Behind the Scenes at the Obama Show

The White House is in role-playing mode again and the featured act is the second scene of the original play we saw six weeks ago. President Obama is outraged that AIG, after taking billions in taxpayer bailout dollars, is now going to pay out bonuses to the very folks who helped put the insurance conglomerate – the one that was too big to fail -- into the financial abyss in the first place. And they want us to believe the government is just now finding out about this.

Remember the humongous stimulus package, the one that no one had time to read before voting on its passage? Is it possible that the huge rush to spend taxpayer dollars was an itty bitty mistake? AIG was an un-savable mega-mess and for the government to rush in and perform a huge cash infusion into its miserable business practices and then to expect a different outcome from what it got is absolutely ludicrous.

Like Claude Raines’ character in Casablanca, Obama is outraged – outraged that gambling is going on in this establishment. We didn't hear any outrage from Obama when AIG contributed over $100,000 to his political campaign. And no outrage from Chris Dodd for AIG's very generous contribution toward his political aspirations. And the list goes on.

Taxpayer dollars were thrown at the financial giant without any accounting oversight whatsoever. The bonuses were part of AIG's prior contractual arrangements – legally binding business contracts that must be honored. But did our government’s financial gurus bother to find out about such contracts? Why, no. There was no time, remember? There was only enough time to throw money in the AIG coffers.

Wasn’t it a mere three weeks ago when we were reading that the biggest banks were going to fail? And then a couple of weeks ago we were told that Nancy Pelosi wanted another stimulus package and the banks might need still more bailout money.

But that was then and this is now.

Now, Bank of America posts a profits for 2009! And Citibank won’t be begging for more money after all – at least, not yet.

Those terrible retail numbers that spelled The Great Recession and had over half of the nation saying we were headed for The Great Depression II. Well, as it turns out they were not so bad after all.

Pssssst! Retail sales were up in January, but that didn’t get much attention from the MSM because the narrative from Washington back then was DOOM! DOOOM! DOOOOOOOM!

Now, suddenly everything is beautiful!

So, what happened?

Could it possibly be that Obama’s inside polling numbers were not quite so warm and rosy with all that disaster talk running rampant? I’ve got my own opinion. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

But, if you’re like me, and you’re feeling somewhat manipulated and more than a little like Dr. Doolittle’s Push-Me-Pull-You, then welcome to the Obama Nation. It doesn’t look much like our America of old, does it?

There is a method to the Obama madness and it’s heads, Obama wins -- or tails, Obama wins. First, Obama declared “a catastrophe that we might never recover from.” That drove an already shaky stock market right through the basement floor, wiping out nearly half of every workers' 401K, seriously damaging investors and scaring the citizens into agreeing to a monumental porkulous stimulus bill that will cost our children and grandchildren much of their American dream.

As if that weren't enough, Team Obama has worked overtime to dumb us down, to numb our senses in hopes of causing us to accept a government takeover of other parts of the private sector. Frightened people easily become followers and much of America is frightened.

Here’s my take on the crisis strategy -- the behind-the-scenes deception -- exactly why Obama talked down the economy and talked up each crisis in magnanimous proportions:

1. He needed to create an atmosphere that would allow passage of the stimulus bill.
2. He wanted to bring the crisis to a fever pitch so that he could further advance his effort to pass other big government legislation – health care, for starters, and green energy.
3. He needed to give the impression that the economy is absolutely, positively as bad as it could ever get so that any progress would be viewed as a recovery, and any recovery would be credited to Obama and hailed as nothing short of a miracle.

In my opinion, Obama’s strategy was calculated. It was deceitful. It was manipulative. It was opportunistic. And unless taxpaying Americans shake off our fear and make our voices heard, it will be effective.

Loosely stated, Obama, the intellectual, was getting hammered. Even his own party was starting to revolt from his grandiose spending. His administration is making foreign policy gaffes left and right and he personally insulted our best ally. Some wonder if he is malicious or simply inept. He cannot seat his cabinet or treasury staff. His priorities seem disordered. He’s been picking fights with private citizens – Rush Limbaugh comes to mind, to create a nemesis. His nominations are giving him fits. He’s backtracking on campaign promises and he’s moving left – hard left, and he’s moving swiftly.

The Tea Parties are starting to organize to a point where the MSM might actually be forced to cover them.

We’ve got warships heading to China while Russia has bombers going to Venezuela for alleged maneuvers. Obama wants to raise taxes, but you can’t do that in a Great Recession. He wants Universal Health Care yet he wants to charge vets for their battle wounds. He must change the subject and give the appearance that he’s doing very well in order to move toward nationalization. And he can’t do that unless -- Ta-Da! -- things aren’t so bad, after all!

He’s hitting the reset button – again -- on his entire presidency.

Well, I hate to be cynical. But I’ll sleep better tonight knowing it’s really not all that bad, after all. You’ll sleep better too, won’t you? No point in feeling like a fool just because the president needs us to be fools in order for his plans to succeed. Let ‘im eat cake!