Mr. President: Hold up a Mirror; You Have Met the Enemy and it Is You!

Mr. President: Hold up a Mirror; You Have Met the Enemy and it Is You! by John Mariotti

I watched President Obama today make a scathing speech in which he was alternatively cynical, deprecating, preachy and downright demagogical. It was class warfare elevated to a fine art. Tax those “millionaires and billionaires.” Tax those people “who own private planes” (used that one 5-6 times) and tax those oil companies who are “making too much money” (doing what businesses are supposed to do—make money, create jobs and economic growth).

I was going to write this as long diatribe about what the president said, talking about his “opposition,” chastising them about “getting serious,” and “going to work,” and “fixing these problems,” and “not letting Americans suffer because they weren’t willing to do their jobs and find compromises.” I wanted to tell readers that doing what he said would let him and his Democratic colleagues continue spending the USA into bankruptcy and collapse. (They are about halfway there, with trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, and one more term will about finish the job.) I call this chart “Deficits Forever” but this is a few months old chart, and an updated one would look even more frightening. (DP: use link to see chart)

Then I realized it only takes one sentence to say to him all that needs to be said: “Mr. President, pick up a mirror and look into it, because what you see will be exactly what you are so critical of—yourself—you are the problem.”

Mr. President, you need to admit you don’t know how to fix America, and what you thought would work, didn’t, isn’t working and won’t work. You were wrong, and still are. Mr. President, you need to stop going to fund raisers to reach $1 billion you can spend on your reelection campaign and do your job. You need to retire your golf clubs and roll up your sleeves and live up to some of that soaring rhetoric that got you into this job—you know, the one you have learned you were woefully underprepared to do.

Remember the speech about not being “red states and blue states, but being the United States of America?” Well, somewhere between that convention speech in which you leaped from anonymity to fame, you forgot about that line, that great message, and fell into the traps of power—pride, narcissism and arrogance. Your glorious teleprompters from which flow the golden words will not tell you how to fix America. All you know for certain, in your heart as you go to sleep each night is that you have tried everything you thought was right and it didn’t and doesn’t work, and the American people are figuring that out.

So maybe, instead of criticizing, belittling and playing the ultimate demagogue, you should regroup. Mr. President, almost everything you said was true to varying degrees, but most of it about you, not your opponents. Mr. President, you need to say “I” a lot less times, and “we” a lot more times—and that “we” had better mean bi-partisan, and not rich-poor class warfare

Sure, you can tax the rich more, but they are clever and they’ll find ways to avoid your punitive taxes. The revenue gains you get will be smaller than you think, maybe much smaller. They will quit investing their “millions and billions” in growth, because they fear you and hate you, and your policies. The revenue (and jobs) gains you will lose for those taxes will be far greater than you imagine. Maybe some revenue increases are necessary to go along with enormous spending cuts, and together those “Deficits Forever” will start shrinking—but not until you face the big items: Entitlements—Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Mr. President, your ideas have dug a deep, deep hole for America. I know you have been saying that you made things better and that they are improving. Americans don’t like your health care law (“Obamacare”). They know that you can’t cover that many more people for less money, and that money has to come from somewhere. When you say something for so long and with so much conviction, you start to believe it, even when you know it’s a lie. Your staffers have all bailed; they know the truth. You made America worse—much worse—not better. The American people know it too. They still like you; they just don’t trust you.

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6 in 10 say the Economy is Not Headed in the Right Direction, According to Latest American Pulse™ Survey

With stagnant economic confidence and a darkening outlook on the employment market, it is no surprise that a majority of Americans feel like the economy has derailed.

59.9% of Adults 18+ say the economy is not at all or not really heading in the right direction, according to the latest American Pulse™ Survey of 5,406 respondents.18.1% are neutral while only 22.0% say the economy is somewhat or definitely on track.[1]
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Time for you to quit campaigning and start working. Time to get into the debate over the budget ceiling and cut some compromise deals. Time to walk out a little humbler, a little more chastened, but knowing you actually did what the American people elected you to do: They wanted you to make America better, not worse.

Mr. President, get out that mirror and hold it up instead of a teleprompter. If you look really closely, what you see in it might surprise you.

http://blogs.forbes.com/prospernow/2011/06/30/mr-president-hold-up-a-mirror-you-have-met-the-enemy-and-it-is-you/