IN DEFENSE OF CALLING OBAMA BY THE ADJECTIVES HE DESERVES: ON THE DELICATE BUT IMPORTANT TASK OF DESCRIBING OUR PRESIDENT By Herb Denenberg

Source: http://www.thedenenbergreport.org/article.php?index=1551

November 01, 2009

THE PHONY, FAKER, FRAUD, FOUR-FLUSHING FIBBER WHO HATES AMERICA AND MARCHES US STRAIGHT TOWARD SOCIALISM, FASCISM, AND DESTRUCTION. OR DO WE LET CIVILILITY, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, AND FAUX POLITNESS TRUMP THE TRUTH?

My recent column titled “Obama Taking Us on a Path to Fascism” (October 28, 2009) started an explosion, with both praise and criticism bursting forth. So I thought I’d write a column explaining and justifying some of the uncomplimentary adjectives I’ve aimed at President Barack Hussein Obama, ‘Mm, ‘Mm, ‘Mm. Many people aren’t used to having their political Messiah described with the parade of pejoratives I’ve been launching since the earliest days of the 2008 presidential election.

What happens when legitimate criticism, when telling like it is, when calling a spade a spade and a phony a phony, when the plain unvarnished truth goes out of style because of demands for civility, because of the pressure of political correctness, because of fear of being accused of name-calling, and because of an assumed need for faux politeness when describing our president? And I might add when legitimate criticism and truth telling are jarring because the critic wants to describe the president of the United States in most uncomplimentary but truthful terms. I happen to be in the cross fire on this issue because as soon as Barack Hussein Obama emerged as a serious candidate, I labeled him as a world-class liar, phony, fraud, fibber, faker and four-flusher who also can’t be trusted because of his long association with America-haters, bigots, racists, and even terrorists. That crew of Obama’s close associates includes Rev. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright, Bill “Terrorist” Ayres, Father Michael “Racist” Pfleger, Bernadine “Terrorist” Dohrn, and all the rest.


I responded to my critics that I was not name-calling, as I had carefully documented those well-chosen adjectives describing Obama in over 100 columns written for the Philadelphia Bulletin. I believe in civility in public discourse, but civility should not trump truth telling, and political correctness can be potentially fatal and dangerous, as it is when the Obama administration refuses to use the words “war against terror” and “jihadism” and wants to substitute such words as “overseas contingency operation.” That kind of denial is not just semantic shading; it is insanity pure and simple. It is denial and dangerous delusion wrapped in deception. Can you defeat an enemy you are unwilling to correctly describe and instead insist on sanitizing and euphemizing those posing an existential threat?


Take a few of the adjectives used above and consider their applicability to President Barack Hussein ‘Mm ‘Mm ‘Mm Obama. I know this is a hard dose of truth and reality, especially when the mainstream media and much of the public view this man as a Messiah, the Anointed One, and the Chosen One.


LIAR. This is perhaps the easiest case to make, starting with his denial of knowing what Rev. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright was up to. After sitting in the pews of his church for twenty years, after closely working with him, after selecting his church to facilitate his own (i.e., Obama’s) political advancement, after using the title of one of his sermons for the title of his book, Obama claims to have heard nothing, to have read nothing, and to know nothing about Rev. Wright’s bigoted views. After being an active community organizer and politician in Wright’s community and being exposed to all kinds of stories and discussions of Wright and his philosophy, he still knows nothing. This means Obama is either the biggest liar in the world or the biggest idiot. I give him the benefit of the doubt by charitably accepting the former rather than the latter explanation. For further proof of Obama’s status as an habitual world-class liar consider a few of the things he’s said about Obamacare: If you like your doctor or your health insurance plan, you can keep it. The bill does not cover illegal immigrants or abortion. The bill will not add one dime to the deficit. Remember his campaign promises to keep lobbyists out of his administration and to accept public financing of his election. And what about his constant theme of bipartisanship and transparency? He is as bipartisan as Genghis Khan and as transparent as a 12-inch wall of lead.


PHONY AND HYPOCRITE. Obama clearly does the opposite of what he says. He was the great non-partisan, bipartisan hope, a man who saw not Blue States and Red States but the United States. In practice, over his career and certainly in the White House he is the most partisan of politicians. He says he wants to listen to all points of view, but comes over as one who rejects all criticism as the “old politics” and as “game playing.” He is a thin-skinned crybaby who apparently has never learned to take criticism and listen to opposing points of view. He promises a most transparent administration and then delivers the opposite. He stands by without objection as the Democratic Congress ignores and locks out the Republicans. The latest outrage is that they can’t even look at the Senate bill that just came out of committee.


