How Bad Could it be?

[BoKnows]

This one is a bit long, but worth the time and effort to read to the end
and consider.

Welcome to Toastmasters, June 13, 2033. That's right: 2033.

Today Rick Campbell, one of our senior members at age 87, is here to
reminisce a bit and give us a history lesson. He says he is so old that he
learned to drive an internal combustion engine car (remember those) with a
manual transmission. He once owned a typewriter. He remembers when bicycles

had one speed, phones had two-party lines, and cameras had something called

film. As incredible as this may seem, he says that when he was young, it
was
common for people to smoke in restaurants and public places. He is from a
different time; almost a different world.

I'm sure all of us are far too familiar with the tragic events of 2010, so
Rick is not going to plow that fertile field again. Instead, he is going to

give us a personal look back at the conditions which led up to that fateful

year, in a speech titled "2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President."

"2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President"

Yes, 2010 was long ago and far away.

As we look back on history, it appears that some Presidents had an easy
ride- times of growth and stability. Teddy Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding,
Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton come to mind. Those were good years to be
President.

Others were elected just when the Republic was facing terrible crises:

Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, George W. Bush. They
rose to the occasion, even though they were controversial and widely hated
while in office. Not such good years to be President.

Just a few years prior, in 2008, the country began foundering. We were in
the sixth year of the Iraqi Occupation, and the economy was flat. The
mainstream press clearly wanted a Democrat elected.

Although we didn't know it until some years later, oil producing nations
had
colluded to secretly buy their own oil on the open market, driving oil
prices to shocking levels above the true demand price- reaching a high of
$162 a barrel in October, 2008, just before the general elections.

Their purpose was simple: to effect regime change in the United States .

And of course, the U.S. economy was already in a real estate slump and also

suffering the curse of stagflation; slow growth and high inflation.

There were a million home foreclosures.

Independent truckers went under by the thousands.

Airlines failed. Airlines with names now long-forgotten: United, Delta,
Northwestern, American. All now merged, of course, into the one lone U.S.
carrier we love so much: Southwest.

Against this backdrop of weariness of the war on terror, and economic
distress, the American people were ripe for a demagogue, and they certainly

got one in Barack Hussein Obama.

He and his running mate Kathlene Sibelius inspired them with vague notions
of hope and change; of a world in which diplomacy settled all international

problems, of free universal health care, of abundant alternative energy, of

peace and love.

It was a vision too good to resist.

The Republican nominee, a name you probably haven't heard in years anyone?

Yes, it was John McCain, an obscure Senator from Arizona had no clue how to

run a national campaign, and a platform nearly as liberal as Obama's.

The selection of Condoleeza Rice as his running mate looked brilliant at
first. Unfortunately, black voters viewed her as white, and women voters
viewed her as one of the guys.

Even so, the McCain/Rice ticket would have won the election if it weren't
for the fact that 16 percent of conservative Republicans voted for anyone
remember? That's right, Bob Barr, another name that's a footnote in
history.

After Obama's narrow win, thanks to recounts in Broward County , Florida ,
the country was positively giddy.. A Democrat House, Senate, and President.

At last an end to gridlock in Washington .

Camelot!

When Congress convened in January, 2009, the 44th President of the United
States did something unique in history: he made good on his campaign
promises.

Certainly most Americans never really thought he was serious during the
campaign. But whether because of inexperience, idealism, or simply
incompetence, he followed through.

In Obama's first One Hundred Days, the Congress passed his initiatives,
and
he signed them into law as he said he would.

He repealed the Bush tax cuts, and increased capital gains taxes.

He enacted a windfall profits tax, and instituted price controls on
gasoline and diesel fuel.

He passed universal health care, which added an additional 10 percent tax
increase on all working Americans.

He signed the Immigrant Amnesty bill which created 12 million new citizens
instantly, each with entitlements.

He closed the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay , and summarily released

all the detainees.

He repealed the Patriot Act, and cut funding for espionage, and eliminated
all terrorist listening and wiretaps.

