Let The Silly Season Begin

With two weeks until fall begins, in a year prior to an election, the silly season has already begun. Obama is in full campaign mode, although it can be said he never left campaign mode since the last election in 2008. On the other side, the Republicans are lining up almost as long as the unemployment lines to take that job away from Obama. The press is already inserting themselves into the election, which is to be expected.

Let's start with the Republicans. This should have been an easy year for any candidate to run against Obama. In Mitt Romney's case, he's made it look easy until recently. He gives a speech once in awhile, but the rest of the time he seemed content to assume the front runner status and not say much.

Newt Gingrich shot himself in the foot within hours of announcing his candidacy. Herman Cain has stayed on message, but he's seen as on the fringe. Ron Paul is in again with the only difference being that he's not going to run for his Congressional seat at the same time. That has more to do with his age rather than confidence in his Presidential bid. Tim Pawlenty never got off the ground and dropped out after the Iowa straw poll. We've been told that John Huntzman will be a formidable candidate, but other than that, I've heard nothing about or from him. Former Senator Rick Santorum is also running,  but he seems forgotten until he appears on the dais at the debates.

Representative Michelle Bachmann is a tea party favorite and has been at or near the lead and withstands the attacks on her in the press by the press as well as by those that consider her a Right Wing Extremist. Now, Governor Rick Perry of Texas has entered the race and taken a good sized lead. This has brought Romney out in public again. Finally, there is Sarah Palin out there running around the country, who hasn't announced yet, but may...or may not.

Thus far, the most blatant stunt by the press has been against a man not running. Former Vice President Dick Cheney was promoting his book and last week appeared on the Today Show on NBC. Following the interview, as they went to commericial, they didn't just cut out as they normally do but rather slowly backed out with the camera shot to include a woman standing outside the window who held up a sign, blocking the window showing Cheney as the camera panned back, pushing for the arrest of Cheney for war crimes.

As for President Obama, he has never stopped campaigning or whining about former President Bush. We are seeing the same thing in Obama as we in Michigan did with former Governor Jennifer Granholm. Within months of Granholm taking office, the economy in Michigan began falling like a rock. Her favorite line was "I inherited this from John Engler.." the former three term Governor who was term limited out after 2002. Her re-election bid in 2006 was all about how Engler had destroyed Michigan. Engler had a 3% unemployment rate, while Granholm's soared to over 15% unemployment and still she was re-elected. Now we're seeing the same thing in Obama.

We've been hearing "it's Bush's fault" from day one with the Obama administration. Bush had an unemployment rate that reached as low as 4% and hovered at 5% for most of his 8 years following his tax cuts. 5% is consider full employment. In his last year, it moved up to 7%. Obama promised that unemployment would not reach 8% if his stimulus was passed. It passed and unemployment grew to 10.1% and is now stuck at 9.1%.

Obama spent the first two years with no meetings with Republicans. On the other hand, his party held a filibuster proof Senate and a wide margin lead in the House. He didn't need Republicans to get his agenda passed. Yet it still took over a year to get his health care plan passed. Now he spends his time giving waivers to his followers (who wanted health care passed but don't want to be part of it). Over 1,700 waivers so far.

His incompetence  was on full display with his lack of ability to get anything done when he had both Houses of Congress on his side. He has not had the people on his side. In the last election the Tea Party was created and became part of the Republican party. They are Conservatives standing up. This  caused the largest turn around in an election in over 70 years. So Obama now rules with executive order, implementing more than 600 regulations on businesses during July.

The silly season used to refer to the lead up to Christmas when people would rush around in preparation for the holiday and do some crazy things. Now we include politics. Christmas' silly season is about four weeks long. Politics will last about 14 months. Yesterday, James Hoffa warmed up a union crowd in Detroit for President Obama and declared war on Republicans. An odd thing for them to do since these are the same people that claim we've gone into two wars on a credit card. Now they want to declare war on Republicans allowing Obama to continue to put everything else on a credit card.

Let the silly season begin? We can't stop it from beginning.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett