Obama the Builder: You have a contract
January 4, 2010 at 5:12 am 59 comments
January 4, 2010
Political Columnist
WordPress
If politics were to be described in mundane terms, there would be a lot less news and cause for complaint about President Obama’s first year. Issues related to his job performance and unforeseen events would be widely accepted as commonplace and part of the job description. However a standard of perfection, as demanded by the influential few, has somehow clouded this standpoint and has created a political environment in which an impossible bar has been set for his presidency.
To understand this point clearly, we can liken Mr. Obama’s presidency to a contract to reconstruct a mansion. The new mansion would replace the former, which was rushed and built with a series of flaws, and is to be fitted with extensions and amenities that were absent in the last mansion including the reinforcement of its outer walls. The timeline for completing the mansion is four years and it must have enough room to house an exploding senior population.
The next step a contractor would take in the construction of this new mansion would be to plan. Planning takes time and the effort of many experts – architects, engineers, interior decorators, electricians, plumbers, bankers and a host of advisors to ensure that the demands in the terms of the contract are being upheld. The advisors and planners would also ensure that those demands are, in fact, attainable and then move to draw up a blueprint and plan-of-action.
Once the contractor has the blueprint, the delegation of duties and responsibilities to his construction advisors and experts begins.
In the course of the construction of this mansion there were a few storms, accidents, incidents of vandalism and an unexpected delay in the shipment of building materials. Nevertheless, construction continued and after about a year the owners of the mansion arrive on site and ask the question, “Why hasn’t my mansion been completed and what have you done all this time? All I see is a concrete slab with metal piping sticking out of it!” And in cool and collective voice the general contractor responds, “I have built a foundation.” And before the owners could say anything more, the general contractor continued, “And better yet, we still have three more years to get the job done.”
An old parable says, a strong house is built on a solid foundation and without a solid foundation that house will be moved. If a mansion of that splendor and magnitude were to be built in a year, would you live in it?
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1.
Wendy | January 5, 2010 at 3:26 am
I agree whole-heartedly. I think at times that Obama is trying to do too much. But your analogy to a construction project is appropriate. A general contractor will not say “OK let’s do plumbing and we can’t do anything else until the plumbing is done.” He will delegate all the different tasks to subcontractors. Which is exactly what Obama is doing. Thanks for that fresh perspective.
http://wendygdphillips.wordpress.com
2.
Dexter60 | January 14, 2010 at 2:59 am
“. However a standard of perfection…has somehow clouded this standpoint and has created a political environment in which an impossible bar has been set for his presidency.”
Any standard at all shows a failure in honesty and performance, as his actions and inaction speak far louder than Obama or these weak and weasle words.
Perhaps the new black panthers and ACORN will give you a clue in the coming months, whilst the basic economics of survival press in on your personal reality.
Wake up: Obama is not about rebuilding a mansion, he is about building a prison. He was elected to be a leader of a free country, not a Judas goat.
3.
Hannibal | January 14, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Fantastic article. Well reasoned, supported by logic and analogy. Dexter60, you could learn from this. If you’re going to the trouble post an unnecessarily inflammatory comment that includes crazy references to the Black Panthers and Judas, you’re going to need at least SOME logic in there. Better luck with future flame posts tho. Rock on Jackman.
4.
mike wilson | January 27, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I wish people who keeping citing ACORN as evidence of illegitimacy were aware that a bipartisan panel of Congress recently concluded that there were no fake votes cast in the 2008 election despite all the GOP charges to the contrary.
5.
Dexter60 | January 27, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Mike::
I am glad that the people put into office have decided that they did not get there by fraud, they do not see what they are doing now is fraud either. These are the same people who gave ACORN taxpayers’ money — can you see a pattern yet?
I am sure that a ‘bi-partisan’ pack of wolves could also decide your house is a restaurant, your childrern free-lunch.
It is not hard to find history is full of dictators who, by definition, never broke the ‘law’ — they are the ‘law’ until it becomes the law of the jungle.
Maybe it’s time to change your oil and take out the garbage.
6.
Dexter60 | January 15, 2010 at 2:47 am
Agreed, fantastic article — pure fantasy.
