Wednesday, December 02, 2009


Opinion

Searching in Vain for the Obama Magic

President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech left a bad taste in many mouths.
Zoom
AFP
President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech left a bad taste in many mouths.
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 hearingObama'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.
To realize the value of a sister/brother,

                  Ask someone who doesn't have one.

To realize the value of ten years:

                  Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize the value of four years:

                   Ask a graduate.


To realize the value of one year:

                    Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize the value of nine months:

                    Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.


To realize the value of two months:

                    Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.


To realize the value of one week:

                    Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

 To realize the value of one minute:

                    Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.

 To realize the value of one-second:

                   
  Ask a person who has survived an accident.

 To realize the value of a day:


 Try missing one!

To realize the value of a friend or family member:

                    LOSE ONE.

"The last suit that you wear, you don't need any pockets."
— Wayne Dyer: Self-development author and speaker

WRONG FROM THE START: TOP 10 OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS’ TRILLION-DOLLAR ‘STIMULUS’

WASHINGTON DEMS HEAD INTO TOMORROW’S “JOBS SUMMIT” WITH A SERIOUS CREDIBILITY PROBLEM
December 2, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink

The White House will convene a “jobs summit” tomorrow against a backdrop of rising unemployment, soaring debt, and declining public confidence in the Obama Administration’s economic program.  Washington Democrats staked their credibility on a nearly trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ that was supposed to be about putting people back to work, but has instead produced countless examples of wasteful government spending while more than three million Americans have lost their jobs.  Even the accounting methods designed to keep track of ‘stimulus’ dollars have been widely discredited.  Given the last 11 months of outrageous ‘stimulus’ claims, the American people are right to wonder whether Washington Democrats can be trusted to create jobs and cut the deficit: 

1. UNEMPLOYMENT "AT EIGHT PERCENT OR BELOW"


CLAIM: Just 10 days before taking office, Obama’s top economic advisers [Christina Romer & Jared Bernstein] released a report predicting unemployment would remain at eight percent or below through this year if an economic stimulus plan won congressional approval.” (Associated Press, 6/14/09)


FACT: The nation’s unemployment rate now stands at 10.2 percent.  The President and several members of his economic team explicitly stated that the ‘stimulus’ was needed to avert double-digit unemployment.

2.
 IMPACT FELT "IMMEDIATELY"

CLAIM: “Q: If the president gets his way and gets this package approved, he signs it into law, how soon before -- the American public starts to feel results, the creation of jobs?  NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR LAWRENCE SUMMERS: You’ll see the effects begin almost immediately.” (CNN, 2/9/09) 

FACT: The U.S. economy has lost more than three million jobs since the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ became law.  One House Democrat this week referred to the ‘stimulus’ as the “jobless American Recovery Act.”  A recent survey found that fewer than one in ten Americans believe the ‘stimulus’ has helped create jobs. 

3. "90 PERCENT ... PRIVATE SECTOR"

CLAIM: “More than 90 percent of the jobs created by this plan will be in the private sector.” –President Obama (News conference, 2/9/09) 

FACT: “Although President Obama initially said that 90 percent of the jobs created by the stimulus program would be in the private sector, the data suggests that well over half of the jobs claimed so far have been in the public sector.” (The New York Times, 11/4/09) 

4. "NO EARMARKS OR PET PROJECTS"

CLAIM: “There will be no earmarks or pet projects in this bill.” –House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Floor statement, 2/13/09) 

FACT: The trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ has produced countless examples of wasteful government spending, including repairs to a bridge that reportedly carries about 260 cars per day, many to a place called Rusty’s Backwater Saloon in Wisconsin, and in North Carolina, where ‘stimulus’ funds were reportedly used by one town to hire a new worker whose job is to apply for more ‘stimulus’ funds from Washington. 

