An Open Letter
We’ve gone “a little soft,” have we, Mr. President? I have a thing or two to say about that, but first, here’s what Jonah Goldberg thinks:
Interesting perspective. I wonder where America could have lost its competitive edge. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with a government that blows billions on green energy boondoggles while making it harder to drill for oil while trying to make electricity rates “skyrocket.” It couldn’t have to do with extending unemployment benefits to 99 weeks (and rising), or to bailouts.
Jonah has more to say, Mr. President, and I think you should read the whole thing — even if it does make you a little uncomfortable. Jonah is a pretty smart guy, too. He’s only written one book so far, but it wasn’t about himself.
You might also want to read what my coworker Roger Kimball thinks. Here’s a taste:
What’s “gone soft” and lost its “competitive edge” is American government, which can’t see a pile of money it doesn’t wish to expropriate in order to feed its “spread-the-wealth-around” socialist appetite and which sees government as the adversary rather than the enabler of business. That’s the rotten softness we have to worry about.
So please, Barack, don’t tell us that America has “gone soft” or “lost its competitive edge” when it’s you and your policies that are as soft and edgeless as a freshly shucked oyster.
Now, Roger runs a big, mean, right-wing publishing company, so maybe you’ll just discount what he has to say. So instead, let me tell you what I’ve seen the last few years.
In 2008, we elected a man who promised us “a net spending cut,” a guy who would go “line by line” through the budget with steely eyes under his green eyeshade and trim Washington down to the bone. We elected — we thought we elected — a tough man to do a tough job. Who is soft, Mr. President, the electorate who went crazy for the tough guy, or the president who broke his promises while refusing to make a single tough decision about spending?
I saw the rise of a new political movement, a new Tea Party. This Tea Party didn’t throw fits. The rest of American didn’t have to endure tantrums as they went out on the streets, Greek-style, to demand more and more largess. No. They assembled peacefully, quietly, and asked you to do less to try and “help” them. That doesn’t seem soft to me, Mr. President.
I watched them endure taunts from your allies, and even from you, Mr. President. Your side called them wackos and nutjobs and racists and everything else in the book. And they endured the insults with a quiet determination worthy of John Wayne or Gary Cooper. But these weren’t brawny actors on the safety of a movie set. They were normal Americans who had decided they’d had enough, political neophytes going up against the best the Democrats and Republicans had to offer.
Then I saw them go to the voting booths last November to wage one of the most effective — and polite — revolutions in American political history. Their message:
Make the tough decisions, Mr. President. Stop taxing and spending and borrowing and regulating this great country out of existence. We aren’t Europe — we don’t want to be coddled!
I don’t know how you define “soft,” Mr. President, but that’s not how I define it.
There is, of course, another American. That’s the America of public sector unions and the professionally aggrieved and Wall Street and tottering big businesses. They’re the ones crying for bailouts or wailing that they might have to pay a little more than just a couple percent of their own health benefits. They’re the ones hurling insults, and generally behaving like small children who have been spared nothing but the rod — and for a very long time.
That’s your American, Mr. President. Those are your supporters. They’re the people your political future depends on. And they’re the reason — you are the reason — the rest of us have had to become as hard as nails.
You might not be able to see that right now, Mr. President. But I can promise you’ll feel the hard truth on Election Day.
Yours,
-VodkaPundit
Image courtesy angelo gilardelli / shutterstock
My President went to Marthas Vineyard for vacation, and all I got was this sneer.
I think the “going soft” the President was referring to was the complete lack of posting to the formerly tough-minded Varifrank blog during his administration. He interprets that as surrender, I guess, instead of just shutting off the supply of free ice cream.
I took time off to raise a Marine.
One must focus ones efforts onto where they can do the most good.
And has your Marine surrounded D.C. and arrested the traitors?
I didn’t think so.
I hate to break the news to you, but your Marine is just a tool of the globalist puppets … both past and present.
And one more thing. Of course AmeriKans are soft. They keep putting up with all this D.C. mess year after year and election after election and I’ll prove it to you.
You all voted for the dumbocrats all these years and here we are.
