A.J. DiCintio
Why Obama failed
By A.J. DiCintio
The NYT's Roger Cohen isn't a conservative; but to his credit, the insightful commentator separated himself from the media's groveling liberal cheerleaders when he called Barack Obama a failed president.
However, before getting to Cohen's thoughts, it's necessary to say a few words about a 2008 You Tube video in which an audience of starry eyed parents smiles approvingly as a private school teacher conducts her youthful class in a choral composition whose only word, "Obama," fills the room with syllables rhythmically rising and falling in a manner associated with the holiest of hymns.
Yes, for some Americans in 2008, hope and change included the moral and intellectual abomination of carefully teaching their elementary school children to exalt not just the name of a merely-human being but a politician.
Moreover, the current President of the United States has consciously fed the fires of this mindless, dangerous sycophancy, for instance, when he announced his candidacy in Springfield, pluming himself as the Second Coming of Abraham Lincoln, and when he accepted his party's nomination in Denver, posturing among preposterous Greek columns.
At the time, those behaviors impelled many a thoughtful citizen to think, "Nothing good can come from this."
And nothing good has . . .not for the middle class or the poor. . .the unemployed or underemployed. . .the experienced who have lost their jobs or eager, job-seeking young people who look upon degrees, diplomas, and certifications they have earned only to be reminded of crushed hopes and trampled dreams.
Now back to Cohen, who assesses the past four years and concludes that "Obama . . . has not provided a 'different future' worthy of the hope invested in him."
Turning to the cause of that failure, he first observes that while candidate Obama promised to surround himself with a bi-partisan, ferociously independent group of advisors, President Obama chose to be advised by "a team, or rather a coterie, of idolizers."
Then, he concludes with this additional blast of truth:
"There is only one star in the galaxy at this White House and his name is Barack Obama. Everyone in the Sun King's court has drunk the Kool-Aid."
With respect to the president's failures, Cohen is right to assert that "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
But despite the insightful nature of his observation, he doesn't get to the overarching reason for Barack Obama's stunningly dismal record.
In contrast, Paul Tough, writing in the NYT about Obama's failure to advance smart, innovative programs to help the nation's inner city poor, does when he describes the disconnect between the words candidate Obama spoke in Washington's devastated Anacostia neighborhood and the actions President Obama has taken:
"As president Obama has followed a very different path from the one he described in Anacostia. [In fact] the path Obama has pursued looks more like a traditional Great Society Democratic approach."
A deep, abiding faith in the Great Society template for solving every problem imaginable or, to put it in other words, a dogmatic belief in the goodness of big centralized government, the historical scourge inevitably destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . .
That is the fundamental flaw of a president who talks a good show about change and denounces his opponents as better fit for the nineteenth century while he is intractably devoted to the hoary political dogma beloved only by emperors, kings, and all their arrogant, elitist successors.
It explains why instead of taking sound, common sense steps to spur job creation in the nation's business sector, he has taken steps only to increase the business of government.
It explains why instead of praising Americans who have labored to achieve something good, he mocked their spirit, perseverance, and achievements by insisting they didn't "build that."
It explains why instead of fighting for the serious reforms the nation's healthcare system desperately needs, he shoved down the throats of the American people a bureaucracy bloating Great Society style abomination that without a word of explanatory detail cuts $700 billion from Medicare while asking the Democratic Party darling called the Trial Lawyer Industry to pony up not a single cent.
It explains why his only real economic strategy has the almighty Federal Reserve enriching big banks and other big stock market players with a saver and seniors punishing Zero Interest Rate Policy remarkable only for its hypocrisy and disgusting perversion of what Democrats love to scorn as "trickle-down economics."
It explains why this year the Democratic National Convention opened with a video that pronounces, "Government is the only thing we all belong to," thereby mocking Jefferson and every other American who has fought for the idea that because only "We the People" create legitimate government, it "belongs" to us.
Finally, it explains why Obama has failed to denounce neither Democratic VIP's (think Nancy Pelosi) nor raging media leftists (think MSNBC) who have gone so viciously mad in their spewing of "racist" at anyone who opposes his policies that they now condemn "food stamps," and "Chicago" as racist language.
After all, regarding "food stamps" he is desperate to keep the public from associating the fact that in June the number of food stamp recipients rose to a record 45.7 million (15% of the U.S. population) with his failed economic policies.
And with respect to "Chicago," he certainly doesn't want the public to think about the fact that for his entire public life, his ideas have been in complete harmony with the failed Great Society concept his party has "owned" for the past fifty years and then conclude it will do for the entire nation what it has done for its inner cities.
