Made to Measure

I don’t shrink from making the distinction that Obama wanted the title he now flaunts but he really didn’t want the job. Or, putting that another way, he wanted the power and the control that went with the position but not the responsibility inherent in it.

The reason is that now his success or lack thereof can be measured and while measurement and subsequent reward or penalty is normal operating procedure for most people, it is anathema to others. Those would include people from Academia and Community Organizing for, in that world, it doesn’t seem to matter what you did but only what you say and what you say you will do. By the time that it can be shown that the words didn’t do anything, the person has moved onto the next gig.

The closest analogy I can draw is that of the snake oil salesman who blows into town. And, with his carpet bag of tricks, he fleeces the miners and their families of everything he can and then gets the next train out.

Well Obama, the next train is a few years away and an increasing number of Americans are not buying your snake oil. It’s getting time to demand answers so let’s start with this.

It’s almost a year since the stimulus packages were past and do you remember the promises that were made at the time? Even then, Obama was hedging his bets as he phrased them very carefully as he promised “to create or save 3.5 million jobs.”

Even the House Ways and Means Committee was forced to report over the weekend that the measures had done neither.

I have been accused of being too generalized in my accusations of incompetence and mendacity and so, let me try this approach.

49 out of 50 states have reported net job losses since Obama’s speech. But let’s get even more granular. According to Obama, Arizona should have had more than 70,000 more jobs by now. In fact, it’s lost another 60,000.

Then yesterday we heard just how well and equitably the stimulus packages were being applied in a report from the Mercatus Center which is part of George Mason University. I did think about breaking my promise not to overburden you with stuff and reproduce the whole report but, as well as being a compassionate conservative, I'm also a merciful one.

But, for those who don’t want to wade through the stats, here’s the Clift notes version.

This report concluded that there was no correlation between the unemployment needs of the area, state or district and the cash it received. It did however find that Democratic districts got more than Republicans. It also found that more money went to richer districts than poorer ones.

How can that be? Anyone who asks that question has never been to Marin County, California or to Westchester County, New York.

Again, if you want granularity, 73.47% of all the “stimulus” money went to Democratic districts.

How’s all that Hoax and Chains working for ya’?

And, Oh, By The Way, if you want all the data, regressional analyses and all, send me an email at jack-morris@q.com