Motion Without Progress: The Obama Story

President Obama came into office in the midst of a bad economy. That much is undeniable. There are a number of reasons why the economy was bad at that point. Part of it was that President Bush didn't pay proper attention to the domestic financial markets and he put too much trust in his fathers people. Another reason is that the Democratically controlled Congress of the last four Bush years, went on a spending spree that Bush did not control with the power of the veto. But it was not as President Obama claimed, "the worst economy since the Great Depression". History is not one of our President's strong points.

Mr. Obama ran a campaign based on "hope and change". Since the press had excoriated everything about the Bush administration, most people liked the idea of change. Foolishly, no one ever tried to nail down what those changes would be except for ending wars, closing Guantanamo Bay, and getting the world at large to love us. Oh, and lowering the level of the Oceans.

So here we are, almost five full years into the Obama presidency. Wars are still raging, Gitmo is still open, and more of the world hates us and no country respects us any more. His signature product, Obamacare, was farmed out to  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to get done. Now we face a healthcare plan that may ruin healthcare and bankrupt the economy.

For the first four years or so, all that went wrong was reflected back on George Bush. Obama said it. The press and the pundits sold it. Enough people believed it to keep Obama on the positive side of the polls. Somehow Obama has become the anti-Truman. Truman said, "the buck stops here". For Obama the buck always stops at a much lower pay-grade as he floats, pure as the driven snow, above the dirty fray. Even as the economy stayed in the doldrums, he still had popular support.

Now, Obama's favorite management technique is to campaign. He has never stopped campaigning. Even when there is nothing more to campaign for, he just keeps on making those interminable campaign speeches. His favorite campaign spot? Anyplace at the end of a flight on Air Force One. Then get to a stage and get a group of loyal followers behind him, set up his tele-prompter, and he is good to go. He gets full coverage from the networks of course, even if it is the same speech he has been giving for the last month.

Then he can head back to the White House. Pop into the oval office to make a few phone calls. Get briefed by Al Sharpton and his friends from CAIR. Spend an evening at a soiree with a few folks from Hollywood. Play a Sunday round of golf and he is off on Air Force One for another tough week of campaigning. He has people that take care of the rest of his obligations for him. Like the day to day running of the country.

So here we are today. The economy is no better. actually, I think it is worse. The country is deeper in debt than is sane by any standards. Billions of dollars have been wasted on failed projects like Solyndra. Now, Al Qaeda is playing us like a toy flute. So in the past four plus years, as anyone can see, we have had nothing but motion without progress.