The question felt like a sucker punch, taking Angela Boozhoo’s breath away.
Boozhoo and her husband had just missed a mortgage payment — their first missed payment on their house. She’s a homemaker, with four children at home, now looking for a job, and her husband, Patrick, a metal fabricator has been out of work since February.
“We’re nervous. This is the first month we’ve fallen behind,” the 39-year-old rural Rock County woman said. ‘We are, like, ‘What’s going to happen now? We’ve got to find a job.”
It was Boozhoo’s 16-year-old daughter who asked the question, stunning her mother.
“She said, ‘Mom, I’m really worried. Are we going to lose the house?’” Boozhoo said. “My heart just … That’s not something you should be worried about when you’re 16. You should be worried about your grades and school and talking to your girlfriends, or your next trip to the mall.”
A lot of families have found themselves in a similar position over the past four-plus years, muddling through a gut-wrenching recession and an anemic recovery.
Boozhoo tuned into Wednesday night’s first debate, held in Denver, between President Barack Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney, with more than a passing interest.
She is a Mormon leaning toward Obama, but she said she is far from having made up her mind.
“What I’m looking for is hopefully to get some answers,” Boozhoo told Wisconsin Reporter before the debate.
By about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, she wasn’t any closer to knowing, although she did come away with a reinforced opinion that Romney isn’t as connected to what the average American is going through.
The easy line here is to draw attention to the obvious Boozhoo / Bozo connection, but in truth, reading this kind of thing leaves me cold and sad and more than a little bit angry.
The family is in arrears on their mortgage payment; the husband has lost a manufacturing job; they have a sixteen-year-old daughter who is beginning to worry they’ll lose the family home.
And yet this woman still can’t make up her mind — even after nearly four years of economic stagnation. Romney noted last evening that, even among those with jobs, earnings have dropped precipitously. And then there are the hidden taxes in gas and electricity prices, food prices, clothing prices, and health care costs.
Obama wants to allow the Bush tax rates to expire. He will raise rates on those small businesses that employ nearly a quarter of American workers. This leads to a contraction of those businesses, loss of jobs for workers, and net less revenue for the government — along with a continuation of the trend line of ever slower growth.
In short, Obama’s policies — whether you believe them intentionally designed to do so or not — are creating economic misery, just as sure as did Jimmy Carter’s, the major difference being Carter wasn’t manipulative enough to artificially keep interest rates so low.
Romney’s policies, some conservative, some RINO / Democrat-lite, would certainly lead to a boom in growth, which in turn would, as it did under Reagan, lead to the creation of jobs and a renewed interest in US investment. We’d begin the process of driving down energy costs; and we can begin the very real hard work of tearing away all that bureaucratic legislation, which carries the force of unvoted-upon law, to reduce onerous and often obscene and absurd compliance costs. The administrative state was never meant to be it’s own branch of government. It needs to be severely pruned.
Still, none of this appealed to this “undecided,” sad, dull woman. Instead, she’s still concerned that Romney doesn’t really connect — doesn’t feel her pain — in the way Obama says he does, but has shown he does not.
The Democrats have her frightened and, soon, dependent. This is how they grow their base. And because the media and the Obama campaign have done such a solid job of creating the public character of “Mitt Romney” — while the Romney camp has done such a poor job of revising the narrative in their favor — our fate as a country is left up to people who, without jobs and about to lose their homes, still nevertheless cling to hope and change.
That’s no way to save a republic.
“Reinforced opinion” pretty much captures the problem.
Sums up my concerns. They’ve made all the facts so confusing to people that aren’t interested in paying attention (or don’t know how to), that without at least more of a cultural backbone for people to cling to, I simply don’t see how you save this country. Just yesterday on Facebook someone was claiming that less people are on welfare now than under Bush. What.
It’s a group of people that want to be lied to: Lied on why they should only eat Government foods, lead Government lives, and then die “for the sake of others.” While the thin elite, horrible at both Math and morals, dine on top.
Romney’s fine with assuming Conservative/Classical Liberal principles can’t be explained or at least look attractive to 47%, I’m not.
Of course we both first post on this one, Charles.
The problem, as illustrated here, is that people are stupid.
Because they’re too busy watching Honey Boo Boo and dancing with the stars to read a serious newspaper or read a book and figure out how things WORK.
They want to be told. Obama is telling them, in simple, unsupported argument. And they prefer that.
This woman – and her family – may be lost. It doesn’t matter who the candidate was.
People don’t want competent leadership; they want a leader who feels their pain.
…or their ladyparts.
Self-denounced.
You’re correct, Car. But there’s nothing to explain to stupid people why they should have principles. Why they should take pride in their freedom, and not the promise of free stuff in exchange for it.
Because culturally all they have are Honey Boo Boo, or silly soft Christian “I’m Okay, you’re okay” “Self-help” books, or tv written by LA writers who don’t understand the first thing about small business. They have nothing to explain to them, on their level, this stuff.
That’s why I’m confused at the surprise that Obama sucked at this debate. Of course he did. He has no facts on his side, and since he only wants to be adored, he doesn’t even bother to learn the fake alt-history facts taught by MSNBC and the like.
…or their ladyparts.
Self-denounced.
Speaking of:
@ToddKincannon
Right now, David Axelrod is asking a crying Barack Obama: “Show me on the doll where the bad man touched you.”
Bwahahahahhahaha..
Most of the population wants to be lied to and they will go with whoever lies to them best. They don’t all want to hear the same lies, but damn few people want to hear the truth. So we will continue to lurch towards the precipice with salvation promised at the break of the next day — right up until the point we go over the edge.
I don’t think the populace is going to like barbarism nearly as much as they seem to imagine.
It took a lot of stupid to get us where we are and it’s not going away any time soon.
To put it more in your light, Charles, it’s that there’s only even one set of lies that gets me. Lies is the basis of storytelling. “Do this, and not only do you get a happy ending, but it’s the best ending ever!”
And I just feel like the modern GOP is too much “Of course their way is the best way. But mathematically we can’t afford it yet. Here, look at this pie chart explaining…”
But there’s nothing to explain to stupid people why they should have principles. Why they should take pride in their freedom, and not the promise of free stuff in exchange for it.
I don’t think stupid people are LOST forever, but I simply don’t believe they can be swayed by a debate because they do not understand much of what is being discussed. Obama gets cheers and support at his rallies, because for them the BS he spews is substantive. it’s easy to be fooled, when you’re a fool.
But long, sustained, assault by actual logic and facts – they can eventually be won over.
I don’t think the principals I believe, and we believe, are too complicated for the uneducated to follow. But it takes more than a commercial or a speech.
The simple argument wins – which is why people love Obama. But they’ve had 4 years of reality to counter that. Hopefully enough of them have begun to doubt.
And I honestly believe that people have had enough, Car. It’s certainly the basic “Wake up” reality that Americans have moved past before, and we’re probably not past the tipping point quite yet (unless Obama can buy him enough votes in swing states).
Both candidates claim to want to help small business. And the facts require you to be actively engaged enough to sort through the surface layer of things. So of course the tipped scale for Angela is that Obama seems to feel her pain, and maybe isn’t as rich as Romney (because that’s bad, right?), and the status quo feels nice.
But she’s literally choosing a candidate that shares her faith over the candidate she hopes will get her daughter more shopping trips, and no amount of facts alone will help her understand why that’s shameful.
Switch that last part. Choosing the shopping candidate over the “Shares her morals” candidate.
Ah, you get what I mean. I’ve dominated this thread enough.
oth candidates claim to want to help small business. And the facts require you to be actively engaged enough to sort through the surface layer of things.
Yes, like owning a small business. I used to laugh when he said he helped small businesses, now I just get enraged.
So of course the tipped scale for Angela is that Obama seems to feel her pain, and maybe isn’t as rich as Romney (because that’s bad, right?), and the status quo feels nice.
Cool. i hope Angela finds a nice underpass for her family to live
inunder.I gotta wonder if the woman in that story is real, or is she is a liberal “composite” of some people the reporter knows (or overheard talking in a grocery store line).
Ha! True enough, Car.
Boozhoo ? That surname sounds like slang for a dumb sleazy barfly hussy. Booze-hootchie -> Boozhoo.
“Yes, like owning a small business. I used to laugh when he said he helped small businesses, now I just get enraged.”
Obama helped small business exactly the same way that the wheel of pain helped the people who were chained to it.
Hey at least when the Boozhoo’s lose their house after voting for the guy they lost their house under they’ll have awesome dudes like Jimmy Carter to build them a new one.
If she’s really a Mormon, she doesn’t have anything to worry about. The church helps out. They won’t starve. And if they have to move to an apartment or a smaller home, then they move.
Unless, of course, she’s not a Mormon at all, or she was baptized back in the day but hasn’t darkened the doorway since. Or has ignored her bishop’s counsel to live within their means.
Who knows? These sob-stories always turn out to be less “sob” than “story.”
I hear that catholics and lutherans provide food, clothing and limited shelter access to people who need it. Either that or those people up at my church are up to something and using that sort of assistance/charity as a cover.
