Rush to Judgment, Buyer’s Remorse & Obamagaddon
Rush to Judgment
We learned this week about some of Rahm Emanuel’s (aka, “Prince of Darkness”) behind-the-scenes workings as Chief of Staff. Apparently the economy, war on terror & staffing aren’t big enough problems for the man. Now he & the Obama administration are hard at work perfecting the art of the dodge. They chose to deflect attention from the vote of no confidence by the stock market (the worst month since 1933) and public opinion, by vilifying Rush Limbaugh’s comments at CPAC Feb. 28. Specifically, that he wished Obama to fail. In context, it was a bit more nuanced – that he wants him to fail in implementing his socialistic measures that will hurt this country. Of course there was no shortage of voices on the left calling for, and gleefully, prematurely declaring, Bush’s failure in Iraq, etc., and worse. But there was no outcry from the left about the inappropriateness of that.
The media seems complicit in trying to negate the sentiments voiced by Rush (and held by many conservatives) by trying to isolate him. Whatever problems people may have with his personality or style, it’s not so easy to dismiss the message along with the messenger. I very rarely listen to Rush anymore (Hewitt, Prager, Medved, Levin, Beck, Coulter, etc. are my typical fare), but when I decided to listen to much of his speech, I had to agree, and say “bravo!” And I was reminded of Romney’s much-cheered speech at last year’s CPAC. Until we find a political banner-carrier, or even then, I have no problem with such an articulate, passionate messenger. We should be united on principles, regardless of personalities. “Give us men to match our mountains!” Glad that Michael Steele agreed, and saw the Democrat attempt to drive a wedge for what it was. For the full CPAC speech (video, transcript): http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_030209/content/01125106.guest.html.
Buyer's Remorse
Obama seems to have taken inspiration from John Paul Jones – “I have not yet begun to spend!” With TARP 2, more bailouts (when will they end?), the omnibus budget bill, etc., he will double the national debt in the next 5 years, and triple it in the next 10 (if given the chance). And he deflects criticism of all this by childishly saying that Bush started it. He even called the NY Times back (after hanging up on their reporter who asked if he was a socialist) specifically with that “argument.” But Obama’s clearly showing that he can outdo Bush – after all, he has a reputation to uphold as the leftmost liberal in Congress, and any liberal worth his salt knows how to spend other people’s money. In his Feb. 24 first address to Congress, he said that he “got it” about America’s anger over bailouts to banks, automakers, AIG, etc. But then he just keeps turning around and giving more.
The speed with which all this spending is taking place is blinding. In keeping with the Prince of Darkness’ (Emanuel’s) statement to “never let a crisis go to waste,” they seem bent on putting every liberal social spending program & earmark they can fit into these intractable bills before anyone has time to think about it or raise a response. And they claim that they are somehow all going to stimulate the economy. But rather than being “targeted,” as Obama claimed, it is clearly a shotgun approach, without priorities. As George Will said, his approach is to just enact the entire liberal agenda for the past 25 years all at once, under the pretext of “fixing the economy.” The GOP alternative package cost half as much, and experts assessed it as twice as effective. Obama recently said “Throughout our nation’s history, we have met every challenge with bold ideas and big actions.” Bold, yes, big, yes, but tailored or cost-effective? No.
But after 7 weeks of spending rates shocking even for many liberals, and no clear or confident plans to get the banks, businesses & economy back on track, many economic experts who voted for Obama are having buyer’s remorse. Prager pointed out that Jim Cramer said “Obama’s budget may be one of the great wealth-destroyers of all time.” And Clyde Crook in the Financial Times, and Stewart Taylor in the National Journal, expressed shock that Obama is not the centrist they expected. As Prager said, why are these people surprised? Obama’s just doing what he said he would, and it’s consistent with his voting record. Why did they choose to listen to the soothing voice of the mainstream media rather than the clear warning voices crying in the wilderness? Yes, “we told you so!” People are getting what they voted for, and deserve, based on their level of scrutiny and concern for this nation. And we will all be paying for it for a very long time.
