OBAMA: Color inside the lines

Quote of the day: “Despite all the challenges that we face in this new century, what they (the Republican National Convention) offered… was better suited to the last century. You might as well have watched it on a black-and-white TV.”

Apparently “this new century” is some kind of a bright new beginning for President Obama and he is here to fill it in for us with living color. He tells us “It will require … the kind of bold persistent experimentation that FDR employed.” Wait a minute. If we’re going back to the Roosevelt era, perhaps you might as well have listened to it on the radio.

Anyway, up until this moment of enlightenment we Americans were led to believe that the last century represented the most innovative and productive hundred-year period in the history of man. Things we use daily, the automobile, the airplane, television, computers, telecommunications and the like were all invented and developed during the 20th century. Even the president’s airplane and his teleprompter were developed back then. And it was all done using an economic model called American capitalism — a model based on the immutable laws of supply and demand.

Of course, the 20th century was not without a few bumps in the road. It seems as if there was a war going on somewhere most of the time and there were recessions and the big one called the Great Depression. Even so, American exceptionalism prevailed and led the way from the horse and buggy to a man on the moon. It produced a standard of living unknown to those who came before.

This new century the president talks about is just 12 years old, still in its infancy. During this short time, our government’s “bold persistent experimentation” has managed to increase our national debt from $5.6 trillion to more than $16 trillion. If that is what “bold persistent experimentation” produces, perhaps we’d better break out our black-and-white TVs and re-explore the last century and what came before. The nation’s founders laid out the guidelines for our system of government more than two centuries ago.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Mr. President, if you want to color in “this new century” for us, please keep the tips of your crayons inside those lines!

BOB LaRUE

Hauser