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.