You all voted for the repukocrats all these years and here we are … still.
And guess what AmeriKans! You’re all going to vote … again! And you thunketh that yer gonna get it right this time!
What the government ought to do, just for kicks, is give you AmeriKans the same liberty of 1783 … then watch you all get on your knee’s and beg the government to take your liberty back.
Curt (1:47am), if that wasn’t snark, then you should go back to Huffington or Daily Kos, or whatever underside of a rock you occupy. You are the tool, not that Marine or the parents that raised him. Have you ever pledged to give your life for your country if needed? Bet not. Oh, and just in case, you’re asking. Yes I did. I was in the Army. You owe Frank Martin an apology.
There is no way in hell the Democrats will allow Obama to be the candidate in 2012. The powers that be will find a way for him to bow out, while supposedly saving face.
those racist bastards!!!! they will dump obama because he is black
Bow out…. that is the only kind of bow I want to see him take ever again.
Impossible.
The Dems can’t cashier The First Black President(tm) without losing the black vote, which now represents 13% of the voters. Blacks would stay home rather than vote, and the Dems would suffer a shellacking worse than if they stuck with Obama.
What the Dems are more likely to do is cut their losses. Focus on saving as many Senate seats as possible, and win as many local races (state legislatures, mayors, etc.) as possible.
So even if Obama loses by 6 points, the Dems aren’t dead as a party. McCain lost by 6 points in 2008, yet the GOP managed to recover over the next couple of years.
I disagree. He’s losing blacks. All the Dems have to do is get the imprimatur of certain black leaders (I’m no fan of Maxine Waters but she’d be one) to go with Hillary or whomever and most blacks would follow. I even think Waters is laying the groundwork for this. It may happen.
Roger said…..
What’s “gone soft” and lost its “competitive edge” is American government, which can’t see a pile of money it doesn’t wish to expropriate in order to feed its “spread-the-wealth-around” socialist appetite and which sees government as the adversary rather than the enabler of business. That’s the rotten softness we have to worry about.
I’m sorry and I hope someone corrects me on this but how can the “‘American Government’ ‘go soft’ and ‘lose it’s competitive edge’ while doing what it perceives is the correct course of action, although stupid, misguided and moronic (I need to insert that I am an Arch Conservative)how can it do the aforementioned and end up seeing itself as it’s own adversary? That makes no sense!
Now if only we could condense this, attach it to a photo on Facebook so the masses would … ah, never mind. That only works for the class warfare crowd.
Here’s something you can put on Facebook, and it’s funny: Ezra Levant mines the Obama family for comedy gold
And this too: Obama Family Tradition
Sadly, the GOP seems poised to nominate a candidate who will be just as effective at “cutting spending” as Obama has been.
Yes sadly MOST Politicians of both parties seem to think that slowing the INCREASE in spending can somehow be conceived and sold to a now awake public as SPENDING CUTS.
Evil Red Scandi (3.), we don’t know who the nominee is yet. You’re only seeing who the media is pushing. But let’s say you are right, that nominee won’t do the damage that Obama has. The GOP won’t pass regulations such as taxing farmers and cities for dust. Yep, dust. EPA at it’s very best. Phoenix Parks and Recreation has a public service announcement on their phone system that states they could lose funding, so don’t ride your ATV in dusty areas, or park on a dusty lot. HUH? The GOP wouldn’t invest in these green scams. I was a Democrat, never again. Nor will I vote for one.
We elected — we thought we elected — a tough man to do a tough job.
What you mean “we”, white man?
Ugh.
Ouch! Mr. Green.
Is this his “malaise” speech? He’s had so many bad moments it’s hard to tell.
What was his MOS?
Mr. potus;
Nobody cares what you say anymore … so why bother?
Only a fool would make the “soft” comment … so you’re irrelevant.
Yours sincerely,
Husky
You’re exactly right. The only people who are “soft” are the people Obama comes in contact with–his supporters, such as the unions, the 95% of the African-Americans who voted for him, etc. Actually Obama never sees the other Americans, who happen to be holding Bibles, guns, attending tea parties, working at real jobs, etc.
Obama’s recent criticisms of “his” people as whining, complaining and being soft are also strong indicators of his pathological narcissism. Narcissists have no self-insight. They are constitutionally incapable of blaming themselves for their misdeeds; they always blame others for their problems. If he continues down this path of blaming his own supporters for his problems, it is a sure sign of a personality on its way to collapsing.
So, is “a little soft” Obama’s “national malaise” moment?
It’s amazing. He walked right into it. What’s next, a canoe trip on Giant Rabbit River?
Rabbits Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.
Inconceivable!
You keep using that word.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Farce repeats itself, first as Carter, second as Obama.
The only people who are “soft” in this country are the people, like Obama, who think we should be more like Europe. It’s the social-welfare state that makes people soft and childish. They can’t do without the government for anything and they force the government to spend everything on social-welfare programs and nothing on defense.
A classic example of this is NATO’s pathetic assault on Libya. If it wasn’t for the United States, the other NATO countries would never have gotten anywhere in Libya, or at much greater cost in human life and property. And this was a country where half of the nation was actually with us and trying to depose the same dictator. So what does NATO say to evil dictators out there who may try to intimidate them, people like Putin in Russia or that little ferret in Iran? Well, NATO can say, “We can’t really stand up to you, but you can get a great education here in Europe.”
And then they will do what they always do, come back to us “softies” for military help whenever they really need it. So much for being “soft,” Mr. President.
What do you mean? The attack on Libya was intended to distribute Qaddafi’s stockpile of weapons to the rebels, who in turn will sell them to Iran and Egypt. Once a major conflict starts up (attacking Israel with said weapons), the US will then be able to step in and defend it’s ally. The kinetic action in Libya is intended to arm the islamic facists and start a conflict.
“It’s your fault my policies aren’t working.”
I really hate to godwinize a thread, and Dear Liar is in no way a NAZI, but towards the end, when even Hitler realized the jig was up, he put the blame on the German people and claimed they didn’t deserve to win. Can’t find the quote.
You don’t need the quote. I think we’re all familiar with the story of how Hitler gave up on the Reich and went apocalyptic at the very end. You could say those final hours were like his lame duck sess — okay, I’ll stop.
I was thinking the same thing.
When Stalin’s policies didn’t work as planned, he sent millions of his subjects off to the gulag to die.
The fish rots from the head. If the central government policies don’t work in practice, then the leadership and the policies deserve the blame – NOT the people who are just trying to muddle through and survive under an evil system as best they can.
Tis true. We no longer hold corrupt politicians and their appointees accountable for their actions. Cheat taxpayers…get your portrait hung with pride in the halls of congress. Lie under oath…make millions on the speaking tour lecturing the little people about “effective” government…..we are soft sheeple.
I’ve got to wonder how much of the taxpayer money, “loaned” to his Democrat crony capitalist buddies, is ending up in Obama’s re-election campaign coffers.
Yes, I’m ashamed of my inability to be tough enough to be an Obamagrade American.
I just wish someone would make available a means by which I could report myself for my disgusting lack of Obamanese. Oh well.
Pass the dodgeball and put a hold on the trophy that I was going to get for joining the team.
I’m with Charlie. We isn’t me, I didn’t vote to get on board the Obama Train Wreck Express.
Dude. You rock. We all know that you have to be a little soft (in the head) to be a liberal – and you nailed ‘em.
It’s idiotic to say, especially, in the middle of a war and recession, that America is soft.
Bama is the one who’s soft; soft in the head.
Obama is trying another persuasive (he hopes) tactic but it’s still the same old Blaming Someone Else.
And, hasn’t he been telling us that everything is great and gettin better, because of Him and His policies? Hasn’t he told us this..even as Solyndra was falling into bankruptcy;…even as US guns are given to Mexican cartels to kill Americans; even as the ratio of new jobs created is zero? Hasn’t he been telling us how great things are?
In 2008, his mantra was Blame Bush. Since then, he’s moved on to blaming the GOP, the Tea Party, Europe, the Japanese earthquake..you name it, Obama will Blame it.
