With the economy in shambles and his campaign sound bites and early interviews as president coming back to haunt him, President Obama has ramped up the class warfare rhetoric. Let’s put the lie to these strategies.
Barack Obama presidential primary campaign
Photo by roberthufstutter
Throughout out the Republican campaign process, Herman Cain has been portrayed as an interesting candidate, but with no serious chance of winning the Republican nomination. What I found was the most curious logic was on the O’Reilly Factor the other night. Bill’s reasoning that Herman Cain won’t win the nomination was because the most important thing to Republicans was to unseat Obama and that independents won’t vote for Cain because he is too conservative.
Photo by reinvented
The stock market is bouncing up and down like Fatty Arbuckle on a bungee cord. The job numbers are just as dismal as they were last week. The CBO says we can expect unemployment to continue north of eight percent until 2016. Is it just me or is the honeymoon over?
By now you are probably getting pretty tired of the comparisons of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and how Obama is/would/should apply the lessons learned by Bill Clinton and coast to a second term. I, however, have always seen Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as two very different politicians with different goals.
The Democrats are currently trying to roll out that old war horse, “class warfare” in a desperate attempt to arrest their freefall in the polls. The myth is that they are for the little guy when they are the party of big government. Businesses, once they get big, are hardly fans of the free market as they would much prefer to settle into a profitable market niche and not have to keep battling against upstarts.
Show Me the Money
An organization known as OpenSecrets.org, has a website that has information on contributions to the 2008 presidential campaign. The list of top contributors is not a list of contributions by corporations but by contributions from those company’s Political Action Committees, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families, but it does give you a sense of where the people who make up these companies see their bread buttered.
If you look at the top 20 donors to Obama compared to the top 20 donors to McCain, the 20th donor on Obama’s list gave 32% more to Obama than the top donor to McCain. As with any large organization there will be individuals who support Republicans and individuals who support Democrats, as well as their PACs wanting hedge bets by giving to both. But the amounts are telling.
What is particularly illuminating is with regard to Wall Street and the Banks. The Democrats are latching onto the sound bite that they want more regulation to protect the little guy, while the Republicans want less regulation so that Wall Street and the banks can get rich at the expense of the little guy.
Who’s Dumber Wall Street or the Democrats?
Does anyone believe that the leaders of Wall Street would give money to a candidate or party without expecting their point of view to be heard? Does anyone believe that the Democrats would take contributions and then turn around and burn those who contributed so generously, particularly before a very tough election? Okay, now that we have that settled let’s look at the numbers.
The top Wall Street and Bank Contributors to Obama’s election were as follows:
- Goldman Sachs — $994,795
- Citigroup — $701,290
- JP Morgan Chase — $695,132
- UBS AG — $543,219
- Morgan Stanley — $514,881
The top Wall Street and Bank Contributors to McCain’s election were as follows:
- Merrill Lynch — $373, 595 (subsequently sold to Bank of America)
- Citigroup — $322,051
- Morgan Stanley — $273,452
- Goldman Sachs — $230,095
- JP Morgan Chase — $228,107
- Wachovia — $195,063 (acquired by Wells Fargo)
- UBS AG — $192,493
- Credit Suisse — $183,353
- Bank of America — $166,026
- Bear Stearns — $117,498 (subsequently sold to JP Morgan Chase in a fire sale)
- Lehman Brothers — $114,357 (Bankrupt)
It looks like four of the companies with people who gave to McCain didn’t survive the meltdown and either disappeared or were swallowed up by the winners. If you look as people from companies that gave to both candidates, the amounts are significantly different:
- Goldman Sachs associates gave $764,700 more to Obama than McCain
- Citigroup associates gave $379,239 more to Obama than McCain
- JP Morgan associates gave $467,025 more to Obama than McCain
- UBS associates gave $350,726 more to Obama than McCain
- Morgan Stanley gave $241,429 more to Obama than McCain
I am not suggesting any quid pro quo for the contributions, but people do things for a reason. Who do you think will be more sensitive to the needs of Wall Street, Obama or the Republicans?
So look for a Financial Reform package that is a lot of smoke and mirrors that actually does nothing constructive. Republicans will oppose it, and Democrats will try to flog them as being for Wall Street and the Banks and against the little guy, but facts are facts. Remember, after passing ObamaCare Democrats tried to paint the picture that they stood up to the insurance companies, when they passed a law that will compel millions of Americans to become customers of those same insurance companies. Do you think that is why the opposition from the insurance companies was muted?
It’s time to drive home the point that this Administration is allied with Wall Street, GE, health insurance companies against us. It should not be hard to do. People are listening closely like never before.
