Obama's 'Irene Economic Stimulus'

Well, I've now seen it all. Some political observers and pundits now say Hurricane Irene will be good for the economy.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

"Under every stone lurks a politician."
Aristophanes (450 BC-388 BC)

Well, I've now seen it all.

Some political observers and pundits now say Hurricane Irene will be good for the economy.

When our vacationing president cuts short his Martha's Vineyard relaxation (would he have returned if Irene wasn't bearing down in his general direction?), in order to rush back to Washington, are we to feel safer or more in jeopardy?

What I felt was the DC spin-meisters struggling to find some good news and an economic/campaign angle for Obama to somehow benefit from Irene's splendid timing (for Obama, that is).

This strikingly dim-witted idea, that Irene can somehow benefit Americans, our economy or this president's plummeting popularity, is strange and insane.

In keeping with the same puerile philosophy that spending more when you're in financial trouble makes sense, the 'Irene Stimulus' seems like a natural progression especially in the context of Obama's initial spending efforts to 'pull the car out of the ditch'. Many people laughed heartily at Obama's little metaphor castigating Republicans; I was not one. For all this president's cleverness and hubris, the car remains inexorably implanted, grill first, in the ditch. What's worse, gasoline is now leaking from the twisted wreckage.

And now with the 2012 presidential election in sight, Obama and his merry pranksters in the White House can only wait for natural disasters to provide relief; take the public's eye off their incompetence and create the opportunity for them to spend, spend, spend while Americans continue to suffer and turn against him.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot