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Trust, Don’t Verify
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The Obama Watch
The Audacity of Hype
There’s a real problem when the President of the United States feels the need to become the entertainer-in-chief.
President Obama got a good laugh from his liberal audience at the nationally televised meeting of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. At least all those who joined in the laughter there had jobs.
“Shovel-ready was not as… uhshovel-ready as we expected,” the president jibed.
He certainly seemed to be a good sport about it all. One half expected the Daily Show’s puckish Jon Stewart to chime in: “Maybe you better not quit your day job, dude!” There’s a real problem when the President of the United States feels the need to become the entertainer-in-chief, especially when the joke’s about very serious matters that have long-term consequences.
Take this line, Shovel-Ready. It became the signature phrase of none other than Barack Obama himself as he rushed through a jumbo $787 billion stimulus package in the opening days of his administration. Why must we bypass the normal, drawn-out process of committee hearings, markups, amendments, debates, and extended votes? With the economy in free fall in the days leading up to Inauguration, there was no time for that, Mr. Obama assured us. This would be like FDR’s Hundred Days. He had only to say a measure was needed to get folks back to work and Congress — especially a Congress filled with make-work, make-hay-while-the-sun-shines liberals — would get cracking.
Even some Republicans, normally the green eyeshade folks, muted their criticisms. They were surely uncomfortable with this gusher of spending. But they didn’t want to be bottom-line skunk at the liberals’ recovery picnic. Reality would not be allowed to intrude on this hurry-up bit of spending projects.
Now, when FDR summoned the nation’s energies (and its wallets) to jump-start the economy with make-work projects, it didn’t really work, either. By 1936, after four years of his “bold experimentation,” the unemployment rate was still 16%. But it had been 25% in the depths of the Great Depression, so most folks gave Roosevelt credit for trying. As Amity Shlaes has admirably demonstrated in her powerful book, The Forgotten Man, much of Roosevelt’s New Deal actually prolonged the Depression.
Still, you have to give Roosevelt credit for this much. When he looked for shovel-ready projects to fund, he actually found them. We have the Appalachian Trail, hundreds of bridges, lots of hydroelectric dams, and, of course, the Tennessee Valley Authority to show for all that spending.
FDR didn’t just shovel money. We got tangible projects from his administration. And millions of Americans to this day give him the credit. Even President Ronald Reagan would tell interviewers in the White House how he voted four times for FDR, despite the fact that his administration worked daily to curb the excesses of Big Government.
How could President Obama have sat in the U.S. Senate for four years and not know that there are no shovel-ready projects? Every senator who wants to build a post office in, say, Dixon, Illinois, knows you must wait years before putting the first spade to the dirt. Franklin’s cousin Theodore “made the dirt fly in Panama,” true, but neither the U.S. nor Panama had to do environmental impact studies a hundred years ago.
Barack Obama should have known that what he was really selling was snake oil. And his opponents should have been bolder in stopping his raid on the Treasury.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is right: This Obama joke about no shovel-ready projects is no laughing matter to the 14 million unemployed Americans. But it’s even worse than that. If the President was unaware of the fact that it takes years to break ground then he is woefully unprepared for his office. If he knew this and cynically plowed ahead, then he is willfully misleading us.
Government by consent is debased when the people say Yes and later learn they’ve been sold a pig in a poke. Obama’s election campaign was based on the audacity of hope. His economic recovery based on shovel-ready projects was based on the audacity of hype. I sure hope the Obama Library is shovel-ready.
About the Author
Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (68) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 6.22.11 @ 6:47AM
When you elect someone who doesnt know which end of a shovel goes in the ground -- because the word *shovel* is racist -- what else can you expect?
The partier-in-chief was elected by like-minded people who dont know what Work actually means; and people are surprised to find he isnt even qualified to be a comedian? The Sixties college kids were funnier -- at least before they decided to become merely dirty. Obama needs better role models.
Charles Martel| 6.22.11 @ 11:47PM
No, Appleby, "shovel" isn't racist. "Spade" is racist. "Shovel" is... hmm... let me think about that for a moment... ah, I've got it: "classist".
+++
lydia | 6.23.11 @ 10:44AM
"Obama's election campaign was based on the audacity of hope."Obama's election campaign was based on the audacity of a dope. There, fixed it for you.
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Michael Tomlinson| 6.22.11 @ 6:47AM
In a speech before a DNC audience last night, those in attendance laughed at Obama’s claim that “over the last 15 months we’ve created over 2.1 million private sector jobs.”
