The Half Term President

When we passed a bill earlier this summer to help states save jobs -- the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and nurses and police officers and firefighters that were about to be laid off, they said no. (Applause.) And the Republican who thinks he’s going to take over as Speaker -- (boos) -- I’m just saying that’s his opinion -- (laughter) -- he’s entitled to his opinion. But when he was asked about this, he dismissed those jobs as “government jobs” that weren’t worth saving. (Boos.) That’s what he said, I’m quoting -- “government jobs.”  Barry H. Obama

"You want to go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D.' When you go backward, what do you do? You put it in 'R.'" Barry H. Obama




Hey, give me some of that "R" there, Mr. President.  I always have to chuckle when Obama and his crowd say that two years is not enough time to turn an economy around. It's not that I don't agree with that. It arguably could take over 2 years. However, when you are driving south, the chances of ending up north are not that good no matter how long and how far you drive.  
The thing I have trouble resolving is the notion that we've only been heading in this direction for two years. There are two ways to look at it, as far as I can see:  Either you collect the last ten years, and put them in the Bush-Obama recession bucket, or you go back to 2006 when the current House and Senate leadership was put in place, i.e., when the Bush-Obama recession was put on an unrestrained rocket sled.
 
Many pundits want to say if you push the clock back two years, you get the republicans all over again. Actually, what you get is Nancy and Harry all over again. I agree with Barry, we certainly don't want that. I don't think any of us are too keen on going back to W and his boys, or to Hillary and hers, either. If we're going back to anything, my vote is Coolidge.

This media push of Barry only being at it for 2 years is a little weak. Nancy was pulling thousands of pages together, long, LONG before that, and for any old president to sign. Barry won the honor of signing her slush party invitation list. Not saying George wouldn't have, mind you. He was gullible enough. I mean, he bought into big government in the '80's (yes, I know, everything is bigger in Texas)

If we are sufficiently lucky in November, Congress has a more rational charter going forward, and Obama's agenda is merely stitched into the carpet. Queen Nancy's 4 year term will expire, and Barry brushes up on his stand-up routine. Ironically congress, this time, gets the four year term limit, and BHO effectively becomes the nation's first half-term president.