{"id":7906,"date":"2014-10-07T07:56:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T14:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7906"},"modified":"2014-10-07T07:56:49","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T14:56:49","slug":"welcome-to-fantasy-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/welcome-to-fantasy-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Fantasy Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo via PJMedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Listen to the president and one would think that he was in office during the financial crisis that began on September 15, 2008. For the nth time, Obama reminded the nation on 60 Minutes<\/i> of the financial meltdown he inherited. That is his usual way of suggesting to the American people that they could hardly hope for normal times after six years of his own governance. In truth, Obama entered office on January 20, 2009 \u2014 over four months after<\/i> the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that precipitated a general financial meltdown.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One would not expect Obama to fault past liberal congressional intervention in the financial sector that in large part forced the issuance of subprime risky mortgages, much less the earlier deregulation of the financial industry under Bill Clinton that helped fueled the rampant speculation. The videos of the sad congressional banter about supposedly insensitive questioning of the duplicitous and corrupt Fannie head Franklin Raines, or the self-important bluster of former Rep. Barney Frank, make a good 10-minute tutorial on the meltdown \u2014 namely how Wall Street sharks, hand-in-glove with liberal congressional operatives and Clinton appointees, offered federally \u201cguaranteed\u201d mortgages to those who had no ability to pay them back, fueling a phony real estate boom and overvalued stock market.<\/p>\n

Obama might at least admit that when he entered office the panic had largely passed. The tools needed to deal with it that he embraced had months earlier been implemented by someone else. Indeed, Obama was president for just a few months before the recession that began in December 2007<\/a> [1]<\/sup> ended in June 2009 \u2014 well before the effect of any of the policies, good or bad, could have taken effect.<\/p>\n

Our current economic mess \u2014 the worst post-recession recovery since World War II, more people out of work than when Obama took office, a steady decline in real family income, massive new debt \u2014 is largely a result of his own policies of five consecutive $1 trillion deficits, the Obamacare catastrophe, new burdensome and capricious regulations, near-zero interest rates, and the anti-business psychological climate brought on by constant hectoring of the \u201cyou did not build that\u201d and \u201cat a certain point you\u2019ve made enough money\u201d sort.<\/p>\n

Obama has a bad habit of claiming credit for good things that he opposed, and for blaming others for the bad things for which he was responsible. By his appointments (do we remember Steven Chu<\/a> [2]<\/sup>?), by his rhetoric, and by his policies on new federal energy leases, Obama is on record against horizontal drilling and the fracking of natural gas and oil. Yet now he brags that energy prices are dipping, which is the case precisely because the private sector ignored him and went ahead to take risks to develop more gas and oil on largely private lands.<\/p>\n

Energy-intensive industries are more efficient, and their foreign counterparts less competitive, because Obama was not able to reify his wind and solar dreams of the diminution of gas and oil. \u00a0A better 60 Minutes<\/i> sound bite might have been, \u201cThank God the energy sector did not listen to me<\/a> [3]<\/sup> and went ahead despite my efforts.\u201d How odd that he appointed as secretary of energy someone who wished openly for European gas prices<\/a> [4]<\/sup> (e.g., $9 a gallon), and himself promised to send electricity rates soaring by going after coal production<\/a> [5]<\/sup>, and then bragged that carbon fuels are now cheaper because his policies were insufficient to stop the private sector.<\/p>\n

When Obama entered office (again in January 2009 \u2014 not the summer of 2008) Iraq was largely quiet<\/a> [6]<\/sup>. Troops there were analogous to peace-keepers in the Balkans. There was a good chance that the country might have followed the trajectory of South Korea after the far deadlier Korean War. Yet don\u2019t believe his critics about the status of 2009-2011 Iraq. Listen instead to both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden who at variously times bragged about Iraq\u2019s \u201csecurity\u201d and \u201cstability\u201d that made it potentially one of the administration\u2019s \u201cgreatest achievements.\u201d In other words, one might have thought that Obama ordered the successful surge that brought such stability, rather than opposed it vehemently, anddeclared it a failure<\/a> [7]<\/sup> when it had succeeded. When the country imploded, largely thanks to Obama\u2019s reelection obsessions with the withdrawal of U.S. peacekeepers<\/a> [8]<\/sup>, he ceased with the serial campaign boasts of \u201cI ended the Iraq war\u201d (he had derided Mitt Romney<\/a> [9]<\/sup> for wanting to leave troops in Iraq) \u2014 only to suddenly complain that either others were responsible for the mess, or the mess itself was inevitable.<\/p>\n

The same paradox applies to his anti-terrorism protocols. To the degree that Obama abided by and took credit for the Bush-Cheney measures that he had once derided \u2014 Guantanamo Bay, renditions, drones, preventive detention, the Patriot Act \u2014 the U.S. remained free from a terrorist attack. And to the degree Obama sought to set his own policies \u2014 seeking to try terrorists in civilian courtrooms, transferring terrorists to U.S. prisons from Guantanamo, leaving the southern U.S. border wide open, setting red lines in Syria, bombing and leaving Libya, Benghazi, endorsing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt \u2014 increased risk has followed.<\/p>\n

Finally, Obama is blaming his intelligence team for not apprising him of the growing danger of ISIS all through 2013 and early 2014 \u2014 although such warnings were expressed to the Congress in open session and have been the stuff of the evening news broadcasts for nearly two years. But one wonders why \u00a0James Clapper or John Brennan, or, for that matter, former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would either miss the existential threat of ISIS or downplay the dangers that they privately knew to be true.<\/p>\n

In a word, they were parroting positions outlined by candidate and then president Obama himself. His views about radical Islam were expressed clearly in his first interview as president \u00a0\u2013 to Al Arabiya<\/i><\/a> [10]<\/sup> \u2014 in which he made two claims: his predecessor George Bush\u2019s administration had been largely responsible for the problems with the Middle East, and his own father\u2019s Muslim heritage and indeed his own name were powerful symbols of his new outreach to the misunderstood Islamic world.<\/p>\n

Toady bureaucrats and careerists made the necessary adjustments almost immediately. It was not long after that the euphemism offensive began<\/a> [11]<\/sup>, in which man-caused disasters, overseas contingency operations and workplace violence excused the catalyst of radical Islam. John Brennan not only trashed his former boss George W. Bush, but also in a series of astounding statements over the next few years assured us that jihad was a normal, peaceful tenet of Islam and the idea of an Islamic effort to recreate the caliphate absurd. James Clapper outdid that by declaring the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt largely secular, insisting that Muammar Gaddafi would not lose power in Egypt, and flat-out lying to the U.S. Congress. Napolitano, remember, issued a white paper, focusing on returning veterans and conservative groups as those most likely to commit terrorism. That outreach did not deter terrorist killers like the Tsarnaev brothers or Major Nidal Hasan or the beheaders of ISIS. It is quite absurd now for Obama to blame Clapper and our intelligence agencies for downplaying the dangers of radical Islamist terrorists \u00a0when they were only dutifully following his politically correct lead.<\/p>\n

In the make-believe world of Barack Obama, the American financial system melted down hours before he took office due to the crimes of others. He then quickly saved it, and devised an economic plan that has made Americans far better off than when he entered office. Obama next went on to revolutionize the energy sector to lower gas and electricity prices, brought stability to Iraq only to see it destroyed by others, and crafted a unique outreach to the Islamic world that has lessened the threat of violence and cooled passions in the Middle East. The net result, as the president reminds us, is a more secure, quieter world than anytime in history and unprecedented good economic times at home.<\/p>\n

Whether such constructions are proof of delusions or mendacity \u2014 or both \u2014 the reader can decide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Article printed from Works and Days: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/victordavishanson<\/strong><\/p>\n