Without anything resembling logic or support, we have here a poor comparison, in fact a weak simile, since this nation’s founding has a constitution that allows for legal change that should prevent crisis management from throwing out the baby with the bath water. A structure has a plan. A contractor has a plan. There are things called collateral and equity.
We are currently at war and have been treated with fraud & robbery by our own government; if that seem like inflammatory speech to you, perhaps you will soon learn what is really inflammatory in your own protected plane soon enough.
Nothing crazy about my references: criminal activity by the administration is both obvious and clear.
But for you, Hannibal, be happy. If I am wrong you have nothing to worry about, the growing unrest will blow over.
7.
CJ | January 18, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Great post, Mr. Jackman! Unfortunately there are some people who expect Obama to rebuild our “mansion” in a year after 8 years of destruction by Bush.
Dexter60 – “We are currently at war and have been treated with fraud & robbery by our own government” – we are currently at war(s) due to fraud and robbery committed by the Bush administration – “weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, Hussein responsible for 9/11″ and Haliburton, secret laws and surveillance (wire-tapping), etc. You seem to have a very short memory!
8.
Dexter60 | January 18, 2010 at 9:25 pm
CJ::
Your short and selective memory as to how we got to where we are unfortunatey do not point to any solution(s), perhaps your criticsm is not much of a contrast to the current flow of pablum from the present regime — not a very good exercise of your freedoms is it?
The Consttution does not allow for this kind of governance, is that enough of a hint for you?
9.
keiron Jackman | January 18, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Thanks!
10.
AJM | April 23, 2010 at 2:12 am
Dexter, were you this angry during the GW years? Where were you yelling foul? Where was Fox news? Glenn Beck? You get my point. Your side lost and most of you (save Mr. Jackman and a handful of others) are dealing with sour grapes. Obama and the dems were elected and just because you don’t like them doesn’t make what they are doing any more or less “fraud & robbery” then when the republicans had the power. If you don’t like it, vote, run for election, or even join the tea baggers on Capitol Hill. But inflammatory and divisive speech will not cause your world to change. You just sound like, well, sour grapes.
11.
goodtimepolitics | January 16, 2010 at 8:35 am
Democrats are dropping out of the midterm election and they have a good reason, republicans are so far ahead of them that they have decided they don’t have a chance to win. Why is this, well that’s easy to answer..Obama and the democrat control congree is out of control and spending taxpayers money like there is no tomorrow!
12.
keiron Jackman | January 17, 2010 at 1:03 am
To respond to your spending concern in a neutral and fact stating manner, there needs to be a few things considered before we make assertions such as spending is out of control. First let me say that we are fighting two wars, investing in the military of our friends as well as foes, we are taking unprecedented steps into fighting ‘terror’ and border security, we are including past program deficits into the budget such as the war, we are also addressing the unpaid for prescription drug benefit D which was a billion dollars, and last of my few examples of this long list of perspectives we must examine before making such a specious statement, is the tax cut that cost this government billions in revenue, tax cuts isn’t free, and cuts which overwhelmingly benefited the top 2% of all earners in the US population. Furthermore these tax cuts did not go into starting businesses but landed in the arms of investment bankers, overseas operations, and the futures/commodities market. Nevertheless, we also have to look at the size of the economy relative to the deficit, thus we must look at the ratio between the value of our economy to deficit. These deficit to value ratios: 10 /20, 10000/20000, 1/2 are all the same even though 10 is a 1,000 times 10,000. So to say that the deficit grew 1000 Xs is incomplete in regards to the point you are trying to make. So when we make a point let us be more complete in our thoughts. I appreciate your response.
13.
Dexter60 | January 17, 2010 at 3:49 am
Just as in your major premise, your follow-up is flawed.
Indeed we will see the results of wrongheadedness is less than the next three years.
As to
“… spending concern[s] in a neutral and fact stating manner, there needs to be a few things considered before we make assertions such as spending is out of control.”
The list of causes for the deficits and high debt burden you have given are overshaddowed by Social Security/Medicare and Medicaid even without the current thrust of HealthCare (which it is not) and the proposed tax implementations for the fear AGW.
