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Bipartisan Presidential cult Kool-Aid

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Presidential cult Kool-Aid
By: Tyler Allen
Posted: 6/1/09
Author Gene Healy believes Obama will go down in history as one of the least popular presidents of all time.

"Barack Obama's presidency will most likely be a failed presidency," Healy said.

But Healy isn't a staunch conservative paling around with Rush Limbaugh.

He is senior editor at the Cato Institute, author of "The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power" and a self-described libertarian.

Healy was at the Kansas City Public Library's downtown branch on April 29 to discuss his book and explain why he believes the presidential office holds too much power.

Healy used two terms to explain his predictions for Obama - the expectation gap and the decay curve.

"The expectation gap is the vast distance of what the public expects the president to do and what the president can actually accomplish," he said. "And no president, in more than a generation, has raised the expectations for the office as much as Barack Obama."

The decay curve, Healy said, describes the decline in popularity that occurs when the public realizes the president cannot accomplish everything he has promised to do.

Healy believes the American people place too much faith in the president, and that those elected to office play into and promote this idea.

He believes the president has far more power than the framers of the constitution intended him to have.

"We have a president that's expected to heal the sick and teach our children well, get you a job and democratize the world," he said. "We have a president today that can fire the CEO of GM and who stands behind the warrantee of your Chevy Suburban."

He blames this shift of massive power to the president on everyone, from American citizens to scholars and pundits.

Healy said his book is a nonpartisan critique of the office itself and not of one president. He believes both parties are responsible for giving too much power to the president.

He recognized George W. Bush did many things during his presidency to place an enormous amount of power in the hands of the president.

But he argues Obama is not doing much to reduce these powers.

"Many of the people who screamed bloody murder over George W. Bush's unilateralism, today are perfectly comfortable with Barack Obama having an enormous concentration of power," Healy said.

Healy laid out his problems with presidential power, but offered no solutions.

He only recognized the president's duties have strayed from the original purpose set forth by the founders of the U.S.

"When a presidential candidate promises to save the world and solve all of your problems, it's not going to be pretty," Healy said.
 
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