Forty-Two Months of Delusion
If you have friends or family on the fence about whether or not they'll be voting for Barack Obama again in the fall, there's some literature you should print out and have at the ready next time they come around.
Reason's Tim Cavanaugh has done the yeoman's work (and believe me, assembling a piece like this is a lot heavier lift than you'd think) of assembling the Obama Administration and its media sympathists' pollyannaish pronouncements about the economy for every single month of the 44th president's tenure. Read all at once, the collection makes it nearly impossible for even the most fervent Obama supporter to conclude anything other than that the Administration is overmatched and under-read. A few of my favorites:
January 10, 2009: Council of Economic Advisers Chair-designate Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, economic advisor to Vice President-Elect Joe Biden: "As Figure 1 shows, even with the large prototypical (stimulus) package, the unemployment rate in 2010Q4 is predicted to be approximately 7.0%, which is well below the approximately 8.8% that would result in the absence of a plan."
...
June 17, 2010: Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ron Sims: "This summer is sure to be a Summer of Economic Recovery."
...
February 17, 2011: Vice President Joe Biden: “Through the Recovery Act, we've proved that the government can move quickly and get the job done and do it right.”
...
December 30, 2011: Matthew Yglesias, economics columnist for Slate: "Happy days are here again!"
This is one of the most comprehensive chronicles you'll find of the Obama Administration's capacity for willful delusion. Now do the responsible thing and use it to afflict a liberal.
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Comments:
Apr '11
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
It doesn't matter. Nothing matters.
Jun '12
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
You're making a cardinal error.
You're assuming lefties are moved by facts. They are not. They are moved by emotion or ideology.
Mar '11
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
It seems the only thing that is keeping Romney in this race is Obama's tendency to make things unnecessarily hard for himself. (i.e., overselling and under-delivering)
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
This, though, really will be the Summer of Recovery.
We're going to recover our backbone.
Jan '12
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
Rob Long: This, though, really will be the Summer of Recovery.
We're going to recover our backbone. · 12 minutes ago
I really hope you are right!
Jun '12
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
Rob Long: This, though, really will be the Summer of Recovery.
We're going to recover our backbone. · 25 minutes ago
I think we already have.
I've been perusing my favorite conservative sites (Ricochet is, of course, right on the top of the list), and I haven't seen my fellow conservatives this fired up since ObamaCare was signed into law.
I guess we can "thank" Chief Justice Roberts for that.
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
There is so much to like in this one sentence: "Vice President Joe Biden, put in charge of keeping waste and fraud out of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, declared today 'without reservation' that the recovery plan is working."
Feb '11
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
Perhaps Chief Justice Roberts is indeed a very sly conservative.
Jun '10
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
And if it doesn't, it's Bush's fault.
Apr '11
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
~Paules
And if it doesn't, it's Bush's fault. · 1 minute ago
The public is cutting Obama such enormous slack because they believe it is Bush's fault. They actually blame Obama less for the economy than they did at this time a year ago. What an enormous disaster Bush was for the country and us!
Jul '11
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
Rob Long: This, though, really will be the Summer of Recovery.
We're going to recover our backbone. · Jun 29 at 10:24am
I hate to throw water on this sentiment, but I'm going to do it anyway: I was never at a loss for backbone. Most people who are willing to work for a living already have backbones, made of steel. If there is a sector that lacks backbone, steel, or flat-out balls, it's the bulk of the clowns we put into higher office, because they're the ones who have been driving us into the ditch, for decades.
It's up to us to correct our representatives, not for representatives to tell us what should be done. We already know what needs to be done. What's lacking is the will, political will and public will, to do it.
Jul '11
Re: Forty-Two Months of Delusion
wmartin
~Paules
And if it doesn't, it's Bush's fault. · 1 minute ago
The public is cutting Obama such enormous slack because they believe it is Bush's fault. They actually blame Obama less for the economy than they did at this time a year ago. What an enormous disaster Bush was for the country and us! · Jun 29 at 2:03pm
What an enormous disaster mainstream media and those who are willfully blind are for the country and us. Bush was no fiscal conservative, but Barry's economic policies were much like Bush on a killer set of 'roids - doubling or tripling down on deficit spending (2009 beating the prior record Bush deficit by almost 3X), expanding benefits,and enlarging the public sector, at the federal and state level. You'd think Barry would give Bush more credit, because that's the same path Barry has chosen for himself.