July 2 2009

Truth is elastic, and only counts for today.

Remember during the campaign where Barack Obama got great mileage out of John McCain’s proposition to tax employer health care benefits? With mock horror and a plea to good ol’ American values, he said McCain’s plan was “so radical, so out of touch with what you’re facing, and so out of line with our basic values.”

Guy Benson in yesterday’s National Review Online (“Obama is a big fat liar, illustrated”) quotes Jim Geraghty‘s story called, “Barack Obama is a big fat liar.” Both are great reads, but one of the great quotes is,

Back in March, White House budget director Peter Orszag said taxing employer benefits was among several ideas that “most firmly should remain on the table,” and some congressional Democrats told the Washington Post that White House officials said Obama would accept such a tax “as long as he didn’t have to propose it himself.” [emphasis mine]

That’s authentic leadership, that’s being the first one on the field and the last one off for the troops. Oh wait, no it’s not. It’s sleazy. If it was a ridiculous option when McCain proposed it, then it should be a ridiculous idea now. If it’s not a ridiculous idea now, then he should propose it. Otherwise, he’s self promoting.

This is why I don’t trust Barack Obama. He’s slimy. He says what is politically expedient, and doesn’t mind turning away from those statements the next day. Worse still, he will pawn off the hard work to someone else, and use it when it serves his ultimate purpose and then distance himself when it doesn’t.

If Obama wanted to tax health care benefits, it wouldn’t surprise me. I expect him to tax everything he can see to pay for his harmful ideas. I could tolerate that (I wouldn’t like it, but I would understand) because I believe that elections have consequences, and he won the election (as Ed Koch said, “the people must be punished“). I just don’t believe it’s too much to ask that he stand up and take the lead and not pass the buck to some underling. If he changed his mind, stand up and tell me why, but take the heat.

Early in his administration I blasted him for his lack of hope & change. This is most definitely change. We’ve changed from a leader who faced seeming global criticism by himself and didn’t back down. To a politician who hides behind the polls and pundits and passes off the tough decisions as someone else. Now, we can only hope for a greater change in 2012.

See the Obama/McCain ads at the bottom of this National Review article.

6 COMMENTS
Francesca Watson
July 2, 2009
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I’ve been speaking with an office friend recently about the direction being taken by this administration – someone who enthusiastically supported the Big O during the election and who gave me a really hard time about my views at the time. He told me the other day that he he thought maybe I’d been right, that he was beginning to see the point I’d been trying to make about why I thought Obama was so dangerous. My reply was, “So what does “right” get me? I’ve still got a president who’s going to bankrupt my family in the four years between now and the time my husband retires. What’s so great about being right??”

We’d better do more than hope for greater change in 2012. We’d better be prepared to work for it – and work hard. Obama’s proving us right, but that won’t be enough to solve all the many problems we’ll be left with as a result of four years of disasterous policies. My guess is that 2012 will be only the beginning of a very long and hard road. My biggest concern now is not that he’ll be re-elected – I think he’ll be a one-term wonder like Carter. It’s that I fear we’ve raised two successive generations that aren’t sufficiently selfless to get the job done.

David Banks
July 3, 2009
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I mostly feel sorry for your co-worker who couldn’t see that this is exactly what the rest of us wanted to do once we got our guy in office. As to the post, Just because a righty columnist says something doesn’t make it true. Obama doesn’t have to answer for every idea of every person in the party. He’s simply not responsible for making sure everyone agrees on every policy decision. And.. the crazy Idea that a president might be willing to sign a bill with things in it that they weren’t personally for.. well that is new territory isn’t it. Thats certainly never happened before. How will we go on?

realityunwound
July 3, 2009
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I can’t tell if you’re dodging the issue or just can’t see it. If a President was against something strongly enough that they would run ads about it and make it a point tearing down the opposition, then it’s flip flop (at absolute best) to then sign it. Then to say he’ll sign as long as he doesn’t propose it. He’s the ultimate slimy politician.

Her co-worker is just waking up to what you and the star-struck media refuse to. Obama’s ideas are going to bear sick, diseased fruit in this country for a long long time.

And are you saying that Obama never said he’d sign the bill, or are you saying that it doesn’t matter if he did?

dbanks
July 5, 2009
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“Then to say he’ll sign as long as he doesn’t propose it. ” Did that happen?

realityunwound
July 6, 2009
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You know, your point here is actually well made. Just because Barack Obama SAYS he’ll do something doesn’t in any way mean that he will. He said he’d give American people 5 days to look over any legislation he rams through congress, that hasn’t happen, he said he’d change the lobbyist policy in Washington, that hasn’t happen. So why do I think all of a sudden he’s going to do what he says NOW. Good point.

David Banks
July 6, 2009
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looky there… common ground.

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