Even Democrats are beginning to yell
“incompetence!” And it’s a nightly refrain on
FOX News. Certainly we are seeing signs of
incompetence in the deplorable VA scandal.
And the rollout of ObamaCare was a world-
class case of “glitch.” Inquiring minds are still
asking what became of a half billion dollar
investment in Solyndra. That “green energy”
company went belly up. The fact that many of
its organizers were Obama contributors
should not attract any congressional
oversight, of course. Nothing to see here,
folks, just move on (dot org).
The other administration woes—from Fast &
Furious to Benghazi are even more troubling.
A proper investigation may tell us whether or
not vets died awaiting care at VA hospitals.
But we already know that Americans died
because of administration missteps in Mexico
and Libya.
So, for those inclined to yell INCOMPETENCE,
there is plenty to yell about. Still, it might be
wise to pause and reflect: Is competence
really the winning issue that some pundits
think it is?
The 2012 campaign for president was run
largely on the basis of executive competence.
Candidate Mitt Romney was famous for his
start-up of Bain Capital, for rescuing the 2002
Winter Olympics, and for running a taut ship
as Governor of Massachusetts. He may have
stumbled with Joe Sixpack when he said he
“liked to fire people” who don’t perform, but
there was an aura of quiet competence
circling all the bright young folks who rallied
to Mitt’s campaign apparat.
Most impressive, perhaps, was their high-tech
plan for voter turnout. After all, voter turnout
is everything in politics. Long before
Abraham Lincoln stepped on the debate
platform with Democrat Stephen Douglas,
Lincoln the Whig politico was giving
campaign workers lessons in turning out the
vote for his party in Illinois.
Team Romney promised a state-of-the-art
computer-driven voter turnout effort that
would be far more advanced than anything
seen before. They called their plan Project
ORCA. It was a humorous dig at the Obama
turnout effort. The president’s team called
their computer program Narwhal.
On Election Day, November 6, 2012, ORCA
beached itself early in the day. The much-
vaunted computer program crashed. Fearing
leaks, the Romney team failed to test ORCA
before the critical day. It was perhaps the
most spectacular failure in the history of
presidential politics.
By contrast, Mr. Obama’s Narwhal swam
smoothly through calm seas to a thumping
victory. A businessman friend of mine, who
is highly tech savvy, related to us the story of
his lawyer daughter. She voted in Northern
Virginia at 1 pm. At 1:40 pm, she got a text
message from the Obama campaign listing all
her friends on FaceBook who had not yet
voted. The Obama team asked our young
advocate, politely, to text her friends and
encourage them to vote.
This is a cautionary tale. Critics can go on
and on about this administration’s
incompetence. We should be aware, however,
that the left will use these charges as
examples of the unfairness of President
Obama’s critics. They have never been
willing to give our first black president a fair
shake, Mr. Obama’s supporters are saying.
Barack Obama has been supremely competent
in the one great thing that matters to liberals:
Getting and keeping power. Don’t forget, it is
in ruling over us that liberals live and
breathe and have their being.
Let’s also remember that “competence” was
the great watchword of that other
technocratic Massachusetts governor, the
smooth and efficient Michael Dukakis. In
1988, he promised “competence not
ideology.”
Vice President George Bush countered that
competence will get the trains there on time,
to be sure, but it doesn’t let you know where
the trains are going. Bush ran a tough
campaign based on values and principles, a
campaign that accentuated the differences in
governing philosophy. He blasted Dukakis as
a “liberal.” He carried forty states. (That was
the last campaign where a candidate openly
claimed to be liberal. Now, they are all
“progressives.”)
Conservatives need to tell Americans where
they want to take the train. They should be
strong in saying that ObamaCare must be
repealed. They should not shy away from
social issues, but should learn how to
communicate the pro-life and pro-marriage
positions more effectively.
My friend Gary Bauer has wisely pointed out
that the NBCNews/Wall Street Journal polls on
people and the economy show that none of
the Republicans’ economic issues can
command a majority. The best of the GOP’s
planks garners less than 40% of the
electorate.
I agree with most of those conservative
economic positions. But too voters don’t.
Twelve years of miseducation and sixty years
of media misinformation have taken their
toll. By dumping social issues and stressing
only economic issues, the Republicans can
assuredly carry 37% of the vote---which is
what President George H.W. Bush got in 1992
against that New Democrat, Bill Clinton.
Barring misfortune, President Obama will be
in office until January 20, 2017. He is daily
increasing his powers. He had already issued
forty-one substantive changes to ObamaCare.
These changes were not approved by
Congress. Nor were they adjudicated by the
Supreme Court. Nonetheless, he holds the
power and he issues his diktats. And the great
bureaucratic machine rolls on over us all. In
wielding that vast power, in daily seizing
even more power, Mr. Obama’s competence
is unequaled.
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