In his remarks, Obama went on to say, “I’m extraordinarily proud of the economic record that we were able to produce over the first two and a half years.”
I wonder why. The president has presided over an economy that has lost 2.5 million jobs since he was sworn in. The unemployment rate is up 25% since Obama took office and has averaged 9% for almost 30 months. The debt has increased 35% during the Obama presidency. Gas prices have more than doubled. The housing crisis has recently entered a double dip and is now worse than the Great Depression. For the nine economic quarters Obama has been in office, real annual growth in GDP has been just 1.5%, just barely above what it was during the decade of FDR’s Great Depression (1.3 %).
Granted Obama as President is a joke, but his destructive policies are no laughing matter. If this incompetent ideologue had any integrity he and Biden would resign and allow the Republicans to clean up their mess as they did for Bill Clinton in the 1990's.
Pelligrino| 6.22.11 @ 8:38AM
BO is proud of it because a) it is what he has wanted all along to accomplish, and b) it is what his backers placed him in office to do.
Economic demise. Infrastructure (e.g. energy sector) demise. Military demise. Moral demise.
Ignore the rhetoric, his mike-in-left-hand attempts to play Arsenio Hall, and all the empty gestures. He's doing exactly what he was given to do as job1: Destroy & end America.
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:13PM
Absolutely.
Nice to see I am not alone on that note.
The only other valid conclusion I can draw is that he was selected as the incompetent dolt to put in place that would create the same end results through his ineptitude & blundering.
Either way the end game remains unchanged.
Pat| 6.22.11 @ 8:07PM
Michael, your comments were painfully blunt, but painfully right as well. Obama broke the implied compact with the Hope and Change voters. He profited, his friends and political allies profited, but his constituents saw little trickle down; in point of fact, they saw no trickle whatsoever. And who knew the Great Recession wouldn’t end in 18 months – certainly not the Democrats. The Great Bailout and Stimulus Swindle should have gone off without a hitch, with a short recession followed by a massive bounce back – except it didn’t.
Obama should be taking repeated bows for ending the economic disaster he claimed was Bush’s legacy, except even American voters understand the difference between tangible results and hyperbole. And although everyone may have secretly suspected any favorable economic results wouldn’t have been due entirely to Obama’s actions, they still expected something favorable to occur – except it didn’t.
Voters can forgive a president who engineers a massive wealth transfer directly benefitting his supporters if there is the appearance of reasonable certainty the country as a whole will also benefit. But the Great Recession didn’t end as economists predicted it should have and now the legitimacy of the bailout swindles is being brought into question, voters are growing uneasy, maybe many Americans made a serious electoral mistake with Obama or so the current thinking goes – sure, there were no iron clad guarantees Obama’s wealth transfers would succeed – but still and all?
And also painful is watching our president put a happy face on his failures – Democrats invariably do that when they fail, Republicans will retreat into silence under similar circumstances – but the voters can only retreat into confused self-recrimination.
Stephanie| 6.22.11 @ 6:53AM
Isn't it time for this clueless man to go on vacation again? Perhaps he needs to join michelle, her mama and the kids in Africa.
Does anyone really think he won't be prez this time 2 years from now?
chuck| 6.22.11 @ 9:05AM
Obama loses in a landslide in 2012. Just like Carter in 1980.
Robert Pinkerton| 6.22.11 @ 10:45AM
From your lips to the Gods' Ears! May it be made so.
Teaghan| 6.22.11 @ 12:15PM
Amen.
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:15PM
The date of 12-21-12 means more and more each day...
Obummer will attempt to assume complete control if he loses the election.
Sickening that he could have ever obtained a seat in the US Senate...
RCV| 6.22.11 @ 11:24AM
In 1980, the GOP offered Reagan. This year, it's not exactly the Gipper in the wings.
Dave Williams| 6.22.11 @ 1:34PM
We can't expect Reagan's clarity and strength to show up again so soon....that's the bad news. The good news is that anyone who is even CLOSE to having the qualities that made Reagan great will get more votes than King Zero in 2112....or else, we are well and truly doomed.
Truth to Power| 6.22.11 @ 5:04PM
That is right on. Obama is not as good as Carter either. That is quite an indictment but Obama is already showing that unlike Carter he is incapable of learning from any of his mistakes. The other advantage that Carter had is that the educated elites of the Democratic Party never liked him. He owed them no loyalty. For mostly racial reasons they are all in on Obama. Obama returns to them like a dog returning to his vomit (Sorry about the Biblical reference Dave). Allegiance to complete idiots has a real downside.
