Pay No Attention to the
Man Behind the Curtain:
Dems post-debate strategy furthers
public mistrust.
Mistrust of government and those in
power is as old as our nation and to an extent often viewed as
healthy. With modern media, people can observe certain events
firsthand and are not left to journalistic conclusions or
governmental reports. People are in a better position to challenge or
simply not believe assertions made by those in power. This is what
happened as 70 million watched a debate that revealed Mitt Romney is
a real person and not the caricature drawn by hundreds of million of
dollars in advertising and media dissemination.
It is easy enough to understand from
recent events why the public would be skeptical of government and
those in power. The public was told the bank bailouts and the
stimulus bill were needed to save the economy. The economy has
underperformed and the actions have disproportionately helped cronies
and those with power. But it is hard to convince people that the
counterfactual action was preferable- leeway in judgment was granted.
The affordable care act was partisanly pushed into “pseudo” law.
The President says it was the right thing to do. But it is hard to
convince otherwise since large portions of the law have been
outsourced to regulators and are yet to be written. Even the general
outline and consequences of the bill have been hardly read let alone
understood. People are skeptical, but grant a benefit of doubt until
they understand it better. The Federal Reserve asserted there was no
housing bubble, followed by saying it was contained to sub-prime, and
now argues that continually funneling cheap money to banks and bank
owned assets will help turn around the declining housing market and
economy. We know they were wrong before and we are yet to see
conclusive results now. Fortunately for the Federal Reserve board,
they are not subject to public elections.
President Obama usurped congressional
authority by executively enacting parts of the proposed “dream
act.” The actions may not have been legal, but you don't see
actionable congressional backlash and there is a consensus that
general immigration reform and border protection needs to happen.
The benefit of a doubt can be given to the President, he says it was
the right thing to do. A similar benefit could be granted for the
explanations to economic setbacks the last few years- a Japanese
typhoon, bad weather, European problems among others.
In some situations, time has a way of
clarifying doubts. President Bush said Saddam Hussein had weapons of
mass destruction (WMDs). There was skepticism but many granted a
benefit of a doubt. Great efforts were made to find the alleged
weapons of mass destruction but over time the search proved
fruitless. The administration unhappily admitted their error, but
they dealt with the situation- they reaped what they
had sown.
A pernicious trend has eroded the
heretofore granted benefit of a doubt. Those in power have denied
what the American people could plainly see or discern from modern
media and did not do what was right or reap what they had sown. The
trend is not just in politics.
In 2010, a Detroit Tiger pitched what
would have been a perfect game. An umpire admittedly made a wrong
call on what would have been the final play and spoiled the
achievement. The baseball commissioner failed to overturn the call
and do the right thing. Just days ago, an umpire made an errant
infield fly call that altered an important baseball playoff game.
Those with the power to do the right thing, did not.
A blown call by NFL replacement
referees was shocking enough to resolve a lock-out, but those in
power did not admit a mistake in the call or do the right thing.
Where is the accountability?
Tragically, our ambassador to Libya was
attacked and killed at a United States consulate by militant
terrorists. The administration has admitted no culpability, has
advanced a false narrative and has yet to do the right thing in
admitting any mistake. They have yet to offer an explanation to
these actions and though the benefit of the doubt may slightly exist,
each day without an answer it is eroding.
All of these are examples where the
American people could plainly observe that those in power were
supplanting truth and logic.
Nobody likes a liar. While political
junkies debate strategies of messaging, obfuscation, and ad personam
attacks, the American electorate is forgiving. They understand that
candidates over-promise, generalize and mischaracterize their
opponents. One thing they do ask is that candidates reap what they
sow, admit mistakes and not treat the American people as fools.
The Obama campaign's assertion that
Romney cheated and lied to “win” the first debate was exactly the
wrong strategy. It actually begins to conflate President Obama's
remarkably healthy 50% approval rating with one of the issues which
his campaign wishes to run on- the 70% of those who distrust the
government to “do the right thing.”
The power of modern media was wielded
masterfully by the Obama campaign up until recently. At moments they
overreached, but overall they succeeded in creating a caricature of
Mitt Romney and defined a narrative which hampered his electability.
This
effort evaporated as the American people watched the first debate.
Romney was not a fictitious monster. And for a reason yet to be
known, President Obama was passive in reinforcing his campaign's
assertions. Worse, President Obama was equally as passive and
unprepared in effectively defending his own policies. Viewers could
see that the truth of Romney and Obama
had been supplanted by a false narrative.
The same thing is occurring with the
explanation from Obama's campaign for the poor debate performance.
The media and the campaign portray the President as omnipotent in
thought, substance, and communication yet he was unable to retort
basic accusations during a debate- or as the wizard from the Wizard
of Oz said: “I'll have to give the matter a little thought; go away
and come back tomorrow.” “Pay no attention to the man behind the
curtain” it is Romney you have to worry about- he is cheating and
lying. Blame the other guy.
Mr.
President, as Dorthy said- “If you were really great and powerful,
you'd keep your promises” - you would reap what you have sown. You
did not and now you refuse to do what is right- admit you had a bad
night.
A
simple claim of having a bad night could have assuaged the poor
performance. The claim that Romney cheated and lied, whether true or
not, does not dismiss Obama's own woeful performance. What it does
is pull back the curtain of the Obama machine and activate the
evolving mistrust of those in power.
