OPINION:
President Obama’s popularity is understandably dropping like a rock, primarily because of revelations that he has grossly deceived the America people about his heath care bill. It is obvious that much of the media is now turning on him. Despite strong, irrefutable indications that there were serious problems with his credibility on Benghazi, NSA wiretapping, IRS targeting of opponents, etc., he nevertheless managed with the help of the media to stay ahead of problems — until now.
In August 2012, roughly two months before the 2012 presidential election, the government reported a miraculous drop in the U.S. unemployment rate, down to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent. Immediately, economists and labor-statistics experts questioned the report by the Census Bureau. (Incidentally, after taking office, Mr. Obama placed the Census Bureau directly under White House control.)
The critics were lead by Jack Welch, a former chairman of General Electric. This criticism created a firestorm, with the media attacking Mr. Welch and his supporters. Mr. Welch was quoted in Money magazine as saying Mr. Obama’s people flatly falsified the unemployment numbers and “cooked” them to help his re-election. Many experts say that it would have been difficult for such a dramatic decrease in this data to occur even in a booming economy — which we were not experiencing.
Recently, The New York Post ran a piece about a high-ranking Census Bureau official, Julius Buckmon, who, according to the story, was told to “do whatever it takes to fix the number” prior to the election. Mr. Buckmon’s admission is supported by Census Bureau documents obtained by the paper. Numerous media sources are now pursuing this story.
While we all experienced the lying of President Clinton, that was entirely different because it concerned a personal character failing. What Mr. Obama did to get re-elected in 2012 and continues to do with the health care debacle constitutes deceit, a gross violation of the people’s trust.
JAMES W. ANDERSON
Talladega, Ala.
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