I liked the “Mallard Fillmore” comic today that showed Obama saying (as his thought bubble showed FDR) “The only thing we have left is fear itself.” Initially he discounted the vote of no-confidence from the stock market as being just like a volatile opinion poll that you can’t give much credence to. But finally recognizing that their fear-mongering to expedite the passage of these legislations was not helping the markets, Mr. anti-business & anti-greed made a feeble attempt. He encouraged people to take advantage of the economic crisis by finding new opportunities, and pointed out that the record stock lows presented great values to buy now. He did jumble the terminology. And now that we hear he will be reducing (or removing?) charitable deductions, it appears he is poised to have government take over those social welfare responsibilities, making charity mandatory by taxation, and moving us ever closer to a socialistic welfare state.
Obamagaddon
On the foreign front, showing once again his incredible values priorities, Mr. Obama opted to sleight our staunchest ally in the war on terror (PM Brown of Britain – a fellow liberal, at that!), and extend his hand to the “moderate factions of the Taliban.” As if there were such a thing – with their well-known reputation for tolerance, I’m sure all seven or eight of them will be decapitated if they dare come forward. Or perhaps several will be designated to deceptively deal with the infidels & lull them along, as we saw in the Vietnam Paris peace talks. And no doubt our enemies love and respect us oh so much more after Obama declared definitively that the US does not torture.
Oh, yes, and can the State Department not find someone who can at least read a Russian dictionary to get the right translation for Hillary’s “reset” button? And one more late-breaking early test of Obama in the South China Sea with the Chinese harassing one of our ships in international waters. Maybe we need to apply some chopstick diplomacy – lean on the Canadians to threaten an embargo of chopstick lumber. That could foment some additional internal unrest in China in addition to the current unemployment riots.
Finally, the nuclear clock appears to be inexorably ticking in Iran, which now appears mere months away from nuclear weapon capability. Yes, Mr. Obama, now that even you have admitted that is unacceptable, we’ll see how effective your much-touted diplomacy turns out with the Russians – time for you and Hillary to turn on that magical charm & “yes we can” attitude! Or will Obamaphoria be swallowed up in Obamagaddon?
We learned this week about some of Rahm Emanuel’s (aka, “Prince of Darkness”) behind-the-scenes workings as Chief of Staff. Apparently the economy, war on terror & staffing aren’t big enough problems for the man. Now he & the Obama administration are hard at work perfecting the art of the dodge. They chose to deflect attention from the vote of no confidence by the stock market (the worst month since 1933) and public opinion, by vilifying Rush Limbaugh’s comments at CPAC Feb. 28. Specifically, that he wished Obama to fail. In context, it was a bit more nuanced – that he wants him to fail in implementing his socialistic measures that will hurt this country. Of course there was no shortage of voices on the left calling for, and gleefully, prematurely declaring, Bush’s failure in Iraq, etc., and worse. But there was no outcry from the left about the inappropriateness of that.
The media seems complicit in trying to negate the sentiments voiced by Rush (and held by many conservatives) by trying to isolate him. Whatever problems people may have with his personality or style, it’s not so easy to dismiss the message along with the messenger. I very rarely listen to Rush anymore (Hewitt, Prager, Medved, Levin, Beck, Coulter, etc. are my typical fare), but when I decided to listen to much of his speech, I had to agree, and say “bravo!” And I was reminded of Romney’s much-cheered speech at last year’s CPAC. Until we find a political banner-carrier, or even then, I have no problem with such an articulate, passionate messenger. We should be united on principles, regardless of personalities. “Give us men to match our mountains!” Glad that Michael Steele agreed, and saw the Democrat attempt to drive a wedge for what it was. For the full CPAC speech (video, transcript): http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_030209/content/01125106.guest.html.
Buyer's Remorse
Obama seems to have taken inspiration from John Paul Jones – “I have not yet begun to spend!” With TARP 2, more bailouts (when will they end?), the omnibus budget bill, etc., he will double the national debt in the next 5 years, and triple it in the next 10 (if given the chance). And he deflects criticism of all this by childishly saying that Bush started it. He even called the NY Times back (after hanging up on their reporter who asked if he was a socialist) specifically with that “argument.” But Obama’s clearly showing that he can outdo Bush – after all, he has a reputation to uphold as the leftmost liberal in Congress, and any liberal worth his salt knows how to spend other people’s money. In his Feb. 24 first address to Congress, he said that he “got it” about America’s anger over bailouts to banks, automakers, AIG, etc. But then he just keeps turning around and giving more.
