Obama's press conference

Handworn: Equality of result? So, to follow, most everyone agrees that while what socialism proposes to accomplish through control of the means of production is a perfectly egalitarian society, in which all have their basic needs met, and can otherwise pursue their interests.

That handing control over to government in its entirety has pretty much entirely failed to accomplish that outcome, each time it has been attempted, is why almost all of us, myself included, regard Marx as incorrect in his prescription for dealing with the troubles of economic inequality.

However, if your condemnation of Obama is that he's trying a means to get somewhere to the "socialist utopia" without the same tactics? Let him have at 'er.

Good column Lexington.

A point, though.

Why the heck should the US President have to tell *anyone* about his/her religion?!? More specifically, why should the POTUS have to actually *defend* him/herself from accusations of being of a particular religion??? Even more specifically, does being Muslim prevent one from being President of the US? Whatever happened to the separation of religion and State???

Isn't it time to revisit the fundamentals here?

This boggles the mind.

Not even the old communist countries of the Eastern Block really tried for equality of outcome. In sincerely doubt anyone in the states is trying to bring that about.

I would be honestly surprised if even half the people throwing around the term "socialist" in America have any clue what it actually means.

Migmigmigmig, it seems to be one of the favorite occupations of the denizens of the Left to mock the level of talk about socialism in this country, but you don't seem to realize the danger you're in. The mockery assumes that there's no substance to the talk, and so no one bothers to address it seriously.

The truth is, it does not matter whether what the Left wants is socialism in the sense of government ownership of the means of production. There is a serious indictment of left-wing ideas present. Both socialism in that sense and most of the Left's most deeply held desires have one goal in common: equality of result. That can't be accomplished except by disconnecting cause and effect, and doing that causes a race to the bottom. Socialism by any other name would smell as sweet.

Oh SURE he says that he's a Christian, but we know that that's actually proof that he's a MUSLIM!

That is, if he weren't a Muslim, than why would he go so far out of his way to deny it?

I feel all funny inside when Obama perorates.

Press conferences? SOCIALISM!!!!

Turkey Vulture wrote: "Alright, so Obama's press conference was either masterful or one of the most embarrassing moments of his presidency."

Has anyone tried to get an opinion about Obama's performance from such politically skilled personalities as Vladimir Putin or one of the Ayatollas or at least Fidel Castro ? Just curious.

You know what? Instead of Presidents actually speaking, how about they feed their message to a speaking robot. This way, the attacks on the speaking patterns/verbal flubs/teleprompter usage goes away and only the message matters. I was as guilty of this as anyone under GW, and it appears the shoe is on the other foot with Obama (although objectively one is clearly a better speaker in style if not substance).

Alright, so Obama's press conference was either masterful or one of the most embarrassing moments of his presidency. Glad we nailed that down.

Lex, this is absurd. Did you even watch this speech? The guy sounded like someone was ad-libbing on the teleprompter and he was reading from it Ron Burgandy style. One of the most embarassing moments of his presidency.

Lex, this is absurd. Did you even watch this speech? The guy sounded like someone was ad-libbing on the teleprompter and he was reading from it Ron Burgandy style. One of the most embarassing moments of his presidency.

I think the answer to your question about why he doesn't do this more often is quite simple. For the most part the people that need convincing that he's doing a good job are the people who will not only not have watched him give this press conference, but will also get their summary of what happened from Fox News who will invariably claim it was terrible.

I think the real problem is that the people who ultimately vote don't care all that much until the election is almost upon them and even then are more likely to turn to their party's prefered and highly biased news source rather than the original statements by Obama or whoever.

I also listened to this press conference, and listening was very good, but the problem very noticeable: Obama has very good intentions but he ignores the consequences, due to his lack of experence.
This is not easy to understand, but it is due to human nature, and you can't fault Obama, this is common in young people. Obama is actually better than most, and it is obvious that he feels his disadvantages have prepaired him for his being President, and maybe this is true. This is a very trying time for anyone who is President as we are in great danger and so is the world.
Human nature is the problem as it always has been since the beginning of time, but you do not have to go back far to understand what I understand-WW-ll. There were the Communist trying to force people to change their human nature by re-creation of human nature by force to make everyone equal. And there was Hitler trying to create a super race. And there was Roosevelt trying to do little things that did not work and he got very liitle done and we individuals had to make do for our selves until the war came on and solved our problem of no work.
We are in the same danger now, but more, but we are trying a new way of getting it done- be kind to everyone and everyone will be kind to you. That is not going to be as easy as we think. We better have a back-up plan and Europe seems to be in worse shape than we are in knowing what to do. We are not only dealing with human nature but we are dealing with religion and this made things even more difficult in the past. We need to prepare ourselves for living in a new world what ever happens, if we trust everyone, and this is not a good thing for everyone, if we win or lose, based on human nature, but it could work if the world has the resources and everyone will work together like we have never done in the past. Don't depend on Obama based on what he says.

:-D

I like our post-Messianic President a whole lot better already. Given the vitriol hurled at him on a daily basis, you've got to give the man some credit for still *standing* altogether. I can hardly imagine how things could be substantially better, or at least less bad. It's a VERY deep hole that we're trying to climb out of...

Hoo boy, Lex. Now you've done it.

Brace yourself for a flood of irate comments from folks canceling their subscriptions to the "socialist rag" the Economist has become...