Newsmax columnist and former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root has fantasized about Obama's resignation, likened the president to Hannibal Lecter, and peddles exaggerations and falsehoods about him.
By Terry Krepel Posted 3/28/2012
It appears that Newsmax -- despite its stabs at mainstream acceptance -- is required to have at least one columnist on staff who mindlessly bashes Democrats in general and a Democratic president when there is one.
Wayne Allyn Root
In the past, this role has been filled by the likes of John LeBoutillier, Phil Brennan, and John L. Perry. LeBoutillier -- who hated President Clinton so much, he tried to create a "Counter Clinton Library" -- writes sparingly for Newsmax these days, mostly fretting about how none of the Republican presidential candidates will be able to defeat President Obama. Brennan appears to be fading away, having written only one column for Newsmax in 2011. Perry was unceremoniously booted after a decade of writing for Newsmax (which laughably and dishonestly portrayed Perry as an "unpaid blogger" in an effort to distance itself from him) when he essentially advocated for a military coup to deal with America's "Obama problem."
Dalliances with rabidly anti-Muslim writer and part-time birther Pamela Geller aside, the field was wide open at Newsmax for someone to be its living personification of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Wayne Allyn Root, come on down!
A onetime sports handicapper who was the 2008 Libertarian Party candidate for president, Root has worked with Newsmax in non-columnist capacities, such as anchoring an infomercial for Newsmax's financial products. But it's his column -- and his increasingly wild and angry anti-Obama bent over the past year or so -- that he has become known for.
Birtherism and Hannibal Lecter
Root fantasized about Obama's resignation in his Sept. 7 column:
President Barack Obama has the most important speech of his presidency on Thursday. A speech built around creating jobs and inspiring economic recovery. You want an economic recovery? You want jobs? Two magical words are needed to change the course of history.
Two words change the future for millions of desperate unemployed Americans. Two words transform a depression into a boom. Two words motivate and inspire every business owner in America to create jobs. Two words free the U.S. economy from the current doom, despair, debt, depression, misery, and malaise.
Only two words need to be uttered by President Obama’s lips: “I resign.”
Imagine an Obama-Free America.
Overnight 2 1/2 years of pain are erased. Trillions of dollars and millions of jobs are brought back into the USA. Millions of business owners breathe a sigh of relief and begin to plan their recovery. Investors begin investing again, unleashing a torrent of buying and business expansion.
Root followed that up in his Sept. 19 column, suggesting that Obama was like Hannibal Lecter:
President Barack Obama delivered a masterful and forceful speech on jobs a couple of weeks ago. He must think we are all lambs, sheeple, or complete idiots.
He must be counting on business owners being as ignorant as the traditional Obama voters who cry at his rallies and gush to the camera, “Now I’ll never have to worry about paying rent, or putting gas in my car.”
He must assume we are so naïve that we have forgotten or forgiven all Obama has done to demonize and punish business owners, and damage our businesses.
Obama must think we work so hard, we have no time to read the news. He must think that he can fool all the people, all the time. He must think we listen to what a man says, but we ignore what he does.
He must be hoping we’ll all remain silent, while he redistributes our money, targets and punishes business owners, destroys the U.S. economy, and poisons capitalism. He is counting on “the Silence of the Lambs.”
But I won’t be silenced. Neither will over 30,000,000 American small business owners. We aren’t lambs, or sheeple, or complete fools. You can fool some of the people Mr. Obama, but not all of the people. Some of us watch what you do, not what you say.
Root is so much of an Obama-hater that he embraces birtherism (while, of course, he's doing any such thing. In his April 20, 2011, column, Root declared that Donald Trump "has brilliantly brought up an issue that millions of Americans are pondering." Root kicked off this venture into birtherism with a lie, asserting that "Main Street Americans are rightfully concerned to learn that it is impossible to get a passport in America without a long-form birth certificate, yet we’ve allowed a man to become president without the same document." In fact, as FactCheck.org pointed out, the birth certificate Obama has provided satisfies legal requirements for proving citizenship and obtaining a passport.
After more denial that he's a birther -- "Asking Obama to prove his background does not make you extreme, or crazy, or a lunatic. It does not even make you a 'birther'" -- Root sounds even more like one:
Do I personally believe Obama was born in a foreign country? I have no idea. I am not a birther, but I do believe there might be something damaging hidden in his college if not his birth records.
Why do I think that? Because Obama behaves suspiciously. Because he hires armies of lawyers to keep his records sealed. I also believe all Americans have a right to ask the question of the man who commands our army and our economy.
Ironically, the more Obama refuses to produce the proof, and the more millions of dollars he spends on legal maneuvering to hide that proof, the more concerned Americans become. Obama is the one stoking the fire, not Trump.
Why exactly is Obama not destroying Trump’s political career by producing the birth certificate? It is so easy and simple — show it and the circus ends instantly. Trump’s gamble would turn into the biggest losing bet in modern political history.
Root exaggerated again; the idea that Obama "hires armies of lawyers to keep his records sealed" is highly misleading.
Root used his Jan. 20 column to peddle yet another unproven anti-Obama conspiracy in arguing that Mitt Romney shouldn't release his tax returns until Obama releases his college transcripts.
Root declared that since he and Obama attended Columbia University at the same time, "I’m Obama’s college classmate," yet :"I never met Obama. Never saw him. Never even heard of him. And not one of my friends in the Class of '83 ever met him, saw him, or heard of him." Given that Columbia is a very large university -- currently more than 20,000 students -- that's not as surprising as Root makes it out to be.
Root added: "The Wall Street Journal reported in 2008 that Fox News randomly called 400 of our Columbia classmates and never found one who had ever met Obama. Strange set of circumstances, don’t you think?" But that same Journal editorial quotes Obama's Columbia roommate -- thus undercutting Root's argument. Nevertheless, he asks, "why do his classmates at Columbia not remember Obama? Was he a ghost? Did he never show up at class?" As FactCheck.org pointed out, it's "absolutely untrue" that nobody remembers Obama attending Columbia.
After speculating that Obama was hiding "bad grades" yet managed to get into major universities and Harvard Law School, Root went off the conspiracy deep end:
Fourth, I’ve heard it rumored that Obama got a leg up by being admitted to Columbia as a foreign exchange student. Is that true? Did he hold a passport from Indonesia? Did he receive easier admission by portraying himself as a foreigner? Did he receive financial aid as a foreign student — something not available to true-blue American classmates like me?
I asked one of my lawyer buddies to call Columbia U. and ask the simple question, “Can foreigners get aid to go to college at Columbia?” The answer, “Yes, we have lots of aid for foreign students. They might be able to get their entire tuition paid and go to Columbia for free.”
So did Obama portray himself as a foreigner to get easy admission and a free ride? He was raised in Indonesia. Did his mother ever change him back to a U.S. citizen? Or was this all too easy because he still had Indonesian citizenship and passport? If so, is he qualified to be president of the United States today? I don’t know. But shouldn’t someone in the media be interested in asking these questions?
As Snopes detailed, the never-substantiated claim that Obama passed himself off as a foreigner to obtain scholarship money for college comes from an anti-Obama email proven to be fraudulent.
In asserting that nobody has "asked these questions," Root is deliberately ignoring the fact that people did ask these questions -- and found nothing to support them.
Getting it wrong
Root's columns tend to be heavy on exaggeration and anti-Obama fearmongering. Root used his Feb. 1, 2011, column to rant about the extremely unlikely occurrence of Egypt-style protests in the U.S., smearing Obama by asserting that "small signs hint that Obama might turn out to be just as intolerant to dissent as Mubarak":
So how will President Obama react to massive protests, riots, and revolt in the United States?
Will he choose to shut down the Internet?
He criticizes Mubarak, yet Obama is already asking Congress for the authority to do just that (without judicial review). Will Obama cut off access to Facebook and Twitter?
Will he try to shut down talk radio and Fox News? Obama and his Democratic allies have already suggested doing that (before a true crisis) with “The Fairness Act.”
Will Obama attempt to ban guns? He has lately indicated that he will increase measures that tighten gun control.
Will Obama call in the military to contain the riots of unemployed, hungry, angry youth here in America’s biggest cities?
Will he allow free speech — even if massive protests call for Obama to step down?
Root gets lots of stuff wrong here:
The backers of the bill that would give the president the authority to "shut down the Internet" were a Republican and an independent -- not Obama.
