Tomorrow, Missourians and Missourahians alike are going to deliver their opinion on not only who they feel should be the next president of the United States, but as part of that their opinion of how the current president, Barack Obama has served them the past eight years.
This hillbilly’s guess is that this state is about to deliver an overwhelming landslide for Donald Trump, and a stinging rebuke of President Obama.
I’ve always had a rebellious streak. I’m much more comfortable as a pirate than in the navy, and I tend to agree with Michael Moore that a vote for Trump is a vote for the largest “f**k you” in world history. So obviously I’m with him.
It is my sincere hope that whether Eric Greitens or Chris Koster is elected governor tomorrow night, in 8 years from now they will have earned more respect from Missourians than Obama will get tomorrow.
With that in mind, I decided to look back to a speech that – regardless of who wins tomorrow – 3 of the last 4 governors will have traveled to see live: Barack Obama’s 2008 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Greitens and Koster will remember that Obama said, “We’re a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment that he’s worked on for 20 years and watch as it’s shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.”
I personally know people in Poplar Bluff at Nordyne and in New Madrid at Noranda who could tell you that same story 8 years later. The President did nothing while the China destroyed the American aluminum production industry and that NAFTA-sucking sound Ross Perot so correctly warned Americans about continued shipping jobs to Mexico. Not only did Obama do nothing he wanted to create a new sucking sound the TPP agreement across the Pacific Ocean.
I suppose the take away for them would be to not give people false hope. It’s one thing to honestly try and fail, but it’s another thing to promise hard working people that you will try and then not do a damn thing, and then spit in their eye and make it worse.
Eric and Chris will both remember Obama saying, “We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business.”
Well, I can tell both of them first-hand that when you start a company, your #1 and #2 enemies are not your competitors, but they are #1 the federal government, and #2 the state government. President Obama did nothing but add bureaucracy, add regulations, and inject the bright red toxin of socialism into the veins of American business.
Now that I’m reading it here again, I wonder if Obama even glanced at this speech before he read it in Denver.
I’m not sure what you can do about the federal government, Mitt Romney said one thing I agreed with, and that is that about 47% of the people have no incentive to vote for someone who will make them work, but you can do something about #2 – actually cut government. Take the radical step of spending less in 2017 than Missouri did in 2016. I believe that if you can cut the number of bureaucrats, and that counts federal flow through bureaucrats, at some point business owners will finally be able to gasp for a breath of oxygen through the suffocating regulation and bureaucracy they fight now.
I’d bet both Koster and Greitens remember how then Obama went onto spell out a few policy objectives that made up hope and change:
“Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.”
Well, he made it longer, and worse actually. Only insurance lobbyists would think it’s better.
“You know, unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.”
Who in the world has got a tax break? There are fewer write-offs for farms and small business, but I don’t know anyone who got a tax break, and the jobs continue leaving.
“I’ll eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.”
Nope.
“I will — listen now — I will cut taxes — cut taxes — for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.”
Swing and a miss.
“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”
Wow! Couldn’t be more off. In fact, the only people who are even working to accomplish this are in the fracking industry, and his EPA have declared war on them.
“As president, as president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power.”
We know what the woman he hopes is his successor wants to do to the coal miners…
“And we will keep our promise to every young American: If you commit to serving your community or our country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.”
I think President Eisenhower beat him to that.
“And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have the exact same opportunities as your sons.”
I just heard Hillary Clinton say she was gonna do that if she is elected…
“Now — now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care — if you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.”
I’m not making this up. He said that. No kidding, watch it for yourself.
I’m sure both of them remember at least parts of the speech. Maybe the real lesson to learn from Obama’s laundry list of failures is to make fewer promises, and only make ones that you actually have some small inclination that you will try to keep.
I’ve always felt Missourahians are much smarter than the folks in New York or California. We had the Missouri horse sense in 2008 and 2012 not to buy a pig in a poke, and I’d expect tomorrow night we will prove that again.
I just hope whichever one those same Missourians elect as their next governor will have the Missourah horse sense to learn from the mistakes of that speech they heard 8 years ago.
We will be excited to bring you the election results tonight. Outside of the governor’s race, I’m watching HD94, HD135, and SD19 to see what kind of a night we’re gonna have.
Lastly, still hate the Cubs. Just wanted to add that.
Scott Faughn is the publisher of Missouri Times and host of This Week in Missouri Politics which can be seen on KRCG in Jefferson City, 38 the Spot in Kansas City, and ABC 30 in St. Louis, as well as frequently heard on KMOX in St. Louis and KCMO in Kansas City.
Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.
