Posted by
Patrick Henry on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 10:25:34 PM
Barack Obama can presumably read the polls, and their trend is unanimous and
unequivocal. Democrats are headed for a November whipping, perhaps even one
of historic proportions. His own poll numbers in freefall, his agenda at an impasse,
his party bogged down in ethics scandals and his opponents rife with fresh, sharp-
tongued faces, he has to be reading the handwriting on the wall. The congress he
must work with beginning in 2011 will be far less malleable and sympathietic, and
perhaps downright hostile.
When one's dreams enter a death spiral, the things they shout on the way down
usually betray what they fear at the bottom. The repeated piqued cry of Obama in
recent speeches is an anguished plea not to "go back." He usually uses the name
of George W. Bush to demonize what "back" is, but he's not fooling anyone, as
is often true of the truly desperate.
Obama has ruthlessly prosecuted a progressive agenda to "fundmentally transform"
America from a constitutional republic with limited government to a eurosocialist
model wherein government controls, if not owns outright, every facet of economic
and personal life. To make that happen he has broken every tax promise he made
in order to fuel a bloated government bureaucracy where workers earn sometimes
half again the wages and benefits of their peers in the private sector. He has, for
all practical purposes, nationalized automakers, insurance companies, healthcare
banking and the student loan industry, and torn down every vestige of restraint
that could thwart an unparalleled labor union power grab. Those are the things
he fears the new congress might strip away. And they can.
Had any of them demonstrably reduced unemployment, eased restraints on
business, produced economic prosperity and a steadily growing GDP, or invested
taxpayer funds cautiously and wisely, Obama might find himself in a very different
place, and on the cusp of the godhood he so clearly covets. But his reality is much
darker. Ad campaigns touting his hated healthcare takeover and trying to persuade
Americans that his $862B stimulus actually worked have fallen flat. Most Americans
believe that the economy is bad and getting worse, and they further believe Obama
has had enough time to make some real difference, if he was ever going to do so.
The long discredited Keynesian economic theory so dear to Obama's heart has
been tagged again for the load of horse hockey it is. See, even Americans, whom
Obama apparently thinks are stupid, know it's a dry hole to take taxpayer money
to hire men to dig holes while hiring others to fill them up.
No, Americans are now demonstrating majority solidarity in the opinion that the
country is going nowhere good under Obama and the Democrats, and they are
poised to express that conviction at the polls. The reason Obama fears a hostile
takeover of congress, where he has heretofore benefited from a supermajority,
is that he knows (a) the items high on his priority list like cap-and-trade energy
legislation and forced unionism through card check are wallowing in their
dinosaur-like death throes, and (b) once undone, it will be difficult if not impossible
ever again to lead Americans by the nose down the dead end of socialism. It
will also make his re-election tenuous, if not downright doubtful. He has reason
to fear.
As he looks into the dark night of his soul during the din of partisan conflict
leading up to the mid-term elections ahead, what will Barack Obama see staring
back at him? It will likely be the face of the little boy who tried to pull too many
cookies out of the jar at once, and got caught with his hand still stuck inside. He,
more than any other individual, will be to blame for his party's demise. Many of
them already openly regard him as a campaign liability.
This is the sad end of a man's career who seeks public office to rule over Americans.
We don't do that here anymore. And we have a way of bidding a none-too-fond
farewell to those who try. If Obama's mother could whisper in her flailing son's ear,
surely she would say, "Barack, you should have listened. They tried to tell you."