It's a Head Scratcher: Who's In Charge at the White House?

President Obama's approval ratings at a new low

Barack Obama's approval ratings hit a new low of 42 percent in the latest NBC/WSJ polling as the president appears increasingly aloof about what's going on around him.

From NBC News:

President Barack Obama's seemingly hands-off management style is raising fresh questions and concerns that could upend his second-term legacy.

Claims by the administration and other Democrats that Obama didn't know about sensitive matters in his own administration -- such as problems with the health care website and revelations of National Security Agency surveillance on foreign leaders -- have many in Washington scratching their heads.

It all fits as part of a pattern. Who is in control? Who is running things? There are a lot of questions," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who helps conduct the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which Wednesday showed Obama's approval rating dropping to an all-time low.

The buck stops, somewhere else.

Follow these stories and more at Reason 24/7 and don't forget you can e-mail stories to us at [e-mail] and tweet us at @reason247. 

Comments

[anon]

It's the person that's being held accountable!

Oh wait.

[fish_remote]

....as the president appears increasingly aloof about what's going on around him.

And this surprises NBC why? None of those who serve as Obamas higher thinking center have any info to disseminate to the proles at the moment.

I'm not surprised that the empty shell has a vacant expression.

[GILMORE]

the evil hand of Saruman is at work here.

[GILMORE]

I think its just "The buck stops".

Because money in politics is the problem! Which is how Obamas is fixing everything. Why does reason so Racist?

[sarcasmic]

The bureaucracy is so damn huge that it doesn't really matter who is in charge.

[jasno]

Yes and no. Yes, it's huge and hard to manage - the federal gov employs what, about 2.7 million people, not including the military. Wal-mart employs about 2.1 million. So it is possible to manage that many employees effectively, IMHO.

The problem is that so few Presidential hopefuls have ever had any experience managing *anything*, much less one of the world's largest organizations. They have no clue how to demand accountability and excellence from their employees. They surround themselves with their supporters and live in an echo chamber drunk on the power and prestige of office.

Woe unto the libertarians if anyone competent ever took the reigns. Could you imagine the damage that a well-functioning federal government could wreak on the citizenry?

[Snark Plissken]

Hopefully it's Valerie Jarrett, she seems enormously competent with loads of integrity.

[fish_remote]

Can I "other" her?

[Almanian!]

bingo

[Mike M.]

Speaking of Valerie Jarrett, who the fuck is this woman anyway?

She sounds like the most influential Svengali figure to ever have the ear of the president, and nobody knows a damn thing about her.

[VG Zaytsev]

Barack Obama's approval ratings hit a new low of 42 percent in the latest NBC/WSJ polling

He'd be in the mid twenties without the Bradley Effect.

[Dweebston]

I think it's Chealsea now.

[Nazdrakke]

Every once in a while I read something from NBC or CNN and I have an almost irresistible urge to go all Fire Joe Morgan on it. For fuck's sake could these people be any more in the bag for the government?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Do it. I loved FJM.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

There's Fire Jay Mariotti.

Tim McCarver has been pretty bad too.

They can't all be like Vin Scully.

[rbenchley]

A FJM style blog picking apart idiot columnists would be tremendous. Call it Fire Paul Krugman.

[hamilton]

I support this and would donate to the Kickstarter.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I would subscribe to the newsletter.

[Caleb Turberville]

OT: http://freethoughtblogs.com/ph.....ans-oh-my/

Okay guys, I know we're libertarians and all, but seriously, try not to act like an ass when someone needs to borrow and umbrella. Let's put on a good face for libertarianism.

[tarran]

I get the sense that PZ Meyers is suffering from a very serious juicebox deficiency.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Is that comic supposed to be funny or make any intellectual point?

The other day my battery died on me while putting gas at the station. When With cable boosters in hand, I tried to solicit someone to boost me, he told me no and went on about some bull shit about how modern cars are too complicated and could ruin his engine.

All in French of course.

I highly doubt that guy was a "libertarian."

What should have been a five minute set back ended up being 45 minutes because I decided to bust my brother in law's balls.

