Obama joins the TEA Party--Washington's the problem, not the solution | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Barry's joined the TEA Party. For several years now, the TEA partiers have been saying that government is dysfunctional and that Washington's the problem, not the solution. Obama now agrees. He now says it's the other guys in Washington that are causing the problem, not him. He, of course is not part of Washington, but he doesn't seem to realize that his lack of "engagement" with "Washington" may just be a part of Washington's problem.

    Or maybe it's just that his pollsters have told him that blaming Bush is no longer going to save him. So he's found another scapegoat to try to pin the blame on.

    But it's not working.

    As you listen you are struck by the fact that he may be just trying to put a spin on his legacy. You will note that the Elite Media is not carrying his water on this new campaign swing he's making. His Head Cheerleader, the Washington Post did not even report Wednesdays speech at Knox College on its Homepage, except to relegate it to an feeble opinion piece in which E. J. Dionne Jr. argued that "this time it'll be different..." - the speechifying that is. Pervert Weiner got more press in New York than Obama did.

    If you analyze his speech you quickly note that he has given up on the 2014 election. It's as if he is focused more on "...the 1200 days I have left in office..." than he is in winning the House and keeping control of the Senate. Harry Reid has all but conceded the same thing in his recent sucking up to the "nuclear option" of scraping the filibuster. Indeed, things are not going well for the Democrats in Washington. Yet the impotent (nod to Weiner) Republicans offer nothing to fix the economy - Obama's whipping boy in this campaign. It's not his fault you see.



    What Obama does not realize is that his attacking "Washington" is nothing more than what the TEA Party has been saying for five years now. Washington is dysfunctional. The Dependency Culture is intransigent and incapable of growing the economy, from "the middle out" or the top down or any other way. The reason is simple: Too many people look to someone else to provide for them, rather than relying on their own initiative. Speeches of Blame are not going to change that, except to make disenchantment worse.

    Candidates like Greg Brannon will resonate well in 2014. Brannon, Ted Curz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and others of their ilk are calling for a return to fundamental American values, smaller government at all levels and more focus on liberty than "security." Obama's latest campaign strategy will only feed that movement.

    The question is, will the Republican party be smart enough to take advantage of this shift? That's not looking good, either in Washington or in Raleigh. Except for the TEA Party.

    Click here to read more about the reaction to this latest speech.

    Note the lack of enthusiasm in the crowd in the background in this video.