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The Dems. Have Got To Be Kidding, LMAO!!!
President Barack Obama meets with officials about the Gulf oil disaster in Grand Isle, Louisiana, last month.
For Obama, Crisis May Outweigh Record!
Julian E. Zelizerm Special To CNN.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Democrats are seeking to run on substance of Obama's legislative record
- Julian Zelizer: That could be a risky strategy, since leadership in a crisis may count for more
- Presidents Carter, George H.W. Bush, also had substantive records, Zelizer says
- He says Carter, Bush weren't re-elected in part because of leadership issue
RELATED TOPICS
Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," and of a book on former President Jimmy Carter, to be published next fall by Times Books.
Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- A cartoonist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, Steve Breen, captured a big political challenge that President Obama is now confronting.
The cartoon features four frames, each with a picture of the president. Over the first two frames, with the president barely smiling, he says, "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "It's time I displayed some rage over the worst oil spill in U.S. history." The third frame shows him staring with a poker face. The restrained smile returns in the fourth frame, which reads, "Want to see it again?"
As Democrats move into the 2010 midterm elections and start thinking about 2012, the administration is struggling to deal with two difficult crises, both of which have generated concerns about the president's response and the perceptions of him as a leader.
The first is the oil leak in the Gulf, one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in American history. The second is an unemployment rate that continues to hover near 10 percent. The slow economic recovery has still failed to make a significant dent in the number of Americans who don't have jobs. American voters are frustrated and angry.
Democrats are counting on President Obama's substantial legislative record to provide the best selling points on the campaign trail, enough to counter any concerns about his detached demeanor.
While Republicans are the party of no, Democrats say, this White House has produced a series of important bills that prove just how competent this president is: the economic stimulus, health care reform, extending the the financial bailout and most likely financial regulation.
Democrats have started to compare Obama to FDR or LBJ, counteracting the more problematic comparison to the one-term President Jimmy Carter.
As Jonathan Alter, Newsweek columnist and author of "The Promise," recently said: "Just by getting health care through ... [Barack Obama is] now standing alone with Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson in terms of domestic achievement."
Yet a long list of accomplishments is not sufficient on the campaign trail. When Obama addresses the nation Tuesday night, he has a crucial opportunity to express his sentiment about the oil spill and outline to the country how he intends to bring this crisis to an end.
Responding to the critics is important. The public often reacts strongly to perceptions of whether a president exhibits commanding leadership skills, particularly in a crisis. Whether this is fair or not, that is the way that politics works.
As the president recently told Politico's Roger Simon, "I want to be absolutely clear that part of leadership always involves being able to capture people's imaginations, their sense of hope, their sense of possibility, being able to move people to do things they didn't think they could do. The irony, of course, is, is that the rap on me before I got to office was that that's all I could do -- right?"
History shows how perceptions can become extremely damaging politically. While popular memory usually depicts Carter as incompetent and ineffective, he had many achievements.
Carter was able to secure passage of an economic stimulus bill, government reorganization, airline deregulation, energy reform and an ethics in government law. He created the Department of Education. On foreign policy, the ratification of the Panama Canal Treaties marked a significant departure in U.S. relations toward Latin America.
The Camp David Accords constituted the first major peace agreement between the Israelis and one of its Arab neighbors, Egypt. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Carter -- who had already pushed for a significant increase in defense spending -- announced a crucial reorientation of national security policy with a new emphasis on protecting the Persian Gulf.
None of this helped on the campaign trail. In the election of 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter with 489 electoral college votes.
Republicans focused on the negative perceptions of Carter's ability as a leader, especially his inability to handle the Iran hostage crisis or to end stagflation. While Carter talked about his record when running against Reagan, Reagan spoke to voters about a president who did not appear have a handle on the crises he faced.
President George H.W. Bush was no slouch either. On domestic policy, he could point to several notable achievements, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. He also had an important deficit reduction package that took the first serious steps toward reducing the nation's fiscal imbalance.
Just as important, he could point to the arrest of Manuel Noriega in Panama as well as Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. effort that struck back at Iraq for invading Kuwait. It was the first successful major military operation since Vietnam. Indeed, when Operation Desert Storm ended, most pundits predicted that President Bush would be unbeatable.
Yet he wasn't. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton defeated him, targeting Bush's failure to respond to the economic recession. During one town hall debate, Bush's inability to respond to a question about the effect of the recession, and Clinton's masterful interaction, seemed to embody everything that was missing in the White House.
Democrats should thus be a bit cautious in banking too much just on the record, and they should be concerned about how the public perceives President Obama as he tries to resolve the oil spill and jobless rate. Growing doubts about his capacity as a leader as a result of these issues can become harder to shake over time.
