Tim Pawlenty calls Barack Obama a doofus.


It’s amusing how casually this was tossed out. Tim Pawlenty, in an ABC interview – and in the process of restraining himself from rolling his eyes at Christine Amanpour’s bipartisan* fetish:

I think that any doofus can go to Washington, DC and maintain the status quo or incrementally change things…

[snip]

‘Doofus’ would mean someone who was relatively low-performing.

It’s also amusing that there’s a thoroughly cross-spectrum consensus out there that Pawlenty was specifically calling President Obama a doofus, there. Then again, the average Lefty blogger would – public protestations to the contrary – privately admit (after three or four drinks*, and a quick check for uncontrolled recording equipment) that to call the President ‘relatively low-performing’ would be an example of ‘Minnesota Nice‘…

Full video after the fold. Including a definite smack at the President over school choice.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Waste of good booze, of course.


RSS feed

28 Comments Leave a comment

The MSM is only upset because it's accurate

Brookhaven (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 12:19PM EDT (link)

President Doofus

Pretty much sums up the Obama presidency.

 

The MSM is only upset because it's accurate

Brookhaven (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 12:19PM EDT (link)

President Doofus

Pretty much sums up the Obama presidency.

 

Another example

sundaycombo Tuesday, May 31st at 12:44PM EDT (link)

of why Pawlenty is not ready for the big leagues. The “doofus” remark (which also referred to Congress) is sophomoric at best and stupid at worst.

I am beginning to wonder about his strategy. Go to Iowa and tell the farmers he is against ethanol subsidies. Accept an invite to speak to the Cato folks and then diss them.

In the meantime, Minnesota still is trying to dig out of the 5 billion dollar deficit he left behind when he left office. We can do better in 2012 than this.

Pawlenty speaks the Truth and the liberals can't stand it.

bobojake (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 12:54PM EDT (link)

This is what we need in the election, call a spade a spade and not a ——- shovel. Thank You Tim for not being afraid to speak out about the doofus that LIED his way into the Whitehouse through his Trojan pony.
We need all candidates to come out for Truth not the pony puckee we got from Axlerod, Gibbs and obama from 2007 on.
God Bless America

bobojake, thanks to you...

heartlander (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 1:06PM EDT (link)

…there is now coffee spluttered all over my screen.

“The still, small voice of God in every human soul is the greatest ally of the pro-life cause, and why it will ultimately prevail.”
–Donald R. McClarey

 
 

Hi, sundaycombo. Who's your favored candidate (Read, please)?

Moe Lane (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 1:06PM EDT (link)

Note that the question is being asked by a site moderator who has just reviewed your account and had about two alarm bells go off. A substantive answer is required – in your next comment here – to prevent the third and final one from triggering.

Moe Lane

PS: Avoid a smart mouth when replying, by the way.

A favored candidate...

sundaycombo Tuesday, May 31st at 2:37PM EDT (link)

I have been consistent in not advocating for any particular candidate but have expressed two positions.

One-that I view the field as presently composed as fairly weak (a not uncommon view here I believe) and would be open to a late entrant

Two-that the first and foremost quality for the GOP candidate is electability. Since there is a real chance we can take the Senate in 2012, we need to remove the threat of the veto pen.

It still galls me that we should have control of the Senate today but for an unfortunate slate of candidates that were unelectable. My main concern is we don’t lose sight of that missed opportunity when it comes to Obama in 2012.

If it’s a sin to be a pragmatic conservative here then I would have to plead guilty. As far as your question, at this point I favor Romney BUT would be open to Bachmann as I am impressed at how she has recently seemed to re-evaluate her flame thrower image and strive for more “gravitas” if you will.

Stay here, I'll draw their fire

cwilson (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 2:51PM EDT (link)

A friend of mine posited this scenario, concerning the 2010 Senate elections. Whether intentional or not (I lean towards ‘not’), the candidates who took the most fire, and lost, served to protect those who won from having the full weight of the MSM and Dem (BIRM) slime machine fall on them.

