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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Madness of 2008

A nation became unhinged by trivialities like “hope and change.” It has now awakened.

America is suddenly angry at the laxity, incompetence, and polarizing politics of the Obama administration, the bad optics of the president putting about in his bright golf clothes while the world burns. Certainly, no recent president has failed on so many fronts — honesty, transparency, truthfulness, the economy, foreign policy, the duties of the commander-in-chief, executive responsibilities, and spiritual leadership.

For those who are “shocked” at the present meltdown, of a magnitude not seen since the annus horribilis of 1979, in their defense: Obama certainly did not campaign on a new health-care plan that would force Americans to give up the doctors they liked and their existing coverage, while raising premiums and deductibles, while giving exemptions for insiders and cronies, and while raising the deficit.

Nor did we hear on the campaign trail that Obama would push gay marriage, open borders, near-permanent zero interest rates, six consecutive $1 trillion deficits, and record food-stamp and Social Security disability payouts. He criticized Bush for relatively minor executive orders, suggesting that he would never rule by fiat — as he since has done in matters of Obamacare, immigration law, and environmental regulations. Remember the promise of ending the revolving door and stopping aides from cashing in — and then follow the post-administration careers of Obama’s closest advisers.



Obama promised to halve the deficit — not run up more red ink than almost all prior presidents combined. Indeed, he once as a senator voted against raising the debt limit and blasted Bush for borrowing from China. He once sermonized to us that the presidency is serious stuff, that it entails inordinate personal sacrifice and even a virtual absence of downtime and vacation — and then he became just the sort of president he was critiquing. But those deceptions were simply politics as usual, and it was logical for the hard leftist Barack Obama to try to appear to be a moderate, given that no Northern liberal had won the presidency in the half-century since John F. Kennedy.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm by no means happy about everything the president has done while in office but I'm tired of him being bashed for taking a vacation. First of all, every president, every single one of them takes vacations on the taxpayers dime. I'm 100% fine with any criticism of the Obama administration because they are nowhere near perfect, but he has every right to take a break. Also think about the fact that when he's not on the course he is still working while on vacation. Unlike one of us, when he goes on vacation he can't just turn off his phone and ignore work for a week or two. He is constantly taking calls and working while on vacation, just like every other president has before him and just like every president after him.

Anonymous said...

827 is a fool and cannot see the destruction this anti American Marxist has done to the country.

Anonymous said...

obviously 827 is a government bureaucrat - who else can go on vacation and ignore work for a week or two?