WHISTLING IN THE GRAVEYARD

President Obama is busing around Middle America there trying to buoy up his chances for re-election next year. His best friends, it may turns out, are the Republicans who seem to have a kind of bizarre death wish as they back the Bible-toting, homophobic, Obama-hating Michelle Bachman.

That’s all pretty obvious. Even more obvious is the emptiness of the Obama speeches – sounding more like a pep rally than a genuine look at what ails the country. He toured Minnesota and told them how wonderful they were. From there he went Iowa where he mouthed platitudes like: “America will come out of all this stronger than ever.” Brave words. Empty words. You can’t escape with rhetoric and fine oratory anymore. You have not made a specific statement in months. To keep on proclaiming that “America is the greatest country on earth and Americans are the hardest working people on earth, simply isn’t going to cut it. It may bolster his popularity which popped up a whole 2 percentage points in the last few days but is still under 50%.

The interesting note here has to be that his Republican wannabees accuse him of bad-mouthing America. It is not allowed. No politician who thinks he can win does it by poor-mouthing America's performance. The other point he made, and it got the applause he expected, “recovery is not something that can be done by Washington!” Pure pandering to the voters’ worst instincts. Please, if not by Washington – who? The tooth fairy.

The last few weeks the media have been full of stories about how American corporations are sitting on billions in cash – billions that they will not put to work to create jobs. The story is that they are worried by the uncertainty. They should worry – they are the authors of most of it.

Obama did, to give him some credit, talk about how much there is to be done: schools, construction projects – all labour-intensive – and all provided of course by Washington, or through Washington by the States.

There is nothing new in what Warren buffet said the other day. He, and other rich people like George Soros, have long said that they and all the rest of the billionaires should be paying their share. Buffet said that the total percentage he paid on income was less than the percentage being paid by a secretary in his company. The reason of course is that much of the Omaha tycoon’s profit comes from capital gains, and those are a sacred cow – sacred for the wealthy of course. The same could be said of mortgage interest deductibility. It is a boon to the people who can afford to own houses. It has also been part of the problem of overheating demand in the housing market.

Looking back at everything he has said, and aside from the jingoistic stuff about how great the country is, he did manage to say that construction was the biggest mover of the economy. No secret there. Construction is the biggest employer in America – and in Canada too.

The stories about the big corporations hoarding money in their treasures told another sad tale: the accumulated capital held by just four major companies would be enough to buy back all the repossessed houses in America!

As long as Michelle Backman and Texas Governor Perry are the front runners, America has a lot to fear. And it won’t heal itself because America is the greatest …blah, blah blah