A Bump In the Economic Road

The May figures for unemployment just came out, and all our peerless leader could say was that it was "just a bump in the road." This road is in serious need of repair, and that "bump" was a pile of Americans who finally just gave up on getting work in this putrid economy. This past Friday I posted an article on the failure of any President to get reelected when unemployment was higher than 7.2%. It just rose to 9.1% from 9.0% in April.

In actuality, that "bump" was comprised of those whose unemployment benefits have run out and have been seeking work unsuccessfully for two years or more. If they are included in the unemployment figures instead of just those applying for or already on unemployment compensation, the figure is really getting close to 19%. But our Community-Organizer-In-Chief considers that a mere bump in the road. Mr. Obama, get the hell off the road.

Mr. "Did I Do That?" knows in his heart of hearts that he didn't do that. It's all George Bush's fault, along with the evil bankers and the naughty corporations. He has no responsibility for the problem at all. Why those figures remain stubbornly in place or continue to rise doesn't seem to fit into his thinking process (assuming he can think at all). Two and a half years after George W. Bush left office, he's apparently still secretly in charge of destroying the job market.

Obama says he has inherited a crisis (true), adopted unpopular policies (true) and has pointed the economy in the right direction (liar, liar, pants on fire). Even some Democrats are advising the President that he should quit acting as if there's nothing wrong and start admitting that the American people are suffering. But for all his big talk, Obama is totally lacking in empathy. Bill Clinton could say "I feel your pain," and make it sound almost true. Obama will be Obama only when he says "I don't give a damn about you."

If I were a psychologist, I think I might diagnose this creep as having narcissistic personality disorder. He responds to all the wrong things, and he only cares about the affairs of the American people in terms of how they affect him personally. He might also be suffering from intelligence deficit because he's absolutely incapable of seeing that he is daily alienating more and more of his blue collar base (union and government employees not included, I mean actual workers).

But even mega-socialist AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka called the new job numbers "a sign of real danger for working families and recovery." I'm sure he will eventually take up the "George Bush did it" cudgel, but for the time being he accidentally let it be known that even union hacks are getting worried. More liberals who are not part of Obama's inner circle are beginning to notice Obama's complete inability to recognize reality and the miserable state of American unemployment. I'm also sensing that they are beginning to recognize that behind that phony smile and phony rhetoric, they have backed a genuine cold fish. A bloodless, soulless, bureaucratic, statist nonentity.

Obama should come out of his arrogant daze and listen to his own adviser David Axelrod. Said Axelrod: "I've always said the same thing, which is we may not have created this mess, but we're responsible now, and people are less interested in how we got there than where we're going." Hopey-change platitudes are not going to cut it anymore, and treating the unemployed as excess baggage is not only inhumane, it's plain bad politics. I wonder if Axelrod will become part of that bump in the road that the Obama presidential limousine will be running over again soon. The last President this lacking in empathy was Herbert Hoover.