We've Had Enough of You Then...

President Obama, after being "confined" to the White House for a month, is back out, trying to connect with the American people:

HOLLAND, Mich. — Seeking to align himself with a public beleaguered by economic uncertainty and frustrated by Washington, President Barack Obama declared Thursday: “There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics.”

His toughly worded message — he said there was frustration in his voice, in case anyone missed the point — came amid a series of polls showing that people are disgusted with political dysfunction and are dispensing blame all around, including on Obama.

On his first official trip outside of Washington since being confined to the nation’s capital for more than a month to deal with the debt debate, Obama said Americans were right to be worried about the country’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate and the fluctuations in the stock market. The contentious and partisan debt debate in Washington this summer, he said, has done little to help.

“Unfortunately what we’ve seen in Washington in the last few months has been the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock, and that gridlock has undermined public confidence, and impeded our efforts to take the steps we need for our economy,” Obama said during remarks at a factory that makes advanced batteries for alternative-fuel vehicles.

...

Obama sought to channel the public’s anger in order to avoid being sunk by it himself. He urged Americans to tell Washington ... they’d had enough with the bickering and stalemates.

“You’ve got to tell them you’ve had enough of the theatrics you’ve had enough of the politics, stop sending out press releases start passing some bills that we all know will help the economy right now,” he said. “That’s what they need to do. They’ve got to hear from you.”
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“Everything that this president does is either a fundraiser or a political move in order to advance his march to a second term,” said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Is there really nobody close to the man, with the pragmatism and honesty to tell him: You're seen as a big part of the problem here. People have exhausted their faith that you are capable of creating the needed "change" in Washington. When you whine about how bad things have gotten, remember the promises you made yourself.

We needed you, the fresh face, because only you could save us from Washington. And now here you are, and it's only gotten ... worse. People who've worked for years, see their savings disappear in just days when the market "corrects".

The workers and laborers do their jobs, those that still have 'em, but the management/political/academic classes have failed in their managing and their work, sadly, affects the rest of us. Wise up and take some responsibility, so you can at least credibly pretend you've heard us, and most importantly, listened to us.

Talk, pretty words coming from pretty faces, sorry friend, this one calls for something more, some reaching from within, remaining strong on the principles, and being honest about the incentives and disincentives all these policy "wonks" are missing for all practical purposes.

You want good honest political advice, Mr. President? For free?

Run with this one: "I've come before you today, American people, not for another windy speech extolling our efforts, which it seems so many of you reject, but to tell you: We understand. We hear you. We're taking action.

"First up on the agenda: I know I promised to come in working together, reaching across the aisle, to find common ground and work together for collective solutions. I failed. I admit it. I failed. Let me repeat one more time, humbling though this might be: I failed you. You put faith in me, collectively, and I let you all down.

"Here's what we're doing to change that: the reason I failed, is for the same reason so many promising college ball players simply can't make the jump to the big leagues. Different competition. Different pressures. In my past, I was good at "compromising" and finding "common ground" when I operated in artificial, superficial places. I was so naive: I thought that bringing together the liberal-Harvard-kids on Law Review with the conservative-Harvard-kids on Law Review was some great test of my leadership experience. It wasn't. I get that now. Asking workers and owners to come together in a win-win situation to save manufacturing jobs ... asking blacks and whites with legitimate grievances against skin-color disagreement ... that's a heck of a lot harder than bringing together the black kids and the white kids at Harvard, you see.

"What works on paper doesn't necessarily translate to success in the real world, once you introduce all the other factors -- economic, practical, social, cultural, etc. -- that influence how people think, and act, day in and day out. I really did think, like some of my fresh whippersnapper junior advisors, it really was that easy as it was back in my schooldays and government-paid community organizing work.

"I thought I'd get into office nationally and dominate like I did in the unique Chicago market. Make my connections, charm he or she who needed to be charmed, and simply coast on my charisma. It seem -- out here in hard times -- it simply doesn't work that way.

