First Conservative - Political Humor and Obamatudes

Political Humor – Jimmy Carter’s Disastrous Legacy

The best Political Humor is found by looking at reality.  Unfortunately for the nation, some of the best jokes go ignored and are later repeated as live entertainment.   Those that recall long lines at the gas station, double-digit inflation, interest rates exceeding 20% and rapid inflation associate all these events with that “most ex of US Presidents” – James Earl Carter.  (Had to borrow P.J. O’Rourke’s description of the former President) 

 The generation of Americans growing up during the late 1970’s generally don’t look back at that time period as ‘the good old days’ – especially if they were trying to get a job.  College graduates experienced difficulty starting careers, much less purchasing food and fuel.  These were difficult times.

Of course in 1980, Carter was summarily removed from office in favor of former actor and Governor of California, Ronald Reagan.  Liberals simply could not understand how a former actor could become President.  Because they also couldn’t figure out essential operations of a free economy, this wasn’t surprising.  In 2009, President Obama understands the key issues and has undertaken action to exacerbate each – perhaps like Carter - ensuring his demise in the next election.  

As the Obama Honeymoon has mercifully ended, the current President will be less able to blame negative outcomes on George W. Bush.  It is also an appropriate time to examine why Jimmy Carter produced such a disastrous economy and to look for similarities between the Carter and the Obama plan.

For a not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane, below is a top ten list of Carter disasters – some of which Obama is well on his way to repeating.

10. Making athletes pay for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -  When the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, 1979, President Carter fished around for an appropriate response.  Presently, he decided on restricting the ability of the United States Olympic Team from participating in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.   

9.  Restricting grain sales to punish overseas adversaries – Finding customers is difficult in any market.  US farmers must overcome other government’s trade restrictions to sell produce.  Jimmy Carter entered that game by restricting sales from the US side as well.    Using food as a weapon in the trade war would never be tolerated by today’s liberals.

8.  Assisting with the Islamic Revolution in Iran – Jimmy Carter’s mismanagement of the Iranian turmoil allowed militants to overrun that country.  Iran has since developed into a major threat.   President Obama believes that He can talk with the Iranian militants and convince them not to build nuclear bombs, not to use them on Israel and not to use them on us.  Carter believed the same thing.  Militants took willingness to talk as an invitation to take action.  Obama has already telegraphed His willingness to be nice to Iran so they will play nicely with others.  The Mullahs that run Iran are fine with this so long as they are left alone to finish their weapons of mass destruction.  The US President will then be faced with a much bigger hostage crisis.

7.  Giving birth to the 24 hour news cycle – Carter’s inept handling of the Iranian Hostage Crisis required day to day and hour by hour coverage.  The country was outraged that the President –sworn to protect Americans world wide – would allow diplomatic personnel to be held hostage by thugs.  Daily changes in the hostage situation required ABC News to launch its “Nightline” program, which proved quite popular in competing with the Tonight Show.  Watching Jimmy Carter explain his actions throughout the day was as funny as the opening monologue on NBC.   

6.  Igniting recession through budget mismanagement – Jimmy Carter allowed expenditures to greatly exceed revenues.  When consumers were also hit with major cost increases for fuel, the economy slid into deep recession.   Obama has no problem with running up debt to incredible levels and with Cap and Trade, seems determined to hit the public with the same painful increase in fuel costs.  Couched under the guise of being eco-friendly, Cap and Trade is now seen as a way to limit carbon emissions and slow global warming.  It is an easy claim to make in springtime.  Liberals will like this until they get cold next winter and want someone to heat their hovels for free.  
 
5.  Causing incredibly long gas lines –When Arab nations failed to ship oil to the US consumers had to compete for the limited supply of gasoline.   Carter wasn’t completely to blame for this as Arab nations were angry about continuing US support for Israel.  (Carter should have arranged for purchases of oil from Mexico, which was just beginning to realize the size and scope of her oil deposits.  Had Carter then told OPEC to drink its oil for lunch, he’d have been a lock for a second term.)  Obama, in pushing Cap and Trade is also escalating the cost of food and fuel.  By restricting energy production, the President is allowing a fundamental cost to increase.  The cost of all goods and services will also increase and the supply of available fuel will decrease.  Obama learned nothing from the Carter experience on energy policy.  Obama supporters have no problem limiting gas consumption except when it interferes with their trip to the Asian market to buy tofu.

4.  Causing Unemployment – Jimmy Carter simply could not understand why more jobs were not being created.  Obama will endeavor to understand the same.  When businesses cannot identify reasonably priced capital to fund growth, growth and hiring will be restricted.  Obama and the US treasury are competing as never before on the world capital markets.  What capital is left over for business will be lent at high rates and will severely limit growth.  Limiting growth limits employment.

3.  Rising Interest rates – Of course a government-created shortage of investment capital drives up the cost of the remaining funds.  Increased interest rates killed housing and other major industries that required consumer lending back in the late 70s.   Lending rates frequently exceeded 20% - making borrowing for big ticket purchases like a home almost impossible.  Not wanting to be left out, President Obama is on a path to accomplish this by the start of 2010.

2.  Increasing Inflation – With escalating costs of capital and energy driving up prices for all goods and services, inflation restricted the ability of consumers to purchase goods.  Additionally, ‘cost-push’ inflation resulted from companies increasing costs to acquire necessary labor and materials.   These costs had to be passed on to consumers which only accelerated the pace of inflation.   Jimmy Carter could never understand why costs just kept soaring.  Obama will be wondering how He can blame Bush for this.

1.  Starting the Reagan Revolution – The most positive gift Jimmy Carter provided the United States was a complete illustration of why liberalism always fails.  Ronald Reagan was able – despite a Democrat controlled House to squeeze inflation out of the economy and return the nation to prosperity through the simple practice of free trade.  Reagan also restored America’s international standing by building up the Armed Forces and indicating a genuine willingness to resist Communist expansion.  When Reagan invaded the island of Grenada to put down a potential Communist take-over, the Soviets were shocked.  America was indeed willing to stand for her principles.  Grenadan’s mark the invasion date with their annual Thanksgiving celebraton. 

Obama Press Conference – Unasked Questions

Team Obama has discovered one of the really nice things about controlling the Presidency is that you don’t have to pay for airtime.  Most networks were all too anxious to give up revenue generating programming to cover a speech and 13 softball questions.   Small wonder the networks are losing market share and boatloads of money.  No matter, since they are the mouthpieces of the Obama message, they will be first in line for the next set of bail outs.

Obama began his Pep Rally by – of course – apologizing.  Seeming a bit out of character because of being on American soil, Obama chose to issue an apology to pigs.  Feeling they have been maligned by their association with the recent flu outbreak, the President apparently wanted to make the swine feel better about themselves - right before they are turned into pork chops and bacon.

Like most Pep Rallies, Team Obama indeed rolled out a smooth and crisp performance, owing primarily to careful screening of the journalists present.  The only reporters that were allowed to ask questions were generally ones few people have ever heard of.  These are the ones who would be expected to ask simple and ridiculous questions. 

All press conferences include at least a couple strange or irrelevant questions.  However, the media’s leftward bias is more revealed in those questions that go ‘unasked.’   Softball questions leave plenty of room for obvious follow ups. 

Topics ranged prisoner interrogations to the usual ‘touchy-feely’ ones including:  “What surprised you the most, what has what has enchanted you the most and what has humbled you the most about being President”   Akin to asking the man in the most powerful and influential position in the world what kind of tree he would be and why, this question revealed an incredible lack of curiosity on the part of the main stream press for all important issues.  The reporter who asked this should be ashamed of wasting the world’s time and wasting an incredible opportunity to get some meaningful information.

Obvious follow up:  - actually, there simply can be no follow up to a question this stupid.

On enhanced questioning of prisoners and prosecuting those that approved it – supported by congressional democrats – Obama believes that interrogations although they saved American lives, were unnecessary.  Dredging up an irrelevant reference to Winston Churchill and German prisoners who had no useful information, the President admitted that the enhanced questioning worked.  Incidentally, the UK -owing to its experience in Ireland and elsewhere - has one of the most feared interrogation methodologies around.

