COMMENTARY | I don't need to hear Obama's speech on Sept. 8. I've already heard it a hundred times. The much-anticipated "details" the president will present in this new jobs speech will be as vague and vacuous as details tossed out in his many other jobs speeches. Amid a repeat of previous bumper-sticker platitudes like "We have to build a new and stronger foundation for growth and prosperity" and "What has defined us as a nation since our founding is the capacity to shape our destiny," Obama will drag out his entire list of worn-out class warfare/blame game talking points, all designed to divide Americans into groups, pit them against each other and absolve himself of any responsibility for the fact that he needs to make another speech about creating jobs.
Here, I'll even give you a preview of what he's going to say.
He will remind us for the umpteenth time that "this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression" and slip in some version of "I inherited this mess." Then he'll try again to float the idea that there has been "some success" and that we have a) "turned/are turning the corner" and b) "we are going in the right direction" but c) "we still have a long way to go" because d) "I didn't say change we can believe in tomorrow or next week."
There will be more nebulous insipidity about strengthening our small businesses, giving needed breaks to middle-class families and more talk about taking responsible steps to bring down our deficit while simultaneously telling us we need more investments to get the economy moving again and put unemployed Americans back to work.
He'll say the word "investments" a lot; investments in our people, investments in our future and investments in skills and education the American people need to compete in a 21st century economy. "Investments" is the new world vocabulary word for "stimulus."
Then the president will reiterate the usual list of investments we need to make; investments in infrastructure and investments in research and technology like clean energy... You know, the same investments he said would lead to all those "shovel ready jobs" back in 2009 if we passed that $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - even though they "weren't as shovel ready" as he led us to believe.
Then he will say we need to make more investments.
Of course, the president will either spin or avoid mention of Solyndra, the Fremont-based solar panel manufacturer he once touted as a prime example of how investing in green technology would deliver jobs.
Just as Rick Davis of Business Insider reported that the much-lauded economic benefits of Cash for Clunkers "withered and died as soon as the spigot of Federal stimulus was turned off," Scott McGrew of NBC Bay Area reveals that - even though Solyndra flared on the $535 million "investment" of taxpayer money from the U.S. Department of Energy and the "investment" of $1.1 billion in private venture capital funding - the company crashed and burned the moment the "investments" dried up.
Above all, the president will evade recognition of the proven overall failure of his pie-in-the-sky "green jobs pipe dream" and the 1,100 Solyndra workers who most recently became a statistic in the next set of unemployment numbers.
You see, that's what happens when you rely on artificial "investments" from those trying to force an unpopular product down a consumer's throat rather than producing what the public wants and selling it for a "profit." Then again, the point of "profit" in any business - which this president insists he is determined to help "grow" - is ironically the same time when this president begins attacking those businesses as being "greedy."
It is a complex conundrum indeed.
Be assured that the president will take his prime-time/NFL airtime to lash out at his critics in the GOP presidential line-up and the Tea Party. Of course he won't say "Tea Party" or mention any specific names because that would give rise to the notion that he considers these people a threat. No, the great uniter will simply give them a menial title of something harmless and insignificant like... "some folks."
He will say things like the American people are tired of the talk and Congress needs to "do the job they were elected to do." He will use the word "gridlock" and blame the Republican majority in the House for blocking "important legislation" that "would have created jobs." But he will avoid mention that it is by the hands of the Democrat-controlled Senate that "important legislation" either makes it to his desk or dies.
He will also use the word "reform(s)" a lot: immigration reform, social reform, reforms that will make our financial system more secure, reforms that will improve education and reforms that will lower the national debt, grow businesses and yes, create jobs.
Other words the president will use repeatedly: "balanced," "share(ed)," "bipartisan" and "we," preceded by or used somewhere soon after with the word "revenue" because he still thinks we don't know that "revenue" is the new Obamanology term for "taxes."
What are the words the president will use the most? The same words he always uses most whenever he's trying to convince you that "This isn't about me; it's about you" - "I, me and my."
Sources:
Alex Johnson, "Obama touts 'New Foundation' for growth", NBC
"Remarks by the President to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill", White House
Rick Davis, "Cash For Clunkers Postmortem: Epic Fail", Business Insider
Scott McGrew, "Solyndra to Declare Bankruptcy", NBC
Posted by Katie Boyd, "White House Promises "Fresh" New Jobs Proposals, Then Pushes More Failed 'Stimulus' Spending" Website for Speaker of the House John Boehner
David Limbaugh, "'It's Not About Me' -- Wink, Wink"
Mike Brownfield, "Morning Bell: Obama's "Green Jobs" Pipe Dream", Heritage Foundation
Opinionator, "Yes I Can", New York Times
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