President Obama continued his crass language against Republicans, in particular, during his latest re-election gimmick, the Twitter town hall. Speaking about the debt ceiling debacle, he said:
In some of his harshest language to date in the fight over the deficit, President Obama warned today that the debt ceiling should not be “used as a gun” against Americans to extract tax breaks for the wealthy.
Speaking at the Twitter Town Hall at the White House today, the president said Congress “shouldn’t be toying” with the debt ceiling and cautioned against risking the financial health of the country in order to protect the interests of the super wealthy.
“Never in our history has the United States defaulted on its debt. The debt ceiling should not be something that is used as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate jet owners, for oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars because the price of gasoline has gone up so high. I mean, I'm happy to have those debates. I think the American people are on my side on this,” Obama said.
He thinks the American people are on his side? Really? And, notice the re-emergence of the ugly gun and hostage taking references by the President of the United States when he refers to a position held by his opponents. Hey, what happened to all the "new tone" preaching and hand wringing?
When speaking about budget cuts, Commander-in-Chief Obama let slip some real feelings about the military, didn't he? “We will have to make tough decisions about Defense spending, or even on programs that I like.”, he said. Not so fond of the Defense Department, apparently. Remember that slip when you hear the feel good stories of his visits with military families and when he speaks of his respect for the military.
Some journalists deduce that photo op stunts like the Twitter town hall are nothing but the anxiety of Team Obama over the re-election prospects in full display. Frankly, I think that is true. Just like the defense attorneys who throw absolutely every possible theory or motive out there so that a jury will have it all mulling around in their heads as they deliberate guilt or innocence of a defendant, Team Obama is trying out every possible gimmicky event to capture the attention of any voter willing to listen. It smacks of desperation.
There is little for the President to run on as successes in his agenda during his first term in office.
In the end, Garrett said the Obama administration needed to connect with the public on the economy. He explained as the economy continues to struggle, the president’s ability to communicate on that will become more and more difficult.
“[I] would say the jobs report that came out a month ago that showed an enormously shallow capability of this economy to create jobs brought about by gas prices, brought about instability in Europe, brought about by the continuing sense of unease among major sectors of the U.S. economy – what would come next was the pivot point for this administration because it undercut everything the president had been saying for a year about this recovery,” Garrett said.
This is why we will continue to hear Team Obama blame former President Bush for today's floundering economic recovery, though we are now approaching year three of the Obama administration. The fact of the matter is, the decisions and theories of the Obama administration in guiding the economy have failed. He made it worse.
So, Team Obama turns to social media:
“[I]f people aren’t listening to you on that core message, it doesn’t matter what you say anymore,” he said. “And I think the president is dangerously close to losing that connection with the American people on what he knows about the economy and what he can predict about the economy. And presidents who can’t lead on the economy tend to be replaced. And I think today’s Twitter town hall is evidence of a low-level degree of anxiety bordering on panic within the Chicago reelection headquarters because back 2008 and 2007, I watched this develop on the ground. There was a sense that ‘oh social media created the energy.’ No, social media harnessed and built it out. It made it exponential. But it didn’t create it in the first place and you see a lot of sort of feverish attempts to engage social media as if that’s the means by which to create energy. No – you create energy by what you do, what you say and how you lead, especially if you’re seeking reelection and it’s at that level that I think the energy pool is much more shallow for President Obama than the campaign would like it to be.”
President Obama, the cool guy offering all that hope and change, is so 2008. He failed to deliver and actually increased many policies he campaigned against. Maybe change meant more of the same only even more ramped up. All the tweets in the world won't change his record.
No comments:
Post a Comment