In an article titled, “An Article of Faith,” Charles M. Blow of the New York Times explains about Obama and Health Care. I am glad he took the time to set down the statist’s case. It much easier to expose them when they step into the sunlight.
“The Apostles of Anger {that’s us} in their echo chamber of fallacies have branded him the enemy. This has now become an article of faith. Obama isn’t just the enemy of small government and national solvency. He’s the enemy of liberty.”
Enemy, noun, persons that are hostile to one another.
Sounds like Mr. Blow is onto something there. Let’s see poll after poll has the American people opposed to ObamaCare by around 55% to 60%. President Obama shows his hostility to the American people by saying he doesn’t care what they think, he, President Obama, knows what’s best for them and will ram this thing through by gimmicks such as reconciliation rather than the normal approval process. Yes, I guess that makes him an enemy, but it was accomplished through his own actions, not by talk radio or Fox News.
Liberty, noun, freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
Again, it looks like Mr. Blow nails it. We have the government under ObamaCare telling us we have to buy insurance or pay a tax or go to jail for non-payment of taxes. Sounds pretty arbitrary and despotic to me. So President Obama has decided to act in a way that makes us his enemy. I guess Mr. Blow is trying to say we are to be faulted for recognizing it?
“This underscores the current fight for the soul of this country. It’s not just a tug of war between left and right. It’s a struggle between the mind and the heart, between evidence and emotions, between reason and anger, between what we know and what we believe.”
Uh-oh, here it comes folks the statist is about to point out how stupid we are for not going along like sheep to slaughter. Notice the word order first it’s left then right. If you follow that order Mr. Blow is trying to say that the left stands for the mind, the evidence, reason and what we know, while the right stands for heart, emotions, anger, and beliefs. I am sure Mr. Blow will now use his superior intellect to explain this all to us knuckle dragging troglodytes.
“This conflict was captured in a tit-for-tat between Obama and Rush Limbaugh. In an interview with CBS this week, Obama complained about the “vitriol” coming from the likes of Limbaugh: ‘I think the vast majority of Americans know that we’re trying hard, that I want what’s best for the country.’
“Limbaugh shot back on Friday, “I and most Americans do not believe President Obama is trying to do what’s best for the country.”
That’s pretty weak. So despite 55% to 60% of the American people, for months on end, saying or should I say screaming NO! this is not what we want, Mr. Obama is saying as if to a small child, “There, there now, take your medicine, I know what’s best for you.” Where Mr. Limbaugh is humble enough not to claim god-like omniscience that he knows what people think, just that based on his observations of the polls, what he believes they think. It sounds like Mr. Blow is making a case for Mr. Obama being the most arrogant president in our history. Please continue.
“And there it was. Obama’s language focused on what people “know,” or should know. He seems to find comfort in the empirical nature of knowledge. It’s logical. Limbaugh’s language focused on what he thinks people “believe.” Beliefs are a more complicated blend of facts, or lies, and faith. And, they can exist beyond the realm of the rational.”
Really? Is Mr. Blow serious? Does he believe this or does he know this? Of what knowledge are you speaking Mr. Blow, in which President Obama takes warm comfort? Is it the empirical knowledge that estimates of what Medicare would cost when it was passed turned out to be understated by 700%? Is it the empirical knowledge that the model for ObamaCare up in Massachusetts has not stopped costs from increasing and health care is being rationed? Of course, when Mr. Blow speaks of the right and their beliefs he has to work “lies” into the formula of the “complicated blend of facts, lies and faith.”
“According to another Quinnipiac poll released last week, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to say that they follow public affairs most of the time. But how? They listen to people like Limbaugh, and they’re more likely than others to watch Fox News.”
Let me call your Quinnipiac poll and raise you one. In its daily poll on the president Rasmussen finds that while 53% of likely voters disapprove of the job President Obama is doing, 55% of the media write favorable articles about him and that is on a downward trend! So if people want the truth, who should they turn to for their news, the New York Times perhaps? I think your article just answered that question.
“But invectives are not information. For example, a poll released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that most Republicans say that they still don’t understand how the new health care reform will affect them and their family.”
Republicans still don’t understand??? Nobody understands it, Mr. Blow, because nobody read it before it passed Congress. At over 2,500 pages, if you did nothing else but read the bill in the seventy two hours it was posted in the internet, it is not likely you could have read it. No sleeping, no eating, no lavatory breaks, just three straight days of reading it and you would be hard pressed to get all the way through. Since you are such a fan of empirical evidence, when major companies announced billions in write-offs because of the bill and the legal requirement to so report, Congressman Henry Waxman appeared shocked and called for hearings. When Congressman Anthony Weiner said the IRS would not be checking on whether or not you had health insurance, he couldn’t explain why the law funds 16,000 more IRS agents. This circus is only starting my friend.
