PRUDEN: Finding no buyers for snake oil

Master politician that he is, Barack Obama is a lousy calculator. He spectacularly misjudged the American public's appetite for a government nanny. Or maybe he miscalculated the power of his slippery tongue to sell government snake oil. His apparent willingness to abandon the attempt - for now - to nationalize the health-care industry appears to defer the Democratic first step in remaking the home of the brave and the land of the free into Little America, cutting it down to a size incapable of intimidating the likes of Switzerland or Swaziland.

But only if the opposition keeps up unremitting pressure. The president signals a change in tactics, not objectives. His concession that the so-called "government option" is temporarily dead does not mean the dream of "postalizing" health care, of making it as responsive as the Post Office, is dead...Running up a fake white flag might do it; when the opposition puts down its guns the postalizers will fire at will.

...The special gift of snake-oil salesmen is their ability to say one thing and make audiences hear something else...The leftmost fringe of his party is having none of this apparent concession to reasonableness and moderation...they can't wait to get started on the plastic surgery to alter the face of America the Beautiful...

This puts the House leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her liege man, Steny Hoyer, in a particular bind. They owe their 78-seat margin to men and women moderate enough to win in conservative districts; many of these freshmen know they will never be sophomores if they vote for a health care plan that dooms the private insurance coverage that works well enough for the middle class...

Glenn Beck keeps on reminding us to focus less on the details of Obama’s bills and more on the general framework Obama is erecting which can control us outside the framework of our Constitutional government.

For instance the Czars.

For instance ACORN.

For instance requesting EMAILS of people opposed.

For instance SEIU and all Union preferences and Union thuggish threats to our speech such as at townhalls.

Right now Beck is being assaulted for his speech by the Commie green czar’s minions after exposing the Commie green czar. They are threatening his advertisers and are thuggishly getting their way.

He also noted the framework being constructed that will destroy small business in this country. Last night’s program was astounding and a must-see.

If they destroy small business they will go very, very far toward bringing this nation completely to its knees and dictating what will be put in its place.

Then, we are DONE.

Obama thinks we are that dumb.

Why shouldn’t he think that?

He must wake up every day, totally amazed that he went from freshman Senator to President in a mere four years with a paper (vapor) thin record. And all with a complict (adoring) MSM that didn’t question his past, incompetent opponents (Hillary and McCain), and a “Hope/Change” message that had no real substance. His basic talent is that he is black, eloquent, and hip looking. Yes, the people who voted him in are shallow and stupid.

His problem is that campaigning is fundamentally different from governmenting. Its the difference between promise and results. The thing that hobbles him most is this: Despite his claim of being able to “reach across the aisle” to get things done, he has NO track record of crafting legistlation. And it shows. That is why he lost control of both the Stimulus and Health Care. He basically ceded any role he had to Congress. He will sign ANYTHING that Congress gives him as long as it has the words “Health Care” in it. He wants to have the perception of victory, even if it is a hollow one. And thats because he has built his whole career on perception.

Any questions?

Pruden makes good observations. For too long, however, citizens have accepted liberty as their birthright and have allowed their representatives to use rhetoric about "issues" to deceive them about legislation.

As I posted elsewhere, now is the moment in America's history for a principles-based debate. For too long, we have allowed politicians always to focus attention on this or that "issue." And, as a result, we have allowed freedom and opportunity to be limited, and liberty for citizens to be diminished. Coercive government control, whether by a king, a feudal lord, or three branches of a government, is still coercive control by some imperfect persons over other persons.

The current debate is not solely about health care. It's not about the auto industry, or the banking establishment. It's about liberty for individuals in a society versus tyrannical government control over the livelihoods, the earnings, and life and death decisions of each of those citizens.

The American Constitution was not supposed to allow that! Its Framers intended, through its protections, and through Article V, to put "We, the People" in charge to "bind them (elected officials) down by the chains of the Constitution" (Jefferson). They seem to have forgotten that.

Can anyone who reads Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Madison, or any other Founders actually believe their Constitution allows the principles of the Declaration to be violated in such a way by those elected to positions of power in government?

Any citizen whose passion is liberty should not be tricked into accepting such "compromises" of their liberty. There is a time and place when liberty is so threatened that, on behalf of our posterity, we should stand and declare to our elected officials in both Parties:

"This is a matter of principle. It is not negotiable. Stop taking away our Creator-endowed rights to be free to succeed or fail. Stop your arrogance in believing you were elected by us to take what we work hard to earn and 'redistribute' it in the name of 'compassionate conservatism' (R) or 'economic justice' (D). Sometimes you even try to fool us by redistributing it back to ourselves, as in 'cash for clunkers.' It is neither compassion nor justice! It is tyranny! Don't compromise away the future of your great-grandchildren!"

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