Many people are expressing astonishment at the tone deaf activities of the Obama administration this summer, from the mostly disastrous town hall meetings on health care reform, to the unmasking of his “green jobs” czar as a left wing 9/11 truther nutter, to the less than positive reception his back-to-school address is getting. But, really, why should they be surprised?
Let me preface these remarks by saying that better than 90 percent of all politicians are greedy, self-serving lowlifes, and party affiliation does not change this characterization. So, while it would appear that the ensuing comments pick on the Dems, let me assure you that I have no love for Team “R” either.
Obama’s main problem is that he has been able to avoid any scrutiny in his political life until now, and even now, it is mostly coming from sources outside the mainstream. He was NEVER anything more than a machine politician, coming from one of dirtiest machines in the country—Chicago. Although billed as a great orator by many, he is actually a poor speaker—needing a teleprompter for even the shortest speech—and can boast only a good (old style FM radio) voice.
If his ideas and initiatives appear to be tone deaf, this stems from his own record as never being challenged in his entire life until now. But, there is one other factor, and that is what I call the socialism monologue.
One of the reasons that there has never been—and never will be—a successful Leftist talk radio format is that the presentation of these ideas has always been in a pontificating format, and never in an open discussion. If any questions to Leftist orthodoxy are allowed, they are invariably answered with an ad hominem insult: The questioner is either a racist, sexist, or homophobe.
In the rare case that discussion is not cut off in this manner, another gambit is utilized. Here, the deficiencies of the program under review are acknowledged, but it is explained that these deficiencies only occurred since the program was not socialistic enough, and a wee bit of capitalism was allowed to sneak in. Presumably, now under Obama, the socialism will be pure, and the programs will work.
This, of course, is only wishful thinking on behalf of the proponents. In fact, the fulfillment of all socialistic programs, as tried in all countries, is nowhere near as important as the selling point of the ideal. This cynical proposition is based on the notion that liberal voters will feel good about these programs, and will have little concept of what is really happening in the field.
Thus, we can have a “War on Poverty” which spent more than $180,000 per poor person, with almost no results. Indeed, Tom Fletcher, LBJ’s TV poster child for the launch of this war remained unhelped and abandoned by the Feds. But, Dem voters could feel good about how they were helping the poor.
Likewise, we can have a Cash for Clunkers program that cannot even get reimbursements to the auto dealers in a timely manner. Consider for a moment what a colossal failure this is.
Few portions of the economy are hurting any worse than auto dealers, yet these poor businessmen have advanced their own funds toward to the program and are waiting…and waiting for their money. Note, also, that administering this program could not be easier: A voucher is turned in by the dealer, it is evaluated by the Feds, and a check is sent or electronic transfer made.
How many vouchers are we talking about here? 100,000 tops. Couldn’t 200 people have been lined up to make this thing work? Evidently not, as the selling point of the ideal is all that matters. Oh yeah, and we’re going to trust these screw-ups with our health care.
For tone deaf in the private sector, look no further than recent movie release All About Steve, an incredible critical disaster, garnering a nearly unprecedented 5% on the RottenTomatoes.com tomatometer. As Peter Sobczynski, of eFilmCritic.com pointed out, “This is easily the single worst film that Sandra Bullock has been involved with and bear in mind, I have seen “Speed 2 (1997).”
Inasmuch as Bullock was the producer, she cast herself, and picked the godawful script. What was she thinking?