Is Obama Brilliant or Stupid?
By Alan Caruba
The debate that is constantly swirling around the Internet’s many
websites and blogs is whether Barack Obama is brilliant or stupid? Like most of
the nation, opinions are fairly divided between those who think he is an evil
genius and others who think he is an imbecile.
When people start to defend themselves by saying out loud that they are
not stupid, there’s a better than average chance they are stupid and, like most stupid people,
are denying it. At his Friday press conference in which he declared another
illegal change to the Affordable Care Act (one made without going to Congress
and requesting that the Obamacare “law of the land” be changed), the President
said, “I don’t think I’m stupid enough to say this is going to be as easy as
shopping around on Amazon or Travelocity.”
Northwestern University’s Prof. Eugene Kontorovitch, a legal affairs
policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, responded to Obama’s press conference
saying, “President Obama did not specify what statutory authority, if any, he
thinks authorizes him to make such dictats and, given the gargantuan length of
the Obamacare statute, he might still be
looking.”
After the President’s press conference, the president of America’s Health
Insurance Plans, Karen Ignagni released a statement saying that Obama’s
administrative fix to the health plan cancellation problem “could destabilize
the market and result in higher premiums for consumers,” pointing out that
“Premiums have already been set for next year based on the assumption of when
consumers will be transitioning to the new marketplace.” There is a solution to
this; repeal Obamacare entirely.
The facts reveal that he was stupid enough to believe Obamacare would
work. He let the law go into effect knowing that Healthcare.gov was not ready to
sign up people and that millions were going to lose the insurance plans they
had. Some argue that that was brilliant; evil but
brilliant.
Wayne Allyn Root, the author of “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide” and
commentator, wrote that, as far as Obamacare is concerned, “This is a serious,
purposeful attempt to hijack American and destroy capitalism. This is a
brilliant, cynical, and purposeful attempt to damage the U.S. economy, kill
jobs, and bring down capitalism.’
Playing devil’s advocate, I would argue that Obamacare is the ultimate
example of how utterly stupid liberal programs to alter the nation’s economy
are. Why would anyone think that the government could possibly take charge of
one sixth of the nation’s economy and arguably the finest healthcare system in
the world, and not completely ruin it?
The government took over the nation’s educational system and it has been
failing students for decades, producing graduates who have to take remedial
programs in college just to keep up with the expectations of higher education.
The government took over the environment and, instead of being responsible for
removing pollution from the air and waters, now have an agency that is
undermining all aspects of the economy, from access to energy reserves to
increased costs of manufacturing.
Obama’s handling of the nation’s foreign affairs has been a dismal
failure. Either he is stupid or his advisers are dumber than he is. His first
Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, utterly failed to respond to the U.S.
ambassador’s calls for help from the Benghazi consulate when it was under attack
and both she and the President lied about it, claiming a video no one had seen
was the cause of an event that occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. After the
latest negotiations with Iran that would give that rogue nation more time to
construct a nuclear weapon fell through, the current Secretary of State, John
Kerry, said, “We are not blind and I don’t think we’re stupid.” He was wrong on
both counts.
As noted, the voters are divided but one wonders why liberals never ask
themselves why Obama feels it is necessary to lie about everything before and
after it has been put in action.
A November 13 Rasmussen poll found that “Voters are evenly divided when
asked whether President Obama deliberately lied about the impact of the health
care law before it was passed by Congress. But they strongly believe Americans
should be able to keep their existing health insurance policies.” The
survey found that 46% of likely U.S. voters believe the president purposely
misled Americans about the potential impact of the health care law. Forty-five
percent (45%) disagreed and think Obama honestly expected the law to work out
the way he said it would. Ten percent (10%) were
undecided.”
You don’t have to be a political pundit to know that millions of
Americans, by November 2014 when the midterm elections occur, are going to be
very angry about the disruption to their lives associated with Obamacare; higher
premiums, loss of their personal physician, and the concurrent effect on the
economy as many are forced into part-time status or lose their
jobs.
Americans have always worshipped success and, conversely, fled from
failure in whatever form it took. Obamacare is a legislative abortion, a failure
of stupendous legislative over-reach and hubris.
If Obama is brilliant, one might conclude that he would have been able to
set the economy on a path of growth in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis,
but the data reflects the millions of Americans who are out of work five years
after he took office and the slow growth of the economy. Previous presidents,
faced with similar circumstances were able to turn the economy around, but not
Obama.
It is not sufficient to say that Obama is a significantly flawed
individual. We are all flawed in some regard, but I think it is safe to say that
he is stupid in a very profound way.
The reality of the healthcare plan that he and his fellow Democrats in
Congress inflicted on the nation is such that only their liberal view of that
the greatest economic engine the world needed a vast revision—a fundamental
transformation—is now revealed as breathtakingly
stupid.
That leaves half the nation hostage to the other half that believes he is
not a liar and not responsible for the degradation of a great nation still
capable of achieving great progress and growth. Much will depend on how angry
and unhappy the stupid half of the voters are in November of next year. They
might just rouse themselves to rid Congress of the Democrats in power in the
Senate and reduce their numbers further in the
House.
At least, we can hope so.
© Alan Caruba, 2013
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