President Obama's latest "jobs" initiative is just a rehash of his previous "jobs" initiatives.  It's classic political gimmickry--all fluff and no substance.  It wasn't and isn't about jobs.  It's about positioning Obama to claim during the 2012 presidential campaign that Republicans attempted to block his "jobs" plan.  Problem is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) didn't get the memo.  He didn't even bring the president's plan to the floor for discussion in the Senate, much less a vote.

After a great deal of ridicule aimed at President Obama and Senate Democrats, Reid finally realized that it might be a good idea to give the president and his Democratic colleagues a little political cover so he decided to take up the "jobs" bill in the Senate.  No sooner had Reid made his decision than he decided to block Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Kentucky) attempt to bring the "jobs" bill up for a vote in the Senate.  Immediately, the White House screamed to the housetops that McConnell's effort to move the "jobs" bill to the Senate floor for a vote was just a political stunt.  Then in a desperate maneuver, Senate Democrats tacked onto the "jobs" bill a "millionaires' tax."

I know this must sound like fiction, but it's not.  If it were a movie, I would call it "Democrats: Lost and Frantically Searching for something on which to Hang Their Oversized Hats."  I suppose it would be comical if it weren't so serious.  As things stand, it's just a pathetic attention grab by the Democrats.  I suspect that they are in for a real surprise come next November.  If you think I'm spilling the beans, never fear.  They won't believe it until they see it.  Even then, most of them will wonder what happened.

The Obama administration's claim about McConnell's proposal is like the skunk telling the hound that he stinks.  President Obama may be a genius, but you can't tell by what he and his underlings say and do.  The president has been playing political games for almost 3 years at our expense, and all of us are the losers.  Taxpayers have been forced to pay for his failed initiatives, and people who don't pay taxes (that's about 50% of the population) have seen restricted and/or declining benefits.  Tacking on the "millionaires' tax" in the Senate shows how out of touch Senate Democrats are, so it's not just a problem in the White House.  When Obama and Senate Democrats lose in 2012, they'll have only themselves to blame.

The only winners under Obamanomics are people that I refer to as "Obamanistas."  They're people who still gush when they see the president--union thugs and freeloaders being chief among them.  Thinking people have to fight a regurgitation reflex when Obama makes an appearance and starts rambling on about this or that, and Harry Reid and his Senate comrades provoke an even more repulsive response. 

Be that as it may, the 2012 election is a little more than a year away.  I'm hoping for change we can believe in.  The United States can't afford 4 more years of President Obama.  For that matter, neither can Israel and the rest of the world.

Neil Snyder is a chaired professor emeritus at the University of Virginia.  His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.  His latest book is titled If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You're Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You're Not an Idiot.