If Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck would have asked the question, the considerable heft of the liberal left in the media would have vilified them for the impudence of the question. However, this time the person asking the tough question was Kokomo’s native son and 60 Minutes reporter, Steve Kroft. The question was simple and straightforward, “Are you punch-drunk?” Krofts’ short and to-the-point question came after President Obama continued to laugh and chuckle through a serious interview on the United States economy. The President never did quite get the question answered so I’ll ask it again, “Mr. President, are you punch-drunk?”
Let me state that on the issue of the American economy, there is no option for failure. Republicans and Democrats alike are rooting for the success of the Obama Administration in turning our economy around, restoring faith in the financial system and in creating good paying jobs for everyone. However, I can honestly say that I am not surprised at the apparent incompetence of the Obama Administration in dealing with the problem. The recipe for continued failure is present for all to see. First, we elected a person President who has only two years in the Senate before he decided that he was “the one.” President Obama never held a job in private enterprise, never met a payroll and never had his own economic fate depend on his sweat equity. Second, Obama has been saddled with, arguably, the two worst Congressional leaders in history, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid. Speaker Pelosi seems hell-bent on a rush to Socialism, while Majority Leader Reid seems intent on using his considerable political power to line the pockets of every Nevada special interest that can muster the strength up to stick an oily hand out. This disastrous Congressional leadership, coupled with runaway pork barrel spending, social engineering, special interest catering and reckless deficit spending has seriously crippled Obama from the beginning. Third, Obama has demonstrated a total inability to attract the best and brightest to his economic team. Where John Kennedy was able to motivate some of the very best minds in America to serve their country, Obama has been left to try and rescue the Titanic with a collection of Ivy League tax cheats, inexperienced policy wonks and men who helped create the problems that we now face.
It is beginning to look at this point that the only job creation done by the Obama Administration will be jobs at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where the presses will work long and hard to churn out the paper necessary to fulfill the trillions in governmental promises, guarantees and ‘stimuli.” Little thought is seriously being given to the dreadful legacy that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have planned for our children and grandchildren. The future has a distinct Weimar Republic feel and one can almost envision loading cash in a wheelbarrow to go buy a loaf of bread. Think it can’t happen? Ask any third world country or open a history book. History is littered with failed countries that thought they could borrow their way out of trouble, borrow their way out of debt, borrow their way to prosperity. This is not the path of hope nor is it the path of change that I can believe in. This is warming up the worst leftovers from the socialist refrigerator and America will only suffer debilitating indigestion from the meal.
In 2004, when George W. Bush won re-election with 52% of the popular vote, critics were quick to point out that President Bush should not view the vote as a mandate for sweeping policy change. In 2008, Barack Obama won election with 53% of the popular vote. For some strange reason, the liberal media pundits, socialist politicians and social engineers believe that one extra percent entitles President Obama to dismantle our social and economic way of life and rebuild it in his own image, an undefined, untried and untested change that he’d like us to believe in.
Now is the time for President Obama to stop this runaway train before it reaches the station and does irreparable harm to the future of this country and to the future of our children and grandchildren. It is time for Obama to say, “Enough!” He must take immediate action to rein in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, wield his veto pen, reach out to Republicans, look for solutions that don’t require spending trillions of dollars, allow failed companies to fail and let the trillions already spent and the free enterprise system work its wonders. This great country demands leadership now!
When I look back on the serious trials that past Presidents have faced and the resolve that they showed during those momentous events, it sends a shudder down my spine. Great presidents of both parties rose to the occasion with leadership, vision and inspiration. Unfortunately, President Obama has resorted to appearances on the Jay Leno show, laughing and joking about his bowling skills, rather than demonstrating true leadership. Obama has become mired in rearranging the deck chairs and doing a nightly stand up comedy routine while the ship of state lists dangerously to port. It is time for the President to sober up, end the punch-drunk, deer in the headlights attitude and take serious action now. The fate of your country and mine is no laughing matter.
|