This time, he’s saying that the infrastructure of the US has, over the past two decades, decayed, and he’s come in at the tail end as it is collapsing. This whole mess isn’t…you must understand..His fault.
But if you want it repaired, then, you must, yet again and as usual, put your faith in Him. His solution? Big government and high taxes.
The problem is, Obama has had three years, with two of them with a majority in both the House and Senate. And, his actions, which he has pushed through without acknowledging the right of the people to analyze these policies..have been failures for the economy and for the well-being of Americans.
So, how can he convince us now, yet again, that He is not to blame for anything?
I like to refer to our failed president as O’Blamo he puts the pnus pn any one or thing besides himself!
You have to get into his bedroom slippers to understand what “soft” means to him. His policies and rhetoric are designed to foment discord and anger. We have high unemployment, people loosing homes, increased poverty, and no economic growth. While Americans are asking him “where are the jobs?” he’s wondering “where’s my big fat Greek revolution? Where are the Bill Ayers of days gone by? Don’t you people know you should be putting on your marching shoes and wreaking havoc in the streets?”
I think you nailed it.
OBAMA LEGACY
The most despised President in US history leading one the most corrupt governments in US history.
ONE of the most? Nuh-uh. THE most. By Far.
Really too bad that our “First(almost)Black President” turned out to be such a colossal dud. But then, given his background and his peer group, it should have obvious.
America gone soft? One more example of Obama, raised outside the USA, not understanding our history, our people, or our culture.
Americans have always worked hard; millions of immigrants came here for the opportunity to work hard and make a better life than they had in their former countries.
The welfare office is a relatively new creation of the Left, Americans knew they had to work to survive, they knew they had to take care of themselves and their own.
Maybe Obama’s partly correct; the Left has established a dependent class that does not know how to provide for itself any other way than trading their freedom, liberty, and self-respect for a government hand-out.
Hopefully, our next president will be more than “technically” American…if Obama is even that!
As a kid I learned that talk is cheap. It would seem a majority of Americans are ignorant of that concept. From the very first time I heard Barack Obama speak I had his number, all hat no cattle! Having been born and raised in Chicago, I had an advantage. Those who voted for him were indeed soft . . . in the head. There is hope for some of them to firm-up, after even a cornered mouse will sometimes fight back.
The Tea Party is liken to the canary in the mine shaft warning the government to make sensible changes before it’s too late. The majority of our political leadership are to soft to make the hard choices and to do what’s right in turning this great nation around.
I direct your attention to LARRY CORREIA (author of the Monster Hunter series): His blog today
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/the-president-says-were-soft/
[quote]Yep. That’s it, Mr. President. We’re soft. We’ve lost that competitve edge. We need to get back on track.
Let’s see, business is noncompetitive… Yet, during the last two years of my professional finance career, we have been through 6 different audits from 6 different government agencies. (total dollar value found to be owed to the government? Zero). As far as finance managers go, I’m not that weird.
Wow. I wonder what value I could’ve been adding to my company during that instead of creating multiple phone book sized reconcilliations that no government employee will actually ever read. However, if I’d failed to spend hundreds of hours producing these useless documents, we’d have gotten fined and put out of business.
WARNING: I am about to go on an angry tirade about why American business is not competitive. [snip - LAW]
Read the whole thing. It’s articulate, and, taken with yours, Steve, is a one-two punch on the whole “soft” thing.
Thanks for that link, Lin. I’ll read the whole thing here shortly.
Fantastic rant.
If we weren’t soft, we would have rid ourselves of people like Obama decades ago. Instead we hand them half our money (roughly) every year like clockwork.
If we weren’t soft, half the people in this country wouldn’t be taking handouts from the government.
If we weren’t soft, we wouldn’t allow people to put us through degrading warrantless searches every time we have to jump on a plane (while scum like Obambi get waved through).
Frankly, I think El Jefe has a point. We’ve gotten pretty soft. And, we’re getting softer.
While I agree that Obama is completely off base to accuse America of having gone soft, I would not hav picked on him for failing to cut spending. He never really promised to do that, beyond a winding down of Bush’s war, and that was supposed to save trillions – some libs still think that is the way to balance the budget.