We have more people ‘working’ in government than in productive industry — this seems to have escaped all the overly educated commentators, why is that?
The government has embarked on a path which requires spending money the people have not even yet earned — simply stated, that is fraud. We cannot avoid the collapse of such a vast Ponzi scheme by borrowing more fiat money.
There is not enough real money in the entire world to pay for our proposed indebtedness — who’s kidding you?
14.
CJ | January 18, 2010 at 8:23 pm
You must have been in a coma from 2000-2008.
There was a surplus when Bush took office! Here’s some information about how “out of control” Bush was!
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/study-bush-tax-cuts-cost-more-twice-m
You, too, seem to have a very short memory or are totally misinformed!
15.
Dexter60 | January 18, 2010 at 9:14 pm
CJ::
Spending money you do not have makes you neither a Democrat or a Republican, it makes you a thief. To make an argument based upon a false dichotomy, a distinction without a difference, puts you off in left field.
What is wrong today is what requires fixing, fixing blame only matters if there will also be punishment. As it stands we are only seeing the punishment of the innocent and unborn — a taste of the current mode of cosmic justice the deluded hoped for.
The swindle is ongoing but will end soon.
Have a nice day.
16.
mike wilson | January 27, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Actually there are more Republicans retiring in 2010 than Democrats as of the last count. I would bet that incumbents in both parties are going to be very vulnerable to an angry public.
17.
Chris | January 18, 2010 at 11:05 am
Dexter60: I’m new here. I won’t be revisiting. But this article kind of rocks, and you appear to be a one-sided, hate-filled rantmeister, who merely seems like a Bush apologist with a fusion paranoia complex.
Just an independent observation. Take it or leave it.
18.
waldo | January 26, 2010 at 11:18 pm
It seem like your comment is the hate filled one
just saying
19.
goodtimepolitics | January 18, 2010 at 2:06 pm
And for Chris, he seem to be one of those that rather have handouts from the government than work for a living. We that work should not have to pay the cost of living for the lazy! The Americans that have money is the ones who has work for what they have. Obama has spent more money on his campaign friends than both war has cost. Matter of fact he can’t tell the American people where all that money has gone! Working people don’t want a socialist country Chris! Get a life!
20.
AJM | April 23, 2010 at 2:29 am
Oh, GTP, relax. Where are these lazy people you speak of? What color are they? What has Fox news told you about them? Lines like “Obama has spent more money on his campaign friends than both war has cost” have no basis in fact or logic. You could easily put “Bush” in place of Obama. GW and Cheney were the masters of croneyism. And the use of the word “socialist” is so tired. Obama was fairly elected. We still have a system of checks and balances. And you get to vote every 2 years. Like I told Dexter, if you don’t like it do something more constructive then writing inflammatory comments and go to the voting booth. Because we DON’T live in a socialist country you have that right!
21.
goodtimepolitics | January 18, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Here is something you might want to look at! It shows where some of the big spending went, and remember he brought out one of the railroads that Obama wanted to have the government to use more for its shipping.
http://goodtimepolitics.com/2009/08/06/billions-in-bailout-money-went-to-companies-warren-buffett-owned-stock-in/
22.
Bill | January 18, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Good post. I am in agreement
23.
Jordan Hill | January 18, 2010 at 4:22 pm
There are also lots of powerful institutional forces that make any change very difficult. This inertia requires energy to overcome it. The status quo is maintained when the forces for change equal those opposed to change. If forces for change are increased, the forces against change will increase coorespondingly. Removing resistance or blockages to change is the preferred course for meaningful change. This takes time. Certainly, more than a year. Google “Force Field Theory – Kurt Lewin” or a Wiki search.
24.
adumbrate | January 18, 2010 at 4:55 pm
The “hourse” you analogize is america, i suppose? Dude, Bush averaged 5% unemployment – tax cuts across the board grew us out of 2 recessions. Obama is rebuilding america in his own image = Haiti.
