American Bandwagon

Well, good folks of Cushing, Oklahoma, get ready. President Obama is coming to town today so expect the peace and quiet of your little town to be violated to all ends. Of course, this visit has nothing whatsoever to do with the people or the town of Cushing, Oklahoma in terms of any particular interest on the part of the President. No, as usual, it is all about him and whatever he can insert himself into in order to continue the appearance that he is either the welfare of the average Middle American or the success of the oil and gas business. He is coming for one reason and one reason only…to take credit for the new pipeline running from Cushing to Houston.

Now we can all remember the President’s position on this very same pipeline with regard to the section of it connecting Cushing with Canada. He was perfectly fine with putting the whole project on the backburner and letting it sit until he decided what to do with it. At the very least, it would remain there until after the elections of November. Yet, at the same time, he speaks of the importance of this section of the project and how it will bring more crude oil to the refinery and make more fuel available to the average consumer…as if it was his idea in the beginning. In actuality, he had nothing to do with this section of the project except to insert himself into it with the hope of grabbing a voter or two through his association with it. Otherwise, I doubt you will find Obama’s feet on the ground within the borders of Oklahoma.

This is one of the poorer choices by the President in my mind. He has spent most of his first three years in office unleashing the EPA on all aspects of American industry and placing choke chains on the oil and gas industry in particular. Now, he wants to hold himself up as that shining beacon of light that has done more for oil and gas and the drilling industry in general than anyone in the past eight years…a claim which goes unproven and for which no supporting evidence was afforded by his administration. The President has made little secret of the fact that he loathes fossil fuels and that the focus for his time in office will be on clean energy spelled “G-R-E-E-N”. He has also made it clear that he is not concerned with how much that approach costs the American taxpayer as he sits in the Oval Office and hands out bags of money to industries like Solyndra and watch them wait out the clock on bankruptcy all the time knowing that a large portion of that money will end up back in his political coffers. In the private sector, it is called “money-laundering” and it is a criminal act. All the while, he courts the environmentalist vote with his perceived concerns for the resources of America. That concern does not extend to the taxpayer’s money.

Here again is a President willing to fire up a Boeing 747 for a trip to Oklahoma along with all of the associated logistics, people, vehicle, aircraft, and dollars all in the name of self-promotion and all on the taxpayer’s dime I might add. Here again is a President who is so self-centered that he would not miss such a chance to stand in the spotlight yet cannot seem to muster the desire or the effort to celebrate Memorial or Veteran’s Day in proper fashion. Instead, he is more interested in getting to Hawaii for vacation or back to Chicago for a Socialist weenie roast. No, when it can be about him and he can have the opportunity to take the credit, count on him to be there.

America is hurting in many ways. We have bailed out the auto industry with stimulus money and now watch GM claim that it has regained its top spot as an auto manufacturer only to place $40,000 electric cars in its showrooms which can barely compete with many of today’s gasoline-powered cars that sell at half the price and do not have the potential to need a set of $8,000 batteries somewhere downstream. What would be your reaction if you went out to buy a new Nissan and was told that within 6 to 8 years you could expect to spend at least $8,000 to keep the car running. Oh, and by the way, you won’t be paying the full $40,000 price tag for the car…Uncle Sam has agreed to thrown in a few thousand to sell America on the idea….one that again has come before its time in the marketplace.

I gave some thought to the differences dividing the left and right in this country and what it would take to find a middle ground. In my mind, that is what we need in a leader in Washington today and that is what we are so lacking in this President and most of the elected officials we have in Washington. They are not oriented to uniting us as a people for they are way too busy dividing us in the interest of promoting their own well-being as a politician. One thing became apparent to me. What I would like to see in an America that is on good footing is not so far off of what a person of the left would also want…good financial condition, caring for the needs of those less fortunate, a growing economy, jobs, available medical care…the list goes on and on. This President has many on the left believing that he and his administration are the ones who will provide those things. For me, that is a completely false reality grown in the utopian garden of a socialist’s mind, or, as Plato referenced, it is the noble lie offered up to shore the hopes of those who give you the power.

Ronald Reagan once said, “Don't be afraid to see what you see.” Not even in his time was that quote so true as it is today in this country. We have a media far too-willing to brush things aside which should take center stage but requires far too much work and research on their part to warrant the follow-up. They buy their seat in the White House Press Conference with their kid gloves approach to the Office of President in far too many cases. Wait and see how many questions Jay Carney answers with regard to the rationalization of the President’s visit to Cushing or how that plays out based on his position on the rest of that pipeline project. Don’t hold your breathe.

Ronald Reagan also pointed out, “When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat”. Our Media and our nation lacks this courage today. We are so immersed in the waters of political correctness that we refrain too often from “questioning what it is that we really see”. Those of you who remember the television series, “Dallas” might remember the character, “J.R. Ewing and what a conniver he was in his escapades with other women. In one show, upon being caught by his wife, Sue Ellen, as he was bedding one of his women, he remarked to Sue Ellen, “Honey, are you gonna believe me or your lying eyes?” That is about where we have come to in America today.

So, as the good folks of Cushing sit and watch Obama read his glowing teleprompter message to them today touting his administration’s efforts to make this day a reality, one can only hope that the vast majority of them are sitting there asking themselves, “what is it that I really see here?” If that is the case, I certainly hope they will have the courage and the strength to call it what it really is…an outrageous case of self-promotion opportunity at the expense of the American taxpayer.

©Copyright WBrown2012. All Rights Reserved. 22 March 2012