Obama’s Simple 2012 Reelection Strategy

Why Barack Obama Has Been Such a Miserable Failure

Peter Wehner 08.26.2011 – 12:41 PM

“Tell me again why Barack Obama has been such a bad president?” Jonathan Alter writes in his column [in Bloomberg Opinion Aug 25, 2011].

Alter tells us he’s not talking here about Obama as a tactician and communicator, and he’s not interested in hearing ad hominem attacks or about people’s generalized “disappointment.” (Neither am I.) He wants to know on a substantive basis why Obama should be judged to have failed so far.

In Alter’s words, “Your mission, Jim [or anyone else for that matter], should you decide to accept it, is to be specific and rational, not vague and visceral.”

Consider the mission accepted.

In one sense, the answer to the Alter challenge is obvious: Obama has failed by his own standards. It’s the Obama administration, not the RNC, that said if his stimulus package was passed unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. It’s Obama who joked there weren’t as many “shovel-ready” jobs as he thought.

It’s Obama who promised to cut the deficit in half. It’s Obama who said if we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care cost curve would go down rather than up. It’s Obama who promised us recovery and prosperity, hope and change. What we’ve gotten instead is the opposite.

What makes Alter’s challenge particularly delicious is during the Bush years he spoke out about the importance of a “reality-based” presidency (as opposed to a “faith-based” one). “They [Republicans] could end up winning in November by distorting the argument,” Alter said in 2006. “But on credibility and the facts, they’ve lost.”

With Alter’s devotion to credibility and facts in mind, let’s take an empirical, reality-based look at economic life in America during the Age of Obama:

* Under Obama’s stewardship, we have lost 2.2 million jobs (and 900,000 full-time jobs in the last four months alone). He is now on track to have the worst jobs record of any president in the modern era.

* The unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent v. 7.8 percent the month Obama took office.

* July marked the 30th consecutive month in which the unemployment rate was above the 8 percent level, the highest since the Great Depression.

* Since May 2009 — roughly 14 weeks into the Obama administration — the unemployment rate has been above 10 percent during three months, above 9 percent during 22 months, and above 8 percent during two months.

* Chronic unemployment is worse than during the Great Depression.

* The youth employment rate is at the lowest level since records were first kept in 1948.

* The share of the eligible population holding a job has declined to the lowest level since the early 1980s.

* The housing crisis is worse than in the Great Depression. (Home values are worth roughly one-third less than they were five years ago.)

* The rate of economic growth under Obama has been only slightly higher than the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression. From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, we experienced five consecutive quarters of slowing growth. America’s GDP for the second quarter of this year was a sickly 1.0 percent; in the first quarter, it was 0.4 percent.

* Fiscal year 2011 will mark the third straight year with deficits in excess of $1 trillion. Prior to the Obama presidency, we had never experienced a deficit in excess of $1 trillion.

* During the Obama presidency, America has increased its debt by $4 trillion.

That is to say, Obama has achieved in two-and-a-half years what it took George W. Bush two full terms in office to achieve — and Obama, when he was running for president, slammed Bush’s record as being “unpatriotic.”

* America saw its credit rating downgraded for the first time in history under the Obama presidency.

* Consumer confidence has plunged to the lowest level since the Carter presidency.

*  The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.

* A record number of Americans now rely on the federal government’s food stamps program. More than 44.5 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a 12 percent increase from one year ago.

There is more that can be said, but you get the point.

What makes this record doubly horrifying is rapid growth is the norm after particularly deep recessions — but under Obama, our recovery has been historically weak. President Obama (and Alter) can blame his predecessor, the Tea Party, the Arab Spring, the Japanese tsunami, events in Europe, ATM machines and even athlete’s foot for his predicament. It doesn’t really matter, as even Obama conceded during the early months of his presidency, when he declared, “One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable.”

Indeed. Obama “owns” the economy, as both his senior aide David Plouffe and the chair of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, have said.

“If you lose a common ground of facts on which to move forward as a society, nobody can agree on anything, and you can’t pull together to solve problems,” Alter told Keith Olbermann during the Bush administration.

I agree. And it is on the common ground of facts that we can declare – in a calm, specific, reasonable, rational and empirical manner – Obama to be an utter failure.

