(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/nilegardiner/) London
Telegraph
Barack Obama’s disastrous first 1,000 days
By _Nile Gardiner_ (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/nilegardiner/)
_World_ (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/category/world/) Last updated:
October 18th, 2011
If _recent polls _
(http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/generic_presiden
tial_ballot/election_2012_generic_presidential_ballot) are any indication,
it is doubtful that President Obama will enjoy another 1,000 days in the
White House. And looking at his track record over the course of his first 33
months in office, it is not hard to see why. It is hard to think of a
presidency in modern times that has done more to damage the United States both
at home and abroad than the current one, with the possible exception of
Jimmy Carter’s. Like his Democratic predecessor in the 1970’s, Barack Obama
has left the world’s dominant superpower on its knees, with faith in US
leadership now being questioned across the globe.
Since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has ushered in a
period of relentless economic decline for the United States. His
administration
has _added $4.2 trillion to the national debt _
(http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/17/morning-bell-1000-days-under-president-obama/)
(now standing at
$14.9 trillion), lost 2.2 million jobs, introduced a vastly expensive
health-care albatross, and spent nearly $800 billion on a failed stimulus
package.
At the same time, house prices across the country have tumbled at an
unprecedented rate, consumer confidence has plummeted, and millions more
Americans are now dependent upon food stamps. International confidence in the
US
economy has fallen to its lowest levels in decades, with credit agency
Standard and Poor’s downgrading of America’s AAA credit rating for the first
time in 70 years in August this year. As _I noted in a piece_
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100099762/america’
s-debt-downgrade-is-a-damning-indictment-of-president-obama’s-big-government-disaster/)
at the time:
Since President Obama took office in January 2009, the United States has
embarked on the most ambitious failed experiment in Washington meddling in US
history. Huge increases in government spending, massive federal bailouts,
growing regulations on businesses, thinly veiled protectionism, and the
launch of a vastly expensive and deeply unpopular health care reform plan,
have all combined to instill fear and uncertainty in the markets.
Is it any wonder that just 17 percent of Americans now believe the country
is moving in the right direction, _according to RealClear Politics_
(http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html) ?
Or
that 81 percent of Americans “are dissatisfied with the way the country is
being governed”, _according to Gallup_
(http://www.gallup.com/poll/149678/Americans-Express-Historic-Negativity-Toward-Government.aspx?version=print)
? As a series of major Gallup polls have shown, public disillusionment with
the federal government has now reached an all-time high, with _69 percent
of Americans _
(http://www.gallup.com/poll/149678/Americans-Express-Historic-Negativity-Toward-Government.aspx?version=print)
now saying “they have
little or no confidence in the legislative branch of government”, with 46
percent believing “the federal government has become so large and powerful
that
it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary
citizens.”
And President Obama’s record on the world stage has also been poor. Despite
two high-profile successes in taking out al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden
and more recently Anwar al-Awlaki (both upon the foundations of President
Bush’s war on terror), US foreign policy under Obama has been a confusing
mess. The_ shameless appeasement of Iran_
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100110550/barack-obama-looks-foolish-and-naive-in-the-wake-of-the
-iran-terror-plot/) has allowed the rogue state to advance perilously
close to nuclear weapons capability, while the naïve “reset” approach towards
Russia has only encouraged a more aggressive and assertive Moscow. At the
same time, traditional alliances with _Great Britain_
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100088961/barack-obama-top-ten-insults-against-brit
ain-2011-edition/) and_ Israel_
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100036389/barack-obama’s-top-ten-insults-against-israel/)
have been
downgraded, and key allies in eastern and central Europe _thrown under the
bus_
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100010237/barack-obama-surrenders-to-russia-on-missile-defence/)
to feed the Russian bear. While
America’s defences have grown weaker, China’s military might has grown
significantly stronger, as have the offensive capabilities of hostile regimes
in
both Asia and Latin America, including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.
As Barack Obama approaches the remaining 14 months of his presidency, there
is a distinct air of US decline. It is of course a state of decline that
can be reversed with the right policies and leadership in place. There is
nothing inevitable about the demise of the United States, but its renewal
must rest upon a dramatic reversal of the most Left-wing agenda of any
American presidency since 1979. As Gallup’s polling has emphatically
demonstrated,
Americans are overwhelmingly rejecting the Big Government agenda of the
Obama presidency, which has spectacularly failed to create jobs, generate
wealth, and instill economic confidence.
The biggest failure of this administration, and there have been many, has
been its central belief that government knows best, and that the way to
prosperity is to spend ever greater amounts of taxpayers’ money on the backs of
hard-working Americans. As a result, the United States is a nation on a
precipice, facing towering debts and the threat of a double dip recession at
a time when 14 million Americans are already out of work. Ultimately, it is
economic freedom, minimal government intervention, and greater individual
liberty that can put America back on its feet, rather than endless
bailouts, higher taxes and suffocating government regulation, all hallmarks of
the
Obama experiment. Ultimately, the world needs a powerful United States that
is a beacon of hope to the world, rather than a basket case of failed
liberal policies.
--
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