Whoopi and Joy forgot their meds this morning

There is a lot of buzz on Twitter about this clip and for good reason. We all know Whoopi and Joy have a penchant for da crazy but their hissy fit on air this morning during an interview with Bill O'Reilly is a sight to see. While discussing the Ground Zero Mosque O'Reilly argues that it was Muslims who drove the planes. He failed, however, to make the distinction that it was Muslim extremists which led to Whoopi and Joy walking off the set. this was such an overreaction that even Barbara Walters had to chastise her colleagues for their unprofessional behavior. O'Reilly clarified his point and shortly afterwards we see the return of Joy and Whoopi. What a show:







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Imam Rauf: "The United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda"

In light of my last post, Pamela Gellar's exclusive audio of Imam Rauf (embedded below) serves to underscore my point that Obama's failure of leadership has escalated this dubious project into a national controversy unwisely and unnecessarily.  Among other points made in the audio the Imam is heard saying the following:

‘The United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims.’

This is a moderate Imam interested only in building bridges?  As Jim Geraghty noted, "everyone who lectured us about how moderate and sensible Imam Rauf is is invited to eat their words with the sauce of their choice."

As I write this, Chris Matthews is in full meltdown mode seething at the bigotry of those who oppose building the mosque.  I suspect Matthews, Obama and most of the Professional Left media believes American foreign policy contributed to the 9/11 attacks just as they believe Imam Rauf's mosque must be built.  The rest of the country seems to disagree.  No one in possession of even a modicum of leadership skills stirs a pot this destructive and heads to the beach or the golf course.  While Matthews and his ilk spew hatred at those who have concerns over this project at one extreme, some at the other end of the spectrum plan to burn copies of the Quran in protest.  Let me take this opportunity to note that whether such protest is Constitutionally protected is beside the point, it does not make it wise.

Obama now owns whatever controversial sentiments Imam Rauf has ever expressed, no matter how factually inaccurate they may be.   Gellar's exclusive may represent the tip of the iceberg of the 13 hours of audio uncovered by Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism; time will surely tell.  It would have been nice, however, had the president had the good sense to investigate the Imam and the project he supports before Obama went out and made this project the center of a public maelstrom.  Unfortunately he did not and Obama will forever be linked with this Imam and all the baggage he brings to the debate.  What flavor sauce would you like with those words Mr. President?

Content warning applies:  Rauf uses the "N" word in the last segment as does Imam Feisal (Rauf's Imam) according to other material gathered at Atlas Shrugs:


More at Memeorandum

MSNBC: Mark Halperin criticizes Obama for stirring the pot on Ground Zero mosque then taking a vacation

Via Breitbart

I am sure that Mark Halperin, co-author of Game Change and Senior MSNBC Political Analyst would have preferred Obama skip his vacation in order to convince the country the mosque must be built.  His criticism here, however, strikes at the heart of the problem with the festering mosque controversy.  President Obama went out and took what was widely perceived as a bold stance on the building of a mosque near Ground Zero only to walk back his "bold stance" the next day.

That this mosque/educational center seems a long way from being funded or being built seemed to be of little consequence to a president who has been known to jump in with both feet on issues he knew little about in the past.  Despite the fact there was no clear consensus among his advisors as to a position on this mosque Obama went off and stirred a cauldron of controversy based on the advice of a few of the usual suspects - namely Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.    When Democrats facing an already explosive electorate reacted the next day, Obama backed off and headed for vacation.  Now cheerleaders like Halperin are forced to face what has been obvious to most of us all along, leadership matters and Obama is no leader:



The Anchoress points to the same sentiments behind the realization "we miss Bush:"

One of my husband’s friends–hated Bush, loved Obama and defended him vociferously for the first year, less passionately the second–told him over lunch this week that he’s done with Obama and “I never thought I’d say this but I miss Bush. We knew that he said what he meant, even if we didn’t want to hear it. We knew who he was, even if we didn’t like him. And we never had to wonder whether he liked us. He always did.”

And that is it, in a nutshell. Bush is missable, because we miss having a president whose affection for his country and its people–even the ones who hated him–was never in doubt.

We miss Bush because he never lectured us or harangued us, and when people disagreed with him, they were not immediately called names in an attempt to simply shut up debate.

Read the rest as The Anchoress is spot on in her assessment.  I must, however, quote her conclusion as  to what Bush would and would not do if faced with a similar predicament:

I am absolutely certain however that in the face of angry, hurt opposition President Bush would not have permitted or encouraged his party to charge 60% of the nation with bigotry and xenophobia, because Bush never hated his opponents, and he never believed the worst of his countrymen; he believed the best.

