Day two at the Donkey National Convention was about humanizing Hillary, a tall order indeed, as well as pandering to people, such as having the mother of Michael Brown, a guy who was killed because he attacked a police officer and tried to take his gun, speak to the assembled masses. Today it is about more pandering to interest groups, and telling us that she will be Obama’s third term
(USA Today) President Obama will take the stage at the Democratic National Convention for the fourth time Wednesday to make an argument that only one president has made successfully in modern times: that his policies deserve a third term in the form of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The speech is as important for Obama’s place in history as it is for Clinton’s future. And it will require Obama to juggle a variety of rhetorical chores: defending his own legacy, unifying the Democratic Party and promoting his once bitter rival for the presidency.
Well, let’s see. Real wages have been stagnant. Real unemployment is high, and the jobs market is a disaster, with the reduction of white collar jobs and the explosion of low paying service industry jobs, especially part time ones. Savings are down. Cost of living is up. The number of people who have left the jobs market in despair is at record highs. Welfare and food stamps recipients are at all time highs. College debt is at historic highs.
Government spending is at ridiculous levels. The debt is over $19.4 trillion (remember, he called Bush un-patriotic for increasing the debt). He pissed away taxpayer money with the Stimulus, son of Stimulus, grandson of stimulus, not to mention all the “green” energy loans.
The NSA is spying on all Americans. The CIA spied on Senators. The IRS targeted Obama political opponents. He and his administration have continuously attempted to thwart transparency. The VA scandal. Obamacare, something which polled poorly before it was passed, when it was passed, and post-passage, is imploding.
On the foreign front, he blew off the Arab Spring and Iranian Green uprising. He sided with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He’s treated our allies like Israel and England poorly. There’s little trust for America now. ISIS has exploded on the scene under his watch. He turned a stability plan in Iraq around and made it a mess. Syria is an utter disaster. Russia is rising, and even took Crimea. He launched an air war in Libya, deposed Gaddafi (a scumbag, but one who stood against Islamists), and the left, turning the nation into a failed state rife with Islamic extremists. Oh, and it was an illegal venture, designed to protect oil for France and England. Benghazi.
As much as anyone, Obama has proven the impact that a single convention speech can have. After all, he catapulted his own trajectory to the White House with by a keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America,” he said then. “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”
That speech came 12 years ago Wednesday — a historical coincidence that Obama is sure to note.
He’s denigrated and demeaned political opponents, and even used the power of the government to target them. Racial tensions are at all time highs. Black unemployment, especially for young black men, is very high. He’s taken the side of racists over law enforcement. He’s legalized those here in the country illegally, and brought in folks from countries with histories of Islamic terrorism, with little in the way of background checks. He’s worked hard to divide us.
The list can go on and on and on. As horrible as Donald Trump is, continuing the Obama policies, and even expanding on them, would be an unmitigated disaster.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Read: Obama To Make Case That Hillary Would Be Third Term »
