Via Sullivan:
This stimulus bill is huge, so disastrous, and so harmful to our country that even though Obama has been in office for less than a month, I think it’s already fair to label him as one of the worst Presidents in American history. – John Hawkins, Right Wing News
I would hate to hear what he thinks about a President who started two wars he couldn’t finish, doubled the national debt, listlessly presided over numerous crises foreign and domestic, left a deficit of a trillion dollars, presided over an economic crash, and left office with the lowest approval ratings ever. I bet he just savages someone like that.
Oh, wait. Nevermind.
*** Update ***
By way of comparison, the “huge” and “disastrous” stimulus bill is now set at $789 billion dollars. If you take out the tax cuts, which I am presuming the Republicans will approve of, that means that basically the bill is about $400 billion in spending. So $400 billion to try to pad the fall in a crashing economy, as compared to this:
The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003.
Perspective- Right Wing News ain’t got it. Of all the wars the Republicans have launched, the War on Irony is the only one they have a clear shot at winning.
Chris Johnson
Oh, snap! I literally started laughing, and it’s not really all that funny. YIKES!
Joshua Norton
GOoPers are relentless in their unintended irony.
Delia
Shorter wingnut: "Worstest. Worstest. Worstest. See. I can say it, too."
Mac from Oregon
What a putz!
Comrade Dread
Best. President. Evah!
It’s both sad and amusing to see just how insane the wingnuts have gone. They’ve lost any sort of perspective beyond, "Republican=good; Democrat=devil."
It doesn’t matter that for eight years they said that any dissent against the CiC was tantamount to treason worthy of death and now they compare themselves to the insurgent Taliban.
It doesn’t matter that Obama is largely being a very conventional politician, albeit a left leaning one, or that he added tax cuts to the stimulus plan, that his foreign policy thus far hasn’t resulted in hordes of brown people with scimitars stoning girls in miniskirts.
Nope. Democrat = Bad. Doesn’t matter what he actually does.
chrome agnomen
OED researchers and wordsmiths the world over begin the search for new definitions for such words as irony, satire, cynicism, and self-awareness.
cleek
Obama Derangement Syndrome is spreading like crazy among the crazies in the Grand Obstructionist Party.
get help, you fucking losers.
Tom Hilton
What, not ‘History’s Greatest Monster’? These wingnuts just aren’t thinking big enough.
(Okay, they’re not thinking enough, period.)
Dork
The Onion just gave up. Called it quits.
El Cid
I think it’s entirely fair for the contemporary U.S. right wing to label Barack Obama a huge failure after a few weeks in office, just as it’s fair for everyone else in the country to keep laughing at the nation’s right wingers as they scream more and more crazy things.
But then, they never thought for one moment that George W. Bush Jr. should take the tiniest bit of responsibility for giving the middle finger to every single solitary person screaming to him warnings about a terrorist attack for 8 months.
MobiusKlein
Peak wingnut, my lower left cheek.
Did you miss the freak out when some journalist covering Panetta got grabbed on the arm by security? They were comparing it to Hitler’s ascension to power.
I don’t want to taint my browser by googling Obama + Antichrist, rest assured, you would find plenty wingys.
I’m not sure what’s worse than the Antichrist, but they will come up with something.
4tehlulz
Obama is the worst president in history because his trillions will stay in country, not be shrinkwrapped and shipped to Iraq.
The Populist
So let me get this straight…Fucktard rightwing nobody thinks Obama is already the worst president ever. Hmmmm, whatever happened to the mantra you nuts were selling us when Bush was pres: Support the President.
You fucktards prove everyday how right I am about you. You defend pedophiles, molesters, corrupt asswipes but you still have the nerve to argue such nonsense?
You LOST asswipes. Figure it out. YOUR favorite boy President is the worst ever. Obama will NEVER get that bad.
Oh, and hate to break it to you but the Reagan Revolution failed. Sit and spin asswipes.
El Cid
These f*@%ers, by the way, are the people who still screech into the radio about Sandy Berger taking extra copies of whatever it was, 9/11 commission related crap, like it was the biggest theft of the most valuable documents in history.
Also, this past Sunday ultra-douchebag Sean Hannity argued that Obama was a Saul Alinsky revolutionary Socialist because Obama campaigned on the word "change" and if you read Saul Alinsky OMG SAUL ALINSKY USED THE WORD CHANGE TOO!!!!!!!!!
Stuck
How on earth do you mock that? It’s like slamming an astronaut as the worst spaceman in history, during blastoff.
