WEST NEWTON, Mass. — President Barack
Obama said Americans' "fear and frustration" is to blame for
an intense midterm election cycle that threatens to derail
the Democratic agenda.
"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right
now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be
winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not
to always think clearly when we're scared," Obama said in
remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening.
"And the country's scared."
Obama told the several dozen donors that he was offering
them his "view from the Oval Office." He faulted the
economic downturn for Americans' inability to "think
clearly" and said the burden is on Democrats "to break
through the fear and the frustration people are feeling."
— Politico.com
Oct. 18, 2010
Thanks for sharing that, Mr. President. I love being patronized
by someone who thinks so clearly himself, along with the rich
people who support him — because, being rich, they aren't in
fear and frustration mode. Makes me want to vote Democrat for
sure.
Just kidding, Mr. Prez. It actually makes me
want to throw up.
Fear? Frustration? Try anger. I'm "hardwired"
to feel anger when someone tells me I'm not thinking clearly
because I don't happen to think the way I'm told to think by the
"beautiful people."
Oh, I'm afraid sometimes, too, for my
grandchildren, as the national debt approaches $14 trillion. How
do we "think clearly" about that?
This year's budget deficit has reached $1.3
trillion. How "frustrating" that the clear-thinkers in the Obama
administration are downsizing the children's economic future.
Yes, Mr. President, it's tough for some
Democrats this year.
My incumbent congressman, John Tierney, is
having trouble "breaking through the frustration" as he denies
knowing that his wife was laundering over $7 million in illegal
gambling revenue for her family and filing false tax returns,
while at the same time he sought to pass a bill to make the
gambling legal, and supports higher taxes on all of us.
Right now I'm a lot more angry than
"frustrated."
As a senior citizen, I paid careful attention
when Republicans warned during debate that ObamaCare would kill
our Medicare Advantage plans. Congressman Tierney sent me an
e-mail on Nov. 4, 2009, that began, "Dear Barbara," and assured
me that "we worked to produce legislation that offers you more
security and stability, reduces health care costs, improves
coverage and preserves your choice of doctors, hospitals and
health plans."
Just got my notice of my health plan's
cancellation last week. Feeling a lot less secure and stable.
Costs are going up.
Before a standout for Tierney's opponent,
Bill Hudak, in Vinnin Square this coming Sunday afternoon, I
plan to attend a Baker/Tisei rally at 11 a.m in Soldiers &
Sailors Memorial Hall in Melrose.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is coming to
support Charlie Baker against our incumbent governor, Deval
Patrick, who ran in 2006 on a promise of property tax relief.
Instead we got a 25 percent sales tax increase. Meanwhile, down
in New Jersey, Christie ran on a promise of property tax relief
in 2008. The first phase of his program became law in July, and
he's filed a 33-bill "tool kit" of reforms for Phase 2.
Clear-thinking New Jersey voters are probably feeling a little
less "frustrated" than we Massachusetts voters right now.
Elitists like President Obama and his friends
really have no clue about American voters, offering only
contempt for those who were tricked into voting for him.
I was watching WGBH's "Beat the Press" last
week when an Emerson College professor explained why some voters
don't like another Massachusetts incumbent Democrat, Barney
Frank: He's "the wrong ethnicity, he's the wrong religion, he's
the wrong sexuality."
Of course! Couldn't have anything to do with
his major role in bringing the national, if not the entire
world's, economy to the brink of disaster. Now Frank denies
defending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against reform, even though
we have his reform-resisting defense of them on a video that
went around the aforementioned world via the Internet.
Yes, unfortunately for some incumbents, some
voters are "hardwired" for fact-checking and skepticism.
The Democrat-leaning union, SEIU Local 1199,
is cynically trying to help at the legislative level by mailing
flyers on behalf of Democratic incumbents. They're meant to give
clueless voters the impression that these candidates are running
for the first time, never mentioning their party or incumbent
titles like "Senator" or "Representative."
When they are outed from the incumbent closet
they have to defend not just recent tax hikes, but the
outrageous public pension scams they allowed throughout their
incumbency — until they started to address a few of them last
year after voters found out about them. My favorite was the
ongoing gig by Tim Bassett and his Essex County regional pension
board band, which included the pension given his wife for her
mostly absentee position as a library trustee in Lynn.
The incumbents at both the federal and state
levels always hope that Americans will forget all the abuse by
the next election. But some of us are hardwired to remember and
angry enough to do something about what we know.