OBAMA’S ABYSMAL PRESIDENCY

SPECIAL POST

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times since Obama had the Olympic Door summarily shut in his face: “Just because Obama made a fool out of himself in front of the world, don’t make the mistake of thinking he’s on his way out.” Those who echo such comments are quick to point out that Obama has charisma and that 50% or so of the country thinks he is doing a good job as President. But, on the other hand, 33% think he’s doing a disastrous job. Those numbers, by the way, are far below Bush’s favorable ratings at the same period of time in HIS presidency.

I decided to take a few moments to size up Obama’s Presidency thus far. Thinking back about his start in office earlier this year, two names stick out in my mind: Geithner and Napolitano. Geithner, I think, set the tone for the kind of people that Obama intended to surround himself with, and I really didn’t miss the mark. Geithner is an income tax cheat, caught red-handed. He came out with a weak excuse and Congress, firmly in the pocket of Obama, listened to his tearful explanation and promise never to do it again, and confirmed him as Secretary of the Treasury. Obama proceeded to add more tax cheats and unethical scoundrels to his cabinet and to his new political team, the “Washington Czars.”

The Washington Czars have distinguished themselves through their past records as felons, crooks, far-left radical activists, and so forth. Obama was able to protect them from official discovery by appointing them to positions that don’t require investigation and confirmation by the Senate. Van Jones was the first real casualty of Obama’s administration; you might consider Daschle a casualty, but he’s still very much active in Obama’s administration.

Getting back to Napolitano, she generated quite a stir by creating a list of Americans who were just returning from war, who had rightwing views, who owned guns….there were a few other requirements, but the list was intended to be a register of potential extreme domestic terrorist threats. When the existence of the roll leaked out, Obama and Napolitano out-danced former President Bush with the Texas Two-Step, and the spin machine worked overtime to quell the uproar. Napolitano had another gaffe or two and has since been relegated to the back pew of the Rose Garden.

“Blame Bush” became the White House slogan of the day. Rumor has it that those words are printed on sheets of White House toilet tissue. Obama was immediately faced with horrible economic woes that he blamed Bush for. When former Bush aides were able to point out that the problems stemmed from a Congressional filibuster to skirt around Bush calls for an investigation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, an investigation that may have prevented the ultimate collapse in the housing market, Obama shrugged it off as still being under Bush’s Administration.

Obama labeled the crisis an “emergency” that required immediate action to give his Secretary of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke total authority over an almost $800 billion dollar bailout, action that had to be taken immediately, (no time for discussion or argument), or the economy would collapse. Here we are nine months later and not all of that money has been spent and we have not yet collapsed. In fact, $387 billion of that happens to be “missing in action,” a fact that rarely gets mentioned.

This was all followed with another "emergency" and the need for the “stimulus,” without which unemployment would surely go above 8%. Even the Republicans folded like waffles and the stimulus was passed. But, unemployment has just reached 9.8% and Obama has had to admit it will go higher. That’s bad news for Obamanomics.

The bailout money blew up in Obama’s face when it came to light that several major financial giants rewarded their execs with monumental bonuses and vacation “conventions” in luxury resorts. Obama and his sidekicks decided to take ownership of stock and actual control of management in several major banks, fueling the flames of socialism. The Administration eventually declared that the banking problem was now under control, but bank failures have continued at an alarming rate this year, reaching a total of 95 by last week. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is running on fumes and is now asking banks to prepay their insurance premiums for several years ahead in order to keep the system afloat. In other words, the entire banking system is now on the precipice and the Administration is hiding that fact from the public.

I’ll get back to one of the bank bailouts in a moment. But, there sit both GM and Chrysler on the steps of the bankruptcy courts, and Obama rushes to the rescue with more emergency bailouts. In that process, the unions gained ownership positions and avoided pay and benefit cuts that may have saved both auto giants had they gone ahead with bankruptcy proceedings and government took ownership positions in corporate industry. Suppliers of parts to both companies took losses in their shorts and now either cannot afford to sell to GM or Chrysler or refuse to do so because of the risk involved; both companies are now ordering parts from Japan and China, creating more domestic job losses, (another fact not well-known). Dealers for both GM and Chrysler are warning customers who are bringing their cars in for repairs and maintenance that they cannot guarantee the parts being used, since many are substandard.