"This is a job, a big one, and I'm only belatedly realizing the stakes here: not for my own wife and children (I'm pretty sure one of the girls will grow up and marry a nice hedgefund manager, or maybe build a career as a insider lobbyist or "wonk" herself, so no personal fears there). And if I've ever defined "success" as merely winning an election or two, I hang my head in shame at not realizing exactly what "the job" entailed, and why it would have been better for me to define myself first, and then stand tall on those principles, than to try and be all things to all peoples ... and get played like the fool I was.

"I failed, people. Not even a "C" grade, were this a performance evaluation, simply because I acted below average in times that called out for greatness. And no, I'm not going to take the cheap route and try to argue that grade up, based on the poor curve set by those who were a few years ahead of me in office. If the standards for leadership have greatly fallen, I will still measure myself based on the greatness of this office -- not on how much we've lowered that bar in the past administrations.

"In the same vein, I'm not going to denigrate myself and stand up here and argue: hey, at least I didn't play footsie -- or worse -- with any interns in the Oval Office. Not going to tout "no foreign attacks have happened on U.S. soil in my term". No, that would be a cheap way of trying to bolster my own personal failings...

"I'm also not going to attack -- for his culture, his religion, or his family -- my prime opponent, it seems, Mr. Romney. These problems are not of his making; the recent faults of leadership have solely been my own. Making him out to be Mr. Evil (or Mr. White Guy, even if he's the right guy...) will not help the country, nor will it help me, if God forbid, I would get elected by running such a false and divisive campaign.

"What will I do in the time I know I have remaining to me in office? I've asked Mr. Geithner to step down, first off. Looking back, as soon as the tax questions came about that made his character and dedication to pursuing legal economic strategies questionable, I should have cut my losses. Coming out of the past administration, and with the criminal-like fiasco on Wall Street that necessitated the previous bailouts, I should have committed to a "clean" administration from the get go. Not somebody who would, perhaps, doctor the numbers to make it seem as though we're better off than we really are...

"I've been told that needs-testing, or means-testing, Social Security and Medicare is the way to go. But that, unfortunately, will just encourage our best and brightest to waste their careers helping the wealthy hide their assets so that they can come to the government with their palms extended, wanting others to pay for Grandma's county nursing home costs because she is "indigent" of course (while the family spends "her" wealth on travel, toys, and other things they can't afford themselves.) Just like giving free checks to "single" women and children sounded good, we see enormous rises in the out-of-wedlock birth rates -- people have responded nicely to the economic incentives there too, to "cover their own assets."

"I know it. You know it.

"What we really need, in Washington and then rippling throughout the country, is a change in attitude. An admiration for the healthy, for the independently wealthy, for the workers who don't live beyond their means; for those who struggle daily to continue educating themselves, despite the governmental interference these past decades that trickles all financial education funds through top-heavy school administrations, teachers' unions looking out for themselves before the children and their educations; an admiration for the honest, the government-free, for the ones who give, and get nothing back in return, because they don't qualify as needy or sickly or poor.

"There's nothing wrong with being sick, disabled, elderly, or in dire family/economic situations, of course. But let's stop pretending it's "equal" to being independent and being quite capable of taking care of one's own needs and wants. Nope, never -- despite all the government programs in the world -- will it be.

"Eventually, instead of monthly checks, we can house our needy and disabled together, if needed. Collective charity saving on costs. It won't be as elaborate and "nice" perhaps if one was working and paying and choosing his own shelter and food, but it will cover basic survival needs, and the "extras" can be supplemented by family excess, if the family so chooses. No more of this encouraging people to think themselves entitled to a standard of living based on the work and taxes of others. We simply don't have the funds to continue to support an aging, and growingly unhealthy, population that wants to reproduce itself with the same entitlements... Not. Gonna. Happen.

"Adoption services, and private charities, will have to meet the needs of private individuals who simply can't afford to care for their own, even with the minimal governmental help. Extended families will need to decide: can we as a family afford the child? If not, we would welcome their giving the newborn a real chance at a new beginning... breaking the government-need cycle so to speak.