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:16PM
Familiarize yourselves with John Bolton.
Charles Martel| 6.22.11 @ 11:49PM
I'd like to. Where the heck is he?
+++
Alky| 6.22.11 @ 4:10PM
Unless he puts on his Dictator-in-Chief hat and cancels elections. I just can't see this madman stepping aside peacefully and giving up his 747.
Harry Flashman| 6.22.11 @ 7:05AM
Any honest consideration of the current president should begin with an understanding of the fact that he has always concealed virtually the entire paper trail of his existence.
American voters of all political persuasions can recall the Obama 2008 campaign repeatedly promising that their administration would place a special emphasis on the practice of transparency.
A vast majority of these voters believe that the process of running for President of the United States should be the toughest public job interview on the planet.
The sad fact remains that the current president, according to longstanding government clearance protocols, could not be hired as a janitor in a federal building with the amount of personal background information that he has provided.
Run for President? No problem.
Get any other federal job? No way.
Quite apart from the issue of any sort of birth certificates, real or imagined, genuine or forged, is the easily verifiable fact that Barack Obama's school records, SAT and LSAT scores, college and law school admission records and scholarship paperwork and grade transcripts and thesis papers, medical records, passport history, Illinois state senate tenure records and schedules, presidential campaign foreign donor lists, complete White House visitor logs and many other relevant records and documents have all never been released or allowed to be subjected to any sort of scrutiny, despite several years of repeated requests for disclosure by numerous individuals and non-traditional media organizations.
The Obama 2008 campaign and subsequent administration have to date spent a substantial sum on legal fees, estimated in the millions of dollars, to fight Freedom of Information Act filings and other motions and requests to examine this material. The powerful international law firm Perkins Coie, the counsel of record to the Democratic National Committee, has been their primary provider of these services and continues in that role.
What is being hidden and why are they hiding it?
CopyKatnj| 6.22.11 @ 9:46AM
An excellent comment.
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:19PM
What is being hidden and why are they hiding it?
Nothing.
He is hiding 'nothing' as there is nothing there. PT Barnum would have loved to watch this guy in action.
The Bruce| 6.22.11 @ 11:58PM
I was thinking the same thing. What IF there's nothing there because his entire resume is a lie? The only reason we "know" he went to Harvard, Columbia, and Occidental is because he told us so. Nobody has ever seen any prove of it.
Intelligent Design| 6.22.11 @ 7:15AM
Obama is a despicable toad. 66% of the voters can hardly wait to throw him and his Demo-Socialist Congressional allies into the garbage truck in 2012.
RCV| 6.22.11 @ 11:25AM
That's not what the polls tell us.
Skippy| 6.22.11 @ 2:41PM
MSNBC polls don't quite add up, but thanks for playing!
Drunken Sailor| 6.22.11 @ 4:29PM
30% Certain to Support Obama Re-Election
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-poll.html
Dai Alanye | 6.22.11 @ 7:39AM
It appears that "shovel-ready" was a planned joke. Immelt and others on the podium began laughing before the punch-line was out of Obama's mouth. Seems as if TPOTUS (TelePrompter of the US) was again in charge.
Stan REdmond| 6.22.11 @ 10:08AM
It was obviously a planned and rehearsed joke. It was disgusting. He started his little one liner before the question was even finished. DISGUSTING MAN!!!
John| 6.22.11 @ 7:45AM
No doubt Obama has made many mistakes. But look at what he inherited. Two protracted wars bleeding the country dry. An economy in freefall after decades of binging on easy credit. The biggest mistake made was bailing out wall street . A policy consistently supported by democrats, republicans. But then crony capitalism has taken over the asylum . What's needed is a change in the capitalist model. A model that actually benefits people. May be all banker / speculator assets should be seized to pay for the bail outs. The money has disappeared folks.
Nancy in NC| 6.22.11 @ 8:03AM
There's nothing wrong with the capitalist model, if government would stay the heck out of it. Please give me an example of a model that works better anywhere in the world or that has been tried anywhere in the world.
Government can't solve the problem; they are the problem (to paraphrase Reagan).
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:21PM
Money is always the problem.
The 'model' is fine. The participants need be replaced.
