What's the Rush, Obama?

By Alan Caruba

At first I thought it was just my imagination, but three prime time press conferences in three months, several overseas events, and the seemingly daily announcement that new billions would be spent on stimulus packages, bailouts and new programs has become a dizzying onslaught.

The Obama administration is, in so many ways, the culmination of efforts dating back to the middle of the last century to render Americans so docile, so illiterate, so prepared to blame themselves, that a really big push is on to ram through programs that would be the fulfillment of liberal dreams for decades.

The emergence of “Tea Parties” and other expressions of widespread protest must have taken Obama and the intellectual dunces around him by surprise. The opposition to gay marriage, the continued resistance to abortion-on-demand, and other social issues suggest that Americans are not as dumbed-down as liberals had hoped. They especially pay attention when told their taxes will rise and more taxes will be imposed on everything they purchase.

As the cost of a First Class postage stamp becomes forty-four cents and the cost of a pack of cigarettes apparently will be the equivalent of a porterhouse steak, life in Obama’s America is going to become prohibitively expensive. Consumers are already beginning to hold back on purchases of all kinds. If Obama’s secret agenda is to crash the economy, he’s succeeding.

Then there is the legislation in the pipeline. The Waxman-Markey bill would introduce a cap-and-trade program to tax the emission of CO2, carbon dioxide, the other most vital gas for all life on the planet. It would drive up the cost of any and all energy use. Since energy is the single most vital resource for a thriving economy, one wonders why the White House and Democrats would want to support and advance such madness.

There’s a bill in the Senate that would give full control over all the waters of the United States to the federal government and the States be damned. Every drop of water would be regulated and that’s bad news for farmers who depend on water to raise their crops because it could be turned off for many of them on the whim of some bureaucrat. And, of course, fewer crops mean higher food costs. Everybody else who drinks or uses water should be equally alarmed.

The worst of it at the present time is the push, the rush to institute a government controlled health system under the guise of ensuring that everyone can get access to medical care. Well, ask any hospital anywhere whether they ever turn away anyone. They are forbidden by federal law from doing so. In some States, the influx of illegal aliens forced some hospitals to close their emergency rooms or just go out of business entirely.

Americans rejected the government takeover of our healthcare system during the Clinton administration and, hopefully, they will tell their elected representatives to do so again.

The takeover of auto companies has some people nervous and the takeover of the entire banking system, those with or without TARP money, is making even more people nervous.

Apparently it is not enough that the banking system is among the most heavily regulated in the nation, being able to actually run all the banks is the aim of this administration that has made it known it wants to set levels of compensation for all bank officers, bailed out or not.

What Did She Know and When Did She Know It?

Then we have the inevitable missteps that usually have a political cost. When Republican Trent Lott was Senate Majority Leader he had some kind words for the aging Strom Thurman and the firestorm that resulted got him swiftly booted from that job. Contrast that with the fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been caught in a huge lie. There are, however, no calls within the Democrat Party for her to step down. Meanwhile, she continues to tell lies about “clean energy” and “energy independence.”

Likewise, in what would otherwise be deemed a treasonous statement during a time of war, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who declared the conflict in Iraq “lost”, remains in office.

And why are the Democrats still fighting against an Iraq War that is essentially over? Obama won in part by virtue of his opposition to the war, yet his administration’s justification for everything it’s doing is to blame the Bush administration.

During a recent commencement speech, Obama actually embraced the fact that he has far less experience and credentials for the Presidency than his predecessors. He likes the on-the-job training that accompanies being President because every day is a new, exciting learning experience.

He has learned, for example, that releasing memos that suggest we spent much of the last eight years torturing terrorists may not have been a good idea. He has stepped back from the release of comparable photos, most of which are reportedly quite benign.

Never mind that the terrorists we’re fighting routinely cut off people’s heads or blow up fellow Muslims while they are at prayer in mosques. Never mind that all wars have involved torture to some extent to save lives.

All this and more is giving lots of people pause. His fervent supporters appear to be having buyer’s remorse as the details of what “change” he has in mind for them begin to emerge.

Everyone is beginning to ask, “What’s the rush?”

The answer is that, unless this Democrat Congress can push through some of these truly horrid pieces of legislation and unless the White House can “transform” America through fear and intimidation, they may suffer significant losses in the midterm elections that are less than a year and a half away.