Everyone who knows me knows I am a huge President Obama fan. I have read his books and I enjoy his speeches. I think he is the best President of my lifetime so far: progressive, intelligent, compassionate, witty, moral and articulate. Obama will be sorely missed and his speech at his final White House Correspondents’ dinner did not help. From the mic drop to the jokes, it was perfection. Goodbye Obama, I will miss you.
A lot has been said about the video of Bowe Bergdahl’s father praising Allah at the White House. Frankly, most of it is wrong. Obama was not smiling. Anyone who knows body language and looks at the video will see that, actually, that was a grimace. President was also obviously angry, he knew how much political damage had just been done to him. I don’t know who is advising Obama at the moment, or why he let five terrorists go for one man but whoever is advising him needs to either be fired or given the worst job in politics somewhere far away from the President to make a strong point. American Ambassador of Outer Mongolia or Siberia sounds good.
I don’t know if Obama knew what the Arabic meant at the time, but he knew it was enough to damage him in the eyes of his enemies, most of whom constantly try to make the President out as not a true American.
Robert Bergdahl said at the press conference of his son’s release, “Bism allah alrahman alraheem,” which translates from Arabic to English as “in the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate.” It is said before every chapter in the Koran except the 9th (the chapter of the sword). The level of stupidity in quoting the Koran at the White House, even more than ten years after 9/11 is insurmountable. Not to mention insensitive. He may have meant it in a well-meaning way, but it was not that he spoke in Arabic, it was the praise of Allah, the same Allah whose name the pilots flew into the World Trade Centre for. The beard didn’t help. Robert Bergdahl grew it out of ‘solidarity’ for his captured son but we live in a visual world. How things look matter, and it looks bad.
Bowe Bergdahl allegedly left a note saying he wanted to renounce his citizenship before he went AWOL. Then six American soldiers lost their lives trying to rescue him from the Taliban. This is the biggest crisis of Obama’s career and the shades of Homeland (incidentally one of the President’s favourite shows) does not help. The President did not know what Robert Bergdahl was going to say, and he clearly didn’t like what he did say. No man left behind is very American. Even if the man is controversial and not liked within the armed forces because of his desertion.
To rub salt into the wound, the Taliban have released a video of the release of Bowe Bergdahl. Despite all of this, I believe the President can still recover. He just needs to surround himself with the right people.
What do you think?
We are a fan of President Obama here at Frost and we particularly enjoyed this interview the President did with Ryan Seacrest. In it he talks about his “Between Two Ferns” interview with Zach Galifianakis. Apparently, Zach was nervous and President Obama had not even heard of “Between Two Ferns” but his daughters had and were excited.
“Zach actually was pretty nervous, It was funny to watch because this whole ‘Between Two Ferns’ schtick — which I wasn’t familiar with before my staff told me that we had been pitched to do this — his whole character is to go after the guest, and I think he was looking around and seeing all these Secret Service guys with guns and thinking, ‘I wonder what happens here if I cross the line?’ But we had a great time.”
The interview was done to encourage young people to sign up for health care via HealthCare.gov. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the website saw a 40 percent boost in traffic after the interview.
“And as I said, I wasn’t familiar with this thing, but when I was at the dinner table with the girls and I said, ‘Well today I did something with Zach, it’s called ‘Two Ferns,’ I think,’ Malia was so excited, She had seen all the previous episodes, so I figured it was going to reach our target audience, which is a lot of young people, and it turns out we’ve had close to 15 million hits. And the amazing thing is afterwards people actually did link to healthcare.gov and people actually signed up for health insurance, so it ended up working, but I think I have to keep my day job.”
What do you think?
‘Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose’
Steve Jobs, 2005
The world mourned today as Steve Job lost his eight year battle with cancer. He was only 56.
Steve Jobs was called a ‘visionary, who had changed people’s lives’ by President Obama and Mark Zuckerberg praised his ‘mentor and friend’.
The internet was flooded with tributes within minutes of his death being confirmed. His family thanked ‘the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness’ and Apple’s board of directors released a statement saying; ‘We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today, ‘Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve’.
The Apple founder died yesterday, six weeks after stepping down as Apple CEO and a mere one day after the new generation iPhone was launched.
Apple’s homepage is a full-page image of Jobs with the text, ‘Steve Jobs 1955-2011.’
Jobs leaves behind a wife, a son and two daughters.
His family released a statement saying that he had ‘died peacefully today, surrounded by his family.
‘In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness.’
By this time next summer, the Republican candidate to challenge President Obama will be known, but at this point the list of candidates and potential candidates for the nomination is still far from finalised. With the “will-he-or-she-run-questions” still being asked and answered, some of the names with the highest familiarity among the general public are still not even declared candidates.
Obviously, because of her run for Vice President with John McCain, almost nine in ten Americans (86%) are familiar with Sarah Palin and 75% of U.S. adults are familiar with Rudy Giuliani – both of whom are still undeclared, but possible candidates for the nomination. Majorities of Americans are familiar with declared candidates Newt Gingrich (72%), Mitt Romney (67%), and Ron Paul (52%) while half are familiar with Michele Bachmann (50%). All other potential candidates are at 30% or under in terms of familiarity.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,183 adults surveyed online between July 11 and 18.
Even among Republicans, many declared candidates do not have majorities familiar with them. Tim Pawlenty (33%), Rick Santorum (31%), Herman Cain (29%), and Jon Huntsman (15%) all have one-third of Republicans or less familiar with them.
With this in mind, it’s not surprising that among Republicans, over one-quarter (28%) say they are not at all sure who they would vote for if they were voting in the Republican primary. Rudy Giuliani (14%) and Mitt Romney (14%) rise to the top among Republicans followed by Sarah Palin (12%). All the other candidates presented are under 10% including Rick Perry (8%), Michele Bachmann (6%), and Ron Paul (5%). Among Independents, there is a three-way tie for first place between Rudy Giuliani (10%), Mitt Romney (10%) and Ron Paul (10%). But over two in five Independents (42%) say they are not at all sure who they would vote for in the Republican primary election.
Looking ahead to November, it seems there are three possible candidates who could give President Obama a difficult time. President Obama would lose his re-election if Rudy Giuliani (53% to 47%) or Mitt Romney (51% to 49%) was the Republican nominee. Each candidate would receive 50% of the vote if the President was running against Ron Paul. Right now, President Obama would win re-election against the 10 other candidates presented.
The Republican are yet to figure out who they are and begin the process of coalescing around one candidate. In the study of politics, there is always a debate regarding electability and this election may show that clearly. Should Republicans nominate a candidate who stands for certain values or policies important to a sub-section of the party, even though that candidate may not be electable in the general election? This is a question the Republican party needs to answer if they want to win next November.