Jonah Goldberg at The Los Angeles Times compares Obama to Caesar.

[DonViejo]

Op-Ed

Obama, the shrinking imperialist president

His 'Year of Action' — intended to dispel that lame-duck scent — is simultaneously Caesar-like and pathetic.

By Jonah Goldberg
February 18, 2014

Of all the time-honored failings for which we criticize sitting presidents — by "we" I mean pundits, academics and other members of the chattering phylum — two charges stand out: imperialism and shrinkage. Usually it's one or the other.

When the president is unpopular or when he's lost control of his agenda or when he just seems inadequate to the demands of the job, the headline "The Incredible Shrinking Presidency" proliferates like kudzu. When the Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006, the Economist proclaimed "The Incredible Shrinking Presidency" of George W. Bush on its cover. Barack Obama has been diagnosed with presidential shrinkage many times, including in Politico, the New York Times and my own National Review.

The flip side of the shrinking presidency is the imperial presidency, something we've been fretting by name since at least Franklin Roosevelt and in principle since the founding.

Politically, what is remarkable is that Obama seems to be doing both at the same time. His "Year of Action" — intended to dispel that lame-duck scent — is simultaneously Caesar-like and pathetic. Last week, he announced that he would unilaterally raise the minimum wage for federal contractors seeking new work. Only 1% of the workforce makes the minimum wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and vanishingly few of them work for the federal government. This probably explains why the White House wouldn't give an actual number when asked how many people his bold action would benefit.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg-presidential-shrinkage-20140218,0,6527142.column#ixzz2tgeGqVqR

[lostincalifornia]

1. Jonah Goldberg is an idiot, and he always has been. The LA times should be ashamed for wasting

space on this buffoon.

If they want a conservative view point then get someone of a William Buckley caliber

This is pathetic

[GeorgiaMike49]

13. Haven't you noticed?

There are no conservatives of that caliber anymore. It used to be you could be a conservative and still be thoughtful, but now you just have to keep yelling. Jonah is a perfect example of how the DNA weakens in a family, generation by generation.

[lostincalifornia]

14. You make a good point. Welcome!

[gopiscrap]

15. welcome to DU

[no_hypocrisy]

2. What happened to Obama being compared to Hitler?

Will the republican nutjobs go through the list of historical emperors and/or dictators until they find one that sticks?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. The article almost seems to make the case that he's inadequate for the job

Last edited Tue Feb 18, 2014, 03:06 PM - Edit history (2)

and is thus trying to overcompensate by becoming dictatorial- just like Julius Ceaser? They can't seem to make up their minds about whether he is a weak, ineffectual President who "can't lead"- (though how does any Democratic President lead Republicans to their jobs and make them pass bills he supports?)- or simply a left-wing tyrant obsessed with turning the United States into a European-style nanny state.

[struggle4progress]

4. Yup: "Obama Caesar the lame duck" is right out of the old Gingrich playbook ---

it doesn't matter what's said, as long as it's unrelentingly nasty

[JoePhilly]

10. He's weak ... and a dictator.

The fact that those things are totally opposite is irrelevant.

They don't care which one you choose to believe. Just so long as you believe one of them.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Exactly

[Joe Magarac]

6. IIRC, Bill Clinton was Caligula.

[idendoit]

5. I didn't know that Doughy Pantload was a cotributor to the LA Times.

What is he, their token yahoo?

[Splinter Cell]

7. This guy is an asshat.

He's as bad as Malkin, both of which are in the local paper almost every day.

[madinmaryland]

8. Jonah Goldberg is the pathetic son of a right wing political hack. nt

[YvonneCa]

12. Luciane(sp) Goldberg of Clinton impeachment...

.fame, if memory serves. Lewinski 'friend', so called. Remembering history is importsnt...

[DonViejo]

18. No. Lucianne was Linda Tripp's confidante....

but whatever; Lucianne and Tripp were gossip queens gone wild.

[hrmjustin]

9. iI see he is still clueless.

[mimi85]

16. We get the LA Times and

I cringe when I see his byline. He IS a royal asshat!

[Initech]

17. George W would have been a more accurate comparison.

[Rowdyboy]

19. Interesting. "Only 1% of the workforce makes the minimum wage"...That would be great

if it was true. Actually according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the number is closer to 59% of the workforce making the minimum wage, but what's 70 million people or so when you're making a point about how bad Caesar/Stalin/Mao Obama is.

http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2011.htm

In 2011, 73.9 million American workers age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.1 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Among those paid by the hour, 1.7 million earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.2 million had wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 3.8 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 5.2 percent of all hourly-paid workers. Tables 1 through 10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage.

[bemildred]

20. He pretty much reasons by cliche. They had John Bolton fulminating a while back too. nt