Obama’s Arrogance, Lack Of Vision A Stumbling Block

Last Thursday President Obama gave a speech in Ohio wherein he used the terms I or me 117 times. It’s sort of an amazing statistic, though for those who suffer though Obama’s speeches on a regular basis it’s not uncommon at all. Obama has speech writers and while he’s just reading his teleprompter you know he’s read the speech before hand. Why the President allows his speech writers to use terms like I and me like 6th graders is anyone’s guess. But when you look at Obama’s re-election campaign, it’s looking very 6th grade. It’s so far very short on details and very long on rhetoric.

Obama’s re-election campaign seems to be centered around Romney being an evil capitalist. He supposedly sent jobs overseas while at Bain, he cost Americans jobs when he was at Bain, Obamacare was a 2600 page addition to Romneycare etc. All of this is perfectly acceptable campaign rhetoric but at some point Obama needs to tell us what he’s going to do during a second term. Especially so with the economy slowing down again. It seems Obama’s economic policies haven’t worked at all, so what is he going to do to change things during the next four years?

We have a President devoid of new ideas yet he wants a second term in office to implement no new ideas. Even the Washington Post wonders aloud about Obama’s plans for a second term. The Stimulus is a failure, it didn’t create jobs. According to Obama’s economists in 2009, unemployment would be 5.6% today if the Stimulus was passed. It was passed of course and unemployment is 8.2% and in reality it’s over 14% according to the U-6 figure. Obama is directly responsible for regulations that have cost jobs and the uncertainty created by Obamacare. He’s responsible for tax uncertainty as well, refusing to extend Bush’s tax cuts.

Obama will no doubt blame a do nothing Republican House. Never mind that the Republican House has passed more bills than the Democrat controlled Senate. Most Americans acknowledge a stalemate between the House GOP and Obama. More than half the problem is due to the fact that Obama won’t even sit down and negotiate with Republicans. He hasn’t personally sat down and negotiated since the debt ceiling debate in August of last year. Very few bills have passed both Houses of Congress in the last year, largely because Obama won’t negotiate. So it begs the question what exactly he plans to do during a second term, especially since he’ll likely be dealing with a Congress completely controlled by Republicans.

Obama’s lack of a second term vision doesn’t let Romney off the hook. We have argued on numerous occasions that Romney needs to lay out detailed economic and healthcare plans. But Romney is admittedly in a better position than Obama right now. Obama’s policies aren’t working, the economy is tanking. More of the same isn’t good enough. Romney can run as someone who won’t continue Obama’s policies and that will net him 45% of the vote. But to get over the top he needs to offer details. It isn’t enough that Obama has no vision when Romney’s vision is only that he isn’t Obama.

Over the last 18 months Obama’s poll numbers drop when he gives major speeches and is otherwise in the public eye. Part of the problem is his speech writers constantly using the term me and I throughout his speeches. Americans don’t mind a bit of bragging, but to use those terms 117 times in a 20 minute stump speech rubs people the wrong way. It stinks of arrogance and if Obama had an economy to be arrogant about people might be willing to look the other way. But not when the economy is failing. Obama needs to cut the I’s and me’s and present a concrete recovery plan. Otherwise he’s leaving the door open for Romney, if only Romney would offer a plan of his own.