The Imperial Blunder Of The Century

My lifetime has spanned the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush the Elder, Clinton, Bush the Younger and The Stuttering Clusterfuck of a Miserable Failure.

I didn’t need a poll to ostensibly direct me to a manifest conclusion that The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer is the worst president since World War II. 

It is said that hero worship is strongest where there is little regard for human freedom.  That axiom came to mind as I read the results of the latest Gallup Poll in which we discover only 79% of Americans are satisfied with their level of freedom.  That is down from 91% in 2006.  Once the highest ranked country in the world on such polls, we have dropped to 36th place.  Other studies show that the greatest nation on Earth is dropping to the same low levels on freedom of the press, Internet speech and a whole host of other freedoms.

We have a floundering president who is suffering defeats in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Russia and the Ukraine. This is a corrupt, dishonest president who is morphing into a president worse than Jimmy Carter through indecision, insecurity and ineptitude.

A plurality of Americans on the eve Independence Day no longer trust the current occupant of the Oval Office and believe he is utterly incapable of leading the country.

Michael Goodwin encapsulates what most Americans have thought since Inauguration Day 2009:

“Losing the consent of the governed is a profound event, and there is no easy path back to public grace. His taunting of Republicans and critics in campaign-style events reinforces doubts about his fitness. Absorbed with self-pity and fixated on finding blame, he gives the impression of someone who never considers the possibility he might be part of the problem.”

Headwinds: Sky-High Taxation, Regulation And Scofflaw Executive Orders Aren’t Helping America’s Anemic Economy

Once upon a time, in a country now barely recognizable, a certain errand boy sent by grocery clerks uttered the words, "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal …"

In that same lofty speech, a warning was given that 52% of the electorate unwisely ignored at their peril:  “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

Those five days passed and in early 2009, the regime of the errand boy boldly predicted that if Congress passed his $800 billion stimulus plan that by this time the nation’s unemployment rate would be around 5.6%.

Fast forward three-and-a-half years.  Today’s weak job market is affected by things such as the threat of higher taxes in 2013 (when the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are scheduled to expire), the costly impact of Obamacare, and the harsh regulatory environment.

This country’s jobless rate has remained perched at above 8% for 41 straight months.  The average length of unemployment rose to 39.9 weeks in June.  Companies continue to be cautious in their hiring making it harder for those without jobs to find work.

It will take 219,000 net new jobs a month for the unemployment rate to be below 8% on Election Day if the current participation rate holds steady.

James Pethokoukis, writing for American Enterprise Institute, reminds us that, “Job growth during the three-year Obama recovery has averaged just 75,000 a month for a total of 2.7 million. During the first three years of the Reagan Recovery, job growth averaged 273,000 a month for a total of 9.8 million. If you adjust for the larger U.S. population today, the Reagan Recovery averaged 360,000 jobs a month for a three-year total of 13 million jobs.”

Hmmmm…it is reasonable to conclude that the sooner the errand boy sent by grocery clerks is removed from the levers of power the better.  Hurry up November.