Sunday, April 4, 2010

Not Much Recovery; Obama is Fading

Fifteen months into the Obama "regime," there is no sign that Obamanomics has done anything other than damage the prospects for an economic recovery in the US. Unemployment remained stubbornly high at 9.7 percent in the March report released last Friday, while the economy gained a meagre 160,000 jobs. If there was a real recovery in process, job growth would exceed 200,000 per month with a good month exceeding 250,000 jobs. This is not likely to happen until Obama is out of office.

The American economy is in stagnation mode. There will be a mild recovery. Not nearly enough to save the Democrats in November. They will get slaughtered. The interesting question is what is Obama's future, as he continues to tack feverishly to the left of center, while the public mood moves further to the right of center. Polls show that Obama is continuing to lose ground with the public and that the health care legislation is more unpopular than ever. His recent stump speeches seem disconnected and repetitious. The legislative victory of the health care bill has not produced the much expected recovery in Obama's popularity. His situation is deteriorating and he looks it.

The overwhelming issue to Americans is the economy. People want more jobs created in the private sector. This will not happen under Obama. Obama dislikes the private sector and has aggressively sought to nationalize whatever parts of private American that he can. The public now senses that this is the wrong direction for the country and it seems clear they know why. Only Obama is mystified, because his knowledge and understanding of the private sector is limited. He continues to push for mandates, higher taxes, higher restictions on businesses. That means fewer jobs.

Obama is America's version of Hugo Chavez. Whatever he wants, he thinks the people want. It doesn't bother him (nor does it bother Chavez) that polls shows that the public is opposed to their policies. They are so sure that they are right and that the people are wrong, that they are going to use every weapon at their disposal to force the public to do what they want. Chavez has so far survived by such tactics in Venezuela, though his country's economy is collapsing around him. One hopes that Obama can be defeated politically before he takes the country down with him.