It has not taken Obama long to destroy the image of hope and change he presented the American People. As Pew just noted yesterday the top issues for this country – per the voters – is the Economy, Jobs and Terrorism. To date all of Obama’s actions have been irrelevant or undermining to these issues. And now Obama feels the heat of the conservatives (and conservative independents) and has jettisoned ‘hope and change’ for his little tin dictator hat. When faced with requests to be bipartisan as promised, Obama just gave the finger to all of us fed up with the partisan bickering from the left and right:

After less than a week in office, Mr Obama’s presidency is already encountering the very partisan bickering he had pledged to stamp out during his first 100 days.

He faces mounting criticism over his $825 billion economic stimulus plan, from Republican leaders who say the legislation has been drawn up without the input which Mr Obama had promised to allow them.

The president responded with a clear signal that he is prepared to ram the bill through without the bipartisan consensus he promised to construct, telling Republican leaders from the House of Representatives: “I won. I’m the president.”

This ain’t the change voters were promised. In fact, the snippy attitude is an indicator of a much worse and long lasting problem – Obama is not ready for the job. George Bush was able to guide partisans into reasonable compromises to address this nation’s problems. From stimulus packages to tax cuts to education reform to immigration reform, Bush was able to forge solutions so well the far right went into a panic mode they have yet to recover from. Bush was adept at bringing people together.

Obama is not adept, he is inept. He cannot control his far left base and he cannot handle the challenges of bringing competing or warring factions together. One way to destroy the Democrats is to show how Obama and the Dem Congress are LESS capable than Bush and the GOP Congress. After all the hype and mud thrown at Bush, the last thing they Dems and Obama need is to look like they are incapable of even meeting his standards of accomplishment.

Look at those top priorities of the American voter and then look at the headlines Obama is getting. His signature ‘success’ to date is to recklessly close GITMO – a favor to only terrorists and left wing echo chambers. This idiotic act does nothing for the economy and most Americans are positive it is not strengthening our position against al Qaeda. As suspected, al Qaeda sees this as a sign of weakness, and attacking the now weakened America looks better and better. Too many see GITMO as a white flag of surrender in the war on terror, which is a green light to terrorists.

What has Obama done on the economy? Nothing. Recall Bush was able to get tax cuts and rebates through a split Congress when he came into office. He was able to guide the nation’s economy through recovery after 9-11. Why is it all of a sudden the Dems can’t do something over a recession? Nothing they are proposing will hit the economy for months or years. The only near term, solid change they plan is to raise taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. They plan to HURT the economy, not help it.

The economy is tanking further because it is clear Obama has no spine when it comes to his party’s far left destructive impulses. He is spending his political capitol and precious time making sure America funds abortions overseas instead of focusing on problems here in America. What do the prisoners at GITMO and abortions overseas have to do with fixing the economy, creating good and upwardly mobile jobs and defending the nation from terrorists? Nothing!

And America’s patience is wearing thin. Obama has seen his support drop 20% in the first week in office:

The Gallup Poll on Saturday released the first job-approval rating for President Obama, based on interviews during his first three full days in office: 68 percent.

Now that he’s in office, Obama’s approval ratings are starting to normalize, as partisan back-and-forth picks up. Just a week ago, Gallup found an astonishing 83 percent approval of how he has handled his transition, showing he had even won over most Republicans.

Well, that’s a fairly delusional way to view things. Look, everyone gives a new President a chance. I do and most do because of the office and our country, not because of any special magic with the person. But that window of opportunity can only be held open by producing results. Something Obama has never done in his entire life. He talks a good talk, but that doesn’t meet muster when people are hurting. And people are hurting.

Moreover, people are not pleased with the juvenile and bitter tactics of the liberal nut jobs. Disrespecting our former President and our Military was a huge mistake during the inauguration. Wallowing in childish giddiness that Nirvanna is here simply because we elected the first black male to the top slot is not helping anyone. All America sees is another group of whacky elitists with too much time and money on their hands binge partying now that they survived the retirement of Bush/Cheney.

