Do They Know Anything??

It's hard to tell from their own actions. We start with the First Lady:

It's not good when a political spouse has to jump to the rescue. It makes the politician look weak.

Michelle Obama's interview in which she complains about the treatment of her husband certainly is not a first in political history, but this statement really baffled me (emphasis mine):

"I think my husband has done a phenomenal job staying on course, looking his critics in the eye, coming up with clear solutions against staying the course," Michelle Obama told Robin Roberts in an exclusive morning television interview on "Good Morning America." "That's what leadership is. But people have the right to criticize the president of the United States."

Maybe the nuance is staying "on" course versus staying "the" course.

Which is a nuance without a difference because Mr. O is on the wrong course, and he appears incapable of changing direction.

Now, the President himself:

Asked [in a press conference] how how and why small business loans would help small business, President Obama replied:

"If [small businesses] can get the bank loans to boost their payroll... they will do so." He further claimed that in his "travels" he has spoken with small business owners nationwide, and they see optimism and new customers.

I'm curious where these travels took him? A land inhabited with a fairy, children, and a flying boy in a green suit?

Unfortunately, a Presidential decree that small businesses are ready to hire, even from this President, does not make it so. In truth, small businesses are not excited about their 2010 prospects. They need to be. As a Wall Street Journal economic report states, small businesses are stymied:

"Optimism has clearly stalled in spite of the improvements in the economy in the second half of 2009," said William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the lobbying organization. "Small-business owners entered 2010 the same way they left 2009 -- depressed."

Yet, our President advocates taking loans for the purpose of boosting payroll -- in the middle of an economic draught. It just makes no sense. Unnecessary risk is not what strengthens and repairs the backbone of our economy -- small business.

Going into debt for the purpose of maintaining payrolls you cannot afford is not how capitalism works. It's not how industries recover.

It was how the Soviet Union worked, however -- before it imploded.

And to think McCain was the one who claimed a weakness in economics. Would that other leaders were as honest.

Small businesses need a long term commitment to conditions necessary for growth -- long term. They need to be shown that their taxes will stay low, and they need to be shown that their government will help them, by getting out of the way.

They don't need false hope, and neither do we.

I think the answer is a resounding NO.

There's my two cents.