Obama’s Unanswered Questions

Obama was in Ohio Friday campaigning rather than governing. To his credit he took questions from the audience. To his discredit he ignored a woman in her 80s who asked why her Social Security payments are frozen while Congress raised their incomes.

He bragged that “we” issued a $250 onetime payment to Social Security recipients but that in 2009 the nation had no inflation but in fact deflation so the formula did not allow for a Cost of Living Increase. He failed to explain why then Congress could grant itself more money.

There was no follow-up from the woman and it is unclear whether she wanted to or not.

Addressing Obama’s perpetual if often vacuous campaigning Mortimer B. Zuckerman writes in this week’s U. S. News and World Report “His promiscuity on TV has made him seem as if he is still a candidate instead of president and commander in chief. He—and his advisers—have failed to appreciate that national TV speeches are best reserved for those moments when the country faces a major crisis or a war. Now he faces the iron law of diminishing novelty.”

Once again Friday’s Ohio appearance was politics not presidential. Zuckerman kind analysis of diminishing novelty speaks volumes.

Tuesday Obama has his Mass kicked when the bluest of blue states rejected the woman he campaigned for in favor of a stalwart conservative who campaiogned on rejecting Obama’s agenda.

As Zuckerman said, “The air is seeping out of the Obama balloon.” Obama’s decision to try to inflate it with more hotair seems flaccid and foolish.

As Obama spoke the the Bureau of Labor Statistics released December’s state-by-state unemployment data. It isn’t pretty. Even though the national rate was unchanged last month, most states saw their unemployment rates worsen. 43 states and the District of Columbia saw their unemployment rates increase from November to December, many significantly.

California, Nevada, Michigan and South Carolina posted unemployment rates above 12%. Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, D. C., and New Jersey are all between 10% and 11.9%. Michigan, despite its positive month, at 14.6% unemployment. Nevada and Rhode Island are nearly tied for second at 13.0% and 12.9% unemployment respectively.

Overall 43 states saw unemployemt increase, 4 had decreases. Conservatively the “real” unemployment rate is 15.6% nearly twice what Obama promised would never happen if Congress approved his $787 billion “economic stimulus package.”

Obama appears incapable of answering any of the questions those figures contain let alone a simple question from the Ohio octogenarian.