Thursday, November 17, 2011

Arrogance Alert: Why Is Obama Running Down America?

Andrea Tantaros is spot on in this New York Daily News column. Check it out.

It is arguably the job of any U.S. President to be our cheerleader-in-chief. That’s why President Obama’s recent comments blasting the business community for being asleep at the switch have the rest of the country reeling...

But with millions of Americans out of work, maybe it’s the President who needs to do a better job of making America more attractive. Instead, Obama has reverted to his old playbook as he campaigns across the country on a platform of doom and gloom meant to deflect blame from himself to the Republicans...

If we’re so pathetic, why would Obama want to preside over such a despondent dump of unimaginative, directionless losers?

The answer is simple: Obama needs a down-and-out America to win a second term. His strategy is to paint a picture of a sad, slothful, ailing America that is in need of rescue. Salvation that only he — the one we had been waiting for — can deliver. How else can he make the case that he can save us, much like he did in 2008?

Where President Ronald Reagan made the United States believe in itself again — with a famous campaign ad heralding that “It’s morning again in America” — Obama provokes us to second-guess our better instincts, doubt our resiliency and shun our greatness.

But I ask the President: If we’re so lazy, how did we become such a prosperous nation? If we have no imagination, why is the whole world using Apple iPhones to log on to Google and Facebook — all three part of an American corporate sector that’s as vibrant as ever. This year, Americans won two Nobel Prizes in economics, two more in medicine and swept the physics category with three...

If anything, it’s the American government, not the American people, that has gotten lazy. Poorly managed stimulus packages and bad taxpayer-backed loans made to troubled green energy companies like Solyndra and SunPower are examples of a White House that has lost its ambition — and its mind.

Not to mention that when a good idea that will create jobs — like the Keystone XL pipeline — comes along, Obama chooses to punt the decision to move forward until after 2012 because of political pressure from environmentalists...

But it’s beyond a lack of understanding and hostility for business that should concern voters. He will make us feel bad about ourselves so that we cling to him instead of to guns and our religion. He won’t sell our exceptionalism to the rest of the world, but he’ll peddle his own to the rest of America...

America’s possibilities are limitless — but government’s are not. Obama not only fails to recognize the boundaries of our federal system, but he blasts the benefits of our private one. What’s worse is that he is unable to identify his own limits. That’s the saddest part of all.