[db]

When someone gives you a bullshit excuse as to why they can't help you, say, "listen, if you don't want to help, just say no. It's more respectable."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You're right but to control my disgust I found myself sympathizing with him.

[Brett L]

Yes. This. Just say, "I can't help you today, buddy." Don't give a sob story. I don't care. I won't get my feelings hurt.

[Almanian!]

"Hey, I'm not your buddy, pal!"

[fish_remote]

I identify as libertarian and give people jump starts (sotto voce....even the evil brown interlopers....but let's keep that just between us), hold doors, buy candy from boy and girl scouts, etc. and would certainly share an umbrella with someone in a pouring rain

PZ is now and will remain always a bitter little putz teaching 13th grade.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I've pulled people out of snow banks (I have a 4x4), boosted them, help them shovel out of a ditch, and of course, the push a dead car onto safety.

Never have ever turned down a plea for help.

[Brett L]

I've stopped pulling over for people when I see they are safely on the side of the road, have a cellphone, and are using it. I will still push a stalled car in traffic to safety anytime, anywhere. Does that make me a jerk?

[Almanian!]

To Brett L - no. I usually do the same. Occasionally stop if it's someone who looks....feeble, or old.

TO ROB THEM!

No - just to ensure they're OK till help arrives.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I laughed.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

No. I calculate the same thing. If I see or perceive them to be okay I move along. It's when someone is in obvious distress or asks for help do I do it. Admittedly, it doesn't happen all that often but often enough.

Does little old ladies asking you to grab something on the shelf for them in a grocery aisle count? Because that happens too. The other day I had to help a lady put a case of ginger-ale in her cart. I thought her bones were gonna break.

[Zeb]

I think that the ubiquity of cell phones has made people less likely to stop to offer help. Which I think is a little sad. Not that anything should be done about it, but it is an interesting observation. I'm sure the ability to get help even when there is no one to stop and help you ore than makes up for it.

[db]

Same here. I actually pull over to help people fairly often, but.if they're obviously in communication with.someone or handlung the situation (changing a tire) I drive.on by.

[Almanian!]

Yep. Got refused when the derps at Belle Tire left the dome light on in my Wrangler when I had the tires replaced. they were closed, my wife dropped me off, I hadn't bothered to bring my cell....*click*.....fuuuuuuuuck.

First request got a "no". Fortunately, there was a gas station next door, and I had cables, and the nice man and his family in the Honda minivan obliged.

The fuck is wrong with some people? Thanks, Honda Minivan Family! Hope I can return the favor, like I have with so many others (who, of course, NEVER have their owncables, or a flashlight, or know HOW to jumpstart a car...etc. etc. etc. - "that's OK, I'll show you...")

[General Butt Naked]

When I was a kid my dad helped a guy and his family on the side of the road. It was a long drawn out thing(like having to give the guy a ride to a pay phone and then driving his family home).

At the end of the night everybody went on their way and we never heard anything more about it. About nine months later we got a note in the mail from the guy saying that if we wanted them there were 4 tickets to game 5 in the '92 NLCS, Pirates vs. Braves at will call, if we wanted them.

The pirates were at that point down 3-1 and it looked as though their season was finished, but they won that game in a blowout. As a kid it was freaking awesome to be there.

They lost that series and then went on to a 21 year losing streak that I always thought of as the "flat tire curse".

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Cool story. People never forget good acts.

[fish_remote]

Never have ever turned down a plea for help.

Not glossing myself (fuck you Jim Rome) here but a couple of years ago I turned around to give a ride to to a family walking on the road where I work. It was about 105 degrees and they were carrying what appeared to be a very sick child.

That to me, is the essence of liberatarianism...no one forced me to perform a good deed and yet the deed was performed nonetheless.

Double fuck you P.Z. Eunuch

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I should add I use the term 'French' loosely. It's Quebecois French which is basically rural- twang French.

It is to laugh having to listen to xenophobic nationalists cry about protecting "French." French learning in school is a travesty. To a Frenchman, Belgian, Swiss or North African that ain't French - it's joual.

I digress.

[Ska]

I went to dinner in Montreal and one of the guys in our party was French. The hostess said he didn't have to practice his French with her. The freakout over it was priceless.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I would have loved to see this.