25.
mike wilson | January 27, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Bush’s tax cuts added 2.4 trillion to the debt and his unnecessary war in Iraq has added another trillion. Plus, he left us with the worst recession since the Great Depression, and he “kicked the can down the road” on big issues like health care, climate change, alternative energy, entitlements, etc. Not a very laudable legacy. Oh, the 10% unemployment we have is another Bush creation as are the TARP bailouts.
26.
goodtimepolitics | January 18, 2010 at 7:21 pm
In total agreement adumbrate! Obama is a socialist racial! Unemployment of 7% under Bush went to over 10% in Obama’s first year.
27.
John G | January 18, 2010 at 10:01 pm
There are a few flaws in your logic.
1) You talk about the need for planning which implies that Obama entered office without a plan. This is factually incorrect.
2) “The new mansion would replace the former…” There is over 200 years of construction work that has already gone into the “mansion” called America. Your assumption that the “mansion” needs to be replaced is insulting.
3) You assume that the “new foundation” is what the owners wanted. A contractor that builds what he wants and ignores the owner’s demands gets fired.
28.
goodtimepolitics | January 20, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Looks like the people in Massachusetts and other states has spoken by electing Republican Scott Brown to the Senate, so Obama and the democrats which has been in charge for a year now had better start accepting their down falls and stop blaming G.W. Bush! The country has got worst under big time spender Barack Hussein Obama! America has awaken!
http://goodtimepolitics.com/2010/01/20/scott-brown-has-captured-the-kennedy-seat-in-massachusetts/
29.
JohnCMH | February 11, 2010 at 10:00 pm
America has awakened.
people in Mass. and other states have spoken.
Most of your talking points are shopworn anyway, the least you can do is make them readable. thanks.
30.
Jamie | January 26, 2010 at 5:25 pm
The whole is the sum of its parts. People, over and over, and over again through time make the MASSIVE mistake that thinking small means not thinking at all. Yet, what do we always learn in both our personal and professional lives? Start small, build up, take small steps and assess the progress. Running a country is just like running a large scale project, it’s Project Management 101…break tasks down into smaller units, apply resources, budget and measure against a time line. Perhaps in our Presidents we should look for great project managers rather than great orators.
31.
Nathan Carl | January 26, 2010 at 8:44 pm
The whole flaw with this article is that Obama was hired to build a foundation for the American people. He was hired to build a foundation for a building the foundation for a Fiscally Responsible Post-Partisan Washington. He began building a mansion for Health Care and HUGE Government Spending (Which George W. Bush also laid a large foundation for). The people are not getting what they thought they bought. We desperately need the best ideas of both the Democrats and Republicans to survive as country. Bush was willing only to give us the best ideas of the Republicans. Obama has only given us the best ideas of the Democrats, so far. We need both to survive as a country.
32.
L'il Em-Kel | January 26, 2010 at 10:14 pm
This is a simple-minded analogy that is convincing to guess what kind of people. To cop a phrase from W.C. Fields, its author is a plumber’s idea of Aesop.
33.
waldo | January 26, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Well now you know why so many of us wanted someone with more experience in the real world to take on such an important job
34.
Incredulous | January 27, 2010 at 1:46 am
I think the more apt analogy would be that we have quite a mansion that we have thrived in for well over 200 years. It has allowed us to produce the past 18 of 25 Nobel prizes for Medicine. It has allowed us to out survive some of the most deadly cancers in percentages well above all the Europeans.
One day a kid comes to town that wants to tear down this mansion and build a well-planned tenement house. He’s never built a thing in his life. He never invested any of his own treasure in anything. He’s never even had an employee. But he’s somehow got into our front yard of this great old house with a bull-dozer and came within minutes of him plowing the whole thing down.
And yet somehow, we are called the vandals in this silly little tale.
35.
Dirtt | January 27, 2010 at 3:06 am
“He’s never built a thing in his life.”
As a contractor I feel this is most scandalous.
36.
AJM | April 23, 2010 at 2:34 am
I assume you are speaking of GW? Everything handed to him on a silver platter and somehow he gets to drive the bulldozer? He did come very close to tearing the whole thing down! Luckily the voters didn’t let an old rickety man and a brunette bimbo finish the job! Great analogy!
37.
