I'm not much of a fan of Rush Limbaugh (see yesterday's post), but when he gets it right he gets it right. And he sure got it right yesterday in his explanation of what's been baffling so many people:

The president is presiding over economic failure. The president is watching it, doing nothing about it. He's watching unemployment grow; he's watching the stock market plummet; he is watching people sign up for unemployment. The president of the United States is doing nothing to stop the downward spiral of this economy. He has no economic recovery plan. The truth is, the president of the United States and Rahm Emanuel, who, remember, said, "Crisis is too great a thing to waste." What does that mean? They want you suffering, they want you miserable, they want it worse, they want you rejecting conservatism. They want you rejecting capitalism. They want you turning to them in fear and desperation and angst for an immediate fix to the problem. They want you thinking you have no ability to fix your own problems. They think you have and they want you to have no ability to take care of yourself. So as the stock market now approaches minus 2,800 since Obama was elected, the statement today is to speed up the economic recovery, we're going to focus on health care. Ask yourself how that is going to get you your next job.

Mistakes?

Really?

Except for a growing minority of "Tea Party" types, I think the American people are being far too naive.

I almost said they're not cynical enough, but Barack Obama is very fond of criticizing what he calls "cynicism" so I'll say they're not realistic enough.

Jeff Seidel writes for the embattled Detroit Free Press, and like many Obama voters these days, he's scratching his head. Yesterday (in a column titled "Help! I'm suffering from Obama overload!") he noted that the economy is in a dire state of collapse, but instead of focusing on that, Obama is being treated by the focusing classes as a rock star (with endlessly obsessive magazine cover adulation, politicians acting like groupies, etc.)

I voted for Barack Obama. He's smart and focused and talented. He is, as they used to describe quarterback Joe Montana, cooler than the other side of the pillow.

And I have faith that he will get us out of this economic mess.

Quick note to Obama: Dude, you are facing an insane crisis. If you are feeling stressed, go ahead and sneak a smoke. I think I speak for everybody when I say: I don't care what you do, just fix my 401(k).

Quick note to everyone else: Never smoke. It will kill you.

Quick note to Michael Phelps: Put that down. What were you thinking? Go eat some munchies and chill.

Anyhow, back to Obama. For weeks, I couldn't get enough of our basketball-playing prez. I'm a news junkie, and Obama was my fix. I read every story and watched every interview. But, sadly, I have a horrible admission to make: I'm developing Obama Fatigue.

He's in every magazine. He's on every TV show. He and his wife are everywhere, and my head is about to explode with Obama trivia -- from his struggle with cigarettes to his love of Stevie Wonder.

I guess I have a horrible admission to make too. I developed Obama Fatigue before he was elected. The best way to avoid the symptoms it is not to turn on the TV except to watch old movies, and avert my eyes from the Hollywood magazines at the supermarket checkout stand.

Because I know what it feels like to be let down, I can't help pity guys like Jeff Seidel, who is obviously not alone. However, his reaction is illustrative of the difference between ordinary liberals and hard core socialists. The former (trusting sorts, generally) either believe -- or especially want to believe -- that socialistic programs can be made to work. The latter know full well that socialism does not work, and that therefore its failure is their success.

What they most fear right now is the type of realism they like to characterize as "cynicism." Whether the cultural phenomenon called "Obamamania" is intended as a deliberate (dare I say "cynical"?) distraction is something I cannot prove, so I should probably leave it to the conspiracy theorists

For now, though, I think it's safe to say that Obama fatigue is not a paranoid conspiracy theory.....

MORE: Looking at the stock market freefall, Roger L. Simon asks a good question: "is the media mentally ill?"

I am not alone. Almost everyone is feeling this pain. Even, of course, the mainstream media, a large number of whom are losing their jobs and almost all of whom are seeing their savings vanish (unless they were smart enough to stay out of the market). But almost none of them are saying anything critical of Obama's policies which, obviously, the stock market - conventionally the predictor of our economy - thinks are dead wrong.

Cognitive dissonance? Mental imbalance? Slavish idolatry? Or just plain inability to admit you made a mistake? You tell me. Meanwhile, the market goes lower and lower while the media continues its hosannas to BHO. I could just say it's their futures, but it's ours too, the selfish creeps.

Being loudly and sanctimoniously right means never having to admit to being wrong.

MORE: "Too loud to be wrong" has a nice ring, eh?

(Sounds almost like "too big to fail"...)

MORE: Mickey Kaus reacts to a remarkable admission from Obama officialdom ("I'd rather live with a debt than have people go without health care") with a cynical realistic remark:

And here I almost believed Obama's health care plans were all about lowering costs and getting the budget under control.

Hmmm....

I think it would take a rube to believe that the goal was all about improving the health care system...

On the bright side, maybe we're in for a rube awakening!

UPDATE: More here on Barack Obama's intentional destruction of the economy:

Why would Obama inflict these destructive policies while the economy is collapsing? Simple. Each step strengthens the role of government in people's lives.

• Squelching the stock market kills its attractiveness as a parking lot for private capital. Combined with an increase in the capital gains tax, investors will swarm to bonds -- tax-free vehicles like municipal bonds, which benefit the growth of state and local government. And unions, of course.

• Carbon cap-and-tax will raise taxes on all Americans as the cost of goods and services will increase to address a non-existent threat.

• True tax cuts would grow the economy, which is why, of course, Obama shuns them. The last major recession was Jimmy Carter's malaise. It consisted of of double-digit inflation and unemployment. It was finally licked by across-the-board tax cuts for everyone (even the despised rich), which touched off a twenty-plus year run of prosperity.

• Charities reduce the role of government assistance for those in need. That, in Obama's world, can not be tolerated. That is why charities must be choked off and allowed to die. Especially faith-based institutions.

The only plausible explanation is that Obama's destruction of the economy is intentional.

It is based on a failed ideology that has never -- and can never -- succeed.

And I'm not the only one who thinks so....

The other possibility, of course, is that he's clueless. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, and after the Geithner/Daschle/Richardson/Killefer/Carrion/Kirk problems, incompetence is looking like the strong horse.