President Obama Delivered a Campaign Speech, not a Plan
Last night, President Obama delivered a campaign stem winder disguised as an address to a Joint Session of Congress on the economy. The ruse was he was introducing a new job bill that would end the recession and put Americans back to work. In fact, in true campaign speech style, he had an oft repeated audience ‘chant line,’ replacing his tired ‘yes we can’ with ‘pass it now.’
No doubt the ‘smartest men in the room’ campaign people who run the Obama White House think they were being so clever. Now Obama can go out on the road, giving a tired stump speech with his SEIU and Teamster thugs in the audience echoing his chant of ‘Pass it now.’ The wizards of smart then will be able to point to the ‘do nothing, obstructionist’ GOP Congress as the reason the poor, beleaguered President hasn’t been able to turn the economy around.
There are many flaws with this half-baked political calculation. Some of these miscalculations include: this is simply a rehash of the same tired ideas that have failed to invigorate the economy to date; the American people have no appetite for another half trillion in debt to line the pockets of teachers unions, only to find out again that , oops, there really are no shovel ready jobs. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…
His campaign geniuses are trying to run a replay of the 1994 Clinton – Dole campaign. In that race, a GOP controlled House and Senate had thwarted the President, shut down the government, and fought the President every step of the way. Does ‘political circus’ sound familiar?
But this is where the fallacy lies, and where the brilliant plan is foiled by some pesky facts. Mr. Obama will not be running against Congress in 2012, try as he might. In 1994, Mr. Clinton was in essence running against Congress. Bob Dole was the Republican Majority Leader of the Senate, and so was the face of the Congress. When Clinton railed against the GOP obstructionists, Bob Dole was the face of that obstruction. It was a Zero Sum Game.
Whoever the nominee is for the GOP next year, he is not likely to be associated with the Congress. Among the front-runners, only Michele Bachmann is a current member, and even she has successfully bucked the leadership and is running as a Tea Party ‘outsider.’ So if Mr. Obama plays the ‘obstructionist Congress’ card, the GOP nominee can trump it with the ‘we need a leader who can make Washington work’ mantra.
But Bill Clinton was popular and the economy was in good shape. Mr. Obama is not popular, with Gallup approval numbers in the high thirties or low forties. And the economy, well, 9.1% unemployment and a flat GDP growth tell another story entirely.
So we can look forward to rallies in the near future with adoring crowds chanting ‘Pass the Bill’ over and over. But we won’t be fooled again. ‘Son of Stimulus’ needs to be not only defeated, but ignored. The GOP needs to pass its own plan and challenge the Dems in the Senate up for reelection to send it to the President.
Now is the time for bold measures, not petty campaign speeches. Yawn and move on.
Copyright 2011 Reprint permitted with the following citation:
TJPaine
Un^Common Sense
Dedicated to the Advancement of Americanism
http://uncommonsense-tpaine.blogspot.com/