SOCIALIST. This description came into vogue after his “spread the wealth” remark to Joe “The Plumber.” But his whole history shows not only Marxist and Communist associations, but also his frequent statements of that philosophy. He criticized the U.S. Constitution for not providing for “economic freedom” and redistribution of wealth. And now his answer to every problem is to redistribute wealth and soak the rich. Under his sweet rhetoric there is a full-scale class war going on, in which capitalism, profit, and free markets are demonized. In March, the Pew Research Center found 70 percent of Americans believe in the free market system, but a socialist, anti-free-market system is being rammed down their throats.


FASCIST. I’d add one final description, perhaps the harshest but nonetheless on target. Elements of fascism include the suppression of opposition and the suppression of private enterprise. Both are obvious Obama’s objectives. The latter is most obvious, as he expands the reach of government, takes over auto companies and banks, and expands government and our national debt in an unsustainable and reckless manner, thus crowding out private enterprise. He wants to take over the health care industry, one-sixth of the economy, and the energy sector, with Cap and Trade (and Tax) legislation. Then there is the attempt to regulate the pay of executives in financial institutions, not just the ones taking federal bailout money. As Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal put it, this is an unprecedented government regulatory grab, subjecting private enterprise to a Pay Czar “Mussolini.” Every move is to expand government programs and government itself. There’s an entitlement or a bag of them for one Democratic interest group after another. And now look what he is doing with critics. Humana and other insurers were subjected to a “gag order” when they criticized Obamacare. The Fox Cable News Network has been the subject of a White House attack that attempts to destroy, delegitimize, and demonize a major television network. He is after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as an evil demon, that spends a half a billion dollars on lobbying, to defeat essential reforms. He moves to punish critics in the insurance industry by trying to repeal their anti-trust exemption. He moves or his Congressional supporters move on all kinds of anti-democratic measures to silence critics and aid supporters –such as the Fairness Doctrine, diversity and localism to kill conservative talk radio, the Net Neutrality Rules to launch a government takeover of the Internet, and the Employee Free Choice Act to strengthen his friends, the labor bosses, and to destroy the secret ballot in union elections and put decision making on union contracts in the hands of government bureaucrats. Then there is Obama’s close association over many years with ACORN, the corrupt community organization that has often used intimidation to force businesses to take action on the ACORN agenda. But what did you expect when Obama surrounds himself and brings into the White House Marxists, communists, extremists, radicals, those who view Chavez’s revolution as “democratic,” and look to Mao for advice and wisdom, those who disparage America and seem to carry a portfolio of anti-American values and programs?


Don’t kid yourself. America, as we know it, America, as conceived by the Founding Fathers, is under attack by Obama, the Democratic Congress, and the Obama Administration. He has to be stopped if America is to be saved. The great columnist Thomas Sowell is right when he said that it’s time to stop weighing the evidence, and start stopping Obama as his anti-American programs and values are crystal clear to anyone paying attention. This will require an organized uprising of citizens to stop his programs, especially the most dangerous and damaging ones such as Obamacare and Cap and Trade. The time for action is right now, and any delay may be fatal to the survival of the greatest nation in the history of the world. We better hear “freedom’s call” and answer it now in its defense in every legal and appropriate way. Or we may be well on the way to becoming a broken down banana republic, a European socialist-style state or worse. There is a war going on against America values, and we better fight back in full force or we will lose that war and will lose America.


(Herb Denenberg is a veteran Philadelphia journalist, writing columns and doing television for over 30 years. He has served as Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and the Loman Professor of Insurance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as a consultant to over a dozen government agencies, and has won over 100 journalistic awards, including 42 local Emmys and awards from the National Press Club and the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has often testified before Congress on such matters as consumer protection, health care and insurance regulation, and co-authored “The Social Protection Plan of Puerto Rico,” the first no-fault law passed in a U.S. jurisdiction and was Associate Director of the Wisconsin Laws Revision Commission that was responsible for the most comprehensive revision of insurance laws in American history. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He blogs for “Freedom’s Call,” an activist organization that was recently launched. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins (B.S.), Creighton University’s Law School (J.D.), Harvard Law School (LL.M.) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.) He has also received honorary degrees from Allentown College (now DeSales University) and Spring Garden College. He can be reached at hdenenberg@aol.com.)




Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, professor at the Wharton School, and Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and is a board member of the Center for Safe Medication Use. He is an adjunct professor of insurance and information science and technology at Cabrini College. You can write Herb at POB 7301,St. Davids, PA e-mail him at hdenenberg@aol.com or reach him at his two Web sites: thedenenbergreport.org or denenbergsdump.org