Obama's Shield
A politician could be caught standing over a dead hooker with a bloody knife in one hand and a bag of cocaine in the other and his defense would be, “I think it is time for us to put this behind us and focus on creating jobs for the American people.”
To the Left, “job creation” has always been one of the major selling points for its agenda, as if it were the inevitable consequence of everything they do. This is especially so during the Obama administration. Obamacare, according to Nancy Pelosi, would create “4 million jobs in the life of the bill." Candidate Obama promised that his Greenist programs would create 5 million jobs, shovel-ready. Amnesty, or ‘comprehensive immigration reform,' as those who don’t want to admit its amnesty call it, will supposedly create 3 million jobs, once Obama imposes it upon us. Caps on CEO salaries, according to economist Robert Reich, will “create more buying power among people who will buy and therefore more jobs.” Raising taxes on the wealthy so that the U.S. resembles “European-style welfare states” would, according to economist Paul Krugman, create jobs. Obama’s stimulus was to have “save[d] or created” 3.5 million jobs.
It is a wonder how there are any Americans left unemployed, considering all of these great job creating ideas.
In fact, the only thing that government does, apparently, that doesn’t lead to job creation is to investigate their own scandals. Politicians use the term “job creation” whenever their nefarious deeds come to light and demand investigation. It is a shield that would make Captain America jealous. They are awfully busy creating jobs for the American people, don’t you see? Why must they be put upon by having attention drawn to their scandals?
[mks_pullquote align="right" width="300" size="24" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#ffffff"]A politician could be caught standing over a dead hooker with a bloody knife in one hand and a bag of cocaine in the other and his defense would be, “I think it is time for us to put this behind us and focus on creating jobs for the American people.”[/mks_pullquote]
President Obama and his allies are masters of this ploy, and it is especially evident when the Obama administration is knee-deep in a scandal, as it often is. Recently political strategist Donna Brazile repeated this familiar talking point, by arguing that with regard to the IRS scandal, “Republicans are hell-bent on finding a conspiracy or identifying a scandal so that they have something to talk about other than jobs and the economy.”
This brow-beating is not new. A year ago, when IRS-gate first broke, Al Sharpton said much the same when he accused Republicans of “creating so-called scandals instead of jobs. Republicans are on a mission to make a scandal out of anything.”
And when the House Republicans held Attorney General Eric Holder for not cooperating in the Fast and Furious investigation, Nancy Pelosi responded with both speed and fury, telling reporters that the GOP were engaged in voter suppression in going after Holder “instead of bringing job-creating legislation to the floor."
President Obama, of course, contributes to this narrative. Referring to IRS critics in Congress, the President says while, “others may get distracted by chasing every fleeting issue that passes by,” he would be focused on creating middle-class jobs.
While others may chase trivialities like violations of the Constitution, Obama is above the fray. "Keeping the economy growing and making sure jobs are available is the first thing I think about when I wake up every morning. It’s the last thing I think about when I go to bed each night,” he says.
[mks_pullquote align="left" width="300" size="24" bg_color="#000000" txt_color="#ffffff"]Nearly 70% of Democrats think the IRS illegally, immorally, and deliberately destroyed emails that may have shown that they deliberately targeted and suppressed groups that opposed their party’s nominee.[/mks_pullquote]
That nearly 70% of Democrats think the IRS illegally, immorally, and deliberately destroyed emails that may have shown that they deliberately targeted and suppressed groups that opposed their party’s nominee -- a suppression, by the way, that likely gave Obama his victory -- is not important, because Obama is such a job-creator.
Obama probably took a cue from the Clinton administration. No one was ever more put upon by scandals than Bill Clinton. Much of his testimony during the Lewinsky scandal was comprised of impatient bluster, with him hoping to get it over with as quickly as possible, so that he could “get back to the work of the country.” Clinton at least had a pretty good economy, thanks largely to the Internet stock bubble. People were not interested in scandal when every dot-com stock they owned was making them a fortune.
One glimpse at recent polls - including the CNN poll that showed that 61% of respondents disapprove of his handling of the economy -- Obama is not so fortunate. The sock puppet from the pets.com ads is a distant memory. Workers today are facing a variety of pressures -- including some like illegal immigration, and Obamacare -- that Obama himself has created or exacerbated -- that suppress hiring.
We have the worst labor force participation rate since the Carter administration. There are over 10 million Americans unemployed, which does not count the millions whose jobs have gone from wearing a suit-and-tie to serving burgers and fries. When GDP growth hits 2%, we do cartwheels, although that’s half of where we by now should be. The last quarter it contracted. And despite promises that they would have a laser-like focus on one three-letter word: J-O-B-S: no one, not even Obama’s staunchest supporters, can say what he is doing to actually lessen these pressures, rather than increasing them.
Obama’s shield does not seem sturdy enough to hold.
--DK