Dirtt | January 27, 2010 at 3:03 am
Perhaps building a mansion is an expression of unnecessary wealth.
And how do you suppose to keep so many different people happy living under one roof. Have you ever been to a large family dinner?
Wouldn’t building 50 small houses make more strategic and tactical sense? What if a tornado or an earthquake hits the mansion? What happens to the occupants? If that happens to one of the 50 smaller houses the other 49 continue on business as normal. The cost to repair one smaller house is relatively cheap instead of relocating everyone in the mansion while it gets repaired.
And the people in the smaller houses have a greater say in how to furnish their own house. If some people don’t like one house they can pick up and go to a house that they like. And pay their portion of the mortgage accordingly.
Thanks for the analogy.
38.
this is ridiculous. | January 27, 2010 at 3:39 am
Is anyone seriously swayed by this article. The analogy of the mansion is ridiculous in the fact that Obama is not doing too much in fact he is doing to little. His entire year has been spent trying to ramrod a bill that the American people have voiced their displeasure with and will continue to do until it is fixed. The health care reform bill is the true Mansion that needs to be rebuilt one step at a time. Change is needed but spending the American people into oblivion is not the means to do achieve it. Please stop patting him on the back, he’s not a third grader after a t-ball game loss, his actions have profound effects on this country and the government under his executive watch needs to be held accountable.
39.
keiron Jackman | January 27, 2010 at 4:42 am
Did you know Ronald Reagan raised taxes and unemployment went from 7% to 10% in his first two years. Did you know the people give him a chance to implement his tax increases. Did you know Regan the tax increaser did not inherit a broken economy, did you know that Obama inherited an economy worse than Reagan – that’s what a bad economy since the days of the great depression means. Do you know how long it took Regan to recover? Do you even remember a time in the history of this nation the people demanded so much from a president in one year? — Was it like this for Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan??? Or can you name one time in history where we recovered without government spending? Being president is a four year job, it takes a while to get things done. Why would a President, any president, even our worse, ruin an economy or want to destroy the country… he’ll just get voted out. You must never have ran for office before it takes a love for this country to do it, on a national scale, unless ur a rich person. Please just look at unemployment numbers during the Reagan years, also look at people’s savings to debt ratio during that time, and also note that there are not as much manufacturing jobs as there were during the 80s, no steel mills here. Please research that or do I have to post another article, spelling out how things were?
40.
keiron Jackman | January 27, 2010 at 4:45 am
Here is the site that will give you the unemployment #s. Maybe you’ll say that the Obama administration manipulated it or something, but you can look.
http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?series_id=LNS14000000
41.
Dexter60 | January 27, 2010 at 3:47 am
It can easily be seen that the amount and variation in thoughts of these pointed comments are not only greater than the article that prompted them but far out-strip the ‘wisdom’ found with those highbinders that have taken over our government by fraud, stealth and multiple locks on public money.
If the model were held true, we’ve hired The Contractor from Hell.
But really, looters build nothing.
We are approaching the limit; do nothing and the next stop is the twilight zone.
42.
jo | January 27, 2010 at 10:42 am
If you had to rebuild a home that was rotten to the core why would you subcontract the design, administration and building of the house to the same idiots that built the first rotten house.
The new house will end up like the old house.
43.
bigdave | January 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm
You leave out, conveniently, one important factor: a democrat controlled congress which has been in charge for some 45+ years! Their outright HATRED of American Corporations, as per lunatic Clinton’s “BIG OIL, BIG COMPUTER, BIG PHARMACEUTICAL, ETC, CONFIRMING THE FACT DEMORATS hate COMPANIES WHICH MAKE A PROFIT!! They see PROFIT, like they see our INCOME and they WANT IT so they can DIVIDE IT any way they see fit! Like Clinton telling the people, ‘I KNOW HOW TO SPEND THIS SURPLUS BETTER THAN YOU!”. And like a herd of sheep, we took it. Most WORKING AMERICANS have not had the time to WATCH the growth of MARXISM in our country!
44.
Jason B | January 27, 2010 at 4:27 pm
You’re missing the point. What if the builder had a contract to build a cabin in the woods and built a mansion instead?