Obvious follow up: What were these ‘other’ methods and how would they have saved lives in LA - the target of the alleged terror attack?
Obvious follow up II:  Who changed the President’s mind on prosecuting those that approved of these interrogations and why?

On automobile industry take over plans – The President said that he wanted the companies to stand on their own and that Chrysler was set to merge with Fiat.  This ensures that a portion of whatever future profits the company might earn would be sent to Italy.  That would certainly be good for American taxpayers.   

Obvious follow-up: Does the government intend to keep a controlling interest or a voice in Chrysler or GM? Or does the administration favor getting out of the business completely.
Obvious follow up II:  Why then is the federal role increasing in the operations of these companies?

On the size of the federal government - Obama stated that He doesn’t want bigger government

Unbelievably obvious follow up:  how does the massive expansion of the federal role in banking and manufacturing fit the definition of smaller government?  And how does the incredible increase in the national debt contribute to smaller government?

On Pakistan - Interestingly, the President didn’t offer any apologies and instead chose to express no confidence in the democratic government he as a Senator, insisted be installed.  That country’s nuclear arsenal is under some threat by the Taliban and other militants and should Pakistan fall to these insurgents, Al Qaeda would have instant access to nuclear weapons.  

Obvious and terrifying follow up:  Now that you have said that you don’t believe the Pakistani government can handle the situation, what realistic measures would you take to help? (Perhaps the obvious answer was as scary as the question – Obama would be left apologizing to militant Islam so they won’t kill millions of us in our homeland)  

Swine Flu Outbreak – Obama Top Ten Benefits   

Just as then-Senator Biden predicted during the campaign, the new President has indeed been presented with a crisis soon after taking office.  Little did the President know at the time Biden made his strange prediction that the 2:00 am call would come from his Physician.  

President Obama is sincerely concerned about the spread of a new strain of the Swine Flu and it was recently disclosed that He personally may have been involved in trafficking the virus from Mexico.   During the Mexico City portion of His Latin American Apology Tour, the President apparently came in close contact with someone later identified as a carrier of the Swine Flu virus.    If the President was exposed, hopefully he shared the germ family with His new BFFs Chavez and Ortega.  Perhaps he should have landed in Cuba on the way home after all.

Always quick to welcome a new crisis that will put him on television screens around the world, President Obama’s team scheduled a news conference to roll out his plan to confront the outbreak of Swine Flu.   Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano was in attendance to declare a national health emergency.  Although generally not believed to be lethal in a vast majority of cases, the newly rolled-out version of the virus certainly was a good enough reason to call a press conference. 

Always looking for advantages, the President’s crack political team then swung into action to maximize the crisis.  The team later presented the President with the following top ten list of possible advantages to be gleaned from the Swine Flu outbreak.  In summary, the outbreak:

10.  Ensures that everyone will be home on Wednesday to watch His news conference - Voters will either be home sick or home to stay out of public contact.  This may be the single greatest benefit of the Swine Flu crisis.  Obama needs to keep his poll numbers magical in light of the fact that public favorability to his specific programs are heading for the tank.

 9.  Gets DHS Secretary Napolitano off the subject of investigating veterans upon discharge from the armed services because they might be terrorists - Napolitano also needs the cover to shield her from criticism regarding the stream of folks that routinely use her home state to bring in contraband.

8.  Gets Hannity and O’Reilly to talk about something else – Nightly thorns in side of Obama’s political team are Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.  Both have been chastising the President over his Apology Tours.  The flu crisis should be something to get these two off track for a few days.

7.  Confronting the crisis could be added to the President’s list of achievements for the first 100 day period - Team Obama has always told the public that they’ve faced more problems than anyone since God.  It would be nice to add this to the list of problems solved within the first three months.

6.  Might allow Rahm to get the flu - The staff is getting a little tired trying to keep up with the President’s changing positions and Rahm is getting cranky.   The staff needs a bit of a break.

