Economy Blues
By now we are all tired of hearing the economic news. New lows for the Dow, new highs for unemployment, more economists predicting further doom and gloom every day. But at least we have our president to buoy our spirits.Or, we used to. This new president is a singular piece of work. He seemingly cannot get out of campaign mode, still running against the miasma of Bush, promoting the doom to come as the result of the doom who just retired. This president appears to be absolutely clueless, and seems to compensate for it by acting decisive and determined. Yet, when he notes the unemployment figures, he claims that he sees the very size of the dislocations to be "astounding," which means, according to my dictionary, that he admits that he is " filled with bewilderment or wonder."
Even Bush, who has taken a real beating these last few years, would never admit to being bewildered at the reasons for our predicament. Can you imagine Clinton or Reagan admitting being bewildered, ever? Even Carter, who was clearly bewildered, would never admit it. Yet this new guy is so filled with narcissism that he has no compunctions about failing to at least pretend to tell us that he understands the current situation. How can we believe that an astounded man can lead us out of the wilderness?
Now we are faced with the ridiculous scene of Obama going to Columbus, spending at least ten million dollars of our money on the trip. The sheer sanctimony and hypocrisy of the flight is astounding as well. Isn't this the guy who said "If the taxpayers are helping you, then you have certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog," on Feb. 4, 2009 on NBC Nightly News? Now he flies to Columbus to campaign for reelection at a graduation ceremony for 25 police recruits. His stated reason for making the trip was to take credit for supplying their salaries. Read the transcript of what he said in Ohio. He took credit for everything but the sun rise.
that's what I intend to do as president of the United States of America.
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So for those who still doubt the wisdom of our recovery plan, I ask them to talk to the teachers who are still able to teach our children because we passed this plan. I ask them to talk to the nurses who are still able to care for our sick and the firefighters and first responders who are still able to keep our communities safe. I ask them to come to Ohio and meet the 25 men and women who will soon be protecting the streets of Columbus because we passed this plan.
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I look at these young men and women -- I look into their eyes and I see their badges today, and I know that we did the right thing. These jobs and the jobs of so many other police officers and teachers and firefighters all across Ohio will now be saved because of this recovery plan; a plan that will also create jobs in every corner of this state.
Last week, we announced that Ohio would receive $128 million that will put people to work renovating and rebuilding affordable housing.
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On Tuesday -- on Tuesday, I announced that we'd be sending another $935 million to Ohio that will create jobs rebuilding our roads, our bridges, and our highways.
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And yesterday, Vice President Biden announced $180 million for this state that will go towards expanding mass transit and buying fuel-efficient buses; money that will be putting people to work getting people to work.
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OBAMA: All together, this recovery plan will save and create over three and a half million American jobs over the next two years. Because of this plan, those who've lost their jobs in this recession will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage.
Because of this plan, 95 percent of working Americans will receive a tax break that you will see in our paychecks starting on April 1st.
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And because of this plan, stories like the one we're celebrating here in Columbus will soon take place all across this nation. Today, I'm pleased to announce that Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice are making available $2 billion in justice assistance grants from the Recovery Act.
To make this announcement, to further glorify himself, he is willing to spend at least ten million dollars. Some may question how he manages to reach that ten million dollar figure, so allow me to try to explain it. Some others have come up with much smaller estimates, but that does not consider the actual costs of the entire retinue. I have not been able to find out details of Obama's security, since 9/11/01 these things have become quite secret. But info on presidents before Bush are more accessible. One of Bill Clinton's C130s crashed in 1996, and the event was covered by the press. His plane, the most expensive executive aircraft in the world, (unless he orders those new helicopters, which will cost even more) is preceded by several planeloads of equipment, limousines, security vehicles, and personnel. Hundreds of military personnel are deployed in addition to his federal secret service protectors. As the link explains,
The C-130 and its crew were a small part of the large military contingent that provides support to the President. Hundreds of military officers perform tasks from feeding the President to handling the ''football,'' the briefcase holding the secret codes for unleashing the nation's nuclear-weapons arsenal.They also have to fly a few of his Sea king helicopters wherever he goes. I'd say that ten million would be a real bargain if that's all this trip cost us. Compared to this extravagance, those Wagyu steaks cost a pittance.
Among those tasks is hauling the Secret Service's vehicles, which range from family vans to bulletproof limousines, wherever the President needs a motorcade to travel from point to point. That job falls to the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, based at Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, Ill.
Now, everybody likes a party, and some luxury should be allowed a president. But the president has more than one job, and one of them is the "Daddy" function. If daddy is going to tell us that things are absolutely terrible, he has no idea why, and has hope that it might get better, don't you think he should at least pretend to exhibit a little personal austerity?
That brings us to Obama's narcissism. Bob Johnson at American Thinker wrote a probing piece on Obama's narcissism, proving the point and how it is revealed in the man's actions. While this is all fascinating, it is also frightening to contemplate, when we have a man who is so completely absorbed in his own greater glory, instead of that of the rest of us.
Tony Blankley refers to Obama's posturing as the "height of hubris." Jeffrey Kuhner writes that Obama "is a self-absorbed narcissist who portrays himself as a political messiah -- the anointed one." David Limbaugh writes of the "unspeakably presumptuous extravaganzas as those [that] feted Mr. Obama at Berlin and Invesco Field."IMHO this is becoming a train wreck presidency in the making. Not since JFK have we had such a narcissist in the White House, but he had a pretty good economic situation to start with, a much smaller government to work with, more experience in everything that makes one either a president or a man, and precious few years in which to destroy things, although he came pretty close at one point. This new guy has breathtaking power, and he is wielding it like a drunken sailor (with my apologies to drunken sailors).
In reference to Obama's narcissism, Charles Krauthammer asks, "[H]as there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?" Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, writes that "Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist," and offers a detailed explanation.
Obama's entire campaign is nothing more than a demand to be recognized as superior without commensurate accomplishments. For individual instances of the undistinguished senator's grandiosity, please see Barack Obama Audacity Watch.
Two other very reliable witnesses to Obama's narcissism are Oprah Winfrey and her guru, Eckhart Tolle, both themselves pathological narcissists. Delusions of grandeur interpersonally connect Obama, Oprah, and her guru. All three believe they can, even that that they must, change the world for the better, and that means garnering for themselves more and more adulation, what the psychologists call "narcissistic supply."
We do not know how this will end. We have no idea what would have happened if we had elected someone else. But the signs are dark, and the future is quite unknown. People are frightened. I certainly am. There is no end in sight.