A Response to Jack Cafferty

At first, I thought I was reading satire. I thought it was a joke. I kept waiting for the punchline. I was reading Jack Cafferty's post on CNN today.

Let me just share the first part, what I thought was a joke:

"What a welcome change to feel like someone is running the country instead of running it into the ground. President Obama has done more in eight weeks than George W. Bush did in eight years -- unless you include starting a couple of wars.

While the armchair quarterbacks second guess the new president, he gets up every day and does things, lots of things. Whether it's creating commissions for women and girls, ordering the investigation of President Bush's use of signing statements, or jamming a huge stimulus package through Congress, the man is working his tail off. And he seems to be loving every minute of it. It's almost as though our president was born to do exactly what he's doing. He's leading, and boy, is that refreshing."

Where is Michelle Malkin with her drool bucket? But then I remembered, this is Jack Cafferty who back in September said that if Obama didn't win the election it was racism. The same Jack Cafferty who, earlier this month, wrote a love letter to Michelle Obama.

Let me just address a couple of the points Cafferty brings up. He accuses George W. Bush of starting two wars but he might go back to 9/11/2001 and review the events of that day and the days right after. He might review the attacks on innocent Americans on that day, and on our own soil for that matter. He might review subsequent events also such as the beheading of Daniel Pearl, an American.

I don't think George Bush started that.

I don't think George Bush ran the country "into the ground" either. America saw a great deal of economic growth under George W. Bush even after the catastrophe of 9/11 in his first term which nearly devastated the airline industry.

Not to rehash the record on this too much, but Bush and Company tried to do something about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the lenders primarily responsible for the housing debacle, but the Democratic Congress, including Barney Frank, shut them down. Oh there is plenty of blame to go around, I don't deny that, but Mr. Cafferty overlooks that point.

Cafferty goes on to celebrate what he sees as Obama's accomplishments so far, in fact, praising Obama for "jamming a huge stimulus package through Congress." You can see why at this point I thought I was still reading satire. The word choice of "jamming" was just so appropriate.

Then Cafferty criticizes Bush yet again (he must have gone to school with Obama on this skill) when he says that Bush would appear "in front of a handpicked audience to utter some banalities" and I wondered if Cafferty has ever seen his man Obama off the TelePrompter? Uhh..uhm, ah, well, uhh, uhm, probably not.

To his credit, Cafferty does point to the appointment of Tim Turbo Tax Challenged Geithner as a possible faux pas, equating this appointment to a "stubbed toe." Geithner, the architecht of the AIG bailout who missed all those bonus contracts. Cafferty even points out that maybe "signing that omnibus bill with all those earmarks in it...was probably a mistake." That's a little bigger than a "stubbed toe," don't you think, Mr. Cafferty?

In fact, Geithner has not been the only Stubbed Toe Appointment we have here: Tom Daschle, Eric "Nation of Cowards" Holder, Nancy Killefer, Charles Freeman, Bill Richardson, Hilda Solis (well, her husband, anyway)...should I go on?

No, by the time I got to the last paragraph I had figured out that Cafferty was indeed serious in this drool-fest. By the time he said Obama has "got ambitious ideas on how to solve [the country's problems], and he communicates a sense of calm and confidence to the rest of us as he goes about his business. Will all his ideas work? Of course not. But if you throw enough stuff at the wall, some of it will stick" I figured out Cafferty was serious. Speak for yourself on the "calm and confidence" thing, Mr. Cafferty, because I'm not getting that.

It's the "Spaghetti Approach" to leading: Throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks.

He closed with the reassuring "And at least I don't go to bed at night worried that I'll wake up in the morning to find out we're about to invade someone."

No Mr. Cafferty, you might instead wonder about who is going to invade US. Do you seriously feel safer now that Obama has vowed to close Gitmo and has already released terrorists? Now that pilots are no longer allowed to carry guns on airplanes for protection against another 9/11? Now that Russian bombers may soon be based in Venezuela and Cuba? Now that Russia is vowing rearmament? Now that Obama is not denying throwing our veterans under the bus with regard to service related health insurance?

I'm glad you don't go to bed at night worried, Mr. Cafferty, because I sure do. I'm terrified.