Obama Disses World Leaders: No Bows at the Health Summit

In previous posts I have pointed out that President Obama shows more respect and deference for left-wing dictator thugs, Arabian kings, Japanese emperors, and Iranian "supreme leaders" than he does for the American people. His unreciprocated, abject deference to those rulers has been as patent as it is embarrassing. The pictures of our President bowing deeply at the waist say it all.  (Check out the Bow Wow shots at the sidebar, right, including the latest one in which Obama bows to the Mayor of Tampa!!)
 
So with all this kowtowing going on, would it be too much to ask of the man whom this country honored with its highest office, that when he meets with the leaders of this greatest country on the planet, leaders who in turn represent We the People, that he show some respect? Apparently so, because most of what we got from the President at this past week's Health Summit was dissive, derisive, and dismissive treatment of the People's representatives.
 
He started off reminding everyone (on the one fact of which no one needs reminding) that "I am the President," said in the context of justifying his taking all the time he wants to speak. Judging by his subsequent behavior, he must also think his status justifies:

• his attitude of putting everyone else in their place;
  
• his allotting himself the right to cut people off;
  
• his giving himself the latitude to state what is and is not a legitimate concern;
  
• his refusing to answer questions he promised "to get back to;" and
  
• his dividing up speaking time-slots: 20 parts Obama, 5 parts Dems & 1 part GOP.

In a piece I wrote last year, I dubbed Obama IMPOTUS, an acronym I coined for "I am the President of the United States," because he so often likes to use the grand phrase to refer to himself. Since he's back to using it again, I'll pick up on his lead and use the acronym here, with one difference. I will no longer put the acronym in bold and caps, as above, but will write it as "impotus," a manner more in keeping with the small stature he has shown. 
 
At the Summit, Senator Lamar Alexander spoke first for the Republicans, and asked impotus to renounce the use of reconciliation in pursuing health care, a procedure involving just a simple majority vote of 51 rather than the 60 votes ordinarily required. Reconciliation is technically supposed to be used only on budget measures, and has never been used in the past for something as far-reaching as a massive entitlement bill that will affect one-sixth of the country's economy, a bill that the vast majority of We the People oppose. 
 

Though Majority Leader Harry Reid now says that Republicans should "stop crying about reconciliation," in fact, democrats complained loudly about attempts to use it in the past, as when Bush tried to use reconciliation to get some judges confirmed.

Just last April, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), the Appropriation Committee chairman, sent a strongly worded letter to his colleagues stating his opposition to using reconciliation to pass health care or climate change bills, pointing out that reconciliation insulates bills from amendments and debate. Byrd stated, in part:

"I oppose using the budget reconciliation process to pass health care reform and climate change legislation.... As one of the authors of the reconciliation process, I can tell you that the ironclad parliamentary procedures it authorizes were never intended for this purpose."

But impotus brushed off Senator Alexander's call to abandon reconciliation on health care, saying that the American people aren't too interested in the Senate's technical rules, a sly avoidance of the question. It was as if to say, "Papa Doc Barack knows what's best for all Americans, so they needn't trouble their puny little heads about it." 
 
As I watched other parts of the Summit, many adjectives came to mind to describe impotus's behavior: rude, boorish, arrogant, bullying, domineering, patronizing, hostile, impatient, and irritable, to name a few. Teams of body language experts could find enough material for an entire conference in:

• his pained grimaces;
  
• his condescending ennui;
  
• his disapproving scowls;
  
• his kneading a furrowed, supercilious brow;
  
• his deliberate talking when the GOP's Eric Cantor was making his comments, impotus turning around and chatting up some of his aides behind him while his microphone was not fully turned down, so that you could hear his voice coming through over Cantor's.

 Perhaps the worst display of bad manners though, was his treatment of John McCain. McCain tried to speak about his concerns, which are essentially the same ones that the 75% of the American people who want to stop Obamacare have. They include:

• The size of the bill;
  
• The cost of the bill-(Even New York Times columnist David Brooks now says it's a "fiscal time bomb." See Brooks Article 2-22-10.);
  
• The mandates in the bill;
  
• The too great role of government in the bill;
  
• The special carve outs (for unions, for big Pharma, for certain Medicare Advantage seniors in Florida over other states' seniors, for some states over others (Nebraska and Louisiana) to buy votes;
  
• The fact that we HAVE NO MONEY TO PAY FOR THIS BILL AND ARE FOISTING OFF THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS.

And how did impotus respond to McCain's points? He cut him off, and was once again dismissive, scolding McCain in what can only be described as a "na, na, na, na, na" kind of way, that the "campaign is over, John," as if McCain had no serious points to make and was just trying to re-hash the election.

For all who remember how McCain was gracious, even to a fault, in accepting his defeat and Obama's win, it was especially galling to hear impotus chide him unfairly, and call him by first name, not in a friendly way, but in a patronizing, "I won and you lost so just shut up, John" kind of way.

Fortunately for the country, McCain is a bigger man than impotus will ever be, and had the grace to deflect his rude behavior with an attempt at humor rather than responding in kind.

And I got all the above and more from watching just a fraction of the total 7 hours worth of presidential grandstanding.

Unfortunately, this tactic, of dismissing out of hand opposing views and the people who have them, is not new behavior from impotus and the far left. True to his Saul Alinsky "Rules for Radicals" training, impotus demonizes the opposition, either directly or through others in his administration:

• branding the Republicans "the party of "no;"
  
• calling the Tea Party Movement a bunch of "tea baggers;"
  
• labeling Americans with conservative views as potential homeland "terrorists" or "racists" and "right-wing extremists."

Why, impotus is even kinder and gentler when speaking of known terrorists who have committed attacks on our soil than he is to We the People.

But I guess it's hard to love those whom you believe are too far beneath you: That's impotus's problem. Someone forgot to tell him that he's not king, nor emperor, nor supreme leader. He's just the head of 1 of 3 equal branches of government, and all those branches ultimately must answer to the American people.

We've heard all along how intelligent, even how brilliant impotus is, though so far he has not shown much competence in anything other than getting elected. However intelligent he may be, he's apparently not smart enough to figure out that we're not that stupid.

Nearly half of the American people who voted in the 2008 election voted for the other guy, and I dare say that if the election were held today, impotus would lose. And, recently democrats have lost big races in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. It doesn't seem he's smart enough to listen to the people behind those votes.

The Summit's lesson from our scolder-in-chief is that the majority party will ignore the wishes of the majority of the American public, dismiss their concerns, and push whatever form of Obamacare they can get away with through Congress. 

Oh, there might be some token, tepid gesture toward a GOP "idea" thrown into the mix to disguise the partisan nature of the move, but it will be as close to their original government takeover as they can get it. Time will tell if sufficient numbers of democrats in Congress will want to play Thelma to impotus's Louise and go over the political cliff together.

Should that happen, impotus need not fear. There will always be a place where he can showcase the talents he displayed last week. I can picture it now: Somewhere, in (hopefully) the not too distant future, say 2012, there will be a university classroom or two waiting to welcome him, full of tabula rasa intellects eager to bask in the reflected glory of "I am the President," and soak up teachable moments from our lecturer-in-chief.