5.  Allows a small role for Biden – VP Biden is chomping at the bit to get more involved in government policy.  Team Obama wisely believes that the VP should just stay in his undisclosed, secure location and out of public view as well as earshot.  Unfortunately, Biden was not involved in the recent trip to Mexico City and is probably the most senior staff member not at some risk for exposure to the virus.    Imagine the entire White House staff coming down sick and turning the daily press briefing over to the Vice President.  At least people would tune in.

4.  Gives Hillary a break.  Secretary of State Clinton has been busy trying to convince the Pakistani government to fight the Taliban that is taking over good chunks of that country.  Unfortunately for them Pakistanis are only good at shooting at their Indian neighbors and are entirely unprepared to take on a dug-in guerilla force.  Someone might get hurt.  Hillary has completely struck out in most of her missions so far, so she needs a few days to rethink her strategy.

3.  Provides relief to Attorney General Eric Holder.  Holder has been whacked with Guantanamo problems this week.  While appealing for European help in taking custody of these killers, Europe wisely laughed in his face.  Holder hasn’t quite picked up the President’s ability to apologize profusely and came away from his Europe trip with zero commitments.  That actually matches the President’s performance, so Holder shouldn’t feel too badly.  Holder now has to confront residents of the cities in the United States where these murderers would be housed after closing the Guantanamo detention center.  Americans won’t be as tolerant as the Europeans.  In short, it has been difficult for the Attorney General and the Swine Flu might give him a chance to kick back for a day or two.

2.   Gives the President an opportunity to visit members of the journalistic community that may also have contracted the virus during the trip to Mexico.    This would allow the President to appear compassionate by allowing members of the media to fawn all over him during the visit.  A fawning journalist running a 103 temperature would surely generate some great on-camera moments

1.   Provides yet another opportunity to blame one of the world’s ills on George W. Bush.  Had Bush properly funded scientific research and been a good international neighbor to Mexico, the crisis would not have taken its current form.  

Napolitano’s Apology – or sort of Aplogy

HHS Secretary Janet Napolitano joined the President in Mexico yesterday to assist in the western hemisphere’s version of the Apology Tour.  Not wanting to be left out, the Secretary made the morning talk show rounds and confronted her critics on the recently released ‘risk-assessment’ that listed among others, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans as susceptible to becoming right wing zealots. 

Through the interviews, Napolitano intimated that she really didn’t mean to insult war veterans and didn’t have any immediate plans to plant listening devices in the American Legion Halls.  So what was the real purpose of this report?  Napolitano insisted that the report was a simple risk assessment.  However, looking at the suspicious timing of the report’s release, as well as the Obama administration’s Chicago politicking roots, the only real purpose for releasing this report was to intimidate people attending the Tea Party rallies held Wednesday.

There were a couple other objectives, but primarily, the HHS report was timed to take attention away from the nationwide protest movement and to scare timid voters into silence.   Unfortunately for Team Obama, the HHS report had exactly the opposite effect.  The last thing one wants to do is provide an adversary with a reason to become energized in its opposition.

Barack Obama this morning, attended a ceremony marking France’s re-entry in to the military arm of the North American Treaty Organization.  NATO for years protected member nations from aggression by the former Soviet Union, but recently, has realized and participated against the threat from Islamic extremists.  By re-entering NATO, France strengthened the alliance and pushed the United States into a co-leadership role - or less.

In spite of several years of bashing the US on the world’s media stages, Europe had no desire to live under Communist rule.  They are equally resistant to living under Sharia Law.  With the election of Barack Obama, realistic Europeans now understand that the United States has become a much less reliable ally.  Europe must therefore provide for her own self defense.  By re-entering NATO, one of the world’s nuclear superpowers has joined with the rest of Europe to stand together in preserving its way of life.

President Obama could take a serious lesson from France in sharing the understanding that the world has gotten more dangerous - not less.  With his election, President Obama has without action, empowered enemies of the United States by displaying an unwillingness to confronting enemies.  George W. Bush chose a battlefield - Iraq - to attract radical Islamists to a place where not only could the US engage and kill the enemy, but also enlist local help in doing so.  That stratgy kept the US safe during his tenure as President.

