… for the children, or at least the child. Younger daughter will be a high school sophomore, and the defense is that she may not want to give up her friends, again.
Also both parents rule out running for elective office, which of course doesn’t eliminate the Supreme Court, now does it? (Via Washington Monthly‘s Ed Kilgore, who has a different suggestion for Michelle’s next step.)
***********
Apart from enlivening Glenn Beck’s worst phantasies (and other increasingly stale leftovers), what’s on the agenda for the day?
Video after the break:
Villago Delenda Est
By all means, let’s cause Glenn Beck’s head to explode.
As long as he’s behind a barrier so the shit doesn’t get on everyone when it happens.
Suffern ACE
After joining the board of trustees of The Trust for Historic Preservation, the Obamas spend two years demolishing as many Reagan childhood homes as possible…
Time Travelin
@Villago Delenda Est: Don’t vacuums implode?
OzarkHillbilly
@Villago Delenda Est: The penguin on top of your television set, will now explode.
NotMax
Phantasies?
Heads-up that the site is acting as it does not long prior to going all awry.
raven
@NotMax: Seems ok here?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@NotMax: I shudder at the thought of what said ‘phantasies’ might look like laid out on that fucking chalkboard of his
Linda Featheringill
It would be nice if the girls weren’t uprooted because of the end of a term of office.
It might also be in the best interest of the country, since Sasha is going to be President someday, and we need to limit childhood traumas.
[No, I’m not smoking the funny stuff.]
NotMax
@raven
Consistently getting what I presume is the mobile version here. Previously noticed that usually happens as FYWP is degenerating.
Betty Cracker
I have a kid that same age, and it would be traumatic to uproot her before she finishes high school. The Obamas are good parents, willing to put their kids’ needs before their own. Of course, being multimillionaires makes doing that less onerous, but still, kudos to them.
OzarkHillbilly
Saul Leiter is dead. He had an unerring eye for composition.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know that being multimillionaires is going to make remaining the most hated/reviled people in DC all that much easier.
danielx
Perusing the Kaplan Daily, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a column by Kathleen Parker entitled
On food stamps, GOP takes a principle to extremes
Now, one can certainly take issue with the title on several grounds, mine own chosen bitch being that by the lights of today’s GOP there’s nothing extreme about it – kicking teh poors (read: those people) being pretty much the norm and part of the Ayn Rand fantasy world in which Paul Ryan and his devotees reside. But no, the real money line is here:
Racists exist but don’t define the GOP? Really? Once again, it’s like the Southern Strategy never existed and even if it did, it’s certainly not a topic for discussion by any Villager in good standing. Rush Limbaugh? Never heard of him. Republican limits on voting rights to suppress a nonexistent wave of voter fraud? Well, there might have been such a wave if not for those ever-vigilant guardians of voting rights in….state legislatures.
Parker evidently inhabits the same rarified regions as certain denizens of the Supreme Court, in which unlimited injections of cash in no way present the possibility or even the appearance of corruption. Racism, buying elections…these things don’t exist and/or don’t happen. And pigs might have wings….
It’s too early in the morning for my blood pressure to go up this way.
Robert Sneddon
K Street beckons — a good Christian fellow with very presentable family, ex-Senator, Harvard law school grad, policy wonk, gotta be worth six figures a year at least in the lobbying biz. The real benefit though would be to see his fellow lobbyist Senator Lieberman chewing on his own liver at the thought of it.
danielx
@Robert Sneddon:
A spectacle which I’d gladly pay money to watch.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: No, but it will make jetting off to Hawaii for the weekend easier.
Also2, I bet if you did a poll of the DC area, the Obamas would be pretty popular. Even the DC-ites who hate them professionally (the Villagers and the GOP) are mostly playing a part in a dog and pony show. The true derangement lies in the so-called heartland.
PS: Thanks for that link on Saul Leiter. I was unfamiliar with his work. It is beautiful.
NotMax
@danielx
The quote is ignominious in its tacit excusing of racism and the disdain by way of class dripping from its words.
