As a child, I watched a lot of westerns and cowboy movies. I saw the same scenario in countless films. The sheriff had a prisoner locked up in his jail waiting to stand trial when the judge arrived in the morning. Some loudmouth, convinced the prisoner was guilty, would stand on the steps of the jail house and rally the crowd. His words whipped them into a frenzy, “Let’s drag the no good piece of scum out here and hang him, now!” The angry mob would overrun the sheriff and his deputies, drag out the terrified prisoner who was proclaiming his innocence and pleading for his life and hang him. I was always amazed how people could so easily be manipulated and sheepishly follow one loud mouth.

In his gazillionth, and most recent health care speech, Obama used the same “give ‘em somebody to hate” tactic against the insurance industry. Outrageously displaying behavior unbecoming to the office of the presidency, Mr. Obama, with no holds barred, attempted to make the American people hate, and seek political vengeance against, the insurance industry.

After masterfully portraying them as cruel monsters who only care about profits, President Obama basically said, let’s drag those no good S.O.B insurance companies out and hang them by passing government run health care. And yes, Obama’s ultimate goal is to drive insurance companies out of business. In an earlier speech, Obama admitted it, while warning that it may take ten years or more to get it done: (more…)

President Obama’s State of the Union address last night was notable for many reasons.  First, it is not often that you hear such petulance from a sitting president of the United States – complaining about not receiving applause from your political opponents is simply ridiculous.  Second, it is not often that a president directly lectures the American people – it failed when Jimmy Carter tried it in his infamous “malaise” speech, and it failed last night when President Obama told us that we needed to man up and follow him to glory.  Comparing his agenda’s stall to Bull Run, Omaha Beach, Black Tuesday and Bloody Sunday, and calling on Americans to “again … answer history’s call” is foolish and self-aggrandizing.

What’s worse is telling us that he is the spiritual embodiment of our collective strength:

And what keeps me going – what keeps me fighting – is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism – that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people – lives on.”  I couldn’t help but shake my head in amusement when he told us that “It lives on in the struggling small business owner … it lives on in the woman … it lives on in the 8-year-old boy in Louisiana … it lives on in all the Americans … [it] lives on in you, its people.

Quoting the Broadway version of The Lion King is not profundity.  It is silliness: (more…)