First Conservative - Political Humor and Obamatudes

Political Humor – Top Ten Obama ‘Targets’

Political survival is skill few have the individual stamina to undertake.  At the Presidential level, survival is assigned to a team of agents and advocates that protect the occupant of the Oval Office by targeting individuals or institutions for media attack.

Existence of a White House character assassination team is nothing new.  Nixon had one and Clinton elevated its function to an art form.  The Clinton White House in fact had this down to a science.  Anyone accusing the former President of an indecent act had her character assassinated and her entire life exposed.  The country then had to endure endless Clinton sex jokes on the Tonight Show.

Although President Obama has been in office a few short months, he has managed to set the economy on course for a major train wreck.  Obama has also engaged foreign despots in ways that will only encourage future animosity towards the United States.  With baggage like this, the last thing the Obama survival team needs is internal adversaries.

Keeping these adversaries under control requires a team of trained professionals.  Unfortunately, Obama adversaries tend to be well informed, skilled conservative communicators.    So the battle is joined.  As of mid May, Rahm Emanuel and Team Obama have identified the following ten adversaries:

10.  Former President George W. Bush – What better adversary is there than one whom all blame can be dumped upon?  The former President provided Obama with all the courtesy imaginable, only to have the current White House staff hang all current ills on him.  Bush will have the last laugh though, when the Obama economic plan produces far worse results.  When Obamaeconomic actions produce results opposite from their intention, look for Hillary to re-enter the Presidential race.  What a joy that will be.

9.  Glen Beck – Fox News commentator Glen Beck has no trouble filling up his hour long show with examples of liberal mismanagement.  Beck’s animated style hits a nerve with conservatives, though, as no one in the GOP leadership has this level of passion for conservative causes.  Beck is a real danger to Team Obama as he has the ability as well as the willingness to bring things like inflation down to the street level.    Showing how Obama’s policies hurt Main Street is something that can’t be allowed.  Look for the Obama squad to begin investigating this one.

8.  US Rep. John Boehner – Who?  Team Obama originally had this key member of the Republican Congressional leadership much higher on their ‘hit’ list, but Boehner has proven such a lackluster spokesman for conservative causes, that they are no longer quite as worried.  Boehner is eloquent and reasoned, but lacks the passion to make conservatism emotional.  The Obama team understands that they won based on voter emotion, so even a logical conservative spokesperson doesn’t deserve much attention.  If Boehner can’t raise the heart rate of the heartland, he isn’t a threat.

7.  US Senator Mitch McConnell – The Kentucky Senator was once thought to be Obama’s main adversary in the Senate.  Although articulate, McConnell hasn’t appeared to be a conservative leader worthy of character assassination.  Team Obama has chosen to just let McConnell off the hook.

6.  Clinton (Hilllary) – A very ‘ticklish’ target for Team Obama involves former Senator and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Apparently believing that it is best to keep your friends close and enemies closer, Obama appointed Clinton as Secretary of State.  He then sent her out to embarrass herself in Mexico and elsewhere around the world.  The political strategy is to keep Clinton just as far away as possible, creating the illusion that she is productive.  Actually, she is being productive by being gone.  However, when Obama’s economic plans produce skyrocketing inflation, look for Hillary to jump the Obama ship and re-start her Presidential campaign.

5.  Swine Flu – Although not an individual, Swine Flu failed to deliver the crisis mentality that the White House team sought.  Team Obama fully understood that the flu outbreak would be nothing unusual, but chose to build the event into a crisis so as to appear the ones that ‘solved’ it.  As the US still has a mostly free press, the Swine Flu failed the Obama plan miserably.  The team is now looking for the next big disease to promote.

4.  The CIA – Democrats never fully trust an agency charged with keeping America safe.  They have the same essential problem with the Armed Forces.   Obama committed a strategic error by appointing former Clinton aide Leon Panetta as CIA Chief.  The political team monitors communication between Panetta, CIA and Hillary to make sure no conspiracy is brewing.  Look for serious infighting within the Obama administration when the economy starts to slip along with the Chosen One’s poll numbers.

