Curmudgeon's Corner

Left at the Altar Twice?

Posted by Al Campbell on July 23, 2011

Political, U.S., Taxes, Quality of Life, Economy

Had you been “left at the altar twice”, as our President said happened to him in the quest for debt reduction, don’t you think you might start to “get it”?

President Obama has a problem in that he can’t seem to bully the participants into making a deal that will make him look “Presidential”.  His party, the Democrats, have failed to meet the requirements of producing a budget twice in the past two years.  Where was he during that intentional ignorance of elected responsibility?

Peggy Noonan points out today (Wall Street Journal) that President Obama’s job approval rating has dropped from 52% to 46% since June 2^nd, and that is from polling by the Democrat-oriented Public Policy Polling organization.  It is no coincidence that this drop has paralleled the President’s attempted involvement in the debt reduction talks.  His temperamental display at his press conference yesterday afternoon was yet another indication that he doesn’t seem to “get it”.  He blames the other party or parties every time something he is involved in falls apart.  Like being stood up at the altar twice, don’t you think you might begin to question yourself and your position?

Rep. Boehner appeared later yesterday and said that the President had “moved the goal posts” again, this time by adding a mere four hundred billion dollars in new taxes (or revenue, if you prefer to be circumspect) to the already agreed upon eight hundred billion dollars for a “grand” total of $1.2 trillion in new “revenue”.  That is what caused Boehner to decide he was not going to continue to bang his head on the wall yesterday.  Just when he thinks a deal is within reach, the goal line moves.

The President has managed to avoid stating a plan of his own, thus making it somewhat impossible for him to be held to account by the press and by the public.  Yet, he earnestly wants to be seen as important to the process.

We really do understand Mr. President.  It is all about you and we aren’t about to forget that.  You just keep reminding us over and over and over and over…to the limits of tedium.

Please schedule several days of golf and let the adults do the hard lifting.  It seems you and members of your party want the adults to make decisions.  It just doesn’t seem that you are a member of the group that could be called adult.  Our country’s credit rating is very important; it is not something that ought to be played out in the political arena where one side tries to one-up the other side for pure political gain. 

Get the job done and let us decide which party we think did the heavy lifting.  If it was you, then you’ll benefit.  If it wasn’t you, we’ll know and we’ll let you know what we think when we close the curtain behind us at the polling place.