I recall that at the debate at Belmont University, the moderator asked McCain and Obama what “tough” choices they would make to cut spending. McCain attacked pork; Obama in essence said that the crisis was too deep to consider cutting spending; he did not mention one are where he would propose cuts.
Obama is merely doing what he said he would do.
Soft in the head for voting for obama!
Love your final illustration. Not only underscores that you’ve hit the nail on the head, it reminds me that when your only tool is a hammer, all or your problems start to look like people that need to be beaten with a hammer. I get that feeling a lot lately.
“We elected — we thought we elected — a tough man to do a tough job.”
Speak for yourself. I knew what he was the first time I heard him speak. I’ve run into too many con men in my life to be fooled by a cheap shyster ten years my junior. I’ve heard empty promises and grandiose dreams from this kind of fraud many times before. They’re always willing for the other guy to sacrifice dreams and dollars for their schemes, and the result is always ashes.
definitely a con man. but a three card monte player who doesn’t have the command of numbers to count that high. the best thing about obama ia his incompetence, otherwise he would do more lasting damage. this affirmative action product is a testimony to facade pver ability. seeing him at pplay says everything, he plays golf like a black guy and basketball like a white guy!!!!
Cheers! It’s beer-thirty and this essay is an awesome way to end the week! Kick-ass America is not going soft Obummer! You are dummy!
The last thing that I need is for some spoiled brat punk to tell me that I am getting soft. This clown, Vancy Jones, Bill Ayers, and all of the other anti-American types might just find how soft America really is if they take their revolution from talk to action. Remember, there will not be any hiding behind the law. Man to man. How about it, Vancy?
This is a gr8 article and couldn’t be more true. I’m proud to be a member of the tea party. I want my country to survive has a Republic. What I don’t understand is why these people, who swore to protect and defend the constitution and the United States from all enemies foreign and domesticate, why they aren’t in jail for treason. 70 sitting members of congress are card carrying members of Democratic Socialists for America. Look it up…the list was just updated. What is wrong with this picture. The only good thing obama ever did was awaken the sleeping silent majority. And I’m glad he did.
“70 sitting members of congress are card carrying members of Democratic Socialists for America.”
Heck, that’s nothing. About half of them are card carrying members of the Democrat Party.
Not just them, but Trumka and other labor leaders too. Hard-left in their politics.
Gone are the old-style labor leaders, like Samuel Gompers and George Meany and Lane Kirkland, who were patriots, who were supporters of private business while they tried to drive hard bargains with it, and who were staunch anti-Communists.
He’s right. America went soft when it elected this disgusting, damaging, anti-American POS 3 years ago. Soft like a rotten log. Soft like a sick worm.
Lost our competitive edge?
A hardworking company named Gibson Guitars was doing its best to craft the finest product in the world at an affordable price, all while competing against cheap foreign imports. Your jack-booted thugs stormed in and put a stop to that.
A nice middle-class Missouri couple for years was making a little extra money to make ends meet by raising and selling rabbits. Your jack-booted thugs stormed in and put a stop to that.
The biggest most prestigious aircraft manufacturer in the world wantd to build a new factory. Your jack-booted thugs stormed in and put a stop to that.
A couple of weeks ago, your brave guys at the department of labor issued 75 new regulations for GOAT HERDING.
Those same busybodies at the department of labor thought it would be an excellent idea to require farmers to have commercial drivers licenses to drive their tractors.
Almost every week, I meet another business owner who has walked away from opportunities to expend due to the crushing burden of federal regulation.
Almost every week I meet another business owner who has decided not to expand because of his fear of running afoul of some federal regulation you might write in the future, causing your jack-booted thugs to ruin him.
In short, we have not gone soft. We’ve gone Galt.
And let’s not forget Google and Amazon.com, two of the most fabulously successful Internet companies, whom the DoJ has hit with antitrust lawsuits. (It wouldn’t surprise me if the DoJ uses Google searches to help compile its antitrust briefs against Google.)
