USANews版 - How Stupid Do Obama and Biden Think We Are? |
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发帖数: 3803 | 1 http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/g-philip-hughes/2012/10/22/
How Stupid Do Obama and Biden Think We Are?
October 22, 2012 RSS Feed Print
In Tuesday night's debate, President Barack Obama was asked what
misperception about himself he would most like to dispel. His answer? That
he was someone who believed "government creates jobs, that that somehow is
the answer." On the contrary, Obama said. "That's not what I believe. I
believe that the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity
the world's ever known. I believe in self-reliance and individual
initiative and risk takers being rewarded."
After his now-famous 'you didn't build that' verdict on small businesspeople
and entrepreneurs, it's obvious why Obama would want to restyle himself as
a devotee of the private sector, a disciple of the marketplace. The trouble
comes when he actually starts talking about markets and economics.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign.]
Take last Tuesday night's exchange on energy policy. Romney alluded to the
doubled price of gasoline during Obama's term—seeking to tar the president
with consumers' pain at the pump. Obama retorted with a market-based
explanation: with the economy in free-fall when he took office energy demand
was obviously way down so prices were much lower. Rising gasoline prices
reflect the rising demand of a (supposedly) recovering economy. Score one
for Obama. A glimmer of recognition of the marketplace at work.
But a few seconds later, challenged by Mitt Romney about his administration'
s sharp curtailment of energy exploration permits and leases on federal
lands, Obama first tried to claim credit for growing overall U.S. energy
production—on private lands—for which his policies were in no way
responsible. Romney called him on it. Nice try, Mr. President.
But then Obama went on to explain that he determined to apply a 'use it or
lose it' rule to oil and gas exploration permits on federal lands. If the
oil companies didn't invest and develop their concessions, Obama decided to
take them away. But whether and when a concessionaire decides to develop an
energy lease and begin producing is largely a function of the marketplace.
Will the prevailing, and projected, price of oil or gas make an investment
in developing a new well or field profitable? If so, it gets developed; if
not, oil companies wait until market conditions justify the investment.
[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]
But, judging from his answer, Obama thinks like a fair number of populist/
socialist leaders in Latin America and elsewhere in the third world on this
point. Companies should invest in and develop energy properties, not when
market conditions make them profitable, but when politicians find their
benefits—jobs, revenue, improved supply conditions, export earnings—useful
. No appreciation for the market there, Mr. President. That's pure command
economy-style thinking.
Vice President Joe Biden displayed a similarly inconsistent mentality—this
time regarding U.S. intelligence and national security—in his debate the
previous week. At one point, Biden took a break from his manic giggling to
assure Americans that, when it comes to Iranian nuclear weapons development,
we will know—our intelligence services will tell us—when Iran reaches the
critical threshold of developing an actual weapon. And we'll know in plenty
of time to stop them.
[See a collection of political cartoons on Iran.]
Never mind that this requires a highly accurate ability to predict the
future. Never mind all of Iran's efforts to prevent the outside world
knowing exactly what they are up to. Never mind Iran's secret, concealed,
buried nuclear facilities and its careful control of international
inspectors' exposure to them. We will know, claims Uncle Joe.
Then, minutes later—practically in the same breath—Vice President Biden
blames this same U.S. intelligence community for the Obama administration's
misleading attribution of the fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi
, Libya, to a local reaction to a provocative, anti-Islamic YouTube video
trailer. In this case, the U.S. intelligence community wasn't up to the
challenge of accurately determining what had happened or what was happening.
But when it came to predicting when, precisely, Iran would cross the
threshold to nuclear weapons, our intel community would 'nail it.' (Just
like they did with India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Iraq—right?!)
[See a collection of political cartoons on the Middle East.]
No wonder we can almost hear the strains of the William Tell Overture
playing in the background as the mainstream media rides to Obama's rescue,
with soft-ball appearances last week on David Letterman and Jon Stewart's
Daily Show. If this is the best that foreign policy and national security
expert Joe Biden and self-professed private sector groupie Barack Obama can
manage, they need all the help they can get from their friends.
Few listeners probably paid close enough attention to the debates to tease
out these inconsistencies. But when you think about them, it does make you
wonder: how stupid do these guys really think we are? One minute the intel
community will save us; the next minute, it can't predict yesterday's
weather. When markets work for us one minute, we're all for them; we pretend
to understand and respect them. But when, the next minute, market results
are politically inconvenient, disregarding market discipline and intervening
comes as naturally as breathing.
So how stupid do Obama and Biden and their team think we are? The answer, I
fear, is very. After all, a majority of Americans already elected them once. |
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