Obama is such an easy target that it’s a shame the Republicans are determined to kill only each other
We can expect tomorrow night’s State of the Union address to be an action-packed hour (or so) of vitriol and self-pity. Obama will cherry-pick a few numbers about the 1% and then whine about how he’s been trying really hard to destroy that same 1%, but that a vast array of insurmountable obstacles — Congress, Republicans, the media, the American people, the Jews — have prevented him from doing so. In a most-read piece, Joseph Curl explains what Obama will be hiding:
The unemployment rate when Mr. Obama was elected was 6.8 percent; today it is 8.5 percent — at least that’s the official number. In reality, the Financial Times writes, “if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.”
In addition, there are now fewer payroll jobs in America than there were in 2000 — 12 years ago — and now, 40 percent of those jobs are considered “low paying,” up 10 percent from when President Reagan took office. The number of self-employed has dropped 2 million to 14.5 million in just six years.
Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it’s $3.39 — that’s a 102 percent increase in just three years. (By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, gas was $1.40 a gallon when George W. Bush took office in 2001, $1.68 when he left office — a 20 percent increase.)
Electricity bills have also skyrocketed, with households now paying a record $1,420 annually on average, up some $300.
Some 48 percent of all Americans — 146.4 million — are considered by the Census Bureau either as “low-income” or living in poverty, up 4 million from when Mr. Obama took office; 57 percent of all children in America now live in such homes.
And that’s not even the half of it. You can read the rest here.
In this target-rich environment, the tone-deaf Mitt Romney is attacking . . . Newt. This is why Newt is surging. While Mitt attacks him, Newt, although he too has taken too many time-outs for vicious internecine warfare, hasn’t forgotten that the American people care about the economy and national security. Even Newt, though, could step up the attacks on Obama. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
And here’s a judo-style suggestion for dealing with all of Obama’s victim talk:
President Obama claims that the media misrepresents him, Republicans are evil, Congress is obstructionist, and the American people are lazy. These are the reasons, he says, that he has been unable to implement his agenda. It’s not his fault; it’s everyone else’s fault.
Well, let’s assume, solely for the sake of argument, that everything the President says about the obstacles facing him is true. That assumed truth leads to one, and only one possible question: What the heck type of a leader is President Obama? By his own admission, he is unable to handle anyone or anything that stands in his way. This isn’t just an inability to handle the 3 am phone call. Instead, this is the inability even to pick up the phone.
The man who occupies the highest leadership position in the land — indeed, in the world — has repeatedly conceded that he isn’t up to the job. Since he’s not going to quit, it’s up to you, the American people, to fire him. And when you replace him, I’m the man for the job because….
