THE DAILY BLADE: The Uniter: Part IV
The other day, President Barack Hussein Obama attended a Town Hall meeting organized and televised by CNBC and spoke to “a cross-section of Main Street, Wall Street and Washington with the economy at a crossroads and the nation's precarious political structure hanging in the balance.”
Something extraordinary happened: Velma Hart, one of the carefully vetted attendees who was an ardent Obama supporter during the campaign, politely but firmly gave him a piece of her mind (video link):
I am a Chief Financial Officer for a veteran’s association. … I'm also a mother. I'm a wife. I'm an American veteran, and I'm one of your middle-class Americans. And, quite frankly, I'm exhausted.
I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.
I've been told that I voted for a man who said he's going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I'm one of those people, and I'm waiting, sir. I'm waiting. I don't feel it yet. …
I have two children in private school. The financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family.
My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs-and-beans era of our lives. But, quite frankly, it is starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we are headed again.
And quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly: Is this my new reality?
Administration officials may believe that their policies are correct, but even voters disposed to be with the president have their doubts. The president may believe that he has set the foundation for long-lasting growth and prosperity. But he hasn't found a way to provide the short-term reassurances people are looking for as the economy struggles…. One of the persistent mysteries about the president is why someone who began his adult life as a community organizer, working with economically displaced workers in Chicago, has had so much difficulty making a connection with voters on economic issues. That was a problem during his presidential campaign. From the questions on Monday, it remains a problem today. A new anti-Obama ad, "Mourning in America," reflects the concerns of the Town Hall attendees. Syndicated columnist and soon-to-be Eliot Spitzer’s better half on TV Kathleen Parker thinks the ad is “brilliant,” adding that “Whatever one's political affiliation, it is impossible to watch this new ad and not feel, well, sad.” The ad, by Citizens for the Republic, is the antithesis of Ronald Reagan’s “morning in America” ad (“It's morning again in America. Today, more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history."): There's mourning in America. Today, 15 million men and women won't have the opportunity to go to work. Businesses shuttered. Twenty-nine hundred families will have their homes foreclosed by nightfall. This afternoon, 6,000 men and women will be married, each of their children to be born with a $30,000 share of the runaway national debt. Our government is now taking over the choices we once made in life. There's mourning in America. Under the leadership of President Obama our country is fading, and weaker, and worse off. His policies were a grand experiment, policies that failed. This November, let’s choose a smaller, more caring government. One that remembers us. Ever since FDR used it as a campaign song, the unofficial theme song of the Democrat Party has been “Happy Days Are Here Again.” After the conclusion of Obama’s only term in officeTM Republicans may co-opt the ditty. The Definition of Chutzpah: Part XIII The Stiletto has marveled at the sense of entitlement illegal immigrants feel to be residing in this country uninvited and taking advantage of public housing and other taxpayer-financed assistance programs. President Barack Hussein Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango - AKA The Moocher-in-Chief - receives $700 a month in disability payments, lives in a public housing project in Boston, got expensive medical care to treat her Guillain-Barre syndrome for free, enjoyed the privilege of getting the services of a top-notch immigration lawyer pro bono and was granted asylum by a judge (penultimate item). Instead of being grateful at her good fortune – although she says Obama did not pull any strings on her behalf does anyone believe he had to? – the unemployed Onyango tells WBZ-TV's Jonathan Elias that Americans owed all this largesse to her ("If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen”) and that "I didn't take any advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me." What a piece of … work.
Hart was followed by Ted Brassfield, a 30-year-old recent law school graduate who had taken out student loans to pursue a career in public service and is unable to pay the interest payment on those loans (“Like a lot of people in my generation, I was really inspired by you and by your campaign and message that you brought, and that inspiration is dying away. It feels like the American dream is not attainable to a lot of us."); a billionaire businessman (“I think the one thing to do is to not make people in business feel like we're villains or criminals or doing something wrong."); and a hedge fund manager ("I represent the Wall Street community. We have felt like a pinata. Maybe you don't feel like you're whacking us with a stick, but we certainly feel like we've been whacked with a stick.").
Hart tells The Washington Post that she was hoping Obama’s answer that would “wow and inspire” her, but he didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know. For his part, Brassfield tells The National Law Journal, “I don't think he provided an answer to my question.”
Noting that “[t]he president's answers raised anew the issue of how effectively he communicates on the economy,” The WaPo asks whether the Town Hall was “a wake-up call” for the White House:
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