Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, on Fox Sunday morning (January 18, 2009) amazed me. I have never seen a person more adept at answering a question one way and then reversing that answer completely in a second sentence. I believe her best, but not her only, such reply was her assurance to the nation that Congress would present a balanced budget and then going into the need to “borrow” almost a hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money to start the economy. Only politicians can balance a budget by borrowing money, but few can present such a contradiction as well as Speaker Pelosi did.

The fact that police in WashingtonDC were putting up signs, “prostitution free zone” for the coronation of Saint Obama pleased me. My initial thought was that everyone was getting into the act to welcome Obama, even prostitutes were servicing for free during the holiday. Then I realized no prostitutes would be permitted in that area (I guess they wear signs). What a travesty of campaign promises. Promising to put the world back to work, to restore the economy, Democrats are depriving hard working women of their jobs for a week that would have given them their highest income of the year from all of the visiting politicians.

While campaigning, then Senator Obama said he would immediately close the GuatanamoBay recreation camp for killers who profane the teachings of Muhammad by killing and advocating the killing of innocent men, women and children of all religious faiths around the globe. Now he suggests it may take four years to do this. Works out very nicely. Three and a half years from now he can campaign for re-election by promising to close the place immediately.

There are two questions regarding the handling of these avowed terrorists. If he simply wishes to quiet the negative publicity, he should move the place from its present location on the Caribbean. Currently, critics can go, visit briefly, enjoy the luxuries of the beaches and the bars of prestige hotels and then write scathing testimonials as to the mistreatment of the prisoners. Move it to some small town in northern Alaska where summer comes on July 4^th and the rest of the year you wear coats, hats and worry about frost bite. No one would go up there to visit, the Liberals would stay home and soon the place would be forgotten. However, if he truly wants to release them where they could do no harm and possibly improve the place, turn them loose in San Francisco. Or simply behead them all as they have done to innocent people. Granted this last would create a five minute burp in publicity, but then it – and they – would be forgotten.

Phyllis Schlafly has written an interesting article (1993 All Over Again) for Townhall.com (January 20, 2009). It is interesting, but I fear she is understating the case. Our economy had been in an extended bubble, but slowed down. The President put millions of dollars into an attempt to improve the economy, but unemployment increased and rose to 7.2%. The President with a Democratic Congress enacted laws and rules to restore the glory, but all failed. Now, a gifted speaker has been elected President and the Democrats have swept Congress all on vague promises of glorious change. 

Sound familiar?  No, it was not Barack Obama, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt. His slogan was not “Hope and Change” it was “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Ask the average person, including most college graduates, if Roosevelt solved the depression and they will answer, “Yes.” In a sense he did. He and Congress poured millions of tax dollars into the economy, constructing programs for the unemployed. At the end of the first four years of his programs that 7.2% unemployment under Hoover had risen to 20%, but he was still a gifted speaker. Re-elected, the unemployment rate rose to 24%. Then he maneuvered us into the Second World War, either deliberately or through bad judgments. Put 11 million men out of a population of 150 million in the armed forces, kill off or injure a million of them, and, behold unemployment is solved. End of depression!

Now we have another gifted speaker leading the faithful with promises of hope and change. President Bush, bowing to Congress, poured several billion dollars into the economy, but things only got worse. By the end of his presidency unemployment had risen to 7.2%. Now Obama promises to pour hundreds of billions of tax dollars into the economy. I hope it works, but the precedent isn’t very good. In fact, it frightens me.

This isn’t really relevant (if any of it is) but I read a recent news article extolling Obama’s selection of Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State. The writer exulted over Mrs. Clinton’s brilliance, claiming she had an IQ of 128. I had to laugh, but then looked up the statistics to be certain. In a nation of 300 million, which describes us, 6 million, 399 thousand and 900 people have higher IQs than Mrs. Clinton.