Meanwhile, Obama, Biden and Chu dumped a half billion dollars in loan guarantees on Solyndra, so that we could enjoy watching it go bankrupt two years later.
If you want to soften up a country, you punish its successes and reward its failures. (In war, don’t you locate the enemy’s most productive and advanced facilities and bomb those?)
And that’s what Obama has been doing.
goat herding regulations are for the benefit of muslim colonize.
the fact that Obama bothered to have such a traditional muslim brothel focused on is enough indication of it’s target beneficiaries.
You better take notice, people; Obama’s an authority on this issue.
When Obama sees “soft” he knows exactly what he’s talking about. Think of him and Moochelle, and you get the perfect image in mental and physical qualities.
YYYYYEK!
Four more years of this dreck?
Any man that wears rolled-up mom jeans and a bicycle helmet has no business calling anyone or anything ‘soft’. It is Obama who is soft- his entire life he has been coddled and enabled and handed things on a silver platter and told he’s awesome. The last 3 years have shown he is totally unprepared for anything even remotely resembling an actual job.
C’mon 2012
“Make the tough decisions, Mr. President. Stop taxing and spending and borrowing and regulating this great country out of existence.”
Of course that could be a bit of mis-direction to deflect public attention from more serious projects such as gun-runner. Projects whose rationale no one has yet determined.
“When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
And when the only hammer you have is a “tool”—–, you wind up with a pencil necked, jug eared egotist as your “Rapper in Chief”.
More proof, if any were needed, that Obama has lost the plot and is going down. Nothing he tries works and much that the tries backfires.
Nice article, Mr. Green.
Nice! you just de-pantsed the leader of the free world! Here is something new for maybe this board and for me. If it was a Republican who was knocking off all these AQ guys could you imagine the histrionics (in including those by State Senator Obama) from the left? Got to look for the silver lining some how.
This is unbelievable! OK, not really. When Obama makes a passing remark that corresponds to the critiques made of us and our culture by MANY of the writers and posters here, day after day (and whose to say that he was not alluding to his union and welfare cohorts?) outrage emerges!
Oh, never mind. The basic rule is get him any way you can. Got it.
I think people are just outraged becaused they’re being called soft by a guy who throws like a girl, and who gets all weepy about terrorists being locked up in Gitmo (well, he did before he was holding the keys to Gitmo).
Single first name? Our?
Beat it, troll.
And who are YOU?
Is Vodka including himself in the “we” who thought they were electing a steely budget cutter? Come on, Obama is one of only a handful of paid professional communists in the history of the United States. His entire pre-electoral career was in the employ of Alinsky-ite groups, founded by Alinsky’s personal students and acolytes. Saul Alinsky was the leading American communist of the 20th century. Can anyone really have thought that a paid professional communist was going to be a steely eyed budge cutter?
Other than that, great column.
I don’t believe Obama was referring to the conservative contingent of the country. I do believe he was speaking to the progressives who have not been as assertive as he would have liked.
You have to remember his point of reference is always from his world view and what is necessary to achieve his dreams(from his father). He could give a rats rear about the rest of us.
Listen to him as he speaks. He speaks through us and to his familiars and superiors. It is all inferred.
According to the Indonesian President, it is always somebody else’s fault, and the ever-widening net of those who must take the blame has now been expanded to include all of us. If only we were not so soft, his programs and leadership would be a great success– but we drag him down.
Re: “‘We elected — we thought we elected — a tough man to do a tough job.’
Speak for yourself. I knew what he was the first time I heard him speak. I’ve run into too many con men in my life to be fooled by a cheap shyster ten years my junior.” Well-said, Nancy… I practically talked myself hoarse before the 2008 election trying to get folks to see the real Obama, to no avail. I wasn’t fooled by him for even a minute. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life, but Obama – thank goodness – wasn’t one of them.
HrdCrps, re: “This clown, Vancy Jones, Bill Ayers, and all of the other anti-American types might just find how soft America really is if they take their revolution from talk to action. Remember, there will not be any hiding behind the law.” Indeed… I’ve had the same notion myself. The thing about guys like Obama and his gang of thieves is that they never get their hands dirty; they have thugs and goons for that, dupes who can be talked into doing the actual bashing of heads and so on, for him. Obama learned to stay “above the fray” from Mayor Daley, who ran the most corrupt city in the nation as a bully, without ever get his fingernails dirty.
