2012 Calls for Change, Not Hope
By Bradley Blakeman
Newsmax.com
Obama was swept into office with charisma,
promises and slogans. He was the consummate
candidate. He had all the answers and spoke
eloquently and with passion and could excite and
move people to action.
He promised “change you can believe in.” He promised
an open and transparent government. He pledged to
listen to the people and return “civility” to
governing.
In 2012 the public is finding out what the rest of
us knew all along. The man who had all the answers
to all that ails us in the 2008 campaign has no
answers as president seeking re-election with a
record replete with failure.
Even today, President Obama refuses to take
responsibility for his actions. Instead, he
continues to blame others and embarks on a strategy
of distortion, deflection and division.
What Obama did not have in 2008 he has in 2012 — a
record.
According to Rasmussen Reports, Obama entered office
with an overall approval rating of 65 percent. This
week it is reported that Obama’s approval rating
tanked to 48.3 percent according to an average of
polling reported by Real Clear Politics.
Rasmussen reported this month that, 63 percent of
Americans believe the country is heading down the
wrong track. The most damning news however for the
White House and Democrats standing for election on
Nov. 6 is the polling reported by USA Today this
week that found that 56 percent of Americans in
“swing states” believe that they are not better off
today than they were four years ago. Nationwide, 55
percent of Americans think the same.
The president and his Democratic leadership the past
three-and-a-half years badly miscalculated their
“mandate” for change. They did what they wanted to
do, instead of what the American people needed to be
done.
The president declared time and again that the
recession we faced was the worst since the Great
Depression yet his handling of it made things for
our economy much worse. Instead of dealing head on
with the economy, he created a “crisis” on
healthcare and rammed through generational
healthcare legislation that the people did not want
or need.
Americans from all over the country kept asking
themselves back in 2010, “What good is ‘affordable’
healthcare in 2014, if I do not have a job in 2010?”
Today Americans are asking the same questions they
did back in 2012 and according to Rasmussen Reports,
52 percent of Americans now favor repeal of
Obamacare.
What has really turned the country sour to the
president is his aloofness to their economic plight.
The president promised us that unemployment would
not exceed 8 percent nationally if the more than
$700 billion stimulus passed.
We now know that unemployment shot up to 10 percent
and still hovers at 8.3 percent nationally since the
stimulus bill was passed. In addition, in many urban
areas unemployment is 18 percent and among the youth
population those 18-29 the unemployment rate is 20
percent.
Evidence of frustration by Obama supporters could be
seen at the president’s hand-picked audiences as
early as 2010.
At one town hall meeting Obama’s former law school
classmate Anthony Scaramucci said this to the
president: “I am exhausted of defending you,
defending your administration, defending the mantle
of change that I voted for.”
And who can forget the African-American woman who
identified herself as a CFO, mother, and military
veteran. She took the president to task at another
such gathering: “I’ve been told that I voted for a
man who was going to change things in a meaningful
way for the middle class and I'm waiting sir, I’m
waiting. I still don’t feel it yet.”
These are ardent supporters that he is
disappointing. These are the people the White House
handpicked to attend events.
Since then nothing has changed for the better. In
fact things have gotten worse. Curiously, Obama and
his campaign no longer favor such events to get
their message out in 2012.
If it were not for bad news Obama would not make
news. This week the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office predicted another more than $1 trillion
dollars in debt this year, and is counting on a
double-dip recession.
Unemployment is high. Gas prices are setting
records. Our credit rating has been reduced,
foreclosures are rampant as are bankruptcies. We do
not have a national budget. We are running historic
deficits. Unfunded wars are being waged and
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are
teetering on insolvency.
On the eve of the Republican Convention, it is not
enough to tell America how bad things are.
Republicans need to remind people that we together
can solve any and all problems facing us. Candidates
and speakers must be hopeful, optimistic, and most
importantly all must set forth a clear, concise and
understandable road to economic recovery.
Federal, state, and local elections will most
assuredly turn on the economy. It is all about jobs,
budget, energy, debt, responsibility and leadership.
In 2012, America is hoping for a change for the
better in our economic well being.
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy
assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04.
He is currently a professor of Politics and Public
Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent
contributor to Fox News Opinion. Read more reports
from Bradley Blakeman —
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