The Politics of Hope?

There are good orators, there are great orators and there are those that bumble their way through speeches. There are those who inspire confidence and those who strip it out of otherwise healthy markets. Bill Clinton, think what you like of him, was a man who had the power to move markets with his speeches or announcements. The market would almost always ievitably rally after Clinton spoke. G.W. Bush had the opposite effect and the market use to almost always tank after he spoke. The market never new what to think of Alan Greenspan as he was notorious for talking, but saying nothing.

Obama-"The Great Orator of Our Age", who can't seem to give a speech without a pair of teleprompters, no matter how small of insignificant it may be, should have the ability to do what Clinton was able to do-INSPIRE CONFIDENCE IN THE MARKETS. How well has he done? Well, if you judge by the media's Bear market standard (A drop of 20% or more=Bear Market *note I said this is the media's standard, judging a bear market has a lot more to it than a simple set percentage drop), than Obama has, since coming into office, created his own Bear Market-we'll call it the Obama bear market.

Historically the market has almost always rallied after the election of a democratic president. Then why has this market, as gauged by the benchmark Dow Jones 30, slipped more than 30% since he has taken office? Why is Obama unable to bring his message of hope to the markets? I suppose the simple answer is, "Have you listened to any of B.O.'s speaches lately?"

That's the answer, he may very well have the talent and ability to bring confidence to this market, the problem is, he hasn't even tried. In fact, he's done the antithesis of inspiring hope and has lead a non-stop parade of fear down Wall Street, Main Street and just about every street in the civilized world. Why? Well this is where things get sticky for me. This is not a political blog and politics are not something I care to discuss here, except when politics alone have had such an overwhelming effect on the market.

Want proof? Where did this notion of "The Tea Party" recently crop up? That's right, on the financial channel CNBC. Who has been identified as an "enemy of the white house?" You'll never believe it, the left leaning, democrat who voted for B.O., Jim Cramer!

WHy, why, why would a preseident presiding over one of the worst bear markets in our history seek to make it worse? That's the question. Here's one possible answer: The new administration feels (and this is true) that they inhereted the recession, thus they can't be blamed for it. However, considering the fact that most of the time the market is able to pull itself into a rally when a Dem is elected and since B.O. has taken office, we've seen even more precipitous declines and no attempt, that's right, not even an attempt to calm the market, but rather a daily grind of how bad things are and how much worse they are likely to get(this isn't something a leader says, even if it's true) coming from every section of the Administration, one must conclude they are doing this for a reason.

And what might that reason be? Jim Cramer, a true blue democrat said last night on Sean Hannity's show that what this President is calling for is absolutely the wrong path: Higher taxes at a time when the nation is in recession and in peril of one of the nastiest recesions we've ever seen? A Stimulus bill that does almost nothing to stimulate, but rather is a pork filled bill with nearly every pet project a legislator ever wanted? I've heard (I can't say it's true) that there are over 9,000 earmarks in this stimulus bill.

So what's the motivation? Why spread fear and panic? Simple, remember when the Bush administration, shortly after 9/11 had the vice president and it's surrogates out there at a time when emotions were running high, implying that Iraq had something to do with 9/11 and was a danger to the US? What was main street's reaction at the time? "Do whatever you need to do to keep us safe". They fostered a spirit of fear and panic to get their agenda passed, an agenda that would have never passed in a calm and rationale time. I fear and believe that President B.O. is doing exactly the same thing. All of what he wants to pass is snuck into these "Save our economy bills" and the message is always the same, "We must do it now, if we fail to act now we risk everything, there's not even tme to debate it". And here is our answer, this president has seized on fear and panic, he has perpetuated it for one simple reason and that is to get his initiatives passed on the fast track with minimal and in the case of the last bill, no debate. What's the end game? The left wing democratic trophy of all trophies-Nationalized Health Care, a system that has proven again and again throughout Europe and Canada to be a complete failure. A system that actually hurts more than it helps.

It's time for Americans to wake up. It's time to realize that the bill of goods we were sold in the election are nothing like what we have recieved. It's time for the American people to demand that our government slow down and look at these things rationally, lest we stumble into the equivilent of another Iraq, but this time called "Nationalized Healthcare".

Update* After I wrote this, later in the afternoon I read this article. It seems to me these thngs are sefl-evident. It also seems there's a lot of other who feel the same way http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/a_dishonest_gimmicky_budget.html