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The Worst Story Ever Told
By Randy Fardal
When it comes to politics, Hollywood must be suffering cognitive dissonance right now.
Entertainers typically are left-wing ideologues, so it's natural for them to support a fellow traveler like Barack Obama. On the other hand, they also are professional storytellers, and Mr. Obama's story contains plot holes, poorly developed characters, implausible story twists, and no final act. His life seems like a remake of an obscure 1930s Russian box office flop.
As screenwriters like to say, every story has a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning introduces the protagonist and links him to the unfolding story with a triggering event. Complications ensue in the middle, and the protagonist reaches rock bottom. The end is the satisfying resolution of the story. That final act in the story's structure includes the climax and denouement — a period of calm, during which normalcy returns.
But Mr. Obama's story is a series of beginnings and middles, with no satisfying resolutions. There is no denouement — just endless chaos. Loose ends aren't tied up because nothing ever is seen through to its successful conclusion.
Here are a few examples:
- After graduating from the prestigious Harvard Law School, Mr. Obama was an idealistic ghetto agitator, affiliated in various ways with ACORN. But his law career was undistinguished, and ACORN later was exposed as a corrupt waste of taxpayer money.
- He was elected to the Illinois State Senate and then the U.S. Senate, which supposedly is the most exclusive club in the world. But he rarely took a leadership role on any legislation and accomplished nothing during his tenures.
- Upon assuming the presidency, he ordered closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and backed loans to solar panel startup Solyndra with taxpayer money. But years later, Guantánamo Bay remains open, and Solyndra now is closed.
- Then he pushed through a costly economic stimulus bill for "shovel-ready jobs." But subsequently, he admitted that there actually were no such jobs. Widely regarded as a failure, the stimulus is characterized by some economists as little more than a kickback scam for campaign contributors.
- A year later, he finally achieved his first step toward nationalized medical care by mandating the purchase of "affordable" insurance. But health insurance rates did not fall as he promised. They rose instead. Most voters now want the law repealed, and the Supreme Court will soon pass judgment on its constitutionality.
Compare Mr. Obama's story with that of General Patton, as depicted in the highly praised 1970 biographical film bearing his name. Mr. Patton inherited messes in North Africa and the Battle of the Bulge, but he took charge and cleaned them up in record time. In contrast, Mr. Obama seeks to exploit every crisis for political gain, claims that he's in charge but just makes things worse, and then blames his predecessor.