Zifnab
@MobiusKlein:
I still haven’t seen anything to top "Obama is Malcolm X’s secret love child!" The cognative dissonance of the last three weeks has been perhaps the worst we’ve ever seen. But it just doesn’t compete with the rampant insanity we saw in the run up to the actual election.
This all just seems crazy now because its still happening. It’s like getting dunked in ice-cold water. You could have sworn it wasn’t this cold the last fifty times it happened.
The Populist
Obama is the worst president in history because his trillions will stay in country, not be shrinkwrapped and shipped to Iraq.
Why Obama is already the BEST President we’ve had in quite some time:
1) He loves people AND his wife.
2) He gives little old ladies pecks on the cheek. To me that says compassionate.
3) The man seems to care. Say it’s an act (I doubt it), he’s a damn good actor.
4) He’s a leader. He understands how to PLAY the dumbass right and make them look more foolish without saying a word.
5) He can joke with rightwing nutjobs in the audience.
6) He can articulate his points. You KNOW where he stands.
7) He’s a reformer in the sense he’s already done some wonderful things with ethics reform in the WH.
8) He dared to freeze senior WH staff pay.
9) He’s willing to listen to the enemy, be it rightwing nutjobs or Iran.
10) He shook the hand of a soldier in uniform when boarding the helicopter. You can’t fake that stuff.
11) He’s open about everything on his agenda.
12) He understands what needs to be done even if the rightie nutjobs say he doesn’t.
I can go on and on. Too bad Bushie boy can’t brag about any of the stuff above. Republicans are cynical asswipes who care not one wit about the so-called "main street."
The Populist
El Cid: Remember Sean Hannity never steals ideas from ANYBODY. Now he’s starting his dumb show with ‘Day xxx of the socialist takeover of America’ or whatever that shit is about.
Do these fucktards believe this crap when one of their own shining ‘stars’ is the worst socialist ever?
Oh and Hannity? That schtick got old when Rush used it during the Clinton years. You are lame if you think that everything you talk about is an original thought.
Asswipe.
Stuck
Peak Wingnut?
More like the Wingnut Futures Market is all in.
John Cole
You might want to head over to Atlas Juggs, where she has decided that Paul Kanjorski video we talked about yesterday is evidence that someone deliberately tanked the economy to get Obama elected. The fact that she is still calling Obama by the name of “President Hussein” just makes it better.
George Soros has a starring role.
Pam has outPammed herself.
former capitalist
Man, I clicked through the link to the Right Wing News website. Just don’t go there. Here are a couple of intersting comments: Mitch McConnell is supposed to be a phenomenal Field Marshall; his failure to hold the GOP together (on this bill) is an ill omen for our side.
Bio: John Hawkins, Myrtle Beach, CA; conservative Christian professional blogger (lack of commas in the former)….rogue and raconteur. (I’ll just bet.)
And, you can place a masthead on the site for only $75.00!
You could put this guy on a steady diet of benzos, cocaine and Mt. Dew, have Michael Moore brain wash him and fill his frontal lobe with back issues of The Nation and he wouldn’t see the light of day.
Mar
Dear lord, they put THAT many tax cuts into the stimulus bill?!?!? Wowweeeee, where’s the article that breaks down what the new stimulus bill has in it?
Evinfuilt
13) He treats us as Adults
I’m amazed by that, a president who see’s a difference between talking to a kindergarten class and the country as a whole. Poor wingnuts can’t handle someone talking in complete sentences, with thought put into them.
The Populist
I still haven’t seen anything to top "Obama is Malcolm X’s secret love child!" The cognative dissonance of the last three weeks has been perhaps the worst we’ve ever seen. But it just doesn’t compete with the rampant insanity we saw in the run up to the actual election.
Zifnab,
They can’t hurt this guy and they know it. Where Clinton had Whitewater and affairs hanging over his first 100 days in office, Obama has nothing they can use. His appointments are moderate, slightly left of center types (except for Solis) and he is clean with regards to money and marriage.
They can’t shake him. They can plant xxx many asswipes at his town halls and they won’t shake him. Shit, he’ll joke with them and it only makes THEM look stupid.
They can’t beat this guy. They used to get upset at the approval ratings Clinton had even with the scandals. They will have steam coming out of their ears with this guy. He will win.
SpotWeld
A war wasn’t declared on irony but the GOP, they beat it up in a dark alley and too its wallet.
TheFountainHead
It’s times like this, that I wish to God (should he exist) that Samuel Clemens and E.B. White were still alive.
Maybe that’s a random sentiment to have in response to this kind of bombast, but it’s the first thing I felt.
John Cole
@TheFountainHead: Mencken.
