Snake Oil, Mr. President?

Recently, President Obama went to Nevada to campaign for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a tight race for re-election. The man who campaigned on his personal skills of rising above standard partisan politics was in full partisan voice. He amused himself with the use of the term "snake oil" in describing GOP policies. Such dignified speech from the President of the United States.

Well, if anyone knows "snake oil", it would be Barack Obama.

HERE some inconvenient facts on our economy: Let’s take a look at the facts. Unemployment when Obama came into office was 7.6%, it’s now 9.5%. Since Obama’s stimulus went into affect America has lost another 3 million jobs. The deficit, in George Bush’s last full budget year was $460 billion dollars. Obama has tripled that.

Obama went to Michigan this week and mocked Republicans who attend "ribbon cuttings" yet didn't support his massive spending/taxing bill passed earlier in his term. In this post on the Internet from the event, sponsored by Michigan Rep Pete Hoekstra now running for Governor, In the latest stop on his “Recovery Summer” tour, rock star President Barack Obama landed in Holland, Michigan Thursday, insulted its congressman, handed American stimulus dollars to a Korean corporation, and proclaimed Obamanomics a success even as Michigan has lost 94,000 jobs since his Recovery Act was enacted. It was most definitely a shot to Hoekstra, even though he was a host of the presidential publicity op and previously told a questioner that he would attend out of respect for the office of the President.

Too bad President Obama doesn't understand the importance of his office within the national discourse. Or, maybe part of his idea of 'change' is to so dilute the dignity of the office that simple bare knuckle politics will be expected from the Oval Office. Maybe he assumes Americans will be content with a president who simply chooses to publicly serve only his own political party. So much for the 'post partisan' Obama.

Completely void of leadership skills, Obama has lost credibility with even his own party. A recent article in FT.com - Financial Times - noted his growing credibility crisis. Even liberal pollsters are finding data that supports the premise that Americans feel the Obama agenda is too liberal. Stanley Greenberg of Democracy Corps and husband to a member of the House of Representatives who frequently works with James Carville, comes to this conclusion. He found that 55 per cent of Americans think Obama is a socialist and that 48 per cent of Americans support Republicans versus 42 per cent support for Democrats.

"The bottom line here is that Americans don't believe in President Obama's leadership," says Rob Shapiro, another former Clinton official and a supporter of Mr. Obama. "He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can't think of how he could do that."

Ratcheting up the partisan name calling and ridicule of the minority party does him no favors. He is too small of a man, though to realize this. He confuses the Illinois state legislature with the Oval Office. His complete lack of executive experience is on display. The man never ran a business, a team of any kind, or a state government. It shows.