The Obama Effect

The Obama Administration really needs to take a hard look at the coaching staff. As in football, there are just too many players who are beginning to “telegraph” their actions before the ball is snapped. In this case, I don’t think too many people mind. At the same time I believe the players actually think they are doing something so original that no one can pick up on it even if clues are offered.

 

I have been saying for months now that Obama’s only hope 2012 short of absolute miracles taking place in the economy and on other issues is to bring new blood into his camp.  In this case, I am referring to putting Hilary Clinton on the ticket in the VP slot and dropping Joe Biden.  Now I see speculation on AOL as of today that it could be in the cards. Then there are those who seemed to have kept their head in the sand since the last election who contend that ‘Hilary would never do that, why she’s already turned that job down’. Still others point out that she doesn’t want to hold the same job twice (i.e. serving as her husband’s unofficial VP). I really think we have to examine the situation to come to an accurate conclusion.

 

First, let’s look at where we are with the Obama Administration.  In general, people are far less than pleased that the economy remains in a weak state of recovery at the most optimistic analysis. The job markets remain depressed with the most jobs being created in the government sector as the federal government grew by a factor of 25% over the past two years.  Immigration and border security are very hot issues which have been turned into political footballs by the Obama Administration.  Border states are literally being held hostage in terms of border security in order to leverage reform.  The oil spill in the Gulf has opened avenues which the administration wants to use to eliminate or drastically reduce off-shore drilling and impose greater environmental controls through cap and trade legislation.  And finally, financial reform has been so poorly handled that most institutions are now so hamstrung with regulation and red tape that they cannot work themselves into a more secure position and eliminate their non-performing assets.  All this goes on while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the largest perpetrators in the industry, get a pass.  Ice this down with a government run healthcare program which the vast majority of the public did not want yet the Obama Administration saw fit to jam their throats and you have a scenario that does not look too rosy for the 2012 re-election campaign.

 

The Obama Administration has led the way in pushing the government to dump more than $800 billions dollars into the economy as a stimulus to crawl out of the recession the country was in after the November 2008 financial issues.  By the way, over $300 billion dollars of that money still lays there uncommitted but for whatever reason was not available for use to cover the additional $26 billion dollars in spending for teacher, police/firefighter, and government employee unions.  This bailout of the unions, and that is what it ultimately is, just keeps more dues-payers on the books and in the end more money in the coffers of the unions. Well, guess what…that just means the unions have more to contribute when election time comes in 2012.  Oh, by the way, if you look back in 2009, on a number of occasions, Obama indicated that the original spending stimulus package would be the money that would “save the teachers jobs”.  So, we the public, have been duped at least twice in this operation to finance the democratic vote on the back of the taxpayers.  Shame on us for being so stupid.  Shame on them for thinking that we were.  There are those in Congress on both sides of the aisle who will answer for this when the time comes.

 

Obama is losing ground in terms of popular support on so many levels that the leaks cannot be fixed without a total renovation of the ship.  The handwriting is on the wall and coming rapidly with the mid-term elections.  At the very least, the Democrats will lose control of the House and there are those who speculate that control of the Senate could be lost as well in the mid-terms.  Either way, this brings the current Obama agenda to a screeching deadlock halt and he will be left to languish for his remaining two years in office prior to the 2012 elections.  While this sounds bad for his chances, don’t forget that America generally prospers anytime Washington is in deadlock.  Therefore, good things could happen over the next two years which Obama will most certainly take credit for as he normally does.  So, there is an upside for him here even if he loses the Congress.

 

So, we get past the mid-terms and hopefully survive the efforts of the lame-duck Congressional sessions of late year 2010, what happens next.  Well, it show-time then folks.  With only two years to the 2012 elections, it will be time to hit the trail and start trying to shore up the vote.  Obama will start by attempting to move to the center.  You will see him take on a whole new attitude regarding immigration.  He will talk more favorably about border security; he will actually visit the sites and possibly even confess that the problems are much worse than he had anticipated.  He will point to the rapid recovery in the Gulf and urge Congress to spend more money in the region to aid the BP effort to achieve a return to normalcy.  Of course, he will be waving the flag for his grand achievements in Iraq along with promoting his continuing efforts to dominant in Afghanistan.  Once we have had a full dose of that type of campaigning, then the numbers assessment will take place and the ponies will be trotted out to the gates.