And so, my fellow imbeciles, Mr. Blow has spoken with a scathingly inept defense of all things Obama, making the case for a strong turnout at the Tea Parties on April 15 at the very same time. If you want to know the news watch Fox, if you believe you want to house train your dog, get the New York Times.
Has President Obama lost the one skill he has relied upon so heavily? Has the magic oratory suddenly gone leaden as indicated by his campaign speech for Martha Coakley?
“Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts but the mood around the country — the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office,” Mr. Obama said. “People are angry and they are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.” — New York Times, “Obama Trying to Turn Around his Presidency.” – 1/21/2010
Really? “…what’s happened over the last eight years.” Is he kidding me? Does he not remember that Bush was reelected four years ago. Is this just one more elitist swipe at the “stupid” American people who are so dumb that they don’t even know things are bad for four years such that they reelect their president? When is he going to get off the campaign trail and start governing? When, with one-fourth of his term over, is he going to realize this is his gig now, and stop crying about Bush? The anti-Bush attacks against Scott Brown by Coakley in the closing days of the campaign fell flat. That doesn’t work anymore. This isn’t about the last eight years, but about the last twelve months. The American people are sick of the Democrats trying to spend us into oblivion.
It seems that he may be betting the ranch on the State of the Union address, which runs the risk of Obama fatigue. President Obama seems to confuse speeches with leadership. Coming into office with zero executive experience, he let the inmates (Pelosi and Reid) run the asylum. With the election of Scott Brown, Reid just lost his iron grip and Pelosi may not be far behind. So what does Obama do? Give another speech? He has given more speeches than any president in memory, but there is time for talk and time for action. But he seems to avoid holding another press conference as the fawning press may be finding its backbone and he doesn’t have an answer for his C-Span promises on the health care debate.
Boxed In
Reid is losing control of the Senate. He no longer has a filibuster proof majority and he will probably not get reelected. He is one very lame duck. Many of Pelosi’s party in the House see Brown’s stunning victory as a major wake up call. Any Democrat in the House who is not planning on retiring, will not be eager to sign on to any more far left government takeovers. So without Reid and Pelosi setting his agenda, and him still stuck in the anti-Bush mode, what can he do? As charming as he may be, he promised bipartisanship but really wasn’t serious about it, he hasn’t cultivated any relationships with conservatives. As Dennis Miller put it on O’Reilly last night, “I hope he’s an ideologue. If not, it means we have a dolt in the White House.”
President Obama has to realize that the job entails more than him just strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage, and get down to work and that means following Clinton’s lead and working with the Republicans. There are a lot of ways to improve Health Care without spending a trillion dollars (e.g., tort reform), stop bashing business when you need business to create jobs, drop cap and trade to fix global warming when oranges are freezing in Florida.
His inexperience continues to glow brightly. He better figure out what the job entails, quickly, and get busy with it. The referee just fired the gun signaling the end of the first quarter and Team Obama looks dazed and confused. Not a good sign, sports fans.
On President Obama’s 100th day in office, as part of his never ending election campaign he said, “Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit…. That wasn’t me.” The “blame it all on Bush” mantra is getting old, but this one is becoming particularly grating. I would like to direct President Obama’s attention to the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 9:
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law;”
Congress has the power of the purse, not the President. That means that President Bush couldn’t spend a thin dime without the approval of Congress. For the last two years of the Bush presidency, who controlled the United States Congress? The Democrats. And lest we forget, before he became President Obama, he was Senator Obama, a member in good standing of that same United States Congress. Does anyone think for a minute that the Democratic Congress run by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi was a rubber stamp for Bush? Anything they disagreed with Bush on they would have fought tooth and nail.
Remember during the campaign when the Democrats were putting together their rescue package how the Republicans were locked out of the room and John McCain “suspended” his campaign to return to Washington to make something happen? Remember as well that Obama was too busy campaigning to similarly get involved even though he was still a sitting Senator.
Now with the shoe on the other foot, and President Obama pushing to triple the deficit, the only people fighting him in Congress are the Republicans. So this impending debt disaster is a joint effort by Obama and the Congressional Democrats.
President Obama can’t claim, like Bill Clinton, “don’t blame me, I came from Arkansas.” President Obama can’t claim, like Jimmy Carter, “don’t blame me, I came from Georgia.” President Obama came to the presidency from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. He was an insider, not an outsider. He owns just as much of this mess as Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.
