Yesterday I spoke at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa as a warmup to Herman Cain. I got to meet Michele Bachmann as well. Today I drive from just past the Omaha, Nebraska border all the way to Fort Dodge, Iowa. I am speaking tonight at a rally for Governor Tim Pawlenty. Herman Cain may be there as well.
Now on to the Obama stock market downgrade crash.
One of the great myths about people and entities is that they “have to” or “must be” better than they really are.
Certain stocks look great “on paper,” so they have to go up. Then they crash.
Celebrities look incredibly pleasant on television, so they must be good people in real life.
A person went to Harvard, so they “have to be top tier.” Then we learn dolts can be found everywhere.
Barack Obama had people literally swooning on the campaign trail. He was “new,” “fresh,” and “exciting.” He was “brilliant.”
Three years into his presidency, so many people are at a loss as to how somebody so perfect that he would heal the planet and cause the oceans to rise would fail to do so. They blame his critics and other “obstructionists,” but if he really were a demigod wouldn’t they be irrelevant? Couldn’t he just speak and mesmerize them until they bowed down, prostrated themselves into uncomfortable positions, and dropped grapes into his mouth?
Yet when asked what makes him so brilliant, Mr. Obama’s toadies keep coming up with unsatisfactory answers.
“He speaks so well.”
He is helpless without his teleprompter.
“He went to Harvard. He headed the Harvard Law Review.”
The worst law student is still called “attorney” and the worst medical student is still called “doctor.” The Supreme Court has a Chief Justice and juries have a foreman. That person has a title with no additional influence over any of the other members.
“He has a rich background. He lived in Asia.”
Is every Asian person a genius? The Chinese have one billion people. Not every one of them is a genius. There are plenty of Chinese people who are among the dumbest people on the planet because they are uneducated. The ones addicted to Opium are not the best and brightest.
Barack Obama as a college students was one of the most ordinary average people on the planet. He was a slacker and a stoner. Yes a certain amount of drugs could make Jack Kerouac or Timothy Leary seem like the pinnacle of civilization, but those not into drugs have a right to remain underwhelmed.
The very criticism that the left applied to Mr. Obama’s predecessor applies directly to Mr. Obama himself. An average guy with a winning smile and little substance charmed enough people and bungled his way into running an entire nation. Some imbeciles like Bashar Assad in Syria inherit the power, so Mr. Obama is less insignificant than the world’s dumbest opthalmologist overseas. That does not say much.
Yet Mr. Obama’s predecessor did not need feint praise. He wanted real counsel. Mr. Obama needed to be the smartest man in the room, resulting in questionable hiring choices. His best choice was Robert Gates as Defense Secretary. Of course, Mr. Gates was “inherited” from the Bush administration. Perhaps had Mr. Obama kept the entire Bush cabinet he would have been successful.
For Treasury Secretary, Mr. Obama chose Timothy Geithner.
The announcement of Mr. Geithner sent the stock market rocketing upward 500 points. The Wall Street Journal, consisting of people who normally really do know virtually everything, gushed. “Continuity you can believe in” was the headline. I myself bought into the hype, declaring the selection of Mr. Geithner to be a “home run out of the ballpark.”
Mr. Geithner was deemed to be the one indispensable man who could save the American economy. This was the guy we needed. Yet in hindsight, he was just another overrated fellow who coasted to power based on his own pedigree.
He was the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He reported straight to Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. More importantly than anything else in this world, he worked at Goldman Sachs.
A hush fell over the crowd as they swooned. They said it over and over again. He…worked…at…Goldman…Sachs. Goldman Sachs is the Harvard of Wall Street. Their very name commands respect from those who cling to antiquated notions of reputation and pedigree mattering more than results.
Timothy Geithner worked at Goldman Sachs. He “had” to be the very best.
Goldman Sachs brought the world Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson. Doesn’t that matter?
No. Goldman Sachs also brought the world Jon Corzine. They eventually fired Corzine, but his reputation remained sterling as he bungled his way higher to the Governorship of New Jersey. He was then fired from that job by an overweight, blunt, common looking man named Chris Christie who became a rock star not by pedigree, but…shock of shock…actually knowing how to do things and doing them.
As the financial world teetered and tottered in 2009, Barack Obama assured us that everything would be fine. He refused to offer specifics, claiming that the next day Timothy Geithner would offer his plan. The markets waited breathlessly as the next oracle walked with President Obama. Mr. Geithner has his usual confident stroll, with one hand in his pocket and his other hand motioning in an authoritative gesture to convey calm, steady, knowledge.
Then Mr. Geithner offered his plan in front of the cameras. The markets sank like a stone as everybody from Main Street to Wall Street thought the impossible. Timothy Geithner, golden boy of Goldman Sachs, was an absolute dope.
He remains a dope. That is the best one can say about a man who cheats on his taxes because he cannot figure out Turbotax. Either he is a thief and a liar or a dope. The former would result in prison except Goldman Sachs employees are above the law. Therefore, the latter is the story.
Three years later, and Mr. Geithner is rewarded for failing to turn the economy around by being begged to keep his job. His boss is smart enough to know that it is better to keep Mr. Geithner and let Republicans pound him than let him go and have Mr. Obama get the blame he deserves.
At the risk of deriding all academics, some questions need to be asked of these people during the job interview process. Interviews can be conducted in a “brass tacks” kind of manner.
“Put your resume away. Enough with your credentials and experience. Your suit and tie are not going to get you the job, nor is your winning smile. I have three questions for you. Do you know anything? Do you know how to do anything? Have you ever done anything?”
When the applicant offers a confused look followed by nodding their head in the affirmative (that means up and down for liberals who went to Harvard), ask them to elaborate. Watch them try to get a definition of the meaning of words like “anything,” “something,” and “nothing.”
Either we do this, or we keep relying on pedigrees. The result is people like Barack Obama who don’t know anything, don’t know how to do anything, and have never done anything. When problems hit, they are deer frozen in the headlights.
We hired a million dollar smile as president and he hired another million dollar smile wearing quality slacks to be his top financial deputy. The markets eventually scowled. They don’t want likable dunderheads with pieces of parchment conveying book smarts in a grade inflated, curved world. The markets want results.
eric