"If they instead choose to keep the child, they must be able to support it. With minimal government help. We're not going to start offering dinners in public schools: instead, we're going to start rolling back the breakfast programs. If you can't feed your child an inexpensive breakfast at home, that's a good sign that there are other basic parenting skills -- or in some cases, parents! -- missing in that child's life as well. All the government money, cycled through liberal "non-profit" (except for the salaries) liberal government agencies in the world cannot help that child the way a committed, independent family with the right attitudes of self-reliance and independence can.

"I'm abolishing the Department of Education too. This "no child left behind" federal overreaching stuff is nonsense if we're just going to issue waivers, presumably to leave the children behind, when finances get tight and people realize -- hey, all this testing and paperwork stuff isn't producing any real results out here afterall. If anything, it's hindering the students raised in the independent homes where learning is valued for its own sake, who are eager to actually .... learn things at school, not be paid to parrot back to the teacher what they already know.

"Nevermind wasting more money on dropout prevention, and getting kids to appreciate the importance of education. If they can't catch on to that in real life now, in their own ways, all the money in the world -- channeled through secular liberal organizations -- won't reach them.

"Instead, I'm focusing on the high achievers. It might be anti-PC to say, but doesn't everyone know?, THEY are the future of our country. The ones who already excel and need to be offered rigorous, high-intensity math-science-and-humanities curricula to keep them achieving at high rates as our competitor countries are.

"Enough spent on HeadStart, again another program whose success rate over time is rather dubious. More spent on AP classes, segregated grade-weighted classes where we can evaluate where children are on the learning curve, and place them in appropriate classes with classmates also eager and capable of a higher level of education. Those who want specialized, sensitive classes in this or that will have the option of having their "conscious" families homeschool, if they think that is the type of education their youngsters will need to compete in the 21st century. With the safety net severely curtailed, and no "fallback" in terms of artificial advancement "diversity" programs, I suspect people will learn sooner rather than later, the importance of continual learning and improving themselves to compete honestly in the marketplace. There will be real-life consequences for being "left behind."

"Finally, and in the tradition of saving the best for last, I am announcing today that I am taking this matter away from the courts and simply withdrawing my support for the healthcare plan known as ObamaCare by some, and as the ACA by others. It simply won't fly financially, and I'm going to cut my losses here on whether or not the Court will declare it unconstitutional and overreaching to force non-consumers to purchase a private product to subsidize their fellow citizens' health failings.

"That's the government's role, not for individuals and families to dole out of their own wages and savings. And as I mentioned earlier, for demographic and economic reasons, there will be less re-distribution at the government level either. Nobody wants to see seniors suffering (what percentage of the AARP is flirting with poverty level, do you suppose?). Nobody wants to see malnourished, undisciplined children.

"But think of this as Tough Love. For years and years, we've gone with the Ted Kennedy elite liberal brand of social safety net. It "caught" too many though. It encouraged the victim-like way of thinking to do what it takes to get the "free" money. It failed.

"Repeat: it failed. Look at the numbers. We are spending more than we are taking in on these generous government programs... We get it. My administration, prodded by you the people, led perhaps by the Tea Party Patriots, finally understands. That's why we've let Mr. Geithner go -- we are breaking with the past. We do have principles of caring for the societal dispossessed, and that is exactly why the Tough Love is necessary now: to weed out those who truly are vulnerable and incapable of working for themselves, with those healthy men and women who just find it easier to work the system, to coast on the efforts of others, to retire well short of Social Security age, and to benefit off the current market's failings.

"People can do that, of course. But let's not look at it as "wow. he musta done good by hisself" but rather as "lazy, lazy, lazy". Playing at being a boy, a big boy maybe, instead of offering up a man's work because that's the lifestyle this country was built on.

"People are afraid, perhaps, of what would happen if we truly made all these changes in American society and our attitudes. If I was a Boomer, and I'd planned to retire at the artificially bubbled lifestyle I'd been enjoying all these years, I'd worry! But fair is fair, and some have taken all for more years than they are entitled.