 

The Democratic Party is losing momentum both in terms of their motivation to vote, due in large part to the current administration poor showing, and also due to the drastic movement that the Obama Administration has taken in swinging the party to the left.  These circumstances are causing some fall out in the ranks especially at the fringes with the moderate Democrats stepping more into an “independent” voting block.  This, along with Obama’s popularity ratings being in the tank will call for some drastic effort to shore up the party support in 2012.  This brings us to the subject of putting Hilary Clinton on the ticket for 2012 as the VP running mate.

 

Back when Obama was pushing Hilary out of the Democratic nomination in 2008, Hilary did express that she had no interest in the job of Vice-President.  Of course, at the time, she was still fighting for political survival in the nomination fight.  Things have changed and they have changed in such an ugly fashion that even Hilary has to reconsider her position if everyone in the boat is to survive politically.  Granted, she is not interested in the job to hear her tell it.  But let me point out something she is even less interested in and that is being without a political position period.  Once she weighs thing from that standpoint, preferences take on a whole new perspective.

 

Hilary Clinton is currently Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.  This is a high visibility position that Hilary wanted if she could not be President which would allow her to maintain a high profile in the public eye and deal with issues around the world which were in the news on a daily basis.  This would be here platform to shine even if it meant having to man the post for an eight year term before her next shot at the nomination in 2016.  If she can keep her visibility high and her name in contention, 2016 would likely be her last shot at the crown due to the age factor primarily.  In examining those alternatives, I don’t think anyone in her camp or the Obama camp ever ran the current scenario that Obama would tank in his first two years in office putting his re-election hopes in grave danger.  Now Hilary has four choices: 1. Turn down the VP slot and watch Obama, Biden and her go down in flames in 2012, 2. Take the VP slot and pray that her presence on the ticket will shore up the support and popularity enough to save the 2012 re-election, 3. Resign her current post and challenge Obama for the nomination in 2012, 4. Just resign and go home.  Of those choices, the second one will eventually be the only one that will make sense for her political survival and visibility.

 

So there you have it.  It will most likely be Obama/Clinton in 2012 with Clinton taking the lead role in the campaign trying to rationalize the Obama agenda.  Certainly Clinton can help restore some of the feminist vote to the ticket and attempt to strengthen the party’s position against the active growth of conservative women in both the Republican Party and in various Tea Party operations around the country.  Will it be enough?  Will it be too little too late?  In and of itself, it will not be enough but when it is combined with the loyalty of the union vote and possibly with an additional voting block to be created by Obama when he extends his hand to support illegal immigrants in this country, then it could be a big factor.  Besides, it is the only option short of talking Oprah Winfrey into running for office on the ticket with Obama.

 

We have come to this place in the road by no accident and for good reason.  Singularly, Barrack Obama’s so-called leadership in the first two years in office has been directly responsible for a 25% growth in government, conflicts on immigration and State’s Rights, out of control-deficit spending, creeping socialism in government programs and policies, government run healthcare, unwarranted attacks on energy-producing companies, financial reform that handcuffs the industry while letting the criminals in it run free, and general disregard for both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with Obama himself quoting almost verbatim from the 1963 goals of the Communist Party to point out that the Constitution is an “outdated document”.

 

America really owes a debt of gratitude to the Obama Administration.  This is the first administration in a long time that has actually taken actions that aroused the voter base out of their apathetic and tolerant mindsets.  The administration has created a firestorm of interest like never before in the politics and government operation of this country.  Conservative voters are on fire and cannot wait for the next election.  The voter base is energized.  The irony of it all is that it will likely go heavily against the Obama Administration and anything or anyone associated with it in both the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.  For that, America says “thank you”, Mr. Obama.

 

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