Although sending additional troops to Afghanistan, President Obama has none of the stomach for confronting enemies - preferring to focus on Rush Limbaugh instead.  None of his actions have been lost on Europe.  France and others who have maintained token military presences in NATO are now compelled to provide the backbone or courage to fight radical Islam.  With so many radical Islamists living in Western Europe, France, the UK and others fully understand the damage that failing to fight will do to their nations. 

For now, all NATO can do would be provide troops that can and will fight.  NATO is comfortable allowing the US to do the heavy lifting for now, but should Obama pull out, there has to be a way to engage the Islamists on a battlefield.    Otherwise the Islamists will chose the battlefield and it might look a lot like Paris or London.

Top Ten Reasons Democrats Don’t Pay Taxes!
Following the nomination and subsequent withdrawal of Tom Daschle for tax ignorance and arrogance, the administration strengthened its vetting process to prevent nominees with tax problems from being presented to Congress.  The result of this is that no Democrats can be found who have paid their taxes. 
After promising to put together the smartest administration in history, President Obama now has to explain to the country why His nominees can’t figure out how to operate TurboTax.

Democrats yesterday were again confronted with a senior administration nominee that didn’t pay required taxes.  In what has become a consistent theme, another nominee revealed that she didn’t pay a significant sum to the IRS as a result of ‘unintentional errors.’  Kathleen Sebelius – Obama’s nominee for HHS Secretary, has revealed that she had to pay over $7,000 in back taxes to cover these errors.   These errors seemed to be for things like missing charitable receipts and business expenses. No matter.. with Sebelius as custodian of Obama’s new Universal Health Care expenditures, this will be an exceptionally insignificant sum. 

If a Republican failed to pony up, regardless of whether the error was intentional or not, the nominee would be subject to ridicule in the media and crucifixion on the floor of the House.  Liberal media hounds would also join in the feast in the Situation Room.  Jay Leno would be roasting the nominee nightly. 

Regardless of the reason CNN won’t cover tax cheaters seeking jobs in the administration, there seems to be a deep cultural reason that Democrats underpay or don’t pay their taxes.  Here are the top ten possibilities:

10.  Since Democrats are kind enough to pay for cheap household help, it holds that they shouldn’t be responsible   for any employment taxes.  After all, they are providing jobs in an ailing economy.
9.  Democrats spend too much time Twittering to hang on to business receipts.
8.  Spa treatments are necessary after dealing with nasty Republicans and should be deductable.
7.  Botox treatments are getting more expensive – aren’t they going to be covered by Universal Health Care?  No wonder Nancy Pelosi is, well… never mind.
6.  Had to have the latest Coach bag for the big trip to San Francisco.
5.  Forgot that latest shoes from Nordstrom did not constitute a taxable deduction.
4.  Democrats believe they are unfairly overburdened by the stupid tax code – which incidentally they created.  Therefore they are justified in not paying them.
3.  Taxes are for ‘little people.’ (Remembering Leona Helmsley) Taxes for Democrats, like laws, are optional.   
2. Democrats truly can’t figure out how to stick the TurboTax disk in the computer.  
1. Democrats believe they are better people and shouldn’t have to pay.  Republicans are rich. They deserve to pay. 

Please contribute your own ideas to this list and check back.  We will provide updates!   It warrants further exploration.

President Obama stepped into the world of automobile manufacturing yesterday by firing the CEO of General Motors and slapping an ultimatum on Chrysler Corp. to seek a merger with Italian automaker Fiat.  When asked what his credentials were to make such moves, Obama simply replied “we have to do something.”  Obama now has two central themes that run through all public appearances.  One, blame George W. Bush for all problems, and justify all decisions with the philosophy that “we have to do something.”

In taking action at General Motors though, Obama may have significantly overstepped both his expertise as well as his political will.  By stepping into this mess with taxpayer dollars, the President Himself is now the de-facto CEO of the company.  And the shareholders – read voters – will hold him accountable.  He will learn to hate being in this position.  The President’s background as a community organizer certainly positions him to understand the intricacies of automobile manufacturing. 