Early in his Presidency, Obama’s White House “arranged” for ACORN to take over the 2010 Census from the Department of Commerce. The polling and counting, normally done by part-time temporary employees of the Bureau of Census, would be done by ACORN. Since Congressional redistricting is done after every census, this put Obama and the Democratic Party in the position of being able to maneuver the counts in order to improve seats in Democratic districts. That message was lost in the abyss of the liberal press, now openly controlled by the White House.

ACORN had been accused of tampering with the voting process in the November elections in many states. Several states ended up bringing charges against ACORN, but Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, flatly refused to get involved. The Federal Election Commission dropped, like a hot potato, an investigation into a donation of $800,000 by the Obama campaign to ACORN that was originally listed as being for staging and lighting. At White House urging, Congress arranged and passed legislation to give ACORN over $8 billion in funding as part of the economic stimulus packages.

When the ACORN bubble burst with the discovery of widespread corruption by two undercover video producers, Obama refused and still refuses to say that he would sign a bill from Congress to cancel all ACORN funding. As that bad news spread, the Department of Commerce dropped ACORN’s participation in the 2010 Census and then… Bank of America came out and said that it would no longer be a partner in funding ACORN projects. The Conservative press and media then put two and two together: Bank of America received billions of rescue dollars from the Administration, even after it was discovered that shady dealings were had with Merrill Lynch. Why? Heading into this weekend, it was revealed that a top-level official of the White House has active connections with top-level people at… ACORN.

The bad news continues. Americans became totally aware that Obama’s spending was nearly twice that of any previous President, even in war time. The horrible economic situation was resulting in decreasing tax revenues and skyrocketing costs of social programs, including unemployment compensation. The government treasury was hemorrhaging red ink. A loan from China came with severe reservations and unknown commitments from Geithner; the official ceiling of the national debt was reached, and quietly passed without fanfare. I’ve been unable to find out how that was legally accomplished, but we all know that the printing press is now busy churning out more money that will increase the national debt and inevitably spark inflation.

The public, now attuned to the looming costs of Obama’s spending policies, was beginning to take a close look at Obama’s cornerstone Cap and Trade legislation that was working its way through Congress. The public was asking just how this would affect the future costs of energy and the national debt, and they were starting to put pressure on members of their Congressional delegations to stop the legislation long enough for everyone to examine it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sensing possible defeat if the Bill took any longer to pass, threatened members of the House into passing the Bill by a narrow margin in the wee small hours of a June morning. The national uproar was deafening and that Bill now sits in the Senate; it is unlikely to pass until, or unless, the President’s Health Care Plan passes.

In the summer of 2008, before the economic wheels came off, I was stating that the high price of gas at the pumps was in danger of causing a recession. I had no idea how deep the crisis would become. The situation was that truckers couldn’t truck and were losing their rigs to the banks. People couldn’t get back and forth to work unless they stopped spending what used to be “discretionary funds.” The prices of consumables increased and the resulting crunches led to soaring inventories and eventual layoffs. What I didn’t know was that the crunch would start to create loan defaults in a housing market that was over-financed as a result of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loan policies that had been loosened as a result of pressure from such organizations as ACORN and the House Banking Committee. The house of cards fell, and it fell rapidly.

The public demanded a solution to the oil problem. They were watching the major oil company profits soar by tens of billions of dollars while their wallets were being emptied at the pumps and layoffs were beginning. The bottom line of this was that everyone agreed we needed to increase domestic production and to take other steps to research and bring into production alternative forms of energy. Once in the White House, Obama managed to shut off expanded exploration in the Gulf of Mexico while Brazil, Cuba and Russia have been involved in exploration in the Gulf in potential fields that should be under U.S. control. We now find ourselves further constrained in how we deal with Iran due to our continued reliance on foreign oil.

Let’s talk about war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the coming nuclear issues with North Korea and Iran. Obama has committed to troop withdrawals in Iraq. Iran has never failed to take advantage of an opportunity to go to war with Iraq. In fact, Iran has been actively providing troops and materiel to enemy forces in Iraq since day one. Iran would love to see the U.S. pull totally out of Iraq and to stir up disagreements and violence between the several factions that exist in Iraq to weaken their military posture and to thereby provide an opportunity for invasion.

