Not Obama

For many, Barack Obama has been an enigma. He is a publicly charming man with a beautiful family. He says the “right” things. He has a “cool” factor. He watches “b-ball.” He hangs out with pop celebrities. He calls himself “eye candy.” And more than anything, he is the first President in my ever increasing life span that understands and is the epitome of American pop culture. There is lots of flash. He is a President for the masses. He understands it. He knows how to play it.

The 2008 election was one of hope when America needed it most. The soaring rhetoric was just right for the times as the world economy neared collapse. It was a scary time and Obama’s messianic campaign dazzled the public and the media who failed to look behind the curtain to see what was really there. Journalistic standards were tossed out with those toxic bonds as a long biased press totally abandoned any pretense of objectivity and was sucked in to the movement. There are no red states. There are no blue states. There is only the “United” States. Tears were flowing. We were saved.

Four years later, for many, the Obama love is still there. The press is still giving him passes. He has had one press conference in the past year…and one “normal” interview this election cycle as he trips the light fantastic from MTV to The Daily Show to rap radio-jocks to the View to Letterman to Leno where the questions start with “Tell me, Mr. President, have you found your way around the White House after four years?” Not only has the press not asked him any tough questions, journalists have simply refused to report hard news stories until the alternate media forced their back to the wall and the stories could not be ignored anymore.

But like someone coming out of a heavy anesthetic, America is slowly waking up. It has been a long slog. The disconnect between the rhetoric and reality can only go on for so long before the American public senses there is something askew. Maybe we don’t understand why, but what he’s saying and what we are experiencing don’t add up. The debates exposed a divisive Barack Obama who floundered without his teleprompter. He promised to unite us but divided the country in ways beyond normal understanding, pitting one segment of our society against the other. What happened to those "united" states?

Here is Obama’s America. Our foreign policy is a fiasco. Food stamp recipients are up from 32 million to 47 million. He has added more debt than any other President in American history. Now at $16 trillion, your share is $48,000.00. Outside of 401 (K)’s, 47% of Americans have less than $500.00 in the bank. Middle class income has shrunk by $4100.00. More people have gone on disability these past few months than have found jobs…and if you found a job it is probably part time. Reported unemployment is hovering around 8%. Real unemployment is closer to 15%. Poverty, after spending billions upon billions of dollars starting with the Great Society, has gone up to over 15.5%, the highest since 1965. Our education system is in shambles.

President Obama’s solution? Tax the rich. That is his economic plan: more debt and tax the rich. You can take every penny the 1% makes….and at the end of his economic plan we will still owe in excess of $16 trillion. That is not a solution; that is plan for disaster.

Historians will be unraveling the Obama presidency for the next hundred years. I predict it will be among the most studied of presidencies as America grapples with who this guy is and what he has done. This writer can go on for pages as to Obama’s background and motivations, all of which would be for naught. America is not ready for the truth, at least not yet.

Nobody knows who will win on November 6. I view it as a win-win. If America comes to its senses and throws the bum out…we win. If America is still in its Obama stupor and re-elects him, we only have four more years. The price America will pay for four more years of Barack Obama will be steep and beyond all comprehension, but at least our Constitution say eight years is enough, and then we can get on with the business of being America.