Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Please, President Obama, Don't Halp Us!

I'm reminded of those photos of American troops in Iraq who took offense at John Kerry's elitist remarks to the effect that only dumb people went into the military. Everybody else went to college, according to Kerry. The statement was accompanied by a hilarius photo showing troops holding up a white bed-sheet upon which the following words were emblazoned:

"Please John Kerry, Halp us!"


I get somewhat the same feeling from the Obama administration attempts to "halP" the economy, with the latest implosion coming from Tim Geithner's opening statement about his rescue plan. If that's rescue, let us drown, so the stock market seemed to say. The S & P was hammered and the Dow dropped close to 400 points, following major losses during the previous week.

Meanwhile, Obama seems to be reincarnating Jimmy Carter's "malaise" diagnosis. For weeks, we've been terrorized into buying into a Porkulus Plan which devotes only 12 cents on the dollar into true stimulus and offers a menu of political paybacks and pet Democratic projects. Obama used the word "catastrophe" several times during the past week. This is like telling "folks" the sky is falling after it's already fallen.

I kind of feel sorry for tax-cheat Geithner who received a thumbs down from the Street. The reason? Most pundits says it's because the plan was not a plan at all, and that it offered no specifics. I listened to Geithner's talk--I didn't think it was totally bad. I thought it was rather like one of those summaries you put at the end of your term paper: dry, academic, designed to impress without admitting you have not the slightest idea what you're writing about.

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