Posted on 10/04/2011 2:29:11 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The election of Barack Obama brought all sorts of contradictions. A man with about the least prior executive experience in presidential history was suddenly acclaimed a “god” and the smartest man ever to assume the office.
Most important, a number of critical changes were heralded that would help address the supposed disasters of the Bush administration: a new “reset” foreign policy, a Keynesian economic miracle, a commitment to “millions of green jobs,” and a promise to end politics as usual, specifically the hardball divisive rancor of the past. Obamism, in short, was not a mere change in administration, but a religion.
In less than three years, however, the Obama administration has established a far different legacy from the one it promised, and the lessons of 2009–2011 will be with us for a long time:
1. The type and nature of a presidential candidate’s prior experience will be examined as never before. Obama’s two years in the U.S. Senate are now universally seen as insufficient preparation. The result will be more emphasis on executive experience and far longer tenure. Fairly or not, the Obama legacy hangs over the possible presidential aspirations of everyone from a Chris Christie or Marco Rubio to a Sarah Palin or Herman Cain.
2. For the time being, the media have lost any credibility as nonpartisan and disinterested investigators of presidential candidates. That many journalists now admit they were “saps” or accept that Obama was unqualified only confirms prior culpability. After 2008, can anyone possibly take the media seriously if they complain that a candidate will not release his undergraduate transcripts, or that he once bragged that he attended every service (“each week”) of a racist pastor, or that he once liked “blow”? After Obama, an entire array of old gotchas are off the table.
3. Ivy League certification and prestigious awards will mean far less. The architects of the massive but ineffective borrowing — Geithner, Goolsbee, Orszag, Romer, Summers — were either esteemed academics or high-ranking bureaucrats. We are no longer impressed that Barack Obama and Eric Holder have Ivy League law degrees, or that President Obama and Steven Chu hold Nobel Prizes — not after Solyndra, Fast and Furious, and the present stagnation. Americans assume that Herman Cain learned far more of value turning around Godfather’s Pizza than Barack Obama learned as editor of Harvard Law Review. Texas A&M is about as relevant to Rick Perry’s creating millions of jobs as Harvard is to Barack Obama’s destroying millions.
4. Again, fairly or not, “green” no longer denotes a noble effort to conserve resources and achieve energy independence. A Van Jones, a Solyndra, yet another promise to emulate Spain’s windmills and solar plants, one more call to borrow hundreds of billions for high-speed rail, and more Al Gore profit-driven escapades and fiery outbursts finally add up. Note that the president simply cannot any longer repeat the mantra, “Millions of new green jobs.” You see, there are too many video clips of such boasts associated with failed ventures. The age of Obama has turned “green” into a refuge for scoundrels. The next era will be marked by unprecedented national wealth from vast new gas and oil exploration, not from thousands of acres of subsidized solar panels and windmills. How ironic that Barack Obama will eventually do more for the gas and oil industry than any other president in recent memory.
5. We are reminded that populism and the high life don’t mix. Barack Obama’s efforts to play Huey Long were sidetracked by First Family detours to Martha’s Vineyard, Costa del Sol, and Vail. One cannot both beg from and demonize Wall Street, and still play community organizer. Obama cemented the notion that liberal Democrats are the party of really big money and of very little money — and of few in between. The next populist will have to cut back on golf, stay at Camp David, and avoid the playgrounds of the rich and famous.
6. Keynesian economics are about over for a generation. The antidote to the Bush $4 trillion debt was not another $4 trillion in less than half the time. With near-zero interest rates, record numbers of Americans on food stamps and unemployment, an annual federal budget $2 trillion higher than just ten years ago, and nearly $16 trillion in aggregate debt — and all this along with a moribund economy — few will any longer believe that printing more money and growing government work. More of what has not worked won’t magically start to work.
7. Barack Obama has essentially ended the smears against the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism protocols. Having himself smeared the prior administration relentlessly, he became de facto its greatest defender. One cannot insist past practices were immoral or illegal and then embrace or expand them all. “War criminal” will recede into the insanity of yesteryear, given that no logician could figure out how waterboarding three self-confessed mass murderers was a crime, while vaporizing two thousand suspected terrorists — including American citizens — by Hellfire missiles is not. Apparently Guantanamo is no longer a gulag, rendition no longer a crime, preventive detention no longer a shredding of the Constitution.
8. Politics simply don’t change. Obama first embraced and then rejected filibusters — the only constant was his relative political position. “Gridlock” was good in 2005, bad in 2011. The suggestion that we should cancel congressional elections for a few years comes from a Democratic governor, not a cigar-chewing, epauletted ex-general. Exasperated liberals call for circumventing the “messy” democratic process, the bothersome Electoral College, the unfairness of senatorial elections — apparently not out of long-expressed philosophical worries, but out of angst that the wonderful system that elected Obama and gave him huge congressional majorities suddenly became unworkable, say, around November 2010.