E.g. the MSM spent so much time destroying The Witch(tm), Sharon Angle, etc, that they weren’t able to keep Kirk, Toomey, and Johnson out. (I omit Boozman, Coats, and Hoeven because those were blowouts).

Similarly, all the focus on those high profile Senate candidates probably helped “protect” some of our squeaker wins in the House, as well.

In a counterfactual universe, with more “moderate” candidates in those races, the MSM fire may have been more easily — and more effectively — trained on the Toomey or Johnson race: and there’s STILL no guarantee a squish would have won in NV, DE, etc.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! –Samuel Adams

 

Thank you.

Moe Lane (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 3:50PM EDT (link)

:thumbing safety on: We’ll take that as a provisional ‘pass.’

 
 
 

So

redtillimdead (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 2:09PM EDT (link)

I take it that you like politics as usual where politicians just tell the crowds what they want to hear and need to say to get elected, rather than what needs to be done and what they truly believe?

Nancy Pelosi can kiss my asstroturf.

Need some of both ...

sarg01 Tuesday, May 31st at 4:05PM EDT (link)

That is both pragmatism and principle. Political capital with independents is a rare asset. It must be spent to be valuable, but it needs to be spent on the most important matters – reducing spending, overturning Obamacare, sound judicial appointments. In general, it needs to be used to stop the slow creep of goverment and preferably claw back some of its expansion over the last decade. Well, that and the war.

However, I’d certainly suggest that Pawlenty’s use of the word “doofus” doesn’t cost any significant political capital. What I thought was significant is that he called the Dems out on their 2008 platform of “change”, calling it the “status quo” instead. I thought that was a pretty decent, and welcome, shot across the bow.

I think there’s some mileage to be had in calling the Obama Presidency a wimpier version of Bush III.

 
 

Meh.

randy streu (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 3:26PM EDT (link)

I disagree on both counts (your best and worse).

T-Paw’s entire campaign, as he says in the video, is about telling the truth — and here he’s not wrong. He could have said “jackass” or “idiot” and been correct as well. The fact is, it needed to be said, and he said it about as nicely as possible.

The not-ready-for-prime-time meme is as shallow as it is mistaken.

Plus it plays into his persona

Ann_W (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 4:00PM EDT (link)

Minnesota nice, yet he was very fired up about school choice.

I liked the interview very much.

“The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.” Ronald Reagan

 
 
 

Doofus = Pawlenty's new tone??

earlgrey (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 12:59PM EDT (link)

At least the word doofus has not yet been targeted by the lib speech control crowd.

Pawlenty is polite.. that apparently includes not cussin' when there's ladyfolk present. [nt]

acat (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 1:37PM EDT (link)

——
self-portrait

Caveat Suffragator

I had to laugh

ss396 Tuesday, May 31st at 2:51PM EDT (link)

I have never heard it used to indicate “relatively low-performing” before.

Sola scriptura, Sola fide, Sola gratia

T-Paw used same "Doofus" line in OpinionJournal interview

YnotNOW (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 6:31PM EDT (link)

see wsj.com/opinion

(by the way, my understanding of the word “Doofus” is a little stronger than “relatively low-performing”.. ;)

YnotNOW
If not me, who? If not now, when?

 

T-Paw used same "Doofus" line in OpinionJournal interview

YnotNOW (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 6:31PM EDT (link)

see wsj.com/opinion

(by the way, my understanding of the word “Doofus” is a little stronger than “relatively low-performing”.. ;)

YnotNOW
If not me, who? If not now, when?

 
 
 

This word will probably be deemed insensitive soon

rogershru2 (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 2:40PM EDT (link)

Isn’t it sad? I think what he said is fine and true – one of my first thoughts though was I wonder what the origins of the word are, and whether the PC left (not that you have to be PC if you ARE left) will use some prior meaning of it to attack Pawlenty as hating some group of people.

“We used to have the best infrastructure in the world here in America. We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad …” – President Obama

I call my husband a doofus all the time,

earlgrey (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 3:02PM EDT (link)

it is a little joke between us. One of those silly things married people do.

