Obama - "I want to see us export more jobs!"

In a speech yesterday, President Obama pulled a vice-president Biden when he said, "I want to see us export more jobs!"

As Pee Wee Herman might have said, "I meant to do that."

What is it with the left and their insistence that their boy or girl is always the "smartest person EVAH?" Real-world evidence doesn't exactly prove it, but then again, we aren't dealing with practical people, are we?

An Idea Whose Time Has Come - Neurological Testing for Biden

Whilst over at Instapundit's site, I ran across this article. The author makes the case for a competency test for Vice-President Joe Biden.

I concur.

The surprising thing about this article is not the author's assertion that Ol' Slow Joe might have some sort of, um, problem processing information. It's that, instead of finding this article on some nondescript website like, say, this one, it's from Forbes.com.

Yes, that Forbes.

It’s no sin not to be a polymath but most of us who have spent time in Washington have noted politicians’ abject failure to know what they don’t know. Psychiatrists call this lack of insight.  [It's also called the Dunning-Kruger Effect.]

There are worse things for a politician than lack of insight – and the person selected by Barack Obama to be a heartbeat away from the presidency exhibits many of them. Joe Biden has problems with impulse control and reality testing; increasingly, his utterances suggest some sort of dementia.

Well, I certainly can't argue that one. I mean, it's bad when the VP doesn't know where he is, but when he can't recall his own college days, I feel really, really, really concerned about him being a heartbeat away from the most powerful political office in the free world.

Here's an oldy but goodies from 1987...

That's Biden: self confident, poised and sure of himself, all admirable qualities in a politician. All except for one or two teensy-weensy little things...

However, after inaccuracies in his statements were exposed, Biden made this admission on September 22, 1987: ”I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school and my recollection of this was inaccurate.” He had actually graduated 76th in a class of 85 from the Syracuse College of Law. And Biden’s baccalaureate accomplishment was a single B.A. degree.

 Shouldn't some sort of testing be required of those seeking office?

Are these aberrations stupidity, dementia or personality disorders? To find out, shouldn’t there be some vetting or testing of people in, or who aspire to, governmental positions as critical as the vice-presidency? After all, we require bus drivers and hairdressers to prove their competence before they are permitted to ply their trades, and applicants to most police forces undergo psychological testing.

Biden should submit to a thorough neurological and psychiatric examination, with special attention to whether he is experiencing “transient ischemic attacks” – marked by impaired blood flow to the brain – small strokes, seizures, or suffers from a brain tumor. After all, we often demand to know whether a candidate has recovered from open-heart surgery, cancer or a stroke, and many states require elderly drivers to be re-licensed.

 Actually, I'd like to see a lot more testing of candidates. In addition to psychological testing, I'd really like to see them tested for things such as Constitutional knowledge, economics and free market theories. Naturally, these test questions should be public knowledge and we should have every candidate's scores in order to make an informed decision about whom we cast our vote.

The tests need not be long or involved. But they should prove at least a passing familiarity with the ground rules of American politics and the Constitution, unlike Pete Starks:


Um, no it can't, Pete. There are limits to the things you can do under the Constitution.

We the people understand this simple concept. Why don't you ?

Friday Bits of Tid - Black Irish Edition

I guess since Bill Clinton was our first black president, Obama had no choice but to assume the mantle of our first Irish president. This week's European leg of the Osama bin Laden victory tour included stops in England, Ireland and Poland.

And there were *ahem* memorable moments at each stop.

Embarrassingly memorable. In fact, President Obama personified the stereotype of the ugly American like no ugly American before him.

You wonder what the folks in the White House whose job it is To Know These Things are really doing. The British press had a jolly good time following the President and showing his staggeringly inept staff and lack of rudimentary protocol.

Even before the trip to England, Obama was, shall we say, not warmly received. Here are Nile Gardiner's Top Ten Insults Agains Britain. From the article,

“The US president will no doubt be careful not to offend his hosts when he travels to London, and he will receive a warm welcome from the Queen and the Prime Minister, as any American president would. But the prospect of an embarrassing diplomatic gaffe or insensitive remark cannot be ruled out from a world leader whose administration has all too often specialised in them.”

Little did Mr. Gardiner know what would happen.

First, this photo...

Did someone mention an embarrasing diplomatic gaffe?




Not content to embarrass the US in England, the Obama entourage then moved on to Ireland where the president and first lady downed a pint of the world's greatest beer, Guinness. What did that innocent pint do to deserve such a fate?



Michelle didn't like it, not one bit. In fact, she appears to have found a bug in her beer in the photo at the link. Arthur Guinness would not be amused. As every Guinness drinker knows, it's literally impossible to take a sip and not be rewarded with a smile.

Someone should have told the President that he couldn't drive afterwards...



While not directly related to this incident, London police have issued fines to Obama's entourage for causing congestion. I question the timing.

And just to prove that Obama considers all the world to be equal, Poland's Lech Walesa snubbed Obama and will not meet with the fellow Nobel Prize winner.

And the trip isn't over yet. Here at home, Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty tweets this zinger, "@BarackObama sorry to interrupt the European pub crawl, but what was your Medicare plan?"


And Mitt Romney is a generous soul. He sent some leftover pizza to Obama's campaing headquarters in Chicago with a note that read, "Luca Brasi sleeps with the pepperoni."

An eager country awaits the return of its president from Europe. Things are so bad here that even dogs are panhandling.

Y'all enjoy the Memorial Day holiday and thank a soldier.