Send in the Clowns

As promised and warned, an Obama report card.

In 2008 candidate Obama said: "We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences to the next budget, administration or generation." In 2009 Obama promised to cut the nation's budget deficit in half by the end of his first term. His peculiar method to achieve this goal though was to spend our way back into fiscal responsibility and, thus, prosperity. As a result of this disastrous economic 'strategy,' the projected deficit this year is not 'half' of that contained in Bush's final budget but rather a deficit that is nearly 3 times larger!

The only question to be asked in this connection then is: When the above promises were made, was Obama acting as Barack-the-Clown or as Barack-the-Liar? Well yes, I suppose we could accept both.

At best the often proposed explanation that 'he didn't know how bad it was' suggests at least two things: 1) He did little serious preparation before entering Office (i.e. he knew how to become president but not how to be president). Or 2) He apparently did not understand the concept that a Government which decides to spend a trillion dollars more than in the final year of its predecessor without making a single attempt to curtail stupidity, waste, duplication and corruption will very likely expand the deficit by said trillion dollars.

Despite what they asked us to believe, does anyone really think his crack economic team of Summers, Volcker, Romer and tax-swindler Geithner did not grasp this high order of economics?

I am afraid that any reasonable grader would be obligated to give Obama and his team a report card "F" for fiscal responsibility. Herewith a very brief summary: Spending now at $3.6 trillion, spending burden now at 24% of GDP up from an average of about 20%. Note please, this is not an increase of 4% as the Obama regime would like us to swallow but rather an increase of 20%! And what do we have to show for this profligate spending? To paraphrase Ms. Romer about a year ago, a "growth-less recovery." Sorry, no matter how it is cut and diced, a "F" for the Clowns.

The Potemkin Paradigm

The White House galas, the endless vacations and the eternal campaign have continued apace through this 'Potemkin Administration,' as it blithely busies itself tending to the menus and the musical selections in the dining room of the metaphoric Titanic.

The major campaign project of the Obama Administration will be to create a 'Potemkin economy' from the ashes of a comatose private sector. The term 'Potemkin Village' was used in Russia to describe attempts to fool usually sympathetic foreign visitors. They were taken to select villages, factories, schools, stores or neighborhoods which had been 'prepared' to present conditions unknown elsewhere in the country. It was all but impossible for such visitors to see the true oppression and drudgery of Soviet life. In 1952, Nobel Laureate, Doris Lessing, a British writer, was part of a delegation visiting Moscow. Her memories of the trip were clear and unforgiving: "I was taken around and shown things as a 'useful idiot'...that's what my role was. I cannot understand why I was so gullible."

If Romney and the GOP are to succeed in November, they must take on the task of demolishing Obama's 'Potemkin economy.' Our nation is not in any 'recovery.' The condition more closely resembles a 'death spiral' given the continuing growth of debt. The GOP must explain this reality without apology, accurately and relentlessly. If the GOP fails in this, the Obama forces will reduce us to a nation of gullible and culpable 'useful idiots.'

More on Obama's Report Card later.

Modern Greece

Ancient Greece through to modern, post recent Olympics Greece has witnessed much joy and much turmoil. Today, due to the complicated financial situation that is, of course, the result of excessive government programs and the attendant debt, we witness Greeks again emigrating. Greeks tend to emigrate to Australia, Canada, the U.S. Naturally it is sad to witness this Greek debt crisis but we welcome Greek emigres to our shores as they have always made wonderful and productive U.S. citizens. Nonetheless, this current Greek debt crisis does lead to a simple and direct Q and A:

Q. What will make the U.S. become more like modern Greece?

A. Four more years of Obama!

The Hat

As pitchers and catchers and others soon will be arriving for baseball's spring training in Florida and Arizona, perhaps it is time to give "a tip of the hat" to this annual rite with a newly formed modest prediction for this baseball season coupled with a real life hat story. As many of you know, in spite of springtime enthusiasm the fabulous and fabled Yankees have never quite lived up to their full potential of an undefeated season. Unfortunately, I think this will not be the year to achieve this goal given that A.J.Burnett has been dispatched to Pittsburgh. That said, I'm formally curtailing my annual forecast of an undefeated season to a far more modest one of achieving a record of 150-12 resulting in winning their Division by 58 games over the second place Red Sox. That's my tip for this spring, summer and autumn. And now that the NY Giants were victorious over the Patriots in the Super Bowl and given that the NY Knicks have a genuine point guard in heretofore unheralded Jeremy Lin, I think we can anticipate a trifecta success this year against all comers from Boston...Patriots, Celtics and, alas, the Red Sox. Now to the hat. The hat you see in the photo nearby was obtained by my $43 contribution for the early construction phase of the Presidential Library of 43 (get it...$43 for 43). I received this hat just after Christmas and have been wearing it in the hope of accelerating the time to spring training, and frankly to annoy 'progressives' in my neighborhood. While I must give a tip of the hat to the mild weather we've had this winter, equally I must acknowledge that I could not accelerate the inexorably slow calendar of winter. But I did succeed in annoying (and frightening) many liberals. My best random encounter was a couple of Saturdays ago when walking Harry at about 8 a.m. and wearing my GWB hat who did I encounter? None other than the esteemed former governor of Vermont, the former head of the DNC, the uber-liberal of the north, the former Democratic presidential candidate of 2004 Hee-haw fame. Believe it or not, Howard Dean in the flesh (well not so much in the flesh as it was still winter and he was wearing a very Vermont-like North Face ski jacket). Still, no words were passed but his eyes became as large as dinner plates when he realized what he was reading on my hat. I have no doubt that he felt he was completely safe from encountering red state Republicans or a real right winger on the upper east side of Manhattan. There he was...speechless. I smiled. Harry was sufficiently well mannered as to not have peed on his leg. Much more later on baseball, politics and how the Obama regime continues to shred the constitution.