Updated: Sun., Jul. 15, 2012, 4:51 AM
O’s scary ‘story’
Last Updated: 4:51 AM, July 15, 2012
Posted: 12:18 AM, July 15, 2012
A Former editor of The New York Times once damned his boss, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., with faint praise. “I’ll say this about Arthur,” said Max Frankel, “he’ll never make the same mistake three times.”
If only we could enjoy such modest confidence in Barack Obama. Instead, we are faced with a president determined to make the same mistake repeatedly, no matter how much pain it causes American families.
As such, Obama would seem to meet the classic definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Or perhaps he’s actually indifferent to the results, seeing them as a price others must pay for his agenda.
Neither diagnosis offers much hope for change.
The spark for these thoughts was Obama’s interview with CBS News, where he “confesses” that his biggest mistake was a failure to communicate, or, as he puts it, “to tell a story to the American people.”
“When I think about what we’ve done well and what we haven’t done well,” the president said, “the mistake of my first term — couple of years — was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.”
Obama, as is his wont, has reality backward. His problem with voters isn’t what he did or didn’t say. The problem is what he actually did.
Voters don’t like it. In Madison Avenue terms, it’s not the fault of the advertising that the dog food’s not selling. It’s that the dogs don’t like the dog food.
Obama has trotted out the communication excuse before, and it makes no more sense this time. Most important, his minor concession to imperfection reveals he is unwilling or unable to grasp the facts of the economic crisis and his responsibility to fix it.
So we get navel gazing that would be considered indulgent even in the faculty lounge. In the Oval Office, with 23 million Americans out of work or underemployed, it constitutes evidence of malpractice on a grand scale.
Worst of all, his ignorance is willful. Starting with key gubernatorial races in 2009, every major election since he took office has repudiated Obama’s policies. The GOP landslide in 2010 was historic in size, as was the sweep in statehouses across the country.
Every poll for three years has shown that ObamaCare is unpopular, and that remains true even after it passed constitutional muster.
He sued the state of Arizona for enforcing laws against illegal immigrants, and, after the Supreme Court upheld the state’s key claim, more than 60 percent of voters nationwide said they wanted a law like that in their state. Similarly, voter-ID laws are popular, yet he is suing to block them.
By any yardstick, Obama’s on the losing side of almost every major domestic issue. The vast majority of Americans simply don’t want what he’s selling.
In the president’s messianic view, all this opposition proves his unique wisdom. His political philosophy can best be summed up as, “I’m right and you’re wrong.” When he says his only mistake was in not convincing people he’s right, he has declared disagreement to be ignorance.
In certain circumstances, of course, political leadership can mean bucking popularity. But the privilege comes with a requirement: Defiance of public will must be proved correct. Your policies must, in reasonable time, achieve results the public demands.
When they fail — think 8.2 percent unemployment for more than three years amid rising debt and deficits — a true leader accepts the need to try a different course. Only a zealot, blinded by ideology or indifference, would insist on more of the same.
A story, Mr. President? What could it possibly say?
Hizzoner’s pedestrian viewpoint on gridlock
The next time you find yourself stuck in Gotham traffic, and kill time by fuming at the road space and tax dollars wasted on empty bike lanes, recall this greatest hit from Mayor Bloomberg.
“Our roads are not here for automobiles,” sayeth he. “Our roads are here for people to get around.”
It’s a head-scratcher, I admit, especially for those of us who believe that modern roads were built precisely for automobiles. And that millions of people actually do get around in vehicles that use those roads.
Apparently, we are mistaken. Follow along as the mayor enlightens us with his curious vision for New York street space.
Bloomberg, whose syntax and word choices sometimes reflect the influence of Yogi Berra, was nonetheless very clear about his priorities at a recent press gaggle.
The question was whether the pedestrian plaza planned for the five blocks of Vanderbilt Avenue in Midtown would allow emergency and delivery vehicles to get into Grand Central Terminal and other buildings.
He said not to worry, that cross streets would remain open to cars, a decision that reverses the ratio of space allotted to people and vehicles. Cross streets become crosswalks for cars while leaving the main street for foot traffic and tourist encampments.
Who gets the sidewalks? Bicycles?
The real problem, the mayor insisted, is that there aren’t enough pedestrian plazas. This, too, comes as a shock to those who see the daily gridlock caused by the one in Times Square.
“People want to be able to find stores and not get hit by a car and be able to go and disperse,” Mayor Yogi said.
Translation: New York is screwed.
Out to (free) lunch
Sometimes you really have to admire the relentless creativity of the entitlement culture. Here is a city Department of Education press release:
“Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott, joined by federal and city agencies and nonprofit organizations, today encouraged families to take advantage of free breakfast and lunch for their youngsters as part of the annual summer meals program. Summer meals are provided in more than 1,000 locations, including pools, parks, public housing sites and soup kitchens throughout the five boroughs.”
The statement gushes over a new refrigerated truck that will join two others already handing out free meals, and says one will be stationed at Orchard Beach. Presumably, anybody under 19 who wants a freebie while sunning can have it, no questions asked.
Actually, I do have a question: Is there a limit to handouts, or does America just drive itself off the cliff in a free-food truck?
Those ‘pour’ French pols!
Those French think of everything. After years of raising taxes to pay for its welfare state, the government finally is imposing austerity on itself. Champagne will no longer be served at official functions, The New York Times reports. White wine will have to do.
Oh, the inhumanity of it all. Cue the riots.
Crime in a 32-oz. cup
Reader Mark Kalinowski suggests a way to get Mayor Bloomberg to focus on the spike in violence: “Tell him there’s also a spike in criminals drinking Big Gulps.”
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