5. "A VERY FISCALLY SOUND PACKAGE"

CLAIM: “We must make sure the public understands this is a very fiscally sound package.” –Speaker Nancy Pelosi (
Talk Radio News Service, 3/10/09) 

FACT: With the help of the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus,’ the Obama Administration spent more in its first 100 days than all previous presidents have combined.  The national debt has topped $12 trillion for the first time in U.S. history.  The federal government is now operating on a budget that doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in ten. 

6. "A LOT MORE JOBS CREATED"

CLAIM: “The second hundred days you’re going to see a lot more jobs created.” –Vice President Joe Biden (ABC’s This Week, 7/5/09)

FACT: The U.S. economy lost roughly 930,000 jobs in June, July, and August.  It was during this period that the President proclaimed he could “see a light at the end of the tunnel.” 

7. "A LOT MORE AMMUNITION LEFT" 

CLAIM: “There is a lot more ammunition left in the stimulus package.” –Jared Bernstein, the Vice President's chief economist (CNNMoney.com, 10/30/09) 

FACT: “The government’s economic stimulus spending has already had its biggest impact and probably won’t contribute to significant growth next year, a top White House adviser said Thursday.” (Associated Press, 10/22/09)  “An interesting tidbit from Dr. Christina Romer’s testimony before the Joint Economic Committee.  Citing economic analysts she says the fiscal stimulus will have its greatest impact on growth in the second and third quarters of 2009. (Editor’s note – those quarters are now behind us).” (ABC News, 10/22/09)

8. MORE WORK, NOT MORE JOBS

CLAIM: “I think we got the Recovery Act right. … It may be desirable to have a given amount of work shared among more people. But that’s not as desirable as expanding the total amount of work.” –National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers (The Washington Post, 11/8/09) 

FACT: The Obama Administration’s attempt to suddenly make job creation seem like a lesser goal of the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ flies in the face of numerous public statements made in the days before the bill was passed, including the President’s statement that creating jobs was his “bottom-line number one.”

9. RAISES SAVE JOBS 

CLAIM: “If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job.” –Department of Health and Human Services spokesman (Associated Press, 11/4/09) 

FACT: This is one of several attempts by the Obama Administration to define a job “saved or created” by the ‘stimulus.’  In this particular case, the AP found “more than 9,300 existing employees in more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren’t saved.”  In a newly released report, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office states that “it is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.” 

10. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN WASTEFUL SPENDING" 

CLAIM: “We’ve been in business seven, eight months. You haven’t seen wasteful spending. No one has said we spent $2 million on things that didn’t exist.” –Vice President Joe Biden (The Daily Show, 11/17/09) 

FACT: “Stimulus jobs reported in non-existent congressional districts. … Of all the problems found in the latest round of stimulus reporting, add another one: congressional districts that don’t exist.  ABC News reported yesterday that White House officials have found 700 mistakenly credited congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11/18/09)  “The reports on jobs created or saved by the $787 billion economic stimulus package are ‘riddled with inaccuracies and contradictions,’ the federal watchdog overseeing the spending acknowledged Thursday.” (USA TODAY, 11/19/09) 

BONUS. REPUBLICAN SOLUTIONS

CLAIM: “Vice President Biden offered an impassioned defense of the Obama administration’s policies on the economy, health care, and energy this morning… He chastised administration opponents for not offering alternatives to solve the problems of the nation.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/23/09) 

FACT: “House Republicans Press Obama on Job Creation.  House Republicans sent a letter to President Barack Obama today, pushing the administration to seek more business tax breaks as a way to boost the number of new jobs. … Republicans say in their letter that they’re hoping to work with the White House toward a bipartisan jobs plan.” (WSJ Washington Wire, 10/7/09)  The proposals contained in the October letter, some of which were presented to President Obama as early as his first week in office, were developed by House Republicans' Economic Recovery and Health Care solutions groups.  Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), who heads up the Economic Recovery Solutions Group, will discuss additional proposals to spur job creation in a speech today at the Heritage Foundation.