Friday, April 17, 2015

The Real Barack Obama Part Two - "Uncle Santa Claus"

     I remember crying the night Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. I just broke down and wept. I knew this country was in trouble. But nothing prepared me for the spectacle I witnessed in 2008. It was utter insanity. Barack Obama promised everyone everything, and all I could think was, “Where does he think he will get all of this money?” “Free” health care, “free” cell phones, “free” college funds; he promised one woman in a town hall meeting a new kitchen! He clucked his tongue at people's sad stories, promising “Change”. While I do not have a degree in economics from MIT like my unofficial mentor, the numbers just were not making sense to me. We were going to get rid of the deficit and the national debt, cut taxes, and have all of these “freebies”? I thought I would be sick. Worse, addle-brained voters lapped it up. Every last drop. And of course part of what drove Obama into the White House was the old refrain, “We shall overcome”. Who cares about qualifications, truthfulness of campaign promises, and the consequences to the United States when you can have the first black president?
     Wow, the KGB was smart! Yuri Bezmenov predicted Obama's ascention to the throne more than twenty years before it happened:
     While I was not wild about John McCain, I did like Sarah Palin a lot, and I would have voted for virtually anyone other than Barack Obama. The polls were neck-in-neck at the end of the summer and I was very nervous, but I thought the GOP would pull it out in the end.
     Then came the "crisis".
     Oh, Yuri, you were so right.
     I have never followed the market, although I held a little stock through my employer at one time, so I did not hear the rumblings on Wall Street until the news broke the week of September 8th. Everyone went into a panic. The media fanned the flames, the speeches were passionate, and by the time Congress took its first vote on Friday, September 12th, I was convinced they needed to pass a bailout bill. After all, if Wall Street collapses, the entire economy goes with it, and the terrorists win. Right?
     Congress declined to pass the bill that Friday, and the weekend gave me a chance to calm down and think. By Sunday, I realized I had been swept up in the drama and had not been thinking clearly. First, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were going to go bankrupt? How? I received part of my college tuition through Fannie Mae, so I knew they are federally insured. The Treasury would have to go broke, and all they would do is print more money. Now, I am not advocating such measures because they create a different set of problems, but I realized something was wrong with the narrative. In addition, I have been a lifelong Republican. Since when did I believe the government should bail out private businesses? If Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, et. al., made bad financial decisions (and boy, did they!), then let the chips fall where they may. So, by Monday I was ready to have Congress defeat the bill again, but this time they were the ones in a panic and they passed TARP. I discovered later what a fiasco that was; banks who took that money became beholden to the government until such time as the money was paid back with interest, as is the case any time an entity (or an individual) receives such funds.
    George Bush had fallen prey to a set-up. This false “crisis” drove him to do things that I do not believe he would have advocated under ordinary circumstances. But, he was looking at the upcoming general election and decided it would be suicide for the Republican Party if Wall Street were left to hang. The exact opposite was the case, and Barack Obama effectively stole his way into the White House.
     Believe it or not, the worst was yet to come. On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama used the occasion of his inaugural address to humiliate George W. Bush and America as a whole. It was the most appalling display I have seen in my life. The former president was sitting not ten feet away from the newly-appointed One, and had to sit there with dignity and class while sitting through a completely humorless and de classe roast. It was despicable, but it was only a foreshadow of things to come.
     Part Three will cover Obama's first year in office.

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