(Thomas Mitchell/4TH ST8) In the 1932 Popeye cartoon J. Wellington Wimpy was knee-slappingly funny as he negotiated for a hamburger by promising, “I’ll have a hamburger for which I will gladly pay you Tuesday.”
Wikipedia describes the Wimpy character thusly, “Wimpy is Popeye’s friend. In the cartoons he mainly plays the role of the ‘straight man’ to Popeye’s outbursts and wild antics. Wimpy is soft-spoken, very intelligent, and well educated, but also cowardly, very lazy, overly parsimonious and utterly gluttonous. He is also something of a scam artist and, especially in the newspaper strip, can be notoriously underhanded at times.”
In the 1930s we laughed at such a smarmy character. Today we call him Mr. President.
B. Hussein Obama, after promising to cut the deficit in half in 2009, has plopped down a ponderous volume known as his 2013 budget. If it had a ghost of a chance of passing — his 2012 tome was rejected by the Senate 0-97 — it would run up the deficit another $1.3 trillion dollars while continuing to borrow 40 cents of every dollar spent on today’s bailouts, bureaucrats and boondoggles.
In another cartoon Wimpy buys a fistful of fake pearls and then cons the diner owner into thinking he found a real pearl in his dime oyster. He then trades the “pearl” for a couple dozen hamburgers. Would it be too much of a stretch to try to make an analogy out of renewable energy subsidies partially paid for by higher taxes on oil and natural gas? Perhaps.
With that description of Wimpy above in mind, here’s a bit of the spiel Obama made in Nashua, N.H., earlier this week:
“Now, I know this is hard to believe, but some politicians are seeing higher gas prices as a political opportunity. You’re shocked, aren’t you? And right in the middle of an election year. Who would’ve thought? Recently, the lead of one news story said, ‘Gasoline prices are on the rise, and Republicans are licking their chops.’
“Licking their chops. I’ll tell you – only in politics do people respond to bad news with such enthusiasm. And you can bet we’ll be hearing more about those magic, three-point plans for $2 gas. Just like we heard about in the last election. Just like we’ve heard about for thirty years. You know the plans I’m talking about: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling.
“Well, if there’s one thing I know about New Hampshire, it’s that your political bull detector is pretty sharp. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices. You know there aren’t any quick fixes or silver bullets. If we’re going to take control of our energy future; if we’re going to avoid high gas prices every year, we need an all-of-the-above strategy that develops every source of American energy – not just oil and gas, but wind and solar and biofuels.”
When you next fill up your car with $4-a-gallon gasoline, just think how much better off you’ll be next Tuesday when President Wimpy pays us back by providing that windmill powered automobile. The needle on my political bull detector has hit the peg and wrapped around it.
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