DGB
Posted by: Damian at April 28, 2009 03:58 PMhttp://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/james_delingpole/blog/2009/04/28/barack_obama_already_less_popular_than_nixon_or_carter_quelle_surprise_not
Barack Obama already less popular than Nixon or Carter? Quelle Surprise! (Not)
By: James Delingpole, Telegraph Blog, Apr 28, 2009
It's official: Barack Obama is the second most reviled newbie president of the last forty years. A gallup survey today published in the Washington Times shows Obama to have an approval rating of just 56 per cent. The only president to have performed worse than that at the end of his first 100 days in office was Bill Clinton - and only then because it happened to coincide with the spectacular mishandling of the Waco siege, which might reasonably be laid at the door of ATF and FBI incompetence rather than presidential negligence.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama: Nice kids, cute dog, shame about the politics
Obama's low approval ratings, however, are all of his own making. He campaigned as a healing moderate who would take the US beyond partisan politics and restore the economy; instead he has terrified all those Americans who rightly abhor the idea of adopting European socialist, with the most sweeping advance of the progressive agenda and growth in the power of the state since the days of FDR's New Deal.
His cheerleaders in the mainstream media deny this is so. "Public thinks highly of Obama" was USA Today's unbiased response to the polls, while the editor of Newsweek has argued he always campaigned as a progressive.
But the Post argues otherwise: 'In all three presidential debates, Mr. Obama promised to cut government spending and reduce the size of the deficit. He blamed the economic crisis on excessive deficits. At no time did candidate Barack Obama say that more deficit-spending was the solution.'
Is Obama really worse than Carter or Nixon, though? To help readers make up their own minds and in the spirit of unity and Obama-style non-partisanship, I hereby offer a helpful pro and con guide to Obama: the First 100 Days.
CON:
1. Pantywaist, surrender-monkey, I-feel-your-pain, kowtowing to countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia means that America is no longer just hated in the Muslim world. Now, it is hated AND laughed at AND despised.
2. Swingeing green tax measures will destroy US industry, enrich Al Gore, delight Michael Moore while costing the average US family - in Cap and Trade alone - an extra $3,900 a year.
3. Returning Winston Churchill bust, snubbing British prime minister guarantees that never again will the United Kingdom ride the rescue of the US's sorry ass next time there's another Pearl Harbor.
4. Universal healthcare program will cost US taxpayers at least $650 billion (expect this to expand, like builders' estimates by at least 100 per cent), giving a health service to match Britain's "Envy of the World": ie crowded, filthy, chaotic wards; long waiting lists; lower cancer survival rates; higher death toll; ever-growing expense; a service so bad you'll pay anything in private health insurance to avoid using it...
5. Economy showing no signs of recovery. Why should it? Obama's doing nothing to make it better.
6. US intelligence services rendered embarrassed, powerless and useless, thanks to "torture memos" peevishly released to discredit previous administration.
7. Proposed $2.4 TRILLION in new taxes will disincentivise even the most instinctively hard working Americans. Instead they will go on Atlas Shrugged style strike. Maybe they're right: it could be the only answer.
8. Galloping inflation caused by money printing. US to become next Zimbabwe, only without the elephants to poach and eat to stave off mass starvation.
9. Noises already made about "Right Wing Extremists" - ie war veterans, people with Ron Paul bumper stickers, anyone else who disagrees with any aspect of the progressive Obama program - suggests it won't be long before those 44 per cent (so far) of registered Obama-sceptics hear a midnight knock at the door.
10. Rules - lots and lots more oppressive, Euro-style nanny state style rules governing everything from how Americans dispose of their trash, to race relations to pet care to firearms ownership. It's for Society's good, you understand.
PROs
1. Nice kids
2. Cute-looking dog.
3. The way he offed those 3 Somali pirates was pretty cool.
4. Er....
It was U.S. Navy SEALS who cooly "offed" those pirates.
Now, one wonders if, at some time in the next four years, President Obama will have them brought up on manslaughter charges.
Posted by: Valerie, Texas at May 2, 2009 01:28 PM
