Obama and the South Park Gnomes

In the Wall Street Journal, an article using an analogy long-favored on the internet. With an entry of "Phase 2: ?" for practically every half-baked policy he announces.

This more or less sums up Mr. Obama's speech last week on Guantanamo, in which the president explained how he intended to dispose of the remaining detainees after both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly against bringing them to the U.S.

The president's plan can briefly be described as follows. Phase One: Order Guantanamo closed. Phase Two: ? Phase Three: Close Gitmo!

...

Now take the administration's approach to the Middle East. Phase One: Talk to Iran, Syria, whoever. Phase Two: ? Phase Three: Peace!

...

In Gnome-speak, then, Mr. Obama's energy policy goes something like this: Phase One: Inaugurate the era of "green" energy. Phase Two: Overturn the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Phase Three: Carbon neutrality!

It turns out that Hope was not merely the gassy, evasive rhetoric that we on the right assumed it to be. Unfortunately for us all, it turns out that mere Hope is in fact nearly the sum and entirety of Obama's plans for America. In virtually every policy, "Hope" -- as in "Hope that a policy announcement somehow changes reality" -- is pretty much the working guts and engine of the "policy."

In almost no cases can Obama announce a tangible, logical, proven mechanism by which his pronouncements result in the outcomes he seeks (or, in some cases, claims to seek).

This is not a prudent way to run a Foot Locker franchise, let alone the country.

posted by Ace at 02:17 PM

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