Thanks (for nothing) Obama!

Obama insisted on pushing through nearly a trillion dollars of phony ‘stimulus money’ over a period of a couple weeks, and successfully wasted more money in the first month of a presidency than any of his predecessors.   The costs will be felt by generations of Americans, and Obama will likely  become a new word in the dictionary– as in ‘to pull an obama’, which means to do something colossally stupid while at the same time claiming it is very important and necessary.

Meanwhile, after telling voters he ‘had a plan’ with Afghanistan, he took several months to simply give the necessary orders to continue the fight that he called ‘a just war’ back when he was courting votes.  Yesterday he gave his long-awaited speech on his plans for Afghanistan.  I am sorry to quote someone else, but it is useful to realize that the people who just a year ago packed the fields near the Berlin Wall to cheer for Obama have a different reaction now.  You will read mild criticism in the US but have to go abroad to hear what people think about our president– someone who the rest of the world is quickly realizing is an amateur, an embarrassment, a weakling.  The followinig is from Der Spiegel:

Searching in Vain for the Obama Magic

By Gabor Steingart

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America’s new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric — and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama’s speech would be well-received.

Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond “enthusiastically” to the speech. But it didn’t help: The soldiers’ reception was cool.

One didn’t have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama’s speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.

An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan — and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war — and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate.

Just in Time for the Campaign

For each troop movement, Obama had a number to match. US strength in Afghanistan will be tripled relative to the Bush years, a fact that is sure to impress hawks in America. But just 18 months later, just in time for Obama’s re-election campaign, the horror of war is to end and the draw down will begin. The doves of peace will be let free.

The speech continued in that vein. It was as though Obama had taken one of his old campaign speeches and merged it with a text from the library of ex-President George W. Bush. Extremists kill in the name of Islam, he said, before adding that it is one of the “world’s great religions.” He promised that responsibility for the country’s security would soon be transferred to the government of President Hamid Karzai — a government which he said was “corrupt.” The Taliban is dangerous and growing stronger. But “America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars,” he added.

It was a dizzying combination of surge and withdrawal, of marching to and fro. The fast pace was reminiscent of plays about the French revolution: Troops enter from the right to loud cannon fire and then they exit to the left. And at the end, the dead are left on stage.

Obama’s Magic No Longer Works

But in this case, the public was more disturbed than entertained. Indeed, one could see the phenomenon in a number of places in recent weeks: Obama’s magic no longer works. The allure of his words has grown weaker.

It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives — their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.

Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners — particularly those with a talent for oration — are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called “Hope.”

In his speech on America’s new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.

The American president doesn’t need any opponents at the moment. He’s already got himself.

I check in at Rasmussen Reports now and then, as doing so gives me some measure of faith that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.  Today obama comes in at minus 14– not sure if that is a new record low on that poll, but if it isn’t it is close.  He has hovered around the negative 10 region for the past couple months, and I figured it was just a matter of time until some of the people in the ‘approve’ column pick up a paper or better yet, decide to do some critical thinking.  Obama just returned from another ‘blame America first’ tour, this time across Asia;  you can find pictures of him bowing so low to the Japanese President that it looks like Asian porn from the right angle.  Obama continued to apologize for that meanie, Bush– who instead of defending himself or his policies was visiting Fort Hood, trying to restore the morale that visits by obama typically deplete.

Obama polls show that Americans are learning the truth about a weak President

I find myself wondering how things will end with obama. He has already done enough damage to our economy that he is assured a legacy, as his deficit spending makes any of Reagan’s deficits puny in comparison–  and while Reagan’s deficits were the result of Congressional spending during Reagan’s tax cuts, the obama deficits will all be the result of obama’s spending and obama’s tax INCREASES– which have maintained, and will maintain, our slow economic growth–  perhaps for decades.  It is amazing how much damage one president can do!  Like is often said, you cannot give a president credit for a good economy (althouthegh the press sure has tried to credit Clinton!!), but you can sometimes blame a president for a bad one!  And every person with a college degree– and many without one– realize that the current problems started out as a global recession because of mortgage derivatives– not because of anything Bush did or didn’t do.  Simpletons will say ‘inherited from Bush’, but doing so is a purely reactive, non-thinking statement;  just ask such a person ‘how did Bush do this to the entire world?’ and wait for the answer that does not exist.  On the other hand, obama DID make things much worse– and you will be able to see that quite clearly going forward, as every other country recovers save the United States.

As for the ending, will he get it?  Will he realize that all of the apologizing does NOT build respect?  He is coming back from Asia totally empty-handed;  the press won’t report on it, but HE knows– obama knows that he wanted to accomplish some things, and he was ignored.  He knows he failed at the Olympic bid.  He knows that the dollar is falling like a stone.  He will see China stop investing in our debt– despite bowing lower and lower for them.  He will see the terrorists keep attacking, and he might even care that Americans will die (don’t hold your breath on that one!!).  Will he ‘get it’?  Will he recognize that he was a fool president?  Will he see, as US healthcare expenditures grow massively from the bureaucracy he creates,  just how wrong he was?  I would like to say ‘yes!’.  But we had the failed welfare system of the 1960′s and 1970′s, and he didn’t apparently learn from them.  So will he see?  When he sees the country mired in Carter-esque stagflation for decades, will he see what he did?  Again, it will be so obvious!  But then again, it already is– watch as the rest of the world explodes with growth, and we do a double-dip recession.  Watch as our unemployment worsens.  And he does not apparently see it… so the smart bet would be that he is one of those ‘lifelong’ Democrats who are blinded by partisanship.

