He didn’t hire Petraeus. Petraeus was there. Petraeus was hired by George W. Bush.

Obama’s constantly complaining about all the problems he inherited from Bush. Now he’s inherited Petraeus. He got Bush’s general, who his party and his voters hate.

And by the way, MoveOn.org has removed their Petraeus ad from their website.

Oh, yes. Remember that full page New York Times ad, General Betray Us? It’s gone. It’s gone everywhere. And their good friends at like-minded Google have removed the ad from their caches, so you can’t see the ad.

Look. Go look for yourself, see if you can pull it up…

They hated Petraeus, and now they’re praising Obama for one of the smartest moves he’s ever made?

And let’s not forget the media.

The media was right in there beating up on Petraeus during the hearings in the Senate leading up to the surge.

McChrystal was a four-star general. He is gone. We have not elevated anybody. We simply took  Petraeus from his CENTCOM commander’s job and sent him to Afghanistan.

They got rid of McChrystal because he was insolent, disrespectful, critical of the president’s policies.

So they go out and they get rid of him and they hire Bush’s general, and the same people who are mad at McChrystal for criticizing the policy now say they hope Petraeus can convince Obama to change the policy.

We still have incompetence, we have cheerleading on parade, we do not have serious accountability going on here, nobody’s reporting any of this accurately, because it’s all about Obama.

He hired Bush’s general.

They’re celebrating because finally he’s acting like commander-in-chief.

The New York Times hated Petraeus so much they gave MoveOn.org a half-price deal on their full-page Betray Us ad. And they’re right in there with all of the rest of them today singing Obama’s praises.

WHERE IS THE HEADLINE… OR EVEN A SUBHEAD:

“Obama Turns to Bush General.”

It’s the truth. It is precisely what’s happened out there.

Obama January 14th, 2007, during a discussion about the status of the Iraq war, and talking about the Petraeus’ surge.

OBAMA:

We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civil war. And until we acknowledge that reality, we can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops, I don’t know any expert on the region or any military officer that I’ve spoken to privately that believes that that is gonna make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.

Doesn’t matter how many troops, it won’t work, no matter how many troops were sent.

Biden, September 9, 2007, talking with Tim Russert on the eve of the Petraeus hearing:

RUSSERT:

General Petraeus said in a letter to his troops that we’ve not had the political reconciliation we thought we would have, been much slower, but there’s some hope. Then he said my sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum. We’ve wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq. We are, in short, a long way from the goal line, but we do have the ball, we’re driving down the field. Is that what you expect him to say tomorrow?

BIDEN:

I think he’s dead-flat-wrong. The fact of the matter is that this idea of these security gains we made have had no impact on the underlying sectarian dynamic, none, none whatsoever.

That’s the current vice president of the United States saying Petraeus has no clue what he’s talking about.

September 11, 2007, on Capitol Hill during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq, Senator Hillary Clinton said this to General Petraeus.

HILLARY:

You have been made the de facto spokesman for a failed policy. The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.

She just called him a liar. She said he is nothing more than a stooge for the White House. Hillary Clinton, now the secretary of state, this was just three years ago talking about General Petraeus, who now represents the smartest move Obama has ever made.

Nancy Pelosi, August 2, 2007, PBS NewsHour:

LEHRER:

From your perspective, Ms. Pelosi, what General Petraeus says in September about the surge is irrelevant in your mind?”

PELOSI:

The purpose of the surge was to create a secure environment in which political progress could be made. That has not happened. The president’s own benchmarks are not being met. The surge was to make the area more secure so that the political solution could take hold and the measure will be, okay, did the surge achieve its purpose? Did the political progress occur? Amending the constitution, calling for provincial elections, having a law for the fair distribution of oil in the region, reviewing the order on de-Ba’athification, some of the president’s own benchmarks.

Nancy Pelosi, one of the many Democrats who ripped General Petraeus.

September 11th, 2007, Washington, Capitol Hill, during the Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq policy, Senator Obama said this to General Petraeus.

OBAMA:

This is not a criticism of either of you gentlemen. This is a criticism of this president and the administration which has set a mission for the military and for our diplomatic forces that is extraordinarily difficult now to achieve. And there has been no acknowledgement of that on the part of this administration so that we have the president in Australia suggesting somehow that we are, as was stated before, kicking a-s-s. How can we have a president making that assessment?