As Brookings Institution expert Thomas Mann said in an interview with the Associated Press, "The public has come to believe the stimulus and financial bailout were of no use in helping the economy, contrary to evidence suggesting otherwise. Health care reform remains a controversial measure. The bottom line is that the public is scared, they're angry, they're in a foul mood and not inclined to see great victories or achievements."
The midterm elections will be the first real test to gauge what voters are thinking. Thus far the primaries and special elections have been all over the place, giving hope to Democratic incumbents and Tea Party activists alike.
But Obama can't afford to wait to see what the outcome is. He must start Tuesday, with the address to the nation. He needs to act with greater resolve in response to the twin crises of his second year or he might find that the most impressive list of accomplishments doesn't mean much when voters go into the ballot box.
In his talk about the Gulf, Obama must stop complaining about the press or simply saying that he is doing everything possible.
Instead, he must genuinely convey his frustration and concern about what is happening and lay out a specific agenda about what the federal government intends to do over the next few months to help bring the environmental crisis to an end and to diminish the risks that another one occurs soon.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian E. Zelizer.
Thunder 
AMERICANS DIDN'T STOP THE BASTARD- NOW THEY PAY THE PRICE FOR IT
WANNA SIT THIS ONE OUT OF DO YOU WANNA MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY OR DO YA WANNA FIGHT THE BASTARDS IN WA., D.C.
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Obama Issues Executive Order Mandating “Lifestyle Behavior Modification”
June 12, 2010 · 16 Comments
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is fond of saying, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.” Well, the Obama Administration certainly has not let the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig crisis go to waste, using it as a smokescreen to silently assault and further diminish American citizens’ personal freedom.
While the nation has its eyes and ears focused on the blame game ping-pong match between President Obama and BP top brass, President Obama on Thursday, June 10, quietly announced a new Executive Order establishing the “National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.”
You will "change" to my liking!
Claiming the “authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,” President Obama has truly gone off the deep end this time in his most atrocious attempt to date to control every aspect of Americans’ lives.
According to Sec. 5. of the Executive Order that details the President’s “National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy,” the Council will be charged with carrying out “lifestyle behavior modification” among American citizens that do not exhibit “healthy behavior.”
The President’s desired lifestyle behavior modifications focus on:
■smoking cessation;
■proper nutrition;
■appropriate exercise;
■mental health;
■behavioral health;
■sedentary behavior;
■substance-use disorder; and
■domestic violence screenings.
Making matters even worse, if that is even possible at this point, President Obama will create an “Advisory Group” composed of experts hand-picked from the public health field and various other areas of expertise “outside the Federal Government.”
Whether you are a child, a parent, a worker, or retired, the President’s approximately 25-member “Advisory Group” will soon be present in every aspect of Americans’ lives, as the Executive Order prescribes. Specifically, our new so-called lifestyle behavior modification advisors will be actively carrying out the President’s orders in:
■worksite health promotion;
■community services, including community health centers;
■preventive medicine;
■health coaching;
■public health education;
■geriatrics; and
■rehabilitation medicine.
President Obama’s sweeping plan to enforce “lifestyle behavior modification” is chock full of open-ended target areas, especially when it comes to issues of “mental” and “behavioral” health, “proper nutrition,” “sedentary behavior,” and “appropriate exercise.” The President’s Executive Order is a blatant and forceful attempt to adjust the way Americans young and old think, behave, eat, drink and whatever else free will used to entitle our nation’s citizens to enjoy as prescribed by the Founding Fathers.
If you are feeling stressed-out, sad, confused, hungry, thirsty, bored, or tired, do you honestly trust President Obama and his “Advisory Group” to act in your best interests?
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Here is the actual order.. This man is insane and crazy !!!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-
Executive Order-- Establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council
EXECUTIVE ORDER
ESTABLISHING THE NATIONAL PREVENTION, HEALTH PROMOTION, AND PUBLIC HEALTH COUNCIL
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 4001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment. There is established within the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (Council).
Sec. 2. Membership.
(a) The Surgeon General shall serve as the Chair of the Council, which shall be composed of:
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture;
(2) the Secretary of Labor;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(4) the Secretary of Transportation;
(5) the Secretary of Education;
(6) the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(7) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency;
(8) the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission;
(9) the Director of National Drug Control Policy;
(10) the Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council;
(11) the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs;
(12) the Chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service; and
(13) the head of any other executive department or agency that the Chair may, from time to time, determine is appropriate.
(b) The Council shall meet at the call of the Chair.
