The Amateur by Ed Klein

[LiveLaughLove]

Shocked to not see anything about this book being discussed here. Klein is a lefty (New York Times Mag Editor), and the stuff coming out about the Obama Administration from the book seem pretty scathing on it's face.

Obama had a friend try to bribe Pastor Wright with $150k to shut up in the first election. Obama told Wright that he would never make a good politician because he was too honest and wouldn't lie.

Oprah and Michelle are dissing each other. Michelle thinks Oprah is a bad role model because she is fat. Michelle dislikes fat people (who doesn't she dislike outside of radical black political types)

Valerie Jarrett pushed the Solyndra deal while Larry Summers said not to do so. She also was against the Seal team taking out bin laden.

Obama was listening to Oprah about policy decisions. Freaking Oprah!

Caroline Kennedy dislikes Obama and considers him a liar.

The title itself is pretty revealing, amateur isn't exactly positive and upbeat.

Anyway, interesting stuff so far.

[OULenexaman]

I thought Valerie Jarrett was long gone before the OBL take out. Obama has million$ of reasons to sit and listen to Oprah. And he will listen again for million$ more. Michelle just likes to be the pot calling kettle.

[KantoSooner]

You mean our sound-bite-24-hour-media-cycle-gotcha-politics-superficial-image-over-substance method of selecting national politicians has coughed up a lightweight stuffed suit president?

What a shock.

[soonercruiser]

I bid $500 for the Reverend's box full of e-mails and documents!
:surprise:

[diverdog]

Pfft. Ed Klein is the biggest liar on the planet. The man has zero access to Democratic insiders and until he produces tapes I call BS on his stories.

[LiveLaughLove]

Pfft. Ed Klein is the biggest liar on the planet. The man has zero access to Democratic insiders and until he produces tapes I call BS on his stories.

Here are the ones with Rev. Wright. Doubt it will change your mind, but they exist.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/church-was-not-their-thing-new-audio-from-rev-wrights-shocking-interview-with-obama-book-author-ed-klein/

Funny to see Klein attacked as being a liar now. The biggest even. According to Wright, Obama says he and all politicians are the biggest liars. I concur.

[soonercruiser]

Pfft. Ed Klein is the biggest liar on the planet. The man has zero access to Democratic insiders and until he produces tapes I call BS on his stories.

You can personally call bullsh** all you want Diver......but, currently there is no one, NO ONE coming close to the impact of the lies told by the Liar-in-Chief, Obama!

[diverdog]

Here are the ones with Rev. Wright. Doubt it will change your mind, but they exist.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/church-was-not-their-thing-new-audio-from-rev-wrights-shocking-interview-with-obama-book-author-ed-klein/

Funny to see Klein attacked as being a liar now. The biggest even. According to Wright, Obama says he and all politicians are the biggest liars. I concur.

All this according to Klein. Produce the tapes then I will believe. Even if it is all true so what. The man has been caught in so many lies it is not even funny. The Clinton's hate him.

[LiveLaughLove]

All this according to Klein. Produce the tapes then I will believe. Even if it is all true so what. The man has been caught in so many lies it is not even funny. The Clinton's hate him.

The audio is at the link I provided you from the interviews between Wright and Klein.

[diverdog]

The audio is at the link I provided you from the interviews between Wright and Klein.

Thanks . It did not come up on my phone. I will listen on Sunday. Heading out on a backpacking trip.

[sappstuf]

"What's in the box?" asked Klein.

"An email offering me money not to preach at all between the explosion of the media the first week in March [2008] and the November election," answered Wright.

"An email from whom?" Klein asked.

"One of his friends."

"Whitaker?" asked Klein.

"Yeah."

"Eric?"

"Yeah."

According to Klein, Whitaker's offer, which was made through an intermediary at Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, was $150,000.

In case you don't know who Eric Whitaker is:


That’s the same guy who runs the Urban Health Initiative at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Michelle Obama got her big six-figure promotion coincidentally shortly after The One was elected to the Senate; the same guy who got a “glowing” reference from Obama for Tony Rezko, which led to Rod Blagojevich hiring Whitaker to be the state’s public health director; and the same guy whose UHI program just got nearly $6 million from HHS as one of 26 grantees in an applicant pool of 3,000.

[diverdog]

The audio is at the link I provided you from the interviews between Wright and Klein.

That Wright guy is a nut. Not sure what to make of the audios. Thanks for the link.

[sappstuf]

That Wright guy is a nut. Not sure what to make of the audios. Thanks for the link.

Yep. Now just think of the judgement of a guy who was in Wright's congregation for 20 years, asked him to officiate his marriage and then baptize his kids...

Exactly.

[diverdog]

Yep. Now just think of the judgement of a guy who was in Wright's congregation for 20 years, asked him to officiate his marriage and then baptize his kids...

