THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 87, May 29, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OBAMA'S HOUSE OF CARDS
By Alan Caruba
THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITIES, & THE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS:
WHY PRESIDENT OBAMA & THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS ARE SO UNPOPULAR WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE -- VAST
MAJORITY DISAPPROVAL OF THE PRESIDENT & BELIEF THAT THE NATION IS HEADED IN THE WRONG DIRECTION -- THE
UNSUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL, & POLITICAL HOUSE OF CARDS THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS
CREATED -- PRESIDENT OBAMA AS A FREQUENT LIAR & AS A LIVING EXAMPLE OF THE PETER PRINCIPLE, IN WHICH A
PERSON IS FINALLY PROMOTED TO A POSITION FOR WHICH HE LACKS COMPETENCE
FULL STORY:
Ever since polls have been taken, there have been U.S. Presidents who encountered disapproval during their terms in
office. Usually history exonerates them to some degree. This is not likely to happen with Barack Hussein Obama.
As this is written, a Politico.com poll puts Obama’s job disapproval rating at 46.4% and Congress has a disapproval rate
of 72%, a figure matched by Rasmussen Reports. Obama’s disapproval rate according to Rasmussen was 44%.
Polls, we are always told, are “snapshots” of public opinion at a given time, but the polls consistently tell us that the
vast majority of Americans disapprove of the President and Congress and believe the nation is headed in the wrong
direction.
In a recent Wall Street Journal column, Peggy Noonan, wrote:
“I don’t see how the President’s position and popularity
can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster
in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they
say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the
President’s judgment and instincts.”
Suffice it to say that, if elections were being held next Tuesday, voters would replace most of those in Congress and, if
Obama’s ratings continue to fall — and I think they will — there would be an angry mob surrounding the White House
carrying torches and pitchforks and demanding his resignation.
In that fanciful scenario, Obama would head home to Chicago to work on another ghost-written autobiography or
memoir of his brief stay in the White House, and America would be stuck with Joe Biden as President. If Nancy Pelosi
is reelected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November, 2010, and continues to hold the position of House
Speaker, she would be next in line for President, should the office become vacant before the end of the term!
Since January, 2009, the Obama administration has created an economic and financial house of cards. No part of it is
sustainable.
Turning around Congress and the nation’s future can be likened to turning a super tanker. It takes five miles of ocean
just to slow the ship. In America’s case, the ship has been outward bound on a sea of "progressive" programs which
everyone knows are not working and which have begun to spring giant leaks in the hull.
There is plenty of blame to go around for our present troubles. Both major political parties studiously ignored the
ticking time bomb of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have put taxpayers on the hook for $1.6 trillion. The “toxic
assets” they created brought down banks and investment houses.
The people in charge of maintaining the value of the U.S. dollar, primarily Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve
System, began to reduce the amount of interest banks had to pay to borrow. By the time that amount reached zero
percent and banks became reluctant to loan even among each other, one might conclude our money had become
valueless.
When the market crashed in September, 2008, the U.S. government bailed out some banks and investment firms,
buying their “toxic assets.” Banks stopped lending, Lehman Brothers went out of business, and the slide toward
economic collapse began in earnest. With all that TARP [1] money and subsequent “stimulus” billions, the one
element of the economy that didn’t get any help were our small and medium-sized businesses, the ones that create
eight out of every ten new jobs.
Meanwhile Social Security is broke and Medicare soon will be. The former is insolvent and the latter has been
expanded in ways that will require rationing medical care European-style. There may not be “death panels”, but the
effect will be the same. There will be little incentive for anyone to go into the medical profession.
Thanks to the Obama administration’s close association with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the
mammoth government service workers union, Americans are discovering that it and other comparable unions have
been operating on a “public be damned” philosophy. In America, the biggest employer is the state and central
governments. Union members are no longer affordable.
When a teacher recently complained she wasn’t being paid enough, New Jersey's Governor, Chris Christie, told her
to get another job.
Around the 1970s, the American economy began to move away from one that actually made things to one in which
“financial services” replaced this essential requirement for a viable economy.
Now conjure with this. The national debt is $13 TRILLION. The Gross Domestic Product is around $12.9 trillion.
According to Reuters, the United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, 2010, “nearly four times the $20.91
billion shortfall registered in April, 2009, and the largest on record for that month.”
Moody’s Investor Services keeps repeating that our “Aaa” rating is going to go bye-bye any day now. It will cost
more for the U.S. to borrow money and we are already paying billions in interest on what has been borrowed. If this
sounds like Greece, it is.
One reason Congress is so unpopular is that they are repeating and exacerbating all the failed policies of the
Depression years; not getting out of the way so that the private sector of the economy can recover. More and more
of the economy is being nationalized, or socialized.
There are two outstanding reasons why President Obama is unpopular. He lies all the time and he is spectacularly
incompetent. He is the living example of the Peter Principle, in which a person is finally promoted to a job for which
he has no qualifications.
NOTE:
[1] TARP -- Troubled Assets Relief Program.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer,
he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence
public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity