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Exciting news, folks. Obama and team say they’re recalibrating, retooling and rebranding his presidency! And they’ve come up with a dandy new slogan to promote it. Ready? “Win the future.”
Takes your breath away doesn’t it?
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For those who remember Gerald Ford’s hapless presidency, Obama’s new slogan might have a familiar ring to it. In 1974, with rampant inflation gobbling up the paychecks of workaday families, Ford blamed the American people, asserting that they were simply spending too much. So he ordered thousands of red-and-white buttons that said, “WIN!” It was an acronym for Whip Inflation Now, which Ford thought would happen if only the public wore the buttons to remind each other to buy less.
WIN was, in a word, stupid – and it helped make Gerry a one-term president.
Obama, however, hopes his “win” idea catches on. It refers to what he sees as a sort of global Super Bowl in which the USA is competing to “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” This is “our generation’s Sputnik moment,” he says, adding that “My No. 1 focus is going to be making sure we are competitive.”
Hooray, let’s go! Washington should harness the idealism, creativity, energy, and can-do spirit of grassroots people into a bold national program to revitalize America’s economy, educational system, infrastructure and the middle class.
But, wait – Obama’s not proposing a true Sputnik response, like Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson produced. Instead, he’s trusting Corporate America to “win the future” for us, offering deregulation and more tax breaks to entice them.
Hello, “America’s” corporations are abandoning our workers, communities, egalitarian values, and America itself as fast as they can. Trusting them to serve any interest but their own is a fool’s errand.
“Obama to focus on economy to bridge divide,” Austin American Statesman, January 25, 2011.
“The Competition Myth,” The New York Times, January 24, 2011.
“Pitch for Rebuilding Infrastructure Carries Political Challenges,” The New York Times, January 26, 2011.
“The State of the Union,” The New York Times, January 25, 2011.
“Dueling G.O.P. Responses to President’s Speech Point to Potential Fault Lines in Party,” The New York Times, January 26, 2011.
“Pushing Competition and Trying to Pull America Out of a Funk,” The New York Times, January 26, 2011.
“Obama Proposing Bipartisan Effort To Win The Future,” January 26, 2011.
“Obama Counters G.O.P. Attacks on Spending With Plan to Extend Freeze. The New York Times, January 26, 2011.
“Official: Obama to call for 5-year spending freeze,” www.google.com, January 25, 2011.
“Obama to press Centrist Agenda in His Address,” www.nytimes, January 22, 2011.
“Toward a 21st-Century Regulatory System,” www.wsj.com January 18, 2011.
“Obama’s Deregulation Dance with Wall Street,” www.alternet.org, January 19, 2011.
“Volcker Out, Immelt In on Economic Board,” www.nytimes.com, January 21, 2011.
“Labor Worries About New Head of Obama Jobs Panel,” www.nytimes, January 21, 2011.