Nancy in NC| 6.22.11 @ 8:08AM
Look at what he inherited from his DEMOCRAT congress. You can spin it all day long, but one has to look no further than the DEMOCRATS to find the answer to the Fannie/Freddy mess. And almost all the DEMOCRATS voted for the wars at the time. We need to get ride of the DEMOCRATS and the Rhinos, and find us some statesmen and conservatives.
I think hell will freeze over first.
Maddox| 6.22.11 @ 8:19AM
John, you are shoveling the same load the White House is and it stinks. The same tired excuses and lies are not going to help the country and they will not save his sorry administration in the coming election either.
Bill Diebold| 6.22.11 @ 10:49AM
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" K. Marx 1875.
Crawl back into your septic tank John...
Teaghan| 6.22.11 @ 12:24PM
Step back into the Food Stamp line John.
Dave Williams| 6.22.11 @ 1:36PM
Ah, the muslim troll speaks. To paraphrase Churchill, capitalism is an evil, exploitive, horrible system, except when compared with any other. And, by the way, the current economic mess is not due to capitalism, but to the mortgage disaster engineered and run solely by DEMONRATS.
buckeyeman| 6.22.11 @ 1:49PM
But with due respect to Churchill, the quote is completely wrong. Capitalism is a beautiful system that honors individual freedom to make decisions. Of course, one must then accept the consequences of those decisions because under true capitalism, the government cannot force some to pay for the mistakes of others. Capitalism is freedom. Capitalism is good. Capitalism works. Collectivism, like Satan, has many names, but, also like Satan, is evil to the core. Collectivism, like Satan, has many names to hide its true nature from the weak and witless.
buckeyeman| 6.22.11 @ 1:40PM
Another moron trying to pretend that socialist/fascist government theft and redistribution to government syncophants is somehow remotely related to capitalism. Get a brain.
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:24PM
The articles are often great. The comments section in TAS is what really brings me back.
Thanks.
Curtis Rasmussen| 6.22.11 @ 3:07PM
I've worked for companies that supply products to the government. If you screw up, convince the customer (the feds) to go back to the trough (American Taxpayers) and cough up more dough.
Slothful, lazy, defiant, unproductive employees can hide at companies that do business with the government because the impact of their poor workmanship won't be felt or will be muted while they lose millions of taxpayer dollars. There is little or no incentive to get rid of them.
And now, John, you want the economy to embrace this business model? Either you've been fired numerous times for insubordination or can't get a job. Having the government mandate your position is the only way you remain employed.
Commie.
Clint| 6.22.11 @ 7:51AM
Shovel Obama's Funny Man Ass Out Of The White House.
Sara B| 6.22.11 @ 8:00AM
Wow John (as if that is your real name) it's almost
as if you got your talking points from the Center for American Progress. Solving the chaos Obama has caused means getting rid of the impostor not doubling down and becoming a communist country or as you call it "a change in the capitalist model."
Pelligrino| 6.22.11 @ 8:30AM
BO's early retirement will be directly due to the audacity of heroes -- heroes who will work from now until November 2012 to send the Chump in Chief packing.
JP| 6.22.11 @ 8:41AM
During the interregnum, the President called Pelosi and Reid and issued them his marching orders. One could only imagine they glee they felt when the President gave them an open checkbook to the US Treasury. The President and his staff didn't have time to write the Stimulus Bill. Obama outsourced it; he told them don't worry about the costs - his WH and the MSM would provide the political cover.
Word spread quickly up and down the Democratic Party pipeline. Govenors, rent seekers, activists groups of all kinds, businesses big and small all line up with outstretched hands. I can still remember Fred Upton (R) MI praising the President's bold leadership. Yes, many in the GOP jumped in (and why shouldn't they? There were big bucks to be had!). And all of this lagress would be borrowed.
The "Shovel Ready" meme was a joke. And the joke was on the taxpayers. The vast majority of the lute went to shore up state budgets (ie SEIU and state teacher unions). The President also pocketed a portion of TARP money to be used as a political slush fund. Unlike FDR, very little of any of Obama's Stimulus went to make work WPA-like projects. It was all about payback.
Anthony| 6.22.11 @ 8:54AM
Look, this is a man who looks Bebe in the eye and smugly assumes he knows more about Israel and Middle-East policy than the man who has lived with it his entire professional life!!
This is a man who is about to ignore the advise of his generals in Afghanistan and announce a major troop withdrawal, just for the sake of the 2012 election.
