President Obama’s new campaign video “The Road We’ve Traveled” is enough to make any thinking, breathing American puke. The nearly 20 minute mini-documentary, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, is more fiction than fact, more fantasy than reality. Hanks tries to emotionalize the presidency of Obama asking viewers if they remember electing the nation’s first black president or the country on verge of economic collapse. (Eye-roll here)
The entire video seeks to seduce voters into re-electing Obama based on his character and unique story over his failed record of presiding over the worst recession since the Great Depression. Tom Hanks asks "How do we understand this president and his time in office? Do we look at today's headlines?" This line will likely arouse laughter from viewers because Americans understand this president’s time in office as one of failure, which is why since last year Obama's job approval ratings job approval ratings consistently hovered below 50%. Although Hanks would like us to be blind to the headlines, Americans read daily about the unemployment rate being above 8% for the past three years.
This sappy video tries to play Americans for fools. Describing Obama’s first meeting with his economic team in Chicago to discuss the country’s economic crisis, Communications Director for Obama’s re-election campaign David Axelrod exclaims, “There was a screen set up for slides but we might as well be watching a horror movie.” No most Americans would say the horror movie has been the one they’ve been living for the past three years under Obama’s presidency: $15 Trillion debt, virtually no hiring or economic growth, and $1 trillion plus deficits, etc.
This video paints a picture of a helpless President Obama. Hanks voice turns dreary and foreboding "Not since days of Roosevelt had so much fallen on shoulders of one president. And when he faced his country; he would not dwell in blame or idealism.” Obama ran for president of the United States. He knew what he was getting into and it’s an outright lie to say Obama didn’t blame anyone for the situation he stepped into. Obama has spent his entire presidency blaming George W. Bush and Republicans for his inability to lead America out of this recession.
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Hanks waxes on about Obama’s record of success/relentless spending like the $800 trillion Recovery Act, which did nothing to create jobs. Several minutes are sucked up talking about how critical it was for Obama to spend $80 billion to save the US auto industry, oops I mean union jobs. Then Hank declares “Obama knew he couldn’t fix the economy if he didn’t fix healthcare.” He should have focused on fixing the economy rather not passing $1 trillion Obamacare which killed jobs, rather than created them.
Of course the video paints Obama solely responsible for the Navy Seals capture of Osama bin Laden, this is the only time during he’s presidency he’s taken responsibility for something. Note Vice-President Biden’s emphasis “this was his decision.” What’s left out of this narrative is it was Bush’s enhanced interrogation techniques that Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder condemned that enabled CIA to get information from an al Qaeda operative that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan.
The most outrageous fiction in video is Hanks listing his record of success: Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, 3.5 million jobs created (no mention of the 6 million lost during his presidency) but Hank declares Obama’s successes “which changed the way the world sees us.” That’s true enough. Obama’s policies have made the world see America as weak and broken. Finally, Hanks notes: “Time and time again, we would see rewards from tough decisions he had made.” I guess Hanks is talking about the rewards of high unemployment, foreclosures and broken dreams Obama has given the American people? Watching this re-write of Obama’s record, which you think will never come to an end, Hanks finally pleads with viewers during the last minute “So when we remember this moment and consider this president, then and now, let’s remember how far we’ve come. And look forward to the work still to be done.”
Someone tweeted me “when I think of Obama, I feel like a battered spouse who has everyone fooled that our relationship is great when it's not.”
Despite Hanks desperate attempt to portray Obama as a great president, many Americans, remember how much they’ve suffered under this weak, misguided president and they aren’t going to give him four more years to do more “work.” Game Change the book describes (pp.26-27) David Axelrod, Obama campaign advisor, “Axelrod was known for being interested less in policy than in softer qualities of character and biography. His central gift was a grasp of the power of narrative—his ability to weave his candidates beliefs and background into an emotionally compelling bundle.”
You don't elect a President based on emotion; you elect that person based on his or her ability. The American people have had enough of the Obama narrative and aren’t going to fall for this fairytale a second time around. As producer of the HBO movie Game Change combined with his acting ability, Hanks is good at spinning tales with a leftist bent. But what both Hanks and Team Obama should recognize is Americans aren’t stupid and whether they’re watching a movie or living through the presidency of Obama, they can always separate reality from fiction.
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