In his interview Tuesday evening with ABC’s Jake Tapper, President Obama was asked to reflect on the economy and his overall performance as president. Asked by Mr. Tapper how he would grade himself thus far, the president declined to give himself a grade, preferring, instead, to redirect viewers to all the work that still needs to be done, presumably by him. That is why Americans should re-elect him in 2012, in order to allow him to complete his work.
In his now classically narcissistic style, Mr. Obama refuses any self-criticism during the interview. He appears to expect that his authoritative statements about the issues that face our nation are sufficient for mere mortal Americans. When Mr. Tapper nudges the president to determine, we can only assume, whether Mr. Obama’s concept of his disastrous poll ratings is based in reality, the president responds, “I believe all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones.”
Many of us would have all to do to keep our mouths from dropping open as we sat, incredulous, at this response, but perhaps Jake Tapper’s professional journalistic training was seeing him through.
We are now at a point, with this president, when every speech, every interview, every press conference, every bus tour, is nothing but a series of distorted statements, meant to pull unthinking Americans into a shared delusion. The president is part illusionist, part hypnotist, hoping to lure the most ignorant Americans among us into his realm of unreality. He feels empowered to do this because, as he so often reminds us, “I’m the president!”
Let’s break down some of these distortions from the interview:
The jobs plan that I put forward, we know that it will grow the economy by as much as 2 percent. We know that it could add as many as 1.9 million jobs.
And that plan will cost about $1.6 million per job “kept or added” in Democrat-speak. A real bargain!
I am concerned that right now, things in Washington are broken.
I believe, sir, that you were supposed to fix that when you were elected. Hope and change, remember?
It seems as if too many folks are willing to put politics ahead of what is required and making the tough choices whether that’s reducing deficit, whether it’s putting people back to work, whether it’s making investments that are necessary for us to become competitive, you don’t get a sense of people all pulling together in the same direction.
Of course, sir, you would not be putting politics ahead of what is required, as you ride on your bus tour, campaigning rather than fixing the problems, would you? As for reducing the deficit, reducing is when you lower the deficit. You have done the opposite, sir. Putting people back to work? Well, unemployment has risen to 9.1% under your administration. And making investments for us to become competitive? No, sir, you’re using that Keynesian economics again. Government spending doesn’t increase our competitiveness. It simply puts us deeper into debt. We become competitive by getting government out of our way.
What I say to the American people is that we are moving in the right direction, it is going to take time to heal all the problems that exist out there, the health care bill that we passed is absolutely the right thing to do but it’s going to take awhile before it’s even fully implemented, much less taken full effect, and you start seeing health care inflation stabilize.
There’s that narcissism again, sir. You are still going to “heal all the problems that exist?” We won’t hold our breath. And the health care bill is “absolutely the right thing to do,” even though, sir, your own administration said that the CLASS long-term care portion of the bill is unsustainable, most Americans want Obamacare repealed, and the Supreme Court will be taking up the question of whether the law is even constitutional? We know, just a few glitches, sir…
That’s why the jobs bill is so important because even as we’re doing these structural reforms that put us in a stronger position in the long terms, we still have to help people now and the most important thing we can do right now is to make sure we’re putting people back to work.
Perhaps you are forgetting, sir, that you said the economy and putting people back to work were your priorities when you were elected. But maybe you were distracted by the stimulus bill, the healthcare bill, the financial reform bill, your golf games, etc. We know there’s so much going on- it’s hard to stay focused.
Well what we’ve gotten done I’m enormously proud of and it’s making a difference, and in some cases we’ve had a chance to actually work with the Republicans.
Yes, you certainly have a lot to be proud of, sir, though we don’t hear you speak much about your accomplishments during your campaign tours. To be sure, it’s hard to find time to work with Republicans when you have to spend hours blaming them for the fact that the Democrat-controlled Senate couldn’t pass your jobs bill.
And yet, even though we’ve gotten a majority of senators in the Senate willing to move forward on this, because of the filibuster, because of the rules that are set up in the Senate, those things are blocked.
Now, sir, Harry Reid can’t change all the rules in the Senate. Darn that Constitution!
One of the things I’m most surprised about is hearing both from Republican members of Congress and Republican candidates, the notion that we should return to the rules that existed on Wall Street before the financial crisis. They want to roll back all the Wall Street reforms we put into place as if they’ve got amnesia about how we got into this problem in the first place.
There you go again, sir, trying to get unthinking Americans to believe that Wall Street caused the country’s financial mess. It’s kind of you to cover for Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Fannie and Freddie, and the Federal Reserve. No fraternizing with greedy Wall Street people for you, sir! Unless, of course, they can come in through the back door for a quick campaign contribution.
On a whole range of these issues, there’s going to be a clear choice for the American people to make.
Crystal clear, sir.
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