This is a man who plays 72 rounds of golf while the un/under-employment rate is 25%, and yet he brags about his accomplishments!!!!
Marie Antoinette told the people to "eat cake". Obozo tells Americans to "carry my bag and hand me my putter".
This is a man who is totally unqualified for the job, yet has a sense of entitlement that makes Bill Clinton look humble.
Thanks to the totally corrupt MSM, this man has been allowed to wreak havoc with America while being cheered on by the left.
Thanks to a feckless, gutless, R party, led by the weak-kneed Boehner, the Rs play golf with Obozo as the country disintergrates.
In case you don't know it, or don't want to believe it, the Obozo government and the Washington establishment are at war with the people of America. If we don't elect a strong, purposeful, dynamic CONSERVATIVE in 2012, America is finished. We need to take on the Ds, and the entire Washington rat nest.
The Bruce| 6.23.11 @ 12:09AM
"Obozo tells Americans to 'carry my bag and hand me my putter'."
Now THAT'S a classic line.
Doctor Right| 6.22.11 @ 9:40AM
ttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/obama-gets-30-of-americans-certain-to-support-re-election-in-economy-poll.html
Obama is toast in 2012, and he needs to be treated that way by ALL GOP candidates: with scorn and ridicule.
The hint of his failed re-election is probably enough to light a small spark in the stock market and get some feeling back into the dead limbs of the economy.
An orange juice can could beat this doofus in 2012 if it (he? she?) could do a better job of communicating Conservative principles than McCain did in 2008...Well, OK, that's was a pretty low bar, but you get the drift...
David T| 6.22.11 @ 10:57AM
This man is far from toast. Despite all the bad news on the economy, the poll shows Obama still has a 49% approval rating. Never underestimate the ignorance and gullibility of the American electorate.
SpiralArchitect| 6.22.11 @ 7:29PM
Just 'youtube' "obama money" and watch anything on that page for a slice of the always for Obammer voter
He alienates most every race, culture & religion yet is hugely popular.
For this I have no reasonable answer.
The Bruce| 6.23.11 @ 12:12AM
"Never underestimate the ignorance and gullibility of the American electorate."
Very true. After all, the American electorate elected FDR to four terms, despite the fact he dug us deeper into the Depression. FDR is the very reason his own party put forth a Constitutional amendment limiting the presidency to only 2 terms.
John| 6.22.11 @ 10:06AM
Bailing out wall street is the failed model. Subsidising the rich is the failed model. This failed model will not change if the republicans win in 2012. You can bet you're house on that. Don't worry if you lose and live on wall street the humble tax payer will bail you out or the Chinese .
Bob Grant| 6.22.11 @ 10:42AM
I'm going to give you one chance to come up with a better solution. You say "the failed model will not change if the republicans win in 2012" so I assume you plan on supporting Obama in '12. NO?
You DO know what to expect if Obama's re-elected, don't you? ...
If you want FDR part II OK, fine, but what will a country that will rely on World War III to jump start the economy look like?
irish19| 6.22.11 @ 7:01PM
There you have it. It took WWII to finally pull the country out of the Depression. Given the toys available today, I would rather not have to wait for WWIII to pull us out of this one.
David W| 6.22.11 @ 10:39AM
McCain was such a coward when he ran against the fraud called Obama. The current House majority leader plays golf with the man. Will the Republicans nominate someone who can stand up to Obama and the race-baiters? Someone who can point to the crap that comes out of Obama's mouth and to the damage this idiot has done domestically and internationally? Huntsman - forget it. Pawlenty, probably not. Romneycare? I doubt it. Who???? If we do not nominate someone willing to fight against the lamestream media and the racists in the democratic party we are lost.
Teaghan| 6.22.11 @ 12:27PM
This Huntsman dude is the same way McCain was. "Now, we're not going to attack his credibility or say mean things about him. I respect him" Get the hell out of the way Mr Huntsman, you effing RINO. We don't want or need your kind. Maybe Barry will want to play a round of golf with you. Creep.
Alky| 6.22.11 @ 4:20PM
He also donated to Reid's senate bid :(
Louis Jenkins| 6.22.11 @ 11:27AM
There are no shovel ready jobs. The EPA shut those down a long time ago. But it sounds good to the untrained ear, which is most American voters. Obama has support out there, and they will not hear anything negative about their commander n chief, even when it's their segment of society that is affected. Besides, they don't pick up shovels anyway. I would do what is necessary to feed my family, but those folks, better to live on the entitlement gravy train.