Democrats were elected to a super-majority in Congress in 2006,
and won the Presidency in 2008 by telling Americans that:
4.8% unemployment was unacceptable,
$1.75 per gallon gasoline made Bush’s oil buddies richer, and a
$4 trillion increase in the national debt in 8 years was unpatriotic.

Now they’re telling us that:
9% unemployment is the new normal,
$4.00 per gallon gasoline is good for the economy, and a
$6 trillion debt increase in 4 years is not enough.

Do Democrats really think Americans are that stupid?

If you vote for Obama again, maybe you are…

[You may have read something similar to this before, but based on the recent surge in the number of expensive Internet business scams, I'm going to get on my soapbox here for just a minute - kinda like a Public Service Announcement.]

Every day thousands of people go online to try to make money. Most of them fail miserably. Why? Because they fall victim to one or more of the following Internet Business Urban Myths:

Internet Business Urban Myth #1: Internet Marketing is Easy

This is probably the biggest myth of all. Creating a successful business on the Internet takes time, effort, and at least some money. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is trying to sell you a bunch of horse crap. Yes, it is comparatively easier than creating a successful brick-and-mortar business in that there’s no inventory to carry, no shipping of goods, no sales staff and virtually no overhead, but a lot of work is still involved.

Internet Business Urban Myth #2: Anyone Can Make Money Online

This one is just not true. Unless you get out of your recliner and continually learn about Internet business, and put an action plan in motion, you will never make a dime on the Internet. Simply put, “do nothing, earn nothing.”

Internet Business Urban Myth #3: You Can “Get Rich Quick” On the Net!

This is the biggest trap that Internet business wanna-be’s fall into when they first start out. Why? Because the so-called “gurus” (scamsters) make it sounds so easy. Let me tell you from painful personal experience, chasing “get rich quick schemes” is a waste of time, money and energy. Success does not happen overnight.  Do your research and find out what people really want or need – then sell it to them.

Internet Business Urban Myth #4: It’s Free to Do Business Online

Compared to opening a coffee shop or franchise store, Internet business start-up costs and maintenance costs are pretty low. For example. here is my overhead (fixed expenses I have to pay every month to keep the lights on):
Email autoresponder: $17
Product Delivery System: $5
Online eCover Creation Service: $9
Pro-rata Domain Name Registration: $1
Website Hosting: $4
Total: $36
Not a lot, but not free, either.

Internet Business Urban Myth #5: It’s Too Late to Start an Internet Business

Most Internet marketers would love to hear people say “It’s too late now, too many competitors, I should just pack my bags and go home, the Internet is too complicated, etc…”. You know why? The fewer people they have to compete with the better – which in turn will enable them to make more money. The fact is, it’s never ever too late to start anything, and that includes internet business. Every year the statistics show that the number of people shopping online is increasing, their expenditures are growing, and the number of people going online is also increasing.

Just finished my 2011 taxes. In the process, I figured out that the overhead (fixed expenses) for my Internet business is only $36 a month!

Is having an Internet business great, or what?

Exxon Mobil’s 2011 profits were $30.5 Billion

US Government’s 2011 budget is $3.83 Trillion

Therefore the US Government’s average daily expenditures are $10.5 Billion

So every 3 days the Federal government spends the equivalent of Exxon’s profits for a whole YEAR!

“Big corporations” controlling America? Give me a break!

Let’s put things in perspective here:

If the IRS taxed the 2010 profits of the 20 most profitable companies in the US at 100%, those revenues would only pay off 1.4% of the federal government’s debt of $15 Trillion. (Source: “CNNMoney, “20 Most Profitable Companies”).

Put another way: the IRS would have to confiscate the profits of those 20 companies (assuming those profits remained constant) for 71 years to pay off the federal government’s debt.

This morning I received yet another lame email promoting the Next Big Internet Marketing Thing, the next sure-thing “system” that’s going to make me millions overnight, on autopilot, while I doze in my Dr. Dentons.

Are people really that stupid, that self-deluding, to think that there’s some secret, some hidden code, some magic bullet out there that’s going to propel them into their fantasy life of yachts and mansions, virtually without effort?

In email after shameless email there’s that well-written marketing hook that lands in the gills of unsuspecting readers that gets them to part with their hard-earned money.

