Crisis and Manufactured Crisis

Via Newser:

Rahm Emanuel famously said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste." The American people, to their credit, seem unwilling to let the Obama team exploit this crisis as thoroughly as they'd like to.- William Kristol

I doubt that Mr. Emanuel would admit it, but as it happens the American people aren’t nearly as compliant or complacent as the thugs from Chicago had believed. On the other hand, Obama & Co. appear convinced that by extending the crisis that they can wear the public down.

President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.

Taking the President at his word, 9.5% unemployment is no fluke. So if increasing unemployment is a feature of “the recovery” what is the President’s end game? It seems that every single thing that has come out of Washington since Obama took over has been counter-intuitive to solving the economic crisis. So when he says the stimulus “has worked as intended” it is reasonable to ask, “what were you intending?”

None of the Obama administration’s grand schemes are working, Kristol continues, and even trusted allies in the media are bemoaning the sad state of affairs. “Why such long faces?” Kristol wonders. Because, despite the horror of the Bush years, “the American public hasn't fundamentally rethought their turn in 1980 away from big government liberalism.” Kristol quotes Michael Barone: “Americans seem to be recoiling against big government when it threatens to become a reality rather than a campaign promise.”

The Administration underestimated American’s independent spirit and it has set them back from where they thought they would be at this point. Let’s hope that it is the first of many such setbacks.