Obama and the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations 4

Over the course of three articles, we have laid out Mr. Obama's failures in all their horrifying detail.  Mr. Obama is losing not one but two wars, wars which he inherited in a far better state; he has presided over a reign of unprecedented corruption and venality from top to bottom of his administration; and, as bad as the economy he inherited was, he's made it even worse.

Yet most polls show Mr. Obama in the lead, or at best tied with Mr. Romney.  Every other president with even one of these negatives has not dared to run for re-election or been crushed when he did - but apparently not Mr. Obama.  Why on earth not?

Phony Polls?

A lot of people believe that Mr. Obama is actually going to be crushed at the election - that the polls showing him in good shape are simply wrong.  There are two reasons that this might actually be the case.

First, a great many recent polls have intentionally asked more Democrats than Republicans to respond.  If you do that, wouldn't you expect the Democrat to win the poll no matter what?  The pollsters have a plausible-sounding reason: there are more registered Democrats than Republicans and they want the result to accurately reflect that.

The trouble is, what they're using as a measure of party affiliation is the last Presidential election - i.e. 2008, when Barack Obama was swept into power amidst a chorus of worshipful media adulation surrounded by fainting acolytes overwhelmed by his majestic awesomeness.  Does anyone seriously expect Democrats to be nearly that enthusiastic and numerous this time around?  Particularly when you consider that young people, overwhelmingly Obama voters in 2008, are finding it almost impossible to get jobs in his economy?

Second, even when the polling is fair, the majority of people that pollsters attempt to talk to don't respond.  After folks who don't answer the phone at all or people who hang up when they realize it's a pollster on the line, only 9% of targets are willing to go through the whole process.

If that 9% were random it wouldn't matter - but it's not.  A plurality of Americans believe the polls are just as leftly biased as the media; is it any wonder that Republicans might not want to waste their time talking to them?

So it's possible the polls are simply wrong.  Possible, yes - but it would have to be a monumental, earthshaking degree of FAIL for a poll to show Mr. Obama at 50% if really he's at 40%, where similar historic presidential failures have found themselves.  Jimmy Carter in 1980, for instance, garnered 41% of the popular vote, and he only destroyed the economy and a handful of helicopters.  He hadn't lost two full-on wars, and his incompetent administration was morally upright and law-abiding, unlike Mr. Obama's.

Bribing Half the Voters?

Mitt Romney has another theory:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.

On the surface, this seems plausible.  Yes, 47% of Americans pay no income tax; yes, 47% is about where Mr. Obama was polling at the time.

The connection isn't that clear-cut, however.  A lot of Americans don't pay income tax because they're retired and living on their savings, and retirees famously trend Republican.  A lot more Americans don't pay income tax because they're kids in school or prisoners in jail, most of whom can't vote for anybody.  And there are even some people truly on government welfare but who will vote for Mr. Romney anyway because they don't want to be stuck on the dole.

There is no shortage of people who proudly proclaim that they plan to vote for Mr. Obama because of the government cheese they expect him to give them, from Peggy "Peggy the Moocher" Joseph in 2008 to today's Obamaphone Lady.  It does seem a stretch, though, to think that half of Americans are like that.  Is that your experience in your daily life?  It isn't in mine.

That's Raaaaacist!

There's one other answer, and you'll find a hint of it if you watch the videos of Peggy the Moocher and the Obamaphone Lady, then Mr. Obama's recent debate performance.  Notice any similarities?

Indeed there is!  To quote Barack Obama in 2008:

Did I mention he's black?

Why, now that you mention it, so he is.  This has nothing whatsoever to do with his qualifications, his experience, his citizenship, or his ability to be President - but, alas, it has everything to do with how you're handled by the media in today's politically-correct culture.  From the lowest thug who's race the media refuses to report to the highest corrupt official, in modern media practice a black person can do no wrong.

As we've explored before, this is absolutely devastating to black individuals who happen to be intelligent and well-educated, not the least of them being Michelle Obama herself.  When she was in college, Michelle found herself viewed as "black first and a student second" - because, indeed, that's how our leftist elites do view minorities.

If you are immune to criticism and above correction, you won't get any better.  Everybody has weaknesses and deficiencies, but most successful people are forced by circumstances or superiors to deal with them and improve their game.  The recipients of affirmative action get an undeserved boost instead, raising them into positions for which they are unqualified and ill-suited for no other reason than their color.

This might seem like a kindness, and if you look solely at the salaries compared with what they'd earn on their actual merits, it is.  What about psychology, though?

