After a short honeymoon, the emperor reveals he is truly naked
By Old Grumpy Guy on February 7, 2009 at 2:00 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Nancy Pelosi, Obama's Broken Promises
It has now become inescapably apparent: The emperor indeed has no clothes. Obama is a man with no vision, no real understanding of the problems he faces, and no real solutions to offer. It seems he is simply a poser with a gift for rhetoric and an ability to get himself elected. That is all.
After his election became an established fact, I said that America should give him the chance to show what he was really made of, and get behind any sensible actions he took to help to improve the situation.
I was initially encouraged by the fact that he genuinely seemed to be pursuing a non-partisan approach, and by his promises to seek “new economic thinking” (which the world desperately needs to replace the tired old Keynesian economic models that evolved under very different conditions).
What America needed most of all, I felt, was not only a new approach to economics but a bold new and imaginative initiative like Kennedy’s Man on the Moon project or Reagan’s Star Wars which (as I pointed out previously) generated ten times more revenue through economic activity and technological progress than it cost.
Obama has promised new initiatives, and I was at least expecting him to come up quickly with a bold new strategy aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on energy imports. He promised as much in his election campaign.
Terrorism is another area where bold new initiatives are called for – initiatives that could at the same time generate new kinds of economic activity and technological progress.
But all we have gotten from Obama so far are empty slogans and the same old faces doing the same business in the same old ways with no indication of any real changes to come, and a “stimulus package” that is full of pork for causes dear to the left-wing not-so-liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank. And where he has sought to bring in new faces, he has shown a tendency to pick people who cheat on their taxes. What does that say about his judgment?
America has the resources, the labor force, the work ethic and the infrastructure to feed, house, clothe and take care of its citizens better than any other country in the world, but it requires an imaginative approach to the question of how to make the most of what there is and achieve the kind of society most people want. Obama has promised a more equitable society with less suffering and hardship – which is an attainable goal if it is pursued with common sense and the right system of incentives and rewards – but I cannot see anything in what Obama has said and done that he can bring about any change I can truly believe in.
I hate to say it, but I think SusanUnPC was right in her view that Obama is fast becoming the most ineffectual president since Carter…or even worse. Ineffectual was the last thing Obama was in his presidential campaign, where he radiated confidence. But it looks like that may be the only thing he is good at – getting himself elected.
If he had real vision, he might be able to use those talents to mobilize the country behind fresh ideas. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that he is, as I said in the opening paragraph, a man of no substance when it comes to fresh ideas. In fact he seems to be fresh out of fresh ideas.
But I guess when you are doing business with and seeking advice from the same old faces, who have got used to doing things in a certain way, and are more interested in protecting their territory than bringing about any real change, then it is perhaps not surprising that his rhetoric has turned out to be so empty so far.
And now even some of his former supporters are beginning to have second thoughts about him.
by Ronald Scott
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