Even if Obama was pushing for a return of the Fairness Doctrine -- which he's not -- it would not "shut down talk radio and Fox News"; it would merely require opposing viewpoints to be presented. And the Fairness Doctrine has never been applied to cable TV, so Fox wouldn't be affected by it at all.
The Obama White House had not stated what positions Obama would take regarding guns at the time Root wrote his column, so he could not possibly know if Obama would "tighten gun control."
Root falsely blamed Obama for high state taxes in his June 21 column:
The lesson of "Atlas Shrugged" is that without the $100,000 earners paying into Social Security, there are no pensions for the poor and lower middle class.
Without the wealthy owners of million-dollar mansions paying $25,000 and $50,000 annual property tax bills, there is no funding for public schools. Without the wealthy paying into Medicare, there is no “free” healthcare for the elderly.
Without capitalists motivated by profit, there are no discoveries to eradicate polio or create miraculous cancer and AIDS drugs. Without capitalists motivated by profit, there are no jobs, period!
Ayn Rand was warning the looters that there are consequences to their overzealous actions. She was warning that if the productive classes felt used, demonized, ripped off, and taken for granted, they would go on strike.
The latest census proves Ayn Rand right. Under Obama the wealthy are striking, voting with their feet. They are moving to low-tax red states in droves, escaping from high-tax blue states where they are being demonized and punished by the millions.
The census proves that Obama’s tax and spend philosophy is a dismal failure, an economic disaster killing jobs.
But it's not Obama raising taxes in those "high-tax blue states" -- it's the states themselves. Obama has no control over state tax rates. And moving to "low-tax red states" is hardly the same thing as the total work stoppage depicted in "Atlas Shrugged." Going to Florida or Texas is not "going Galt" if the person is otherwise employed.
In his Nov. 4 column blaming public-sector employees for "why we are suffering the Obama Great Depression," Root cited one example: "According to USA Today and the New York Post, Firemen in Las Vegas average just under $200,000 per year."
We couldn't find any instance in which either USA Today and the New York Post made that claim -- perhaps because even if they had, it would be false.
What actually happened, according to a Las Vegas TV station, is that some fire department employees in another city in Nevada -- not Las Vegas -- were making more than $200,000 a year by racking up overtime. Not an "average," not by salary alone. The fire chief in that town said it was cheaper to pay someone overtime than to hire and train additional personnel.
In fact, Las Vegas firefighters recently signed a new labor deal in which they will not receive a cost-of-living raise for the third year in a row and see their health insurance costs increase. A Las Vegas councilman said that the city "didn’t have the same problems" with overtime as other cities did.
Not having his facts straight, however, didn't keep Root from ranting anyway:
When Obama creates new government jobs, he’s just created a massive new obligation for taxpayers. Not just an expense for this year, but an expense for 50 or more years (until the day each government employee dies). In some cases, it’s even worse. When a government employee dies, their bloated pension is paid to the surviving spouse until they die.
So Obama isn’t helping us by creating government jobs. He’s killing us. For every new government job he’s putting taxpayers on the hook for $100,000 a year for the next 20 to 30 years, plus $100,000 a year for 30 or more years after they retire, plus free healthcare for life.
Why is America broke? It’s the bloated number of government employees. It’s their wages (salaries 40 percent to 70 percent above the private sector) and their pensions that are destroying the U.S. economy and creating a lifetime of unsustainable debt for future generations.
Actually, there isn't a "bloated number of government employees." The number of executive-branch employees per capita in the U.S. population has been steadily decreasing over the last 50 years.
First, we now know that since Obama’s stimulus started, America has actually lost about 2 million jobs. So for Obama to be telling the “technical” truth, it must be true that 3 million new jobs were created, while 5 million jobs were lost — for a net loss of 2 million jobs. Technically, Obama could be telling the truth, the kind of truth told only by lawyers.
Secondly, this awful math sounds remarkably similar to the math of leftist environmentalist politicians in Spain. Millions of “green jobs” have been created in Spain, the environmentalists claim. Yet unemployment in Spain is over 20 percent.
A recent scientific study unearthed the true reason for this disparity. It proved that for every “green job” created, 3 regular jobs in the traditional economy were lost. Gotta love the “new math” devised by Kool-Aid drinking liberals the world over, huh?
In fact, the study in question was not terribly "scientific" -- the study's author has been criticized for his lack of transparency, his "non rigorous methodology," and his ties to think tanks funded by the oil industry.