Obama said early on that he sees Afghanistan as being the bigger problem, and that is why he is drawing down troops from Iraq. Yet, he turns to our troops in the Middle East and requires that they now read the “Miranda Act” to enemy combatants being taken as prisoners. He investigates those who happen to kill an enemy combatant. And, when his top commander in Afghanistan asks for more troops, Obama stalls. And, Obama has angered American Jews and the Israeli government by insisting that Israel really has no cause for action against Iran's growing nuclear threat against Israel.

In the meanwhile, North Korea and Iran are testing nuclear weapons and missiles in open defiance of the United States and world opinion and the United States is dealing with those issues from a standpoint of “Let’s talk,” as Obama turned loose the Justice Department to investigate the C.I.A. after Nancy Pelosi accused the C.I.A. of being untrustworthy and constantly misleading and lying to Congress. C.I.A. Director Leon Panetta, appointed by Obama and confirmed by Congress, was outraged. Pelosi refused to back her words up; and Obama refused to intervene when Eric Holder announced that he’s going after the C.I.A.

Speaking of talking, Obama prematurely accused the Cambridge Massachusetts Police Department of racism and then invited the major players over for a beer to try and settle the dust. But, the ugly context of the word “racist” would arise again during the President’s relentless pursuit of a health care plan that is fraught with the prospect of cost overruns, reduction of Medicare benefits, a government-run system, funding for health care for illegals and for abortions, and which contains provisions for mandatory counseling for the elderly about death and the costs of healthcare associated with death. Someone in ACORN, I can’t remember who, even suggested that ACORN would be dong the “counseling.”

When the public took to the streets in “Tea Parties” to protest Obama’s inevitable tax increases necessary to support his spending, Obama and his staff dismissed the protests as being “orchestrated” and as basically involving “the enemy.” Participants were demeaned and called down by the Administration and members of Congress. Americans were told to “Shut up and get out of the way.” Former Presidents Carter and Clinton accused participants and those against Obama’s Health Care Plan as being racist, an accusation that Obama downplays, but does not refute.

The divisions in this country have become almost bottomless pits, chasms from which we may not be able to withdraw to more sensible positions. The fact is readily apparent that we are not to blame for all of this; Obama is. Obama, the chief spokesperson for the United States, has been running around the world apologizing for our behavior. He openly displays his shame of being an American to the likes of Cesar Chavez and the rest of our enemies. He kisses the rings of sheiks, bows to the Saudis; it is as if he is trying to explain, in advance, why he wants to overthrow our government. Americans are growing less enamored by his smooth talk and more concerned about his intentions and his patriotism by the moment.

His continuing drop in the polls, his failure to get his Cap and Trade Bill passed and signed, his problems with Van Jones and with ACORN, the stall of his Government-Run Health Care Plan, and his slap in the face with the first-round turndown of the 2016 Olympic Bid for which he flew to Copenhagen to lobby….these are stacking up as formidable odds against his Presidency and his agendas.

When you look for the positive things his Administration has accomplished, you are left with cash for clunkers, (car sales went right back into the toilet after it was over), and cash for first-time home buyers, (no one is lending money and foreclosures are up,).

In short, Obama’s track record as President stinks. Yet, while he claims he will accept responsibility for his mistakes, he continues to blame Bush, the media, cable news and American patriots for his problems. He recognizes that, should his government-run health care plan not pass Congress, the rest of his agenda will be trashed as well. He colleagues in Congress, particularly Reid and Pelosi, sense that their unified triad of strength has been significantly wounded by Obama’s missteps, and they recognize that it is up to them to rescue Obama in order to prevent a total calamity in the coming elections.

Both Barack and his wife Michelle delivered pathetic pleas to the Olympic Committee for the 2016 Summer Games to be held in Chicago. In listening to the pleas, one has to wonder what it was that possessed them to fly there in the first place, let alone in separate jets at taxpayer expense. Their pleas were not well-spoken, their words not organized; in fact, their pleas were more about them than good reasons for the Committee to award the games to Chicago. When the U.S. bid was tossed out in the very first round, it was a shot of rejection that was heard around the world. The Committee had made it abundantly clear that it does not believe Obama is the "Messiah."

So far, it can truly be said that the first nine months of Obama’s Presidency has produced absolutely nothing, except humongous debt that will linger for decades. The fingers of accusation and blame seem to be pointing in every direction except the correct one.