Politico: Locked In The Cabinet: The Worst Job In Barack Obama’S Washington

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/locked-in-the-cabinet-99374.html

LOCKED IN THE CABINET

 

The worst job in Barack Obama’s Washington.

 

Steven Chu is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, a brilliant innovator whose research fills several all-but-incomprehensible paragraphs of a Wikipedia entry that spans his achievements in single-molecule physics, the slowing of atoms through the use of lasers and the invention of something called an “optical tweezer.” President Barack Obama even credits Chu with solving the 2010 Gulf oil spill, claiming that Chu strolled into BP’s office and “essentially designed the cap that ultimately worked.” With rare exception, Chu is the smartest guy in the room, and that includes the Cabinet Room, which he occupied uneasily as secretary of energy from 2009 to the spring of 2013.

 

But the president’s aides didn’t quite see Chu that way. He might have been the only Obama administration official with a Nobel other than the president himself, but inside the West Wing of the White House Chu was considered a smart guy who said lots of stupid things, a genius with an appallingly low political IQ—“clueless,” as deputy chief of staff Jim Messina would tell colleagues at the time.

 

In April 2009, Chu joined Obama’s entourage for one of the administration’s first overseas trips, to Trinidad and Tobago for a Summit of the Americas focused on economic development. Chu was not scheduled to address the media, but reporters kept bugging Josh Earnest, a young staffer, who sheepishly approached his boss, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, with the ask. “No way,” Gibbs told him.

Very interesting inside view of how things in the cabinet work.

[twa]

low political IQ means he says what he believes

[Predicto]

low political IQ means he says what he believes

 

Or he doesn't understand that in the current political climate, every individual sentence one speaks has the potential to be taken out of context and blown up into an enormous ****storm.   

 

"You didn't build that!"

[twa]

you mean O doesn't believe that?

[deejaydana]

Or he doesn't understand that in the current political climate, every individual sentence one speaks has the potential to be taken out of context and blown up into an enormous ****storm.   

 

"You didn't build that!"

Lies are pesky things, aren't  they?

[Predicto]

Lies are pesky things, aren't  they?

 

Wait, what?

 

Are we talking about the same thing?  

 

Obama getting lambasted (correctly) over the messed up rollout of Obamacare has nothing to do with my point about how it's not just what you say or believe that matters these days, but whether a few words can be twisted by your political opponents.   And yes, both sides do it.  

[deejaydana]

 I'm not sure how you possibly can twist "you didn't build that" into a positive but folks that work for the gov't don't find it offense in the least (which makes sense to a degree & I understand, if not appreciate, the lack of empathy towards that comment of his). The piece by Politico is just yet another attempt to draw away attention from a terribly, almost hopelessly inept President. The fault always, always lies w/o Obama and never within. We're just not smart enough to see it for ourselves. You would think these drones he surrounds himself with would get tired of being treated like human floor mats. Some people just loathe themselves I guess.

[SkinsHokieFan]

This President is lucky that as ineffective and incompetent his administration has been (are these guys even giving effort anymore) the "loyal" opposition is so toxic, and economically brain dead right now that he looks ok.

 

This article is crushing 

[Predicto]

 I'm not sure how you possibly can twist "you didn't build that" into a positive but folks that work for the gov't don't find it offense in the least (which makes sense to a degree & I understand, if not appreciate, the lack of empathy towards that comment of his). 

 

"You didn't build that" was a clear reference to roads and bridges and teachers and so forth.  

 

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.  The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires."  

 

 

The fact that the GOP twisted this innocuous speech into some sort of a vicious attack on small businessmen was disgusting, but perhaps predictable.  

 

The fact you are STILL falling for it five years later is really amazing.  And it explains why it is so important to be aware of the political consequences of everything one says - something Steve Chu is really bad at.

[Bang]

This conversation always makes me wonder.. how do they know when they're done paving a racetrack?

 

~Bang

[deejaydana]

^^^^^ Look at Obama's attitude towards business in general and specifically and tell me that to question his "you didn't build" is unwarranted. can you step away from your job with the gov't for even a moment Predicto?

[Predicto]

^^^^^ Look at Obama's attitude towards business in general and specifically and tell me that to question his "you didn't build" is unwarranted. can you step away from your job with the gov't for even a moment Predicto?

 

Yes it damn well was unwarranted.  That speech was not hostile to business and that line did not mean what conservatives claimed it meant.   Read the whole thing again.

 

Yet the very next day Fox News was editing out all the context before and after the line to make it look like "you didn't build that" meant Obama hates entrepeneurs. 

 

The Wall Street Journal Op Ed page was screaming: "The president's remark was a direct attack on the principle of individual responsibility, the foundation of American freedom."   Jennifer Rubin wrote Obama "revealed a level of resentment toward the private sector that was startling, even to his critics."   Mark Levin told his listeners that Obama was "disrespecting the American people" and "he despises the capitalist system."   The Romney campaign was running ads.  And so on.

 

Politifact called it a blatantly false allegation against Obama - because it was.

 

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/26/mitt-romney/putting-mitt-romneys-attacks-you-didnt-build-truth/

 

 

I swear to god, it is like you conservative guys make up your own reality sometimes.   "I know Barack Obama hates business, therefore I am going to believe that he attacked business in this speech and I'm going to get angry at anyone who tries to make me read the actual words."   You just make **** up - and then you BELIEVE it forever.

 

Which is why you have to keep a guy like Steve Chu under wraps.  

[twa]

 

Which is why you have to keep a guy like Steve Chu under wraps.  

 

 

BS, ya do it because ya are spineless and are afraid of what he says 

[visionary]

So has anyone else read the whole article yet?  (there's 5 pages) 

I thought it was fascinating, though I wonder how it compares to previous administrations.

[Fergasun]

 

Obama wanted LaHood and Salazar to stay, but they were unlikely to do so, given their need to make money after years of government paychecks.

 

 

Salazar is now working for WilmerHale.  I don't know what LaHood is doing. 

 

For years, Daschle privately expressed his concerns that Sebelius, who didn’t have the stature to make the same demands, simply wouldn’t have the power to implement the health care program.

 

 

Gibbs reluctantly assented. Then Chu took the podium to tell the tiny island nation that it might soon, sorry to say, be underwater—which not only insulted the good people of Trinidad and Tobago but also raised the climate issue at a time when the White House wanted the economy, and the economy only, on the front burner.

 

 

...

Earnest slunk backstage. “OK, we’ll never do that again,” he said as Gibbs glared. A phone rang. It was White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel calling Messina to snarl, “If you don’t kill [Chu], I’m going to.”

 

 

 

[Slateman]

Yes it damn well was unwarranted.  That speech was not hostile to business and that line did not mean what conservatives claimed it meant.   Read the whole thing again.

.  

Neither did the "47%" line, but Obama pretty much won an election on it. The political machine giveth and taketh.