Yesterday, President Obama, during a White House press conference, said that “the private sector is doing fine.” And now the Republicans, Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, sanctimonious Sean Hannity (mea culpa), and a cast of characters out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, are jumping all over Barack Obama, calling him clueless and out of touch.
Give the guy a break. If you had been traveling as much as he has been traveling, hobnobbing with all the wealthy interests of our country, mingling with the Wall Streeters, extending your open hand for political donations from these very well-to-doers, and have been attending all of their lavish dinners, you might perhaps have thought, too, that the private sector is doing fine. It's easy to confuse one's base with one's political donors when you are spending so much time with those political donors and representing them. Heck, I'd be confused, too.
And let's be honest here: the upper 1% in the private sector is doing very well. So the President was not entirely amiss in his remark yesterday. The market is up; executive compensation has never been better; hedge fund managers are still only paying 15% tax rates and keep salting away billions; the estate tax has been lowered; and right after the election, you can be certain that President Obama's proposal to reduce the corporate income tax rate will sail right through Congress. Happy days are here again!
And isn't it unreasonable for all those Wisconsonites to have expected President Obama, on a flight to Los Angeles to collect millions in fundraisers, to stop off, "put on his walking shoes" (that was only a campaign promise back in 2008, for God's sake), and support those union workers and their candidate, Barrett, against Scott Walker? Honestly, wouldn't you, too, have followed the money rather than waste a stop over in Wisconsin merely over collective bargaining rights of workers? Gee, how petty these union employees can be!
You cannot fault President Obama, a protege of Bill Clinton. They know that you have to follow the money to win in politics. And Barack is following his mentor's play book to the "t". Who could deny that Bill Clinton knew politics better than any other person in the last 20 years? He wasn't called Slick Willie for nothing. For a guy who was only worth $250,000 back in 1992, and whose net worth is now approaching $150 million, you cannot question the political savvy of Bill Clinton. He knows how to play politics so that it pays!
I am so sick and tired of the media and the Republicans and the 23 million Americans out of work beating up on our President. It is time for them to see that the President has no choice but to follow the money, cavort with Wall Streeters, and focus on winning in 2012, because, let's face it, nothing else really matters but getting Barack Obama re-elected in 2012. Absolutely nothing else.