URL to article: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/victordavishanson\/fantasy-island\/<\/strong><\/p>\n

URLs in this post:<\/p>\n

[1] the recession that began in December 2007: http:\/\/newsbusters.org\/blogs\/tom-blumer\/2009\/12\/28\/ap-aversa-conveniently-change-their-definition-recession<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[2] Steven Chu: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2013\/02\/01\/chu-chu-ch-boogies\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[3] did not listen to me: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2012\/03\/06\/obama-in-2008-of-course-i-want-higher-gas-prices-in-an-election-year\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[4] for European gas prices: http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2012\/03\/13\/chu-uh-never-mind-on-that-european-gas-prices-goal\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[5] by going after coal production: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2009\/06\/13\/this-guy-is-good-really-good-and-frankly-so-far-were-not\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[6] Iraq was largely quiet: http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/news\/articles\/SB123241360913796235<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[7] declared it a failure: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/08\/22\/us\/politics\/22vets.html?_r=0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[8] with the withdrawal of U.S. peacekeepers: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2014\/05\/01\/no-white-house-guidance\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[9] derided Mitt Romney: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2014\/08\/10\/past-performance-is-no-guarantee-of-future-results-5\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[10] to Al Arabiya<\/i>: http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2009\/01\/27\/the-obama-al-arabiya-interview\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[11] the euphemism offensive began: http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/victordavishanson\/contingency-operations-and-such\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 Works and Days. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media Listen to the president and one would think that he was in office during the financial crisis that began on September 15, 2008. For the nth time, Obama reminded the nation on 60 Minutes of the financial meltdown he inherited. That is his usual way of suggesting to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-23w","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":454,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/let-bush-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":7906,"position":0},"title":"Let Bush Be","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The theme of the president's 2012 re-election campaign is that George W. Bush left such a terrible mess that Barack Obama could hardly be expected to clean it up in four years. In other words, 43 months of unemployment rates above 8 percent,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9165,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-buck-never-stops-here\/","url_meta":{"origin":7906,"position":1},"title":"The Buck Never Stops Here","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Tribune Media Services In a cover story in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine, President Obama offers astonishing scapegoating for his own foreign policy disasters.According to Obama, the deterioration of the ISIS wasteland that is now Libya was not due to improvident administration bombing followed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1134,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obama-fabulists\/","url_meta":{"origin":7906,"position":2},"title":"The Obama Fabulists","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama was billed as a cool rationalist \u2014 a sober and judicious intellectual so unlike the inattentive and twangy \u201csmoke \u2019em out\u201d George W. Bush, so rational in contrast to the herky-jerky and frenetic John McCain. Like Senator\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2010"","block_context":{"text":"November 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/november-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-george-w-bush-fixation\/","url_meta":{"origin":7906,"position":3},"title":"The George W. Bush Fixation","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Barack Obama remains fixated by George W. Bush. For nearly two years, President Obama and his team have prefaced their explanations for the tough economy, tough finances and tough situation abroad with a \"Bush did it\" chorus. Apparently, they believed that most of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2010"","block_context":{"text":"November 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/november-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":392,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-game-changes\/","url_meta":{"origin":7906,"position":4},"title":"The Game Changes","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Usually after a presidential debate, both sides spin the results. But after the first face-off between President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney, Obama\u2019s exasperated handlers made no such effort. How could they when most opinion polls revealed that two-thirds of viewers thought Obama\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Election 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/election-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11786,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-progressive-revolution-from-democratic-to-liberal-to-progressive-to-socialist\/","url_meta":{"origin":7906,"position":5},"title":"The Progressive Revolution: From Democratic to Liberal to Progressive to Socialist","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 despite, not because of, his most partisan voting record in the Senate. They were once willing to look past his earlier dubious associations with abject anti-Semites such as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former terrorists like Bill Ayers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progressivism"","block_context":{"text":"Progressivism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/progressivism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7908,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions\/7908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}