OH YES, HE DOES HAVE EXPERIENCE – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  One of the charges hurled by our side against Barack Obama during the presidential campaign was that he lacked experience.  Now, we meant grown-up experience, the kind of thing you can do after you get your senior license. 

But, in fact, Barack Obama did have experience...in Illinois politics.  What he learned there he seems to be applying on a national scale.  And what did he learn?  Well, just look at Illinois today, after the legacy of "progressive" politics that Obama and his comrades left:

If you want to know what “progressive” policies will do to America in the long run, look no farther than the president’s home state....Despite the recession, there is no good reason that Illinois should be bleeding jobs and that its state budget should be on life support...

...Less than a decade ago, the state had money in the bank, unemployment was low and the outlook was bright. Illinois even managed to shrug off the mini-recession that followed 9-11 with barely a pause. Then, in 2003, Democrats took over complete control of state government, brimming with progressive policies that – cross their hearts and hope to die – wouldn’t hurt the state’s budget or damage its economy one little bit. Happy days, the bedazzled citizens of Illinois were told, were here again.

Seven years later, the Illinois’ economy is lies in smoldering ruins thanks to the progressive policies foisted upon its citizens by a cabal of Democrats that included then-state senator Barack H. Obama. Illinois ranks forty eighth in the nation in job loss, with over 200,000 jobs lost in 2009 alone and unemployment over eleven per cent. Our leading exports used to be corn and soybeans. Today, our number one export is college graduates, because young adults can’t find jobs in the state that gave them their education. In 2000, Illinois debt basically matched revenues. Now, the state’s total debt totals over $100 billion, almost four times annual revenue.

And...

There’s an object lesson here, for Illinois’ road to near-bankruptcy is eerily, and disturbingly, similar to the path that Congress and the Obama administration is leading the nation down today.

Finally...

Conservatives frequently hang the tag “socialist” on the president. The fact that he learned his political trade in Illinois suggests something else. Given his inability to speak coherently about practically any subject without the benefit of a script, it seems more likely that rather than being a mastermind, Barack Obama is – like Rod Blagojevich – just another useful idiot in a position of power.

COMMENT:  Illinois is one of the heavyweights among the blue states.  So are California, New York, and New Jersey.  All are in desperate financial trouble.  Yet, there seems little indication that the Democratic parties of those states have learned anything, or care to learn anything.  They will raise taxes where they can to keep the flow of pork projects going, and prolong their own careers.

Only in New Jersey is there light.  A terrific new Republican governor, Chris Christie, actually is bashing skulls and taking names, and addressing the fiscal crisis in his state head on.

Let's see how long he lasts.  

Obama was carefully taught in Illinois, and especially in the Chicago machine.  I wonder how the Illinois legislature would have dealt with Iran.

April 18, 2010