Cronyism Is Alive and Well In the Obama Administration

One of the themes that the left wing crowd always harped on during the Bush administration was their claim that he, his administration and Republicans in general were in cahoots with big business. "Big business" being synonymous in their minds with evil corporations who were all out to screw the general public in their constant quest for money at all costs. They cried out about "cronyism" and the "good ol' boy" network, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…

Well, lets take a close look at the "cronyism" in the Obama administration.

First we have Obama appointing the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world to a post in his administration, "chairman of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, a newly named panel that Mr. Obama is creating by executive order", replacing Paul Volker.

So why Jeff Immelt? Could it be because of his business acumen and fine record of performance at GE? Not hardly. Immelt was voted one of the five worst CEO's in 2008 and GE stock has dropped by 60% since he took the helm.

Gee, I wonder if there could be another reason. How much did Immelt contribute to the Obama presidential campaign anyway? I wonder. It's no secret that Immelt is close to Obama and has broad support for him and his administration. Is this just the "good ol' boy" network being employed here?

Then we have the story about how the EPA has declared, with the full support of Obama, complete control over that deadly gas carbon dioxide, also known as CO2 (you know, that awful stuff we exhale and plants consume) and other greenhouse gases and labeled them as toxic. This will give them broad control over businesses, dictating their emission levels and of course that means that the EPA also has the authority to issue exemptions whenever it so desires.

The story hit the airwaves that none other than GE got an exemption from the new EPA regulations. In fact, a power plant project in California is the direct recipient of the exemption that will be fueled by natural gas. GE of course denied that they got the exemption because they aren't building the plant, they only are possibly going to supply key equipment such as turbines and generators.

So, does this strategic exemption, given to the power plant, pave the way for the use of the turbines, generators, etc. from GE to be used, that maybe otherwise wouldn't pass the new EPA regulations?

GE can deny it got a favor and Obama can deny he paid a favor to one of his cronies or gave preferential treatment to one business over another, but if GE equipment goes into that power plant the result is the same. The wheels got greased.

Want another example?

Obama's ambassador to Luxembourg was forced to leave her post after creating a high stress, hostile work environment, breaking state department rules and generally destroying the workability of the U.S. Embassy there. Cynthia Stroum cost U.S. taxpayers dearly according to an audit by the State Department Inspector General who referred to it as "The Horror Report of the Year".

Read the full story here: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/03/obamas-ex-ambassador-luxembourg-left-embassy-state-dysfunction-watchdog-finds/

Stroum, who had no apparent qualifications for the job, was coincidentally enough, one of Obama's top 25 fundraisers. She raised over a half million dollars for his campaign and personally gave over $150,000 to democrat candidates. Isn't that interesting. Gee, now we know what an ambassadorship costs. Just pony up some dough and you'll get your payback in the form of a cushy ambassador position somewhere.

The man who ran on the promise that he was going to change the way things are done in Washington seems to have LIED. He is doing just the opposite. He just has a different good ol' boy network of cronies, that's all.