Fact Check: First Lady's False Fairy Tale of Struggle
First Lady Michelle Obama’s pitch to voters last night relied on the premise that she and her husband understand what it is to struggle to make ends meet. She spoke movingly about their early years--about how a young Barack Obama drove a car that was “rusted out" and found his furniture “in a dumpster,” how they both came from families that had to “scrape by.” Her fairy tale--however well-delivered--was one great, big, colorful lie.
Both Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama began their adult lives with a leg up on the rest of America. They attended elite schools: Michelle went to Whitney Young, the public magnet school for Chicago’s upper class, while Barack attended Punahou, the private prep school for the top stratum of Hawaiian society. They were accepted to Ivy League schools despite undistinguished credentials, and both attended Harvard Law School.“[B]elieve it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage,” Michelle said. That sounds like a raw deal--but in fact reflects their fortunate circumstances. They had both just graduated from a very expensive law school, and their combined income from cushy law firm jobs dwarfed the repayments. Barack also soon enjoyed a second salary from the University of Chicago.
They had expensive tastes, reflected in the $277,500 two-bedroom condo they bought in 1993--a high price even by today’s standards. Several years later, they moved into their $1.65 million mansion in Hyde Park--with the help of fraudster Tony Rezko. Barack often told a story of hardship on the campaign trail in 2008 about having his credit card declined--once. The fact that he thought this counted as real hardship speaks volumes.
As her husband moved onto the national political stage, Michelle Obama began to enjoy a lavish lifestyle at taxpayer expense, directly and indirectly. When Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, he obtained a $1 million earmark for the University of Chicago Hospital--and his wife’s salary as Vice President for Community Affairs jumped from $121,910 to $316,962. Her job: pushing poor, uninsured patients to other hospitals.
As First Lady, Michelle Obama has lived high on the hog while the rest of the country has suffered through an extraordinary recession. In 2010, she and her entourage decamped to Spain for a lavish vacation. That summer, the Obamas encouraged Americans to visit the Gulf coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which threatened tourism in the region. They promptly jetted off to Maine for their own summer holiday.
This summer, the Obamas skipped their usual summer trip to the wealthy playground of Martha’s Vineyard--months after Michelle and her daughters had enjoyed an expensive winter skiing trip in Aspen. And, of course, there are the frequent pilgrimages to Hawaii, Some of their family’s comfort, of course, comes from private income, principally Barack Obama’s book sales--yet even that wealth is a spin-off of Obama’s political career.
If, as the Democrats eagerly pointing out, Mitt Romney enjoyed the privilege of private wealth, the Obamas have enjoyed privilege funded by public money and public life. And until entering the national spotlight, they gave little to charity, contributing instead to a church that preached racial grievance. “[T]ruth matters,” Michelle Obama told the nation last night. That, too, is a lie--because so far, she has evaded it without consequence.
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Meet the New Obama: San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro
Democrats are looking to fast track a successor for Barack Obama for 2012 and are looking to San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro to do just that. They're hoping to pattern Castro's ascent into the upper echelon of the party after Obama's, by having selected him as the DNC 2012's keynote speaker.
The similarities between Castro and Obama are many.Both Obama and Castro seem to ignore obvious facts and pretend or fabricate a new truth. Speaking at a fundraiser in California on Monday night, July 23, Obama said, “we tried our plan (economic policies), and it worked”. It worked if he wanted high unemployment, massive growth in the dependence on government handouts, and regulations that are strangling America’s industries. On the other hand, Castro takes credit for San Antonio’s economic growth while he refuses to acknowledge that Texas’ conservative economic policies are responsible. They both are big on “green energy” even though the market does not support that type of projects. Obama has Solendra, and Castro has recently signed an agreement between CPS Energy and OCI Solar Power. Both men claim that jobs and energy will be created from these green projects. But the free market and economic reality do not support their ideas.Castro and Obama both had radical parents. Castro's mother, Rosie Castro, is described as a "firebrand" and helped to found La Raza Unida. Julián Castro and his twin brother are considered "legacies" of La Raza's mission:
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Then there is the complete disregard both men appear to have for the rule of law, specifically Obama for the U.S. Constitution and Castro for the municipal charter of San Antonio.
Also among these legacy children: San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and brother, Joaquín, sons of Rosie Castro, who was also there at the beginning of La Raza Unida. Joaquín Castro is a state House rep and a congressional candidate.Said Rosie Castro of The Alamo:
"When I grew up I learned that the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didn’t belong to them. But as a little girl I got the message — we were losers. I can truly say that I hate that place and everything it stands for.”Like Obama, Castro's promises fall short:
When he ran for mayor in 2009, the 37-year-old Castro campaigned on a pledge to reduce crime, saying, “Making our communities safe is my top priority.”
San Antonio’s crime rate, however, has seen only meager improvements since Castro took office. Unsolved murder rates have skyrocketed.
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“Rapes are up 5.3 percent from the previous year, to 492 reported incidents; aggravated assaults are also up 5.3 percent from 2009, to 4,672 reported incidents; and motor-vehicle thefts are up 1.5 percent from 2009, to 5,893 reported incidents,” according to National Review.
Meanwhile, San Antonio’s unsolved murder rate has increased from 24 to 39 percent from 2010 to 2011. READ MORE
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Hora de restaurar el Estado de Derecho en Estados Unidos
En su reciente artículo de opinión en el Wall Street Journal, el profesor de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Pensilvania David Skeel señalaba que:
"Nadie duda de que las próximas elecciones serán el referéndum más importante sobre el tamaño y la naturaleza del gobierno en toda una generación. Pero hay otro asunto casi tan importante y que ha atraído mucha menos atención: nuestro decadente compromiso con el Estado de Derecho…Es una triste ironía que los valores del Estado de Derecho hayan sido una de las mayores contribuciones de Estados Unidos al desarrollo económico mundial en estas últimas décadas…En los años posteriores a la caída del Muro de Berlín en 1989, los mercados americanos sirvieron como modelo de la importancia de la privatización y de la protección de los derechos de la propiedad cuando las naciones de Europa Oriental trazaban su nuevo futuro económico. Ahora somos nosotros los que cada vez más necesitamos aprender estas lecciones…Los problemas del Estado de Derecho no pueden ser totalmente separados de las cuestiones sobre el tamaño y el papel del gobierno. Cuanto más crece el gobierno, más difícil es conservar virtudes del Estado de Derecho como la transparencia y unas reglas del juego claras. "
La problemática tendencia de debilitar el Estado de Derecho se encuentra bien documentada en el Índice de Libertad Económica de la Fundación Heritage. Los indicadores del Estado de Derecho, que miden los derechos de la propiedad y la libertad frente a la corrupción, se han erosionado en Estados Unidos de manera dramática durante los últimos cinco años.Cuando los americanos miren al futuro, deberían buscar el fomentar el Estado de Derecho y la libertad económica, dos elementos clave necesarios para una economía fuerte, en crecimiento y creadora de empleo.
