Dispatches from the wingnut-O-sphere – Powerline Blog Edition, sigh

The Guy Who Thinks Global Warming is Hoax perpetrated by tricksy scientists and once called George Bush a Genius just wrote this about President Obama’s appearance on TV last night:

The President was the Obama we have all come to expect: hyper-partisan and divisive, to a degree I have never seen in any other chief executive. And I go back to Eisenhower. His talk was full of transparent lies. And Obama is an economic illiterate, which has resulted in most Americans writing him off as a failure. A plurality of Americans regard him as a terrible president. So one wonders whether anyone was listening to him tonight with an open mind.

Obama’s performance was, in my view, awful. Why? Because, as the president has revealed himself to be inept on one issue after another, the lingering question has always been: is he, nevertheless, some sort of political genius? After all, his one undoubted talent is fundraising; he is the greatest money-machine in the history of American politics.

Blogger John Hinderaker

Let us look back 10 years and see how we got to this point economically. As the internets tell me, 10 years ago, George Bush inherited a 6 Trillion Dollar projected Surplus which turned that into 6 Trillion in debt 10 years later. What the hell happened:

According to a recent C.B.O. report, [the Bush tax cuts] reduced revenue by at least $2.9 trillion below what it otherwise would have been between 2001 and 2011. Slower-than-expected growth reduced revenue by another $3.5 trillion. Spending was $5.6 trillion higher than the C.B.O. anticipated for a total fiscal turnaround of $12 trillion. That is how a $6 trillion projected surplus turned into a cumulative deficit of $6 trillion.

Add in the unpaid for wars that Bush didn’t win and the unpaid for Medicare Drug Benefit and you have a real mess. So if one is talking about economic illiteracy, it should also be noted that President Obama inherited an economic disaster that was largely constructed during the Bush Administration. So if Obama is economically illiterate, as Hinderaker puts it, what does this sad fact tell us about the fella’ that called George Bush is a genius? It tells us that he needs help. Living inside the bubble of right-wing counter-culture does this to you.