Straw Man vs. Crisis

The title of this blog does is not an advertisement for the next pay TV wrestling match. It is a description of the Obama administration's management style. Some might say that I have been pretty hard on the President lately in my writings. My answer to that is not just yes, it is hell yes! He deserves it. The last two weeks of Armageddon laden speeches prove the has no moral compass, just a lust for power and control.

I don't know if anyone has kept track of the number of crises over the past four years. If I had any premonition of how many there would be, I would have made the effort. If someone with access to a newspaper's "morgue" ever counts them up, I would love to know. Even better, I would really love to have a list. It would have to be a conservative paper. The more liberal papers would leave half of them out.

Many of these crises have been created, like the fiscal cliff and sequester. Some have been administration screw ups like "Fast and Furious" and Benghazi. Some have been nature at work like hurricane Sandy. Some have been just plain tragic like Aurora and Sandy Hook.

But the universal feature of all of these crises is the administration's efforts to use them to advantage. They do far and away the best with the crises that they have either created themselves or added to the process through intransigence or other means. Their main tool for this is Harry Reid. He is perfectly willing to stand up before man and his maker and block any hope for a negotiated settlement on any question. He just gets a sour look on his face and blames anyone that doesn't have a D after their name. I think he practices that sour look before a mirror.

When their crisis hits the news,  they have their straw man all set up and waiting in the wings to be trotted out on stage. These straw men are so pitiful that any person with a heart would want to protect them. One is named "Old People Being Thrown Off A Cliff". Another is named "Poor Little Children Going Without A Lunch". One of their favorites is "Teachers Getting Pink Slips". I am sure you can come up with many more. Frankly, some of them have been used so often that they are getting a little old and tattered.

But this tactic has worked well for the President. It gives cover to his "my way or the highway" attitude. In spite of the fact that he has been a terrible custodian of our country, many people still like him. Polls show that people think the country's going in the wrong direction. But many people haven't or won't realize that the responsibility for that rests squarely on the shoulders of Barack Obama.