So, Mr. President, stop playing the blame game, take responsibility and do your job.
The balloons and bunting have been picked up, the Washington Mall has been swept, the ball gowns put away. The campaign, the election, the historic celebration are now in the history books. It’s time to govern. Sadly, with only three weeks in office, President Obama’s lack of experience is on full display.
Due to the looming financial crisis, the transition in power was unprecedented in the level of cooperation between the departing Bush administration and the incoming Obama team. Obama said he needed the second half of the $700 billion, Bush put in the request. Everyone knew what problem number one was. The economy was in crisis.
When Dealing With a Crisis, You Lead, You Don’t Delegate
When United Airways Flight 1549, which would end up in the Hudson River, was climbing after takeoff, the co-pilot was at the controls. When the plane struck a flight of birds and lost power, Captain Sullenberger coolly said two words, “My aircraft.” The co-pilot responded, “Your aircraft,” the captain took the controls and the first officer then set about trying to re-start the engines.
In the midst of this economic crisis, that President Obama keeps saying we have to fix now, he let Nancy Pelosi run the show, while he took a victory lap, visiting the White House press pool, writing executive orders closing Guantanamo, and speaking to al Arabiya. Nancy Pelosi was furiously stuffing the stimulus turkey with pork, and President Obama was inviting Republicans in for tea, thinking that by doing so, a new era of bipartisanship would emerge.
In several corporate jobs that I have had there were times of crisis. If we had to drastically cut expenses to deal with the crisis, it was all hands on deck. It wasn’t see what you can do and get back to me. It was, “Be on the conference call at 3PM prepared to tell the Chief, how you are meeting your expense reduction targets.” All senior managers were on the call and all got a turn to tell the Chief what they were contributing or, gulp, where they were falling short. If you were falling short, make no mistake, you better have a damn good reason and whether or not you did, your future career was now under a microscope. The point is, like Captain Sullenberger, in times of crisis, the leader is unmistakably in charge.
President Obama let Nancy Pelosi craft this disaster, without strong guidelines of what he would or would not accept, and did not demand that Republicans be involved from the start. You reap what you sew. Now he is scrambling to drag this stinking corpse across the finish line and it’s not pretty.
Why did this happen? Because President Obama was a Community Organizer. He never ran a business. He never held an executive position in government. His gossamery resume was obvious, but ignored. Sarah Palin must be shaking her head in disbelief.
Running Back to Safety Zone of Campaigning
Barack Obama was a master on the campaign trail, first dispatching Hillary Clinton, and then deftly outmaneuvering John McCain. So what does the inexperienced man do when he’s under stress? Go back to what he’s good at. This week we saw President Obama back on the campaign trail, with the same rhetoric. The problem is, you can take a fair degree of license with what you say on the campaign trail. When you govern, you have to deal with reality. George Bush is gone. Bashing Bush may have gotten Obama elected, but he’s got to put that one out to pasture. His claim that tax cuts caused this financial problem, and that the past eight years have been an economic disaster, just don’t hold up. It makes him look clueless. Sure it fires up the base, but so what. We need solutions, not pep rallies. Tax cuts boosted the economy for Kennedy, for Reagan, for Bush. In short, they work. Obama may not like them, but they work. To say otherwise is like hanging a sign over his head, saying Under Construction.
Cabinet Picks
And the late night talk show hosts were wondering what they were going to do without Bush in office. The hits just keep coming. Once again, you have to ask, who’s in charge? How did all of these slip through the cracks? Richardson, Geithner, Daschle, Soldis, Nancy Killefer, Eric Holder. Sure it’s noble that Obama took responsibility for Daschle. But if you stay with him too long you look, uh, inexperienced? With all of these problems, someone’s head should roll. The President is delegating what he shouldn’t and what he should delegate is a mess.
International
President Obama was supposed to usher in a new era of harmony in our relations with other countries. But what has happened?
- Ahmadinejad– Candidate Obama said he would talk with Iran without preconditions. Ahmadinejad said he wanted an apology before he would meet with Obama
- Several countries harshly criticize the stimulus package and its “Buy American” provision, raising the specter of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs that deepened the Great Depression
- Iran shoots a missile into space to celebrate the Iranian revolution, with the subtext, “That was when we boldly took over your Embassy and held it for 444 days during the weak presidency of Jimmy Carter.”
- Pakistan releases A.Q. Khan the nuclear proliferator in a snub to the U.S.
- Kyrgyzstan tells U.S. to close military base that is key supply route to Afghanistan
I hope President Obama is a quick study, or we’re in for a long grim four years.
