Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Is there anybody home?
Don Surber has noticed that the British cannot get the Obama administration to return a freaking phone call.
“But yesterday, Sir Gus O’Donnell, Britain’s most senior civil servant, exposed transatlantic tension when he protested that Downing Street was finding it ‘unbelievably difficult’ to plan for next month’s G20 summit in London because of problems tracking down senior figures in the US administration. ‘There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is,’ the Cabinet Secretary told a civil service conference in Gateshead.”
If our allies cannot reach us because Barack Obama has failed to appoint someone to answer the phone, how are we to have any friends in the world?
Really? Apparently so:
After 51 days in office, Barack Obama has appointed only 73 people to 1,200 jobs that require Senate confirmation.
Can one of our brainy readers put some context around that? We know, for example, that the George W. Bush administration was incompetent, because so many people have told us so. Well, how many appointments had it made at this stage? I'm too tired to do the work, but one of you night owls should be able to nail that amusing comparison with a little thoughtful searching.
Meanwhile, I respectfully suggest that Barack Obama spend less time signing off on earmarks and giving interviews to the Arab media and more time answering the phone when the Brits call.
MORE: Dan Riehl says that Obama's appointment machine may in fact be on track. And it is also true that Europeans have far fewer political appointments, so they have far shorter transitions, and therefore tend to get impatient while new American presidents fill their administrations. But you still need to answer the phone when the British call. They've earned it.
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds.
21 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Mar 11, 11:40:00 PM:
The world got their President...now he won't call them back.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 12:01:00 AM:
It kills me to say this, but to be fair to Obama part of the problem is that there are 1200 positions in the Executive Branch that require Senate confirmation. Senate confirmation is sensible for senior Executive branch officials, but 1200 positions is clear over-reaching by Congress.
By 
Georg Felis, at
Thu Mar 12, 12:16:00 AM:
What a feeble excuse. If the President says he will be in London for a meeting tomorrow, his aides had better make plans to be in London tomorrow also, this "scheduling conflict" is just bull.
Secondly, the *vast* majority of the 1200 Executive office positions that require Senate confirmation are simply waved thru without opposition, which the Republicans could not accomplish anyway. Still, finding 1200 Democrats with current taxes in Washington must be quite a task...
By Escort81, at
Thu Mar 12, 12:34:00 AM:
Maybe there really is something to that idea that President Obama doesn't like the Brits because of the whole Kenya thing -- that perhaps he blames the Brits for his father ending up as kind of an unhappy, boozing civil servant who wrapped his car around a tree and perished. Well, I guess he'll have a great deal of sympathy in his anti-Brit sentiment among those of Irish extraction, especially next week during St. Patrick's Day when everyone's had an adult beverage or four.
I am a small part Irish, but I like the Brits. I had a British girlfriend some years ago, and she was fine, and she could match me drink for drink, which was unusual. She had a great sense of humor and there was good physical chemistry.
It is remarkable that (Blair+Bush) > (Brown+Obama). Who'd a thunk it?
By Noumenon, at
Thu Mar 12, 12:50:00 AM:
If someone does look up the Bush appointment record, will you promise to post it as a new post, to encourage citizen journalism and keep the rest of us from missing it?
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 06:31:00 AM:
"After 51 days in office, Barack Obama has appointed only 73 people to 1,200 jobs that require Senate confirmation."
Obama's lazy. That's why. All I ever hear from him is "I'm tired". He was constantly saying it out on the trail, and he's always saying it now that he's in office.
He never answers tough questions, and on that rare time that someone dare to present him with one, he gets bent out of shape. He uses a teleprompter EVERYWHERE that he speaks. Bush the "moron" didn't do that, but Obama the "genius" does.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 08:26:00 AM:
My parents were born in Ireland. I mostly like English people but don't like the history of the British Empire as it relates to Ireland, and in some cases elsewhere. But that's old news.
The British special connection with the US shouldn't be lost -- it's a great asset for both countries. In coming years, we may treasure a reliable Cold War ally.