3.  Sarah Palin – Liberals have no idea how to handle the Alaska Governor.  Attempts at character assassination have largely failed and to some extent have generated sympathy in the heartland.   Too much more sympathy and Team Obama will have enabled a worthy conservative adversary.   The Governor has a job and appears to be executing her duties well – much to the chagrin of Washington lefties.  Palin will make a more difficult target in the days to come.

2.  Limbaugh, Hannity and Talk Radio – Team Obama fired all its shots early in this battle.  Accused of being the spokesperson for the GOP, Rush saw his audience share soar.  The carefully planned association of Republicans with Rush backfired for two reasons – one, the Limbaugh listenership grew after the campaign began, and two, Rush really is an articulate spokesman for conservatism.  His new listeners are treated to daily, impassioned exposes on liberal failings.   Limbaugh, Hannity and others have achieved something usually reserved for liberals – making their cause emotional.   Without shutting down talk radio through new FCC regulations, Obama will not be able to directly confront those in radio that oppose Him.

1.  Former VP Dick Cheney – Perhaps the biggest surprise for the Obama character assassination team was the sudden rise of Dick Cheney as a spokesman against the Leader’s policies.  It was doubly surprising to Team Obama because they thought Cheney was already dead.  Unfortunately for them, the former VP brings the essential credential that Cheney and his administration prevented all attacks on the homeland after 9/11.  He knows of what he speaks.  When Cheney accuses the current administration of weakening national defense, thinking people listen.  And people are emotionally connected to the safety of their families.  It also won’t be easy to assassinate the character of someone who has already had their character assassinated.

Having learned the lesson that pushing the Secretary to testify before Congress only reinforces the view that the administration has no understanding of a free economy, Team Obama chose friendlier turf for their star economic spokesperson by choosing Meet the Press with David Gregory.   Among the more interesting revelations was Geithner’s admonition that individuals must “learn to live within our means.”

Gregory allowed Geithner to coast through a series of softball questions free of meaningful follow up.  Platitudes and diatribes about the government having to do something about the economic crisis went unqualified and undefined.  Concluding the interview, Gregory asked “In the long run, is this crisis necessary for this economy?” 

The bright side for Democrats is that the crisis is being ginned up to ensure future Democrat control over formerly free institutions.  Banking, auto manufacturing, insurance, health care, energy, and on and on… will be consolidated under Democrat control with the willing consent of uninformed voters and an uncurious media.   Answering this question, though, Geithner simply responded that we all have to “learn to live within our means.”   Gregory failed to ask that if the crisis was necessary, aren’t all recessions necessary from time to time to correct market imbalances?  Gregory concluded his obligation by failing to ask why “living within our means” does not apply to government policy.   

Even weak journalistic effort would be welcomed by a public that is seriously and rightfully concerned that Obama misread his election as a mandate to nationalize the economy.  Focusing instead on Geithner’s statement that living within our means would just mean that individuals should not take on debt or other obligations that they cannot meet, Gregory nodded and let the issue drop.

An active journalist would have asked why then if living within our means is such a good idea, why does the federal government insist on a running up a record level of debt?  If it is good for individuals to build a solid economic foundation by not overborrowing and overspending,  why does this not apply to governmental institutions?  And after incredible increase in debt levels, why does the administration continue to state that it will “cut the deficit in half” when every single person that can add and subtract knows this is impossible given the level of spending commitments contained in the Stimulus and Budget packages?

In the end, Gregory failed to pursue these lines of questions, preferring to listen to the administration’s wunderkind explain why the nation will be better off if government takes over key pieces of the economy.  Interestingly, the Meet the Press brass determined that it wouldn’t be totally fair to let Geithner have the floor for the entire program and therefore dredged up an inarticulate and un-passionate conservative spokesperson in Arizona Senator John McCain.  If – as most of the media believes – that Rush Limbaugh is the spokesperson for the GOP – why not bring him on instead of McCain?  The obvious answer is that Limbaugh would make both Geithner and Gregory look terrible by providing reasoned examples of why the Geithner/Obama plan is going to fail.  NBC also doesn’t want to keep pumping up Limbaugh’s audience and as Meet the Press is their show, NBC is not going to let anyone make them appear to be uninformed, uncurious and carrying the water for the Obama administration – even though they are.