What Are We Paying Obama For? And Can It Get Worse?

It’s simply hard to imagine this passes for a Presidency. At what point does he become simply too much for the senses? Sure we have had some interesting and bad Presidents before – recently in fact. Nixon changed our view of the Presidency for the worse. Carter was beyond ineffectual. Bush 41 broke a huge promise. Clinton wagged his finger while lying – and a bit more than that. But this President is truly something and it’s not just the facts that are bad – it’s his excuses and manners that make this Presidency so incredibly bad.

Let us count the ways:

A. The Economics.

This list is well known by now – but that doesn’t mean it is highlighted by the Media as it would be of a Republican was president.

1. Unemployment at 9% for a historically long time. According to Obama he inherited this mess and blames President Bush and ATMs. Yes Obama believes automation, like ATMs, is to blame – as if such automations like automobiles (accounting for nearly 20% of our economy) and computers (creating employers like EBAY and Microsoft) are the cause of our unemployment. Beyond that, Obama joked that he was wrong about “shovel ready” projects, created the “Saved” jobs category out of thin air, and claimed that the stimulus bill would prevent unemployment from going above 8%. What’s missing, of course, is a plan to lower unemployment – let alone actually lower unemployment.
2. Gas Prices. They are currently 85% higher than when he took office. He shut down our Gulf oil production for ideological not actual reasons and delayed a Canadian pipeline for political reasons. When Bush 43 saw high gas prices, the Media told him to go his friends in the Middle East to ask them to raise production. Since Obama wanted $5 gasoline all along, he has no plan to lower energy prices and the Media doesn’t harp on the issue. Meanwhile the economy is hurt badly because of the higher costs of energy that reduce purchasing power and hurt employers everywhere.
3. Foreclosure/Home Mortgage Crisis. This is the one part of the economy that actually is in a crisis that is “the worst since the Great Depression” – a phrase Obama is fond of overusing. Obama has continued the policy of bailing out the Banks for foreclosure related losses, encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts instead of reforming them and now he has sued the very Banks he bailed out because of their foreclosure practices – and no, there is no plan in sight let alone true relief.
4. The Deficit. It has quadrupled under Obama. Yet he says inherited it – and rather than change it, spending has actually gone up each of this 3 years. Obama’s solution: have other people come up with a plan – he was traveling or on vacation. When it failed, he said he knew it would fail. So Chris Christie rightfully asks: What are we paying Obama for?

B. Foreign Policy.

1. Missiles. In his first year, Obama scrapped a missile system – thereby telling Poland that years of such work and friendship with the US are not all that important. It also told many others the same thing.
2. Libya. We are not at war – just facilitating war. What was the national security principle at stake? The Assassination principle? How very Nobel.
3. Egypt. For years Mubarak was a reliable partner that kept peace with Israel. He was kicked to the curb under Obama and Egypt has descended into chaos.
4. Israel. I don’t quite know how much more you can disrespect an ally. Obama, however, managed to get caught doing what we already suspected – bad mouthing an allied leader. If that doesn’t make you wonder what other leaders think he is doing – this combined list should.
5. U.S. Image Abroad. Remember when Obama said Bush ruined our image abroad? Yet today effigies of Obama are hung or burned across the Middle East and Europe has lost faith. Wouldn’t you think of Nobel Peace prize would buy you more credibility than that?

All of which brings us to the Presidential meter. Just how Presidential has he been? I remember when Reagan would never take his jacket off in the Oval Office out of respect. FDR has serious fireside chats. Washington rode on a white horse.

As for Obama:

He just played golf with his friend who was busted in a prostitution sting. How very Presidential. We hear he did so out of loyalty. Nice.

As for his other loyalties, he bought a house from a criminal to be, Tony Rezko. Obama got a great deal to boot. At least is suffering from a foreclosure crisis – and let us not forget that he had a proud terrorist, Bill Ayers, raise money for him.

With friends like that, it kind of makes you miss Bebe Rebozo doesn’t it?

Of course, we can’t forget the wonderful Reverend Wright – someone he was loyal enough to attend his “church” for 20 years but not loyal enough to really listen to him.

Obama doesn’t much listen to the American people either. How else do you push ObamaCare down voters’ throats and wind up with 26 states suing and others all but nullifying the legislation?

All of which brings me to the final point:

Obama’s Miserable Consensus Building.

While some Presidents are known for courageous and tough stands that pay dividends in the years to come, most all of them are judged, at some level, by whether their coalition of supporters is larger after they take office then before. We have already seen what the World has thought of Obama. We know that, at home, his 2008 coalition is gone and it is not just because of the bad economy.

Obama has been picking fights with the American electorate from day one. The Stimulus Bill cleaved off his Republican support and fostered the Tea Party – which he then vilified on the way to ObamaCare. In between, he tried to legislative enact Cap & Trade, lost and crammed that down America through the EPA. He wanted to “prosecute” 911 enemy combatants in a New York court room and yielded only when even liberal New York said no.

Since then, Obama has engaged in class warfare over taxes in such a way as to only convince Americans he missed economics class.

In the final analysis, of President’s seeking re-election, two basic questions are asked:

(1) Is the Country better off? and,

(2) Have you brought the Country closer together?

In fact, Obama has not and, quite frankly, it hasn’t been pretty watching it either.