Economy:
Having run out of excuses for the economic crisis his own policies have
produced, President Obama has taken to blaming the American people. Has
he no shame?
At a San Francisco fundraiser this week, Obama told the assembled fat
cats that: “We have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our
willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge.”
Earlier this month, Obama complained that “we used to have the best
stuff. Think about it: The world used to say ‘Let’s travel to America.
Let’s see the Golden Gate Bridge. Let’s see the Hoover Dam. Let’s see
the amazing things that America built.’”
And in September, he said the country “had gotten a little soft and,
you know, we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over
the last couple of decades. We need to get back on track.”
Lost our ambition? Gone soft? Can’t make the best stuff? For the
president of the United States to talk like this is beneath reproach.
Yet it’s more or less par for the course for Obama, who constantly casts
aspersions on the country’s institutions, business leaders or any other
convenient scapegoat when things don’t go his way.
During his campaign, Obama complained about “bitter” middle-class
voters who “cling to guns or religion, or antipathy to people who aren’t
like them” and vote Republican.
Since being elected, he’s blamed the lousy recovery on President
Bush, an “ethic of greed,” “reckless fat-cat bankers,” selfish
millionaires and billionaires, and corporations who he says are sitting
“on the sidelines.”
He complains about the nation’s political system. “What’s broken is
our politics,” he said over the summer, after he was forced to work with
Republicans on a debt ceiling increase deal. He derides “this big,
messy, tough democracy.”
He’s even complained that the “the erosion of our confidence in the
future is threatening to destroy the social and political fabric of
America.” Oh wait. That one wasn’t Obama. That was Jimmy Carter in his
infamous “malaise” speech.
Voters were rightly appalled by Carter’s attempt to blame them for
the wreckage his economic policies had caused. And they ran him out of
office in favor of a president who unashamedly boasted about America and
its promise, and who recognized that the real problem was overgrown
government.
We can only hope voters do the same to Obama next November.
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