Obama Dithered as Economic War Raged

Now President Obama tells us he’s going to take the economy seriously. God help us.

As the war on the economic recession grew bleak and the unemployed body count grew, Obama and the Democratic Congress were bogged down in the quagmires of health care reform and cap-and-trade – wars of choice but not of necessity.

Obama and Congressional leaders dithered on the economy to satisfy their liberal base and deliver on campaign promises of a government takeover of health care, a cap-and-trade system and a scheme to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections.

Fortunately for America, Obama and his Congressional allies have been unsuccessful so far.

In a recent interview with ABC News, the president said he lost touch with the American people because he was so focused on crafting policy. And the result was the special election in Massachusetts that ended in disaster for Democrats.

So Obama has learned his lesson. And what’s his answer to the problem? Beef up his political staff. But first, let’s flash back to shortly after the 2008 election:

“An Obama White House will be focused on meeting the next challenge, not winning the next election,” transition spokeswoman Jen Psaki wrote in an e-mail Friday evening [to Politico.] “That is what he promised in the campaign and that is how he will govern.”

So after the Democrats had their political head handed to them by Massachusetts voters, the president goes into campaign mode because apparently being in ‘policy mode’ wasn’t convincing American voters. I’m sure that wasn’t a flip-flop, but rather a simple evolution. And thus, he’s falling back into the traditional progressive talking points of attacking Wall Street, bankers and insurance companies.

And beyond simply spending more money and racking up more debt, the president and Congressional Democrats have done nothing to spur private-sector job growth. But they don’t want voters to focus on that – they want the focus on what they see as the excesses of capitalism.

So it appears that’s the tack they will take in the coming months in order to court favor with disenchanted American voters. But seeing that Democrats have had an iron grip on power for the last year, they’re doing their best to create the narrative that they’re fighting against something:

“Instead of fearing what may happen, let’s prove that we have more than just the brains to govern–that we have the guts to govern. Let’s fight like hell,” Mr. Plouffe wrote…

But fight whom? Democrats have the votes and the power to do whatever they want. Are they fighting against moderate Democrats? Republicans? The thick-headed American people? Who?

Regardless, they’re going to come out swinging against anyone standing in their way, and we’re guessing they’re not going to discriminate about where the punches land.