How Did He Do?

I thought President Obama was surprisingly ineffective tonight. He started as I expected he would, with optimistic, Rooseveltian assurances. But that theme was forgotten long before the speech ended. Assuming it did finally end–Obama went on far too long, and television sets were turning off all across America, well before it was over. I didn’t make it to the end. I’m sure millions of others didn’t, either.

The longer he talked, the more it sounded like a campaign speech. That’s not all bad; Obama is pretty good at giving campaign speeches–better, probably, than he is at anything else. But I think most people understand that it’s time to quit campaigning. Obama has won the office; now he needs to do something with it.

The problem with governing is that he will now have to take responsibility for his decisions. Obama is committed to policies that will damage our economy, run up trillions of dollars in debt, increase taxes, cause inflation, make the nation less competitive, feed unproductive Democratic Party constituencies at the expense of the “real” economy, and make the United States weaker abroad. He can give any number of speeches, and Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their cohorts will applaud. But reality will not yield so easily.

UPDATE: This illustrates what Obama is up against:

Given the choice between federal bailouts for the auto companies, the finance industry and financially trouble homeowners or no bailouts for any of them, 54% say no bailouts period.

Just 26% support bailouts for all three….

To comment on this post, go here.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses