Monday, October 11, 2010

Obama Becomes Politically Radioactive



By Alan Caruba

How pathetic do you have to be to have a set of Teleprompters set up in a sixth grade classroom in order to address the kids? Barack Obama has been compared to many people, but Peanuts’ Linus Van Pelt and his ubiquitous security blanket has become an enduring symbol of a man who can barely speak an entire, coherent sentence without the speech machine.

I suspect some future historian will date Obama’s political demise and burial to a commentary by Mark Halperin in the October 11th edition of Time magazine. This is the same Time magazine that put Obama on the cover one time with an illustration that compared him to Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the irony was that FDR presided over the longest, deepest Depression in the nation’s history.

“With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists,” wrote Halperin, “most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters.”

Halperin, in a paroxysm of insight, noted that “Moreover, there is a growing perception that Obama’s decisions are causing harm.” He then listed problem areas such as “energy policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration, and spending.”

And that pretty much covers the entire scene except for jobs; something for which the Obama administration has had no answers and has not made a priority as compared with the takeover of health care, one sixth of the nation’s faltering economy.

Most of his so-called economic advisers have all gone scurrying back to their academic ivory towers where tenure will ensure they don’t lose their jobs.

Let me go on the record saying I have never trusted any of the employment statistics conjured up by the Department of Labor. I think the present “unemployment rate” of 9.6% will stay at that point, never quite reaching 10% because someone in the White House has decided that it would be the political kiss of death. News flash! You guys passed that point months ago.

A comparison of unemployment rates from the Great Depression years is instructive. Remember, there were a lot fewer Americans in those days. In 1929, before the stock market went to hell on October 29th, the population was just over 88 million and there were 1,550,000 unemployed, a rate of 3.14%. By 1932 when FDR was first elected, the population was 91,810,000 and unemployment was already at 23.53%. It would hit a high in 1934 of 21.60%.

A year before America joined World War Two unemployment stood at 14.45% in 1940 with some 8,120,000 people, mostly men, out of work. The war put everyone back to work, either in the armed services or on the home front equipping them. To put it another way, it took a world war to rescue the nation after FDR’s several administrations had tried everything and failed!

Obama’s administration apparently never read a history book because their “solution”, throwing billions of borrowed dollars at the problem, was the same one as FDR’s.

An October 8 Investors.com article noted that, given all the unemployment today, “At this pace, the U.S. won’t recoup all the 8.36 million lost jobs until March 2020—147 months after the December 2007 high.” It added that “The current jobs slump also is the deepest of any in the post-war era, with payrolls down as much as 6.1%. They are still 5.6% below their December 2007 level.”

Statistics, frankly, tend to make my eyes glaze over, but I cast my lot with those economists who are saying that the real unemployment rate is already over 20%. The reason for this is the way the Department of Labor plays games “defining” who is unemployed, who is receiving unemployment compensation, who no longer is, and who has stopped looking for work.

So the reality is that the man who was elected on a promise of “spreading the wealth around" has, in fact, only been able to spread the poverty around.

Unlike the 1930s when the only way you heard President Roosevelt was on the radio when he gave his “fireside chats” or in the Movietone weekly news reels, Americans today have been able to follow Obama’s descent into economic hell day-by-awful-day.

When only the most desperate Democrat candidates are willing to be seen with you and the rest are running against your legislative agenda, you have become politically radioactive. It’s a wonder that Barack Obama doesn’t glow in the dark these days.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

8 comments:

Ole said...

There are several sources that claim your comment about using teleprompters to address sixth grade students is wrong. Apparently, he used the teleprompters to address reporters about an educational program and then addressed the students informally. Google away and you will find many references, including:

http://www.aolnews.com/the-point/article/what-the-obama-school-teleprompter-photos-really-show/19330300

Of course, this does not address the real problem which is a president who cannot stand on his feet without crutches.

Alan Caruba said...

It says as much or more that he used the Teleprompters to speak to reporters, if not the sixth graders.

TexasFred said...

So the reality is that the man who was elected on a promise of “spreading the wealth around" has, in fact, only been able to spread the poverty around.
*********************
What astounds me is the fact that his very promise wasn't seen through in it's inception for exactly what is is...

Socialism...

Well, WE saw through it, but there's a lot of stupid people out there that bought it, hook, line and sinker...

Guy in Ohio said...

Fred, the promises made by Socialists sound great to several segments of our society. The ignorant youth, the poor, the unemployed, minorities, and those who are lazy, unmotivated, and unwilling to support themselves ....

Is it any wonder Obama is doing everything he can to increase the size of each of those groups? Once they outnumber us, we're finished as a free republic ...

Unknown said...

Minor problem in the article - you said:

"By 1932 ... unemployment was already at 23.53%. It would hit a high in 1934 of 21.60%."

Your "high" is lower than the only other figure. According to HyperHistory's Timeline of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 23.6% in 1932, reached a high of 24.9% in 1933, then fell to 21.7% in 1934.

LarryOldtimer said...

Unfortunately, all you say is true, Alan. I fail completely to understand why Obama has to have a TelePrompter for any reason, except that he has no thoughts or words of his own to say. This is why I have referred to him as the "ventriloquist's dummy".

So then, the question I have to ask myself is, if he is saying words not his, whose words is he speaking? Looking at a list of his "advisers" frightens me, and these people are more frightening than mere socialists could be.

A domestic terrorist, a "science guy" who doesn't seem to know general science fundamentals and is an alarmist, a woman who belongs to an international organization which wants to reduce the number of humans by at least 90%. These are not the sort of people who I would want the president of my country getting advice from. These are the sort of people intent on destroying as many of us humans as possible, and most certainly against any sort of individual freedom at all.


Unfortunate as well is that those whom I refer to as the clowns and monkeys of the main stream media circus are busy providing as much misinformation as possible. Those who should be the watch dogs over government have become instead the guard dogs of one political party.

Things do not bode well for we Americans as of this time.

Alan Caruba said...

@Mike: This is an excellent example of dyslexia. It's amazing I can type my own name.

Alan Caruba said...

@LarryOldtimer:
Even Obama noted in one of his books the power of lobbyists in DC. Most all the Senators and Representatives are owned outright by the legion of lobbyists in that town. They spend $5 million a day to make sure their clients get what they want. No doubt Obama sold out long ago.