It was a rhetorical device, which I thought was obvious. Longtime VodkaPundit readers know how I felt about the guy years ago.
Soft” He steals the paychecks of the working stiffs and his Chicago cronies will dig up enough dead stiffs to win the 2012 election. What’s he talking about “soft?”
Repeatedly pounded by his economic hammer and cut off at the knees by his class warfare sickle, the American people don’t stand a chance of getting ahead together. Barry Sotero’s hammer and sickle indoctrination is paying off against America.
We, those of us US citizens living and working in a latin american country, recognized from the get-go, candidate Obama sounded no different than other latin american politicos.
We americans working in these foreign countries recognized Mr. Bush’s lapses in his second administration (leaning ever closer to many recognizable socialist models in many latin american nations). Very worrisome.
Listening to candidate Obama and seeing where his expertise laid(mostly in legislative type second tier organizations) it soon dawned on most overseas americans in latin america that difficult times were surely going to unfold.
Businesses today have five and ten year projections. What candidate Obama and President Obama merely confirmed were already being estimated as a declining ratio of US growth and prosperity. For the long haul. Just a practical numbers projection.
Most of Wall Street was focused on quarterly returns, while a bigger picture outlook would have readily revealed a bloated public sector stifling private sector growth…for a very long time, possibly ten years or more.
While Wall Street’s focus was only on its “making money with money” attitude (as the Oracle of Omaha said in an interview with Bloomberg TV), daily nasdaq and S&P percentages…a rapid and constant rise in gold, silver and other world commodities didn’t start to register on Wall Street until after Fall of 2010.
Manipulation, greed and rampant corruption soon became the bedrock for american enterprise with “green technologies,” “too big to fail” and more public sector advances in private sector businesses. Regulation, Environmental norms and out- and-out corruption at evey level soon became the norm for a once burgeoning Wall Street and Main Street sector…leading to current long term declines and stagnation in America’s GDP growth.
A fix? Strong fiscal and monetary policy. Unfettered private enterprise development. Possibly a Flat Tax. Repeal 16th Amendment. Rescind Federal Reserves Charter. Close every useless government agency recently reported in a comissioned study. Reduce all government salaries to private sector norms. Eliminate every perk every government employee receives, i.e., same as private sector. Cut-Cap-Balance. Gut IRS and cottage industry correlated enterprises preying on average Americans.
An outline of the problem and some steps towards short and long term solutions. Will these, or any, be adopted? Most likely not. No matter who is voted into office because We The Elite People controlling Washington DC will not relinquish their power easily.
Vote massively this 2012 because massive fraud is on its way. God Bless America.
America weak? yeah, in a way. as a warrior, wounded from behind and left to die, suddenly rescued by his buds, and is now being nursed back to health. there is a sore spot for sure, and tender; but, we intend to heal, and be rid of you and all who walk in your wake.
i got a vision/dream of obi-won last nite. he was looking and waving at his comrads out of the back window of his limo as it drove out into the darkness. i looked hard at the driver and i could swear it was ted kennedy.
anybody seen Joseph?
Dwight talks of Uhbama’s ..’soft..’ reply as a ‘..passing remark..’. SERIOUSLY?
Yo Dwight, I take it you’re 1 of ‘those guys’ who will say the same for the 100′s of other ‘passing remarks’ this mook has said the last few years too, right?
The guy makes snide comments on the D L or to his useful idiot listeners on Illiberal radio stations constantly. Rarely realizing ‘Hey, I’m the most powerful man in the world. Perhaps I should stop with the divisive banter. After all I was sold as, ‘the great uniter’.
Nope, this dude has no scruples.
Don’t you get tired of carrying this empty vessel’s water?
Soft. It’s a shame he didn’t say that s hit to soldiers/vets vis-a-vis in the ME/West Beirut, Bosnia/Yugoslavia/Albania, Somalia/Sudan/Liberia, Zaire (Congo), Panama, Bolivia etc., or their loved ones.