September 10th, 2007, Capitol Hill, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Iraq. Robert Wexler questioned Petraeus.

WEXLER:

The surge has failed. In truth, war-related deaths have doubled in Iraq in 2007 compared to last year. Tragically, it is my understanding that seven more American troops have died while we’ve been talking today. Cherry-picking statistics or selectively massaging information will not change the basic truth. It is my patriotic duty to represent my constituents and ask you about your argument that the surge in troops be extended until next year, next summer. I am skeptical, General —

That’s Robert Wexler calling Petraeus a liar, essentially. And now Petraeus, the best move Obama has ever made?

Harry Reid, April 19, 2007, at a press conference talking about General Petraeus.

REID:

I believe, myself, that the secretary of state, secretary of defense — and you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows — that this war is lost.

We’ve got an inept commander-in-chief. We got some of the media pretty much admits hasn’t been a commander-in-chief up until now — and I am still not inspired.

We have the Media in uncontrollable joy over the choice of…Bush’s general!

Who they all claimed to say was a lying and only doing Bush’s bidding. They impugned his honesty and his integrity. They accused him of losing the war with his strategy. Now, all of a sudden, this is the best move Barack Hussein Obama has ever made. Really??

I think the intellectual dishonesty, the void here of any media integrity whatsoever to talk about what this story’s really all about, is striking.

DINGELL:

Paul W. (Smith), we’re not ready to be doing it, but let me remind you, this has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.

It’s going to take a long time to control the people… John Dingell, the most senior Democrat in the House of Representatives.  It’s going to take long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.

Guess what?  Obama’s out there touting the fact that as of now, children with preexisting conditions are covered. They forgot to include it in the bill.  It is not there. They’re going to have to go back and fix it somehow.  They left it out.  Now, the point of this is pure incompetence.  They’re out touting all of these wonderful things in the bill and preexisting condition coverage for kids, it’s not there.

The Associated Press

“Administration officials are now scrambling to fix a gap in highly touted benefits for children. Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.”

Now, if he cares so damn much about the kids, how did this happen?  The point of this is, if this is a major thing to them and they screw this up, these are the people that are going to be writing a hundred thousand additional pages of regulations to go along with the health care bill that’s already 3,000 pages. We’re dealing with strict, utter, total incompetence.

Who the hell is this guy to run health care?  What’s Barack Obama ever done but learn Saul Alinsky?  What’s Barack Obama ever done but learn what he doesn’t like about this country? But what has he ever run?  What has he ever done in the private sector or the government sector that’s ever worked?  It’s an absolute mess.

Now, the public won’t feel the mandate until four years from now, and until then, Obama will cynically argue that nobody’s complained yet about the mandates, when there aren’t any.

In fact, do you remember when he ripped and criticized Hillary Clinton for health care mandates during the campaign?

This happened in 2008, February 21st in Austin.

OBAMA:

When Senator Clinton says a mandate, it’s not a mandate on government to provide health insurance.  It’s a mandate on individuals to purchase it.  Massachusetts has a mandate right now.  They have exempted 20% of the uninsured because they’ve concluded that that 20% can’t afford it.  In some cases, there are people who are paying fines and still can’t afford it so now they’re worse off than they were.  They don’t have health insurance and they’re paying a fine.  In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you’ve got to have a very harsh, stiff penalty.

Here he is ripping Mrs. Clinton for exactly what is in his health care bill.  Obama is ripping Senator Clinton for suggesting a mandate for people to have health insurance.  He’s ripping her for that, which is what his health care legislation — what he just signed — does, although not ’til 2014, after the next presidential election.

Why is that, Mr. President, by the way? Why is it that the mandate doesn’t kick in until two years after you, God forbid, are reelected?

Friends, this is what we got.

He has not made good on a single promise.  Even now he still speaks about his promises since most of his health care bill phases in over four years.  And the mandates don’t happen for four years.  And the preexisting coverage for adults, that doesn’t happen for four years.  It’s not until 2019 that 32 million people are covered.

Do you understand that?

Thirty-two million people, that’s the current number, will not be fully insured until 2019.

