Obama, Mainstream Media Communicate In Orwellian Language
By Herb Denenberg, The Bulletin
10/02/2008
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Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, helped by the mainstream media, is successfully speaking George Orwell's "Newspeak" to the American people, which means they can believe that two plus two is five, that ignorance is strength, that war is peace. The reason Sen. Obama is running ahead is that the mainstream media's biased, dishonest and fraudulent reporting, dedicated to electing Sen. Obama and vilifying Sen John McCain, has succeeded in selling the opposite of the truth.

Take the great financial crisis we're going through. The Republicans, including President George Bush and Sen. McCain, saw many years ago that there was a problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the potential for a real estate and financial system catastrophe, but the Democrats opposed their reforms. President Bush called for reforms every year and Sen. McCain introduced two bills to correct the problem. But Democrats killed any chance of reform or even of recognition of the problem and the looming meltdown.

The Democrats were using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of their political machine providing jobs to Democratic leaders (such as Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, now Sen. Obama's advisers, who together sucked out more than $100 million in compensation from Fannie and Freddie). The Democrats also used these two organizations to pump out political contributions to members of Congress and lobbying payments to maintain their power. Among the top recipients of that tainted money were Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Obama, along with Sen. Hillary Clinton, and others. In only a few years in the Senate, Sen. Obama shot to the headline of the line of those getting tainted contributions from Fannie and Freddie. When there were calls for reform, Sen. Obama did what he always does - nothing. When there was an opportunity to go against the left-wing liberal Democratic Party line, Sen. Obama did what he always does - nothing.

The reforms advocated by the Republicans, by President Bush, and by Sen. McCain were vigorously opposed by the Democrats, who sent forth assurance that all is well at Fannie and Freddie. For example, Rep. Barney Frank, now in the lead to fix the disaster, and his fellow Democrats were defending the corrupt system with the mantra of increasing home ownership. Five years ago, Rep. Frank assured the public that there were no problems with Fanny and Freddie and there was no "possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury." As recently as early this year, Sen. Dodd, in charge of fixing the problem on the Senate side, was actually praising Fannie and Freddie coming to the "rescue" when other mortgage lenders were cutting back. He even urged them to do more for home ownership and affordable housing. This meant politically correct mortgages and politically correct lending.

The whole mess started with Democrats who wanted to expand home ownership and affordable housing, but distorted the financial system to do so. They created a system where little details, like down payments, ability to pay and the likes, went down the bureaucratic drain. They used Fannie and Freddie to carry out their scheme for which we are now paying. Whenever problems surfaced, the Democrats were interested only in expanding home ownership and making housing affordable. They had no time for assuring a sound financial system.

With the help of the corrupt and unprincipled mainstream media, the Obama campaign and the Democrats are blaming the Republicans, President Bush and Sen. McCain for what is going on. This is the exact opposite of the truth. It is Orwell's 1984 in 2008. When you have the massive propaganda machine of the mainstream media dedicated to electing Sen. Obama and giving him a free pass on everything, this greatest con job in the history of electoral politics is being pulled off. The Democrats, Sen. Obama, and the mainstream media are successfully peddling an Orwellian version of the financial crisis in particular and the whole electoral scene in general.

The Democrats are succeeding in defrauding the electorate, and are headed toward using the financial crisis as the fulcrum needed to clinch the election. The very people who created the problem are using the problem to get themselves elected. Thus, they will be able to create many more like problems and even more serious problems, in the course of destroying our economy and our country. It is a sad irony that the American people will vote for change in the form of Sen. Obama and the Democrats, and will thus elect the very people who created the problem, but in an even more leftwing iteration that will create even more disastrous programs.

Consider the leadership displayed by the key Democratic leaders during what they call the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. What does Sen. Obama do? His crisis mode is to tell everybody, "If you need me, call me. I have a phone." By his own reckoning the nation is hanging on the edge of a cliff, and he whispers sweet nothings into the ear of the dangling nation about to fall into the abyss, and the sweet nothings go like this: "Call me if you need me." In the meantime, Sen. McCain suspended his campaign and went to Washington to get something done. And he succeeded in getting the Republicans into the legislative conversation making a bipartisan solution possible.

Sen. Obama betrayed another grave deficiency in his leadership capacity. He said the crisis is difficult to fix, as we shouldn't have "got here in the first place." That's typical. He never focuses on the problem at hand, but wants to talk about how it might have been prevented by earlier or long-ago action. He is like a doctor who comes across a man having a heart attack, and instead of administering first aid, starts to lecture the victim on how the heart attack might have been prevented by the right diet and exercise program. That was his approach to the war in Iraq, always focusing on how he opposed it in the first place instead of focusing on what we do now. He has 20/20 vision for the past, but is blind as to future solutions.

The other key leader of the Democratic Party in an attempt to fix the problem is majority leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. What did she do? Right before the crucial vote, when an atmosphere of cooperation and bipartisanship was the highest priority, she launched into a five-minute rant of the most poisonous and venomous criticism of the Bush Administration, blaming everything on it. As negotiations were proceeding on the previous Saturday, she called the Republicans unpatriotic.

In other words, she does exactly the opposite of what she should be doing. She is either too stupid to know that's not smart or was deliberately sabotaging passing a rescue bill to prolong the economic crisis, which is thought to help Sen. Obama. You can expect the same kind of leadership on the Senate side from Sen. Harry "Wave the White Flag" Reid.
And what happened to the great uniter, Sen. Obama, who sees no blue states or red states but only the United States. On a recent campaign stop, he told supporters, "I want you to argue with them and get in their face." How's that for being above the fray? This candidate shows he is a total phony and hypocrite so often it is mind-boggling.

On another matter of leadership, how did Sen. Obama do in bringing his supporters along to vote for the Rescue Bill to resolve the crisis? His own national co-chair of his campaign, Jesse Jackson Jr., voted against the rescue bill. So did most of the black caucus. In other words, he couldn't even bring along some of his most ardent supporters. That shows either a lack of leadership qualities or a deliberate attempt to prolong the crisis for political advantage.

Sen. Obama has never even once demonstrated a capacity to act in a bipartisan manner on important legislation and can't even bring along his own allies and supporters. He is the classic all-hat and no cattle. He is the classic empty suit. Look at his lifetime accomplishments, which are nil. The only accomplishment on his record is the pursuit of political offices and political power.

Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a longtime Philadelphia journalist and consumer advocate. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences. His column appears daily in The Bulletin. You can reach him at advocate@thebulletin.us


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