CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, October 24, 2011

Mr. Obama: 1000 days and counting

These days, you read and hear a lot of negative things, even in the usually fawning American mainstream media, about Mr. Obama and his colleagues in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate. But how do outsiders see Mr. Obama? As the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, wrote in his most famous poem: “To A Louse” (that is not a dig at Mr. Obama), “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!” Which, translated into modern-day American English, means: “Oh, that God would give us the gift of being able to see ourselves as others see us?”

For one, the British correspondent, Nile Gardner, writing in October 18th issue of The UK Telegraph, said this: “It is hard to think of a presidency in modern times that has done more damage to the United States both at home and abroad than the current one, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter’s….

“Since taking office in January 2009, Mr. Obama has ushered in a period of relentless economic decline for the United States. His administration has added $4.2 trillion to the national debt (now standing at $14.9 trillion), lost 2.2 million jobs, introduced a vastly expensive health-care albatross, and spent nearly $800 billion on a failed stimulus package. At the same time, housing prices across the country have tumbled at an unprecedented rate, consumer confidence has plummeted, and millions more Americans are now dependent on food stamps. International confidence in the US economy has fallen to its lowest levels in decades, with credit agency Standard and Poor’s downgrading of America’s AAA credit rating for the first time in 70 years…”

As a Brit, Mr. Gardner can’t vote against Mr. Obama. Well, ACORN could probably “fix” that; however, that would be counterproductive for ACORN which is unlikely to go against Mr. Obama, ACORN’s former legal counsel.

But, to be fair, it should be pointed out the U.S. economy does have a bright spot. Here is a headline from The Bloomberg Report of October 19th: “Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer than Silicon Valley.” The article points out that the average wage for federal employees has risen to $126,000 and that the D.C. area has the nation’s highest concentration of lawyers.”

Of possible interest to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) crowd is this quote: “Wall Street has moved to K Street,” said Barbara Lang, president and CEO of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. K Street is the Washington street that houses D.C.’s most prominent lobbying firms. “Those two industries [Wall Street and lobbying] clearly have grown in our city,” said Lang. Advice to OWS: Decamp from Wall Street in NYC and move to D.C.’s K Street.

Also, in fairness to Mr. Obama, please note that his political party only took control of Congress for the last two years of the Bush Administration. Obviously, those two years of Democrat control of Congress under Bush and the control the Democrats have had under Mr. Obama (with the exception of the GOP grabbing control of the House in 2010), have not given Mr. Obama and his party sufficient time to accomplish what he set out to accomplish.

But, if Mr. Obama intended to do all the things Mr. Nile Gardner says he has done in Mr. Obama’s first 1,000 days in office, then Mr. Obama’s time in office has been a roaring success. If not, then that’s a different story.

So, what’s wrong with the D.C. area becoming more prosperous than Silicon Valley? Consider what those computer gurus in Silicon Valley produce. They produce innovative products that enhance economic development and create all kinds of jobs. What do they produce in D.C.? Tons and tons of paper (paper trash is now America’s leading export product) bearing zillions of pages of economy-crippling regulations. Take your pick.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2011. William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com