Who does Obama reminds us of from history?

Who would I compare President Obama with in history?

As a history buff, I frequently look to history to try to find example and analogies the help to explain or give insight into what is happening in current events. PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS BEEN A DIFFICULT PERSON TO PAIR UP WITH SOMEONE IN HISTORY.

I THOUGHT OF CALIGULA, not for the debauchery or the insanity that follows him through history, but FOR THE HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND JOY WHEN HE WAS EVALUATED TO THE PRINCIPE. He was so different from Tiberius, who although a good enough emperor, was disliked by the people of Rome as a tightwad. Caligula came into office and like Obama went on a spending spree that exhausted the Treasury of the Empire. Also, Caligula lasted about four years, which I see as the maximum Obama will have in his office.

But this weekend I was watching a documentary on Hawaii. In it they explained how Europeans found Hawaii by chance. WHEN HE ARRIVED CAPTAIN COOK WAS GREETED AS A GOD (which he made no attempt to refute), his arrival happening in the time and manner of a legendary return of a Polynesian god. They stayed there and replenished for about three weeks and then set sail again. He ran into huge storms and had to turn back to Hawaii to repairs. But THIS TIME, THE NATIVES DID NOT GREET HIM AS A GOD SINCE A GOD SHOULD BE ABLE TO CALM THE STORMS. When he came back the natives look with distrust on him and his men and during one engagement Cook was killed.

OBAMA’S POLITICAL LIFE LOOKS MUCH LIKE COOKS ACTUAL LIFE. Obama was greeted by many with wild enthusiasm and sky high expectations. One magazine called him a god and Woody Allen suggested we let him rule as a dictator for a while.

But OBAMA HAS GONE OUT INTO THE ECONOMIC STORMS AND HAS COME BACK WITH HIS SHIP IN SHAMBLES. And the people who looked upon him as their savior are joining those who never fell under his spell. Obama’s problem of not really having any real executive experience was magnified by the expectations the press gave to us of him. His statements the “WE ARE THE ONES WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR…” and “THIS WAS THE MOMENT WHEN “THE RISE OF THE OCEANS BEGAN TO SLOW AND OUR PLANET BEGAN TO HEAL” speaking of his nomination as the Democratic nominee also did not help him as reality brought him back to earth. And today we look at someone blindly flaying at his political opponents trying to emulate a much more polished Bill Clinton in a different time with a different economy. In a way it is sad. Obama’s name will go down in the history books but not as he had hoped. He will not be remember for marking the day the oceans rise began to slow and the planet began to heal. HE WILL BE REMEMBERED AS A FAILED PRESIDENT WHO GOT TOO MUCH, TOO SOON AND DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO GOVERN.


The Tea Party was right

….STIMULUS. OPPOSITION TO OBAMA'S STIMULUS WAS THE ORIGIN OF THE TEA PARTY. Now we know the story.

How the stimulus was sold: IT WOULD CREATE THREE MILLION JOBS OR MORE. It would keep the unemployment rate under 8%, instead of 9% without a stimulus. It would cost $787B. The jobs were shovel-ready.

What really happened: THERE ARE 1.2 MILLION FEWER JOBS NOW THAN WHEN THE STIMULUS WAS PASSED. Unemployment went over 10% (vs. prediction of 8%) and is STILL OVER 9% (VS. PREDICTION OF ABOUT 6.8% AT THIS TIME). It cost $814B or more. Maybe 6% of it went to infrastructure projects. Obama's reaction? A little joke: "Shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected."

Of course, Obama and his minions simply blame this on their underestimating the size of the mess they inherited from Bush. But that has been studied by economists at the University of Western Ontario and Ohio State University. THE VERDICT: THE STIMULUS ITSELF COST ABOUT ONE MILLION PRIVATE-SECTOR JOBS; THE NET JOB LOSS WAS ABOUT 595,000. We'd have been better off without any "stimulus" at all, just as the Tea Party said….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_tea_party_right_about_everything.html

The TEA Party patriots saw what was coming. Made fun of the MSM with reporters asking demonstrators, didn’t the know they were getting tax cuts or made to look that this was nothing but racism, the TEA Party knew that the consequences of the kind of spending Obama did would result in tax increases, government waste, and no real help for the economy. In fact this article documents the loss of almost 600,000 jobs as a result of the stimulus.

Default—What Both Sides Are Thinking

WHAT TOP DEMS ARE THINKING, per an official familiar with the negotiations: “1. A short-term extension would create tremendous uncertainty in the economy and risk a downgrade. No short-term extension can pass the Senate, so any proposal like that is dead on Day 1. Both Cantor and Boehner opposed short term extensions last week. 2. SENATE DEMS AND THE WHITE HOUSE HAVE BENT OVER BACKWARDS TO GIVE THE SPEAKER A WAY OUT OF THE MESS HE CREATED ON FRIDAY BY BLOWING UP WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD DEAL, BUT HE CAN'T BRING HIMSELF TO SAY ‘YES’ TO ANYTHING. 3. The GOP doesn't only oppose all Dem plans -- they oppose their own plans. They are playing a dangerous game of chicken with the economy to appease the fair right of their caucus. 4. If Boehner would just lead his caucus, this would have been over on Saturday. … Boehner has a few hours left to avert a standoff.”

WHAT TOP REPUBLICANS ARE THINKING, per a House leadership aide: “PRESIDENT OBAMA BLEW UP ANY CHANCE OF A BIGGER AGREEMENT WITH HIS INSISTENCE ON TAX HIKES AND BY BACKING AWAY FROM SOME OF THE SERIOUS STRUCTURAL ENTITLEMENT REFORMS HE AGREED TO RHETORICALLY. HE HAS ONLY HIMSELF TO BLAME. The President desperately wants a large debt limit increase that will take him past the next presidential election. Republicans will not give him a $2.4 trillion blank check he can use throughout his re-election campaign to continue the spending binge that has driven our nation to the brink of a job-destroying downgrade and default.

“He is trying to set up a no-win situation for taxpayers: either he gets his $2.4 trillion blank check, or America defaults. Republicans will put forward a responsible, common-sense proposal that reflects the principles of Cut, Cap and Balance and which can pass both chambers. As the deadline approaches it would be inexcusable and indefensible for the President to veto a plan that preserves the full faith and credit of the United States simply because it's inconvenient to his re-election campaign.”

http://www.politico.com/playbook

It appears that both sides are busy trying to blame the other side rather than solve the problem. As I pointed out yesterday, they really have plenty of time to handle the situation due to the Social Security part of the debt, but this doesn’t work for the Democrats and Obama.