Stuck
We haven’t seen this level of wingnuttery since Bill Clinton’s Narco Kingpin/Murder, Inc. days.
Crusty Dem
It’s a multi-front war, they’re defeating irony but being completely overrun by the forces of reason (talk about an army that’s been understaffed for the last 7 1/2 years or so).
The Populist
You might want to head over to Atlas Juggs, where she has decided that Paul Kanjorski video we talked about yesterday is evidence that someone deliberately tanked the economy to get Obama elected. The fact that she is still calling Obama by the name of “President Hussein” just makes it better.
One could argue Americans have the attention span of a gnat. I don’t believe the majority of Americans are dumb. These people like to argue the difference between right and left is that the right respects ideas, privacy and opinions, pushes common sense and personal responsibility. The left are sold as socialistic and don’t respect ideas or opinions. The right make people believe the left are Godless assholes who would sell out the country in five minutes to be part of a UN world government.
Now when I see idiots like Atlas Jugs say something as lame as that I want to ask how they came to that conclusion? So how did the left tank big business and the economy? Last I checked the right deregulated the key industries involved in this mess (Clinton did help, but he is the best Republican President we’ve had in awhile!) and spent money like drunken sailors on shore leave.
How exactly did the left tank the economy? Big business isn’t gonna help them out so really, lady, how did it occur? Seriously…if these asstards want to make an argument they’d better be coming back with proof or facts to back it up.
The right tanked the economy in an effort to shrink government spending once and for all. One could argue the wars were an attempt to break the military so they could privatize it at some point.
THOSE points can be backed up with research and facts.
robertdsc
One of my favorite early moments.
The Populist
We haven’t seen this level of wingnuttery since Bill Clinton’s Narco Kingpin/Murder, Inc. days.
If they can’t have power, nobody can. The left worked with Bushtard yet the right want nothing to do with cooperation to work with Obama.
These fucktards rammed the "support the President" bullcrap down our throats day in, day out. If you hated on Bush you HAD to LOVE the terrorists they’d tell us.
So why is it they can’t follow their own bullcrap?
Gregory
…right up there with history’s greatest monster, FDR.
The Populist
One of my favorite early moments.
Me too. That was an honest moment. You could see him stop his entire body movement to shake this man’s hand.
Yep, there goes Obama the secret Muslim spy who hates America. I am so sorry righties, you can’t fake genuineness like that. Clinton was a phony with the lip biting and ‘feel your pain’ nonsense. Obama is a breath of fresh air.
Stuck
Peter King on Hardball saying if Obama’s stimulus works we’ll need to debate if it was responsible or not. It’s nothing less that a continual screeching cry for help.
The Populist
…right up there with history’s greatest monster, FDR.
Huh? Sarcasm or serious, Gregory???
I’ve been noticing all the righties are in full spin with why FDR failed. Love it when they can’t go after the messenger so they go after the policies.
Comrade Dread
Sorry, history’s greatest monster is and always will be Jimmy Carter.
Yeah, it took me by surprise how quick the turnaround was. I mean Bill had a good solid few months before the Republicans started whispering about black helicopters, FEMA, Vince Foster, and secret death camps for conservatives in Alaska.
Obama had just won the election and I started hearing all this Red Dawn survivalist chatter from the blogosphere.
Joshua Norton
Hi, I’m a Republican politician. I’m going to try to make you feel all patriotic and pissed off at Dems, but I’m probably going to just end up confusing the crap out of you because we just got finished doing everything we’re bashing them about.
The Populist
Obama had just won the election and I started hearing all this Red Dawn survivalist chatter from the blogosphere.
I firmly believe if he wasn’t black and had a traditional Anglo-saxon name he’d get more time before the negative crap kicked in.
These people doing all the attacking are amplifying to the loudest extreme with the hope that if it worked once, it will work again. They should be very careful here as I see it finally backfiring.
And I promise this…if the right don’t stop the stupid talk and some asswipe takes a shot at the President because of it, forget the fairness doctrine…the public will turn on the assholes who put the President in harms way. God forbid, if it happens I will be one of those people calling for the heads of Limbpaugh, Shatnity and Savage.
I am for free speech, 100% btw, but there needs to be somebody to tell these creeps that the nonsense needs to be toned down a bit. These media companies that employ these creeps would never put a KKK member on the air to spew hatred of blacks, hispanics, etc so I can’t understand why they don’t tell the Limpbaughs to keep it honest. If he doesn’t agree with Obama, fine but this making up points to sell and anger the core audience is downright fraud in my book.
Have an opinion, fine, but back it up with facts.
