Well of course he was wrong but for Obama’s constituency logic and facts have nothing to do with how you should vote. It is part envy, part self delusion, part religion, part fashion statement, part greed for unearned wealth, and part guilt that gets people to vote for an incompetent like Obama and then keep on going through thick and thin. Romney was appealing to a constituency that is getting thinner on the ground: people who value personal freedom, understand the issues and want to do something about our problems in a realistic way. The media, academic world and the low information voters were a deadly combination, especially the media who now dictate terms. Someone once said he’d rather be right than president. That, you may be sure, is not the Obama mantra.
There is also a pessimism that has entered the soul of Americans, particular amongst those more or less like myself. From the article the salient opening paragraphs:
Ask people to imagine American life in 2050, and you’ll get some dreary visions.
Whether they foresee runaway technology or runaway government, rampant poverty or vanishing morality, a majority of Americans predict a future worse than today.
Whites are particularly gloomy: Only 1 in 6 expects better times over the next four decades. Also notably pessimistic are middle-age and older people, those who earn midlevel incomes and Protestants, a new national poll finds.
“I really worry about my grandchildren, I do,” says 74-year-old Penny Trusty of Rockville, Md., a retired software designer and grandmother of five. “I worry about the lowering of morals and the corruption and the confusion that’s just raining down on them.”
Imagine Rudd-Gillard only much much worse for as far as the eye can see and you can only begin to imagine just how dark the future must look to people who think hard work and effort ought to be at the core of the culture.
UPDATE: I just thought I’d change the title since it gets closer to the point. The original title was “Romney was right” but that’s neither here nor there. That Obama has not a success to his name – other than winning the elections – is far more to the point.
Law of Markets 