American Elephants

President Obama , back from vacation and the labor day holiday, remains — what? Uninvolved? Unconcerned? No, his primary concern is politics, which trumps lesser concerns like beheadings, invasions, genocides and other minor concerns. Funniest headline yesterday came from The Federalist: If You Are Not Using the Presidency, Do You Mind If We Borrow It?  Obama’s is not an activist presidency, but a  v e r y  s l o w  reactive presidency, after all other possibilities have been thoroughly exhausted, and maybe not even then.*

He ran for the job because he made a the keynote speech to the Democrat convention in 2004. He told the Democrats his (improved version) personal story and they loved it and cheered wildly, and he surely told himself that he was destined for such triumphs.  And the speeches have worked for him. He has a great baritone voice (when he’s not complaining about Republicans or how hard he works), and the bits of folksy stuff, the dropped  ‘g’s’ , calling everybody ‘folks,’ and using black preacher’s rhythms.

But now, he’s slipped into sheer demagogurey. Everything he has done has been successful, and the country would be made whole if it weren’t for those dastardly Republicans who keep spoiling everything.

Reminder: The 113th House of Representatives, has passed 297 bills, the previous 112th passed 301. The 113th Democrat Senate, under Majority Leader Harry Reid has passed 59 bills, the fewest number since 1972. Who is obstructing whom?

Obama did several fundraisers over the weekend, and spoke to the big Union Laborfest event in Milwaukee, which was much more ‘folksy’ that the fundraising speech. He told them he’d been coming to laborfest since 2008, and two weeks later “our financial system collapsed.” He said he doesn’t believe in “top-down economics” (whatever that is) he believes in bottom-up economics (redistribution, take away money from the wealthy and give it to the poor, and this accomplishes what?), and “middle-class out” economics, (whatever that is).

I placed a bet on you.  I placed a bet on America’s workers. I put my money on American workers and the belief that our economy grows best when everybody has got a shot — when folks who are willing to work hard can get into the middle class and stay in the middle class.  And I’ve come back to Laborfest to say that because of your hard work, because of what we’ve been through together, that bet is starting to pay off.

That is sheer gobbledygook. He goes on to take credit for the energy boom, credit for our leadership in worldwide energy production. He takes credit for our wonderful economy and our economic recovery. And he did all this wonderfulness by getting every inch of progress  working against a “lockstep opposition that is opposed to everything we do.” This same weekend, a noted Keynesian economist said that we’re really in a depression.

Median household income is down by more than $2,000 in real terms since Obama has moved into the Oval Office, and dropped $1,600 since the recession formally ended 6 months later. Labor force participation has fallen by 3 percentage points, an added 7 million workers who are not even looking for work. “This is half the normal pace of recovery, and the weakest rebound since the Great Depression. “And Obama has added $7 trillion  to the national debt, with little to show for it, unless you count 46 million Americans on food stamps as an accomplishment.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has slashed its predictions for American economic growth in 2014. They forecast that the U.S. economy will grow by just 1.5 percent in 1014. That’s undermined by a poor performance during the first three months of the year. But that, of course, was blamed on the snow. Well, this is expected to be an even colder winter than last year.

President Obama seems to live in a fantasy world of his own concoction, or perhaps Valerie Jarrett’s. Everything’s fine except for the obstruction of the Republicans who won’t let him do anything important, which is why politics trumps national security, government transparency, immigration, failing government departments, whatever, and leaves him free to spend more time on the golf course. An increasingly desperate time for America.

ADDENDUM: *The Elephant pointed out that I said Obama was not an activist president and correctly objected as he is very activist in pursuing his America changing agenda. He’s right. I was thinking, and writing,  entirely in terms of national security and foreign policy where Obama apparently doesn’t want to be involved at all. My bad.