I bet baptists and Episcopalians do it too.
David Axelrod Explicitly Asks Press To Make The Case Against Romney That Obama Can’t
David Axelrod (from the link):
“‘And so today, as the day after, I think the question for you [the media], for the American people is really one of character and whether or not a candidacy that’s so fundamentally rooted in hiding the truth and the facts from the American people and deception is the basis of trust on which you assign the presidency to a person.”
Missing from his remarks:
“But we also ask the media to please keep on ignoring that whole “Dead Ambassador in Benghazi” thing for as long as possible. Otherwise that awful, un-Presidential, deceptive truth hider Romney might win.”
Has Axelrod told us yet that he was the sire of communists, and that Obama’s real dad is Frank Marshall Davis?
Wonder if he wants the media digging into those hidden truths.
Whose side is he on, anyway?
That stories mentions a Marquette Law poll showing Obama up by 11. In a state that just voted Walker. Let that sink in.
redeem myself? When I came across this I was amazed at how cruel and rude people really are. Yes I am Mormon. College degree educated. Husband part owner of small business that split and could not continue on with. Native American…Thus the last name Boozhoo meaning Hello or greetings in Ojibwa. I am real, I am undecided, Have been reading and trying to educate myself on both candidates. Scared to death that either one is all we here in America have to offer. Neither one is going to be able to do what we need to get done to make America what is used to be. Lied to, cheated, and deceived by the government is all I see. Out of touch with reality is what both candidates are. I think Obama understands a little better what I am going through, does not make him a better person for the job and I am not going to vote for him because he feels my pain. I might just have to start to look for an underpass for my family thank you…car. So I believe we are where many Americans have found themselves, out of work, barely making ends meet, searching for jobs…since the report my husband has taken a job with a company and is now working full-time. Which ,William, will not only buy my daughter more shopping trips to the mall…but pay the bills and keep us from out of the underpass. When I said something about my daughter not having to worry about not having a home to live in, I meant maybe she should not have to worry about things like that but just be a kid. What do kids do these days? Well, she works a lot, goes to school, is very active with her church and friends and yes they sometimes go to the mall.
Why do you think Obama “understands a little better” than Romney what you are going through? And when did it become part of the Presidents job description that he had to be an empath? I am glad your husband found work. I am glad your daughters fears are somewhat allayed. But I am curious as to how your husband found the job.
“redeem myself? When I came across this I was amazed at how cruel and rude people really are. ”
If you want to be offended that badly by something that was not directed at you then have at it. But I have no time or energy for entertaining drama guilt over supposed “cruelty(TM)” by “undecided” concern trolls and their lame but obvious rigamarole.
Obama, his anti employment, anti small business, anti property, and anti-industry policies, his clean energy fiasco, his money printing, his massive over spending, his borrowing, his moronic attempt to substitute a cult of personality assisted by a curiously silent and compliant press for an actual foreign policy, is a HUGE part of why houses are being lost. His attempts to pass off any and all criticism as racism are horrific.
If you support that then you are part of the problem and don’t deserve sympathy or the hot house flower/gentle lamb skin glove treatment. Lives have been RUINED, laws have been gutted and remade while you whined about who understands manufactured phantoms of political marketing and they were ruined by the man you CLAIM understands the middle class and its troubles. Those troubles were exacerbated tremendously by this man and his clueless or uncaring partisan enablers such as yourself. And if he gets another four years it will get much worse for all of us.
If you care.
If that helps you with your “DECISION”, as you call it, based on silly one sided political fairy stories about good princes and wicked witches that bear no resemblance to the out of control banana republic reality we are forced to face each day.
We just had a guy arrested for making a stupid youtube movie so the president could pretend that it had something to do with him watching people die in Bhengazi. We have a president who hid documents explaining why his dept. of justice sold arms across the border to Mexico where they were used in over 300 deaths on both sides o the border and then tried to blame it all on George Bush. So I don’t much care about drama over tender feelings at this point.
I am going to continue to mock those crook’sidiotic fairy stories and the boobs and dullards they are created to fool. And I”m going to mock the elitist snakes that peddle such crap in place of real news.
They deserve to be mocked. Every bit of it. And more.
They can tsk tsk opportunistically about civility all they want while Obama wraps them up like a spider wraps a paralyzed fly and while his allies and cohorts threaten and condemn any one who won’t play ball. They don’t fool me a damned bit. They are part of the reason for all this misery. They share that blame and that guilt. They helped this awful mess to come to pass.
*applause*