I have met a lot of Quebecois that are fine people, but their insecurities over their language are funny. I mainly dislike Quebec because they are a welfare parasite on the rest of Canada. And all they have to do to ensure the spigot never shuts off is to whisper the threat of separation and Canada seems to cower in the corner while Quebec continues to loot everything west of it.

[grrizzly]

Once I read a blog post by a La Presse journalist visiting Paris. The road in front of his hotel in Paris was blocked by the police because of some dignitaries. So, the guy had to ask a policeman how to get to his hotel. The French policeman couldn't understand what the Quebecois journalist said. Even after he asked the question again. He knew that if he asked the cop in English there would be no problem understanding each other, but it was so humiliating for him that he couldn't communicate in French well enough to be understood in Paris. Finally, he made a real effort to enunciate words as clearly as possible and the cop showed him how to reach the hotel.

[johnl]

I find Quebecois easier to speak and understand than French.

[Lord Humungus]

I always carry jumper cables just to help others (or myself) if my battery goes dead.

And - shock! - during a huge winter storm, neighbors all piled out onto road to help people who got stuck at the intersection and cutaway fallen tree limbs.

I was out there pushing stranger's cars out of the huge ice dam that formed in the intersection due to the crappily engineered road.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's funny you should mention that. When we get hit with a severe snow storm it's amazing how many people seem to be out there ready to help on a dime. It's quite the scene watching an army of people with snow blowers and shovels helping out.

You feel like an idiot if you don't get dressed and go out.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yes, I've done that many times for complete strangers stuck on the road, jumping out in the rain or snow and helping them to get their car unstuck.

The idea that libertarians don't help people or give to charities is laughable. They just don't want to be forced into whatever supposedly "helpful" scheme is being used to spend other people's money.

It would be much better to ask a libertarian for help than somebody like Myers, who would probably offer some sympathetic murmurings before suggesting that I call the appropriate authorities for help.

[Hugh Akston]

I'm confused about a couple of things here, Caleb: first, are you under the impression that that comic is supposed to be a true story or something? Second, what kind of traumatic brain injury have you suffered that you think reading or linking to PZ Myers is a thing that its okay for human beings to do?

[tarran]

My guess is that Caleb was linking to the PZ Meyers fever swamp so that we could have a good laugh at ol PZ's expense.

It is, of course, a terrible thing to laugh at the mentally defficient, but since PZ Meyers is a terrible person who has no compassion towards his fellow men and is convinced they are evil people we should do it anyway.

[Caleb Turberville]

I don't want to libel the folks at Freethoughtsblog, but the most bizarre aspect of the anti-libertarianism that one finds over there is the odd conflation of libertarianism with misogynism. It's like an even more twisted form of the old "Why aren't there libertarian women?" canard.

[Thane of Steelport]

He's a hardcore feminist* and more or less thinks anyone who isn't is a terrible person. His conflation of the two appears to be either "if you don't want to give women special treatment under the law, you must be misogynist" or "misognynists [aka non-feminists] are bad, libertarians are bad, ergo, libertarians are misogynists".

*I wish we could think up a name specifically for the Jezzie, Feministing / Skepchick / Feminsiste.us types. There are a lot of things that fall under the broad label "feminism" that are good or neutral.

[Caleb Turberville]

PZ fascinates me in his almost pathological hatred of libertarianism. I guess for a scientist, he needs some outlet topic through which he can exercise his ability to formulate logical fallacies. I guess I do the same thing through sports, but even I don't hate Auburn football quite as much as PZ hates libertarianism.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ah. Good. Because that was some remarkably stupid idiocy whoever PZ Myers is.

[Thane of Steelport]

He's a biologist and part of the "skeptic community". He gained notoriety as a particularly outspoken critic of teaching intelligent design and creationism, which is fine with me.

He also seems to think that to be a good, intelligent person, you must be a progressive, feminist, and atheist.

There is actually a decent-sized wiki dedicated to hating him and his ilk.

[Caleb Turberville]

I suppose he's a very good biologist; I don't know enough about his research. During the initial run of the "New Atheist" movement, he was popularly known, but not a leader.