Root continued:
Third, let’s assume Obama is 100 percent correct in his belief that his masterful economic plan created 3 million jobs. We know that his stimulus package spent about $750 billion dollars of taxpayer money. Let’s do the simple math. Three million jobs divided into $750 billion dollars equals a cost of about $250,000 per job. Yes, I said $250,000 per job.
While FDR created the “New Deal,” President Obama has created a really “Bad Deal.” By spending $250,000 per job, this is the worst deal in taxpayer history. And that’s only if you believe 3 million jobs were actually created. They weren’t.
In fact, PolitiFact states that such simplistic per-job calculations are misleading because the stimulus money went toward a range of projects and programs including tax breaks, not just for salaries.
Root repeated the falsehood that Obama "supports the Fairness Doctrine" in his March 27 column, adding another falsehood to the mix by claiming that "his Obamacare bill allows for the creation of a civilian defense force on U.S. soil that answers to — guess who? The president." In fact, the Ready Reserve Corps described in the health care reform law is a supplement to the Commissioned Corps, which has existed in some form since 1798, and is a group of medical professionals to be called up in time of national emergency, not unlike the Army Reserve.
A cornucopia of Obama derangement
And then there's your garden variety Obama derangement. A sample:
Like a true socialist, Obama believes government has the solution to every problem, and that solution is more government and higher taxes, combined with a prescription of social justice and affirmative action.
Based on his lifetime body of work, here is how I predict Obama will settle the NFL labor crisis:
Like cap and trade, Obama will produce scientists to declare that football is a dangerous sport threatening the health and welfare of the players. He'll then pass “helmet and trade” legislation putting government in control of football setting salaries for players, prices for fans, and giving new powers to the NFL players union.
Never letting a serious crisis go to waste, Obama will then pass legislation called "NFLCare" that demands that the NFL pay for the lifetime pension and healthcare of the players, paid for with massive new taxes on the NFL and its fans. The doctors who treat the NFL players will have caps placed on their fees. Of course this will lead to shortages of doctors and rationing, so eventually NFL "limb panels" will be set up to decide who gets a new knee, or shoulder, or hip. These decisions will be based on years of player life expectancy remaining, or the size of contributions to the Obama campaign.
He’ll then decide what income is “fair” and what is “greedy,” placing wage controls on players. Obama will say, “There is no longer a need for million dollar salaries. After all, just like government union employees, I’m going to guarantee NFL players, even the failed ones, pensions of $100,000 per year for life and free healthcare. We’ll call it NFL tenure. It's like a government job — guaranteed for life, without any performance necessary.
Like American businesses, players will react to lower wages and higher taxes by leaving the United States to play football in Canada and Europe, destroying the NFL.
Then, Obama will state proudly, “We’ve got to spread the wealth around” and pass ”NFL financial reform,” requiring 95 percent of revenues be redistributed to employees, vendors, peanut salesmen, ticket takers, security, and parking lot attendants.
Obama wants to redistribute your taxpayer money to radicals who attack churches and murder Christians. He wants more foreign aid for Egypt, a country headed for domination by the Muslim Brotherhood, an ally of Nazis in World War II. That is who Obama has chosen to side with over a modern, capitalist, American-loving Israeli society with democracy, freedom and equality for men, women, gays, and Arabs.
[...]
Obama no longer speaks for the American people. Jewish voters will never again feel the same about Obama. And while Jews make up only 2 percent of America’s population, they provide a majority of the donations to Democratic politicians.
Obama lost many crucial Democratic donors on Thursday. But Obama’s biggest mistake was awakening a sleeping giant. It is Christian voters who elect presidents. And almost 100 million evangelical Christians who love Israel will now vote and donate to Obama’s opponents with a fervor and passion of a patriotic group on a mission to save America and Israel from destruction. And sadly, they will be right.
Incredibly, Obama and his Democrats are now blaming the victims in the debt-ceiling crisis.
These out of control D.C. spending addicts are exactly like drug addicts who have abandoned their spouse, kids, and job to do drugs 24 hours a day. Even though they’ve stolen from us, we do all we can to get them into rehab. But since they don’t want to stop drugs, what we get in return is hate, anger, and blame.
