Not Too Early For “I Told You So”

WILLIAM A. JACOBSON FEB 14, 2009 9:23 AM

The day before the presidential election, when Barack Obama’s victory seemed all but certain, I predicted that I would be able to say “I told you so” about what lay ahead:

When this bubble bursts, I will be able to say “I told you so.” Unfortunately, by that point in time, the damage will have been done.

While I was confident in my prediction, I didn’t think I would be able to say “I told you so” less than a month into Obama’s presidency. The obscene, fear-driven feeding frenzy which resulted in the trillion dollar (including interest costs) “stimulus” bill, combined with the renewed calls by Democrats for the “fairness doctrine” to stifle conservative speech and “truth commissions” to seek retribution against Bush administration officials, confirm that this presidency is on track to be the most destructive force this country has seen “since the Great Depression.”

This is not a victory I wanted; I would much rather see this country flourish than succumb to Obama’s socialist and repressive tendencies. But at least my conscience is clean. I didn’t drink the cool-aid, so I bear no moral responsibility for what is to come.

Here goes. I told you so:

• February 11, 2009: “We are witnessing the disrobing of the Obama aura in a spending-drenched feeding frenzy befitting hungry pigs at a wet, putrid trough. The fierce urgency of now has become the fierce urgency of sow.”
• February 11, 2009: “They think we’re stupid.”
• February 10, 2009: “The “stimulus” plan and Obama’s economic policies will make things worse, not better.”
• February 9, 2009: “There seems to be a deliberateness to the chaos, a purpose to the ever-increasing exclamation points, as in crisis (!), catastrophe (!!), act now or else (!!!), … we’re on the verge of (!!!!).”
• February 5, 2009: “The politics in this country is like a simmering pot. The boiling water represents the desire of people to be left alone and to make their own way in life. The cover on the pot is the set of liberal assumptions which tells people that … those who have assumed the reigns of power know better. My sense is that the tighter that lid is pressed … the more likely it is the pot will boil over.
• February 3, 2009: “the pork-filled “stimulus” monstrosity working it’s way through Congress … feeds every hungry congressional mouth at the expense of future generations.”
• January 26, 2009: “By next Halloween, Obama will be just another failed President, besieged from left and right, weathered, looking like he had been on the job for a hundred years and counting.”
• January 21, 2009: “Obama is one of the most aggressive politicians ever, and conservatives are kidding themselves if they think a few kind words now and then from Obama reflect a change in agenda.”
• January 13, 2009: “Once built, who will maintain this infrastructure? And if the infrastructure is not self-sustaining, will the projects be a massive drain on state and local budgets for decades?”
• January 6, 2009: “The social security bubble is fragile enough; Obama’s plan to give tax refunds to people who pay no taxes may cause the bubble to burst.”
• December 31, 2008: “Much like campaign finance reform, Obama threw the “rule of law” overboard for political gain in the Burris case.”
• December 23, 3008: “Looks like with the new Obama administration, we are going to need to dust off our dictionaries, which haven’t been used since, oh, about 1998.”
• December 6, 2008: “Obama’s infrastructure plan is a road to nowhere.”
• November 25, 2008: “I am getting a little uncomfortable with the increasing tendency of the punditry to believe that Obama the President will be a centrist, unlike Obama the Candidate.”
• November 24, 2008: “Of all the concepts to help build the economy, Barack Obama has seized on the one type of project — public infrastructure — that has the worst history of cost overruns, corruption, construction incompetence, and economic harm.”
• November 7, 2008: “Get real people! If you think Obama isn’t going to push hard on his agenda, you are ignoring history at your peril.”
• November 6, 2008: “Much like Hugo Chavez, power will be used to consolidate power.”
• November 5, 2008: “Will President Obama be the moderate of the presidential campaign, the liberal of the primary campaign, or the radical of the past?”
• November 3, 2008: “Worse still, what we are slowly learning about Obama in these final days before the election transcends policy differences, and goes to the very nature of whether we will continue to be a free-market capitalist society which supports like-minded people around the world”
• November 3, 2008: “The Groupthink phenomenon has been made all the worse by the intimidation tactics of the Obama campaign and its supporters whereby those who dare to ask hard questions are vilified and ostracized.”
• November 2, 2008: “Equally troubling are the changes proposed by Obama which seek to destroy rather than foster open political debate and free and fair elections.”
• November 1, 2008: “Those who have spoken out against Obama should prepare for retribution….In just about every aspect of your political life, you will be ridiculed and belittled. There will be no sanctuary cities for you.”
• October 30, 2008: “The hysteria in favor of Barack Obama long ago passed the stage of irrationality.”
• October 30, 2008: “Obama’s proposals undermine the foundation of social security by divorcing contributions from benefits, and converting social security tax contributions into a wealth redistribution mechanism.”
• October 29, 2008: “When the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, and the Prime Minister of Israel is calling, who do you want answering the phone?”
• October 28, 2008: “In the end, as must all economic redistributors, Obama either will have to resort to repressive measures, or will have to abandon his tax plan. Regardless, the economic damage will be deep and long lasting.”
• October 27, 2008: “Fear is stalking this land, and being stoked by Obama. The genius of Obama is that he has taken a message of fear, and sold it as hope. And the public buys it.”
• October 26, 2008: “Before you know it, anyone who so much as questions Obama’s policies will be ridiculed, investigated, targeted and denounced.”
• October 24, 2008: “The markets are right to fear Obama.”
• October 16, 2008: “The ‘spread the wealth’ language is the symptom, not the disease….The disease is that Obama sees the economy as a zero-sum game, where one person’s success deprives those ‘behind’ him of success.”
• October 15, 2008: “The suppression of legitimate political expression through false accusations of racism by the Obama campaign and its supporters is the defining theme of the 2008 campaign. This tactic, while it may be successful, is shameful and has damaged our society in ways we may not understand for years.
• October 14, 2008: “With the economy on the brink, Al-qaida on the prowl, the Russian bear on the loose, and our Constitution threatened by enemies foreign and domestic, I will not gamble on the presidency. I will not choose Door No. 2 by voting for Obama.”

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