Will Obama fool voters again?

Barack Obama was elected president by successfully misleading 53 percent of the electorate with a charade of hope, change and unity. Two and a half years later on America’s domestic front, the realistic unemployment rate is hopeless, as it remains frozen at Barack Obama’s “new normal” of around 16 percent, when the underemployed and those who have thrown in the towel are included. Food and fuel prices continue to skyrocket while home prices continue to tank, transforming the American dream into an undeserved nightmare.

On the international front of promised “change,” innocent civilians in Libya are being killed by coalition airstrikes and according to Congressman Ed Markey, a key Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, “We’re in Libya because of oil.”

Defense Secretary Gates astoundingly said that American troops could be staying in Iraq for years. Gitmo remains open for business. Renditions continue with a wink and a nod. And KBR, a former major subsidiary of, wait for it, Haliburton, was awarded a no-bid contract last year for $568 million.

On the unity front, Barack Obama, in an obvious attempt to stir the pot of class envy for political expediency, cavalierly said: “We can’t ask everybody to sacrifice and then tell the wealthiest among us (referring to the top 3 percent of taxpayers who already pay 50 percent of all income taxes) you can just relax and go count your money, and well, don’t worry about it. We’re not going to ask anything of you.”

Now, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 70 percent of the country believes the nation is headed in the wrong direction and I’m sure, many like myself, are wondering where those all-knowing independents were when the country needed them, and if in the end, they’ll get bamboozled again.

Frank Gabl

Prospect Heights