© A.J. DiCintio
September 9, 2012
The NYT's Roger Cohen isn't a conservative; but to his credit, the insightful commentator separated himself from the media's groveling liberal cheerleaders when he called Barack Obama a failed president.
However, before getting to Cohen's thoughts, it's necessary to say a few words about a 2008 You Tube video in which an audience of starry eyed parents smiles approvingly as a private school teacher conducts her youthful class in a choral composition whose only word, "Obama," fills the room with syllables rhythmically rising and falling in a manner associated with the holiest of hymns.
Yes, for some Americans in 2008, hope and change included the moral and intellectual abomination of carefully teaching their elementary school children to exalt not just the name of a merely-human being but a politician.
Moreover, the current President of the United States has consciously fed the fires of this mindless, dangerous sycophancy, for instance, when he announced his candidacy in Springfield, pluming himself as the Second Coming of Abraham Lincoln, and when he accepted his party's nomination in Denver, posturing among preposterous Greek columns.
At the time, those behaviors impelled many a thoughtful citizen to think, "Nothing good can come from this."
And nothing good has . . .not for the middle class or the poor. . .the unemployed or underemployed. . .the experienced who have lost their jobs or eager, job-seeking young people who look upon degrees, diplomas, and certifications they have earned only to be reminded of crushed hopes and trampled dreams.
Now back to Cohen, who assesses the past four years and concludes that "Obama . . . has not provided a 'different future' worthy of the hope invested in him."
Turning to the cause of that failure, he first observes that while candidate Obama promised to surround himself with a bi-partisan, ferociously independent group of advisors, President Obama chose to be advised by "a team, or rather a coterie, of idolizers."
Then, he concludes with this additional blast of truth:
"There is only one star in the galaxy at this White House and his name is Barack Obama. Everyone in the Sun King's court has drunk the Kool-Aid."
With respect to the president's failures, Cohen is right to assert that "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
But despite the insightful nature of his observation, he doesn't get to the overarching reason for Barack Obama's stunningly dismal record.
In contrast, Paul Tough, writing in the NYT about Obama's failure to advance smart, innovative programs to help the nation's inner city poor, does when he describes the disconnect between the words candidate Obama spoke in Washington's devastated Anacostia neighborhood and the actions President Obama has taken:
"As president Obama has followed a very different path from the one he described in Anacostia. [In fact] the path Obama has pursued looks more like a traditional Great Society Democratic approach."
A deep, abiding faith in the Great Society template for solving every problem imaginable or, to put it in other words, a dogmatic belief in the goodness of big centralized government, the historical scourge inevitably destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . .
That is the fundamental flaw of a president who talks a good show about change and denounces his opponents as better fit for the nineteenth century while he is intractably devoted to the hoary political dogma beloved only by emperors, kings, and all their arrogant, elitist successors.
It explains why instead of taking sound, common sense steps to spur job creation in the nation's business sector, he has taken steps only to increase the business of government.
It explains why instead of praising Americans who have labored to achieve something good, he mocked their spirit, perseverance, and achievements by insisting they didn't "build that."
It explains why instead of fighting for the serious reforms the nation's healthcare system desperately needs, he shoved down the throats of the American people a bureaucracy bloating Great Society style abomination that without a word of explanatory detail cuts $700 billion from Medicare while asking the Democratic Party darling called the Trial Lawyer Industry to pony up not a single cent.
It explains why his only real economic strategy has the almighty Federal Reserve enriching big banks and other big stock market players with a saver and seniors punishing Zero Interest Rate Policy remarkable only for its hypocrisy and disgusting perversion of what Democrats love to scorn as "trickle-down economics."
It explains why this year the Democratic National Convention opened with a video that pronounces, "Government is the only thing we all belong to," thereby mocking Jefferson and every other American who has fought for the idea that because only "We the People" create legitimate government, it "belongs" to us.
Finally, it explains why Obama has failed to denounce neither Democratic VIP's (think Nancy Pelosi) nor raging media leftists (think MSNBC) who have gone so viciously mad in their spewing of "racist" at anyone who opposes his policies that they now condemn "food stamps," and "Chicago" as racist language.
After all, regarding "food stamps" he is desperate to keep the public from associating the fact that in June the number of food stamp recipients rose to a record 45.7 million (15% of the U.S. population) with his failed economic policies.
And with respect to "Chicago," he certainly doesn't want the public to think about the fact that for his entire public life, his ideas have been in complete harmony with the failed Great Society concept his party has "owned" for the past fifty years and then conclude it will do for the entire nation what it has done for its inner cities.
© A.J. DiCintio
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