Oh, my god! I've broken two nearly ironclad rules of beginning news writing: I used a question as a headline and an exclamation as the lead sentence. I feel terrible about that, but the occasion seems to require it. Here's why:
For a guy who's been billed as brilliant, President Barack Obama hasn't lived up to his promise as president.
We've been assured by so-called "insiders" that Mr. Obama is "one cool chess player"--when in fact he's miserable at the game.
He did show enormous courage in taking down Osama bin Ladin (after eight years of buffoonery given us by George W. "dubya" Bush).
He's stuck to his convictions when it's come to withdrawing troops from Iraq and holding to his snail-pace troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. He doesn't lack courage. He's as good as Harry S Truman in that category. (There's no period after the S, because it isn't an abbreviation; Mr. Truman just made up a middle initial because he was not given a middle name.)
Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has shown himself to be a dud when dealing with the mentally challenged Republican leadership in Congress--both in the House and Senate.
Somehow, the President doesn't seem to comprehend that he is dealing with unreliable, disreputable, dishonorable and unpatriotic Republicans.
On any number of issues, once a compromise agreement was reached between Mr. Obama and House Speaker Boehner, the GOP caucus backed out saying they wanted more.
Mr. Obama's style of compromise is caving in on issues such as cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, which has been much talked about in these past couple of weeks. I expect he'll also slash funds for education so the Pentagon can continue some pet program of a Republican House member.
All of the aforementioned issues are opposed by a consistent 80 percent of the U.S. population.
Mr. Obama's ignoring the will of the populace is nothing short of betrayal. He won't get a compromise and he won't stand up for America's citizenry.
Of course, we have to understand that Mr. Obama is "brilliant" and thinks he knows better than we ignorant riffraff do.
Does the President take seriously his former opponent Mitt Romney's 47 percent ideology? Is Mr. Obama himself discounting 47 percent of the 80 percent of all Americans who are opposed to cuts in Social Security and Medicare, and, prospectively, also, to cuts in VA disability and health care?
The brilliant Mr. Obama says that the so-called Chained Consumer Price Index (C-CPI) isn't a cut at all, when he knows full well that the C-CPI is the most insidious type of cut, because it's so gradual that no one will notice.
Unfortunately, because of the law of compound interest, in 10 years' time the C-CPI will result in a whopping 23.98 percent cut in Social Security benefits. Here's a simple calculation:
Say a recipient now receives $1,000 a month in SSI payments. If the C-CPI reduces those payments each year by 3 percent, in 10 years the monthly payment will be cut to just $760.77.
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