Believing the worst of his countrymen sometimes seems to be President Obama’s default mode.

Incoherent and incompetent one-term president

Via Memeorandum
Rounding up the latest commentary on the state of the Obama presidency during the doldrums of the August news cycle we find a very different portrait of the messiah president Barack Obama. Once the articulate and charismatic messiah we were assured would slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planets, Barack Obama is now incoherent according to CNN critics:

The danger here is an incoherent presidency," said David Morey, vice chairman of the Core Strategy Group, who provided communications advice to Obama's 2008 campaign. "Simpler is better, and rising above these issues and leading by controlling the dialogue is what the presidency is all about. So I think that's the job they have to do more effectively as they have in the past [in the campaign]."

Obama has faced a torrent of criticism for what was called mixed messages on the controversial plan. On Friday, Obama said Muslims "have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country ... That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."

The following day, Obama told Ed Henry, CNN's senior White House correspondent, that he was "not commenting on the wisdom" of the project, just the broader principle that the government should treat "everyone equal, regardless" of religion. Then a White House spokesman clarified those comments.

"There is no question they are having messaging problems at the White House," Morey said. "They've lost control of the dialogue, and they've gotten pulled down by the extremes on the left and right. They've just not had a coherent set of themes."

As Jennifer Rubin points out they go on to twist the knife a bit by pointing to the superior communication style of . . . guess who?

While many poked fun at former President George W. Bush for mispronouncing words and stumbling through sentences, observers note that he rarely had to backtrack on his answers because he employed a simple and direct messaging approach.

My how times have changed.

Obama's incoherent messaging has left one group feeling a bit chilly these days:

Democrats complain they were blindsided when President Obama weighed in on the Ground Zero mosque and handed the GOP a new club to beat them with.

Capitol Hill Democrats, including those facing tough races, were not told in advance before Obama's Friday night speech defending Muslims' rights to build a mosque in lower Manhattan.

While Mayor Bloomberg knew ahead of time what Obama intended to say at the Ramadan dinner at the White House, New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand were kept in the dark, sources said.

That Bloomberg was given advance notice of Obama's ill-fated speech on Friday while the members of his party were left out in the cold to fend for themselves speaks of incompetence at a minimum.  How many planks did these Democrats walk for him after all?  Rahm Emmanuel was left to do damage control as he fielded the angry phone calls of Democrats who felt blindsided by Obama's remarks.  According to the NY Daily News report, Obama proceeded to make his remarks at the Ramadan dinner though no consensus had been reached among his advisors as to what his position should be.  Emmanuel was reported to have been skeptical.  Gee I wonder who leaked this story?

Not every rat is leaving this sinking ship.  He still has a few apologists willing to pretend he hasn't tried to walk back his big brave support for freedom of religion in the United States in favor of a more precisely-phrased support for freedom of religion in the United States.  We all know he intended to signal that the mosque must be built even though he refuses to admit he was commenting on the "wisdom" of building the mosque.  This is the profile in courage we call Barack Obama.

Still, Roger Simon suggests that Obama may end up a "one-term president" because he boldly refused to listen to the polls and weighed in on the mosque controversy.  You see, he has taken seriously all that hope and change talk and maintained the idealism of a candidate:

The problem for Obama is that he appears to have taken seriously all the “change” stuff he promised during his campaign. And he has been unable to make the transition from candidate to president.

A candidate says, as Bobby Kennedy did, “Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?”

A president says: “What do the polls say?”

This puts Obama in the company of such fine leaders as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln:

You can go back to the mid-1800s and find a lot of legislators saying that Abraham Lincoln should stop lecturing people about ending slavery and listen to them about keeping it.

And there were plenty of lawmakers who said President Dwight D. Eisenhower was “disconnected from the mainstream of America” when he ordered the 101st Airborne Division to go down to Little Rock, Ark., to make sure some black kids could go to school with white kids.

Ok, my head is spinning.  Did I miss the part when Eisenhower refused to comment on the wisdom of making sure some black kids could go to school with white kids?  Nevertheless, Simon suggests Obama will pay dearly for his bravery; the price will be a second term in office.  Well if that is what it takes I am all aboard that train.  History will sort out the legacy of this incoherent and incompetent one-term president.  The sooner that starts the better.