The interesting part of the GM saga will unfold in a couple months when a new restructuring plan will be revealed.  Prior to receiving additional public money, GM was required to produce a plan for its survival.  Obama judged the one already received to be insufficient, so he fired Wagoner and sent Interim CEO Fritz Henderson back to work on another plan.  That gives Team Obama more time to make recovery impossible.

Survival plans generally focus on producing products that the public wants more efficiently or at greater profitability per unit.   Apparently understanding consumer tastes and preferences better than GM staff, Team Obama immediately mandated that GM focus more manufacturing capacity on production of higher numbers of fuel efficient cars and fewer numbers of trucks.  As displayed in the Stimulus package, the Team also displayed financial management skill by making these mandates without regard to potential retooling or plant modification costs.  Also giving US consumers great cause for concern is the reasoning that trucks will be in relatively lower demand while gas-sipping, shoulder crunching small cars will be in greater demand should gasoline exceed $4.00 per gallon.  Obama certainly has plans to drive oil to this price level by strangling production, providing pretext to seize oil companies.

The interesting part of Obama’s GM recovery plan will occur at the point where the public as well as the administration realize that GM is a lost cause in current form.  Customers simply will not purchase small cars unless they absolutely have to.  And even then, they may prefer to hang on to their current vehicles.  This will leave Team Obama with a massive revenue shortage on top of taxpayer expenditures that were supposed to tide the company over until recovery. 

At this point, Obama can throw more taxpayer money into the organization to prop it up for another period of time.  He could lay off tens of thousands of UAW workers himself to cut necessary costs.  A third option would be to let the company go bankrupt and reorganize under Chapter 11.  In that instance though, he will be severely pressured to keep UAW contract agreements in place.  The President probably doesn’t have the backbone to lay off UAW workers himself.  He wouldn’t mind if someone else did it so he could lead the chorus of outrage, but he wouldn’t do it himself.  Since union agreements are a significant part of why GM has failed, Obama may have to revert to option 1 – throwing another huge taxpayer bailout before congress.  

Another bail out would occur well past Obama’s 100 day honeymoon period.  The public is already sick of expanding spending.  Opponents have already targeted key Democrats who will be looking for a way to tell constituents in their main-street districts why their government signed over a huge amount of their money to save the United Auto Workers from being laid off – after many constituents themselves have been put out of work.  It will be a tough sell.

President Obama seems adept at dodging responsibility for his actions.  His intervention in GM though, will be too high-profile to ignore.  Since the President can’t take meaningful action without upsetting taxpayers or key constituents like the UAW or other Michigan Democrat groups, he will have to figure out which course is the least damaging and which elements can be blamed on someone else.
Obama’s speechwriters will be significantly challenged to find a way to blame this on Bush.   At least that part might be entertaining.

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.

When Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner begins a statement with the phrase “you have to understand,” most investors hit the sell button on their Wall Street web accounts. 

Geithner on Meet the Press this morning revealed again that the Obama administration has no real plan to fix the economy.  In the ‘duh’ statement of the year, when asked what the core reason for banking crisis was, Geithner responded that banks “took on too much risk.” Meet the Press Interviewer David Gregory seemed stunned enough to avoid the obvious follow up questions that should have run something like “what conditions led to banks assuming too much risk?”  and “wouldn’t it make better sense to fix the reasons that banks took on too much risk before spending  trillions of dollars or taking them over?”  Instead, Geithner enjoyed smooth sailing and a Sunday walk in the park.

Following the tried and thus far true Obama interview methodology, Geithner repeatedly used the reasoning that in response to the current recession, the government had to do something.  Even dragging out Obama’s favorite word “inherited,” Geithner pushed blame to previous administrations for existence of the current crisis.   Gregory jumped into Geithner’s corner by dutifully failing to press Geithner with questions about the specifics of what “do something” actually means besides spending an outrageous sum of money.  Most importantly, Gregory avoided the single most important question – why will the Obama plan make things better and not worse?   In fairness, Gregory did try to raise this question – sort of -  but fell into the Obama trap by allowing Geithner to take up the airtime with diatribes on how bad the situation was and how great is the need for action now.   Geithner never actually answered the question nor was he pressed by serious journalistic effort to reveal specifics.