 

How long will it be....

etpietro Tuesday, May 31st at 3:18PM EDT (link)

…..until Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Ed Schultz, Larry O’Donnell, Bill Maher, you know, take your pick, come out and say that the word doofu is “code speech” for something else?

You know they will. Because that’s all they’ve got.

I think each of them should be personally insulted

YnotNOW (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 6:32PM EDT (link)

because the term may well apply to them each. ;)

YnotNOW
If not me, who? If not now, when?

 

I think each of them should be personally insulted

YnotNOW (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 6:32PM EDT (link)

because the term may well apply to them each. ;)

YnotNOW
If not me, who? If not now, when?

 
 
 

If you look up the plural of doofus in the dictionary,

Melody Warbington (rwm52) (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 6:44PM EDT (link)

it says “doofuses” or “liberals.” Many of the synonyms are just as appropriate.

Synonyms: berk [British], booby, charlie (also charley) [British], cuckoo, ding-a-ling, dingbat, ding-dong, dipstick, fool [slang], featherhead, git [British], goose, half-wit, jackass, lunatic, mooncalf, nincompoop, ninny, ninnyhammer, nit [chiefly British], nitwit, nut, nutcase, simp, simpleton, turkey, yo-yo

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. (John 4:25)

 
 

I thought it was a pretty good interview...

rowdydfw Tuesday, May 31st at 2:40PM EDT (link)

I had convinced myself that Pawlenty was kind of ho hum and lacking the charisma to inspire people to believe him and vote. In this interview, however, that ‘fire in his belly’ and his sincerenity really wants me to take a second look. And I loved what he said about speaking from the heart instead of trying to impress people with your credentials. I can look up his credentials myself. And I liked his taking Ryan’s plan and supporting it, but tweaking it with some ideas of his own. We don’t need a rubber stamp in DC, we need solutions to real problems from our leader.

Doofus, frankly is a good word to me, and it’s polite. I would’ve said any failure can go to DC and maintain the status quo just by sitting there in the chair and rubber stamping what his comrades are doing in congress. Harsh, I know, but it comes from my heart. And I expect my candidate to get harsh when it is required. We are in a really harsh reality and fainthearted will get us nowhere.

He seemed to handle Amanpour fairly well, and didn’t let her ride roughshod over him. I’ll have to take another look to make sure she wasn’t just soft on him, but maybe his responses were firm enough to back her off.

Thanks for sharing this interview. It’s opened my mind a little bit to make me go rat around in his record a little deeper. But I know I would like that ‘fire in his belly’ regarding the goodness of this country and it’s people to be a little more pronounced. He seems to be a quiet thoughtful sortof person instead of a rah rah type.

We all know that whoever comes out of this primary process, no matter what, we are going to throw a vote down for them. It will certainly be more helpful if we watch them closer so that when the time comes, we can support them with enthusiasm for the successes that are truthful, because this is going to be one tough fight. Ohamas is going to fight very dirty, and WE are the ones that are going to have to run the traps for our candidate, because the MSM will be controlled directly from home base in Chicago.

 

While I do not believe Pawlenty was expressly

runner12 (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 3:08PM EDT (link)

referring to Obama when he said the word “doofus”, it would not be far off of the mark if he had.

Anyone who watched Obama’s “toast” to Her Majesty the Queen of England knows that the term fits like a glove. When I saw that video, my first reaction was to laugh followed by extreme embarassment that this man was representing the United States.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

 

We need a candidate who is fired up about school choice.

Ann_W (Diary) Tuesday, May 31st at 4:04PM EDT (link)

I loved seeing Pawlenty’s passion about this issue!! It is the most important opportunity and social justice issue in this country.

I like Cain, but hearing this from Pawlenty was very attractive (politically speaking) to me.

“The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.” Ronald Reagan

 

Who would have thought it?

mine Tuesday, May 31st at 5:53PM EDT (link)

It seems the IQ in the White House has dried up since Bush left. I thought Bush had lost his marbles when he said he had to abandon the free market to save the free market. But he looks a serious intellectual in comparison to the clown in there today.