Equating food stamps with welfare, and that wink wink, nudge nudge “in any event most welfare recipients are white” (which somehow makes piling on them okay?) are particularly galling.
CarolDuhart2
@Betty Cracker:Lobbying? Who needs it?
Speaking tour and book deals would be more lucrative and less taxing. If Clinton could get $100k per speech, I bet Obama could name his own price and sell tickets to the speech at Ticketmaster. A followup to the Audacity of Hope will definitely fetch millions, a movie has certainly been discussed (his story is bankable). Google and Apple Boards-they would pay well just for his name on the letterhead, and he would control his own time completely.
As the first black President, Obama will always have a following and public interest. His face alone will sell and his story will too. Advertising? Depends on what. Fundraising? Speeches? Whatever it is he will be able to afford that DC mansion.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Well, there was just a hint of *sarcasm* in that “most”…. Your welcome for the link. He was one of a kind.
*when in doubt, read anything I post thru that prism and 8 times out of 10 you will be correct.
dmsilev
@Suffern ACE: True story: a few months after the University of Chicago knocked down the sacred edifice where Ronaldus Magnus lived for about a year when he was four (and is currently building a parking garage on the site), I was talking with an unnamed official in the UofC administration and the subject happened to come up. My source told me that the university expected real significant protests when the demolition was announced, but what they got was barely a whimper. So, all the whining and wailing by online wingnuttia amounted to precisely bupkis in the real world. There will be a plaque somewhere in the garage (“Ronald Reagan Parked Here”), but that will be it.
magurakurin
this is the shit that is pissing me off with Ezra Klein and the healthcare website
There is no reason that even if these people can’t use the web site that it should be an “utter disaster” for them. For fuck’s sake, the web site isn’t the only way to sign up. They could,god forbid,pick up the goddamn telephone and call a help center. They could visit an office in person. They can request all the plan information in the mail and sign up by mail. They could call an insurance agent and sign up that way. Fuck Ezra, he really isn’t helping with graphs like the one above.
link
Betty Cracker
@CarolDuhart2: I hope President Obama writes an unflinching account of his presidency — a book that lays out all the absurd bullshit, double-dealing and hypocrisy that characterizes his opposition and the DC press. He will have a unique opportunity to start a conversation about how fucked up and counterproductive our politics are, and it would be a natural follow-up to “The Audacity of Hope.”
NotMax
@dmsilev
Behind spit-repellant glass?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@dmsilev:
One of those should go up next to the parking lot for Mount Rushmore. There you go, wingnuts. He’s part of Rushmore.
Jeremy
@OzarkHillbilly: When you mentioned “D.C” I automatically thought you were talking about the village pundits.
debbie
@NotMax:
For me, the font size on this thread is tinier than on the others. Until I scrolled down, I figured there’d been another redesign.
Jeremy
@magurakurin: The website has improved over the past 4 weeks. All of this talk about website struggles is old news but the morons in the press keep recycling stories from October. This is why I keep on pointing out to people that the Washington press are gop shills.
LAC
@OzarkHillbilly: oh please, hated by who ? Some media assholes and congressional twats? DC is a lot more than that and we like them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: It could be named, “The End of All That Hope”.
On the slightly more serious side, I would love to see Obama tell the truth about all the BS he has had to endure and how it hurt the country because he would not have to be nice to GOPers anymore. Unfortunately, I think “Nice” is Obama’s default mode.
Bart
Uhm… I don’t think the website is supposed to look like this: http://imgur.com/zKrc9Kh and http://imgur.com/vz5y1CK
dmsilev
@Jeremy: Trying to reset the media narrative is probably one reason that the administration is doing a quasi-official ‘re-launch’ of the website tomorrow instead of just simply going on rolling out fixes and improvements. Dunno if that part of the plan will work. I suppose eventually the political reporters will find some new shiny object to play with (the budget negotiators should be reporting in about two weeks, so we’ll learn shortly whether there will be a shutdown reprise).
CarolDuhart2
@Betty Cracker: I think he will too-after the first book comes out. While he has and will no doubt have complete freedom as a writer-he may decide to work up to it after the first conventional book comes out. Once he’s shown that a post-presidency book will really sell (and it will), he may be less cautious.
