Grasping for Feathers

I've been trying to think of a good metaphor for the Obama Administration's economic policy. From bailouts (which in fairness began under the Bush Administration, but has been perfected over the past three months), to wild spending on who-knows-what, to the latest outrage where the president literally fired the CEO of General Motors (cementing the socialist direction in which they are taking the nation)... well, it leaves one wanting for a suitable metaphor.

My first inclination was the imagery of someone throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded and basing policy decisions on wherever the dart lands. That seemed too random, though; economic policy hasn't been so much "all over the place" -- there is too much of a common theme for that analogy to apply -- as it has been "everything and the kitchen sink"... which was my second metaphor idea, but it was too unoriginal.

I think the better analogy is from a classic cartoon: Do you recall the Looney Toons cartoon where Sylvester was chasing Tweety, who had gotten into Dr. Jekyll's "Hyde" formula and kept transforming into a large monster-bird? At one point, while Tweety was in "monster" form, he picked Sylvester up in his talons and began flying off with him; however, in mid-flight, he transformed back into Tweety at which point he was no longer able to carry Sylvester's weight. Terrified of falling, Sylvester begins grasping at Tweety's tail feathers, trying to get enough feathers in his hands to flap as wings to break his fall (remember this is a cartoon). Needless to say, he wasn't very successful.

This is the image that I have of the Obama Administration. They are grasping at every policy that they can get their hands on, regardless of cost, and regardless of whether or not it has a snowball's chance of actually working. It seems that they have believed their own rhetoric about "the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression" to the point that they are nearly in a panic. (As I have said before, just how bad the current recession will be remains to be seen, but regardless, the Chicken Little mentality is far from helpful.) Of course, it also affords them the chance to trot out every big-government program that Washington liberals have wanted to enact for the past thirty years. Even some European leaders, hardly known for their laissez-fair capitalist tendencies, are beginning to look askance at the furious rate at which the president is transforming our economy into a state-run enterprise.

Nonetheless, I stand by my analogy: When it comes to economic policy, the Obama Administration is grasping for feathers.