Exactly.

The problem for Romney is that there are more than a few crazies in the Mormon church. I think if he hammers Obama on the economy he will do okay. Wright won't get him much traction.

[sappstuf]

The problem for Romney is that there are more than a few crazies in the Mormon church. I think if he hammers Obama on the economy he will do okay. Wright won't get him much traction.

I'm sure that is true, but unless you can pinpoint a specific crazy that married the Romney's and then baptized their kids, then it really isn't the same is it?

[diverdog]

I'm sure that is true, but unless you can pinpoint a specific crazy that married the Romney's and then baptized their kids, then it really isn't the same is it?

True.

I just don't think this gets the traction Romney needs. As Clinton said "its the economy stupid". Romney needs to pound Obama on jobs. Reverend Wright is an after thought.

Romney's biggest weakness will be connecting with ordinary folks.

I am in a wait and see mode with Mitt. Overall, I like him. My biggest issue is that he won't stand up to the hard right in the Republican Party and I do not want to see the tea party agenda passed. I would really like to see a focus on energy...particulary NG.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

There's a mistake right there as well.

The beauty of this for the Romney camp is that Mitt is disconnected. Indirectly "swift boating" for lack of a better term. I wouldn't be surprised to even see Mitt come out and decry this, something fancy about focusing on the economy instead of mudraking. And the mudraking will continue unabated from parties just like this, plinking and dinking at vote after vote after vote.

And Romney comes out smelling like a rose.

[soonercruiser]

Yep. Now just think of the judgement of a guy who was in Wright's congregation for 20 years, asked him to officiate his marriage and then baptize his kids...

Exactly.

Bingo!
And, quoting Obama, "a close personal friend and my pastor....I can no more disown him than.....etc"

[SicEmBaylor]

Klein is a shady guy. I'm not saying everything he wrote is bull**** (a lot of it is likely truth or rooted in truth), but it's hard to find the truth in what he writes. He has a bad reputation.

As for Oprah, I would expect the President to sit and listen to what one of his major donors thinks. There's nothing wrong or earth shattering about that revelation unless Oprah had a team of her attorneys in a back room drafting legislation.

[SicEmBaylor]

What does knowing the details of Wright and Obama's relationship tell you about Obama that you didn't already know? Okay, he's a hard-left black politician from Illinois who has a relationship with some fairly radical black/"civil rights" leaders. SHOCKING! :eyeroll:

Who the **** cares?

[TAFBSooner]

. . . he's a hard-left black politician from Illinois who has a relationship with some fairly radical black/"civil rights" leaders. SHOCKING! :eyeroll:


Maybe he used to be, before sometime in 2006. He has definitely not governed/ruled as hard-left since January 2009. Go back and review where he sits on the libertarians' political compass.

[LiveLaughLove]

Maybe he used to be, before sometime in 2006. He has definitely not governed/ruled as hard-left since January 2009. Go back and review where he sits on the libertarians' political compass.

That compass thing has him so far off base as to be comical. He has "governed" they way he has because he has been forced to be more moderate than he would like to be, thank the good Lord.

Much like Clinton after the midterms when he got his wrist slapped for being too aggressively liberal.

There is no doubt Obama is one of the farthest left Presidents we have had. He simply hasn't had the Congress and Judiciary in his pocket like FDR.

BTW, in those tapes Wright joins the ranks of the unwashed masses that think Obama is or at least was a Muslim. I don't think Obama is a mulsim, nor a Christian for that matter. He is a pragmatic agnostic. Meaning he uses his religion for his political gain and nothing more.

[TAFBSooner]

That compass thing has him so far off base as to be comical. . . .There is no doubt Obama is one of the farthest left Presidents we have had. He simply hasn't had the Congress and Judiciary in his pocket like FDR.


All those far left things like:
Attacking a country (Libya) without getting a declaration of war?
Giving the medical insurance industry a gigantic windfall by giving them 40 million new customers?
Giving himself the right to kill American citizens without benefit of due process (excuse me, without judicial process?
Fighting like the debbil to stay in Iraq, which he couldn't because of agreements negotiated by GW Bush? (Never mind that he then took credit for getting us out.)
Taking more money from Wall Street than any other presidential candidate up to and including 2008?
Told Wall Street he was the only one saving him from the pitchforks?

There's lots of things not to like about President Obama, but being far-left isn't one of them.

[SicEmBaylor]

All those far left things like:
Well let's review...

Attacking a country (Libya) without getting a declaration of war?
His Wilsonian/TDR/W. Bush foreign policy that takes an aggressive "forward leaning" stance against nations who have done us no harm is anything but "libertarian." Abusing the powers of the Presidency is anything but "libertarian."