Not too many people really enjoy getting undeserved benefits on an ongoing basis, much less if they're patronized by their supposed peers as being actually inferior.  It's long been known that black law students are harmed by affirmative action that boosts them into elite schools where they can't cut the mustard and drop out in despair, rather than successfully finishing at an ordinary college and entering the practice of law at a more normal level.

What happens when liberals are so desperate to show that their ridiculous affirmative action policies work that they boosted an inexperienced incompetent all the way to the White House?  They dig themselves in so deep that they can't admit that Mr. Obama has ever done anything wrong, even thought as far as we can tell, outside of his personal family he's done nothing but.

We Were Warned

We were warned long ago about about the disasters that were being brought on us by affirmative action.  Back in 1986, then-Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan provoked a torrent of outrage when he said that because large numbers of blacks and Hispanics live in the United States, it cannot compete as effectively with other nations.

We can argue about the insensitivity or bias of his remarks, but it's hard to deny what America has lost in terms of international competitiveness - how many of our manufacturing jobs have moved overseas?  How many companies are forced to hire foreigners or open offices in other countries because they can't find the required skills here - or because anti-bias labor laws force them to hire people who simply are incapable of doing the job?

Affirmative action affects our capabilities beyond harming our business competitiveness and productivity.  Consider how we handle the war on terror.  When our Seals killed Osama Bin Laden, Mr. Obama used the story to try to make himself look good.  He ran his mouth and gave away so many of our crucial military secrets that some in our military are calling him a traitor but the media still treat him as if he walked on water.

When Mr. Bush locked up an American who had been fighting with the Taliban and denied him a trial, the media were justly outraged.  When Mr. Obama ordered the military to track down and kill an American citizen against whom no charges had been filed, and they did it, there was hardly a peep.  To his eternal credit, Rep. Kucinich tried to have Mr. Obama impeached, but nobody else cared much.

Our President orders our military to murder an American citizen, and that's OK?  That's where affirmative action takes you - a black politician can do no wrong.

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

What happens to our culture when somebody is boosted into the Oval Office by affirmative action?  Hollywood stars are entirely unashamed about basing their Obama vote on his skin color, from Samuel L. Jackson to Jay-Z to, well, 95% of blacks nationwide.  The media even went so far as to claim the racism was the only reason to oppose Barack Obama.  A whole lot of white Americans reacted in the way this accusation was intended and voted for him, thinking somehow to expiate our "original sin" of slavery which nobody alive participated in either as master or as slave.

How's that working out for us?  Lousy - just as lousy as the person trapped in a burning building who's relying an unqualified affirmative-action-hire firefighter for rescue.

The politically correct lies of the mainstream media and its refusal to proclaim Mr. Obama to be the utter failure he so manifestly is has brought our country to the brink of disaster.  All too many Americans are still trapped in the racist, politically-correct, affirmative-action mindset of being more sympathetic to Mr. Obama than they ever would be to a white guy regardless of party.  Not only is this morally wrong, it's destroying the country, and it needs to stop right now.

We're reminded of the story of a business firing a black employee.  "You're firing me because I'm black," he stormed.

"No, we hired you because you're black.  We're firing you because you're incompetent."

Our great fear is this: It is a simple fact that there are a many incompetent blacks, whites, Hispanics, and everything else, just as there are competent ones.  Incompetent white people, though, usually get the heave-ho they so richly deserve, from Jimmy Carter down to Redneck Joe the factory drunkard.

When incompetent minorities are tolerated at high levels, for every day of their lives they present living proof to all America that minorities are, in fact, incompetent, unequal, and unworthy.  This is a false and racist lie, but it would be hard for an ordinary person not to believe it given that our lives are infested with minority politicians and bureaucrats who, it is instantly obvious, have no right to their position - and yet which the media worshipfully adores, and of whom no criticism is tolerated.

Such an unnatural situation can only last so long before the oppressed Everyone Else who is competent, or at least works hard and honestly, rises up and says "Enough!"  For our feckless President and his corrupt cronies, that moment can't come too soon, but the longer it is delayed, the greater the risk that too many honest, hard-working, decent minority individuals will be caught up in the housecleaning who don't deserve it.

By rising to unearned heights based solely on his skin color, Barack Obama has created a situation that may very well do permanent and grievous harm to America, to our race relations, to our domestic tranquility, and to all other American blacks.  He clearly doesn't care one whit - but we all should.