Building A Badly Maintained Bridge To Winning The Future

And so it begins, not with a bang, but with more lies than can be easily counted. Mr. Obama was on the campaign trail on April 18, jetting about the nation to perform in contrived “town hall” events. Go here to see a clip from the “town hall” At Northern Virginia Community College in Annendale, VA that includes some of his most blatantly false and offensive comments.

It was classic Obama: transparent claims to understand the lives of the little people and their economic woes, class warfare, the kind of smug superiority that is his trademark, and a glib ease with telling the most obvious and easily disproved lies. Its hard to know why Mr. Obama flings such falsehoods. Does he truly believe that because he’s Barack Obama, anything he says is, by the mere fact that he utters it, true? Is he really so ignorant of so much? Does he believe that, as always, others, including the media, will cover for him? Or perhaps he’s so arrogant that he doesn’t care what’s true and what isn’t because he believes he’s untouchable. Perhaps it’s an “all of the above” situation.

Mr. Obama’s theme was that Republican budget cutting would reduce America to third world status by destroying infrastructure denied maintenance. His most egregiously false example was the collapse of the Minneapolis St. Anthony Falls bridge in August of 2007. Mr. Obama used it as an example of a lack of maintenance, implying that much worse would come if Republicans had their way.

But facts are stubborn things. The NTSB concluded that the bridge collapsed due to a design defect. In fact, major maintenance was being done on the bridge when it collapsed, killing 13. Short of blaming the collapse of the bridge on George W. Bush--I assume that’s next--Mr. Obama could not have told a more outrageous lie, a lie dancing on the graves of those killed in the collapse of the bridge. Presidents normally have fact checkers for their speeches. Mr. Obama, not so much.

It was only a week ago during his budget speech that wasn’t really a budget speech that Mr. Obama proclaimed that the wealthy are more than happy to fork over a great deal more of their wealth to the Government, but they just haven’t been asked yet. I’m certain that, unlike most of his promises, Mr. Obama fully intends to keep his implied promise to ask. Yet, at the “town hall,” Mr. Obama said, “nobody volunteers and says ‘I’m just wild to pay more taxes.’” So which is it Mr. Obama? Are people wild to pay more or not wild to pay more? Perhaps it all depends on who is asking--or not--or something.

To be absolutely fair to the President, he had just finished telling the common folk that even he was taken aback after reviewing his own tax return. No doubt, he was merely showing the crowd that he was truly one of them before getting around to asking them for more tax revenue, contradictions be damned.

The bridge was only a warmup, as Mr. Obama observed that “our roads, our bridges, our sewer systems are all deteriorating.” Mr. Obama went on to produce a vision of America as a land of potholes from seas to shining sea. Fortunately, bits of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, sewers and potholes are almost entirely maintained locally rather than through the federal bureaucracy. Were the opposite true, there really would be potholes from coast to coast.

Perhaps the most faux-touching moment occurred when Mr. Obama, with a tone of self-evident shame and disgust, observed that “we don’t even have a serious high speed rail infrastructure in this country.” Too true. We also don’t have an infrastructure of the kinds of air-driven capsules you see in bank drive-ups to transport folks around the nation, but then again, it--like high speed rail--would make no practical or fiscal sense, and Americans don’t want either.

Fortunately, Mr. Obama cannot help but to reveal himself from time to time, as he did with the unfortunate Joe the Plumber when he revealed his core belief in wealth redistribution. At the faux town hall, he did it again: “I want to live in a society that’s fair...because it improves my life.”

Most Americans want government to keep the peace, enforce the law, provide for the common defense, and stay out of their way so that they have the opportunity to improve their life. They know that not everything is fair. Even Jimmy Carter admitted that, and he was attacked by a rabbit in a rowboat. The freedom to overcome diversity, the reality that success is, with hard work and determination, possible, is truly the American way.

Mr. Obama, however, envisions a “fair” society, a society that improves his life. Notice the passive voice. This is not merely lazy grammar. Like all statists, Mr. Obama really does believe that it is the job of government to provide. Of course, such provision will have to be rationed and apportioned according to the dictates of the elite who alone are fit to make such decisions, all in the name of fairness, of course.

Well. Society has certainly “improved” Mr. Obama’s life. I fact, I think it’s the patriotic duty of all Americans, as Vice President Biden might say, to improve it even more. After all, Mr. Obama has done so much to us. Let’s help him live his true calling: golf. Let’s ensure that society is truly fair for Mr. Obama and see that in January of 2013, he has the opportunity to be all that he can be. It’s the American way.