In the clip below Chris Matthews of Hardball expresses his displeasure with the Obama presidency 3 years in.
It is clear that Matthews has lost the “thrill up his leg” whenever someone mentions Obama, but is Obama really the problem? Matthews complaints are that Obama is running for reelection but “doesn't tell us what he is going to do?” or how he plans to “reform the healthcare system and deal with long term debt”
First Obama never told us what he was going to do the first time around instead speaking in vague generalities but failed to nail down anything concrete. The things he did cement were in large part what got him to the oval office, namely a troop withdrawal from Iraq in 2009, promising to half his inherited budget deficit by the end of his first term and promising affordable healthcare.1
However these promises have not been fulfilled, the troops are still in Iraq, the deficit he inherited was roughly 400 billion making his promise to “cut it in half” so proposterous at this point that it's laughable, and healthcare is still as expensive as it ever has been.
On the surface many people will agree with Matthews, I mean nobody thinks Obamas first term has been a success. But looking deeper we can examine the real problem that Chris Matthews has, it is that Obama hasn't waved his magic wand, he hasn't come out with his miracle cure where his inspiring speeches suddenly create private sector jobs and reduce our debt.
Obama like all politicians made a multitude of promises he couldn't keep and Matthews ate it up like the establishment lap dog he is. But what Matthews either can't comprehend or can't admit to himself is that what we are witnessing in America and largely the Western world is a collapse of nearly a century of Marxist policies. It was easy to dream up government programs and throw fiat money around, it was a time of easy job security in Washington. But at some point the bills come due, and we have reached that point.
Matthews says several times in the videos “just tell us” as if he wants to know the real plan, what the reality of our situation is. But Obama doesn't “tell us” for the same reason nobody else tells us, because it isn't good news “hey you know all these things we have promised over the years, ummm yeah we actually don't have the money for it” That kind of talk doesn't win votes.
If Matthews genuinly wanted to be told, he wouldn't be such an arrogant blowhard to the one politician who does “tell us”. Ron Paul for several decades now has been warning us of this day, a lone voice in a sea of “promise everything just to get elected”. Dr. Paul gives us the hard medicine, but it is what we need and desperatly.
It is easier for Matthews to scapegoat Obama than it is to be honest that his entire political ideology is flawed even when the evidence is everywhere around us.
