It was hard to find fault with the political instincts of the Obama Campaign during its successful run for the Presidency in 2008. But it seems that actually governing is a bit more difficult than campaigning. Mr. Obama, and those around him in the White House have bungled their first year in office in a manner that may prevent them from ever being effective while they occupy the highest office in the land.
In their headlong lurch to hobble the nation with government health care, the president and his advisors have completely disregarded the one issue of the American people actually want action on, the economy. Instead they have embarked on a single-minded (some might say simple-minded) attempt to force Obama Care through Congress despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people.
Now, one year into the Obama Administration, the economy is terrible, the housing market has crashed, unemployment has reached 10% and the people are becoming enraged at the arrogance of Mr. Obama and his crew. The democrat party is in disarray with many members resigning rather than running for re-election, with those who remain in fear for their electoral chances because of the reckless pursuit of the dream of a (democrat) government takeover of the health care system.
We should be grateful for the incredible ineptitude demonstrated by Mr Obama and his administration in the past year. With a little patience and planning they could have simply run their signature piece of legislation through congress and become law.
The Obama Administration could have started slowly, modestly affecting the change they had promised during the campaign instead of breathlessly leaping off the cliff in an all-or-nothing bid to fundamentally change the American government. They could have acknowledged the crashing economy as the preeminent issue before the American people and taken steps to resurrect it.
What if the Obama crew looked to history and discovered that Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and George W. Bush had had rousing success in reviving slumping economies through tax cuts. What if the Obama crew had agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts, reduce capital gains taxes to a piddling 10%, and to reduce the corporate income tax to a more reasonable 20% when they first arrived in the White House?
President Obama would have been free to travel the world, bowing and apologizing to any and all the world’s dictators; he could go on taxpayer sponsored dates with his wife to catch a Broadway show; he could go golfing in Hawaii while the incredible American economic engine began to roar once again. He could have sat on the sidelines as businesses felt free to expand, investors flocked back into the market, and the American people went happily back to work.
Then, after a year or so of economic progress and falling unemployment, Mr Obama and his crew would be rightly enjoying the political good will of people happy with their condition and largely indifferent to the usual malfeasance taking place in Washington. In such a condition, Mr Obama could have then introduced his hideous attempt to grab control of the health care system, and with it control of every aspect of our lives. He would have the good will of the people, the willing support of huge majorities in both the House and Senate, and of course the slavish support of the sock puppets in the derelict media. As a result, we would have been looking the other way, as most American were during the Clinton Administration, and would have been saddled with a European-styled Socialist economy for ever.
Then, with his health care takeover safely put to bed, and the American people still hard at work reviving the economy, Mr Obama would have been free to continue his plan to fundamentally change America. Instead, with the economy still in the tank the American people are paying rapt attention to every syllable uttered from Washington. Our attention is focused like a laser on every attempt to substitute government welfare for a little bit more of our freedom.
Mr Obama may yet succeed in ramming this terrible legislation through Congress. But instead of a racing across the finish line like a champion marathon runner breaking the tape with arms outstretched, Mr Obama is more like Jed Clampett coaxing his old jalopy up hill, lurching, sputtering, backfiring, and belching smoke. He may yet make it, but the results will not be pretty.
More importantly, the Obama Administration faces the certainty of landslide electoral defeats in the November congressional election. He will no longer enjoy the overwhelming majorities he now has (and with which he has accomplished nothing). He will have made himself a lame duck in his first year in office.
The Obama Administration is illustrating the difference between campaigning and actually governing.
No comments:
Post a Comment