Great PR Skills

It's no secret that Obama's got marketing saavy. His campaign was the most well marketed campaign in American history - when you bought into Obama, you bought into the Obama brand. It went beyond campaign slogans and bumper stickers, it was an Obama channel on Dish Network, it was an Obama MySpace page, it was an Obama commemorative plate. He wasn't campaigning for the presidency, he was campaigning to be elected Celebrity-in-Chief.

And there's my point:

When President Obama gives a speech, he's telling the public what they want to hear...and leaving out the whole truth. That's what you've gotta do to keep the opinion polls high. Like today for example, when he announced that by August 31st, 2010, all American troops will be pulled out of Iraq.

The truth is that 50,000 troops will be staying in Iraq 2010 and beyond and they will still be in harms way. Regardless of what he tells "his fans", Obama knows that removing all American troops from this fragile region will destabilize it and could throw the fledgling democracy into chaos. (Making all those American lives lost in vain.)

Another example is the recently passed omnibus stimulus bill. For some time, Obama has been outspoken about his alleged opposition to earmarks. Well, he must not be that opposed because this bill contains 8,571 earmarks (inserted by Democrats and Republicans) and he supports it.

Oh and what about Obama pledging to cut wasteful spending and focus on getting the economy back on track? What about the transparency of government that he promised? Hmmm, well the bill is about 70% social programs and only about 30% actual stimulus and job creation. He's allowing the Democrats to cloak their stale social agenda in the guise of economic stimulus, spending an unprecedented amount of precious taxpayer money in the midst of desperate economic times? How's that for transparency?

The lesson here is to know that the public is being told what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear. In a time like this, do we want a celebrity or do we want a president?