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Shifting Voter Loyalties
is "What Ails President Obama" Part One of Three By Dave Andrusko Good
evening, and thanks for reading Today's News & Views.
Part Two talks about the latest
legal troubles for late-term abortionist Stevem Chase Brigham.
Part Three takes us to
Australia where proponent pro-euthanasiaists are trying to
legalize assisted suicide. Over at National Right to Life News
Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org),
we ask if there is a parallel to 1994 in the works; talk about
the "best-kept secret in the galaxy"; and reprint NRLC President
Wanda Franz's brilliant column on ObamaCare. Please send your
comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life
News Today to
daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are
following me on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/daveha.
"Anyone wondering what
ails President Obama found the answers during CNBC's economic
town hall meeting on Monday." Dan Balz is a well-respected veteran Post reporter. His column that first appeared online last night is an even-handed description of the kinds of questions pro-abortion President Obama fielded at the hour-long telecast which "underscored the public's frustrations and the White House's challenge. The questions illuminated the deep dissatisfaction the president's allies and opponents feel about his performance." Then Balz adds the all-purpose excuse: "The president's answers raised anew the issue of how effectively he communicates on the economy." Just a couple of thoughts on the townhall meeting. Speaking of Obama's communication skills, I confess I could only stand to watch, in bites and pieces, about 15 minutes. Content aside, Obama is stunningly unpersuasive (not to mention tedious) when fielding questions--from ordinary citizens or reporters. He just goes on… and on… and on, tacking one topic to another to another to another, as if by sheer addition his unfocused and rambling answer will convince the audience. There is the opening, "tone-setting" question that's been repeated and recycled across the blogosphere. Describing herself, according to Balz, "as a middle-class mother of two and the chief financial officer for a veterans organization," she asked/told Obama "I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I have been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I'm one of those people, and I'm waiting, sir. I'm waiting. I don't feel it yet." Our concern is not "change," as such, for the middle class or anyone else. It's "change" in the specific sense of attacking/dismantling President Bush's pro-life initiatives and cultivating warm relationships with the Planned Parenthoods of this world. It's change in commandeering one-sixth of the American economy in a colossus known as ObamaCare that shovels money and influence to the Abortion Industry and guarantees rationing. But we also share the questioner's lament that Obama has failed to follow through with his promises--specifically promises, for example, to extend a hand across the aisle to Republicans. I never had any illusions: I knew from the get-go that Obama was as partisan as it gets and while he would talk a good game of bipartisanship, that was empty rhetoric. Balz does a nice job illustrating how Obama continues to want to have it both ways. In response to a question, Obama said the following. "The rhetoric and the politicizing of so many decisions that are out there has to be toned down. We've got to get back to working together. And this is part of my job as leader. It's not just a matter of implementing good policies, but also setting a better tone so that everybody feels like we can start cooperating again, instead of going at loggerheads all the time." Wow, who could argue with THAT? But Balz then immediately observes, "This comes at a time when the president has been on the campaign trail offering sharply partisan rhetoric and even attacking individual Republican candidates [by name] running for office this fall." It isn't that Obama is "failing to communicate." The American people have looked at his agenda, and his case for it, and found it wanting. You can read Balz's story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092103354.html. You can also read "Loyalties shift in vote-rich suburbs" at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106299.html?hpid=topnews. If you are a Democrat running for office in 2010 it will raise the hair on the back of your neck. |
