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Obama would rather you ignore his record
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I love to quote movie lines. One of my favorite movie lines of all time is one found near the end of the "Wizard of Oz."

It's the scene where the Wizard "goes off" on Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. As the flames are increasing with the Wizard's hot temper, Toto notices a curtain off the side and pulls it back to expose the Wizard as a mere trickster at controls that blow smoke and fire as a microphone amplifies his voice. Actor Frank Morgan then utters: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

I love the line because even after he's visually exposed, he continues in his weakened fraudulent state to continue his attempt to fool the four. It's a funny scene of a desperate man.

I see Barack Obama much the same: a flim-flam artist who is flailing his arms at the controls in a dismal attempt to get us to take our eyes off of his dismal administration by deflecting attention onto other things which aren't an issue. If you will, he's shouting "pay no attention to the man in the White House."

We are in for a long campaign as Obama beats the drum of class envy and repeats the manta that rich people need to pay their fair share. His campaign has taken that course because frankly the record of his administration is pathetic. So he villifies the rich, including Romney, as if Mr. Obama is not a millionaire himself.

Obama supporters rail that if Mr. Romney has nothing to hide then he would release all of his income tax records. Poor Romney catches it either way. If he releases it all, the media will nit-pick it and make hay about how filthy rich he is, knowing Americans have it hard and class envy unfortunately makes some repel against a candidate. Funny how it was ultra rich FDR who portended to be the friend of the poor and downtrodden. If Romney doesn't release all of his tax information, Obama says he has nothing to hide as the likes of Harry Reid insinuate that some unnamed sources claim he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years. Shades of McCarthyism at work in the party of the jackass?

Romney's personal wealth - made by being born in a rich and successful family and by working hard and making smart investments - is not the real issue.

The real issue is which of the two candidates will guide the country out of the economic morass it finds itself in today.

Let's look at the Obama record:

• The national debt has now increased more during Obama's presidency than it did during the entire eight years of the George W. Bush presidency. The debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of Bush. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since Obama took office.

If Obama wins re-election, and his budget projections prove accurate, the debt will top $20 trillion in 2016, meaning it will have increased by 87 percent, or $9.34 trillion, during his entire presidency.

He has literally pushed the country to the edge of the debt cliff.

• Obamacare, opposed by 60-70 percent of the American people, will saddle Americans with an oppressive $1.7 trillion dollar deficit over 10 years after initially claiming the cost to be $938 billion.

• Obama's 2009 Economic Stimulus Act put us $825 billion further in debt and did nothing to put Americans back to work. Obama's advisers promised the stimulus would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent and fall below 6 percent this year. Today, 12.8 million Americans are unemployed, 8.2 million cannot find enough work, and 1.1 million have given up looking for work altogether. Unemployment still remains above 8 percent.

• Since Obama took office, 6.3 million Americans have fallen into poverty (American citizens living in poverty have risen 9.5 percent from 39,800,000 to 43,600,000).

• The number of food stamp recipients has risen since Obama took office from 31,983,716 to 43,200,878, a 35.1 percent jump.

• Obama's resistance to drilling for oil in America and his war against fossil fuels technology has helped drive up the price of gasoline. A gallon of regular gasoline the day Obama was inaugurated was $1.79 on average in the U.S. Today that price is $3.59, a 100.6 percent increase.

In February 2009, Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer that if he could not turn around the economy in three years, "then there's gonna be a one-term proposition."

I say Americans need to take him up on that.

How do you feel? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com