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The following will appear in the Florida Times-Union tomorrow (Thursday) as part of a liberal-conservative debate on the question Has the Obama Presidency Failed? What follows was cut from 13,000 words to 485 to comply with space restrictions. J
The Obama Presidency Has Failed
By Jay Haug
With fifteen months left until the November 2012 elections, how should we grade the Obama presidency?
1. Jobs. The greatest strategic blunder of the Obama presidency was focusing on nationalized healthcare first rather than jobs. In doing this, the president placed political goals ahead of national interest. He told the nation that the unemployment rate "would not rise above 8%." It is at 9.2% now and has been rising since spring. No president since the 1930's has ever been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 7.1%. The chances of unemployment reaching that level by November 2012 are essentially zero. Democrats now say they will pivot to focus on jobs. Few people believe President Obama or his party has a viable plan to create them. Green jobs and high-speed rail are government playthings rather than viable businesses. Grade: Fail.
2. The economy. President Obama made a large Keynesian bet that massive government spending would revive the economy. The enormous stimulus plan, voted against by every Republican in the House, failed miserably. Despite public outcry in the summer of 2009 against Obamacare's choking bureaucracy, the president went ahead anyway. Businesses large and small stopped spending and hiring because of economic uncertainty. The reactionary over-regulation of Dodd-Frank clogged the arteries of American enterprise. Grade: Fail.
President Obama continues to regularly demonize business, risking rejection by voters who want to live in freedom. His obsession with "millionaires and billionaires" "big corporations," "corporate jet owners" and "big oil companies" demonstrates the failure to understand that when politicians aim at "the rich," workers get hurt. Grade: Fail.
3. Freedom. Any president who makes the country less free runs the risk of violating America 's first principles and getting "shellacked" at the ballot box. When candidate Obama said "we are five days away from fundamentally changing the United States of America ," voters should have known freedom was under assault. By almost every measure including government interference in the economy, pandering to public sector unions, the explosion of federal government jobs, and the idée-fixe that more government is the solution to every problem, America is poorer and less free. Grade: Fail.
4. Foreign policy: In relationships abroad, President Obama has not only failed America but made the world more dangerous. He has alienated our friends, while courting our enemies. After campaigning on an anti-Bush platform of closing Guantanamo Bay, getting out of Iraq, winding down Afghanistan, trying terrorists on US soil and building better relationships with Islamic countries, he has failed on all counts. While telling foreigners that "We will convey our deepest appreciation for the Muslim faith," President Obama oddly insisted that " America is no longer a Christian country." While failing to support the freedom agenda of Iranian demonstrators, he praised an "Arab spring" that may eventuate in Islamists strengthening their hold on the Middle East . These initiatives are not only nonsensical. They are dangerous. Grade: Fail
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