Barack Obama has spent the last two years on the campaign trail promising “change” (when he was not too busy promising “hope,” that is). So what steps does a once-in-a-lifetime transformational President-elect figure take to radically alter the Washington landscape and forever change politics as usual? To start, he promises a chicken in every pot, just like every other Democrat politician has done since the days of Huey P. Long. Then he fills his cabinet with former Clinton staffers, the likes of which haven’t been seen since, well, Clinton. And to top it all off, he names Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Geithner has been instrumental in helping Henry Paulson craft Bailout-palooza, the brilliant plan to nationalize large swaths of the economy and drown us all in dollar bills.
So after a hard-fought campaign spent deriding John McCain’s proposals as simply “four more years of the Bush economic plan,” Obama is setting the stage to continue four more years of the Bush economic plan. As far as I can tell, the only change in the offing is that the same economic nonsense that has characterized the last few years will now be delivered by a more eloquent speaker. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Of course, Secretary Paulson has expressed his full confidence in Mr. Geithner. That fact alone should frighten anyone with any sense, but based on the effusive praise being heaped on Obama by the media it once again becomes clear that there is no one with any sense left inside the Beltway. CNN’s crack political news team has been all atwitter with the latest news of appointments to Obama’s economic team, and they can’t wait for Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers to enact Obama’s central plan – whatever that may be (he can’t give us any details).
Being excited about Barack Obama taking the reins of the economy is a lot like watching Deep Impact and cheering for the asteroid. Perhaps sensing this, Obama is now taking steps to lower expectations about the speed with which he will be able to turn water into wine and make the lion lie down with the lamb. This has prompted CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider to draw comparisons between Obama and Reagan, saying,
No sooner did Reagan take office than the economy began to get a lot worse. Unemployment jumped to more than 10 percent, the highest level since the 1930s. It’s about 6½ percent now. By 1982, voters were getting anxious. Republicans lost 26 House seats in the midterm election. President Reagan’s response? Stay the course. A lot of voters stuck with Reagan because he had defined a course. By 1984, their confidence paid off. “It’s morning again in America. Today, more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country’s history,” a 1984 Reagan presidential campaign ad said. Obama seems to be channeling Reagan’s optimism.
Of course, there’s one big difference between Obama and Reagan that the average CNN hack is incapable of understanding. Reagan was guided by free market economics, and was therefore able to chart a course that would actually lead to the desired destination. Obama is guided by socialist principles that have led to misery and suffering wherever they have been tried. Wherever Obama and his team are taking us, it’s nowhere we want to be.
So if you’re like CNN’s Bill Schneider and are expecting Obama to bring a new “morning in America,” you might be better off just hitting the snooze button.
