BHO a Manichean Subsidizing Failure

Finally someone else has said it.

Our present President has an awful habit of dividing the world into two categories. Sometimes it's two categories of straw men, followed by the signature declaration "I reject that false choice." But that rhetorical trope is just a step on the way to what BHO does as a habit of thought: dividing the world into the good and the evil, always along clear lines of identity politics.

Seven times since the ascent of the anointed Obama we have invoked the term "Manichean" to describe this awful habit of designating some children of light and others children of darkness.

Now Mona Charen joins us, in no uncertain terms, prompted by the failure of BHO's Home Affordable Modification Program (motto: We wanted to call it HEMP, but we made a mistake). We quote her opening and her closing:

President Obama has a weakness for thinking in categories. For someone who provokes swoons among liberals for his great intellect, he has repeatedly evidenced an unsophisticated, one might even say simple-minded, view of the world: Workers good; bosses exploitative. Borrowers good; lenders bad. Patients good; insurance companies bad. Again and again, the president and his spokesmen have justified their expansions of government power as efforts to help those who "through no fault of their own" find themselves in difficulties. . . .

In contrast to the Obama morality play, the foreclosure crisis was not a conspiracy of the rich and powerful against dutiful homeowners reliably making their monthly payments. It was the result of multiple follies by government, bankers, and individuals. President Obama’s instinct to insulate people from the consequences of their bad decisions (and yes, sometimes bad luck) amounts to subsidizing failure. The results are coming in daily--persistent high unemployment, an anemic recovery, and billions upon billions of wasted taxpayer money.

A Manichean subsidizing failure. We think there's no better characterization for the present failure.

It started as a populist campaign ploy, and we all hoped that Obama was just involved in a cynical campaign ploy, not really believing what he said. Then he tried to govern that way. Now we know we should believe what we're told.