Campaign 2012: The Titan of Entitlements

By Rob Janicki
Obama, since giving the Republicans a surprise smack down at George Washington University last week, has subsequently revealed his Campaign 2012 strategy. The strategy basically begins with a smarmy, if not vitriolic, attack on all deficit reduction proposals brought forth by Republicans, strangely followed by a call for bi-partisanship in solving those same imminent disasters. Can you say bi-polar disorder?

This schizophrenic strategy was seen again at a town hall type meeting at Facebook headquarters hosted by FB CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Obama, when asked by Zuckerberg where cuts were to be made to bring down the deficit, obfuscated and tap danced around the question until he came up with one specific area to reduce the deficit and that was to cut the defense budget. No mention of any other areas to cut, just defense. Not exactly a response engendering confidence in Obama's leadership or fiscal management skills when virtually all experts note that cuts have to be made in entitlements to have any affect on deficit reduction for the long term.

Obama, in the process of answering, went on, to no one's surprise, to castigate Republican deficit reduction proposals as an attack on mom, apple pie and the American way. Actually it was far worse than that. Obama, once again, accused the Republicans of trying to destroy Medicare and Medicaid, all social welfare programs supporting the elderly, children with autism/special needs and every other social welfare program in existence.

Obama, now warmed up, once again raised the class warfare canard that the evil, greedy wealthy class are not paying their fair share in taxes, when in reality it has been clearly illustrated that if the wealthy were taxed at 100% of their income, such amounts would not even make a dent in the deficit. Translation: It's all about wealth redistribution and not about generating increased tax revenues to help offset the horrendous deficit we face for years to come. Can you say social engineering gone wild?

Obama wants everyone to believe that America's middle class is shrinking when in fact it is the real middle class (incomes of $100K to $250K) that is paying the tax bill encouraging the profligate spending of liberal/regressive politicians in Washington.

Obama, in closing, suggested the need for further funding for education, infrastructure enhancement and high speed rail service among other spending initiatives. In other words, Obama was reverting to form as a tax and spend liberal on steroids despite the acknowledged impending fiscal disaster facing our nation.

The only “tough” question of the night was the last one. Obama was asked, “If you had to do anything differently during your first four years, what would it be?” And as Byron York observed, the president wasn’t even able to give a straight answer.

Dan Henninger of the WSJ noted, "Obama.2008 was engaging, patient, open, optimistic and a self-identified conciliator. Obama.2011 has been something else—testy, petulant, impatient, arrogant and increasingly a divider". I would add that Obama's campaign 2012 strategy is indicative of a sociopathic split personality disorder. You may call it whatever you will, but it's still a disaster for America.