That’s ten years, nine-and-a-half years: 2019 for all 32 million to be covered.  If you believe that.  I don’t even believe that.  In fact, the Senate bill doesn’t come close. No, it won’t cover all 32 million by 2019.  It won’t even be close to it.  There’s nothing in this that you can believe.

He’s criticizing Hillary Clinton for having a mandate that everybody buy insurance, and he’s pointing to Massachusetts where it doesn’t work because 20% of the people can’t afford it and then he says,

“In order to get people to do it you have to have a harsh, stiff penalty,”

…and he’s criticizing Hillary for having that idea.

That idea was signed into law yesterday.

The Washington Post,

Pelosi is out threatening the insurance companies: If you raise premiums, we’re not going to let you in the exchanges.

They’re going to have no choice but to raise premiums if they’re going to have to cover preexisting conditions, if they’re going to have to cover people from the moment they get sick and not before.  So if they raise premiums, uhhhh, they’re not going to be allowed in the exchanges. That’s Nancy Pelosi.  I don’t know if that’s in the legislation or not, but if it’s not in the legislation, they’ll pass it.  Nobody can stop ’em.

So there you have it. If they’re kept out of the exchanges, guess what?

Hello, single payer!

Even sooner than we feared it would happen.

“You understand, I mean, with Charlie Rangel. You promised the most ethical Congress in history, and — and, I mean, you gotta understand now why so many Americans think Congress is corrupt. It just doesn’t look good. This Rangel thing just doesn’t pass the smell test.”

PELOSI: Look, I — I served for seven years on the ethics committee. The last thing I would have wanted would be for the speaker of the House to interfere in a political way in what was going on there. That just should never happen. Uh, but the fact is — is that, uh, w-w-what Mr. Rangel has been admonished for is not good. It was, uh, uh, a violation of the rule of the House. Uh, it was not something that, uhhh, jeopardized our country in any way.

No, no, no.  How could the fact that one of the most powerful men in Congress is corrupt have any effect on America? I mean, after all, all he does is write the tax law. He’s chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

He doesn’t have any effect on America. No way. Don’t even tell me he’s in the same league as Tom DeLay, who they had to force out of there.

Here’s Pelosi back from November 7th, 2006, election night.

PELOSI: To-day the American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, DC. And the Democrats in-tend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history.

Typical of everything the Democrats say: It’s a lie and is not true.

Here’s Paul Krugman from the New York Times. He was on This Week as well during the roundtable, and Elizabeth Vargas says,

“Speaker Pelosi, Steny Hoyer were all calling for Tom DeLay to relinquish his post when he was also admonished by the ethics committee.”

KRUGMAN: It is worth pointing out that none of these things actually seemed to affect national policy. Yeah, I’m unhappy with this. I wish Rangel would go away. But it — it really has no national significance.

Oh, no national significance at all!

Oh, he’s only chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He’s cheating on his taxes. He’s not reporting income.

On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough says to Senator Durbin,

“You served with Charlie. I served with Charlie. Are you disappointed?”

DURBIN: I want to tell you one thing about Charlie Rangel. When he joined the Army after World War II as an African-American, he was put in a segregated unit. He served in combat in Korea. This man has served his country. I am not going to presume, uhhh, guilt when it comes to Charlie Rangel.

Charlie Rangel is a veteran, so who cares if he’s corrupt? He served in North Korea. Who cares?

He’s corrupt – simple truth.

Senator Thomas Carper:

“I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language ’cause reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever done in my life…”

A Democrat member of the committee says that he won’t read the text of the bill, says anybody who claims they’ll understand it is trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

All you need to know about Obama Care

And now the president of the United States is leading and promoting an intimidation of average American citizens, many of whom voted for him.

Do not think that all of these people showing up at town hall meetings are Republicans.  A lot of these people are Democrats.

Last night, McLean, Virginia.  The president of the United States, at a fundraiser and he basically just told the Republicans: Just get out of the way.

OBAMA:

I expect to be held responsible for these issues because I’m the president.

But I don’t want the folks who created the mess — I don’t want folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking.  I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.

I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.  Am I wrong, Virginia?

FOLLOWERS:

No!

This is not the man people thought they elected.  The people who made the mess? Once again he’s whining and moaning that somebody else gave me this mess.

Mr. President, two million people have lost their jobs since your “stimulus” bill was signed into law.

This economy is foundering ever since you came into office.  You have almost doubled the federal deficit this year and who knows what’s going to happen to the national debt.  But he doesn’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking.  He’s got a snitch website!  How in the world can he enforce this request or desire that he has for the folks who made the mess to just stop talking?

OBAMA:

I need every one of you to knock on doors and make phone calls and get fired up once again so that we can go towards the future!

He is no longer the president.  He is a candidate.  He’s got a plan.  This thing is now called “health care.”

So the community organizer is organizing.  The community agitator is agitating.  The only one sending out organizing memos nationwide is President Barack Obama, and community agitators can’t start bitching when communities agitate.

Brad Miller is a Democrat Congressman from North Carolina. Now Brad Miller claims that hundreds of Congressmen have received death threats.  He offers no substantiation, and I’ve looked around.  I don’t see anywhere on the World Wide Web where hundreds of Congressmen have made charges similar to Miller’s.  Have you seen that?  Hundreds of Congressmen? The president of the United States travels around every day, 24/7.  The more he goes out, the more his poll numbers drop — and he’s out there every day pitching health care.  If he can do it, then certainly our precious little Congressmen can sure as hell meet with their constituents.

Associated Press:

“White House Advises Dems on Health Care Protests — Top White House officials counseled Democratic senators Thursday on coping with disruptions at public events on health care this summer, officials said, and promised the party and allies would respond with twice the force if any individual lawmaker is criticized in television advertising.”

Is it not amazing?  Here are our elected officials — members of the House of Representatives, the US Senate — and they have to get instructions from the White House on how to deal with their voters.

They have to get instructions from the White House, and the reason for this is the whole thing is a lie.

Everything they are selling is a lie, and they have to get instructions on how to sell the lie. The dirty little secret is Obama has to lie.  He can’t tell the truth.  This country is not what Obama is.  This country is not of the same values.  This country is not oriented in a core value way the way Obama is.  And more and more people in the country are seeing this.  And so when you’re a senator, a United States senator and you have to get instructions from the White House PR machine how to deal and talk to your voters, the translation is, “You’ve got to go out and lie this way.”

Now, what this is all about is the focus grouping they’ve done has forced them to change the terms.  It’s not health “care” reform.  It’s health “insurance” reform now and bashing the insurance companies.

Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner.

“Last week I wrote in this space that Obamacare could be the death of AARP because it would expose to the rank-and-file of the 40 million member seniors group how their Washington leaders have been taking them for a ride for many years. The AARP leadership scoffed at that suggestion, but check out the video of a Dallas AARP meeting in this post by Moe Lane at Red State. The leadership wanted to give the members the usual dog-and-pony show in favor of government-run health care, but the members weren’t buying it,” and as soon as the members said, “No, we don’t believe what you’re saying “the leaders got up and left. Evidently, you either sit down, shut up and listen to your leaders in AARP, or they abandon you.

“If it happened in Dallas,” it can happen in any other city in the country.

David Axelrod — who is Obama’s word-speechwriter guru — has also given instructions to Democrats via talking points.

“Axelrod and Jim Messina, the White House deputy chief of staff, met with the Senate Democratic caucus Thursday afternoon to strategize over how to talk about healthcare during the August break, and this is the famous meeting where they say, “If they hit you, we’re going to punch back twice as hard.”

This is from the White House.

Now, you’ve seen pictures.  I’m sure you’ve been on the websites.  You haven’t seen the pictures on television; the Media’s not talking much about this.  But you’ve seen the pictures of these people.  They are the most harmless, blend-into-the-crowd people.  A couple of them may be wearing suits.  But they are not even all that dressed up.  A lot of them are elderly.  They are nonthreatening.  They have made no threatening moves. They have made no threatening remarks. Nothing whatsoever.

Obama sends out his army.

This is Mussolini-type stuff.

This is the president of the United States who cannot deal with opposition.  There will not be any.  He is going to silence it.  He’s sending his union thugs out to physically assault, in some cases, and to in all cases intimidate average Americans who just want some answers.  And nobody’s willing to provide them the answers.

All they’re getting is lies.