Joshua Norton
Hey, they’ve been laying in wait for him since 1992
chrome agnomen
you can’t admire their over the top dialogue, but you have to wonder how long they can keep topping themselves.
‘when you got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose’
(lookin’ for that home; i hope they find it–in the asylum.)
burnspbesq
Stuck,
I am so looking forward to seeing Peter King run against Gillibrand next year. The things she is going to do to him …
Polish the Guillotines
@Evinfuilt:
The wingtards have spent the last ten or twelve years vigorously defending ignorance, incompetence, and corruption. They have absolutely no idea what an A-Game looks like.
They’re getting schooled. And it hurts.
J.
Thank you for this great blog post, John.
"Perspective- Right Wing News ain’t got it."
And I dare say that’s not the only thing the Right Wingers aren’t getting. You know, if Obama or the House Democratic leaders got some of those Sports Illustrated swimsuit models to stimulate the Republicans’ packages, I bet we’d be hearing a lot less whining and complaining.
gwangung
Mouth open.
Jaw hurts from hitting floor.
The Populist
you can’t admire their over the top dialogue, but you have to wonder how long they can keep topping themselves.
What’s that old adage about throwing things at the wall to see what sticks?
bago
Re: Conservative movies.
Wonkette has 2 threads about this.
John Cole
I don’t think his race has anything to do with the vast majority of them. I really don’t. Some of them, sure, but they are a distinct minority in the Republican minority.
I’ve gone back and read the Hunting of the President. I have read the Brock books, I’ve gone back and read all the Daily Howler stuff. What I think is different is several things:
1.) The intertrons really has made the outliers front and center. If it were not for blogging, none of us would have any idea what John Hawkins or Michelle Malkin thinks.
2.) Within that, we also need to remember that those of us following these guys are distinct outliers. I could walk down any street in my town, and ask every person I saw ‘Did you see what John Hawkins said?’ and every last person would say “John who?” Atlas Jugs would be the crazy lady down the street.
3.) It has become profitable to be crazy. All the highest traffic right wing sites are insane because it pays. Look at what happened to Captain Ed as he moved to Hot Air.
4.) They are in unprecedented territory here- during the Clinton years, they were at least out of power on top of the successes of the Reagan years. This time around, Republicans are out of power, and they have nothing to show for it, no one can seriously argue the last eight years were a success, and even if they try, the overwhelming majority of the public disagrees with them.
5.) They are truly out of ideas. At least in the early 90’s, they honestly had some ideas. They turned out to be bad ones, by and large, but right now they have nothing. They can’t even fall back on their “principles,” because they broke all of them the last eight years.
6.) The people we are watching are firmly in the echo chamber. They don’t read anyone that does not confirm what they already think, and it has started a vicious feedback loop.
PaminBB
John,
Wingnut innumeracy fits right in with the miracle-believing that you mention in a post below.
Zifnab
Please inform John Kerry and Al Gore. Or, for christ’s sake, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Or anybody with the last name "Kennedy".
Stuck
@John Cole:
I was trolling his old site when he made the switch, and for a week or so , he double posted his threads on Hot air and CQ’s.
He turned immediately to full wingnut on the second or third post. And just like that was assimilated into the hive like a fish to water.
Indylib
@Stuck:
The asshats are already trying to set themselves up to take credit for it just in case it works. The fucktards don’t still don’t seem to understand how video tape works.
I can’t wait to see if the MSM ever figures out how to use it to the same extent John Stewart does.
big woo
I listened to the first 20 minutes or so of Limbaugh’s show today. He proposed a Final Solution, of sorts, for the Democrat problem. It was basically an elaborate revenge fantasy peaking with the prosecution of George Soros for various crimes yet to be determined.
Throughout this unhinged diatribe he kept saying "we" this and "we" that.
I’d say he’s settling into his new GOP leadership role just fine.
The Populist
It was basically an elaborate revenge fantasy peaking with the prosecution of George Soros for various crimes yet to be determined.
Soros is a criminal yet Mellon-Scaife isn’t? They both give lots of money to their respective side’s supporters.
Funny…anybody notice the real conservative business people are the Soros, Buffetts, and Bings? They are labelled as the crazy libs yet it’s funny how they make money and don’t hurt the economy the way the rightie bigmouth billionaires do.
Notorious P.A.T.
Obama Derangement Syndrome is spreading like crazy among the crazies in the Grand Obstructionist Party.
The Populist
The asshats are already trying to set themselves up to take credit for it just in case it works. The fucktards don’t still don’t seem to understand how video tape works.
