" Smoke and Mirrors!"

How many of you like the show "America's Got Talent"? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show it gives people from all walks of life a chance to showcase their hidden talents in hopes of winning one million dollars and a headline show in Las Vegas. The show is similar to "American Idol" with it's three judges and audience participation in choosing who will move on and who will not. Obviously most of the competition is composed of singers, everybody thinks they can sing, but there are other types of would be entertainers who participate. Dance troops, acrobats, magicians, dog acts, ventriloquists, and jugglers are also plentiful in their presence on the program. The days of variety shows have long past us by, Ed Sullivan, Gary Moore, and Jackie Gleason are names many of the younger generation would not recognize, yet at one time they were among the most powerful in show business. This new venue has recaptured some of the void left by the absence of the variety show. I always enjoyed magicians and jugglers, I guess it was their ability to use their hands to do many things at once dazzling the crowd with their speed which was so quick your eyes couldn't keep up with the action. Today there is an article in the news about how the administration of Barack Obama is re-defining the job recovery with some "different" methods to show job growth in today's damaged economy. Figures have been manipulated, statistics have been moved to change the standard by which job growth and "saved" jobs are calculated. In an atmosphere of rapidly falling polls and a dis-satisfied voters Barack Obama has decided to show off his talents of juggling and magic to the American people. Of course we have seen these talents revealed earlier by "Magic Barack", as he has explained away the lack of transparency of the "change we can believe in" since he took office. Just like any good magician Obama uses smoke and mirrors to fool and befuddle the audience, allowing his "lovely assistants" to distract the audience with false issues and imagined enemies, while the whole time he is performing his great acts of deception away from their watchful eyes. What happened in America in November of 2008? Did we elect a president or a traveling medicine show with a phony cure-all for America's problems? Juggling of numbers, manipulating statistics, distracting the public; are these the actions of a competent leader? The people of America deserve the truth, not a contrived scenario of lies and mis-statements constructed to hide the inadequacy of an administration that is in over it's head. We are the audience in this edition of "Barack's Got Talent", and it is up to us to see if he will continue on in his quest of " juggling and magic". As a member of the "audience" I am hoping that he will not move on, to continue to fool the people. We will get our chance to vote in November, let's not make a mistake!