Before I go any farther, let me tell you that there actually IS one big secret in Internet marketing. That secret is that there is no secret, push-button, magic bullet. It doesn’t exist except in the latest hyped-up promotion of yet another “never before revealed secret” system.

No matter how hard the BS artists of Instant Internet Riches try to convince you, success doesn’t happen overnight, and it isn’t delivered on a platter to you for $1,997.00.

I’ve seen (and, in the past, bought) so many of these Secret Systems to Unlocking Riches products that I wince every time I see so-called “Internet Marketing Gurus” pushing yet another one of these “Broke The Code / Magic Bullet / Make Money On Autopilot” systems that require no work. Are you kidding me?

Let me ask you a question: can you buy the recipe for Coca-Cola? How about the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken? Of course not. Why not? Because no business person would sell the “secret formula” that makes them unique and successful. Those “secrets” are what are called proprietary information. They’re the cornerstone of their business, and it would be foolish to sell that information to anyone else.

So why do so many Internet marketers sell so many “autopilot secret code” systems? Because that’s their secret. Their business is to keep you in the dark and reinforce your faith that there is such a secret.

People are generally stupid, greedy, and lazy. The gurus’ business is convincing people that they can make a million overnight. Undoubtedly the gurus will continue to make money selling their sham products to the gullible masses.

P.T. Barnum supposedly said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” On the Internet it’s more like one every nanosecond.

Sidebar: Why do these products cost so much? Even if there was a silver bullet product, would it actually be worth $1,997.00? Ask yourself this: if one of these information products being hyped to you on the Internet was packaged as a book and sold in Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.com, would anyone would look twice if the price was two thousand bucks? Of course not. Most people wouldn’t look twice at a book that cost $49.95, let alone $1,997.00. As a friend of mine likes to say, a $50,000 BMW is not really $30,000 better than a $20,000 Honda, so what you’re paying extra for is the “BMW” medallion on the hood.

If you really want to ‘learn the code’ or ‘unlock the vault’, roll up your sleeves, get busy trying things, and find out what really does work. There is no magic formula – other than hard work – that is going to get you to the financial position in life that you want to obtain. The sooner you realize that there is no easy way, the faster you will reach your goals.

So from now on when you get an email from someone telling you that they have “found the secret code” or have the “magic bullet”, hit the “This Is Junk Mail / Delete / Bounce” button.

This mashup is based on “Internet Marketing Insanity” at realestateradiousa.com plus my own original ideas.

As Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) used to say, “Danger Danger Danger!”

Your Internet freedoms are at risk!

Go HERE, RIGHT NOW. Read the text and watch the video. Then take action.

You’ve probably heard the expression “insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Well, I’ve discovered the cure for insanity!

Change. Do something different.

(Awesome insight, eh?)

As the circus of the 2012 Presidential election kicks into high gear (11 months before the actual voting is scheduled), I’d like to share some thoughts by a fairly famous guy y’all might want to ponder when trying to decide who to vote for.

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

- Abraham Lincoln

Today I want to spend a few moments examining that mysterious cabal, the so-called “1%” who supposedly control 42% of all the wealth in the USA.

1% of the population of the USA is about 3,000,000 people. So, the “1%” is not some small, conspiratorial group of cigar-smoking robber barons sitting around a table at the Knickerbocker Club plotting the economic enslavement of the other 99%. It’s a whole bunch of people all over the country.

Now let’s look at some other numbers:

1. According to the annual World Wealth Report from Merill Lynch and Capgemini, in 2010 the USA had 3.1 million people with a net worth of $1,000,000 or more.

That means the “1%” is basically everybody who has $1 million or more in net worth.

2. After the top 1%, the next 19%, or about 57,000,000 of our fellow citizens – none of whom are millionaires – control the next 43% of all the wealth in the USA.

3. The Occupy Movement and other Socialist groups like to talk about how “unfair” the current distribution of wealth is in the USA. Their definition of “unfair” seems to be that they’re not in the 1%, and that “fairness” would be redistributing the 1-percenters’ money to THEM.

Simply put, redistribution of wealth = Socialism. And, as Margaret Thatcher (former Prime Minister of England, doh) put it, “The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.”