The vast majority of “entitlements” provided by our government to narcotize the citizenry’s work ethic and sense of personal responsibility are as bogus as the Obama administration’s claim that it rescued the economy (well, perhaps all the president’s men did rescue the Chinese economy…). But I do believe that, as an American citizen, I am entitled to free and fair elections. Both political extremes seek to undermine that right, whether through super-PACs or hi-jinx. But the biggest threat to genuinely fair and honest elections is the naked prejudice of the establishment media.
Our media have, by and large, long tilted left. But even in the Bush years the slanting wasn’t as ham-handed as it is in the (election) Year of our Lord 2012. Almost four years into the Obama presidency, huge blank spots remain in the incumbent’s personal history (we knew more negative information—much of it invented—about Sarah Palin in four days than we’ve learned about the president in four years). Now, as the administration blunders from one mess to another, the establishment media hastily plasters its “Band-Aids of silence” over the worst goofs and gaffes.
You’ve heard about the Secret Service’s merrymaking in Colombia—but I’ll bet you haven’t heard about Obama’s blunder that had Latin America laughing out loud. Why? Because our media wouldn’t report it. Well, if you can read basic Spanish, log onto the sites of a few Latin American outlets that covered the Cartagena summit—I suggest starting with La Reforma, Mexico’s leading newspaper. The Latin Americans took the hooker affair in stride, but marveled at our president’s (unreported here) public gaffe.
In an effort to ingratiate himself with Argentina’s leftist president and leading nut-case bimbo, Cristina de Fernandez (who walked out of the conference, anyway), Obama insulted our British allies by referring to the Falkland Islands by the revisionist Argentine name, the “Malvinas.” Well, he meant to, anyway. But in his speech, the president—never strong on geography—confused the Malvinas with the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Our Southern neighbors thought it was a hoot. But you didn’t hear about it, of course. Obama’s a genius, according to our journalists’ sacred dogma, and Thou Shalt Not Mock.
Meanwhile, the president continues to kick the can down the road on every major foreign policy decision until the November voting is over. Re-election is more important to this man than is Israel’s survival. The slaughter in Syria? Hey, Syria doesn’t bring a single electoral vote to the table. Afghanistan? Just keep things quiet, General. Pakistan? Those guys are our good buddies. Iran. Hey, dudes, let’s talk! (Again.) China? Shut up and eat your fortune cookie. American jobs lost to foreign cut-throats and trade cheats? Those rednecks would’ve voted Republican, anyway. High gas prices? Uh…uh…blame somebody. Quick!
Obama gets a (press) pass on every count.
Of course, the ugliest foreign-policy incident involving a US president in my lifetime occurred just a few weeks ago, when our president, unaware that his microphone was on, essentially told Russia’s president “Hey, I’ve got to fool the American people until November, but, after that, I can give you whatever you want.” Obama told Medvedev that he “needed time” and would have “more flexibility” after the election. Ladies and gentleman, it borders on treason when our president tells a foreign leader that he needs to cut a deal behind the back of our country’s citizens.
The media couldn’t cover this one up entirely, since it first leaked out overseas, but, boy, did they put that story away as fast as they could.
Really. Think about it. Our president can’t trust you, the voter, with his plans for nuclear disarmament, strategic defenses and the like. But he can make secret promises to Moscow. This was—and remains—a breathtaking betrayal. But the story’s as dead as Dick Whittington’s cat. (And if you want to worry about a single issue in another Obama administration, worry about his doctrinaire-leftist hatred of our nuclear arsenal—the only thing that has prevented a Third World War for almost seven decades.
And, of course, our economy’s in terrific shape. Any little problems that remain are Bush’s fault (Remember that guy? The one our media and our current president agree was responsible for the Holocaust, the Black Death and the fall of the Roman Empire?). The party line is that our president is doing the best he can. He’s there for you, America. He feels it when your business is driven into bankruptcy and your home is foreclosed upon. He’ll even give you food stamps (which, come on, are better than jobs, anyway…). Several trillion dollars thrown away and four years to fix things…and it’s still all Bush’s fault, from Wall Street to the streets of Kabul.
Obama is the least-manly president we’ve ever had, unable to admit to any mistakes of any kind. The guy makes Woodrow Wilson look like Conan the Barbarian. And Hamlet made more decisions in Act I than Obama’s made in four years. He stalls like an old Fiat and lies like a Nigerian scammer. But he remains the media’s hero. And our media will pull out every stop and employ every trick to insure his re-election.
Meanwhile, the leading opposition candidate—a clean-living, America-loving family man who prospered in the private sector—is depicted as feckless, wishy-washy, even duplicitous. The most-influential Washington department isn’t Defense or State or Treasury. It’s our media’s informal Ministry of Propaganda.
Obama isn’t evil. He’s just a shiny mediocrity incapable of serious leadership in troubled times. He surrounded himself with academics, not do-ers. Inevitably, we got theories, not results. This isn’t hard to understand. Unless you’re a journalist with left-of-Venus stars stuck in your eyes.
As a “conservative for conservation,” I’m infuriated by the White House corruption behind the Solyndra affair—which discredited serious alternative energy efforts. You’d think our left-leaning media would still be all over that scandal, at least. But nope. “Solyndra? What’s that, some dietary supplement? Next topic, please.”
What do the wretched-excess GSA scandal and the Secret Service’s hooker jamboree in Colombia have in common? They’re manifestations of a morally lax, self-absorbed, irresponsible administration in which any lie can be told with the knowledge that most of the media will fall in line behind it. And this president will never be blamed for anything.
The cult of personality has gone so far I sometimes feel that I’m living in North Korea. (Okay, that’s an exaggeration—but I’ve never seen a cult of personality so powerful here, not even that of JFK).
As far as the establishment media’s concerned, the 2012 election is already over. They just haven’t reported it to you yet.
Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of the new bestseller, Cain at Gettysburg.
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