Is America Boxing Itself Into a Corner?

2012 Presidential Election: Is America Boxing Itself Into a Corner?

by Bill Sardi

On paper, how can anyone say Mr. Obama’s Presidency is a failure? Come on, here is the heroic President who gave orders to shoot-to-kill the towel-headed terrorist Osama bin Laden, who passed "Obamacare," who brought us (via bailout money) "the Obama-car," who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Four years ago rhetoric of "change" resonated so fully in the American population that all it took was a teleprompter-reading candidate to win. But in 2012 he has failed to create the same fervor as he did in the 2008 election.

Then Mr. Obama had a voodoo doll in GW Bush to stick needles in. He ran a successful campaign by appealing to an American population that was running away from its former President. But can he, or any subsequent President for that matter, ever run a successful campaign based upon his own record?

Which future President is going to say he has raised the American economy totally out of its $16 trillion of accumulated debt or its more than $200 trillion of future unfunded obligations for Medicare and Social Security?

Maybe some autocratic President can issue an Executive Order that all US companies cease manufacturing overseas and bring jobs back home, but then the President would have to deal with massive unrest and starvation in China and rising prices on goods at home (U.S. Gross Domestic Product is driven largely by household purchases. Bloomberg News reports consumer spending is now 70% of the nation’s GDP). Fixing one problem creates another.

Raise interest rates on borrowed money so that interest on saved money rises and encourages more Americans to save and you end up having to pay higher interest rates on home purchases and the real estate market (what’s left of it) crashes again.

Rigging numbers to get re-elected

The only way the incumbent President has held office today and hasn’t been forced to resign or face impeachment is the news media is covering for a failed economy. When the nation’s central bank, The Federal Reserve that issues money to banks, says the target rate of inflation is 2.2%, somehow that becomes the real rate of inflation. Economist John Williams shows the real rate of inflation is more like 9.3% (ShadowStats.com).

Pitting the masses against the classes redux

In 1980 President Jimmy Carter faced 21% interest rates on borrowed money, 13% inflation and zero economic growth. His strategy for re-election was to characterize Ronald Reagan as a tool of the rich (sound familiar?). Ronald Reagan won in a landslide with 489 electoral votes that year. Political commentator Pat Buchanan has said: "Looking back, what else could Carter do? Looking forward, what else can Barack Obama do?"

Read the rest of the article:
http://lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi244.html