Giving the medical insurance industry a gigantic windfall by giving them 40 million new customers?
It shouldn't be his place to "give" any industry anything and that's beside the fact that the legislation that supposedly will provide this windfall is based on an unconstitutional mandate. His economic policy, thus far, is most certainly based on a socialist model. People go wrong in assuming that the socialist model he uses is communist which is absurd and contrary to the obvious facts. Obama's economic policies are not radically difference than the policies of previous Presidents....they're very much fascist policies but they're anything but "libertarian."

Giving himself the right to kill American citizens without benefit of due process (excuse me, without judicial process?
Again, abusing the power of the Presidency and violating the constitutional rights of an American is anything but "libertarian."

Fighting like the debbil to stay in Iraq, which he couldn't because of agreements negotiated by GW Bush? (Never mind that he then took credit for getting us out.)
Credit he is definitely entitled to take regardless of who negotiated the exit.

Taking more money from Wall Street than any other presidential candidate up to and including 2008?
Told Wall Street he was the only one saving him from the pitchforks?
There's that fascist economic model at work again...

There's lots of things not to like about President Obama, but being far-left isn't one of them.
If this were Europe, his policies would be more in line with the center-right but left/right/center labels for Europe have no corresponding relation to American politics. By American standards, any move away from a strict adherence to the Constitution and policies designed to limit the size and scope of government is a move toward the left...everything you just stated is well outside of acceptable Constitutional limits on the power of the President and scope of the Federal government.

[Chuck Bao]

Well let's review...

His Wilsonian/TDR/W. Bush foreign policy that takes an aggressive "forward leaning" stance against nations who have done us no harm is anything but "libertarian." Abusing the powers of the Presidency is anything but "libertarian."

It shouldn't be his place to "give" any industry anything and that's beside the fact that the legislation that supposedly will provide this windfall is based on an unconstitutional mandate. His economic policy, thus far, is most certainly based on a socialist model. People go wrong in assuming that the socialist model he uses is communist which is absurd and contrary to the obvious facts. Obama's economic policies are not radically difference than the policies of previous Presidents....they're very much fascist policies but they're anything but "libertarian."

Again, abusing the power of the Presidency and violating the constitutional rights of an American is anything but "libertarian."

Credit he is definitely entitled to take regardless of who negotiated the exit.

There's that fascist economic model at work again...

If this were Europe, his policies would be more in line with the center-right but left/right/center labels for Europe have no corresponding relation to American politics. By American standards, any move away from a strict adherence to the Constitution and policies designed to limit the size and scope of government is a move toward the left...everything you just stated is well outside of acceptable Constitutional limits on the power of the President and scope of the Federal government.

You serious? This grid and group of questions in this survey worked pretty well for me, being both left of center and libertarian. I mean you just labeled a lot of anti-gay homophobes as leftists on the Sic'em scale. Would you consider the Defense of Marriage Act to be lefty? Interesting.

[TAFBSooner]

Well let's review...

His Wilsonian/TDR/W. Bush foreign policy that takes an aggressive "forward leaning" stance against nations who have done us no harm is anything but "libertarian." Abusing the powers of the Presidency is anything but "libertarian."

It shouldn't be his place to "give" any industry anything and that's beside the fact that the legislation that supposedly will provide this windfall is based on an unconstitutional mandate. His economic policy, thus far, is most certainly based on a socialist model. People go wrong in assuming that the socialist model he uses is communist which is absurd and contrary to the obvious facts. Obama's economic policies are not radically difference than the policies of previous Presidents....they're very much fascist policies but they're anything but "libertarian."

Socialist or fascist: pick one. But kudos for understanding that socialist and communist aren't the same critters.



Again, abusing the power of the Presidency and violating the constitutional rights of an American is anything but "libertarian."

Credit he is definitely entitled to take regardless of who negotiated the exit.


I don't think he's entitled to much credit for us getting out when he was fighting hard behind the scenes to get an extension on our tenure in Iraq.



There's that fascist economic model at work again...

If this were Europe, his policies would be more in line with the center-right but left/right/center labels for Europe have no corresponding relation to American politics. By American standards, any move away from a strict adherence to the Constitution and policies designed to limit the size and scope of government is a move toward the left...everything you just stated is well outside of acceptable Constitutional limits on the power of the President and scope of the Federal government.

So, in your head, do you place "strict adherence to the Constitution " at the origin of the grid, or at the exteme right?

I wasn't clear - I'm certainly not calling Mr. Obama libertarian. I was referring to the two-dimensional grid (see current post on that) which has him to the right on economics and towards the top on authoritarian (a little less than Mr. Romney on both measures). Go to that post, take the quiz, and read the supplementary info. I think he's higher on the authoritarian scale than that site does.

Should there be a third axis on that poll for foreign policy (mind-our-own-business vs empire)? Or does the authoritarian/libertarian axis cover that?