Would the owner have a right to be angry?
As subsequent elections results and recent polling proves, the American voter did not intend to elect a back room deal making bribe using socialist as president.. You can couch it in any words you like but he simply has lost the support of the American people due to his actions, not outside interference.
45.
Bob Suden | January 27, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Well, yes and no.
The fundamental flaw in the analogy is that it is not the government’s job to plan and build the economy, whether a Dimocrat or Repuglican adminstration. The Big O’s just doubling down on the Bush’s policies and it ain’t gonna work. Guaranteed.
Of course, if we’re talking about building big govt., all O can do is build a large addition to the New Deal contraption in Wash. DC. That , he is attempting to do and if he hasn’t yet accomplished, it ain’t for trying. Or if you prefer, we could give him an A+ for effort.
Which is why some of us are quite critical of Mr. Community Organizer, who incidentally sat for 20 yrs in a black version of a KKK church. It is not partisan, it is principle. It is not racist, it is real. Central economic planning aka socialism doesn’t work regardless of the complexion or party affiliation of the puppets shouting orders and waving blueprints all around.
46.
Gregory Wonderwheel | January 27, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Arguing by analogy is always risky. In this case it fails because of the logical fallacy of the false claim or straw man. Mr. Jackman raises a straw man as an opposing argument that is not the argument made by the progressives who are criticizing Obama. We aren’t mad at Obama for not completing the new changes that he promised in his first year. We are mad that Obama promised certain plans for th enew construction during his campaign, but in his first year in office Obama has done a bait and switch and put different plans on the table that have nothing to do with what he promised in the campaign. There is a list an arm long, but to put it simply, “It’s the lobbyists, stupid.” Obama promised a floor plan that changed the game in Washington DC and would stop the political hegemony of the lobbyists. No other promise of his did better to bring the independent voters to his side. However, once in office Obama has thrown the new floor plans into the trash can and kept the same old game of giving in to lobbyists for every important issue that has come up. Turning over the design of the health care reform to the lobbyists only made it into a health insurance winfall profits bill and gave up on the health care reform that could have been. Now that we see that Obama is using the same old plans, we don’t have to wait to see what he builds before criticizing him. We know what those same old plans produce every time: Lobbyist control and the people getting the dirty end of the stick.
47.
Kim | April 18, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Finally, a response that states the truth. I’m more frustrated with the game playing and lobbyist control in Washington. Our country was founded on such wonderful principles and feels like it’s been sold to a pack of wolves. The recent supreme court decision to give lobbyists and corporations even more control with elections is a sad direction to take in a country that is being handed to big business and banks already. I was excited to “hear” change in Washington, but instead we have rooting for teams and taking sides. It’s completely ridiculous and juvenile. There’s no way we are ever going to change philosophical points of view of those who are inherently Democrat or Republican, but we can find a medium ground where all can live as one NOT divided nation. I love our country and what it offers. Can we please find a way to work together and give the control back to the people, not to the greedy and self serviing.
48.
Dexter60 | April 18, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Kim::
I suggest you try to focus.
” I’m more frustrated with the game playing and lobbyist control in Washington.”
There can be no ‘lobbyists’ at all in Washington (or elsewhere) without the greedy hands of the political class cultivating bribes; wake up to the game being played on you, before it is over.
“The recent supreme court decision to give lobbyists and corporations even more control with elections….”
This is just recycled leftist rubbish: the court struck down what was unconstitutional just from the First Amendment.
Period.
Obama’s promises were all of the same old game, a lie to the hopeful. Buying votes with rubber checks and swindles for those begging to be cheated by something for nothing. Prosperity via taxation — how offal.
The court did not change anything for a free people but announce that, yes even a blind man can see the Constitution still has some meaning left. By this nothing has profoundly changed: neither the ‘lobbyists’ nor corporations nor the people themselves have taken control away from the political class; these are the people who profit from scarcity, polarization and strife — crisis managers who have crises as an ever-ready tool and use it to gain ever-increasing control. Should the court declare Social Security unconstitutional or ObamaCare, we would then see some significant changes come to America.
