| It's "silly season" according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. You know silly season. It's the time when all of the ridiculous stuff the administration is doing gets revealed - no matter how little the media actually reports any of it.
For the president, the season is fall, when leaves and White House plans plummet to earth with equal abandon. In less than a week, three major Obama initiatives have fallen apart. And those three serve as the backdrop to Obama's latest attempt to get health care reform back on track. But no matter what he says Wednesday night, things are about to get worse for Barack Obama because the tea party patriots are back and coming to D.C. Sept. 12.
The 9-12 protests, as they are being called, aren't just focusing on Washington. Organizers vow, "We will be one voice, demanding that Congress restore fiscal responsibility to our national budget. We will remind Congress, the president, and our fellow citizens what limited government and free markets can do." They need the reminder. No one in D.C. remembers what that means.
According to Michael Patrick Leahy, one of the tea party organizers, "the 9-12 event in Washington will be but one of 100 such events throughout the country where grassroots Americans speak out." He ought to know. He's speaking at one in Illinois.
The major media and the White House pretty much ignored the tea parties the last time - until they decided to bash them. But the momentum of protest is on the right side, so this event could have even more impact knocking the Obama express off track.
For the administration, this latest round of protest couldn't come in a worse season. The most recent round of Obama's failing presidency started Friday with the latest unemployment numbers. There are 216,000 more people who don't believe White House claims about the economy. That's the number of jobs lost last month, taking the total for Obama's brief reign to more than 3 million. Unemployment continues to rise - now at 9.7 percent.
That news is bad enough, but the administration makes it worse. The White House claims "the recovery act is working." They consistently celebrate the $787 billion stimulus package as being, well, stimulating.
Many unemployed know this to be bogus. Even Minnesota's New Flyer bus factory that VP Joe Biden had promoted as "an example of the future" laid off 320 people. Who knew Biden would finally be correct about something - in just six months? New Flyer is a good example of the future where unemployment is predicted to hit over 10 percent, and the pricey U.S. stimulus isn't doing nearly as well as less expensive stimulus packages in saner nations.
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