They accuse us of being horrible people for not willingly handing over more money to feed their spending addiction. They absurdly assert it’s all our fault and that we’ve forced them to rob us at gunpoint. And they scream that we are extreme.
Like all addicts, it has to be someone else’s fault. In this case they blame the taxpayers and the tea party. It’s our fault because we won’t willing give them more money.
Unfortunately, the addiction of Obama and Congress is destroying the American economy and enslaving our children and grandchildren to unimaginable debt for decades to come.
Socialism always sounds sexy, until your economy collapses and your government runs out of other people’s money. It’s always the same ending.
You can’t put a “community activist” who has never run a business, created a job, or made a payroll, and has only one talent — reading teleprompters — in charge of the world’s biggest economy.
This story was always going to end badly. That one was easy to predict.
Ever talk to a military man? I’ve never spoken in-depth to one military vet who had anything nice to say about Obama. Not one. Do you suppose Obama knows that? He most certainly knows he can afford to anger that group, without affecting his re-election in the slightest.
Obama knows he has nothing to lose with vets — they already seethe with anger toward him. This is how Obama treats his “enemies.” As Obama's mentor Saul Alinsky would say, the ends justify the means. The not-so-subtle message to Obama opponents: Dare oppose Obama and risk your comfortable retirement.
But vets should be honored to join a long Obama enemies list — the wealthy, small business owners, homeowners, suburbanites, gun owners, churchgoers, stock investors, and tea partyers. Those groups are very much against Obama. Result? Every Obama tax increase or “cut” just happens to be aimed at that “enemies list.” Obama makes it crystal clear who he is marching into battle against.
Obama has divided America into enemies and friends. Black and white. Rich and poor. Unions versus private sector. Business owners, stockholders, and homeowners versus those who can’t afford to own. Veterans and patriots versus America apologizers. Sad. Disgusting. Disturbing.
Which list are you on? It’s time to pay attention. Perhaps it’s time to start speaking out, before everyone is afraid to speak out. Who is Obama coming for next?
My businesses are all run with Apple computers. And imagine this — all of those advances were accomplished without government involved. What a remarkable legacy. Steve Jobs goes down in history as one of the great American inventors and visionaries with Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, and Henry Ford.
Compare this amazing legacy to that of Barack Obama. Steve Jobs was the great job maker; Obama the great job taker. Jobs was the great creator; Obama the great destroyer. Everything Jobs touched turned to gold; everything Obama touches turns to coal. Jobs’ great creations were the iPhone, iPod, and iPad; Obama’s are iDeficit, iDebt, iInsolvency, and iBankruptcy.
Jobs lived for risk and adventure, and asked for nothing from government — the epitome of rugged individualism, self-reliance, and American ingenuity. Obama lives for the safety net and expects government to do everything — from creating jobs, to picking winners and losers in the business world, to protecting us from cradle to grave.
Examine the results of Obama’s devotion to big government. Obama’s legacy is the loss of our country’s AAA credit rating for the first time in history; the worst economy since 1929; the worst collapse of housing in history; the collapse of retail sales and consumer confidence; true unemployment in the 20 percent range; a resurgence of inflation; the great “green energy” fraud that cost taxpayers billions; bailouts of automakers that cost taxpayers billions; a massive failed stimulus that cost taxpayers billions; more debt created than all other presidents combined; the greatest number of Americans in history on food stamps (45 million); the ban of offshore oil drilling costing tens of thousands of jobs; lawsuits against Arizona and Alabama for trying to enforce U.S. immigration law; and not surprisingly, the fastest collapse on record of a new president’s popularity.
Obama has bested Steve Jobs in one way. He has done more damage to America in three short years than all the great things Jobs could create in 30 years.
Jobs Maker. Or Jobs Killer. Which vision better embodies the American character? The iPhone or the iPhony?
“The Daily Show” interviewed a bunch of socialists . . . plus a New York college professor (even worse) . . . who all agreed that Obama is not a socialist. Obama just doesn’t go far enough for them. But I told them that's not how Obama plays the game. That’s what makes him the most dangerous socialist this country has ever seen.
First, let’s examine socialism. One of socialism’s central tenets is demonization of the wealthy. Sound familiar? Obama plays the game of class warfare like no politician in history. His entire agenda is about targeting, demonizing, denigrating and punishing the rich. For Obama hunting the rich is a sport.
