Even Obama, Biden and Pelosi seemed bored during the State of the Union Address. Obama couldn’t even gin up enough energy to discuss “Gitmo”. But it does not matter what he said. It’s all over for his presidency.
The Democrat Party now understands just how bad they blew it in 2009. This is good for the country, although bad for their party. They were the proverbial “dog with a bone” peering at its reflection in the water. The Party saw an illusion of maximum gain and went for the second bone—-and now all is gone. They sought maximum change in health care, maximum change in energy policy, maximum Miranda rights for terrorists, and maximum deficit spending. But the American public does not want any of it. Consequently, Obama may have set the land speed record to “lame duckness” by any president in history.
The Scott Brown election was a remarkable event. On a day when Timothy Geithner was being grilled by the “shocked, shocked” Congress on AIG’s “secret” role, bankrolled by the taxpayers, in overpaying for bonds to prop up Goldman Sachs, etc., the president had his own “mark-to-market” problems. Brown was not just the 41st Republican Senator. If he were, there is plenty of money to bribe someone to pass desired legislation. But his election could have occurred anywhere in this country. The Brown election wasn’t a “message”, it was a “mark-to-market” of the president’s agenda. There are no longer enough Democratic Senators and/or Representatives willing to support proposed Obama, Reid, and Pelosi legislation. Now what?
We will have to endure a series of never ending public speeches by the president on transparently absurd proposals about “targeted spending freezes” and “targeted bank taxes” and “targeted tax breaks for small business”, etc. etc. The only real target is on the taxpayers back. But even these “targeted” proposals won’t happen. A herd of hyenas do not change their nature, and nor do reflexive herds of Statist Democrats. So we must await the election of 2010.
But this is not 1994. While there may be some chance for Republicans to narrowly take the House, the Senate seems out of reach, even as Republicans are likely to gain seats. Of course the economy could improve between now and then. This will benefit Democrats. But the Democrat Party wants it both ways with the economy. On the one hand, it is treated as some entity “out there” of which they are simple victims. On the other hand, they want to claim it would have been worse were it not for the stimulus bill—of which 65% has not been spent. What they don’t consider as possible is their proposals may have restricted private investment, thus making economic conditions worse. The major point is that while the Republicans will make significant gains in November, they will not be sufficient to alter the national agenda between now and 2012. Obama also is not Clinton. He does not have the ideological or personal temperament to change. So stalemate will prevail.
We have all heard of TARP and “$750 billion” as well as the stimulus and “$787 billion”. But these were projected numbers only. Only half of the TARP money was spent and some has been repaid. Only one-third of the stimulus money was spent. The Obama administration could reduce the deficit with the unspent funds. He could also support extending the “Bush” tax cuts. LOL funny, I admit. Once money is allocated in DC, it’s never given back. So we will continue with our “last days of Pompeii” mentality. We will also get 3 more years of Obama led verbal chaos combined predominantly with government inaction. That’s not the worst thing, I guess.
There is one caveat. It’s called, by normal people, the “war on terror”. Those guys aren’t going anywhere. So while our oblivious president can mostly do only verbal harm on the home front, all bets are off as he continues to read Miranda rights to suicide bombers.
Three years will seem like an eternity.
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Visit Michael Rulle’s Blog Here. See his previous NewsReal commentaries here.
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