President Poser, by Kevin Martin

Kevin Martin

President Poser

by Kevin Martin (bio)

Throughout the Bush presidency, a new golden age was promised to the American people if they would just put liberals in charge of the government.

That happened last November after Obama’s election and the strengthening of liberal majorities in Congress.  But after ten months in power, liberals now appear to be a bunch of posers.

“Poser” is slang for a person falsely claiming skills, smarts and connections.  That guy at the club who says he hangs with Kanye when everyone knows he lives in his mom’s basement and works at Popeye’s?  Poser.

Posers are now running our government.  Liberals claimed they could do things better, set the important priorities, influence world leaders and unify the country.  After less than a year, however, our nation is saddled with a generational debt problem, dictators laughing behind our back, polls that show increasing malaise and political divisions that are greater than ever.

Like any poser, don’t expect these guys to flinch.  Consider their reaction to the failed “stimulus” plan.  Obama and his allies said it was essential to pass the huge spending bill quickly and without even reading it.  It turned out to be filled with pork, including some that won’t “stimulate” the economy for years.  But the national debt skyrocketed immediately and unemployment continued to rise while easy credit still eludes most Americans.

A common response from the White House and Congress is that they inherited the problem.  It’s not their fault!  This excuse is thin, since liberals were in charge of budgeting after taking control of the Congress in the 2006 election and the stimulus was their baby.

These posers also implied that ridding the White House of George W. Bush (and, by extension, rejecting John McCain) would bring our troops home from Iraq, lead us to victory in Afghanistan and pacify Iran.  Now, Afghanistan is more dangerous than ever.  Obama is barely speaking to our military command there.  Iraq may seem calm for the moment, but Iran is rattling its saber again with new missile tests and new uranium-enrichment facilities.

Obama couldn’t even bring the Olympics to his adoptive hometown despite a full-court lobbying effort by the White House that included the President himself.

Speaking of Chicago, Obama was late to address the recent murder of an innocent honor student who accidentally walked into a gang riot not far from the President’s Hyde Park home.  He was also late to address the murder of a military recruiter by an extremist Muslim, yet quick to make political hay over the murder of an abortionist.  In that same manner, he also quickly admonished cops in Cambridge, Massachusetts last summer for doing their jobs.  Obama’s thoughtless remarks, seemingly a knee-jerk response in defense of his friend, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, questions his leadership.

Speaking of race, public concern over the leftward track our nation is on has the posers rushing back to their old friend, the race card.

If anyone criticizes President Obama or the policies he supports these days, it is assumed to really be about the color of his skin.  Legitimate questions about leadership skills, growing government or expanding debt apparently run a distant second.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are similarly posers as well as enablers.  They make their own boasts of infallibility and say “who me?” when their plans fail, but they are also responsible for trying to ram through the Obama agenda at break-neck speed.  It’s as if they feel the need to do as much as they can before the 2010 election.

By the assertions of Obama, Reid and Pelosi, our economy should be recovering and our standing in the world should be on the rise.  But neither is true.  When someone stands in their way or points out the folly of their ways, those people are demonized and minimized.  That’s what posers do.

So much for hope and change.



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