Gregory made a routine effort to ask why Geithner and Obama had expressed outrage over the AIG bonuses when in fact they were the ones that created the bonus provision in the first place.  By inserting bonus language via the Dodd amendent to the Stimulus package, Geithner and Obama specifically approved the bonus plan.  Obama and Geithner then led the chorus of outrage against the bonuses when it became public knowledge.  Gregory gently pressed the issue, but again allowed Geithner to suck up the airtime with a speech on how bad the economy is and why the government has to take drastic action now. 

Perhaps it is beneficial that Gregory didn’t pin Geithner down on his plans.  The market opens in less than 24 hours.   On most previous instances of Geithner’s previous public Q&A sessions, the people that invest their own money are reminded that the current administration has no clue regarding how an economy actually works on Main Street.   They watched as Geithner was allowed to deliver platitudes instead of answers.   

In previous instances, the market tanks when Geithner talks.  When Geithner talks, people sell.

Hope and Change require investments of faith, not reason. Too much thought is bad for the Obama plan. 

President Barack Obama is pulling out all the stops.  Creating crisis after crisis, He has positioned Himself as the true savior of the country.  Simply the pace of his activity brings comfort to some.  CNN’s imbibing commentator Jack Cafferty feels good that at least someone is doing something to prevent the country from being driven into the ground. . 
We will see how Cafferty feels in a couple of months.  The country is awash in so much debt that even now we are scolded by Europeans and the Chinese about how this level of borrowing is both unsustainable and will act as an anchor to other national economies.   They have experimented with Socialism enough to know it doesn’t work.  Additionally, they won’t purchase our T-bills even now. Even Democrats understand this is bad.  Yes, the country is in trouble, but it is in deep trouble from Obama himself and from a compliant and tragically uncurious media.  The media is made up of performers and no longer of journalists who insist on getting facts to the public. 

Taking over the country in 90 days is clearly Obama’s objective.  Utilizing parliamentary maneuver to avoid discussion on universal health care and ‘cap and trade’ is a clear indication that team Obama understands that it has to accomplish its objectives before the country has time to understand the consequences of these actions.  Trumpeting the theme that health care costs are driving the deficit, Obama has removed all analysis from his campaign.  Health care costs are indeed significant, but they are not driving the deficit.  Health care costs contribute to the deficit through government mandates that require illegal aliens to be treated free of charge at emergency rooms across the country.  Government support for trial lawyers also fuels health care costs as massive punitive damage awards are paid out to lawyers and not victims of medical mistakes.  No one of clear mind would not award a victim sufficient damages for actual losses from lost work and productivity, but punitive damages drive the insurance costs of providing health care through the roof.  More importantly, the legal parasites that make their living off mistakes of others drive many bright young minds into fields other than medicine.  Much can be done to reduce health care costs without the government taking it over.

Comrade Obama believes that taking over health care will improve health care for all Americans.  Here is where facts get in the way.  There simply aren’t enough primary care physicians to provide this level of service. And there will be a very significant retirement rate in the next ten years, so the supply will constrict even more.  The inevitable result of this will be a shortage of and rationing of health care.   British MP David Hannan this week warned Americans about attempts to provide health care through a governmental entity saying that British medical boards ration care and pharmaceuticals based on who has longer to live should they be provided these treatments.  The lefties who designed this healthcare model are unapologetic.  You are older and have a medical condition requiring treatment?  Good Luck - it is probably over for you.   Obama will no doubt figure out a way to dodge responsibility for this as well.  He may also ride the inevitable wave of public anger as he did with the AIG bonuses to campaign against a situation that - again - he created.  The media will have no clue as to what happened.

Obama’s version of Hope and Change requires a willing suspension of disbelief.  And the Jack Cafferty’s of the world are all too willing to join Obama and not invest any brain energy to understand what He proposes.