Hype and spare change

President Obama campaigned on the slogan of "Hope and Change!" He has failed to deliver on either front. Hope was supposed to lead to a new kind of governance, one in which there were no red states or blue states, just the United States. This was to be the "most transparent administration ever". It was to be bipartisan and rational, doing what was good for the country, not just for some political groups. People were going to feel better about the country as both the methods of governance and the actual conditions improved. So what happened? We have now the most highly partisan administration in recent memory. Going back in time, no president demonized his enemies like Obama. Richard Nixon had an enemies list 40 years ago, but even at his worst, his administration did not accuse political opponents of being terrorists, racists and all manner of other nasty stuff. Obama, however, sits by silently while the vice president calls congressional Republicans terrorists and hostage takers. He says nothing while his allies at the CBC say that these same Republicans want to lynch innocent blacks and return to Jim Crow. He joins in the villification of the GOP at almost every turn. Nothing is ever a problem to solve; instead, Obama is all about assigning blame. Of course, the blame always falls on someone other than himself. Most presidents do not enjoy accepting the consequences of their actions if those consequences are not good. Obama, however, just refuses to ever accept his due. This is not responsible government. This is not bipartisanship.

Now comes the latest. Obama is giving a speech on Thursday to outline his "jobs program". Goodness knows, the economy needs help. Obama told us a month ago that he would put forth the plan in September, after Labor Day. That was strange enough, since the crisis was there in August and some action was needed. Then, of course, we had the kerfuffle over which night Obama would speak. This hyper partisan silliness was just more of the typical Obama moves. He tries to disrupt the GOP debate with his selection of a night for the long delayed speech. Then, he immediately caves when Boehner calls him on this. But this is not the true point here. No, the key is that White House sources are now telling the media that the speech will not contain the entire Obama jobs plan. Instead, Obama will unveil that in pieces at rallies in California, Oregon and Washington during a swing West. Coincidentally, Obama will also headline fund raising dinners at those locations while he is there onpresidential business. So, after waiting a month to unveil this "plan" to America, Obama is just stretching it out further.

While this may not sound like much, it is perhaps one of the worst things Obama has done to date. Imagine, the country is hurting, people need jobs, and Obama thinks he has a plan which will remedy that. So what does he do. Clearly, he should unveil the plan immediately and try to put it in place as quickly as possible. But that is not Obama. He first waits a month to announce the details. Then, after the month has passed, he lets out that he will only tell us part. The rest will wait for later in the fall. Is he kidding? Is Obama so disdainful of the American people that he would schedule the announcement of his plan for his own political purposes when it would help millions who are currently suffering?

The truth is that the entire exercise is HYPE! There is no hope here. Obama is just promoting himself with a so-called "plan" that really does not exist. That is the only rational conclusion that one can draw from this. Even I, who truly dislike Obama and his policies, cannot believe that Obama would leave millions of his countrymen to suffer just so that he could get a political advantage over the GOP. That would make him a monster.

So we have the hype. What about the change? There has indeed been change. Government is much more partisan than it was in 2008. The economy is stuck in decline so things are much worse than they were. The healthcare industry, one-sixth of the economy is threatened with major disruption due to Obamacare. Dodd-Frank has institutionalized "too big to fail" as federal policy, almost insuring a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis while harming the smaller banks and companies that might compete with the big guys and bring growth to the economy. General Motors is producing the electric car favored by the Democrats even though no one is buying them.

The truth is that most people have reached the point where they are searching their couches for spare change that might have fallen under the cushions. So we got "spare change".

In 2012, Obama may just want to use the slogan "Hype and Spare Change."