Obama Whining in Ohio

This posting first appeared in Grizzly Groundswell on 1-25-10.



Things have not been going well for President Obama lately. Poll numbers are down, and government health care is on the ropes again after the stunning defeat in Massachusetts. So it looks like the President has decided to go back into campaign mode (as if he ever left it). His speech this past week at a town hall meeting in Ohio was more in the old campaign style. It flopped-again. Could it be that as the Muddy Waters song goes, "the thrill is gone"?

Obama's speech was an exercise in whining. He is still trying to play the class-envy game. He attacked the banks, but he never blamed Barney Frank, who is responsible more than anyone for creating the mortgage mess. He never blamed the quasi-government entities known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He blames Bush for all "the problems he inherited when he took office." Yet, he, who was elected to fix said problems, has been president for a year. He talks repeatedly about jobs, but except for creating lots of high-paying government bureaucratic jobs, he creates none for the private sector.

The most ironic point Obama tried to make was when he claimed that, "it's not about me....", then proceeded to talk about himself. You see, it's all because he is a strong leader who wasn't afraid to tackle the problems and try to solve them. The reason his numbers are bad is because he chose not to "kick the problems down the road". He is a whiner now. He can't acknowledge that the majority of people in this country do not want his massive power grab for himself and his Democrat-run Congress. They don't want this massive government health care take-over, and they are letting him know it. Already, the cracks in Congress are starting to to appear. A handful of Democrats are hinting it's time to take a step back. Nancy Pelosi says the Senate bill doesn't have the votes in the House.

But Obama is too busy talking to listen. He doesn't realize that the audience has started heading for the aisles. Now he thinks it is time to ratchet up the oratory that worked so well on the campaign trail. It seems now, however, that people find his oratory boring.

As I've said before, Barack Obama is like the con-man who can talk his way right in your front door-then proceeds to talk his way right out the back door.