"We're going to be enforcing those immigration laws, yes, even for the professorial class. If you didn't get citizenship honestly, playing by the same rules as every other immigrant who wanted to come and vote here, I'd be worried. The gig is up. You cheated, you were caught, you pay the price.

"They wanted me to bring Change. They wanted me to Talk Tough. They wanted me to do something about this lousy economy, and our standing in the world.

"Enough already. We're bringing all our foreign troops home, and we'll work on integrating their skill sets into the domestic economy. It will be hard, most definitely, because even as we become more and more militaristic in our police departments, there's only so many jobs available for busting into people's homes on night raids, and dispensing a little good old American justice "in the field" rather than in the courts of law. That worries me -- what these aging soldiers will bring home with them, their mentalities and what values we hold in making these men as the "leaders" in a society that needs brainpower over brawnpower now more than ever.

"But we made commitments to them, to their work, that we simply will not be able to continue to provide if we continue on warring in a decades-long way. It's great that they're living and coming home maimed instead of dead. But again -- they'll be housed collectively for their medical and personal needs, not get a monthly check "reward" for being a victim of wartime violence. Again, that sets the wrong incentives by not rewarding those who came back healthy and whole.

"The answer is not more government. The Tea Party has that right. If you have a choice between doing it yourself, and getting a government handout for whatever reason, in the future, if you don't see it now, you'd be much much better off standing on your own two.

"That's a primary reason we're going back to the drawing board on the healthcare mess. The "solution" we found, isn't helping insure all those millions of uninsured's who we thought would flock to our "no background questions asked" programs. It's not bringing down government costs, nor private healthcare premiums. There's a good change that the mandate is in fact, illegal and unenforceable. Without that fresh supply of healthy money, the rest of the cards built upon that foundation falls...

"Time are tough. Harder times are coming. The best we can do now is to play fair. To give the healthy, the most intelligent, the achievers and the personally disciplined, their chance to fly free and make the most of themselves. If they succeed, then society will have a shot.

"But if we continue to cripple this class, if we continue to ask them to take care of other people's families because their own squander available resources, we'll continue to cycle downward.

"I'm not doing this for votes. I recognize that my failures early on definitely do not entitle me to a second term. But I'm willing to make personal change, recognizing my mistakes and shortcomings, and give everything I've got -- little though that may be -- to helping my country, which has done sooo much for me, to get herself out of the hole that I, and previous presidents, have worked our way into.

"I'm going to fight -- and campaign -- honestly, and in a fair manner. I'm going to stick to what I've said above, no matter how many donors with conflicting agendas refuse to fill my campaign coffers. I've failed so miserably in my job so far, that I've got nothing to lose.

"Michelle, my wife, is the strong one in our family. She was raised differently than me. She had a father present in the home, and she grew up in more independent circumstances than me, who no doubt benefitted from my unique (at the time) biracial background and globe-trotting intellectual wannabe mother.

"But this isn't about the past -- my personal past -- but the future. If I want to win, you've got to win, people. I want, after all these years, to be a TEAM player, and realize that the people with the best skill sets should be in the key positions, not the people most like me who don't make any scary waves and are more committed to securing their private-sector after-the-fall jobs (see Summers, Orswag, Goolsbee, and now Geithner -- Timmy will land on his feet, I'm sure. Maybe set up a summer daycare camp for affluent parents, to qualify for the government kickbacks. ;-) Oh yeah, we've run out of budget to subsidize your daycare expenses too, people. Looks like you're going to have to rely on family, community, and creative child-care-sharing solutions, instead of having other people subsidize your personal choices.

"Anyway, hold tight: more to come. No doubt, some might not like what they're hearing, but you know what? I feel like I'm finally, finally free. Proposing realistic solutions, and not having to kowtow to any foreign interests or private lobbying groups. If the future is to come, let the future know that as a man, I, Barack Obama, finally got it, belatedly, the value of freedom and independence that we've been underpricing as a nation all these past years.

"Thank you, God bless, and stay with me, America. You're stronger than you know, you're wiser than you seem, you're not the enemy -- you just recognize other, better paths to getting where we want to go, and you're willing to share them with others. For that, I thank you."