The Truth is Out There

Tim Bean

8/8/2012

Choose to Believe

Let’s try and get back on political point; at least for a day.  Maybe tomorrow we can return to hyperbolic crap that really doesn’t matter, like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s mission to espouse fiction in the public discourse, or whatever rhetorical piece of fluff that the media wishes to seize upon.  Let’s talk about what is.

First off, I will throw a bone to all of the Obama supporters out there.  Our current President did in fact inherit quite a mess before he took the Oath of Office.  There, are you happy now that someone who is not a supporter of our incumbent President has acknowledged one of his and his supporters’ chief complaints?  That being said though at some point the ball is squarely in his hands, meaning that he will have to accept ownership of it.  This isn’t baseball where the starting pitcher still gets the loss, despite the failure of the bull pen to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  To continue with that analogy then, I guess President Obama acknowledges that he isn’t starter material, and that he just doesn’t have the “stuff” to get the win.

Like I said, this isn’t baseball though, it is politics; and as such the actions of each and EVERY ONE of our illustrious, elected aristocrats bear a not so insubstantial blame on EVERYTHING that is wrong with our country.  If you have been a Senator for 25 years (Harry Reid I am looking at you) then you have been in power and governed over the Enron debacle, the internet bubble, the real estate bubble, and odds are you will still have your self-righteous butt sitting smugly in Washington DC when the looming debt bubble bursts; and yet you will continue to blame someone else.  My point here is that our elected officials should be there to OWN the positions we elected them for, not balk at criticisms, not point fingers at someone else for failures, either perceived or otherwise.  Harry S. Truman, arguably the last honest man to sit in the Oval Office, had a placard on his desk which read, “The Buck Stops Here.”  I challenge any one of our current crop of Snake Oil salespeople to even come close to accepting a fraction of that amount of personal responsibility for their positions.  Don’t worry I won’t hold my breath while waiting.

So, what is the truth with our current glorious leader?

He ran, very eloquently, on the fuzzy, feel good slogans of “Hope,” and “Change We Can Believe In.”  He ran touting himself as a Washington outsider, lambasting Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries as an insider, who would not bring the change he said we needed in our nation’s capital.  So what did we get upon electing mister “Hope and Change?”  Well, first of all he appointed that “horrible” Washington insider, Ms. Hillary Clinton, to be Sec. of State.  He also brought on the Clinton’s junkyard dog, Mr. Rahm Emanuel to serve as his Chief of Staff.  He also appointed Timothy Geithner as Sec. of the Treasury, whose entire career has been spent in some capacity or another with one bureaucratic organization or another.  Obama stocked his administration to the gills with insiders and cronies, so I would say he failed in providing his “change” message, but what about “hope” though?

Well, I would say, given the amount of water being taken in onboard the USS America, that he seems more determined to steer us towards an iceberg than away from one.  His policies have not yielded any real hope in the drivers of economic growth, which are businesses; large, small, and all sizes in between.  His constant assaults against big business and the wealthy are more designed to inspire fear than any amount of hope.  Mr. Obama also promised a new level of transparency, and that promise did provide much hope to many who wanted to believe that such a rare animal could actually exist in Washington.  I think we can declare the rare rhinoceros of transparency extinct though.  What we have gotten is more obfuscation, road blocks, and enough smoke and mirrors to make Criss Angel jealous.  Essentially we have gotten what we always get from almost all of our politicians, the middle finger; and President Obama wants us to sign on for four more years, I guess so he can give us both middle fingers, a “double barrel salute” if you will.

Don’t believe for an instant that this is some sort of quasi endorsement for the Republican hopeful, Mr. Mitt Romney, because it isn’t.  His record as governor of Massachusetts looks very much like our current Democratic President’s current record.  Hide the name and I am willing to bet that damn near everyone would say Mitt’s record was Obama’s.  Mitt claims that he had to govern that way because he was a Republican governor in an overwhelming Democratic state.  I say hogwash on that.

Gary Johnson was a Republican governor in an overwhelming Democratically controlled state, and his record is in stark contrast to either Mitt Romney’s or President Obama’s; and you know what?  Gov. Johnson served two terms in that Democratically controlled state, while Gov. Romney could only muster a single term; due in no small part that his approval rating was in the toilet by the end of his first term.  In contrast Gov. Johnson was term limited out of office and left office with a still high approval rating.

You do have a real choice in this election; I trust that you will make the wise choice.  Just be sure that you actually believe in the choice that you make.

“My neighbor’s dog created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration.”  (Gov. Gary Johnson)