There’s more to DC Society than the Villagers. There’s a black elite that will embrace him. He will have friends among his retired Cabinet officers, celebrities and civic folks, and the parents of his children’s schoolmates. So the Obamas won’t be lacking for friendship both local and from Chicago who he has never given up.
This has gotten me thinking: what neighborhood do you think would be good enough for a former President to live in and why?
magurakurin
@Jeremy: But Ezra is supposed to be on our team
as Elrond was once famously quoted here in the past
“And Ezra Klein, you tell me, has betrayed us. Our list of allies grows thin.”
dmsilev
@Bart: You have to admit, ‘we powered Healthcare.gov with WordPress’ would go a long way towards explaining the difficulties and problems.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeremy: I come from that reviled “heartland” Betty spoke of. Hatred and fear of the other defines most everyone out here. Not always, but it does get depressing. That is the frame of reference I speak from.
LAC
@Jeremy: for the life of me I don’t understand why Ezra Klein is considered such an expert on this. Is it because he wears glasses? WAPO and the Washington Times are becoming interchangeable these days
OzarkHillbilly
@LAC: please read the follow up comments.
Skippy-san
If the GOP takes the Senate, they will try to get him on the street before 2017. The House would vote to impeach him on the second day of the term. Not that they have any reason to-but when has that stopped them before?
CarolDuhart2
@Skippy-san: But they won’t unless the GOP can get 67 Senators. That’s what’s needed for removal, and that’s a constitutional one not subject to Senate rules like the filibuster. No Democrat who wants to stay in their seat will vote for impeachment, so impeachment won’t work. When they tried with Clinton, they knew they probably wouldn’t get to 67 without significant Democratic defections, but hoped that it would embarrass Clinton enough to resign. This shows you how poorly they thought about this. Yes, they could get Clinton to resign (maybe) but they would have gotten Gore instead and would have had him as incumbent President going into 2000 with significant public sympathy.
And that was the Clenis. What about a completely unblemished Obama for whom the charges would be completely insane bullshit from the start?
Betty Cracker
@CarolDuhart2:
The part of me that is sickened by inequality says any neighborhood in America ought to be good enough for any president to live in, by god. Maybe if there were a rule that every president had to retire to the nation’s most blighted region at the end of his term, they’d all pay more attention to poverty. But the reality is every president retires into the embrace of the 1% and never lives like a normal human being ever again (if they ever did to begin with; Obama did, at least).
tybee
@raven:
fishing report?
JWR
Speaking of the ACA website, what efforts have been put in place to avoid the inevitable wingnut trolling and/or other attempts, like a DDoS, to crash the system?
dr. bloor
@magurakurin: Meh. Ezra has always been about ladder climbing. No great “loss.”
LAC
@CarolDuhart2: there is not just a “black elite ‘ .Demographically, the city has changed and there are young ethnically diverse folks here too. And they don’t hate the Obamas. Jesus, if Clinton can set up shop in Harlem, I think this nan and his family can manage in DC just fine and not get pelted with eggs.
I feel like I did during the shutdown when people couldn’t figure out why national parks closed or why stores and restaurants were affected by government workers not coming into them. It is a city where people work and live, like other places in the country.
CarolDuhart2
@Betty Cracker: It’s a security dilemma these days. Truman could go back to his old home, and perhaps other Presidents could too. But given the enemies Obama has made, or who have created themselves as such, he probably needs something closer to the 1% deal so he could sleep at night. And these days, your suggestion would only lead to gentrification as all of the “in” people build nearby and the old residents moved out. So we would see the poverty for a short time until it gets displaced and squeezed into a less visible neighborhood.
CarolDuhart2
@LAC: That’s even better. A diverse city like DC doesn’t really care what the Villagers think-that is if they even notice them at all. So the Obamas would have a even wider and more cultlurally hip group of friends as well. And I agree that beyond the oldie-moldie types like Peggy Noonan and George Will, the city likes the Obamas just fine. There will be plenty of people willing to go to the Obama’s dinner parties.