The speed with which all this spending is taking place is blinding. In keeping with the Prince of Darkness’ (Emanuel’s) statement to “never let a crisis go to waste,” they seem bent on putting every liberal social spending program & earmark they can fit into these intractable bills before anyone has time to think about it or raise a response. And they claim that they are somehow all going to stimulate the economy. But rather than being “targeted,” as Obama claimed, it is clearly a shotgun approach, without priorities. As George Will said, his approach is to just enact the entire liberal agenda for the past 25 years all at once, under the pretext of “fixing the economy.” The GOP alternative package cost half as much, and experts assessed it as twice as effective. Obama recently said “Throughout our nation’s history, we have met every challenge with bold ideas and big actions.” Bold, yes, big, yes, but tailored or cost-effective? No.
But after 7 weeks of spending rates shocking even for many liberals, and no clear or confident plans to get the banks, businesses & economy back on track, many economic experts who voted for Obama are having buyer’s remorse. Prager pointed out that Jim Cramer said “Obama’s budget may be one of the great wealth-destroyers of all time.” And Clyde Crook in the Financial Times, and Stewart Taylor in the National Journal, expressed shock that Obama is not the centrist they expected. As Prager said, why are these people surprised? Obama’s just doing what he said he would, and it’s consistent with his voting record. Why did they choose to listen to the soothing voice of the mainstream media rather than the clear warning voices crying in the wilderness? Yes, “we told you so!” People are getting what they voted for, and deserve, based on their level of scrutiny and concern for this nation. And we will all be paying for it for a very long time.
I liked the “Mallard Fillmore” comic today that showed Obama saying (as his thought bubble showed FDR) “The only thing we have left is fear itself.” Initially he discounted the vote of no-confidence from the stock market as being just like a volatile opinion poll that you can’t give much credence to. But finally recognizing that their fear-mongering to expedite the passage of these legislations was not helping the markets, Mr. anti-business & anti-greed made a feeble attempt. He encouraged people to take advantage of the economic crisis by finding new opportunities, and pointed out that the record stock lows presented great values to buy now. He did jumble the terminology. And now that we hear he will be reducing (or removing?) charitable deductions, it appears he is poised to have government take over those social welfare responsibilities, making charity mandatory by taxation, and moving us ever closer to a socialistic welfare state.
Obamagaddon
On the foreign front, showing once again his incredible values priorities, Mr. Obama opted to sleight our staunchest ally in the war on terror (PM Brown of Britain – a fellow liberal, at that!), and extend his hand to the “moderate factions of the Taliban.” As if there were such a thing – with their well-known reputation for tolerance, I’m sure all seven or eight of them will be decapitated if they dare come forward. Or perhaps several will be designated to deceptively deal with the infidels & lull them along, as we saw in the Vietnam Paris peace talks. And no doubt our enemies love and respect us oh so much more after Obama declared definitively that the US does not torture.
Oh, yes, and can the State Department not find someone who can at least read a Russian dictionary to get the right translation for Hillary’s “reset” button? And one more late-breaking early test of Obama in the South China Sea with the Chinese harassing one of our ships in international waters. Maybe we need to apply some chopstick diplomacy – lean on the Canadians to threaten an embargo of chopstick lumber. That could foment some additional internal unrest in China in addition to the current unemployment riots.
Finally, the nuclear clock appears to be inexorably ticking in Iran, which now appears mere months away from nuclear weapon capability. Yes, Mr. Obama, now that even you have admitted that is unacceptable, we’ll see how effective your much-touted diplomacy turns out with the Russians – time for you and Hillary to turn on that magical charm & “yes we can” attitude! Or will Obamaphoria be swallowed up in Obamagaddon?
I've got a song about Obamageddon...
ReplyDeleteCare to share it?
ReplyDelete