Town Hall Meeting Shows That Americans Do Not Believe That Obama Is Sincere

    Today I listened to Senator John McCain’s town hall meeting on healthcare reform in Sun City, Arizona. He brought up many valid points and pretty much adhered to the widely held Republican ideas regarding what they believe should be the first steps for effective reforms. But aside from all the minutia and valid arguments presented at the event, one thing stood out to me.

As Senator McCain was wrapping up his remarks, he said, “I believe President Obama is being sincere on the issue“. He was about to continue by saying “but we don’t agree on the approach that we should take“, but the large crowd in attendance interrupted the Senator with jeers and boos before he could finish his statement.

The demonstrated disapproval from the audience was not directed at the Senator as much as it was a response to how sincere they believe the President is on the issue.

Senator McCain calmly encouraged the crowd not to think the President is insincere but it did not really change any minds in the audience. The incident shed light on an important part of President Obama’s problem not only on healthcare but in general. There is a significant segment of the population who do not trust the President. They do not necessarily believe in him or the much touted mantra of “change” that he asked us to believe in when he was running for election to the presidency.

Without actual accurate polling to refer to, I will not claim that the segment of society that feels this way is a clear majority of the population, but it is a significant enough number of Americans to make it hard for the President to ram through his entire legislative agenda in a mere eight months and there is nothing to make them think otherwise.

For example, as the nonpartisan C.B.O. (Congressional Budget Office) released a report indicating that the recession we are in is much deeper than opinions have estimated, they also pointed out that the President’s current spending spree will lead to a deficit of $9 trillion over 10 years. That is $2 trillion more than was forecasted earlier this year.

Other factors indicated that while there may be ever so slight recovery signals in the economy, an inordinate number of Americans will continue to be jobless for much longer than expected and well in to next year.

These nonpartisan assessments do not help make Americans believe in President Obama’s economic supervision or his proposed stimulus packages which White House talking point memo’s has urged Democrats to refer to not as a stimulus package but rather a recovery plan.

The move even led liberal loon Congressman Elmer Fudd , I mean Barney Frank, of Massachusetts to state “I’m not supposed to call it stimulus. The messaging experts in Washington have told us we’re supposed to call it the ‘recovery plan’ because that works out better with focus groups. I was puzzled by that because I have found that most people would rather be stimulated than recover.”

Smart remarks from asinine legislators aside, much of the American people are not confident in what President Obama is doing.

The best interpretation of the condition of the economy that the public has heard coming from economic officials in the White House was that things aren’t as bad as they could be. That is not a glowing assessment and does little to build confidence.

Now, as presented by the C.B.O., more dire news is released.

All of this is helping to cause Americans to distrust the President. After almost eight months in office, a sizeable portion of Americans have become more doubtful about the President than assured by him.

This lack of confidence, this lack of belief in him, makes it all the more difficult for him to gain support for another expensive, deficit exploding, questionably effective, spending plan that would create government run healthcare in America.

Couple this with an obvious lack of bipartisanship on the part of the President and as indicated by those in attendance at John McCain’s town hall, a lack of confidence in him has begun to fester and turn into a perceived lack of sincerity.

That is a dangerous sentiment for people to have of their leader and left unchecked things will only get worse. If this sense sets in, the Democrat ship will sink fast and not only will its captain, the President, go down with the ship, so will many of the Democrat hands on deck.

Right now, in the only two races for governor up this year, Republicans have wide leads over their Democrat opponents. In Nevada Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lags behind his likely Republican opponent by double digits. None of this is an indication of people believing in change that they were asked to believe in.

I believe that the time has come for President Obama to change gears. I think he must begin to work with his opponents instead of chastising them and calling them “mobs” or placing them on watch lists and asking Americans to report those who offer dissenting opinions to the government.

On healthcare, I have repeatedly pointed out that the only way to achieve any reforms will be through a sincere bipartisan effort. I have pointed out that the lack of bipartisan commitment was the downfall of other attempts at reform dating as far back as the 1930’s under FRDR and as recently as the early 90’s under Bill Clinton. Why President Obama, a supposedly brilliant and skilled leader, has chosen to take the same partisan approach that has consistently failed throughout history is beyond me. Yet just a week ago reports confirmed that the White House considered reconciliation, the nuclear, go-it-alone, option that would push health reforms through with only Democrat support.

Thinking like that helps to make people believe that President Obama is insincere. It makes the President look less a leader than a partisan hack.

None of this instills faith in him.

After seeing the Democrats try to ram through such measures as the crap-and-tax bill which would tax the air that we breathe and amount to the greatest transfer of wealth in history and after seeing the President try to demand that healthcare reforms got passed before the August recess Americans have become skeptical. They have been give reason to wonder if insincere motives are leading the ruling regime to get pass bills before people have the chance to read them.

If President Obama does not quickly change gears, I think it is safe to say that the wheels rolling the change he wants us to believe will come unhinged and none of what he hoped to achieve will be realized. Perhaps his all-or-nothing approach to government should be explored again. After all, it is that same approach which President Obama and others criticized former President Bush for. They chastised him for not trying to build consensus in foreign policy. They berated him when in regards to terrorism he told the world “you’re either with us or against us.”

Well that is the same path that President Obama and his liberal cohorts in Congress are taking. Will they continue to prove me right in pointing out that Democrats have become a hypocritical based party? Or will they begin to act responsibility and convince Americans of their sincerity on the issues?