Jeremy
@LAC: I really can’t understand it. The guy use to do policy analysis but he has turned into another village pundit. He and his wife were the ones going on about the lack of women and diversity in Obama’s cabinet before the president finished picking people. They made these claims after John Kerry replaced Hillary Clinton.
LAC
@CarolDuhart2: and you know it will kill Peggy noonan that she can’t wrangle an invite. That will be the new issue on “This week (with old white folks)”-why the Obamas isolate themselves from “real people”, i.e, the press?
Jeremy
@dmsilev: Hopefully it works.
geg6
I applaud the Obamas for putting the girls first. That said, I only hope they get out of that hellhole as soon as they possibly can and go retire to a nice pineapple farm or something like that in Hawaii. After all they’ve been through in that town, I just want them to be safe and calm and content for the rest of their, hopefully, long and happy lives.
Schlemizel
@magurakurin:
Ezra sold his soul to satan a long time ago. He is now the equivalent of the House Boy. He tells the rest of us that how we should behave and what it is acceptable for us to think according to the master. I bet he enjoys having his head rubbed when they let him dress up in nice clothes and appear at their parties.
Reading him is an exercise in self-loathing in which I chose not to participate.
Schlemizel
@Betty Cracker:
He could title it “The Audacity of Dopes”
LAC
@Jeremy: I know!! His wife is a pro with narrative writing and speculation. The comments section of her articles are littered with that criticism. I listened to her on NPR once – on top of her concern trolling, she’s got the vocal fry??? And everything sounds like a question???
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeremy: What pissed me off was a TPM news-nugget of Boehner saying O-Care is a “train wreck”. No mention of the fact that Boehner signed up easily, got a pretty good rate for an old drunk who smokes probably a couple of packs a day, and only didn’t know he was signed up cause he was blocking his own phone line for a “still on hold” photo-op.
Schlemizel
@CarolDuhart2:
Betty’s is a great thought but, sadly, you are right. Truman was the last of the regular guy Presidents. Ike, Kennedy and LBJ lived seperate from us (although both Ike and LBJ started lower on that scale) and since then the security concerns (real or imagined) have pretty much cemented the divide between them and us.
CarolDuhart2
@Schlemizel: Sadly, I think it’s doubled for Obama. Certain types will never “forgive” him for being the first Black President, then there’s Al Queda, and there are certainly a few crazed fans as well. He needs extra security. Truman was before international terrorist networks, papparatzi, and the closing of so many mental institutions created long-lasting security issues. (The Puerto Rican terrorists at the Blair House would have attacked any President, and certainly didn’t bother Truman afterwards). But racists and Al Queda take things more personally and fanatically and merely being out of office won’t be enough to assuage their sense of grievance.
Pogonip
@magurakurin: Not to defend a Villager, but at his age he may be honestly unaware that it is possible to conduct business without computers. Where I work we’re getting an increasing number of kids who are helpless when The System Is Down. We old farts figure out ways to work around the computer; the kids don’t even consider that possibility.
Socoolsofresh
Ya man, Washington Post is just like the Washington Times! Haha love how deluded this place continues to be. Surprised no one is frothing at the mouth about the long back and forth between Bill Keller and Glenn Greenwald at the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/opinion/a-conversation-in-lieu-of-a-column.html?_r=2&
Oh right, he is called Griftwald around these parts of the internet, because? Never really figured that out. Keller is saying the NSA tale is the story of the year, shouldn’t you guys be going rabid over how false of a nothingburger it is?
LAC
@Socoolsofresh: Awwww the Saturday cartoons over already for you?did the power rangers save the day again? Juice box time for you!
dr. luba
@NotMax: It’s not working in Safari for me. It begins to load, I see everything and then, when it’s done, poof–a white page. Chrome is working. It has been doing this since yesterday. Clearing the cache sometimes helps.
Safari has never done anything like this before, and it only seems to happen with this site. Others are all OK.
