Like those Hollywood sequels that never live up to the originals, President Obama's re-election vision outlined at the Democratic National Convention appeared flat compared to the optimistic, inspiring and defined rallying cries of 2008. The goals of last week's speeches were, firstly, to unite Democrats in support of Obama's re-election, and, secondly, to persuade independent voters that four more years of Democratic leadership would provide more benefits than the Romney/Ryan future glimpsed in Tampa. But while the DNC's speakers certainly provided a laundry list of Obama's accomplishments and ample testimony to his character, they failed to address unmet promises, define new goals and outline an economic plan for a second Obama term.
Speaking about the economic revival in 2009, Obama told Matt Lauer, "If I don't have this done in three years, then [this is] going to be a one-term proposition." For this reason, President Clinton's statement that "nobody" could have righted the economy in four years feels more like damage control than inspiration to vote. In fact, rather than rousing audiences at the convention, Clinton and other speakers seemed to reel in the optimism of 2008, emphasizing how much work the Obama regime has left to complete and replacing the "yes we can!" slogan with this new "˜no one could have saved us' mentality. Is this supposed to encourage voters?
Obama's failed promises were neither ignored nor explained during last week's convention, and the goals outlined in Obama's final speech were all recycled and adapted from 2008 and provided voters with nothing but already broken promises. Obama's "˜new' goals include halving oil imports, working to develop one million green energy jobs, empowering our education system and cutting four trillion from the national budget deficit. Sound familiar? At the DNC in 2008, Obama pledged to end Middle East oil imports by 2018, create five million green energy jobs, revamp our education system and dramatically reduce the deficit. None of these promises have been kept. For instance, Al Gore has criticized Obama's lack of action on green energy, a field in which the Obama administration created a couple hundred thousand jobs of the five million promised – so why would Democrats believe him today? If Obama now wants us to understand that nobody could have met these goals in our economic and political climate, then why did he promise to achieve them? If he lacks the foresight to understand the difficulty of fulfilling his goals, then he lacks the foresight necessary to properly lead this nation.
The lack of new ideas in Obama's re-election campaign and his dependence on unfulfilled promises could be excused if he provided evidence that the next four years would be different – that he has a new plan on how to create jobs, lower the budget deficit and help the environment. But while last week's speeches contained everything from powerful liberal rhetoric to tearful accounts of Obama's wonderfulness, they lacked clear blueprints for the future. We heard no plan on how Obama will fulfill the promises he could not meet during this term. We heard no plan on how Obama will restore American economic strength. We heard no plan on how the next four years will be anything other than a continuation of the last four. Struggling Americans want to understand how Obama intends to help them, and last week provided them with no answers.
Bill Clinton's declaration that "we are better off today" than four years ago simply does not have numbers to back it. Unemployment levels have hovered above eight percent for 43 months, more and more Americans are quitting the job hunt and extremely slow private-sector job growth – slowing to less than 100,000 new jobs last month – has not helped to dramatically change America's employment woes. Obama's promises, both economic and social, have not all been met. His economic record has only shown that he can sustain high levels of unemployment. And the majority of Americans feel that their lives are "no better" than in 2008.
Obama wants struggling Americans to know that his administration is on the right track, that everyone is better off now than in 2008 and that his benefits will reach them eventually. "Eventually" might be a very long time if last month's 8.1 percent unemployment and 96,000 new jobs are to be viewed as successes. But hang in there, Obama tells us. Be patient.
Voters need something to be patient for, and Obama's failed promises, lack of new ideas and seemingly absent economic plan no longer inspire hope.
Why "˜Hang in There' Isn't Enough
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