I have a feeling Obama will get the credit if it does work. If it fails, I think Obama will get a pat on the back if he continues to work hard to fix this.
It won’t be hard to show the public how much the right prayed and hoped this would fail. All it takes is playing clips of the self professed "leader" of the right, Rushed Limpbaugh.
The Populist
I’m sure that explains it: the right-wingers saw people demonizing Bush for no reason at all (ahem) so now they are by God gonna return the favor!
You are right PLUS they are jealous their little girl toy Sarah Palin failed to win over America the way Obama did.
Indylib
@The Populist:
I believe Obama will get the credit. I’m just incredulous that those little fucks are starting the PR battle to try to take credit just in case it works before the stim even goes to Obama’s desk to be signed.
media browski
John, your list above is correct, except you ignore the fact that the wingnut feedback loop now includes both fox news and the gop congress.
Joe civillian doesn’t know malkin, but ahe’s on their prpaganda outlets and BEING QUOTED by gop congresscritters
Pardon the typos; on a handheld.
joe from Lowell
Mmmmm! Yummy yummy!
Sweet, sweet neocon tears. How I love them so!
Cry, baby! Cry!
You guyz shouldn’t be getting angry when you see outbursts like these; this is awesome!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@TheFountainHead:
I wish Molly Ivins was still around.
Ed Drone
Speaking of survivalists, I read that they found nuclear material, capable of being included in a "Dirty Bomb," in the basement of a Nazi sympathizer whose wife shot him after years of physical and sexual abuse. The guy was vocal in his anger at Obama’s election, too. I’m glad his wife was a good shot (it seems to have been self-defense in a ‘domestic altercation’).
Ed
The Moar You Know
That’s an interesting development. He is essentially conceding that it is the right thing to do; watch for this to be the new meme within a few days. The "debate" will turn to whether it was the "responsible" thing to do – a moral question for which there is conveniently no right answer.
Laura W
I am quite fond of "The War on Irony".
I am also quite fond of irony, and therefore, conflicted.
JasonF
If you want to compare the cost of the stimulus bill to the cost of something else, try this.
[delurk]...[/delurk]
The Rethugs think that if the economy isn’t hunky-dory by November 2010 they’ll make big gains in congress and win back the presidency. That’s what’s motivating the current attack on FDR. The few of them who know any history know that the Depression was no better in 1936 than it was in 1932, maybe worse, and yet FDR was reelected in the greatest landslide in history.
I think by 2012, if the country hasn’t melted down completely, Obama is a shoo-in to be reelected. If there’s been no sign of improvement, it might be close; if there has been, it’ll be a blowout. Then in 2016 a lot of the Cranky Old White Men™ who form the core of the rethuglican party will be dead. The demographics are against them, the times are against them, the Information revolution is against them, they’re finished.
This all assumes the country doesn’t go completely to hell, and Nehemiah Scudder Fred Phelps doesn’t get elected Prophet Incarnate in 2012. (I know, I’m showing my age, or my geekiness, I don’t know which.)
Rome Again
Even if there isn’t much improvement, I’m still going to vote for the guy who is trying to fix it, rather than those who tried to drown the government in a bathtub.
Ash Can
Regarding offal like this, I don’t think "irony" is the word. Maybe it’s the writer in me, but to me irony involves a touch of subtlety, and at least a modicum of thought. These are just the ravings of a lunatic. These people aren’t ironic, they’re fucked up in the head.
[delurk]...[/delurk]
Of course, "Nehemiah Scudder" was supposed to be struck out. FYWP.
dave
I see a lot of laughing and mocking of "wingnuts" however I don’t see one intelligent argument for this stimulus. How exactly will America benefit from this and what is to prevent a fiasco like the Japanese economy. Before you celebrate your victory against the "cons" take a good long hard look at all the dept you are inheriting. After all the the government’s dept is ours. We the People is you and me. And $800 billion dollars is $2700 for every man, woman and child in the USA. This will not go away and will have to be paid back with interest. Think about it.
AhabTRuler
All your dept are belong to us?!?
AnneLaurie
Only if Sports Illustrated has started including studly young male models in banana hammocks.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
El Cid
Fixt.
Fencedude
@dave:
So you’re an idiot who hasn’t been paying attention?
Just Some Fuckhead
Great post John.
Even tho it’s practically like beating up a crippled person.
Marilyn
@The Populist:
You mean they know there is a "main-street?"
soonergrunt
I don’t know what the republicans’ problem with this package is. The direct spending is only $400 billion which is quite a bit less than the $515.4 billion we’re spending this year on the Department of Defense. That $515.4 billion does not include operational costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.