Link
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 08:54:00 AM:
If you want a different perspective on British history check out The Isles, by Norman Davies. His thesis is that "Britain" is an historical conceit created in the 1700s to justify empire. Before that, much of the history of the two islands was a contest between native tribes, the Celts and Vikings. The Normans were late comers and for the longest time cared more about going back to France than they did about England. "Unlike most historians, who stress Britain's Anglo-Saxon heritage, Davies shows that the isles' fourfold division into England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales arose from a complex mixing of peoples in a constantly fluctuating patchwork of ethnic communities, statelets and kingdoms."
Davies would agree that "Great Britain" isn't much older than the US.
Link
By Purple Avenger, at
Thu Mar 12, 09:45:00 AM:
Soaring oratory is easy, picking up the phone, not so much.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 10:20:00 AM:
Obama is a low energy guy who has NEVER before done anything. Why should start now. He has his eternal teleprompter so he never has to prepare, only read what has been written for him. And, the more he takes breaks to play basketball, the less we know about from his media.
Truth be known, Obama does spend a lot of time on the phone getting instructions/guidance from Ayers and Wright.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 10:32:00 AM:
Obama won't answer because he hates Enghland for personal reasons. (Something to do with his dad.) Plus, England is full of whiteys.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 11:06:00 AM:
The Brits just discovered what the rest of us already know. Our government is unresponsive.
Try calling an office, say Justice, require a simple task: "Please send me the Justice Department guidelines for using government computers for electioneering." Does anyone think Justice will ever reply? The same goes for e-mail, snail mail or walking in the door. The same problem exists at the US Patent Office where questions are not answered?
Our government is full of people who eat, drink, take their paychecks and go home without doing their jobs.
Dave
By Fritz, at
Thu Mar 12, 12:36:00 PM:
"Still, finding 1200 Democrats with current taxes in Washington must be quite a task..."
This.
As sad as it is.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 12:45:00 PM:
Uh, Tiger, are you REALLY complaining that Obama can't get his government up and ruinning?
I would be happy if he was unable to get it staffed until, say, January 19th, 2013.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 01:22:00 PM:
Don't forget that the Bush administration was hampered by the Gore v Bush lawsuits that prevented Bush from doing much until well into his first term--you know--just before 9/11.
It is a bit unfair to compare how much Bush got done at the same point, but I suspect it was STILL much more than Obama. Ironic in that Gore threw up tons of roadblocks for Bush while Bush has paved the way for Obama.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 03:00:00 PM:
'bama don't hand with no loosers, dawg. You seen the Brownman's poll numbers lately?
All he gets is a used "Psycho" DVD and forget the Rose Garden side by side. After all, we don't want no ugly reminders about Blair and Brown and all bad shit was goin down in Iraq these last few years.
Oh, and you can take that Winston Churchill ugly ass bust back too, Mr. Haggis.
By , at
Thu Mar 12, 05:55:00 PM:
We were asked to chose the candidate on the Democrat side of the ballot based on who would be answering a telephone call at 3:00 a.m.
Did our choices include "Someone, I hope, besides an answering machine."
I don't recall.
By joated, at
Thu Mar 12, 10:06:00 PM:
And lost in all this is The One's promise that he would be ready to lead and govern on Day 1. So far he has done neither.
By Escort81, at
Fri Mar 13, 12:15:00 AM:
Joated - I can't remember, wasn't it Hillary who used the Day One line? Or was it just that she used it first?
By , at
Fri Mar 13, 06:41:00 AM:
"Maybe there really is something to that idea that President Obama doesn't like the Brits because of the whole Kenya thing"
If that is in fact the case, then he should have alerted us to that when he was running. Also, perhaps he should be impeached. Getting along with our allies is a big part of being our leader, right?
By Noumenon, at
Sun Mar 15, 02:07:00 AM:
Wish this had gotten its own post... even I forgot about it. Dan Riehl is the man. Going back to all those other administrations, just to prove it wasn't all about Bush v Gore -- good for him.
