Milton R. Wolf says that re-election panic is visible everywhere these days, and oh, my! how Obama’s unflappable image is changing now that the pressure’s on.
Something unexpected happened along the president’s breezy cruise to re-election. “No drama†Obama is suddenly looking about as calm as Jerry Lewis in a French film, about as brave as Ted Kennedy after an evening drive through Chappaquiddick. Witness Team Obama’s recent panicky behavior.
Obamanomics anxiety. The White House is reeling as its reverse Midas touch to the economy is being exposed. Its own economists acknowledge now that each job created or “saved†by the so-called “stimulus†cost taxpayers a whopping $278,000. This is still fantasyland because there are 1.9 million fewer jobs on record now than on the day the stimulus was signed into law, but nonetheless, the quiet pre-holiday Friday night news dump of an announcement reveals the administration’s worry. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke admitted last month that he’s clueless why America’s economic malaise continues. Tax cheat and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who called President Obama’s budget “unsustainable,†wants to abandon ship along with the rest of the “economic dream team†escapees: Lawrence H. Summers, Christina Romer and Austan Goolsbee. Meanwhile, the president, apparently believing no news is good news, has put his fingers in his ears – “La la la, I cannot hear you†– and, at one point, canceled his daily economic briefings.
Barack Obama, that totally-cool-and-with-it president, recently decided to conduct a “Twitter town hall.” Iowahawk is on Twitter (I follow him), and whipped up a number of questions just for Barry.
Samples:
Serious question: what’s the biggest hardship you’ve ever dealt with in your life?
Have you ever had a menial job, changed your own oil, or fixed a toilet?
Subtract Malia’s age from the number of states. Multiply the result by the number of jobs saved or created.
Math wasn’t your strong suit, was it?
I let my Mexican drug lord license expire. Am I still eligible for the free machine gun program?
When you’re visiting his volcano lair, does George Soros let you feed the laser sharks?
The staffer who suggested this Twitter Town Hall is fired, isn’t he?
Are you smart enough to create a problem so big that even you could not solve it?
Why isn’t your cabinet unionized?
If Joe Biden has a massive stroke, (a) do you have a replacement in mind, and (b) how would you tell?
Is there any job you’d be better at than president?
The chief economic culprit of President Obama’s Wednesday press conference was undoubtedly “corporate jets.” He mentioned them on at least six occasions, each time offering their owners as an example of a group that should be paying more in taxes.
“I think it’s only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that has done so well,” the president stated at one point, “to give up that tax break that no other business enjoys.”
But the corporate jet tax break to which Obama was referring – called “accelerated depreciation,” and a popular Democratic foil of late – was created by his own stimulus package.
Repair Man Jack is fed up with democrat class warfare efforts at distraction.
If the majority of Americans really and truly believe that cutting the size of government, when struggling under $14Tr of national debt, equates to a desire to snuff puppies, we deserve a national default. If the majority of Americans truly believe they have a right to extract a loan for their tuition costs out of some other person’s paycheck, America is massively overdue for a well-deserved 2nd Great Depression. If the majority of people really believe the National Weather Service won’t just hire replacements from Korea or China; where students go to class at college sober, they are in for a grievous upset and disappointment.
The national anthem just doesn’t get the same kind of emotional response from some people.
Jay Clarke discusses (with agreeable insensitivity) the differences of outlook and identity that so many Americans perceive in President Barack Obama’s manner, statements, and philosophy.
Something is wrong with Barack Obama. We all know it. We all see it. When he speaks about America, Americans cringe. There is a strangeness to his manner, an unease when he talks about America. He appears awkward and uncomfortable. His speech seems performed and practiced yet, oddly halting. It’s reminiscent of American POW’s in Vietnam or Iraq reading a forced confession. His eyes, expressions, and vocal tone are disconnected from his words. The words themselves often sound American, but the delivery is clinical and detached. His attempts at patriotic sentiment ring hollow and phony. “Once again, with feeling!” is how Americans are left feeling. He just doesn’t seem right. He doesn’t seem like, well…one of us.
Before anyone “goes there” and makes accusations of racism, this is about a pervasive, nagging, national perception that Barack Obama does not intuitively understand or appreciate America or Americans. Not our past. Not our present or future. He just doesn’t act or sound like an American. In fact, there are good reasons and ample evidence for why.
For many of us, “being an American” was a normal part of our collective upbringing. We learned it in school. We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning right alongside our teachers. Even in liberal Southern California the day began with the Pledge often followed by singing “God Bless America” or “America the Beautiful.” Annual “Flag Ceremonies” were held with quotations from the Declaration of Independence and patriotic songs performed by the student body, in public, for parents and passersby to enjoy.
Hat tip to Bird Dog, who paraphrases: His mother hated the USA, his dad hated the USA, his step-dad hated the USA. His schools in Indonesia hated the USA. His college buddies hated the USA. His pastor of 20 years hates the USA and his associates in Chicago hate the USA.
“Over the last 15 months we’ve created over 2.1 million private sector jobs. (Laughter.)”
— President Obama, in an official transcript of a fundraising speech this week. The transcript was later corrected by replacing “Laughter” with “Applause”.
