Tag: barack obama

Categories
political challengers

Listening to the Voters

After Scott Brown captured the U.S. Senate seat Ted Kennedy had occupied for decades, we heard two different views of the event.

One said the surprise victory of an obscure state senator over the anointed Democrat in such a Democrat-​leaning state had much to do with growing antagonism to runaway federal spending and spastic efforts to expand federal control over our lives. That Scott Brown promised to vote against Obamacare supports this view. So do exit polls showing that 41 percent of participants “strongly oppose” the health care legislation, only 25 percent “strongly favor” it.

The other notion is that Brown won only because people are frustrated. President Obama declared that “the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept [him] into office.” People are “angry and they are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

See, it’s all Bush-​legacy stuff, not anything Obama and the Democrats have been doing. 

Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

Not everyone’s wearing blinders. Soon after Brown won, Democratic Senator Jim Webb said the election had been a referendum on both health care legislation and “the integrity of the government process.” He urged fellow Democrats not to try ramming Obamacare through before Brown could be seated. 

Hmmm. Listening to the voters. Good idea, Jim. 

And it’s Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
general freedom national politics & policies

Greater Eloquence

Last week, two major speeches caught our attention.

Barack Obama wagged his finger at the Supreme Court and orated in front of Congress. He said the state of the union is sound.

Apple’s Steve Jobs gave the other big speech, presenting the new iPad, a portable device that accesses the Web, allows users niftily to buy and read e‑books, and much more. 

Which speech will usher in real change? 

Both have their critics. Many people no longer trust Obama, whether he’s pushing more government or a freeze. And many folks second-​guess Apple’s newest project, despite Jobs’s spectacular success record. 

For my part, I don’t buy Obama’s agenda. But I probably won’t buy an iPad, either. I tend to regard even the best new tech breakthroughs as just more vacuum cleaners. They really do suck … one’s time, anyway.

But to succeed, Apple doesn’t need my excitement. Just enough from others. 

Early in each of Apple’s revolutions, it was hard to prophesy success, with certainty. 

The neat thing about a possible neo-​Gutenberg Age of tablets, e‑books and virtual libraries is that I will still be able to read a normal book. One the other hand, if Obama gets his way, his policies will, willy nilly, crowd out better ones.

Still, it’s heartening to realize that to most of us the eloquence of a revolutionary thing means more, now, than the eloquence of any politician.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
government transparency

Grading the President

Barack Obama promised a new era of government transparency. He even pledged a fully transparent congressional debate on health care reform, telling us repeatedly that the negotiations would be televised on C‑Span.

Now in power, he’s forgotten that tune. But of course, that’s not up to him. It’s up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Last week, she laughed at such transparency.

But Clint Hendler of the Columbia Journalism Review has graded the president for what he — not Pelosi or Reid — can deliver on transparency. Regarding state secrets, Hendler gives Obama a “D.” With Freedom of Information Act requests the administration has done better: Mark it a “B.”

I’ve talked before about problems with the recovery​.gov website. But what about data​.gov? By the end of the month there should be some meat on that site’s database bones, but a lot more work will remain. Call it a “D‑plus.”

Hendler gives an “F” to the White House’s routine — and utterly opaque — practice of concocting off-​the-​record background briefings. An “A‑minus,” though, goes for White House visitor records … despite a refusal to issue lists of visitors in the administration’s first seven months. Further, the White House reserves its right to hold back this info at any time.

The president’s grades sure aren’t that of an overachiever. Maybe he needs a tutor.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets responsibility

Economist-​in-​Chief

I’m not an economist. So take my advice with a grain of salt. Or two.

But hold the pepper. I’m not the only non-​economist. Our president isn’t one, either.

Sure, he has economists on his staff, but I’ve more than just begun to doubt their wisdom.

Take his latest advice to banks: “Go back and take a third and fourth look” at operations … and “explore every responsible way” to put their money in the hands of small and medium-​sized businesses with current loan applications.

We can all agree it’d be nice to get rolling like we were before the bust.

But I bet bankers are trying to learn something from the bust, something about booms. They have every reason to be super-​cautious. What if the current situation remains a house of cards, one that could come a‑crashin’ at any moment? Lending money out now, in questionable cases, would be a horrid waste of capital.

I know that presidents are now cheerleaders for prosperity. One of their jobs, in the modern interventionist economy, is to pretend that prosperity is always right around the corner. Even if it isn’t.

But bankers have a different job. That job is to not lose money. And if they are now afraid tht in making a loan they might not get their money back, no amount of “advice” from our alleged economist-​in-​chief should change their minds. It’s called “fiduciary responsibility.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
political challengers

Enemies Lists

Courtesy of the Obama administration, we’re experiencing more and more Nixonian moments.

Take medical reform. The health insurers started out in Obama’s camp. But a shuffling of policies and a few insurance companies began making obvious points about how this or that feature would raise costs, not decrease them.

And the Obama administration struck back. 

I’ve talked about the Humana gag order, how our bureaucrats in Washington decided to tell insurance companies to shut up about reform proposals. Congress gagged the gaggers.

Then a health insurance association released a study suggesting that the cost of insurance would likely go up under legislation being proposed in Congress. The president retaliated by threatening to take away the industries’ immunity from anti-​trust laws.

What? An important policy change, and the president threatens it not to achieve a better outcome, or for constitutional reasons, but merely to punish and thereby silence opposition to his policies? How petty. How dangerous.

On the floor of the Senate, Lamar Alexander advised the Obama administration to play a little less hardball. Alexander warned that by creating an “enemies list,” including people in the media, the White House is heading into Nixon territory. 

“An enemies list only denigrates the presidency, and the republic itself.” An old Nixon aide, Senator Alexander should know. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
individual achievement responsibility

That Ol’ Double Standard

On Townhall​.com I discussed the ominous parallels between giving an award to a statesman who’s accomplished almost nothing and Hollywood insiders’ weirdo defense of international, jet-​setting rapist Roman Polanski. My point was that people tend to relax their standards for the people they like, remaining harsh to the people they oppose.

Though I picked on the liberalish mindset, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: This is not a problem limited to the Left.

I remember Republicans of my younger days thinking that Richard Nixon got a raw deal. True enough. Nixon’s two predecessors did nearly everything he did. But let’s remember: Nixon got justice. Or nearly so.

What he’s getting right now is none of my business.

There’s also the delay that I saw in conservative reactions against Tom DeLay’s obvious corruptions. And I’m not talking about his recent stint on Dancing With the Stars. I’m talking about his fancy footwork — and that of his supporters — in Congress.

The tendency to support a double standard — leniency for friends and cohorts, hanging judgments for enemies and opponents — is not new. It will never go away. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t surprise ourselves by sticking up for principle especially for those on our side.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.