Has President Obama Forgotten Who the President Is?

In his speech Tuesday, Barack Obama showed us that is truly delusional. He seems to want us to forget who has been president the past three years -- he apparently has.

President Obama, before a small crowd in Osawatomie, Kansas today, gave one of the more bizarre political speeches in recent history.

As he rattled of a litany of problems with the country, Obama sounded more like a candidate for the presidency than an incumbent. It was a speech more fitting for a party nomination acceptance than a kick-off to a bid for a second term.

In a speech that ran for nearly an hour and included more than 5,000 words, Obama offered no new ideas, no new plans, and no celebration of past success, and scant few references to any thing he has done to address the problems of our nation; instead he sought to divide the country by class, by wealth, or by political affiliation, all the while charging us to come together as a nation.

But in 2008, the house of cards collapsed. .. it plunged our economy and the world into a crisis from which we're still fighting to recover. It claimed the jobs and the homes and the basic security of millions of people -- innocent, hardworking Americans who had met their responsibilities but were still left holding the bag.

Mr. Obama, who exactly has been in charge since 2008? Apparently, you. What have you done to solve these problems? Apparently, nothing.

Obama proceeded to lament the economic malaise, political gridlock and partisanship, and lack of growth and prosperity without pausing for a moment to consider the sad irony that he has produced not a single result that would reverse any of these problems.

And ever since, there's been a raging debate over the best way to restore growth and prosperity, restore balance, restore fairness.
Throughout the country, it's sparked protests and political movements -- from the tea party to the people who've been occupying the streets of New York and other cities. It's left Washington in a near-constant state of gridlock. It's been the topic of heated and sometimes colorful discussion among the men and women running for president. (Laughter)

It seems to me, Mr. President, these problems should be a topic of heated and sometimes colorful discussion within your White House, rather than a joke in some campaign speech. What exaclty have you done to restore growth and prosperity? (Laughter.)

And, how exactly does the president of the United States ensure restored balance and fairness? Will you ignore the details and allow us to fill in the blanks, much like you did with your specious "Hope and Change" rhetoric four years ago?

In one breath, Obama casts aspersions upon the technologies of the past several decades that have made the workplace more efficient and safer, seeming again to blame ATMs and airport kisoks for the high unemployment we are facing.

Over the last few decades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and it's made it easier for them to set up shop and hire workers anywhere they want in the world... Steel mills that needed 100 -- or 1,000 employees are now able to do the same work with 100 employees... And these changes didn't just affect blue-collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travel agent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs and the Internet.

In the next breath, he celebrates today's innovation economy, suggesting that we also need a world-class commitment to science and research, the next generation of high-tech manufacturing. Which is it, Mr. Obama? Are high-tech manufacturing advances the cause of the problem or the path out?

In one reference to a Kansas company, Marvin Doors and Windows, he celebrated the workers' agree(ing) to give up some perks and some pay when times get tough. Yet, just a few months ago when Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin asked the same of state workers there, Obama snarled that Walker was unleashing an 'assault'" on those workers.

More odd, Obama lamented the economy under his predecessor:

The slowest job growth in half a century. Massive deficits that have made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic security that helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class...

While the economic growth under President Bush was strong, but not stellar, the growth was more than double than we've seen under Obama's charge.

Unemployment during Bush's presidency hit half of what we've seen during Obama's tenure. As for massive deficits, Obama's deficit spending already dwarfs that of Bush, in less than half of the time in office.

Obama seems to forget, too, whom he is hitting up for campaign cash, lamenting:

Inequality also distorts our democracy. It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions, and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder.

while raking in the dough from his evil millionaires and billionaires (though not as many as GOP candidate Mitt Romney).

But, the real head scratcher is that Obama could find no recent president to compare to; rather, he cast us back to the halcyon days of Teddy Roosevelt, referencing a speech that Roosevelt gave two years after leaving office that he used to start a failed campaign for president, which reportedly defined the progressive era.

And in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism. “Our country,” he said, “…means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy…of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.”

Guaranteed opportunity? What exactly does that mean, Mr. Obama. Or will you leave that definition to the imagination, too.

His attempts to channel Reagan and Truman having failed, Obama told us that he still believes "in the words of the man who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago." Don't you remember how good it was during Roosevelt's administration? Neither do I.

In this speech Tuesday, Barack Obama showed us that is truly delusional. He seems to want us to forget who has been president the past three years -- he apparently has. He wants us to ignore the stagant economy, the amemic real estate market, the obscene and unchanging unemployment figures, the record-low consumer and business confidence he has inspired. Instead, he wants us to give him four more years to figure out how to fix these ills.

Mr. Obama, there are no do-overs in the White House.

We fell for his soaring rhetoric and empty promises in 2008. For our faith, we got higher unemployment, flat economic growth, a worse real estate market, lowered expectations for our children, and a slate of broken ideals and promises.

Please don't let it happen again.