Sec. 3. Purposes and Duties. The Council shall:
(a) provide coordination and leadership at the Federal level, and among all executive departments and agencies, with respect to prevention, wellness, and health promotion practices, the public health system, and integrative health care in the United States;
(b) develop, after obtaining input from relevant stakeholders, a national prevention, health promotion, public health, and integrative health-care strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable means of improving the health status of Americans and reducing the incidence of preventable illness and disability in the United States, as further described in section 5 of this order;
(c) provide recommendations to the President and the Congress concerning the most pressing health issues confronting the United States and changes in Federal policy to achieve national wellness, health promotion, and public health goals, including the reduction of tobacco use, sedentary behavior, and poor nutrition;
(d) consider and propose evidence-based models, policies, and innovative approaches for the promotion of transformative models of prevention, integrative health, and public health on individual and community levels across the United States;
(e) establish processes for continual public input, including input from State, regional, and local leadership communities and other relevant stakeholders, including Indian tribes and tribal organizations;
(f) submit the reports required by section 6 of this order; and
(g) carry out such other activities as are determined appropriate by the President.
Sec. 4. Advisory Group.
(a) There is established within the Department of Health and Human Services an Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Advisory Group), which shall report to the Chair of the Council.
(b) The Advisory Group shall be composed of not more than 25 members or representatives from outside the Federal Government appointed by the President and shall include a diverse group of licensed health professionals, including integrative health practitioners who are representative of or have expertise in:
(1) worksite health promotion;
(2) community services, including community health centers;
(3) preventive medicine;
(4) health coaching;
(5) public health education;
(6) geriatrics; and
(7) rehabilitation medicine.
(c) The Advisory Group shall develop policy and program recommendations and advise the Council on lifestyle-based chronic disease prevention and management, integrative health care practices, and health promotion.
Sec. 5. National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy. Not later than March 23, 2011, the Chair, in consultation with the Council, shall develop and make public a national prevention, health promotion, and public health strategy (national strategy), and shall review and revise it periodically. The national strategy shall:
(a) set specific goals and objectives for improving the health of the United States through federally supported prevention, health promotion, and public health programs, consistent with ongoing goal setting efforts conducted by specific agencies;
(b) establish specific and measurable actions and timelines to carry out the strategy, and determine accountability for meeting those timelines, within and across Federal departments and agencies; and
(c) make recommendations to improve Federal efforts relating to prevention, health promotion, public health, and integrative health-care practices to ensure that Federal efforts are consistent with available standards and evidence.
Sec. 6. Reports. Not later than July 1, 2010, and annually thereafter until January 1, 2015, the Council shall submit to the President and the relevant committees of the Congress, a report that:
(a) describes the activities and efforts on prevention, health promotion, and public health and activities to develop the national strategy conducted by the Council during the period for which the report is prepared;
(b) describes the national progress in meeting specific prevention, health promotion, and public health goals defined in the national strategy and further describes corrective actions recommended by the Council and actions taken by relevant agencies and organizations to meet these goals;
(c) contains a list of national priorities on health promotion and disease prevention to address lifestyle behavior modification (including smoking cessation, proper nutrition, appropriate exercise, mental health, behavioral health, substance-use disorder, and domestic violence screenings) and the prevention measures for the five leading disease killers in the United States;
(d) contains specific science-based initiatives to achieve the measurable goals of the Healthy People 2020 program of the Department of Health and Human Services regarding nutrition, exercise, and smoking cessation, and targeting the five leading disease killers in the United States;
(e) contains specific plans for consolidating Federal health programs and centers that exist to promote healthy behavior and reduce disease risk (including eliminating programs and offices determined to be ineffective in meeting the priority goals of the Healthy People 2020 program of the Department of Health and Human Services);
(f) contains specific plans to ensure that all Federal health-care programs are fully coordinated with science-based prevention recommendations by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and
(g) contains specific plans to ensure that all prevention programs outside the Department of Health and Human Services are based on the science-based guidelines developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under subsection (d) of this section.
Sec. 7. Administration.
(a) The Department of Health and Human Services shall provide funding and administrative support for the Council and the Advisory Group to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations.
(b) All executive departments and agencies shall provide information and assistance to the Council as the Chair may request for purposes of carrying out the Council's functions, to the extent permitted by law.
(c) Members of the Advisory Group shall serve without compensation, but shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707), consistent with the availability of funds.
Sec. 8. General Provisions.
(a) Insofar as the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C App.) may apply to the Advisory Group, any functions of the President under that Act, except that of reporting to the Congress, shall be performed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in accordance with the guidelines that have been issued by the Administrator of General Services.
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(1) authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(2) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 10, 20
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