LAC
@CarolDuhart2: dc is the seat of government, home for embassies and federal agencies. We are ground zero – security issues are a part of the day to day life here. If anything it might even be safer.
mai naem
I figured they would stay in D.C. because of Sasha. I don’t know why this is some kind of shock to people. Seriously? I talk to regular people who wait to move so that their kid can either finish the school year or finish their schooling at that school because the kid doesn’t want to move schools. And Sidwell is supposed to be a very good school. BTW, I am sure the Obamas have considered security as well and Sidwell’s got to be set up pretty good for security being that Chelsea attended and Biden’s grandkids attend Sidwell.
Also, yeah, people are going to always be interested in Obama for all the historical stuff but if HRC is the next prez the journos are going to be sucked in by the Clinton soap opera. Obama will only receive attention when his book is released and special occasions.
CarolDuhart2
@LAC: Good point, LAC. DC is used to having former Presidents in and out of town and working with the Secret Service is doubtless old hat for them.
CarolDuhart2
I see a steady interest in Obama despite HIllary. Yes, the Clinton soap opera will consume the press, but there’s more than one kind of press around. The black press will cover him, the international press will cover him, people will still blog about him. It just won’t be as heated as now.
CarolDuhart2
@dr. luba: I’d try NoScript (if it exists for Safari) and then just enable the site and then see how it does. Ad scripts are both annoying and sometimes conflict with the site itself for page resources.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@CarolDuhart2: If I had to lay a bet, I’d say Obama will devote himself to climate change and anti-voter suppression. I also think he’ll be a lot more supportive of (hypothetical) President Hillary than Bubba was of him
Chyron HR
@Socoolsofresh:
Ah, Greenwald logic: “Your failure to act like the strawman I’ve invented is proof that you’re… wrong… somehow. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
shelly
Took a look at the NewsMax headlines. The Obama’s have dissed Richard Simmons? Oh nooo’s. If you’ve lost ol’ Sweating To the Oldies, you’re gone.
Woodrowfan
He’ll end up at Georgetown teaching again. Until Prez Hillery nominates him to the Supreme Court. Ah, sweet, sweet wingnut tears flowing like a river!
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Socoolsofresh:
Keller, supporter of the invasion of Iraq, and appollogist for Judith Miller in the Plame affair.
Why don’t you just cite Dick Cheney?
ET
While this may be a bit of a surprise or not the usual I can’t imagine why Beck and the loonies on the right care. You would think they would be just happy that the black man squatting in the White House would be gone.
smedley the uncertain
@debbie: FWIW, seems fine here in the frozen north.
SarahT
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes, thanks for this.
Jeremy
@Socoolsofresh: Dude pretty much everyone has admitted that the NSA needs to be reformed, but how long are you going to go on about this ? There are other issues of more importance at the moment.
Villago Delenda Est
@CarolDuhart2:
The man is presidentin’ while blah AND a Democrat..
There are no greater crimes in the minds of Rethuglican swine.
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax:
A friend of mine visited DC back in the 90’s, and flew in to the Reagan National Airport. Said it was pretty obvious that signs saying “Reagan National Airport” had been pissed on.
aimai
@CarolDuhart2: I really think the white press in this country will completely dissapear Obama once he finishes his presidency. They are going to pretend he never existed. I expect he will be snapped up by a non profit or Clinton style world charity–and she definitely will be, and they will keep busy.
Suzanne
Does it really matter if the man is popular in Washington or not? He’s an introvert. I would imagine that he and Michelle will buy a really nice house on a secluded street! and that he’ll spend the first two weeks of his post-presidency in his PJs, showering occasionally, ordering pizza and having groceries delivered, all in an effort to not leave the house.
Or maybe that’s just me.
Villago Delenda Est
@danielx:
Parker is Villager vermin. Off with her head, and display it on a pike.
Jeremy
@Suzanne: The man is not an introvert. He just doesn’t like hanging out with the village idiots in Washington and who can blame him.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: Contrary to what it may appear from the Ozarks, DC is not all Villagers, all the way down.