Let's at least learn, and throw the bums out next year

In case you don’t read the details of stimulus plans and other failed obama initiatives, the reason we will not recover like other countries will is because obama spent us into bankruptcy during a recession– but not to do the thing that presidents usually do to reverse recessions, i.e. stimulate the growth of business, which creates jobs.  The blunder was so large that I have to think that obama assumed it would be easy to be president;  that he could just skim money off the economy for his pals, and that the economy would bounce back on it’s own without any help, and despite the harm he would do.  Maybe that would have occurred in some other era, but we really needed help this time.  And instead of providing help, obama made it much worse– he dumped billions upon billions into places and projects that do NOTHING to create jobs or spur economic growth.  In fact, he used billions of dollars to increase the size of government, even developing entirely new agencies.  Anyone in a position to expand a business saw that these new areas of spending were not temporary;  they were the start of projects that will forever cost taxpayers.  So the businessman says, ‘why expand if my taxes are going to go up to 80% in a few years?  Why risk my company if the return is essentially going to the government?’  So businesses did NOT expand.  And now the money is spent.  There is talk of spending ANOTHER 200 billion dollars– let’s see if it is spent wisely, or is instead wasted on paying for new Union-room coffee machines.

One final note-  I had the thought as I was reading about the billions upon billions that were being wasted on the new suddenly-endangered species that those people have quite a racket.  There were reports yesterday and today that environmental agencies had moseyed up to the spending hog-trough and were raking in huge increases in funding.  It occurred to me– who would question that?!  Can you see the press (outside of Fox news) going after agencies that protect spotted owls?  Michael Crichton had the guts to take on those agencies and was immediately dropped from all of the Hollywood guest lists;  with him gone (RIP) there is nobody, save John Stossel (who is already being pilloried) who will say a word about the issue.  And me, of course– but only two or three people get to hear my ranting!!

Unfortunately there is no giving him back!

If you DO read this, do me a favor and hit a ‘share’ button below– or better yet, hit several.  ‘Stumble upon’ me.  Digg me.  Or try Reddit.com– although I have found that those guys in their political posting section stick to the left.  If you can share me with someone, please do.  And THANKS!

My first thought upon hearing the news about the prize for our clueless president was the same thought many people had– that it was a joke, or that I had wax in my ears and heard it wrong.  Then I remembered the mistake I made a few weeks ago— I saw a clip of biden saying that the ‘stimulus plan’ was working even more than he had hoped’ and assumed I was tuned in to re-runs of Saturday Night Live, only to find that it was the REAL biden making the statement, and get this– he was serious!  By the way, the white house press director/weenie is changing the wording of that waste of 800 billion dollars, and now we are supposed to call it an economic ‘safety net’…  for liberals reading the column who don’t understand what is going on, they are trying to  retroactively lower expectations, already dreading the elections of 2010 when Republicans will laugh and say ‘thanks for nothing, obama!’

I’ve been reading columns from some of the newspapers what have reporters who are not mesmerized by the charisma of the anointed one, and the confusion seems to be widespread.  The first reaction   is ‘huh?’ followed by ‘what for?’, and then ‘are you joking?’  Even the forever love-struck media seemed confused this morning, afraid to report ‘all in’ in case it was all a mistake, or part of some ‘vast right-wing conspiracy.’

Then after the shock, the genuine thinkers ask the serious questions.  What exactly IS going on?  Is it a ‘black’ thing– does the Nobel committee think like jimmy carter that the US is filled with racist rednecks, and obama has somehow risen above something?  If that is the case, the joke is on them–  obama in reality became our president BECAUSE he was black, not IN SPITE of it.  Had he been white, the media could have reported his associations with domestic terrorists,  the blatant racism of  his mentors like rev wright, his inexperience, his over 100 votes of ‘present’ during his tenure in the Illinois state legislature, etc.   In reality obama benefited from the liultimate affirmative action program in the Presidential election!  His status as a bona fide black man even trumped the idea of a woman as president, say Hillary C.  I  actually liked Hillary, by the way– I didn’t agree with her politics, but I knew she was smart enough to avoid destroying the country– something that clearly is NOT the case for obama.

I hope it IS the black thing;  the alternative is consistent with what happened at the olympic meeting, when the committee demonstrated that obama has effectively lowered the status of the US to equal footing with Cuba and Venezuela.  Maybe the Nobel folks think obama needed a pat on the back after that embarrassment.  Or maybe they felt sorry for him like they did for jimmy carter– the worst president of the 20th century– already knowing obama has dibs on that award for the 21st.

What crazy times.   Good job, obama- for whatever they think you did.  At least you’ll be able to find a job in 4 years, unlike the rest of our citizens.