Most important, he began the complete and immediate withdrawal of all
American troops from Iraq .

He ignored the advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who wanted to retain
bases in Kuwait and Qatar. Instead, he went with the recommendation of
Secretary of Defense Dennis Kucinich, and ordered all troops back to U.S.
soil.

Viola! In One Hundred Days, by May of 2009, it was all done, and the vision

was complete. He did exactly what he said he would do.

And so it was in the summer of 2009 that things began to unravel for Obama.


Of course, the economy needed a tax cut, not an increase, and unemployment
quickly rose to 12 percent. Even attorneys and economists were put in the
bread lines. Hard times!

Price controls on gasoline immediately led to shortages and gas lines.

The global cooling trend we have seen for the past 25 years first became
obvious in 2009, exposing the CO2 global warming fraud.

People were justifiably angry.

Federal deficits increased massively because thousands of baby boomers,
facing job loss and much higher taxes, simply gave up and took social
security.

Although the superb U.S. health care system was thrown into disarray, the
bright spot was the creation of the Federal Department of Health care, and
the immediate hiring of 250,000 administrators, inspectors and auditors,
the
only job growth in any economic sector in 2009.

By February 2010, the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq was complete. It
was a very expensive undertaking.

And then in March, the gradual Shiite insurgencies from Iran turned into a
true Iraqi civil war. In May, Iranian tanks crossed the border and quickly
took Baghdad . Although the exact number is not know, at least 230,000
Sunni
Iraqis died as we stood by.

Iran also quickly moved into undefended Kuwait .

President Obama did exactly what he said he would. He sent Secretary of
State, Maria Cantwell, to Tehran to meet with Iranian President
Ahmadinejad.

After two weeks of high level talks, the United States agreed to allow
Iran
to retain Iraq and Kuwait to create stability in the middle east, with the
understanding that Israel would not be disturbed.

Cantwell returned to Washington, and explained the agreement in her famous
speech, in which she proudly noted that the Obama administration had
finally
achieved "peace in our time" in the Middle East .

So there was some surprise at the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv on August
14th.

President Obama said, "This is not the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I knew."

The Obama administration decided it would be de-stabilizing to take sides
in
the conflict, and approximately 29,000 Israeli civilians died during the
summer and fall.

American Jews were appalled at the inaction. Yes, in 2010 most American
Jews
were Democrats, but because of 2010, they are solid Republicans today.

As awkward as it was, everything might have turned out all right for the
Obama administration going into the fall mid-term elections of 2010, if it
hadn't been for the dirty bomb in the Port of Long Beach .

The administration had cut funding for the inspection of containers,
because they felt it showed a "lack of trust" in the international trading
community.

It wasn't really a very big bomb, and thank goodness, not a real nuclear
device, but nonetheless it contaminated some expensive real estate- Newport

Beach , Palos Verdes Estates- and ultimately caused the death of 14,000
Americans.. People were especially annoyed that Disneyland had to be closed

for decontamination.

And so, in the midterm elections, Republicans regained control of both the
House and Senate, and the rest is history.

The impeachment proceedings against President Obama for "failure to protect

and defend" were swift and nearly unanimous. Vice President Sibelius
resigned. Newly-elected Speaker of the House, J. C. Watts, became the 45th

President of the United States .

But you know the rest of the story well.

Republicans finished the war on Islamic fundamentalists, largely by aiming
ICBM's at Mecca and Medina .

No Democrat has been elected President since.

Republicans have held both Houses of Congress.

History of Western Civilization and Economics are now taught in all public
schools, and in English only.

Marriage is defined as one man and one woman.

And there are border fences, north and south.

We old codgers remember the ancient Confucian curse: "May you live in
interesting times."

Well, 2010 was an interesting year, but it was not a good year to be
president."

(Far fetched? We are likely to find out if we continue to be unaware of
the
issues and vote with our emotions rather than be studious in our approach
to
electing our "public officials".)

I dont care who you vote for just watch out for the herd crossing the road

[homedawg]