PrintJune 16, 2009
Our Breathless President
Polling experts around the world and in Iran are weighing in on the impossibility of counting over forty million paper ballots and declaring President Ahmadinejad victorious in only a few short hours. It's highly questionable in other words to reach a sound conclusion at such breathtaking speed.
"Breathlessness" is also the subject of a wonderful column by the always astute Star Parker. From the stimulus bill to health care reform the omnipresent Mr. Obama has lectured Americans he will not tolerate any "endless delay." According to Parker:
"Breathlessness is a great political technique - telling voters that the world will end if we don't get X passed now. This is how the $800 billion dollar ‘stimulus' bill got passed earlier this year. We were flashed images of the Great Depression of the 1930s and told our only hope is the stimulus bill."
In addition, Parker makes the important observation that the main reason Hillary Clinton's 1993 attempt to revolutionize health care failed was because American citizens spent valuable time exploring the nature and ramifications of this life-changing medical overhaul. The Obama team is well aware of Hillary's mistake:
"They don't want to make the same mistake of giving voters a chance to actually understand what is about to happen to them."
I remember Richard Nixon once wrote that he had ample opportunity to indulge his favorite pastime - foreign policy - because the American domestic front pretty much "took care of itself." Nixon's perspective here is remarkably similar to what the Founders had in mind. American citizens, state and local governments, city councils and mayors were responsible enough to run their own lives.
For Barack Obama on the other hand Americans are helpless and doomed unless Sonia Sotomayor is quickly confirmed or unless Democrats take over health care by October. Obama does not tolerate delays you know. It's also an indication of what Mr. Obama thinks of our ability to manage our own lives.
Star Parker gets it right. Read her essay. It will take your breath away.
