Obama's Grand Distraction

Can he keep this shell game going through the election?

"I also know that real change has never been easy, and it won't be easy this time either. The status quo in Washington will fight harder than they ever have to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November."
-- Barack H. Obama, Pennsylvania Primary speech April 22, 2008

Obama's speeches are littered with the word "distraction." When Obama talks about distractions, he is speaking from experience. He is the master of the technique he frequently rails against. Like every good con man he knows that he has to offer some razzle dazzle to keep your mind off what is really going on.

For four years now we have been treated to an endless string of phony arguments and attacks all designed to detract attention from the failures of the Obama Administration. Or, as former Vice President Dick Cheney called it, an "unmitigated disaster."

Lately the technique has intensified and the entire Democrat political apparatus has been activated not to defend Obama's record but to keep the shell game going as long as possible. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summed up the rhetorical sleight of hand in a fundraising letter where she declared the GOP was waging "unrelenting war on women, seniors, and the middle class." Add to that Obama's class warfare and the race war being ginned up after the killing of Trayvon Martin and you might think the GOP is out to get just about everybody!

But just like the shell game, it's all a scam designed to keep your eye off what is really going on and separate you from your money.

The war on women (a theme repeated by numerous elected Dems)is a con game to take women's eyes off the fact that under Obama, women have suffered more during this recession than men. And Obama certainly doesn't want women talking about how the gals in his White House get paid 18% less than men. So, the Dems gin up a phony controversy over contraception and it's off to the races.

Same with the race wars. Black leaders  have been critical (1,2) of Obama for his failure to do more for his most loyal supporters. So, what do you do to keep blacks from complaining about the fact that unemployment is 6% higher than the national average? Get them angry about race issues. If Trayvon Martin's killer had been a black man, we would never have heard about the tragedy. Thousands of young black men and women are killed each year and Dems leaders do little more than give lip service to the carnage.

Obama's latest shiny object to distract the voters from economic hardship is the so-called Buffet Rule. Sounds good to make millionaires and billionaires pay more in taxes. Obama says it's a question of fairness but overlooks the fact that the top 1% pay 37% of all income taxes and the bottom 50% pay 2%. Obama also claimed that this new tax would help "close our deficits" and give him more money to spend on "investments" like more bankrupt solar energy companies owned by major Obama campaign donors.

But the new tax would only raise $47 billion over ten years at the same time new deficits under Obama will top $6 trillion. If Obama really cared about the deficit he trim back his spending plans for all those new "investments." Even if we confiscated 100% of the income of those making $114,00 or more it wouldn't pay for one year of Obama's spending and only slightly more than half the new deficits over ten years.

The big question is whether Obama can continue to run these various shell games through the election or will they backfire as voters start asking tough questions? For the answer I turn to the words of Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."