But that cannot happen until We rise up to match principles with those of the Republic and be Americans.
Oil, Medical Care, Insurance, Banking, Manufacturing, Labor & Trade — these are all entangled with a tax structure without restraint on spending by political partners who are exempt from the laws they write but also have a host of ‘culprits’ to parade if an unruly mob rises in protest. Buy into that and we are all doomed.
Today, government is the biggest corporation in America, in the world. It controls more of your life than you do and it is trying to take what is remaining. It is by the same means Americans were prohibited from owning gold [one of the schemes of FDRs regime, in case you were not there at the time] we were give to believe Uncle Joe was our friend — the list is so long, the lies so many.
This is not matter of left and right based upon our constituted Republic, with opposing views on the same set of principles — it is a contest between that and the threatened victory of a ruling class that grows steadily day by day merely for the lack of proper education — education also controlled by these very same people.
They have shown themselves not to be any part of the We, those of us who wish to get along; more like the They that are our enemies, but by stealth and guile that those who are foreign cannot approximate. They are the real enemies within, no matter what name is applied.
Obama. If this continues as planned, he will be the last president of the United States of America. You have read that right, the last president and the end of the United States of America, both. Change? You betcha.
But, then, believe what you’d like; fortunately for the rest of us, it does not all depend upon you.
49.
danfromatlanta | January 28, 2010 at 11:06 pm
The author of this puff piece conveniently forgets that Obama is the one that set his standards to such lofty heights. Those rational thinkers amongst us knew he was selling the country a bill of goods which he knew perfectly well he could not deliver. He was supposed to be a Constitutional scholar right? So how could he NOT know that he couldn’t do much of what he promised? he relied on the ignorance of a public grown dissatisfied with the incumbants president’s party because of relentless media propaganda laying blame at the president’s feet for that which only a Congress run by the opposing party was responsible. Americans thought they could bridge racial divides if only they could elect a black man president, even if he was the least qualified individual ever to win his party’s nomination. Now the regret sets in ….
50.
niko | February 12, 2010 at 1:12 am
If I hire a contractor, he should know the problems and materials and subcontractors needed and then give me an estimate based in his expertise. This contractor (Obama) has lied about his resume and experience to get the job (the contract) and if he was my contrator I would sue him for negligence and misrepresentation, if you lie in your resume you could be fired because of it.
51.
Omigrad | February 14, 2010 at 7:19 am
It takes a total commitment by a congress being held accountable by a well-informed public to run this nation. We currently have an block-at-any-cost congress and a populace which is generally devoid of rational decision making and give it to me now expectations. Somethings gotta give.
I honestly believe Presiden Obama has the country’s best interests at heart and is doing what he can to get things done given the stubborness he faces in congress and the ignorance of a large segment of the populace that he has to deal with. It’s a fine line he’s walking, in a country going through the growing pains of adolescence. I liken our country to a bit of a know-it-all high school student learning that he doesn’t know as much as he thought he did, yet maintains his stubborness as he is unable to accept this new reality. We’ll get there, but it’ll take a while.
52.
Dexter60 | February 14, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Omigrad::
You are beating a dead horse with political puffery.
“It takes a total commitment by a congress being held accountable by a well-informed public to run this nation.”
It takes a Congress and two other branches of government operating on the basis of the Constitution and the participation the people, to make this nation live up to its founding. This country is not ‘run’ or ‘ruled’ as has be seen elsewhere until the rather recent past.
“We currently have an block-at-any-cost congress….”
Can’t imagine that you mean opposition to those in Congress that want to railroad this country into chaos are the real problem, as such the solution more than smacks of tyranny just by the sound of it.
“… and a populace which is generally devoid of rational decision making and give it to me now expectations.”
Seems to me people have manage to live their lives pretty well before the government began to ‘help’ them, especially with how to spend their money and are doing pretty well even with the actions taken purposely against them now. Where have you been for the last 70 years… twenty five… or even ten years? Have you not followed the results of the last election? Get a clue.
“I honestly believe Presiden [sic] Obama has the country’s best interests at heart and is doing what he can to get things done given the stubborness [sic] he faces in congress and the ignorance of a large segment of the populace that he has to deal with.”