It would be cool if the Obamas moved into Tacoma Park or PG County. Georgetown kinda sucks, anyway. After opting out of DC years ago it’s turned into a bit of a joke.
Another Holocene Human
@danielx: I thought you were blowing up at the second part of the statement. Not sure if serious or trolling; not sure if racist or bad writing.
Welfare scammers? But at any rate most recipients are white? Are welfare scammers and whites mutually exclusive? Most of the people I know of who scammed welfare in any way were white. I did know one black person who was getting SNAP for a kid who didn’t live with her any more but the Bush admin caught her. Otherwise, white. And quite shameless about it. Surely she’s not trying to imply that those browns are all scamming and the whites are deserving? Henghhhhhh?
Hal
I can’t figure Ezra Klein out on the healthcare website. His concern trolling is nuclear and his portrayal of what is nothing more than speculation on his part as the gospel truth is journalistic malpractice. He’s decided it’s all over if Dec 1st isn’t a smooth ride and that’s the narrative he’ll stick to. It’ll be interesting to see what he has to say after midterms if all his doomsaying doesn’t come true.
rikyrah
Because, of course, it would be a shame that the parents wouldn’t think of yanking their child out of a school that she’s been in for the previous 7 years…I mean….how inconsiderate of them to think of the child’s welfare first.
rikyrah
@Schlemizel:
bravo
bravo
bravo
fuckwit
@Jeremy: Indeed. If you’ve ever seen him on the campaign trail, he really does love people. You can’t get to be the most successful politician in America, serving in its most visible and highest-profile public office, being an introvert. Not possible.
Bubba Dave
@fuckwit:
Speaking for the introverts, it’s not that we don’t like people. It’s that being around people gets exhausting, and we need some time alone to recharge. That’s a luxury that I get as a private citizen, and one that Obama doesn’t get as President.
Nixon got to be president, and he certainly didn’t seem to like people. Mitt Romney came close– close enough that if the problematic Healthcare.gov website launch had come in September 2012 instead of in 2013 he might have been elected– and he only likes people when they happen to be corporations.
Pretty much every sympathetic profile I’ve read of Obama has described him as an introvert. The less sympathetic describe him as aloof. I’ve never met the man, but those sure sound like an introvert to me.
Also, a quick note– it’s the interacting with people that’s draining. Giving a major speech to tens of thousands of people is draining in its own way I’m sure, but it’s the small talk and schmoozing with people you’ve never met that really makes you crazy. What was Obama’s major innovation in fundraising? Setting up a giant network of small donors that he never had to talk to at cocktail parties or chit-chat with on the phone. What was the major complaint about him on the campaign trail? That he didn’t spend the time schmoozing the local pols. What was the major complaint about his relationship with Congress? That he didn’t spend enough time buttering up key members of the House and the Senate.
…I don’t know about you, but I begin to see a pattern here.
hitchhiker
All I can say is that I’m really, really looking forward to reading his books. He’s a writer by nature & training, and I’m guessing he’s got a number of projects already conceived & ready to begin. His perspective on what happened during his time in office will be terrific, but so will whatever he’s got to say about the future.
Also when Sasha graduates from high school, he and Michelle would be welcome here in beautiful Seattle, which has the advantage of being nearer to Hawaii than DC or Chicago.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@dr. luba:
I get the same thing on another site. First noticed it in Firefox, but it does it in Safari, too. In Firefox if you right-click on the back button, it shows that it’s taking you to something called “wyciwyg”, followed by the URL. That apparently stands for “What you cache is what you get.” There’s been discussion all over the Mozilla forums about this problem for years, the consensus being that there’s nothing that can be done about it. It’s surprising that it does it for me in Safari as well.
I got a little Firefox extension called QuickJS that puts a button in the status bar so you can enable and disable Javascript without going into preferences. That’s the only thing that works. (I’ve tried NoScript but it screws up too many sites no matter how I tweak it.)
cat48
@hitchhiker: After the Election 2008, his book manager signed him for his first 3 books & gave him a few million to last until he got out of the WH. The Villagers were all a flutter b/c they were certain he would be a billionaire after his books came out.