9. Fight the Smears, JournoList, and AttackWatch.com are not the work of a uniter. “Punish our enemies” and “get in their faces” don’t go well with Greek columns and rainbowed backgrounds. Again, whether rightly or wrongly, the next time a political candidate promises to change the political landscape in Washington, we will have more, not less, suspicion of his motives — and expect website hit lists to follow.
10. The antidote to Bush’s “bring ’em on” bravado was not asking the Arab League to approve no-fly zones over Libya while bombing targets “from behind.” The world of 2008 is pretty much the world of 2011 — with the caveat that an often unliked U.S. is still as unliked but now less respected and feared. Ask the Iranians, Syrians, Russians, and Chinese — or for that matter the Japanese, Israelis, South Koreans, Taiwanese, and Eastern Europeans.
A sadder but wiser electorate in 2012 simply won’t believe that any candidate — Democrat or Republican — can cool the planet or stop the seas from rising. Barack Obama taught us that — and a lot more besides.
Executive experience?Herman Cain Has it,I dont Think you are framing this Properly,What we dont need is another Experienced POLITICIAN that carries on the Same Political Scratch my Back I scratch yours Crap,Namely Romney.
We need a Guy just like Cain,No More Ivy League Snobs,I would like to try good old common sense.Like someone who can run a Pizza Joint
If Obama has discredited the MSM, Green Power, the Ivy League, Keynsian economics and soft diplomacy, if his legacy will subject future candidates to greater scrutiny, then ultimately his (hopefully one) term will have been worth enduring.
I can’t say Hanson missed much of the story that has played out over the last 3 years.
The two points I would have added was he personally resurrected the dead....the GOP. Secondly, without the help of anyone he’s in the process of destroying the best military in the world.
Actually, he created the TEA party. The GOP was/is complicit in Obama's actions and will suffer the same fate. The TEA party will replace the RINO party.
This catastrophie was highly visible and predictable many MONTHS before the ‘08 election.
Many, many commentators and pundits predicted essentally what has happened, both in detail and generally.
Go back and find the Sotoro boosters—AND FOREVER IGNORE AND PILLORY their writings, thoughts and recommendations.
Start with McCain.
I’m so grateful that Dr. Hanson is on our side.
Thank you for posting this.
Similar to what he did for gun sales.
During the 2008 campaign, my son made an interesting observation - that Obama was the political equivalent of a Rorschach test (ink blot test.) People looked at him and saw what they wanted to see. They bought the vacuous "Hope and Change" mantra - forgetting that "change" can be bad as well as good. Sadly, we cannot get the Buffoon in Chief out of office fast enough.
Sadly, I think we are in for a very dismal future. We don't have a national will to do what it takes to get our national addiction to government spending under control. The debt load is crushing us and we don't have the will to "eat our peas" and make the required changes. Diverging exponential functions (gov't spending over time compared to wages/tax revenue over time) are a recipe for disaster. There is no credible solution proposed by either party. The results will not be pretty...
An interesting aspect of this story is the role of the media. The normally “inquisitive” mainstream media fails to find anything interesting in Obama’s past, his associations, his record or even his family. Solyndra does not interest them. His illegal alien relatives are boring and not worthy of a story. His change of stance on Gitmo and Iraq are ignored. They ignore the irony of the contrast between the Nobel Peace Prize and the attacks on Libya and the escalation in Afghanistan. The failure of the stimulus and the expansion of the debt go without comment. I could go on for hours...
” Barack Obama taught us that — and a lot more besides.”
Barack Obama has taught me nothing and has surprised me not at all.
McCain played the part of the opponant to the harlem globetrotters. Bet they struck a deal somewhere.
One hopes that enough voters actually recognize all those points.
The problem is Obama thought they wanted KENYAN economics. So that's what he's been doing the past 3 years...
This article is bunk. What it says may be true in essence, but in practicality, this extra scrutiny and higher standards will still only apply to Republicans in general, and Conservatives specifically.
Your average person is still gets a majority of their information from a biased MSM. Their views are shaped by the lies that are fed to them on a daily; nay hourly basis. Even if they have a deep seated nagging that something is not right, telling them the truth only confuses them. In their confusion, it’s easier to turn on American Idol, or Dancing With The Stars rather than seek clarification. Their choice will be solidified within the last week of Oct. based on what the MSM has told them is true.
Obama will not be in office Jan. 21, 2013. He’s such an utter failure that only the most die hard kool-aid drinker can delude themselves into thinking otherwise. What will be in place is the liberal mindset that created the mess we are in now. We won’t have a truly conservative president, who seeks to truly restore the Constitutionality of our government. Our rights will still be under attack. The criminal activity that has taken place at the highest levels will still go unpunished. We will still be bombarded, daily, by retarded liberals spouting their mindless pap.
The country will still be headed down the road to ultimate ruin; just maybe at a slower pace than before. The best one can hope for is that they have prepared themselves thoroughly for the coming fall
I disagree with #2. It assumes the MSM cares about being consistent and ethical. If the GOP nominee has any blank spots on his resume they will be all over it. Without shame.
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