Here is my prediction. As Obama and the Dems fail to make any difference in the economy and jobs, as al Qaeda and their ilk start rattling their swords and executing successful attacks to unbalance the shaky democrats, those opinion polls will continue to ‘normalize’ southward.

And it will happen at a rate that is stunning. First off, it took YEARS for Bush’s sky-high opinion polls to settle back down to earth. What Obama lost in one week it took Bush years to shed and he did it by trading it in on legislative accomplishments. He lost 20% of his support really fast. I am not saying it will continue to fall at this rate, but if he loses the non-liberal elements of society – which is the path he is on by sucking up to the liberals only – he could dip below 50% by summer of this year. And if he dips below 50% then the Dem Congress is on a path for another 1994.

But before that can happen the GOP needs to get its act together. It is too far into the clutches of its extreme (and now extremely rejected) far right wing to offer an acceptable alternative. The people threw out the GOP and its extremists for being just as tone deaf and insulting to the rest of the country (who exist from the moderate right to the far left) as the far left is now being with everyone to the right of liberal progressives! Being the flip side of the same bad coin will not provide an alternative.

Without some contrition and some acceptance of past bad behavior – along with a promise to not insult and fight with their allies – the far right is not going to get back into power. One example of what I see as short sighted, knee jerk, simple-minded conservatism that will not fly I found over at Jim Geraghty’s Campaign Spot. Which is sad, because I find Jim one of the few people on the right capable of bringing the movement back from oblivion. However, in this one instance the incoherence of the thought that went into sending a conservative message exemplifies how not to win back America as Obama and the Dems implode:

Here are the types of spending priorities you find in an examination of the text of the Economic Recovery Bill:

…

An additional $150 million to NASA for “aeronautics.”

An additional $4.5 billion (with a B) to improve, repair and modernize Department of Defense facilities, restore and modernize Army barracks, and invest in the energy efficiency of Department of Defense facilities.

An additional $1.7 billion (with a B) for projects to address critical deferred maintenance needs within the National Park System.

What struck me as just 3rd grade thinking is the fact that simply because someone doesn’t know what ‘aeronautics’ means they assume it is wasteful spending. Well ‘aeronautics’ means investing in safety and improvements in our civilian airline sector. It means investigating ways to save lives and make flying more efficient. It means, by government investment, these advances are owned by the people of this nation and are not the intellectual property of a corporation alone, so that all who fly in the US for business and pleasure can reap the rewards of these programs.

It is the kind of work that leads to devices and systems and training programs that allow a plane full of people to make an emergency landing in the frigid Hudson River and live to tell about. It is something government should be doing more of, not less. For those who don’t understand why this money is worth spending, there is a little tutorial for you to educate yourself. It is called the NASA Website (see here, here, here and here).

Additionally, is Geraghty (and whomever he linked from) really saying we should not maintain the facilities of our fighting forces? Are we not pro military? Are we not, as conservatives or Americans, willing to spend what it takes to support those in harms way?

The little advertised sad truth is the Feds have not only been tapping into Social Security to fund the pet projects of Congress, they have also been deferring much needed maintenance and upgrade programs for well over a decade to fund these slush funds of friends. They have been ‘porking’ the funds needed to keep our federal facilities simply running. These are not ‘additional’ spending activities in most cases – these are IOUs from the past.

Earmarks come from some place, and the Federal facility infrastructure is rotting out from within because it too has been a source of pork funds. Buildings are in disrepair and their decor is a flashback to the 1940’s. We have computer systems operating critical infrastructure which belong in museums. They are being held up by maintenance depots that include E-Bay, where a lot of people hunt for aging spare parts. I am not overstating how badly we have let our facilities rot so we could get more pork out the door.

And since the GOP has been porking out for all those years of neglect as the leaders of a greedy Congress, it is not a good idea to throw stones from a fractured and barely standing glass house, like this post does. Don’t go there.

Look, so far we still see a race to the cesspool going on left and right. The GOP can pull itself out of the tail spin, but it has to go back to a broad and moderate coalition. And it has to be serious and stop acting like liberal democrats. Only then can it be in a position to step in when the far left policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid destroy the Dems.

Tags: Abortion, Democrats, Economy, GOP, Jobs, NASA, Obama, Terrorism