JR Gierlach| 6.22.11 @ 11:44AM
"Obama's election campaign was based on the audacity of hope."
Obama's election campaign was based on the audacity of a dope. There, fixed it for you.
Oldefarte| 6.22.11 @ 1:37PM
Let me provide a possible CLUE for most of you, and that is that El Chosen One is a LIAR [appropriately yelled by a congressman at the first SOU address]. As such, he knew and intended that there were no shovel ready jobs, and that the only [disguised] purpose of the [non]stimulus was to maintain state/local governments [labor uninized] jobs. When private industry was naturally laying-off thousands of their employees in order to cutreduce their costs/expenses in this economic depression, state and local governments were provided with Chosen's bonanza so that they could continue their welfare known as governmental employment [and all at taxpayer expense also]. Wise up folks, this guy is all about LABOR UNIONS, and he will do anything/e veryting to facilitate their enhancement [ie the NLRB's recent shortening of the time frame needed for unionization of a company]!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pat| 6.22.11 @ 4:21PM
Americans are big into regrets – like in elect a president who casually surfed an enormous Hope and Change tsunami straight into the White House – followed immediately thereafter by doing something “stupid” – or many stupid things depending on which of the various bailout programs we now regret the most. Didn’t seem stupid at the time of course but now - with ample time to reflect - it was stupid in retrospect and we’re into the “regret phase” of our national emotional cycle. During this phase, when somber reflection is in and mindless emotion is out, we hear one story after another of how naive we were.
For instance, GM was bailed out but still lost 16% of their workforce despite the billions in bailout funds. In fact, Forbes has gone on record as reporting the bailout wasn’t intended to save autoworkers’ jobs at Government Motors, it was really intended to save the UAW, its highly paid officers and its various pension and health/welfare funds – not to mention those generous campaign contributions.
Well, “Duh” Forbes, great Monday morning quarterbacking, but an obvious revelation that is much too little, showing up way too late. But in this somber reflection mood held by far too many voters, well-respected outlets within our mainstream media are now reluctantly admitting things didn’t go exactly as planned during that all too brief honeymoon phase.
Of course, what they actually mean is things went exactly as planned but the average voter was able to figure out what was really going on – hence the widespread feelings of regret. Did Obama’s political allies and friends benefit financially from the various taxpayer funded bailouts? Yes, indeed. But did the Great Recession end on schedule after 18 months allowing our reigning Democrats to easily convince voters their endless string of bailouts was the sole reason for the economic resurgence – well, that part of the Great Swindle didn’t work out exactly as planned.
Unfortunately, American politics is big into second chances. Sure, we’re all into somber reflection now and talking Regret and Suspicion rather than Hope and Change. But that can quickly change, at least the Democrats hope so, there’s money yet to be harvested from us taxpayers and is another four years of bailouts so much to ask?
irish19| 6.22.11 @ 7:03PM
You are right about Americans' being willing to give second chances. However, the person asking for the second chance has to show remorse at his or her mistakes. As pointed out above, zero said he is "extraordinarily proud" of his record. He refuses to acknowledge that he even made mistakes, must less showing remorse for them.
Dan| 6.22.11 @ 5:15PM
It is frightening to think he could win another term.
weddingdresses | 6.23.11 @ 5:20AM
You are right about Americans' being willing to give second chances. However, the person asking for the second chance has to show remorse at his or her mistakes. As pointed out above, zero said he is "extraordinarily proud" of his record. He refuses to acknowledge that he even made mistakes, must less showing remorse for them.
jackc| 6.24.11 @ 9:10PM
4 times 365 chances have been given for Obama, while the fog of fear, infused with interference and poverty, continues to expand.
Centralization must yield to decentralization, where interference fades in the glow of the human spirit that created America.
It is not human messiahs that shape anything.
Its the people.
As Victor Hugo mused - "Human beings are a distribution of god taking place"
Todd| 6.27.11 @ 1:24AM
"Centralization must yield to decentralization, where interference fades in the glow of the human spirit that created America." ... It should, but it won't. There are too many people who don't care as long as they get thr freebies and breaks from the Fed.
Todd| 6.27.11 @ 1:22AM
"If the President was unaware of the fact that it takes years to break ground then he is woefully unprepared for his office." That's not the only piece of evidence that he isn't qualified. It is all around us in abundance.