You want to know what ‘soft’ is?
Bowing to Communist, Islamic Monarchy-controlled countries.
The POTUS photographed riding a girl’s bike.
Boogie boarding.
Having a glass lip, receiving stitches from a b-ball PICKUP game!
His opening game ‘pitch’ falling 15-20 feet short of the catcher.
Having to ‘sleep on it’ when deciding to 86 OBL.
Him and the misses speak of nutrition yet seen regularly eating garbage-like food and he still smokes.
His ALWAYS forcing speeches prior to a widely viewed television event.
Taking sides he knew next to nothing of regarding a college professor and sworn police officer or a myriad of other comments he’s ‘soft’ or aloof of.
Mr ‘I Won’ is a spineless person. Living off vapid fiction and false idolatry.
“Perhaps I should stop with the divisive banter.” Were you talking about him or yourself?
In our current political world, folks are actually violently allergic to the other side. Since both sides reactions are so reflexive and predictable, a poor confused centrist, such as myself has to do the best he can sorting through the sneezing, scratching, and cursing.
Don’t you ever wonder why more people are allergic to things than they used to be? Could it be AGW, the internet, or Muslims poisoning us? Beats the hell out of me.
Look, our culture IS soft to the extent that we think that luxuries are necessities, a point righties make endlessly here when they point out that our “poor” are the rich in most of the rest of the world. We are soft based on what people had to put up with and get by on through most of our history. We are soft compared to the Chinese. I’m not saying that I know what to do about it and maybe a good Depression will toughen us all up, but I think that is is a central tenet of modern righties that some of us are soft. Instead, Fox wants to know if we are insulted by this.
Are some of us soft…or not?
“Soft?”
How ironic that the “Wizard’s Apprentice” for the 60s protest generation says this, because they’re the one’s who caused this in the first place. Everything from “express yourself” through “question all authority” to moral relativism to weepy fantasy-world belief systems.
What a surprise that the Chickens have now come home to roost.
Paraphrasing Charles Krauthammer last night, it is typical for an incompetent, condescending narcissist to attempt to project the blame outward.
Who else can Obama possibly blame for the mess he is making? First, it was Bush, then the Tea party racists, then the earthquake in Japan, the tsunami, the EU, now it’s the citizens own fault. Yep, it’s Jimmy Carter II.
We can enjoy articles like this now because we know that the Bamster is the “unexceptional” One who is in decline and going to be toast next year. We feel better about the future because we understand that after the country has run the Obama gauntlet and been chased through the woods by the howling wolves of socialism we are nearing the Promised Land where the Democratic Party will at long last be reduced to a far left, runt party that will never again have the power to harm the country. This will be cash-in on the political annuity we purchased with so much economic pain over the last two and a half years.
You wrote, “In 2008, we elected a man who promised us…”
You are painting with a wide brush, or sweeping with a wide broom…whatever, Mr. Green. Exactly who is the “we” to whom you are referring? There are a whole lot of us out here who saw through Obama’s lies BEFORE casting our votes. So please, don’t include me and my intelligent, perceptive friends in with that crowd of “we.” In fact, I was so perceptive that I didn’t vote for McCain, either even though I am a retired Navy man.
So please, Mr. Green, do your thinking before you vote next time. I know you feel silly, seeing as how you were so very wrong, and you like to drag all of us through your guilt swamp with you, soiling our garments to match yours, but please refrain.
Relax, Ol’ John. As I said before — it’s a rhetorical device.
I didn’t vote for the guy. I warned people exactly what Obama was.
Longtime VodkaPundit readers know this already, so I suspect you’re new here. Welcome aboard.
My sincere apologies, Mr. Green. And thanks for the gentle application of rudder. Yes, I’m new to the site, having been pointed in this direction by Drudge or WND…can’t remember right now. So I’ll wipe the egg off my face and read your article again.
Respectfully,
John (not so old, actually.)
My pleasure.
I’m sorry but Obama’s use of that phrase is the Freudian slip of the century. What could he possibly have been thinking?????