Recently, he was a leader in the short-lived (I don't think it's still ongoing), "Atheism +" movement, an attempt to bring the larger "New Atheism" in line with progressive politics. In deed, one key aspects of this splinter movement was a radical feminism in reaction to the perceived misogynistic influence of libertarianism inside of "New Atheism."

[fish_remote]

PZ is a biologist like Krugman is an economist...two guys who think that credentials in one area give you the ability to make thoughtful reasoned comments in all others.

PS: I bet PZ is a hardcore feminist only in an attempt to improve his chances of getting laid...a trait he probably shares with Krugman as well.

[Thane of Steelport]

Yeah, this is a pretty dumb comic. On the original site it's tagged "narcissism" and "the culture".

Not wanting something taken from you is apparently the same as not wanting to share it (and this example is particularly specious given that you'll still have an umbrella even if you share it).

[DesigNate]

My only response to that comic is: Yeah, no.

Okay my second only response to that comic is if the guy getting soaked is supposed to be a Democrat, where's his gun demanding that the other guy share his umbrella?

[lap83]

The liberals could teach us teathuglicans a thing or two about giving of time and personal resources to charity. Oh, wait...

[Zeb]

I love how that is on a site called "free thought blogs" with no sense of irony.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

If the President hadn't invested so much time and wasted energy on frivolously blaming Republicans, Bush and Limbaugh for policy issues, he would have some benefit of the doubt currency about scandals that could very well be out of his control.

But here's the thing. He's the President. He can set a tone to how his administration runs.

Clearly, it's one based on deflection and not accepting blame for much.

Nothing can be more injurious to a government and its people when scandals are scoffed off.

He's not a leader. He's a lecturing ideologue.

[Brett L]

Here's the thing, I can totally understand something like Fast'n'Furious getting the okiedoke from the President, any President. But you only get to play the "underlings didn't tell the boss" card so many times before people start asking (even taking him at his word), "why don't your employees tell you bad news?"

And I think John hit the nail on the head the other day: He's a blame-fixer, not a problem-solver. You go to problem-solvers with a problem and they may blister your hide, but then they go out and get you the resources to fix the problem. Blame-fixers, you avoid, because all they want to do is tell you to "fix it". Even if you can't, and it is obvious that the boss needs to get involved.

[sarcasmic]

I work as a government contractor. When I started the job we pretty much did what the customers, the government users, wanted. When something would go wrong we would immediately go to work fixing it. Well, the upper bureaucrats didn't like that.
Now nothing gets done until a bureaucrat explicitly approves it. That's why I waste so much time here. And when something goes wrong, figuring out who to blame is the most important thing. Fixing the problem? Not so much.
I imagine most of government is like that. Don't do anything unless you are told, that way you're not responsible. The person who told you what to do is responsible, so they give you as little to do as they possibly can. And if anything goes wrong, pointing fingers is more important than actually fixing the problem.

[Brett L]

Yeah. I actually think this is a signifier of mature bureaucracies rather than just "government". I've seen it happen at giant corporations, too. Although in business, usually some cowboy who doesn't give a fuck comes along and just fixes things without regard for credit or blame until he ends up running the department or gets shown the door.

[The Late P Brooks]

He's the President. He can set a tone to how his administration runs.

He has.

He has.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Clearly.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

At least his transparent about that.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

he's.

[Almanian!]

This transparency is starting to help people see that he's wearing no clothes.

I think...

[ChrisO]

His "legacy." Snort.

[Paul.]

increasingly aloof about what's going on around him.

This confuses me. Isn't Barack Obama famously aloof an intellectual, which is why he handily won two terms? Now "aloof" is a problem for him? Why now?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Just like why is the 'Redskins' term suddenly offensive. Hasn't the team been around for decades?

[Paul.]

Or the guy in yesterday's thread who said, "people are getting jailed for weed, things are getting weird!"

[Invisible Finger]

If they really wanted to be offensive they'd call the team OBAMACARE.

[Invisible Finger]

42% approval is incredibly high for a complete fuckup.

[Paul.]

And two two terms...