Your honest belief fails to impress, his support in Congress has gone from signification majorities in both houses that could not be stopped, to more of the very population that voted him in are now wanting him out — that is what is growing his opposition, Obama himself. He has been ignoring The People and hews only to his personal agenda; his main obstacle is the Constitution. You should read it.
“It’s a fine line he’s walking, in a country going through the growing pains of adolescence.”
Obama is on a path as broad as Europe, in a land that is more tolerant of foolishness than any other in history to the resent day; at more than two hundred years old, the pains e have are less from growing than by the attempts to change the [people against their will -- that is what the struggle today is about -- this country is not made up of village idiots or children. Although from the sounds of the above you may be one of those in that small number.
To wit:
“I liken our country to a bit of a know-it-all high school student learning that he doesn’t know as much as he thought he did, yet maintains his stubborness [sic] as he is unable to accept this new reality.”
Adding to that mistaken and distorted perspective, there is the idea that somehow we have now before us some ’new reality.’ Well, that explains the sophomoric observations that preceded that absurdity.
“We’ll get there, but it’ll take a while.”
Actually, if we continue, without trying to restore the Republic, there may never be a meaningful election here ever again; — the last chance perhaps is in November 2010.
The problems created in the last two decades will take a long time to solve and then fix, denial of that this time will only buy you servitude to the political class or an early grave.
53.
Robert | April 18, 2010 at 12:59 pm
That”s all well and good , but a contractor has to stay within a budget !
54.
JA | April 22, 2010 at 3:43 pm
What is this bable of your?
55.
Jack Palmer | April 22, 2010 at 10:46 pm
All I can say is, the World would be a better place without the likes of Dexter60
56.
AJM | April 23, 2010 at 2:36 am
Mr. Jackman, you definitely hit a nerve with this article! Bravo!!!
57.
Dexter60 | April 23, 2010 at 7:43 am
Jack::
I really think there are more people like me than you wish to even imagine; but even if I never existed you would still be dancing on the edge of a sewer.
If I am so wrong, nothing changes and you can continue your dance — but you will pay a higher price when you finally see you are wrong, if you can just stop long enough to actually think about it and stop repeating nonsense. Before it is too late, for then the truth will not set you free.
AJM:
You have had the benefit of speaking your mind echoing the self-admiration society with its formula for disaster — what I said above applies for you as well: when there is nothing more to steal they will sit by and watch you starve should we do nothing — while you will wonder what happened to your birthright. Inflammatory? you haven’t seen anything yet, these particular radicals are cowards.
If you cannot see what the passage of ObamaCare means still yet, it is clear that any more words for you are a waste of time. Sorry I disturbed your slumber.
58.
keiron Jackman | April 23, 2010 at 8:19 am
I guess that’s why the economy is doing better and the world is warming up to us now. That’s why we have credit card reform, and equal pay for women, why we are doing much better in Afghanistan..we have killed more Al queda leaders under Obama than we have in the 8 yrs, we have nuclear policy that makes moral sense, we have prosecuted and charged detainees we previously held without charge, we discontinued the practice of torture, we have turned the banks around, we have turn GM around 21% increase in profits, we have been responsive to disasters abroad and reestablished our position in the world, we have attacked the unfair trading practices of the Chinese, should I continue… did I mention the markets and companies are turning profits, even Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Rush are seeing their incomes increase… everyone is having a good time. Dexter60 willful ignorance is not acceptable.
59.
Dexter60 | April 23, 2010 at 9:49 am
Keiron ::
Some 50 years ago I read one particular book that you might spend some time with, it is called As We Go Marching and is now even available on the web as a pdf file — written before the end of WWII, it says more about these last 20 years than I could ever say. It was not and is not fiction.
The real world is not a sack of neat arguments that one can win or lose, for there are times like these that require serious preparations for survival and this no time to be frozen or euphoric in denial in the face of the harsh realities.
I have not given up on the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution and I do not intend to.
I have not given up on my fellow Americans; we will stand together as we always have, on our oath and honor, against all those who have neither.
Have a good day.