I'm so confused.

[chieftain]

I was told by the media that the reason we helped the rebels in Lybia was that Obama was overly influenced by the women around him,i.e. Clinton and Jarrett. Now I see from Suskind's book that he ignores women on policy matters. I know I am supposed to be mad at Barack, I am just confused as to why.

[Booster]

1. We need to get out our score cards.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Good one !! It doesn't matter it's by osmosis

[Enrique]

3. maybe one is true and the other is false

maybe one is based on reporting and the other one is pulled out of someone's ass. :shrug:

by the way, I never heard the Libya one. Who said that? Let me guess, someone ridiculous.

edit: here we go, "the media" is Pat Buchanan:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/pat-buchanan-says-obamas-libya-policy-ruled-by-emotions-of-his-female-advisers/

[chieftain]

6. Who said anything about Pat Buchanan?

Just because you didn't hear it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Here's a link to a google page that has a sampling of the type of stories I referenced. These are easily available to anyone who wanted to check prior to whipping an anti Obama post out of one orifice or another.


http://www.google.com/search?q=libya+women%27s+influence+on+obama&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox

[Enrique]

9. I'm sorry

I guess there were a bunch of people saying that and I missed it. Thanks for posting the link.

But I will suggest again that you can judge them separately. I did. The idea of the WH or any workplace being unfriendly to women? I don't know if it's true in this case, but it's definitely not ridiculous to think that it might be true. On the other hand, from skimming the Libya stories at that link, the ones I looked at, including the one at The Nation unfortunately, seem just like pure sexism to me. Making gender into an issue without any evidence.

[chieftain]

10. Apology accepted.

I agree with your point that they can be judged separately and that there is likely to be some truth in Suskind's account. I just don't accept that it begins to tell the whole story. There are so many people who for a variety of reasons are carving up the President. Some of it is legitimate disappointment but a whole hell of a lot of it is designed to derail his presidency. The OP was an attempt to point out a particularly striking example of how the media and the GOP are working over time to replace Obama with a technocrat who is willing to sell what is left of his soul to the RW to be president and a faux Elmer Gantry. Either of whom will make us wish for the good old days of W/Cheney should this full court assault on Obama succeed.

[Pirate Smile]

8. It was in the NYT and all over the place for a while. I'm surprised you missed it.

The RW used it to call him a "pussy" and other wonderful things like that. Gates wasn't for it. The White House said it was bull because there were women and men on both sides of the argument.

The women they focused on being for it who the President sided with was Hillary Clinton, Samantha Powers, Susan Rice and Claudia .... I don't remember her name. I think she is a foreign policy person focused on Africa.

They always have to find some little thing to try to turn every decision into something negative.

I never really got it because - so what??? He has female advisers, Secretary of State, Ambassador to the UN, etc. because he respects and wants to hear their POV. The big freak out that he sided with them and not Sect. Gates and some of the other male foreign policy big wigs was treated like a big deal by the press & RW. WHY? IDK

I googled it but, of course, most of what comes up is RW garbage but it was reported somewhere else also. They just latched onto it.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Use your investigative powers....cause the media and certain hacks ain't got none!

You can borrow my facts for evidence to point you in the accurate directions... :)

Thus far I see Two women appointed to the Supreme Court for life, and women high in the administration's cabinet like Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebilius, Hilda L. Solis, and Lisa P. Jackson. As well, I believe that additionally there have been appointments made for (very partial list) Nicole Yvette Lamb-Hale, of Michigan, assistant secretary of Commerce; Marisa Lago, of New York, assistant Treasury secretary; Ellen Gloninger Murray, of Virginia, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services; Mary John Miller, of Maryland, assistant secretary at Treasury; Mary Sally Matiella, of Arizona, assistant secretary of the Army; Cynthia L. Attwood, of Virginia, member of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; Sharon Y. Bowen, of New York, director of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, and Valerie Jarrett as one of his closest advisers, many others.....

In addition I note that of the 98 Obama judge nominees confirmed to date, 47% were women....which beats Clinton who had a 29% confirmation record on female judges. Of the total he has nominated (but not confirmed), the ratio is 58% women.

In addition, making Birth Control Free to women by insurance providers, establishing a Council for Women and Girls via an executive order, literally saving Planned Parenthood from going into extinction in some states, and the fact that NO Women's groups have had any comments beyond my understanding that the women in the book are saying they were misquoted.

I believe that is a lot of evidence on the President's side as one would have to
at least believe the mantra here at DU; actions speak louder than words. Guess that still holds true, no?

[Enrique]

5. Ron Suskind is not Pat Buchanan

it's not a contradiction when a reporter reports one thing and an idiot brays some garbage that contradicts it:

And it's easy to know what to do: read and think about what Suskind reports,if you want to. Of course you don't have to believe it; ignore anything that oozes out of Pat Buchanan:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/pat-buchanan-says-obamas-libya-policy-ruled-by-emotions-of-his-female-advisers/

[chieftain]

7. It borders on Rovian to act like Buchanan is my source.

First you say that you never heard about the women's undue on Obama on Lybia and then you set up Pat as a straw man. Which is it. You never heard it or you heard it from Buchanan?

[AtomicKitten]

11. Goddamn it! This is screwing up my bingo card.

[ElboRuum]

12. Not confusing...

You just have to go through the same process we all have to when it comes to being mad at Obama.

Here you are given two conflicting ideas, either he is or isn't influenced by women on policy matters. The next step is to use all available information to determine which set of liars, obfuscators, and self-promoters you believe lie less. Then ignore those two options and realize that whatever your particular fancy serves is closer to the truth than either of those two, pick something ludicrous as your reasoning. Then put mashed potatoes on your head and mumble incoherently about how whatever it is that you're mumbling about is pronounced with a long 'g' not a short 'x'.

At this point, you will be sufficiently incoherent and absent of any fealty to reason to adequately process your feelings on the matter. Most of us come up with 'Orange Crush', others seem to favor 'Paul Erdos', the latter, of course, are clearly daft.

[frazzled]

15. Dammit

I got all the way through to the mashed potatoes on my head part before I realized it was ruining the new Aveda hair color treatment I got last week. It threw me into such a fit of pique that I pronounced our previous president's first name with a hard rather than soft G, and then all hell broke loose. Instead of arriving at the invocation "Paul Erdős" I accidentally shouted out "John von Neumann"!

Now I'm fatigued, and am pondering if perhaps the answer is that he DID listen to Samantha Power but DIDN'T listen to Christina Rohmer. And whether there are also various males on his staff to whom he did and did not listen. But fiddle-dee-dee, I'll think about that tomorrow. Right now I have to go wash the potatoes out of my hair.

[CakeGrrl]

13. It doesn't matter. Just be mad at him about SOMETHING and stay home in 2012!

That's the MSM/GOP/PL goal.

[chieftain]

14. Exactly !! eom

[Grown2Hate]

16. And you win the toaster oven!!! There is the absolute truth. NT