- The Cargo Cult Presidency

It's such a great description of Obamaworld that I had to repeat it. Take this quote for example:

"We have arrived at a juncture in our politics where reasonable efforts to update our regulations, or make basic investments in our future, are too often greeted with cries of 'government takeover' or even 'socialism'," Obama said.

"Getting this balance right has less to do with big government or small government than it does smart government. It's not about being anti-business or pro-government; it's about being pro-growth and pro-jobs," he said.

He has no idea. He's the equivalent of a New Guinea tribesman, sitting beside a make shift runway with coconuts on his ears, reciting the chant "angels 1 5 ...come in angels 1 5." into a pretend radio. He thinks he's observing all the forms and the results should follow. He literally has no idea why none of it is working and the polls continue to fall away.

So he's going to to do the same thing that those tribesmen did... he's going to be even more diligent with his chant. Soon... the gods will reward him and return with all the 'stuff'. Jobs will re-appear, prosperity will return, and his poll numbers will begin to rise again. The speech is all he knows how to do and he's convinced that, like the tribesmen, if he does it just right everything will be better.

He believes he's so smart that even though central planning has failed every time it's ever been tried, this time it will be different. It hasn't occurred to him that EVERYONE who ever tried central planning felt that way. He hasn't realized that we can see right though his silly speeches. He thinks we don't notice that every solution he has for 'getting the balance right' always seems to involve letting the government control massive portions of our formerly free markets.

In the end the soviet system was a lot like that too. Even when that drunk guy was climbing up on the tank outside the Kremlin, there were true believers inside who were still convinced that the only problem with the soviet system was that the capitalists systems were 'unfairly' competing with them.

If 1/6th of the economy is taken over by 'smarter government' it's still taken over. But they don't realize that in Obamaworld. All they know there is that they should keep their eyes on the heavens, and continue the chant. "Smarter Government... come in smarter government.....Hope and Change... do you read me hope and change..."


Postscript - I heard the title of this piece for the first time when Rush read an American thinker piece on his show. I didn't think of the phrase, and I'm horribly angry at the guy who did, in the same way that I get angry every time I read something by Mark Steyn. I'd known about the cargo cults for years, but I never made the mental link. I went back and read the piece but I couldn't find a good way to work it in so I didn't link it. Instead I just stole the catch phrase... apologies to the guy who actually came up with it.