Obama Ready for Killer Rabbit Moment
Columnist John Kass, the only good reason to ever read the Chicago Tribune, speculates that Obama is ready for his “Killer Rabbit” moment.
Anyone who thinks Obama is safe from a rabbit attack has forgotten what happened to President Jimmy Carter In 1979. Carter was attacked by a swimming rabbit, and the subsequent “Killer Rabbit” stories helped destroy his presidency. It led to the election of Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide and an unprecedented economic revival.
There are eerie similarities. Like Obama, Carter was at that point where he was constantly viewed as weak and ineffectual. His fellow Democrats had lost patience with him. Liberal writers who once fawned on him had turned against him.
And like Obama, Carter foolishly left the White House for a “vacation.” Carter went home to Georgia for some fishing. Once his canoe hit the water of a pond, a terrible thing happened. A rabbit swam near with anger in its eyes.
Go here to read the rest.
Kass, as usual, is on to something. It is a small step for a President presiding over a bad economy to go from merely unpopular to being a figure of ridicule. Often times it is something fairly trivial, like the killer rabbit story, but it crystalizes the deep disatisfaction felt by the American people whenever a President is in trouble in regard to national prosperity which is almost always in American history the key voting issue.
Most opinion polls show that most of the voters still like Obama personally. When that changes he is a goner politically.
18 Responses to Obama Ready for Killer Rabbit Moment
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I’m guessing the opinion polls will never show voters disliking Obama personally. If there is one place that a “Bradley Effect” is going to show itself, it’s in opinion polls asking whether voters have a personal like of the first African-American president. While voters might feel free to express their dissatisfaction with the way Obama is doing his job, I’m guessing they will be loathe to ever express dissatisfaction with him as a person.
When I was on the submarine, every one of us – all one hundred and twenty men – cheared when it was announced that Reagan won. Not the least of what made Carter loathsome was the way he handled the Iranian hostage crisis. Yellow-bellied, cowardly, incompetent idiot. I am sure that most of today’s nuclear submariners feel the same way about Obama. I realize that that won’t make any difference. But that’s how we all felt.
BTW, Donald, you write, “Go here to read the rest.” Yet there is no link. Is my computer messing up?
Click on “here”.
I wonder if there isn’t a symbiotic relationship between how we feel about them and how they feel about us.
GW was hated or loved by the same people from beginning to end – give or take a million or two.
I wonder if Carter’s malaise speech wasn’t as much about the loss of faith in America. Perhaps Obama doesn’t like us any more. Maybe the constant vacations reflect his distaste for the job and the people he was supposed to serve.
“When I was on the submarine, every one of us – all one hundred and twenty men – cheared when it was announced that Reagan won.”
My brother was commanding a tank platoon in Germany at the time. He said the exact same thing happened in his unit when the results were announced.
Thanks, Jay. The appearance of the word “here” wasn’t in the light blue that usually designates a hyperlink at TAC – at least on my PC.
I have added the color blue to the word to correct that Paul.
Tibi gratias!
The “First African-American” mayor of NYC also was a superlative dud. He didn’t bust NYC and didn’t need to fight off a cotton-tailed, ninja rabbit.
The West Side Commies haven’t been able to elect a lefty since David Dinkins.
I apologize if that was “racist.”
Well, T. Shaw, people might just ask what the President has to do with the former Mayor of New York given that the latter has been out of office for 17 years and given that what the two have in common (party registration, skin color, a law license, and a passably durable marriage) a great many politicians have in common. Different ethnicity, different generation, different sensibility, different social origin, different kind of education, different work history, different career progression.
Not that it makes any difference, but the so-called “killer rabbit” was actually a swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus), a more aggressive creature and better swimmer than the typical Eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus).
Years later, Carter press secretary Jody Powell described the critter thus:
“(This was) not one of your cutesy, Easter Bunny-type rabbits, but one of those big splay-footed things that we called swamp rabbits when I was growing up…
“The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon climbing into the Presidential boat.”
Perhaps Obama might be advised to watch “Night of the Lepus” before going on any boating or fishing excursions (although as far as I know, Martha’s Vineyard isn’t infested by swamp rabbits)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069005/
Art,
That right! Unlike Dinkins, Obama’s “monumental failure” (see yesterday’s WSJ Letters, Bernard Lang, New Providence, NJ) is unsurprising “given the ridiculous system in which he has to contend.” Obviously, here we have one each clueless ivy League moron. What ridiculous system? Congressionally enacted laws? The US Constitution? The Declaration of Independence? Private Property? The evil, unjust private sector?
NYC survived Dinkins. The US might not survive Obama.
Add to your “two have in common”: multiple failures, incompetence, inexperience, liberal ideology, misery for the people, political hackhood, . . .
You are even more correcter: I should not have insulted Dinkins. He did nothing outside NYC’s Charter. Dinkins is not a gangster.
David Dinkins, per published reports attended Howard University and Brooklyn Law School. One is a historically black school and the other a component of one of New York’s two public systems of higher education. He never had anything to do with the Ivy League. He is not a moron. His academic degrees were earned in serious subjects (mathematics and law) during the first decade after the war, when there were no mulligans for black students. He had to pass the same bloody licensing examination as did any other aspirant lawyer in New York.
Dinkins was born in 1927, which is to say into the cohorts where exhibitionism is least valued and least manifested. He grew up in a milieu that was without qualification northern urban black. His father and his father-in-law were old-style bourgeois, one owning a real estate agency and the other a liquor store. Dinkins was a working lawyer. He was a clubhouse politician and rose within those ranks. In none of these respects does he resemble B.O., quite apart from the obvious differences in personality.
New York City had the problems northeastern cities commonly do, what John Lindsay called the ‘layers and layers of deals’ with rent seeking constituencies necessary to keep the city running. The formal political architecture is not as dysfunctional as that of the federal government, but it had its curios. Obama has to contend with federal institutions that are quite poorly structured, in addition to whatever errors of judgment he makes.
Art,
Thanks for the History lesson.
Maybe they could find one of them non-human people to run for Prez; and reduce the size and reach of the federal government.
Honestly, if there’s an animal acting out of character, it’s a good idea to try to make sure it doesn’t get close enough to bite– unless you really like a bunch of shots through your gut to cure rabies.
Kind of like how even though people die from being attacked by deer…it’s funny.
G-Veg-
I’d imagine it’s nowhere near as fun to actually be responsible for stuff as it is to give orders when you won’t really be held accountable for it.
T. Shaw-
general theory about non-human people is that they’d be fallen, too, so we’d still be vulnerable to the charm of power. ;^p
Samwise for President!
The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind.
Of course, if a crazed rabbit charged Rick Perry while he was out jogging, we all know what would happen…
(Or if an antlered rabbit attacked Sarah Palin.)
Still, perhaps all potential chief executives should sit down and watch:
By the time the rabbit swam by everybody was sick of poor Jimmy. My dad was a dyed in the wool Dem and even he was relieved when Jimmy lost.